Why are so many people so afraid of failure？Quite simply because no one tells us how to fail so that failure becomes an experience that will lead to growth．We forget that failure is part of the human condition and that every person has the right to fail．

Most parents work hard at either preventing failure or protecting their children from the knowledge that they have failed．One way is to lower standards．A mother describes her child's hand-made table as perfect, even though it doesn't stand still．Another way is to shift（转移）blame．If John fails science，his teacher is unfair or stupid．

The trouble with failure-prevention devices is that they leave a child unequipped for life in the real world．The young need to learn that no one can be best at everything，no one can win all the time—and that it's possible to enjoy a game even when they don't win．A child who's not invited to a birthday party，who doesn't make the honor roll on the baseball team，feels terrible，of course．But parents should not offer a quick consolation（安慰），prize or say，“It doesn't matter．because it does．The young should be allowed to experience disappointment—and be helped to master it．

Failure is never pleasurable．It hurts grown-ups and children alike．But it can make a positive（有益的）contribution to your life once you learn to use it．Step one is to ask “Why did I fail？”

Don't blame someone else．Ask yourself what you did wrong，how you can improve．If someone else can help，don't be shy about inquiring（咨询）．Success，which encourages repetition of old behavior，is not nearly as good a teacher as failure．You can learn from a bad party how to give a good one，from an ill-chosen first house what to look for in a second ．Even a failure that seems definitive can prompt fresh thinking，a change of direction．After 12 years of studying ballet a friend of mine auditioned（面试）for a professional company．She was turned down．“Would further training help？she asked．The ballet master shook his head．“You will never be a dancer，” he said，“you haven't the body for it．”?

In such cases，the way to use failure is to take stock（鉴定）bravely asking．“What have I left？What else can I do？My friend put away her shoes and moved into dance treatment center，a field where she's both able and useful．Failure frees one to take risks because there's less to lose．Often there is recovery（恢复）of energy ─ a way to find new possibilities．

1．The second paragraph tells us ____ ．

A．how a mother praised her children

B．two ways of failure prevention most parents used when their children fail

C．how to shift（转移）blame

D．parents should blame their children at the proper time．

2．According to the author，what should a child know in the real world？

A．He should be equipped for life．

B．No one can be best all the time at everything．

C．No parents should offer quick consolations．

D．He can get pleasure from failure as well as success．

3．The underlined word “prompt” in the fifth paragraph can be best replaced by“____”．?

A．improve B．prevent C．continue D．cause

4．From the passage we know that ____ can affect one's life greatly once he learns to use it．

A．success B．disappointment C．failure D．value

The magician (魔术师) usually depends on his skill with his hands, and on his knowledge of psychology (心理学). Since magic tricks are meant to fool people, the use of psychology is important. The magician must keep people from noticing all the movement of his hands and from thinking about the secret parts of his equipment. He must also lead the people to draw false conclusions. The magician’s success depend on the fact that many things seen by the eye do not register(记下)on the mind.

Two basic magic tricks are making objects seem to appear or to disappear. For example, the magician puts a small ball under one of several cups. The ball then seems to jump from one cup to another or to change color. What actually happens is that the magician, by quick hand movements, hides one ball. While doing this he talks to the people and waves a brightly colored cloth with one hand. The people are too busy watching the cloth and listening to the magician’s words to notice that his other hand is hiding the ball. 

Not everyone in the world requires the same amount of living space．The amount of space a person needs around him is a cultural（文化的）difference，not an economic（经济的）one．Knowing your own psychological（心理的）space needs is important because they strongly affect your choices，including，for example，the number of bedrooms in the home．If you were brought up in a two-child family and both you and your sister or brother had your own bedrooms，the chances are，if you have two children or more，that you also will offer separate bedrooms for them．In America，for example，they train people to want to have their own rooms by giving them their own rooms when they are babies．This is very rare in the world．In many other countries，the baby sleeps in the same bed with his parents or in a bed near them．

The space in the home also shows a lot about psychological space needs．Some families gather closer to each other and the size of their house has nothing to do with it．Others have separate little corners where family members go to be alone．

Although it is true that psychological space needs are not decided by economic reasons，they sometimes have to be changed a little because of economic pressures．It is almost impossible，however，to completely change your psychological space needs．

1．The first sentence in Paragraph 1“Not everyone in the world requires the same amount of living space”means____ ”．

A．No two people need exactly the same amount of living space

B．Living space requirements are not always the same

C．The world requires the same amount of living space

D．Nobody needs a required amount of living space

2．Some families gather closer to each other at home than others because ____ ．

A．they have limited living space

B．they are brought up in a large family

C．it satisfies their psychological space needs

D．the children in the family sleep in the same bed with their parents

3．Which of the following is TRUE according to the passage？

A．Americans are trained to live in large rooms at birth．

B．Economic situation decides one's amount of space needs．

C．People in various countries demand different psychological space．

D．Knowing your psychological space needs is important，as it affects your future．

4．The best title for the passage is ____．

A．American Way of Living

B．Psychological Space

C．Space Needs in Different Countries

D．Psychological Space and Economic Pressure

Some of the most beautiful caves are formed in glaciers(冰川).Streams of melting ice and snow tunnel through the glaciers the same way that water from a faucet melts its way through an ice cube. Water from the surface drips down through cracks, hollowing out the tunnels and decorating the caves with crystal icicles. The smooth walls and floors are so glasslike that pebbles frozen six feet deep can easily be seen. Crystal-clear icicles draping from the ceilings flash blue green, as though they were carved from precious jewels instead of ice.?

Although most of the cave ice in the United States is found in lave caves, there are a number of limestone ice caves as well. Some people believe that this ice was formed thousands of years ago, when temperatures were much lower than they are today. Others think that the cave ice broke off from the ancient glaciers as they spread over the country.

Today many cave scientists have another idea. They believe that cold water sinks down through cracks into these caves until temperature is chilly enough to freeze the water that seeps(渗入)in. The ice that forms keeps the cave cool, and that helps build up still more ice. Many caves become covered with so much ice that no one knows just how thick it is. In some, such as crystal Falls Cave in Idaho, there are frozen rivers and even frozen waterfalls. Native Americans and early settlers used to store food in these underground refrigerators and chip out blocks of ice to melt for drinking water.?

1.What is the main idea about this passage?

A. Characteristics of glaciers

B. Uses for ice caves

C. The origin of cave ice

D. Where glaciers can be found

2.What causes ice to build up in caves?

A. Rivers and waterfalls water

B. Icicles accumulate on the ceilings

C. Cave ice breaks off glaciers

D. Cold water seeps in and freezes

3.It can be inferred from the passage that the early settlers appreciated the ice caves for their ______.

A. practicality　　　　 B. beautiful interiors

C. historical value   D. precious jewels

There are a great many careers in which the increasing emphasis is on specialization. You find these careers in engineering, in production, in statistical work and in teaching. But there is an increasing demand for people who are able to take in a great area at a glance, people who perhaps know too much about any one field. There is, in other words, a demand for people who are capable of seeing the forest rather than the trees, of making general judgment. And the “generalists” are particularly needed for positions in administration, where it is their job to see that other people do the work, where they have to plan for other people, to organize other people's work, to begin it and judge it.

　　   The specialist understands one field; his concern is with technique and tools. He is a “trained” man, and his educational background is properly technical or professional. The generalist and especially the administrator deals with people; his concern is with leadership, with planning, and with direction giving. He is an “educated” man, and the humanities are his strongest foundation. Very rarely is a specialist capable of being an administrator. And very rarely is a good generalist also a good specialist in a particular field. Any organizations need them in different proportions. It is your task to find out, during your training period, into which of the two kinds of jobs you fit, and to plan your career accordingly.

Your first job may turn out to be the right job for you, but this is pure accident. Certainly you should not change jobs constantly or people will become suspicious(怀疑的)of your ability to hold any job. At the same time you must not look upon the first job as the final job; it is primarily a training job, an opportunity to understand yourself and your fitness for being an employee.

1. There is an increasing demand for 　　  .

A. all-round people in their own fields

B. people whose job is to organize other people’s work

C. generalists whose educational background is either technical or professional

D. specialists whose chief concern is to provide administrative guidance to others

2. The specialist is 　　 .

A. a man whose job is to train other people

B. a man who has been trained in more than one field

C. a man who can see the forest rather than the trees

D. a man whose concern is mainly with technical or professional matters

3. During your training period it is important 　　 .

A. to try to be a generalist

B. to choose a profitable job

C. to find an organization which fits you

D. to decide whether you are fit to be a specialist or a generalist

4. A man’s first job 　　  .

A. is never the right job for him

B. should not be regarded as his final job

C. should not be changed or people will become suspicious of his ability to hold any job

D. is primarily an opportunity to fit himself for his final job

On the night of July 6,1943, a plane took off from an Air Force base in England to stop German fighters over the English Channel. Piloting the plane was Captain Thomas Nash. Looking westward, Nash saw twelve orange lights in a row, moving at a very high rate of speed. Thinking they might be a new German weapon(武器),he swung the plane around and headed directly for the lights, but they disappeared.

　　   Captain Nash may have been the first to see such orange lights but he wasn’t the last. His experience was repeated many times by pilots during World War Ⅱ both in Europe and Far East.

　　   What were they? No one knows for sure, but there is an interesting theory to explain them. According to this theory, the orange lights are space animals---animals specially adapted to(适应于)life in the upper atmosphere just as some living things are adapted to life at the bottom of the sea.

　　   These space animals, the theory says, live so far up in the atmosphere that they are not in sight from the earth. They feed partly in the air and partly on energy from the sunlight. Being almost pure energy themselves, their bodies can shine at night. During the day they became invisible.

　　   Before World War Ⅱ, continues the theory, there was little radiated energy on the earth’s surface. Then came the development of rockets, nuclear power stations and something like that. The space animals are attracted to these kinds of energy of food. At night when there is no energy from the sunlight, they come down into the lower levels in search of a meal. They may even float into the range(范围)of human eyesight. This explains the fact that they have been sighted many times from the earth since 1943.

1. The main idea of this passage is that 　　  .

A. Captain Nash saw twelve orange lights traveling at a great speed

B. Captain Nash may have been the first to see lights in space

C. the orange lights are space animals according to a theory

D. the secret of nature can all be fully explained

2. The theory says that during the daytime the space animals

A. shine brightly in the sky

B. cannot be seen

C. can be in sight now and then

D. visit the earth’s surface

3. If the space animal theory is correct, the orange lights come down to the lower levels in order to 　　  

A. escape from the atmosphere

B. get the energy from the sun

C. search for man-made energy

D. produce the energy they need

4. The space animal theory would seem to suggest that 　　  .

A. living things are extremely adaptable

B. life in space is impossible for man

C. the earth is more suitable for these space animals

D. life cannot exist in the upper atmosphere

In Kansas City, Missouri, a computer helps firefighters. The computer contains information about every one of the 350,000 street addresses in the city. When firefighters answer a call, the computer will give them important information about the burning building; its position, size, type and so on. In fact, the computer system has almost unlimited ways of helping firefighters with the problems facing them. For instance, it can give medical information about invalids living in a burning building. With this information, the firefighters can take special care to find these sick persons and remove them quickly and safely.

　　   The Kansas City computer system also keeps a medical record of each of the city’s 900 firefighters. This kind of information is especially useful when a fireman is injured. With this medical information, doctors at the hospital can treat the injured firefighter more quickly and easily.

　　   The firefighters themselves greatly appreciate the computer’s help. They know about possible dangers ahead of them and can prepare for them. Many times the computer information helps to save lives and property(财产). Sometimes the lives are those of firefighters themselves!

1. Missouri is most likely the name of 　　  .

A. a well-known river in the United States of America

B. a city famous for its fire-fighting computer system

C. one of the fifty states of America

D. the head of the fire control information centers

2. The computer can give 　　  .

A. both useful and useless information about the city

B. valuable information about every resident in that city

C. useful information about every street address in the city

D. lively description about each building on fire

3. The computer center can 　　  .

A. give the firemen important help in almost every way

B. have limited ways of helping firefighters

C. hardly give any useful information to the fire bridge

D. put out every fire automatically

The food we eat seems to have far-reaching effects on our health. Although science has made great steps in making food more fit to eat, it has, at the same time, made many foods unfit to eat. Some research has shown that perhaps eighty percent of all human illnesses are related to diet and forty percent of cancer is related to the diet as well, especially the colon(结肠)cancer. Different cultures are more likely to cause certain different illnesses because of the food that is characteristic in these cultures. That food is related to illness is not a new discovery. In 1945, government researchers realized that carcinogenic(致癌的)nitrates(硝酸盐)，commonly used to preserve color in meats and other food additives(添加剂), caused cancer. Yet, these additives remain in our food, and it becomes more difficult all the time to know which things on the packaging labels of processed food are helpful or harmful. The additives, which we eat, are not all so direct. Farmers often give penicillin(青霉素)to cows and other living animals, and because of this, penicillin has been found in the milk of treated cows. Sometime, similar drugs are given to animals not for medical purposes, but for financial reason. The farmers are simply trying to fatten the animals in order to obtain a higher price on the market. Although the Food and Drug Administration has tried repeatedly to control these procedures, the practices continue.

1.　　   What is the best possible title of the passage?

A. Drugs and Health　　　　    B. Food and Illness

C. Food and Culture    　　　　D. Health and Science

2.　　   Which of the following statements is NOT true?

a)　　　　 Drugs are always given to animals for medical reasons.

b)　　    Some of the additives in our food are added directly to the food and some are given to living animals.

c)　　    Researchers have realized the possible dangers of food additives for over fifty years.

d)　　    Food may cause 40% of cancer in the world.

3.　　   How has science done something harmful to mankind?

a)　　　　 Because of science, diseases caused by contaminated(被污染的) food have been actually reduced.

b)　　    It has caused a lack of information concerning the food.

c)　　    Due to the application of science, some potentially harmful substances have been added to food.

d)　　    It causes the animals to become fatter.

4.　　   The government tries to _______.

a)　　　　 control the market price of food.

b)　　    stop the farmers from giving drugs to animals to make more money.

c)　　    get rid of the additives from the packaged food

d)　　    use no medicine on the animals

　　 I was telling my son Sonny the story of the hare and the tortoise. At the end I said, “Son, remember: being slow and steady (firm) wins the race. Don’t you think there is something to learn from the tortoise?” He opened his eyes wide, “Do you mean next time when I’m entering for the 60 meter race I should wish that Bill and Tony and Sandy all fall asleep half-way?” I was greatly surprised．“But the tortoise didn’t wish the hare would fall asleep.”

    “He much have wished that.” Sonny said．“Or how could he be so stupid as to race with the hare? He knew very well the hare ran a hundred times faster than himself did.”

    “He didn’t have such a wish,” I insisted．“He won the race by perseverance and by pushing on steadily”.

    Sonny thought for a while. “That’s a lie,” he said．“He won it because he was lucky. If the hare hadn’t happened to fall asleep, the tortoise would never have won the race. He could be as steady as you like, or a hundred times steadier, but he’d never have won the race. That’ s for sure.”

    I gave up. Today’s children are not like what we used to be. They are just “hopeless ”

1. Bill, Tony and Sandy must be the boys ________.

A．Sonny was afraid of

B．Sonny had run races with before

C．who were unknown to Sonny’s father

D．Sonny didn’t expect to race with

2. Sonny’s father wanted his son to learn________ from the tortoise.

A．how to run faster

B．how to push others

C．how to continue difficult things

D．how to run steadily

3. The writer argued with his son because

A．the tortoise won the race while the hare didn’t

B．his son disliked the tortoise

C．Sonny was sure he could win the next race if the other three boys wouldn’t join in

D．he tried to teach the moral (道德上的) lesson of the story while his son didn’t like it

4. When the writer says “ I gave up” at the end of the story he means

A．he gave up his belief in the moral lesson of the story of the hare and the tortoise

B．he gave up arguing with his son

C．he gave up Sonny as a hopeless child

D．he gave up believing the tortoise was the winner of the race

5. Which of the following is right according to the passage?

A．Today’s children are really stupid and hopeless

B．Sonny’s father was sorry that he couldn’t make himself understood

C．The writer thought the new generation was hard to understand lessons

D．Sonny believed that hare should win the race by his own effort

　　 A youngster’s social development has a deep effect on his academic (学术的) progress. Kids who have trouble getting along with their classmates can end up behind academically as well and have a high chance of stopping attending school. In the early grades especially, experts say youngsters should be encouraged to work in groups rather than alone so that teachers can spot children who may be having problems making friends. “When children work on a project,” says University of Illinois education professor Lillian Katz, “they learn to work together, to disagree, to cooperate, to take turns and decrease tensions. These skills can’t be learned through lecture. We all know people who have wonderful technical skills but don’t have any social skills.”

　　 At certain age, children are also learning to judge themselves in relation to others. For most children, school marks the first time that their goals are not set by a home clock but by the outside world．Just as the 1 - year - old struggles to walk, 6 - year- old are struggling to meet adult expectations. Young kids don’t know how to tell effort and ability apart, says Tynette Hills, Coordinator (协调员) of early- childhood education for the state of New Jersey. If they try hard to do something and fail, they may conclude that they will never be able to finish a particular task. The effects of obvious methods of comparison such as posting grades, can be serious. says Hills. “A child who has had his confidence really damaged needs a rescue operation.”

1. In the author’s opinion ________.

A．children meet the needs of society since they were born so they should not be kept alone

B．children should learn to satisfy their parents

C．children should do something successfully

D．children should learn to walk when they are one year old

2. The writer seems to think that a kid who does not get on well with his classmates would ________.

A．have a lot of side effect on his study

B．develop his independence but limit his brains

C．certainly lead to his stopping attending school

D．they certainly haven’t any friends

3.  For most children, school teaches them

A．that social needs and their own needs have nothing in common

B．how they can meet social needs

C．that one’s effort and ability can be two quite different matters

D．that it is society not they themselves that decides their future

4. Which of the following is most unlikely for the writer to do?________.

A．To talk to students who have mental problems

B．To help students develop a feeling of self- respect

C．To tell the public a student’s scores

D．To keep a student from playing alone

5. Which of the following does a student most need according to the passage?

A．Independence and co- operation

B．Academic success and high chance

C．Ability and Self- respect

D．Cooperation and technical skills