I remember my math teacher Mr. Young very well. He stood out because the kids made fun of him. He was missing one of his fingers, and always pointed at students with his middle finger.
I was not very good at English and math. No matter how hard I tried, I just could not figure out why I
did not understand what all the other kids found so easy to learn.
One day, I was told that if I got one more E on my report card, I would be taken to the "big person for kids". I tried really hard for weeks. I just couldn't understand how to make different parts of members into whole things.
The day before report cards were to come out, I knew that Mr. Young would give me an E, just like he always did.
I went to Mr. Young and told him that the orphanage (孤儿院) was going to send me to the big person if I got another E on my report card. He told me there was nothing he could do; it would be unfair to the other kids if he gave me a better grade than I had actually earned.
I smiled at him and said, "Mr. Young, do you know how the kids make fun of you because you're missing your finger?"
He looked at me, moved his mouth to one side and said nothing.
"They shouldn't do that to you because you can't help having a finger, Mr. Young. Just like I can't help not being able to learn numbers and stuff like that." I said.
The next day, when I got my report card, I tucked it into one of my books. While on the school bus, I opened it: Geography, B + ; Mechanical Drawing, C - ; English, D - ; History, C - ; Gym, B + ; Art, C ; Math, D -.
That math grade was the most favorite one I ever received. Because I knew that someone in the world finally understood what it was like for me to be missing a finger inside my head. From the second paragraph we can infer that the boy is _____ in some subjects.
| A．mind- blowing |
| B．slow-witted |
| C．fun-loving |
| D．badly-behaved |
Where may the boy live according to the passage?
| A．In an orphanage. |
| B．In a big prison. |
| C．In the school dormitory. |
| D．In his home. |
What grade should the boy have got in the math test this time?
A. D-.
B. C.
C. B+.
D. E. The underlined word" tucked" in the passage most probably means "_____".
| A．stuck |
| B．listed |
| C．hid |
| D．copied |
The reason why the boy remembers Mr Young is that___.
| A．he missed one of his fingers |
| B．he treated his students very well |
| C．he understood the boy |
| D．he taught his students in a special way |
As an expert on education, I finished a Junior Achievement course at a local middle school last week. I received some meaningful answers when I asked teens what they would want to tell their parents about money.
Max said,’Dear Mom, I need to give you some advice on money. I need more allowance (零用钱)！” I have to say many teenagers have the same idea as him. As an expert, I advise a little money for teens and more if they help with the housework. Now that your children are in middle school, it’s time to think about paying them to do something. My daughter missed a lot of school when she was a junior so I promised to buy her a notebook computer if she didn’t miss any school as a senior — she got the computer finally. What worked for my other daughter was a clothing allowance for her joining in the housework. She would receive a set amount every two months; it taught her a valuable lesson: when the clothing money ran out, she couldn’t buy more clothes until she got enough money through doing the housework. “I need more allowance,” should be the start, not the end, of a dialogue.
Grace wanted to tell Mom, “Only buy what we need.” Spending wisely and saving money was a good theme from all the students. The idea of thinking carefully about spending is just what I taught them at class, but this is not the subject of this Junior Achievement course. It shows me that these teenagers look at their parents’ spending habits, but they don’t tell their parents their opinions about them. Therefore, Moms and Dads, pay attention and remember: your children watch everything you do when it comes to money — do it right, point them in the right direction.
Nikola’s advice is valuable to all parents — “Mom and Dad, I think I should be more involved in money and financial (金融) things so I know how to do everything without a struggle when I get older.” This child has got it right. Her answer shows the fact that parents are responsible (负责的) for the financial training of their children. It is one of our most important parental goals.What does the author advise parents to do when their children want more allowance ?
| A．Stop giving them allowance at once. |
| B．Buy them something they are in need of. |
| C．Give them more allowance if they help do the housework |
| D．Encourage them to earn more allowance by doing part – time jobs. |
Why does the author mention his daughters in Paragraph 2?
| A．To show he does better than others in teaching his children. |
| B．To tell readers how to encourage children to study hard. |
| C．To show paying children to do things really works. |
| D．To tell readers he has children who often make trouble. |
In Paragraph 3 the author suggests that parents should ________.
| A．set good examples to their children in spending and saving money |
| B．set up a good relationship with their children |
| C．ask their children for advice on spending money |
| D．attend his Junior Achievement course |
We can learn from the passage that Nikola _______.
| A．expected her parents to think about her future |
| B．expected to learn how to manage money |
| C．worried about her ability to make a living |
| D．had a better understanding of the author’s course |
What’s this by my door? A handwritten letter from am old university friend. It stands out among the bills and junk mail like gold. Given its rareness, the Government should be praised for announcing that the new secondary school should include lessons that teach students how to write personal and business letters in the correct form.
Letter-writing skills have fallen off a lot in the age of eamils and text messages. Many pupils leave school only able to write a letter for a job application, let alone other kinds of letters. You can’t turn back the clock, but you can stick to your own rules to protect old-fashioned values. Someone who leaves school unable to write a letter is going into the adult world unprepared. And if teachers don’t ram home that message, who else will?
Usually, it does not matter whether someone can write a letter or not — other means of communication will serve. And with computerised spell-checks, people can get by for years without the kind of letter-writing skills. But it is the rare occasion that matters when things can not be made clear with a simple text. When the former England cricket(板球) captain Andrew Strauss decided to leave his job, he had sent handwritten letters to his teammates. Many people thought it unbelievable. But among the disbelief there was something else: admiration, even among the Twitter generation(一代).
I have been a letter-writing lover all my adult life, and am just about to sit down and pen a reply to my university friend. And I hope the sight of a letter by his door will give him as much pleasure as his did me.How did the author feel when receiving the handwritten letter?
| A．Disappointed. | B．Excited. | C．Worried. | D．Proud. |
The underlined part“ram home that message”in Paragraph 2 means“______”.
| A．teach the students the importance of letter writing |
| B．teach the students how to protect traditional values |
| C．teach the students the importance of communication |
| D．teach the students how to write letters of application |
The author mentions Andrew Strauss’s example in order to show that________.
| A．letter-writing skills are very important |
| B．handwritten letters can bring admiration |
| C．handwritten letters are more important than emails |
| D．whether someone can write a letter makes little difference |
What’s the text mainly about?
| A．A study on why handwritten letters become less popular. |
| B．A concern about the bad results of technology. |
| C．A call for more attention to letter writing. |
| D．A touching story between two friends. |
One in ten teens says they use“study drugs”to improve their performance in school. So-called “study drugs”refer to prescription medicines(处方药) that are used to treat ADHD(注意力缺乏症).But most parents have no understanding of the problem, a new study finds.
In January, 2013, researchers from the University of Michigan Mott Children’s Hospital did a national survey of more than seven hundred families with teens. They found that only one percent of parents believe their child has taken a study drug.
Yet in a 2012 University of Michigan study, ten percent of second-year high school students and twelve percent of third-year high school students say they use a study drug.
The misuse of study drugs didn’t come to the attention of almost all parents.“What we found in this survey is a clear mismatch(不协调)，”said Dr. Matthew Davis, one of the researchers. It is a mismatch between what parents believed and what their kids were reporting.
“We know teens are spreading the word that these drugs can improve their grades,”Davis said.“But these prescription medicines are drugs. And teens who use them without a prescription are taking a serious risk.”
The new survey showed that fifty-four percent of white parents were“very concerned”about their child taking study drugs, compared with thirty-eight percent of Hispanic(拉美的) parents and thirty-seven percent of black parents.
However, just twenty-seven percent of parents surveyed have talked to their teens about using study drugs. Of these parents, forty-one percent were black, twenty-seven percent were white and seventeen percent were Hispanic.
Students with a prescription for an ADHD drug should be required to keep their medicines in a safe place, such as the school nurse’s office. Seventy-nine percent of parents think so, the survey shows. This may help prevent it from being shared or used by other students.According to Paragraph 4, Dr. Daiv thinks__________.
| A．the 2012 University of Michigan study is untrue |
| B．it is a good way to take study drugs to treat ADHD |
| C．some parents still don’t realize the study drugs problem |
| D．it is necessary to do another new survey about study drugs |
Dr. Davis believed using study drugs to improve grades_________.
| A．is worth a try | B．is bad for health |
| C．sometimes works | D．causes little harm |
What does the underlined word“it”in the last paragraph refer to?
A.ADHD. B.The survey.
C.A safe place. D.The study drug.What is the purpose of this text?
| A．To give useful advice. |
| B．To introduce a new drug. |
| C．To report a research result |
| D．To explain what ADHD is. |
Cob is a six-year-old boy. An aid organization brought him to the farm run by Joy from another province. Both Cob’s parents died of serious disease when he was a two-month-old baby. His eighty-year-old grandmother treated him badly. He developed a disease over time, which led to him being unable to keep things in mind well; on the other hand, there was nothing good for him to bear in mind as well.
When he first arrived at the farm, it appeared to him like a huge playground. Cob plyed around, hid behind trees and bushes, and enjoyed this new area.
Over time, he gained confidence, chose Joy as his new mother, and let her carry him around. Amy, Joy’s real daughter, the same age as Cob, had to learn to share her mother with the other child. She also needed to see the other children as her brothers or sisters and accept them although she may be unwilling to do so.
In the beginning, Cob did not use the facilities(设施) on the farm. Slowly Joy tried to help him use them and during the day, he kept on with them but not at night. All attempts(尝试) to send him to school failed. As soon as he arrived there, he ran off into the wide world like a free rabbit. He enjoyed running around in school rather than doing what teachers told him to do. Finally, the head teacher announced that the school was not suitable for Cob.
Cob had to go back to the farm. At daytime, he watched adults and elder children bicycle and if there was any chance, he took a bicycle, then pushed and pulled it up and down the hill. One day Cob found there was a small bicycle standing next to the big ones. It was a gift for him! It was new with wheels on each side of the back wheel, which was just right for a little child without any experience in riding a bicycle. Cob pushed it up the hill, got on it and off from time to time.
From then on Cob began riding his bicycle every day. Although he often fell and got hurt, he went on. During rainy days, he stored the bicycle in his room and slept close to it at night. Maybe even in his dreams he was happy — he had found the entrance to a happy and satisfying life.What can we learn about Cob from Paragraph 1?
| A．His parents left him when he was born. |
| B．His grandma was too old to know him. |
| C．He was sent to hospital many times. |
| D．He suffered from a poor memory. |
Upon being taken to the farm, Cob felt_________.
| A．confused | B．frightened | C．annoyed | D．excited |
What can we learn from Paragraphs 3& 4?
| A．Cob turned out to be Joy’s real son. |
| B．Amy had a similar experience as Cob. |
| C．Joy has helped many children like Cob. |
| D．Joy seldom thought of sending Cob to school. |
.What does the passage mainly tell us?
| A．Riding bicycle is Cob’s favourite. |
| B．Cob has a mixture of good and bad luck. |
| C．How to live a happy and satisfying life. |
| D．Cob suffered much physically in his family. |
Energy independence. It has a nice ring to it. Doesn’t it? If you think so, you’re not alone, because energy independence has been the dream of American president for decades, and never more so than in the past few years, when the most recent oil price shock has been partly responsible for kicking off the great recession.
“Energy independence” and its rhetorical (修辞的) companion “energy security” are, however, slippery concepts that are rarely through, though. What is it that we want independence from, exactly?
Most people would probably say that they want to be independent from imported oil. But there are reasons that we buy all that oil from elsewhere.
The first reason is that we need it to keep our economy running. Yes, there is a trickle（涓涓细流）of biofuel（生物燃料）available, and more may become available, but most biofuels cause economic waste and environmental destruction.
Second, Americans have basically decided that they don’t really want to produce all their own oil. They value the environmental quality they preserve over their oil imports from abroad. Vast areas of the United States are off-limits to oil exploration and production in the name of environmental protection. To what extent are Americans really willing to endure the environmental impacts of domestic energy production in order to cut back imports?
Third, there are benefits to trade. It allows for economic efficiency, and when we buy things from places that have lower production costs than we do, we benefit. And although you don’t read about this much, the United States is also a large exporter of oil products, selling about 2 million barrels of petroleum products per day to about 90 countries.
There is no question that the United States imports a great deal of energy and, in fact, relies on that steady flow to maintain its economy. When that flow is interrupted, we feel the pain in short supplies and higher prices, at the same time, we derive massive economic benefits when we buy the most affordable energy on the world market and when we engage in energy trade around the world.What does the author think of biofuels?
| A．They keep America’s economy running healthily. |
| B．They prove to be a good alternative to petroleum. |
| C．They do not provide a sustainable energy supply. |
| D．They cause serious damage to the environment. |
Why does America rely heavily on oil imports?
| A．It wants to expand its storage of crude oil. |
| B．Its own oil reserves are quickly running out. |
| C．It wants to keep its own environment intact. |
| D．Its own oil production falls short of demand. |
What does the author say about oil trade?
| A．It proves profitable to both sides. |
| B．It improves economic efficiency. |
| C．It makes for economic prosperity. |
| D．It saves the cost of oil exploration. |
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