Hot dogs, peanuts, an orderly green field: Sal Miyake loves everything about her first baseball game– a love shared by author Scott Simon as a kid at Wrigley Field in Chicago, Illinois.
Sal is the main character in Simon’s first kids novel, Sunnyside Plaza. To create her world, Simon made use of his job at a halfway house when he was 19 years old. He cared for adults with mental disabilities. Working the evening shift, he made sure they brushed their teeth and took their medicine before bedtime.
“All my life I’ve wanted to write about that experience,” said Simon, a journalist who hosts Weekend Edition Saturday for a radio station. He said the job changed his life.
Like Simon’s long-ago clients, Sal lives in a home for adults with mental challenges. It’s called Sunnyside Plaza. Sal is kind and hard-working, and she helps the cook in the kitchen every day. She is also very observant. Sal may not be able to read, but she notices details that others often miss. When some of her Sunnyside friends begin to die, Sal tries to figure out why. Because of her disability, people don’t always take her seriously, but others help, sometimes in surprising ways.
At the halfway house, “I enjoyed getting to know people who at first sight seemed a world away from me,” said Simon. “Then I realized how much we had in common. We talked and joked. I liked spending time with them.” One of Simon’s favorite memories: taking 12 of the residents to a Chicago Cubs baseball game, where their amazement mirrors Sal’s in the book.
Simon based Sal on several people he knew, and he did additional research to make sure her voice and viewpoint are believable. “I wanted to get all this right,” said Simon. “The books you read when you’re young really stay with you.” For him, this meant the classics his mother guided him to, including his favorites Black Beauty by Anna Sewell and A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens.
1.What do we know about Sal Miyake from the text?
A.She resembles Simon in personality.
B.She is an imaginary person in a fiction.
C.She loves playing baseball with Simon.
D.She works in Sunnyside Plaza as Simon did.
2.What does Simon think of his job at the halfway house?
A.A means of earning his living.
B.A chance to make foreign friends.
C.A platform to improve his baseball skills.
D.An experience influencing his life greatly.
3.What can be learned about the novel Sunnyside Plaza?
A.It reflects Simon’s working experience.
B.Its main character was based on Simon.
C.It was written in memory of Simon’s mother.
D.It has encouraged thousands of disabled men.
4.Which can be a suitable title for the text?
A.Classics Reading Makes a Great Writer
B.Working Experiences Change Your View
C.Life-changing Job Inspires First Kids Novel
D.Helping the Disabled Brings You Happiness
Which country can you travel to in 2020 that will allow you to go for longer, enjoy a higher standard, and save more money? The following destinations offer accommodation, transportation, and food for less.
Kyrgyzstan, $25/day
Kyrgyzstan is the choice for most travelers interested in trying out Central Asia, and most well-suited to travelers of all budgets. Food is cheap, so is getting around using the minibuses. You can find hostels and local home stays for less than $10. Meals cost $4 – $8 per day.
Romania, $33/day
If you are planning a European trip that’s affordable and a little bit off the beaten path, Romania is perfect for you. Unlike other popular places, many charming towns here remain unknown to most foreigners. You can also take free walking tours in the numerous historical sites. Hostels run $10 – $15 per night, food is hearty and delicious, and the public transportation is reliable and affordable. Meals cost $10 – $15 per day.
Arizona & Utah, $55/day
For an American Southwest road trip, you’ll spend an average of $110/day when you are solo. If you have just one other person, you’d be able to split the costs almost perfectly in half. If you have two other people along, take it down to one third and so on. The more the merrier.
South Africa, $40/day
Any hostels in South Africa are in beautiful settings and each has a unique personality, and affordable too. Food can get expensive. To save money, cook your own food. Grocery stores are plentiful and have reasonable prices. By at least cooking your own breakfast, you can save a lot of money. The best (and possibly cheapest) way to get around the country is to rent a car and share with 3 other people. Meals cost $12 – $15 per day.
1.What makes Romania different from the other places?
A.Nice hostels.
B.Delicious food.
C.Less-visited towns.
D.Cheap transportation.
2.What may the author recommend for travelling in South Africa?
A.Drive your own cars.
B.Cook your own lunches.
C.Stay in excellent hotels.
D.Find unique travel partners.
3.What feature do the four destinations share?
A.They’re famous for historical places.
B.They’re the best places for travelling.
C.They have convenient public transportation.
D.They’re good travel choices for saving money.
假设你是红星中学高三学生李华。请根据以下四幅图的先后顺序，给学校英文报投稿，记述学校法制宣传周期间的系列活动。
注意：1. 词数不少于60
2. 开头已给出，不计入总词数。
提示词：模拟法庭 moot court
Legal Awareness Week was opened in our school. A series of activities were carried out.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
假设你是红星中学高三学生李华。你的英国好友Jim在给你的邮件中提到新冠病毒爆发给他带来了焦虑，并询问你在疫情期间的生活。请给他回邮件，内容包括：
1．安慰与鼓励；
2．疫情期间你的生活与学习情况；
3. 疫情给你带来的思考。
注意：1．词数不少于50；
2．开头和结尾已给出，不计入总词数。
提示词：新冠病毒 novel coronavirus；
Dear Jim,
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Yours,
Li Hua
As the higher education sector faces mounting pressures to provide value for money, it’s now often assumed that universities will provide its students with much more than just a degree. Most prospectuses(宣传册)introduction present institutions as being the “leaders” in academic research, student satisfaction, graduate employability and contact hours. 1.
Visiting a university “in the flesh” on the open day is the only way you can truly get a feel for the place, and ensures you won’t get any unpleasant surprises when you start your course. 2. Remember that there is no such thing as the best university – only the best fit for you.
Before your visit, conduct some online research and decide on a few universities you’d like to visit. Plan your day, booking any relevant sessions, and noting down any talks you would like to attend. Prepare a list of questions about all the aspects of university life.
During your visit, you need to make plenty of notes!3. You’ll start to forget important things unless you put them down. Note which accommodation you like as well as how much it costs and where it is located. Bear in mind that you might not get your first choice of accommodation, so have a few others in mind as a back-up.
4.Go along to application sessions and you can get the answers there. You could even show the admissions tutor a draft of your personal statement and ask for some direct feedback. Ask the experts -not only the admissions team and course tutors, but also the current students. While it might be tempting to let mum and dad take over, it’s you who will be going to university, not them, so don’t be afraid to speak up!
Write down what you like about the university and compare it to others. Remember to make sure you prioritise your course over the university.5. If you don’t enjoy your course, then chances are you will fail to maximise your potential. It’s your choice, so make the best of it!
A.Avoid being misled by claims and statistics.
B.It doesn’t matter how famous the university is.
C.It is important to find out the selection criteria.
D.With so many choices, how can you make an informed decision?
E.Faced with all the information, what you need to do is to get the most out of it.
F.The conversations and experiences you’ve had will mix together after a few visits.
G.Determine your own criteria –especially if you’re unsure about which subjects to study.
Picture this: It’s 2003 and your family has just finished arguing over which Netflix movies to rent that week. Movies come in the mail and the family watch them throughout the week before sending them back and ordering new ones. Then, fast forward to 2008, and you have started to watch TV shows on Netflix’s new platform.
Now, let’s come to the present. You sit down and open up Netflix on your TV and scroll for a while. Then you flip over to Hulu to see if they have anything more interesting to offer. Then you check HBO GO. Finally, you check Disney+. Then you realize that you’re paying for four different streaming services, maybe more.
Let’s return to Netflix. More generally, streaming. There are over 100 video streaming services available, as well as quite a few music streaming, including Apple Music, YouTube Music, Google Play, and etc. The streaming world, at least to some, is on its way to getting out of control, with each service requiring its own monthly subscription. And that is just entertainment subscriptions. We haven’t even taken into account subscriptions like Microsoft Office, magazine subscriptions, and email newsletters. Subscriptions started out as a service of convenience, but now, the oversaturation may have become burdensome. The services believe customers will pay more to get the content they want. However, statistics show a growing frustration(失望) among consumers. With so many options, they find it harder than ever to make a decision on what to pick.
Not only does the oversaturation of streaming result in confusing navigation, it also creates a financial burden for the consumers. Let’s say if you want to watch Stranger Things , The Handmaid’s Tale , and Game of Thrones , which belong to three different services, you would have to pay nearly $50 a month to access all three of those services, meaning it’s not cheaper, and potentially more expensive, than cable.
People cut their cords and went the streaming route because it was simpler and cheaper. Now, it’s just as inconvenient and difficult as cable was, if not more so, and unless you’re limiting yourself to one service, it’s not cheaper. Streaming will survive because we’re in a Golden Age of Media and because each service is able to create high-quality originals. But Golden Ages don’t last, and bubbles tend to burst. Until the inevitable(不可避免的) day when some product or service proves streaming out of date, we must suffer the choices in front of us. The next time you are scrolling through Netflix, Hulu, or whatever, and the overchoice is killing you, maybe you should just go pick up a book instead.
1.What is mainly talked about in the first two paragraphs?
A.Social progress has promoted the quality of life in the past decade.
B.Changes in home entertainment have brought us more options.
C.Technology innovation results in different ways of relaxation.
D.Netflix has been developing its service patterns.
2.What does the underlined word “oversaturation” in Paragraph 3 probably refer to?
A.The large number of subscriptions.
B.The frustration caused by poor service.
C.The rapidly developing entertainment market.
D.The confusing navigation resulting from streaming.
3.According to the passage, streaming services may____.
A.enhance user satisfaction
B.increase energy consumption
C.raise entertainment costs
D.realize the resource sharing
4.The author would probably agree that ___.
A.the streaming service will have a bright future
B.reading has an advantage over streaming service
C.there will be some better service to replace streaming
D.nothing can end streaming services as long as media exists
