【題目】The back-to-school season is upon us, and once again, parents across the country have loaded their kids’ backpacks up with snack packs and school supplies. It’s a good moment to reflect on what else we should be giving our kids as they head off to school.

American parents are feeling particularly anxious about that question this year. The educational process feels more than ever like a race, one that starts in pre-school and doesn’t end until your child is admitted to the perfect college. Most parents are more worried than they need to be about their children’s grades, test scores and IQ. And what we don’t think about enough is how to help our children build their character—how to help them develop skills like perseverance, optimism, responsibility, and self-control, which together do more to determine success than S.A.T. scores or I.Q.

There is growing evidence that our anxiety about our children’s school performance may actually be holding them back from learning some of these valuable skills. If you’re concerned only with a child’s G.P.A., then you will likely choose to minimize the challenges the child faces in school. With real challenge comes the risk of real failure. And in a competitive academic environment, the idea of failure can be very scary, to students and parents alike.

But experiencing failure is a critical part of building character. Recent research by a team of psychologists found that adults who had experienced little or no failure growing up were actually less happy and confident than those who had experienced a few significant setbacks in childhood. “Overcoming those obstacles,” the researchers assumed, “could teach effective coping skills, help engage social support networks, create a sense of mastery over past adversity, and foster beliefs in the ability to cope successfully in the future.”

By contrast, when we protect our children from every possible failure—when we call their teachers to get an extension on a paper; when we urge them to choose only those subjects they’re good at—we are denying them those same character-building experiences. As the psychologists Madeline Levine and Dan Kindlon have written, that can lead to difficulties in adolescence and young adulthood, when overprotected young people finally confront real problems on their own and don’t know how to overcome them.

In the classroom and outside of it, American parents need to encourage children to take chances, to challenge themselves, to risk failure. In the meantime, giving our kids room to fail may be one of the best ways we can help them succeed.

【題目】Only after being attacked by the Japanese in Pearl Harbor __________ in the Second World War thoroughly.

A. had America involved

B. was America involved

C. America had involved

D. America was involved

【題目】The statistics I’ve cited and the living examples are all too familiar to you. But what may not be so familiar will be the increasing number of women who are looking actively for advancement of for a new job in your offices. This woman may be equipped with professional skills and perhaps valuable experience. She will not be content to be Executive Assistant to Mr. Seldom Seen of the Assistant Vice President’s Girl Friday, who is the only one who comes in on Saturday.

She is the symbol of what I call the Second Wave of Feminism. She is the modern woman who is determined to be.

Her forerunner was the radical feminist who interpreted her trapped position as a female as oppression by the master class of men. Men, she believed, had created a domestic, servile role for women in order that men could have the career and the opportunity to participate in making the great decisions of society. Thus the radical feminist held that women through history had been oppressed and dehumanized, mainly because man chose to exploit his wife and the mother of his children. Sometimes it was deliberate exploitation and sometimes it was the innocence of never looking beneath the pretensions of life.

The radical feminists found strength in banding together. Coming to recognize each other for the first time, they could explore their own identities, realize their own power, and view the male and his system as the common enemy. The first phases of feminism in the last five years often took on this militant, class-warfare tone. Betty Friedan, Gloria Steinem, Germaine Greer, and many others hammered home their ideas with a persistence that aroused and intrigued many of the brightest and most able women in the country. Consciousness-raising groups allowed women to explore both their identities and their dreams—and the two were often found in direct conflict.

What is the stereotyped role of American women? Marriage. A son. Two daughters. Breakfast. Ironing. Lunch. Bowling, maybe a garden club of for the very daring, non-credit courses in ceramics. Perhaps an occasional cocktail party. Dinner. Football or baseball on TV. Each day the same. Never any growth in expectations—unless it is growth because the husband has succeeded. The inevitable question: “Is that all there is to life?”

The rapid growth of many feminist organizations attests to the fact that these radical feminists had touched some vital nerves. The magazine “Ms.” was born in the year of the death of the magazine “Life.” But too often the consciousness-raising sessions became ends in themselves. Too often sexism reversed itself and man-hating was encouraged. Many had been with the male chauvinist.

It is not difficult, therefore, to detect a trend toward moderation. Consciousness-raising increasingly is regarded as a means to independence and fulfillment, rather than a ceremony of fulfillment itself. Genuine independence can be realized through competence, through finding a career, through the use of education. Remember that for many decades the education of women was not supposed to be useful.

【1】What was the main idea of this passage?

A. The Second Wave of Feminist.

B. Women’s Independent Spirits.

C. The Unity of Women.

D. The Action of Union.

【2】What was the author’s attitude toward the radical?

A. He supported it wholeheartedly.

B. He opposed it strongly.

C. He disapproved to some extent.

D. He ignored it completely.

【3】What does the word “militant” mean?

A. Aggressive. B. Ambitions.

C. Progressive. D. Independent.

【4】What was the radical feminist’s view point about the male?

A. Women were exploited by the male.

B. Women were independent of the male.

C. Women’s lives were deprived by the male.

D. The male were their common enemy.

【題目】__________ with Taiyuan, Xinzhou is a small young __________ city.

A. Compared ；developed

B. Comparing；developing

C. Comparing；developed

D. Compared ；developing

【題目】__________ well prepared a gymnast is, he still needs a lot of luck in performing.

A. Whatever

B. Although

C. No matter

D. However

【題目】She always differs me ________ how to spend the vacation. Which is wrong?

A. with ；in

B. from ；on

C. from ； over

D. with ； about

【題目】 Have you wondered why you have two eyes and why they are set close together on the front of your face? The reasons are simple and important to the way you see the rest of your world．

Your eyes are like two small cameras. A camera catches an image of an object and records it on film．Similarly，when you look at something，each eye takes in what it sees and sends this image to the back of the eyeball．Because your eyes are set close together，they view the world from about the same height but from slightly different angles. Working as a team, the eyes send the images to your brain, which puts them together into a single, centered image.

Seeing in stereo means seeing with two eyes working together，which is called stereoscopic sight．This allows you to view the world in three dimensions，or 3-D．Seeing depth helps you to judge the distance between you and the objects you see and to adjust to the changing angle at which you see something as you move closer to or farther away from it．If images are coming from only one eye, however，only two of these dimensions-height and width-can be perceived．A world seen with one eye is thus two-dimensional，as in a photograph．

Now consider why your two eyes are on the front of your face．Think of other animals with this same arrangement．They are all animals that hunt，like lions and wolves．Their eyes face directly in front of them．This provides a field of sight about 180 degrees wide，which is called binocular sight．On the other hand，animals that are hunted have eyes on the sides of the head，which provides nearly 360-degree field of sight．In order to stay alive，they need to see things coming from the sides and from behind．However，without stereoscopic sight，they have difficulty determining how far a danger is．

With sight both stereoscopic and binocular，humans share with animal hunters the ability to see from side to side and to accurately determine the distance．If you think it would be great to have another type of sight，perhaps with hundreds of tiny eyes like many insects do，think again! Each tiny insect eye sees only a tiny part．Besides，what if you needed glasses? Be glad for the eyesight that you have．

【1】According to the passage，an eye is like a camera because both

A. can record images

B. can imagine objects

C. provide centered images

D. work at the same height

【2】Stereoscopic sight is a result of having

A. a three-hundred-sixty-degree field of sight

B. hundreds of eyes，all seeing parts of an image

C. two eyes close to one another that work together

D. one eye on either side of the head，each seeing a different image

【3】The author implies that “seeing in stereo”

A．is similar to the way cameras work

B．is an ability humans are fortunate to have

C．would be better for a wider field of sight

D．helps people to have better sight than animals

【題目】Was it __________ the inter-national conference that made the city the focus of this area?

A. held

B. hold

C. holding

D. being held

【題目】The good service at the hotel __________ the poor food to some degree.

A. made up for

B. saved up for

C. took the place of

D. turned out

【題目】The old road has now been __________ since the highway was open to public use.

A. rounded up

B. closed up

C. opened up

D. tied up