When I was growing up, I was embarrassed to be seen with my father. He was badly crippled (跛脚), and when we would walk together, his hand on my arm for balance, people would stare, I would be ashamed of the unwanted attention. If ever noticed or bothered, he never let on.

It was difficult to walk together—and because of that, we didn’t say much as we went along. But as we started out, he always said, “You set the pace. I will try to follow you.”

Our usual walk was to or from the subway, which was how he got to work. He went to work sick, and even in bad weather. He almost never missed a day, and would make it to the office even if others could not. It was a matter of pride for him.

When snow or ice was on the ground, it was impossible for him to walk, even with help... Such times my sister or I would pull him through the streets of Brooklyn, N.Y., on a child’s sleigh to the subway entrance. Once there, he would try to grasp handrail until he reached the lower steps that the warmer tunnel air kept ice free. In Manhattan the subway station was the basement of his office building, and he would not have to go outside again until we met him in Brooklyn on his way home.  

When I think of it now, I am surprised at how much courage it must have taken for a grown man to suffer from shame and disability. And I am also surprised at how he did it—without bitterness or complaint.

He never talked about himself as an object of pity, not did he show any envy of the more fortunate or able. What he looked for in others was a “good heart”, and if he found one, the owner was good enough for him.

Now that I am older, I believe that is a proper standard by which to judge people, even though I still don’t know exactly what a “good heart” is. But I know the times I don’t have one myself.

He has been away for many years now, but I think of him often. I wonder if he sensed my reluctance to be seen with him during our walks. If he did, I am sorry I never told him how sorry I was, how unworthy I was, how I regretted it. I think of him when I complain about my troubles, when I am envious of another’s good fortune, when I don’t have a “good heart”.

How did the man treat his father when he was young?

A. He helped his father happily.

B. He never helped his father.

C. He helped his father, but not very happily.

D. He only helped his father take a walk after supper.

As a disabled man, his father____.

A. didn’t work very hard

B. didn’t go to work from time to time

C. hated those who had good fortune

D. was happy and satisfied, and never lost hope

What does the underlined word “reluctance” mean in the article? It means ____.

A. anger                     B. sadness            C. happiness                D. unwillingness

How did the father get to work usually?

A. By subway.              B. By bus.            C. By wheelchair.         D. By bike.

Word Power

Author(s): Kaplan  $13.95

You’ll never be at a loss for words again. Energize your vocabulary with must-know everyday words that are the essentials of a good vocabulary, engaging lessons to help you use words in text, hot words often found on tests, tips to help you figure out new words, roots, and more.

Grades: 8 & up  Ages: 13 & up 

Word Smart Junior

Author(s): Russell Stauffer  $ 17.95

Now this is the way to add new words to your vocabulary! Word Smart Junior will make you laugh so much. You’ll be amazed that you’ve just learned more than 120 fascinating and very useful words! Parents, teachers, and friends will marvel at your eloquence (口才)!

Grades: 3-5  Ages: 8-10

Grammar Smart Junior

Author(s): Marcia Reynolds  $ 16.85

Do you quake when your teacher says, “Now it’s time for grammar”? Do your verbs agree with your subjects?

Fear no more! A big Hollywood producer and a famous movie star will help you learn all those nasty (讨厌的) elements of grammar. You’ll be amazed at how quickly you learn, and how much fun it can be. You’ll finally know your grammar backwards and forwards, and you’ll never have to worry about it again.

Grades: 7-9 Ages: 12-14

Grammar Smart: An Audio Guide to Perfect Usage

Author(s): Julian Fleisher    $ 12.68

The words you use say a lot about you … but the way you put them together says even more. Your grammar makes an immediate and lasting impression on your teachers, and even your friends. So don’t make the mistake of thinking that grammar is too complicated. We’ve created Grammar Smart to help you write and speak with clarity and confidence.

Grades: 6-8  Ages: 11-13 

If a ten-year-old boy wants himself to be admired because of his speech ability, he may buy _______.

A. Word Power

B. Word Smart Junior

C. Grammar Smart Junior

D. Grammar Smart: An Audio Guide to Perfect Usage

By saying “You’ll finally know your grammar backwards and forwards”, the writer means “________”.

A. You will be clearly familiar with grammar

B. You will know the history of grammar

C. You will know the make-up of grammar

D. You will learn about the future of grammar

The four books are all about _______.

A. fiction and mysteries   B. parenting and teaching   C. literature and arts D. language study

Since life is short and the world is wide, the sooner you start exploring it, the better. Soon enough the time will come when you are too tired to move farther than the terrace of the best hotel. Go now.

No need, you may say, to tell that. But what I need to tell you is that you will meet with a surprising amount of opposition the moment you try to set out. Rubbish, you will reply. More people go abroad nowadays than ever before; never has travel, particularly among the young, been more strongly visit, of international exchanges. Perhaps not; but none of this, my dear young friends, is travel. Travel is not going on a round coach trip for $ 67 in all, or spending ten days at a hotel by the sea. Travel is when you want to see how much money and resources you have and then set out, alone or with chosen friends, to make an unhurried journey to a distant goal without a set date for your return.

Real travel, then, is independence in action, and is not liked by most parents. They don’t mind your going in a school party to Athens, because they know just where you are and when you’ll be back, and they can therefore permit you the imagination of freedom without for one second letting you beyond their control. But what they cannot bear is that you should travel all on your own, without giving them your address and return date. In fact, their fears are quite reasonable because that shows how much they love you. So in order to enjoy real travel and at the same time put your parents’ mind at ease. It would be really important for you to bear the following advice in mind.

5. Which statement is true according to the passage?

A. People travel more than before.                                  

B. Young people are encouraged to travel abroad.

C. People should not go on a round coach trip for $ 67.

D. Educational visits should not be encouraged as they are not real travel.

6.What does real travel mean according to the writer?

A. It means telling your parents nothing about the travel   

B. It means not knowing where you want to go.

C. It means traveling to a distant goal in an unhurried manner.  

D. It means traveling without any plan.

7. Your parents allow you to travel in a school party because ________.

A. they want you to be truly free                       B. you are still under their control

C. they don’t have time to travel with you          D. they know it’s good for you

8. According to the writer, when you do real traveling, you should ________.

A. never mind how worried your parents are             

B. give your parents your address and return date

C. tell your parents details about your travel       

D. not let your parents worry about you

 Lack of parent willpower may contribute more to juvenile obesity than under-exercising or overeating.

 Research suggests that having overweight parents is a big, influence ( 影响) upon a child' s weight, with one study finding that child ren with overweight parents were four times more likely to be overweight themselves.

 The findings add heat to an already fierce political debate（争论）over childhood obesity. The Prime Minister, John Howard, last week decided that $116 million be Used for programs to deal with obesity, while the Opposition Leader, Mark Latham, recently announced that his party would move to protect children from unhealthy food advertisements

Clare Collins a senior lecturer at the University of Newcastle, believes such programs will definitely fail unless they influence the way of life of whole families. "If we can' t get parents to take action against their own weight problems, then we can' t expect to influence their kids," she said.

However, Professor, Louise Baur from the Children’ s Hospital at Westmead, doubts whether adult education programs offer any solution to weight problems. "Many parents know they need to lose weight and they know it influences their kids, but they lack the willpower to do anything about it.

The 10-year study of 150 American children found two-thirds of children with overweight parents became overweight. Only one in six children whose parents were of average weight became overweight.  

 The president of the Australasian Society for the .Study of Obesity, Associate Professor Gary Wittert, said parents needed help in doing their job and the Opposition Party’s policy（政策） might be on the right track.

 "We know that driving without a seat belt is unsafe, so we make law against it,” he said."Obesity is a major public health concern, so why shouldn’t we change the law regarding unhealthy food ads?"

1. What does the underlined phrase “juvenile obesity” mean?

A. Adult education.     B. Childhood overweight

C. Parents’ influence    D. Growing pains

2. What is TRUE about the programs supported by the Prime Minister?

A. Debates on them will become less fierce.

B. They will be effective in dealing with obesity.

C. A large sum of money will be spent on them.

D. They will influence people' s way of life.

3.Both Collins and Baur believe that overweight parents_______,

A. will come up with .better solutions

B. will help with their children' s education

C. should be more active in reducing weight

D. should carry out at least 10 years' study

4. According to some experts, the Opposition Party's policy________.

A. can help fight against unemployment

B. may protect kids from unhealthy food ads

C. should be brought back to the right track

D. will work well to prevent traffic accidents

“The first and best of victories is for a man to conquer himself; to be conquered by himself is, of all things, the most shameful,” says Plato. Self-control is at the root of all the advantages. Let a man give in to his impulses(冲动) and feelings, and from that moment he gives up his moral(道德) freedom.

A single angry word has lost many friends. When Socrates found in himself any temper or anger, he would check it by speaking low in order to control himself. If you are conscious of being angry, keep your mouth shut so that you can hold back rising anger. Many a person has dropped dead in great anger. Fits of anger bring fits of disease. “Whoever the gods would destroy they first make them mad.” “Keep cool,” says Webster, “anger is not argument.” “Be calm in arguing,” says George Herbert, “for fierceness(狂怒) makes error a fault.”

To be angry with a weak man is to prove that you are not strong yourself. “Anger,” says Pythagoras, “brings with folly and ends with regret.” You must measure the strength of a man by the power of the feelings he conquers, not by the power of those which conquer him.

Self-control is man’s last and greatest victory.

If a man lacks self-control he seems to lack everything. Without it he can have no patience, no power to govern himself; he can have no self-confidence, for he will always be controlled by his strongest feeling. If he lacks self-control, the very backbone and nerve of character are lacking also. (from www.nmet168.com)

1. What’s the main idea of the passage?

A. The importance of self- control.   B. How to conquer oneself?

C. The relation between a man’s moral freedom and his feelings.

D. A man should keep cool.

2. What’s the meaning of “whoever the gods would destroy they first make them mad”?

A. If you are mad, the gods will kill you.

B. If you lose your temper first, gods will kill you first.

C. If you can’t control yourself, you will be crazy.

D. If the gods want to kill you, they will make you mad first.

3. Which of the following is NOT true, according to passage?

A. The first and best of victories is for a man to conquer himself.

B. You will make a small mistake serious if you don’t keep cool.

C. You must measure a man’s strength by the power of the feelings which conquer him.

D. Anger brings with folly and ends with regret.

4. Which of the following can’t help you avoid anger, according to the passage?

A. Be calm in arguing.      B. Check your temper or anger by speaking low.

C. Keep your mouth shut.   D. Try to make the other angry first.

Russian tradition orders that men should kiss each other three times on the cheeks at official functions. Now, a new ruling in Moscow is calling for politicians in the capital to stick to the old handshake. According to Britain's The Telegraph newspaper, politicians in Moscow have been told to stop kissing each other when they meet because the “kissing ceremony” takes so long.

Leonid Brezhnev, the general secretary of the Communist Party from 1964 to 1982, was famous for treating male colleagues to a full lip-lock. One photograph of him kissing Erich Honecker, the leader of the Democratic Republic of Germany, was used for a protest painting on the Berlin Wall with the caption: "Oh, God, help me survive this deadly love".

Kissing three times on the cheeks at official occasions is a Russian tradition. The practice has been revived among high-ranking officials in past years. In the distant past, a kiss from the tsar (emperor) was the highest sign of recognition. The Moscow ruling, however, has prompted authorities in other cities to consider banning the practice.

Alexei Kleshko, a parliament member in Siberia, said: “Single-sex kisses should be avoided, including at official meetings. It's enough to shake hands. Of course, if one is talking about a long friendship or fatherly relations, it might be OK to embrace. But that's the maximum that should be allowed.”

Another MP Vladimir Gorlov, said he only allowed himself to kiss the hand of a woman at work: "There are informal relations and there are meetings governed by protocol," he said. “When a man is kissing another man at an official event, I have a negative attitude towards it. There are rules of decency.

5. Moscow is calling for politicians to stick to handshake because ________.

A. it is popular at home and abroad   B. it is their tradition

C. it saves time                   D. Russian women have a strong love of it

6. By mentioning Brezhnev, the author ________.

A. wants to show his respect to Brezhner

B. admires Brezhnev for his skills at kissing

C. just shows the media made fun of pictures of politicians kissing

D. praises Brezhnev’s good relation with Honecker

7. If the tsar kissed a Russian woman, she would feel ________.

A. nervous        B. proud            C. shameful        D. curious

8. We can infer from the last two paragraphs that ________.

A. Kleshko is strongly against any kind of kiss

B. Kleshko is a man out of date

C. Gorlove shares the same view with Kleshko is single-sex kisses

D. Gorlove won’t kiss any man in any form

London——Laura Spence has excellent grades, a place at Harvard University and a US $25,000 a year scholarship. The British Government says that is scandal(丑闻).  

Not because the 13-year-old girl is going to Harvard, but because she was rejected by Oxford University. Her case makes people talk about the long-running problems about elitism(精英主义) in British education.

“I think it’s a scandal if a child has to go to Harvard rather than getting into Oxford, don’t you?” Education Secretary David Blunkett said on May 26th in an interview on BBC radio.

British Treasury chief Gordon Brown said in a speech on May 25th it was “an absolute scandal”, a girl with those grades was turned down by Oxford’s Magdalen College. He noted that Spence comes from Monkseaton in northeastern England, where people sometimes complain they get fewer chances than people living in the richer, more populous south.

Oxford and Cambridge University now take the majority of their students—53 percent—from publicly funded schools. Elite(精英)private schools such as Eton and Harrow account for the other 47 percent, even though they serve only 7 percent of secondary students.

A BBC reporter had seen notes of Spence’s interview at Magdalen. “As with other comprehensive school pupils, she’s low in confidence and difficult to draw out of herself in spite of being able to think on her feet,” the BBC quoted the notes as saying. Still, the notes concluded that Spence “will be an excellent doctor.”

“It appears as if some of our institutions have admissions procedures which may be because of absurd prejudices against children from comprehensive schools…are not giving these children a fair crack of the whip”, Education Minister Wicks told the BBC.

5.Laura Spence was rejected by Oxford University because.

A.she was a girl of 13 years old       B.she lacked confidence and she couldn’t think by herself

C.she didn’t win excellent grades

D.she was a shy girl from a comprehensive school in the poorer, less populous north

6.If Laura Spence was from such a school as Eton,.

A.she would be admitted to Oxford    B.she would be accepted by Harvard

C.she could cause long?running problems about elitism in British education

D.she wouldn’t be an excellent doctor

7.What’s the meaning of “a fair crack of the whip”in the last paragraph?

A.A good chance.        B.Warning.           C.Rejection.             D.Admission

8.According to Education Minister Wick’s words, we know he .

A.thought there was something wrong with procedures of admissions to their institutes

B.took the side of Oxford University

C.considered giving up children from comprehensive schools   D.didn’t tell the truth to the BBC

Do you know of anyone who uses the truth to deceive (欺骗)? When someone tells you something that is true, but leaves out important in formation that should be included, he can give you a false picture.

    For example, some might say, “I just won a hundred dollars on the lottery (彩票). It was great. I took that dollar ticket back to the store and turned it in for on e hundred dollars!”

   This guy’s a winner, right? Maybe, maybe not. We then discover that he bought $200 worth of tickets, and only on e was a winner. He’s really a big loser!

    He didn’t say anything that was false, but he left out important information on purpose. That’s called a half-truth. Half-truths are not technically lies, but they are just as dishonest.

    Some politicians often use this trick. Let’s say that during Governor Smith’s last term, her state lost one million jobs and gained three million jobs. Then she seeks another term. One of her opponents(对手) says, “During Governor Smith’s term, the state lost one million jobs!” that’s true. However, and honest statement would have been, “During Governor Smith’s term, the state had a net gain of two million jobs.”

    Advertisers(广告商) will sometimes use half-truths. It’s against the law to make false statements so they try to mislead you with the truth. An advertisement might say, “Nine out of ten doctors advised their patients to take Yucky Pills to cure toothache.” It fails to mention that they only asked ten doctors and nine of them work for the Yucky Company.

   This kind of deception happens too of often. It’s a sad fact of life: Lies are lies, and sometimes the truth can lie as well.

How much did the lottery winner lose?

   A. One hundred dollars.          B. Two hundred dollars.

   C. Three hundred dollars.         D. Four hundred dollars.

We may infer that the author believes people should _______.

    A. buy lottery tickets                B. make use of half-truths

C. not take anything at face value        D. not trust the Yucky Company

What do the underline words “net gain” in Paragraph 5 mean?

   A. final increase           B. big advantage

   C. large share             D. total saving

What can we know from the example of the Yucky Pill advertisement?

A. False statements are easy to see through.

B. Half-truths are often used to mislead people.

C. Doctors like to act in advertisements.

D. Advertisements are based on facts.

The news about the terrible flood there greatly discouraged ______ there for a sight-seeing.

A. us from going         B. us to go        C. our going     D. our to go

— Each of the students, working hard at their lessons, ______the book.  — So have I.

       A. is reading       B. has read          C. reading          D. reads