1 . In middle school, math was my least favorite subject. I understood history. I loved English. However, math never made sense to me, no matter how many times I worked through a problem. I wanted to be good at math, but I didn’t think it possible.
I started taking classes offered by Art of Problem Solving (AoPS) during the summer after my eighth-grade year. I had to admit that in my first class I felt like I was completely unqualified (不合格的) to be in the class, surrounded by so many smart kids. There were times when I felt lost in a sea of materials that I could never hope to understand. But slowly and surely, a few weeks later, AoPS taught me how to love the process of learning math. I went from being a kid who hated math classes to begging my parents to let me take an extra math class on Friday nights.
The most common wrong idea I hear is that people who are skilled at math come by their skills naturally. Many of my high school friends laughed at me for being a math nerd (书呆子). People thought that math came easy to me, when, in fact, the exact opposite was true. Math was not easy for me to learn. It was something I worked hard at.
Math is often viewed as a subject you either “get” or you don’t. But most of math is not about natural talent. If people approach math thinking they can’t be good at it, then they have set themselves up to fail. Just like any other skills, success comes with practice. There are many great mathematicians in this world, but we should remember they all had to start at the beginning just like we do.
The skills we learn from problem-solving in math can be useful in our lives. So don’t give up math. Just remember that you can learn math well if you have a right attitude towards it and work hard enough.
1. What can we learn about the author when he was in eighth grade?| A．He considered math a challenging subject. |
| B．He missed math classes on purpose. |
| C．He failed to study hard in math. |
| D．He showed little interest in any school subject. |
| A．Math was not interesting at all. | B．He should turn to others for help. |
| C．He wasn’t qualified for math classes. | D．Math learning could actually be attractive. |
| A．He was really good at math. | B．He made few friends at school. |
| C．He brought music joy to his classmates. | D．He should find a new way to learn math. |
| A．Using it in real life. | B．Attending after-school classes. |
| C．Learning from great mathematicians. | D．Practicing with a positive attitude. |
2 . Facebook appears to be extending its controversial (有争议的) colored posts to comments. The company is testing a feature that would allow users to comment in a variety of different colors. Much like the colored-post feature, this is allowing users to choose from a variety of background colors to overlay (覆盖) their comments on.
Facebook confirmed the test, telling The Next Web, “We’re always exploring new ways for people to connect and have conversations, so we are testing new features on comments.”
Facebook users, however, don’t seem to be interested in the new color choices. Comments regarding the new feature on Twitter were negative overall.
Last December, Facebook first started introducing colored posts with a feature that allows users to choose colors for their text. While it appears to be an image, it’s actually still in text form and the text can be highlighted and copied.
“We’re making people’s text posts more visual,” a Facebook spokesman said.
Starting today, people can update the background color of their text-only posts on Android. The feature’s latest update lets users choose a background color.
“Whether you’re looking for vacation recommendations or informing a group of the address for a party, the text-based feature allows you to update your contacts in a fun and personal way,” the spokesperson said.
Giving users a more customized (定制的) way to share updates is likely part of Facebook’s strategy to get users back to posting more updates personal to themselves.
As videos and news articles have begun taking up more of people’s needs, people have become less comfortable posting their own, raw content among the professional videos, photos and writing.
1. What does Facebook want to do?| A．To make its posts meaningful. |
| B．To make comments colorful. |
| C．To allow its users to comment. |
| D．To forbid users’ comments about posts. |
| A．Strange. | B．Enthusiastic. | C．Supportive. | D．Critical. |
| A．It will have unexpected effects. |
| B．It costs the company a lot of money. |
| C．It will be fun and personal for the users. |
| D．It provides the only customized way to chat. |
| A．To make the comments easier to understand. |
| B．To let people make more friends through it. |
| C．To make it the most popular chatting website. |
| D．To attract its users to make more personal posts. |
3 . Rosie Dutton teaches a weekly class for 10- and 11-year-olds. During a recent class, Dutton used apples to brilliantly explain the effects of bullying.
Rosie Dutton started out by showing the class two perfect-looking apples. But unknown to the students, she had dropped one of the apples repeatedly on the floor. She picked up the dropped apple and began insulting (侮辱；损害) it.
“I started to tell the children how I disliked this apple, that I thought it was ugly and it was a horrible color,” Dutton wrote. “I told them that because I didn't like it, I didn't want them to like it either.”
They passed that apple around in a circle and the kids joined in on the insults. Then, Dutton took a completely different approach with the other apple.
“We then passed another apple around and started to say kind words to it,” the 31-year-old wrote.
She eventually cut both of them open to reveal that the apple that had been insulted was bruised (青肿的) inside. The apple that received praise wasn't.
“When people are bullied, especially children, they feel horrible inside and sometimes don't show or tell others how they are feeling,” Dutton wrote in her post. “If we hadn't cut that apple open, we would never have known how much pain we had caused it.”
“Unlike an apple, we have the ability to stop this from happening. We can teach children that it's not OK to say unkind things to each other,” the 31-year-old explained in her post. She later added, “More and more hurt and damage happens inside if nobody does anything to stop the bullying. Let's create a generation of kind, caring children.”
1. What didn't the students know in advance?| A．She had dropped one apple repeatedly on the floor. |
| B．She had dropped two apples repeatedly on the floor. |
| C．The two apples were perfect-looking in appearance. |
| D．She had picked the two apples from the same tree. |
| A．By reading famous sayings. | B．By listing the numbers. |
| C．By making comparisons. | D．By quoting some examples. |
| A．brave | B．considerate |
| C．active | D．honest |
| A．One woman found an incredible way to teach a history lesson. |
| B．People have the ability to stop bullying from happening again. |
| C．A teacher encourages students to put what they learned to use. |
| D．A teacher uses a bruised apple to show bad effects of bullying. |
