“It hurts me more than you. ”and “This is for your own good.” These are the statements my mother used to make years ago when I had to learn Latin, clean my room, stay home and do homework.
That was before we entered the permissive period in education in which we decided it was all right not to push our children to achieve their best in school.
The schools and the educators made it easy for us. They thought that it was right to be parents who take a let alone policy. We stopped making our children do homework. We gave them calculators (计算器), turned on the television, left the teaching to the teachers and went on vacation.
Now teachers, having taught many children who have been developing at their own step for the past 15 years, are realizing we've made a terrible mistake. Sharon Klompus is such a teacher who thinks her students “so passive” and wonders what happened. Nothing was demanded of them. She believes that Television contributes to children's passivity. “We' re not training kids to work any more,” says Klompus. “We' re talking about a generation of kids who've never been hurt or hungry. They have learned somebody will always do it for them. Instead of saying'go and look it up', you tell them the answer. It takes greater energy to say no to a kid.”
Yes, it does. It takes energy and it takes work. It's time for parents to end their vecation and come back to work. It's time to take the car away, to turn the TV off, to tell them it hurts you more than them but it's for their own good. It's time to start telling them no again.
1．Children are becoming more inactive in study because______.
A. they watch TV too often B. they have done too much homework
C. they have to fulfil too many duties D. teachers are too strict with them
2． To such children as described in the passage_______.
A. it is easier to say no than to say yes B. neither is easy to say yes or to say no
C. it is easier to say yes than to say no D. neither is difficult to say yes or to say no
3．. We learn from the passage that the author's mother used to play emphasis on______.
A. learning Latin B. natural development C. discipline D. education at school
4．. By "permissive period in education" the author means a time______.
A. when children are allowed to do what they wish to
B. when everything can be taught at school
C. when every child can be educated
D. when children are permitted to receive education
5．. The main idea of the passage is that______.
A. parents should leave their children alone
B. kids should have more activities at school
C. it's time to be more strict with our kids
D. parents should always set a good example to their kids
Without any hesitation, he said, “I’d be better off dead.” Hearing those words come out of my best friend’s mouth tore my heart apart. He has repeated that phrase more than once, and my mind continually plays it over like a voice recording.
I met him about three years ago. After knowing me for six months, he told me about his struggles with depression. Sadness was not the only emotion that came over me; I was shocked. He seemed so outgoing and happy all the time. I soon learned that he was physically and emotionally abused as a young child, causing him to have suicidal thoughts.
He refuses to talk to others about his depression because he now distrusts adults, especially those in his family. Nevertheless, he feels as if I understand him and that I know the right words to speak. Therefore, when it comes to helping him, convenience is not in my vocabulary. It does not matter where I am or what I am doing, for he always comes first.
Many students at his school laugh at him when they notice scars on his arms from cutting. As he sees it, other kids have every right to make fun of him. But no one holds such a right, so I encourage him to ignore the heartless kids who treat him badly. When he feels the weight of judging eyes or hateful voices, I always remind him that I care about him unconditionally. Just hearing me say I will always be his best friend seems to give him the security he needs to keep on going.
My best friend once told me that if he had not had me, he would not be alive. He said that my encouraging words convinced him not to take his life. Our friendship has taught me that a single kind word can influence someone’s life. With the fragility of life as it is, I believe in the necessity of encouragement.According to the first paragraph, what the author’s friend said made the author feel ______.
| A．puzzled | B．heart broken. | C．frightened | D．hopeless |
By saying “convenience is not in my vocabulary”, the author means ______.
| A．he is always ready to help his friend. |
| B．he hardly spares time to help his friend. |
| C．he has no good excuse for refusing his friend. |
| D．he is not good at communicating with his friend. |
From the passage we learn that the author’s friend ________.
| A．had a happy childhood but everything changed later |
| B．wanted to share his story but no one listened. |
| C．took it for granted that he was made fun of |
| D．was always of sad appearance |
What does the author learn from his experiences?
| A．How to make a big difference to others. |
| B．The importance of encouragement. |
| C．How to get rid of depression |
| D．The necessity of security |
Dr. Jack M. Gwaltney, Jr. a professor at the University Of Virginia School Of Medicine infected six student volunteers with virus, the most common cause of colds. A few days later, when they were coughing and sneezing, he gathered 37 more people and divided them into three groups. Group 1 members spent three days and nights in the same room with one of the infected students, separated by a screen so they couldn't touch one another. Group 2 sat around a table while an infected volunteer talked, coughed and sang to them. Group 3 held hands with an infected student for ten seconds, and then touched their own noses or eyes.
Although most scientists at the time, the mid-70s, believed colds were spread by virus-laden droplets spread through the air when infected people coughed or sneezed, Gwaltney suspected physical contact might play an important role. Sure enough, of the 15 people who had touched a student volunteer, 11 became infected—compared with only one of those who had been sitting at the table, and none who had spent three days and nights together.
"The best evidence we have is that hand-to-hand contact is the most efficient way of transmitting virus," says Gwaltney. The study was one of a series that helped establish Gwaltney's reputation as a leading authority. Dr. Robert Couch says, "It would not be inappropriate to call him Mr. Common Cold."
When Gwaltney is asked how close scientists are to finding a cure, he replies: "If you mean ‘get rid of’, I don't think we're going to be able to do that with cold viruses any time soon. But if you look in the dictionary, you'll see that 'cure' is explained as a successful treatment. And we're not just getting more effective at treating the symptoms (症状)—we're getting at the root cause too. "Dr. Jack M. Gwaltney conducted the experiment in order to__________.
| A．find out the most common cause of colds |
| B．infect the student volunteer |
| C．find out the role physical contact plays in the common colds |
| D．find out the role virus-laden air plays in the infection of colds |
The result of the experiment shows that ___ plays an important role in the infection of colds.
| A．sneezing at the infected person |
| B．touching the infected person |
| C．sitting together with the infected person |
| D．talking with the infected person |
Which of the following statements is TRUE according to the passage?
| A．Dr. Gwaltney was sure that hand-to-hand touch is the cause of the common cold. |
| B．Only one of the people who had spent three days and nights together became infected. |
| C．Dr. Gwaltney conducted many an experiment as to the cause of colds. |
| D．Dr. Gwaltney tested altogether 43 volunteers to see how they could develop colds. |
Mr. Common Cold is______.
| A．a newly-found virus |
| B．a nickname (绰号) of respect to Dr. Gwaltney |
| C．a method to cure colds |
| D．a way by which the other scientists laughed at Dr. Gwaltney |
When Dr. Gwaltney gives a reply in the end of the passage, he means that______.
| A．they have found the fundamental cause of colds |
| B．they have managed to wipe out the cold viruses |
| C．they have meant to experiment more |
| D．they have made much progress in dealing with colds |
By the mid-nineteenth century, the term "icebox" had entered the American language, but ice was still only beginning to affect the diet of ordinary citizens in the United States. The ice trade grew with the growth of cities. Ice was used in hotels, taverns(酒馆), and hospitals, and by some forward-looking city dealers in fresh meat, fresh fish, and butter. After the Civil War (1861-1865), as ice was used to refrigerate freight cars, it also came into household use. Even before 1880, half of the ice sold in New York, Philadelphia, and Baltimore, and one-third of that sold in Boston and Chicago, went to families for their own use. This had become possible because a new household convenience, the icebox, a precursor (前身) of the modern fridge, had been invented.
Making an efficient icebox as not as easy as we might now suppose. In the early nineteenth century, the knowledge of the physics of heat, which was essential to a science of refrigeration, was rudimentary(未发展的). The commonsense notion that the best icebox was one that prevented the ice from melting was of course mistaken, for it was the melting of the ice that performed the cooling. Nevertheless, early efforts to economize ice included wrapping up the ice in blankets, which kept the ice from doing its job. Not until near the end of the nineteenth century did inventors achieve the delicate balance of insulation(绝缘) and circulation needed for an efficient icebox.
But as early as 1803, and ingenious Maryland farmer, Thomas Moore, had been on the right track. He owned a farm about twenty miles outside the city of Washington, for which the village of Georgetown was the market center. When he used an icebox of his own design to transport his butter to market, he found that customers would pass up the rapidly melting stuff in the tubs of his competitors to pay a premium price(高价) for his butter, still fresh and hard in neat, one-pound bricks. One advantage of his icebox, Moore explained, was that farmers would no longer have to travel to market at night in order to keep their produce cool.Where was ice used after the Civil War?
| A．In refrigerating freight cars and households. |
| B．In hotels, taverns and hospitals |
| C．In families of New York, Philadelphia, and Baltimore. |
| D．In fresh meat, fish and butter by city dealers. |
What was essential to to make an icebox efficient according to the passage?
| A．Keeping the ice from melting |
| B．Knowledge of the physics of heat. |
| C．Balance of insulation and circulation |
| D．Making efforts to reduce the use of ice |
The second paragraph is mainly about_____
| A．the deveopment of icebox |
| B．the theoretical foundation of icebox |
| C．the wrong ideas about icebox |
| D．the way of using icebox |
What can we infer from the text?
| A．Thomas Moore is the inventor of modern fridge |
| B．The butter produced by Thomas Moored is better in quality than other famers’ |
| C．Knowledge of the physics of heat plays an important part in inventing a good icebox |
| D．Before 1880, most of the sold ice was used for family use. |
Without an ice box, farmers had to go to the market at night ________.
| A．to sell their produce at high price |
| B．to go home earlier |
| C．to keep their produce fresh |
| D．to win more customers than their competitors |
We once had a poster competition in our fifth grade art class.
“You could win prizes,” our teacher told us as she wrote the poster information on the blackboard. She passed out sheets of construction paper while continuing, “The first prize is ten dollars. You just have to make sure that the words on the blackboard appear somewhere on your poster.”
We studied the board critically. Some of us looked with one eye and held up certain colors against the blackboard, rocking the sheets to the right or left while we conjured up our designs. Others twisted their hair around their fingers or chewed their erasers while deep in thought. We had plans for that ten-dollar grand prize, each and every one of us. I’m going to spend mine on candies, one hopeful would announce, while another practiced looking serious, wise and rich.
Everyone in the class made a poster. Some of us used parts of those fancy paper napkins, while others used nothing but colored construction paper. Some of us used big designs, and some of us preferred to gather our art tidily down in one corner of our poster and let the space draw the viewer’s attention to it. Some of us would wander past the good students’ desks and then return to our own projects with a growing sense of hopelessness. It was yet another grown-up trick of the sort they seemed especially fond of, making all of us believe we had a fair chance, and then always—always—rewarding the same old winners.
I believe I drew a sailboat, but I can’t say that with any certainty. I made it. I admired it. I determined it to be the very best of all of the posters I had seen，and then I turned it in.
Minutes passed.
No one came along to give me the grand prize, and then someone distracted me, and I probably never would have thought about that poster again.
I was still sitting at my desk, thinking, What poster? when the teacher gave me an envelope with a ten-dollar bill in it and everyone in the class applauded for me.What was the teacher’s requirement for the poster?
| A．It must appear in time. |
| B．It must be done in class. |
| C．It must be done on a construction sheet. |
| D．It must include the words on the blackboard. |
The underlined phrase in Paragraph 3 most probably means ________.
| A．formed an idea for |
| B．made an outline for |
| C．made some space for |
| D．chose some colors for |
After the teacher’s words, all the students in the class________.
| A．looked very serious |
| B．thought they would be rich |
| C．began to think about their designs |
| D．began to play games |
After seeing the good students’ designs, some students________.
| A．loved their own designs more |
| B．thought they had a fair chance |
| C．put their own designs in a corner |
| D．thought they would not win the prize |
We can infer from the passage that the author________.
| A．enjoyed grown up tricks very much |
| B．loved poster competitions very much |
| C．felt surprised to win the competition |
| D．became wise and rich after the competition |
I was walking along the deserted main street of a small seaside town in the north of England looking somewhere to make a phone call. My car had broken down outside the town and I wanted to get in touch with the Automobile Association .Low gray clouds were drifting across the sky and there was a cold damp wind blowing off the sea. It had rained in the night and water was dripping from the bare trees that lined the street. I was glad that I was wearing a thick coat.
I could see no call box, nor was there anyone at that early hour I could ask. I had thought I might find a shop selling the Sunday papers or a milkman doing his job, but the town was completely dead.
Then suddenly I found what I was looking for. There was a small post office, and almost hidden from sight in a dark narrow street next to it was the town's only public call box, which badly needed a coat of paint, I hurried forward but stopped in astonishment when I saw through the dirty glass that there was a man inside. He was very fat, and was wearing a cheap blue plastic raincoat and rubber boots. I could not see his face - he was bending forward over the phone with his back pressed against the glass and didn't even raise his head at the sound of my coming nearer and nearer. Carefully and surprisedly, I remained standing a few feet away and lit a cigarette to wait my turn. It was when I threw the dead match on the ground that I noticed something bright red trickling from under the call box door.The author was walking through the small seaside town__________.
| A．late morning | B．before midnight | C．early morning | D．late evening |
The weather of the day was ____, when the story happened.
| A．stormy, damp and clear |
| B．windy, cold and cloudy |
| C．rainy, cold and clear |
| D．rainy, windy and cold |
Why was the author astonished when he saw that there was a man in the call box? Because___
| A．the man inside was still wearing a raincoat |
| B．he didn't expect it to be taken up |
| C．the man had his back with him |
| D．the man did not seem to be moving |
The author waited, standing a few feet away from the box because____.
| A．it was bad manners to overhear other's phone calls |
| B．the man didn't notice his coming |
| C．he wanted to have a cigarette to calm himself down |
| D．it was not safe to be close to the box |
What do you suppose happened to the man in the call box?
| A．He slept. |
| B．He was too fat to move around. |
| C．He was lost in his important phone call. |
| D．He had most probably been killed. |
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