A team of researchers in the UK has shown that children who were taken to the library more often and owned more books at two years old achieved higher scores in school tests when they began primary school. The research also showed that although social background has a noticeable effect on a child’s readiness for school, attending pre-school and having their parents teach them a wide range of activities have a positive effect---while extended exposure to television lowers their scores.
“One message coming through loud and clear is that how a child learns in his very early years is critical (至关重要的) for a smooth transition into the educational system,” said Professor James Law. “This is a very positive message, as it gets us away from the belief that a child’s educational future is pre-determined by standard measures of socio-economic disadvantage, such as income, housing, or the mother’s education.”
Data from the study shows that children from a positive communication environment had a better expressive vocabulary by their second birthday. These children went on to achieve higher scores in language, reading and maths tests when they entered school. In the early years, the communication environment was a better predictor of children’s success with language than their general social background.
Most children develop speech and language effortlessly, but some are slow to acquire these skills and go on to struggle with literacy (读写能力) and academic skills throughout their schooling. This project set out to uncover what factors contributed to these problems.
Professor Sue Roulstone said, “These findings are an encouragement to all parents to provide a positive communication environment for their children from the very start of their lives. The project did identify particular aspects of the communication environment, such as having children’s books around and not having the television on too much. But the main message is that, as parents, we can have an impact on how our children learn to talk by providing a range of communication experiences. And the better our children are at talking by the age of two years, the better they will do when they start school.”
1.According to the passage, what is the most important factor contributing to children’s success at school? _____.
A. Their general social background.
B. Being taken to a library as early as possible.
C. Being involved in various activities.
D. Their communication environment.
2.From the research, Professor James Law concluded that _____.
A. children could naturally have a smooth transition into the educational system
B. the very early years had a big effect on children’s school performance
C. communication with children after they were over two years old was more effective
D. children’s educational future was pre-determined by their parents’ social position
3.The study shows that two-year-old children who have a positive communication environment do better in _____.
A. mathsB. reading
C. writingD. speaking
4.What is implied in the passage? _____.
A. The research could help children who suffer from learning difficulties.
B. Parents should take their children to school as early as possible.
C. Teachers should teach children how to communicate with their parents.
D. Children who have good language abilities will not have difficulties in class.
5. People can most probably find this passage in the _____section of a website.
A. environment B. education
C. lifestyleD. Science
Plans to expand wind energy into the most scenic parts of Germany are meeting increasing opposition across the country.
Anti-wind campaigners are angry that areas including the forests made famous by the tales of the Brothers Grimm are among the targets for new turbines (涡轮机). For the first time they have formed a national opposition group to thwart the expansion. They say the expansion will damage forests and tourism across the country.
Germany has started a massive expansion of renewable energy since the Fukushima nuclear disaster in 2011 in Japan. The government decided to reduce atomic plants and instead increase the opportunities for green power. As a result, solar farms, biogas plants and wind parks are booming. In 2013, 22% of Germany’s electricity was generated by renewable energy. Wind has played a major part in this change, making up half of the renewable energy in 2013, and the public has been generally supportive. To date, a majority of the 23,000 wind turbines in the country have been built in the flat northern and eastern parts of the country. But now the focus of expansion is on the areas of dark forest in the central and southern areas of Germany.
One such region is the Rheinhardswald in the northern part of the state of Hesse. This is the home of the magical tales of Sleeping Beauty, Rapunzel and others, made famous in the books of the Brothers Grimm. This scenic place is a magnet, attracting hundreds and thousands of tourists from all over the world. But now there are also plans to build up to 200 turbines in this scenic place!
Ann-Kathrin Blankenberg is a PhD student and an opponent of the plans. “It is not because this is the area of Sleeping Beauty,” she says, “I want the green movement, I want green technology, I don’t want nuclear power--- but they should be made in the right way and not by destroying the forests.”
The campaigners argue that putting wind turbines in this area makes no sense. The wind speeds are low and the area is home to some extremely rare birds including the endangered black stork. Campaigners say building turbines here would be disastrous for the birds.
1.The underlined word “thwart” can be replaced by_____.
A. supportB. prevent
C. increasedD. promote
2.Which of the following does NOT belong to green power? _____.
A. Solar energyB. Wind energy
C. Bio-energyD. Atomic energy
3.What percentage of Germany’s electricity was generated by wind in 2013? _____.
A. 11%B. 22%C. 50%D. 60%
4.What can be inferred from the passage? _____.
A. The author is against building more wind turbines.
B. The public prefers wind energy to nuclear energy.
C. Most Germans object to building wind turbines all over Germany.
D. The central and southern areas of Germany are rich in wind energy.
5.What is the main idea of the passage? _____.
A. Wind parks are increasing rapidly all over Germany.
B. The Rheinhardswald is famous for the tales of Sleeping Beauty.
C. Expanding wind energy into the land of Sleeping Beauty causes controversy.
D. Building wind turbines in the land of Sleeping Beauty area makes no sense.
The shocking disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 has captured the attention of millions around the world as the search for the airplane and its passengers and crew continues. What happened to the flight’s 239 passengers and crew after the plane left Kuala Lumpur on Saturday? It is becoming an increasingly desperate question as the days pass.
But it’s hardly the first mystery of its kind. Here are some half-solved and unsolved airline mysteries that kept investigators clueless for years.
Air France Flight 447: An Airbus A330 flight from Rio de Janeiro to Paris plunged into the Atlantic Ocean in 2009, killing all 228 passengers and crew on board. But it took a full five days for search and rescue teams to find the wreck（残骸）and another three years for investigators to report that ice crystals had caused the autopilot (自动驾驶仪) to disconnect. The bodies of 74 passengers remain unrecovered.
Amelia Earhart: Ace (王牌) pilot Amelia Earhart disappeared in her twin-engine monoplane Electra over the Pacific Ocean in 1937 in an attempt to circumnavigate the globe. No trace of her plane was ever found even after a multi-million dollar search effort, and Earhart was officially declared dead in 1939.
Flying Tiger Line Flight 739: A U.S. military flight left Guam in 1962 with more 90 personnel headed for the Philippines, but it never arrived. The pilots never issued a distress call, and 1,300 people involved in the U.S. military search never found any trace of wreckage.
British South American Airways: It took more than 50 years to find any trace of the 11 people aboard a 1947 flight that disappeared in the Andes Mountains. A pair of Argentineans rock climbers discovered engine wreckage in the Andes in 1998, and an army expedition later found human remains as well.
Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571: A flight headed to Santiago, Chile carrying 45 passengers and crew crashed into the Andes Mountains in poor weather in 1972, killing twelve people. In the meantime, eight were killed in an avalanche (雪崩) that hit the plane’s wreckage where they were taking shelter, and the rest stayed alive by eating the flesh of the dead before they were finally found more than two months after disappearing out of the sky.
1.The underlined word “plunged” in Paragraph 3 is closest in meaning to _____.
A. jumped B. broke
C. flewD. dived
2.What can we learn from Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571? _____.
A. 12 people were lost until now.
B. 25 people were rescued instantly.
C. The rest who stayed alive killed 8 people.
D. 8 were killed by a fall of a large mass of snow down a mountainside.
3.From the passage, what could have led to British South American Airways crash? _____.
A. The bad weather. B. Not mentioned.
C. The ice crystals. D. The lightening.
4.Which of the following is TRUE according to the passage? _____.
A. Earhart was declared dead by the authorities two years later.
B. The bodies of Flight 447 had all been found after three years.
C. Two Argentineans rock climbers discovered the dead in the Andes.
D. Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 was regarded as the largest air crash.
5.The passage has been written to _____.
A. introduce the loss of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370
B. explain how to avoid airplane disappearances as a pilot
C. tell readers mysterious airplane disappearances in Aviation History
D. call on people to protect themselves
“It’s So Good” in French, was one of Eartha Mae Kitt’s first hit songs. But her childhood wasn’t so good. She was born into a poor family in South Carolina in nineteen twenty-seven. When Eartha was eight, her mother remarried. Her stepfather did not like her so she was sent to New York City to live with an aunt, who helped pay for her piano and dance lessons.
Eartha Kitt worked in a factory as a young teenager. But she kept up her dance lessons. One day she tried out for a famous African-American dance company. Soon, Eartha was performing in shows around the world with the Katherine Dunham Dance Troupe.
In Paris, Eartha left the dance company to sing in a nightclub. Her voice was very attracting. She learned French quickly and gained French fans. Soon the film director Orson Welles discovered Eartha Kitt singing in Paris. Welles asked her to play a lead part in a play he was directing. The play made her find her acting talent for the first time.
After that Eartha Kitt returned to New York and appeared in the Broadway show with “Monotonous”, a song about a bored woman, and it became famous. She soon signed with a record company.
Then Eartha Kitt acted her first role in a film in nineteen fifty-seven in “Mark of the Hawk”. Kitt was very careful about choosing her roles in films. She refused parts that were not respectful to black people. In nineteen sixty-seven, Eartha Kitt got the part of Catwoman on the popular television series “Batman”. Fans loved the special way she said her “r”s to create a sound like a cat, which made her an unforgettable Catwoman.
She was strongly against the Vietnam War and in nineteen sixty-eight she became blacklisted (列入黑名单) in America. For about ten years, she could only find work in other countries. But that brought her a greater international achievement.
1.What did Eartha Kitt do when she first performed around the world?_____.
A. SingB. Dance
C. DirectD. Act
2.Who helped Eartha Kitt find her acting talent? _____.
A. Her motherB. Her aunt
C. Her stepfatherD. Orson Welles.
3.What is the order of the things that happened to Eartha Kitt? _____.
a. playing in her first film b. winning some French fans
c. living with an auntd. playing a role in a play
e. singing “Monotonous”f. receiving dance training
A. cfbdeaB. fcbdea
C. fcdeabD. cfbaed
4.What made Eartha Kitt an unforgettable Catwoman in “Batman”? _____.
A. Her walking steps.B. The looks on her face.
C. Her way of speaking “r”.D. Her good singing skills.
5.What might be talked in the following paragraph? _____.
A.Eartha Kitt’s bings.
B.Eartha Kitt’s families in America.
C.Eartha Kitt’s international success.
D.Eartha Kitt’s hard life after being blacklisted.
A few years ago, my younger brother and I went to Norfolk, Virginian by plane. , before we took off, we heard the pilot’s voice throughout the plane, “sorry for the delay, ladies and gentlemen. We have no on the plane. We have a generator (发电机) on the ground right now, and we are going to the engines with it. Once we get them going, we will 4 in the air and head to Norfolk, and see what happens. ”
See what happens? We are going to get up in the air, and see what happens? At this point, one woman started crying. “Oh, no! We are going to !” There were sighs of desperation and spreading throughout the plane, and we hadn’t even 7 yet. Thirty minutes passed and we were still there. Then the voice of the pilot came over again, “Ladies and gentlemen, I know you are , so are we. We only have one engine going right now, and it is working double time. ”
There was crying we had walked into grave. But, the pilot told us our one engine was working double time, and his was to get up in the air and see what happens! Then we did. We got up in the air and what happened? --- other than thrust (推力) and lift. We arrived in Norfolk and everyone for still being alive.
Although I do sincerely like to have a plan 14 “see what happens”, it really isn’t such a bad life strategy. All too often, I would see people chasing their goals halt (停滞) with inaction just because they don’t have 16 success. Actually, success will never be guaranteed. The thing that you can do is just get up in the air, and see what happens.
If you are planning to learn a new skill, get up in the air, and see what happens! It might not be as as you thought. You might be smarter than you thought. It could be ! So don’t stay there trying nothing just because there is no of guaranteed success.
1.A. HopefullyB. ExcitedlyC. ThankfullyD. Unfortunately
2.A. powerB. serviceC. waterD. captain
3.A. shutB. startC. changeD. fix
4.A. get upB. pack upC. light upD. speed up
5.A. waitB. delayC. crashD. suffer
6.A. rumorB. diseaseC. anxietyD. smoke
7.A. looked overB. taken off C. got acrossD. gone out
8.A. boardingB. checkingC. watchingD. sitting
9.A. puzzledB. patientC. desperateD. embarrassed
10.A. even ifB. only ifC. what ifD. as if
11.A. planB. complaintC. promiseD. comment
12.A. everythingB. nothingC. something.D. anything
13.A. escapedB. cheeredC. sighedD. praised
14.A. better thanB. other thanC. less thanD. more than
15.A. frozenB. annoyedC. concernedD. satisfied
16.A. realisticB. organizedC. potentialD. guaranteed
17.A. sameB. commonC. bestD. last
18.A. interestingB. challengingC. surprisingD. encouraging
19.A. sorrowB. painC. funD. trouble
20.A. meaning B. rewardC. action D. sign
--- Better get down to your work, Jack.
--- _____.
A. It’s my pleasure B. Not to mention it
C. Mind your own business D. You’re welcome
