Native Tongue

At first Kate thought the Romanian girl could not speak and understand English.Nadia would not reply to anything Kate said.Kate was in charge of showing Nadia around on her first day at Buckminster Grade School.Kate could not figure out why the school had put Nadia in a class where she could not understand what people were saying.

“Why did they do this?”Kate wondered aloud.“I mean,you can't learn if you can't understand the teacher.”

Nadia's voice was a whisper.“I understand English.I will learn.”Nadia's English was perfect.

Kate was perplexed.She couldn't understand why Nadia did not like to speak.Then she realized that moving to a new country probably wasn't the easiest thing to do.There were hundreds of unfamiliar and unusual things to learn—all at the same time.

“There're a lot of new things to learn,huh?” said Kate.

Nadia nodded rapidly.In a quiet voice she replied，“Many things people say,I do

not understand.I have been speaking English and Romanian all my life,but I do not know what some children are saying.For example,yesterday a boy asked if I could help him find the USB port on a thin black box he was carrying.Isn't a port a place for ships?It made no sense to me.”

“Don't worry,”said Kate.“You'll figure everything out in time.You see,that thin black box was a computer.A USB port is a place where you can connect other machines to a computer.”

Nadia and Kate were quiet after that.They took notes while the teacher gave a maths lesson.To ?Kate's? surprise,Nadia put up her hand and offered to answer questions at the blackboard.

Nadia handled every question the teacher gave her.Some of the questions were really difficult,and no one understood what was going on except Nadia and the teacher.When the teacher said that Nadia answered everything correctly,the whole class clapped their hands.

Nadia was smiling when she sat back down next to Kate.“Some things,”she said in a normal voice,“are the same all over the world.”

At the beginning of Nadia's first day at school,she was_____________.

A.disappointed         B.helpful         C.lively         D.shy

2.The underlined word“_________perplexed”probably means___________.

A.puzzled              B.angry           C.shocked        D.serious

3.We can infer from the passage that______________.

A.Nadia did not like Kate

B.Nadia had lived by the sea before

C.Nadia had never seen a computer before

D.Nadia spoke in a soft voice out of politeness          

4.Which of the following statements is true?        

A.Nadia was better at maths than other students.        

B.Nadia found some of the maths questions difficult.        

C.Nadia was encouraged to answer questions in class.        

D.Nadia understood the maths teacher better than other teachers.

5.What is the message of the story?

A.Talking about something familiar gives you confidence in communication.

B.Answering questions in class makes you better understood by classmates.

C.Language plays an important role in communication between cultures.

D.Mathematics helps to improve communication between cultures.

Life in the twenty-first century will be very   50 . Many changes will take place, but   51  will the changes be.
The population is growing   52 . There will be many   53  in the world and most of them will live   54  than people in the twentieth century.
Computers will be much smaller and   55  and there will be at least one in every   56 . And   57  studies will be one of the important subjects in school then.
People will work   58  and they will have more free time for sports, watching TV and travelling.   59  will be much easier and cheaper. And many more people will go to   60  countries for holidays.
There will be changes in our   61 , too. Maybe no one will eat meat every day, instead, they eat more fruit and vegetables. Maybe people will be   62 . Work in the future will be different, too.   63  and hard work can be done by robots. Because of this,   64  will not have enough work to do .This will be a problem.

.

A maths talent who won fame this week for giving up a million-dollar prize is living with his mother in a simple flat in St Petersburg, co-existing on her ~30-a-month pension, because he has been

unemployed for many years.

The Sunday Telegraph tracked down the strange recluse (隐士 ) who shocked the maths world when  he solved a century-old puzzle known as the Poincare Conjecture.

Grigory Perelman's trouble comes from a split with a leading Russian mathematical institute, the

Steklov, in 2003. When the Institute in St Petersburg failed to re-elect him as a member, Dr Perelman

was left feeling an "absolutely ungified and untalented person", said a friend. He becEune unconfident and cut himself off.

Other friends say he cannot afford to travel to the International Mathematical Union's congress inMadrid, where many people want him to receive the maths equivalent(等价物) of the Nobel Prize, and that he is too modest to ask anyone to pay for his trip.

Interviewed in St Petersburg, Dr Perelman insisted that he was unworthy of all the attention, and

was uninterested in the prize.“I do not think anything that I say can be ofthe slightest public interest"

he said. "I am not saying that because I value my privacy, or that I am doing anything I want to hide.

There are no top-secret projects going on here. Ijust believe the public has no interest in me."

He continued: "I know that self-promotion happens a lot and if people want to do that, good luck

to them, bjt I do not regard it as a positive thing. I realised this a long time ago and nobody is going to

change my mind. Newspapers sliould be more discerning(有洞察力的) over who they write about.

They should have more taste. As far as I am concerned, I can't offer anything for their readers."

Dr Perelman has some small savings from his time as a lecturer, but is apparently unwilling to increase them with the $1 million offered by the Clay Mathematics Institute in Cambridge,Massachusetts, for solving one ofthe world's seven "Millennium Problems".

66. Grigory Perelman lives with his mother because

A. he has to look after her

B. his mother has a million dollars

C. he has been out of work for a long time

D. he is badly paid at the mathematical institute

67. The phrase "absolutely ungified and untalented person" shows that Dr Perelman felt

A. angry      B. discouraged    C. proud        D. confident

68. Grigory Perelman refused to accept the prize because .

A. he thought the prize was worthless

B. he didn't believe the news

C. he couldn't afford to travel to Madrid

D. he showed no interest in it

69. From the passage, we can infer that Grigory Perelman

A. solved the most difficult maths problem

B. has a strong personality

C. wanted to make himself known to all

D. didn't get on well with the press

70. What's the best title for the passage?

A. Great Mathematician Leads Simple Life

B. Maths Genius Abandons a Million-dollar Prize

C. Mathematics Institute Offers Grigory $1 Million

D. One ofthe World's Seven "Millennium Probtems" Solved

 — You failed again in the maths exam yesterday.
—Don’t tell Dad about it; if he knows that, I’m_______dead. 
A. as well as     B. as much as         C.as good as     D. as many as

I don’t think you can work out the maths problem＿＿＿＿her help.

A. since     B. unless     C. with     D. without