If you think American cooking means opening a package and throwing the contents into the microwave oven (微波炉), think again. On the one hand, it’s true that many Americans have cold cereal for breakfast, sandwiches for lunch and instant (方便的) dinners. From busy homemakers to working people, many Americans enjoy the convenience (方便) of fast food that can be ready to serve in 10 minutes or less. On the other hand, many Americans realize the importance of cooking skills. Parents — especially mothers — see the importance of training their children — especially daughters. Most Americans think that there’s nothing better than a good home-cooked meal. But with cooking, as with any other skill, good results don’t happen by accident.
Probably every cook has his or her own way of cooking. But there are some basic skills that most people follow. For example, baking is a main method (方法) of preparing food in America. For that reason, Americans would find it next to impossible to live without an oven. American cooks pay special attention to the balance of foods, too. In planning a big meal they try to include meat, a few vegetables, some bread and often a dessert. They also like to make sure the meal is colorful. Having several different colors of food on the plate usually makes for a healthy meal.
For those who need guidance in their cooking, or for those who have just run out of ideas, recipes are a great help. Recipes list all the ingredients for a dish (generally in the order used), the amount of each to use, and a description of how to put them together.
【小题1】This passage mainly tells us that ______.

Mothers can still offer comfort, even from a distance, a new study has found. The results show that simply hearing their mothers’ voice over the phone works just as well at calming the nerves of stressed children as a real-life pat on the shoulder.
The soothing（抚慰的）effect is most likely due to the release of the hormone（荷尔蒙）, oxytocin（催生素）, in the brain, the researchers say. This “love hormone” is known to quell stress and is likely to be involved in social connections, including those between a mother and a child.
Previous work has revealed that this hormone is released during physical contact with a mother. “But it’s clear from these results that a mother’s voice can have the same effect as a hug, even if she isn’t actually standing there,” said the researcher, Leslie Seltzer, a biological scientist.
Seltzer tested a group of 61 girls, aged 7 to 12, by having them make an unprepared speech and solve a series of maths problems in front of a group of strangers, sending their hearts racing and levels of cortisol—a hormone associated with stress—soaring.
Facing a challenge like that raises stress levels of a lot of people. Once stressed, a third of the girls were comforted in person by their mothers with hugs. A third of the girls watched an emotionally neutral 75-minute video. The rest were handed a telephone with their mothers on the line.
For the girls who interacted in person or over the phone with their mothers, the levels of the “love hormone” rose significantly, and the stress-marking hormone was washed away. This effect didn’t show up for participants who watched the video.
Seltzer is now testing the amount of oxytocin released with other communication methods—like text messaging—and hopes to see the research spread out from human subjects. “It’s not just us, of course. Lots of very social species have voices,” she said. “on the one hand, we are curious to see if this effect is unique to humans. On the other, we’re hoping researchers who study vocal communication will consider looking at oxytocin release in other animals and apply it to broader questions of social behavior and evolutionary biology.
【小题1】Mothers’ voice over the phone can reduce children’s nerves according to the study, because           .

A Good Teacher is a Strict Teacher

    One of the most important parts in the healthy development of a

child is played by education. But the way in which education is

understood has changed completely, as we must not forget that

the severe and unfeeling way of bringing up a child in the past

was primarily based on cruel grounding（基础）and strict

rules that were supposed to create accomplished individuals, the typical gentlemen. Nowdays,

society is much more open-minded and it does not put a great value on being strict, although this

doesn’t mean that opinions regarding this subject do not differ.

    On the one hand, there are also people who believe that there has got to be a bound between

teacher and student if any satisfying results are awaited. Luckily for us, more and more teachers are

understanding this fact and are doing their best to get over the strict rules and get in touch with us.

    My opinion is that only by having a friendly attitude and accepting other opinions, especially

those of your pupils, you are truly able to do your job at high standards. However, this does not

mean that a teacher shouldn’t be a bit more rough when he feels that things are getting out of hand.

All in all, I must say that a good teacher is the teacher that has the ability to be kind and strict at the

same time, thus achieving to gain his students respect and interest.

The aim of education in the past was to      .

       A．create perfect persons      B．create open-minded persons

       C．bring up a child              D．build a cruel grounding

According to the passage, the narrow-minded people think      .

       A．a pupil is always interested in what he is learning

       B．a pupil himself will improve his studies

       C．children should be made to study

       D．children don’t like a rough hand

The underlined word “job” in the last paragraph can be replaced by      .

       A．controlling       B．teaching    C．learning    D．punishing

The author thinks a good teacher should be     .

       A．kind and strict         B．skilled and clever

       C．rough and cruel              D．friendly and practical

It can be inferred from the passage that       .

       A．society is much more open-minded and being strict is out date

       B．as long as the teachers are strict with students, the students will certainly get good marks

       C．most people are in favor of strict teachers because they have strict grounding and strict rules

       D．if we expect students to develop in a healthy way, the good relationship between teachers and students is important

小明减肥以后，感到身体疲倦、虚弱，不知如何是好，于是他写了一封电子邮件向健康专家求教。请根据下面内容，以小明的名义写一封120字左右的邮件。
原因：觉得自己太胖，体重不断增加，担心形象不美，有同学背后嘲笑他。
过程：1、去健身房，两三次就放弃了，感觉太累也没时间；
2、节食，坚持了大约一个星期，经常饿得不能继续他的学习；
3、悄悄服用减肥药，一开始有效果，体重迅速下降，但减肥药对他产生副作用。

A punctual person is in the habit of doing a thing at the proper time and is never late in keeping an appointment.

　   The unpunctual man，on the one hand，never does what he has to do at the proper time.__ 1._There is a proverb saying, “Time flies never to be recalled”. This is true. __2.__Time is more valuable than material things. In fact，time is life itself. The unpunctual man is for ever wasting and mismanaging his most valuable possessions as well as other's. The unpunctual person is always complaining that he finds no time to answer letters，or return calls or keep appointments promptly.. __3.__He knows that he can not get through his huge amount of work unless he faithfully keeps every piece of work when it has to be attended to.

__4.__If a person is invited to dinner and arrives later than the appointed time，he keeps all the other guests waiting for him. Usually this will be regarded as a great disrespect to the host and all other guests present.

　   Unpunctuality，moreover，is very harmful when it comes to do one's duty，whether public or private. Imagine how it would be if those who are put in charge of important tasks failed to be at their proper place at the appointed time.__ 5.__

A. He is always in a hurry and in the end loses both time and his good name

B. They appear to be busy but never get well organized

C. Maybe everybody minds being kept waiting at a party

D. A lost thing may be found again，but lost time can never be regained.

E. But the man who really has a great deal to do is very careful of his time and seldom complains of want of it

F. After all, man who is known to be habitually unpunctual is never trusted by his friends or fellow men.

G. Failure to be punctual in keeping one's appointments is sign of disrespect towards others.