Education is another area where the presence of arts and crafts is more than welcome. If children realize the importance of art and creativity from a young age, they can grow up to be more confident, more creative, and definitely more mature. Schools are the breeding（孕育）grounds for future painters and movie makers, and these arts should be encouraged wholesomely in such an environment.
Sadly, many parents do not understand why art is important for children, and subconsciously（潜意识地）force them to follow career paths that are common and conformist（墨守成规的）in nature. This is fair enough in its own way, because the world does need some standard blue collar and white collar jobs to continue its existence; but this is a choice that children should be allowed to make for themselves. The doors to creativity and expression must not be shut in their faces, even if it comes at a cost of making more money.
To put it more scientifically, here are some benefits of kids’ art activities that give a suitable answer to the question “Why is art important in schools?”
1.Exposure to art, music and drawings at an early age improves the amount of brain activity in children.
2.It increases the span of knowledge in the minds of children, thus making them sharper and more educated.
3.It builds up the levels of self-confidence, self-esteem（自尊）, motivation, cooperation and communication in children.
4.It helps children understand other people’s opinions and points of view as well.
5.It helps them sharpen their problem-solving skills, decision-making and gives them the possibility of really exploring their imaginations.According to the passage, it is generally accepted that ____.
| A．art plays a very important role in education of children |
| B．children are expected to be blue-collar or white-collar workers |
| C．schools should encourage children to learn arts and crafts |
| D．children should be allowed to make choices for themselves |
The writer holds the view that ____.
| A．schools should only bring up future painters and movie makers |
| B．children grow up to be more confident and more creative in schools |
| C．children should be encouraged to learn art to develop their creativity |
| D．art activities can help children solve all the problems they meet with |
What can be inferred from the passage?
| A．Arts and crafts lessons are very popular in schools. |
| B．Art is not paid enough attention to in schools now. |
| C．Art activities improve the amount of brain activity. |
| D．Art education builds up the levels of self-confidence. |
What would be the best title for the passage?
| A．Importance of Art in Schools. |
| B．Relation between Art and Creativity. |
| C．Importance of Education. |
| D．Future of Children. |
How to Make the Most of Your Time
Time management is important in our daily life. There never seems to be enough hours in the day to accomplish all you need to do. Here are some tips that might be of some help to you .
1. Set up a plan. Go for a week at a time, and prioritize the most important ones. Include things you want to accomplish. Focus mostly on the things that are important to you.
2. Control your stress. No matter what kind of pressure mounts on you, try to keep cool. Stressing out can lead to an early breakdown, which is definitely counter-productive (事与愿违) when you have a list of things to do. It's easier to take a 10-minute break and cool off than work all week with built up stress.
3. Shut your door. When working under a schedule, perform your important tasks with your door shut to get them done. This will ensure a better quality time to get what needs to be done done.
4. Focus on one thing at a time. Forget trying to multi-task! You will lose concentration, and it will take you longer to accomplish what you set out to do.
5. Just say "no." If you are constantly interrupted, and you really don't have the time to help out, just say "no." You're only one person, and you can't save the world by yourself!
6. Stop wasting time on the phone. While talking on the phone, keep your conversations short, and to the point and you'll waste much less time.
7. Be realistic. You can only do what you can do. Don't set out to accomplish the impossible. Do your best, but keep realistic expectations of yourself.
8. Relax. The most important thing is remember to take time to relax, and regroup. You need a break every now and then to keep working efficiently. Even if it's a 10-minute walk, get away from your list and get refreshed.
As families today get busier and busier, it's important to your own mental health to keep things on track. Don't delay; get your life in order now.
64. What does the underlined word “prioritize” in Paragraph 2 mean?
A. choose something by thinking carefully
B. recognize the difference between things
C. put many things in order of importance
D. get rid of something that is unwanted
65. We should avoid stressing out because ____________.
A. it may cause us to fail to work normally
B. it may limit the speed to get things done
C. we don’t have enough energy to keep working
D. we are supposed to have a break while working
66. Which statement would the author agree to?
A. Try multi-tasks, and we can get more done.
B. It is impolite to refuse to help others at work.
C. Having breaks regularly may delay our tasks.
D. It is wise to be aware of what we can achieve.
67. By writing the text, the author would like to ___________.
A. ask readers to share their time management skills
B. offer some advice on how to make full use of time
C. invite readers to discuss how to improve life quality
D. persuade readers to spend less time on daily routine
It may help you to know that there is no such thing as a perfect speech．At some point in every speech, every speaker says something that is not understood exactly as he has planned．Fortunately, the moments are usually not obvious to the listeners. Why ? Because the listeners do not know what the speaker plans to say. They hear only what the speaker does say. If you lose your place for a moment, wrongly change the order of a couple of sentences, or forget to pause at a certain point, no one will be any the wiser．When such moments occur, don’t worry about them. Just continue as if nothing happened．
Even if you do make an obvious mistake during a speech, that don’t really matter. If you have ever listened to Martin Luther King’s famous speech – “ I have a dream”, you may notice that he stumble（结巴）his words twice during the speech．Most likely, however, you don’t remember．Why? Because you were fixing your attention on its message rather than on his way of speech-making. People care a lot about making mistakes in a speech because they regard speech-making as a kind of performance rather than as an act of communication. They feel the listeners are like judges in an ice-skating competition．But, in fact, the listeners are not looking for a perfect performer. They are looking for a well-thought-out speech that expresses the speaker’s ideas clearly and directly．Sometimes a mistake or two can actually increase a speaker’s attractiveness by making him more human．
As you work on your speech, don’t worry about being imperfect．Once you free your mind of this, you will find it much easier to give your speech freely．
60. The underlined part in the first paragraph means that no one will ___________．
A．be smarter than you
B．notice your mistakes
C．do better than you
D．know what you are talking about
61. You don’t remember obvious mistakes in a speech because ___________．
A．your attention is on the content
B．you don’t fully understand the speech
C．you don’t know what the speaker plans to say
D．you find the way of speech-making more important
62. It can be inferred from the passage that ___________．
A．giving a speech is like giving a performance
B．one to two mistakes in a speech may not be bad
C．the listeners should pay more attention to how a speech is made
D．the more mistakes a speaker makes, the more attractive he will be
63. What would be the best title of the passage?
A. How to Be a Perfect Speaker
B. How to Make a Perfect Speech
C. Don’t Expect a Perfect Speech
D. Don’t Expect Mistakes in a Speech
第三部分：阅读理解（共15小题，每小题2分，满分30分）
阅读下列短文，从每题所给的选项中，选出最佳选项，并在答题卡上将该项涂黑。
It was a village in India. The people were poor. However, they were not unhappy. After all, their forefathers had lived in the same way for centuries.
Then one day. Some visitors from the city arrived. They told the villagers there were some people elsewhere who liked to eat frog’s legs. However, they did not have enough frogs of their own, and so they wanted to buy frogs from other place.
This seemed like money for nothing. There were millions of frogs in the fields around, and they were no use to the villagers. All they had to do was catch them. Agreement was reached, and the children were sent into the fields to catch frogs. Every week a truck arrived to collect the catch and hand over the money. For the first time, the people were able to dream of a batter future. But the dream didn’t last long.
The change was hardly noticed at first, but it seemed as if the crops were not doing so well. More worrying was that the children fell ill more often, and, there seemed to be more insects around lately.
The villagers decided that they couldn’t just wait to see the crops failing and the children getting weak. They would have to use the money earned to buy pesticides(杀虫剂) and medicines. Soon there was no money left.
Then the people realized what was happening. It was the frog. They hadn’t been useless. They had been doing an important job---eating insects. Now with so many frogs killed, the insects were increasing more rapidly. They were damaging the crops and spreading diseases.
Now, the people are still poor. But in the evenings they sit in the village square and listen to sounds of insects and frogs. These sounds of the night now have a much deeper meaning.
56. From paragraph 1 we learn that the villagers __________.
A. worked very hard for centuries B. dreamed of having a better life
C. were poor but somewhat content D. lived a different life from their forefathers
57. Why did the villagers agree to sell frogs?
A. the frogs were easy money B. They needs money to buy medicine
C. they wanted to please the visitors D. the frogs made too much noise
58. What might be the cause of the children’s sickness?
A. the crops didn’t do well B. there were too many insects
C. the visits brought in diseases D. the pesticides were overused
59. What can we infer from the last sentence of the text?
A. Happiness comes from peaceful life in the country
B. Health is more important than money
C. The harmony between man and nature is important
D. good old day will never be forgotten
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72. How long does it take the battery to charge up an iPhone?
A. 15 minutes. B. 30 minutes. C. 1.5 hours. D. 3 hours.
73.What is special about the battery?
A. It is built in an iPhone. B. It is the smallest of its kind.
C. It can also be used as a charger. D. It keeps power for about 30 days.
74. Who mentions the transporting of the battery?
A. P.S. B. B.L. C. M.C. D. T.K.
75. The customer comments on the battery are mainly about its _______.
A. quality B. service C. function D. shopping
Find Which Direction Is South
Do you have a good sense of direction? If not, please take with you a compass. But if you forget to take a compass, you can still find your way.
It’s never a good idea to imagine that the family member who was entrusted（委
托）with the job of map-reading actually knows where the family is.
You can tell by the slightly confused load on their faces that nothing on the
ground seems to match the map. Never mind. The hun is shining and it’s still morning. If you don’t know the exact time, you can still find out where south is, but you’ll need to be patient.
Find a straight stick and put it in the ground in a place where you can mark its
shadow.
Try to position the stick as vertically（垂直）as you can. You can check this by
making a simple plumb line （铅锤线）with a piece of string and weight. You haven’t got any string? OK, use a thread from your clothes with a button tied at the end to act as a weight.
Mark the end of the shadow cast by the stick.
Wait about half an hour and mark the end of the shadow again.
Keep doing this until you have made several marks.
The mark nearest the stick will represent the shortest shadow, which is cast at midday, when the sun is highest in the sky and pointing to the exact south.
Pick a point in the distance along the line between the shortest shadow and the stick. That point is south of where you are.
Now you can turn the map, like you did before, and find which way you should be travelling.
68. To find the direction, we ought to be patient probably because
A. it is not easy to find a proper stick B. it is not easy to position the stick
C. it takes hours to make the marks D. it takes about half an hour to make the marks
69.The passage would probably be most helpful to.
A. those who draw maps B. those who get lost
C. those who make compasses D. those who do experiments
70. The author presents this passage by .
A. telling an interesting story
B. describing an activity in a lively way
C. testing an idea by reasoning
D. introducing a practical method
71. Which of the following pictures best shows the way of finding the direction of south?