Weekend getaways and romantic dinners used to be sweet escapes from the daily working life. Nowadays, vacations are often interrupted by the ding of an instant message on a wireless laptop. That’s not news to modern workers, many of whom may just be getting back from a long winter break during which they worked more than in years past. One-fifth of Americans carry a laptop on vacation. Countless more carry cell phones, many of which can be used to check company e-mail.
And why not? With wireless coverage extending, staying connected is simple. Recently, JetBlue Airways announced a trial of free e-mail and instant messaging services for passengers on one of its aircraft. Other airlines are expected to follow suit. But there’s a hidden cost to companies: employee burnout. Using work cell phones and checking company e-mail at the poolside is not a vacation.
“If I were a manager, I would insist that my employees leave their cell phones at work during their vacation and not check their e-mail while away ,” said Dov Eden, an organizational psychologist. “In the long run, the employee will be better rested and better able to perform his or her job.”
A nine-year study of more than 12,000 middle-aged men at high risk of heart disease showed that participants who vacationed more had a lower risk of dying than the vacation-deprived(剥夺的). In a nationwide survey, nearly half of the 2,000 adults questioned said stress has increased in the past five years, with 75 percent ranking money and work as the leading causes of stress.
One way to beat work stress could be to work from home or another remote location. This alternative work arrangement is a win-win set-up. Telecommuting（远程办公）has an overall beneficial effect, because the arrangement provides employees with more control over how they do their work. Telecommuters reported more job satisfaction, less stress and improved work-family balance.
71. According to the first paragraph, Americans carry a cell phone or a laptop on vacation mainly to .
A. entertain themselves B. keep in touch with their family
C. check company emails D. tell their managers about their experiences
72. What does the underlined phrase “employee burnout” in Paragraph 2 mean?
A. Employees become very angry. B. Employees get extremely tired
C. Employees leave the company. D. Employees demand a pay rise.
73. We can learn from the last paragraph that .
A. companies have more control over telecommuters
B. telecommuting is good for both companies and employees
C. employees will work more slowly if they work at home
D. telecommuting can reduce the company’s stress
74. Which of the following is TRUE according to the passage?
A. In the past, people on vacation were seldom interrupted by work.
B. Dov Eden agrees with JetBlue Airways’ announcement.
C. Many airlines have been providing their passengers with instant service.
D. Most people are under stress because they have no vacation to relax.
75. What would be the best title for the passage?
A. How to spend your holidays B. The modern vacation: fully wired, totally ruined
C. Modern life with cell phones D. Telecommuting-----a win-win set-up
On the whole, it’s not something we parents shout about, but one in four of us does it. Hiring private tutors for our children is now widespread.
“It’s expensive, but worth it,” says Ashan Sabri, whose daughter Zarreen, is having tuition in biology and chemistry in preparation for A-levels this summer. “My husband and I tried to tutor her at home, but we found all our knowledge was out of date and we were only confusing Zarreen. We also tried a group revision course but all the children were sitting in a room for different kinds of exams. On the whole, we think one-to-one tuition works best.”
The real reason is: does tutoring do any good?
“It’s not the magic bullet,” says Professor Judith Ireson, author of a 2005 Institute of Education report on the subject. “It’s still up to the child to do the learning. If he or she isn’t interested, sending them to a private tutor won’t do any good. However, we did find that students who had private tuition in mathematics during the two years before GCSE achieved on average just under half a grade higher than students who did not have a tutor.”
In which case, surely it’s time to break open the champagne? Not necessarily, says Elaine Tyrrell, head of The Rowans School, Wimbledon, a preparation school which regularly gets children into the best private schools.
“While we recommend private tutoring for a few children whose first language isn’t English, we don’t encourage it for the others. With the level of education they get here, children really ought to be able to pass the entrance exams without any extra teaching. And our worry is that they might just get used to getting help from last-minute tutoring, but, once they actually get to that school, they won’t be able to cope.”
But Mylene Curtis, owner of Fleet Tutors, one of the biggest tutoring agencies in the country, holds a different view.
“In some respects, the hurdles children have to leap in order to get into these schools are set at a higher level than the reality,” says Curtis. “We often find that, once a child has got into a school, the standard of work isn’t as high as was feared. The trick is to do well enough in the exam to win a place.”What does Ashan Sabri think of the group revision course?
| A．It’s expensive but worthwhile because it works the best. |
| B．It confuses students because the knowledge taught in it is out of date. |
| C．It isn’t effective because it doesn’t focus on specific exams. |
| D．It is effective because it doesn’t focus on specific exams. |
What do the underlined words “magic bullet” in Paragraph 4 mean?
| A．Something that cannot help to solve problems at all. |
| B．Something that solves a difficult problem in an easy way. |
| C．Something that seems useful but has no use at all. |
| D．Something that encourages interest in study. |
According to Elaine Tyrrell, private tutoring is _______.
| A．effective in language learning but not for exams |
| B．effective for foreign students but not for local students |
| C．unnecessary in most cases and may harm the further study of students |
| D．unnecessary in secondary school but helpful to further study |
What can be inferred from the last two paragraphs?
| A．Fleet Tutors and the Rowans School are competitors. |
| B．Entrance exams to schools are too difficult for most students. |
| C．Further study isn’t as difficult as was first thought. |
| D．Private tuition is worth the financial investment. |
What attitude does the author hold towards home tutoring?
| A．Critical | B．Objective | C．Supportive | D．Uninterested |
When many of us take a vacation, more than anything, we seek to relax. We spend long, lazy days on a beach chair or in a hammock(吊床). But too often, we return home, tired.
It doesn’t have to be this way.
In fact active vacations are often the most relaxing of all. We don’t expect you to take up jogging(慢跑), or climbing. Rather, we ask the sedentary(久坐的) vacations among you to spend two to four hours a day doing things, such as walking in the city street, going to a zoo or biking along the ocean.
These kinds of activities aren’t just good for your physical health. They improve your mental health, even your spiritual health. Here are some fresh ideas to make your vacations as pleasurable as they are active and healthy.
A walk at dawn or dusk helps keep you young. Try to make this a daily habit of life when you’re away from home, and you will guarantee yourself both physical and spiritual refreshment.
Don’t allow yourself to spend all your time sitting in front of water. Whether it is the ocean, a swimming pool, or a tree-lined lake, make sure you get into the water for swimming or games, or even walking. Merely standing in waist-high water is a good workout, thanks to the action of the water. And you’ll feel so much more active!
Many of us spend a large chunk of our vacation on the road, either getting to and from our destinations, or using the car for sightseeing. But no matter how beautiful the scenery is, great, memorable vacations don’t happen in a car seat. Frequently get out and stretch, walk, picnic, shop, visit, and have fun. It’s important for your health and energy, and it makes traveling a lot more active and interesting The idea in the text is mainly to _______.
| A．suggest ways to make vacations relaxing |
| B．suggest places for relaxing vacations |
| C．explain the reasons for having vacations |
| D．explain the relationship between vacations and health |
Which of the following can be considered as a form of exercise?
| A．Sitting by a lake. | B．Standing in water. |
| C．Staying in a car. | D．Enjoying beautiful scenery. |
In the last paragraph, the author seems to advise us to _______.
| A．have vacations frequently | B．get out of the car frequently |
| C．go on vacations on foot | D．stay in a car seat |
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
| A．Airport Terminal Services | B．www. Workatats. com |
| C．865-524-9881 | D．tlgknoxvilletn@thelittlegym. com. |
As a driver in Local Delivery, John has to _______.
| A．work hard to earn money | B．have printing skills |
| C．have interest in the position | D．be offered paid training |
Mr Smith can find a job as a mechanic at _______.
| A．Washington DC Location. | B．Baltimore Location |
| C．a fast paced company | D．Dillard |
What is a must when one hopes to be a member of Dillard’s team?
| A．He must be able to work in the evening and on weekends. |
| B．He must have experience. |
| C．He must have a good knowledge of shoe fashion and sales. |
| D．He must like top brands of shoes. |
Is it time to kick Russia out of the BRICs （金砖四国）? If so, it may end up sounding like a famous ball-point pen maker-BIC. An argument is being made that Goldman Sach’s famous marketing device（策略）,the BRICs, should really be the BICs.
“Is Russia really worth the name BRICs?” asks Anders Aslund, senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, in an article for Foreigh Policy. Aslund, who is also co-author with Andrew Kuchins of “The Russian Balance Sheet”, thinks the Russia of Putin and Medvedev is just not worthy of inclusion alongside Brazil, India and China in the list of future economic powerhouses. He writes:
“The country’s economic performance has fallen to such a weak level that one must ask whether it has any say at all on the global economy, compared with the other members of its group. I have just returned from Moscow, which is always dull around this season. For the last seven years, Russia has taken very few measures to improve its economy. Instead, the state has been living on oil and gas. ”
Economically, Aslund has the numbers on his side. The International Monetary Fund figures that the Russian economy will fall by 6.7 percent in 2009, while China will grow 8.5 percent and India 5.4 percent. There is less of a case for Brazil, with a fall of 0.7 percent, but it is still doing
far better than Russia.
But the BRICs are not just about economy. As is mentioned above, it is a marketing device to encourage investors to focus on the big promising players. From an investment standpoint, it could be argued that Russia is leading the BRICs. Its stock（股票）market is up 128 percent this year while around 80 percent is for the other three.
At very least, however, Russia’s economic underperformance and stock market outperfoumance does suggest it is indeed one of the group. According to the passage, which country will enjoy the biggest increase in 2009?
| A．China. | B．Russia. | C．Brazil. | D．India. |
According to Aslund, Russia shouldn’t be a BRIC partly because_______.
| A．Russia’s economic performance is far worse than the other three |
| B．Russia’s leaders are not good at managing economy |
| C．Russia has taken effective measures to improve its economy |
| D．Russia will no longer attract investors from other countries |
From the passage we know that ________.
| A．Anders Aslund is working for the Russian government |
| B．Russia outperfoumed the other three countries in stock market |
| C．most people disagree Russia is included in BRICs |
| D．the BRICs would end up being the BICs sooner or later |
The author seems to ________.
| A．suggest it’s time to kick Russia out of the BRICs? |
| B．feel worried about the economy of the BRICs |
| C．think Russia is worth being one of the group |
| D．show disappointment to Russia’s economy |
Providing small classes for at least several grades starting in early primary school gives students the best chance to succeed in late grades, according to groundbreaking new research from a Michigan State University scholar.
The research by Spyros Konstantopoulos, a professor of education, is the first to examine the effects of class size over a period and for all levels of students. The study appears in the American Journal of Education.
He is also a member of a group for the Department of Education’s Instiute of Education Sciences that will give official advice on class size to the states. He said the advice will mirror his research: the best plan is to provide continuous small classes(13 to 17 students) for at least several years starting in kindergarten or first grade.
“For a logn time states thought they could just do it in kindergarten or first grade for one year and get the benefits,” He said. “I don’t believe that. I think you need at least a few years in a row where all students, and especially low-achievers, receive the treatment, and then you see the benefits later.”
His research used data from the Project Star study in Tennessee that analyzed the effects of class size on more than 11,000 students in primary and middle school. He found that students who had been in small classes from kindergarten through third grade had actually higher test scores in grades four through eight than students who been in larger classes early on.
Students from all achievement levels benefited from small classes, the research found. “But low-achievers benefited the most, which narrowed the achievement gap with high –achievers in science, reading and math, ” he said.
Although the study didn’t consider classroom practices, he said the reason for the narrowing gap is likely due to low-achieving students receiving more attention from teachers.
“This is especially important in poorer schools because teacher effectiveness matters more in schools with more disadvantaged and low-performing students, ” he said.The professor argues about ________ .
| A．the size of the class | B．the period of the class |
| C．the attention from teachers | D．the achievements of students |
The result of the research shows that _________.
| A．small classes for one year in early grade are enough |
| B．continuous small classes help students achieve more |
| C．it’s best to attend small classes in kindergarten |
| D．small classes do equal good to students of all levels |
What can we infer from the passage?
| A．High achievers will not benefit from small classes. |
| B．Continuous small classes have not been widely accepted. |
| C．Low-achievers should be separated from high-achievers. |
| D．Teachers’ attention matters less than classroom practices. |
The underlined word “This” in the last paragraph refers to _______.
| A．the gap between low and high achievers | B．continuous small classes |
| C．classroom practices in later grades | D．the Project Star Sturdy |