So much to do, so little time．So much information, so little time to read ．In this age there is more information than ever before．There is not enough time to read everything we want to read．However, you can take in and understand more information in shorter time through speed-reading．This article will not make you read 3 000 words per minute, but it will show you how to increase your speed greatly．You will also learn the basic techniques of speed reading, along with the dos and don'ts of speed-reading．
When you first learned to read, you would say the word out loud and sound it out．Then you might whisper the word because people can become annoyed when you read aloud．The stage you are now at is saying the word in your head．Most people tend to read this way．Saying the word in your head will cut your reading speed tremendou
sly (极大的)．
How do you calculate your reading speed? The speed is measured by how many words per minute you can read．Getsome reading material, preferably a book．Find out
how many words are on the page．Time yourself one minute．Start your timer and start reading．When the timer sounds, stop at once．If you counted 500 words on the page and you read half of the page, then you are probably reading at 250 words per minute．
The first thing about speed-reading is looking at the word and recognizing it．Don't say the word in your mind, just look at it and recognize its appearance．Later you will recognize groups of four words or more to increase your speed．This is the first and most important step in speed-reading．
The next step is technique．As with any other skill, speed-reading requires technique．You should first be sitting up straight with your book on a horizontal (水平的) surface, such as a table or desk．Next, should be able to see the entire page．This is necessary if you want to recognize clumps of words．Lastly, you should be focused．It's hard to read a lot of noise．Find a quiet place to read．This will help your understand of the text．You need something to guide your eyes while reading．Then right, you should use your hand, Remember when you were little, you would read using your finger．That is a great technique, only now you're using your hand to underline each line．Move your finger smoothly across page．No need to go rush , start our slow．Keep your eyes focused on words as you recognize them while using your hand as a guide．This will increase you speed．
The third step is practice．Practice makes perfect．Set time intervals(间歇)．Read using different techniques, but make sure you understand what you're reading．
56. Which of the following statements is true according to the text?
A．Now there is limited information than ever before．
B．Now conditions ask people to use less time to know more information．
C．Now people can read what they like．
D．The less you read, the more time you will spend．
57. What is the subject discussed in the text?
A．What speed-reading is．
B．Why we need speed-reading．
C．Now it is much information time．
D．People should practice speed-reading in different kinds of ways．
58. Which of the following shows the right way for the speed-reading from the text?
a. Ask for some techniques. b. Look at many words and recognize them.
c. Practice more．
A．c, a, b B. c, b, a C．b, a, c D．a, c, b
59. The underlined sentence “you should be focused” in the fifth paragraph means that _________．
A．a person should devote his attention to it while reading
B．your feelings will be hurt while reading
C．a person should smooth away difficulties while he reads
D．you should pay attention to your faults while you are reading
60. To speed up your reading, you should_________．
A．sit up straight with your book flat and use something to guide your eyes
B．say every word out loud and sound it out
C．know it is necessary to read quickly
D．underline some important words while you say them
Some people believe that a Robin Hood is at work, others that a wealthy person simply wants to distribute（分发）his or her fortune before dying. But the donator who started sending envelopes with cash to deserving causes, accompanied by an article from the local paper, has made a northern German city believe in fairytales（童话）.
The first envelope was sent to a victim support group. It contained €10,000 with a cutting from the Braunschweiger Zeitung about how the group supported a woman who was robbed of her handbag; similar plain white anonymous（匿名）envelopes, each containing €10,000, then arrived at a kindergarten and a church.
The envelopes keep coming, and so far at least €190,000 has been distributed. Last month, one of them was sent to the newspaper’s own office. It came after a story it published about Tom, a 14-year-old boy who was severely disabled in a swimming accident. The receptionist at the Braunschweiger Zeitung opened an anonymous white envelope to find 20 notes of €500 inside, with a copy of the article. The name of the family was underlined.
“I was driving when I heard the news,” Claudia Neumann, the boy’s mother, told Der Spiegel magazine. “I had to park on the side of the road; I was speechless.”
The money will be used to make the entrance to their house wheelchair-accessible and for a course of treatment that their insurance company refused to pay for.
“For someone to act so selflessly, for this to happen in such a society in which everyone thinks of himself, was astonishing,” Mrs. Neumann said. Her family wonder whether the donator is a Robin Hood character, taking from banks to give to the needy.
Henning Noske, the editor of the Braunschweiger Zeitung, said: “Maybe it is an old person who is about to die. We just do not know.” However, he has told his reporters not to look for the city’s hero, for fear that discovery may stop the donations. The Braunschweiger Zeitung is name of _____.
| A．a church | B．a bank | C．a magazine | D．a newspaper |
Which of the following is TURE about the donation to Tom?
| A．The donation amounted to €190,000. |
| B．The donation was sent directly to his house. |
| C．His mother felt greatly surprised at the donation. |
| D．All the money will be used for his treatment. |
It can be inferred from the passage that .
| A．the donation will continue to come |
| B．the donator is a rich old man |
| C．the donation comes from the newspaper |
| D．the donator will soon be found out |
What would be the best title for the passage?
| A．Money Is Raised by the Newspaper. |
| B．Unknown Hero Spreads Love in Envelopes. |
| C．Newspaper Distributes Money to the Needy. |
| D．Robin Hood Returns to the city. |
I bent down in the shade under a sixty-foot-tall cactus（仙人掌）, waiting for them to appear. The time was eight thirty in the morning. For seven mornings I had come to the same distant spot in the Sonoran Desert, in southern Arizona. I was here to watch the roadrunner, a small fast-running bird.
I spotted two birds under a bush with red flowers. The roadrunners rushed out from under it. The birds moved rapidly on long skinny legs. Their feathers were brown and black. Their tails were seven inches long. Roadrunners use the tail for balance when running.
That day, the roadrunners performed a courtship（求婚）dance. They ran in wild circles. Suddenly, one stopped and stood still, its round eyes full of light. The second bird took hold of a small stick off the ground and presented it to the first, a gift serving as a symbol of their partnership.
I returned to the spot each day, leaving bits of boiled chicken hoping they would return. Roadrunners eat snakes, lizards, mice, beetles, and spiders. Food is in short supply in the desert, so my offerings were welcome. The pair grew used to me.
Soon after the pair finished building their nest six white eggs appeared in the nest bowl. In about three weeks, six roadrunner chicks, skin as black as coal, cried for food. Their parents brought food such as fence lizards and stink bugs. They fed their young until they were a month and a half old.
Early one morning, a coyote（丛林狼）came around, nose to the ground, for fresh bird meat. The roadrunners fearlessly drove the coyote away, but it was soon back. After three attacks the coyote went away for good, tail between its legs.
I stopped watching the nest when the little roadrunners, at two months of age, were ready to live on their own. It was hard to break away from “my roadrunner family.” Whenever I see a roadrunner now, rushing over the ground, I say hello to it as an old friend.The author went to the Sonoran Desert to .
| A．go on a tour of the desert |
| B．carry out research into some animals in the desert |
| C．make an observation about a kind of bird |
| D．enjoy an adventure in southern Arizona |
What can we learn about roadrunners from the text?
| A．They have short tails and legs. |
| B．They move at a fast pace. |
| C．Their feathers are red and brown. |
| D．They don’t like boiled chicken. |
We can learn from the last but one paragraph that the roadrunners were .
| A．brave | B．clever | C．easily-frightened | D．lazy |
Which of the following would be the best title for the text?
| A．How do roadrunners seek a partner? |
| B．My close friendship with roadrunners. |
| C．Roadrunner family in the Sonoran Desert. |
| D．How did I find roadrunners in Arizona? |
Einstein was the greatest scientist of his age. But he was almost as strange as his Theory of Relativity.
Once, while riding a street car in Berlin, he told the conductor that he had been given too much change. The conductor counted the change again and found it to be correct, so he handed it back to Einstein, saying “The trouble with you is you don’t know your figures.”
He had nothing and thought little of the things most people set their hearts on— fame and money. He didn’t want money or praise. He made his own happiness out of such simple things as his work and playing the violin and sailing his boat. Einstein’s violin brought him more joy than anything else in life.
He led a very simple sort of life, went around in old clothes that needed pressing, seldom wore a hat, He shaved （刮胡子）with the same soap that he used for his bath. The man who was trying to solve the most difficult problems of the universe said that using two kinds of soap made his life completely too complicated（复杂的）. From the second paragraph we know Einstein _____.
| A．wasn’t good at maths |
| B．enjoyed playing jokes |
| C．had some trouble with figures |
| D．didn’t care about money at all |
Einstein was most interested in ______ in life.
| A．sailing his boat | B．fame and money |
| C．playing the violin | D．work |
“…using two kinds of soap made his life completely too complicated” in the last paragraph suggests that Einstein ______.
| A．preferred to live a simple life |
| B．was a man of humor |
| C．was too poor to buy more soaps |
| D．liked to do something different |
For high school leavers starting out in the working world，it is very important to learn particular skills and practice how to behave in an interview or how to find all internship(实习)．In some countries，schools have programs to help students onto the path to work．In the Unites States，however，such programs are still few and far between．
Research shows that if high schools provide career-related courses，students are likely to get higher earnings in later years．The students are more likely to stay in school，graduate and go on to higher education．
In Germany，students as young as 13 and 14 are expected to do internships．German companies work with schools to make sure that young people get the education they need for future employment．
But in America, education reform programs focus on how well students do in exams instead of bringing them into contact with the working world．Harvard Education school professor Robert Schwartz has criticized education reformers for trying to place all graduates directly on the four-year college track．Schwartz argued that this approach leaves the country’s most vulnerable(易受影响的)kids with no jobs and no skills．
Schwartz believed that the best career programs encourage kids to go for higher education while also teaching them valuable practical skills at high school．James Madison High School in New York，for example，encourages students to choose classes on career—based courses．The school then helps them gain on—the-job experience in those fields while they’re still at high school．
However，even for teens whose schools encourage them to connect with work，the job market is daunting．In the US，unemployment rates for 16-to 19-year-olds are above 20 percent for the third summer in a row．
“The risk is that if teenagers miss out on the Summer job experience，they become part of this generation of teens who had trouble in landing a job，”said Michael，a researcher in the US.In the author’s opinion, American high school leavers__________.
| A．have enough career-related courses |
| B．need more career advice from their schools |
| C．perform better in exams than German students |
| D．can get higher earnings in later years |
According to Robert Schwartz，_________.
| A．there is no need for kids to go for higher education in the US |
| B．students should get contact with the working world at high school |
| C．education reform should focus on students’ performance in exams |
| D．teenagers in the US can’t miss out on the summer job experience |
What can be inferred from the text?
| A．Unemployment rates for US teenagers remain high at the moment. |
| B．Students with career—based courses never have problems finding a job. |
| C．US companies work with schools to prepare young people for future employment. |
| D．High school leavers with no practical skills can’t find a job absolutely |
What’s the main idea of the text?
| A．Arguments about recent US education reform. |
| B．Tips on finding jobs for high school leavers. |
| C．The lack of career—based courses in US high schools. |
| D．Advice for American high school leavers. |
The underlined word “daunting” in Paragraph 6 most probably means___________.
| A．discouraging | B．interesting |
| C．creative | D．unbearable |
The fictional Chinese-American detective Charlie Chan was the subject of popular books and movies for many decades. In recent years, however, the character has been criticized as an ill image of Asian-Americans.
Yunte Huang, an English professor at the University of California, says that’s not the case. He has been exploring the character and real-life policeman who inspired him.
Charlie Chan has been a familiar character to readers and film-goers, beginning in the 1920s. The detective solved crimes around the world in more than 40 films through the 1940s, and with the invention of television, found a new audience in the 1950s and 1960s.
Huang discovered Charlie Chan through books by American author Earl Derr Biggers, who created the character.
“One day, I happened to find two Charlie Chan novels. At that point I thought I knew that he was a negative character against Asians, but when I read the book,” he says, “I was immediately attracted. Ever since then, I’ve been a fan of Charlie Chan.”
As a fan of the books and films, Huang was surprised to learn that Charlie Chan was based on a real detective named Chang Apana, who was born to Chinese parents in Hawaii around 1871. Apana worked as a cowboy, and joined the Honolulu police force in 1898.
“He almost immediately became a local legend because as a former cowboy,” says Huang, “he would walk the most dangerous areas in Chinatown carrying a bullwhip（皮鞭）instead of a gun. He didn’t need that.”
Although some say the image of Charlie Chan, with his broken English, is embarrassing for Asian-Americans, Huang believes Chan’s broken English and unusual ancient sayings were part of his charm（魅力）.
“Let me just quote（引用）a few – ‘Actions speak louder than French,’ or ‘Mind like parachute (降落伞). Only function when open.’ Charlie Chan always owes these instructive sayings to Confucius’ eastern wisdom.
For Huang, the fictional Charlie Chan is highly entertaining, while the real-life policeman, Chang Apana, is a Chinese-American success, whose story is worth telling. The passage mainly talks about ______________.
| A．how Yunte Huang discovered Charlie Chan |
| B．how Charlie Chan became famous in the US |
| C．what Yunte Huang thought of Charlie Chan |
| D．how a cowboy became a famous detective |
According to the passage, we know that Charlie Chan __________.
| A．was a character in books and movies based on a real detective |
| B．was a famous actor starring in movies beginning from the 1920s |
| C．was a famous detective solving crimes all over the world |
| D．was a Chinese immigrant who became a local legend |
Chang Apana didn’t need a gun as a weapon because__________.
| A．he had his personal charm |
| B．he liked being a cowboy |
| C．he was not a true policeman |
| D．a bullwhip was more useful |
It can be inferred from the passage that ________.
| A．American author Earl Derr Biggers gave an ill picture of Asian-Americans |
| B．Yunte Huang believes Charlie Chan represents Asian wisdom in some way |
| C．Chan’s story was more popular with TV audience than readers and film-goers |
| D．Charlie Chan became an ill image of Asian-Americans when it first appeared. |