For many people, history classes are seen as no more than requirements for getting degrees in chemistry, biology, business, marketing, etc. 1. Below are a few reasons why it’s vital that today’s people continue to learn about the past.
Understanding where people come from plays a key role in understanding who they are.2. For this reason, it’s extremely important to learn history in order to understand why people are the way that they are.
Through history classes, you can experience a shift (改革) in the way you think. 3.It’s important to develop minds to be able to consider problems from different angles. Finally, this shift can improve your ability to analyze and understand situations, to make educated decisions and to learn how to weigh the consequences related to each choice before you.
4.The idea that history repeats itself is rooted in truth. From wars to fashion to political trends, historians are often able to make predictions about the future based upon the past. By having a deep understanding of what happened in the past, today’s people can better prepare for brighter futures by making the right decisions—instead of repeating old mistakes.
Many people may not believe that a degree in history can lead to a well-paid job. In fact, students who graduate with degrees in history can become lawyers, business owners, think tank members, educators, leaders in historical organizations writers and so on. 5..
A.Whichever job you take, it can provide a comfortable life.
B.Learning about history can get students admitted to key universities
C.That means you look at things from a new point of view.
D.Learning from the past prevents future mistakes.
E.The key to enjoying the study of history is to find classes that interest you.
F.But the truth is that studying history is a wonderful way to prepare for a successful future.
G.History has shaped cultures, attitudes and social structures; it has shaped the world and its citizens.
It is not only praise or punishment that determines a child’s level of confidence. There are some other important ways we shape our kids—particularly by giving instructions and commands in a negative or positive choice of words. For example, we can say to a child “Don’t run into traffic!” or “Stay on the footpath close to me.” In using the latter, you will be helping your kids to think and act positively, and to feel competent in a wide range of situations, because they know what to do, and aren’t scaring themselves about what not to do.
Why does such a small thing make a difference? It is all in the way the human mind works. What we think, we automatically rehearse. For example, if someone offered you a million dollars not to think of a blue monkey for two minutes, you wouldn’t be able to do it. When a child is told “Don’t fall off the tree,” he will think of two things: “don’t” and “fall off the tree”. That is, he will automatically create the picture of falling off the tree in his mind. A child who is vividly imagining falling off the tree is much more likely to fall off. So it is far better to use “Hold on to the tree carefully.”
Clear, positive instructions help kids to understand the right way to do things. Kids do not always know how to be safe, or how to react to the warning of the danger in negative words. So parents should make their commands positive. “Sam, hold on firm to the side of the boat” is much more useful than “Don’t you dare to fall out of the boat?” or worse still “How do you think I’ll feel if you drown?” The changes are small but difference is obvious.
Children learn how to guide and organize themselves from the way we guide them with our words, so it pays to be positive.
1.Positive choice of words helps kids to ________.
A. do things carefully
B. build up their confidence
C. improve their imagination
D. learn in different situation
2.What can we infer from Paragraph 2?
A. A child will act on what is instructed.
B. One can’t help imagining what is heard.
C. A child will fall off the tree when told not to.
D. One won’t think of a blue monkey when given money.
3.Which of the following commands helps kids to be safe?
A. Fasten your seat belt.
B. Don’t play by the lake.
C. How do you think I’ll feel if you get hurt?
D. Don’t you dare to walk through the red light.
4.The main idea of the passage is that ________.
A. praise makes kids confident
B. right instructions keep kids safe
C. clear commands make kids different
D. choice of words can make a difference
It is bad to have food stuck between your teeth for long periods of time. This is because food attracts germs; germs produce acid, and acid hurts your teeth and gums. Flossing (使用牙线) helps to remove the food that gets stuck between your teeth. This explains why flossing helps to keep your mouth healthy, but some doctors say that flossing can also be good for your heart.
It may seem strange that something you do for your teeth can have any effect on your heart. Doctors have come up with a few ideas about how flossing works to keep your heart healthy. One idea is that the germs that hurt your teeth can leave the mouth and travel into your blood.Germs that get into the blood can then attack your heart. Another idea is based on the fact that when there are too many germs in your mouth, the body tries to fight against there germs. For some reason, the way the body fights these mouth germs may end up weakening the heart overtime.
Not every doctor agrees about these ideas. Some doctors think that the link between good flossing habits and good heart health is only a coincidence. The incidence (发生率) of two or more events is completely random, as they do not admit of any reliable cause and effect relationship between them. For example, every time I wash my car, it rains. This does not mean that when I wash my car, I somehow change the weather. This is only a coincidence. Similarly, some doctors think that people who have bad flossing habits just happen to also have heart problems, and people who have good flossing habits just happen to have healthy hearts.
The theory that flossing your teeth helps to keep your heart healthy might not be true. But every doctor agrees that flossing is a great way to keep your teeth healthy. So even if flossing does not help your heart, it is true to help your teeth. This is enough of a reason for everyone to floss their teeth every day.
1.From the passage, we know that ________.
A. food stuck between your teeth may hurt your teeth
B. all of the doctors agree that flossing is good for your heart
C. doctors’ judgment about flossing is based on medical research
D. not every doctor thinks flossing helps to keep your teeth healthy
2.The underlined sentence in Paragraph 3 is to ________.
A. provide an example
B. make a comparison
C. introduce a new topic
D. develop the previous statement
3.Which of the following best states the main idea of the last paragraph?
A. It is a fact that flossing can help your heart as well as your teeth.
B. There is no good reason to believe that flossing will help your heart.
C. Because doctors find flossing won’t help your heart, it is useless to floss.
D. Even if flossing is only good for your teeth, you should still do it every day.
4.Which is the best title for the passage?
A. Flossing by Coincidence
B. How to Keep Your Teeth Healthy
C. Flossing Habits and Healthy Hearts
D. Why Doctors Disagree About Flossing
Harper Lee, whose 1961 novel To Kill a Mockingbird on the racial troubles of the American deep south, has died at the age of 89.
Until last year, Lee had been something of a one-book literary legend. To kill a Mockingbird sold more than 40 million copies around the world and earned her a Pulitzer prize, remaining a towering presence in American literature. Another novel, Go Set A Watchman, was controversially published in July 2015 as a “sequel” to Mockingbird, though it was later confirmed to be Mockingbird’s first draft.
But from the moment Mockingbird was published to almost instant success, the author consistently avoided public attention. Lee had lived for several years in a nursing home near the house in which she had grown up in Monroeville, Alabama—the setting for Maycomb of her famous book. Her neighbor for 40 years, Sue Sellers, said, “She was such a private person. All she wanted was privacy, but she didn’t get much. There was always somebody following her around.”
James Naughtie, BBC Books Editor, commented on the novels of Harper Lee: “I think she stands, particularly among American readers, as someone who shone a light into a very dark place. She was writing at a time when people were beginning to lift the lid on everything in the South which they’d chosen not to understand. That all changed in the 1960s. So I think her status for writing that book in its extraordinarily direct way will remain.
1.What does the underlined part in Paragraph 2 probably mean?
A. Lee became successful with stories on American south.
B. People owe Lee’s success to luck to some degree.
C. Mockingbird makes Lee a wonder in American literature.
D. Mockingbird was a bestseller by selling 40 million copies.
2.What does “Maycomb” in Paragraph 3 probably refer to?
A. A nursing home.
B. Lee’s hometown.
C. A fiction place.
D. A main character.
3.Which best describes Americans’ attitude towards racial troubles before the 1960s?
A. Tolerant.B. Unconcerned.C. Sympathetic.D. Dissatisfied
4.What can we learn from the text?
A. Lee based all her stories on her life.
B. Lee had to avoid being followed by her fans.
C. Lee wrote Go Set A Watchman before Mockingbird.
D. Lee lived in the house where she grew up for the whole life.
For the Travel section, writers and editors selected special items to profile from a dozen cities.
Brussels:Chocolate
Nearly half the chocolate consumed in the world is eaten in Europe, and Belgium—with average consumption of 14.99 pounds per person a year—certainly covers its fair share. While Brussels, the country’s capital, is home to hundreds of chocolate makers, what makes a visit necessary is the rich heritage of traditional chocolate makers.
Budapest: Paprika (红辣椒)
The job of preparing Hungarian paprika was once considered too dangerous for mothers to do. A woman who touched her children upon returning from work risked burning them, so only the elderly and unmarried were allowed the delicate task of separating the skin from the flesh. But by the early 20th century, sweeter varieties and a machine turned paprika into a common feature of all Hungarian cuisine.
Lisbon: Tiles (瓷砖)
Is there a bluer Country than Portugal? The blue sky and Atlantic Ocean embrace the land. The blue moods of Fado, the dark folk music, form the national soundtrack. And all across Portugal, the typically blue designs of azulejos—ceramic tiles—are spread across churches, castles, palaces, university halls, parks... The result is a beautiful land of Christian saints, Portuguese kings, historical glories, aristocrats at leisure, seascapes and so on.
Madrid: Guitars
Walking into one of Madrid’s storied guitar makers’ workshops can feel like stepping into the past. Curly wood shavings, from the palest pine to ebony, fall onto the floor as artisans turn some humble wood into works of art. It’s painstaking work—all done by hand—with classical guitar models and the methods of making them changing little over the last century.
1.What does the job of preparing Hungarian paprika suggest?
A. The popularity of Hungarian peppers.
B. The difficulty of processing peppers.
C. The unique tradition in Budapest.
D. The hot level of Hungarian peppers.
2.Which city can be a splendid setting for a film?
A. Brussels.B. BudapestC. LisbonD. Madrid.
3.What’s the similarity of the four items?
A. They’re all treasures of a city.
B. They all date back to several centuries.
C. Their production processes are all painstaking.
D. They all win popularity in most European countries.
国内某家英文报纸设有一个求助信箱（letters to Dr. Helper）。请根据一份学生现状中列出的部分信息，以高三学生王勇的名义，用英语给Dr. Helper写一封短信（写信时间为2003年2月16日）。
学生现状：1、每日在校时间9小时；
2、每日作业时间3—4小时；
3、每日课外活动时间几乎没有；
4、每日睡眠时间不足。
负担过重原因：考试压力大；作业多，家长期望高
生词：负担过重overload 压力pressure 期望expectation
注意：1、书信格式要正确；
2、表达要点要全，不能逐句翻译；
3、词数120左右。
Dear Dr. Helper,
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