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My first impression of Miss Vicki was a highly authoritative(权威的) person towering over me. She spoke in a loud voice and the earth shook whenever she marched. That was in the first year of high school. She was a knowledgeable literature teacher then. However, during my first year in school, she struck terror into my heart. And everyone else’s of course. Just the mention of her name made the most annoying classes silent.
However, the two years of junior high passed by rather quickly. Soon I went to senior high class. I had worked hard and got the subject combination that I wished for. Together with a group of old friends, I soon settled down in class comfortably.
To everyone’s surprise, she was fortunate enough to be my teacher that year. I was shocked when I heard the news. This time round, however, I decided not to hide in terror whenever she was near. I decided to face the fact. Instead of trying too hard to lick her boots , I tried my best to be my natural myself in front of her.
Still, I could not shake off the ice-cold impression that she put in my heart. True, her jokes sometimes sent me into fits of laughter, yet at other times these jokes simply fell flat the moment she told them . My lovely class, however, was always ready to laugh at the right time of her amusing stories. After all, we would not want to run the risk of making her angry.
Unluckily, life was not to remain boring. One day we received news that Miss Vicki was to leave Singapore for the Philippines where she would take part in a voluntary teaching program for the poor. We did not know what to say actually. All of us cried at the airport.
1. During the first year in school, the author thought Miss Vicki was __________.
A. proud but patient
B. beautiful but strict
C. scholarly but serious
D. humorous but single-minded
2. What does the underlined phrase “lick her boots” in paragraph 3 mean?
A. Win her favor B. Upset her
C. Shock her D. Follow her closely
3.What can we learn from paragraph 4?
A. Miss Vicki was a good joke teller.
B. Miss Vicki’s jokes were always boring.
C. Students liked Miss Vicki’s class very much.
D. Students pretended to laugh to please Vicki.
4.What can we infer about Miss Vicki from the last paragraph?
A. She was dismissed from the school.
B. She was not accepted by the students.
C. She was unwilling to leave her students.
D. She had a strong sense of social responsibility.
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Mark felt that it was time for him to take part in his community, so he went to the neighborhood meeting after work. The area’s city councilwoman (女议员) was leading a discussion about how the quality of life was decreasing. The neighborhood faced many problems.
Mark looked at the chart taped to the walls. There are charts for parking problems, crime, and for problems in vacant buildings. People were supposed to suggest solutions to the councilwoman.
It was too much for Mark. “ The problems are too big. ” he thought. He turned to the man next to him and said ,“ I think this is a waste of my time. Nothing I could do would make a difference here.”
Mark thought some more on his way to the bus stop. “ People should just take care of themselves.” He decided. “That’s enough to do. I can’t take on all the problems of the world.”
As he neared the bus stop, Mark saw a woman carrying a grocery bag and a baby. She was trying to unlock her car, but she didn’t have a free hand. As Mark got closer, her other child, a little boy, suddenly darted into the street. The woman tried to reach for him, but as she moved , her bag shifted and the groceries started to fall out. Mark ran to take the boy’s arm and led him back to his mother. Then he picked up the groceries while the woman smiled in relief. “ Thanks!” she said. “You have got great timing!”
“ Just being neighborly,” Mark said. As he rode home, he had a quick look at the walls of the bus. On one of them was “Small acts of kindness add up.” Mark smiled and thought, “ Maybe that’s a good place to start.”
1.The underlined word “darted” in paragraph 5 can be replaced by ________.
A. walked B. marched
C. climbed D. rushed
2. Which phrases can’t describe the woman in the passage?
A. at a loss B. at a panic
C. helpless D. scared to death
3.What does “ Maybe that’s a good place to start ” suggest?
A. If you are kind you will be treated in the same way.
B. All small acts will add up to kindness.
C. Everyone can play his part to make things better.
D. It’s a small act to help a person in need.
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Like many new graduates, I left university full of hope but with no real idea of what I wanted to do. My degree, with honors, in English literature had not really prepared me for anything practical. I knew I wanted to make a difference in the world somehow, but I had no idea how to do that. That’s when I learned about the Lighthouse project.
I started my journey as a Lighthouse Project volunteer by reading as much as I could about the experiences of previous volunteers. I knew it would be a lot of hard work, and that I would be away from my family and friends for a very long time. In short, I did not take my decision to apply for the Lighthouse Project lightly, neither did my family.
Finally, however, I won the support of my family, and I sent in all the paperwork needed for the application (申请). After countless interviews and presentations, I managed to stand out among the candidates and survive the test alone. Several months later, I received a call asking me to report for duty. I would be going to a small village near Abuja, Nigeria.
After completing my training, I was sent to the village that was small and greatly in need of proper accommodation. Though the local villagers were poor, they offered their homes and food as if I were their own family. I was asked to lead a small team of local people in building a new schoolhouse. For the next year or so, I taught in it. But I sometimes think I learned more from my students than they did from me.
Sometimes during that period, I realized that all those things that had seemed so strange or unusual to me no longer did, though I did not get anywhere with the local language, and I returned to the USA a different man. The Lighthouse Project had changed my life forever.
1.What do we know about the author?
A. His dream at university was to become a volunteer.
B. He took pride in making contributions to the world.
C. His university education focused on the theoretical knowledge.
D. He had dreamed about being a volunteer since he was in college.
2.According to paragraph 2, it is most likely that the author __________.
A. felt happy to leave his family and friends.
B. discussed his decision with his family.
C. asked previous volunteers about voluntary work.
D. attended special training to finish difficult tasks.
3.The underlined word “accommodation” in paragraph 4 means ________________.
A. drinking water.
B. English teachers.
C. living places and food
D. teaching buildings.
4.What can we infer from the author’s experiences In Nigeria?
A. He was chosen as the best teacher by his students.
B. He found some difficulty getting used to the local culture.
C. He had learned to communicate in the local language.
D. He had overcome all his weakness before he left for home.
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Sleep is just as important as diet and exercise, and not getting enough sleep can lead to obesity, heart trouble and other health problems. Now scientists are adding more wake-up call to that list: lack of sleep damages the brain.
People who regularly have trouble falling asleep and staying asleep (one study drew the line at 6.8 hours ) show changes in brain-----actual shrinking(缩小)，in some cases--- in area important for memory and problem solving.
“We’ve always believed that we can take the weekend to catch up and be fine,” says Sigrid Veasey, a researcher in University of Pennsylvania, but that may not be the case. When she stopped mice from sleeping for 3 days, they lost 25% to 30% of the neurons (神经元) important for focused attention---- and these remaining were damaged. What’s more, these brain cells never grew again.
Clearly, something important is happening while we sleep, but exactly what sleep does for the brain has been a mystery. That’s why scientists got excited when researchers at the university of Rochester Medical Center recently offered a new theory. While observing the brains of sleeping mice, they discovered a kind of brain-cleaning system that clears away neural waste, the buildup of which is connected with Alzheimer’s.
In another study, young healthy people whose sleep was limited to 7 hours per night for one week showed damaged brain function. Scarier is that with long-lasting short sleep, you may feel fully rested. When study subjects were limited to 4 hours of sleep for 5 days, they reported feeling very tired following the first night but they didn’t get any sleepier after that.
What’s more, a 15,000 –person study found that getting an average of less than 5 hours of sleep per night for several years resulted in a decrease in memory performance equal to the brain aging 2 years.
Have we persuaded you to turn in early tonight ? Excellent.
1.The text is mainly about _________.
A. how lack of sleep damages our brain.
B. why we feel rested without enough sleep.
C. how much sleep we should get every day.
D. Why we have trouble falling asleep sometimes.
2.Sigrid Veasey’s research shows that ________
A. lack of sleep doesn’t affect our attention.
B. damaged brain cells can not recover.
C. sleeping on weekends can make up for lost sleep.
D. most neurons will die if we sleep poorly for 3 days.
3.According to paragraph 5, after several days of short sleep people may feel _________.
A. tired B. sleepy
C. energetic D. angry
4.According to the 15,000-person study, lack of sleep may cause ___________.
A. heart trouble B. obesity
C. death D. memory loss
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