One of the latest trends（趋势） in American Childcare is Chinese au pairs．Au Pair in Stamford, Conn, for example, has got increasing numbers of request for Chinese au pairs from aero to around 4, 000 since 2004．And that’s true all across the country．
“I thought it would be useful for him to learn Chinese at an early age” Joseph Stocke, the managing director of a company, says of his 2-year old son．“I would at least like to give him the chance to use the language in the future, ” After only six months of being cared by 25-year-old woman from China, the boy can already understand basic Chinese daily expressions, his dad says．
Li Drake, a Chinese native raising two children in Minnesota with an American husband, had another reason for looking for an au pair from China．She didn’t want her children to miss out on their roots．” Because I am Chinese, my husband and I wanted the children to keep exposed to(接触) the language and culture．” she says．
“Staying with a native speaker is better for children than simply sitting in a classroom, ” says Suzanne Flynn, a professor in language education of Children．”But parents must understand that just one year with au pair is unlikely to produce wonders． Complete mastery demands continued learning until the age of 10 or 12．”
The popularity if au pairs from china has been strengthened by the increasing numbers of American parents who want their children who want their children to learn Chinese．It is expected that American demand for au pairs will continue to rise in the next few years．
What does the term” au pair” in the text mean?
| A．A mother raising her children on her own |
| B．A child learning a foreign language at home |
| C．A professor in language education of children |
| D．A young foreign woman taking care of children． |
Li Drake has her children study Chinese because she wants them ______．
| A．to live in China some day |
| B．to speak the language at home |
| C．to catch up wit other children |
| D．to learn about the Chinese culture |
What can we infer from the text?
| A．Learning Chinese is becoming popular In America, |
| B．Educated woman do better in looking after children |
| C．Chinese au pairs need to improve their English Skills． |
| D．Children can learn a foreign language well in six months． |
Arthur Miller (1915—2005) is universally recognized as one of the greatest dramatists of the 20th century. Miller's father had moved to the USA from Austria Hungary, drawn like so many others by the “Great American Dream”. However, he experienced severe financial hardship when his family business was ruined in the Great Depression of the early 1930s.
Miller's most famous play, Death of a Salesman, is a powerful attack on the American system, with its aggressive way of doing business and its insistence on money and social status as indicators of worth. In Willy Loman, the hero of the play, we see a man who has got into trouble with this system. Willy is “burnt out” and in the cruel world of business there is no room for sentiment: if he can't do the work, then he is no good to his employer, the Wagner Company, and he must go. Willy is painfully aware of this, and at a loss as to what to do with his lack of success. He refuses to face the fact that he has failed and kills himself in the end.
When it was first staged in 1949, the play was greeted with enthusiastic reviews, and it won the Tony Award for Best Play, the New York Drama Critics' Circle Award, and the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. It was the first play to win all three of these major awards.
Miller died of heart failure at his home in Roxbury, Connecticut, on the evening of February 10, 2005, the 56th anniversary of the first performance of Death of a Salesman on Broadway.Why did Arthur Miller's father move to the USA?
| A．He suffered from severe hunger in his home country. |
| B．He was attracted by the “Great American Dream.” |
| C．He hoped to make his son a dramatist. |
| D．His family business failed |
The play Death of a Salesman________.
| A．exposes the cruelty of the American business world |
| B．discusses the ways to get promoted in a company |
| C．talks about the business career of Arthur Miller |
| D．focuses on the skills in doing business |
What can we learn about Willy Loman?
| A．He treats his employer badly. |
| B．He runs the Wagner Company. |
| C．He is a victim of the American system. |
| D．He is regarded as a hero by his colleagues. |
After it was first staged, Death of a Salesman________.
| A．achieved huge success |
| B．won the first Tony Award |
| C．was warmly welcomed by salesmen |
| D．was severely attacked by dramatists |
What is the text mainly about?
| A．Arthur Miller and his family. |
| B．The awards Arthur Miller won. |
| C．The hardship Arthur Miller experienced. |
| D．Arthur Miller and his best known play. |
As you grow older, you’ll be faced with some challenging decisions—like whether to cut class or try cigarettes. Making decisions on your own is hard enough, but when other people get involved and try to pressure you one way or another it can be even harder. People who are your age, like your classmates, are called peers(同龄人). When they try to influence how you act, to get you to do something, it’s called peer pressure.
Peers can have a positive influence on each other. Maybe another student in your science class taught you an easy way to remember the planets in the solar system. Maybe you got others excited about your new favorite book, and now everyone’s reading it. These are examples of how peers positively influence each other.
Sometimes peers influence each other in negative ways. For example, a few kids in school might try to get you to cut class with them; your soccer friend might try to convince you to be mean to another player and never pass him the ball.
It is tough to be the only one who says “no” to peer pressure, but you can do it. Paying attention to your own feelings and beliefs about what is right and wrong can help you know the right thing to do.
You’ve probably had a parent or teacher advising you to “choose your friends wisely.” Peer pressure is a big reason why they say this. If you choose friends who don’t cut class, smoke cigarettes, or lie to their parents, then you probably won’t do these things either, even if other kids do.
If you continue to face peer pressure and you’re finding it difficult to handle, talk to someone you trust. Don’t feel guilty if you’ve made a mistake or two.What is the topic of the passage?
| A．Friendship. | B．Self-confidence | C．Peer pressure | D．Making decisions |
In the last three paragraphs, the author mainly_____.
| A．explains why friendship is so important |
| B．discusses how peers influence us |
| C．shows how to make more good friends |
| D．gives advice on how to deal with peer pressure |
Which of following may help handle peer pressure?
| A．Spending more time with classmates. | B．Choosing friends with no bad habits. |
| C．Taking up more relaxing hobbies. | D．Helping others who are in trouble. |
Walking down a path through some woods in Georgia, I saw a small pool of water ahead on the path. I angled my direction to go around it on the part of the path that wasn't covered by water or mud. As I reached the pool, I was suddenly attacked!
Yet I did nothing for the attack. It was so unpredictable and from somewhere totally unexpected. I was surprised as well as unhurt though I had been struck four or five times. I backed up a foot and my attacker stopped attacking me. Had I been hurt I wouldn't have found it amusing. And I was laughing. After all, I was being attacked by a butterfly!
Having stopped laughing, I took a step forward. My attacker rushed me again. He charged towards me at full speed, attempting to hurt me but in vain. For a second time, I took a step backwards while my attacker paused. I wasn't sure what to do. After all, it's just not everyday that one is attacked by a butterfly. I stepped back to look the situation over. My attacker moved back to land on the ground. That's when I discovered why my attacker was charging me only moments earlier. He had a mate and she was dying.
Sitting close beside her, he opened and closed his wings as if to fan her. I could only admire the love and courage of that butterfly in his concern for his mate. He had taken it up on himself to attack me for his mate's sake , even though she was clearly dying and I was so large. He did so just to give her those extra few precious moments of life, should I have been careless enough to step on her. His courage in attacking something thousands of times larger and heavier than himself just for his mate's safety seemed admirable. I couldn't do anything other than reward him by walking on the more difficult side of the pool. He had truly earned those moments to be with her, undisturbed.
Since then, I've used that butterfly’s courage as an inspiration and to remind myself that good things are worth fighting for.The writer changed his direction while walking down a path because he want__________.
| A．To get close to a butterfly. | B．To escape a sudden attack. |
| C．To look over the bad situation. | D．To avoid getting his shoes dirty. |
What made the man feel funny?
| A．Making the attacker pause. | B．Being stepped on by his mate. |
| C．Discovering the angry butterfly. | D．Being attacked by a butterfly. |
Which of the following words can best describe the butterfly?
A. careless B. amusing D. aggressive D. courageousFrom this experience the man learned_____.
| A．how he should deal with attacks |
| B．how to deal with challenges in his life |
| C．people should protect butterflies |
| D．people should show sympathy to the weak |
This is a great truth, one of the greatest truths.
It is a great truth because once we truly see this truth, we transcend（超越） it. Once we truly know that life is difficult---once we truly understand and accept it---then life is no longer difficult. Because once it is accepted, the fact that life is difficult no longer matters.
Most do not fully see this truth. Instead they complain about their problems and difficulties as if life should be easy. It seems to them that difficulties represent a special kind of suffering especially forced upon them or else upon their families, their class, or even their nation.
What makes life difficult is that the process of facing and solving problems is a painful one. Problems, depending on their nature, cause us sadness, or loneliness or regret or anger or fear. These are uncomfortable feelings, often as painful as any kind of physical pain. And since life causes an endless series of problems, life is always difficult and is full of pain as well as joy.
Yet, it is in this whole process of solving problems that life has its meaning. Problems are the serious test that tells us success from failure. When we desire to encourage the growth of human spirit, we encourage the human ability to solve problems, just as in school we set problems for our children to solve. It is through the pain of meeting and working out problems that we learn. As Benjamin Franklin said, those things that hurt, instruct. It is for this reason that wise people learn not to fear but to welcome the pain of problems. From the passage, it can be inferred that ______.
| A．everybody has problems |
| B．we become stronger by meeting and solving the problems of life |
| C．life is difficult because our problems bring us pain |
| D．people like to complain about their problems |
The writer probably used just one short sentence in the first paragraph to ______.
| A．save space | B．persuade readers |
| C．get readers’ attention | D．make readers laugh |
According to the passage, we give school children difficult problems to solve in order to______.
| A．teach them to fear the pain of solving the problem |
| B．encourage them to learn |
| C．help them learn to deal with pain |
| D．teach them how to respect from problems |
The main idea of Paragraph 3 is that ______.
| A．most people feel life is easy |
| B．most people complain about how hard their lives are |
| C．the writer feels life is easy |
| D．the writer likes to complain about his problems |
In the Ituri forest of America live many tribes，one of which is Pygmy. Most of the Pygmies in the tribe are not taller than four feet. They weigh only about eighty pounds each.
In spite of their small size, they are the best hunters among all the jungle people. Even the great elephant can be caught by them.
Since they do not plant any crops, Pygmies are constantly moving around. They seldom sleep in one camp for more than a few days. In their camps there is not furniture at all except for some weapons such as spears, bows and arrows. There are no cooking pots either. Food is eaten uncooked or smoked over a lire. So when the tribe moves to a new camp there is nothing to carry except these weapons and babies too small to walk.
Pymies can move on the tree tops almost as skillfully as monkeys. Often they travel great distances through the branches without touching the ground.
One of the surprising facts about these small men and women is their great appetite（食欲）. A Pygmy can eat up sixty bananas at a single meal besides quantities of meat. After eating, they will lie on their hard earth bed and groan（呻吟）in all night. But in the morning, they are ready to eat the same amount of food or fight among themselves.Pygmies are small in size, but they are brave in ______.
| A．hunting | B．shooting | C．eating | D．fighting with their enemies |
Pygmies are so skillful that _____.
| A．they never walk on the ground | B．they can move on the top of trees |
| C．they always walk with sticks | D．they can hang from the branches |
The writer wrote this article so as to ______
| A．ask people to learn from Pygmies |
| B．help Pygmies go out of the forests |
| C．let us know the local condition and customs of the Pygmies |
| D．tell us the world is big and wide |
Why do Pygmies move from place to place continuously? The main reason is that _____.
| A．that want to look after wild animals | B．they always walk with sticks |
| C．they plant no crops | D．they don’t sleep in one camp |
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