One night I was sitting in my room half-listening as my 15-year-old brother Tommy fought with my 12-year-old brother Kevin. I didn’t pay attention when Kevin rushed up the stairs with the hurt on his face.
About 20 minutes later, as I was walking upstairs I heard Kevin crying inside the bathroom. I knocked on the door and asked, “Hey Kevin, do you want to talk?”
No answer.
I tried again, “Why don’t you come out of there?”
Again, no answer.
So, joking around, I grabbed a stack of （一摞）cards and a pencil and wrote, “If you don’t want to talk, we can write notes to each other.”
An hour later I was still sitting on the floor outside the bathroom with two stacks of cards in front of me. One was blank and one was cards from Kevin on which he had translated all his yucky feelings into words for me. As I read one of Kevin’s notes, tears came to my eyes. It said, “Nobody in this family cares about me. I’m not the youngest, and I’m not the oldest. Tommy thinks I’m silly and Dad wishes he had the other Kevin as a kid because he’s better at basketball. And you’re never around to even notice me.”
Tears came to my eyes as I wrote back to him. “You know Kevin, I really do love you and I’m sorry I don’t always show it. I am here for you and you are loved in this family.”
There was no answer for a while, but then I heard a tearing sound coming from inside the bathroom. Kevin, who had run out of cards wrote on a torn paper cup. “Thanks.”
I wrote back “For what?” it returned to me with “Loving me” on it.
Since then, I try my best to never only half-notice my family members any more. Kevin and I have a closer relationship now. And sometimes when one of us notices that the other is upset, we’ll smile and say “Write it on a paper cup.”
【小题1】The underlined word “yucky” most probably means ____.

A．upset

B．exciting

C．terrible

D．amazing

【小题2】What could be the reason that Kevin’s Dad doesn’t like him?

A．Kevin is not as clever as his brother.

B．He is neither the youngest nor the oldest.

C．Kevin doesn’t like to make friends with others.

D．Kevin is not good at playing basketball.

【小题3】What do we know about the writer?

A．She has two children in her family.

B．She didn’t pay enough attention to Kevin before.

C．She used to show her love to Kevin.

D．She has a closer relationship with Tommy after that.

【小题4】What does the writer want to tell us?

A．Everyone should show how they love their family members.

B．It’s hard to get on well with family members.

C．It’s important to keep peace in the family.

D．We should try our best to stop our children from fighting.

Alice is an American girl. She has two good friends. One is Tom, the other is Jim. They come from the same country. They are studying in Beijing now. They are at the same school-- No.2 Middle School. They have a lot of Chinese friends here. They go to school from Monday to Friday. They go to school at seven in the morning. They all go to school by subway. In the evening, they do their homework and learn Chinese. On Saturdays and Sundays they go to their friends’ homes. There they learn more Chinese from their Chinese friends and their friends learn English from them.

Sometimes they write to their parents in America. They tell them about China and their life in China. They all like living here . They want their parents to come to China one day.

1.Alice , Tom and Jim come from               .

A．England           B．Europe           C．the USA           D．different countries

2.How many days do they go to school?

A．Four.             B．Five              C．Six               D．Seven

3.Why do they go to their Chinese friends’ home on weekends?

A．They want to eat Chinese food at their homes.

B．They want to play with them.

C．They want to make friends with their parents.

D．They want to learn Chinese from them.

4.Where are Alice’s parents?

A．In America.        B．In England.         C．In China.          D．We don’t know.

5.What do Alice, Tom and Jim write to their parents in the letters?

A. Something about China.              B.Their life in China.

C. To ask their parents to come to China.    D.A,B and C.

 

Millions of young people are writing blogs. Millions of others are reading them. The word“blog”is a short way of saying Web log.

 Many popular Web sites now offer free，easy ways to create personal Web pages and fill them with writings and pictures. Web sites called “ Facebook ” and “MySpace” are some of the most popular blog sites for young people. Many young adults use their blogs to write about daily activities and events in their lives. They also provide a place for people to write their ideas and opinions and how they think of others’ ideas.

 Blogs offer young people a place to show their writings and feelings. They can also be helpful to connect young people with others. But blogs can become dangerous when they are read on the Internet by millions of people all over the world.

 Recent studies show that young people often provide their names, age and where they live on the Internet. That may not be safe for them. This personal information puts them at risk(风险)of being searched out by dangerous people who want to hurt them. Many students do not know about privacy(隐私)and are surprised to learn that adults can read their personal daily records easily. Students can also get into trouble when they put information about others on their blogs.

As a result, many schools have banned (禁止) the use of blogging Web sites on school computers. Many schools have also begun teaching parents about the Web sites. Parents should know what their children are doing online and should read their blogs to make sure they are not giving out private information. One way to keep away from these problems is to use programs so that blogs can be read by “friends only”. People can read the website only if they know a secret word chosen by the blogger.

1.“Facebook”and“MySpace”are         .

A. school subjects      B. computer programmes

C. school online BBS   D. blog sites for young people

2.Blogs may be dangerous because         .

A. they get in the way of studies

B. they are not allowed for school students

C. surfing the Internet is bad for eyes

D. personal information can be found in blogs easily

3.This passage is mainly about        .

A. the safety of children’s blogs

B. how to search the Internet

C. students’ behavior at school

D. communicating with parents at home

4.According to the passage，many schools help children avoid(避免) blog problems by doing everything EXCEPT        .

A. teaching parents about the Web sites

B. asking students to use programs to refuse strangers

C. telling school students not to make any net friends

D. stopping students from blogging on school computers

5.You can enjoy your blog safely if        .

A. you write your blog at school

B. use a secret number for friends to enter your blog

C. your parents have little knowledge about websites

D. you show all your writings and feelings in your blog

 

When you are curious about something and want to know more about it, you can use the way of asking questions. Asking questions is the first step to make discoveries and find interesting answers. The following steps can guide you during the research.
Step 1 Write down the subject that you are interested in on a piece of paper. Just get the main idea down. For example, you might write:
Discover more about robots.
Step 2 Stop and think for a moment about what you have already known about your subject. List what you have already known like the sentences below:
1. The first robot appeared in the USA in 1959.
2. A robot can do housework and act as a teacher.
3. Sometimes a robot catches viruses and causes a lot of problems.
Step 3 What can you do with what you want to learn? By asking questions, start writing down questions about the robots on the paper:
1. What might robots be like in the future?
2. What other things can robots do for people?
3. What kind of power will robots possibly use in five years?
Step 4 Armed with your list of questions, you can now go to the nearest library or computer to begin your research. As you learn more about your subject, you'll probably discover some new questions.
For example, you might discover that robots can help scientists explore dangerous places, like the sea and outer space. How? What happened? Asking new questions can help you research your subject more widely.
The next time you find something interesting to research, take time to organize your thinking by asking good questions. And remember that learning more always brings more questions.
【小题1】What does the writer advise us to do when we’re curious about something?

A．To read more books about it.	B．To look it up in the dictionary.
C．To turn to the teacher for help.	D．To raise questions and find the answers.

【小题2】What does the underlined part “Armed with your list of questions” mean?

A．Writing down your list of questions.	B．Discussing your questions with others.
C．Taking your list of questions with you.	D．Putting your list of questions under your arm.

【小题3】What might be the correct order of the steps when you do research?
① List what you want to learn.        ② Find new problems.
③ List what you’ve already known.    ④ Choose a research subject.

A．④③①②

B．④①③②

C．②③④①

D．③②①④

【小题4】 What might be the best title for this passage?

A．Doing Research onRobots	B．Asking Good Questions While Doing Research
C．Having Interesting Answers on Robots	D．Finding Subjects before Doing Research