When women sit together to watch a movie on TV, at the same time they usually talk about a lot of subjects, including children, men, careers and what’s happening in their lives. When groups of men and women watch a movie together, the men usually end up telling the women to shut up. Men can either talk or watch the screen---they can’t do both---and they don’t understand that women can. Besides(此外), women think that the point of all getting together is to have a good time and develop relationships--not just to sit there like couch potatoes staring (盯着) at the screen.
During the ad breaks, a man often asks a woman to explain the plot(the story that is told in a novel or play or movie etc.) and tell him where the relationship between the characters is going. He is unable, unlike women, to read the small body language signals that show how the characters are feeling emotionally(情绪上). Since women originally spent their days with the other women and children in the group, they developed the ability to communicate successfully because they want to keep relationships. For a woman, speech continues to have such a clear purpose: to build relationships and make friends. For men, to talk is to connect to the facts.
Men see the telephone as a communication tool for sending facts and information to other people, but a woman sees it as a way of keeping relationship. A woman can spend two weeks on vacation with her girlfriend and, when she returns home, telephone the same girlfriend and talk for another two hours.
There is no convincing(令人信服的)evidence that social conditioning, the fact that girls’ mothers talked them more, is the reason why girls talk more than boys. Psychiatrist Dr. Michael Lewis, author of Social Behaviour and Language Acquisition, conducted experiments that found mothers talked to and looked at baby girls more often than baby boys. Scientific evidence shows parents reply to the brain differences of their children. Since a girl’s brain is better organized to send and receive speech, we talk to them more. As a result, mothers who try to talk to their sons are usually pointed to receive only short complaints in reply.
【小题1】While watching TV with others, women usually talk a lot because they ___________.

A man came home from work late, tired, to find his 5-year-old son waiting for him at the door.
“Daddy, how much money do you make each hour?”
“If you must know, I make $20 each hour.”
“Oh,” the little boy answered, with his head down. He thought for a moment, looked up and said, “Daddy, could you lend me $10?”
The father was furious, “If you asked for the money to buy a toy or some other rubbish, then go straight to your room and think about why are you so selfish (自私)！”
The little boy went to his room with no words and shut the door. After a short while, the father calmed down, and started to think, “Maybe he really needs to buy something and he didn’t really ask for money very often.” So he went to the little boy’s room.
“Sorry！Maybe I was too strict with you just now.” said the man, “Here’s $10.”
“Oh, thank you Daddy!” he said happily. Then the boy took out some coins. When the father found that the boy already had money, he got angry again.
“Why do you want more money since you already have some?” the father shouted angrily.
“Because I didn’t have enough, but now I do.” The little boy replied, “Daddy, I have $20 now. Can I buy one hour of your time? Please come home early tomorrow. I would like to have dinner with you.”
【小题1】How much does the boy’s father make one hour?

When I was young, I always helped my grandfather in the fields. As I worked beside him, he   １  to tell a story about a man named Joe, and his wife, who moved to a new farm with their three sons. They were setting into the new place   ２  a nearby farmer told Joe that there was gold in the earth. Joe was very   3 , and told his sons about it.

They began to dig in one corner, and they got to the end of the field. At the same time, Joe thought he would   4  some crops where the earth had been   5 . The plants included corn, tomatoes, potatoes, etc. His sons continued to dig through the soil, made up their mind to find the gold. Since   6  soil was being turned, Joe could plant more crops. Joe had never farmed before, but it had always been his   7 .

As different crops came ready to be harvested, Joe started to   8  that there were more vegetables than he and his family could ever   9 . One of Joe’s neighbors suggested that he   10  a vegetable shop. Joe and his wife did that very thing. They called it Joe and Family Vegetable. Joe even had to leave some crops in the fields,   11  he had more than enough to supply the vegetable shop.

This went on for years, and Joe and his wife became quite   12  from their little vegetable shop. They were even able to   13  their sons to college.

Remember the beginning of the story, when Joe was told by his new neighbor that there was gold in the land? Well, the truth is, Joe’s   14 of the English language was less than perfect. His new neighbor friend actually meant that his land had rich   15 . So you can see where the concept（概念）of gold comes from.

1.                A．feared         B．agreed         C．used D．failed

2.                A．while          B．as             C．when D．after

3.                A．happy          B．disappointed     C．angry D．calm

4.                A．harvest         B．plant           C．water    D．feed

5.                A．controlled      B．burned         C．destroyed D．turned

6.                A．more          B．most           C．much D．few

7.                A．job            B．problem        C．pity  D．dream

8.                A．realize         B．promise        C．relate    D．regret

9.                A．feed           B．sell            C．plant D．eat

10.               A．take up         B．set up          C．turn up    D．make up

11.               A．now           B．though         C．so    D．because

12.               A．careful         B．rich           C．alone D．cheerful

13.               A．bring          B．take           C．send  D．make

14.               A．understanding   B．knowledge      C．thinking   D．skills

15.               A．mud           B．gold           C．soil   D．material

B

Sun Liping, 6 , lives in a small village in Yunnan. Her biggest wish is to have running water in her home. All 35 families in Sun’s village have a serious problem--- they don’t have enough water. Every day, the villagers have to walk 20 minutes to get water.

Last year, the worst drought since the 1950s hit Yunnan, making more than 2 million people short of drinking water. This year, the drought is even worse.

Not only Yunnan, but many other provinces in China are short of water as well, such as Gansu and Qinghai.

According to a report on February 17, each Chinese person has about 28% of the world’s average（平均的） person’s amount of available(可用的) water. Two thirds of China’s cities are short of water and nearly 300 million people in rural areas don’t have safe water for drinking.

Every drop of water is important. Waste a drop of water a day and you lose a bucket(桶) a year. How can we use water in a smart way? Here are some tips for you to save water in your daily life:

1. Put plastic bottles of water in your toilet to cut down the water waste when you flush (冲洗) your toilet.

2. Don’t keep the water running while you’re brushing your teeth or washing your face and hands.

3. Use low-flow(低流量) shower heads .

4. Use a bucket to collect shower water while you wait for it to warm up.

5. Make your shower time shorter.

6. Set up a rain bucket to collect rainwater for watering plants or flowers.

1. What is the problem in Sun’s village?

2. What does the underlined word drought mean in the second paragraph?

3. According to the report, __________________________________.

A. China has just 28 percent of the world’s available water.

Each Chinese person can use more water than the world’s average person.

There is not enough water in two thirds of China’s cities.

D. There are about 300 million people in China’s cities who don’t have enough water.

4.Which of the following would lead to a waste of water?

While we are still children ,most of us live at home with our parents, more or less peacefully . But as we become teenagers , things change ,and we begin to grow apart from our parents . This means we are almost ready to leave the house where we grew up and make a new home of our own .
All humans must do this ,but they don’t all do it in the same way . If ,for instance ,you belong to a primitive tribe (原始部落) ，then as you grew up ,you’d learn the skills you needed as an adult---how to catch fish ,how to keep the house and look after children . You would be ready to marry in your early teens and you would build a house and live near your family in the village.
This seems a very old way of life , but it is what humans have been used to through hundreds of years. And it is what we are still used to in the 21st century ,for man hasn’t changed in the short time since he became civilized(文明的). But could you leave home and look after yourself during the teen years ? Most people would not do very well . Why ? Because although man hasn’t changed very much , the society he lives in has changed greatly ,which means that we have to learn more and more before we are ready to leave our parents’ shelter( 居所 ) and live alone .
However ,sometimes it is very frustrating to live at parents’ home . Parents can be very upset about late nights ,criticizing friends and always saying that we are noisy and dirty . But we still need our emotional (情感的) shelter till we finish our studies , and that is why we usually stay in our parents’ home until we feel grown up enough to deal with living alone .
【小题1】When does the relationship with parents start changing ?