For as long as I can remember, I’ve always wanted a personal motto. I wanted a saying that I could really try to live my life by. I mean all the humorous book and storybook heroes always have a personal principle they follow. Good manners! Courage! Keenness! But a part of me could never get myself to create my own motto because I never knew where to start and I never thought I could give one.
“With great power comes great responsibility.” is a quote by the great writer and philosopher, Voltaire. More familiar, it makes an appearance in the modern day movie performance of the superhero Spider-Man. This saying provides a sense of responsibility for those with actually limitless power.
“Be good to others and others will be good to you.” is another well-known proverb that has roots in almost all of the major religions. Although it is less practiced today than it is lectured, it is a powerful and good motto to live by. Kindness, in this sense, is the final power in judging every action.
My personal motto today has an idea – being efficient. Through my limited knowledge, I have come to find that this is simply the best way for me to give insight about who I am and what I believe in.
Efficiency is a quality that everyone desires for, right? Who doesn’t want to be able to not only work fast but to achieve great results? To some, it may appear to be a frightening journey. But to me, it means that I have a lifelong journey to improve the methods and ideas with which I come near my tasks.
Regardless of what motto you want to live by, I believe that everyone should have one, or two or more. These are all symbols of a perfect story of us, in our own view. And it immediately provides insight to the type of person we were, we are and what we strive to be. We are never meant to be perfect, but it is important to try and live by a belief that will help us reach our potential. All you have to do is know what your excitement is and live by it.
1. Why does the writer want a personal motto?
A. He can follow a belief to live his life.
B. He can behave like the heroes in storybooks.
C. He can have the courage to be enthusiastic.
D. He can know where to create his own motto.
2. In the eyes of the writer, Spider-Man mainly lives by _______.
A. power
B. kindness
C. religion
D. responsibility
3.What can we infer from the writer’s personal motto?
A. He desires for great results of his tasks.
B. He will spend a lifelong time on traveling.
C. He expects to work well without wasting time.
D. He will never find a journey discouraging.
4. The last paragraph implies that a motto _________.
A. helps you know your potential
B. can tell us who we really are
C. reflects what your passion is
D. will prove you to be perfect
难度: 中等查看答案及解析
LEEDS, England—A Leeds University psychology professor is teaching a course to help dozens of Britons forgive their enemies.
“The hatred we hold within us is a tumor,” Professor Ken Hart said, adding that it can lead to problems such as high blood pressure and heart disease.
More than 70 people have become members in Hart’s first 20-week workshop in London—a course he says is the first of its kind in the world.
“These are people who are sick and tired of living with a memory. They realize their bitterness is a poison they think they can pour out, but they end up drinking it themselves,” said Canadian-born Hart.
The students meet in groups of eight to ten for a two-hour workshop with an adviser every fortnight.
The course, ending in July, is expected to get rid of the tumor of hatred in these people. “People have lots of negative attitudes towards forgiveness,” he said, “People confuse forgiveness with forgetting. Forgiveness means changing from a negative attitude to a positive one."
Hart and his team have created instructions to provide the training needed.
“The main idea is to give you guidelines on how to look at various kinds of angers and how they affect you, and how to change your attitudes towards the person you are angry with," said Norman Claringbull, a senior expert on the forgiveness project.
Hart said he believes forgiveness is a skill that can be taught, as these people “want to get free of the past”.
1. From this passage we know that________.
A. high blood pressure and heart disease are caused by hatred
B. high blood pressure can only be cured by psychology professors
C. without hate, people will have less trouble connected with blood and heart
D. people who suffer from blood pressure and heart disease must have many enemies
2.According to the passage, if you are angry with somebody, you should________.
A. have lots of negative attitudes towards him or her
B. never meet him or her again
C. persuade him or her to have a positive talk with you
D. try to build up a positive attitude towards the person
3.What does the underlined word “tumor” probably mean?
A. cancerB. danger C. disease D. influence
4.The author wrote this passage in order to________.
A. persuade us to go to Hart’s workshop
B. tell us the news about Hart’s workshop
C. tell us how to run a workshop like Hart’s
D. help us to look at various kinds of anger
难度: 中等查看答案及解析
Visitor Oyster cards are electronic smart cards that come fully charged with credit. Whether you’re making a one-off trip to London or you’re a regular visitor, using an Oyster travel smart card is the easiest way to travel around the city’s public transport network. Simply touch the card on the yellow card reader at the doors when you start and end your journey.
Advantages of a Visitor Oyster Card
A Visitor Oyster card is one of the cheapest ways to pay for single journeys on the bus, Tube, DLR, tram, London Overground and most National Rail services in London:
● Save time—your card is ready to use as soon as you arrive in London.
● It’s more than 50% cheaper than buying a paper travel card or single tickets with cash.
● There is a daily price cap—once you have reached this limit, you won’t pay any more.
● Enjoy special offers and promotions at leading London restaurants, shops and entertainment venues—plus discounts on the Emirates Air Line cable car and Thames Clippers river buses.
Buy a Visitor Oyster card
Buy a Visitor Oyster card before you visit London and get it delivered to your home address. A card costs￡3 (non-refundable) plus postage. Order online and arrive with your Oyster in hand! You can also buy a Visitor Oyster card from Gatwick Express ticket offices at Gatwick Airport Station and on board Eurostar trains travelling to London.
Add Credit to Your Visitor Oyster Card
You can choose how much credit to add to your card. If you are visiting London for two days, you can start with ￡20 credit. If you run out of credit, add credit at the following locations:
● Touch screen ticket machines in Tube, DLR, London Overground and some National Rail stations.
● Around 4,000 Oyster Ticket Stops found in newsagents and small shops across London.
● TFL Visitor and Travel Information Centers.
● Tube and London Overground station ticket offices.
● Emirates Air Line terminals.
1.When can you use your Visitor Oyster Card?
A. After you become a regular visitor.
B. Once you arrive in London.
C. Only when you end your journey.
D. Before you leave home.
2.What can we learn about the Visitor Oyster card?
A. It can reach you before your journey to London.
B. It requires you to pay as much as the daily price cap.
C. It can provide you a 50% discount at a London shop.
D. It can be delivered to your home address free of charge.
3. Where can you add credit to your Visitor Oyster card?
A. On the Internet.
B. On Eurostar trains.
C. At a Tube station ticket office.
D. At Gatwick Express ticket offices.
难度: 中等查看答案及解析
Recently some articles claims the word ‘‘selfie” as one of the most annoying words. But I’d like to offer that maybe it is not so bad.
The “selfie” is used to describe the self-taken photo, often from a smart phone. Women and men decorate their Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram accounts with these pictures, sometimes with puckered (翘起) lips or large smiles. In fact, the selfie has become so widely known that over 31 million photos on Instagram are taken with the selfie.
Let’s think about it. Someone takes about 10 selfies each time they do, and they only end up posting one or two of those. They pick the one that they feel makes them look the best. Isn’t that beautiful? In that one picture, someone has given himself or herself confidence. Self-image is important. In society today, we are often so consumed with the feeling that what society tells us is perfect. But maybe, with that one selfie, we feel that we fit that bill. We feel handsome, beautiful, confident, smart, happy and content. For that moment, everything bad or terrible that has ever happened to us is erased (消除), because that smile or that pucker is what gives us the determination to love ourselves.
I saw a spoken word poem recently and the young man said: If I ask you what you love, the answers will most likely roll off your tongue. You love to read. You love to write. You love birds, music, your mom, your brother, your sister, your daughter, your best friend, your dog. How long do you think you can go on and on before you say “I love myself”.
That statement hit me like a ton of bricks. I’ve struggled with confidence all of my life. I still do. And in no way am I saying that taking a selfie is a gateway to that confidence. However, the selfie does deserve some credit for allowing individuals to express themselves. Pamela Rutledge agrees, stating, “There are many more photographs available now of real people than models.”
1. According to the author, selfie ______.
A. is an annoying habit for people
B. becomes a fashion among teenagers
C. makes a person become self-centered
D. gives a person a sense of confidence
2. According to the writer, we live in a society where ______.
A. being perfect is highly valued
B. people judge others by their appearance
C. confidence is based on one’s self-images
D. beauty almost decides everything
3.The author mentions a poem in the passage to stress ______.
A. the power of true love
B. the need to love ourselves
C. the kinds of love we have
D. the endless love we get
4. The best title for the passage is ______.
A. The Meaning of Selfie
B. A Fashion of Selfie
C. A Praise of Selfie
D. The Criticism of Selfie
难度: 中等查看答案及解析
根据短文内容，从短文后的选项中选出能填入空白处的最佳选项。选项中有两项为多余选项。
Trampolining
What’s more fun than standing still? Jumping up and down on a springy piece of fabric (织物)! This activity is known as trampolining and it’s sweeping the nation.
The idea of trampolining is ancient. Eskimos have been throwing each other in the air for thousands of years. Firemen began using a life net to catch people jumping from buildings in 1887. __1._
A gymnast named George Nissan and his coach Larry Griswold made the first modern trampoline in 1936. __2.__ They named their equipment after the Spanish word trampolín, which means diving board. The men wanted to share their idea with the whole world. In 1942 they began making trampolines to sell to the public.
Trampolines may be fun, but they can also be dangerous. __3.__ Clubs and gyms use large safety nets or other equipment to make it safer. Most trampoline injuries happen at home. Since trampolines are more affordable than ever, injuries are even more common.
These injuries happen for many reasons. People may bounce too high and land out of the trampoline or onto the springs. _4._ Perhaps the worst injuries happen when untrained people try to do flips (快速翻转). Landing on your neck or head can cause injuries or even kill you.
_5.__ There are many things that you can do to practice safe trampolining. Trampolines have been around for a while now. They have brought a lot of joy to many people. They can be a good source of exercise and activity. They can help people improve their balance and moves. But they can also be deadly. It is important to follow some professional guidance. Be sure that you are practicing safety while having a good time. Happy bouncing!
A. They found a winner when they performed a piece of spring across a steel frame.
B. And in the early 1900s, circus performers began bouncing off a net to amuse audiences.
C. Injuries also happen when many people are jumping at the same time.
D. Experts find that more than 100,000 people hurt themselves while using one each year.
E. You can surround your trampoline with a net so that people don’t fall off it.
F. They got the idea by watching swing artists bouncing off a tight net at the circus.
G. But don’t let all that bad news keep you down.
难度: 中等查看答案及解析
阅读下面短文，从短文后各题所给的四个选项（A、 B 、C 、D）中，选出可以填入空白处的最佳选项，并在答题卡上将该项涂黑。
One month ago, my daughter started kindergarten. As usual, I wished her success. I was telling a lie. What I actually wish for her is _____. I believe in the power of failure.
Success is _____ in a sense. Success is proving that you can do something that you already know you can do, or doing something correctly the first time, which can ______ be a problematic victory. First-time success is usually a fluke (侥幸). First-time failure, _____, is expected; it is the natural order of things.
Failure is how we learn. I have been told of an African phrase _____ a good cook as “she who has broken many pots”. If you have spent enough time in the _____ to have broken a lot of pots, probably you know a fair amount about ______. I once had a late dinner with a group of chefs, and they spent time ____ knife wounds and burn scars. They knew how much credibility (可信度) their ______ gave them.
I earn my _____ by writing a daily newspaper column. Each week I am _____ that one column is going to be the worst column of the week. I don’t just set out to write it; I try my best every day. _____, every week, one column is inferior (较差的) to the others, sometimes extremely so.
I have learned to ______ that column. A successful column usually means that I am treading (踏) on _____ ground, going with tricks that work, or dressing up popular ideas in fancy words. Often in my inferior columns, I am trying to ______ something I’ve never done before, something that I’m not even sure can be done.
My daughter is a perfectionist. She will feel her failures, and I will want to _______ her. But I will also, I hope, ______ her of what she learned, and how she can do _______ next time. I probably won’t tell her that failure is a good thing, because that’s not a(n) ______ you can learn when you’re five. I hope I can tell her, though, that it’s not the end of the world. Indeed, with luck, it is the ______.
1.A. successB. failure C. victory D. sacrifice
2.A. demandingB. worthwhile C. correct D. boring
3.A. oftenB. rarely C. always D. hardly
4.A. in additionB. on purposeC. by contrast D. in demand
5.A. denyingB. describing C. pointingD. predicting
6.A. dormitoryB. yardC. kitchenD. field
7.A. gardeningB. trainingC. displayingD. cooking
8.A. comparingB. makingC. learningD. curing
9.A. woundsB. failuresC. scars D. strengths
10.A. livingB. supportC. skill D. similarity
11.A. ambitiousB. grateful C. confident D. aware
12.A. MoreoverB. StillC. OtherwiseD. Therefore
13.A. adapt B. update C. cherishD. review
14.A. accessibleB. similar C. sensitiveD. familiar
15.A. get through B. figure outC. comment on D. take in
16.A. amuseB. comfortC. scold D. reward
17.A. warn B. cheat C. remind D. suspect
18.A. better B. luckier C. worse D. less
19.A. experience B. trick C. lesson D. truth
20.A. processB. destinationC. ending D. beginning
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。
Aesop (伊索) was a slave living around 550 BC. We call the stories he wrote fables, as every story has a moral. Almost all the fables he wrote are ___1.__ (humor) and entertaining, appealing to people __2.___ all ages. Till now, Aesop’s fables __3.___ (translate) into many languages and are known all over the world. Not only _4.__ the fables themselves lived for nearly 1500 years, but the __5.___ (express) from them have entered various languages.
One fable, for instance, is about a farmer who was driving his cart along a country road. The cart got __6.__ (stick) in the mud, but the farmer made _7.__ effort to get it out. Instead, he began to pray to the gods for help. The god Hercules finally appeared and told ___8.__ man to get busy and push ___9.__. “Push your shoulder to the wheel.” Hercules advised.
The moral of the story is clear. We mustn’t rely on others for help. Another saying which has come from the fable is “God helps those __10.__ help themselves.”
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。错误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. 每处错误及其修改仅限一词。
2. 只允许修改10处，多者（从第11处起）不计分。
How is everything going with you? As for me, I have a great news to share—I will finally get to be in a book!
Last Saturday morning, Dad and I were eating breakfast while we heard a knock on the door. I rushed to open the door. It was our neighbor Miss Lydia, that draws pictures for children’s books. Miss Lydia greeted me with a smile, looking happily to see me. Remembering my best manner, I said, “Hello, Miss Lydia. Won’t you come in?” Miss Lydia came in, sitting at the breakfast table, and said to my dad that he would like both of us to be her models in one of her books! I jumped off my chair and run to give Miss Lydia a big hug.
I hope my first model experience will be both enjoyable or unforgettable. I’m looking forward to hearing you soon.
难度: 中等查看答案及解析
假如你是学生会主席李华，你打算邀请外教Mr. Smith到你们学校作一个健康知识讲座，请你给他写封邀请信。要点如下：
1. 学生面临的健康问题（睡眠不足、饮食习惯不健康、过度节食）；
2. 讲座的具体内容；
3. 讲座的地点；
4. 讲座的时间安排：下周二下午3:00-4:00。
注意：1. 词数100左右；
2. 可以适当增加细节，以使行文连贯；
3. 开头和结尾已写好，不计入总词数。
Dear Mr. Smith,
____________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________
Sincerely yours,
Li Hua
难度: 中等查看答案及解析