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Earlier this year I traveled to Turkana in Kenya. I was there to take pictures of the “broken food system”.
As a special visitor, I was greeted with songs and dances. The locals used to sing and dance all the time but now Turkana is silent and has been for some years. No one is singing or dancing any more because they have no food, nothing to celebrate. Many of them are surviving on a little corn a day and water, which they can get just every two days.
I met Tede Lokapelo, a local farmer who described the experience of a six-year drought(干旱). Tede used to have 200 goats, but now he has only seven left. He told me that this drought has taught him a hard lesson: It is too difficult to keep animals. He lives on animals. His traditional way of life has been completely destroyed now. Without the food aid(援助) they got, Tede is certain that they would starve because there are no other ways to feed themselves left.
Sadly, the same can be heard in almost any developing country around the world. Almost one billion people go to bed hungry each night. The food system is broken. In Turkana, not enough rain has fallen since 2005. They measure(测量) rainfall not in days or weeks but in minutes. More and more people are being forced to rely on food aid, but people like Tede don’t want food aid. They want to work and develop their country. It’s our responsibility(责任) to change the situation so that they can support themselves.
Drought is impossible to avoid but famine(饥荒) is manmade, and unless enough money is provided to develop a basic infrastructure(基础设施) for people in the area, thousands more lives are sure to be lost.
1. Why do people in Turkana no longer sing or dance any more?
A. Because they have no time.
B. Because they are tired of them.
C. Because they are always hungry.
D. Because they have other interesting things to do.
2.During the drought Tede had experienced, ______of his goats were killed.
A. 200 B. 193 C. 7 D. 6
3. Which of the following is NOT true about Tede Lokapelo?
A. He was a farmer in Kenya.
B. He has never received any food aid.
C. His traditional way of life ha s been changed.
D. He found it hard to raise animals after the drought.
4.What’s the author’s purpose in writing the text?
A. To show drought is serious in the world.
B. To tell readers the serious situation of food shortage(短缺).
C. To ask more people to give food aid to people in Kenya.
D. To make it clear what is the right way to help people suffering from drought.
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My Way to Success
From the day I signed up for the Naumburg Competition, everything changed. I had made a decision to start again, to save my life, and that meant a 360-degree turnaround.
I kept on practicing. An enormous amount of work had to be done in two months. I went from not practicing at all to thirteen hours a day.
I spent two weeks just playing scales. If I thought I sounded bad before, now I sounded worse than awful.
At the time I lived on 72nd Street, close to West End Avenue. I had an apartment with a window the size of a shoebox. I didn't do mylaundry. I left my apartment only to walk to Juilliard─and not onBroadway like everyone else. I walked up Amsterdam Avenue because I didn't want to see anybody, didn't want to run into anybody, didn't want anyone to ask what I was doing.
I stopped going to classes and became a hermit. I even talked Miss DeLay into giving my lesson at night.
My eating habits were awful. I lived on fried sausages, a pint of peanut butter/chocolate ice cream, and a gallon of Coca-Cola every day. That's all I ate for eight weeks.
I was nuts. I was completely obsessed with getting back into shape, with doing well in this competition. If I could, people would know I was still on earth. Not to count me out; to stop asking, “Whatever happened to Nadja?”
The last week before the Naumburg auditions, I couldn't touch the violin. I had worked and worked and worked and worked and then I just couldn't work anymore.
I certainly could have used it. I wasn't as prepared as I should have been. But I simply had to say, “Nadja, you've dedicated yourself to this thing. Ready or not, do your best.”
Fifty violinists from around the world auditioned for the competition on May 25, 26, and 27, 1981. Those that made it past thepreliminaries would go on to the semifinals. Those that passed that stage would go to the finals. In years past, one violinist was chosen as winner and two received second and third place.
On May 26, the day of my audition, I went to the Merkin Concert Hall at 67th Street and Broadway. I waited, played for twenty minutes, and went home. I couldn't tell whether the preliminary judges were impressed or not. I'd find out the next evening.
Maybe subconsciously I was trying to keep busy; that night, when I fried the sausages, I accidentally set my apartment on fire. I grabbed my cat and my violin, and ran out the door. The fire was put out, but everything in my place was wrecked.
Fortunately, the phone was okay and on the evening of May 27, I had the news from Lucy Rowan Mann of Naumburg. Thirteen of us had made it.
Talk about mixed emotions. I was thrilled to be among the thirteen; a group that included established violinists, some of whom had already made records. But it also meant I had to play the next day in the semifinals of the competition.
Everyone entering the competition had been given two lists of concertos. One was a list of standard repertory pieces. The other list was twentieth-century repertory. For our big competition piece, we were to choose from each list and play a movement from one in the semifinals, and a movement from the other in the finals─if we made it that far.
From the standard repertory list, I chose the Tchaikovsky Concerto. I had been playing the Tchaik for three years, so it was a good piece for me.
From the twentieth-century list, I chose the Prokofiev G minor Concerto. I had never played it onstage before.
My goal had been just passing the auditions, but now my thought pattern began to change. If I wanted a sliver of a chance of advancing again, my brain said, “Play your strong piece first.”
Logically, I should play the Tchaikovsky in the semifinals just to make it to the next stage. Who cared if that left me with a piece I probably wouldn't play as well in the finals of the competition? It'd be a miracle to get that far.
There wouldn't be more than seven violinists chosen for the final round, and if I were in the top seven of an international group, that was plenty good enough.
The semifinals were held on May 28 in Merkin Concert Hall. You were to play for thirty minutes: your big piece first, then the judges would ask to hear another.
There was a panel of eight judges. They had a piece of paper with my choices of the Tchaikovsky and the Prokofiev in front of them. “Which would you like to play?” they asked.
I said meekly, “Prokofiev.”
My brain and all the logic in the world had said, “Play your strong piece.” My heart said, “Go for it all. Play your weak piece now, save Tchaikovsky for the finals.”
Maybe I don't listen to logic so easily after all.
My good friend, the pianist Sandra Rivers, had been chosen as accompanist for the competition. She knew I was nervous. There had been a very short time to prepare; I was sure there'd be memory slips, that I'd blank out in the middle and the judges would throw me out. My hands were like ice.
The first eight measures of the Prokofiev don't have accompaniment. The violin starts the piece alone. So I started playing.
I got through the first movement and Sandra said later my face was as white as snow. She said I was so tense, I was beyond shaking. Just a solid brick.
It was the best I'd ever played it. No memory slips at all. Technically, musically, it was there.
I finished it thinking, “Have I sold my soul for this? Is the devil going to visit me at midnight? How come it went so well?”
I didn't know why, but often I do my best under the worst of circumstances. I don't know if it's guts or a determination not to disappoint people. Who knows what it is, but it came through for me, and I thank God for that.
As the first movement ended, the judges said, “Thank you.” Then they asked for the Carmen Fantasy.
I turned and asked Sandy for an A, to retune, and later she said the blood was just rushing back into my face.
I whispered, “Sandy, I made it. I did it.”
“Yeah,” she whispered back, kiddingly, “too bad you didn't screw up. Maybe next time.”
At that point I didn't care if I did make the finals because I had played the Prokofiev so well. I was so proud of myself for coming through.
I needed a shot in the arm; that afternoon I got evicted. While I was at Merkin, my moped had blown up. For my landlord, that was the last straw.
What good news. I was completely broke and didn't have the next month's rent anyway. The landlord wanted me out that day. I said, “Please, can I have two days. I might get into the finals, can I please go through this first?”
I talked him into it, and got back to my place in time for the phone call. “Congratulations, Nadja,”“they said. “You have made the finals.”
I had achieved the ridiculously unlikely, and I had saved my best piece. Yet part of me was sorry. I wanted it to be over already. In the three days from the preliminaries to the semifinals, I lost eight pounds. I was so tired of the pressure.
There was a fellow who advanced to the finals with me, an old, good friend since Pre-College. Competition against friends is inevitable in music, but I never saw competition push a friendship out the window so quickly. By the day of the finals, I hated him and he hated me. Pressure was that intense.
The finals were held on May 29 at Carnegie Hall and open to the public. I was the fourth violinist of the morning, then there was a lunch break, and three more violinists in the afternoon.
I played my Tchaikovsky, Saint-Sa‘ns’s Havanaise, and Ravel's Tzigane for the judges: managers, famous violinists, teachers, and critics. I went on stage at five past eleven and finished at noon. Those fifty-five minutes seemed like three days.
I was so relieved when I finished playing; I was finished! It's impossible to say how happy I was to see the dressing room. I went out for lunch with my friends. It was like coming back from the grave. We laughed and joked and watched TV.
As I returned to Carnegie Hall to hear the other violinists, I realized I'd made a big mistake: they might ask for recalls. A recall is when they can't decide between two people and they want you to play again. It's been done; it's done all the time in competitions. No way was I in shape to go onstage and play again.
In the late afternoon, the competition was over. Everybody had finished playing. Quite luckily─no recalls.
The judges deliberated for an hour. The tension in the air was unbelievable. All the violinists were sitting with their little circle of friends. I had my few friends around me, but no one was saying much now.
Finally, the Naumburg Foundation president Robert Mann came on stage.
“It's always so difficult to choose ...” he began.
“Every year we hold this competition,” Robert Mann said. “And in the past, we've awarded three prizes. This year we've elected to only have one prize, the first prize.”
My heart sank. Nothing for me. Not even Miss Congeniality.
“We have found,” Mann went on, “that second place usually brings great dismay to the artist because they feel like a loser. We don't want anyone here to feel like a loser. Every finalist will receive five hundred dollars except the winner, who will receive three thousand dollars.”
And then he repeated how difficult it was to choose, how well everyone had played ...dah, dah, dah.
I was looking down at the floor.
“The winner is ...”
And he said my name.
A friend next to me said, “Nadja, I think you won!”
I went numb. My friends pulled me up and pointed me toward the stage. It was a long walk because I had slipped into a seat in the back. Sitting up in front was my old friend. I would have to walk right past him and I was dreading it, but before I could, he got up and stopped me.
He threw his arms around me and I threw my arms around him. I kept telling him how sorry I was. I was holding him and started to cry, saying, “I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry.” I didn't want to lose, but I really didn't want him to lose either. And he was holding me and saying, “Don't be sorry. I'm so proud of you.” It was over, and we would be friends again.
I took my bow, then ran to Juilliard. Ten blocks uptown, one block west, to give Miss DeLay the news. She could be proud of me now, too.
Suddenly, everything was clear. Playing the violin is what I'd do with my life. Heaven handed me a prize: “You've been through a lot, kid. Here's an international competition.”
Everything had changed when I prepared for the Naumburg, and now everything changed again. I made my first recording. Between September 1981 and May 1982, I played a hundred concerts in America, made one trip to Europe, then two months of summer festivals. And people asked me back.
There was a great deal of anxiety playing in Europe for the first time. But I was able to rely on my self-confidence to pull me through.
Self-confidence onstage doesn't mean a lack of nerves backstage. The stakes had increased. This wasn't practice anymore, this was my life. I'd stare into a dressing-room mirror and say, “Nadja, people have bought tickets, hired baby-sitters, you've got to calm down; go out there and prove yourself.”
Every night I'd prove myself again. My life work had truly begun
- 1.
In a gesture to prepare for the competition, Nadja did all the following except _________
- A.preoccupying herself in practice
- B.trying to carry out her deeds secretly
- C.abandoning going to school for classes
- D.consuming the best food to get enough energy
- A.
- 2.
How many violinists does the passage mention advanced to the finals?
- A.Four
- B.Five
- C.Six
- D.Seven
- A.
- 3.
After Nadja finished playing at the finals, she went out for a while and when she came back to hear the other violinists she realized she had made a mistake because _________
- A.she forgot that there was going to be a recall
- B.she didn’t get hold of the permission to leave
- C.chances were that she had to replay and she was off guard
- D.there was another play she had to take part in in the afternoon
- A.
I was growing tired of helping the numerous people who lost their way and parked in front of my house. Almost every night I was 1 during a good night’s sleep to help someone passing through. Many times I was taken for granted by penniless motorists who did not 2 thank me for the help they received and some even 3 that I didn’t do more.
One day, a young man with a-week-old beard 4 out of a broken-down automobile. He had no money and no food. He asked if I could give him some work, 5 him gasoline and a meal. I told him that 6 he wanted to work he could cut the grass, but 7 the work wasn’t necessary.
Though sweaty and hungry, he worked hard. 8 working all day, he sat in the shade and rested. I 9 him for his work and gave him 10 money he needed. I then offered him a little extra money for a task particularly well done, but he 11
I never saw him again. He probably 12 I helped him out that day, 13 that is not the way it was. I didn’t help him; he helped me. He helped me to 14 in people again. He helped me to once 15 want to do something for those who are in 16 . I wish I could thank him for restoring some of my faith in the 17 goodness of others and for giving me back a little of the optimism（乐观） I had 18 . Because of him, I once again felt part of a golden chain of 19 that binds us to others.
I 20 have fed his body that day, but he fed my soul.
1．A．told B．awakened C．warned D．sent
2．A．even B．also C．still D．yet
3．A．insisted B．pretended C．wondered D．complained
4．A．rolled B．escaped C．climbed D．walked
5．A．show B．sell C．offer D．buy
6．A．unless B．if C．though D．as
7．A．lately B．usually C．generally D．actually
8．A．For B．Without C．After D．By
9．A．blamed B．thanked C．charged D．caught
10．A．small B．left C．required D．extra
11．A．forgot B．hated C．escaped D．refused
12．A．thinks B．remembers C．discovers D．knows
13．A．for B．and C．but D．so
14．A．believe in B．take in C．depend on D．wait on
15．A．above all B．at lost C．once again D．in time
16．A．work B．trouble C．danger D．fear
17．A．ill B．strong C．real D．basic
18．A．lost B．gained C．had D．lacked
19．A．excuse B．kindness C．strength D．promise
20．A．must B．shouldn’t C．may D．couldn’t
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第二节完形填空（共20小题；每小题1分，满分20分）
请认真阅读下面短文，从短文后各题所给的A、B、C、D四个选项中，选出最佳选项，并在答题卡上将该项涂黑。
Long long ago, a little boy loved to play around an apple tree. He climbed to the tree, ate the apples, and took a nap under the shadow.... He loved the tree 36 the tree also loved him.
Later, the boy grew up and 37 . The tree was sad. One day, the boy returned and the tree was 38 . “Come and play with me,” the tree said. “I have to work for my family. We need a 39 for shelter. Can you help me?” The boy said. “Cut off my branches to build your house,” the tree said. So the boy cut all the branches 40 the tree and left happily. The tree was glad to see him happy, but the boy never came back. The tree was again 41 and sad.
Once the boy came again. “Come and play with me!” the tree said 42 . “I want to go 43 to relax myself. Can you give me a boat?” The boy said. “Use my 44 to build your boat. You can sail far away and be happy.” The tree said. So the boy cut the tree trunk to make a boat. He went sailing and never showed up for a long time.
Finally, the boy 45 after he left for so many years. “Sorry, my boy, I have nothing for you,” the tree said. “The only thing 46 is my dying roots,” the tree said with tears. “I don’t need much now, just a place to rest. I am tired after all these years.” The boy 47 .
“Good! Old tree root is the best place to sit 48 . Come, sit down with me and rest.” The boy sat down and the tree was glad and 49 with tears.
This is a story about everyone. The tree is our parents. When we are 50 , we love to play with them. When we grow up, we 51 them, and only come to them when we need something or we are in trouble. However, parents will 52 be there and give everything that they could .You may think that the boy is cruel 53 the tree but that’s how all of us are 54 our parents in real life. Shouldn’t we give more 55 to our parents?
36. A. so B. but C. and D. while
37. A. graduated B. left C. cheered D. stayed
38. A. sad B. pleasant C. angry D. excited
39. A. box B. house C. car D. room
40. A. off B. on C. over D. in
41. A. delighted B. satisfied C. alone D. lonely
42. A. coldly B. happily C. surprisingly D. bitterly
43. A. hunting B. camping C. swimming D. sailing
44. A. root B. branches C. trunk D. leaves
45. A. returned B. turned C. disappeared D. approached
46. A. remaining B. to go C. leaving D. left
47. A. shouted B. replied C. requested D. asked
48. A. against B. in C. on D. over
49. A. smiled B. cried C. wept D. cheered
50. A. aged B. young C. adults D. old
51. A. remember B. forget C. leave D. dislike
52. A. seldom B. never C. sometimes D. always
53. A. to B. with C. about D. upon
54. A. curing B. cheating C. loving D. treating
55. A. food B. care C. money D. clothing
第二节 完形填空（共20小题；每小题1分，满分20分）
请认真阅读下面短文，从短文后各题所给的A、B、C、D四个选项中，选出最佳选项，并在答题卡上将该项涂黑。
Long long ago, a little boy loved to play around an apple tree. He climbed to the tree, ate the apples, and took a nap under the shadow.... He loved the tree 36 the tree also loved him.
Later, the boy grew up and 37 . The tree was sad. One day, the boy returned and the tree was 38 . “Come and play with me,” the tree said. “I have to work for my family. We need a 39 for shelter. Can you help me?” The boy said. “Cut off my branches to build your house,” the tree said. So the boy cut all the branches 40 the tree and left happily. The tree was glad to see him happy, but the boy never came back. The tree was again 41 and sad.
Once the boy came again. “Come and play with me!” the tree said 42 . “I want to go 43 to relax myself. Can you give me a boat?” The boy said. “Use my 44 to build your boat. You can sail far away and be happy.” The tree said. So the boy cut the tree trunk to make a boat. He went sailing and never showed up for a long time.
Finally, the boy 45 after he left for so many years. “Sorry, my boy, I have nothing for you,” the tree said. “The only thing 46 is my dying roots,” the tree said with tears. “I don’t need much now, just a place to rest. I am tired after all these years.” The boy 47 .
“Good! Old tree root is the best place to sit 48 . Come, sit down with me and rest.” The boy sat down and the tree was glad and 49 with tears.
This is a story about everyone. The tree is our parents. When we are 50 , we love to play with them. When we grow up, we 51 them, and only come to them when we need something or we are in trouble. However, parents will 52 be there and give everything that they could .You may think that the boy is cruel 53 the tree but that’s how all of us are 54 our parents in real life. Shouldn’t we give more 55 to our parents?
36. A. so B. but C. and D. while
37. A. graduated B. left C. cheered D. stayed
38. A. sad B. pleasant C. angry D. excited
39. A. box B. house C. car D. room
40. A. off B. on C. over D. in
41. A. delighted B. satisfied C. alone D. lonely
42. A. coldly B. happily C. surprisingly D. bitterly
43. A. hunting B. camping C. swimming D. sailing
44. A. root B. branches C. trunk D. leaves
45. A. returned B. turned C. disappeared D. approached
46. A. remaining B. to go C. leaving D. left
47. A. shouted B. replied C. requested D. asked
48. A. against B. in C. on D. over
49. A. smiled B. cried C. wept D. cheered
50. A. aged B. young C. adults D. old
51. A. remember B. forget C. leave D. dislike
52. A. seldom B. never C. sometimes D. always
53. A. to B. with C. about D. upon
54. A. curing B. cheating C. loving D. treating
55. A. food B. care C. money D. clothing
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