This brief book is aimed at high school students, but speaks to anyone learning at any stage of life.

Its formal, serious style closely matches its content, a school-masterly book on schooling. The author, W. H. Armstrong, starts with the basics: reading and writing. In his opinion, reading doesn’t just mean recognizing each word on the page; it means taking in the information, digesting it and incorporating it into oneself just as one digests a sandwich and makes it a part of himself. The goal is to bring the information back to life, not just to treat it as dead facts on paper from dead trees. Reading and writing cannot be completely separated from each other; in fact, the aim of reading is to express the information you have got from the text. I’ve seen it again and again: someone who can’t express an idea after reading a text is just as ineffective as someone who hasn’t read it at all.

Only a third of the book remains after that discussion, which Armstrong devotes to specific tips for studying languages, math, science and history. He generally handles these topics thoroughly  and equally, except for some weakness in the science and math sections and a bit too much passion regarding history. Well, he was a history teacher —if conveyed only a tenth of his passion to his students, that was a hundred times more than my history teachers ever got across.

To my disappointment, in this part of the book he ignores the arts.As a matter of fact, they demand all the concentration, and study that math arid science do, though the study differs slightly in kind.Although it's commonly believed that the arts can only be naturally acquired, actually, learning the arts is no more natural than learning French or mathematics.

       My other comment is that tke text aged.The first edition apparently dates to the 1960s—none of the references (参考文献) seem newer than the late 1950s.As a result, the discussion misses the entire computer age.

       These are small points, though, and don't affect the main discussion.I recommend it to any student and any teacher, including the self-taught student.

According to Armstrong, the goal of reading is to ____        .

A.gain knowledge and expand one's view

B.understand the meaning between the lines           

C.express ideas based on what one has read            

D.get information and keep it alive in memory

The author of the passage insists that learning the arts___        .

A.requires great efforts       B.demands real passion

C.is less natural than learning maths   D.is as natural as learning a language

What is a shortcoming of Armstrong's work.according to- the author?

A.Some ideas are slightly contradictory.

B.There is too much discussion on studying science.

C.The style is too serious.

D.It lacks new information.

This passage can be classified as ___.

A.an advertisement         B.a book review

C.a feature story            D.a news report

请认真阅读下面对话,并根据各题所给首字母的提示,在标有题号的右边横线上,写出一个英语单词的完整、正确形式,使对话通顺。

M: Well, this is it! What do you think of it?

W: I can hardly believe it's real. I've (76)d        of seeing it ever since       _________

 I saw it in books when I was a child. Just thinking of all this being built

 by hand more than 2,000 years ago! No (77)w       it's one of the      _________

wonders of the world.

M: (78) A      the started building is more than 2,500 years ago when   _________

 China was divided into (79)v      states. Three of the northern states   _________

 built defensive walls along their borders to keep (80)o       the enemies.

._________

W. But I always thought the wall had been built by Qin Shihuang, the first

   (81) E       of China.                                                                 _________

M: Well, yes. In the way, you see, he united the(82)w      country in the_________

 third century B. C. and one of the things he did was to join the (83)s    _________

walls into one big wall and to build more walls from the east coast right

across the length of north China to the west.

W: It is certainly something any nation could be proud of. I hear this is the

 only human(84)c       on the earth that can be seen from the moon.    _________

 By the way, how tall is the wall?

M: The average (85) h       is 7.8 meters; the average width is 6.5 meters_________

 at the base and 4.5 meters at the top. Would you like to go up to the top?

W: Yes! I'd like to have a look from the top.

Don't go to Kauai. Go to any of the other Hawaiian Islands --- Maui, Lanai, the Big Island --- but leave Kauai for us. The weather on Kauai is so unpredictable (不可预测的) that sometimes it rains all day --- in fact, it's the second-wettest spot on the earth. Yes, there are giant double rainbows all the time, and the sunlight through the clouds is magical. But if you are not interested in these, go somewhere else. You just can't control the nature on Kauai, and who wants to surrender (屈服) to the nature when you could be at a fine hotel, lying in a comfortable chair next to a swimming pool, with food served upon request?

So what if Kauai produces surf champions the way Texas produces cowboys?Most of its 300 white-sand beaches are unmarked. Unless you connect with the local people, the hidden spots are hard to find. While Hanalei is the most beautiful town you've ever dreamed of, you can forget about discos and clubs. Worse, it doesn't have one single four-star restaurant. What it does have is the original drive-through places where you pass by a rambutan tree (红毛丹树), and pick a piece of fruit.

Shopping in Kauai? Forget it --- unless you are interested in shell necklaces and beautifully carved wood bowls. Kauai is not about pampering. It's about going natural and finding the nature within you. It's a do-it-yourself place that offers walking along the coast, diving and swimming in the Pacific Ocean, and lying on the beach.

Don't go to Kauai unless you have a lot of time, because there's only one road, which can be slightly dull. It winds through the beautiful scenery of waterfalls, rivers flowing into the ocean, and taro (芋头) fields. You have no choice but to look at everything, because the speed limit is 35 m.p.h.

If you're not interested in color, don't bother with Kauai, because that's what you get --- red roads, blue oceans, and a hundred different shades of green. It's like diving on land. Many people on Kauai believe that this is Lemuria --- a lost island in the Atlantic. Can you imagine? Those Hawaiians, surfers, New Agers, and people who love nature and beauty and want a different quality of life --- what do they know, anyway? Forget about it --- you're not going to like it. Go somewhere else. Leave Kauai for us.

After reading the text, we come to know that it is _____.

A. a piece of shocking news B. an exciting story

C. an interesting introduction D. a moving advertisement

It can be learned from the text that _____.

A. Kauai is an island near the Hawaiian Islands  

B. Kauai is another name of the Hawaiian Islands

C. Kauai is one of the Hawaiian Islands

D. Kauai does not belong to the Hawaiian Islands

In the writer's real opinion, Kauai _____.

A. is not worth visiting at all B. is well worth visiting

C. is not a beautiful island D. is a dangerous island

Who would like to visit Kauai?

A. Those who love nature. B. Those who love city life.

C. Those who love the comfort in a fine hotel. D. Those who love going shopping.

 Complete the passage by choosing the proper words in the box.

Each word can only be used once. Note that there is one word more than you need.

A.political

B.supported

C.gossip

D.set E. contemporary

F. literary     G. alive          H. significance    I. enterprises    J. figures

It is impossible to imagine Paris without its cafés. The city has some 12,000 cafés varying in size, grandeur, and  41  . The cafés are like an extension of the French living room, a place to start and end the day, to  __42_   and debate.

When did the cafés in France start? The oldest café in Paris is Le Procope. It was opened in 1686 by Francesco Procopio dei Coltelli, the man who turned France into a coffee-drinking society. Le Procope attracted Paris’s political and  43  elite, and in this way played an important part among the upper class. By the end of the 18th century, all of Paris was intoxicated with (沉醉在)coffee and the city   44    some 700 cafés. These were like all-male clubs, with many functioning as centers of  45   life and discussion. By the 1840s the number of cafés had grown to 3,000. The men who gathered in these cafés and  46   the theme of the times included journalists, playwrights and writers. Around the turn of the 20th century, the sidewalk cafés became the meeting halls for artists and literary   47  .

Nowadays in Paris cafés still play the role of picture windows for observing   48 life. The artists gathered at the café may not be as great as those of the past, but faces worth watching are just the same. Linger a bit and you will see that the Parisian stereotypes are still_49    and well. You’ll see the old men in navy berets; ultra-thin, bronzed women with hair dyed bright orange; and schoolchildren sharing an afternoon chocolate with their mothers. The café in Paris has always been a place for seeing and being seen.

 

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