There is no doubt about it. The best way to learn new words is to do it unconsciously. I don’t mean while you’re unconscious. I mean while you are unconscious of the fact that it is sinking in.
That is how I learnt the 30,000 words in my vocabulary by living in an English-speaking world, mother tongue. I just pick them up. But some of them may be misunderstood. Now, to misunderstand does not mean not to understand. To misunderstand is to understand but incorrectly.
The 5 % mislearnt of all the words we “know” will be the least frequently used words, as the more frequently used words are less likely to be mislearnt. Some of the misunderstandings may live with all our lives, without knowing that we got them wrong.
Many English teachers think that this natural method of learning words in one’s own mother tongue can be used for a second language learning. They teach their students how to play the Guessing Game. “There is no time to look up in your dictionaries all the new words you come across,” they will say. “You have to practise guessing what the word means from the context.”
This method of guessing in a second language learning does not work. It may succeed in many cases, but results in hundreds or thousands of wrongly-guessed meanings of words.
And what’s more, there are more separate meanings than there are words themselves. Our learners’ dictionaries usually have many meanings. A good dictionary is what makes self-learning possible.
Don’t guess! Look it up!
55. It is certain that the best way to learn new words is _____________.
A. to learn them by oneself
B. to learn by living in an English-speaking world and using them frequently
C. to guess them from the context
D. to get more separate meanings of each word
56. The underlined word “them” in Paragraph 2 refers to _________.
A. the 30,000 words B. English teachers
C. misunderstood words D. frequently used words
57. Which of the following is most likely NOT true?
A. Some of the words the writer knows must have been misunderstood.
B. Most of the 30,000 words the writer learned are frequently used ones.
C. How many words the writer got wrong are not known.
D. All the words the writer knows were learned by reading them.
58. It can be inferred that _________.
A. when somebody is conscious, he or she usually can’t learn new words by heart
B. we must use the words as often as possible in order to master them
C. it’s the best way to learn new words that one should only guess their meanings from the context
D. only dictionaries can help us learn language well
Every artist knows in his heart that he is saying something to the public. Not only does he want to say it well, but he wants it to be something that has not been said before. He hopes that the public will listen and understand ----he wants to teach them, and he wants them to learn from him.
What visional artists like painters want to teach is easy to make out but difficult to explain, because painters translate their experience into shapes and colors, not words. They seem to feel that a certain choice of shapes and colors, out of the countless billions possible, is very interesting for them and worth showing to us. Without their work we should never have noticed these particular shapes and colors, or have felt the delight which they brought to the artists.
Most artists take their shapes and colors from the world of nature and from human bodies in movement and at rest; their choices show that these aspects(方面)of the world are worth looking at, that they contain beautiful sights. Modern artists might say that they only choose subjects that provide an interesting pattern, that there is nothing more in it. Yet even they do not choose totally without thinking about the character of their subjects.
If one painter chooses to paint a decaying(溃烂的) leg and another a lake in moonlight, each of them is directing our attention to a certain aspect of the world . Each painter is telling us something, showing us something, emphasizing(强调) something - all of which means that, consciously or unconsciously, he is trying to teach us.It is hard to explain what a painter is saying because _______.
| A．most painters do not express themselves well |
| B．a painter uses unusual words and phrases |
| C．a painter use shapes and colors instead of words |
| D．many painters do not say anything |
Modern artists might say their choice of subjects ______.
| A．carries a message to the public | B．only provides interesting patterns |
| C．has no pattern or form | D．teaches the public important truths |
The writer says that modern art contains______
| A．nothing but meaningless patterns | B．uninteresting aspects of the world |
| C．subjects chosen partly for their meaning | D．completely meaningless subjects |
Which of the following is implied(暗示) but NOT directly stated in the passage?
| A．A painting is more easily understood than a song |
| B．Art is only the arranging of shapes and colors |
| C．Every artist tries to say something to the public |
| D．One must look beyond shapes and colors to find out what an artist is saying |
Dorothea Shaw is 71 years old and nearly blind, and she chose to live alone far away from people. She lives in Belize — a county the size of Wales with a population only that of Swansea. Her home is at Gales Point, a tiny village which can be reached only by sea or air; after a 10-mile walk into the hills one finally reaches a piece of land and two small houses so hidden in the thick over-grown forest that only a handful of people know Dorothea is there.
She lives happily and totally alone – growing her vegetables, looking after her trees and dogs, cats and chickens. Once a month or so an old friend passes by with her food supplies and letters-usually including a letter from her sister in Scunthorpe and some bits of clothing from friends in Canada. Sometimes a local man will come and cut wood for her and a group of British soldiers will come across her and be greeted with the offer of a cup of coffee.
At night she lies in her tiny sleeping room with the dogs on the floor, the cats on the table near the typewriter and one of the hens settled down in a corner of the bookshelf, and listens for hours to any Spanish, English, German or French broadcasts she can find on her radio. Sometimes she gets lonely but most of the time the animals and the radio are company enough.
But recently the very things that she had tried to get free from so well have begun to catch up with her. The peace of the forest has been destroyed by the noise of earth-moving machines not many miles away. What she once only heard of distantly on the radio is now on her doorstep. Things began to change three years ago. The new main north-south road in Belize was cut through the forest only four or five miles away. “Now more people know I’m here.” She says. “I feel more and more uneasy each day.”Dorothea’s small houses ________.
| A．are entirely surrounded by trees |
| B．have always been her home |
| C．were built for just a few people |
| D．are in a county with the same population as Wales |
Dorothea lives in the tiny village because ________.
| A．she doesn’t like living near people | B．she is too old to move |
| C．machines destroyed her home | D．there’s nowhere else for her to live |
Dorothea doesn’t get lonely since she has _______ with her.
| A．her sister | B．some animals | C．friends from Canada | D．a postman |
Dorothea spends a lot of time __________.
| A．growing all the food she needs | B．cutting down trees |
| C．listening to the radio | D．studying languages |
Millions of people visit Yosemite National Park every year to see the tall waterfalls and mountains. The mountains are a splendid sight when viewed from the valley floor. Lots of stores, hotels, and restaurants are needed to handle the crowds. Also, water, roads, and other service systems are part of the infrastructure(基础设施)that must be maintained.
Unfortunately, these systems are starting to break down. It’s not just in Yosemite but in national parks around the nation.
Yosemite is thirty years old according to Dennis Galvin, a National Park Service worker. The park is not only old but worn out. Two or three times as many visitors come every year. That is too many visitors for the park to deal with.
Four years ago a storm washed out a water pipeline in the Grand Canyon. The National Park service had to send water trucks to provide water for the visitors. Last month pipes almost broke again and roads had to be closed for a while.
Why hasn’t the National Park Service kept up the park repairs? There is a lack of money. The United States has 378 monuments, parks, and wilderness areas. Between three and four billion dollars are needed for repairs.
Yosemite is one national park that does have money for repairs. It has two hundred million dollars but cannot spend it any way it chooses. When the park workers started widening the road, they were forced to stop by the Sierra Club. The club claimed that the road work was damaging the Merced River that runs through the park.
A Sierra Club lawyer, Julia Olson, feels that the infrastructure needs to be moved out of Yosemite. That way less pressure will be put on the already crowded park.According to the text, the mountains in Yosemite look most splendid when they are appreciated from _______.
| A．the bottom of the valleys | B．the top of the mountains |
| C．the side of the mountains | D．the edge of the valleys |
National parks like Yosemite in the U.S. find it increasingly difficult to meet the need of visitors because ________.
| A．the transport management needs improving |
| B．they spend too much on their service systems |
| C．their service systems frequently go out of order |
| D．they need help from environmental organizations |
The main problem of Yosemite National Park is its _______.
| A．rundown water pipes | B．overcrowdedness | C．lack of money | D．narrow roads |
According to the text, the Sierra Club is most likely to be ______.
| A．an environmental group | B．an information center |
| C．a travel service | D．a law firm |
People express their personalities in their clothes, their cars, and their homes. Our diets can also show our personalities because we might choose certain food to tell people something about us.
For example, some people mainly enjoy high quality food, such as caviar (鱼子酱) and lobster (龙虾), and they eat only in expensive restaurants – never in cafeterias or bars. They know about the “better things in life”.
Some people choose not to eat meat. Vegetarians often have more in common than just their diet. Their personalities might be similar too. For instance, vegetarians in the United States and Canada may be creative people, and they might not enjoy competitive sports or jobs. They worry about the health of the world, and they are probably strongly against the war.
Some people eat mostly fast food. One study shows that many fast-food eaters have a lot in common, but they are very different from vegetarians. They are competitive and good at business. They are also usually in a hurry. Many fast-food eaters might not agree with this description of their personalities, but it is a common picture of them.
Some people also believe that people of the same astrological sign（星座）have similar food personalities. Aries (born under the sign of Aries, between March 21 and April 20) usually like spicy foods, with a lot of onions and pepper. People with the sign of Taurus (April 21 to May 22) prefer healthful fruits and vegetables, but they often eat too much. Sagittarius (November 22 to December.22) like traditional food from many different countries.
What is your food personality?Why do some people mainly eat high quality food?
| A．They want to show off their wealth. | B．Food can show off their social position. |
| C．They want to enjoy better things in life. | D．They are wiser than any other persons. |
A vegetarian may be a person________.
| A．who is believed to be a peace – lover | B．who values the importance of success |
| C．who cares little about the future of the world | D．who shows his power to make money |
From the passage, we can draw a conclusion that_____________.
| A．food is just a mirror of the human history |
| B．we can know a person from what he eats |
| C．people are particular about the food they eat |
| D．what people eat may change their personalities |
Dear Cassy,
Thanks for reminding me by e-mail that you want to baby-sit our children. Although you are only 12 years old, my wife and I would be willing to consider your application（申请）if you can meet(满足) a few requirements:
1）Send us three letters from teachers who will prove that you have never failed to follow instructions perfectly in class and never failed to hand in your homework on time.
2）Send us a note from two doctors who will prove that you are in perfect health, have never been sick, and never will be sick.
3）Send us a document from your physical education teacher or team coach that proves that you can do each of the following: Run two miles in less than four minutes, climb an oiled rope to a height of twenty feet in thirty seconds while balancing a glass of water on your nose, and walk in bare feet over hot coals and broken glass without injury.
4）Send us notarized（得到公证的）letters from at least two mental health experts saying that you have never had an envious thought towards other people.
5）Play and defeat five expert chess players while blindfolded（蒙着眼睛）after going without sleep for 48 hours.
6)Wait patiently（耐心地）for two years while we have investigators（调查）certify（确保）that all your documents（文件）are real.
Your loving and trusting friends,
The SmithsThe Smiths send their message to Cassy by .
| A．e-mail | B．a letter | C．a newspaper | D．a report |
According to the first paragraph,.
| A．the Smiths must have had an advertisement made, saying that they want someone to look after their children |
| B．the Smiths have informed Cassy that they need some children |
| C．the Smiths have promised to provide what Cassy asked for |
| D．the Smiths would be very glad if Cassy can meet their requirements |
What is the attitude of the Smiths about hiring the 12-year old girl to look after their baby?
| A．The Smiths try to tell her how to baby-sit children. |
| B．The Smiths don’t think a girl is good for the job. |
| C．The Smiths don’t want to hire her. |
| D．The Smiths are willing to offer her the job. |
Which of the requirements mentioned by the Smiths do you think Cassy can meet?
| A．All of them | B．Half of them |
| C．None of them | D．Most of them |