Last summer I was lucky enough to participate in a volunteer adventure to Kenya, in association with Virgin Atlantic’s Be the Change programme and children’s charity, Free the Children. The moment I read the e-mail saying that I had been accepted into Free the Children’s Virgin Atlantic scholarship trip to Kenya, I had no idea how much it was going to change my life. I thought the trip would be a great way to learn about life in one of the most rural areas of Kenya, but I never thought about how deeply I might be affected by this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

When we entered the Masai Mara, the first thing that struck me was how unbelievably beautiful it was. As I looked closer to it, I realized there was something even more beautiful: the people. I have never been to a place where the saying “the people are what make the place” was more true.

The way they wave at you excitedly as you drive past, shouting “Jambo, Jambo!” is something that I have never experienced. They are always smiling and welcoming and it made me realize that, if everyone were to act like this, the world would be a much happier place.

The most amazing thing about the trip was that we weren’t treated like tourists for one second. We were able to experience every little detail. We built foundations, carried ten litres of water…

The one thing I will never forget is visiting Emorijoi Primary School. Let me describe it like this: As soon as you entered into the gate, you would hear someone shouting your name. Then you looked around and realized that it was the same little girl that you were playing football with the last time you visited.

There are literally no words to explain how much I miss Kenya. It feels like there is a piece of string attaching me to everyone that I met there. They will stay with me forever and always be in my heart.

1.When the author was informed she was in the volunteer adventure, .

A. she didn’t think much of it

B. she pretended to be excited

C. she became proud of herself

D. she hoped to learn more about Kenya

2.What made the Masai Mara much more beautiful? _____.

A. The local people B. The scenery

C. The lovely children D. The primary school

3.According to the passage, “Jambo” is actually a way for the local people to_____.

A. say thanks to the visitors

B. praise the beautiful visitors

C. greet the visitors

D. express their happiness

4.Which word can best describe the author’s feeling of the adventure?

A. Calm B. Unexpected

C. Upset D. Threatened

If you walk around any large city, you’ll find a coffee shop on every corner. Many shops offer comfortable sofas, large screen televisions and sometimes even live music. More and more teenagers are hanging out there. My pre-teen has already done so after school once a month, but she always orders fruit juice. I think she would drink coffee sooner or later, so I started doing some research online.

I found that coffee in moderation (適度) could be safe, but one thing that was constant online was the chance of becoming addicted to coffee. Coffee is one step up from soda but still not as dangerous as energy drinks or alcohol. Still, any addiction is hard to break, so I needed to come up with a plan that would protect my child.

Coffee shops offer a safe place for teenagers to hang out. As like anything else you let your children do, you need to set limits. Drinking coffee while socializing once or twice a week won’t cause a severe caffeine addiction. However, you should avoid allowing a cup of coffee every morning and ensure they get adequate sleep each night, which will make them less likely to feel the need to drink coffee.

As parents, we have responsibility to set a good example. If you’re addicted to caffeine, it’s time to start monitoring your intake. If you drink much water and keep healthier drink options in your fridge and at your dinner table, your teenager will follow you. I drink much water and so do both my children. My kids learn more from watching me do things than they will ever learn from my verbal teaching.

As a mother, I’m ready to allow my child to try coffee and we’ll talk about it and discuss the pros and cons of consuming this. I feel open communication is vital in helping them make good decisions. Although the decision to drink coffee doesn’t pose the same dangers as underage drinking, it still deserves a thoughtful conversation.

1.The author began to do research on coffee in order to _____

A. offer some good advice to coffee shops

B. guide her daughter to drink coffee properly

C. stop her daughter hanging out in coffee shops

D. let her daughter believe that fruit juice is healthy

2.According to the passage, if teenagers have enough sleep, they_____

A. won’t ache for coffee that much

B. won’t hang out in coffee shops

C. won’t drink coffee forever

D. will drink water instead of coffee

3.What does the underlined sentence in Paragraph 4 imply?

A. The author’s children don’t like to talk with her.

B. The author thinks a good example functions better.

C. The author is living in harmony with her children.

D. The author doesn’t want her children to learn from her.

4.Which of the following statements agrees with the author’s opinion according to the passage?

A. Teenagers should be stopped from entering coffee shops.

B. Coffee shops should not offer many options to teenagers.

C. Teenagers’ activities in coffee shops should be limited strictly.

D. Parents should not force their children to stop drinking coffee.

Our world is full of tourist traps and crowds of people. What if you could get out ahead of the crowded people and visit a place before it started swarming with crowds of people?

José lgnacio, Uruguay

Only about 300 people actually live here, but in winter, Latin famous stars like Shakira gather here. A new luxury hotel named Bahia Vik is in the process of opening, and JoséIgnacio is preparing to host an international art festival. You can enjoy art atmosphere here and eat steaks at La Huella restaurant.

Koh Rong, Cambodia

Visiting this Cambodian island is like stepping into a screen saver. With only a few houses and some fishing villages, many people say it’s like Thailand 20 years ago when tourists landed the untouched beaches. Ferries started regularly shuttling tourists to Koh Rong only a few years ago, but things are still pretty quiet until someone plans to build an airport.

Riga, Latvia

Latvia is Europe’s best kept secret, but all has changed now since Riga was named the European Capital of Culture in 2014. The city also ranked as Europe’s cheapest destination for backpackers this year, with an average cost of just $33 per day for food, lodging, transportation and entertainment. Hurry up and peruse (研讀) Old Riga and St. Peter’s tower, and get fancy at the Latvian National Opera.

Puglia, Italy

With food travel on the rise, Puglia is becoming a household name. Under the Italian cultural influences, the Mediterranean diet takes one of its purest and most delicious forms: food is locally purchased and restaurants are quaint (精致的) and are of high quality, which have good reputations.

1.The first paragraph is used to .

A. complain about tourist traps

B. introduce the topic of the text

C. warn readers to avoid crowded people

D. show how tired travelers feel after holidays

2.When visiting Koh Rong, you can .

A. take a boat to get there

B. eat steaks at La Huella restaurant

C. find there is a large beautiful airport

D. find it’s as developed as Thailand

3.Which of the following will cost travelers least in Europe?

A. José Ignacio, Uruguay.

B. Koh Rong, Cambodia.

C. Riga, Latvia.

D. Puglia, Italy.

4.What can we know about Puglia?

A. Its diet enjoys wide popularity.

B. Its food price is rising rapidly.

C. It has the most delicious food in Italy.

D. It has a luxury hotel named Bahia Vik.

Every year seals would crowd ashore in Farne Island and give birth to their pups. Between early October and early December, 1,500 seal pups will be born. Almost half of them will not make it past the first three weeks of life.

“The pups have to stay out of the water for the first three weeks, when they have their white coat, which is not very waterproof,” explains the warden (監(jiān)察員)，who spends nine months on the Island.

“But when you’re born in November on a rock in the North Sea, it’s a tough start to life,” he said. Storms often wash young pups into the water. And occasionally, young, inexperienced mothers abandon their pups and head out to sea.

“We lost 41% last year,” said David Steel, the National Trust’s head warden on the Farne Islands. “Mother Nature certainly keeps them in check.”

Despite the early challenges for every newborn seal, the population is healthily and slowly and steadily growing. There are almost 4,000 seals on a set of islands, which is named a Special Area of Conservation(SAC), meaning it is protected under EU regulations. This successful human safeguarding of the seals’ habitat is huge turnaround(轉(zhuǎn)機(jī)).

Just a few decades ago, the seal population was deliberately decimated. The animals used to be thought of as a threat to local fish stocks. During the late 1960s and 1970s, thousands of seals were shot in a cull(剔除)that aimed to protect the local fishing industry. According to the National Trust, between 1962 and 1983 approximately 2,000 adult females and 3,000 pups were shot.

But, as the fishing industry collapsed, it was gradually replaced by tourism. Today, several companies use fishing boats to take groups of people to visit the islands and admire the scenery, seabirds and, of course, the seals that make their homes in this bleakly beautiful place.

1.In the first three weeks after they were born, almost half of the seal pups _______.

A. would be abandoned by their mothers

B. would be protected by the wardens

C. couldn’t live independently

D. would die mostly in the sea water.

2.According to David Steel, death of so many pups________.

A. is a normal and natural phenomenon

B. is mainly caused by farmers’ killing

C. can be prevented efficiently by man

D. will be controlled by Mother Nature

3.The underlined word “decimate” in Paragraph 6 is closest in meaning to ?____?.

A. increase B. kill C. reduce D. control

4.What’s the best title for the passage?

A. The Beautiful Farne Island

B. A Tough Beginning

C. How to Protect Grey Seals

D. Tourism or Fishing Industry

On a clear night, the sky is a wonderful thing. Is there life out there somewhere? Is there another place like Earth where life might exist? If so, where is it? And how far away is it?

Recently, the Kepler spacecraft found “22b”, a planet about six hundred light years away. It is the first planet in a “habitable zone” outside the solar system. That means the planet orbits(環(huán)繞) a star like our sun, but it is not too close to it, nor too far away. Because of this position, Kepler-22b might have water, one of the main things needed for life. The newly-discovered planet is about two and a half times larger than the Earth. It is closer to its star than we are to the Sun, but 22b’s sun is smaller than ours, and doesn?t produce as much heat. Scientific instruments show the new planet could be made of gases, rocks or some kinds of liquids.

The Kepler spacecraft was named in honor of Johannes Kepler, the seventeenth century German astronomer. It was designed to examine a small part of the Milky Way galaxy(星系)and search for places like the Earth. It was made to inspect over 150,000 stars and measure how bright they are. It looks to see if a star’s brightness gets less over a short time.

If a planet passes between Kepler and the star, it blocks out part of the light. That is what suggested to scientists that there is at least one planet orbiting the star. The instruments on Kepler show the new planet as a small, black dot moving across its sun. An important part of the Kepler experiment is on the Earth. After the spacecraft gathers information, scientists use the telescopes on the ground.

Scientists have found over 2,300 new planets since Kepler was launched. Most are much larger, but it is the new planet’s distance from its star that is important. For life to possibly exist there, the planet’s temperature must not be too hot or too cold.

1.What can we learn about Kepler-22b?

A. Water must have existed on it.

B. It takes humans about 600 years to get there.

C. It is made of gases, rocks and plenty of liquids.

D. It is the first planet in outer space where life may survive

2.The Kepler spacecraft was sent into space to

A. show honor to Johannes Kepler

B. observe the changes of a star’s brightness

C. look for Earth-like planets in the Milky Way galaxy

D. measure the brightest star among 150.000 stars

3.In Paragraph 4 the author mainly tells us

A. how the Kepler system works

B. if the Kepler system sees a new planet

C. how the Kepler system shows a new planet

D. why an important part of the Kepler system remains on the Earth

4.What can we infer from the passage?

A. Life may exist on the new planet in another form.

B. It is colder on the new planet because its sun is smaller.

C. Life can’t exist on planets which are much larger than the Earth.

D. The new planet’s distance from its star decides on the possibility of life existence.

閱讀下面短文，根據(jù)所讀內(nèi)容在表格中的空格處填入恰當(dāng)?shù)膯卧~。注意：每個(gè)空格只填一個(gè)單詞。

Woodkopf is a crazy new sport invented in the Czech Republic(捷克共和國(guó)) and it has been gaining quite a lot of national media attention. This popular sport involves a pair of opponents wearing two-meter wooden boards on their heads and trying to knock the other’s board down without dropping their own. Strange as it sounds, a rousing match of Woodkopf can be quite exciting to watch.

This crazy sport can be traced back to July, 1992, when it was practiced during a cultural festival of art school graduates in Prague. Woodkopf, which literally translates as “wooden head”, is popular partly due to the fact that the game is simple, inexpensive and requires no complex equipment, but also because it never fails to supply a good dose of humor.

It is played by both men or women of all ages, and the rules are pretty simple. Both opponents must wear long and thin wooden boards of 200×16×2cm, weighing between 3 and 4kg. Once the boards are in position, the opponents try to knock each other’s boards off, using only plank-to-plank(木板) touches. No body-to-body or plank-to-body touches are allowed. The player who manages to knock down the opponent’s board twice in a row is declared the winner.

According to members of the Woodkopf Union, the best players are generally the taller ones. A bald head is also of great advantage, as pointed out by union chief Ivan Rezac.

Veteran Woodkopf players are now struggling for the sport to be included in the Olympic Games. They strongly believe that it has a great future. Vladimir Cech, who has been playing for the past seven years, said,?We want it to become our national sport, and a part of Czech culture along with beer, pork, dumplings and cabbage.?.

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Opinions vary among students about voluntary work according to the survey.

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To most people, noise pollution is a jet flying over their head. For one Spanish woman, it is a neighbor playing the piano. The woman has taken her neighbor to court. Now she wants to send her neighbor to prison for over seven years on the charges of psychological damage and noise pollution.

In a country known for its noisiness, the case has raised eyebrows. Neighbors often complain about street noise in Spain, but people seeking prison time for someone practicing the piano is unheard of. At the trial, Sonia Bosom says she has been suffering noise pollution up to now due to the practice sessions of Laia Martin, who lives below her. Martin, 27, didn’t admit that she played at home that often, saying she took regular classes in other towns and mostly practiced at home on the weekends.

On the first day of the trial, the newspaper reported that Bosom told the court she now hated pianos so much that she couldn’t even stand seeing them in a film.

Bosom says years of hearing constant playing has caused her “psychological injury”. Medical reports show she has suffered from a variety of problems, including insomnia (失眠), anxiety, and panic attacks.

She says tests by local authorities have found that the sound levels made by the piano are up to 10 decibels (分貝) higher than the limit. City authorities have asked the family several times to either stop the piano playing or soundproof (隔音) the room. The family told the court they carried out soundproofing work twice but the complaints continued.

The court hasn’t made a final decision. A spokeswoman says the trial will end before May.

1.Bosom wants to send Martin to prison because _______.

A. Martin’s playing the piano damaged her health

B. Bosom suffered from heart attack

C. Martin refused to take regular classes in other towns

D. Martin flew a jet over her head

2.How did Laia Martin respond to the complaints?

A. She stopped playing the piano.

B. She soundproofed the room.

C. She didn’t admit she played at home.

D. She took her neighbor to court.

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

A. A 7-year Sentence Caused by the Piano

B. Pianist Charged with Noise Pollution

C. Health Problems of a Spanish Woman

D. Actions Against Noise by Local Authority

CANYOUIMAGINEHOWHARDITWOULDBETOREADSENTENCESLIKETHIS? Every one of us gets so used to punctuation marks that not many of us give them a second thought. Actually, the ancient Greeks wrote this way. The lack of punctuation marks probably didn’t bother good readers, though. As they read, they just put pauses where they fit best. Also at this time, sentences switched directions. A sentence read from left to right. The next one read right to left, and then left to right again, etc. The ancient Romans sometimes punctuated like this: They • put • something • that • can • separate • words • in • a • sentence. The word punctuation actually comes from this idea and the Latin word punctum, which means a dot.

When the 5th century arrived, there were just two punctuation marks: spaces and points. The spaces separated words while the points showed pauses in reading. Then in the 13th century, a printer named Aldus Manutius tried to standardize punctuation. He always used a period for a complete stop at the end of a sentence. He used a slash (/) to indicate a short pause. Over time, that slash was shortened and curled, and it became the modern comma (逗號(hào)).

Since that time, other marks have enlarged the punctuation family. The exclamation mark (感嘆號(hào)) comes from the Latin word io. It means “exclamation of joy.” The question mark originally started out as the Latin word questio, meaning question. Eventually, scholars put it at the end of a sentence to show a question.

Punctuation even keeps changing nowadays. New marks are coming into existence, and old punctuation marks are used in new ways. Take for example the “interrobang”. This 1962 invention combines the question mark and exclamation mark for times when writers want both. For example, “She did what?” or “How much did you pay for that dress?” Obviously, the interrobang is not widely used or recognized yet, but its invention shows that English is not yet finished with its punctuation.

1.From the first paragraph, we can know that _______.

A. good readers had trouble reading without punctuation marks

B. a sentence always read from left to right in ancient Greece

C. ancient Greeks switched the direction of punctuation marks

D. the use of punctuation marks can date back to ancient times

2. The passage is developed _______.

A. by time B. by space

C. by comparison D. by importance

3. We can learn from the passage that _______.

A. ancient Romans didn’t use any punctuation marks

B. exclamation and question marks came from Latin

C. spaces and slashes were already used before the 5th century

D. Aldus Manutius first started to use commas

4. What can be concluded from the last paragraph?

A. The combination of two marks will not work.

B. It takes time for people to accept new punctuation marks.

C. Old punctuation marks need to be standardized.

D. Punctuation marks are still changing today.

－Might I lend your bicycle to Zhou Lan, Jim?

－_______ Anyhow I need to stay at home, helping my sister with her maths.

A. Yes, you might. B. Forget it!

C. What for? D. By all means.