2010年江苏省高中学生英语口语等级测试训练材料(2)

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For hundreds of years, the people of a Scottish town believed that a dinosaur-like monster lived in a nearby lake called Loch Ness. Many said they saw the creature, but no one could prove it was real.

In 1934,a London doctor, Robert Kenneth Wilson, gave a newspaper a photo of the monster. He took the picture, the news travelled around the world. People came from everywhere to see this creature now called the― Loch Ness Monster‖. Then in 1993,a man named Christian Spurling surprised everyone. He said the photo of the Loch Ness Monster was a fake .He and some friends had created the famous picture themselves, then Wilson had given it to the newspaper as a practical joke.

Today tricks and jokes like this are common, and many are spread using e-mail. Some can be funny, but others can cause trouble.

生词：1. monster n.怪物 2. Loch Ness 尼斯湖 3. fake n.假货；赝品 Questions:

1．What does the monster in Loch Ness look like? 2．What did Robert Kenneth Wilson do in 1934? 3．How did Christian Spurling surprise every one? 4．How are many tricks and jokes spread today? 5．What do you think of tricks and jokes like this?

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Today about 15 percent of the population is left-handed. But why are people left-handed ? The answer is in the way the brain works.

The brain has two halves-the right half and the left half .The right half controls the left side of the body, and the left controls the right side the body. So right-hanged people have a strong left brain, and left-handed people have a strong right brain.

The two halves of the brain are about the same size. But each side controls different things. The left side controls language, mathematics, and logic. When you memorize the spelling of words, or when you put things in order, you use your left side. The right side of the brain controls your love of art, colour, music. It is also good at recognizing fact.

This does not mean that all artists are left-handed and all accountants are right-handed. There are actually many exceptions. Some right-handers have a strong right brain, and some left-handers have a strong left brain.

生词；1. logic 逻辑 2. accountant 会计，会计师 Questions:

(1) What percentage of the population is left-handed today? (2) Why are people left-handed?

(3) What dose the left side of the brain control?

(4) Which side of brain do you use when you recognize faces? (5) Do you think all artists are left-handed and all accountants are right-handed?

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Annette Kellerman was born in Australia in 1887. She had polio and could not walk easily. She had to wear metal supports on her legs to stand up on her own. To make

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her legs stronger, her mother took her for swimming lessons every week. Swimming made her legs so strong that when she was 15 she was able to throw away her supports.

Her family was poor so she got work acting as a mermaid. She wore a long tail and fish swam around her. People paid to come and see her.

In 1900Annette swam in Paris Olympics and won two gold medals. The next year she tried to swim across the Channel. She was the first woman to try to do it though she had to stop swimming for six hours.

In1915, Annette went to Hollywood and was the star of two films. 生词；1.Annette Kellerman (人名)安妮特-凯勒曼 2.polio 小儿麻痹症 3. mermaid 美人鱼 Questions:

(1) What did Annette suffer from when she was a child? (2)How did her legs become stronger? (3)How did she help her family?

(4)What did she do in the Paris Olympics? (5)What did she do in 1915?

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Louis Braille was born near Paris, France. He was a very smart child. He liked to play with his father‘s work tools. One day, when he was four, a sharp tool went into his left eye. An infection started and spread to the other. A few weeks later, he was blind. At age ten, Louis went to a school for blind children. One day a soldier, Charles Barbier, visited the school. Barbier had invented a system of night-reading. This system used dots of the letters. Soldiers used this system in times of war. Barbier thought this system could help blind people to read.

Barbier‘s system was difficult, but it gave Louis an idea. He made Barbier‘s system easier. By age fifteen, his new system was ready. But the schools did not want his system. Louis died in 1852 at age forty-three. Two years after he died, schools for the blind began to use his system.

Today we call this system Braille after Louis Braille. It is used for all languages, for mathematics, science, writing music, and for computers for the blind.

生词：1:Louis Braille ( 人名)路易斯-布菜叶 2；infection 感染

3:charles Barbier (人名) 查尔斯-巴比亚 Questions:

(1) What do you know about Louis Braille? (2) How did he become blind? (3) What did Barbier invent?

(4) What did Louis do to Barbier‘s system? (5) Is Braille‘s system still used today?

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Millions of words have been written about young people in the United Sates. There are reasons for this great interest in the ideas, feelings and actions of youth.

Today there are about seven million Americans in colleges and universities. Young persons under 25 make up nearly half of the American population. Many of these will

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soon be in charge of the nation . Naturally, their ideas are important to everyone in the country, and it is necessary for older people to understand what they think and it is necessary for older people to understand what thy think and feel.

College students today have strong opinions about right and wrong. They are deeply interested in making a better life for all people, especially for those who have not been given a fair chance. They see much that is wrong in the old ways of their elders. So they insist on c …… 此处隐藏：11093字，全部文档内容请下载后查看。喜欢就下载吧 ……