Directions: Read the following text and choose the most suitable heading from A-F for each paragraph. There is one extra heading which you do not need.

In order to present the best presentation and eliminate room for error, you need to keep in mind certain guidelines. Here's are some of my ideas for presenting quality presentation that demand genuine attention from your listeners.

Picking out a topic is the hard part, when it comes to choosing from a list of presentation subjects. It has to be interesting, impactful and unique, therefore it is crucial to choose something you care about rather than randomly selecting one. Ask yourself if it covers angles －is it informative? Will it keep my listeners hooked? Will it create an air of boredom? Will I be able to get all my facts and research done? Is it appealing to me, but not to them?

There's nothing more annoying than have someone blabber on about a topic he/she hasn't done extensive research on. It is obvious from the way they speak, how monotonous their tones sound and how robotic their movement and gestures are. So don't be that someone. Take the effort to learn as much as you can. Make it matter to you, and remember how it can impact your listeners, and enlighten them on things they didn't know about at all.

No one is perfect, and there are bound to be mistakes or circumstances that you didn’t count on and couldn’t avoid. You could stutter with a word, mix up slides, or forget some important sheets of your presentation and so on. Straighten up. Crack a minor joke in your defense. In other words improvise and don't beat yourself up about it or else your presentation will end in disaster. Don't let it ruin the rest of it, and finish the presentation as planned, so that people think more of how well it ended.

The best thing about presenting a topic is eye contact. If you are able to say it by heart, and not by looking at a piece of paper, you will have mastered the most effective presentation technique. Memorize your lines, and points, and only glance at your notes occasionally if you think you may forget something. In the end, if you think that you are well prepared to answer questions, then by all means invite them.

Tom appeared on the sidewalk with a bucket of whitewash and a long-handled brush. He stopped by the fence in front of the house where he lived with his aunt Polly. He looked at it, and all joy left him. The fence was long and high. He put the brush into the whitewash and moved it along the top of the fence. He repeated the operation. He felt he could not continue and sat down.

He knew that his friends would arrive soon with all kinds of interesting plans for the day. They would walk past him and laugh. They would make jokes about his having to work on a beautiful summer Saturday. The thought burned him like fire.

He put his hand into his pockets and took out all that he owned. Perhaps he could find some way to pay someone to do the whitewashing for him. But there was nothing of value in his pockets —nothing that could buy even half an hour of freedom. So he put the bits of toys back into his pockets and gave up the idea. At this dark and hopeless moment, a wonderful idea came to him. It filled his mind with a great, bright light. Calmly he picked up the brush and started again to whitewash.

While Tom was working, Ben Rogers appeared. Ben was eating an apple as he walked along the street. As he walked along, he was making noises like the sound of a riverboat. First he shouted loudly, like a boat captain. Then he said “Ding-Dong-Dong”, “Ding-Dong-Dong” again and again, like the bell of a riverboat. And he made other strange noises. When he came close to Tom, he stopped.

Tom went on whitewashing. He did not look at Ben. Ben stared a moment and then said: “Hello! I’m going swimming, but you can’t go, can you?”

No answer. Tom moved his brush carefully along the fence and looked at the result with the eye of an artist. Ben came nearer. Tom’s mouth watered for the apple, but he kept on working.

Ben said, “Hello, old fellow, you’ve got to work, hey?”

Tom turned suddenly and said, “Why, it’s you, Ben! I wasn’t noticing.”

“Say —I’m going swimming. Don’t you wish you could? But of course you’d rather work — wouldn’t you? Of course you would.”

Tom looked at the boy a bit, and said “What do you call work?”

“Why, isn’t that work?”? Tom went back to his whitewashing, and answered carelessly.

“Well, maybe it is, and maybe it isn’t. All I know is, it suits Tom Sawyer.”

“Oh come, now, you don’t mean to say that you like it?”? The brush continued to move.

“Like it? Well, I don’t see why I shouldn’t like it. Does a boy get a chance to whitewash a fence every day?”

Ben stopped eating his apple. Tom moved his brush back and forth, stepped back to look at the result, added a touch here and there, and stepped back again. Ben watched every move and got more and more interested. Soon he said,

“Say, Tom, let me whitewash a little.”

Tom thought for a moment, was about to agree; but he changed his mind.

“No —no —it won’t do, Ben. You see, Aunt Polly wants this fence to be perfect. It has got to be done very carefully. I don’t think there is one boy in a thousand, maybe two thousand, that can do it well enough.”

“No —is that so? Oh come, now —let me just try. Only just a little.” “Ben, I’d like to, but if it isn’t done right, I’m afraid Aunt Polly … ”

“Oh, I’ll be careful. Now let me try. Say —I’ll give you the core of? my apple.”

“Well, here —No, Ben, now don’t. I’m afraid …”

“I’ll give you all of it.”

Tom gave up the brush with unwillingness on his face, but joy in his heart. And while Ben worked at the fence in the hot sun, Tom sat under a tree, eating the apple, and planning how to get more help. There were enough boys. Each one came to laugh, but remained to whitewash. By the time Ben was tired, Tom sold the next chance to Billy for a kite; and when Billy was tired, Johnny bought in for a dead rat —and so on, hour after hour. And when the middle of the afternoon came, Tom had won many treasures.

And he had not worked. He had had a nice idle time all the time, with plenty of company －and the fence had been whitewashed three times. If he hadn’t run out of whitewash, Tom would have owned everything belonging to his friends.

He had discovered a great law of human action, namely, that in order to make a man or a boy want a thing, it is only necessary to make the thing difficult to get.

1.Why did Tom take all his bits of toys out of his pockets?

A. Because he is tired and wanted to play with his toys.

B. Because he wanted to throw his toys away.

C. Because he wanted to give his toys to his friends.

D. Because he wanted to know if he could buy help with his toys.

2.Tom was about to agree to let Ben whitewash when he changed his mind because ____________.

A. Tom wanted to do the whitewashing by himself

B. Tom planned to make Ben give up his apple first

C. Tom was unwilling to let Ben do the whitewashing

D. Tom was afraid Ben would do the whitewashing better.

3.What made Ben Rogers eagerly gave up his apple and offer to brush the fence for Tom?

A. His warm heart and kindness to friends.?????????????

B. His curiosity about Tom’s brushing job.

C. Tom’s threat.????????????? ????????????? ????????????? ????????????? ????????????? ????????????? ?????????????

D. Aunt Polly’s idea.

4.Which of the following is the most suitable title for this passage?

A. The Happy Whitewasher ????????????? ????????????? ????????????? ?????????????

B. Tom And His Fellows

C. Whitewashing A Fence????????????? ????????????? ? ????????????? ????????????? ?????????????

D. How To Make The Things Difficult To Get

A woman from Japan was telling a friend about her trip to the United States.The woman had visited major businesses and investment companies in New York City and Chicago.

“I studied English before I left home，”she said.“But I still was not sure that people were speaking English.”

Her problem is easy to understand.Americans in business are like people who are in business anywhere.They have a language of their own.Some of the words and expressions deal with the special areas of their work.Other expressions are borrowed from different kinds of work such as the theater and movie industry.

One such saying is “get your act together”．

When things go wrong in a business，an employer may get angry.He may shout，“Stop making mistakes.Get your act together.”

Or，if the employer is calmer，he may say，“Let us get our act together.”

Either way，the meaning is the same.Getting your act together is getting organized.In business，it usually means to develop a calm and orderly plan of action.

It is difficult to tell exactly where the saying began.But，it is probable that it was in the theater or movie industry.Perhaps one of the actors was nervous and made a lot of mistakes.The director may have said，“Calm down，now.Get your act together.”

Word expert James Rogers says the expression was common by the late 1970s.Mister Rogers says the Manchester Guardian newspaper used it in 1978.The newspaper said a reform policy required that the British government get its act together.

Now，this expression is heard often when officials of a company meet.One company even called its yearly report，“Getting Our Act Together.”

The Japanese visitor was confused by another expression used by American business people.It is cut to the chase.

She heard that expression when she attended an important meeting of one company.One official was giving a very long report.It was not very interesting.In fact，some people at the meeting were falling asleep.

Finally，the president of the company said，“Cut to the chase.”

Cut to the chase means to stop spending so much time on details or unimportant material.Hurry and get to the good part.

Naturally，this saying was started by people who make movies.Hollywood movie producers believe that most Americans want to see action movies.Many of their movies show scenes in which the actors chase each other in cars，or in airplanes or on foot.

Cut is the director’s word for stop.The director means to stop filming，leave out some material，and get to the chase scene now.

So，if your employer tells you to cut to the chase，be sure to get to the main point of your story quickly.

1.After the woman visited the United States she might feel that ________.

A．her English was poor

B．it’s easy to master English

C．it’s difficult to make money

D．people there weren’t very friendly

2.In which situation could the words “get your act together” be used?

A．A task is completed successfully.

B．Players perform badly in a match.

C．Audience is satisfied with the actor’s performance in a movie.

D．Visitors make a tiresome and unpleasant trip to someplace.

3.According to the text，the expression “get one’s act together” ________.

A．was first used by a Japanese businesswoman

B．was forbidden to be used in the government policy

C．originally came from a yearly report of a company

D．was commonly read by readers in a newspaper in 1978

4.What do the sayings “get your act together” and “cut to the chase” have in common?

A．Their use.? B．Their meaning.

C．Their origin.? D．Their popularity.

My teenage son Karl became withdrawn after his father died．As a single parent, I tried to do my best to talk to him．But the more I tried, the more he pulled away．When his report card arrived during his junior year, it said that he had been absent 95 times from classes and had six falling grades for the year．At this rate he would never graduate．I sent him to the school adviser, and I even begged him．Nothing worked.

One night I felt so powerless that I got down on my knees and pleaded for help．“Please God, I can’t do anything more for my son． I’m at the end of my rope．I’m giving the whole thing up to you.”

I was at work when I got a phone call．A man introduced himself as the headmaster．“I want to talk to you about Karl’s absences.” Before he could say another word, I choked up and all my disappointment and sadness over Karl came pouring out into the ears of this stranger．“I love my son but I just don’t know what to do．I’ve tried everything to get Karl to go back to school and nothing has worked．It’s out of my hands．“For a moment there was silence on the other end of the line．The headmaster seriously said, “Thank you for your time”, and hung up.

Karl’s next report card showed a marked improvement in his grades．Finally, he even made the honor roll .In his fourth year, I attended a parent-teacher meeting with Karl．I noticed that his teachers were astonished at the way he had turned himself around．On our way home, he said, “Mum, remember that call from the headmaster last year?” I nodded．“That was me．I thought I’d play a joke but when I heard what you said, it really hit me how much I was hurting you．That’s when I knew I had to make you proud.”

By saying “Karl became withdrawn”, the author means that the boy changed entirely and ______.

       A．preferred to stay alone at home             B．lost interest in any activity

       C．refused to talk to others                        D．began to dislike his mother

There was silence on the other end of the line because ______ .

       A．the speaker was too moved to say anything to the mother

       B．the speaker waited for the mother to finish speaking

       C．the speaker didn’t want the mother to recognize his voice

       D．the speaker was unable to interrupt the mother

The underlined sentence “…he even made the honor roll” means that “ ______ ”.

       A．he was even on the list to be praised at the parent-teacher meeting

       B．he was even on the list of students who made progress in grades

       C．he was even on the list of students who turned themselves around

       D．he was even on the list of the best students at school

What is the main idea of this passage ?

       A．Children in single-parent families often have mental problems.

       B．Mother’s love plays an important role in teenagers’ life.

       C．Being understood by parents is very important to teenagers.

       D．School education doesn’t work without full support from parents.