Over the last 15 years, as a doctor, I have had heart-to-heart conversations with countless patients near the end of their lives. The most common emotion they express is______. And that’s______I came up with a project to encourage people to write a______to their loved ones. It’s a lesson I learned years ago from a memorable______patient.
He was a retired______with a cancer. Every day, his______spent many hours watching him watch television. She explained to me he had never been much of a______in their 50-plus years of marriage. But he seemed quite______to share his ideas with me,______when it became clear his days were______. He spoke of his deep regret for not having spent enough time with his wife, and of his great______in his son, who had joined the Navy in his father’s footsteps.
One afternoon, when I mentioned these______to his wife and son, they looked disbelievingly at each other. They thanked me for being so kind but______my patient was unlikely to express such feelings. To make sure his family could hear his______, I took my video camera with me the next morning and with the patients’______, recorded an open letter from him to his family. When I gave them the______letter, both his wife and son were moved to tears.
The experience______my letter project, which can help people complete their life review tasks: remembering to those we may have hurt;______those who have hurt us and saying “I love you”. It may take much courage to write a life review letter. For some people, it______deep and troubling emotions.______it may be the most important letter you will ever write.
1.A. gratitude B. regret C. apology D. affection
2.A. because B. why C. when D. how
3.A. note B. bill C. letter D. sentence
4.A. dying B. weak C. unconscious D. silent
5.A. merchant B. worker C. official D. soldier
6.A. family B. daughter C. son D. wife
7.A. husband B. lover C. talker D. companion
8.A. willing B. disturbing C. embarrassed D. delighted
9.A. specially B. especially C. exactly D. gradually
10.A. numbered B. died C. ended D. completed
11.A. satisfaction B. pride C. concern D. complaint
12.A. comments B. decisions C. explanations D. promises
13.A. denied B. disbelieved C. insisted D. realized
14.A. sorrow B. anxiety C. wish D. love
15.A. desire B. permission C. request D. assistance
16.A. taped B. typed C. written D. unopened
17.A. raised B. inspired C. proved D. welcomed
18.A. acknowledging B. forgetting C. hurting D. forgiving
19.A. calls for B. calls off C. calls in D. calls up
20.A. So B. For C. Yet D. Otherwise
In the 60s, people asked about your astrological (about star) sign. In the 90s, they want to know your website. 1. Your website is an electronic meeting place for your family, friends and potentially, millions of people around the world. Best of all, you may not have to spend a cent. The Web is filled with all kinds of free services and all it takes is some time and creativity.
2. Like the table of contents of a book or magazine, the home page is the front door. Your site can have one or more pages, depending on how you design it.
While web pages vary greatly in their design and content, most use a traditional magazine layout(版面设计). At the top of the page is a banner(横幅)GRAPHIC. Next comes a greeting and short description of the site. Pictures, text, and links to other websites follow.
3. Think about whom the site is for and what you want to say. Next, gather up the material that you want to put on the site.
While there are no rules you have to follow, there are a few things to keep in mind:4. If you want too much at the beginning, you may never get the site off the ground. You can always add to your site.
Less is better. Most people don’t like to read a lot of long texts online.5.
Smaller is better. Since it can take a long time to download large files, keep the file sizes small.
Have the rights. Don’t put any material on your site unless you are sure you can do it legally. Always remember to get the permission from the writer first.
Now it’s time to roll up your sleeves and start building.
A. Start simply.
B. Break it into small pieces.
C. Draw a rough layout on a sheet of paper.
D. Many websites are considered very interesting.
E. Before you start building your site, do some planning.
F. Think of your home page as the starting point of your website.
G. These days, having a web address is almost as important as a street address.
The Amazing Penguin Rescue
The summer of 2016, the ship MV Treasure sunk, creating an oil spill. Thirteen hundred tons of fuel oil were flowing right in the middle of the African Penguins’ habitat. Soon the oil covered about 20,000 penguins. Without swift help, the seabirds would have no chance for survival. Volunteers were showing up by the thousands and I also took part in what was the largest animal rescue operation ever.
A warehouse was turned into a rescue center near the habitat and hundreds of pools were built to hold about 100 oiled birds each. When walking into the center, I couldn’t believe my ears. I had expected to walk into a chorus of honking and squawking(叫声). Instead, the center sounded like a library. The penguins were dead silent. My heart ached for the painful birds. Cleaning them all seemed like an impossible task. But we had to carry on like doctors in an emergency room. There was no time for doubt. Cleaning oil off a penguin wasn’t easy. Even with more than 12,500 volunteers, it took a month to bathe all 20,000 birds at the center.
While volunteers were busy bathing the oiled penguins, another crisis (危机) was developing. Oil from the spill had started moving north. Tens of thousands of penguins were in the oil’s path. But we already had our hands full with 20,000 recovering birds. If any more birds were oiled, we wouldn’t have enough resources to save them.
One researcher came up with an idea: What if the penguins were temporarily moved out of harm’s way? Experts decided to have a try. Volunteers rounded up the penguins and released them 500 miles away. The hope was that by the time the seabirds swam home, the oil would be gone. The plan worked! Another 20,000 penguins were saved.
The entire penguin rescue took about three months. More than 90% of the oiled penguins were successfully returned to the wild. Looking back on the rescue, I am still amazed by the work of the volunteers. What I could hardly believe was that we accomplished an impossible task.
1.The African penguins were in danger because of ________.
A. a knock by a ship B. a spill of oil
C. a change of habitats D. a lack of help
2.When walking into the rescue center, the author felt ________.
A. ambitious B. hopeless
C. shocked D. inspired
3.The crisis was ended by ________.
A. stopping the flow of the oil
B. cleaning the polluted habitat
C. asking more volunteers to help
D. moving the penguins from home
4.The author mainly intends to tell us that ________.
A. many hands make great work
B. where there is a will there is a way
C. the future of wildlife is in our hands
D. unite to make the earth pollution-free
Everyone knows that if a dog’s ears are up and its tail is wagging vigorously, it is definitely pleased to see you. but now scientists using a robot have found that the way dogs use their tails is more complicated than we thought, and that dogs which wag them to the left may he more friendly. The animal psychologists discovered that when real dogs approached a life-sized robot dog, they were less cautious about it when it was wagging its tail to the left, while if it was wagging its tail to the right, far fewer dogs approached it in a confident manner.
In the first experiments, 56 percent of the animals approached the model without hesitation when the tail was wagged to the left, while only 21 percent did so in the other situation. When the researchers excluded (排除) owners from being present, the result were: 31 percent of the dogs approached continuously when the tail was wagging to the left, while only 18 percent did so when it was on the right.
Animal psychologist Roger Mugford said it added to the growing evidence that does were even more complicated communicators than the animals more closely related to man such as monkeys. He said, “We know that dogs, in a sense, have languages, but it is more complicated because it is not just them wagging their tails, but also giving out chemical displays.”
He adds, “The research confirms earlier studies suggesting that dogs, like humans, had a left-side preference. If you are going to present a signal to a dog, it is sensible to put it on your left-hand side because that is where dogs, unlike most other animals, tend to look. It is another example of the similarity between dogs and humans. They are a lot more human than we give them credit for.”
1.What does it tell us if a dog wags its tail to the right?
A. It was very energetic B. It was in a bad mood
C. It might be unfriendly D. It must be confident
2.What can be inferred from the second paragraph?
A. Some dogs approach the robot dog confidently
B. Most dogs were afraid to approach the robot dog
C. Some dogs lack confidence with their owners present
D. Dog owners may influence the behaviour of their pets
3.What can we learn from animal psychologist’s experiments?
A. Dogs can communicate more than human beings
B. Dogs have more complicated emotions than monkeys
C. Dogs’ tail-wagging conveys more information than previously believed
D. Dogs’ intelligence can be much higher than any other kind of animal
4.What can we infer from Roger Mugfords words?
A. The Left-side preference should be studied further
B. Dogs have more in common with humans than we think
C. No other animals show the left-side preference except dogs
D. Dogs have a more complicated language than we people do
Over the past century, an alarming number of animals have become endangered or even extinct. Below are some animals whose numbers have been rapidly dropping in recent years.
Panda Bear
One of the biggest reasons contributing to the decline in the panda species is the destruction of its natural habitat. Farmers in China have gradually been claiming more and more of the land. As a result, pandas are forced to move away to places where it is hard to find bamboo for food.
Green Turtle
The green sea turtle species has survived for several millions of years, so you might wonder why it’s only becoming endangered now. A major cause is the change in climate and temperature, which both affect the hatching rates of turtle eggs. Climate changes also cause violent weather and rising water levels to flood areas where turtles usually go to lay their eggs. Apart from this, oil spills and other poisonous pollution, as well as increased fishing activities can cause sickness, or even death to the green turtles.
Cheetah
Cheetahs are famous for being the fastest animal on land but even they can’t run from some of the larger threats that have harmed them. Like the panda bears, cheetahs have gradually been losing their natural homes due to humans claiming land and developing in those areas. To make matters even worse, smaller animals move away when these areas are occupied, which means that the cheetah has less food! Don’t forget that other large animals, such as lions, are also fighting for any food that they can find, so occasionally young cheetahs end up as prey too.
Indian Elephant
Elephants are extremely intelligent animals and also the largest mammals that live on land. Sadly, in Asia many elephants were killed so that people could remove their tusks to use as decorative objects. While this practice has been banned now, some people still illegally continue. Forests in India have also been steadily destroyed and elephants are sometimes killed when they end up on human territory.
1.Humans’ increasing demand for land doesn’t affect the number of ________.
A. Indian elephants B. cheetahs
C. panda bears D. green turtles
2.We can save the largest mammals living on land by ________.
A. planting more bamboos
B. helping them find mates
C. stopping hunting them
D. preventing poisonous pollution
3.The living conditions of the fastest animal on land become worse because ________.
A. forests have been destroyed
B. they are threatened by humans and larger animals
C. people are fond of hunting wild animals
D. no law bans people from removing their tusks
I’m learning to drive in Switzerland. I think it will be a good idea to learn now because I have plenty of free time and am earning a little money to pay for lessons. I never learnt when I lived in the UK, so luckily driving on the “wrong” side isn’t a problem.
However, there are a lot of rules to remember. When you see a road to your right and there are no white lines on the ground, the cars to your right have the right to go before your car and you have to stop for them. In practice, lots of people forget this and cars either wait for each other while both drivers try to remember what to do, or beep (鸣喇叭) at each other if both try to go at the same time!
When you drive round a roundabout, you should check all your mirrors. To remember how to do this, I often count them aloud—one, two, three—then a second glance at your blind spot when you’re in the roundabout. One friend came driving with me and after about an hour asked why on earth I was counting. He had passed his test so long ago, he couldn’t remember ever having to check three mirrors!
Driving still seems scary to me so I drive quite slowly. I also don’t know the countryside roads very well and don’t know what’s coming up round the comer or over the next hill. I drive slowly so I feel safe, but my driving instructor tells me to speed up or cars will bump into me from behind or try to overtake somewhere dangerous. So driving slowly is just as dangerous as driving fast!
I’m not a very practical person so learning to drive has been a challenge. I don’t have a lot of confidence and find it quite demotivating to do something that doesn’t come naturally to me. To make driving more fun and interesting, I learn in Swiss German, so my instructor gives me instructions in Swiss. This way I’ve tricked myself into enjoying driving and hopefully will pass the test!
1.What can be inferred from the first paragraph?
A. It isn’t a proper time for the author to take driving lessons now.
B. Driving on the “wrong side” doesn’t influence the author..
C. The author was too poor to pay for driving lessons in Switzerland.
D. It is easy for the author to get confused about the driving rules in Switzerland.
2.The author often counts “one, two, three” aloud when driving round a roundabout to ________.
A. remind himself to check the mirrors B. speed up
C. overtake somewhere dangerous D. make driving more interesting
3.What does the underlined word “demotivating” in Paragraph 5 mean?
A. Encouraging. B. Amazing.
C. Exciting. D. Discouraging.
4.What is the text mainly about?
A. Driving speed.
B. Strict driving instructors.
C. Anecdotes of my driving experience.
D. Complicated driving rules in Switzerland.
