7. The text‘Superman’is a piece of descriptive writing.

The study of genetics is today so far advanced that we shall soon be able to produce a kind of genetically "perfect superman", using techniques known as "genetic engineering". At first this may seem an attractive possibility, but when we consider it in detail, we find there are many problems involved.

A distinction is usually made between "negative" and "positive" genetic engineering. In negative genetic engineering we try to eliminate harmful genes to produce genetically normal people. The aim is of course a desirable one; however, it does pose the problem of what a harmful gene is. Genes are not really either "good" or "bad". The gene which causes certain forms of anaemia, for example, can also protect against malaria. If we eliminate this gene we may get rid of anaemia, but we increase the risk of malaria.

In positive genetic engineering we try to create better people by developing the so-called "good" genes. 72. But although this form. of genetic engineering will give us greater control over mankind's future, there are several reasons for caution. First there is the possibility of mistakes. While aceepting that geneticists are responsible people, we must also admit that things can be wrong, the result being the kind of monster we read about in horror stories. Secondly, there is the problem of deciding what makes a "better" person. We may feel, for example, that if genetic engineering can create more intelligent people, then this is a good thing. On the other hand, intelligence does not necessarily lead to happiness. Do we really want to create people who are intelligent, but perhaps unhappy?

73. The basic question is whether or not we should interfere with human life. We can argue that much human progress (particularly in medicine ) involves interference with life. To some extent this is true; but we should not forget the terrible consequences genetic engineering can have. Consider for example the possibilities of genetic warfare, in which our enemies try to harm us using the techniques of genetic engineering ...

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The Power of Pretend

You peak into your seven-year-old's room to see how he and his best friend are going with their playtime. They are deep in a make-believe game in which the superhero fights a monster. "watch out, Superman!" you call out. The kids giggle, then return to their epic struggle.

Do you and your family embrace make-believe? Experts say that pretend play, besides being so much fun, deserves a central place in kids' lives.

From a baby's first game to a teen's starring role in the school play, the imaginative process calls on all the skills your child has and takes them one step further. Consider just a few of the ways it helps our young ones grow and develop.

Emotional Awareness and Social Skills. "I'll be the mummy, and you be the baby," three- year-old Abbie koschik directs a friend. "Then I'll be the baby and you be the mummy. Don't cry, baby. Mummy has a bottle for you."

This is a fairly common scene among young children. Take some time to deconstruct it, though, and we see the brilliance of the play. Abbie is showing some of the qualities necessary for lifelong process: leadership, initiative, self-control, cooperation ,and the remarkable capacity for empathy (移情)--she's imagining and representing the perspectives of both the mother and the baby. That's an awesome feat (成绩), and it's one no other creature in the animal kingdom can match. Not bad for a little girl who still needs her nap every day.

In very practical terms, pretend play also helps kids practice social customs. During a game of a house, for example, a child might rehearse saying "please" and "thank you" or welcoming guests into the home and making them feel comfortable. It's also a safe way for young children to handle new and difficult situations which is why school or visit-to-the-doctor themes are so common. On top of this, pretending does wonders for confidence and self-esteem.

Language, Reading, Maths and Science. Two-year-old Gracie Callahan is playing tea party with her mother. She pretends to sip from her cup, and then says, "More," encouraging her mum to continue the game with her. Grade and other toddlers are at the adorable (可爱的)and significant age when symbolic thought begins. "All of a sudden, babies can 'make believe,'" says educational psychologist Doffs Bergen of Miami university in Ohio. Bergen, a former kindergarten teacher, explains that reading and maths involve a similar abstract process: a child has to know that squiggles (花体，图形) on paper are symbols representing a word or a number. Gracie's tea party is thus setting the stage for later learning.

As children grow, pretend play continues to go hand-in-hand with academic readiness: Kids enjoy pretending so much that they'll stretch their vocabularies and knowledge to be better at it. A Year One student might pick up the word "stethoscope" (听诊器)when playing doctor. Year Four students setting up an elaborate space adventure will soak up information about astronomy and astrophysics, and hone their reading skills as they develop their reading skills as they develop their story line. At every age and stage, pretend play speeds learning.

Thinking and planning. When toddlers like Gracie experience their first creative thoughts, many areas of. the mind, says Doris Bergen, are engaged: emotion, intelligence, language, the senses, motor skills (运动技巧). Using these facilities simultaneously creates dense synaptic (染色体联会的) connections, building a multidimensional architecture in the brain. "A more elaborate play life may mean the brain is more elaborate in terms of the thinking process," she says.

What a perfect plan that the areas of the brain involved in thinking and planning develop so early and strengthen with use. How, for example, could a young child solve the simplest problem without the ability to imagine an answer? Or why would a t

A．Y

B．N

C．NG

The Wisdom of the ages, all the stories that have delighted mankind for centuries, are easily and cheaply available to all of us within the covers of books — but we must know how to avail ourselves of this treasure and how to get the most from it. The most unfortunate people in, the world are those who have never discovered how satisfying it is to read good books.

I am most interested in people, in meeting them and finding out about them. Some of the most remarkable people I have met existed only in a writer's imagination, then on the pages of his book, and then, again, in my imagination. I have found in books new friends, new societies, new worlds.

If I am interested in people, others are interested not so much in **ho as in how. Who in the books includes everybody from science-fiction superman two hundred centuries in the future all the way back to the first figures in history; how covers everything from the ingenious explanations of Sherlock Holmes to the discoveries of science and ways of teaching manners to children.

Reading is a pleasure of the mind, which means that it is a little like a sport: your eagerness and knowledge and quickness make you a good reader. Reading is fun, not because the writer is telling you something, but because it makes your mind work. Your own imagination works along with the author's or even goes beyond his. Your experience, compared with his, brings you to the same or different conclusions, and your ideas develop as you understand.

Every book stands by itself, like a one-family house, but books in a library are like houses in a city. Although they are separate, together they all add up to something; they are connected with each other and with other cities. The same ideas, or related ones, turn up in different places; the human problems that repeat themselves in tire repeat themselves in literature, but with different solutions according to different writings at different times. Books influence each other; they link the past, the present and the future and have their own generations, like families. Wherever you start reading you connect yourself with one of the families of ideas, and, in the long run, you not only find out about the world and the people in it; you find out about yourself, too.

Reading can only be fun if you expect it to be. If you concentrate on books somebody tells you ought to read, you probably won't have fun. But if you put down a book you don't like and try another till you find one that means something to you, and then relax with it, you will almost certainly have a good time — and if you become, as a result of reading, better, wiser, kinder, or more gentle, you won't have suffered during the process.

The best title for this passage can be ______.

A．How to Develop Your Interest in Reading

B．Books and Magazines: Part of Your Life

C．Writing and Writers

D．The Pleasures of Reading

All the wisdom of the ages, all the stories that have delighted mankind for centuries, are easily and cheaply【21】to all of us【22】the covers of books — but we must know how to avail ourselves【23】this treasure and how to get【24】from it. The most【25】people all over the world, are【26】who have never discovered how【27】it is to read good books.

I am very interested in people, in meeting them and【28】about them. Some of the most【29】people I've met existed only in a writer's imagination, then【30】the pages of his book, and tlien, again, in my imagination. I've found in books new friends, new societies, new words.

If I am interested in people, others are interested not so much in who【31】in how. Who in the books includes everybody from science-fiction superman two hundred centuries in the future all the way back to the first【32】in history; how【33】everything from the ingenious explanations of Sherlock Holmes【34】the discoveries of science and ways of teaching manners to children.

Reading can make our minds feel pleased , 【35】means that it is a little like a sport: your eagerness and knowledge and quickness【36】you a good reader. Reading is【37】, not because the writer is telling you something, 【38】because it makes your mind work. Your own imagination works together with the【39】or even goes beyond his. Your experience, 【40】his, brings you to the same or different conclusions, and your ideas develop as you understand his.

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A．useful

B．new

C．readable

D．available

All the wisdom of the ages,all the stories that delighted mankind for centries, are easily and cheaply available to all of us within the covers of books but we must know how to avail ourselves of this treasure and how get the most value from it.The unfortunate people in the world are those who have never discovered how satisfying it is to read good books.

I am most interested in people, in meeting them and finding out about them.Some

of the remarkable people I&39;v met exited only in writer&39;s imagination, then on the pages of his book, and then again, in my imagination.I have found in books new friend, new society and new words.

If I am interested in people, others are interested not so much in who

as in how. Who in the books inculdes everybody from science-fiction

superman two hunreds years in the future all the way back to the first figure in history. How covers everything from the ingenious explanations of Sherlock Holmes to the discoveries of science and the ways of teaching manners to childers.

According to the passage, which of the following statements can be made about the content of Weird Fantasy and The Crypt of Terror?

A．Their adult-oriented content was not suitable for young readers.

B．Their grim and gritty content was a market response to the demands of soldiers home from World War Ⅱ.

C．They frequently depicted violence and criminal behavior, but shied away from sexuality or drug abuse.

D．Their sales surpassed those of previous best-selling titles such as Superman or Batman.

E．The publication of Weird Fantasy #1 coincided with the end of the Golden Age of comic books.