For as long as I can remember, seniors have attracted too little attention from society as a whole. For example, people may shrink physically as they get older and have a higher incidence of falls, but how many people have thought about buying a more comfortable and stable chair for their elderly parents?
We spend generously on our children, such as hiring a nanny to take care of them. When we look for a nanny for our baby, we believe that someone who charges 8,000 yuan must be better than a person who charges 5,000 yuan because they have a better grasp of how to interact with babies. But when we look for someone to take care of our elderly parents, we usually keep our budget as low as possible. We just want to ensure that caregivers will prepare three meals a day for our seniors, but we don’t take their psychological needs into consideration.
The differences in attitudes are obvious. However, we are not yet old, so perhaps it’s hard for us to understand the bitterness of the elderly: regression (衰退) in health, a handful of pills every day, not being able to catch up with developments in the digital age, and the disappearance of the old streets and favorite restaurants from the good old days. Those are the kinds of lives they live and we may even live through something similar in the decades to come.
If we think about how we want to be treated when we grow old, we should start the changes today. Because the elderly were once the backbone of society and made huge contribution they should enjoy the fruits of the county’s development as well.
1.What situation might old people face according to the text?
A. A high and stable income.
B. Physical inconvenience.
C. Much concern from the public.
D. Lack of favorite food and fruits.
2.Which of the following can replace the underlined word “nanny”in paragraph 2?
A. tutor
B. coach
C. storyteller
D. babysitter
3.Why is it difficult for us to understand the bitterness of old people?
A. Because we fail to catch up with their development.
B. Because we are sharing a similar lifestyle with them.
C. Because we are too young to experience their condition.
D. Because we have spent much money looking after them.
4.What does the writer think of the elderly?
A. They can make greater contribution.
B. They deserve the attention from society.
C. They should start to change themselves.
D. They need a handful of pills every day.
This is a big week for Maya Van Wagenen. Her very first book Popular, her 8th grade diary, hit shelves across the country. She’s in New York to appear on The Today Show, and does a million interviews that accompany the book’s publication while she says she is worried about keeping up with the lessons she is missing back at her high school in Georgia.
As a middle schooler in a Texas town, Maya once considered herself as an outsider. “I always struggled with making friends and finding confidence,” she says. “I felt bulled(欺负)and alone and it was really hard for me.” She said it was Betty Cornell’s Teen-Age Popularity Guide, a 1950s how-to book bought by her dad that greatly inspired her. She decided to follow the advice—devoting each month of her 8th grade year to different chapters like “Neat-looking” and “Be a Hostess”—and see if she could, in fact, become popular. Everyday, she’d taken notes on how people responded to her secret effort(nobody knew she was conducting this social experiment) and then she’d write detailed stories about her experience over the weekend.
After she finished the project, she sent the diary to her family. Her aunt passed it to a writer friend who in turn forwarded it to his agent. The agent wanted to sign Maya immediately. It was just the beginning: Penguin was the first publisher to bite and shortly after, Dreamworks got the movie right.
And while she’s riding the high of Popular for the time being, she has something else on her mind: her next book. Besides all that homework she has to do when she gets home, she is also writing a novel, for she has a two-book deal from Penguin.
“People always ask me, ’Why don’t you just home-school so you have time to work?’” she says. “But it’s fun in school, and I want to be a young adult writer! This is my chance to experience high school, so it’s the most important.”
1.Before she read Betty Cornell’s book, Maya felt that her school life was .
A. amazing
B. inspiring
C. difficult
D. simple
2.What is the book Teen-4ge Popularity Guide mainly about?
A. Advice for teenagers to be well-received.
B. Advice for teenagers to take notes.
C. Ways for teenagers to conduct experiments.
D. Ways for teenagers to write stories.
3.Which of the following first published Maya’s book Popular?
A. The Today Show.
B. Penguin.
C. Her aunt.
D. Dreamworks.
4.What can we infer from Maya’s words in the last paragraph?
A. Her study at high school is necessary and important.
B. More chances are available to home-schooled writers.
C. Many adult writers will come to visit her school.
D. Young writers should have teaching experience.
Some scientists win the Nobel Prize for their work. Other scientists win the “Ig Nobel” Prize, which honors real science that is so strange. “We want to make people laugh and then think,” says Ig Nobel founder Marc Abrahams. He and his colleagues pick 10 of the world’s strangest scientific studies on subjects like Physics Biology, Medicine, and so on, to honor each year. Here are two of the strangest Ig Nobel winners since the prize was founded 26 years ago:
No-blink photos, almost guaranteed.
Why is someone always blinking(眨眼)in your photo?Science says: because you don’t take enough pictures.
Winner, 2006 Mathematics Ig Nobel:
An Australian photographer wondered how many group shots she should take to be pretty sure no one was blinking. She found ou you need to divide the number of people by 2 to figure it out. Twelve people?Take at least six photos. But with groups over 50, someone will always be caught blinking no matter how many photos you take.
The five-second rule is true—sometimes.
Have you ever dropped food on the floor, said, “Five-second rule!” then picked it up and eaten it? The idea is that bacteria won’t stick if you pick it up quickly.
Winner, 2005 Public Health Ig Nobel:
Jillian Clark was still in high school when she did her winning research on the five-second rule. She dropped foods on the floor and then studied the bacteria they picked up in five seconds. Her discovery? If the floor is clean, the food is safe to eat. But how clean is your floor? You need a powerful electron microscope to know for sure.
1.Why was the “Ig Nobel” Prize founded?
A. To promote laughter and thought.
B. To honor strange scientists.
C. To help people win the Nobel Prize.
D. To make people fight for honors.
2.How many shots should you take to ensure a no-blink photo for a group of32 people?
A. 2.
B. 6.
C. 12.
D. 16.
3.Which subject was Jillian Clark’s research about?
A. Mathematics.
B. Public Health.
C. Biology.
D. Physics.
假如你是李华，目前在美国你校的友好学校Wilson High School学习交流，将于下周一回国。请通过电子邮件给该校长Mr. Smith写一封感谢信。
注意：1.词数100左右
2.可以适当增加细节，以使行文连贯。
Dear Mr. Smith,
____________________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________
Yours,
Li Hua
假定英语课上老师要求同桌之间交换修改作文，请你修改你同桌写的以下作文。文中共有10处语言错误，每句中最多有两处。每处错误仅涉及一个单词的增加、删除或修改。
增加：在缺词处加一个漏字符号（∧），并在其下面写出该加的词。
删除：把多余的词用斜线（\）划掉。
修改：在错的词下面一横线，并在该词下面写出修改后的词。
注意：1.每处错误及其修改均仅限一词；
2.只允许修改10处，多者（从第11处起）不计分。
When I was in high school, I wanted to get a scholarship to a university. I liked singing, so I try out for a scholarship for music. But I failed to get one. I was real upset. I felt like failure. I just kept feeling sorry for me. However, after a few day, I decided not to let one single loss to keep me from doing what I love. But I cheered up and devoted myself to sing again. I think that accepting failure is that we need to do first before we success eventually.
One of the greatest concerts I ever attended never took place at all. Not quite, anyway.
Instead, a violent_______,which came pretty much out of nowhere on a summer night, left the Saratoga Performing Arts Center without electrical power. The _______ storm hit just minutes before the Philadelphia Orchestra (交响乐团) was about to take the_______ along with a guest soloist, the violinist Sarah Chang.
Forty-five minutes later, the audience were still _______, hoping power would be restored and the _____ would get under way. That’s when Chang ______ onto the stage, alone except for her ______ and a couple of stagehands equipped with flashlights to ______ her and her music.
The orchestra ______ backstage. But Chang began playing Fritz Kreisler’s Recitativo and Scherzo-Caprice. Maybe the rain was still pounding on the roof and ______ the grass. Maybe the thunder hadn’t died away _____ by distance. Chances are, though, no one______ that night could tell you there was anything at all in the air except the ______.
The performance was ______, but it was delivered with both skill and grace—a sort of“ _____” card for the audience’s presence and patience. The applause was ______. then, several thousand music lovers_____ through pooling rainwater and ______ to their cars.
Maybe the story ends right there. But the then-twenty-year-old musician’s ______ for the people coming to hear her music says something about the essential relationship between artist and audience. Maybe Sarah Chang understood that when she offered her music as a ______ that night, without powered loudspeaker and in the near-darkness of a summer evening storm.
1.A. flood B. earthquake C. thunderstorm D. fire
2.A. global B. unexpected C. regular D. uncertain
3.A. chance B. action C. trouble D. stage
4.A. shouting B. struggling C. waiting D. gathering
5.A. concert B. rain C. dance D. sunlight
6.A. climbed B. stepped C. jumped D. held
7.A. piano B. conductor C. violin D. band
8.A. admire B. broadcast C. circle D. light
9.A. remained B. occupied C. hid D. worked
10.A. flooding B. cleaning C. irrigating D. destroying
11.A. either B. yet C. ever D. just
12.A. screaming B. complaining C. performing D. listening
13.A. violinist B. lighting C. music D. cheering
14.A. brief B. successful C. boring D. embarrassing
15.A. all right B. never mind C. don’t worry D. thank you
16.A. weak B. enthusiastic C. frequent D. permanent
17.A. lost their control B. traveled C. made their way D. looked
18.A. away B. down C. out D. back
19.A. respect B. analysis C. generosity D. tolerance
20.A. trick B. gift C. relief D. mercy
