Topping the class academically was certainly an advantage. Studying was a breeze for

Nigel. The reward was certainly incomparable to the little effort that he had to put it. It begin when he was selected to help the teachers in the computer laboratories.

The peak of his school career came not when he topped the school but when he was selected for the nationwide competition. Unlike everyone else, Nigel wanted to join the contest because he liked playing with the Lego sets and making something out of them. Nigel spent the next two months rebuilding the robot. It was during the time that Nigel found out about the prizes for the competition. Its well us auspices competitor. Alicia, from a neighboring school. His early intentions were forgotten. Getting the thousand-dollar prize was more important than anything else. Nigel decided to befriend Alicia. Unaware of his intentions, she told him all about the robot that she had been building for the competition. He even helped her to put the finishing branches to her robot. He was glad with the way things had progressed. His robot looked even better than Alicia’s and it was able to become a ball with its arms, something Alicia had failed to do.

On the day of the competition, he says Alicia. Everything dawned on her the minute she saw him among the competition. She stared at him, puzzled at first, then angry and finally a look of helplessness came over her.

The flashbulbs of the camera exploded in Nigel’s try. The robot bird performed actions so unique and different that the specialist judgments were the same. Nigel was so personal with himself that he did not even notice the girl standing a few feet away from him. Without her, he would never win the competition.

What reward did Nigel receive for doing well in his school work?

A. He was offered a part-time job      B. He was honored with a scholarship

C. He helped his teacher construct a robot      D. He helped in the computer laboratories

Nigel’s original intention of joining the contest was to ___.

A. be the top student of the school             B. being great honor to his school

C. constructs a robot with the Lego sets         D. wins the thousand-dollar prize

Why did Nigel help Alicia finish her robot?

A. He tried to make friends with her       B. He was fond of building robots

C. He intended to help her               D. He didn’t want her to suspect him

What is the author’s attitude towards Nigel’s actions?

A. He is mildly critical           B. He is strongly critical

C. He is in favor of them          D. His attitude is not clear

What exactly is a lie ?Is it anything we say which we know is untrue ?Or is it something more than that ?For example, suppose a friend wants to borrow some money from you. You say “I wish I could help you, but I am short of money myself.” In fact , you are not short of money but your friend is in the habit of not paying his debts and you don’t want to hurt his feelings by reminding him of this. Is this really a lie ?

Professor Jerald Jellison of the University of southern California has made a scientific study of lying. According to him, women are better liars than men, particularly when telling a “white lie”, such as when a woman at a party tells another woman that she likes her dress when she really thinks it’s terrible. However, this is only one side of the story. Other researchers say that men are more likely to tell more serious lies, such as making a promise that they have no intention of carrying out. This is the kind of lie politicians and businessmen are supposed to be particularly skilled at :the lie from which the liar hopes to profit or gain in some way.

Research has been done into the way people’s behavior changes in a number of small, unimportant ways when they lie. It has been found that if they are sitting down at the time, they tend to move about in their chairs more than usual. To the trained observer they are saying “I wish I were somewhere else now”. They also tend to touch certain parts of the face, particularly the nose. One explanation of this may be that lying causes a slight increase in blood pressure. The tip of the nose  is very sensitive to changes and the increased pressure makes it itch.

Another gesture that gives liars away is what the writer Decmond Morris in his book Man Watching calls the “mouth cover”. He says that there are several typical forms of this ,such as covering part of the mouth with the fingers, touching the upper lip or putting a finger of the hand at one side off the mouth. Such a gesture can be understood as an unconscious(未察覺的) attempt on the part of the liar to stop himself from lying.

Of course, such gestures as rubbing the nose or covering the mouth , moving about in a chair can not be taken as proof that the speaker is lying. They simply tend to happen more often in this situation. It is one gesture alone that gives the liar away but a whole number of things , and in particular the context(上下文) which the lie is told.

According to the passage, a white lie seems to be a lie ______.

A. that other people believe   

B. that other people don’t believe

C. told in order not to hurt someone’s feelings

D. told in order to take advantage of someone

Research suggests that women _____.

A. are better at telling less serious lies than men

B. generally lie for more than men do

C. often make promises they intend to break

D. lie at parties more often than men do

Researchers find that when a person tells lies _____.

A. his blood pressure increases measurably

B. he looks very serious

C. he is likely to make some small changes in his behavior

D. he uses his unconscious mind

The writer of the passage______.

A. hates lying      B. enjoys lying           C. often tells a lie        D. tries to study about lying

Which of the following is not mentioned in the passage as a sign of lying ?

A. Touching one’s ears                                    B. Rubbing the nose 

C. Moving in a chair                                   D. Covering the mouth

Although it is not our normal _______ to give credit in our shop, this time I think we should consider the matter more closely.

A. habit                        B. practice                    C. action               D. intention

Language learning begins with listening. Children are greatly different in the amount of listening they do before they start speaking, and later starters are often long listeners. Most children will “obey” spoken instructions some time before they can speak, though the word “obey” is hardly accurate as a description of the eager and delighted cooperation usually shown by the children. Before they can speak, many children will also ask questions by gesture and by making questioning noises.

Any attempt to study the development from the noises babies make to their first spoken words leads to considerable difficulties. It is agreed that they enjoy making noises, and that during the first few months one or two noises sort themselves as particularly expressive as delight, pain, friendliness, and so on. But since these can’t be said to show the baby’s intention to communicate, they can hardly be regarded as early forms of language. It is agreed, too, that from about three months they play with sounds for enjoyment, and that by six months they are able to add new words to their store. This self-imitation(模仿) leads on to deliberate(有意的) imitation of sounds made or words spoken to them by other people. The problem then arises as to the point at which one can say that these imitations can be considered as speech.

It is a problem we need to get our teeth into. The meaning of a word depends on what a particular person means by it in a particular situation; and it is clear that what a child means by a word will change as he gains more experience of the world. Thus the use, at seven months, of “mama” as a greeting for his mother cannot be dismissed as a meaning-less sound simply because he also uses it at another time for his father, his dog, or anything else he likes. Playful and meaningless imitation of what other people say continues after the child has begun to speak for himself. I doubt, however, whether anything is gained when parents take advantage of this ability in an attempt to teach new sounds.

1. Before children start speaking _______.

A. they need equal amount of listening

B. they need different amounts of listening

C. they are all eager to cooperate with the adults by obey spoken instructions

D. they can’t understand and obey the adult’s oral instructions

2. Children who start speaking late _______.

A. may have problems with their listening

B. probably do not hear enough language spoken around them

C. usually pay close attention to what they hear

D. often take a long time in learning to listen properly

3. A baby’s first noises are _______.

A. an expression of his moods and feelings

B. an early form of language

C. a sign that he means to tell you something

D. an imitation of the speech of adults

4. The problem of deciding at what point a baby’ imitations can be considered as speech _______.

A. is important because words have different meanings for different people

B. is not especially important because the changeover takes place gradually

C. is one that should be properly understood because the meaning of words changes with age

D. is one that should be completely ignored(忽略) because children’s use of words is of-ten meaningless

5. The speaker implies _______.

A. parents can never hope to teach their children new sounds

B. children no longer imitate people after they begin to speak

C. children who are good at imitating learn new words more quickly

Watching bison up close is fascinating, like watching a grass fire about to leap out of control. With their huge, wedge-shaped heads and silver-dollar-size brown eyes, the 2,000-pound animals are symbols of another place and time. More than 100 bison now roam the 30,000-acre American Prairie Reserve in eastern Montana — the first time they’ve inhabited that region in a century. Direct descendants of the tens of millions of bison that once populated the Western plains, they represent an epic effort: to restore a piece of America’s prairie to the national grandeur that Lewis and Clark extolled two centuries ago. During that famous expedition across the Western states to the Pacific, the two explorers encountered so many bison that they had to wait hours for one herd to pass.

       In order to protect what’s here and reintroduce long-gone wildlife (something the World Wildlife Fund is helping with), the American Prairie Foundation began purchasing land from local ranchers in 2004. It now owns 30,000 acres and has grazing privileges on another 57,000. Its goal over the next 25 years is to assemble three million acres, the largest area of land devoted to wildlife management in the continental United States.

       Already, herds of elk, deer, and pronghorn antelope roam the grasslands, where visitors can camp, hike, and bike. Cottonwoods and willows are thriving along streams, creating habitats for bobcats, beavers, and other animals.

       Not everyone shares APF’s vision. Some residents of Phillips County (pop. 3,904) worry that the area could become a prairie Disneyland, overcrowded with tourists. But the biggest obstacle is the ranchers themselves, whose cattle compete with prairie dogs and bison for grass and space.

       “People like me have no intention of selling their ranches,” says Dale Veseth, who heads the Ranchers Stewardship Alliance of 35 families in Phillips County and whose family has been ranching here since 1886. “They’ve been a labor of love through the generations.” Instead, he wants APF to pay or subsidize ranchers to raise bison. This would be far less costly for the foundation, he argues, than buying the land directly.

If you go to the American Prairie Reserve in eastern Montana, you will see ________.

       A. the burning fire moving across the grassland

B. hundreds of bison travelling through the prairie

C. tens of millions of bison occupying the farmland

D. groups of experts examining the dead bison

What measures have been taken to protect the wildlife by APF?

       A. They have borrowed much money and developed new habitat.

B. They have hired many farmers to raise bison on their farms.

C. They have turned grassland into Disneyland to attract tourists.

D. They have bought large land from farmers for bison to live on.

The underlined word “subsidize” in this passage means ________.

       A. give money to                                             B. borrow money from

C. provide land to                                            D. exchange land with

Which would be the best title for this passage?

       A. The exciting scenery in eastern Montana

B. Great changes in raising bison in America

C. The return of the American prairie

D. The challenge in protecting the grassland