DearSusan,IhavebeeninEnglandfo-优题课

When Paul was a boy growing up in Utah, he happened to live near a copper smelter（炼铜厂），and the chemicals that poured out had made a wasteland out of what used to be a beautiful forest. One day a young visitor looked at this wasteland and called it an awful area. Paul knocked him down. From then on, something happened inside him.
Years later Paul was back in the area, and he went to the smelter office. He asked if they had any plans or if they would let him try to bring the trees back. The answer from that big industry was “No”.
Paul then went to college to study the science of plants. Unfortunately, his teachers said there weren't any birds or squirrels to spread the seeds. It would be a waste of his life to try to do it. Everyone knew that, he was told. Even if he was knowledgeable as he had expected, he wouldn’t get his idea accepted.
Paul later got married and had some kids. But his dream would not die. And then one night he did what he could with what he had. As Samuel Johnson wrote, “It is common to overlook what is near by keeping the eye fixed on something remote. Attainable(可得到的) good is often ignored by minds busied in wide ranges.” Under the cover of darkness, he went secretly into the wasteland and started planting.
And every week, he made his secret journey into the wasteland and planted trees and grass. For fifteen years he did this against the plain common sense. Slowly rabbits appeared. Later, as there was legal pressure to clean up the environment, the company actually hired Paul to do what he was already doing.
Now the place is fourteen thousand acres of trees and grass and bushes, and Paul has received almost every environmental award Utah has. It took him until his hair turned white, but he managed to keep that impossible vow he made to himself as a child.
When Paul was a boy，______________.

A．he had decided never to leave his hometown

B．the economy of Utah depended wholly on the copper smelter

C．no laws were made to protect the environment against pollution

D．he had determined to stop the copper smelter polluting the area

Why did Paul go to college to study the science of plants？

A．Because he wanted to find out the best way to save the area himself.

B．Because he was interested in planting trees since he was young.

C．Because he wanted to get more knowledgeable people to help him.

D．Because he thought his knowledge would make his advice more persuasive.

What does the underlined phrase “the plain common sense” probably refer to?

A．That it was impossible for trees to grow on the wasteland.

B．That his normal work and life would be greatly affected.

C．That no one would like to join him in the efforts.

D．That he had to keep everything he did secret.

The company hired Paul to plant trees and grass because___________.

A．they realized the importance of environmental protection

B．What Paul was doing moved them

C．Paul persuaded them to help him

D．they had legal pressure

The message of the passage is that _____________.

A．action speaks louder than words	B．perseverance will work wonders
C．God helps those who help themselves	D．many hands make light work

This is an open letter to the three people who stole my handbag from the department store I am employed as a shop assistant.
When you took my bag, I don’t know what you thought you were going to get. With my wages, there’s not much left on a Tuesday. I hope the ￡5 was useful to you. I have informed the social security office so you won’t be able to cash the child benefit next week. I hope that won’t leave you too short．But if you really need a couple of pounds, I suppose you could always cash one of the two checks left in my check book．Of course, I phoned the bank right away and the check-cashing card is no longer valid(有效的), so it won’t be much use to you.
Actually I don’t mind about the money too much. We single parents who work to support our families understand only too well what it means to be short of cash. However, I don’t suppose it went very far among the three of you. Sorry about that!
I wish you had left the bag behind and just taken the wallet and check book．There were all kinds of papers in it, and notes and things that I really need. I really think that was very inconsiderate of you . I mean, how would you like something like that to happen to you?
Well, perhaps the bag will turn up. It wasn’t even an expensive one, just a plain, old brown leather handbag. You probably dumped it in the nearest rubbish bin or threw it into the bushes. We’ve looked around, of course, but no one saw which way you went after you left the shop.
I’m not really angry with you．I know how the pressures of modern living can affect us, but I am sad at the loss of my personal things. I feel offended and helpless. The police were very icy, and they just shrugged（耸） their shoulders. “It happens all the time,” they told me. Some small comfort, I suppose. But I’ve lost just a little more faith in human nature. And as my young son said when I told him what had happened, “Why? Mummy, why us?” I couldn’t answer that question. I wonder if you can.
In writing Paragraph 2, the writer wants to __________.

A．describe the contents of the bag in detail

B．give some suggestions to the three thieves

C．tell the thieves they could hardly get any money

D．state the fact that she was careless with the money

Which of the following is the most valuable to the writer?

A．The cash in her bag.

B．The papers and notes in the bag.

C．The handbag itself.

D．The check books in the bag.

What can we conclude about the police?

A．They have doubts about human nature.

B．They show sympathy for the woman.

C．They think the case quite common.

D．They are unable to find the thieves.

Why does the author write the letter?

A．To give the thieves a serious warning.

B．To complain about the fall of human goodness.

C．To call people’s attention to their belongings.

D．To express her affection for her valuable bag.

Below is a web page from http:// ww.parents.com/

Kid of the Year Photo Competition
Enter your kid’s photo today and win! We’re giving away 52 weekly $250 prizes from Readers’ Choice votes. PLUS our editors will select one entry to win our grand prize of $7,000.
Official Competition Rules
No purchase necessary to enter or win.
The Kid of the Year Photo Competition entry period begins at 12:00 a.m.
January 23, 2011, and ends January 21, 2012 (“Entry Period”). Entries must arrive by 9:00 p.m. on January 21, 2012 (“Entry Deadline”). Entries will not be acknowledged or returned. SPONSOR(赞助商): Meredith Corporation, 1716 Locust Street, Des Moines, Iowa. ENTRY: There will be two methods of entry. Share My Entry:
Visit http://www.parents.com/photos/photo-contests-1/kid-of-the-year/ and click the button to enter. Facebook Entry:
Visit http://Facebook.com/ParentsMagazine and click the Kid of 2011 tab(选项卡).
Then complete the registration form and follow the instructions to upload one album of up to six photos of your child aged three months to eight years. You may provide one description and one album title that will be applied to all photos. Photos, without any brand names or trademarks, must be taken by participants, non-professional, unpublished and may not have won any prize or award. Photos must be .jpeg or .bmp image formats (格式) and cannot be over 3 MB
This promotion is in no way sponsored, supported or run by, or associated with Facebook. You are
providing your information to Parents Magazine and not to Facebook. The information you provide will
only be used to run the promotion and register for Parents.com.
LIMIT: One entry per family, per child, per week. One weekly prize per child. For entries of more
than one child in a family, the entry process must be completed separately for each child. No group entries.
We can learn from the passage that _________.

A．you should buy something first before you enter the contest

B．your entry will not be returned even if you don’t win the contest

C．you should send your entry before 9:00 p.m. on January 21, 2011

D．the editors of the contest will decide who will win the 20,000 dollars in prizes

Linda, a mother with seven-year-old twins, wants to enter the competition. She must _________.

A．provide a description and an album title for the kid’s photos

B．go to Meredith Corporation to fill out the registration forms

C．complete the entry process separately for each of her kids

D．provide the information to Facebook if she chooses Facebook Entry

To enter the competition, photos must __________.

A．be taken by non-professional participants

B．have won some prize or award

C．contain brand names or trademarks

D．contain parents’ personal information

The purpose of the passage is __________.

A．to advertise the website Facebook. Com

B．to attract photographers’ interest in a photo contest

C．to introduce two methods of entering a photo contest

D．to encourage parents with children to enter a photo contest

Psychiatrists(精神病专家)who work with older parents say that maturity(成熟) can be an advantage in child raising—older parents are more thoughtful, use less physical discipline and spend more time with their children. But raising kids takes money and energy. Many older parents find themselves balancing their limited financial resources, decreasing energy and failing health against the growing demands of an active child. Dying and leaving young children is probably the older parents’ biggest, and often unspoken fear. “Having late-life children often means parents, particularly fathers, end up retiring much later. For many, retirement becomes an unobtainable dream.” says Brandy Gabrielle, an economics professor.
Henry Metcalf, a 54-year-old journalist, knows it takes money to raise kids. But he’s also worried that his energy will give out first. Sure, he can still ride bikes with his athletic fifth grader, but he's learned that young at heart doesn't mean young. Lately he’s been taking afternoon naps to keep up his energy. “My body is aging,” says Metcalf. “You can't get away from that.”
Often, older parents hear the ticking of another kind of biological clock. Therapists (治疗专家)who work with middle-aged and older parents say fears about aging are nothing to laugh at. “They worry they’ll be mistaken for grandparents, or that they’ll need help getting up out of those little chairs in nursery school,” says Joann Gals, a New York psychologist. But at the core(核心)of those little fears there is often a much bigger one: “that they won't be alive long enough to support and protect their children,” she says.
Many late-life parents, though, say their children came at just the right time. After marrying late and undergoing years of pregnancy treatment, Marilyn Nolen and her husband, Randy, had twins. “We both wanted children,” says Marilyn, who was 55 when she gave birth. The twins have given the couple what they desired for years — a sense of family. Kids of older dads are often smarter, happier and more sociable because their fathers are more involved in their lives. “The dads are older, more mature,” says Dr. Silber, “and more ready to focus on parenting.”
The reason why psychiatrists regard maturity as an advantage in child raising is that _____.

A．older parents are usually more experienced in bringing up their children.

B．older parents can better balance their resources against children's demands.

C．older parents are often better prepared financially.

D．older parents tend to devote more love and patience to their children.

According to Brandy Gabrielle, what can we know about old parents?

A．They support and protect their children at the cost of their lives.

B．They can get retired earlier to educate their children.

C．They have to go on working beyond their retirement age.

D．They attach more importance to work rather than child raising.

What’s the author’s attitude toward the older parents?

A．Encouraging

B．Doubtful.

C．Objective.

D．Worried.

What do we learn about Marilyn and Randy Nolen?

A．They thought it was too late to have children in their fifties.

B．When they reached middle age, they thought of having children.

C．They believed that children born of older parents would be smarter.

D．Not until they had the twins did they feel they had formed a family.

Who’s in control of your life? Who’s pulling your strings(绳子)? For the majority of us, it’s other people—society, colleagues, friends, family or our religious community. We learned this way of operating when we were very young, of course. We were brainwashed. We discovered that feeling important and feeling accepted was a nice experience and so we learned to do everything we could to make other people like us. As Oscar Wilde puts it, “Most people are other people. Their thoughts are someone else’s opinions, their lives a mimicry(模仿), their passions a quotation.”
So when people tell us how wonderful we are, it makes us feel good. We long for this good feeling like a drug—we are addicted to it and seek it out wherever we can. Therefore, we are so eager for the approval of others that we live unhappy and limited lives, failing to do the things we really want to. Just as drug addicts and alcoholics live worsened lives to keep getting their fix(一剂毒品), we worsen our own existence to get our own constant fix of approval.
But, just as with any drug, there is a price to pay. The price of the approval drug is freedom—the freedom to be ourselves. The truth is that we cannot control what other people think. People have their own agenda(议程), and they come with their own baggage and, in the end, they’re more interested in themselves than in you. Furthermore, if we try to live by the opinions of others, we will build our life on sinking sand. Everyone has a different way of thinking, and people change their opinions all the time. The person who tries to please everyone will only end up getting exhausted and probably pleasing no one in the process.
So how can we take back control? I think there’s only one way—make a conscious decision to stop caring what other people think. We should guide ourselves by means of a set of values—not values imposed from the outside by others, but innate values which come from within. If we are driven by these values and not by the changing opinions and value systems of others, we will live a more authentic(真实的), effective, purposeful and happy life.
What Oscar Wilde says implies that _____.

A．most people have a variety of thoughts.

B．we have thoughts similar to those of others.

C．other people’s thoughts are more important .

D．most people’s thoughts are controlled by others.

What does the author try to argue in the third paragraph?

A．We may lose ourselves to please others.

B．The price of taking the drug is freedom.

C．We need to pay for what we want to get.

D．Changing opinions may cost us our freedom.

It can be concluded from the passage that _____.

A．it’s better to do what we like

B．we shouldn’t care what others think

C．we shouldn’t change our own opinions

D．it’s important to accept others’ opinions

The author tries to persuade the readers to accept his arguments mainly by _____.

A．discussing questions

B．making suggestions

C．analyzing causes and effects

D．providing examples and facts

A．Asia.	B．Europe.
C．America.	D．Africa.