Have you ever wished that you could make your little sister’s teddy bear talk to her? Or have you ever wanted to bring a puppet (木偶) to life? If so, you may be interested in learning the art of ventriloquism (腹语术). A ventriloquist can make an ordinary object seem to be alive by giving it a personality, movement, and speech.
Your object can be a puppet, or a doll. Give your new “friend” a name, and then decide on the personality that he will have. The next step is to give your friend movements that agree with the personality you have chosen.
Now you can learn to make your “friend” talk. A ventriloquist will control his mouth and lips so that it will appear that his voice is coming from the object he is using. This will take practice, but you can do it.
First, decide on a voice that is different from your own. It could be higher or lower than yours, or could even have a special accent. Then, find a clean teaspoon and hold the handle between your front teeth. Now, using the voice you created for your friend and holding the handle of the teaspoon tightly between your teeth, look into a mirror and talk. Practicing with the spoon in your mouth will help you learn to keep your mouth from moving. Now try telling a joke in your normal voice and have your friend speak in his voice. Practice those words until you can say them without your lips moving at all.
Ventriloquism is fun. It also requires hard work to become good at it. The most important thing to do is practice. But if you are willing to take the time to give your friend an interesting personality, to practice lively movements, and to work on good mouth control, then you will be well on your way to becoming a ventriloquist!According to the text, a ventriloquist .
| A．is a person who can make puppets |
| B．needs to work with another person |
| C．can speak without using his mouth |
| D．can make an object seem to speak |
You need to hold the handle of a teaspoon between your front teeth so that .
| A．your voice will change |
| B．your mouth won’t move |
| C．you can look humorous |
| D．you can feel your mouth’s movements |
If you want to be good at ventriloquism, you .
| A．need to spend much time practicing |
| B．must learn from famous ventriloquists |
| C．should learn at least one special accent |
| D．must have a great doll to practice with |
What would be the best title for the text?
| A．How to tell jokes |
| B．How to make puppets |
| C．Secrets of ventriloquism |
| D．Tips on making friends |
基础训练篇（25）
On keeping a Diary in English
Keeping a diary in English is one of the 1.___________ (effect) ways to improve our English writing ability.
2._____________ (compare) with other forms of writing, it is shorter and takes 3.____________ time. It can help us to develop the habit of thinking in English. 4.____________ we persist in this practice, gradually we’ll learn how to express ourselves in English. In keeping a diary in English, we certainly run up against many 5.__________. In the first place, 6.____________ often happens that we have trouble finding appropriate words and phrases to give expression to our mind. Secondly, there are many idiomatic ways of saying things in Chinese. And it is extremely hard for us to put them into English properly.
As far as I _7. ______________ (concern), my 8._____________(suggest) is that we should always have a notebook and a Chinese-English dictionary within easy reach. Whenever something beats us, we can first put it down in our notebook and then consult our dictionary. We can also turn to our English teacher for help, if necessary. In short, I believe that it is 9._____ ______ great use to keep a diary in English for 10.___ ________ development of our writing skills.
基础训练篇（24）
Ms. Mary was over eighty, but she still drove her old car like half her age. She loved driving very fast, and boasted of the fact 1. she had never, in her thirty-five years of driving, been punished 2. a driving mistake.
Then one day, she nearly lost her record. A police car followed her, and the policemen in it saw her pass a red light without 3. (stop).
When Ms. Mary came before the judge, he looked at her severely and said that she was too old to drive a car, and that the reason 4. she had not stopped at red light was most probably that her eyes had become weak 5 old age, so that she had simply not seen it.
When the judge had finished 6. he was saying, Ms. Mary opened the big handbag she was carrying and took out her sewing. Without saying a word, she 7. (choose) a needle with a very small eye, and threaded it at the first time.
When she had 8. (success) done this, she took the thread out of the needle again and handed both the needle and thread to the judge, saying, “Now it is your turn. I suppose you can drive a car well, and you have no doubts 9. your eyesight.”
The judge took the needle and tried to thread it. After half a dozen times, he had still not succeeded. The case against Ms. Mary 10. (dismiss), and her record remained unbroken.
基础训练篇（23）
There was once a teacher in a village. He was a man named Goldsmith. He was a kind-hearted man. He was always poor (1)___________. He taught himself (2)___________, so sometimes people called him Doctor Goldsmith. One day a poor woman asked Mr. Goldsmith to go and see her husband, because he was very ill and couldn’t get up. Mr. Goldsmith did (3)____________. He found that the family needed help very much. The man had been out of work for a long time, but he was not (4)__________. He was just hungry because there was no food in his house.
“Come to my room this (5)_________”said Mr. Goldsmith to the woman, “I will give you some medicine for your husband.”
In the evening the woman came. Mr. Goldsmith gave her a little paper box.
“(6)__________is the medicine,” he said.” Take it and it will (7)_________ your husband a great deal of good, but don’t open the box until you get home.”
“What are the directions for (8) _________ it?” asked the woman.
“You will find them inside the box.” he answered.
When the woman (9)_______________ home, she sat down by her husband’s side, and they opened the box. They found it was full of money. And on the top were the (10)______________(direction)：“TAKE IT WHEN YOU NEED IT.”
Goldsmith had given all the money he had.
基础训练篇（22）
Dear Lifeline,
I shall be getting married (1)_______ August. My mother wants me to have a white wedding in (2)_________, because I am the only daughter, and she wants me to have the kind of wedding that she had. I, on the other (3)____________, should like to have a simple wedding (4)____________ a small party (5)______________ for immediate family and close friends. I don’t want my parents (6)___________ go to a lot of expense just for one day; I’d rather they spent the money (7)__________ things that my husband and I will need, that will last us for many years.
Do you agree (8) ____________ me that this is a (9)_____________ (reason) point of view ? Can you think of a way in which I might persuade my parents (10) _____________ think as I do?
Yours,
Money-Conscious
基础训练篇（21）
Bassanio fell in love (1) Portia, but he couldn’t ask her to marry him (2) he was poor. He had to borrow some money (3) ______ his friend Antonio, a merchant of Venice. Antonio had no money then. He went to Shylock, a cruel and (4) ______ (greed) money-lender. Shylock agreed to lend him the money on condition that he would cut a pound of his flesh (5) ______ he couldn’t repay him within three months.
Unfortunately Antonio’s ships were lost (6) sea. (7) ______ (know) that Antonio probably had to die, Portia asked Bassanio to go to see his friend at once. She dressed herself (8) as a lawyer and turned up at the court. She let Shylock cut just one pound of flesh (9) ______ Antonio, no more, no less, no drop of blood, otherwise he (10) ______ lose all his money. Her clever idea saved Antonio and made Shylock give half of his money to Venice.