A few weeks ago, I called an Uber to take me to the Boston airport for a flight home for the holidays. As I slid into the back seat of the car, the warm intonations(语调) of the driver’s accent washed over me in a familiar way.
I learned that he was a recent West African immigrant with a few young children, working hard to provide for his family. I could relate: I am the daughter of two Ethiopian immigrants who made their share of sacrifices to ensure my success. I told him I was on a college break and headed home to visit my parents. That’s how he found out I go to Harvard. An approving eye glinted at me in the rearview window, and quickly, we crossed the boundaries of rider and driver. I became his daughter, all grown up — the product of his sacrifice.
And then came the fateful question: “What do you study?” I answered “history and literature” and the pride in his voice faded, as I knew it might. I didn’t even get to add “and African-American studies” before he cut in, his voice thick with disappointment, “All that work to get into Harvard, and you study history?”
Here I was, his daughter, squandering the biggest opportunity of her life. He went on to deliver the age-old lecture that all immigrant kids know. We are to become doctors (or lawyers, if our parents are being generous) — to make money and send money back home. The unspoken demand, made across generations, which my Uber driver laid out plainly, is simple: Fulfill your role in the narrative(故事) of upward mobility so your children can do the same.
I used to feel anxious and backed into a corner by the questioning, but now as a junior in college, I’m grateful for their support more than anything. This holiday season, I’ve promised myself I won’t huff and get annoyed at their inquiries. I won’t defensively respond with “but I plan to go to law school!” when I get unrequested advice. I’ll just smile and nod, and enjoy the warmth of the occasion.
1.What disappointed the driver?
A. The author’s attitude towards him.
B. The school that the author is attending.
C. The author’s majors in history and literature.
D. The author’s interests in African American studies.
2.Which of the following can replace the underlined word “squandering” in Paragraph 4?
A. wasting
B. creating
C. valuing
D. seizing
3.Why are immigrant kids expected to be doctors or lawyers?
A. Their parents want them to move upward in society.
B. Their parents are high achieving as well.
C. They have more opportunities.
D. They are very smart in general.
4.How did the author react to the driver’s questioning?
A. Getting upset.
B. Feeling satisfied.
C. Defending herself.
D. Appreciating his concern.
Everyone should be so lucky as to have a friend like Francia Raisa. On Thursday, singer and actress Selena Gomez, 25, used Instagram to explain why she was “laying low” this summer. She posted a photo of herself in a hospital bed with her friend Francia Raisa holding hands. She said she recently received a kidney transplant from her best friend because of complications(并发症) from lupus(狼疮), an autoimmune disease, which means it is the result of the immune system attacking normal tissue, including the kidneys, brain, heart and lungs.
People with lupus may first experience tiredness, joint pain or a little bit of rash(皮疹) on their bodies and can go for a long time before their doctors realize it is more serious. Many people see two or four doctors before the real problem is picked up. According to Dr. Kyriakos Kirou, roughly a third to one-half of people with lupus develop kidney disease, and up to one in five of them will eventually need a transplant, sometimes because they weren’t treated with effective drugs to prevent the immune system from attacking the kidneys. Though Gomez said that she was “very well now,” she warned about the dangers of not taking medical diagnoses seriously, like she initially did.
Her Instagram post also called attention to two major health topics: the need for living organ donators and the fact that Gomez represents three groups more likely to be diagnosed with lupus and lupus-related kidney disease. Nine out of 10 people diagnosed with lupus are women, and most develop the disease between the ages of 15 to 44. And lupus is two to three times more common among women of color, including Hispanic women, according to the Lupus Foundation.
Raisa is Latina, and Gomez’s father is of Mexican origin. While it’s not essential that the organ donator and receiver be of the same ethnicity, people who share a similar background sometimes are better matched, according to data from the United Network for Organ Sharing.
1.What can we learn about Francia Raisa?
A. She is lucky.
B. She is selfless.
C. She is optimistic.
D. She is encouraging.
2.What is lupus like at its early stage?
A. It is deadly.
B. It is hard to recognize.
C. Its symptoms are psychological.
D. It reminds you of a kidney disease.
3.What does the underlined word “them” in Paragraph 2 refer to?
A. People with lupus.
B. Colored women lupus patients.
C. Lupus patients with kidney disease.
D. Women between the ages of 15 to 44.
4.What does the last paragraph mainly tell us?
A. Raisa and Gomez have a similar background.
B. Gomez has fully recovered thanks to the kidney from Raisa.
C. It is vital for the donator and receiver to be of the same race.
D. The organ from the donator of the same race matches the receiver better.
Choosing where to live may be one of the biggest decisions you’ll make when you move to Sydney, but you’ll have plenty of help.
Temporary arrival accommodation
Before you move to Sydney, we recommend that you book a temporary place to stay. Once you get here, you can look for longer-term accommodation.
--sydney.edu.au/accommodation/short-term
On-campus-residential colleges (fully catered饮食全包的)
The University has eight residential colleges on the Camperdown/Darlington Campus, including International House, a residential community of global scholars. Colleges provide comfortable, fully furnished single rooms and daily meals, along with sporting, cultural, leadership and social programs. They also include on-site tutorials(辅导课) in addition to campus-based classes.
--sydney.edu.au/colleges
On-campus residences (self-catered饮食自理的)
The University has two self-run residences—Queen Mary Building (QMB) and Abercrombie Student Accommodation—on the Camperdown/Darlington Campus. Both just under a year old, they house up to 1000 students. These residences provide modern single-study rooms with large common living, learning and study spaces, shared kitchens, a theatre, gyms, soundproofed music rooms, art studios, sky lounges and rooftop gardens.
--sydney.edu.au/campus-life/accommodation/live-on-campus.html
Off-campus living
More than 90 percent of our students live off campus. The University is close to many dynamic and multicultural suburbs such as Annandale, Newtown, Chippendale and Glebe. A great place to search is our large online database of properties.
--sydney.edu.au/campus-life/accommodation/live-off-campus.html
1.Where can you find a place to live temporarily?
A. On “sydney.edu.au/colleges”.
B. On “sydney.edu.au/accommodation/short-term”.
C. On “sydney.edu.au/campus-life/accommodation/live-on-campus.html”.
D. On “sydney.edu.au/campus-life/accommodation/live-off-campus.html”.
2.What do students living in QMB have access to?
A. Their own kitchens.
B. On-site tutorials.
C. Daily meals.
D. Gyms.
3.What is the most popular choice among students?
A. Living off campus.
B. Living in host families.
C. Living in self-catered flats on campus.
D. Living in fully catered houses on campus.
请阅读下面短文，并按照要求用英语写一篇150词左右的文章。
Film and television adaptations of classic literature works have held a long-standing appeal for audiences, reshaping our cultural landscape.
In 2017, a nine-episode TV adaptation of Chinese literature classic, The Dream of the Red Mansion, featured young cast aged 6-12 portraying the characters vividly and won applause among faithful readers of this classic work. To them, these young performers have brought the characters alive again. “I was impressed by their perfect acting in the TV series. I never expected they could play so well. It is as good as the 1987 TV adaptation,” a Douban user commented. Before the shooting of the 1987 TV version, all the actors and actresses received systematic acting training and guided studyt of the original work. This time, Ouyang Fenqiang, who played the leading role, Jia Baoyu, in the 1987 version, was invited to instruct the young performers.
However, this is only one of the very few cases of being faithful to the original literature. Recent years have witnessed a large number of poor-quality film and TV adaptations of literature classics, spoiling the understanding of the original work. Whether classic literature works should be adapted into film or TV series is worthy of discussion.
[写作内容]
1．用约30个单词概括上述文字材料的主要内容。
2． 用120个单词发表你的观点，内容包括：
（1） 支持或反对把经典文学作品改编为影视作品；
（2） 用2-3个理由或论据支撑你的观点。
[写作要求]
1． 表明个人观点，同时提供理由或论据；
2． 阐述观点或提供论据时，不得直接引用原文中的句子；
3． 文中不能出现真实姓名和学校名称；
4． 不必写标题。
[评分标准]、
内容完整，语言规范，语篇连贯，词数适当。
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
请认真阅读下列短文，并根据所读内容在文章后表格中的空格里填入一个最恰当的单词。
注意：请将答案写在答题卡上相应题号的横线上。每个空格只填1个单词。
Anyone who’s ever made room for a big milestone of adult life----a job, a marriage, a move----has likely shoved a friendship to the side. After all, there is no contract locking us to the other person, as in marriage, and there are no blood bonds, as in family. We choose our friends, and our friends choose us. That’s a really distinctive attribute of friendships.
But modern life can become so busy that people forget to keep choosing each other. That’s when friendships fade, and there’s reason to believe it’s happening more than ever. Loneliness is on the rise, and feeling lonely has been found to increase a person’s risk of dying early by 26%----and to be even worse for the body than obesity and air pollution. Loneliness damages health in many ways, particularly because it removes the safety net of social support. “When we perceive our world as threatening, that can be associated with an increase in heart rate and blood pressure.”
The solution is simple: friendship. It helps protect the brain and body from stress, anxiety and depression. “Being around trusted others, in essence, signals safety and security,” says Holt-Lunstad. A study last year found that friendships are especially beneficial later in life. Having supportive friends in old age is a stronger predictor of well-being than family ties ----suggesting that the friends you pick may be at least as important as the family you’re born into.
Easy as the fix may sound, it can be difficult to keep and make friends as an adult. But research suggests that you only need between four and five close pals. If you’ve ever had a good one, you know hat you’re looking for. “The expectations of friends, once you have a mature understanding of friendship, don’t really change across the life course,” Rawlins says. “People want their close friends to be someone they can talk to and someone they can depend upon.”
If you’re trying to fill a dried-up friendship pool, start by looking inward. Think back to how you met some of your very favorite friends. Volunteering on a political campaign or in a favorite spin class? Playing in a band? “Friendships are always about something,” says Rawlins. Common passions help people bond at a personal level, and they bridge people of different ages and life experiences.
Whatever you’re into, someone else is too. Let your passion guide you toward people. Volunteer, for example, take a new course or join a committee at your community centers. If you like yoga, start going to classes regularly. Fellow dog lovers tend to gather at dog runs. Using apps and social media----like Facebook to find a local book club----is also a good way to find easy-going folks.
Once you meet a potential future friend, then comes the scary part: inviting them to do something. “You do have to put yourself out there,” says Janice McCabe, associate professor of sociology at Dartmouth College and a friendship researcher. “There’s a chance that the person will say no. But there’s also the chance they’ll say yes, and something really great could happen.”
The process takes time, and you may experience false starts. Not everyone will want to put in the effort necessary to be a good friend.
It’s never too late to start being a better pal. The work you put into friendships----both new and old --- will be well worth it for your health and happiness.
Outline | Supporting details |
Problems | ●Making friends 1. people of negative feelings, especially benefiting the old. However, quick-paced life robs people of the time to maintain friendship and leads to more occurrences of2.. ●3. from society makes people mentally and physically unhealthy. |
Solutions | ●Be 4. with what you expect of your friends: they should be good listeners and5.. ●6. on how you built up good friendship. ●Follow your heart and make friends with those people with 7. interests ●8. yourself to win a friend by inviting him to do something, not fearing to be 9.. |
Conclusion | The more10. you are to making friends, the healthier and happier you will be. |
“With depressingly few exceptions, performances are dull and lack vitality…
After years of trying to convince myself otherwise, I now feel sure that ballet is dying.”
-----Jennifer Homans, Apollo’s Angels
Is ballet dead? Has the art form evolved to depression? Jennifer Homans’s conclusion to her fascinating history of ballet, Apollo’s Angels, is worrying.
It appears that ballet’s pulse continues to beat strongly, however, especially with a Tchaikovsky defibrillator attached. So why are some dance commentators arguing that ballet is dying? And do they have a point?
“Ballet is dead”----“Ballet is dying” ---all ring tones of Friedrich Nietzsche’s philosophical claim: “God is dead.” Headline grabbling, certainly. Yet can ballet be defined in such black and white terms? Surely it is more abstract, filled with shades of popular grey. ①
To start with, how do you define ballet? What is ballet today? Consider popular modern classics like Twyla Tharp’s In the Upper Room, where dancers wear pointy shoes and sneakers, combining contemporary and classical vocabulary together. Or closer to home, there is Graeme Murphy’s Swan Lake, which layers elements of Petipa’s choreography(编舞) with a contemporary theme and aesthetic. Many contemporary choreographers all embrace classical form and principles, then manipulate(操纵) the rules. ② .
The line between contemporary dance and ballet is vague. In an interview with The Telegraph (2015), British choreographer Mattew Bourne acknowledges that this “cross-fertilisation” between contemporary dance and ballet continues to grow, as evidenced by the rise in new commissions from contemporary choreographers at the Royal Ballet and English National Ballet. Referring to Homans’s book, Bourne believes what has changed is that “the dance forms are coming closer together”. Not dying, but merging. Reinventing. This has been the case amongst Australasian ballet companies for many years now. ③ .
Homans writes that ballet’s decline began after the passing of Ashton and Balanchine. Something ahs changed, certainly. A stylisic transition----from neo-classical to contemporary ballet----has occurred. ④
Our art form’s evolution has always been with extinction. Prominent dance critic with The New York Times, Alastair Macaulay, says: “ballet has died again and again over the centuries,” and yet, “phoenix-like, rose again from its ashes”. History shows there were periods where ballet hibernated and lacked popularity. This coincided with the art form’s changing forums.
So here is the irony: what sells best, still, are reproductions of Petipa’s classics. A season without a Tchaikovsky score is a financial risk. And without Nutcracker(《胡桃夹子》), half the ballet companies in North America would not exist. Admittedly, as a dancer, my favourite roles---Albrecht, Prince Siegfried and Romeo----were from the classical canon; I am a traditionalist at heart (who loves to be challenged by good contemporary ballets). A part of the charm behind classical repertoire, for me, was in reproducing the glories of past greats. Classical ballet’s framework supports the modern process of bench-marking.
Perhaps Jennifer Homans’s thoughts are not completely unfounded. Perhaps ballet is dying for some. Ballet’s evolution has been delayed by its audiences. And as Homans suggests in her epilogue, perhaps also by its creatives.
Now here is a bold prediction. In line with the Royal Ballet’s programming in Brisbane this year----of Christopher Wheeldon’s The Winter’s Tale, and Wayne MacGregor’s Woolf Works----over the next 20 years, ballet’s reliance on Petipa will decrease. Contemporary ballets and merge-styled ballets will produce their box-office influence ever more.
Why?
It is simple: our audiences will be ready for ballet to change again.
1.Why does the writer cite Jennifer Homans’s words at the beginning of the passage?
A. To support the writer’s viewpoint. B. To introduce the topic of the passage.
C. To highlight the theme of the passage D. To provide the background knowledge.
2.The sentence ‘Is this not ballet?” should be put in ______.
A. ① B. ②
C. ③ D. ④
3.Which of the following statements is a fact about ballet?
A. “Surely it is more abstract, filled with shades of popular grey.” (Para.3)
B. “The line between contemporary dance and ballet is vague.” (Para.5)
C. “Our art form’s evolution has always been with extinction.” (Para.7)
D. “What sells best, still, are reproductions of Petipa’s classics.” (Para.8).
4.According to Matthew Bourne, _____.
A. the dance forms remain unchanged
B. contemporary dance has reinvented classic ballet
C. ballet is experiencing growth and will continue to develop
D. a new form of ballet is widely accepted among Australians
5.The writer takes himself as an example in Paragraph 8 in order to show _____.
A. classics should be promoted
B. classics are still of great significance
C. classical ballet’s framework is out of date
D. contemporary ballets attract more audiences
6.What may be the audiences’ attitude to the change of ballet?
A. Supportive. B. Arbitrary.
C. Critical. D. Concerned
