Language learning begins with listening. Children are greatly different in the amount of listening they do before they start speaking, and late starters are often long listeners. Most children will “obey” spoken instructions some time before they can speak, though the word obey is hardly accurate as a description of the eager and delighted cooperation usually shown by the child. Before they can speak, many children will also ask questions by gesture and by making questioning noises.
Any attempt to trace the development from the noises babies make to their first spoken words leads to considerable difficulties. It is agreed that they enjoy making noises, and that during the first few months one or two noises sort themselves as particularly indicative of delight, pain, friendliness, and so on. But since these cannot be said to show the baby's intention to communicate, they can hardly be regarded as early forms of language. It is agreed, too, that from about three months they play with sounds for enjoyment, and that by six months they are able to add new words to their store. This self-imitation(模仿) leads on to deliberate(有意的) imitation of sounds made or words spoken to them by other people. The problem then arises as to the point at which one can say that these imitations can be considered as speech.
It is a problem we need to get out teeth into. The meaning of a word depends on what a particular person means by it in a particular situation and it is clear that what a child means by a word will change as he gains more experience of the world. Thus the use at seven months of “mama” as a greeting for his mother cannot be dismissed as a meaningless sound simply because he also uses it at other times for his father, his dog, or anything else he likes. Playful and meaningless imitation of what other people say continues after the child has begun to speak for himself, I doubt, however whether anything is gained when parents take advantage of this ability in an attempt to teach new sounds.
1. Before children start speaking__________.| A．they need equal amount of listening |
| B．they need different amounts of listening |
| C．they are all eager to cooperate with the adults by obeying spoken instructions |
| D．they can’t understand and obey the adult’s oral instructions |
| A．may have problems with their listening |
| B．probably do not hear enough language spoken around them |
| C．usually pay close attention to what they hear |
| D．often take a long time in learning to listen properly |
| A．an expression of his moods and feelings |
| B．an early form of language |
| C．a sign that he means to tell you something |
| D．an imitation of the speech of adults |
| A．is important because words have different meanings for different people |
| B．is not especially important because the changeover takes place gradually |
| C．is one that should be properly understood because the meaning of words changes with age |
| D．is one that should be completely ignored(忽略) because children’s use of words is often meaningless |
2 . Weighing too much can damage your health,and obesity is a growing problem for both kids and adults around the world.Sleep might be one answer to the problem.A new study has found that elementary school students who slept too little were more likely to gain pounds.
Past studies have shown a link between sleeping less and weighing more,but scientists have had a tough time determining "which came first,the chicken or the egg," says Julie C. Lumeng of the university of Michigan in Ann Arbor.In other words,it hasn't been clear whether kids who weigh too much have trouble sleeping,or whether sleeping less leads to weight gain.Both scenarios (可能出现的情况) seemed equally possible.
To get a better idea of which causes which,Lumeng and her colleagues interviewed the parents of 785 third graders from around the United States.The parents answered questions about how well their kids slept that year.Three years later,the parents answered the same questions.By sixth grade ,18percent of kids involved in the study were obese.
The scientists found no relationship between weight and the students' race or gender.It also didn't matter how strict their parents were,or whether they were boys orgirls.Obesity struck all of these groups equally.Instead,sleep seemed to be the key factor.Over the three years of study,the children averaged a healthy 9.5 hours of sleepa night.Some kids,however,slept a lot moreor less than others.
For the sixth graders,every hour of sleep above the 9.5houraverage was linked toa 20 percent lower risk of being obese.Sleep appeared doubly important for the third graders.Every extra hour of sleep they got was linked to a 40 percent drop in obesity.
1. What does the underlined sentence on paragraph 2 imply?| A．Scientists have found the exact causes of children's obesity. |
| B．There is always something difficult to understand through theory |
| C．The cause–effect relationship between weight and sleep isn't clear. |
| D．A person's weight has something to do with the amount of his sleep. |
| A．9.5 hours of sleep a night is enough for children. |
| B．The more a child sleeps,the healthier he will be. |
| C．Sixth graders need much more sleep than third graders. |
| D．One’s race or gender has nothing to do with his weight. |
| A．By listing figures | B．By comparing different opinions |
| C．By providing examples | D．By conducting a survey |
| A．The benefits of enough sleep for children |
| B．Sleeping less increases the risk of obesity |
| C．Which comes first,little sleep or obesity |
| D．How many hours of sleep do children need? |
3 . Have you ever lost your car on a parking lot? It happens. You park and go shopping. When you get back, you have no idea where your car is. It can be discouraging.
You don’t need to install (安装) an expensive GPS system to keep track of your car. That’s too expensive. You would need to pay a monthly subscription fee just to use it. But is there a way to track your vehicle without spending a fortune? Yes, now there is! A California-based start-up company was able to make this a reality. They created a tiny device (装置）that works with your smartphone, and it could be exactly what you’re looking for! It’s called TrackR Bravo. It’s changing the way we keep track of the important things in our lives.
Install the free TrackR app on your smartphone, connect the app to your device and you’re ready to go! Simply attach TrackR to whatever you want to keep an eye on. The entire process of setting it up only takes 5 minutes or less. You can attach it to your keys, wallet and anything else you don’t want to lose. Then use the TrackR app to find where your missing item are in seconds.
Forget expensive GPS systems or tracking services. Nobody wants to pay expensive monthly subscription fees. We understand how stressful these things can be, and this is the reason why the company created TrackR. This device is your VIP when you need to take care of important things.
If you forget where you park your car, take out your smartphone and open the TrackR app. Tap on the “lost item” sign on the screen and the app will tell you the exact location. This device is by no means expensive. TrackR only costs $29, a small price to pay for peace of mind. The device is small enough that you can attach it to your pets. Put it on their collar, and you will never lose track of them! Attach it to your key or wallet, and never waste a minute rummaging the whole house for it.
Since you’ve been informed about this brilliant invention, now attach it to everything that’s important to you.
1. Why does the author mention the lost car in the first Paragraph?| A．To explain how terrible the situation is. |
| B．To stress the importance of being cautious. |
| C．To lead to the topic concerning finding lost items. |
| D．To provide one common example about theft. |
| A．The process of setting up the app is complex. |
| B．The cost of setting up the app is rather high. |
| C．The app is available in any electronic equipment. |
| D．The app helps locate the lost items in a short time. |
| A．life is full of all kinds of pressure |
| B．tracking services cause financial burden |
| C．people want to keep their important items safe |
| D．GPS systems can not provide specific location |
| A．Searching. | B．Destroying. |
| C．Cleaning. | D．Moving. |
4 . On June 17, 1774, the officials from Maryland and Virginia held a talk with the Indians of the Six Nations. The Indians were invited to send boys to William and Mary College. In a letter the next day they refused the offer as follows:
We know that you have a high opinion of the kind of learning taught in your colleges, and that the costs of living of our young men, while with you, would be very expensive to you. We are convinced that you mean to do us good by your proposal; and we thank you heartily. But you must know that different nations have different ways of looking at things, and you will therefore not be offended if our ideas of this kind of education happen not to be the same as yours. We have had some experience of it. Several of our young people were formerly brought up at the college of the northern provinces: they were taught all your sciences; but when they came back to us, they were bad manners, ignorant of every means of living in the woods — they were totally good for nothing.
We are, however, not the less obliged by your kind offer, though we refuse to accept it; and, to show our grateful sense of it, if the gentlemen of Virginia will send us a dozen of their sons, we will take care of their education, teach them all we know, and make men of them.
1. The passage is about ____.| A．the talk between the Indians and the officials |
| B．the colleges of the northern provinces |
| C．the educational values of the Indians |
| D．the problems of the Americans in the mid-eighteen century |
| A．express their opinions on equal treatment |
| B．politely refuse a friendly offer |
| C．show their pride |
| D．describe Indian customs |
| A．it would be better for their boys to receive some schooling |
| B．they were being insulted by the offer |
| C．they knew more about science than the officials |
| D．they had better way of educating young men |
| A．young women should also be educated |
| B．they had different goals of education |
| C．they taught different branches of science |
| D．they should teach the sons of the officials first |
When he arrived at New Lanark it was a dirty little town with a population of 2,000 people. Nobody paid any attention to the workers’ houses or their children’s education. The conditions in the factories were very bad. There was a lot of crime and the men spent most of their wages on alcoholic drinks.
Owen improved the houses. He encouraged people to be clean and save money. He opened a shop and sold the workers cheap, well-made goods to help them. He limited the sale of alcoholic drinks. Above all, he fixed his mind on the children’s education. In 1816, he opened the first free primary school in Britain.
People came from all over the country to visit Owen’s factory. They saw that the workers were healthier and more efficient than in other towns. Their children were better fed and better educated. Owen tried the same experiment in the United States. He bought some land there in 1825, but the community was too far away. He could not keep it under control and lost most of his money.
Owen never stopped fighting for his idea. Above all he believed that people are not born good or bad. He was a practical man and his ideas were practical. “If you give people good working conditions,” he thought, “they will work well and, the most important thing of all, if you give them the chance to learn, they will be better people.”
1. For Owen, his greatest achievement in New Lanark was _____________.
| A．improving worker’s houses |
| B．helping people to save money |
| C．preventing men from getting drunk |
| D．providing the children with a good education |
| A．into a rich family | B．into a noble family |
| C．into a poor family | D．into a middle class family |
| A．he lost all his money |
| B．he did not buy enough land |
| C．people who visited it were not impressed |
| D．it was too far away for him to organize it properly |
| A．1771 | B．1816 | C．1825 | D．1860 |
6 . The Peales were a famous family of American artists. Charles Willson Peale is best remembered for his portraits of leading figures of the American Revolution. He painted portraits of Franklin and Jefferson and over a dozen of George Washington. His life-size portrait of his sons Raphaelle and Titian was so realistic that George Washington reportedly once tipped his hat to the figures in the picture.
Charles Willson Peale gave up painting in his middle age and devoted his life to the Peale museum, which he founded in Philadelphia. The world’s first popular museum of art and natural science mainly covered paintings by Peale and his family as well as displays of animals in their natural settings. Peale found the animals himself and found a method to make the exhibits more lifelike. The museum’s most popular display was the skeleton (骷髅) of a huge, extinct elephant, which Peale unearthed on a New York farm in 1801.
Three of Peale’s seventeen children were also famous artists. Raphaelle Peale often painted still lives of flowers, fruit, and cheese. His brother Rembrandt studied under his father and painted portraits of many noted people, including one of George Washington. Another brother, Rubens Peale, painted mostly landscapes and portraits.
James Peale, the brother of Charles Willson Peale, specialized in miniatures (小画像). His daughter Sarah Miriam Peale was probably the first professional female portrait painter in America.
1. What is the main topic of the passage?| A．The life of Charles Willson Peale. |
| B．Portraits in the 18th century. |
| C．The Peale Museum. |
| D．A family of artists. |
| A．Charles Willson Peale’s painting was very lifelike |
| B．Washington respected Charles Willson Peale’s work |
| C．Washington was friendly with Raphaelle and Titian Peale |
| D．the painting of the two brothers was very large |
| A．Titian Peale. | B．Rubens Peale. |
| C．Raphaelle Peale. | D．Sarah Miriam Peale. |
| A．puzzled | B．excited | C．admiring | D．disappointed |
