NanjingandHangzhousummercampso-优题课

Mom’s birthday present? It may be a difficult thing for some people, but for me, it is an easy thing. Mom loved flowers, so every year I sent her flowers. Actually she had a bed of irises (鸢尾花) in the backyard of her small, Indiana farm. They were beautiful. “Take some,” she said, “Dig some up and plant them on the side of your own house.”
But in my yard they became lacking in energy. A year passed, then two, but not one flower appeared. I cut back all their green leaves. I was tired of seeing them so lonely. Finally, I dug the irises up and threw them away.
About that time Mom died unexpectedly. My sister and I sold the farm. I never went back to see the irises. I just couldn’t bear seeing another family living in our home—Mom’s home. Autumn came, then winter. The following spring, as Mom’s birthday approached, I struggled with the question of how to remember her. I stared out the window and saw a few stubborn irises in my side yard sprouting (发芽), —tall, thin but flowerless. Because of seeing them, I decided to order flowers as I always did on Mom’s birthday, and send them to my sister. I wished so badly I could still send flowers to Mom. But that was impossible.
In the morning of Mom’s birthday, I was in my car ready to work. Something in the yard caught my eye. The irises! One had bloomed with flowers, big, showy and purple, as lovely as they ever had been on Mom’s farm. I smiled and turned my eyes upward. I could no longer send flowers to Mom. But somehow, she’d been able to send them to me.
According to the first paragraph, Mom ________.

A．wanted to give the author some flowers

B．didn’t like the presents from the author

C．lived with the author on an Indiana farm

D．got different birthday presents from the author every year

At first, the irises in the author’s yard ________.

A．all died quickly

B．didn’t bloom at all

C．grew as well as on Mom’s farm

D．grew better than those on Mom’s farm

What troubled the author?

A．She didn’t know how to grow irises.

B．She regretted they had sold Mom’s farm.

C．She didn’t know what to do in memory of Mom.

D．She couldn’t bear others living in Mom’s home.

After seeing the irises sprouting, the author________.

A．decided to send flowers to her sister on Mom’s birthday

B．dug them out because they were flowerless

C．decided to send them to Mom after they bloom

D．ordered flowers for the people living in Mom’s home

What can be learned from the last paragraph?

A．All the irises in the author’s yard bloomed.

B．The author went to see the irises in Mom’s yard.

C．It was Mom who took care of these irises in the author’s yard.

D．The author thought the blooming irises were gifts from Mom.

The 2^nd World Cup Live Painting Competition
Brief Introduction
The 2^nd Youth World Cup Live Painting Competition is a global charity event hosted by Canada Youth Arts Development Foundation and supported by UNICEF. It is a global painting Olympic of the world’s children and youth, and also a global charity event aiming to help poor children worldwide.
We don't have ready formulas, but we believe in action. The Youth World Cup Live Painting Competition aims to change things for the better. The competition will be a platform to raise awareness for the welfare of poor children. We hope that this annual competition and charity event will grow into an annual celebration of painting, the Olympic of cultural and artistic exchange.
All participants are separated into four groups
●Children Group 1 (Age 4-7)
●Children Group 2 (Age 8-12)
●Youth Group 1 (Age 13-17)
●Youth Group 2 (Age 18-25)
Main categories for this edition are
●Friendship
●Dream
●Environmental Protection
Tools
Pen, pencil, oil, water color, any painting tools and materials are welcome.
Size
A3 size (43cm x 28cm)
Entry fee
There is no entry fee.
Eligibility(资格)
This competition is open to anyone worldwide aged 4-25 years old.
Deadline
June 30, 2014
Prize
●The Committee will issue one First Award (Gold Medal), three Second Awards (Silver Medals), six Third Awards (Bronze Medals), and Best Innovation (革新) Award, Best Color Award, Best Structure Award, Best Method Award, Best Quality Award.
●First Award will receive the Golden Cup and $500 CAD, Second Award—Silver Cup and $300 CAD, Third Award—Bronze Cup and $100 CAD.
●All winners of the First Award, Second Award and Third Award from each group will have the opportunities to attend the final competition for live painting competition, which is to be held in Richmond Olympic Oval, Richmond, Canada on August 12^th, 2014. All participants in the final competition will receive a certificate, which will be delivered directly from the Organizing Committee.
Which of the following can we know from the Brief Introduction?
a. The competition’s goal.
b. The competition’s history.
c. The competition’s sponsor.
d. The competition’s participants.

A．abc

B．acd

C．bcd

D．abd

According to the passage, the competition _________.

A．is a global painting Olympic for students worldwide

B．is a platform to find out children who have a gift for painting

C．is held once every four years like the Olympic Games

D．aims to help poor children throughout the world

Which of the following is NOT mentioned in the passage?

A．Contact information.

B．Main categories.

C．Entry requirements.

D．The prize types.

It can be known from the passage that ________.

A．there are no given themes for all the participants

B．participants must use special tools to paint their entries

C．the groups are divided by the age of the participants

D．the larger the painting is, the more welcomed it is

If you took part in the competition and won the second prize, what will you get?

A．A silver medal, $300 CAD and certification

B．A certificate, $300 CAD and painting materials

C．$100 CAD, a certificate and a silver cup

D．Final qualification, certification and a bronze medal

There is no denying that over the years college education has been accepted without the slightest doubt. All high school graduates should go, says conventional wisdom and statistical evidence, because college will help them earn more, become “better” citizens and be more responsible than those who don’t go.
But college can never work its magic for everyone. Now with half our high school graduates attending college, those unfit for the pattern are getting more. College graduates are selling shoes and driving taxis; college students interfere with each other’s experiments and write false letters of recommendation in the fierce competition for admission into graduate schools. Others find no stimulation (激励) in their studies, and consequently have to drop out, which is often encouraged by college administrators.
Some observers say the fault lies with young people themselves --- they are spoiled and expecting too much. But that’s a condemnation (谴责）of the students as a whole, and doesn’t explain all campus unhappiness. Others blame our society. Both are partly right. We have been told that young people have to go to college because our economy can’t absorb an army of untrained eighteen-year-olds. But disappointed graduates are learning that it can no longer absorb an army of trained twenty-two-year-olds, either.
Some campus watchers suggest that college may not be the best, the proper or the only place for every young person after finishing high school. It seems that through the rosy (玫瑰的) glow of our own college experiences, we may have been looking at those surveys and statistics upside down. Perhaps college does not make people intelligent, ambitious, happy, or quick to learn things—maybe it is just the other way around. Intelligent, ambitious, happy, quick-learning people are merely those who are attracted to college in the first place. And perhaps all those successful college graduates would have been successful even without college education. This is heresy (异端邪说) to those who have been brought up to believe that if a little schooling is good, more has to be much better. But contrary evidence is beginning to pile up.
According to the first paragraph, ______.

A．people now no longer challenge college education

B．people have great expectations for college education

C．the author thinks youngsters should all go to college

D．people still have a low opinion of college education

More young people drop out of college because ______.

A．they are no longer motivated in their studies

B．they can start selling shoes and driving taxis

C．they compete for admission to graduate schools

D．college administrators encourage them to do so

Who does the author think is responsible for campus unhappiness?

A．young students who are all spoiled and expecting too much.

B．our society that can’t offer enough jobs to college graduates.

C．our society that has not enough jobs for high school graduates.

D．young people as well as our society are to blame for all this.

Which of the following statements is TRUE about those surveys and statistics?

A．They prove high school graduates are smarter than college graduates.

B．They are so convincing that we think of our rosy college experiences.

C．They may have been misread because of our rosy college experiences.

D．They prove wrong because they contradict our rosy college experiences.

What is the meaning of the underlined sentence in Paragraph 4?

A．It is just the opposite	B．There is no right way
C．It is the wrong way	D．There’s no other way

What is the main purpose of this passage?

A．To inform young people college education is no longer important now.

B．To prove college education doesn’t make young people more intelligent.

C．Toargueagainsttheideathatcollegeisthefirst choiceforallyoungsters.

D．To tell young people that there’s something wrong with college education.

Back in the early 1900s, American physician Byron Robinson wrote a book proposing an interesting theory: humans actually have two brains --- one in our heads and the other in our stomachs, and the two “communicate” all the time. Interestingly, in Chinese culture, thoughts are also related to the belly in phrases and idioms like fugao (腹稿, a draft), manfu jinglun (满腹经纶, a bellyful of ideas), and yiduzi weiqu (一肚子委屈, a bellyful of complaints).
This may sound a little ridiculous at first. But try to think of a time when you were extremely nervous. Chances are that you also felt uncomfortable in your stomach, didn’t you? This is probably why people use the idiom “butterflies in one’s stomach” to refer to being nervous.
Now scientists from Canada and the US have found that our guts (肠道), if not as bright as our actual brains, are much more than just where we digest the food we eat. They also affect our emotions and even behavior, all thanks to the bacteria in them, reported Scientific American.
In the study, scientists fed timid mice stomach bacteria from mice that were more active and daring. After eating the bacteria, the timid mice grew more energetic and fearless. Sure enough, when bold mice got the bacteria from timid ones, they became more anxious. The mice’s behavior also changed when scientists disturbed the bacteria in their guts by changing their diets and feeding them antibiotics (抗生素).
“If something goes wrong in the gut, that change is reflected in the brain,” Emeran Mayer, a professor at University of California, Los Angeles, told The Huffington Post.
The brain-and-gut connection also works in the opposite way. Scientists studied children with autism (自闭症) --- a mental illness that makes people unable to socialize with others --- and found that they also have a lot of stomach problems. They have fewer types of stomach bacteria and lower totals of a few key bacteria than healthy children.
This research raises the possibility that scientists could treat patients with brain problems simply by feeding them the right food, which would be much more efficient than providing psychological therapy (疗法).
According to CBC News, you can get “good” bacteria that lift your spirits from food like yogurt while “bad” bacteria are usually in high fat and high sugar foods.
What is the author’s attitude toward Byron Robinson’s theory of two human brains?

A．Unsatisfied.

B．Doubtful.

C．Positive.

D．Negative.

The author mentioned the idiom “butterflies in one’s stomach” in the second paragraph to _____.

A．describe the symptoms of nervousness

B．suggest a connection between our stomach and our emotions

C．hint at the danger of nervous feelings

D．encourage people to calm down and relax

What’s the closest meaning of the underlined word “bold” in Paragraph 4?

A．anxious

B．fearless

C．energetic

D．sharp

According to the article, ______.

A．people with mental illnesses are more likely to have stomach problems

B．the use of antibiotics can turn timid mice into daring ones

C．timid mice have fewer types of stomach bacteria than daring mice

D．people must consider changing their diets when they feel anxious

We can infer from the article that______.

A．psychological therapy has never worked before for autistic children

B．yogurt is the best solution for anxiety problems

C．high fat and high sugar foods are responsible for many mental diseases

D．diet changes can lead to mood changes

“You are going abroad and will live there? Oh, wonderful! You are so lucky.”
Perhaps your family and friends said similar things to you when you left home. But is it true all the time? Is your life in the new country always wonderful and exciting?
Specialists say that it isn’t that easy to get used to life in a new culture. “Culture shock” (冲击) is the term specialists use when talking about the feelings that people have in a new environment. “There are three stages of culture shock,” say the specialists. In the first stage, the newcomers like their new environment. Then, when the fresh experience dies, they begin to hate the city, the country, the people, and everything else. In the last stage, the newcomers adapt to their surroundings and finally enjoy their life there.
Culture shock arises from many obvious factors. The weather may be unpleasant. The customs may be different. The public service systems such as the telephone, post office, or transportation may be difficult to work out. Even the simplest things become headaches. Still worse, the language may be difficult.
Who feels culture shock? Everyone does in this way or that. But culture shock surprises most people. Very often the people having the worst culture shock are those who never had any difficulties in their home countries and were successful in their community. Coming to a new country, these people find they do not have the same established positions. They find themselves without a role, almost without an identity. They have to build a new selfimage.
Culture shock leads to a feeling of disorientation (迷惘). This feeling may be homesickness. When homesick, people feel like staying inside all the time. They want to protect themselves from the strange environment, and create and escape inside their room for a sense of security. This escape does solve the problem of culture shock for the short term, but it does nothing to make the person familiar with the culture. Getting to know the new environment and gaining experience are the long term solutions to the problem of culture shock.
When people move to a new country, they ________.

A．find their new life always wonderful and exciting.

B．dislike the new surroundings from the beginning.

C．quickly get accustomed to the new culture there.

D．will get used to the new life with certain difficulty.

Based on the passage, which of the following results from culture shock?

A．weather conditions and customs

B．public service and transportation

C．feeling homesick and disoriented

D．language communication issues

According to the passage, the more successful you are at home, ________.

A．the fewer difficulties you will meet with abroad

B．the more problems you may have to face abroad

C．the greater success you are likely to make abroad

D．the less homesick you will eventually feel abroad

Which of the following statements is correct according to the passage?

A．Cultural shock affects and surprises those who live in a new culture.

B．A new culture makes everything difficult except the simplest things.

C．Since culture shock is painful, we can never get over it completely.

D．Escaping by staying inside does solve the problem of culture shock.