In 1999, twelve percent of public elementary schools in the United States required students to wear uniforms. Just three years later, the amount was almost double that.
A study of six big-city Ohio public schools showed students who were required to wear uniforms had improved graduation, behavior and attendance rates. Academic performance was unchanged.
Some high schools in Texas have also joined in the movement. Yet studies find mixed results from requiring uniforms. And some schools have turned away from such policies.
Supporters believe dressing the same creates a better learning environment and safer schools. The school district in Long Beach, California, was the first in the country to require uniforms in all elementary and middle schools. The example helped build national interest in uniforms as a way to deal with school violence and improve learning.
Findings in Long Beach suggested that the policy resulted in fewer behavior problems and better attendance. But researcher Viktoria, who has looked at those findings, says they were based only on opinions about the effects of uniforms.
She says other steps taken at the same time to improve schools in Long Beach and statewide could have influenced the findings. The district (the area marked by government) increased punishments for misbehavior. And California passed a law to reduce class sizes.
In Florida, for example, researcher Sharon found that uniforms seemed to improve behavior and reduce violence. In Texas, Eloise found fewer discipline problems among students required to wear uniforms, but no effect on attendance.
Sociologist David has studied school uniform policies since1998．He collected the reports in the book. In his own study, he found that reading and mathematics performance dropped after a school in Pennsylvania(宾夕法尼亚州) required uniforms.
Political and community pressures may persuade schools to go to uniforms to improve learning. But David and others believe there is not enough evidence of a direct relationship. In fact, he says requiring uniforms may even increase discipline problems. Which of the following researchers are NOT supporters of school uniform policies?
| A．Viktoria and Sharon. | B．Sharon and David. |
| C．Eloise and Sharon. | D．Viktoria and David. |
The underlined word“misbehavior”in the sixth paragraph probably means ________.
| A．serious crime | B．bad performance |
| C．absence for class | D．action against wearing uniforms |
What can we infer from the passage?
| A．More work is needed to get better information about uniform’s effect. |
| B．The number of schools requiring uniforms in the U.S. will become less sharply. |
| C．Wearing uniforms has little to do with behavior and learning. |
| D．Politicians and communities won’t vote for uniform policies. |
What’s the main idea of this passage?
| A．More and more students are required to wear uniforms in the U.S. |
| B．Wearing uniforms contributes to good academic performance. |
| C．Researchers in the U.S. argue for school uniform policies. |
| D．Evidence for school uniform polices in the U.S. is seen as weak. |
Last year, Jack Bleed cut through the bone of his ring finger while working. The 31-year-old resident of North Little Rock, Arkansas, waited for about six hours at a nearby medical center while the medical staff there called all over town — even as far away as Dallas and Memphis — to find a hand surgeon to reattach his finger. Finally, a willing doctor was located in Louisville, Kentucky. But even though Bleed had insurance (保险), he would have to hire a private plane to get himself there, at a cost of $4,300. In the end, he charged the cost to two credit cards, and his finger was saved. His insurance company eventually covered the cost of the plane, but his experience makes people aware of the fact that trauma (外伤) care in the United States is not only geographically limited, but in many places, non-existent.
Only eight states — New York, New Jersey, Maryland, Illinois, New Mexico, California, Oregon, and Washington — have local, fully functional trauma systems. The remaining states have partial systems, and 12 — including Arkansas — have no trauma system at all.
Although the President has signed a bill of $12 million for the purpose of supporting trauma care systems nationwide, many in Congress (国会) are unwilling to spend government money for a service they think should be paid for by states, says Wayne Meredith, medical director for trauma programs at the American College of Surgeons. Meanwhile, many states have also failed to find the dollars to support trauma systems. To make matters worse, many people without insurance depend heavily on the emergency care services, placing a huge financial burden on the medical centers that serve them.
For the same reason, doctors, too, often go unpaid. They are unwilling to perform emergency care, worsening critical shortages of neurosurgeons, orthopedists, and hand surgeons — the very types of specialists Bleed needed at short notice.
Supporting a trauma care system doesn’t take much. A half-penny sales tax in Miami-Dade County makes its outstanding system work. In Arkansas alone, says Wayne Meredith, a well-funded trauma system would possibly prevent 200 to 600 deaths each year. If trauma care systems were to work well across the nation, experts say, many thousands of lives each year could be saved. “You don’t get much better return on your investment than that,” Meredith says.
57. In Paragraph 1, the writer uses Bleed’s case to ________.
A. make a comparison
B. introduce a topic
C. describe a person
D. tell a story
58. Many people in Congress argue that trauma care systems should be supported by ________.
A. each state
B. the President
C. insurance companies
D. the US government
59. The example of Miami-Dade County shows that ________.
A. its tax policy is admirable
B. a trauma system is not expensive
C. running a trauma system is profitable
D. sales tax is not heavy in small counties
60. Why are the present trauma care systems in some states not satisfactory?
A. They are short of financial support.
B. They are shared by all the states.
C. The doctors are not well trained.
D. The hospitals can’t provide low-cost services.
When you think about math, you probably don’t think about breaking the law, solving mysteries or finding criminals. But a mathematician in Maryland does, and he has come up with mathematical tools to help police find criminals.
People who solve crimes look for patterns that might reveal (揭示) the identity of the criminal. It’s long been believed, for example, that criminals will break the law closer to where they live, simply because it’s easier to get around in their own neighborhood. If police see a pattern of robberies in a certain area, they may look for a suspect who lives near the crime scenes. So, the farther away from the area a crime takes place, the less likely it is that the same criminal did it.
But Mike O’Leary, a mathematician at Towson University in Maryland, says that this kind of approach may be too simple. He says that police may get better clues to the location of a criminal’s home base by combining these patterns with a city’s layout (布局) and historical crime records.
The records of past crimes contain geographical information and can reveal easy targets — that is, the kind of stores that might be less difficult to rob. Because these stores are along roads, the locations of past crimes contain information about where major streets and intersections are. O’Leary is writing a new computer program that will quickly provide this kind of information for a given city. His program also includes information about the people who live in the city, and information about how a criminal’s patterns change with age. It’s been shown, for example, that the younger the criminal, the closer to home the crime.
Other computer programmers have worked on similar software, but O’Leary’s uses more math. The mathematician plans to make his computer program available, free of charge, to police departments around the country.
The program is just one way to use math to fight crime. O’Leary says that criminology — the study of crime and criminals — contains a lot of good math problems. “I’m the only one who knows what gold looks like,” he says. “It’s a lot of fun.”
49. To find criminals, police usually _________.
A. check who are on the crime scene
B. seek help from local people
C. depend on new mathematical tools
D. focus on where crimes take place
50. O’Leary is writing a computer program that _________.
A. uses math to increase the speed of calculation
B. tells the identity of a criminal in a certain area
C. provides the crime records of a given city
D. shows changes in criminals’ patterns
51. By “I’m the only one who knows what gold looks like”, O’Leary means that he _________.
A. is better at finding gold than others
B. is the only one who uses math to make money
C. knows best how to use math to help solve crimes
D. has more knowledge of gold than other mathematicians
52. What is the main idea of the text?
A. Math could help police find criminals.
B. Criminals live near where crimes occur.
C. Crime records could be used to fight crime.
D. Computer software works in preventing crimes.
45. What does the phrase “green shoots” mean in “Green shoots have begun to appear in different markets”?
A. Change in policy. B. High prices.
C. Environmental protection. D. Signs of recovery.
46. Fill in the blank in the sentence “I can’t believe this is Joshua — he’s ________ since we last met!”
A. shot out B. shot up C. shot through D. shot down
47. When you are talking about unimportant things, we say you are ________.
A. shooting the breeze B. shooting yourself in the foot
C. shooting your mouth off D. shooting questions at somebody
48. Choose a word to complete the sentence “The ________, which killed a policeman and wounded a passer-by, was reported to have lasted only 13 seconds.”
A. shooter B. shoot C. shooting D. shot
A child-like robot, Wakamaru, developed by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries of Japan and combining the roles of nurse, companion and security guard, will soon be in the market to look after the growing number of old people with no one to look after them.
Cameras implanted under the “ eyebrows” of the robot enable it to “see’’ as it moves around in a house. The images can be sent to the latest mobile telephones, which can show the pictures. Wakamaru speaks with either the voice of a boy or a girl. It is also designed to provide companionship, greeting its “ papa”, when he comes home. Based on a vocabulary of around 10 000 words, it is the first household robot which is able to hold simple conversations. It can not only speak, but also understand answers and react accordingly. It will ask“ Are you all right?” if its owner does not move for some time. If the answer is no, or there is no answer, it will telephone preset numbers, send images and work as a speakerphone. It can recognize up to 10 faces. It can be set to remind forgetful people when it is time to take medicine, eat and sleep.
However, like most robots, it cannot climb stairs. Mitsubishi developed Wakamaru from robots which have already been made to go around nuclear power facilities(设施). “ Looking at the ageing of society and the falling birth rate we decided that this could work as a business. We want to offer it as a product that helps society,’’ said the project chief. The developers plan to sell the robot from April next year at between 5,000 and 6,000 pound.
The life expectancy of Japanese women has shot up to almost 85, the highest in the world. At the same time, extended families are being replaced by nuclear families. This has left many Japanese anxious about their elderly parents. Therefore, the technology has gained nation-wide publicity in Japan.Which of the following is TRUE about Wakamaru?
| A．It is used in some nuclear power facilities. |
| B．It can speak but cannot understand answers. |
| C．It can go up and down the stairs easily. |
| D．It can recognize as many as 10 people. |
The passage is written with the purpose to ______.
A. introduce a new product
B solve the aging problems.
C. tell people how to use the robot
D show the rapid development of technologyWhat can be inferred from the passage ?
| A．The robot can dial proper numbers for help |
| B．The robot is likely to have a promising market. |
| C．The robot enables the Japanese to live longer |
| D．Many elderly Japanese are anxious about their future |
People from East Asia tend to have more difficulty than those from Europe in distinguishing facial expressions--and a new report published online in Current Biology explains why.
Rachael Jack, University of Glasgow researcher, said that rather than scanning evenly
(均匀的) across a face as Westerners do, Easterners fix their attention on the eyes.
"We show that Easterners and Westerners look at different face features to read facial expressions," Jack said. "Westerners look at the eyes and the mouth in equal measure, whereas Easterners favor the eyes and neglect (忽略) the mouth."
According to Jack and her colleagues, the discovery shows that human communication of emotion is more complex than previously believed. As a result, facial expressions that had been considered universally recognizable cannot be used to reliably convey emotion in cross-cultural situations.
The researchers studied cultural differences in the recognition of facial expressions by recording the eye movements of 13 Western Caucasian and 13 East Asian people while they observed pictures of. expressive faces and put them into categories: happy, sad, surprised, fearful, disgusted, angry, or neutral. They compared how accurately participants read those facial expressions using their particular eye movement strategies.
It turned out that Easterners focused much greater attention on the eyes and made significantly more errors than did Westerners. "The cultural difference in eye movements that they show is probably a reflection of cultural difference in facial expressions," Jack said. "Our data suggest that whereas Westerners use the whole face to convey emotion, Easterners use the eyes more and mouth less."
In short, the data show that facial expressions are not universal signals of human emotion. From here on, examining how cultural factors have diversified these basic social skills will help our understanding of human emotion. Otherwise, when it comes to communicating emotions across cultures, Easterners and Westerners will find themselves lost in translation.The discovery shows that Westerners __
| A．pay equal attention to the eyes and the mouth |
| B．consider facial expressions universally reliable |
| C．observe the eyes and the mouth in different ways |
| D．have more difficulty in recognizing facial expressions |
What were the people asked to do in the study?
| A．To make a face at each other. | B．To get their faces impressive. |
| C．To classify some face pictures. | D．To observe the researchers' faces. |
What does the underlined word "they" in Paragraph 6 refer to?
| A．The participants in the study. |
| B．The researchers of the study. |
| C．The errors made during the study. |
| D．The data collected from the study. |
What can be the best title for the passage?
| A．The Eye as the Window to the Soul |
| B．Cultural Differences in Reading Emotions |
| C．Effective Methods to Develop Social Skills |
| D．How to Increase Cross-cultural Understanding |