Before I even started school, people felt that I was not going to amount to much. At the age of four, I started speech lessons because even I could not speak well enough to be understood.
First grade was a struggle. I not only had difficulty speaking, but I was expected to learn to read and I just couldn't do it. My parents grew more and more frustrated. They bought books and offered great rewards if I could read one of them from start to finish to them. Well, with my speech problems and now my reading problems, I did not like to do reading and so refused to do it whenever possible.
Second grade was not much better. It was in the second grade that the teacher decided that I needed special education. I remember the days of taking the physical exams. However, after all that, they decided that I did not qualify for special education.
It was in third grade that a new school was built close to where I lived. I remember going there with my parents and helping to get the school ready so that we could transfer(转学). It was a happy day that we started school at Vandalia. However, things did not get better as my parent expected.
It was now time for fifth grade. Mrs. Wakefield was my teacher, and if ever there was a teacher that deserved a gold star, it was her. She did not make me feel upset. Instead, she helped me in so many ways and built my self-confidence so that I actually did believe that I could do something special. And that is just what I did.
For the past 22 years, I have been a fifth grade teacher. Because of Mrs. Wakefield's influence in my life, I am now encouraging students who have had difficulties in their lives to believe that they can overcome and become someone. I have won a large number of awards but I know that all of them belong to one fifth grade teacher who believed in me and challenged me to be all that I could be.
I still have a class picture of her with her fifth grade class hanging on the wall of my office, encouraging other teachers to reach out to their students. What does the underlined phrase “amount to much” mean in Paragraph l?
| A．get rich. | B．get successful. |
| C．get recovered. | D．become healthy. |
From the second paragraph we know that______________.
| A．the writer's parents lost confidence in the writer completely |
| B．the writer's speech problems didn’t stop him from reading |
| C．the writer's parents tried many things to encourage him |
| D．the writer couldn't improve his speech ability from reading |
What can we infer from the passage?
| A．The writer’s parents believed he could get improved in his speech ability. |
| B．The new school was not far away from where they lived. |
| C．The teachers in the new school were gold stars |
| D．The writer himself wanted to transfer to a new school. |
In which grade did the turning point in writer's life appear?
| A．In Grade Two. | B．In Grade Three |
| C．In Grade Four | D．In Grade Five |
.What can we learn from the passage?
| A．A good teacher is hard to find in our lives. |
| B．Many students have speech difficulties, |
| C．Confidence is very important in one's life |
| D．Different teaching methods work the same |
When students and parents are asked to grade subjects according to their importance, the arts are usually at the bottom of the list. Music is nice, people seem to say, but not important. Too often it is only viewed as entertainment, but certainly not an education priority（优先）. This view is shortsighted. In fact, music education is very important for all students.
Music tells us who we are. Because music is an expression of the beings who create it, it shows their thinking and values, as well as the social environment it came from. Rock music represents a lifestyle just as surely as does a Schubert song. The jazz influence that George Gershwin and other musicians introduced into their music is obviously American because it came from American musical traditions. Music expresses our character and values. It gives us identity（身份，特性）as a society.
Music provides a kind of perception（感知）that cannot be acquired any other way. Science can explain how the sun rises and sets. The arts can express the emotive（情感的）meaning of the same thing. We need every possible way to discover and respond to our world for one simple but powerful reason: No one way can get it all.
The arts are forms of thought as powerful in what they communicate as mathematical and scientific symbols. They are ways we human beings “talk” to each other. They are the language through which we express our fears, our hungers, our discoveries, our hopes. The arts are ways we give form to our ideas and imagination so that they can be shared with others. When we do not give children an important way of expressing themselves such as music, we take away from them the meanings that music expresses.
Science and technology do not tell us what it means to be human. The arts do. Music is an important way we express human suffering, celebration, the value of peace and love.
So music education is far more necessary than people seem to realize.What can we learn from Paragraph 1?
| A．Students regard music as a way of entertainment. |
| B．Students disagree with their parents on education. |
| C．Students take music as an important subject. |
| D．Students prefer the arts to science. |
In Paragraph 2, the writer uses jazz as an example to____________.
| A．compare it with rock music |
| B．show music identifies a society |
| C．introduce American musical traditions |
| D．prove music influences people’s lifestyles |
According to the passage, the arts and science____________. .
| A．explain the world in different ways |
| B．explain different facts of the world |
| C．express people’s feelings in different ways |
| D．explain what it means to be human differently |
What is the main idea of the passage?
| A．Music education is worth more attention. |
| B．Music should be of top education priority. |
| C．Music is really a good communication tool. |
| D．Music education makes students more imaginative. |
To err is human. To blame（责备） the other guy is even more human.
Common sense is not all that common.
Why tell the truth when you can come up with a good excuse?
These three popular misquotes（戏谑的引语）are meant to be jokes, and yet they tell us a lot about human nature. To err, or to make mistakes, is indeed a part of being human, but it seems that most people don’t want to accept the responsibility for the problem. Perhaps it is the natural thing to do. The original quote about human nature went like this: “To err is human, to forgive, divine（神圣的）.” This saying mirrors an ideal: People should be forgiving of others’ mistakes. Instead, we tend to do the opposite – find someone else to pass the blame on to. However, taking responsibility for something that went wrong is a mark of great maturity（成熟）.
Common sense is what we call clear thought. Having common sense means having a good general plan that will make things work well, and it also means staying with the plan. Common sense tells you that you take an umbrella out into a rainstorm, but you leave the umbrella home when you hear a weather forecast for sunshine. Common sense does not seem to be common for large companies, because there are so many things going on that one person cannot be in charge of everything. People say that in a large company, “the right hand does not know what the left hand is doing.”
And what is wrong with a society that thinks that making up a good excuse is like creating a work of art? One of the common problems with making excuses is that people, especially young people, get the idea that it’s okay not to be totally honest all the time. There is a corollary（直接推论）to that: if a good excuse is “good” even if it isn’t honest, then where is the place of the truth?Which of the following is NOT based on common sense?
| A．A secretary works to a timetable. |
| B．A company’s next move follows a good plan. |
| C．A girl goes out with an umbrella in stormy weather. |
| D．A man tries to manage everything in a large company. |
What can we infer from the last paragraph according to the writer?
| A．A good excuse is the same as honesty. |
| B．Inventing a good excuse needs creative ideas. |
| C．Unpleasant truth is better than a good excuse. |
| D．Making a good excuse is sometimes a better idea. |
What would be the best title for this passage?
| A．A Mirror of Human Nature |
| B．To Blame or to Forgive |
| C．A Mark of Maturity |
| D．Truth or Excuse |
For Sparky, school was all but impossible. He failed every subject in the eighth grade. He didn’t do much better in sports. Although he played for the school’s golf team, he lost the only important match of the season.
Sparky was a loser. He, his classmates…everyone knew it. Sparky never asked a classmate to go out in high school. He was too afraid of being refused.
However, one thing was important to Sparky – drawing. He was proud of his artwork. Of course, no one else appreciated it. In his senior year of high school, he sent some cartoons to the editors of the Yearbook. Although the cartoons were turned down, Sparky was so confident about his ability that he decided to become an artist.
After completing high school, he wrote a letter to Walt Disney Studios. He was told to send some samples of his artwork, and the subject for a cartoon was suggested. Sparky spent a great deal of time on it. Finally, the reply came from Disney Studios. He had been rejected（拒绝）once again. Another loss for the loser.
So Sparky decided to write his own autobiography（自传）in cartoons. He described his childhood – a little boy loser and underachiever. The cartoon character would soon become famous worldwide. For Sparky, the boy who had little success in school and whose work was rejected again and again was Charles Schulz. He created the Peanuts comic strip（连环漫画）and little cartoon character – Charlie Brown. We can know that Sparky was ________ from the first paragraph.
| A．a top student | B．an artist | C．a good player | D．a failure |
Sparky never asked a classmate to go out because he ______.
| A．had never been invited |
| B．didn’t like making friends |
| C．didn’t want to be refused |
| D．was afraid of making mistakes |
What’s Sparky’s success according to the passage?
| A．He was good at golf playing. |
| B．He wrote a letter to Walt Disney Studios. |
| C．He drew some cartoons for the Yearbook. |
| D．His Peanuts comic strip became world famous. |
Mrs. Chang, a new teacher at Park School, wants to know her students in Class 5, Grade 3. Here are the introductions of some of the students.
| Names |
Introductions |
| Kelly |
Kelly has to go to cram school from 6:20 p.m. to 8:20 p.m. |
| Susan |
Because Susan lives too far away, she usually comes to school late. |
| Nicole |
Nicole is a good student who does well on tests and helps others solve math questions. |
| Jane |
Jane likes to do housework at home and helps clean the classroom. |
| Tom |
Tom never goes to school on time and seldom finishes homework. |
| Jordan |
He likes sports a lot and usually plays basketball in the park right after school. |
| May |
May is friendly and likes to help people. |
| Mark |
Mark does well on tests, but he is shy and doesn’t like to help his classmates. |
| Carol |
She is Mrs. Chang’s best assistant that will do everything for her! |
Who likes sports a lot?
| A．Jordan. | B．Susan. | C．Carol. | D．Jane. |
What does Jane like to do?
| A．To go to school late. |
| B．To help clean the classroom. |
| C．To play basketball in the park. |
| D．To help others solve math questions. |
Who does well on tests?
| A．Kelly and Tom. | B．Nicole and Jordan. |
| C．May and Mark. | D．Nicole and Mark. |
“Life’s a long, long journey(旅程)” so we are told, and most of us would not set off on a journey, even a short one, without some idea of where we wanted to go. Yet many people travel on life’s journey with no sense of direction at all.
Setting personal goals can give your life a sense of direction. Goal setting is used by top sports players, successful business people and achievers in all fields. Before you set personal goals, think about what you want to achieve with your life.
Try to set goals in some of the following categories.
| Education—Will you achieve the educational goals after finishing high-school? Are you still growing and learning? Family—What kind of relationship（关系）do you want with your parents and other family members? Creative—Do you want to achieve any artistic goals? |
Career—What job do you want to take when you grow up? What do you need to make your dream come true? Public Service—Do you want to make the world a better place? Physical—Are you fit enough to do the things you want to do? Pleasure—How do you want to enjoy yourself? |
Write down the goals and think about them carefully. Are they realistic? When will you be able to achieve them?
To help make the process (过程) more manageable, divide your goals into smaller tasks. For example, if you want to reach a main goal in five years, set a three-year goal, a one-year goal, a three-month goal and a one-month goal. Then create a daily To-Do List of things that you should do today. When a goal is achieved, take the time to enjoy your success. This helps you build the self-confidence.
Remember, your goals can change as time goes on. But be sure your goals are things you hope to achieve, not what your parents, family or teachers want.Is life a long journey according to the passage?
Why do you need to set your life goal?
What should you consider when you set a family goal?
How can we achieve the main goal easily?
What does the writer want to tell us?