In the past ten years, America’s National Basketball Association (NBA) has grown increasingly dependent on the rest of the world to supply players.
When Michael Jordan and Larry Bird won gold in Barcelona in 1992, the Americans were praised for teaching the world how to play basketball. This season, however, 20 percent of NBA rosters（花名册） will be filled by non-Americans. NBA commissioner David Stem happily embraces the trend. On a visit to Paris in October, Stern outlined his vision for the future, which is likely to see Europe hosting NBA games by 2010.
The NBA is now planning to take China by storm.
“Our experience in China has been that it is going to be explosive in its growth,” said Stern. The strategy（战略，策略） in China is television. “We’ve made 14 deals in China with local and national networks on cable and satellite.” The success of Chinese centre Yao Ming has paved the way for the NBA marketing blitz in China. The NBA, which is broadcasted in more than 200 countries in 42 languages, will put that to the test in October 2004 when the Houston Rockets play two pre-season games against the Sacramento Kings in Beijing and Shanghai. The NBA knows that it needs a global market to compensate for tough times on home soil.
“It doesn’t matter where the players come from, all the NBA teams now know that they have to scout（寻找，觅得） internationally,” said Terry Lyons, the NBA’s vice-president of international public relations. “It has increased the level of competition here.” As Frenchman Tony Parker and Argentine Emanuel Ginobili showed in winning championship rings with the San Antonio Spurs last season, many people can earn the respect of their American peers. Others, such as the Houston Rockets’ Chinese centre Yao Ming — number one draft pick in 2002 — and the Detroit Pistons’ 18-year-old Serb Darko Milicic — number two overall in this year’s draft — are icons（偶像）in-waiting. It is the ultimate（最后的，根本的） revolution — the rest of the world teaching the US how to play basketball. According to the report, .
| A．Michael Jordan is still playing a very important role in NBA |
| B．the part played by the foreign players in NBA will be great |
| C．Yao Ming is to play two pre-season games in NBA |
| D．European countries will host the 2004 NBA games |
The underlined phrase “take China by storm” has the meaning of _______ ___.
| A．NBA intends to make China its “marketing center” |
| B．NBA is planning to set up some training centers in China |
| C．there’ll be a big storm when NBA comes to China to play against the Sacramento Kings |
| D．the NBA’s live basket games will be broadcasted on all the TVs in China |
What seems to be the biggest change that is happening to NBA?
A. NBA is expecting more foreign players to join the league.
B. China’s rapid development in sports affects NBA.
C. Yao Ming has taken the place of Michael Jordan.
D. The NBA will stop teaching the world how to play basketball.When the writer talked of “home soil”, he was referring to _ _.
| A．farms in the States |
| B．native Americans |
| C．the NBA training center |
| D．the USA |
Which of the following can be used as the best title for the passage?
| A．The Non-American Basketball Players |
| B．NBA Is Coming to China |
| C．The Foreign Ties That Bind the NBA |
| D．NBA Is Making Big Progress |
Money Matters for Students
GETTING A GRANT(补助)
Who pays?
The local education authority (LEA) for the area in which the student is living.
Who can get this money?
Anyone who gets a place on a first degree course，although a student who has already attended a course of advanced further education may not.Students must also have been resident in the UK for at least three years，which can exclude (排除) some students from overseas. SPECIAL CASES
If a student has worked before going to college：
A student who is 26 or more before the course starts and who has worked for at least three of the previous six years will get extra money—￡ 155 a year if 26，increasing to a maximum of ￡ 615 at 29 or more.
If a student is handicapped：
LEAs will give up to ￡ 500 to help meet extra expenses—such as buying a tape recorder for a blind student，extra heating or special food.
Banking：
Most of the big banks offer special services to students who open accounts (in the hope that they will stay with the bank when they become rich officials)．A student won't usually have to pay bank charges as long as the account stays in credit.Some banks allow students to overdraw by ￡ 100 or so，and still don't make charges (though they do charge interest)．A student from Japan who has been staying in England for a year and intends to go to college in a few months will ________.
| A．get money if he is taking a first degree course |
| B．be unable to get money from any LEA |
| C．get money from any LEA when he has finished his course |
| D．have to open a bank account before he gets any money |
A 31 year old nurse wishes to qualify as a doctor at a university.She has worked since she was 25.How much extra money will she get a year?
| A．None. | B．￡ 155. |
| C．￡ 615. | D．￡ 515. |
A student who cannot walk has to buy a wheelchair costing ￡ 750 to go to classes.How much of the cost will he have to pay himself?
| A．￡ 150. | B．￡ 250. |
| C．￡ 500. | D．￡ 750. |
You are a new student.Why may a bank welcome you as a customer?
| A．They know you receive money regularly. |
| B．They charge students extra. |
| C．They hope you will be rich in the future. |
| D．They need students accounts in term－time. |
When people think of the unique characteristics of Beijing the hutong style always comes to mind.It is no exaggeration(夸张) to say within hutong lives the city's history.
The word hutong was borrowed from the Mongolian word to mean “water well” about 700 years ago.Later it referred to a place where people live.Hutong we see today are made up of small lanes formed by walls of siheyuan.They were built during the Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties.
When the People's Republic of China was founded in 1949, there were more than 3,000 hutong.Most of the city's population lived in this traditional housing.But with the modernization of the city in the 1980s and early 1990s, many hutong were pulled down to build roads, skyscrapers and modern houses.
The government has recognized the importance of hutong to Chinese cultural heritage(文化遗产)．In 2002, Beijing listed 40 protected historical zones and increased its efforts to restore some key relics and older streets in the city.Nearly 500 hutong have survived.
Hutong that still exist are like oases(绿洲) of calm surrounded by the noisy city.Walking through them, it's common to see groups of elderly citizens sitting together playing cards, mahjong or Chinese chess.In the early mornings and evenings, they gather to practice traditional forms of exercise such as taijiquan as well as dancing and singing folk songs or Peking Opera.Hutong have become a museum of Beijing's folk customs and history.What is the original meaning of the word hutong?
| A．Small lanes. | B．Water well. |
| C．Siheyuan. | D．A traditional house. |
What does the phrase “pull down” mean in Paragraph 3?
| A．Replace. | B．Destroy. |
| C．Restore. | D．Establish. |
According to the author, what is the importance of hutong to Chinese cultural heritage?
| A．It is a traditional housing style of Beijing. |
| B．Hutong have become a museum of Beijing's folk customs and history. |
| C．It is a good place for the elderly citizens to play cards, mahjong or Chinese chess. |
| D．Hutong are like oases of calm of Beijing. |
According to the passage, which of the following is FALSE?
| A．Hutong style is one of the unique characteristics of Beijing. |
| B．In 2002, Beijing listed 40 protected historical zones. |
| C．Beijing decreased its efforts to restore some key relics and older streets in the city. |
| D．Hutong have become a museum of Beijing's folk customs and history. |
As researchers learn more about how children's intelligence develops, they are increasingly surprised by the power of parents.The power of the school has been replaced by the home.To begin with, all the factors which are part of intelligence—the child's understanding of language，learning patterns, curiosity—are established well before the child enters school at the age of six.Study after study has shown that even after school begins, children's achievements have been far more influenced by parents than by teachers.This is particularly true about learning that is languagerelated.The school rather than the home is given credit for variations in achievement in subjects such as science.
In view of their power, it's sad to see so many parents not making the most of their child's intelligence.Until recently parents had been warned by educators who asked them not to educate their children.Many teachers now realize that children cannot be educated only at school and parents are being asked to contribute both before and after the child enters school.
Parents have been particularly afraid to teach reading at home.Of course，children shouldn't be pushed to read by their parents, but educators have discovered that reading is best taught individually—and the easiest place to do this is at home.Many fourand fiveyearolds who have been shown a few letters and taught their sounds will compose single words of their own with them even before they have been taught to read.What have researchers found out about the influence of parents and the school on children's intelligence?
| A．Parents have greater influence than the school. |
| B．The school plays a greater role than parents. |
| C．Parents and the school have the equal power. |
| D．Neither parents nor the school has any influence. |
Researchers conclude that________.
| A．it is with the help of the teachers that children have an understanding of language |
| B．curiosity is formed after the children enter school |
| C．children's learning patterns are developed at the early age |
| D．only the school can give children the opportunity to make achievements |
According to the text, in which area may school play a more important role?
| A．Moral education. | B．Language education. |
| C．Physical education. | D．Science education. |
Many parents fail to make the most of their children's intelligence because
________.
| A．they usually push the children to read at home |
| B．they only teach them after they enter school |
| C．they teach them in a wrong way at home |
| D．they were told by educators not to teach their children |
When several different people look at the same person，it's not unusual for each of them to see different things；when you alone observe one behavior or one person at two different times，you may see different things.The following are but some of the factors that lead to these changing perceptions(感知认可)．
(1)Each person's perceptions of others are formed by his or her own cultural conditioning education，and personal experiences.
(2)Sometimes perceptions differ because of what we choose to observe and how we deal with what we've observed.It is not necessarily true that person's perception is based on observations of a particular person.Your observations may be totally controlled by what others have told you about this person；or you may focus (聚集)primarily on the situation or role relationship.Most people do not use the same yardstick(标准)to measure their parents，their friends and strangers.
(3)Sometimes we see only what we want to see or don't see what may be obvious to others because of our own needs，desires，or temporary emotional states.This is a process known as selective perception.Selective perception is obviously more difficult when contradictory (矛盾的)information is particularly obvious，but it can be done.We can ignore(忽视)the “stimulus”．He's basically a good boy so what I saw was not shoplifting.
We can reduce the importance of the contradictory information—All kids(孩子)get into mischief(顽皮)．Taking a book from the bookstore isn't such a big deal.“We can change the meaning of the contradictory information.” It wasn't shoplifting because he was going to pay for it later.The first factor given by the author that affects our perception is ________.
| A．the abilities of one's auditory (听觉的)and visual (视觉的)sensors |
| B．cultural background and personal experiences |
| C．experiences one learns from others |
| D．critical measures taken by other people |
While observing a particular person，________.
| A．one is likely to take all aspects(方面)to consideration |
| B．one pays more attention to his/her advantages |
| C．children often differ from grownups in perception |
| D．one tends to choose certain cues(提示)to look for |
Observation of the same person by two people at the same time may differ because ________.
| A．their measuring yardsticks are not the same |
| B．either of them may be slow to catch information |
| C．the time for observation is not long enough |
| D．each of them uses different language to express his/her impressions |
NEW YORK (Reuters Health)—Kids who eat better perform better in school, a new study of Nova Scotia fifthgraders confirms.
Students who ate an adequate amount of fruit，vegetables，protein，fiber and other components of a healthy diet were significantly less likely to fail a literacy test，Dr.Paul J．Veugelers of the University of Alberta in Edmonton and colleagues found.
While a healthy diet is generally assumed to be important for good school performance, there has actually been little research on this topic, Veugelers and his colleagues note.To investigate，they looked at 4, 589 fifthgraders participating in the Children's Lifestyle and Schoolperformance Study, 875 (19.1 percent) of whom had failed an elementary literacy assessment.
The better a student's eating habits based on several measures of diet quality，including adequacy and variety, the less likely he or she was to have failed the test, the researchers found，even after they adjusted the data for the effects of parental income and education, school and sex.Eating plenty of fruit and vegetables, and getting fewer calories from fat, was also associated with a lower risk of failing the test.
To date, Veugelers and his team say, most research on diet and school performance has focused on the importance of eating breakfast, as well as the ill effects of hunger and malnutrition(营养不良)．
“This study extends current knowledge in this area by demonstrating the independent importance of overall diet quality to academic performance.We should not only realize the importance of children's nutrition at breakfast but also that throughout the day，” the researchers conclude.
Another research from the UK is suggesting that children's diets in the preschool years affects how they perform at school later on.The researchers from the Institute of Education, at the University of London say in fact that what children were eating in those days before primary school has more of an effect than the chicken nuggets(块) they ate at lunchtime.The researchers say they have found that children who ate a diet of “junk food” at the age of three, made less progress in school between the ages of six and ten.They say children's diet at later ages appears to have less impact on their school attainment.．According to Dr.Paul J．Veugelers, students who have a healthy diet________.
| A．are more likely to fail in their school performance |
| B．definitely can perform better in their school work |
| C．usually have more of fat and less of fruit and vegetables |
| D．tend to perform better in their school work |
．It can be implied from the passage that________.
| A．little research has been done on the importance of breakfast |
| B．most students participating in the research failed the test |
| C．the adequacy and variety of foods can mean better school performance |
| D．eating more chicken nuggets leads to good school performance |
．The underlined word “literacy” (in Para.2) probably refers to ________.
| A．the ability to read and write |
| B．a guessing game |
| C．the art of painting |
| D．the ability to handle practical task |
．Which of the following statements is TRUE?
| A．Children should have more“junk food”at lunch time. |
| B．Preschool diets can have more impact on children's school work. |
| C．A child who often has“junk food”at 3 is bound to fail in school work. |
| D．The older a child is，the more impact of what he eats has on school work. |