It has been four years since Grandma Joy told her grandson that she had never seen the most beautiful views of America. Since then, they have gone on many cross-country trips.
Brad Ryan had been feeling tired of studying in a vet school when he visited his 85-year-old grandma in 2015. He hoped that spending some quality family time would make him cheerful.
As he was telling his grandma stories of his travels, however, he was heartbroken to hear that she had never seen the ocean or mountains. Ryan then asked his grandmother if she would like to go hiking with him. Needless to say, she was more than happy to agree.
They have since visited 29 different national parks across America—from the Great Sand Dunes in Colorado to the Acadia National Park in Maine. Over the four years, Ryan and his grandma have driven 25,000 miles through 38 states. And it has greatly affected his quality of life. “Seeing it through my grandmother’s eyes, who every morning wakes up and is thankful to be alive, has taught me how to live,” Ryan said. “With her, I’ve had to slow down and see life in a different way, which has made it a lot richer.”
“I love my grandma so much, and it’s just really giving me a lot of peace when she passed away. I can go back to these places, feel her spirit, and feel connected to her,” he added.
Ryan posted all of their trips on Facebook. He hopes more young people will spare time to be with their elders. “I want young people to know that hanging out with your grandparents is cool. And there’s so much we can learn from our elders,” Ryan said.
1.Why did Brad Ryan visit his grandma in 2015?
A.To cheer himself up. B.To please his grandma.
C.To take his grandma to travel. D.To share his travelling experiences.
2.What influence did Brad Ryan’s grandma have on him?
A.She made him live a richer life. B.She helped him find his life goal.
C.She told him to have peace of mind. D.She gave him a lot of encouragement.
3.What is Brad Ryan’s purpose of posting their trips online?
A.To advise young people to take a trip.
B.To share his joy of travelling with his grandma.
C.To show young people what they can learn from their elders.
D.To encourage the young to spend time with their elders.
难度: 中等查看答案及解析
The Red Cross is known for carrying out some of the most heroic acts in the world. There are Red Cross societies in 190 countries all over the world. Their task is to prevent and alleviate human suffering in the face of sudden serious situations by organizing volunteers and the people who want to donate(捐献).
In 1860, Swiss businessman and social activist, Jean Henri Dunant, saw the effects of war, and countries not prepared or able to deal with the suffering of those who had been injured in the Battle of Solferino during the second War of Italian Independence. Dunant organized a group of volunteers to help bring water and food to the injured, to help with medical treatment, or to write letters to the families of those who were dying. After that moment, he knew that more had to be done, and he wrote the book, A Memory of Solferino, which encouraged the public to create an organization which would help the wounded. His writing encouraged more people to support him in creating the International Federation of the Red Cross. And in 1863, International Committee of the Red Cross was founded.
The modern-day Red Cross does more than nursing soldiers during wartime. The group began to devote itself largely to disaster relief (灾难救援) and epidemic (流行病) treatment. It has achieved even greater service in humanitarian (人道主义的) programs that serve continuously in both peace and war.
One of the easiest ways you can help the Red Cross is to make sure you are able to donate blood and make an appointment at the Red Cross website. But, donating blood isn’t the only way you can help out —the Red Cross also encourages you to donate your time if you can, along with other things the modern-day Red Cross wants you to know.
1.What does the underlined word “alleviate” in Paragraph 1 mean?
A.Reduce. B.Report.
C.Express. D.Find.
2.Why did Dunant write A Memory of Solferino?
A.To make more people know the Red Cross.
B.To ask more people to help the wounded.
C.To let people see the cruelty of wars.
D.To call on people to stop wars.
3.What is the purpose of the last paragraph?
A.To introduce the Red Cross website.
B.To explain the Red Cross’s future work.
C.To show how the Red Cross helps needy people.
D.To encourage people to offer help to the Red Cross.
难度: 中等查看答案及解析
If you have ever been disappointed because you don’t have a good gardener, the clever robot may one day become the helper of your indoor plants.
The Hexa Plant is a six-legged robot that has been specially made to care for the potted (盆栽的) plant that it carries on top of its head. Using light and heat sensors (传感器), the robot has the ability to carry its plant in and out of the daylight. If the houseplant needs more sun, the Hexa will walk into the sunlight; and if the houseplant is getting too hot, the Hexa will go back into the area that blocks direct light. The Hexa Plant will even do a little dance when it senses that the plant needs to be watered to warn its owner.
The robot was developed by Vincross engineer and founder Sun Tianqi after he saw a dead sunflower sitting in the darkness in a room back in 2014. “Plants only receive an action without responding,” Sun Tianqi wrote in a blog post. “Whether they are being cut, bitten, burned or pulled from the earth, or when they haven’t received enough sunshine, water, or are too hot or cold, they will hold still and take whatever is happening to them.”
According to Sun Tianqi, for billions of years, plants have never experienced movement of any kind, not even the simplest movement. In their whole lives, they stick to where they were born. Sun Tianqi continued, “Do they want to break their own settings or have a tendency (趋向) towards this? I do not know the answer, but I would love to try to share some of this human tendency and technology with plants. With the help of the robot, plants can experience the move.”
The Hexa Plant model robots are not for sale, though Vincross does sell a Hexa robot model. It is said that in the near future the robots can open up a new market to watch over our household plants.
1.What can we learn about the Hexa Plant?
A.It helps people do some gardening. B.It waters the plants through dancing.
C.It helps indoor plants get proper sunlight. D.It carries the potted plant with its hands.
2.What does the author try to show through Paragraph 3?
A.The way plants spend their whole lives.
B.The common way people deal with plants.
C.The difference between plants and humans.
D.The cause of making the indoor plants’ helper.
3.What does Sun Tianqi try to do using this technology?
A.To develop gardening skills. B.To draw people’s attention to plants.
C.To make plants experience move. D.To study the living conditions of plants.
4.What can be the best title for the text?
A.A New Market for Robots B.An Indoor Plants’ Helper
C.An Important Development in Gardening D.The Tendency of Gardening in the Future
难度: 中等查看答案及解析
Getting people to smile is not difficult because most people like to smile. However, if someone is faced with loss or experiencing sadness, they might be less possible to smile. 1.
Praise someone to get them to smile. 2. Maybe their hair is styled in an attractive way, or their clothes look nice on them. These are the nice things you can say to probably get them to smile.
3. If you have a family member, a friend or a co-worker that is faced with a life difficulty, pull him/her aside and tell him/her you understand what he/she is going through and that you are there for him/her if he/she needs you. Doing this could help the person feel more connected with those around him/her and this is certainly a reason to smile.
Learn to listen. Again, some people may be so troubled by something that it is hard for them to smile. 4. Often, when a person can speak out what’s going on in their lives, to someone who is truly listening, it can reduce some of their burden (负担). When their burden is reduced, they have more reasons to smile.
Make an unexpected phone call. 5. When the person knows someone cares about him/her, he/she can’t help but smile about that.
A. Let them know they are not alone.
B. They may just need someone to talk to.
C. So in such cases, how can we get people to smile?
D. Tell them everyone experiences hard times in life.
E. Perhaps the person you are talking to has nice eyes.
F. Usually, it could make an uneasy situation even worse.
G. It works especially well if you express your concern about them on the phone.
难度: 中等查看答案及解析
I was eleven years old standing outside in just my underwear (内衣) while I saw our house burnt to the ground. A few minutes earlier I had been sound asleep in my bed when a _________ woke me up. My nana’s _________ was just next to my brother’s and mine. A fire had broken out there and awakened her. Hearing her shouting, my older brother _________ quickly. While I was walking difficultly in the _________ and darkness, he ran from room to room _________ everyone in the house. The house, however, was over 50 years old and made of wood. Before we could _________ anything, the fire destroyed it.
I stood there _________ when the fire destroyed my books, clothes, and toys. I watched_________ while my mom cried and my dad sighed (叹息). I _________ what was going to happen to us since we had __________ all of our things. As I looked around, though, I __________ something for the first time: The things that __________ aren’t things. I saw my older brother running to get __________. I saw my nana and dad sitting together and my mom __________ our little dog. I realized at that moment that we were all__________. Everything that was essential (必要的) had survived the fire. Our __________ would continue. We were so __________. We would all be around to love each other for many years to come. And that was all that mattered.
I __________ think of that fire that helped me to become who I am today. It showed me for the very first time what is truly __________ in my life. It helped me to learn that the__________ we share is far more important than the things we own.
1.A.ring B.fight C.noise D.laugh
2.A.farm B.store C.house D.bedroom
3.A.settled B.jumped C.searched D.acted
4.A.snow B.smoke C.wind D.storm
5.A.waking B.asking C.encouraging D.serving
6.A.find B.do C.change D.control
7.A.guessing B.hiding C.shaking D.listening
8.A.angrily B.carefully C.calmly D.helplessly
9.A.wondered B.explained C.recorded D.accepted
10.A.missed B.lost C.repaired D.damaged
11.A.remembered B.imagined C.realized D.ignored
12.A.matter B.disappear C.recover D.remain
13.A.help B.chance C.success D.advice
14.A.training B.holding C.dressing D.washing
15.A.tired B.careless C.poor D.alive
16.A.education B.business C.life D.story
17.A.lucky B.patient C.brave D.strong
18.A.already B.still C.once D.just
19.A.beautiful B.difficult C.important D.possible
20.A.knowledge B.responsibility C.opinion D.love
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。
If you live in the United States, the law says you can’t have a full-time job until you are 16 years old. At 14 or 15, you can work part-time after school or 1. weekends, and during summer you can work 40 2.(hour) each week. Does all that mean that if you are 3.(young) than 14, you can’t earn your own money? Of course not! Kids 4. are between the ages of 10 and 13 can earn money by doing lots of things.
Valerie, 11, told us that she made money by 5.(clean) up other people’s yards. Lena, 13, makes money by knitting (织) dog sweaters and selling 6.(they) to her neighbors, and Reisa said she had started taking art classes and showing her work to people. People have asked her 7.(draw) pictures for them and they pay her for them.
Earning 8.(be) learning. By working to earn your own money, you are learning the skills you will need to succeed in life. Some people think that asking for money is a lot easier than earning it. 9., the five dollars that you earn will 10.(probable) make you feel a lot better in your hand than the twenty dollars you ask for.
难度: 中等查看答案及解析
根据下面各句句意及所给单词的首字母，写出该单词的正确形式（每空一词）
1.Most of them plan things ahead, and dislike their plans to be u__________ by something unexpected.
2.The girl hates setting down a s__________ of facts in a diary as most people do.
3.I would be g__________ if you could give me some tips.
4.I am d__________ to change my job. No one else can change my mind.
5.She has a very large v__________ and she can read English novels now.
6.Although many Americans move a lot, they still can r__________ and understand each other’s dialects.
7.The teacher r__________ her students to finish their tasks on time.
8.The doctor tried to p__________ him to give up smoking, but he wouldn’t listen.
9.All these goods will be t__________ abroad by sea.
10.The weather f__________ says it will be cloudy with a slight chance of rain later tonight.
难度: 中等查看答案及解析
假定你是李华，十一假期你和你的父母一起外出游玩，你想将你的旅游经历与你的美国笔友Jack分享，请根据以下要点给他写一封电子邮件。内容包括：
1.简述旅游经历；
2.你的感受和体会。
注意：1. 词数80左右；
2. 可以适当增加细节，以使行文连贯。
Dear Jack’
How is everything going? I’d like to share my travel experience with you.__________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Yours,
Lihua
难度: 中等查看答案及解析