Life became hard when I was 14. My mother and I moved to New York to 36 my father, who’d moved there to find 37 work when I was three years old. He had a job at a restaurant and only visited us 38 every couple of years.

　　Before I moved, I knew that people in the US spoke English. But honestly, I didn’t stop to analyze the 39 when I was 40 to leave. Just like I assumed I could easily become a doctor or a lawyer. I assumed that I had the skills to learn English in a few weeks. 

When I 41 in the US and started 8th grade at Ditmas Middle School in Brooklyn, everyone was speaking a(n)  42  language I couldn’t understand. I  43  that life had subtitles, like in foreign movies. School was such a serious place here. Sometimes I felt like I was in a geek（呆子） class. The teachers were always  44  my moves so I couldn’t even throw a paper ball at a classmate’s head. And the worst thing was having to read 45 .

46  after almost seven months of complaining about everything, I realized that complaining didn’t change things.  47 just made my life worse. If I was going to 48   in this new concrete jungle, I had to 49 . I began to learn English by reading newspapers on my own  50  school. After about four months, I started enjoying reading the crime and sports stories. After six months of studying, my teachers 51  my improvement and moved me into a more  52  English class. I could go to the store and ask for things that I wanted to buy without 53 frustration. For the first time I felt like I was living on earth again, 54  I didn’t hear foreign talk. I 55 understand people.

1.                A．find           B．join            C．see  D．help

 

2.                A．good-looking    B．well-dressed     C．better-paying  D．highly-thought

 

3.                A．once           B．other          C．each D．only

 

4.                A．case           B．condition       C．situation  D．state

 

5.                A．packing         B．trying          C．managing D．arranging

 

6.                A．reached        B．entered        C．got  D．arrived

 

7.                A．strange         B．unusual         C．standard  D．foreign

 

8.                A．hoped         B．wished         C．expected D．demanded

 

9.                A．staring         B．looking         C．checking  D．watching

 

10.               A．texts           B．newspapers     C．English    D．poems

 

11.               A．Although       B．Even if         C．But   D．Since

 

12.               A．It             B．They           C．I D．Things

 

13.               A．live            B．study          C．survive    D．continue

 

14.               A．adapt          B．adopt          C．adore D．admire

 

15.               A．for            B．in             C．after  D．at

 

16.               A．made          B．noticed         C．concerned D．remember

 

17.               A．modern        B．advanced       C．difficult   D．convenient

 

18.               A．even          B．ever           C．some D．any

 

19.               A．if             B．though         C．ever  D．because

 

20.               A．could          B．should         C．would D．might

 

 

Most people know that Marie Curie was the first woman to win the Nobel Prize, and the first person to win it twice. However, few people know that she was also the mother of a Nobel Prize winner.

Born in September, 1987, Irene Curie was the first of the Curies’ two daughters. Along with nine other children whose parents were also famous scholars, Irene studied in their own school, and her mother was one of the teachers. She finished her high school education at the College of Sévigné in Paris.

Irene entered the University of Paris in 1914 to prepare for a degree in mathematics and physics. When World War I began, Irene went to help her mother, who was using X-ray facilities（设备） to help save the lives of wounded soldiers.Irene continued the work by developing X-ray facilities in military hospitals in France and Belgrum. Her services were recognised in the form of a Military’s Medal by the French government.

    In 1918, Irene became her mother’s assistant at the Curie Institute. In December 1924, Frederic Joliot joined the Institute, and Irene taugh him the techniques required for his work. They soon fell in love and were married in 1926. Their daughter Helene was born in 1927 and their son Pierre five years later.

Like her mother, Irene combined family and career. Like her mother, Irene was awarded a Nobel Prize, along with her husband, in 1935. Unfortunately, also like her mother, she developed leukemia because of her work with radioactivity（辐射能）. Irene Joliot-Curie died from leukemia on March 17, 1956.

1.Why was Irene Curie awarded a Military Medal?

A.Because she received a degree in mathematics.

B.Because she contributed to saving the wounded.

C.Because she won the Nobel Prize with Frederic.

D. Because she worked as a helper to her mother.

2.Where did Irene Curie meet her husband Frederio joliot?

A.At the Curie Institute.       B.At the Cniversity of Paris.

C.At a military hospital.       D.At the College of Sevigne.

3.When was the second child of Irene Curie and Frederic Joliot born?

A. In 1932.     B. In 1927.      C. In 1897.     D. In  1926.

4.In which of the following aspects was Irene Cuire different from her mother?

A.Irene worked with radioactivity

B.Irene combined family and career.

C.Irene won the Nobel Prize once

D.Irene died from leukemia.

 

短文改错 （共10小题，每小题1分，满分10分）

    Are the years you spent at school best years of your life?         

    Personally , I found most lesson rather uninteresting. We had to                 

sit at our desks in silence and paid attention to what the teachers                     

were saying. They were used to write on the blackboard and ask                     

us difficult questions. We also had to do piles of homework , and                    

hand it on time. We had to wear school uniforms and obey lots of                   

rules. I left school as soon as I can and started work. I read books                  

at the public library , and late I decided to attend college. Now                    

I really enjoy study because I’m growing old and know what I                    

want it. When I was at school , I was just the wrong age!                

Going to school means learning new skills and facts in different subjects. Teachers teach and students learn, and many scientists are interested in finding ways to improve both teaching and learning processes.

Sian Beilock and Susan Leving, two psychologists at the University of Chicago, are trying to learn about learning. In a new study about the way kids learn math in elementary school, Beilock and Levine found a surprising relationship between what female teachers think and what female students learn: If a female teacher is uncomfortable with her own math skills, then her female students are more likely to believe that boys are better than girls at math. “If these girls keep getting math-anxious female teachers in later grades, it may create a snowball effect on their math achievement,” Levine told Science News. The study suggests that if these girls grow up believing that boys are better at math than girls are, then these girls may not do as well as they would have if they were more confident.

Just as students find certain subjects to be difficult, teachers can find certain subjects to be difficult to learn—and teach. The subject of math can be particularly difficult for everyone.

The new study involved 65 girls, 52 boys and 17 first-and second-grade teachers in elementary schools in the Midwest. The students took math achievement tests at the beginning and end of the school year, and the researchers compared the scores.

The researchers also gave the students tests to tell whether the students believed a math superstar had to be a boy. Then the researchers turned to the teachers: To find out which teachers were anxious about math, the researchers asked the teachers how they felt at times when they came across math, such as when reading a sales receipt. A teacher who got nervous looking at the numbers on a sales receipt, for example, was probably anxious about math.

Boys, on average, were unaffected by a teacher’s anxiety. On average, girls with math-anxious teachers scored lower on the end-of-the-year math tests than other girls in the study did. Plus, on the test showing whether someone thought a math superstar had to be a boy, 20 girls showed feeling that boys would be better at math—and all of these girls had been taught by female teachers with math anxiety.

According to surveys done before this one, college students who want to become elementary school teachers have the highest levels of anxiety about math. Plus, nine of every 10 elementary teachers are women, Levine said.

1.Sian Beilock and Susan Levine carried out the new research in order to ___________.

A．know the effects of teaching on learning      B．study students’ ways of learning math

C．prove women teachers are unfit to teach math D．find better teaching methods for teachers

2.The underlined part in paragraph 2 most probably means that girls may ___________.

A．end up learning math anxiety from their teachers

B．study the ways their female teachers behave

C．have an influence on their math-anxious female teachers

D．gain unexpected achievement in such subjects as math

3.In the study, what were the teachers required to do?

A．Prepare two math achievement tests for the students

B．Tell their feelings about math problems

C．Answer whether a math superstar had to be a boy

D．Compare the students’ scores after the math tests

4.What is the finding of the new study?

A．No male students were affected by their teachers’ anxiety

B．Almost all the girls got lower scores in the tests than the boys

C．About 30% of the girls thought boys are better at math than girls

D．Girls with math-anxious teachers all failed in the math tests

5.Which of the following is TRUE according to the text?

A．117 students and teachers took part in the new study

B．The researchers felt surprised at the findings of their study

C．Beilock and Levine are interested in teaching math

D．Men teachers are better at teaching math than women teachers

 

To learn how their children are doing at school, parents  need to _______ the teachers every now and then. 

A．admire           B．combine          C．gather            D．consult