When friends come to visit us in the evening, they spend their time telling us they are in a hurry and looking at their watches. It isn’t that our friends are all very busy, it is just that we haven’t got a television. People think that we are very strange. “But what do you do in the evening?”,they are always asking. The answer is very simple. Both my wife and I have hobbies. We certainly don’t spend our evenings staring at the walls. My wife enjoys cooking and painting and often attends evening classes in foreign languages. This is particularly useful as we often go abroad for our holidays. I collect stamps and I’m always busy with my collection. Both of us enjoy listening to the music and playing chess together.
Sometimes there are power cuts and we have no electricity in the house. This does not worry us, we just light candles and carry on with what we were doing before. Our friends, however, are lost---no television!---So they don’t know what to do. On such evenings our house is very full ---they all come to us. They all have a good time. Instead of sitting in silence in front of the television, everybody talks and plays games.
57. The couple have not got a television, because     .
A. they are not rich enough         
B. they are strange people
C. they enjoy spending evenings in their own ways
D. they don’t know what to do when there are power cuts
58. Both of them are interested in     .
A. learning languages  B. traveling 
C. staying home alone                D. watching people play games
59.At night when there is no electricity, the couple       .
A. have to stare at the walls B. can do nothing but sit in silence
C. will have many visitors  D. have to go out for candles
60. The best title for this passage is _____.
A. What is the function of television?     B. Candle! But No Electricity!
C. Different Friends, Different Hobbies.   D. We Go Without Televisions!

Prince Roman was a Polish nobleman, a captain in the army of Czar Nicholas of Russia. When his young wife died, the prince left the army and returned in sorrow to his native Poland.

In time, love for his country and its people took the place of his lost love. He joined a Polish rising against the Russians. The rising was crushed, and Prince Roman was taken prisoner. His relatives and friends begged the military court to have mercy on him.

The president of the court received these appeals kindly. He was a good Russian, but he was also a good-natured man. Russian hatred of Poles was not as fierce at that time as it became later; and the Russian felt sympathetic as soon as he saw the prince's thin, tired, sun-burnt face.

The court of three officers sat in a bare room, behind a long black table. Some clerks sat at the two ends, but no one else was there when the guards brought in the prince.

Those four walls shut out from Prince Roman all sights and sounds of freedom, all hopes of the future, all comforting thoughts. How much love for Poland remained in him then? How much love of life? He stood before his judges alone, having refused their permission to sit. He answered their first formal questions — his name and so on — clearly and politely although he felt too weary to talk.

Then the president of the court seemed to suggest how the young man could best help himself. He asked questions in a way that almost put the right answers in the prisoner's mouth.

“Didn't your wife's death drive you to despair? Wasn't your mind unbalanced by that sad event ?”

Prince Roman was silent.

"You were not fully responsible for you conduct, were you?"

Prince Roman was silent.

"You made a sudden blind decision to join the rising. You didn't realize that your actions were dangerous and dishonourable. Isn't that the truth of this unfortunate matter?"

The judges looked at the prisoner hopefully. In silence the prince reached for a pen and some paper. He wrote, "I joined the rising because I believe it was just." He pushed the paper towards the president, who took it and read it in silence.

Prince Roman was sentenced to hard work for life in the Siberian salt mines. It was a sentence of delayed death.

When Czar Nicholas read the report and sentence, he added in his own handwriting, "Make sure that this prisoner walks in chains every step of the way to Siberia."

1.What does the passage tell us of Poland at the time?

A.Polish officers in the Russian army had to return to Poland.

B.Russia was at war with Poland, so the Poles were enemies.

C.The Russians were very cruel rulers of Poland.

D.It was ruled by Russia, and Poles served in the Russian army.

2.How much love for Poland remained in the prince when he stood trial?

A.Not much, probably, after the failure of the rising.

B. More than he had ever felt before.

C.As much as he had ever felt.

D.The passage doesn't suggest an answer to the question.

3.The questions which the president asked show that ______.

A.he was trying to find excuse for the prince's conduct

B.the court wanted the prince to admit his own guilt

C.he wanted to learn the truth about the Polish rising

D.Prince Roman was a weak person

4.In the trial, Prince Roman ______.

A.was afraid to be responsible for his actions

B.blamed others for his actions

C.accepted responsibility for his actions

D.admitted his guilt

5.According to the passage, which of the following statements is true?

A.The judges were less sympathetic than Czar Nicholas.

B.Czar Nicholas was as kind as the judges.

C.Czar Nicholas was not as sympathetic as the judges.

D.The judges were as cruel as Czar Nicholas.

 

 

One year ago, when Fiona turned four, Sam and I decided to home-school her instead of sending her to pre-school.I have always felt that the 0-5 years are an irreplaceable dreamtime.As Fiona is an inventive, observant child, sensitive and funny and great company, it would be a tragedy to find school rubbing away her uniqueness and restricting the building of her personality.

I tried not to reproduce school at home.I never had the urge to get a chalk, or a blackboard.I didn’t go and search out a curriculum(课程表).I felt that my children would learn best if I stayed accessible (易接近的)and stayed out of their way.

Every day we worked some, relaxed some, read some and played some, but Fiona did not seem particularly happy here.She lost her temper once in a while.

How strange it was that my child who was free from school didn’t want to be free at all.Her friends all went to pre-school.She felt left out of a major part of her friends’ shared lives and experiences.I thought she was not in school for very strong, clear reasons, one of which was that the quality of learning my child did at home would be good, even better than expected.

Well, here was a situation I hadn’t expected.When we first decided to do this, Sam and I agreed that we would reassess(再评价)the situation for each child as she turned seven.Meanwhile we would offer her non-school-based opportunities to give her plenty of time with other kids-ballet lessons and swimming classes.She seemed to be enjoying all.But at times she kept asking when she was going to school.Whenever she asked this question, we told her that there would be a family meeting about it when she turned seven.She nearly always responded, “That’s when I’m going to go, then.” A fair amount of her curiosity was about school and I was afraid she was dreaming of going to school before she turned seven.

Although the advantages of home-schooling, I think, far outweigh its disadvantages, it is important for me to respect my daughter’s feelings and allow her to direct her own education.If her curiosity leads her to school, isn’t that where she should go?

Next week I’ll drive Fiona to her school.I hope that Fiona will learn to read and discover something wonderful to pursue in the world that opens up for her.I hope she will find the school activities provide her with satisfactory kid-time.

1.The writer decided to home-school her daughter, Fiona, because she thought________.

A.children aged 0-5 were too young to go to pre-school

B.Fiona may not be accepted by schools for her bad temper

C.home-schooling was much better than school education

D.children at Fiona’s age were too young to have their characters formed by school

2.In home schooling her daughter the writer tried to_______.

A.make her home just like a school

B.teach with a pointer, a piece of chalk, and a blackboard

C.be there when her child wanted her but tried not to stand in her way

D.teach according to a curriculum, which was suitable for Fiona

3.What was the writer’s biggest problem in home schooling her daughter?

A.She couldn’t decide what to teach and how to teach her daughter

B.She was not sure whether her teaching was suitable for Fiona.

C.She could not make Fiona give up the thought of going to school.

D.She didn’t know how to control Fiona’s temper

4.We can learn from the text that_______.

A.Fiona always acted against her mother’s instructions

B.it was against Fiona’s wish that she was educated at home

C.home-schooling was popular some years ago

D.Fiona’s parents would ask her opinions about school education

 

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