Winter sports tend to be more dangerous than summer sports—they take place mostly outside at the mercy of ice or snow, involving metal edges, extreme speeds and crashes. Skeleton (俯式冰撬), however, stands apart as one of the most difficult and least accessible of all the winter sports. Adam Edelman, Israel’s first Olympic skeleton athlete, would like to change that.
Edelman was the 10th athlete named to the 2018 Israeli Olympic Team. Qualifying for the Olympics in any sport is impressive. But it’s more impressive if you qualify for the Olympics after only four years in the sport—and without a coach.
Edelman was first introduced to skeleton watching the game on television in late 2013. Sports have always been a part of his life. He grew up playing football and was a goalkeeper on the Massachusetts Institute of Technology football team. Ready for a new challenge, he set his sights on the Olympics.
Without a coach, Edelman learned to drive by watching endless hours of YouTube videos and taking more runs than anybody else on the track. “When everybody else would take three runs per day, I would take six to eight.” he recalled.
Succeeding in skeleton takes a large amount of athletic ability and technical skill, but there’s one more element (因素) required, one that can’t be taught. “These tracks but built in the middle of nowhere, and it’s gray and cold. You haven’t seen your family in seven months and you really just want to give up. To continue, it takes tenacity.” Edelman said.
Edelman is already looking beyond Pyeongchang. The 2022 Olympics could be in his future, but whether he continues to compete or not, he promises to stay in Israeli sports as long as possible-as instructor or as a coach.
1.What might impress people most?
A.Edelman’s gift in winter sports.
B.The challenges Edelman has met
C.Edelman entering for the Olympics.
D.Edelman’s successful story as a skeleton athlete
2.What does the underlined word “tenacity” in Paragraph 5 probably mean?
A.willpower B.Extra strength
C.Good luck D.Financial support
3.What might be Edelman’s plan for the future?
A.Setting up a team of his own.
B.Passing on his skills and experience.
C.Calling on more people to take up sports.
D.Ending his sports life after the Olympic Games.
4.Which of the following words can best describe Edelman?
A.intelligent B.confident
C.patient D.determined
难度: 中等查看答案及解析
The minute you start talking about what you’re going to do if you lose, you have lost.
Some people have a great fear of losing. In fact, fear is not the best description of what they have. It is more like a crazy phobia(恐惧症) that they cannot keep away from. Day after day, these people allow their fear of losing to control everything in their lives. They are so afraid of losing that they try to keep away from losing without considering the cost of doing so.
When things start to get out of control, fear begins to come in. As the fear of losing or getting hurt overwhelms(充溢) them, they quickly look for excuses, rather than fight back or find a way to deal with their fear. They never realize that losing is just as common as eating and breathing.
If one is given a choice, who wouldn’t prefer winning over losing? After all, winning is exciting and winning is what living is all about. Although we might try hard all the time, we’re not going to win every time. In fact, most of us are going to lose a lot more often than we win and, believe it or not, it’s not all bad.
In order to make the most of our abilities ，we have to take risks every now and then. When we take risks, we might get knocked down, or even knocked flat, but with each failure and each loss, we have an opportunity to get better and get closer to the life we expect.
1.Which of the following might be the best title for the passage?
A.The Bad Effects of Losing
B.Make the Most of Every Success
C.We Win Some and We Lose Some
D.Winning Is the Main Purpose in Life
2.By saying the underlined sentence “They are so afraid. . .” in paragraph 2, the author means .
A.one should avoid losing by using any kind of means
B.one is too afraid to deal with losing properly by himself
C.one is so afraid of losing that he can’t step forward at all
D.one should make efforts to deal with losing rather than avoid it
3.We can know from the passage that .
A.fear works most when one is eager to win
B.losing is a common part of our daily lives
C.one should avoid losing without considering the cost
D.the more losing one experiences, the stronger one will become
4.What can we infer from the last paragraph?
A.Losing is of great value to success.
B.The more we fear, the better we will perform.
C.Only when we improve our abilities can we win.
D.Only through experiencing losing can we get what we want.
难度: 中等查看答案及解析
Tyler Skiuzacek’s father, Patrick, could not sleep through the night. It was 2007, and Patrick had just returned from a year in Iraq, where he served in the U. S. Army. Patrick Skluzacek was energetic and happy when he left for Iraq, Tyler says. But when he returned, he was unhappy and drinking alcohol too much. It turned out Patrick was suffering from sleep panic attacks. Patrick would wake up every night. His heart would beat too fast. He would sweat. The nighttime panic attacks prevented Patrick from feeling good the next day, because he was so tired.
Almost 10 years later, Tyler was in a position to help his father. He thought he could make a computer program that might help his father. So he entered a competition in Washington, D. C, trying to solve the problem Tyler’s father and other U. S. war veterans (老兵), were having. People called them”night terrors. ”The students had 36 hours to come up with a program. They called it myBivy—That name comes from bivouac, a military term for a safe place to sleep.
The application uses a smart watch and a smart phone together. The watch tracks the wearer’s heartbeat. It sends the data to the program on the smart phone. Research shows that a person’s heart rate will increase right before a night terror. So if the wearer’s heartbeat started to rise, myBivy would respond. The smart watch would vibrate and gently wake up the sleeping person. That was enough to prevent a night terror from happening.
Patrick wore the watch for two weeks to get used to it. Then, Tyler turned on the application. On the first night, the vibrations from the watch prevented 10 nightmares. Patrick said he had not slept that well in many years. Tyler and his team won the contest in Washington, D. C. The prize was $1,500. Then the group tried to raise more money from investors, and they were surprised when they took in over$25,000. By the spring of 2016, Tyler and his team were testing the app with volunteers, and hoped to make it available to the public soon.
1.What might be the cause of Patrick’s problem?
A.His experience in the war. B.His drinking habit.
C.His family troubles. D.His sleeping disorder.
2.We can learn from the second paragraph that ________.
A.the US government tries to help war veterans
B.people look down upon the night terrors
C.many other veterans suffer similar problems
D.myBivy was named after a great soldier
3.What is the main idea of the third paragraph?
A.How effective the app is. B.How to download the app.
C.How to design the app. D.How the app works.
4.What does the author probably think of the future of myBivy?
A.Valueless. B.Promising.
C.Tough. D.Controversial.
难度: 中等查看答案及解析
Some 30,000years ago, artists who lived in caves in Europe painted pictures of the animals around them: panthers, hyenas, rhinos, cave lions, mammoths and other creatures which have been extinct for a long time. The paintings were highly realistic. Some even showed movement.
The artwork, more than a thousand drawings, is considered the oldest group of human cave drawings which have ever been discovered. They were preserved because the cave was sealed--closed off--for more or less 23,000 years.
Fast forward to December 18, 1994, a group of French cave scientists were exploring caves in southern France. Jean-Marie Chauvet, who led the group then, describes the process of discovering the cave paintings.”At that time I was in the front, Eliette just walked behind me, Christian behind. Eliette said she saw two marks made with red ochre and she said, ‘They came here.’And at this very moment everything began. The drawings and everything linked to the parietal art (壁画). That is where it started.”
Cave art expert Jean Clottes reviewed the paintings. “I was amazed at the number of paintings there were and paintings of their quality and particularly in front of the panel of the horses.”
Scientific analysis confirmed the prehistoric date of the artwork. Studies showed the drawings were created tens of thousands of years ago, before human history was written. The United Nations’cultural agency UNESCO lists the cave as a World Heritage Site. They say that the drawings form a remarkable expression of early human artistic creation of grand excellence and variety.
The Chauvet Cave has been named after the explorer who first entered it. However, its environment and drawings are too fragile to be visited by human beings. So the cave is closed, and only people there for scientific purposes can go inside and see the artwork.
However, French authorities asked experts to create an exact copy of the cave, called Pont d’Arc Cavern. The copy, which we also call replica, cost more than 59million dollars to build. It opened at the end of April in France.
Pascal Terrasse is the president of the cavern. He says everyone will be able to experience the thrill of looking at drawings made by the first humans in Europe. He says the place is magic because it is done so well. Authorities say they think as many as 400,000people will be allowed to visit Pont d’Arc Cavern every year.
1.According to the passage, the first scientist to enter the cave was ________.
A.Christian B.Eliette
C.Clottes D.Chauvet
2.According to Jean Clottes’ words in Paragraph 4, the paintings in the cave were ________.
A.abstract B.superior
C.creative D.inspiring
3.Which of the following statements is TRUE about the Chauvet Cave?
A.It was closed off for more than 30, 000years.
B.It is thought to be the origin of modern parietal art.
C.The environment and artwork there are very easy to damage.
D.The majority of drawings there are about the extinct animals.
4.The purpose of creating Pont d’Arc Cavern is to ________.
A.show admiration for the earliest artists in Europe
B.arouse visitors’awareness of protecting ancient art
C.offer visitors chances to view the wonderful artwork
D.collect money for the perseverance of the Chauvet Cave.
难度: 中等查看答案及解析
Why we still need to read Dickens
Walk into any bookstore, and you can hardly avoid “bumping into” Charles Dickens. Many of Dickens’ works still sell well today.1.
As someone who teaches Dickens, the question of why we still read him is often on my mind. 2. One day nearly 10 years ago, however, when I was giving a lecture, I was telling the students that for Victorian readers, Dickens’s writing was a “tune-in-next-week” type of thing that generated crazes. 3. “But why should we still read this stuff?” the student asked. The answer I gave was only acceptable, “Because he teacher you how to think,” I said.
The question annoyed me for years, for years, and for years I told myself answers, but never with complete satisfaction. We read Dickens because he is not just a man of his own times, but also a man for our times. We read Dickens because we can learn from experiences of his characters almost as easily as we can learn from our own experiences.
4. But these are not exactly the reason why I read Dickens. My search for an answer continued until one day a text message came from a student of mine. “We still read Dickens’s novels,” she wrote, “because they tell us why we are what we are.” Simple as it was, that’s the explanation I had sought for years.
Dickens shines a light on who we are during the best of times and wrote of times. 5. If you have time, go to pick up one of his many novels, read it and enjoy what it has to tell you about yourself.
A.Then a hand shot up.
B.I know that wasn’t really the reason.
C.And they are placed on outstanding shelves.
D.That question was never more troubling.
E.That’s why we still need to read him today.
F.I already know who it is I’ll meet in those novels.
G.These are all wonderful reasons to read Dickens.
难度: 中等查看答案及解析
Ryan Hickman was born in an American family. When he was three years old, Ryan Hickman visited a _________ center in California and found what he wanted to do most. Amazingly, the next day as he greeted his dad, Damion, he made a(n) _________, “I’m going to pick up all the bottles and cans from everyone in the neighborhood. I’ll start a new _________ myself!”
It’s never too _________ to start a business, though there were no other staff but himself when the company was started. Today, Ryan, aged seven, the worlds _________ garbage man, is the CEO, manager and _________ of Ryan’s Recycling Company. Though Ryan says he doesn’t remember what made it all start, he remains _________ about what he is doing. When questioned why he did so, he said, “It’s _________ bottles get to the ocean, and then animals get sick and die.” Ryan’s neighbors have been _________ to the little boy’s knocking for their recycled goods. More and more __________ ones call to ask for a pickup or even lay down bags of bottles and cans at Hickman’s door. At school, Ryan’s favorite activity is helping the dustmen __________ the trash and taking away the recyclable. “My wife and I support him and we told him that whenever he wants to __________, he can,” Damion said. “I want to see him with friends, but the recycling just makes him delighted. He has actually __________ five of his friends to join him.”
According to Damion, Ryan has __________ over $11,000 through recycling bottles and cans. Ryan says he wants to buy a large trash truck to be __________ with enough garbage and become a true garbage man.
1.A.financial B.recycling C.delivering D.industrial
2.A.bet B.announcement C.speech D.explanation
3.A.investigation B.study C.business D.campaign
4.A.old B.early C.weak D.late
5.A.cleverest B.busiest C.wealthiest D.youngest
6.A.customer B.employer C.trainee D.employee
7.A.enthusiastic B.energetic C.unbearable D.comfortable
8.A.why B.how C.because D.when
9.A.opposed B.supposed C.accustomed D.devoted
10.A.supportive B.instructive C.aggressive D.persuasive
11.A.desert B.separate C.circulate D.weed
12.A.start B.continue C.quit D.back
13.A.persuaded B.urged C.forced D.instructed
14.A.raised B.saved C.wasted D.spent
15.A.surrounded B.entertained C.equipped D.loaded
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
Dr．Barone has helped many kids smile who were born with defects(缺陷)，including me．She did my first operations when I was a baby，which were the most important and1.(effect)．
I don’t remember the first two operations very well．but I do recall2.third．Dr．Barone was kind and eased me into the process．She let me choose my sleep medicine，3.(make)sure that I was okay．I recently saw a picture of me before my operation，and I know4.a big job she did．
Dr．Barone5.(operate)on people with all types of birth defects．She also goes to other countries where people cannot afford this treatment and helps them6.free．
Many people benefit from her new ways7.(invent)to fix birth defects of the head and face．She has won many awards．A few of the most recent8.(be)Best Doctors in America 2013-2014，America’s Top Plastic Surgery，and many others．
Dr．Barone was my doctor when I was a kid，and even though I was9.(probable) just another patient to her，to me she was10.(much)than just my doctor．She was and is my hero，and she gave me back my smile．
难度: 中等查看答案及解析
英国伦敦一中学组织部分学生在寒假期间对足球起源地——临淄进行参观、游览，他们需要一名中学生英语导游。假如你是李华，请写一封自荐信，自荐理由包括以下三个方面：
（1）英语口语流畅，曾做过博物馆的志愿解说员。
（2）性格优势：热情、开朗，擅长与人沟通……
（3）了解临淄本地文化。
注意：1. 词数80左右；
2.可适当增加细节，使行文连贯；
3. 开头结尾已给出，不计入总词数。
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难度: 简单查看答案及解析
阅读下面内容，根据其内容写一篇60词左右的内容概要。
Among all the fast growing science and technology, the research of human genes, or biological engineering as people call it, is drawing more and more attention now. Sometimes it is a hot topic discussed by people.
The greatest thing that gene technology can do is to cure serious diseases that doctors at present can almost do nothing with, such as cancer and heart disease. Every year, millions of people are murdered by these two killers. And to date, doctors have not found an effective way to cure them. But if the gene technology is applied, not only these two diseases can be cured completely, bringing happiness and more living days to the patients, but also the great amount of money people spend on curing their diseases can be saved, therefore it benefits the economy as well. In addition, human life span (寿命) can be prolonged.
Gene technology can help people to give birth to more healthy and clever children. Some families have hereditary diseases. This means their children will for sure have the family disease, which is a great trouble for these families. In the past, doctors could do nothing about hereditary diseases. But gene technology can solve this problem perfectly. The scientist just need to find the wrong gene and correct it, and a healthy child will be born.
Some people are worrying that the gene research can be used to manufacture human beings in large quantities. In the past few years, scientists have succeeded in cloning a sheep, therefore these people predict that human babies would soon be cloned. But I believe cloned babies will not come out in large quantities, for most couples in the world can have babies in very normal way and they also believe measures will be taken to control gene technology.
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难度: 中等查看答案及解析