C
After watching my mother deal with our family of five, I can’t understand why answer to the
question, “What do you do?” is always, “Oh, I’m just a housewife.” JUST a housewife?” Anyone who spends most of her time in meal preparation and cleanup, keeping the house clean, attending PTA meetings, leading a scout troop, playing taxi driver to us kids when it’s time for school, musical lessons or the dentist, doing volunteer work for her community is not just a housewife. She’s the real Wonder Woman.
Why is it that so many mothers like mine think of themselves as second．class or something similar? Where has this notion come from? Have we males made them feel this way? Has our society  made“going to work” outside the home seem more important than what a housewife must face each day?  I would be every curious to see what would happen if a housewife went on strike．Dishes would  pie up．Food in the house would run out．There would be no learn clothes when needed．Walking and bus riding would increase．
I doubt if the man of the house would be able to take over．Oh，he would probably start out with the attitude that he can do just as good a job，but how long would that last? Not 1ong, once he had to come home each night after work to more housework. There would be no coming home to a prepared meal; The kids would all be screaming for something to eat, clean clothes and more bus fare money. Once he quieted the kids, he’d have to clean the house, go shopping, make sure that kids got a bath, after clearing out all the dog hairs from the bathtub. Once the kids were down for the night, he might be able to craw（爬）into an unmade bed and try to read the morning newspaper.
64．What does the writer’s mother NOT do according to the first paragraph?
A．Cooking.            B．Tidying the house.  
C．Driving a taxi.         D．Some unpaid work.
65．The underlined word “notion” in the second paragraph can be replaced by the word        .
A．mother     B．citizen      C．similarity  D．thought
66．We can learn from the second paragraph        .
A．mothers are actually great women  B．our society looks down upon housewives
C．housewives should go on a strike    D．doing housework is not important at all
67．The possible main idea of the third paragraph is        .
A．men should share housework with their wives
B．attitude is not the only thing needed to do a job well
C．kids are the most challenging part of the housework
D．men are unlikely to handle the work of a housewife

C

    After watching my mother deal with our family of five, I can’t understand why answer to the

question, “What do you do?” is always, “Oh, I’m just a housewife.” JUST a housewife?” Anyone who spends most of her time in meal preparation and cleanup, keeping the house clean, attending PTA meetings, leading a scout troop, playing taxi driver to us kids when it’s time for school, musical lessons or the dentist, doing volunteer work for her community is not just a housewife. She’s the real Wonder Woman.

Why is it that so many mothers like mine think of themselves as second．class or something similar? Where has this notion come from? Have we males made them feel this way? Has our society  made“going to work” outside the home seem more important than what a housewife must face each day?  I would be every curious to see what would happen if a housewife went on strike．Dishes would  pie up．Food in the house would run out．There would be no learn clothes when needed．Walking and bus riding would increase．

I doubt if the man of the house would be able to take over．Oh，he would probably start out with the attitude that he can do just as good a job，but how long would that last? Not 1ong, once he had to come home each night after work to more housework. There would be no coming home to a prepared meal; The kids would all be screaming for something to eat, clean clothes and more bus fare money. Once he quieted the kids, he’d have to clean the house, go shopping, make sure that kids got a bath, after clearing out all the dog hairs from the bathtub. Once the kids were down for the night, he might be able to craw（爬）into an unmade bed and try to read the morning newspaper.

64．What does the writer’s mother NOT do according to the first paragraph?

       A．Cooking.             B．Tidying the house.  

       C．Driving a taxi.         D．Some unpaid work.

65．The underlined word “notion” in the second paragraph can be replaced by the word        .

       A．mother     B．citizen      C．similarity  D．thought

66．We can learn from the second paragraph        .

       A．mothers are actually great women  B．our society looks down upon housewives

       C．housewives should go on a strike    D．doing housework is not important at all

67．The possible main idea of the third paragraph is        .

       A．men should share housework with their wives

       B．attitude is not the only thing needed to do a job well

       C．kids are the most challenging part of the housework

       D．men are unlikely to handle the work of a housewife

A mum saved her daughter’s life with her newly learned first aid skills. Sonya Hall, 33, of Denny Avenue, Lancaster, had only just attended one first aid class the day before when she found herself needing to use the skills on her three year old daughter Tilly.
Sonya, who also has son Emmen, six, attended the first aid course at Lune Park Children’s Centre in Lancaster. Then she was faced with every parent’s worst nightmare when Tilly went blue in the face and stopped breathing. But thanks to her newly acquired skills, Sonya saved Tilly’s life.
Sonya said: “Tilly was playing with her brother and they were fighting over a toy. Emmen won the fight. Tilly fell backwards and her head was hit. She was face down and shaking and at first I thought she was upset. But then I saw she was blue in the face and had stopped breathing. I reacted without thinking and immediately started using the first aid skills I had learned the day before which were so fresh in my mind. I began doing mouth-to-mouth and chest compressions (胸外按压). It probably took about a minute before Tilly started breathing again, but to me it felt like a lifetime.”
After getting Tilly breathing again, Sonya called an ambulance and the doctors came. Since then, Tilly has been diagnosed (诊断) with Reflex Anoxic Seizure (反射缺氧发作). Sonya said: “The seizure can happen when there’s any unexpected pain, fear or fright. It is just so lucky that the day before it happened, I had been practising first aid.”
The Empowering Parents First Aid course is run by Lancashire Adult Learning. Sonya said: “I am just so glad I did the course and learnt the first aid skills. I always feared I would not know what to do in a crisis situation, but luckily I had the knowledge and skills to deal with it.” 

1. 1.

   What happened to Tilly?

   1. A.
      She was knocked down by her brother.
   2. B.
      She fell on the floor and hit her head.
   3. C.
      She was hit by a toy on the head and felt upset.
   4. D.
      She was hit by her brother and stopped breathing.
2. 2.

   When Sonya found Tilly’s shaking, she thought her daughter must ______.

   1. A.
      be crying
   2. B.
      be very angry
   3. C.
      pretend to be hurt
   4. D.
      recognize her failure
3. 3.

   When Sonya goes to the first aid class next time, she will feel ______.

   1. A.
      enjoyable
   2. B.
      excited
   3. C.
      grateful
   4. D.
      confident
4. 4.

   What would be the best title for the text?  

   1. A.
      The importance of first aid
   2. B.
      How to practise first aid
   3. C.
      Mum saves girl with first aid
   4. D.
      Mums should attend first aid courses

A sunflower is a sunflower. A mobile phone is a mobile phone. But can you combine the two to do something for your local environment? As early as next year it may well be possible. When you have finished with your mobile phone you will be able to bury it in the garden or a plant pot and wait for it to flower.

A biodegradable (生物可降解的) mobile phone was, this month, introduced by scientists. It is hoped that the new type of phone will encourage consumers to recycle. Scientists have come up with a new material over the last five years. It looks like any other plastic, but overtime it can break down into the soil without giving out any poisonous chemicals. British researchers used the new material to develop a phone cover that contains a sunflower seed. When this cover turns into waste, it forms nitrates (硝酸盐). These feed the seed and help the flower grow. “We’ve only put sunflower seeds into the cover so far. But we are working with plant experts to find out which flowers would perform best. Maybe we could put roses in next time.” said one scientist.

As phone technology is developing so quickly people are constantly throwing their mobiles away. This means producers are under pressure to find ways of recycling them. Some 650 million mobile phones have been sold this year. Most of them will be thrown away within two years, adding plastic, heavy metal and chemical waste to the environment. A biodegradable cover can offer some relief for nature, according to the scientists. “The seed is released and the flower grows in the pot so you don’t have to concern yourself with the phone when you have finished using it,” said Kerry Kirwan, the leader of the research team.

After you have finished using the new type of mobile phone, _______.

A. the sunflower seed will come out and flower in the pot

B. the phone cover will break down very soon in the soil

C. it will be recycled by the producers

D. it can charge itself with electricity in a green way

This type of research is done because ________.

A. the technology of making phones is changing rapidly

B. too many waste mobile phones may lead to environmental problems

C. nobody has ever thought of recycling mobile phones

D. producing mobile phones uses a lot of energy

We can infer from the story ________.

A. the new type of mobile phones are already on the market

B. the new type of mobile phones will sell extremely well

C. the material of the new type of phones is harmful

D. other flowers may be used in the new type of mobile phones

The best title of this passage is           .

A. Recycling our phones

B. The phones that flower

C. A new material for making phones

D. The harm of thrown-away phones

A

A higher reading rate, with no loss of comprehension, will help you in other subjects as well as in English, and the general principles apply to any language. Naturally, you will not read every book at the same speed. You would expect to read a newspaper, for example, much more rapidly than a physics or economics textbook-but you can raise your average reading speed over the whole range of materials you wish to cover so that the percentage gained will be the same whatever kind of reading you are concerned with.

The reading passages which follow are all of an average level of difficulty for your stage of instruction. They are all about five hundred words long. They are about topics of general interest which do not require a great deal of specialized knowledge. Thus they fall between the kind of reading you might find in your textbooks and the much less demanding kind you will find in a newspaper or light novel. If you read this kind of English, with understanding at four hundred words per minute, you might skim (浏览) through a newspaper at perhaps 650-700, while with a difficult textbook you might drop to two hundred or two hundred and fifty.

Perhaps you would like to know what reading speeds are common among native English-speaking university students and how those speeds can be improved. Tests in Minnesota, USA, for example, have shown that students without special training can read English of average difficulty, for example, Tolstoy's War and Peace in translation, at speeds of between 240 and 250 words per minute with about seventy percent comprehension. Students in Minnesota claim that after twelve half-hour lessons, once a week, the reading speed can be increased, with no loss of comprehension, to around five hundred words per minute.

According to the passage, the purpose of effective reading with higher speed is most likely to help you ________.

A. only in your reading of a physics textbook

B. improve your understanding of an economics textbook

C. not only in your language study but also in other subjects

D. choose the suitable materials to read

Which of the following does not describe the types of reading materials mentioned in the second paragraph?

A. Those beyond one's reading comprehension.

B. Those concerned with common knowledge.

C. Those without much demand for specialized knowledge.

D. Those with the length of about five hundred words.

The average speed of untrained native speakers in the University of Minnesota is ________.

A. about 300 words per minute

B. about 245 words per minute

C. about 650-700 words per minute

D. about 500 words per minute

According to the passage, how fast can you expect to read after you have attended twelve half-hour lessons in the University of Minnesota?

A. You can increase your reading speed by three times.

B. No real increase in reading speed can be achieved.

C. Yon can increase your reading speed by four times.

D. You can double your reading speed.