“My wallet! Where is it? ” were my first...

    Chuck was in my high-school English class.1.So, when he told me he had been accepted into the journalism program at the University of Missouri, I wasn’t surprised.

During the first year at college, Chuck stopped by school a few times. We talked about our work together several years before. We had raised money together for twenty-three sick and abandoned babies.2.. It was an activity that in some ways changed our formal relationship into a friendship.

In his second year in college, it was discovered that Chuck had lung cancer and had only a short while to live. So he left school and came home to be near to his loved ones.

About six weeks later, Chuck died.3.The youngest of nine children, Chuck was talented and full of promise. More importantly, he was a good person, a just man.

When I went to his funeral, his father asked to speak with me. He told me that before Chuck’s death, he chose six items to bury with him.4.He told me that Chuck had always kept the piece because he liked the message I had written to him at the bottom of the last page. In that little note, I affirmed his talent as a writer and I encouraged him to be responsible for the gift.

5.His taking my note with him forever offered me a great opportunity for influencing students’ lives. I felt inspired with a sense of purpose that was greater than ever: teachers have the power to affect hearts and minds for a long time.

A. It was a great loss for everyone, especially for his family.

B. Chuck helped to raise several thousand dollars.

C. Whenever I forget my purpose, I think of Chuck.

D. He was a writer of great promise.

E. My spirits were lifted up as Chuck was filled with the joy of life.

F. One of them was an essay he had written in my class some years before.

G. I was touched and grateful to Chuck who gave me a special gift that would change my life.

Sign has become a scientific hot button. Only in the past 20 years have specialists in language study realized that signed languages are unique—a speech of the hand. They offer a new way to explore how the brain generates and understands language, and throw new light on an old scientific controversy: whether language, complete with grammar, is something that we are born with, or whether it is a learned behavior. The current interest in sign language has roots in the pioneering work of a teacher at Gallaudet University in Washington, D. C., the world’s only liberal arts university for deaf people.

When Bill Stokoe went to Gallaudet to teach English, the school enrolled him in a course in signing. But Stokoe noticed something strange: among themselves, students signed differently from his classroom teacher.

Stokoe had been taught a sort of gestural code, each movement of the hands representing a word in English. At the time, American Sign Language (ASL) was thought to be no more than a form of pidgin English (混杂英语). But Stokoe believed the“hand talk”his students used looked richer. He wondered: Might deaf people actually have a genuine language? And could that language be unlike any other on Earth? It was 1955, when even deaf people considered their signing as “substandard”. Stokoe’s idea was academic heresy (异端邪说).

It is 37 years later. Stokoe—now devoting his time to writing and editing books and journals and to producing video materials on ASL and the deaf culture—is having lunch at a cafe near the Gallaudet campus and explaining how he started a revolution. For decades, educators fought against his idea that signed languages are natural languages like English, French and Japanese. They assumed language must be based on speech, the modulation (调节) of sound. But sign language is based on the movement of hands, the modulation of space. “What I said,” Stokoe explains, “is that language is not mouth stuff—it’s brain stuff.”

1.What aroused the present growing interest in sign language?

A. A famous scholar in the study of the human brain.

B. A leading specialist in the study of liberal arts.

C. An English teacher in a university for the deaf.

D. Some senior experts in American Sign Language.

2.According to Stokoe, sign language is ________.

A. a substandard language    B. a genuine language

C. an artificial language    D. an international language

3.Most educators objected to Stokoe’s idea because they thought ________.

A. sign language was not widely used even by deaf people

B. sign language was too artificial to be widely accepted

C. a language should be easy to use and understand

D. a language could only exist in the form of speech sounds

4.Stokoe’s argument is based on his belief that ________.

A. sign language is as efficient as any other language

B. sign language originated from natural language

C. language is a system of meaningful codes

D. language is a product of the brain

Once, African lions were the kings of the jungle. But every day, they lose more and more of their home to humans. A new study done by Duke University shows that humans have taken over much of the lions habitat.

Lions live on the African plains, which are called savannas. In the past 5 years, the number of people living on the Savannas African plains has grown rapidly. At the same time, the number of lions has dwindled quickly.

The research team at Duke University used detailed pictures taken by satellite to carefully examine the African landscape. They were able to see very small farms and towns that are taking over the once-open plains. Lions need wide-open spaces to hunt. As the number of people and towns has increased, the African plains have become less welcoming to lions. The number of lions has dropped from about 100, 000 in 1960 to 32,000 today. West Africa has seen the largest drop ——fewer than 500 lions remain there.

Researchers worry that the number of lions will decrease even more as the number of humans moving onto the savannas increases. People and lions living closely together have to compete for natural resources like water and food. Towns and farms that take over hunting grounds could force the lions out of those areas completely. Often, lions with no other sources of food will kill farm animals. Farmers will then kill the lions to protect their animals. African lions are also threatened by poachers, who hunt animals illegally. Many poachers hunt lions for sport or to take their fur.

One of the authors of the Duke University study is conservationist Stuart Pimm. Pimm believes the group’s research can be helpful in planning ways for people and lions to share the African plains. One solution is to build higher fences to keep lions away from farm animals. African countries can also expand and better protect their wildlife reserves so that lions have safe places to hunt.

1.The underlined word“dwindled”in Paragraph 2 can be best replaced by______________.

A. grown    B. changed

C. doubled    D. decreased

2.According to the study done by Duke University,______________.

A. there are 100, 000 lions on the African plains

B. African lions are losing their habitat to humans

C. more and more people are moving out of Africa

D. the number of lions in West Africa has increased

3.The following are solutions mentioned in the passage to protect lions EXCEPT________.

A. expanding wildlife reserves

B. avoiding conflict between lions and farmers

C. preventing people from hunting lions illegally

D. stopping people from moving into the African plains

4.Which of the following might be the best title for the passage?

A. Losing African lions    B. Moving out of Africa

C. The kings of the jungle    D. The problems of Africa

In bringing up children, every parent watches eagerly the child’s acquisition (学会) of each new skill—— the first spoken words, the first independent steps, or the beginning of reading and writing. It is often tempting to hurry the child beyond his natural learning rate, but this can set up dangerous feelings of failure and states of worry in the child. This might happen at any stage. A baby might be firced to use a toilet too early. A young child might be encouraged to learn to read before he knows the meaning of the words he reads. On the other hand, though, if a child is left alone too much, or without any learning opportunities, he loses his natural enthusiasm for life and his desire to find out new things for himself.

Parents vary greatly in their degree of strictness towards their children. Some may be especially strict in money matters. Others are severe over time of coming home at night or punctuality for meals. In general, the controls represent the needs of the parents and the values of the community as much as the child’s own happiness.

As regards the development of moral standards in the growing child, consistency (一致性）is very important in parental teaching. To forbid a thing one day and excuse it the next is no foundation for morality. Also, parents should realize that “example is better than precept”. If they are not sincere and do not practice what they say, their children may grow confused and emotionally insecure when they grow old enough to think for themselves, and realize they have been to some extent fooled.

A sudden awareness of an obvious difference between their parents’ principles and their morals can be a dangerous disappointment.

1.In the process of children’s learning new skills parents ________.

A. should encourage them to read before they know the meaning of the words they read

B. should not expect too much of them

C. should achieve a balance between pushing them too hard and leaving them on their own

D. should create as many learning opportunities as possible

2.The second paragraph mainly tells us that _________.

A. parents should be strict with their children

B. parental controls reflect only the needs of the parents and the values of the community

C. parental restrictions vary, and are not always enforced for the benefit of the children alone

D. parents vary in their strictness towards their children according to the situation

3.The word “precept” (Line3, Para.3) probably means “_______”.

A. ideas    B. punishment

C. behavior    D. instructions

4.In moral matters, parents should ________.

A. observe the rules themselves

B. be aware of the marked difference between adults and children

C. forbid things which have no foundation in morality

D. consistently ensure the security of their children

Booking a Theatre

These locations have theatres available for rental：

*Fairview         *Palmerston       *York Woods

Priority Bookings

Each June, theatre booking requests for dates in the following calendar year (January to December) are accepted. For more information, call the Room Booking Unit at 416-397-5969.

Regular Bookings

For people who didn't make a booking request in June, call the Room Booking Unit at 416-397-5969 to check for remaining dates.

Completing a Booking

Once the library receives a request, staff will check the availability and place a tentative booking for you. You will then receive a contract that you must return with payment within 10 calendar days of the tentative booking and with a minimum of two months before the first booking to confirm the booking.

Payment

Payment for the first booking and any bookings in the current month is due when you return the signed contract. If you have booked for multiple months, payments for those months are due at the beginning of each month.

1.What’s required if you want to make priority bookings?

A. Calling the library first.    B. Booking in previous June.

C. Having a look at the theatre beforehand.    D. Paying a visit to the Room Booking Unit.

2.When should you make payments if you book a theatre in the current month?

A. Ten days before the booking.    B. When you make the booking.

C. When you return the contract.    D. At the beginning of the month.

3.What’s the rate if a non-profit organization rents a theatre at Palmerston?

A. $418.00/day.    B. $209.00/day.

C. $163/hr.    D. $150.00／hr.