White was the owner of a private school in a town. Last year, he married one of his classmates.The beautiful woman spent much time in learning nothing during middle school.   But she wasn't worried about anything in the future, because her parents were very rich and could provide her with everything.So he could make poor Mr White listen to her. Mr White was busy in dealing with school affairs and his wife had to stay at home alone.But she hated the lonely and boring life.Her father introduced her to some businessmen who wanted to employ her .But she wanted to stay with children.So her husband was asked to allow her to work in his school.At first her husband didn't agree with her. She didn't supply money to him any more, so the poor man had to give in.Otherwise , his school would shut down for lack of her money. The woman could not teach students, because she knew neither maths nor physics.She thought she often played in the zoo,so she decided to teach biology.But she didn't know how to teach the subject at all.She thought hard, and finally she decided to bring the students to the zoo.
Pointing to a crocodile, she shouted ,”Look at it carefully! It’s a whale!”
“Excuse me ,madam,” said a student.   “It’s a crocodile!”
“Shut up!” Mr White said angrily.   “It’s a whale!”
【小題1】Why did Mr White have to employ Mrs White as a teacher ?

One day an out of work mime(啞劇演員) was visiting the zoo and attempted to earn some money as a street performer. As soon as he started to draw a 31)______, a zoo keeper grabbed him and dragged him into his office. The zoo keeper explained to the mime that the zoo’s most popular attraction, a gorilla, had died suddenly and the keeper feared that 32)_____ at the zoo would fall off. He offered the mime a job to 33)______ the gorilla until they could get another one. The mime 34)______.
So the next morning the mime put on the gorilla suit and entered the cage before the crowd came. He discovered that it was a35)_______ job. He could sleep if he wanted, play and 36)______ people and he drew bigger crowds than he ever had as a mime. 37)_____, eventually the crowds got tired of him and he got tired of just swinging on tails. He 38)_______ to notice that he people were paying more attention to the lion in the cage next to his. Not wanting to lose the attention of his audience, he climbed to the top of his cage, crawled across a partition(隔墻), and dangled(懸蕩) from the top to the lion’s cage. Of course, this made the lion very angry, but the crowd 39)______ it.
At the end of the day, the zoo keeper came and gave the mime a 40)______ for being such an attraction. Well, this went on for some time, the mime kept 41)______ the lion, the crowds grew larger, and his salary kept going up. Then one terrible day when he was dangling over the angry lion, he slipped and fell. The mime was 42)______.
The lion gathered itself and prepared to pounce(猛撲). The mime was so scared that he began to run round and round the cage with the lion close 43)______. Finally, the mime started screaming and yelling, “Help me,help me!”, but the lion was quick and pounced. The mime soon found himself flat on his back, looking up at the angry lion and the lion said, “44)______you fool! Do you want to get us 45)_______.”

【小題2】

A．reputation B．cost C．confidence D．attendance

．Jenny was looking for a seat when，luckily，a man____________and left．

   A．took up         B．got up         C．shut up        D．set up

When women sit together to watch a movie on TV, they usually talk simultaneously（同時的）about a variety of subjects, including children, men, careers and what’ s happening in their lives. When groups of men and women watch a movie together, the men usually end up telling the women to shut up. Men can either talk or watch the screen -- they can’ t do both -- and they don’ t understand that women can. Besides, women consider that the point of all getting together is to have a good time and develop relationships -- not just to sit there like couch potatoes staring at the screen.
During the ad breaks, a man often asks a woman to explain the plot and tell him where the relationship between the characters is going. He is unable, unlike women, to read the subtle body language signals that reveal how the characters are feeling emotionally. Since women originally spent their days with the other women and children in the group,  they developed the ability to communicate successfully in order to maintain relationships. For a woman, speech continues to have such a clear purpose: to build relationships and make friends. For men, to talk is to relate the facts.
Men see the telephone as a communication tool for sending facts and information to other people, but a woman sees it as a means of bonding. A woman can spend two weeks on vacation with her girlfriend and, when she returns home, telephone the same girlfriend and talk for another two hours.
There is no convincing evidence that social conditioning, the fact that girls’ mothers talked them more, is the reason why girls talk more than boys. Psychiatrist Dr Michael Lewis, author Social Behaviour and Language Acquisition, conducted experiments that found mothers talked to and looked at, baby girls more often than baby boys. Scientific evidence shows parents respond the brain bias of their children. Since a girl’ s brain is better organized to send and receive speech, we therefore talk to them more. Consequently, mothers who try to talk to their sons are usually pointed to receive only short grunts in reply

1. 1.

   While watching TV with others, women usually talk a lot because they______.

   1. A.
      are afraid of awkward silence with their families and friends
   2. B.
      can both talk and watch the screen at the same time
   3. C.
      think they can have a good time and develop relationships
   4. D.
      have to explain the plot and body language to their husbands
2. 2.

   After a vacation with her girlfriend, a woman would talk to her again on the phone for hours in order to ______.

   1. A.
      experience the happy time again
   2. B.
      keep a close tie with her
   3. C.
      recommend her a new scenic spot
   4. D.
      remind her of something forgotten
3. 3.

   What does the author want to tell us most?

   1. A.
      Women’ s brains are better organized for language and communication
   2. B.
      Women love to talk because they are more sociable than men
   3. C.
      Men do not like talking because they rely more on facts
   4. D.
      Social conditioning is not the reason why women love talking
4. 4.

   Which of the following would be the best title for the passage?

   1. A.
      Women Are Socially Trained to Talk
   2. B.
      Talking Maintains Relationships
   3. C.
      Women Love to Talk
   4. D.
      Men Talk Differently from Women

Most American schools have boys and girls in the same classroom. But a public high school in the small, rural town of Boonsboro, Maryland, offers a special program called the Academy. Top students in the ninth and tenth grades can attend single-sex classes for math, science, English and social studies.

The aim is to help teenagers keep their mind on their work by keeping males and females apart. What they really want to do is take that top group of kids and take them to the very highest level they can achieve there, so that they’re prepared for college.

Students are invited to enter this program after they finish middle school, and placement in the Academy is voluntary. However, they need high marks and test scores and strong teacher recommendations. They also need to be involved in activities.

   Almost 350 students have taken part in the Academy. It began as an experiment in 2010.

Michael Bair has been at Boonsboro High for twenty years and directs the Academy. His ninth-grade English class for boys centers on books that he believes boys find interesting. He says that the novels the students are reading now are very manly (男子氣概的) novels. These novels deal with the arrogance (傲慢) of man and the pride of man which finally leads to man’s downfall.

One of those books, for example, is The Call of the Wild by Jack London. This classic story tells of a dog stolen from his home and sold to work as a sled dog in Canada’s Klondike Gold Rush.

Morgan Fleet, a senior at Boonsboro High, likes being in the Academy. She says boys and girls act differently when they are together in a classroom. She believes this difference seems to prevent her from developing herself because she’s more focused on thoughts like “Oh, I wish they would shut up. Oh, what do they think of me?’’ instead of focusing on “What’s the homework? What’s going on in this class? What’s the lesson?”.

There is one activity that girls and boys in the Academy do together. At the end of the day, many of them stay and help tutor students who are having trouble in school.

1.What is the purpose of the Academy program?

A. To offer a special program in high school.

B. To help students concentrate on study.

C. To strengthen sex education for teenagers. 

D. To start learning college courses earlier.

2.To enter the Academy program, students are NOT required to _________.

A. do well in their study                  B. be recommended by teachers

C. take part in some activities           D. have worked as volunteers

3.The Call of the Wild is given as an example to show that male students ___.

A. should learn more about literature

B. should have a sense of protecting the wildlife

C. are reading more manly novels

D. are interested in stories on animals

4.Which is likely to be Morgan Fleet’s opinion?

A. A girl cares about the boys’ opinions of her. 

 B. Single-sex classes should be stopped.

C. Girls are more focused when studying with boys.

D. Boys and girls act the same in separate classrooms.

5.The passage is intended to _________.

A. introduce the single-sex class project

B. explain the differences between boys and girls

C. persuade students to enter the Academy program

D. urge students to work hard in their study