Once there was a little boy who enjoyed reading books, especially comic-strips (连环漫画). His uncle called him “Sparky", after a comic-strip horse named Spark Plug. But it was _______ for Sparky to feel happy at school because he failed every subject in the eighth grade. Though he did manage to enter the school's golf team and tried very hard, he still _______ the only important match of the season.
Throughout his youth, Sparky was shy and felt _______with strangers. It wasn’t that the other students disliked him. It’s just that no one really _______all that much. In fact, Sparky was _______ if a classmate said hello to him after class. Sparky was a loser. His classmates knew it, so he learned to _______ it.
But Sparky was fond of drawing. He was _______ of his artwork. No one else appreciated it. But that didn’t seem to _______ to him. In his high school, he sent some cartoons to the yearbook. The editors _______ his ideas. Despite that, Sparky was ________ of his ability. He even decided to become a(n) ________.
So, after completing high school, Sparky wrote to Walt Disney Studios. Despite ________preparation, it wasn’t accepted, which ________ that he was a loser again.
But Sparky still didn’t ________; he decided to tell his own life in cartoons. The main character was a little boy who always lost and failed. Because Sparky’s cartoon character went on to become a kind of cultural phenomenon, people ________ identified with(认同) this “lovable loser”. He ________ people of the painful and ________ moments to walk from their own past, of their pain and their shared humanity. The character soon became famous worldwide. And Sparky, the boy whose many ________ never kept him from trying, whose work was not accepted again and again, is the highly ________ cartoonist Charles Schultz. His cartoon strip Peanuts continues to ________ us, even the losers, to find a way in our life.
1.A.uncertain B.imperfect C.impossible D.unnecessary
2.A.attended B.lost C.watched D.covered
3.A.patient B.selfish C.innocent D.nervous
4.A.cared B.needed C.paid D.understood
5.A.motivated B.guilty C.astonished D.curious
6.A.live with B.learn about C.depend on D.find out
7.A.afraid B.proud C.tired D.confident
8.A.happen B.belong C.occur D.matter
9.A.accepted B.ignored C.rejected D.changed
10.A.sure B.aware C.ashamed D.tired
11.A.scientist B.artist C.editor D.headmaster
12.A.special B.busy C.hurried D.careful
13.A.seemed B.grew C.proved D.designed
14.A.give up B.turn up C.show off D.worry about
15.A.cautiously B.willingly C.suddenly D.hopelessly
16.A.warned B.promised C.informed D.reminded
17.A.exciting B.surprising C.embarrassing D.amusing
18.A.failures B.experiences C.sufferings D.chances
19.A.cheerful B.successful C.powerful D.thoughtful
20.A.please B.disturb C.satisfy D.inspire
A film festival is an event at which multiple (多种多样的) films are screened for participants. Typically, film festivals are accompanied by panels (陪审团) which may consist of directors, cast members, and other film personnel, and awards may be offered at the close of the festival to films of particularly high quality. Numerous regions of the world hold film festivals every year. 1..
The first official film festival appears to have taken place in Venice in 1932, when the medium of film was starting to explode in popularity. 2.. Many started focusing on specific categories within the field of film, such as Independent films, documentaries, animation (动画片), or gay and lesbian films. 3.. That explains why movies have advertisement copy (广告宣传文案) like "Screened at Sundance Film Festival"!
In many cases, a film festival includes multiple venues, allowing participants to pick from several films at once. 4. This information typically includes showing times and details about panels and discussions. Participants may pay a flat fee for admission. Or they may be asked to pay a fee for each screening.
5.. Depending on the festival, the festival may hold an open call for submissions, or filmmakers may be invited to participate. A panel reviews any proposed films, determining which will be shown. If the film festival offers awards, the panel may make award nominations (提名) at this time as well. Filmmakers may be required to pay a fee to submit their work.
A.So take advantage of this chance
B.Getting a film into a film festival is challenging
C.It is also a unique opportunity to meet famous people
D.After the Venice Festival, numerous other cities took up the trend
E.Depending on the festival, just getting a screening can be an honor
F.They range from the famous Berlin Film Festival to smaller regional events
G.Typically, the films to be shown are included in a catalogue having information about them
You know that thrill you get when listening to your favorite music or that exciting feeling down your spine (脊柱) when you hear your favorite melody or rhythm? According to a recent study, it seems the same thing can happen while you are reading, but not with every kind of text. This opens up fascinating questions around how music, reading and emotions are connected in the brain.
“We decided we would do a comparison between four or five different kinds of texts to see how the brain responded,” explains Professor Adam Zeman, a neurologist. “The participants lay in an MRI scanner reading the texts, and then we compared brain activity for those five texts.” The texts ranged from deadly boring ones to highly exciting ones, including the Highway Code, passages from novels and poems.
As the researchers observed, participants found some texts more emotional than others. When they read these emotional texts, there was higher activity in brain areas associated with pleasure and reward — the same areas related to the thrill we get when we listen to music. As Zeman says, “It was a nice proof that the emotional response to literature and to music has quite a bit in common.”
When the participants were reading poems, the team found there was more activity in a particular group of brain areas called the Default Network. "These areas seem to be associated with things we do with our minds when we are resting, like thinking about what's happened to us recently, thinking about what’s going to happen in the near future, about other people, and that network seems to be more strongly associated with poetry than with prose” explains Zeman. The study shows that the different texts activate different areas of our brains when we read.
1.What can we know from the study?
A.People may feel excited when reading poems. B.People aren’t thrilled when listening to music.
C.Music gives participants more pleasure than text. D.Deadly boring texts never excite the brain.
2.What is the purpose of the comparison between different kinds of texts?
A.To thrill the participants. B.To scan the participants’ brain.
C.To check the response of human's brain. D.To teach the participants novels and poems.
3.What happened in the participants’ brains when they were reading?
A.Their brains preferred music.
B.Brain areas related to pleasure became more active.
C.Their emotional response to literature stopped.
D.Their brains were less emotional when reading the emotional text.
4.Where is the text probably from?
A.A science magazine. B.A film review.
C.An advertisement. D.A science fiction.
United States health officials say an estimated 80,000 people died of influenza (流感) and problems resulting from the flu last winter, making it the worst season since 1977. The director for the U.S.Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported the number to The Associated Press. Health experts were expecting the winter of 2017-2018 to be a bad year for flu deaths, but not that.
Doctor William Schaffner is an expert on vaccines, at Vanderbilt University in Tennessee. Schaffner noted that 80,000 deaths are nearly twice as much as what health officials once considered a “bad year”.
CDC officials say that between 12,000 and 56,000 Americans die every year from flu-related causes, but they do not have an exact count of how many people die from the flu each year. Influenza is a relatively common disease and not always listed on death records as the official cause of death. While last winter was a bad flu season in the U.S., it was not the worst. The 1918 flu lasted nearly two years. Historians estimate that the disease was to blame for between 500,000 to 700,000 deaths during that period. The exact number is still not known.
One thing that made the 2017-2018 flu season so bad was that the flu virus was strong. Usually the disease kills the very young, the very old or those who are already sick. However, last winter, the flu killed many healthy Americans. Another thing that made the flu season so deadly was that the flu vaccine was not as effective as experts had predicted. Drug makers have made changes to the vaccine. Even though the vaccine did not work well last year, health experts still strongly suggest getting vaccinated.
1.What can we learn about influenza in the first paragraph?
A.The winter of 2017-2018 saw the deadliest flu in history.
B.Effective cures should be found to deal with influenza.
C.Health experts had assumed flu would be severer.
D.More people died of influenza than expected in the winter of 2017-2018.
2.How many deaths did the health officials expect in a bad year?
A.80,000. B.40,000.
C.60,000. D.20,000.
3.Why can't CDC officials give an exact number of deaths from flu?
A.Because flu is always considered as a common disease.
B.Because people usually don't take flu seriously.
C.Because CDC officials are unwilling to count the deaths.
D.Because flu is not always listed on death records.
4.What do experts recommend people to do in the last paragraph?
A.Change the vaccine. B.Avoid using vaccine.
C.Get vaccinated. D.Do research on vaccine.
In my second year of high school, I took my first computer science course, which helped me realize I was interested in software. The idea of creating something from just lines of codes and logic was very fascinating. And I didn't put as much time into music as I used to, thinking practicing the piano was just a waste of time.
A year later, when I got back on the piano, I quickly noticed my musical ear was not as strong as it was before. I could no longer hear the difference between a perfect 4th and a perfect 5th or between a D and D flat. Then I had a firm decision to get my skills to where it used to be. After weeks of practicing, I didn't see much progress. I was extremely discouraged and felt that I would have to accept that I no longer will be able to play as well as I used to.
While watching hundreds of tutorials online on how to code in Swift I came up with an idea. What if I used the knowledge I gained from these tutorials to develop an app that would help train my musical ear. After hours of coding, I developed an app that would play a different series of notes, then the user would have to type in the corresponding notes to what they heard. When I was on the subway or had some extra time I could easily open up the app on my phone and use it to help my musical ear. In about 2 months, I regained the skills I lost.
This experience helped me see something that I never noticed before. Programming gives me a platform to express my ideas; in a similar way, playing the piano gives me a way to express my feelings. When playing through a song for the first time I hear many errors. Similarly, when I run my program for the first time there are usually many mistakes. In both of these cases, it takes patience to go through each measure or line to hear or find the error. I realized when I’m playing the piano I am also practicing my programming skills and vice versa.
1.What happened to the author a year ago?
A.He realized his strength. B.He invented lines of codes.
C.He developed another hobby. D.He was too busy to practice piano.
2.Which of the following can best describe the author?
A.Determined and creative. B.Hard-working and gifted.
C.Easy-going and generous. D.Independent and energetic.
3.What can we infer about the author from the third paragraph?
A.He received musical training online.
B.He improved himself by studying online.
C.He got inspired from the tutorials online.
D.He made good use of the app he downloaded online.
4.What can the author learn from the experience?
A.He came to realize it is important to develop some good qualities.
B.He understood the meaning of the saying “practice makes perfect”.
C.He found programming and playing the piano have something in common.
D.He felt it necessary to improve himself in programming and playing the piano.
Dentzel Carousel
Our historic, restored 1921 Dentzel Carousel is located near the Fisher Family Children’s Zoo. This unique merry-go-round delights kids of all ages as they choose to ride a horse, a cat, a rabbit, or even a giraffe without considering the weather condition.
Tickets are $ 4 per person.
Adults may ride free when standing by a paid child.
Elinor Friend Playground
The newly repaired Elinor Friend Playground lights the imagination of children who is not beyond 12. This unique space is modeled after three distinct bio-regions, which take their themes from specific ecosystems and appeal to distinct age groups: a River Play Area for toddlers (6 months—2 years), a Polar Zone exploration space for pre-schoolers (2—5 years), and a Banyan Tree climbing structure for pre-teens (5—12 years).
Tickets are $ 7 per person (Free with zoo admission).
Adults pay zoo admission.
Little Puffer Miniature Steam Train
Add a ride on the historic Little Puffer miniature steam train to your visit to the San Francisco Zoo. Like generations before you, you’ll make wonderful childhood memories for your kids. Little Putter does not run in wet weather due to slippery tracks, and is closed at a regular time period for repair. Call the Zoo before your visit.
Tickets are $ 7 per person.
Children under 3 may ride free (ticket required) when accompanied by a paid adult.
(A special passenger car on the Little Puffer miniature steam train is designed to hold a wheelchair)
Zoo Keys
The ever-popular storybooks have returned to the Zoo, activated by the beloved, plastic animal keys that have become nostalgic icons to visitors from years past. At Storybook sites around the Zoo, visitors can listen to recordings of stories in different languages and fun facts about the animals in all kinds of weather conditions. You can purchase your Zoo Key at the Admissions Gate or in the Membership Office or online.
Zoo Keys are $ 5 each.
Children under 1 may ride free when accompanied by a paid adult.
1.What is special about Dentzel Carousel?
A.It has a long history. B.It has models of animals
C.It is for children of all ages. D.It has the cheapest charge.
2.What is the suggested age range of Elinor Friend Playground?
A.6 months - 2 years. B.6 months - 12 years.
C.2-5 years. D.5-12 years.
3.Which program favors the disabled?
A.Dentzel Carousel. B.Elinor Friend Playground.
C.Little Puffer Miniature Steam Train. D.Zoo Keys.
