The Gift at the Parking Lot
I never thought I would be writing about a trip to the convenience store. It was just a month after my grandmother had _______ and I did useless things hoping to fill the hole in my heart and make me forget the pain.
In the store, I was upset because I couldn't even remember _______ I went there to buy so I ended up buying something ______. As I walked out of the store to get my car, I was ______ angry at everything that was going on around me, which was a very ______feeling at that time. Feeling ______, my belief in God was beginning to fade.
Suddenly, a woman driving right by my side rolled down her ______.“Excuse me, excuse me.” she said loudly.______ she was going to ask for my parking spot, I ______ pointed to my car. “No, excuse me,” she said again.
At this point, I felt I had no ______ but to see what this ______ lady wanted. As I got closer, I realized that she was _______ something in her bag. Surprisingly, I was overcome with a sense of relief while others would be ______ in this situation. Finally, she ______ me a booklet (小册子), which read “What Hope for Dead Loved Ones?” “Maybe you need this,” she said calmly ______ a warm smile on her face. However, ______ I could thank her, she was gone.
I felt a sense of ______ as I opened the first page. It ______ how people pass on, but their spirit _______ with us. This was the first time since my grandma had died that I had felt her with me and I began to feel hope again. It was a unique ______. And, I'll remember it for the rest of my life.
1.A. come back B. passed away C. broken down D. fallen over
2.A. what B. why C. how D. when
3.A. by chance B. in hand C. at random D. on purpose
4.A. still B. even C. yet D. also
5.A. common B. unbearable C. curious D. awkward
6.A. breathless B. hopeless C. aimless D. helpless
7.A. car B. door C. window D. hand
8.A. Recognizing B. Worrying C. Assuming D. Upsetting
9.A. cautiously B. exactly C. clumsily D. simply
10.A. choice B. reason C. destination D. prejudice
11.A. outgoing B. energetic C. determined D. annoying
12.A. putting away B. looking into C. searching for D. going over
13.A. excited B. nervous C. comfortable D. moved
14.A. offered B. showed C. brought D. handed
15.A. with B. in C. on D. of
16.A. after B. once C. as D. before
17.A. comfort B. satisfaction C. inspiration D. surprise
18.A. implied B. explained C. instructed D. directed
19.A. catches up B. fits in C. sticks D. remains
20.A. lesson B. memory C. gift D. reward
In a few months you’ll go to college. Are you ready for some of the newness that is about to come your way? Take a look at this “mental preparation” checklist and make sure you have given these topics some thought.
1. Remind yourself that it’s new for everyone.
Going to college is a big change, and it’s important not to get overwhelmed (压垮).1. That’s OK. Accept that you’re in a new stage of life and it won’t feel familiar for a bit.
2. Commit to time management.
Organizing your time properly will make your life in college much easier.2. Create a detailed daily schedule that blocks out time for classes, homework, studying, and anything else. Stay organized and spend a few minutes each evening planning ahead for the next day.
3. 3.
College will open your eyes in more ways than one. It’s a time to find yourself, discover new passions, challenge old ways of thinking, and meet new people from all backgrounds and places.So, try something different. Embrace (欣然接受) the idea of exploration!
4. Don’t be afraid to ask for help.
With anything new, it’s best to go in with a positive attitude. But life has its ups and downs.4. Take a moment to find out the college services that can help you: disability services, tutoring services, and any other services that will give you support when you need it.
Congratulations on this exciting time of your life.5. You’ll be glad you have done.
A. Be open to new things.
B. Knowing where to turn for help is important.
C. Things might feel a bit uncomfortable for a while.
D. Plan to pay them a visit early in your first semester.
E. Get yourself a time planning app or a good old day planner.
F. Remember that you’re in college to build a foundation for your future job.
G. As you get prepared for the first day of classes, get mentally ready for this new life stage too.
Forcing waiters and waitresses to survive on tips from customers rather than normal wages is a pointless, crude, and unique American custom that, in the past several years, a handful of progressive restaurant owners have attempted to do away with. Danny Meyer, CEO of Union Square Hospitality Group, is about to join their ranks and has announced that he plans to gradually stop tipping at the company’s 13 restaurants.
What, exactly, is wrong with tipping? As Brian Palmer has explained, more or less it’s everything. To start, leaving a waiter’s pay in the hands of customers has a feeling of classism (阶级歧视)．And in theory, handing restaurant customers the power to tip is at least supposed to motivate better service. This fails in practice because humans turn out to be pretty arbitrary (随意的) about their tipping behavior. Research has shown that the amount diners tip has very little to do with their level of satisfaction. All of this doesn’t encourage waiters and waitresses to do anything but turn over as many tables as possible.
Tipping is also very unfair to kitchen staff. The law allows restaurants to divide tips between front-of-the-house workers like waiters, hosts, hostesses, and bartenders (调酒师), but not cooks. This creates a system in which the people serving the food in a restaurant can earn more than the people preparing it．
One of the most fascinating parts of Meyer’s move is that, unlike some restaurant owners who have taken an anti-tipping stand, he won’t simply add a standard extra charge to diners’ bills. Rather, Union Square Hospitality Group means to raise menu prices enough to fully cover the cost of a meal. If Meyer manages to move away from tipping at all without hurting his profits, it would almost certainly set the stage for others to follow suit.
1.What’s Danny Meyer’s attitude towards stopping tipping?
A. Negative. B. Supportive.
C. Objective. D. Doubtful.
2.What can be inferred from Paragraph 2?
A. Tipping may disturb the restaurants’ management.
B. Tipping will guarantee diners high quality service.
C. Tipping can arouse the staff’s enthusiasm for work．
D. Tipping will bring customers a sense of satisfaction.
3.What can we know about Union Square Hospitality group?
A. Brian Palmer is in charge of it now.
B. Its cooks earn much more than its servers.
C. Restaurant tipping has been totally banned there.
D. Diners will be charged more for the dishes there.
4.What is the topic of the passage?
A. Restaurants’ getting rid of tipping.
B. Difficulties that restaurants are faced with.
C. The popularity of no-tipping restaurants.
D. Tips on running restaurants successfully.
One of the biggest problems when we are talking is the awkward silence. Encountering this situation is so uncomfortable that you would avoid meeting new people in the first place. In the past, I struggled with this and I even thought it had to do with my DNA or something… But later I learned that once you know how to keep those words flowing, you can meet and talk to anyone you like, which helps create great possibilities for friendship, fun and shared activities that you would otherwise have missed out on.
After studying this in depth, I had different opinions and found that one of these common behaviors is the habit of filtering (过滤)--holding back from saying something until you’ve “checked” to make sure that what you’re about to say is cool, impressive and interesting. Another problem is not learning to get in the mood for conversation. If you don’t know how to change from subjects, then it can take a lot of time to warm up.
It is the reflex (习惯性思维) that allows you to say whatever goes on in your mind. It’s fun to realize that you’re allowed to say whatever is on your mind. As long as you don’t say anything that could land you in jail (监狱).
All of the “Oh! That’s interesting…” “Hmm, I’ve never heard of that” “Hmm, cool!” expressions are reactionary (保守的) bits of conversation that prove to the other person that you’re really listening. This works 99% of the time. So, if you show some interest, they’ll hang around and want to talk to you even more.
Everyone knows that stories juice-up conversations, but most people only talk about stories of their own lives. When someone mentions something related to any of them, just tell the story, even if it’s not from your life. The more interesting, stranger or more frightening they are, the harder they are to forget.
1.If people can deal with the awkward silence, they can .
A. train their working skill B. improve their life quality
C. enrich their social life D. establish their working relationship
2.When talking with others, we should .
A. feel nervous B. think twice
C. be free to express D. avoid breaking in
3.According to the passage, what do the speakers care much about?
A. The attractive topics of conversation.
B. The atmosphere of the conversation.
C. The listener’s experiences and tastes.
D. The listener’s curiosity and concern.
4.What does the underlined part “juice-up conversations” mean?
A. making conversations more boring B. making conversations livelier
C. making conversations smoother D. making conversations more relaxing
When my sister Mertie told me she had put out tomato plants last summer, I was quite impressed.
Since she was a garden-beginner, Mertie researched exactly how far apart to space her tomato plants; what kind of fertilizer to use; how to keep away the bugs, etc. Once they were planted, she took care of them daily, anxiously awaiting the juicy tomatoes to appear. But, day after day, her plants were tomato-less while all of her neighbors who had also put out tomato plants were already enjoying the fruit of their labor.
Frustrated, Mertie gave in and went to the market to search fresh tomatoes. While paying, Mertie told the farmer her troubles. The farmer paused to think for a moment and then asked, “Well, what kind of tomatoes did you plant?”
“I think they were called Big Boy,” Mertie remembered.
“Well there’s your problem,” the farmer explained. “Big Boy and Better Boy tomatoes have a 95-day growing period whereas regular tomato plants produce fruit in as few as 70 days…you just have to wait a little longer for the Big Boys.”
With that new knowledge, Mertie went home with excitement, knowing they would be worth the wait.
Thinking about my sister’s gardening experience, I had to smile. She just didn’t know that Big Boy tomatoes took longer--neither did I--but once she discovered that information, she was no longer discouraged and upset about the lack of tomatoes on her plants. Instead, she was encouraged and excited to see them a few weeks later.
It makes me wonder how many of us have “Big Boy” dreams in our hearts, yet we just don’t realize that they are of the “Big Boy” variety so we are discouraged and worn out with the waiting process. Instead of waiting with excitement, we give up on our dreams and figure we must have done something wrong to stop them from coming to pass. Frustrated, we see other people’s dreams coming true, and we wonder why ours haven’t yet been achieved.
1.What is not mentioned in the passage when growing tomato plants?
A. Using suitable fertilizer. B. Keeping them well apart.
C. Watering them regularly. D. Controlling pests on them.
2.Why did Mertie’s tomato plants fail to produce at the expected time?
A. Because they were destroyed by her neighbors.
B. Because she grew the wrong kind of tomatoes.
C. Because she didn’t manage the garden well.
D. Because they required more time to produce.
3.What does the author compare tomatoes to in the text?
A. Goals. B. Experiences.
C. Time. D. Imagination.
4.What does the text intend to show us?
A. It’s better late than never.
B. A bad beginning makes a bad ending.
C. Success sometimes needs a little patience.
D. A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.
Plan your dream vacation to one of these excellent destinations.
St. Lucia
Abundant（丰富的） rainforests and splendid mountains are all reasons to visit this Caribbean island. St. Lucia offers the perfect mix of relaxation and adventure. To take in the breathtaking scenery, plan to hike the Piton Mountains or dive in the waters of Anse Chastanet.
Banff. Alberta
This Canadian destination will bring out the explorer in anyone who visits. From hiking and whitewater rafting to skiing and snowboarding, Banff offers travelers an abundance of year-round outdoor activities. The Lake Louise Ski Resort is one of the largest in North America and the striking photo opportunities of the Canadian Rockies from Moraine Lake can’t be underestimated (低估).
Machu Picchu
According to travelers, a visit to this Peruvian UNESCO World Heritage (遗产) site is a once-in-a-lifetime adventure. Located in the Andes Mountains, it is the most familiar icon (象征物) of Inca civilization. Spend a few days accustoming yourself to the altitude in the neighboring city of Cusco, where you can experience a mix of Incan and Spanish cultures.
Great Barrier Reef
It’s easy to see why the Great Barrier Reef is one of the Seven Natural Wonders of the World – it stretches nearly 1,500 miles along the eastern coastline of Australia and features about 3,000 reefs, 900 islands and more than 1,500 species of fish. Travelers can see these amazing natural structures from the air or underwater. However, large amounts of coral bleaching (褪色) caused by rising ocean temperatures put this place’s continued existence at risk, so plan your visit soon to see this awesome sight up close.
1.What can you enjoy both in St. Lucia and Banff?
A. Hiking. B. Skiing.
C. Diving. D. Snowboarding.
2.Where may a historian choose to go?
A. St. Lucia. B. Banff. Alberta.
C. Machu Picchu. D. Great Barrier Reef
3.What do we know about the Great Barrier Reef?
A. It’s on the western coast of Australia.
B. It’s famous for coral reefs rather than fish.
C. People must take a plane to enjoy its beauty.
D. It may disappear if temperature keeps on rising.
