The Making of a Success Story 　　

    1 IKEA is the world"s largest furniture retailer, and the man behind it is Ingvar Kamprad, one of the world"s most successful entrepreneurs. Born in Swedenin 1926, Kamprad was a natural businessman. As a child, he enjoyed selling things and made small profits from selling matches, seeds, and pencils in his community. When Kamprad was 17, his father gave him some money as a reward for his good grades. Naturally he used it to start up a business一IKEA.

    2 IKEA"s name comes from Kamprad"s initials (I.K.) and the place where he grew up ("E" and "A"). Today IKEA is known for its modern, minimalist furniture¹, but it was not a furniture company in the beginning. Rather, IKEA sold all kinds of miscellaneous goods. Kamprad"s wares included anything that he could sell for profits at discounted prices², including watches, pens and stockings.

    3 IKEA first began to sell furniture through a mail-order catalogue in 1947. The furniture was all designed and made by manufacturers near Kamprad"s home. Initial sales were very encouraging, so Kamprad expanded the product line. Furniture was such a successful aspect of the business that IKEA became solely a furniture company in 1951.

    4 In 1953 IKEA opened its first showroom inAlmhult,Sweden. IKEA is known today for its spacious stores with furniture iti attractive settings, but in the early 1950s, people ordered from catalogues. Thus response to the first showroom was overwhelmiig: people loved being able to see and try the furniture before buying it. This led to increased sales and the company continued to thrive. By 1955, IKEA was designing all its own furniture.

    5 In 1956 Kamprad saw a man disassembling a table to make it easier to transport. Kamprad was inspired. The man had given him a great idea: flat packaging³. Flat packaging would mean lower shipping costs for IKEA and lower prices for customers. IKEA tried it and sales soared. The problem was that people had to assemble furniture themselves, but over time, even this grew into an advantage for IKEA. Nowadays, IKEA is often seen as having connotations of self-sufficiency. This image has done wonders for the company, leading to better sales and continued expansion.

    6 Today there are over 200 stores in 32 countries. Amazingly, Ingvar Kamprad has managed to keep IKEA a privately-held company. In 2004 he was named the world"s richest man. He currently lives inSwitzerlandand is retied from the day-to-day operations of IKEA. IKEA itself, though, just keeps on growing. 　　

词汇： 　　

entrepreneur /,entrəprə"nə:/ n.企业家 　　

ware /weə/ n.货物 　　

minimalist /"miniməlist / adj.最简单的 　　

self-sufficiency /"self-sə"fiʃənsi/ n.自足 　

注释： 　　

1. minimalist furniture：风格简约的家具 　　

2. discounted prices：折扣价 　　

3. flat packaging：平板包装 　

A.  IKEA began as a small store selling all kinds of cheap things.
B.  it is highly welcomed by both
C.  Ingvar Kamprad showed interest in and talent for doing business.
D.  he lives happily in retirement
E.  here they can see and try the furniture they are going to buy.
F. Ingvar successfully manages the company all by himself

Even when he was only a child, _________.

A:A B:B C:C D:D E:E F:F

Intelligence: a Changed View

    1.Intelligence was believed to be a fixed entity, some faculty of the mind that we all possess and which determines in some way the extent of our achievements. Its value therefore, was as a predictor of children"s future learning. If they differed markedly in their ability to learn complex tasks, then it was clearly necessary to educate them differently and the need for different types of school and even different ability groups within school was obvious. Intelligence tests could be used for streaming children according to ability at an early age; and at 11 these tests were superior to measures of attainment for selecting children for different types of secondary education.

    2.Today, we are beginning to think differently. In the last few years, research has thrown doubt on the view that innate intelligence can ever be measured and on the very nature of intelligence itself¹. There is considerable evidence now which shows the great influence of environment both on achievement and intelligence. Children with poor home backgrounds not only do less well in their school work and intelligence tests but their performance tends to deteriorate gradually compared with that of their more fortunate classmates.

    3.There are evidences that support the view that we have to distinguish between genetic intelligence and observed intelligence.²  Any deficiency in the appropriate genes will restrict development no matter how stimulating the environment. We cannot observe and measure innate intelligence, whereas we can observe and measure the effects of the interaction of whatever is inherited with whatever stimulation has been received from the environment.³ Researches have been investigating what happens in this interaction.

    4.Two major findings have emerged from these researches. Firstly, the greater part of the development of observed intelligence occurs in the earliest years of life. It is estimated that 50 per cent of measurable intelligence at age 17 is already predictable by the age of four. Secondly, the most important factors in the environment are language and psychological aspects of the parent-child relationship. Much of the difference in measured intelligence between "privileged" and "disadvantaged" children⁴ may be due to the latter"s lack of appropriate verbal stimulation and the poverty of their perceptual experiences.⁵

    5.These research findings have led to a revision in our understanding of the nature of intelligence. Instead of it being some largely inherited fixed power of the mind, we now see it as a set of developed skills with which a person copes with any environment. These skills have to be learned and, indeed, one of them is learning how to learn.

    6.The modern ideas concerning the nature of intelligence are bound to have some effect on our school system. In one respect a change is already occurring. With the move toward comprehensive education and the development of unstrained classes⁶, fewer children will be given the label "low IQ⁷"" which must inevitably condemn a child in his own, if not society"s eyes.⁸ The idea that we can teach children to be intelligent in the same way that we can teach them reading or arithmetic is accepted by more and more people.

词汇：

entity /"entiti/ n．存在，实体

innate /i"neit/ adj．内在的

stream /stri:m/v．（根据能力把学生）分组

interaction /,intər"ækʃ(ə)n/ n．相互作用

stimulation / stimju"leiʃ(ə)n/ n．激发，促进

注释：

1.…research has thrown doubt on the view that innate inteffigence can ever be measured and on the very nature of intelligence itself. ……科学研究对内在智力可以衡量这一观点以及智力的实质本身都表示怀疑。

2.... distinguish between genetic intelligence and observed intelligence．区别基因智力和习得智力。

3.…the interaction of whatever is inherited with whatever stimulation has been received from the environment. ……遗传所得和从环境所得到的激发两者之间的相互作用。这里的两个whatever都相当于what，都引导了名词性从句，分别作介词of和with的宾语。

4."privileged" and "disadvantaged" children:“有优势的”和“没有优势的”孩子。privileged原来的解释是“有特权的”,disadvantaged是“不利的”，实际上它们分别用于指家境富裕的和家境贫困的，尤其是黑人家庭的孩子。

5.…lack of appropriate verbal stimulation and the"poverty of their perceptual experiences. ……缺乏必要的语言刺激以及感性经历贫乏。

6.comprehensive education and the development of unstreamed classes：综合教育以及混合编班的做法。comprehensive education指具有不同能力的学生同在一校的综合的教育制度，和后面的development of unstreamed classes是一脉相承的。

7.IQ：智商。IQ是Intelligence Quotient的首字母缩写。

B have a better chance to develop his intelligence

C taught to be more intelligent

D that intelligence was something a baby was born with

E and because of the lack of communication with his classmates

It can be inferred from the passage that a child will_________if he has more opportunities to communicate with others by means of language.

A:A B:B C:C D:D E:E F:F

Peter prefers to stay at home ______ out to a gathering.

A:rather than going B:rather than go C:rather than to go D:rather than goes

Which of the following situations will cause the death of a child.'

A:The child clears its body of bacteria. B:The body loses liquids without any control. C:The child has diarrhea in a developing country. D:The body controls its fluid levels.

{{B}}第二篇{{/B}}

A:He is better than his wife at taking care of children. B:A child prefers to stay with his/her father. C:A man can take good care of children if he gets the experience. D:A child prefers to stay with his/her mother.

第二篇　 Mother Knows Best？ 　　Once while being prepped （准备） for a television interview， I was chatting with the host about stay-at-home fathers. I made the point that one reason we’re seeing more stay-at-home dads may be that it’s no longer a given （假定的事实） that a man makes more money than his wife. Many families now take earning power into account when deciding which parent will stay home. 　　At that point, one of the male crew members commented, almost to himself but loud enough for my benefit, "It should be the better parent who stays home." A lot of guys say things like that. Usually it’s a code for, "My wife, (read: any woman) is the better parent." 　　I was a stay-at-home father for eight years， so his declaration made me bristle （激动）。 It implied that our family’s choice could only have been correct if I was a "better" parent than my wife. 　　I suppose an argument could have been made that when I began staying home my wife was the "better" parent: She I-Dad spent more time with Ry, could read him better and calm him more quickly. And given a choice, he’d have picked her over me. But as she was the more employable one, my wife went out to work and I looked after our son. 　　Because of the increased time I spent with him， I soon knew Ry well， understood what he needed and could look after him more or less as well as my wife could. Actually， the experience helped me unlock one of the world’s great secrets： Women are good at looking after children because they do it. It’s not because of any innate （先天的） female aptitude （天资） or a mother’s instinct. It’s because they put in the time and attention required to become good at the job. 　　Women obviously get a biological head start from giving birth and nursing, but over the long term experience is more important. When I got the experience myself, I was good, too. As good? I don’t know. Who cares? Children are not made of glass. Other people are capable of looking after them besides Morn. What does the author conclude?

A:He is better than his wife at taking care of children. B:A child prefers to stay with his/her father. C:A man can take good care of children if he gets the experience D:A child prefers to stay with his/her mother.