Recently I gave my adult students homework. It was “go to someone you love and tell them you love them.” It has to be someone you have never said those words to before or at least haven’t shared those words with for a long time.
It sounds like very tough homework since most of the men were over 35 and were raised in the generation of men that were taught expressing emotions is not “macho(阳刚之气).” Showing feelings or crying was just not done. So this was very threatening homework for some.
At the beginning of our next class, I asked if someone wanted to share what happened when they told someone they loved them. I fully expected one of the women to volunteer, as was usually the case, but on this evening one of the men raised his hand, quite moved and a bit shaken.
As he unfolded out of his chair (all 1.85 meters of him), he began by saying, “Dennis, I was quite angry with you last week when you gave us this homework. Why did you ask us to do something personal?”
“But as I began driving home my conscience(良心)started telling me that I knew exactly who I needed to say ‘I love you’ to.”
“Five years ago, my father and I had a severe disagreement and really never settled it since then. We avoided seeing each other unless we absolutely had to at Christmas or other family gatherings. But even then, we hardly spoke to each other.”
“So last Tuesday by the time I got home I had convinced myself I was going to tell my father I loved him. It’s strange, but just making that decision seemed to lift a heavy load off my chest.”
1The homework is threatening for some students because _________.
A. they are middle-aged people B. they are not macho enough
C. they were taught to hide their emotions D. they didn’t know how to show feelings
2From the passage we know that _________ .
A. the adult students have classes in the day time only
B. not all the adult students in the writer’s class are male
C. the man refused to meet his father after their quarrel
D. the man quickly decided to say “I love you” to his father
3The underlined phrase “unfolded out of his chair” in Para 4 is closest in meaning to______.
A. stood on his chair straight B. sat quietly in the chair
C. bent himself over his chair D. raised himself slowly from the chair
4What does the man imply by saying the underlined sentence in the last paragraph?
A. He felt it too strange to say “I love you” to his father.
B. He felt relaxed just thinking of saying “I love you” to his father.
C. He felt very relaxed after saying “I love you” to his father.
D. He had to lift a heavy load off his chest before saying “I love you”.
.
Language learning begins with listening. Children are greatly different in the amount of listening they do before they start speaking, and late starters are often long listeners. Most children will "obey" spoken instructions some time before they can speak, though the word obey is hardly accurate as a description of the eager and delighted cooperation usually shown by the child. Before they can speak, many children will also ask questions by gesture and by making questioning noises.
Any attempt to trace the development from the noises babies make to their first spoken words leads to considerable difficulties. It is agreed that they enjoy making noises, and that during the first few months one or two noises sort themselves as particularly indicative of delight, pain, friendliness, and so on. But since these cannot be said to show the baby's intention to communicate, they can hardly be regarded as early forms of language. It is agreed, too, that from about three months they play with sounds for enjoyment, and that by six months they are able to add new words to their store. This self-imitation(模仿) leads on to deliberate（有意的）imitation of sounds made or words spoken to them by other people. The problem then arises as to the point at which one can say that these imitations can be considered as speech.
It is a problem we need to get out teeth into. The meaning of a word depends on what a particular person means by it in a particular situation and it is clear that what a child means by a word will change as he gains more experience of the world. Thus the use at seven months of “mama” as a greeting for his mother cannot be dismissed as a meaningless sound simply because he also uses it at other times for his father, his dog, or anything else he likes. Playful and meaningless imitation of what other people say continues after the child has begun to speak for himself, I doubt, however whether anything is gained when parents take advantage of this ability in an attempt to teach new sounds.
57．Before children start speaking .
A．they need equal amount of listening
B．they need different amounts of listening
C．they are all eager to cooperate with the adults by obeying spoken instructions
D．they can’t understand and obey the adult’s oral instructions
58．Children who start speaking late .
A．may have problems with their listening
B．probably do not hear enough language spoken around them
C．usually pay close attention to what they hear
D．often taken a long time in learning to listen properly
59．A baby’s first noises are .
A．an expression of his moods and feelings
B．an early form of language
C．a sign that he means to tell you something
D．an imitation of the speech of adults
60．The problem of deciding at what point a baby’s imitations can be considered as speech .
A．is important because words have different meanings for different people
B．is not especially important because the changeover takes place gradually
C．is one that should be properly understood because the meaning of words changes with age
D．is one that should be completely ignored(忽略) because children’s use of words is often meaningless
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NOT all memories are sweet. Some people spend all their lives trying to forget bad experiences. Violence and traffic accidents can leave people with terrible physical and emotional scars. Often they relive these experiences in nightmares.
Now American researchers think they are close to developing a pill, which will help people forget bad memories. The pill is designed to be taken immediately after a frightening experience. They hope it might reduce, or possibly erase(抹去) the effect of painful memories.
In November, experts tested a drug on people in the US and France. The drug stops the body releasing chemicals that fix memories in the brain. So far the research has suggested that only the emotional effects of memories may be reduced, not that the memories are erased.
The research has caused a great deal of argument. Some think it is a bad idea, while others support it.
Supporters say it could lead to pills that prevent or treat soldiers’ troubling memories after war. They say that there are many people who suffer from terrible memories.
“Some memories can ruin people’s lives. They come back to you when you don’t want to have them in a daydream or nightmare. They usually come with very painful emotions,” said Roger Pitman, a professor of psychiatryat Harvard Medical School. : “This could relieve a lot of that suffering.”
But those who are against the research say that changing memories is very dangerous because memories give us our identity（特质）. They also help us all avoid the mistakes of the past.
“All of us can think of bad events in our lives that were horrible at the time but make us who we are. I’m not sure we want to wipe those memories out,” said Rebecca Dresser, a medical ethicist
53．The passage is mainly about .
A．a new medical invention
B．a new research on the pill
C．a way of erasing painful memories
D．an argument about the research on the pill
54．The drug tested on people can .
A．cause the brain to fix memories
B．stop people remembering bad experiences
C．prevent body producing certain chemicals
D．wipe out t he emotional effects of memories
55．We can infer from the passage that .
A．people doubt t he effects of the pills
B．the pill will stop people’s bad experiences
C．taking the pill will do harm to people’s health
D．the pill has probably been produced in America
56．Which of the following does Rebecca Dresser agree with?
A．Some memories can ruin people’s lives.
B．People want to get rid of bad memories.
C．Experiencing bad events makes us different from others.
D．The pill will reduce people’s sufferings from bad memories.
.
Have you ever heard of Paynes prairie? It is one of the most important natural and historical areas in Florida. Paynes Prairie is located near Gainesville. It is large, 21,000 acres. This protected land is called a preserve. The Florida Park Service manage the preserve.
The Paynes Prairie basin was formed when limestone dissolved and the ground settled. It is covered by marsh(沼泽)and wet prairie vegetation. There are areas of open water. During brief periods it has flooded enough to be considered a lake. Except for that, the basin has changed little through time.
Man has lived on Paynes Prairie a very long time. He lived there as far back as 10,000 B. C. At one time, the Seminoles lived there. The prairie is thought to have been named after King Payne, a Seminole chief. During the late 1600s, the largest cattle ranch in Florida was on Paynes Prairie. Today, Paynes Prairie is preserved land . It is occupied by visitors and Florida Park Service employees.
Willam Bartram visited Paynes Praire. Bartram was the first person who portrayed (described)nature through personal experience as well as scientific observation. He lived 200 years ago. He visited Paynes Prairie in 1774. At that time he described it. He called Paynes Prairie the "great Alachua Savannah."
Most of the animal life, which Bartram described, is still here. A large number of sandhill cranes, hawks and waterfowl are here in winter. The animal diversity is increased by the presence of pine flatwoods, hammock, swamps and ponds.
The Paynes Prairie Preserve State Park is open year round. The Florida Park Service works hard so that the park will appear as it did in the past. It offers many opportunities for recreation. At the park you can camp and picnic. You can hike and bike. You can boat and fish. You can ride on horse trails. And you can see lots of nature and wildlife. You can see Florida as it was in the early days.
Paynes Prairie is part of our Florida history. It is an example of our Florida natural resources. It is a place for recreation. Paynes Prairie is an important experience of the Real Florida.
49．How was the Paynes Prairie basin formed?
A．By the Seminole Indians.
B．By the Florida Park Service.
C．From dissolved limestone and the ground settling.
D．From lots of flooding and wet prairie vegetation.
50．The underlined word "diversity" means “ .”
A．variety B．societyC．population D．area
51．All of the following are true EXCEPT that __ .
A．Paynes Prairie has changed little through time
B．Paynes Prairie is covered by wet prairie vegetation
C．there used to be a big cattle farm on Paynes Prairie
D．William Bartram was the first person~ to visit Paynes Prairie
52．The purpose of the passage is to .
A．call on people to protect wildlife
B．attract people to this preserved park
C．show you the formation of Paynes Prairie
D．introduce the recorded history of Paynes Prairie
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Robert Owen was born in Wales in 1771. At the age of ten he went to work. His employer had a large private library so Owen was able to educate himself. He read a lot in his spare time and at nineteen he was given the job of superintendent(监工) at a Manchester cotton mill. He was so successful there that he persuaded his employer to buy the New Lanark mill in Scotland.
When he arrived at New Lanark it was a dirty little town with a population of 2,000 people. Nobody paid any attention to the worker’s houses or their children’s education. The conditions in the factories were very bad. There was a lot of crime and the men spent most of their wages on alcoholic drinks.
Owen improved the houses. He encouraged people to be clean and save money. He opened a shop and sold the workers cheap, well-made goods to help them. He limited the sale of alcoholic drinks. Above all, he fixed his mind on the children’s education. In 1816 he opened the first free primary school in Britain.
People came from all over the country to visit Owen’s factory. They saw that the workers were healthier and more efficient than in other towns. Their children were better fed and better educated. Owen tried the same experiment in the United States. He bought some land there in 1825, but the community was too far away. He could not keep it under control and lost most of his money.
Owen never stopped fighting for his ideas. Above all he believed that people are not born good or bad. He was a practical man and his ideas were practical. “If you give people good working conditions,” he thought, “they will work well and, the most important thing of all, if you give them the chance to learn, they will be better people.”
45．For Owen, his greatest achievement in New Lanark was __________.
A．improving worker’s houses
B．helping people to save money
C．preventing men from getting drunk
D．providing the children with a good education
46．From the passage we may infer that Owen was born __________
A．into a rich family B．into a noble family
C．into a poor family D．into a middle class family
47．Owen’s Experiment in the United States failed because .
A．he lost all his money
B．he did not buy enough land
C．people who visited it were not impressed
D．it was too far away for him to organize it properly
48．We may infer form the passage that no children in Britain could enjoy free education until .
A．1771 B．1816 C．1825 D．1860
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第二部分：阅读理解（共25题，第一节每小题2分，第二节每小题1分，满分45分）
第一节：阅读下面短文，掌握其大意，然后从41—60各题所给的四个选项（A、B、C和D）中，选出最佳选项。
Be careful what you say around your dog. It might understand more than you think.
A border collie named Rico recognizes the names of about 200 objects, say researchers in Germany. The dog also appears to be able to learn new words as easily as a 3-year-old child. Its word-learning skills are as good as those of a parrot or chimpanzee（黑猩猩）.
In one experiment, the researchers took all 200 items that Rico is supposed to know and divided them into 20 groups of 10 objects. Then the owner told the dog to go and fetch one of the items and bring it back. In four tests, Rico got 37 out of 40 commands right. As the dog couldn’t see anyone to get clues, the scientists believe Rico must understand the meanings of certain words.
In another experiment, the scientists took one toy that Rico had never seen before and put it in a room with seven toys whose names the dog already knew. The owner then told Rico to fetch the object , using a word the dog had never heard before.
The correct object was chosen in seven out of 10 tests, suggesting that the dog had worked out the answer by process of elimination（排除法）. A month later, Rico remembered half of the new names, which is even more impressive.
Rico is thought to be smarter than the average dog. For one thing, Rico is a border collie, a breed（品种）known for its mental abilities. In addition, the 9-year-old dog has been trained to fetch toys by their names since the age of nine months.
It’s hard to know if all dogs understand at least some of the words we say. Even if they do, they can’t talk back. Still, it wouldn’t hurt to sweet-talk your dog every now and then. You might just get a big, wet kiss in return!
41．From paragraph 2 we know that .
A．animals are as clever as human beings
B．dogs are smarter than parrots and chimpanzees
C．chimpanzees have very good word-learning skills
D．dogs have similar learning abilities as 3-year-old children
42．Both experiments show that .
A．Rico is smart enough to get all commands right
B．Rico can recognize different things including toys
C．Rico has developed the ability of learning mathematics
D．Rico won’t forget the names of objects once recognizing them
43．Which of the following statements is true?
A．The purpose of the experiments is to show the border collie’s mental abilities.
B．Rico has a better memory partly because of its proper early training.
C．The border collie is world-famous for recognizing objects.
D．Rico is born to understand its owner’s commands.
44．What does the writer want to tell us?
A．To train your dog.
B．To command your dog to do something.
C．To be friendly to your dog.
D．To be careful with your dog.