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Now, there is a growing movement to pay the students in American schools---in some cases, even just for coming to class.
Students at one school in New Mexico can earn up to three hundred dollars a year for good attendance. In Baltimore, Maryland, high scores in state graduation tests can be worth more than one hundred dollars. And a New Jersey school system plans to pay students fifty dollars a week to attend after---school tutoring programs.
Schools that pay students can be found in more than one---fourth of the fifty states. Other schools pay students with food or other rewards.
Robert Schaefer is a public education director. He says paying students may improve performance in the short term, but students develop false expectations for the future. He sees a lack of long term planning in these programs because of the pressure on schools to raise test scores.
Public schools need to show improvement under the education reform law. Low---performing schools may lose their federal money; teachers and administrators(行政人员) may lose their jobs. Often these schools are in poor neighborhoods where getting students to go to school can be a continual problem.
Critics(评论家) say paying students sends a message that money is the only valuable reward. But some students say it makes school more exciting. And some teachers have reported getting more requests for extra help.
In two thousand four, the city schools in Coshocton, Ohio, launched a program. They wanted to see if paying elementary school students as much as one hundred dollars would help in passing the state exams.
Now, Eric Bettinger of Case Western Reserve University (EUCWRU) has reported mixed results. Math scores increased, but only white students were able to get paid. And there was no evidence of higher scores in reading, social studies and science. Official will decide later this year whether to continue the program.
Paying students who show improvement in tests __________.

A．has been done in most American schools

B．is becoming a growing practice in the USA

C．is not very popular with teachers

D．only aims at high scores at school

According to the text, Robert Schaefer _____________.

A．is a very excellent teacher

B．thinks highly of paying students

C．thinks students will show improvement in study in the future

D．thinks people should make a careful plan for the paying program

From the last paragraph we can see __________.

A．EBCWRU has got great success in its paying program

B．not all the students in EUCWRU have made progress in all subjects

C．only students who study math can get paid

D．EBCWRU will go on with the paying program

The text is mainly written to _____________.

A．persuade teachers to give students more prizes

B．tell people how to become an excellent student

C．introduce something about American paying students program

D．explain the advantages of American paying students program

Throughout his early years, Obama was known at home and at school as “Barry”. Obama’s parents met while both were attending the University of Hawaii at Manoa, where his father was enrolled(登记入读) as a foreign student. They separated when he was two years old and later divorced(离婚). His father received Master’s degree in Economics from Harvard University, then returned to Kenya, where he became a finance minister before dying in an automobile accident in 1982. His mother married another foreign student, Lolo Soetoro, and the family moved to Soetoro’s home country of Indonesia in 1967. Obama attended local schools in Jakarta, from age 6 to 10, where classes were taught in the Indonesian language.
During his time in Indonesia, he first attended St. Francis Assist Catholic school for almost three years. When Obama was in third grade he wrote an essay saying that he wanted to be president. His teacher later said that his reason for becoming president was that he wanted to make everybody happy.
Obama returned to Honolulu to live with his materal(母亲一方的) grandparents while attending Punahou School, a private college elementary school, from the fifth grade until his graduation in 1979. Obama’s mother, Ann, died of cancer a few months after the publication of his 1995 memoir(传记), Dreams from My Father.
In the memoir, Obama describes his experiences growing up in his mother’s middle class family. Of his early childhood, Obama writes, “That my father looked nothing like the people around me---that he was black as pitch(沥青), my mother white as milk .”
Some of his fellow students at Punahou School later told the Honolulu Star—Bulletin that Obama was mature(成熟的) for his age as a high school student and that he sometimes attended parties and other events in order to connect with African American college students and military service people.
When Obama was a child, _________.

A．people used to call him Berry

B．his father died of serious illness

C．his father became a finance minister of America

D．his parents attended Harvard University

Which of the following is TURE about Lolo Soetoro?

A．He got college education in Indonesia

B．He is a person from Kenya in Africa

C．He is Obama’s stepfather and is a black

D．He is a foreign student in America

Obama’s mother, Ann, died of cancer in about ________ while his father died in _________.

A．1982; 1967

B．1967; 1982

C．1979; 1967

D．1995; 1982

Which of the following is NOT true?

A．Obama’s father was very black while his mother very white

B．Obama’s materal grandparents lived in Honolulu of Indonesia

C．Obama wanted to be president because he liked making people happy

D．Obama’s classmates thought he was mature for his age as a high school student

Sometimes there doesn’t seem to be enough rain. Other times there is too much. Maybe thereisn’t a lot we can do to control the rain, but there is a lot we can do to reduce problems caused bydifferent rainfall patterns.
A new development at the London Wetland Centre in Barnes solves the problems of managingwater with a “Rain Garden”. We are likely to be hearing about it a lot more often over the next fewyears. The idea is that the garden owner can store rainwater and use it in dry periods. They canreduce the problems caused by extra rain this way.
One of the key problems that the rain garden tries to deal with is the problem caused by toomuch water in the street. In a natural environment, a lot of rainwater is sent back into the air byplants. Much is also absorbed deep into the ground, and flows into streams and rivers. What happensin city environments can be completely different —— a large amount of rainwater flows straight offthe hard surfaces of roofs and roads. The harder the rain, the less likely it will be absorbed into theground —— floods are the result. Rainwater running off roads is often polluted.
The rain garden deals with living plants rather than hard surfaces. Plants are designed to holdwater and release it slowly, either into the ground, to be absorbed by plant roots (and so eventuallyback up into the atmosphere) or to go down into the water table. Not only does the rain gardenreduce the amount of water that flows onto the street, but it helps to clean it because plants are very goodat breaking down pollutants(污染物).
What’s the main idea of the first paragraph?

A．Explaining why there is a lack of rain at times.

B．Introducing several different patterns of rainfall.

C．Telling us how to avoid problems caused by rain.

D．Giving the idea that there are ways to manage rain water.

According to the second paragraph, “Rain Gardens" are likely to _____.

A．harm the environment in the short run

B．become popular over the next few years

C．be turned down by most new developments

D．be too expensive for common people to accept

We can learn from the third paragraph that _____.

A．floods are often the results of small rains

B．a heavy rain is less difficult for plants to absorb

C．the rain garden helps send rainwater back into the air

D．larger amounts of rainwater flow straight off in city environments

According to the last paragraph, what does the rain garden help to clean?

A．The plants

B．The ground.

C．The water.

D．The street.

As Apple tries to maintain its growth and success in China, the world's largest smart-phone market is becoming even more critical. Apple's shares(股份) fell sharply as the company's earnings for the holiday quarter through December disappointed investors.
The sales of the iPhone, which include both the iPhone 5 and older models, came in at the low end of analysts' expectations, while the company's income plan for the second quarter was below analysts' forecasts, though Apple is known to give conservative (保守的) forecasts.
Some analysts have said that for Apple to regain its growth, the company needs a more aggressive strategy(进攻型策略) for markets, or more specifically for China, where the market for smart phones has been expanding more rapidly than anywhere else. In China, demand is particularly great for inexpensive phones that run on Android(安卓) operating system, sold by many Chinese phone makers as well as South Korea's Samsung Electronics Co.
But Apple says it's already enjoying strong growth in China. "We saw big growth in iPhones," Chief Executive Tim Cook said. He said that the company has been quickly expanding its sales channels in China, including the number of Apple stores. "This isn't nearly what we need, we're not even close to that, but we're making great progress.” he said.
In China, a big missing piece for Apple is China Mobile Ltd. , the biggest local telecom carrier that doesn't yet sell the iPhone. Earlier this month, Mr. Cook met China Mobile Chairman Xi Guohua in Beijing and discussed cooperation, stirring hopes that the world's largest mobile carrier may soon start offering the iPhone.
Earlier this month, the Wall Street Journal reported that Apple is working on a lower-end iPhone that could launch as early as this year. But one possible challenge for Apple in China is that low-priced Android-based phones are getting better in terms of quality. A report from CLSA in late November showed that many smart-phones sold at about1,000 yuan ($160) came with higher- resolution screens, better cameras and more powerful processors than phones at that price did a year earlier.
Apple's shares dropped sharply because in December______________.

A．the iPhone wasn't popular in China

B．its product quality was widely criticized

C．the earnings for the holiday quarter was disappointing

D．the investors were not satisfied with Apple's management

What can we learn from the passage?

A．Apple tends to offer a lower sales forecast.

B．China Mobile Ltd began to team up with Apple.

C．Cook is pessimistic about what Apple did in China.

D．Apple didn't take measures to develop Chinese market.

The author uses the report from CLSA to prove _____.

A．their prices are actually lower than a year earlier

B．Apple in China has ability to deal with any problem

C．low-ended Android-based phones are progressing fast

D．the promotion of lower-end iPhone will face a challenge

The main purpose of the passage is to show the readers ______________.

A．Apple's high popularity in China

B．the challenge Apple faces in China

C．the approaching failure Apple will suffer in China

D．Apple's aggressive strategy in its market expansion

There have been big changes in the attitudes of most parents over the last few years. Physical punishment is banned in schools in most countries, and in many countries, there are moves to ban all physical punishment of children even at home. However, many parents still believe that they have the right to use some physical punishments to deal with certain misbehavior at certain ages.
It’s easy to find reasons to allow some physical punishments. One issue is that many parents find it very difficult to abandon physical punishment completely. Parents argue that this was the way they were brought up and that it didn’t do any harm to them. They believe that for the child’s sake they have the right to discipline the child in any way they consider fit, including using some physical punishments. The other one is that physical punishment can be quick and effective. There is not much point reasoning with a screaming child in the supermarket.
However, there are several reasons why we should stop using physical punishment. One point is that most parents are not trained to deal with misbehaving children. They don’t have enough resources or choices to handle the situation. As a result, they immediately react by hitting the child even if there are other solutions to the problem. Another point is that unless people are challenged or forced to change their belief, they may keep following negative habits. An example is seat belt use —now most people wear seat belts without thinking, while years ago the idea of using seat belts was strange to most people. In the same way, banning physical punishment will force people to change their habits.
In conclusion, parents have to change some of their belief and ideas about how children should be raised. It is possible to avoid the use of physical force, and doing so will help us move closer to the dream of removing violence from our society.
According to the first paragraph, many parents think that ____________.

A．they are free to use physical punishment on their children

B．most of the children behave badly in their daily life

C．they have changed their attitudes towards their children

D．physical punishment is effective to educate their children

Many parents won’t give up physical punishment because _____________.

A．they are disappointed with their children

B．they were brought up just in the same way

C．they don’t want to hurt their children badly

D．they don’t know what to do with their children

The author gives the example of using seat belts in order to show ____________.

A．most people are used to wearing seat belts

B．it’s not difficult to change some negative habits

C．seat belts are really very necessary and useful

D．people won’t change their old habits unless forced

The main purpose of the author in writing this passage is to ____________.

A．talk about a ban on using physical punishment

B．tell us we should educate our children in other ways

C．advise parents to give up using physical punishment

D．suggest physical punishment should be used at home