Although Kobe Bryant is no longer with us, his unbreakable will on and off the basketball court lives on. This month, it was announced that the late superstar would be accepted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame at a ceremony on Aug 29, a great honor for basketball’s best.
“His fierce competitiveness, work ethic and drive were unmatched,” Jeanie Buss, owner of the Los Angles Lakes, told ESPN. “Those qualities helped Bryant lead us to five titles — and have now brought him to the Hall of Fame. No one deserves it more.”
Indeed, it was Bryant’s unmatchable commitment and determination to be the best that elevated (提升地位) him above his peers. He called it the “mamba mentality” after the black mamba, one of the world’s deadliest snakes — and also after the top killer from the 2003 movie Kill Bill. The mamba mentality became so popular that Bryant even detailed his process in his book The Mamba Mentality: How I Play. In it, he revealed his famously detailed approach as well as his physical and mental preparation to not just succeed at the game, but to excel.
“Mamba mentality is all about focusing on the process and trusting in the hard work, which is just the competitive spirit.” he wrote in the book. “It started when someone described me like that one day, and it’s grown into something athletes – and even non-athletes – adopt as a mindset.”
Bryant took after one of the greatest basketball players, Michael Jordan, not only with regard to Jordan’s playing style, but his competitive nature. “I liked challenging people and making them uncomfortable,” Bryant once said, “That’s what leads to self-reflection and improvement. You could say I dared people to be their best selves.”
Though many were shocked and sad when the Los Angles great died in a helicopter crash in January, all signs point to Bryant’s legacy (遗产) for generations to come. Whether you’re a basketball player or not, you can’t deny the Kobe’s power to inspire you to be your best self.
1.It can be inferred from the second paragraph that______.
A.Bryant’s qualities helped him win five titles
B.Bryant was too competitive to become a great player
C.Bryant in particular deserves the honor he will receive
D.Bryant is the only qualified player in the Hall of Fame
2.According to Bryant, what is true mamba mentality?
A.It means being willing to cooperate with teammates.
B.It refers to the spirit of working hard to be the best.
C.It means reflecting on oneself from time to time.
D.It is a belief that both the process and outcome matter.
3.Why did Bryant like challenging people?
A.He found it fun to make people uncomfortable.
B.He wanted to show off his basketball skills.
C.He inspired them to develop passion for basketball.
D.He believed it could promote people’s improvement.
4.What is the text mainly about?
A.How Bryant died in a helicopter crash.
B.How mamba mentality came into being.
C.Why Bryant was inducted into the Hall of Fame.
D.Mamba Mentality—Bryant’s legacy to the world.
难度: 中等查看答案及解析
In 2009, Dr. Kathleen Wermke and her colleagues made headlines with a study showing that French and German newborns produce distinctly different “cry melodies,” reflecting the languages they heard in womb (子宫). Today, Dr. Wermke’s lab houses a collection of around a half-million recordings of babies from as far a field as Cameroon and China.
The analysis of these recordings has produced further insights into the factors that shape a baby’s first sounds. Newborns whose mothers speak tonal languages, such as Mandarin, tend to produce more complex cry melodies. Swedish newborns, whose native language has what linguists call a “pitch accent,” produce more sing-songy cries.
Hearing and imitating are fundamental to language development. By the third trimester, a fetus (胎儿) can hear the rhythm and melody of its mother’s voice — known as “prosody”. It is the defining characteristic of language for the fetus. After they are born, young babies mimic many different sounds. But they are especially shaped by the prosody they heard in the womb, which becomes a handy guide to the strange sounds coming from the people around them. Through stress, pauses and other clues, prosody cuts up the stream of sound into words and phrases – that is, into speech.
“These studies redouble the lab’s broader effort to map the typical development of a baby’s cries, as well as vocalizations like cooing and babbling.” Dr. Kathleen Wermke said. “Knowing what typical development looks like and what factors can influence it helps doctors address potential problems early on.”
1.The underlined word “mimic” in Paragraph 3 refers to ______.
A.imitate B.learn
C.hear D.gain
2.What is Dr. Kathleen Wermke’s attitude towards the studies？
A.Ambiguous B.Doubtful
C.Neutral D.Approving
3.What would be the best title for the text?
A.Mandarin is the most complex tonal language
B.Swedish newborns produce more simple cry sounds.
C.Newborn babies cry in different languages
D.Hearing is fundamental to language development
难度: 中等查看答案及解析
I’m about to begin my fifth season of tree planting. Each year, around this time, I have mixed feelings about the job. Never have I loved a job so much while hating it with equal measure. I mainly plant trees on the coast of British Columbia and get paid about 35 cents a tree. The job can be profitable. It gives planters the opportunity to lead a roaming (漫游的) lifestyle, with a temporary duty to spend a few months filling their bank accounts. But there are many challenges.
In the early hours of the morning, we join our teams and travel along rough roads deep into the woodlands. When stepping out of the trucks, often in the pouring rain, we’re faced with a steep chunk of land that’s just been logged (砍伐). I step into the rain and fill my bags with hundreds of tiny trees. Experienced tree-planters treat this more like a sport than a job, thus lighting up the mood.
Once our bags are full, we immediately charge up that hillside before feeling reluctant to go. We jump from log to log, and if they roll out from under our feet, we grab onto whatever within reach and swing around like monkeys. We push through stinging bushes. We stumble and fall constantly, always pushing ourselves to go faster among groups of insects that we often breathe in.
While tree planting, I come across someone else, a self I thought I knew. It is a person I try to come to peace with on those hillsides, during those strange days of isolation (隔绝) and deep thinking.
Tree planting is a lab of self-examination and growth, where you face the worst and the best in your nature and push yourself as hard as you can. And, a new version of yourself awaits at the end of the experience.
1.Which of the following is true about the writer’s job?
A.It is a bittersweet job to some degree.
B.He works 12 months a year.
C.He can make a fortune with this job.
D.He is stuck in a place all year round.
2.What challenges will they meet when planting trees?
A.They feel reluctant to collect tiny trees.
B.Workers’ mood needs to be lighted up on the truck.
C.They will have to help each other when planting trees.
D.The conditions are really tough on the hillside.
3.In what way has the writer benefited most by planting trees?
A.He has smoothed away many difficulties.
B.He has discovered a whole new himself.
C.He has developed tree-planting skills.
D.He has gained lifelong friendship.
难度: 中等查看答案及解析
Exam season can bring on levels of stress and burnout that can hinder your studies. 1.
1. Take regular breaks and schedule in fun things to look forward to
Even the most intense exam timetables will allow a little time for a study break. 2. Go out for dinner with friends, go to the cinema, attend a gig, anything that you like doing in your spare time that will take your mind off exams. Spending a little time away from the books will leave you feeling more refreshed and relaxed the next time you revise.
2. Exercise and get outdoors
Easily one of the most frustrating things about exam season is that it seems to occur just as the weather brightens up. Use this to your advantage and go out for a walk, or a run, or head to the gym or swimming pool. 3.
3. Don’t (always) listen to others
4. While it is helpful to discuss topics with fellow students and often to revise together, try not to compare other people’s revision to your own. Chances are you’re doing just fine, and listening to other people talk about what they’ve learnt will only stress you out and may make you feel like you aren’t progressing as well as them.
4. 5.
If the stress gets to a point where it is overwhelming, and is affecting your day-to-day life, try and speak to someone about it. Open up to a family member or a friend about the pressure you feel. You’ll be amazed to know that you aren’t alone in feeling like this.
A.Speak to someone
B.You can speak to people about your concerns
C.As the old saying goes: “comparison is the thief of joy”.
D.Here are some handy tips on how to manage your anxiety.
E.This can include 20-minute breaks during your revision day.
F.Plus, if they themselves are stressed this can rub off on to you
G.Besides keeping you healthy, exercise can help to make you more productive while revising.
难度: 中等查看答案及解析
A month before my first marathon, one of my ankles was injured. This _______not running for two weeks. Yet, I was _______ to go ahead.
I remember in my first P.E. class, the teacher required us to _______ laps and then hit a softball. I didn’t do _______well. He later said that I was “ not _______”.
The idea that I was “not athletic” _______ me for years. When I started _______in my 30s, I realized running was a battle against myself, a battle against my own _______ and mind.
The night before my_______, I dreamt that I couldn’t even find the finish line. I woke up sweating, but ready to ________ something to myself.
Shortly after crossing the start line, my shoe laces became ________. So I stopped to readjust. At mile 3, I passed a sign: “GO FOR IT, RUNNERS!” By mile 17, the once ________ ankle hurt badly. ________ the pain, I stayed the course walking a bit and then running again. As I ________mile 23, I could see my wife waving a ________. She is my biggest fan. She never __________ the alarm clock sounding at 4 a.m.
I was one of the final runners to finish. ________ I finished! And I got a ________ In fact, I got the same medal as the one that the guy who came in first place had.
Determined to be myself, free of worldly labels and ________ forward, I can now call myself a “marathon ________ ”.
1.A.meant B.resulted C.caused D.prevented
2.A.decided B.determined C.forced D.driven
3.A.set B.train C.run D.take
4.A.both B.each C.neither D.either
5.A.successful B.athletic C.energetic D.active
6.A.stuck in B.stuck with C.remained in D.stayed up
7.A.running B.racing C.walking D.hiking
8.A.soul B.leg C.body D.heart
9.A.match B.contest C.jogging D.marathon
10.A.improve B.test C.teach D.prove
11.A.untied B.unwrapped C.unfitted D.uncovered
12.A.wounded B.broken C.injured D.damaged
13.A.Despite B.As C.With D.For
14.A.covered B.did C.approached D.ran
15.A.mark B.signal C.symbol D.sign
16.A.liked B.minded C.enjoyed D.focused
17.A.But B.So C.Or D.As
18.A.prize B.medal C.metal D.honor
19.A.rush B.walk C.move D.drag
20.A.runner B.believer C.supporter D.winner
难度: 中等查看答案及解析
假设你是李华，你的美国朋友Mike就读的学校要举办一年一度的“中华文化节”，他来信向你征求活动意见，请你写封回信，内容包括：
1. 写作目的；
2. 活动建议；
3. 表示祝愿。
注意：1. 词数80左右；
2. 可以适当增加细节，以使行文连贯。
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难度: 中等查看答案及解析
阅读下面短文，根据其内容写一篇60词左右的内容概要。
We live in a technological society where most goods are mass-produced by unskilled labor. Because of this, most people think that craft (手艺) no longer exists. One of the ways these people wrongly support their view is by pointing to 100-year-old homes which are still solid, and arguing that it is the craftsmanship that is responsible for their durability (持久性). “Homes in those days were well-built,” they say. There is no doubt that these homes were well-built, but what these people have done is mix up the quality of material used in the house with the quality of the craftsmanship.
Homes today could be built to last just as long as those old homes if people were willing or able to pay the price. For example, more people can no longer afford solid oak stairways, although they were once fairly common in older homes. Nor can they afford the high labor cost of employing a carpenter to build the stairway. Yet if someone can pay the high cost, there are still plenty of carpenters around able to make those stairways. And not only would these carpenters know how to build them, they would probably do a better job than carpenters of old.
One thing the modern carpenter has which enables him to do a better job is much more advanced tools. Such tools as laser beams and power planes help them lay out a house better and make more precision cuts (精确切割) on the wood. Also, it is not uncommon any more to find carpenters with college degrees and carpenters with a solid knowledge of mathematics, which would enable them to deal with more difficult house designs.
The problem of modern quality, then, really boils down to the problem of material, for the modern carpenter is just as able to produce craftsmanship as the carpenter of fifty years ago, but only if given proper material.
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难度: 困难查看答案及解析