There is a story told about how Neil set about winning over one particular boy.The boy was always causing trouble and clearly regarded all teachers   1  a hostile eye.On one occasion, Neil, out taking a   2 , had just rounded a corner when he came across the boy playing on his own.The boy, not noticing he was no longer   3  , picked up a stone and threw it through one of the school windows.Turning, he saw Neil.Instead of finding himself   4   at angrily as he expected, the boy was   5   to see Neil bend down, pick up a stone and hurl it at another window.The boy had to   6   to get the window repaired, so did Neil.  7   he thought this a small price to pay for   8   a bond between himself and the boy, whose   9  improved afterwards.

 Neil was a remarkable character who knew just when to be   10   and just when to adopt a lighter touch when handling children.Not everyone is so   11  .Willie Russell, the   12  , likes to talk about the time when he had freshly   13   from teacher training college and had just begun to work as a teacher.On his first day at the school he was left to do playground duty on his own, rather a(n)  14   experience for one so new to the job.Surrounded by children at morning break, he turned to see one of the children throwing a stone at a school window.When the boy saw that he had been   15   by a teacher, his face fell.  16   for this boy, Russell remembered the story about Neil.Stooping down he picked up a stone and propelled(投掷) it through another window.Turning to smile proudly at the boy his satisfaction was suddenly shattered by the sound of dozens of windows being   17  by flying stones.

Unfortunately he had failed to take into account the difference between his   18   and the one which Neil had faced, namely that he and the boy were not alone.It was at this point in his career that Russell decided that perhaps he was not quite cut out to be a teacher. Deciding after this that he was not suited to teaching he left to   19  playwriting.Most of his plays are very imaginative and  20  .A bit like this story, in fact.

1.A.by                        B.in                        C.with                    D.through

2.A.rest                      B.exam                   C.walk                   D.trip

3.A.seen                     B.alone                   C.lonely                  D.heard

4.A.shouted                 B.stared                  C.pointed                D.come

5.A.excited                  B.surprised             C.satisfied              D.frightened

6.A.punish                  B.pay                     C.agree                  D.propose

7.A.As                        B.While                  C.Even if                D.But

8.A.breaking                B.making                C.establishing          D.showing

9.A.character              B.behavior              C.condition             D.grades

10.A.still                     B.kind                    C.calm                   D.firm

11.A.humorous            B.strange                C.successful           D.clever

12.A.student                B.headmaster          C.playwright           D.teacher

13.A.graduated            B.walked                C.studied                D.dismissed

14.A.exciting               B.challenging          C.surprising            D.interesting

15.A.blamed                B.stopped               C.met                     D.spotted

16.A.Generally             B.Fortunately          C.Obviously            D.Usually

17.A.hit                      B.knocked             C.cleaned               D.brushed

18.A.condition             B.position               C.situation              D.occupation

19.A.pick up               B.take up                C.make up              D.put up

20.A.funny                  B.serious                C.realistic               D.critical

A month after Hurricane Katrina, I returned home in New Orleans.There lay my house, reduced to waist-high ruins, smelly and dirty.

Before the trip, I’d had my car fixed.When the office employee of the garage was writing up the bill, she noticed my Louisiana license plate.“You from New Orleans?” she asked.I said I was, “No charge,” she said, and firmly shook her head when I reached for my wallet.The next day I went for a haircut, and the same thing happened.

As my wife was studying in Florida, we decided to move there and tried to find a rental house that we could afford while also paying off a mortgage(抵押贷款)on our ruined house.We looked at many places, but none was satisfactory.We’d begun to accept that we’d have to live in extremely reduced circumstances for a while, when I got a very curious e-mail from a James Kennedy in California.He’d read some pieces I’d written about our sufferings for Slate, the online magazine, and wanted to give us (“no conditions attached”) a new house across the lake from New Orleans.

It sounded too good to be true, but I replied, thanking him for his exceptional generosity, that we had no plans to go back.Then a poet at the University of Florida offered to let his house to me while he went to England on his one-year paid leave.The rent was rather reasonable.I mentioned the poet’s offer to James Kennedy, and the next day he sent a check covering our entire rent for eight months.

Throughout this painful experience, the kindness of strangers has done much to bring back my faith in humanity.It’s almost worth losing your worldly possessions to be reminded that people are really nice when given half a chance.

1.What do we know about James Kennedy?

  A.He was a writer of an online magazine.

  B.He was a poet at the University of Florida.

  C.He offered the author a new house free of charge.

  D.He learned about the author’s sufferings via e-mail.

2.It can be inferred from the text that ______.

     A.the author’s family was in financial difficulty

  B.rents were comparatively reasonable despite the disaster

  C.houses were difficult to find in the hurricane-stricken area

  D.the mortgage on the ruined house was paid off by the bank

3.The author learned from his experience that ______.

  A.worldly possessions can be given up when necessary

  B.generosity should be encouraged in some cases

  C.people benefit from their sad stories                                                                            D.human beings are kind after all

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.

1.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
2.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

3.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.

4.What is the writer’s attitude in writing this passage?

    A.critical               B.neutral               C.pessimistic         D.optimistic

Everyone knows we must exercise regularly to maintain good health.Indeed, staying physically fit is a big part of our culture.We consider (and rightly so) that healthy people are attractive people.Since most of us want to be attractive, there is no shortage of exercise clubs, training videos, magazines, and books offering to help us stay physically fit.

Unfortunately, however, our culture does not place the same emphasis on mental fitness.Although we admire and love men and women with strong and healthy-looking bodies, we don’t have the same degree of respect or attraction for smart, educated and mentally healthy people.This is a shame, because there are immense rewards for people who have developed the ability to think well.

If your mind is well trained and flexible, you will be able to understand a great deal of what happens around you.And if you are also well educated--- that is, if you understand basic science, mathematics, music, art, literature, history and so on--- you will find it much easier to make good decisions throughout your life.Over the long run, this leads to a sense of control over your destiny and a much better life than otherwise.

People who are poorly educated or who don’t think well--- that is, people who are not mentally fit see things differently.Their world is controlled by mysterious, but often malevolent (恶意的) forces.Such people live within a system they will never master, forced to follow the rules they will never understand.Although it may not be obvious, most people spend their lives being manipulated (控制) by others.They are told what to do, what to think, how to spend their money, and what they should and should not aspire (渴求) to in life.

In my opinion, if you want to live well, you must be able to use your mind well.For this reason, I want you to be able to concentrate, solve problem, understand complex ideas, and think clearly and quickly.Such skills will make it easier for you to make informed decisions, understand current events, choose good friends, manage your money well, make wise long-term decisions, and appreciate music, art and literature.

The key to developing such skills is to enjoy learning, and to have the ability and motivation to teach yourself.

1.The writer of the passage feels disappointed that______________.

     A.some people have not the skill to make good decisions

     B.the world of the physically healthy people is controlled by mysterious forces

     C.mentally healthy people are not as popular as physically people

     D.too much has been done to help people stay physically fit

2.The underline word “this” refers to___________.

     A.the understanding of a great deal of what goes on around you

     B.the understanding of basic science and mathematics

     C.good training in body and mind

     D.being able to make good decisions in life

3.The writer of the passage thinks that those who are not mentally fit___________.

     A.live a poor and mysterious life           B.can’t control over their life

     C.often do what others do                 D.enjoy being fooled and ruled

4.The best title of the passage will most probably be______________.

     A.Mind Helps You More                  B.Train Your Mind

     C.Make Informed Decisions              D.Learn More to Help Yourself

 0  33687  33695  33701  33705  33711  33713  33717  33723  33725  33731  33737  33741  33743  33747  33753  33755  33761  33765  33767  33771  33773  33777  33779  33781  33782  33783  33785  33786  33787  33789  33791  33795  33797  33801  33803  33807  33813  33815  33821  33825  33827  33831  33837  33843  33845  33851  33855  33857  33863  33867  33873  33881  151629 

违法和不良信息举报电话:027-86699610 举报邮箱:58377363@163.com

精英家教网