“Don’t answer it,” I said to Sam. Our door in the inner city is constantly knocked on; our previous door in the suburbs rarely so. Sam has a full-time job and cannot spend his days answering requests to fix leaking baths or carry cash to the bank.
Sam opened the door and it was Mervin.
“There’s a bird on the second floor,” he said. “It’s in trouble.”
Sam followed Mervin upstairs. Mervin pointed and turned to let Sam look. It was a pigeon, the most common of all birds, the bird most likely to foul (弄脏) your newly washed car. And
it wasn’t flying away. It was stamping in circles. As Sam bent to look, Mervin coughed, “Number two.”
Sam asked him to repeat that. “Number two,” Mervin said. "The pigeon has been sitting in his own number two, and now it’s stuck to his foot.”
It had rained for five days, and the bird was young. It could have been sheltering in a wet nest of its own waste, which had then dried on its foot, preventing it from flying away. The pigeon moved in a few more circles. Sam bent to take another look. Mervin said, “All right, then.” and walked away.
“Why does everyone think you must solve the problems around here?” I said to Sam when he returned with his story. “It’s a bird. Just leave it on the stairs, and let nature take its course.” Sam didn’t agree. Then he went to the garage and emptied the cardboard box containing our imported camping mats. He returned with the gray pigeon in the box. He showed the bird to our children and they decided to keep it.
They put its foot in the warm water bath and got rid of its waste. Immediately the pigeon erupted in a bomb of feathers and began flying.
1.How did the author feel about the knocks?
A.She felt bored. B.She was frightened.
C.She got excited. D.She was surprised.
2.Why was the pigeon moving in circles?
A.It was learning to fly.
B.It was badly injured.
C.It got caught in the rain.
D.It was trapped by its waste.
3.What did Sam use the cardboard box to do?
A.Shelter from rain.
B.Give it to Mervin.
C.Wash camping mats.
D.Make a nest for the bird.
4.What can we learn about Sam from the text?
A.He was brave. B.He was clever.
C.He was warm-hearted. D.He was easy-going.
Our Teen Summer Spanish Program is two weeks of fun, educational excitement that helps students learn Spanish fast. Our Spanish summer program allows our students to learn from highly trained, certified teachers and be absorbed in the language and the culture of Costa Rica.
Features include:
* Intensive(强化的) daily Spanish classes
* Extracurricular classes in dance, cooking, music, and handiwork
* Outdoor activities including hiking, camping, rafting, and ziplining(高空滑索)
* Homestay with a local Costa Rican family
* Volunteer work in needy neighborhoods
Our Teaching Methods:
We are proud to use TPRS---Total Physical Response Storytelling---in our curriculum. This innovative method uses strange and amusing stories to teach new vocabulary, increase fluency, and get students involved by giving them the opportunity to alter the details themselves. Because of the silliness, creativity, and repetition involved, TPRS allows students to learn easily and remember information effortlessly
Memorizing vocabulary and listening to lectures on grammar are slow, inefficient ways to learn a new language. The best way to truly learn and commit new material to memory is through conversation. In our Spanish classes, students can expect to speak up to 80% of each class. By speaking in the new language freely and consistently, students can see progress faster because they are using the new grammar and vocabulary that they have learned at the same time. This helps the brain remember the new words and grammar structures for future use, making it much easier to progress.
1.What does the program do?
A.It offers weekly Spanish classes
B.It focuses more on outdoor activities
C.It gives teachers a chance to receive training
D.It provides activities about the Spanish culture
2.What is the best way to learn a language according to the text?
A.Memorizing a larger vocabulary
B.Speaking more in the new language.
C.Mastering more grammar structures
D.Writing stories to share with others
3.What is the purpose of the text?
A.To employ experienced Spanish teacher
B.To hire foreign volunteers for a program
C.To attract teen foreigners to a program
D.To introduce language learning methods
阅读下面材料，根据其内容和所给段落开头语续写两段内容，使之构成一篇完整的短文。续写的词数为150左右。
Bales left the pavement of Base Road and stepped onto snow-covered Jewell Trail. She planned a six-hour hike through New Hampshire’s Mount Washington State Park. She had packed for almost every emergency and intended to walk alone.
She’d checked the weather forecast posted by the Mount Washington Observatory before she left. Based on her experience, Bales knew that her hike was realistic. Besides, she had two emergency plans and extra layers of clothing to better adjust her body temperature as conditions changed.
The hike up the lower part of Jewell Trail was pleasant. Bales felt excited as she walked up into snowy paths. The sun shone through the trees and cast a shadow over her smiling face. Less than an hour later, loads of dark clouds had replaced the sunshine, and snow covered the surrounding trees.
She still smiled. However, the weather was showing its teeth. Bales added even more layers to shelter herself from the cold winds and thick fog. She made her way across the snow-covered ridge (山脊toward Mount Washington and began to think about calling it a day. Suddenly, she noticed something: a single set of footprints in the snow ahead of her, which had been made by a pair of sneakers-typically not the type for hiking.
Meanwhile, Bales was getting colder, even though she was moving fast and generating some body heat. With strong gusts of wind screaming and attacking her back and left side, she decided to abandon her plan. The only thing, however, kept her on the trail was the sneaker tracks in the snow.
Paragraph 1:
Bales faced a dilemma about whether to follow the tracks or not.
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Paragraph 2:
Her searching now turned into rescuing the man.
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
假定你是李华，暑期在英国旅游时得到当地导游Mr. Smith的悉心照顾,回国后给他写一封邮件表达谢意。
主要内容：1.回忆旅行中美好时光; 2.遇到的困难和帮助；3.邀请他来中国旅游。
注意：1）词数100 左右（开头已给，不计入总词数）；
2）可适当增加细节，以使行文连贯。
Dear Smith,
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Yours,
Li Hua
Two Candles
Tom was a middle-aged leather trader whose repeated failure in career made him a depressed man, often _______ that he had been cheated by others. One day he told his wife he was so _______ with the city that he had to leave.
So his family moved to another city. It was the evening of a weekend. When Tom and his wife were busily _______ up their new home, the light suddenly went out. They had to stop work. Tom was regretful to have forgotten to bring along candles and had to wait _______ in a low mood. Just then he heard slight knocks on his door that sounded clear in the _______ night.
“Who’s it?” he wondered, since Tom was a _______ to this city. And this was the moment he especially hated to be disturbed, so he went to the door and opened it _______. At the door was a little girl, shyly asking, “Sir, do you have candles? I’m your neighbor.” “No,” answered Tom in anger and shut the door _______ “What a nuisance (讨厌鬼)!” he complained over it with his wife. “No sooner had we settled down than the neighbor came to _______ things.”
After a while, the door was knocked again. He opened it and found the same girl outside. ________this time she was ________ two candles, saying, “My grandma told me the new neighbor downstairs might need candles. She sent me here to give you these.” Tom was very ________ by what he saw. When he became fully aware, he said, “Thank you and your grandmother. God bless you!”
At that moment he suddenly realized what caused his ________ in life. It was his ________ and harshness (刻薄) with other people. The person who had cheated him in life was actually nobody else but himself, for his life had been darkened by his unsympathetic ________.
1.A.hoping B.telling C.complaining D.pretending
2.A.inspired B.disappointed C.embarrassed D.impressed
3.A.building B.turning C.coming D.tidying
4.A.anxiously B.doubtfully C.hopefully D.helplessly
5.A.dark B.quiet C.cold D.sleepless
6.A.newcomer B.traveler C.guest D.settler
7.A.surprisedly B.delightedly C.impatiently D.willingly
8.A.gently B.kindly C.politely D.violently
9.A.lend B.sell C.fetch D.borrow
10.A.And B.So C.But D.For
11.A.holding B.hiding C.blowing D.lighting
12.A.frightened B.pleased C.puzzled D.surprised
13.A.failure B.dissatisfaction C.complaint D.determination
14.A.responsibility B.apology C.coldness D.concept
15.A.mind B.opinion C.behavior D.look
Is it necessary to learn when we are 50s, 60s or even 70s?Most people consider when they get retired, they are supposed to be completely laidback, do something fun, or hang around.1. It’s particularly important to the elderly.
Through learning, we know how to think, how to memorize, how to ask questions and even how to interact with others. According to a study, while we are learning, “the brain creates neural(神经)pathways” that make us smarter. 2. The more we learn, the mote new neural pathways develop in our brains.
When it comes to learning, it doesn’t mean we must load ourselves with lots of knowledge. What we need to do is just learn something we like day in and day out. 3. Everyone learns from bottom to up. If we have an interest to learn, that desire will naturally push us to move forward.
As we feel worn out from learning, don’t be discouraged.4. An old saying goes, “Birds of a feather fly together.” As long as we have partners to learn all together, our learning excitement will come alive again. On the contrary, if we don’t learn, and choose to distance ourselves from other, we might be getting dumb, and slow; eventually, we lose energy, and life passion. Instead of being bored, dumb, why don’t we keep learning?
5. More importantly, learning explores our life horizon, helps us build up our confidence; gradually, it leads us to a way of finding a sense of value and ach.
A.It’s never too old to learn.
B.Don’t worry if we cannot learn well.
C.You should set a high learning target.
D.Learning makes us understand how potential we are.
E.Look for a partner who has the same common interest as you do.
F.In other words, our brains are active as we learn something new.
G.However, the truth is that learning makes us energetic, and self-fulfilled.
