If English means endless new words, difficult grammar and sometimes strange pronunciation, you are wrong. Haven’t you noticed that you have become smarter since you started to learn a language?

       According to a new study by a British university, learning a second language can lead to an increase in your brain power. Researchers found that learning other languages changes grey matter. This is the area of the brain which processes information. It is similar to the way that exercise builds muscles. The study also found the effect is greater the younger people learn a second language.

       A team led by Dr Andrea Mechelli, from University College London, took a group of Britons who only spoke English. They were compared with a group of “early bilinguals” who had learnt a second language before the age of five, as well as a number of later learners.

       Scans showed that grey matter density（密度）in the brain was greater in bilinguals than in people without a second language. But the longer a person waited before mastering a new language, the smaller the difference.

       “Our findings suggest that the structure of the brain is changed by the experience of learning a second language,”said the scientists.

       It means that the change itself increases the ability to learn.

       Professor Dylan Vaughan Jones of the University of Wales, has researched the link between bilingualism and math skills. “Having two languages gives you two windows on the world and makes the brain more flexible（灵活的），” he said. “You are actually going beyond language and have a better understanding of different ideas.”

       The findings were matched in a study of native Italian speakers who had learned English as a second language between the ages of two and 34. Reading, writing, and comprehension were all tested. The results showed that the younger they started to learn, the better. “Studying a language means you get an entrance to another world,” explained the scientists.

Which part will change more when a person studies a second language?

       A.  grey matter density B.  the brain

       C.  mental system                  D.  musles

Who can study a second language easier?.

       A.  The adults                       B. The teenagers

    C.  The children                     D. The old

The underlined word “bilingual” probably means      .

       A.  a researcher on language learning

       B.  a second language learner

       C.  a person who can speak two languages

D.  an active language learner

  How do you understand the underlined sentence ( in paragraph 4 ) in the passage?

A.  It means that we can practise our brain by studying a second language

B.  It means that the change itself increases the ability to learn

C.  It means that learning a second language makes you more flexable

D.  It means that learners will better understand the difficult ideas.

　　Why doesn’t the unemployment rate ever reach zero? Economists, who generally believe that supply tends to meet demand, have long thought about this question. Even in good times, i.e. not now, there are people who can’t find work. And even in bad times, i.e. now, there are job openings. With over 14 million people out of work and looking for a job, you would think every available job would be filled. But that’s not the case. Not now and not ever.

　　On Monday, the Nobel Prize committee awarded the prize for economics to the three scholars who have done the most to explain this phenomenon. Two of the winners are Americans, Peter Diamond of MIT and Dale Mortensen of Northwestern. The third winner is Christopher Pissarides, who teaches at the London School of Economics and was born on Cyprus.

　　Like most of economics, what they have found about why the jobless and ready-employers don’t find each other seems obvious. You have to find out there is job opening you are interested in. Employers need to get resumes （简历）. It takes a while for both employers and employees to make the decision that this is what they want. And these guys came up with a frame-work to study the problem of why people stay unemployed longer than they should and what can be done about it.

　　So what would today’s Nobel Prize winners do to solve the current problem of the unemployed? And does the awarding of the prize contribute to the politicians’ lowering joblessness?

　　Speaking from his north London home, Pissarides told The Associated Press the announcement came as “a complete surprise” though his work had already helped shape thinking on both sides of the Atlantic.

　　For example, the New Deal for Young People, a British government policy aimed at getting 18-24-year-olds back on the job market after long periods of unemployment, “is very much based on our work,” he said.

　　“One of the key things we found is that it is important to make sure that people do not stay unemployed too long so they don’t lose their feel for the labor force,” Pissarides told reporters in London. “The ways of dealing with this need not be expensive training – it could be as simple as providing work experience.”

According to the writer, which is true about finding jobs?

　　A. It is always difficult to find a job.

　　B. Everyone can find a job in good times.

　　C. Contrary to popular belief, it is easier to find a job in bad times.

　　D. It is possible to find a job even in times as bad as now.

What is it that leads to their winning the prize?

　　A. They have found the reason for unemployment.

　　B. They have put forward a set of ideas to deal with unemployment.

　　C. They have found out why people don’t want to be employed.

　　D. They have long studied the problem of unemployment.

Which of the following statements is NOT true according to the passage?

　　A. Pissarides thinks his work surprising.

　　B. The work of Pissarides has influenced many economists.

　　C. Some of the winners’ ideas have been put into practice.

　　D. It is probable that unemployed young people in Britain benefit from Pissarides’ work.

According to Pissarides, _________ is effrctive in dealing with unemployment.

　　A. spending large sums of money on training

　　B. teaching some knowledge of economics

　　C. providing work experience

　　D. keeping people unemployed for some time

   Have you got any wonderful plans for your coming winter vacation? Here are some wonderful films for you to kill time.

Away We Go With a baby on his way, a young couple,  Burt and Verona, look at their lives and are puzzled about what they really want. So they hit the road and seek a place to call home. On their journey, they visit a handful of characters and learned a lot. It’s about taking the scenic route in life, preparing for the hope and excitement and fear of new beginnings, while never forgetting to look out of the window.

Orphan  Esther, a bright and well-behaved child, however, is not as innocent as she appears. Soon after being taken home, the peace of her adoptive family is completely changed… You want a good horror film about a child from hell? Then you got one! Do not, in any cases, take children to see it.

500 Days of Summer  Tom is in love with Summer from the moment he sees her. Can he accept that she simply likes him for now, not for forever? The movie is about Tom wrestling with that reality. Tom remembers his love, Summer, as a series of joys and bafflements. But Summer is just herself and he cannot have her. Here is a rare movie that begins by telling us how it will end and is about how the hero has no idea why.

2012 The director Roland Emmerich successfully dresses a corny story with an old Mayan prediction, which is believed by many to happen in the coming 2012 and as a result, attracts millions of people into the cinema.    It’s just an entertaining Hollywood blockbuster(大片) with plenty of jokes, instead of a description of what the end of the world is really like. Don’t take it too seriously!

This passage aims to __________.

A. make comments on films for a cinema    

B. introduce films for a film corporation

C. recommend several films for fun       

D. advertise several films for a website

If you bring your seven-year-old sister to the cinema, which of the following film should you avoid?

A. Away We Go.                B. Orphan.       

C. 2012.                       D. 500 Days of Summer.

Among all the characters mentioned in the passage, who directed films in Hollywood?

  A. Roland Emmerich.   B. Tom and Summer.  C. Burt and Verona.  D. Esther.

Which of the following statements is TRUE according to the passage?

A. Orphan is a comedy about Esther adopted by a kind family.

  B. 500 Days of Summer is a romance with a happy ending.

  C. Away We Go shows beautiful scenery on the young couple’s journey.

D. The ancient Mayan prediction is going to happen in 2012.         

American magician David Blaine left the glass box in which he had lived for 44 days without food on October 19. 2003. Hundreds of people came to watch the end of his starvation experiment, which has become one of London’s main tourist attractions.

Looking thinner and darker, 30 year-old Blaine was taken out of his box over the River Thames（泰晤士河）and immediately went to hospital. He was then slowly reintroduced to food, a process (过程)doctors say could be life threatening. He had been drinking only water since September 5.

A native of Brooklyn, New York, Blaine first became known as a street magician in the early 1990s. He soon found himself doing magic tricks in bars for the likes of American actor Leonardo DiCaprio and his super model friends.

Over the last decade Blaine has become famous with a combination of breathtaking magic and clever tricks aimed at getting a lot of attention.

In 1999, he was buried in a coffin (棺材) for one week and, in 2000, he spent 62 hours in a giant block of ice. Last year he stood on top of a 25-meter pillar(柱子) in the center of New York for 35 hours before jumping into a pile of boxes.

“I think a lot of people are unable to accept that they’re able to do what they can do,” he said. “They don’t realize we can survive. The human being is an amazing creation.”

But he seems to have suffered from spending so long in the glass box. He said that at times he was unable to see, had serious back pains and lost his sense of taste.

It is _    __ for David Blaine to eat food after such a long starvation.

A. pleasant      B. delicious       C. dangerous        D. important

Having spent such a long time in the glass box, he suffered the following EXCEPT that _   ___.

A. he had become blind             B. he had serious back pains

C. he lost his sense of taste      D. he was in weak health

Which of the following can best describe David Blaine?

A. Serious         B. Adventurous          C. Mad          D. Crazy

Which of the following is NOT true of David Blaine?

A. Blaine immediately went to hospital after he was taken out of his box.

B. Blaine was born and brought up in England.

C. In Blaine’s opinion, people can create a wonder.

D. Blaine didn’t have any food for 44 days.            

Today, in many high schools, teaching is now a technical miracle of computer labs, digital cameras.  DVD players and laptops. Teachers can e-mail parents, post messages for students on online bulletin(公告，告示) boards, and take attendance with a quick movement of a mouse.

Even though we are now living in the digital age, the basic and most important element of education has not changed. Most students still need that one-on-one, teacher-student relationship to learn and to succeed. Teenagers need instruction in English, math or history, but they also want personal advice and encouragement. Kids talk with me about their families, their weekend plans, their favorite TV shows and their relationship problems. In my English and journalism class, we talk about Shakespeare and persuasive(富有哲理的) essays, but we also discuss college basketball, the war in Iraq and career choices. Students show me pictures of their rebuilt cars, their family vacations, and their newborn baby brothers. This personal connection is the necessary link between teachers and students that no amount of technology can improve upon or replace.

A few years ago I had a student in sophomore English who was struggling with my class and with school in general. Although he was a humorous young man who liked to joke around, I knew his family life was far from ideal. Whenever I approached him about missing homework or low test grades, he always had the same reply: “It doesn’t matter because I’m quitting school anyway.” Even though he always said this in a half-teasing way, I knew he needed to hear my different opinion and my “value of a high school education” lecture. He needed to hear this speech from me. After he left my class, he struggled through the next two years of school. But, he did finally graduate because we kept telling him to hang in there. We’d cared about him finishing school.

Recently, I saw this former student working at a local Italian restaurant. I told him again how proud I was of him. He said that he was hoping to go back to school to become a certified electrician. I encouraged him to get that training.

Students rely on compassionate teachers to guide, to tutor, to listen, to laugh and to cry with them. Teachers provide the most important link in the educational process — the human one.

The first paragraph mainly discusses _______.

    A．the variety of modern teaching methods

    B．the wide use of modern technology in education

    C．the importance of teacher-parent relationship

    D．the importance of using modern technology

The underlined word “compassionate” in Para 5 means          .

    A．ambitious    B．knowledgeable    C．sympathetic  D．generous

According to the text, the most important element in education is         .

    A．teacher’s good instruction  B．advanced technology

    C．teachers’ encouragement D．personal connection

The author states his view of education by         .

    A．example  B．description  C．figure   D．comparison