In communities north of Denver, residents are pitching in to help teachers and administrators as the Vrain school District tries to solve a $13.8 million budget shortage blamed on mismanagement. “We’re worried about our teachers and principals, and we really don’t want to lose them because of this,” one parent said. “If we can help ease their financial burden, we will.”
Teachers are grateful, but I know it may be years before the district is solvent (有综合能力的). They feel really good about the parent support, but they realize it’s impossible for them to solve this problem.
The 22,000-student district discovered the shortage last month. “It’s extraordinary. Nobody would have imagined something happening like this at this level,” said State Treasurer Mike Coffman.
Coffman and district officials last week agreed on a state emergency plan freeing up a $9.8 million loan that enabled the payroll (工资单) to be met for 2,700 teachers and staff in time for the holidays.
District officials also took $1.7 million from student-activity accounts of its 38 schools.
At Coffman’s request, the District Attorney has begun investigating the district’s finances. Coffman says he wants to know whether district officials hid the budget shortage until after the November election, when voters approved a $212 million bond issue for schools.
In Frederick, students’ parents are buying classroom supplies and offering to pay for groceries and utilities to keep first-year teachers and principals in their jobs.
Some $36,000 has been raised in donations from Safeway. A Chevrolet dealership donated $10,000 and forgave the district’s $10,750 bill for renting the driver educating cars. IBM contributed 4,500 packs of paper.
“We employ thousands of people in this community,” said Mitch Carson, a hospital chief executive, who helped raise funds. “We have children in the school, and we see how they could be affected.”
At Creek High School, three students started a website that displays newspaper articles, district information and an email forum. “Rumors about what’s happening to the district are moving at lighting speed,” said a student. “We wanted to know the truth, and spread that around instead.”
46. What has happened to the Vrain School District?
A. A huge financial problem has arisen.
B. Many schools there are mismanaged.
C. Lots of teachers in the district are planning to quit.
D. Many administrative personnel have been laid off.（A）
47. How did the residents in the Vrain School District respond to the budget shortage?
A. They felt somewhat helpless about it.
B. They accused those responsible for it.
C. They made their efforts to help solve it.
D. They demanded a thorough investigation.（C）
48. In the view of State Treasurer Mike Coffman, the educational budget shortage is ________.
A. unavoidable B. unbelievable C. insolvable D. invisible（B）
49. Why did Coffman request an investigation?
A. To see if the financial problem was covered up on purpose
B. To find out how serious the consequence of the case would be.
C. To make sure that the school principals were innocent.
D. To stop the voters approving the $212 million bond issue.（A）
50. Three high school students started a website in order to ________.
A. attract greater public attention to their needs
B. appeal to the public for contributions and donations
C. expose officials who neglected their duties
D. keep people properly informed of the crisis
In bringing up children, every parent watches eagerly the child’s acquisition(学会)of each new skill — the first spoken words, the first independent steps, or the beginning of reading and writing. It is common that parents hurry the child beyond his natural learning rate, but this can set up dangerous feelings of failure and states of worry in the child. This might happen at any stage. A baby might be forced to use a toilet too early, and a young child might be encouraged to learn to read before he knows the meaning of the words he reads. On the other hand, though, if a child is left alone too much, or without any learning opportunities, he loses his natural enthusiasm(热情) for life and his desire to find out new things for himself.
Parents vary greatly in their degree of strictness towards their children. Some may be especially strict in money matters; others are severe over time of coming home at night or punctuality(准时) for meals. In general, the controls imposed(强加的) represent the needs of the parents and the values of the community(社区) as much as the child’s own happiness.
As regards the development of moral standards （道德标准））in the growing child, consistency（连贯性） is very important in parental teaching. To forbid a thing one day and excuse it the next is no foundation for morality. Also, parents should realize that “example is better than precept”. If they are not sincere and do not practise what they preach(说教), their children may grow confused, and emotionally insecure when they grow old enough to think for themselves, and realize they have been to some extent fooled.
A sudden awareness of a marked difference between their parents’ principles and their morals can be a dangerous disappointment.
20．Eagerly watching the child’s acquisition of new skills_____.
A．should be avoided
B．is universal among parents
C．sets up dangerous states of worry in the child
D．will make him lose interest in learning new things
21．When children are learning new skills, parents should_____.
A．encourage them to read before they know the meaning of the words they read
B．not expect too much of them
C．achieve a balance between pushing them too hard and leaving them on their own
D．create as many learning opportunities as possible
22．The second paragraph mainly tells us that _____.
A．parents should be strict with their children
B．parental controls satisfy only the needs of the parents and the values of the community
C．parental restrictions vary, and are not always enforced for the benefit of the children alone
D．parents vary in their strictness towards their children according to the situation
23．The underlined word “precept” (in Paragraph 3) probably means “_____”.
A．idea B．punishment C．behavior D．instruction
24．In moral matters, parents should _____.
A．observe the rules themselves
B．be aware of the marked difference between adults and children
C．forbid things which have no foundation in morality
D．satisfy their children’s needs
Both warm-blooded and cold-blooded desert animals have ways to escape the desert heat. Warm- blooded desert animals, such as rats and mice, rest during the day, often staying in cool underground burrows. At night they search for food. Animals that are out during the day, such as cold-blooded lizards and snakes, are active only for short periods. As their body temperature rises, these reptiles（爬行动物） move into the shade in order to cool down. In the early evening, when the sun grows weaker, the reptiles become more active and begin their search for food again.
Getting enough water to survive is a major problem for all desert animals. Some desert animals, like desert birds, manage to find water holes. Other desert animals, such as the kangaroo rat and the related jerboa, get water only from the food that they eat. Because these animals eat mainly dry seeds, they must survive on a tiny amount of water.
Most deserts have only a small number of frogs and toads because these animals must be near water to survive. Yet even these creatures have adapted(适应) to desert conditions. When small amounts of water collect in temporary streams, the desert-living frogs and toads become active. After a rainfall, they lay their eggs. The eggs grow into tadpoles in a few days and into adults in just four weeks. When the puddles(水坑) dry up, the adult frogs or toads dig into the ground. Their metabolism(新陈代谢) slows, and they stay beneath the ground until the next rain, which may be as good as a year away. Until then, their bodily activities continue at a reduced rate.
The camel — often called the ship of the desert — is one of the most successful desert animals. Camels can go for long periods without water, but eventually they must drink. When water becomes available to them after a long drought, they may drink 95 liters of water or more. When water is not available, what helps camels survive the desert heat is the fat stored in their humps(驼峰). A camel’s hump contains about 12 kilograms of fat. Fat is rich in hydrogen. As the fat is digested, hydrogen from the fat combines with oxygen in the air that the camel breathes. The result is H2O, or water. Each kilogram of fat that a camel digests produces about a liter of water.
16．Desert animals are usually more active at night because _____.
A．it is cooler at night B．it is easier to find water
C．they like the dark D．they are less likely to be attacked at night
17．Which of the following desert animals can get water only from the food?
A．The camel. B．The kangaroo. C．The frog. D．The rat.
18．Which of the following is TRUE according to the passage?
A．All the desert animals rest during the day.
B．All the desert animals don’t rest during the day.
C．Cold-blooded desert animals are out most of the day.
D．None of the cold-blooded desert animals go out during the day.
19．The underlined word “burrows” in the first paragraph can be replaced by _____.
A．holes B．caves C．rooms D．openings
二、阅读理解
阅读下列短文，从每题所给的A、B、C和D项中，选出最佳选项，并在答题卡上将该项涂黑。
Not many years ago, a wealthy and rather strange old man named Johnson lived alone in a village in the south of England. He had made a lot of money in trading with foreign countries. When he was 75, he gave £12,000 to the village school to buy land and equipment for a children’s playground.
As a result of his kindness, many people came to visit him. Among them was a newspaperman. During their talk, Johnson remarked that he was 75 and expected to live to be 100, and the newspaperman asked him how he managed to be healthy at 75. Johnson had a sense of humor. He liked whisky and drank some each day. “I have an injection(注射)in my neck each evening”, he told the newspaperman, thinking of his evening glass of whisky.
The newspaperman did not understand what Johnson meant. In his newspaper he reported that Johnson was 75 and had a daily injection in his neck. Within a week Johnson received thousands of letters from all over Britain, asking him for the secret of his daily injection.
11．Johnson became a rich man through _____.
A．doing business B．making whisky C．cheating D．buying and selling land
12．The gift of money to the school suggests that Johnson ____.
A．had no children B．was a strange man
C．was very warm-hearted and fond of children D．wanted people to know how rich he was
13．Many people wrote to Johnson probably to find out ____.
A．what kind of whisky he drank
B．how to live alone
C．how to become wealthy
D．in which part of the neck he had an injection each day
14．When Johnson said he had an injection in his neck each evening, he really meant that ____
A．he liked drinking a glass of whisky in the evening
B．he needed an injection in the neck
C．a daily injecting in the evening would make him sleep well
D．there was something wrong with his neck
15．From the passage we can infer that Johnson would be very ____ after he read those people’s letters.
A．miserable B．glad C．surprised D．said
Heavy downpours last month in Rhode Island led to widespread flooding, causing millions of dollars in property damage and leaving thousands homeless. The flood waters also poured vast amounts of raw sewage(未经净化的污水) into the rivers and streams that flow into Narragansett Bay.
It sounds like the makings of an environmental nightmare. But in fact it’s just the opposite. To scientists’ delight. The sewage-loaded floodwaters have caused a well-timed growth of phytoplankton. The microscopic creatures that form the foundation of marine(海洋的) food chains. With more food available for fish. Clams and other sea creatures. The bay’s fisheries industry is expected to benefit.
In decades past. Narragansett Bay typically experienced a late winter early spring algal(海藻) bloom that fed creatures up and down the water column. But in recent years, the waters of Narragansen Bay warmed greatly, meriting this seasonal event.
Mark Berman, an oceanographer with the Nationa. Marine Fishertes Service. Said the flood seemed to have sent the bay back in its normal state.
However, local, mutate and federal officials in Rhode Island leave been batting other algal blooms that, by contrast, are causing widespread harm to the Narragansett Bay ecosystem. During summer months, sewage and agricultural runnel flows into the bay. Causing large blooms. But inseam of becoming food for sea creatures, much of the phytoplankton is consumed by bacteria, which grow last in the warmer waters. The rapid bacteria growth leads to hypoxia decrease of oxygen in the water that can cause large fish tools. One such die-off occurred in 2003. when millions of oxygen-starved fish washed up on the belches of Narragansett Bay.
The flood’s positive impact will probably be a one-time event, Mr Berman said. Mcanwhile efforts to curb the harmhl summer honors continue; in 2003. for instance, Providence completed a $359 million sewage tonal under the city designated to reduce the polluted storm overflow into Narragansett Bay.
71．Scientists believe that the row sewage flowing into the bay will .
A．pollute the island’s environ mean B．cause lots of property damage
C．increase the fisheries production D．destroy the food chains in the bay
72．The potential benefit of fisherics industry rclics on the .
A．warm temperatures of the bay. B．growth of phytoplankton
C．large summer alga blooms D．consumption of oxygen by beaters
73．People struggle against the summer blooms because they will .
A．pollute the local natural environment
B．increase the prcducmon of fishery industry
C．cause large fish kills of the bay indirectly
D．provide too much food ior sea creatures
74．It can be inferred that .
A．money spent on the summer blooms has been wasted
B．the government is inverting to promote the local fisheries
C．research of accanology should he encouraged
D．she raw sewage impacts are currently con radiator
75．The underlined word “carb” n the hast postage can be defined as “ ”.
A．control B．consume C．cause D．cure
An old problem is getting new attention in the United States—bullying. Recent cases included the tragic case of a fifteen-year-old girl whose family moved from Ireland. She hanged herself in Massachusetts in January following months of bullying. Her parents criticized her school for failing to protect her. Officials have brought criminal charges against several teenagers.
Judy Kuczynski is president of an anti-bullying group called Bully Police USA. Her daughter Tina was the victim of severe bullying starting in middle school in the state of Minnesota. Her said, "Our daughter was a very outgoing child. She was a bubbly personality, very involved in all kinds of things, had lots of friends. And over a period of time her grades fell completely. She started having health issues. She couldn't sleep. She wasn't eating. She had terrible stomach pains. She started clenching her jaw and grinding her teeth at night. Didn't want to go to school."
Bullying is defined as negative behavior repeated over time against the same person. It can involve physical violence. Or it can be verbal — for example, insults or threats. Spreading lies about someone or excluding a person from a group is known as social or relational bullying.
And now there is cyber bullying, which uses the Internet, e-mail or text messages. It has easy appeal for the bully because it does not involve face-to-face contact and it can be done at any time.
The first serious research studies into bullying were done in Norway in the late 1970s. The latest government study in the United States was released last year. It found that about one-third of students age twelve to eighteen were bullied at school.
Susan Sweater is a psychologist at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and co-director of the Bullying Research Network. She says schools should treat bullying as a mental health problem to get bullies and victims the help they need. She says bullying is connected to depression, anxiety and anti-social behavior, and bullies are often victims themselves.
66．From the case of Tina, we can know that .
A．bullying is rare B．victims suffered a lot
C．schools are to blame D．personalities are related
67．Which of the following is NOT bullying?
A．To beat someone repeatedly. B．To call someone names.
C．To isolate someone from friends. D．To refuse to help someone in need.
68．Why is cyber bullying appealing to the bully?
A．Because it can involve more people. B．Because it can create worse effects.
C．Because it is more convenient. D．Because it can avoid cheating.
69．According to Susan Sweater, .
A．bullies are anti-social B．bullies should give victims help
C．students are not requally treated D．bullies themselves also need help
70．Which of the following can be the best title of the text?
A．Bullying—Old Irish Girl Committed Suicide
B．15-Year-Old Irish Girl Committed Suicide
C．Cyberbullying-Taking Off in Schools
D．How to Find Bullying among Teens