I read a letter of a mother of a gifted child to an expert with gifted children stating that her son was always complaining that he doesn’t like his teacher for she talks in baby language and she lets them sing baby songs. Having an insufficient（不足够的） understanding of being different from their normally developing classmates, gifted children may find themselves wanting to learn more than being boxed with other kids of their age. They want to quench（解渴） their thirst for knowledge. However, in the process, they tend to develop negative（负面的） thoughts about school and teachers. Thus, they tend to exhibit behavioral problems.
Behavioral problems of gifted children could be mainly correlated（相关的） to their asynchronous（不同步的） development. This development means that the child has uneven（不均衡的） development in their mind, body and emotions. To explain further, a gifted child may live in different ages at once. He may show high intellectual（智力的） capabilities at some point but the time his emotions rule, he would go back to his true age going through tantrums（脾气发作） and endless sobbing（哭泣）. He maybe find it happy playing with kids his age but the next day, he would be bored with that and he would find conversing with older kids to be more challenging.
Because of high intellectual level, a gifted child often acts differently in his own classroom. He has the thinking of being above from the rest of his classmates when it comes to grades, academic awards and school recognitions. In classroom discussions, the child may be very cooperative（合作的） having advanced knowledge in the lessons but it is mostly that he will suffer from boredom as he is not challenged by the lessons and he would feel no improvement with them.
【小题1】Which of the following best explains the asynchronous development?
A A child has good development both in mind and body.
B A child cannot get along well with his classmates.
C A child is intellectually developed but not equal with emotionally.
D A child doesn’t feel happy with his school and teachers.
【小题2】What is most likely to be talked about in the paragraph following the passage?
A How a gifted child gets along with his classmates.
B How to get a gifted child involved（被卷入） in a classroom discussion.
C What can arouse（激发） a gifted child’s interest.
D How a teacher should handle a gifted child in class.
【小题3】We can infer from the passage that ______.
A we needn’t pay special attention to gifted children
B a gifted child is well above others in every way
C it’s best to teach a gifted child separately
D teaching a gifted child can be challenging

Forgiving someone who has hurt you or let you down is never an easy thing. Several new studies, however, say that it could have a lot of health benefits. When you think of forgiveness, you probably don’t think of it as being a health or medical problem. Studies from Stanford University, on the other hand, show that something like anger can change your well-being.
When cartoon book characters like the Incredible Hulk get angry, they change colors and often gain special power. In the real world, anger is less obvious and may be more dangerous. That’s why Professor Fred Luskin, founder of the Stanford Forgiveness Project and author of Forgive for Good, says holding on to anger and hatred can harm your physical and mental health. Two new studies seem to show the same idea.
The studies find that people who are able to forgive feel less stress, less back pain, and less depression. They also have fewer headaches, lower blood pressure, and fewer problems on sleeping.
So it doesn’t matter if your anger is caused by the traffic or other things. Learning to let it go is important. Techniques such as deep breath or thought can help. Or just ask yourself if it’s worth hurting yourself by staying angry with someone else.
Forgiveness does not mean that you simply accept what happened and say it’s OK. Instead, it’s a way of making peace with yourself about what happened in the past.
【小题1】The example of the cartoon book characters is taken in the passage to______.

Playing with toy blocks (积木) may lead to improved language development in young children, a new study reported.
Early childhood is an important period in the development of young minds. The newborn brain grows three times in size between birth and age 2. Scientists have said that certain activities during this important period may promote (促进) healthy development while others may hold it back, and development of memory and language may especially be helped by imaginative play.
After six months, language scores among half of the 175 children aged 1-1/2 to 2-1/2 who were sent plastic blocks were 15 percent higher than a matched group that did not receive the free blocks, according to the study by researchers at the University of Washington in Seattle.
Parents were given ideas about how to help their children play with the blocks, then were told to keep diaries of their children’s activities over four days. Finally, all the parents filled out questionnaires that judged their children’s vocabulary, grammar, and other language abilities. Study author Dimitri Christakis said unstructured play with blocks motivated children’s thinking, memory and physical skills at a time when a child’s brain is growing rapidly. “They are the foundation of thought and language,” he wrote of the skills learned from building blocks. “Older children begin to make up stories for these objects .”
Such play may also take the place of less helpful activities such as watching TV, he said, adding parents ought to have doubts about some toy-makers’ words. “An increasing number of media-based products are making ungrounded (无根据的) claims that they can make children smarter, more literate, and more musical,” Christakis said.
【小题1】What can we learn from the second paragraph?

What is language for? Some people seem to think it’s for practicing grammar rules and learning lists of words — the longer the lists, the better. That’s wrong. Language is for the exchange (交流) of ideas and information. It’s meaningless knowing all about a language if you can’t use it freely. Many students I have met know hundreds of grammar rules, but they can ’t speak correctly or fluently(流利地). They are afraid of making mistakes. One shouldn’t be afraid of making mistakes when speaking a foreign language. Native speakers make mistakes and break rules, too. Bernard Shaw once wrote, “Foreigners often speak English too correctly.” But the mistakes that native speakers make are different from those that Chinese students make. They are English mistakes in the English language. And if enough native speakers break a rule, it is no longer a rule. What used to be wrong becomes right. People not only make history, but they make language. But people can only make its own language. It can’t make another people’s language. So Chinese students of English should pay attention to grammar, but they shouldn’t overdo it. They should put communication first.
【小题1】Language is used to ________.

Do American children still learn handwriting in school? In the age of the keyboard, some people seem to think handwriting lessons are on the way out. 90% of teachers say they are required to teach handwriting.But studies have yet to answer the question of how well they are teaching it. One study published this year found that about three out of every four teachers say they are not prepared to teach handwriting. Some teachers are teaching handwriting by providing instruction for 10 ?15 minutes a day, and then other teachers who basically teach it for 60 to 70 minutes a day — which really for handwriting is pretty much.
Many adults remember learning that way — by copying letters over and over again. Today’ s thinking is that short periods of practice are better. Many experts also think handwriting should not be taught by itself.Instead, they say it should be used as a way to get students to express ideas. After all, that is why we write.
Handwriting involves two skills. One is legibility,_which means forming the letters so they can be read. The other is fluency — writing without having to think about it. Fluency continues to develop up until high school.
But not everyone masters these skills. Teachers commonly report that about one?fourth of their kids have poor handwriting. Some people might think handwriting is not important any more because of computers and voice recognition programs.
But Steve Graham at Vanderbilt says word processing is rarely done in elementary school, especially in the early years. American children traditionally first learn to print, and then to write in cursive, which connects the letters. But guess what we learned from a spokeswoman for the College Board, which administers the SAT college admission test. More than 75 percent of students choose to print their essay on the test rather than write in cursive.
【小题1】We can learn ________ from Paragraph 1.

English is the most widely used language in the history of our planet. One in every seven human beings can speak it. More than half of the world’s books and three quarters of international mail are in English. Of all languages, English has the largest vocabulary—perhaps as many as two million words.
However, let’s face it: English is a crazy language. There is no eggs in an eggplant, neither pine nor apple in a pineapple and no ham in a hamburger. Sweet-meats are candy, while sweetbreads, which aren’t sweet, are meat.
We take English for granted. But when we explore its paradoxes ( 探讨它的矛盾)， we find that quicksand can work slowly, boxing rings are square, public bathrooms have no baths in them.
And why is it that a writer writes, but fingers don’t fing, grocers don’t groce, and hammers don’t ham? If the plural(复数形式) of tooth is teeth, shouldn’t the plural of booth be teeth? One goose, two geese—so one moose, two meese?
How can a slim chance and a flat chance be the same, while a wise man and a wise guy are opposites? How can overlook and oversee be opposites, while quite a lot and quite a few are alike? How can the weather be hot as hell one day and cold as hell the next?
English was invented by people, not computers, and it reflects( 反映) the creativity of human beings. That’ why, when stars are invisible. And why , when I wind up my watch, I start it; but when I wind up this essay, I end it.
【小题1】According to the passage ______.

I am a strong believer that if a child is raised with approval, he learns to love himself and will be successful in his own way.
Several weeks ago，I was doing homework with my son in the third grade and he kept standing up from his chair to go over the math lines．I kept asking him to sit down, telling him that he would concentrate better. He sat but seconds later, as if he didn’t even notice he was doing it, he got up again．I was getting frustrated, but then it hit me．I started noticing his answers were much quicker and accurate when he stood up．Could he be more intent while standing up？
This made me start questioning myself and what I had been raised to believe. I was raised to believe that a quiet, calm child was a sure way to success．This child would have the discipline to study hard, get good grades and become someone important in life．
Now those same people perhaps come to realize that their kids are born with their own sets of DNA and personality traits，and all you can do is loving and accepting them．As parents，throughout their growing years and beyond that, we need to be our kids' best cheerleaders，guiding them and helping them find their way.
I have stopped asking my son to sit down and concentrate．Obviously, he is concentrating just in his own way and not mine．We need to learn to accept our kids' ways of doing things．Some way may have worked for me but doesn't mean we need to carry it through generations．There is nothing sweeter than being individual and unique．It makes us free and happy and that's just the way I want my kids to live their own life．
【小题1】 At the beginning, the author tried to keep his son seated in order to make him________.

A．pay more attention to his study	B．keep silent in the room
C．finish his homework on time	D．get right answers

When I was 17, I read a quote that went something like: “If you live each day as if it were your last, someday you’ ll most certainly be right.” It made an impression on me, and since then, for the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself, “If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?”
Remembering that I’ ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choice in life.
About a year ago I was diagnosed with cancer. The doctors told me this was almost certainly a type of cancer that was incurable, and that I would live no longer than three to six months. My doctor advised me to go home and get my affairs in order, which is my doctors’ code for preparing yourself to die.
I lived with that diagnosis all day. I was completely in despair. Later that evening, I had another examination and my wife told me that tumor turned to be curable with surgery. I had the surgery and I’ m fine now.
This was the closest I’ve been to facing death. To tell the truth, no one wants to die. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. It clears out the old to make room for the new. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away.
Your time is so limited that you shouldn’t waste it repeating someone else’s life. Don’ t be trapped by dogma（教条）—which is living with the results of other people’ s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most importantly, have the courage to follow your heart. It somehow already knows what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.
【小题1】The doctor advised the author to go home and get his affairs in order because_________.

A．Hopeless

B．Excited

C．Optimistic

D．Angry

There is plenty for kids and teens to do in the Syracuse area during the summer, including some great educational opportunities. Here are the top four.
Rosamond Gifford Zoo Camp
The zoo offers separate camps for kids. The camps for kindergarteners run from 9 am to 12:30 pm, and cost $115 for zoo members and $135 for non-members. Kids entering 7th and 8th grades will have half a day from 1 pm to 4:30 pm. The cost is $149 for members and $160 for non-members. All camps feature numerous educational activities and animal encounters. The camps run from August 14 to August 19. Registration starts from July 10 for members and July 15 for non-members.
Active Learning Services at Christian Brothers Academy
From August 1 to August 5, Christian Brothers Academy will host Active Learning Services from USA Chess. Topics of learning will include Chess Camp (age 5-15), and Video Game Creation Program (age 8-15). Chess Camp promises improved chess skills through chess instructors utilizing demo(演示) boards and historic games. Half day sessions will cost $280 for the Computer Camps. A full day of Chess costs $400, and a half day of Chess followed by a half day of Computer Camps cost $430.
Syracuse University Summer College
From July 5th to August 12th , Syracuse University will host pre-college programs for high school students. The Summer College will offer a wide variety of programs including architecture, engineering and computer science, public communications, and eco-fashion. The programs are taught by the teachers of Syracuse University and include hands-on activities. The costs range from $2325 to $7642.
The Sheldon Institute at SUNY Oswego
The State University of New York will hold two-week educational enrichment programs for students entering grades2-4 from July 25 to August 5. Children will have a set program featuring art, science, technology, cultural appreciation and writing. Tuition for the programs is only $320 and a downloadable application is available.
【小题1】If a preschool boy and his 8th-grade brother attend the Zoo Camps, they should
pay___________

When the six very best students from different cities in Guangdong Province all together chose universities in Hong Kong ; when the very best students of Beijing picked up HK University while giving up the nearby Peking or Tsinghua University ; when the highest enrollment(录取) rate of Hong Kong Science and Industry University reached 48:1, it’s the high time to ask where the real education heaven for students in China is.
Years ago, the answer certainly would be “Peking or Tsinghua University”. But now no one could give the exact answer without hesitation . The only sure thing is that HK universities have gradually showed an unusual attraction to a great many mainland students.
There’s no doubt to call this HK craze (狂热), which is even out of the expectation of those HK universities themselves.
How can HK universities shake the steady foundations of Peking and Tsinghua University and attract so many mainland students?
First, Hong Kong universities offer large-amount scholarship, especially for the top students who can receive the scholarship as much as 400,000 HK dollars. Since higher education has become a kind of heavy burden of many families, it’s easy to understand why the reaction to the generous offering of HK universities is great.
Second, most HK universities receive professors and students from all over the world and carry out bilingual (双语) education. This kind of excellent language atmosphere is another attraction for mainland students.
Furthermore, university students in Hong Kong have a better chance to study abroad as exchange students.
Can mainland top universities like Peking or Tsinghua University be calm as before when facing the unexpected competition from HK? Will they take relevant measures to win back the top students who once help them set the worldwide reputation? Time will explain it .
The fierce competition brought by HK universities can be a good thing for an entire improvement of education in China. After the awakening and action-taking of mainland universities , they can perform better together with HK universities.
At least, it reminded the mainland universities the tuition fees (学费) are among students’ top concern when they are choosing universities . It’s time to move.
【小题1】What is the passage mainly talking about?