Compared to the other parts of the body, our ears don’t ask for much. They don't need to be brushed once a day like your teeth. But they need some special care, especially if you like listening to music with earphones.
Maybe your mum or dad has told you, "Turn that down before you go deaf!" Well, they are quite right. Loud noise might cause hearing loss for a short time or even forever. Think that earphones are a good way to escape from tour parents’ eyes? Well. It may not be as good a way as you expect. American doctors have studied a group of 44,000 people who used earphones more than 15 hours per week. The doctors found that 37,000 of them were getting hearing problems.
If you use earphones for too long a time, your ears might feel painful. You could also lose your hearing for the rest of your life. So don’t wear your earphones too long. Use them less than one hour a day. Want sharp hearing? Don’t forget to do the following: Try to stay away from places where there is too much noise, like a disco. If you have to go, wear earplugs. When swimming, remember to put earplugs into your ears to stop water from getting in. Never put anything sharp into your ears. If you think you have too much earwax, ask your mum or dad to help you clean it out.
Keep these things in mind! Then you won't be saying "WHAT???" when you are older.Using earphones "may not be as good a way as you expect" because _______.
| A．your parents know what you're doing |
| B．it can cause hearing problems |
| C．it makes your parents angry |
| D．most of you use them improperly |
If you want sharp hearing, you should _____.
| A．have your ears specially trained |
| B．often wear earplugs and clean out the earwax |
| C．take good care of your ears |
| D．choose what you listen to carefully |
"WHAT???" in the last sentence is an expression showing that the speaker____.
| A．has become impatient |
| B．speaks in a loud voice |
| C．is slow in understanding |
| D．asks for a lot of repetition |
Almost a year after Michael Jackson s death, the spirit of King of Pop appears to live on a 4-year-old Chinese boy, who is fast becoming internationally popular.
Wang Yiming, who is known as Xiao Bao, has already been making waves across the world with his dance moves. 
A favorite of Chinese media, Xiao Bao draws curious crowds whenever he breaks into a dance routine, which his mother says happens almost every time he hears music. "When he was young, we just started playing music to him and he started moving around like this，"his mother said. "When he was just a couple of months old, we would let him listen to music and he would immediately stop crying and calm down，" she told Reuters Television.
Xiao Bao was born prematurely (早产），and doc-tors suggested moving his body to music would do good to him, but his parents were surprised by how quickly and interestedly he took to the rhythm.
Dancing since he was two years old, he has now mastered the moonwalk and other Jackson moves, such as Beat It, Billie Jean and Dangerous.
Before long, his passion turned into an obsession (着迷）——the family spends up to 20，000 yuan a month on dance training with a professional and outfits including tailor-made suits, hats and shirts.
Xiao Bao is serious about his dancing career and says he will not mind becoming famous one day. But his parents say that no matter how talented their son is, his schooling will be their first choice. What Xiao Bao's mother said suggested that __________.
| A．she didn't expect her son to take up music |
| B．Xiao Bao had a strong love for music |
| C．she taught him music when Xiao Bao was young |
| D．she was very sad at the beginning |
How did Xiao Bao's parents feel when they saw his reaction to music?
| A．Amazed. |
| B．Happy. |
| C．Angry. |
| D．Anxious. |
We can learn from the passage that __________.
| A．his parents taught him the moonwalk |
| B．he began to perform on stage at two |
| C．moonwalk moves were first done by Jackson |
| D．his parents found him hard to please |
Theunderlined word "outfits"in Paragraph 6 is closest in meaning to __________.
| A．clothes |
| B．shoes |
| C．bags |
| D．tools |
The richest man in the world is an American, Bill Gates. He started Microsoft, the company that makes computer programs and operating systems. Two years ago, Mr Gates and his wife Melinda decided to use some of their money to improve the lives of people in developing countries. They started the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation in Seattle»Washington. The foundation has twenty-four thousand million dollars. It is the biggest not-for-profit organization in the world. Bill and Melinda Gates started the foundation because they believed progress in medical science and information technology was not reaching people in developing countries. Their foundation finances programs aimed at improving health and education in poor countries. One of the foundation's major goals is the develop-ment of new medicines to prevent and treat tuberculosis(肺结核），malaria(疾疾）and AIDS. The World Health Organization reports that these three diseases kill more than five million people a year.
Another leading foundation project is an effort to reduce death rates for babies in poor countries. The foundation also supports efforts to provide necessary medicines to prevent diseases among children in seventy-four developing countries. It also supports training programs for health workers. Bill and Melinda Gates are also concerned about connecting people to the Internet computer system. The foundation believes men and women of all ages and races should be able to use the Internet as a tool for life-long learning. For example, the foundation gave nine million dollars to more than three hundred fifty public libraries in Chile (智利）for computers and technology training. The Gates Foundation usually provides money to developing countries in the form of a gift or a grant. However, there are conditions for receiving grants. Governments or other not-for-profit organizations working in a country must promise to provide an equal amount of money. The receiver must also meet performance goals or risk losing the money.What's NOT the aim of the Bill and Melinda GatesFoundation?
| A．Providing information technology for the developing countries. |
| B．Developing new medicines to prevent diseases. |
| C．Earning more money from these developing countries. |
| D．Helping men and women of all ages and races use the Internet. |
What do you think of Bill Gates from this passage?
| A．Clever. |
| B．Rich. |
| C．Able. |
| D．Warm-hearted. |
What's the main idea of this passage?
| A．Bill Gates, the richest man. |
| B．Bill Gates set up foundation to help the people in developing countries. |
| C．Information technology needs popularizing. |
| D．The people in developing countries need to be helped. |
Which of the following statements is NOT true ac-cording to the passage?
| A．Tuberculosis, malaria and AIDS kill many people every year. |
| B．A person can receive a grant as long as he lives in a developing country. |
| C．Gates Foundation is the largest not-for-profit organization in the world. |
| D．Bill Gates supported training health workers. |
What's the meaning of the underlined word “grant”？
| A．Money. |
| B．Food. |
| C．Clothes. |
| D．Equipment. |
For more than six million American children, coming home after school means coming home to an empty house. Some deal with the situation by watching TV. Some may hide. But all of them have something in common. They spend part of each day alone. They are called latchkey (门锁钥匙）children. They're children who look after themselves while their parents work. And their bad condition has become a subject of concern.
Lynette Long was once the headmaster of an elementary school. She said，“We had a school rule against wearing jewelry. A lot of kids had chains around their necks with keys attached. I was constantly telling them to put them inside shirts. There were so many keys. It never came to my mind what they meant. ” Slowly, she learned they were house keys.
She and her husband began talking to the children who had them. They learned of the effect working couples and single parents were having on their children. Fear is the biggest problem faced by children at home alone. One in each three latchkey children the Longs talked to reported being scared. Many had nightmares and were worried about their own safety.
The most common way latchkey children deal with their fears is by hiding. It might be in a shower stall, under a bed in a closet. The second is TV. They'll often play it at high volume. It's hard to get statistics (统计数字）on latchkey children, the Longs learned. Most parents are slow to admit they leave their children alone. The main idea about "latchkey children” is that they_________
| A．are growing in numbers |
| B．are also found in middle-class neighborhoods |
| C．watch too much television during the day |
| D．suffer problems from being left alone |
Which sentence in the second paragraph is the topic sentence?
| A．We had a school rule against wearing jewelry. |
| B．A lot of kids had chains around their necks with keys attached. |
| C．Iwas constantly telling them to put them inside shirts. |
| D．Slowly, she learned they were house keys. |
Themain feeling these children have when they areat home by themselves is_________.
| A．tiredness |
| B．freedom |
| C．loneliness |
| D．fear |
We may draw a conclusion that_________.
| A．latchkey children enjoy having such a large amount of time alone |
| B．latchkey children try to hide their feeling |
| C．latchkey children often watch TV with their parents |
| D．it's difficult to find out how many latchkey children there are |
So long as teachers fail to tell the difference be-tween teaching and learning, they will continue to undertake to do for children that which only children can do for themselves. Teaching children to read is not passing reading on to them. It is certainly not endless hours spent in activities about reading. Douglas insists that “reading cannot be taught directly and schools should stop trying to do the impossible".
Teaching and learning are two entirely different processes. They differ in kind and function. The function of teaching is to create the conditions and the climate that will make it possible for children to plan cleverly the most efficient (有效的）system for teaching themselves to read. Teaching is also a public activity： It can be seen and observed.
Learning to read involves all that each individual does to understand the world of printed language. Almost all of it is private, for learning is an occupation of the mind, and that process is not open to public scrutiny.
If teacher and learner roles are not interchangeable, what then can be done through teaching that will aid the child in the long search for knowledge? Smith has one principle rule for all teaching instructions. "Make learning to read easy, which means making reading a meaningful, enjoyable and frequent experience for children. ”
When the roles of the teacher and the learner are seen for what they are, and when both the teacher and the learner fulfill them properly, then much of the pressure and feeling of failure for both is got rid of. Learning to read is made easier when teachers create an environment where children are given the chance to solve the problem of learning to read by reading. The problem with the reading course as mentioned in the first paragraph is that _____.
| A．too much time is spent in teaching about reading |
| B．reading tasks are given with little guidance |
| C．it is one of the most difficult school courses |
| D．students spend limited hours in reading |
The teaching of reading will be successful if _____.
| A．teachers can make their teaching activities ob-servable |
| B．teachers can teach their students how to read |
| C．teachers can improve conditions at school for the students |
| D．teachers can enable students to develop their own way of reading |
The word "scrutiny" (Paragraph 3) most probably means “ _____ ”.
| A．unbelief |
| B．control |
| C．inquiry |
| D．observation |
Themain idea of the passage is that _____.
| A．reading is more complicated than believable |
| B．reading ability is something gained rather than taught |
| C．teachers should encourage students to read as widely as possible |
| D．teachers should do as little as possible in helping students learn to read |
If your boss asks you to work in Moscow this year, he'd better offer you more money to do so—or even double that depending on where you live now. That's because Moscow has just been found to be the world's most expensive city for the second year in a row by Mercer Human Resources Consulting.
Using the cost of living in New York as a base, Mercer determined Moscow is 34. 4 percent more expensive including the cost of housing, transportation, food, clothing, household goods and entertainment(娱乐）
A two-bedroom flat in Moscow now costs $4，000 a month； a CD $24. 83，and an international news-paper $6. 30，according to Mercer. By comparison, a fast food meal with a hamburger(汉堡包)is a steal at $4. 80.
London takes the No. 2 place, up from No. 5 a year ago, thanks to higher cost of housing and a stronger British pound relative to the dollar. Mercer estimates(估算）London is 26 percent more expensive than New York these days. Following London closely are Seoul and Tokyo, both of which are 22 percent more expensive than New York, while No. 5 Hong Kong is 19 percent more costly.
Among North American cities, New York and Los Angeles are the most expensive and are the only two listed in the top 50 of the world's most expensive cities. But both have fallen since last year's study—New York came in 15th, down from 10th place, while Los Angeles fell to 42nd from 29th place a year ago. San Francisco came in a distant third at No. 54，down 20 places from a year earlier.
Toronto, meanwhile, is Canada's most expensive city but fell 35 places to take 82nd place worldwide. In Australia, Sydney is the priciest place to live in and No. 21 worldwide. What do the underlined words “a steal” in Para-graph 3 mean?
| A．An act of stealing. | B．Something delicious. | C．Something very cheap. | D．An act of buying. |
London has become the second most expensive city because of __________.
| A．the high cost of clothing |
| B．the stronger pound against the dollar |
| C．its expensive transportation |
| D．the high prices of fast food meals |
Which city is the third most expensive on the list?
| A．Tokyo. |
| B．Hong Kong. |
| C．Moscow. |
| D．Sydney. |
Which city has dropped most on the list in North America?
| A．New York. |
| B．Los Angeles. |
| C．San Francisco. |
| D．Toronto. |