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Passage One

    From my second year of primary school on, there was one event I dreaded every year: the piano recital. A recital meant I had to practice a boring piece of music and perform in front of strangers who knew the notes much better than I. Each year my father would mutter something about building self-confidence and working toward a goal.

    My father had longed to play music when he was small. But his mother couldn't afford lessons. And a kindly couple helped him. But he soon stopped after being teased by other boys. Three years ago, when he retired, he asked his church music director, Charles Staples, to take him as a student. Staples had the good grace not to laugh. One recent Sunday just before the recital, he told me my dad was playing "the best I've ever seen him. I keep waiting for him to reach his peak, but he hasn't yet."

    For a moment after my father sat down at the keyboard to play, he simply stared down at his fingers, and I wondered whether he would even begin.

He's forgotten the notes, I worried, remembering those split seconds decades ago when my mind would go blank and my fingers would freeze.

    But then the sure, poignant strains of Aram Khachaturian's "Melody" emerged, from the same large finger that once baited my fishing lines, and I realized he had been doing what music teachers always tell their novitiates to do: focus on the music and pretend the rest of us aren't there.

    My dad made it through "Melody" and then through another one. What he lacked in precision, he more than made up for in feeling. He rose, turned to his audience and curtsied, making us laugh with relief and affection.

    Also in the audience was my 11-year-old son Jeff. My father has taught his grandson how to play hearts and compose music on the computer.

    "So what did you think about your granddad?" I asked Jeff later.

    "He was great," Jeff replied.

    "I'm proud of him for starting something new at his age," I said.

    My father may not have reached his peak musically, but as far as his grandson is concerned, he's at the top of the mountain.

    (370 words)

1. The narrator's father encouraged him to work hard at playing the piano because ________.( C )

(a) a good pianist could make big money

(b) the narrator had great talent for the piano

(c) he always regretted stopping playing music himself

(d) playing the piano was quite popular then

2. The narrator's father began to play the piano again ________.( A )

(a) the year when he retired

(b) three years after he retired

(c) when his son was a primary school student

(d) at the age of sixty

3. After the narrator's father sat down at the keyboard, ________.( B )

(a) he began to play immediately

(b) he paused for a moment

(c) he looked steadily at his fingers, trying to remember the melody

(d) he found that he had forgotten the notes

4. Which of the following is NOT included in the passage?  ( D )

(a) The narrator's father had made rapid progress.

(b) The narrator was proud of his father for his courage.

(c) The narrator's son thought his granddad was great.

(d) The narrator's father was not satisfied with himself.

5. The main idea of the passage is that ________.( D )

(a) it's never too old to learn something new

(b) the narrator dreaded the piano recital but his father did not

(c) the narrator's father had a good performance in his first recital

(d) the narrator's father set a good example for his son and grandson       

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Passage Two

     We are dancing in the living room. Just the two of us. I'm the one in the blue jeans and T-shirt, getting ready for work. He's the little guy in my arms, almost three, still in his gold pajamas with the feet on them. I had put on the tape to hear "Silver Thunderbird". A tribute to a car is all it is, sung with feeling.

    I'm dancing.

The little guy has his legs around my waist. He's soft and wiry at the same time, and he still smells like last night's sleep. We have the volume turned up high so we can feel the music.

    We swoop over the living room. I do the things I would never consider on a dance floor. We spin. We dip until my boy's hair all hangs down.

    If you know anything about almost-three-year-olds, you know they don't stay with one thing for long. It wouldn't surprise me if he suddenly slid from my arms and hopped away to play with his toy gas station.

    But he doesn't.

    Clinging to me like a little monkey, he nuzzles his face against my neck. It is one of those happenings between a parent and a child that gets inside you and brings you fully into the moment.

    After you've been at the dad game for a while, you know how rare such moments are. You can never predict them － and you will do almost anything to prolong them.

    The music carries us away as we whirl around the room.

    There are things about being a parent you know are coming. Sleepless nights. Getting to know your pharmacist on a first-name basis. Putting bandages on tiny hurts.

    But then there are moments like this that no one can prepare you for. Suddenly you are aware of something much stronger than you ever expected, something palpable between you and that little guy you helped bring into the world, and what he means to you and what you must mean to him.

    It's a flash of insight so strong it almost knocks you over, but you keep on dancing so the spell won't be broken.

    When the music stops, the little person on my chest leans back and looks up at me. He says, "Another song's coming on, Dad."

    We dance to it too.

    (387 words)

    6. How many people are dancing in the room?  ( A )

(a) Two

(b) Three

(c) Four

(d) Five

7. According to the passage, the little boy ________.( D )

(a) does not keep on doing one thing for long this time

(b) likes to play his toys instead of dancing

(c) is five years old

(d) likes dancing with Dad

8. Which of the following does the narrator actually enjoy?  ( D )

(a) Having sleepless nights worrying about his child.

(b) Sending his child to hospital when he is sick.

(c) Putting bandages on tiny hurts his child may have.

(d) Unexpected moments of great excitement for both himself and his child

9. According to the narrator, which of the following is NOT true?  ( A )

(a) Dancing with his son brings him paternal pleasure.

(b) At the magic moment, he understands that his son means everything to him.

(c) The magic moment is so rare that he will do anything to keep it longer.

(d) The moment is magic, for he is aware of something beyond his expectation.

10. The main idea of the passage is that ________.( A )

(a) there are unexpected moments a parent and his child share and enjoy very much

(b) the narrator enjoys a happy life since he has a child

(c) the narrator has a wonderful time dancing with his son

(d) life is hard but dancing with his son makes it a little easier

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Passage Three

    Two basic models of parental influence emerge from all this competition and variety, however. One, loosely based on Freudian ideas, has presented an image of the vulnerable child: children are sensitive beings, easily damaged not only by traumatic events and emotional stress, but also by overdoses of affection. The second model is that of the behaviorists, whose intellectual ancestors, the empiricist philosophers, described the child's mind as a tabula rasa, or blank slate. The behaviorist model of child-rearing is based on the view that the child is malleable, and parents are therefore cast in the role of Pygmalions who can shape their children however they wish. "Give me a dozen healthy infants, well-formed, and my own specified world to bring them up in," wrote J. B. Watson, the father of modern behaviorism, "and I'll guarantee to take any one at random and train him to be any type of specialist I might － doctor, lawyer, artist, merchant, chief, and yes, even beggar man and thief!"

    The image of the vulnerable child calls for gentle parents who are sensitive to their child's innermost thoughts and feelings in order to protect him from trauma. The image of the malleable child requires stern parents who coolly follow the dictates of their own explicit training procedures: only the early eradication of bad habits in eating, sleeping, crying, can fend off permanent maladjustments.

    (226 words)

11. According to the Freudian model of parental influence, a child is ________.( B )

(a) tough

(b) easily hurt

(c) well-behaved

(d) healthy

12. The word "malleable" in paragraph one means ________.( C )

(a) intelligent

(b) powerful

(c) adaptable

(d) specified

13. According to the behaviorist model of child-rearing, parents ________.( C )

(a) shouldn't give overdoses of affection

(b) should know that children are sensitive

(c) can train their children to be any type of people they like

(d) should be gentle to their children

14. The image of the malleable child needs parents who are ________.( D )

(a) tender

(b) sensitive

(c) moderate

(d) strict

15. A good title for the above passage is ________.( A )

(a) Two Models of Parenting

(b) Two Child Images

(c) The Role of Pygmalions

(d) J. B. Watson and His Modern Behaviorism                   

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