For those who are conditioned to think that learning only happens in a classroom, the world of self-learning can be a little daunting. How do we best take   1   of these new opportunities?

Your interest in the subject is the essential driver of success. You can’t learn what you do not want to learn. Emotion is an important part of the learning   2   . If you are even moderately interested in a subject, give yourself  a chance. The key is to get started. If you can create some pleasurable   3  , you may find that the subject grows on you.

Don’t expect to understand things, much less remember them, the first time you study them. Trust that things will get clearer   4   your brain comes to grips with new information. It is like a cross-word puzzle. As you start to put the pieces together, or string the words together, the full picture becomes clearer. The brain learns all the time, but    5    its own schedule. Learning does not take place according to a schedule laid down by a curriculum or teacher. Some things are easier to learn than others. Some things just take    6   to click in. Keep at it, and you will gradually find that things that seem difficult at first , will become easy with time.

Your brain is struggling to form patterns to    7    new input from your learning activities. Sometimes, no matter how long you focus on one subject, your brain is not going to pick it up. If you are stuck, move   8   . Then cover the same general information from a different source, a different book, or a podcast, or an online lecture or a video. Try to become a  grazing learner, roaming the countryside,     9   a feedlot learner, just standing there in one spot. The broader your base, the easier it is to learn. Just as the “rich get richer”, the more you know,     10   you can learn.

Take full advantage of the Internet, iTunes, and     11   mobile devices, not to mention good old-fashioned books and magazines. Learn during “dead time”. Listen in your car, on the train, or   12   jogging. Have your learning with you while waiting in the doctor’s office, or listen while checking out at the supermarket. Anytime is     13  time. Remember, you are learning through exposure, not by nailing things down. It is more like moisture accumulation in a    14   , rather than building a brick wall.

The more varied your learning content, and the more varied the ways in which you learn, the       15 the puzzle will become. Different learning activities suit different people, at different times of the day. Vary your activities in order to keep your interest level   16    . Even if listening and reading work best for you, treat yourself to the odd video lecture, or get-together with other learners. This will renew your batteries.

The “loneliness of the distance learner” is a thing of the   17  . Join a learning community on the web, where members share their knowledge and experience. Search for the communities that suit your interests and learning style. You will find encouragement, advice and stimulus from fellow learners,        18    from tutors, teachers and coaches. In these communities, you can measure your progress against your own goals, or compare your experience     19    that of other learners. You can even teach and help others, which is a great way to learn.

Never has it been easier nor more exciting to be a learner. Let constant learning be a major part of your life-style. The   20        will be constant, personally, socially, and professionally.

(   ) 1. A. advantage    B. place                C. possession         D. example

(   ) 2. A. progress      B. process             C. pressure            D. proposal

(   ) 3. A. roads          B. streets              C. routines            D. building

(   ) 4. A. with           B. if                     C. unless               D. as

(   ) 5. A. on              B. to                    C. with                 D. for

(   ) 6. A. shorter               B. sooner              C. longer              D. lower

(   ) 7. A. take with     B. com with          C. go with            D. cope with

(   ) 8. A. down          B. on                    C. away                D. off

(   ) 9. A. more than   B. less than           C. rather than               D. other than

(   ) 10. A. less           B. quicker             C. lower                      D. more

(   ) 11. A. same         B. similar             C. familiar            D. various

(   ) 12. A. while               B. before              C. after                 D. if

(   ) 13. A. playing     B. learning            C. talking             D. speaking

(   ) 14. A. cloud               B. sky                  C. earth                D. sea

(   ) 15. A. cleaner      B. clearer              C. harder              D. lower

(   ) 16. A. down               B. up                    C. in                    D. out

(   ) 17. A. present      B. day                  C. past                  D. night

(   ) 18. A. as long as B. as far as            C. as well as          D. as soon as

(   ) 19. A. without     B. with                 C. to                    D. beyond

(   ) 20. A. awards      B. words               C. remarks            D. rewards

Michelle is blind, but she makes such good use of her other senses that guests rarely realize that she is blind.

When my daughter Kayla came back from her home, she was very  1   about her day. She told me that she had baked cookies, played games and done art projects. But she was especially excited about her finger-painting project. “I learned how to   2   colors today! Blue and red make purple, and yellow and blue make green! Michelle   3  with us too. She said she liked how the paint feels through her fingers,” said Kayla.

Something about my child’s excitement caught my   4  . this made me sit down and take a look at my child and at myself.

Then Kayla said, “Michelle told me my picture showed joy,   5   and a sense of accomplishment. She   6  saw what I was doing!” Kayla said she had never felt how good finger-painting felt until Michelle showed her how to paint without looking at her paper.

This is when I realized Kayla didn’t know that Michelle was blind. It had just never   7   in conversation. When I told her, she was quiet for a moment. At first, she didn’t   8   me. “ But mommy, Michelle understood exactly what was in my picture!” Kayla insisted. I knew my child was   9  because Michelle had listened to Kayla when she  10   her artwork. Michelle had listened to Kayla’s pride in her work, and her wonder at her discovery of the way colors blend.

1. A. satisfied             B. moved                     C. excited              D. affected

A. mix                   B. combine              C. connect             D. join

A. wrote                B. dealt                   C. contacted           D. painted

A. attention             B. sight                 C. note                  D. observation

A. discovery        B. understanding      C. pride                 D. achievement

A. apparently         B. really                  C. obviously          D. carefully

A. come around      B. com across          C. come through    D. come up

A. doubt                B. refuse                 C. believe              D. approve

A. right                     B. polite                 C. real                   D. wrong

A. described          B. created              C. designed            D. invented

For those who are conditioned to think that learning only happens in a classroom, the world of self-learning can be a little daunting. How do we best take   1   of these new opportunities?

Your interest in the subject is the essential driver of success. You can’t learn what you do not want to learn. Emotion is an important part of the learning   2   . If you are even moderately interested in a subject, give yourself  a chance. The key is to get started. If you can create some pleasurable   3  , you may find that the subject grows on you.

Don’t expect to understand things, much less remember them, the first time you study them. Trust that things will get clearer   4   your brain comes to grips with new information. It is like a cross-word puzzle. As you start to put the pieces together, or string the words together, the full picture becomes clearer. The brain learns all the time, but    5    its own schedule. Learning does not take place according to a schedule laid down by a curriculum or teacher. Some things are easier to learn than others. Some things just take    6   to click in. Keep at it, and you will gradually find that things that seem difficult at first , will become easy with time.

Your brain is struggling to form patterns to    7    new input from your learning activities. Sometimes, no matter how long you focus on one subject, your brain is not going to pick it up. If you are stuck, move   8   . Then cover the same general information from a different source, a different book, or a podcast, or an online lecture or a video. Try to become a  grazing learner, roaming the countryside,     9   a feedlot learner, just standing there in one spot. The broader your base, the easier it is to learn. Just as the “rich get richer”, the more you know,     10   you can learn.

Take full advantage of the Internet, iTunes, and     11   mobile devices, not to mention good old-fashioned books and magazines. Learn during “dead time”. Listen in your car, on the train, or   12   jogging. Have your learning with you while waiting in the doctor’s office, or listen while checking out at the supermarket. Anytime is     13  time. Remember, you are learning through exposure, not by nailing things down. It is more like moisture accumulation in a    14   , rather than building a brick wall.

The more varied your learning content, and the more varied the ways in which you learn, the       15 the puzzle will become. Different learning activities suit different people, at different times of the day. Vary your activities in order to keep your interest level   16    . Even if listening and reading work best for you, treat yourself to the odd video lecture, or get-together with other learners. This will renew your batteries.

The “loneliness of the distance learner” is a thing of the   17  . Join a learning community on the web, where members share their knowledge and experience. Search for the communities that suit your interests and learning style. You will find encouragement, advice and stimulus from fellow learners,        18    from tutors, teachers and coaches. In these communities, you can measure your progress against your own goals, or compare your experience     19    that of other learners. You can even teach and help others, which is a great way to learn.

Never has it been easier nor more exciting to be a learner. Let constant learning be a major part of your life-style. The   20        will be constant, personally, socially, and professionally.

(   ) 1. A. advantage    B. place               C. possession        D. example

(   ) 2. A. progress      B. process             C. pressure            D. proposal

(   ) 3. A. roads          B. streets              C. routines            D. building

(   ) 4. A. with           B. if                     C. unless               D. as

(   ) 5. A. on                  B. to                    C. with                 D. for

(   ) 6. A. shorter               B. sooner              C. longer              D. lower

(   ) 7. A. take with     B. com with          C. go with            D. cope with

(   ) 8. A. down          B. on                    C. away               D. off

(   ) 9. A. more than   B. less than           C. rather than               D. other than

(   ) 10. A. less           B. quicker             C. lower                      D. more

(   ) 11. A. same        B. similar             C. familiar            D. various

(   ) 12. A. while               B. before              C. after                 D. if

(   ) 13. A. playing     B. learning            C. talking             D. speaking

(   ) 14. A. cloud               B. sky                  C. earth               D. sea

(   ) 15. A. cleaner      B. clearer              C. harder              D. lower

(   ) 16. A. down               B. up                    C. in                    D. out

(   ) 17. A. present      B. day                  C. past                  D. night

(   ) 18. A. as long as B. as far as            C. as well as          D. as soon as

(   ) 19. A. without     B. with                 C. to                    D. beyond

(   ) 20. A. awards      B. words               C. remarks            D. rewards

The government-run command post in Tunis is staffed around the clock by military personnel, meteorologists and civilians. On the wall are maps, crisscrossed with brightly colors arrows that painstakingly track the fearsome path of the enemy.

　　What kind of invader gives rise to such high-level monitoring? Not man, not beast, but the lowly desert locust(蝗虫). In recent months, billions of the 3-inch-long winged warriors have descended on Algeria, Libya, Morocco and Tunisia, blackening the sky and eating up crops and vegetation. The insect invasion, the worst in 30 years, is already creating great destruction in the Middle East and is now treating southern Europe. The current crisis began in late 1985 near the Red Sea. Unusually rainy weather moistened the sands of the Sudan, making them ideal seedbed for the locust, which lays its eggs in the earth. The insect onslaught threatens to create yet another African famine. Each locust can eat its weight (not quite a tenth of an ounce) in vegetation every 24 hours. A good-size swarm of 50 billion insects eats up 100,000 tons of grass, trees and crops in a single night.

　　All ﹩150 million may be needed this year. The U.S. has provided two spraying planes and about 50,000 gal. of pesticide. The European Community has donated ﹩3.8 million in aid and the Soviet Union, Canada, Japan and China have provided chemical-spraying aircraft to help wipe out the pests. But relief efforts are hampered by the relative mildness of approved pesticides, which quickly lose their deadly punch and require frequent replications. The most effective locust killer dieldrin has been linked to cancer and is banned by many Western countries and some of the affected African nations. More than 5 million acres have been dusted with locust-killing chemicals; another 5 million will be treated by the end of June.

　　On May 30, representatives of Tunisia, Algeria, Libya, Morocco and Mauritania will meet in Algiers to discuss tactics to wipe out the ravenous swarms. The move is an important step, but whatever plan is devised, the locust plague promised to get worse before the insects can be brought under control.[来源:Zxxk.Com]

1.The main idea of the first sentence in the passage is that ______.

　 A. the command post is stationed with people all the time.

　 B. the command post is crowded with people all the time.

　 C. there are clocks around the command post.

　 D. the clock in the command post is taken care of by the staff.

2. The favorable breeding ground for the locust is ______.

　 A. rich soil.                               B. wet land

　 C. paces covered crops and vegetation        D. the Red Sea

3. People are alert at the threat of the locust because ______.

　 A. the insects are likely to create another African famine.

　 B. the insects may blacken the sky.

　 C. the number of the insects increases drastically.

　 D. the insects are gathering and moving in great speed.

4.Which of the following is true?

　 A. Once the pesticides are used, locust will die immediately.

　 B. Relief efforts are proved most fruitful due to the effectiveness of certain pesticides.

　 C. Dieldrin, the most effective locust killer, has been widely accepted in many countries.

　 D. Over 10 million acres of affected area will have been treated with locust-killing chemicals by the end of June.

5. The purpose for affected nations to meet in Algiers on May 30 is ______.

　 A. to devise anti-locust plans.

　 B. to wipe out the swarms in two years.

　 C. to call out for additional financial aid from other nations.

D. to bring the insects under control before the plague gets worse.

 

Experts say that it is not easy to get used to life in a new culture. “Culture shock” is the term specialists use when talking about the feelings that people have in a new environment. “There are three stages of culture shock,” say the specialists. In the first stage, the newcomers like their new environment. Then, when the fresh experience dies, they begin to hate the city, the country, the people, and everything else. In the last stage, the newcomers begin to adjust to their surroundings and, as a result, enjoy their life more.

　　There are some obvious factors in culture shock. The weather may be unpleasant. The customs may be different. The public service systems---the telephone, post office, or transportation---may be difficult to work out. The simplest things seem to be big problems. The language may be difficult.

　　Who feels culture shock? Everyone does in this way or that. But culture shock surprises most people. Very often the people having the worst culture shock are those who never had any difficulties in their home countries and were successful in their community. Coming to a new country, these people find they do not have the same established positions. They find themselves without a role, almost without an identity.

　　They have to build a new self-image.

　　Culture shock gives rises to a feeling of disorientation (迷惘). This feeling may be homesickness. When homesick, people feel like staying inside all the time. They want to protect themselves from the strange environment, and create and escape inside their room for a sense of security. This escape does solve the problem of culture shock for the short term, but it does nothing to make the person familiar with the culture. Getting to know the new environment and gaining experience are the long-term solutions to the problem of culture shock. 

1. When people move to a new country, they _________.

A. will get used to their new surroundings with difficulty

B. have well prepared for the new surroundings

C. will get used to the culture of the country quickly

D. will never be familiar with culture of the country

2.According to the passage, factors that give rise to culture shock include all of the following except __________.

A. language communication              B. weather conditions and customs

C. public service systems                D. homesickness 

3.When people are homesick, they tend to ________.

A. find some people to talk to             B. go outside to have a walk [来源:Z#xx#k.Com]

C. visit their friends far away             D. stay indoors all the time

4.The writer tells us that the best way to overcome culture shock is to _______.

A. protect ourselves from unfamiliar environment    B. develop a strange sense of self-protection

C. get familiar with new culture                  D. return to our own country