浙江省杭州市2016-2017年英语中考英语模拟试卷（二十六）

    I was 8 years old when I found out my father was ill. It was 1993, but I can remember my mother's words as if it were yesterday. “Jessica, I don't want you to take food from your father, because he has AIDS. Be very careful when you are around him.”

    AIDS wasn't something we talked about in my country when I was growing up. From then on, I knew that this would be a family secret. My parents were not together anymore, and my dad lived alone. For a while, he could take care of himself. But when I was 11, his condition worsened. My father's other children lived far away, so it fell to me to look after him.

    We couldn't afford all the necessary medication for him, and because Dad was unable to work. I had no money for school supplies and often couldn't even buy food for dinner. I would sit in class feeling completely lost, the teacher's words muffled as I was thinking how I was going to manage.

    I didn't share my burden (负担) with anyone. I had seen how people reacted to AIDS. Kids laughed at classmates who had parents with the disease. And even adults could be cruel. When my father was moved to the hospital, the nurses would leave his food on the bedside even though he was too weak to feed himself.

    I had known that he was going to die. But after so many years of keeping his condition a secret, I was completely unprepared when he reached his final days. Sad and hopeless, I called a woman at the nonprofit (非营利的) National AIDS Support. That day, she kept me on the phone for hours. I was so lucky to find someone who cared. She saved my life.

    I was 14 when my father died. He took his secret away with him, having never spoken about AIDS to anyone, even me. He didn't want to call attention to AIDS. I do.

   Do you want to live another 100 years or more? Some experts say that scientific advances will one day enable humans to last tens of years beyond what is now seen as the natural limit of the human life span.

    “I think we are knocking at the door of immortality(永生),” said Michael Zeya, a Montclair State University business professor and author of two books on the future. “I think by 2075 we will see it and that's a conservative estimate(保守的估计).”

    At the conference in San Francisco, Donald Luria, a professor at New Jersey Medical School in Newark said advances in using genes as well as nanotechnology(纳米技术) make it likely that humans will live in the future beyond what has been possible in the past. “There is a great push so that people can live from 120 to 180 years,” he said. “Some have suggested that there is no limit and that people could live to 200 or 300 or 500 years.”

    However, many scientists who study in ageing are doubtful about it and say the human body is just not designed to last past about 120 years. Even with healthier lifestyles and less disease, they say failure of the brain and organs will finally lead all humans to death.

    Scientists also differ on what kind of life the super aged might live. “It remains to be seen if you pass 120, you know; could you be healthy enough to have good quality of life?” said Leonard Pooh, director of the University of Georgia Gerontology Centre. “At present people who could get to that point are not in good health at all.”

    My mother used to say things just to make me mad。 Like most teenagers, I thought I knew everything. And what I didn't know, I didn't want to be told. For example, if I said I was going to a movie, my mother would roll her eyes. On my way out, she'd shout, “You need to slow yourself down before something bad happens! You don't want to learn that the hard way!” I didn't know what that meant. I thought she just wanted me to stay at home.

    Many years later I had three teenagers of my own. They thought they knew everything. I would say the same things to them like my mom. That's when I first saw it. My mother wasn't trying to help me.

    Why do we always have to learn things “the hard way”? Why can't we just accept our elders' wisdom? It's a good lesson for anyone. Clearly, I still haven't learned it.

    Yesterday, I stepped out of the shower when I heard my cell phone ringing in the kitchen. Grabbing a towel, I ran through the house. I grabbed the phone and hit my left foot against the table. The X-ray showed that I'd broken two toes.

    We all need to slow ourselves down once in a while, before something bad does it for us. My mother was right about a lot of things. I wish I could have told her.

      People who remember other people's names enjoy a huge advantage. They may become the most popular person simply by recalling people's names and introducing them to each other.

. Improving your memory, in any field, begins with one simple rule: paying attention. When you want to remember a new person's name, you have to listen when he says it. Forget for a moment what you want to say and simply listen.

Pretend you don't hear the name clearly and repeat it, “You said your name was John.” Or you may say it out loudly when you shake hands. Try to use the name several times in conversation like “What do you think about this, John?” Or “See you, John.”

John Smith. Imagine his name is written on his forehead. This may seem childish（孩子气的）, but the more unusual the picture we see, the better we recall it.

. Look for a special feature of the person, like a long face or big eyes. Next time you meet this familiar person, you will remember his name.

. Imagine the person standing in front of you as a famous person with the same name and you will remember his name. And then you have it, the secret of your amazing memory.

     The whole school was talking about the winter camp. And everyone was looking forward it except me because I thought I would get homesick. But it was the way we grew up.

     When arriving at the camp, we (ask) to ski(滑雪) down to field by the coach. I skied (careful), but I still hit a piece of ice and fell down.

“Ha! Ha!” Behind me, somebody started laughing. I looked back to see was laughing at me. To my surprise, I saw girl in the same embarrassing position I was in. “I thought I'd be bad at this, but it seems (difficult) than I expected!” she said. Suddenly, I started laughing, too. After being so afraid of (fall), it was a comfort not to fear it anymore.

     The next day, I didn't want to go ski jumping, I was chosen to do that first. But when my (foot) left the ground, I felt I was flying and it was wonderful.

     Just do your best (meet) every challenge. You'll never imagine how much you will get.