Maybe ten-year-old Elizabeth put it best when she said to her father, “But, Dad, you can’t be healthy if you’re dead.”
Dad, in a hurry to get home before dark so he could go for a run, had forgotten to wear his safety belt－a mistake 75% of US population makes every day. The big question is why.
There have been many myths about safety belt ever since their first appearance in cars some forty years ago. The following are three of the most common.
Myth the Number One: It’s best to be “thrown clear” of a serious accident.
Truth: Sorry, but any accident serious enough to “throw you clear” is able to be serious enough to give you a very bad landing. And chances are you’ll have traveled through a windshield(挡风玻璃) or door to do it. Studies show that chances of dying after a car accident are twenty－five times in cases where people are “thrown clear”.
Myth Number Two: Safety-belts “trap” people in cars that are burning or sinking in water.
Truth: Sorry again, but studies show that people knocked unconscious(昏迷) due to not wearing safety belts have a greater chance of dying in these accidents. People wearing safety belts are usually protected to the point of having in these accidents. People wearing safety belts are usually protected to the point of having a clear head to free themselves from such dangerous situation, not to be trapped in them.
Myth Number Three: Safety belts aren’t needed at speeds of less than 30 miles per hour(mph).
Truth: When two cars traveling at 30 mph hit each other, an unbelted driver would meet the windshield with a force equal to diving headfirst into the ground from a height of 10 metres.
【小题1】Why did Elizabeth say to her father, “But, Dad, you can’t be healthy if you’re dead”?

If you go to the souvenir shops in places of interest, sometimes you can’t help ________ into buying something fake.

A. to persuade                B. persuading   

C. be persuaded               D. being persuaded

The average person learns most of the 30 000～40 000 words whose meanings he or she recognizes by hearing them or getting familiar with them in the context or simply absorbing them without conscious effort. The best way to build a good vocabulary, therefore, is to read a great deal and to participate in a lot of good talks. There are relatively few words that we learn permanently by purposefully referring to dictionaries or keeping word lists. However, even those extra few are of value, and no one will make a mistake by working on developing a larger vocabulary. Here are some suggestions of how to do it.
Read plenty of good books. When you come across a new word, or a new meaning of an old word, stop and see if you can understand it from its context. If you can't, and if you can manage without interrupting the thought of the book too much, look it up in a dictionary or ask somebody and then repeat its meaning to yourself a couple of times. If you are really conscientious(认真的), write the word and its meaning in a personal vocabulary list － preferably using it in a sentence, or you can keep a special vocabulary notebook. Go over the list from time to time. Further, try to use a new word in writing or conversation a few times over the next several days.
Listen to good talks and be alert to new words you hear or to new meanings of words you already know. Then treat them just as you treat the new words you read.
Learn and be alert to the parts of words: prefixes, suffixes and roots. Knowing them enables you to make intelligent guesses about the meanings of words.
If you are studying a foreign language, be alert to words in that language which relate to words in English. English has inherited(继承) or borrowed much of its vocabulary of 500 000～600 000 words from Latin, Greek, French, Spanish and German.
【小题1】When you meet a new word in reading, what should you do?

阅读短文，根据短文的内容判断正误，正确的涂A，错误的涂B。
When my grandmother was raising me in Stamps，Arkansas，she had a particular routine(惯例)when people who were known to be whiners entered her store. My grandmother would ask the customer，“How are you doing today，Thomas？” The person would reply，“Not so good today, Henderson.You see，it’s this summer heat.I just hate it.It just makes me tired.It’s almost killing me.”Then my grandmother would stand calmly，her arms folded，and say，“Uh-huh，uh huh.”
As soon as the complainer was out of the store，my grandmother would call me to stand in front of her.Then she would say the same thing she had said at least a thousand times，it seemed to me.“Jane，did you hear what so-and-so complained about？”And I would nod.Grandmother would continue，“Jane，there are people who went to sleep all over the world last night，poor and rich and black and white，but they will never wake again.Those dead people would give anything，anything at all for just five minutes of this weather that person was complaining about.So you watch yourself about complaining，Jane.What you’re supposed to do when you don’t like a thing is change it.If you can’t change it，change the way you think about it.Don’t complain.”
I have learned a lot from my grandmother.Her opinions always hit the nail on the head.Whining is not only impolite, but can be dangerous.
【小题1】The underlined word “whiners” in Paragraph 1 refers to those people who enter a store regularly.
【小题2】 From what the author’s grandmother said we can infer that she was against whining.
【小题3】The author’s grandmother told her to treasure every moment of her life.
【小题4】The author was told different things after the whiners left Grandmother’s store.
【小题5】The purpose of the author in writing the passage is to show that complaining is not only rude but harmful.