Many ESL (English as a Second Language) students in the United States enroll in (注册学习) academic preparation programs and are in their late teens or early twenties. This is often a time when students are looking back on childhood in a different way. Their childhood memories and their viewpoint on those memories can be very useful for the production of wonderfully creative writing.
For this project, the students began in class by closing their eyes and trying to return to their childhood years in order to bring early memories to their mind. After imagining for a few minutes, they began to tell each other what they remembered about those years and tried to describe a particular incident that stood out in their memories.
That evening they wrote in their journals about the incident, embellishing (润饰) the story as much as possible. The next day, they read the story to a different partner and got feedback (反馈意见). The partner’s job was to: ask more questions to bring back the writer’s memory; help the writer make sure that past tense verbs were used correctly, focusing on the difference between those things that were still true and needed present tense and those things that belonged specifically to the past. Two days later, students made necessary changes or additions and turned in a typed copy of their story. I then made my own comments about their work and asked them to revise their work. The third draft (稿子) produced some very good work.
【小题1】The author’s purpose of writing this passage is to _____.

A．show readers the difficulty he had in his work

B．explain his idea of English learning

C．show readers how ESL students live and study

D． tell readers how he taught his ESL students to write

【小题2】What did the author ask his students to write about?

A．What they saw around them.

B．Their predictions for the future.

C．Their childhood memories.

D．Their opinions of the United States.

【小题3】In what order do the students write their compositions according to the passage?
a. share their writing with their classmates
b. exchange their memories
c. write their stories
d. ask for others’ feedback
e.  make some changes to their compositions and have them typed
f.  corrected by the teacher
g.  recall their stories

A．g-b-c-a-d-e-f	B．g-c-a-d-b-f-e
C．e-f-b-c-a-g-d	D．d-e-f-g-a-c-b

【小题4】A partner may help do the following things EXCEPT _____.

A．make the memory more complete

B．find spelling mistakes

C．check the tense of the verbs

D．give some feedback

Parents often believe that they have a good relationship with their teenagers (青少年). But last summer , Joanna and Henry noticed a change in their older son : suddenly he seemed to be talking far more to his friends than to his parents . “ The door to his room is always shut .” Joanna  noticed .
Tina and Mark noticed similar changes in their 14-year-old  daughter . “She used to cuddle up (蜷伏)with me on the sofa and talk ,” said Mark . “Now we joke that she does this only when she wants something . Sometimes she wants to be treated like a little girl and sometimes like a young lady . The problem is figuring out which time is which .”
Before age 11, children like to tell their parents what’s on their minds . “In fact , parents are first on the list .” said Michael Riera, author of Uncommon Sense for Parents with Teenagers . “This completely changes during the teen years .” Riera explained . “They talk to their friends first , then maybe their teachers , and their parents last .”
Parents who know what’s going on in their teenagers’ lives are in the best position to help them . To break down the wall of silence , parents should create chances to understand what their children want to say , and try to find ways to talk and write to them . And they must give their children a mental break , for children also need freedom , though young . Another thing parents should remember is that to be a friend , not a manager , with their children is a better way to know them .
【小题1】“The door to his room is always shut” suggests that the son     __  .

A．is always busy with his studies	B．doesn’t want to be disturbed
C．keeps himself away from his parents	D．begins to dislike his parents

【小题2】What troubles Tina and Mark most is that    __   .

A．their daughter isn’t as lovely as before

B．they can’t read their daughter’s mind exactly

C．they don’t know what to say to their daughter

D．their daughter talks with them only when she needs help

【小题3】Which of the following best explains “ the wall of silence” in the last paragraph ?

A．Teenagers talk a lot with their friends .

B．Teenagers do not want to understand their parents .

C．Teenagers do not talk much with their parents .

D．Teenagers talk little about their own lives .

【小题4】What can be learned from the passage ?

A．Parents are unhappy with their growing children .

B．Parents have suitable ways to talk with their teenagers .

C．Parents should be patients with their silent teenagers .

D．Parents should try to understand their teenagers .

For high school leavers starting out in the working world, it is very important to learn particular skills and practice how to behave in an interview or how to find all internship(实习). In some countries, schools have programs to help students onto the path to work. In the United States, however, such programs are still few and far between.
Research shows that if high schools provide career-related courses, students are likely to get higher earnings in later years. The students are more likely to stay in school, graduate and go on to higher education.
In Germany, students as young as 13 and 14 are expected to do internships. German companies work with schools to make sure that young people get the education they need for future employment.
But in America, education reform programs focus on how well students do in exams instead of bringing them into contact with the working world. Harvard Education school professor Robert Schwartz has criticized （批评）education reformers for trying to place all graduates directly on the four-year college track. Schwartz argued that this approach leaves the country’s most vulnerable(易受影响的)kids with no jobs and no skills.
Schwartz believed that the best career programs encourage kids to go for higher education while also teaching them valuable practical skills at high school. James Madison High School in New York, for example, encourages students to choose classes on career-based courses. The school then helps them gain on-the-job experience in those fields while they’re still at high school.
However, even for teens whose schools encourage them to connect with work, the job market is daunting. In the US, unemployment rates for 16-to 19-year-olds are above 20 percent for the third summer in a row. “The risk is that if teenagers miss out on the summer job experience, they become part of this generation of teens who had trouble in landing a job,” said Michael, a  researcher in the US.
【小题1】What’s the main idea of the text?

A．The lack of career-based courses in US high schools.

B．Tips on finding jobs for high school leavers.

C．Arguments about recent US education reform.

D．Advice for American high school leavers.

【小题2】According to Robert Schwartz, _________.

A．there is no need for kids to go for higher education in the US

B．students should get contact with the working world at high school

C．education reform should focus on students’ performance in exams

D．teenagers in the US can’t miss out on the summer job experience

【小题3】The underlined word “daunting” in Paragraph 6 most probably means __________.

A．creative

B．interesting

C．discouraging

D．unbearable

【小题4】What can be inferred from the text?

A．High school leavers with no practical skills can’t find a job at all.

B．Students with career-based courses never have problems finding a job.

C．US companies work with schools to prepare young people for future employment.

D．Unemployment rates for US teenagers remain high at the moment.

It’s nearly noon on a Saturday and you can’t believe it: your teenager is still in bed, sleeping away. But before you wake him up---mumbling to yourself that you can’t believe what a lazybones he is---you should know that he probably needs all the zzzs he can get.
As much as nine hours of sleep a night, in fact. Furthermore, teens’ circadian rhythms (i.e., processes that occur once a day) mean that young people would rather stay up past midnight and rise after 9 a.m. The result? Many teens stay up late, drag themselves out of bed early for school and try to make up the sleep debt on the weekends---or in class!
“There’s a biological reason why teens stay up late and want to sleep late,” says Dr. Stan Kutcher, the Sun Life Chair of Adolescent Mental Health at Dalhousie University in Halifax. “Their natural sleep-wake cycle changes as part of the maturation process. And because of changes in their social activities, recovering from sleep debt is more problematic.”
Teens need extra sleep for several reasons. First, their brains are changing. “The brain is reorganizing itself, laying down new pathways. What we’re seeing is a relationship between brain redevelopment and an increased need for sleep,” says Kutcher. As well, growth hormones are released during sleep, so adequate sleep is crucial for adolescents’ physical development. In addition, everything adolescents have learned in school that day is being processed and locked into long-term memory during sleep. Sufficient sleep also plays a key role in overall physical health. The immune system, for example, needs deep sleep to become and remain robust(healthy).
Staying up late on school nights means that, on average, teens get between six and a half and seven hours of sleep a night---about two hours less than they need. As a result, many either doze off in class or have trouble concentrating. Some of the behavioural problems and irritability in teens can be linked directly to sleep deprivation(损失), Kutcher says.
Then there’s the breakfast issue. Dr. Carlyle Smith, a sleep researcher and a psychology professor at Trent University in Peterborough, Ont., adds that many teens simply cannot tolerate food when they first wake up, so skipping breakfast becomes another factor in reduced alertness in class. The most obvious solution to the teen sleep problem is to have school start later in the day, but initiatives(积极性) toward this across the country have gone nowhere, Smith says, mainly because of costs and resistance from school boards and teachers.
So for now, just sympathize with your teens. Encourage them to go to bed, if not early, then at least at a regular time, so they won’t develop insomnia from erratic(不稳定的) schedules. Warn them not to have too many caffeinated drinks before bed. And don’t let sleeping away the weekend become an issue to fight over. Schedule family activities to take place later in the day on weekends and let them sleep in. “If you want your kids to grow and remember stuff, let them sleep,” says Smith. “It’s not laziness. Their brains are working really, really hard.”
【小题1】The word “zzzs” (Paragraph 1) most probably means __________.

A．food

B．sleep

C．energy

D．blame

【小题2】What causes teenagers to be less sleepy late at night and more sleepy early in the morning?

A．Caffeinated drinks.

B．Too much family activities.

C．Circadian rhythms.

D．Too much homework.

【小题3】How many reason why teens need extra sleep are mentioned in Paragraph 4?

A．Three.

B．Four.

C．Five.

D．Six.

【小题4】One of the reasons why many teenagers fail to have better performances in class is that __________.

A．teenagers go to bed early and sleep late

B．teenagers stay up late and get up late

C．teenagers participate in too many social activities at night

D．teenagers skip breakfast because of sleeping in

【小题5】The author wrote this article to __________.

A．advise parents to let sleeping teenagers lie

B．explain why teenagers often sleep late

C．state schools should start late in the day

D．warn teenagers not to drink coffee before bed

If you are planning to learn a foreign language, here are some suggestions about language learning. I hope these suggestions can help improve your learning of a foreign language
Try to set aside some time every day for your study when your brain is at the most time for receiving information. It’s better to study for 30 minutes every day than for 3 hours once a week. If you can spare two or three hours a day, break them up into some periods to avoid brain getting tired.
Go over each lesson several times, perhaps once in the morning, once in the evening and once several days later. Give your brain time to understand the material, but the break between periods of study shouldn’t be too long, or you will forget most of what you’ve learned.
Make sure you’re comfortable with the bases of the language before learning the more advanced knowledge. Without full understanding of basic knowledge such as words pronunciation and spelling, you’ll find it very difficult to learn more.
Setting proper targets is a good way to encourage yourself. You could set yourself a time limit or aim for a certain level.
Once you have mastered the bases of the language, learn to apply them to the things that you’re interested in. In this way you are more likely to remember the words, phrases and grammatical constructions you meet.
You will find that at times you’re making rapid progress, while sometimes you seem to stand still or even go backwards. This is normal when learning a language, so don’t be discouraged.
Making mistakes in a foreign language is nothing to worry about. What matters is getting your message across, not whether you use all the right words, tenses, cases, etc. If you cannot think of the exact words, try using other ones.
【小题1】What is the best time plan for studying a foreign language ?

A．A long period every day.	B．Several short periods every day.
C．A long period once a week.	D．Several short periods a week.

【小题2】The break between periods of study shouldn’t be too long, because ___________.

A．you will be unable to go over a lesson for several times

B．you will be too tired to continue your study

C．you will waste a lot of time for study

D．you will forget what you are trying to learn easily

【小题3】If you don’t fully understand the basic knowledge, you will ____________.

A．be unable to go on with your study	B．be uncomfortable with yourself
C．feel it very difficult to learn more	D．stop learning more in a short time

【小题4】According to the author, which of the following is NOT true ?

A．Setting a goal can help you make rapid progress.

B．you should use what you’ve learned frequently to remember them.

C．Sometimes you may not make any progress.

D．Mistakes are quite normal in learning a language.

【小题5】The purpose of this passage is ____________.

A．to give some advice on foreign language learning

B．to help students get high marks in foreign language exam

C．to encourage more people to learn foreign languages

D．to comfort those who don’t learn foreign languages well

Boys' schools are the perfect place to teach young men to express their emotions and involve them in activities such as art, dance and music.
Far from the traditional image of a culture of aggressive masculinity (阳刚), the absence of girls gives boys the chance to develop without pressure to obey a stereotype（陈规旧俗），a US study says.
Boys at single-sex schools were said to be more likely to get involved in cultural and artistic activities that helped develop their emotional expressiveness, rather than feeling they had to obey the "boy code" of hiding their emotions to be a "real man".
The findings of the study go against received wisdom that boys do better when taught alongside girls.
Tony Little, headmaster of Eton, warned that boys were being failed by the British education system because it had become too focused on girls. He criticized teachers for failing to recognize that boys are actually more emotional than girls.
The research argued that boys often perform badly in mixed schools because they become discouraged when their female peers do better earlier in speaking and reading skills.
But in single-sex schools teachers can tailor lessons to boys' learning style, letting them move around the classroom and getting them to compete in teams to prevent boredom, wrote the study's author, Abigail James, of the University of Virginia.
Teachers could encourage boys to enjoy reading and writing with "boy-focused" approaches such as themes and characters that appeal to them. Because boys generally have more acute vision learn best through touch, and are physically more active, they need to be given "hands-on" lessons where they are allowed to walk around. "Boys in mixed schools view classical music as feminine (女性的) and prefer the modern type in which violence and sexism are major themes, "James wrote.
Single-sex education also made it less likely that boys would feel they had to obey a stereotype that men should be "masterful and in charge" in relationships. "In mixed schools boys feel forced to act like men before they understand themselves well enough to know what that means," the study reported.
【小题1】The author believes that a single-sex school would ______.

A．force boys to hide their emotions to be "real men"

B．encourage boys to express their emotions more freely

C．help to cultivate masculine aggressiveness in boys

D．naturally reinforce in boys the traditional image of a man

【小题2】It is commonly believed that in a mixed school boys ______.

A．perform relatively better	B．grow up more healthily
C．behave more responsibly	D．receive a better education

【小题3】What does Tony Little say about the British education system?

A．It fails more boys than girls academically.

B．It focuses more on mixed school education.

C．It fails to give boys the attention they need.

D．It places more pressure on boys than on girls.

【小题4】According to Abigail James, one of the advantages of single-sex schools is ______.

A．teaching can be tailored to suit the characteristics of boys

B．boys can focus on their lessons without being distracted

C．boys can choose to learn whatever they are interested in

D．teaching can be designed to promote boys' team spirit

【小题5】Which of the following is characteristic of boys according to Abigail James' report?

A．They enjoy being in charge.	B．They obey stereotypes.
C．They are violent and sexist.	D．They have sharper vision.

Summer school is something a kid will never forget. For some, it’s a way to advance past their classmates. For most, summer school is a requirement in order to graduate with their classmates. I can remember being forced into taking a summer school course. It was not the school that forced me into this awkward situation; it was my mother.
I was a 16-year-old kid in a new school. My school did not offer summer courses so I had to take my course at an alternative school in the city. It was an experience I will never forget. I was not concerned with making friends. I was there to get credit (学分) for a course that I should have received credit for the previous semester. It was my doing that landed me in the situation and it was important that I understood this.
The fees were lowest but the experience was amazing. I enjoyed. I didn’t miss the day. The course was from Monday to Friday for an entire month. I passed the course with an A. I was thrown into an awkward situation and actually enjoyed it. My friends didn’t even know I took the course. Most of them were still sleeping by the time my course ended each day.
Awkward situations are so important for personal growth. This situation made me feel more independent. I made friends. I finally understood what sacrifice and hard work were all about. While attending college, I remembered how much I enjoyed summer school and I chose to take summer school in my first three years of college. Some kids get pushed too much but some don’t get pushed enough. I was never pushed enough.
Enable your children to struggle for success. If your child needs summer school you explain to them why it’s important. Some parents are surprised by the situation and may want to be more involved in their children’s education. Follow through and follow up.
【小题1】Most students go to the summer school in order to ______.

A．find good jobs after graduation	B．become top students in their class
C．have a chance to make more friends	D．graduate successfully on time

【小题2】What made the author go to summer school for the first time?

A．What he had done .	B．His mother’s wish.
C．His own requirement.	D．Study competition.

【小题3】Which of the following was NOT the benefit got by the author through attending summer school?

A．It helped him get rid of bad habits.

B．It helped him make new friends.

C．It helped him understand what sacrifice and hard work were.

D．It increased his independence.

【小题4】From the last paragraph we can learn that the author ______.

A．does not like summer school at all even though it is useful

B．thinks summer school is unnecessary for children

C．encourages parents to make their children attend summer school

D．is against forcing children to attend summer school

【小题5】What does the author think of summer school?

A．He thinks it is awkward.	B．He thinks it is significant.
C．He doesn’t think it is suitable.	D．He thinks nothing of it.

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. Ds.
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(倡导) teaching literature to touch the heart

C．argue for equality among high school students

D．defend the current testing system

Many parents have learned the hard way that what sounds like open communication is often the very thing that closes a youngster’s ears and mouth. One common mistake is the Lecture, the long monologue that often starts with “When I was your age….” Eighteen-year-old Kelly calls lectures “long, one-side discussions in which I don’t say much.”
Kids reflexively（条件反射地） shut down in the face of a lecture. Their eyes glaze over, and they don’t register any incoming information. Listen to 13-year-old Sarah describe her least favorite times with her mom and dad. “First, they scream. Then comes the ‘We’re so disappointed’ speech. Then the ‘I never did that to my parents’ lecture begins. After that, even if they realize how ridiculous they sound, they never take it back.”
Lines like “When you have children of your own, you’ll understand” have been seriously said by parents since time immemorial. But many of our expert parents, like Bobby, a registered nurse and mother of three, feel that by falling back on clichés（陈词滥调）to justify our actions, we weaken our position.
Since kids are creatures of here and now, the far-off future has no relevance to them. Therefore, good communicators like Bobby suggest, “Give specific reasons for your actions in present language: ‘I’m not letting you go to the party because I don’t think there will be enough adult supervisions（监护）.’”
Betty, who lives in Missiouri, uses an indirect approach. “I find that warnings are accepted more readily if I discuss a news article on a subject I am concerned about. My husband and I talk about it while our children absorb the information. Then they never think I’m preaching(布道).”
This really helped when Betty’s kids began driving. Instead of constantly repeating “Don’t drink; don’t speed,” she would talk about articles in the paper and express sympathy for the victims of a car crash. Betty made no special effort to draw her kids into the conversation. She depended on a teenager’s strong desire to put in his opinions---especially if he thinks he isn’t being asked for them.
【小题1】The purpose of the passage is to _________.

A．compare two ways of parents` communicating with their kids

B．explain why kids won’t listen to their parents

C．give parents advice on how to communicate with their kids

D．introduce kids` reaction to the communication between them and their parents

【小题2】Which of the following statements is NOT right?

A．Kids won’t listen to their parents because they think what their parents say is boring.

B．Kids don’t like any discussion at all.

C．Some kids think their parents should apologize when they are wrong.

D．Many kids think they have no right to express their own opinions.

【小题3】 What does the underlined word in the first paragraph mean?

A．讨论

B．对话

C．插话

D．独白

【小题4】Which of the following topic may appeal to kids?

A．Something related to kids’ present life

B．Kids possible life in the future

C．Parents` own experience

D．What parents have done to their own parents.

【小题5】In order to make kids follow their advice, parents should______.

A．tell their kids to listen carefully

B．arouse kids’ desire to express themselves.

C．list out as many examples as possible

D．set out their warnings directly

Education is not an end , but a means to an end. In other words, we do not educate children only for the purpose of educating them. Our purpose is to fit them for life.
In many modern countries it has for some time been fashionable（流行的）to think that by free education for all whether rich or poor, clever or stupid --- one can solve all the problems of society and build a perfect nation. But we can already see that free education for all is not enough: we find in such countries a far larger number of people with university degrees（学位）they refuse to do what they think "low" work; and in fact, work with hands is thought to be dirty and shameful in such countries. But we have only to think a moment to understand that the work of a completely uneducated farmer is far more important than that of a professor: we can live without education, but we die if we have no food. If no one cleaned our streets and took the rubbish away from our houses, we should get terrible diseases in our towns…
In fact, when we say that all of us must be educated to fit us for life, it means that we must be educated in such a way that, firstly, each of us can do whatever work suited to his brains and ability, and secondly, that we can realize that all jobs are necessary to society, and that it is very bad to be unwilling to do one's work. Only such a type of education can be considered valuable to society.
【小题1】In the writer’s opinion,_________

A．free education for all probably leads to a perfect world

B．all the social problems can’t be solved by education

C．education can solve most of the world’s problems

D．free education will help to solve all the problems of society

【小题2】The writer wants to prove that _______

A．a farmer is more important than a professor

B．our society needs free education for all

C．our society needs all kinds of jobs

D．work with hands is the most important

【小题3】The purpose of education is to ________

A．build a perfect world	B．let everyone receive education
C．choose officials for the country	D．prepare children mainly for their future work

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

A．The type of education	B．The value of education
C．The means of education	D．The system of education

【小题5】What can we learn from the text?

A．Work with hands is thought to be shameful in some modern countries.

B．In all modern countries, free education has been fashionable.

C．A perfect nation can solve all the problems of society.

D．A professor is far more important than a farmer.