【推荐1】Thomas Edison, inventor of such items as the phonograph (留声机) and the world's first practical light bulb, is known around the world. But another lesser-known figure is owed his share of credit — Edison's competitor, Nikola Tesla. It took the work of both men to make possible a world that runs on electric power; however, their names were not always shared.

Edison, a self-made American inventor, built his name as a successful businessman.Tesla, a well-educated Serbian immigrant, was a tireless thinker. In 1882, Tesla got a job in the Paris branch of Continental Edison Company. Soon, his obvious skill won him a position at the Edison Machine Works in the United States, where the goal was to bring electricity to all of New York City. But Edison and Tesla had different ideas about how to make that goal a reality.

Edison worked mainly with direct current (DC) power. Although DC would prove useful in the decades to come, it was only effective at the time for powering things that were about a mile or less from the power source. However, alternating current (AC) power-supported by Tesla allowed electricity to be carried over long distances through power lines.

Soon the battle between the two was on. Edison proposed that several small DC-based power plants could be constructed to power different parts of a city, but this was impractical. Desperate to succeed, Edison attempted to show that DC power “was safe”— he even electrocuted (电死) an elephant to show the “dangers” of AC. In the end, however, it was practical, inexpensive AC that won the battle. By 1896, even Edison's own company had adopted AC.

Tesla succeeded, but Edison, whose self-branded companies won him over a thousand patents, is the more well-known of the two. Regardless, each inventor had a big hand in shaping the way we live.

1. What does the underlined word “credit” in Paragraph 1 mean?

A．Cast.

B．Trust.

C．Recognition.

D．Debt.

2. What do we know about Nikola Tesla?

A．He finished college in Paris.	B．He worked as Edison's employee at first.
C．He invented many things with Edison.	D．He was admired by Edison for his invention.

3. What's a big difference between AC and DC power?

A．DC power moves more quickly.	B．AC power ranges over larger areas.
C．AC power is much safer and cheaper.	D．DC power can be widely used in more fields.

4. What's the best title for the text?

A．Edison vs Tesla: the war of the currents

B．Edison: the inventor of the first light bulb

C．DC vs AC: the theory behind the two concepts

D．Nikola Tesla: a name that should be remembered

【推荐2】A woman renewing her driver’s license at the County Clerk’s office was asked to state her occupation. She hesitated, uncertain how to classify herself. “What I mean is,” explained the recorder, “do you have a job, or are you just a……” “Of course I have a job,” said Emily. “I’m a mother.” “We don’t list in mother as an occupation……” said the recorder.

One day I found myself in the same situation. The clerk was obviously a career woman, confident and possessed of a high sounding title. “What is your occupation?” she asked. The words simply came out. “I’m a research associate in the field of Child Development and Human Relations.” The clerk paused, ballpoint pen frozen in mid-air. “Might I ask,” said the clerk with new interest, “just what you do in this field?”

Coolly, without any trace of panic in my voice, I heard myself reply, “I have a continuing program of research, in the lab and in the field. Of course, the job is one of the most demanding in the humanities, and I often work 14 hours a day. But the job is more challenging than most careers and rewards are more of a satisfaction rather than just money.” There was an increasing note of respect in the clerk’s voice as she completed the form, stood up, and showed me out.

As I drove into our driveway, feeling happier by my attractive and exciting new career, I was greeted by my lab assistants—aged 13, 7 and 3. Upstairs I could hear our new experimental model (a 6-month-old baby), in the child-development program, testing out a new vocal pattern.

I felt proud! I had gone on the official records as someone more distinguished and essential to mankind than “just another mother”. Motherhood……What a glorious career! Especially when there’s a title on the door.

1. What can we infer from the conversation in Paragraph 1?

A．The woman felt ashamed to admit what her job was.

B．Motherhood was not recognized and respected as a job by society.

C．The recorder was impatient and rude.

D．The author was upset about the situation that mothers faced.

2. How did the female clerk feel at first when the author told her occupation?

A．Upset.

B．Respectful.

C．Puzzled.

D．Frightened.

3. Why did the woman clerk show more respect for the author?

A．Because the author cared little about rewards.

B．Because the author did something she had little knowledge of.

C．Because she admired the author’s research work in the lab.

D．Because she thought the author did admirable work.

4. What can we learn from the passage?

A．Motherhood is a worthy career and deserves respect.

B．How you describe your job affects your feelings toward it.

C．Don’t judge a book by its cover.

D．Being a mother is hard and boring work.

【推荐3】Robert Frost was one of America’s best known and most honored serious writers. But his fame came late in his life.
He was born in San Francisco, California in 1874. He lived in California during his early childhood. He was named after the chief Southern general in America’s Civil War. The general’s name was Robert Edward Lee. The poet was named Robert Lee Frost, because his father wanted to honor the general.
Someone once asked another American writer, Ernest Hemingway, how to become a writer. The best thing, he said, was to have an unhappy childhood. If this is true, Robert Frost’s childhood was unhappy enough to make him a very good writer. Robert Frost’s father was a reporter who wanted to be a politician. He often drank too much wine and became angry. Robert was the victim (受害者) of his anger.
Robert Frost finished high school in 1891. After high school, Robert’s grandfather offered to pay his costs at Dartmouth College. But Robert left the school after a few months. He did not like it. He spent the next few years working at different jobs. At one time, he worked in a factory. Later, he repaired shoes. He was a teacher. He was a reporter. Always, he wrote poetry.
Robert Frost attended Harvard University for two years. After that, he returned to the many jobs he held before. For a while, Frost tried to take care of a farm in the state of New Hampshire. He was not a successful farmer. And he continued to write poetry. He said that until 1930, he earned only about ten dollars a year from writing.
In 1912, he decided to try to make a new start. He took his family to Britain. The cost of living was low. In Britain, Frost found a publisher for his first book of poems. The book was called A Boy’s Will. When it appeared in 1913. Frost received high praise from British readers. Praise was something he had not received in his own country.
Ezra Pound, another American poet living in Britain, read the poems and liked them very much. He wrote a magazine article about Frost. He also helped get Frost’s second book of poems published in America. That book was called North of Boston.
1. The followings are writers EXCEPT ________.

A．Robert Edward Lee	B．Robert Lee Frost
C．Ernest Hemingway	D．Ezra Pound

2. The passage wrote about Hemingway in order to show that______.

A．he had great influence on Frost’s poetry and life

B．Frost’ s poetry style was the same as Hemingway’s

C．Frost was unhappy because he was the victim of his father

D．Frost spent his childhood unhappily

3. What can we learn from the passage?

A．Once Frost’s first book was published he gained great praise in his country.

B．After leaving Harvard University, he began to learn to write poetry.

C．Frost was found lo have a gift in poetry while he studied in high school.

D．Robert Frost’s father was angry and drank a lot because he didn’t realize his dream.

4. What’s the passage mainly about?

A．Robert Frost’s unhappy childhood.	B．Robert Frost’s first and second book.
C．Robert Frost’s family and jobs.	D．Robert Frost’s life and poetry.

【推荐1】The things that you do, words that you say, and feelings that you express, contribute to your children’s level of confidence.     1    , then read on.

Love and acceptance

We know that you love your children. But do they know that you love them, accept them just as they are, and respect them? Give your children plenty of love even if you are not able to do it all the time.     2    . Unconditional love will help them grow into a confident human being.

    3    

Nobody is perfect. But to raise a confident child, you should not stress too much on the shortcomings. Positive parenting focuses on developing what is good in a child, and making him or her feel empowered. If your children feel defeated by disappointments in life, help them look at the bright side by talking about their success.

Let them make decisions

    4    . It also empowers children as it gives them the ability to choose something. But they don’t have the ability of an adult and may not know how to reach a decision all by themselves.

Praise when they deserve it

It is easy to blame a child when he or she does something wrong. And we never forget to do that. But when the child does something right, we don’t always praise him or her. We are not talking about praising the child for every little thing he or she does well.     5    .

A．Make full use of the advantage

B．Focus on strengths, deal with weaknesses

C．Your children need to know that they are loved and accepted

D．Decision making is an important life skill that children need to learn to be confident

E．If you want to do and say the right things to help build confidence in your children

F．But if the child has put in the effort and achieved something, appreciate it

G．When you are not aware of the importance of making yourself confident

【推荐3】Recently I attended several meetings where we talked about ways to retain students and keep younger faculty members from going elsewhere.

It seems higher education has become an industry of meeting-holders whose task is to “solve” problems-real or imagined. And in my position as a professor at three different colleges, the actual problems in educating our young people and older students have deepened, while the number of people hired-not to teach but to hold meetings-has increased significantly. Every new problem creates a new job for an administrative fixer. Take our Center for Teaching Excellence. Contrary to its title, the center is a clearing house (信息交流中心) for using technology in classrooms and in online courses. It’s an administrative sham (of the kind that has multiplied over the last 30 years.

I offer a simple proposition in response: Many of our problems-class attendance, educational success, student happiness and well-being-might be improved by cutting down the bureaucratic mechanisms and meetings and instead hiring an army of good teachers. If we replaced half of our administrative staff with classroom teachers, we might actually get a majority of our classes back to 20 or fewer students per teacher. This would be an environment in which teachers and students actually knew each other.

The teachers must be free to teach in their own way-the curriculum should be flexible enough so that they can use their individual talents to achieve the goals of the course. Additionally, they should be allowed to teach, and be rewarded fordoing it well. Teachers are not people who are great at and consumed by research and happen to appear in a classroom. Good teaching and research are not exclusive, but they are also not automatic companions. Teaching is an art and a craft, talent and practice; it is not something that just anyone can be good at. It is utterly confusing to me that people do not recognize this, despite the fact that pretty much anyone who has been a student can tell the difference between their best and worst teachers.

1. What does the author say about present-day universities?

A．They are effectively tackling real or imagined problems.

B．They often fail to combine teaching with research.

C．They are over-burdened with administrative staff.

D．They lack talent to fix their deepening problems.

2. According to the author, what kind of people do universities lack most?

A．Good classroom teachers.	B．Efficient administrators.
C．Talented researchers.	D．Motivated students.

3. What does the author imply about the classes at present?

A．They facilitate students’ independent learning.	B．They help students form closer relationships.
C．They have more older students than before.	D．They are much bigger than is desirable.

4. What does the author think of teaching ability?

A．It requires talent and practice.

B．It is closely related to research.

C．It is a chief factor affecting students’ learning.

D．It can be acquired through persistent practice.