At the middle school level, there are many academic clubs in which students can participate. Students can choose clubs that focus on an area of interest.
Mathcounts Club
Mathcounts tries to increase excitement towards mathematic achievement. It hopes to provide students with the foundation for success in science, technology, engineering and mathematics careers. Schools select individuals and teams to participate in competitions. Local competitions are held in February with winners progressing to state competitions and then on to the national level. Mathcounts works to challenge student math skills, develop self-confidence and give rewards for their achievements.
Envirothon
The Envirothon program focuses on natural resources knowledge and exposes students to diverse environmental issues, ecosystems, and topography. The ecology field competition for five-member middle school teams offers competitions in wildlife, soils, forestry, current environmental issues and aquatics. Students work and learn in middle school clubs and can compete at the local and state level.
Future Problem Solvers
Future Problem Solvers is an academic club that uses a six-step process to solve problems that may happen in the future. Students who are in the talented and gifted program, who like to “think out of the box,” or who enjoy thinking about futuristic problems may like this club. Teams comprised of four students read future scenes and write up solutions in a booklet using the six-step process. Teams that score high enough can go to the state competition and then to the international competition.
Builders Club
Builders Club is open to any middle school student who wishes to perform community service. Each Builders Club is co-sponsored by a Kiwanis club and the middle school. The members learn by doing, and they learn organization, teamwork, and leadership. Builders Clubs can sponsor a "Teacher of the Year" program, provide a recycling collection point, organize canned food and clothing drives to support local shelters, adopt a resident at a local senior citizens home, adopt a highway, tutor, etc.
Middle school academic clubs offer students a place to explore interests or talents. The clubs they join in middle school can help guide choices in high school and beyond.
1．The students who are not interested in competitions woudld like to choose_________.
A．Mathecounts Club B．Builders Club
C．Future Problem Solvers D．Envirothon
2．Why do some of the students choose Mathcounts Club?
A．To be successful in science careers.
B．To enjoy solving future problems.
C．To perform community service.
D．To study wildlife and soils.
3．What is the common feature of the four clubs?
A．Competitions. B．Sponsorship.
C．Scientific researches. D．Teamwork.
4．The passage mainly talks about_________.
A．the state academic competitions B．middle school clubs
C．extra – curricular activities D．the gifted students
Susan Sontag (1933 ------ 2004) was one of the most noticeable figures in the world of literature. For more than 40 years she made it morally necessary to know everything----- to read every book worth reading, to see every movie worth seeing. When she was still in her early 30s, publishing essays in such important magazines as Partisan Review, she appeared as the symbol of American culture life, trying hard to follow every new development in literature, film and art. With great effort and serious judgment, Sontag walked at the latest edges of world culture.
Seriousness was one of Sontag’s lifelong watchwords (格言), but at a time when the barriers between the well-educated and the poorly-educated were obvious, she argued for a true openness to the pleasure of pop culture. In Notes Camp, the 1964 essay that first made her name, she explained what was then a little-known set of difficult understandings, through which she could not have been more famous. Notes on Camp, she wrote, represents “a victory of ‘form’ over ‘content’, ‘beauty’ over ‘morals’”.
By conviction she was a sensualist (感觉论者), but by nature she was a moralist, and in the works she published in the 1970s and 1980s, it was the latter side of her that came forward. In Illness as Metaphor ------published in 1978, after she suffered cancer ------ she argued against the idea that cancer was somehow a special problem of repressed (被压抑的) personalities, a concept that effectively blamed the victim for the disease. In fact, re-examining old positions was her lifelong habit.
In America, her story of a 19th century Polish actress who set up a perfect society in California, won the National Book Award in 2000. But it was as a tireless, all-purpose cultural view that she made her lasting fame.
“Sometimes,” she once said, “I feel that, in the end, all I am really defending… is the idea of seriousness, of true seriousness.” And in the end, she made us take it seriously too.It is implied but not stated in the first paragraph that Sontag _________.
| A．was a symbol of American cultural life |
| B．developed world literature, film and art |
| C．published many essays about world culture |
| D．kept pace with the newest development of world culture |
She first won her name through _________.
| A．publishing essays in magazines like Partisan Review |
| B．her story of a Polish actress |
| C．her explanation of a set of difficult understandings |
| D．her book Illness as Metaphor |
From the works Susan published in the 1970s and 1980s, we can learn that ________.
| A．she was more of a moralist than a sensualist |
| B．she was more of a sensualist than a moralist |
| C．she believed repressed personalities mainly led to illness |
| D．she would like to re-examine old positions |
According to the passage, Susan Sontag would agree to the ideas except _________.
| A．We should try hard to follow every new development in literature, film and art. |
| B．Cancer can be defeated because it is a special problem of repressed personalities. |
| C．‘Form’ should be over ‘content’, ‘beauty’ should be over ‘morals. |
| D．We should defend the idea of seriousness, of true seriousness. |
What is the passage mainly about?
| A．A lifelong watchword: seriousness |
| B．Susan Sontag is the symbol of American culture |
| C．How Susan Sontag became famous |
| D．An introduction to Susan Sontag and her watchword |
At a meeting, a well-known speaker lifted up a bill of 20 dollars before starting his speech.
Facing 200 people, he asked, “Who wants this 20-dollar bill?” A great many hands were put up. Then he continued to say, “I intended to give it to any one of you, but allow me to do a thing before giving it to you.” Suddenly he crumpled （揉）it into a round mass. Then he asked, “Who wants it? ” Still some hands were lifted up.
He asked again, “Well, how could it be if I do it like this?” he threw the bill onto the ground, stepped on it and twisted it. As he picked it up, the bill had become not only dirty but wrinkled.
“Who still wants it?” Still a few people put up their hands.
“My dear friends, you have had a meaningful class. No matter how I treated this bill, you still want it, because it is worth 20 dollars. On your life road, you may be knocked down（击垮） or even broken into pieces by your determination(决心) or unfavorable（不利的） situations. We may feel ourselves worth nothing, but, my darling, remember that whatever happens in the future, you should never lose your value（价值） in the God’s heart. You’re particular ---- never forget it.”The underlined word “wrinkled” in the third paragraph probably means ________.
| A．broken | B．having small lines or folds in it |
| C．flat | D．having holes on it |
The speaker did this test in order to _____________.
| A．tell the audience that one should never lose one’s own value |
| B．tell the audience that God values money most |
| C．test if some of the audience were extremely interested in money |
| D．play a trick on the audience |
What would the speaker probably talk about next?
| A．How money can make people crazy. |
| B．How to avoid being knocked down in one’s life. |
| C．How to keep one’s value of life. |
| D．How to give a meaningful class |
For many parents, raising a teenager is like fighting a long war, but years go by without any clear winner. Like a border conflict between neighboring countries, the parent-teen war is about boundaries: Where is the line between what I control and what you do?
Both sides want peace, but neither feels it has any power to stop the conflict. In part，this is because neither is willing to admit any responsibility for starting it. From the parents’ point of view, the only cause of their fight is their adolescents’ complete unreasonableness. And of course, the teens see it in exactly the same way, except oppositely. Both feel trapped.
In this article, I’ll describe three no-win situations that commonly arise between teens and parents and then suggest some ways out of the trap. The first no-win situation is quarrel on unimportant things. Examples include the color of the teen’s hair, the cleanness of the bedroom, the preferred style of clothing, the child’s failure to eat a good breakfast before school, or his tendency to sleep until noon on the weekends. Second, blaming. The goal of a blaming battle is to make the other admit that his bad attitude is the reason why everything goes wrong. Third, needing to be right. It doesn’t matter what the topic is—politics, the laws of physics, or the proper way to break an egg—the point of these arguments is to prove that you are right and the other person is wrong，for both wish to be considered an authority—someone who actually knows something—and therefore to command respect. Unfortunately, as long as parents and teens continue to assume that they know more than the other, they’ll continue to fight these battles forever and never make any real progress. Why does the author compare the parent teen war to a border conflict?
| A．Both can continue for generations. |
| B．Both are about where to draw the line. |
| C．Neither has any clear winner. |
| D．Neither can be put to an end. |
What does the underlined part in Paragraph 2 mean?
| A．The teens blame their parents for starting the conflict. |
| B．The teens agree with their parents on the cause of the conflict. |
| C．The teens accuse their parents of misleading them. |
| D．The teens tend to have a full understanding of their parents. |
Parents and teens want to be right because they want to__________.
| A．give orders to the other | B．know more than the other |
| C．gain respect from the other | D．get the other to behave properly |
What will the author most probably discuss in the paragraph that follows?
| A．Causes for the parent-teen conflicts |
| B．Examples of the parent-teen war |
| C．Solutions for the parent-teen problems |
| D．Future of the parent-teen relationship |
A man once said how useless it was to put advertisements in the newspapers．“last week, ” said he, “my umbrella was stolen from a London church．As it was a present, I spent twice its worth in advertising, but didn't get it back．”
“How did you write your advertisement?”asked one of the listeners, a merchant．
“Here it is, said the man, taking out of his pocket a slip cut from a newspaper．The other man took it and read, “Lost from the City Church last Sunday evening, a black silk umbrella．The gentleman who finds it will receive ten shillings on leaving it at No．10 Broad Street．”
“Now, ”Said the merchant, “I often advertise, and find that it pays me well．But the way in which an advertisement is expressed is of extreme importance．Let us try for your umbrella again, and if it </PGN0332.TXT/PGN>fails, I'll buy you a new one．”
The merchant then took a slip of paper out of his pocket and wrote：“If the man who was seen to take an umbrella from the City Church last Sunday evening doesn't wish to get into trouble, he will return the umbrella to No．10 Broad Street．He is well known．”
This appeared in the paper, and on the following morning, the man was astonished when he opened the front door．In the doorway lay at least twelve umbrellas of all sizes and colours that had been thrown, and his own was among them．Many of them had notes fastened to them saying that they had been taken by mistake, and begging the loser not to say anything about the matter．The result of the first advertisement was that ______________.
| A．the umbrella was found somewhere near the church |
| B．the man got his umbrella back |
| C．the man wasted some money advertising |
| D．nobody found the missing umbrella |
The merchant suggested that the man should _______________.
| A．buy a new umbrella |
| B．write another and better advertisement |
| C．go on looking for his umbrella |
| D．report the police |
“If it fails, I’ll buy you a new one,” suggested that the merchant
_______________.
| A．wanted to buy him a new umbrella |
| B．didn’t know what to do |
| C．was rich enough to buy one |
| D．was quite sure of success |
The story is mainly about _________________.
| A．a useless advertisement |
| B．how to make an effective advertisement |
| C．what the merchant did for the umbrella owner |
| D．how the man lost and found his umbrella |
Many teenagers feel that the most important people in their lives are their friends. They believe that their family members, especially their parents, don’t know them as well as their friends do. In large families, it is often for brothers and sisters to fight with each other and then they can only go to their friends for advice. It is very important for teenagers to have one good friend or many friends. Even when they are not with their friends, they usually spend a lot of time talking among themselves on the phone. This communication is very important in children’s growing up, because friends can discuss something difficult to say to their family members.
However, parents often try to choose their children’s friends for them. Some parents may even stop their children from meeting their good friends. The question of “choice” is an interesting one. Have you ever thought of the following questions?
Who choose your friends?
Do you choose your friends or your friends choose you?
Have you got a good friend your parent don’t like?When teenagers stay alone, the usual way of communication is to _________.
| A．go to their friends | B．talk with their friends on the phone |
| C．have a discussion with their family | D．talk with their parents |
Which of the following is DIFFERENT in meaning from the sentence “Some parents may even stop their children from meeting their good friends.”?
| A．Some parents may even not allow their children to meet their good friends. |
| B．Some parents may even ask their children to stay away from their good friends. |
| C．Some parents may want their children to stop to meet their good friends. |
| D．Some parents may even not let their children meet their good friends. |
Which of the following sentences is TRUE?
| A．Parents should like everything their children enjoy. |
| B．In all families, children can choose everything they like. |
| C．Teenagers can only go to their friends for help. |
| D．Parents should try their best to understand their children better. |
The main idea of this passage is that ___________.
| A．Friends can give good advice |
| B．Teenagers need friends |
| C．Parents often choose their children’s friends for them |
| D．Good friends can communicate with each other |