To most of us, school means classes, teachers, schedules, grades and tests. But for the children at Sudbury Valley School in Massachusetts, school is very different.
Firstly, there are no lessons. All the children, aged between 4 and 19, do whatever they want. There are no teachers, only “staff members”. The idea behind this is that you do not need to make children learn, because children want to learn anyway. “You do not need to say to a three-year-old, ‘Go explore your environment.’ You can’t stop them!”says Daniel Greenberg, a founder of the school. “But if you make children do what you want all day… they will lose all taste of learning.” At Sudbury Valley School, you will find children talking, reading, painting, cooking, working on computers, studying French, playing the piano, climbing trees, or just running around. Two boys spent three years just fishing!
The other way that Sudbury Valley School is different is that the children can decide the rules. Every week, there is a school meeting where both children and staff have one vote (投票)each—even the four-year-olds. They decide the school rules, how to spend the school money, and even which staff they want and do not want anymore.
When the school first opened in 1968, people said it would never work. But today, the school has 200 students, and 80% of its students go on to college. Even the two boys who went fishing all the time have successful careers today. One of them is a musician and the other is a computer scientist.
What's special about the school?
A.There is nobody but students there. |
B.All the students are of the same age. |
C.There are no classes for the students. |
D.There are no rules in the school. |
What do the students do in the school?
A.They learn everything there from the staff members. |
B.They grow up there without learning anything. |
C.They spend all the time with their parents. |
D.They do whatever they are interested in. |
The school seems to believe that children________.
A.learn best when they are doing what they want |
B.are too young to learn anything by themselves |
C.can look after themselves without any help |
D.can't go to college without any hard work |
The last paragraph wants to tell us that_ .
A.the writer doesn't like the idea of the school |
B.the school is quite successful in its work |
C.most of the parents don't believe in the school |
D.younger students learn bet![]() |
The underlined word career in the last paragraph most probably means_.
A. family B. money C. lifestyle d. job
请仔细阅读1--5题中关于Mary, Stella, Oliver, Amelia和Felix的兴趣爱好,从A-F中选出分别适合他们的电影。(每部电影只能被选一次。备选项中有一项是多余的。)
A. Rangers The story happens in Mexico in the year 3000. It has an exciting storyline and even better special effects (效果). Movie of the month—don’t miss it! ●●●●● |
B. Yesterday Wonderful movie set in Venice, by the famous director John Woodall. A young couple are in love and want to get married. The problem is, their parents aren’t happy… Great music and beautiful photography. ●●●●○ |
C. High School Days Three teenage boys meet at Stafford high School. They decide to start a band together and that’s when the fun really starts… Funny, with an interesting story. ●●●○○ |
D. Freddy A boy discovers he has magic powers, but what happens when he visits his grandparents? Fun for all the family. ●●●○○ |
E. Busters Jacky Chan stars in this movie. Lots of guns and lots of car chases. If you want excitement, watch this! Don’t watch it if you hate to see blood (血) . ●●●○○ |
F. Oregon Adventure Set in the early 19th century, this is a story about a long journey west across the United States and the problems the pioneer (拓荒者) had on the way. Both funny and sad. If you like westerns, this is the film for you. ●●●○○ |
●●●●● Don’t miss it!●●●●○ Very good ●●●○○ Good●●○○○ OK●○○○○ Stay at home! |
There is an old saying in English, “Laughter is the best medicine”. Until recently, few people took the saying very seriously. Now however, doctors have begun to study laughter and the effects (作用) it has on the human body. They have found evidence that laughter really can improve people’s health.
Tests were carried out to study the effects of laughter on the body. People watched funny films while doctors checked their heart rate, blood pressure, breathing and muscles. It was found that laughter has similar effects to physical exercise. It increases blood pressure, the heart rate and the rate of breathing. It also works several groups of muscles in the face, the stomach and even the feet. If laughter exercises the body, it must be helpful.
Other tests have shown that laughter appears to make the effect of pain on the body less. In one experiment doctors produced pain in groups of students who listened to different radio programs. The group which could bear the pain for the longest time was the group which listened to a funny program. The reason why laughter can make pain less seems to be that it helps to produce endorphins (内啡肽) in the brain. These are natural chemicals which make both stress and pain less.
There is also some evidence to suggest that laughter helps the body’s immune system that is the system which fights infection (感染). In an experiment, one group of students watched a funny video while another group served as the control group — in other words, a group with which to compare the first group. Doctors checked the blood of the students in both groups and found that the people in the group that watched the video had an increase in the activity of their white blood cells that is the cells which fight infection.
As a result of these discoveries, some doctors and psychiatrists (精神病学) in the United States now hold laughter clinics, in which they try to improve their patients’ condition by encouraging them to laugh. They have found that even if their patients do not really feel like laughing, making them smile is enough to produce good effects similar to those caused by laughter.We learn from the first paragraph that laughter __________ .
A.is good for one’s health |
B.has something to do with some illness |
C.has been studied long since |
D.has no effect on the body |
Doctors have found that laughter ___________ .
A.keeps down blood pressure |
B.has similar effects to physical exercise |
C.decreases the heart rate |
D.increases stress |
Which of the following statements is NOT true of laughter according to the passage?
A.It makes pain less. |
B.It exercises the body. |
C.It improves the body’s immune system. |
D.It can cure cancer. |
Smiling can produce _________.
A.about the same effects as laughter |
B.more effects than laughter |
C.fewer effects on the human body |
D.no effects on the human body |
In a laughter clinic doctors __________ .
A.laugh at their patients |
B.encourage their patients to laugh |
C.smile when they don’t feel like laughing |
D.never stop laughing |
The main idea of this passage is that _________.
A.the doctors should learn how to make people laugh |
B.there are several ways of studying the advantages of laughter |
C.tests show that laughter can produce positive effects on human body |
D.laughter and physical exercise have the same effects on human body |
Think of life as a game in which you are playing with five balls in the air. You name them work, family, health, friends and spirit and you keep all of them in the air. You will soon understand that work is a rubber ball. If you drop it, it will bounce (弹跳) back.
But the other four balls, family, health, friends and spirit, are made of glass. If you drop one of these, they will be broken. They will never be the same. You must understand that and try to have balance in your life. How?
Don’t look down on your worth by comparing yourself with others. It’s because we’re different and each of us is special.
Don’t let other people set goals for you. Only you know what is best for yourself.
Don’t give up when you still have something to give. Nothing is really over until the moment you stop trying.
Don’t be afraid of difficulties. It is by taking chances that we learn how to be brave.
Don’t shut love out of your life by saying it’s impossible. The quickest way to receive love is to give it; the fastest way to lose love is to hold it too tightly; the best way to keep love is to give it wings.
Don’t run through life so fast that you forget not only where you’ve been, but also where you are going.
Don’t be afraid to learn. Knowledge is a treasure you can always carry easily.
Don’t use time or words carelessly. You can’t get them back. Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, and today is a gift. Life is not a competition, but a trip, step by step.The passage tells us not to _________ because everyone is special.
A.be afraid of difficulties |
B.be afraid to learn |
C.run through life so fast |
D.compare yourself with others to look down on your worth |
The sentence “Nothing is really over until the moment you stop trying.” means that _____.
A.Nothing is possible |
B.If we don’t give up, there is always hope |
C.You should learn to give up |
D.Although you try, nothing will change. |
The best way to keep love is to ___________.
A.say it’s impossible | B.give it |
C.give it wings | D.hold it tightly |
If you run through life so fast, you will ____________.
A.lose your own treasure that you can always carry easily |
B.lose love by holding it too tightly |
C.forget not only where you’ve been, but also where you are going. |
D.not afraid of the difficulties |
According to the passage, which is the best title? ___________
A.Nothing is impossible. |
B.Glass balls are easy to be broken. |
C.Things you can’t do |
D.Treat your life in a right way. |
One day in the eighth grade, I was taking a Math Test on basic trigonometry (三角学). Now for a middle school student, there was nothing basic at all about it. So I had studied for about two hours the night before. After reviewing it for some time, I had started to understand it, so then I closed the book and ____________. However, it was not until midnight that I fell asleep. The next day, when I got the test, it might as well have been written in Serbian (which I don’t know how to read). I tried my best to work out the hard problems, but the numbers I came up with were strange. I sat back on my chair and looked for any possible answers, but I could not remember anything or think correctly. I started thinking about my dad coming home from work to find that I failed the test …
“How could you have failed the test? I am certain that nobody else in the whole class got as bad a grade as you did!”
Naturally I didn’t want that to happen. My dad was also really busy at work at present, so I was afraid that this might make him mad. When feeling hopeless, I noticed that my table partner was writing fast on his test. I could see how fast he was writing. I wanted to look over at his test, but then the many bad results I had heard about cheating (作弊) came into my mind. I told myself that if I started cheating now, it would be hard to give up that habit during high school. In the end, I decided not to copy his answers, and got a B- on that test. Even though my dad gave me a hard time about it, it would have been a lot worse if he found out that I had given in and cheated.The writer might feel ______ before the Math Test.
A.surprised | B.relaxed | C.worried | D.excited |
Which is the best expression to fill in the blank in the passage?
A.had breakfast | B.went to bed |
C.took exercise | D.rode to school |
The writer’s father was ______.
A.proud of him | B.tired of him |
C.strict with him | D.pleased with him |
From the passage, we know that the writer ______.
A.could read Serbian | B.didn’t cheat at last |
C.got a good grade at last | D.didn’t work hard that night |
Many people think the camel stores only water in its hump(驼峰),but it does not,Instead,the camel stores something else there----food.The camel’s hump is really a hump of fat.When the camel,often called”a ship of the desert”,is not travelling and is in a place where there is plenty of food and water,it eats and drinks a lot. As it does so, its hump rises from the fat its body makes. Then when the camel is travelling through the desert and when there is little food,it can live off the stored fat.
A camel can go on for days or weeks with little feed or water.However its hunger reaches the point starvation(饿死),its hump shrinks(收缩) and may even slip off its back and hang down its side.
Camels are not fussy(挑剔的) about what they eat.Thorny(多刺的) plants don’t hurt their mouths,grasses of any kinds will do and so will hay,dry grain,cactuses.(干草,干粮,仙人掌)
There are one—humpcamels and two—hump camels. Camels with one hump are calledArabian camels,mainly coming from North Africa. Camels with two humps are mainly from Asia.There are kinds of camels in the world.
A.two | B.three | C.four | D.five |
Camels eat and drink a lot .
A.after they finish their work |
B.before they go to sleep |
C.when they find much food and water |
D.when they go through the desert |
Reading this passage,we know .
A.camels can live without food and water |
B.camels need more but pay less |
C.there is much food and water in camels’ humps all the time |
D.camels make food and water into fat and store it in their humps |
A camel’s hump slips off its back or side because .
A.it tries to save some fat |
B.there is little fat in it. |
C.It hopes to have a good rest |
D.It can carry more |
Which is the following is true?
A.An African camel has one hump becausethereare many desertsthere. |
B.An Asian camel has two humps because there is much food and water there. |
C.Camels can live a very bad life. |
D.A camels is the most useful animal. |