Itisahotsummerday，andyoufeelth-优题课

Usually, when your teacher asks a question, there is only one correct answer. But there is one question that has millions of correct answers. That question is “What’s your name?” Everyone gives a different answer, but everyone is correct.
Have you ever wondered about people’s names? Where do they come from? What do they mean?
People’s first names, or given names, are chosen by their parents. Sometimes the name of a grandparent or other member of the family is used. Some parents choose the name of a well-known person. A boy could be named George Washington Smith; a girl could be named Helen Keller Jones.
Some people give their children names that mean good things. Clara means “bright”; Beatrice means “one who gives happiness”; Donald means “world ruler”; Leonard means “as brave as a lion”.
The earliest last names, or surnames, were taken from place names. A family with the name Brook or Brooks probably lived near brook(小溪)；someone who was called Longstreet probably lived on a long, paved road. The Greenwood family lived in or near a leafy forest.
Other early surnames came from people’s occupations. The most common occupational name is Smith, which means a person who makes things with iron or other metals. In the past, smiths were very important workers in every town and village.Some other occupational names are: Carter---a person who owned or drove a cart; Potter---a person who made pots and pans.
The ancestors of the Baker family probably baked bread for their neighbors in their native village. The Carpenter’s great-great-great-grandfather probably built houses and furniture.
Sometimes people were known for the color of their hair or skin, or their size, or their special abilities. When there were two men who were named John in the same village, the John with the gray hair probably became John Gray. Or the John was very tall could call himself John Tallman. John Fish was probably an excellent swimmer and John Lightfoot was probably a fast runner or a good dancer.
Some family names were made by adding something to the father’s name. English-speaking people added –s or –son. The Johnsons are descendants of John; the Roberts family’s ancestor was Robert. Irish and Scottish people added Mac or Mc or O. Perhaps all of the MacDonnells and the McDonnells and the O’Donnells are descendants of the same Donnell.
Which of the following aspects do the surnames in the passage NOT cover?

A．Places where people lived.	B．People’s characters.
C．Talents that people possessed.	D．People’s occupations.

According to the passage, the ancestors of the Potter family most probably _______.

A．owned or drove a cart	B．made things with metals
C．made kitchen tools or containers	D．built houses and furniture

Suppose an English couple whose ancestors lived near a leafy forest wanted their new-born son to become a world leader, the baby might be named _______.

A．Beatrice Smith	B．Leonard Carter
C．George Longstreet	D．Donald Greenwood

The underlined word “descendants” in the last paragraph means a person’s _____.

A．later generations	B．friends and relatives
C．colleagues and partners	D．later bosses

In ancient Egypt，the pharaoh（法老）treated the poor message runner like a prince when he arrived at the palace, if he brought good news. However，if the exhausted runner had the misfortune to bring the pharaoh unhappy news，his head was cut off.
Shades of that spirit spread over today's conversations. Once a friend and I packed up some peanut butter and sandwiches for an outing. As we walked light-heartedly out of the door，picnic basket in hand，a smiling neighbor looked up at the sky and said，"Oh boy，bad day for a picnic. The weatherman says it's going to rain." I wanted to strike him on the face with the peanut butter and sandwiches. Not for his stupid weather report，for his smile.
Several months ago I was racing to catch a bus. As I breathlessly put my handful of cash across the Greyhound counter，the sales agent said with a broad smile，"Oh that bus left five minutes ago." Dreams of head-cutting！
It’s not the news that makes someone angry. It’s the unsym pathetic attitude with which it’s delivered(递送). Everyone must give bad news from time to time, and winning professionals do it with the proper attitude. A doctor advising a patient that she needs an operation does it in a caring way . A boss informing an employee he didn’t get the job takes on a sympathetic tone. Big winners know, when delivering any bad news, they should share the feeling fo the receiver.
Unfortunately，many people are not aware of this. When you're tired from a long flight，has a hotel clerk cheerfully said that your room isn't ready yet？When you had your heart set on the toast beef，has your waiter merrily told you that he just served the last piece？It makes you as traveler or diner want to land your fist right on their unsympathetic faces.
Had my neighbor told me of the upcoming rainstorm with sympathy（同情），I would have appreciated his warning. Had the Greyhound salesclerk sympathetically informed me that my bus had already left，I probably would have said，"Oh，that's all right I'll catch the next one." Big winners，when they bear bad news，deliver bombs with the emotion the bombarded（被轰炸的）person is sure to have.
In Paragraph 1，the writer tells the story of the pharaoh to ____.

A．make a comparison	B．introduce a topic
C．describe a scene	D．offer an argument

In the writer's opinion，his neighbor was ___.

A．friendly

B．warm-hearted

C．not considerate

D．not helpful

From "Dreams of head-cutting！"（Paragraph3），we learn that the writer___.

A．was mad at the sales agent

B．was reminded of the cruel pharaoh

C．wished that the sales agent would have had dreams

D．dreamed of cutting the sales agent's head that night.

What is the main idea of the text？

A．Delivering bad news properly is important in communication.

B．Helping others sincerely is the key to business success.

C．Receiving bad news requires great courage.

D．Learning ancient traditions can be useful.

The weather predictions for Asia in 2050 read like a story from a doomsday movie.
Many experts and green groups fear they will come true unless there is a united global effort to hold back greenhouse gas outpouring. In the decades to come, Asia---home to more than half the world’s 63 billion people-will change from one climate extreme to another, with tired farmers battling droughts, floods, disease, food shortages and rising sea levels.
“It’s not a pretty picture,” said Steve Sawyer, climate policy adviser with Greenpeace in Amsterdam. Global warming and changes of weather patterns are already occurring and there is more than enough carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases in the atmosphere to drive climate change for decades to come.
Already, changes are being felt in Asia but worse is likely to come, Sawyer and top climate bodies say, and could lead to mass migration and widespread human disasters. According to predictions, icebergs will melt faster, some Pacific and Indian Ocean islands will have to evacuate(疏散) or build sea defenses, storms will become more intense and insect and water-borne diseases will move into new areas as the world warms.
All this comes with rising populations and demand for food, water and other resources. Experts say environmental worsening such as deforestation and pollution will probably enlarge the results of climate change.
In what could be a sign of the future, Japan was hit by a record of 10 typhoons and tropical storms this year, while two-thirds of Bangladesh, parts of Nepal and large areas of northeastern India were flooded, affecting 50 million people, destroying livelihoods and making tens of thousands ill.
The year before, a winter cold struck and a summer heat wave killed more than 2,000 people in India.
This passage is mainly about.

A．what kind of weather we like best

B．the weather predictions for Asia in the future and the reasons

C．how to improve our environment

D．that the world will not be suitable for us to live in

In the future the Asian farmers will have to face the following except.

A．food shortages

B．droughts

C．wars

D．floods

The underlined word “doomsday” may give us the feeling of.

A．happiness

B．sadness

C．peace

D．excitement

That summer an army of crickets(蟋蟀) started a war with my father. Dad cared for insects no more than Mamma, but he could tolerate a few living in the basement. Mamma was a city girl and she said a cricket was just too noisy. Then to support her point she wouldn’t go to bed. She drank coffee and smoked my father’s cigarettes and paced between the sofa and the TV. Next morning she threatened to pack up and leave, so Dad drove to the store and hurried back. He sprayed poison from a jug. When he was finished he told us that was the end of it.
For a couple of weeks we went back to find dead crickets in the laundry. He suggested that we’d all be better off to hide as many as we could from Mamma. I fed a few dozen to the cat who I didn’t like because he scratched for no reason.
However,soon live crickets started showing up in the kitchen and bathroom. Mamma was upest because she thought they were the dead crickets coming back,but Dad said these were certainly new ones. He fetched his jug of posion and sprayed all over until the whole house smelled of posion, and then he sprayed the basement again.
A couple of weeks later, when both live and dead crickets kept turning up, Dad emptied the basement of junk. Then he burned a lot of old newspapers and magazines which he said the crickets had turned into nests.
While we ate supper that evening, the wind lifted some flames onto the wood pile. The only gasoline was in the lawn mower’s(割草机) fuel tank but that was enough to create an explosion big enough to reach the house. Once the roof caught, there wasn’t much anyone could do.
After the fire trucks left, Mamma took the others to Aunt Gail’s. I helped Dad and Uncle Burt carry things out of the house and pile them by the road. We worked into the night and we didn’t talk much, while all around the noise of crickets broke our silence.
What do we know about the author’s mother?

A．She didn’t like insects at all.

B．She liked insects more than his father.

C．She cared for insects very much.

D．She could only tolerate a few insects.

The author’s father drove to the store to buy _______.

A．cigarettes for himself	B．some poison
C．more coffee for his wife	D．some gasoline

The author’s father burned the old newspapers and magazines because he thought ______.

A．they were no longer useful

B．the crickets were afraid of fires

C．they became the home of crickets

D．the dead crickets came back to life

We learn from the last paragraph that ________.

A．the author’s family lost their battle against the crickets

B．the author’s parents learned to put up with insects

C．the author’s family didn’t suffer much in the fire

D．the author’s parents got divorced

To err is human. To blame the other guy is even more human.
Common sense is not all that common.
Why tell the truth when you can come up with a good excuse?
These three popular misquotes(戏谑的引语)are meant to be jokes, and yet they tell us a lot about human nature .To err, or to make mistakes, is indeed a part of being human, but it seems that most people don’t want to accept the responsibility for the problem. Perhaps it is the natural thing to do .The original quote about human nature went like this: “ To err is human, to forgive, divine(神圣的).”This saying mirrors an ideal people should be forgiving of others’ mistakes. Instead, we tend to do the opposite –find someone else to pass the blame on to. However, taking responsibility for something that went wrong is a making of great maturity.
Common sense is what we call clear thought. Having common sense means having a good general plan that will make things work well, and it also means staying with the plan. Common sense tells you that you take an umbrella out into a rainstorm, but you leave the umbrella home when you hear a weather forecast for sunshine．Common sense does not seem to be common for large organizations, because there are so many things going on that one person cannot be in charge of everything. People say that in a large company, “the right hand does not know what the left hand is doing.”
And what is wrong with a society that thinks that making up a good excuse is like creating a work of art? One of the common problems with making excuses is that people, especially young people, get the idea that it’s okay not to be totally honest all the time. There is a corollary(直接推论)to that: if good excuse is “good” even if it isn’t honest, then where is the place of the truth?
According to tile passage, which of following seems the most human?

A．To search for truth．

B．To achieve one’s ideal

C．To make fun of others’ mistakes．

D．To criticize others for one’s own error.

According to the author, what is a sign of a man’s maturity?

A．Doing things his own way.

B．Bearing responsibility for his mistakes.

C．Making as few mistakes as possible．

D．Thinking seriously about his wrongdoing.

Which of the following is N0T based on common sense?

A．A man tries to take charge of everything in a large company.

B．A student goes out with an umbrella in stormy weather.

C．A company’s next move follows a good plan．

D．A lawyer acts on fine judgments．

What is the author’s opinion about a good excuse?

A．Making a good excuse is sometimes a better policy.

B．Inventing a good excuse needs creative ideas.

C．A good excuse is as rewarding as honesty.

D．Bitter truth is better than a good excuse.

What would be the best title for his passage?

A．A Mirror of Human Nature	B．To Blame or to Forgive
C．A Mark of Maturity	D．Truth or Excuse

A．Pleasure Leads To Happiness	B．Happiness Changes Us
C．Happiness Is Within Us	D．Stay A Quiet Mind