Wendy Gallegos writes “concer” on the board. One of her students raises her hand.
“Ms. Gallegos, you should have written ‘conocer’ instead,” she said, referring to the Spanish verb for “to know.”
Gallegos looks at the board, smiles and quickly erases her mistake.
“You see, I have taught you so well, you pick up on my mistakes,” she said with a laugh.
To Gallegos, the scene in her classroom is typical（特有的）of the children she teaches. Gallegos teaches high school Spanish. She became part of their lives and families for three years. She is willing to help her children succeed. After a couple of years, Gallegos’ class becomes like home. Gallegos’ Spanish class is taught mostly in English in sixth grade. By the time the students are eighth-graders, they are speaking fewer words of English and more of Spanish during the 50-minute classes.
“My goal is to get my kids to say something in Spanish every day,” she said, “I want them to be able to talk to me. That’s why I help them, I praise them, I recognize them when they do good work. And we have fun. The day I stop having fun is the day I am going to consider a different job.’’
If a student needs help, Gallegos offers the student a “lifesaver,” which is help from a classmate. The lifesaver gets a piece of candy as a reward. As the students said: “Gallegos’ class is anything but boring.” It is because of Gallegos’ efforts and determination that she is the teacher who they think is most deserving of one of Collier County’s Golden Apple Awards.
“I don’t teach a subject, I teach kids. This is what I was born to do,” Gallegos said.The scene（情景）in Gallegos’ class is mentioned at the beginning of the passage to ____.
| A．show Gallegos, as a teacher, makes a mistake |
| B．tell teachers can help students correct mistakes. |
| C．show her good teaching method in daily class |
| D．point out the students’ impolite behavior in class |
The underlined sentence in Paragraph 6 implies that_____.
| A．having fun is Gallegos’ goal in hunting jobs. | B．Gallegos likes her job very much |
| C．Gallegos is considering changing her job | D．teaching Spanish will not last long |
What made Gallegos get Golden Apple Award?
| A．Her interesting class. | B．Her determination in study. |
| C．Rewarding her students with prizes. | D．Her efforts made to teach kids. |
What would be the best title for the passage?
| A．This is what I was born to do | B．Golden Apple Awards |
| C．Spanish classes with fun | D．How to get along with kids |
One evening, a man was on his way home when he saw a woman come by, hauling a cart full of flowers. The smell of her flowers perfumed the air with sweetness so easily that it seemed to lift his spirits. He had never experienced such wonder from the flowers of his own garden. "How much must I pay for your wonderful flowers?" he asked. "Take what you wish for." "What return must I make for them?" he asked again. "Your gratitude is enough." She said. So he filled his arms with flowers and hurried joyfully home. His wife and children also liked the remarkable flowers, for they, too, discovered that the sight of
them was a delight and the smell of them refreshed the soul.
In order not to lose his treasure. the man planted the flowers in his garden. Sunlight and water kept them amazingly beautiful and they still performed their powerful magic. When his children came to play in the yard, the man cautioned them against carelessness and wild play in case they damage the flowers. But the flowers remained hardy and strong as long as there are enough sun and moisture to nourish them.
As the family grew and more children came to play in the garden, the man was even more concerned about his remarkable flowers. He even built a high wall to protect them with the utmost care. Unfortunately, this began to cause consternation among the family members. If the children caused their father stress, he would refuse them access to the flowers. Later, he set up rules as to who could enter the garden and what they must do while they were there. He also established offices to determine accessibility. Eventually, it became necessary to have lawyers to defend, judges to weigh, guards to safeguard.
The man's family, however, saw less and less of the flowers and experienced less and less of their magical power. In the meantime, many of them went out in search of the flower lady. Well, she was still out there, still giving away her amazing flowers.The family found that the smell of the flowers could_____.
| A．remove their spirits |
| B．make them energetic |
| C．bring them what they want |
| D．make them smell sweet |
In order to protect the flowers, the man_____.
| A．asked the policemen to help him take care of the garden |
| B．built a high building to keep the children away from the garden |
| C．set up offices to decide, who can get close to the flowers |
| D．employed lawyers, judges and guards to protect the flowers |
What can we learn from the underlined sentence?
| A．The man began to prevent the, family members coming into his garden. |
| B．The man asked the family members to enjoy his flowers but no one wanted to. |
| C．What the man did made the family members less interested in flowers. |
| D．What the man did made the family members panic. |
What lesson can we get from the father's behavior?
| A．To give is more fruitful than to get. |
| B．Shared beauty is real beauty. |
| C．A problem shared is a problem halved. |
| D．Many hands make light work. |
The 16th Annual Our Own Words Teen Poetry & Fiction Writing Contest
Attention, teen writers!
Win cash, get published.
Entries will be accepted between March 8th and April 21st, 2015.
Awards ceremony at Lagerquist Hall, Pacific Lutheran University on December 27th, 2015.
Winning poems and stories will be published as written. Contest winners will read their work at the awards ceremony at Lagerquist Hall, Pacific Lutheran University on December 27th, 2015.
Your poems and stories will be judged on the basis of originality, style, general presentation, grammar and spelling. All entries will belong to Pierce Country Library System and will not be returned. Winners' names may appear in newspapers and on the Library's Website.
You may enter both the short story and poetry categories, but you can only offer one entry per category.To enter the contest, you should
| A．hand in a poem |
| B．be a teenage student from Pierce County |
| C．turn in published works |
| D．pay some entry fees |
Your poem or story will be judged on_____.
| A．how many words there are |
| B．when you hand it in |
| C．whether it is first written by yourself |
| D．what topic it is about. |
What information can we get from the passage?
| A．There will be 18 teenagers to be awarded in all. |
| B．Your work will be published in newspapers. |
| C．Your work will be returned to you if you fail. |
| D．Winners will be awarded prizes in more than half a year. |
The passage can be classified as______.
| A．a contest announcement |
| B．an official report |
| C．an art show review |
| D．an exhibition explanation |
After fighting cancer for 13 years, my grandfather became ill enough to be admitted to hospital. One morning, he was having trouble breathing, but continued to silently hold my hand. I kept forgetting his special request that grandpa wanted me to fetch a New Year card that my late grandmother had given him on their last anniversary together. He used the card as a bookmark in his Bible.
I just knew that I had to fetch his much-loved and much-requested gift. Leaving my grandpa at his bedside, I rushed home. Jumping back into my car with the card in my hand, was depressed when the car wouldn't start. I quickly ran to the nearest bus stop. As I waited there, out of breath, I looked in my purse only to find a $20 note and 50 cents in change.
A short while later, a bus appeared. I quickly got on and offered the driver the $20 note To my amazement, he told me that he had no change and that I had to get off and wait for the next bus. I was horrified.
A few minutes later, another bus came.<'Hey, where do you want to go?" asked another driver . I told him the hospital and about my lack of change. Although he was going to completely different destination, he shouted, "Hop aboard- - -let's see what we can do."
In exchange for my $20 note, he offered me two fives and a ten. Next, he picked up his phone and made a call. Just as we passed the corner, I could see the previous bus that I had tried to board waiting for me, at the next stop. My kind driver told me, to hop out and catch the, bus in front.
After less than 20 minutes, I was back at the hospital. By then, grandpa was pale and blue. When I handed him the card, he laughed and cried. As he looked at it, I knew I had done the right thing in getting it for him. It was like telling grandma that he was coming.Grandfather valued the New Year card because_____.
| A．it was a gift from his wife in memory of their marriage |
| B．he often used it as a bookmark in his Bible |
| C．he planned to send the card to his loved wife |
| D．there were requirements from his wife on the card |
We can infer from the passage that the second driver_____.
| A．would go by the hospital |
| B．knew how important the card was to a patient |
| C．was a person willing to help chose in need |
| D．would specially send the author to the hospital |
The passage is mainly about______.
| A．the relationship between grandparents |
| B．the kindness from bus drivers |
| C．the last moment in grandpa's life |
| D．the action to satisfy grandpa's request |
Every day we are exposed to images, videos, music and news. In this age of visual and aural hyper-stimulation, the medium of radio is making a great comeback.
“We’re at the beginning of a golden age of audio,” said US-based podcaster Alex Blumberg in an article in The Sydney Morning Herald. In the last month alone, 15 percent of US adults listened to a radio podcast (播客). These statistics, released by Edison Research, show the successful evolution of traditional radio broadcasts to the present day’s digital podcast format. The term “podcast” was invented in 2004, but the trend only started gaining mainstream popularity in recent years. With the sharp increase in consumer demand for smartphones and tablets, podcast sales have jumped.
The appeal of the podcast partly lies in its multiplatform delivery and on-demand capabilities (功能). You can listen during those extra minutes of the day when you’re walking to the shops, waiting in a queue or riding the subway. Similar to television shows, podcasts are generally free to download and most offer new content every week.
Donna Jackson, 22, Sydney University media graduate, listens to podcasts two or three times a week, via iTurns. “I listen while I’m wandering around the house doing something else. It makes completing a boring task much more enjoyable… And it’s an easy way of keeping in touch with what’s going on in the rest of the world,” she said, “I mainly listen to BBC podcasts, but recently I’ve also been listening to This American Life and Serial. They have a special skill to really draw you in.”
Unlike television and music, the audio format has the potential to create a deep impression on readers. Blumberg says this owes to the podcast’s ability “to create close relationship and emotional connection.” Sydney University undergraduate Hazel Proust, majoring in social work and arts, agrees. “When you’re listening, it feels as if the voice of the podcast’s storyteller is talking directly to you. It’s comforting, ” said Proust.
It seems the age-old tradition of verbal storytelling is very much alive and well. From the first two paragraphs, we can learn that ________.
| A．traditional broadcast has come back |
| B．Americans love listening to the radio |
| C．podcasts have become very popular today |
| D．smartphones sell well because of podcasts |
The writer mentions Donna Jackson mainly to ________.
| A．tell how young people relax themselves |
| B．explain why young people like podcasts |
| C．introduce what programs podcasts are presenting |
| D．show how popular podcasts are presenting |
Paragraph 5 is mainly about ________.
| A．the influence of radios |
| B．the advantage of podcasts |
| C．readers’ impression on radios |
| D．people’s reaction to the medium |
What is probably the best title of the passage?
| A．Return of Radio | B．Opinions of Podcast |
| C．Features of Radio | D．Technology of Podcast |
As we grow old, we realize that we have so little time to read and there are so many great books that we’ve yet to get around to. Ye re-readers are everywhere around us. For certain fans, re-reading The Lord of the Rings is a conventional practice annually. One friend told me that Jane Austen’s Emma can still surprise him, despite his having read it over 50 times.
New sudden clear understandings can be gained from the process of re-reading. Journalist Rebacca Mead, a long-time Englishwoman in New York, first came across George Eliot’s Middlemarch at 17. Since then, she has read it again every five years. With each re-reading, it has opened up further; in each chapter of her life, it has resonated (引起共鸣) differently. Mead evidenced the large number of ways in which really good books not only stand the test of repeat reads, but also offer fresh gifts each time we crack their spines. These kinds of books grow with us.
Scientists have also recognized the mental health benefits of re-reading. Research conducted with readers in the US found that on our first reading, we are concerned with the “what” and the “why”. Second time round, we’re able to better appreciate the emotions that the plot continues to express. As researcher Cristel Russell of the American University explained, returning to a book “brings new or renewed appreciation of both the great book and its readers.”
It’s true that we often find former selves on the pages of old books (if we’re fond of making notes on the pages). These texts can carry us back to a time and place, and remind us of the kind of person that we were then. We’re changed not only by lived experience but also by read experience – by the books that we’ve discovered since last reading the one in our hand.
More so than the movie director or the musician, the writer calls upon our imaginations, using words to lead us to picture this declaration of love or that unfaithfulness in life. A book is a joint project between writers and readers, and we must pour so much of ourselves into reading that our own life story can become connected with the story in the book.
Perhaps what’s really strange is that we don’t re-read more often. After all, we watch our favourite films again and we wouldn’t think of listening to an album only once. We treasure messy old paintings as objects, yet of all art forms, literature alone is a largely one-time delight. A book, of course, takes up more time, but as Mead confirms, the rewards make it adequately worthwhile.The two books are mentioned in Paragraph 1 mainly to __________.
| A．attract the attention of readers |
| B．introduce the topic of the passage |
| C．provide some background information |
| D．show the similarity between re-readers |
The underlined expression “crack their spines” in Paragraph 2 refers to ________.
| A．recite them | B．re-read them |
| C．recall them | D．retell them |
It can be learned from the passage that __________.
| A．reading benefits people both mentally and physically |
| B．readers mainly focus on feelings on their first reading |
| C．we know ourselves better through re-reading experience |
| D．writers inspire the same imaginations as film directors do |
The purpose of the passage is to __________.
| A．call on different understandings of old books |
| B．focus on the mental health benefits of reading |
| C．bring awareness to the significance of re-reading |
| D．introduce the effective ways of re-reading old books |