I was in my third year of teaching writing at Ralph High School in New York, when one of my students, 15-year-old Mikey, gave me a note from his mother. It explained his absence from class the day before:
"Dear Mr. McCort, Mikey's grandmother, who is eighty years of age, fell down the stairs from too much coffee and I kept Mikey at home to take care of her and his baby sister so I could go to my job. Please excuse Mikey and he'll do his best in the future. P.S. His grandmother is OK."
I had seen Mikey writing the note at his desk. l said nothing. Most parental-excuse notes I received were penned by my students. The writers of those notes didn't realize that honest excuse notes were usually boring: "Peter was late because the alarm clock didn't go off."
The students always said it was hard putting 200 words together on any subject, but when they produced excuse notes, they were excellent. So I decided to give the first class to study the art of the excuse note.
“Today I'd like you to write 'An Excuse Note from Adam to God' or 'An Excuse Note from Eve to God'. "Heads went down. Pens raced across paper. They had to be asked to go to lunch by their friends.
The next day everyone had excuse notes. Heated discussions followed. But suddenly I saw the headmaster at the door. He entered the classroom and walked up and down, looking at papers, and then said. "I'd like you to see me in my office." My heart sank,
When I stepped into his office, he came to shake my hand and said, "I just want to tell you that lesson, that task, was great. Those kids were writing on the college level. Thank you."What did the writer do when he found the students dishonest?
| A．He reported them to the headmaster. |
| B．He lectured them hard on honesty. |
| C．He had them take notes-n class. |
| D．He helped improve their writing skills. |
We can learn that when Mikey was absent from the class, he was____.
| A．somewhere enjoying himself |
| B．taking care of his baby sister |
| C．looking after his grandmother |
| D．studying the art of the excuse note |
How did the writer usually find out his students' parental excuse notes were dishonest?
| A．They were written in boring words. |
| B．He called their parents and found out the truth. |
| C．They were more like stories than facts. |
| D．The handwriting clearly looked like children's. |
Which of the following is true?
| A．The writer has many years of teaching experience. |
| B．The students are good at writing excuse notes. |
| C．The headmaster was angry with the writer. |
| D．Most of the excuse notes were written by the parents. |
Which of the following best describes the writer as a teacher?
| A．Honest. | B．Strict. | C．Hardworking. | D．Wise. |
It's very early in the morning and I'm sitting outside. It's also very cold and dark. With me is Jim Nightingale, and he is the reason I'm up so early. He passes me a hot cup of coffee. "Not long to wait now," he says. I hope he's right.
After a few minutes there is a very weak light in the east, and then I hear a bird singing. It sings very loud and very clear. "That's the robin(知更鸟)," says Jim. A few more birds start singing with the robin and Jim knows the names of them too. Half an hour later, there are more and more birds singing, and it's very loud! Suddenly, all around us the air is full of the sound of birdsong. This is the dawn chorus(晨鸣), and it's beautiful.
"Wow, this is amazing!" I tell Jim, who is smiling. "Is there a dawn chorus every morning?"
"Birds can sing any time of the year but the best time is the end of winter and during the spring. This is when the birds sing most."
"Really? So, why do they sing?" I ask.
"Well, there are two reasons," explains Jim. "Most of the songbirds who sing are males. They want to find a female(雌性)so they sing to show how strong they are. The females listen and choose the best singer! The birds also sing to tell other males to go away. They need their own area; they don't like sharing with another male."
I listen to the birds; the songs seem too much to me. "Do the birds sing a special song in the morning?"
"That's a good question," replied Jim. "The successful birds have many kinds of calls and songs. Sometimes they copy the songs of other birds. This makes it sound like there are many birds in that place already and other males stay away. Also the female likes songs with different notes. Some birds, for example the European wren, have songs that contain over 700 different notes per minute!"
So, how does Jim know so much about birds? Well, he works as a volunteer for the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds. He is trying to help the birds live in the modern world. "More and more of the birds' habitat disappears every year. The sparrow, for example, was a very common bird in the UK, now it's in danger."
By now the sun is up and the birds are quiet. It's light so they can start looking for food, they need a big breakfast after all that singing.Why does the writer get up early in the morning?
| A．To visit her friend. | B．To drink hot coffee. |
| C．To see different birds. | D．To hear birds sing. |
A bird sings early in the morning mainly_______.
| A．to call a female's attention | B．to fight with other males |
| C．to find a place to live in | D．to start looking for food |
According to the text, which of the following statements is true?
| A．At first the writer is happy to be up so early in the morning. |
| B．Male birds have their own ways of fooling other birds. |
| C．It's easier for the birds to find food early in the morning. |
| D．Jim has a job with the Royal Society for the Proteciton of Birds. |
The text is mainly about_______.
| A．the robin's songs | B．the birds' habitat |
| C．why birds sing | D．how to protect birds |
How many popular articles are there in the magazine?
| A．2 | B．3 | C．4 | D．5 |
Which article is about saving money?
| A．Ice cream and banking. | B．Black sheep and Uncle Bob. |
| C．Relation between you and food. | D．Films that aren't really about Canada. |
What is Black sheep and Uncle Bob about?
| A．merican films. | B．Family stories. | C．Food. | D．Banking. |
请阅读题的电视节目内容说明和A-E五个节目名称，把它们分别配对。
| A. Money isn’t Everything |
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| B. American Films |
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| C. Farms in the future |
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| D. Study Tools |
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| E. Parents’ Trouble |
A teacher let her class play a game. The teacher told each child to bring a bag with some potatoes. Each potato would be given a name of a person that the child hated, so the number of potatoes in his/her bag would depend on the number of people the child hated. Some children had two potatoes, some had three and others had up to five potatoes. The teacher then told the children to carry the bag wherever they went for a week. After a week, the teacher asked, ”How did you feel?” The children started complaining about the unpleasant smell coming from the rotten potatoes when they had to carry the heavy and smelly potatoes everywhere they went.
Then the teacher said,” This is the same when you carry your hate for somebody inside your heart. The smell of hate will pollute your heart and you will carry it with you wherever you go. If you cannot bear the smell of rotten potatoes for just one week, can you imagine what it is like to have the smell of hate in your heart for your lifetime?”
| A．two | B．four | C．three | D．five |
| A．keep the bag of potatoes in the classroom |
| B．carry the bag of potatoes everywhere they go |
| C．leave the bag of potatoes at home |
| D．count the bag of potatoes every day |
| A．美味的 | B．新鲜的 | C．甜的 | D．腐烂的 |
| A．potatoes are very important to the students |
| B．hating others can make the life unhappy |
| C．the smell of hate is good for our health |
| D．the students like to carry the bag of the potatoes |
| A．An interesting game |
| B．Carry the smelly potatoes |
| C．The rotten potatoes |
| D．To excuse others is to excuse yourself |
Are you sorry for not traveling during the National Day ? If you stay at home at that time, I think you are very lucky. Why? Because there are too many people everywhere. In many places of interest in China, it’s too crowded to do anything.
Look at the picture. It was too crowded on the Great Wall on October 1st, 2012. You even couldn’t take photos for you or your friends. All what we could see were people. It was reported that there were about twenty people per meter on the Great Wall. My friends told me they could see nothing but many people on the Great Wall. “We couldn’t walk if the people in front of us didn’t walk,” he said. He showed us a photo on the Great Wall. In the photo, we hardly found him out, there were too many people.
So some people give the advice that we should not have the gold week (黄金周) any more. But other people say no about this advice. What’s your idea of it? Are you sorry now for not traveling during the gold week? I love staying at home more than traveling next National Day.
| A．He believed it was interesting to stay at home on National Day. |
| B．He believed it was boring to stay at home on National Day. |
| C．He felt lucky to stay at home on National Day. |
| D．He felt sorry to stay at home on National Day. |
| A．You could find yourself easily on the photos you took that day |
| B．You could walk as you like on the Great Wall |
| C．There were about 30 people per meter. |
| D．There were so many people there that day. |
| A．www.chinabus.com | B．www.movies123.com |
| C．www.chinatourist.com | D．www.storyhouse.com |
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