Sometimes life makes more sense when you look at it in reverse (相反). That's certainly been true for me.
Last Christmas, at 39, I caught a disease which attacked my knees and eyes. At its worst I could hardly walk or see. For months I' d have to crawl (爬) across the floor to use the bathroom or get a drink of water when my husband wasn't home. For a while I could only see shapes and colors so I couldn't drive.
My parents kept begging me to let them come out to stay with me in Los Angeles, but our apartment is small and I knew there was nothing they could really do to help me. For the excellent health insurance my husband had through his job, I was receiving the best medical care possible.
My only problem was that I couldn't drive to my doctors' appointments and I didn't want my husband to keep missing work to drive me. Three days after I explained this to my parents, a check came from them with a note saying this was "taxi money". Several months later another check showed up from my brother to help make up our income since I wasn't able to work. It probably goes without saying that I was extremely grateful to have family members who could and would support me during the hard time.
In terms of my day-to-day existence, I live in a village within Los Angeles called Brentwood so I was able to walk to the local post office, market, bank, and library. But once there, I had to depend on the kindness of strangers to help me. Los Angeles is a big city, but I lived in a village with a wonderful community (社区) of people who were kind and patient.
Slowly I became well. Life was good again and I thought I had a clear understanding of the blessings (恩惠) this illness has provided.When the author's husband was at home, he __________.
| A．was still busy working |
| B．often had a good rest |
| C．often helped her a lot |
| D．taught her to drive a car |
Why did the author not want her husband to drive her to her doctors' appointments?
| A．Her husband didn't drive well. |
| B．Her husband was too busy. |
| C．She didn't want to affect his work. |
| D．Her doctor was far away from her. |
What is the fourth paragraph mainly about?
| A．The help that the author received from her family members. |
| B．The influence of the author's disease on her family. |
| C．The author's thanks to her family members. |
| D．The way the author saw her doctors. |
What did the author feel about Brentwood?
| A．She thought it was small but convenient. |
| B．She felt it was hard to live there. |
| C．She thought it was small and strange. |
| D．She felt warm and comfortable there. |
Volunteer at Shelter - North Toronto Cat Rescue---Bayview/Hwy 7
Do you like animals? Come and volunteer at our cat shelter.
North Toronto Cat Rescue is a no-cage, no-kill cat shelter. We are a volunteer organization, funded totally by donation, and are a licensed Canadian charity.
We are looking for volunteers who can join us once a week for a 3 month period (at least). The work is not wonderful but it is very rewarding. Mainly, we feed, clean, and scoop litter. Of course we also spend quality time with our cats.
We have 2 shifts(换班) per day, 7 days per week:
Mornings are 9am-1pm.
Evenings are 5-7pm or 6-8pm.
Please note that any new volunteer who wishes to work evening shift must be able to work 4 morning shifts on a team before moving to an evening shift. This is required in order to gain the ability to work more independently, as required during evening shifts.
Students must be at least 16 years old. Adults are also welcome.
If you do not have your own personal transportation, please check the public transportation from your area to our location at Bayview/Hwy 7 area before responding to this ad.Where is the ad most likely to appear?
| A．In the local newspaper | B．On the Internet |
| C．On TV | D．In a magazine |
Which of the following volunteers can work evening shift?
| A．A college student who can work for half a year period. |
| B．A college student who lives near the shelter. |
| C．A worker who has worked five morning shifts at the shelter. |
| D．A car owner who will work there for the first time. |
How many hours will a new volunteer work at least for the shelter?
| A．14 | B．32 | C．48 | D．24 |
Suppose you become a leader in an organization. It’s very likely that you’ll want to have volunteers to help with the organization’s activities. To do so, it should help to understand why people undertake volunteer work and what keeps their interest in the work.
Let’s begin with the question of why people volunteer. Researchers have identified several factors that motivate people to get involved. For example, people volunteer to express personal values related to unselfishness, to expand their range of experiences, and to strengthen social relationships. If volunteer positions do not meet these needs, people may not wish to participate. To select volunteers, you may need to understand the motivations of the people you wish to attract.
People also volunteer because they are required to do so. To increase levels of community service, some schools have launched compulsory volunteer programs. Unfortunately, these programs can shift people’s wish of participation from an internal factor (e.g., “I volunteer because it’s important to me”) to an external factor (e.g., “I volunteer because I’m required to do so”). When that happens, people become less likely to volunteer in the future. People must be sensitive to this possibility when they make volunteer activities a must.
Once people begin to volunteer, what leads them to remain in their positions over time? To answer this question, researchers have conducted follow-up studies in which they track volunteers over time. For instance, one study followed 238 volunteers in Florida over a year. One of the most important factors that influenced their satisfaction as volunteers was the amount of suffering they experienced in their volunteer positions. Although this result may not surprise you, it leads to important practical advice. The researchers note that attention should be given to “training methods that would prepare volunteers for troublesome situations or provide them with strategies for coping with the problem they do experience”.
Another study of 302 volunteers at hospitals in Chicago focused on individual differences in the degree to which people view “volunteer” as an important social role. It was assumed that those people for whom the role of volunteer was most part of their personal identity would also be most likely to continue volunteer work. Participants indicated the degree to which the social role mattered by responding to statements such as “Volunteering in Hospital is an important part of who I am.” Consistent with the researchers’ expectations, they found a positive correlation (正相关) between the strength of role identity and the length of time people continued to volunteer. These results, once again, lead to concrete advice: “Once an individual begins volunteering, continued efforts might focus on developing a volunteer role identity.... Items like T-shirts that allow volunteers to be recognized publicly for their contributions can help strengthen role identity”.People volunteer mainly out of ______ .
| A．academic requirements | B．social expectations |
| C．financial rewards | D．internal needs |
What can we learn from the Florida study?
| A．Follow-up studies should last for one year. |
| B．Volunteers should get mentally prepared. |
| C．Strategy training is a must in research. |
| D．Volunteers are provided with concrete advice. |
What is most likely to motivate volunteers to continue their work?
| A．Individual differences in role identity. |
| B．Publicly identifiable volunteer T-shirts. |
| C．Role identity as a volunteer. |
| D．Practical advice from researchers. |
What is the best title of the passage?
| A．How to Get People to Volunteer |
| B．How to Study Volunteer Behaviors |
| C．How to Keep Volunteers’ Interest |
| D．How to Organize Volunteer Activities |
Small seating in the economy-class(经济舱) sections of airplanes is not just uncomfortable but potentially life-threatening. Space has become so tight that passengers cannot protect themselves in the event of a crash.
A report on a long distance flight from the doctors of Vienna stated that only 10% in economy class could adopt the recommended brace position on the plane’s safety tips in case of emergency, and they were the smallest of the group. And 30% of their fellow passengers traveling in first class could adopt the position, which is internationally recognized as improving the chances of survival in the event of a crash. The authors of the report are now calling for greater space between seat rows to increase safety.
A spokesman for British Airways (BA), which is responsible for safety on all British planes, opposed the idea that small seating was a threat（威胁） to passengers. “We don’t think it is a safety matter,” he said, “We have high safety standards and all UK aircraft meet them.” In the past month, both British Airways and Virgin Atlantic introduced sleeper seats, stressing the outstanding comfort in the front of the planes. But that space gained is space lost in economy.
Until recently, economy class was at least “bearable”—with an 86-centimeter seat. Scheduled Airlines such as BA and KLM gave passengers enough leg room and comfortable seats. But the arrival of new, weight-saving seats caused economy class to take a turn for the worse. Extra rows have been put into the plane, with the result that the average seat now is 79 centimetres. Singapore Airlines has become the latest carrier to narrow down its seats. It announced free wine for economy passengers last September, but at the same time reduced leg room by 8 centimetres.
Economy class on Scheduled Airlines is now often little better than economy on Qatar Airways. Some Qatar Airways even offer the chance to upgrade—at a price—to seats which, at 89-91 centimetres, are roomier than those of most Scheduled Airlines.
What can we learn from the passage?
| A．Scheduled Airlines produced new comfortable seats for economy class. |
| B．Doctors from Vienna said less space between seats could cause danger. |
| C．Spokesman for BA declared that narrow seat space was a threat. |
| D．Qatar Airways offered larger seats with no more charge. |
What might be the author’s attitude towards reducing the space of economy seats?
| A．Neutral. | B．Sceptical. | C．Supportive. | D．Disapproving. |
Where does the passage most probably come from?
| A．A biography. | B．A book review. |
| C．A magazine. | D．A realistic novel. |
Graph can be a very useful tool for conveying information especially numbers， percentages, and other data . A graph gives the reader a picture to interpret. That can be a lot more pages and pages and pages explaining the data .
Graphs can seem frightening, but reading a graph is a lot like reading a story. The graph has a title ,a main idea ,and supporting details .You can use your active reading skills to analyze and understand graphs just like any other text .
Most graphs have a few basic parts: a caption or introduction paragraph, a title , a legend or key, and labeled axes. An active reader looks at each part of the graph before trying to interpret the data. Captions will usually tell you where the data came from (for example, a scientific study of 400 African elephants from 1980 to 2005). Captions usually summarize the author's main point as well. The title is very important. It tells you the main idea of the graph by stating what kind of information is being shown. A legend, also called a key ,is a guide to the symbols and colors used in the graph. Many graphs, including bar graphs and line graphs, have two axes that form a corner, Usually these axes are the left side and the bottom of the graph .Each axis will always have a label. The label tells you what each axis measures.
Bar Graphs
A bar graph has two axes and uses bars to show amounts. In Graph 1 ,we see that the x-axis shows grades that students earned, and the y-axis shows bow many students earned each grade .You can see that 6 students earned an A because the bar for A stretches up to 6 on the vertical measurement. There is a lot of information we can get from a simple graph like this(See Graph 1).
Line Graphs
A line graph looks similar to a bar graph ,but instead of
Bars, it plots points and connects them with a line .It has the same parts as a bar graph – two labeled axes –and can be read the same way .To read a line graph, it’s important to focus on the points of intersection rather than the line segments between the points, This type of graph is most commonly used to show how something changes over time.
Here is a graph that charts how far a bird flies during the first Five days of its spring migration (See Graph 2).
The unit of measurement for the x-axis is days. The unit of measurement for the y-axis is kilometers. Thus we can see that ,on the first day, the pipit flew 20 kilometers. The line segment goes up between Day 1 and Day 2,which means that the bird flew farther on Day 2.If the line segment angled dawn, as between Day 4 and Day 5,it would mean that the bird flew fewer kilometers than the day before. This line graph is a quick, visual way to tell the reader about the bird’s migration.
Pie Graphs
A typical pie graph looks like a circular pie. The circle is divided into sections, and each section represents a fraction of the data. The graph is commonly used to show percentages; the whole pie represents l00 percent, so each piece is a fraction of the whole.
A pie graph might include a legend，or it might use icons or labels within each slice. This pie graph shows on month’s expense, (See Graph 3 ).
Food $ 25
Movies $ 12
Clothing $ 36
Savings $ 20
Books $ 7
When used in a graph，a legend is_____
| A．a guide to the symbols and colors |
| B．an introduction paragraph |
| C．the main idea |
| D．the data |
What is the total number of students who earned a C or better ?
| A．4. | B．6. | C．10. | D．20 . |
The bird covered the longest distance on _____
| A．Day 1 | B．Day 2 | C．Day 3 | D．Day 4 |
Which of the following cost Amy most ?
| A．Food. | B．Books | C．Movies | D．Clothing. |
The Boy Made It!
One Sunday, Nicholas, a teenager, went skiing at Sugarloaf Mountain in Maine. In the early afternoon, when he was planning to go home, a fierce snowstorm swept into the area. Unable to see far, he accidentally turned off the path. Before he knew it, Nicholas was lost, all alone! He didn’t have food, water, a phone, or other supplies. He was getting colder by the minute.
Nicholas had no idea where he was. He tried not to panic. He thought about all the survival shows he had watched on TV. It was time to put the tips he had learned to use.
He decided to stop skiing. There was a better chance of someone finding him if he stayed put. The first thing he did was to find shelter form the freezing wind and snow. If he didn’t, his body temperature would get very low, which could quickly kill him.
Using his skis, Nicholas built a snow cave. He gathered a huge mass of snow and dug out a hole in the middle. Then he piled branches on top of himself, like a blanket, to stay as warm as he could.
By that evening, Nicholas was really hungry. He ate snow and drank water from a nearby stream so that his body wouldn’t lose too much water. Not knowing how much longer he could last, Nicholas did the only thing he could- he huddled(蜷缩) in his cave and slept.
The next day, Nicholas went out to look for help, but he couldn’t find anyone. He followed his tracks and returned to the snow cave, because without shelter, he could die that night. On Tuesday, Nicholas went out to find help. He had walked for about a mile when a volunteer searcher found him. After two days stuck in the snow, Nicholas was saved.
Nicholas might not have survived this snowstorm had it not been for TV. He had often watched Grylls’ survival show. Man vs. Wild. That’s where he learned the tips that saved his life, In each episode(一期节目)of Man vs. Wild, Grylls is abandoned in a wild area and has to find his way out.
When Grylls heard about Nicholas’ amazing deeds, he was super impressed that Nicholas had made it since he knew better than anyone how hard Nicholas had to work to stay alive.What happened to Nicholas one Sunday afternoon?
| A．He got lost. | B．He broke his skis. |
| C．He hurt his eyes | D．He caught a cold |
How did Nicholas keep himself warm?
| A．He found a shelter. | B．He lighted some branches. |
| C．He kept on skiing. | D．He built a snow cave. |
On Tuesday, Nicholas _____.
| A．returned to his shelter safely |
| B．was saved by a searcher |
| C．got stuck in the snow |
| D．staved where he was |
Nicholas left Grylls a very deep impression because he _____.
| A．did the right things in the dangerous situation |
| B．watched Grylls’ TV program regularly |
| C．created some tips for survival |
| D．was very hard-working |
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