Long before Barack Obama became president of the United States, he wrote a book 1. (call) Dream from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance, which has since become 2. bestseller. It is an 3. (appeal) book that includes what he went through during 4. (he) childhood. Obama has little contact with his father 5. roots were in Kenya because he left home when Obama was very young. His mother got married 6. a student from Indonesia shortly after the family moved to Jakarta. A few years later, Obama came back with his grandparents to Hawaii, where he 7. (attend) a private high school. 8. (study) at Columbia in New York City, he then entered Harvard Law School. This autobiography also touches 9. (heavy) on Obama’s exposure to racism. Readers will find his reflections of childhood 10. (experience) which involved racial discrimination to be especially moving.
Many years ago, my father suffered from a serious heart condition. He was put on _______ disability and was unable to work at a steady job.
However, he wanted to do something to keep himself ______, so he decided to volunteer at the local children ______. My dad loved kids. It was the ______ job for him. He would talk to them and play with them. Sometimes, he would ______ one of these kids. In certain instance, he would tell the sad parents that he would soon be able to ______ their children in heaven and that he would take care of them until they got there. His assurance seemed to help those parents with their ______.
One of these kids was a girl who had been admitted with a rare disease that paralyzed (瘫痪) her from the neck down. She could do ______ and she was very ______. My dad decided to help her. He started ______ her in her room, bringing paints, brushes and paper. He stood the paper up ______ a backing, put the paintbrush in his mouth and began to paint. He didn’t use his ______ at all. All the while he would tell her: See, you can do ______ you set your mind to.
____, she began to paint using her ______, and she and my dad became friends. Soon after, the little girl was discharged (出院) and my dad also left the hospital because he became ______. Sometime later after my dad had ______ and returned to work, he was at the volunteer counter of the hospital one day. He noticed the front door open. In came the little girl who had been paralyzed; only this time she was walking. On seeing my dad, she ______ straight over to him and gave him a ______ she had done using her hands. At the bottom it read: thank you for helping me walk.
My dad would say sometimes love is more powerful than ______, and my dad, who died just a few months after the little girl gave him the picture loved every single child in that hospital.
1.A. permanent B. temporary C. mild D. slight
2.A. confident B. comfortable C. wealthy D. occupied
3.A. center B. hospital C. park D. camp
4.A. normal B. perfect C. awkward D. tiring
5.A. protect B. teach C. lose D. miss
6.A. bury B. praise C. spot D. accompany
7.A. sadness B. happiness C. nervousness D. forgiveness
8.A. anything B. nothing C. Everything D. something
9.A. disappointed B. bored C. depressed D. embarrassed
10.A. visiting B. observing C. avoiding D. contacting
11.A. on B. in C. over D. against
12.A. eyes B. neck C. hands D. head
13.A. whoever B. whatever C. wherever D. whenever
14.A. Gradually B. Briefly C. Suddenly D. Naturally
15.A. hands B. feet C. fingers D. mouth
16.A. better B. worse C. healthier D. fitter
17.A. took out B. turned away C. picked up D. knocked over
18.A. ran B. wheeled C. slid D. turned
19.A. card B. picture C. note D. photo
20.A. words B. exercise C. faith D. medicine
Punctuation (标点) Is for Clarity
When you talk, you do not depend upon words alone to tell your listener what you mean. 1. You shrug a shoulder, raise an eyebrow, clasp hands, bend forward or backward, stamp your foot, nod or shake your head. These body languages may vary from culture to culture but they do help the speakers to convey meanings. 2. You yell or whisper; speak calmly or angrily; lower or raise your voice at the end of a statement or a question. Meaning in talk is also affected by pauses and silence, which are often as significant as words themselves. 3.
Similarly, when we write, we cannot expect words alone to make clear to our reader what we have in mind. The pauses, stresses and gestures which occur in speech must be represented in writing by various marks of punctuation if meaning is to be fully clear. 4.
Punctuation came into existence only for the purpose of making clear the meaning of writing words. Every mark of punctuation is a sort of road sign provided to help the reader along his way.5. It is harmful or ineffective if it interrupts the flow of thought from your mind to that of your readers.
A. Each of us has probably seen a skilled actor convey ideas and moods without using any words at all.
B. The practice of punctuation, however, has been changing in the last two centuries.
C. Facial and body gestures can and do add much to the words themselves.
D. The needs of the eye are quite different from those of the ear.
E. Additionally, the tones and stress of your voice can and do influence the meanings of words you speak.
F. Punctuation began to become standard in the middle of the 19th century.
G. Punctuation is effective if it helps the reader to understand.
You open your eyes and mouth wide if you see a live rat in your bedroom but you wrinkle your nose and narrow your eyes if you see a dead one in the road. Why is that? Facial expressions are usually thought of as simple tools of communication. But in his book The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals, Charles Darwin proposed that they may prepare us to react to different situations when he noticed that some expressions seemed to be used across cultures and even species. Now Joshua Susskind and his colleagues at the University of Toronto, Canada, have put that idea to the test.
Susskind’s team wondered whether the expressions of fear might improve how sensory (感官的) information is acquired and so sharpen senses. Conversely disgust (厌恶) might weaken the senses, sheltering us from unpleasant sights and smells.
The researchers asked volunteers to complete various tests while holding a fearful, disgusted or neutral expression. In one test, they had to identify when a spot entered their sight. In another they were required to shift their focus as quickly as possible between two targets on a computer screen. It was also measured how much air the volunteers breathed in while expressing fear and disgust.
In each case the wide-eyed faces let significantly more of the world in. Volunteers with wide-open eyes detected surrounding objects more quickly and performed side-to-side eye movements faster. They also took in more air with each breath without any extra effort. An MRI (核磁共振) scan showed the nasal cavity (鼻腔) was enlarged while volunteers held this expression, which could be linked with a greater ability to absorb smells.
“These changes confer the idea that fear, for example, is a posture towards sensory sharpening while disgust a posture towards sensory rejection,” says Susskind. His team is already at work on experiments to explore to what extent the brain can use this extra information to enhance performance.
1.Charles Darwin’s book proposed that facial expressions might _____.
A. act as a simple tool of communication
B. get people ready to the changes of circumstances
C. be difficult to understand in different cultures
D. equip people with the knowledge of other species
2.In Joshua Susskind’s research, the researchers _____.
A. wondered whether there existed other expressions of fear
B. wanted subjects to use facial expressions to complete tests
C. wanted to test how much air subjects breathed in normally
D. wondered whether expressions of disgust weakened our senses
3.The underlined sentence in Paragraph 4 means that _____.
A. wide-eyed expressions would help you understand the world better
B. facial expressions might result in faster eye movements
C. wide-eyed expressions would help people breathe in more air
D. facial expressions might help people notice more things around
4.In the last paragraph, what might be the new thinking of facial expressions?
A. They might tell the brain how to make use of the facial information.
B. They might explain why people consider fear as a posture towards sharper senses.
C. They might provide extra information to brains thus enhancing performance.
D. They might clarify the relationship between brain and environments.
Younger students experience school bullying (欺凌) more frequently than older ones, and male students are bullied more than their female peers, a survey found.
It also found that nearly half of students had been intentionally hit or knocked down by classmates. About 6 percent said they are targeted by bullies on campus every day. The survey also found that students from ordinary schools experienced more bullying than peers from key institutions, and children from poor families are more likely to be bullied at school.
Being bullied can have a negative impact on a child’s personal development and academic performance, according to Zhou Jinyan, a researcher who led the study at Beijing Normal University. “Children being bullied will find it hard to trust others,” Zhou said. “They may often feel anxiety, anger, resentment or depression. These emotions will further undermine their ability to control their own life.”
In recent years, bullying on Chinese campuses has been frequently reported and has attracted widespread attention and concern. The most recent incident to arouse heated discussions took place in December at Beijing’s Zhongguancun No.2 Primary School. A fourth-grade student was bullied and laughed at by classmates, causing him acute stress disorder.
The Supreme People’s Procuratorate (最高人民检察院) received about 1,900 cases related to school bullying in 2016. Meanwhile, there was a notable increase in bullying reports involving middle school students from 14 to 18 years old.
Zhou came up with some ways to solve the problem, including boosting communication between teachers, parents and students and trying to establish more harmonious relationships among children. She said it was strongly suggested that parents try to be involved in their children’s educational experience, as their presence and companionship have proved effective in reducing bullying and its negative effects.
1.Who is the most likely to become the target of bullying?
A. A 10-year-old girl from a key school
B. A 10-year-old boy from a poor family
C. A 17-year-old boy from a rich family
D. A 17-year-old girl from an ordinary school
2.Being bullied will cause students to go through the following EXCEPT _____.
A. a drop in academic performance
B. a lack of trust in other people
C. a drop in the sense of depression
D. a lack of confidence in themselves
3.We can learn from the text that _____.
A. bullying at school usually leads to acute stress disorder
B. bullying on campus has been brought into sharp focus by the media
C. students who enjoy parents’ companionship will be bullying-free
D. the government should consider taking further action against bullying at school
4.What can be the best title for the text?
A. Bullying affects half of students
B. Negative effects on children caused by bullying
C. Is anything we can do about bullying?
D. The reasons for bullying on campus
A stylish detective bursts into a secret villa and finds huge amounts of cash in fridges, closets and beds. Meanwhile, the villa’s owner, a government official, crawls on the floor and begs for his life.
This is the dramatic opening scene in China’s latest TV show, In the Name of the People, which made its remarkable first show last month. The series, about China’s anti-corruption (反贪) campaign, has attracted millions of viewers across the country. Some have compared it to the American political drama, House of Cards, which has a huge Chinese following.
In the Name of the People describes the internal power struggle of the Chinese Communist Party in the fictional city of Jingzhou, featuring stories about Chinese politics that are often talked about but never seen on mainstream television.
Viewers have been lapping it up. “This TV drama feels so real. It really cheers people up,” one viewer wrote on social media network Weibo. “I shed tears after watching this drama. This is the tumor of corruption that has been harming the people,” said another Weibo commenter. What makes In the Name of the People remarkable is not just how frankly it describes the ugly side of Chinese politics, but that it also has the blessing of the country’s powerful top prosecutors’ office (最高检察机关).
More than a decade ago, anti-corruption dramas suddenly disappeared from Chinese television. Authorities in 2004 had decided to restrict the production of such dramas as too many were of poor quality. But when Chinese President Xi Jinping took power in 2012 and launched a sweeping campaign against graft (受贿), anti-corruption got back in vogue. In the Name of the People is thus the latest piece, publicizing the government’s victory in its anti-corruption campaign.
At least it does a decent job in entertaining viewers. The author said he aimed to show that corrupt officials were not all “monsters” and were real people, but at the end of the day, the good people always win. “We all badly need heroes, upright law-enforcing heroes like Hou Liangping,” he said.
1.In paragraph 1, the description of the opening scene is used to _____.
A. make a comparison
B. show the style of this drama
C. draw reader’s attention
D. make a conclusion
2.In the Name of the People and House of Cards have something in common because _____.
A. they both have a large group of followers
B. they are both played on mainstream television
C. they both touch political and economic areas
D. they are both supported by the government
3.The purpose of this text is to _____.
A. show different opinions on In the Name of the People
B. analyze government’s policy of anti-corruption
C. compare In the Name of the People with House of Cards
D. introduce the latest TV series In the Name of the People
4.What would be the best title for the text?
A. China Won Victory in Anti-corruption Campaign
B. China embraces TV Corruption Drama
C. How Do TV Series Attract Viewers?
D. Why Are Corruption Dramas Popular?
