As a boy, Charles Robert Darwin(达尔文) collected anything that caught his interest: insects, coins and interesting stones. He was not very clever, but Darwin was good at doing the things that interested him.

  His father was a doctor, so Darwin was sent to Edinburgh to study medicine, and was planned to follow a medical career. But Charles found the lectures boring. Then his father sent him to Cambridge University to study to be a priest. While at Cambridge, Darwin’s interest in zoology and geography grew. Later he got a letter from Robert FitzRoy who was planning to make a voyage around the world on a ship, the Beagle. He wanted a naturalist to join the ship, and Darwin was recommended(推荐). That voyage was the start of Darwin’s great life.

  As the Beagle sailed around the world, Darwin began to wonder how life had developed on earth. He began to observe everything. After he was home, he set to work, getting his collection in order. His first great work The Zoology of the Beagle was well received, but he was slow to make public his ideas on the origin of life.

  Later Darwin and Wallace, another naturalist who had the same opinions as Darwin, produced a paper together. Darwin’s great book “On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection” 《物种起源》) appeared. It attracted a storm. People thought that Darwin was saying they were descended from monkeys. What a shameful idea! Although most scientists agreed that Darwin was right, the Church was still so strong that Darwin never received any honors for his work.

  Afterwards, he published another great work, The Descent of Man. His health grew worse, but he still worked. “When I have to give up observation, I shall die,” he said. He was still working on 17, April, 1882. He was dead two days later.

21. Darwin’s father sent him to Edinburgh to _____.

    A. make him like natural history            B. make him become a doctor 

    C. let him change his hobbies          D. have him give up his collection

22. According to the passage, Charles Darwin’s whole life was changed by _____.

   A. his study at Cambridge University        

   B. his collection of coins

   C. the naturalists at Cambridge         

   D. the voyage of the Beagle

23.What can we infer from the text ?.

   A. Charles Darwin was good at collecting     

 B. FitzRoy made a voyage around the world  

   C. Means of Natural Selection arose argument over the world .         

   D. The Zoology of the Beagle wasn’t well received

Sleep deprivation(缺失)is an important hidden factor in lowering the achievement   of school pupils, according to researchers carrying out international education tests.

  It is a particular problem in richer countries with sleep experts linking it to the use of mobile phones and computers in bedroom late at night. Sleep deprivation is such a serious problem that lessons have to be dragged down to a lower level to suit sleep-deprived learners, the study found. The international comparison, carried out by Boston College, found the United States to have the highest number of sleep-deprived students, with 73% of 9- and 10-year-olds and 80% of 13- and 14-year-olds identified by their teachers as being negatively affected. In literacy(读写能力) tests there were 76% of 9- and 10-year-olds lacking sleep. This was much higher than the international average of 47% of primary pupils needing more sleep and 57% among the secondary age group.

  Other countries with the most sleep-deprived youngsters were New Zealand, Saudi Arabia, Australia, England, Ireland and France. High-performing Finland is also among the most lacking in sleep. Countries with the best records for getting enough

sleep include Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Portugal, the Czech Republic, Japan and Malta. “I think we underestimate the impact of sleep. Our data show that across countries internationally, on average, children who have more sleep achieve higer in maths, science and reading. That is exactly what our data show,” says Chad Minnich of the TIMSS and PIRLS International Study Center.

  “It’s the same link for children who are lacking basic nutrition,” says Mr Minnich, based at the Lynch School of Education, Boston College. “If you are unable to concentrate, to attend mentally, you are unable to achieve at your best level, because your mind and body are in need of something more basic. Sleep is a fundamental need for all children. If teachers report such large proportions of children suffering from lack of sleep, it’s having a significant impact. But worse than that, teachers are having to adjust their instruction based on those children who are suffering from a lack of sleep. The children who are suffering from a lack of sleep are driving down instruction.”That means that even the children who are getting enough sleep are still suffering from this sleep-related lowering.

  24. What did the research of Boston College try to find

  A. Why children don’t get enough sleep    

  B. How many hours between sleep and test result

  C. The relationship between sleep and test results

  D. The relationship between sleep and health

  25. Many children suffer from sleep deprivation because _________.

  A. they sit in front of the TV for too long    

  B. they can hardly sleep soundly and deeply

  C. their homework occupies too much of their time 

  D. modern technological devices consume a lot of their time

26. Which of the following countries has the most sleep-deprived students?

  A. Japan     B. Malta     C. Finland     D. Portugal

  27. Why are children who get enough sleep also victims?  

  A. Because they are disturbed by sleep-deprived students

B. Because teaching is driven down by sleep-deprived students

  C. Because they have to spend time helping sleep-deprived students

  D. Because the teachers waste time disciplining sleep-deprived students

 After spending a year in Brazil on a student exchange program, her mother recalled(回忆), Marie Colvin returned home to find that her classmates had narrowed down their college choices. “Everyone else was already admitted to college,” her mother, Rosemarie Colvin, said from the family home. “So she took our car and drove up to Yale and said , ‘You have to let me in .’ "

  “Impressed---she was a National Merit (全国英才) finalist who had picked up Portuguese in Brazil---Yale did, admitting her to the class of 1978, where she started writing for the Yale Daily News and decided to be a journalist,” her mother said.

  On Wednesday, Marie Colvin, 56, an experienced journalist for The Sunday Times of London, killed as Syrian forces shelled(炮击) the city of Homs. She was working in a temporary media center that was destroyed in the attack.

  “She was supposed to leave Syria on Wednesday”, Mrs. Colvin said. “Her editor told me he called her yesterday and said it was getting too dangerous and they wanted to take her out. She said she was doing a story and she wanted to finish it.

  Mrs. Colvin said it was pointless to try to prevent her daughter from going to conflict zones. “If you knew my daughter,” she said, “it would have been such a waste of words. She was determined, she was enthusiastic about what she did, it was her life. There was no saying ‘Don’t do this.’ This is who she was , absolutely who she was and what she believed in :cover the story, not just have pictures of it, but bring it to life in the deepest way you could.” “So it was not a surprise when she took an interest in journalism,” her mother said.

28.From the underlined sentence in Paragraph 1, we can infer that ________ .

 A. Yale was her last choice

 B. Marie Colvin was confident of herself

 C. Yale must keep its promise to Marie Colvin  

 D. Marie Colvin was good at persuading

29.Which of the following is NOT true ?

 A. Marie Colvin was quite outstanding .     

 B. Marie Colvin started writing in Brazil .

 C. Marie Colvin should have left Syria beforehand

. D. Marie Colvin was very careful with her work .

30. From the last paragraph, we can know that Mrs. Colvin ________.

 A. dislikes the choice of her daughter.   

 B. cares little about her daughter.

 C. knows her daughter very well.            

 D. doesn’t fully appreciate her daughter.

31.What can be the best title of the text ?

 A. Covering Stories in a Dangerous Conflict Area.

 B. Applying for Top Universities, a Successful Case

 C. Choosing Lifelong Careers Based on Your Own Interest.

 D. Recalling Her Daughter, a Journalist Killed in Syria.

  Teaching is more than leadership. Some of the teacher’s time and effort is directed toward instruction, some toward evaluation. But it is the teacher as a group leader who creates an effective organizational structure and good working environment so that instruction and evaluation activities can take place. A group that is totally disorganized, unclear about its goals, or constantly fighting among its members will

not be a good learning group. The leadership pattern includes helping to form and maintain a positive learning environment so that instruction and evaluation activities can take place.

  On the first day of class, the teacher faces a room filled with individuals. Perhaps a few closely united groups and friendships already exist. But there is no sense of group unity, no set of rules for conduct in the group, no feeling of belonging. If teachers are successful leaders, they will help students develop a system of relationships that encourages working together.

  Standards and rules must be set to keep order, make sure of justice and protect individual rights, but do not contradict school policy. What happens when one student hurts another’s individual rights? Without clear regulations agreeable to the students and teachers, the classroom can become chaotic. Students may break rules they did not know existed. If standards are set without participation from the class, students may spend a great deal of creative energy in destroying the class environment or finding ways to break rules.

  No matter how skillful the teacher is in uniting students and creating a positive atmosphere, the task is never complete. Regular maintenance is necessary. Conflicts arise. The needs of individual members change. A new kind of learning task requires a new organizational structure. Sometimes outside pressures such as holidays, upcoming tests or sport competitions, or family troubles cause stress in the classroom. One task for the teacher is to recreate a positive environment by helping students deal with conflict, change, and stress.   

32. The underlined word “maintain” in Para.1 probably means_______.

 A. keep    B.  build   C. recreate D. evaluate

33. According to the author, the teacher should _______.

 A. free students from outside pressures      

 B. set the standards and rules on his own

 C. be responsible for a well-organized class  

 D. focus more on instruction and evaluation

34. From the passage we can learn that ______.

 A. rules cannot be changed once they’re formed

 B. outside pressures can not cause tension among students

 C. if the teacher well unites his students, he then will finish his task

 D.if rules are not acceptable both to students and teachers,the classroom can be mess
35. What is the author’s main purpose of writing the passage?

 A. To provide information for teaching

 B. To show the importance of teaching a class.

 C. To study the teacher’s behavior in the classroom.

 D. To compare the teacher’s behavior with the students’ in class.

Things to Remember When You’re Having a Bad Day

Even the hardest days contain lessons that will help you be a better person. Feeling down? Consider these things to remember when you’re having a bad day.

l          No one promised life would be perfect.

        36    Don’t base your happiness on meeting every expectation you set for yourself. It is good to be ambitious, but you’ll never be perfect. If you expect otherwise, your life will be filled with disappointments.

l             37   

Trees that are slow to grow bear the best fruit. Don’t kid yourself into thinking success will come quickly. It isn’t easy to be patient, but anything worth doing requires time.    38    . 

l          Without hard times, you wouldn’t appreciate the good ones.

Strength does not come from winning. Your struggles develop your strengths. When you go through hardships and decide not to give up, that is strength.    39     . It is hard to find much to smile about when you fail, but how else would you improve yourself? If you look at failures as a part of your growing process, you’ll stay positive and follow your goals for as long as it takes.

l          It’s OK to cry sometimes.

Do not apologize for crying. Without this feeling, we are only robots. Don’t be afraid of crying.    40      Instead, it is an acceptable way to let go of your depressed feelings. If you let those feelings build up without release, you’ll have a much harder time dealing with them later. 

A. Don’t get sad if you lose.

B. It isn’t a sign of weakness.

C. Success doesn’t happen overnight.

D. It’s not OK to worry now and then.

E. Don’t compare your life with others’.

F. Remember: Rome was not built in a day.

G. If you look for perfection, you’ll never be content.