1 . How is it that siblings (兄弟姐妹) can turn out so differently? One answer is that in fact each sibling grows up in a different family. The firstborn is, for a while, an only child, and therefore has a completely different experience of the parents than those born later. The next child is, for a while, the youngest, until the situation is changed by a new arrival. The mother and father themselves are changing and growing up too. One sibling might live in a stable and close family in the first few years; another might be raised in a family crisis, with a disappointed mother or an angry father.

Sibling competition was identified as an important shaping force as early as in 1918. But more recently, researchers have found many ways in which brothers and sisters are a lasting force in each other’s lives. Dr. Annette Henderson says firstborn children pick up vocabulary more quickly than their siblings. The reason for this might be that the later children aren’t getting the same one-on-one time with parents. But that doesn’t mean that the younger children have problems with language development. Later-borns don’t enjoy that much talking time with parents, but instead they harvest lessons from bigger brothers and sisters, learning entire phrases and getting an understanding of social concepts such as the difference between “I” and “me”.

A Cambridge University study of 140 children found that siblings created a rich world of play that helped them grow socially. Love-hate relationships were common among the children. Even those siblings who fought the most had just as much positive communication as the other sibling pairs.

One way children seek more attention from parents is by making themselves different from their siblings, particularly if they are close in age. Researchers have found that the first two children in a family are typically more different from each other than the second and third. Girls with brothers show their differences to a maximum degree by being more feminine than girls with sisters. A 2003 research paper studied adolescents from 185 families over two years, finding that those who changed to make themselves different from their siblings were successful in increasing the amount of warmth they gained form their parents. (375words)

1. The underlined part “in a different family” (in Para.1) means ________.

A．in a different family environment	B．in a different family tradition
C．in different family crises	D．in different families

2. In terms of language development, later-borns ________.

A．get their parents’ individual guidance	B．learn a lot from their elder siblings
C．experience a lot of difficulties	D．pick up words more quickly

3. What was found about fights among siblings?

A．Siblings hated fighting and loved playing.	B．Siblings in some families fought frequently.
C．Sibling fights led to bad sibling relationships.	D．Siblings learned to get on together from fights.

2 . 研究表明，每天吃些水果和蔬菜对健康很有好处。(highly beneficial) (汉译英)

5 . One summer night in a seaside cottage, a boy felt himself lifted from bed. Then, with the swiftness of a dream, he was held in his father’s arms out onto the nearby beach. Overhead the sky blazed with stars. “Watch!” Incredibly, as his father spoke, one of the stars moved. In a line of golden fire it flashed across the astonished heavens. And before the wonder of this could fade, another star leaped from its place, then another, plunging towards the restless sea.

“What’s this?” the child whispered.

“Shooting stars. They come every year on a certain August night. I thought you’d like to see the show.”

That was all: just an unexpected glimpse of something mysterious and beautiful. But, back in bed, the child stared for a long time into the dark, knowing that all around the quiet house, the night was full of the silent music of the falling stars.

Decades have passed, but I remember that night still, because I was the fortunate boy whose father believed that a new experience was more important for a small boy than an unbroken night’s sleep. No doubt I had all the usual childhood entertainment, but those are forgotten now. What I remember is the night of the shooting stars, and the day we rode in a caboose (列车末尾的职工车厢), the telegraph we made that really worked, and the “trophy table” in the dining room where we children were encouraged to exhibit things we had found — anything unusual or beautiful — snake skins, seashells, flowers, arrowheads... I remember the thought-provoking (引人深思的) books left by my bedside that pushed back my horizons and sometimes actually changed my life.

My father had, to a marvellous degree, the gift of opening doors for his children, of leading them into areas of splendid newness. This subtle art of adding dimensions to a child’s world doesn’t necessarily require a great deal of time. It simply involves doing things more often with our children instead of for them or to them.

1. What does the underlined sentence in paragraph 4 mean?

A．The child was still immersed in the beautiful scenery just now.

B．The child was too frightened to fall asleep because of darkness.

C．The child wanted to listen more to the music about falling stars.

D．The child felt grateful to his father for what he showed him.

2. All the things the author remember from his childhood are ________.

A．unusual and novel	B．dangerous and demanding
C．strange and uncommon	D．educational and thought-provoking

3. What can we learn from the last paragraph?

A．Parents should interfere more with their children’s learning.

B．Parents should push their children to try to do everything on their own.

C．Parents should devote energy to exploring new things for their children.

D．Parents should encourage children to be curious and explore new things in life.

4. What’s the best title for this passage?

A．Limitless knowledge	B．Father, the hero of my life
C．Curiosity aroused that night	D．The unusual things in my life

7 . Finally he reached an abandoned island, _____ was completely cut off from the outside world. (用适当的词填空)

10 . 我答应再也不提这件事了。(refer) （汉译英）