【推荐1】You should try your best to create your own family library so that you and your family are always learning. “It is a great mistake to think that education is finished when young people leave school. Education is never finished even if you grow older,” said Mrs Child in The Mother’s Book. “Collecting a library of books in your home is really helpful to your family.”

“What is really interesting about having so many books in your home is that a book you buy has a chapter about the deeper knowledge of your favorite subject at school,” said a university graduate. Researchers in a study try to find out what parents do has an influence on how well their children do on tests. One positive aspect they find is the availability of a large number of books at home. This has a stronger connection, especially when you read to your children every day. The more books your older kids have access to at home, the more likely they are just to be reading for fun, rather than having to wait for weekly trips to the library.

John Henry, one educated parent, said, “I have been homeschooling my children using the philosophy (哲理) of A Thomas Jefferson Education. This philosophy of learning is based on the reading of classic books.” Clinton Fadiman said, “When you reread a classic, you do not see more in the book than you did before; you see more in you than before.” Classic books also make you smarter and wiser! The wisdom comes in the examples in the lives of the characters.

“It is within your power to guide your children in their reading and to develop a strong wish in their hearts for good books. It is the most unfortunate if a person doesn’t have a wish for good reading. The reading habit, like charity, should begin at home,” said Mrs Child.

1. What does the author mainly want to show in paragraph 2?

A．It’s necessary to create a family library.	B．Parents should set a good example at home.
C．Kids don’t need to go to the library any longer.	D．It’s important to let kids pass tests.

2. How does the author explain the effect of reading classic books at home in paragraph 3?

A．By imagination.	B．By questioning.
C．By referring to others’ words.	D．By presenting research figures.

3. What can we learn from what Mrs Child said in paragraph 1?

A．East or west, home is the best.	B．One is never too old to learn.
C．He who makes no mistakes makes nothing.	D．Well begun, half done.

4. What can be the best title for the text?

A．Where to Store Your Favorite Books at Home?

B．When to Read the classic Books to Your Children?

C．Which Is Better, a Home Library or a Public Library?

D．Why Not Have Your Own Library of Books at Home?

【推荐2】Reading is to success what water is to fish. It is clear that every successful person develops a passion for reading. This is because reading is a key element to acquire the information required to understand something. For example, lawyers have to study and learn every established law on their specific branches. Sometimes the law changes according to people’s needs. A good lawyer has to be informed about the latest news in the court. A doctor has to be informed of the latest advances in medicine.

Reading is very important for all the people. Everything is relative in this world, especially reading. Reading can open many doors and it can lead you into a path of success. Studies have proved that reading to your unborn child is very good. This way your child will develop a love for reading.

How do you develop a love for reading? There is only one way you can boost your love for reading. Let me explain this to you. If you want to learn how to ride a bike, you have to get on the bike as many times as possible until you have learned. It works the same way with reading. If you want to boost your reading, take a book and read it all the way through. When you finish reading your first book, take another book and do the same. Try to read as much as you can. If you are going out, grab a magazine, a book, an article or something to read.

There is a very important factor behind the reading — reading comprehension. It’s what makes you understand the meaning behind the text. Let’s assume that you read a essay and you are supposed to explain the meaning of the essay. How would you explain the essay if you couldn’t catch the message of the author?

1. What does the first two paragraphs mainly talk about?

A．What reading comprehension is.

B．How to develop a love for reading.

C．The key to success.

D．The importance of reading

2. What can we define reading comprehension as?

A．It is a very important factor behind reading.

B．It is something that makes people understand what they read.

C．It is a strong love for reading.

D．It is the latest information in reading.

3. How does the author mainly develop the passage?

A．By comparing the opinions of different people.

B．By presenting a cause and analyzing its effects.

C．By presenting opinions and giving examples.

D．By following the natural time order.

4. What will probably be discussed about in the following paragraph?

A．Ways to improve reading comprehension.

B．The importance of reading at school.

C．Famous people who love reading.

D．Popular reading websites.

【推荐3】As long as people have been telling stories, crones(丑陋的老太婆) have been scaring the wits out of children. “Nags(怨妇), witches, evil stepmothers, cannibals(食人妇). It’s quite dreadful,” says Maria Tatar, who teaches a course on folklore and mythology at Harvard. "But old women are also powerful—they're often the ones who can work magic.” In the Disney film Snow White, there’s a scene in which the beautiful, charming, wicked queen turns into an old hag and poisons Snow White so she'll sleep forever. The old lady in Hansel and Gretel wants to roast children in her oven and the witch in The Little Mermaid cuts out Ariel’s tongue.

Tatar says old women villains(恶人) are especially scary because, historically, the most powerful person in a child’s life was the mother. “Children do have a way of splitting the mother figure into...the evil mother—who’s always making rules and regulations, policing your behavior, getting angry at you—and then the kind mother—the one who is giving and protects you, makes sure that you survive.”

Veronique Tadjo, a writer who grew up in the Ivory Coast, thinks there’s a fear of female power in general. She says a common figure in African folk tales is the old witch who destroys people’s souls. Still, they're not all bitter and evil hags. Elderly women in folk tales often use their knowledge and experience of the world to guide the troubled protagonist(主人公). Tadjo points to the Kenyan story Marwe In The Underworld about a girl who commits suicide by drowning herself and enters the Land of the Dead where she meets an old woman. “That old woman teaches her quite a lot of things,” Tadjo says. “And also, when Marwe starts longing for the world of the living, she helps her go back to the surface with a lot of riches. And we understand that Marwe has been rewarded for her goodness.” In other words: Do your chores and you’ll be rewarded. The point of these ancient tales, no matter what continent they come from, may have been to scare children into behaving.

Perhaps the scariest old woman character—the ugly Baba Yaga—comes from Russia. She’s bony with a hooked nose and long, iron teeth. Her hut(小屋) stands on chicken legs and she kidnaps children and eats them. Safe to say Baba Yaga has been making Eastern European children sleepless for centuries. In one interpretation, a mean stepmother sends the young girl Vasilisa to Baba Yaga's hut in the woods to get a candle. The girl is sure she’s being sent to her death. Baba Yaga forces her to cook and clean, and Vasilisa does everything she's told. In the end, the old crone gives her what she needs and sends her home. “You see this kind of double face of the hag,”Maria Tatar says. “On the one hand: aggressive, threatening. And on the other hand: sometimes to make sure that there is a happily ever after.”

There's that power again. In Japanese folklore, the Yama Uba(山姥) is an equally ambiguous old woman. She’s a mountain witch who, like Baba Yaga, lures people into her hut and eats them. But she'll also help a lost traveler. Noriko Reider is a professor at Miami University of Ohio who's done extensive research on Yama Uba stories. “She brings fortune and happiness,” Reider says. “She can also bring death and destruction for those who are not very good.”

According to Cuban-American writer Alma Flor Ada, in Hispanic(拉美地区的) culture old women are multi-talented. Ada is co-author of Tales Our Grandmas Told, which includes a story about Caliph’s son who becomes seriously ill. After “all of the best physicians in the land” fail to cure him, Caliph sends his messengers searching for help. Then one morning, an old woman arrives with this advice: To get well, the prince must wear the overcoat of a man who is truly happy. And of course it works.

1. What does the underlined phrase in Para 1 “scaring the wits out of children” mean？

A．making children frightened	B．making children stupid
C．making children interested	D．making children confused

2. Among all the characters mentioned, ________ is terribly treated by an old woman.

A．Caliph

B．Marwe

C．Ariel

D．Vasilisa

3. The images of ________ show double faces of a hag by doing both good and evil things.

A．Snow White and The Little Mermaid	B．Hansel and Gretel
C．Veronique Tadjo and Noriko Reider	D．Baba Yaga and Yama Uba

4. About the cultural images of an old woman, ________ has a different view from others.

A．Maria Tatar

B．Veronique Tadjo

C．Noriko Reider

D．Alma Flor Ada

5. All the following words can be used to describe Baba Yaga EXCEPT ________.

A．aggressive

B．sensitive

C．dreadful

D．merciful

6. According to the passage, why are old women often the face of evil in fairy tales and folklore?

A．Because they are always nags, witches, evil stepmothers and cannibals.

B．Because they are scary by recalling the general fear of female power.

C．Because they are intended to scare children into behaving well.

D．Because they are multi-talented with the ability to work magic.