In Germany, English expressions are used in conversations and increasingly in written form. Advertisements are often expressed completely in English. When I go to the gym, there are “aerobic-classes (增氧健身法课程)”. We “warm up”. We go “jogging.” In business, we attend a “meeting” and we have “good connections.”
Other nations, like France, have taken action to protect their language from the influence of “Americanization”. In Germany, however, there is concern that those rules could be connected with Hitler’s Third Reich (帝国), when the language had to be pure. If the government curbed the use of English words now, this could be considered by some as a return to that terrible past.
Some German citizens are now trying to stop the use of English vocabulary in German. However, I think generally it is not a big deal to use some common English expressions as they often describe things more directly. But we should know that it is important to use English correctly. All too often, bad English is spoken or even written instead of good German. The proper use of the German language would be the better choice. However, there are some fields that require the use of English words, for example, in the high-tech communication and the Internet fields, there is no alternative to English. Also, I think sometimes I have to speak English when I introduce some scenic places to tourists.
I think you have to find a balance and decide when it is better to use good German in place of bad English or when the use of correct English words is more suitable. Languages have always changed naturally, and I disagree with a restriction by law. Some nice expressions borrowed from other languages can make a conversation more vivid.By giving many examples in the first paragraph, the writer shows that __________.
| A．most Germans have no difficulty in understanding English |
| B．English is more and more widely used in Germany |
| C．it is more convenient to use English in some situations |
| D．English has completely replaced German in Germany |
From the passage, we can learn that when Hitler was in power, __________ in Germany.
| A．all languages except English could be used |
| B．only some foreign languages could be used |
| C．only the upper class could speak English |
| D．only the German language could be used |
What job does the writer probably do?
| A．A travel guide. | B．A lawyer. | C．A computer engineer. | D．A teacher. |
What is the writer’s attitude towards the use of English in Germany?
| A．There should be a law to protect the dominance of German. |
| B．It is foolish for Germans to worry about their native language. |
| C．Germans should be encouraged to speak more English. |
| D．Proper use of English can make conversations more colorful. |
【2015·浙江】A
From the very beginning of school we make books and reading a constant source of possible failure and public humiliation. When children are little we make them read aloud, before the teacher and other children, so that we can be sure they “know” all the words they are reading. This means that when they don’t know a word, they are going to make a mistake, right in front of everyone. After having taught fifth-grade classes for four years, I decided to try at all costs to rid them of their fear and dislike of books, and to get them to read oftener and more adventurously.
One day soon after school had started, I said to them, “Now I’m going to say something about reading that you have probably never heard a teacher say before. I would like you to read a lot of books this year, but I want you to read them only for pleasure. I am not going to ask you questions to find out whether you understand the books or not. If you understand enough of a book to enjoy it and want to go on reading it, that’s enough for me. Also I’m not going to ask you what words mean. “
The children sat stunned and silent. Was this a teacher talking? One girl, who had just come to us from a school where she had had a very hard time, looked at me steadily for a long time after I had finished. Then, still looking at me, she said slowly and seriously, Mr Holt, do you really mean that?” I said just as seriously, “I mean every word of it.
During the spring she really astonished me. One day, she was reading at her desk, From a glimpse of the illustrations I thought I knew what the book was. I said to myself, “It can’t be,” and went to take a closer look. Sure enough, she was reading Moby Dick , in edition with woodcuts. I said, “Don’t you find parts of it rather heavy going?” She answered, Oh, sure, but I just skip over those parts and go on to the next good part. “
This is exactly what reading should be and in school so seldom is,an exciting, joyous adventure. Find something, dive into it, take the good parts, skip the bad parts, get what you can out of it, go on to something else. How different is our mean-spirited, picky insistence that every child get every last little scrap of “understanding” that can be dug out of a book.According to the passage, children’s fear and dislike of books may result from________.
| A．reading little and thinking little |
| B．reading often and adventurously |
| C．being made to read too much |
| D．being made to read aloud before others |
The teacher told his students to read______ .
| A．for enjoyment |
| B．for knowledge |
| C．for a larger vocabulary |
| D．for higher scores in exams |
Upon hearing the teacher’s talk, the children probably felt that________.
| A．it sounded stupid |
| B．it was not surprising at all |
| C．it sounded too good to be true |
| D．it was no different from other teachers' talk |
Which of the following statements about the girl is TRUE according to the passage?
| A．She skipped over those easy parts while reading. |
| B．She had a hard time finishing the required reading tasks. |
| C．She learned to appreciate some parts of the difficult books. |
| D．She turned out to be a top student after coming to this school. |
From the teacher's point of view,_________ .
| A．children cannot tell good parts from bad parts while reading |
| B．children should be left to decide what to read and how to read |
| C．reading is never a pleasant and inspiring experience in school |
| D．reading involves understanding every little piece of information |
【2015·天津】D
Once when I was facing a decision that involved high risk, I went to a friend. He looked at me for a moment, and then wrote a sentence containing the best advice I’ve ever had: Be bold and brave — and mighty (强大的) forces will come to your aid.
Those words made me see clearly that when I had fallen short in the past, it was seldom because I had tried and failed. It was usually because I had let fear of failure stop me from trying at all. On the other hand, whenever I had plunged into deep water, forced by courage or circumstance, I had always been able to swim until I got my feet on the ground again.
Boldness means a decision to bite off more than you can eat. And there is nothing mysterious about the mighty forces. They are potential powers we possess: energy, skill, sound judgment, creative ideas — even physical strength greater than most of us realize.
Admittedly, those mighty forces are spiritual ones. But they are more important than physical ones. A college classmate of mine, Tim, was an excellent football player, even though he weighed much less than the average player. “In one game I suddenly found myself confronting a huge player, who had nothing but me between him and our goal line,” said Tim. “I was so frightened that I closed my eyes and desperately threw myself at that guy like a bullet（子弹） — and stopped him cold.”
Boldness — a willingness to extend yourself to the extreme—is not one that can be acquired overnight. But it can be taught to children and developed in adults. Confidence builds up. Surely, there will be setbacks (挫折) and disappointments in life; boldness in itself is no guarantee of success. But the person who tries to do something and fails is a lot better off than the person who tries to do nothing and succeeds.
So, always try to live a little bit beyond your abilities—and you’ll find your abilities are greater than you ever dreamed.Why was the author sometimes unable to reach his goal in the past?
| A．He faced huge risks. |
| B．He lacked mighty forces. |
| C．Fear prevented him from trying. |
| D．Failure blocked his way to success. |
What is the implied meaning of the underlined part?
| A．Swallow more than you can digest. |
| B．Act slightly above your abilities. |
| C．Develop more mysterious powers. |
| D．Learn to make creative decisions. |
What was especially important for Tim’s successful defense in the football game?
| A．His physical strength. | B．His basic skill. |
| C．His real fear. | D．His spiritual force. |
What can be learned from Paragraph 5?
| A．Confidence grows more rapidly in adults. |
| B．Trying without success is meaningless. |
| C．Repeated failure creates a better life. |
| D．Boldness can be gained little by little. |
What is the author’s purpose in writing this passage?
| A．To encourage people to be courageous. |
| B．To advise people to build up physical power. |
| C．To tell people the ways to guarantee success. |
| D．To recommend people to develop more abilities. |
C
Across Britain, burnt toast will be served to mothers in bed this morning as older sons and daughters rush to deliver their supermarket bunches of flowers, But, according to a new study, we should be placing a higher value on motherhood all year.
Mothers have long known that their home workload was just as heavy as paid work. Now, the new study has shown that if they were paid for their parental labours, they would earn as much as＄172,000 a year.
The study looked at the range of jobs mothers do, as well as the hours they are working, to determine the figure. This would make their yearly income ￡30,000 more than the Prime Minister earns. By analysing the numbers, it found the average mother works 119 hours a week,40 of which would usually be paid at a standard rate and 79 hours as overtime. After questioning 1,000 mothers with children under 18,it found that ,on most days, mums started their routine work at 7am and finished at around 11pm.
To calculate just how much mothers would earn from that labour, it suggested some of the roles that mums could take on, including housekeeper, part-time lawyer, personal trainer and entertainer. Being a part-time lawyer, at ￡48.98 an hour, would prove to be the most profitable of the "mum jobs",with psychologist（心理学家）a close second.
It also asked mothers about the challenges they face, with 80 percent making emotional（情感的） demand as the hardest thing about motherhood.
Over a third of mums felt they needed more training and around half said they missed going out with friends.
The study shows mothers matter all year long and not just on Mother's Day. The emotional ,physical and mental energy mothers devote to their children can be never-ending, but children are also sources of great joy and happiness. Investing（投入）in time for parenting and raising relationships is money well spent.
| 1． |
How much would a mother earn a year if working as the Prime Minister?
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| 2． |
The biggest challenge for most mothers is from.
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| 3． |
What is stressed in the last paragraph?
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| 4． |
What can we conclude from the study?
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【2015·陕西】D
Parents who help their children with homework may actually be bringing down their school grades. Other forms of prenatal involvement, including volunteering at school and observing a child's class, also fail to help, according to the most recent study on the topic.
The findings challenge a key principle of modern parenting(养育子女) where schools except them to act as partners in their children's education. Previous generations concentrated on getting children to school on time, fed, dressed and ready to learn.
Kaith Robinson, the author of the study, said, "I really don't know if the public is ready for this but there are some ways parents can be involved in their kids' education that leads to declines in their academic performance. One of the things that was consistently negative was parents' help with homework." Robinson suggested that may be because parents themselves struggle to understand the task." They may either not remember the material their kids are studying now, or in some cases never learnt it themselves, but they're still offering advice."
Robinson assessed parental involvement performance and found one of the most damaging things a parent could do was to punish their children for poor marks. In general, about 20% of parental involvement was positive, about 45% negative and the rest statistically insignificant.
Common sense suggests it was a good thing for parents to get involved because "children with good academic success do have involved parents ", admitted Robinson. But he argued that this did not prove parental involvement was the root cause of that success." A big surprise was that Asian-American parents whose kids are doing so well in school hardly involved. They took a more reasonable approach, conveying to their children how success at school could improve their lives."The underlined expression "parental involvement " in Paragraph 1 probably means ________.
| A．parents' expectation on children's health |
| B．parents' participation in children's education |
| C．parents' control over children's life |
| D．parents' plan for children's future |
What is the major finding of Robinson's study ?
| A．Modern parents raise children in a more scientific way. |
| B．Punishing kids for bad marks is mentally damaging. |
| C．Parental involvement is not so beneficial as expected. |
| D．Parents are not able to help with children’s homework. |
The example of Asian-American parents implies that parents should ________..
| A．help children realize the importance of schooling |
| B．set a specific life goal for their children |
| C．spend more time improving their own lives |
| D．take a more active part in school management |
【2015·广东】D
It was once common to regard Britain as a society with class distinction. Each class had unique characteristics.
In recent years, many writers have begun to speak the 'decline of class' and 'classless society' in Britain. And in modern day consumer society everyone is considered to be middle class.
But pronouncing the death of class is too early. A recent wide-ranging society of public opinion found 90 percent of people still placing themselves in particular class; 73 percent agreed that class was still a vital part of British society; and 52 percent thought there were still sharp class differences. Thus, class may not be culturally and politically obvious, yet it remains an important part of British society. Britain seems to have a love of stratification.
One unchanging aspect of a British person's class position is accent. The words a person speaks tell her or his class. A study of British accents during 1970s found that a voice sounding like a BBC newsreader was viewed as the most attractive voice, Most people said this accent sounded 'educated' and 'soft'. The accents placed at the bottom in this study, on the other hand, were regional（地区的）city accents. These accents were seen as 'common' and 'ugly'. However, a similar study of British accents in the US turned these results upside down and placed some regional accents as the most attractive and BBC English as the least. This suggests that British attitudes towards accent have deep roots and are based on class prejudice.
In recent years, however, young upper middle-class people in London, have begun to adopt some regional accents, in order to hide their class origins. This is an indication of class becoming unnoticed. However, the 1995 pop song 'Common People' puts forward the view that though a middle-class person may 'want to live like common people' they can never appreciate the reality of a working-class life.A recent study of public opinion shows that in modern Britain ________.
| A．it is time to end class distinction |
| B．most people belong to middle class |
| C．it is easy to recognize a person’s class |
| D．people regard themselves socially different |
The word stratification in Paragraph 3 is closest in meaning to ________.
| A．variety |
| B．most people belong to middle class |
| C．authority |
| D．qualification |
The study in the US showed that BBC English was regarded as _________.
| A．regional |
| B．educated |
| C．prejudiced |
| D．unattractive |
British attitudes towards accent _________.
| A．have a long tradition |
| B．are based on regional status |
| C．are shared by the Americans |
| D．have changed in recent years |
What is the main idea of the passage?
| A．The middle class is expanding |
| B．A person’s accent reflects his class |
| C．Class is a key part of British society |
| D．Each class has unique characteristics. |