题目内容
If you’ve ridden any New York subway, chances are good that you’ve watched your cellphone clock tick while seated on an unmoving, delayed train. You wouldn’t wish to have such a ________ feeling of being stuck on public transportation anymore. No one knows the feeling as ________ as Jerich Marco Alcantara does particularly when he had ________ in his life to celebrate. He ________ his graduation ceremony at Hunter College’s Brookdale campus due to a delay.
There were two ________ ceremonies that day, but Alcantara specifically wanted to ________ the early ceremony, because students were only ________ two tickets for friends and family at the latter event. He wanted all of his family and friends in attendance.
Stuck on the train in full baccalaureate gown (学士服), Alcantara still got to experience a formal ________, sort of. Some friends and strangers improvised (即兴创作) a ceremony on the subway. ________ a cellphone, a friend presented Alcantara with a “diploma”; ________ somebody else on the train played Good Riddance (Time of Your Life) by Green Day. Another passenger ________ the ceremony and posted the video to Facebook.
_____ he wasn’t able to attend the full ceremony, in a way this will end up being a more memorable ________ for Alcantara down the road. He will be able to point to his ________ and not just think of the hard work it took to earn it, but the ________ missing his real graduation ceremony created.
Moments like these help us get a little more ________ of our fellow man during a ________time. Although these aren’t all strangers, it’s still wonderful to see people ________ to make sure someone feels the proper ________, or at least their big achievement should be ________. Though Alcantara missed his official graduation ceremony, he said his subway experience meant a lot.
1.A. rising B. sinking C. spinning D. floating
2.A. vividly B. casually C. plainly D. fiercely
3.A. milestones B. promotions C. festivals D. parties
4.A. spoiled B. quitted C. overlooked D. missed
5.A. separate B. continuous C. relevant D. contradictory
6.A. join B. make C. abandon D. ignore
7.A. appointed B. allocated C. approved D. accumulated
8.A. assembly B. situation C. occasion D. meeting
9.A. Via B. On C. In D. From
10.A. instead B. afterwards C. therefore D. meanwhile
11.A. filmed B. took C. interviewed D. reported
12.A. Since B. As C. Although D. When
13.A. exploration B. moment C. impression D. stage
14.A. video B. ticket C. diploma D. cellphone
15.A. pain B. inconvenience C. excitement D. memory
16.A. convinced B. tired C. reliant D. faithful
17.A. messy B. extreme C. acute D. disorganized
18.A. get together B. gather together C. put together D. band together
19.A. acquisition B. cooperation C. recognition D. evaluation
20.A. welcomed B. applauded C. calculated D. encouraged
Nowhere is the place you never want to go. It’s not on any departure board, and though some people like to travel so far off the motherland that it looks like Nowhere, most wanderers ultimately long to get somewhere. Yet every now and then—if there’s nowhere else you can be and all other options have gone—going nowhere can prove the best adventure around.
Nowhere is entirely uncharted; you’ve never read a guidebook entry on it or followed others’ suggestions on a train ride through its suburbs. Few YouTube videos exist of it. Moreover, it’s free from the most dangerous kind of luggage, expectation. Knowing nothing of a place in advance opens us up to a high energy we seldom encounter while walking around Paris or Kyoto with a list of the 10 things we want—or, in embarrassing truth, feel we need—to see.
I’ll never forget a bright January morning when I landed in San Francisco from Santa Barbara, just in time to see my connecting flight to Osaka take off. I hurried to the nearest airline counter to ask for help, and was told that I would have to wait 24 hours, at my own expense, for the next day’s flight. An unanticipated delay is exactly what nobody wants on his schedule. The airline didn’t answer for fog-related delays, a gate agent declared, and no alternative flights were available.
Millbrae, California, the drive-through town that encircles San Francisco’s airport, was a mystery to me. With one of the world’s most beautiful cities only 40 minutes to the north, and the unofficial center of the world, Silicon Valley, 27 miles to the south, Millbrae is known mostly as a place to fly away from, at high speed.
It was a cloudless, warm afternoon as a shuttle bus deposited me in Millbrae. Locals were taking their dogs for walks along the bay while couples wandered hand in hand beside an expanse of blue that, in San Francisco, would have been crowded with people and official “attractions.” I checked in to my hotel and registered.
Suddenly I was enjoying a luxury I never allow myself, even on vacation: a whole day free. And as I made my way back to my hotel, lights began to come on in the hills of Millbrae, and I realized I had never seen a sight half so lovely in glamorous, industrial Osaka. Its neighbor Kyoto is attractive, but it attracts 50 million visitors a year.
Who knows if I’ll ever visit Millbrae again? But I’m confident that Nowhere will slip into my schedule many times more. No place, after all, is uninteresting to the interested eye. Nowhere is so far off the map that its smallest beauties are a discovery.
The Unexpected Joys of a Trip to Nowhere | |
Passage outline | Supporting details |
Introduction to Nowhere | ●Although many choose to travel beyond the 1., they actually hope to get somewhere. ●Getting nowhere can be the best adventure when we are2. out of options. |
3. of Nowhere | ●You don’t have to be 4. on a guidebook entry or others’ advice. ●With limited information of a place and little expectation, we will encounter a 5. high energy that doesn’t exist when visiting Paris or Kyoto. |
The author’s experience of getting nowhere | ●The airline wasn’t 6. for unexpected delays and there were no alternative flights available. ●He decided to visit the mysterious Millbrae,7. between San Francisco and Silicon Valley. ●He 8. to enjoy such a luxurious and free time in big cities before. |
Conclusion | ●Though 9. about whether to visit Millbrae again, Nowhere will be included in his schedule. ●Nowhere is entirely uncharted with its beauties to be 10.. |