Here is some general information about Edison Elementary School. For more information, you
can visit our website which is printed on the cover.
     Attendance:
Please contact the office at 480. 472. 5282 if your child is going to be absent.
     Renaissance Reading:
The Accelerated Reader (AR) Program is a computerized reading enrichment program that combines
great children's literature with computer skills. As an individualized reading program, it is designed to
motivate students to read more and to read good literature. Students of different abilities can use this
program. It is not a competitive program but one that improves any student's reading ability.
     Here is how it works. Students select books in their reading range from our Accelerated Reader
Selection and read it at their own pace. Once the student has completed the book, he/she is ready to
take an AR quiz. Each quiz consists of 5, 10, or 20 multiple choice comprehensive questions about
the book.
     After taking the quiz, the computer shows the student how many questions he/she answered
correctly, shows the correct answers for missed questions, and praises the students' efforts with an
onscreen personalized message. Passing the quiz assures the teacher and the parent that the child
actually read and understood the book.  Each student tests independently-reading the quiz questions
himself/herself.
     The computer keeps track of reading points, books, and average test scores, as well as other
data. A student may test on a book only once and should, therefore, have thoroughly read and
understood the contents before taking the quiz. Each student is responsible for reading the screen
to be sure the quiz, by title and author, is the correct one he/she wishes to take.
     Students are recognized for their accomplishments with praise from the teachers and special
recognition at the classroom level when individual and/or classroom goals are met.
     P. T. O.
     We have an active ParentTeacher Organization. They have monthly meetings, check the calendar
for the meeting times and places.

1. The passage may be selected from ________.

A. a magazine                
B. a newspaper            
C. a website              
D. a novel

2. The passage is written for ________.

A. general readers            
B. parents                
C. teachers              
D. primary students

3. Which of the following is TRUE about how Renaissance Reading works?

A. Students select books based on the instruction of the computer.
B. Students take the quiz without others' arrangements.
C. The result of the quiz will be kept by teachers.
D. The summary of the book to be selected is shown on the screen.

4. It can be inferred from the passage that ________. 

A. students won't be punished if they don't pass the quiz
B. students only have one chance to test on a book
C. students won't be praised if they reach their goals
D. parents meet the teachers once a term

     Cultural differences in business entertaining include problems such as whom one entertains and
where and how one entertains. In countries where status is important, it is not advisable to invite
people of different statuses to the same dinner party. Americans will often invite people to their homes.
However, in some societies the home is considered too personal, unworthy, or too small to serve as
a proper place for business entertaining. In some countries there is a "help yourself" method of
entertaining done in the home. This method does not work well when entertaining people whose culture
teaches them to wait to be asked three times before accepting an offer of food. For example, a Chinese
guest went hungry all the evening without eating though he was quite hungry because he was too shy to
take food after only being asked to do so once. In another case, an American woman executive(负责人) was being entertained in London. After having the tea served, the American woman helped herself to
cream and sugar rather than waiting to be served. The English hostess was upset by the thought that she
was not serving quickly enough.
     As a general rule, a small gift from your home country is OK. A gift that is tied to the particular
interest of the person is especially good. Gifts for children are also well received. Be careful that the
"hometown" gift you are bringing to Singapore is not made in Hong Kong. Because many gifts carry
symbolic meanings, it is always best to seek the advice of a cultural information before selecting gifts.
The giving of large gifts, or payments for special service, should only be carried out after talking with
legal department in the home and host culture.

1. It is no good inviting people of different social positions to the same party in the country where _____.

A. people don't pay any attention to your positions
B. people care much about their statuses
C. entertainment is important
D. entertainment is not advisable

2. The Chinese guest is taken for an example to show ________.

A. that offering food should not be made too early
B. a "help yourself" method works well in this case
C. that accepting an offer of food should be made later
D. a "help yourself" method does not work well in some cases

3. The passage infers that American women like _________.

A. a "help yourself" method
B. waiting to be served
C. a slow service
D. cream and sugar

4. _________ is especially proper, when you are invited to a dinner party.

A. A big gift
B. Large payment as a gift
C. A small gift from one's home
D. A gift form Singapore

     As many as one thousand years ago in the Southwest, the Hopi and Zuni Indians of North
     America were building with adobe-sunbaked brick plastered with mud. Their homes
looked remarkably like modern apartment houses. Some were four stories high and contained
quarters for perhaps thousand people, along with store rooms for grain and other goods.
     These buildings were usually put up against cliffs, both to make construction easier and for
defense against enemies. They were really villages in themselves, as later Spanish explorers
must have realized since they called them "pueblos", which is Spanish for town.
     The people of the pueblos raised what are called "the three sisters"-corn, beans, and
squash. They made excellent pottery and wove marvelous baskets, some so fine that they
could hold water. The Southwest has always been a dry country, where water is scarce. The
     Hopi and Zuni brought water from streams to their fields and gardens through irrigation
ditches. Water was so important that it played a major role in their religion. They developed
elaborate ceremonies and religious rituals to bring rain.
     The way of life of lesssettled groups was simpler and more strongly influenced by nature.
     Small tribes such as the Shoshone and Ute wandered the dry and mountainous lands between
the Rocky Mountains and the Pacific Ocean. They gathered seeds and hunted small animals
such as rabbits and snakes.In the Far North the ancestors of today's Inuit hunted seals,
walruses, and the great whales. They lived right on the frozen seas in shelters called igloos
built of blocks of packed snow. When summer came, they fished for salmon and hunted the
lordly caribou.
     The Cheyenne, Pawnee, and Sioux tribes, known as the Plains Indians, lived on the
grasslands between the Rocky Mountains and the Mississippi River. They hunted bison
commonly called the buffalo. Its meat was the chief food of these tribes, and its hide was
used to make their clothing and the covering of their tents and tipis.

1. What does the text mainly discuss?
A. The architecture of early American Indian buildings.
B. The movement of American Indians across North America.
C. Ceremonies and rituals of American Indians.
D. The way of life of American Indian tribes in early North America.

2. It can be inferred from the text that the buildings of the Hopi and Zuni were ________.
A. very small  
B. highly advanced
C. difficult to defend  
D. quickly constructed
3. Which of the following is true?

A. The Spanish explorers didn't know what the buildings really was, as they called it "pueblos".
B. The Hopi and Zuni had no idea of how to farm.
C. The people of the pueblos were good at weaving.
D. Since water was so important, the people of the pueblos wove baskets to carry water.

4. What information can you get from the text?
A. The Plains Indians lived on bison.
B. The majority of the American Indians lived in igloos.
C. The Hopi and Zuni had a smaller population.
D. The lands between the Rocky Mountains and the Mississippi River were dry.

5. How many tribes are mentioned in the text?
A. 8.  
B. 7.  
C. 6.  
D. 5.

1. What do the three landmarks have in common in Paragraph1?

A. They are important.
B. They are interesting.
C. They are funny.
D. They are ancient.

2. In the past 10 years, the volunteers of Save-A-Landmark have protected _________.

A. no landmark in the capital
B. a few landmarks in the capital
C. dozens of landmarks in the capital
D. hundreds of landmarks in the capital

3. According to the text, Lincoln lived in Lincoln's Cottage for ________.

A. Several months
B. a summer
C. About two years
D. about one year

4. Lincoln's Cottage project became Save-A-Landmark's _________ restored site.

A. fifty-fourth
B. forty-sixth
C. forty-fifth
D. fifty-fifth

5. Which would be the best title for the passage?

A. Creating Save-A-Landmark
B. Lincoln's Cottage
C. Saving Lincoln's Cottage
D. Save-A-Landmark 10th anniversary

     The orange towers of the Golden Gate Bridge-probably the most beautiful, certainly the most
photographed bridge in the world-are visible from almost every point of elevation in San Francisco.        
The only cleft (穿过) in Northern California's 600-mile continental wall, for years this mile-wide strait was considered unbridgeable. As much an architectural as an engineering feat, the Golden Gate took only 52
months to design and build. Designed by Joseph Strauss, it was the first really massive(庞大的)suspension bridge, with a span of 4200ft, and until 1959 ranked as the world's longest. It connects the city at its northwesterly point on the peninsula to Marin County and Northern California, and was designed to withstand(经受住)winds of up to a hundred miles an hour and to swing as much as 27ft. Handsome on a clear day, the bridge takes on an eerie(阴森森的) quality when the thick white fogs pour in and hide it almost
completely.
     You can either drive or walk across. The drive is the more thrilling of the two options as you race under the bridge's towers, but the half-hour walk across it really gives you time to take in its enormous size and
absorb the views of the city behind you and the headlands of Northern California straight ahead. Pause at
the midway point and consider the seven or so suicides(自杀) a month who choose this spot, 260ft up, as their jumping-off spot. Monitors of such events speculate that victims always face the city before they leap. In 1995, when the suicide toll from the bridge had reached almost 1000, police kept the figures quiet to
avoid a rush of would-be suicides going for the dubious(令人怀疑的)distinction of being the thousandth
person to leap.
     Perhaps the best loved symbol of San Francisco, in 1987 the Golden Gate proved an auspicious (幸运的)place for a sunrise party when crowds gathered to celebrate its fiftieth anniversary. Some quarter of a million people turned up (a third of the city's entire population); the winds were strong and the huge
numbers caused the bridge to buckle, but fortunately not to break.

1.The underlined word "buckle" here means _____ .

A. collapse
B. crash
C. bend
D. shake

2.The Golden Gate Bridge was completed in _____ .

A. 1922
B. 1995
C. 1937
D. 1959

3.Which of the following is TRUE?

A. The Golden Gate is the longest bridge in the world.
B. So far about 1000 people killed themselves from the Golden Gate.
C. It took the workers 52 months to build the Golden Gate.
D. San Francisco had a population of about 750,000 in 1987

4.If you want to enjoy the views of San Francisco from the bridge, you'd better cross the bridge ______.

A. by train
B. on foot
C. by car
D. by ship

     Usually, when your teacher asks a question, there is only one correct answer. But there is one question that
has millions of current answers. That question is "What's your name?" Everyone gives a different answer, but
everyone is correct.
     Have you ever wondered about people's names? Where do they come from? What do they mean?
     People's first names, or given names, are chosen by their parents. Sometimes the name of a grandparent or
other member of the family is used. Some parents choose the name of a well-known person. A boy could be
named George Washington Smith; a girl could be named Helen Keller Jones.
     Some people give their children names that mean good things. Clara means "bright"; Beatrice means "one
who gives happiness"; Donald means "world ruler"; Leonard means "as brave as a lion".
     The earliest last names, or surnames, were taken from place names. A family with the name Brook or
Brooks probably lived near brook (小溪); someone who was called Longstreet probably lived on a long, paved
road. The Greenwood family lived in or near a leafy forest.
     Other early surnames came from people's occupations. The most common occupational name is Smith,
which means a person who makes things with iron or other metals. In the past, smiths were very important
workers in every town and village. Some other occupational names are: Carter - a person who owned or drove
a cart; Potter -a person who made pots and pans.
     The ancestors of the Baker family probably baked bread for their neighbors in their native village. The
Carpenter's great-great-great-grandfather probably built houses and furniture.
     Sometimes people were known for the color of their hair or skin, or their size, or their special abilities.
When there were two men who were named John in the same village, the John with the gray hair probably
became John Gray. Or the John was very tall could call himself John Tallman. John Fish was probably an
excellent swimmer and John Lightfoot was probably a fast runner or a good dancer.
     Some family names were made by adding something to the father's name. English-speaking people added
-s or -son. The Johnsons are descendants of John; the Roberts family's ancestor was Robert. Irish and
Scottish people added Mac or Mc or O. Perhaps all of the MacDonnells and the McDonnells and the
O'Donnells are descendants of the same Donnell.

1. Which of the following aspects do the surnames in the passage NOT cover?

A. Places where people lived.
B. People's characters.
C. Talents that people possessed.
D. People's occupations.

2. According to the passage, the ancestors of the Potter family most probably _____.

A. owned or drove a cart
B. made things with metals
C. made kitchen tools or contains
D. built houses and furniture

3. Suppose and English couple whose ancestors lived near a leafy forest wanted their new-born son to become
    a world leader, the baby might be named _____.

A. Beatrice Smith
B. Leonard Carter
C. George Longstreet
D. Donald Greenwood

4. The underlined word "descendants" in the last paragraph means a person's _____.

A. later generations
B. friends and relatives
C. colleagues and partners
D. later sponsors

    The Taj Mahal (泰姬陵) is a love story, a sad and beautiful one. If it didn't exist, we would easily imagine
that the story of its construction was simply a fairy tale. Three hundred years ago, there lived an Indian
emperor called Shah Jahan. His wife was a beautiful and bright woman whom he loved greatly. Her title was
Mumtazl Mahan: its shortened form Taj Mahan, means "pride of the palace". In the year 1630 this beloved wife
of the emperor died. He was so brokenhearted that he thought of giving up his throne. He decided out of his
love for his wife, to build her the most beautiful tomb that had ever been seen.
    He called in the best artists and architects from India, Turkey, Persia and Arabia and finally, the design was
complete. It took more than twenty thousand men working over a period of 18 years to build the Taj Mahan,
one of the most beautiful buildings in the world.
    The building itself stands on a marble platform 29 meters square and 6-7 meters high. Towers rise from
each of the four corners. The Taj itself soars another 61 meters into the air. It is an eight-sided building made
of white marble.
    The emperor planned to build an identical tomb of black marble for himself on the other side of the river
connected by a silver bridge. However his son put him into a prison in the palace before he could finish, and
for the rest of his life, he could only gaze across river at the tomb of his beloved wife.

1. The whole passage tells us about _____.

A. a beautiful fairy tale
B. the story of the Taj Mahal
C. white and black marble tombs made for two emperors
D. the love story of Emperor Shah Jahan and his wife

2. Which of the following statements is NOT true about the Taj Mahal?

A. It was completed quickly owing to the efforts of the best artists and workers.
B. A lot of people took part in the building work.
C. It is a magnificent building.
D. It is a tomb for the emperor's beloved wife.

3. The emperor's own tomb was designed to be _____.

A. 61 meters high
B. eight-sided
C. black-coloured
D. white-colored

4. The emperor _____.

A. died soon after Taj Mahan died
B. was killed by his son
C. was beloved by his people
D. died after 1648