Fromtheearliesttimes，manhasbee-优题课

The question of what children learn, and how they should learn, is continually being debated and redebated. Nobody dares any longer to defend the old system, the learning of lessons parrot-fashion, the grammar-with-a-whip system, which was good enough for our grandparents. The theories of modem psychology have stepped in to argue that we must understand the need of children. Children are not just small adults; they are children who must be respected as much.
Well, you may say, this is as it should be, a good idea. But think further. What happens? "Education" becomes the responsibility not of teachers, but of psychologists (心里学家). What happens then? Teachers worry too much about the psychological implications (暗示) of their lessons, and forget about the subjects themselves. If a child dislikes a lesson, the teacher feels that it is his fault, not the child’s. So teachers worry whether history is "relevant" to modern young children. And do they dare to recount stories about violence? Or will this make the children themselves violent? Can they tell their classes about children of different races, or will this encourage racial hatred? Why teach children to write grammatical sentences? Verbal expression is better. Sums? Arithmetic? No: Real-life mathematical situations are more understandable.
You see, you can go too far. Influenced by educational theorists, who have nothing better to do than to write books about their ideas, teachers leave their teacher-training colleges filled with grand, psychological ideas about children and their needs. They make elaborate, sophisticated (精致的，复杂的) preparations and try out their "modem methods" on the long-suffering children. Since one "modem method" rapidly replaces another the poor kids will have had a good bellyful by the time they leave school. Frequently the modem methods are so sophisticated that they fail to be understood by the teachers, let alone the children; even more often, the relaxed discipline so essential for the " informal" feelings the class must have, prevents all but a handful of children from learning anything.
8. People do not dare defend the old system mainly because under the old system________.
A. too much grammar was taught to children B. children were spoiled (宠坏)
C. children were treated as grown-ups D. children were made to learn passively(被动的)
9. What view do the modem psychologists hold?
A. Children must be understood and respected.
B. Children are small adults and know what they need.
C. Children are better off without learning lessons.
D. Education of children is the responsibility of psychologists.
10. What happens when teachers pay too much attention to the psychology of their lessons?
A. They find that the children dislike the lessons.
B. They tend to blame students for their failure.
C. They do not pay enough attention to the actual lessons.
D. They no longer want to teach children history.
11. Grammatical sentences are regarded as unimportant because ________.
A. it is better to use verbs only
B. words are said out of natural feelings only
C. talking freely and naturally without sentences is a better form of expression
D. it is felt that formal grammar rules might cause unnatural expressions
12. According to the passage, the modern methods are understood by ________.
A. neither teachers nor pupils B. only a handful of teachers and pupils
C. the more sophisticated teachers D. everyone who enjoys the relaxed discipline of the informal classes

As a human being you may have the choice of three basic attitudes towards life. You may treat life with the philosophy (哲学) of the vegetable, in which case your life will include being born, eating, drinking, sleeping, marrying, growing old and dying.
The second basic attitude is to look at life as if it were a business. A great many so-called successful men and women believe that life is a business. If you believe so, your first question of life, naturally, is " What do I get out of it? " " How much is this worth to me?" In a word, based on this attitude, happiness becomes a matter of successful competition. The great majority of human beings today look at life as if it were a business.
The third attitude toward life is the way of the artist. Here the basic philosophy is "What can I put into it?". They value cooperation and contribution. This point of view has been proved by history; for history remembers best those who have contributed most richly to the interests of their fellow-men. The more we investigate(调查),the more we become certain that the artistic attitude is the only one which goes with human happiness.
5. From the passage we know people who take the second life attitude ________.
A. are mostly businessmen B. think of getting the interests (利益) first
C. find their happiness from hard work D. take competition as their whole life
6. People who are best remembered by history are probably
A. those living on vegetables B. successful men
C. artists D. businessmen
7. We may infer from this passage that ________.
A. some people are living only on vegetables
B. the artistic attitude is accepted by most people
C. the writer prefers the third life attitude
D. artists do most for the society in order to be remembered longer than others

There are various reasons why cancers appear to be on the increase. For one thing, though their sufferers are to be found in all age groups, cancers are particularly likely to attack persons in their middle and advanced years. Naturally, since people live longer these years, there are more cancer sufferers than before. Again, with better methods of diagnosis (诊断), doctors can more easily recognize cancerous growths that would formerly have passed unnoticed or that would have been wrongly diagnosed. It is also believed that certain habits and conditions of modem living, including heavy smoking and the pollution of the air, may leave people living in more cancer-causing conditions than before.
We all look forward to the day when a simple medical test can find cancer while it is still small. Researchers around the world are working on such a test. Most of their work deals with the examination of the blood.
Researchers in Boston have found something in the blood of cancer patients that does not appear in healthy persons. The test showed which persons had cancer and which did not. It was correct more than 90 percent of the time.
The researchers believe the test may be able to show cancer very clearly in its development. Cancers discovered early usually can be treated successfully.
The test examines very small bits of fat in the blood called lipids (脂质). Cancers seem to change lipids although doctors do not know why. The test showed differences between the lipids of the persons with cancer and the lipids of those without cancer.
The researchers say the new test could be a step to develop a simple way to check patients for cancer before the disease shows on an X-ray.
1. Who will fail cancer from the study of the researchers?
A. The young.B. The middle age and the older.
C. The man.D. The woman.
2. The underlined words "such a test" refer to________.
A. the test that shows which persons have cancer and which don’t .
B. the test that may be able to show cancer very early in its development,.
C. a simple medical test that cannot find cancer when it is -small
D. a new test that could be a step to develop a difficult way
3. Which of the following statements is true according to the passage?
A. Cancers have much to do with something in patients’ blood.
B. People living in better conditions are most likely to be attacked by cancer.
C.X-raying is the best way to determined whether a person has cancer or not.
D. Cancers have nothing to do with a person’s habits and living conditions.
4. What would be the best title for the passage?
A. A simple way to cancer B. Cancers can be cured
C. How to find cancerD. Early discovery of cancer

The Western has been the favorite type for American adventure story since the nineteenth century. While the American West was being settled, newspapers and "dime novels" could depend on stories of the frontier settlements and tell tales about living in the untamed wilderness to sell. The public back East was eager to read about the West, even if the stories were more fiction than fact.
In 1902, Owen Wister published his novel The Virginian, which was one of the first novels to treat the Western as a serious literary form; the novel still sold well and had inspired several movies and a television series. In 1905, Bertha H. Bower and Zane Grey published their first novels, and the popular Western novels had continued to flourish from that day on, with current novels by Luke Short, Max Brand, and Louis L’ Amour carrying on the tradition.
The first Western movie appeared even earlier than these serious Western novels. Before the turn of the century, an associate of Edison’s had filmed Cripple Creek Barroom Scene, a few seconds of film showing the inside of a saloon, to help publicize the invention of the movie camera. In 1903 the Edison’ company filmed the first "full-length" Western — The Great Train Robbery. The film lasts less than fifteen minutes, but a story is told its entirety. In the movie, bandits (强盗) rob a train and its passengers, killing the engineer, and find themselves tracked down by a posse. Audiences loved the movie. Some theaters were actually opened for the single purpose of showing The Great Train Robbery and only later realized that they could do equally well showing other movies. The film was so successful that other companies, and finally even the Edison company itself, began producing copies and other versions of The Great Train Robbery. Ironically, in" an era when the West was still very real —-Arizona, New Mexico and Oklahoma were all territories rather than states in 1903 — The Great Train Robbery was filmed in New Jersey.
9. The purpose of this passage is to________.
A. discuss the making of the movie The Great Train Robbery
B. discuss the early Western novels
C. discuss the art of movie making
D. trace the development of the Western as an American adventure story tradition
10. We can conclude from this passage that________.
A. people lost interest in the West after 1903
B. Owen Wister was an ex-cowboy
C. New Jersey was still "untamed wilderness" in 1903
D. films were fairly uncommon at the time The Great Train Robbery was made
11. The passage suggests that________.
A. Edison’s invention of the movie camera happened;by accident
B. movie houses didn’t make much-money in the early days
C. Easterners were fascinated by the " wild West"
D. The Great Train Robbery was poorly received by the public because it lacked a plot
12. As used in this passage, the word “literary” means________.
A. humorous B. financial C. appropriate to literature D. amateur

Bill Javis took over our village’s news-agency at a time of life when most of us only wanted to relax. He just thought he would like something but not too much to do, and the news-agency was ready-made. The business produced little enough for him, but Bill was a man who only wanted the simplicity and order and regularity of the job. He had been a long-serving sailor, and all his life had done everything by the clock.
Every day he opened his shop at 6:00 a. m. to catch the early trade; the papers arrived on his doorstep before that. Many of Bill’s customers were city workers, and the shop was convenient for the station. Business was tailing off by 10 o’clock, so at eleven sharp Bill closed for lunch. It was hard luck on anybody who wanted a paper or magazine in the afternoon, for most likely Bill would be down on the river bank, fishing, and his neatest competitor was five kilometers away. Sometimes in the afternoon-, the evening paper landed on the doorway, and at 4 o’ clock Bill reopened his shop. The evening rush lasted till seven, and it was worthwhile.
He lived in a flat above the ship, alone. Except in the very bad weather, you always knew where to find him in the afternoon, as I have said. Once, on a sunny afternoon, I walked home along the river bank from a shopping trip to the village. By my watch it was three minutes past four, so I was astonished to see Bill sitting there on his little chair with a line in the, water. He had no luck, I could, see, but he was making no effort to move. “What’s wrong, Bill?” I called out from the path.
For answer, he put a hand in his jacket and took out a big, golden object. For a moment I had no idea what it could be, and then it suddenly went off with a noise like a fire engine. Stopping the bell, Bill held the thing up and called back, "Ten to four, you see, and this is dead right. "
I had never known anyone carrying a brass alarm clock round with him before.
5. Bill Javis became a news-agent when ________.
A. he need the money. B. he decided to take things easy
C. he was quite an old man D. he gave up clock-repairing
6. Bill opened the shop so early in the day because ________.
A. he liked to do as much as possible before he went to work
B. the shop had to be open when the morning papers came
C. he was never sure of time
D. it was then that he did a lot of business
7. On that sunny afternoon, the writer was surprised when he saw Bill because ________.
A. he thought it was late for Bill to be still fishing
B. he thought Bill was ill, since he was not moving at all
C. Bill had not caught anything, and that seemed strange
D. Bill stayed in his flat
8. From the information given in the passage, who or what do you think was wrong?
A. The bell was; it must have gone off at the wrong time.
B. Bill was; he had dropped off to sleep.
C. The writer’s watch was fast.
D. Bill’s clock was wrong; it was old.