Life can be so wonderful, full of adventure and joy. It can also be full of challenges, setbacks and heartbreaks. Whatever our circumstances, we generally still have dreams, hopes and desires —that little something more we want for ourselves and our loved ones. Yet knowing we can have more can also create a problem, because when we go to change the way we do things, up come the old patterns and pitfalls that stopped us from seeking what we wanted in the first place.
This tension between what we feel we can have and "what were seemingly able to have is the niggling suffering, the anxiety we feel. This is where we usually think it's easier to just give up. But we're never meant to let go of the part of us that knows we can have more. The intelligence behind that knowing is us—the real us. It's the part that believes in life and its possibilities. If you drop that, you begin to feel a little "dead" inside because you're dropping "you".
So, if we have this capability but somehow life seems to keep us stuck, how do we break these patterns?
Decide on a new course and make one decision at a time. This is good advice for a new adventure or just getting through today's challenges.
While, deep down, we know we can do it, our mind—or the minds of those close to us—usually says we can't.
That isn't a reason to stop, it's just the mind, that little man or woman on your shoulder, trying to talk you out of something again. It has done it many times before. It's all about starting simple and doing it now.
Decide and act before over-thinking. When you do this you may feel a little, or large, release from the jail of your mind and you'll be on your way.
1.According to the passage, life is always .
A. full of joy B. full of challenges
C. so wonderful D. changing
2.It can be inferred from the first two paragraphs that we should ___________ .
A. slow down and live a simple life
B. be careful when we choose to change
C. stick to our dreams under any circumstances
D. be content with what we already have
3.What is the key to breaking the old patterns?
A. To focus on every detail.
B. To decide and take immediate action.
C. To listen to those close to us.
D. To think twice before we act.
4.Which of the following best explains the underlined part in the last paragraph?
A. Escape from your punishment.
B. Realization of your dreams.
C. Freedom from your tension.
D. Reduction of your expectations.
5.What does the author intend to tell us?
A. It's easier than we think to get what we want.
B. It's important to learn to accept sufferings in life.
C. It's impractical to change our way of thinking.
D. It's harder than we expect to follow a new course.
A food chain is a simple way of explaining how each living thing gets its food. For example, a simple African food chain might consist of three parts: first, trees and bushes; second, giraffes; and third, lions. Each link in a food chain is food for the next link. Food chains always start with plants and end with animals.
Plants are at the bottom of the food chain. Scientists call them producers, because they use light energy from the sun to produce food from carbon dioxide and water through photosynthesis（光合作用）. Animals, unlike plants, can’t produce their own food. Instead, they must eat plants or other animals. This is why scientists call them consumers.
Consumer animals fall into three categories. Herbivores（食草动物）eat only plants. Carnivores（食肉动物） eat only other animals. Omnivores eat both plants and animals. In addition to producers and consumers, there are also decomposers(分解者).These organisms, such as bacteria and fungi, feed on decaying(腐烂) matter. They help the food chain by speeding up the decaying process that releases minerals back into the soil to be absorbed by plants as nutrients.
Most food chains have only four or five links in them. As you go up a food chain, the amount of energy at each level diminishes, because some of the energy is lost in the form of waste or is used up by the organism at the level. That is why it takes many plants, for example, to feed a few giraffes who in turn feed one lion.
Most animals are part of many different food chains, because they must eat more than one type of food to satisfy their energy needs. All of these interconnected food chains form a more complex structure called a food web. Humans, for example, are at the center of a very complex food web, because we tend to eat many different types of plants and animals.
1.Which of the following tells us the African food chain?
A. Trees, giraffes and lions live on one another.
B. Giraffes eat lions and lions feed on bushes.
C. Lions live on giraffes and giraffes eat trees.
D. Bushes live on lions and lions eat giraffes.
2.In the second paragraph,the author is mainly to .
A. emphasize the importance of the plants
B. compare the plants and the animals
C. present the scientists’ different views
D. explain the producers and consumers
3.The underlined word “diminishes”（in Paragraph 4）probably means .
A. changes B. decreases
C. disappears D. increases
4.Those that may lie in the center of the food chain are .
A. omnivores B. decomposers
C. herbivores D. carnivores
5.What would be the best title for this passage?
A. The Types of Plants and Animals
B. The Differences among the Living Things
C. Three Categories of the Consumers
D. The Food Chain in the Natural World
Allan Guei, 18, was a star basketball player at Compton High School in the Los Angeles area before he graduated last month. His good grades made him eligible for an unusual competition: A free-throw contest in the Compton High gymnasium. The top prize: ＄40,000 in scholarship money.
Guei, whose parents immigrated to the United States from the Ivory Coast, knew how much that financial aid could mean for his family. He was also feeling a fair share of pressure as students and teachers crushed into the gym to watch Guei and seven other randomly compete against each other.
Guei won the free-throw contest by one basket and netted the ＄40,000. But it’s what he did next that’s truly astonishing.
In the weeks following the March free-throw competition, Guei learned that he’d scored a full-ride basketball scholarship to California State University---Northridge. NCAA(全国大学生体育协会)rules allowed Guei to accept the athletic scholarship and also keep most of the ＄40,000 he had won.
But Guei couldn’t stop thinking about the seven talented runners-up from the free-throw contest. They, too, had dreams and very real needs. So, he asked Principal Jesse Jones to make a surprise announcement at Compton High’s graduation ceremony: Geui wanted to donate the ＄40,000 to the other seven students.
“I’ve already been blessed so much and I know we’re living with a bad economy, so I know this money can really help my classmates,” Guei said in a statement. “It was the right decision.”
Guei elaborated on his decision to give the money away in an interview with ESPN(体育电视网): “I was already well taken care of to go to school, to go to university for free...I felt like they needed it more than I did.”
1.While studying at Compton High School in the Los Angeles area, Allan Guei ______.
A. was famous in the United States
B. made grown-ups feel very worried
C. took part in a free-throw contest
D. showed his skills in playing basketball
2.During the free-throw contest in the Compton High gymnasium, Allan Guei felt ______.
A. delighted B. stressed
C. relaxed D. embarrassed
3.What made the other people astonished?
A. Guei contributed his prize to others.
B. Guei was thought highly of by Jesse.
C. Guei kept most of his scholarship.
D. Guei gained a basketball scholarship.
4.What Guei said in an interview with ESPN infers that______.
A. his family was very wealthy
B. it was very hard for him to make money
C. he was luckier than other students
D. he was always ready to help others.
5.Where can we most probably read this passage?
A. In a storybook.
B. In a newspaper.
C. In a science magazine.
D. In an advertisement.
Ferry Services Fare Table
Effective from 1st April 2019.
Cash Only is accepted onboard our Ferries.
Return Fares for Mainland to Bressay；
Mainland to Whalsay；
Mainland to Yell；
Yell to Unst.
All Fares are RETURN - Payable on outbound journey only |
| |
Passenger |
| |
Adult | £5.50 |
|
OAPs (With SIC Pass) & Children up to 19 | £1.00 |
|
Disabled Concessionary SIC Pass Holders | £0.00 |
|
Adult 10 Multi Journey Ticket | £22.70 |
|
Vehicles - Fares include driver |
| |
Vehicles up to and including 5.50m Return | £13.60 |
|
Motorcycles Return | £11.00 |
|
Motorhome 5.5m - 9m | £20.50 |
|
Motorhome 9m - 12m | £23.50 |
|
Motorhome 12m + | £27.00 |
|
Vehicle (<5.5m) 10 Journey Ticket | £90.00 |
|
Motorcycle 10 Journey Ticket | £72.00 |
|
*For Yell to Unst, the fare payable is the same as the other “return fare” routes. However if your journey originated on the Mainland (you have had to use two ferries on the same day or after 18：00 from the day before) then you will only be charged the one fare on Yell. Please retain the ticket you were sold on the Yell ferry for presenting on the Unst ferry. |
|
1.How will you pay for your ticket on the ferry?
A. In cash. B. By credit card.
C. With SIC Pass. D. All of above.
2.Which of the following is true?
A. The information above is not effective on Children’s Day,2019.
B. It’s free for the disabled without an SIC pass.
C. The vehicles fares vary in the sizes of them.
D. You can see the fare information for 3 routes in the table.
3.Jack (10 years old) and his parents will travel from mainland to Whalsay in their car, how much will they pay?
A. £12.00 B. £25.60
C. £20.10 D. £21.00
4.The best meaning of the underlined word “return” is ________.
A. The act of giving, putting or sending something back.
B. Payment or reward for something.
C. A change back to a previous state.
D. A ticket for a journey from one place to another and back again.
5.How much will be charged if you go from mainland to Yell, then to Unst on the same day?
A. £11.00. B. £5.50.
C. £6.50. D. £22.70.
Trees play a special role in my life. They accompanied my growth, and my personal experiences and memories often _______with them. There was a row of poplars（杨树）in my first childhood home; I never_____the house without the trees.
Out on the farm, my grandparents always cut a Christmas tree from the fields. They were always short. Those trees were a family ______; I can still ______ their smell all these years later.
The pines in our backyard were only 1.5 meters tall when we moved in. They grew right alongside our kids, and in the same ______: silently and quickly. Those pines once stretched a hammock（吊床）______ the two of them. They watched over our rounds of hide-and-seek, snowfalls, and ______ family gatherings.
A huge willow tree once ______ in the backyard as well. The kids had a tree-house in it for a long time. Other kids in the ______ enjoyed it too.
There is a sadness to a ______ tree; to the ground it makes when it hits the ground.
My husband and I were working as newspaper photographers ______ the active volcano Mount St. Helens exploded. Many nearby forests were _____ destroyed by the effects of the explosion. The loss of all the trees can somehow be as ______ as the loss of lives and homes.
Trees tend to be ______ of strength and beauty.
The trees returned to Mount St. Helens -- and they returned ______ than the experts predicted. To all who had witnessed the disaster, the ______ was encouraging. Those small trees ______ us of the beauty of new beginnings.
We’ve filled in the empty holes ______ the pines stood and dug a new hole that will soon be home to a new tree.
One of the grandchildren asked how tall the new tree is.
“Not much taller than I am,” I said.
“Can we decorate it for Christmas?” she asked, eyes ______.
The old trees may be gone, but the new one will soon become part of my grandchildren’s ____ for many years to come.
1.A. go together B. come along C. bring back D. take down
2.A. see B. find C. picture D. build
3.A. habit B. tradition C. culture D. attraction
4.A. feel B. sense C. expect D. recall
5.A. house B. field C. manner D. way
6.A. with B. between C. out of D. across
7.A. countless B. countable C. limitless D. limited
8.A. planted B. placed C. stood D. located
9.A. neighborhood B. forest C. backyard D. garden
10.A. hollow B. strange C. rotted D. fallen
11.A. which B. that C. when D. while
12.A. possibly B. comparably C. suddenly D. completely
13.A. encouraging B. upsetting C. moving D. boring
14.A. symbols B. associations C. characters D. contacts
15.A. harder B. lower C. easier D. faster
16.A. regain B. regrowth C. recover D. remark
17.A. told B. warned C. informed D. reminded
18.A. when B. where C. which D. that
19.A. observing B. staring C. twinkling D. glancing
20.A. memories B. programs C. adventures D. experiments
The teacher’s voice still remained calm ______ she was getting annoyed.
A. as long as B. even if
C. as if D. now that
