My father was always a good gardener. One of my earliest memories is standing without shoes in the freshly tilled(翻耕的) soil, my hands blackened from digging in the ground.

As a child, I loved following Dad around in the garden. I remember Dad pushing the tiller(耕作机) ahead in perfectly straight lines. Dad loved growing all sorts of things: yellow and green onions, watermelons almost as big as me, rows of yellow corn, and our favorite--- red tomatoes.

As I grew into a teenager, I didn’t get so excited about gardening with Dad. Instead of magical land of possibility, it had turned into some kind of prison. As Dad grew older, his love for gardening never disappeared. After all the kids were grown and had started families of their own, Dad turned to gardening like never before. Even when he was diagnosed with cancer, he still took care of his garden.

But then, the cancer, bit by bit, invaded his body. I had to do the things he used to do. What really convinced me that Dad was dying was the state of his garden that year. The rows and rows of multicolored vegetables were gone. Too tired to weed them, he simply let them be.

For the first few years after he died, I couldn’t even bear to look at anyone’s garden without having strong memories pour over me like cold water from a bucket. Three years ago, I decided to plant my own garden and started out with just a few tomatoes. That morning, after breaking up a fair amount of soil, something caught the corner of my eye and I had to smile. It was my eight-year-old son Nathan, happily playing in the freshly tilled soil.

1.Why did the author like the garden when he was a child?

A. He wanted to be a garden-crazy like his father.

B. He loved being in the garden with his father.

C. The garden was full of his favorite food.

D. The garden was just freshly tilled.

2.When all the kids started their own families, the author’s father _____.

A. stopped his gardening

B. turned to other hobbies

C. devoted more to gardening

D. focused on planting tomatoes

3.What happened to the garden when the author’s father was seriously ill?

A. There was a great harvest.

B. The garden was almost deserted.

C. No plant grew in the garden at all.

D. The author’s son took charge of the garden.

4.Why did the author start his garden with tomatoes?

A. He wanted to honor his father.

B. His son liked the fields of tomatoes.

C. He only knew how to grow tomatoes.

D. He thought tomatoes were easy to manage.

The popularity of farmers’ markets combined with concerns over food security is making the number of school leavers taking agriculture courses increase rapidly, according to a study.

Large numbers of 16- to 18-year-olds are going to study subjects such as agriculture, food and gamekeeping despite having no background in farming. Jeanette Dawson, principal of Bishop Burton College, said women were also taking up courses at an increasing rate.

She said it was related to a series of food scandals (丑闻)such as the discovery of horsemeat in frozen meals stocked by major supermarkets.

But the movement was also promoted by an increased awareness of the importance of local food and produce, she said. The number of students taking courses in “land-based subjects” has increased by a quarter in the last 12 months alone – from 5,138 to 6,482.

Mrs. Dawson said there were a lot of young people who weren’t from farming backgrounds. But there had been a growth in the number of them accessing agriculture programes with a view to a career in the industry. She said agriculture was an “applied science, with the great outdoors as its laboratory”. And it was increasingly seen as an attractive job for school leavers.

“I never underestimate (低估) the ability of teenagers to pick up on it. The more it is in the media, the more it interests young people. Whenever I go in my local pub, it has on the blackboard where the sausages (香肠) are from. Everyone is interested in buying local food and knowing where their food is from.

The comments were made as Bishop Burton prepares to expand, with a £I3 million project to build a new campus in Lincolnshire. The site – due to open in September 20l5 – will be the college’s second in the county, in addition to one at nearby Riseholme.

1.What is making large numbers of students take agriculture courses?

A. Agriculture is very important to a country.

B. People are increasingly concerned about food security.

C. Many colleges are offering agriculture courses.

D. Agriculture is an applied science.

2.The example of horsemeat in the third paragraph illustrates(证明) the necessity of_________ .

A. protecting animals

B. strengthening food safety

C. protecting the environment

D. forming healthy eating habits

3.What does the writer mainly discuss in the passage?

A. Why the government should strengthen agriculture.

B. How to strengthen food safety.

C. Why agriculture courses are becoming popular among students.

D. How to do well in agriculture courses.

Almost everyone accepts the fact that crime can never be wiped out entirely. Thus control of crime becomes the focus of police and government around the world. The question lawmakers must answer is, “Which system of criminal punishment works best for society?” Each country has developed its own ideas for solution to this question, and these solutions then determine how criminals are punished under different systems. However, none of the current system in use has proved 100 percent effective. There are many ideas about punishment of criminals. Some systems look only to (倾向于) get retribution (惩罚) against criminals. These systems work to frighten criminals away from repeating a crime in the future.

These systems also try to deter (威慑) others in society by using the criminal as an example of what can happen to a person if he or she is caught committing crimes. Rehabilitation (悔过) is another philosophy by which many systems of punishment operate. The goal of these systems is to return a former criminal to society after a required period of treatment and training, usually in prisons. The idea is to help change the person's behavior and approach so that he or she becomes a law-abiding citizen.

Capital punishment is another form of punishment which systems use in extreme criminal cases, sometimes involving such crimes as a murder, rape, and violent theft. In these cases, the person is put to death. Today, capital punishment is used in relatively few countries. Many countries have done away with it. In other words, capital punishment remains only in officially law books but is rarely used. However, capital punishment remains in use in some countries including the United States.

1.The police around the world usually concentrate their attention on_______ .

A. how to catch the person who commits crimes

B. how to punish the person who commits crimes

C. how to control crimes

D. how to determine the system of punishment of criminals

2.Different purposes of the systems of criminal punishment are mentioned in the passage except_________ .

A. to frighten criminals and stop them from committing crimes again

B. to warn others in society not to commit crimes

C. to reform criminals and help them return to society

D. to help criminals get some knowledge of law

3.Which of the following is NOT true?

A. Many countries including the USA have got rid of capital punishment.

B. In some countries capital punishment can only be found in law books, but it is hardly used.

C. Capital punishment is only used in extreme criminal cases.

D. Some countries including China still use capital punishment

I had worried myself sick over Simon's mother coming to see me. I was a new teacher, and I gave an honest account of the students' work. In Simon's case,the grades were awfully low. He couldn't read his own handwriting. But he was a bright student. He discussed adult subjects with nearly adult comprehension. His work in no way reflected his abilities.

So when Simon's mother entered the room, my palms (手掌心) were sweating. I was completely unprepared for her kisses on both my cheeks. “I came to thank you,” she said, surprising me beyond speech. Because of me, Simon had become a different person. He talked of how he loved me, he had begun to make friends, and for the first time in his twelve years, he had recently spent an afternoon at a friend's house. She wanted to tell me how grateful she was for the self-respect I had developed in her son. She kissed me again and left.

I sat, stunned, for about half an hour,wondering what had just happened. How did I make such a life changing difference to that boy without even knowing it?What I finally came to remember was one day, several months before,when some students were giving reports in the front of the class, Jeanne spoke quietly,and to encourage her to raise her voice, I had said, “Speak up. Simon's the expert on this. He is the only one you have to convince, and he can't hear you in the back of the room.” That was it. From that day on, Simon had sat up straighter, paid more attention, smiled more,and became happy. And it was all because he happened to be the last kid in the last row. The boy who most needed praise was the one who took the last seat that day.

It taught me the most valuable lesson over the years of my teaching career, and I'm thankful that it came early and positively. A small kindness can indeed make a difference.

1.We can infer that when Simon’s mother entered the room, the writer felt _______.

A. nervous B. satisfied C. happy D. surprised

2.Why did Simon’s mother come to visit the writer?

A. Because she worried about her son’s poor work.

B. Because Simon asked her to do so.

C. Because she wanted to show her gratitude to the writer.

D. Because she wanted to know her son’s performance in the school.

3.The following words can be used to describe Simon before he met the writer EXCEPT _____.

A. unconfident B. lonely C. clever D. outgoing

4.The purpose of the passage is to ________.

A. share a valuable lesson with readers

B. tell teachers how to be kind to students

C. advise the readers to be kind to others

D. tell the story of Simon

A

Thanks to a young waiter, I only recently discovered that a friend of 20 years was once a yo-yo virtuoso(溜溜球大师).

“Oh, stop it!” Jackie said when I started laughing during our dinner. “I was, too. And I knew how to ‘Walk the Dog.’ ”

“Wow, really?” said our waiter, Jumario Simmons, flashing a big smile at us.

“Don’t encourage her,” I said.

“What else could you do?” he asked.

“I did ‘Round the World,’” Jackie said, now ignoring me completely. “That cradle(婴儿时期的) thing, too.”

I’d asked Jumario what he did when he wasn’t waiting on tables. The 24-year-old waiter was so smart that I knew there had to be more to his story. It turns out that he won a regional yo-yo competition last year. He also gives free lessons to kids. “It gives them something to do,” Jumario said. “Keeps them off the streets.”

One of the great things about eating out is the table talk with strangers, which reminds us that everyone has a life and a name. But the other day I heard that some restaurants are ending this talk between diners and servers. I listened to the reporter describe how their improvements are allowing customers to text orders from their tables to speed up service.

The reporter got my attention with this sentence: “Five minutes after typing ‘I’m at table 3’, a meal arrives at the table.” But there wasn’t a “please” with this order, which should have been a request, by the way. If you’ve ever waited on tables, you know that the last thing you need is yet another way for a customer to be unpleasant.

Most servers are constantly mediating(调解) between customers’ requests for substitutions and overworked cooks’ accusations of treason. Except at high-end restaurants, servers also have to hover like mothers of preschoolers so that we might consider them worthy of a large enough tip to lift their pay to minimum wage.

Texting a server from a table a few feet away is equal to moving our fingers and shouting, “Hey, you!” It was rude in 1957, and it’s rude now. You won’t ever find me texting a waiter or waitress.

1.What do we know from the text?

A. The waiter knows Jackie well.

B. The waiter is good at playing yo-yo. .

C. Jackie plays yo-yo in her spare time.

D. The author has a great interest in playing yo-yo.

2.Some restaurants allow diners to text a server from a table to .

A. improve their service

B. reduce the cost of service

C. show respect for diners

D. stop talks between diners and servers

3.What’s the last but one paragraph mainly about?

A. The pay of servers

B. The work of servers.

C. The customers’ request.

D. The work of mothers of preschoolers.

4.From the passage, the author’s attitude towards texting a server from a table is _________.

A. indifferent B. negative

C. curious D. positive

5.The passage mainly focuses on .

A. how to wait on tables

B. the friendship between old friends

C. where to eat out

D. the relationship between customers and waiters

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