Bernice Gallegos sat down one day this summer, as she does pretty much every day, and began listing items on eBay．She dug into a box and pulled out a baseball card．She stopped for a moment and admired the picture．“Red Stocking B．B．Club of Cincinnati,” the card read, under the reddish brown color photo of 10 men with their socks pulled up to their knees．
As a collector and seller, it's her job to spot old items that might have value today．It's what Bernice, 72, and her husband, Al Gallegos, 80, have been doing since 1974 at their California antique （古玩） store．
This card, she figured, was worth selling on eBay．She took a picture, wrote a description and put it up for auction （拍卖）．She put a $10 price tag on it, deciding against $15 because it would have cost her an extra 20 cents．Later that night she got a few odd inquiries—someone wanting to know whether the card was real, someone wanting her to end the auction and sell him the card immediately．
The card is actually 139 years old．Sports card collectors call the find "extremely rare" and estimate the card could fetch five, or perhaps, six figures at auction．
Just like that, Bernice is the least likely character ever for a rare-baseball card story．"I didn't even know baseball existed that far back," Gallegos says, "I don't think that I've ever been to a baseball game．" The theory is that the card came out of a storage space they bought a few years back．It is not uncommon in their line of work to buy the entire contents of storage units for around $200．
When she met with card trader Rick Mirigian, she found out what the card was—an 1869 advertisement with a picture of the first professional baseball team, the Cincinnati Red Stockings．
"When I came to meet her and she took it out of a sandwich bag and she was smoking a cigarette, I almost fainted," Mirigian says．"They've uncovered a piece of history that few people will ever be able to imagine．That card is history．It's like unearthing a Mona Lisa or a Picasso．"What can we conclude from Paragraph 3?
| A．Bernice had to pay some fees for her card on eBay． |
| B．Bernice wanted to end the auction that night． |
| C．Bernice decided to sell the card for $15． |
| D．eBay charged her 20 cents for the card． |
The underlined word "fetch" in Paragraph 4 most probably means "____"．
| A．go and bring | B．add up to | C．go down to | D．be sold for |
From the passage, we may learn that ____．
| A．Bernice is a baseball fan |
| B．Bernice is the last person to purchase the rare-baseball card |
| C．Bernice unexpectedly became the owner of the rare-baseball card |
| D．Bernice didn't realize the value of the card until she put it up for auction |
What would be the best title for the passage?
| A．A Surprisingly Valuable Discovery | B．Be mice Gallegos—A Lucky Collector |
| C．Sports Card Collectors | D．The History of the Baseball Card |
About a year ago, a couple with three children moved into the apartment next door to me. I never heard any noise from the children, but the parents were always yelling at them.
We often met. I always spoke, but the only answer I ever got was a hello from a four-year-old girl. One day when I returned, they were just coming back to their apartment and the little girl was holding the door in the hall open for the others. I remained in the car doing unnecessary things. The parents were telling her to hurry. I looked up and saw the little girl was still holding the door open, waiting for me. I hurried as much as I could and thanked her. She was smiling from ear to ear.
That afternoon I was at the K-Mart and saw a white teddy bear. I thought of the little girl and said to myself, “I bet she would like it.” So I bought it for her.
The next day there was a knock on the door and it was the little girl and her father. She was so proud of her bear and thanked me. Then I noticed her mother and the other children were there in the hall, too.
Now when we meet in the hall, we all speak in a friendly manner. Last night we had about four inches of snow. The temperature was below zero. When I opened the outside door, there was my car with all the snow removed. The man next door was the only person I knew in the whole building, so when I saw him the next day, I asked him if he was the nice person that removed the snow. He said NO. He wanted to, but his wife said she wanted to do it.
Isn’t it amazing that the small kind act of a four-year-old girl can change so many things for the better?Why did the author do unnecessary things in his car?
| A．His neighbor yelled at him. |
| B．He did not know how to kill time. |
| C．The weather was cold outside. |
| D．He did not wanted to be embarrassed. |
The underline word “yelling” in the passage probably means _____________.
| A．knocking | B．shouting |
| C．beating | D．laughing |
What the four-year-old girl did made the author feel _____________.
| A．warm | B．sad |
| C．upset | D．angry |
The passage mainly tells us__________.?
| A．Children should be polite to their neighbors. |
| B．People should be kind and communicate with each other. |
| C．Your neighbors are not as bad as you think. |
| D．Things can be changed by removing snow. |
Children are quick to ask “why” and “how’’ when it comes to new things, but research suggests that they learn more when teachers turn the questions back on them. “When children explain events, they learn more than when just getting the results,’’ said Cristine H. Legare, a professor at the University of Texas.
Ms. Legare brought in 96 children aged 3 to 5 and set before them a complex toy made up of colorful, interlocking gears (齿轮). With the first group, the researchers asked, “Can you explain this to me?” With the second one, they said, “Look, isn’t this interesting?’’
The two groups of children focused on different things, researchers found. Children who were asked to observe noticed the colors of the toy, while those asked to explain focused on the chain of gears working on each other.
Children who had explained the toy were better at re-creating it and not being disturbed by decorative gears, and they were better able to use what they had learned who had observed the toy outperformed the children in the explanation group on a memory task focused on the toy’s colors.
Dedre Gentner, the director of the cognitive science program at Northwestern University, said that teachers introducing a concept can improve students’ understanding by giving examples of close comparisons, and then asking children to explain how concepts are related.
In a series of experiments with 3-to 7-year-olds, she focus children can be con be confused by comparisons that focus on a relationship rather than a direct-object match.
For example, a 3-year-old shown a picture of two rabbits facing each other and told “this is a toma ’’ and then asked to find another “tome” will choose a picture of a rabbit over one of two cats facing each other 98 percent of the time. A 7-year-old is more likely to recognize the more abstract comparison of a relationship.
However, Ms. Gentner found that 3-year-olds can think more like 7-yesr-olds if they are given more examples. When shown a “toma” with rabbits and another with cats, and then asked, “Can you say why both of these are tomas?” most of the children can give a good explanation.What is mainly described in the text?
| A．Observation comes first for a learner. |
| B．Children can learn more first for a learner. |
| C．pictures can learn more by explaining. |
| D．Teachers should be patient with children. |
As for the gear toy, the first group___.
| A．learned more about its history |
| B．focused on the design of the toy |
| C．had a clear memory of its colors |
| D．found it hard to create the toy again |
The author develops the text mainly___.
| A．by cause and effect |
| B．by order in space |
| C．by examples |
| D．by time and events |
A couple of weeks ago, my 12-year-old daughter, Ella threatened(威胁) to take my phone and break it. “At night you’ll always have your phone out and break you’ll just type,” Ella says. “I’m ready to go to bed, and try to get you to read stories for me and you’re just standing there reading your texts and texting other people,” she adds. I came to realize that I was ignoring her as a father.
Ella isn’t the only kid who feels this way about her parent’s relationship with devices. Catherine Steiner-Adair, a psychologist at Harvard, wrote The Big Disconnect: Protecting Childhood and Family Relationships in the Digital Age. For her book, Steiner-Adair interviewed more than 1,000 kids from the ages of 4 to 18. She talked to hundreds of teachers and parents.
One of the many things that knocked my socks off, ” she says, “was the consistency(一致性) with which children — whether they were 4 or 8 or 18 or 24— talked about feeling exhausted and frustrated or mad trying to get their parents’ attention, competing with computer screens or iPhone screens or any kind of technology.”
A couple of years ago, my daughter got a laptop for school. And because she was becoming more independent, we got her a phone. We set up rules for when she could use the device and when she’d need to put it away. We created a charging(充电) station, outside her bedroom, where she had to plug in these devices every night. Basically — except for homework— she has to put it all away when she comes home.
Steiner-Adair says most adults don’t set up similar limits in their own lives. “We’ve lost the boundaries that protect work and family life,’’ she says. “So it is very hard to manage yourself and be present in the moments your children need you.’’
After my daughter’s little intervention(介入),I made myself a promise to create my own charging station. To plug my phone in— somewhere faraway — when I am done working for the day. I’ve been trying to leave it there untouched for most of the weekendWhy did Ella threaten to break her father’s phone?
| A．Her father spent a lot of money on his phone. |
| B．Her father did not do any housework or read to her. |
| C．Her father made a lot of noise by talking on the phone. |
| D．Her father gave his attention to his phone instead of her. |
By saying “knocked my socks off ’’ , Steiner-Adair means “___’’.
| A．made fun of her |
| B．surprised her a lot |
| C．took her socks off |
| D．made her exhausted |
What does the author mainly talk about in paragraph 4?
| A．How he protected his daughter from devices. |
| B．Why his daughter was dissatisfied with him. |
| C．How to create a charging station at home. |
| D．Why children need a laptop or a phone. |
We can infer from the text the author___.
| A．will not use his phone form now on |
| B．plans to create more charging stations at home |
| C．is a man who learns from his mistakes |
| D．doesn’t think a laptop is helpful to his daughter |
The groundhog(土拨鼠) has been considered a weather prophet(预言家) for many years in north America. According to legend, all winter long the furry brown groundhog sleeps in his comfortable underground home, or hole. On February 2, he wakes up. The groundhog is very hungry and comes out to search for food. If the sun is shinning, the groundhog will see his own shadow. The sight of his shadow gives him such a fright that he quickly returns to his hole. This event means that spring will not come for six more weeks. If the sun is not shining, there will be no shadow. The groundhog will not be scared and he will stay outside his hole. Spring will come very soon.
The idea that animals could foretell the weather probably began in ancient Europe. At the time, most of the people were farmers and the weather was very important to them. If spring came early they could begin the planting season early and have an early harvest. They found some animals were good weather prophets. On February 2, when they celebrated Candlemas Day, a religious holiday around the time winter ends, all the people watched for an animal leaving its hole. In Germany, farmers watched for a badge. In England farmers looked for a hedgehog（刺猬）. They believed the animals could foretell the weather for the next six weeks.
When the early settlers came to North America there no badgers or hedgehogs near their homes. The farmers did not know when to plant their crops. In time they discovered an animal that left its hole at the end of winter. That animal was the groundhog, also called a woodchuck or a marmot. Every February 2 they watched for a groundhog. Finally, the day came to be called “Groundhog Day”. Many groundhog-watching clubs were formed. The members sometimes dressed in nightshirts and top hats made of silk. They would go to the hills in the dark morning and wait near a groundhog hole. Sometimes the groundhog-watching clubs would have other types of celebrations Which of the following will frighten a groundhog according to Paragraph 1?
| A．His own shadow | B．The shining sun |
| C．The coming spring | D．His underground home |
According to legend, if it is cloudy on February 2, _____ .
| A．spring will come in March |
| B．winter will end in a short time |
| C．the groundhog will go on sleeping |
| D．the groundhog will refuse to go out |
Why did ancient Europeans watch for animals on Candlemas Day?
| A．To amuse themselves. |
| B．To protect their harvest. |
| C．To say goodbye to winter. |
| D．To know when to plant crops. |
The early North American settlers ____ .
| A．wore formal clothes on Groundhog Day |
| B．tried to catch groundhogs near their homes |
| C．regarded the groundhog as a weather prophet |
| D．mistook groundhogs for badgers or hedgehogs |
Learners of English, especially self-taught learners may have trouble in understanding speeches by native speakers. The following ways might help improve their listening ability.
First of all, do things step by step. It is not good to listen to something beyond your level. Better choose a suitable course and start with the first book. Go on to the second book only after you are sure you understand the first one.
Secondly, stick to one course of study. Don’t change books often. Never let your attention be attracted by another course just because it seems to be more “fashionable”.
Thirdly, listen to the English news program over the radio from time to time. Better go through the news stories in the Chinese-language newspaper first. That will make it easy for you to understand the English news on the radio.
Fourthly, if you have time, listen to some interesting stories in “Special English from the V.O.A. or other listening materials of the same level as that of your textbook”. This is a piece of advice to learners of English on how to ________.
| A．improve their listening ability |
| B．read fast |
| C．write better English and read faster |
| D．speak correctly |
If you want to understand the English news program on the radio, you should ________.
| A．read the Chinese-language newspaper step by step |
| B．read again and again the Chinese-language newspaper |
| C．go through the Chinese-language newspaper first |
| D．be able to recite the Chinese-language newspaper |
The author advised that once you have taken up a course, you ________.
| A．should stick to it |
| B．should begin with the last book |
| C．should take up other courses if they are more fashionable |
| D．shouldn’t do anything else |
In this passage, V.O.A. stands for ________.
A. a bookB. a magazine
C. a text-book D. a radio station