Mr. Ma, a famous mental doctor from Beijing once said at an important meeting, “Now many young students can have problems with their minds. Some students become worried because they have to study very hard. Others have trouble getting on well with people around them like their parents and classmates. Parents and teachers should care more about this problem.”
Then Mr. Ma gave some examples. One patient, a middle school students from Xi ’an was doing badly in his lessons. He thought his teachers and friends often laughed at him, and he became so nervous and worried that one night he left his home without telling parents. Another student, a 14-year-old schoolgirl from Shanghai, was very afraid of exams. W hile she was reading the exam paper, she couldn’t think of anything to write.
A recent report from Jiefang Daily says about 18% of the young students in Shanghai have mental problems. They often felt worried and very unhappy. Unluckily many of them won’t go and ask for help. Some think they will look stupid if they go to see a doctor. Others won’t talk about their secrets..
At the end of the meeting, Mr. Ma offered some good ideas to young people:
Talk to your parents or teacher often.
Take part in group activities.
Try to get on well with the people around you.
Go to see a doctor if you often feel unhappy. The students who often become worried or have trouble getting on with others may have .
| A．no parents | B．no secrets |
| C．poor memories | D．mental problems |
The schoolgirl’s problem happened whenever she _______.
| A．studied very hard | B．had exams |
| C．talked with her parents | D．went to see the doctor |
Some of those with mental problems won’t ask for help because _______.
| A．they don’t want to tell their secrets to others |
| B．their parents are too busy to look after them |
| C．doctors can’t help them with the problems |
| D．they can do with the problems themselves |
The underlined word “stupid” in this passage means _______.
| A．pretty | B．happy | C．not clever | D．not friendly |
According to the last part, which of the followings is a good idea?
| A．It’s important for children to live with their parents. |
| B．It’s helpful for people to see doctors every day. |
| C．It’s useful for students to keep quiet in class. |
| D．It’s necessary for young people to have group activities. |
| Name |
Personal Information |
| Norman Bethune |
Born in 1890 in Canada. A doctor Came to China in 1938 Died in 1939 in China |
| Celine Dion |
Born in Montreal, Canada A singing star In 1997, sang My Heart Will Go On for the film Titanic |
| Thomas Edison |
Born in 1847, Kentucky, USA Made over 1,000 inventions Died in 1931 |
| Bill Gates |
Born in 1955 in the USA Wrote Business @ the Speed of Thought Owns Microsoft Company |
| Mark Twain |
Born in 1835 in the USA A writer Wrote The Adventures of Tome Sawyer Died in 1910 |
________ is from Canada.
| A．Bill Gates | B．Mark Twain | C．Thomas Edison | D．Celine Dion |
The _______ was born in 1835.
| A．inventor | B．singer | C．doctor | D．writer |
My Heart Will Go On is the name of a ______.
| A．book | B．film | C．song | D．story |
Dr. Bethune worked in China for about _______ years.
| A．4 | B．8 | C．2 | D．6 |
Which of the following is TRUE?
| A．Mark Twain wrote Business @ the Speed of Thought. |
| B．Bill Gates started working for Microsoft Company in 1955. |
| C．Thomas Edison made over 1,000 inventions. |
| D．Celine Dion stopped singing in 1997 |
There are hundreds of funny and strange expressions in the English language. A lot of them include country names or nationalities. Take these examples:
The Dutch（丹麦人）are the target of most English expressions about nationalities. Why are there so many jokes about the Dutch in English? And what do these expressions mean? In the 17th and early 18th centuries, there were three wars between the British and the Dutch, and Dutch became a bad word. So double Dutch means something that has no meaning or is impossible to understand. A Dutch uncle is someone who gives much stronger advice than they need to. There are later expressions, which are funnier and kinder, like to go Dutch, which is nowadays a popular expression. It means to pay for your part of a bill. This often happens when a group of friends have a meal together, and each person pays for the food they ate. I’m a Dutchman is another commonly used expression. This means not being able to believe something.
An expression with a similar meaning to double Dutch is it’s all Greek to me, which means I don’t understand. The expression was made famous in Shakespeare’s play Julius Caesar although the expression is actually hundreds of years older.
If you take French leave, you are not present or leave somewhere without permission. For example, you could take French leave from a classroom or the place where you work. This expression is from the 18th century when French people left parties without saying goodbye to the host or hostess.
There are Chinese whispers, which mean confused（令人困惑的）messages. This describes the fact that a message can often change as it is passed from person to person. This expression comes from the First World War when foreigners were often confused by Chinese language.
Many people find English expressions confusing, but now that you know about some of them, you can easily have fun finding out many more funny English expressions.Are there many jokes about the Dutch in English?
When did Dutch become a bad word?
What does “French leave” mean?
Which three expressions mentioned above have similar meanings?
What do the funny and strange expressions in the passage have in common?
When students and parents are asked to grade subjects according to their importance, the arts are usually at the bottom of the list. Music is nice, people seem to say, but not important. Too often it is only viewed as entertainment, but certainly not an education priority（优先）. This view is shortsighted. In fact, music education is very important for all students.
Music tells us who we are. Because music is an expression of the beings who create it, it shows their thinking and values, as well as the social environment it came from. Rock music represents a lifestyle just as surely as does a Schubert song. The jazz influence that George Gershwin and other musicians introduced into their music is obviously American because it came from American musical traditions. Music expresses our character and values. It gives us identity（身份，特性）as a society.
Music provides a kind of perception（感知）that cannot be acquired any other way. Science can explain how the sun rises and sets. The arts can express the emotive（情感的）meaning of the same thing. We need every possible way to discover and respond to our world for one simple but powerful reason: No one way can get it all.
The arts are forms of thought as powerful in what they communicate as mathematical and scientific symbols. They are ways we human beings “talk” to each other. They are the language through which we express our fears, our hungers, our discoveries, our hopes. The arts are ways we give form to our ideas and imagination so that they can be shared with others. When we do not give children an important way of expressing themselves such as music, we take away from them the meanings that music expresses.
Science and technology do not tell us what it means to be human. The arts do. Music is an important way we express human suffering, celebration, the value of peace and love.
So music education is far more necessary than people seem to realize.What can we learn from Paragraph 1?
| A．Students regard music as a way of entertainment. |
| B．Students disagree with their parents on education. |
| C．Students take music as an important subject. |
| D．Students prefer the arts to science. |
In Paragraph 2, the writer uses jazz as an example to____________.
| A．compare it with rock music |
| B．show music identifies a society |
| C．introduce American musical traditions |
| D．prove music influences people’s lifestyles |
According to the passage, the arts and science____________. .
| A．explain the world in different ways |
| B．explain different facts of the world |
| C．express people’s feelings in different ways |
| D．explain what it means to be human differently |
What is the main idea of the passage?
| A．Music education is worth more attention. |
| B．Music should be of top education priority. |
| C．Music is really a good communication tool. |
| D．Music education makes students more imaginative. |
To err is human. To blame（责备） the other guy is even more human.
Common sense is not all that common.
Why tell the truth when you can come up with a good excuse?
These three popular misquotes（戏谑的引语）are meant to be jokes, and yet they tell us a lot about human nature. To err, or to make mistakes, is indeed a part of being human, but it seems that most people don’t want to accept the responsibility for the problem. Perhaps it is the natural thing to do. The original quote about human nature went like this: “To err is human, to forgive, divine（神圣的）.” This saying mirrors an ideal: People should be forgiving of others’ mistakes. Instead, we tend to do the opposite – find someone else to pass the blame on to. However, taking responsibility for something that went wrong is a mark of great maturity（成熟）.
Common sense is what we call clear thought. Having common sense means having a good general plan that will make things work well, and it also means staying with the plan. Common sense tells you that you take an umbrella out into a rainstorm, but you leave the umbrella home when you hear a weather forecast for sunshine. Common sense does not seem to be common for large companies, because there are so many things going on that one person cannot be in charge of everything. People say that in a large company, “the right hand does not know what the left hand is doing.”
And what is wrong with a society that thinks that making up a good excuse is like creating a work of art? One of the common problems with making excuses is that people, especially young people, get the idea that it’s okay not to be totally honest all the time. There is a corollary（直接推论）to that: if a good excuse is “good” even if it isn’t honest, then where is the place of the truth?Which of the following is NOT based on common sense?
| A．A secretary works to a timetable. |
| B．A company’s next move follows a good plan. |
| C．A girl goes out with an umbrella in stormy weather. |
| D．A man tries to manage everything in a large company. |
What can we infer from the last paragraph according to the writer?
| A．A good excuse is the same as honesty. |
| B．Inventing a good excuse needs creative ideas. |
| C．Unpleasant truth is better than a good excuse. |
| D．Making a good excuse is sometimes a better idea. |
What would be the best title for this passage?
| A．A Mirror of Human Nature |
| B．To Blame or to Forgive |
| C．A Mark of Maturity |
| D．Truth or Excuse |
For Sparky, school was all but impossible. He failed every subject in the eighth grade. He didn’t do much better in sports. Although he played for the school’s golf team, he lost the only important match of the season.
Sparky was a loser. He, his classmates…everyone knew it. Sparky never asked a classmate to go out in high school. He was too afraid of being refused.
However, one thing was important to Sparky – drawing. He was proud of his artwork. Of course, no one else appreciated it. In his senior year of high school, he sent some cartoons to the editors of the Yearbook. Although the cartoons were turned down, Sparky was so confident about his ability that he decided to become an artist.
After completing high school, he wrote a letter to Walt Disney Studios. He was told to send some samples of his artwork, and the subject for a cartoon was suggested. Sparky spent a great deal of time on it. Finally, the reply came from Disney Studios. He had been rejected（拒绝）once again. Another loss for the loser.
So Sparky decided to write his own autobiography（自传）in cartoons. He described his childhood – a little boy loser and underachiever. The cartoon character would soon become famous worldwide. For Sparky, the boy who had little success in school and whose work was rejected again and again was Charles Schulz. He created the Peanuts comic strip（连环漫画）and little cartoon character – Charlie Brown. We can know that Sparky was ________ from the first paragraph.
| A．a top student | B．an artist | C．a good player | D．a failure |
Sparky never asked a classmate to go out because he ______.
| A．had never been invited |
| B．didn’t like making friends |
| C．didn’t want to be refused |
| D．was afraid of making mistakes |
What’s Sparky’s success according to the passage?
| A．He was good at golf playing. |
| B．He wrote a letter to Walt Disney Studios. |
| C．He drew some cartoons for the Yearbook. |
| D．His Peanuts comic strip became world famous. |
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