It’s not easy growing up. Growing up can be a real “pain” for some of us. We are always doing things that someone else makes us do and aren’t allowed to do all the things we like. Sometimes we feel sad, sometimes we are fearful, and sometimes we just don’t understand why we can’t stay young forever. But we should take a look back on all the hardships (苦难) in life with a positive attitude and learn from them. We should realize that all of our growing pains actually turn into growing gains!
Throughout our lives we are going to face many challenges and pains, but we should never let these obstacles keep us from following our dreams. We must overcome every obstacle one small step at a time.
As a young girl, my parents forced me to do so many things that I didn’t like. They made me learn to play the violin and then the piano. At that time I hated music and I also hated them. But looking back now, I am so glad that my parents encouraged me to take music lessons. Music has enriched (丰富) my life in so many ways. I now realize that my parents and teachers wanted me to have a better life than they did themselves.
We are all going to experience growing pains, but they are just part of our life. Think about how we would feel if we had no challenges and lived a life like that. Life would be really boring and meaningless. The future is ours! A little hard work and sweat never hurt anyone! If we realize that these pains are just small bumps (碰撞) on our road to success, we will realize that our growing pains are actually growing gains!
1. What would be the best title for this passage?
A. No pains, no gains
B. Growing pains and gains
C. Growing up is a pain
D. Growing up is easy
2. The underlined word “obstacles” (in Paragraph 2) refers to things that _____.
A. make it easy for you to do sth
B. make it difficult for you to do sth
C. make you happy
D. make you full of energy
3. What does the author now think about what her parents did for her in the past?
A. She is angry with them.
B. She is dissatisfied with them.
C. She is thankful to them.
D. She couldn’t forgive them.
4. Which of the following is NOT true according to the passage?
A. Growing pains are part of our life.
B. Our growing pains will finally turn into growing gains.
C. We should stop when facing many challenges.
D. Life without challenges is boring and meaningless.
Forest guards in western India are using cell phones with ringtones of cows mooing, goats bleating and roosters crowing to attract leopards that have wandered into human settlements, officials said on Monday.
The wild cats in the state of Gujarat often get into villages near forests in search of food, say officials, adding that this results in attacks on people. But rather than use methods such as live bait(诱惑物) like goats tied to trees to lure the leopards, which then fall into large pits dug by guards, officials say they have found a safer method to trap the cats.
“The moos of a cow, bleating of a goat from the phone has proved effective to trap leopards,” said D. Vasani, a senior forest official in Gujarat. “This trick works.” Vasani said forest guards have downloaded the sounds of over a dozen animals as ringtones on their mobiles which they attach to speakers and fix behind a cage. They then play the ringtone continuously for up to two hours until the curious leopard appears and moves into the cage looking for its easy meal.
At least five leopards have so far been lured from villages since the new ringtone method was introduced three months ago. The cats have all been released back into forest areas.
Wildlife activists welcomed the new initiative saying that previous methods of trapping the cats using pits often resulted in the animals getting injured. What can be the best title of the passage?
| A．Cell Phones to Hunt Animals |
| B．Practical Uses of Cell Phones |
| C．Wildlife and New Technology |
| D．Phone Ringtones to Catch Leopards |
Forest guards in India try to catch leopards mainly because ______.
| A．leopards attack villagers |
| B．they want leopard fur |
| C．leopards attack animals |
| D．they have new ringtones |
What will be needed to trap the leopards using the new method?
① cell phones②animals③ sounds of animals④ cages⑤large pits
| A．①②③④ | B．①③④ | C．①④⑤ | D．②③⑤ |
There are two basic ways to see growth: one as a product, the other as a process. People have generally viewed personal growth as an external (外在的) result or a product that can easily be identified and measured．The worker who gets a rise, the student whose grades improve, the foreigner who learns a new language—all these examples of people who have measurable results to show for their efforts．
By contrast, the process of personal growth is much more difficult to determine, since it is a journey and not the specific signposts or landmarks along the way．The process is not the road itself, but the attitudes, feelings people have , and their caution or courage, as they meet with new experiences and unexpected difficulties．In this process, the journey never really ends；there are always new ways to experience the world, new ideas to try, new challenges to accept．
In order to grow, to travel new roads, people need to have a willingness to take risks, to face the unknown, and to accept the possibility that they may “fail” at first．How we see ourselves as we try a new way of being is necessary for our ability to grow．Do we see ourselves as quick and curious? If so, we tend to take more chances and be more open to unfamiliar experiences．Do we think we’re shy and indecisive? Then our sense of fear can cause us to hesitate, to move slowly, and we think we are slow to adapt change or that we’re not smart enough to deal with a new challenge．Then we are likely to take a more passive role or not try at all．
These feelings of insecurity (不安全) and self-doubt are both unavoidable and necessary if we are to change and grow．If we protect ourselves too much, then we stop growing．We become trapped inside a shell of our own making．In the author’s eye, one who views personal growth as a process would ______．
| A．succeed in climbing up the social ladder |
| B．grow up from his own achievements |
| C．face difficulties and take up challenges |
| D．aim high and reach his goal each time |
Which of the following can be viewed as the process of personal growing?
| A．Our manager was always willing to accept new challenges． |
| B．Jane won the first prize in the speech competition． |
| C．Jerry picked up French during his stay in Paris． |
| D．Father’s salary rose from 5, 000 to 7,000． |
For personal growth, the author is in favor of all the following EXCEPT _______．
| A．being curious about more changes |
| B．being quick in self-adaptation |
| C．having an open mind to new experiences |
| D．staying away from failures and challenges |
Which of the following is NOT true according to the passage?
| A．It is not so easy to measure personal growth |
| B．To try and fail on the new road facing the unknown is unavoidable |
| C．There are only two ways to see a person’s growth |
| D．If you are too shy to take any risks in life, you cannot grow up |
She is widely seen as proof that good looks can last forever. But, at nearly 500 years of age, time is catching up with the Mona Lisa.
The health of the famous picture, painted by Leonardo da Vinci in 1505, is getting worse by the year, according to the Louvre museum(卢浮宫博物馆)where it is housed.
“The thin, wooden panel on which the Mona Lisa is painted in oil has changed shape since experts checked it two years ago,” the museum said. Visitors have noticed the changes but repairing the world’s most famous painting is not easy. Experts are not sure about the materials the Italian artist used and their current chemical state.
Nearly 6 million people go to see the Mona Lisa every year, many attracted by the mystery of her smile. “It is very interesting that when you’re not looking at her, she seems to be smiling, and then you look at her and she stops,” said Professor Margaret Livingstone of Harvard University. “It’s because direct vision(视觉)is excellent at picking up detail, but less suited to looking at shadows. Da Vinci painted the smile in shadows.”
However, the actual history of the Mona Lisa is just as mysterious as the smile. Da Vinci himself loved it so much that he always carried it with him, until it was eventually sold to France’s King Francis I in 1519.
In 1911, the painting was stolen from the Louvre by a former employee, who took it out of the museum hidden under his coat. He said he planned to return it to Italy. The painting was sent back to France two years later.
During World War II, French hid the painting in small towns to keep it out of the hands of German forces.
Like many old ladies, the Mona Lisa has some interesting stories to tell.The underlined sentence in the first paragraph means the Mona Lisa ________.
| A．is losing its value |
| B．is being damaged after so many years |
| C．is getting more valuable with years passing |
| D．will rot away |
Experts haven’t any repairs on the Mona Lisa because______.
| A．it is now in a poor chemical state |
| B．they don’t know how to replace the wooden panel |
| C．they don’t have the materials Da Vinci used |
| D．they are afraid it will be done further damage. |
The smile of the Mona Lisa can only be seen_______.
| A．by indirect vision |
| B．at a distance |
| C．by direct vision |
| D．in shadows |
From the last paragraph, we can infer that______.
| A．many interesting stories have been written about the Mona Lisa |
| B．people are interested in the stories about the Mona Lisa. |
| C．some mysteries still remain to be solved about the Mona Lisa. |
| D．Many more stories will be told about the Mona Lisa. |
Divorces in Japan have more than doubled, according to health ministry statistics. One in three Japanese marriages now ends in divorce.
Atsuko Okano was in one of those failed marriages. Three years ago, she found herself alone in her 30s, with children to raise and a future full of question marks and social shame. But she also saw an opening, and became an advisor helping people like herself.
“My husband was cheating on me,” she recalled. ‘I did everything to bring him back to me but it didn’t work, so I dumped him.” Such frankness is a major characteristic of Japan’s recently divorced.
Divorced people – particularly woman – have long been looked down upon in Japan, where self-sacrifice and family stability are regarded as ideals. In the past, bored housewives remained bored. The security of the family unit was the most important thing. Now, young Japanese are increasingly choosing satisfaction in life over the demands of tradition, and more woman are financially independent. As a result, Japanese divorce rates are flying. Experts attribute this to the erosion of a long-standing double standard that granted divorced men respectability, but branded(gave somebody a bad name) divorced women as damaged goods.
Over the past decade, growing numbers of highly educated and successful professional women have challenged that assumption(something taken for granted) by turning their backs on unhappy marriages and paying no attention to the taboo（禁忌）of divorce. The majority of divorce behavior now is started by women.This passage mainly talks about the fact that nowadays Japanese women _________.
| A．are granted respectability after they get divorced |
| B．are becoming brave enough to challenge the taboo of divorce |
| C．still consider the security of the family unit to be very important |
| D．are becoming more financially independent |
It can be inferred from Paragraph 2 that Atsuko Okano __________.
| A．had some children to raise |
| B．was very confident with her future |
| C．was not greatly respected by Japanese society |
| D．might have found a job to help divorced people |
The underlined word “dumped” in paragraph 3 probably means _________.
| A．looked down upon |
| B．had a quarrel with |
| C．hated |
| D．divorced |
Which of the following is NOT mentioned as the reason for rising rate of Japanese divorces?
| A．Self-sacrifice and family stability are not much appreciated in Japan as before. |
| B．More women can support themselves financially. |
| C．Divorced men and women can quickly find their new partners |
| D．Young Japanese care more about satisfaction in life than their elders did. |
Grown-ups are often surprised by how well they remember something they learned as children but have never practiced ever since. A man who has not had a chance to go swimming for years can still swim as well as ever when he gets back in the water. He can get on a bicycle after many years and still ride away. He can play catch and hit a ball as well as his son. A mother who has not thought about the words for years can teach her daughter the poem that begins "Twinkle, twinkle, little star" or remember the story of Cinderella or Goldilocks and the Three Bears.
One explanation is the law of overlearning, which can be stated as follows: Once we have learned something, additional learning trials increase the length of time we will remember it.
In childhood we usually continue to practice such skills as swimming, bicycle riding, and playing baseball long after we have learned them. We continue to listen to and remind ourselves of words such as "Twinkle, twinkle, little star" and childhood tales such as Cinderella and Goldilocks. We not only learn but overlearn.
The multiplication tables(乘法口诀表)are an exception to the general rule. that we forget rather quickly the things that we learn in school, because they are another of the things we overlearn in childhood. The law of overlearning explains why cramming (突击学习)for an examination, though it may result in a passing grade, is not a satisfactory way to learn a college course. By cramming, a student may learn the subject well enough to get by on the examination, but he is likely soon to forget almost everything he learned. A little overlearning, on the other hand, is really necessary for one's future developmentWhat’s the main idea of Paragraph 1
| A．Children have a better memory than grown-ups. |
| B．People remember well what they learned in childhood. |
| C．Poem reading is a good way to learn words.“ |
| D．Stories for children are easy to remember |
The author explains the law of overlearning by
| A．presenting research findings |
| B．setting down general rules |
| C．using examples |
| D．making a comparison |
According to the author, being able to use multiplication tables is
| A．a result of overlearning |
| B．a special case of cramming |
| C．a skill to deal with math problems |
| D．a basic step towards advanced studies |
What is the author's opinion on cramming?
| A．It leads to failure in college exams. |
| B．It increases students' learning interest. |
| C．It's possible to result in poor memory. |
| D．It's helpful only in a limited way. |