The Amazing Kids! PenPals Program is a literacy-based (基于读写能力的), traditional letter-writing pen pal program, available to all children aged 5-17 worldwide.
At $10 per child, our program is a low-cost and fun way to help your children practice their literacy skills while they are making new friends. Groups of 15 or more receive a 50% discount.
Children love our program because:
●It helps them develop new (and possibly life-long)friendships.
●It allows them to practice the traditional form of letter writing and correspondence.
●They love getting letters in the mail from their pen pals!
Parents love our program because:
●It offers one of the few remaining choices for finding an established, safe and trusted traditional pen pal program to their children.
●It helps strengthen communication and literacy skills taught in their children’s classroom.
●It helps open their children’s eyes to a larger world, and other cultures and traditions outside their own.
●Many parents remember having a pen pal when they were children and want to give their children the same positive, fun learning experience.
●Parents love helping their children find new friends of their own age and gender.
Frequently asked questions
Why is there a fee?
We are a small, all-volunteer non-profit organization, and the fees help cover our cost of running the program.
How did the Amazing Kids! PenPals Program begin?
The program began as a way of reaching out to the children affected by the devastating (毁灭性的) hurricanes of 2005. Our hope was that by matching young hurricane survivors with a new pen pal, we could help them in their recovery from the trauma (创伤) they experienced.
The program is now available to all children worldwide. We continue to welcome teachers, youth groups or agencies who like to work with hurricane survivors.
How does it work?
Amazing Kids! will match students of the same gender and age with other students who may share similar interests and hobbies, based on the information provided on the registration form.
I’ve completed all forms and made my payment. What happens next?
Someone from Amazing Kids! will contact you once a match has been found. You will be asked to call the other parent, teacher or group leader of the pen pal Amazing Kids! has selected. If both adults agree that the pen pal match is a good one, then the students may begin writing to each other. If the match is determined not to be a good one, Amazing Kids! will try and find an alternative match.
1..If a group of twenty children want to join the program, they should pay _____altogether.
A. $50 B.$100 C.$150 D.$200
2..Parents may agree the program helps children_________.
A.travel around the world B. communicate well with others
C. Meet many famous people D. get good marks in exams
3. In the beginning the Amazing Kids! PenPals Program was set up for the kids who ______.
A. suffered from the hurricanes
B. were willing to make pen pals
C. were good at writing letters
D. wanted to help hurricane survivors
I am a writer. I spend a great deal of my time thinking about the power of language—the way it can evoke (唤起) an emotion, a visual image, a complex idea, or a simple truth.Language is the tool of my trade. And I use them all—all the Englishes I grew up with.
Born into a Chinese family that had recently arrived in California, I’ve been giving more thought to the kind of English my mother speaks. Like others, I have described it to people as “broken” English. But I feel embarrassed to say that. It has always bothered me that I can think of no way to describe it other than“broken”, as if it were damaged and needed to be fixed, as if it lacked a certain wholeness. I’ve heard other terms used, “limited English,” for example. But they seem just as bad, as if everything is limited, including people’s perceptions(认识)of the limited English speaker.
I know this for a fact, because when I was growing up, my mother’s “limited” English limited my perception of her. I was ashamed of her English. I believed that her English reflected the quality of what she had to say. That is, because she expressed them imperfectly her thoughts were imperfect. And I had plenty of evidence to support me: the fact that people in department stores, at banks, and at restaurants did not take her seriously, did not give her good service, pretended not to understand her, or even acted as if they did not hear her.
I started writing fiction in 1985. And for reasons I won’t get into today, I began to write stories using all the Englishes I grew up with: the English she used with me, which for lack of a better term might be described as “broken” ; and what I imagine to be her translation of her Chinese, her internal (内在的) language, and for that I sought to preserve the essence, but neither an English nor a Chinese structure. I wanted to catch what language ability tests can never show: her intention, her feelings, the rhythms of her speech and the nature of her thoughts.
1.. The author used to think of her mother’s English as .
A. impolite B. amusing
C. imperfect D. practical
2.. Which of the following is TRUE according to Paragraph 3?
A. Americans do not understand broken English.
B. The author’s mother was not respected sometimes.
C. The author’s mother had positive influence on her.
D. Broken English always reflects imperfect thoughts.
3. The author gradually realizes her mother’s English is .
A. well structured B. in the old style
C. easy to translate D. rich in meaning
4. What is the passage mainly about?
A. The change of the author’s attitude to her mother’s English.
B. The limitation of the author’s perception of her mother.
C. The author’s misunderstanding of “limited” English.
D. The author’s experiences of using broken English.
Mistakes are a part of life. To err is human. Failure is also a part of life, not the end of life. Be happy facing life’s challenges. When you make the effort to be happy and to improve your life, you are actually rewarded along the way.
Life is like a game and maybe you can award(奖励) points for every effort that has been a success for you. Try it. Add ten points for every achievement. And when you have reached 50 points, just yell, “ Hey, I’ve won!” and give yourself a reward. If you happen to have missed your points for whatever reason, tell yourself, “Well, I tried!” which is better than not trying at all. Don’t let it be said you didn’t try.
What is it that you want to make yourself happy? Actually happiness means different things to different people. For example, an athlete will be happy winning his first race. For a new mother happiness would be seeing her baby’s first steps. Happiness for a poor person would mean having a meal just for today. So happiness for you is really something simple that you want for yourself.
It really doesn’t have to be big. As a matter of fact you should always have realistic expectations. Make the best out of every given situation. If you expect a certain result from a situation and it does not happen, don’t get despondent. This just means trying harder next time. We all have in us the power to succeed. Don’t let “ give up ” be a part of your vocabulary.
1.By saying “To err is human”, the author means that________.
A. human beings should try to avoid(避免) making mistakes
B. no one is perfect(完美的) and everyone makes mistakes
C. mistakes and failures make up our life
D. human beings make mistakes easily
2..What’s the main idea of Paragraph 2?
A. Try to reach 50 points.
B. Never stop trying in your life.
C. Award yourself for your success
D. Don’t be afraid of missing your points.
3. The author proves his idea in Paragraph 3 through_________.
A. examples B. numbers
C. experiments D. stories
4. The underlined word “ despondent ” in the last paragraph means________.
A. frightened B. disappointed
C. surprised D. excited
假如你是刘平，你的外国朋友Jim听说你的学校正在进行课改，来信咨询有关情况，根据下列提供的信息，请你写封回信，谈谈课改实施后你们学校生活发生的变化。
课堂教学 课改前 听课、做笔记、枯燥乏味，做大量练习题
课改后 做大量习题
课改后 活动丰富多彩：参加社会实践，通过图书馆或因特网获取信息
注意：1.词数：100左右。
2.可以适当增减细节，但不能逐字逐句翻译。
3.开头已给出，但不计入总词数。
参考词汇：课改：curriculum reform
Dear Jim,
How nice to hear from you.You want to know what is going on in my school.Now I will tell you something about it .____________
（本短文10处需要改动，其中有8处需要改错，一处需要添词，一处需要删词）
I like music very much, pop songs particularly. Every evening then I am doing homework and at weekends when I at home, I always play some of my favorite songs on my tape recorder. The familiar patterns of notes attracts me into the colorfully world of music. Now and then I stopped to follow the songs. Sometimes, my mother comes in, asking me to fix my attention to my homework. She does not like the pop music. Like most grown-ups, she enjoys folk songs, because the peaceful music reminds her of their beautiful life when she was young. It is a truth which people of different age understand music differently and enjoy different kinds of music.
请根据语义及提示写出单词的正确形式。（共15分，每小题1.5分）
1.The kids wouldn't stop talking, and I was beginning to get __________ with them. (annoy)
2.In the a______ (缺席，不在某处)of mathematics, science would not exist.
3.Do you feel a sense of s__________ (满足) at the end of the working day?
4.I have no __________ for Jane; it's all her own fault. (sympathetic)
5.Last week, our school held its a __________ (每年的) athletic meets, this is my last time in the school athletic meets.
6. To achieve the t __________ ， work harder and harder. Never give up.
7. The teaching of higher mathematics should __________ to the new demand and change the traditional teaching method.(adjustment)
8. Supermarket is a big store in which you can p__________(购买) all the meat, groceries, vegetables and other items usually used in the kitchen or around the house.
9.Whether you are a doctor, a rock star or an accountant, your goal is to secure your financial future and retire in __________.(comfortable)
10.The hikers needed to walk faster to reach their d__________ on time.
