I shopped today. While I was_______at the grocery store, a woman followed behind me. She was standing by one of those shopping carts with the_______in front. The basket held just a few_______：some apples, corn, a loaf of bread, some canned goods, and a bunch of beautiful coral colored roses. Several times I_______her looking at those lovely roses and_______. I told her that they were, indeed, very lovely roses. She said, "I really do love them, and they’re my_______color.”
Well, just as I was _______, I heard her say to the _______, "You can put those roses back. I really couldn’t _______ them." I turned around and asked her if she would allow me to get them for her. She________her head and said, "Why would you want to do that? You ________ don’t have to." I replied that I just wanted to especially since she________them so much. She still seemed hesitant so I told her that she would be doing me a great kindness if she would________me to gift them to her.
With tears in her eyes, she________and said, "I really do love them. Thank you.”
On the way home I was reminded of a ________ I had heard decades ago and I've loved it ever since. The song is Bread and Roses. It's a ________ song on many levels and reminds us that we all need food, but we all also need ________.
A line from this song fits this________ perfectly, I thought. It reads: "________starve as well as bodies. Give us________, but give us roses, too.”
1.A. calming down B. checking out C. packing up D. hanging around
2.A. goods B. bag C. customers D. basket
3.A. roses B. cakes C. items D. drinks
4.A. caught B. suggest C. had D. sensed
5.A. suffering B. smiling C. hesitating D. bargaining
6.A. favorite B. suitable C. attractive D. similar
7.A. entering B. leaving C. responding D. wandering
8.A. companion B. manger C. cashier D. stranger
9.A. drop B. enjoy C. store D. afford
10.A. shook B. turned C. nodded D. moved
11.A. probably B. sincerely C. certainly D. finally
12.A. needed B. considered C. studied D. loved
13.A. ask B. invite C. force D. allow
14.A. cheered B. agreed C. refuse D. insisted
15.A. song B. play C. book D. film
16.A. noisy B. beautiful C. funny D. new
17.A. peace B. power C. beauty D. medicine
18.A. situation B. position C. style D. standard
19.A. Bodies B. Brains C. Eyes D. Hearts
20.A. money B. time C. bread D. chance
In a world surrounded by bad news, it may feel like an unhappy place sometimes.1.
If you make even one person smile today, you can help make this world a better place. Here is list of ideas to help you.
2.In this day and age where everything is sent via the Internet, it's a shock to receive a letter through the post. Putting pen to paper and writing a few words to a friend can be an easy way to make a positive impact.
Requiring some time and research to find the perfect project, volunteering is one of the nicest things you can do. Whether you volunteer at your local youth group or take dogs from shelters for a walk, the simple fact that you are giving up your time to help someone else is incredible. There are so many opportunities.3.
Tell someone "I love you". It can be anyone. 4.Perhaps you can tell a friend that you appreciate all they are to you, or remind your mum that it's her birthday. Sometimes, in our busy lives we forget to take a moment to tell people what they mean to us.
5.Whether you're creative or not, taking time to make something for someone else shows how much you appreciate them. Even if you think you're not creative, the recipient will feel lucky to get such a unique gift that you put your precious time into. Some ideas could include a card, painting, drawing, song, poem or cake!
A. However, you can make a difference.
B. It's a surprise to send a handwritten letter.
C. And you don't even have to say "I love you"
D. So you are sure to find one that is right for you.
E. And it doesn’t necessarily have to take up all your life.
F. Making something for a special person is always unique.
G. Even a postcard with a couple of sentences could really make someone's day.
The Shiants, remote, cliff-edged islands off the coast of Scotland are home to 350,000 seabirds. This is the starting point for National Geographic contributor Adam Nicolson’s new book, The Seabirds Cry. Celebrating 10 species in detail, he describes the unbelievable recovery of seabirds and the many adaptations that have enabled them to survive and navigate the oceans, while sounding a loud call for their conservation among severely falling numbers.
Speaking from his home in Sussex, England, Nicolson explains why guillemot (海雀) colonies are information exchange centers: how new research is showing that those long-distance travelers. The shearwaters, "smell" their way across the globe; and what we can do to support seabird populations.
National Geographic has just kicked off Year of the Bird with a cover story by Jonathan Franzen titled "Why Birds Matter ". The beginning of Year of the Bird is beneficial to birds. Nicolson said, "Ill ask you the same question-why? For me, these seabirds are symbols of uniqueness. There is so much on the land where the rest of the living world seems to be controlled by us, but when you go to seabird colonies, there is this pumping, loud and raging uniqueness. It's a glance of the untouched world. ”
“The reason why it's untouched is that, until recently, we have not controlled the oceans that the seabirds depend on. More of them have survived in greater numbers than most other creatures in the developed world, where huge amounts of the animal kingdom have been removed by us. And so one reason these birds matter is that they are symbols of what the world might be if we hadn't done so much damage to it. "He added.
“Seabirds also tend to disappear; they’re not reliably of our world, due to their migration and habits of life. Very deep in our consciousness is a sense that they are ambassadors from another world. And witnessing and feeling that is, I think, one of the great enlargers of life.” Nicolson explained.
1.What is the book The Seabirds Cry mainly about?
A. Seabirds on an island. B. The extinction of seabirds.
C. The importance of seabird. D. Seabirds in the author's hometown.
2.What can we learn from Nicolson’s speech?
A. The wisdom of seabirds. B. Ways to protect seabird.
C. Migration routes of seabirds. D. The harder situation of seabirds.
3.What does the underlined phrase "kicked off" in paragraph 3 mean?
A. Watched out for B. Cut across
C. Expressed D. Started
4.Which is a lucky thing for seabirds in Nicolson’s view?
A. The sea is too large to be polluted.
B. The sea isn't entirely governed by humans.
C. The seabirds are able to fit the environment.
D. The seabirds are living in the developed world.
Angad Rekhi, a graduate student and an assistant professor of electrical engineering, has developed a wake-up receiver. This wake-up receiver has many potential applications, particularly in designing the next generation of net worked devices, including so called “smart” devices that can communicate directly with one another without human intervention (介入).
Once attached to a device, a wake-up receiver listens for a unique ultrasonic（超声波）pattern that tells it when to turn the device on. It needs only a very small amount of power to maintain this constant listening, so it still saves energy overall while extending the battery life of the larger device. A well-designed wake-up receiver also allows the device to be turned on from a significant distance.
Given the increased interest in networked devices, researchers and industry organizations are starting to define what features and techniques will become standard. Regardless of whether this ultrasound wake-up receiver is among these standard designs, it is likely wake-up receivers of some kind will be combined into commercial applications soon.
By comparison, the ultrasound wake-up receiver requires a battery but has much greater range than the wirelessly powered devices, while still maintaining a long lifetime due to extremely low power draw. These two technologies-wireless power and wake-up receivers-would likely serve different purposes but both indicate at a turning point in devices that make up the Internet of Things.
“In light of a long-promised future where interconnected, autonomous, widespread and unremarkable technologies make life easier, the networked devices available now, like video doorbells and app-enabled lights, seem like rather slight advances.” the researchers said. They believe technologies like theirs could help cross the gap between the Internet of Things as we know it and the Internet of Things at its best-whatever that may be.
1.Which of the following is an advantage of the wake-up receiver?
A. It requires no signal. B. It is very power saving.
C. It can make the battery larger. D. It must be fixed to another device.
2.What do we know about by comparing the wireless power with wake-up receivers?
A. One can replace the other. B. The wake-up receiver is better.
C. Both have their own advantages. D. The wirelessly powered device has more uses.
3.What do the researchers feel about their technologies mentioned in the last paragraph?
A. They make the Internet cheaper.
B. They make the Internet more popular.
C. They are not useful devices for the Internet.
D. They are beneficial to the use of the Internet.
4.What can be the best title for the text?
A. Wide Use of Advanced Equipment B. Development of the Internet Devices
C. New Technique for Waking Up Devices D. Difference between Two Wake-up Receives
I have a neighbor who is a capable, fashionable, seventy-year-old, single woman. Her name is Grace. Grace was laid off from her job a little over two years ago and has been living off her savings ever since but not officially "retired". Grace called me up one day about this time last year and asked if I had a ladder. She needed to clean out her gutters (水槽) on the roof and wanted me to hold the ladder.
She didn’t want me to climb up and clean the gutters. She just wanted me to hold the ladder. As it happened I did have a ladder. I said: “The leaves are going to fall off the trees in a month, why don’t we wait till they finish and do it then?” She agreed and naturally we didn’t talk about it again until spring. Spring in Tennessee is wild and we talked about it over the course of three weeks in which it rained nearly every day, then I got busy and Grace went into seclusion (隐居).
A couple of weeks ago, she told me she’d been spending too much money and decided to apply for a bar tending job at a local hotel. “Now I don’t know about you all but I’d never considered what it would be like to apply for and begin a new job at the age of seventy. I’m fifty-three and the older I get, the more I think about how great it’ll be if I can just get out of bed when I’m seventy.” Anyway, she got the job, serving the bar and tending banquets at the hotel.
The day when she left for her training at 6 am, I walked across the street with my ladder and cleaned out her gutters.
1.What did Grace want the author to do?
A. Make a ladder. B. Retire completely.
C. Lend her a ladder. D. Give her suggestions.
2.When did the author advise Grace to clean her gutters?
A. In early spring. B. In rainy season.
C. In time of leaves falling. D. In time of few leaves on trees.
3.What was the author’s neighbor doing when the author wrote the text?
A. Working at a hotel. B. Training for her job.
C. Cleaning out her house. D. Walking with the author.
4.What did the author think of her neighbor’s re-employment?
A. Valuable. B. Impossible.
C. Reasonable. D. Unbelievable.
Incredible Women You Didn't Learn About in History Class
Here are the stories of women you may not know about, but definitely should
◆Maria Sibylla Merian
Born in Germany in 1647, Merian was fascinated by insects, and she began collecting, studying, and drawing them when she was as young as 13. She was one of the few naturalists of her time to actually study live insects. It was through her study of caterpillars(毛毛虫) that she discovered the truth about their life cycles. Her work provided major contributions to the field of entomology（昆虫学）。
◆ Murasaki Shikibu
Murasaki Shikibu, a Japanese woman, was widely considered to be the world’s first novelist. She was a noble woman living in Japan around the year 1000 AD. She wrote a two-part novel called The Tale of Genji, which tells a riches-to-rags story about the son of a Japanese emperor forced to live as a common man. The Tale of Genji is widely considered to be a masterpiece of Japanese literature.
◆ Ada Lovelace
Ada was working to design early computing machines that she hoped would be able to quickly solve math problems. In addition to designing this early computer program, she also was first to suggest that these computers might be able to do more than, well, calculate. She imagined them doing everything, from producing images to composing music.
◆ Lucy Stone
Born in 1818, Stone married a fellow activist and changed her name, but decided to change it back a year later. She held the belief that "a wife should no more take her husband's name than hers." She became the first American married woman to keep her maiden name for her entire life. Stone was also one of the founding members of the American Equal Rights Association and fought for the ending of slavery.
1.What can readers learn about from The Tale of Genji?
A. Ancient Japanese culture.
B. Development of computer.
C. Research on living things.
D. Modern life of Japanese women.
2.What do Maria Sibylla Merian and Ada Lovelace have in common?
A. They were pioneers in computer.
B. They devoted themselves to science.
C. They created masterpieces of literature.
D. They made progress in studying Insects
3.Which of the following women fought for human rights?
A. Lucy Stone B. Ada Lovelace
C. Murasaki Shikibu D. Maria Sibylla Merlan
