If your mother wants to tell you something, she uses words. Birds cannot talk as we do. But some birds can make sounds to warn their young of danger.
The jackdaw is a kind of blackbirds that lives in Europe. Jackdaws live together. Young jackdaws do not know their enemies. When an older jackdaw sees a dog, it makes a loud rattling sound. The younger birds know this sound means danger is nearby. The sound warns them to know their enemies.
If a young jackdaw is in a dangerous place, a jackdaw parent flies over him from behind. The parent bird flies low over the young bird’s back. The parent’s tail feathers move quickly from side to side, trying to express, “Follow me.” At the same time, the parent calls out, “Key-aw, key-aw. ”The parent mean, “Fly home with me.” The young bird then follows the older one home. Young jackdaws do not have to learn what certain sounds mean. They know the meaning of these sounds from the time they hatch（孵出）.
1.The jackdaw lives in .
A．Europe B．Australia C．America D．Africa
2.Which of the following does this story lead you to believe?
A．All animal parents can talk to their young.
B．Dogs are the most dangerous enemies for jackdaws.
C．Young jackdaws know the meaning of their parents’ sound when they grow older.
D．Some birds can give information to one another.
3.Parent jackdaw can use their tail feathers to .
A．ask their young to follow them
B．play a game with the young
C．tell the meal time
D．give a warning of a fire
All her life, my mother wanted busy children. It was very important that her house should remain at all things clean and tidy.
You could turn your back for a moment in my mother's house, leave a half written letter on the dining room table, a magazine open on the chair, and turn around to find that my mother had "put it back where it belonged." as she explained.
My wife, on one of her first visits to my mother's house, placed a packet of biscuits on an end table and went to the kitchen to fetch a drink. When she returned, she found the packet had been removed. Confused (疑惑的), she set down her drink and went back to the kitchen for more biscuits, only to return to find that her drink had disappeared. Up to then she had guessed that everyone in my family held onto their drinks, so as not to make water rings on the end tables. Now she knows better.
These disappearances had a confusing effect on our family. We were all inclined to (有......的倾向) forgetfulness, and it was common for one of us, upon returning from the bathroom, to find the every sign of his work in progress had disappeared suddenly. "Do you remember what I was doing?" was a question frequently asked, but rarely answered.
Now my sister has developed a second-hand love of clean windows, and my brother does the cleaning in his house, perhaps to avoid having to be the one to lift his feet. I try not to think about it too much, but I have at this later time started to dust the furniture once a week.
1.Which of the following is TRUE about my mother?
A. She enjoyed removing others' drinks.
B. She became more and more forgetful.
C. She preferred to do everything by herself.
D. She wanted to keep her house in good order.
2.My wife could not find her biscuits and drink in my mother's house because _______.
A. she had already finished them
B. my mother had taken them away
C. she forgot where she had left them
D. someone in my family was holding them
3. The underlined part to the fifth paragraph suggests that my sister _______.
A. is happy to clean windows
B. loves to clean used windows
C. is fond of clean used windows
D. likes clean windows as my mother did
4.This passage mainly tells us that _______.
A. my mother often made us confused
B. my family members had a poor memory
C. my mother helped us to form a good habit
D. my wife was surprised when she visited my mother
You do not need every word to understand the meaning of what you read. In fact, too much emphasis (强调) on separate words both slows your speed and reduces your comprehension.
First, any habit which slows down your silent reading to the speed at which you speak or read aloud, is inefficient. If you point to each word as you read, or move your head, or form the words with your lips, you read poorly. Less obvious habits also hold back reading efficiency (效率). One is "saying" each word silently by moving your tongue or throat; another is "hearing" each word as you read.
These are habits which should have been outgrown long ago. The beginning reader is learning how letters can make words, how written words are pronounced, and how sentences are put together. Your reading purpose is quite different, which is to understand meaning.
It has been supposed that up to 75% of the words in English sentences are not really necessary for expressing the meaning. The secret of silent reading is to find out those key words and phrases which carry the thought, and to pay less attention to words which exist only for grammatical completeness.
An efficient reader can grasp the meaning from a page at least twice as fast as he can read the page aloud. He takes in a whole phrase or thought unit at a time. If he “says" or "hears" words to himself, they are selected ones, said for emphasis.
1.This passage is mainly about ______.
A. improving eye movement
B. reading more widely
C. changing poor reading habits
D. reading as fast as you can
2.Saying each word to yourself as you read _____.
A. improves comprehension
B. increases reading speed
C. gives too much emphasis
D. reduces reading efficiency
3.Your reading purpose should be _____.
A. to understand all the words
B. to make fewer eye movements
C. to understand meaning
D. to understand the grammatical structures
4.While reading, efficient readers usually _____.
A. move their eyes quickly
B. take in whole phrases or thought units
C. point at key words
D. read only important points for speed
In some parts of the United States, farming is easy. But farming has always been difficult in the northeastern corner of the country, which is called New England.
New England has many trees and thin, rocky soil. Anyone who has wanted to start a new farm there has had to work very hard. The first job has been cutting down the trees. The new job has been digging out the roots of the trees. Then the farmer has had the difficult job of removing stones from his land. This work of removing stones never really ends, because every winter more stones appear. They come up through the thin soil from the rocks below. Farmers have to keep removing stones from the fields. Even today, farms which have been worked on for two hundred years still keep producing more stones. That is why stone walls are used instead of fences (篱笆) in New England fields. The stone walls are not high and a man can easily climb over them. However, they keep the farmer’s cows from joining those of his neighbor’s.
1.Where is New England?
A. In England. B. In North America.
C. In South America. D. In Australia.
2.Why do stones keep appearing?
A. Because the farmers keep digging them out.
B. Because there are rocks below the soil and the soil is too thin.
C. Because there are no trees at all.
D. Because the wind keeps blowing.
3. Why do the farmers build stone walls instead of fences?
A. Because the stone walls are not high and a person can easily climb over them.
B. Because the stone walls can stop the cows from joining their neighbor’s.
C. Because there are too many stones.
D. Both A and B.
4.Which of the following is NOT true?
A. There are almost no trees in New England.
B. Farming is difficult in New England.
C. It’s difficult for farmers to remove stones from the fields.
D. The stone walls in New England are not high.
I was tired and hungry after a long day of work. When I walked into the living-room, my 12-year-old son looked up at me and said, “I __ you.” I did not ___ what to say, and I just stood there, looking ____ at him. My first ____ was that he _____need help with his homework. Then I asked, “What was that all ___?”
“Nothing,” he said, “My teacher said we should tell our parents we love them and ____ what they say.”
The next day I called his teacher to __ more about what my son said and how the other parents had reacted（ 反应 ）. “Most of the fathers had the ___ response as you did,” the teacher said, ”When I first _____ that we try this, I asked the children ____ they thought their parents ____ say. Some of them thought their parents would have heart trouble.”
Then the teacher ____ , “ I want my students to know that feeling love is an important part of _____. I’m trying to tell them it’s too bad that we don’t express (表达) our feelings. A boy _____ tell his father or mother he loves him or her.” The teacher understands that sometimes it is_____ for some of us to say something that is good for us to say.
That evening when my son___ to me, I took him in my arms and held ___ for a longer moment, saying, “Hey, I love you, ____.” I don’t know if saying that made ____ of us healthier, but it did feel pretty good.
1.A. hate B. love C. like D. enjoy
2.A. realize B. recognize C. know D. find
3.A .away B. for C. down D. on
4.A .thought B. meaning C. news D. reason
5.A. must B. should C. could D. would
6.A. for B. with C. around D. about
7. A. test B. know C. understand D. see
8. A . talk to B. chat with C. find out D. do with
9. A. same B. different C. usual D. unusual
10.A. allowed B. agreed C. planned D. suggested
11.A. how B. whether C. when D. what
12.A. would B. will C. could D. can
13.A. explained B. prepared C. informed D. developed
14.A. study B. work C. health D. body
15.A. might B. can C. should D. need
16.A. easy B. difficult C. crazy D. silly
17. A. turned B. shouted C. went D. came
18.A. on B. to C. in D. out
19.A. either B. too C. also D. again
20.A. all B. either C. none D. neither
______ role she played in the film! No wonder she has won an Oscar.
A. How interesting B. How an interesting
C. What interesting D. What an interesting
