Back in 2003 an 86-year-old man drove his Buick through a crowded farmers’ market. Nine people were killed. More than fifty-four people were hurt, fourteen with serious injuries. When he finally stopped, the 86-year-old man got out his car and screamed at people to get out of the way. No alcohol or drugs were found in his system. Apparently, he was just old and confused.
This is a frightening accident, and it is not a rare one. There are many examples of elderly drivers driving into swimming pools, houses, storefronts, or worse.
In our teenage years, we all heard “driving is not a right; it’s a privilege.” That is still true, and there comes an age when driving is no longer a privilege that can be allowed. After a certain age, eyesight and dementia(痴呆) are very serious concerns. Undoubtedly, these age-related problems affect some older adults’ driving ability. By the time a person is between eighty-five and ninety years old, his or her driving privilege should be examined.
Licensing laws vary greatly from state to state, and it’s time for a national law on the maximum age limit for driving. The motivation for this law is safety. Another option is to start with laws that ban anyone over the age of eighty-five from driving after sundown, because driving conditions are not as safe as daylight hours. Still another option that may allow elderly drivers to continue driving could be new technology like a voice warning system that cautions drivers on busy streets or at traffic lights. Finally, since there are laws against driving under the influence of alcohol and drugs, shouldn’t some prescription drugs also be included? The average age of 85-year-old is undoubtedly taking at least one prescription drug daily.
The thought of an 86-year-old driver with failing eyesight running down the road in a two-ton piece of metal is unsettling to us all. Driving at an advanced age is not only challenging for the elderly drivers, but also it’s dangerous for the rest of us.
1.The first paragraph is written in order to show_________.
A. the harm of driving at an old age
B. the importance of traffic safety
C. traffic accidents are on the rise
D. many elderly drivers are careless
2.The author suggests that there should be new laws against driving __________.
A. over eighty-five
B. between sunset and dawn
C. with the help of voice warning systems
D. under the influence of prescription drugs
3.The underlined word “unsettling” in the last paragraph is closest in meaning to “________”.
A. disappointing B. worrying
C. touching D. interesting
4.Which of the following would be the best title for the text?
A. How to keep old people safe on the road?
B. Are drivers well protected by licensing laws?
C. Should there be an age limit for elderly drivers?
D. Is driving a right or a privilege for an old person?
It is good to get in touch with your inner child from time to time，and obviously some people are willing to pay big money for the chance to do so in a proper environment．A Brooklyn-based adult preschool is charging customers between $333 and $999 for the chance to act like a kid again．
At Preschool Mastermind in New York adults get to participate in show—and—tell，arts—and—crafts such as finger paint，games like musical chairs and even take naps．The month-long course also has class picture day where the adults are expected to have a field trip and a parent day．
30-year-old Michelle Joni Lapidos，the brain behind the adult preschool，studied childhood education and has always wanted to be a preschool teacher．She’s always on the lookout for new ways to get people in touch with the freedom of childhood．A friend encouraged her to start the mastermind course instead．
According to Candice，her blogger friend，Preschool Mastermind gives adults a chance to relearn and master the things that they failed to understand as children．“I realized all the significances of what we learn in preschool，”said founder Michelle Joni，“People come here and get in touch with their inner child．It’s magical．We are bringing ourselves back to another place，another time with ourselves when we are more believing in ourselves，more confident and ready to take on the world.”
“One person’s here because they want to learn not to be so serious．”Michelle said．“Another's here to learn to be more confident.” She explained that most of the classes were planned．However，Joni added that while the planned activities were fun，it was often the spontaneous(自发的)moments that attracted students．“It’s the things you don’t plan for，the sharing between friends and learning from each other.’’
1.What is the purpose of Preschool Mastermind?
A．To give adults a chance to return to childhood．
B．To help parents understand their children better．
C．To provide practical training courses for teachers．
D．To introduce some ways of playing with children．
2.What is mainly discussed about Preschool Mastermind in Paragraph 2 ?
A．Its customers． B．Its activities．
C．Its environment． D．Its schedule.
3.According to Candice，people come to this program to________.
A．enjoy freedom of thinking
B．realize their childhood dreams
C．discover their inner abilities
D．figure out childhood puzzles
4.What do we know about Michelle Joni?
A．She used to be a preschool teacher．
B．She likes to make plans in advance．
C．She founded Preschool Mastermind．
D．She gained confidence by sharing．
请阅读下面短文，并按照要求用英语写一篇150词左右的文章。
The 18-year-old girl from Linyi, Shandong province scored 568 points on her college entrance exam this year and was admitted to Nanjing University of Posts and Telecommunications.
On Aug 19, Xu received a phone call from an unknown person telling her that she was due to receive student funding. Following the call, Xu transferred a 9,900-yuan "activation fee" into the man’s bank account, hoping the money would appear in her student account, but it never did.
After discovering they had been cheated, the family immediately reported the incident to the police, but Xu was said to be frustrated. On their way home, she suddenly fainted and despite doctors’ best efforts to rescue her, she passed away.
The death of Xu yuyu immediately caused an outcry over the society, and once again, it fired a public anger towards those who commit heartless fraud(欺诈).
So how was Xu’s private information leaked out?
Reporters have discovered that there are many people who openly sell the examinee’s information online. The information includes the examinee’s name, school, phone number, and address. The personal information of examinee has become the target of the online fraud industry.
【写作内容】
1. 用约30个单词写出上文概要；
2. 用约120个词就“Personal information leakage”谈谈你的看法和感受，内容包括：
（1）简述个人信息泄露的危害及保护个人信息的重要性；
（2）就如何保护个人信息提几点建议（至少两点）。
【写作要求】
1. 阐述观点或提供论据时，不能直接引用原文语句；
2. 作文中不能出现真实姓名和学校名称等。
【评分标准】
内容完整，语言规范，语篇连贯，词数适当。
Do you think you could learn a language in an hour?
We know, we know! We would expect you to be skeptical. It’s ridiculous to think you can learn a language in 60 minutes. You wouldn’t even get through the As in a bilingual dictionary in that amount of time! Best-case situation: in an hour, most of us could probably stuff a few words and ready-made phrases into our short-term memory (with a high likelihood of forgetting it all by the following day). Accomplishing anything more than that in one hour? Impossible. Unless…
We posed the one-hour language challenge to four polyglots(通晓数种语言的人) who are experts on how to study languages. To keep the challenge from becoming completely impossible, we gave them a bit of a break: to learn Romanian in one hour. Why Romanian? Because it’s a Romance language and shares many similarities with the languages that the polyglots already know: French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese. And to make sure their hour of learning was as effective as possible, all of them were assigned a personal Romanian tutor to help coach them on their way to success.
Although each polyglot has a different technique for picking up and remembering a new language, all four methods offer valuable insights to anyone, from casual learners to hard-core language enthusiasts.
Alex Rawlings — UK
"I’m a bit nervous. This is probably the craziest language-learning thing I’ve ever done, but learning languages has always been about fun. I expect that, after this, I’ll be prepared to have a simple chat over a coffee in Romanian. Is that reasonable?"
Method: Learn the verbs first
With only an hour until he had to start demonstrating his grasp of Romanian, Alex knew he had to start talking quickly. He chose to focus first on commonly used verbs and how to conjugate（动词变形） them. Once he had some verbs down, he could start collecting nouns from his tutor and plugging them in to make more interesting and relevant sentences.
Luca Lampariello — Italy
"Every time I have a conversation with native speakers, it really motivates me. Human contact is really important when learning a language."
Method: Start speaking right away
Speaking doesn’t mean speaking perfectly. Speaking even a little bit is a huge confidence boost. When you can say something in a new language and people actually understand you, it’s very motivating. Yes, you’ll make mistakes, but you’ll also learn faster than if you try to get it all perfect in your head first.
Michael Youlden — UK
"We all speak a variety of Romance languages which I think will help us get into Romanian quickly."
Method: Write everything down
Language learning is about recall; there’s no use learning something if you don’t remember it. Speaking new words aloud is very important, but so is writing them down — after all, words exist as sounds and in written form. Taking notes is a proven way to put new vocabulary and grammar into your memory. Writing supports memorizing which supports speaking... it’s a cycle. Plus, you have an easy reference when you want to review what you’ve learned.
Matthew Youlden — UK
"I’m going to look for the patterns and similarities with languages I already know. We won’t be able to speak fluently after an hour of study, but we should be able to get by with some basic vocabulary and phrases."
Method: Look for cognates
Cognates are words in different languages that look and sound similar and have the same meaning, due to a common origin. Almost every language combination contains cognates (even if two languages aren’t seemingly related), but languages from the same language family have many more. Whichever language you are learning, identify the familiar words and then use them to anchor the new words that aren’t so familiar. To use English as an example, because it’s a sort of Germanic-Romance hybrid, English already has many words that cognate with German, Dutch and Swedish on one hand, and on the other hand it also has lots of words that cognate with French, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian and, of course, Romanian!
Learn a language with courses designed by the experts. Start here, today!
Pick a language to learn. German, Spanish, Italian, French, Portuguese, and Swedish.
Four Learning Methods From Four Language 1.：How To Make Meaningful Progress In Your First Hour | |
The people who are 2. | Four polyglots who are good at learning languages |
The language they are to study | Romanian |
3. limits 1 hour | 1 hour |
The reason for choosing the target language | Romanian has much in 4. with their familiar languages |
The 5. to learning the language | the language Alex: give 6. to commonly used verbs; add some 7. to make sentences |
Luca: attach great 8. to speaking; don’t be afraid to make mistakes | |
Michael: take notes to keep new words and grammar in 9. | |
Matthew: try to 10. similar words and patterns with familiar languages | |
请认真阅读下列各小题，并根据上下文语境和所给首字母的提示，写出下列各句空中的单词，注意保持语义和形式的一致。请将答案的完整形式写在答题卡上相应题号的横线上。
1.—The Chinese National Football Team failed again. I didn’t see any cooperation between them.
—Whether in the workplace or on the football field, only effective t________ can produce amazing results.
2.—How much do I o________ you, Sir?
—Well, it’s $5.50 plus tax. Thank you.
3.—Did you have a good time?
—It couldn’t be worse. We were held up on the expressway for three hours. On the way back, we found the car got a f________ tyre, and the spare was, too.
4.—Wang Baoqiang’s d________ from his wife quickly became a hot topic in China.
—Absolutely. Chinese netizens seem to have united around Wang, with topics like Baobao Don’t Cry, Wang We Support You...
5.—I cannot afford the big house on my salary.
—Me neither. You see, the housing prices in Suzhou r________ high among those big cities in China.
I look back sometimes at the person I was before I rediscovered my old professor. I want to talk to that person. I want to tell him what to look out for, what mistakes to avoid. I want to tell him to be more open, to ignore the temptation of advertised values, to pay attention when your loved ones are speaking, as if it were the last time you might hear them.
Mostly I want to tell that person to get on an airplane and visit a gentle old man in West Newton, Massachusetts, sooner rather than later, before that old man gets sick and loses his ability to dance.
I know I cannot do this. None of us can undo what we’ve done, or relive a life already recorded. But if Professor Morrie Schwartz taught me anything at all, it was this: there is no such thing as “too late” in life. He was changing until the day he said good-bye.
Not long after Morrie’s death, I reached my brother in Spain. We had a long talk. I told him I respected his distance, and that all I wanted was to be in touch—in the present, not just the past—to hold him in my life as much as he could let me.
“You’re my only brother,” I said. “I don’t want to lose you. I love you.”
I had never said such a thing to him before.
A few days later, I received a message on my fax machine. It was typed in the sprawling, poorly punctuated, all-cap-letters fashion that always characterized my brother’s words.
“HI I’VE JOINED THE NINETIES!” it began. He wrote a few little stories, what he’d been doing that week, a couple of jokes. At the end, he signed off this way:
I HAVE HEARTBURN AND DIAHREA(腹泻) AT THE MOMENT—LIFE’S A BITCH. CHAT LATER?
[signed] SORE TUSH.
I laughed until there were tears in my eyes.
This book was largely Morrie’s idea. He called it our “final thesis.” Like the best of work projects, it brought us closer together, and Morrie was delighted when several publishers expressed interest, even though he died before meeting any of them. The advance money helped pay Morrie’s enormous medical bills, and for that we were both grateful.
The title, by the way, we came up with one day in Morrie’s office. He liked naming things. He had several ideas. But when I said, “How about Tuesdays with Morrie?” he smiled in an almost blushing way, and I knew that was it.
After Morrie died, I went through boxes of old college material. And I discovered a final paper I had written for one of his classes. It was twenty years old now. On the front page were my penciled comments scribbled to Morrie, and beneath them were his comments scribbled back.
Mine began, “Dear Coach . . .”
His began, “Dear Player . . .”
For some reason, each time I read that, I miss him more.
Have you ever really had a teacher? One who saw you as a raw but precious thing, a jewel that, with wisdom, could be polished to a proud shine? If you are lucky enough to find your way to such teachers, you will always find your way back. Sometimes it is only in your head. Sometimes it is right alongside their beds.
The last class of my old professor’s life took place once a week, in his home, by a window in his study where he could watch a small hibiscus(木槿) plant shed its pink flowers. The class met on Tuesdays. No books were required. The subject was the meaning of life. It was taught from experience.
The teaching goes on.
1.What kind of a person was the author before he rediscovered Professor Morrie Schwartz?
A. He was very open to life’s challenges.
B. He cared much about the people he loved.
C. He was probably lost in the material world.
D. He kept close contact with his teacher.
2.What did the author learn from Professor Morrie?
A. Pain past is pleasure.
B. Life is a difficult journey.
C. It’s never too late to mend.
D. Tomorrow is another day.
3.According to the passage, what is the author’s attitude toward life now?
A. He is very content with his life.
B. He is willing to make changes in his life.
C. He has always been hopeful about the future.
D. He prefers to live in the past.
4.The underlined sentence in the passage implies that ________.
A. he was so glad to reconnect with his brother
B. his brother’s style of writing was really funny
C. his brother was good at telling jokes
D. it was surprising to receive the message
5.According to the author, which of the following is the criterion of a good teacher?
A. Being skillful in what he/she teaches.
B. Being able to understand what you need.
C. Being willing to teach you all he/she knows.
D. Being good at changing you for the better.
6.Where in the entire book would this passage be best placed?
A. In the acknowledgments of the book Tuesday with Morrie.
B. In the first chapter of the book Tuesday with Morrie.
C. At the turning point of the book Tuesday with Morrie.
D. At the conclusion of the book Tuesday with Morrie.
