I was sitting at the dinner table on a summer evening. Dinnertime ______ told me I should eat everything on my plate and then ask to be ______ from the table. As I took a(n)______ of meat, a tiny voice seemed to ______ into my ear: take that pork bone to Reds.
Reds was a neighborhood dog not ______ to anyone, but he went into our yards on a daily ______ for love and handouts. I had no ______ whether Reds was in our yard at the time, yet the voice was ______.
There was instant ______ inside my young head as to whether I should risk the ______ of getting up from the table before my plate was empty. Yet the voice continued,______ me to get up and look for Reds.
____ back my chair despite my parents’______ expressions, I walked through the kitchen and out of the back door. I did not see Reds, but I saw our garage, about twenty feet away, was on fire.
I ______ as I rushed back into the kitchen, pork in hand. “______ the fire department now---the garage is on fire!”
It seemed that one of my brothers had ______ into a minor fight with some older boys in the neighborhood that day. Although the boys never admitted to it despite a police ______, we believed they set the garage on fire after ______ oil around its walls.
____, we lived two blocks from the fire station, and the fire was ______ in time.
What was the whispering voice that told me to get up from the table and go outside? I will never know for sure, but I will always believe it was all because of a whispering angel.
1.A. conditions B. suggestions C. guides D. rules
2.A. kept B. put C. excused D. refused
3.A. inspection B. bite C. step D. picture
4.A. knock B. look C. turn D. whisper
5.A. belonging B. going C. sticking D. holding
6.A. nature B. point C. basis D. schedule
7.A. choice B. demand C. intention D. idea
8.A. primary B. insistent C. innocent D. weak
9.A. explosion B. connection C. conflict D. understanding
10.A. incidences B. functions C. purposes D. consequences
11.A. urging B. holding C. experiencing D. requesting
12.A. Carrying B. Dating C. Pushing D. Taking
13.A. excited B. surprised C. nervous D. considerate
14.A. terrified B. sighed C. screamed D. sniffed
15.A. Go B. Call C. Operate D. Challenge
16.A. stepped B. taken C. brought D. fit
17.A. introduction B. investigation C. knowledge D. performance
18.A. pouring B. picking C. recording D. lifting
19.A. Hopefully B. Desperately C. Regretfully D. Thankfully
20.A. put out B. sent out C. held up D. kept up
Words are the tools through which we can heal or destroy. They are weapons that hurt people as well as magical sticks that repair everything.1.
Good words are encouraging words, caring and loving words, powerful words etc. To fill someone’s wound, the good words should be used. So, just say, good things are going to happen. I am always with you. You can make it.
Good words have healing power.2. The author uses healing and powerful words, which affects the core of our heart. Don’t use painful words which hurt people. Your words can lift or drop anyone.
3. Bad words are discouraging words, painful words, fearful words, and words can destroy the future and our relationships. Therefore, we should learn to take words seriously, because they can determine whether we have good feelings or bad feelings, and decide how we get along with the others.
To avoid hurting others with your words, you’d better speak the way you want others to speak to you. Whatever you say and whoever you’re speaking to, be aware of your words.4. While they are speaking, they never take any time to reflect on what effect their words are putting on others. How we speak to others decides how far our relationship will go. So be aware of your words.
5. Therefore, we must learn to use words properly to explain what we mean to say.
A. Now what are bad words?
B. The same sentences apply for other purposes as well.
C. But sadly, nowadays people speak without thinking.
D. All in all, a proper word says a lot than to speak lots of words uselessly.
E. When we read motivational books, the book motivates us by its words.
F. So in our language words need to be good because our •words tell about us.
G. When you involve in an argument, remember that no one has won in argument.
Hit songs are big business, so there is an incentive for composers to get those ingredients that might increase their chances of success. But songs are complex mixtures of features. How to analyse them is made more difficult by the fact that what is popular changes over time. But Natalia Komarova, a mathematician at the University of California, Irvine, thinks she has cracked the problem. Her computer analysis suggests that the songs currently preferred by consumers are danceable, party-like numbers. Unfortunately, those actually writing songs prefer something else.
She and her colleagues collected information on music released in Britain between 1985 and 2015. They looked in music “metadata (元数据)’’ that are used by music lovers and are often tapped into by academics. Metadata are information about the nature of a song that can give listeners an idea of what that song is like before they hear it. Dr. Komarova and her team were presented with more than 500,000 songs to detect numerous musical features. The team fed all of this information into a computer and compared the features of songs that had made it into the charts (排行榜) with those of songs that had not.
Overall, the team’s results suggested that chart successes were happier and brighter than the average songs released during the same year. Chart toppers were also more likely than average songs to have been performed by women.
Dr. Komarova used these results to train her computer to try to predict whether a randomly presented song was likely to have been a hit in a given year. The machine correctly predicted success 75% of the time, compared with that from the music database.
Content isn’t everything. As might be expected, circumstances, particularly any fame already attached to a recording artist or artists, had an effect too. But not a huge one. That suggests that musical fame is actually attached to talent, rather than to advertising. And this is a lesson for an industry that some believe is not connected enough to talent.
1.Why is it difficult to tell what makes good music?
A. What people think is popular changes with the time.
B. What some people think popular isn’t for other people.
C. No one cares about what makes popular music.
D. It’s difficult to know the features of popular music.
2.What can we infer from the results of the team’s research?
A. The content of good music can be typed into computers.
B. Good music has the quality to make people think about life.
C. Happier and brighter songs are more likely to make the charts.
D. Analysis can decide in advance whether a song will be popular.
3.What does the underlined word “incentive” in Paragraph 1 mean?
A. Expression. B. Motivation.
C. Exhibition. D. Division.
4.What’s the relationship between musical fame and the singer?
A. A famous singer will make any music he/she sings popular.
B. Good music depends on whether the singer is widely advertised.
C. A good female singer can make an average song popular.
D. Talent is more important than fame to make a song popular.
Andrew started his job four years ago at a job search company Glassdoor.com, when he worked in a computer programming language called Stata. Then other programming languages appear, and he has had to continually learn new skills. He says the ever-changing universe of work requires employees to be critical thinkers and fast to adapt to the new environment.
People need to learn new technologies and apply their skills quickly and regularly. When companies hire new workers, they are not always looking for knowledge of a certain software, but soft skills like problem solving, effective communication and leadership. They also may want candidates who show a willingness to keep learning new skills.
Students may believe that studying science, technology, engineering and mathematics, known as the STEM fields, will easily lead to a good first job. But employers are telling colleges: you are producing engineers, but they do not have the skills we need. That means finding new ways to solve a problem is more important than using established steps to do so.
To get students ready, some colleges and even high schools, are working on building critical thinking skills. One example of this is at the private Westminster Schools in Atlanta, Georgia. For three weeks in January, students either get jobs or go on trips. The experience gives them a better sense of what they might do in the future.
Career offices at universities also place a lot of importance on interview skills, teaching young people more than writing an effective resume and dressing well. They have to learn how to perform best on video and phone interviews, and how to deal with new ways of being chosen for a job.
1.What does the job at Glassdoor.com require Andrew to do?
A. To apply what he learned in college to his work.
B. To keep learning new knowledge to keep up.
C. To have a good command of several languages.
D. To keep changing jobs for different skills.
2.What quality do companies require of new workers?
A. Skills at solving problems and effective communication.
B. Willingness to stop work and go for further education.
C. Tricks at managing a whole department or research team.
D. Readiness to stay behind after work and work overtime.
3.What message do employers convey to colleges?
A. Interview skills and effective resume are necessary for students.
B. Good basic knowledge in related field is essential for students.
C. Many new ways of looking for graduate employees are popular.
D. College students should have the skills for solving problems.
4.Which of the following can be the best title for the passage?
A. New Skills Are Required of Employers
B. Traditional Education Limits Job Chances
C. Tomorrow’s Jobs Require Soft Skills
D. What You Learn Today Decides Your Future
As I went down the wooden snowy steps, I held the rough railing (栏杆) with one hand, held my crying daughter Kelly with the other and made my way into the yard. I knew everything would be okay if I located my mother.
Instead of a smile, she greeted me with concern. I knew she had read my face as I’d approached. “What’s wrong?” she asked.
I held the baby out. “I can’t take care of this baby,” I said simply. My mother didn’t take her from my arms as I expected. She smiled slightly, and then replied firmly, “You have to take care of that baby.” This was not the response I wanted. Couldn’t she hear the baby crying? I wanted her to fix this problem. Instead, she took off her gloves and asked me in for some coffee.
Mom held Kelly while I held the coffee cup. At that moment the baby finally stopped crying. I glanced over at Kelly, content in my mother’s arms. Her tiny blue eyes were fixed on me, as if to ask, “What’s the problem here, Mama?” Her sweet, familiar breath eased the stress in the air. I looked at my mother, feeling foolish but relieved. She stood and placed an arm around my shoulders. “By the time you came along, things were quite the opposite for me. But with my first child, you can bet that I often felt helpless.”
The baby showed no signs of our afternoon struggle, while my own hair remained damp and messy from sweat and worry. “Crying is the only way babies have to communicate. Try to listen to her cries and hear them as language. She’s not crying to annoy you; she’s trying to convey a message with the only voice she has.”
Once again, her gentle guidance had supported me through a storm and back into clear skies. As I headed back to my own home, Mom reminded me, “It won’t always be so hard. Children grow fast. Before you know it, you’ll have an empty nest and you’ll miss her.”
1.Why did the author visit her mother in the rough weather?
A. She was concerned about her mother’s safety.
B. She was helpless and needed her mother’s help.
C. She wanted everything to be OK with her family.
D. She wanted to learn to care for babies from her.
2.How did the author’s mother feel when bringing her up?
A. Experienced and confident.
B. Inexperienced but patient.
C. Thoughtless and unconcerned.
D. Considerate but impatient.
3.What did the author’s mother think about babies’ crying?
A. It’s babies9 way of expressing discomfort or hunger.
B. It’s babies9 main way to exercise and grow healthy.
C. It’s babies, only way of communication with people.
D. It’s babies’ fight for love and care from the world.
4.What can we infer about the author’s mother?
A. She likes to raise small children and give advice.
B. She lives a lonely life without her children.
C. She used to sail out to the sea with the author.
D. She often gives advice to the author in trouble.
ACADEMIC ACTIVITIES AND LEARNING TRIPS
NACA (Native American Community Academy) involves students in academic activities and learning trips in order to strengthen the classroom learning experience. Some examples of our commitment to academic activities include:
☆ Student Demonstrations
At the end of every school year, NACA celebrates student learning and growth through Student Demonstrations. Each student chooses a project that reflects their best work and demonstrates it publicly for family and community members. Through this process students also practice the skills of giving a proper introduction, sharing content knowledge, making a personal connection, bettering their visual and oral presentation skills and interacting with their community.
☆ Student Council
Student Council is a group of peer-elected representatives. They serve as leaders of their grade level and promote NACA Core Values. They model positive relationships among each other and staff. Student Council will facilitate school wide events to foster school spirit.
☆ Potential Leaders Development Trip to Washington DC
Every summer, about thirty 8th grade students take part in a Potential Leaders Development. A trip to Washington DC is an important opportunity that promotes youth leadership for students while engaging them on a deeper academic level. It provides an experience-based understanding of the endless opportunities that higher education can provide and encourages the pursuit of academic success. Students who attend this trip are greatly impacted, long for completing their high school education in a more focused and determined manner and begin making plans for college. The trip also creates awareness of the significance of Washington DC/US government and importance of government to government relationships.
1.What’s the aim of NACA trips?
A. To equip students with social experience.
B. To help students strengthen what they learn in class.
C. To promote the awareness of protecting nature.
D. To help students with learning difficulties to catch up.
2.How does NACA celebrate the end of a school year?
A. By organizing trips for students to Washington DC.
B. By choosing model students for their good relationships.
C. By getting students to present their best work publicly.
D. By making personal connections with the community.
3.What does the passage say about Trip to Washington DC?
A. Its participants are future leaders of all fields.
B. Its teachers are all experts at presentation skills.
C. It sets models for students to socialize in real life.
D. It aims to inspire students for higher education.
