No poem should ever be discussed or “analyzed”, until it has been read aloud by someone, teacher or student. Better still, perhaps, is the practice of reading it twice, once at the beginning of the discussion and once at the end, so the sound of the poem is the last thing one hears of it.
All discussions of poetry are, in fact, preparations for reading it aloud, and the reading of the poem is, finally, the most telling “interpretation” of it, suggesting tone, rhythm, and meaning all at once. Hearing a poet read the work in his or her own voice, on records or on film, is obviously a special reward. But even those aids to teaching cannot replace the student and teacher reading it or, best of all, reciting it.
I have come to think, in fact, that time spent reading a poem aloud is much more important than “analyzing” it, if there isn’t time for both. I think one of our goals as teachers of English is to have students love poetry. Poetry is “ a criticism(批判) of life”, and “a heightening(提升) of life”. It is “an approach to the truth of feeling”, and it “can save your life”. It also deserves a place in the teaching of language and literature more central than it presently occupies.
I am not saying that every English teacher must teach poetry. Those who don’t like it should not be forced to put that dislike on anyone else. But those who do teach poetry must keep in mind a few things about its essential nature, about its sound as well as its sense, and they must make room in the classroom for hearing poetry as well as thinking about it.To have a better understanding of a poem, one should________.
| A．discuss it with others |
| B．analyze it by oneself |
| C．copy it down in a notebook |
| D．practise reading it aloud |
Which of the following is NOT mentioned as a function of poetry?
| A．Extending your life | B．Saving your life |
| C．Criticizing life | D．Heightening life |
What does the last sentence in the third paragraph mean?
| A．More stress should be laid on the teaching of poetry. |
| B．Poetry is more important than any other subject. |
| C．One cannot enjoy life fully without an understanding of poetry |
| D．Poetry is the foundation of all language and literature courses |
We have two daughters: Kristen is seven years old and Kelly is four. Last Sunday evening, we invited some people home for dinner. I dressed them nicely for the party, and told them that their job was to join Mommy in answering the door when the bell rang. Mommy would introduce them to the guests, and then they would take the guests’ coats upstairs and put them on the bed in the second bedroom.
The guests arrived. I introduced my two daughters to each of them. The adults were nice and kind and said how lucky we were to have such good kids.
Each of the guests made a particular fuss over Kelly, the younger one, admiring her dress, her hair and her smile. They said she was a remarkable girl to be carrying coats upstairs at her age.
I thought to myself that we adults usually make a big “to do” over the younger one because she’s the one who seems more easily hurt. We do it with the best of intentions.
But we seldom think of how it might affect the other child. I was a little worried that Kristen would feel she was being outshined. I was about to serve dinner when I realized that she had been missing for twenty minutes. I ran upstairs and found her in the bedroom, crying.
I said, “What are you doing, my dear?”
She turned to me with a sad expression and said, “Mommy, why don’t people like me the way they like my sister? Is it because I’m not pretty? Is that why they don’t say nice things about me as much?”
I tried to explain to her, kissing and hugging her to make her feel better.
Now, whenever I visit a friend’s home, I make it a point to speak to the elder child first.The underlined expression make a big to do over (paragraph 4) means _____.
| A．show much concern about | B．have a special effect on |
| C．list jobs to be done for | D．do good things for |
The guests praised Kelly for carrying coats upstairs because of her _____.
| A．beautiful hair | B．pretty clothes |
| C．lovely smile | D．young age |
Kristen felt sad and cried because _____.
| A．the guest gave her more coats to carry |
| B．she didn’t look as pretty as Kelly |
| C．the guests praised her sister more than her |
| D．her mother didn’t introduce her to the guests |
We can conclude from the passage that _____.
| A．parents should pay more attention to the elder children |
| B．the younger children are usually more easily hurt |
| C．people usually like the younger children more |
| D．adults should treat children equally |
O. Henry was a pen name used by an American writer of short stories. His real name was William Sydney Porter. He was born in North Carolina in 1862. As a young boy he lived an exciting life. He did not go to school for very long, but he managed to teach himself everything he needed to know. When he was about 20 years old, O. Henry went to Texas, where he tried different jobs. He first worked on a newspaper, and then had a job in a bank. When some money went missing from the bank, O. Henry was believed to have stolen it. Because of that, he was sent to prison. During the three years in prison, he learned to write short stories. After he got out of prison, he went to New York and continued writing. He wrote mostly about New York and the life of the poor there. People liked his stories, because simple as the tales were, they would finish with a sudden change at the end, to the readers’ surprise. In which order did O. Henry do the following things?
a. Lived in New York.
b. Worked in a bank.
c. Traveled to Texas.
d. Was put in prison.
e. Had a newspaper job.
f. Learned to write stories.
| A．e, c, f, b, d, a | B．c, b, e, d, a, f |
| C．e, b, d, c, a, f | D．c, e, b, d, f, a |
People enjoyed reading O. Henry’s stories because _____.
| A．they had surprise endings | B．they were easy to understand |
| C．they showed his love for the poor | D．they were about New York City |
What do we know about O. Henry before he began writing?
| A．He was well-educated. |
| B．He was very good at learning. |
| C．He was devoted to the poor. |
| D．He was not serious about his work. |
Where did O. Henry get most material for his short stories?
| A．His life inside the prison. | B．The newspaper articles he wrote. |
| C．The city and people of New York. | D．His exciting early life as a boy. |
A new study has been carried to test the role of story telling in lowering blood pressure. Dr. Thomas Houston, a professor of the University of Massachusetts Medical School, led a group of scientists that researched how pre-recorded videos of hypertension (高血压) patients' talking about their medical histories helped another group of patients with high blood pressure to control their condition over several months.
Houston was surprised by their studies that suggested that communication can be a powerful tool in medicine. They showed that those who had had similar experiences, when talking to someone with a similar background, could help change their behavior to become healthier. Hypertension is difficult to control, since it is dependent on diet, exercise and mental state. Medical treatments with drugs, and lifestyle therapies(疗法) have been relatively ineffective because people find it hard to follow those medical requirements.
In the test, his team carefully chose their story-tellers from 23
0 members of a patients' community with whom they could most easily relate. Next, they divided their study population into two groups. One received three interactive DVDs containing the tellers' stories of their experiences in living with and treating their hypertension. The other were given educational discs on an unrelated health topic. The study volunteers reported that they had listened to the DVDs, and after three months, those who heard the stories of the hypertensive patients lowered their blood pressure.
While the study did not address how the story-telling influenced the patients' behavior, Houston doubts that watching patients of similar backgrounds who had a similar medical experience helped to motivate them to seek medical help to their hypertension. They found that after six months the difference in blood pressure between those who watched the story-tellers and those who observed the unrelated videos remained, suggesting that the story-telling continued to have an effect. We can learn from the text that the pre-recorded videos _________.
| A．tell medical histories of hypertension patients |
| B．introduce some medical treatments of hypertension |
| C．introduce a good lifestyle for hypertensive patients |
| D．tell scientific discoveries of the scientist group |
Houston was surprised to find that _______.
| A．hypertension is really difficult to control |
| B．communication has some medical effects |
| C．medical treatments have no effect at all |
| D．people don't follow the medical requirements |
The underlined word "address" in the last paragraph most probably means _______.
| A．persuade | B．observe | C．attend | D．announce |
Which of the following could be the best title of the text?
| A．The stories of some hypertension patients. |
| B．Medical treatments of blood pressure. |
| C．Storytelling may help lower blood pressure. |
| D．Suggestions about how to lower blood pressure. |
I sometimes wonder if old Finchley has the right personality to be a research scientist. He keeps asking when he’ll be coming back. After all, it was his own fault. Nobody tries out what has just been invented on themselves any more but Finchley. Well, he must have pumped about a thousand cubic centimeters into himself before I noticed he was clearly becoming smaller.
It was funny watching him, because his clothes remained the same in size. They simply piled up around him so that he looked like a small boy in his father’s clothes. But he kept getting smaller and smaller. As my colleague Dawson and I watched him, he disappeared! All we could see was Finchley’s clothes on the floor. They looked so strange, because the lab coat was on top, shirt and trousers inside and, I suppose, underclothes inside again. It gave me a strange feeling, and I think Dawson was a bit shaken, too.
Dawson was sitting on his chair in front of a microscope he’d been using to examine a family of mites(螨虫). He looked through the scope kind of absently again, and was nearly scared to lose awareness when he found old Finchley waving back from the other end.
It seems as if Finchley had taken a free ride on a dust mite and landed on the land of the mite family. Of course, we didn’t know till Finchley told us later. But anyhow, as I said, Dawson nearly passed out. He jumped off his chair and pointed at the microscope, too shocked to speak. Finchley disappeared because ________.
| A．he took something poisonous |
| B．he was changed into a dust mite |
| C．his father’s clothes totally covered him up |
| D．what he and his colleagues invented resulted in his disappearance |
It frightened Dawson to see Finchley _______.
| A．got into his scope by accident | B．was waving through his telescope |
| C．suddenly got lost in his clothes | D．gradually disappeared in the lab |
It can be inferred that Finchley, Dawson and the writer have possibly invented _____.
| A．some kind of medicine | B．a new powerful microscope |
| C．a machine to make people small | D．a new way to make a culture of mite |
It can probably be concluded that Finchley ________.
| A．passed out there and then | B．is not fit to be a scientist |
| C．is a devoted scientist | D．will remain tiny all the time |
The 1980s was called the “Me Decade” because for many this time was marked by a fascination with the self. The idea that each person has a self may seem natural to us, but this concept is actually quite new. The idea that each human life is unique developed between the 11th and 15th centuries in Europe. Before that time, individuals were considered in relation to a group, and even today, many eastern cultures place more emphasis on the importance of a collective self than on a unique and independent self.
Both
eastern and western cultures see the self as divided into an inner, private self and an outer, public self. But where they differ is in terms of which part is seen as the “real you.” Western culture tends to promote the idea of individuality—a self that is separated from other selves. In contrast, many eastern cultures focus on an inter-independent self that gets its diversity in large part from inter-relationship with others.
For example, a Confucian(孔子) idea stresses the importance of “face”—other people’s views of the self and keeping up one’s desired status in their eyes. In the past, some Asian cultures developed clear rules about the specific clothes and even colors that people in certain social classes and occupations were allowed to display, and these live on today in Japanese style manuals. This style of dress is at odds with such western practices as
“casual Fridays,” which encourage employees to dress informally and express their unique selves. According to the passage , what does the author believe about the self?
| A．Many eastern cultures see the self connected with others. |
| B．Those born in the 1980s are generally most self-centered than others. |
| C．The concept that each person has a self may seem strange to eastern cultures |
| D．Western cultures regard the self as an outer, public self while eastern cultures don’t. |
What does the 2nd paragraph mainly talk about?
| A．How eastern and western cultures see the self. |
| B．Eastern cultures contrast sharply with western cultures |
| C．Both eastern and western cultures appreciate the importance of self |
| D．Eastern cultures are as important as western cultures |
A Japanese dress code is mentioned in the last paragraph to _________.
| A．explain the importance of “face” | B．say how traditional the Japanese are |
| C．emphasize the importance of eastern cultures | |
| D．show how eastern cultures see the self in relation to others |
The underlined phrase “at odds with” most probably means_______.
| A．in agreement with | B．in disagreement with |
| C．in comparison with | D．in need of |