A study of English learning problems was carried out among a total of 106 foreign students. It shows that most students considered understanding spoken English to be their biggest problem on arrival. This was followed by speaking. Writing increased as a problem as students discovered difficulties in writing papers that they were now expected to hand in. Reading remained as a significant(显著的) problem.

The information gained helped us in determining where special attention should be paid in our course. Although many students have chosen to join the course with a reasonable motivation(动机), we considered it important to note what seemed to encourage interest. Nearly all the students have experienced some kind of grammar-based English teaching in their own country. To use the same method would be self-defeating because it might reduce motivation, especially if it has failed in the past. Therefore a different method may help because it is different.

Variety of activity was also seen as a way of maintaining(保持) or increasing motivation. Several years ago we had one timetable that operated throughout, but we soon found that both the students and the teachers lost interest by about halfway through the ten weeks. This led us to a major re-think, so finally we brought it into line with the expressed language needs of the students.

10. What is the text mainly about?

A. Foreign students have more problems.

B. There are many ways to improve English.

C. Teaching should meet students’ needs.

D. English learning problems should be studied again.

11. Writing became a bigger problem when foreign students________.

A. had to write their papers

B. became better at speaking

C. became less interested in reading

D. had fewer problems with listening

12. We may infer from the last two paragraphs that ________.

A. different teaching methods should be used

B. grammar-based teaching seems to be encouraging

C. English courses are necessary for foreign students

D. teaching content should be changed halfway.

A

A higher reading rate, with no loss of comprehension, will help you in other subjects as well as in English, and the general principles apply to any language. Naturally, you will not read every book at the same speed. You would expect to read a newspaper, for example, much more rapidly than a physics or economics textbook-but you can raise your average reading speed over the whole range of materials you wish to cover so that the percentage gained will be the same whatever kind of reading you are concerned with.

The reading passages which follow are all of an average level of difficulty for your stage of instruction. They are all about five hundred words long. They are about topics of general interest which do not require a great deal of specialized knowledge. Thus they fall between the kind of reading you might find in your textbooks and the much less demanding kind you will find in a newspaper or light novel. If you read this kind of English, with understanding at four hundred words per minute, you might skim (浏览) through a newspaper at perhaps 650-700, while with a difficult textbook you might drop to two hundred or two hundred and fifty.

Perhaps you would like to know what reading speeds are common among native English-speaking university students and how those speeds can be improved. Tests in Minnesota, USA, for example, have shown that students without special training can read English of average difficulty, for example, Tolstoy's War and Peace in translation, at speeds of between 240 and 250 words per minute with about seventy percent comprehension. Students in Minnesota claim that after twelve half-hour lessons, once a week, the reading speed can be increased, with no loss of comprehension, to around five hundred words per minute.

According to the passage, the purpose of effective reading with higher speed is most likely to help you ________.

A. only in your reading of a physics textbook

B. improve your understanding of an economics textbook

C. not only in your language study but also in other subjects

D. choose the suitable materials to read

Which of the following does not describe the types of reading materials mentioned in the second paragraph?

A. Those beyond one's reading comprehension.

B. Those concerned with common knowledge.

C. Those without much demand for specialized knowledge.

D. Those with the length of about five hundred words.

The average speed of untrained native speakers in the University of Minnesota is ________.

A. about 300 words per minute

B. about 245 words per minute

C. about 650-700 words per minute

D. about 500 words per minute

According to the passage, how fast can you expect to read after you have attended twelve half-hour lessons in the University of Minnesota?

A. You can increase your reading speed by three times.

B. No real increase in reading speed can be achieved.

C. Yon can increase your reading speed by four times.

D. You can double your reading speed.

A study of English learning problems was carried out among a total of 106 foreign students. It shows that most students considered understanding spoken English to be their biggest problem on arrival. This was followed by speaking. Writing increased as a problem as students discovered difficulties in writing papers that they were now expected to hand in. Reading remained as a significant(显著的) problem.  

The information gained helped us in determining where special attention should be paid in our course. Although many students have chosen to join the course with a reasonable motivation(动机), we considered it important to note what seemed to encourage interest. Nearly all the students have experienced some kind of grammar-based English teaching in their own country. To use the same method would be self-defeating because it might reduce motivation, especially if it has failed in the past. Therefore a different method may help because it is different.

Variety of activity was also seen as a way of maintaining(保持) or increasing motivation. Several years ago we had one timetable that operated throughout, but we soon found that both the students and the teachers lost interest by about halfway through the ten weeks. This led us to a major re-think, so finally we brought it into line with the expressed language needs of the students.

What is the text mainly about?

A. Foreign students have more problems.

B. There are many ways to improve English.

C. Teaching should meet students’ needs.

D. English learning problems should be studied again.

Writing became a bigger problem when foreign students________.

A. had to write their papers

B. became better at speaking

C. became less interested in reading

D. had fewer problems with listening

We may infer from the last two paragraphs that ________.

A. different teaching methods should be used

B. grammar-based teaching seems to be encouraging

C. English courses are necessary for foreign students

D. teaching content should be changed halfway.

A. year ago August, Dave Fuss lost his job driving a truck for a small company in west Michigan. His wife, Gerrie, was still working in the local school cafeteria, but work for Dave was scarce, and the price of everything was rising. The Fusses were at risk of joining the millions of Americans who have lost their homes in recent years. Then Dave and Gerrie received a timely gift—＄7,000，a legacy （遗产） form their neighbors Ish and Arlene Hatch, who died in an accident . “It really made a difference when we were going under financially.” says Dave.  

But the Fusses weren’t the only folks in Alto and the neighboring town of Lowell to receive unexpected legacy from the Hatches. Doxens of other families were touched by the Hatches’ generosity. In some cases, it was a few thousand dollars ; in other, it was more than ＄100,000.   

It surprised nearly everyone that the Hatches had so much money, more than ＄3 million—they were am elderly couple who lived in an old house on what was left of the family farm .  

Children of the Great Depression, Ish and Arlene were known for their habit of saving, They thrived own （喜欢） comparison shopping and  would routinely go from store to store, checking prices before making a new purchase .   

Through the years, the Hatches paid for local children to attend summer camp when their parents couldn’t afford it. “Ish and Arlene never asked you needed anything,” says their friend Sand Van Weelden, “They could see things they could do go make you happier, and they would do them.   

Even more extraordinary was that the Hatches had their farmland distributed. It was the Hatches’ wish that their legacy—a legacy of kindness as much as one of dollars and cent —should enrich the whole community （社区） and Ish and Arlene Hatch’s story .  

Neighbors helping neighbors ——that was Ish and Arlene Hatch’s story.   

56. According go the text, the Fusses _____

A. were employed by a truck company    B. were in financial difficulty  

C. worked in a school cafeteria            D. lost their home  

57. Which of the following is true of the Hatches?  

A. They had their children during the Great Deoression  

B. They left the family farm to live in an old house  

C. They gave away their possessions to their neighbors  

D. They helped their neighbors to find jobs  

58. Why would the Hatches routinely go from store?  

A. They decided to open a store        B. They wanted to save money  

C. They couldn’t afford expensive things   D. They wanted to buy gifts for local kids  

59. According to Sand Van Weelden, the Hatches were_____  

A. understanding  B. optimistic    C. childlike   D. curious   

60 What can we learn from the text?  

A. The community of Alto was poor  

B. The summer camp was attractive to the parents  

C. Sandy Van Weelden got a legacy form the Hatches  

D. The Hatches would like the neighbors to follow their example  

Even Intelligent People Can Fail

_________

The unusual things about the innovators (创新者) who succeeded in making our modern world is how often they failed. Turn on a light, take a photograph, watch TV, search the web, jet across the Pacific Ocean, talk on a cell-phone. The innovators who left us these things had to find the way to success through a maze (错综复杂) of wrong turns.

_________

We have just celebrated the 125th anniversary of American innovator Thomas Edison’s success in heating a thin line to white, hot heat for 14 hours in his lab in New Jersey, US. He did that on October 22, 1879, and followed up a month later by keeping a thread of common cardboard alight (点亮着的) in an airless space for 45 hours. Three years later he went on to light up half a square mile of downtown Manhattan, even though only one of the six power plants in his design worked when he turned it on, on September 4, 1882.

________

“Many of life’s failures,” Edison said, “are because that people did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.” Before that magical moment in October 1879, Edison had worked out no fewer than 3,000 theories about electric light. But in only two cases did his experiments work.

________

No one likes failure, but the smart innovators learn from it. Mark Gumz, the head of a camera maker, attributes some of the company’s successes in technology to understanding failure. His popular phrase is：“You only fail when you quit.”

_________

Over two centuries, the most common quality of the innovators has been persistence (坚忍不拔). That is another way of saying they had the emotional ability to keep on with what they were doing. Walt Disney, the founder of Disneyland, was so penniless after a series of financial failures that he was left shoeless in his office because he could not afford the $1.50 to get his shoes from the repair shop. Pioneering car maker Henry Ford failed with one company and was forced out of another before he developed the Model T Car.