In the college-admissions wars, we parents are the true fighters. We’re pushing our kids to get good grades, take SAT preparatory courses and build resumes so they can get into the college of our first choice. I’ve twice been to the wars, and as I survey the battlefield, something different is happening. We see our kids’ college background as a prize demonstrating how well we’ve raised them. But we can’t acknowledge that our obsession(痴迷) is more about us than them. So we’ve created various justifications（辩解）that turn out to be half-truths, prejudices or myths. It actually doesn’t matter much whether Aaron and Nicole go to Stanford.
We have a full-developed panic; we worry that there won’t be enough prizes to go around. Fearful parents urge their children to apply to more schools than ever. What causes the hysteria(歇斯底里) is the belief that scarce elite（精英）degrees must be highly valuable. Their graduates must enjoy more success because they get a better education and develop better contacts. All seems right but mostly wrong. We haven’t found any convincing evidence that selectivity or prestige matters. Selective schools don’t systematically employ better instructional approaches than less selective schools. On two measures—professors’ feedback and the number of essay exams selective schools do slightly worse.
By some studies, selective schools do enhance（提高） their graduates’ lifetime earnings. The gain is reckoned at 2-4% for every 100-point increase in a school’s average SAT scores. But even this advantage is probably a statistical fluke(偶然). A well-known study examined students who got into highly selective schools and then went elsewhere. They earned just as much as graduates from higher-status schools.
Kids count more than their colleges. Getting into Yale may signify intelligence, talent and ambition. But it’s not the only indicator and, surprisingly, its significance is declining. The reason: so many similar people go elsewhere. Getting into college is not life’s only competition. In the next competition—the job market and graduate school—the results may change. Princeton economist Alan Krueger studied admissions to one top Ph.D. program. High scores on the GRE helped explain who got in; degrees of famous universities didn’t.
So, parents, take it easy（lighten up）. The stakes (利害关系) have been vastly exaggerated. Up to a point, we can rationalize our pushiness. America is a competitive society; our kids need to adjust to that. But too much pushiness can be destructive. The very ambition we impose on our children may get some into Harvard but may also set them up for disappointment. One study found that, other things being equal, graduates of highly selective schools experienced more job dissatisfaction. They may have been so conditioned to being on top that anything less disappoints.
1. Why does the author say that parents are the true fighters in the college-admissions wars?
A. They have the final say in which university their children are to attend.
B. They know best which universities are most suitable for their children.
C. They have to carry out intensive surveys of colleges before children make an application.
D. They care more about which college their children go to than the children themselves.
2. Why do parents urge their children to apply to more schools than ever?
A. They want to increase their children’s chances of entering a prestigious college.
B. They hope their children can enter a university that offers attractive scholarships.
C. Their children will have a wider choice of which college to go to.
D. Elite universities now enroll fewer student than they used to.
3. What does the author mean by “kids count more than their colleges” Line1, para.4?
A. Continuing education is more important to a person’s success.
B. A person’s happiness should be valued more than their education.
C. Kids’ actual abilities are more important than their college background.
D. What kids learn at college cannot keep up with job market requirements.
4. What does Krueger’s study tell us?
A. Getting into Ph.D. programs may be more competitive than getting into college.
B. Degrees of prestigious universities do not guarantee entry to graduate programs.
C. Graduates from prestigious universities do not care much about their GRE scores.
D. Connections built in prestigious universities may be kept long after graduation.
5. One possible result of pushing children into elite universities is that______
A. they earn less than their peers from other institutions
B. they turn out to be less competitive in the job market
C. they experience more job dissatisfaction after graduation
D. they overemphasize their qualifications in job application
My husband and children think they are very lucky that they are living and that it’s Christmas again. They can’t see that we live on a dirty street in a dirty house among people who aren’t much good. But Johnny and children can’t see this. What a pity it is that our neighbours have to make happiness out of all this dirt. I decided that my children must get out of this. The money that we’ve saved isn’t nearly enough.
The McGaritys have money but they are so proud. They look down upon the poor. The McGarity girl just yesterday stood out there in the street eating from a bag of candy(糖果)while a ring of hungry children watched her. I saw those children looking at her and crying in their hearts; and when she couldn’t eat any more she threw the rest down the sewer(下水道). Why, is it only because they have money ? There is more to happiness than money in the world, isn’t there?
Miss Jackson who teaches at the Settlement House isn’t rich, but she knows things. She understands people. Her eyes look straight into yours when she talks with you. She can read your mind. I’d like to see the children be like Miss Jackson when they grow up.
1. This passage mainly suggests that the writer _______.
A. is easy to get along with
B. is unhappy with the life they are living
C. is good at observing and understanding
D. is never pleased with her neigbours
2. What do you think of McGarity girl?
A. She is proud and hungry. B. She is selfish and cruel.
C. She is lonely and friendless. D. She is unhappy and misunderstood.
3. In this text, the writer tries to tell us that _______.
A. money is the key to everything
B. the more money you have, the less happy you’ll be
C. there is something more important than money
D. when talking to people we should look into their eyes
4. Pick out the one that does NOT describe the writer’s view on money.
A. Why, is it only because they have money?
B. There is more to happiness than money.
C. Miss Jackson isn’t rich, but she knows things.
D. The money we saved isn’t nearly enough.
Humans are social animals. They live in groups all over the world. As these groups of people live apart from other groups, over the years and centuries they develop their own habits and ideas, which form different cultures. One important particular side of every culture is how its people deal with time.
Time is not very important in non-industrial societies. The Nuer people of East Africa, for example, do not even have a word TIME that is in agreement with the abstract thing we call time. The daily lives of the people of such non-industrial societies are likely to be patterned around their physical needs and natural events rather than around a time schedule(时间表) based on the clock. They cook and eat when they are hungry and sleep when the sun goes down. They plant crops during the growing seasons and harvest them when the crops are ripe. They measure time not by a clock or calendar(日历), but by saying that an event takes place before or after some other events. Frequently such a society measures days in terms of “sleeps” or longer periods in terms of “moons”. Some cultures, such as the Eskimos of Greenland measure seasons according to the migration of certain animals.
Some cultures which do not have a written language or keep written records have developed interesting ways of “telling time”. For example, when several Australian aborigines want to plan an event for a future time, one of them places a stone on a cliff or in a tree. Each day the angle of the sun changes slightly. In a few days, the rays of the sun strike the stone in a certain way. When this happens, the people see that the agreed-upon time has arrived and the event can take place.
In contrast(成对比), exactly correct measurement of time is very important in modern, industrialized societies. This is because industrialized societies require the helpful efforts of many people in order to work. For a factory to work efficiently(well, quickly and without waste), for example, all of the workers must work at the same time. Therefore, they must know what time to start work in the morning and what time they may go home in the afternoon. Passengers must know the exact time that an airplane will arrive or depart. Students and teachers need to know when a class starts and ends. Stores must open on time in order to serve their customers. Complicated(复杂的) societies need clocks and calendars. Thus, we can see that if each person worked according to his or her own schedule, a complicated society could hardly work at all.
1. By saying “Humans are social animals”, the author means _______.
A. they live all over the world
B. they are different from other animals
C. they live in one place, district or country, considered as a whole
D. they are divided into many groups
2. Time is not very important in non-industrial societies. This is because people in those societies _______.
A. don’t have the word "time" in their languages
B. don’t get used to using clocks and other timepieces
C. don’t measure time in their daily-lives around an exact time schedule
D. don’t need to plan their daily lives around an exact time schedule
3. The Australian aborigines’ way of “telling time” is based on _______.
A. the change of the sun rays
B. the movement of the earth in relation to the sun
C. the position of the stone
D. the position of the tree or the cliff
4. Which of the following might be the best title for this passage?
A. Time and Culture
B. The Measurement of Time
C. Time Schedule and Daily Life
D. Clock, Calendar and Society
BRITAIN is a popular tourist place. But tours of the country have pros and cons.
GOOD NEWS
Free museums. No charge for outstanding collections of art and antiquities.
Pop music. Britain is the only country to rival(与…匹敌)the US on this score.
Black cabs. London taxi drivers know where they are going even if there are never enough of them at weekends or night.
Choice of food. Visitors can find everything from Ethiopian to Swedish restaurants.
Fashion. Not only do fashion junkies love deeply and respect highly brand names such as Vivienne Westwood, Alexander McQueen; street styles are justly loved, too.
BAD NEWS
Poor service. “It’s part of the image of the place. People can dine out on the rudeness they have experienced,” says Professor Tony Seaton, of Luton University’s International Tourism Research Center.
Poor public transport. Trains and buses are promised to defeat the keenest tourists, although the over crowded London tube is inexplicably(难以理解的) popular.
Lack of languages. Speaking slowly and clearly may not get many foreign visitors very far, even in the tourist traps(圈套).
Rain. Still in the number one complaint.
No air-conditioning. So that even splendidly hot summers become as unbearable as the downpours.
Overpriced hotels. The only European country with a higher rate of tax on hotel rooms is Denmark.
Licensing hours. Alcohol(酒) is in short supply after 11 pm even in “24-hour cities”.
1. What do tourists complain most?
A. Poor service. B. Poor public transport.
C. Rain. D. Overpriced hotels.
2. What do we learn about pop music in Britain and the US through this passage?
A. Pop music in Britain is better than that in the US.
B. Pop music in Britain is as good as that in the US.
C. Pop music in Britain is worse than that in the US.
D. Pop music in Britain is quite different from that in the US.
3. When is alcohol not able to get?
A. At 9: 00 pm B. At 10: 00 pm C. At 11: 00 pm D. At 12: 00 pm
4. Which of the following is true according to the passage?
A. You have to pay to visit the museums.
B. It’s very cheap to travel by taxi there.
C. You cannot find Chinese food there.
D. The public transport is poor there.
Americans think that travel is good for you, some even think it can help one of the country’s worst problems — crime. Crime worries a lot of people. Every year, the number of crimes goes up and up. And many criminals(罪犯) are young. They often come from sad homes, with only one parent or no parents at all.
There are many young criminals in prison. But prison doesn’t change them. Six or seven in ten will go back to crime when they come out of prison. One man, Bob Burton, thought of a new idea. In the old days, young men had to live a difficult life on the road. They learned to be strong and brave, and to help their friends in time of danger. This helped them to grow into men. So Bob Burton started “Vision Quest”. He takes young criminals on a long, long journey with horses and wagons, 3 000 miles through seven states. They are on the road for more than a year.
The young people on Vision Quest all have had problems. Most of them have already spent time in prison. This is their last chance. It’s hard work on the road. The day starts before the sun comes up. The boys and girls have to feed the horses. Some of them have never loved anyone before. But they can love their horses. That love can help them to a new life.
Not all the young people on Vision Quest will leave crime behind them. Three or four in ten will one day be in prison again. Bob Burton is right. Travel can be good for you. Even today, Americans still say, “Go west, young man.”
1. In paragraph 4 “leave crime behind them” means _______.
A. no longer do a crime B. leave people who do a crime
C. don’t do all the crime D. leave criminals behind
2. From the passage we may infer that _______.
A. getting up before the sun rises can help people out of crime
B. loving can help young people to a new life
C. traveling can help all criminals out of prison
D. being brave and strong can do with crime
3. On “Vision Quest” _______.
A. young people have bad problems
B. young people grow tall very fast
C. young people often help their friends in time of danger
D. all of the above
4. Americans still say, “Go west, young man”, because _______.
A. if they go west they can have a travel
B. in the west there is a prison
C. there they have to live a hard life to grow into men
D. the prison doesn’t change them
Large companies need a way to reach the savings of the public at large. The same problem, on a smaller scale(小规模地), faces practically every company trying to develop new products and create new jobs. There can be little hope of raising the money needed from friends and people we know, and while banks may agree to provide short-term finance(资金), they are generally unwilling to provide money, for long-term projects. So companies turn to the public, inviting people to lend them money, or take a share(股份) in the business in exchange for a share in future interests. This they do by issuing(发行) stocks(股票) and shares in the business through the Stock Exchange. By doing so they can put into circulation(流通) the savings of single persons and institutions, both at home and abroad.
When the saver(储蓄者) needs his money back, he does not have to go to the company with whom he originally placed it. Instead he sells his shares through a stockbroker(证券经纪人) to some other saver who is seeking to invest his money.
Many of the services needed both by industry and by each of us are provided by the government or by local organizations. Without hospitals, roads, electricity, telephones and railways, this country could not work. All these require continuous spending on new equipment and new development if they are to serve us properly, requiring more money than it is raised through taxes alone. The government, local organizations and nationalized industries therefore frequently need to borrow money to finance(给…提供资金) major capital spending, and they, too, come to the Stock Exchange.
There is hardly a man or woman in this country whose standard of living does not depend on the ability of his or her employers to raise money to finance new development. In one way or another his new money must come from the savings of the country. The Stock Exchange exists to provide a channel through which these savings can reach those who need finance.
1. The money which enables these companies to go ahead with their projects is _______.
A. exchanged for part ownership in the Stock Exchange
B. raised by the selling of shares in the companies
C. repaid to its original owners as soon as possible
D. invested in different companies in the Stock Exchange
2. All the basic services on which we depend are _______.
A. unable to provide for the needs of the population
B. financed wholly by rates and taxes
C. in constant need of financial support
D. run by the government or local organizations
3. The Stock Exchange makes it possible for the government, local organizations and nationalized industries _______.
A. to make certain everybody saves money
B. to borrow as much money as they wish
C. to make certain everybody lends money to them
D. to raise money to finance new development
4. The underlined word invest probably means _______.
A. give more money with B. provide less money with
C. borrow less money with D. make more money with