NewspapersinGreatBritainvarygr-优题课

If there is no difference in general intelligence(智力)between boys and girls,what can explain girls' poor performance in science and mathematics?
It seems to be that their treatment at school is a direct cause.Mathematics and science are seen as subjects mainly for boys,and therefore ,as girls become tee
nagers,they are less likely to take them.Interestingly,both boys and girls often
regard the subjects for boys as more difficult.Yet it has been suggested that girls do not take mathematics courses ,not because they are difficult,but for social reasons.Girls do not want to be in open competition with boys because they are afraid to appear less feminine(女性的)and attractive.
However,if we examine the performance of boys and girls who have taken mathematics courses,there are still more highachieving boys than there are girls.This difference appears to be worldwide.Biological explanations have been offered for this,but there are other explanations too.
Perhaps the difference which comes out during the teenage years has its roots in much earlier experiences.From their first days in kindergarten,boys are encouraged to work on their own and to complete tasks.Facts show that outstanding(杰出的)mathematicians and scientists have not had teachers who supplied answers.
Besides,there can be little doubt that teachers of mathematics and science expect their boy students to do better at these subjects than their girl students.They even appear to encourage the difference between boys and girls.They spend more time with the boy students ,giving them more time to answer questions and working harder to get correct answers from them.They are more likely to call on boys for answers and to allow them to take the lead in classroom discussion.They also praise boys more frequently.All of this seems to encourage boys to work harder in science and mathematics and to give them confidence(信心)that they are able to succeed.
Such a way of teaching is not likely to encourage girls to take many mathematics
and science courses,nor is it likely to support girls who do.When it comes to these subjects it seems certain that school widens the difference between boys and girls.
1.Girls are likely to think that____________.
A.science courses are for both boys and girls
B.science courses make them more popular
C.science courses make them successful
D.science courses are difficult for them
2.The text mainly discusses_____________reasons for the difference between boys and girls in scientific achievements.
A.biological B.historical C.social D.personal
3.What are boys usually encouraged to do at school?
A.To get help with their homework.
B.To play the leading role in class.
C.To work with girl students in class.
D.To learn to take care of others.
4.What does the passage say about great mathematicians?
A.Their teachers did not supply answers to them.
B.They started learning mathematics at an earlier age.
C.They showed mathematical abilities in their teenage years.
D.Their success resulted from their strong interest in mathematics.
5.The author would probably agree that_____________.
A.boys and girls learn in the same way
B.boys and girls are equal in general intelligence
C.girls are more confident in themselves than before
D.girls should take fewer science courses than boys

The easy way out isn't always easiest. I learned that lesson when I decided t
o treat Doug, my husband of one month, to a special meal. I glanced through my cookbook and chose a menu which included homemade bread. Knowing the bread would take time, I started on it as soon as Doug left for work. As I was not experienced in cooking, I thought if a dozen was good, two dozen would be better, so I doubled everything. As Doug loved oranges, I also opened a can of orange and poured it all into the bowl. Soon there was a sticky dough(面团) covered with ugly yellowish marks. Realizing I had been defeated, I put the dough in the rubbish bin outside so I wouldn't have to face Doug laughing at my work. I went on preparing the rest of the meal, and, when Doug got home, we sat down to Cornish chicken with rice. He tried to enjoy the meal but seemed disturbed. Twice he got up and went outside, saying he thought he heard a noise. The third time he left, I went to the window to see what he was doing. Looking out, I saw Doug standing about three feet from the rubbish bin, holding the lid up with a stick and looking into the container. When I came out of the house, he dropped the stick and explained that there was something alive in our rubbish bin. Picking up the stick again, he held the lid up enough for me to see. I felt cold. But I stepped closer and looked harder. Without doubt it was my work. The hot sun had caused the dough to double in size and the fermenting yeast(酵母)made the surface shake and sigh though it were breathing. It looked like some unknown being from outer space. I could see why Doug was so shaken. I had to admit what the “living thing” was and why it was there. I don't know who was more embarrassed(尴尬)by the whole thing—Doug or me.
1. The writer's purpose in writing this story is ________ .
A. to tell an interesting experience
B. to show the easiest way out of a difficulty
C. to describe the trouble facing a newly married woman
D. to explain the difficulty of learning to cook from books
2.Why did the woman's attempt at making the bread turn out to be unsuccessful?
A. The canned orange had gone bad.
B. She didn't use the right kind of flour.
C. The cookbook was hard to understand.
D. She did not follow the directions closely.
3.Why did the woman put the dough in the rubbish bin?
A. She didn't see the use of keeping it.
B. She meant to joke with her husband.
C. She didn't want her husband to see it.
D. She hoped it would soon dry in the sun.
4.What made the dough in the bin look frightening?
A. The rising and falling movement.B. The strangelooking marks.
C. Its shape. D. Its size.
5.When Doug went out the third time, the woman looked out of the window because she was ________ .
A. surprised at his being interested in the bin
B. afraid that he would discover her secret
C. unhappy that he didn't enjoy the meal
D. curious to know what disturbed him

I’m seventeen. I had worked as a box boy at a supermarket in Los Angeles. People came to the counter and you put things in their bags for them. And carried things to their cars. It was hard work.
While working, you wear a plate with your name on it. I once met someone I knew years ago. I remembered his name and said,“Mr Castle, how are you?"We talked about this and that. As he left, he said,“It was nice talking to you, Brett."I felt great, he remembered me. Then I looked down at my name plate. Oh no. He didnt remember me at all, he just read the name plate. I wish I had put“Irving"down on my name plate. If hed have said,“Oh yes, Irving, how could I forget you?"I d have been ready for him. Theres nothing personal here.
The manager and everyone else who were a step above the box boys often shouted orders. One of these was: you couldnt accept tips(小费). Okay, Im outside and
I put the bags in the car. For a lot of people, the natural reaction(反应)is to take a quarter and give it to me. Id say,“Im sorry, I can’t."They’d get angry. When you give someone a tip, youre sort of being polite. You take a quarter and you put it in their hand and you expect them to say,“Oh,thanks a lot."When you say,“I'm sorry, I can't."They feel a little put down.They say,“No one will know."And they put it in your pocket. You say,“I really can’t."It gets to a point where you almost have to hurt a person physically(身体上)to prevent him from tipping you. It was not in agreement with the stores belief in being friendly. Accepting tips was a friendly thing and made the customer feel good. I just couldt understand the strangeness of some peoples ideas. One lady actually put it in my pocket, got in the car, and drove away. I would have had to throw the quarter at her or eaten it or something.
I had decided that one year was enough. Some people needed the job to stay alive and fed. I guess I had the means and could afford to hate it and give it up.
1.What can be the best title for this text?
A.How Hard Life for Box Boys
B.Getting along with Customers
C.Why I Gave up My Job
D.The Art of Taking Tips
2.From the second paragraph, we can infer that _______ .
A.the writer didn’t like the impersonal part of his job
B.with a name plate, people can easily start talking
C.Mr Castle mistook Irving for Brett
D.Irving was the writers real name
3.The box boy refused to accept tips because _______.
A.customers only gave small tips
B.some customers had strange ideas about tipping
C.the store forbade the box boys to take tips
D.he didn’t want to fight with the customers
4.The underlined phrase“put down"in the third paragraph probably means _______.
A.misunderstood B.defeated C.hateful D.hurt

What am I doing with my daughter at home? Rather than read aloud from books, we
go to dinner and have a very good time. This is usually when her Mom isn't around, and this is when my little girl and I relate better. They're alone together so much. We're seldom alone. When we're alone together, she and I somehow behave differently. We learn about each other. She learns that I'm her father. I learn that she's my daughter. It's a strange feeling, but any parent knows what I'm talking about when I say that I often look at my daughter and wonder just whose kid she is. Where'd she suddenly come from? And why on earth did she pick Laura and me for parents?
When my daughter and I are alone she'll hold my hand and say, “I just love you so much, Daddy!” She's so used to my leaving that when I tell her she and I are going to hang out all night, she gets this great look on her face and says, “We've got so much to do, Dad!” There's nothing like it in the world.
I want my relationship with my daughter to keep growing, so I've been giving my wife a couple of hundred dollars each week and making her go to the shopping center with her girlfriends, or something—anything!
But this closeness is not without its problems. When I'm sitting there playing with her Barbie doll(巴比娃娃)， washing her hair, a voice in me suddenly says, “I've got to get a drink and get out of here.” Right in the middle of all this pleasantness, the voice goes, “Look at yourself! You're washing dolls!”
1.Why does the husband give his wife so much money each week?
A. He wants her to buy more things for the family.
B. She can do whatever she likes with the money.
C. He can spend more time with his daughter.
D. She can spend more time with her friends.
2. Which of the following statements is true?
A. The father spends more time with the daughter than the mother does.
B.The daughter is happy when the father tells her he will be away.
C.The father is happy, hearing “We've got so much to do, Dad!”
D.The father is sure that the daughter is not his own.
3.What does the last paragraph tell us about the father?
A.He doesn't enjoy being with his daughter.
B.He doesn't like washing his daughter's hair.
C.He likes to enjoy himself by going out for a drink.
D.He has mixed feelings when he is with his daughter.

James Cleveland Owens was the son of a farmer and the grandson of black slaves. His family moved to Cleveland when he was 9. There, a school teacher asked the youth his name.
“J. C.，" he replied.
She thought he had said “Jesse", and he had a new name.
Owens ran his first race at age 13. After high school, he went to Ohio State University. He had to work part time so as to pay for his education. As a secondyear student, in the Big Ten games in 1935, he set even more records than he would in the Olympic Games a year later.
A week before the Big Ten meet, Owens accidentally fell down a flight of stairs.His back hurt so much that he could not exercise all week, and he had to be helped in and out of the car that drove him to the meet. He refused to listen to the suggestions that he give up and said he would try, event by event. He did try, and the results are in the record book.
The stage was set for Owens' victory at the Olympic Games in Berlin the next year, and his success would come to be regarded as not only athletic(体育的) but also political. Hitler did not congratulate any of the AfricanAmerican winners.
“It was all right with me," he said years later. “I didn't go to Berlin to shake hands with him, anyway."
Having returned from Berlin, he received no telephone calls from the president of his own country, either. In fact, he was not honored by the United States until 1976, four years before his death.
Owens' Olympic victories made little difference to him. He earned his living by looking after a school playground, and accepted money to race against cars, trucks, motorcycles, and dogs.
“Sure, it bothered(烦扰) me," he said later. “But at least it was an honest living. I had to eat."
In time, however, his gold medals(奖牌) changed his life. “They have kept me alive over the years," he once said. “Time has stood still for me. That golden moment dies hard."
1.Owens got his other name “Jesse" when ________.
A. he went to Ohio State University
B. his teacher made fun of him
C. his teacher took “J. C." for “Jesse"
D. he won gold medals in the Big Ten meet
2.In the Big Ten meet, Owens ________.
A. hurt himself in the back
B. succeeded in setting many records
C. tried every sports event but failed
D. had to give up some events
3.We can infer from the text that Owens was treated unfairly in the US at that time because ________.
A. he was not of the right race
B. he was the son of a poor farmer
C. he didn't shake hands with Hitler
D. he didn't talk to the US president on the phone
4.When Owens says “They have kept me alive over the years," he meansthat the medals ________.
A. have been changed for money to help him live on
B. have made him famous in the US
C. have encouraged him to overcome difficulties in life
D. have kept him busy with all kinds of jobs
5. Which of the following is a suitable title for the text?
A. Jesse Owens, a Great American Athlete
B. Golden Moment—a Lifetime Struggle
C. Making a Living as a Sportsman
D. How to Be a Successful Athlete?

A．a serious newspaper	B．foreign newspaper
C．any independent paper	D．a popular newspaper

A．improve	B．compete with each other
C．are different	D．keep in touch with each other