完形填空

　　Learning Chinese may seem difficult to foreigners outside China．However, Daisy Raffan, an 　　1　　 girl in Britain, hopes to bring the 　　2　　 to the young people．

　　Daisy has 　　3　　 an online learning website to teach the language to as 　　4　　 people as possible, all over the world．

　　With China's fast development in the world, Daisy thinks 　　5　　 important for people to learn the language sooner rather than later．

　　Daisy has been learning Putonghua 　　6　　 the age of five．Two years ago, 　　7　　 she decided to pass on what she had learned, she 　　8　　 the idea for the website, kidschineseclub.com．

　　She said：“People are afraid to learn Putonghua．One of the main reasons is that they think it's an 　　9　　 language to learn, but I have had fun 　　10　　 it．And I hope what I have done is easy and fun．”

　　Her 　　11　　 offers a series of lessons, which are videos of Daisy teaching a group of students on topics from greetings and numbers to Chinese culture．

　　Daisy's website has 　　12　　 the support of several important persons－the teenager says she has received a letter praising(赞扬)her work from Gordon Brown, 　　13　　 is the British Prime Minister(首相)．

　　She said：“I wrote to him and told him what I was doing and got a letter 　　14　　．He said that what I was doing was a really good idea．I thought it was amazing．I was excited that 　　15　　 was supporting what we're doing．”

阅读理解

　　Jean is a bright young woman from a rich and famous family．She goes to a good university and has almost everything that money can buy．But the people in Jean’s family are so busy that they can hardly find time to be with her．In fact, Jean is quite lonely．

　　So Jean spends a lot of her time on QQ．She likes being anonymous(匿名的)talking to people who do not know about her famous family and her rich life．She uses the name Linda on QQ and made a lot of friends．

　　Last year Jean made a very special friend on QQ．His name was David and he lived in San Francisco．David was full of stories and jokes．He and Jean had the same interests in rock music and modern dance．So it always took them many hours to talk happily on QQ and sometimes they even forgot the time．Of course, they wanted to know more about each other．David sent a picture of himself：he was a tall, good-looking young man with big, happy smile．As time went by, they became good friends and often sent cards and small things to each other．

　　When Jean’s father told her that he was going on a business trip to San Francisco, she asked him to let her go with him, so that she could give David a surprise for his birthday．She would take him the latest DVD of the rock singer they liked most．But when Jean knocked in David’s door in San Francisco, she found that the special friend she had written to was a twelve-year-old boy named Jim!

阅读理解

　　Do you know that women’s brains are smaller than men’s?Normally the women’s brain weighs 10％ less than men’s．Since research has shown that the bigger the brain, the cleverer the animal, men must be more intelligent(聪明的)than women．Right? Wrong．Men and women always score similarly on intelligence tests, despite the difference in brain size．Why? After years of study, researchers have concluded that it’s what’s inside that matters, not just the size of the brain．The brain is made up of “grey matter” and “white matter”．While men have more of the white matter, the amount(数量)of “thinking” brain is almost the same in both men and women．

　　It has been suggested that smaller brain appears to work faster, perhaps because the two sides of the brain are better connected in women．This means that little girls may learn to speak earlier, and that women can understand sorts of different information at the same time．When it comes to talking to the boss on the phone, cooking dinner and keeping an eye on the baby all at the same time, it’s women who come out on top every time．

　　There are other important differences between two sexes(性别)．As white matter is the key to spatial(空间的)tasks, men know better where things are in relation to other things．“A great footballer always knows where he is in relation to the other players, and he knows where to go,” says one researcher．That may explain one of life’s great mysteries：why men refuse to ask for directions … and women often need to!

　　The differences begin when fetuses(胎儿)are about nine weeks old, which can be seen in the action of children when they are very young．A boy would try to climb a barrier before him or push it down while a girl would ask for help from others．These brain differences also explain the fact that more men take up jobs that require good spatial skills, while more women speech skills．It may all go back to our ancestors, among whom women needed speech skills to take care of their babies and men needed spatial skills to hunt, according to one research．