Dear Friend,
The recent success of children's books has made the general public aware that there's a huge market out there.
And there's a growing need for new writers trained to create the $3 billion worth of children's books bought each year ... plus stories and articles needed by over 650 publishers of magazines for children and teenagers.
Who are these needed writers? They're ordinary folks like you and me.
But am I good enough?
I was once where you might be now. My thoughts of writing had been pushed down by self-doubt, and I didn't know where to turn for help.
Then, I accepted a free offer from the Institute to test my writing aptitude（潜能）, and it turned out to be the inspiration I needed.
The promise that paid off
The Institute made the same promise to me that they will make to you, if you show basic writing ability:
You will complete at least one manuscript（手稿） suitable to hand in to a publisher by the time you finish our course.
I really didn't expect any publication before I finished the course, but that happened. I sold three stories. And I soon discovered that was not unusual at the Institute.
Since graduation, I have authored 34 nationally published children's books and over 300 stories and articles.
Free test and brochure
We offer a free aptitude test and will send you a copy of our brochure describing our recognized home-study courses on the basis of one-on-one training.
Realize your writing dream today. There's nothing sadder than a dream delayed until it fades forever.
Sincerely,
Kristi Holly, Instructor
Institute of Children's LiteratureFrom the first three paragraphs, we learn that_____.
| A．children’s books are usually bestsellers |
| B．publishers are making $3 billion each year |
| C．magazines for teenagers have drawn public attention |
| D．there is a growing need for writers of children's books |
When finishing the course, you are promised to_____.
| A．be a successful publisher |
| B．become a confident editor |
| C．finish one work for publication |
| D．get one story or article published |
Kristi Holly mentions her experience mainly to_____.
| A．prove she is a good instructor |
| B．promote the writing program |
| C．give her advice on course preparation |
| D．show she sold more stories than article |
The speaker, a teacher from a community college, addressed a sympathetic(赞同的) audience. Heads nodded in agreement when he said, “High school English teachers are not doing their jobs.” He described the inadequacies of his students, all high school graduates who can use language only at a grade 9 level. I was unable to determine from his answers to my questions how this grade 9 level had been established.
My topic is not standards nor its decline(降低). What the speaker was really saying is that he is no longer young; he has been teaching for sixteen years, and is able to think and speak like a mature adult.
My point is that the frequent complaint of one generation about the one immediately following it is inevitable. It is also human nature to look for the reasons for our dissatisfaction. Before English became a school subject in the late nineteenth century, it was difficult to find the target of the blame for language deficiencies (缺陷). But since then, English teachers have been under constant attack.
The complainers think they have hit upon an original idea. As their own command of the language improves, they notice that young people do not have this same ability. Unaware that their own ability has developed through the years, they assume the new generation of young people must be hopeless in this respect. To the eyes and ears of sensitive adults the language of the young always seems inadequate.
Since this concern about the decline and fall of the English language is not perceived(察觉) as a generational phenomenon but rather as something new and peculiar(特有的) to today’syoung people, it naturally follows that today’s English teachers cannot be doing their jobs. Otherwise, young people would not commit offenses against the language. The speaker the author mentioned in the passage believed that _____.
| A．the language of the younger generation is usually inferior(差的) to that of the older generation |
| B．the students had a poor command of English because they didn’t work hard enough |
| C．he was an excellent language teacher because he had been teaching English for sixteen years |
| D．English teachers should be held responsible for the students’ poor command of English |
In the author’s opinion, the speaker ______.
| A．gave a correct judgment of the English level of the students |
| B．had exaggerated(夸大) the language problems of the students |
| C．was right in saying that English teachers were not doing their jobs |
| D．could think and speak intelligently |
The author’s attitude towards the speaker’s remarks is ______.
| A．neutral | B．positive | C．critical | D．compromising |
It can be concluded from the passage that ______.
| A．it is justifiable(有理由的) to include English as a school subject |
| B．the author disagrees with the speaker over the standard of English at Grade 9 level |
| C．English language teaching is by no means an easy job |
| D．language improvement needs time and effort |
In the passage the author argues that ______.
| A．it is unfair to blame the English teachers for the language deficiencies of the students |
| B．young people would not commit offences against the language if the teachers did their jobs properly |
| C．to eliminate(消除) language deficiencies one must have sensitive eyes and ears |
| D．to improve the standard of English requires the effort of several generations |
Wind is the great maker of waves. There are exceptions, such as the tidal(潮汐的) waves sometimes produced by earthquakes under the sea. But the waves most of us know are produced by winds blowing over the sea.
Now before constructing an imaginary life history of a typical wave, we need to know certain physical things about it. A wave has height, from trough (low point) to crest (high Point). It has length－the distance from this crest to that of the following wave. The period of the wave means the time it takes for succeeding crests to pass a fixed point. None of these things stays the same－for all depend upon the wind, upon the depth of the water and many other matters.
The water that makes up a wave does not advance with it across the sea. Each drop of water turns around in a little circle with the passing of the wave, but returns very nearly to its original position. And it is fortunate that this is so. For if the huge masses of water that make up a wave actually moved across the sea, sailing would be impossible.
If we want to find the speed of a wave, we may use the following way:
Speed =" wavelength" × frequency
Here, wavelength is the distance between two high points (crests), frequency means the number of cycles per second.
What causes waves?
| A．Earthquakes and nothing else. | B．Only wind. |
| C．Wind causes most waves. | D．Wind causes some waves. |
Which of the following is true according to the passage?
| A．The water of a wave moves away across the sea. |
| B．The water of a wave remains almost at the same place. |
| C．The water of a wave goes with the passing of the wave. |
| D．The length of a wave means the distance from the top of a wave to the bottom. |
The speed of Wave 1 is 100 cm/s, frequency 10. The frequency of Wave 2 is 300, while its speed is twice that of Wave 1. Which of the following is right?
| A．The wavelengths of the two are equal. |
| B．The wavelength of Wave 1 is 10 times longer than that of Wave 2. |
| C．The wavelength of Wave 2 is longer than that of Wave 1. |
| D．The wavelength of Wave 1 is longer than that of Wave 2. |
Last year, my boyfriend suggested that I should run the London marathon, and I laughed. He laughed too, but he laughed too long and too loud. That made me think. I realized that he didn’t believe that I could do it. That made me angry, and determined. Now he knows that I can!
Training wasn’t easy, but I kept going. I didn’t need special training but I did need to buy very good shoes. Each day, I went a little further. By the end of three months, I was running five days a week. Sometimes in the evenings I ran 10 km; on Sunday mornings, I sometimes ran about 30 km. I used to come home, have a shower and eat my breakfast. I felt wonderful!
On the day of the race in London, I lined up with about 30,000 other runners. The faster runners were at the front, while slower runners like me were placed further back. In that way, the professional runners and club runners were not slowed down by the amateurs.
At first, there were so many runners close together that we were almost falling over each other. We could only run very slowly but that was a good thing because it meant that we didn’t rush off too quickly. Gradually the runners spread out and there was more space. There were thousands of people watching us along the route and they cheered and clapped everyone, even the slowest runner. It was wonderful!
For the first 10 km I felt very happy and my legs felt very comfortable. However, at 15 km I got a pain in my side and running became difficult, but I kept going and the pain disappeared. At the 30 km mark, I felt extremely tired, and wanted to stop, but I kept on going. I covered another 3 km and then I began to feel better again.
By the time I reached the 35 km mark, I knew I was going to get to the end of the course. Somehow that confidence made me feel lighter and faster and it seemed as if my legs flew over the last few kilometers. I passed hundreds of slower runners, some of whom had passed me earlier, and I felt wonderful! As I came round the last bend and saw the finishing line, I could see three runners ahead of me. I raced past all of them to finish the race in just under four hours. The winner had completed the race in 2 hours and 10 minutes, but I didn’t care! I had run 42 km and completed my first marathon!The writer’s boyfriend laughed at her because.
| A．he thought she could run the marathon |
| B．he didn’t think she could run the marathon |
| C．he wanted her to run the marathon |
| D．she wanted to run the marathon |
When the race began .
| A．all the faster runners were asked to stand before those slower ones |
| B．many runners fell over each other |
| C．all the runners were asked to run slowly |
| D．the professional runners and club runners ran very fast |
The hardest time for the writer was when she.
| A．had run for 15 kilometers |
| B．got a pain in her side |
| C．reached the 30 kilometer mark |
| D．was about to reach the finish line |
The passage suggests that it is better to start a long race slowly .
| A．than to run at the same speed all the time |
| B．than to run too fast at the beginning |
| C．than to run slowly at the end |
| D．than to run very fast all the time |
Money spent on advertising is money spent as well as any I know of. It serves directly to assist a rapid distribution of goods at reasonable prices, thereby establishing a firm home market and so making it possible to provide for export at competitive prices. By drawing attention to new ideas it helps enormously to raise standards of living. By helping to increase demand it ensures an increased need for labor, and is therefore an effective way to fight unemployment. It lowers the costs of many services: without advertisements your daily newspaper would cost four times as much, the price of your television license would need to be doubled, and travel by bus or tube would cost 20 per cent more.
And perhaps most important of all, advertising provides a guarantee of reasonable value in the products and services you buy. Apart from the fact that twenty-seven Acts of Parliament govern the terms of advertising, no regular advertiser dare promote a product that fails to live up to the promise of his advertisements. He might fool some people for a little while through misleading advertising. He will not do so for long, for mercifully the public has the good sense not to buy the inferior article more than once. If you see an article consistently advertised, it is the surest proof I know that the article does what is claimed for it, and that it represents good value.By the first sentence of the passage, the author means that______.
| A．he is fairly familiar with the cost of advertising |
| B．everybody knows well that advertising is money consuming |
| C．advertising costs money like everything else |
| D．it is worthwhile to spend money on advertising |
In the passage, which of the following is not included in the advantage of advertising?
| A．Securing greater fame. | B．Providing more jobs. |
| C．Improving living standards. | D．Reducing newspaper cost. |
According to the author, _____.
| A．the consumers are often fooled by misleading advertising. |
| B．no advertiser dare promote a product that can't live up to the promise of his advertisement. |
| C．if an article is consistently advertised, it probably has good value. |
| D．with advertisements, you have to pay more for the goods or services you need. |
From the passage, we can draw a conclusion that____.
| A．the most importance of advertisements is to lower the cost of many services |
| B．the twenty-seven Acts of Parliament made misleading advertisements unable to exist |
| C．advertising assists a rapid distribution of goods, thereby do good to the import at good prices |
| D．advertising does a lot for the material benefit of the community |
The Atlantic Ocean is one of the oceans that separate the Old World from the New. For centuries it kept the Americans from being discovered by the people of Europe.
Many wrong ideas about the Atlantic made early sailors unwilling to sail far out into it. One idea was that it reached out to “the edge of the world.” Sailors were afraid that they might sail right off the earth. Another idea was that at the equator the ocean would be boiling hot.
The Atlantic Ocean is only half as big as the Pacific, but it is still very large. It is more than 4,000 miles (6,000km) wide where Columbus crossed it. Even at its narrowest it is about 2,000 miles (3,200km) wide.
Two things make the Atlantic Ocean rather unusual. For so large an ocean it has very few islands. Also, it is the world’s saltiest ocean.
There is so much water in the Atlantic that it is hard to imagine how much there is. But suppose no more rain fell into it and no more water was brought to it by rivers. It would take the ocean about 4,000 years to dry up. On the average the water is a little more than two miles (3.2km) deep, but in places it is much deeper. The deepest spot is near Puerto Rico. This “deep” measures 30,246 feet-almost six miles (9.6km).
One of the longest mountain ranges of the world rises from the floor of the Atlantic. This mountain range runs north and south down the middle of the ocean. The tops of a few of the mountains reach up above the sea and make islands.
Several hundred miles eastward from Florida there is a part of the ocean called the Sargasso Sea. Here the water is quiet, for there is little wind. In the days of sailing vessels(船) the crew were afraid they would be becalmed(停滞不前) here. Sometimes they were.
Today the Atlantic is a great highway. It is not, however, always a smooth and safe one. Storms sweep across it and pile up great waves. Icebergs float down from the Far North across the paths of ships.
We now have such fast ways of traveling that this big ocean seems to have grown smaller. Columbus sailed for more than two months to cross it. A fast modern steamship can make the trip in less than four days. Airplanes fly from New York to London in only eight hours and from South America to Africa in four!Which world is the Old World?
| A．Africa | B．Europe | C．Asia | D．All of above |
What caused people to be unwilling to explore the Atlantic?
| A．There are no ships big enough to get across the Ocean. |
| B．Sailors were afraid of being lost in the Ocean. |
| C．The Atlantic Ocean was very unusual because it has few islands and the saltiest water. |
| D．Many incorrect ideas such as “the edge of the world”, “the equator with boiling hot water”, made people think the Ocean was full of danger. |
What is the topic of the fifth paragraph?
| A．How deep the water is |
| B．How to measure the water in the Atlantic Ocean |
| C．How much water the Ocean holds. |
| D．How rain affects the Ocean water. |
We can learn from the text that ______.
| A．the Atlantic is the largest ocean on earth |
| B．one of the longest mountain ranges lies in the Atlantic |
| C．the Atlantic has a lot of islands in it |
| D．sailing on the Atlantic Ocean is always quiet, smooth and safe |