Grown-ups are often surprised by how well they remember something they learned as children but have never practiced ever since. A man who has not had a chance to go swimming for years can still swim as well as ever when he gets back in the water. He can get on a bicycle after many years and still ride away. He can play catch and hit a ball as well as his son. A mother who has not thought about the words for years can teach her daughter the poem that begins "Twinkle, twinkle, little star" or remember the story of Cinderella or Goldilocks and the Three Bears.
One explanation is the law of overlearning, which can be stated as follows: Once we have learned something, additional learning trials(尝试) increase the length of time we will remember it.
In childhood we usually continue to practice such skills as swimming, bicycle riding, and playing baseball long after we have learned them. We continue to listen to and remind ourselves of words such as "Twinkle, twinkle, little star" and childhood tales such as Cinderella and Goldilocks. We not only learn but overlearn.
The multiplication tables(乘法口诀表) are an exception to the general rule that we forget rather quickly the things that we learn in school, because they are another of the things we overlearn in childhood.
The law of overlearning explains why cramming(突击学习)for an examination, though it may result in a passing grade, is not a satisfactory way to learn a college course. By cramming, a student may learn the subject well enough to get by on the examination, but he is likely soon to forget almost everything he learned. A little overlearning, on the other hand, is really necessary for one's future development.
【小题1】What is the main idea of paragraph 1?

A．People remember well what they learned in childhood.

B．Children have a better memory than grown-ups.

C．Poem reading is a good way to learn words.

D．Stories for children are easy to remember.

【小题2】The author explains the law of overlearning by_________.

A．presenting research findings

B．setting down general rules

C．making a comparison

D．using examples

【小题3】According to the author, being able to use multiplication tables is_______.

A．a result of overlearning

B．a special case of cramming

C．a skill to deal with math problems

D．a basic step towards advanced studies

【小题4】What does the word "they" in Paragraph 4 refer to?

A．Commonly accepted rules.

B．The multiplication tables.

C．Things easily forgotten.

D．School subjects.

【小题5】What is the author's opinion on cramming?

A．It leads to failure in college exams.

B．It's helpful only in a limited way.

C．It's possible to result in poor memory.

D．It increases students' learning interest.

How is it that siblings (兄弟姐妹) can turn out so differently? One answer is that in fact each sibling grows up in a different family. The firstborn is, for a while, an only child, and therefore has a completely different experience of the parents than those born later. The next child is, for a while, the youngest, until the situation is changed by a new arrival. The mother and father themselves are changing and growing up too. One sibling might live in a stable and close family in the first few years; another might be raised in a family crisis, with a disappointed mother or an angry father.
Sibling competition was identified as an important shaping force as early as in 1918. But more recently, researchers have found many ways in which brothers and sisters are a lasting force in each others’ lives. Dr. Annette Henderson says firstborn children pick up vocabulary more quickly than their siblings. The reason for this might be that the later children aren’t getting the same one-on-one time with parents. But that doesn’t mean that the younger children have problems with language development. Later-borns don’t enjoy that much talking time with parents, but instead they harvest lessons from bigger brothers and sisters, learning entire phrases and getting an understanding of social concepts such as the difference between “I” and “me”. 
A Cambridge University study of 140 children found that siblings created a rich world of play that helped them grow socially. Love-hate relationships were common among the children. Even those siblings who fought the most had just as much positive communication as the other sibling pairs.
One way children seek more attention from parents is by making themselves different from their siblings, particularly if they are close in age. Researchers have found that the first two children in a family are typically more different from each other than the second and third. Girls with brothers show their differences to a maximum degree by being more feminine than girls with sisters. A 2003 research paper studied adolescents from 185 families over two years, finding that those who changed to make themselves different from their siblings were successful in increasing the amount of warmth they gained from their parents.
【小题1】The underlined part “in a different family” (in Para. 1) means “_______”.

A．in a different family environment

B．in a different family tradition

C．in different family crises

D．in different families

【小题2】In terms of language development, later-borns ________.

A．get their parents’ individual guidance

B．learn a lot from their elder siblings

C．experience a lot of difficulties

D．pick up words more quickly

【小题3】What was found about fights among siblings?

A．Siblings hated fighting and loved playing.

B．Siblings in some families fought frequently.

C．Sibling fights led to bad sibling relationships.

D．Siblings learned to get on together from fights.

【小题4】The word “feminine” (in Para. 4) means “_______”.

A．having qualities of parents

B．having qualities of women

C．having defensive qualities

D．having extraordinary qualities

Moral science is taught as a subject in most schools but with little effect. Perhaps part of the problem lies in the fact that morality is not a science, strictly speaking. It is too much of a social phenomenon, and also has too much of the personal and subjective things mixed within. Besides, morality itself changes with generations. So it is impossible to be defined in a textbook.
I remember sitting through forty minutes of moral lessons, which told stories about little children who never told lies and were rewarded for their goodness. It had little effect and left no impression on me, though.
If moral science has to be taught as a subject in schools, it needs a participatory(参与其中的) approach. When you tell a child about morals, you also have to deal with social norms（规范）and cultural differences. You have to explain that morality can be subjective, and be able to co-exist in society. You will probably have to refer to the morals of the present time.
The best way to tell a child how to live is to show him what is valued. If a child likes his friend, you have to make the child think about why. Once the child notices and recognizes goodness in others, he or she is likely to develop it as well.
In fact, children learn most of their morals by watching people around them. They absorb behavior patterns from teachers and older students. They watch to see what is rewarded and who is punished. They learn on the sports field and through social work. Moral science lessons should simply consist of letting them live and interact, and watch you support correct values and reward good behavior.
【小题1】Which is NOT the reason that moral science is taught in schools but with little effect?

A．Morality doesn’t strictly belong to a science

B．Morality is more like a social phenomenon.

C．Different generations have different moral ideas.

D．Morality can’t be written down in textbooks.

【小题2】The author describes his own experience of having moral lessons in order to _____.

A．explain telling lies is not moral for little children.

B．advise people should be rewarded for their goodness.

C．prove moral lessons in schools have little effect.

D．show he has no opinions about moral science.

【小题3】When you tell a child about morals, you should________.

A．teach him to share personal moral ideas with others

B．tell him about social norms and cultural differences

C．explain that nobody can influence his moral ideas.

D．say that the present morals are likely to be changed.

【小题4】What is the last paragraph mainly about?

A．The best way of teaching children about morals.

B．The value of teachers’ setting a good example

C．The influence of people’s behavior on morals.

D．The importance of rewarding good behavior.

A new study done by the Higher Education Quality Council of Ontario （HEQCO） shows that it doesn't make much of a difference that parents reward their children with cash for their better marks.
Many parents have offered cash to their children in the hope that it would improve marks and possibly raise their children's interest in achieving higher marks．
The study, conducted by researchers from the University of Toronto （UT） and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology （MIT） to learn more about the potential for financial encouragement as motivation for improved marks, involved first and second year students receiving financial aid in 2008-2009 at the University of Toronto Scarborough．
The top students participating in the study who said they were "very concerned" about having enough money to complete their degrees were to receive $100 for getting a grade of 70 per cent for each one-semester course, plus $20 for every percentage point beyond that．It was imaginable that a student could earn as much as $700 for achieving 100 percent in a course．
Harvey Weingarten, president and CEO of HEQCO said, "In its efforts to help disadvantaged students by exploring the idea of paying them to attend school, the Toronto District School Board （TDSB） is asking the same question many other districts are asking about how to improve student participation and performance．Our study and others to date indicate that this practice has little effect if any in those situations where it has been tested．"
The authors of the study suggest that ineffective study habits may be a barrier to academic achievement and that the real problem may be more a lack of academic preparation than a lack of effort or motivation．They note that the availability of peer （同伴） advising does not appear to have helped greatly．They conclude that other potential avenues to improving performance, or other approaches of teaching, are needed at the high school and postsecondary levels．
【小题1】If a student gets a grade of 85% in a course, he will get _____．

A．$100

B．$300

C．$400

D．$700

【小题2】The underlined words "this practice" in Paragraph 5 refer to _____．

A．improving student participation

B．seeking help from different districts

C．paying disadvantaged students to attend school

D．testing student performance in the same district

【小题3】The real problem with student participation and performance is most probably a lack of____．

A．academic preparation	B．effort or motivation
C．teaching methods	D．peer advising

【小题4】What is mainly discussed in the passage?

A．Many parents have offered cash to their children．

B．Many first and second year students receive financial aid．

C．Ineffective study habits lead to poor academic achievement．

D．Rewarding students with cash for good grades has little effect

On October 23, 2011, David Pologruto, a high school physics teacher, was stabbed (刺) by his smart student Jason Haffizulla. Jason got straight A’s and was determined to study medicine at Harvard, yet this was his downfall. His physics teacher gave Jason a B, a mark Jason believed would undermine (损害) his entrance to Harvard. After receiving his B, Jason took a butcher knife to school and stabbed his physics teacher.
How can someone as smart as Jason do something so dumb? Studies show there is little or no correlation between IQ and emotional intelligence.
During my early university years, I regarded myself as an intelligent guy. I got good marks in mathematics, physics, and other subjects. I thought such skills would surely give me a bright future. After one year of study with decent marks, I began to see two major classes of students. The first category of students turned up to few lectures, partied every weekend, enjoyed a great social life, and did minimal work to pass courses. The second category of students were intelligent and hard workers who got good grades and were very focused on their studies. Surely would these intelligent and hard-working students find the great jobs before the other lazier class of students?
Not so. Students are often shocked upon graduation that their qualifications are not as important as they once thought. Graduates enter the workforce only to realize that co-workers hate them and less intelligent people are the ones receiving promotions.
Educational skills are useless in some industries when interpersonal skills are absent. You can have great ideas, theories, and solve complex problems, but if you cannot effectively communicate in a persuasive and exciting manner by relating to your fellow humans, you will face an uphill battle in whatever challenges you encounter. It’s not that people dislike you because of your intelligence; it’s that people dislike you because you’re rude and not understanding. The intelligent person with poor communication skills is insensitive or unaware of others’ emotions.
【小题1】Jason Haffizulla stabbed his physics teacher because       .

A．he was unfairly treated by his teacher

B．he was disappointed with his downfall

C．he was not smart enough at studies

D．he got a worse mark than usual

【小题2】We can infer from the third paragraph that the author        in his early university years.

A．didn’t think communication skills were as important as intelligence

B．didn’t work hard

C．belonged to the first category of students

D．could keep a balance between social life and studies

【小题3】Intelligent people are hated because       .

A．they can solve more complex problems

B．they can’t settle the challenges they meet

C．they are envied for their intelligence

D．they are not understanding enough

【小题4】The main purpose of the text is to tell us       .

A．the relationship between IQ and emotional intelligence

B．what kind of students can succeed in college

C．smart people may have poorer communication skills

D．intelligent students will meet more challenges at work

I really hadn’t meant to yell at them. But that grey afternoon saw it just as my son and daughter were making a terrible mess on the floor in the kitchen.
With a tiresome report to write, I felt bothered at my desk. Suddenly, it occurred to me that my kids were at fault. A voice inside me insisted that I do something quickly.
“Ok, you two here, but what an awful thing you are attempting!” I was shouting angrily. I made for them, while it became evident that the boy wanted no part of me. “Get away from us!” he shouted back, there being an expression of support from his sister.
All of a sudden, I found the fault in myself. Quickly I shaped my hands into pincers and crawled towards them, “Crabby Daddy is here. Ha, Ha, Ha, he likes to yell at children, and then eat them!” My son continued to keep me away, but now he was laughing and crying at the same time. My mission to repair the damage caused by my yelling seemed to work well. Still, I regretted not having controlled myself first in a right way.
Need I let them know how badly they were acting by blaming? This is a lesson that serves myself. It only shows just how to get rid of something (ill-feelings, responsibility…) by blaming others. It’s not my “best self”.
We have to search for our “best self” when with our children. They don’t need perfect parents, but they do need parents who are always trying to get better. Here, I am reminded of the words of a great thinker. “When a man lives with God, his voice shall be as sweet as the murmur of the book…” Then, in our lifetime, couldn’t we always speak to our kids in such a sweet voice since most of us consider them as the most precious in the world? And before we reach this level, what should we do when we come across various difficult cases with our children?
【小题1】The author couldn’t help yelling at his kids this time probably because________.

A．the weather was so unpleasant	B．he was tired of his boring work
C．the kids didn’t ask him to join them	D．a Daddy has his right to do so

【小题2】Which of the following made the author aware of his fault?

A．No obvious reason.

B．The boy’s yelling back.

C．His self-awareness.

D．The girl’s shouting back.

【小题3】According to the passage, the author will _____ in another similar situation.

A．play a crab again like this time

B．apologize to kids in a sincere way

C．avoid blaming kids in a hurry

D．beat them up about such things

【小题4】What will the writer go on to write about in the next paragraph(s)?

A．How to behave ourselves properly when kids are at fault.

B．How to play with our children in a more interesting way.

C．How to deal with the housework with children around us.

D．How to persuade children to do what they are told to.

【小题5】What does “the boy wanted no part of me” in the third paragraph mean?

A．The boy was happy because I loved them.

B．The boy was curious because I wanted to help them.

C．The boy was very happy for I was angry.

D．The boy didn’t want me to join them.

Most people watching Jeremy Lin these past two months saw Jeremy Lin, New York Knicks star; but I, watching him, saw someone else. That was my elder brother, Bob, who is athletic and energetic. He could never sit still when he was in second grade; he had to get up every now and then and run around the room. And sure enough, he grew up to be a starting player for an N.C.A.A. championship lacrosse（长曲棍球）team. He was a Nike-endorsed marathoner, too, and reached the top of Mt. Everest, unguided, in his 50s.
And yet my family never watched his lacrosse games. We did watch some of his marathons, but that wasn’t until he was in his 20s. When Bob was in his glory days, our Shanghainese-born parents were bent on getting him into medical school. There was a loving aspect to it: I can remember my father working through math books with him, lesson by lesson, at the big blackboard in the attic. Bob never did become a doctor, though; and neither did I. It wasn’t until my younger sister came along that someone in the family finally wore a white coat.
Bob today could be the fittest 58-year-old on the planet. His doctor estimates his biological age at 35; he’s still climbing big mountains in the Himalayas. And, like Jeremy Lin, he’s charming. No one sees Bob without leaving with a laugh. He sometimes jokes he could be mayor of his building, and it’s true. To know him is to cheer for him.
And yet my parents did not cheer for him. What if my mother had sat on the sidelines with her statistics, like Jeremy Lin’s mother? What if my father had played videos of athletes for my brother to watch and imitate? It’s hard not to wonder.
And how did Jeremy Lin’s parents manage to do these remarkable things? Amy Chua, the tiger mother, recalls her immigrant father beating the kids whenever they mispronounced a Chinese word. How is it that Jeremy Lin’s immigrant father in particular, Gie-Ming Lin, encouraged his son to follow such an untraditional path?
【小题1】Bob’s glory days were those ________.

A．when he was doing well in math

B．when he was in second grade

C．when he was made mayor of his building

D．when he showed his talents in sports

【小题2】From the passage we can tell that Bob is ____________.

A．active and optimistic

B．clever and determined

C．brave and helpful

D．considerate and independent

【小题3】Which of the following statements is probably TRUE?

A．Bob was always ignored by his parents

B．Bob could also have been a sport star.

C．Bob’s parents often watched his games.

D．Nobody in the author’s family was a doctor.

【小题4】From the last two paragraphs we can infer that ___________.

A．parents should always study together with their children

B．parents should know how to educate their children properly

C．children should be punished when they do anything wrong

D．children should try to live up to the hopes of their parents

Franz Kafka wrote that “a book must be the ax (斧子) for the frozen sea inside us. ”I once shared this sentence with a class of seventh graders, and it didn’t seem to require any explanation.
We’d just finished John Steinbeck’s novel Of Mice and Men. When we read the end together out loud in class, my toughest boy, a star basketball player, wept a little, and so did I. “Are you crying?” one girl asked, as she got out of her chair to take a closer look. “I am,” I told her, “and the funny thing is I’ve read it many times.”
But they understood. When George shoots Lennie, the tragedy is that we realize it was always going to happen. In my 14 years of teaching in a New York City public middle school, I’ve taught kids with imprisoned parents, abusive parents, irresponsible parents; kids who are parents themselves; kids who are homeless; kids who grew up in violent neighborhoods. They understand, more than I ever will, the novel’s terrible logic—the giving way of dreams to fate (命运).
For the last seven years, I have worked as a reading enrichment teacher, reading classic works of literature with small groups of students from grades six to eight. I originally proposed this idea to my headmaster after learning that a former excellent student of mine had transferred out of a selective high school—one that often attracts the literary-minded children of Manhattan’s upper classes—into a less competitive setting. The daughter of immigrants, with a father in prison, she perhaps felt uncomfortable with her new classmates. I thought additional “cultural capital” could help students like her develop better in high school, where they would unavoidably meet, perhaps for the first time, students who came from homes lined with bookshelves, whose parents had earned Ph. D.’s.
Along with Of Mice and Men, my groups read: Sounder, The Red Pony, Lord of the Flies, Romeo and Juliet and Macbeth. The students didn’t always read from the expected point of view. About The Red Pony, one student said, “it’s about being a man, it’s about manliness. ”I had never before seen the parallels between Scarface and Macbeth, nor had I heard Lady Macbeth’s soliloquies (独白) read as raps (说唱), but both made sense; the interpretations were playful, but serious. Once introduced to Steinbeck’s writing, one boy went on to read The Grapes of Wrath and told me repeatedly how amazing it was that “all these people hate each other, and they’re all white.” His historical view was broadening, his sense of his own country deepening. Year after year, former students visited and told me how prepared they had felt in their first year in college as a result of the classes.
Year after year, however, we are increasing the number of practice tests. We are trying to teach students to read increasingly complex texts, not for emotional punch (碰撞) but for text complexity. Yet, we cannot enrich (充实) the minds of our students by testing them on texts that ignore their hearts. We are teaching them that words do not amaze but confuse. We may succeed in raising test scores, but we will fail to teach them that reading can be transformative and that it belongs to them.
【小题1】The underlined words in Paragraph 1 probably mean that a book helps to __________.

A．realize our dreams	B．give support to our life
C．smooth away difficulties	D．awake our emotions

【小题2】Why were the students able to understand the novel Of Mice and Men?

A．Because they spent much time reading it.

B．Because they had read the novel before.

C．Because they came from a public school.

D．Because they had similar life experiences.

【小题3】The girl left the selective high school possibly because__________.

A．she was a literary-minded girl	B．her parents were immigrants
C．she couldn’t fit in with her class	D．her father was then in prison

【小题4】To the author’s surprise, the students read the novels__________.

A．creatively

B．passively

C．repeatedly

D．carelessly

【小题5】The author writes the passage mainly to__________.

A．introduce classic works of literature

B．advocate teaching literature to touch the heart

C．argue for equality among high school students

D．defend the current testing system

What’s the most important thing for you to have in your life? Somebody mentions hard-work, others suggest knowledge, love and luck.
If you arrange the 26 English letters alphabetically(按字母表的顺序)and use numbers to represent each of them, for example, 1 for a, 2 for b, 3 for c…, you can change an English word into a number. So hard-work becomes 8+1+18+4+23+15+18+11="98," meaning 98 is its mark; knowledge: 11+14+15+23+12+5+4+7+5="96," while love :12+15+22+5="54," and luck : 12+21+3+11="47," a small mark. None of these words can give one a full mark. What about money or prayer(祈祷)? They can’t , either.
Then what else? Don’t be worried. You can always find an answer to a problem in your life, when you change your way of looking at things or doing things, or your attitude(态度).Yes, attitude is the word. See for yourself: attitude:1+20+20+9+20+21+4+5=100，a full mark.
Different attitudes lead to different courses of life. Most times people hope for a better life. It is possible that one will have a change for the better after one has changed one’s attitude.
When you change your manner and became friendly towards others, you’ll meet more smiling faces towards you. In the same way, if you take a positive(积极地)attitude towards failure(失败),you’ll find it’s also rewarding though it has caused you losses.
【小题1】In the writer’s opinion , what is the most important things in a person’s life?

A．Hard-work.

B．Knowledge.

C．Money.

D．Attitude.

【小题2】According to the passage, if you meet with problems, the best way out is to _________.

A．ask for help from others	B．say your prayers to God
C．change your attitude	D．try maths-solving methods

【小题3】From the passage we can learn that ______________.

A．diffrent attitudes come from different courses of life.

B．mathematics can solve every problem easily in our daily life

C．failure sometimes can bring you good if you take a positive attitude

D．none of the English words except “attitude” equals to 100 or more

If parents bring up a child with the aim of turning the child into a genius（天才）, they will cause great damage to him. According to several leading educational experts, this is one of the biggest mistakes that some parents make. Generally, the child will understand very well what the parents expect, and will fall. Unrealistic expectations of the parents can cause great damage to children.
However, if parents are realistic about what they expect their children to do, and are hopeful in a sensible（明智的） way, the child may succeed －especially if the parents are very supportive to their children.
Michael Li is very lucky. He is very fond of music and his parents help him a lot by taking him to concerts and let him attend piano and violin lessons. Although his father is a good musician, he never makes Michael enter music competitions if he is unwilling to.
Michael’s friend, Winston Chen, however, is not so lucky. Both his parents are successful musicians, and they set too high a goal for Winston. They want their son to be as successful as they are and so they enter him for every piano competition held. They are very unhappy when he does not win. “When I was your age, I used to win every competition I entered.” Winston’s father tells him. Winston is always afraid that he will disappoint his parents and now he is always quiet and unhappy.
【小题1】This passage is mainly about_______.

A．how parents should bring up their children

B．what aim can be easier for a child to achieve

C．how parents should make a child a musician

D．what differences there are between parents

【小题2】Michael is fortunate because_______.

A．his parents help him in a practical way

B．he was born in a rich family

C．his father is a successful musician

D．he can do anything he likes

【小题3】Winston’s parents set so high a goal for him that_______.

A．he has to do his best to do everything

B．he has made greater progress in music

C．he is afraid he may disappoint them

D．he wants to be a great musician someday