Erik Weihenmayer was born with an eye disorder. As a child his  eyesight became worse and then, at the age of 13, he lost his sight  completely. However, he did not lose his determination to lead a  full and active life  Erik became an adventurer. He took up parachuting, wrestling and scuba diving. He competed in long-distance biking, marathons and  skiing. His favorite sport, thought, is mountaineering.  As a young man, Erik started to climb mountains. He reached the summit of Mount McKinley in 1995 and then climbed the dangerous  1000-metre rock wall of EI Capitan. Two years later, while climbing   Mount Kilimanjaro in Kenya with his girlfriend, they stopped for a  time at 13,000 feet above sea level－in order to get married. In 1999, he climbed Aconcagua, the tallest mountain in South America.  And then , on May 25, 2001, at the age of 33, Erik successfully completed the greatest mountaineering challenge of all. He climbed Mount Everest, the highest mountain in the world. Erik invented his own method for climbing mountains. He carries two long poles: one to lean on and the other to test the way ahead of  him. The climber in front of him wears a bell to guide him. Erik is  a good team member. He does his share of the job, such as setting up tents and building snow walls.  Although he could not enjoy the view, Erik felt the excitement of  being on the summit of Everest. He hopes that his success will change how people think about the blind. “When people think about a  blind person or blindness, now they will think about a person standing on the top of the world.

When was Erik born?

A. In 1967.        B. In 1995.       C. In 1968..         D. In 1969.

What was unusual about his wedding?

A. He got married on the summit of Mount McKinley.

B. He got married when climbing Mount Everest.

C. His wedding was held at 13,000 feet above sea level

D. His wedding was held after he prepared a lot.

What is Erik’s special method for climbing a mountain?

A. He takes his girlfriend with him.  B. He uses two long poles to help himself

C. He does his share of  the jobs.　  D. He keeps a good team around him.

Which of the following shows the right order of what happened?

a. He topped Mount McKinley.

b. He became blind.

c. He challenged Mount Everest.

d. He reached the peak of Kilimanjaro.

e. He climbed the rock wall of EI Capitan.

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

Sandra Cisneros was born in Chicago in 1954 to a Mexican American family. As the only girl in a family of seven children, she often felt like she had “seven fathers,” because her six brothers, as well as her father, tried to control her. Feeling shy and unimportant, she retreated(躲避) into books. Despite her love of reading, she did not do well in elementary school because she was too shy to participate.

In high school, with the encouragement of one particular teacher, Cisneros improved her grades and worked for the school literary magazine. Her father encouraged her to go to college because he thought it would be a good way for her to find a husband. Cisneros did attend college, but instead of searching for a husband, she found a teacher who helped her join the famous graduate writing program at the University of Iowa. At the university’s Writers’ Workshop, however, she felt lonely----a Mexican American from a poor neighborhood among students from wealthy families. The feeling of being so different helped Cisneros find her “Creative voice.”

“It was not until this moment when I considered myself truly different that my writing acquired a voice. I knew I was a Mexican woman, but I didn’t think it had anything to do with why I felt so much imbalance in my life, but it had everything to do with it! That’s when I decided I would write about something my classmates couldn’t write about.”

Cisneros published her first work, The House on Mango Street, when she was twenty-nine. The book tells about a young Mexican American girl growing up in a Spanish-speaking area in Chicago, much like the neighborhoods in which Cisneros lived as a child. The book won an award in 1985 and has been used in classes from high school through graduate school level. Since then, Cisneros has published several books of poetry, a children’s book, and a short-story collection.

1.Which of the following is TRUE about Cisneros in her childhood?

A．She had seven brothers.                  B．She felt herself a nobody.

C．She was too shy to go to school.            D．She did not have any good teachers.

2.The graduate program gave Cisneros a chance to _____.

A．work for a school magazine                B．run away from her family

C．make a lot of friends                     D．develop her writing style

3.According to Cisneros, what played the decisive role in her success?

A．Her early years in college.                 B．Her training in the Workshop.

C．Her feeling of being different.              D．Her childhood experience.

4.What do we learn about The House on Mango Street?

A．It is quite popular among students.

B．It is the only book ever written by Cisneros.

C．It wasn’t success as it was written in Spanish.

D．It won an award when Cisneros was twenty-nine.

 

People fell in love with Elizabeth Taylor in 1944, when she starred in National Velvet-the story of Velvet Brown, a young girl who wins first place in a famous horse race, At first, the producers of the movie told Taylor that she was too small to play the part of Velvet. However, they waited for her for a few months as she exercised and trained—and added three inches to her height in four months! Her acting in National Velvet is still considered the best by a child actress.

Elizabeth Taylor was born in London in 1932. Her parents, both Americans, had moved there for business reasons. When World War II started, the Taylors moved to Beverly Hills, California, and there Elizabeth started acting in movies. After her success as a child star, Taylor had no trouble moving into adult(成人)roles and won twice for Best Actress: Butterfield 8(1960) and Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf ? (1966)

Taylor’s fame(名聲)and popularity gave her a lot of power with the movie industry, so she was able to demand very high pay for her movies. In 1963, she received $1 million for her part in Cleopatra—the highest pay received by any star up to that time.

Elizabeth Taylor is a legend (傳奇人物) of our time. Like Velvet Brown in National Velvet, she has been lucky, she has beauty, fame and wealth. But she is also a hard worker. Taylor seldom acts in movies any more. Instead, she puts her time and efforts into her businesses, and into helping others — several years ago, she founded an organization that has raised more than $40 million for research and education.

1. The producers didn’t let Taylor play the part of Velvet at first because they thought she ____.

A. was small in size                    B. was too young

C. did not play well enough                 D. did not show much interest

2. What Elizabeth Taylor and Velvet Brown had in common was that they were both _____.

A. popular all their lives              B. famous actresses

C. suecessful when very young           D. rich and kind-hearted

3.Taylor became Best Actress at the age of          .

A. 12         B. 28                  C. 31          D. 34

4.In her later life , Elizabeth Taylor devoted herself to             .

A. doing business and helping others        B. turning herself into a legend

C. collecting money for the poor           D. going about research and education work

 

 

How to Teach a Child Respect

As a child grows out of being an infant（嬰兒）and begins to notice and react to the world around them, you may find yourself wondering how you possibly pass all of the things that they need to become a responsible, respectful adult.   1  A child who learns to respect all he meets not only receives respect from others in kind, but learns to respect himself as well.

Instructions

★1 Show your child respect. This is perhaps the best way to teach your child how to respect others. Listen to your child by giving her your full attention and she will learn to listen to you, understanding how important this is in relationships.

★2   2  The more you say "please" and "thank you" to your child, the more likely he will learn to use them with you and others. Politeness then becomes a normal part of any conversation.

★3 Agree to disagree.  3 Explain your decision so that she will understand your reasoning and expect respectful responses. Disagreeing with you aren’t equal to disobedience.

★4 Control your impulse to overreact. When a situation arises between you and your child that requires calmness, keep in mind that you are supposed to be modeling correct behavior.  4 

★5 Praise, praise, praise! So much is focused on what a child does wrong and how to correct it that the accomplishments are not celebrated enough.   5 

A．Teach manners by using polite requests and responses.

B．Try to remember that a child won’t always agree with you.

C．Respect is necessary for a meaningful and successful life.

D．If he sees you lose your temper, he is more likely to respond that way in future.

E．A child may act like he pleases, but will respect being given limits.

F．When you see you child exhibit respectful behavior, make sure he knows just how proud you are of him.

G．Signs such as sudden poor performance in school, behaviors like fears and threats accompany behavior problems in children.

 

I was painfully shy as a child. In high school I would avoid participating in class discussions. I was too afraid to talk to anyone but my closest friends~ I would think about being less shy, wanting the courage not only to ask a girl out, but to speak up in class and say what I was thinking. Yet, it never happened. Fears showed themselves in such self-conscious questions as, " What will other people think?  What if she says no?" I felt a dark presence in my mind holding me back.

This shyness continued into college. One day, the question occurred to me: Is life shy?

The thought surprised me ! Think of the leaves bursting out in the spring time, the bird singing at dawn, the sheer number of different forms of life, all expressing the wideness and scope of divine life. There's nothing shy about it. Life is everywhere and attention-grabbing (引人注意的). So, if my creator isn't shy about all the life that needs expressing, I don't need to be either.

I realized that if I wanted to overcome fear and shyness, I would have to put this law of life into practice~ Shyness, fear, and loneliness were hindering me from living my life as life: God wanted me to live it. Therefore, I decided to live how life saw me.

One example: I wrote a note to a girl, asking her out on a date. Even as I was writing it, the fears of disaffirmation and unworthiness came to me. This time however, instead of shrinking back and hiding from the fear, I put the note in the campus mail in spite of myself. I thought: whether she says yes or no, it's still right for me not to be shy. I can live with the confidence sent from the source of my life. The girl saw me in class the next day and told me that she would love to go out with me. I should not have been so surprised!

Bit by bit, I was proving that the limited view of myself no longer had control over me.  After college, I worked as a newspaper reporter, earned an advanced degree in theater, became a productive writer (a lifelong dream), met a special woman whom I married, and even got a job teaching at a university.

1.The writer was shy as a child because of______.

A．a(chǎn)wareness that life is shy

B．lack of courage to speak out in public

C．fear of others' attitude and reaction

D．failure in his participation in class discussion

2."The law" in Paragraph 4 refers to the fact that______.

A．life is attention-grabbing and divine

B．God treats everything and everyone fairly

C．everything in nature is in the favour of God

D．the creator of life which needs expressing isn't shy

3.It can be learnt from Paragraph 5 that the writer______.

A．didn't hesitate before sending the note

B．wouldn't regret sending the note despite the result

C．was not surprised when the girl agreed to go out

D．believed in God and felt encouraged by the wideness of life

4.The underlined word "disaffirmation" in Paragraph 5 probably means______.

A．rejection          B．laughter           C．regret            D．horror

5.The purpose of writing the text is to______.

A．blame those who are shy and unconfident

B．persuade people to have confidence in their career

C．share the personal experience with the readers

D．prove that the overcome of shyness helps achieve success