As less people choose to make sugar paintings, the traditional Chinese folk craft might have become a 1. (distance) memory in some ways. However, a 38-year-old craftsman, Li Jiangzhong, is committed to 2. (keep) the art of sugar painting alive.
Li worked as a miner for more than ten years. After 3. mine closed down, Li turned 4. housing decoration, until he 5.(force) to give that up due to a finger injury. Earlier this year, he discovered sugar painting, something he really had an interest in.
Since there was no sugar painting craftsman in his village, he studied by 6. (he) through large quantities of videos and information on the Internet. Li loved painting when he was young, and he found it easy to learn the skill in sugar painting. He soon mastered the skill and could make a 7.(vary) of sugar paintings. A sugar painting is made with 8.(melt) brown or white sugar. Craftsman 9.(normal) paint animals and flowers on a stone board with the syrup(糖浆). When the sugar cools down, 10. appears is a piece of sugar art.
For me, two of the loveliest words in English are “Life persists”.
I _______ them years ago as a college student, sitting in the library, _______, working on a paper. Out of nowhere, those words came _______ off the page in a quote: “In the midst of death life persists, in the midst of _______ truth persists, in the midst of darkness light persists.”
Suddenly I wasn’t unhappy and impatient any more. Then I _______ my granddad. I loved to talk with him. And I was _______ to hear what he’d think of it. He had poor hearing, so I had to _______ it a few times, but once he _______ it, he laughed. “All I can say to that is totally _______,”he said on the phone. I told him how glad I was, after a long winter, to finally see spring and ________ to find that quote. “Why is that?” he asked. "Well, spring is a sure ________ that life persists. And it just makes me ________.”
He laughed again, and then in his ________ voice, he recited for me his ________“spring time” words: “The desert shall rejoice(高兴), and ________ as the rose does…Even with joy and singing.”
Many years later, ________ my husband and I drove across a desert with many wildflowers and blooming cactuses(仙人掌), I could ________ hear my granddad laughing: “The desert shall rejoice."
Life persists, and so do we, in the silence of ________ and the blooming of cactuses; and in the dead of ________ and the green of spring. Spring ________ us that we’re alive forever.
1.A. looked for B. came across C. picked out D. made up
2.A. bored B. worried C. tired D. confused
3.A. running B. dancing C. rushing. D. moving
4.A. fear B. doubt C. terror D. lie
5.A. called B. visited C. consulted D. informed
6.A. patient B. confident C. upset D. desperate
7.A. copy B. print C. repeat D. recite
8.A. got B. made C. undertook D. managed
9.A. puzzlement B. excitement C. agreement D. amusement
10.A. practically B. especially C. obviously D. naturally
11.A. way B. inspiration C. mark D. sign
12.A. nervous B. energetic C. merry D. alive
13.A. lovely B. calm C. cold D. high
14.A. impressive B. superb C. classical D. favorite
15.A. exist B. flower C. survive D. sow
16.A. after B. when C. until D. although
17.A. hardly B. always C. almost D. mostly
18.A. journeys B. words C. world D. desert
19.A. winter B. spring C. summer D. autumn
20.A. convinces B. ensures C. reminds D. strikes
Everyone wants to be happy, but not everyone can make it. Do you want to have a good mood every day? If so, the following steps will be useful to you.
Be grateful.
1. They can be simple things like the purple flower on the sidewalk, the beautiful sunset, and the hot shower you take every day. When you have a grateful heart, you’11 cherish them and be naturally filled with happiness.
2.
When you put your mind, heart and soul into what you’re doing, you’re creating a happiness state—called the “flow”. When you’re living in the flow, you’re less likely to mind what others may think about you, and less bothered by unimportant things. The result? More happiness, of course!
Become a problem solver.
Happy people are problem solvers. 3. Instead, they face up to the challenge and channel their energies into finding a creative solution. By becoming a problem solver, you’ll build up your self-confidence and your ability to accomplish whatever you determine to do.
Practice forgiveness.
Hatred and anger are forms of self-punishment. When you forgive, you’re actually practicing kindness to yourself. 4. Everyone makes mistakes. It’s through our mistakes that we learn and grow to become a bigger and better person.
Give back.
Doing good is one of the surest ways to feel good. According to Harvard, when people do good, their brains become active in the very same reward center that is stimulated when they experience other rewards. 5.
A. Go with the flow.
B. Focus on what you are doing.
C. And most importantly, learn to forgive yourself.
D. When they face a challenge in life, they don’t fall into a sad state.
E. When they meet with difficulties, they will solve them on their own.
F. So It’s not a surprise that people who care more about others are happier.
G. Slow down, look around, and pay attention to the little details in your life.
Like many thickly populated urban neighborhoods, Lincoln Park also has rats. A lot of rats. “Every night when I walk down the sidewalk, I see rats, ” says 36-year-oId Kelly McGee, who has come to accept this aspect of city living. “It’s an urban area; I don't know what else we can expect.”
McGee lives just down the block from the old Children's Memorial Hospital, which is about to be torn down as part of a massive redevelopment project. “Construction all over the city often disturbs rats that are living underground,” says Lincoln Park’s City Council representative, Alderman Michele Smith. “Every developer has to do active rat reduction on site, ”Smith says. Already, there are poisonous and inviting food boxes all around the old hospital complex. But the developer of the hospital site still warned residents in a recent community meeting that when digging begins later this month, the rat problem could be awful.
Victoria Thomas, who lives a few miles north of Lincoln Park in Chicago’s Lake View neighborhood, says she tried everything from underground fencing to poison traps to wipe out rats, but nothing worked until she got some cats. From the first day she got the cats, Thomas says the rats started to disappear.
“The cats will kill off a great deal of the initial population of the rats, ”says Paul Nickerson, who manages the Cats at Work program for Tree House Humane Society. “And through spreading their pheromones, a chemical produced by an animal, the cats will keep other rats from filling their absence.” Nickerson says that is what makes the cat program so successful in keeping rats away for the long term. ” The rats are far from stupid. They smell the cats’ pheromones so they’ll stay out of the cats’ territory(领域).”
After Smith highlighted the program in a recent newsletter, Nickerson and Tree House Humane Society have been getting lots of calls from people seeking their own cat colonies. That means a lot more wild cats that might otherwise be killed out of pity will be cared for while doing something that they love: hunting rats.
1.What is McGee’s attitude towards the rat problem?
A. Indifferent. B. Tolerant.
C. Annoyed. D. Frightened.
2.What does the underlined word in the last but one paragraph refer to?
A. Rats’ stupidity.
B. Tree House Humane Society.
C. Cat’s nature of killing rats.
D. The smell of cat’s pheromones.
3.What does the last paragraph suggest?
A. The program is a win-win thing.
B. Cats should be taken good care of.
C. Wild cats are more skilled at hunting.
D. It’s important to keep the ecological balance.
Oh my God, the robots are taking over! We’re doomed! Doomed! Now that I’ve gotten that out of my system, it’s become clear that while we may or may not be doomed, the robots are taking over. The latest example is the government’s new guidelines for self-driving cars.
Tesla, Google and Uber are already testing driverless cars in cities across America. Uber chief executive Travis Kalanick is among those predicting that by 2021, self-driving cars will play a big part in urban settings.
Nearly 40,000 people died last year in this nation in automobile-related accidents, and we believes driverless cars can save tens of thousands of lives annually.
Makes sense. Robot drivers are less likely to get drunk, drive without a license, text while driving or feel agitated at the scene of a pileup. On the other hand, I wonder how these highly sensitive cars will react, with walkers constantly dashing into the street. Will they jam on the brakes every 10 seconds?
But there’s a bigger picture. Not only are robots replacing humans behind the wheel, but behind the work desk, in warehouses, senior homes, you name it. Robots aren’t just taking over in the workplace.
The question is, where can’t a robot function better than a human? How about writing songs? A robot can go through every combination of notes in record time and come up with a pleasing melody. The lyrics might be a different story. Is a Grammy-winning song co-written by Hank Human and R-3071 in our future?
Finally, it’s only a matter of time until we have robot politicians and presidential candidates. Why not? They can be programmed to be experts in world and domestic affairs and come up with the best solutions without corruption and bad humors.
Actually, it’s too bad such technology isn’t available in 2016. Pretty sure the robot would win in a landslide.
1.What does the underlined word “agitated” mean?
A. Tired B. Cautious
C. Careful D. Anxious
2.What doubt does the writer have about self-driving cars?
A. How passengers behave in it.
B. How robot drivers get the license.
C. How they avoid crashing into other car.
D. How they respond to walkers on a busy street.
3.The last questions asked in the sixth paragraph reflects the writer’s ________.
A. confidence in robots, winning Grammy Awards
B. eagerness to listen to songs written by robots
C. doubt about robots’ ability to write songs
D. curiosity about the future Grammy songs
4.What might be the most suitable title for the text?
A. Robots will control the world in every field
B. Robots are coming but not soon enough
C. Robots are being used in our daily life
D. Robots can drive cars and write music
On Christmas Eve, 1944, my grandmother urged my uncle, then 12 years old, to slip out of the concentration camp where they were imprisoned near 15 miles east of Vienna to go to Deutsch-Wagram. “People are charitable around Christmastime,” Grandma Lili said to her son, Gyuri. “Ask for some food. Anything they can spare. Tell them that we’re on the edge of starvation. Tell them that your 3-year-old sister can not get off the bed because she’s outgrown her shoes.”
In the dark of that night, Gyuri secretly left the camp and walked nearly four miles to Deutsch-Wagram, the closest town. He happened upon a house and knocked on the front door. A woman opened that door. She was probably alone, her man far away, fighting in the war, her children asleep in their beds. The 12-year-old pieced together in German exactly what his mother had told him to say.
“Come back tomorrow," whispered the woman. The next day, my uncle returned. The woman opened the door with a smile. She piled his hands with bread, clothing, a pair of shoes that her child had outgrown and a pair of socks. The woman had knitted warm socks for my mother. After putting on the socks and shoes that fit, my mother got off the bed in delight. Her ragged shoes were passed on to a younger child who was also living in the camp. They shared their unexpected harvest with the entire camp. It was a quiet celebration of human kindness around Christmastime.
In April 1945, my mother, uncle and grandmother were liberated. And it was those very socks and shoes that my mother wore as she walked some 28 miles over two days to Bratislava on her walk to a new life.
To the unknown giver, I thank you. In the desperation of a cold and snowy land, when many hearts were closed and death was more likely than life, especially for Jews, you gave them hope and comfort.
1.What did Gyuri manage to do on Christmas Eve?
A. Get permitted to go out.
B. Receive food and clothing.
C. Express what his family needed.
D. Celebrate Christmas in the camp
2.Why does the author mention shoes so many times?
A. To prove the truth of the story.
B. To help the development of the story.
C. To attract readers’ attention to the story.
D. To make clear the background of the story.
3.What feeling did the author write the text with?
A. Desperation. B. Gratefulness.
C. Excitement. D. Sorrow.
4.What is the passage mainly about?
A. Light in darkness. B. Peace to common people.
C. Courage in face of danger. D. The influence of Christmas.
