I moved to a small town and changed my job years ago. I don’t make        .

 If parents bring up a child with the aim of turning the child into a genius（天才）, they will cause great damage to him. According to several leading educational experts, this is one of the biggest mistakes that some parents make. Generally, the child will understand very well what the parents expect. and will fall. Unrealistic（不现实）expectations of the parents can cause great damage to children.

    However, if parents are not unrealistic about what they expect their children to do, but are hopeful in a sensible（明智）way, the child may succeed in doing very well—especially if the parents are very supportive（支持的）to their children.

    Michael Li is very lucky. He likes music and his parents help him a lot by taking him to concerts and let him attend piano and violin lessons. Although Michael's mother knows very little about music, his father is a good musician. However, he never makes Michael enter music competitions if he is unwilling.

    Michael's friend, Winston Chen, however, is not so lucky. Although both his parents are successful musicians, they set too high a standard（水平）for Winston. They want their son to be as successful as they are and so they enter him in every piano competition held. They are very unhappy when he does not win. “When I was your age I used to win every competition I enter.” Winston's father tells him. Winston is always afraid that he will disappoint his parents and now he always quiet and unhappy.

1.The main idea of the passage is _________.

A. how parents should make a child a musician

B. how parents should bring up a child

C. what differences there are between the two boys

D. what aim is easier for a child to reach

2.Winston's parents set so high a standard for him that _______.

A. he has to do his best to win every competition

B. he has made greater progress in music

C. he is afraid he may disappoint them

D. he often wants to kill himself someday

3.It is one of the parents’ worst mistakes if ______.

A. they want their child to be a musician

B. they help their child to win music competition

C. they don't care for their child's education much

D. they make their child try to achieve too much

4. According to the writer's opinion, _________.

A. it's unimportant to let the children develop（=grow）in the way they want

B. sensible parents can train their children to succeed in everything

C. parents should be realistic and supportive to their children

D. unrealistic parents should arrange（安排）private lessons for their children

I used to live in Kobe in Japan. On my way home on the bus every evening I used to look for an old man who often played his saxophone (萨克斯管) near the river. I couldn’t hear his music because the windows were closed on the bus but I imagined it to be loud and clear. I wanted to be like that man.

One night I went to Himeji, a city not far from Kobe. As I walked with my family along the river I saw a statue. It was a young man who looked just like me. He was wearing a cap and smiling. Around his neck was a leather strap (皮带) and in his hands was a saxophone. He was lifting the saxophone to his lips and he was just about to play. I stayed there for a long time by the statue dreaming of playing a saxophone on TV.

Two weeks later it was my birthday. Imagine my joy when I opened my present from my parents and found that it was a saxophone! I put it to my lips to play, but it wouldn’t make a sound. Then Dad told me to read the instruction book to find out what to do. After about 15 minutes the saxophone was ready to play. I raised it slowly to my lips as my family watched. But still there was no sound. I blew and blew but I couldn’t get the saxophone to play. I was almost crying when suddenly the saxophone made the most beautiful sound—loud and clear like I imagined the music of the man by the river in Kobe. I blew again, I moved my fingers on the saxophone and I made more sounds. I was happy because I was playing very interesting sounds. But I wasn’t playing music yet.

Then came the lessons. Night after night, week after week my teacher made me practice. Slowly I started to improve and at last there came the magic day when I started to play music. Now I’m in the TV studio with my saxophone strapped to my neck and my cap on my head. I’m always thinking of the man by the river in Kobe and the statue smiling at me in Himeiji. I’m a happy man.

1.On the bus, the writer couldn’t ________.

A．find an old man with a saxophone           B．see a river

C．hear the old man’s music                D．imagine the sound

2.The statue along the river made the writer think of ________.

A．having a saxophone

B．the old man near the river

C．having a cap and a saxophone as the boy

D．playing the saxophone on TV

3.The writer could get the saxophone to play ________.

A．as soon as he got it

B．after he read the instruction

C．after he tried many times

D．after his father taught him

4.What does the passage mainly talk about?

A．The magic day.                         B．My birthday present.

C．The old man and the statue.               D．My dream of playing saxophone.

Choose the words or expressions and complete the passage
Exam time is the most stressful (最有压力的) period of the year. You’ve worked all the term on your classes and now it’s the time to prove what you have learned. With so much at stake, it is easy to get stressed about your exams. However, with the right amount or hard work and focus you can pass your tests    1!
When I was in school, I used to get very stressed over my examinations. So did my friends. Some people stopped eating and others ate too much! Some     2 and others burned themselves out! The most important thing to remember when studying is not to panic! Take the middle path---stay calm, eat healthy food and get your rest. Stressing out and _3___yourself too hard is just as dangerous as not studying enough. A tired, overworked brain is just as useless as a stupid, empty one!
So, what do you do? Set aside a time each day for study and a time For __4 . You may have less time to relax than usual, but you still need to let your brain rest for a few moments. Get plenty of sleep. If you are_ 5  , information will not stick in your memory. Finally, eat healthy food that fuels your body and mind.
It does no good to look at your exams like the rest of your life   6  them. Instead, just view them as another obstacle (障碍物) you will overcome. You have overcome all kinds of obstacles in your life so far. With the right amount of work and focus, you will pass your examinations with flying colors! High school is right around the corner.