Editor’s notes: AWL is well known for its dictionaries and English language teaching materials． Some readers have written in to ask us for the latest information on high quality books on English, so here we introduce two texts that aim to improve spoken English fluency．
Let’s speak （Beginner)
By Bev Dusuya, Naoko Ozeki and Kevin Bergman
ISBN: 962001359X
Speak Up（Pre-Intermediate)
By Bev Kusuya, Nako Zeki
ISBN: 0583338050
“Teach the students about your culture and help them talk about their own．” How often are these worthy goals kept from being achieved by the limitations of your beginner level learners? Students at all levels want to talk about culture．
Topics include food, shopping, sports, fashion, the roles of men and women, health, music, and many more．
These are all chosen from surveys of over 15,000 students about their own interests in cross-cultural communication．
“Let’s Speak” and “Speak Up” share a special but excellent way that allows all students to take part in．
The series has questions which start thinking and then help collect opinions about personal topics． Conversation practice is provided by ready to use （现成的)models of basic exchanges on the topic． Also, the cultural information presented in the series comes in the form of interesting, relevant（相关的）facts and ideas from other countries through listening tasks and Culture Quiz exercises．
Team activities in books provide lively problem solving games to enable sharing and comparison of cultural values．
“Let’s Speak” is fit for entry level students of all ages． “Speak Up” provides for the needs of higher level beginners, offering the same careful listening and speaking help, but with slightly more open ended discussion．
For any information about AWL’s books, please get in touch with the following addresses:
Beijing Addison Wesley Longman Information Center
Room 2306, FLTRP Beijing
19 Xi San Huan Beilu, Beijing 100081
Tel: （010)68917488 （010) 68917788
Fax: （010) 68917499E-mail: zrh@public．bat．net．cn
【小题1】In the sentence “Teach the students about your culture and help them talk about their own”, “your culture” here means the culture of           ．

A．the English native speakers	B．the English learners
C．the readers of the two books	D．the readers of the newspaper

【小题2】Which of the following are mentioned about the two books in the passage above?
a．publisher       b．titles          c．content         d．writers 
e．prices          f．pages           g．book number

A．a,b,d,f

B．a,c,d,g

C．b,c,d,e

D．b,c,e,f

【小题3】The two books have in common everything EXCEPT         ．
A．the same interesting topics
B．the same level of learners
C．proper ways to excite the learners to talk
【小题4】The passage above is probably taken from the            section in a newspaper．

A．EDUCATION	B．NEWS
C．ENTERTAINMENT	D．BOOKSHELF

One day my math teacher asked me to help him save back-up copies of his work in the computer. I then realized I was able to   1  the grades for all of his classes. I showed him how to copy files from one disk to another and he   2  me.

A few days later he asked me to help him again, because he   3  how to do it. When I began to show this to him, some students in my class   4  and began to talk among themselves   6 . Later that day, at lunch time, I was   5  by several of them.

“Hey, could you help us change our grades in math? We’ll   7  you…”

I could not believe what I was hearing．I could get paid for something very   8 ．" All right．I'll do it．" The next day my math teacher   9  me to help him out．When he was not paying attention, I began to change their grades from F’s to A’s．

I soon became very   10  among my friends. They began to treat me like a god with a magical   11 . I began to change the grades of students．Word    12  quickly and I became very rich．

Everything was going fine    13  I was called into the headmaster's office．When I got there, my teacher was mad, and the headmaster had an angry   14   in his eyes．  "I have known you for three years now．I don't want to   15   what your teacher said, but I'm afraid that I must．He has too much   16  , " he said．" Do you have anything to say   17  yourself?" he asked．

"No．" I said finally．I did not realize how serious my actions had been．I had violated the   18  of my teacher, and the headmaster．And there was no way   19 ．I was forced to leave my school．

That was a good   20   for me．

1.                A．assess          B． access         C．mark D．change

 

2.                A．accepted       B．supported       C．guided   D．thanked

 

3.                A．doubted        B．reminded       C．forgot    D．remembered

 

4.                A．noticed         B．hid            C．agreed   D．complained

 

5.                A．disappointedly   B．quietly         C．angrily   D．freely

 

6.                A．appointed       B．appreciated     C．approved D．approached

 

7.                A．follow          B．pay            C．inspire   D．praise

 

8.                A．simple         B．interesting      C．familiar   D．pleasant

 

9.                A．encouraged     B．got            C．forced   D．advised

 

10.               A．optimistic       B．grateful        C．popular   D．sensitive

 

11.               A．power         B．strength        C．energy    D．right

 

12.               A．slipped         B．spread         C．escaped   D．fled

 

13.               A．after           B．since          C．until  D．as

 

14.               A．look           B．light           C．sight  D．feeling

 

15.               A．influence       B．ignore         C．oppose    D．believe

 

16.               A．experience     B．confidence      C．evidence  D．pressure

 

17.               A．to             B．by             C．of    D．for

 

18.               A．trust           B．intention       C．promise   D．honor

 

19.               A．in             B．on            C．down D．back

 

20.               A．story          B．skill            C．lesson D．example

 

 

 Singles Day falls on every November 11th, and as the name indicates, this relatively new holiday is one specially for people who are still living the single life. I was a bit surprised when I googled “Singles Day” on the Internet, to find that China is the only country in the world that has set up a special day for singles to celebrate their lives.

     An old story goes that once there were four single men, leading very boring lives. None of them were married, or had lovers, or did anything exciting. They just sat around all day and played Mahjong. One day they played Mahjong from 11 in the morning until 11 at night. During the game, no matter who won, the winning card was always the “four columns” card (the card shows four independent, parallel columns in two lines). Even more of a coincidence, it was Nov. 11. In order to remind them of the day, they nicknamed it Singles Day.

Singles Day was first celebrated at various universities in Nanjing, capital city of Jiangsu Province during the 1990s. These college students carried their university tradition into society after they graduated. Singles Day is now a special day for all.

The main way to celebrate Singles day is to have dinner with your single friends, but it’s important that each person pay their own way to show their independence. People also hold “blind date” parties in an attempt to say goodbye to their single lives.

For breakfast on Singles Day, singles often eat four youtiao (deep-fried dough sitcks) representing the four “ones” in “11.11” and one baozi (steamed stuffed buns) representing the dot in between.

Many singles also choose to say goodbye to their single lives on the day. Many attend “blind date” parties and many people choose to marry on this day. In addition to meaning “single”, the four “ones” of the date can also mean “only one” as in “the only one for me”. Some people will use this date and this meaning to tell their special someone that they are the only “one” in their heart.

1.Which of the statement is TRUE according to the passage?

A. Singles Day has a long history.

B. Only men celebrate Singles Day.

C. Singles Day is only celebrated in China.

D. Students in Nanjing University started Singles Day.

2.People celebrate the festival mainly by       .

A. playing Mahjong              B. having dinner

C. getting married                         D. hanging out with friends

3.What is the best title of the passage?

A. Singles Day

B. Four Single Men’s Singles Day           

C. University Culture on Singles Day                    

D. Symbolic Food on Singles Day

4.Which of the following best shows the structure of the passage?

   (a-para.1  b-para.2  c-para.3  d-para.4  e-para.5  f-para.6)

A.  a         B.     a           C.   a         D.   a

b   c   d        b  c  d  f         b  d         b  c  d  e

e              e            c  e                    f

       f                                 f

 

Diao Weihao, a student who studies business English at the Chengdu campus of Sichuan International Studies University, was in his dormitory when the earthquake struck at 2:30 pm on Monday.

The 22-year-old felt that his chair was shaking. All of a sudden, the textbooks on the bookshelf began to fall to the floor. The glass in the window broke.

“It felt like our dormitory building was being hit by a tractor,” recalled Diao. “I wasn’t afraid.. I was even excited and curious. Now, looking back, it was a scary experience.”

Diao and his roommates kept their calm. They didn’t try to get out of the building until the shaking stopped. They were on the fifth floor and they feared there might be trouble if they didn’t remain calm.

“We’ve watched lots of disaster films, and that helped us keep cool,” he said. “Only one student sprained（扭伤） his ankle. He was escaping in a hurry. Most of us got outside quickly and safely.”

They were surprised to see so many students outside.

“I began to realize then what had happened,” he said. The college had warned them that in the event of an earthquake, they should leave the dormitory immediately. A few did rush in when it was safe to grab some clothes to keep warm.

Without any tents or bedding, the students stayed on the football field for the whole night. Rain started falling in the morning, but the students all kept in good order. They simply chatted and shared their feelings and comforted each other.

“Our students seemed to have self-control,” he said. “I heard that hospitals in Chengdu have lots of injured people who jumped out of buildings.”

Now, Diao is mostly worried about the people in Wenchuan County.

“It seems we won’t be able to have classes in one or two day’s time,” said Diao. “I want to become a volunteer at the damage-hit area, or donate my blood to the injured people in hospital. Also, I will write on my blog to keep people calm and encourage them to protect themselves during emergencies.”

Since the university is close to Dujiangyan, Diao and his classmates are still forbidden to return to their dorms or classrooms. However, they can eat in the canteen and get information about other parts of Sichuan by reading the newspapers.

1.Where was Diao Weihao when the earthquake happened?

A．He was in the campus.	B．He was in the football field.
C．He was in his dormitory	D．He was in his classroom.

2.What did Diao Weihao feel when he realized what was happening?

A．Afraid

B．Interesting

C．Moved

D．Calm

3.When did Diao Weihao and his classmates rushed outside?

A．During the quake

B．The moment they realized what was happening

C．After the quake

D．When they got warnings.

4.Rearrange the following events in the proper order according to the passage.

a. They got out of buildings safely.

b. Diao Weihao was in his dormitory.

c. Diao Weihao wanted to be a volunteer.

d. Many classmates went out of the building.

e. An earthquake happened.

f. They stayed on the football field for the whole night.

A．b→e→a→d→f→c	B．b→e→d→a→f→c
C．e→a→b→d→c→f	D．f→a→c→f→e→d

5.From this passage, we know that Diao Weihao and his classmates are _________.

A．energetic and strong in will	B．wise and caring
C．hardworking and learned	D．helpful and honest

 

The following are four books that will help you change your mind and change your life.
1) You Can Heal Your Life, Louise Hay: A groundbreaking book when it was released in 1982. It is still the book that I turn to when I have physical unrest that requires deeper understanding. Louise Hay is the pioneer in looking at the connection between the physical unrest that we have in our body and the emotional connection. At the time that she wrote the book many people scoffed at this idea, but it is now widely accepted and millions of people refer to it on a daily basis.
2) The Four Agreements, Don Miguel Ruiz: Maintaining a sense of reliability and faith is developed through understanding to The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz written in 1997. We are faced with rules and regulations; don’t do this, don’t do that, watch what you are doing, be kind, loyal, faithful etc. The four agreements represent a simple system of maintaining your own inner authority while practicing being a true person with other people.
3) Slowing Down to the Speed of Life, Richard Carlson and Joseph Bailey: This is a new one in my “bedside collection” and one that has made the biggest impact on me lately. Written in 1997, it is even more relevant today than it was when it was written. The idea of “slowing down” to get there faster was extremely hard for me to understand. As a human species we seem to enjoy moving fast and expecting quick results, especially from ourselves. I should be successful now, I should be slim now, get me to my destination now—in contrast to “in the fullness of time” when I am ready.
4) The Game of Life and How to Play It, Florence Scovel-Shinn: A classic book that was first published in 1925 and remains one of my favorite books of all time. Scovel-Shinn understood the power of our words to express either our deepest desires or our most horrible nightmares.
So where does this leave you? The way I see it is if you want to ‘Heal Your Life” then you had better learn how to play “The Game of Life” by learning how to “Slow Down to the Speed of Life” and keep the “Four Agreements”. The solution may not be easy to do but it is simple. In fact, most solutions are pretty simple, and it is us humans that want to complicate it.
【小题1】According to the author, people who are lacking in personal freedom should read______.

A．You Can Heal Your Life

B．The Four Agreements

C．Slowing Down to the Speed of Life

D． The Game of Life and How to Play It

【小题2】Which of the following books did the author read most recently?

A．Slowing Down to the Speed of Life

B．The Four Agreements

C．You Can Heal Your Life

D．The Game of Life and How to Play It

【小题3】In which part of a magazine would you probably find this passage?

A．Arts & Entertainment	B．Reference & Education
C．Book Reviews	D．Self Improvement

【小题4】 In the author’s opinion, the four books _______.

A．offer four ways to change our life and mind	B．represent four stages of life
C．represent four attitudes	D．tell us four interesting stories