Violin prodigies (神童), I learned, have come in distinct waves from distinct regions. Most of the great performers of the late 19th and early 20th centuries were born and brought up in Russia and Eastern Europe. I asked Isaac Stern, one of the world’s greatest violinists the reason for this phenomenon. “It is very clear,” he told me. “They were all Jews and Jews at the time were severely oppressed and ill-treated in that part of the world. They were not allowed into the professional fields, but they were allowed to achieve excellence on a concert stage.” As a result, every Jewish parent’s dream was to have a child in the music school because it was a passport to the West.
Another element in the emergence of prodigies, I found, is a society that values excellence in a certain field to nurture (培育) talent. Nowadays, the most nurturing societies seem to be in the Far East. “In Japan, a most competitive society, with stronger discipline than ours,” says Isaac Stern, children are ready to test their limits every day in many fields, including music. When Western music came to Japan after World War II, that music not only became part of their daily lives, but it became a discipline as well. The Koreans and Chinese as we know, are just as highly motivated as the Japanese.
That’s a good thing, because even prodigies must work hard. Next to hard work, biological inheritance（遗传） plays an important role in the making of a prodigy. J. S. Bach, for example, was the top of several generations of musicians, and four of his sons had significant careers in music.
【小题1】     Jewish parents in Eastern Europe longed for their children to attend music school because ________.

Being able to multitask---doing several things at the same time---is considered a welcome skill by most people. But if we consider the situation of the young people aged from eight to eighteen, we should think again.

What we often see nowadays is that young people juggle an ever larger number of electronic devices as they study. While working, they also surf on the Internet, send out emails, answer the telephone and listen to music on their iPods. In a sense, they are spending a significant amount of time in fruitless efforts as they multitask.

Multitasking is even changing the relationship between family members. As young people give so much attention to their own worlds, they seem to have no time to spend with the other people around them. They can no longer greet family members when they enter the house, nor can they eat at the family table.

Multitasking also affects young people’s performance at university and in the workplace. When asked about their opinion of the effect of modern gadgets on their performance of tasks, many young people gave a positive response. However, the response from the worlds of education and business was not quite as positive.

Educators feel that multitasking by children has a serious effect on later development of study skills. They believe that many college students now need help to improve their study skills. Similarly, employers feel that young people entering the job market need to be taught all over again, as modern gadgets have made it unnecessary for them to learn special skills to do their work.

1.What does the underlined word “juggle” in Paragraph 2 most probably mean?

2.In Paragraph 3, the author points out that  ________.

3.What is the main idea of the last paragraph?

4.The author develops the passage mainly by ________.

There are three branches of medicine. One is called "doctor medicine," or "scientific medicine." Scientific doctors try to observe sicknesses, look for logical patterns, and then find out how the human body works. From there they figure out what treatments may work. This kind of medicine is believed to date from the 4th century BC. Although nowadays it is successful, in the ancient world this approach probably did not cure many patients.

A second kind of medicine is called "natural cures," or "folk medicine," in which less educated people try to cure sicknesses with various herbs. These folk healers also use observation and logic, but they are not so aware of it. They try things until they find something that seems to work, and then they keep doing that. Folk medicine flourished（繁荣） long before the development of scientific medicine and was more successful in ancient times than doctor medicine.

The third kind is called "health spas," or "faith healing." Sometimes this may be as simple as touching the holy man and being immediately healed. Other times, a magician may make you a magic charm, or say a spell, to cure you. Some religious groups organize special healing shrines（圣坛） for the sick. In these places people rest, get plenty of sleep, eat healthy food, drink water instead of wine, and exercise in various ways. They also talk to the priests and pray to the gods. If you are feeling depressed or you have been working too hard, going to these places may be just the right thing to make you feel better.

1.Doctor medicine __________.

A. has a longer history than folk medicine     

B. has been practiced for around 1,600 years

C. bases its treatments on observation and logic   

D. was very successful in curing sicknesses in ancient times

2.According to the passage, which of the following is NOT used in health spas?

A. Magic power.     B. Various herbs.   C. Religious faith.     D. A healthy life style.

3.According to the passage, which of the following statements is true?

A. Folk healers choose different herbs to cure diseases without any sound basis.

B. People who practice folk medicine need lots of formal education on herbs.

C. The success of folk medicine led to the development of doctor medicine.

D. Natural cures worked better than scientific medicine in ancient times.

4.The author's primary purpose in this passage is to __________.

A. describe different types of medicine        

B. argue for the importance of medicine in health care

C. show the crucial role religion plays in medical treatments

D. compare the educational background of three different types of patients

阅读下列短文，根据所读内容在文章后表格中的空格中填入恰当的单词。

注意：每个空格只填入一个单词。

About six years ago, I was eating lunch in a restaurant in New York City when a woman and a young boy sat down at the next table. I couldn’t help overhearing parts of their conversation. At one point the woman asked, “ So, how have you been?” And the boy---who could not have been more than seven or eight years old replied, “Frankly, I’ve been feeling a little depressed lately.”

This incident(小事) stuck in my mind because it confirmed my growing belief that children are changing. As far as I can remember, my friends and I hardly found out we were “ depressed” until we were in high school.

The evidence of  changes in children has increased steadily in recent years. Children don’t seem childlike anymore. Children speak more like adults, dress more like adults and behave more like adults than they used to.

Whether this is good or bad is difficult to say, but it certainly is different. Childhood as it once was no longer exists. Why?

Human development is based not only on natural biological states, but also on patterns of access to social knowledge. Movement from one social role to another usually involves learning the secrets of the new situation. Children have always been taught adult secrets, but slowly and in gradual stages: traditionally, we tell sixth graders things we keep hidden from fifth graders.

In the past 30 years, however, a secret-revelation(提示) machine has been installed in 98 percent of American homes. It is called television. Television passes information, and indiscriminately (不加区分地), to all viewers alike, whether they are children or adults. Unable to resist the temptation（诱惑）, many children turn their attention from printed texts to the less challenging, more vivid moving pictures.

Communication through print, as a matter of fact, allows for a great deal of control over the social information to which children have access. Reading and writing involve a complex code of symbols that must be memorized and practiced. Children must read simple books before they can read complex materials.

Title: _______ in Today’s Children

Need to relax after a few stressful months? Perhaps you need to go to a spa.

First of all, what exactly is a spa? Traditionally, spas were places with a natural spring producing warm waters that could be used in hydrotherapy (水疗法) treatments. They were places where you “took the waters” --- meaning you drank some of the water or bathed in it.

But nowadays, a “spa” can mean a variety of things. In general, the term is often used to refer to commercial establishment that provides many services for health, fitness, weight loss, beauty and relaxation. This may include exercise classes, mud baths, body treatment, facials (美容), etc.

In Japan, traditional hot springs have attracted visitors for centuries. And thermal baths (温泉浴) have been found in the ruins of the Cretan Palace of Knossos (2000-1400 B.C.). It was the Romans who made spas popular in Europe. They established a number of towns around thermal waters. These include the English town of Aquae Sulis (which is called Bath today), and the Belgian town of Aquae Spadanae (which is known as Spa these days).

In the 18^th century, spas became the fashionable places to go on holiday. Bath and Harrogate in the UK were popular with British rich people. And in Europe Carsbad (now called Larlovy Vary), Marienbad and Franzensbsf were Europe’s most important holiday centers.

A typical day in Carsbad in the 19^th century went as follows. Visitors got up at 6:00 a.m. to take the waters and listen to music by a band. Next, came a light breakfast, a bath in the waters, and then lunch. In the afternoon, visitors went sightseeing, walked or attended concerts. After dinner, there were theatrical performances. Guests returned to their hotels at about 9 p.m. to rest until six the following morning. Visitors would stay for as long as a month. Some of the more famous patients at these spas included the composers Beethoven and Chopin, and the Russian writer Turgnev.

Marienbad was the best spa town. It was popular with the inventor Thomas Edison, the writer Johann Goethe, and many famous people and European emperors.

Today, although taking the waters isn’t as common as it used to be, spa treatments are more popular than ever.

1.What can we learn about a spa?

A．It makes profits mainly on facials.

B．It is a center for rich people to relax.

C．It provides more services than before.

D．It is where one can get medical treatment.

2. From Paragraph 4, we can infer that ___________.

A．spas have a history of about 200 years

B．Japan has more spas than any other countries

C．the Romans played a positive part in the popularity of spas

D．ordinary people could enjoy thermal baths in 18^th-century UK

3. At the spas in Carlsbad, ____________.

A．many visitors had facials

B．guests often stayed for at least a month

C．Thomas Edison was a regular guest

D．guests had a bath between breakfast and lunch

4. What can we learn from the passage?

A．The former name of Larlovy Vary was Carlsbad.

B．Spa treatments are not so popular as before.

C．Chopin visited Marienbad frequently.

D．Marienbad is located in the UK.