My grandfather came from Hungary and was the only one in his family who settled down in the United States. The rest of his family remained in Europe. When World War I broke out, he seemed to have become another man, downhearted. Such obvious change was not born out of concern for his welfare, but out of fear: if his only son, my uncle, had to go to war, it would be cousin fighting against cousin.
One day in 1918, my Uncle Milton received his draft notice. My grandparents were very upset. But my mother, at the age of 10, felt on top of the world about her soldier brother going off to war. Realizing how he was regarded by his little sister and all of her friends, my uncle bought them all service pins, which meant that they had a loved one in the service. All the little girls were delighted.
The moment came when my uncle and the other soldiers, without any training but all in uniforms, boarded the train. The band played and the crowd cheered. Although no one noticed. I’m sure my grandmother had a tear in her eye for the only son. The train slowly pulled out, but not about a thousand yards when it suddenly paused. Everyone stared in wonder as the train slowly returned to the station. There was a dead silence before the doors opened and the men started to step out. Someone shouted, “The war is over!” For a moment, nobody moved, but then the people heard someone bark orders at the soldiers. The men lined up in two lines, walked down the steps, and with the band playing, marched down the street, as returning heroes, to be welcomed home. My mother said it was a great day, but she was just a little disappointed that it didn’t last a tiny bit longer.What the grandfather was most worried about was ______.
| A．the spread of the world war | B．the safety of his two cousins |
| C．a drop in his living standards | D．his relatives killing each other |
The underlined phrase “draft notice” means “______”.
| A．order for army service | B．train ticket for Europe |
| C．letter of rejection | D．note of warning |
What did the “service pins” （in Para. 2） stand for in the eyes of the little girls?
| A．Strength. | B．Courage. | C．Victory. | D．Honor. |
Which of the following words can best describe the ending of the story?
| A．Disappointing. | B．Unexpected. | C．Uncertain. | D．Inspiring. |
Teachers and parents usually call attention to the pictures when they read storybooks to preschool children. But a new study suggests that calling attention to the words and letters on the page may lead to better readers.
The two-year study compared children who were read to this way in class with children who were not. Those whose teachers most often discussed the print showed clearly higher skills in reading, spelling and understanding. These results were found one year and even two years later.
Shayne Piasta, an assistant professor of teaching and learning at Ohio State University, was an author of the study. She says most preschool teachers would find this method manageable and would need only a small change in the way they teach. They already read storybooks in class. The only difference would be increased attention to the printed text.
Ms. Piasta says if you get children to pay attention to letters and words, it makes sense that they will do better at word recognition and spelling. But she says research suggests that very few parents and teachers do this in a systematic way.
The report appears in the journal Child Development.
More than three hundred children aged four and five were observed in classrooms in Ohio and Virginia. The children came from poor families and were below average in their language skills. This put them at risk of reading problems later.
For thirty weeks, the children took part in a program called Project STAR, for Sit Together And Read. The project is based in Ohio State. It tests the short-term and long-term results of reading regularly to preschool children in their classrooms.
Laura Justice in Ohio State was an investigator for the study. She heads the Preschool Language and Literacy Laboratory. She says one of the areas that interests researchers is known as the “locus of learning.” “Where is it that a child learns something? Where is that space? We think we have identified it pretty well in terms of fostering (助长) some children’s knowledge about print.” says Laura Justice. She also says this knowledge can be gained by having focused discussions when reading a book to a child. Laura Justice says, “We think we understand how information about print is transmitted from the adult to the child. And we think we have centered on this intervention that really helps adults center on the things that children need and want to learn.”
There are different ways that teachers and parents can talk to children about print. They can point to a letter and discuss it, and even trace the shape with a finger. They can point out a word, “This is ‘dog’.” They can discuss the meaning of the print or how the words tell the story. And they can talk about the organization of the print — for instance, showing how words are written left to right in English. When reading storybooks to their children, parents usually ____________.
| A．attract attention to the pictures |
| B．discuss the stories with each other |
| C．tell some background information first |
| D．ask some questions about the stories |
Shayne Piasta suggests that preschool teachers should _______________.
| A．read storybooks regularly in class |
| B．learn to manage their class well |
| C．often discuss the printed words and letters |
| D．search for a better method of reading |
The children who joined in Project STAR were _____________________.
| A．mostly cleverer than others |
| B．very poor in their reading |
| C．especially good at language skills |
| D．worried about reading problems |
The underlined word “locus” in Paragraph 8 can be replaced by ________________.
| A．difficulty | B．importance |
| C．best way | D．exact place |
The last paragraph mainly tells us _____________________.
| A．why we should discuss the meaning of the print |
| B．how we can teach children about print |
| C．the shape of the letter is the focus of teaching |
| D．English words are usually written from left to right |
NEW YORK— The band Atomic Tom has scored an Internet hit with its self-created video to the song Take Me Out. In the video, the band members ride a New York City subway while performing entirely on iPhones, with applications linked with broadcasters(播送设备) for each instrument.
Singer Luck White says the production was a top-secret operation. “We didn’t tell anyone about this. It was completely top-secret from our family, from our friends, from management, from everybody. So the first time that people saw this video was last Friday when we put it on YouTube,”explained White.
It has been watched by more than 2 million on YouTube since debuting(首次露面) last week. “All I’ve wanted to do for the past few days is just stare at the YouTube page and keep refreshing(刷新) it to see how far it will go,” said Espiritu, the lead guitarist of the band.
“The Internet changed everything,” Espiritu said. “ It's kind of an exciting time because it forces everyone to be creative and find new ways to get your name out there.”
The idea for the video came from Espiritu’s 24-year-old brother Benjamin, who’s hoping to go to film school. “I've seen a lot of these music applications, and they’re fascinating to me,” Benjamin Espiritu said, “I thought: What would happen if iPhones took over the world? If there could actually be a band that played straight through with iPhones, what would that look like?” So they shot(拍摄) the video —with iPhones also serving as video cameras. The band also tried Union Square but were stopped during playing because they didn't have a permit.
“The YouTube views are translating into album(唱片) sales.” Espiritu said, “We’ve seen the jump.” Their album has been in the top 10 albums on iTunes.
Will their fans start cheering for iPhone-only performances? “We’ve gotten the most exposure(曝光)and the most fans that we’ve ever gotten through this, so I wouldn’t be surprised if fans are going to want to see that.” Espritu said.Who first saw the band’s video to the song Take Me Out?
| A．Their friends | B．Their family |
| C．The people online | D．Their management. |
What did Espiritu mean by saying “The YouTube views are translating into album sales”?
| A．The YouTube views make the album sales increase. |
| B．The band has translated the video on the YouTube. |
| C．People need to pay for the video if they view it on the YouTube. |
| D．People who have viewed the video on the YouTube should buy an album. |
What would be the best title for this text?
| A．Atomic Tom’s iPhone Subway Performance |
| B．Take Me Out—Atomic Tom’s New Song |
| C．A Band’s Performance through YouTube |
| D．A Band’s iPhone Song Take Me Out Hits Big |
The Cuban iguana(大蜥蜴) is a species of lizard（蜥蜴）of the iguana family. It is the largest of the West Indian rock iguanas, one of the most endangered groups of lizards. This species with red eyes and a thick tail is one of the largest lizards in the Caribbean．
The Cuban iguana is mainly herbivorous: 95% of its diet consists of the leaves, flowers and fruits from as many as 30 plant species, including the seaside rock bush and various grasses. However, Cuban iguanas occasionally eat animal matter, and individuals have been watched eating the dead flesh of birds, fish and crabs. The researchers wrote that quite a few people on Isla Magueyes could have caused this incident．
The Cuban iguana is living throughout the rocky southern coastal areas of mainland Cuba and its surrounding islands with a wild population growing rapidly on Isla Magueyes, Puerto Rico. It is also found on the Cayman Islands of Little Cayman and Cayman Brac, where a separate subspecies occurs. Females guard their nest sites and often nest in sites half destroyed by Cuban crocodiles. To avoid the attack from them, the Cuban iguana often makes its home within or near prickly-pear cacti(仙人掌)．
In general the species is decreasing, more quickly on the mainland than on the outlying islands. One of the reasons for their decrease is habitat destruction caused by the over consuming of farm animals, housing development, and the building of tourist resorts(度假胜地) on the beaches where the animals prefer to build their nests. Although the wild population is decreasing, the numbers of iguanas have been sharply increased as a result of captive-breeding(圈养)and other protection programs． The underlined word “herbivorous”（Paragraph 2） probably means ．
| A．dangerous | B．gentle |
| C．flesh-eating | D．plant-eating |
How many reasons are mentioned for the habitat destruction?
| A．Two． | B．Five． | C．Four． | D．Three． |
What’s the writer’s purpose of writing the text?
| A．To give us a brief introduction to the Cuban iguana． |
| B．To show he is concerned about the Cuban iguana． |
| C．To explain reasons for the Cuban iguana’s decrease． |
| D．To draw people’s attention to an endangered animal |
I have been using the Internet since I was five years old, when my dad first sat me down in front of a computer and connected me to the World Wide Web.
I’ve always felt like a master of the Internet world. MSN, Gmail, Facebook, My space -- I’ve got it all under control. I thought there was nothing more to it besides checking my e-mail and wasting my time, until I was introduced to electronic commerce(e-commerce): business on the Internet.
Some online businesses are run from one-room home offices. Others have hundreds of employees across the world. Have you ever heard of Amazon.com, Yahoo.com?
My friends often said they got cheap textbooks on Amazon.com, or had a good deal (交易) on Steve Madden shoes that were on sale at SteveMaden.com. Unfortunately for me, I continued my “e-commerceless” Web-surfing, not knowing about all the deals I was missing out on.
That is, of course, until my sister finally sold the idea to me.
“Why are all these packages arriving in the mail for you, Katy?”I asked her one day. Strange envelopes (信封) had been put on our doorstep for weeks now, each one always addressed to my sister; and we all know little sisters should never be getting more mail than their elders!
“Oh, it’s the things I ordered online!” she answered. I watched speechlessly as she opened them. There was no way our parents were letting her spend that much money- online or off!
“How much did all of this cost?”
“Oh, only about $15 in all!”She said excitedly.“Everything on eBay is on sale! It’s a way better than going to the store.”
I felt as if there had been a store right in my backyard that I had never walked into! That week, I ordered a used Spanish textbook for my summer course online for 10 percent of the publishing price. A few days later, I bought an iPod protector and a book or two via the wonderful eBay.com.From the first two paragraphs we can conclude that the writer___________.
| A．had no experience using computers |
| B．had no idea of what e-commerce is |
| C．only enjoyed checking e-mail on the Internet |
| D．thought surfing the Internet was a waste of time |
The writer didn’t find out about e-commerce until___________.
| A．he stopped web-surfing |
| B．he visited a store in his backyard |
| C．his sister explained the packages she got by mail |
| D．his friends told him about the online deals they made |
We can infer from the last paragraph that the writer____________________.
| A．never enjoyed shopping that much |
| B．loves the big store in his backyard |
| C．feels he is a true master of the Internet |
| D．has begun to enjoy online shopping |
What’s the purpose of the article?
| A．To tell the readers how he begins online shopping. |
| B．To do business on the Internet. |
| C．To make an online shopping advertisement. |
| D．To advise people not to do online shopping. |
If you want to attend the hottest events of 2014, don’t waste your time looking through dozens of hotel options(选择) or vacation packages. Instead, look to cruise ships（乘船游览） that can ferry you to and from the most expected holiday, sporting, and cultural events of the year.
Heres a look at the some of the most popular:
Australian Open in Melbourne (January 1326, 2014)
Tennis fans worldwide are eager for the tickets to matches at any one of the four annual Grand Slam events: the Australian Open, French Open, Wimbledon, and the U.S. Open. In January 2014, luxury(豪华的) cruise line Silversea will offer fans a three-night pre-cruise package to the 109th Australian Open in Melbourne. Silversea passengers will attend third round singles matches at Rod Laver Arena on January 17 and 18 before taking the 382-passenger Silver Shadow for a special 15-night Melbourne to Bali voyage.
Carnival in Rio de Janeiro (February 28March 4, 2014)
Rio de Janeiros Carnival is one of the most popular celebrations of its kind in the world, drawing two million visitors each and every day of the festivities that include parades, street fairs, and costume balls. Holland Americas Maasdam will spend three days in Rio during Carnival as part of its 26-day Amazon & Carnival Explorer journey.
2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil (June 12July 13, 2014)
If youre a soccer fan that came up empty in the search for a hotel room for the 2014 FIFA World Cup finals in Rio de Janeiro, theres still hope. Book MSC Cruises 18-night Miami to Rio voyage aboard Divina. The ship departs Miami on May 24 and arrives in Rio just in time for the World Cup.
New Years Eve in Hong Kong (December 31, 2014)
Hong Kong is a magical destination and New Years Eve festivities and fireworks pull out all the stops to make a holiday trip to that city even more attractive. Crystal Cruises all-inclusive luxury ship, Symphony, will spend two nights in Hong Kong-- and celebrate New Years Eve Chinese-styleduring its 15-night holiday voyage that leaves Bangkok on December 21. This roundtrip voyage also calls on Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi in Vietnam.According to the passage, which of the following ships will take the longest time of voyage?
| A．Silver Shadow. | B．Maasadam. | C．Divina. | D．Symphony. |
The events that will take place in Rio de Janeiro in 2014 are ___________.
| A．Carnival and FIFA World Cup |
| B．New Years Eve fireworks and Carnival |
| C．the Australian Open and Grand Slam events |
| D．New Year's Eve fireworks and FIFA |
Where does this passage probably come from?
| A．In a sports magazine. | B．In a textbook. |
| C．In a science report. | D．In a travel brochure. |
The main purpose of the passage is to ___________.
| A．give information about the hottest events of 2014 |
| B．introduce cruise ships to some big events of 2014 |
| C．describe the most popular tourist destinations in 2014 |
| D．persuade readers to take cruise ships for 2014 holiday |
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