【推荐2】A Wild Child’s Guide to Endangered Animals

From New York Times bestselling author Millie Marotta comes this gorgeous celebration of the animal kingdom. Highlighting 43 endangered species, the book takes readers on a trip around the world while learning about rare and well-known animals and their habitats.

Marcovaldo

Marcovaldo is a collection of 20 short stories written by Italo Calvino. Describing the life of a poor rural man living in northern Italy, the stories unfold according to the seasonal cycle of a year. Common themes in the stories include pollution, failure and poverty.

The Art of Mondo

Over the years, Mondo has received global recognition for its incredible art posters that bring to life classic films, television shows, and comics such as Jurassic Park. For the first time, The Art of Mondo brings together this highly sought-after art in one volume that showcases the incredible creativity of the studio’s artists whose vastly different styles are united by one guiding principle: limitless passion for their subject matters.

The Coming of the Third Reich

There is no story in 20th-century history more important to understand than Hitler’s rise to power and the collapse (坍塌) of civilization in Nazi Germany. The Coming of the Third Reich, by Richard Evans, offers a masterful combination of academic work, important new research and interpretations.

Patriarchy and Capitalism

Chizuko Ueno, a leading Japanese sociologist, feminist critic and public intellectual, has been a pioneer in women’s studies and the author of many books, including Patriarchy and Capitalism.

1. Which book will you choose if you are interested in art?

A．Marcovaldo.	B．The Art of Mondo.
C．Richard Evans.	D．Patriarchy and Capitalism.

2. Who cares about women’s rights and interests?

A．Millie Marotta.	B．ltalo Calvino.
C．Richard Evans.	D．Chizuko Ueno.

3. What is the main purpose of the text?

A．To introduce art forms.	B．To remember five writers.
C．To recommend quality books.	D．To compare different cultures.

【推荐3】Do you know reading to your children has a whole range of benefits that will give them a flying start in life?

Firstly, it’s a great introduction to vocabulary. Seeing an adult sounding out the words and linking them to the shapes on the page begins to build up vocabulary that they will use for the rest of their life.

Then there are a variety of good effects of hearing stories which improve their minds and develop social awareness and skills. At a time when they are perhaps stuck indoors more than ever before, reading is the best way to motivate children’s imagination. They can travel to the moon, meet the Gruffalo and pop into a chocolate factory all before they’ve even had lunch!

There’s no better way to walk a mile in someone else’s shoes than reading their stories and seeing things from another’s point of view is a great way to build empathy (共鸣), tolerance and other qualities needed. There are some fantastic children’s books which show characters acting as strong role models. These stories can encourage future leaders and thinkers, so every child can feel they can achieve their dreams, from the Little Leaders series to Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls.

Now is the perfect time to build up a library of excellent reads ready for children to enjoy now and in the future.

1. Who is the text mainly written for?

A．Writers.

B．Kids.

C．Researchers.

D．Parents.

2. What does the underlined phrase “pop into” in paragraph 3 probably mean?

A．Sell.

B．Improve.

C．Visit.

D．Build.

3. How does Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls do good to children?

A．By going to bed easily at bedtime.	B．By building good qualities.
C．By shaping a strong body.	D．By bringing back sweet memories.

4. What does the text mainly convey?

A．Benefits of reading to children.	B．The choice of reading materials.
C．Ways of reading children’s books.	D．The development of reading habits.

【推荐1】Media both in America and the world seem to have ＂discovered＂ that so-called＂ reality＂ show are very profitable, resulting in a growing tendency of such shows in event years. Although not all are successful, many do achieve important popularity and cultural significance. That does not meant, however, that they are good for society or that they should be shown.

The primary basis for many of these shows (but not all) seems to put people in painful and embarrassing situations for the rest of us to watch-and, probably, laugh at and be entertained by. What we are looking at here is an extension of Schadenfrecude, a German word used to describe people’s delight and entertainment at the failings and problems of others. So what causes us to obtain entertainment from the suffering of others? Perhaps we are simply happy that these things aren’t happening to us, and it seems more reasonable when we see something accidental rather than something deliberately staged for our amusement.

Speaking of ＂indeliberately staged plots＂, one of the attractions of reality television is the supposed ＂reality＂ of it-unplanned situations and reactions. However, one of the moral problems of reality television is the fact that it isn’t as ＂real＂ as it pretends to be. Entertainment, of course, often comes from conflict, so conflict will be created where none exists. If the show cannot arouse conflict during the filming, it can be created by pieces of footage（电影胶片）put together. It is all in what the producer choose to show, or not show to you, as the fact often may be.

Any morality holder should refuse to neither underwrite(署名) nor watch any programming, no matter how popular it is. It is morally wrong to do such things for fun (especially on a regular basis) and to do it for money or to pay to have it done.

1. Which of the following is NOT an example of ＂Schadenfreude＂?

A．You laugh at someone slipping on the ice.

B．You take pleasure in the failure of a company you dislike.

C．You are entertained by comedies shown in the cinema.

D．You feel pleased at your opponent’s hurting himself/herself in the competition.

2. According to Paragraph 3, why does the ＂reality show＂ fail to achieve the ＂reality＂ it should have?

A．The pieces of footage put together aren’t underwritten by morality holders.

B．Some of the editing and conflicts are created artificially and deliberately.

C．The unplanned situations and reactions aren’t profitable and eye-catching.

D．The painful and embarrassing situations are untenable for audiences to see.

3. According to the text, what is the author’s attitude towards ＂reality show＂?

A．Doubtful.	B．Supportive.
C．Critical.	D．Objective.

4. Which of the following shows the structure of the passage?

A．	B．
C．	D．

【推荐2】Many kids, if not most, have their own cellphones. According to a survey, 12 is the magic number. It is the most common age for kids to get their first cellphone.

People who are for kids’ using cellphones, including many parents, notice that cellphones help kids keep in touch with their friends and families. They believe that cellphones are an important tool in a dangerous situation. Kids can reach their parents at all times. And some people say having a cellphone helps teach kids to be responsible. Some cellphones designed for kids can be set to only work when parents approve. What’s the harm in that?

But other people are worried about the health and safety effects of kids using cellphones. They believe that kids with cellphones will spend less time playing outside with friends, and that chatting on the phone while doing homework makes it difficult for kids to concentrate. They say that kids are spending too much time chatting on the phone instead of talking face to face. “Our brains developed to communicate face to face.” says Gary Small, a teacher in California. “A lot of this is lost with chatting on the phone.”

Another worry is cyber bullying (网络欺凌). It is on the rise as more kids use Wechat to communicate. And some experts are also worried about possible health risks. They worry that energy waves produced by cellphones could be harmful to young people. To be safe, parents should not let kids use their phones too long.

1. When do the most common children get their first cellphone?

A．Twenty years old.	B．Twelve years old.
C．Thirteen years old.	D．Thirty years old.

2. What does Paragraph 2 mainly talk about?

A．How kids can reach their parents.

B．How to make kids become responsible.

C．The popularity of cellphones among kids.

D．Supporters’ opinions on kids’ using cellphones.

3. According to Paragraph 3, cellphones can be bad for kids because kids ______.

A．reduce personal communication	B．become more energetic at school
C．spend too much time playing outside	D．don’t want to do their homework at home

4. What’s Gary Small’s attitude to kids’ chatting on the phone?

A．He is uncertain about it.	B．He knows little about it.
C．He is against it.	D．He is fond of it.

【推荐3】Not setting homework can be impossible in certain situations. There are many arguments in favour of homework, and most teachers would agree with many, if not all, of the following: homework is a perfect opportunity to go over calmly what was done with the teacher, and rethink and develop that initial input; homework offers a moment for students to work as individuals and develop learner self-governance outside the classroom; students and parents expect homework to be set and to be corrected. Nevertheless, the drawbacks that homework may have are often overlooked.

There are two key issues which need to be raised when dealing with the concept of homework. Firstly, there is the question of home. Often homework is not done at home at all, but at a friend’s house, on the street, on the bus, on the way to class or sitting on the step outside school before it opens. What’s more, all too often, for it to be done effectively at home. Homework requires the participation and involvement of other adults. Parents play a crucial role in a child’s education, but they can’t always be available, for a number of very valid reasons, and a tutor’s ability to aid, guide, encourage and simply organize a child’s study may be limited in many ways. The implication is upsetting: if homework is crucial to success in class, some children have an automatic disability.

Considering the second part of the compound noun opens up further questions. If the idea of home can be problematic, so too can the concept of work. Again, this will depend enormously on the context but, very often there is a lot of work put in. Demands on their time and attention span and all sorts of other impositions mean homework is usually something to get out of the way, to be ticked off as done, with the exercises completed as fast as possible. It is not always seen as useful time spent developing and strengthening what is done in class but, rather, as something quickly finished to keep the teacher at bay. It might be correct or not, copied from a friend or cut and pasted from the Internet, but the important thing is that a teacher sees the exercise completed and, as a result, the task achieved. How much effort went into that result is not always appreciated or easy to evaluate and, even when work clearly falls below standard, and the mere fact of its having been done is often good enough. The teacher and students are happy because everyone has officially fulfilled their commitment.

The ideal that students go home, think back to what they did with their teacher, use the great resources their books and the Internet provide to revise, reflect and put everything they have seen in class in place, into action, into practice, does not often happen with some students.

1. Which of the following is not among the advantages of homework according to Paragraph 1?

A．Solidifying the knowledge and skills learnt in class.

B．Developing the ability of the independent learning.

C．Building a closer teacher-student relationship.

D．Meeting the requirements of students and parents.

2. In Paragraph 3, the underlined phrase “keep the teacher at bay” means the way homework is done_______.

A．imposes enormous meaningless evaluating work on teachers

B．blocks teachers from knowing more about their students

C．displays the great efforts students make to satisfy their teachers

D．shows achievements teachers expect to accomplish in their work

3. What can be inferred from the passage?

A．Homework is hardly functioning as is naturally expected.

B．Parents need to stand away from their children’s homework.

C．Students prefer doing homework elsewhere instead of at home.

D．The quality of homework is usually teachers’ first concern.

4. Which of the following might be the best title of the passage?

A．Are you ready for homework?	B．Is there a way out for homework?
C．Home and work: it’s hard to combine.	D．Homework or no homework: it is your choice.

【推荐2】Six-year-old Alice is building a magical kingdom brick by brick, imagining fairy-tale castles and fire-breathing dragons. This fantasy is helping her take first steps towards creativity. Minutes later, when she is playing board games with her brother, she’s learning to follow rules and take turns with a partner. Although she isn’t aware of it, this will play an important role in her adult life.

“Play in all its rich variety is one of the highest achievements of the human species,” says Dr. David Whitebread from the University of Cambridge. He’s also mindful of the worldwide decline of play. “The opportunities for free play, which I experienced almost every day of my childhood, are becoming increasingly scarce now.” He says. Outdoor play is restricted by parents’ perceptions of risk to do with traffic, as well as their increased wish to protect their children from being the victims of crime, and by their emphasis on “earlier is better” which is leading to greater competition in academic learning and schools.

Many researchers highlight play’s role in children’s development. Dr. Gibson said, “Playful behavior is an important indicator of healthy social development. In my previous research, I investigated how observing children at play can give us important clues about their well-being.” In Baker’s study, she found that preschoolers with greater self-control solved problems more quickly. Giving children the chance to play will make them more successful problem-solvers in the long run.

Whitebread’s recent research has involved developing a play-based approach to supporting children’s writing. “Many primary school children find writing difficult, but we have shown that a playful stimulus (激励因素)was far more effective than an instructional one. Children can write longer and better-structured stories when they first play with dolls representing characters in the story.”

Somehow the importance of play has been lost in recent decades. It’s regarded as something insignificant, or even as something negative that contrasts with “work”. Let’s not lose sight of its benefits, and the fundamental contributions it makes to human achievements in the arts, sciences and technology. Let’s make sure children have a rich diet of play experiences.

1. What is the purpose of the first paragraph?

A．To illustrate the benefits of too much spare time.

B．To describe a kid’s peaceful and happy childhood.

C．To present the importance of a rich variety of play.

D．To introduce the distinctive functions of different toys.

2. According to paragraph 2, outdoor playing is declining probably because parents________.

A．show concern over traffic jam on the way to play

B．worry their kids will fall victim to being cheated

C．perceive play as the opposite side of hard work

D．attach importance to academic learning in advance

3. What has Dr. Whitebread’s recent research found out?

A．Children with greater self-control solve problems faster.

B．Children at play often show hints about their well-being.

C．Students write better when they integrate work with play.

D．Play promotes healthy social and emotional development.

4. How does the author feel about current people’s awareness of play?

A．Negative.

B．Concerned.

C．Inspired.

D．Satisfied.

【推荐3】I used to believe that only words could catch the essence (本质) of the human soul. The literary works contained such distinct stories that they shaped the way we saw the world. Words were what composed the questions we sought to uncover and the answers to those questions themselves. Words were everything.

That belief changed.

In an ordinary math class, my teacher posed a simple question: What’s 0. 99 rounded to the nearest whole number? Easy. When rounded to the nearest whole number. 0. 99=1. Somehow, I thought even though 0. 99 is only 0. 01 away from 1, there’s still a 0. 01 difference. That means even if two things are only a little different, they are still different, so doesn't that make them completely different?

My teacher answered my question by presenting another equation (等式): 1 = 0. 9, which could also be expressed as 1=0. 999999, repeating itself without ever ending.

There was something mysterious but fascinating about the equation. The left side was unchangeable, objective: it contained a number that ended. On the right was something endless, a number repeating itself limitless times. Yet, somehow, these two opposed things were connected by an equal sign.

Lying in bed, I thought about how much the equation paralleled (使平行) our existence. The left side of the equation represents that sometimes life itself is so unchangeable and so clear. The concrete, whole number of the day when you were born and the day when you would die. But then there is that gap in between life and death. The right side means a time and space full of limitless possibilities. and endless opportunities into the open future.   

So that's what life is. Objective but imaginative. Unchangeable but limitless. Life is an equation with two sides that balances itself out. Still. we can't ever truly seem to put the perfect words to it. So possibly numbers can express ideas as equally well as words can. For now, let’s leave it at that: 1=0. 999999. . . and live a life like it.

1. Which of the following can best describe “words” in paragraph 1?

A．Difficult.

B．Clear.

C．Powerful.

D．Interesting.

2. What may the number “1” refer to?

A．Valuable chances.	B．Definite facts.
C．Creativity imagination.	D．Social development.

3. What does the author think of “1=0. 9”?

A．They reveal the meaning of life.	B．They are reliable in expressing ideas.
C．They are useful in learning maths.	D．They give limited possibilities.

4. What is the text mainly about?

A．Why the equation exists everywhere

B．Which equation is important for people

C．How numbers can express ideas like words

D．When numbers can easily make up equations