From: terri @ wombat. Com. Au

To: (happylizijun) @ yaboo. com. cn

Subject: My school

Hi, Li Zijun,

Thanks very much for your email. I really enjoyed reading it. I think we have a lot in common. I wonder if our school life is similar too.

I go to a big high school in Sydney called Maylands High School. There are about 1000 students and 80 or so teachers. My class has 25 students in it, which is normal for a Year 11 class. In the junior school there are about 30 students in a class.

In the senior high school we have lots of subjects to choose from, like maths, physics, chemistry, biology, history, German, law, geography, software design, graphic arts and media studies. (Different schools sometime have different optional subjects.) English is a must for everyone and we have to do least three other subjects in Year 11 and 12. At the end of Year 12 we sit for a public exam called the High School Certificate.

As well as school subjects, most of us do other activities at school such as playing a sport, singing in the choir or playing in the school band. We can also belong to clubs, such as the drama club, the chess club and the debating society.

We have a lot of homework to do in senior school to prepare for our exam, so unless I have basketball practice, I usually go straight home and start studying. I arrive home about 4 pm, make myself a snack and work till 6. Then I help the family to make dinner and we all eat together. I’m usually back in my room studying by 8 pm. I stop at about 10 o’clock and watch TV or read a book for half an hour to relax. On Saturdays, I usually go out with my family or with friends and I sleep in till late on Sunday morning. Then it’s back to the books on Sunday afternoon.

How about you? What’s your school life like? Do you have a lot of homework? What do you do to relax when you’re not studying? I’m looking forward to finding out.

Your Australian friend

Terrie

21. How many subjects do the students have to do at least in Year 11 and 12?

   A. 11     B. 3    C. 4    D.  6

22. What does the underlined phrase “sit for” in Para3 mean?

   A. pass     B. take    C. go for    D. hold

23. On Sunday afternoon, Terri usually______.

   A. read books     B. play in the school band

   C. play basketball  D. helps her family to prepare dinner

What is success? I am not going to try to explain success. I think a precise meaning is impossible! Is it winning a Gold Medal at the Olympic Games or winning Wimbledon, or being awarded a Nobel Prize? What else? I believe personal success could be anything at all- it does not have to involve public recognition. Who is more successful? A millionaire who is unhappy, or an unnoticed person, who has led a simple, quiet, sincere and happy life? The simplest definition of success, I think, is “to set out to do something and to succeed in doing it.

The first step on the road to success starts with belief. Believe you can succeed and you will. Achieving success in whatever endeavor(努力)you choose may be the goal of life; because it gives you freedom from worry. Could that be?

Success means different things to every one of us. Some people believe it is measured in financial term; others believe it is helping others rather than helping themselves. However, most people are motivated to a great extend by public recognition. How many people are really happy? How many people are really doing what they want to with their lives? Incidentally, to imagine makes us different from animals.

Most important of all, I believe success is a matter of personal growth. If every day you are developing or growing just a millimeter, I believe one is successful. Just being a slightly better person each day for me is success. I’ve got a very long way to go them!

Finally, always remember success is a process and is not simply a matter of arriving at a destination. It’s the journey that really matters. Success is what you become in the often very difficult and dangerous journey down the river of life.

24. What is personal success according to the author?

   A. Winning public recognition

   B. Being an unhappy millionaire

   C. Something impossible to define simply

   D. Succeeding in doing what you want

25. Which plays an important role in your success?

   A. Intelligence     B Confidence     C. Wealth     D. Kindness

26. According to he text, humans are different from animals in_______.

   A. belief     B. freedom     C. imagination    D. success

27. What can be the best title for the text?

   A. What is success     B. No true success

   C. How to be successful   D. Success is reaching a destination

When US musician Bob Dylan was announced as the winner of this year’s Nobel Prize for literature last month, many people took to social media to suggest that Leonard Cohen was the only other living songwriter who deserved(值得)the honor.

Sadly, on Nov 7, the deep-voiced Canadian artist died at the age of 82.

Many tributes(称赞)were written for Cohen, who had just released his 14th album, You Want It Darker, on Oct 21st. “Leonard Cohen is as important today as he was in the 1960s,” Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on in a statement. “ His ability to describe human emotion made him one of the most influential and lasting musicians ever.”

Cohen’s most famous song, Hallenlujah, in which he compared physical love to a need for spiritual connection, has been recorded hundreds of times by different musician since it was first released in 1984.

And Cohen’s song Bird on a Wire(1969) could be considered a perfect epitaph(墓志铭)that he wrote for himself. As the song’s first line goes, “Like a bird on a wire, like a drunk in midnight choir(合唱团), I have tired in my way to be free.”

“Cohen writes words that explain what it means to be human. I’ve read poetry that has as much beauty as Cohen’s work, but in the world of music, Cohen is a rarity,” US singer Jennifer Warnes told Austin American-Statesman newspaper. ‘He describes things that go on inside a heart and what it feels like to be here.”

Along with his spirituality, Cohen’s dry, deep voice also helped his popularity. In 2006 he spoke with the NPR radio station about how he got his interesting voice—apparently it was “500 tons of whiskey and a million cigarettes.”

But he never forgot to work on the instruments that made up his songs, even though he was most famous for his lyrics (歌词)and voice.

“There is no difference between a poem and a song,” Cohen said in 1969 interview with the New York Times newspaper. “Some were songs first and some were poems first and some were written at the same time. All of my writing has guitars behind it, even the novels.”

“When people talk about Cohen, they fail to mention the melodies(旋律), which to me, along with his lyrics, are his greatest genius,” Bob Dylan told the New York magazine.” They give a lift to every one of his songs. As far a I know, no one comes close to this in modern music.”

28. What do Leonard Cohen and Bob Dylan have in common?

   A. They have both written beautiful lyrics.

   B. They have both achieved outstanding things in literature

   C. They both came from the same country

   D. They were both considered the possible winners of Nobel Prize in literature.

29. People often speak highly of Cohen for many things except for_____.

   A. his voice     B. his melodies     C. his lyrics     D. his influence

30. What can be inferred from the article?

   A. Hallenlujah is the most performed song in the world

   B. Bird on a Wire was written to describe Cohen’s personality

   C. Bob Dylan took inspiration from Cohen’s work

   D. Cohen said his unhealthy habits contributed to his unique voice.

31. Which of the following words best describe Cohen?

   A. Humorous and optimistic     B. Sensitive(敏感的)and moody

   C. Insightful(深刻的)and talented    D. Expressive and rebellious(叛逆的)

Researchers in China and the United States have developed a new cataract(白内障)treatment with cells that has restored vision in babies in a trial and may eventually be used in adults.

The treatment- by doctors and staff members at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine and Sichuan and Sun Yat-sen universities in China-was published in March 9 edition of the scientific journal Nature.

A cataract is a clouding of the normally clear lens(晶体)of an eye. Typical cataract operation involves the removal of the cloudy lens and the insertion of an artificial one. The new operation has been tested in animals and during a small, human trial. It resulted in fewer complications(并发症)than the current harmful operation, and in regrown lenses with superior visual function in all 12 of the baby cataract patients who received the procedure.

A congenital cataract- lens clouding that occurs at birth or shortly after- is important cause of blindness in children. In the new research, Kand Zhang, head of ophthalmic genetics at US San Diego’s Shiley Eye Institute, and his colleagues relied on the regrown potential of endogenous(同源的)stem cells.

According to Zhang, endogenous stem cells are different from other stem cells that are typically grown in a laboratory, transplanted into a patient, and can have risks of immune（免疫的）rejection, infection or cancers. Zhang told CBS News, “We invented a new operation to make a very small opening at the side of a cataractous lens bag, remove the cataract inside, allow the opening to heal, and promote potential lens stem cells to regrow an entirely new lens with vision.”

The human trial involved 12 babies under the age of 2 who were treated with the new method, while 25 babies received thee standard operation care.. The latter group experienced a higher incidence of pos- operation danger, early- onset eye high blood pressure and increased lens clouding. The scientists reported fewer complications and faster healing among the 12 babies who has the new procedure.

32. What is the text mainly about?

   A. The concept of the cataract

   B. A new cataract treatment with stem cells

   C. Bad effects of post-operation in the cataract

   D. The reasons why the cataract comes into being

33. Which of the following best describe the new cataract treatment according to the passage?

   A. Convenient     B. Comfortable    C. Cheap    D. Safe

34. What can we learn about the new cataract treatment?

   A. It has more risks

   B. It may be used widely

   C. It has been put into practice widely

   D. It can only restore vision in babies

35. What does the underlined word “congenital” in the fourth paragraph mean?

   A. Born     B. Strange    C. Serious     D. Dangerous.

People lie all the time, but depending on how skilled they are, it can be difficult to determine when someone is lying to you. Do you know how to recognize the signs that someone is lying to you? Some of the signs are obvious while others are more subliminal(难以察觉的), but there are ways to catch someone in a lie, you just need to know what they are.   36
  1. Liars make false eye contact.

A person who is lying to you won’t make eye contact with you or they make too much eye contact. If a person is lying they may feel you are watching him and he will look down at the floor or away from your eyes. Some people try to stare you in the face deliberately.   37

2.Liars avoid using contractions(缩略形式)

The liar will say “I did NOT notice that.” instead of “I didn’t notice that.”  38  . Usually it ends up making the story a lot less believable.
3.Unnatural Body Language.
   Liars often feel uneasy, turn away from the person to whom they are speaking, blink(眨眼) rapidly, smile less and have pitch changes in their tone of voice. They may cross their arms which is a sign of being “closed” or trying not to reveal too much information.   39   . They could touch parts of their face, an ear or a nose or play with keys or another item that they have in their hand.
   4.Liars provide additional information without being asked for it

  ___40  The result is the more complicated the story is, the less believable it will be. You will have the feeling that nothing could be further from the truth.

A. This is an attempt by the liar to be absolutely clear what they mean.

B. Here are some easy ways to recognize liars and catch lies.

C. Sometimes people look unnatural when they are lying

D. They will get angry if you doubt their story

E. They seem to think that by telling their story in detail, you will find it more believable.

F. They try to change the subject or move the conversation in a different direction

G. In this way they feel like making eye contact will make what they are saying more believable.