Directions: Read the following four texts. Answer the questions below each text by choosing A, B, C or D. Mark your answers on the ANSWER SHEET.

Text 1

Play is the principal business of childhood, and more and more in recent years research has shown the vital importance of play in the development of a human being. From earliest infancy, every child needs adequate opportunity and the right material for play, and the main tools of play are toys. Their main function is to suggest, encourage and assist play. To succeed in this they must be good toys, therefore it is important to choose suitable toys for different stages of a child’s development.

In recent years research on infant development has shown the standard a child is likely to reach, within the range of his inherited abilities is largely determined in the first three years of his life. Therefore a baby’s ability to profit from the right play materials should be things to touch, things to listen to: things to watch. At no time in his life will a child develop as fast as now: in the first two years each month brings a change in what he can do and what he needs. A baby who is encouraged and stimulated, talked to, and shown things and played with, has the best chance of growing up successfully. There is no doubt that the right play materials and opportunities are of the utmost importance.

The next stage, from three to five years old, is the heyday (全盛期) for toys, and at this stage curiosity knows no bounds. Every type of suitable toy should be made available to the child; bricks and jigsaws (拼板玩具) and construction toys; painting and making things; sand and water play; toys for imaginative and pretending play. Children of this age are concerned and serious when they play for to them play is a serious business, and through it they are learning about the world and growing up.

By the third stage of play development—from five to seven or eight years—the child is at school. But for a few more years play is still the best way of learning, at home or at school. The right toy at this stage can sometimes lead to the choice of a career.

Until the age of seven or eight, play and work mean much the same thing to a child. But once reading has been mastered, then books and school become the main source of learning. Toys are still interesting and valuable, but their significance has changed—to a child of nine or ten years, toys and games mean as to adults, relaxation and fun.