In no particular order, here are some songs on the Music app of my phone:
On a Sunday Afternoon by Lighter Shade of Brown--- A student of mine introduced this rap song to me all the way back in the early 1990s, when I was teaching Spanish at a local university. The story in the song takes place not too far from where I live in Los Angeles. It’s a good “driving” song, nothing difficult or “deep”.
Say Something by A Great Big World---A more recent song about a couple losing contact with each other. The piano part is of very little playing but beautiful.
The Weight by The Band — Another old song, originally made public in 1968, but one I didn’t hear until I was in high school more than 10 years later. I don’t understand the words to the song completely, but the feeling of the song is very comforting to me.
Under the Bridge by Red Hot Chili Peppers — This Los Angeles group wrote a song that I used to listen to when I first moved to LA more than 25 years ago. I didn’t know anyone here when I first arrived. When I got bored, I used to drive up and down the major streets that cross the city from east to west, listening to this song about t4the city of angels” being as “lonely as I am” (Don’t worry. I have plenty of friends now.)
1.What does the underlined word “deep” probably mean?
A. with skill B. with comfort
C. with an important meaning D. with a normal meaning
2.When did the author probably hear the Weight by The Band?
A. In 1968. B. In 1970.
C. In the 1980s. D. In the 1990s.
3.When the author first moved to LA, the song he liked was .
A. On a Sunday Afternoon B. Say Something
C. The Weight D. Under the Bridge
难度: 中等查看答案及解析
A five-year-old dog named Kelsey has been praised as a hero for helping to save the life of her owner who slipped in the snow and broke his neck.
The man, Bob, was alone when he left his Michigan farmhouse on New Year’s Eve to collect firewood. Expecting a journey of only several meters, Bob was wearing just long johns (秋裤), a shirt and slippers when he went outside, although the temperature was around -4°C.
After the accident, he was unable to move in the snow. Fortunately, Kelsey came to his assistance.
“I was shouting for help, but my nearest neighbor is about 400 meters away, and it was 10:30 p.m.,” Bob explained. “But my Kelsey came. By the next morning, my voice was gone and I couldn’t yell for help, but Kelsey didn’t stop barking.”
Bob’s companion kept him warm by lying on top of him. She licked his face and hands to keep him awake. “Kelsey kept barking but never left my side,” Bob recalled. “She kept me warm. I knew I couldn’t give up and that it was my choice to stay alive.”
Bob spent 19 hours in the freezing cold. When he finally lost consciousness, his dog kept barking. Finally, hearing the barking, Bob’s neighbor discovered him at 6:30 p.m. on New Year’s Day and called the emergency services at once. When Bob arrived in hospital, his body temperature was below 21°C. However, doctors were surprised to find that he didn’t have any frostbite (冻疮). They believed it was because of Kelsey’s determination to keep him warm. Dr. Chaim Colen, the doctor who treated Bob, said, “Animals can help and his dog really saved him … he was very fortunate.”
Bob said he was “enormously” grateful for both Dr. Colen and his Kelsey. “They saved my life. They are true heroes!”
1.What happened to Bob on New Year’s Eve?
A. He broke his neck and couldn’t move.
B. He was praised for saving a dog owner.
C. He left his dog alone in his farmhouse.
D. He heard his neighbor’s shouting for help.
2.Why did Kelsey keep barking?
A. To keep warm. B. To stay alive.
C. To keep Bob awake. D. To seek help from others.
3.How does Dr. Chaim Colen feel about Kelsey?
A. Fortunate. B. Helpful.
C. Thankful. D. Friendly.
4.What can be a suitable title for the text?
A. A Neck-breaking Accident B. The Magic Night
C. Warmth on a Winter Night D. Determination to Keep Alive
难度: 中等查看答案及解析
Modem fathers spend an average of six and a half hours a week playing with their children. A study said this equals 338 hours a year, or just over 14 days, three whole days more fun time than their own fathers spent with them.
The report said modem parents are ‘‘adventurous”, as many encourage their children to play outside. A third of parents also prefer family trips which encourage children to learn new skills, and most say that having fun together improves family ties. The study said the lack of time that today’s parents shared with their own dads encouraged them to be more active with their children.
Dr. Amanda Gummer, psychologist and founder of Fundamentally Children, a company which provides advice on child development, said being adventurous helps children. She said, “Being adventurous from an early age helps children develop important skills that will last throughout childhood and set them up for a healthy and successful adulthood.”
Outdoor activities are a popular choice for dads and their children, with 40 percent choosing nature trails and 26 percent looking for wildlife, while 13 percent say their top outdoor activity is climbing trees. The simple things are the most popular, with 46 percent going to the park and 41 percent choosing to kick a ball around their children.
Dr Gummer said, “Children are able to challenge themselves by being more adventurous, and they can be safe in the knowledge that their dad will be there to help if things start getting out of control. Parents can help encourage their children’s adventurous, outdoor spirit with wildlife treasure hunts and adventure playgrounds. They can even do more exciting things, like going on camping trips.
1.From the first paragraph, we can learn that modem fathers spend a year on average playing with their children.
A. three whole days B. more than 14 days
C. 338 days D. six and a half hours
2.As for outdoor activities, 26 percent of fathers like to with their children.
A. go to the park B. look for wildlife
C. climb trees D. kick a ball around
3.According to Dr. Gummer, we can learn that .
A. children can benefit from challenging themselves
B. children should be adventurous as early as possible
C. parents shouldn’t help their children when things go wrong
D. being adventurous helps children have a healthy childhood
4.What’s the main idea of the passage?
A. How children can be adventurous.
B. What activities fathers can do with their children.
C. Today’s fathers should play more with their children.
D. Today’s fathers are spending more time playing with their children.
难度: 中等查看答案及解析
To control the nation’s growing problem with food wastage, the South Korean government has started a special initiative (倡议) ---“Pay as You Trash”. According to the initiative, the South Korean government has three methods in place to charge citizens for the food thrown away. One is through an RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) card — when users tap this card over a specially designed food waste bin, the lid will open. This waste is automatically weighed and recorded in the user’s account. The user needs to settle this bill every month.
The second billing method is through pre-paid garbage bags. These specially designed bags are priced based on the amount of space. For instance, in Seoul, a 10-liter garbage bag costs around 190 won (less than $1). There’s also a bar code management system in place, in which residents (居民) throw food waste directly into dustbins and pay for it by buying bar code stickers attached to the bin.
Even before the pay-by-weight system was introduced, South Koreans were still being charged for food waste — the cost was simply divided equally among the residents of each apartment block. The new system is not only fair, but is also designed to make consumers really feel the pinch of too much waste. The more food they throw out, the more they end up paying.
Thanks to the initiative, residents like Seoul housewife Ms. Kwan are now adopting creative methods to avoid food waste. She makes sure to pour all the liquid out of leftover food before throwing it away. While preparing vegetables, she tries to use as much as the eatable parts as possible in order to reduce waste.
1.Why does the South Korean government decide to launch the initiative?
A. Food waste is worsening the environment.
B. More and more food wastes are produced.
C. People are complaining about food waste.
D. People have little knowledge of saving food.
2.Before the initiative was launched, the residents .
A. didn’t pay for their food waste
B. paid for their food waste by weight
C. had to pay for their food garbage bags
D. paid for food waste equally in their blocks
3.The underlined word “pinch” in Paragraph 3 means “ ”.
A. joy B. amount
C. pain D. cause
4.According to the text, the initiative “Pay as You Trash” .
A. is working effectively B. was thought to be unfair at first
C. has a quite high running cost D. is being performed all over the country
难度: 中等查看答案及解析
These days when someone says a computer has a bug (小虫子) in it, usually they mean that there’s a problem with one of its programs. Maybe your computer crashed when you were in the middle of a game.1.
But back in the early days of computers, a woman named Grace Hopper was part of a team that discovered the very first computer bug.
2. She had been invited to help program a new computer, the job of which was to quickly deal with the math problems ships used to find their way.3. Then it translated the patterns of holes into the math problems it was supposed to solve.
One afternoon in 1947 Hopper and her team were running a program. But the computer wasn’t giving them the right results.4. They finally ended up taking the computer apart, looking for problems. What did they find? It was a moth (飞蛾)! The moth was blocking some of the holes in the paper—5. Some people think Hopper was the first person to use the word “debug” to mean “get rid of the problems in a computer”.
A. What could be wrong?
B. Hopper was a mathematician.
C. Who had operated the computer?
D. Hopper was a hardworking scientist.
E. She thought it was funny that it was a real one.
F. Or you got an error message when you tried to go to a website.
G. The computer worked by reading instructions from a long piece of paper with holes in it.
难度: 中等查看答案及解析
Ever since an accident put him in a wheelchair, Dan has had one dream:______.
That is why he was ______ to learn about a piece of research that could possibly lead to his ______. But there are two ______. First, the research may take years before it becomes a treatment. And the second is the most ______ of all considerations: money.______by love for Dan, friends worked hard through a series of ______ to raise 20,000 pounds for his future surgery. Dan felt he could really start looking forward to the day when he could turn his ______ into a reality.
Then he ______ Brecon, a 5-year-old who ______ from cerebral palsy (脑瘫). Dan read about a new surgical operation that could ______ the little boy to walk unaided. But the surgery would ______ more than 60,000 pounds --- money Brecon’s parents were having a ______ time raising.
Dan said, “I’m in pretty much the ______ condition, but it appears that Brecon can ______ walk if he gets his surgery, and I can’t right now. So I thought I might as well pass the money on to him. I’m ______ to everyone who has helped me out, but this boy needs it ______ I do at the moment.”
And so he took this dream out of the bank and ______ it over to Brecon’s parents, telling them, “It would make me very happy to see the ______ made to Brecon’s life.”
“I wanted to help someone whose life could get better,” he said. “If I can help someone to walk, I will. Even if it means ______ a dream to do it.”
1.A. lying B. jumping C. walking D. working
2.A. angry B. excited C. embarrassed D. calm
3.A. achievement B. development C. discovery D. recovery
4.A. barriers B. hopes C. benefits D. experiments
5.A. useful B. valuable C. practical D. generous
6.A. Stressed B. Instructed C. Motivated D. Inspired
7.A. courses B. activities C. observations D. competitions
8.A. dream B. research C. concern D. possibility
9.A. spoke of B. believed in C. thought of D. heard about
10.A. suffers B. learns C. differs D. survives
11.A. bring B. allow C. take D. cause
12.A. waste B. gather C. require D. bring
13.A. free B. nice C. busy D. hard
14.A. same B. general C. different D. usual
15.A. rarely B. narrowly C. surely D. confidently
16.A. shameful B. thankful C. suitable D. reliable
17.A. rather than B. less than C. other than D. more than
18.A. threw B. spread C. handed D. lent
19.A. difference B. efforts C. damage D. preparations
20.A. realizing B. sacrificing C. changing D. having
难度: 中等查看答案及解析
阅读下面材料，在空白处填入适当的内容（1个单词）或括号内单词的正确形式。
You will meet many people in school, in college and at work. They’ll try to have nicer cars, bigger houses or 1. (pretty) clothes. To them, life is a 2. (compete) — the have to do better than their peers to be happy.
Here’s a secret: life isn’t a match. It’s a journey. If you spend it always 3. (try) to impress others, you’re wasting your life. Instead, learn to enjoy the journey.4. (make) it a journey of happiness of continual improvement, and one filled 5. love.
Don’t worry about having a nicer car or house or anything m a, or even 6. better-paying job. None of them matters, and none of them will make you happier. You’ll obtain these 7.(thing) and then only want more. Instead, learn to be satisfied with having enough and then use the time 8.would have been wasted to earn money to buy those things.
Find your passion, and go after it 9. (constant). Don’t work for only paying the bills. Life is too short 10. (waste) on a job you hate.
难度: 中等查看答案及解析
假如你叫李华，你的美国笔友Tom对中国传统节日很感兴趣，来信想了解你最喜欢的节日。你准备向他介绍中国的春节，具体内容包括：
1. 庆祝春节的时间，习俗，活动等；
2. 喜欢春节的原因。
注意：1. 词数100左右；
2. 可以适当增加细节，以使行文连贯；
3. 开头语已为你写好。
Hi! Tom,
I’m glad to hear that
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Yours,
Li Hua
难度: 中等查看答案及解析