Wilma Subra had no intention of becoming a public speaker. After graduating from college with degrees in chemistry and microbiology, she went to work at Gulf South Research Institute in Louisiana.

As part of her job, she conducted field research on toxic (poisonous) substances in the environment, often in minority communities located near large industrial polluters. She found many families were being exposed to high, sometimes deadly levels of chemicals and other toxic substances. But she was not allowed to make her information public.

Frustrated by these restrictions, Subra left her job in 1981, created her own company and has devoted the past two decades to helping people fight back against giant industrial polluters. She works with families and community groups to conduct environmental tests, interpret test results, and organize for change.

Because of her efforts, dozens of toxic sites across the country have been cleaned up. And one chemical industry spokesperson calls her “a_top_gun” for the environmental movement.

How has Subra achieved all this? Partly through her scientific training.Partly through her commitment to environmental justice. But just as important is her ability to communicate with people through public speaking. “Public speaking,” she says, “is the primary vehicle I use for reaching people.”

If you had asked Subra before 1981 “Do you see yourself as a major public speaker?”, she would have laughed at the idea. Yet today she gives more than one hundred presentations a year. Along the way, she’s lectured at Harvard, testified before Congress, and addressed audiences in 40 states, as well as in Mexico, Canada, and Japan.

1.What did Wilma Subra study for her job before 1981?

A. Chemistry and microbiology.

B. Families affected by toxic chemicals.

C. Toxic substances in the environment.

D. Minority communities near industrial polluters.

2.Why did Wilma Subra quit her job in 1981?

A. She wanted to create her own company.

B. She preferred freedom to restrictions.

C. She hoped to work with families and communities.

D. She was forbidden to inform the public of toxic pollution.

3.Wilma Subra is called “a top gun” in the 4th paragraph for ________.

A. her scientific training

B. her efforts to fight against pollution

C. her help in closing down dozens of toxic sites

D. her strong belief in environmental justice

4.What does Wilma Subra think of “public speaking”?

A. She values it. B. She laughs at it.

C. She is against it. D. She has no idea of it.

阅读下面短文,从短文后各题所给的四个选项(A、B、C和D)中,选出可以填入空白处的最佳选项,并在答题卡上将该项涂黑。

At the end of 2014, Tulsa, Oklahoma, sixth?grade teacher Melissa Bour received a friend ____ on Facebook from one of her students. She didn’t accept the request, but a quick browse through the girl’s friends list revealed the names of dozens of kids from her ____. Many of the students’ Facebook pages were completely ____, meaning even strangers could ____ the kids’ personal photos and messages.

“I saw middle fingers, students dressed inappropriately, and extremely ____ language,” Melissa says. “It was ____.” When she brought up her ____ in class, the students were not ____ at all. So she created a ____ of her own. With a bright green marker pen, she wrote on a piece of paper: “Dear Facebook: my 12?year?old students think it is ‘no ____’ that they are posting pictures of themselves... Please help me show them how ____ their images can get around.” She put a picture of the letter on her Facebook page and asked people to ____ it.

In hours, it was shared 108,000 times across dozens of states and four countries. She ____ it after eight hours, but it continued to spread. “I wanted to ____ them that it’s on the Internet forever,” she says.

As she explained the results of her ____ in class, the students’ eyes got bigger and bigger. “It scared a few of them into deleting their pages ____,” she says. Others have removed inappropriate posts and used privacy settings to ____ their pages.

Her ____ wasn’t to scare them off social media but to push them to be ____ of what they post. Melissa says, “I tell them, ‘It doesn’t ____ you have to just because everyone else is sharing.’”

1.A. invitation B. demand C. order D. request

2.A. family B. college C. classroom D. company

3.A. public B. famous C. secret D. unknown

4.A. watch over B. search through C. hold back D. hand in

5.A. proper B. polite C. simple D. rude

6.A. despairing B. comforting C. disturbing D. exciting

7.A. result B. discovery C. suggestion D. wish

8.A. worried B. satisfied C. pleased D. disappointed

9.A. post B. picture C. article D. news

10.A. need B. big idea C. wonder D. big deal

11.A. urgently B. quickly C. slowly D. badly

12.A. know B. deliver C. share D. say

13.A. prevented B. kept C. copied D. deleted

14.A. promise B. persuade C. show D. ask

15.A. experiment B. lesson C. study D. research

16.A. only B. completely C. recently D. hardly

17.A. display B. create C. manage D. print

18.A. mention B. intention C. question D. imagination

19.A. mindful B. fearful C. skilful D. thoughtful

20.A. matter B. work C. count D. mean

In modern society there is a great deal of argument about competition. Some value it highly, believing that it is responsible for social progress and prosperity (繁荣). Others say that competition is bad; that it sets one person against another; that it leads to unfriendly relationship between people.

I have taught many children who held the belief that their self-worth relied on how well they performed at tennis and other skills. For them, playing well and winning are often life-and-death affairs. In their single-minded pursuit(追求)of success, the development of many other human qualities is sadly forgotten.

However, while some seem to be lost in the desire to succeed, others take an opposite attitude. In a culture which only values the winner and pays no attention to the ordinary players, they strongly blame competition. Among those who are against competition are young people who have suffered under competitive pressures from their parents or society. Teaching these young people, I often observe in them a desire to fail. They seem to seek failure by not trying to win or achieve success. By not trying, they always have an excuse: “I may have lost, but it doesn’t matter because I really didn’t try.” What is not usually admitted by them is the belief that if they had really tried and lost, that would mean a lot.

Such a loss would be a measure of their worth. Clearly, this belief is the same as that of true competitors who try to prove themselves. Both are based on the mistaken belief that one’s self-respect relies on how well one performs in comparison with others. Both are afraid of not being valued. Only as this basic and often troublesome fear begins to disappear can we discover a new meaning in competition.

1.What is the best title of this passage?

A. Competition! Why Friends Turn into Enemies

B. Competition! What Self-respect Depends on

C. New Meaning Found in Competition

D. Two Mistaken Beliefs about Competition

2.Why do some young people suffering from competitive pressures seek failure?

A. Because they are aware that they will not succeed in competition.

B. Because they don’t think it worthwhile to compete with others.

C. Because they are afraid that they would not be valued if they lost.

D. Because they are fed up with the great efforts needed to compete with others.

3.Which of the following will the author probably agree with?

A. One should treat competition as a life-and-death affair.

B. One should make every effort to avoid competition.

C. One should get rid of the fear of failure in competition.

D. One should be given rewards after competing with others.

4.The true competitors and those with a desire to fail both believe ________.

A. one’s self-worth comes from how well he performs in comparison with others

B. one’s dream can be achieved if he has mastered good communication skills

C. one’s failure happens when he is suffering from emotional problems

D. one’s success is based on how hard he has tried

Winter begins in the north on December 22nd. People and animals have been doing what they always do to prepare for the cold months. Squirrels, for example, have been busy gathering nuts from trees. Well, scientists have been busy gathering information about what the squirrels do with the food they collect.

They examined differences between red squirrels and gray squirrels in the American state of Indiana. The scientists wanted to know how these differences could affect the growth of black walnut trees. The black walnut is the nut of choice for both kinds of squirrels. The black walnut tree is also a central part of some hardwood forests.

Rob Swihart of Purdue University did the study with Jake Goheen, a former Purdue student now at the University of New Mexico. The two researchers estimate that several times as many walnuts grow when gathered by gray squirrels as compared to red squirrels. Gray squirrels and red squirrels do not store nuts and seeds in the same way. Gray squirrels bury nuts one at a time in a number of places. But they seldom remember where they buried every nut. So some nuts remain in the ground. Conditions are right for them to develop and grow in the following spring. Red squirrels, however, store large groups of nuts above ground. Professor Swihart calls “death traps for seeds”.

Gray squirrels are native to Indiana. But Professor Swihart says their numbers began to decrease as more forests were cut for agriculture. Red squirrels began to spread through the state during the past century.

The researchers say red squirrels are native to forests that stay green all year, unlike walnut trees. They say the cleaning of forest land for agriculture has helped red squirrels invade Indiana. Jake Goheen calls them a sign of an environmental problem more than a cause.

1.The study done by Rob Swihart and Jake Goheen is to ________.

A. find out the living conditions for squirrels

B. do something to get rid of squirrels

C. learn squirrels’ influence on black walnut trees

D. save the forests in the American state of Indiana

2.The difference between gray squirrels and red squirrels mainly lies in ________.

A. the way they gather the walnut

B. the place they store the walnuts

C. the number of the nuts they can collect

D. the fact that the gray squirrels have a bad memory

3.When Professor Swihart says “death traps for seeds”, he actually means that ________.

A. nuts above the ground will not develop into plants

B. red squirrels eat more nuts than gray squirrels

C. gray squirrels and red squirrels will have severe fights

D. seeds can be traps for other animals in the forest

4.According to the passage, which of the following is true?

A. Gray squirrels do more harm to the forest than red squirrels.

B. Red squirrels and gray squirrels have helped the spread of walnut trees.

C. The cleaning of forest land benefits gray squirrels directly.

D. Human beings should bear some responsibility for the decreasing number of gray squirrels.

阅读下面短文,从短文后各题所给的四个选项(A、B、C和D)中,选出可以填入空白处的最佳选项,并在答题卡上将该项涂黑。

There are no ocean waves in St. Louis. We have to drive a long way to get to the ocean. Every summer we put our stuff and ourselves into the car and drive 1,000 miles to reach Vero Beach, Florida.

Once we get there, it’s all about at the beach. I’ve wanted to be a for a long time. My mom used to surf when she lived in Florida during college. I my mom to let me surf, and she promised to find a surfing for me. He found me instead.

One day when my mom was taking an old surfboard to a surf shop for , a surfer the door open for her and helped her carry the board inside. They started and she learned he’s a surfing . My mom asked him if he had any working with people with disabilities. He did and told her he would love to work with me. That’s how I my friend, Coach Bill Bolton, in 2014.

First Coach Bill taught me the pop-up. I had so much fun surfing with Coach Bill in 2014, I didn’t make it to on the board.

When we went to Florida this summer, I had more surfing with Coach Bill. We worked hard on the sand and in the water. On our third day together we our surfboards out past a sand bar where small waves were . I came close to standing each time, and on the last of the day I got up on my feet and stayed up! I was so ! So was Coach Bill.

We went to the same surfing spot the next day. Guess what! I so many times and rode wave after wave. Coach Bill called me a “surf goddess”. It was one of the days ever! I hope my story you to go surfing or to try something new. I know you can do it.

1.A. fun B. failure C. trial D. sunlight

2.A. swimmer B. rider C. surfer D. player

3.A. reminded B. encouraged C. told D. begged

4.A. fellow B. coach C. adviser D. driver

5.A. exhibition B. money C. repair D. advice

6.A. held B. kept C. let D. made

7.A. greeting B. laughing C. walking D. talking

8.A. student B. lover C. instructor D. guard

9.A. trouble B. interest C. record D. experience

10.A. met B. hired C. thanked D. rewarded

11.A. however B. so C. and D. but

12.A. lying B. floating C. standing D. moving

13.A. lessons B. pleasure C. skills D. tasks

14.A. picked B. took C. removed D. threw

15.A. falling B. breaking C. rising D. floating

16.A. minute B. wave C. try D. part

17.A. happy B. shocked C. joy D. frightened

18.A. fell down B. failed C. acted D. got up

19.A. longest B. greatest C. hardest D. fastest

20.A. inspires B. pushes C. leads D. influences

Summer Rain

The worst days of any summer are the rainy ones. We spend all year looking forward to nice weather and long, hot days. All of winter, with its cloudy days and bitter cold, we dream of those endless days at the beach, lying on the sand and enjoying the bright and burning sun. And then, summer comes, and it rains.

As a child, I would wake up to rainy summer days and come close to crying. It wasn’t fair. We suffered through months of school and experienced bad weather for those short ten weeks of freedom and pleasant weather.

On those rainy summer days, I had nothing fun to do and could only sit inside, staring out at the rain like a bird in a cage. I was an only child, so there was no one else to play with. My father worked from home, so I was not truly alone, but he could not actively play with me since he was at work. It was those days that I would watch whatever was on television or read any books that I could find lying around. I’d drag through the day and pray each night that the rain would not be there the next day.

As an adult, though, my opinion of summer rain has changed. When you have to work every day, summer is not as exciting. Everything seems dull. Such a mindset makes you cheer for anything new or different. I spend the winter dreaming of summer and the summer dreaming of winter. When summer comes, I hate how hot it is. And then I look forward to the rain, because the rain brings with it a cold front, which makes me comfortable. Rainy days are still the worst days of the summer, but summer rain today means positively beautiful — and considerably cooler — weather tomorrow.

1.When the author was a child, he ______.

A. hated rainy days

B. liked staying indoors

C. preferred cooler weather

D. dreamed on summer days

2.We can learn from the passage that the author ______.

A. was often left alone at home

B. had no brothers or sisters

C. preferred reading to playing outside

D. could enjoy the brilliant sun in winter

3.As an adult, the author views summer rain differently because ______.

A. he knows it won’t last long

B. his summer holiday is very short

C. rain makes the weather cooler

D. he can better deal with his holiday

Ever walked to the shops only to find, once there, you’ve completely forgotten what you went for? Or struggled to remember the name of an old friend? For years we’ve accepted that a forgetful brain is as much a part of aging as wrinkles and gray hair. But now a new book suggests that we’ve got it all wrong.

According to The Secret Life of the Grown-up Brain, by science writer Barbara Strauch, when it comes to the important things, our brains actually get better with age. In fact, she argues that some studies have found that our brain hits its peak between our 40s and 60s — much later than previously thought.

Furthermore, rather than losing many brain cells as we age, we keep them, and even produce new ones well into middle age. For years it’s been assumed that brain, much like the body, declines with age. But the longest, largest study into what happens to people as they age suggests otherwise.

This continuing research has followed 6,000 people since 1956, testing them every seven years. It has found that on average, participants performed better on cognitive (认知的) tests in their 40s and 50s than they had done in their 20s. Specifically, older people did better on tests of vocabulary, verbal memory (how many words you can remember) and problem solving. Where they performed less well was number ability and perceptual speed — how fast you can push a button when ordered. However, with more complex tasks such as problem-solving and language, we are at our best at middle age and beyond. In short, researchers are now coming up with scientific proof that we do get wiser with age.

Neuroscientists are also finding that we are happier with aging. A recent US study found older people were much better at controlling and balancing their emotions. It is thought that when we’re younger we need to focus more on the negative aspects of life in order to learn about the possible dangers in the world, but as we get older we’ve learned our lessons and are aware that we have less time left in life: therefore, it becomes more important for us to be happy.

1.Barbara Strauch probably agrees that ______.

A. the young are better at handling important things

B. people’s brains work best between their 40s and 60s

C. aging leads to the decline of the function of the brain

D. wrinkles and gray hair are the only symbols of aging

2.The continuing research has found older people perform better on ______.

A. perceptual speed B. number ability

C. vocabulary tests D. body balance

3.People are happier with aging because ______.

A. they learn to value the time left

B. they know how to share feelings

C. they cannot focus on negative aspects

D. they do not realize the possible dangers

4.What is the main idea of the passage?

A. People get happier with age.

B. People get wiser with age.

C. People get more forgetful with age.

D. People get more self-aware with age.

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