I was small for my age. I was shy and sometimes it was hard for me to make friends with the others. However, learning came fairly easy for me. I was the best in most of my classes, but PE class was my nightmare (恶梦) and made me feel that I was not as good as the others.
Miss Forsythe was our PE teacher. She was young and energetic. Everyone liked her. She said that we all had to come to her classes. No one could hide from Miss Forsythe!
One day she told me that she wanted me to play a game with another girl in a PE show. I was rather worried that I wouldn’t do a good job when she explained her idea, but she was excited. With her encouragement, I had no choice but to agree. It was a "boy meets girl" game. I played the boy and my classmate, Margaret Ann, played the girl. We were dressed in evening clothes and danced around the floor. According to Miss Forsythe, I had to pick up Margaret Ann when we finished the dance. Since I was not strong enough to pick the tallest girl up, it was she who picked me up. I suddenly felt ten feet tall!
It was a huge success and everybody applauded (鼓掌) for our excellent performance. What a wonderful ending! Afterwards, I smiled confidently (自信地).
Miss Forsythe’s understanding and willingness to create a place for me in her show (which certainly did not need me) gave me some much needed confidence. She was and always will be my favorite teacher.
【小题1】What do we know about Miss Forsythe?

Elizabeth Blackwell was born in England in 1821, and moved to New York City when she was ten years old. One day she decided that she wanted to become a doctor. That was nearly impossible for a woman in the middle of the nineteenth century. After writing many letters asking for admission(录取) to medical schools, she was finally accepted by a doctor in Philadelphia. She was so determined that she taught school and gave music lessons to get money for the cost of schooling.
In 1849, after graduation from medical school. she decided to further her education in Paris. She wanted to be a surgeon(外科医师) , but a serious eye problem forced her to give up the idea.
Upon returning to the United States, she found it difficult to start her own practice because she was a woman. By 1857 Elizabeth and her sister, also a doctor, along with another woman doctor, managed to open a new hospital, the first for women and children. Besides being the first woman physician and founding her own hospital , she also set up the first medical school for women.
【小题1】What main obstacle(障碍) almost destroyed Elizabeth’s chances for becoming for a doctor?

The teacher who did the most to encourage me was, as it happens, my aunt. She was Myrtle C. Manigault, the wife of my mother’s brother Bill. She taught me in second grade at all-black Summer School in Camden, New Jersey.
During my childhood and youth, Aunt Myrtle encouraged me to develop every aspect of my potential, without regard for what was considered practical or possible for black females. I liked to sing; she listened to my voice and pronounced it good. I couldn’t dance; she taught me the basic dancing steps. She took me to the theatre—not just children’s theatre, but adult comedies and dramas—and her faith that I could appreciate adult plays was not disappointed.
My aunt also took down books from her extensive library and shared them with me. I had books at home, but they were all serious classics. Even as a child I had a strong liking for humour, and I’ll never forget the joy of discovering Don Marquis’s Archy & Mehitabel through her.
Most important, perhaps, Aunt Myrtle provided my first opportunity to write for publication. A writer herself for one of the black newspapers, she suggested my name to the editor as a “youth columnist”. My column, begun when I was fourteen, was supposed to cover teenage social activities—and it did—but it also gave me the freedom to write on many other subjects as well as the habit of gathering material, the discipline of meeting deadlines, and, after graduation from college six years later, a solid collection of published material that carried my name and was my passport to a series of writing jobs.
Today Aunt Myrtle is still an enthusiastic supporter of her “favourite niece”. Like a diamond, she has reflected a bright, multifaceted (多面的) image of possibilities to every pupil who has crossed her path.
【小题1】Which of the following did Aunt Myrtle do to the author during her childhood and youth?

   The child of today owes much of its pleasant school life to the work of Maria Montessori and others who felt as she did.

　Maria Montessori was born in 1870 in northern Italy. Both her parents were well educated.

　While Maria was a student, she took great interest in the study of the particular nature of the child's mind. It came to her that small children should have freedom(自由) to learn.

　Maria became a doctor and a professor at Rome University. In 1907, after working with backward students, she was given a chance to try out her ideas on children. There were sixty children, aged three to six, in the Children's House. The rooms were bright and colorful. Maria let the children make their own choice of what they wanted to do and work with their own speed. They became busy, peaceful and happy.

　　Maria Montessori was one of the world's great teachers. She traveled in Europe, America and Far East. She thought that true education, providing(提供) for the real needs of the child, would produce wise and happy grown-ups and therefore a peaceful world. Her original way of education has changed our whole idea of what childhood is.

　　Maria Montessori died in Holland at the age of eighty-two.

45. The short passage is mainly about .

　　A. the education of backward students

　　B. a new idea of education

　　C. the importance of proper education

　　D. the life of Maria Montessori

46. Maria traveled a lot in the world to .

　　A. teach the backward students

　　B. enjoy her life in real nature

　　C. spread her ideas of teaching

　　D. study the situation of education

47. In what way did Maria teach the children in the Children's House?

　　A. She taught them the best way of learning well.

　　B. She let them learn in a very pleasant way.

　　C. She taught them by showing them how to do things.

　　D. She just let them choose the most interesting subjects.

48. We learn from the passage that ________.

　　A. Maria left her homeland in order to study abroad

　　B. Maria didn't get married

　　C. Maria's own parents were her teachers

　　D. Maria fully understood the child's mind

49. Which of the following best explains why Maria was one of the world's great teachers?

　　A. She created a new way in teaching, which changed the old idea of children's education.

　　B. She taught the backward students very successfully and produced a peaceful world.

　　C. She showed great love for the children and trained them in a new way.

　　D. She taught backward students in many different countries and let them learn freely.

There was a story many years ago of a school teacher--- Mrs. Thompson. She told the children on the first day that she loved them all the same. But that was a lie. There in the front row was a little boy named Teddy Stoddard. He didn’t play well with the other children and he always needed a bath. She did not like him.
Then Mrs. Thompson got to know that Teddy was actually a very good boy before the death of his mother. Mrs. Thompson was ashamed of herself. She felt even worse when, like all her other students, Teddy brought her a Christmas present too. It was his mother’s perfume(香水)。
Teddy said, “Mrs. Thompson, today you smell just like my Mom used to.” After the children left she cried for at least an hour. On that very day, she stopped teaching reading, writing and math. Instead, she began to teach children.
Mrs. Thompson paid particular attention to Teddy. The boy’s mind seemed to come alive. The more she encourage him, the faster he improved. By the end of the sixth grade, Teddy had become one of the smartest children in the class.
Six years went by before she got a note from Teddy. He wrote that he had finished high school, third in his class, and she was still the best teacher he ever had in his whole lift. He went to college. Mrs. Thompson got two more letters from him with the last one signed, Theodore F. Stoddard, M. D.(医学博士).
The story doesn’t end there. On his wedding day, Dr. Stoddard whispered in Mrs. Thompson’s ear, “Thank you, Mrs. Thompson, for believing in me. You made me feel important and showed me that I could make a difference.”
Mrs. Thompson, with tears in her eyes, whispered back, “Teddy, you have it all wrong. You were the one who taught me that I could make a difference. I didn’t know how to teach until I met you.”
【小题1】What did Mrs. Thompson do on the first day of school?