Everyone knows about straight-A students. We see them frequently in TV situation comedies and in movies like Revenge(报复)of the Nerds. They get high grades, all right, but only by becoming dull laborers, their noses always stuck in a book. They are not good at social communication and look clumsy(笨拙的) while doing sports.

How, then, do we account for Domenica Roman or Paul Melendres?

Roman is on the tennis team at Fairmont Senior High School. She also sings in the choral group, serves on the student council and is a member of the mathematics society. For two years she has maintained A’s in every subject. Melendres, a freshman at the University of New Mexico, was student-body president at Valley High School in Albuquerque. He played soccer and basketball well, exhibited at the science fair, and meanwhile worked as a reporter on a local television station. Being a speech giver at the graduation ceremony, he achieved straight A’s in his regular classes, plus bonus points for A’s in two college-level courses.

How do super-achievers like Roman and Melendres do it? Brains aren’t the only answer. “Top grades don’t always go to the brightest students,” declares Herbert Walberg, a professor of education at the University of Illinois at Chicago, who has conducted major studies on super-achieving students. “Knowing how to make the most of your innate(天生的)abilities counts for more. Much more.”

In fact, Walberg says, students with high IQ sometimes don’t do as well as classmates with lower IQ. For them, learning comes too easily and they never find out how to get down.

Hard work isn’t the whole story, either. “It’s not how long you sit there with the books open,” said one of the many-A students we interviewed. “It’s what you do while you’re sitting.” Indeed, some of these students actually put in fewer hours of homework time than their lower-scoring classmates.

The kids at the top of the class get there by mastering a few basic techniques that others can readily learn.

1.The underlined word “nerds” can probably be________ .

A．dull bookworms lacking sports and social skills

B．successful top students popular with their peers

C．students with certain learning difficulties

D．born leaders crazy about social activities

2.What can we conclude from the first paragraph?

A．Most TV programs and films are about straight-A students.

B．People have unfavorable impression on straight-A students.

C．Everyone knows about straight-A students from TV or films.

D．Straight-A students are well admired by people in the society.

3.Some students become super-achievers mainly because_________ .

A．they are born cleverer than others

B．they work longer hours at study

C．they make full use of their abilities

D．they know the shortcut to success

4.What will be talked about after the last paragraph?

A．The interviews with more students.

B．The role IQ plays in learning well.

C．The techniques to be better learners.

D．The achievements top students make.

5.What can we infer from the passage?

A．IQ is more important than hard work in study.

B．The brightest students can never get low grades.

C．Top students certainly achieve all-around developments.

D．Students with average IQ can become super-achievers.

 

A. Set a Good Example for Your Kids B. Build Your Kids’ Work Skills C. Place Time Limits on Leisure Activities D. Talk about the Future on a Regular Basis E. Help Kids Develop Strategies of dealing with different things F. Help Your Kids Figure Out Who They Are G. Build Your Kids’ Sense of Responsibility

How Can a Parent Help?
Mothers and fathers can do a lot to ensure a safe landing in early adulthood for their kids. Even if a job’s starting salary seems too small to satisfy an emerging adult’s need for rapid content, the transition from school to work can be less of a setback if the start-up adult is ready for the move. Here are a few measures, drawn from my book Ready or Not, Here Life Comes, which parents can take to prevent what I call “work-life unreadiness.”
【小题1】_________You can start this process when they are 11 or 12. Regularly review their emerging strengths and weaknesses with them and work together on any shortcomings, like difficulty in communicating well or cooperating. Also, identify the kinds of interests they keep coming back to, as these offer clues to the careers that will fit them best.
【小题2】________Kids need a range of real role models. Have regular dinner-table discussions about people the family knows and how they got where they are. Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of your own career and encourage your kids to form some ideas about their own future. When asked what they want to do, they should be discouraged from saying “I have no idea.” They can change their minds 200 times, but having only a foggy view of the future is of little good.
【小题3】_______Teachers are responsible for teaching kids how to learn; parents should be responsible for teaching them how to work. Assign responsibilities around the house and make sure homework deadlines are met. Encourage teenagers to take a part-time job. Kids need plenty of practice developing effective organizational skills, such as managing time and setting priorities(优先).
【小题4】_________Playing video games encourages immediate content（满足）. And hours of watching TV shows with canned laughter only teaches kids to process information in a passive way. At the same time, listening through earphones to the songs for a long time encourages kids to stay inside instead of participating in other outdoor activities. All these activities can prevent the growth of children’s communication and thinking skills and make it difficult for kids to develop the kind of sustained (持续的) concentration they will need for most jobs.
【小题5】_________They should know how to deal with setbacks, stresses and feelings of inadequacy. They should also learn how to solve problems and resolve conflicts, ways to brainstorm and think critically. Discussions at home can help kids practice doing these things and help them apply these skills to everyday life situations.
What about the son or daughter who is grown but seems to be struggling and wandering aimlessly through early adulthood? Parents still have a major role to play, but now it is more delicate. Most of all, these new adults must feel that they are respected and supported by a family that appreciates them.

Every hour spent in watching TV, DVDs and videos as an adult reduces life expectancy by almost 22 minutes, a study suggests. And viewing TV for an average of six hours a day can cut short your life by five years.

The research claims that a sedentary(久坐的) lifestyle is as bad for health as smoking and obesity, because of the dangers caused by inactivity and the greater opportunities it offers for unhealthy eating.

The academics conducting the study set out to calculate the overall risk to life expectancy from watching television. Their research involved more than 11,000 people over the age of 25.

Writing in the British Journal of Sports Medicine, they concluded. "TV viewing time may be associated with a loss of life, which is similar to other major chronic disease risk factors such as physical inactivity and obesity."

The researchers, from the University of Queensland, used information from the Australian Diabetes, Obesity and Lifestyle Study, together with population and death rate data.

But they said: "Although we used Australian data, the effects in other industrialized and developing countries are likely to be similar, considering the large amounts of time spent watching TV and similarities in disease patterns." In the United Kingdom, the average amount of time spent watching TV is four hours a day, compared with five hours in the United States.

Earlier this year, a separate study suggested the risk of developing type 2 diabetes and heart disease, or dying early, rises by as much as 20 percent after just two hours a day in front of the box.

England's Chief Medical Officer, Sally Davies, said: "Physical activity offers huge benefits and these studies back what we already know - that a sedentary lifestyle carries additional risks. We hope these studies will help more people realize that there are many ways to get exercise."

1.We can learn from the passage that_______

A．whether you watch TV or not has nothing to do with how long you will live

B．if an adult watches TV for six hours every day, he will die five years earlier

C．physical inactivity and obesity won't shorten your life

D．a sedentary lifestyle offers huge benefits.

2.The word "it" in the second paragraph refers to

A．a sedentary lifestyle

B．eating

C．smoking

D．obesity

3.What do we know from the last three paragraphs?

A．People in the United Kingdom watch TV longer than those in the United States.

B．That a sedentary lifestyle carries additional risks isn't supported by other studies.

C．Watching TV for two hours a day will increase the risk of illnesses or dying early by 20%.

D．It is through these studies that we know a sedentary lifestyle carries additional risks.

4.The passage is intended to _______.

A．inform the readers of a research on watching TV

B．warn the readers of the harm of watching TV and hope they do sports

C．tell the readers watching TV is also a good way to relax

D．tell the readers large amounts of people often watch TV

 

Teenagers are under a lot of pressure to be thin. They resort to starving, vomiting and eating only diet foods to try and be thin. Television is a big influence on them. They watch shows like Beverly Hills 90210 and Melrose Place and feel they need to look as thin as the actresses on these shows. Society is brainwashing young people into believing that being thin is important and necessary.

Diet commercials are constantly appearing on our television screens telling us that once we lose weight, we will be happy. While you’re standing at the grocery store you are surrounded by magazines claiming to have the newest and best diet. Each month another new diet appears claiming to be the diet to end all diets. If diets really worked, then why are there so many of them? The reason a new diet pops up each month, is that last’s month’s diets did not work. The truth of the matter is that DIETS DON’T WORK.

The diet and fashion industries are not totally to blame for society’s obsession with thinness. We are the ones keeping them in business. We buy into the idea that we can attain the “ideal” body image. We allow ourselves to believe the lies being thrown at us constantly. We are throwing away our hard earned money trying to live up to the standards that society has set for us. It’s unfortunate, but in today’s society, people have forgotten that it’s what’s inside a person that counts, not what’s on the outside. We need to start loving and accepting each other for who we are, not what we look like.

Once again, I would like to stress the fact that diets don’t work. Eating three healthy meals a day, a few snacks and doing moderate exercise, will allow your body to go to its natural set point. Next time you decide that you are going to start another diet because you feel you are too fat, stop, sign up for a self-esteem class instead. That would be money well spent.

1.What are Beverly Hills 90210 and Meltrose Place ?

A．Fashion shows.                         B．Two famous place in America.

C．Popular TV shows.                       D．Two TV channels.

2.According to the author, which of the following statements is NOT true ?

A．Our society is flooded with diet commercials.

B．The latest diet is necessarily better than all the previous ones.

C．People in North America become crazy over Dieting.

D．All diets are useless in fact

3.Why are there so many diets popping up according to the second paragraph?

A．Because teenagers are under a lot of pressure to be thin.

B．Because there are more and more fat teenagers.

C．Because the diets have no effect.

D．Because teenagers are fascinated by the newest and best diet.

4.We can infer from this passage that __________ .

A．if your diet doesn’t work, the only thing you can do is to accept your body image .

B．attending a self-esteem class will help you keep fit.

C．we shouldn’t pay attention to the size of our body.

D．what’s inside a person is much more important than his/her appearance.

5.What’s the function of the last paragraph in the whole text ?

A．persuasion        B．summarization      C．argumentation      D．description

 

Due to the increasing number of violence acts produced in schools all over the world, more and more parents prefer to have their children educated at home rather than at school． This way they can ensure their safety and well-being, although teachers and school representatives are trying to improve the situation in schools by increasing the number of the persons in charge of the safety of the students．

The main reason for violence acts are the films and cartoons that fill the children’s time． They want to do everything they watch on TV and never think of the consequences, and they may hurt a classmate or a teacher．

On the other hand, parents are not fully satisfied with the children’s results obtained in classes and they consider private classes would have better results. When a teacher has to watch 30 students in class he can’t probably see what each of them is doing, how he is writing, or if he understands the explanations． At home the teacher can explain in details everything the child doesn’t understand as many times as he considers proper. And many times the child grows fond of the teacher at home, who becomes his best friend, and who helps him whenever he needs someone to talk to.

However, the best solution would be a mixture between the education received at school and that at home, because school makes children communicate and socialize． Keeping a child at home for fear there might happen something bad to him only makes the child’s character weak and prevents him from knowing what real life is． Staying in a crystal ball only does harm to the child．

All in all, schools have been created to help children, not to harm them, so it’s best to keep children in these special places, where they learn, laugh, have fun and make new friends

1.The writer’s purpose in writing the text is to ________

A．teach parents the ways to keep their children safe

B．show solutions to developing children’s character

C．analyze an education problem and give opinions

D．explain the main reason for violence acts in schools

2.Which of the following might be the best title of the passage?

A．Advantages and Disadvantages of Private Classes

B．Who is to Blame, Parents or Schools?

C．Which Is Better, School Study or Home Study?

D．The Relationship between Teachers and Children

3.What does “a crystal ball” in the passage refer to?

A．A toy that can be used for entertainment

B．A safe and comfortable environment

C．A round object that is made of crystal

D．An obstacle that is hard to overcome

4.We can infer from the passage that ________.

A．violence TV programs have bad effects on children’s behavior

B．the teacher at home is more patient than the teacher at school

C．children today are weak from lack of sense of right and wrong

D．there are too many students in class for a teacher to teach