One day, a train was approaching the small town of Cheekyville. On the train was a young man with a big suitcase. He was called William Warbler, and he looked very common indeed. What made him most unusual, though, was the fact that whenever he needed to communicate he did it by singing opera (歌剧). It didn’t matter to William whether it was simply a matter of answering a brief greeting, like “good day”. He would clear his voice and respond, “Gooood dayyy to youuuuuuuu... toooooo!”
No one could get a normal spoken word out of him and no one knew how he made his living. As he lived quite simply, always wearing his same old second-hand suit, people often looked down on him.
William had been in Cheekyville for some years, when, one day, word spread round town like wildfire: William had played a role in a very important opera in the nation’s capital. Everyone in the capital went to see it, and it was a great success. Everyone in Cheekyville felt it was a surprise. But something more surprising was, when William was being interviewed by reporters, he answered their questions by speaking rather than singing. And he did it with great manners, and with a clear and pleasant voice.
From that day, William gave up singing at all hours. Now he did it only during his stage appearances and world tours. Some people suspected why he had changed, but others continued believing him to be somewhat mad. They wouldn’t have thought so if they had seen what William kept in his big suitcase. It was a large stone, with a hand-carved (手工雕刻的) message on it. The message said: “Practice, my boy. Practice every second, for you never know when your chance will come.”
Little did people realize that he only got the role in the opera because the director had heard William singing while out buying a newspaper.Why did people in Cheekyville consider William strange?
| A.He always carried a big suitcase. |
| B.He always spoke by singing opera. |
| C.He always greeted people gladly. |
| D.He always wore an old suit. |
Hearing the news about William, people in Cheekyville felt it was _____.
| A.unbelievable | B.satisfying |
| C.disappointing | D.interesting |
According to the text, William _____.
| A.had no idea whether he should continue doing something mad |
| B.was nervous and didn’t know how to sing when he was interviewed |
| C.was selling newspapers when the opera director heard him singing |
| D.practiced singing whenever possible before he became famous |
What can we learn from the story?
| A.Live and learn. |
| B.Better late than never. |
| C.Practice makes the master. |
| D.Experience is the best teacher. |
Have you ever noticed that the more you have the more you want? Let’s face it.Thinking our life is good enough doesn’t come naturally to many people.When we have high expectations of everything in life we will run into disappointment.Only when we are aware that needs are different from desires can we live with satisfaction.Here are a few ideas to help you be happier with what you have and who you are.
Focus on what you are thankful for.Most people want things to be better than they are, or when things are going well, we forget to appreciate what we have.Learn to reflect on how much better things are than they could be.Focus on what you are thankful for.Write down 5 things you are grateful for right now.
When we hold onto regrets from decisions we have made, it can really poison our well-being.Many people regret something they can no longer change, which ends up holding them back from moving forward in a more positive manner.What happened in the past is done and gone, so work to stay present and be mindful of the current moment to find more joy and fulfillment.
When we use other people as the measuring stick for our personal success and quality of life we are likely to be less satisfied.Social comparisons can provide useful information when we try to learn from others, but they also hold our perspective in a discontented position.Compare yourself less with others so you can be satisfied more.
When you are focused on your big ambitions and future goals you might elide the daily pleasures that surround you.Learn to slow down and absorb the wonder and beauty around you.Stay present and focus on the task you’re undertaking at the moment.Don’t let the life pass you by because you’re always on the go and distracted by ambition.
Practice looking at life through the lens of contentment and it will become more natural.How can we live with contentment?
| A.To change our lifestyle. |
| B.To have a motivation in life. |
| C.To give less attention to what we are grateful for. |
| D.To realize the difference between needs and desires. |
What’s the main idea of Paragraph 3?
| A.Make wise decisions |
| B.Know the present situation |
| C.Let go of regrets |
| D.Remember the past |
The underlined word “elide”(in Paragraph 5) probably means “______”.
| A.enjoy | B.change | C.create | D.neglect |
What should you do to put yourself in a good mood?
| A.Make time for simple pleasures. |
| B.Learn from successful people. |
| C.Focus on your future goals. |
| D.Create chance to learn more. |
As many as 4 out of every 1,000 infants born today have permanent hearing loss.When parents learn that their child has hearing loss, they are faced with many difficult decisions.These decisions can include choosing therapies and schools, as well as finding financial help for hearing aids or cochlear implants (人工耳蜗).
Help Me Hear Foundation is a public charity that gives the gift of hearing to deaf children from families existing on very low incomes around the world.The foundation offers life-changing services for impoverished families, and provides real help for children with hearing impairment who may otherwise be left behind in schools or society due to their lack of hearing.
Help Me Hear Foundation believes that a child’s first years of development are critical.Being able to hear is vital to human, and Help Me Hear Foundation seeks to provide a positive lasting impression on society through its programs.Help Me Hear Foundation has many goals, including relieving the burden on communities with hearing-impaired infants and children, and strengthening the social structure of families and neighborhoods.
Recipients of Help Me Hear Foundation’s benefits receive state-of-the-art hearing devices that otherwise would cost thousands of dollars per child over the course of their lifetime.The Foundation raises money through donations for hearing aids and cochlear implants, which saves recipients and their families on average over $50,000 on related expenses.
The Foundation tries to be a transparent charity, and wants to be a catalyst for allowing deaf and hearing-impaired children to develop in a typical fashion alongside their peers.
Needy families can obtain information on specific services, and find out about deafness education by visiting the Help Me Hear Foundation’s website.The website offers helpful information on how hearing aids work, and how hearing aids ease many of the learning and language challenges that hearing-impaired children deal with on a daily basis.Help Me Hear Foundation was probably set up to _____.
| A.build schools for deaf children |
| B.research deaf children’s behavior |
| C.protect deaf children from being ignored |
| D.offer real help to poor deaf children |
We learn from the text that _____.
| A.the local government is in charge of the foundation |
| B.the work of the foundation depends on donations |
| C.even blind children can turn to the foundation |
| D.poor deaf African children cannot get help from the foundation |
Visit the foundation’s website, and you will learn about _____.
| A.the function of hearing aids |
| B.the specific services the foundation needs |
| C.the challenges that children face every day |
| D.the prices of a variety of hearing aids |
For whom is the text most probably written?
| A.Poor parents who have deaf children. |
| B.Doctors who want to improve skills. |
| C.Students who cannot see the blackboard clearly. |
| D.Teachers who have deaf children in their class. |
The author writes the text mainly to _____.
| A.tell how to avoid permanent hearing loss |
| B.explain how hard a life deaf children live |
| C.introduce Help Me Hear Foundation |
| D.advise people to give money to Help Me Hear Foundation |
Homestay UK/Great Britain
Here you will find a selection of homestay hosts and host families in the UK.If you want to learn more about the British host family of your choice, please click on information at www.Homestaybooking.Com.You will then see a personal introduction of the UK homestay host.If you don’t want to search yourself, just register for free and receive our matching recommendations.
Chika and Tara from London, the United Kingdom
Information about the homestay host
Chika is 28 years old.She is away from home most of the time.Tara is 18 years old.She is at home every day.They both speak English.
Chika and Tara’s guests can stay for at least 5 nights and up to a maximum of 365 nights.Chika and Tara have no children living at home.It is a non-smoking residence(住宅).No pets live in this household.
Information about the homestay accommodation
The accommodation is in London.The name of the neighborhood is Greenwich.The distance to the city center is 1.6km.The next access point to public transport is at 15 m distance.
Three guests can stay in Tara and Chika’s house at the same time.The following accommodation is generally available:
Single room with shared use of the family bathroom
*Size: 12.0 ㎡
*Facilities: desk, Internet access, mirror, hairdryer and wardrobe(衣橱)
*Price per night per person: £20.00 per night(one single)
Twin room with shared use of the family bathroom
*Size: 15.0 ㎡
*Facilities: TV, desk, Internet access, mirror, hairdryer and wordrobe
*Price per night per person:
£20.00 per night(one guest)
£17.00 per night(two guests)
The room charge includes the following services: Internet access, regular room cleaning, breakfast, free use of the washing machine.
Additional available service at an extra charge: Pick-up service(£60.00 one-way); Lunch(£6.00 per person per day); Dinner(£6.00 per person per night)
Vegetarian(素食的) meals are available.Chika and Tara’s house would be a good choice for _______.
| A.a pet lover |
| B.a heavy smoker |
| C.a person who eats no meat |
| D.one who needs a one-night stay |
What do we know about Chika and Tara’s house?
| A.It lies in the center of the city. |
| B.It is not far away from Greenwich. |
| C.Public transport is convenient there. |
| D.The distance from the house to London is 1.6 km. |
If Mary chooses a twin room and pick-up service(two-way), how much should she pay per day?
| A.£140. | B.£137. | C.£80. | D.£77 |
When Armida Armato’s daughter, Alexia, came home from school one day last year keen to go on a school trip to Ecuador, she wasn’t too sure how to feel. She was happy that her daughter could experience something she never did as a teen but was fearful of letting her travel to such a remote part of the world.
Alexia was 16 at the time, a student at Westwood High School. The school sponsored a humanitarian trip for 26 students and two teachers to spend 18 days living in a mountain village to build a one-room school. Even though Armato trusted her daughter, the other students and the teachers, she was worried about the side effects from the travel vaccines, possible accidents, and medical care.
Now that Alexia was home, Armato said she saw her daughter’s new maturity, greater confidence and independence. “This is the best thing I ever did,” Alexia said. “The experience was so eye-opening and life-changing. You’re with people who are not as lucky as you are. They live in very poor conditions but they’re so happy and outgoing. You say, ‘My God. I’m taking everything for granted back home.’”
She said they built a one-room school from scratch with no mechanical cement mixers. They used their hands, shovels and basic tools. She and another student lived with a local family in a small village about eight hours outside the capital, Quito. Despite the initial strangeness and knowing only basic Spanish, she said they grew very close and felt like a family.
Every year, groups of students at Montreal High School like Alexia pack their bags and fly off with classmates and teachers to developing countries where they volunteer for a variety of projects.
“Armato’s worries are very common among parents,” says Bill Nevin, a teacher at St. George’s High School. He organizes a humanitarian rip to India to the Sheela Bal Bhavan orphanage and says the three biggest fears families have are health, security and contact.When hearing the news that her daughter would go on a school trip to Ecuador, Armato was _______.
| A.proud and happy |
| B.supportive but concerned |
| C.fearful and nervous |
| D.excited but puzzled |
The underlined phrase “from scratch” in Paragraph 4 probably means “______”.
| A.having great help |
| B.using high technology |
| C.ending up in failure |
| D.starting from the beginning |
What would be the best title for the text?
| A.Volunteering helps students grow and develop. |
| B.School trips make parents worried about their children. |
| C.Ecuador is the most attractive travel destination in the world. |
| D.Brave Alexia dreams to work in Ecuador one day. |
E
Energy independence. It has a nice ring to it. Doesn't it? If you think so, you're not alone,because energy independence has been the dream of American president for decades, and never more so than in the past few years, when the most recent oil price shock has been partly responsible for kicking off the great recession(经济衰退).
"Energy independence"and its rhetorical(修辞的) companion"energy security"are, however,slippery concepts that are rarely though through. What is it we want independence from, exactly?
Most people would probably say that they want to be independent from imported oil.But there are reasons that we buy all that old from elsewhere.
The first reason is that we need it to keep our economy running. Yes, there is a trickle(涓涓细流)of biofuel(生物燃料)available, and more may become available, but most biofuels cause economic waste and environmental destruction.
Second, Americans have basically decided that they don't really want to produce all their own oil. They value the environmental quality they preserve over their oil imports from abroad. Vast areas of the United States are off-limits to oil exploration and production in the name of environmental protection. To what extent are Americans really willing to endure the environmental impacts of domestic energy production in order to cut back imports?
Third, there are benefits to trade. It allows for economic efficiency, and when we buy things from places that have lower production costs than we do, we benefit. And although you don't read about this much, the United States is also a large exporter of oil products, selling about 2 million barrels of petroleum products per day to about 90 countries.
There is no question that the United States imports a great deal of energy and, in fact, relies on that steady flow to maintain ite economy. When that flow is interrupted, we feel the pain in short supplies and higher prices. At the same time, we derive massive economic benefits when we buy the most affordable energy on the world market and when we engage in energy trade around the world.From the passage, we know that biofuels .
| A.keep America's economy running healthily |
| B.prove to be a good alternative to petroleum |
| C.do not provide a sustainable energy supply |
| D.cause serious damage to the environment |
Why does America rely heavily on oil imports?
| A.Its own oil production falls short of demand. |
| B.Its own oil reserves are quickly running out. |
| C.It wants to keep Its own environment undamaged. |
| D.It wants to expand its storage of crude oil. |
What can we conclude from the last paragraph?
| A.America doesn't have enough oil supplies. |
| B.People can benefit more from importing oil. |
| C.Energy independence is significant for Americans. |
| D.Short of energy may cause economic depression. |
What is the author's purpose in writing the passage?
| A.To justify America's dependence on oil imports. |
| B.To stress the importance of energy conservation. |
| C.To arouse Americans' awareness of the energy crisis. |
| D.To explain the increase of international oil trade. |