What is language for? Some people seem to think it's for practising grammar rules and learning lists of words—the longer the lists，the better. That's wrong. Language is for the exchange（交流）of ideas and information. It's meaningless knowing all about a language if you can't use it freely. Many students I have met know hundreds of grammar rules, but they can't speak correctly or fluently（流利地）. They are afraid of making mistakes. One shouldn't be afraid of making mistakes when speaking a foreign language. Native speakers make mistakes and break rules, too. Bernard Shaw once wrote, "Foreigners often speak English too correctly. "But the mistakes that native speakers make are different from those that Chinese students make. They're English mistakes in the English language. And if enough native speakers break a rule, it is no longer a rule. What used to be wrong becomes right. People not only make history, they make language. But a people can only make its own language. It can't make another people's language. So Chinese students of English should pay attention to grammar, but they shouldn't overdo（做过头）it. They should put communication（交际）first.　

1．Language is used to ________.

A. express oneself　　     　       B. practice grammar rules

C. talk with foreigners only            D. learn lists of words

2．Generally, when an American or an Englishman speaks English, he ________.

A. never makes mistakes　　          B. often makes mistakes

C. can't avoid making mistakes         D. always makes mistakes

3．"Foreigners often speak English too correctly. "This sentence means that ________.

A. foreigners speak correct English   

B. foreigners speak incorrect English

C. foreigners speak English according to the grammar rules

D. foreigners never make mistakes when they speak English

4．If too many native speakers break a rule,  ________.

A. what they use will become right       B. they are against the law

C. they should say sorry to others        D. they will become heroes

Eating more nutrients than the body needs doesn’t make its function better, ______ overfilling the oil lamp makes it lighten more brightly

The space shuttle Discovery has had a long and busy career. For 27 years, it has worked for NASA, carrying astronauts to space and back on 39 missions. On March 9, 2011, after returning from its final voyage, the world’s most traveled spaceship was retired.
A crowd of shuttle workers, reporters and schoolchildren waited to greet Discovery at Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida. Three minutes before noon, they watched as the shuttle appeared in the sky and made one last touchdown. “For the final time: wheels stop,” Discovery’s commander Steven Lindsey said when the shuttle rolled to a stop.
Discovery’s final trip was to the International Space Station (ISS), a giant space lab in the sky. Discovery’s crew took care of the last U.S. construction project at ISS. They delivered 10 tons of supplies for the ISS. The six-person crew also dropped off an unusual companion for ISS’s researchers: a human-like robot named Robonaut 2. Astronauts will assemble（组装）R2 at the ISS over several months.
Now, NASA is winding down its shuttle programme. NASA is to begin work on new spaceships that can travel longer distances. Discovery’s retirement is the first of three. Endeavor, another shuttle, is scheduled to make its final voyage soon. And Atlantis’s last trip is planned for the end of June.
Museums across the country have requested the retired shuttles. The Smithsonian’s Air and Space Museum, in Washington, D.C., was the lucky recipient（接收者）of Discovery. The museum’s collection contains hundreds of NASA artifacts.
Where will the other shuttles go? You’ll have to wait to find out. NASA will announce its decision on April 12, the 30^th anniversary of the first space shuttle launching. Stay tuned!
【小题1】As part of the final mission, Discovery’s crew___________.

第二节（共5小题，每题2分，满分10分）

根据短文内容，从下框的A-F选项中选出能概括每一段主题的最佳选项。选项中有一项为多余项。

E. Differences between teaching and acting

F. A good teacher, not necessarily a good actor

61. ____________________________

To be a good teacher, you need some of the gifts of a good actor: you must be able to hold the attention and interest of your audience; you must be a clear speaker, with a good, strong, pleasing voice which is fully under your control; and you must be able to act what you are teaching in order to make its meaning clear.

62. ____________________________

Watch a good teacher, and you will see that he does not sit unmoved before his class: he stands the whole time he is teaching; he walks about, using his arms, his hands and fingers to help him in his explanations, and his face to express feeling. Listen to him, and you will hear the loudness, the quality and the musical note if his voice always changes according to what he is talking about.

63. ____________________________

The fact that a good teacher has some of the gifts of a good actor doesn’t mean that he will indeed be able to act well on the stage, for there are very important differences between the teacher’s work and the actor’s. The actor has to speak words which he has learnt by heart; he has to repeat exactly the same words each time he plays a certain part, and even his movements and the ways in which he uses his voice are usually fixed beforehand. What he has to do is to make all these carefully learnt words and actions seem natural on the stage.

64. ____________________________

A good teacher works in quite a different way. His audience takes an active part in his play: they ask questions, they obey orders, and if they don’t understand something, they say so. The teacher therefore has to suit his act to the needs of his audience. He cannot learn his part by heart, but must invent it as he goes along.

65. ____________________________

As a good teacher presently, you must take your audience as your friends, take care of them, help them and give them enough freedom and space. I have known many teachers who are fine actors in class but are unable to take part in a stage play because their brains can’t keep discipline: they cannot keep strictly to what another has written.

Why does a large education nation like China have so few world renowned scientists as the US? Educationists from China and the US try to find out the answer to questions like this at a forum on the basic education strategy.
The forum, held recently, was jointly organized by the Education Development Research Center of the Ministry of Education in China and the Postgraduate School of the University of Pennsylvania in the US. It aims to find out similarities and differences that exist between two countries in their educational system.
While some educationists in China keep a doubtful eye to the country’s educational system in recent years. Their American counterparts give a positive answer to the basic education in China, saying that it is still one of the best in the world.
An American educationist told reporters that the basic education in the US was criticized in recent years due to its political tendency. On the contrary, Chinese government’s stress on basic education and qualified teachers has set a good example.
At primary and middle school, pupils in China did better in math and science lessons than the US pupils. However, few grow to be world “masters”. Why? Educationists attributed this to China’s stress on examination rather than students’ interest.
Deputy Director of the postgraduate school of Pennsylvania University said American teachers encouraged students to focus on their strong points. In China, students are driven to study to pass the entrance examination test and they do not pay much attention to their own interest.
At the forum, director of the Education Development Research Center Mr. Zhang said in the future, the research center would make its middle and long-term basic education strategy by taking some references from other countries including the US.
He also revealed that for a long time in the future, China would make a breakthrough in setting the policy for quality education.
【小题1】This passage is mainly about _________.