I am a strong believer that if a child is raised with approval (准允), he learns to love himself and will be successful in his own way. Several weeks ago, I was doing homework with my son in the third grade and he kept standing up from his chair to go over the math lines. I kept asking him to sit down, telling him that he would concentrate better. He sat but seconds later, as if he didn’t even notice he was doing it, he got up again. I was getting frustrated (受挫), but then it hit me. I started noticing his answers were much quicker and accurate when he stood up. Could he be more absorbed while standing up?
This made me start questioning myself and what I had been raised to believe. I was raised to believe that a quiet, calm child was a sure way to success. This child would have the willpower to study hard, get good grades and become someone important in life.
Now those same people perhaps come to realize that their kids are born with their own sets of DNA and personality qualities, and all you can do is loving and accepting them. As parents, throughout their growing years and beyond that, we need to be our kids’ best cheerleaders, guiding them and helping them find their way.
I have stopped asking my son to sit down and concentrate. Obviously, he is concentrating just in his own way and not mine. We need to learn to accept our kids’ ways of doing things. Some way may have worked for me but doesn’t mean we need to carry it through generations. There is nothing sweeter than being personal and unique (独特的). It makes us free and happy and that’s just the way I want my kids to live their own life. Time and again the author got his son seated in order to make him ______.
| A．work fast | B．go polite | C．stay relaxed | D．keep attentive |
The underlined “it” (in the first paragraph) probably refers to ______.
| A．his son’s doing better while standing up |
| B．his failure in keeping his son under control |
| C．his own experience as a school boy |
| D．his disappointment with his active child |
By this passage, the author attempts to tell other parents to ______.
| A．correct their kids’ manners from the early ages |
| B．respect and trust their kids’ ways of behaviors |
| C．develop a good relationship with their children |
| D．guarantee their children’s freedom at home |
Which of the following would be the best title of the passage?
| A．Parental help with teens’ study |
| B．Adult influence on teen growth |
| C．Kids’ success in their own styles |
| D．Friendship between generations |
While reading a book in English, every few lines of text, you run across a word or two that you don’t know. You look up every new word in the dictionary. Bad move. All that does slow you down. Even electric or CD –ROM dictionaries can get in the way of your reading progress. A dictionary is like a road map. It can help you if you get lost and point you in the right direction. But if you stop to look at the “map” each time you take a step, you’ll get nowhere fast.
On your English learning “journey”, a dictionary can be a helpful “travel companion ”--if it is not overused. To help you start thinking in English, use an English-to-English dictionary. Otherwise, you will always depend on your native language and end up translating in your head.
A good dictionary can help you do more than just find the meaning of a word. It can help you verify (test and check) spelling, check word forms and grammar usage, find example sentence and learn pronunciation. Some dictionaries even provide exercises to teach you how to use their resources (资源) .
Take time to get to know your dictionary. Learn the pronunciation symbols (符号). Understand what the abbreviations (缩写字) mean. Try to master the important grammar rules. Look for charts, diagrams and lists that might be useful in the future. You will discover how helpful it can be to make friends with your dictionary. And as they say, “A friend in need is a friend indeed.”Why do we need a good English-to-English dictionary?
| A．Because it is a good friend. |
| B．Because it can help us to find the right direction if we get lost. |
| C．Without it we’ll always depend on our native language and end up translating in our head. |
| D．Because it can help us to start thinking in English and in Chinese. |
The underlined word “that ” in the last paragraph refers to __________.
| A．pronunciation symbols and grammar rules |
| B．abbreviations and usage for grammar rules |
| C．the meaning of a word, spelling and grammar usage |
| D．charts, diagrams and lists |
According to the passage , which statement can lead you to believe?
| A．The more you use a dictionary, the better you can understand the article. |
| B．The more you use a dictionary, the faster you may read. |
| C．The more you use the resources in a dictionary, the more you can benefit (受益) from it. |
| D．The better a dictionary is, the more expensive it is. |
SPECIAL EVENTS THIS WEEKEND
Captain Goodfellow
Do your children enjoy interesting stories, funny games, and exciting dances? Captain Goodfellow will be ready to teach all these things to children of all ages at the City Theatre on Saturday morning at 10:00, free.
Walking Tour of the Town
Forget your worries on Saturday morning. Take a beautiful walk and learn about its history. Meet at the front entrance of City Hall at 9:30. Wear comfortable shoes!
Films at the Museum
Two European films will be shown Saturday afternoon at the Museum Theatre. See Broken Window at 1:30. The workers will be at 3:45. For further information, call 4987898.
International Picnic
Are you tired of eating the same food every day? Come to Central Park on Saturday and enjoy food from all over the world. Delicious and not expensive. Noon to 5:00 pm.
Do You Want to Hear “The Zoo”
“The Zoo”, a popular rock group from Australia, will give their first US concert tomorrow night at 8:00 at Rose Hall, City College.You can probably eat Chinese, Italian, and Arab food __________..
| A．at the front entrance of City Hall | B．at the game |
| C．at 5:00 pm | D．at Central Park on Saturday |
You can see movies at __________.
| A．the City College | B．the Museum Theatre | C．the City Theatre | D．the Central Park |
Walking Tour of the Town will be taken __________.
| A．in the City Hall | B．outside | C．at the gate | D．at the zoo |
“The Zoo” is __________.
| A．a park with lots of animals there | B．a US concert |
| C．a music group | D．an interesting event |
Everyone would like to be a millionaire , a person with a lot of money, but can you imagine having over $30 million and only being 20 years old? Britney Spears from Kentwood, a small town in Louisiana, is only 20 years old. She is a world famous film star with not only $30 million but also a $2 million house in LA. At her young age, she can look after her family financially (经济上) all her life. This year is a big year for Britney. She is now on a 31-day tour of the US and every concert is a sell-out. That means she plays in front of a crowd of around 18,000 people every time. It’s a tiring schedule but brings her a lot. When touring, she goes to bed around 1 a.m. and then has a lie-in until 1 p.m. the next day. Her philosophy (人生观) is to take care of the body and relax but always make sure you work hard and have fun.
Spears is not pleased with only touring and selling nearly 40 million records so she decided to step into the movie business and try a bit of acting. She made an appearance in “Austin Power 3” this year and she is filming a teenage light play that will come out in March 2003. In this movie, she has a starring role.
For Britney, acting is another way to express herself and she is enthusiastic (热心的) about it all. If her movies are successful, her money in the bank is sure to grow by another few million dollars but she does it for the love, not the money, as she herself tells the reporters . We can infer (推断) from the text that most millionaires are __________.
| A．older than 20 | B．around 20 | C．in their 30s | D．in their 40s |
The underlined word “you” in the first paragraph refers to __________.
| A．a person in general | B．a special person |
| C．Britney Spears | D．a person interested in money |
Which of the following is not true according to the text?
| A．Though young, Britney can support her family now. |
| B．While touring, Britney sleeps about 12 hours a day. |
| C．The teenage comedy movie was based on Britney’s own story. |
| D．Britney will be even richer with her movies successful. |
According to Britney Spears, she works __________.
| A．to be a great actress | B．for the enjoyment | C．for money | D．to be more famous |
F . Scott Fitzgerald, born on September 24,1896, an American novelist, was once a student of St.Paul Academy, the Newman School and attended Princeton. University for a short while. In 1917 he joined the army and was posted in Alabama, where he met his future wife Zelda Sayre. Then he had to make some money to impress her.
His life with her was full of great happiness, as he wrote in his diary:“ My own happiness in the past often got such joy that I could share it even with the person dearest to me but had to walk it away in quiet streets and take down parts of it in my diary.”
This side of paradise, his first novel, was published in 1920. Encouraged by its success, Fitzgerald began to devote more time to his writing. Then he continued with the novel the Beautiful and Damned (1922), a collection of short stories Thales of the Jazz Age (1922), and a play The Vegetable (1923). But his greatest success was the novel The Great Gatsby, published in 1925, which quick brought him praise from the literary world. Yet it failed to give him the needed financial security. Then, in 1926, he published another collection of short stories All the Sad Young Men.
However, Fitzgerald’s problems with his wife Zelda had an effect on his writing. During the 1920s he tried to reorder his life, but failed. By 1930, his wife had her first breakdown and went to a Swiss clinic. During this period he completed novels Tender Is the Night in 1934 and The love of the last Tycoon in 1940. While his wife was in hospital in the United States, he got totally addicted to(沉迷于) alcohol. Sheila Graham, his dear friend, helped him fight his alcoholism.How many novels written by Fitzgerald are mentioned in the passage ?
| A．5 | B．6 | C．7 | D．8 |
Which of the following is the correct order to describe Fitzgerald’s life according to the passage?
a. He became addicted to drinking.
b. He studied at St.Paul Academy.
c. He published his first novel This Side of Paradise.
d. The Great Gatsby won high praise.
e. He failed to reorder his life.
f. He joined the army and met Zelda.
| A．f-c-e-a-b-d | B．b-e-a-f-c-d | C．f-d-e-c-b-a | D．b-f-c-d-e-a |
We can infer from the passage that Fitzgerald .
| A．had made some money when he met Zelda in Alabama. |
| B．was well educated and well off before he served in the army |
| C．would have completed more works if his wife hadn’t broken down |
| D．helped his friend get rid of drinking while his wife was in hospital |
The passage is probably followed by a concluding paragraph about .
| A．Zelda’s personal life |
| B．Zelda’s illness and treatment |
| C．Fitzgerald’s friendship with Graham |
| D．Fitzgerald’s contributions to the literary world |
Along the river banks of the Amazon and the Orinoco there lives a bird that swims before it can fly, flies like a fat chicken, eats green leaves, has the stomach of a cow and has claws (爪) on its wings when young. They build their homes about 4.6m above the river, an important feature (特征) for the safety of the young. It is called the hoatzin.
In appearance, the birds of both sexes look very much alike with brown on the back and cream and red on the underside. The head is small, with a large set of feathers on the top, bright red eyes, and blue skin. Its nearest relatives are the common birds, cuckoos. Its most striking feature, though, is only found in the young.
Baby hoatzins have a claw on the leading edge of each wing and another at the end of each wing tip. Using these four claws, together with the beak (喙), they can climb about in the bushes, looking very much like primitive（远古的） birds must have done. When the young hoatzins have learned to fly, they lose their claws.
During the drier months between December and March hoatzins fly about the forest in groups of 20 to 30 birds, but in April, when the rainy season begins, they collect together in smaller living units of two to seven birds for producing purposes. What is the text mainly about?
| A．Hoatzins in dry and rainy seasons. |
| B．The relatives and enemies of hoatzins. |
| C．Primitive birds and hoatzins of the Amazon. |
| D．The appearance and living habits of hoatzins. |
Young hoatzins are different from their parents in that____ ．
| A．they look like young cuckoos |
| B．they have claws on the wings |
| C．they eat a lot like a cow |
| D．they live on river banks |
What can we infer about primitive birds from the text?
| A．They had claws to help them climb. |
| B．They could fly long distances. |
| C．They had four wings like hoatzins. |
| D．They had a head with long feathers on the top. |
Why do hoatzins collect together in smaller groups when the rainy season comes?
| A．To find more food. |
| B．To protect themselves better. |
| C．To keep themselves warm. |
| D．To produce their young. |