A kid hero

“If you could have any three things, what would you want?”

Eleven-year-old Ruby Chitsey loves asking that question, but it's not a game she plays. She asks the seniors (老年人) at nursing homes in Arkansas where she lives. Even more amazing, she then sets out to make their wishes come true.

Ruby has long been close to the elders. Her mother has worked in nursing homes for many years. Ruby often stays with her in summer and asks the seniors if they need anything.

Last May, Ruby noticed an old lady named Pearl staring (凝視) out a window. She seemed sad. “What are you looking at?” Ruby asked. Pearl said she was watching her dog being led away by his new owner. Ruby asked around and discovered that the nursing home didn't allow the seniors to have dogs and Pearl couldn't afford to pay anyone to look after her dog. Ruby also heard many stories about Pearl's friends there and found that they were unable to afford life costs. That was when she decided to do something about it.

She started by asking the seniors what three things they wanted most in the world. Her mother worried that people would ask for cars and other things that an 11-year-old wouldn’t be able to provide. Instead, they asked for chocolate, fries, and even just pants that fit properly.

“I felt really upset,” Ruby says. “We left the nursing home that day and went straight to a store and bought as many things as we could.”

Using their own money, Ruby and her mother helped about 100 people in three months. Then, they started asking for donations (捐款). The good people in Arkansas strongly supported them, so Ruby and her mother set up a GoFundMe page—Three Wishes for Ruby's Residents. After GoFundMe named Ruby a Kid Hero and spread her story internationally, Three Wishes raised more than $ 250, 000 in five months. One of Ruby's new goals is to set up a shared computer in one nursing home in each state.

Ruby doesn't plan to stop there. “I consider kindness to be my hobby,” she says, “and I’m very good at it.”

1.What did Ruby do for the seniors at nursing homes in Arkansas?

A.She offered to look after their dogs.

B.She strongly supported their hobbies.

C.She helped make their wishes come true.

D.She played their favourite games with them.

2.Ruby decided to help the seniors when__________.

A.she started to volunteer at nursing homes

B.her mother asked her for help in summer

C.people named her a Kid Hero on the Internet

D.she learned of the stories of Pearl and her friends

3.According to the passage, which word best describes Ruby?

A.Naughty. B.Humorous. C.Caring. D.Cheerful.

Old habits, especially bad ones, can be hard to break.

People often make fun of New Year's resolutions (決心). However, resolutions present a big opportunity for self-improvement. Fortunately, social science has some ideas about how to start a good habit and stick to it.

Gary Charness and Uri Gneezy, two scientists at the University of Chicago, did some research, where 120 students were asked to take part in an experiment about exercise habits, and each of them would get $175 in the end. The students were randomly assigned (隨機分配) to three groups. The first group got the money for just giving researchers permission (允許) to record their gym attendance. The second group gave permission, but had to go to the gym at least once the next month. The final group gave permission and had to go to the gym eight times that month.

Unsurprisingly, the group that had to make eight gym visits to get paid exercised more than the other two groups. After the payments stopped, these students kept going to the gym at higher rates (頻率). They went to the gym about twice as often as the other two groups.

In another study, researchers invited 151 students to work out in the gym, and randomly assigned 75 to a “temptation-bundling” group. As they exercised, they listened to the start of an attractive audio-novel (有聲小說). At the end of their workout, students were told that if they wanted to hear what happened next in their book, they would have to come back to the gym. They could only listen to the audio-book while exercising. The other 76 students also completed the first workout but without any kind of temptation bundle.

It turned out that the students in the temptation-bundling group visited the gym 27% more often than the control group over the next seven weeks. Sadly, the temptation-bundling trick fell apart over the Thanksgiving holiday when the gym was closed.

The studies show that trying something new quite often for as little as a month can kick-start a lasting change in behavior. Moreover, “temptation-bundling” may also be a useful method for changing behavior, particularly when used together with other methods. Even if you cannot promise yourself to stick with something for long, there is a huge benefit in putting in a lot of energy for a few weeks. It may pay off for longer than you think. So, why not challenge yourself with next New Year's resolution?

1.What can we learn from the two studies?

A.The students got different payments according to their gym attendance.

B.The temptation-bundling group loved audio-novels more than the other group.

C.27% of students in the temptation-bundling group exercised more often than before.

D.The students who exercised more often at first were more likely to keep working out.

2.The third paragraph is mainly about __________.

A.how the research was performed B.what was found in the research

C.why the scientists did the research D.who took part in the research

3.The underlined word “temptation-bundling” in Paragraph 5 probably means __________.

A.forming new habits by trying something you didn't like before

B.connecting something you like with something you have to do

C.improving your workout skills by listening to audio-books

D.pushing yourself by doing two tasks at the same time

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

A.To encourage people to go to the gym more often.

B.To present a new way to do scientific research.

C.To offer advice on how to develop a good habit.

D.To stress the importance of New Year's resolutions.

Taking a gap year after high school is getting more popular among young adults each year. According to the American Gap Year Association (AGA), a gap year is often a year-long break taken between high school and college. AGA stresses that a gap year is a year on, rather than a year off, to oppose the belief that students are taking this time off as a vacation from schooling.

Gap years offer an opportunity for experiential learning. They allow you to leave the classroom and learn new skills and ideas through doing something. You might find yourself in completely new situations that call for special problem-solving skills. Moreover, many students go through twelve years of schooling in the same place with the same group of people. By taking a gap year, they can step out of their comfort zone (區(qū)域) and into an entirely new culture. Just like gaining new experiences on a gap year, they can also meet new people of all different ages and walks of life. Finally, a gap year can also be a great way to get yourself recharged (重新充電). Instead of immediately jumping into the next four years of your education, you can take a break from the classroom and focus on your personal interests and passions. Many top universities encourage accepted students to take a gap year before starting college.

However, before you get too excited about the idea of taking a gap year, you should also know about possible drawbacks. If you take a gap year, you could fall a year behind your peers (同伴). To catch up, you have to come up with a plan to graduate in three years. For the most part, studies show that students who take a gap year find themselves more driven when they arrive at college. However, you might find it difficult to return to an educational environment after taking a year away from the classroom.

There is no set time-line for your education, and going straight from high school to college definitely isn't for everyone. For me personally, I still benefit from my gap year experience traveling in European countries. Cap years can take a number of forms, and they require a good deal of intention and planning. So if you have a will-thought-out plan for taking a gap year, then you should feel confident in your decision. Taking a meaningful gap year could be one of the best life experiences you ever have!

1.According to the passage, by taking a gap year, students can __________.

A.become more popular among their friends

B.catch with their peers at study in college

C.build a stronger relationship between learning and doing

D.realize the importance of staying in their comfortable zone

2.What can we learn from the passage?

A.Students should be encouraged to have a time off for a vacation after high school.

B.Colleges should require students to spend their gap year traveling in Europe.

C.It's better to recharge yourself by going straight from high school to college.

D.A gap year provides students with an opportunity for personal growth.

3.Which of the following would be the best title for the passage?

A.Take a gap year on

B.Gap years: a perfect holiday

C.The risk of taking a gap year

D.How to take a meaningful gap year

What do you say when you pick up the phone?

You say “hello”, of course.

What do you say when someone introduces a friend, a relative, anybody at all?

You say “hello”.

“Hello” has been for a long time considered to be the standard English language greeting since English people began greeting. But is that true?

It may be the most spoken word on the planet and the English word that most people learn first. The word is so familiar to us that it's surprising how new it is: “hello” has only been in use for about the last 200 years of the 1000-year history of English.

The Oxford English Dictionary says the first published use of “hello” goes back only to 1827. But it wasn't mainly a greeting back then. People in the 1830s said “hello” to attract attention (“Hello, what do you think you're doing?”), or to express surprise (“Hello, what do we have here?”).

But the true breakthrough for this now-common word was when it was used in the service of brand-new technology: the telephone. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, it was Thomas Edison who put “hello” into common usage. He asked the people who used his phone to say “hello” when answering—which required people to address an unseen and unknown person. It was simpler and more efficient (高效的) than some other greetings used in the early days of the telephone, such as “Do I get you?” and “Are you there?” However, the actual inventor of the telephone, Alexander Graham Bell, thought that the better word was “ahoy”, which turns out to be much longer—at least 100 years longer—than “hello”. It too, was a greeting from the Dutch (荷蘭語) “hoi” meaning “hello.” For his entire life, Bell insisted on answering the phone with “Ahoy.”

“Hello” obviously caught on, and spread along with the telephone. Had it not been for Edison, our greetings might be very different today. It could be possible that we are still greeting people with “Ahoy” when picking up the phone.

1.How long has “hello” been used in the 1000-year history of the English language?

2.What was the purpose of people saying “hello” in the 1830s?

3.Who put “hello” into common usage?

4.What word did Bell prefer to use when answering the phone?

5.What is the passage mainly about?

題目①

假如你是李華，你們班正在開展“好書伴我成長”的讀書分享活動。活動要求班里的每一位同學做發(fā)言展示，向大家介紹自己最喜歡的一本書。你們班交換生Peter 給你發(fā)郵件詢問相關事情。請用英語回復一封郵件，告訴他展示的時間，并就如何做好展示給予他一些建議。

提示詞語: great, reasons, writer, characters, pictures, confident

提示問題:

When should you do the presentation?

What would you like to share with Peter about preparing the presentation?

Dear Peter,

I'm glad to receive your email.______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ _

If there is anything more that I can help with, please let me know.

Yours,

Li Hua

題目②

某中學生英文報正在開展以“做時間的主人”為主題的征文活動。假如你是李華，請用英語寫一篇短文投稿，談談生活中你是如何合理安排時間的，以及合理安排時間給你帶來的益處。

提示詞語: goal, tasks, plan, organize, cheek, spend, habit, improve, success

提示問題:

•What did you do to manage time well?

•What benefits have you got from doing so?

Time management plays an important role in our life._______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

—Jack,I can’t use the digital camera. Could you help me？

—I’d love to,but I can't,either. Let’s read the ________ first,

A.attention B.instructions C.inventions D.position

If you cut down too many trees, it will ________ our environment.

A.be thankful to B.be harmful to C.be thirsty for D.be responsible for

This organization is set up to offer help and advice to ________ who is interested in becoming an English teacher.

A.something B.anybody C.anything D.nobody

—Are you going to have a picnic in the park this weekend?

—I don’t know. It ________ the weather.

A.sticks to B.depends on C.cleans off' D.deals with