The Amazing Kids! PenPals Program is a literacy-based (基于读写能力的), traditional letter-writing pen pal program, available to all children aged 5-17 worldwide.
At $10 per child, our program is a low-cost and fun way to help your children practice their literacy skills while they are making new friends. Groups of 15 or more receive a 50% discount.
Children love our program because:
●It helps them develop new (and possibly life-long)friendships.
●It allows them to practice the traditional form of letter writing and correspondence.
●They love getting letters in the mail from their pen pals!
Parents love our program because:
●It offers one of the few remaining choices for finding an established, safe and trusted traditional pen pal program to their children.
●It helps strengthen communication and literacy skills taught in their children’s classroom.
●It helps open their children’s eyes to a larger world, and other cultures and traditions outside their own.
●Many parents remember having a pen pal when they were children and want to give their children the same positive, fun learning experience.
●Parents love helping their children find new friends of their own age and gender.
Frequently asked questions
Why is there a fee?
We are a small, all-volunteer non-profit organization, and the fees help cover our cost of running the program.
How did the Amazing Kids! PenPals Program begin?
The program began as a way of reaching out to the children affected by the devastating (毁灭性的) hurricanes of 2005. Our hope was that by matching young hurricane survivors with a new pen pal, we could help them in their recovery from the trauma (创伤) they experienced.
The program is now available to all children worldwide. We continue to welcome teachers, youth groups or agencies who like to work with hurricane survivors.
How does it work?
Amazing Kids! will match students of the same gender and age with other students who may share similar interests and hobbies, based on the information provided on the registration form.
I’ve completed all forms and made my payment. What happens next?
Someone from Amazing Kids! will contact you once a match has been found. You will be asked to call the other parent, teacher or group leader of the pen pal Amazing Kids! has selected. If both adults agree that the pen pal match is a good one, then the students may begin writing to each other. If the match is determined not to be a good one, Amazing Kids! will try and find an alternative match..If a group of twenty children want to join the program, they should pay _____altogether.
A.$50 | B.$100 | C.$150 | D.$200 |
.Parents may agree the program helps children_________.
A.travel around the world | B.communicate well with others |
C.Meet many famous people | D.get good marks in exams |
In the beginning the Amazing Kids! PenPals Program was set up for the kids who ______.
A.suffered from the hurricanes |
B.were willing to make pen pals |
C.were good at writing letters |
D.wanted to help hurricane survivors |
E
In 1789 the US. government passed a law which said that the land of the American Indians could never be taken from them without their agreement. One hundred years later, however, the Indians only had a very small part of the land that originally belonged to them. How did this great injustice occur?
After 1812 white settlers began to move west across North America. At first, the settlers and the Indians lived in peace. However, the number of settlers increased greatly every year, and slowly the Indians began to see the white settlers as a danger to their survival. To feed themselves, the settlers killed more and more wild animals. The Indians, who depended on these animals for food, had to struggle against starvation. The settlers also brought with them many diseases which were common in white society, but which were new for the Indians. Great numbers of Indians became sick and died. Between 1843 and 1854 the Indian population in one area of the country went down from 100,000 to 30,000.
More land was needed for the increasing number of white settlers. In Washington, the old respect for the rights of the Indians disappeared. The old promises to the Indians were broken; the government began to move groups of Indians from their original homelands to other poorer parts of the country. Some Indians reacted angrily and violently to this treatment. They began to attack white settlers, and the Indian war began. For 30 years, until the late 1880s, different groups of Indians fought against the injustices of the white man. They had a few famous successes, but the result of the struggle was never in doubt. There were too many white soldiers, and they were too powerful. Many Indians were killed; the survivors were moved from their homelands to different areas of the country. It was a terrible chapter in the history of a country that promised freedom and equality to everyone.
72.It can be inferred from the passage that______.
A.in the US there were many laws that provided to the rights of American Indians
B.the law which was passed in 1789 by the US government was not successfully carried out
C.in the 19th century no injustices were done against the Indians by the US government
D.the majority of white settlers were openly opposed to the law passed in 1789
73.According to the passage which of the following is true?
A.The Indians believed that killing too many wild animals had disturbed the balance of nature.
B.The government began to have a better understanding of the Indians in the 1850s.
C.Between 1843 and 1854 about 70,000 Indians were killed in the battle.
D.The whites carried serious diseases into where the Indians lived.
74.It is implied in the passage that______.
A.the Indians had many great successes in the Indians war
B.the Indians had no doubt that they would win the war
C.after the war the Indians stayed where they were before
D.the Indians were too weak to win the struggle
75.The last sentence of the passage______.
A.serves as the author's comment on the historical event described above
B.gives the reader the impression that injustice is everywhere in the US
C.makes a conclusion that such events talked above will never happen again
D.brings about the topic that how the US government will deal with the problem
D
There is probably no field of human activity in which our values and lifestyles are shown more clearly and strongly than they are in the clothes that we choose to wear. The dress of an individual is a kind of "sign language" that communicates a set of information and is usually the basis on which immediate impressions are formed. Traditionally, a concern for clothes was considered to be an affair of females, while men took pride in the fact they were completely lacking in clothes consciousness(意识).
This type of American culture is by degrees changing as man dress takes on greater variety and color. Even as early as 1995, a researcher in Michigan said that men attached rather high importance to the value of clothing in daily life. White-collar workers in particular viewed dress as a symbol of ability, which could be used to impress or influence others, especially in the work situation. The white-collar worker was described as extremely concerned about the impression his clothes made on his superiors(上司). Although blue-collar workers were less aware that they might be judged on the basis of their clothing, they recognized that any difference from the accepted pattern of dress would be made fun of by fellow workers.
Since that time, of course, the patterns have changed; the typical office worker may now be wearing the blue shirt, and the laborer a white shirt, but the importance of dress has not become less. Other researchers in recent years have helped to prove its importance in the lives of individuals at various levels and in different social and economic status groups(阶层).
68.From the passage we know that______.
A.the Americans' values and lifestyles can't be shown clearly in their activity
B.the Americans' values and lifestyles are from the sign language
C.the clothes the Americans choose to wear have something to do with their values and lifestyles
D.the clothes the Americans choose to wear depend on a set of information
69.Traditionally, the Americans usually thought that______.
A.men should care much for clothes
B.women should concern greatly about what they wore but men shouldn't
C.both men and women must pay great attention to their clothes
D.neither men nor women didn't have to show interest in clothes
70.Blue-collar workers pay attention to their clothes because______.
A.they extremely concern about the impression their clothes make on their superiors
B.they know clearly that people will judge them on the basis of their clothing
C.they want to impress and influence others
D.they don't want to be laughed at
71.The passage mainly suggests that______.
A.the Americans pay great attention to the importance of clothes
B.now men in America have made more progress in clothes consciousness
C.now men in America care about clothes more than women do
D.the American culture is greatly changing
C
We have developed a new range of first aid courses designed to meet the needs of home or leisure activities. It will help you in the everyday life.
Emergency life support
Our emergency life support course takes just three hours to complete and will give you the essential skills to save a life. It includes heart attacks, stroke, stomachache and serious bleeding.
Basic first aid
This course is about everyday first aid: cuts and scrapes, minor burns and scalds.
Family first aid
This course is for families to learn first aid together. The course covers the same content as Basic first aid and Emergency life support. The course takes six hours.
Activity first aid
This course takes 16 hours and includes all the content of Emergency life support, Basic first aid and Family first aid course. It also covers conditions caused by the extremes of temperature, low blood sugar and casualty management.
Total first aid
It is our most comprehensive first aid course taking 28 hours to complete. This course is for members of the public who want an in-depth knowledge of first aid techniques. This includes all of the content of the Activity first aid course and training in using some medical instruments.
Emergency aid for traffic
This course is specifically designed for accidents and covers emergency life support skills and head injuries.
Sports first aid
This course will give you all the necessary first aid skills to deal with a whole range of sporting injuries.
64.These first aid training courses are mainly designed for______.
A.housewives B.members of the public
C.doctors and nurses D.school students
65.The underlined word "scrapes" probably means"______".
A.injuries caused by a serious accident B.sudden attack on the brain
C.injuries caused by something rough D.injuries caused by animals
66.How long does it take to complete the Basic first aid course?
A.Three hours. B.Four hours. C.Five hours. D.Six hours.
67.Which of the following contains most first aid skills?
A.Basic first aid. B.Family first aid. C.Activity first aid. D.Total first aid.
B
Memories of highly charged events, like the London bombings of the 7th July 2005, can be inaccurate and should not be relied on in court, according to a study in Britain. People can create false memories, bringing problems for police investigations.
The simultaneous (同时) bombings of three underground trains and a double-decker bus in London some years ago are imprinted on the minds of many people in Britain.
But our memories of the attacks are unreliable, according to a study from Portsmouth University. Forty percent of British students questioned about the events remembered seeing a film recorded by a CCTV(闭路监控) camera that shows a particular event of the bus bomb——footage(片段) which never existed. A further 28% claimed to have seen a non-existent computerized reconstruction.
Some even recalled specific details of the attack, which none of them witnessed. "The bus had just stopped to let people off when two women and a man got on," said one. "He placed a hag by his side, the woman sat down and as the bus left, there was an explosion. There was a leg on the floor." Another described how the bus had stepped at a traffic light when there was a bright light, an explosion and the roof of the bus was blown off by the power of the explosion.
"Memories are not like videotape you can return to the beginning and replay for perfect recall," said lead researcher James Ost. "Because of this, they are not reliable enough to form the basis of legal decisions." He believes people who are more creative might be more inclined to make these kinds of errors.
60.According to the passage, when people are strongly affected by an event______.
A.all they say about the event is not true
B.they couldn't remember anything
C.they couldn't go on the court to be witnesses
D.they couldn't make any errors on what they see about the event
61.The third paragraph______.
A.tells us what some people saw about the attack
B.shows that some people did create some false memories
C.shows that the London bombing was indeed a terrorist attack
D.shows that some people could remember details of an event
62.The underlined word "inclined" in the last paragraph is closest to the meaning of______.
A.careful B.likely C.serious D.curious
63.What is mainly discussed in the passage?
A.How our memories work. B.False memories.
C.How to avoid false memories. D.What can be done to memories.
三、阅读理解(共20小题;每小题2分,满分40分)
阅读下面短文,从每题所给的四个选项(A.B.C和D)中,选出最佳选项,并在答题卡上将该项的标号涂黑。
A
I remember a day when I was a little kid. I was making a sandwich in the kitchen when I noticed the date on one of the wine bottles.
"Dad, dad!" I cried. "This wine is too old to drink."
"Son, hold on," he said.
"No, you can't drink this tonight! This bottle of wine was made 10 years ago."
"Wait, let me tell you..."
"Would you like me to throw it away for you?" I asked.
"Son, wait a second," he said. "Son, some wines get better over time. The longer you wait to drink it, the better it will be. Although this may seem strange, it is true."
When I was young, I didn't have any understanding of what this meant, but now, this would have been very helpful to remember as I went through my teenage years.
In our society, we forget this simple role: The longer you wait for certain things, the better they will be. But we want the best job as quickly as possible; we want to graduate from college in as few years as possible; we even speed through our homework just to chat with friends. When we do this, we lose something of great importance.
We all want to get to the next step so quickly that perhaps we don't get ready enough to get there. This has a negative effect on our society. When trying to go to the right college, we will do anything to get in and when we rush through our class-work, we may not study enough for the test, and end up failing. We need to be ready for whatever comes, ready for the unexpected. Wine gets better over time, so do the things in our paths of life.
56.Why did the author tell his father not to drink the bottle of wine?
A.Because it smelt terrible.
B.Because it was mixed with something else.
C.Because his father drank too much that night.
D.Because it had been kept for years.
57.What the author's father said______.
A.made the author puzzled when he was a little child
B.was too simple a rule to be meaningful to the author
C.threw the author into deep thought then
D.was an excuse to drink the wine
58.In the author's opinion, if we do things too quickly we will______.
A.do it better B.save much time
C.graduate from college more quickly D.miss something useful to us in life
59.Which of the following best reflects the main idea of the passage?
A.Well begun is half done. B.More haste, less speed.
C.Failure is the mother of success. D.Nothing is impossible to a willing heart.