Ever tried taking smart drugs to perform better in exams? They certainly work. Before last summer's exam, a few of my mates, merely out of curiosity, took a considerable amount of Modafinil, a drug normally used for narcolepsy(嗜眠发作症). Guess what? While I was feeling sleepy, bored by revision, my mates were more focused.
Modafinil is a smart drug that gives a user a feeling of staying awake for hours. It also sharpens the mind, improves memory and helps problem-solving.
But it does more than just keeping you awake. It disturbs your mental system, making you desperate to do what you are doing. You just don't want to do anything else but revise all the time non-stop.
A recent study discovers that healthy people use smart drugs, like Modafinil, to get down to and complete tasks they have been putting off, because these tasks seem more enjoyable when taking these drugs. This might sound like what a stressed student desires. However, the pills have a range of side-effects.
"At present no evidence shows that these drugs are safe in healthy people," as a medical expert puts it, "Ordering online, though easy, is a dangerous way to obtain drugs. You never know what you're actually purchasing. "
In my experience, Modafinil changes people's behaviour too. Over those weeks my friends became different people—in turn aggressive, cold. Even eating became "a waste of time" and so did conversation.
A BBC survey found that of those who had tried smart drugs before, 92% would do so again. My friends say they'd happily do so without considering the practice a form of cheating.
I admit I was curious—but not enough to try it. Seeing the strange behaviour of other users, I feel a little bit upset and scary. Modafinil may promise to change your grades, but it might also change the way you act. Don't say you haven't been warned!
【小题1】According to the author, his mates took Modafinil for the purpose of______.

Our particular parenting style reflects our own way of “looking”. Here’s a great piece of writing reflecting parent’s particular ways on the parenting style that have become known humorously as helicopter parenting and submarine parenting.

Helicopter parents hover over their children, managing every aspect of their child’s life. On the contrary, submarine parents remain “hidden” coming to the surface when guidance is needed.

While helicopter parents may have the best intentions, in reality, they are raising children with few problem solving skills. Children with hovering parents never get the chance to face disappointment and build up their ability to recover from misfortune.

Think about your typical submarine. Submarines usually remain underwater. In case of a need for emergency surfacing, submarines can rise so quickly. They are driven partially out of the water. Submarine parents also remain out of sight, yet able to appear in the case of an emergency.

I admit I’m a submarine mom. My job as a parent is to have fun with my daughters while letting them explore and learn natural consequences.

My older daughter found herself acting in commercials and making more than minimum wage as a teen. To give her a sense of the real world, I insisted she spend three weeks every summer, picking strawberries and earning $3.50 on a good day.

When my youngest daughter Sondra was six, she wanted a very expensive American Girl Doll. I cut the full color 18" picture out of the American Girl catalogue and had it laminated (压膜). “Here’s your American Girl Doll.” I said “When you turn nine, I’ll buy you the 3D doll on your birthday.” Sondra played with her flat doll for months, making clothes and furniture for her. She learned creativity. I saved $88.00.

1.What is the text mainly about?

A. Various means of transportation.

B. Funny experiences of a mom.

C. Humorous stories about parents.

D. Different styles of parenting.

2.The underlined phrase “hover over” in Paragraph 2 is closest in meaning to “_____”.

A. leave behind                  B. fly around               C. watch over             D. set aside

3.Which of the following can be learned about helicopter parents from the passage?

A. They give their children proper guidance. 

B. They try to do everything for their children.

C. They teach their children how to face failures.

D. They help their children explore by themselves.

4.The author supports her point of view mainly by _____.

A. stating facts and offering advice

B. using figures and giving evidence

C. analyzing data and drawing conclusions

D. making comparisons and giving examples

One evening, a young man at a certain college who was known to be something of a poet read one of his poems to a small group of his friends in a room．The poem was greatly admired．But afterwards, one of them, who was called Crick, said, "I was very interested in Hand’s poem, but it was stolen from a book."
His words were reported to Hand, who was very angry and required an apology．"Well," said Crick, "I don’t often take back what I said, but this time I admit (承认) I was mistaken．When I got to my room, I looked in the book which I thought the poem was stolen from, and I saw it was still here!"
【小题1】The poem Hand read one evening was written by        .

    I must have been about fourteen then, and I put away the incident from my mind with the

easy carelessness of  youth. But the words, Carl Walter spoke that day, came back to me years

later, and ever since have been of great value to me.

Carl Walter was my piano teacher. During one of my lessons he asked how much practicing I was doing. I said three or four hours a day.

"Do you practice in long stretches, an hour at a time?"

"I try to."

"Well, don't," he exclaimed. "When you grow up, time won't come in long stretches.    Practice in minutes, whenever you can find them five or ten before school, after lunch, between household tasks. Spread the practice through the day, and piano-playing will become a part of your life."

When I was teaching at Columbia, I wanted to write, but class periods, theme-reading, and committee meetings filled my days and evenings. For two years I got practically nothing down on paper, and my excuse was that I had no time. Then I remembered what Carl Walter had said. During the next week I conducted an experiment. Whenever I had five minutes unoccupied, I sat down and wrote a hundred words or so. To my astonishment, at the end of the week I had a rather large manuscript ready for revision, later on I wrote novels by the same piecemeal method. Though my teaching schedule had become heavier than ever, in every day there were idle moments which could be caught and put to use. I even took up piano--playing again, finding that the small intervals of the day provided sufficient time for both writing and piano practice.

There is an important trick in this time--using formula: you must get into your work quickly. If you have but five minutes for writing, you can't afford to waste four chewing your pencil. You must make your mental preparations beforehand, and concentrate on your task almost instantly when the time comes. Fortunately, rapid concentration is easier than most of us realize.

I admit I have never learnt how to let go easily at the end of the five or ten minutes. But life can be counted on to supply interruptions. Carl Walter has had a tremendous influence on my life. To him I owe the discovery that even very short periods of time add up to all useful hours I need, if I plunge（投入）in without delay.

56．The meaning of “stretch” in the underlined part is the same as that in sentence “        ”.

      A．The forests in the north of the province stretch for hundreds of miles.

       B．Bob worked as a government official for a stretch of over twenty years.

       C．My family wasn’t wealthy by any stretch of the imagination.

       D．During his senior year his earnings far enough to buy an old car.

57．Which of the following statements is true?

　　A．The writer didn’t completely take the teacher’s words to heart at first.

　　B．Carl Walter has had a great influence on the writer's life since he became a student.

　　C．The writer owes great thanks to his teacher for teaching him to work in long stretches.

　　D．Rapid concentration is actually more difficult than most people imagine.

58．We can infer that the writer             . 

       A．has new books published each year however busy his teaching is

      B．is always tired of interruptions in life because his teaching schedule is always heavy

      C．has formed a bad habit of chewing a pencil while writing his novels

       D．can find sufficient time for mental preparations beforehand, so he's devoted to work   instantly

59．What is the best title of this passage?

       A．Concentrate on Your Work           B．A Little at a Time

       C．How I Became a Writer           D．Good Advice Is Most Valuable

I found the imagination of becoming a grandmother somewhat discouraging. I was younger than I thought a grandmother should be when I got the news that I was going to become one myself. I admit, it was not a role that I was emotionally ready to accept. I had been a young mother, and had certainly hoped my daughter would not face that same challenge. I remarried when she was a teenager, and then had two more children. On getting the news that she was expecting, I remember thinking “What do I know about being a grandmother? —I haven’t even finished raising my own kids yet!” I don^’t like to be unprepared, so I read a few books about grandparenting. That gave me a little help, but I was still uncertain. I thought about other grandmothers I knew, and got a few ideas I liked and a few more that I didn't. But I couldn't quite figure out what kind of grandmother I wanted to be. Then I thought about my own grandmother, Granny, as she’s known by most people, and I knew I had the answer.

I didn’t realize it until that moment, but my own grandmother was the example for the kind of grandmother I wanted to be. I am fortunate that I got to spend a lot of time with my grandparents when I was a little kid. Here's what I learned from my Granny：

Grandmothers always have a cookie jar. For my entire life, Granny always had a cookie jar full of cookies. When I was a little tiny girl, just at eye level with the counter, Granny would get the cookie jar down for me. When I was a little older I learned how to pull the chair over so I could reach. As I got taller, if I really stretched, I could reach the cookie jar with my finger tips and move it close enough to get it down off the counter to find out what kind of treat was inside. Always the first thing I did when I went to Granny 's house was check the cookie jar and there were always cookies in it. Many years later, I’ll drive my own children to Granny’s house and the first thing Pd do is get us all a cookie.

So grandmothers must have a cookie jar and on my granddaughte’ s first Christmas, my daughter bought me my own cookie jar. She said when they came to see me, her daughter would find the treat the way she did and I did.

1. The writer thought it was a little discouraging to be a grandmother because________.

A. she was not old enough to be one

B. she was not emotionally ready to be one

C. she thought her daughter was too young to be a mother

D. grandmother should be older than she was

2. The underlined phrase “that same challenge ” in the first paragraph refers to” ________”

A. taking care of a grandchild     B. taking care of a baby

C. being a young grandmother       D. being a young mother

3. It can be inferred from the last paragraph that________.

A. the writer has many happy memories of her grandmother’s cookie jar

B. the writer always wanted to know what was inside her grandmother’s cookie jar

C. the writer often drove her grandchildren to see her grandmother’s cookie jar

D. women of the writer ‘s age all have a cookie jar for their grandchildren

4. What kind of grandmother did the writer want to be?

A. One who has a jar filled with many kinds of cookies for children and herself.

B. One who grows up with her grandmother's cookie jar with all kinds of cookies.

C. One who is like her own grandmother with a cookie jar to treat her grandchildren.

D. One who always makes different kinds of cookies to treat her grandchildren.

5. Which of the following can be the best title of this text?

A. Grandmother’s Cookie Jar                 B.Grandmother’s Treat for Children

C. Grandmothers and Grandchildren          D. Happy Memories of Cookies