----- What do you think of the advice ______ by our English teacher?

----- No one has given me _________. We’d better take it strictly.

A．giving, a better piece	B．given, a better piece
C．given, the better piece	D．giving, the better piece

 

However important we may regard school life to be, there is always the fact that children spend more time at home than in the classroom. Therefore, the teacher should realize that parents have a great influence on their children. Parents can become strong allies (助手) of the school or they can get in the way of the school education.

Experts have realized the need to keep parents informed of the newer methods used in schools. Many headmasters have conducted workshops explaining such matters as the reading readiness, program writing and mathematics to parents.

Moreover, the classroom teacher, with the permission of the supervisors(管理者), can also play an important part in giving more knowledge to reporting pupils progress, teachers can help parents a lot in educating their children and parents can give much help to teachers.

Suppose that a father has been drilling Junior arithmetic lessons night after night. In a friendly talk between the teacher and the father, the teacher can help the parent to make Junior interested in it. He might be persuaded to let Junior join in discussing the family budget, buying the food, using a ruler or measuring cup at home, setting the clock, calculating the distance of a trip and engaging in scores of other activities that have a mathematical basis.

If the father follows the advice, it is reasonable to say that he will soon realize that his son is making satisfactory progress in mathematics, and at the same time, enjoying the work.

Too often, however, teachers’ talks with parents are devoted to small accounts of children’s misdemeanors(不良行为). They talk about the laziness and poor work habits of the children.

What is needed is a more creative way in which the teacher, as an adviser, plants ideas in parents’ minds to make sure that the child spends the many hours out of the classroom learning something useful.

In this way the school and the home join forces in educating children.

1.The main idea of the passage is that ____.

A. home training is more important than school training

B. parents should help their children to do their homework

C. there’re many ways in which the mathematics program can be carried out at home

D. teachers can and should help parents to use better ways to teach their children 2.From this passage we can know that the writer ____.

A. is satisfied with the relationship between school and home

B. feels that parent-teacher talks can be made much more constructive

C. believes that schools can’t teach pupils well

D. calls on parents to teach their children mathematics at home

3.What way that the writer doesn’t talk about can improve the present situation?

A. Classes for parents.         B. New type of report card.

C. Parent-teacher talk.         D. Dinner or party.

4.The writer implies that ____.

A. interesting activities can improve one’s achievement

B. too many children are lazy and have poor work habits

C. teachers should often make home visits to parents

D. headmasters do more than teachers in this area

5.We can infer from the passage that the writer does not favor ____.

A. father’s helping his son with his study

B. written reports to the parents from the teachers

C. talking about children’s shortcomings

D. having the parents help their children with their lessons

 

Does this situation seem familiar to you？Your English is progressing well，the grammar is now familiar，the reading comprehension is no problem，and you are speaking quite fluently.____1__

First of all，remember that you are not alone. Listening is probably the most difficult job for almost all learners of English as a foreign language.

The most important thing is to listen as often as possible.___2____

The Internet is really a useful tool for English students. You can download The RealPlayer from RealMedia.com. The RealPlayer allows you to use the Internet like a radio station.

Once you have begun to listen on a regular basis，you might still be frustrated by limited understanding._____3____

Here is some of the advice I give my students：

•Accept the fact that you are not going to understand everything.

•Stay relaxed when you do not understand，and try listening to the material for more times.

•Do not translate everything into your native language.

•_____4_____Don’t concentrate on details before you have understood the main ideas.

•Listen to something you enjoy.

I remember the problems I had in understanding spoken German when I first went to Germany. In the beginning，when I didn’t understand a word，I insisted on translating it in my mind. This method usually resulted in confusion._____5_____Firstly，translating creates a barrier between the listener and the speaker. Secondly，most people repeat themselves constantly. By remaining calm，I noticed that even if I didn’t pay much attention I could usually understand what the speaker had said.

A．But you can’t follow a native English speaker at all!

B．What should you do? 

C．But listening is a problem for most of the beginners!

D．However，after several weeks，I got used to the new environment in Germany.

E．So，what you need to do is to find listening resources.

F．Then，after the first six months，I discovered two extremely important facts.

G．Listen for the general idea of the conversation.

 

As the old saying goes, beauty is in the eye of the beholder. But Venezuela, whose beauty queens have won Miss Universe and Miss World over six times, doesn’t leave it to chance. In Venezuela, girls as young as four can be found attending beauty schools, where they can learn a range of skills from how to walk to the correct way to hold a wine glass.

“Hair must always be completely clean, make-up should look natural, and you should always, always wear high-heels,” advises Andrea Reyes, a teacher in a school of Caracas with 160 students.

Beauty contests are treated in Venezuela much as sporting competitions are elsewhere. Many Venezuelan parents believe that if their daughters can succeed and get the beauty crown, their future as famous and public persons is sure to come. As a result, the girls are trained to compete at a young age.

Among former beauty queens are Irene Saez, who went on to compete for the country’s president, and Eva Ekvall, whose battle with cancer helped to make more people know about the illness in Venezuela.

However, voices against the trend can be heard all over the country. At one time, a feminist (男女平等主义者) group tried to stop the Miss Venezuela broadcast. President Hugo Chavez has spoken out against the culture of plastic surgery(整形手术)in Venezuela, calling it a “frightening thing”.

The BBC reporter Sarah Grainger says that acceptance of the contests is partly a result of the country’s “machista” (大男子主义的) view of the different roles that men and women should play, “Men are supposed to be strong and brave and women to be gentle and beautiful”.

Miss Universe 1996, Alicia Machado, knows the price to be paid when you’re no longer seen as attractive. After winning the beauty contest, she said all she wanted to do was “eat, eat and eat”. Her weight gain later and warning by the organizers of the contest to replace her as queen with the runner-up was among the hottest topics in the country, especially in Latin America.

1.What’s the advice given by a teacher in Caracas to her students?

A. Attending beauty schools as early as possible.

B. Wearing high-heels at times.

C. Washing your hair quite often.

D. Fighting against cancer bravely.

2.Girls try to win in the beauty contest to__________.

A. try plastic surgery     

B. practice the country’s “machista” view

C. earn a good future   

D. eat as much as one pleases

3.We can learn from the passage that__________.

A. Venezuela girls have won Miss Universe and Miss World over six times by chance

B. In Venezuela, people judge men and women in quite different ways

C. Eva Ekvall once competed for the country’s president

D. Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez has spoken out against beauty contests

4.What does the underlined word “runner-up” in the last paragraph mean?

A. the news reporter covering the beauty contest

B. the organizer of the beauty contest

C. the girl who is slim

D. the person who comes in the second place

 

A.  Weather is to blame B.  Divided opinions C.  Inheriting（遗传） characteristics D.  Home of the redheads E.  Greater sensitivity to pain F.  Gene mutation（基因变异）

 
【小题1】
Britain may be the most red-headed country in the world. About 1 to 2 percent of the world’s population has red hair, but in the UK the numbers are much higher, with 13 percent of Scots, 10 percent of the Irish, and 6 percent of people in England having red hair, according to the BBC.
【小题2】 
Scientists have tried to explain why some people have red hair for some time and now they may have found an answer: the dull weather in Britain. The human body needs vitamin D from sunshine, but unfortunately people living in Britain do not have enough of it because of its maritime climate. In fact, Britain gets even more cloud than countries in the far north of Europe. In Sweden, for example, the average daily hours of sunshine is 5.4 . In Scotland it is only 3.1 hours.
【小题3】
To deal with this, the DNA of people living in these areas has changed slightly; scientists call this a mutation. Originally, the coloring on our body is a mixture of two kinds of melanin – black melanin is suppressed while only red / yellow melanin is made. The result is red hair, light skin color, freckles and a greater sensitivity to sunlight.
【小题4】
However, what’ s more interesting is that the redhead DNA mutation is recessive, which means it is hidden and can often skip generations without showing. At least 1.6 million Scots carry a redhead gene mutation, and most are unaware that they do. This is why a person who does not have red hair can still produce red-haired children if he or she is a carrier of this special DNA.
【小题5】
The research on red hair, like many areas of science, is contradictory(不一致). In 2002 researchers showed that redheads are more sensitive to pain, and need more anesthetic during surgery than people with blonde or dark hair. However, in 2005 scientists found that a MCRIR mutation gives redheads a higher tolerance for pain. Research into these aspects of red hair genetics continues. Redheads should though be more careful about their exposure to sunlight as they are at an increased risk of contracting skin cancer. If you are a redhead, the advice is not to stay out of the sun, but to be careful about how much exposure you get, and to cover yourself with a high factor sunscreen.