It was a party. I was 18 and it was fresher(大一新生) week. I was at the beginning of a course in English Literature and full of enthusiasm for my subject. She was also 18 and enrolled in a course in physics.
“Your major is of no use to society. What will you do with it when you graduate, other than teach? Plus, you’re going to be poor your whole life,” she said. “You have no soul and your degree is boring. I don’t care how much money you’re going to earn. I’d rather be poor and don’t mind being a teacher. If I love my work I’ll have something far more meaningful than a big bank account!” came the reply.
And so it went, back and forth, neither of us giving the other an inch, each of us stubbornly committed to our prejudice. We were both ignorant, but our ignorance was also society’s ignorance. It had always been that way. Scientists mocked(嘲笑) humanists; humanists laughed at scientists. Back in the 1960s, the physicist-turned novelist C. P. Snow labeled the sciences-humanities divide “a problem of ‘the two cultures’” . He said it was bad for society. The modern world needed well-rounded people.
I think I know better now, but it would have helped if we had been encouraged to think a little more outside our science and arts “boxes”.
That’s why I believe it is healthy that China is beginning a debate on whether it’s wise for young people to have to choose which direction their careers – and lives – will take at such an early age. At the moment, in their second year of high school, students must choose either the sciences or the humanities. After making the choice, they focus their energies on passing the appropriate college entrance exam.
But now, people in China are asking: Is this forced, early decision good for young people or society? Young people need time to explore, to discover where their real talents and interests lie. There are more than just a few middle-aged people out there, stuck in jobs they hate because they made the wrong choice at the wrong time.
And from the point of view of society, isn’t it better for students to delay a while before they decide what to study? Scientists can benefit from learning to develop the critical skills associated with the humanities; students in the humanities, surely, only stand to gain by finding out a little more about science and technology, which are so important to the future of a developing country like China.
With any luck, in the future young people fresh to college will be better informed about the possibilities of education than people of my generation. The author describes what happened at a fresher party to ________.
| A．show that he was ready to defend the subject he enjoyed |
| B．lead up his argument that the sciences-humanities divide is harmful |
| C．prove that doing something meaningful is better than having a lot of money |
| D．describe how fierce students of different majors can be when arguing with each other |
What was C. P. Snow’s attitude towards the sciences-humanities divide?
A. Indifferent. B. Unce
rtain. C. Positive. D. Negative.In the sixth paragraph, an example mentioning middle-aged people is used to show that ________.
| A．students should not make decisions too early |
| B．not all people have a talent for or are interested in the sciences |
| C．these people did not have the chance to make a choice earlier in life |
| D．the earlier young people make a decision, the better it will be for them |
According to the text, it is safe to say that ________.
A. sciences are more practical in the modern world
B. C. P. Snow was a novelist who became a physicist
C. future generations will be able to get more out of education
D. a command of both th
e sciences and humanities is important to societyWhat’s the best ti
tle for the article?
| A．The sciences or the humanities, which to choose? |
| B．High school education in China |
| C．Isn’t it better to delay the choice of the career direction? |
| D．A better time to decide what to study |
Do American children still learn handwriting in school? In the age of the keyboard, some people seem to think handwriting lessons are on the way out. 90% of teachers say they are required to teach handwriting. But studies have yet to answer the question of how well they are teaching it. One study published this year found that about three out of every four teachers say they are not prepared to teach handwriting. Some teachers are teaching handwriting by providing instruction for 10-15 minutes a day, and then other teachers who basically teach it for 60 to 70 minutes a day --which really for handwriting is pretty much.
Many adults remember learning that way--by copying letters over and over again. Today’s thinking is that short periods of practice are better. Many experts also think handwriting should not be taught by itself. Instead, they say it should be used as a way to get students to express ideas. After all, that is why we write.
Handwriting involves two skills. One is legibility, which means forming the letters so they can be read. The other is fluency --writing without having to think about it. Fluency continues to develop up until high school.
But not everyone masters these skills. Teachers commonly report that about one fourth of their kids have poor handwriting. Some people might think handwriting is not important any more because of computers and voice recognition programs.
But Steve Graham at Vanderbilt says word processing is rarely done in elementary school, especially in the early years. American children traditionally first learn to print, and then to write in cursive, which connects the letters. But guess what we learned from a spokeswoman for the College Board, which administers the SAT college admission test. More than 75 percent of students choose to print their essay on the test rather than write in cursive.We can learn ________ from Paragraph 1.
| A．teaching handwriting is a basic requirement in teaching job |
| B．most teachers prefer to teach handwriting |
| C．teachers spend little time in teaching handwriting |
| D．a keyboard has taken the place of the handwriting entirely |
Which of the following is WRONG for traditional handwriting in the USA?
| A．The students are taught by practicing a long period. |
| B．The letters are repeated many times. |
| C．Handwriting includes two skills. |
| D．To write in cursive is taught first. |
The underlined word “legibility” in Paragraph 3 means ________.
| A．easy to read | B．complex |
| C．unexpected | D．unreadable |
The best title for the passage is ________.
| A．How to improve handwriting in school |
| B．Right or wrong: the death of handwriting |
| C．Handwriting involves two skills |
| D．Handwriting lessons are on the way out |
The author’ s attitude towards whether still to learn handwriting in school is________.
| A．negative | B．objective |
| C．critical | D．optimistic |
阅读理解（共20小题；每小题2分，满分40分）
阅读下列短文，从每小题所给的四个选项（A、B、C、D）中选出最佳选项，并在答题卡上将该项涂黑。
A
It is quite reasonable to blame traffic jams, the cost of gas and the great speed of modern life, but manners on the road are becoming horrible. Everybody knows that the nicest men would become fierce tigers behind the wheel. It is all right to have a tiger in a cage, but to have one in the driver’s seat is another matter.
Road politeness is not only good manners, but good sense too. It takes the most cool-headed drivers great patience to give up the desire to beat back when forced to face rude driving. On the other hand, a little politeness goes a long way towards reducing the possibility of quarrelling and fighting. A friendly nod or a wave of thanks in answer to an act of politeness helps to create an atmosphere of good will and calm so necessary in modern traffic conditions. But such behaviors of politeness are by no means enough. Many drivers nowadays don’t even seem able to recognize politeness when they see it.
However, misplaced politeness can also be dangerous. Typical examples are the driver who waves a child crossing the street at a wrong place into the path of oncoming cars that may be not able to stop in time. The same goes for encouraging old ladies to cross the road wherever and whenever they want to.
An experienced driver, whose manners are faultless, told me it would help if drivers learnt to correctly join in traffic stream without causing total blockages that give rise to unpleasant feelings. Unfortunately, modern drivers can’t even learn to drive, let alone master the roadmanship. Years ago, experts warned us that the fast increase of the car ownership would demand more give-and-take from all road users. It is high time for all of us to take this message to heart.The passage mainly talks about .
| A．road politeness | B．traffic jams |
| C．good manners | D．modern drivers |
Troubles on the road are often caused by .
| A．traffic jams | B．the behavior of the drivers |
| C．great speed | D．terrible road conditions |
According to the writer, a good driver should .
| A．beat back when forced to face rude driving |
| B．be able to recognize politeness when he sees it |
| C．encourage old ladies to cross the roads whenever they want to |
| D．join in traffic stream quickly however other people feel |
The following statements are right EXCEPT that .
| A．some modern drivers are not good at driving |
| B．road politeness is good sense as well as good manners |
| C．it is also right to have a tiger in the driver’s seat |
| D．a friendly driver should nod or wave thanks in answer to an act of politeness |
It is not always right for drivers to .
| A．master roadman ship |
| B．recognize politeness when they see it |
| C．wave a child crossing the street at a wrong place into the path |
| D．give a friendly nod in answer to an act of politeness |
The research carried out by the University of Bari in Italy could help clarify hospitals who are charged with wasting money on art and decoration as it suggests a pleasant environment helps patients overcome discomfort and pain.
A team headed by Professor Marina de Tommaso at the Neurophysiopathology Pain Unit asked a group of men and women to pick the 20 paintings they considered most ugly and most beautiful from a selection of 300 works by artists such as Lenoardo da Vinci and Sandro Botticelli. They were then asked to watch either the beautiful paintings, or the ugly paintings, or a blank panel while the team struck a short laser pulse at their hand, creating a sensation as if they had been hurt by a pin. The subjects rated the pain as being a third less intense while they were viewing the beautiful paintings, compared with when considering the ugly paintings or the blank panel.
Electrodes (电极) measuring the brain’s electrical activity also confirmed a reduced response to the pain when the subject looked at beautiful paintings. While distractions(娱乐), such as music, are known to reduce pain in hospital, Prof de Tommaso says this is the first result to show that beauty plays a part. The findings, reported in New Scientist, also go a long way to show that beautiful surroundings could aid the healing process.
“Hospitals have been designed to be functional, but we think that their aesthetic(审美能力) aspects should be taken into account too,” said the neurologist. “Beauty obviously offers a distraction that ugly paintings do not. But at least there is no suggestion that ugly surroundings make the pain worse. I think these results show that more research is needed into how a beautiful environment can reduce suffering.”
Pictures they liked included Starry Night by Vincent Van Gogh and Botticellis’ Birth of Venus. Pictures they found ugly included works by Pablo Picasso, the Italian 20th century artist Anonino Bueno and Columbian Fernando Botero. “these people were not art experts so some of the pictures they found ugly would be considered masterpieces by the art world,” said Prof de Tommaso.According to the first paragraph, people didn’t approve_______________.
| A．hospitals spend money on medical equipment |
| B．hospitals decorate their rooms with works of art |
| C．hospitals make their environment pleasant to patients |
| D．hospitals treat patients with works of art |
How did the researchers make the research?
| A．By asking the subjects to listen to music. |
| B．By requiring the subjects to draw paintings. |
| C．By ordering the subjects to choose which picture is beautiful and ugly. |
| D．By aching the subjects’ hands while they are watching paintings. |
According to the research, when designing a hospital, we should consider its____________.
| A．convenient facilities |
| B．functional operating room |
| C．pleasing environment |
| D．bright waiting room |
The best title for the passage may be__________.
| A．Patients Don’t Like Pictures |
| B．Arts Can Be Used As a Medicine |
| C．Ugly Patients Feel Less Pain |
| D．Beautiful Art Can Ease Pain |
As the new semester begins, millions of college students across the country are trying hard to remember how best to write a paper or, more likely, how best to delay that paper.
Procrastination is the thief of time and a lot of students suffer from it. They can spend whole days in the library doing nothing but staring into space, eating snacks, surfing the Internet, watching videos and looking at other students sitting around them, who, most likely, are doing nothing either.
Paralyzed (使失去活力) by their habit to procrastinate, they write micro blogs about their fears, asking their online friends if they sometimes have the same issue. But this does nothing to break the spell (魔咒).
According to a recent report, 95 percent of us procrastinate at some point and 20 percent of the world’s population are always procrastinating. The figures are disappointing. Procrastinators are less wealthy, less healthy and less happy than those who don’t delay. Procrastinators like to find excuses to justify their behavior, but BBC columnist Rowan Pelling says they are all wrong.
Many procrastinators tell themselves they are perfectionists who work best under pressure. Pelling says this is nonsense, as work done at the last minute is more likely to have mistakes than work done on time. The behavior of procrastinators often makes them feel ashamed, inconveniences others and annoys loved ones.
Pelling also points out that procrastination feels particularly delinquent (过失的）in a society that thinks of speedy action as admirable, and, at times, even as a moral good.
Fortunately, social scientists have thrown their weight behind efforts to understand this behavioral mistake and offer strategies to control it. Piers Steel, a Canadian social scientist and author of The Procrastination Equation, believes human is “designed” to procrastinate. Nevertheless, he suggests a couple of good ways to get through the task at hand.From the first two paragraphs we can learn that_________.
| A．procrastination is beneficial to many students |
| B．many students are under great pressure in their study |
| C．many students have the habit of delaying finishing their tasks |
| D．lots of college students work hard to write good essays on time |
Which behavior belongs to procrastination?
| A．Never dream away the time. |
| B．Always complete the tasks ahead of time. |
| C．Never put off till tomorrow what should be done today. |
| D．Always wait to work until the “good mood” or “good time”. |
According to the passage, which of the following statements is not true?
| A．Procrastination makes people waste their time. |
| B．Procrastinators usually complete their tasks perfectly. |
| C．Speedy action is considered as a moral standard in the society. |
| D．Procrastination is common among people. |
What is most likely to be discussed in the paragraph that follows?
| A．Measures to deal with procrastination. |
| B．Approaches to handling the study pressures. |
| C．More examples to illustrate procrastination. |
| D．Introduction to the book The Procrastination Equation. |
Well, parents, surprise! Lots of us are using Twitter and Facebook to find rides, and not just to school. It’s awkward to call a friend and ask for a ride, and half the time they’ll say, “Sorry, my car is full.” But with Twitter, you just tweet (贴子,留言) and look for other people heading the same way.
It may sound risky, but many teens stay within their own social circles to find rides, and don’t branch out beyond friends of friends when asking on Twitter. For me, I only rideshare with people I know, but to some young people, especially those taking longer trips, stranger danger is less of a concern.
The sharing economy got big during the recession（经济衰退）. It allows people to access more goods and services using technology, while also allowing them to share cost. And that technology, for me, is what the car was for my mom, a gateway to more freedom.
According to the researchers at the University of Michigan, 30 years ago, eight in ten American 18-year-olds had a driver’s license. Today it’s six in ten. So it’s not that surprising that on my 16th birthday I wasn’t rushing to get a license. All I wanted was an iPhone. Juliet Schor (Sociology professor at Boston College) knows people my age love being connected and for young people driving means they have to disconnect from their technology, and that’s a negative. So if they could sit in the passenger side and still be connected, that’s going to be a plus.
To me, another plus is ridesharing represents something much bigger than trying to save money. I see it as evidence that people still depend on each other. My generation shares their cars and apartments the way neighbors used to share cups of sugar. For the system to work, some of us still need our own cars. But until I get my own version of the silver Super Beetle, you can find me on Twitter.The writer usually rideshares with _____.
| A．anyone heading the same way | B．people he knows |
| C．friends of friends | D．strangers of his age |
Fewer young people choose to ride by themselves because _____.
| A．driving means offering free rides to others. |
| B．getting a driving license becomes more difficult. |
| C．driving one’s own cars causes a negative impression. |
| D．driving makes them disconnected from technology. |
We can conclude from the passage that _____.
| A．the writer rideshares just to save money |
| B．people under 18 are not allowed to drive |
| C．silver Super Beetle is the writer’s favorite |
| D．the older generation had to fight for freedom |
Which is the best title for the passage?
| A．Teens use Twitter to thumb rides. |
| B．Tips on reducing risks in ridesharing. |
| C．Car is no longer a gateway to freedom. |
| D．New generation knows how to save money. |