Last week, my granddaughter started kindergarten,and ,as is conventional, I wished her every success ,But part of me didn’t.
I actually wanted her to fail in some ways because I believe that failure can be good for our learning process, Success is proving that you can do something that you already know you can do , First –time success is usually a fluke （侥幸）,First-time failure ,by contrast,is expected ;it is the natural order of things Failure is how we learn.
In Africa they describe a good cook as “she who has broken many bots”,If you’ve spent enough time in the kitchen to break a lot of pots ,probably you know a lot about cooking ,I once had dinner with a group of cooks and they spent a lot of time comparing knife wounds and burn scars ,They Knew how much their failures gave them.
I earn my living by writing a daily newspaper column, Each week I am aware that one column I write lill be my sores , I don’t set out to write it ; I try my best every day. I have learned to cherish that column ,A good column usually means that I am discussing a familiar topic, writing in a style I am used to or saying the same things as someons else but in fancy way.
Ny younger daughter is a trapeze artist（杂技荡秋千演员），She spent three years putting together a show and she did it successfully for years ,There was no reason for her to change it-but she did anyway, She said she was no longer learning anything new and she was boued; and if she was bored ,there was no point in subjecting her body to all that stress
My granddaughter is a perfectionist She will feel her failures ,and I will want to comfort her, But I sill also ,I hope ,remind her of what she learned ,and how she can do better next time ,I hope I can tell her ,though ,that it’s not the end of the world ,Indeed,  with juck ,it is the beginning.
【小题1】Why did the author want his granddaughter to fail?

A．Success is boring though beneficial

B．She would learn more from failure

C．It is impossible to do everything successfully

D．He wanted her to be strong enough to face hardships

【小题2】What’s the author’s attitude toward his daughter changing her show/

A．Negative

B．Worried

C．Positive

D．Excited

【小题3】The author develops the article mainly by        

A．giving examples

B．following the time order

C．comparing different opinions

D．analyxing cause and effect

【小题4】The writer talks about his own experience to show that        

A．we cannot depend on luck to live a good life

B．we shoule try every possible way to avoid failure

C．past failures prevented him from taking risks in writing

D．the thought of failure will make you work even harder

【小题5】Which of the following can be the best title of the text?

A．Learn from failure

B．How to be a good cook

C．My daughter and granddaughter

D．A good column makes a good writer

When I was 11, I had an enemy, a girl who liked to point out my shortcomings(缺点). Week by week her list grew: I was very thin, I wasn’t a good student, I talked too much, I was too proud, and so on. I tried to hear all this as long as I could. In the end, I became so angry that I ran to my father with tears in my eyes.
He listened to me quietly, then he asked. “Are the things she says true or not? Janet, didn’t you ever wonder what you’re really like? Well, you now have that girl’s opinion. Go and make a list of everything she said and mark the points that are true. Pay no attention to the other things she said.” I did as he told me. To my great surprise, I discovered that about half the things were true. Some of them I couldn’t change (like being very thin), but a good number I could—and suddenly I wanted to change. For the first time I go to fairly clear picture of myself.
I brought the list back to Dad. He refused to take it.” That’s just for you,” he said.
“You know better than anyone else the truth about yourself. But you have to learn to listen, not just close your ears in anger and feeling hurt. When something said about you is true, you’ll find it will be of help to you. Our world is full of people who think they know your duty. Don’t shut your ears. Listen to them all, but hear the truth and do what you know is the right thing to do.”
Daddy’s advice has returned to me at many important moments. In my life, I’ve never had a better piece of advice. 
【小题1】What did the father do after he had heard his daughter’s complaint? 

A．He told her not to pay any attention to whatever”enemy”had said.

B．He criticized (批评) her and told her to overcome her shortcomings.

C．He told her to write down all that her” enemy” had said about her and pay attention only to the things that were true.

D．He refused to take the list and have a look at it.

【小题2】 What does “Week by week her list grew” mean?

A．Week by week, my shortcomings grew more serious.

B．She had made a list of my shortcomings and she kept on adding new ones to it so that it was growing longer and longer.

C．I was having more and more shortcomings as time went on.

D．Week by week she discovered more shortcomings of mine and pointed them out to me.

【小题3】 Why did her father listen to her quietly?

A．Because he wasn’t quite sure which girl was telling the truth.

B．Because he had been so angry with his daughter’s shortcomings that he wantedto show this by keeping silent for a while.

C．Because he knew that his daughter would not listen to him at that moment.

D．Because he believed that what her daughter’s “enemy” said was mostly true.

【小题4】 Which do you think would be the best title for this passage?

A．The Best Advice I’ve Ever Had

B．Not an Enemy,but the Best Friend

C．My Father

D．My Childhood

Napoleon stayed in a small inn (小旅馆). The next morning, he went to thank the innkeeper.
“You have served me well,” said Napoleon. “I wish to reward you. Tell me what you want.”
“Sir, we want nothing,” said the innkeeper. “But will you tell us something?”
“What is it?” Napoleon asked.
“We have heard a story,” said the innkeeper, “that once during the war, a small village was taken by the Russians. You happened to be in the village. You hid while they looked for you. Will you tell us how you felt when they were looking for you?” Napoleon looked very angry. He called in two of his soldiers. Then he pointed to the door. The soldiers took the innkeeper and his wife out into the yard.
At the end of the yard was a wall. The innkeeper and his wife were led to the wall. The soldiers tied the hands of the innkeeper and his wife. Napoleon watched, saying nothing.
“Please, sir.” begged the innkeeper, “Don’t kill us! we meant nothing!” The soldiers moved back. The innkeeper saw them raising their guns. Then Napoleon called: “Ready! Aim!” The wife screamed. “Stop!” said Napoleon. He went to the innkeeper, “Now, you know the answer to the question you asked me just now, don’t you?”
【小题1】While the Russians were searching for him, Napoleon ______.

A．ordered his men to fight back	B．was frightened to death
C．feared nothing at all	D．regretted (后悔) having hidden there

【小题2】Why did Napoleon order his men to tie the couple?

A．Because he wanted to teach the innkeeper a good lesson for bothering him.

B．Because he wanted to kill the couple to get rid of his anger.

C．Because he wanted to show that he was so admiring a general that nobody could upset him.

D．Because he wanted to make them know that he felt the same as they in face of danger.

【小题3】Which of the following is NOT true according to the passage?

A．Five people are mentioned (提到) in this passage.

B．In fact, Napoleon didn’t hide when the Russians were looking for him.

C．Napoleon was thankful to the innkeeper for his good service.

D．The couple had thought they would be killed before Napoleon said “stop”.

A year after graduation, I was offered a position teaching a writing class. Teaching was a profession I had never seriously considered, though several of my stories had been published. I accepted the job without hesitation, as it would allow me to wear a tie and go by the name of Mr. Davis. My father went by the same name, and I liked to imagine people getting the two of us confused. “Wait a minute,” someone might say, “are talking about Mr. Davis the retired man, or Mr. Davis the respectable scholar?”
The position was offered at the last minute, and I was given two week to prepare, a period I spent searching for a briefcase and standing before my full-length mirror, repeating the words, “Hello, class, I’m Mr. Davis.” Sometimes I would give myself an aggressive voice. Sometimes I would sound experienced. But when the day eventually came, my nerves kicked in and the true Mr. Davis was there. I sounded not like a thoughtful professor, but rather a 12-year-old boy.
I arrived in the classroom with paper cards designed in the shape of maple leaves. I had cut them myself out of orange construction paper. I saw nine students along a long table. I handed out the cards, and the students wrote down their names and fastened them to their breast pockets as I required.
“All right then,” I said. “Okay, here we go.” Then I opened my briefcase and realized that I had never thought beyond this moment. I had been thinking that the students would be the first to talk, offering their thoughts and opinions on the events of the day. I had imagined that I would sit on the edge of the desk, overlooking a forest of raised hands. Every student would shout to be heard, and I would knock on something in order to silence them. I would yell, “Calm down, you’ll all get your turn. One at a time, one at a time!”
A terrible silence ruled the room, and seeing no other opinions, I instructed the students to pull out their notebooks and write a brief essay related to the theme of deep disappointment.
【小题1】The author took the job to teach writing because______________.

A．he wanted to be respected	B．he had written some stories
C．he wanted to please his father	D．he had dreamed of being a teacher

【小题2】What can we learn about the author from Paragraph 2?

A．He would be aggressive in his first class.	B．He was well-prepared for his first class.
C．He got nervous upon the arrival of his first class.	D．He waited long for the arrival of his first class.

【小题3】Before he started his class, the author asked the students to_______.

A．write down their suggestions on the paper cards

B．cut maple leaves out of the construction paper

C．cut some cards out the construction paper

D．write down their names on the paper cards

【小题4】 What did the students do when the author started his class?

A．They began to talk.	B．They stayed silent.
C．They raised their hands.	D．They shouted to be heard.

【小题5】The author chose the composition topic probably because________.

A．he got disappointed with his first class

B．he had prepared the topic before class.

C．he wanted to calm down the students

D．he thought it was an easy topic

In 1947 a group of famous people from the art world headed by an Austrian conductor decided to hold an intemational festival of music,dance and theatre in Edinburgh. The idea was to reunite Europe after the Second World War.
At the same time, the “Fringe” appeared as a challenge to the official festival.Eight theatre groups turned up uninvited in 1947,in the belief that everyone should have the right to perform,and they did so in a public house disused for years.
Soon,groups of studentsfirstly from Edinburgh University, and later from the universities of Oxford and Cambridge,Durham and Birmingham were making the journey to the Scottish capital each summer to perform theatre by little-known writers of plays in small church halls to the people of Edinburgh.
Today the “Fringe”,once less recognized, has far outgrown the festival with around 1,500 performances of theatre,music and dance on every one of the 21 days it lasts. And yet as early as 1959,with only 19 theatre groups performing,some said it was getting too big.
A paid administrator was first employed only in 1971, and today there are eight administrators working all year round and the number rises to 150 during August itself. In 2004 there were 200 places housing 1,695 shows by over 600 different groups from 50 different countries. More than 1,25 million tickets were sold.
【小题1】Point was the purpose of Edinburgh Festival at he beginning?

A．To bring Europe together again.

B．To honor heroes of World War 11.

C．To introduce young theatre groups.

D．To attract great artists from Europe.

【小题2】Why did some uninvited theatre groups come to  Edinburgh in 1947?

A．They owned a public house there.

B．They came to take up a challenge.

C．They thought they were also famous.

D．They wanted to take part in the festival.

【小题3】Who joined the "Fringe" after it appeared?

A．they owned a public house there

B．University students.

C．人rusts from around the world.

D．Performers of music and dance.

【小题4】We may learn from the text that Edinburgh Festival.

A．has become a non-official event

B．has gone beyond an art festival

C．gives shows all year round

D．keeps growing rapidly

Guide to Stockholm University Library
Our library offers different types of studying places and provides a good studying environment.
Zones
The library is divided into different zones. The upper floor is a quiet zone with over a thousand places for silent reading, and places where you can sit and work with your own computer. The reading places consist mostly of tables and chairs. The ground floor is the zone where you can talk. Here you can find sofas and armchairs for group work.
Computers
You can use your own computer to connect to the wi-fi specially prepared for notebook computers; you can also use library computers, which contain the most commonly used applications, such as Microsoft Office. They are situated in the area known as the Experimental Field on the ground floor.
Group-study Places
If you want to discuss freely without disturbing others, you can book a study room or sit at a table on the ground floor. Some study rooms are for 2-3 people and others can hold up to 6-8 people. All rooms are marked on the library maps.
There are 40 group-study rooms that must be booked via the website. To book, you need an active University account and a valid University card. You can use a room three hours per day, nine hours at most per week.
Storage of study material
The library has lockers for students to store course literature. When you have obtained at least 40 credits (学分), you may rent a locker and pay 400 SEK for a year’s rental period.
Rules to be followed
Mobile phone conversations are not permitted anywhere in the library. Keep your phone on silent as if you were in a lecture and exit the library if you need to receive calls.
Please note that food and fruit are forbidden in the library, but you are allowed to have drinks and sweets with you.
【小题1】The library’s upper floor is mainly for students to ______.

A．read in a quiet place

B．have group discussions

C．take comfortable seats

D．get their computers fixed

【小题2】 Library computers on the ground floor ______.

A．help students with their field experiments

B．contain software essential for schoolwork

C．are for those who want to access the wi-fi

D．are mostly used for filling out application forms

【小题3】What condition should be met to book a group-study room?

A．A group must consist of 8 people.

B．Three-hour use per day is the minimum.

C．One should first register at the university.

D．Applications must mark the room on the map.

【小题4】A student can rent a locker in the library if he ______.

A．can afford the rental fee

B．attends certain courses

C．has nowhere to put his books.

D．has earned the required credits

【小题5】What should NOT be brought into the library?

A．Mobile phones

B．Orange juice

C．Candy

D．Sandwiches

The National Gallery
Description:
The National Gallery is the British national art museum built on the north side of European art ranging from 13th-century religious paintings to more modern ones by Renoir and Van Gogh. The older collections of the gallery are reached through the main entrance while the more modern works in the East Wing are most easily reached from Trafalgar Square by a ground floor entrance
Layout:
The modern Sainsbury Wing on the western side of the building houses 13th-to15th-century paintings, and artists include Duccio, Uccello, Van Eyck, Lippi, Mantegna, Botticelli and Memling.
The main West Wing houses 16th-century paintings, and artists include Leonardo da Vinci, Cranach, Michelangelo, Raphael, Bruegel, Bronzino, Titan and Veronest.
The North Wing houses 17th-century paintings, and artists include Caravaggio, Rubens, Poussin, Van Dyck, Velazquez, Claude and Vermeer.
The East Wing houses 18th-to early 20th-century paintings, and artists include Canaletto, Goya, Turner, Constable, Renoir and Van Gogh
Opening Hours:
The Gallery is open every day from 10am to 6pm (Fridays 10anm to 9pm) and is free, but charges apply to some special exhibitions.
Getting There:
Nearest underground stations: Charing Cross (2-minute walk). Leicester Square (3-minute walk), Embankment (7-minute walk), and Piccadilly Circus(8-minute walk).
【小题1】In which century’s collection can you see religious paintings?

A．The 13th

B．The 17th

C．The 18th

D．The 20th

【小题2】Where are Leonardo da Vinci’s works shown?

A．In the East Wing.

B．In the main West Wing.

C．In the Sainsbury Wing.

D．In the North Wing.

【小题3】Which underground station is closest to the National Gallery?

A．Piccadilly Circus.

B．Leicester Square.

C．Embankment.

D．Charing Cross.

It is widely known that any English conversation begins with The Weather. Such a fixation with the weather finds expression in Dr. Johnson’s famous comment that “When two English meet, their first talk is of weather.” Though Johnson’s observation is as accurate now as it was over two hundred years ago, most commentators fail to come up with a convincing explanation for this English weather-speak.
Bill Bryson, for example, concludes that, as the English weather is not at all exciting, the obsession with it can hardly be understood. He argues that “To an outsider, the most striking thing about the English weather is that there is not very much of it.” Simply, the reason is that the unusual and unpredictable weather is almost unknown in the British Isles.
Jeremy Paxman, however, disagrees with Bryson, arguing that the English weather is by nature attractive. Bryson is wrong, he says, because the English preference for the weather has nothing to do with the natural phenomena. “The interest is less in the phenomena themselves, but in uncertainty.” According to him, the weather in England is very changeable and uncertain and it attracts the English as well as the outsider.
Bryson and Paxman stand for common misconceptions about the weather-speak among the English. Both commentators, somehow, are missing the point. The English weather conversation is not really about the weather at all. English weather-speak is a system of signs, which is developed to help the speakers overcome the natural reserve and actually talk to each other. Everyone knows conversations starting with weather-speak are not requests for weather data. Rather, they are routine greetings, conversation starters or the blank “fillers”. In other words, English weather-speak is a means of social bonding.
【小题1】The author mentions Dr. Johnson’s comment to show that______.

A．most commentators agree with Dr. Johnson

B．Dr. Johnson is famous for his weather observation

C．the comment was accurate two hundred years ago

D．English conversations usually start with the weather

【小题2】What does the underlined word “obsession” most probably refer to?

A．A social trend.

B．An emotional state.

C．A historical concept.

D．An unknown phenomenon.

【小题3】According to the passage, Jeremy Paxman believes that______.

A．Bill Bryson has little knowledge of the weather

B．there is nothing special about the English weather

C．the English weather attracts people to the British Isles

D．English people talk about the weather for its uncertainty

【小题4】What is the author’s purpose of writing the passage?

A．To explain what English weather-speak is about.

B．To analyse misconceptions about the English weather.

C．To find fault with both Bill Bryson and Jeremy Paxman.

D．To convince people that the English weather is changeable.

“Indeed”George Washington wrote in his diary in 1785, “some kind of fly,or bug,had begun to eat the leaves before I left home.” But the father of America was not the father of bug.When Washington wrote that, Englishmen had been referring to insects as bugs for more than a century, and Americans had already created lightning-bug(萤火虫). But the Enlish were soon to stop using the bugs in their language, leaving it to be the Americans to call a bug a bug in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
The American bug could also be a person, referring to someone who was crazy about a particular activity.Although fan became the usual term, sports fans used to be called racing bugs, baseball bugs and the like.
Or the bug could be a small machine or object, for example, a bug-shaped car. The bug could also be a burlar alarm, from which comes the expression to bug, that is, “to install(安装) an alarm”. Now it means a small piece of equipment that people use for listening secretly to others’ conversations.Since the 1840s,to bug has long meant “to cheat”,and since the 1994s it has been annoying.
We also know the bug as a flaw n a computer program or other design.That meaning dates back to the time of Tomas Edison.In 1878 he explained bugs as “little problems and difficulties” that required months of stdy and labor to overcome in developing a successful product. In 1889 it was recorded that Edison “had been up the two previous nights discovering′a bug′ in his invented record player.”
【小题1】We learn from Paragraph 1 that         .

A．American had difficulty in learning to use the word “bug”.

B．George Washinton was the first person to call the insect a bug.

C．the word bug was still popularly used in England in the nineteenth century.

D．both the Englishmen and Americans used the word bug in the gighteen century.

【小题2】What does the word “flaw” in the last paragraph mean？

A．Explanation.

B．Finding.

C．Origin.

D．Fault.

【小题3】The passage is mainly concerned with         .

A．the misunderstanding of thr word bug

B．the deveopment of the word bug

C．the public views of the word bug

D．the special characteristics of the word bug

According to sociologists(社会学家), every modern industrial society has some form of social stratification(阶层). Class, power and status are important in deciding people’s rank in society.
Class means a person’s economic position in society. A commonly used classification is lower class, middle class and upper class. While sociologists disagree on how these terms should be exactly defined, they do describe societies like the United States quite well. One study shows that 53% of Americans belong to the lower class, 46% the middle class, and 1% the upper class. Interestingly, a surgeon earning ＄500,000 a year and a bus driver earning ＄50,000 a year both regard themselves as the middle class!
Power refers to the amount of control a person has over other people. Obviously, people in positions of great power (such as governors) exercise(行使)big power, but people who take orders from others have less power. Power and class do not always go hand in hand, however. For example, the governor of a state has great power, but he or she may not belong to a corresponding (相应的)economic class. Generally, however, there is a relationship between power and class.   
To our knowledge, there aren’t too many people who aren’t millionaires in the U.S. Senate!
Status is the honor or respect attached to a person’s position in society. It can also be affected by power and class, but not necessarily so. For example, a university professor may have a high status but not belong to a high social class or have a lot of power over others.
【小题1】What can we learn about “the middle class” from Paragraph 2?

A．People earning ＄50,000 a year belong to the middle class.

B．Nearly half Americans belong to the middle class.

C．People generally consider bus drivers as the middle class.

D．Sociologists have a clear definition of the middle class.

【小题2】According to the text, we know that _____.

A．power and class do not always correspond with each other

B．status refers to a person’s economic position in society

C．people with high status have a lot of control over others

D．class is less important in deciding a person’s social rank

【小题3】Which of the following shows the structure of the whole text?