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Post your problems on the blog and get other bloggers’ advice!
| My problem is my parents. They never stop going on about how I should keep my room tidy, keep my hair tidy and wear smart clothes. They even make me do the washing-up after dinner every night! What should I do? Helen, USA |
My best friend has suddenly become an ex-friend and I don’t know why! Last week we phoned each other every day and emailed too. But at school on Monday she didn’t look at me or speak to me. I don’t know what I’ve done. Gimbya, India |
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| Hi, Helen. I think you should do what your parents ask. You should respect them. It’s their house you live in and their money you spend. Emily, New Zealand |
Why do you think you’re the only one with parents like that? All parents are the same. They don’t understand that fashions have changed in the last 30 years! Tom, America{007} |
I feel sorry for you, Gimbya. My best friend did the same to me and I still don’t know the reason. Could you ask another friend to speak to her for you? George, France |
| Helen, why should your parents do all the housework? You should help around the house. I think it’s OK for students to wear school uniforms. Teenagers should look like teenagers. Simon, Scotland |
Don’t worry about it so much! Phone your friend up as usual and she won’t be able to ignore(忽视) you. Everything will be fine. Aisha, Nigeria |
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1. Helen’s problem is about her ______.
A. classmates B. study C. parents D. room
2. ______ has the same problem as Gimbya.
A. George B. Aisha C. Helen D. Ali
3. ______ don’t agree with Helen. They think she should change her idea.
A. Tom and Emily B. Emily and Simon
C. Simon and Tom D. Aisha and George
4. An ex-friend is a person who is ______.
A. gets along well with others
B. quite helpful when you have any problem
C. ready for asking you for help all the time
D. no longer a good friend as before
When you make a mistake, big or small, cherish (珍视) it like it’s the most precious thing in the world, because in some ways, it is.
Most of us feel bad when we make mistakes, beat ourselves up about it, feel like failures, get mad at ourselves.
And that’s only natural. Most of us have been taught from a young age that mistakes are bad, and we should try to avoid mistakes. We’ve been scolded when we make mistakes—at home, school and work. Maybe not always, but probably enough times to make feeling bad about mistakes an unconscious（无意识的）reaction.
Yet without mistakes, we could not learn or grow. If you think about it that way, mistakes should be cherished and celebrated for being one of the most amazing things in the world. They make learning possible; they make growth and improvement possible.
By trial and error—trying things, making mistakes, and learning from those mistakes—we have figured out how to make electric light, to paint the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, to fly.
Mistakes make walking possible for the smallest toddler, make speech possible, and make works of genius possible.
Think about how we learn：We don’t just consume information about something and instantly know it or know how to do it. You don’t just read about painting，or writing，or computer programming，or baking, or playing the piano, and know how to do them right away. Instead, you get information about something, from reading or from another person or from observing usually...then you construct a model in your mind...then you test it out by trying it in the real world...then you make mistakes...then you revise the model based on the results of your real world experimentation...and repeat, making mistakes, learning from those mistakes, until you’ve pretty much learned how to do something. That’s how we learn as babies and toddlers, and how we learn as adults. Mistakes are how we learn to do something new—because if you succeed at something, it’s probably something you already knew how to do. You haven’t really grown much from that success—at most it’s the last step on your journey, not the whole journey. Most of the journey is made up of mistakes, if it’s a good journey.
So if you value learning，if you value growing and improving，then you should value mistakes. They are amazing things that make a world of brilliance possible.Why do most of us feel bad about making mistakes?
| A．Because mistakes make us suffer a lot. |
| B．Because it’s a natural part in our life. |
| C．Because we’ve been taught so from a young age. |
| D．Because mistakes have ruined many people’s careers. |
According to the passage, what is the right attitude to mistakes?
| A．We should try to avoid making mistakes. |
| B．We should owe great inventions mainly to mistakes. |
| C．We should treat mistakes as good chances to learn. |
| D．We should make feeling bad about mistakes an unconscious reaction. |
The underlined word “toddler” in Paragraph 6 probably means ________.
| A．a small child learning to walk |
| B．a kindergarten child learning to draw |
| C．a primary pupil learning to read |
| D．a school teenager learning to write |
We can learn from the passage that ________.
| A．most of us can really grow from success |
| B．growing and improving are based on mistakes |
| C．we learn to make mistakes by trial and error |
| D．we read about something and know how to do it right away |
What is the best title of this passage?
| A．Value Mistakes | B．Mistakes Make Things Possible |
| C．Try to Avoid Mistakes | D．Life is a Journey Full of Mistakes |
The old man walked slowly into the restaurant. With head tilted, and shoulders bent forward he leaned on his trusty stick with each unhurried step. His torn cloth jacket, patched trousers, worn out shoes, and warm personality made him stand out from the usual Saturday morning breakfast crowd. He stopped, turned with his whole body, and winked at a little girl seated by the door. She flashed a big smile right back at him.
A young waitress named Mary watched him walk toward a table by the window. She ran over to him, and said, “Here, Sir. Let me give you a hand with that chair.” She pulled the chair away from the table. Steadying him with one arm, she helped him move in front of the chair, and get comfortably seated. Then she moved the table up close to him, and leaned his stick against the table where he could reach it.
In a soft, clear voice he said, "Thank you, Miss. And bless you for your kind gestures."
“You're welcome, Sir.” She replied. “And my name is Mary. I'll be back in a moment, and if you need anything at all in the mean time, just wave at me!”
After he had finished a hearty meal, Mary brought him the change from his ticket. He left it on the table. She helped him and walked with him to the front door. Holding the door open for him, she said, “Come back and see us, Sir!” He turned and nodded a thank-you. “You are very kind.” he said softly, smiling.
When Mary went to clean his table, she almost fainted. Under his plate she found a business card, and a note scribbled on a napkin. Under the napkin was a one-hundred-dollar bill.
The note on the napkin read, “Dear Mary, I respect you very much, and you respect yourself too. It shows by the way you treat others. You have found the secret of happiness. Your kind gestures will shine through those who meet you.”
The man she had waited on was the owner of the restaurant where she worked. This was the first time that she, or any of his employees had ever seen him in person.The old man left $ 100 under the napkin because he ________．
| A．was grateful for Mary's kindness |
| B．wanted to encourage Mary to do more good deeds |
| C．appreciated Mary's kindness and work attitude |
| D．thought highly of the tasty meal in the restaurant |
What do we know about Mary and the old man?
| A．Mary knew who the old man was from the note． |
| B．Mary recognized the old man when she served him． |
| C．The old man intended to have Mary as his secretary． |
| D．Mary had never seen her boss face to face before． |
It can be inferred that the old man went to the restaurant to ________．
| A．have a good meal | B．enjoy good service |
| C．have an on-site visit | D．show his generosity |
The passage is developed mainly by________．
| A．following the order of space | B．following the order of time |
| C．making comparisons | D．providing examples |
The best title of the passage would be ________．
| A．Employer and Employee | B．The Secret of Happiness |
| C．A Gift from the Manager | D．Good Service in the Restaurant |
Brazil has become one of the developing world’s great successes at reducing population growth, but more by accident than design. While countries such as India have made joint efforts to reduce birth rates, Brazil has had better result without really trying, says George Martine at Harvard.
Brazil’s population growth rate has dropped from 2.99% a year between 1951 and 1960 to 1.93% a year between 1981 and 1990, and Brazilian women now have only 2.7 children on average. Martine says this figure may have fallen still further since 1990, an achievement that makes it the envy of many other Third World countries.
Martine puts it down to, among other things, soap operas (通俗电视连续剧) and installment (分期付款) plans introduced in the 1970s. Both played an important, although indirect, role in lowering the birth rate. Brazil is one of the world’s biggest producers of soap operas. Globo, Brazil’s most popular television network, shows three hours of soaps six nights a week, while three others show at least one hour a night. Most soaps are based on wealthy characters living the high life in big cities.
“Although they have never really tried to work in a message towards the problems of reproduction, they describe middle and upper class values-not many children, different attitudes towards life, women working,” says Martine. “They sent this image to all parts of Brazil and made people aware of other patterns of behavior and other values, which were put into a very attractive package.”According to the passage, Brazil has cut back its population growth _____.
| A．by educating its citizens |
| B．by careful family planning |
| C．by developing TV programmes |
| D．by chance |
What can you infer from the passage about many Third World countries ?
| A．They haven’t attached much importance to birth control. |
| B．They would soon join Brazil in controlling their birth rate. |
| C．They haven’t yet found an effective measure to control their population. |
| D．They neglected the role of TV plays in family planning |
Soap operas have helped in lowering Brazil’s birth rate because ______.
| A．they keep people sitting long hours watching TV |
| B．they have gradually changed people’s way of life |
| C．people are drawn to their attractive package |
| D．they popularize birth control measures |
Will it matter if you don't take your breakfast? Recently a test was given in the United States. Those tested included people of different ages, from 12 to 83. During the experiment, these people were given all kinds of breakfasts, and sometimes they got no breakfast at all. Special tests were set up to see how well their bodies worked when they had eaten a certain kind of breakfast. The results show that if a person eats a proper breakfast, he or she will work with better effect than if he or she has no breakfast. This fact appears to be especially true if a person works with his brains. If a student eats fruit, eggs, bread and milk before going to school, he will learn more quickly and listen with more attention to class.
Opposite to what many people believe, if you don't eat breakfast, you will not lose weight. This is because people become so hungry at noon that they eat too much for lunch, and end up gaining weight instead of losing. You will probably lose more weight if you reduce your other meals.During the test, those who were tested were given ________.
| A．no breakfast at all | B．very rich breakfast |
| C．little food for breakfast | D．different breakfasts or none |
The results of the test show that ________.
| A．breakfast has great effect (影响) on work and studies |
| B．breakfast has little to do with a person’s work |
| C．a person will work better if he has a simple breakfast |
| D．those working with brains should have much for breakfast |
The passage mentions that many people believe that if you don't eat breakfast, you will ____.
| A．lose weight | B．not lose weight | C．be healthier | D．gain a lot of weight |
Which of the following is not true according to the passage?
| A．Poor breakfast affects those who work with brains. |
| B．Morning diet may cause one to get fatter. |
| C．Reducing lunch and supper is of less value in weight losing. |
| D．Eating less in lunch and supper may help to lose weight. |
John keeps a record of new words and expressions in English. He usually writes them in a note-book. Then, later in the day, he asks his teacher about them. “Mrs. Thomas, these expressions are new to me. ‘She’s blue today.’， ‘You’re yellow’, ‘A little white lie’, ‘She has green fingers’.” After looking at the note-book, Mrs. Thomas says, “In everyday English, John，‘blue’ sometimes means sad. ‘Yellow’ means afraid. A person with ‘green fingers’ grows plants successfully. And ‘a white lie’ is not a bad lie.” “I don’t understand. Please give me an example.” “ For example, I offer you some cake. The truth is that you don’t like my cake. You don’t say that. Instead, you say, ‘No, thanks, I'm not hungry.’ That’s a white lie.” John says, “I see , thanks for the explanation!”“Blue” sometimes means in spoken English “_____”.
| A．angry | B．lucky | C．glad | D．unhappy |
A person with “green fingers” is one who _____ planting.
| A．is a new hand in | B．is good at |
| C．works hard at | D．is interested in |
“You’re yellow to fight.” means “_____.”
| A．You dare not fight | B．You dare to fight |
| C．You're afraid to see a fight | D．You’re able to fight |
If you say “It’s a white lie.”, it means that someone _____.
| A．says something unreal and harmful | B．is unfriendly to talk to others |
| C．refuses to tell the truth in a polite way | D．is telling a big lie |