Five years ago, when I taught art at a school in Seattle, I used Tinkertoys as a test at the beginning of a term to find out something about my students. I put a small set of Tinkertoys in front of each student, and said: “Make something out of the Tinkertoys. You have 45 minutes today — and 45 minutes each day for the rest of the week.”
A few students hesitated to start. They waited to see the rest of the class would do. Several others checked the instructions and made something according to one of the model plans provided. Another group built something out of their own imaginations.
Once I had a boy who worked experimentally with Tinkertoys in his free time, his constructions filled a shelf in the art classroom and a good part of his bedroom at home. I was delighted at the presence of such a student. Here was an exceptionally creative mind at work. His presence meant that I had an unexpected teaching assistant in class whose creativity would infect(感染) other students.
Encouraging this kind of thinking has a downside. I ran the risk of losing those students who had a different style of thinking. Without fail one would declare, “But I’m just not creative.”
“Do you dream at night when you’re asleep?”
“Oh, sure.”
“So tell me one of your most interesting dreams.” The student would tell something wildly imaginative. Flying in the sky or in a time machine or growing three heads. “That’s pretty creative. Who does that for you?”
“Nobody. I do it.”
“Really-at night, when you’re asleep?”
“Sure.”
“Try doing it in the daytime, in class, okay?”
1.The teacher used Tinkertoys in class in order to ________.
A.know more about the students
B.make the lessons more exciting
C.raise the students’ interest in art
D.teach the students about toy design
2.What do we know about the boy mentioned in Paragraph 3?
A.He liked to help his teacher. B.He preferred to study alone.
C.He was active in class. D.He was imaginative.
3.What does the underlined word “downside” in Paragraph 4 probably mean?
A.Mistake. B.Drawback.
C.Difficulty. D.Burden.
4.Why did the teacher ask the students to talk about their dreams?
A.To help them to see their creativity.
B.To find out about their sleeping habits.
C.To help them to improve their memory.
D.To find out about their ways of thinking.
The meaning of silence varies among cultural groups.Silences may be thoughtful, or they may be empty when a person has nothing to say. A silence in a conversation may also show stubbornness, uneasiness, or worry. Silence may be viewed by some cultural groups as extremely uncomfortable; therefore attempts may be made to fill every gap(间隙) with conversation. Persons in other cultural groups value silence and view it as necessary for understanding a person's needs.
Many Native Americans value silence and feel it is a basic part of communicating among people, just as some traditional Chinese and Thai persons do. Therefore, when a person from one of these cultures is speaking and suddenly stops, what may be implied(暗示) is that the person wants the listener to consider what has been said before continuing.In these cultures, silence is a call for reflection.
Other cultures may use silence in other ways, particularly when dealing with conflicts among people or in relationships of people with different amounts of power. For example, Russian, French, and Spanish persons may use silence to show agreement between parties about the topic under discussion. However, Mexicans may use silence when instructions are given by a person in authority rather than be rude to that person by arguing with him or her. In still another use, persons in Asian cultures may view silence as a sign of respect, particularly to an elder or a person in authority.
Nurses and other care-givers need to be aware of the possible meanings of silence when they come across the personal anxiety their patients may be experiencing. Nurses should recognize their own personal and cultural construction of silence so that a patient’s silence is not interrupted too early or allowed to go on unnecessarily. A nurse who understands the healing(治愈) value of silence can use this understanding to assist in the care of patients from their own and from other cultures.
1.What does the author say about silence in conversations?
A.It implies anger.
B.It promotes friendship.
C.It is culture-specific.
D.It is content-based.
2.Which of the following people might regard silence as a call for careful thought?
A.The Chinese.
B.The French.
C.The Mexicans.
D.The Russians.
3.What does the author advise nurses to do about silence?
A.Let it continue as the patient pleases.
B.Break it while treating patients.
C.Evaluate its harm to patients.
D.Make use of its healing effects.
4.What may be the best title for the text?
A.Sound and Silence
B.What It Means to Be Silent
C.Silence to Native Americans
D.Speech Is Silver; Silence Is Gold
Minutes after the last movie ended yesterday at the Plaza Theater, employees were busy sweeping up popcorns and gathering coke cups. It was a scene that had been repeated many times in the theater’s 75-year history. This time, however, the cleanup was a little different. As one group of workers carried out the rubbish, another group began removing seats and other theater equipment in preparation for the building’s end.
The film classic The Last Picture Show was the last movie shown in the old theater. Though the movie is 30 years old, most of the 250 seats were filled with teary-eyed audience wanting to say good-bye to the old building. Theater owner Ed Bradford said he chose the movie because it seemed proper. The movie is set in a small town where the only movie theater is preparing to close down.
Bradford said that large modem theaters in the city made it impossible for the Plaza to compete. He added that the theater’s location (位置) was also a reason. “This used to be the center of town,” he said. “Now the area is mostly office buildings and warehouses.”
Last week some city officials suggested the city might be interested in turning the old theater into a museum and public meeting place. However, these plans were given up because of financial problems. Bradford sold the building and land to a local development firm, which plans to build a shopping complex on the land where the theater is located.
The theater audience said good-bye as Bradford locked the doors for the last time. After 75 years the Plaza Theater has shown its last movie. The theater will be missed.
1.In what way was yesterday’s cleanup at the Plaza special?
A.It made room for new equipment.
B.It signaled the closedown of the theater.
C.It was done with the help of the audience.
D.It marked the 75th anniversary of the theater.
2.Why was The Last Picture Stow put on?
A.It was an all-time classic.
B.It was about the history of the town.
C.The audience requested it.
D.The theater owner found it suitable.
3.What will probably happen to the building?
A.It will be repaired.
B.It will be turned into a museum.
C.It will be knocked down.
D.It will be sold to the city government.
4.What can we infer about the audience?
A.They are disappointed with Bradford.
B.They are sad to say goodbye to the old theater.
C.They are supportive of the city officials.
D.They are keen to have a shopping center.
Some of the world’s most famous musicians recently gathered in Paris and New Orleans to celebrate the first annual International Jazz Day. UNESCO( United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) recently set April 30 as a day to raise awareness of jazz music, its significance, and its potential as a unifying(联合) voice across cultures.
Despite the celebrations, though, in the U.S. the jazz audience continues to shrink and grow older, and the music has failed to connect with younger generations.
It’s Jason Moran’s job to help change that. As the Kennedy Center’s artistic adviser for jazz, Moran hopes to widen the audience for jazz, make the music more accessible, and preserve its history and culture.
“Jazz seems like it’s not really a part of the American appetite,” Moran tells National Public Radio’s reporter Neal Conan. “What I’m hoping to accomplish is that my generation and younger start to reconsider and understand that jazz is not black and write anymore. It’s actually color, and it’s actually digital.”
Moran says one of the problems with jazz today is that the entertainment aspect of the music has been lost. “The music can’t be presented today the way it was in 1908 or 1958. It has to continue to move, because the way the world works is not the same,” says Moran.
Last year, Moran worked on a project that arranged Fats Waller’s music for a dance party, “Just to kind of put it back in the mind that Waller is dance music as much as it is concert music,” says Moran. “For me, it’s the recontextualization. In music, where does the emotion(情感) lie? Are we, as humans, gaining any insight(感悟) on how to talk about ourselves and how something as abstract as a Charlie Parker record gets us into a dialogue about our emotions and our thoughts? Sometimes we lose sight that the music has a wider context,” says Moran, “so I want to continue those dialogues. Those are the things I want to foster.”
1.Why did UNESCO set April 30 as International Jazz Day?
A.To remember the birth of jazz.
B.To protect cultural diversity.
C.To encourage people to study music.
D.To recognize the value of jazz.
2.What does the underlined word “that” in paragraph 3 refer to?
A.Jazz becoming more accessible.
B.The production of jazz growing faster.
C.Jazz being less popular with the young.
D.The jazz audience becoming larger.
3.What can we infer about Moran’s opinion on jazz?
A.It will disappear gradually.
B.It remains black and white.
C.It should keep up with the times.
D.It changes every 50 years.
4.Which of the following can be the best title for the text?
A.Exploring the Future of Jazz.
B.The Rise and Fall of Jazz.
C.The Story of a Jazz Musician.
D.Celebrating the Jazz Day.
As cultural symbols go, the American car is quite young. The Model T Ford was built at the Piquette Plant in Michigan a century ago, with the first rolling off the assembly line（装配线） on September 27, 1908. Only eleven cars were produced the next month. But eventually Henry Ford would build fifteen million of them.
Modern America was born on the road, behind a wheel. The car shaped some of the most lasting aspects of American culture: the roadside diner, the billboard, the motel, even the hamburger. For most of the last century, the car represented what it meant to be American—going forward at high speed to find new worlds. The road novel, the road movie, these are the most typical American ideas, born of abundant petrol, cheap cars and a never-ending interstate highway system, the largest public works project in history.
In 1928 Herbert Hoover imagined an America with “a chicken in every pot and a car in every garage.” Since then, this society has moved onward, never looking back, as the car transformed America from a farm-based society into an industrial
The cars that drove the American Dream have helped to create a global ecological disaster. In America the demand for oil has grown by 22 percent since 1990.
The problems of excessive（过度的）energy consumption, climate change and population growth have been described in a book by the American writer Thomas L. Friedman. He fears the worst, but hopes for the best.
Friedman points out that the green economy（经济）is a chance to keep American strength. “The ability to design, build and export green technologies for producing clean water, clean air and healthy and abundant food is going to be the currency of power in the new century.”
1.Why is hamburger mentioned in paragraph 2?
A. To explain Americans’ love for travelling by car.
B. To show the influence of cars on American culture.
C. To stress the popularity of fast food with Americans.
D. To praise the effectiveness of America’s road system.
2.What has the use of cars in America led to?
A. Decline of economy. B. Environmental problems.
C. A shortage of oil supply. D. A farm-based society.
3.What is Friedman’s attitude towards America’s future?
A. Ambiguous. B. Doubtful.
C. Hopeful. D. Tolera
Adults understand what it feels like to be flooded with objects. Why do we often assume that more is more when it comes to kids and their belongings? The good news is that I can help my own kids learn earlier than I did how to live more with less.
I found the pre-holidays a good time to encourage young children to donate less-used things, and it worked. Because of our efforts, our daughter Georgia did decide to donate a large bag of toys to a little girl whose mother was unable to pay for her holiday due to illness. She chose to sell a few larger objects that were less often used when we promised to put the money into her school fund(基金)(our kindergarten daughter is serious about becoming a doctor)
For weeks, I've been thinking of bigger, deeper questions: How do we make it a habit for them? And how do we train ourselves to help them live with, need, and use less? Yesterday, I sat with my son, Shepherd, determined to test my own theory on this. I decided to play with him with only one toy for as long as it would keep his interest. I expected that one toy would keep his attention for about five minutes, ten minutes, max. I chose a red rubber ball-simple, universally available. We passed it, he tried to put it in his mouth, he tried bouncing it, rolling it, sitting on it, throwing it. It was totally, completely enough for him. Before I knew it an hour had passed and it was time to move on to lunch.
We both became absorbed in the simplicity of playing together. He had my full attention and I had his. My little experiment to find joy in a single object worked for both of us.
1.What do the words “more is more” in paragraph 1 probably mean?
A.The more, the better. B.Enough is enough.
C.More money, more worries. D.Earn more and spend more.
2.What made Georgia agree to sell some of her objects?
A.Saving up for her holiday B.Raising money for a poor girl
C.Adding the money to her fund D.Giving the money to a sick mother
3.Why did the author play the ball with Shepherd?
A.To try out an idea
B.To show a parent’s love
C.To train his attention
D.To help him start a hobby
4.What can be a suitable title for the text?
A.Take It or Leave It B.A Lesson from Kids
C.Live More with Less D.The Pleasure of Giving
