One day, I received a call from a colleague. He was about to give a student a zero for his answer to a physical problem, while the student claimed a perfect score. I was elected as their arbiter（仲裁人）. I read the examination problem: “Show how it is possible to determine the height of a tall building with the aid of a barometer（气压计）. ”The student had answered; "Take the barometer to the top of the building, attach a long rope to it, lower it to the street, and then bring it up, measuring the length of the rope. The length of it is the height of the building.”
The student had really answered the question completely, but the answer didn't confirm his competence in physics. I suggested the student try again. I gave him six minutes to answer the question, warning that the answer should show some knowledge of physics. Five minutes later, he said he had many answers and dashed off one, which read：“Take the barometer to the top of the building and lean over the edge of the roof. Drop the barometer, timing its fall with a stopwatch. Then, use the physical formula（公式）to calculate the height of the building.”
At this point, my colleague had to accept it, and then the student made almost full marks. I couldn't help asking the student what the other answers were. He listed many others, and then added, "Probably the best is to take the barometer to the administrator and said to him, ‘Sir, here is a fine barometer. If you tell me the height of the building, I will give it to you.”,
Then, I asked the student if he really did not know the conventional answer to this question. He admitted that he did, but said that he was fed up with high school and college instructors trying to teach him how to think.
The name of the student was Bohr who later was famous all over the world. He won the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1922.The student got a zero at the beginning because _____.
| A．the teacher wasn't satisfied with him |
| B．his answer wasn't complete or correct |
| C．the teacher didn't fully understand his answer |
| D．his answer didn't show his knowledge of physics |
We know from the passage that _____.
| A．the student knew the expected answer |
| B．the administrator told Bohr the height |
| C．the author preferred Bohr's last answer |
| D．the teacher was a very stubborn person |
We can learn from the passage that _____.
| A．instructors can teach students how to think |
| B．arbiters can help students to get high scores |
| C．students should be given more freedom in thinking |
| D．teachers should make students use physical formulas |
What was Bohr's attitude toward his schooling?
| A．Optimistic | B．Critical | C．Approving | D．Neutral |
When I met him，I had a lot of anger inside me. I’ve lived my whole life in Spanish Harlem， but in my neighborhood，there are shoot-ups all the time. I know kids who have been shot or beaten up. I have friends who ended up in prison. I could have ended up that way，too，but Mr. Clark wouldn’t let that happen.
Mr. Clark worked long hours，making sure I did my work. My grades rose. In fact，the scores of our whole class rose. One day，he took our class to see The Phantom of the Opera，and it was the first time some kids had ever been out of Harlem. Before the show，he treated us to dinner at a restaurant and taught us not to talk with our mouths full. We did not want to let him down.
Mr. Clark was selected as Disney’s 2000 Teacher of the Year. He said he would draw three names out of a hat；those students would go with him to Los Angles to get the award. But when the time came to draw names，Mr. Clark said,“You’re all going.”
On graduation day，there were a lot of tears. We didn’t want his class to end. In 2001，he moved to Atlanta, but he always kept in touch. He started giving lectures about education，and wrote a bestsell -ing book based on his classroom rules，The Essential 55. In 2003，Mr. Clark took some of us on a trip to South Africa to deliver school supplies and visit orphanages(孤儿院). It was the most amazing experience of my life. It’s now my dream to one day start a group of women’s clubs, helping people from all backgrounds.Without Mr. Clark，the writer _________.
| A．might have put into prison |
| B．might not have won the prize |
| C．might have joined a women’s club |
| D．might not have moved to Atlanta |
The Essential 55 is ___________.
| A．a show |
| B．a speech |
| C．a classroom rule |
| D．a book |
How many students’ names were finally drawn out of a hat by Mr. Clark？
| A．None |
| B．Three |
| C．Fifty-five |
| D．All |
In the passage, the writer intends to tell us that ___________.
| A．Mr. Clark went to South Africa because he liked traveling |
| B．Mr. Clark helped to set up a group of women’s clubs |
| C．a good teacher can raise his or her students’ score |
| D．a good teacher has a good influence on his or her students |
What is the writer’s attitude towards Mr. Clark？
| A．He speaks highly of Mr. Clark. |
| B．He looks down upon Mr. Clark. |
| C．He doesn’t show his attitude towards Mr. Clark. |
| D．He takes a neutral(中立的) attitude towards Mr. Clark. |
It seems some people have something bad to say about Facebook, the social media website that now has attracted more than 300 million members. To them I have only this to say: Stop please!
A recent article in the Wall Street Journal blamed Facebook’s ability to ruin friendships, saying that it limits communication to typing and encourages people to spend far too much time with friends they have never met.
Having used Facebook since its first year, I find these arguments false. The simple truth is that the problems are only a symptom of Facebook abuse. Like many things, it is only as harmful to your life and relationships as you allow it to be. Consider arguments against watching too much TV and overeating.
Try using Facebook to find friends who may have long ago changed their e-mail addresses and phone numbers, to find out what your old college friends are up to, to congratulate your friends on their latest birthdays, to share pictures and articles you find interesting, and to join in the discussion about them with your friends.
Sure, I had days when I wasted a little more time on Facebook than I should, but I’m not going to blame Facebook for my own laziness. If Facebook wasn’t there, I would have found something else to waste time on. To my “friends”: if you don’t feel like broadcasting your life stories on your Facebook, don’t. If you tire of my personal updates, ignore them. If you don’t want to join in the popular online games, don’t. It is a fun tool at your fingers that can be used for both good and bad. If you don’t like using Facebook, don’t.
I am now a consultant at the Department of State. I use Facebook to keep in touch with friends, family, and colleagues who live and work all over the world.Why did the article in the Wall Street Journal blame Facebook?
| A．Because it makes people spend too much time online. |
| B．Because it can make people lose their real-life friends. |
| C．Because it is as harmful to people’s lives as watching TV. |
| D．Because it encourages people to make friends with strangers. |
What does the author suggest using Facebook to do?
| A．To find out lost e-mail addresses and phone numbers. |
| B．To arrange appointments with our old college friends. |
| C．To collect interesting pictures and articles from our friends. |
| D．To keep in touch with friends who we haven’t called for long. |
We can imply from the passage that by using Facebook we can ____.
| A．read other’s personal updates |
| B．write our life stories online secretly |
| C．decide who can read our life stories |
| D．refuse to join in popular online games |
The author writes the last paragraph to ____.
| A．prove that Facebook can be well used |
| B．gain support from the Department of State |
| C．show that Facebook is used all around the world |
| D．introduce how she uses Facebook in her work as a consultant |
The skin which covers the tips of the fingers and thumbs is crossed by numerous ridges (隆起) arranged in different patterns. These patterns are permanent from birth and remain exactly the same throughout a person's life, even when the skin becomes wrinkled and cracked as a result of old age. Such patterns are never passed on from parents to children, and no one in the world has the same patterns as anyone else. Even identical twins have different sets of fingerprints. As a result, fingerprints offer a most useful and foolproof way of identifying people. Any ridged part of the hand and the foot may be used as a means of identification, but finger impressions are usually preferred since they can be taken easily and quickly.
Fingerprints are classified in the ways: by general shapes and contours(轮廓), by the finger positions of the pattern-types, and by size (often measured by counting the ridges in the loops). Every set of fingerprints has different “ridge characteristics” (i. e. the print of each separate finger is different from that of all the other fingers), which belong to one of four basic groups: arches, loops, whorls and composites. All fingerprints can then be divided into 1, 024 groups. By using details in the patterns above, these 1, 024 groups can be further divided into thousands of smaller groups, thus making it possible to find a particular set of fingerprints in a few minutes.According to this passage, the true statement about human fingerprints is that ____.
| A．people's fingerprints sometimes can be passed on from parents to children |
| B．people’s fingerprints are unique but identical twins may have the same fingerprints |
| C．using fingerprints is the only way to identify people |
| D．people's fingerprints will not change in all their lives |
We prefer to use fingerprints to identify people because ____.
| A．we can never find the same set of fingerprints among human beings |
| B．finger impressions can be taken easily and quickly |
| C．fingerprints offer a most useful and foolproof way of identifying people |
| D．all of the above |
The word “foolproof” (Line 7, Para. 1) most probably means ____.
| A．that is permanent | B．that is acceptable |
| C．that can not go wrong | D．that is not foolish |
About the classification of fingerprints, which is TRUE? ____.
| A．Fingerprints can be classified in three ways |
| B．All fingerprints can be divided into 1, 024 groups and can not be divided further |
| C．It is not easy to find a particular set of fingerprints in a short time |
| D．People can not classify the fingerprints in an effective way |
Homemade Ice Cream in a Bag
Difficulty: Very Easy
Average User Rating:★★★★☆(4.3/5)
Milk can become homemade ice cream in five minutes by using a bag! This homemade, creamy treat is a summertime delight for your kids and you alike.
What you’ll need:
1 tablespoon of sugar; 1/2 cup of milk; 1/4 teaspoon of vanilla (香草香精); 6 tablespoons of rock salt; 1 small-sized plastic food storage bag; 1 gallon-sized plastic food storage bag; ice cubes.
How to make it:
lFill the large bag half full of ice, and add the rock salt. Seal the bag.
lPut milk, vanilla, and sugar into the small bag, and seal it.
lPlace the small bag inside the large one, and seal it again carefully.
lShake until the mixture turns into ice cream, which takes about five minutes.
lWipe the top of the small bag, and then open it carefully. Enjoy!
Tips:
1/2 cup of milk will make about one spoon of ice cream, so double the recipe if you want more. But don’t increase the amount more than that—a large amount might be too big for kids to pick up because the ice itself is heavy.
Here is another version of the homemade ice cream recipe from another parent!
These are the homemade ice cream ingredients:
1/4 teaspoon of vanilla butter and nuts; 1 tablespoon of sugar; 1/2 cup of milk.
These are the other supplies:
Plastic sandwich bag; 12 salt pellets; 1 dish of ice; large plastic bag.
Put the ice cream ingredients in the small bag, and then put the bag, salt and ice in the big bag. Hold the bag shut and move it around on the floor for about 5 minutes.
When I made ice cream at home last time, although the salt pellets didn’t really dissolve (溶解) that well, I still got ice cream. It was not smooth ice cream, probably because of the low-fat milk. It was incredible that it could be ready in 5 minutes (not counting preparing the ingredients)
Next, I changed the recipe, using a tablespoon of cocoa, a tablespoon of sugar, and a cup of milk. It was a bit too chocolaty, but good!The underlined “that” in “Tips” section refers to ____.
| A．1/2 cup of milk | B．1 cup of milk |
| C．1 spoon of ice cream | D．2 spoons of ice cream |
Which of the following things is NOT included in both recipes?
| A．Sugar | B．Ice | C．Plastic bag | D．Nuts |
Which of the following statements about the second parent is TRUE?
| A．He/ She doesn’t agree with the first parent. |
| B．He/ She doesn’t think five minutes is enough |
| C．He/ She doesn’t like cocoa better than nuts. |
| D．He/ She doesn’t think the chocolaty tastes bad. |
One evening I went out and left my 17-year-old son in charge of his 8-year-old brother and 4-year-old sister. On this occasion, the task was made less troublesome by the presence of his girlfriend. I left with complete confidence that the older children would do a wonderful job of babysitting the younger children and the younger children would do a wonderful job of accompanying the older ones. Later, I discovered that complete confidence was the last thing I should have left home with.
I had decided to return home earlier than planned so that my son and his girlfriend could go out. I called home with this happy news. But instead of hearing his cheerful, grateful voice on the other end of the line, all I heard was the sound of a telephone ringing.
It was, I should point out, after 10 p.m., when the two younger children should have been in bed, and when the two older children should have been answering the phone. “I’ll give him a lesson,” I said. I decided they must be outside. Why they might be outside at 10:30 on a wintry night I had no idea, but it was the only explanation I could come up with.
Finally, in desperation, I called his girlfriend’s house. After what seemed like countless rings, his girlfriend answered. “Yes,” she said brightly, “He’s right here.”
He came on the phone. I was not my usual calm, rational self. After all, one of the rules of survival for modern parents is that you can’t trust modern teenagers. “Where are the children?” I said. He said they were with him. They had done nothing wrong. My son had taken the younger children over to his girlfriend’s house just for ice cream and cake. This was too favorable to be believed. Well, it turned out that I shouldn’t have believed it. It was only part of the truth.
The following Saturday evening we were at my parents’ home, celebrating my birthday. My oldest son gave me the children’s gifts. Mounted(裱装) and framed were a series of lovely color photographs of my children, dressed in their best clothes, and wearing their most wonderful expressions. They are pictures to treasure a lifetime, all taken by the father of my son’s girlfriend.
That was the most precious gift of all.Shortly after the author left home one evening, she discovered that ____.
| A．her son had brought his girlfriend home |
| B．the father of her son’s girlfriend had come to her home to take photos of the children |
| C．she shouldn’t have completely trusted her son |
| D．she should have taken the children along with her |
According to Paragraph 3, “it” means ____.
| A．the two younger children have been in bed |
| B．the older children have been answering the phone |
| C．the author will give her older son a lesson |
| D．the older son has gone outside with his girlfriend |
The sentence “It was only part of the truth.” (Para. 5) implies that the children not only enjoyed ice-cream but also ____.
| A．had a birthday party | B．framed some photographs |
| C．had their pictures taken | D．showed off their best clothes |
Which of the following possible titles best expresses the main idea of this passage?
| A．Puppy Love | B．Brotherhood |
| C．Mother and Children | D．A Precious Birthday Gift |