In my long years of teaching, I often ask my students to read the texts until they can recite them, and I tell them that recitation are an important part of their homework. However, some of my students are tired of doing so, thinking that it is both hard and useless. They argue that it takes a long time to recite a text from memory and text itself never appears in a test paper.
In my opinion, it naturally takes time to recite a text, but it is worth doing so. When you are able to recite a text, you are sure to be familiar with the words and expressions. When you need them in reading or writing or doing exercises, they will come to your mind quickly, and so you will give quick response to all kinds of language situation. How can we say that it is useless?
Besides, many students complain that they soon forget what they were once able to recite. This is true, but you don’t need to worry. While you are reading and forgetting the texts, your language level is being raised. Sure you don’t remember your Chinese texts that you once read in the primary school, but now you are able to read novels and newspaper. So, recitation of the texts will help you improve your language ability.
小題1:The writer often asks his students to recite the texts, _______.

A．But they don’t like to do so.

B．And they are eager to do so

C．But they wrote a letter to the Department of Education reporting the thing.

D．But they do more exercises instead of reciting the texts.

小題2:What do the students think about the teacher’s advice?

A．The English teacher tries his best to help them with English.

B．The English teacher is very kind to them.

C．The English teacher asks them to do something useless.

D．The English teacher should let them study on their own.

小題3:According to the text, which of the following is correct?
The teacher thinks the students are too naughty to learn English well.
B. The students think they spend a lot of time in reciting the texts and get nothing.
C. The students say that they often forget the words.
D. The students take no interest in English.
小題4:Why does the writer suggest that the students recite the text?

A．Reciting the texts can improve the ability of applying English.

B．Reciting the texts is the best way of learning English.

C．The students should remember all the texts that the teacher has taught them.

D．Reciting the texts can greatly improve the classroom teaching.

London has become a cycle friendly zone after the launch of a new bike hire scheme. It has been designed to encourage more people to cycle in and around central London.
So how does it work? First you have to sign up to the scheme to be sent a key. The key will unlock one of the bikes, which are kept at docking stations in and around central London. You have to pay an access fee for the key and then you pay as you go, for the length of time you use the bike.
Transport for London, which runs the scheme, is hoping to have 6,000 bikes and 400 docking stations in place by the end of the year. The new hire system is hoping to ease congestion  (擁擠 )  in London and is expected to create up t0 40 ,000 extra cycle trips a day into the city centre. London Mayor Boris Johnston launched the scheme and said London had been 6ifilled with thousands of gleaming machines that will transform the look and feel of our streets and become as commonplace on our roads as black cabs and red buses".
However, there have been a few problems since the scheme was launched last Friday. On the first day some people found they couldn't dock their bike properly and their usage of the bike had not registered. Transport for London did admit they had been expecting a few "teething problems" and have said they wouldn't charge for the first day as a "gesture of goodwill". Some other people have criticized the lack of docking stations and locks for the bikes as well as the price it costs to hire the bicycles.
Despite the comments, the green-thinking London Mayor still seems very positive about things, saying, "My campaign for the capital to become the greatest big cycling city in the world has taken a big pedal-powered push forwards. "
小題1:. London Mayor Boris Johnston launched the new bike scheme in order to______.

A．reduce the air pollution of the city

B．deal with the city's traffic problems

C．increase employment opportunities

D．encourage the citizens to take exercises

小題2:. If you want to hire a bike, in which order will you do?
a. pay for the key to a bike
b. sign up as a member to get a key
c. cycle in and around central London
d. pay for the bike according to the time you use it

A．b→a→c→d	B．b→d→c→a
C．d→c→b→a	D．d→b→c→a

小題3:. All the following are the problems of the scheme EXCEPT_____.

A．the high cost to hire a bike

B．docking the bikes properly

C．not registering their usage of the bikes

D．not charging for the first day of the scheme

小題4:. From the passage, we can infer that_______.

A．the cycling revolution is not successful

B．a(chǎn)ll the citizens in London support the scheme

C．the London Mayor is confident in the scheme

D．the scheme will be cancelled because of the problems

Worried about how many calories you will get in that piece of pizza, chocolate cake or bag of chips? A new iPhone application (應(yīng)用程序) MealSnap may help. Users just need to take a picture of the meal with the phone, and it will give a calorie read-out almost immediately.
MealSnap was developed by DailyBurn, a health social network that focuses on helping its users lead healthier lifestyles. It has created several other health and diet-related iPhone applications. The application gives users a quick reply. To do that, it matches the taken picture to a databank (數(shù)據(jù)庫) with the calorie information of nearly 500,000 kinds of food. Users then get the range of calories for the meal that is photographed.
We started with something simple—an apple. A couple of minutes later, the application replied that it was an apple and between 64 and 96 calories. More impressive was the reply we received after sending a photo of a mixed salad bowl. MealSnap replied that the bowl contained “yellow rice with corn, boiled eggs and beans” and that the food was between 532 and 789 calories.
Mr. Smith, director of DailyBurn, said that usual calorie counting needed a long time, but that the application made it easier to know the calories in food. That is why it is so popular among those who are trying hard to lose weight.
In addition, MealSnap can act as a food diary. No need to write down what they’ve eaten, the photoes will be stored. The users can keep a visual log (視覺的記錄). Mr. Smith said, “it’s like a food journey, but easier. All you do is to take the picture. The simple act of recording something can cause a psychological (心理的) change that can help people on their health journey. Knowing the calorie range makes me think more about what I’m eating.”
小題1: The purpose of DailyBurn is to________.

A．help people find ways to lose weight

B．make iPhone more popular

C．persuade people to buy iPhone products

D．help people have a healthy life

小題2: What can be learned from the third paragraph?

A．MealSnap is only useful for simple things.

B．The result of MealSnap isn’t always right.

C．MealSnap can also tell what the food is.

D．MealSnap needs a long time to show the calorie range.

小題3: Which of the following statements about MealSnap is TRUE?

A．It has been put into the market.

B．People will have a physical change by using it.

C．It’s popular because it was developed by DailyBurn.

D．People have to link iPhone with the Internet to use it.

Is language, like food, a basic human need without which a child at a critical period of life can be starved and damaged? Judging from the experiment of Frederick in the thirteenth century, it may be. Hoping to discover what language a child would speak if he heard no mother tongue, he told the nurses to keep silent.
All the infants died before the first year. But clearly there was more than lack of language here. What was missing was mothering. Without good mothering, in the first year of life especially, the capacity to survive is seriously affected.
Today no such severe lack exists as that ordered by Frederick. Nevertheless, some children are still backward in speaking. Most often the reason for this is that the mother is insensitive to the signals of the infant, whose brain is programmed to learn language rapidly. If there sensitive periods are neglected, the ideal time for acquiring skills passes and they might never be learned so easily again. A bird learns to sing and to fly at the right time, but the process is slow and hard once the critical stage has passed.
Experts suggest that speech stages are reached in a fixed order and at a constant age, but there are cases where speech has started late in a child who eventually turns out to be of high IQ. At twelve weeks a baby smiles and makes vowel-like sounds; at twelve months they can speak simple words and understand simple commands; at eighteen months he has a vocabulary of three to five words. At three he knows about 1,000 words, which he can put into sentences, and at four his language differs from that of his parents in style rather than grammar.
Recent evidence suggests that an infant is born with the capacity to speak. What is special about man’s brain, compared with that of the monkey, is the complex system which enables a child to connect the sight and feel of, say, a toy-bear with the sound pattern “toy bear”. And even more incredible is the young brain’s ability to pick out an order in language from the mixture of sound around him, to analyze, to combine and recombine the parts of a language in new ways.
But speech has to be induced（激發(fā)，引起）, and this depends on interaction between the mother and the child, where the mother recognizes the signals in the children’s babbling（咿呀聲）,grasping and smiling, and responds to them. Insensitivity of the mother to these signals dulls the interaction because the child gets discouraged and sends out only the obvious signals. Sensitivity to the child’s nonverbal signals is essential to the growth and development of language.
小題1:The writer mentioned the experiment of Frederick to __________.

A．support his idea	B．introduce his topic
C．describe a new finding	D．give an example of his theory

小題2:The purpose of Frederick’s experiment was to __________.

A．prove that children are born with the ability to speak

B．discover what language a child would speak without hearing any human speech

C．find out what role careful nursing would play in teaching a child to speak

D．prove that a child could be damaged without learning a language

小題3:The reason why some children are backward in speaking is most probably that ________.

A．they are not able to learn language rapidly

B．they are exposed to too much language at once

C．their mothers do not respond enough to their attempts to speak

D．their mothers are not clever enough to help them

小題4: If a child starts to speak later than others, he will __________ in future.

A．have a high IQ	B．be less intelligent
C．be insensitive to verbal signals	D．not necessarily be backward

小題5: Which of the following statements is NOT true according to the passage?

A．A child is born with the ability to speak.

B．A child’s brain has a complex system which helps to connect the sight and feel of an object.

C．A child can produce his own sentences.

D．A child owes his speech ability to good nursing.

小題6: According to the passage, the writer agrees that__________.

A．the infants will certainly die because of lack of language.

B．a(chǎn)ll children learn their language in fixed stages

C．the child’s brain is highly selective

D．insensitivity to the child’s non-verbal signals will not affect the development of the child’s language

 Global Positioning Systems（GPS） are now a part of everyday driving in many countries. These satellite-based systems provide turn-by-turn directions to help people get to where they want to go. But, they can also cause a lot of problems, send you to the wrong place or leave you completely lost. Many times, the driver is to blame. Sometimes a GPS error is responsible. Most often, says Barry Brown, it is a combination of the two.
We spoke to Mr. Brown by Skype （網(wǎng)絡(luò)電話軟件）. He told us about an incident involving a friend who had flown to an airport in the eastern United States. There he borrowed a GPS-equipped car to use during his stay. BARRY BROWN: “And they just plugged in an address and then set off to their destination. And, then it wasn’t until they were driving for thirty minutes that they realized they actually put in a destination back on the West Coast where they lived. They actually put their home address in. So again, the GPS is kind of 'garbage in garbage out'.”
Mr Brown says this is a common human error. But, he says, what makes the problem worse has to do with some of the shortcomings, or failures, of GPS equipment. BARRY BROWN: “One problem with a lot of the GPS units is that they have a very small screen and they just tell you the next turn. Because they just give you the next turn, sometimes that means that it is not really giving you the overview that you would need to know that it’s going to the wrong place.”
Barry Brown formerly served as a professor with the University of California, San Diego. While there, he worked on a project with Eric Laurier from the University of Edinburgh. The two men studied the effects of GPS devices on driving by placing cameras in people’s cars. They wrote a paper based on their research. It is called “The Normal, Natural Troubles of Driving with GPS.”
It lists several areas where GPS systems can cause confusion for drivers. These include maps that are outdated, incorrect or difficult to understand. They also include timing issues(時機問題) related to when GPS commands are given.
Barry Brown says, “ To make GPS systems better we need a better understanding of how drivers, passengers and GPS systems work together.”
小題1:In paragraph 2, Mr. Brown mentioned his friend in the conversation to _______.

A．build up his own reputation

B．laugh at his stupid friend

C．prove the GPS system is only garbage

D．describe an example of human error

小題2:What is the disadvantage of small screens in GPS equipment according to the text?

A．They just provide the next turn.	B．They are harmful to eyes.
C．They make drivers tired easily.	D．They often break down suddenly.

小題3: Which of the following statements would Barry Brown most likely agree with?

A．GPS units are to blame for most GPS service failures.

B．We should introduce higher standards for the driving license.

C．Cameras are urgently needed to help improve GPS systems.

D．Drivers, GPS systems and passengers should unite to improve GPS systems.

小題4:What is Mr. Brown’s attitude towards GPS?

A．Unconcerned.	B．Prejudiced.
C．Objective.	D．Critical.

小題5:Which of the following statements can best describe the main idea of the pasage?

A．Driving with GPS can be difficult.

B．Driving confusions can be caused by small screens.

C．Driving without GPS should be much more convenient.

D．GPS equipment in driving to be deserted or improved

All of us eat every day, but most of us don’t understand nutrition(營養(yǎng)). How much do you know about good nutrition? Are the following statements true or false?
1. People who don’t eat meat can stay healthy.
True. As long as people eat enough milk, eggs and meat alternates(替代物), they can get enough protein.
2. Fresh vegetables cooked at home are always more nutritious than canned vegetables.
False. The difference depends more on how vegetables are prepared than whether they are fresh or canned. Vegetables cooked in too much water can lose a large quantity of vitamins.
3. Food eaten between meals can be just as good for health as food eaten at regular meals.
True. Nutritional value depends on what types of food you eat, not when you eat them. Eating an egg or an orange between meals can contribute to a good diet.
4. Taking extra vitamins beyond the recommended daily allowances won’t give you more energy.
True. It’s widely believed that extra vitamins provide more energy. But taking more than the baby needs doesn’t make it function better, just as overfilling your gas tank doesn’t make your car run better.
5. Natural vitamins are better supplements(補充)for the diet than synthetic vitamins.
False. There is no difference. A vitamin has the same properties(性質(zhì))and specific chemical structure whether made in a laboratory or taken from plant or animal parts.
6. Older people need the same amount of vitamins as younger people.
True. Older people need the same quantity of vitamins as younger people although they need fewer calories. Certain illnesses raise the requirements for some vitamins, but that is true for the young as well as the old.
7. Food grown in poor soil is lower in vitamins than food grown in rich sold.
False. The vitamins in our foods are made by the plants themselves. They don’t come from the soil.
However, the minerals in a plant depend on the minerals in the soil.
If you have answered these questions correctly, you can say you know much about food and nutrition by today’s standards. But remember that nutrition is a growing science and that may be aged as new information is obtained.
小題1:The main purpose of the passage is to           .

A．list today’s standards of some food and nutrition

B．introduce what should be eaten and what not

C．explain what is helpful to your health and what is not

D．test our nutrition IQ by judging the problems listed

小題2:From the surrounding words and sentences we know that the underlined phrase “contribute to” means         .

A．help to bring about	B．take the place of
C．make room for	D．turn to

小題3:The underlined word “synthetic” most probably means       in Chinese.

A．不同的	B．特別的
C．合成的	D．天然的

The health of millions could be at risk because medicinal plants are being used up.These plants are used to make traditional medicine，including drugs to fight cancer.“The loss of medicinal plants is a quiet disaster，”says Sara Oldfield，secretary general of the NGO Botanic Gardens Conservation International.
Most people worldwide (including 80 percent of all Africans)rely on herbal medicines(草藥)which are got mostly from wild plants.But some 15,000 of the 50,000 medicinal species are under threat of dying out，according to a report from the international conversation group Plantlife.Shortages have been reported in China，India，Kenya，Nepal，Tanzania and Uganda.
Over?harvesting does the most harm，though pollution and competition from invasive(侵略性的)species are both responsible.“Businessmen generally harvest medicinal plants，not caring about sustain ability，”the Plantlife report says.“Damage is serious partly because they have no idea of it，but it is mainly because such collection is unorganized.” Medicinal trees at risk include the Himalayan yew and the African cherry，which are used to treat some cancers.
The solution，says the report's author，Alan Hamilton，is to encourage local people to protect these plants.Ten projects studied by Plantlife in India，Pakistan，China，Nepal，Uganda and Kenya showed this method can succeed.In Uganda the project has kept a sustainable supply of low?cost cancer treatments，and in China a public run medicinal plant project has been created for the first time.
“Improving health，earning an income and keeping cultural traditions are important in encouraging people to protect medicinal plants，”says Hamilton.“You have to pay attention to what people are interested in.” Ghillean Prance，the former director of the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew in London，agrees that medicinal plants are in need of protection.
“Not nearly enough is being done，”he told New Scientist.“We are destroying the very plants that are of most use to us.”
小題1:What is the passage mainly about?

A．The function of medicinal plants.

B．The importance of traditional medicine.

C．More and more people rely on herbal medicines.

D．The dangerous situation of medicinal plants and ways of protecting them.

小題2:Which of the following is TRUE according to the passage?

A．About 30% of medicinal species are at risk of dying out.

B．Medicinal plants are mainly used to treat cancers.

C．80% of African countries are reported to be short of medicinal plants.

D．The problem of the loss of medicinal plants appeared suddenly.

小題3:What contributes most to the loss of medicinal plants?

A．A lack of knowledge of sustainability.

B．Invasion by other species.

C．Environmental pollution.

D．Improper harvesting.

小題4:What is a useful method of protecting medicinal plants?

A．Improving people's health.

B．Letting people earn more.

C．Working together with the government.

D．Persuading the locals to protect them.

NEW YORK (Reuters Health)—Kids who eat better perform better in school, a new study of Nova Scotia fifth?graders confirms.
Students who ate an adequate amount of fruit，vegetables，protein，fiber and other components of a healthy diet were significantly less likely to fail a literacy test，Dr.Paul J．Veugelers of the University of Alberta in Edmonton and colleagues found.
While a healthy diet is generally assumed to be important for good school performance, there has actually been little research on this topic, Veugelers and his colleagues note.To investigate，they looked at 4, 589 fifth?graders participating in the Children's Lifestyle and School?performance Study, 875 (19.1 percent) of whom had failed an elementary literacy assessment.
The better a student's eating habits based on several measures of diet quality，including adequacy and variety, the less likely he or she was to have failed the test, the researchers found，even after they adjusted the data for the effects of parental income and education, school and sex.Eating plenty of fruit and vegetables, and getting fewer calories from fat, was also associated with a lower risk of failing the test.
To date, Veugelers and his team say, most research on diet and school performance has focused on the importance of eating breakfast, as well as the ill effects of hunger and malnutrition(營養(yǎng)不良)．
“This study extends current knowledge in this area by demonstrating the independent importance of overall diet quality to academic performance.We should not only realize the importance of children's nutrition at breakfast but also that throughout the day，” the researchers conclude.
Another research from the UK is suggesting that children's diets in the pre?school years affects how they perform at school later on.The researchers from the Institute of Education, at the University of London say in fact that what children were eating in those days before primary school has more of an effect than the chicken nuggets(塊) they ate at lunchtime.The researchers say they have found that children who ate a diet of “junk food” at the age of three, made less progress in school between the ages of six and ten.They say children's diet at later ages appears to have less impact on their school attainment.
小題1:．According to Dr.Paul J．Veugelers, students who have a healthy diet________.

A．a(chǎn)re more likely to fail in their school performance

B．definitely can perform better in their school work

C．usually have more of fat and less of fruit and vegetables

D．tend to perform better in their school work

小題2:．It can be implied from the passage that________.

A．little research has been done on the importance of breakfast

B．most students participating in the research failed the test

C．the adequacy and variety of foods can mean better school performance

D．eating more chicken nuggets leads to good school performance

小題3:．The underlined word “l(fā)iteracy” (in Para.2) probably refers to ________.

A．the ability to read and write

B．a(chǎn) guessing game

C．the art of painting

D．the ability to handle practical task

小題4:．Which of the following statements is TRUE?

A．Children should have more“junk food”at lunch time.

B．Pre?school diets can have more impact on children's school work.

C．A child who often has“junk food”at 3 is bound to fail in school work.

D．The older a child is，the more impact of what he eats has on school work.

When several different people look at the same person，it's not unusual for each of them to see different things；when you alone observe one behavior or one person at two different times，you may see different things.The following are but some of the factors that lead to these changing perceptions(感知認可)．
(1)Each person's perceptions of others are formed by his or her own cultural conditioning education，and personal experiences.
(2)Sometimes perceptions differ because of what we choose to observe and how we deal with what we've observed.It is not necessarily true that person's perception is based on observations of a particular person.Your observations may be totally controlled by what others have told you about this person；or you may focus (聚集)primarily on the situation or role relationship.Most people do not use the same yardstick(標準)to measure their parents，their friends and strangers.
(3)Sometimes we see only what we want to see or don't see what may be obvious to others because of our own needs，desires，or temporary emotional states.This is a process known as selective perception.Selective perception is obviously more difficult when contradictory (矛盾的)information is particularly obvious，but it can be done.We can ignore(忽視)the “stimulus”．He's basically a good boy so what I saw was not shoplifting.
We can reduce the importance of the contradictory information—All kids(孩子)get into mischief(頑皮)．Taking a book from the bookstore isn't such a big deal.“We can change the meaning of the contradictory information.” It wasn't shoplifting because he was going to pay for it later.
小題1:The first factor given by the author that affects our perception is ________.

A．the abilities of one's auditory (聽覺的)and visual (視覺的)sensors

B．cultural background and personal experiences

C．experiences one learns from others

D．critical measures taken by other people

小題2:While observing a particular person，________.

A．one is likely to take all aspects(方面)to consideration

B．one pays more attention to his/her advantages

C．children often differ from grown?ups in perception

D．one tends to choose certain cues(提示)to look for

小題3:Observation of the same person by two people at the same time may differ because ________.

A．their measuring yardsticks are not the same

B．either of them may be slow to catch information

C．the time for observation is not long enough

D．each of them uses different language to express his/her impressions

As researchers learn more about how children's intelligence develops, they are increasingly surprised by the power of parents.The power of the school has been replaced by the home.To begin with, all the factors which are part of intelligence—the child's understanding of language，learning patterns, curiosity—are established well before the child enters school at the age of six.Study after study has shown that even after school begins, children's achievements have been far more influenced by parents than by teachers.This is particularly true about learning that is language?related.The school rather than the home is given credit for variations in achievement in subjects such as science.
In view of their power, it's sad to see so many parents not making the most of their child's intelligence.Until recently parents had been warned by educators who asked them not to educate their children.Many teachers now realize that children cannot be educated only at school and parents are being asked to contribute both before and after the child enters school.
Parents have been particularly afraid to teach reading at home.Of course，children shouldn't be pushed to read by their parents, but educators have discovered that reading is best taught individually—and the easiest place to do this is at home.Many four?and five?year?olds who have been shown a few letters and taught their sounds will compose single words of their own with them even before they have been taught to read.
小題1:What have researchers found out about the influence of parents and the school on children's intelligence?

A．Parents have greater influence than the school.

B．The school plays a greater role than parents.

C．Parents and the school have the equal power.

D．Neither parents nor the school has any influence.

小題2:Researchers conclude that________.

A．it is with the help of the teachers that children have an understanding of language

B．curiosity is formed after the children enter school

C．children's learning patterns are developed at the early age

D．only the school can give children the opportunity to make achievements

小題3:According to the text, in which area may school play a more important role?

A．Moral education.	B．Language education.
C．Physical education.	D．Science education.

小題4:Many parents fail to make the most of their children's intelligence because
________.

A．they usually push the children to read at home

B．they only teach them after they enter school

C．they teach them in a wrong way at home

D．they were told by educators not to teach their children