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Task 1

It's 3 o'clock and you've been hard at work. As you sit at your desk, a strong desire for chocolate overcomes you. You try to busy yourself to make it go away. But it doesn't. Here is another situation.Perhaps you are not feeling well. The only thing you want to eat is a big bowl of chicken soup, like your mom used to make when you were sick as a child. Food cravings are a strong desire for a specific type of food. And they are normal.

Scientists at the website How Stuff Works compare hunger and cravings this way. Hunger is a fairly simple connection between the stomach and the brain. They even call it “stomach hunger” simply. When our stomachs burn up all of the food we have eaten, a hormone (荷尔蒙) sends a message to one part of the brain for more food, which regulates our most basic body functions such as thirst,hunger and sleep. The brain then produces a chemical to start the appetite and you eat. Hunger is a function of survival.

A craving is more complex. It activates (使活跃) brain areas related to emotion, memory and reward. These are the same areas of the brain activated during drug-craving studies. So, some scientists call food cravings “mind hunger”. People often crave foods that are high in fat and sugar. Foods that are high in fat or high in sugar produce chemicals in the brain. These chemicals give us feelings of pleasure.

In a 2007 study, researchers at the University of Cambridge found that “dieting or restricted eating generally increases the possibility of food cravings”. So, the more you deny yourself a kind of food that you want, the more you may crave it. However, fasting is a bit different. They found that eating no food at all for a short period of time lessens food cravings.

So, next time you crave something very specific, know that your brain may be more to blame than your stomach.

1. What is the function of the first paragraph?

A. To remind readers of their own special food.

B. To deepen the understanding of hunger.

C. To report the discovery of a study.

D. To introduce the topic of the whole text.

2. What can we learn about the food craving?

A. It is linked to feelings. B. It ensures a person survives hunger.

C. It means the stomach functions well. D. It proves the brain decides your appetite.

3. What's the likely result of dieting?

A. The decrease of chemicals. B. The increase of food desire.

C. The refusal of fat and sugar. D. The disappearance of the appetite.

4. What does the text mainly discuss?

A. The functions of brain areas. B. What hunger is all about.

C. The findings of food cravings. D. What dieting may bring us.

Task 2

For so many years, Americans of different classes have worn blue jeans. Since they were invented by Levi Strauss, they have become a symbol of American consumer culture. 1 Strauss' invention continues to be popular not only among Americans but also among people around the world.

Levi Strauss was born in Germany in 1829. 2 He grew up in Kentucky before moving to New York in 1847. Before becoming an American citizen and moving to the West in 1853, Strauss worked in his brother's dry goods business. This gave him a chance to produce his famous invention.After the gold rush of 1849, Strauss decided to move to the West to seek his fortunes.

Strauss did not want to be a person who searched an area for minerals. 3 At first, he planned to sell sewing supplies and cloth. However, he did not get much business for those products.When he heard miners complaining that their clothes were easily broken or they usually tore their pockets during mining, he decided to use a special fabric to make pants for the miners. These pants proved so popular that he quickly ran out of materials to make more.

In 1873, Strauss received a letter from a Jewish tailor named Jacob Davis who had invented a process of connecting pockets with copper rivets (铆钉). This made the pants last a long time. Because Davis did not have the money to patent his idea, he offered to share it with Strauss if Strauss would agree to pay for the patent. 4

By the time Strauss died in 1902, he had made a great contribution to American fashion. 5 The business has been growing ever since and Levi Strauss' company is now one of the largest clothing companies in the world.

A. Nobody knew what kind of material was suitable.

B. Whether they are worn for work or for fashion today.

C. As the business grew, Strauss got much money from it.

D. As a young boy, he moved with his family to the United States.

E. He also made a great contribution to America's clothing industry.

F. He did and Levi jeans have been made with metal rivets ever since.

G. Instead, he knew he could make a good living by selling supplies to the miners.

Task 3

When I say I believe that all children can learn, people sometimes misunderstand.

Because I have been working with poor, minority children in Harlem for the last 25 years, some people think I am saying that if you give a bright kid from a poor family a good 1 support system,he or she can succeed. That's absolutely true, 2 that's not what I mean.

You see I truly believe that all kids can learn. I believe it, I've seen it, and I've even 3 it.Back in 1975, I worked in a summer camp 4 for kids with real problems. They are kids that everyone— 5 their parents—had given up on.

We would 6 with the kids. These children didn't know the difference between baking powder (面粉) and table salt, but 7 they had eaten a warm biscuit out of the oven, they wanted to learn how to make some more.

8 , kids who couldn't sit 9 were carefully looking at ingredients as we measured them out, learning the simple math and spelling lessons we could slip in along the way. By the end of the summer, I remember parents crying when they saw how their children had 10 .

The biscuits, 11 , were delicious, and I can still remember the taste of them today. More importantly, I still remember the lesson they taught me: that if we, the 12 , can find the right 13 for a child, there's hope for their education. That starts with looking hard at each child,finding out what 14 them, and exploiting (利用) that excitement.

When I was growing up poor in the south Bronx, one of four boys 15 by a single mom, I probably looked like I was 16 nowhere, getting into trouble. And I would have 17 dead or in prison, like many of my friends, if it hadn't been for a couple of teachers who 18 my fascination(喜爱) with reading and made sure I had great books to read.

Because of that, I have 19 myself to going into the poorest communities in America and making sure kids like me don't get written 20 .

My first taste of success came way back at that summer camp. It came with a plate of steaming,hot biscuits that tasted so good that they could have brought tears to your eyes.

1. A. cultural B. educational C. emotional D. physical

2. A. but B. and C. so D. for

3. A. trusted B. showed C. tasted D. smelled

4. A. intended B. reserved C. broke D. changed

5. A. as B. even C. still D. always

6. A. cook B. chat C. act D. play

7. A. before B. while C. when D. once

8. A. Suddenly B. Unfortunately C. Gradually D. Constantly

9. A. close B. still C. firm D. hard

10. A. exchanged B. challenged C. improved D. promoted

11. A. for example B. above all C. by the way D. in other words

12. A. adults B. experts C. researchers D. parents

13. A. conclusion B. motivation C. determination D. attention

14. A. amuses B. excites C. upsets D. comforts

15. A. cared B. supported C. protected D. raised

16. A. planning B. relying C. heading D. stopping

17. A. escaped from B. turned into C. led to D. ended up

18. A. explored B. admitted C. spotted D. permitted

19. A. applied B. buried C. absorbed D. persuaded

20. A. down B. on C. in D. off

Task 4

第一节 语法填空

Nita Nicholie thought she'd teach science for only a few years when she 1.________(start) at St.Joseph 32 years ago. “I went into teaching because I love science, but I stayed in teaching because I love the kids,” she says now.

Multiple students who have or have had Nicholie as a teacher wrote to NPR about her. Autumn Roth, 2. ________took honors in physics with Nicholie before heading to college, told us, “On the first day of class she burst into the room 3.________(sing) show-tunes at the top of her lungs. I knew right then that this was going to be a good class.”

Students mentioned that Mrs Nic was known to open her home to students. She and her family 4.________(take) in over 20 students to live with them over the years. “A lot of times they just needed a safe place 5.________(sleep), to have a warm shower in the morning and food before they go to sleep at night,” she says. Nicholie even has 6.________alarm set on her phone to remind her to text some students to make sure they're awake and 7. ________(head) to school. It's all part of connecting 8.________her students—asking them how they're really doing each day when they show up in class.

One project she can't stop talking about: a tutoring class, pairing up upperclassmen with students who need extra academic help. It's one of the most rewarding 9.________(part) of her job. “There's no formula about how to be a great teacher,” Nicholie says. “If I 10.________(true) love what I do,the kids know it.”

第二节 书面表达

假定你是李华，你在书法班结识的英国同学Peter因为在汉语书法大赛中表现欠佳而心情沮丧。 请你给他写一封信表示安慰。 要点如下:

1. 表示理解；

2. 帮其分析原因；

3. 提供帮助。

注意:

1. 词数100左右；

2. 可以适当增加细节，以使行文连贯；

3. 开头和结尾已给出，不计入总词数。

参考词汇:汉语书法Chinese calligraphy

Dear Peter,

Yours,

Li Hua

Task 5

阅读下面短文，根据其内容写一篇60词左右的内容概要。

In places like California, the Rocky Mountains, and the Southern United States, wildfires are an unavoidable reality.

Wildfires can cause damage to property and human life, but they have many beneficial effects on native vegetation (植被), animals, and ecosystems that have evolved with fires. The forests, including pine barrens, lodgepole pine forests and many more, require fires to reproduce because the trees in the forest are adapted to only produce seeds following a major fire event. Therefore, without them many of these forest types would decline.

A fire renews the watershed (分水岭) in ways including, but not limited to, recycling of nutrients, increasing food sources for fish in streams, supplements to stream-side vegetation, spread of fireadapted plants, etc. not to mention renewal of the soil chemistry which is vital to the forest and the watershed. The science backs up how natural wildfires can be favorable through research publication.

It's like “resetting the clock” on the ecosystem, allowing the forest to function smoothly all over again for another 200 years. By the way, a stand burning fire such as the Yellowstone fires of 1988 also results in the landscape of younger forest mends which act to reduce the spread of future wildfires and can stop a major wildfire in its tracks.

The bottom line is that we may need today's natural wildfires to prevent more serious catastrophic fire events in the future. That lesson was learned in Yellowstone in 1988 which was a year of disastrous large-scale fires after more than 50 years of fire suppression (压制).