【推荐1】When my oldest son was in high school, he planned to attend a concert with his young friends. To my surprise, Aron invited me to go along. I quickly accepted. However, by the time the date of the concert arrived, my youngest son had been ill, and I was worried about him. My husband encouraged me to attend the concert, promising he would look after our youngest son. Finally, it hit me. Aron was 16 years old. How many years would I have to do something fun with him before he went to college? And how many youths invite their mothers to attend a concert with them that was clearly for teens? The decision was made. I’d not miss this chance.

At the concert, I sat with Aron in the third row, stuffing (填满) cotton in my ears to block out the loud music of the first performer. I stood when the kids stood, clapped (鼓掌) when they clapped, and never let anyone know how nervous I was to feel the floor shaking under my feet. Aron and his friends were amazed at my enthusiasm (热情).

When we left the concert, my ears were ringing, but it quickly passed. So did my son’s teenage years. Soon he was in college and away from home. I missed him more than I could say. On days when I was especially lonely for his happy smile, I would think back to the concert we attended and thank myself again that I didn’t miss a chance to spend time with my son.

Aron is now grown and has a family of his own, but we are still very close. Some days he calls just to chat and tell me about his day. I drop everything and enjoy the moment, knowing these times shall pass.

1. Why did Aron’s mother decide to attend a concert with Aron?

A．Because she showed great interest in a concert with loud music.

B．Because Aron’s father promised her to look after the sick 16-year-old child.

C．Because she valued the chance to spend time with her son.

D．Because it was not polite to refuse Aron’s rare invitation.

2. Which of the following is TRUE according to the passage?

A．Aron’s mother loved Aron more than her youngest son.

B．Aron’s mother really enjoyed every minute of the concert.

C．Though Aron was very shy, his mother was still proud of him.

D．It was the loud music that led to the shaking of the floor during the concert.

3. What can we learn from the passage?

A．It’s necessary for parents to spend time with their children all the time.

B．Aron’s mother sometimes regretted attending the concert when thinking back.

C．Aron felt lonely from time to time after he attended college far from home.

D．Aron still has a close relationship with his mother even after he becomes an adult.

【推荐2】What is a family? Why does it matter? What does it teach us that we can’t learn on our own? These questions seem especially relevant in the holiday season when it is often our tradition to gather as families and celebrate together.

My mother was one of twelve children. As they grew up, married and had children of their own, most of them lived near enough to gather for holidays at my grandparents’ home in a small town in the mountains of North Carolina.

I don’t recall getting many gifts from them .I remember the sense of belonging, of being part of something that assured me I was loved and not alone.

I delighted in the laughing, playing and fighting with my crazy cousins. I watched my granddad and uncles sit on the porch, rain or shine, smoking and joking, arguing about politics and trying to solve the problems of the world. I listened to my grandmother, mother and aunts stir (搅拌) pots on the stove and talk about their lives, hopes, dreams and disappointments, and gossip about any sister who failed to show up.

The food was always plentiful and delicious-country ham, sweet potatoes, green beans, biscuits and my grandmother’s banana pudding. But for me, the food was never the highlight. The highlight was simply being together. A family.

However, they’re all gone now. My parents and grandparents, my aunts and uncles have left this world for the next. My cousins are scattered here and there. And yet the memories linger, along with the love that we shared.

I treasure those memories and the things they taught me. They told me that families aren’t perfect, but they prepare us to find our way in an imperfect world. They made me realize that all families are crazy in their own particular ways.

My husband and I are growing a new family, while keeping close to the surviving members of the families. It’s a beautiful blend (混合) of kindness, traditions, nurturing (养育) and friendships, which grows year after year.

I hope this holiday season will fill you with lovely memories of the family that raised you, and surround you with all the people who mean “family” to you now.

1. What do we know about the author’s family according to the article?

A．She didn’t get on well with her cousins.

B．Her grandpa and uncles were politicians.

C．Her family delighted in their gatherings.

D．The female members liked to show off.

2. The author appreciated the gatherings mainly because _______.

A．there was a lot of inviting food

B．special gifts were selected thoughtfully

C．they brought the family closer together

D．she got to see relatives who seldom visited

3. What does the underlined word “linger” in paragraph 6 probably mean?

A．Disappear.	B．Remain.
C．Increase.	D．Fade.

4. What did the author learn from her family?

A．Good families should live together.

B．Imperfect families may help us adjust to the world.

C．Memories of perfect families deserve treasuring.

D．It’s necessary to create crazy family traditions.

【推荐3】Recently, the TV show “Where are we going, Dad?” produced by Hunan SatelliteTelevision is a big hit across nation. Many famous stars brought their children to a strange village alone, and they had to spend 72 hours with their children there. The program fully showed us a modern version of the “how to be a good father”. As the young parents today are too busy to take care of their children, this new form of “Lost on the way” played by nanny Daddy and cute kids triggered（触发）a lot of people’s emotional resonance（共鸣）. Both the kids and their parents will find that their hearts are being drawn closer. But this kind of feeling has just proved that there is a big spiritual barrier between the modern parents and children.
The TV shows like “Children are hard to support!”, “Where are we going, Dad?”, “hot mom” and “cute kids” are becoming more and more popular. All of these show the new parents’ confusion in children’s education and the appeal for the balance between career and family.
In the real life, on the one hand the young parents feel helpless because they are too busy to accompany their children under the pressures of work and life; on the other hand they continue to do so. The data collected by HNTV shows that nearly two-thirds of their audience are female, among whom 36% are aged from 25 to 34.We can imagine such a scene that one evening a young mother is watching the show with her young children, while her husband is still at work or trapped in socializing, or maybe is just playing computer games in the bedroom. The story of a child without the company of father is still going on. In fact, it is sometimes the same to mothers. In a modern family, it is often the old who take the responsibility of raising a child. Theparticipation of mother in the children’s education is also very low.
It is just this kind of confusion where the parents have gone in the modern family education, and where the parents will guide their children to go that “Where are we going, Dad?” shows us. If a child wants to grow up healthily and safely into a modern citizen with independent personality and free spirit, it is very important for him or her to follow the parents who serve as their first teacher. Maybe this is the real reason why such kind of TV programs could get hot. The truth is that children will go where their parents go; and society will go where the children go.
1. To raise a child in modern society, parents should ________.

A．break down the barrier between children and teachers

B．play computer games with their children

C．balance well between family and career

D．keep their children at home to avoid socializing

2. Which of the following can be inferred in the passage?

A．36% of the audience of the program are female aged from 25-34.

B．Parents shouldn’t entirely leave the education of children to the old.

C．In a modern family it is often mothers who are responsible for raising a child.

D．The program shows us the confusion where the parents and children will go to play.

3. What does the underlined word “participation” probably mean?

A．taking responsibility	B．understanding
C．taking part	D．keeping company

4. What attitude towards modern family education does the author express in the second paragraph?

A．Optimistic.

B．Indifferent.

C．Proud.

D．Worried.

5. Which one is the best title of the passage?

A．New problems in Modern Children’s Education

B．Modern Education is Important

C．Confusion Behind “Where are we going, dad?”

D．Nanny Daddy and Cute Kids

【推荐1】Each Indian tribe had a different language. Many Indians never learned any language except their own. Do you know how Indians from different tribes talked to each other? They had two ways to talk without sound．    1    

Sign language is a way of talking by using signs．Indians used sign language when they met strangers. In this way, they could find out whether the stranger was a friend or an enemy．In the Indian sign language, signs were made with the hands．Indians usually used signals when they wanted to send messages to someone far away. To make signals, an Indian might use a pony．    2    or he might use smoke, a mirror or fire arrows．

To signal that he had seen many animals, an Indian rode his pony in a large circle．Sometimes the Indian gave a signal like this and then went away to hide．    3    

The blanket signal was visible from far away．An Indian held the corners of a blanket in his hands．Then he began to swing the blanket from side to side in front of him．    4    He could also send many signals with a mirror．He usually used the mirror to warn someone of danger．Or he attempted to get the attention of a person far away．But he also used it to send messages in code．    5    At night, Indians used fire arrows for signaling．

Now you can see that Indians didn’t need to learn each other’s language.They could talk to one another by using signals or sign language．

A．This meant that there was danger．

B．He might use a blanket．

C．Different things mean different to them．

D．One way was by sign language; the other way by signals．

E．An Indian could send many different signals with his blanket．

F．But they still can make themselves understood．

G．Of course, mirrors could be used only when the sun was shining．

【推荐2】The Queen’s English is now sounding less upper-class, a scientific study of the Queen’s Christmas broadcasts has found. Researchers have studied each of her messages to the Commonwealth countries since 1952 to find out the change in her pronunciation from the noble Upper Received to the Standard Received.
Jonathan Harrington, a professor at Germany’s University of Munich, wanted to discover whether accent changes recorded over the past half century would take place within one person. “As far as I know, there just is nobody else for whom there is this sort of broadcast records,” he said.
He said the noble way of pronouncing vowels (元音) had gradually lost ground as the noble upper-class accent over the past years. “Her accent sounds slightly less noble than it did 50 years ago. But these are very, very small and slow changes that we don’t notice from year to year.”
“We may be able to relate it to changes in the social classes,” he told The Daily Telegraph, a British newspaper. “In 1952 she would have been heard saying ‘thet men in the bleck het’. Now it would be ‘that man in the black hat’. Similarly, she would have spoken of ‘the citay’ and ‘dutay’, rather than ‘citee’ and ‘dutee’, and ‘hame’ rather than ‘home’. In the 1950s she would have been ‘lorst’, but by the 1970s ‘lost’.”
The Queen’s broadcast is a personal message to the Commonwealth countries. Each Christmas, the 10-minute broadcast is put on TV at 3 p.m. in Britain as many families are recovering from their traditional turkey lunch.
The results were published in the Journal of Phonetics.
1. What is the text mainly about?

A．The relationship between accents and social classes.

B．The Queen’s Christmas speeches on TV.

C．The changes in a person’s accent.

D．The recent development of the English language.

2. The Queen’s broadcasts were chosen for the study mainly because ___.

A．she has been Queen for many years

B．she has a less upper-class accent now

C．her speeches are familiar to many people

D．her speeches have been recorded for 50 years

3. We may infer from the text that the Journal of Phonetics is a magazine on ___.

A．speech sounds	B．Christmas customs
C．TV broadcasting	D．personal messages

4. Which of the following is an example of a less noble accent in English?

A．“dutay”

B．“citee”

C．“hame”

D．“lorst”

【推荐3】American and British people both speak English of course.    1    In fact, there are some important differences between them.

First of all, they sound very different.    2    They may say ”I dunno“ instead of ”I don’t know.“ However, the British are more careful in their speech. They usually say all the words and keep them separate.

Sound is not only the difference between British English and American English. Words sometimes have different meanings too. Some American words are never used in England.    3    For example, the vocabulary for cars and driving is very different. Americans drive trucks, but in England people drive lorries.

    4    In England, if you are going to telephone your friends, you ”phone them up“. In America, you”give them a call’. When you are saying goodbye in England, you might say “Cheerio!” In America you might say “See you later.”

There are also some differences in grammar. For example, Americans usually use the helping verb “do” when they ask a question. They say “Do you have a storybook?”    5    They say “Have you a storybook?” Of course, all these differences can be confusing，if you are learning English. But most languages are like this. When people live in separa places ,the languages change in different ways. This is what has happened to English.

A．British English is easier to understand

B．Americans often say several words together

C．Americans are more likely to use abbreviations

D．But the British often leave out the helping verb

E．But sometimes it does not seem like the same language

F．Many expressions are also different in the two countries

G．The same thing is true of some British words in America