The first week we moved into our apartment, it began flooding. It ______ us where the water was coming from. It had been ______ that it came from a hole in the water filter (过滤器).______, the water filter man told us that nothing was wrong with it. We were nearly out of our ______ while we were exploring the cause. We searched for the ______ leak for at least a month.______, my husband couldn’t bear it and urged, “Let’s move away from here.” Then a repairman, who fixed the oven,______ us. When he finished his work, I ______ to ask him, “Do you have any idea why our apartment floods?” I ______ him where we always had water on the floor. “There must be something ______,” he told me.
We were ______ at what he said. Could all this water on my floor be coming not from something broken,______ from a blocked pipe? We called a plumber (水管工人). He put his tube deep into the drain. And then ______ a big pencil sharpener flew out of the pipe. So did our ______, which bothered us all the time.
I learned a very important ______ from this pencil sharpener. Everyone should be ready to ______ depressions in life. You don’t have a job, or you are ______ something, or you can’t get what you want. You tell yourself that there is something wrong with you. However, in those moments of ______, you always have to remember: It’s not that there is something wrong with yourself; it’s not that you have ______ or defects. You just have to ______ the thing that is pulling yourself down.
1.A. confused B. disturbed C. frightened D. alarmed
2.A. confirmed B. designed C. expected D. reminded
3.A. Moreover B. Otherwise C. Therefore D. However
4.A. curiosity B. mind C. memory D. order
5.A. abandoned B. damaged C. hidden D. forgotten
6.A. Eventually B. Gratefully C. Especially D. Accidentally
7.A. inspired B. encouraged C. opposed D. educated
8.A. tended B. managed C. attempted D. pretended
9.A. convinced B. informed C. promised D. comforted
10.A. blocked B. shortened C. lost D. cut
11.A. delighted B. amused C. mad D. astonished
12.A. but B. or C. so D. and
13.A. automatically B. suddenly C. continually D. smoothly
14.A. curiosity B. gratitude C. satisfaction D. depression
15.A. method B. skill C. lesson D. idea
16.A. go after B. go through C. go about D. go against
17.A. experiencing B. missing C. receiving D. expecting
18.A. darkness B. embarrassment C. loneliness D. responsibility
19.A. characteristics B. desires C. wishes D. shortcomings
20.A. accept B. destroy C. remove D. quit
We all desire to be respected, but it doesn’t come easily just by mere wishing. Outlined below are some steps you can do to get respect.
Treat others with respect. The golden rule, “Do unto others what you would like others to do unto you”, always holds true. If you cannot respect other people, do not expect them to respect you. 1. Watch your attitude and change those ones that are hurting your relationship with others. If you notice people avoiding you or laughing at you behind your back, they are not showing you respect.2. By doing so, you will find out which areas you need to improve to get the respect you deserve.
3. Knowing who you are and valuing yourself as a person with a clear and fierce determination will eventually make you outstanding. People will respect individuals who believe in themselves.
Earn the respect. If you think you can demand respect from others by force, you are wrong. 4. Manipulating (操纵) others in order to gain respect is not only dangerous, but you are also making a fool of yourself. Humble yourself and work hard to become a respectable person. Your efforts will be rewarded by the respect, people give back to you.
Be honest. Showing honesty in dealing with people earns their trust and eventually their respect.5. Therefore, cultivate (培养) it the best way possible.
A. Be confident about yourself.
B. Evaluate your life and actions.
C. You earn your own respect by making things happen.
D. You harvest whatever you planted and this is a universal law.
E. Understand that people have their own ways of looking at things.
F. Your character is your best investment in getting peoples respect.
G. Respect is one of the virtues that come naturally to those who work hard to win it.
Each day the online community reports on countless social justice issues around the world. From climate change and gun violence to natural disasters, readers come across a story, learn about an issue and often feel compelled to help. However, without any guidance on how to make a difference, many abandon the attempt and move on with their day.
Ideal Impact, a new Web-based app (应用程序), sees that as a lost opportunity. The app is designed to connect news stories with efficient ways to help make a difference in the real world. Let’s say, for example, you recently read an article, “The heartbreaking, world of captive (被抓的) exotic birds” and felt moved by the stories of the often sad lives those birds are forced to live. Once installed on your phone or browser, Ideal Impact would show you opportunities to volunteer, donate or get involved to help captive exotic birds.
Founder, Olivier Kamanda, explains in the company’s video, “What would happen when you come across a story that makes you want to get involved in? That arouses a fundamental question, ‘How can I help?’ Unfortunately there is no platform that takes you from that moment of inspiration to a meaningful service opportunity. So every year 90 million people are inspired to get involved to do something with their time and they don’t know how. And that comes at a cost of 207 billion dollars in lost volunteer time and donations.” Kamanda said in an interview with the Smithsonian, “Our app bridges the gap between people who are inspired to make a difference and organizations that need support.”
Once the app is installed as a browser plugin (插件) on a desktop or mobile device, you can read the news as you normally would. And then, when you come across a story that inspires you to take action, you can click on the Ideal Impact button that appears in the main menu of your browser. That will load the app and show you opportunities to get involved with non-profit organizations that are working to deal with the issue you just read about.
1.What is Ideal Impact?
A. Its software. B. It’s a charity group.
C. It’s a computer company. D. It’s a non-profit organization.
2.How does the author explain the function of Ideal Impact?
A. By making comparisons. B. By giving figures.
C. By giving quotations. D. By giving an example.
3.What can Ideal Impact do?
A. It can help people make a contribution.
B. It can help people search for exotic birds.
C. It can help people read news stories more easily.
D. It can help people make a difference to their career.
4.What will happen after you click on the Ideal Impact button?
A. You will have fun news to read.
B. You will find a solution to a problem.
C. You may get access to a related charity.
D. The main menu of your browser will appear.
Grasse has always been associated with smell. In the Middle Ages it smelt particularly unpleasant due to its leather tanning (制革) industry. The nobles only rarely visited the pretty and charming town to pick up their handmade leather gloves. In spite of their grand lands in the surrounding countryside? Grasse was certainly a necessary evil with no self-respecting nobles owning buildings there.
Molinard, a Grasse tanner (制革工人) himself, created the first Grasse perfume. Word spread like wildfire amongst the nobles about the designer perfumed gloves. Molinard offered a pair of his gloves to Catherine de Medici (the Queen), who gave plenty of praise to her Grasse perfumed gloves; she almost assured (确保) Grasse’s reputation as the perfume capital of the world. Thanks to Catherine de Medici, Grasse merchants were encouraged to grow the perfume plants that tanners needed to supply perfumed leather to the nobles.
Grasse has four perfume factories as well as a perfume school and a perfume museum. Fragonard’s perfume museum is situated on the first floor of its perfume factory and displays an amazing private collection of perfume bottles, presentation boxes, documents and equipment that tells the history of perfume making from its earliest beginnings to the present day. The perfume museum is open every day, Sundays and public holidays included.
Grasse is certainly a perfumed heaven, a far cry from its smelly beginning as a leather tanning town. Now famous for a far sweeter smell, Grasse is surrounded by fields of flowers that make real estate (不动产) in Grasse very popular.
Those looking for real estate in France would have to go a long way to find anywhere more charming than Grasse with the city of Nice and its airport just a short drive away and plenty of activities to enjoy in the surrounding countryside. Real estate in Grasse is situated between the Southern Alps and the Cote d’Azur, allowing owners the best of both worlds.
1.Why was Grasse considered to be necessary although it was an evil?
A. Because it produced leather gloves.
B. Because it made the nobles look respectable.
C. Because many nobles lived in its countryside.
D. Because it was a beautiful and attractive town.
2.What can we learn about Fragonard’s perfume museum?
A. It has several perfume factories.
B. It can be visited all the year round.
C. It is famous for its perfume school.
D. It shows visitors the history of Grasse.
3.What do the underlined words “a far cry” in the 4th paragraph probably mean?
A. a good long cry
B. totally absent
C. very different
D. far distant
4.What is the main idea of the last paragraph?
A. Grasse is still less competitive in real estate.
B. Grasse is now a perfect place for people to live.
C. Grasse is becoming an important tourist attraction.
D. Living in Grasse might cause you much inconvenience.
Squatting down on my disorganized closet floor, I looked eagerly through my albums for the picture of my grandma’s Christmas lights. I searched so long and so eagerly that I lost all feeling in the legs. Ignoring the pain, I went on with my search, because finding the picture was worth it.
My beloved grandma on my dad’s side, who passed away almost four years ago, would decorate the Christmas trees like it was her job. Each year she would decorate an ornate, 12-foot-tall, shining tree in her living room, and most years she would have an additional pink tree, palm tree, colored- light tree, white-light tree, bedroom tree, etc. The ideas varied year after year, but the theme was always the same: Let There Be Light.
For the outside of the house, my grandma hired people to come and string thousands of lights through the trees in her yard. It wasn’t easy, and it wasn’t cheap, but it was a labor of love. People in the small town came and parked their kid-packed cars on the street, gazing at the thousands upon thousands of shining lights year after year. They brought us magic, which was grandma’s legacy. That is the family act I am supposed to follow for the rest of my life. It’s what I’m dying to recreate and pass on to my own kids. I feel so much pressure because no one is capable of doing it—and of doing it correctly—but me.
So, it’s me and only me, each year unfastening countless strings of lights, winding them round a 10-foot, prickly tree, and sending the lights to the highest branches. Though I’m only ever just scratching the surface of grandma’s magic, I uncover a little more each year. I still haven’t found that picture of my grandma’s Christmas lights, but I know it exists, and I will find it, even if it means losing all feeling in my legs.
1.Why did the author suffer from pain?
A. Because she was missing her beloved grandma.
B. Because she had trouble finding grandma’s lights.
C. Because she kept an uncomfortable gesture for long.
D. Because she broke her legs while searching for something.
2.What does Paragraph 2 mainly talk about?
A. Grandma’s Christmas trees. B. The atmosphere of Christmas.
C. The beauty of Christmas trees. D. Christmas memories in childhood.
3.Which of the following best describes grandma’s yard on Christmas?
A. Colourful and messy. B. Interesting and dizzy.
C. Noisy and crowded. D. Shiny and attractive.
4.What’s the authors attitude towards her grandma’s way to spend Christmas?
A. It is the best way people like. B. It is her duty to pass it on.
C. It needs to be improved. D. It is too costly to do it.
Even though you can watch a movie on your TV, laptop or iPad these days, great theatres still make going to the movies worth buying a ticket-and sometimes even worth a trip.
.1. AMC Loews Uptown, Washington, D.C.
Local movie critics will tell you “The Uptown” is the best place to see a movie in the Washington, D.C. area. Opened in 1936, it’s not a movie theatre, but a movie palace featuring a single screen—a curved (弧形的), 70-foot long and 40-foot high screen, one of the largest in the area.
.2. ArcLight Cinemas Hollywood, Los Angeles
This Hollywood theatre isn’t just a place to see stars on screen you might catch a few sitting next to you in the audience. The theatre offers 14 screens with reserved stadium seating (the seats are wider than average), and the famous Cinerama Dome (全景电影).
.3. Tampa Theatre, Tampa, Florida
A classic movie palace designed by famed theatre architect John Eberson, the Tampa landmark was built in 1926. The theatre now shows both new and classic films. Come early to hear the Mighty Wurlitzer theatre organ played before most films.
.4. Grauman’s Chinese Theatre, Los Angeles
It’s not just a movie theatre. It’s a Hollywood experience. Opened in 1927, the theatre was known in its early days for lavish (奢华的) Hollywood premieres (首映) and hosting three Academy Award ceremonies. Check out the nearby Hollywood Walk of Fame before watching a movie on the big screen, and when your movie is over, stop by the next-door Kodak Theatre, where the Oscars were once held.
1.What do ArcLight Cinemas Hollywood and Grauman’s Chinese Theatre have in common?
A. They both hosted the Oscars.
B. They were built in the same year.
C. They offer presents to customers.
D. They are situated in the same city.
2.What can we learn about Tampa Theatre?
A. It was opened in 1936.
B. It has a single curved screen.
C. It has an outdoor courtyard.
D. It offers Mighty Wurlitzer play.
3.What s the text mainly about?
A. Famous buildings in the USA.
B. Four largest theatres in the world.
C. Four theatres worth visiting in America.
D. Modern theatres with advanced facilities.
