C
A letter to Edward, a columnist
Dear Mr． Expert,
I grew up in an unhappy home． I always promised myself that I’d get out as soon as possible． Now, at age 20, I have a good job and a nice house, and I’m really proud of the independence I’ve achieved．
Here’s the problem: several of my friends who still live with their parents wish they had places like mine — so much so that they make mine theirs．
It started out with a couple of them spending the weekends with me． But now they seem to take it for granted that they can show up any time they like． They bring boyfriends over, talk on the phone and stay out forever．
I enjoy having my friends here sometimes— it makes the place feel comfortable and warm— but this is my home, not a party house． I was old enough to move out on my own, so why can’t I seem to ask my friends to respect my privacy?
Joan
Edward’s reply to Joan
Dear Joan,
If your family didn’t pay attention to your needs when you were a child, you probably have trouble letting others know your needs now．
And if you’ve gathered your friends around you to rebuild a happy family atmosphere, you may fear that saying no will bring back the kind of conflict you grew up with— or destroy the nice atmosphere you now enjoy． You need to understand that in true friendship it’s okay to put your own needs first from time to time．
Be clear about the message you want to send． For example, “I really love your company but I also need some privacy． So please call before you come over．”
64．We can learn from the first letter that Joan Edward ．
A．lives away from her parents
B．takes pride in her friends
C．knows Mr. Expert quite well
D．hates her parents very much
65．We can infer from the first letter that ．
A．Joan considers her friends more important than her privacy
B．Joan’s friends visit her more often than she can accept
C．Joan doesn’t like the parties at all
D．Joan dislikes the boyfriends her friends bring over
66．According to Mr. Expert, why can’t Joan tell her friends her feelings?
A．She is afraid of hurting her friends
B．She does not understand true friendship
C．Her family experience stops her from doing so
D．She does not put her needs first
67．The second letter suggests that Mr. Expert ．
A． is worried about Joan’s problem
B． warns Joan not to quarrel with her friends
C． advises Joan on how to refuse people
D． encourages Joan to be brave enough
BEIJING, China (CNN)-- China's economic growth dropped to 9 percent for 2008, according to numbers released by the government Thursday--in line with expectations, but still the slowest rate the nation has seen in seven years.
Economists are concerned about what the slowdown means for investment in the future, whether new projects will be undertaken in manufacturing companies and in factories. If not, it will translate into more job losses and erase any optimism about a rebound (反弹) in 2009.
Since 2001, China has been used to double-digit growth as consumers buy Chinese goods. However, the export sector was hit hard in late 2008, with December exports down 2.8 percent.
Consumer spending has mostly held up in China, as people there do not carry as much debt as their American counterparts and can continue to spend.
Consumer confidence, however, is a problem, said Dong Tao, Asia chief economist for Credit Suisse. Infrastructure (基础设施的建设) is the only thing driving the Chinese economy, Dong said.
Tens of thousands of Chinese factories have closed, millions of people are looking for jobs and an untold number of migrants who can't find work may be leaving cities for good because of the slowdown, which would have been unheard of six months ago.
Fourth quarter numbers showed growth at 6.8 percent. Goldman Sachs predicted 6.5 percent, down from 9 percent in the third quarter.
For all of 2008, Goldman Sachs had predicted 8.8 percent, down from 11.9 percent in 2007.
1. Since 2001, the slowest rate in annual economic growth China has seen is ___.
A. 6.8% B. 8.8% C. 9% D. 11.9%
2. According to Dong Tao, the only thing driving the Chinese economy is ____.
A. export B. infrastructure C. consumer confidence D. consumer spending
3. Which of the following is NOT the difficulty China is facing?
A. Tens of thousands of factories have closed.
B. Millions of people are looking for jobs.
C. An uncertain number of migrant workers may be leaving cities forever.
D. The terrible situation will erase any optimism about a rebound in 2009.
4. In which quarter of 2008 did the slowdown of China's economic growth first appear?
A. 1st. B. 2nd. C. 3rd. D. 4th.
5. The best title of this passage should be _____.
A. China's Economic Growth Slows.
B. Economic Crisis in China.
C. Economists Analyze China's Economy.
D. Several Factors Determine China's Economy
以下是某个英语杂志有关专家对一些读者反映问题的建议：
| A．Feel Grateful! You say you’re thankful, but then dismiss your mom’s investment as an “obligation”. By today’s economic standards, what she did is virtually miraculous. Tell your mom plainly, over and over again, how grateful you are. I’m sure the complaining will begin to fade. |
| B．Tame the beast! When one boy discovers his inner caveman, he likes to initiate others into the tribe. Don’t over-worry. Boys will be boys. You and your husband should meet the boy’s parents down the street, suggesting a plan to either tame the wild beasts or limit their time together. |
| C．Good effort and goodwill makes it! Maybe there was a reason why your buddy was out of work. He’s taking advantage of you and your employer. Remind him how to act on the job. He owes good effort and goodwill if he accepts the pay. Tell him to be quiet or get away. |
| D．Calm down! |
| Fast vehicles and wild people---sounds like adolescent dreams to me. As some men age, they compensate with bigger, faster toys. But he’s putting you at risk and breaking the law. In a calm moment outside the car, tell him that he is scaring you. Suggest he join a car club, one that promotes safe driving. |
E. Move your line away!
| You say you’re “in the middle”, but I’d say you’re dangerously close to slipping off the edge. There are lots of fish in the sea; why drop your line in waters your friend is still fishing? |
F. Speak out and breathe easily together!
| You are rebuilding a relationship with new trust and affection. If there’s a bad odor left from the old day, you need to clear the air. Mention the problem, and say, “I’m sorry for my part in that argument.” I’ll bet she’ll say the same. |
以下是一些读者在生活中反映的问题。请匹配问题及对应的建议。
56. Allan: My friend Jim was out of work and I helped him find a job in my company. But recently I have found he is very lazy and doesn’t do his work well. Besides, he often tells me that our employer is too bad.
57. Mary: Cathy and I were good friends. But two years ago she moved and left me because we had an argument. Now I hear she has come back to this town and lives about a mile away. I hope to visit this old friend, but I really don’t know what to do.
58. Mrs. Green: My eight-year-old son used to be obedient. But recently he’s become wild and crazy like a barbarian and doesn’t want to stay at home. My husband and I get worried. Now I find he likes to play with another boy who is also a barbarian.
59. Mike: I live with my mother, who works night and day so that she can support my schooling. I’m grateful but sometimes I get even more annoyed because she seems to be always unsatisfied with me and complains about my faults.
60. Eileen: My friend Jim is a helpful young man, and he has taken me downtown in his car several times. But every time he drove his car so crazily that I felt horrible. “I’ve got used to driving fast,” he says.
If you look for a book as a present for a child，you will be spoiled for choice even in a year there is no new Harry Patten．J．K Rowling’s wizard is not alone ．The past decade has been a harvest for good children’s books ,which has set off a large quantity of films and an increased sales of classics such as The lard of the Rings．Yet despite that, reading is increasingly unpopular among children ．According to statistics in 1997, 23% said they didn’t like reading at all．In 2003, 35% didn’t．And around 6% of the children leave primary school each year unable to read properly．Maybe the decline is caused by the increasing availability of computes games．Maybe the books boom has affected only the top of the educational pile．Either way, Chancellor Cordon Brown plans to change things for the bottom of the class ．In his pre-budget report, he announced the national project of Reading Recovery to help the children struggling most．Reading Recovery is aimed at six year olds, who receive four months of individual daily half-hour classes with a specially trained teacher．An evaluation this year reported that children on the school made 20 months’ progress in just one year, whereas similarly weak readers without special help made just five months’ progress ,and so ended the year even further below the level expected for their age．International research tends to find that when British children leave primary school, they read well ,but read text often for fun than those elsewhere ．Reading for fun matters because children who are keen on reading can report lifelong pleasure and loving books is an excellent indicator of future educational success ．According to the OECD, being a regular and enthusiastic reader is of great advantage．51．Which of the following is true of Paragraph 1?A．Many children’s books have been adapted from films．B．Many high-quality children’s books have been published．C．The sales of classics have led to the popularity of films．D．The sales of presents for children have increased．52．Statistics suggested that ．A．the number of top students increased with the use of computersB．a decreasing number of children showed interest in readingC．a minority of primary school children read properlyD．a huge percentage of children read regularly53．What do we know about Reading Recovery?A．An evaluation of it will be made sometime this year．
B．Weak readers on the project were the most hardworking．
C．It aims to train special teachers to help children with reading．
D．Children on the project showed noticeable progress in reading．
54．Reading for fun is important because book-loving children _________．
A．take greater advantage of the project
B．show the potential to enjoy a long life
C．are likely to succeed in their education．
D．would make excellent future researchers
55．The aim of this text would probably be _________．
A．to overcome primary school pupils reading difficulty．
B．to encourage the publication of more children’s books
C．to remind children of the importance of reading for fun
D．to introduce a way to improve early children reading
Anyone who doubts that children are born with a healthy amount of ambition need spend only a few minutes with a baby eagerly learning to walk. No matter how many times the little ones stumble in their first efforts, most keep on trying, determined to master their amazing new skill. It is only several years later, many psychologists and teachers agree, that a good number of kids seem to lose their natural drive to succeed. For the parents of such kids, whose own ambition is often tied to their children’s success, it can be a painful experience.
Figuring out why the fire went out is the first step. Assuming that a kid doesn’t suffer from a learning disability, or isn’t involved in some family crisis(危机) at home, many educators attribute a sudden lack of motivation to a fear of failure or classmate pressure. “Everything is within the kids’ control; their intelligence is changeable,” says Lisa Blackwell, a research scientist at Columbia University. More than any teacher or workshop, Blackwell says, “parents can play a key role in conveying this message to their children by praising their effort, and progress rather than emphasizing their ‘smartness’ or praising high performance alone. Most of all, parents should let their kids know that mistakes are a part of learning.”
Some experts say our education system, with its strong emphasis on testing and separation of students into different levels of ability, also bears blame for the disappearance of drive in some kids. “These programs shut down the motivation of all kids who aren’t considered gifted and talented. They destroy their confidence,” says Jeff Howard, a social psychologist. Howard and other educators say it’s important to expose kids to a world beyond homework and tests, through volunteer work, sports, hobbies and other extracurriculum activities.
“The problem of the issue is that many students experience education as irrelevant to their life goals and ambitions,” says Michael Nakkual, a Harvard education professor. The key to getting kids to aim higher at school is to free them of the idea that class work is irrelevant, to show them how doing well at school can actually help them fulfill their dreams beyond it. They need to understand that you have to learn to walk before you can run.
46．According to the passage, the parents of kids with no ambition .
A．don’t do a very good job teaching them to walk
B．are to blame if the kids do poorly in school
C．feel pain because ambitions are connected to their success
D．should take part in extracurriculum activities with kids
47．The underlined part “the fire went out” probably means .
A．the motivation was suddenly lost
B．the fear of failure was suddenly gone
C．the learning disability was suddenly lost
D．the fire was suddenly gone
48．All the following can contribute to a sudden lack of ambition except .
A．learning disability B．classmate pressure
C．emphasis on testing D．extracurricular activities
49．What is the most important thing for parents in motivating their kids?
A．By punishing kids who don’t display ambition.
B．By emphasizing smartness and high performance.
C．By telling kids that mistakes are a part of learning.
D．By praising the effort and progress they have made.
50．We can infer from the passage that .
A．children who have lost their ambition will never succeed in life
B．school performance has much to do with students’ later success
C．both the parents and the school are to blame for the lost ambition
D．younger kids learning to walk are more ambitious than older ones
As I was reading a recent story in Slate on 20-somethings complaining about how the economy was ruining their life plans, I couldn’t help but think the 20-somethings sounded like a bunch of spoiled children who grew up expecting everything to be easy for them. As a 20-something myself, I certainly share their disappointment: my husband and I probably won’t be able to buy a house until we’re in our 40s, and we too are burdened by student loans(贷款). But why should it be any different? Being young persons in America, shouldn’t they take up all of the challenges and opportunities that this country offers?
Consider some of these views shared in the Slate story: Jennifer, 29, owner of a two-bedroom apartment with her husband, worries that she won’t be able to have children for at least a decade because they can’t afford to buy a house yet.
I read that, and I thought, what planet is she living on where you need to own a house in order to have kids? Has she ever visited a developing country, or even downtown areas in this one? Home ownership is a luxury(奢华), not a fertility requirement.
A 26-year-old in the story despairs(绝望) that he can’t afford to get a Ph.D. in literature. Well, that sounds a bit like expressing disappointment that no one will pay you to write poetry on the beach in Thailand for five years.
Yes, it’s sad that these young people feel so lost. But I think the problem is their extremely high expectations, not economic reality. Beth Kobliner, author of Get a Financial Life: Personal Finance in Your Twenties and Thirties, says that she thinks people’s expectations are slowly adjusting, but today’s 20-somethings grew up at a time when everyone’s wealth appeared to be expanding. Their parents probably saw their home values rise along with their investments. “So you have people who have grown up in an environment where people had great expectations of what living well means,” says Kobliner.
This recession(衰退) will certainly play a role in forcing those expectations into more realistic group. In the meantime, it seems a lot better for our mental health to focus on being grateful－for our one-bedroom apartments, for living in modern cities, or perhaps just for being able to eat three meals a day－than on longing for some kind of luxury life.
41．What makes the author think the 20-somethings sound like a bunch of spoiled children?
A．They expect everything to be easy for them.
B．They complain that the economy is spoiling their life plans.
C．They are reluctant to face all of the challenges.
D．They are burdened by student loans.
42．The underlined word “fertility” in Paragraph 3 probably means .
A．baby production B．pleasant
C．baby comfort D．essential
43．Which of the following is not one of the complaints of the 20-somethings?
A．They can’t have children for at least a decade to buy a house.
B．They have only one-bedroom apartment to live in.
C．They can’t buy a house until 40 because of student loans.
D．They despair at not being able to afford a Ph.D. in literature.
44．What’s the author’s attitude towards the 20-somthings with high expectation in Paragraph 5?
A．Intolerant.
B．Negative.
C．Unbelieving.
D．Understanding.
45．What is the best title for this passage?
A．How Young People Afford to Continue Their Study
B．Why Young People Can’t Afford to Buy a House
C．When Young People’s High Hopes Create Despair
D．What the 20-somethings’ High Expectations Are
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