I have only once been in trouble with the law．The whole process of being arrested and taken to court was a rather unpleasant experience at the time, but it makes a good story now． What makes it rather disturbing was the arbitrary （随意的） circumstances both of my arrest and my subsequent （随后的） fate in court．

It happened in February about twelve years ago．I had left school a couple of months before that and was not due to go to university until the following October．I was still living at home at the time．

One morning I was in Richmond, a suburb of London near where I lived．I was looking for a temporary job so that I could save up some money to go traveling．As it was a fine day and I was in no hurry, I was taking my time, looking in shop windows, strolling in the park, and sometimes just stopping and looking around me．It must have been this obvious ainilessness that led to my downfall．

It was about half past eleven when it happened．I was just walking out of the local library, having unsuccessfully sought employment there, when I saw a man walking across the road with the obvious intention of talking to me．I thought he was going to ask me the time．Instead, he said he was a police officer and he was arresting me．At first I thought it was some kind of joke．

But then another policeman appeared, this time in uniform, and I was left in no doubt．

'But what for? " I asked．

‘Wandering with intent to commit an arrestable offence,' he said．

‘What offence?' I asked．

'Theft,' he said．

'Theft of what?' I asked．

'Milk bottles,' he said, and with a perfectly straight face too!

'Oh,' I said．

It turned out there had been a lot of petty thefts in the area, particularly that of stealing milk bottles from doorsteps．

Then I made my big mistake．At the time I was nineteen, had long untidy hair, and regarded myself as pan of the sixties' 'youth counterculture'．As a result, I wanted to appear cool and unconcerned with the incident, so I said, 'How long have you been following me?  in the most casual and conversational tone I could manage．I thus appeared to them to be quite familiar with this sort of situation, and it confirmed them in their belief that I was a thoroughly disreputable （品行不端的） character．

         A few minutes later a police car arrived．

         'Get in the back,' they said．'Put your hands on the back of the front seat and don't move them．'

         They got in on either side of me．It wasn't funny any more．

         At the police station they questioned me for several hours．I continued to try to look worldly and familiar with the situation．When they asked me what I had been doing, I told them I'd been looking for a job．'Aha,' I could see them thinking, 'unemployed'．

Eventually, I was officially charged and told to report to Richmond Magistrates' Court the following Monday．Then they let me go．

I wanted to conduct my own defense in court, but as soon as my father found out what had happened, he hired a very good solicitor （律师） ．We went along that Monday armed with all kinds of witnesses, including my English teacher from school as a character witness．But he was never called on to give evidence．My 'trial' didn't get that far．The magistrate （法官） dismissed the case after fifteen minutes．1 was free．The poor police had never stood a chance．The solicitor even succeeded in getting costs awarded against the police．

And so I do not have a criminal record．But what was most shocking at the time was the things my release from the charge so clearly depended on．I had the 'right' accent, respectable middle-class parents in court, reliable witnesses, and I could obviously afford a very good solicitor．Given the obscure nature of the charge．I feel sure that if I had come from a different background, and had really been unemployed, there is every chance that I would have been found guilty．While asking for costs to be awarded, my solicitor's case quite obviously revolved （回转） around the fact that I had a 'brilliant academic record'．

Meanwhile, just outside the courtroom, one of the policemen who had arrested me was gloomily complaining to my mother that another youngster had been turned against the police． 'You could have been a bit more helpful when we arrested you,' he said to me reproachfully （责备地） ．

What did he mean? Probably that I should have looked outraged （暴怒）and said something like, 'Look here, do you know who you're talking to? I am a highly successful student with a brilliant academic record．How dare you arrest me!' Then they, probably, would have apologized perhaps even taken off their caps, and let me on my way．

1.Judging from the first paragraph, the writer's attitude towards his story is _______．

A．angry                                          B．sad      

C．amused                                      D．more than just one of the above

2.The first man who came up to him was ______．

A．a uniformed policeman                 B．a policeman in plainclothes

C．not a policeman                          D．a good joker

3.The court never asked the author's English teacher to give evidence because _______．

A．the time for the trial was limited to fifteen minutes only

B． the author wanted to conduct his own defense in court

C．the case was dismissed before the trial reached that stage

D．he was found to be unqualified as a character witness

4.The author believes that he would most probably have been declared guilty if _______．

A．the magistrate had been less gentle

B．he had really been out of work

C．he had been born in a lower—class family

D．both B and C

5.In the opinion of one of the policeman who had arrested the author, the whole thing might not have occurred if ______．

A．he had protested strongly at the time

B．he had begged to be allowed to go home

C．he hadn't wandered aimlessly

D．he had tried to look cool

6.We can see from the passage that the author ______．

A．has broken the law only once

B．has never broken the law

C．has broken the law on more than one occasion

D．once broke the law without knowing it

It is not unusual for people to speak two or three languages; they’re known as bilinguals or trilinguals. Speakers of more than three languages are known as polyglots. And when we refer to people who speak many languages, perhaps a dozen or more, we use the term hyper-polyglot.

The most famous hyper-polyglot was Giuseppe Mezzofanti, a 19th century Italian cardinal, who was said to speak 72 languages. This claim sounds absurd. If you assume each language had 20,000 words, Mezzofanti would have to learn a word a minute, six hours a day, for eleven years—an impossible task. But Mezzofanti was tested by critics, and they were all impressed.

Did Mezzofanti have an extraordinary brain? Or are hyper-polyglots just ordinary people with ordinary brains who manage to do something extraordinary through hard work?

U.S. linguist Stephen Drashen believes that outstanding language learners just work harder at it and then they acquire unusually strong language ability. As an example, he mentions a Hungarian woman who worked as an interpreter during the 20th century. When she was 86, she could speak 16 languages and was still working on learning new languages. She said she learned them mostly on her own, reading fiction or working through dictionaries or textbooks.

Some researchers argue to the contrary. They believe that there is such a thing as a talent for learning languages. In the 1930s, a German scientist examined parts of the preserved brain of a hyper-polyglot named Emil Krebs, who could speak 60 languages fluently. The scientist found that the area of Krebs’s brain called Broca’s area, which is associated with language, looked different from the Broca’s area in the brains of men who speak only one language. However, we still don’t know if Krebs was born with a brain ready to learn dozens of languages or if his brain adapted to the demands he put on it.

Although it is still not clear whether the ability to learn many languages is in born, there’s no doubt that just about all of us can acquire skills in a second, third, or even fourth language by putting our mind to it.

1.What does the underlined sentence imply?

A. Mezzofanti could remember 360 words a day.

B. Mezzofanti had a special way to learn languages.

C. Mezzofanti’s achievement was ridiculous.

D. Mezzofanti language ability was astonishing.

2.The Hungarian woman became a hyper-polyglot mainly because of her __.

A. good memory       B. unique brain      C. hard work      D. learning methods

3.The German scientist’s findings showed that Krebs ___.

A. had an unusual brain

B. was born with great talent

C. had worked hard at languages

D. expected too much of himself

4.The author seems to agree that ___.

A. it is not hard to learn foreign languages

B. hard work plays a part in language learning

C. there is no such thing as a talent for languages

D. hyper-polyglots have an inborn talent for language

My dad has been driving a truck for almost his entire life. He’s usually  1.  all the weekdays and comes home only at weekends. Sometimes he stays ___2.__for two weeks at a time. __3._I don't get to see him as often as I wish, we remain very __4.___.

My dad is the type of person who doesn't let you __5.__ up anything that you start. When I was eleven, my father bought me a piano. At first I was so __6.__ about it that I would spend hours and hours learning how to play. Then it got _7._. I was so tired of it that I asked if I could stop. Much as I tried, he __8.__me to go on. Now I have been playing for almost five years. I love it and I' m glad I __9._my dad's advice.

My dad is _10.__talented, for he has been playing the guitar for over 20 years. Under his influence, I also like 11.    now. Sometimes my dad can be my biggest  12.  . He makes me smile even when I lose in a talent show13.  . Sometimes he can be my biggest critic(批评家). He   14.  ignore the small mistakes I make. He encourages me never to lose   15.  , because he thinks that all my efforts will   16.   one day.

My dad is generous. Every Thursday night, he    17.   to read to the children at a children’s club. When he reads, their   18.   light up with curiosity about what will happen next. I feel   19.   of having a person in my family who cares enough to volunteer to   20. .

I love Dad with all my heart. He’s a hero in my heart and the most wonderful person in the world.

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Today, February twenty-ninth, is leap day(闰日). This date only appears on the calendar once every four years. But why?

Everyone knows the Earth takes three hundred sixty-five days to travel around the sun. Well, that is not exactly correct. The Earth really takes three hundred sixty-five days, five hours, forty-eight minutes and forty-six seconds to complete its orbit around the sun.

The problem for people developing calendars was what to do with the extra five hours, forty-eight minutes and forty-six seconds.

People needed calendars to help them know when to plant crops and when to celebrate religious holidays. The ancient Greeks and Chinese had a solution. They produced calendars that included extra months every nineteen years.

The ancient Romans had a different solution. In the year forty-six, the Roman ruler Julius Caesar made a new calendar. The Julian calendar included an extra day every four years. But there was a problem. The Julian year was just over eleven minutes longer than the cycle of the seasons. In 1582, Pope Gregory the Thirteenth established a new calendar to keep a better recorder of the days. Pole Gregory was the religious leader of most of Europe. He decided that years that could be divided by four would add a day. However, years that ended in two zeros and that could not be evenly divided by four hundred would not be leap years. For example, the years 1700, 1800and 1900 were not leap years. But the years 1600 and 2000 were leap years

 So leap years are years with three hundred sixty –six days , instead of the usual three hundred sixty –five.This extra days is added to the calendar on February twenty –ninth , sometimes known as leap day .People born on leap day may be called “leapings ”.They usually celebrate their birthday on February twenty –eight or March first .

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