I walked into a bank in town a couple of days ago and waited in the queue. I was the second______and I couldn’t help overhearing the_______in front of me. The bank clerk must have been having a(an) _______ day and after asking how the_______was and so on, he began to complain about our government, _______them for not doing enough to_______the coast from storms and floods as this had been much on the news at the time.
He was in_____spirits and you could tell that he was really_______about a lot of things going on in the world.
My heart went out to him. I was _______ next and all I could do was_______. 1didn’t have any words. Afterwards, it _______to me something that had been running under my own thoughts.
So I left the bank, found a_______and on it I wrote: Sometimes the bad parts of the world seem so_______. There are so many sad things going on in the news. They make it hard to see _______going on around us. But that doesn’t_______life right now can’t be beautiful. All you have to do is open your eyes. It’s in the gaps(缝隙) that beauty is_______.
I_______the postcard back into the bank, wandered around and_______ it on a table, ______that the bank clerk would find it. Whether he did or not, I never found out, but it_______would do someone some good, which I’m certain of.
1.A. in sight B. in the way C. in line D. in time
2.A. story B. noise C. quarrel D. conversation
3.A. perfect B. bad C. nervous D. unfortunate
4.A. customer B. farmer C. thinker D. officer
5.A. praising B. blaming C. doubting D. punishing
6.A. prevent B. remove C. separate D. protect
7.A. low B. high C. good D. strange
8.A. excited B. trouble C. cautious D. curious
9.A. served B. paid C. refused D. invited
10.A. comfort B. smile C. scream D. criticize
11.A. seemed B. happened C. came D. looked
12.A. pen B. desk C. postcard D. book
13.A. disappointing B. encouraging C. delightful D. interesting
14.A. fight B. pollution C. luckiness D. beauty
15.A. tell B. feel C. mean D. teach
16.A. found B. built C. missed D. neglected
17.A. passed B. mailed C. took D. lost
18.A. wrote B. hid C. announced D. left
19.A. advising B. hoping C. watching D. guessing
20.A. surely B. suddenly C. hardly D. lately
Every person has goals in life. Here are some simple techniques for accomplishing your goals.1.
Remain devoted to achieving your goals and you can become successful in life. You should be firm. If you are motivated and driven to succeed, then nothing can stop you.
State and define (阐明) your goals in a specific way.
2. For example, if you say to yourself that you want to be successful, it may be quite difficult to get to that “goal” because it is undefined3. You may say that you aim to graduate with honors, or you plan to become the CEO of your company. By stating exactly what you want to achieve, you can start planning out the right path that will lead you toward it.
Develop milestones (里程碑)
The journey to reaching an objective has a beginning and an end. But you can learn more from the experience if you break down your goals into a series of smaller milestones.4. And it also allows you to stop and examine your process to see if it needs improving.
Adopt a positive mind.
In this tough world, the last thing you need in life is to have a negative mind. 5. So, make sure you adopt positive thinking to improve yourself.
A. Stay devoted to your goals.
B. This will help you have an open mind.
C. Unclear goals are never easy to achieve.
D. Instead, you should define your goals in life.
E. Make a commitment to the most important goals.
F. After all negativity pulls you down and farther from your goals.
G. Using milestones gives you smaller goals to achieve that will maintain your motivation.
WITH ALL THE CONTROVERSY swirling around "fake news" in the media, it's a good time to remind you, dear readers, that you won't find any of that in Reader's Digest Here's why: We are committed to publishing strong and accurate stories.
Millions of people around the world turn to this little magazine every month because of the care with which we document our stories. We guard readers' trust by holding our editorial researchers, editors and writers to high standards. For example, we require our writers to talk to people with first-hand knowledge of their subject Then we give their story to fact-checkers, who confirm that sources were accurately quoted. We get our facts straight.
What about the articles we reprint from other publications, you ask? Thanks to our global presence, we have researchers and fact-checkers around the world who check these stories for us. For example, in this issue, "Making Yogurt, Healing Minds, "from the UK's Observer magazine, was checked by our European Editorial Office. " I Was Blind But Now I see, "from Toronto Life, was thoroughly checked out by our editorial office in Montreal. Our drama, "41 Hours Alone in the Snow, "from the Swiss Sonntags Zeitung magazine, was confirmed by our Swiss edition.
You can feel secure in knowing that Reader's Digest is in the real news business. Always have been. Always will be.
No fake news here.
1.How does Reader's Digest guarantee the genuineness of its stories?
A. It has many people around the world to check each story s source.
B. The writer of each story experienced the story himself/herself.
C. Its stories are all written by some famous people.
D. It has severe punishment for those who write fake news.
2.According the passage, which of the following statement is true?
A. Reader's Digest is only sold in Swiss.
B. Reader's Digest enjoys world-wide popularity.
C. The accuracy of the stories in Reader's Digest is guaranteed by their writers.
D. All the stories in Reader's Digest are first published
3.From this passage, as for Reader's Digest, we can know that the writer of this passage is________.
A. considerate B. doubtful
C. determined D. negative
4.Where can we find this passage?
A. In a magazine. B. In a novel
C. In a fairy-tale book. D. In a science book
Bees seem to fly aimlessly as they search for the sugary liquid called nectar (花蜜). But their flight plans actually do have a pattern. Flowers act as the insects’ air-traffic controllers. And new research shows bees prefer flowers that aren’t too flashy.
Flowers give bees clues about how much a plant can offer. Those clues can be in the color of petals, in the type, in the smell or even in the electrical charge. All of these characteristics send signals to the bees, telling them whether to land or not, among which the colors play the most significant role. The insects keep track of the color of the flowers that are especially rich in nectar. They then visit more flowers of that color.
However, color can’t guarantee bees a good meal. It may change depending on the angle at which sunlight hits its petals. A yellow follower, for example, may look somewhat blue from one angle and red from another. Beverley Glover studies plants at the University of Cambridge in England. Glover and her colleagues showed that even when the color of petals looks similar, bees behave differently in searching for nectar. They started to guess that the strength of petals’ indescence (色彩斑斓) might be related to how bees find the petals.
Glover and her colleagues tested their hypothesis in the lab. In their experiment, they found that bees felt confused sometimes when the petals were very iridescent and that bees had no problem finding the flowers with more nectar when the petals were not very iridescent. The team shared its new findings in the March 21 Current Biology.
“At first glance, it’s very surprising because animals can usually detect a more vivid signal more easily,” says Klaus Lunau, a biologist in Germany, who was not involved in the study.
1.What can we know about the flight of bees?
A. They usually fly in a regular pattern.
B. They fly under the direction of flowers.
C. They usually fly without any purpose.
D. They fly to some very flashy flowers.
2.What is the most important clue for bees to search for nectar?
A. The petals’ type. B. The followers’ smell.
C. The followers’ electrical charge. D. The petals’ color.
3.What does the underlined word “hypothesis” in Paragraph 4 probably mean?
A. Discussion. B. Method.
C. Assumption. D. Invention
4.What is the new finding of the team?
A. Petals that are not very flashy are better for bees to make adjustments.
B. Petals of different color usually give different signals.
C. Petals that are vivid are detected by bees more easily.
D. Petals of different types make bees confused to find the right flower.
Then comes the July, and with it are examinations; but these are soon finished and with them ends the school year. Boys and girls have nearly two months holiday before them as they leave school by train and car to return home to their fathers and mothers.
The summer holidays are the best part of the year for most children. The weather is usually good, so that one can spend most of one’s time playing in the garden or, if one lives in the country, out in the woods and fields. Even if one lives in a big town, one can usually go to the park to play.
The best place for a summer holiday, however, is the seaside. Some children are lucky enough to live near the sea, but for others who do not, a week or two at one of the big seaside towns is something which they will talk about for the whole of the following year.
In England, it is not only the rich who can take their children to the seaside; if a factory worker or a bus driver, a street cleaner or a waiter wants to take his wife and children to Southend or Margate, Blackpool or Clacton, he is usually quite able to do so.
Now, why do children like so much about the seaside? I think it is the sand, sea and sun more than any other things. Of course, there are lots of new things to see, nice things to eat, and exciting things to do, but it is the feeling of sand under one’s feet, of salt water on one’s skin, and of the warm sun on one’s skin, and of the warm sun on one’s back that make the seaside what it is.
1.Summer holidays start _______.
A. with July B. as soon as the examinations are over
C. in mid----June D. in August
2.After the examinations, all the pupils leave for home -_____.
A. by train only B. by car
C. by bike D. by either train or car
3.The summer holidays last ______.
A. nearly three months B. more than three months
C. one and a half months D. about two months
4.Children like the seaside so much, because they can ____.
A. swim in the sea B. play with the sand
C. take a sunbath D. do all of the above
Popular music in America is what every student likes. Students carry small radios with earphones and listen to music before class, after class, and at lunch. Students with cars buy large speakers and play the music loudly as they drive on the street.
Adult drivers listen to music on the car radio as they drive to work. They also listen to the news about sports, the weather, and the life of American people. Most of the radio programs are music.
Pop or popular music singers make much money. They make a CD or tape which radio stations use in many places. Once the popular singer is heard all over the country, young people buy his or her tapes. Some of the money from these tapes goes to the singer. Wherever the singer goes, all the young people want to meet him or her. Now the singer has become a national star.
There are other kinds of music that are important to Americans. One is called folk music. It tells stories about the common life of Americans. Another is called western or country music. This is started by cowboys who would sing at night to the cows they were watching.
1.This passage mainly talks about ____.
A. American music B. American popular music
C. three sorts of music D. popular music singers
2.The first three paragraphs mainly tell us ____.
A. that Americans dislike popular music
B. that popular music is an important kind of music in America
C. how to become an international star as a pop singer in America
D. popular music in America is what every teacher like
3.In the USA, as a pop singer, if you want to become a national star, you’ll have to ____.
A. earn a lot of money B. make a radio stations buy your CDs or tapes
C. make many CDs or tapes D. make young people love you and what you sing
