Do you like listening to English songs to learn the language ? Some students don’t believe doing so can help them learn English. I have to say they think wrongly. Listening to English songs can help you learn the language better. You may ask how. Just read on.
Lyrics are not easily forgotten. You listen to them over and over again throughout your life. Once you learn them, they are going to stay with you, and you are going to review them repeatedly because you enjoy them. If you learn just one song per week for a year, those are 52 songs full of new vocabulary and phrases that you will never forget.
Songs give you perfect pronunciation models. As you learn to sing them, you are practicing your pronunciation, you are imitating native speakers, and you are learning how to speak better. The rhythm naturally leads to better pronunciation, better intonation（声调）, and more fluency.
When you start paying attention to the lyrics, your listening skills naturally improve. Once you learn a few songs, you’ll start gathering a lot of songs and vocabulary. A larger vocabulary usually means better listening comprehension. Just the fact that you start caring about the lyrics will activate your listening skills and listening to music in English will become an enjoyable learning exercise.
Another huge merit is that you get to practice your grammar. Some of the most intelligent grammar questions my students bring to me come from songs. You can probably even map the entire language into pop songs and greatly improve your grammar by learning the lyrics to your favorite songs.
Now we can conclude that listening to English songs can really help you learn the language well. So listen to more English songs in your free time. You can put the lyrics on your ipod or iphone and read them as you listen. Believe me, and you’ll benefit a lot.
1.Paragraph 2 mainly shows that by listening to English songs, you can _____.
A. improve your memory
B. have a larger vocabulary
C. gather a lot of English songs
D. go over words you have learned
2.The underlined word “merit” in Paragraph 5 means “_____”.
A. advantage B. consideration C. cause D. surprise
3.What is the text mainly about ?
A. What people can do to improve their English.
B. Why English learners like listening to English songs.
C. What songs people can listen to so as to improve English.
D. Why listening to English songs helps improve our English.
4.Which of the following best describes the relation among the paragraphs ?
Shyness is the cause of much unhappiness for a great many people. Shy people are anxious and self - conscious; that is, they are concerned with their own appearance and actions too much. Negative thoughts are constantly occurring in their minds: What kind of impression am I making? Do they like me? Do I sound stupid? Am I wearing unattractive clothes?
It is obvious that such uncomfortable feelings must affect people unfavorably. A person’s self- concept is reflected in the way he or she behaves and the way a person behaves affects other people’s reactions. In general, the way people think about themselves has a deep effect on all areas of their lives.
Shy people, who have low respect, are likely to be passive and easily influenced by others. They need faith that they are doing “the right thing”. Shy people are very sensitive to criticism. It makes them feel inferior (自卑).They also find it difficult to be pleased by praises because they believe they are unworthy of praise. A shy person may respond to a praise with a statement like this one: “You’re just saying that to make me feel good, I know it’s not true. ” It is clear that, while self- awareness is a healthy quality, overdoing it is harmful.
Can shyness be completely got rid of, or at least reduced? Fortunately, people can overcome shyness with determination since shyness goes hand in hand with lack of self respect. It is important for people to accept their weakness as well as their strengths. Each one of us has his or her own characteristics. We are interested in our own personal ways. The better we understand ourselves, the easier it becomes to live up to our chances for a rich and successful life.
1.The first paragraph is mainly about ______.
A. the cause of shyness
B. the effect of shyness on people
C. the feelings of shy people
D. the questions in the minds of shy people
2.According to the writer, self-awareness is ______.
A. harmful to people
B. a weak point of shy people
C. the cause of unhappiness
D. a healthy quality
3.What is the shy people’s reaction to praise?
A. They are pleased by it.
B. They feel it is not true.
C. They are very sensitive to it.
D. They feel they are worthy of it.
4.We can learn from the passage that shyness can ______.
A. be overcome with determination
B. help us to live up to our full development
C. enable us to understand ourselves better
D. have nothing to do with lack of self respect
Roughly half of college students will have some degree of depression at some point during their time in school. Even more startling 6. 2 percent of college students surveyed in 2012 considered suicide and 1.3 percent attempted it, according to an American College Health Association study released this spring. If you’re feeling depressed on campus, you may find the following tips helpful.
Exercise: Physical activity releases endorphins—chemicals that produce an overall positive feeling within the body, which fight depression naturally. Mental health experts claim that exercise is a solution to those feeling mild or moderate depression. However, for those severely depressed, simply doing sports is not enough.
Use school counseling services: Campuses don’t employ mental health experts simply to throw thousands of dollars down the drain. Their job is to help students, so experts recommend you use them. Most students, however, are hesitant to take a trip to their college’s counseling center, fearing being laughed at by peers. As a result, some schools like Texas Christian University, are testing students for mental health problems when they get sick and visit the campus health clinic.
Take advantage of technology: Staying in touch with family members and friends from childhood and high school has become easier than ever with the coming of Facebook and video chat services like Skype. While mental health experts insist that it’s important to make friends in your new environment and be involved in the college community, it’s also significant to keep in touch with the people you knew before college.
Go to sleep: Following a fairly regular sleep pattern can defend you against depression. In college, many students’ sleep patterns are irregular thanks to late-night studying and partying, which is harmful to their mental health. Research strongly suggests that sleep is the key to learning and memory formation.
1.According to the passage, physical activity ______.
A. is regarded as the best way to fight depression
B. contributes to the release of endorphins
C. can’t help the seriously depressed students
D. improve people’s ability to learn and memorize
2.It can be inferred from the 3rd paragraph that ______.
A. employing mental health experts on campus is a waste of money
B. students with mental health problems can’t get on well with others
C. going to college’s counseling center for help requires a lot of courage
D. sick students in Texas Christian University must take psychological tests
3.Taking advantage of technology is encouraged because it _______.
A. enables students to get involved in college life
B. helps students stay in contact with others
C. offers students a way to make new friends
D. provides a way to avoid getting bored
4.Which of the following can NOT help one reduce depression?
A. Taking exercise regularly every week.
B. Chatting with old friends with Skype.
C. Turning to mental health experts for advice.
D. Holding parties deep into the night to relax.
Grandma celebrated her fifty-third birthday just weeks before grandpa died of cancer in 1965. Although his passing was very difficult for her, I think their shared struggle to make his life longer taught grandma that good health was not to be taken for granted, and she made up her mind to live the rest of her own life as fully and as long as she could. One day, when she announced to attend lessons at the Fred Astaire Dance Studio in Portland, Oregon, where she lived, we rolled our eyes in embarrassment and helplessly wished she would just stay home and bake cookies as normal grandmothers did. Many years filled with countless dance lessons passed before we learned to appreciate the wonder of having a dancing grandma.
I suppose grandma’s primary motivation for wanting to learn to dance was social. She had been a shy girl, always very tall and heavy, and had married into grandpa’s quiet lifestyle before developing any elegance or confidence in her personal appearance. Dancing, on the other hand, filled her life with flash lights, wonderful parties, beautiful dresses, handsome young dance instructors, and the challenge of learning. Although the weekly dance lessons did not change her ample, two- hundred-pound figure, grandma surprised everyone with energetic performances on the dance floor, which soon gave her as much elegance and confidence as any Miss American competitor.
Having taken weekly dance lessons for years, my grandma learned various dances easily and was soon participating in dancing matches all over the Northwest. When I was fourteen, grandma proudly invited me to watch her compete in one of these matches to be held in the grand ballroom of the Red Lion Inn. My attitude was still unenthusiastic at that point, but to make her happy, my mother and I attended the match. As if to prove me wrong, grandma made a wonderful showing in every event she entered. I thought she was truly the queen of the ball during the dance, and my thoughts were shared by the judges a short time later when she was awarded a gold cup for her outstanding performance.
1.What did grandma learn from grandpa’s death?
A. Good health was not there for everyone.
B. She should take dance lessons.
C. She had to struggle to live a better life.
D. She should wear beautiful dresses.
2.Normal grandmas usually _______ in the author’s point of view.
A. took dance lessons
B. did some exercises at home
C. took care of grandchildren at home
D. did some housework at home
3.The author felt _______ when he was invited to watch grandma’s match.
A. happy B. proud C. excited D. uninterested
书面表达
目前，牡丹江第一高级中学发出了开展“全校阅读”活动的号召。假如你是学校学生会主席李华，请你围绕“爱读书，读好书”的主题，根据下面要点，用英语给学校学生写一封倡议书。
要点： 1.读书的意义；
2.读好书的必要性；
3.发出“爱读书，读好书”倡议
注意：1.词数100左右 2.倡议书的开头和结尾已给出。 2.提示词：学生会Student Union
Dear fellow students,
Now our school is launching a “book-reading campaign”
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短文改错
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。错误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。
A college graduate was new in the job and she found something really strange. One of her colleague was a lazy man, who usually played his digital camera or listen to music during working time. To her surprised, the boss never blamed him because his behavior.
One day, her colleague was listening to the music while the boss came and said serious, “the host computer has something wrong.” The colleague rushed to the controlling center to solving the problem and began to fix them silently. Twenty minutes later, and the host computer reworked normally. Then the graduate realized the economic loss what her colleague had saved this time must have been hundreds of his salary.
