It is found that American students spend less than 15% of their time in school. While there’s no doubt that school is important, a number of recent studies reminds us that parents are even more so. A study published earlier this month by researchers at North Carolina State University, for example, finds that parental involvement — checking homework, attending school meetings and events, discussing school activities at home — has a more powerful influence on students’ academic performance than anything about the school the students attend. Another study, published in the Review of Economics and Statistics, reports that the effort put forth by parents (reading stories aloud, meeting with teachers) has a bigger impact on their children’s educational achievement than the effort devoted by either teachers or the students themselves. And a third study concludes that schools would have to increase their spending by more than $1,000 per pupil in order to achieve the same results that are gained with parental involvement.

So parents matter. But it is also revealed in researches that parents, of all backgrounds, don’t need to buy expensive educational toys or digital devices for their kids in order to give them an advantage. They don’t need to drive their offspring (子孙，后代)to enrichment classes or test-preparation courses. What they need to do with their children is much simpler: talk.

But not just any talk. Recent research has indicated exactly what kinds of talk at home encourage children’s success at school. For example, a study conducted by researchers at the UCLA School of Public Health and published in the journal Pediatrics found that two-way adult-child conversations were six times as potent in promoting language development as the ones in which the adult did all the talking. Engaging in this reciprocal（双向的) back-and-forth gives children a chance to try out language for themselves, and also gives them the sense that their thoughts and opinions matter.

The content of parents’ conversations with kids matters, too. Children who hear talk about counting and numbers at home start school with much more extensive mathematical knowledge, report researchers from the University of Chicago. While the conversations parents have with their children change as kids grow older, the effect of these exchanges on academic achievement remains strong. Research finds that parents play an important role in what is called “academic socialization” — setting expectations and making connections between current behavior and future goals. Engaging in these sorts of conversations has a greater impact on educational accomplishment.

1.Parents are even more important than schools because ______.

A. parental involvement makes up for what schools are not able to do

B. teachers and students themselves do not put in enough effort

C. parental involvement saves money for schools and the local government

D. students may well make greater achievements with parents' attention

2.It can be inferred from the 2^nd paragraph that ______.

A. educational toys are unaffordable nowadays

B. digital devices can give children an advantage

C. some parents believe in enrichment classes

D. talking with children is a very simple task

3.The word "potent" is closest in meaning to ______.

A. powerful    B. difficult     C. necessary        D. resistant

4.Which of the following will more encourage children's success at school according to the passage?

A. Parents order their children to stop playing video games.

B. Parents discuss with their children the possible future career.

C. Parents lecture their children on getting too low marks on tests.

D. Parents introduce colleges around the US to their children.

Barbie （巴比娃娃）, believe it or not, is 50 this year and she’s still as popular as ever. A doll is a doll , but Barbie illustrates how, over the last five decades, women have become a standard for judging what freedom really means How women are treated in different countries tells you a lot about the politics and culture of where they live.

The doll that every little girl wants enables young children to test their possibilities in role playing, giving them a glimpse of what they might be when they grow up, whether to be frivolous or serious （or both）.

But in many countries that’s not an option. In Saudi Arabia, where woman can’t drive or go out publicly unless covered, Barbie is banned. They think Barbie dolls are offensive to Islam （伊斯兰教） and a threat to morality.

In America, she represents the swiftly changing roles of women. Barbie is fun to tease but she’s as American as miniskirts and pantsuits in her flexible identities and her “growth” from model to astronaut.

Barbie inspired a doll – revolution movement. When a Teen Talk Barbie was programmed electronically to say “Math class is tough”, she was criticized by a national women’s group and was regarded as a bad stereotype. Some of her critics also say she’s a bad influence because she’s too thin and encourages anorexia, that she has run through too many stereotypes, and that she lends too much significance to the fantasy stages of child’s play.

In some Muslim countries, substitute Barbie dolls have been developed that promote traditional values, with their modest clothing and pro – family backgrounds. They are widely seen as an effort to resist the American dolls that have flooded the market.

Toy seller Masounmen Rahimi welcomed the dolls, saying Barbie was “foreign to Muslim culture” because some of the dolls have little clothing. She said young girls who play with Barbie, could grow into women who reject Muslim values. “I think every Barbie doll is more harmful than an American missile,” Ms Rahimi said.

1．Barbie is forbidden in some Muslim countries because         .

      A．she is more deadly than a missile          B．toys are not allowed there

      C．she looks 1ike an American                 D．she sets a poor example to children

2．The writer mentioned “miniskirts and pantsuits” （paragraph 4） to imply that          .

      A．these are the only clothes a doll should wear

      B．these are very traditional American clothes for women

      C．there are a range of different life options available for women

      D．readers should wear these clothes more often

3．The underlined word “anorexia”（paragraph 5） most probably means “         ”.

    A．an illness of refusing to eat

    B．giving up math study

    C．the wearing of inappropriate clothes

    D．a decrease in people’s imagination

4．Which of the following statements is TRUE according to the passage?

      A．People all over the world understand what freedom really means.

      B．How Barbie is treated seems to reflect a country’s politics and culture

      C．Women in Saudi Arabia have no options in deciding what to wear．

      D．Barbie dolls have contributed much to Muslim culture．

5．It can be inferred from the passage that          .

       A．children who like Barbie dolls won’t be so serious when they grow up

       B．Muslim Barbies are the same as American Barbies

       C．Muslim societies are generally more conservative than western societies

       D．Americans have no worry about Barbie’s influence on children

 “There is very little in my life that is more personal and more important to me than comets!” the amateur David H. Levy told Terence Dickinson in an interview. “Not just discovering them but watching them, learning about them, writing about them, understanding what they do. It makes observing the sky intensely personal. I feel when I find a new comet a door has been opened and I have seen a slightly new aspect of nature. There is this object in the solar system that ― for a few minutes or a few hours ― only I know about. It is like trying to pry（打探）a secret out of nature. It is a very special feeling.” Ever since he was a child, David H. Levy has been fascinated by the night sky and the wonders it reveals to devoted watchmen. He developed a special feeling for comets before he reached his teens, though it was not until 1984 ― after nineteen years and more than nine hundred hours of combing the sky in search of them ― that he discovered his first one, from a small observatory that he had built in his backyard.

Since then, he has discovered or co-discovered twenty more, making him one of the world's most important comet hunters. His most celebrated find is periodic comet Shoemaker-Levy 9, which he made with the husband-and-wife comet-and-asteroid-hunting team Eugene and Carolyn Shoemaker. The comet's dramatic collision with Jupiter in July 1994, which constituted（组成）“the greatest planetary show in recorded history,” to quote Malcolm W. Browne of the New York Times, captivated（迷住） not only professional astronomers, but many amateurs. Although he is only an amateur astronomer ― he earns his living by lecturing and writing books and by working with project artists. They’re projects devoted to introducing astronomy to elementary school children ― he has won tremendous respect from his professional colleagues for his success in tracking down comets. “David H. Levy is one of those rare individuals blessed with the gift of discovery,” David Hartsel, who serves on the board of directors of the Richland Astronomical Society, in Ohio, has said. “Even rarer is his ability to let others share in the excitement and wonder of those discoveries through his writing and lectures.”

46. The primary purpose of this passage is to ________.

A. praise Levy for his contribution to the observation of comets.

B. show that an amateur can do things as well as a professional.

C. introduce to the readers David Levy as a professional astronomer.

D. demonstrate that strong interest is very important in helping one succeed in his life.

47. All the following are suggested in this passage as reasons that contribute to Levy's success as a respectable astronomer EXCEPT that ________.

A. he had his books published on astronomy

B. he worked on a project that is intended to introduce astronomy

C. he was born with the gift of the discovery of comets

D. he was highly praised by his colleagues for his unselfishness

48. According to David Hartsel, he most appreciates Levy’s ________.

A. gifted ability of comet hunting             C. curiosity to the sky and comets

B. ability of communicating his ideas          D. spirit of devotion to astronomy

49. Levy says that watching the sky is quite personal to him because________.

A. he has developed a very special affection for the sky

B. he can discover a secret out of nature

C. he has established a close relationship with the sky

D. he may have a personal talk with nature

50. It can be inferred from the passage that_______.

A. Levy's parents are astronomers                      B. Levy was born in the 1970s

C. Levy achieved his fame in the 1980s

D. Levy himself has discovered 21 comets altogether

　　The use of the word imitation reminds me that we ought to make some more comments on the risk of people imitating what they see on the screen in the way of crime or violence．First there was always a risk of children acting out scenes which could be dangerous．For example, I remember a woman who was head of a middle school telling me that she had happened to look out of her window when the children were in the playground and had seen them putting a small boy on a chair with a rope round his neck and the rope over the branch of a tree; fortunately she was in time to get there before the child was hung．I remember a film in particular in which the hero who was imprisoned had escaped by electrocuting (电死) his guard, the technique of doing this being shown in detail．This was the kind of scene which we could cut for these reasons．

　　Every time I gave a talk in a prison someone used to mention the French film Rififi made by Jules Dassin in 1954．This remarkable film showed in great detail a robbery of a jeweller's shop, the robbery lasting about half an hour and being backed only by natural sound, one of the most brilliant film sequences (连续镜头) of all time．I remember our discussions at the time．We thought that the robbery experienced and skilled criminals could possibly imitate it; we believed therefore that it was relatively safe．When talking in prisons some years later I learned that there had been several robberies in which the techniques had been copied, so perhaps we were wrong．

1．The writer thinks that________．

[　　]

A．the details of the criminal technique should be kept

B．the details of the crime should not be shown on the screen

C．children should not imitate what they saw on the screen

D．it was dangerous to imitate what they had seen on the screen

2．What was the writer's attitude towards the film in which the hero had escaped by electrocuting the guard?

[　　]

A．The writer kept the same opinion

B．The writer was strongly against it．

C．The writer thought the film had some value．

D．The writer did not show his/her attitude．

3．Parents in prison agreed to film checking because ________．

[　　]

A．they did not want their children to follow suit (学样)

B．the crime on screen could be imitated without difficulty

C．they were forced to do it

D．they thought this was the best way to guarantee film quality

4．All the following statements about Rififi are true EXCEPT________．

[　　]

A．that the robbery shown needs experience and skills．

B．That natural sound could be heard in the film

C．That the film showed the technique in detail

D．That the technique of the robbery could not possibly be imitated

5．It can be inferred from the passage that________．

[　　]

A．it is hard for the children to tell the differences between real life and the imaginary

B．only the people in prison supported film checking

C．only children imitated what they had seen on the screen

D．the writer used to advise the details of crime should be shown

    By taking a few simple techniques, parents who read to their children can greatly develop their children's language skills．It is surprising but true．How parents talk to their children makes a big difference in the children'’s language development．If a parent encourages the child to actively respond to what the parent is reading．the child's language skills increase．

    A study was done with 30 three-year-old children and their parents．Half of the children took part in the experimental study；the other half acted as the control group．In the experimental group，the parents were given a two-hour training and they were taught to ask open-ended questions rather than yes-or-no questions．For example，the parent should ask，“What is the doggie doing?” rather than “Is the doggie running away?” The patents in the experimental group were also instructed in how to help children find answers，how to suggest different possibilities and how to praise correct answers．

    At the beginning of the study，the children did not differ in measures of language development，but at the end of one month，the children in the experimental group showed 5.5 months ahead of the control group on a test of expression and vocabulary．Nine months later，the children in the experimental group still showed an advance of 6 months over the children in the control group．

59．Which of the following can be inferred from the passage?

    A．Children who talk a lot are more intelligent

    B．Parents who listen to their children can teach them more．

    C．Active children should read more and be given more attention．

    D．The power of speech can easily he developed using proper methods

60．According to the author，which of the following questions is the best one to ask children?

    A．Do you see the elephant?             B．Is the elephant in the cage?

    C．What animals do you like?            D．Shall we go to the zoo?

61．The difference between the control group and the experimental group was       

    A．the training that parents received       B．the age of the children

    C．the books that were read                  D．the number of the children

62．What conclusion is best supported by the passage?

    A．Parents should be trained to read to their children．

    B．The more children read，the cleverer they will become．

    C．Children's language skills can be developed when they are required to respond actively．

    D．Children who read actively seem six months older．