Like many new graduates, I left university full of hope for the future but with no real idea of what I wanted to do. My degree, with honors, in English literature had not really prepared me for anything practical. I knew I wanted to make a difference in the world somehow, but I had no idea how to do that. That’s when I learned about the Lighthouse Project.
I started my journey as a Lighthouse Project volunteer by reading as much as I could about the experiences of previous volunteers. I knew it would be a lot of hard work, and that I would be away from my family and friends for a very long time. In short, I did not take my decision to apply for the Lighthouse Project lightly. Neither did my family.
Eventually, however, I won the support of my family, and I sent in all the paperwork needed for the application. After countless interviews and presentations, I managed to stand out among the candidates and survive the test alone. Several months later, I finally received a call asking me to report for the duty. I would be going to a small village near Abuja, Nigeria. Where? What? Nigeria? I had no idea. But I was about to find out.
After completing my training, I was sent to the village that was small and desperately in need of proper accommodation. Though the local villagers were poor, they offered their homes, hearts, and food as if I were their own family. I was asked to lead a small team of local people in building a new schoolhouse. For the next year or so, I taught in that same schoolhouse. But I sometimes think I learned more from my students than they did from me.
Sometime during that period, I realized that all those things that had seemed so strange or unusual to me no longer did, though I did not get anywhere with the local language, and returned to the United States a different man. The Lighthouse Project had changed my life forever. What do we know about the author?
| A．His university education focused on the theoretical knowledge. |
| B．His dream at university was to become a volunteer. |
| C．He took pride in having contributed to the world. |
| D．He felt honored to study English literature. |
According to the Paragraph 2, it is most likely that the author
| A．discussed his decision with his family. |
| B．asked previous volunteers about voluntary work |
| C．attended special training to perform difficult tasks |
| D．felt sad about having to leave his family and friends |
In his application for the volunteer job, the author
| A．participated in many discussions |
| B．went through challenging survival tests |
| C．wrote quite a few paper on voluntary work |
| D．faced strong competition from other candidates |
On arrival at the village, the author was
| A．asked to lead a farming team |
| B．sent to teach in a schoolhouse |
| C．received warmly by local villagers |
| D．arranged to live in a separate house. |
What can we infer from the author’s experiences in Nigeria?
| A．He found some difficulty adapting to the local culture |
| B．He had learned to communicate in the local language. |
| C．He had overcome all his weaknesses before he left for home. |
| D．He was chosen as the most respectable teacher by his students. |
阅读理解，阅读下列四篇短文，从每小题后所给的A、B、C、D四个选项中，选出最佳选项，并在答题卡上将该选项涂黑。
Car Hire
Hiring a self-drive car really adds to the enjoyment of your holiday. There are so many places of interest to visit, and if you enjoy seeing more than just the city center there's no better way to explore than by car.
Hire Charges
What's included
a)Unlimited mileage (英里数)
b)Expenses on oil, maintenance ( 保养 ) and repairs, which will be repaid on production of invoices
c ) Full insurance (保险) except personal accident ( see below) and contents.
What's not included
a) Personal accident insurance.
b)Garaging, petrol, parking and traffic fines.
Conditions of Hire
★The shortest rental period at these special low prices is three days. For prices for periods of one or two days you only see our representative (代理人) at the hotel.
★ Car hire must be booked six weeks or more before arrival in London to guarantee a car. But if you have been unable to make a booking in advance please see our representative at the hotel who may still be able to help you.
★The car types on the sheet are examples of the types of cars in each price range , but a particular car cannot be guaranteed.
★Upon delivery the driver(s) will be asked to sign the car hire company's Conditions of Hire.
★If you decide to hire a car, just fill in the Booking Form and return it to us. A booking fee of￡12 as part of the car hire cost is required.
★Should you be forced to cancel your car hire booking after payment in full (two weeks before date of hire ) , a cancellation charge of ￡ 12 will be made.
From the advertisement we can see a car hirer will pay_________.
| A．insurance against damage to the car |
| B．insurance against injury to the driver |
| C．the cost of maintenance of the car |
| D．the cost of repairs to the car |
Which of the following is NOT true judging from the advertisement?
| A．Such an advertisement most likely appears in a newspaper. |
| B．You should have a driving license when you hire a car from the company. |
| C．When you hire a car from the company, a driver will go together with you. |
| D．You have to pay a booking fee when you hire a car from the company. |
If car hirers change their minds after paying the whole cost of hiring, the ￡12 booking fee is ________.
| A．partly returned | B．doubly paid |
| C．not returned at all | D．returned within six weeks |
The prices for car hire are especially low when________.
| A．it is booked for at least three days |
| B．it is booked two weeks in advance |
| C．it is booked for two days |
| D．the booking is made in London |
Psychology has a new application in the field of medicine. Many doctors, together with their patients, are looking for alternative methods of treatment of physical problems. In large hospitals, modern therapy seems to focus on the physical disease. Patients may feel they are treated like broken machines. Some doctors have recognized this as a problem. They are now using psychological therapy, in which the patient is working with the doctors against the disease with the help of medicine. The patient does not wait for the medicine and treatment to cure him or her, but instead the patient joins in the fight.
The doctor knows that a disease affects a patient's body physically. The body of the patient changes because of the disease. He is not only physically affected, but also has an emotional response to the disease. Because his mind is affected, his attitude and behavior change. The medical treatment might cure the patient's physical problems, but the patient's mind must fight the emotional ones. For example, the studies of one doctor, Carl Simonton, M. D., have shown that a typical cancer patient has predictable attitudes. She typically feels depressed, upset, and angry. Her constant depression makes her acts unfriendly toward her family, friends, doctors, and nurses. Such attitudes and behaviors prevent recovery. Therefore, a doctor's treatment must help the patient change that. Simonton's method emphasizes treatment of the “whole” patient.
The attitude of a cancer patient receiving radiation therapy, an X-ray treatment, can become more positive. The physician who is following Simonton's psychological treatment plan suggests that the patient imagine that he or she can see the tumor in the body. In the mental picture, the patient "sees" a powerful beam of radiation like a million bullets of energy. The patient imagines the beam hitting the tumor cells and causing them to shrink. For another cancer patient, Dr. Simonton asks him to imagine the medicine going from the stomach into the bloodstream and to the cancer cells. The patient imagines that the medicine is like an army fighting the diseased cells and sees the cancer cells gradually dying and his blood carry away the dead cells. Both the medical therapy and the patient's positive attitude fight the disease.
Doctors are not certain why this mental therapy works. However, this use of psychology does help some patients because their attitudes about themselves change. They become more confident because they use the power within their own minds to help stop the disease.
Another application of using the mind to help cure disease is the use of suggestion therapy. At first, the doctor helps the patient to concentrate deeply. The patient thinks only about one thing. He becomes so unaware of other things around him that he is asleep, or rather in a trance（催眠状态）. Then the physician makes “a suggestion” to the patient about the medical problem. The patient's mind responds to the suggestion even after the patient is no longer in the trance. In this way, the patient uses his mind to help his body respond to treatment.
Doctors have learned that this use of psychology is helpful for both adults and children. For example, physicians have used suggestion to help adults deal with the strong pain of some disease. Furthermore, sometimes the adult patient worries about her illness so much that the anxiety keeps her from getting well. The right suggestions may help the patient to stop being anxious. Such treatment may help the patient with a chronic（慢性的）diseases. Asthma （哮喘） is an example of a chronic disorder. Asthma is a disease that causes the patient to have difficulty in breathing. The patient starts to cough and sometimes has to fight to get the air that he or she needs. Psychology can help relieve the symptoms of this disorder. After suggestion therapy, the asthma patient breathes more easily.
Physicians have learned that the psychological method is very useful in treating children. Children respond quickly to the treatment because they are fascinated by it. For example, Dr. Basil R. Collison has worked with 121 asthmatic children in Sydney, Australia, and had good results. Twenty-five of the children had Excellent results. They were able to breathe more easily, and they did not need medication. Another forty-three were also helped. The symptoms of the asthma occurred less frequently, and when they did, they were not as strong. Most of the children also felt better about themselves. Doctors have also used suggestion to change habits like nail-biting, thumb-sucking, and sleep-related problems.
Many professional medical groups have accepted the medical use of psychology and that psychology has important applications in medicine.
What does the passage mainly discuss?
| A．How suggestion therapy benefits adults and children. |
| B．How modern therapy focuses on the disease. |
| C．Responses from the medical world. |
| D．How to use the mind against disease. |
What can we learn from the studies of Carl Simonton, M. D.?
A. The medical treatment can cure the patient's mental disease.
B. The treatment of a patient by treating the body and the mind is necessary.
C. The mental treatment is more important than medical treatment.
D. Few patients have emotional response to the disease.
The use of psychological therapy is helpful to some patients in that .
| A．the medical effect is better with psychological therapy than without it |
| B．the patients can see a powerful beam of radiation hitting their tumor cells |
| C．the patients' attitudes towards themselves have changed |
| D．the patients are easy to accept the methods the doctors use to treat them |
It can be learned from the passage that suggestion therapy cannot be used to .
| A．help adults deal with the strong pain of some diseases |
| B．help the patients with chronic diseases |
| C．help change some bad habits |
| D．help cure patients of insomnia |
According to the passage, which of the following remains unknown so far?
| A．The value of mental therapy. |
| B．The effectiveness of suggestion therapy. |
| C．The working principle of suggestion therapy. |
| D．The importance of psychology in medical treatment. |
As many as 4 out of every 1,000 infants born today have permanent hearing loss.When parents learn that their child has hearing loss, they are faced with many difficult decisions.These decisions can include choosing therapies and schools, as well as finding financial help for hearing aids or cochlear implants (人工耳蜗).
Help Me Hear Foundation is a public charity that gives the gift of hearing to deaf children from families existing on very low incomes around the world.The foundation offers life-changing services for impoverished families, and provides real help for children with hearing impairment who may otherwise be left behind in schools or society due to their lack of hearing.
Help Me Hear Foundation believes that a child’s first years of development are critical.Being able to hear is vital to human, and Help Me Hear Foundation seeks to provide a positive lasting impression on society through its programs.Help Me Hear Foundation has many goals, including relieving the burden on communities with hearing-impaired infants and children, and strengthening the social structure of families and neighborhoods.
Recipients of Help Me Hear Foundation’s benefits receive state-of-the-art hearing devices that otherwise would cost thousands of dollars per child over the course of their lifetime.The Foundation raises money through donations for hearing aids and cochlear implants, which saves recipients and their families on average over $50,000 on related expenses.
The Foundation tries to be a transparent charity, and wants to be a catalyst for allowing deaf and hearing-impaired children to develop in a typical fashion alongside their peers.
Needy families can obtain information on specific services, and find out about deafness education by visiting the Help Me Hear Foundation’s website.The website offers helpful information on how hearing aids work, and how hearing aids ease many of the learning and language challenges that hearing-impaired children deal with on a daily basis.Help Me Hear Foundation was probably set up to _____.
| A．build schools for deaf children |
| B．research deaf children’s behavior |
| C．protect deaf children from being ignored |
| D．offer real help to poor deaf children |
We learn from the text that _____.
| A．the local government is in charge of the foundation |
| B．the work of the foundation depends on donations |
| C．even blind children can turn to the foundation |
| D．poor deaf African children cannot get help from the foundation |
Visit the foundation’s website, and you will learn about _____.
| A．the function of hearing aids |
| B．the specific services the foundation needs |
| C．the challenges that children face every day |
| D．the prices of a variety of hearing aids |
For whom is the text most probably written?
| A．Poor parents who have deaf children. |
| B．Doctors who want to improve skills. |
| C．Students who cannot see the blackboard clearly. |
| D．Teachers who have deaf children in their class. |
The author writes the text mainly to _____.
| A．tell how to avoid permanent hearing loss |
| B．explain how hard a life deaf children live |
| C．introduce Help Me Hear Foundation |
| D．advise people to give money to Help Me Hear Foundation |
One evening last summer, when I asked my 14 year old son, Ray, for help with dinner, his response shocked me."What’s a colander(漏勺)?" he asked.
I could only blame myself.In the family, nobody else’s hands went in the sauce except my own.But that night, as I explained with a touch of panic that a colander is the thing with holes in it, I wondered what else I hadn’t prepared Ray for.
As parents, while we focus on our sons’ confidence and character, we perhaps don’t always consider that we are also raising someone’s future roommates, boyfriends, husbands, or fathers.I wanted to know that I’d raised a boy who would never ask the woman in his life, "What’s for dinner?" So I came up with a plan: I would offer Ray a private home economics course.I was delighted to find that he didn’t say no.For two hours, three days a week, Ray was all mine.One day, as his tomato sauce reduced on the stove, he washed and seasoned a chicken for roasting.Then he rolled out the piecrust (馅饼皮) and filled it with apples, all while listening to my explanation on the importance of preheating an oven.
I knew that he would rather have been shooting hoops in the driveway than learning to mend socks with his mother—he tried to beg not to have sewing lessons, even though I insisted that one day, someone would find the sight of him fixing his own shirt very attractive— but it couldn’t be denied that he was learning, and more than just housekeeping."I appreciate what you do as a mom," he told me one day.Ray now understands the finer points of cooking, and more importantly, he realizes there’s nothing masculine (男子气概的) about being helpless.
Now, not only can he make his own dinner, but also he can make a big meal for his family.That’s what I call a man.I’m glad that I prepared so great a present for my future daughter in-law.Why was the author shocked at her son’s response?
| A．Because he was not well behaved. |
| B．Because he refused to help with dinner. |
| C．Because he didn’t know the common kitchen tools. |
| D．Because he was very curious about kitchen tools. |
In the author’s opinion, some parents pay little attention to _______.
| A．building up children’s confidence |
| B．telling kids what is right and wrong |
| C．preparing children for their future life |
| D．making children live a hard life |
After learning to do housework, Ray _______.
| A．fell in love with sewing |
| B．did other work in the house |
| C．began to be more hardworking |
| D．acknowledged his mother’s efforts |
We can infer from the text that Ray _______.
| A．made great progress in cooking. |
| B．always thought housework interesting. |
| C．preferred sewing to cooking. |
| D．was unwilling to learn cooking at first. |
What would the author like to convey in the text?
| A．Useful education for boys |
| B．The importance of housework |
| C．Boys should be involved in housework. |
| D．Cooking and sewing make boys masculine. |
Winners Club
You choose to be a winner！
The Winners Club is a bank account specially designed for teenagers.It has been made to help you better manage your money.The Winners Club is a transaction account（交易账户）where you receive a key – card so you can get to your money 24/7 – that's 24 hours a day, 7 days a week！
It's a club with impressive features for teenagers:
●No account keeping fees！
You're no millionaire so we don't expect you to pay large fees.In fact, there are no account keeping or transaction fees！
●Excellent interest rates！
You want your money to grow.The Winners Club has a good rate of interest which gets even better if you make at least two deposits（储蓄）without taking them out in a month.
●Convenient
Teenagers are busy – we get that.You may never need to come to a bank at all.With the Winners Club you can choose to use handy tellers and to bank from home using the phone and the Internet……You can have money directly deposited into your Winners Club account.This could be your pocket money or your pay from your part – time job！
●Mega magazine included
Along with your regular report, you will receive a FREE magazine full of good ideas to make even more of your money.There are also fantastic offers and competitions only for Winners Club members.
The Winners Club is a great choice for teenagers.And it is so easy to join.Simply fill in an application form.You will have to get permission from your parent or guardian（so we can organize that cool key-card）but it is easy.We can't want to hear from you.It's the best way to choose to be a winner！The Winners Club is a bank account intended for _________.
| A．parents | B．teenagers | C．winners | D．adults |
The Winners Club provides magazines which _________.
| A．encourage spending |
| B．are free to all teenagers |
| C．are full of adventure stories |
| D．help to make more of your money |
If you want to be a member of the Club, you must _________.
| A．be an Internet user |
| B．be permitted by your parent |
| C．have a big sum of money |
| D．be in your twenties |
Which of the following is TRUE about the Winners Club？
| A．Special gifts are ready for parents |
| B．The bank opens only on work days |
| C．Services are convenient for its members |
| D．Fees are necessary for the account keeping |
What is the purpose of this text？
| A．To set up a club |
| B．To provided part – time jobs |
| C．To introduce a new banking service |
| D．To organize key – cards |
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