For many people today, reading is no longer relaxation. To keep up with their work they must read letters, reports, trade publications, interoffice communications: a never-ending flood of words. In getting a job or advancing in one, the ability to read and comprehend quickly can mean the difference between success and failure. Yet the unfortunate fact is that most of us are poor readers.
Most reading faults can be traced to early school training. According to Dr. Betts, two persons out of five in school were forced to read material too difficult for them to understand at the time, a frustration experience which left them with bad reading habits.
Fortunately, almost anyone can learn to read faster and with more comprehension. Age makes little difference. According to a recent study of 138 students at The Reading Laboratory, Inc. , all age groups showed a marked increase in reading rate after training from 93 percent for the 50-90 age group to 142 percent for the 20-29.Dr. Mila Banton Smith, director of New York University’s Reading Institute, says that the average adult student, in 28 training hours, nearly triples (三倍的) his reading speed and boosts(增长) his comprehension by about 30 percent.
The best way to improve your reading, of course, is to enroll(登记) in a reading clinic. If there’s no clinic handy, you can improve your reading ability yourself--- provided you have no eyes troubles. (if reading tires you easily or makes your eyes or head ache, you should consult a doctor.)
【小题1】To many people today, _______.

PART THREE READING COMPREHENSION
Directions: Read the following three passages. Each passage is followed by several questions or unfinished statements. For each of them there are four choices marked A, B, C and D. Choose the one that fits best according to the information given in the passage.
A
However important we may regard school life to be, there is always the fact that children spend more time at home than in the classroom. Therefore, the teacher should realize that parents have a great influence on their children. Parents can become strong allies (助手) of the school or they can get in the way of the school education.
Experts have realized the need to keep parents informed of the newer methods used in schools. Many headmasters have conducted workshops explaining such matters as the reading readiness, program writing and mathematics to parents.
Moreover, the classroom teacher, with the permission of the supervisors(管理者), can also play an important part in giving more knowledge to reporting pupils progress, teachers can help parents a lot in educating their children and parents can give much help to teachers.
Suppose that a father has been drilling Junior arithmetic lessons night after night. In a friendly talk between the teacher and the father, the teacher can help the parent to make Junior interested in it. He might be persuaded to let Junior join in discussing the family budget, buying the food, using a ruler or measuring cup at home, setting the clock, calculating the distance of a trip and engaging in scores of other activities that have a mathematical basis.
If the father follows the advice, it is reasonable to say that he will soon realize that his son is making satisfactory progress in mathematics, and at the same time, enjoying the work.
Too often, however, teachers’ talks with parents are devoted to small accounts of children’s misdemeanors(不良行为). They talk about the laziness and poor work habits of the children.
What is needed is a more creative way in which the teacher, as an adviser, plants ideas in parents’ minds to make sure that the child spends the many hours out of the classroom learning something useful.
In this way the school and the home join forces in educating children.
56. The main idea of the passage is that ____.
A. home training is more important than school training
B. parents should help their children to do their homework
C. there’re many ways in which the mathematics program can be carried out at home
D. teachers can and should help parents to use better ways to teach their children
57. From this passage we can know that the writer ____.
A. is satisfied with the relationship between school and home
B. feels that parent-teacher talks can be made much more constructive
C. believes that schools can’t teach pupils well
D. calls on parents to teach their children mathematics at home
58. What way that the writer doesn’t talk about can improve the present situation?
A. Classes for parents.                      B. New type of report card.
C. Parent-teacher talk.                        D. Dinner or party.
59. The writer implies that ____.
A. interesting activities can improve one’s achievement
B. too many children are lazy and have poor work habits
C. teachers should often make home visits to parents
D. headmasters do more than teachers in this area
60. We can infer from the passage that the writer does not favor ____.
A. father’s helping his son with his study    
B. written reports to the parents from the teachers
C. talking about children’s shortcomings
D. having the parents help their children with their lessons

However important we may regard school life to be, there is always the fact that children spend more time at home than in the classroom. Therefore, the teacher should realize that parents have a great influence on their children. Parents can become strong allies (助手) of the school or they can get in the way of the school education.
Experts have realized the need to keep parents informed of the newer methods used in schools. Many headmasters have conducted workshops explaining such matters as the reading readiness, program writing and mathematics to parents.
Moreover, the classroom teacher, with the permission of the supervisors(管理者), can also play an important part in giving more knowledge to reporting pupils progress, teachers can help parents a lot in educating their children and parents can give much help to teachers.
Suppose that a father has been drilling Junior arithmetic lessons night after night. In a friendly talk between the teacher and the father, the teacher can help the parent to make Junior interested in it. He might be persuaded to let Junior join in discussing the family budget, buying the food, using a ruler or measuring cup at home, setting the clock, calculating the distance of a trip and engaging in scores of other activities that have a mathematical basis.
If the father follows the advice, it is reasonable to say that he will soon realize that his son is making satisfactory progress in mathematics, and at the same time, enjoying the work.
Too often, however, teachers’ talks with parents are devoted to small accounts of children’s misdemeanors(不良行为). They talk about the laziness and poor work habits of the children.
What is needed is a more creative way in which the teacher, as an adviser, plants ideas in parents’ minds to make sure that the child spends the many hours out of the classroom learning something useful.
In this way the school and the home join forces in educating children.
【小题1】The main idea of the passage is that ____.

SECTION B

Directions: Read the following passage. Answer the questions according to the information given in the passage and the required words limit. Write your answers on your answer sheet.

Chinese cuisine（菜肴）is widely known and enjoyed in the world. But there is one interesting concept concerning Chinese food which is almost unheard of in the West, and which is becoming increasingly ignored by the youth of the East - the ancient custom of “tonic food.”

Tonic food is food which is consumed to improve one’s well-being, or stave off sickness, particularly at times when one is more likely to fall ill. For instance, it was once the custom for new mothers to eat a sesame-oil hot pot every day for the first month after giving birth. It was believed that this dish would benefit the muscles, reduce pain, improve circulation, stimulate sweating, and warm the body.

    In fact, some Western theories of health are similar to the beliefs in Chinese tonic food, although each takes a different path toward the very same goal. Western medicine actually recommends some of the exact same ingredients that make up tonic foods. Sesame oil can provide lots of calories, and chicken meat is particularly high in protein. Any Western doctor should be happy to suggest such a Chinese dish after childbirth.

The elderly, weak, and young can also benefit greatly from tonic foods, especially during the winter. Some foods, such as goat meat and spinach, are seen as “hot,” while others, such as Chinese cabbage and radish, are seen as “cold.” One should be careful not to eat too much of either “hot” or “cold” food. However, how much “hot” or “cold” food one should eat depends on the time of the year, how the food is prepared and what it is prepared with, and the individual’s health.

“Warm” or “cool” tonic foods are strongly recommended. The choices for “warm” and “cool” foods range from simple sea cucumber to the delicacy of bird’s nest soup, depending on the individual’s economic circumstances.

The concept of tonic food is far from losing credibility, either with Westerners or practitioners of modern medicine. For example, up until two years ago, tonic foods were added to the meals served at a renowned hospital.

1. What attitude do the young in the East hold towards “tonic food”?  （不超过5个词）

________________________________________________________________________________

2. Why are some Western theories of health considered similar to the Chinese beliefs in tonic food? (不超过11个词)

_______________________________________________________________________________

3. List four factors deciding the amount of tonic food. （不超过20个词）

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4. What does the passage mainly talk about? （不超过6个词）

______________________________________________________________________________

Now let us look at how we read．When we read a printed text, our eyes move across a page in short, rough movement．We recognize words usually when our eyes are still when they fixate(凝视)．Each time they fixate, we see a group of words．This is known as the recognition span or the visual span．The length of time of which the eyes stop ---the duration of the fixation ----varies considerably from person to person．It also varies within one person according to his purpose in reading and his familiarity with the text．Furthermore, it can be affected by such factors as lighting and tiredness．
Unfortunately, in the past, many reading improvement courses have concentrated too much on how our eyes move across the printed page．As a result of this misleading emphasis on the purely visual aspects of reading, numerous exercises have been devised to train the eyes to see more words at one fixation．For instance, in some exercises, words are flashed on to a screen for, say, a tenth or a twentieth of a second．One of the exercises has required students to fix their eyes on some central point, taking in the words on either side．Such word patterns are often constructed in the shape of rather steep pyramids so the reader takes in more and more words at each successive fixation．All these exercises are very clever, but it’s one thing to improve a person’s ability to see words and quite another thing to improve his ability to read a text efficiently．Reading requires the ability to understand the relationship between words．Consequently, for these reasons, many experts have now begun to question the usefulness of eye training, especially since any approach which trains a person to read isolated words and phrases would seem unlikely to help him in reading a continuous text．
59．The time of the recognition span can be affected by the following facts EXCEPT________ ．
　  A．one’s familiarity with the text B．one’s purpose in reading
　  C．the length of a group of words       D．lighting and tiredness
60．The author may believe that reading ______．
　  A．requires a reader to take in more words at each fixation   
B．requires a reader to see words more quickly
　  C．demands a deeply-participating mind                   
D．demands more mind than eyes
61．What does the author mean by saying the underlined sentence in the second paragraph?
　  A．The ability to see words is not needed when an efficient reading is conducted．
　  B．The reading exercises mentioned can’t help to improve both the ability to see and to
comprehend words．
　 C．The reading exercises mentioned can’t help to improve an efficient reading．
　 D．The reading exercises mentioned have done a great job to improve one’s ability to see
words．
62．What is the writer’s attitude in writing this passage?
　  A．critical   B．neutral   C．pessimistic     D．optimistic