Runners never forget crossing the finishing line at their first marathon, and that will be especially true for Mike Kohler. When Kohler crossed the starting line in Fargo last Saturday, he thought he was going to run 13.1 miles, his first half marathon. Six hours later, he had "mistakenly” completed his first full marathon, 26.2 miles.
Kohler, a 26-year-old plumber (水管工) who now lives in West Fargo, had lined up for the half marathon that he hoped to complete in 150 minutes. He didn't realize he was in a starting fence with the full marathoners. Several miles later, Kohler began to realize he was on the course for the full marathon. "The 8-mile mark was when I figured out that I had made a mistake," he said. "Between then and 13.1, I debated with myself about what I should do.”
At some point — he doesn't remember when — he doubled down on the distance. "After I decided I was going to keep going, the thought of quitting didn't come back. Run, walk, or crawl, I wanted to finish," he said.
Until Saturday, Kohler's longest race was a 10-kilometer run, just over 6 miles. Even the most casual marathoners do a training run of 18 miles before the race. From his experience, he said he learned one thing: sometimes people can do more than they think they can.
After his long race, he went right back to work, put in a 10-hour day and then boarded a flight to Scotland for a vacation. "I was pretty sore, but I found the more I kept moving, the less sore I was, so I tried my best to go about life normally — minus running,” Kohler said from Glasgow. "I needed a break from that for a bit."
Not for too long, though. He's already considering the Bemidji Blue Ox Marathon in October.
1.When did Kohler realize that he made a mistake?
A.Before starting the race.
B.After running 8 miles.
C.When being with the full marathoners.
D.While lining up for the half marathon.
2.Which of the following best describes Kohler?
A.Determined. B.Cooperative.
C.Open-minded. D.Well-prepared.
3.What can we infer from the text?
A.He went to Scotland to get a break from work.
B.He had never trained for the full marathon before.
C.He decided to complete the race at the 8-mile mark.
D.He was debating with himself when he finished the race.
4.What might be the best title for the text?
A.Life Lies in Movement
B.Life Means Never Quitting
C.One Can Always Do More Than He Can
D.One Mistakenly Runs Full Marathon Not a Half
Coolest Bookstores in the World
Where did you buy your last book? Chances are that you bought it on the Internet. But if you did, you missed the remarkable experience of browsing in a real bookstore. These days bookstores offer lots of great books and plenty more.
Eslite Dunnan Store
Time magazine once named Eslite Dunnan Store in Taiwan province, China "Asia's best bookstore". One visit to the store tells you why. The store, spread across five floors, offers a combination of restaurants, music and over 200,000 books. With its comfortable reading spots, visitors sometimes say it's like a library. Others have called it the "7-Eleven of bookstores" because it's open 24 hours a day.
Book Garden
The world's biggest bookstore is Tehran, Iran's Book Garden with 700,000 square feet of space. In addition to restaurants and a theater, the Book Garden features a park on the roof. Visitors can pick up one of 1,000 free books to read while enjoying the fresh air and sunshine from the Book Garden's rooftop park.
Saraiva Bookstore
Rio de Janeiro's Saraiva Bookstore might be the world's most colorful bookstore. The visible upper level is lined with books arranged by their colors. This rainbow effect provides a color welcoming for shoppers as they arrive. A rainbow path also leads young readers into the children's section.
Liberia Acqua Alta
Venice, Italy, is a city surrounded with water. Its books are displayed in all things related to water such as boats, bathtubs to protect them when the shop floods during high tide. It overlooks one of Venice's many canals, and the smell of old books fills the air.
1.Which bookstore provides a special reading place on the roof?
A.Eslite Dunnan Store. B.Book Garden.
C.Saraiva Bookstore. D.Liberia Acqua Alta.
2.What do we know about Saraiva Bookstore?
A.It is open twenty-four hours a day.
B.Shoppers can paint books with color.
C.It greets people with colorful books.
D.Shoppers can find a rainbow there .
3.Why are the books in Liberia Acqua Alta kept in boats?
A.Because the store is known for floods.
B.Because they match canals in Venice.
C.Because the store is surrounded with water.
D.Because they can be preserved from water.
Some cities and lawmakers are resisting crime-fighting tech owing to bias (偏见) and accuracy concerns. Police departments around the U.S. are asking citizens to trust them to use facial recognition software as a handy tool in their crime-fighting toolbox. But some lawmakers — and even some technology giants — are against it.
Take the western Massachusetts city of Springfield, where many residents are Latino or black. Springfield police say they have no plans to use facial recognition systems, but some City Council members are moving to block any future government use of the technology anyway.
At an October hearing on the subject, Springfield City Councilman, Orlando Ramos, defended the technology. “The facial recognition technology does not drop a net from the sky and put you to prison,” he said, noting that it could serve as a useful investigative tool. However, he doesn’t want to take any risks. “It would only lead to more racial discrimination.” he said, citing studies that found higher error rates for facial recognition software used to identify women and people with darker skins.
Similar debates across the country are highlighting racial issues and concerns about the technology’s accuracy. Axon, which supplies body-worn cameras nationwide, had already formed an artificial intelligence ethics board (伦理委员会)that concluded facial recognition technology isn’t yet dependable enough to justify its use on police cameras. Axon Chief Executive Rick Smith said, “Even if facial recognition software was perfectly accurate, the ability to track people raises privacy concerns. “Do we want everybody who walks near a police officer to get their face identified and logged in a database?” he said.
Nevertheless, Todd Pastorini, general manager at biometric forensics (生物取证) company DataWorks Plus, said it’s the “extremely effective” method of running images through photos to help identify a suspect. “Society and the public are going to get frustrated, if governments refuse to adopt a technology that keeps improving”, he said. In his eyes, facial recognition hits are just one part of an investigation.
1.What is Orlando Ramos’ attitude towards facial recognition?
A.Hopeful. B.Cautious. C.Ambiguous. D.Tolerant.
2.What is one focus of the debates about facial recognition?
A.Gender discrimination. B.Speed limit.
C.Accuracy rate. D.Steadiness control.
3.What does Rick Smith think of facial recognition?
A.It appears to cause prejudice. B.It brings about privacy concerns.
C.Its technology is reliable. D.Its accuracy needs improving.
4.What can we learn from the passage?
A.Facial recognition tool meets with resistance.
B.All the people disapprove of facial recognition.
C.Facial recognition is the only tool of investigation.
D.Governments should ban facial recognition.
A star athlete at the college where I work recently stopped by my office. After committing a few unforced errors during a weekend match, she suffered severely by self-criticism.
This student, like many I teach, strongly believes she should be able to control the outcomes of her life by virtue of her hard work. In her mind, “Nothing can stop me but myself”. So when these students fall short of what they imagine they should accomplish, they are filled with self-blame, reasoning, “If my accomplishments are mine to control, my failures must be entirely my faults, too”, which makes it extremely difficult for them to move on.
We often owe young adults struggling with failure to their parents’ overprotection of them from discomfort. But there is another factor at play: a message transmitted by indulging (纵容的) parents who have falsely promised them that they can achieve anything if they are willing to work for it. However, the cruel reality of life is that you can do everything in your power — and still fail. Then what should be done to help?
Psychologists Luthar and Kumar urge parents and teachers to spend time helping students find purpose, or goals they genuinely love to pursue and that make an impact on the world, which may help them gain greater life satisfaction and become more psychologically mature. Besides, instead of allowing our kids to beat themselves up when things don’t go their way, we might all question a culture where one is considered lazy without full devotion. The point is to remind them that life has a way of sucker-punching (出其不意) us when we least expect it. It’s often the people who learn to say “stuff happens” who get up the fastest.
1.What does the underlined phrase “by virtue of” in paragraph 2 mean?
A.in addition to B.in spite of C.by means of D.for fear of
2.The author believes that young adults find it hard to struggle with failure because __________.
A.they are not taught how to deal with difficulties
B.they are short of the ability to handle failure
C.they are under the protection of their parents
D.they are misled by their parents’ false message
3.What did psychologists Luthar and Kumar urge parents and teachers to do?
A.To teach students how to avoid faults.
B.To lead students to set their truly loved goals.
C.To help students to discover a path to success.
D.To allow kids to blame themselves.
4.What can be inferred from the passage?
A.Students don’t care about failure at all.
B.Students are sure to succeed if they try their best.
C.Students should bear all the failures on their own.
D.Students with positive attitudes can move on more easily.
Following Christmas dinner, my family was relaxing around the table. We had all enjoyed traditional turkey and sweet potatoes lightly shining with brown sugar. The good cooking smells still filled the air; and the oven remained warm. My sister, our chef, was enjoying the admiration.
My nephew, never one to sit still for long, began dribbling (运球) his basketball around the table. Upon nearing Dad, he stopped — almost uncertainly. With shaking wrinkled hands, Dad had reached out for the ball. The boy, confused, looked up and over at us.
I watched my father closely to see what he would do. The twinkle in his eyes shone brighter than any Christmas lights. Holding the ball and reaching forward with a playful smile, Dad bounced it and then caught it.
This action was repeated. Gently throwing the ball away, Dad began a game of catch. The ball continued to be passed through eager pairs of outstretched hands. Cries of “Over here!” rang through the warm kitchen. Dad’s active participation was remarkable to me, for he had advanced Alzheimer’s disease, which had robbed him of many memories and the recognition ability. Despite this, Dad clearly recognized the ball and what you could do with it.
In my younger years, playing with Dad was rare. To his credit, Dad worked hard and provided for us. He was very private and never showed nor shared much emotion; his game of choice was chess, which he did eventually teach me how to play. As an adult, I had become a caregiver as Dad declined. Connecting moments between father and son had been few and far between before he took the basketball.
I’m not sure how long we played catch. What I do know is that our game ended all too soon, and it was time to face the reality of dirty dishes piled high on countertops. The moment, though, will certainly last forever.
1.What can we know about the family’s Christmas dinner?
A.Dishes were cleaned up. B.All food was sugar-free.
C.It was a sweet moment. D.It was disturbed by the game.
2.Why was Dad’s active participation in the game remarkable to me?
A.He rarely played basketball. B.He had severe Alzheimer’s disease.
C.He had astonishing skills. D.He played with family members.
3.How was Dad getting along with kids in earlier years?
A.He often accompanied kids. B.He was willing to share feelings.
C.He forced kids to learn chess. D.He seldom interacted with kids.
4.What can be the best title for the passage?
A.A game of catch B.A devoted father
C.A dinner of reunion D.A bond between father and son
“Museum of the World” Travel Plan
Here’s the travel plan for some of the more unusual museums on our “Museum of the World” tour. I’ll send you the full itinerary (行程) next week. The Museum of Bad Art (MOBA) (Boston, USA) shows what it describes as “art too bad to be ignored”. The museum hopes to bring the worst of art to the widest possible audience. As part of the visit, we’ll be shown some truly awful portraits, landscapes and sculptures.
The Devil’s Rope Museum (in Mclean, Texas) and The Kansas Barbed Wire Museum (in Lacrosse, Kansas) both claim to have the best barbed (有刺的) wire collections, telling the story of the wire’s role in the development of America. We’ll be visiting both of these.
The Washington Banana Museum (Auburn, Washington, USA) contains 4,000 objects related to the history of what the museum describes as “the world’s most perfect fruit.” During a guided tour around the museum, we’ll learn all sorts of interesting things, such as the fact that bananas were introduced to the USA in 1878 in the same exhibition as Alexander Graham Bell’s telephone, and that banana is now the US’s number-one selling fruit.
The Hair Museum (Avanos, Turkey) is located in a cave in Cappadocia, in Central Anatolia. It contains 16,000 samples of people’s hair. You’ll be offered a chance to add your own hair to the collection. Later in the year, the museum manager selects 10 donors to attend a pottery workshop.
The Hair Museum(Avanos, Turkey)is located in a cave in Cappadocia, in Central Anatolia. It contains 16,000 samples of people’s hair. You’ll be offered a chance to add your own hair to the collection. Later in the year, the museum curator selects 10 donors to attend a pottery workshop. If you’re one of them, you’ll be invited to stay in his guest house.
1.What do these four Museums have in common?
A.They are all located in the USA. B.They accept exhibits donated by visitors.
C.They exhibit the things with a long history. D.They show some odd things around the world.
2.What does The Museum of Bad Art (MOBA) show?
A.Complete collections of barbed wire.
B.A large number of samples of people’s hair.
C.Some really terrible but noticeable art works.
D.Some beautiful portraits drawn by famous people.
3.Why was Alexander Graham Bell’s telephone mentioned in paragraph 4?
A.To explain the origin of bananas.
B.To arouse visitors’ interest in the museum.
C.To emphasize the importance of the exhibition.
D.To compare the value of bananas and telephones.
