1 .         Franz Kafka wrote that “a book must be the ax for the frozen sea inside us”. I once shared this sentence with a class of seventh graders, and it didn't seem to require any explanation.

We'd just finished John Steinbeck's novel Of Mice and Men. When we read the end together out loud in class, my toughest boy, a star basketball player, wept a little, and so did I. “Are you crying?” one girl asked, as she got out of her chair to take a closer look. “I am,” I told her, “and the funny thing is I've read it many times.”

But they understood. When George shoots Lennie, the tragedy is that we realize it was always going to happen. In my 14 years of teaching in a New York City public middle school, I've taught kids with imprisoned parents, abusive parents, irresponsible parents; kids who are parents themselves; kids who are homeless; kids who grew up in violent neighborhoods. They understand, more than I ever will, the novel's terrible logic-the giving way of dreams to fate.

For the last seven years, I have worked as a reading enrichment teacher, reading classic works of literature with small groups of students from grades six to eight. I originally proposed this idea to my headmaster after learning that a former excellent student of mine had transferred out of a selective high school-one that often attracts the literary-minded children of Manhattan's upper classes-into a less competitive setting. The daughter of immigrants, with a father in prison, she perhaps felt uncomfortable with her new classmates. I thought additional “cultural capital” could help students like her develop better in high school, where they would unavoidably meet, perhaps for the first time, students who came from homes lined with bookshelves, whose parents had earned Ph.D.'s.

Along with Of Mice and Men, my groups read: Sounder, The Red Pony, Lord of the Flies, Romeo and Juliet and Macbeth. The students didn't always read from the expected point of view.

About The Red Pony, one student said, “it's about being a man, it's about manliness.” I had never before seen the parallels between Scarface and Macbeth, nor had I heard Lady Macbeth's soliloquies read as raps, but both made sense; the interpretations were playful, but serious. Once introduced to Steinbeck's writing, one boy went on to read The Grapes of Wrath and told me repeatedly how amazing it was that “all these people hate each other, and they're all white.” His historical view was broadening, his sense of his own country deepening. Year after year, former students visited and told me how prepared they had felt in their first year in college as a result of the classes.

Year after year, however, we are increasing the number of practice tests. We are trying to teach students to read increasingly complex texts, not for emotional punch but for text complexity. Yet, we cannot enrich the minds of our students by testing them on texts that ignore their hearts. We are teaching them that words do not amaze but confuse. We may succeed in raising test scores, but we will fail to teach them that reading can be transformative and that it belongs to them.

1. The underlined words in Paragraph 1 probably mean that a book helps to __________.

A．realize our dreams	B．give support to our life
C．smooth away difficulties	D．awake our emotions

2. Why were the students able to understand the novel Of Mice and Men？

A．Because they spent much time reading it.	B．Because they had read the novel before.
C．Because they came from a public school.	D．Because they had similar life experiences.

3. The girl left the selective high school possibly because__________.

A．she was a literary-minded girl	B．her parents were immigrants
C．she couldn't fit in with her class	D．her father was then in prison

4. To the author's surprise, the students read the novels__________.

A．creatively

B．passively

C．repeatedly

D．carelessly

5. The author writes the passage mainly to__________.

A．introduce classic works of literature	B．advocate teaching literature to touch the heart
C．argue for equality among high school students	D．defend the current testing system

2 . Henry Ford was the first person to build cars which were cheap，strong and fast．He was able to se11 millions of cars because he could produce them in large numbers at a time；that is，he made many cars of the same kind．Ford’s father hoped that his son would become a farmer，but the young man did not like the idea and he went to Detroit（底特律）where he worked as a mechanic（机械师）．By the age of 29，in 1892，he had built his first car．However，the car made in this way，the famous “ Model T ” did not appear until 1908. Five years ago, Ford started his great motor car factory．This kind of car showed to be well-known that it remained unchanged for twenty year．Since Ford’s time，this way of producing cars in large numbers has become common in industry and has reduced the price of many goods which would be very expensive．
1. Henry Ford was the man to built _____ cars．

A．cheap and strong	B．cheap and long
C．fast and expensive	D．strong and slow

2. Ford was able to sell millions of cars，because_____．

A．he made many cars	B．his cars are many
C．he made lots of cars of the same kind	D．both A and B

3. The young man became a mechanic，_______．

A．which was his father’s will	B．which was against his own will
C．which was against his father’s will	D．which was his teacher’s will

4. The “ Model T ” was very famous_____．

A．before 1908	B．between 1982 and 1908
C．before 1892	D．after 1908

5. Ford built his own car factory_____．

A．in 1903

B．in 1908

C．in 1913

D．in 1897

3 . After giving a talk at a high school, I was asked to pay a visit to a spe­cial student. An illness had kept the boy home, but he had expressed an interest in meeting me. I was told it would mean a great deal to him, so I agreed.
During the nine-mile drive to his home, I found out something about Matthew. He had muscular dystrophy (肌肉萎缩症). When he was born, the doctor told his parents that he would not live to five, and then they were told he would not make it to ten. Now he was thirteen. He wanted to meet me because I was a gold-medal power lifter, and I knew about overcoming obstacles and going for my dreams.
I spent over an hour talking to Matthew. _____________________” He spoke about winning and succeeding and going for his dreams. Obviously, he knew what he was talking about. He didn’t mention that his classmates had made fun of him because he was different. He just talked about his hopes for the future, and how one day he wanted to lift weights with me. When we had finished talking, I went to my briefcase and pulled out the first gold medal I had won and put it around his neck. I told him he was more of a winner and knew more about success and overcoming obstacles than I ever would. He looked at it for a moment, then took it off and handed it back to me. He said, “You are a champion. You earned that medal. Someday when I get to the Olympics and win my own medal, I will show it to you.”
Last summer I received a letter from Matthew’s parents telling me that Matthew had passed away. They wanted me to have a letter he had written to me a few days before:
Dear Dick,
My mum said I should send you a thank-you letter for the picture you sent me. I also want to let you know that the doctors tell me that I don’t have long to live any more, but I still smile as much as I can.
I told you someday that I would go to the Olympics and win a gold medal, but I know now I will never get to do that. However, I know I’m a champion, and God knows that too. When I get to Heaven, God will give me my medal and when you get there, I will show it to you. Thank you for loving me.
Your friend,
Matthew
1. The boy looked forward to meeting the author because _________.

A．he was also good at weight lifting

B．he wanted to get to the Olympics and win a medal

C．he was one of the author’s fans

D．he admired the author very much

2. The underlined sentence in the third paragraph probably means that _______.

A．the boy never complained about how unlucky he was to have this disease

B．the boy never complained about not being able to go to school

C．the boy never complained why the author had never come to see him before

D．the boy never complained about not getting a medal

3. From the passage we learn that _________.

A．Matthew was an athlete

B．Matthew was an optimistic and determined boy

C．The author used to have the same disease as Matthew had

D．Matthew became a champion before he died

4. Matthew didn’t accept the author’s medal because _________.

A．he thought it was too expensive

B．he was sure that he could win one in the future

C．he thought it was of no use to him as he would die soon

D．he would not be pitied by others

5. What would be the best title for this passage?

A．A sick boy.	B．A special friend.
C．A real champion.	D．A famous athlete.

4 . A study involving 8,500 teenagers from all social backgrounds found that most of them are ignorant when it comes to money. The findings, the first in a series of reports from NatWest that has started a five-year researeh project into teenagers and money, are particularly worrying as this generation of young people is likely to be burdened with greater debts man any before.
University tuition fees (学费) are currently capped at £3,000 annually, but this will be reviewed next year and the Government is under enormous pressure to raise the ceiling.
In the researeh, the teenagers were presented with die terms of four different loans but 76 per cent failed to identify the cheapest. The young people also predicted that they would be earning on average £ 31.000 by the age of 25, although the average salary for those aged 22 to 29 is just £ 17,815. The teenagers expected to be in debt when they finished university or training, although half said that they assumed the debts would be less than £ 10.000. Average debts for graduates are £ 12，363.
Stephen Moir, head of community investment at the Royal Bank of Scotland Group which owns NatWest, said. "The more exposed young people are to financial issues, and the younger they become aware of them, the more likely they are to become responsible, forward-planning adults who manage their finances confidently and effectively."
Ministers are deeply concerned about the financial pressures on teenagers and young people because of student loans and rising housing costs. They have just introduced new lessons in how to manage debts. Nikki Fairweathcr. aged 15. from St Helens, said that she had benefited from lessons on personal finance, but admitted that she still had a lot to learn about money.
1. Which of the following can be found from the five-year researeh project?

A．Students understand personal finances differently.

B．University tuition fees in England have been rising.

C．Teenagers tend to overestimate their future earnings.

D．The students' payback ability has become a major issue.

2. The phrase "to raise the ceiling" in paragraph 2 probably means "______".

A．to raise the student loans	B．to improve the school facilities
C．to increase the upper limit of the tuition	D．to lift the school building roofs

3. According to Stephen Moir, students_______.

A．are too young 10 be exposed 10 financial issues

B．should learn 10 manage their finances wellC- should maintain a positive attitude when facing loans

C．benefit a lot from lessons on personal finance

4. What can we learn from the passage?

A．Many British teenagers do not know money matters well

B．Teenagers in Britain are heavily burdened with debts.

C．Financial planning is a required course at college.

D．Young people should become responsible adults.

5 . D
Parents who help their children with homework may actually be bringing down their school grades. Other forms of prenatal involvement, including volunteering at school and observing a child's class, also fail to help, according to the most recent study on the topic.
The findings challenge a key principle of modern parenting(养育子女) where schools except them to act as partners in their children's education. Previous generations concentrated on getting children to school on time, fed, dressed and ready to learn.
Kaith Robinson, the author of the study, said, "I really don't know if the public is ready for this but there are some ways parents can be involved in their kids' education that leads to declines in their academic performance. One of the things that was consistently negative was parents' help with homework." Robinson suggested that may be because parents themselves struggle to understand the task." They may either not remember the material their kids are studying now, or in some cases never learnt it themselves, but they're still offering advice."
Robinson assessed parental involvement performance and found one of the most damaging things a parent could do was to punish their children for poor marks. In general, about 20% of parental involvement was positive, about 45% negative and the rest statistically insignificant.
Common sense suggests it was a good thing for parents to get involved because "children with good academic success do have involved parents ", admitted Robinson. But he argued that this did not prove parental involvement was the root cause of that success." A big surprise was that Asian-American parents whose kids are doing so well in school hardly involved. They took a more reasonable approach, conveying to their children how success at school could improve their lives."
1. The underlined expression "parental involvement " in Paragraph 1 probably means       .

A．parents' expectation on children's health

B．parents' participation in children's education

C．parents' control over children's life

D．parents' plan for children's future

2. What is the major finding of Robinson's study ?

A．Modern parents raise children in a more scientific way.

B．Punishing kids for bad marks is mentally damaging.

C．Parental involvement is not so beneficial as expected.

D．Parents are not able to help with children’s homework.

3. The example of Asian-American parents implies that parents should       .

A．help children realize the importance of schooling

B．set a specific life goal for their children

C．spend more time improving their own lives

D．take a more active part in school management