Language learning begins with listening. Children are greatly different in the amount of listening they do before they start speaking, and later starters are often long listeners. Most children will “obey” spoken instructions some time before they can speak, though the word “obey” is hardly accurate as a description of the eager and delighted cooperation usually shown by the child. Before they can speak, many children will also ask questions by gesture and by making questioning noises. Any attempt to study the development from the noises babies make to their first spoken words leads to considerable difficulties. It is agreed that they enjoy making noises, and that during the first few months one or two noises sort themselves as particularly expressive as delight, pain, friendliness, and so on. But since these can’t be said to show the baby’s intention to communicate, they can hardly be regarded as early forms of language. It is agreed, too, that from about three months they play with sounds for enjoyment, and that by six months they are able to add new words to their store. This self-imitation（模仿）leads on to deliberate（有意的）imitation of sounds made or words spoken to them by other people. The problem then arises as to the point at which one can say that these imitations can be considered as speech. It is a problem we need to get out. The meaning of a word depends on what a particular person means by it in a particular situation and it is clear that what a child means by a word will change as he gains more experience of the world .Thus the use at seven months of “mama” as a greeting for his mother cannot be dismissed as a meaningless sound simply because he also uses it at other times for his father, his dog, or anything else he likes. Playful and meaningless imitation of what other people say continues after the child has begun to speak for himself, I doubt, however whether anything is gained when parents take advantage of this ability in an attempt to teach new sounds.

1．. Before children start speaking，what is greatly different?________.

A. the amount of listening     

B. a number of listening

C. the sound of listening

D. the meaning of listening

2. starters are often long listeners, the sentence means one can ________.

A. be hard to speak fluently

B. begin to speak quickly

C. start with listening

D. often take a long time in learning to listen properly

3. these can not be said to show a baby’s intention to speak, these refer to  ________.

A. pain　　 

B. happiness

C. kindness

D. above of all

4. according to the writer, we can draw a conclusion that  ________.

A. children are fond of imitating

B. these imitation can be considered as speech

C. children get more experience of the world

D. children’s use  of  words are often meaningless when a child is six months, he

5. When a child is six months, he can  ________.

A. call his mama

B. imitate many languages

C. store new words

D. play with sounds

完形填空

       Tim Becker and his neighbors are doing something to make their neighborhood a trouble-free area．

       When Tim Becker gets in his car to go shopping, he doesn’t    16  drive to a store and back home．He always looks    17  up and down the streets of his neighborhood．He looks for anything

          18  such as strange cars, loud noises,  19  windows, or people gathering on street comers．

       Tim    20  to a neighborhood watch group in Stoneville, Indiana, USA．The neighborhood watch group   21  on the third Wednesday of every month．That’s   22  ．Tim gets together with ?about? ten of his neighbors to discuss community ?  23  ．?Members of the neighborhood watch group want to help the police   24     their homes, streets, and families safe．

       Tina Stedman, president of ?  25  ?neighborhood watch group, agrees with Tim．“People seem to think that crime happens to other people but not   26   them．Well, it’s never happened to me,” she said,“but I don’t think anyone has the   27  to steal from other people or to make them feel   28  sitting in their own homes．”

       Alex, a member of the group, said that all the neighbors   29  out for one another,“We 30  each other’s homes．We keep watch on the neighborhood at night and on weekends．Usually a   31    of four or five of us goes out together．If something doesn’t look right, then we call the  32  ．?For example, if we notice a group of teenagers who seem to be looking for    33  ,or someone destroying property, we report to the police．”

      Alex feels the neighborhood watch groups ? 34  ?a lot in keeping crime down．Her husband Jim agrees,“Police are good people, but they can’t do  35  ．”

16．A．yet    B．still   C．just   D．rather

17．A．carefully　      B．clearly      C．nervously  D．coldly

18．A．familiar    B．unusual     C．expensive  D．interesting

19．A．curtained  B．open  C．old    D．broken

20．A．attends     B．belongs     C．goes  D．turns

21．A．meets       B．quarrels    C．sings D．searches

22．A．where       B．why  C．when D．how

23．A．politics     B．wealth      C．health       D．safety

24．A．keep  B．hold  C．let     D．protect

25．A．its     B．his    C．their  D．your

26．A．round       B．on     C．about D．to

27．A．right B．chance      C．courage    D．mind

28．A．unlucky    B．unsafe      C．disappointed     D．discouraged

29．A．set    B．let     C．hold  D．look

30．A．care  B．enter C．watch       D．manage

31．A．group       B．set     C．number     D．crowd

32．A．judges      B．police       C．firemen    D．doctors

33．A．work B．burden      C．service      D．trouble

34．A．produce    B．find   C．get    D．help

35．A．anything   B．evening    C．harm D．wrong

Thousands of dead red-winged blackbirds fell from the sky in an Arkansas town on New Year’s Eve after massive injuries, tests by Arkansas officials concluded on Monday. Some 5,000 birds mysteriously fell from the sky in Beebe, Arkansas after dark on New Year’s Eve. “The birds suffered from acute physical injuries leading to internal hemorrhage（大量出血） and death. There was no sign of infectious disease,” the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission said in a statement. The birds were otherwise healthy, it said.

One theory is that birds were frightened by New Year's fireworks and flew into buildings or other objects. “Loud noises were reported shortly before the birds began to fall from the sky,” the statement said, adding that blackbirds have poor night vision and seldom fly at night.

　　Another theory was that severe weather such as lightning accounted for the loud noises but this was discounted because the violent weather had already left the area. “We’re leaning more toward a stress event," said Arkansas Game and Fish Commission spokesman Keith Stephens.

The commission also is trying to determine what caused the deaths of up to 100,000 fish over a 20-mile stretch of the Arkansas River near a dam in Ozark, 125 miles west of Beebe. The fish were discovered on December 30. Stephens said the commission expected results on the fish tests in probably a month. Since almost all the fish were one species -- bottom-feeding drum, Stephens said, the test was very important. Stephens also said: “The events do not appear related.” Both that section of the river and the air at the site of the bird deaths were tested for toxins(毒素). Beebe is a town of about 4,500 people located 30 miles northeast of the state capital.

1.What is NOT the probable reason why the dead red-winged blackbirds fell from the sky?

A. Internal hemorrhage                  B. Fireworks

C. Lightning weather                            D. Murder

2.In the third paragraph, the underlined word discounted probably mean________.

A. not to reduce cost                            B. not to believe

C. to make up a part                            D. to explain mystery

3.According to Stephens, we can infer the probable cause of the dead fish is _________.[来

A. cold weather                                   B. poor management  

C. disease                                    D. lack of food

4.The passage is mainly developed by __________.

A. analyzing causes                             B. making comparisons

C. examining differences              D. following the time order

阅读下面短文，掌握其大意，然后从各题所给的四个选项中，选出最佳答案.

　　Tim Becker and his neighbors are doing something to make their neighborhood a trouble-free area.

　　When Tim Becker gets in his car to go shopping, he doesn't 1 drive to a store and back home. He always looks 2 up and down the streets of his

　　neighborhood. He looks for anything 3 such as strange cars, loud noises, 4 windows, or people gathering on street comers.

　　Tim 5 to a neighborhood watch group in Stoneville, Indiana, USA. The neighborhood watch group 6 on the third Wednesday of every month, That's 7 Tim gets together with about ten of his neighbors to discuss community 8 . Members of the neighborhood watch group want to help the police 9 their homes, streets, and families safe.

　　Tina Stedman, president of 10 neighborhood watch group, agrees with Tim. “People seem to think that crime（犯罪）happens to other people but not 11 them. Well, it's never happened to me,” she said, “but I don't think anyone has the 12 to steal from other people or to make them feel 13 sitting in their own homes.”

　　Alex, a member of the group, says that all the neighbors 14 out for one another. “We 15 each other's homes. We keep watch on the neighborhood at night and on weekends. Usually a 16 of four or five of us goes out together. If something doesn't look right, then we call the 17 .For example, if we notice a group of teenagers who seem to be looking for 18 , or someone destroying property（财产）, we report to the police.”

　　Alex feels the neighborhood watch groups 19 a lot in keeping crime down. Her husband Jim agrees, “Police are good people, but they can't do 20 .”

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