Monty Robert’s father was a horse trainer. As a child, Monty often went from one farm to another with his father. Sometimes they didn’t have money to pay for food, but Monty still kept hoping to own a horse farm.
When he was in school, his teacher asked him to write a paper about his dream. He wrote a seven-page（页）paper. He wanted to have a horse farm one day. He even drew a picture of a horse farm in the paper.
The next day he handed it in to his teacher. Two days later, he got his paper back. On the front page was a large red “F” with the words “See me after class”. So the boy did and asked his teacher, “Why did I get an F?” The teacher said, “This dream will not come true for a young boy like you. You need a lot of money to own a horse farm. You have to buy the land. You have to pay for a lot of things. There is no way you could ever do it.” Then the teacher added, “If you write this paper again with a simpler dream, I will give you a good grade.”
After school he thought hard about it. At last, he decided to hand in the same paper, making no changes at all. He said to the teacher, “You can keep the F and I’ll keep my dream.”
Many years later, Monty had his own large horse farm. His dream came true.
So don’t let anyone take away your dreams. Follow your dreams, no matter what they are. From Paragraph 1, we learn that _________.
| A．Monty’s family was poor |
| B．Monty’s father didn’t support him |
| C．Monty hoped to be a horse trainer |
| D．Monty changed his mind all the time |
What was Monty’s attitude towards his paper?
| A．Careless. | B．Serious. |
| C．Joking. | D．Funny. |
Monty’s teacher gave him a red “F” because he thought _________.
| A．Monty’s handwriting was too bad |
| B．Monty copied from another student |
| C．Monty’s dream was too hard for him to achieve |
| D．Monty was not working hard to realize his dream |
What does the story want to tell us?
| A．Don’t take away others’ dreams. |
| B．Follow a realistic dream. |
| C．Never give up your dream. |
| D．Anyone with a dream will succeed. |
You’re on the school bus. But as soon as you turn the corner, you find yourself at the end of a very long queue. It’s another traffic jam! It is stop-start for the rest of your journey. Meanwhile, at the same time in Antarctica(南极洲), snow covers the land. A group of emperor penguins crowd together to keep warm, using stop-and-go movements to protect themselves from the winds. Can you see the connection?
Emperor penguins move like cars in traffic jams to keep warm, that’s according to new research by the Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Center for Polar and Marina Research in Germany. A penguin only needs to move 2cm in any direction for its neighbor to do the same thing. These movements then flow(流动) through the whole group of penguins like a “traveling wave”.
These waves also help smaller crowds join bigger groups, keeping more and more of their friends warm. A single Antarctic “traffic jam” has thousands of penguins. Interestingly, the technology used for studying road traffic jams was used to study the penguins. This included studying time-lapse(延时) videos. Scientists also discovered that unlike on the road, these waves can be made by any penguin and in any direction.
With temperatures usually dropping below –50℃, and winds reaching speeds of up to 200km/h, these traveling waves are very important for penguins to keep warm.
These penguins can also teach us a lesson. In big groups, they learn to be orderly and patient, and to never crash into each other. These are skills we should all learn from them when we are on the road!
| A．keep warm | B．play games | C．learn from each other | D．cross the road |
| A．drivers can drive fast | B．drivers can drive carelessly |
| C．cars are not moving fast | D．cars will stop working |
| A．is caused by a traffic jam on the road |
| B．is caused by the strong wind in Antarctica |
| C．is formed by the movement of the penguins |
| D．is made by just one or two penguins |
| A．needs to move orderly | B．can move as fast as it likes |
| C．will not leave others behind | D．should move as slowly as it can |
| A．penguins won’t move together if it is not very cold |
| B．traffic jams happen probably because people are impatient |
| C．penguins learn their skills from human beings |
| D．penguins are likely to crash into each other in a group |
What is the hottest English word of 2013? It’s “selfie”, according to Oxford dictionaries. Selfie is a photo that one takes of oneself, according to the Oxford online dictionary. People usually take selfies with a smartphone(智能手机) and send them to a social media website.
The word was first used in 2002. In the past 12 months, its frequency (出现频率) in the English language has increased by 17,000 percent, said Oxford dictionaries. Now, almost everybody knows it.
“Almost every day, I take a photo of myself at school, and save it in my Qzone (QQ空间),” said Huang Xu, 13, from Hunan. These photos record her happy and sad moments.
Pop stars also take a lot of selfies. Li Chunping, 14, from Harbin, is a big fan of Yang Mi. “She has used many selfies to tell us what’s going on in her personal life,” said Li.
What makes people love selfies? Some people say it’s narcissism (自恋). “The rise of the selfie is a perfect symbol for our narcissistic culture. We’re crying out: Look at me!” said US psychiatrist(精神科医生) Carole Lieberman.
Young people are using selfies to make friends online, Jonathan Freedland wrote in The Guardian. “The usual purpose of taking a selfie is to share online. They express a human need to connect with others,” wrote Freedland.
Huang Xu agrees with that. “During summer vacation, my classmates and I shared many selfies online. Hair or clothes were not our interests. Through these photos, we got to know each other’s holidays and feelings,” said Huang Xu.
| A．a person with a smartphone |
| B．a smartphone which can take photos |
| C．a photo taken by oneself |
| D．an English dictionary |
| A．More than ten years ago | B．In 2013 |
| C．When smartphones appeared | D．Nobody knows |
| A．only famous people enjoy taking selfies |
| B．all people love selfies because of narcissism |
| C．people love to share selfies online |
| D．US psychiatrist Carole Lieberman hates selfies |
| A．Paragraph 4 | B．Paragraph 5 | C．Paragraph 6 | D．Paragraph 7 |
| A．Selfies and narcissism | B．Selfies and sharing |
| C．Selfies and smartphones | D．Selfies, the hottest word in 2013 |
When the man’s wife died, their youngest baby was 2 years old. They had six other children — three boys and three girls, aged from 4 to 16. The man’s parents and his wife’s parents came to visit.
“We’ve been talking about how to make this work,” they said. “There’s no way you can take care of all these children and work to make a living. So, we’ve decided to place each child with a different uncle and aunt.” The man refused.
Over the next few weeks, he moved the family to a tiny town and opened a small business. His business developed quickly. He was happy to see people and serve them. He became popular with people for his pleasant personality and excellent customer (顾客) service. People came from far away to do business with him. And the children helped both at home and at work.
The children grew up and got married. Five of the seven went off to college. The children’s success was a source (来源) of pride to the father.
Then came grandchildren. No one enjoyed grandchildren more than this man. As they became toddlers (学走路的孩子), he invited them to his workplace and his small home. They brought each other great joy.
Finally, the youngest daughter, who was 2 years old when the mother died, got married. With his life’s work done, the father died.
This man’s work had been the lonely but joyful task of raising his family. This man was my father. I was the 16-year-old, the oldest of seven.
| A．eight | B．seven | C．six | D．five |
| A．suggest placing each child with a different aunt and uncle |
| B．talk about finding a new wife for him |
| C．give him money to support the family |
| D．help take good care of his children |
| A．Nearly half of the man’s children went to college. |
| B．The man wanted to give his children to their uncle. |
| C．The man moved his family and opened a business. |
| D．The man thought life was hopeless after his wife died. |
| A．before his youngest daughter got married. |
| B．after his youngest daughter got married. |
| C．before his children went off to college |
| D．after his children went off to college |
| A．why the father didn’t give up his family |
| B．how the children succeeded after their mother died |
| C．why the father was lonely |
| D．how the father raised his large family |
How do you study each year? You may answer it in one second: have classes at school, take notes and do homework. Feeling a little bored? Yes? So how do we make learning interesting? There’s a new way of learning called digital (数字的) learning. It helps students learn by using the Internet.
There are three important kinds of digital learning. Apps are computer software applications (应用软件). People can download (下载) them on their mobile devices. The other two kinds are social networking services, including weibo and WeChat (微信) and website. Every one of them is like your teacher. They help you master (掌握) what you learn at school.
Compared with regular learning ways, digital learning has its advantages. Digital learning is also diverse (多样的). It covers almost every school subject. More importantly, it’s always updating. It offers students the newest resources (资源) to learn from.
Digital learning is also personalized (个性化的). You can choose what you like to learn. If you don’t master what you have learned at school, you can learn again through digital ways.
________, digital learning also has disadvantages. When you use digital ways to learn, you have little interaction (相互交流) with teachers and classmates. As digital learning uses computers or smart phones, watching the screen too long may be bad for your eyes. It is better to take a rest every 20 minutes.
【1】判断正误（“T”表示正确，“F”表示错误）；【2】为文中的横线处，填写一个恰当的词；【3】就文中划线句子，以特殊疑问句的形式提出一个问题；【4】找出并写下全文的主题句；【5】将文中斜体句子译成汉语。Digital learning has both advantages and disadvantages.【】
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China is a nation with a rich culture in handwriting. “Even though the computer is widely used today, Chinese people should not forget the skill of writing with hands,” said a Chinese government official(官员).
Nowadays, the computer has become a very useful tool to help people to write. As people use computers more often than before, many people have forgotten how to write Chinese characters (字). People often make a lot of mistakes in writing.
At present, China is trying to help pupils and teachers to improve their writing with the help of information technology. With the technology, it is hoped that teachers can write their teaching contents (内容) on the blackboard and students can respond by writing, too.
The Chinese character test shows that nowadays, many college students’ handwriting has become worse. Many college students do not know how to compose (组成) words or sentences in Chinese character in the right way. Not only kids, many adults also have met the same problem. They might be able to tell the general form of a certain character. However, if you ask them to spell out the character in detail (详细地), they can’t. On the other hand, they can easily type out the character on a computer.
In the national language teaching course, we can solve this problem with the use of certain technologies. Actually, apart from（除了）technology, there is a lot that we can do. For example, we may ask students to finish their homework by writing with hands instead of typing.People often make a lot of mistakes in writing Chinese characters because ________.
| A．they use computers too often and many people have forgotten how to write them |
| B．Chinese characters are too difficult to write |
| C．they are using too much English |
| D．the country forgets to stress the importance of the Chinese writing |
The problem of college students’ handwriting is that _________.
| A．they don’t know how to write a Chinese character in the right way |
| B．they only know how to type out the character on a computer |
| C．they can write correctly with the help of information technology |
| D．they don’t know how to make up words or sentences in Chinese characters correctly |
How is China trying to help students and teachers to improve their writing?
| A．By punishing people who can’t write correctly. |
| B．By controlling people’s use of computers. |
| C．By using information technology. |
| D．By asking them to write everything with hands. |
What does the underlined word “respond” in the third paragraph mean?
| A．抄写 | B．应答 | C．修改 | D．反对 |
What’s the main idea of this passage?
| A．Computers are harmful(对……有害的) to our handwriting. |
| B．How we can write good Chinese characters. |
| C．Chinese people should not forget the skill of writing with hands. |
| D．Don’t forget our mother language. |