My teachers suggested that I see a speech specialist (专家) in school.
I never really gave much thought to my speech. If other people understood what I was saying, then that was good enough. I didn’t mind repeating myself many times.
Before testing me, the speech specialist asked me what I thought of having good speech. I told her I thought it was not important.
“Well, when you are in an interview for a job, and they don’t know what you are saying, what are they going to say to you? Nice meeting you, bye,” she said.
Maybe good speech was important. I took part in 20-minute classes each week with the specialist.
After she tested me, she told me that I spoke too fast, and didn’t give enough eye contact (眼神交流). I learned that when I made eye contact with someone, it meant that I was talking to that person, and I could also see what he or she thought about what I was saying.
When my first speech class started, I found that I had been speaking too fast to be understood. Every time I spoke too fast, the specialist stopped me and told me to start again. At first, I got stopped after almost every other sentence. After a while, I felt my speech slow down. I wasn’t sure if people could understand me better, but my friends stopped asking me to repeat myself.
Speech is an important skill to have. If you do have good speech, that’s a good thing, but if you don’t have it, it is never too late to improve. The article is probably taken from .
| A．a newspaper | B．an advertisement | C．a detective story | D．a science book |
What did the writer think of having good speech before the classes?
| A．It was very useful. |
| B．It was nothing important. |
| C．It was impossible. |
| D．It was good for interviewing. |
What were the writer’s problems when he was speaking?
a. He spoke too quickly. b. He never stopped once he started talking.
c. He seldom kept eye contact with people. d. He didn’t give others time to ask questions.
| A．a, b | B．b, c | C．a, c | D．b, d |
From the sentence “but my friends stopped asking me to repeat myself,” we know that _____.
| A．the writer’s friends couldn’t understand him |
| B．the writer still couldn’t make eye contact |
| C．the writer improved a lot |
| D．the writer didn’t slow down |
Through the passage, the writer wants to tell us that _____.
| A．seeing a speech specialist is necessary |
| B．speech is an important skill to have |
| C．good speech can help you make friends |
| D．good speech gets good affect |
In some science fiction movies, evil robots refuse to die, no matter how hard people fight back.
Now science fiction has become science fact. For the first time, scientists have made a robot that can take a beating and keep on going. Scientists from Cornell University made the robot, which looks like a spider with four legs.
Until now, even the most advanced (先进的) robot was almost certain to break down when it was damaged (毁坏). That is because its computer inside simply doesn’t know how to make the machine work after its shape has changed.
To deal with this problem, the scientists put eight motors (发动机) and two sensors (传感器) that read how the machine is working. They all give signals to the machine’s software. Using this information, the computer can then figure out the machine’s shape at any moment.
The new technology is a big advance in robot-making, scientists say, and it’s far from scary. It may someday help scientists create better artificial (假的) arms and legs and give new freedom to people who lose them. It might also help scientists understand how people and animals figure out their own sense of place in space.
“It has been difficult to design robots that can work well when the environment changes or when it’s damaged,” says Olaf Sporns of Indiana University in US. “With this work, we are nearer to solving this problem.”Why do robots easily break down when they are damaged?
| A．They cannot repair themselves. |
| B．The computer has changed a lot. |
| C．They have no computers inside. |
| D．The computer cannot work if the robot changes. |
The new technology(技术) allows the robot to .
| A．keep working after being damaged |
| B．tell people where it is |
| C．do house work for humans |
| D．remember a lot of information |
The underlined word “them” in Paragraph 5 refers to .
| A．sensors | B．robots | C．scientists | D．arms and legs |
How do the sensors in the robot work?
| A．They can replace the computer when it’s broken. |
| B．They help the computer learn the robot’s condition. |
| C．They can find out where the damage comes from. |
| D．They can send signals to the person who uses the robot. |
Wonder why you can get angry so easily while your friend smiles all the time? It’s probably because you both have different personalities(个性).
Personality is also about how people think, behave, and react (反应) to everything around them from day to day.
So what makes people think and behave in certain ways?
Part of the reason is that people are born like this. A baby gets its blood type, genes (基因) and other physical things when it’s still inside its mother. These things may help decide what the baby will be like.
But one’s personality doesn’t stop here. Family life, school learning and life experiences can also make you the person you are. This doesn’t mean it’s impossible to change your personality. You can always try to make yourself better. Don’t get too worried about your shortcomings (缺点). Just accept them. This is a good way to start making changes.
If you don’t know how to make friends, find out why. Is it because you’re too shy? Tell yourself to smile at people. Start talking to people using warm greetings.
Don’t give yourself a hard time about it all. It’s not easy to change lifelong habits in one night. Keep working at it. One day you’ll see that you can turn over a new leaf and be a new you!Personality is about the following except .
| A．how you behave |
| B．what you look like |
| C．how you react to something |
| D．how you think about something |
We know that from the passage.
| A．people are born the way they’ll always be |
| B．a person can try to change his/her personality |
| C．personality decides what a person looks like |
| D．blood type decides what a person will be like |
From the last two paragraphs, we learn that .
| A．a shy person can’t make many friends |
| B．you can work hard to improve yourself |
| C．everyone can change him- or herself in life |
| D．there is no way to change your lifelong habits |
Co-operation (合作)is always needed when you make a project that the teacher gives you.
First, discuss all you would like to do with your classmates. Choose one of the members to write down what you’re talking about. Then, with the ideas you get, list all you want. Everyone shares the duty for the project. You can collect information not only from books but also on the internet. Making a survey and doing a research are also good ways. After that, all the members put what has been found together. Try to make the project more well-organized. In the end, you can give a report in front of your class to show the results of your hard work.
How to do it? |
Peter was getting ready to graduate from the college. He loved a beautiful sports car for many months, and knew his father could well afford it for him. He told his father all that he wanted.
As the graduation day was coming near, Peter had got nothing from his father. On the morning of his graduation, his father called him into his study. He told his son how proud he was to have such a good son, and told how much he loved him. Then he gave his son a beautiful gift box. He opened the box, finding a lovely book, a Bible(圣经), with the young man’s name in it. Angrily he raised his voice to his father and said, “With all your money you give me a Bible?” He then ran out of the house, leaving the Bible.
Many years later, Peter was very successful in business. He had a beautiful house and a wonderful family. Realizing his father was old, he thought he should go to see him. He had not seen him since that graduation day. Unfortunately, he was told that his father had died.
When he reached his father’s house, he began to take care of his father’s papers. And then he found the Bible, just as he had left it years ago. With tears, he opened it and began to turn the pages. As he was reading, from the back of the Bible dropped a car key. That was the key to the sports car he wanted so much. Sudden sadness and regret (悔恨)filled his heart.
Sometimes we don’t realize the good luck that we already have because we don’t know the gift box is packed in a different way. The gift box may be the door to happiness. It is just waiting for us to open.The son would like his father to buy him___________.
| A．a beautiful house | B．a Bible | C．a beautiful box | D．a sports car |
The son ran out of the house angrily because ____________.
| A．his father said something wrong to him | B．his father gave him nothing |
| C．he thought his father only gave him a Bible | D．his father didn’t love him |
Many years later, the son_____________.
| A．was told his father was still healthy | B．became a successful man |
| C．had a hard life | D．went to see his father quite often |
How did the son feel when he got the car key?
| A．Excited and happy. | B．Worried and sad. |
| C．Disappointed and upset. | D．Sad and regretful. |
From the story, the writer wants to tell us ___________.
| A．we may miss good luck because they are not packed as we expect |
| B．we should look after our parents carefully |
| C．our parents will give us everything we ask for |
| D．we should accept any gift that our parents give us |
If you want to become a better reader, here are four important points to remember about rate or speed(速度)of reading:
First, knowing why you are reading and what you are reading to find out will often help you to know whether to read rapidly or slowly.
Second, some things should be read slowly. Examples are directions for making or doing something; arithmetic(算术)problems, science and history books. They are full of important information. You must read such things slowly to remember each important step and understand each idea.
Third, some things should be read rapidly. Examples are simple stories for enjoyment, news, letters from friends, items or bits of news from local or hometown paper, telling what is happening to friends and neighbors.
Fourth, in some of your readings, you must change your speed from fast to slow, and slow to fast, as you read. You’ll need to read certain pages rapidly and then slow down and do more careful reading when you come to important ideas which should be remembered.A tale about fairies(神话) should be read_________.
| A．slowly | B．carefully | C．rapidly | D．to change one’s speed fast to slow |
A book about knowledge of the nature should be read _____________.
| A．either rapidly or slowly | B．rapidly | C．neither rapidly nor slowly | D．slowly |
__________should be read slowly.
| A．Novels | B．Letters |
| C．Some things full of important information | D．Newspapers and magazines |
In this passage the author advises us to ____________.
| A．read more books | B．be better readers |
| C．fit our speed to our needs | D．change our speed of reading now and then(不时地) |
According to this passage, one must pay attention to _______in your reading.
| A．why you are reading | B．what you are reading |
| C．the speed of reading | D．careful reading |