阅读下面材料，在空白处填入适当的内容（1个单词）或括号内单词的正确形式。
The Agricultural Feast 1.(take) place after the Independence Day. It is not a worldwide celebration. Only Christians in Mexico look forward to its arrival for its 2.(religion) origin.
Long ago, man’s ancestors were bad. They fooled and played tricks on each other and never kept 3.word. So God turned up and drowned all their crops. 4.(human) starved day and night, weeping. In order to gain God’s forgiveness, a woman poet set off to see God. She admired God and madeapologies, God 5.(move). With God’s permission, human beings finally had good harvests again. Thus to wipe sadness and remind themselves of the belief 6. God, people began the festival. On the festival, people gather in 7.open air, such as playgrounds and parking lots, and have fun with each other 8.(energetic) all night long, as though they were never tired. When a beauty 9.(dress) up in lovely clothing reads poems in memory of the poet, everyone holds their breath. Then, it is the custom 10.the bone of a rooster head is given to her as an award. Obviously, the story may not be true, but the festival is interesting.
One day, I was teaching my daughter how to paint. I saw that a lot of her energy went into ______ her brush into the paint, and then into a bowl of water. But then most of the paint that was on the ______would just disappear in the water. As an ______ mother, I was thinking, “I am trying to teach you how to paint on paper and what are you doing? This is not what you are ______ to do. You have to do this way.”
But she is three years old so she is probably not going to ______ doing it the right way. She had so much ______dipping the brush in the paint and in the water bowl. Pretty much within an hour, most of the paint was all over the room and I just sat there with my hands ______my head thinking, “Oh my god, this girl is hopeless.” Soon after, however, she shouted, “Mama, when I ________pink and blue, it turns purple!”
I was surprised. ______I was thinking that she was wasting perfectly good paint and paper, she ______learned something. What would have been a very theoretical (理论的) experiment turned into a very ______experiment.
I am a designer and work with software like Photoshop and Illustrator. When my daughter sees me work on the ______, she is always very curious and she wants to work with me on the same thing that I do. She starts to ______with buttons, and in that process sometimes ends up ________me things! There will be many times when she will find______ new. I will ask her ______, and she will tell me, “I pressed this, and I pressed this, and then this happened.”
One of the things I realized from this is that everyone has a(n) ______way of learning things. When I was growing up, I ______to literature very well, so everything that was turned into a story became my way of learning and ______different concepts. Some kids understand through art, some understand through math and games, and it’s the job of a parent or a teacher to watch and ________how children learn and try their best to make these experiences educational.
1.A. dipping B. throwing C. breaking D. sweeping
2.A. plate B. brush C. paper D. bowl
3.A. optimistic B. impatient C. energetic D. independent
4.A. supposed B. allowed C. intended D. tricked
5.A. keep B. consider C. bother D. remember
6.A. regret B. fun C. disappointment D. trouble
7.A. beside B. over C. below D. on
8.A. add B. combine C. mix D. take
9.A. While B. Because C. If D. Before
10.A. accidentally B. immediately C. fortunately D. actually
11.A. interesting B. practical C. beneficial D. new
12.A. phone B. desk C. computer D. calculator
13.A. mess B. cooperate C. go D. live
14.A. telling B. awarding C. teaching D. giving
15.A. nothing B. something C. everything D. anything
16.A. when B. why C. where D. how
17.A. different B. effective C. quick D. strange
18.A. came B. referred C. related D. turned
19.A. accepting B. using C. appreciating D. understanding
20.A. disturb B. teach C. respect D. discover
There are many expressions with the word “dog”.
1. They take their dogs for walks, give them good food and medical care. However, dogs without owners to care for them lead a different kind of life. The expression, lead a dog’s life, describes a person who has an unhappy existence.
When we say we live in a dog-eat-dog world. 2. A person has to work hard like a dog to be successful. Such hard work can make people dog-tired. And, the situation would be even worse if they became sick as a dog.
Still, people say every dog has its day. This means that every person enjoys a successful period during his or her life. 3. Yet, some people say that you can never teach an old dog new tricks. They believe that older people do not like to learn new skills and will not change the way they do things.
Some people are compared to dogs in bad ways. People who are unkind or uncaring can be described as junkyard dogs living in places where people throw away things they do not want. Junkyard dogs are often used to guard this property. They bark or attack people who try to enter the property. However, sometimes a person who appears to be mean and threatening is really not so bad. 4.
Dog expressions are also used to describe the weather. The dog days of summer are the hottest days of the year. 5. But we do not want it to rain cats and dogs.
A. Dogs are loyal to people.
B. A rainstorm may cool the weather.
C. People love dogs and treat them well.
D. We could say his bark is worse than his bite.
E. But there are many difficulties on the road to success.
F. To be successful, people often have to learn new skills.
G. That means many people are competing for the same things, like good jobs.
A popular saying goes, “Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me.” However, that’s not really ture. Words have the power to build us up or knock us down. It doesn’t matter if the words come from someone else’ or ourselves—the positive and negative effects are just as lasting.
We all talk to ourselves sometimes. We’re usually too shy to admit it, though. In fact, more and more experts believe talking to ourselves out loud is a healthy habit.
This “self-talk” helps us encourage ourselves, remember things, solve problems, and calm ourselves down. Be aware, though, that as much as 77% of self-talk tends to be negative. So in order to stay positive, we should only speak words of encouragement to ourselves. We should also be quick to give ourselves a pat on the back. The next time you finish a project, do well in a test, or finally clean your room, join me in saying “Good job!”
Often, words come out of our mouths without thinking about the effect they will have. But we should be aware that our words cause certain responses in others. For example, when returning an item to a store, we might use warm, friendly language during the exchange. And the clerk will probably respond in a similar manner. Or hash (刻薄的) and critical language will most likely cause the clerk to be defensive.
Words have power because of their lasting effect. Many of us regret something we once said. And we remember unkind words said to us! Before speaking, we should always ask ourselves: Is it loving? Is it needed? If what we want to say doesn’t pass this test, then it’s better left unsaid.
Words have power: both positive and negative. Those around us receive encouragement when we speak positively. We can offer hope, build self-esteem (自尊) and encourage others to do their best. Negative words destroy all those things. Will we use our words to hurt or to heal? The choice is ours.
1.The main idea of the first paragraph is that ______.
A. nothing but words will hurt us B. positive words give us confidence
C. negative words may let us down D. words have a lasting effect on us
2.There is no need for us to feel shy when we talk to ourselves because ______.
A. we can benefit from talking to ourselves
B. talking to ourselves always give us courage
C. it does no harm to have “self-talk” when we are alone
D. almost everybody has the habit of talking to themselves
3.The underlined part in the third paragraph means that we should aslo timely ______.
A. remind ourselves B. praise ourselves
C. relax ourselves D. amaze ourselves
4.The author would probably hold the view that ______.
A. people will always remember to be friendly
B. encouraging words surely lead to kind offers
C. it is better to think twice before talking to others
D. negative words may help us make more progress
Eating disorder is very common now. “When I first wrote about this twenty years ago, the problem was pretty much hidden. I didn’t expect it to get as bad as it is.” Susie Orbach, aged 48, an international authority on eating disorders, said.
Girls, boys, old people even the famously well-rounded female population of Fiji are falling victims (受害者) to fat fear. “The situation has got much, much worse. We now have kids as young as eight and women in old people’s homes worried about the way they look.” Orbach said.
Even though it has been proved that repeated dieting results in a little more than regaining most of the lost weight, constant dieting has become a way of life for many women. 48 percent of British women aged 25 to 35 were on some kind of diet and 20 percent of young women dieted all or most of time. Some of them said they would pop a pill to give them tier beautiful shape, even if it meant risking their health. Worldwide, 70 million people have an eating disorder. Most are women, but men are increasingly affected, too.
More than half the women and two thirds of the men in Britain weigh too much. While in the United States more than one quarter of adults and about one in five children are overweight. The idea that female beauty is a very thin body could be changed, if clothing factories and magazines showed images of women of all shapes instead of selecting skeletal-like models and stick-thin actress.
1.How old was Susie Orbach when she found the problem of eating disorder?
A. 48 B. 28
C. 20 D. 25
2.We can learn from the passage that .
A. 48 percent of British women were on some kind of diet
B. 20 percent of British women would pop a pill to be in shape
C. 70 million people in the world suffer from an eating disorder
D. More than half of the British men and women weigh too much
3.How can we change the idea about beauty?
A. Repeated dieting is encouraged.
B. Clothing factories selecting skeletal-like models.
C. Magazines showed images of women of stick-thin actress.
D. Both fat and thin ladies take part in clothing public show.
4.What does this text probably come from?
A. Medical magazine B. Healthy life style
C. A science report D. An advertisement
Last year, around Labor Day, I read a “Happy Ad” in our local newspaper.There was a lady in a local nursing home for the aged, who was celebrating her 90th birthday and her family wanted everyone to know about it. It said that if you wanted to drop her a line, here was her address. So I did. I found a birthday card and dropped her a short note, wishing her a happy birthday.
A week or so later, someone knocked at my front door. I opened the door and found a middle-aged man standing on my doorstep. He introduced himself as the son of this woman to whom I had sent the card. He explained that he just wanted to drop by in person and thank me for sending such a nice card to his mom. Apparently, like many older folks, she did not receive much mail and was quite excited to receive mine. I just didn’t know what to say. I told him it was my pleasure and that I hoped his mom had enjoyed her birthday.
That year, I did not send out any Christmas cards, except to this lovely old lady in the nursing home. I just told her that I was thinking about her and hoped that she had a nice holiday. I sent her a holiday card and also a couple of notes in between. I just thought she might like to have someone write to her, to get some mails.
She passed away a couple of months ago. I never met this lady, but I did keep her and her family in my thoughts. I dropped them a line of sympathy. I hope that my few little notes were enough to brighten a couple of her days here on earth.
1.The old lady lived______.
A. at her son’s home B. at her own home
C. in a senior citizen’s home D. in a center of the local newspaper
2.From the text, we can know that .
A. the son of this old lady opened the door to meet the author
B. the lovely old lady received many birthday cards at the age of 90
C. the family wanted the author to celebrate the old lady’s 90th birthday
D. the author sent another card with notes to the old lady on Christmas Day
3.We can infer that the writer is very ______.
A. easy-going B. indifferent
C. sympathetic D. friendly
4.What is the passage mainly about?
A. A moving story of an old lady.
B. A worthy deed from the caring author.
C. A happy advertisement about the family.
D. A perfect plan from the considerate son.
