In ancient Egypt，the pharaoh(法老)treated the poor message runner like a prince when he arrived at the palace，if he brought good news. However，if the exhausted runner had the misfortune to bring the pharaoh unhappy news，his head was cut off.
Shades of that spirit spread over today’s conversations. Once a friend and I packed up some peanut butter and sandwiches for an outing. As we walked light-heartedly out the door，picnic basket in hand，a smiling neighbor looked up at the sky and said，“Oh boy，bad day for a picnic. The weatherman says it’s going to rain.” I wanted to strike him on the face with the peanut butter and sandwiches. Not for his stupid weather report，for his smile.
Several months ago I was racing to catch a bus. As I breathlessly put my handful of cash across the Greyhound counter，the sales agent said with a broad smile，“Oh，that bus left five minutes ago.” Dreams of head cutting!
It’s not the news that makes someone angry. It’s the unsympathetic attitude with which it’s delivered. Everyone must give bad news from time to time，and winning professionals do it with the proper attitude. A doctor advising a patient that she needs an operation does it in a caring way. A boss informing an employee he didn’t get the job takes on a sympathetic tone. Big winners know，when delivering any bad news，they should share the feeling of the receiver.
Unfortunately，many people are not aware of this. When you’re tired from a long flight，has a hotel clerk cheerfully said that your room isn’t ready yet？When you had your heart set on the toast beef，has your waiter merrily told you that he just served the last piece？It makes you as traveler or diner want to land your fist right on their unsympathetic faces.
Had my neighbor told me of the upcoming rainstorm with sympathy，I would have appreciated his warning. Had the Greyhound salesclerk sympathetically informed me that my bus had already left，I probably would have said，“Oh，that’s all right. I’ll catch the next one.” Big winners，when they bear bad news，deliver bombs with the emotion the bombarded(被轰炸的)person is sure to have.In Paragraph 1，the writer tells the story of the pharaoh to________.
| A．make a comparison | B．introduce a topic |
| C．describe a scene | D．offer an argument |
In the writer’s opinion，his neighbor was________.
| A．friendly | B．warm-hearted |
| C．not helpful | D．not considerate |
From “Dreams of head-cutting!”(Paragraph 3)，we learn that the writer________.
| A．was mad at the sales agent |
| B．was reminded of the cruel pharaoh |
| C．wished that the sales agent would have bad dreams |
| D．dreamed of cutting the sales agent’s head that night |
What is the main idea of the text?
| A．Helping others sincerely is the key to business success. |
| B．Delivering bad news properly is important in communication. |
| C．Receiving bad news requires great courage. |
| D．Learning ancient traditions can be useful. |
Education is not an end, but a means to an end. In other words, we do not educate children only for the purpose of educating them. Our purpose is to fit them for life.
In some modern countries it has for some time been fashionable to think that by free education for all — one can solve all the problems of society and build a perfect nation. But we can already see that free education for all is not enough; we find in such countries a far larger number of people with university degree; they refuse to do what they think “low” work; and, in fact, work with hands is thought to be dirty and shameful in such countries. But we have only to think a moment to understand that the work of a completely uneducated farmer is far more important than that of a professor; we can live without education, but we die if we have no food. If no one cleaned our streets and took the rubbish away from our houses, we should get terrible diseases in our towns…
In fact, when we say that all of us must be educated to fit us for life, it means that we must be educated in such a way that, firstly, each of us can do whatever work suited to his brains and ability and, secondly, that we can realize that all jobs are necessary to society, and that is very bad to be ashamed of one’s work. Only such a type of education can be considered valuable to society. The writer of the passage thinks that _______.
| A．education can settle most of the world’s problems |
| B．free education for all probably leads to a perfect world |
| C．free education won’t help to solve problems |
| D．Not all social problems can be solved by education |
The purpose of education is _______.
| A．to choose officials for the country |
| B．to prepare children for their future life. |
| C．to let everyone receive education fit for him |
| D．to build a perfect world |
The passage tells us about _______ of the education.
| A．the means | B．the system | C．the value | D．the type |
The average person learns most of the 30 000～40 000 words whose meanings he or she recognizes by hearing them or getting familiar with them in the context or simply absorbing them without conscious(意识到的) effort. The best way to build a good vocabulary, therefore, is to read a great deal and to participate in a lot of good talks. There are relatively few words that we learn permanently(永久的)by purposefully referring to dictionaries or keeping word lists. However, even those extra few are of value, and no one will make a mistake by working on developing a larger vocabulary. Here are some suggestions of how to do it.
Read plenty of good books. When you come across a new word, or a new meaning of an old word, stop and see if you can understand it from its context. If you can't, and if you can manage without interrupting the thought of the book too much, look it up in a dictionary or ask somebody and then repeat its meaning to yourself a couple of times. If you are really conscientious(认真的), write the word and its meaning in a personal vocabulary list — preferably using it in a sentence, or you can keep a special vocabulary notebook. Go over the list from time to time. Further, try to use a new word in writing or conversation a few times over the next several days.
Listen to good talks and be alert to new words you hear or to new meanings of words you already know. Then treat them just as you treat the new words you read.
Learn and be alert to the parts of words: prefixes, suffixes and roots. Knowing them enables you to make intelligent guesses about the meaning of words.
If you are studying a foreign language, be alert to words in that language which relate to words in English. English has inherited(继承) or borrowed much of its vocabulary of 500 000～600 000 words from Latin, Greek, French, Spanish and German. When you meet a new word in reading, what should you do?
| A．Guess its meaning. | B．Ask somebody. |
| C．Look it up in a dictionary. | D．All of the above. |
According to this passage, the best way to build a good vocabulary is _______.
| A．to remember a lot | B．to read a great deal |
| C．to take part in a lot of good talks | D．both B and C |
The phrase “be alert to” in the third paragraph may best be replaced by “_______”.
| A．look at | B．pay attention to |
| C．write down | D．learn by heart |
In the fourth paragraph, the word “them” refers to _______.
| A．the parts of words | B．prefixes | C．suffixes | D．roots |
One day a teacher was giving her young students a lesson on how the government works. She was trying to explain the principle of income tax (收入税).
“You see ,” she began , speaking slowly and carefully , “each person who works must pay part of his or her salary (薪水) to the government . If you make a high salary , your taxes are high . If you don’t make much money , your taxes are low .”
“Is that clear?” she asked. “Does everyone understand the meaning of income tax?” The students nodded.
Are there any questions?” she asked. The students shook their heads.
“Very good!” she said.” “Now, I would like you to take a piece of paper and write a short paragraph on the subject of income tax.”
Little Joey was a slow learner. He had lots of problems with spelling and grammar, but this time he at least seemed to understand the task. He took his pen and after a few minutes, he handed the teacher the following composition:
Once I had a dog. His name was Tax.
I opened the door and in come Tax.The teacher was trying to explain one day.
| A．the basic principles of the income tax |
| B．how the government works |
| C．everyone should pay income tax |
| D．how much tax one should pay for his income |
After the teacher’s explanation, .
| A．all the students shook their heads |
| B．many of the students were still puzzled |
| C．Most students understood the meaning of income tax |
| D．Some students didn’t understand their teacher |
The students were asked .
| A．to say something about income tax |
| B．to answer some questions on income tax |
| C．to write a composition on “income tax” |
| D．to explain the principle of income tax |
Little Joey .
| A．was clear about the subject | B．grasped what income tax meant |
| C．wrote a paragraph about his dog | D．did as what he was told to do |
Language learning begins with listening.Children are greatly different in the amount of listening they do before they start speaking,and later starters are often long listeners. Most children will“obey”spoken instructions some time before they can speak,though the word“obey”is hardly accurate as a description of the eager and delighted cooperation usually shown by the child.Before they can speak,many children will also ask questions by gesture and by making questioning noises.
Any attempt to study the development from the noises babies make to their first spoken words leads to considerable difficulties.It is agreed that they enjoy making noises, and that during the first few months one or two noises sort themselves as particularly expressive as delight,pain,friendliness,and so on.But since these can’t be said to show the baby’s intention to communicate,they can hardly be regarded as early forms of language.It is agreed,too,that from about three months they play with sounds for enjoyment,and that by six months they are able to add new words to their store.This selfimitation(模仿) leads on to deliberate(有意的) imitation of sounds made or words spoken to them by other people.The problem then arises as to the point at which one can say that these imitations can be considered as speech.
It is a problem we need to get out teeth into.The meaning of a word depends on what a particular person means by it in a particular situation and it is clear that what a child means by a word will change as he gains more experience of the world.Thus the use at seven months of“mama”as a greeting for his mother cannot be dismissed as a meaningless sound simply because he also uses it at other times for his father,his dog,or anything else he likes.Playful and meaningless imitation of what other people say continues after the child has begun to speak for himself,I doubt,however whether anything is gained when parents take advantage of this ability in an attempt to teach new sounds.Before children start speaking .
| A．they need equal amount of listening |
| B．they need different amounts of listening |
| C．they are all eager to cooperate with the adults by obeying spoken instructions |
| D．they can’t understand and obey the adult’s oral instructions |
Children who start speaking late .
| A．may have problems with their listening |
| B．probably do not hear enough language spoken around them |
| C．usually pay close attention to what they hear |
| D．often take a long time in learning to listen properly |
The problem of deciding at what point a baby’s imitations can be considered as speech .
| A．is important because words have different meanings for different people |
| B．is not especially important because the changeover takes place gradually |
| C．is one that should be properly understood because the meaning of words changes with age |
| D．is one that should be completely ignored(忽略) because children’s use of words is often meaningless |
The speaker wants to tell us that .
| A．parents can never hope to teach their children new sounds |
| B．children no longer imitate people after they begin to speak |
| C．even after they have learnt to speak,children still enjoy imitating |
| D．children who are good at imitating learn new words more quickly |
The first day of school we were interested to get to know a new classmate.I looked around when a gentle hand touched my shoulder.I found a little old lady with a warm smile.
She said,“Hi ! I’m Rose.I’m 87 years old.Can I give you a hug?”I laughed and I heartily responded,“Of course!”
“Why are you in college at such a young,innocent(天真无邪的)age?”I asked.
She jokingly replied,“I’m here to meet a rich husband,get married,have children, and then travel around.”
“Not seriously,”I asked.I was curious why she took on this challenge at this age.
“I always dreamed of having a college education and now I’m getting one!”she told me.We became instant friends.
Over the year,Rose became a campus icon(偶像) and she easily made friends wherever she went.She loved to dress up and she enjoyed the attention from the other students.
At the end of the semester,we invited Rose to speak at our football banquet. I’ll never forget what she taught us.
“We do not stop playing because we are old; we grow old because we stop playing.Here are the secrets to staying young.You have to laugh and find humor every day.You’ve got to have a dream.When you lose your dreams,you die.Unfortunately we have many people like this walking around?”she said.
“There is a huge difference between growing older and growing up.Anybody can grow older.That doesn’t take any talent or ability,”she added.“But growing up requires finding the opportunity in change.Have no regrets.The elederly usually don’t regret what they did,but rather things they did not do.”
One week after graduation that year,Rose died peacefully in her sleep.She taught us by example that__________________.Why was Rose in college at 87? Because .
| A．she wanted to meet a rich husband |
| B．she wanted to get married and have children |
| C．she wanted to travel around |
| D．she dreamed of having a college education |
According to the passage,Rose loved to do the following EXCEPT .
| A．dress up |
| B．enjoy the attention from the other students |
| C．play football |
| D．make friends |
According to what Rose said,we can know that to stay young you must not .
| A．laugh | B．be humorous |
| C．have a dream | D．lose your dream |
According to the last paragraph but one we know .
| A．growing older is quite different from growing up |
| B．growing older needs talent |
| C．growing up doesn’t require ability |
| D．the elderly usually have no regrets |
Which of the following can be used to fill in the blank at the end of the passage?
| A．where there is a will, there’s a way |
| B．never too late to learn |
| C．Study hard and you will be young |
| D．never too late to be all you can possibly be |
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