Although many Chinese students say that their knowledge of English grammar is good, most would admit that their spoken English is poor. Whenever I speak to a Chinese student, they always say,“My spoken English is poor.”  I would like to suggest that there may be some reasons for their problems with spoken English.

First, they fail to find suitable words to express themselves due to a limited vocabulary. However, you can speak with a limited vocabulary, if you choose a positive attitude. Others will follow you as long as you use the words that you know.

   Sometimes they make mistakes when they are speaking because they are shy and nervous. Yet students should remember that their goal should be FLUENCY NOT ACCURACY. Your aim in writing is to be accurate following the rules for grammar and using the right words and spelling them correctly. However, in speaking your aim is fluency. You want to get your message across, to talk to someone in English, as quickly and as well as you can, even though sometimes you may use a wrong word or tense, but it doesn't matter.  

The third reason is that not enough attention is paid to listening. You have one mouth but two ears! All that hearing is necessary for you to start speaking.

Fourth, most Chinese students are reactive rather than proactive language learners. Instead of actively seeking out opportunities to improve their spoken English they passively wait for speaking opportunities to come to them and wonder why their English always remains poor.    

A. The person you are speaking to will understand you and make allowances for any mistakes he hears.

B. They may try to avoid making similar mistakes next time.

C. Obviously the better answer is to expand their vocabulary.

D. If you have this proactive outlook, then you will see English opportunities wherever you go.

E. However, their spoken English does not have to remain“poor”!

F. Second, they are afraid of making mistakes.

G. The second reason lies in the reluctance of using what has just been learned.

A lot of management training each year for Circle K Corporation, a national chain of convenience stores. Among the topics we address in our course is the retention（保护力） of quality employees-a real challenge to managers when you consider the pay scale（标准）in the service industry. During these discussions, I ask the participants（参加者）, “What has caused you to stay long enough to become a manager?” Some time back a new manager took the question and slowly, with her voice almost breaking, said, “It was a ＄19 baseball glove.”

Cynthia told the group that she originally took a Circle K clerk job as an interim（临时的） position while she looked for something better. On her second or third day behind the counter, she received a phone call from her nine-year-old son, Jessie. He needed a baseball glove for Little League. She explained that as a single mother, money was very tight, and her first check would have to go for paying bills. Perhaps she could buy his baseball glove with her second or third check. When Cynthia arrived for work the next morning, Patricia, the store manager, asked her to come to the small room in the back of the store that served as an office. Cynthia wondered if she had done something wrong or left some part of her job incomplete from the day before. She was concerned and confused.

Patricia handed her a box. “I overheard you talking to your son yesterday,” she said, “and I know that it is hard to explain things to kids. This is a baseball glove for Jessie because he may not understand how important he is, even though you have to pay bills before you can buy gloves. You know we can’t pay good people like you as much as we would like to; but we do care, and I want you to know you are important to us.”

The thoughtfulness, empathy and love of this convenience store manager demonstrates vividly that people remember more how much an employer cares than how much the employer pays. An important lesson for the price of a Little League baseball glove.

Among many of the problems in the service industry, talked about in this passage, is         .

       A．how to ensure his employees’ high pay

       B．how to attract more customers

       C．how to look carefully after the employees

       D．how to keep the good employees from leaving

Although a new manager, Cynthia would do her job well in keeping quality employees because she         .

       A．had mastered all the courses for the manager

       B．had already formed good relationship with the employees

       C．know the way how to deal with her employees

       D．had her own personal experience

This passage shows us that to run a business well it is necessary for managers to let their employees know         .

       A．how much they can get for their job.

       B．what good positions they can get later

       C．they are very necessary to the business  

       D．they are nice as well as useful

The story told in this passage tells us that employees care about         .

       A．only how large a pay they can get

       B．love from the managing people rather than only money

       C．if their children could be properly taken care of

       D．what position they can be offered

Although many Chinese students say that their knowledge of English grammar is good, most would admit that their spoken English is poor. Whenever I speak to a Chinese student they always say, “My spoken English is poor.” However, their spoken English does not have to remain “poor”! I would like to suggest that there may be some reasons for their problems with spoken English.

First, they fail to find suitable words to express themselves due to a limited vocabulary. Obviously the better answer is to expand their vocabulary. However, you can speak with a limited vocabulary, if your attitude is positive. Others will follow you as long as you use the words that you know.

Second, they are afraid of making mistakes. Sometimes they make mistakes when they are speaking because they are shy and nervous. Yet students should remember that their goal should be FLUENCY NOT ACCURACY（准确性）. Your aim in writing is to be accurate following the rules for grammar and using the right words and spelling them correctly. However, in speaking your aim is fluency. You want to get your message across, to talk to someone in English, as quickly and as well as you can, even though sometimes you may use a wrong word or tense, but it doesn’t matter because the person you are speaking to will understand you and make allowances for any mistakes he hears.

The third reason is that not enough attention is paid to listening. You have one mouth but two ears! All that hearing was necessary for you to start speaking.

Fourth, most Chinese students are reactive rather than proactive language learners. Instead of actively seeking out opportunities to improve their spoken English, they passively wait for speaking opportunities to come to them and wonder why their English always remains poor. If you have this proactive outlook, then you will see English opportunities wherever you go.

If you do not use your English beyond the classroom, you will forget what English you know. Remember: USE IT OR LOSE IT! You can learn how to speak English better by speaking English more.

What is most probably the writer’s purpose in writing the passage?

A．To improve your reading.                 

B．To improve your listening.

C．To improve your spoken English.        

D．To improve your vocabulary.

It can be inferred from the third paragraph that______.

A．don’t be fluency , Just be accuracy

B．don’t be nervous ,don’t be shy . Just write!

C．don’t be afraid of making mistakes . Just speak!

D．don’t be shy ,don’t be fluency. Just listen and write!

The last paragraph is possibly close to the meaning of “_____”.

A．more hurry, less speed             B．better late than never

C．silence is gold                    D．practice makes perfect

The text is most probably taken from a ______.

A．teacher’s diary                     B．report on study     

C．sports newspaper                 D．movie magazine

When a storm is coming, most people leave the area as quickly as possible and head for safety…But there are a few people who will get into their cars and go straight for the center of the storm．These people are willing to risk being killed by floods or 100-Kilometer- an-hour winds for the excitement of watching the storm close up．
　 “Storm chasing (追逐)”is becoming an increasingly popular hobby，especially in the Midwest of the United States, where there are frequent storms between March and July．A storm chaser begins the day by checking the Internet for the latest weather reports, and then drives up to l,000 kilometers to where the storm will be and waits for it to develop．
　  Although anyone can do it，storm chasing is extremely dangerous．The power of a big storm  can throw a cow into the air or destroy a whole house in seconds．Storm chasers are also often hurt in accidents caused by driving in a heavy rain．If you are a beginner, it is much safer to join a group for storm - chasing vacations during the storm season．
　  Even then，storm chasing is not all adventure and excitement．“Storm chasing is 95％driving，”says Daniel Lynch，who spends most of his summer storm-chasing．“Sometimes you
Can sit around for hours waiting for something to happen，and all you get is blue sky and a few light showers.”
　  However，for storm chasers，it is all worth it. “When you get close to a storm，it is the most exciting sight you will ever see in your life，”says Jasper Morley．“Every storm is an example of the power of nature．It is the greatest show on Earth．”
【小题1】For storm chasing，the first thing storm chasers do is to　　　 ．

Even if we have an extremely healthy diet and lifestyle, the human body is programmed to wear out at a maximum of about 120 years, and usually less. We all have a biological clock inside us which determines the moment when our organs cease to function properly. This is because our cells have stopped renewing themselves and our body can no longer repair itself. This is also the moment when we are more likely to begin to suffer from the diseases of old age such as arthritis and Alzheimer’s. However, rapid advances in DNA research are beginning to throw light on the secrets of the ageing process. By the end of this century we could literally have the power of life over death.
Although it has long been accepted that humans have a fixed lifespan, it is also a fact that certain other organisms, such as reptiles and amphibians, appear to live indefinitely. The only reason we do not see 500-year-old alligators is because in the wild their lives are always in danger, from man, from pollution and from other animals. When they are kept in zoos they do not seem to age at all after they are fully grown. The same is true of some species of fish, which grow indefinitely and show no signs of ageing. The existence of animals with no fixed lifespan seems to indicate that an age gene really does exist. It is this gene which scientists are searching for, which may delay or repair damage to the body caused by ageing.
Another new area of research involves the oxidation（氧化） theory, which says that ageing is caused by the same process that makes iron rust. In controlled experiments, the lifespans of certain animals were shown to be lengthened with anti-oxidants; for example, the lifespan of mice can be increased by 30%. Antioxidants are already being used in face creams and other cosmetics, and they are likely to play an important part in keeping people physically young.
Perhaps the most immediate advance we are likely to see in the battle to halt（停止）the ageing process will be organ replacement. By the year 2020 it is likely that we will be replacing injured bones or even organs like livers and kidneys with ones “grown” in laboratories. By 2050 perhaps every organ in the body, except the brain, will have become commercially available. Recent experiments also show that it may one day be possible to “grow” new organs inside our body to replace worn-out ones, something which lizards and alligators already do.
Suddenly immortality（不死，不朽） seems within reach. We can begin to imagine a future where we are born, we grow to maturity, but we never grow old and die. But do we really want to live forever?
【小题1】 When all humans reach a certain age,         .