My 9-year-old daughter is reading in her room before bed. Every now and then I hear her ______ at a funny line. Sometimes she calls out to ask _____ she can read us something. It’s _____ and she should be asleep by now, but we say yes.
“Listen!” she reads us the ______. “Isn’t that wonderful?”
My husband and I ______. It is wonderful. I can’t help feeling a little ______, too.
Not that long ago, we’d read to her nightly before she went to sleep. We did so even as she ______ reading on her own. As a result, we were often ______ by what was going on in her books, ______ we’d miss chapters as she sped ahead. No matter. Bedtime was ___________ reading aloud as a family, and we ______ it.
After almost ten years of reading together, she’s ready to step away from that ______. It’s tough for my husband and me to ______ the tradition, even as we delight in the to-be-read pile growing next to her bed.
But we still talk to her about ______. She’s aware that reading isn’t everyone’s favorite thing, and that some find it harder to get into a ______ than she does. It was frustrating for her once too, though she doesn’t remember that ______. These days, she keeps a blog of her ______, and begins to talk to others about what she loves to read. She’s outgrown(因年龄增长而失去) our ______ rituals(习惯；规矩) because she’s falling in love with books on her own. I ______ this makes me happiest of all.
We all used to read together, but my 9-year-old daughter has taken it to a new level. What a ______ from one bedtime reading tradition towards another!
1.A. whisper B. jump C. laugh D. shout
2.A. if B. though C. when D. until
3.A. pleasing B. late C. noisy D. enough
4.A. exercise B. blog C. requirement D. passage
5.A. pretend B. hope C. shake D. agree
6.A. easy B. safe C. sad D. patient
7.A. imagined B. finished C. began D. minded
8.A. confused B. disturbed C. excited D. controlled
9.A. before B. unless C. since D. because
10.A. with B. for C. against D. beyond
11.A. understood B. treasured C. escaped D. managed
12.A. occasionally B. unwillingly C. entirely D. regretfully
13.A. figure out B. give up C. carry on D. begin with
14.A. changes B. lessons C. books D. morals
15.A. story B. college C. career D. debate
16.A. again B. either C. now D. before
17.A. reading B. saying C. studying D. collecting
18.A. new B. old C. secret D. special
19.A. doubt B. admit C. accept D. argue
20.A. shift B. surprise C. pity D. chance
Are you simply moving through your day without fully living? I think many of us have done this. Everyone wants to fully live every day. 1. So I’ve decided to share with you some ways to help you enjoy every moment.
Sit in the morning. When you wake up, in the quiet of the morning, sit on the floor. I often use this opportunity to stretch. I feel every muscle in my body. 2.
3. I like to take breaks from work, and go outside for a slow walk. Pay attention to your breathing, to everything around you, to the sounds and light of objects.
Read in silence. Find a quiet time and a quiet place, and read a good novel. Have no television or computers on nearby. 4. It might seem difficult to let your mind move from the present into the time of novel, but it’s a great patience in focus. Also, I love a good novel more than almost anything else.
Look at someone in a grateful way. 5. If you want, you can tell that person how thankful you are to him.
A. Walk slowly.
B. Work with force.
C. But this is easier said than done.
D. And just put yourself in the world of the novel.
E. It’s a way of building something good into your life.
F. I also just sit, and focus on my breathing going in and out.
G. Find someone you care about and be grateful for his existence.
A Cornell University sleep researcher has some advice for people who run high schools: Don’t start classes so early in the morning. It may not be that the students who nod off at their desks are lazy. And it may not be that their parents have failed to enforce(确保) bedtime. Instead, it may be that biologically these sleepyhead students aren’t used to the early hour.
“Maybe these kids are being asked to rise at the wrong time for their bodies,” says Mary Carskadon, a professor looking at problem of adolescent (青春期的)sleep at Cornell’s School of Medicine.
Carskadon is trying to understand more about the effects of early school time in adolescents. And, at a more basic level, she and her team are trying to learn more about how the biological changes of adolescence affect sleep needs and patterns(方式).
Carskadon says her work suggests that adolescents may need more sleep than they did at childhood, no less, as commonly thought.
Sleep patterns change during adolescence, as any parent of an adolescent can prove. Most adolescents prefer to stay up later at night and sleep later in the morning. But it’s not just a matter of choice—their bodies are going through a change of sleep patterns.
All of this makes the transfer(迁移)from middle school to high school—which may start one hour earlier in the morning—all the more difficult, Carskadon says. With their increased need for sleep and their biological clocks set on the “sleep late, rise late” pattern, adolescents are up against difficulties when they try to be up by 5 or 6 a.m. for a 7:30 a.m. first bell. A short sleep on a desktop may be their body’s way of saying. “I need a timeout.”
1.Carskadon suggests that high schools should not start classes so early in the morning because
______.
A. students work so late at night that they can’t get up early
B. students are so lazy that they don’t like to go to school early
C. it is biologically difficult for students to rise early
D. it is really tough for parents to enforce bedtime
2.The underlined phrase “nod off” most probably means “_______”.
A. fall asleep B. turn around
C. agree with others D. refuse to work
3.Which of the following statements is NOT true according to Mary Carskadon?
A. Adolescents are going through a change of sleep patterns.
B. Adolescents need less sleep than they used to at childhood.
C. Adolescents prefer to stay up later at night and sleep later in the morning.
D. It is difficult for adolescents to get up early for a 7:30 a.m. first bell in high school.
4.What is the test mainly about?
A. Adolescent heath care.
B. Adolescent sleep difficulties.
C. Problems in adolescent learning.
D. Changes in adolescent sleep needs and patterns.
Popeye the Sailor first became a popular cartoon in the 1930s.The sailor in that cartoon ate lots of spinach(菠菜) to make him strong. People watched him, and they began to buy and eat a lot more spinach. Popeye helped sell 33 percent more spinach than before! Spinach became a necessary part of many people’s diets. Even some children who hated the taste began to eat the vegetable.
Many people thought that the iron in spinach made Popeye strong, but this is not true. Spinach does not have any more iron than any other green vegetable.
People only thought spinach had a lot of iron because the people who studied the food made a mistake. In the 1890s, a group of people studied what was inside vegetables. This group said that spinach had ten times more iron than it did. The group wrote the number wrong, and everyone accepted it.
Today, we know that the little iron there is in spinach cannot make a difference in how strong a person is. However, spinach does have something else which the body needs—folic acid.
It is interesting to point out that folic acid can help make a person strong. Maybe it was really the folic acid that made Popeye strong all along.
1.A good title for this reading passage is______.
A. The Truth about Spinach B. Popeye the Sailor
C. A Mistake with Numbers D. Folic Acid Makes You Strong
2.Why did many people eat spinach after they saw Popeye the Sailor?
A. They thought Popeye was funny.
B. They thought spinach made them strong.
C. Spinach had a lot of iron.
D. People liked folic acid.
3.A research group told people that spinach______.
A. made Popeye strong
B. was a green vegetable
C. had more iron than other green vegetables
D. had less iron than other green vegetables
4.The reading passage says that perhaps Popeye got his strength from______.
A. iron B. exercise
C. spinach D. folic acid
Low-Cost Gifts for Mother's Day
Gift No. 1
Offer to be your mother's health friend. Promise to be there for any and all doctor's visits whether a disease or a regular medical check-up. Most mothers always say "no need," another set of eyes and ears is always a good idea at a doctor's visit. The best part? This one is free.
Gift No. 2
Help your mother organize all of her medical records, which include the test results and medical information. Put them all in one place. Be sure to make a list of all of her medicines and what times she takes them. "Having all this information in one place could end up saving your mother's life," Dr. Marie Savard said.
Gift No. 3
Enough sleep is connected to general health conditions. "Buy your mother cotton sheets and comfortable pillows to encourage better sleep," Savard said. "We know that good sleep is very important to our health."
Gift No. 4
Some gift companies such as Presents for Purpose allow you to pay it forward this Mother's Day by picking gifts in which 10 percent of the price you pay goes to a charity (慈善机构). Gift givers can choose from a wide variety of useful but inexpensive things -many of which are "green" - and then choose a meaningful charity from a list. When your mother gets the gift, she will be told that she has helped the chosen charity.
1.What are you advised to do for your mother at doctor's visits?
A. Take notes. B. Give her gifts.
C. Buy medicine. D. Be with her.
2.Where can you find a gift idea to improve your mother’s sleep?
A. In Gift No. 1. B. In Gift No. 2.
C. In Gift No. 3. D. In Gift No. 4.
3.Buying gifts from Presents for Purpose allows mothers to _______.
A. enjoy good sleep B. give others help
C. get extra support D. be well-organized
One morning more than thirty years ago, I entered the Track Kitchen, a restaurant where everyone from the humblest(卑微的)to the most powerful came for breakfast. I noticed am empty chair next to an elderly, unshaven man, who looked somewhat disheveled. He was wearing a worn-out hat and was alone. I asked if I might join him. He agreed quietly and I sat down to have my breakfast.
We cautiously began a conversion and spoke about a wide rang of things. We never introduced ourselves. I was concerned that he might have no money and not be able to afford something to eat. So as I rose to go back to the counter and buy a second cup of coffee. I asked,
“My I get you something?”
“A coffee would be nice.”
Then I bought him a cup of coffee, We talked more, and he accepted another cup of coffee, Finally, I rose to leave, wished him well, and headed for the exit. At the door I met one of my friends. He asked,
“How did you get to know Mr. Galbreath ?”
“Who?”
“The man you were sitting with. He is chairman of the Board of Churchill Downs.”
I could hardly believe it. I was buying, offering a free breakfast, and feeling pity for one of the world’s richest and most powerful men!
My few minutes with Mr. Galbreath changed my life. Now I try to treat everyone with respect, no matter who I think they are.
1.What does the underlined word “disheveled” mean?
A. Unfriendly B. Untidy
C. Gentle D. Kind
2.The author bought coffee for the old man because .
A. he wanted to start a conversation
B. he would like to thank the old man
C. he intended to show his wealth
D. he thought the old man was poor
3.How did the author probably feel after he talked with his friend?
A. Proud. B. Pitiful.
C. Regretful. D. Surprised.
4.What is the message mainly expressed in the story?
A. We should learn to be generous.
B. It is honorable to help those in need.
C. We should avoid judging people by their appearances.
D. People in high positions are not like what we expect.
