Many a young person tells me he wants to be a writer. I always encourage such people, but I also explain that there’s a big difference between “ being a writer” and “ writing”. In most cases these individuals are dreaming of wealth and fame, not the long hours alone at a computer. “You’ve got to want to write,” I say to them, “not want to be a writer.”
The reality is that writing is a lonely, private and poor paying affair. For every writer kissed by fortune there are thousands more whose longing is never rewarded. When I left a 20-year career in the US Coast Guard to become a free writer, I had no promise at all. What I did have was a friend who found me my room in a New York apartment building. It didn’t even matter that it was cold and had no bathroom. I immediately bought a used computer and felt a real writer.
After a year or so, however, I still hadn’t gotten a break and began to doubt myself. It was so hard to sell a story that barely made enough to eat. But I know I wanted to write. I had dreamed about it for years. I wasn’t going to be one of those people who die wondering. What if? I would keep putting my dream to the test--- even though it meant living with uncertainty and fear of failure. This is the Shadowland of hope, and anyone with a dream must learn to live there.The passage is meant to _______.
| A．warn young people of the hardships that a successful writer has to experience |
| B．advise young people to give up their idea of becoming a professional writer |
| C．show young people it’s unrealistic for a writer to be after wealth and fame |
| D．encourage young people to be after a writer career |
What can be concluded from the passage?
| A．Real writers often find their work interesting and rewarding |
| B．Writer’s success depends on luck rather than on effort |
| C．Famous writers usually live in poverty and isolation（隔离） |
| D．The chances for a writer to become successful are small |
Why did the author begin to doubt himself after the first year of his writing career?
| A．He wasn’t able to produce a single book |
| B．He hadn’t seen a change for the better |
| C．He wasn’t able to have a rest for a whole year |
| D．He found his dream would never come true |
“Shadowland” in the last sentence refers to _____.
| A．thewonderlandonoftendreamsabout |
| B．thebrightfuturethatoneislookingforwardto |
| C．thestateofuncertaintybeforeone’sfinalgoalisreached |
| D．aworldthatexistsonlyinone’simagination |
EDGEWOOD—Every morning at Dixie Heights High school, customers pour into a special experiment :the district’s first coffee shop run mostly by students with special learning needs.
Well before classes start, students and teachers order Lattes, Cappuccinos and Hot Chocolates. Then, during the first period, teachers call in orders on their room phones, and students make deliveries.
By closing time at 9.20 a.m. , the shop usually sells 90drinks.
“whoever made the chi tea, Ms. Schwartzman says it was good, ”Christy McKinley , a second year student , announced recently, after hanging up with the teacher.
The shop is called the Dixie PIT, which stands for Power in Transition. Although some of the students are not disabled, many are, and the PIT helps them prepare for life after high school.
They learn not only how to run a coffee shop but also how to deal with their affairs. They keep a timecard and receive paychecks, which they keep in check registers.
Special-education teachers Kim Chevalier and Sue Casey introduced the Dixie PIT from a similar program at Kennesaw Mountain High School in Georgia.
Not that it was easy. Chevalier’s first problem to overcome was product-related. Should schools be selling coffee? What about sugar content?
Kenton County Food Service Director Ginger Gray helped. She made sure all the drinks, which use non-fat milk, fell within nutrition（营养）guidelines.
The whole school has joined in to help.
Teachers agreed to give up their lounge(休息室)in the morning. Art students painted the name of the shop on the wall. Business students designed the paychecks. The basketball team helped pay for cups. .What is the text mainly about？
| A．A best-selling coffee. |
| B．A special educational program. |
| C．Government support for schools. |
| D．A new type of teacher-student relationship. |
The Dixie PIT program was introduced in order to .
| A．raise money for school affairs |
| B．do some research on nutrition |
| C．develop students’ practical skills |
| D．supply teachers with drinks |
How did Christy McKinley know Ms. Schwartzman’s opinion of the chi tea？
| A．She met her in the shop. |
| B．She heard her telling others. |
| C．She talked to her on the phone. |
| D．She went to her office to deliver the tea. |
We know from the text that Ginger Gray .
| A．manages the Dixie PIT program in Kenton County |
| B．sees that the drinks meet health standards |
| C．teaches at Dixie Heights High School |
| D．owns the school’s coffee shop |
To Friend or Not To Friend
We all love our parents and turn to them when we’re in need, but would you like them to hear the conversations you have with your friends on the school playground or lunch queue? Social networking sites have become extensions of the school hallways, so would you add your parents as “friends” and allow them to view your online activities and conversations with friends?
In the past the generation gap included a technology gap, where children were up to date with latest technology and parents were left behind, content to continue their day to day lives as they always had because they had no need to know more about technology. However, more and more parents are beginning to realize just how important social networks are in their lives. This realization has given many parents the motivation to education themselves about social networking sites.
These days many people are attracted to social networking sites because they can choose who they have around them; there’s also a certain amount of control over privacy that we don’t get in real life. Sometimes we feel that privacy is violated when we must accept a “friend” request from a parent or family member.
It’s a difficult choice whether or not to allow a parent to become a part of our online lives. On the one hand we don’t want to “reject” their request because that might hurt their feelings or make them feel you have something to hide. On the other hand if you do accept, then you could have a sense of being watched and no longer feel free to comment or communicate the way you did before.
A recent survey suggested that parents shouldn’t take it personally if their child ignores their request, “When a teen ignores a parent’s friend request, it doesn’t necessarily mean that they are hiding something, but it could mean that this is one part of their life where they want to be independent.”
Perhaps talking with parents and giving explanations would help soften the blow if you do choose not to add them to your friends list. From Paragraph 2, we learn that _______.
| A．parents feel secure about their privacy online |
| B．social networks successfully fill the generation gap |
| C．parents have realized the importance of social networks |
| D．social networks offer a platform for parents to communicate |
Teenagers may refuse a parent’s friend request because _______.
| A．they hide something from their parents |
| B．they are unwilling to be watched by parents |
| C．their parents tend to fall behind in technology |
| D．their parents make negative comments on them |
The passage is mainly about _______.
| A．privacy online | B．social networks |
| C．the generation gap | D．parents’ friend requests |
The passage is written mainly for _______.
| A．parents | B．teenagers | C．teachers | D．researchers |
Last week I talked with some of my students about what they wanted to do after they graduated, and what kind of job prospects they thought they had.
Given that I teach students who are training to be doctors, I was surprised to find that most thought that they would not be able to get the jobs they wanted without “outside help”. “What kind of help is that?” I asked, expecting them to tell me that they would need a relative or family friend to help them out.
“Surgery(外科手术)”, one replied.
I was pretty alarmed by that response. It seems that the graduates of today are increasingly willing to go under the knife to get ahead of others when it comes to getting a job.
One girl told me that she was considering surgery to increase her height. “They break your legs, put in special extending screws, and slowly expand the gap between the two ends of the bone as it re-grows, you can get at least 5 cm taller!”
At that point, I was shocked. I am short, I can’t deny that, but I don’t think I would put myself through months of agony(痛苦) just to be a few centimeters taller. I don’t even bother to wear shoes with thick soles, as I’m not trying to hide the fact that I am just not tall!
It seems to me that there is a trend toward wanting “perfection”, and that is an ideal that just does not exist in reality.
No one is born perfect, yet magazines, TV shows and movies present images of thin, tall, beautiful people as being the norm. Advertisements for slimming aids, beauty treatments and cosmetic surgery clinics fill the pages of newspapers, further creating an idea that “perfection” is a requirement, and that it must be purchased, no matter what the cost.
In my opinion, skills, rather than appearance, should determine how successful a person is in his chosen career. We can know from the passage that the author works as ________.
| A．a doctor | B．a model | C．a teacher | D．a reporter |
Many graduates today turn to cosmetic s surgery to ________.
| A．marry a better man\woman | B．become a model |
| C．get an advantage over others in job-hunt | D．attract more admirers |
According to the passage, the author believes that ________.
| A．everyone should purchase perfection, whatever the cost |
| B．it’s right for graduates to ask for others to help them out in hunting for jobs |
| C．it is one’s appearance instead of skills that really matters in one’s career |
| D．media are to blame for misleading young people in their seeking for surgery |
The best title for the passage should be “________”.
| A．Young Graduates Have Higher Expectation |
| B．Young Graduates Look to Surgery for Better Jobs |
| C．Young Graduates’ Opinion About Cosmetic Surgery |
| D．Young Graduates Face a Different Situation in Job-hunt |
A team of British surgeons has carried out Gaza’s（加沙）first organ transplants for a long-term plan to train local medical staff to perform the operations.
Two patients underwent kidney（肾脏）transplants at the Shifa, Gaza’s biggest public hospital. The operations were conducted a fortnight ago by a volunteer medical team from the Royal Liverpool hospital.
Ziad Matouk, 42, was born with one kidney and was diagnosed with renal failure（肾衰竭）several years ago. Matouk, whose wife donated one of her kidneys, hopes to return to his job within six months. The couple had sought a transplant in Cairo, but were rejected as unsuitable at a state hospital and could not afford the fee at a private hospital. “We were desperate,” said Matouk.
The UK-Gaza link-up began about a year ago after Abdelkader Hammad, a doctor at the Royal Liverpool hospital, was contacted by an anaesthetist（麻醉师）at the Shifa, who outlined the difficulties the Gaza hospital was facing with dialysis（透析）. The Shifa is forced to rely on generators because of power cuts; spare parts for its ageing dialysis machines have been difficult to import; and supplies of consumables are often scarce. After an exploratory trip last April, Hammad---whose family is Palestinian---and three colleagues from Liverpool arrived in Gaza via Egypt last month, bringing specialist equipment. Two patients were selected for surgery. The first, Mohammed Duhair, 42, received a kidney donated by his younger brother in a six-hour operation. Two days later, Matouk received a transplant after his wife, Nadia, 36, was found to be a good match. The surgeon was carried out by the British team, assisted by doctors and nurses from the Shifa. “We are very satisfied with the results,” said Sobbi Skaik, head of surgery at the Gaza hospital.
Skaik hopes that Gaza medical teams will eventually carry out kidney transplants independently, and that other organ transplants may follow. The Shifa is working with the Gaza ministry of health on a plan to train its doctors, surgeons, nursing staff and laboratory technicians in transplant surgery at the Royal Liverpool. “Funding is a problem,” said Hammad. “In the meantime we’ll go back as volunteers to Gaza for the next couple of years to do more transplants.” The Liverpool team’s next visit is scheduled for May. What effect does Gaza’s first organ transplants hopes to get?
| A．Helping poor Gaza people to regain health to make more money. |
| B．Releasing Gaza hospitals’ pressure of lack of professional doctors. |
| C．Assisting the Royal Liverpool hospital in perfecting their operations. |
| D．Calling for international attention at Gaza’s poor medical service. |
Why did the state hospital refuse to practice surgeon for Ziad Matouk?
| A．Because he couldn’t afford the fee at a public hospital. |
| B．Because the hospital didn’t accept dangerous patients. |
| C．Because they couldn’t find a matched organ. |
| D．Because his condition was untreatable. |
What is the beginning of the cooperation between the Royal Liverpool hospital and Gaza?
| A．A UK doctor contacted Gaza hospital. |
| B．The Shifa imported medical machines from UK. |
| C．Ziad Matouk’s condition seemed to get worse. |
| D．A Shifa doctor turned to Royal Liverpool hospital for help. |
What did Dr. Hammad and his team do recently?
| A．They had an exploratory trip in Egypt last April. |
| B．They carried out surgeries to test Gaza’s medical equipment. |
| C．They carried out two transplant surgeries in Gaza. |
| D．They sought assistance from the hospital of the Shifa. |
It was Thanksgiving morning. I was busy preparing the traditional Thanksgiving turkey when the doorbell rang. I opened the front door and saw two small children in rags huddling together on the top step.
“Any old papers, lady?” asked one of them.
I was busy. I wanted to say “no” until I looked down at their feet. They were wearing thin little sandals （凉鞋）, wet with heavy snow.
“Come in and I’ll make you a cup of hot cocoa.”
They walked over and sat down at the table. Their wet sandals left marks upon the floor. I saved them cocoa and bread to fight against the cold outside. Then I went back to the kitchen and started cooking.
The silence in the front room struck me. I looked in. The girl held the empty cup in her hands, looking at it. The boy asked in a flat voice, “Lady, are you rich?”
“Am I rich? Pity, no!”
I looked at my worn-out slipcovers （椅套）. The girl put her cup back in its saucer （茶碟）carefully and said, “Your cups match your saucers.” They left after that, holding their papers against the wind. They had reminded me that I had so much for which to be grateful.
Plain blue china cups and saucers were only worth five pence. But they matched.
I tasted the potatoes and stirred the meat soup. Potatoes and brown meat soup, a roof over our heads, my man with a regular job, these matched, too.
I moved the chairs back from the fire and cleaned the living room. The muddy marks of little sandals were still wet upon my floor. Let them be for a while, I thought, just in case I should begin to forget how rich I am. The writer let the two children come in and served them well because ______.
| A．she wanted to sell old papers to them |
| B．she wanted to give them some presents |
| C．she showed great pity and care on them |
| D．she wanted to show her thanks to them |
The writer left the muddy marks of little sandals on the floor for a while to _______.
| A．show that she was a kind-hearted lady |
| B．remind her she shouldn’t forget how rich she was |
| C．leave room for readers to think about what being rich is |
| D．call up her memories of the good old days |
It can be inferred from the text that whether you are rich depends on _______.
| A．how much money you have made |
| B．what attitude you have had toward life |
| C．the way you help others |
| D．your social relationship |
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