As a group of young African immigrants struggle to adapt to life in the United States, an after-school drama program at White Oak Middle School aims to make their lives easier by first making them a little harder.
Project X is a program that uses drama, dance, poetry and other creative outlets to help students discuss the tough and sometimes painful problems they face as pre-teen immigrants with language barriers. A final unveiling of their creation will be performed for friends and family at the end of the year at Imagination Stage.
Wanjiru Kamau, coordinator of White Oak’s African Club said it’s important to give troubles to group members to help them find their place at the school. “It comforts those who are uncomfortable, and it discomforts those who are comfortable,” Kamau said of Project X.
Kamau teamed up with Imagination Stage after she noticed that many African students seemed uncomfortable talking about problems, such as being laughed at by their fellow students about how they look and talk. When most of the kids join the club, they speak little or no English, Kamau said. Each week, the club typically draws five to ten students who are originally from Africa for discussion sessions and the Project X programme.
“We are going to express ourselves through our words and our actions, and that’s powerful,” said teaching artist Meg Green as she introduced fill-in-the-blank poems the students wrote about their identities.
One student, Frank Ketchouang, 13, wrote, “I am from the world; I am love,” which drew oohs and aahs from the group. Ketchouang has been in the United States for less than a year, said Program Coordinator Chad Dike. When Ketchouang started attending Project X, he had been in the United States for two months and spoke no English. Now he’s one of the group’s most outgoing members and helps translate instructions from English to Creole for the group’s newest member, who is from Haiti.
Many people will give up when there’s a language barrier, “but these students prove them wrong”. Kamau said. “You do have something to give. You are important. When TV, media, etc. are bringing them down, this program is bringing them up.”
1.Project X is intended for helping the young African immigrants to_________.
A. get over language barriers
B. enrich after-school life
C. overcome tough problems
D. become more creative
2.How well the members learn in the Project X program is shown by_________.
A. their annual creative performances
B. their annual scores gained at school
C. the comments of friends and family
D. the comments of the program teachers
3.What do we know about the Imagination Stage?
A. It’s established by Kamau for Project X.
B. It’s a cooperative partner of White Oak’S African Club.
C. It’s a project designed by White Oak Middle School.
D. It’s operated once at the end of each year.
4.According to the author, what Franck Ketchouang wrote was______.
A. silly B. simple C. excellent D. contradictory
5.The passage is written mainly to_______.
A. introduce the Project X program
B. inspire immigrants to never give up
C. advocate White Oak’S African Club
D. call for more attention to immigrants
I was interested to read a newspaper article about a new concept in old people’s homes in France. The idea is simple, but revolutionary——combining a residential home for the elderly with a nursery school in the same building. The children and the residents eat lunch together and share activities. In the afternoons, the residents enjoy reading or telling stories to the children, and if a child is feeling sad or tired, there is always a kind lap to sit on and a cuddle(拥抱). There are trips out and birthday parties too.
The advantages are enormous for everyone concerned. The children are happy because they get a lot more individual attention, and respond well because someone has time for them. They see illness and death and learn to accept them. The residents are happy because they feel useful and needed. They are more active and more interested in life when the children are around and they take more interest in their appearance too.
Nowadays there is less and less contact between the old and the young. There are many reasons for this, including the breakdown of the extended family, working parents with no time to care for aging relations, families that have moved away, and smaller flats with no room for grandparents. But the result is the same——increasing numbers of children without grandparents and old people who have no contact with children. And more old people who are lonely and feel useless, along with more and more families with young children who desperately need more support. It’s a major problem in many societies.
That’s why intergenerational programmes, designed to bring the old and the young together, are growing in popularity all over the world. There are examples of successful attempts all over the world. Using young people to teach IT skills to older people is one obvious example. Using old people as volunteer assistants in schools is another, perhaps reading with children who need extra attention.
1.A nursery school is a place where _______.
A. future nurses are trained
B. the elderly live
C. children are taken care of
D. the old join in activities
2.Which is true according to the passage?
A. A number of assistants are employed to take care of the children.
B. The new concept benefits both the elderly and the children.
C. The children become stronger after getting more individual attention.
D. The children learn that sick people will die.
3.What is mainly talked about in Paragraph 3?
A. The reason why the old and the young are separated.
B. The support children need.
C. One reason why children don’t live with their grandparents.
D. The problem that the old and the young are separated.
4.What does the “intergenerational programmes” in Paragraph 4 refer to?
A. Combining elderly homes with nursery schools.
B. Letting the children and the residents eat together.
C. Asking young people to teach IT skills to older people.
D. Using old people as volunteer assistants in schools.
5. What is the best title for the passage?
A. Old people’s Homes in France
B. Building Bridges of Life
C. A Solution to the Elderly Problem
D. Children’s New Happy Life
One year our family decided to have a special celebration of Mother’s Day, as a token of appreciations for all the sacrifices that Mother had made for us. After breakfast we had arranged, as a surprise, to hire a car and take her for a beautiful drive in the country. Mother was rarely able to have a treat like that, because she was busy in the house nearly all the time.
But on the very morning of the day, we changed the plan a little, because it occurred to Father that it would be even better to take Mother fishing. As the car was hired and paid for, we might as well use it to drive up into the hills where the streams are. As Father said, if you just go driving without object, you have a sense of aimlessness, but if you are going to fish there is a definite purpose that heightens the enjoyment.
So we all felt it would be nicer for Mother to have a definite purpose . Father had just got a fishing rod the day before, which he said mother could use if she wanted to. Only Mother said she would much rather watch him fish than try to fish herself.
So we got her to make up a sandwich lunch in case we got hungry, though we were to come home again to a big festive dinner.
Well, when the car came to the door, it turned out that there was not as much space in it as we had supposed. It was plain that we couldn’t all get in.
Father said that he could just stay home and put in the time working in the garden. He said that there was a lot of rough dirty work that he could do, like digging a trench for the garbage, which would save hiring a man, and so he said that he’d stay home; he said that we were not to let the fact that he had not had a real holiday for three years stand in our way. He wanted us to go right ahead and not to mind him.
But of course we all felt that it would never do to let Father stay home, especially as we knew he would make trouble if he did. The two girls, Anne and Mary, would have stayed and helped the maid get dinner, only it seemed such a pity,for the two girls were eager to show their new hats on a lovely day like this. But they said that Mother had only to say the word and they’d gladly stay home and work. Will and I would have dropped out, but unfortunately we wouldn’t have been any use in preparing the dinner.
1.The author’s family decided to celebrate Mother’s Day specially to _______.
A. show love for their mother
B. show gratitude to their mother
C. show respect for their mother
D. to make up for a previous appointment
2.According to Paragraph 2, we know that the plan was changed because________.
A. Father proposed to go fishing out
B. we thought that driving out is boring
C. we failed to hire a car to go out
D. the car was not big enough
3.What problem did we find when the car arrived?
A. The car was too old to drive on mountain roads.
B. The car was larger than we expected.
C. The car was too small to accommodate us all.
D. The car was too plain looking.
4.Why didn’t the author drop out of the activity?
A. Because his sisters didn’t join in.
B. Because he needed to have dinner.
C. Because he couldn’t cook the dinner.
D. Because he hadn’t had a real holiday for three years.
5.Which of the following proverbs describes the text best?
A. Everything comes to him who waits.
B. Changes always go beyond plans.
C. Better late than never.
D. Once on shore, one prays no more.
When several people look at the same person, it is not unusual for each of them to see different things; when you are alone observing one behavior or a person at two different times, you may see different things. The followings are but some of the factors that lead to these varying perceptions(感知,认识):
(1) Each person’s perceptions of others are formed by his or her own cultural conditioning, education, and personal experiences.
(2) Sometimes perceptions differ because of what we choose to observe and how we deal with what’ve observed. It is not necessarily true that person perception is based on observations of a particular person. Your observations may be totally controlled by what others have told you about this person; or you may focus primarily on the situation or role relationship. Most people do not use the same standard to measure their parents, their friends, and strangers.
(3) Sometimes we see only what we want to see or don’t see what may be obvious to others because of our own needs, desires, or temporary emotional states. This is a process known as selective perception. Selective perception is obviously more difficult when contradictory information is particularly obvious, but it can be done. We can ignore the stimulus——“He’s basically a good boy so what I saw was not shoplifting(入店行窃).” We can reduce the importance of the contradictory information ——“All kids get into mischief(顽皮). Taking a book from a bookstore isn’t such a big deal.” We can change the meaning of the contradictory information--- “It wasn’t shoplifting because he was going to pay for it later.”…
1.The first factor given by the author that affects our perception is _____.
A. our hearing and visual abilities
B. cultural background and personal experiences
C. the experience one learns from others
D. critical measures taken by other people
2.While observing a particular person,________.
A. one is likely to take all aspects into consideration
B. one pays more attention to his/her advantages
C. children often differ from grown-ups in perception
D. one tends to choose certain aspects to look at
3.Observation of the same person by two people at the same time may differ because _____.
A. they follow different standards
B. either of them may be slow to catch information
C. the time for observation is not long enough
D. each of them uses different language to express his/her impressions
4. The underlined word “stimulus” in Paragraph 4 refers to _____.
A. something attractive
B. selective perception
C. contradictory information
D. shoplifting
5.The worst thing in selective perception is that ______.
A. the information received runs against your desire
B. facts can be twisted or totally ignored
C. importance of the contradictory information can be overrated (估计过高)
D. misbehaved children may not be punished
People in communities have slowly been pushed apart through the years, mostly because people simply aren’t taking the time to say a simple “hello”. After considering this phenomenon, I decided I was going to change the way I got on 1. others.
My opportunity came one morning when I was in the community library. I passed by a girl 2. dropped her books out of her locker. 3. (think) that someone else would help her pick them up, I continued 4. way. However, when I had to go back 5. I forgot my book, I noticed she had just finished picking them up by herself. No one had stopped 6. (help) her.
“OK,” I thought to myself, “this is where I should have changed.”
My best opportunity came a few days later when I saw a man sitting by himself waiting for the library to open, so I sat down next to him and 7. (begin) a conversation. 8. was difficult to get started ,and even when I had to say goodbye, almost every response from my new friend had a tone (语气) of doubt in it .And who could blame him?
People aren’t used to making 9. unprepared chat with a stranger. But a change, no matter how desperately it is needed, doesn’t just happen. It takes people like us to make it possible. I advise you to take a small step out of your comfort zone and try to make someone’s day a little 10.
(bright) .Together, we can really make our society come closer as a whole.
When I was fifteen, I announced to my English class that I was going to write my own books. Half the students smiled , and even worse, the rest nearly fell out of their chairs laughing. “Don’t be . Only geniuses can become writers.” the English teacher said, “And you are getting a D this term.” I was so that I burst into tears. That night I wrote a short poem about broken dreams and mailed it to the newspaper. To my , they published it and sent me two dollars. I was a published and paid writer. I showed my teacher and fellow students. They laughed, “Just plain dumb luck,” the teacher said. I tasted ; I’d sold the first thing I’d ever written. That was more than any of them had done and if it was just dumb luck, that was fine with me.
During the next two years, I sold dozens of poems and letters. By the time I graduated from high school, I had scrapbooks (剪贴簿) with my published works. I never my writing to my teachers, friends or my family again because they were dream .
I had four children at the time. While the children slept, I typed on my ancient typewriter. I wrote what I felt. It took nine months. I chose a and mailed it. A month later I received a contract, an advance on payments, and a request to start another book. Crying Wind, which became a best seller, was translated into fifteen languages and sold worldwide. My first book also became required in native American schools in Canada.
In the year I ever had as a writer I earned two dollars. In my best year I earned 36,000 dollars. People ask what college I , what degrees I have and what qualifications I have to be a writer. The answer is: “None.” I just write. I’m not a genius. I use an electric typewriter that I paid a hundred and twenty nine dollars for six years ago. I do all the housework and fit my writing in a few minutes here and there. I’ve written eight books. To all those who dream of writing, I’m shouting at you: “Yes, you can. Don’t listen to them.” I don’t write right but I’ve succeeded. Writing is ; it’s fun and anyone can do it. Of course, a little dumb luck doesn’t hurt.
1.A. unkindly B. happily C. willingly D. crazily
2.A. curious B. depressed C. excited D. silly
3.A. unlucky B. ashamed C. moved D. unconfident
4.A. sad B. innocent C. disappointing D. puzzling
5.A. puzzlement B. expectation C. astonishment D. disappointment
6.A. coldness B. failure C. success D. prejudice
7.A. furnished B. linked C. combined D. filled
8.A. remembered B. concluded C. described D. mentioned
9.A. killers B. makers C. designers D. creators
10.A. writer B. reporter C. publisher D. manager
11.A. working on B. going on C. turning on D. putting on
12.A. writing B. reading C. selling D. buying
13.A. busiest B. unluckiest C. worst D. highest
14.A. worked B. attended C. admitted D. participated
15.A. easy B. hard C. convenient D. practical
