My mom was a beauty who seldom spent time and money on her physical appearance—especially in terms of fancy clothes or hairstyles. She just kept beautiful in her way： rest, water, exercise, vegetables and laughter.
My mom would tell me her father had her run his little corner store from the age of ten. She saw poor people come in, looking for food and making hard choices, like meat or cheese. She took their coins with an eye on the bottom line. It was up to her to ensure the register balanced at the end of the day. So from a young age, my mom had her mind conditioned about money.
However, my mom had one weakness： diamonds. In 1958, my teenage dad gave her a diamond chip as an engagement（订婚）ring, which she proudly wore until she saved enough for an “upgrade". By then, she was in her thirties. Over the years, my mom also acquired other diamond pieces like earrings. Mom wore them proudly and she simply loved the way her diamonds sparkled（闪耀）.
On my parents' 50th wedding anniversary, I treated them to dinner at a restaurant. It made her happy, but Mom had her eye on a big diamond to mark the occasion. My dad found her a six-carat（克拉）one. Mom said each carat represented a decade that she loved my dad, plus one to grow on. For the next six years, she never took it off her finger.
Knowing how my mom loved that diamond made it more special when she left it to me. After wearing it on my hand for a year, I decided to set it into a necklace where it'd be closer to my heart. It reminds me of my mom every day, no matter what I'm doing, and it speaks to me in unique ways.
1.What can we know about Mom?
A.She spent much on her makeup. B.She was a vain beautiful woman.
C.She kept beautiful in a natural way. D.She was proud of her appearance.
2.What made Mom careful about spending money?
A.The words of neighbors.
B.Her life in a poor family.
C.The choice of the poor people.
D.Her experience in her father's store.
3.Mom most probably thinks of the diamonds as a sign of_____ .
A.luck B.love C.status D.wealth
4.What is the best title for the text?
A.Mother's Love for Diamonds B.Love Between Mother and Daughter
C.Memories of Beautiful Diamonds D.Strong Love for a Determined Mother
难度: 中等查看答案及解析
When there’s a heat wave, ocean temperatures rise. That heat causes coral reefs (珊瑚礁) to lose their color, which shows the corals are dying. Fish then leave, and without the fish activity, reefs fall silent. A new study finds playing the sounds of a healthy reef can attract fish back to dead or dying areas. Indeed, those sounds could help bring a reef back to life.
Tim Gordon, a biologist at the University of Exeter in England, studies the effect of sound on sea animals. He and his research group “felt surprised at so many different sounds you can hear on a healthy reef”. They were shocked by how quiet the reefs became as they died. That got them wondering: Could sound help renew dying reefs by attracting fish?
So Gordon used pieces of dead coral to create small patches (小块) of reefs along the Great Barrier Reef. He placed them at least 25 meters from each other and from other reefs. Gordon left eleven patches alone. These served as his controls. He set up a loudspeaker around another eleven patches. The speakers played healthy reef sounds. The last eleven patches served as a different type of control. They got a set-up that looked like the loudspeaker but played no sound.
Fish arrived at all three types of patches. But they showed up more quickly at the ones that had sound. Besides, those small reefs ended up with twice as many fish by the end of the experiment. Reefs with sound also had more species overall. Gordon found no difference between the two types of controls. It was sound, not the speaker set-up , that had attracted the extra fish. Playing healthy reef sounds adds another powerful tool to restore our reefs, Gordon says.
1.What has led to the death of coral reefs?
A.Too many fish. B.Noise pollution.
C.Loss of their color. D.High ocean temperatures.
2.What is the purpose of the second paragraph?
A.To introduce sounds of a healthy reef. B.To raise doubts about dying coral reefs.
C.To explain the reason for the new study. D.To show the positive effect of fish on corals.
3.What did Gordon and his team do in their study?
A.They played healthy reef sounds for two groups of patches.
B.They created 33 patches with the collected pieces of dead coral.
C.They set up a loudspeaker around all the patches of dead coral.
D.They played sounds to attract fish to approach all the patches.
4.What is the main idea of the text?
A.Healthy coral reef sounds attract fish back to dead reefs.
B.Dead coral reefs are especially dependent on healthy sounds.
C.The speaker set-ups of coral reefs are attractive to most fish.
D.Underwater speakers may remind coral reefs of possible threats.
难度: 中等查看答案及解析
Is there anybody out there? For centuries human beings have been wondering. As we've gained greater understanding of the universe, however, our searches have taken on a more concrete form. Questions about aliens have become a subject for science rather than science fiction and philosophy.
Now a new cooperation(合作)between the Very Large Array observatory in New Mexico and the privately funded Seti Institute in California could mean that our curiosity about aliens is closer than ever before to being satisfied. Data from the VLA's 28 giant radio telescopes will be fed through a special supercomputer that will search for distant signals. Scientists who work at the Seti Institute said the announcement means their research is now “almost mainstream".
How likely it is that a signal will be found, and what this might mean, are hard questions to answer. Seti's existing projects haven't detected any life signals from other planets so far. But recent discoveries in space and Earth sciences have provided some encouragement to those who are enthusiastic about the likelihood, however remote, of detecting other civilizations.
While once it was thought that our solar system could be unique, since the discovery of the first exoplanet (a planet in another solar system) in the 1990s, thousands more have been located(确定位置). Around one in five stars are now thought to have a planet in their orbit in a so-called “habitable zone"—that is at a distance from the star where the temperature(neither too hot nor too cold) means that life is theoretically feasible.
If there is another life form somewhere, could it be as intelligent as us? Or cause a risk to us, as the physicist Stephen Hawking once warned? As investigations of Mars continue, our interest in the possibility of alien life appears clear—especially when conditions in our own earth appear even more unstable.
1.What can we learn from the first two paragraphs?
A.Global cooperation helps to study aliens.
B.Searching for aliens is becoming a trend.
C.Aliens have caught wide attention globally.
D.There are many uncertainties about aliens study.
2.What is the encouraging news to searchers for distant civilizations?
A.VLA has developed new radio telescopes.
B.Seti has detected signals from other planets.
C.More and more exoplanets have been found.
D.Other civilizations have been located in a habitable zone.
3.What does the underlined word “feasible" in paragraph 4 most probably mean?
A.Possible. B.Tough.
C.Easy. D.Certain.
4.In which section of a newspaper may this text appear?
A.Literature. B.Health.
C.Education. D.Science.
难度: 中等查看答案及解析
It truly doesn't take much to encourage others and, best of all, it is very affordable and requires no special equipment. Here are some simple ways to encourage others.
Take an interest.
I believe this is one of the most practical ways of encouraging others.
Show that you're interested in what they're doing. 1.People like to talk about themselves and once you get them talking, you fire up their enthusiasm.
Acknowledge a job well done.
Great achievements take time and effort. You can encourage others by acknowledging their efforts. A simple “well done" or “thank you" can be influential. 2.
Lend a hand.
3. In fact, you can be the first one to lend a hand. If a person sees you are willing to spend your time and energy on their interests, they will be more encouraged to see it through and less likely to give up.
4.
Thank someone when he/she does something for you. Thank your partner after he/ she cooks a nice meal. Thank a friend for lending you a book. A simple “thank you" lets others know what they have done is meaningful to you.
Give a call to your friend.
As you know, we're all busy, and in the age of emails and texts, phone calls seem ancient to many people.
5. Even if they miss the call they'll appreciate the effort and your message. Make an effort to do this just once a week for one person and see how your connections respond to the encouragement.
A.Get them talking.
B.Show your appreciation.
C.Do something unexpected.
D.But people love hearing from friends.
E.You don't have to wait for someone to ask you for advice.
F.Haven't you felt important when someone asked for your advice?
G.These words can make a difference between going on and giving up.
难度: 中等查看答案及解析
One day I took an orange — and — white cat home, which I called Splash. However, I had one concern with __ her to my dog, Bee, which had a distinct __ for cats. My own cats were wise enough to ___themselves in the barn（谷仓）and fields. I was _____ that Splash didn't understand this and would be a victim.
I took Splash to the barn, but soon she __ the house and was curious about it. She made a straight line for the door. Bee enjoyed the ___ at the door, so when Splash showed up, Bee came up in ____ But Splash faced her threatener ___ and swiped at（(猛击）the approaching dog. Then something ___ happened： Bee pulled to a sudden stop. He __ and went back to the back door slowly.
Every day for the next few weeks, Splash would walk to the___ in the morning, and Bee would come and try to drive her away, only to find a____enemy. Over the next few months, I watched an aggressive dislike turn into a playful __ between the two. They began to share the back-door space and sometimes the __ especially for the faithful dog.
One day, seeing the two companions playing together, I ____ this dog and cat were almost the same as the nations of this world. Actually, some of us are like Bee, who started a fight with the intention of____ an unwanted invasion（入侵），and some of us are like Splash, just wanting someone to __ life with. Bee and Splash are two different animals with the natural tendency that should put them in _______. Yet they've come to a place where all the ______ are set aside, and they_______ each other fully. Why can't we?
1.A.selling B.introducing C.comparing D.donating
2.A.wish B.sympathy C.preference D.dislike
3.A.check B.cure C.hide D.teach
4.A.worried B.glad C.grateful D.relieved
5.A.ruined B.noticed C.decorated D.crashed
6.A.celebration B.noise C.darkness D.freedom
7.A.horror B.anger C.sadness D.excitement
8.A.sincerely B.selflessly C.shyly D.fearlessly
9.A.unexpected B.thrilling C.dangerous D.attractive
10.A.remained B.exploded C.turned D.agreed
11.A.cage B.zoo C.field D.door
12.A.lazy B.stubborn C.terrified D.strange
13.A.graduation B.discussion C.friendship D.examination
14.A.treats B.jokes C.tests D.risks
15.A.heard B.announced C.doubted D.realized
16.A.dealing with B.escaping from C.looking for D.taking in
17.A.improve B.change C.share D.abandon
18.A.order B.conflict C.peace D.charge
19.A.differences B.conversations C.comments D.connections
20.A.praise B.inspire C.guide D.enjoy
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以下作文。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:把多余的词用斜线(\)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。
When I was young, I dreamed for being a painter. But my mother always hoped I could be a doctor. I guess she wanted me to followed in my father's footsteps. My father, however, expected me to become photographer. But I become a teacher at 25. Life is usual unpredictable. Sometimes you may not be achieve the dream you once had in your childhood. Therefore, it doesn't mean you'll have to give up your dream. You can always leave your dream in your heart and keep them as a lifetime hobby. As for me, I'm still interesting in painting, that helps me relax in my spare time.
难度: 中等查看答案及解析
假定你是李华，你的英国笔友David对中国传统文化很感兴趣，他想让你给他推荐一本关于这方面的书。请 你给他回一封邮件,向他推荐我国的四大名著之---《西游记》。内容包括：
1.《西游记》简介；
2.推荐理由。
注意：1.词数100左右；
2.可以适当增加细节，以使行文连贯。
参考词汇：徒弟 disciple,佛经 Buddhist scriptures
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难度: 中等查看答案及解析