Recently, a scientist did some experiments．He left a group of 4-year-olds in a room with a bell and a candy．If they rang the bell, he would come back and they could eat the candy．If, however, they didn't ring the bell and waited for him to come back on his own, they could then have two candies.
In videos of the experiment, he can see the children kicking, hiding their eyes--trying to exercise self-control so they can wait and get two candies．The results are different．Some broke down and rang the bell within a minute．Others lasted 15 minutes.
The children who waited longer went on to get higher SAT scores．They got into better colleges and had better adult success．The children who rang the bell quickest were more likely to have received worse teacher and parental evaluations （评价） 10 years later and were more likely to have drug problems at age 32.
The experiments are worth noting because people spend a lot of time thinking about how to improve education, how to become rich．But when the result is not good, they will come back to ask "how do we get people to get the sort of self-control that leads to success?" This is to enter the world of human nature.
So these experiments along with everyday experience, tell us that self-control is most important．Young people who can sit through sometimes boring classes to get a degree can work hard in order to learn a language well．They can avoid drugs and alcohol．For people without self-control skills, however, school is a series of failed ordeals（煎熬）．No wonder they drop out and their later life is a group of foolish ideas, such as drug use, stealing and so on.The scientist did some experiments to .
| A．test children's self control and later success |
| B．test children's intelligence of ringing the bell |
| C．find good ways of training children to learn |
| D．prove that children's education is important |
We can learn from the experiment that
| A．all children tried to ring the bell for more candies |
| B．some children didn't get any candy in the end |
| C．the children have different self- control |
| D．the last one to ring the bell is most successful |
What is the best title for this passage?
| A．Ways of self-control training |
| B．Experiments on children's ringing the bell |
| C．Higher score, better achievements |
| D．Self-control is the key to success |
Can food be free, fresh and easily accessible? That’s the bold (大胆) question that the city of Seattle is hoping to answer with a new experimental farm not far from the city’s downtown area that will have fruits and vegetables for anyone to harvest this fall.
On Beacon Hill, just south of central Seattle, landscape developers and a few affordable-food advocates are building an eatable food forest. Everything grown in the area will be eatable. And it’ll be open around the clock to anyone who wants to come and pick some fresh blueberries or pears.
Organizers shared with National Geographic a list of the crop offerings. Many are expected: apples, berries and tomatoes. But others are pretty far-out. A large Asian community in the area suggested things like Asian pears and honeyberries. A European influence led to the planting of medlar trees.
The concept is modeled on permaculture, a design system and school of thought emphasizing the use of renewable nature resources and the enrichment of local ecosystems. Offering people free, fresh food is one motivation, but making the land useful and ecologically enriched is the larger goal.
That being said, some potential problems come to mind. What if all of one fruit is gone the first weekend when it’s ripe? What if people pick things too early and spoil the potential for everyone?
Organizers aren’t concerned about those questions. “We’ve had many discussions about what would happen if someone comes and picks all the blueberries,” says Margarett Harrison, the landscape architect designing the project.” But that’s been considered as a good thing. We’ll just plant more.”
Anything related to agriculture and good food — in large quantities — takes time. Most of the trees won’t be mature enough for a few more years. But a few decades could make the area impressively productive.
Idealistic? Perhaps. But it’s the kind of idealism that anyone who likes to eat fresh things from time to time can get behind. And that’s the type of motivation that organizers hope will keep going. Paragraph 3 is mainly about _______.
| A．the crops that will be harvested this fall |
| B．people’s attitude towards the project |
| C．which communities live in the area |
| D．how the food selection was made |
What’s Margarett Hrrison’s attitude towards the potential problems the forest may face?
| A．Concerned. | B．Cautious. |
| C．Optimistic. | D．Uninterested |
The text is mainly about ______.
| A．Seattle’s free food experiment |
| B．what the future of forests will be |
| C．agricultural development in Seattle |
| D．how to keep in harmony with nature |
One evening last summer, when I asked my 17-year-old son, Ray, for help with dinner, his response surprised me, “What’s a colander (漏勺)?” he asked.
I could only blame myself. Nobody’s hands went in the sauce except my own. But that night, as I explained with a touch of panic that a colander is the thing with holes in it, I wondered what else I hadn’t prepared Ray for.
As parents, while we focus on our child’s confidence and character, we perhaps don’t always consider that we are also raising someone’s future roommate, boyfriend, husband, or father. I wanted to know that I’d raised a boy who would never ask the woman in his life, “What’s for dinner?” So I came up with a plan: I would offer Ray a private home economics course. I was delighted to find that he didn’t say no.
For two hours, three days a week, Ray was all mine. One day, as his tomato sauce reduced on the stove, he washed and seasoned a chicken for roasting. Then he rolled out the piecrust (馅饼) and filled it with apples, all while listening to my explanation on the importance of preheating an oven.
I knew that he would rather have been shooting hoops I the driveway than learning to mend socks with his mother — he tried to beg off sewing lessons, even though I insisted that one day, someone would find the sight of him fixing his own shirt very attractive — but it couldn’t be denied that he was learning, and more than just housekeeping. “I appreciate more what you do as a mom,” he told me one day.
Ray now understands the finer points of cooking, and more important, he realizes there’s nothing masculine (男子气的) about being helpless. Not only can he make his own dinner, he can make it for his family, too. That’s what I call a man.Hearing her son’s question, the author felt _______.
| A．shocked | B．angry |
| C．disappointed | D．calm |
We can learn from the text that Ray ________.
| A．preferred sewing to cooking |
| B．made great progress in cooking |
| C．was unwilling to take the course at first |
| D．always thought it attractive to do housework |
The underlined part “more than just housekeeping” shows that Ray ______.
| A．fell in love with house work |
| B．did other work in the house |
| C．began to be more important |
| D．acknowledged the author’s efforts |
What would be the best title for the text?
| A．Should boys be involved in housework? |
| B．Present for my future daughter-in-law. |
| C．I’m proud I’ve raised a curious son. |
| D．Dependent or independent. |
Making the announcement, Peter Englund, permanent secretary of the Swedish Academy, called Alice Munro a “master of the contemporary short story”.
“She has taken an art form, the short story, which has tended to live a little bit in the shadow of the novel, and she has cultivated it almost to perfection,” he said.
The 82-year-old, whose books include Dear Life and dance of the Happy Shades, is only the 13th woman to win the Nobel Prize for literature since its start in 1901.
“I knew I was in the running, yes, but I never thought I would win,” Munro told Canadian media.
Alice Munro: “I would really hope that this would make people see the short story as an important art form.”
Munro, who began writing in her teenage years, published her first story, The Dimensions of a Shadow, in 1950.
Dance of the Happy Shades, published in 1968, was Munro’s first collection, and it went on to win Canada’s highest literary prize, the Governor General’s Award.
In 2009, she won the Man Booker International Prize for her entire body of work — but she downplayed her achievements.
“I think maybe I was successful in doing this because I didn’t have any other talents,” she once said in an interview.
BBC Arts Editor Will Gompertz said Munro had been “at the very top of her game since she started”.
“Very few writers are her equal,” he said, adding “She gets to the heart of what it is to be human”.
The award “probably won’t make a commercial difference” to the author, he added, but it “makes a huge difference to how her work will be viewed in historical terms”.
“If she hadn’t won it before she died, I think it would have been a terrible, terrible omission (遗漏).”
Often compared to Anton Chekhov, she is known for writing about the human spirit and a regular theme of her work is the dilemma faced by young girls growing up and coming to terms with living in a small town.
Several of her stories have also been adapted for the screen, including The Bear Came over the Mountain.According to the text, Alice Munro ________.
| A．is very good at writing short stories |
| B．had her first story published in 1968 |
| C．is the first woman to win the Nobel Prize for literature |
| D．was confident of winning the Nobel Prize for literature |
What does Will Gompertz think of Alice Munro?
| A．He thinks very highly of her. |
| B．He thinks she’s a productive writer. |
| C．He is amazed by her different skills. |
| D．He compares her to Anton Chekhov. |
Which words can best describe Alice Munro?
| A．Honest and responsible. |
| B．Cautious and friendly. |
| C．Caring and determined. |
| D．Talented and modest. |
What’s the best title for the text?
| A．Short story — an important art form. |
| B．A master of the contemporary short story. |
| C．Alice Munro’s novel adapted for the screen. |
| D．Alice Munro wins Nobel Prize for Literature. |
If we are to help students develop reading skills in a foreign language, it is important to understand what is involved in the reading process itself. If we have a clear idea of how “good readers” read, either in their own or a foreign language, this will enable us to decide whether particular reading techniques are likely to help learners or not.
In considering the reading process, it is important to distinguish between two quite separate activities: reading for meaning (or “silent reading”) and reading aloud. Reading for meaning is the activity we normally engage in when we read books, newspapers, road signs, etc.; it is what you are doing as you read this text. It involves looking at sentences and understanding the message they convey, in other words “making sense” of a written text. It doesn’t normally involve saying the words we read, not even silently inside our heads.
Reading aloud is a completely different activity; its purpose is not just to understand a text but to convey the information to someone else. It is not an activity we engage in very often outside the classroom; common examples are reading out parts of a newspaper article to a friend, or reading a notice to other people who can’t see it. Obviously, reading aloud involves looking at a text, understanding it and also saying it. Because our attention is divided between reading and speaking, it is a much more difficult activity than reading silently; we often stumble and make mistakes when reading aloud in our own language, and reading aloud in a foreign language is even more difficult.
When we read for meaning, we do not need to read every letter or every word, nor even every word in each sentence. This is because, if the text makes sense, we can guess much of what it says as we read it.The passage is mainly about ____________.
| A．reading skills | B．silent reading |
| C．reading processes | D．reading aloud |
The underlined word “stumble” in Paragraph 3 means ____________.
| A．step over something and fall |
| B．repeat something or pause for too long |
| C．walk with heavy movements |
| D．speak in a fluent and confident way |
We can infer from the passage that the author will continue to ____________.
| A．discuss in detail how to read aloud |
| B．introduce some more reading activities |
| C．tell how good readers read in their own language |
| D．explain why we needn’t say the words when reading for meaning |
We can conclude that ____________.
| A．reading silently is easier than reading aloud |
| B．to understand a sentence, you have to read all the words in it |
| C．silent reading involves looking at a text and saying the words silently to yourself |
| D．there’s no difference between reading in one’s own language and in a foreign one |
Over 500 dogs being delivered to a butcher house were saved by a Chinese animal protection organization. The incident then triggered debate among Chinese netizens about the necessity of pouring so much money and efforts into saving dogs.
On Friday, a truck loaded with over 500 dogs were stopped by volunteers from animal protection organization on Jingha expressway Beijing section. Beijing Times reported these dogs were being delivered to slaughter houses in the city of Changchun, northeast Jilin province and would be eventually served on dinner tables.
After negotiations with the truck driver, pet service provider Leepet Holding Corp. and a philanthropic foundation, Shangshan Foundation, purchased these dogs, each paying 50,000 yuan. Dogs were then delivered to the headquarter of China Small Animal Protection Association (CS APA), being taken care of and waiting for adoption.
After the “dog saving mission” was reported, Chinese net users debate over whether saving dogs worth so much efforts and money while there are still many poor and needy people in China lacking assistance.
Some net users argue the dog saving mission is placing over attention to animals while lots of needy people are still left unattended.
A microblogger “Xiaowulaitajie” said on China’s twitter-like website, weibo.com, “Dogs are saved, adopted and they attracted media spotlight. We'd better spend such money and take such efforts in helping the needy people.”
Another microblogger, Liluping, said "We poured such huge sum of money into saving dogs. I would rather the money be spent on disaster relief."
Some applaud volunteers’ actions and show eagerness of offering their helping hands to those saved dogs.
Still many disapprove those "saving dogs" critics, but they argue that such act nonetheless embodies social progress.
A microblogger named "broken bridge" said, saving dogs does not run counter to taking care of people. Such enthusiasm in public affairs will help raise social awareness in helping the needy.
I think people and animals are created equal .Attention should be paid to people as well as animals.Where did the article come from ___________?
| A．newspaper | B．Internet |
| C．a TV programme | D．a magazine |
Whose opinion is closest to the writer's?
| A．Some net users' | B．Xiaowulaitajie's |
| C．Liluping's | D．Broken bridge's |
Which statement is TRUE according to the passage?
| A．All the people think it right to save these dogs with so much money. |
| B．These dogs were finally saved and sent back to their owners. |
| C．Some volunteers support the actions to save these dogs and the people who offered their helping hands to those saved dogs. |
| D．100,000 yuan was given to the truck driver to purchase these dogs. |
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