Sam Trafton was my violin teacher and what he said during one of my lessons often came back to me years later.
One day he asked me how much I practiced, I said three or four hours a day.
“Do you practice in long stretches, an hour at a time?”
“I try to.”
“Well, don’t,” he shouted. “When you grow up, time won’t come in long stretches. Practice in minutes, whenever you can find them five or ten before school, after lunch, between household tasks. Spread the practice through the day.”
When I was teaching at Boston, I wanted to write a novel, but for two years I got practically nothing down on paper, and my excuse was that I had no time. Then I remembered what Sam had said. During the next week I did an experiment. Whenever I had five minutes unoccupied, I sat down and wrote a hundred words or so. To my surprise, at the end of the week I had finished a chapter. Later on I continued my novels by the same piecemeal method. Though my teaching schedule had become heavier than ever, every day there were unoccupied moments that could be caught and put to use.
However, you must get into your work quickly. If you have only five minutes for writing, you can’t afford to waste for chewing your pencil. You must make your mental preparations beforehand, and concentrate on your task almost instantly when the time comes. Fortunately, rapid concentration is easier than most of us realize.
Sam Trafton has had a great influence on my life. He let me know that life can be counted on to supply you short moments and even very short periods of time can add up to all useful hours you need, if you start without delay.The underlined part “counted on” in the last paragraph can probably be replaced by _______.
| A．enriched | B．added up to |
| C．concentrated on | D．expected |
Which of the following statements is TRUE?
| A．The writer owes great thanks to Sam for teaching him how to use free time. |
| B．Sam has had a great influence on the writer’s study. |
| C．The writer didn’t take the teacher’s words to heart at first. |
| D．Rapid concentration is actually more difficult than most people imagine. |
It can be inferred from the passage that the writer _______.
| A．has new books published each year however busy his teaching is |
| B．can always find enough time for mental preparations beforehand |
| C．has formed a bad habit of chewing a pencil while writing his novels |
| D．is always tired of life because his teaching schedule is always heavy |
What is the best title for this passage?
| A．A Little Time at a Time | B．How I Became a Writer |
| C．Concentrate on Your Work | D．My Violin Teacher |
For high school leavers starting out in the working world, it is very important to learn particular skills and practice how to behave in an interview or how to find an internship (实习). In some countries, schools have programs to help students onto the path to work. In the United States, however, such programs are still few and far behind.
Research shows that if high schools provide career-related courses, students are likely to get higher earnings in later years. The students are more likely to stay in school, graduate and go on to higher education.
In Germany, students as young as 13 and 14 are expected to do internships. German companies work with schools to make sure that young people get the education they need for future employment.
But in America, education reform programs focus on how well students do in exams instead of bringing them into contact with the working world. Harvard Education school professor Robert Schwartz has criticized education reformers for trying to place all graduates directly on the four-year college track. Schwartz argued that this approach leaves the countrys most vulnerable(易受影响的)kids with no jobs and no skills.
Schwartz believed that the best career programs encourage kids to go for higher education while also teach them valuable practical skills at high school. James Madison High School in New York, for example ,encourages students to choose classes on career-based courses. The school then helps them gain on-the-job experience in those fields while theyre still at high school.
However, even for teens whose schools encourage them to connect with work, the job market is daunting. In the US, unemployment rates for 16-to-19-year-olds are above 20 percent for the third summer in a row.
“The risk is that if teenagers miss out on the summer job experience, they will become part of this generation of teens who had trouble in landing a job, said Michael, a researcher in the US. In the authors opinion, German high school leavers ______.
| A．enjoy more career-related courses than that of US |
| B．need more career advice from their schools |
| C．perform better in exams than American students |
| D．are less brought into contact with the working world |
According to Robert Schwartz, high school students should _________.
| A．directly carry on higher education |
| B．get contact with the working world |
| C．focus on their performance in exams |
| D．not miss out on the summer job experience |
The underlined word “daunting” in Paragraph 6 most probably mean “______”.
| A．incredible | B．motivating |
| C．impressive | D．discouraging |
What’s the main idea of the text?
| A．Remarks on recent US high school education reform |
| B．Tips on finding jobs for high school leavers in US. |
| C．The lack of career-based education in US high schools. |
| D．The severe situation of unemployment in US. |
Dyslexia is a learning disorder, it interferes with the ability to recognize words, and for some readers to understand what they have read. Experts say dyslexia affects about five to ten percent of the population of the United States. Researchers have long known that people with dyslexia write or read words and lettersbackwards in the wrong order.
But a new study shows that people with dyslexia may have trouble redirecting their attention between senses, from seeing something to hearing something. The study suggests something that might help dyslexicpeople learn more quickly - play video games.
Vanessa Harrar of Britain’s University of Oxford led the study. She reported the findings in the journalCurrent Biology. The study suggests that dyslexic people may have trouble moving quickly from what they read to what they hear.
In the study, Doctor Harrar tested 17 people with dyslexia, and 19 others without reading problems. The volunteers were asked to push a button as quickly as possible when they heard a sound, saw a light or experienced both together. Doctor Harrar compared the speed of their reactions. She found that people with dyslexia were just as fast as the others when they saw only a picture or heard only a sound. But the Dyslexicshad a slower reaction time when they heard a sound and saw a picture at the same time, this may have an effect on how dyslexic children are taught how to read.
Doctor Harrar feels like playing video games could help dyslexic people shift from seeing to hearing more quickly. She adds that images in video games force the eyes to move and focus quickly. “Video game types of things pop out of here and there, they move your eyes around the screen quite quickly in response to things quite quickly, and the more you play a video game the faster you get that kind of thing. So, the video game is really training the attention system to move quickly,” said Harrar. When children learn the alphabet, they usually see the letter first and then hear the sound, or they see and hear the letter at the same time. The study shows that Dyslexics might learn more quickly if they hear the sound of a letter or word first before seeing it.According to Doctor Harrars study, the dyslexic people have difficulty in______.
| A．recognizing words |
| B．reading words backwards |
| C．writing letters in order |
| D．shifting from seeing to hearing |
Which factor affects the way dyslexic children are taught to read?
| A．They react more slowly to a single picture or sound |
| B．They react as fast as others to a single picture or sound |
| C．It takes them longer to react to sounds and pictures together |
| D．It is difficult for them to understand before seeing the word |
How does the author suggest Dyslexics are taught based on the research finding?
| A．by putting hearing previous to seeing |
| B．by training the attention on games |
| C．by seeing first and then hearing later |
| D．by moving the eyes around the screen |
What can be the best title of the passage?
| A．Video Games Might Help Dyslexics |
| B．Dyslexia Affects Attention between Senses |
| C．Video Games Can Train the Attention System |
| D．Dyslexics Might Learn Better through Sound |
One of those big social networking sites, Facebook, has attracted over 58 million members. Commentator Melody Cramer is no longer one of them. Here is what she shares with us about her story.
I deleted all 1,281 of my co¬workers, second¬grade classmates and people who I don’t know at all. I shut down my account, completely. I’m 30, and I’ve been on Facebook since March of 2004, which makes me one of the website’s earliest users.
At first, I used it obsessively. If I had a free moment, I’d log on to see whether my friends had updated their profiles. I’d sit alone scrolling through these updates and then run into someone at a coffee shop and have nothing to say because I already knew everything about them, and they knew everything about me.
In November, I went to my ten¬year high school reunion and was not pleasantly surprised. Lauren became a model, Josh went to law school, Dina was a teacher. I hadn’t talked to any of them since graduation, but I knew exactly what they were doing, both now and last week. But lately, I’m overwhelmed(应接不暇). Facebook opened up to everyone, not just college students, and my co¬workers started to join, which meant they now knew what I was doing when I wasn’t at work.
And as a rule: you can NOT make friends with your coworkers because then they’ll ask you the next day. But I thought we were friends. And you are friends but not the kind of friends who tell each other what they do outside of work. So now the people you work with can see what you did last night, and you’re constantlyworrying what people might say about what you did last night instead of actually doing anything tonight.So I quit. I became a 30¬year¬old Luddite, a person who is strongly against technology development. I’ve returned to how the world worked when I was 20, before I knew when my friends and co¬workers were counting down the seconds to vacation or entering a complicated relationship. I’m hoping life will be a lot simpler now. People
will be more mysterious now that I actually have to talk to them to find out their favorite books or hobbies orneurosis(神经症). I don’t know when my college roommate goes to the supermarket, and I think I’m a better person for not knowing. In fact, you could say getting off a social network was the best thing I’ve done this week.Melody Cramer decided to quit Facebook mainly because ______.
| A．she thought it wasted too much time |
| B．she was afraid of the strangers on her account |
| C．she was tired of exposing her life to co¬workers |
| D．she thought it made real¬world life less interesting |
We can learn from the passage that Melody Cramer ______.
| A．had a 10¬year membership of Facebook |
| B．used to be very objected to Facebook |
| C．was unpleasant to attend high school reunion |
| D．was one of the co-founders of Facebook |
Which of the following about Melody Cramer is TRUE?
| A．She owes her communication skills to Facebook. |
| B．She wishes she could be several years younger. |
| C．She prefers to face her friends and co-worders in reality. |
| D．She is no longer curious about anything around her. |
The best title for this passage can be _____.
| A．Addiction to Facebook |
| B．Farewell to Facebook |
| C．Friends Online |
| D．A Simpler Life |
When you are little, the whole world feels like a big playground. I was living in Conyers, Georgia the summer it all happened. I was a second grader, but my best friend Stephanie was only in the first grade. Both of our parents were at work and most of the time they let us go our own way.
It was a hot afternoon and we decided to have an adventure in Stephanie's basement. As I opened the basement door, before us lay the biggest room, full of amazing things like guns, dolls, and old clothes. I ran downstairs, and spotted a red steel can. It was paint. I looked beyond it and there lay even more paint in bright colors like purple, orange, blue and green.
"Stephanie, I just found us a project for the day. Get some paintbrushes. We are fixing to paint. " She screamed with excitement as I told her of my secret plans and immediately we got to work. We gathered all the brushes we could find and moved all of our materials to my yard. There on the road in front of my house, we painted big stripes (条纹) of colors across the pavement (人行道). Stripe by stripe, our colors turned into a beautiful rainbow. It was wonderful!
The sun was starting to sink. I saw a car in the distance and jumped up as I recognized the car. It was my mother. I couldn't wait to show her my masterpiece. The car pulled slowly into the driveway and from the look on my mother's face, I could tell that I was in deep trouble.
My mother shut the car door and walked towards me. Her eyes glaring, she shouted, "What in the world were you thinking? I understood when you made castles out of leaves, and climbed the neighbors' trees, but this! Come inside right now !" I stood there glaring back at her for a minute, angry because she had insulted (侮辱) my art.
"Now go clean it up!" Mother and I began cleaning the road. Tears ran down my cheeks as I saw my beautiful rainbow turn into black cement.
Though years have now passed, I still wonder where my rainbow has gone. I wonder if, maybe when I get older, I can find my rainbow and never have to brush it away. I guess we all need some sort of rainbow to brighten our lives from time to time and to keep our hopes and dreams colorful. What did the writer want to do when his mother came home?
| A．To introduce Stephanie to her. |
| B．To prevent her from seeing his painting. |
| C．To put the materials back in the yard. |
| D．To show his artwork to her. |
In his mother's eyes, the writer ____________.
| A．was a born artist |
| B．always caused trouble |
| C．was a problem solver |
| D．worked very hard |
The underlined word “rainbow” in the last paragraph refers to_________.
| A．the rainbow in the sky |
| B．the stripes on the pavement |
| C．something imaginative and fun |
| D．important lessons learned in childhood |
It can be learned from the passage that parents should.
| A．encourage children to paint |
| B．value friendship among children |
| C．discover the hidden talent in children |
| D．protect rather than destroy children's dreams |
Thousands of years ago, people only ate food that was grown near their homes. Some kinds of food were only grown in one place, so people from other places didn’t know about them. When Europeans first traveled to Central and South America in the 1500s, they discovered strange kinds of food that they had never seen before. Today, these are grown in a lot of different countries and they’re sold in supermarkets all over the world. They don’t seem strange any more!
Potatoes were first grown in the Andes in South America. In 1586, they were taken to Europe by explorers (探险家). In 1719, they were taken to North America. Before 1719, nobody in North America had ever seen or eaten a potato. Today each American eats more than 60 kilos of potatoes a year.
Tomatoes were also first grown by native (本地的) Americans. When European explorers visited the south of America in 1500, they took tomato seeds (种子) back to Europe. Soon, tomatoes were grown in Europe, but people in England didn’t eat them. At that time, a lot of English people thought that tomatoes were poisonous!
Chilies (辣椒) have been eaten in Central and South America for more than 8,000 years! In the 1500s, chilies were taken to Europe by explorers. Today, they are grown in hot countries all over the world.How many kinds of food are mentioned in the passage?
| A．Two. | B．Three. | C．Four. | D．Five |
People in Central and South America have eaten chilies for more than_______ years.
| A．1,500 | B．1,586 | C．8,000 | D．1719 |
According to the passage, we know that _______.
| A．people only ate food grown near their homes after 1719. |
| B．people in Europe were the first to plant potatoes. |
| C．Chilies have been eaten in Europe for more than 1000 years. |
| D．the European explorers took chilies to Europe in the 1500s. |