Why play games? Because they are fun, and a 1ot more besides. Following the rules…planning your next move...acting as a team member…these are all “game” ideas that you will come across throughout your life.
Think about some off the games you played as a young child, such as rope-jumping and hide-and-seek. Such games are entertaining and fun. But perhaps more importantly, they translate life into exciting dramas that teach children some of the basic rules they will be expected to follow the rest of their lives, such as taking turns and cooperating (合作) .
Many children's games have a practical side Children around the world play games that prepare them for work they will do as grown-ups. For instance, some Saudi Arabian children play a game called bones. Which sharpens the hand-eye coordination(协调)needed in hunting.
Many sports encourage national or local pride. The most famous games of all, the Olympic Games, bring athletes from around the world together to take part in friendly competition. People who watch the event wave flags, knowing that a gold medal is a win for an entire country , not just the athlete who earned it. For countries experiencing natural disasters or war, an Olympic win can mean so much.
Sports are also an event that unites people. Soccer is the most popular sport in the world. People on all continents play it—some for fun and some for a living. Nicolette Iribarne, a Californian soccer player, has discovered a way to spread hope through soccer. He created a foundation to provide poor children with not only soccer balls but also a promising future.
Next time you play your favorite game or sport, think about why you enjoy it, what skills are needed, and whether these skills will help you in other aspects of your life.Through playing hide-and-seek, children are expected to learn to ________.
A.be a team leader |
B.obey the basic rules |
C.act as a grown-up |
D.predict possible danger |
The underlined part in Paragraph 2 most probably means that games can________
A.describe life in an exciting way |
B.turn real-life experiences into a play |
C.make learning life skills more interesting |
D.change people's views of sporting event s |
Iribarne's goal of forming the foundation is to _______.
A.bring fun to poor kids |
B.provide soccer balls for children |
C.give poor kids a chance for a better life |
D.appeal to soccer players to help poor kids |
What can be inferred from the passage?
A.Ga med benefit people all their lives. |
B.Sports can get all athletes together. |
C.People are advised to play games for fun. |
D.Sports increase a country's competitiveness. |
Below is a passages adapted from a website.
Tayka Hotel De Sal Where: Tahua, Bolivia ![]() How much: About $95 a night Why it’s cool: You’ve stayed at hotels made of brick or wood, but salt? That’s something few can claim. Tayka Hotel de Sal is made totally of salt---including the beds (though you’ll sleep on regular mattresses (床垫) and blankets). The hotel sits on the Salar de Uyuni, a prehistoric dried-up lake that’s the world’s biggest salt flat. Builders use the salt from the 4,633-square-mile flat to make the bricks, and glue them together with a paste of wet salt that hardens when it dries. When rain starts to dissolve the hotel, the owners just mix up more salt paste to strengthen the bricks. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------------------- Green Magic Nature Resort Where: Vythiri, India ![]() How much: About $240 a night Why it’s cool: Taking a pulley(滑轮)-operated lift 86 feet to your treetop room is just the start of your adventure. As you look out of your open window---there is no glass!---you watch monkeys and birds in the rain forest canopy(罩蓬). Later you might test your fear of heights by crossing the handmade rope bridge to the main part of the hotel, or just sit on your bamboo bed and read. You don’t even have to come down for breakfast---the hotel will send it up on the pulley-drawn “elevator”. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------------------- Dog Bark Park Inn B&B Where: Cottonwood, Idaho ![]() How much: $92 a night Why it’s cool: This doghouse isn’t just for the family pet. Sweet Willy is a 30-foot-tall dog with guest rooms in his belly. Climb the wooden stairs beside his hind leg to enter the door in his side.You can relax in the main bedroom, go up a few steps of the loft(阁楼)in Willy’s head, or hang out inside his nose. Although you have a full private bathroom in your quarters, there is also a toilet in the 12-foot-tall fire hydrant (消防栓)outside. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------------------- Gamirasu Cave Hotel Where: Ayvali, Turkey ![]() How much: Between $130 and $475 a night. Why it’s cool: This is caveman cool! Experience what it was like 5,000 years ago, when people lived in these mountain caves formed by volcanic ash. But your stay will be much more modern. Bathrooms and electricity provide what you expect from a modern hotel, and the white volcanic ash, called tufa, keeps the rooms cool, about 65℉in summer. (Don’t worry---there is heat in winter.) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------------------- Treebones Resort Where: California, America ![]() How much: $100 a night Why it’s cool: You can sleep in a “room” any night, but how often do you get the chance to sleep in a yurt. What’s a yurt? Good question. Yurts are the name given to guest rooms at the Treebones Resort. These spaces provide all of the accessibility to nature you’d enjoy in a tent, but with all the comforts of a cabin. In one of sixteen yurts, you will doze off(打盹儿) while gazing at the stars that can be seen through a sky dome. |
What is the main purpose of this passage?
A.To sell the hotels. |
B.To attract guests. |
C.To offer good service. |
D.To get popular. |
If you want to experience a thrilling life, you’d better go to ____________.
A.Treebones Resort |
B.Gamirasu Cave Hotel |
C.Dog Bark Park Inn B&B |
D.Green Magic Nature Resort |
Sweet Willy is the name of ____________.
A.a doghouse for the family pet |
B.a thirty-foot-tall family dog |
C.the building of Dog Bark Park Inn B&B |
D.the guest rooms in Dog Bark Park Inn B&B |
Which of the following words can best describe all the five hotels in the passage?
A.Unique. | B.Ordinary. | C.Costly. | D.Natural. |
It’s nearly noon on a Saturday and you can’t believe it: your teenager is still in bed, sleeping away. But before you wake him up---mumbling to yourself that you can’t believe what a lazybones he is---you should know that he probably needs all the zzzs he can get.
As much as nine hours of sleep a night, in fact. Furthermore, teens’ circadian rhythms (i.e., processes that occur once a day) mean that young people would rather stay up past midnight and rise after 9 a.m. The result? Many teens stay up late, drag themselves out of bed early for school and try to make up the sleep debt on the weekends---or in class!
“There’s a biological reason why teens stay up late and want to sleep late,” says Dr. Stan Kutcher, the Sun Life Chair of Adolescent Mental Health at Dalhousie University in Halifax. “Their natural sleep-wake cycle changes as part of the maturation process. And because of changes in their social activities, recovering from sleep debt is more problematic.”
Teens need extra sleep for several reasons. First, their brains are changing. “The brain is reorganizing itself, laying down new pathways. What we’re seeing is a relationship between brain redevelopment and an increased need for sleep,” says Kutcher. As well, growth hormones are released during sleep, so adequate sleep is crucial for adolescents’ physical development. In addition, everything adolescents have learned in school that day is being processed and locked into long-term memory during sleep. Sufficient sleep also plays a key role in overall physical health. The immune system, for example, needs deep sleep to become and remain robust(healthy).
Staying up late on school nights means that, on average, teens get between six and a half and seven hours of sleep a night---about two hours less than they need. As a result, many either doze off in class or have trouble concentrating. Some of the behavioural problems and irritability in teens can be linked directly to sleep deprivation(损失), Kutcher says.
Then there’s the breakfast issue. Dr. Carlyle Smith, a sleep researcher and a psychology professor at Trent University in Peterborough, Ont., adds that many teens simply cannot tolerate food when they first wake up, so skipping breakfast becomes another factor in reduced alertness in class. The most obvious solution to the teen sleep problem is to have school start later in the day, but initiatives(积极性) toward this across the country have gone nowhere, Smith says, mainly because of costs and resistance from school boards and teachers.
So for now, just sympathize with your teens. Encourage them to go to bed, if not early, then at least at a regular time, so they won’t develop insomnia from erratic(不稳定的) schedules. Warn them not to have too many caffeinated drinks before bed. And don’t let sleeping away the weekend become an issue to fight over. Schedule family activities to take place later in the day on weekends and let them sleep in. “If you want your kids to grow and remember stuff, let them sleep,” says Smith. “It’s not laziness. Their brains are working really, really hard.” The word “zzzs” (Paragraph 1) most probably means __________.
A.food | B.sleep | C.energy | D.blame |
What causes teenagers to be less sleepy late at night and more sleepy early in the morning?
A.Caffeinated drinks. |
B.Too much family activities. |
C.Circadian rhythms. |
D.Too much homework. |
How many reason why teens need extra sleep are mentioned in Paragraph 4?
A.Three. | B.Four. | C.Five. | D.Six. |
One of the reasons why many teenagers fail to have better performances in class is that __________.
A.teenagers go to bed early and sleep late |
B.teenagers stay up late and get up late |
C.teenagers participate in too many social activities at night |
D.teenagers skip breakfast because of sleeping in |
The author wrote this article to __________.
A.advise parents to let sleeping teenagers lie |
B.explain why teenagers often sleep late |
C.state schools should start late in the day |
D.warn teenagers not to drink coffee before bed |
Audrey Hepburn is one of Hollywood’s all-time greatest actress. She is famous not only in the USA, but also in other parts of the world.
Hepburn was born in Belgium on May 4, 1929. She began taking ballet (芭蕾) lessons at a very young age. She loved dancing and her dream was to become a successful ballet dancer. She had put most of her effort into ballet training before she entered the film industry.
In 1951, Hepburn was chosen to play the lead role of a young princess in the Hollywood film Roman(罗马) Holiday. It was a big success and Hepburn became famous immediately. She won an Oscar for Best Actress for her role in this film.
During her life time, Hepburn earned four more Oscar nominations(提名). Some well-known films that she acted in include Funny Face, Breakfast at Tiffany and My Fair Lady.
Hepburn also devoted much of her time to charity(慈善). She spent the last few years of her life working closely with UNICEF to help poor children in different parts of the world. She was honoured with a number of awards(奖励) because of her efforts in helping them.Hepburn was born in ________.
A.USA | B.Belguim | C.Italy | D.England |
Her dream was to become a successful ______ when she was very young.
A.singer | B.trainer | C.dancer | D.director |
______ made Hepburn a big success.
A.Roman Holidays | B.Funny Face | C.Breakfast at Tiffany’s | D.My Fair Lady |
Hepburn was honoured with a number of awards because she __________.
A.acted in many films | B.was good at ballet |
C.gave everything to others | D.did her best to help poor children |
Four students are talking about the future after class.
Deng Yu: In 2050, China will be richer than it is now. Beijing will be getting ready for the 40th Olympic Games in 2050. We will see the blue and clear sky and smell the fresh air. There will be more pandas living happily in China. I believe that 2050 will be the year of China.
Liu Yan: A holiday to the moon will no longer be a dream. We can also travel far to other planets and talk with spacemen. We might also eat something like pills instead of today’s meals. Everyone will enjoy a longer life.
Sun Wei: Robots will be more popular. They will do what people don’t want to do. We’ll build new homes on other planets. By then, I’ll be sixty years old.
Zhang Lan: By the year of 2050, cloning will have been used in many ways. It will bring back animals which disappeared many years ago. There will be no pollution. The whole world will be one big family. There will be no wars. We’ll live a much easier and better life.Which of the following is NOT true according to the text?
A.China will be richer than it is now. |
B.Shanghai will be getting ready for the 40th Olympic Games. |
C.We will see the blue and clear sky and smell the fresh air. |
D.More pandas will live happily in China. |
______ thinks that people can spend their holidays on the moon in the future.
A.Deng Yu | B.Zhang Lan | C.Sun Wei | D.Liu Yan |
Zhang Lan thinks ________________ in the future.
A.people will live in a world without wars |
B.robots will do everything for people |
C.people can talk with spacemen |
D.2050 will be the year of China. |
What is the dialogue mainly about?
A.the 40th Olympic Games | B.How to spend our holiday |
C.the future | D.cloning |
Mr and Mrs King have two children, Jim and Liz. The whole family are all busy, so they often leave notes to each other. Read these four notes today to know something about them.
3:30 p.m. To dad and mum, Mr. Brown rang. No football practice today. I’m going to Tom’s house to plan our project and be back at 5:00pm. Liz |
4.00 p.m. To Liz, It’s your turn to walk the dog. I have to do my homework after school. Remember to play with Teddy when you get home ! Jim |
6:45 pm Has anyone seen my tennis shoes? I’m in my bedroom doing my homework, and I need to wear them tomorrow. Jim |
10.00 p.m. I saw your tennis shoes this morning. They smelt terrible so I put them outside the back door. Good night, dear! Mum |
Liz will be back home at ______.
A.3.30 p.m. | B.4.00 p.m. | C.5.00 p.m. | D.10.00 p.m. |
______ should walk the dog today.
A.Liz | B.Mrs. King | C.Jim | D.Mr. Brown |
Jim was _______ at 6.50 p.m.
A.practicing football | B.going to Tom’s house |
C.playing tennis | D.doing his homework. |
Jim can find his tennis shoes ______.
A.in his bedroom | B.outside the back door |
C.in the living room | D.at Tom’s house |