Born in America, I spoke English, not Chinese, the language of my ancestors. When I was three, my parents flashed cards with Chinese ________ at my face, but I pushed them ________. My mom believed I would learn ________ I was ready. But the ________ never came.
On a Chinese New Year’s Eve, my uncle spoke to me in Chinese, but all I could do was ________ at him, confused, shaking my head. “Still can’t speak Chinese?” He ________ me, “You can’t even buy a fish in Chinatown.”
“Hey, this is America, not China. I’ll get some ________ with or without Chinese.” I replied and turned to my mom for ________.
“Remember to ask for fresh fish, Xin Xian Yu,” she said, handing over a $20 bill. I ________ the words, running downstairs into the streets of Chinatown.
I found the fish ________ surrounded in a sea of customers. “I’d like to buy some fresh fish,” I shouted to the fisherman. But he ________ my English words and turned to serve the next customer. The laugh of the people behind increased ________ their impatience. With every ________, the breath of the dragons on my back grew stronger—my blood boiling—________ me to cry out, “Xian Sheng Yu, please.” “Very Xian Sheng,” I repeated. The crowd burst into laughter. My face turned ________ and I ran back home ________, except for the $20 bill I held tightly in my hand.
Should I laugh or cry? They’re Chinese. I’m Chinese. I should feel right at ________. Instead, I was the joke, a disgrace (丢脸) to the language.
Sometimes, I laugh at my fish ________, but, in the end, the joke is on ________. Every laugh is a culture ________; every laugh is my heritage (传统) fading away.
1.A.custom B.games C.characters D.language
2.A.ahead B.around C.along D.aside
3.A.when B.before C.unless D.until
4.A.success B.study C.time D.attempt
5.A.aim B.joke C.nod D.stare
6.A.cared about B.laughed at C.argued with D.asked after
7.A.right now B.from now C.at times D.in time
8.A.decision B.permission C.information D.preparation
9.A.repeated B.reviewed C.spelled D.kept
10.A.farm B.stand C.pond D.market
11.A.guessed B.forgot C.doubted D.ignored
12.A.by B.near C.with D.from
13.A.second B.effort C.desire D.movement
14.A.forcing B.allowing C.finding D.leading
15.A.bright B.blank C.pale D.red
16.A.open-mouthed B.tongue-tied C.empty-handed D.broken-hearted
17.A.service B.home C.risk D.root
18.A.trade B.confidence C.challenge D.experience
19.A.it B.us C.me D.them
20.A.treasured B.lost C.valued D.reflected
Five steps to better handwriting
Some kids love handwriting, but others hate when it’s time to put their pen to paper. Maybe they are worried about their handwriting. Are you one of them? 1. Here are five steps that really work!
Get a great grasp
Try this — hold your pencil at the top and try to write your name. Pretty hard? But when you hold your pencil the correct way, writing is much easier. 2. Hold it in place with your thumb, and your index (食指) and middle fingers.
Let the lines be your guide
Lined paper is your friend! Those lines can help you create letters that are the right size and proportion (均衡). 3. Also be sure to fill up the lined space completely. Those capital letters should be from the bottom line to the top one.
Slow down
If your writing is hard to read, try slowing down a little. If you rush, it’s hard to control where you stop and start your letters.
Lower the pressure
4. That makes it harder to make the smooth lines. Try easing up and don’t hold the pencil too tightly.
5.
Lots of games require you to write or draw pictures. So even though it’s not schoolwork, you’re still using the skills you need to control your pen better.
A.Play games
B.Ask for more advice
C.So “a” should be half the height of a capital “A”.
D.You’ve been writing since you were a little kid.
E.Some kids press down really hard when they write.
F.The good news is that just about everyone can improve their handwriting.
G.The best way to hold a pen or pencil is to let it rest next to the base of your thumb.
A small piece of fish each day may keep the heart doctor away. That’s the finding of a study of Dutch men in which deaths from heart disease were more than 50 percent lower among those who consumed (消耗) at least an ounce (盎司) of salt water fish per day compared to those who never ate fish.
The Dutch research is one of three human studies that give strong scientific support to the long held belief that eating fish can provide health benefits, particularly to the heart.
Heart disease is the number-one killer in the United States, with more than 550,000 deaths occurring from heart attacks each year. But long before researchers have noticed that the incidence (发生率) of heart disease is lower in cultures that consume more fish than Americans do. There are fewer heart disease deaths, for example, among the Eskimos of Greenland, who consume about 14 ounces of fish a day, and among the Japanese, whose daily fish consumption (消费) averages more than 3 ounces.
For 20 years, the Dutch study followed 852 middle-aged men, 20 percent of whom ate no fish.
At the start of the study, average fish consumption was about two-thirds of an ounce each day, with more men eating lean fish than fatty fish.
During the next two decades, 78 of the men died from heart disease. The fewest deaths were among the group who regularly ate fish, even at levels far lower than those of the Japanese or Eskimos. This relationship was true regardless of other factors such as age, high blood pressure, or blood cholesterol (胆固醇) levels.
1.We can infer from the passage that there are fewer heart disease deaths ________.
A.in highly-developed countries
B.in countries of the yellow-skin race
C.in the countries with good production of fish
D.in the countries with high consumption of fish
2.The underlined words “lean fish” (paragraph 5) mean “________”.
A.large fish B.fresh fish
C.fish that have little fat D.fish that live in salt water
3.The passage is mainly about ________.
A.the changes in people’s diet
B.the effect of fish eating on people’s health
C.the high incidence of heart disease in some countries
D.the daily fish consumption of people in different cultures
It may help you to know that there is no such thing as a perfect speech. At some point in every speech, every speaker says something that is not understood exactly as he has planned. Fortunately, such moments are usually not obvious(明显的) to the listeners. Why? Because the listeners do not know what the speaker plans to say. They hear only what the speaker does say. If you lose your place for a moment, wrongly change the order of a couple of sentences, or forget to pause at a certain point, no one will be any the wiser. When such moments occur, don't worry about them. Just continue as if nothing happened.
Even if you do make an obvious mistake during a speech, that doesn't really matter. If you have ever listened to Martin Luther King's famous speech---"I have a Dream", you may notice that he stumbles(结巴) over his words twice during the speech. Most likely, however, you don't remember. Why? Because you were fixing your attention on his message rather than on his way of speech-making.
People care a lot about making a mistake in a speech because they regard speech-making as a kind of performance rather than as an act of communication(交流). They feel the listeners are like judges in an ice-skating competition. But, in fact, the listeners are not looking for a perfect performer. They are looking for a well-thought-out speech that expresses the speaker's ideas clearly and directly. Sometimes a mistake or two can actually increase a speaker's attractiveness by making him more human.
As you work on your speech, don't worry about being perfect. Once you free your mind of this, you will find it much easier to give your speech freely.
1.The underlined part in the first paragraph means that no one will ______.
A.be smarter than you B.notice your mistakes
C.do better than you D.know what you are talking about
2.You don't remember obvious mistakes in a speech because ______.
A.your attention is on the content
B.you don't fully understand the speech
C.you don't know what the speaker plans to say
D.you find the way of speech-making more important
3.It can be inferred from the passage that ______.
A.giving a speech is like giving a performance
B.one or two mistakes in a speech may not be bad
C.the listeners should pay more attention to how a speech is made
D.the more mistakes a speaker makes, the more attractive he will be.
4.What would be the best title for the passage?
A.How to Be a Perfect Speaker B.How to Make a Perfect Speech
C.Don't Expect a Perfect Speech D.Don't Expect Mistakes in a Speech
The 92-year-old, thin, calm and proud lady, who is fully dressed each morning by eight o’clock, even though she is nearly blind, moved to a nursing home today.
Her husband of 70 years recently passed away, making the move necessary. After many hours of waiting patiently in the hall of the nursing home, she smiled sweetly when told her room was ready.
As she walked slowly to the elevator, I provided a true description of her tiny room, including the old sheets that had been hung on her window. “I love it,” she said with the happiness of an eight-year-old having just been presented with a new puppy.
“Mrs. Jones, you haven’t seen the room…just wait.”
“That doesn’t matter,” she replied. “Happiness is something you decide ahead of time. Whether I like my room or not doesn’t depend on how the furniture is arranged. It’s how I arranged my mind. I have already decided to love it. It’s a decision I make every morning when I wake up. Each day is a gift, and as long as my eyes open I’ll focus on the new day and all the happy memories I’ve stored away.” She went on to explain, “Old age is like a bank account. You take what you’ve put in. So, my advice to you would be to put in a lot of happiness in the bank account of memories. Thank you for your part in filling my memory bank.” And with a smile, she said, “All my memories are happy ones.”
Mrs. Jones was always happy in the nursing home and she died at the age of 108.
1.We can infer from the passage that the author ________.
A.is one of Mrs. Jones’ children B.is a relative of Mrs. Jones
C.works in the nursing home D.is the owner of the nursing home
2.The room in which the old lady will live ________.
A.is very comfortable B.is fairly big
C.isn’t well equipped D.is equipped with new furniture
3.Mrs. Jones was very happy when told about her room because she ________.
A.couldn’t see what her room was like
B.thought the nursing home was her home
C.would have to live in the nursing home
D.had already made up her mind to be happy
4.Which of the following words can best describe Mrs. Jones?
A.Proud. B.Cheerful. C.Determined. D.Honest.
There are many fun, free activities that you can do as a family. All that is required is a bit of imagination and some time. And the best part is that these are the kind of fun, family memories a child will remember for a lifetime.
Family Game Night
Kids often get games for Christmas or birthdays, and would love to have a chance to play with their family. Or, make up some games of their own. Charades (字谜游戏) is a fun game that will challenge children to use their imagination. Divide the family into teams and let each team come up with words and the other has to act out.
Family Art Time
Pick some time for the family to sit down and come up with their own art. It doesn’t need to be just a drawing—take some old magazines, let the kids cut out pictures and paste them into their own shape. Or let them use leaves, branches and whatever else they can find to make something from their imagination.
Family Picnic
Taking the family for a picnic is a great way for some fun that doesn’t cost any money. If the weather is nice, take them to a park or playground and let them have a day of playing.
Family Field Trip
A family field trip doesn’t have to cost a cent. Ask a nearby farm if you can bring your kids out for a tour and to see some of the animals. Or take them to a park to find certain items from nature. Ask a local business if you could bring the family for a tour to see how things work—you might be surprised at the number of people who would be excited to share what they do with others, and it could be an interesting lesson for kids.
1.When playing the game charades, kids are supposed to ________.
A.prepare some cakes for each other
B.be quick to follow others’ actions
C.sing a song for each other in turn
D.connect actions with certain words
2.Which activities in the passage depend much on the kids’ imagination?
A.Family Picnic ＆ Family Field Trip
B.Family Game Night ＆ Family Picnic
C.Family Game Night ＆ Family Art Time
D.Family Field Trip ＆ Family Game Night
3.It can be inferred from the last paragraph that ________.
A.it costs a lot to visit a park for a family
B.you may share your own experience with workers
C.you should ask for permission from the farm owner
D.all the people will be excited to share what they have with you
4.The passage is mainly intended for ________.
A.teachers B.parents
C.tourists D.teenagers
