Once upon a time in a far-away place lived an old doll-maker. He had spent his long life creating dolls of all ______, making all the little girls in the world______. He had kept up in the______of the world and made dolls that say “mama” and_______by themselves. The doll maker was very______, and he knew that his time for special contribution was growing short. So, with______determination in his heart, he made his most beautiful _____. He gave her brown hair, and the bluest eyes. This special doll was given long legs with which she could______and play. She had a beautiful face and he planned this so that she could see the______in others.
On the last day when she was _____, he lifted her up with great care and set her______in front of a large mirror. He asked, “Are you not the most beautiful doll in the world?” The doll looked through her long lashes(睫毛)______of excited expectation._______her pretty face clouded up and then stormed over. “Oh doll-maker, I_______brown hair and I have always longed for green eyes. These re not the_______I’d have chosen for myself, ______look how long my legs are! How unfashionable they will seem to the world. Oh doll-maker, I am not a beautiful doll______!”
We have been created with the most beautiful _______. Don’t look into life’s ______and wish you were_____you’re not. May we thank the great doll-maker for what we have been given.
1.A. pages B. sorts C. aims D. ranks
2.A. young B. happy C. strong D. healthy
3.A. wars B. accidents C. trends D. events
4.A. clean up B. look out C. leave out D. stand up
5.A. wise B. merciful C. selfish D. rude
6.A. special B. little C. normal D. common
7.A. text B. essay C. creation D. fiction
8.A. sing B. speak C. wait D. dance
9.A. beauty B. wealth C. kindness D. story
10.A. destroyed B. completed C. sold D. brought
11.A. nervously B. angrily C. gently D. toughly
12.A. short B. fond C. tired D. full
13.A. Suddenly B. Luckily C. Actually D. Generally
14.A. admit B. hate C. admire D. hide
15.A. name B. reason C. color D. organ
16.A. but B. if C. so D. and
17.A. in advance B. on purpose C. at all D. in time
18.A. clothes B. qualities C. skin D. family
19.A. mirrors B. incidents C. expenses D. difficulties
20.A. nothing B. either C. none D. someone
Secrets to a great life
A great life doesn’t happen by accident. A great life is the result of allocating your time, energy, thoughts, and hard work towards what you want your life to be. 1.
A great life is the result of simplifying your life. People often misunderstand what simplify means. 2.When you focus on simplifying your life, you free up energy and time for the work that you enjoy and the purpose for which you are here. In order to create a great life, you will have to make room for it in yours first.
A great life is the result of your best effort. 3. It may mean re-evaluating how you spend your time, or choosing to spend your money in a different way. It may mean looking for new ways to spend your energy that coincide with your particular definition of a great life.
4.It's easy to spend your days just responding to the next thing that gets your attention, instead of intentionally using the time, energy and money you have in a way that's important to you. Focus on removing the obstacles that get in the way of you making sure you are doing things of greater significance.
A great life is the result of starting. There’s the old saying everyone’s familiar with “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.” In order to even move from the couch to the refrigerator, you have to start. There’s no better time to start than today.5.Today, right now, is the right day to start to take a step in the direction of your heart’s desires.
A. Look around at someone’s life you admire.
B. It’s not a way to remove work from your life
C. A great life is the result of doing important things
D. Don’t wait for a raise, or until the kids get older.
E. A great life is the result of controlling your thoughts.
F. Use these “secrets” to start creating your own great life today!
G. Creating a great life requires that you make some adjustments.
Scientists said they have found evidence of a giant planet far out in our solar system. In a statement, the California Institute of Technology(Caltech) said this planet travels a strange “highly elongated orbit in the distant solar system”.
The discovery was made by two researchers at Caltech; Konstantin Batygin and Mike Brown. They used mathematical modeling and computer simulations (模拟)to find the planet. So far, there have not been any direct observations of the planet. “My jaw hit the floor,” said astronomer Mike Brown, the moment he realized there might be a ninth planet.
The scientists said it would take this planet 10,000to 20,000 years just to make one full orbit around the sun. The new planet, called “Planet Nine” has a mass about 10 times the size of Earth.
It is believed that the planet orbits, or travels, around the sun from a great distance. The planet Neptune’s average distance to the sun is about 4.5 billion kilometers. But “Planet Nine” could be 20 times farther away from the sun than that. While they did not get a picture of “Planet Nine” yet, the scientists say they are using the biggest and best telescopes on Earth to try to find it.
Brown and Batygin reported their finding in The Astronomical Journal. They say that this new planet is so large that there should be no doubt that it is a true planet, once they confirm it.
Robert Massey is with the Royal Astronomical Society in London. He told AFP that planets have been predicted before, and then were not found. But, he said the work of the these researchers is definitely worth following up. “It would be a really exciting thing to find. At the moment it’s simply a prediction.”
1.How was the evidence of the ninth planet found?
A. Through a special telescope
B. Through researchers’ direct observation
C. Through studying its special orbit in the solar system
D. Through mathematical modeling and computer simulations
2.What can we know about “Planet Nine” from the text?
A. It is much smaller than the earth
B. It travels a normal orbit like other planets
C. Its distance to the sun is about 90 billion kilometers
D. Its picture has been caught by the biggest and best telescope
3.What’s Robert’s attitude towards the discovery of “Planet Nine”?
A. Worried B. Supportive
C. Indifferent D. Opposed
4.What’s the best title for the text?
A. The discovery of the largest planet
B. A big prediction of the solar system
C. A ninth planet may be in the solar system
D. The ninth planet has been found in the solar system
We are often unable to pay close attention to what we hear. But sometimes we try to remember everything a speaker say. We turn into sponges, taking in a speaker’s every word as if every word was equally important. We try to remember all the names, all the dates, and all the places. In the process we often miss the speaker’s main point.
Erik Waldman works at a design company. Knowing he had never been good at budgeting his money, he was determined to begin thinking about his economic future. When his employer circulated an e-mail announcing a financial planning seminar, Erik signed up right away.
The first period was about retirement planning. Simone Fisher, the lecturer, explained that 7 of 10 Americans between the ages of 22 and 35 do not have a regular savings plan. Erik wrote down every number Simone mentioned.
“If you want to have a retirement income equal to 75 percent of your current salary,” Simone continued, “you will need to invest at least of 6 percent of your present earnings, and beyond that you need to consider future inflation rates(通货膨胀率). I will help you calculate your individual savings needs soon. In the meantime, I want to stress that the most important thing is to start saving now.”
Erik recorded all the statistics Simone used. When she opened the floor for question, Erik raised his hand and said, “I have two question. When is the best time to start saving for retirement ? And how am I supposed to figure out my savings target if I don’t know what inflation rates will be in the future?”
This is a typical example of losing the speaker’s point by concentration on details. Erik had fixed his mind on remembering all the statistics in Simone’s presentation, but he blocked out the man message. Rather than trying to remember everything, efficient listeners usually concentrate on main ideas and evidence.
1.What does the underlined part “We turn into sponges” in Paragraph 1 mean?
A. We sometimes become other persons.
B. We often fail to focus our attention
C. We refuse to agree with the speaker.
D. We find it difficult to remember key things
2.During the first period of the seminar, Erik______.
A. focused on the lecture’s details
B. got Simone Fisher’s main idea
C. showed little interest in the lecture
D. knew how to calculate inflation rates
3.When hearing Erik’s questions, Simone might think______.
A. they were very good question
B. Erik was an excellent partner
C. they had just been discussed
D. they were hard to answer
4.What do we know about Erik?
A. His boss asked him to attend the lecture
B. He does badly in managing his money
C. He has a good memory
D. He is still a student
There’s something about Minot that I’m always going to carry with me. When it got hit last year by the worst flooding in its history, there was this feeling of helplessness. You just watched this water slowly rise and flood the city. It was heartbreaking. But this is a community of people that are extremely strong and not afraid to roll up their sleeves and work to get it back to normal.
I’ve tried to bring as much awareness to Minot as I can, and raise as much money as I can. We held a concert last year, where my wife singer Fergie talked her band the Black Eyed Peas into coming in and doing a benefit concert. From it we raised $2 million towards the rebuilding effort, which was really cool. We won a contest for Oak Park as well, to start rebuilding on that.
Roosevelt Park Zoo is one of my oldest memories. I remember having a birthday party there as a kid. We used to go to look at the monkeys and other animals in the summer when it was open. But after last year’s flood, it was almost washed away, and they’ve got go start from scratch. I think the $25,000 dollars is a great start, but we’re going to have to raise a lot more to get it back to right. Luckily, the community itself is developing, so it’s just a matter of those doing whatever they can to help can to help the community to get it back to normal. However, it’s going to be a number of years for a third of the homes were lost. That will take a long time to heal, and if anyone in the world can get through it, it’s the people in Minot.
1.The author helped Minot fight against the flood by______.
A. donating as much money as the could
B. raising money for it through various activities
C. calling for the people’s awareness to stay calm
D. asking his wife’s band to play to comfort the people
2.The author helped rebuild Roosevelt Park Zoo mainly because______.
A. it was important for the children
B. many performances were held there
C. it reminded him of his happy childhood
D. it was destroyed the most seriously by the flood
3.Which of the following did the author show to us in the text?
A. His deep love to his hometown
B. The ways of helping each other in the flood
C. The difficulty of rebuilding homes in his hometown
D. His worry about the future life of the people in Minot
Films
The Exorcism of Emily Rose
It’s supposedly based on a true story, which stars Jennifer Carpenter as Emily Rose, a country girl who goes away to college and then becomes possessed by the devil. The inspiration for the film came from the story of Anneliese Michel, a supposedly possessed woman who died from starvation after a series of unsuccessful exorcism attempts in 1976.
Children of the Corn
Has that thing ever happened to you where you go on a road trip and stop for gas and realize that you lose your direction off the beaten path and people start looking at you like you’re from the moon? The instance always reminds you of this movie. Walk far into the wilderness and it’s all just Children of the Corn territory.
The Ring
Some people prefer the original Japanese version of this film to the 2002 remake starring Naomi Watts, so if you have time, watch both, but if you don’t, start here. There was a really exciting period in the early 2000s when the film industry made some exciting changes to the usual format of horror movies. This movie helped introduce a transition from monster films to a more psychological approach that relies on expectations more than in-your-face jump scares.
It Follows
This is a movie that’s super fun to approach not knowing much about it, because if you hadn’t already known the fact that it’s a scary movie, you’d be surprised by how things develop as you’re experiencing it for the first time. There are a lot of scares in It Follows that catch you by surprise, which makes it feel refreshing, fun, and horrifying at the same time.
1.Who is Jennifer Carpenter?
A. A woman who died from starvation
B. An actress who acted Emily Rose
C. A girl who was possessed by the devil
D. The author who wrote The Exorcism of Emily Rose
2.If you lose your way near a gas station, you are most likely to think of the film_______.
A. The Exorcism of Emily Rose
B. Children of the Corn
C. The Ring
D. It Follows
3.What special contribution did The Ring make?
A. It introduced fun and horrifying experiences at the same time.
B. It introduced in-your-face jump scares
C. It created a new style of horror movies
D. It was adapted into many Japanese films.
4.How may you feel when watching It Follows?
A. Sad and upset
B. Fun and moved
C. Bored and sleepy
D. Amazed and frightened
