This was my grandmother's first Christmas without grandfather, and before he passed away we had promised grandfather that we would make this her best Christmas ever. When my parents and I at her house, we found she had waited up all night for us. The house did seem a little without grandfather.
Grandfather had always said that the Christmas was the most important decoration of all. So we immediately set to work on the beautiful artificial tree that was stored in grandfather's closet (壁橱). Through our efforts, we finally stepped back to our handiwork. It looked beautiful. something was missing.
"Where's your star?" I asked.
The star was my grandmother's favorite part of the tree.
"Why
, it be here somewhere," she said, starting to sort through the boxes again. "Your grandfather always everything so carefully when he took
the tree down."
As we emptied the boxes and no star, my grandmother's eyes filled with tears. Grandfather had given it to grandmother some fifty years ago on their first Christmas together. It brought them great happiness. Now, on her first Christmas without him, the star was , too.
"Don't worry, Grandmother," I her. "We'll find it for you."
My mother and I formed a search . "Let's start in on the closet where the ornaments (装饰品) were," Mother said. "Maybe the star just fell out of the box."
That sounded , so I began to search the closet. I thought I tried every , but no star. I could see grandmother was , although she tried not to show it.
"What’s in this wrapped box?” Mother suddenly called out. "It was at the bottom of father’s closet."
Grandmother took the box in and opened it. Her face when she unfolded the paper and pulled out a golden star. There was a(n) attached.
Don't be angry with me, dear. I broke your star while packing the decorations, and I couldn't to tell you. Thought it was time for a new one. I hope it brings you as much as the first one. Merry Christmas!
Love,
Bryant
So grandmother's tree had a star after all, a star that expressed their everlasting love for one another. And we were glad we were able to make this Christmas for her.
1.A. arrivedB. looked C. stayed D. worked
2.A. noisy B. emptyC. safeD. clean
3.A. flower B. bell C. stocking D. tree
4.A. admireB. repairC. paintD. design
5.A. Or B. SoC. ButD. And
6.A. mightB. must C. need D. will
7.A. packed B. decided C. covered D. searched
8.A. made B. leftC. found D. felt
9.A. gone B. hidden C. brokenD. forgotten
10.A. warnedB. persuadedC. reminded D. comforted
11.A. gameB. class C. company D. party
12.A. challengingB. reasonableC. pleasantD. difficult
13.A. suggestion B. directionC. possibilityD. method
14.A. ashamedB. shockedC. disappointedD. frightened
15.A. fear B. reliefC. angerD. surprise
16.A. clearedB. brightenedC. darkened D. tightened
17.A. article B. note C. receiptD. poem
18.A. bear B. affordC. wait D. agree
19.A. peace B. changeC. luck D. joy
20.A. special B. funnyC. relaxingD. favorite
根据短文内容，从短文后的选项中选出能填入空白处的最佳选项。选项中有两项为多余选项
A major source of teen stress is school exams, and test anxiety is not uncommon. When you recognize your teen is under stress, how can parents help your teen stay calm before an exam?
Be involved. Parents need to be involved in their teen’s work. 1. What they look for is your presence — to talk, to cry, or simply to sit with them quietly. Communicate openly with your teen. Encourage your teen to express his worries and fears, but don’t let them focus on those fears.
Help them get organized. 2. Together , you and your teen can work out a time—table in which he can study for what he knows will be on the test.
Provide a calm setting. Help your teen set up a quiet place to study and protect his privacy. Give them a nutritious diet. It is important for your teen to eat a healthy, balanced diet during exam times to focus and do his best. 3. If this happens, encourage your teen to eat light meals or sandwiches. A healthy diet, rather than junk food, is best for reducing stress.
4. Persuade your teenager to get some sleep and /or do something active when he needs a real break from studying. Making time for relaxation, fun, and exercise are all important in reducing stress. Help your teen balance his time so that he will feel comfortable taking time out from studying to spend time with friends or rest.
Show a positive attitude. 5. Your panic, anxiety and blame contribute to your teen’s pressure. Make your teen feel accepted and valued for his efforts. Most importantly, reassure your teen that things will be all right , no matter what the results are.
A. A parent’s attitude will dictate their teen’s emotions.
B. Exam stress can make some teens lose their appetite.
C. They will only make the situation worse.
D. Encourage your teen to relax.
E. The best thing is simply to listen.
F. Help your teen think about what he has to study and plan accordingly.
G. Your teen may also make negative comments about themselves
The Festival of Cultures is an annual event to celebrate the wide range of cultures found in our great state. People representing 40 cultural groups will share their traditions and customs. Here are just a few of the festival's many activities.
Crafts: See the fine art of basket weaving from Vietnam and Zimbabewe. Watch the delicate art of making paper umbrellas from Thailand and the decorative craft of paper picado, or paper cutting, from Mexico. All craft demonstrations provide a firsthand view of how things are made. You will appreciate the process involved in making these products.
Music and Dance: Experience musical instruments that you have never heard before. Listen to the music of a sho from Japan, a bull-roarer from Australia, a sitar from India, and a chakay from Tailand. You will also be entertained by folk dances from around the world, such as the troika from Russia and the mayim mayim from Israel. From 1:00 P.M. to 3:00 P.M. on August 14, special folk-dancing classes for children will be offered. Children ranging in age from 6 – 8 can learn the kinderpolka from Germany. Children ranging in age from 9 – 12 can learn the raspa from Mexico.
Storytelling: Listen for hours as professional storytellers charm you with captivating tales. Fables, folktales, and ballads from various countries will be told. By popular demand, Gwendolyn Washington, a famous African American storyteller, is back.
Food: Enjoy irresistible foods from other countries, such as gyros from Greece, seafood paella from Spain, crepes from France, and tandoori chicken from India. These tasty dishes will be difficult to pass up.
The festival of Cultures is sponsored by the World Marketplace. For more information about the festival, call (800) 555 – 0199.
1.In the festival, you are most likely to see the art of making _______.
A. paper. B. umbrellas. C. bamboo beds. D. flower vases.
2.Which of these is a dance from Germany?
A. The troika. B. The raspa. C. The kinderpolka. D. The mayim mayim
3.The underlined word “irresistible” means ________.
A. in large quantities B. with natural ta
stes
C. not able to be refused D. hot but delicious
4.For a family with children aged 6—12, which day would be the best bargain for visiting the festival?
A. August 11 B. August 12 C. August 13 D. August 14
Losing weight comes with a lot of health benefits—including making your brain sharper.
Yes, it turns out that overweight may damage cognitive functions (认知功能) such as memory and attention. There have been few studies of overweight and cognitive functioning, possibly because it is generally believed that it is not a primary risk cause for poor cognitive performance. Losing weight, therefore, may help improve these mental functions, according to a new research led by John Gunstad, assistant professor of psychology at Kent State University.
Growing evidence suggests that being fat is linked to cognitive deficits (缺陷). So Gunstad and his team guessed that losing weight might improve mental function. For their study, they measured memory and attention in a group of 150 overweight participants, some of whom had some kind of operation for weight loss and some did not. All of the volunteers completed mental skills tests to assess their abilities of memory and attention at the beginning of
the study, and again 12 weeks later. To begin with, about 24% of the patients showed damaged learning and 23% showed signs of poor memory when tested. At the end of the study, those who had lost weight after operation improved their scores into the average or above average range for cognitive functions. Scores for the volunteers who didn’t lose weight dropped even further.
The study helped Gunstad to find out whether losing weight had any effect on mental function. Now that he’s seen the positive effect that weight loss can have on memory and attention, he says he will next study those who choose to lose weight by the traditional way—eating healthier and getting more active. He expects that losing weight in this way will have a similarly positive effect on the brain. “If we can improve the condition with operations, then we can probably produce the same change with behavioral weight loss as well,” he says.
1.There is less research on overweight and cognitive functions because researchers _____.
A. believe overweight only affects our body
B. have focused on ways to sharpen people’s mind
C. do not consider overweight a main cause for low cognitive ability
D. are clear about the relation between weight and mental functions
2.The result of Gunstad’s study shows that ______.
A. losing weight has little effect on people’s memory
B. losing weight can improve people’s mental functions
C. overweight people are likely to have psychology problems
D. overweight people’s abilities of concentration differ greatly
3.What is Gunstad planning to prove next in his research?
A. Slim people are smarter than overweight people.
B. Healthy diet is better than exercise in losing weight.
C . Traditional ways of losing weight are better than operation.
D. Overweight people will get smarter by taking more exercise.
4.Which of the following is the best title for th e text?
A. Body Weight and Health
B. Losing Weight by Operation
C. Ways to Improve Mental Functions
D. Losing Weight to S harpen Your MindD
In the early hours of March 8, a Boeing 777 took off from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Its destination was Beijing. But for unknown reasons, it never arrived there.
There were 239 people on the Malaysia Airlines flight, including 154 Chinese. As of March 13, 12 different countries, including Malaysia, China, Vietnam and the US, were searching for the plane.
The disappearance is an “aviation (航空) mystery”, Azharuddin Abdul Rahman, the head of Malaysia’s Civil Aviation Authority, said on March 10.There was no clear sign of a crash by March 13.
Between 1-2 hours after takeoff, the plane suddenly lost contact with people on the ground. The weather was clear, and the pilots didn’t make any calls . No evidence was found in the a
rea where the flight last made contact. People are also talking about a possible hijacking (劫机).
International police agency Interpol confirmed on March 9 that at least two passengers on the flight had used stolen passports to get on board. “We are looking at all possibilities,” said Malaysian Transport Minister Hishamuddin Hussein. The incident is now being called simply a “plane disappearance”.
So, what are some possible causes of a plane disappearance? An AP story provided a summary.
1. A failure of the plane’s body or its engines. However, even if both engines stopped working, the plane could still glide (滑翔) for up to 20 minutes, giving pilots time to make an emergency call.
2. Bad weather. Planes are designed to fly through most severe storms. However, in June 2009, an Air France flight from Rio de Janeiro to Paris crashed during a bad storm over the Atlantic Ocean.
3. A bomb. Throughout history, several planes have been brought down by bombs.
4. An accidental shoot-down by some country’s military. In July 1988, the US Navy accidentally shot down an Iran Air flight. In September 1983, a Korean Air Lines flight was shot down by a Russian fighter jet.
No matter how unlikely a situation, it’s too early to determine what really happened to MH370. It could take months, if not years, to rule out any possibilities, say experts..
1.How many cities are mentioned in this passage?
A. Four cities.B. five cities.C. Six cities.D. Seven cities.
2.What could the underlined phrase “rule out” in the last paragraph mean?
A. cross outB. get rid ofC. take outD. take the place of
3.What could be the best title of the passage?
A. An Air CrashB. The Causes of the Disappearance
C. The Disappearance of MH 370D. An Aviation Mystery
When us teenager Jake Olson isn’t playing football or golf for his high school, he’s often offering inspiration through his new book about his own life.
These activities might be too much for the average 16-year-old to deal with, but Jake is blind. When people ask him how he can possibly play golf without being able to see the ball, he says he is thankful for his father’s guidance.
It seems apparent that his early experience playing sports as a person with sight and muscle memory— repeating behaviors over and over until they become second nature — have also enabled Jake to hit the ball quite well.
Jake was born with a rare kind of eye cancer that took away the vision from his left eye when he was an infant and eventually his right eye, in 2009, when he was 12 years old. Rather than letting the disease hold him back, Jake used his loss of sight and his faith as sources of motivation .
“If I was going to sit on the couch all day feeling sorry for myself, I wasn’t going to do anything. I decided right then and there that I wasn’t going to let it stop me and that I was going to go out and persevere (坚持不懈),” he said.
It was with that mind-set that the student from Orange Lutheran High School in California was able to write his first book, Open Your Eyes: 10 Uncommon Lessons to Discover a Happier Life. “It’s about opening the readers’ eyes to their true potential in life and making sure that they use all the abilities that they have,” Jake said.
Jake’s father, Brian Olson, said the family is impressed with what he has done with his life, including showing people that they can get through hardships. “Your darkest hour can soon become your brightest, and with every setback, there’s a setup,” Jake said. “In every one of us, there’s more potential than we can ever imagine, and it really is a choice.”
1.We can learn from the article that Jake Olson ______.
A. was born a blind child
B. could have been a golf master
C. has great muscle memory
D. is trying to find the cure for his disease
2.According to the article, Jake’s family members ______.
A. pity him deeply
B. once gave up hope on him
C. encouraged him to write the book
D. admire his efforts and determination
3.The purpose of the book Open Your Eyes: 10 Uncommon Lessons to Discover a Happier Life is to ______.
A. promote good approaches to get
ting along with disabled people
B. inspire people to discover and use their hidden abilities
C. help people come up with better life goals
D. explain different definitions of “a happier life”
4.The underlined word “setback” is closest in meaning to ______.
A. fight B. failureC. opportunity D. success
