Tell a story and tell it well, and you may oppen wide the eyes of a child, open up lines of communication in a business, or even open people’s mind to another culture or race.

　　People in many places are digging up the old folk stories and the messages in them. For example, most American storytellers get their tales from a wide variety of sources, cultures, and times. They regard storytelling not only as a useful tool in child education, but also as a meaningful activity that helps adults understand themselves as well as those whose culture may be very different from their own.

　　“Most local stories are based on a larger theme,” American storyteller Opalanga Pugh says, “Cinderella（灰姑娘）, or the central idea of a good child protected by her goodness, appears in various forms in almost every culture of the world.”

　　Working with students in schools, Pugh helps them understand their own cultures and the general messages of the stories. She works with prisoners too, helping them know who they are by telling stories that her listeners can write, direct, and act in their own lives. If they don’t like the story they are living, they can rewrite the story. Pugh also works to help open up lines of communication between managers and workers. “For every advance in business,” she says, “there is a greater need for communication.” Storytelling can have a great effect on either side of the manager-worker relationship, she says.

　　Phgh spent several years in Nigeria, where she learned how closely storytelling was linked to the everyday life of the people there. The benefits of storytelling are found everywhere, she says.

　　“I learned how people used stories to spread their culture,” she says. “What I do is to focus on the value of stories that people can translate into their own daily world of affairs. We are all storytellers. We all have a story to tell. We tell everybody’s story.”

(1)What do we learn about American storytellers from Paragraph 2?

[　　]

A．They share the same way of storytelling.

B．They prefer to tell stories from other cultures.

C．They learn their stories from the American natives.

D．They find storytelling useful for both children and adults.

(2)The underlined sentence (Paragraph 4) suggests that prisoners

can ________.

[　　]

A．start a new life

B．settle down in another place

C．direct films

D．become good actors

(3)Pugh has practised storytelling with _______ groups of people.

[　　]

(4)What is the main idea of the text?

[　　]

A．Storytelling can influence the way people think.

B．Storytelling is vital to the growth of businesses.

C．Storytelling is the best way to educate children in school.

D．Storytelling helps people understand themselves and others.

　　Based on a comic book（连环画册）series that began in 1963, the X-Men movies tell the story of Xavier and his team of X-Men. Like all mutants（变异人）, the X-Men possess the “X gene”, which gives them special abilities. While the X-Men seek peace, the Brotherhood of Mutants, the evil side of the mutant world, want to overtake humans.

　　In the first “X-Men” movie (2001), the Brotherhood tried to turn humans into mutants. In 2003’s “X2: X-Men United”, they attempted to kill all humans. The series’ latest chapter, “X-Men: Last Stand”, was released（发行）in the US on May 26. In it, the mutants suddenly have the chance to become normal human beings.

　　One of the great interesting things of the “X-Men” movies is the endless supply of mutants. The new additions in this film are the all-blue diplomat（外交官）Beast and Kitty Pryde, who can walk through walls, and the winged Angel. Despite new characters, the film stays true to the central idea of the X-Men comic book: The X-Men are fighting to protect a world that hates and fears them.

　　First-time “X-Men” director Brett Ratner has a way of putting special effects and action sequences together. Long-time fans, however, may complain that Ratner doesn’t have the same sense of humour or ability to create emotional resonance（情感共鸣）for characters an director Bryan Singer showed in the first two “X-Men” movies.

(1)What is the purpose of the passage?

[　　]

A．To tell us a story about mutants.

B．To introduce us a new film.

C．To show a new movie series.

D．To present a comic book.

(2)What does the underlined word “overtake” (in Paragraph 1) probably mean?

[　　]

A．To control.

B．To move more quickly than.

C．To help.

D．To become stronger than.

(3)Who is NOT the new character of the series’ latest chapter?

[　　]

(4)What can we learn from the last paragraph?

[　　]

A．Bryan Singer creates special action sequences.

B．Brett Ratner has directed several X-Men movies.

C．Bryan Singer is not as humourous as Brett Ratner.

D．Brett Ratner may not be well accepted as Bryan Singer.

　　In bringing up children, every parent watches eagerly the child’s acquisition（学会）of each new skill--the first spoken words, the first independent steps, or the beginning of reading and writing. It is common that parents hurry the child beyond his natural learning rate, but this can set up dangerous feelings of failure and states of worry in the child. This might happen at any stage. A baby might be forced to use a toilet too early, and a young child might be encouraged to learn to read before he knows the meaning of the words he reads. On the other hand, though, if a child is left alone too much, or without any learning opportunities, he loses his natural enthusiasm for life and his desire to find out new things for himself.

　　Parents vary greatly in their degree of strictness towards their children. Some may be especially strict in money matters; others are severe over time of coming home at night or punctuality（准时）for meals. In general, the controls imposed（强加的）represent the needs of the parents and the values of the community as much as the child’s own happiness.

　　As regards the development of moral standards in the growing child, consistency is very important in parental teaching. To forbid a thing one day and excuse it the next is no foundation for morality. Also, parents should realize that “example is better than precept”. If they are not sincere and do not practise what they preach（说教）, their children may grow confused, and emotionally insecure when they grow old enough to think for themselves, and realize they have been to some extent fooled.

　　A sudden awareness of a marked difference between their parents’ principles and their morals can be a dangerous disappointment.

(1)Eagerly watching the child’s acquisition of new skills_______.

[　　]

A．should be avoided

B．is universal among parents

C．sets up dangerous states of worry in the child

D．will make him lose interest in learning new things

(2)When children are learning new skills, parents should_______.

[　　]

A．encourage them to read before they know the meaning of the words they read

B．not expect too much of them

C．achieve a balance between pushing them too hard and leaving them on their own

D．create as many learning opportunities as possible

(3)The second paragraph mainly tells us that_______.

[　　]

A．parents should be strict with their children

B．parental controls satisfy only the needs of the parents and the values of the community

C．parental restrictions vary, and are not always enforced for the benefit of the children alone

D．parents vary in their strictness towards their children according to the situation

(4)The underlined word “precept” (in Paragraph 3) probably means “_______”.

[　　]

(5)In moral matters, parents should_______.

[　　]

A．observe the rules themselves

B．be aware of the marked difference between adults and children

C．forbid things which have no foundation in morality

D．satisfy their children’s needs

　　Skyscrapers（摩天大楼）and domed（拱形的）stadiums can amaze us. These modern "wonders of the world" are great achievements in building. But our modern buildings may seem small when compared to some ancient strutures. Our buildings may be large, hold many people, and protect us. However, many ancient structures stand as some of the greatest achievements in building. Ancient builders used great creativity and physical strength to plan and complete them.

　　Stonehenge is a huge stone circle in Europe. It was built more than 4,000 years ago. The circle has stone slabs（厚板）that stand up to 30 feet tall. The heaviest stones in the circle weigh about 50 tons. How did people build Stonehenge without modern equipment? Scientists have studied it for years and think it probably took more than 30 million hours to complete the project.

　　Tourists in Africa like to see the Great Pyramids of Egypt. These tombs for Egyptian kings were built over 4,000 years ago. Each tomb has walls shaped like triangles（三角形）and a square（正方形的）base. The largest pyramid is more than 450 feet tall and contains more than two million stones. Each stone weighs more than two tons. Some even weigh as much as 200 tons. More than 900 workers worked to move the largest stones into place.

　　The stone faces are unusual structures on Easter Island. The faces are 12 to 20 feet high. Islanders made them more than 1,000 years ago. We do not know why they built them. There are more than 600 stone faces on the island. The great number is surprising, since Easter Island is only 11 miles long and 15 miles wide.

　　They give only a glimpse of the ancient achievements in building. If we look back through history, we can find many more examples of marvelous（非凡的）structures built without the aid of modern tools and equipment.

(1)What does the underlined sentence (in Paragraph 1) mean?

[　　]

A．Ancient structures are taller than modern buildings.

B．Modern buildings seem smaller than ancient structures.

C．Modern buildings can’t be compared to ancient structures.

D．Ancient structures are greater achievements than modern ones.

(2)According to the passage, ancient structures are amazing because they were built _______.

[　　]

A．of stone slabs

B．in special places

C．over long periods of time

D．without using modern equipment

(3)The word "Some" underlined in Paragraph 3 refers to _______.

[　　]

(4)According to the passage, we know that _______.

[　　]

A．it is unbelievable to have so many stone faces on Easter Island

B．Stonehenge was completed by more than 900 workers

C．the heaviest stone for the faces weighs about 50 tons

D．one pyramid needs 600 pieces of stone

　　An allowance（零用钱）is an important tool for teaching kids how to budget, save and make their own decisions. Children remember and learn from mistakes when their own dollars are lost or spent foolishly.

　　How large an allowance is appropriate? Experts say there is not right amount. Actual amounts differ from area to area, and from family to family.

　　To set an appropriate allowance for your child, work up a weekly budget. Allow for entertainment expenditures（花费）such as movies and snack. Next, include everyday expenses such as lunch money, bus fare, school supplies. “If you make the child responsible for these bills,” says Josephine Swanson, a consumer specialist, “he or she will learn to budget for necessary expenditures.”

　　Finally, add some extra money to make saving possible. If you can, keep your child’s allowance in line with that of his friends. A child whose purchasing power falls away below his peers’ can feel left out.

　　It can be tough, but avoid excusing your children when they make a mistake with their allowance. When Brooke Stephens was ten and growing up in Jacksonville, her mother gave her $5 a week, $1.75 of which was for bus fare and lunch. “If you lose money,” Brooke’s mother told her, “you walk home.”

　　One week the girl spent all her allowance in a candy store, and then she called home for a ride. “Mom made me walk home,” recalls Stephens, now a financial planner in Brooklyn. “At first I was angry. But I finally realized that she was trying to teach me an important lesson.”

　　Experts advise an allowance should not be tied directly to a child’s daily chores（琐事）. Kids should help around the house not because they get paid for it but because they share responsibilities as members of family. You might, however, pay a child for doing extra jobs at home. That can develop his or her initiative（主动性）.

(1)What does the text mainly discuss?

[　　]

A．How to develop a child’s initiative.

B．How to work up a budget.

C．How to teach a child to save money.

D．How to teach a child to manage money matters.

(2)It can be inferred from the text that if a child is given an allowance, he or she may ________.

[　　]

A．spend all the money very soon

B．be spoiled and finally ruined

C．lose the money and can not return home

D．feel responsible and careful about money

(3)The underlined part “his peers” (in Paragraph 4) probably refers to ______.

[　　]

(4)Why does the author mention Brooke Stephens?

[　　]

A．To question the opinion about pocket money.

B．To compare Stephens with other experts.

C．To explain that parents should be strict when children are developing habits about money.

D．To suggest that pocket money is useless in developing a child’s sense of responsibility.