Too cold for recess? School policies vary as much as temps
When is it too cold for schoolchildren to go outside for recess（课间休息）? The answer varies widely based on where a school is located and what the kids are used to.
Consider: One northern Minnesota school says it has to be 15 below zero before kids are kept inside. But in areas along the East Coast, temperatures below 35 to 40 degrees could keep kids inside. Canceling recess because of the cold is no small issue considering that much of the USA is trembling through what may be its coldest winter in a generation, according to
AccuWeather.
There is no national temperature standard for when to keep kids inside during the winter months, the U.S. Department of Education says. Decisions are made at the local level, either by principals or school districts.
Consequently, policies are all over the map:
• In International Falls, Minn., the self-described "Icebox of the Nation," where the average high temperature in January is 13 degrees, Falls Elementary School Principal Jerry Hilfer says, "if it's 15 below (or warmer), they go out, no matter what." "At 20 below, it gets iffy," he adds.
• In Wicomico County, Md., principals typically keep children indoors when temperatures drop below freezing, or if it's raining or snowing, says Susan Jones, the school system's director of elementary education.
"That's the bottom line," says Curtis Twilley, principal of Pemberton Elementary School in Salisbury, Md. Twilley says students get little exercise when recess stays indoors. At Pemberton Elementary, the students will typically play board games or computer games in a classroom because the school's gym is occupied with other classes, he says.
• For schools in Marquette, Mich., which averages about 12 feet of snow per season, school officials acknowledge students are probably a little more prepared than those in some more mild climates.Which of the following is not true according to the passage_________.
| A．No national temperature standard is made for when to keep kids inside during the winter months. |
| B．Susan Jones insists students get little exercise when recess stays indoors. |
| C．In Wicomico County, children are kept indoors when temperatures dip below freezing. |
| D．Mich has about 12 feet of snow per season on average. |
Which place calls itself Box of Ice?
Wicomico County B. Marquette C.Salisbury D. Minn Considering_______, canceling recess In USA because of the cold is a big issue.
| A．different schools have different principles. |
| B．much of the USA has very cold winter. |
| C．physical activity can boost student performance. |
| D．decisions are made at the local level, |
The underlined word iffy means _______.
| A．uncertain | B．surprising | C． serious | D．worse |
What will be talked about next?
| A．More school policies |
| B．The reasons why school policies vary. |
| C．Measures to improve the situation. |
| D．Necessities to improve the situation |
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Tell the truth or just lie?
You’re busy filling out the application form for a position you really need; let’s assume you once actually completed a couple of years of college work or even that you completed your degree. Isn’t it tempting to lie just a little, to claim on the form that your diploma represents a Harvard degree? Or that you finished an extra couple of years back at State University?
More and more people are turning to final trick like this to land their job or to move ahead in their careers, for personnel officers, like most Americans, value degrees from famous schools. A job applicant may have a good education anyway, but he or she assumes that chances of being hired are better with a diploma from a well-known university. Registrars at most well known colleges say they deal with deceitful like these at the rate of about one per week.
Personnel officers do check up degrees listed on application forms, then. If it turns out that an applicant is lying, most colleges are reluctant to accuse the applicant directly. One Ivy League school calls them “impostors(骗子)”；Another refers to them as “special cases” one well-known West Coast school, in perhaps the most delicate phrase of all, says that these claims are made by ”no such people.”
To avoid total lies, some job-seekers claim that they “attended” or “were associated with” a college or university. After carefully checking, a personal officer may discover that “attending” means being dismissed after one semester. It may be that “being associated with” a college means that the job seeker visited his younger brother for a football weekend. One school that keeps records of false claim says that the practice dates back at least to the turn of the century-that’s when they began keeping records, anyhow.
If you don’t want to lie or even stretch the truth, there are companies that will sell you a phony(假的) diploma. One company, with offices in New York and on the West Coast, will put your name on a diploma from any number of nonexistent colleges. The price begins at around twenty dollars for a diploma from “Smoot State University.” The prices increase rapidly for a degree from the “University of Purdue.” As there is no Smoot State and the real school in Indiana is properly called Purdue University, the prices seem rather high for one sheet of paper.
72.The main idea of this passage is that______.
A. employers are checking more closely on applicants now
B. lying about college degrees has become a widespread problem
C. college degrees can now be purchased easily
D. employers are no longer interested in college degrees
73.According to the passage, “special cases” refers to cases where______.
A. students attend a school only part-time
B. students never attended a school they listed on their application
C. students buy false degrees from commercial firms
D. students attended a famous school
74.We can infer from the passage that______.
A. performance is a better judge of ability than a college degree
B. experience is the best teacher
C. past work histories influence personnel officers more than degrees do
D. a degree from a famous school enables an applicant to gain advantage over others in job competition
75.This passage implies that______.
A. buying a false degree is not normal
B. personnel officers only consider applicants from famous schools
C. most people lie on applications because they were dismissed from school
D. society should be greatly responsible for lying on applications
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New economy online
People are talking about the “new economy”. It’s very different from the “old economy”.
In the old economy, people travel to walk. They buy things in stores. They use the post office, the fax and the telephone to send information. They see people face-to-face at their jobs or in stores. People get information from newspapers, radio, television, books and libraries.
In the new economy, people do business through the “net”, which is a connection of millions of computers everywhere in the world. In the new economy, workers often work at home. They can get information online. They can communicate with employers and co-workers by e-mail . Businesses have “virtual（虚拟的）stores”. They are websites on which customers can see the products. Business can sell to customers anywhere in the world.
In the new economy, people live a fast paced, convenient and colorful life. The whole world develops more quickly than before. But the new economy is double-edge sword(双刃剑).Its disadvantage is also obvious. For example, the Internet has led to a huge increase in credit care(信用卡)cheating. Some illegal websites offer some cheap or banned(禁止的) goods or services. Online shoppers who enter their credit card information may never receive the goods they want to buy and their card information could even be for sale in an illegal website. So people in the new economy should be smarter and knowledgeable.
68.The cause of the differences between the new economy and the old economy is ______.
A. the change of people’s idea B. the business people do
C. the use of the Internet D. the change of people’s life
69.In the old economy, people can do the following things EXCEPT______.
A. getting information from books
B. communicating with friends by telephone
C. meeting people face to face
D. shopping online
70.“But the new economy is a double-edge sword.” in the last passage means______.
A. the new economy is as sharp as a sword
B. the new economy has advantages and disadvantages
C. the new economy is better than the old economy
D. both the new economy and the old economy have disadvantages
71.Which of the following is NOT true?
A. People can get all kinds of information on the Internet.
B. Telephone, radio, television, newspapers and so on will disappear in the new economy.
C. People in the new economy should have high quality.
D. Life in the new economy is more comfortable than the one in the old economy.
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Valuing water
Human beings use a little less than half the water available worldwide. Yet shortages and droughts(干旱) are causing starvation and poverty in some areas, and industrial and agricultural by-products are polluting water supplies. Since the world’s population is expected to double in the next 51 years, many experts think we are on the edge of a widespread water crisis.
But that doesn’t have to be the result. Water shortages do not have to trouble the world—if we start valuing water more than we have in the past. Just as we began to value petrol more after the 1970s oil crisis, today we must start looking at water from a fresh economic view. We can no longer afford to consider water a nearly free resource of which we can use as much as we like in any way we want.
Instead, for all uses except the demand of the poor, governments should price water to reflect its real value. This means charging a fee for the water itself as well as for the supply costs.
Governments should also protect this source by providing water in more economically and environmentally sound ways. For example, often the cheapest way to provide irrigation(灌溉) water in the dry places is through small-scale projects, such as gathering rainfall in depressions(凹地) and pumping it to nearby cropland.
No matter what steps governments take to provide water more efficiently, they must change their ways to use water. Rather than control hundreds or even thousands of local, regional agencies that watch water use, countries should set up central authorities to manage water policy.
65. What is the real cause of the potential water crisis?
A. Only half of the world’s water can be used.
B. The world population is increasing faster and faster.
C. Half of the world’s resources have been seriously polluted.
D. Human beings have not placed sufficient value on water resources.
66.We can conclude from the passage that the water problem______.
A. is already serious in certain parts of the world
B. has been exaggerated by some experts in the field
C. poses a challenge to the technology of building reservoirs
D. is underestimated by government organizations at different levels
67.According to the author, the water price should______.
A. be reduced to the minimum
B. stimulate domestic demand
C. equal its real value
D. take into account the occurrences of droughts.
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第三部分、阅读理解（共15个小题；每小题2分，满分30分）
阅读下列短文，从每题所给的四个选项（A、B、C、D）中，选出最佳选项。
The richest country
To reach the world’s richest country, you needn’t set out for the Middle East, but for the South Pacific, to a tiny dot just south of the equator, called Nauru. Only 8.2 square miles in size, the whole of this country can be seen from the air as the plane comes into land. The blue South Pacific reaches for thousands of miles in all directions, the nearest piece of land being Ocean Island 200 miles to the east.
Nauro is so small that the plane lands in what is best regarded as the capital’s main street. The seaward side of the runway has traffic lights at each end to stop cars when planes are landing. The tiny bus station outside the airport is crowded with well-fed and brightly clothed Naurans with their modern cars.
With Naurans now getting an average(平均) of $44,500 a year, the island’s 60,000 people seem to have little to worry about. A trip to the island’s central hump(隆峰) tells a slightly different story.
The hump with a great deal of phosphate(磷酸盐) round is Nauru’s wealth. When Nauru gained freedom from the British government in 1908, about 40 million tons of the earliest 100 million tons of phosphate were left. Since it has taken out another 10 million tons, which leaves enough only for another 20-25 years.
61.The best title of the text should be______.
A. Wealth and population of Nauru
B. The most beautiful country in the world
C. A small island surrounded by the Pacific
D. A small but rich island country
62.It can be inferred from the text that______.
A.Nauru has not built a runway in the airport yet
B.Nauru is not large enough to build the runway of the plane
C.the Naurans are not rich enough to build a runway of the plane
D.no cars run on the main street
63.From the last sentence of the text we can learn that the writer wants to tell us______.
A.why Naurans are so rich
B.something more about Nauru
C.something for Naurans to worry about
D.how the British robbed Nauru of their wealth
64.How many tons of phosphate will probably be taken out in Nauru a year?
A. 2,000,000 to 2,500,000 tons
B. 2,800,000 to 3,500,000 tons
C. 1,200,000 to 1,500,000 tons
D. 400,000 to 500,000 tons
.
The global financial crisis is likely to cause increased mental health problems and even suicides（自杀）as people struggle to deal with poverty and unemployment, the World Health Organization warned Thursday.
Hundreds of millions of people worldwide are already affected by mental problems such as depression and bipolar disorders (带狂躁的抑郁症) and the current market meltdown (崩溃) could worsen feelings of despair among people who can't stand such illnesses.
The United Nations agency said the impact could be especially marked for those living in low and middle income countries where access to treatment is often limited.
“We should not be surprised at the turbulence (动荡) and likely consequences of the current financial crisis. Now we are seeing a huge gap in taking care of people in great need,” WHO director general Margaret Chan told at a meeting of mental health experts.
“It should not come as a surprise that we continue to see more stresses, suicides and mental disorders,” Chan warned.
Benedetto Saraceno, director of WHO's mental health, said mental health disorders affected one in four people at some point in their lives.
Mental and neurological disorders are often chronic (慢性的) and disabling, he said. Nearly 1 million people commit suicide worldwide every year, a large proportion (比例) of them are young adults.
Asked about the financial crisis, Saraceno said, “Poverty can be the consequence of such events, the debts, despair and sense of loss that may reach middle and lower classes. Even the poor can be affected by this crisis.”
“There is a clear evidence that suicide is linked to financial disasters. I am not talking about the millionaire's jumping out of the window but about poor people,” he said. The global crisis could be expected to affect the “stability（稳定）of communities and families”, according to Saraceno.
67．According to the passage, the chief result of the worldwide financial crisis is that ________ .
A．more people will be poorer
B．more people will be out of jobs
C．more people will suffer from mental problems
D．more people will commit suicide
68．The United Nations agency worried that________.
A．more rich people would commit suicide
B．the financial crisis might especially influence developing or underdeveloped countries
C．the current market meltdown could worsen feelings of despair
D．hundreds of millions of people in the world were already affected by mental problems
69．It is implied that ________.
A．far more work should be done to help those who are mentally ill
B．it will be surprising to see more people commit suicide
C．a mental disorder is a chronic disease
D．many more adults commit suicide worldwide than people of other ages
70．The best title for the passage is _________.
A．Consequences of Global Financial Crisis.
B．Mental Disorders Resulting From Global Financial Crisis.
C．Suicides as a Result of Market Meltdown.
D．Chronic Mental Disorders.