Chinese New Year for Kids
‘Chinese New Year for Kids’ is a full color paperback book with beautiful Chinese illustrations (插图). This is a hands-on workbook for parents and teachers, written for children from ages 3 to 12 years old, for use in the classroom or at home. Music, physical movement, art, and food all add to the atmosphere of taking an imaginary trip to China during the Chinese New Year.

In the United States, when one becomes rich, he wants people to know it. And even if he does not become very rich, he wants people to think that he is. That is what “keeping up with the Joneses” is about. It is the story of someone who tried to look as rich as his neighbors.
The expression was first used in 1913 by a young American called Arthur Momand. He told this story about himself. He began earning $ 125 a week at the age of 23. That was a lot of money in those days. He got married and moved with his wife to a very wealthy neighborhood. When he saw that rich people rode horses, Momand went horseback riding every day. When he saw that rich people had servants. Momand and his wife also hired a servant and gave big parties for their new neighbors.    
It was like a race, but one could never finish this race because one was always trying to keep up. The race ended for Momand and his wife when they could no longer pay for their new way of life. They had to move back to an apartment in New York City.
Momand looked around him and noticed that many people do things just to keep up with rich lifestyle of their neighbors. He saw the funny side of it and started to write a series of short stories. He called it “Keeping up with the Joneses” because “Jones” is a very common name in the United States. “Keeping up with the Joneses” came to mean keeping up with rich lifestyle of the people around you. Momand’s series appeared in different newspapers across the country for over 28 years.
People never seem to get tired of keeping up with the Joneses. And there are “Joneses” in every city of the world. But one must get tired of trying to keep up with the Joneses because no matter what one does, Mr. Jones always seems to be ahead.
【小题1】Some people want to keep up with the Joneses because they ______.

Once upon a time, there lived many doves (鸽子) in the jungle. One day they went out in search of food. They flew long distances   1  did not get anything to eat. All of them were now completely   2.
A young dove asked the King Dove, “Your Majesty(陛下), please   3  us to take some rest.” The king replied, “Have   4, my dear young fellow. We shall   5   get something to eat very soon.”
The young dove started flapping(拍打) his wings with   6  and soon left everyone else behind. After some time, he   7  and spoke to others, “Hey, I see lots of   8 down there.”
Hearing this, all the doves started   9  the scattered (散落的) grains under a banyan tree.   10  the King Dove said, “It is too good to be true. There is something wrong. Don’t rush towards the grains. It may be a   11 . Some hunter must have laid a trap(陷阱).”
But the doves were extremely hungry. The   12  of the grains was too tempting (诱惑人的). Without giving a(n)   13  to the king’s advice, they swooped (突然下降) down and started eating the grains. After having a big   14, they tried to fly away only to   15  that they were caught in a net.
The King Dove said, “I told you before that it is a trick of some hunter.”
All of them felt ashamed and   16  . One of them said to the King Dove, “Oh, Your Majesty, please save us.”
So the King Dove said, “All of you must try to fly with the   17  at the same time and in the same   18, all of you.”
Just then they saw a(n)   19  show up. The King Dove said, “Now all of you, fly together.”
So all the doves flapped their wings together and flew with the net. The hunter stood shocked. He couldn’t   20  what he had just seen.

D
Parents whose children show a special interest in a sport feel very difficult to make a decision about their children’s careers. Should they allow their children to train to become top sports men or women? For many children it means starting schoolwork very young, and going out with friends and other interests have to take a second place. It’s very difficult to explain to a young child why he or she has to train five hours a day, even at the weekend, when most of his or her friends are playing.
Another problem is of course money. In many countries money for training is available from government for the best young sportsmen and women. If this help can not be given, it means that it is the parents who have to find the time and the money to support their child’s development and sports clothes, transport to competitions, special equipment, etc.
Many parents are worried that it is dangerous to start serious training in a sport at an early age. Some doctors agree that young muscles may be damaged by training before they are properly developed. Professional ( 专业的) trainers however, believe that it is only by training young that you can reach the top as a successful sports person. It is clear that very few people do reach the top, and both parents and children should be prepared for failure even after many years of training.
67. This article is probably taken from ________.
A. a letter                      B. an advertisement  
C. a personal diary               D. a newspaper article
68. According to the passage parents whose children show a special interest in a sport _______.
A. feel uncertain if they should let their children train to be sportsmen or women
B. try to get financial support from the government for their children’s training
C. have to get medical advice from doctors about training methods
D. prefer their children to be trained as young as possible
69. Which of the following statements is NOT true?
A. When young, sports men or women won’t have much time for their schoolwork
B. Early training may damage their muscles.
C. Most children may become professional sports men or women after a long period of training.
D. It’s very expensive for parents to support their child’s development in sports.
70. _______ can become the best players after many years of training.
A. Most people                                     B. Some people 
C. Only a few people                                  D. No people

What would you do if Martians (火星人) kidnapped (绑架) your mom? In the 3-D animated movie Mars Needs Moms, a young boy named Milo finds himself in this exact difficult situation. The aliens want to steal Milo’s mother’s “momness” for their own young. Now it’s up to the 9-year-old to get his mom back before she is lost forever.
Every good action movie has a bad guy. The villain (反派角色) in this film is the Martian Supervisor, played by Mindy Sterling. The Supervisor has an icy cold heart. Remarkably, Sterling acted out almost all of her scenes in a special Martian language created just for the movie. “Learning Martian was a piece of cake,” Sterling said. “There wasn’t too much to learn; sometimes, I just made it up!”
Anyone who has a mother will be moved by this movie. In fact, anyone who loves someone will be moved by this movie. Maybe it is because the story was inspired by a real-life event. The movie is based on a novel by prize-winning cartoonist Berkeley Breathed. He wrote the book after a dinner-table incident between his wife and son, who was then 4 years old. That night, Breathed’s son had thrown his broccoli into the air and rushed out of the room angrily, yelling at his mother on the way out. Breathed told his son, “You might think differently about your mom if she were kidnapped by Martians.” He wrote the novel that same evening.
All kids get into arguments with their parents. The fights may be about homework, chores or eating vegetables. Mars Needs Moms tells us to look past these silly disagreements and to remember the importance of family and the things that really matter.
【小题1】In the movie Mars Needs Moms the aliens want to _____.