I really love my job because I enjoy working with small children and like the challenges and awards from the job. I also think my work is important. There was a time when I thought I would never have that sort of career.
I wasn’t an excellent student because I didn’t do much schoolwork. In my final term I started thinking what I might do and found I didn’t have much to offer. I just accepted that I wasn’t the type to have a career.
I then found myself a job, looking after two little girls. It wasn’t too bad at first. But the problems began when I agreed to live in, so that I would be there if my boss had to go out for business in the evening. We agreed that if I had to work extra hours one week, she’d give me time off the next. But unfortunately, it didn’t often work out. I was getting extremely tired and fed up, because I had too many late nights and early mornings with the children.
One Sunday, I was in the park with the children, and met Megan who used to go to school with me. I told her about my situation. She suggested that I should do a course and get a qualification if I wanted to work with children. I didn’t think I would be accepted because I didn’t take many exams in school. She persuaded me to phone the local college and they were really helpful. My experience counted for a lot and I got on a part –time course. I had to leave my job with the family, and got work helping out at a kindergarten.
Now I’ve got a full-time job there. I shall always be thankful to Megan. I wish I had known earlier that you could have a career, even if you aren’t top of the class at school.When staying with the two girls’ family, the author ______________ .
| A．was paid for extra work |
| B．often worked long hours |
| C．got much help form her boss |
| D．took a day off every other week |
What has the author learned from her own experiences?
| A．Less successful students can still have a career. |
| B．Qualifications are necessary for a career. |
| C．Hard work makes an excellent student. |
| D．One must choose the job she likes. |
A
Disabled Students' Allowances are grants (补助金） to help meet the extra costs of studying that students face as a direct result of a disability or specific learning difficulty.
The allowances provide help for full-time, part-time and postgraduate students. The amount you can get does not depend on your household income. You do not have to repay this help.
Do you qualify?
To apply, you will have to show your local authority written proof of your disability from an appropriate medical professional.
If you have a specific learning difficulty such as dyslexia (诵读困难），the local authority may ask you to have an independent assessment carried out to establish this.
Your local authority cannot meet the costs of this assessment. If you cannot afford to pay for it, you can apply to your college or university for help through the Access to Learning Fund.
You can apply if you are studying：
a full-time course that lasts at least one year.
a part-time course that lasts one year and doesn't take more than twice as long to complete as an equivalent(相同的)full-time course.
However, you will not be eligible (有资格的) for Disabled Students' Allowances if you receive a bursary (奖学金） from the NHS (the National Health Service). Bursaries are similar to grants and are usually linked to a certain profession or qualification.
How much do you get?
That will depend on your particular circumstances. If you are a part-time student，the intensity of your course will also affect how much you can receive.
How are they paid?
Student Finance Direct will pay the money into your account as needed, or directly to the supplier of services, for example, your university, college or equipment supplier. What could be the best title for the passage?
| A．How to apply for Disabled Students’ Allowances |
| B．How to be qualified for Disabled Students' Allowances |
| C．Disabled Students' Allowances |
| D．How much Disabled Students' Allowances can you apply for? |
The underlined word “establish” （in Paragraph 5) probably means __________
| A．to make people accept a belief, claim, custom, etc. |
| B．to discover or prove the facts of a situation |
| C．to start or create an organization, etc. |
| D．to start a relationship with another person, group or country |
A student who gets Disabled Students' Allowances __________
| A．should apply to his college or university for them in advance |
| B．is required to return the allowances after he finishes his education |
| C．might get more allowances if he finishes his course in a longer time |
| D．should not receive scholarships from the NHS at the same time |
A mother from Colorado who doctors said had died while giving birth to her son, has said it is a Christmas miracle that both she and the boy are alive.
Tracey Hermanstorfer's heart stopped beating and her son Coltyn appeared lifeless after the Caesarean section(剖腹产手术）on Christmas Eve. However a few minutes after he was born, both began breathing again. Dr Stephanie Martin told Good Morning America she could not explain how the pair survived. Mrs. Hermanstorfer and her husband Mike told the American television show that their baby was now healthy and that they were doing “good” following the drama at Colorado Springs Memorial Hospital.
The couple，who already had two children, had to go into the hospital seven weeks earlier than planned. Her husband, 37, said his wife was tired after receiving an epidural (硬膜夕卜麻醉）during the labour (分娩)but after closing her eyes, she "wasn't waking up". She stopped breathing and she is believed to have suffered a heart attack before her heart stopped beating entirely.
Dr Martin said she was called in and that the outlook was grim since in most situations like this，"despite the best efforts of the team"，the mother was often unable to be revived. In that case doctors then tried to focus on delivering the baby but when he was born he was "completely lifeless".
Mr. Hermanstorfer told the Associated Press news agency，" I had everything in the world taken from me, and in an hour and a half I had everything given to me. "
Dr Martin said she did not have a “great explanation" for why Mrs. Hermanstorfer、heartbeat re-turned. "Somewhere between four and five minutes she had been without heart rate and had stopped breathing a minute or two prior to her heart stop-ping," she said. The doctors were then able to bring the baby back to life, and the mother was alive after that.
Despite tests, she said doctors were still not sure about what had happened. However Mrs. Hermanstorfer and her husband Mike have said they believed it was down to a miracle. She said，“I got a second chance in life. ” The story happened on __________
| A．December 24 |
| B．December 25 |
| C．December 31 |
| D．January 1 |
What might have happened to Tracey Hermanstorfer just before her heart stopped beating?
| A．She became unconscious. |
| B．She took a nap. |
| C．She had a bad headache. |
| D．She suffered a heart attack. |
Which of the following is the correct order of what happened to Tracey Hermanstorfer?
a. suffering a heart attack
b. stopping heart beating entirely
c. stopping breathing
d. coming back to life
e. receiving an epidural
f. producing a baby
| A．acfdbe |
| B．fcadbe |
| C．eacbfd |
| D．eabcfd |
What feelings did Mr. Hermanstorfer experience during the incident?
| A．Sad and delighted. |
| B．Disappointed and depressed. |
| C．Sad and angry. |
| D．Touched and regrettable. |
Which of the following words best expresses Dr Martin's attitude towards Tracey Hermanstorfer's coming back to life?
| A．Shocked. |
| B．Puzzled. |
| C．Normal. |
| D．Curious. |
It's not unusual for parents to stay with sick children round the clock. But the floor nurses noticed something special about Kathy. She was always smiling even on days when Michael was very ill or received bad news about blood tests. “It was never about Kathy or the sacrifices she was making，”says Debra ,one of Michael's nurses. "She never let Michael see how hard this was on her. ”
One day, Michael told one of the nurses, Felice ,that he was so impressed by what she and the other nurses did, he planned to enroll in the nursing program when he was healthy enough to go back to college.
Michael always believed he would conquer the disease. He'd done so with other hurdles in his life. Born a premature(早产的婴儿），he overcame a learning disability and was admitted into a regular classroom by the third grade. Despite good grades, he did poorly on his SATs，the college entrance exam. He gave up a trip to take a summer prep program at Widener University, south of Philadelphia, then entered as a freshman that fall. He was always told he was too short to play sports, yet he managed to be-come a linebacker (中后卫球员）on Widener's Division ID football team.
When the third round of chemo(化疗）was finished, Michael returned home to await the results. A few weeks later, Kathy and Matthew were extremely sad when Selina Luger, the doctor in charge of Michael's illness, pulled them aside in the hall of the clinic ,out of Michael's earshot, and told them, “The chemo didn't work. Michael's incurable. ”
Matthew was shell-shocked at the news. Like his son，he always believed they would beat this. This can't be the end of it； he tried to convince himself. Kathy wept against a hallway window while Dr. Luger and Matthew walked into an exam room. We can learn from the first paragraph that __________
| A．Kathy didn't care about her son's illness |
| B．Kathy made few sacrifices for her son's illness |
| C．Kathy cared much about her son's illness but never showed her anxiety |
| D．Kathy didn't feel sad despite her son's illness |
How many hurdles in Michael's life are mentioned in the passage?
| A．Two. |
| B．Three. |
| C．Four. |
| D．Five. |
What do we know about Michael from the passage?
| A．He was born with the deadly disease. |
| B．He enrolled in the nursing program before he went to college. |
| C．He did well in his study in high school. |
| D．He acted as a linebacker just because he was too tall. |
We can conclude from the passage that Michael's father __________
| A．thought his son would make a recovery |
| B．was disappointed with his son's disease |
| C．was sure that his son would be better very soon |
| D．doubted if his son would be well |
A mother from Colorado who doctors said had died while giving birth to her son, has said it is a Christmas miracle that both she and the boy are alive.
Tracey Hermanstorfer's heart stopped beating and her son Coltyn appeared lifeless after the Caesarean section(剖腹产手术）on Christmas Eve. However a few minutes after he was born, both began breathing again. Dr Stephanie Martin told Good Morning America she could not explain how the pair survived. Mrs. Hermanstorfer and her husband Mike told the American television show that their baby was now healthy and that they were doing “good” following the drama at Colorado Springs Memorial Hospital.
The couple，who already had two children, had to go into the hospital seven weeks earlier than planned. Her husband, 37, said his wife was tired after receiving an epidural (硬膜夕卜麻醉）during the labour (分娩)but after closing her eyes, she "wasn't waking up". She stopped breathing and she is believed to have suffered a heart attack before her heart stopped beating entirely.
Dr Martin said she was called in and that the outlook was grim since in most situations like this，"despite the best efforts of the team"，the mother was often unable to be revived. In that case doctors then tried to focus on delivering the baby but when he was born he was "completely lifeless".
Mr. Hermanstorfer told the Associated Press news agency，" I had everything in the world taken from me, and in an hour and a half I had everything given to me. "
Dr Martin said she did not have a “great explanation" for why Mrs. Hermanstorfer、heartbeat re-turned. "Somewhere between four and five minutes she had been without heart rate and had stopped breathing a minute or two prior to her heart stop-ping," she said. The doctors were then able to bring the baby back to life, and the mother was alive after that.
Despite tests, she said doctors were still not sure about what had happened. However Mrs. Hermanstorfer and her husband Mike have said they believed it was down to a miracle. She said，“I got a second chance in life. ” The story happened on __________
| A．December 24 |
| B．December 25 |
| C．December 31 |
| D．January 1 |
What might have happened to Tracey Hermanstorfer just before her heart stopped beating?
| A．She became unconscious. |
| B．She took a nap. |
| C．She had a bad headache. |
| D．She suffered a heart attack. |
Which of the following is the correct order of what happened to Tracey Hermanstorfer?
a. suffering a heart attack
b. stopping heart beating entirely
c. stopping breathing
d. coming back to life
e. receiving an epidural
f. producing a baby
| A．acfdbe |
| B．fcadbe |
| C．eacbfd |
| D．eabcfd |
What feelings did Mr. Hermanstorfer experience during the incident?
| A．Sad and delighted. |
| B．Disappointed and depressed. |
| C．Sad and angry. |
| D．Touched and regrettable. |
Which of the following words best expresses Dr Martin's attitude towards Tracey Hermanstorfer's coming back to life?
| A．Shocked. |
| B．Puzzled. |
| C．Normal. |
| D．Curious. |
It's not unusual for parents to stay with sick children round the clock. But the floor nurses noticed something special about Kathy. She was always smiling even on days when Michael was very ill or received bad news about blood tests. “It was never about Kathy or the sacrifices she was making，”says Debra ,one of Michael's nurses. "She never let Michael see how hard this was on her. ”
One day, Michael told one of the nurses, Felice ,that he was so impressed by what she and the other nurses did, he planned to enroll in the nursing program when he was healthy enough to go back to college.
Michael always believed he would conquer the disease. He'd done so with other hurdles in his life. Born a premature(早产的婴儿），he overcame a learning disability and was admitted into a regular classroom by the third grade. Despite good grades, he did poorly on his SATs，the college entrance exam. He gave up a trip to take a summer prep program at Widener University, south of Philadelphia, then entered as a freshman that fall. He was always told he was too short to play sports, yet he managed to be-come a linebacker (中后卫球员）on Widener's Division ID football team.
When the third round of chemo(化疗）was finished, Michael returned home to await the results. A few weeks later, Kathy and Matthew were extremely sad when Selina Luger, the doctor in charge of Michael's illness, pulled them aside in the hall of the clinic ,out of Michael's earshot, and told them, “The chemo didn't work. Michael's incurable. ”
Matthew was shell-shocked at the news. Like his son，he always believed they would beat this. This can't be the end of it； he tried to convince himself. Kathy wept against a hallway window while Dr. Luger and Matthew walked into an exam room. We can learn from the first paragraph that __________
| A．Kathy didn't care about her son's illness |
| B．Kathy made few sacrifices for her son's illness |
| C．Kathy cared much about her son's illness but never showed her anxiety |
| D．Kathy didn't feel sad despite her son's illness |
How many hurdles in Michael's life are mentioned in the passage?
| A．Two. |
| B．Three. |
| C．Four. |
| D．Five. |
What do we know about Michael from the passage?
| A．He was born with the deadly disease. |
| B．He enrolled in the nursing program before he went to college. |
| C．He did well in his study in high school. |
| D．He acted as a linebacker just because he was too tall. |
We can conclude from the passage that Michael's father __________
| A．thought his son would make a recovery |
| B．was disappointed with his son's disease |
| C．was sure that his son would be better very soon |
| D．doubted if his son would be well |