A Leap(跳躍)to Honor

Leaping on a narrow balance beam(平衡木) is not easy.But Lola Walter, a 13－year－old gymnast, is an expert at it.

To perfect her skills, Lola ____ for four hours a day, five days a week.At the state championships in March, she finished seventh out of 16 girls.

That's especially impressive，____she is legally blind, born with a rare condition that causes her eyes to shift(移動(dòng))constantly.She often sees double and can't ____ how far away things are.

When she was little, her mom ___ that even though she couldn't see ____ , she was fearless.So her mom signed her up for gymnastics when she was three.She loved the ____ right away and gymnastics became her favorite.

Though learning gymnastics has been more ____ for her than for some of her teammates, she has never quit.She doesn't let her ____ stop her from doing anything that she wants to.

She likes the determination it takes to do the sport.Her biggest ____ is the balance beam.Because she has double vision, she often sees two beams.She must use her sense of touch to help her during her routine.Sometimes she even closes her eyes.“You have to ____ your mind that it'll take you where you want to go，” says Lola.

To be a top－level gymnast, one must be brave.The beam is probably the most ____ for anyone because it's four inches wide.At the state competition, Lola didn't fall ____ the beam.In fact, she got an 8.1 out of 10——her highest score yet.

Lola doesn't want to be ____ differently from the other girls on her team.At competitions, the judges don't know about her vision ____.She doesn't tell them, because she doesn't think they need to know.Her mom is amazed by her ____ attitude.

Lola never thinks about ____.She is presently at level 7 while the highest is level 10 in gymnastics.Her ____ is to reach level 9.She says she wants to be a gymnastics coach to pass down what she's learned to other kids ____ she grows up.

Lola is____of all her hard work and success.She says it's helped her overcome problems in her life outside gymnastics too.Her ____ for others is “just believe in yourself”．

1.A.runs? B．teaches? C．trains? D．dances

2.A.since? B．unless? C．after? D．though

3.A.tell? B．guess? C．assume? D．predict

4.A.suspected? ????????????? B．remembered? C．imagined? ????????????? D．noticed

5.A.deeply? B．well? C．ahead? D．closely

6.A.task? B．sport? C．event? D．show

7.A.boring? ????????????? B．enjoyable?? C．difficult? ????????????? D．satisfactory

8.A.talent? B．quality? C．nature? D．condition

9.A.doubt? B．advantage? C．challenge? D．progress

10.A.examine? B．express? C．open? D．trust

11.A.fearful? ????????????? B．harmful? C． unfair? ????????????? D．inconvenient

12.A.to? B．on? C．off? D．against

13.A.greeted? B．treated? C．served? D．paid

14.A.pains? B．stresses? C．injuries? D．problems

15.A.positive? B．friendly? C．flexible? D．cautious

16.A.defending? ????????????? B．quitting? C．winning? ????????????? D．bargaining

17.A.standard? B．range? C．view? D．goal

18.A.until? B．as? C．when? D．before

19.A.proud? B．tired? C．ashamed? D．confident

20.A.plan? ????????????? B．advice C．reward? ????????????? D．responsibility

Adventure Vacations
People like different kinds of vacations. Some go camping. They swim, fish, cook over a fire and sleep outside. Others like to stay at a hotel in an exciting city. They go shopping all day and go dancing all night. Or maybe they go sightseeing to places such as Disneyland, the Tai Mahan or the Louver.
Some people are bored with sightseeing trips. They don’t want to be “tourists”. They want to have an adventure--a surprising and exciting trip. They want to learn something and maybe help people too. How can they do this? Some travel companies and environmental groups are planning special adventures. Sometimes these trips are difficult and full of hardships, but they’re a lot of fun. One organization, Earth watch, sends small groups of volunteers to different parts of the world. Some volunteers spend two weeks and study the environment. Others work with animals. Others learn about people of the past.
Would you like an adventure in the Far North? A team of volunteers is leaving from Mormons, Russia. The leader of this trip is a professor from Alaska. He’s worried about chemicals from factories. He and the volunteers will study this pollution in the environment. If you like exercise and cold weather, this is a good trip for you. Volunteers need ski sixteen kilometers every day.
Do you enjoy ocean animals? You can spend two to four weeks in Hawaii. There, you can teach language to dolphins. Dolphins can follow orders such as “Bring me the large ball.” They also understand opposites. How much more can they understand? It will be exciting to learn about these intelligent animals. Another study trip goes to Washington State and follows orcas. We call orcas “killer Whale”, but they’re really dolphins—the largest kind of dolphin. This beautiful animal travels together in family groups. They move through the ocean with their mothers, grandmothers and great-grandmothers. Ocean pollution is chasing their lives. Earth watch is studying how this happens.
Are you interested in history? Then Greece is the place for your adventure. Thirty-five hundred years ago a volcano exploded there, on Santorum. This explosion was more terrible than Karate or Mount Saint Helens. But today we know a lot about the way of life of the people from that time. There are houses, kitchens, and paintings as interesting as those in Pompeii. Today teams of volunteers are learning more about people from the past.
Do you want a very different vacation? Do you want to travel far, work hard and learn a lot? Then an Earth watch vacation is for you.
【小題1】The Tai Mahan may be _______.

Many parents have learned the hard way that what sounds like open communication is often the very thing that closes a youngster’s ears and mouth. One common mistake is the Lecture, the long monologue that often starts with “When I was your age….” Eighteen-year-old Kelly calls lectures “l(fā)ong, one-side discussions in which I don’t say much.”

Kids reflexively（條件反射地） shut down in the face of a lecture. Their eyes glaze over, and they don’t register any incoming information. Listen to 13-year-old Sarah describe her least favorite times with her mom and dad. “First, they scream. Then comes the ‘We’re so disappointed’ speech. Then the ‘I never did that to my parents’ lecture begins. After that, even if they realize how ridiculous they sound, they never take it back.”

Lines like “When you have children of your own, you’ll understand” have been seriously said by parents since time immemorial. But many of our expert parents, like Bobby, a registered nurse and mother of three, feel that by falling back on clichés（陳詞濫調(diào)）to justify our actions, we weaken our position.

Since kids are creatures of here and now, the far-off future has no relevance to them. Therefore, good communicators like Bobby suggest, “Give specific reasons for your actions in present language: ‘I’m not letting you go to the party because I don’t think there will be enough adult supervisions（監(jiān)護(hù)）.’”

Betty, who lives in Missiouri, uses an indirect approach. “I find that warnings are accepted more readily if I discuss a news article on a subject I am concerned about. My husband and I talk about it while our children absorb the information. Then they never think I’m preaching(布道).”

This really helped when Betty’s kids began driving. Instead of constantly repeating “Don’t drink; don’t speed,” she would talk about articles in the paper and express sympathy for the victims of a car crash. Betty made no special effort to draw her kids into the conversation. She depended on a teenager’s strong desire to put in his opinions---especially if he thinks he isn’t being asked for them.

1.The purpose of the passage is to _________.

A．compare two ways of parents` communicating with their kids

B．explain why kids won’t listen to their parents

C．give parents advice on how to communicate with their kids

D．introduce kids` reaction to the communication between them and their parents

2.Which of the following statements is NOT right?

A．Kids won’t listen to their parents because they think what their parents say is boring.

B．Kids don’t like any discussion at all.

C．Some kids think their parents should apologize when they are wrong.

D．Many kids think they have no right to express their own opinions.

3. What does the underlined word in the first paragraph mean?

A．討論             B．對(duì)話             C．插話             D．獨(dú)白

4.Which of the following topic may appeal to kids?

A．Something related to kids’ present life

B．Kids possible life in the future

C．Parents` own experience

D．What parents have done to their own parents.

5.In order to make kids follow their advice, parents should______.

A．tell their kids to listen carefully

B．a(chǎn)rouse kids’ desire to express themselves.

C．list out as many examples as possible

D．set out their warnings directly

Ideas about polite behavior are different from one culture to another. Some societies, such as America and Australia for example, are mobile and very open. People here change jobs and move house quite often. As a result, they have a lot of relationships that often last only a short time, and they need to get to know people quickly. So it's normal to have friendly conversations with people that they have just met, and you can talk about things that other cultures would regard as personal.

    On the other hand there are more crowded and less mobile societies where long-term relationships are more important. A Malaysian or Mexican business person, for example, will want to get to know you very well before he or she feels happy to start business. But when you do get to know each other, the relationship becomes much deeper than it would in a mobile society.

     To Americans, both Europeans and Asians seem cool and formal at first. On the other hand, as a passenger from a less mobile society puts it, it's no fun spending several hours next to a stranger who wants to tell you all about his or her life and asks you all sorts of questions that you don't want to answer.

     Cross-cultural differences aren't just a problem for travelers, but also for the flights that carry them. All flights want to provide the best service, but ideas about good service are different from place to place. This can be seen most clearly in the way that problems are dealt with.

     Some societies have 'universalist' cultures. These societies strongly respect rules, and they treat every person and situation in basically the same way.

     'Particularist' societies, on the other hand, also have rules, but they are less important than the society's unwrinen ideas about what is right or wrong for a particular situation or a particular person. So the normal rules are changed to fit the needs of the situation or the importance of the person.

     This difference can cause problems. A traveler from a particularist society, India, is checking in for a flight in Germany, a country which has a universalist culture. The Indian traveler has too much luggage, but he explains that he has been away from home for a long time and the suitcases are full of presents for his family. He expects that the check-in official will understand his problem and will change the rules for him. The check-in official explains that if he was allowed to have too much luggage, it wouldn't be fair to the other passengers. But the traveler thinks this is unfair, because the other passengers don't have his problem.

1.Often moving from one place to another makes people like Americarts and Australians

A. like traveling better

B. easy to communicate with

C. difficult 1o make rcal friends

D. have a long-term relationship with their neighbors

2.People like Malaysians prefer to associate with those

A. who will tell them everything of their own

B. who want to do business with them

C. they know quite well

D. who are good at talking

3.A person from a less mobile society will feel it_____ when a stranger keeps talking to him or her, and asking him or her questions.

A. boring       B. friendly        C. normal            D. rough

4.Which of the following is true about "particularist societies"?

A. There is no rule for people to obey.

B. People obey the society's rules completely.

C. No one obeys the society's ruies though they have.

D. The society's rules can be changed with different persons or situations.

5.The writer of the passage thinks that the Indian and the German have different ideas about rules because of different__________.

A. interests        B. habits and customs

C. cultures        D. ways of life

Mr. Smith, _______ of the ______ speech, started to read a novel.

A．tired, boring       B．tiring, bored       C．tired, bored        D．tiring, boring