Do American children still learn handwriting in school? In the age of the keyboard, some people seem to think handwriting lessons are on the way out. 90% of teachers say they are required to teach handwriting. But studies have yet to answer the question of how well they are teaching it. One study published this year found that about three out of every four teachers say they are not prepared to teach handwriting. Some teachers are teaching handwriting by providing instruction for 10 to 15 minutes a day, and then other teachers who basically teach it for 60 to 70 minutes a day — which really for handwriting is pretty much.
Many adults remember learning that way — by copying letters over and over again. Today’ s thinking is that short periods of practice are better. Many experts also think handwriting should not be taught by itself. Instead, they say it should be used as a way to get students to express ideas. After all, that is why we write.
Handwriting involves two skills. One is legibility, which means forming the letters so they can be read. The other is fluency — writing without having to think about it. Fluency continues to develop up until high school.
But not everyone masters these skills. Teachers commonly report that about one fourth of their kids have poor handwriting. Some people might think handwriting is not important any more because of computers and voice recognition programs.
But Steve Graham at Vanderbilt says word processing is rarely done in elementary school, especially in the early years. American children traditionally first learn to print, and then to write in cursive, which connects the letters. But guess what we learned from a spokeswoman for the College Board, which administers the SAT college admission test. More than 75 percent of students choose to print their essay on the test rather than write in cursive.
1.From Paragraph 1 we can learn ________.
A. teaching handwriting is a basic requirement in teaching job
B. most teachers prefer to teach handwriting
C. teachers spend little time in teaching handwriting
D. a keyboard has taken the place of the handwriting entirely
2.The underlined word “legibility” in Paragraph 3 means ________.
A. being easy to read B. being complex
C. being unexpected D. being unreadable
3.The best title for the passage is ________.
A. How to improve handwriting in school
B. Right or wrong: the death of handwriting
C. Handwriting involves two skills
D. Handwriting lessons are on the way out
4. The author’ s attitude towards whether still to learn handwriting in school is________.
A. negative B. objective
C. critical D. optimistic
“Do you like doing things for people?” I asked a friend.
“Yes, most of the time,” she replied.
“Most of the time?”
“Well, I love to do things that are unexpected. I like to do little things most people wouldn't think about doing,” she said.
“But why did you say most of the time?”
“Well, sometimes after doing those little things people take advantage of you. I mean, they expect you to do it again. They ask you to do it. That’s when I don’t like it.”
It was odd that I had this conversation. This just happened to me. I love to do little things. I will pay for a meal card for the people in the office every time we have a meeting there. Not a big thing. It’s a little thing. $5.30 will pay for almost five lunches. Hey, big spender!
I also bought a bag of animal crackers for a friend at work. She was having a tough day and not very happy at all. I drove down to the Wal-Mart and picked up a huge bag for under $2.00. Her smile was worth it.
But one week she said, “Bob, we ran out of crackers. We love them so much.” I didn't want to do it. I smiled and she persisted. I finally admitted, “It’s different when I do it because I want to, but now you are trying to make me go to get them. It’s not the same.” But I bought it for her.
Unfortunately, a big fire in my family took away all the possessions we had. I didn’t know what to do and how to do it. What happened to me then surprised me most. I once had my bike repaired, but the repairman said “no charge” on hearing my sufferings. A stranger called James Kennedy read some pieces I’d written about our sufferings for Slate, the online magazine, and wanted to give us a new house across the lake from New Orleans. I refused but I felt moved. Another poet at the University of Florida also wanted to let his house to me free of charge while he was on holiday. My mates gave us more money for us to rebuild my home. When you do something kind for others, do you always get rewarded? Yes, but not in the way you might expect.
1.What’s the main purpose of the first paragraph?
A. To tell the background of the story.
B. To attract the attention of the readers.
C. To get the readers to know main idea directly.
D. To explain the reasons why he wrote the passage.
2.What do we know about James Kennedy?
A. He was a writer of an online magazine.
B. He was also a poet at the University of Florida.
C. He offered the author a new house free of charge.
D. He learned about the author’s sufferings online.
3.What can we learn from the passage?
A. Misfortune of blessing on happiness.
B. Never too late to learn.
C. Helping others means helping yourself.
D. Many hands make the work lighter.
假设你是李华，正在带领来自英国某中学的交换生参观你校的图书馆。请你根据以下要点，用英语为他们做一个简短的介绍：
1. 图书馆的环境：前有花园，后有教学楼，内有各种书籍、报刊杂志等；
2. 借阅规定：一次至多借5本，保留10天；
3. 开放时间：周二到周日8：30------21：30，周一闭馆。
注意：
1. 词数100左右；
2. 可以适当增加细节，以使行文连贯；
3. 开头已给出，不计入总词数；
4. 文中不得出现你学校的名称。
假定英语课上老师要求同桌之间交换修改作文，请你修改你同桌写的以下作文。文中共有10处语言错误，每句中最多有两处。每处错误仅涉及一个单词的增加、删除或修改。
增加：在缺词处加一个漏字符号（∧），并在其下面写出该加的词。
删除：把多余的词用斜线（╲）划掉。
修改：在错的词下划一横线，并在该词下面写出修改后的词
注意：1．每处错误及其修改均仅限一词；
2．只允许修改10处，多者（从第11处起）不计分。
Xie Lei told me that she feels much more at home in England now, and that had seemed very strange ago now appears quite normal. “I’ve just got one more thing achieve. I have been very occupied to work that I haven’t had time for social activities. I think it’s important to have a balance in study and a social life, so I’m going to join in a few clubs. Hopeful I’ll make some new friends.”
We will follow Xie Lei’s progresses in later editions of this newspaper but for now, we wish Xie Lei all the best in his new enterprise. She deserves to succeed.
I don’t know what it is. No matter__1.___ I go to a post office and no matter where the post office is, I always find____2.__ (me) standing in line behind someone who has a lot of business to do.
One day, I had to buy a couple of stamps, but I had to wait behind an old lady who took fifteen minutes____3.___(finish) a form that a child could do in one minute.___ 4.____( feel) that I could not stand waiting in such a line any longer, I decided to join___5.____ one. It seemed twice as ___6.___as the first line, but at least it was moving. It turned out to be the worst choice I had ever made. As soon as I ___7.__（lose）my place in the first line, the one I joined slowed to a stop. I had no choice__8.__ to wait behind a schoolboy who was taking half an hour to choose a new set of postcards. At last it was my turn. I nearly jumped for joy. Then the clerk behind ___9.___ counter, a middle-aged fat guy, stood up, pushed forward a printed sign saying “Position Closed” and ____10.___(say) without a smile, “Sorry, going to lunch.”
