Do you sometimes argue about what seems to you to be a simple fact? Do you argue whether it’s cold outdoors or whether the car in front of you is going faster than the speed limit?
If you get into such arguments, try to think about the story about the six blind men and the elephant. The first blind man who felt the elephant’s trunk said it was like a snake. The second who felt the elephant’s side said it was like a wall, while the third said it was like a spear as he touched the animal’s tusk. The fourth, who took hold of the elephant’s tail insisted that it was like a rope. The fifth man said it looked like a tree as he put his arms around one of the elephant’s legs. The sixth, who was tall and got hold of theelephant’s ears, said it was like a huge fan.
Each man’s idea of the animal came from his own experience. So if someone disagrees with you about a “simple fact”, it’s often because his experience in the matter is different from yours.
To see how hard it is for even one person to make up his mind about a “simple fact”, try this simple experiment. Get three large bowls. Put ice water in one. Put hot water in the second. Put lukewarm water in the third. Now put your left hand in the ice water. Put your right hand in the hot water. After thirty seconds, put both hands in the lukewarm water. Your right hand will tell you the water is cold. Your left hand will tell you it’s hot.
1.What makes people think about simple facts differently?
A. The fact that simple facts differ from one another.
B. The fact that people have different experience in the same simple fact.
C. The fact that people often disagree with one another.
D. The fact that it’s hard to make up one’s mind about simple facts.
2.The writer’s advice is that ________.
A. we should never think about simple facts
B. we should never judge something with a one-sided view
C. we should not agree about simple facts
D. we must learn from the six blind men
3.What’s the main idea of this passage?
A. People often judge something according to their own experience.
B. People often agree about simple facts.
C. It’s hard for a person to make up his mind about a simple fact.
D. Don’t care too much about simple facts.
Education is not an end, but a means to an end. In other words, we do not educate children only for the purpose of educating them. Our purpose is to fit them for life.
In some modern countries it has for some time been fashionable to think that by free education for all-whether rich or poor, clever or stupid-one can solve all the problems of society and build a perfect nation. But we can already see that free education for all is not enough; we find in such countries a far larger number of people with university degrees refuse to do what they think to be "low" work, and, in fact, work with hands is thought to be dirty and shameful in such countries. But we have only to think a moment to understand that the work of a completely uneducated farmer is far more important than that of a profess-or, we can live without education, but we die if we have no food. If no one cleaned our streets and took the rubbish away from our houses, we should get terrible diseases in our towns.
In fact, when we say that all of us must be educated to fit us for life, it means that we must be educated in such a way that, firstly, each of us can do whatever work suited to his brains and ability and, secondly, that we can realize that all jobs are necessary to society, and that is very bad to be ashamed of one's work. Only such a type of education can be considered valuable to society.
1.From the passage we can conclude that______.
A. education can settle all of the world's problems
B. free education for all probably leads to a perfect world
C. free education won't help to solve social problems
D. all the social problems can't be solved by education
2.The writer wants to prove that _____.
A. our society needs all kinds of jobs
B. our society needs free education for all
C. a farmer is more important than a professor
D. people with university degrees refuse to do what they think to be "low" work
3.According to the passage _____.
A. work with hands is dirty and shameful
B. work with hands is low work
C. work with hands is the most important
D. we can't regard work with hands as low work
4.The purpose of education is _____.
A. to choose a system of education
B. to prepare children mainly for their future work
C. to let everyone receive education fit for him
D. to build a perfect world
5.The passage tells us about _____.
system of education
B. means of education
C. value of education
D. type of education
假定你是李明，你的美国朋友Jack给你写了一封信，信中告诉你他很想学好汉语，但是已经学了一年了，汉语还不够好。特请你给他回封信，提供一些学好汉语的建议。内容包括：
1．建议课内外多说，多看，多听汉语；
2．建议同学之间进行汉字听写比赛等，培养学习汉语的兴趣和能力。
（词数要求100左右；参考词汇：汉字听写比赛Chinese character dictation competition）
Dear Jack,
I have received your letter and I have known that you are not so good at Chinese.
Yours,
Li Ming
There are various reasons why people compose(创作) poetry. Some poems tell a story or describe something in a way that 1. ( 留下印象) the readers deeply, while others try to c 2. certain emotions. The first poems 3. (写) in English were nursery rhymes, 4. were used to delight small children. 5. their strong rhythm and a lot of repetition, they were easy to learn and to 6. (背诵).Cinquain is another form of poetry which 7. of five lines. People can describe a picture in just a few words with these poems.The Japanese form of poetry Haiku, 8. up of seventeen syllables, is not a traditional form of English poetry but p 9. with English speakers. In 10. , Tang poems are borrowed by English speakers, which are translated into English, making the English poetry more colorful.
I. 根据下列各句句意及所给单词的汉语或首字母提示，写出所缺单词的正确形式。（10分）
1.The head office of the company is in Beijing, but it has ____（分公司）all over the world.
2.They often have the tradition of e gifts before they graduate from high school.
3.I’m not fond of sports. Honestly speaking, music _____to me more than sports.
4.It was e that the policy was a failure; nothing has changed at all.
5.What a c it is that they were born in the same year and on the same day!
6.I once a to read an English novel, but there were so many new words that I had to give up halfway.
7.She has already tried her best. Please don’t be too ______(挑剔) about her job.
8.Can you p what will happen if he is late for the meeting?
9.Our school has ______(采用) a new teaching method.
10.He studied hard with the a of passing the exam.
We often find that weekends and holidays feel so short while classes and work feel so long. In reality, though, we know that this is not true. But we still wonder where that strange feeling comes from.
In fact, this is one of the ways that we're tricked by time, according to the website All That Is Interesting. The website lists several wrong impressions we often have about time. Let's have a look.
First of all, emotions affect our time-keeping abilities: Negative emotions, especially anxiety and boredom, make time seem longer because they make us concentrate more on the passage of time. However, when we are enjoying ourselves, we pay more attention to what we are doing and are likely to lose track of(失去对…的意识) time.
Here is another example. In 2007, a group of scientists carried out a test. In the test, people fell 50 meters into a safety net and were then asked about their experience. Although the experience took shorter than 3 seconds, the people thought it was much longer than it actually was.
This is because of the way our bodies reply to danger, according to the scientists. Our bodies produce a chemical called adrenaline(肾上腺素) when we are faced with danger. It allows us to concentrate better so that we can stay alive. As a result, we are able to remember far more details over a short period of time, which makes it seem like time is going more slowly.
Another occasion when we make mistakes about time is when we take afternoon naps(午觉). Have you ever had trouble telling what time it is after a long nap? That's because the best amount of time for a nap is 20 minutes. After 20 minutes, you enter a new stage of sleep called slow-wave sleep. If you wake up mid-way in this stage, it will take a while before you can correctly perceive(感知) time again.
Yes, time can be mysterious and there is no way to control it So, perhaps the best thing to do is to make good use of every minute.
1. How many examples of being tricked by time are mentioned in the article?
A. Two B. Three C. Four D. Five
2.When people feel that an experience is longer than it really is, _________.
A. a chemical called adrenaline is playing a role
B. they are concentrating on what they are doing
C. they are responding faster to the changes around them
D. they could be facing danger or feeling bored
3. According to the passage, in which situation do we make mistakes about time?
A. We have a math test when we fall down from a high place.
B. We have trouble telling what time it is after a 20 minutes’ nap.
C. We have many problems left in the test paper, but the time is up.
D. We go to school on the school bus as usual on weekdays.
4.What is the article mainly about?
A. How emotions affect time keeping abilities.
B. Tests which scientists carried out about time.
C. The best amount of time for an afternoon nap.
D. Mistakes that people make in their understandings of time.
