One of the strangest and most fascinating things about Scotland is the Loch Ness Monster.

A.starling

B.stares

C.stared

D.stare

请根据短文的内容，回答题。

Some Unusual Celebrations

Some holidays are well-known all around the world. Among them are New Year&39;s Eve celebrations.＜br＞

Also common are days in honor of love and friendship, like Valentine&39;s Day. Each country has its own special holidays, too, often to mark important events in its history. Schools, banks, and government offices all close on days like these. __________ (46) A few of them are really very strange.＜br＞

Of course, they are not strange to the people who celebrate them. Perhaps that is because the celebrations have long traditions. Consider April Fool&39;s Day, for example. No one knows when or why it began. Today it is celebrated in many countries- France, England, and Australia, among others. On this day, people play practical jokes. __________ (47) The ones who laugh are the ones playing the jokes. The people they fool often get angry. Does celebrating this day make sense to you？＜br＞

Day in Poland seems strange, too. On this day, it is traditional for boys to pour water over the heads of girls. Here is the strangest part: They do it to girls they like. Other unusual celebrations take place in a single city or town. A holiday called La Tomatina is celebrated in Bunol, Spain. Every year, in late August, big trucks carry more than 200,000 pounds of tomatoes into this little town. __________ (48)＜br＞

For two hours, people in the streets throw tomatoes at each other. Everyone ends up red from head to toe.＜br＞

August 10 marks the start of the Puck Fair, an Irish festival with a very unusual tradition. People from the town of Killorglin go up into the mountains and catch a wild goat. __________ (49)＜br＞

There are also some celebrations that are really strange. In the United States, sometimes one person gets an idea for a new holiday and tries to get others to accept it. Whose idea was Public Sleeping Day？ That one is on February 28. It may seem strange, but it sounds like more fun than the one on February 9. __________ (50)＜br＞

Do you like the idea of inventing a new holiday？ If you do, then you will want to mark March 26 on your calendar. That is Make Up Your Own Holiday Day.

第46题__________ 查看材料

A.They bring him back to town， put a crown on his head， and make him king for three days.

B.Some of the days people celebrate， however， are less serious.

C.That is supposed to be Toothache Day.

D.Then begins the world"s biggest food fight.

E.Some people have fun imagining new holidays.

F.Jokes are supposed to be funny， but these jokes do not make everyone laugh.

Will he need bones of steel and powerful muscles to resist rocket thrust，the lungs of a glass blower，a mighty heart，the calmness of an acrobat，unconscious death urges，or a schizophrenic(患精神分裂症的)drove toward isolation？ Popular ideas of a spaceman tend to be funny composites of fiction and fact.

A more realistic portrait emerges from the young science of bioastronautics，the newest and strangest of medical disciplines.The astronaut may be described as a young man of high intelligence who is normal to an abnormal degree.On earth he may well have been a high diver，high jumper，pole vaulter，or acrobat.He must be highly motivated，carefully trained，and he must want to come back.

His heart and lungs must be healthy but need not be exceptionally developed，for his cabin will be pressurized.Huge muscles may actually be disadvantageous，for he will have almost no way to get exercise，and he will find that the strength of a year old child is adequate in the weightlessness of space.A firm body and a short， strong neck will help him to withstand(抗拒;经得起……)the tremendous forces encountered at take off.Most important physically，his digestive system must be one that will not be upset by weightlessness;he must not be subject to motion sickness.

() 41.All the following are popular beliefs about the future spaceman EXCEPT that .

A.faced with isolation，he is brave enough and not liable to go mad

B.he needs to have a strong death complex

C.he must have strong bones and powerful muscles

D.he must be cool headed

() 42.Which of the following is NOT be considered by the author as a more realistic image of the future spaceman？

A.He must have superior intelligence.

B.He is young.

C.He should have a strong desire to survive.

D.He doesn’t get upset easily.

43.Bioastronautics is mostly related to .()

A.literature

B.the science of medicine

C.biology

D.disciplines and regulations

44.“normal to an abnormal degree”(Para.3)means .()

A.seemingly normal but actually abnormal

B.so ordinary that he is undistinguished in every way

C.extremely healthy，and there is nothing abnormal with him

D.so normal that no one believes it is true

45.To the future spaceman，what is most physically important is that .()

A.his vital capacity must be as great as a glass blowers

B.he must have a short and firm neck

C.his heart must be comparatively large

D.his digestive system should not be upset by weightlessness

Joy: A Subject Schools Lack

Becoming educated should not require giving up pleasure.

A) When Jonathan Swift proposed, in 1729, that the people of Ireland eat their children, he insisted it would solve three problems at once: feed the hungry masses, reduce the population during a severe depression, and stimulate the restaurant business. Even as a satire(讽刺), it seems disgusting and shocking in America with its child-centered culture. But actually, the country is closer to his proposal than you might think.

B) If you spend much time with educators and policy makers, you’ll hear a lot of the following words: “standards,” “results,” “skills,” “self-control,” “accountability,” and so on. I have visited some of the newer supposedly “effective” schools, where children shout slogans in order to learn self-control or must stand behind their desk when they can’t sit still.

C) A look at what goes on in most classrooms these days makes it abundantly clear that when people think about education, they are not thinking about what it feels like to be a child, or what makes childhood an important and valuable stage of life in its own right.

D) I’m a mother of three, a teacher, and a developmental psychologist. So I’ve watched a lot of children—talking, playing, arguing, eating, studying, and being young. Here’s what I’ve come to understand. The thing that sets children apart from adults is not their ignorance, nor their lack of skills. It’s their enormous capacity for joy. Think of a 3-year-old lost in the pleasures of finding out what he can and cannot sink in the bathtub, a 5-year-old beside herself with the thrill of putting together strings of nonsensical words with her best friends, or an 11-year-old completely absorbed in a fascinating comic strip. A child’s ability to become deeply absorbed in something, and derive intense pleasure from that absorption, is something adults spend the rest of their lives trying to return to.

E) A friend told me the following story. One day, when he went to get his 7-year-old son from soccer practice, his kid greeted him with a downcast face and a sad voice. The coach had criticized him for not focusing on his soccer drills. The little boy walked out of the school with his head and shoulders hanging down. He seemed wrapped in sadness. But just before eh reached the car door, he suddenly stopped, crouching(蹲伏) down to peer at something on the sidewalk. His face went down lower and lower， and then, with complete joy he called out, “Dad. Come here. This is the strangest bug I’ve ever seen. It has, like, a million legs. Look at this. It’s amazing.” He looked up at his father, his features overflowing with energy and delight. “Can’t we stay here for just a minute？ I want to find out what he does with all those legs. This is the coolest ever.”

F) The traditional view of such moments is that they constitute a charming but irrelevant byproduct of youth—something to be pushed aside to make room for more important qualities, like perseverance(坚持不懈), obligation, and practicality. Yet moments like this one are just the kind of intense absorption and pleasure adults spend the rest of their lives seeking . Human lives are governed by the desire to experience joy. Becoming educated should not require giving up joy but rather lead to finding joy in new kinds of things: reading novels instead of playing with small figures, conducting experiments instead of sinking cups in the bathtub, and debating serious issues rather than bringing together nonsense word, for example. In some cases, schools should help children find new, more grown-up ways of doing the same things that are constant sources of joy: making art, making friends, making decisions.

G) Building on a child’s ability to feel joy, rather than pushing it aside, wouldn’t be that hard. It would just require a shift in the education wold’s mindset(思维模式). Instead of trying to get children to work hard, why not focus on getting them to take pleasure in meaningful, productive activity, like making things, working with others, exploring ideas, and solving problems？ These focuses are not so different from the things in which they delight.

H) Before you brush this argument aside as rubbish, or think of joy as an unaffordable luxury in a nation where there is awful poverty, low academic achievement, and high dropout rates, think again. The more horrible the school circumstances, the more important pleasure is to achieving any educational success.

I) Many of the assignments and rules teachers com up with, often because they are pressured by their administrators, treat pleasure and joy as the enemies of competence and responsibility. The assumption is that children shouldn’t chat in the classroom because it hinders hard work; instead, they should learn to delay gratification(快乐) so that they can pursue abstract goals, like going to college.

J) Not only is this a boring and awful way to treat children, it makes no sense educationally. Decades of research have shown that in order to acquire skills and real knowledge in school, kids need to want to learn. You can force a child to stay in his or her seat, fill out a worksheet, or practice division. But you can’t force the child to think carefully, enjoy books, digest complex information, or develop a taste for learning. To make that happen, you have to help the child find pleasure in learning—to see school as source of joy.

K) Adults tend to talk about learning as if it were medicine: unpleasant, but necessary and good for you. Why not instead think of learning as if it were food —something so valuable to humans that they have evolved to experience it as a pleasure？

L) Joy should not be trained out of children or left for after-school programs. The more difficult a child’s life circumstances, the more important it is for that child to find joy in his or her classroom. “Pleasure” is not a dirty word. And it doesn’t run counter to the goals of public education. It is, in fact, the precondition.

46. It will not be difficult to make learning a source of joy if educators change their way of thinking.

47. What distinguishes children from adults is their strong ability to derive joy from what they are doing.

48. Children in America are being treated with shocking cruelty.

49. It is human nature to seek joy in life.

50. Grown-ups are likely to think that learning to children is what medicine is to patients.

51. Bad school conditions make it all the more important to turn learning into a joyful experience.

52. Adults do not consider children’s feelings when it comes to education.

53. Administrators seem to believe that only hard work will lead children to their educational goals.

54. In the so-called “effective” schools, children are taught self-control under a set of strict rules.

55. To make learning effective, educators have to ensure that children want to learn.

A.About one hour

B.After one hour

C.In one hour

D.At one hour

A.one other

B.another one

C.other one

D.one another

A.one another

B.another

C.one by one

D.on other