Why play games? Because they are fun, and we can learn even more while playing. Following the rules, planning your next move, acting as a team member — these are all “game” ideas that you will come across all through your life. They can help you in different ways.
Think about some of the games you played as a young child, such as rope-jumping and hide-and-seek. Such games are very interesting. But perhaps more importantly, they translate part of life into exciting games that teach children some of the basic rules they will be expected to follow the rest of their lives, such as taking turns and cooperating (合作).
Many children’s games have a practical side. Children around the world play games that prepare them for work they will do as grown-ups. For example, some Saudi Arabian children play a game called bones, which improves the hand-eye coordination (协调) needed in fishing.
The most famous games of all, the Olympic Games, bring athletes from around the world together to take part in friendly competitions. People who watch the event (比赛项目) know that a gold medal is a win for the whole country, not just the athlete who got it. For countries experiencing natural disasters (灾害) or wars, an Olympic win can mean so much.
Sports games are also an event that unites (团结) people. Football is the most popular sport in the world. People all over the world play it — some for fun and some for a living. Nicolette Iribarne, a Californian football player, has discovered a way to spread hope through football. He created a foundation (基金会) to provide poor children with not only soccer balls but also a bright future.
Next time you play your favorite game or sport, think about why you enjoy it, what skills are needed, and whether these skills will help you in other parts of your life. What are children expected to learn when they play games?
| A．To act as a team leader. | B．To follow the basic rules. |
| C．To train how to move fast. | D．To practice rope-jumping. |
What can we learn from the passage?
| A．Games can help everybody to make much money. |
| B．Games can turn real-life experiences into a story. |
| C．Games can make skill learning more interesting. |
| D．Games can prevent all the countries from disasters. |
What’s the main idea of the passage?
| A．Games can help people in different ways. |
| B．People are advised to play games for fun. |
| C．An Olympic win means a lot to every country. |
| D．Sports can get people all over the world together. |
Being busy can become a way of life. Our lives are always filled with emails and text messages. They make us feel wanted and important, but in a tiring and empty way. Being busy has a dangerous allure（诱惑）. If you are busy all the time, it’s hard to sit quietly with your thoughts or to really feel what you’re feeling. Whynot let everything become a choice — how we spend time, who we reply to and how much or little we write?
Many of us are busy becauseour self-worth goes up when people make demands（需求）on our time. Whydon’t we free ourselves from needing, or even wanting? Why don’t we make the best use of the time and space to be productive in a way that it best serves us? That may be consciously（主动地）keeping ourselves not busy. In fact many great discoverieswere made by people who built white space into their day.
Imagine asking “How are you?” to one of the most successful people you know like Warren Buffet. I’ve never heard anyone at that level answer “busy” though most people believe they are.
What are they doing differently?
First, they aim to project an image that things are under control. Second, they actually have things under control. They’ve had excellent staff, implemented（实施）thoughtful processes and they spend time only on critical tasks that require their attention. They make high-level strategic decisions with a large effect.
It’s time to end the glory of being busy and spend time setting up processes that make sense, rather than simply working more hours. To do this, you need to change yourway of thinking. It’s cool to say you’re busy, but it’s better to be busy helping someone carry a stroller up the subway stairs or busy finishing a book.
How to free us from the trendof being busy? Start with small steps. For one day, be mindful of every daily activity. Consider each thing a choice and decide proactively（预先）if it’s necessary or simply a habit you can get rid of or do in half the time. Next, stop saying how busy you are. Then, figure out what you want to achieve with your day and begin doing it. Put your time and energy where you want it to be.What are many of us busy doing every day?
| A．Sitting quietly and think actively. |
| B．Meeting people’s demands on our time. |
| C．Making great discoveries. |
| D．Takinghigh-level decisions. |
Why don’t successful people like Warren Buffet answer “busy”?
| A．Because they value working abilities and attitude. |
| B．Because they focus on attracting excellent workers. |
| C．Because they pay more attention to learning management. |
| D．Because they think well and spend more time on critical tasks. |
The writer probably agrees that we should ______.
| A．stop considering each thing a choice |
| B．work more hours to achieve our goals |
| C．answer emails and messages as soon as possible |
| D．be mindful where we want our time and energy to be |
What is the writer’s purpose in writing the passage?
| A．To advise us to be freedfrom the trend of being busy. |
| B．To warn us about the danger of leading a busy life. |
| C．To show us ways to feel good about being busy. |
| D．To tell us how to fit into the busy modern life. |
When I was four years old, I wanted nothing more in life than to play the piano. My best friend Betty had a piano. But Betty hardly played it at all. She would rather play hide-and-seek. It didn’t seem fair.
One day my mother came to pick me up from Betty’s house. “Watch this!” I told her. Then I ran to play a song I had learned that morning. I was so proud of what I’d learned. “That’s nice, Jenny,” she said. “But we can’t afford a piano.”
When I turned six, my mother bought me a recorder（直笛）. The problem was that I didn’t love the recorder. When I played the recorder, I didn’t feel anything special inside. I asked my mother if we could have a piano. “We still can’t afford one,” she said. “One day, I promise.”
In the sixth grade, my mother traded in the recorder for a real clarinet（黑管）. I like the clarinet more, but it still wasn’t a piano. It wasn’t the music that was inside of me.
One day, when I was in the seventh grade, my mother cut an ad out of the newspaper. We drove to a stranger’s home in Providence, Rhode Island. The woman had a beautiful, dark wood piano from Russia. It was called an upright piano because it was tall. It was so shiny that it looked like it was wet. “We’ll take it,” my mother said. “It has a nice sound.”
After that, I played the piano every single day.When I left for school in the morning, I would leave the sheet music open on the piano. When I got home, I would walk straight to the piano and sit down and start playing the sheet music. I even played if I stayed home sick. I had finally found the music inside of me.
Do you struggle with music? Have you been given an instrument to play, but you just can’t play it? Maybe you think you’re just no good or that you don’t have any musical talent. Don’t get discouraged. It’s not true! We all have music inside of us, even if it’s just what we listen to. Now it’s up to you to find the right way to set that music free.What did Jenny get when she was six?
| A．A clarinet. | B．A recorder. | C．A violin. | D．A guitar. |
How did Jenny get her piano?
| A．Betty gave it to her. |
| B．She traded in the clarinet for it. |
| C．She got it from her uncle. |
| D．Her mother bought it from a stranger. |
Which of the following is TRUE?
| A．Betty was more interested in playing the piano. |
| B．An old woman sent Jenny a clarinet from Russia. |
| C．Jenny enjoyed playing music with the right instrument. |
| D．Jenny’s mother borrowed a recorder in her seventh grade. |
What is the passage mainly about?
| A．How Jenny found the music inside of her. |
| B．What benefits Jenny got from making music. |
| C．How Jenny learned to play musical instruments. |
| D．What trouble Jenny had taking up music as a hobby. |
What do you want to do later in life? Here are 4 teenagers talking about their hometowns and their dreams.
Albert, age 11, Ontario
I come from Ontario.I love how different each season is. In winter, I go skiing with my family and cousins.
I’ve played soccer since I was three. I’ve made great friends and learned a lot of new skills. When I’m a professional soccer player, I want to work with kids, helping and encouraging them.
Sara, age 12, Washington
I live in Washington. It’s so pretty and green. I can go camping and hunting, and we have the best rivers to fish in.
I want to make a difference in the world. I’ve started making a change by leading my school’s Drug Abuse Prevention Club. I’ve also helped raise money for children who live with wars.
Madison, age 10, Maine
I live in Maine.I like living in a small townbecause it’s easy to get outside with friends.
I’m not sure what I am planning for my future, but I have lots of ideas! I like to think outside of the box and experience new things, so as I go through life I’m sure I’ll have even more ideas!
Brittany, age 11, New Jersey
I live in New Jersey. I love going to Six Flags Great Adventure and playing with my dad.
I have been a member of a public speaking organizationsince I was seven. I really enjoy going to my speaking classes and competing against other teams. My dream is to be a lawyer.Who is going to be a soccer player?
| A．Albert. | B．Sara. | C．Madison. | D．Brittany. |
How did Sara help the children who live with wars?
| A．By encouraging them. | B．By raising money. |
| C．By planning for their future. | D．By giving speeches. |
Madison likes living in a small townin Maine because ______.
| A．each season isdifferent there |
| B．he can go camping and hunting |
| C．it’s easy to get outside with friends |
| D．it’s fun to go to Six Flags Great Adventure |
Delia was a young pianist. Her husband, Joe, was a young artist.
Each of them was taking lessons: Joe with a famous art teacher, and Delia with a great pianist from Germany. Their teachers were the very best, so lessons were expensive, more than they could really afford, but…when you love your art, nothing is too much.
But soon the money began to run out, and they couldn’t afford the lessons any more.
Then one day Delia came back home and told Joe that she had met a man whose daughter, Sally, wanted to learn the piano, and he was going to pay her $ 50 an hour.
“Delia,” Joe said, “I’ll be much happier if you keep up your lessons,” Delia said it didn’t matter. “When I’ve had some money, I’ll continue.” But Joe also decided to stop his lessons, to draw pictures and sell them.
A few days later, Joe came home and proudly took $ 200 from his pocket. “I met a man from Vermont,” he said, “who bought one of my pictures. And he wants to buy more!”
_________________.They didn’t have to worry any more about money.
Then, one day, Joe came home and saw that Delia’s hand was wrapped in a bandage(绷带). He asked her what had happened. “Oh,” said Delia. “My student, Sally, asked me to make some coffee for her. I dropped the coffee and burned my hand. Sally went straight to the drugstore and got this bandage for me. ”
“Delia, what have you been doing the last two weeks?” Joe asked. She tried not to tell him, but the tears came. “Oh Joe, I couldn’t get any students, so I worked as a waitress in a restaurant. Today, I burned my hand with hot water. So I can’t work any more. But we’ll still have money from the man in Vermont, won’t we?”
Joe looked at her. “There’s no man in Vermont, ” he said. “I’ve been working in a drugstore, and today someone came in to buy bandages for a woman who’s burned her hand. So when I saw you, well, I guessed.”
They both laughed.
[A story by O. Henry—adapted(改编)]The writer of the story is ____.
| A．Joe | B．Delia | C．O. Henry | D．Sally |
Which of the following can be put in the “____” in Paragraph 7?
| A．A bigger plan came to their mind |
| B．Since then Joe became very famous |
| C．So the two of them were very happy |
| D．Delia stopped her lessons and stayed home |
Both of them laughed in the end because ____.
| A．they would go on with their lessons soon |
| B．they had both told lies to make the other happy |
| C．they didn’t have to worry about money any more |
| D．they thought they had done something meaningless |
The best title for the passage can be ____.
| A．Blind love |
| B．A pleasant gift |
| C．A service of love |
| D．An unforgettable lesson |
It happens every spring. Flowers come out everywhere on the same day. But how do plants “know” when to flower?
For years, it has been a difficult question for scientists. But a US research group may have finally answered it—the secret lies in a protein(蛋白质)called FKF1. This helps plants to know when the days become long and when they get short. Then they can tell the seasons are changing.
Researchers found the FKF1 protein when they were studying a plant called Arabidopsis(拟南芥). It is sensitive(敏感的)to sunlight, and can be made active by sunlight.
Plants produce this protein every day in the late afternoon all year. If there is no light at this time, for example in winter when the sun goes down early, the protein won’t be active. But when spring comes and the days get longer, the FKF1 protein can be made active by day light and the plants “know” it is time to flower. “If there is light in the late afternoon, plants will know that the days are getting longer and that it is the best time for flowers to come out,” explained Takato Imaizumi, leader of study. But when conditions are poor for growing, such as during autumn or winter when the weather is cold and days are short, plants won’t flower.
Although researchers have only studied how the FKF1 protein works in the Arabidopsis, they believe that it is the same with many other plants, including crops such as rice and wheat. This could be useful to the agricultural industry.
“If we can control when flowers come out, we might be able to increase crop production,” Imaizumi said.The passage is mainly about ____.
| A．how plants “know” when to flower |
| B．what people can do with plants |
| C．how seasons are changing |
| D．what kind of plant Arabidopsis is |
Scientists found the FKF1 protein when they were____.
| A．answering a question |
| B．controlling the clours of flowers |
| C．planting flowers in the garden |
| D．studying a plant called Arabidopsis |
The best time for flowers to come out is when____.
| A．it rains in spring |
| B．there is light in the late afternoon |
| C．it is getting dark |
| D．the sun goes down early |
Scientists believe that____.
| A．other plants also know when to flowers |
| B．flowers are more valuable than fruits and vegetables |
| C．people have known how to control when flowers come out |
| D．if the weather is cold and days are short, plants will flower |