Below is an introduction to Top 5 Teen Magazines from the US and the UK.
J-14
Marked to preteen and teenage girls ages 11-19, J-14 --a shortened name of “Just For Teens” --is packed with features like teen gossip, quizzes, fashion advice, posters, and celebrity(名人) interviews in every issue.
Some of the magazine’s most popular features include: “Hot Topic”, “Life’s Big Questions” and “Real Life”. Throughout the year, J-14 publishes several editions, such as “Summer Entertainment Guide”, “Back-to-School Special” and the annual “Best of Year Special and J-13 Teen Icon Awards” issue.
Teens who have a passion for pop culture would love a subscription to J-14 magazine!
Twist
Twist covers the latest fashion and stytles with lots of photos and easy-to-follow how-tos, giving teens both instruction and inspiration to experiment with what works for them. Body image(形象) and relationships are popular topics of interest to teens, and the magazine offers tips on building strong self-esteem.
Additional content in every monthly issue inculdes reader polls, teen celebrity gossip, news and interviews. During the yaer, Twist publishes several special editions about seasonal fashion and major teen events, like prom and back-to-school. The magazine publishes a “Best of Year” issue every December.
Teens who love fashion and celebrity news would love a subscription to Twist magazine!
Discovery Girls
First published in 2000, the magazine often addresses the topics of school, sports, and friendship.
Content in the magazine is created by girls, which gives it the authentic opinions of its target audience. Each bimonthly issus features quizzes, fashion advice, and games in addition to some regular sections that appear in each magazine. Mant of the following sections that appear in every issue also feature content submitted by readers: “The Worst Day”, “Embarrassing Moments”, “The Great Debate” and “Mailbag”.
Young girls and teens would find a friendly, identifiable voice in each issue of Discovery Girls, and parents would approve of giving a gift subscription to this award-winning magazine!
Boy’s Life
First published in 1911, Boy’s Life is written for young males ages 6 to 18 and is distributed in two editions. One edition is printed for the youngest members 6-to-10-year-old Tiger Cubs and first-year Webelos Scouts. The other is for ages 11-18 and is aimed at second-year Webelos Scouts through 18-year-old Boy Scouts.
A central focus of Boy’s Life is encouraging physical activity among boys, like camping, hiking, swimming, and kayaking. Each month, the magazine features articles on history, the outdoors, science, and much more. Fitness, technology, and video game and biik reviews are other common topics Boy’s Life often addresses.
A subscription to Boy’s Life magazine would make a great gift for active young boys!
Seventeen
Seventeen magazine celebrates teens where they are in life while also providing age-appropriate advice to the complex issues young women face every day.
The magazine organizes its content into five sections, such as “Your Body”, a range of fitness motivation and encouragement about positive body image, “Love & Guys”, advice columns and tips on understanding relationships with the opposite sex, and “Your Awesome Life”, personal development tips about hot topics like building confidence and selecting a college, plus inspirational stories about teens.
Special editions include the “Back-to-school Issue” in August and “The Freebie Issue” in May.
Teens who want to look good, feel great, and be their best would enjoy a subscription to Seventeen magazine!According to the passage, what content do J-14, Twist and Discovery Girls share?
| A．Teen gossip. | B．Advice on fashion. |
| C．Sports and friendship. | D．Self-respect building. |
What content does Boys 'Life mainly center on?
| A．Sports. | B．Games. |
| C．Beauty. | D．Education. |
We can learn from the passage that .
| A．J-14 is distributed in two editions for teens of different ages |
| B．the content of Discovery Girls is closely related to teen girls |
| C．Seventeen covers aspects like looking good, keeping fit and writing stories |
| D．all the five magazines mentioned publish special editions except Boys 'Life |
The main purpose of the introduction to the five magazines is .
| A．to distinguish their features |
| B．to explain the secret to their popularity |
| C．to encourage the subscription to the magazines |
| D．to arouse people's interest in reading teen magazines |
My first performance in front of an audience was coming up soon.
I tried as hard as I could to remain calm, but my heart was racing. I stared down at my sweat-covered, shaking hands.
I looked up again at the audience, realizing that these were real people. They were not just my mum and dad, who would say, “Good job!” even if I messed up the entire piece.
What if I had the wrong music? What if I played the wrong notes?
As it turned out, I was never able to answer these questions because the spotlight (聚光灯) was waiting for me. I grasped my hands tightly together, drying off the sweat.
Slowly I walked to the mud-brown piano in the center of the room. It contained 88 demanding keys, which were waiting impatiently to be played. I swallowed the golf-ball-sized lump (隆起部分) in my throat and sat down. Slowly, I opened the music. Next, I rested my still shaking hands on the ivory (象牙色的) keys.
As my fingers played across the keys, I was becoming more unsure of my preparation for this moment. But the memory of my years of training came flooding back. I knew that I had practiced this piece so many times that I could play it backwards if requested.
Although at one point I accidentally played two keys instead of the intended one, I continued to move my fingers automatically (自动地).
My eyes burned holes into (were fixed on) the pages in front of me.
There was no way that I was going to lose my concentration. To keep this to myself, I leaned forward and focused carefully on the music.
When I came to the end of the page, a warning went off inside my head: DON’T MAKE A MISTAKE WHEN YOU TURN THE PAGE!
Needless to say, I obeyed myself with all my heart and mind. And, proud of my “page-turning” feat (技艺), I finished the rest of the piece without making a single mistake.
After the final note died away, a celebration went into action inside my head. I had finished. I had mastered the impossible.
59. The author was nervous before the performance because _______.
A. his or her mother and father weren’t present
B. the strong spotlight was shining onto the stage
C. he or she hadn’t mastered the entire piece
D. he or she had never performed in public before
60. The underlined phrase “mess up” in Paragraph 3 probably means ________.
A. put into disorder B. forget about C. stop halfway D. do well in
61. The author _________.
A. didn’t make any mistake in the performance
B. felt better at the beginning of the performance
C. paid all attention to nothing but his / her performance
D. lost his / her concentration sometimes during the performance
62. What did the author feel about his / her performance?
A. He / She thought it was comfortable and successful.
B. He / She thought it was very difficult but successful.
C. He / She thought he / she had never made a mistake during the performance.
D. He / She thought he / she played through the piece carefully but light-heartedly.
There is no doubt about it. The best way to learn new words is to do it unconsciously. I don’t mean while you’re unconscious. I mean while you are unconscious of the fact that it is sinking in.
That is how I learnt the 30,000 words in my vocabulary by living in an English-speaking world, mother tongue. I just pick them up. But some of them may be misunderstood. Now, to misunderstand does not mean not to understand. To misunderstand is to understand but incorrectly.
The 5 % mislearnt of all the words we “know” will be the least frequently used words, as the more frequently used words are less likely to be mislearnt. Some of the misunderstandings may live with all our lives, without knowing that we got them wrong.
Many English teachers think that this natural method of learning words in one’s own mother tongue can be used for a second language learning. They teach their students how to play the Guessing Game. “There is no time to look up in your dictionaries all the new words you come across,” they will say. “You have to practise guessing what the word means from the context.”
This method of guessing in a second language learning does not work. It may succeed in many cases, but results in hundreds or thousands of wrongly-guessed meanings of words.
And what’s more, there are more separate meanings than there are words themselves. Our learners’ dictionaries usually have many meanings. A good dictionary is what makes self-learning possible.
Don’t guess! Look it up!
55. It is certain that the best way to learn new words is _____________.
A. to learn them by oneself
B. to learn by living in an English-speaking world and using them frequently
C. to guess them from the context
D. to get more separate meanings of each word
56. The underlined word “them” in Paragraph 2 refers to _________.
A. the 30,000 words B. English teachers
C. misunderstood words D. frequently used words
57. Which of the following is most likely NOT true?
A. Some of the words the writer knows must have been misunderstood.
B. Most of the 30,000 words the writer learned are frequently used ones.
C. How many words the writer got wrong are not known.
D. All the words the writer knows were learned by reading them.
58. It can be inferred that _________.
A. when somebody is conscious, he or she usually can’t learn new words by heart
B. we must use the words as often as possible in order to master them
C. it’s the best way to learn new words that one should only guess their meanings from the context
D. only dictionaries can help us learn language well
IV. Reading Comprehension (40 points)
Directions: Read the following four passages. Each passage is followed by several questions or unfinished statements. For each of them there are four choices marked A,B,C and D. Choose the one that fits best according to the information given in the passage you have just read.
(A)
The first day of school our professor introduced himself and challenged us to get to know someone we didn’t know. I stood up to look around when a gentle hand touched my shoulder. I turned around to find a wrinkled, little old lady beaming up at me with a smile that lit up her entire being.
She said, “Hi, girl! My name is Rose. I’m 87 years old. Can I give you a hug?”
I laughed and enthusiastically（热情地）responded, “Of course you may!” and she gave me a giant squeeze.
“Why are you in college at such a young, innocent age?” I asked. She jokingly replied, “I’m here to meet a rich husband, get married, have a couple of children, and then retire and travel!”
“No seriously,” I said. I was curious what may have motivated her to be taking on this challenge at her age.
“I always dreamed of having a college education and now I’m getting one!” she told me.
Over the course of the year, Rose became a campus icon and she easily made friends wherever she went. She loved to dress up and she reveled in the attention bestowed upon her from the other students. She was living it up.
At the end of the semester we invited Rose to speak at our football banquet. I’ll never forget what she taught us.
“We do not stop playing because we are old; we grow old because we stop playing. There are only two secrets to staying young, being happy, and achieving success. You have to laugh and find humor everyday. You’ve got to have a dream. When you lose your dreams, you die!” she said.
“There is a huge difference between growing older and growing up. If you are nineteen years old and lie in bed for one full year and don’t do one productive thing, you will turn 20 years older. If I am 87 years old, and stay in bed for a year, and never do anything, I will turn 88. Anybody can grow older. But every minute counts for young men,” she added.
“The idea is to grow up by always finding the opportunity in change. Have no regrets. The elderly usually don’t have regrets for what we did, but rather for things we did not do. The only people who fear death are those with regrets.”
She concluded her speech by courageously singing “The Song of Rose”. She challenged each of us to study the lyrics（歌词）and live them out in our daily lives.
At the year’s end, Rose finished the college degree she had begun all those years ago. One week after graduation Rose died peacefully in her sleep.
51. Rose made herself known to the author in a ______ manner.
A. serious B. cold C. humorous D. crazy
52. From the information provided in the passage, we know ______.
A. Rose finished the college degree within a year
B. Rose did realize her dream of meeting a rich husband and getting married through college education
C. Rose enjoyed her campus life very much
D. Rose grew so old that she stopped playing
53. Rose delivered the speech ______.
A. at the graduation B. ended with “The Song of Rose”
C. which she prepared carefully D. to challenge all the other speakers
54. According to her speech, ______.
A. whenever you have a dream, you succeed
B. all people don’t grow up while growing older
C. Rose usually regretted having done something
D. a nine-year-old is as old as a 87-year-old if he doesn’t do anything
Certainly people make you feel comfortable when they are around. You spend an hour with them and feel as if you’ve known them half your life. These people have something in common. And once we know what it is, we can try to do it ourselves.
How is it done? Here are several skills (技巧) that good talkers have. If you follow the skills, they will help you put people at ease, and make friends with them quickly.
First of all, good talkers ask questions. Almost anyone, no matter how shy they are, will answer a question. One well-known businessman says. “At business lunches, I always ask people what they did this morning. It’s a common question, but it will get things going.” From there you can move on to other matters sometimes to really personal questions. And how they answer will let you know how far you can go.
Second, once good talkers have asked questions they listen for the answer. This point seems clear, but it isn’t. Your questions should have a point and help to tell what sort of person you are talking to. And to find out, you really have to listen carefully and attentively (专心地).
Real listening means certain things. First it means not to change the subject of conversation (对话). If someone sticks to (坚持) one topic (话题), you can take it as a fact that he’ll be really interested in it. Real listening also means not just listening to words, but to tones (语调) of voice. If the voice sounds dull, then, it’s time for you to change the subject.
Finally, good talkers know well how to deal with the occasion (场合) of parting. If you’re saying goodbye, you may give him a firm handshake and say, “I’ve really enjoyed meeting you.” If you want to see that person again, don’t keep it secret. Let people know what you feel, and they may walk away feeling as if they’ve known you half their life.
64. You’ll like to stay with certain people because ________.
A. they know how to get along with others
B. you can often get much help from them
C. they are always glad to do anything for you
D. they will never get you into trouble
65. Asking questions might be quite a good way ________.
A. for you to make more and more new friends
B. to begin your business talks
C. to get the conversation going well
D. for you to make a deep and lasting impression (印象) on others
66. After having asked somebody a question, it’ll be polite of you to ________.
A. make clear what kink of person he is
B. listen to his answer attentively
C. wait quietly and patiently for his answer
D. talk with others
67. Generally speaking, good talkers are persons who ________.
A. are good at making any topic interesting
B. never talk too much or too little
C. always speak in a gentle way
D. know how and when they should change the topic of the talk
Read a whole book in English? Me?
Yes, you. Believe it or not, that may be easier than you think. Not all classics are too difficult or complicated. So you’re not limited to the simplified versions. And the easier books are not all for children.
Books in their original versions may send you to the dictionary. And you might not understand everything you read. But reading one from cover to cover will give you a real sense of accomplishment（成就）. The key is to find the right books. Let’s take a look at these.
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (C.S. Lewis)
Stepping into an old wardrobe, four English schoolchildren find themselves in the magical world of Narnia. On this delightful land, they find friends among the many talking creatures. The children soon discover, however, that Narnia is ruled by the White Witch. Edmund, one of the children, falls under her power. Who can free Narnia? Only Aslan, the great and noble lion. He alone knows the Deeper Magic. But the children themselves must help fight the battle against the White Witch and those who serve her.
The Old Man and the Sea (Ernest Hemingway)
Santiago, an old Cuban fisherman, hasn’t caught any fish in more than 80 days. Sailing far out from land, the old man hooks an enormous fish. That begins an agonizing three day battle. First he struggles against the great fish. Then he must fight off the sharks that circle the little boat and threaten to eat his fish. Exhausted and bleeding, the old man arrives back at shore. But his fish, his beautiful fish . . .
Hemingway won the Nobel Prize for this superb story of strength and courage, of victory and regret.
A Wrinkle in Time (Madeleine Lingle)
Meg’s father, a U.S. government scientist, has been missing for many months. He had been experimenting with time travel when he mysteriously disappeared.
Now Meg, her little brother Charles Wallace and her friend Calvin will try to rescue him. But first they must outwit the forces of evil they encounter（遇到） on their journey through time and space. Can they find Meg’s father before it’s too late?
This novel is more than just a science fiction adventure. It’s an exploration of the nature of our universe.
The Pearl (John Steinbeck)
One day Kino, a poor Mexican pearl diver, finds a magnificent pearl. With it he dreams of buying a better life, new clothes and schooling for his son. Instead, it brings only evil. His wife pleads with him to get rid of it. "No," says Kino. "I will have my chance. I am a man." But when he kills a man who is trying to steal the pearl, Kino and his wife must run for their lives.This tale of dreams, justice and the power of greed is told simply and beautifully.
The Long Winter (Laura Ingalls Wilder)
It’s winter, 1880—1881, on America’s northern prairies. Mr. and Mrs. Ingalls and their four girls stay near the kitchen stove to keep warm. Heavy snowstorms cut them off even from neighbors. With the trains stopped, no supplies can reach the town. Food and fuel are running out. Day after day the girls must grind wheat for bread and twist hay to burn. At times they nearly lose the battle to keep their spirits up.
This story provides a fascinating glimpse into the life of early American settlers.
63. In the passage, the author intends to _______.
A. recommend a few simplified versions of classics
B. recommend a few original versions of classics
C. tell us how to read an English book from beginning to end
D. tell us how to find proper English books to read
64. In The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, the White Witch is probably _____.
A. an evil woman with magic power B. a friendly woman with magic power
C. a delightful talking creature D. a powerful lion
65. The underlined word "outwit" in the passage probably means ______.
A. get rid of B. take advantage of
C. beat by being cleverer D. make the most of
66. Which book deals with history?
A. The Pearl. B. The Old Man and the Sea.
C. A Wrinkle in Time. D. The Long Winter.
67. A Wrinkle in Time is different from other books mentioned in the passage in that _____.
A. it is not a science fiction B. it tells a true story
C. it provides some scientific knowledge D. it tells the battle between justice and evil