Pupils are ordered not to wade into ankle-deep water unless teachers first carry out a full risk assessment and put“proper measures in place”.
Staff are expected to check rivers, ponds and the sea for currents and rocks before allowing children to dip their feet.
Guidance issued to schools warns that any“impromptu (事先无准备的) water-based activities”could pose dangers to children.
The recommendations were outlined in a document-available to all 21,000 schools in England — to help teachers organize more school trips. Advice from the Department for Children, Schools and Families is intended to cut red tape (官样文章) and give staff practical tips.
But the guidance caused argument after teachers were presented with a series of orders surrounding swimming and the use of minibuses.
It said:“Swimming and padding or otherwise entering the waters of river, canal, sea or lake should never be allowed as an impromptu activity. The pleas of young people to bathe — because it is hot weather, for example, should be resisted where bathing has not been prepared for.”
“In-water activities should take place only when a proper risk assessment has been completed and proper measures put in place to control the risks.”
Teachers are urged to check the weather, currents, weeds, rip tides, river or se
a beds and breakwaters before allowing children into the water. No child should be able to swim deeper than waist height, the guidance added.
Margaret Morrissey, from campaign group Parents Outloud, said:“Wading out into the ocean is one thing but there’s nothing wrong with padding where the waves break.”
“Part of children’s learning is to walk along the water’s edge and get your feet wet. There are dangerous currents further out and you stay at the edge.”
She added:“I want to see schools and youth groups taking advantage of opportunities that learning outside the classroom can provide.”
But the Department for Children, Schools and Families said teachers had to plan activities carefully.
“We are not banning padding,”said a spokeswoman.“We have seen cases in the past where things have not been planned and assessed for the risk. Unplanned activities around water can be dangerous.”
67．Guidance issued to schools in England gives the information that _________.
A．school trips to oceans are forbidde
n in the country
B．school swimming pools should be surrounded with fence
C．school staff must plan water-based activities carefully
D．school children shouldn’t have a walk along river banks
68．Advice from the Department for Children, Schools and Families shows us that _________.
A．they are strongly against the guidance
B．they are fond of the outlin
e of the guidance
C．they don’t understand the aim of the guidance
D．they want the guidance to become more useful
69．To the guidance, Margaret Morrissey holds the opinion that _________.
A．oceans are dangerous place for children to visit
B．young people should be encouraged to learn outside
C．children should learn padding in rough ocean alone
D．schools should stop students from walking along beaches
70．Which of the following can be the best title for this passage?
A．No padding on school trips, children told.
B．No walking along the rivers, teachers told.
C．No swimming after school, parents told.
D．No learning out of school, students told.
How could we tell time if there were no watches or clocks anywhere in the world?
The sun was probably the world’s first “clock”, except in the far north, where the Eskimos(爱斯基摩人) live. There it’s dark most of the winter, and light most of the summer. But in most of the world, people have used the sun for a clock. Even today if you don’t have a clock that shows time, you still know that when the sun shines, it’s day; and when it’s dark, it’s night. The sun can not only tell you whether it’s day or night but also it’s morning, noon, or afternoon. When the sun is almost directly overhead, it’s noon.
People who live near the sea can tell time from the tides. In the daytime, for about six hours, the water rises higher and higher on the beach. And then it goes down and down for another six hours. The same thing happens again at night. There are two high tides and two low tides every 24 hours.
Seamen on a ship learn how to tell time by looking at the moon and the stars .The whole sky is their clock.
In some places in the world the wind comes up at about the same time every day or changes direction or stops blowing. In these places, the wind can be the clock.
A sand clock is an even better clock. If you had fine dry sand in a glass shaped like the one in the picture above, you would have what is called an hourglass. The sand in the hourglass goes from the top part to the bottom part in exactly one hour. When the hourglass it turned over, the sand will take another hour to go back again.The Eskimos in the far north can’t use the sun for a clock because ______.
| A．they know very little about the sun |
| B．the sun there never goes down in winter. |
| C．it’s too cold for them to go out to watch the sun |
| D．there are long dark winters and long light summers in the far north |
The underlined word “tides” in paragraph 3 means ___________.
| A．ocean current |
| B．storm |
| C．a regular rise and fall of the sea |
| D．wave |
In which part of the newspaper can you probably read this passage?
| A．News | B．Science |
| C．Business | D．Advertisement |
What’s the best title for the passage?
| A．Different Ways to Tell Time |
| B．Useful Machine to Tell Time |
| C．The History of the Clock |
| D．The Development of the Clock |
How many ways are mentioned in the passage to tell time?
| A．Five | B．Four | C．Six | D．Three |
How long has 3-D technology been around? Most of us might think of crowds of teenagers in a 1950’s movie house watching Bwana Devil in 3-D. But 3-D technology made its first appearance on the scene in 1838 with the first stereoscope(体视镜). And the first actual 3-D movie was a 1903 film called Le Ariveed’un Train.
Although it has such a long history, the technology has still remained based on one simple principle-----to make 3-D effects you must find a way to project two slightly different pictures to each eye. Modern 3-D technology works by rapidly flickering(闪动) two versions of the movie and projecting them onto each eye. The brain does the rest of the work, combining the two pictures together into one and giving the show the appearance of depth, the third dimension.
But does this exposure, especially long exposures, cause harm to the child’s developing brain and visual system? Unfortunately, long-term studies on new flicker digital 3-D technology and children aren’t yet available. We do not know if regular or daily 3-D viewing over years affects the developing visual system, although older 3-D methods basically do the same thing and are not considered harmful.
The question of possible harm in modern 3-D use in TV is really based on two facts: the amount of time children will now be watching 3-D TV each day and the sensitivity some children show in reaction to 3-D viewing. It is difficult to make actual lab studies of longer term 3-D viewing in children because of the possible harm of the experiment. Researchers will have to wait until 3-D TV technology is already in the marketplace for a number of years, then check heavy 3-D TV watchers and compare them with non-watchers.
With a 3-D television technology in the home, we will soon be able to answer the question of whether or not longer and more frequent periods of 3-D exposure cause more changes in the visual system. We may find that the bigger problem is the introduction of a new technology that leads to even more time spent on TV rather than playing outdoors.
| A．was refused by people when it first appeared. |
| B．will soon change the way we watch TV. |
| C．does no good to our visual system. |
| D．has a history of nearly 200 years. |
| A．how 3-D technology works. |
| B．why 3-D movies are popular |
| C．the history of 3-D technology. |
| D．the influence of 3-D technology. |
| A．To wait and see | B．To carry out lab studies |
| C．To stop making 3-D movies | D．To improve 3-D technology |
| A．ask children not to watch 3-D movies |
| B．discuss if 3-D viewing is harmful to children. |
| C．introduce the advantages of 3-D technology. |
| D．predict the development of 3-D technology. |
The nervous-looking young man had waited for a few moments outside the jeweler’s before he got enough courage to enter. He was warmly greeted by a young assistant. James felt a rush of blood to his face as he explained he would be bringing in his future wife to choose a birthday present.
The assistant listened carefully and told him he’d better buy a necklace. He wasn’t used to buying jewelry and was a little worried about overspending, because he was not very rich. After some discussion as to a reasonable price and the type, the assistant showed him dozens of necklaces and helped him to choose.
At last James chose one and left the shop promising to return at five o’clock. Half an hour later than planned, James did return to the shop with his future wife, Laura. The assistant acted as if she had never seen him before. When she was asked to show them some necklaces, she first brought out some inexpensive ones for them to choose, and then gave them the ones she had prepared. A choice was soon made and they went away satisfied. Later James would certainly come back to buy what he wanted when he got married.
| A．A Clever Assistant. | B．Buying a Birthday Present |
| C．How to Choose a Necklace | D．A Brave Young Man |
| A．spending too much |
| B．spending too much time |
| C．spending more time than he planned |
| D．spending too much money |
| A．4:30 | B．5:30 | C．5:00 | D．6:00 |
People fell in love with Elizabeth Taylor in 1944, when she starred in National Velve－the story of Velvet Brown, a young girl who wins first place in a famous horse race. At first, the producers of the movie told Taylor that she was too small to play the part of Velvet. However, they waited for her for a few months as she exercised and trained—and added three inches(英寸) to her height in four months! Her acting in National Velvet is still considered the best by a child actress.
Elizabeth Taylor was born in London in 1932. Her parents, both Americans, had moved there for business reasons. When World War II started, the Taylor moved to Beverly Hills, California, and there Elizabeth started acting in movies. After her success as a child star, Taylor had no trouble moving into adult(成人)roles and won twice for Best Actress: Butterfield 8(1960) and Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf ? (1966)
Taylor’ s fame(名声)and popularity gave her a lot of power with the movie industry, so she was able to demand very high pay for her movies. In 1963, she received $1 million for her part in Cleopatra—the highest pay received by any star up to that time.
Elizabeth Taylor is a legend (传奇人物) of our time. Like Velvet Brown in National Velvet, she has been lucky, she has beauty, fame and wealth. But she is also a hard worker. Taylor seldom acts in movies any more. Instead, she puts her time and efforts into her businesses, and into helping others —several years ago, she founded an organization that has raised more than $40 million for research and education.
| A．did not show much interest. | B．was too young. |
| C．did not play well enough. | D．was small in size. |
| A．popular all their lives |
| B．famous actresses |
| C．successful when very young |
| D．rich and kind-hearted |
| A．12 | B．28 | C．31 | D．34 |
| A．doing business and helping others |
| B．turning herself into a legend |
| C．collecting money for the poor |
| D．going about research and education work |
When I heard the piano, I walked to Mrs. Windsor’s house and waited outside as I always did. That meant she was working with another student, and I was not supposed to bother them by ringing the bell. I stood against the wall and daydreamed what I’d rather be doing. “Almost anything”, I sighed dejectedly. I had been tutored enough to read, understand, and even write some musical compositions, but I just didn’t have a gift for it. It didn’t come to me naturally. I thought back to happier times when I was writing stories and acting them out with my friends, cutting up old clothes to make dresses that performers wear in plays, and building scenery out of old things we found. But Mrs. Windsor had offered to give me the lessons for free, so I felt my duty to try.
The door opened and Wendy Barton came out. I walked in, sat down on the piano bench and began to sort through my sheet music.
“Hello,” I heard a voice behind me say softly. I turned around to see a little girl standing behind me, eating an apple. But before I could make any response, Mrs. Windsor walked into the room in her usual urgent manner and announced,“Jennifer, this is my niece, Pasha. Pasha, this is Jennifer. Pasha will be giving you your lesson today. I’m up to my ears in something else!” she then exited to the kitchen.
Pasha set her apple down on the side table and slid beside me on the piano bench.
“What piece do you like best?”she asked.
“What do you mean?” I asked. “They’re all the same to me. I don’t know.
“You mean you don’t have a favorite?”
“No, not really.”
Pasha looked at me, rather puzzled, then opened my sheet music to the beginning page and asked me to play. I arranged my fingers on the keys and studied the notes on the page for a moment. Then I frowned and concentrated to make the notes on the page match the finger movements. I have to admit I was a rather mechanical pianist.
After about a page or two, Pasha gently put her hand on top of mine as if to calm my fingers. There was a long pause. “What are you hearing in the music?” I looked at her rather strangely and admitted I didn’t know what she meant.
“Like a story. What story is being playing out within the music?”
“I guess I’ve never thought about it before. I don’t know.”
“Here, let me try and you listen,” Pasha advised.
She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, letting her fingers dance lightly over the keys. Then, she began to play. “See, it begins here beside some kind of river. Hear the water flowing beside you?”
Her fingers rose and fell gently on the keys.“Now the princess appears and she’s picking flowers from the water’s edge.”A carefree, happy piece of music filled the air in time to Pasha’s dancing fingers. “Oh, but she slips!”The music changed. “And our princess is being carried off by the fast-flowing stream. Quickly, the princess’s horse sees her plight (困境),” Pasha continued, and races to the river’s edge where he swims out to let her catch hold of him. They make it to the bank and she hugs her faithful horse and swears she will never again wear princess skirts that weigh her down. She will only wear jeans and T-shirt from now on.” Pasha finished with a big smile and then looked at me.
“Aren’t you the girl who tells the stories?” she asked.
“I guess. I do tell a lot of stories.”
“Oh, yes! All the kids talk about them. I’ve heard about you. Well, all you have to do is learn to hear the stories in the music. That’s all there is to it.”
“I’ve never thought it that way.”
“Let’s try another one, shall we?”Pasha smiled and together we played that afternoon, finding the stories in the music and learning that sometimes it takes a friend to pull you out of the river onto dry land again.The underlined word “dejectedly” in Paragraph 1 is closest in meaning to _______
| A．nervously | B．desperately |
| C．impatiently | D．unhappily |
Jennifer got lost in thought when she ________
| A．played the piano with Pasha for the first time |
| B．listened to Pasha tell her story about the princess |
| C．remembered happier times of writing stories and acting them out |
| D．discovered that Mrs. Windsor’s niece would be giving the piano lesson |
By describing herself as a mechanical pianist, the author showed ______
| A．she could remember the notes in a short time |
| B．she was playing the piano without thinking |
| C．Pasha was showing off her skills |
| D．it had been a long time since she played last time |
58. Which of the following can best describe Pasha?
| A．Creative | B．Naughty |
| C．Humorous | D．Brave |
Which of the following is the best title for the text?
| A．Never Give up | B．A Piano Lesson |
| C．Why I Hated Playing the Piano | D．A Friend for Ever |
This text would be probably found in ______
| A．a collection of stories about friendship and learning |
| B．a book of daily records about famous young musicians |
| C．a magazine series about the challenges of overcoming fears |
| D．a series of newspaper articles about musical instruments |