I was hit on my back as I walked down the hall. I turned around angrily, only to discover a lovely cat. His name was Oscar and he was born at the shelter I was visiting. The volunteer let me know that the mother was abandoned by her owner. She and the rest of the litter (幼崽) had been adopted quickly, but Oscar remained.
I could tell he was just what we needed. We were just married, full of love and hope, but we were also facing a few unexpected trials. Just weeks after our wedding, my husband was injured in an accident at work, which not only broke his body but his spirit. Hours of physical treatment led to sleepless nights. I hoped that this little cat would cheer up my husband.
When I brought Oscar home, I asked my husband to shut his eyes and open his hands. I handed him the cat, who reached up and rubbed his paws (爪子) against my husband’s face. It had been months since I saw my husband smile like this, and Oscar himself couldn’t stop purring (发出呼噜声).
Years passed, and our sweet Oscar continued to bring us comfort. He had an ability to know if someone was having an emotional moment; he would always try to help.
One day, I received a phone call from my mother telling me that my father had cancer. I swore to do everything I could to help him. Feeling upset, I took a bath to try to collect my thoughts. Oscar reached up, opened the closed door, and jumped directly into the bathtub with me. Hearing the loud noise, my husband ran into the bathroom to find Oscar all wet just inches from my face. That little guy was all heart.
Fortunately, my father beat cancer and recovered fully. Following his final treatment, he was given two weeks of rest at home. He asked if he and my mother could “babysit” Oscar for those weeks. We were more than happy to share.
On the final day of Oscar’s visit, my father decided to bake cookies for me and my husband to thank us for “lending” him our cat.
“Did you add these paw prints on the cookies?” I asked my dad surprisingly.
Willie' s aunt sent him for a birthday present a little writing book. There was a place in the book for a pencil. Willie thought a great deal of this little book, and always kept it in his pocket.
One day, his mother was very busy, and he called his dog, and said, “Come, Caper, let us have a play." When Willie' s mother missed him, she went to the door and looked out, and could not see him anywhere； but she knew that Caper was with him, and thought they would come back before long. She waited an hour, and still they did not come. When she came to the gate by the road, she met Mr. Lee, Willie's father, and told him how long Willie had been gone. Mr. Lee thought he must have gone to sleep under the trees. So they went to all the trees under which Willie was in the habit of playing, but he was not here to be found. By this time the sun had gone down the news that Willie was lost soon spread over the neighborhood, and all the men and women turned out to hunt. They hunted all night. The next morning the neighbors were gathered round, and all were trying to think what to do next, when Caper came bounding into the room.
There was a string tied round his neck, and a bit of paper tied to it. Mr. Lee, took the paper, and saw that it was a letter from Willie, He read it aloud. It said, "0, father! Come to me. I am in the big hole in the pasture (牧场)."
Everybody ran at once to the far corner of the pasture； and there was Willie, alive and well in the shaft (通风井). Oh, how glad he was when his father caught him in his arms, and lifted him out!
Now I will tell you how Willie came to be in the shaft and the whole story. He and Caper went to the pasture field, and came to the edge of the shaft and sat down. In bending over to see how deep it was, he lost his balance and fell in.
Yours,
Li Hua
The Students’ Union
| A．as | B．like | C．that | D．making |
Snow began to fall across the Apennines Mountain in January and lasted for days. From his home in the suburbs, Matrone watched the weather with concern. He and his wife, Cicioni, had planned an overnight getaway to the hotel halfway up the mountain. But now he wondered whether they should go. After phoning the hotel, they decided to make the trip. When they finally arrived six hours later, they were both cold and exhausted. They checked into their room and went to bed early.
As they awoke the next day, they discovered that their difficulty had worsened overnight. The cars in the parking lot were invisible. The phone and power lines were down. Many people were digging their cars.
With a dozen vehicles freed by noon, the guests set off down the driveway. But when they reached the main road, the path was blocked by a six-foot-high wall of snow. Matrone climbed out of his car and there was no road in sight. “We're trapped! he told his wife. So they had no choice but to make their way back to the hotel.
As it was getting dark, they managed to be back. That was when the snow on the mountain began to slide. They heard the avalanche（雪崩）before they saw it. The avalanche gathered speed and size, grabbing anything in its way down the mountain and tearing the hotel from its foundation. When the avalanche came to a stop, those caught inside the hotel were left buried in the icy rocks and ruins.
When Matrone came to himself, he was stuck in the darkness. ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
It was not until the next morning that the rescuers finally arrived.___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Nuclear bombs. That’s the go to answer for incoming space objects like asteroids (小行星)and comets as far as Hollywood is concerned. Movies like Deep Impact and Armageddon rely on nuclear weapons, delivered by stars like Bruce Willis, to save the world and deliver the drama.
But planetary defense experts say in reality, if astronomers spotted a dangerous in- coming space rock, the safest and best answer might be something more subtle, like simply pushing it off course by crashing it with a small spacecraft.
That’s just what NASA did on Monday evening, when a spacecraft headed straight in- to an asteroid called Dimorphos, which is around 7 million miles away and poses no threat to Earth. It’s about 525 feet across and orbits another larger asteroid.
In images streamed (传输)as the crash neared, the egg-shaped asteroid grew in size from a little spot on screen to have its full rocky surface come quickly into focus before the signal went dead as the craft hit right on target.
Events happened exactly as engineers had planned, they said, with nothing going wrong. “As far as we can tell, our first planetary defense test was a success, ” said Elena Adams, the mission systems engineer, who added that scientists looked on with “both terror and joy” as the spacecraft neared its final destination.
The crash was the peak of NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test ( DART ), a 7-year and more than $300 million effort which launched a space vehicle in November of 2021 to per- form humanity’s first ever test of planetary defense technology. It will be about two months, scientists said, before they will be able to determine if the crash was enough to drive the asteroid slightly off course, probably shortening its original orbit.
NASA plans to launch an asteroid-hunting space telescope named NEO Surveyor in 2026. “We’ve tracked lots of space rocks, especially the larger ones that could cause ex- tinction-level events. Thankfully, none currently threaten Earth. But many asteroids the size of Dimorphos haven’t yet been discovered, and those could potentially take out a city if they came crashing down. ” explains Lindley Johnson, NASA’s Planetary Defense Officer.
1．Why does the author mention the movies?| A．To make a prediction. |
| B．To introduce the topic. |
| C．To provide an evidence. |
| D．To make an advertisement. |
| A．NEO Surveyor has tracked lots of space rocks. |
| B．NASA pushed Dimorphos by crashing. |
| C．Dimorphos could cause extinction-level events. |
| D．Scientists have recorded the whole crash process with a telescope. |
| A．Larger asteroids will not be a threat to Earth. |
| B．Asteroids like Dimorphos are more destructive than other larger ones. |
| C．NEO Surveyor may be expected to discover asteroids the size of Dimorphos. |
| D．NASA should shoulder the responsibility for the crash. |
| A．The impact of planetary defense technology. |
| B．A threat to Earth from asteroids. |
| C．The contribution to space safety. |
| D．A crash with a small spacecraft. |
The next time San Francisco residents stop a taxi, they may step into a car with no one behind the wheel. Driverless taxis are now allowed to come on the city’s streets. On June 2, 2022, Cruise, a division of General Motors (GM), was approved to charge for rides in its self-driving cars, becoming the first company allowed to operate commercial driverless cars in a major US city.
Though Cruise is regarding it as a big win, its self-driving cars aren’t totally free to run on the streets of San Francisco as they please. Cruise vehicles will be limited to transporting passengers in less crowded areas of the city between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m. The speed limit is 30 mph. They are also not allowed to operate in heavy rain or fog. The rules are meant to reduce any injuries or accidents.
Cruise plans to launch the service gradually with a team of just 30 cars. The first robotaxis will be improved versions of GM’s Chevrolet Bolt. However, the company is seeking approval to get its custom-built Cruise Origin on public roads. The driverless electric vehicle has no wheels or pedals (踏板) and can attain highway speeds. The car consists mostly of a siting space, where passengers can face each other.
Cruise’s ability to obtain the commercial permit to operate is a big step forward. However, the company still has to convince passengers that its technology is safe. Many remain concerned about safety. A 2021 survey by the American Automobile Association found that 74 percent of Americans are afraid to ride in a self-driving vehicle.
It remains to be seen how the new driverless taxi experiment will play out in San Francisco. But based on the vast number of companies that are racing to develop self-driving vehicles and the tens of thousands of people on waitlists for robotaxi rides, the Cruise pioneering program is at least set for popularity, if not success.
1．What can we learn about the Cruise’s driverless ride services?| A．The services have turned out to be a great success. |
| B．The services receive great support from the public. |
| C．The services have run in some major cities of the USA. |
| D．The services are limited to some regions of San Francisco. |
| A．The feature of Cruise Origin. |
| B．The future of self-driving cars. |
| C．The original plan of the company. |
| D．The new version of Chevrolet Bolt. |
| A．Doubtful. | B．Opposed. |
| C．Favourable. | D．Unconcerned. |
| A．Cruise Offers Free Self-driving Ride Services |
| B．Self-driving Cars Are Coming to San Francisco |
| C．Self-driving Vehicles Are Popular in Major Cities |
| D．Companies Begin to Charge for Rides in Self-driving Cars |
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