Some American parents might think their children need better educations to compete with China and other countries. But how much do the parents themselves need to change?

A new book called Battle Hymn(圣歌) of the Tiger Mother by Amy Chua has caused a debate about cultural differences in parenting. Ms. Chua is a professor at the Yale Law School in New Haven, Connecticut, and the mother of two daughters. She was raised in the American Mid-west by immigrant Chinese parents.

In the Chinese culture, the tiger represents strength and power. In her book, Ms Chua writes about how she demanded excellence from her daughters. For example, she threatened to burn her daughter’s stuffed animals unless she played a piece of music perfectly. She would insult her daughters if they failed to meet her expectations.

Ms. Chua told NBC television that she had a clear list of what her daughters, Sophia and Louisa, were not permitted to do.

“Attend a sleepover, have a playdate, watch TV or play computer games, be in a school play, get any grade less than an ‘A’.”

Many people have criticized Amy Chua. Some say her parenting methods were abusive. She even admits that her husband, who is not Chinese, sometimes objected to her parenting style. But she says that was the way her parents raised her and her three sisters.

Ms. Chua makes fun of her own extreme style of parenting. She says she eased some of the pressure after her younger daughter rebelled and shouted, “I hate my life! I hate you!”

Ms. Chua says she decided to retreat when it seemed like there was a risk that she might lose her daughter. But she also says American parents often have low expectations of their children’s abilities.

“One of the biggest differences I see between Western and Chinese parenting is that Chinese parents assume strength rather than fragility.”

Stacey DeBroff has written four books on parenting. “I think that the stirring of intense debate has to do with what it means to be a successful parent and what it means to be a successful child.”

Ms. DeBroff says Amy Chua’s parenting style is not limited to Chinese families. She says it represents a traditional way of parenting among immigrants seeking a better future for their children.

But she also sees a risk. When children have no time to be social or to follow their own interests, they might not develop other skills that they need to succeed in life. Stacey DeBroff advises parents to develop their own style of parenting and not just repeat the way they were raised.

1.According to the passage, which of the following is TRUE about American parents?

A．Some of them expect their children to be competitive.

B．Some of them need to educate themselves better.

C．They should learn from Chinese parents.

D．They care their kids more than Chinese.

2.What can we learn about Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother?

A．It is a list of things for children to do.

B．It is a book about cultural differences.

C．It is a heated debate about parenting.

D．It is a book about how to raise children.

3.Based on the passage, Ms. Chua’s parenting is exposed to the following EXCEPT           

A．pressure          B．management       C．recreation         D．compromise

4. Which of the following agrees with Ms. DeBroff?

A．Different cultures have different concepts of values.

B．Chua’s parenting is followed by many American families.

C．Immigrants are always bitterly struggling abroad.

D．Parents had better raise their children in person.

5. What’s the author’s attitude towards Ms. Chua’s parenting?

A．Positive           B．Inactive           C．Indefinite         D．Negative

 

Towards the end of Middle English, a sudden change in pronunciation started, with vowels being pronounced shorter and shorter. From the 16^th century the British had contact with people from around the world. This means that many new words and phrases entered the language. The invention of printing also meant that there was a common language in print. Books became cheaper and more people learned to read. Spelling and grammar became fixed and the dialect （方言）of London became the standard. In 1604, the first English dictionary was published.

The numbers of words in Early Modern English and Late Modern English differ. Late Modern English has a lot more words because of two main factors: firstly, the Industrial Revolution created a need for new words; secondly, the British Empire covered one quarter of the earth’s surface, and the English language took in foreign words from many countries.

From around 1600, the English colonization(殖民地化)of North America resulted in the creation of American English. Some English pronunciation and words  froze when they reached America. In some ways, American English is more like the English of Shakespeare than modern British English. Some expressions that the British call “ Americanisms” are in fact original （原先的）British expressions that were preserved (保存) in the colonies but were lost in Britain. Spanish also had an influence on American English, with words like canyon, ranch, stampede and vigilante being examples of Spanish words that entered English. French words and West African words also influenced American English.

Today, American English is the most influential(有影响力的). But there are many other kinds of English around the world, including Australian English, New Zealand English, Canadian English, South African English , Indian English and Caribbean English. They have differences.

1.What can we know from Paragraph 1?

A．The dialect of London became the standard in the year 1604.

B．Vowels were pronounced longer towards the end of Middle English

C．The first English dictionary was published in the early 17th century.

D．Many new words entered English because many people moved to Britain.

2.From Paragraph 2, we know that the Industrial Revolution __________.

A．required spelling and grammar to be fixed

B．required a greater number of English words

C．caused many old English words to be useless

D．led to the English colonization of North America.

3.The underlined word “froze” in Paragraph 3 shows that some English words in America___________.

A．became longer

B．greatly changed

C．a little changed

D．stayed as they were

4.What will the paragraph following this passage most probably discuss?

A．The development of Modern English

B．How the English vocabulary became larger

C．Differences among the different kinds of English

D．Differences between Middle English and Modern English

 

Face masks are commonly used in ceremonies and performances. They not only hide the real face of the mask wearer but they often evoke powerful emotions in the audience—danger, fear, sadness, joy. You might think, because so many things vary cross-culturally, that the ways in which emotions are displayed and recognized in the face vary too. Apparently they do not. Recent research on masks from different cultures supports the conclusion that masks, like faces, tend to represent certain emotions in the same ways. We now have some evidence that the symbolism used in masks is often universal.

The research on masks builds on work done by anthropologists, who used photographs of individuals experiencing various emotions. These photographs were shown to members of different cultural groups who were asked to identify the emotions displayed in the photographs. Emotions were identified correctly by most viewers, whatever the viewer’s native culture.

Coding schemes were developed to enable researchers to compare the detailed facial positions of individual portions of die face (eyebrows, mouth, etc.) for different emotions. What exactly do we do when we scowl? We contract the eyebrows and lower the corners of the mouth; in geometric terms, we make angles and diagonals (斜线) on our faces. When we smile, we raise the corners of the mouth; we make it curved.

Psychologist Joel Arnoff and his colleagues compared two types of wooden face masks from many different societies—masks described as threatening versus masks associated with nonthreatening functions. As suspected, the two sets of masks had significant differences in certain facial elements. The threatening masks had eyebrows and eyes facing inward and downward and a downward-facing mouth. In more abstract or geometrical terms, threatening features generally tend to be angular or diagonal and nonthreatening features tend to be curved or rounded, a face with a pointed beard is threatening; a baby's face is not. The theory is that humans express and recognize basic emotions in uniform (一致的) ways because all human faces are quite similar, skeletally and muscularly.

1.What does the passage mainly discuss?

A. The techniques for comparing facial expressions across cultures.

B. The photography of faces.

C. Cultural variations in mask.

D. The uniformity of facial expressions in revealing emotions.

2.According to the passage, masks are used in performances to _______.

A. disguise the real emotions of the performers

B. cause members of the audience to have strong emotions

C. remind the audience that an illusion is being created

D. identify the cultural background of the performers

3.What does the author mean by stating, "the symbolism used in masks is often universal"?

A. Masks are sometimes used to hide emotions.

B. Performers often need help conveying emotions to an audience.

C. Not all societies use masks in their rituals.

D. People from different cultures generally express certain emotions in similar ways.

4.The passage mentions "baby’s face" in the last paragraph as an example of a _______.

A. typical human face

B. source of inspiration in the creation of masks

C. nonthreatening face

D. face that expresses few emotions

 

Cheektowage Central Middle School can be a lot of fun. It has game nights and student dances, after-school activities, and sports teams. However, students at the school must earn the right to join in the fun. If they don’t do their homework, participate in class, and behave at all times, they’re banned(禁止) from participating in after-school activities.

Students and parents say the threat of being excluded(排除在外) appears to be working. Kenny T. of Reno, Nev., says it taught him that actions have consequences: “I learned that I need to be balanced in both my work and athletics to be rewarded for working hard.” Parent Sondra LaMacchia told The New York Times that her 14-year-old daughter is learning responsibility at Cheektowaga Central. The teen used to perform poorly in her studies, but then she was banned from a school dance. The message got through loud and clear. “It’s nobody’s fault but hers,” LaMacchia said.

Although exclusion may help teach responsibility, some psychologists say it can also be threatening, especially for students who often cause, or may cause, trouble in school. They might become more aggressive and antisocial, which is exactly what schools like Cheektowaga Central want to prevent.

Should schools exclude students from activities to get them to behave? I believe teens need school activities and that inclusion can be the answer. For some troubled students, activities can be their motivation to stay in school. “Activities such as sports may be the only thing keeping certain students in school,” says Duace Wood, a teacher at Mohonasen High School in Rotterdam, N.Y. Getting involved in after-class activities keeps troublesome students in class. Even if they don’t do as well as their classmates, they are still learning. The more time they spend at school, the less time they have to even think about starting trouble. Teams also provide support and role models, and they help build the confidence that students need to succeed. If students who don’t behave are banned from activities, they might give up on school altogether.

1.Paragraph 2 is developed by _______.

A．analyzing causes                        B．giving examples

C．examining differences                    D．following the time order

2.Parent Sondra LaMacchia supports the policy of exclusion because _______.

A．it provides role models

B．her daughter is aggressive

C．her daughter hates taking exercise

D． it helps teach responsibility

3.In Paragraph 3 and 4, the author mainly talks about________.

A．students who are good at sports

B．students who often cause trouble

C．teens who do well in their studies

D．teens who always behave themselves

4.What is the author’s attitude towards the school’s policy of exclusion?

A． Negative         B．Sympathetic        C．Satisfied          D．Supportive

 

1 

My mother is a geneticist, and from her I learned that despite our differences in size, shape and color, we humans are 99.9 percent the same. It is in our   36   to see differences: skin, hair and eye color, height, language. But also in our nature, way down in the DNA that   37   us human, we are almost the   38  .

I believe there is more that unites us than   39   us.

My mother came to the US from India. She is   40   enough that she got her service  41  in a diner in 1960s Dallas. My father is a white boy from Indiana whose   42   came from Germany in the mid-1800s.

 It seems   43   to admit now, but I never   44   that my parents were different colors. One day, I watched my parents walk   45   the street of our church together. They were   46   in the service that day, and as they walked, I saw their hands   47   together in unison(一致地). I noticed for the first time how dark my mother was, and how white my father was. I knew them as my parents   48   I realized their skin color. I'm sorry to say that now when I see a mixed-race    49   walking down the street, I see the "mixed race" first and the "couple" second.

When my parents married in 1966, there were   50   places in this country that had laws  51   mixed marriage.   52  , my white grandfather,   53   father had been a typical racist, was not against their marriage.

Some of us are men, some are women. Some are young, some old. Some of us are short and others   54  . Some right-handed, some left-handed. We have lots of differences; we are all   55  . But deep down inside us, down in our DNA, we are 99.9 percent the same. And I believe we need to remember that.

1.A. feature                                B. character                    C. nature                       D. quality

2.A. gets                                 B. lets                                     C. has                           D. makes

3.A. same                               B. different                     C. familiar                    D. similar

4.A. differs                           B. divides                             C. departs            D. splits

5.A. yellow                          B. white                      C. dark                      D. brown

6.A. turned out                B. turned down             C. turned over               D. turned back

7.A. ancestors                       B. parents                             C. family                     D. origin

8.A. silly                                  B. wise                         C. stupid                    D. foolish

9.A. noticed                         B. looked                             C. watched                  D. observed

10.A. in                                           B. up                                    C. out                          D. down

11.A. entering                        B. running                            C. attending                D. participating

12.A. rocking                       B. shaking                           C. swinging    D. waving

13.A. unless                        B. after                               C. before                    D. until

14.A. marriage                              B. couple                             C. double                  D. twins

15.A. always                              B. also                              C. almost                  D. still

16.A. allowing                      B. preventing                         C. encouraging   D. banning

17.A. Therefore                     B. However                           C. But                           D. Otherwise

18.A. which                         B. whose                             C. that                      D. what

19.A. long                     B. high               C. tall           D. kind

20.A. similar                        B. familiar                C. unique                   D. same