Alex Elman runs a big business — something difficult to imagine after she lost her sight in her twenties. But Elman says that losing her sight helped her focus on finding success.
Elman’s father planted a hillside vineyard in western Massachusetts in 1981. It’s where Elman fled during the darkest period of her life. When she was 27 years old, she went blind due to complications from juvenile diabetes (糖尿病) 17 years ago. She recalled, “I hid in my home. I hid in the place. For me, that was the safest place in the world.”
Elman is now the founder of Alex Elman Wines, a growing portfolio (系列产品) of organic wines from all around the world: Chianti from Italy, Torrontes from Argentina. Elman doesn’t work alone. Her assistant, a guide dog named Hanley, is something of a wine snob, and quite a beggar. Hanley travels to all of the wineries that Elman does, from South America to Europe.
At first, Elman resisted the idea of a guide-dog. Now it’s hard to imagine her life, or her business, without him. She said. “When someone tells me something is organic and I don’t really believe it because I taste something funny on it, I’ll put it in front of his face and if he likes the wine, he’ll go to sniff it. If it’s not right, he’ll turn his head away. He gets in the dirt with me. He scratches around. He makes sure that we see earthworms and butterflies. That’s how we know that the soil is actually organic, and that there are no chemicals.”
Elman told CBS News she believes the loss of her vision was a gift. She said, “It allowed me to pay attention to what I thought was important and also to be able to teach people that the broken hang nail is not a big deal, you know what I mean? Don’t sweat the small stuff. Don’t sweat the big stuff either.”
1.Elman hid herself in her father’s vineyard probably because she ________.
A. suffered from juvenile diabetes
B. was extremely painful for her blindness
C. would like to help her father with the work
D. expected to recover her sight sooner or later
2.The underlined phrase “the broken hang nail” (in Paragraph 5) probably refers to _____.
A. a nail which is of no use
B. a disadvantage you have in your life
C. a person who is hard to deal with
D. a task that is not easy to accomplish
3.This passage is mainly to tell us that _________.
A. Alex Elman leads a miserable life
B. Hanley brings Alex Elman much fun
C. Alex Elman gets along well with her pet
D. a blind woman tastes success in wine business
难度: 中等查看答案及解析
When Ariyah Georges was born 15 weeks early, she weighed only one pound, 12 ounces. Her mother, Jovan, knew how important breastfeeding was, especially for a premature (早产的) baby like Ariyah, so she began pumping milk to feed her through a tube. But two days later, Jovan felt dizzy and feverish — 104 Fahrenheit degrees, in fact. She had a blood disease and was close to full shock.
She was separated from others for nearly two weeks at the regional Northern Virginia hospital where she’d delivered. During that time, she could still pump breast milk, but Ariyah couldn’t consume it because of the risk of infection (感染). Without it, the newborn was particularly easily affected by diseases. There are many cases like this, which creates the need for the milk donation.
Enter donor milk — breast milk purchased by hospitals for mothers who aren’t able to produce enough milk on their own, due to health complications, stresses, or other factors. The milk comes from milk banks, organizations that collect and screen breast milk from those women willing to donate. Usually processed in intensive-care units, the milk is only available by prescription.
In recent years, both milk banks and the use of donated human milk have risen swiftly in the United States. In 2011, 22 percent of NICUs used donor breast milk; four years later, that number doubled to nearly 40 percent, and went even higher for the most intensive NICUs — as much as 75 percent. There are 23 milk banks in the United States recognized by the Human Milk Banking Association of North America, or HMBANA, double the number that existed five years ago.
But as the demand for donor milk rises, banks must find more charitable donors — a task made more complicated by informal networks of milk sharing that happens online. And many of the most vulnerable infants are still not being reached.
1.What’s the problem of Ariyah when she was born?
A. She had a shock.
B. She was too light.
C. She had a blood infection.
D. She felt dizzy and feverish.
2.What’s the influence if a mom has no breast milk?
A. The mom can still pump breast milk.
B. The mom will have to stay at the hospital.
C. The baby will be separated from others.
D. It is more likely for the baby to catch a disease.
3.What is the purpose of using figures in Paragraph 4?
A. To call healthy moms to donate breast milk.
B. To show the demand change of donated human milk.
C. To show the shortage of breast milk in milk banks.
D. To raise the awareness of the importance of breast milk.
4.Where would you most probably see the text above?
A. In a historical fiction.
B. In a science magazine.
C. In an entertainment newspaper.
D. In a textbook.
难度: 困难查看答案及解析
It is sometimes thought that the longing for material goods, the need to buy things, is a relatively modern invention. 1. Trade or shopping is certainly an ancient desire, and existed before our ancestors invented writing, laws, cities or farming, even before they used metal to make tools.
Humans are born to trade. 2. Evidence from hunter-gatherers suggests that the exchange of food and other necessary things comes naturally, as well as the ability to keep a record of the credits involved. And once trade begins, the benefits are hard to resist.
Ancient local coastal people in northern Australia traded fish hooks, along a chain of trading partners, with people living 400 miles inland, who cut and polished local stone to make axes (斧子). 3. Finally, both groups of “producers”, by concentrating on things they could produce and exchanging them for other things they needed, benefited as a result.
Trade in the necessities of life, such as food and simple tools, is not really surprising, considering the link between these basic items and survival. What is surprising, though, is that our taste for unnecessary expensive objects also goes back a long way.
In South Africa, 100,000-year-old decorative dyes (染料) have been found in an area where none were produced. 4. Small round pieces of glass 76,000 years old were also found at the same place. The earliest jewellery known to us were not just random findings — they were grouped together in size and had holes like those used for threading onto a necklace.
Archaeologists argue that trade prepared the way for the complex societies in which we live today. 5. However, their modern equivalents — fast cars and expensive clothes — hold the same attraction for us as “trade goods” did for people 100,000 years ago.
A. And we don’t need shops or money to do it.
B. These are powerful evidence for cash purchase.
C. In fact, its roots go back to the beginning of humanity.
D. However, first trade began from the exchange of objects.
E. Modern-day shoppers may not be impressed by ancient glass pieces.
F. It is thought that these goods were bought at least 30 kilometres away.
G. Every individual along the chain made a profit, even if he produced neither himself.
难度: 困难查看答案及解析
I am an educator born to make a difference. I have spent my entire life at the ____. And we know why kids drop out. But one of the things that we never discuss or we ____ discuss is the value and importance of human ____.
A colleague said to me, “They don’t pay me to ____ the kids. They pay me to teach a ___.” Well, I said to her, “You know, kids don’t learn from people they don’t like.” Some think that you can either have it in you to build a ____, or you don’t. I have had classes that were so ____ that I cried. I wondered, “How am I going to ____ this group, in nine months, from where they are to where they need to be? It was difficult, awfully ____. How do I ____ the self-esteem (自尊) of a child and his academic achievement at the same time?”
One year I ____ a bright idea. I told my students, “You were ____ to be in my class because I am the best and you are the best.” One of the students said, “Really?” I said, “Really. We have to show the other classes how to do it, so when we walk down the hall, people will ____ us, so you can’t make noise.” And I gave them a saying to say: “I am ____. I was somebody when I came. I’ll be a better somebody when I leave. I ____ the education that I get here. I have things to do, people to impress, and places to go.”
Teaching and learning should ____ joy. How ____ would our world be if we had kids who were not afraid to take risks, who were not afraid to think, and who had a ____? Every child deserves a champion. An educator should be an adult who will never ____ on them, who understands the power of connection, and insists that they become the ____ that they can possibly be.
1.A. school building B. college C. community center D. prison
2.A. frequently B. partly C. finally D. rarely
3.A. relative B. connection C. experience D. understanding
4.A. please B. satisfy C. like D. treat
5.A. lesson B. joke C. way D. class
6.A. friendship B. bridge C. gap D. relationship
7.A. excellent B. low C. sad D. adaptable
8.A. join B. own C. take D. manage
9.A. upset B. boring C. frustrated D. hard
10.A. raise B. arise C. show D. control
11.A. came out B. came to C. came up with D. came about
12.A. led B. placed C. chosen D. thrown
13.A. notice B. look C. find D. call
14.A. nothing B. somebody C. anybody D. something
15.A. reserve B. expect C. observe D. deserve
16.A. catch B. bring C. express D. indicate
17.A. powerful B. magical C. fearful D. imaginative
18.A. prize B. supporter C. teacher D. champion
19.A. put up B. depend C. give up D. refuse
20.A. bright B. best C. confident D. determined
难度: 困难查看答案及解析
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。
I’ve been taking Chinese language lessons for the past three years of high school in America. Yet nothing truly prepared me for the 1. (real) of breathing the Chinese culture that I had the opportunity 2. (discover) this summer. Lots of things have shocked me over the course of this trip as an exchange student to China.
The biggest problem I have experienced in China is 3. very fact that I am a foreigner. I have never before had the experience of 4. (be) a complete outsider. On the way to my host family, my blonde hair and fair skin attracted quite a few curious 5. (look). When we went out as a group, we American students 6. (treat) as the subject of many Chinese tourist photos. This has been a culture shock to me 7. (main) because I’m from a country 8. seeing people of different races is quite common. No one told me the city I was to study in was much 9. (little) diverse than I’d been accustomed to.
While 10. took me some time to get used to the attention, I’ve learned from it. It has put me on my best behavior, as I am an ambitious girl who dreams big.
难度: 中等查看答案及解析
请根据语境用括号内单词的正确形式或根据汉语意思填空，每空一词。
1.How many ________ (胃) does a cow have？
2.The best way to success is to stop ________ (regret) for the past or worrying about the future, but to start focusing on what you can do at present.
3.He explained ________ (science) the most important questions of political economy.
4.There are no ________ (永久的) displays in the museum and exhibits change all the time.
5.He looked at his students with great ________ (satisfy).
难度: 中等查看答案及解析
根据所学语法知识填空，每空一词。
1.________ began as a small activity has taken the shape of an inspiring institution of international standards.
2.It will be 321 days ________ we take part in the college entrance examination.
3.She opened it and let out a deep breath. Inside it ________ (be) two sharp knives.
4.The flowers his friends gave him will die unless ________ (water) every day.
5.It was ________ (repair) the old clock that the old man spent the whole morning at home.
难度: 中等查看答案及解析
假定英语课上老师要求同桌之间交换修改作文，请你修改你同桌写的一下作文。文中共有10处语言错误，每句中最多有两处。每处错误仅涉及一个单词的增加，删除或修改。
增加：在缺词处加一个漏字符号（∧），并在其下面写出该加的词。
删除: 把多余的用斜线（\）划掉。
修改：在错的词下划一横线，并在该词下面写出修改后的词。
注意：1. 每处错误及其修改均仅限一词；
2. 只允许修改10处，多者（从第11处起）不计分。
Last Sunday, I accompanied two of my foreign friends, Tom and Mary, around Chengdu so that they could get a feeling of the amazed city. We began by touring Kuan Zhai Alley that is known for its traditional Chinese architecture. I know the area very good so I acted as their tour guide. For lunch, I tried some Chengdu fried sauce noodles. Tom thought that they were in particularly delicious. Soon before lunch, we went to the Research Base of Giant Panda to pay a visit to the pandas. Both Mary and Tom fall in love with the lovely pandas. We finished off the day by going shopping, and they bought some paper cuts as souvenir. It was fantastic day and I hope they will come to Chengdu again.
难度: 中等查看答案及解析
假定你是李华，你校将举办一个中国古代发明展览，你想邀请你的英国朋友Peter一起参观。请你给他写一封邮件，内容包括：
1. 展览的时间和地点；
2. 展览的内容（古代发明成就）。
注意：1. 词数100左右；
2. 可以适当增加细节，以使行文连贯。
Dear Peter,
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Yours,
Li Hua
难度: 困难查看答案及解析