ECOURSE:IntroductiontoAmerican-优题课

Extraordinary Teens
The book will inspire young adults with its tales of teenagers achieving great success. It includes personal stories from many well-known young athletes, businessmen, actors, writers and filmmakers. Every person shares his or her story along with valuable advice that will show you how you can also achieve success. Learn from these people who are walking examples of possibility.
Teens Talk High School
This book is written for high school kids, aged 14-18. Teens in high school have mainly moved past worrying about puberty(青春期), so the stories in this book cover topics of interest to older teens, such as sports and clubs, driving, faming relationships, friends, and preparing for life after high school. High school students will find comfort and inspiration in the words of this book, referring to it through all the four years of their high school experience.
Getting into College
Every year colleges receive a lot of applications, and the application process has become something hard that students and parents experience together. This book isn’t about how to get into college. It’s about providing emotional support. The stories in this book are written by kids who have been there and want to pass on their words of support to others. Parents and students will find this book a great source of inspiration.
Campus Stories
College life can be fun, exciting, and educational in more ways than one. Campus Stores is a book for any current(现在) or future college student who wants to know what really goes on the campus. Campus Stores is about growing up, making choices, learning lessons, and making the best of your last as a student.
The writer’s purpose of writing the book Extraordinary Teens is to _____.

A．help students with study problems

B．persuade teenagers to do volunteering

C．encouraging young people to achieving success

D．teach people how to apply for a college

Which of the following topics does Teen Talk High School cover?

A．Clubs, puberty, friends	B．Driving, sports, family relationships
C．Sports, drinking, growing up	D．Puberty, clubs, family relationships

What does Getting into College mainly talk about?

A．How to form a good habit in college.	B．What the top 10 American colleges are.
C．How to get used to the college life quickly.	D．How to get through the application process.

What do all the four books have in common?

A．They are all written by kids.	B．Teens are likely to be the readers.
C．They are all best-sellers of this year.	D．Both kids and parents enjoy them.

Rome had the forum. London has Speaker’s Corner. Now always-on-the-go New Yorker has Liz and Bill.
Liz and Bill, two college graduates in their early 20s, have spent a whole year trying to have thousands of people talk to them in the subway station and on busy street corners. Just talk.
Using a 2-feet-high sign that says, “Talk to Me,” they attract conversationalists, who one evening included a mental patient, and men in business suits.
They don’t collect money. They don’t push the religion. So what is the point?
“To see what happens,” said Liz. “We simply enjoy life with open conversation（交流）.”
Shortly after the September 11, 2001 attacks, they decided to walk from New York city to Washington, a 270-mile trip. They found they loved talking to people along the way and wanted to talk with the strangers after their return.
“It started as a crazy idea,” Liz said. “We were so curious about all the strangers walking by with their stories. People will talk to us about anything: their jobs, their clothes, their childhood, anything.”
Denise wanted to talk about an exam she was going to take. She had stopped for the second time in two days, to let two listeners know how it went.
Marcia had lost her husband to a serious disease. “That was very heavy on my mind,” Marcia said. “To be able to talk about it to totally strangers was very good,” she explained.
To celebrate a year of talking, the two held a get-together in a city park for all the people they had met in the past year. A few hundred people showed up, as well as some television cameramen and reporters.
They may plan more parties or tried to attract more people to join their informal talks. Some publishers have expressed their interest in the book, something they say they’ll consider.
What did Liz and Bill start doing after September 2001?

A．Chatting with people	B．Setting up street signs
C．Telling stories to strangers	D．Organizing a speaker’s corner

What they have been doing can be described as ______.

A．pointless

B．normal

C．crazy

D．successful

Why are Denise and Marcia mentioned in the text?

A．They knew Liz and Bill very well.

B．They happened to meet the writer of the tex

t.

C．They organized the get-together in the city park.

D．They are example of those who talked to Liz and Bill.

What will Liz and Bill do in the future?

A．Going for publishing.	B．Do more television program.
C．Continuing what they are doing.	D．Spending more time reading books.

Do you know that many clowns go to school to learn how to be funny? How would you like to go to that school? You could learn how to walk and talk like a clown. Then you could make people laugh.
Clowns may go to school for a year. There they learn to move in funny ways. They learn to run and jump like different animals. They also learn how to fall down in a special way. They make sure they don’t get injured. They make every move look easy. But really it’s hard work.
In a school clowns decide how they will look. They make funny pants and tops. Then clowns have their funny long shoes made. They also learn to make up their faces. Clowns carefully put special paint on, so they look silly.
They start by making every part of their feces white. Then they use red paint around their mouths to make them look big. Clowns may paint re spots on each side of their faces, too. Big red noses are added. They put on funny hair or funny hats.
Now they look silly. They are ready to go to work! You can see clowns at the circus or parade. They do funny things to surprise people. Ten big clowns may get out of a very small car. Or they may walk on a high rope. Then they almost fall. The faces they make when they try to stand up again make people laugh.
The word “clown” in this passage refers to ____.

A．a person who tries to make people laugh by th

is funny looks, clothes and tricks and actions

B．a person who copies others in speaking, actions and way of walking

C．a person who gives performances only to make p

eople laugh.

D．a person whose job is very easy to do.

Which of the following is NOT mentioned in the passage?

A．Clowns learn to be funny at school to make people laugh

B．Clowns wear strange pants and tops and funny long shoes.

C．Clowns don’t feel frightened when they walk on a high rope.

D．Clowns put on funny hair and hats and make faces

From the passage, we can learn that clowns play at ____.

A．a parade

B．the circus

C．school

D．both A and B

From the passage, we can infer that _______.

A．there are quite a number of clown schools in the world

B．people laugh when

they watch clowns play at the circus

C．clowns like animals very much so they jump like different animals

D．clowns make people laugh b

ut they seldom laugh

Before going outside in the morning, many of us check a window thermometer(温度计)for the temperature. This helps us decide what to wear.____. We want our food to be a certain coldness in the refrigerator. We want it a certain hotness in the oven. If we don’t feel well, we use a thermometer to see if we have a fever. We keep our rooms a certain warmth in the winter and a certain coolness in the summer.
Not all the thermometers use the same system to measure temperature. We use a system called the Fahrenheit scale. But most other countries use the Centigrade scale.
Both systems use the freezing and boiling points of water as their guide.____.
The most common kind of thermometer is made with mercury(水银)inside a clear glass tube. As mercury (or any other liquid ) becomes hot, it expands. As it gets colder, it contracts(收缩). That is why on hot days the mercury line is high in the glass tube.____.
First. Take a clear glass juice bottle that has a cap ; fill the bottle with coloured water. Tap a hole in the center of the cap using a hammer and thick nail. Put the cap on the jar. Then stick a plastic straw(吸管) through the nail hole.________.
Finally. Place a white card on the outside of the bottle and behind the straw. Now you can see the water lever easily. ________.
As the temperature goes down, the water will contract, and the lever in the straw will come down. Perhaps you will want to keep a record of the water lever in the straw each morning for a week.

A．People use thermometers which are made by themselves when travelling around the world.

B．We use and depend on thermometers to measure the temperature of many other things in our daily lives.

C．Thermometers measure temperature, by using materials that change in the same way when they are heated or cooled.

D．Now that you know this rule you can make a thermometer of your own that will work.

E．The water will rise in the straw. As the temperature of the air goes up, the water will expand and rise even higher.
F．They label these in different ways. On the Fahrenheit scale water freezes at 32 degrees and boils at 212 degrees. On the Celsius scale water freezes at 0 degrees and boils at 100degrees.
G．Take wax (you may use an old candle if you have one) and melt some of it right where the straw is struck into the cap to seal(把..粘住) them together.

They are among the 250, 000 people under the age of 25 who are out of work in the Netherlands, a group that makes up 40 percent of the nation’s unemployed．A storm of anger boils up at the government-sponsored （政府资助的） youth center, even among those who are continuing their studies．
“We study for jobs that don’t exist,” Nicollets Steggerda, 23, said．
After thirty years of prosperity, unemployment among 10 member nations of the European Community has reached as much as 11 percent, affecting a total of 12．3 million people, and the number is climbing．
The bitter disappointment long expressed by British youths is spreading across the Continent．The title of a rock song “No Future” can now be seen written on the brick walls of closed factories in Belgium and France．
One form of protest（抗议） tends to put the responsibility for a country’s economic troubles on the large numbers of “guest workers” from Third World nations, people welcomed in Western Europe in the years of prosperity．
Young Europeans, brought up in an extended period of economic success and general stability, seem to be similar to Americans more than they do their own parents．Material enjoyment has given them a sense of expectation, even the right to a standard of living that they see around them．
“And so we pass the days at the discos, or meet people at the café, and sit and stare,” said Isabella Cault．"There is usually not much conversation．You look for happiness．Sometimes you even find it．”
Unemployment in the Netherlands has affected _______

A．one million people	B．250,000 people
C．1ess than half of the population	D．about 0.6 million people

What Nicollete Steggerda said （Para．2） means that ________．

A．the students cannot get work after graduation

B．what the students learn is more than necessary

C．the students’ aim in study is not clear

D．school education is not sufficient

The underlined word ‘‘it” in the last paragraph most probably refers to ________．

A．material enjoyment	B．a sense of expectation
C．happiness	D．a job