Kathy started at my nursery school at the age of three. She settled into the group easily, and would be first on the slide and highest up the climbing frame. She could put on her coat without help and not only fasten her own buttons but other children’s too.

She was a lovely child but unfortunately a scratcher. If anyone upset her or stood in her way, her right hand would flash out fast and scratch down the face of her playmates. Children twice her age would fly in fear from her.

This must have been very rewarding for Kathy but obviously it had to be stopped. All the usual ways failed and then I remembered an account by G  Atkinson Highfield School, of how fights in the playground had been stopped. No punishment had been given, but the attacker had been ignored and the victims rewarded. So I decided to try out on Kathy.

With a pocketful of Smarties I followed Kathy around. She was so quick that it was impossible to prevent her scratching, but I was dertermined to stay within arm’s length all afternoon.

All was peaceful but then I saw Kathy’s hand moved and heard the scream. Gently I gathered up the little hurt one in my arms and said “Nice, nice sweetie” and then looked puzzled when she got nothing.

Soon came another scream, this time from John. While holding him in my arms, I said, “Look, Kathy, a nice Smartie for John” and put it into John’s mouth.

A smile of understanding flashed across Kathy’s face. Minutes later, she came to me and said loudly, “Give me a Smartie! I have hurt my finger!”

“No,” I replied, “you’ll get it if someone hurts you.”

On purpose, she turned and scratched a nearby boy, Tom, and waited quietly while I mothered and rewarded him, then she walked away.

She has never scratched a child since.

Parents who find older children bullying younger brothers and sisters might do well to replace shouting and punishment by rewarding and giving more attention to the injured ones. It’s certainly much easier and more effective.

From the passage, we know that Kathy is _______.

A. sensitive but slow

B. smart but a bit rude

C. independent but selfish

D. quick but sort of passive.

Kathy scratched Tom because _______.

A. she was angry at Tom, who was in her way

B. she wanted to get a Smartie from the teacher

C. she was in the habit of scratching other children

D. she wanted to know if the teacher meant what she had said

According to the passage, the underlined word “bullying” is closest in meaning to“_______”.

A. helping

B. punishing

C. hurting

D. protecting

The writer of this passage aims to recommend an approach to _______.

A. rewarding children’s good behavior 

B correcting children’s bad behavior

C. punishing badly-behaved children

D. praising well-behaved children

My l4-year-old son, John, and I spotted the coat at the same time in a second-hand clothing store. It stood out among big and old coats. It had beautiful tailoring and an unbelievable price: $28. I looked at my son and we both said nothing, but John’s eyes shone. Dark, woolen topcoats were popular with teenage boys, but they could cost several hundred dollars new. This coat was even better. John tried it on and turned from side to side, eyeing himself in the mirror. The fit was perfect.

    John wore the coat to school the next day and came home with a big grin. “Did the kids like your coat?” I asked. “They loved it,” he said.

    Over the next few weeks, John changed. He was polite, less argumentative, more thoughtful, and on the whole much happier. “Good dinner, mom,” he would say every evening. Without a word of objection he would carry in wood for the stove. One day when I suggested that he might start on his homework before dinner, John, who always put things off, said: “You’re right. I guess I will.” When I mentioned this incident to one of his teachers, she joked that the coat must have changed him.

John and I both know we should never mistake a person’s clothes for the real person within them. But there is something to be said for wearing a standard of excellence for the world to see, for practicing standards of excellence in thought, speech, and behavior, and for matching what is on the inside to what is on the outside. 

1.What does the author try to express in the first paragraph?

A. The coat looked like a magical coat.

B. They were good at shopping.

C. The coat was a real bargain.

D. They had the same taste in clothes.

2.What does the underlined word “grin” in Paragraph 2 probably mean?

A. A wide smile.                            B. A worried look.

C. A jealous spirit.                        D. A joking tone.

3.After John wore the new coat, the author found he _______.

a. was happier and better-behaved

b. received more praise from his teachers

c. was willing to follow suggestions

d. made rapid progress in study

e. would say sweet words to please her

A. a, b, c             B. a, c, e             C. b, d, e             D. c, d, e

4.What message does the author intend to deliver in the article?

A. We should not judge people by their appearance.

B. Life is full of possibilities when we are young.

C. It’s beneficial to try different things in our lives.

D. What we wear could help shape who we are inside.

 

When John Weston awoke that morning, he remembered that his mother was going into hospital. He hadn’t worked out quite what was wrong with her. He knew, though that she hadn’t been well for some time now, and it had become almost familiar to him to see her eyes narrowed in a sudden attack of pain, and her hand pressing against her heart. Their own doctor, who she had finally gone to for advice, had sent her to an expert who knew all about these things. He had told her that just as soon as there was a bed for her, she would have to come into his hospital where he could look after her himself.

During the weeks since then the pains had come even more frequently, and the narrowed eyes became an almost permanent part of her expression. Always rather sharp, she began losing her temper over little things so that John’s father kept his thoughts to himself more and more. John, as ready as possible to make allowances, tried to think what it would be like to have toothache all the time and how bad-tempered that would make you.

So his mother would go into hospital for a few days. He was going to stay with his Aunt Daisy till she came back, and his father would stay on at home by himself. John’s cousin, Mona, was to come in and make the bed and wash the pots and dust round now and again. That was the arrangement, and John didn’t care much for it. Apart from missing his mother(and he was glad she was going away because they would make her better), he wasn’t very fond of his Aunt Daisy because she was even more bad-tempered than his mother.

1.Mrs Weston went to see her doctor_________.

A.as soon as she realized that something was wrong

B.only after her husband advised her to

C.a long time after the trouble began

D.when John asked what was wrong with her

2.what did Mrs Weston’s own doctor decide to do?

A.he decided to send her to hospital

B.he decided to get an expert to examine her

C.He decided to treat her himself

D.He advised her to wait for a few weeks.

3.how did John react to his mother’s bad temper?

A.he tried to imagine himself in her place.

B.He tried not to notice it.

C.He pretended that he had toothache.

D.He behaved himself as well as possible.

4.John regarded ______as most bad-tempered.

A. his father   B. his mother    C. his cousin Mona   D. his aunt Daisy

 

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