Jane Scott is fourteen and the year before last she began to study in a middle school. She likes dancing and singing and spends a lot of time on them. But she hates math and does not work hard at it. She thinks it difficult to learn. She falls behind her classmates and once failed the math exam. She decides to drop it. Her father is angry with her when he knows about it.

It was Sunday. Mr Scott gave a call to his sister, who teaches math in another school. He hoped she would come and tell his daughter how to learn math. The woman came quickly and said. “You’re a clever girl, Jane. I’m sure you’ll soon do well in math if you work hard at it.”

“I’m afraid I can’t, Aunt,” said Jane, “Girls can’t be good at math.”

“I don’t think so,” said the woman. “I was good at it when was a girl. You must do more exercises and practice a math problem again and again until you master it. Remember: Practice makes perfect. Well, it’s a math problem. Think about it and practice it again, and you’ll work it out.”

“OK,” said the girl, “Let me try.”

About an hour later, Jane took the exercise book to her aunt and said, “I’ve done the problem ten times.”

“Well done!” her aunt said happily, “What result did you get?”

“Ten answers.”

1.Jane has difficulty in learning ______.

2.Jane Why does Jane fall behind classmates in math?

3. Mr Scott wanted her sister to help with her because______.

4.The woman told her _______.

5.Which of the following is true?

Mr. Wise,
I am a slow（迟钝的）student. Most of my classmates are much better than me. So I usually get worried. I spent much time studying for the tests, but I can’t get good grades（分数）. Sometimes my father gives me some help. He tells me not to worry about it. But it doesn’t work. What do you think I should do?
Xiaoming
Dear Xiaoming,
Many famous people were not so good when they were young. Edison, a famous scientist(科学家), did badly in his studies when he was a 12-year-old boy. But he did a lot for the people in the world at last. When I was at your age, I didn’t do well at school. But I kept working hard and I succeeded(成功) at last. You should take it easy and try your best. Tomorrow is another day. I believe you can do better.
Mr. Wise
【小题1】 Xiaoming feels worried because         .
A. he has a headache
B. he doesn’t want to work hard
C. he is not as good as（像……一样好）most of his classmates
【小题2】 Xiaoming wrote this letter to          .
A. ask for some help
B. find a pen pal
C. tell his father his problem
【小题3】Mr. Wise wrote about a famous person to         .
A. make Xiaoming angry
B. make Xiaoming feel better
C. show how much he knows
【小题4】In Mr. Wise’s letter, “tomorrow is another day” means         .
A. there are a lot of hopes in our lives
B. one can get good grades tomorrow
C. tomorrow is the same as today
【小题5】 From the second letter, we know Mr. Wise may be           before.
A. a doctor             B. a scientist          C. a slow student

Many people go to school for an education. They learn languages, history, politics, geography, physics, chemistry and mathematics. Others go to school to learn a skill so that they can make a living.
School education is very important and useful. Yet, no one can learn everything from school. A teacher, no matter how much he knows, can not teach his students everything they want to know. The teacher’s job is to show his students how to learn. He teaches them how to read and how to think. So, much more is to be learned outside school by the students themselves.
It is always more important to know how to study by oneself than to memorize some facts or a formula（公式）. It is actually quite easy to learn a certain fact in history or a formula in math. But it is very difficult to use a formula in working out a math problem.
Great scientists before us didn’t get everything from school. Their teachers only showed them the way. Edison didn’t even finish primary school. But they were all so successful. They invented so many things for mankind. The reason for their success is that they knew how to study. They read books that were not taught at school. They would ask many questions as they read. They did thousands of experiments. They worked hard all their lives, wasting not a single moment. Above all, they knew how to use their brain.
【小题1】 People go to school to _________.

The day is like any other day in his life. Tom walks past the shop on the street corner. He stops to look at the front row of shoes, and he feels happy to see that the pair of shoes he wants very much is still there. Looking down at his old shoes, he feels sorry for himself. He really wants to have them for his birthday.

He sadly walks away and thinks how to tell his mother about it. He knows very well she has little money. He decides not to go home at once , as he looks sad and his mother will notice(注意) it. So he goes to the park and sits on the grass. There he sees a boy moving a wheelchair（轮椅）with his hands . Tom looks at him and is surprised to see that the boy has no feet. He looks at his own feet. “It’s much better to be without shoes than without feet”, he thinks. There is no reason or him to feel so sorry and sad. He goes away and smiles, thinking he is happier.

1.Tom passes the shop ______.

2.Tom stops in front of the shop because he wants to ______ .

3.Why did Tom go to the park? Because ______.

4. We can learn from the story that Tom ______ .

Do you know that women’s brains are smaller than men’s? Normally the women’s brain weighs 10% less than men’s. Since research has shown that the bigger the brain, the cleverer the animal, men must be more intelligent（聪明的） than women. Right? Wrong. Men and women always score similarly on intelligence tests, despite the difference in brain size. Why? After years of study, researchers have concluded that it’s what’s inside that matters, not just the size of the brain. The brain is made up of “grey matter” and “white matter”. While men have more of the white matter, the amount（数量）of “thinking” brain is almost the same in both men and women.

It has been suggested that smaller brain appears to work faster, perhaps because the two sides of the brain are better connected in women. This means that little girls may learn to speak earlier, and that women can understand sorts of different information at the same time. When it comes to talking to the boss on the phone, cooking dinner and keeping an eye on the baby all at the same time, it’s women who come out on top every time.

   There are other important differences between two sexes（性别）. As white matter is the key to spatial（空间的）tasks, men know better where things are in relation to other things. “A great footballer always knows where he is in relation to the other players, and he knows where to go,” says one researcher. That may explain one of life’s great mysteries: why men refuse to ask for directions … and women often need to!

   The differences begin when fetuses（胎儿）are about nine weeks old, which can be seen in the action of children when they are very young. A boy would try to climb a barrier before him or push it down while a girl would ask for help from others. These brain differences also explain the fact that more men take up jobs that require good spatial skills, while more women speech skills. It may all go back to our ancestors, among whom women needed speech skills to take care of their babies and men needed spatial skills to hunt, according to one research.

1.Which of the following is TRUE according to Paragraph 1?

A. Grey matter controls thinking in the brain.

B. Men’s brain is 10% less than women’s.

C. Grey matter plays the same role as white matter.

D. Men and women have the same amount of white matter.

2.What can you infer from Paragraphs 2 and 3?

A. Men have weaker spatial abilities.

B. Women do not need to tell directions.                                      

C. Women prefer doing many things at a time.

D. Women do many jobs at a time better than men.

3.What can you learn from Paragraph 4?

A. Our children needed more spatial skills.

B. Women may have more feelings than men.

C. Young boys may be stronger than young girls.

D. More women take up jobs requiring speech skills.

4. The passage is mainly about _______.

A. ways of being more intelligent

B. differences between men and women

C. studies on brains between two sexes

D. studies on white matter and grey matter