Height is just one of the thousands of features your genes decide. In fact, because you have two parents, your genes provide you a height that usually lands somewhere between the height of each parent. If both your parents are tall, then most probably you will be tall, too, but if you have questions about how tall you're going to be, ask your doctor if he or she can help you find it out.
But genes don't decide everything. For example, eating an unhealthy diet can keep you from growing to your full potential(潜力). Getting plenty of sleep and enough exercise will help you grow to the expected height.
No doubt you're wondering how fast you should grow. It depends. There's no perfect or right answer. Generally speaking, kids grow about 2 inches (6 centimeters) a year between age 3 and the time when they start puberty (when your body starts changing and becoming more grown up).
Your doctor will know how your growth has been going over the years. Two centimeters here and 2 inches there are not nearly as important as the height you're at now, how you've been growing up to this point, and what other changes your body may be going through.
Don't be scared if you seem to have grown a lot in a very short time. Everyone has a growth spurt（高峰）during puberty. The age for starting puberty is about 10 for girls and about 11 for boys. But it can be earlier or later ----between 7 and 13 for girls and 9 and 15 for boys.
You'll usually begin to notice that you're growing faster about a year or so after your body starts to show the first changes of puberty. 
【小题1】. The Chinese for the word “puberty” is 　　　　　　　　　.

A．童年时期

B．婴幼儿时期

C．习惯养成期

D．生长发育期

【小题2】 If you want to know how fast and how tall you should grow, _____.

A．you should have enough exercise	B．you can ask doctors for help
C．you should save the environment	D．You can record your growth during puberty

【小题3】 This passage is mainly about 　　　　　　　　　.

A．how the genes work in your body	B．when is the time you grow fast
C．why you look like your parents	D．how you grow to a certain height

【小题4】 After reading this passage, we can explain 　　　　　　　　　.

A．how good it is to be a doctor	B．how much sleep time we need
C．why genes can’t decide everything	D．what healthy diet is

【小题5】 Which is NOT mentioned in the passage?

A．Your height most probably depends on how high your parents are.

B．Girls’ age for starting puberty is usually earlier than that for boys’.

C．The time showing the first changes of puberty is never noticed.

D．You may be scared sometimes when you grow too fast.

International students in Christine Rhodes’ English class in Australia share their impressions (印象) of places they have visited in Australia.
Canberra, the nicest city in Australia
I went for a short holiday to Canberra. My uncle lives there. It’s the nicest city in Australia, a little bit similar to Cairns. There’re lots of big rivers and trees around the city.
Siggi Siebold from Germany
The small city of Mount Isa
I went to Mount Isa six months ago. It’s a long way from Brisbane — about 2,000 km. It’s a small city, with a population of 21,000, but it has all the basic facilities such as a base hospital, six schools and supermarkets. Here the weather is hot and gets very little rain. There’re two big lakes to keep rainwater for people in the city to drink.
Indra Ekanayake
Lake Moondarra and a mine (矿)
In Mount Isa, there’s a dam (水坝) called Lake Moondarra. At weekends you can go there with your friends, and it is beautiful. On the lake, there is water skiing. Also, people can go fishing there.
There’s a big mine in Mount Isa. Many people go to work in the mine and earn a lot of money. Mount Isa isn’t a beautiful green place, but many people love it.
Ida Robb from Indonesia
【小题1】Siggi Siebold is from 　　　.

A．Australia

B．Germany

C．England

D．Indonesia

【小题2】What does the underlined word “facilities” probably mean in Chinese?

A．设施

B．土地

C．交通

D．名胜

【小题3】Lake Moondarra is a 　　　.

A．city

B．mountain

C．mine

D．dam

【小题4】Which of the following is NOT mentioned by Ida Robb?

A．People can go fishing on Lake Moondarra.

B．There are 21,000 people in Mount Isa.

C．There’s a big mine in Mount Isa.

D．Many people like Mount Isa though it isn’t a beautiful green place.

【小题5】Which of the following is TRUE?

A．Siggi Siebold stayed in Canberra for six months.

B．Mount Isa is a famous village in Australia.

C．People in Mount Isa drink rainwater.

D．People can’t go water skiing on the lake.

Mr. and Mrs. Long had one daughter. Her name was Lena. She was eighteen years old. Lena lived with her parents and worked in an office. She had some friends, but she didn’t like any of the boys very much.

One day she met a very nice man. He was young. His name was Watts and he worked in a post office. They became friends and he came to Lena’s parents house twice. Last week Lena said to her father, “I’m going to marry（嫁给） Watts, Daddy. He was here yesterday.”

“Oh, yes.” her father answered. “He’s a nice boy, but has he got much money?”

　　“Oh, no, both of you are the same,” the daughter answered angrily. I met Watts on the first day of June and the next day he asked me, “Has your father got much money?”

1.Mr. and Mrs. Long had a ______.

　　    

A．son

B．grandson

C．daughter

D．granddaughter

2.Lena worked _________.

　　    

A．in a school

B．in an office

C．in a factory

D．in a hospital

3.Lena had a few friends before she came to know Watts, but she _____.

　　   

A．liked no one very much

B．like all of them

C．didn’t know their names

D．didn’t talk to them about their work

4.Last week Lena asked her father _______.

A．to help her find a good husband	B．to let her marry(嫁给) Ｗatts
C．to give her some money to buy a house	D．to let her work in a big city

5.Lena got angry because ______.

　　     

A．her father didn’t like her boyfriend, Watts

B．her father asked her to make friends with money

C．her father and Watts only thought of money

D．her parents asked Watts to give them too much money

 

阅读理解

Ask three people to look out the same window at a busy street corner and tell you what they see. Chances are you will receive three different answers. Each person sees the same scene（场景）, but each perceives（察觉）something different about it.

　　 Perceiving goes on in our minds. Of the three people who look out the window, one may say that he sees a policeman giving a motorist a ticket（罚单）. Another may say that he sees a rush-hour traffic jam at the intersection. The third may tell you that he sees a woman trying to cross the street with four children in tow（拉着）. For perception（感知） is the mind’s interpretation of what the senses—in this case our eyes—tell us.

　　 Many psychologists（心理学家） today are working to try to determine just how a person experiences or perceives the world around him. Using a scientific approach, these psychologists set up experiments in which they can control all of the factors. By measuring and charting the results of many experiments, they are trying to find out what makes different people perceive totally different things about the same scene.

1.Perceiving is an action that takes place _____.

A．in our eyes

B．only when we think very hard about something

C．only under the direction of a psychologist

D．in every person’s mind

2. People perceive different things about the same scene because ____.

A．they see different things.

B．they can not agree about things

C．some have better eyesight

D．none of these

3. Psychologists study perception by _____.

A．setting up many experiments.

B．asking each other what they see.

C．looking out of windows.

D．Studying people’s eyes.

4. The best title for this article is _____.

A．How We See

B．Learning About Our Minds Through Science

C．What Psychologists Perceive

D．How To Become An Experimental Psychologist

 

Ask three people to look out the same window at a busy street corner and tell you what they see. Chances are you will receive three different answers. Each person sees the same scene（场景）, but each perceives（察觉）something different about it.

　　 Perceiving goes on in our minds. Of the three people who look out the window, one may say that he sees a policeman giving a motorist a ticket（罚单）. Another may say that he sees a rush-hour traffic jam at the intersection. The third may tell you that he sees a woman trying to cross the street with four children in tow（拉着）. For perception（感知） is the mind’s interpretation of what the senses—in this case our eyes—tell us.

　　 Many psychologists（心理学家） today are working to try to determine just how a person experiences or perceives the world around him. Using a scientific approach, these psychologists set up experiments in which they can control all of the factors. By measuring and charting the results of many experiments, they are trying to find out what makes different people perceive totally different things about the same scene.

1.Perceiving is an action that takes place _____.

A．in our eyes

B．only when we think very hard about something

C．only under the direction of a psychologist

D．in every person’s mind

2.People perceive different things about the same scene because ____.

A．they see different things.

B．they can not agree about things

C．some have better eyesight

D．none of these

3.Psychologists study perception by _____.

A．setting up many experiments.

B．asking each other what they see.

C．looking out of windows.

D．Studying people’s eyes.

4.The best title for this article is _____.

A．How We See

B．Learning About Our Minds Through Science

C．What Psychologists Perceive

D．How To Become An Experimental Psychologist