Are you nervous about climbing because you think it's too dangerous? Do you feel you're not fit enough to climb? Do you know how to start climbing?
Let's consider the idea that climbing is dangerous．Being afraid is natural, but if you use suitable ropes and other climbing equipments you will feel completely safe．Climbers are usually very careful because they know what they are doing is dangerous．Accidents happen, but when they do, they tend to attract a lot of publicity．As a result, people think there are many more accidents than there are in reality．
You cannot expect to start climbing straight away．Climbing is a challenge and challenges take time．It is necessary first of all that you achieve a good level of fitness．Begin as soon as you become interested in climbing: go to the gym, go swimming, take up jogging and continue to do so throughout your training period．
Discover as much as you can about climbing．Visit the library and find book, especially for beginners or buy climbing magazines and look for articles which describe your situation．Look up information on the Internet．Find out about equipment, methods and places to go．
Next, take a course on a climbing wall．There are plenty of climbing walls all over the country which have trained and qualified people as instructors．Call your local leisure centre to find out if there is one in your area. These training sessions are a quick way to get experience and you are likely to meet other beginners. After this, you can do an outside course of joining a club where you can meet climbers of all abilities and eventually join in group-climbing events.
At first you may not understand the importance of a good training period, but after you have completed your first climb and you are standing safely at the top of a rock feeling thrilled, then you will know it was the right thing to do.
| A．a doctor | B．an experienced climber |
| C．a beginner | D．a fitness instructor |
| A．begin by becoming fit |
| B．have the courage to meet the challenges |
| C．be aware of the causes of the accidents |
| D．do enough sports to get interested in climbing |
| A．join a club you like |
| B．gain controlled experience |
| C．become qualified instructors |
| D．take part in group-climbing events |
| A．the climb | B．the training |
| C．the equipment | D．the achievement |
A
Think of some of your favorite singers. When you listen, they can make you happy or sad, peaceful or angry. They can make you relax or want to get up and dance. Gifted singers have the power to affect us in many ways — emotionally, physically and mentally.
But becoming a great singer isn’t as easy as listening to one. It takes practice, devotion and strong lungs! Just ask the well-known American opera（歌剧）star Carol Vaness.
At the Metropolitan Opera in New York City where she often sings, Carol’s voice must be loud enough to be heard by four thousand people. It must reach every person in the theater, without a microphone, even when she’s singing softly. The reason Carol can project her voice that far is the way she breathes.
“When you breathe, it’s like a swimmer taking a deep breath before going underwater, ” Carol explains. “You have to take a lot of air into your lungs.”
According to Carol, the main difference between pop singing and opera is “how you breathe, how much air you take in, and how you control it coming out. Regular singing is more like speaking, and it’s a lot softer. When I sing for children, they’re often surprised by how the vibrations strike their ears — like waves on a beach, ” Carol says. “In opera, the air doesn’t just go out of your mouth — it vibrates in your chest, the way a guitar vibrates when it’s played.”
Ever since she started piano lessons at the age of ten, Carol has loved music. As she got older, she decided to become a music teacher. When she went to college, she took singing lessons as part of her studies. Her voice teacher discovered that nineteen-year-old Carol had an exceptionally beautiful soprano voice – the highest singing voice for women.
Carol decided to make opera her goal, not only because she loved to sing but also because she loved the drama. Opera is a play in which the characters sing the words instead of speaking them. The stories of opera can be tragic or comical. They can be personal stories about two people falling in love or grand stories about kings and queens who lived long ago. As the characters in an opera sing, the emotions(情感) expressed by words and music come to life.
Today, Carol performs throughout the United States and Europe and she has song for almost twenty years. But she has never forgotten where she started singing in the first palace.
“Put your heart into your singing and enjoy it,” says Carol, “because singing is a great joy. That’s why I sing. In fact, that’s why everybody sings.”
1.According to the passage, the Metropolitan Opera in New York City _____.
A. is a five-story building B. can seat 4,000 people
C. has no microphone in itD. can project the singer’s voice
2.What is the best title for this passage?
A. Opera Singing and Pop Singing B. The Way an Opera Star Sings
C. An Opera Star D. Singing without a Microphone
3.Which statement is true?
A. A pop singer breathes more deeply than an opera singer when he or she sings.
B. Opera singing is more like speaking.
C. A pop singer takes in much more air than an opera singer when singing.
D. An opera singer breathes differently from a pop singer when singing.
4.From the passage you can conclude all the following EXCEPT that _____.
A. Carol once learned to play the piano
B. Carol worked as a music teacher
C. Carol has been singing opera for 20 years or so
D. Carol is popular with Americans and Europeans
5.The sentence “Put your heart into your singing” in the last paragraph means “_____”.
A. devoting yourself to singing B. taking trouble to sing
C. singing happily D. trying your best to sing
（十七）
A popular student in her small high school, Katie started college expecting to do well in her courses and be best friends with her roommates. But things didn’t turn out that way. Psych 101, the course she thought would be a first-semester favorite, turned out to be a struggle. And her roommates were as different from Katie as the student restaurant’s mystery meat was from her mom’s roasted pork.
Living away from home tends to be the toughest adjustment for first-year students. You may feel homesick in your first weeks or months. It can help to call, write, or email your parents and friends making them know how you’re doing. You can also talk with your roommates. As first-year students themselves, they’re probably experiencing many of the same fears and worries that you’re dealing with.
But what if you don’t get along well with your roommates?
In some cases, it can be a good thing if you and your roommates aren’t much alike. Different views on things may be helpful, so respect your differences no matter what.
If you and your roommates don’t get along well, it can help to find someone who you feel does understand you, which should be easy on a campus with so many people. Many schools have student organization nights where all of the campus clubs gather and promote their organizations, so you can meet people with the same interests there as you. You’ll also meet tons of people in class or in your dorm building.
As homesickness, painful throats, sprained (扭伤的) ankles and wisdom teeth that act up are common among college students, you should check out your student guidebook or your school’s website to find out information about the university health center.
If you think you cannot deal with your problems, make a stop at the school counseling (咨询) center. First-year troubles are something the counselors know well. You can get help there.
4. From Paragraph 1 we can infer that ____.
A. Katie had been worried about the changes before starting her college life
B. Katie felt satisfied when her college life started
C. Katie wasn’t used to the new environment in college at first
D. Katie has fallen behind in her study after the first semester in college
5. What’s the author’s suggestion on dealing with homesickness?
A. Adjust to it.
B. Share fears and worries with your parents.
C. Talk to your roommates about it.
D. Get along with your roommates.
6. Which of the following ways of dealing with roommates is RIGHT?
A. Not trying to change them.
B. Not making friends with them.
C. Developing the same interests as them
D. Not talking with them.
7. What’s the main idea of the text?
A. Freshmen may meet many problems.
B. Communication is important in college.
C. How you can adjust to your first year in college.
D. How schools help freshmen to get used to college life.
（十六）
Ways to Burn More Calories
Run through water
Running in water is one of the toughest activities you can perform because the wet stuff is about 12 to 15 times as resistant (具有阻力的) as air. Try your hardest to run and you can burn about 17 calories per minute.
Start fast
Don’t be fooled — slow and steady won’t win the race. A recent study found that after a short warm-up, cyclists who rode hard during the first half of their workouts and then slowed for the second half burned about 10 percent more calories than those who started slow and finished fast.
Take to the sand
Here is some easy-to-remember advice on burning calories: the softer the surface, the more you burn. By walking or running on the beach, you can use up 20 to 50 percent more calories than you do going at the same pace on a hard trail.
Shut up and dance
Here’s the perfect excuse to sign up for that hip-hop dance class you’ve been eager to try. Surprising your body with new activities — dance, a new sport, you name it — forces it to work harder because it’s doing unfamiliar movements and using muscle groups in different ways.
Use your arms
Getting both your upper and lower body involved can provide a big calorie-burning advantage. So if you’re short of time or want to get everything you can out of your usual 45-minute workout, try total-body activities such as rowing ormming. You can evenng your arms as hard as you can while you walk.
1. How can water help you burn more calories?
A. By pushing your body.
B. By wetting your clothes and shoes.
C. By forcing you to run faster.
D. By forcing your body to work harder.
2. What does “it” in Part 4 refer to?
A. Dance.
B. Movement.
C. Body.
D. Muscle.
3. Which of the following statements is TRUE?
A. One can burn more calories when walking on the sand than on land.
B. One can burn more calories when walking on stones than on earth.
C. One can burn more calories when running in water than on the sand.
D. One can burn more calories when exercising using the upper body than using the lower body.
（十四）
London Summer School in Classics
Dates
The London Summer School in Classics 2008 will be held at King’s College London. It will run from 8th July until 17th July. Applications close on 2nd June, 2008.
For an application form, please download either the 2-page PDF or the word format document from the foot of the page.
If you have any problems downloading the application form or any questions, please contact: London Summer School in Classics, King’s College London.
Tel: 020 7848 2299
Fax: 020 7848 2545
Organization
The school is organized by the colleges of the University of London. The summer school offers eight days of intensive teaching in Greek and Latin. There are four language classes each day as well as lectures and a debate, between 10:30 am and 4:30 pm. The course is not residential (提供住宿的), and there is no teaching during the weekend of 12th to 13th July.
The fee is £85.00. Travel grants (旅行补助金) are available as a contribution to your travel costs, but may not cover all your expenses. The travel grants are arranged during the summer school.
Teaching is generally in groups of 12-15 people and it, as far as possible, comprises (包含) of students of roughly the same level of experience. The style of teaching is friendly, but demanding: a lot of work is expected from students during the school, but they usually find the whole experience both stimulating and valuable. Some classes concentrate chiefly on reading, while others offer a mixture of grammar and translation practice. Our tutors include some of the most experienced and talented teachers of Classics in the London area and beyond.
The Summer School in Classics caters for a wide range of interests and for both school & university students as well as those who wish to learn Greek or Latin, or to revive their knowledge of the languages. Our principal concern is to provide a thorough program of language learning in a lively university environment.
1. To join in the school, you have to apply before ________.
A. 8th July, 2008 B. 2nd June, 2008
C. 17th July, 2008 D. 13th July, 2008
2. As a student of the school, you are probably asked to _______.
A. do a lot of reading in Greek and Latin
B. learn the grammar of Greek and Latin only
C. do some translation work only
D. speak Greek and Latin with experienced teachers
3. What is the London Summer School in Classics most concerned about?
A. Providing a stimulating experience for students.
B. Promoting students to develop a wide range of interests.
C. Teaching students languages in a lively environment.
D. Improving students’ level of debating in the argument.
4. Which is one of the teaching ways of the school?
A. Student groups consist of the same level students strictly.
B. Students needn’t do any work in the class.
C. Students learn Greek and Latin by listening to teachers all day.
D. Students are generally divided into groups of 12-15.
5. Which of the following can we know from the passage?
A. The fee is £85, including the travel costs.
B. Students needn’t go to class on 12th and 13th July.
C. People should fill in two application forms.
D. People can contact the school by phone or email.
（十三）
Typing Success in 20 Minutes a Day
— Teaching Your K-12 Students to Type in 20 Minutes a Day
Typing is fast becoming an important skill in our world. Making this skill available to your students is very important. Just 20 minutes of the following activities per day will give your students the finger strength and keyboard knowledge they need to be ready to include typing in their learning programs.
Step 1 Knitting (编织): You can try various styles until you find the one that best suits your students’ abilities. Finger knitting is a great way to start! It helps students focus on finger strength. Knitting with needles is a little more challenging but will suit some older students. The more practice the fingers get the stronger they will become.
Step 2 Key board games: It helps your students become familiar with the keyboard. Students as young as four years old can practice finger placement, letter sounds and names using the keyboard of computers.
Step 3 Clay modeling: Many children develop the ability to be quick and skilful with their hands through creating clay models. The creative nature of this activity keeps children engaged for long periods of time. It helps keep fingers strong and supple.
Step 4 Lego (拼装玩具) building: Little fingers become strong when children pull apart little Lego time and time again. Because of the fun nature of this activity it helps build and does a lot to reinforce the ability to arrange things into an order — another important aspect in typing.
Choose an age-appropriate, interactive and engaging typing program. All students are different and with firm finger skills typing can be easily learned in 20 minutes a day with the use of a mixture of these different approaches.
5. All the following steps can make one’s fingers stronger EXCEPT ____.
A. Step4
B. Step3
C. Step2
D. Step1
6. The underlined word “it” in Step 4 refers to ____.
A. little Lego
B. the fun nature
C. the strength of fingers
D. Lego building
7. What can be inferred from the last paragraph?
A. Activities listed in the text suit students of all ages.
B. Different students have different results after following the activities listed.
C. Only one activity can be used in a typing program for specific students.
D. Firm finger skills are important for learning to type.