There are some very good things about open education. This way of teaching allows the students to grow as people, and to develop their own interests in many subjects. Open education allows students to be responsible for their own education, as they are responsible for what they do in life. Some students do badly in a traditional classroom. The open classroom may allow them to enjoy learning. Some students will be happier in an open education school. They will not have to worry about grades or rules. For students who worry about these things a lot, it is a good idea to be in an open classroom.
But many students will not do well in an open classroom. For some students, there are too few rules. These students will do little in school. They will not make good use of open education. Because open education is so different from traditional education, these students may have a problem getting used to making so many choices. For many students it is important to have some rules in the classroom. They worry about t
he rules even when there are no rules. Even a few rules will help this kind of students. The last point about open education is that some traditional teachers do not like it. Many teachers do not believe in open education. Teachers who want to have an open classroom may have many problems at their schools.
You now know what open education is. Some of its good points and bad points have been explained. You may have your own opinion about open education. The writer thinks that open education is a good idea, but only in theory. In actual fact, it may not work very well in a real class or school. The writer believes that most students, but of course not all students, need some structure in their classes. They want and need to have rules. In some cases, they must be made to study some subjects. Many students are pleased to find subjects they have to study interesting. They would not study those subjects if they did not have to.Open education allows the students to .
A．grow as the  educated |
B．be responsible for their future |
| C．develop their own interests | D．discover subjects outside class |
Open education may be a good idea for the students who .
| A．enjoy traditional learning | B．worry about grades |
| C．do well in a traditional classroom | D．are responsible for what they do |
Some students will do little in an open classroom because .
| A．there are too few rules | B．they hate activities |
| C．open education is meaningless | D．they worry about the rules |
Which of the following is NOT mentioned in the passage?
| A．Some traditional teachers do not like it. |
| B．Many teachers do not believe in open education. |
| C．Teachers may have problems in open classrooms. |
| D．Teachers’ feelings and attitudes are important to students. |
Which of the following best summarizes the passage?
| A．Open education is a really complex idea. |
| B．Open education is better than traditional education. |
| C．Traditional teachers don’t believe in open education. |
| D．The writer thinks open education is practical. |
O. Henry was a pen name used by an American writer of short stories. His real name was William Sydney Porter. He was born in North Carolina in 1862. As a young boy he lived an exciting life. He did not go to school for very long, but he managed to teach himself everything he needed to know. When he was about 20 years old, O. Henry went to Texas, where he tried different jobs. He first worked on a newspaper, and then had a job in a bank. When some money went missing from the bank, O. Henry was believed to have stolen it. Because of that, he was sent to prison. During the three years in prison, he learned to write short stories. After he got out of prison, he went to New York and continued writing. He wrote mostly about New York and the life of the poor there. People liked his stories, because simple as the tales were, they would finish with a sudden change at the end, to the readers’ surprise. In which order did O. Henry do the following things?
a. Lived in New York.
b. Worked in a bank.
c. Traveled to Texas.
d. Was put in prison.
e. Had a newspaper job.
f. Learned to write stories.
| A．e, c, f, b, d, a | B．c, b, e, d, a, f |
| C．e, b, d, c, a, f | D．c, e, b, d, f, a |
People enjoyed reading O. Henry’s stories because _____.
| A．they had surprise endings | B．they were easy to understand |
| C．they showed his love for the poor | D．they were about New York City |
What do we know about O. Henry before he began writing?
| A．He was well-educated. |
| B．He was very good at learning. |
| C．He was devoted to the poor. |
| D．He was not serious about his work. |
Where did O. Henry get most material for his short stories?
| A．His life inside the prison. | B．The newspaper articles he wrote. |
| C．The city and people of New York. | D．His exciting early life as a boy. |
A new study has been carried to test the role of story telling in lowering blood pressure. Dr. Thomas Houston, a professor of the University of Massachusetts Medical School, led a group of scientists that researched how pre-recorded videos of hypertension (高血压) patients' talking about their medical histories helped another group of patients with high blood pressure to control their condition over several months.
Houston was surprised by their studies that suggested that communication can be a powerful tool in medicine. They showed that those who had had similar experiences, when talking to someone with a similar background, could help change their behavior to become healthier. Hypertension is difficult to control, since it is dependent on diet, exercise and mental state. Medical treatments with drugs, and lifestyle therapies(疗法) have been relatively ineffective because people find it hard to follow those medical requirements.
In the test, his team carefully chose their story-tellers from 23
0 members of a patients' community with whom they could most easily relate. Next, they divided their study population into two groups. One received three interactive DVDs containing the tellers' stories of their experiences in living with and treating their hypertension. The other were given educational discs on an unrelated health topic. The study volunteers reported that they had listened to the DVDs, and after three months, those who heard the stories of the hypertensive patients lowered their blood pressure.
While the study did not address how the story-telling influenced the patients' behavior, Houston doubts that watching patients of similar backgrounds who had a similar medical experience helped to motivate them to seek medical help to their hypertension. They found that after six months the difference in blood pressure between those who watched the story-tellers and those who observed the unrelated videos remained, suggesting that the story-telling continued to have an effect. We can learn from the text that the pre-recorded videos _________.
| A．tell medical histories of hypertension patients |
| B．introduce some medical treatments of hypertension |
| C．introduce a good lifestyle for hypertensive patients |
| D．tell scientific discoveries of the scientist group |
Houston was surprised to find that _______.
| A．hypertension is really difficult to control |
| B．communication has some medical effects |
| C．medical treatments have no effect at all |
| D．people don't follow the medical requirements |
The underlined word "address" in the last paragraph most probably means _______.
| A．persuade | B．observe | C．attend | D．announce |
Which of the following could be the best title of the text?
| A．The stories of some hypertension patients. |
| B．Medical treatments of blood pressure. |
| C．Storytelling may help lower blood pressure. |
| D．Suggestions about how to lower blood pressure. |
I sometimes wonder if old Finchley has the right personality to be a research scientist. He keeps asking when he’ll be coming back. After all, it was his own fault. Nobody tries out what has just been invented on themselves any more but Finchley. Well, he must have pumped about a thousand cubic centimeters into himself before I noticed he was clearly becoming smaller.
It was funny watching him, because his clothes remained the same in size. They simply piled up around him so that he looked like a small boy in his father’s clothes. But he kept getting smaller and smaller. As my colleague Dawson and I watched him, he disappeared! All we could see was Finchley’s clothes on the floor. They looked so strange, because the lab coat was on top, shirt and trousers inside and, I suppose, underclothes inside again. It gave me a strange feeling, and I think Dawson was a bit shaken, too.
Dawson was sitting on his chair in front of a microscope he’d been using to examine a family of mites(螨虫). He looked through the scope kind of absently again, and was nearly scared to lose awareness when he found old Finchley waving back from the other end.
It seems as if Finchley had taken a free ride on a dust mite and landed on the land of the mite family. Of course, we didn’t know till Finchley told us later. But anyhow, as I said, Dawson nearly passed out. He jumped off his chair and pointed at the microscope, too shocked to speak. Finchley disappeared because ________.
| A．he took something poisonous |
| B．he was changed into a dust mite |
| C．his father’s clothes totally covered him up |
| D．what he and his colleagues invented resulted in his disappearance |
It frightened Dawson to see Finchley _______.
| A．got into his scope by accident | B．was waving through his telescope |
| C．suddenly got lost in his clothes | D．gradually disappeared in the lab |
It can be inferred that Finchley, Dawson and the writer have possibly invented _____.
| A．some kind of medicine | B．a new powerful microscope |
| C．a machine to make people small | D．a new way to make a culture of mite |
It can probably be concluded that Finchley ________.
| A．passed out there and then | B．is not fit to be a scientist |
| C．is a devoted scientist | D．will remain tiny all the time |
The 1980s was called the “Me Decade” because for many this time was marked by a fascination with the self. The idea that each person has a self may seem natural to us, but this concept is actually quite new. The idea that each human life is unique developed between the 11th and 15th centuries in Europe. Before that time, individuals were considered in relation to a group, and even today, many eastern cultures place more emphasis on the importance of a collective self than on a unique and independent self.
Both
eastern and western cultures see the self as divided into an inner, private self and an outer, public self. But where they differ is in terms of which part is seen as the “real you.” Western culture tends to promote the idea of individuality—a self that is separated from other selves. In contrast, many eastern cultures focus on an inter-independent self that gets its diversity in large part from inter-relationship with others.
For example, a Confucian(孔子) idea stresses the importance of “face”—other people’s views of the self and keeping up one’s desired status in their eyes. In the past, some Asian cultures developed clear rules about the specific clothes and even colors that people in certain social classes and occupations were allowed to display, and these live on today in Japanese style manuals. This style of dress is at odds with such western practices as
“casual Fridays,” which encourage employees to dress informally and express their unique selves. According to the passage , what does the author believe about the self?
| A．Many eastern cultures see the self connected with others. |
| B．Those born in the 1980s are generally most self-centered than others. |
| C．The concept that each person has a self may seem strange to eastern cultures |
| D．Western cultures regard the self as an outer, public self while eastern cultures don’t. |
What does the 2nd paragraph mainly talk about?
| A．How eastern and western cultures see the self. |
| B．Eastern cultures contrast sharply with western cultures |
| C．Both eastern and western cultures appreciate the importance of self |
| D．Eastern cultures are as important as western cultures |
A Japanese dress code is mentioned in the last paragraph to _________.
| A．explain the importance of “face” | B．say how traditional the Japanese are |
| C．emphasize the importance of eastern cultures | |
| D．show how eastern cultures see the self in relation to others |
The underlined phrase “at odds with” most probably means_______.
| A．in agreement with | B．in disagreement with |
| C．in comparison with | D．in need of |
One of the most fascinating things about television is the size of the audience. A novel can be on the “bestseller” lists with a sale of up to 100,000 copies, but a popular TV show might have 70 million TV viewers. TV can make anything or anyone well-known overnight.
This is the principle behind “quiz” or “game” shows, which put ordinary people on TV to play a game for prizes and money. A quiz show can make anyone a star, and it can give away thousands of dollars. Charles Van Doren, an English instructor, became rich and famous after winning money on several shows. He even had a career as a television personality. But one of the losers proved that Charles Van Doren was cheating. It turned out that the show’s producers, who were pulling the strings, gave the answers to the most popular competitors in advance. Why? Because if the audience didn’t like the person who won the game, they turned the show off. The result of this cheating was a huge scandal(丑闻). Based on the show off, a movie titled “Quiz Show” is on 40 years later.
Charles Van Doren is no longer involved with TV. But game shows are still here, though they aren’t taken seriously. In fact, some of them try to be as ridiculous as possible. There are shows that send strangers on vacation trips together, or that try to cause newly-married couples to fight on TV, or that punish losers by humiliating(羞辱) them. The entertainment now is to see what people will do just to be on TV. People still win money, but the real prize is to be in front of an audience of millions.What is the most important thing as to television?
| A．How many viewers they can attract | B．Becoming the bestseller on the list |
| C．How much money can be given away | D．The number of people attending shows |
What does the underlined part “pulling the strings” probably mean?
| A．Planning the shows with effort | B．Drawing the curtain on the stage |
| C．Controlling the result secretly | D．Playing “quiz” or “game” openly |
Charles Van Doren stopped his career as a television personality because ________.
| A．he had earned enough wealth and fame. | B．one of the competitors had told the truth |
| C．the film “Quiz Show” was being shown | |
| D．his frequent appearance had bored the audience |
It can be inferred from the passage that _______.
| A．TV Game Shows are more popular than before. |
| B．the scandal was not made known until 40 years later |
| C．getting money is the only purpose of people taking part in shows |
| D．people can make themselves famous by taking part in shows |