A good memory is a great help in learning a language. Everybody learns his own language by remembering what he hears when he is a small child, and some children, like boys and girls who live abroad with their parents, seem to learn two languages almost as easily as one. In school it is not easy to learn a second language because the pupils have so little time for it, and they are busy with other subjects, too.
A man’s mind is rather like a camera, but it takes photos not only of what we see but of what we feel, hear, smell and taste. When we take a real photo with a camera, there is much to do before the photo is finished and ready to show to our friends. In the same way there is much work to be done before we can keep a picture forever in our mind.
Memory is the diary that we all carry about with us. We usually begin to learn our own language by ________ it.
| A．speaking | B．hearing | C．saying | D．teaching |
If you have a good ________ , you’ll have less difficulty in learning something.
| A．teacher | B．camera | C．memory | D．family |
The children who live abroad with their parents can learn two languages more easily, because ______.
| A．they are very clever | B．they have good teachers |
| C．they have more chances to use these languages | D．they have a better life |
Memory is ________ that we write in our mind and carry about.
| A．the best diary | B．the best camera | C．a great help | D．a beautiful picture |
Faces, like fingerprints, are unique. Did you ever wonder how it is possible for us to recognize people? Even a skilled writer probably could not describe all the features that make one face different from another. Yet a very young child --- or even an animal, such as a pigeon --- can learn to recognize faces. We all take this ability for granted. We also tell people apart by how they behave. When we talk about someone’s personality, we mean the ways in which he or she acts, speaks, thinks and feels that make that individual different from others.
Like the human face, human personality is very complex. But describing someone’s personality in words is somewhat easier than describing his face. If you were asked to describe what a nice face looked like, you probably would have a difficult time doing so. But if you w
ere asked to describe a nice person, you might begin to think about someone who was kind, considerate, friendly, warm, and so forth.
There are many words to describe how a person thinks, feels and acts. Gordon, an American psychologist, found nearly 18,000 English words characterizing differences in people’s behavior. And many of us use this information as a basis for describing, or typing his personality.
Bookworms, conservatives（保守派）, military（军人或军事的）types --- people are described with such terms. People have always tried to type each other. Actors in early Greek drama wore masks to show the audience whether they played the villain’s or the hero’s role. In fact, the words “person” and “personality” come from the Latin persona, meaning mask. Today, most television and movie actors do not wear masks. But we can easily tell the good guys from the bad guys because the two types differ in appearance as well as in actions.
6.The passage tells the readers ______.
A. how to describe people’s faces
B. how to describe p
eople’s personality
C. how to differ good persons from bad ones
D. how to describe people both inward and outward
7. What is the possible role of the writer?
A. Psychologist B. Behaviorist C. Writer D. Sociologist
8. Which of the following is incorrect?
A. Different people may have different personalities.
B. People differ from each in appearance.
C. People can describe all the features of others.
D. People can learn to recognize faces.
9. It is easier to describe a person’s personality in words than his face because ______.
A. a person’s face is more complex than his personality
B. a person’s personality is easily distinguished
C. people’s personalities are very alike
D. many words are available when people try to describe one’s personality
10. People classify a person into certain type according to ______.
A. his way of acting and thinking
B. his way of speaking and behaving
C. his learning and behavior
D. his physical appearance and his personality
When one looks back upon the fifteen hundred years that are the life span of the English language, he should be able to notice a number of significant truths. The history of our language has always been a history of constant change—at times a slow, almost imperceptible change, at other times a violent collision between two languages. Our language has always been a living growing organism, it has never been static. Another significant truth that emerges from such a study is that language at all times has been the possession not of one class or group but of many. At one extreme it has been the property of the common, ignorant folk, who have used it in the daily business of their living, much as they have used their animals or the kitchen pots and pans. At the other extreme it has been the treasure of those who have respected it as an instrument and a sign of civilization, and who have struggled by writing it down to give it some permanence, order, dignity, and if possible, a little beauty.
As we consider our changing language, we should note here two developments that are of special and immediate importance to us. One is that since the time of the Anglo-Saxons there has been an almost complete reversal of the different devices for showing the relationship of words in a sentence. Anglo-Saxon (old English) was a language of many inflections. Modern English has few inflections. We must now depend largely on word order and function words to convey the meanings that the older language did by means of changes in the forms of words. Function words, you should understand, are words such as prepositions, conjunctions, and a few others that are used primarily to show relationships among other words. A few inflections, however, have survived. And when some word inflections come into conflict with word order, there may be trouble for the users of the language, as we shall see later when we turn our attention to such maters as WHO or WHOM and ME or I. The second fact we must consider is that as language itself changes, our attitudes toward language forms change also. The eighteenth century, for example, produced from various sources a tendency to fix the language into patterns not always set in and grew, until at the present time there is a strong tendency to restudy and re-evaluate language practices in terms of the ways in which people speak and write.
1．In contrast to the earlier linguists, at present, more and more attention is paid to_________.
A. the standardization of the language
B. language practices in terms of current speech rather than standards or proper patterns
C. the improvement of the language than its history
D. the rules of the language usage
2．From the study we know that language is ________.
A. a possession of upper class.
B. a possession of lower class.
C. a possession of the whole society.
D. the only property of those who treasure it much.
3．Which of the following statements is NOT mentioned in the passage?
A. It is generally believed that the year 1500 can be set as the beginning of the Modern English.
B. Some other languages had great influence on the English language in its development.
C. The English language has been and still in a state of relatively constant change.
D. Many classes or groups have contributed to the development of the English language.
4．The author of these paragraphs is probably a(an) _________.
A. writer specially interested in English
B. person who pays much attention to people of lower classs
C. teacher who teaches the English language
D. expert in studying languages
5．Which of the following can be best used as the title of the passage?
A. The history of the English language.
B. Our changing attitude towards the English language.
C. Our changing language.
D. Some characteristics of modern English.
Reading is the key to school success and, like any skill, it takes practice. A child learns to walk by practising until he no longer has to think about how to put one foot in front of the other. A great athlete practises until he can play quickly, accurately, without thinking. Tennis players call that ”being in the zone.” Educators call it “automaticity”.
A child learns to read by sounding out the letters and decoding the words. With practice, he stumbles less and less, reading by the phrase. With automaticity, he doesn’t have to think about decoding the words, so he can concentrate on the meaning of the text.
It can begin as early as first grade. In a recent study of children in Illinois Schools, Alan Rossman of Northwestern University found automatic readers in the first grade who were reading almost three times as fast as the other children and scoring twice as high on comprehension tests. At fifth grade, the automatic readers were reading twice as fast as the others, and still outscoring them on accuracy, comprehension and vocabulary.
“It’s not I.Q. but the amount of time a child spends reading that is the key to automaticity,” according to Rossman. Any child who spends at least 3.5 to 4 hours a week reading books, magazines or newspapers will in all likelihood reach automaticity. At home, where the average child spends 25 hours a week watching television, it can happen by turning off the set just one night in favor of reading.
You can test your child by giving him a paragraph or two to read aloud—something unfamiliar but appropriate to his age. If he reads aloud with expressions, with a sense of the meaning of the sentences, he probably is an automatic reader. If he reads haltingly, one word at a time, without expression or meaning, he needs more practice.
13．The first paragraph tells us .
A．what automaticity is B．how accuracy is acquired
C．how a child learns to walk D．how an athlete is trained
14．The Illinois study shows that the automatic reader’s high speed .
A．costs him a lot of work B．affects his comprehension
C．leads to his future success D．doesn’t affect his comprehension
15．A bright child .
A．also needs practice to be an automatic reader
B．always achieves great success in comprehension tests
C．becomes an automatic reader after learning how to read
D．is a born automatic reader
16．The main idea of the passage is .
A．how to score high on comprehension tests
B．reading is the key to school success
C．how to test your child’s reading ability
D．automaticity is important for efficient reading
John Steinbeck once said, “All American believe they are born fishermen. For a man to admit to a distaste in fishing would be like speaking publicly against mother-love or hating moonlight”.
I can’t say I’m the biggest John Steinbeck fan. Actually, the only thing I can ever remember read by him was “The Pearl” when I was in middle school, but I couldn’t agree more with the man when it comes to fishing. When I am on a boat in the middle of the lay Lake, fishing off the shores of the Florida Keys for tarpon or catching rainbow trout in the Shoshone River of Wyoming. Fishing is my life.
According to the American Sports Fishing Association, the fishing industry brings in more than $ 116 billion per year from fishermen across the country.
However, fishing is much more than that. Fishing is a way of life for many people and a way to escape everyday stress. Being a fisherman makes me a member of a wonderful group of people extending to all walks of life. Even President Bush can be found fishing on his farm in Texas with his good friend Roland Martin when the jobs gets too stressful.
I can remember fishing with my grandfather when I was 5 years old on his boat at Lake Michel. Although I didn’t understand what I was doing, I did know that my grandfather was happy and that made me happy. Since then I’ve spent the past 16 years on the rivers and lakes of Alabama.
After days of practice, before and after work, I slowly developed an understanding of fishing. My boss, Ric Horst, took me back to the Shoshone, and I managed to bring in a 19-inch cutthroat trout. Fishing with Ric was a life-changing experience for me. He not only showed me how to fish correctly, but also told me how fishing could be a way to escape your problems.
Since then, prime-time season seems to take forever to arrive.
Now, with the ending of February and beginning of March in sight, the excitement of heading out to Lake Tus caloosa or Lake Lurleen before classes and catching something has finally returned.
9．What John Steinbeck said in the first paragraph implies that ______
A. American are believed to be the offspring of fishermen.
B. it is unthinkable for an American to admit his dislike of fishing.
C. all American are expert at fishing.
D. those who dislike fishing would not love their mother.
10．The writer came to understand the real meaning of fishing ______.
A. when he was reading “The Pearl” by John Steinbeck
B. when he went fishing with his grandfather at Lake Mitchell
C. after he had spent 16 years on the rivers and lakes of Alabama
D. after he went fishing with his boss, Ric Horst on the Shoshone
11．According to the author, ______.
A. people can get to know VIPs when fishing
B. people can smooth away all the troubles by fishing
C. fishing is a way of communication
D. fishing is a way of life for most American people
12．What is the purpose of the writing?
A. To describe the writer’s experience and understanding of fishing.
B. To explain the reason why so many Americans like fishing.
C. To make others understand the industry of fishing.
D. To express his opinions about fishing in different time of the year.
Father Christmas is at risk of serious illness because of his bulging waistline and needs to cut down on the mince pies, doctors warned.
A survey of shopping centre Santas in Scotland revealed an average waist size of 47 inches - seven inches more than is considered safe.
Dr Miles Fisher, consultant physician at Glasgow Royal Infirmary said: "The image of Santa is of a round, jolly person but if you have obesity around your tummy, then it is very bad for you.
"Before, we thought it was just not good to be overweight but now we know that having fat around your middle is particularly bad.
"That fat produces hormones, which have been associated with heart disease and other conditions."
According to health guidelines, having a waist circumference of more than 40 inches for men or 35 inches for women is a key indicator of abdominal obesity.
It is associated with a greater risk of heart disease or type 2 diabetes. And people who have rounder stomachs, known as "central obesity", are more at risk than people who are merely overweight.
Perhaps Santa should consider cutting back on the sherry as well.
1.What is the best title for the passage?
A. Doctors order Santa to go on a diet
B. Overweight Causes Many Diseases
C. A Survey on Father Christmas
D. Father Christmas should be Jolly
2.Generally speaking, if a man’s waist size is about _____ inches, he is likely to be healthy.
A. 54 B.25 C. 47 D. 37
3. What does the underlined word probably mean in the first paragraph?
A. 强壮的 B. 鼓起的 C.扁细的 D. 修长的
4. According to the passage, Father Christmas should be _______.
A. funny and strong. B. amusing and a little fat
C. quick and handsome D. healthy and serious
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