1 . Spring lifts our spirits. It's a time for Nature to bring us back to life after a cold season. I live not far from the Kairaku Park, which is one of the largest gardens in Japan, and famous for its near 10,000 plum trees. I am fortunate to have them all outside my backyard, and take advantage of the walking paths daily.
I see the same trees and swans every day, but that day was different. At the edge of the small lake, I saw some new -born black swans. They were pretty and cute. They stayed with their mom.While taking a few photos of the sunset, I was interrupted by a high sound going on for some time. So, I turned around and saw one little swan was stuck by two stones. Its mother was trying to make it out but failed. I tried to get near but the mother was ever so angry! She wouldn't allow me to get close, so I turned to an old man sitting on the bench and said,“Excuse me, the swan baby can't move and I want to help it, but the mother is extremely angry! Could you please do me a favor?"
After hearing my words, the man smiled at me first and then agreed to help me. He drove the mother away with great efforts, and for several times, he was almost hurt by the mother. Thanks to him, I was able to get there and push the little swan out of the gap finally. Oh, I really hoped it wasn't injured, but at least it was alive and swimming!
In spring, I become more physically active. Things around don't make us, but Nature does, and it keeps us going. I am positive that all of us have a little piece of nature in our own neighborhoods. Somewhere we will be reminded why natural life is so important-- -because we grow with it! Personally, I am happy that baby birds can put a smile on my face! I struggle for having a small number of "things" in life, and being filled with simple reality--at one with Nature.
1. What can we know about the author from Paragraph 1?| A．Her favorite season is spring. | B．She enjoys doing outdoor sports. |
| C．Her backyard is filled with plum trees. | D．She is satisfied with her living environment. |
| A．She took a few photos of the sunset. |
| B．She made a little swan's mother angry. |
| C．She met some swans and helped one of them. |
| D．She met an old man and made friends with him. |
| A．Well-known. | B．Warm-hearted. | C．Selfish. | D．Outgoing. |
| A．Nature. | B．kindness. | C．The garden. | D．The things around. |
| A．is really a nature lover | B．is short of some life skill |
| C．asks people to help the weak | D．calls on more people to protect the environment |
2 . Interschool Sports Programme
Interschool Sports Programme is coming. It will start on 30th April and end on 15th June.
Students in our school will join the boys' basketball games. Each Wednesday the players will travel by bus to Sports Centre, Erinvale Street, Corinda. They will leave school at 12: 20 p.m. It will take them about 20 minutes to get there. The games will begin at 1:00 p.m. and end at 2:30 p.m. Players must wear their school clothes and sports shoes. It will be great if they can bring large water bottles.
If you are good at playing basketball and want to join the games, please go to Mr. David's office (Room503) before 15th April to fill in form. We will choose 15 players.
Volunteers are also needed. Anyone who wants to be a volunteer needs to send an email to Mr David (davidss@qq.edu.au) to introduce yourself before 20th April.
For more information, please call Mr David (6783-5682) or visit his office.
1. Interschool Sports Programme is about long.| A．half a month | B．one month | C．one and a half months | D．two months |
| A．12:20 p.m. | B．12:40 p.m. | C．1:00 p.m. | D．2:30 p.m. |
| A．practise every Tuesday | B．buy new sports clothes | C．call Mr David | D．fill in a form |
| A．know something about basketball | B．send an email to Mr David |
| C．bring a large water bottle | D．wear sports shoes |
| A．school notice | B．news report | C．teacher' email | D．students' entail |
3 . Old age may not sound exciting. But recent findings offer good news for older people and for people worried about getting older. Researchers found that people become happier and experience less worry after they reach the age of 50. In fact, they say by the age of 85, people are happier with their life than they were when they were 18 years old.
The findings came from a survey of more than 340,000 adults in the United States. The Gallup Organization questioned them by telephone in 2008. At that time, the people were between the ages of 18 and 85. The researchers asked questions about emotions like happiness, sadness and worry. They also asked about mental or emotional stress.
Arthur Stone in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Science at Stony Brook University in New York led the study. His team found that levels of stress were highest among adults between the ages of 24 and 25. The findings showed that stress levels dropped sharply（突然地） after people reached their fifties.
The study also showed that men and women have similar feeling patterns as they grow older.
However, women at all ages reported more sadness, stress and worry than men.
Researchers say they do not know why happiness increases as people get older. One theory is that, as people grow older, they grow more thankful for what they have and have better control of their feelings. They so spend less time thinking about bad experiences.
Professor Stone says the emotional patterns could be connected to changes in how people see the world, or maybe even changes in brain chemistry.
The researchers also considered possible influences like having young children, being unemployed or being single. But they found that influences like these did not affect the levels of happiness and well-being（幸福） related to age.
1. According to the survey of the Gallup Organization people are most likely to become happier.| A．when they are between the ages of 18 and 85 |
| B．when they come to their old age |
| C．when they are in their twenties |
| D．when they are 18 years old |
| A．20 | B．25 | C．35 | D．40 |
| A．have a positive attitude towards their life |
| B．know how to spend money wisely |
| C．dream about good things every day |
| D．control their behaviors better |
| A．Those who are worried about getting old |
| B．Those who are single and unemployed |
| C．Those who feel unhappy all the time |
| D．Those who suffer from mental stress |
| A．Women Are Easier to Be Happy in Life |
| B．The Young Are Happier Than the Old |
| C．Getting Older Means Getting Happier |
| D．The Younger, the Happier |
4 . I am a writer. I spend a great deal of my time thinking about the power of language—the way it can evoke(唤起) an emotion, a visual image, a complex idea, or a simple truth. Language is the tool of my trade. And I use them all—all the Englishes I grew up with.
Born into a Chinese family that had recently arrived in California, I’ve been giving more thought to the kind of English my mother speaks. Like others, I have described it to people as “broken” English. But feel embarrassed to say that. It has always bothered me that I can think of no way to describe it other than “broken”, as if it were damaged and needed to be fixed, as if it lacked a certain wholeness. I’ve heard other terms used, “limited English,” for example. But they seem just as bad, as if everything is limited, including people’s perceptions(认识) of the limited English speaker.
I know this for a fact, because when I was growing up, my mother’s “limited” English limited my perception of her. I was ashamed of her English. I believed that her English rejected the quality of what she had to say. That is because she expressed them imperfectly her thoughts were imperfect. And I had plenty of evidence to support me: the fact that people in department stores, at banks, and at restaurants did not take her seriously, did not give her good service, pretended not to understand her, or even acted as if they did not hear her.
I started writing fiction in 1985. And for reasons I won’t get into today, I began to write stories using all the Englishes I grew up with: the English she used with me, which for lack of a better term might be described as “broken”, and what I imagine to be her translation of her Chinese, her internal(内在的) language, and for that I sought to preserve the essence, but neither an English nor a Chinese structure: I wanted to catch what language ability tests can never show; her intention, her feelings, the rhythms of her speech and the nature of her thoughts.
1. By saying “Language is the tool of my trade”, the author means that ________.| A．she uses English in foreign trade |
| B．she is fascinated by languages |
| C．she works as a translator |
| D．she is a writer by profession |
| A．impolite | B．amusing |
| C．imperfect | D．practical |
| A．Americans do not understand broken English. |
| B．The author’s mother was not respected sometimes. |
| C．The author’s mother had positive influence on her |
| D．Broken English always reflects imperfect thoughts. |
| A．well structured | B．in the old style |
| C．easy to translate | D．rich in meaning |
| A．The changes of the author’s attitude to her mother’s English. |
| B．The limitation of the author’s perception of her mother. |
| C．The author’s misunderstanding of “limited” English. |
| D．The author’s experiences of using broken English. |
Many roads and places in Singapore（新加坡）are named in order that the pioneers will be remembered by future generations. Thus we have names such as Stamford Road and Raffles Place. This is in keeping with traditions in many countries ---- in both the West and the East.
Another way of naming places is naming them after other places. Perhaps they were named to promote friendships between the two places or it could be that the people who used to live there were originally from the places that the roads were named after. The mystery is clearer when we see some of the roads named in former British bases. If you step into Selector Airbase you will see Piccadilly Circus ---- obviously named by some homesick Royal Air Force personnel.
Some places were named after the activities that used to go on at those places. Bras Basah Road is an interesting example, “Base Basah” means “wet rice” in Malay（马来语）. Now why would anyone want to name a road “Wet Rice Road”? The reason is simple. During the pioneering days, wet rice was laid out to dry along this road.
A few roads in Singapore are named by their shapes. There is “Circular Road” for one. Other roads may have part of their names to describe their shapes, like “Paya Lebar Crescent”. This road is called a crescent（月牙） because it begins on the main road, makes a crescent and comes back to join the main road again.
1. We learn from Paragraph 1 that _____.| A．the government is usually the first to name a place |
| B．many places tend to have more than one name |
| C．a ceremony will be held when a place is named |
| D．people prefer the place names given by the government |
| A．Change suddenly. | B．Change significantly. |
| C．Disappear mysteriously. | D．Disappear very slowly. |
| A．Raffles Place. | B．Selector Airbase. |
| C．Piccadilly Circus. | D．Paya Lebar Crescent. |
| A．after a person | B．after a place | C．after an activity | D．by its shape |
| A．Some place names in Singapore are the same as in Britain. |
| B．Some places in Singapore are named for military purposes. |
| C．The way Singaporeans name their places is unique. |
| D．Young Singaporeans have forgotten the pioneers. |
Next time a customer comes to your office, offer him a cup of coffee. And when you’re doing your holiday shopping online, make sure you’re holding a large glass of iced tea. The physical sensation(感觉) of warmth encourages emotional warmth, while a cold drink in hand prevents you from making unwise decisions—those are the practical lesson being drawn from recent research by psychologist John A. Bargh.
Psychologists have known that one person’s perception(感知) of another’s “warmth” is a powerful determiner in social relationships. Judging someone to be either “warm” or “cold” is a primary consideration, even trumping evidence that a “cold” person may be more capable. Much of this is rooted in very early childhood experiences, Bargh argues, when babies’ conceptual sense of the world around them is shaped by physical sensations, particularly warmth and coldness. Classic studies by Harry Harlow, published in 1958, showed monkeys preferred to stay close to a cloth “mother” rather than one made of wire, even when the wire “mother” carried a food bottle. Harlow’s work and later studies have led psychologists to stress the need for warm physical contact from caregivers to help young children grow into healthy adults with normal social skills.
Feelings of “warmth” and “coldness” in social judgments appear to be universal. Although no worldwide study has been done, Bargh says that describing people as “warm” or “cold” is common to many cultures, and studies have found those perceptions influence judgment in dozens of countries.
To test the relationship between physical and psychological warmth, Bargh conducted an experiment which involved 41 college students. A research assistant who was unaware of the study’s hypotheses(假设), handed the students either a hot cup of coffee, or a cold drink, to hold while the researcher filled out a short information form: The drink was then handed back. After that, the students were asked to rate the personality of “Person A” based on a particular description. Those who had briefly held the warm drink regarded Person A as warmer than those who had held the iced drink.
“We are grounded in our physical experiences even when we think abstractly,” says Bargh.
1. According to Paragraph 1, a person’s emotion may be affected by ______.
| A．the visitors to his office | B．the psychology lessons he has |
| C．his physical feeling of coldness | D．the things he has bought online |
| A．adults should develop social skills | B．babies need warm physical contact |
| C．caregivers should be healthy adults | D．monkeys have social relationships |
| A．evaluate someone’s personality | B．write down their hypotheses |
| C．fill out a personal information form | D．hold coffee and cold drink alternatively |
| A．abstract thinking does not come from physical experiences |
| B．feelings of warmth and coldness are studied worldwide |
| C．physical temperature affects how we see others |
| D．capable persons are often cold to others |
| A．Drinking for Better Social Relationships. |
| B．Experiments of Personality Evaluation. |
| C．Developing Better Drinking Habits. |
| D．Physical Sensations and Emotions. |
