Name: Class/Student number:

Dear all XI graders,

Here are some reading passages to do at home. Write your answers on the spaces provided in each numbers and send me back via email. This is my email address . Thank you very much.

Answer the questions according to the reading passages.

Nature vs Nurture

People have wondered for a long time how their personalities and behaviors are formed. Two distinct schools of thought on the matter have developed. The two approaches are very different from one another. The controversy is often referred to as nature and nurture. Those who support the nature side of the conflict believe that our personalities and behavior patterns are largely determined by biological and genetic factors. That our environment has little to do with our abilities, characteristics, and behavior is central to this theory. Proponents of the nurture theory claim that our environment is more important than our biologically based instinct in determining how we will act. They see humans as beings whose behavior is almost completely shaped by their surroundings. Neither of these theories can yet fully explain human behavior. In fact, it is quite likely that the key to our behavior lies somewhere between these two extremes. That the controversy will continue for a long time is certain.

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  1. One can understand from the passage that supporters of the nature theory believe that ----.

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  1. What did the writer want to convey in the passage?

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  1. The nurture theory stated that …

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How to Discipline Children's Behavior

A book has just been published to help parents to deal with their children's naughty behavior at home. The author, Dr James Bruno, says that the first positive discipline technique is for parents to remain calm because nervous parents don't get good results. Parents who cannot often remain calm find that their children stop taking any notice of them. The second challenge is to know how to correct bad behavior in an effective way. For instance, punishing children by preventing them from watching their favorite TV program is not an ideal solution. Dr Bruno believes parents should establish clear rules for children to follow. If children refuse to follow these, they know they will be disciplined. Finally, the most effective way of encouraging good behavior is to give positive feedback as often as possible, to show that it is not only naughtiness that attracts attention.Top of Form

  1. According to the article, when parents get angry too often, ----.

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  1. What does the writer suggest parents to discipline the children?

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  1. What can we conclude from the text?

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Panda Bear

Panda is the name for two nocturnal Asian mammals: the red panda and the giant panda. The red panda, also known as lesser panda and cat bear, is found at high elevations in the Himalayas. It resembles a raccoon but has a longer body and tail and a more rounded head. Its thick fur is rust color to deep chestnut, with black on the under parts, limbs, and ears. The red panda spends much of its time in trees but feeds on the ground, eating primarily bamboo leaves but also fruit and roots. The giant panda superficially resembles a bear. The body is chiefly white, and the limbs are brownish black, with the dark color extending up over the shoulder. The ears and eye patches are black. Giant pandas live in restricted areas of the high mountain bamboo forests of central China; their diet consists entirely of bamboo shoots. Rare in the wild, they produce young poorly when they are not in their natural environment. Giant pandas are protected by law in China.Top of Form

  1. Where is the habitat of the red panda?

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  1. Why does the government enforce the protection of giant panda?

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  1. How is the characteristic of a giant panda?

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Sukarno the Great Leader

He was that rare figure: a natural-born leader, tailored for greatness. When he was but a child his mother had whispered to him, "My son, you are a child of the dawn. You will be a man of glory, a great leader of your people." Sukarno never forgot those words. Liberating his land from 350 years of colonial rule, he molded many disparate peoples into a nation that became the fifth most populous in the world, one of the richest of all in natural resources. He gave his people a language of their own, raised their literacy rate from six to above 55 percent, gave them an intense from pride in being Indonesians. He had monumental talents: an oratorical gift that could sway and charm, an abundance of that indefinable mystique called "charisma." Responding, his people gave him loyalty beyond love, reverence approaching god-worship.

Top of Form

10. Sukarno is a man who ----.
A) is endowed with leadership
B) used to design clothes when he was a child
C) had a natural-born great mother
D) caused people to be rebellious against the government
E) tried to speak a figurative language

11. It's stated in the passage that Sukarno ----.
A) is the only child of his parents
B) couldn't liberate his land from colonial rule
C) built a nation out of separate communities
D) opposed giving his public their own language
E) became the fifth most popular leader in the world

12. After having freed his land from colonial rule, Sukarno ----.
A) suddenly built a monument dedicated to himself
B) caused his people to be ashamed of themselves
C) increased the population of Indonesia
D) became a governor of Indonesia

E) increased the level of literacy of his people

Traffic Accidents

Much of the blood on the street flows essentially from uncivil behavior of drivers who refuse to respect the legal and moral rights of others. So the massacre on the road may be regarded as a social problem. Safety standards for vehicle have been raised both at the point of manufacture and through periodic road-worthiness inspections. In addition, speed limits have been lowered. Due to these measures, the accident rate has decreased. But the accident experts still worry because there has been little or no improvement in the way drivers behave.Top of Form

13. According to the passage, what is the cause of traffic accident nowadays?

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  1. According to the passage, the number of accidents has fallen because ----.

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  1. Why do the experts worry about the accident rate?

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TV Effects on Children

A recent opinion poll discovered that many people were very concerned about the amount of sex and violence depicted in movies, television shows, and popular music. This poll also discovered, however, that most people thought that individuals should take responsibility to correct the problems. The vast majority favored such solutions as tighter parental supervision, warning labels on records, and voluntary self-restraints by entertainment companies. Only 27 per cent favored government censorship. At the same time, there was growing concern about the impact of television on children. Research has shown that by the time our children reach age 18, they have spent more time watching television than in school. The problem was that our television system was attuned to the marketplace. Children are treated as a market to be sold to advertisers at so much money per thousand eyeballs.Top of Form

  1. According to the reading, how can parents prevent their children from the bad effects of television?

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  1. What did the result of the poll?

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  1. We can conclude from the text that …

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Homeless People

The sad situation of the homeless remains a problem. It is difficult to estimate how many people are homeless because the number depends on how the homeless are defined. There are street people - those who sleep in bus stations, parks, and other areas. Many of these people are youthful runaways. There are the so-called sheltered homeless - those who sleep in government supported or privately funded shelters. Many of these individuals used to live with their families or friends. While street people are almost always single, the sheltered homeless include numerous families with children. Conservatives argue that many homeless are alcoholics, drug users, or mentally ill. In contrast, many liberals argue that homelessness is caused by a reduction in welfare benefits and by excessively priced housing. They want more shelters to be built for the homeless.Top of Form

  1. We know from the reading that the number of homeless people … .

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  1. What is the contrastive opinion between the liberals and conservatives?

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  1. What is a sheltered homeless?

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One of the major processes that takes place in schools, of course, is that students learn. When they graduate from high school, many can use a computer, write essays with three-part theses, and differentiate equations. In addition to learning specific skills, they learn to think critically, to weigh evidence and to develop independent judgment. The extent to which this development takes place is related to both school and home environments. Teachers who are more open to new ideas and less authoritarian produce students who have greater intellectual flexibility and higher achievement test scores. Studies show that teachers are most demanding when they are of the same social class as their students. The greater the difference between their own social class and that of their pupils, the more rigidly they structure their classrooms and the fewer demands they place on their students.

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  1. It is stated in the passage that teachers who are more open to new ideas ---

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  1. We learn from the reading that when students graduate from high school ---

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  1. What is the topic of the text?

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What is Tic?

A tic is a repeated, impulsive action, reflexive in nature, which the actor feels powerless to control or avoid. Only when the individual performs the tic, is tension and anxiety released within the individual with a tic disorder. Tics can be triggered by an emotional state or sensation, or can happen for no obvious reason. General types of tics include verbal tics, facial tics, and other muscular tics. Physical and psychological therapy and medication can cause tics to go away, often permanently. Muscular tics look something like twitches or quick grimaces, and often affect the eyes and hands. Muscular tics can affect multiple muscles at once. Some forms of stuttering are caused by muscular tics in the throat, tongue, or vocal cords when speaking or preparing to speak.

Top of Form

  1. According to the reading, tics are----.

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  1. Find the synonym of the words from the text above.
    a. influence:
  1. Incapable:
  2. Syndrome:
  3. Several:
  4. Spontaneous:
  1. We can conclude from the text that …

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