Why play games? Because they are fun, and a 1ot more besides. Following the rules…planning your next move...acting as a team member…these are all “game” ideas that you will come across throughout your life.

Think about some off the games you played as a young child, such as rope-jumping and hide-and-seek. Such games are entertaining and fun. But perhaps more importantly, they translate life into exciting dramas that teach children some of the basic rules they will be expected to follow the rest of their lives, such as taking turns and cooperating (合作) .

Many children’s games have a practical side Children around the world play games that prepare them for work they will do as grown-ups. For instance, some Saudi Arabian children play a game called bones. Which sharpens the hand-eye coordination（协调）needed in hunting.

Many sports encourage national or local pride. The most famous games of all, the Olympic Games, bring athletes from around the world together to take part in friendly competition. People who watch the event wave flags, knowing that a gold medal is a win for an entire country, not just the athlete who earned it. For countries experiencing natural disasters or war, an Olympic win can mean so much.

Sports are  also an event that unites people. Soccer is the most popular sport in the world. People on all continents play it — some for fun and some for a living. Nicolette Iribarne, a Californian soccer player, has discovered a way to spread hope through soccer. He created a foundation to provide poor children with not only soccer balls but also a promising future.

Next time you play your favorite game or sport, think about why you enjoy it, what skills are needed, and whether these skills will help you in other aspects of your life.

Through playing hide-and-seek, children are expected to learn to ________.

A. be a team leader                                          B. obey the basic rules

C. act as a grown-up                                         D. predict possible danger

The underlined part in Paragraph 2 most probably means that games can________.

A. describe life in an exciting way      

B. turn real-life experiences into a play

C. make learning life skills more interesting

D. change people’s views of sporting event s

According to the passage, why is winning Olympic medals so encouraging?

A. It inspires people’s deep love for the country. 

B. It proves the exceptional skills of the winners.

C. It helps the country out of natural disasters.   

D. It earns the winners fame and fortune.

Iribarne’s goal of forming the foundation is to _______.

A. bring fun to poor kids                           B. provide soccer balls for children

C. give poor kids a chance for a better life         

D. appeal to soccer players to help poor kids

What can be inferred from the passage?

A. Games benefit people all their lives.

B. Sports can get all athletes together.

C. People are advised to play games for fun.             

D. Sports increase a country’s competitiveness.

A Swedish man was dug out alive after being snowed in his car on a forest track for two months with no food, police and local media reported on Saturday.
The 45-year-old from southern Sweden was found on Friday, February17, too weak to say more than a few words.
He was found not far from the city of Umea in the north of Sweden by snowmobilers who thought they had come across a ruined car until they dug their way to a window and saw movement inside.
The man, who was lying in the back seat in a sleeping bag, said he had been in the car since December 19.
“Just incredible that he’s alive considering that he had no food, but also since it’s been really cold for some time after Christmas.” a rescue team member told regional daily Vasterbottens- Kuriren, which broke the news.
Ebbe Nyberg, duty officer at the Umea police, said police saw no reason to doubt that the man had been stuck in the car for a very long time.
“We would not make up something like this. The rescue services were on site too and saw the same as us.” he told Vasterbottens-Kuriren.
Umea University Hospital, where the man is recovering after being rescued by police and a rescue team, said in a statement he was doing well considering the circumstances.
Doctors at the hospital said humans would normally be able to survive for about four weeks without food. Besides eating snow, the man probably survived by going into a dormant-like(休眠似的) state, physician Stefan Branth told Vasterbottens-Kuriren.
“A bit like a bear that hibernates. Humans can do that.” he said. “He probably had a body temperature of around 31 degrees which the body adjusted to. Due to the low temperature, not much energy was used up.”
“Why the man ended up under the snow in the forest remains unknown,” police said.
【小题1】Who found the Swedish man in the snow?

New lawyers often come across various cases      they really don't know how to deal  with in the beginning.

If you want to become a fluent English speaker you should take some advice: There are four skills in learning English. They are reading, listening, speaking, and writing. The most important thing you must remember is that if you want to improve your speaking and writing skills you should first master the skills of reading and listening.

Read as much as you can. But your reading must be active. It means that you must think about the meaning of the sentence, the meanings of the unfamiliar words, etc. There is no need for you to pay much attention to grammars or try to understand all the unfamiliar words you come across, but the fact that you see them for the first time and recognize them whenever you see them, for example in other passages or books, is enough. It would be better to prepare yourself a notebook so you can write down the important words or sentences in it.

As for listening, there are two choices: besides reading, you can listen every day for about 30 minutes. You can only pay attention to your reading and become skillful at your reading, then you can catch up on your listening. Since you have lots of inputs in your mind, you can easily guess what the speaker is going to say. This never means that you should not practice listening.

For listening you can listen to cartoons or some movies that are specially made for children. Their languages are easy. Or if you are good at listening you can listen to VOA or BBC programs every day. Again the thing to remember is being active in listening and preferably taking some notes.

If you follow these pieces of advice, your speaking and writing will improve automatically, and you can be sure that with a little effort they will become perfect.

1.According to the author, which should you improve first among the four skills?

2.The underlined phrase “come across” in Paragraph 2 can probably be replaced by“          ”.

3.The author seems to agree with the view that            .

4.The passage is mainly about how to            .

－How did it        that the secretary knew where we were?

－Maybe he had been following us.

A．come about        B．come across       C．come off          D．come round