I remember the day when I first learned to ride a bike. It was a frightening, yet fun experience. My granddad was the one who taught met and he helped me when I got hurt. The first time I got on a bike, I had no idea what I was doing, and just about everything went wrong. My granddad told me to just put my feet on the pedals and start pedaling (骑自行车). He also told me he would hold onto the back of the bike the whole time, yet he didn’t.
As soon as I started trying to balance myself, he let go. I happened to look back just then. I was scared, to death that I was going to fall and hurt myself. When I was scared, my mind went blank from pedaling, and I just wanted off. I forgot how to use the brakes (车闸) and fell right off the bike. My granddad kept encouraging me to get up and try again, and after about 15 minutes, 1 finally stopped crying, got up and tried again.
As soon as I started pedaling again, my pants got caught in the chain, and I fell flat on my face and hit my nose. Since that happened t my granddad decided to call it a day and try again the next morning. The next morning I woke up bright and early, and was very eager to try to ride my bike. My nose felt better, so I wasn’t that afraid of falling anymore.
Though I knew there were a lot of difficulties on the way to mastering the skills in riding a bike, I believed I could do well with my granddad’s help. After all, riding a bike was what I wanted to do eagerly.
1.How was the author when he was on the bike first?
A. He didn’t know where he would be going.
B. He thought balancing himself was easy.
C. He was nervous and didn’t know what to do next.
D. He put his feet on the pedals and started pedaling.
2.What does the underlined part in the passage mean?
A. Remember what happened this day.
B. Make the author feel happy.
C. Stop practicing bicycling.
D. Go on to ride a bike.
3.What is the author’s attitude towards his granddad?
A. Supportive. B. Grateful.
C. Indifferent. D. Negative.
4.Which of the following could be the title for the passage?
A. The Experience of My First Riding a Bike
B. The Difficulty I Met with My Granddad
C. The First Time I Got My Own Bike
D. The Great Moment When I Stayed with My Granddad
These hotels don't have all the necessary facilities(设施),but each of them offers something different. Don't miss them if you travel to Canada.
Sleep on a train at the Train Station Inn.This hotel is in an old train station in Nova Scotia.The owners, James and Shelley Le Fresne,use the station and the train as rooms.There are seven old train cars and there is also a restaurant in the dining car.Prices are from $89 to $169 per room or train car.
Sleep in a jail(监狱) in the Canadian capital, Ottawa.Here, you can sleep in the old downtown Ottawa Jail Hostel.There are group or private bedrooms.There are still bars on the doors ! Prices are from $ 25 to $ 65. Don't worry, there aren't any criminals(犯人）there !
Sleep in a tepee (a tent of the American Indians) at a UNESCO World Heritage site in Alberta.At this hotel, there are guided tours and lessons in local culture. The best part: sleeping in a real tepee outside. The price is around $ 300, or $ 620 for a full package.
Sleep in a lighthouse at the Quirpon Lighthouse Inn. This hotel is on Newfoundland's Quirpon Island. There are great views of the ocean from the windows.There are 11 private rooms in total. Prices are from $ 225 for a single to $ 350 for a suite(套房). Meals are included in the restaurant.The hotel has the traditional look and feel of the lighthouse, so there is no Internet, TV or telephones in the rooms. There are tours available, and boat tours to the island are included.
1.What can you do if you choose the Train Station Inn?
A. Shop in the old train cars.
B. Learn how to drive the train.
C. Have meals in the dining car.
D. Enjoy a rail tour of Nova Scotia.
2.In what way is staying in a tepee in Alberta special?
A. It serves local food to diners.
B. You can sleep in the open air.
C. You can tour Alberta for free.
D. It offers lessons on making tepees.
3.The Quirpon Lighthouse Inn can’t provide________.
A. Private rooms. B. Guided tours.
C. Daily meals. D. The Internet.
4.You' ll pay the least if you choose to sleep________.
A. in a tepee in Alberta B. at the Train Station Inn
C. in the Ottawa Jail Hostel D. at the Quirpon Lighthouse Inn
请阅读下面短文，并按要求用英语写一篇150词左右的文章。
In recent years, internet voting has become increasingly popular in China. People not only cast on-line votes themselves, but also urge others to vote for competitions like the “Most Beautiful Teacher” and the “Cutest Baby”.
Li Jiang, a high school student, is invited to vote in the “Best Police Officer” competition, organized by the local government to let the public have a better understanding of police officers’ daily work. Li Jiang visits the website and reads all the stories. He is deeply moved by their glorious deeds. He is already thinking of becoming a policeman himself in the future.
Su Hua is invited by his uncle to vote for his cousin in the “Future Singer” competition. He has already received three similar invitations this week. His uncle tells him that if his cousin wins the competition, the family will win an overseas tour for free. Su Hua likes his cousin very much, but he finds other singers perform even better. To vote, or not to vote? This is a question that troubles him very much.
（写作内容）
1.用约30个单词写出上文概要；
2.用约120个单词阐述你对网络投票的看法，并用2~3个理由或论据支撑你的看法。
（写作要求）
1.写作过程中不能直接引用原文语句；
2.作文中不能出现真实姓名和学校名称；
3.不必写标题。
（评分标准）
内容完整，语言规范，语篇连贯，词数适当。
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请认真阅读下面短文，并根据所读内容在文章后表格中的空格里填入一个最恰当的单词。
注意：请将答案写在答题卡上相应题号的横线上。每个空格只写一个单词。
The loss of handwriting in our high-tech world saddens me. People of all ages openly admit their handwriting as keyboards replace pen and paper. Increasingly, schoolchildren deal with assignments on computer and struggle to write, having had little practice. I am of the generation that learnt to write with a dip pen in kindergarten and a fountain pen in high school; by the time I reached university, like everyone else. I used a functional ballpoint. Handwriting has filled every aspect of my life since I was first taught to shape letters on the lined pages of my exercise books.
From the age of 12,I kept a handwritten journal, recording my thoughts and feelings regarding both the significant and mundane aspects of my life. Through this daily practice I connected with myself, explored experiences and found a way to interpret and make sense of my relationships. Although I rarely reread my written material, the process of writing has remained with me as a means of processing my feelings and filtering（过滤） my experiences.
Yet today, handwritten letters are as rare as a red panda. Few of us write any longer, even to those to whom we are close, We communicate difficultly when we e-mail or text, both methods characterized by speed and informality. The deep thinking which accompanied a handwritten letter is almost entirely absent. We may be communicating more frequently and with more people, but the depth and quality of our communication has reduced.
Sadly, modern technology tends to be temporary. Few of us keep old e-mails or even print them out, so a sense of history and memory is lost. Archivists（档案管理者）report that more information has been lost in the past decade than in the previous 150 years. It is too easy to press the delete button.
In many other areas of records, material is now in the digital format. Yet saving material in a digital format only is extremely unstable. How it will survive the future remains a problem.
In this digital world of text, e-mails and instant messaging, the perceived value of writing is no longer obvious and the case for retaining the practice of writing needs to be made. Should we save the bumble pen and paper when laptops and mobiles are functional, universal and unstoppable? Should children continue to be taught to write with a pen and paper?
With its passing a good mode of self-expression is being lost. I invite readers to engage with handwriting and become aware of this special skill that has created civilization for centuries.
Paragraph outline | Detailed information |
The current 1.of handwriting | ▲Students 2.to computers to complete their homework ▲With little practice, students have 3. writing. ▲We seldom write letters even to people we are close to. |
The author’s link with handwriting | ▲The author4. himself to handwriting from kindergarten to university ▲The author kept 5.of his thoughts and feelings by keeping writing journals. ▲The author also takes 6.of writing to process his feeling and filtering his experiences. |
The 7.with modern communication methods | ▲There is an 8.of depth and quality in e-mail and texts ▲The temporariness of modern technology tends to give 9. to the loss of some history and memory ▲Saving materials only in a digital format is not very stable. ▲A style of self-expression is being lost. |
The author’s 10.to people for handwriting | Write as much as possible and realize the importance of this special art |
In creating A.J. Fikry’s ordinary-yet-extraordinary life, the author Gabielle Zevin has thrown every clichés(老生常谈) into the mix. The hero, A.J. Fikry, lost his beloved wife Nic in a road accident. The sales of his bookstore have been decreasing. The enthusiastic new sales representative Amelia won’t stop annoying him with new books. His rare and very valuable first edition has gone missing. But the unexpected arrival of Maya left in his care brings about a series of events with love and hope to his life.
There are few real surprises in the plot and attentive readers will be able to tell where the story is headed. But that is not the point; the clichés and the predictable plot take nothing away from Zevin’s work The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry because it’s how she tells the story that first charms the readers, then holds their attention, making them read the whole book in a single sitting and finally give the book a long hug when they are finished. This book is a love letter to the joys of reading.
Each chapter begins with the title of a short story or a book and a note from A.J. Fikry describing what he likes about it, essentially introducing each character by what they read. The characters are so realistic that it’s hard not to fall in love with all of them: Maya, “the fantastic book-worm,” Amelia, “the giantess” with questionable taste in fashion, Lambiase, the adorable police chief, and A.J. Fikry, the reluctant hero who hates electronic reading devices that will “send centuries of a lively culture into what will surely be a rapid decline.”
The passage of time, race issues, and the bureaucratic argument of children’s services are all put aside in the telling of this story, not because there’s anything to hide or because reality is not allowed to interfere, but because the author chooses to focus on the important stuff. For example, it focuses on Lambiase who organizes a reading club for policemen at the book store. His original intention is to help promote business, but over the years he becomes a genuine book-lover, one who tends to always have simple advice for his cynical(愤世嫉俗的) friend, A.J. Fikry. “Bad timing,” Lambiase claims, “I’ve been a police officer for twenty years now and I’ll tell you pretty much every bad thing in life is a result of bad timing, and every good thing is the result of good timing.”
More than anything else, this novel is not only about the selling of them or the reading of them, but how books and stories become part of our lives, how we find ourselves within what we read and how we carry books with us. It is also about the power of unexpected happiness and always believing that something wonderful is just around the corner. The Late Bloomer is the book within a book which brings together A.J. Fikry and Amelia. It reminds them that life doesn’t follow a set script, things happen when they are meant to happen, and there is no such thing as “too late” for anything. Life is the big picture. Always look at the big picture. Enjoy it. Don’t get too concentrated on the details, because it will all be over before you know it. In the long run nobody, not even you, will remember the ordinary details because they are, in the end, quite irrelevant.
A.J. Fikry’s final words of wisdom to teen-aged Maya convey the same feelings in literary terms: “We are not quite novels. We are not quite short stories. In the end, we are collected works. We have read enough to know there are no collections where each story is perfect. Some of us hit. Some miss.”
1.The author’s attitude towards Zevin’s book is _________.
A. supportive B. critical
C. objective D. indifferent
2.How many characters of the novel are mentioned in the passage?
A. Four. B. Five.
C. Six. D. Seven.
3.The police chief organizing a reading club is mentioned to prove _________ in the novel.
A. there is really nothing to hide B. reality is not allowed to interfere
C. important stuff has been focused on D. everything is a result of timing
4.What can be implied in Paragraph 5?
A. The novel underlines happiness will always be around.
B. The novel mainly talks about the marketing of the book.
C. It is The Late Bloomer that brings A.J and Amelia together.
D. It is important to do things on the basis of overall situation.
5.The underlined sentence in the last paragraph most probably means _________.
A. our life is full of ups and downs B. we should collect works all our life
C. our life is closely connected with books D. we should read books all our life
6.The passage is mainly about _________.
A. the extraordinary life of A.J. Fikry B. the moral lesson of no “too late” in life
C. a comment on The Later Bloomer D. a review of The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry
Whales, seals and walruses stay warm in cold water because they have a thick layer of blubber. We humans rely on something like blubber—neoprene rubber wet suits—to spend time in cold water. But the thick versions for really icy water are heavy and clumsy. So rather than taking after big marine mammals, what if we could learn from the littler ones, like beavers and otters?
“These animals are quite small and they can’t carry around a thick layer of blubber. So instead they have fur that is evolved to trap air, and this air provides a layer of insulation for them in water.”
Alice Nasto is a graduate student in mechanical engineering at MIT. Scientists have known about this air-trapping insulation mechanism for a long time, but they had not teased out the details of how it works. So Nasto and her colleagues took on the challenge.
“We’re creating these furry samples from these rubbery materials by laser cutting molds and casting these hairy surfaces. And through our approach we can precisely control the spacing of the hairs and the length of the hairs.”
The researchers then created a system to gather data when their pelts (毛皮) entered and moved through a liquid—in this case not water, but silicone oil, which makes it easier to see air bubbles. The key is to keep the pelt’s air layer intact (完好的).
“So when they’re crossing the air water interface, initially their hairy texture is full of air. And then you go into water. How much of the air comes down with you as you’re moving in through the interface. So that’s what this model will tell you.”
They found that the denser the hairs, the more the air gets trapped，which should keep the animal—or potentially the human in a future furry wet suit—warm. The research is in the journal Physical Review Fluids.
“What we would like to work on moving forward is understanding, after you dive into the water, how do you maintain this air layer trapped in your fur. And there’s lots of interesting properties of the fur in nature that we haven’t yet looked at in our model that could help explain how this mechanism might work.”
So for now, cold-water divers and surfers will still emulate seals or sea lions. But the day may come when they’ll more closely resemble otters or beavers.
1.What can make littler mammals keep warm in cold water?
A. An air-trapping insulation mechanism. B. A thick layer of blubber.
C. A fur that is evolved to trap air. D. A neoprene rubber wet suit.
2.Nasto and her colleagues have revealed _______________.
A. the denser the hairs, the more the air can be carried with.
B. the way this air-trapping insulation mechanism works.
C. how the air layer trapped in the fur is maintained in water.
D. the existence of the air-trapping insulation mechanism.
3.The passage is most probably taken from ______________.
A. a newspaper B. a travel book
C. a medical report D. a science magazine
4.What is the best title for the passage?
A. A Fantastic Layer of Fur B. An Important Research
C. A Wonderful Mechanism D. A Graduate’s Challenge
