Almost two-thirds of children want their parents to spend more time reading to them before bed, and most prefer Mum’s storytelling to Dad’s, researchers said.

They carried out a study that showed younger children aged 3-4 were most hungry for more stories, with over three-quarters saying they wished their parents read to them more often.

More than half of all children aged 3-8 said story time was their favourite pastime with their parents.

"The results of our research confirm the traditional activity of storytelling continues to be a powerful learning and emotional resource in children's lives," said child psychologist Richard Woolfson.

Storytelling ranked higher than television or video games among pastimes for kids, and 82 percent said reading a story with their parents helped them sleep better, according the survey of 500 children aged 3-8 in Britain.

The best storytellers were mothers who used funny voices to illustrate different characters or made their own special sound effects to keep the story moving, researchers said.

When mum and dad are not at hand, celebrities(名人) will do: over 30 percent of children said they would like to hear a bedtime story from Harry Potter star Daniel Radcliffe, with teen idols(偶像) Zac Efron, Miley Cyrus and Emma Watson.

"It can be very difficult for parents to find the time to read with their children, but these moments can help build strong relations and play a vital part in their child's development," said Woolfson.

1.The underlined word “pastime” in the passage most probably means          .

A．old time          B．entertainment      C．emotion           D．character

2.The author develops the passage mainly by        .

A．pointing out similarities and differences      B．following the natural time order

C．comparing opinions from different fields      D．providing examples and statistics

3.Reading a story with their parents helped most kids aged 3-8         .

A．grow stronger      B．become more emotional                  C．sleep better D．become more powerful

Twenty-first century humanity has mapped oceans and mountains, visited the moon, and surveyed the planets. But for all the progress, people still don’t know one another very well.

That brings about Theodore Zeldin’s “feast of conversation”－events where individuals pair with persons they don’t know for three hours of guided talk designed to get the past “Where are you from?”

Mr. Zeldin, an Oxford University professor, heads Oxford Muse, a 10-year-old foundation based on the idea that what people need is not more information, but more inspiration and encouragement.

The “feast” in London looks not at politics or events, but at how people have felt about work, relations among the sexes, hopes and fears, enemies and authority, the shape of their lives. The “menu of conversation” includes topics like “How have your priorities(优先考虑的事) changed over the years?” Or, “What have you rebelled against the past?”

As participants gathered, Zeldin opened with a speech: that despite instant communications in a globalized age, issues of human heart remain. Many people are lonely, or in routines that discourage knowing the depth of one another. “We are trapped in shallow conversations and the whole point now is to think, which is sometimes painful,” he says. “But thinking interaction is what separates us from other species, except maybe dogs…who do have generations of human interactions.”

The main rules of the “feast”: Don’t pair with someone you know or ask questions you would not answer. The only awkward moment came when the multi-racial crowd of young adults to seniors, in sun hats, ties and dresses, looked to see whom they would be ‘intimate’ with for hours. But 15 minutes later, everyone was seated and talking, continuing full force until organizers interrupted them 180 minutes later.

“It’s encouraging to see the world is not just a place of oppression and distance from each other,” Zeldin summed up. “What we did is not ordinary, but it can’t be madder than the world already is.”

Some said they felt “liberated” to talk on sensitive topics. Thirty-something Peter, from East London, said that “it might take weeks or months to get to the level of interaction we suddenly opened up.”

1.What can the “conversations” be best described as?

A．Deep and one-on-one.                   B．Sensitive and mad.

C．Instant and inspiring.                     D．Ordinary and encouraging.

2.In a “feast of conversations”, participants ______.

A．pair freely with anyone they like

B．have a guided talk for a set of period of time

C．ask questions they themselves would not answer

D．wear clothes reflecting multi-racial features.

3.In paragraph 6, “they would be ‘intimate’” is closest in meaning to “______”.

A．they would have physical contact           B．they would have in-depth talk

C．they would be close friends               D．they would exchange basic information

4.From the passage, we can conclude that what Zeldin does is ______.

A．an attempt to promote thinking interaction

B．one of the maddest activities ever conducted

C．a try to liberate people from old-fashioned ideas

D．an effort to give people a chance of talking freely

Radioactive(放射性的) pollution can be said to be the emission(排放) of radioactive substance into air, water or land due to human activities in the form of radioactive waste. Radioactive waste is usually the product of nuclear fission(核裂变), which is widely used in nuclear power stations and nuclear weapons.

The radioactivity of nuclear waste decreases with time. That means the waste needs to be separated from the reach of living beings until it no longer causes a threat to living beings. This time period may take from days to months and to years depending upon the radioactive nature of the waste.

Radioactive pollution that is spread through the earth’s atmosphere is called ‘fallout’. Nuclear pollution began to attract people’s attention during the World War II period when the United States, Britain and the Soviet Union started conducing nuclear tests. The best example of fallout is the nuclear bomb attack on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan in 1945 by the United States of America during World War II. As a result of the bomb attack, nearly 225,000 people died within 5 years of the attack due to the radiation effects and cancer.

In land and water, the major source of radioactive pollution remains with the nuclear fuel cycle(核燃料循环). The nuclear fuel cycle is used in nuclear power stations and extraction(提炼) of materials from nuclear substance, where the pollutants are left behind after the useful material has been extracted.

The effects of radioactive pollution were first reported in the early 20^th century when people working in uranium mines(铀矿井) suffered from skin burn and cancer. The effects vary from one individual to another. Exposed to radioactive radiations for a long time, living beings may suffer from the damage to the DNA cells, which results in cancer, genetic defects for the generations to come and even death.

In a word, since every coin has its two sides, it’s a good idea to prevent from its disadvantages while making full use of its advantages.

假如你叫李平，你的朋友David写信向你寻求戒掉网瘾的办法，来帮助他的弟弟。请你在回信中提出你的建议。要点如下：

* 像朋友一样和他交流，让他认识到上网成瘾的危害。

* 引导他说出自己的困惑或烦恼，这样可以找出他对网络游戏依赖的原因。

* 帮助他培养有益于身心健康的爱好来转移注意力。

* 向老师和父母求助，帮他限制上网时间并鼓励他浏览既有吸引力又能开阔视野的网站。

.......

注意：1. 请不要逐句翻译，应适当进行发挥。

2. 词数150 左右。信的开头和结尾已给出，不计入总数。

Dear David,

I feel sorry for your brother’s suffering from the Internet addiction. ____________________                                   ___                      __

___________________________________________________________________________________

Yours sincerely,

Li Ping

—Jack really likes reading.

—Yes, he goes to the library nearly once    day, which is really    surprise to me.

A．a; a              B．the; the           C．a; the            D．the; a

    her father asleep, the girl dressed up and walked quietly out of her bedroom.

A．As               B．For              C．On               D．With

When I returned, I found the windows open and something      .

A．to steal           B．stealing           C．stolen            D．being stolen

—Is there any possibility    you could pick me up at the airport?

—No problem.

A．when            B．that              C．whether          D．what

    is known to us all is that the 2012 Olympic Games will take place in London.

A．It                B．What             C．As               D．Which

The discovery of the stolen car led to    .

A．the thief having caught                   B．the thief catching

C．the thief being caught                    D．the thief to be caught