In the kitchen of my mother's houses there has always been a wooden stand with a small notepad and a hole for a pencil.
I'm looking for paper on which to note down the name of a book I am recommending to my mother. Over forty years since my earliest memories of the kitchen pad and pencil, five houses later, the current paper and pencil look the same as they always did. Surely it can't be the same pencil. The pad is more modern, but the wooden stand is definitely the original one.
"I'm just amazed you still have the same stand for holding the pad and pencil after all these years." I say to her, walking back into the living-room with a sheet of paper and the pencil. "You still use a pencil. Can't you afford a pen?"
My mother replies a little sharply. "It works perfectly well; I've always kept the stand in the kitchen. I never knew when I might want to note down an idea, and I was always in the kitchen in these days. "
Immediately I can picture her, hair wild, blue housecoat covered in flour, a wooden spoon in one hand, the pencil in the other, her mouth moving silently. My mother smiles and says, "One day I was cooking and watching baby Pauline, and I had a brilliant thought, but the stand was empty. One of the children must have taken the paper. So I just picked up the breadboard and wrote it all down on the back. It turned out to be a real breakthrough for solving the mathematical problem I was working on."
This story, which happened before I was born, reminds me how extraordinary my mother was, and is also a gifted mathematician. I feel embarrassed that I complain about not having enough child-free time to work. Later, when my mother is in the bathroom, I go into her kitchen and turn over the breadboards. Sure enough, on the back of the smallest one, are some penciled marks I recognize as mathematics. Those symbols have traveled unaffected through fifty years, rooted in the soil of a cheap wooden breadboard, invisible exhibits at every meal.Why has the author's mother always kept the notepad and pencil in the kitchen?
| A．To leave messages. |
| B．To list her everyday tasks. |
| C．To note down math problems. |
| D．To write down a flash of inspiration. |
What is the author's original opinion about the wooden stand?
| A．It has great value for the family. |
| B．It needs to be replaced. |
| C．It brings her back to her lonely childhood. |
| D．It should be passed on to the next generation. |
The author feels embarrassed for____________.
| A．blaming her mother wrongly |
| B．giving her mother a lot of trouble |
| C．not making good use of time as her mother did |
| D．not making any breakthrough in her field |
What can be inferred from the last paragraph?
| A．The mother is successful in her career. |
| B．The family members like traveling. |
| C．The author had little time to play when young. |
| D．The marks on the breadboard have disappeared. |
Growing up, I wanted to be just like my mom. She was kind. People always seemed to feel comfortable in her presence. For years, she was a volunteer in our community. I loved going to the local nursing home with her where she taught a ceramic (陶艺)class.
On one summer day, Mama told me to get changed and meet her at the car. I had planned to spend the day at the lake with friends. Why did she have to ruin everything? I imagined the cool lake water. Annoyed, I climbed into the car and slammed（砰然关上） the door closed. We sat in silence. I was too upset to make conversation.
“Tasha, would you like to know where we are going?” Mama asked calmly.
“No,” I said.
“We are going to volunteer at a children’s shelter today. I have been there before and I think it would benefit you,” she explained.
When we reached the shelter, Mama rang the doorbell. Moments later, we were greeted by a woman. She led us to the front room where all of the children were playing. I noticed a baby whose body was scarred with iron marks. I was told it was because she wouldn’t stop crying. Most of the children had obvious physical scars (疤痕). Others hid their emotional wounds.
As I took in the place, I felt a gentle pull on my shirt. I looked down to see a little girl looking up at me. “Hi. You want to play dolls with me?” she asked. I looked over at Mama for reinforcement. She smiled and nodded. I turned back and said, “Sure.” Her small hand reached up and held mine, as if to comfort me.
My mom taught me a valuable lesson that summer. I returned to the shelter with her several times. During those visits, some of the children shared their troubled pasts with me and I learned to be grateful for what I had. Today as I struggle to instill (逐渐灌输) these values in my own child, I reflect back to that experience. It was a time that I will never forget. The author admired her mom for ________.
| A．her quality of honesty | B．her excellent teaching |
| C．her kindness to others | D．her positive attitude to life |
52. According to Paragraph 2, when she was asked to go out with her mom, the author was ______.
| A．excited | B．angry | C．surprised | D．worried |
From the passage we learn most children in the shelter ________.
| A．were once treated badly |
| B．weren’t allowed to go outside |
| C．were often punished by staff |
| D．all suffered from mental illness |
The underlined word “reinforcement” in the passage is closest in meaning to “________”.
| A．upset | B．command | C．comfort | D．support |
What lesson did the author learn from her experience?
| A．To value what you have. |
| B．To play with children is fun. |
| C．To love others is to love yourself. |
| D．To do as what your parents do. |
Most people think that the capital of the movie world is Hollywood in the United States. However, the real movie capital is Mumbai, in India. Mumbai used to be known as Bombay, and so the film industry there is called “Bollywood.” Bollywood makes twice as many movies each year as Hollywood—more than 800 films a year.
The movies from Bollywood are very different from Hollywood movies. For one thing, Bollywood movies are much longer than most Hollywood movies. Most Bollywood movies are more than three hours long, and contain singing, dancing, action, adventure, mystery and romance (but usually no kissing). Because Bollywood films contain so many different features, this style of film is sometimes called a “masala” film. (“Masala” is an Indian word for a mixture of species.)
Another big difference between Bollywood and Hollywood movies is the way movies are made. It takes much longer to make a movie in Hollywood than in Bollywood. In fact, filming may begin on a Bollywood movie before the script is finished. The director and writer can make up the story while the film is being made. Sometimes they will even write the script (剧本) by hand instead of taking time to type it.
Bollywood actors are very popular and some are in such high demand that they may work on several movies at the same time. They may even shoot（拍摄） scenes for several films on the same day using the same costumes and scenery. Since most Bollywood movies follow the same kind of story, shooting scenes for several films at the same time is not a big problem for actors or directors. This also helps keep the cost of Bollywood movies lower than the cost of Hollywood movies. The average Bollywood film, with a budget（预算）of only two million US dollars, seems very cheap compared to the average budget of sixty million US dollars for a Hollywood film, thirty times as much!What is the main topic of the reading?
| A．Famous stars in Bollywood. |
| B．How Hollywood movies are made. |
| C．The difference between two movie industries. |
| D．The history of movie-making in India. |
What is NOT true about Mumbai?
| A．It is the movie capital of India. |
| B．The new name is Bombay. |
| C．More movies are made there than in Hollywood. |
| D．It is less expensive to make films there than in Hollywood. |
Why are Bollywood films often called “masala” films?
| A．They are very popular. |
| B．They show Indian culture. |
| C．They are much longer than Hollywood films. |
| D．They mix different styles of movies. |
Bollywood films are cheap to make because .
| A．they are shorter than Hollywood films |
| B．the scripts are written by hand |
| C．the movies do not use any special effects |
| D．one movie can reuse things from other movies |
Which of the statements would the writer probably agree with?
| A．Most Bollywood movies are very similar. |
| B．It takes a lot of money to make a good movie. |
| C．Only Indian people can understand Bollywood movies. |
| D．Hollywood movies are too short. |
When I grew up, all the schools in the village demanded that girls cut their hair. The teachers would measure our hair and make sure it was not too long. I remember crying and begging as the scissors cut my hair.
My dad told me that a girl who was in school needed to concentrate on books and that hair was a distraction (分心). I cut my hair all the way through primary school and middle school. Then I went to a high school that allowed long hair but no styles or braids (编辫子) during class hours. Even then, still adhering to (遵守) my dad’s words, I never wore my hair long.
When I graduated from high school, I started growing my hair. I spent hours looking in the mirror and shaping my hair. My sister complained, wondering why I had to have two styles in a day.
In college I heard the word perm (烫发). Girls had some strong chemicals (化学药品) put on their heads and made the hair look beautiful. I quickly sat in a salon (美发厅) and changed my hair. I returned to the salon once every month. Even during the days when I had no money for food, I had to find money for my hair.
After college, I was jobless and broke. I had to have my hair cut. At that time I saw a bald (光头的) black model. Her style shocked me and I admired her so much that I began to follow her. Therefore, there I was. I wore some large earrings and walked around like a model. And many people admired my style.
At this point the journey with my hair stopped completely. I decided to have natural hair. I soon found out natural hair is the cheapest, easiest and healthiest way to wear African hair.What did the author think of having her hair cut in primary school?
| A．She thought that was cool. |
| B．She didn’t care about hair at all. |
| C．She hated the rule. |
| D．She thought that must be helpful. |
The author didn’t wear long hair in high school because ____________.
| A．her school didn’t allow that |
| B．she wanted to follow her father’s words |
| C．she was not good at shaping long hair |
| D．her sister didn’t like long hair |
When did the author wear long hair?
| A．In middle school. |
| B．In college. |
| C．After she graduated from college. |
| D．After she found a job. |
The author thought the bald black model looked ____________.
| A．beautiful | B．terrifying | C．poor | D．ugly |
What would be the best title for the passage?
| A．Make your hairstyle fashionable |
| B．Appearance is not the most important thing |
| C．A journey to natural hair |
| D．Black girls should be confident |
Cheaters called “pirates” often use camcorders(便携式摄像机) and cell phones to make illegal copies of blockbusters in the local theater. These pirates then sell those recordings on the street or over the Internet for very low prices. Some share them for free.
“It’s unfair for people to pirate movies,” says 15-year-old Hadaia Azad Ezzulddin. Movie piracy “takes money out of the pockets of thousands of people in the movie industry,” she notes. Victims include famous actors and directors as well as local theater owners and their employees.
Hadaia came up with an idea that could help stop movie piracy. Hadaia’s idea uses infrared(红外线的) light. This range of light is invisible to the human eye. It is visible, however, to many types of cameras. Theater owners could place small infrared lights on their movie screens. The lights would not disturb people watching the movie. It would, however, distort the recordings made by many types of cameras.
To test her idea, Hadaia built a box with a movie screen inside. Then, she projected images on that screen through a hole in the box. She took recordings of those images, using nine different types of cameras. These included the types found in cell phones as well as camcorders. During some tests, she also turned on light emitting diodes(发光二极管), or LEDs. The LEDs were embedded（植入的）in a certain place behind the movie screen. They gave out infrared light.
Sure enough, she showed, a pirated movie included odd stripes or spots if it had been recorded while the LEDs were on. It might be possible to use the LEDs to flash the date and time on the movie screen. The information would then appear in the illegal recordings. Theater owners or police might use the information to track down the pirates.
Cutting down on piracy might get more people into theaters to watch the real movie instead of an illegal copy. Six out of every ten films now produced aren’t profitable. They don’t make enough money to recover how much was spent to make and market them. Such a poor payback can discourage filmmakers from producing anything but the types expected to become blockbuster hits. It might also keep smaller theaters from showing a wider variety of movie types. From what Hadaia says in Paragraph 2, we can infer that _______.
| A．most people spend less money on pirates moves |
| B．the pirates don’t have to pay for the movie tickets |
| C．theater owners will increase the price of movie tickets |
| D．she strongly criticizes those who video movies in the theater |
Infrared lights are put on the movie screens to _______.
| A．adjust the brightness of the movie screens |
| B．make sure the images of movies are dark |
| C．make illegal copies of movies unpleasant to see |
| D．protect the eyesight of viewers in the darkness |
What is the correct order of the steps in Hadaia’s test?
a. She projected pictures on the screen.
b. She used cameras to record the pictures.
c. She turned on the LEDs placed behind the screen.
d. She made a special box with a movie screen inside.
| A．d c a b | B．d b a c |
| C．b a c d | D．b c a d |
According to the last paragraph, we can know that _______.
| A．forty percent of movies now are profitable |
| B．small theaters often choose to show low-cost movies |
| C．more and more people go to theaters to fight movie piracy |
| D．filmmakers prefer to produce ordinary movies than blockbusters |
There is a popular belief among parents that schools are no longer interested in spelling. No school I have taught in has ever ignored spelling or considered it unimportant as a basic skill There are, however, vastly different ideas about how to teach it, or how much priority it must be given over in general language development and writing ability. The problem is, how to encourage a child to express himself freely and confidently in writing without holding him back with the complexities of spelling?
If spelling becomes the only focal point of his teacher's interest, clearly a bright child will be likely to "play safe". He will tend to write only words within his spelling range, choosing to avoid adventurous language. That's why teachers often encourage the early use of dictionaries and pay attention to content rather than technical ability.
I was once shocked to read on the bottom of a sensitive piece of writing about a personal experience: "This work is terrible! There are far too many spelling errors and your writing is illegible." It may have been a sharp criticism of the pupil's technical abilities in writing, but it was also a sad reflection on the teacher who had omitted to read the essay, which contained some beautiful expressions of the child's deep feelings. The teacher was not wrong to draw attention to the errors, but if his priorities had centered on the child's ideas, an expression of his disappointment with the presentation would have given the pupil more motivation to seek improvement.Teachers differ in their opinions about ________.
| A．the difficulties in teaching spelling |
| B．the necessity of teaching spelling |
| C．the complexities of the basic writing skills |
| D．the role of spelling in general language development |
The expression "play safe" probably means “_______”.
| A．to write carefully |
| B．to avoid using words one is not sure of |
| C．to do as teachers say |
| D．to use dictionaries frequently |
Teachers encourage the use of dictionaries so that ______.
| A．teachers will have less trouble in correcting mistakes |
| B．students will have more confidence in writing |
| C．students will be able to express their ideas more freely |
| D．students will learn to be independent of teachers |
The major point discussed in the passage is ________.
| A．the relationship between spelling and content of a composition |
| B．the importance of developing writhing skills |
| C．the correct way of marking compositions |
| D．the complexities of spelling |