Sandra Cisneros was born in Chicago in 1954 to a Mexican American family. As the only girl in a family of seven children, she often felt like she had “seven fathers,” because her six brothers, as well as her father, tried to control her. Feeling shy and unimportant, she retreated(躲避) into books. Despite her love of reading, she did not do well in elementary school because she was too shy to participate.
In high school, with the encouragement of one particular teacher, Cisneros improved her grades and worked for the school literary magazine. Her father encouraged her to go to college because he thought it would be a good way for her to find a husband. Cisneros did attend college, but instead of searching for a husband, she found a teacher who helped her join the famous graduate writing program at the University of Iowa. At the university’s Writers’ Workshop, however, she felt lonely----a Mexican American from a poor neighborhood among students from wealthy families. The feeling of being so different helped Cisneros find her “Creative voice.”
“It was not until this moment when I considered myself truly different that my writing acquired a voice. I knew I was a Mexican woman, but I didn’t think it had anything to do with why I felt so much imbalance in my life, but it had everything to do with it! That’s when I decided I would write about something my classmates couldn’t write about.”
Cisneros published her first work, The House on Mango Street, when she was twenty-nine. The book tells about a young Mexican American girl growing up in a Spanish-speaking area in Chicago, much like the neighborhoods in which Cisneros lived as a child. The book won an award in 1985 and has been used in classes from high school through graduate school level. Since then, Cisneros has published several books of poetry, a children’s book, and a short-story collection.Which of the following is TRUE about Cisneros in her childhood?
| A．She had seven brothers. | B．She felt herself a nobody. |
| C．She was too shy to go to school. | D．She did not have any good teachers. |
The graduate program gave Cisneros a chance to _____.
| A．develop her writing style | B．run away from her family |
| C．make a lot of friends | D．work for a school magazine |
According to Cisneros, what played the decisive role in her success?
| A．Her early years in college. | B．Her training in the Workshop. |
| C．Her childhood experience | D．Her feeling of being different. |
What do we learn about The House on Mango Street?
| A．It wasn’t success as it was written in Spanish. |
| B．It is the only book ever written by Cisneros. |
| C．It is quite popular among students. |
| D．It won an award when Cisneros was twenty-nine. |
Five years after they disappeared, lost jewels belonging to the wife of a US ambassador to the Netherlands were found.
Dawn Arnall had already received an insurance payout for her loss. However, the misplaced gems had been found and held for safe keeping by a hotel she stayed in. staff were unaware that the jewels were worth $ 9m.
The world is full of forgetful people. A man in the English town of Reading even left a sausage casserole in a bus. The dish ended up in the Lost Property Office until it was recovered by his mother, eager for her dinner.
A walker in the Lake District had his food in his mouth but … what about his teeth? After climbing a hill in 2007, David Packer stopped for a chocolate bar. He took his false teeth out, wrapped them up in a tissue and just forgot about them. It took more than a year for the walker to be reunited with them.
Over the past 78 years passengers on London’s transport network have left behind items including human skulls and gas masks from World War II. Since 1934, staff have handled an average of 200 000 items a year. Recently they have used computers to try to track down their owners.
But if you find something and can’t locate the rightful owner, is it finders keepers? It depends on what’s found and how, says John Spencer, professor of law at the University of Cambridge.
“If you pick up a coin, you can keep it unless you saw someone drop it, as you wouldn’t be able to find the owner by taking reasonable steps.”
If it’s a larger sum, you should report it to the police but if the item has been abandoned, the property is yours. One man’s loss is another man’s gain!
Dawn Arnall is mentioned in the first two paragraphs to .
| A．attract readers’ attention to the jewellery |
| B．introduce the topic |
| C．make a summary |
| D．get people think |
Judging from the examples given in the third, fourth and fifth paragraphs, people can be .
| A．generous | B．experienced |
| C．forgettable | D．honest |
What does the underlined part in the sixth paragraph mean?
| A．It depends on the law whether to keep something you find. |
| B．One man’s loss is another man’s loss too. |
| C．It’s immoral to keep something that doesn’t belong to you. |
| D．Whoever finds something can keep it. |
It was such an extremely freezing day that I decided to get a cup of hot drinking first after work. As my colleague, Ricky, and I were making our way to a coffee shop, I noticed an old gentleman rather poorly dressed sitting on a bench nearby. Obviously he was frozen, seemingly one of the homeless or someone like that.
We joined the line and waited to be served. Ricky handed the server a twenty-dollar bill, ordered three cups of hot coffee, and gestured the sever to give one to the old gentleman outside on the bench as a favour. The server looked at Ricky, a little perplexed, without full comprehension of the request. Afterwards, there was a wonderful exchange between the server and the old man in need of some attention. I only wished I had taken a photo of the smiles on the both faces.
As I was thinking about this event later on, I wondered to myself why Ricky didn’t perform this act of kindness himself. I suspect that deep down in his heart he was hoping that this act of kindness might inspire others to do something for this old man as well. Absolutely beautiful!
There are many ways of thinking when we met someone as the old man in need of kindness and attention. Perhaps he needs a little helping hand and thanks God for my colleague who inspired the others to goodness as well. Oh, by the way, the last words Ricky told the server was,
“There go I, but for the Grace of God.”
What was the author’s impression of the old gentleman?
| A．He was a greedy man |
| B．He took on a sign of poor manners. |
| C．He was in poor health. |
| D．He needed some kind of human care. |
The underlined word “perplexed” in the second paragraph probably means “ ”.
| A．annoyed | B．confused |
| C．embarrassed | D．determined |
Why didn’t Ricky give the favour to the old gentleman himself?
| A．He didn’t know the old gentleman. |
| B．He was too shy to speak to strangers. |
| C．He tried to influence others to be kind. |
| D．He feared the old man would refuse his help. |
What the author really thinks absolutely beautiful is that .
| A．an act of kindness could go widespread |
| B．a cup of coffee could warm the old man |
| C．the server was very kind to customers |
| D．Ricky had created a good impression |
Across Britain, burnt toast will be served to mothers in bed this morning as older sons and daughters rush to deliver their supermarket bunches of flowers. But, according to a new study, we should be placing a higher value on motherhood all year.
Mothers have long known that their home workload was just as heavy as paid work. Now, the new study has shown that if they were paid for their parental labours, they would earn as much as £172,000 a year.
The study looked at the range of jobs mothers do, as well as the hours they are working, to determine the figure. This would make their yearly income £30,000 more than the Prime Minister earns.
By analyzing the numbers, it found the average mother works 119 hours a week, 40 of which would usually be paid at a standard rate 79 hours as overtime. After questioning 1,000 mothers with children under 18, it found that, on most days, mums started their routine work at 7 am and finished at around 11 pm.
To calculate just how much mothers would earn from that labour, it suggested some of the roles that mums could take on, including housekeeper, part-time lawyer, personal trainer and entertainer. Being a part-time lawyer, at £48,98 an hour, would prove to be the most profitable of the “mum jobs”, with psychologist(心理学家) a close second.
It also asked mothers about the challenges they face, with 80 per cent making emotional(情感的) demand as the hardest thing about motherhood.
Over a third of mums felt they needed more training and around half said they missed going out with friends.
The study shows mothers matter all year long and not just on Mother’s Day. The emotional, physical and mental energy mothers devote to their children can be never-ending, but children are also sources of great joy and happiness. Investing(投入) in time for parenting and raising relationships is money well spent.
How much would a mother earn a year if working as the Prime Minister?
A. £30,000. B. £142,000.
C. £172,000. C. £202,000.
The biggest challenge for most mothers is from .
| A．emotional demand |
| B．low pay for work |
| C．heavy workload |
| D．lack of training |
What is stressed in the last paragraph?
| A．mothers’ importance shows in family all year long. |
| B．The sacrifices mothers make are huge but worthwhile. |
| C．Mothers’ devotion to children can hardly be calculated. |
| D．Investing time in parenting would bring a financial return. |
What can we conclude from the study?
| A．Mothers’ working hours should be largely reduced. |
| B．Mothers should balance their time for work and rest. |
| C．Mothers’ labour is of a higher value than it is realized. |
| D．Mothers should be freed from housework for social life. |
A
Welcome to the Electronic Village to explore new ways of language teaching and learning.
| Electronic Village Program (Thursday, June 18,2015) |
|
| Nearpod ◇ 9:00 am to 10:00 am ◇ Room 501 Nearpod is a software program that creates a rich context(语境) for students to learn vocabulary. The presenter will show how to use it. |
TEO ◇ 2:00 pm to 3:00 pm ◇ Room 502 Our students come from different backgrounds but have the same desire to learn on-line. The presenter will use examples from his first on-line class to explain how any teacher can begin teaching on-line with TEO. |
| Kahoot ◇ 10:30 am to 11:00 am ◇ Room 601 Kahoot software can be used to create grammar tests which can be graded on a network. It can provide students with instant feedback(反馈), including reports about their strengths and weaknesses. |
Prezi ◇ 3:00 pm to 4:20 pm ◇ Room 602 Uses of Prezi in listening and speaking courses draw students’ attention to speaking more fluently. The presenter will show how students can use Prezi to confidently present on a variety of topics, including introducing family, friends, and hobbies. |
Nearpod can be used to .
| A．offer grammar tests |
| B．teach listening on-line |
| C．help vocabulary learning |
| D．gain fluency in speaking |
If you want to improve your speaking skills, you can go to .
| A．Room 501 | B．Room 502 |
| C．Room 601 | D．Room 602 |
Which of the following can assess your grammar learning?
| A．Nearpod. | B．Kahoot |
| C．TEO. | D．Prezi. |
A teacher who wants to learn on-line teaching is expected to arrive by .
| A．9:00 am | B．10:30 am |
| C．2:00 pm | D．3:30 pm |
Everyone has done experiments in high school laboratories，but have you ever thought about designing a satellite to explore space？
On Nov．19，a team of students from Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology in the US awed peers and even scientists by successfully launching a satellite．
The first satellite designed and built by high school students was sent up into space along with a record setting．28 other small ones on a rocket were sent from a NASA center in Virginia，CNN reported．It took the students seven years to build．
The students call their tiny satellite TJ3Sat，which is named after their school．It is just 10x10x12 centimeters and weighs only 0．89 kilograms，according to Orbital Sciences，a company which developed the rocket and supported the students’ project．It can be controlled with a smartphone．
Like most satellites，TJ3Sat can send and receive data．The small spacecraft is equipped with a voice synthesizer (合成器)，which can switch text to voice and transmit those sounds back to Earth over radio waves，said Orbital officials．In this case，anyone can give it a try via the project’s website (school website) by submitting (提交) a text．The texts that get approved will be sent to the satellite，changed to voice and then broadcast back to Earth via radio waves．
“I can say ‘Go Colonials’on our ground station and when it is on the other side of the world，in India，someone can hear‘Go Colonials’over the radio，”the team explains on the website．
The satellite will stay in space for at least three months．
School principal Evan Glazer told The Washington Post that the project started in 2006 as an activity in the spare time．Later it became a research project for a select group of seniors．
At a time when American students are busy with SATs，the launch of the satellite shows what diligent teenagers can achieve when allowed to pursue their own curiosities，Glazer said．
“It used to be that kids growing up wanted to be an astronaut,” Andrew Petro，program executive (主管) for small spacecraft technology at NASA，said in a statement．“I think we might be seeing kids saying what they want to do is build a spacecraft．The idea here is that they really can do that．”The underlined word “awed” in the second paragraph is closest in meaning to _____．
| A．influenced |
| B．amazed |
| C．delighted |
| D．inspired |
Which of the following statements about TJ3Sat is TRUE according to the article？
| A．It took a group of students about a decade to build the satellite． |
| B．Besides TJ3Sat，28 other small satellites were built by the students． |
| C．TJ3Sat can receive text messages that the students send into space，which can be changed to voice messages and broadcast back to Earth． |
| D．TJ3Sat is expected to stay in orbit for the next year，sending out messages together with information about its position in space． |
According to the article，the launch of the satellite _______．
| A．is evidence of the advance of spacecraft technology |
| B．proves that hard working teenagers can achieve a lot |
| C．shows the importance of extracurricular activities at school |
| D．has inspired many people to take an interest in space travel |
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