Most people think that the older you get, the harder it is to learn a new language. That is, they believe that children learn more easily and efficiently than adults. Thus, at some point in our lives, maybe around age 12 or 13, we lose the ability to learn languages well. Is this idea a fact or myth(懸念)？

Is it true that children learn a foreign language more efficiently than adults? On the contrary, research studies suggest that the opposite may be true. One report, on 2,000 Danish children studying Swedish, concluded that the teenagers learned more, in less time, than the younger children. Another report, on Americans learning Russian, showed a direct improvement of ability over the age range tested; that is, the ability to learn increased as the age increased, from childhood to adulthood.

There are several possible explanations for these findings. For one thing, adults know more about the world and therefore are able to understand meanings more easily than children. Moreover, adults can use logical(邏輯的) thinking to help themselves see patterns in the language. Finally, adults have more self-discipline (self-control) than children.

All in all, it seems that the common idea that children are better language learners than adults may not be a fact, but a myth.

1.The main idea of the passage is ____.

A．teenagers are more difficult to teach

B．Danish teenagers can learn Swedish faster than younger children

C．a(chǎn)dults are more logical than children

D．the ability to learn languages increases with age

2.According to the passage, teenagers can learn a foreign language _____ than younger children.

A．harder                               B．more efficiently

C．more slowly                           D．more carefully

3.Which of the following possible explanations for older student’s better achievement is not mentioned in the above passage?

A．Adults know more about the world.         B．Adults can use logical thinking

C．Adults have more self-discipline.            D．Adults can read better.

 

  The idea of “l(fā)aw” exists in every culture. All societies have some kind of law to keep order and to control the interactions of people with those around them. The laws of any culture tell people three things: what they can do (their right), what they must do (their duties), and what they may not do. In addition, there are usually specific types of punishment for those who break the law.

Although all societies have laws, not all have the same idea of justice—which is “right” and “wrong” and how “wrong” should be punished. In most Western cultures, it is thought that punishing criminals will prevent them from committing other crimes. Also, it is hoped that the fear of punishment will act as a deterrent(威懾) that prevents other people from committing similar crimes; in other words, people who are considering a life of crime will decide against it because of fear of punishment. In most non-Western cultures, by contrast, punishment is not seen as a deterrent. Instead, great importance is placed on restoring balance in the situation. A thief, for example, may be ordered to return the things he has stolen instead of, as in Western societies, spending time in prison.

Another difference in the concept of justice lies in various societies’ ideas of what laws are. In the West, people consider “l(fā)aws” quite different from “customs”. There is also a great contrast between “sins” (breaking religious laws) and “crimes” (breaking laws of the government). In many non-Western cultures, on the other hand, there is little separation of customs, laws, and religious beliefs; in other cultures, these three may be quite separate from one another, but still very much different from those in the West. For these reasons, an action may be considered a crime in one country, but be socially acceptable in others. For instance, although a thief is viewed as a criminal in much of the world, in a small village where there is considerable communal（公共的） living and sharing of objects, the word thief may have little meaning. Someone who has taken something without asking is simply considered an impolite person.

Most countries have two kinds of law: criminal and civil. People who have been accused of acts such as murder or theft are heard in the criminal justice system, while civil justice deals with people who are believed to have violated others’ rights. The use of the civil system reflects the values of the society in which it exists. In the United States where personal, individual justice is considered very important, civil law has become “big business.” There are over 600,000 lawyers in the United States, and many of them keep busy with civil lawsuits; that is, they work for people who want to sue others. If a man falls over a torn rug in a hotel and breaks his arm, for instance, he might decide to sue the hotel owners so that they will pay his medical costs. In a country like Japan, by contrast, there is very little use of the civil justice system. Lawsuits are not very popular in Japan, where social harmony is even more important than individual rights, and where people would rather reach agreement outside court.

1. The main point of paragraph 1 is that____.

A．a(chǎn)ll societies, Western or non-Western, have some kind of law to keep order.

B．most countries in the world have two kinds of law “criminal and civil ”

C．there are usually specific types of punishment for those who break the law.

D．the laws of any culture dictate people’s rights, duties and what they are not supposed to do

2. Which is TRUE in most Western cultures?

A．Punishment has double functions.

B．A thief may be referred to as an impolite person.

C．Punishment is not regarded as a deterrent.

D．There is lots of communal living and sharing of objects.

3.Which statement is NOT true according to the article?

A．In the West, people think laws and customs are rather different.

B．In the West, there is little difference between “sins” and “crimes”.

C．An action that is considered a crime in one country may be socially acceptable in another.

D．There is far less use of the civil justice system in Japan than in the United States.

4.Which of the following cases are not heard in the criminal justice system?

A．Robbing a pedestrian.	B．Kidnapping people for ransom.
C．Breaking into a bank.	D．Failing to pay back the money.

 

 

第四部分 寫作技能  （ 共兩節(jié)，滿分26 分）

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閱讀下列短文，并根據(jù)所讀內(nèi)容在文章后表格中的空格里填入最恰當(dāng)?shù)脑~。

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    Frederick M. Hess is the director of education policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute, which is a nonprofit organization that conducts research on many public issues. He says that a long summer vacation doesn't make sense in today's world.

     Can American students afford to take a summer vacation? In a summer vacation, millions of kids spend valuable time sending messages, watching TV, playing video games and doing shopping in the mall. They will also be putting their academic futures at risk.

     Summer vacation once made sense in the past when you didn't need an education to get a good job. But now things have changed. For today's students, academic skills are important to students' future success, but such skills ate affected in the summertime. Many nations don't give kids an American-style summer vacation. They offer no more than seven consecutive(連續(xù)的) weeks of vacation. Most American school districts offer up to thirteen weeks. To compete in the global marketplace, Americans must be prepared to go up against international competitors.

     Summer vacation also causes challenges for today's families. In the 1960s, more than 60% of families had a stay-at-home Mom. Now two-thirds of American children live in households where every adult works. For these families, summer vacation can be more burden than break. Someone must watch the kids.

     But the biggest problem may be how summer vacation hurts academic achievement. Researchers have found that disadvantaged students lose significant ground in the summertime.

     A longer school year does not have to be an invitation to hard boring work. Rather, it should allow time-pressed teachers to conduct richer and more imaginative lessons. Schools would have more time to devote to athletics, languages, music and the arts. Summer vacation can be a grand thing. But in the 21st century, it may also be outdated.

Title:   65      

Theme	A long summer vacation doesn’t make sense in today’s world.
Basic Information	Vacation length	66   weeks in most American schools[來源:Zxxk.Com]
Students’ 67___________	·Sending messages and watching TV ·Playing video games ·Doing shopping
Disadvantages	Putting student’s academic futures at risk	Affect academic   68
Causing challenges for families	Make parents watch kids at home
Hurting academic achievement	Make students lose significant ground
69.____________	Students should be conducted to study more imaginative lessons such as athletics, languages, music and the arts.
Conclusion	Summer vacation can be both grand and outdated

 

Parents and kids today dress alike, listen to the same music, and are friends. Is this a good thing? Sometimes, when Mr. Ballmer and his 16-year-old daughter, Elizabeth, listen to rock music together and talk about interests both enjoy, such as pop culture, he remembers his more distant relationship with his parents when he was a teenager.

“I would never have said to my mom, ‘Hey, the new Weezer album is really great. How do you like it?’”says Ballmer. “There was just a complete gap in taste.”

Music was not gulf. From clothing and hairstyles to activities and expectations, earlier generations of parents and children often appeared to move in separate orbits.

Today, the generation gap has not disappeared, but it is getting narrow in many families. Conversation on subjects such as sex and drugs would not have taken place a generation ago. Now they are comfortable and common. And parent-child activities, from shopping to sports, involve a feeling of trust and friendship that can continue into adulthood.

No wonder greeting cards today carry the message, “To my mother, my best friend.”

But family experts warn that the new equality can also result in less respect for parents.

“There’s still a lot of strictness and authority on the part of parents out there, but there is a change happening,”says Kerrie, a psychology professor at Lebanon Valley College. “In the middle of that change, there is a lot of confusion among parents.”

Family researchers offer a variety of reasons for these evolving roles and attitudes. They see the 1960s as a turning point. Great cultural changes led to more open communication and a more democratic process that encourage everyone to have a say.

“My parents were on the ‘before’ side of that change, but today’s parents, the 40-year-olds, were on the ‘a(chǎn)fter’ side,”explains Mr. Ballmer. “It’s not something easily accomplished by parents these days, because life is more difficult to understand or deal with, but sharing interests does make it more fun to be a parent now.”

The underlined word gulf in Para.3 most probably means _______.

A. interest       B. distance        C. difference        D       . separation

Which of the following shows that the generation gap is disappearing?

A. Parents help their children develop interests in more activities.

B. Parents put more trust in their children’s abilities.

C. Parents and children talk more about sex and drugs.

D. Parents share more interests with their children.

The change in today’s parent-child relationship is _______.

A. more confusion among parents

B. new equality between parents and children

C. less respective for parents from children

D. more strictness and authority on the part of parents

By saying“today’s parents, the 40-year-olds, were on the ‘a(chǎn)fter’ side,” the author means that today’s parents _______.

A. follow the trend of the change

B. can set a limit to the change

C. fail to take the change seriously

D. have little difficulty adjusting to the change.

The purpose of the passage is to _______.

A. describe the difficulties today’s parents have met with

B. discuss the development of the parent-child relationship

C. suggest the ways to handle the parent-child relation ship

D. compare today’s parent-child relationship with that in the past

The use of the word imitation（模仿） reminds me that we ought to make some more comments on the risk of people imitating what they see on the screen in the way of crime（犯罪） or violence．First there was always a risk of children acting out scenes which could be dangerous．For example,I remember a woman who was head of a middle school telling me that she had happened to look out of her window when the children were on the playground and had seen them putting a small boy on a chair with a rope round his neck and the rope over the branch of a tree;fortunately she was in time to get there before the child was hanged．I remember a film in particular in which the hero who was imprisoned had escaped by electrocuting（通電觸死） his guard,the technique of doing this being shown in detail．This was the kind of scene which we could cut for these reasons．

In films for young people and adults we always tried to keep off the screen the details of criminal techniques,such as how to open a locked door with a piece of hard plastic or how to open a safe;if we were consulted（請教） before production,I used to advise that the details should not be shown．When I gave talks in prisons about film checking I had full support for this,since fathers who were in prison for criminal offences did not want their children to get on crime．

Every time I gave a talk in a prison someone used to mention the French film Rififi．made by Jules Dassin in 1954．This remarkable film showed in great detail a robbery of a jeweller’s shop,the robbery lasting about half an hour and being backed by only natural sound．．．one of the most brilliant film sequences（連續(xù)鏡頭） of all time．I remember our discussion at the time．We thought that the robbery was finished only with the use of advanced and obviously expensive equipment and that only the most experienced and skilled criminals could possibly imitate it;we believed therefore that it was relatively safe．When talking in prisons some years later I learned that there had been several robberies in which the techniques had been copied,so perhaps we were wrong．

1.The writer thinks that______．

A．the details of the criminal technique should be kept

B．the details of the crime should not be shown on the screen

C．children should not imitate what they see on the screen

D．it is dangerous to imitate what they see on the screen

2.What is the writer’s attitude（態(tài)度） towards the film in which the hero had escaped by electrocuting the guard?

A．The writer likes it very much．

B．The writer is strongly against it．

C．The writer thinks the film has some value．

D．The writer does not show his/her attitude．

3.All the following statements about“Rififi”are true EXCEPT______．

A．that the robbery shown needs experience and skills

B．that some very good tools were used in the robbery

C．that the film showed the technique in detail

D．that the technique of the robbery was not imitated

4.It can be inferred from the passage that______．

A．it is hard for children to tell the differences between real life and the imaginary

B．only people in prison support film checking

C．only children imitate what they have seen on the screen

D．the writer used to advise the details of crime should be shown