1 . I never knew much about my mother's father, John leon La Walla. He moved to the city of Melbourne, Australia, in the 1920s, married, and started to raise a family, but died in World War Two. All we had was one framed photo of him dressed in his army uniform.
For some reason, my grandfather had not kept in touch with any of his relatives, although my mother did recall some family names. It wasn't till 1963 that she finally saw her father's grave, in the Albury War Cemetery in New South Wales. I fiercely wanted to know more about this man. Who were his parents？Who were his brothers and sisters？Were any of them still alive and, if so, where were they now？Did they ever wonder what become of our John Leon？
With the advent（到来）of the Internet, I started searching in earnest in the late 1990s. From my grandfather's records in the army, I learned he'd listed his birthplace as Hertfordshire England." I think his surname must have been a false name," my father said. This made me upset but I put it aside, concentrating instead on my father's line. I joined a genealogy（系谱学）website and was soon discovering some of my ancestors from distant relatives. I wrote, “I just wish I could find out about my mother's father now," and told them of my search.
In late 2012, I heard from a very distant relation on my father's side called Julie, from New Zealand. As a genealogist herself, she'd taken pity on me and spent several weeks on research. It was a bombshell when she said she may have found my grandfather's family.
She'd searched English census（人口普查） records and found the surname Waller. The dates and first names matched right down to a brother who'd died on the Western Front. Julie had overcome the false name, traced a whole tree and put me in touch with current﹣day relatives.
"Consider it an early Christmas present," she said. "Julie had done all this very careful research for a stranger. I will be ever grateful."
1. What can we learn about the author's grandfather？| A．He was born in Australia. |
| B．He was a soldier. |
| C．He died in 1963. |
| D．He had no relatives. |
| A．The Internet was not helpful. |
| B．His father gave up searching. |
| C．The genealogy website worked well. |
| D．His search could not continue. |
| A．The author 's father. |
| B．Someone named Waller. |
| C．The author's brother. |
| D．Julie, a practical stranger. |
| A．The search of the family root. |
| B．The powerful Internet. |
| C．The story of a genealogist. |
| D．The gratitude of a young man. |
2 . Some parents will buy any high-tech toy if they think it will help their child, but researchers said puzzles help children with math-related skills.
Psychologist Susan Levine, an expert on mathematics development in young children at the University of Chicago, found children who play with puzzles between ages 2 and 4 later develop better spatial skills. Puzzle play was found to be a significant predictor of cognition(认知) after controlling for differences in parents’ income, education and the amount of parent talk, Levine said.
The researchers analyzed video recordings of 53 child-parent pairs during everyday activities at home and found children who play with puzzles between 26 and 46 months of age have better spatial skills when assessed at 54 months of age.
“The children who played with puzzles performed better than those who did not, on tasks that assessed their ability to rotate(旋转)and translate shapes,” Levine said in a statement.
The parents were asked to interact with their children as they normally would, and about half of children in the study played with puzzles at one time. Higher-income parents tended to have children play with puzzles more frequently, and both boys and girls who played with puzzles had better spatial skills. However, boys tended to play with more complex puzzles than girls, and the parents of boys provided more spatial language and were more active during puzzle play than parents of girls.
The findings were published in the journal Developmental Science.
1. In which aspect do children benefit from puzzle play?| A．Building confidence. | B．Developing spatial skills. |
| C．Learning self-control. | D．Gaining high-tech knowledge. |
| A．Parents’ age. | B．Children’s imagination. |
| C．Parents’ education. | D．Child-parent relationship. |
| A．They play with puzzles more often. |
| B．They tend to talk less during the game. |
| C．They prefer to use more spatial language. |
| D．They are likely to play with tougher puzzles. |
| A．A mathematical method. | B．A scientific study. |
| C．A woman psychologist | D．A teaching program. |
