A

Pronouncing words of a language is a skill. Every normal person is expert in the skill of pronouncing their own language; but few people are ever skilled at pronouncing foreign languages. Now there are many reasons for this, some obvious, some perhaps not so obvious. But I suggest that the reason why people in general do not speak foreign languages much better than they do their own language is that they fail to grasp the true nature of the problem of learning to pronounce, and never set about solving it in the right way. Far too many people fail to realize that pronouncing a foreign language is a skill-one that needs careful training of a special kind, and one that cannot be gained by just leaving it to take care of itself. I think even teachers of language, while recognizing the importance of a good accent, tend to neglect(忽略), in their practical teaching, the branch of study which has something to do with speaking the language. So the first point I want to make is that English pronunciation must be taught. The teacher should be prepared to devote some of the lesson time to this, and by his whole attitude(態(tài)度)to the subject should get the student to feel that here is a matter worthy of receiving close attention, thus when other aspects(方面)of English, such as grammar or spelling, are allowed for the moment, to take second place, there is something else.

Except for the question of time given to pronunciation, there are two other requirements for the teacher: the first, knowledge; the second, technique.

1. Why don't people speak a foreign language better than they speak they native language?

A. Because they can't grasp the nature of the problem of learning to pronounce.

B. Because they think pronouncing a foreign language is a impossible.

C. Because they never solve the problem in any way.

D. Because they pay more attention to pronunciation than anything else.

2. What is the passage mainly about?

A. Grammar should be paid no attention to.

B. Pronunciation is the most important aspect in learning a foreign language.

C. Spelling should not be taught in class.

D. Knowledge and technique are unnecessary in learning a foreign language.

C

Today, air travel is far safer than driving a car on a busy motorway. But still there is a danger that grows every year. Airliners get larger and larger. Some airplanes can carry over 300 passengers. And the air itself becomes more and more crowded. If one large airliner struck into another in mid-air, 600 lives could be lost.

From the moment an airliner takes off to the moment it lands, every movement is watched on radar screens. Air traffic controllers tell the pilot exactly when to turn, when to climb, and when to come down. The air traffic controllers around a busy airport like London-Heathrow may deal with 2,500 planes a day. Not all of them actually land at the airport.  Any plane that flies near the airport comes under the orders of the controllers there. Even a small mistake on their part could cause a terrible accident.

    Recently such a disaster almost happened. Two large jets were flying towards the airport. One was carrying 69 passengers from Toronto, the other 176 passengers from Chicago. An air traffic controller noticed on his radar screen that the two planes were too close to each other. He ordered one to turn to the right and to climb. But he made a mistake. He ordered the wrong plane to do this. So, instead of turning away from the second plane, the first plane turned towards it. Fifteen seconds later it flew directly in front of the second plane. They avoided each other by the smallest part of a second. The distance between them was less than that of a large swimming pool. This is an example of the danger that grows every year.

63. Which of the following is TRUE according to the passage?

  A. Traveling by air is as safe as by car.

  B. Traveling by air is not as safe as by car.

  C. Traveling by car is as dangerous as by air.

  D. Traveling by car is more dangerous than by air.

64. The air traffic controllers of an airport ____________ .

  A. control all the planes flying near the airport

  B. give orders to planes leaving the airport

  C. only deal with the planes that want to land there

  D. are ordered to handle 2500 planes a day in England

65. The danger of air crashes grows every year because ___________ .

  A. airliners are getting larger and air traffic is becoming heavier

  B. a pilot does not always hear a controller’s order

  C. a controller is likely to make more and more mistakes

  D. airports can hardly serve the growing number of airplanes

66. The example in the passage is to show that _________________ .

  A. air traffic controllers are often careless

  B. air traffic controllers should pay much attention to avoiding accidents

  C. it is difficult for airplanes to avoid terrible accidents

  D. two planes should not fly too close to each other        

Last Christmas was a very difficult time for me. My family and all of my close friends were back home in Florida, and I was all alone in a rather cold California. I was working too many hours and became very sick.

I was working a double shift at the Southwest Airlines ticket counter, it was about 9:00 PM on Christmas Eve, and I was feeling really miserable inside. There were a few of us working and very few customers waiting to be helped. When it was time for me to call the next person to the counter, I looked out to see the sweetest-looking old man standing with a cane. He walked very slowly over to the counter and in the faintest voice told me that he had to go to New Orleans. I tried to explain to him that there were no more flights that night and that he would have to go in the morning. He looked so confused and very worried. I tried to find out more information by asking if he had a reservation or if he remembered when he was supposed to travel, but he seemed to become more confused with each question. He just kept saying, “She said I have to go to New Orleans.”

After much time, I was able to at least find out that this old man had been dropped off at the curb on Christmas Eve by his sister-in-law and told to go to New Orleans, where he had family. She had given him some cash and told him just to go inside and buy a ticket. When I asked if he could come back tomorrow, he said that she was gone and that he had no place to stay. He then said he would wait at the airport until tomorrow. Naturally, I felt a little ashamed. Here I was feeling very sorry for myself about being alone on Christmas, when this angel named Clarence MacDonald was sent to me to remind me of what being alone really meant. It broke my heart.

Immediately, I told him we would get it all straightened out, and our Customer Service agent helped to book him a seat for the earliest flight the next morning. We gave him the senior citizen’s fare, which gave him some extra money for travelling. About this time he started to look very tired, and when I stepped around the counter to ask him if he was all right, I saw that his leg was wrapped in a bandage. He had been standing on it that whole time, holding a plastic bag full of clothes.

I called for a wheelchair. When the wheelchair came, we all stepped around to help him in, and I noticed a small amount of blood on his bandage. I asked how he hurt his leg, and he said that he had just had bypass surgery and an artery was taken from his leg. Can you imagine? This man had had heart surgery, and then shortly afterward, was dropped off at the curb to buy a ticket with no reservation to fly to New Orleans, alone!

I never really had a situation like this, and I wasn’t sure what I could do. I went back to ask my supervisors if we could find a place for him to stay. They both said yes, and they obtained a hotel voucher for Mr. MacDonald for one night and a meal ticket for dinner and breakfast. When I came back out, we got his plastic bag of clothes and cane together and gave the porter a tip to take him downstairs to wait for the airport shuttle. I bent down to explain the hotel, food and itinerary (行程) again to Mr. MacDonald, and then patted him on the arm and told him everything would be just fine.

As he left he said, “Thank you,” bent his head and started to cry. I cried too. When I went back to thank my supervisor, she just smiled and said, “I love stories like that. He is your Christmas Man.”

1.Last Christmas the writer had a miserable time because ______.

A．there were more customers than usual waiting to be helped

B．it was freezing cold in California at Christmas time

C．she was working all alone at the ticket counter

D．she was far away from her family and friends

2.The writer’s first impression of the old man was that he was ______.

A．gentle-looking and weak                  B．tired out and worried

C．confused and very sick                   D．sad and anxious

3.The old man wanted to fly to New Orleans to ______.

A．see his friends there

B．spend the Christmas with his family

C．visit his sister-in-law

D．undergo heart surgery

4.On hearing the old man say that he would wait at the airport the whole night, the writer felt a bit ashamed. This is because ______.

A．she felt sorry that she couldn’t do the old man a favor

B．she realized that someone was even more miserable than she felt

C．it took her a long time to find out how helpless the old man was

D．the old man was like an angel in the writer’s eyes

5.The writer called for a wheelchair for the old man because ______.

A．the old man had broken his leg when he was dropped off at the curb

B．the old man could spend the whole night on it at the airport

C．the old man was carrying a whole lot of clothes

D．the old man had had surgery just before and was very weak by then

6. By calling the old man the writer’s Christmas Man, the writer’s supervisor implied that ______.

A．the old man had told the writer a love story on Christmas

B．the old man had caused a lot of trouble for the writer on Christmas

C．the old man was the best gift the writer could have received on Christmas

D．the old man was the only customer the writer had served on Christmas

 

　　Pronouncing a language is a skill. Every normal person is expert in the skill of pronouncing his own language, but few people are even just a little skilled at pronouncing foreign languages. Now there are many reasons for this some obvious, some perhaps not so obvious. But I suggest that the important reason why people in general do not speak foreign languages very much better than they do is that fail to grasp the true nature of the problem of learning to pronounce, and as a result never set about dealing with it in the right way. Far too many people fail to realize that pronouncing a foreign language is skill, one that needs careful training of a special kind, and one that cannot be reached just leaving it to take care of itself. I think even teachers of language, while recognizing the importance of a good accent, tend to take no notice of, in their practical teaching, the branch of study concerned with speaking the language. So, the first point I want to make is that English pronunciation must be taught; the teacher should be prepared to devote some of the lesson time to this and his whole attitude to the subject should get the student to feel that here is matter worthy of receiving his close attention. So, there should be time when other aspects（方面）of English, such as grammar or spelling, are allowed for the moment to take second place.

　　Apart from this question of the time given to pronunciation, there are two other requirements for the teacher: the first, knowledge; the second, technique.

　　It is important that the teacher should be in possession of the necessary information. This can generally be learned from books. It is possible to get from books some idea of the mechanics of speech, and of what we call general phonetic（語言）theory. It is also possible in this may to get a clear. mental picture of the relationship between the sounds of different languages, between the speech habits of English people and those, say, of your students. Unless the teacher has such a picture, any comments he may make on his students' pronunciation are unlikely to be of much use, and lesson time spent on pronunciation may well be time-wasted.

(1) According to the passage, ________ pronouncing foreign languages.

[　　]

A．few people are extremely good at

B．even modern people are not good at

C．only few people are somewhat good at

D．few people are at the average level in

(2) According to the author, pronunciation is a skill that can NOT be ________.

[　　]

(3) In the author's opinion, ________.

[　　]

A．grammar is less important than pronunciation

B．grammar and spelling should always make room for pronunciation

C．grammar and spelling are sometimes less important than pronunciation

D．grammar is more important than spelling

　　Pronouncing a language is a skill. Every normal person is expert in the skill of pronouncing his own language, but few people are even just a little skilled at pronouncing foreign languages. Now there are many reasons for this some obvious, some perhaps not so obvious. But I suggest that the important reason why people in general do not speak foreign languages very much better than they do is that fail to grasp the true nature of the problem of learning to pronounce, and as a result never set about dealing with it in the right way. Far too many people fail to realize that pronouncing a foreign language is skill, one that needs careful training of a special kind, and one that cannot be reached just leaving it to take care of itself. I think even teachers of language, while recognizing the importance of a good accent, tend to take no notice of, in their practical teaching, the branch of study concerned with speaking the language. So, the first point I want to make is that English pronunciation must be taught; the teacher should be prepared to devote some of the lesson time to this and his whole attitude to the subject should get the student to feel that here is matter worthy of receiving his close attention. So, there should be time when other aspects（方面）of English, such as grammar or spelling, are allowed for the moment to take second place.

　　Apart from this question of the time given to pronunciation, there are two other requirements for the teacher: the first, knowledge; the second, technique.

　　It is important that the teacher should be in possession of the necessary information. This can generally be learned from books. It is possible to get from books some idea of the mechanics of speech, and of what we call general phonetic（語言）theory. It is also possible in this may to get a clear. mental picture of the relationship between the sounds of different languages, between the speech habits of English people and those, say, of your students. Unless the teacher has such a picture, any comments he may make on his students' pronunciation are unlikely to be of much use, and lesson time spent on pronunciation may well be time-wasted.

(1) According to the passage, ________ pronouncing foreign languages.

[　　]

A．few people are extremely good at

B．even modern people are not good at

C．only few people are somewhat good at

D．few people are at the average level in

(2) According to the author, pronunciation is a skill that can NOT be ________.

[　　]

(3) In the author's opinion, ________.

[　　]

A．grammar is less important than pronunciation

B．grammar and spelling should always make room for pronunciation

C．grammar and spelling are sometimes less important than pronunciation

D．grammar is more important than spelling