1 . Alice In Wonderland is my favorite story. And acting is my number one passion.
At my old school, Poulsbo Elementary, I’d starred in every play from third grade on. Before that, gymnastics was my thing. But then I played my first role as Tinkerbell in Peter Pan. And after that, back flips just couldn’t compare.
So when my sixth-grade teacher, Mrs Pearson announced during my first week at Newland Elementary that we’d be performing Alice in Wonderland for the school play, I practically screamed out loud with excitement. I’d always wanted to play the role of Alice! In the story, Alice went down a rabbit hole where weird (怪异的) things happened. Somehow I could relate to her more than ever now that I was going to a new school.
When Mrs Pearson announced that I would act as one of the hedgehogs (刺猬) in the play, my stomach started to ache! The hedgehogs had no lines but just got hit with mallets (木槌) and then disappeared! But I clapped along with everyone else and pasted a fake smile on my face. Maybe I should just go back to gymnastics and forget all about acting.
Tyler and Ella were the other two hedgehogs. When we were outside the classroom, Ella had one hand against the wall and appeared to be doing ballet warmups. “I really wanted to be the Queen of Hearts,” said Ella. She raised her left leg so that it was almost parallel to her body.
“Yeah, I wanted to be the Cheshire Cat,” said Tyler. He twirled (旋转) around with his hands clasped together above his head. Both of them seemed like good dancers.
Suddenly I had an idea.
My heart was pounding crazily. But at least I didn’t have a stomachache anymore.
The first rehearsal finally came. Then came our cue.
“One...two...three,” with the hedgehog costumes, we ran onstage in a line, steps synchronized (同步) and arms waving together. We stopped in front of the Queen of Hearts and curtsied (屈膝). She was so surprised that she almost forgot her next line.
The Queen took her mallet and aimed at Hedgehog #1—Ella. When the mallet touched her, Ella spun and jumped across the stage using moves from Ballet. “Wow,” said everyone.
The mallet came down on Hedgehog #2, Tyler. Tyler glided across the stage doing a Sideways Moonwalk. “Aah,” said the cast, even louder than before.
The Queen looked excited as she prepared to hit Hedgehog #3—me. When the mallet tapped me, I did three back flips. Everyone erupted into applause.
The three of us looked at each other. We knew we managed to surprise everyone by making small parts cool.
I still miss my friends in Poulsbo. But Seattle feels a lot less like the rabbit hole now, and a lot more like home.
1. What can we learn about the author from the first 3 paragraphs?| A．She was eager for the leading role. |
| B．She favored gymnastics over acting. |
| C．She had the same experience as Alice. |
| D．She performed back flips in Peter Pan. |
| A．Amazing. | B．Unusual. |
| C．Unacceptable. | D．Traditional. |
| A．A costume design for the roles. | B．A surprise for the audience. |
| C．A trick for dancing. | D．A cure for stomachache. |
| A．Nothing weird happens in Seattle. |
| B．Her childhood friends are visiting her. |
| C．She has got used to the new school life. |
| D．She became popular after that performance. |
2 . SEND IT ALL SUMMER!
Articles Wanted
School Life
Articles should be typewritten (打印的) and double spaced (双倍行距的), using only one side of the page.
Your name, year of birth, school name (and English teacher), home address and e-mail address must be included.
For photos, place the information on the back of each envelope: PLEASE DON’T FOLD.
Please keep copies of your text, pictures or photos.
The sentence MUST BE WRITTEN with your name on each work, "I promise the above work is completely original."
If your article is chosen, you will receive a copy of School Life and a special gift.
SEND IT ALL SUMMER!
For more information, please contact (联系) us!
Tel: (02) 92136116 (02) 92674363
E-mail: school life@acpmagazines.com.au
Mail: School Life. Box 5252, Sydney, NSW 200
1. All the information about the writer must be included except his/her________| A．school name | B．e-mail address |
| C．year of birth | D．telephone number |
| A．They must be fully created by the writers themselves. |
| B．They must be typed in single space and on both sides. |
| C．They must be provided with photos and descriptions. |
| D．They must be sent with the copies of texts and pictures. |
| A．within 3 weeks | B．all summer |
| C．all the year round | D．during the whole term |
| A．1. | B．2. | C．3. | D．4. |
| A．Students who are interested in writing. |
| B．Teachers who love writing and taking photos. |
| C．Parents who wish their kids to be popular writers. |
| D．Readers who had a happy time in their childhood. |
3 . As a teacher, you will use many ways to nurture (滋养) friendships among students. Now here are some steps for you to teach them friendship skills.
Students should examine their surroundings and find someone with whom they would like to play or talk. Students should be given examples on examining how people will look like when they want to play or talk.
Smile and get close to the person
The teacher should model walking up to someone with a smile on her face.
Introduce themselves
Students should say their names, ask the other person his name, and look at the person and smile.
Ask open-ended questions to get information
Students should find some activity or game to play on the playground during free time. The teacher can encourage students to join in an activity and provide ideas for students so their interaction will continue.
Once students have learned these skills, you can provide them with simple reminder cards with words or pictures so they can practice on their own. Teaching these steps will be even more effective if you use children’s literature to show how friends are made.
| A．Find someone to whom they can talk. |
| B．As the saying goes “Laughter is the best medicine.” |
| C．Students should practice this over and over. |
| D．Suggest something to play together. |
| E．Students can ask the other student what he is playing with or what’s happening. |
| F．Be polite to others. |
4 . “The failure to play is now a serious issue and it calls for action for change,” says Sir Ken Robinson, a leading expert in education, creativity and human development. This is the driving force behind Outdoor Classroom Day—a global teacher-led campaign, supported by Dirt is Good, a company producing daily chemical products.
Outdoor Classroom Day, taking place on 17th May and 1st November this year, will see schools around the world swap the inside for the outside and take learning into the playground and beyond to make playtime a key part of the school day. This might involve using natural objects like stones to do sums, or going on an insect hunt to encourage curiosity. By now, Outdoor Classroom Day has grown from a grassroots movement to a global campaign that is expected to benefit five million children and over 40,000 schools from all around the world in 2018.
This is helping to change the trend that sees many schools selling up or building on their playgrounds and cutting back on playtime to make more room for academic studies, while at home children’s lives are increasingly filled with organized activities intended to help them learn. Today globally 61% of parents surveyed in the Dirt is Good Qualitative Study said that children don’t know how to play without using technology.
Outdoor Classroom Day is making playing time happen, with 22% of participating schools having increased their playtime since joining the campaign. 93% of teachers surveyed saw improvements in children’s creativity after playing outside, and 97% believe that time outdoors is necessary for children to reach their full potential.
Scientific studies show that real play—the active, physical, self-directed play—is essential for children to develop key life skills that are not taught elsewhere. Few would question the value of developing creativity, leadership, resourcefulness, and curiosity.
1. What do children do on Outdoor Classroom Day?| A．Have P.E. classes on the playgrounds. | B．Have a day off and go playing anywhere. |
| C．Learn and play by using natural things outside. | D．Play on their own without the teachers’ guidance. |
| A．Schools stop providing playgrounds. | B．Adults ignore the importance of playtime. |
| C．Parents prefer to home school their children. | D．Technology helps children learn better at home. |
| A．Opposed | B．Cold | C．Enthusiastic | D．Favourable |
| A．To introduce an activity. | B．To advertise a product. |
| C．To entertain the public. | D．To persuade students to play. |
5 . "My Best Teacher Ever" Contest（竞赛）
Essay（文章）Topic
Who was/is your best teacher ever? What makes him or her the best?
Contestant
The contest is open to all students.
Word: not more than 300
Essays will be judged on the following criteria（标准）by Readers editorial staff（工作人员）:
•originally, creativity﹣﹣﹣40 percent
•clarity of presentation﹣﹣﹣40 percent
•grammar, punctuation, spelling﹣﹣﹣20 percent
Contest Deadline （最后期限）
Entries must be postmarked on or before April 26,2020,or mailed by EST on that date. Email your entry with attached essay and entry information to web﹣contest@readers.com or mail your entry with attached entry form to this address:
Readers Publishing My Best Teacher Ever Contest
Attn: Anne Flounders 44 South Broadway, 18th Floor White Plains, NY 10601
Prizes
Winning students will win a $50 gift card and may have their essays published on readers. com. Winning essays will be announced on May 7, 2020, on readers. com and winners will be told directly.
1. Essays will be judged on the following criteria EXCEPT________.| A．punctuation | B．creativity | C．presentation | D．handwriting |
| A．should have a total of 300 words at least | B．can't have any mistakes in grammar |
| C．should be mailed on or before April 26, 2020 | D．will be judged by some best teachers |
| A．will be given $50 in cash | B．may have your essay published online |
| C．will be told of your success online | D．can have the Readers magazine for free |
6 . It will come as no comfort to a child shivering on a playing field on a cold winter's day. But regular organised school sport helps children in their academic studies in years to come. The researchers said other "structured” activities such as music or religious activities were not as beneficial for attention as taking part in a games lesson. The difference in academic ability was noticeable even at age ten, with those who had taken in sports since the start of junior school faring better than those who hadn't.
The Canadian study looked at children aged six and then ten. Professor Linda Pagani said:"We worked with information provided by parents and teachers to compare kindergarteners' activities with their classroom activities as they grew up.By the time they reached the fourth grade, kids who played structured sports were clearly better at following instructions and remaining focused in the classroom.There is something special to the sporting environment-perhaps the sense of belonging to a team to a special group with a common goal—that appears to help kids understand the importance of respecting the rules and honouring responsibilities.”
Researchers began studying 2,694 Canadian children around the age of six，with teachers filled in questionnaires about their behaviour in school.Meanwhile, the children's parents were interviewed by phone or in person about their home life. The exercise was the repeated four years later to test what effect the behaviour had.
Professor Pagani said: "We found children who had better behaviour in the kindergarten class were more likely to be involved in sport by age ten.Nonetheless(虽然如此),we found those children who were specifically involved in team sports at kindergarten scored higher by the time they reached the fourth grade.”The researchers believe sporting activities and attention skills go hand in hand. Professor Pagani added:“The results should be encouraging for schools looking to cut childhood obesity rates and low attainment in schools.”
1. What did the researcher focus on in their research?| A．The classroom activities. | B．The results of the tests. |
| C．The performance at home. | D．The time spent in classrooms. |
| A．understand better | B．follow the rules | C．respect the teachers | D．give up |
| A．How scientists carried out the research. | B．Why parents were interviewed by phone. |
| C．How kids behaved at home or at school. | D．How many sports kids did at school. |
| A．The research will be of great benefit. |
| B．Children should go to kindergartens. |
| C．Schools will face low attainment. |
| D．Team sports will be reduced at kindergartens. |
7 . My school appeared on the news last week because we had made an important change in our local area. Our class had planted a large garden where there was once only a vacant lot. It was a lot of work but it was all worth it. I got blisters(水疱)from digging, and we all got insect bites, too.
I learned a lot about gardening and teamwork, and then I learned about the media. Our teacher telephoned the TV station and informed them of what we had done. She spoke with the producer. The producer checked with the directors, but they said there were plenty of stories similar to ours. They wanted to know what was special about our garden, because many schools planted gardens.
The teacher explained that, after going on the Internet to learn about the prairie(北美草原), we had made a prairie garden. We had been to a prairie and gotten seeds from the plants, and then we planted them. We did not water the garden, but we did weed it. We decided to let nature water it with rain, because that was how prairies grew in the past. We sent a picture of the garden to the news station. In the picture, the grass was so high that it stood taller than the fourth grade students.
As a result, the producer sent a reporter to our school. The reporter interviewed the headmaster and asked him many questions about the garden. After that, the headmaster interviewed us, and we explained to him what we had learned through this project.
That night, we watched the news, and there we were. The news reporter told our story. It was only two minutes long, but it was us. We were famous. All that work, all those blisters, it was worth it. We knew that when we saw the garden every day, but now we knew that the whole city thought so, too.
1. What seemed to be the TV directors’ first reaction to the garden?| A．They were excited. |
| B．They were surprised. |
| C．They were uninterested. |
| D．They were worried. |
| A．The seeds came from the plants of a prairie. |
| B．The grass grew faster than common grass. |
| C．We sent a picture of it on the Internet. |
| D．Underground water was used for the plants. |
| A．Their blisters on their hands. |
| B．Their hard work planting the garden. |
| C．The garden they planted. |
| D．The news they watched. |
| A．All roads lead to Rome. |
| B．Never too late to learn. |
| C．Practice makes perfect. |
| D．Hard work pays off. |
8 . If you could design your own school and study whatever you wanted, what would you choose to learn?
This isn’t an unlikely question for students at Monument Mountain Regional High School, who are taking part in an activity called the Independent Project. The program is a special school within the Massachusetts public high school that’s completely run by students—no teachers, parents, or adults are allowed—and they’re in charge of deciding their whole curriculum (课程).
These teens’ homework and what they study in the classroom are all totally up to them. Charles Tsai, a journalist, made a 15-minute film about the project that shows the wide variety of activities different students join.
Students aren’t taking this lightly—instead of reacting irresponsibly to the freedom to design their own studies, they’re dealing with their own interests by writing poetry collections, learning instruments and taking flight lessons.
The program is this: On Mondays students come up with questions in relation to one of their school subjects, then they spend the rest of the week researching and coming up with possible conclusions to these questions. On Fridays, they present this information to their classmates.
“I think the more choices we have in our school, the more students we will help develop into the kind of citizens that we need,” Principal (校长) Marianne Young explains in the film.
In the video, teens express their satisfaction with the program because it holds different kinds of learners, even those who don’t always succeed in a traditional study situation.
“I have difficulty in reading and writing. School has always been a big problem for me,” one student named Sergio explains in the video. “If it were not for this program, I don’t know if I’d be graduating—I don’t know where I’d be right now. I think this has really been my savior (救星) and got me through the last two years of high school.”
1. What is the Independent Project about?| A．Various activities for students. |
| B．Student-centered curricula. |
| C．A self-designed school. |
| D．Teacher-free classes. |
| A．Teachers work out a curriculum for students. |
| B．Students research topics they put forward. |
| C．Teachers work together with students. |
| D．Students serve as teachers in turn. |
| A．negative | B．suspicious |
| C．Optimistic | D．neutral |
| A．He finds it hard to graduate. |
| B．He has bitter memories of high school. |
| C．He feels grateful to the Independent Project. |
| D．He performs badly in the Independent Project. |
9 . Sunshine For All
The Beijing Sunshine Secondary School students are holding a charity show at the school hall of Beijing Sunshine Secondary School, Sunny Street, Sunshine Town.
Date：29 April
Time：7：30 p.m.-9：00 p.m.
We hope to raise money to help poor children go to school.
Ticket price：$20
Donations are welcome.
Programme：
7：30p.m. Introduction 7：40 p.m. Songs 8：00 p.m. Break
8：15p.m. Speech 8：30 p.m. Drama 9：00 p.m. End of the show
Project Hope is an organization that raises money to build schools and buy books or poor students. We would like to thank the following for their help and support：
The teachers at Beijing Sunshine Secondary School
The Star Shopping Mall for the costumes
Sunshine Advertisement Company for the posters
1. Where will the charity show be held?| A．In the classroom | B．In the meeting room. |
| C．In the shopping mall. | D．At the school hall. |
| A．To build schools and buy books for the poor students. |
| B．To help poor children improve performance. |
| C．To buy books for the old. |
| D．To hold the charity show |
| A．Watch a drama. | B．Enjoy songs. |
| C．Have a rest. | D．Listen to a speech. |
10 . Signet Essay Contest
Eligibility (参赛资格)
The Contest is open to 11th and 12th grade full-time students who are attending high schools located in the 50 United States and the District of Columbia, or home-schooled students between the ages of 16-18 who are residents of the 50 United States and the District of Columbia at the time of entry. Employees of Sponsor and their immediate family members are not eligible to enter the Contest.
How to enter
Essays must be submitted by a high school English teacher (or a legal guardian for home-schooled students) on behalf of students. Essays must be at least two and no more than three double-spaced pages, computer or typewritten. Entries must be mailed to Penguin Publishing Group, 1745 Broadway, New York, NY 1019. The Contest begins on May 1 this year and ends on July 22 this year. All entries must be postmarked by April 15 and received on or by April 22. Submissions by fax, email or any other electronic means will not be considered.
Prize
Five Grand Prize Winners will each receive check for one thousand dollars ($1,000) to be used toward their tuition and/or expenses related to their higher education; and a Signet Classics Library for the winner's school library, or public library in the case of a home-schooled winner.
Sponsor
The Penguin Publishing Group.
1. Which person is welcome to take part in the Contest?| A．An American high school student. |
| B．An employee of the Penguin Publishing Group. |
| C．A home schooled student outside of the United States. |
| D．A college student studying in the District of Columbia. |
| A．Those sent via fax. |
| B．Those written by hand. |
| C．Those mailed on April 1. |
| D．Those submitted by students. |
| A．$1000 in cash. |
| B．Reduced school tuition. |
| C．Admission to a university. |
| D．A library donation by Sponsor. |
