Saving Jesse’s Arm

At about 8 p.m. on July 6th, eight-year-old Jesse was playing in the sea in a National Park near Pensacola. It was the end of a perfect day at the beach with his uncle and aunt.

Suddenly, a two-meter-long shark(鲨鱼) appeared ______ , and it bit off Jesse’s right arm from the shoulder. By the time his uncle and aunt pulled Jesse out of the water, he was unconscious (失去知觉的) and had already lost a lot of ______.

While Jesse’s aunt was giving the boy the kiss of life, his uncle ran back into the sea and ______the shark. Amazingly, he managed to catch the shark and pull it out of the water onto the beach, although this might sound impossible. At that moment two park workers arrived to help the family and one of them shot the shark four times in the head. Then he held open the shark’s ______while the other worker reached down its stomach and pulled out Jesse’s arm.

A few minutes later, a helicopter (直升机) took the boy and his arm to the nearest hospital,where Dr. Ian Rogers and his team managed to ______the arm to Jesse’s body again. The operation lasted eleven hours. When the doctors saw Jesse’s fingers go pink, they knew the operation had been a ______ .

After such a terrible accident nobody believes that good things will happen, but the medical team are hopeful that Jesse will be able to ______ his arm again in the future.

“Although Jesse’s story is terrifying, it would be not correct to think that sharks are always so dangerous. Sharks are usually harmless to human.” Dr. Ian Rogers said. “However, we should be ______for safety and should only swim on beaches where there are lifeguards.”

1.A. quickly B. slowly C. loudly D. happily

2.A. water B. weight C. blood D. sight

3.A. helped B. killed C. bit D. found

4.A. mouth B. eye C. ear D. head

5.A. stop B. connect C. place D. break

6.A. fail B. harm C. success D. progress

7.A. give B. use C. make D. put

8.A. respectable B. comfortable C. terrible D. responsible

1.People celebrate the festival of Rakhi in ________.

A. Mexico. B. Chin A. C. Indi A. D. Japan.

2.Which festival is on the evening of February 3rd?

A. Setsubun. B. The Festival of Rakhi.

C. Spring Festival. D. St. Anthony’s Day.

3.What do people do on the Lunar New Year’s Eve?

A. Bring their animals to church. B. Watch special programs on TV.

C. Give a bracelet to their family. D. Throw beans around their homes.

There was a time when no one knew the name Harry Potter. Now the adventures of this extraordinary student at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry are read in over 45 languages, including Russian, Thai, and even ancient Greek. No one can explain the Harry Potter phenomenon (现象) – not even J.K. Rowling, his creator.

J.K. Rowling was born in England in 1965. From a young age, she knew she wanted to be a writer. When she was 6, she wrote her first story—about a rabbit that gets sick. At school, she used to make up stories to tell her friends.

After graduation from college, she worked as a secretary. But she didn’t give up her dream.She spent her lunch hour writing stories, mainly for adults. Then in 1990, on a train trip to London,she got the idea from the boy wizard. She says he just appeared in her head. She soon created many other characters to help Harry fight the forces of darkness.

She kept working on the story while she was teaching English in Portugal, where she married, had her first child, and divorced (与……离婚) a year later. When she returned to England, she brought back a box of Harry Potter stories.

After returning home, she was broke and living in a small house. She continued writing, and in 1995, finished the first book in the series, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. It was published (出版) in 1997 and became an unexpected bestseller.

Rowling’s life has changed a lot. She has become internationally famous and now earns around $40 million a year. She remarried, had a second child and lives in Scotland now.

1.When did J.K. Rowling write her first story about a rabbit?

A. In 1965. B. In 1971. C. In 1990. D. In 1995.

2.What happed to J.K. Rowing in 1997?

A. She had a train trip to London.

B. She taught English in Portugal.

C. She became an unexpected bestseller.

D. She remarried and had a second child.

3.J.K. Rowling become successful because she ________.

A. lives in Scotland now

B. never gives up her dream

C. earns around $40 million

D. keeps working on the train

In the days before electricity, people don’t worry much about sleep. They usually went to bed a couple of hours after sunset (日落) and woke at sunrise. After all, there wasn’t much to do in those days after the sun went down. But then came the electric light bulb (电灯泡). And now we have satellite television, the Internet,24-hour convenience stores, and longer hours at work. How much can we sleep? How much should we sleep?

Like it or not, many of us are sleeping less on average (平均). In 1910, most Americans slept 9 hours a night. That dropped to 7.5 hours by 1975. In 2002, a study by the National Sleep Foundation found that the average American got only 6.9 hours. The news is even worse for people who work the night shift. They sleep an average of just 5 hours.

Are we sleeping enough? Not if you believe in the old rule of eight hours of rest, eight hours of work, and eight hours of play. On the other hand, Norman Stanley, a British scientist who studies sleep, believes people’s sleep needs are different. Some people need as many as 11 hours, but others need as few as three. How much do you really need? “To find out,” he says, “simply sleep until you wake naturally, without the help of an alarm clock. That’s your sleep need.”

Meanwhile, other scientists and researchers are searching for new ways to keep us awake longer. Some are developing chemicals (化学药品) that are safer and more powerful than caffeine, the chemical found in coffee and tea. One experimental drug, CX717, kept laboratory monkeys working happily for 36 hours. Further developments may allow people to safely stay awake for several days straight. One group of researchers is studying a gene (基因) found in some fruit flies that lets them get by on one-third the usual amount of sleep. Another group is even working on an electric switch that immediately wakes up a sleeping brain.

The meanings of this research are huge. On the one hand, this could lead to a world where we work longer and longer hours with less and less sleep. On the other hand, if we needed less sleep, we would have more free time to travel, read, volunteer, and spend time with family.

1.How many hours did most Americans sleep a night in 1975?

A. 5. B. 6.9. C. 7.5. D. 9.

2.What can we learn from the passage?

A. People have got enough sleep. B. People will work longer hours.

C. Sleep time will be a big problem. D. Staying awake for long is possible.

3.What is probably the best title of the passage?

A. To sleep or Not to sleep? B. How can We Sleep Longer?

C. To Work or Not to Work? D. How Much We can Sleep?

All in the memory…

Many people complain that their memory is bad, especially as they get older. Phone numbers, names, facts we studied only a few days ago – life would be so much easier if we could remember them all effortlessly. So how can we improve our memory?

Many people think that repeating things is the best way to remember them. While this undoubtedly helps short-term memory (remembering a telephone number for a few seconds, for example), psychologists (心理学家) doubt whether it ca help you to remember things for very long. The British psychologist Ec Stanford seemed to prove this point when he tested himself on five prayers (祈祷文) that he had read aloud every morning for over 25 years. He found that he could remember no more than three words of some of them! More helpful, especially for remembering numbers, is grouping the information. The following numbers would be impossible for most of us to remember: 1492178919931848. But look at them in chunks, and it becomes much easier: 1492 1789 1993 1848.

So what about “memory training”? We’ve all heard about people who can memorize packs of cards by heart—how is this done and can anyone learn how to do it? According to experts, there are many ways of training your memory. Many of them involve forming a mental picture of the things to be memorized. One method, which may be useful in learning foreign languages, is to create a picture in your mind connected to a word you want to remember.

Another method is to invent a story that includes all the things you want to remember. In experiments, people were asked to remember up to 120 words using this skill; when tested afterwards, on average, they were able to recall 90% of them!

However, not all of us are interested in learning long lists of names and numbers just for fun.For those studying large number of information, psychologists suggest that the best way to form meaningful connections is to ask yourself lots of questions as you go along. So, for example, if you were reading about a particular disease (疾病), you would ask yourself questions like: “Do people get it from water?”, “What parts of the body does it influence?” and so on. This is said to be far more effective than time spent “passively” reading and re-reading notes.

1.Which of the following is true about repeating things according to the passage?

A. It helps short-term memory for sure. B. It makes remembering things interesting.

C. It helps to remember things for long. D. It makes remembering prayers effortlessly.

2.The word “chunks” in Paragraph 2 probably means “______”.

A. details B. turns C. groups D. lines

3.What can we infer from the passage?

A. Creating a picture is useful in learning math.

B. Inventing a prayer trains our memory quickly.

C. Remembering long numbers is easy for people.

D. Asking yourself questions activates the memory.

4.What’s the writer’s main purpose in writing this passage?

A. To complain that his memory is bad.

B. To recognize some memory problems.

C. To explain some memory experiments.

D. To share some ways of improving memory.

阅读短文, 根据短文内容回答问题。

A History of English...in Five Words

In 1582, Richard Mulcaster, headmaster of a British school, wrote that the English would not go beyond their island. However, it didn't stay that way. Today, English is spoken all over the world.

English is a colorful and diverse (多样的) language that long has picked up words from many other languages. Here are five words that show the English language’s interesting history. English

English began in the language spoken by the early Germanic people in the fifth century AD. It is from them that the word “English” comes. First it is the Latin word Angli which means the people of Angul, where the Germanic people were from.

Beef

Although roast beef is seen as a traditional English dish, the word “beef” was introduced from the French boeuf during the Middle Ages. It was one of a group of words, including pork and mutton, that were taken from the speech of the French who moved in Britain following the Norman Conquest (诺曼底登陆) of 1066. However, the farmers who kept these living things continued to call them by their old English names: cow, pig and sheep. This difference passes on till today.

Dictionary

Dictionary is a borrowing from Latin dictornarius liber, “book of words”; It first appeared in English in the 6th century, along with a huge number of other words from Latin and Greek. The first English dictionary was written by Robert Cawdrey in 1604. Cawdrey focused only on the difficult words whose meanings would have caused problems for those not educated in Latin and Greek.

Tea

Tea was brought into Britain early in the 17th century, becoming very popular by the 1650s. By the 18th century it had become a symbol（标志） of fashionable society and a best-selling of the coffee house culture.

The word tea rises from the Chinese word cha. A love of tea is so ingrained (根深蒂固的) in British life that the expression “cup of tea” has come to stand for anything viewed positively. The saying “It’s not my cup of tea.” means: I don’t like it.

Emoji

Emoji began developing in Japan in the 1990s for use by teenagers: the word “emoji” comes from the Japanese e “picture” + moji “letter”. Its successful acceptance in English has been helped by its similarity to words with the e-prefix (前缀) like e-mail. The Unicode Consortium’s (统一码 联盟的) official lists emojis and their meanings, but users keep finding creative new ways to employ them. Emojis are just another example of the development and diversity of English.

1.What language is the word “beef ” from?

2.Who wrote the first English dictionary?

3.What does “it’s not my cup of tea” mean?

4.Why is the word “emoji ” successfully accepted in English?

5.What makes English a colorful and diverse language?

（题文）假如你是中学生李华，你的美国笔友 Jim 一周前给你发了电子邮件，询问你暑假里的旅游计划及其他安排， 但由于某种原因你没有及时回复。请根据以下要点给他回封邮件： 没有及时回复的原因, 你打算去哪儿旅游，以及你暑假的其他安排。

提示词语: exams, go on a trip， volunteer， visit some museums

提示问题： • Why didn’t you reply to Jim’s email in time?

• Where do you plan to travel?

• What are your other plans for the summer holiday?

To: Jim

From: Li Hua

Subject: A plan

Dear Jim,

I'm terribly sorry I couldn't reply to your email in time because __________________________

Yours sincerely,

Li Hua

为了帮助同学们树立集体观念和提高班级责任感，你校英文报刊正在以“ Building a Harmonious Class” （创建和谐班级）为题征文，请你用英语写一篇短文投稿，谈谈班级成 员应该如何创建一个和谐的班集体，作为一名成员，你通常是怎么做的，以及还需要再做些什么。

提示词语: important, respect, trust, help

提示问题： ● Why should we build a harmonious class?

● As a member of a class, what do you usually do?

● What else do you need to do?

We should build a harmonious class because ____________________________________

________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________

Kaitlin Riffel’s dream to end poverty(贫困) started when she was visiting her father, who worked for the homeless.

＂I never realized there were people in the world who didn’t have a home or food before,＂ said Kaitlin, who is now sixteen. ＂I knew there was something I had to do about that.＂

At age eight, she started raising money to build a playground. ＂It took me two years,＂ Kaitlin said. ＂We started small. We wanted to do something to make a difference.＂

In 2014, When Kaitlin was thirteen, she visited Central America, and saw people going hungry and families living in houses made of cardboard. That year, we set Kids on a Mission, which has helped hundreds of people there.

＂The rooms were smaller than my bedroom, but there would be eight people living in each one,＂ Kaitlin said. ＂We also got to see the dirty rivers that those people were drinking out of.＂

Providing clean drinking water, food and clothes for people living in poverty is now an important task for Kids on a Mission. ＂This young lady is changing the hearts of people, and also changing the world,＂ said the headmaster of Kaitlin’s school.

1.The job of Kaitlin’s father was to__________.

A. sell foods B. build playgrounds

C. visit schools D. help homeless people

2.When did Kaitlin set Kids on a Mission?

A. In 2009. B. In 2011. C. In 2014. D. In 2017.

3.What was people’s life like in Central America according to Kaitlin?

A. They lived in strong houses.

B. Their drinking water was dirty.

C. Their bedrooms were very big.

D. They had enough food and clothes.

4.What can we infer from the headmaster’s words?

A. Kaitlin is always ready to give and help.

B. Kaitlin has many chances to travel around.

C. Kaitlin often changes schools for her study.

D. Kaitlin has a serious problem with her heart.

5.What might be the best title for the text?

A. School life in America B. Gift from a headmaster

C. Father’s duty in the family D. Girl’s dream to end poverty

Sydney Fredette has a lot of things to deal with. Not only is she a high school student, but she has also set up her own organization, Beary Merry Christmas. She volunteers（自愿）to serve poor kids and families in Orange Country in California, US.

To remember her best friend who died of cancer nearly 10 years ago, Fredette decided to serve those in Orange Country who are less lucky than she is.

She began with the simple idea of collecting donated(捐赠的) Build-A-Bears, the popular toy animal that is made by children themselves in the stores’ workshops. Fredette then gave them as gifts to the homeless children in California during the holiday season.

With donations at more than 100 bears a year, Fredette and volunteers host activities every year, where volunteers not only give out the bears, but also clothing, meals, and other things.

Not wanting to limit（限制）the giving to just the holiday months, Fredette now hosts other activities for Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day and Halloween, providing the chance for her volunteer team to make a difference through the year.

＂I love making relationships with the people I serve,＂ Fredette said. ＂The thanks they have, hearing their stories and seeing how happy they are, it’s so cool.＂

Future plans for Fredette include building a public food bank and providing a self-development class for students in her school who will soon attend college.

Heading to college herself in the fall, Fredette is looking to stay local and continue to help out in her hometown. In fact, she was regarded as a ＂Dreamer & Doer＂ not long ago for her work in improving her community, along with 32 other high school students.

1.Fredette started her own organization to .

A. keep her life busy B. help poor people

C. look after the sick D. thank her best friend

2.What can we learn about Beary Merry Christmas?

A. It holds one activity a year.

B. It offers service around America.

C. It buys bears from the stores.

D. It gives out other things besides bears.

3.It can be inferred（推断）that Fredette .

A. likes telling people stories

B. dreams of being a teacher

C. is pleased with what she does

D. plans to leave California for college

4.What can be the best title for the passage?

A. Giving back to society

B. Getting on well with others

C. Providing a food bank

D. Improving community colleges