Most of us would say that the older we get, the less we look forward to celebrating another birthday. For children, though, a birthday is that one occasion each year when they are the center of attention all day long.

         It’s not surprising, then, that children’s birthday parties have turned into big business in America. Kids—or more likely their parents—often try to outdo one another in putting on the most extravagant birthday party. In the past, you might have hired a man with a horse to come by and give everyone horse rides. Today, you can hire an entire petting zoo’s or a truck filled with animals from abroad.

         Barb Hill, a mother of two girls, doesn’t hold extravagant (奢侈的) parties, but she says she does feel pressure to come up with new ideas each year. Her daughter Fiona celebrated her most recent birthday, her eighth, at a sporting-goods store. The kids enjoyed the climbing wall, as well as the pizza and cupcakes. “They always want to do something that nobody else has done yet,” Barb says. You also have to decide how many guests to invite, and if you’re celebrating at a place other than home, that means figuring out how to transport everyone.

         William Doherty, a professor at the University of Minnesota, recently started a project called Birthdays without Pressure. Its website (www. birthdayswithoutpressure.org) gives parents the resources to make kids’ birthday parties less stressful and more fun for all. “Our goal was to start a local and national conversation about what’s happened to birthday parties,” Doherty told me. “We’ve succeeded beyond our expectations—tens of thousands of parents are viewing our website, contacting us and taking our online quizzes.”

         In the end, most parents would agree that the best parties are usually the ones where the kids have time to hang out and play with each other. After all, isn’t what being a kid is all about?

1. The purpose of this passage is to tell us_________.

A.all the children look forward to celebrating their birthday

B.the children’s birthday parties have turned into big business in America

C.parents would like to make children’s birthday parties less stressful and more fun for all

D.parents don’t know how to hold children’s birthday parties

2. Which of the following sentences is TRUE ______.

A.The girl didn’t enjoy the party held by her mother.

B.The project called Birthdays without Pressure is popular with parents.

C.Children look forward to their birthday parties because they like extravagant parties.

D.Parents feel like hiring an entire petting zoo for their children.

3. The aim of the project called Birthdays without Pressure is to______.

A.attract parents to view the website

B.provide resources for making kids’ birthday parties

C.release parents’ stress of organizing children’s birthday parties

D.hold conversation about what’s happened to birthday parties

4. The best title for this passage may probably be ______.

A project called Birthdays without Pressure

B.Children enjoy their birthday parties

C.  How to hold children’s birthday parties

D.  How children feel about their birthday parties

 

In 1980, Candy Lightner's 13－year－old daughter Cad was killed by a drunk driver as she walked down a suburban street in California. “I promised myself on the day of Cad's death that I would fight to make this needless accident count_for something positive in the years ahead，”Candy Lightner later wrote.

The drunk driver received a two－year prison sentence. However, he avoided prison by serving time in a work camp and a halfway house. Ms. Lightner was very angry about that and so organized Mothers Against Drunk Drivers(MADD), which later changed to Mothers Against Drunk Driving. The aim of her organization was to raise public awareness of the serious nature of drunk driving and to promote tough legislation against the crime.

Before Ms. Lightner's MADD, intoxication (醉酒), including drunk driving, was not taken seriously. Intoxication was often used as an excuse for otherwise unacceptable behaviour: “I didn't know what I was doing—I was drunk.”

Candy Lightner appeared on major television shows, spoke before the US Congress, addressed professional and business, groups, and worked tirelessly for years to change public attitudes, change judicial(审判的) behaviour, and promote tough new legislation. Ms. Lightner left MADD because the organization that she herself created is changing its focus. “I didn't start MADD to deal with alcohol. I started MADD to deal with the issue of drunk driving.”

The President of the United States awarded her the President's Volunteer Action Award and she was the subject of the movie “Mothers Against Drunk Drivers: the Candy Lightner Story”．

6. One of the purposes of MADD was to ________.

A. improve drivers' driving skills

B. make new laws against crimes

C. tell drivers to avoid drunk driving

D. warn people not to drink alcohol

7. What does the underlined part “count for ” in Paragraph 1 mean?

A. To be valuable for.      B. To explain.

C. To take the place of.     D. To control.

8. How did Ms. Lightner realize MADD's goals?

a. By talking on TV.

b. By giving a talk to businessmen.

c. By giving suggestions to the US Congress.

d. By applying for a job with the government.

A. a, c, d                  B. a, b, d      C. a, b, c            D. b, c, d

9. We can learn from the passage that________.

A. the drunk driver had not been caught

B. drunk driving didn't receive enough attention before MADD

C. Candy Lightner played a leading role in a film

D. MADD didn't get much support from society

10. What would be the BEST title for the passage?

A. What is MADD?

B. How to stop drunk driving?

C. New law against drunk driving

D. Candy Lightner and her MADD

This brief book is aimed at high school students, but speaks to anyone learning at any stage of life．
Its formal, serious style closely matches its content, a school-masterly book on schooling．The author, W．H．Armstrong, starts with the basics: reading and writing．In his opinion, reading doesn’t just mean recognizing each word on the page; it means taking in the information, digesting it and incorporating it into oneself just as digests a sandwich and makes it a part of himself．The goal is to bring the information back to life, not just to treat it as dead facts on paper from dead trees．Reading and writing cannot be completely separated from each other; in fact, the aim of reading is to express the information you have got from the text．I’ve seen it again and again: someone who can’t express an idea after reading a text is just as ineffective as someone who hasn’t read it at all．
Only a third of the book remains after that discussion, which Armstrong devotes to specific tips for studying languages, math, science and history．He generally handles these topics thoroughly(透彻地) and equally, except for some weakness in the science and math sections and a bit too much passion(激情) regarding history．Well, he was a history teacher — if conveyed only a tenth of his passion to his students, that was a hundred times more than my history teachers ever got across．To my disappointment, in this part of the book he ignores the arts．As a matter of fact, they demand all the concentration and study that math and science do, though the study differs slightly in kind．Although it’s commonly believed that the arts can only be naturally acquired, actually, learning the arts is no more natural than learning French or mathematics．
My other comment is that the text aged．The first edition apparently dates to the 1960s — none of the references(参考文献)seem newer than the late 1950s．As a result, the discussion misses the entire computer age．
These are small points, though, and don’t affect the main discussion．I recommend it to any student and any teacher, including the self-taught student．
【小题1】According to Armstrong, the goal of reading is to________．

A．gain knowledge and expand one’s view

B．understand the meaning between the lines

C．express ideas based on what one has read

D．get information and keep it alive in memory

【小题2】The author of the passage insists that learning the arts_________．

A．requires great efforts	B．demands real passion
C．is less natural than learning maths	D．is as natural as learning a language

【小题3】What is a shortcoming of Armstrong’s work according to the author?

A．Some ideas are slightly contradictory．

B．There is too much discussion on studying science．

C．The style is too serious．

D．It lacks new information．

【小题4】This passage can be classified as________．

A．an advertisement	B．a book review
C．a feature story	D．a news report

The summer I was ten, my mother decided to bring us to the world of art. My brother and I were not very excited when we realized what my mother meant. What she meant was not that we could take drawing classes or painting classes but that we would have to spend one afternoon a week with her at the Fine Arts Museum. Before each visit to the museum, she made us read about artists and painting styles. It was almost as bad as being in school. Who wants to spend the summer thinking about artists when you could be with your friends at the swimming pool?

     First we had to read about ancient Egyptians(古埃及人) and their strange way of painting faces and then go to look at them at the museum. My 12-year-old brother thought this was so funny, but I was not interested. Later we had to learn about artists in the Middle Ages who painted people wearing strange long clothing. We had to look at pictures of fat babies with wings and curly hair and with no clothes on flying around the edges of paintings. I certainly couldn't see what was so great about art.

     On our last visit to the museum, something happened when I saw a painting by a woman called Mary. In it, a woman was reading to a child. The colors were soft and gentle, and you could tell by the mother’s expression how happy she was just to be with the child. I couldn't stop looking at this painting! I wanted to see every painting Mary had ever made! It was really worth looking at so many paintings to find a painter who could interest me so much.

1.The aim of the mother’s plan was to _________.

   A. take them to visit the museum

 B. introduce them to the world of art

   C. ask them to read about artists

D. show them different painting styles

2.What was the writer’s experience in the museum before the last visit?

   A. She came to feel her mother’s love.

B. She liked many paintings.

   C. She hardly enjoyed herself.

D. She could understand the pictures of fat babies.

3.What made the writer go through a change that summer?

   A. One of Mary's paintings.            

B. A strange way of painting.

   C. Artists in the Middle Ages.           

D. Her mother’s instruction.

4.From the text, we can see _________.

   A. the importance of curiosity         

B. the effect of art

   C. the value of learning                  

D. the power of family education

5.The writer and her brother had thought that they could ___________ in their summer vacation.

   A. visit some art museums              

B. go to Egypt for a visit

   C. take drawing or painting classes      

D. play with their friends.

 

Can you imagine living in a house built by recycled waste?
Texas home builder Dan Phillips transforms trash into artful treasures, creating beautiful floors with wood pieces, kitchen counters from ivory -colored bones and roofs out of license plates （牌照）．
The fantastic houses which spring from his imagination are made almost entirely of materials which would otherwise have ended up in a garbage area．
" People have been doing this for hundreds of thousands of years; using whatever is available to build shelter, " Phillips said．"If you think about carefully what could be used, then building materials are everywhere．
The thirteen homes he has built so far would fit better in an art museum than the residential streets of Huntsville, a conservative town of about 35 ,000 people．
Living in these houses is a bit like living in a roadside attraction．"Almost every day, somebody knocks on the door and says ' Is there any way that we could see?' "said Edie Wells, an artist who rents a room in the Bone House．Her home features a stairway made of bones, floors covered in wine corks （软木塞） and beer bottle caps．Wells said visitors are most impressed when they see a bathroom with its walls, floor and ceiling entirely covered with broken mirror pieces．
In addition, each house is highly energy efficient with plenty insulation （隔热材料） , an on-demand solar hot water heater and a system that can collect and recycle rainwater to clean the toilet and wash clothes．
Phillips founded Phoenix Commotion 12 years ago with the aim of creating a new model for sustainable housing．For as little as $ 10,000 it builds affordable homes for single parents, low-income families and artists．
The company has used hundreds of tons of construction waste by recycling the materials into habitable buildings．
Phillips tries to spread his recycled-house idea by speaking at events across the United States, and by using the Internet to reach out to like-minded individuals．Phillips said: "I'm not going to be saving the world anytime soon．But there needs to be at least some visibility for this model in this century．
【小题1】Which of the following is NOT the advantage of the homes built by Phillips?

A．environmentally-friendly	B．energy efficient
C．convenient	D．cheap

【小题2】What do we know about Dan Phillips?

A．He is serious and hard-working．

B．He is full of imagination and intelligence．

C．It didn't take him long to build the houses．

D．He didn't give speeches in the United States．

【小题3】According to the passage, the houses are like artful treasures because they are           .

A．made of bones	B．museums
C．admired by people	D．made of various trash

【小题4】Which of the following might be the best title for the passage?

A．Home Builder Dan Phillips

B．Green Homes

C．Home Builder Dan Phillips Tunis Trash into Green Homes

D．A Home Builder' s Life