【题目】What is critical thinking? To a certain degree, it's a matter of logic -- of being able to spot weakness in other people's arguments and to avoid them in your own. It also includes related skills such as distinguishing fact from opinion and assessing the soundness of evidence.

In the broad sense, critical thinking is focused, organized thinking -- the ability to see clearly the relationships among ideas. 【1】__. The greatest thinkers, scientists, and inventors have often taken information that was really available and put it together differently to produce new ideas. That, too, is critical thinking.

_【2】_. As the class goes on, for example, you will probably spend a good deal of time organizing your speeches. While this may seem like a purely mechanical (机械的) exercise, it is closely connected with critical thinking. If the structure of your speech is loose and confused, chances are that your thinking is also disordered and confused. If, on the other hand, the structure is clear, there is a good chance your thinking is too. Organizing a speech is not just a matter of arranging your ideas you already have. 【3】___.

What is true of organization is true of many aspects of public speaking. _【4】_. As you work on expressing your ideas in clear accurate language, you will improve your ability to think clearly and accurately. __【5】 As you learn to listen critically to speeches in class, you will be better able to assess the ideas of speakers in a variety of

If you take full advantage of your speech class, you will be able to develop your skills as a critical thinker in many circumstances. This is one reason public speaking has been regarded as a vital part of education since the days of ancient Greece.

A．Rather, it is an important part of shaping the ideas themselves.

B．This may seem take a lot of time, but the rewards are well worth it.

C．It may also help you to know that there is no such thing as a perfect speech.

D．It has often been said that there are few new ideas in the world, only reorganized ideas.

E . If you are wondering what this has to do with your public speaking class, the answer is quite a lot.

F. The skills you learn in your speech class can help you become a more effective thinker in a number of ways.

G. As you study the role of evidence and reasoning in speechmaking, you will see how they can be used in other forms of communication as well.

【题目】Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis was one of the most private women in the world, yet when she went to work as an editor in the last two decades of her life, she revealed（展现）herself as she did nowhere else.

After the death of her second husband, Greek shipping magnate（巨头）Aristotle Onassis, Jacqueline’s close friend and former White House social secretary Letitia Baldrige made a suggestion that she consider a career in publishing. After consideration, Jacqueline accepted it. Perhaps she hoped to find there some idea about how to live her own life. She became not less but more interested in reading. For the last 20 years of her life, Jacqueline worked as a publisher’s editor, first at Viking, then at Doubleday, pursuing（追求）a late-life career longer than her two marriages combined. During her time in publishing, she was responsible for managing and editing more than 100 successfully marketed books. Among the first books were In the Russian Style and Inventive Paris Clothes. She also succeeded in persuading TV hosts Bill Moyer’s and Jose Campbell to transform their popular television conversations into a book, The Power of Myth. The book went on to become an international best-seller. She dealt, too, with Michael Jackson as he prepared his autobiography（自传）, Moonwalk.

Jacqueline may have been hired for name and for her social relations, but she soon proved her worth. Her choices, suggestions and widespread social relations were of benefit both to the publishing firms and to Jacqueline herself. In the books she selected for publication, she built on a lifetime of spending time by herself as a reader and left a record of the growth of her mind. Her books are the autobiography she never wrote. Her role as First Lady, in the end, was overshadowed by her performance as an editor. However, few knew that she had achieved so much.

【1】We can learn from the passage that Jacqueline _________

A. became fond of reading after working as an editor

B. was in charge of publishing 100 books

C. promoted her books through social relations

D. gained a lot from her career as an editor

【2】The underlined sentence in the last paragraph probably means that_________

A. Jacqueline was more successful as an editor than as First Lady

B. Jacqueline’s life as First Lady was more colorful than as an editor

C. Jacqueline ended up as an editor rather as First Lady

D. Jacqueline’s role as First Lady was more brilliant than as an editor

【3】【改编】It can be inferred from the passage that______

A. Jacqueline’s two marriages lasted more than 20 years

B. Jacqueline’s opinions and faiths were reflected in the books she edited

C. Jacqueline’s own publishing firm was set up eventually

D. Jacqueline’s achievements were widely known.

【4】【改编】The passage talks about ______________

A. a brief introduction of Jacqueline’s career as an editor in her last 20 years

B. a brief description of Jacqueline’s lifelong experiences

C. an description of Jacqueline’s life both as First Lady and as an editor

D. an analysis of Jacqueline’s social relations in publishing

【题目】In her new book, “The Smartest Kids in the World,” Amanda Ripley, an investigative journalist, tells the story of Tom, a high-school student from Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, who decides to spend his senior year in Warsaw, Poland. Poland is a surprising educational success story: in the past decade, the country raised students’ test scores from significantly below average to well above it. Polish kids have now outscored(超过……分数) American kids in math and science, even though Poland spends, on average, less than half as much per student as the United States does. One of the most striking differences between the high school Tom attended in Gettysburg and the one he ends up at in Warsaw is that the latter has no football team, or, for that matter, teams of any kind.

That American high schools waste more time and money on sports than on math is an old complaint. This is not a matter of how any given student who plays sports does in school, but of the culture and its priorities. This December, when the latest Program for International Student Assessment(PISA) results are announced, it’s safe to predict that American high-school students will once again display their limited skills in math and reading, outscored not just by students in Poland but also by students in places like South Korea, Belgium, the Netherlands, Finland, Singapore, and Japan. Meanwhile, they will have played some very exciting football games, which will have been breathlessly written up in their hometown papers.

Why does this situation continue? Well, for one thing, kids like it. And for another, according to Ripley, parents seem to like the arrangement, too. She describes a tour she took of a school in Washington D.C., which costs thirty thousand dollars a year. The tour leader—a mother with three children in the school—was asked about the school’s flaws(暇疵). When she said that the math program was weak, none of the parents taking the tour reacted. When she said that the football program was weak, the parents suddenly became concerned. “Really?” one of them asked worriedly, “What do you mean?”

One of the ironies(讽刺) of the situation is that sports reveal what is possible. American kids’ performance on the field shows just how well they can do when expection are high. It’s too bad that their test scores show the same thing.

【1】【改编】The reason why Tom decides to spend his senior year in Poland is that _______.

A. there are evident differences between the two countries

B. Polish kids are better at learning

C. he plans to improve his scores

D. sports are not supported at schools in Gettysburg

【2】According to Paragraph 2, we know that _______.

A. little time is spent on sports in Japanese schools

B. too much importance is placed on sports in America

C. American high schools complain about sports time

D. PISA plays a very important role in America

【3】The underlined sentence in the last paragraph means _______.

A. American students’ academic performance worries their parents a lot

B. high expectations push up American students’ academic performance

C. lacking practice contributes to American students’ average performance

D. low expectations result in American students’ poor PISA performance

【4】【改编】What is the main purpose of this article ?_______.

A. push public attention to a weakness in American school tradition

B. Appeal to American schools to learn from the Polish model

C. compare Polish schools with those in America

D. explain what is the matter with American schools and provide solutions

【题目】Severely disabled people may soon be able to use their noses to write, drive a wheelchair or surf the Internet, thanks to a device (装置) developed by doctors in Israel.

The device will be used by breathing in and out through the nose, according to a study. Healthy people who tested the device quickly learned to play computer games and write sentences by sniffing. Encouraged by the results, the researchers decided to test their device on people who are paralyzed (瘫痪) but whose intelligence remains normal. Ten paralyzed who tested the device quickly learned to use their noses to write words, open a webpage, copy words and put them into a search engine.

With their success in helping severely disabled people to communicate * the researchers decided to make use of the new technology to design an electric wheelchair to be driven by sniffs.

Ten healthy people easily mastered sniff—driving a wheelchair through a maze (迷宫), and a 30-year-old man who had been paralyzed from the neck down for six years was as good a sniff-driver as the healthy participants at his second attempt. In other words, a paralyzed person could use the sniff controller to drive an electric wheelchair.

At the moment, sniff-controlled technology is still in the stage of development, and the Weizmann Institute has already applied for a patent on the device. "Ill be very happy if it can help us to make money, but the real problem is that I hope someone will develop it, because this would help a lot of people," said Sobel, one of the lead researchers of the study.

【1】What’s the purpose of the passage?

A. To introduce a new invention.

B. To equip the disabled with life skills.

C. To show the nose's special functions.

D. To instruct doctors to apply for a patent.

【2】In the test, the paralyzed people with normal intelligence can use their nose to ______.

A. type long sentences quickly

B. play computer games easily

C. enter a website without much difficulty

D. communicate with others successfully

【3】With the help of the sniffing device, a 30-year-old disabled man ______.

A. spent six years learning how to drive a wheelchair

B. failed to drive through the maze at his first attempt

C. took the wheelchair controlled by healthy participants

D. managed to drive an electric wheelchair by sniffing

【4】From the last paragraph, we can infer that the sniff-controlled technology ______.

A. will be applied to other fields of research

B. needs further developing to serve more people

C. has become an important patented invention

D. shows the wisdom and talents of Israel doctors

【题目】我们能活在这美好、精彩的世界上，是因为有父母，老师，朋友。因此在每个人的生命之中应怀有一颗感恩之心，学会感恩他人。 请从以下几点展开写一篇题目为Learn to Be Grateful 的文章。

1.感恩父母，因为父母给了我们全部的爱；

2.感恩老师，因为老师传授了我们知识；

3.感恩朋友，因为朋友给我们带来欢乐；

4.你认为，我们应该为他们做些什么.

提示：1、可加入一些细节， 使文章更加通顺合理。

2、词数：100字左右（开头部分不计）

Learn to Be Grateful

Whenever and wherever we are, we should learn to be grateful to the people around us in this beautiful and wonderful world.

___________________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________

【题目】______ by Typhoon Morakot （莫拉克），Taiwan __________ water and electricity shortage.

A. Having struck; facing B. Having struck; faced

C. Struck; facing D. Struck; faced

【题目】What is your favorite color ? Do you like yellow, orange，red?【1】.Do you prefer greys and blues?Then you are probably quiet，shy,and you would rather follow than lead.You tend to be Pessimist．At least,this is what psychologists tell us，and they should know, because they have been seriously studying the meaning of colour preference，as well as the effect that colors have on human beings．【2】If you happen to love brown，you did so，as soon as you opened your eyes，or at least as soon as you could see clearly．

【3】．A yellow room makes most people feel more cheerful and more relaxed than a dark green one；and a red dress brings warmth and cheer to the saddest winter day．【4】.A black bridge over the Thames River, near London，used to be the scene of more suicides(自杀) than any other bridge in the area—until it was repainted green．The number of suicide attempts immediately fen sharply．Perhaps it would have fallen even more if the bridge had been done in pink or baby blue．

【5】．It is an established fact that factory workers work better, harder, and have fewer accidents when their machines are painted orange rather than black or grey．

A．On the other hand,black is depressing．

B．They tell us，among other facts，that we do not choose our favourite colour as grow up—we are born with our preference．

C．The rooms are painted in different colours as you like．

D．If you do，you must be an optimist，a leader, an active person who enjoys life，people and excitement．

E．Light and bright colours make people not only happier but more active.

F. span>Life is like a picture or a poem，full of different colours．

G. Colours do influence our moods—there is no doubt about it

【题目】Why should mankind explore space? Why should money, time and effort be spent exploring and researching something with so few apparent benefits? Why should resources be spent on space rather than on conditions and people on Earth?These are questions that, understandably, are very often asked.

Perhaps the best answer lies in our genetic makeup as human beings. What drove our ancestors to move from the trees into the plains, and on into all possible areas and environments? The wider the spread of a species, the better its chance of survival. Perhaps the best reason for exploring space is this genetic tendency to expand wherever possible.

Nearly every successful civilization has explored, because by doing so, any dangers in surrounding areas can be identified and prepared for. Without knowledge, we may be completely destroyed by the danger. With knowledge, we can lessen its effects.

Exploration also allows minerals and other potential resources to be found. Even if we have no immediate need of them, they will perhaps be useful later. Resources may be more than physical possessions. Knowledge or techniques have been acquired through exploration. The techniques may have medical applications which can improve the length or quality of our lives. We have already benefited from other spin-offs including improvements in earthquake prediction, in satellites for weather forecasting and in communications systems. Even non-stick pans and mirrored sunglasses are by-products of technological developments in the space, the chance to save ourselves might not exist.

While many resources are spent on what seems a small return, the exploration of space allows creative, brave and intelligent members of our species to focus on what may serve to save us. While space may hold many wonders and explanations of how the universe was formed or how it works, it also holds dangers. The danger exists, but knowledge can help human being to survive. Without the ability to reach out across space, the chance to save ourselves might not exist.

While Earth is the only planet known to support life, surely the adaptive ability of humans would allow us to live on other planets. It is true that the lifestyle would be different, but human life and cultures have adapted in the past and surely could in the future.

【1】What is the reason for exploring space based on Paragraph2?

A. Humans are nature-born to do so.

B. Humans have the tendency to fight.

C. Humans may find new sources of food.

D. Humans don’t like to stay in the same place.

【2】The underlined word“spin-offs” in Paragraph 4 probably refers to______.

A. survival chances B. potential resources

C. unexpected benefits D. physical possessions

【3】What makes it possible for humans to live on other planets?

A. Our genetic makeup.

B. Resources on the earth..

C. The adaptive ability of humans.

D. By-products in space exploration.

【4】Which of the statements can best sumun the passage?

A. Space exploration has created many wonders.

B. Space exploration provided the best value for money.

C. Space exploration can benefit science and technology.

D.Space exploration may help us avoid potential problems on Earth.

【题目】Years ago, there was a very wealthy man who, with his devoted young son, shared a passion for art collecting. Together, they traveled around the world, adding only art treasures to their collection.

One year, as winter approached， engulfed（吞没） the nation, and the young man left to his country. After only a few short weeks, his father received a telegram. His beloved son was in action. The art collector awaited more news， he would never see his son again. Within days, his fears were . The young man had died while rushing a fellow soldier to a doctor.

Upset and ，the old man faced the coming Christmas holidays with sadness. On Christmas morning, a knock on the door awakened the old man. As he opened the door, he was greeted by are with a large package in his hands.

He introduced himself to the old man by saying，" I was a of your son, I was the one he was when he died. May I come in for a few moments? I have something to show you. "

As the two began to ，the soldier told of how the man's son had told everyone of his, not to mention his father's， of fine art. "I am no ，"said the soldier，"but I want to give you this. "

As the old man unwrapped the package, he saw a portrait （画像）of his son. Though the world would consider it the work of a genius, the painting featured the young man's face striking detail.

Overcome with emotion, the man the soldier. After the soldier had left, the old man put the painting above the fireplace, pushing thousands of dollars worth of art. His task completed, the old man sat in his chair and spent Christmas gazing at the he had been given.

【1】A. latest B. richest C. finest D. cheapest

【2】A. flood B. fire C. storm D. war

【3】A. save B. help C. serve D. build

【4】A. missing B. acting C. fighting D. dying

【5】A. calmly B. anxiously C. quietly D. secretly

【6】A. fearing B. doubting C. wondering D. expecting

【7】A. completed B. doubled C. removed D. confirmed

【8】A. nervous B. tired C. lonely D. frightened

【9】A. sad B. puzzled C. angry D. worried

【10】A. farmer B. soldier C. painter D. seller

【11】A. guard B. photographer C. partner D. friend

【12】A. rescuing B. carrying C. guarding D. hiding

【13】A. argue B. move C. talk D. eat

【14】A. description B. love C. sense D. understanding

【15】A. artist B. businessman C. hero D. reporter

【16】A. sometimes B. never C. often D. still

span>【17】A. for B. of C. in D. on

【18】A. thanked B. questioned C. welcomed D. treated

【19】A. down B. up C. aside D. off

【20】A. treasure B. gift C. souvenir D. package

【题目】In the second half of each year, many powerful storms are born in the tropical （热带的）Atlantic and Caribbean seas. Of these, only about half a dozen becomes the strong, circling winds of 75 miles per hour or more that are called hurricanes, and several usually make their way to the coast. There they cause millions of dollars of damage, and bring death to large numbers of people.

The great storms that hit the coast start as soft circling wind hundreds-even thousands-of miles out to sea. As they travel aimlessly over water warmed by the summer sun, they are carried west-ward by the southeast winds. When conditions are just right, warm, moist（潮湿）air flows in at the bottom of such a wind, moves up-ward through it and comes out at the top. In the process（过程），the moisture in this warm air produces rain, and with it the heat is changed to energy in the form of strong winds. As the heat increases, the young hurricane begins to move in a counter-clockwise motion（逆时针运动）.

The life of a hurricane is only about nine days, but it contains almost more power than we can imagine. The energy in the heat re-leased （释放）by a hurricane's rainfall in a single day would satisfy the entire electrical needs of the United States for more than six months. Water, not wind, is the main source of death and destruction（毁灭）in a hurricane. A typical hurricane brings 6 to 12 inch downpours, causing sudden floods. Worst of all is the powerful movement of the sea-the mountains of water moving toward the hurricane center. The water level rises as much as 15 feet above normal as it moves toward shore.

【1】When is an ordinary tropical storm called a hurricane?

A. When it begins in the Atlantic and Caribbean seas.

B. When it hits the coastline.

C. When it is more than 75 miles wide.

D. When its winds reach 75 miles per hour.

【2】What is the worst thing about hurricanes?

A. The terrible effects of water.

B. The heat they give off.

C. That they last about nine days.

D. Their strong winds.

【3】Here the word "downpour" means __________.

A. heavy rainfall

B. dangerous waves

C. the progress of water to the hurricane center

D. the increasing heat

【4】Which statement about a hurricane is wrong?

A. It travels more than 75 miles per hour.

B. It usually stays about 9 days.

C. It usually causes 6 to 12 inch downpours.

D. It sometimes brings the sea water level to the height of 15feet.