BINGHAM REGIONAL COLLEGE
International Students’ Orientation Programme
What is it?
It is a course which will introduce you to the College and to Bingham. It takes place in the week before term starts, from 24th-28th September, but you should plan to arrive in Bingham on the 22nd or 23rd September.
Why do we think it is important?
We want you to have the best possible start to your studies and you need to find out about all the opportunities that college life offers. It will enable you to get to know the college, its facilities and services. You will also have a chance to meet staff and students.
How much will it cost?
* International students (non-European Union students)
For those students who do not come from European Union (EU) countries, and who are not used to European culture and customs, the progamme is very important and you are strongly advised to attend. Because of this, the cost of the programme, without accommodation, is built into your tuition fees.
* EU students
EU students are welcome to take part in this programme without accommodation for ￡195.
Accommodation costs (international and EU students)
The cost of accommodation for one week is ￡165
If you have booked accommodation for the year ahead (41 weeks) through the college, you do not have to pay extra for accommodation. You can ask us to pre-book accommodation for you one week only in a hotel with other International students.
What is included during the programme?
Meals: lunch and an evening meal are provided as part of the programme. Please note that breakfast is not available.
Information: including such topics as accommodation, health, religious matters, study skills, and other necessary information.
Social activities: including a welcome party and a half day trip round Bingham.Who is encouraged to attend the course according to the ad?
| A．Those who are less prepared for their examination |
| B．Those who want to improve their social lives |
| C．Those who are not familiar with their future college. |
| D．Those who want to make up their missed lessons. |
It is better for Non-European Union students to take part in the programme because _______
| A．they don’t have to pay for the course |
| B．it offers them opportunities to know more about European culture |
| C．they can save the cost of accommodation while they are studying |
| D．it is difficult for them to be accepted by the natives in Binghama |
If a student plans to take the course, he has to arrive in Bingham at least ___________ days in advance before term starts.
| A．2 | B．4 | C．5 | D．6 |
Which of the following might NOT be included in the programme?
| A．Learning how to study in the college | B．Looking for a part-time job in neighborhood. |
| C．Understanding some taboos(禁忌)in European society． | D．Travelling around Bingham. |
Diana Jacobs thought her family had a workable plan to pay for college for her 21-year-old twin sons: a combination of savings, income,
scholarships, and a modest amount of borrowing. Then her husband lost his job, and the plan fell apart.
"I have two kids in college, and I want to say 'come home,' but at the same time I want to provide them with a good education," says Jacobs.
The Jacobs family did work out a solution: They asked and received more aid form the schools, and each son increased his borrowing to the maximum amount through the federal loan (贷款) program. They will each graduate with $20,000 of debt, but at least they will be able to finish school.
With unemployment rising, financial aid administrators expect to hear more families like the Jacobs. More students are applying for aid, and more families expect to need student loans. College administrators are concerned that they will not have enough aid money to go around.
At the same time, tuition（学费）continues to rise. A report from the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education found that college tuition and fees increased 439% from 1982 to 2007, while average family income rose just 147%. Student borrowing has more than doubled in the last decade,
"If we go on this way for another 25years, we won't have an affordable system of higher education," says Patrick M. Callan, president of the center. "The middle class families have been financing it through debt. They will send kids to college whatever it takes, even if that means a huge amount of debt."
Financial aid administrators have been having a hard time as many companies decide that student loans are not profitable enough and have stopped making them. The good news, however, is that federal loans account for about three quarters of student borrowing, and the government says that money will flow uninterrupted.
| 1． |
According to Paragraph 1, why did the plan of Jacobs family fail?
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| 2． |
How did the Jacobs manage to solve their problem?
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| 3． |
Financial aid administrators believe that.
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| 4． |
What can we learn about the middle class families from the text?
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| 5． |
According to the last paragraph, the government will.
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Tim Richter and his wife, Linda, had taught for over 30 years near Buffalo, New York--he in computers, she in special education. "Teaching means everything to us," Tim would say. In April1998, he learned he would need a heart operation. It was the kind of news that leads to some serious thinking about life's purpose.
Not long after the surgery, Tim saw a brochure describing Imagination Library, a program started by Dolly Parton' s foundation (基金会) that mailed a book every month to children from birth to age five in the singer's home town of Sevier, Tennessee.“I thought, maybe Linda and I could do something like this when we retire," Tim recalls. He placed the brochure on his desk, "as a reminder."
Five years later, now retired and with that brochure still on the desk, Tim clicked on imagination library .com. The program had been opened up to partners who could take advantage of book and postage discounts.
The quality of the books was of great concern to the Richters. Rather than sign up online, they went to Dollywood for a look-see. “We didn’t want to give the children rubbish,” says Linda. The books-reviewed each year by teachers, literacy specialists and Dollywood board members-included classics such as Ezra Jack Keats’s The Snowy Day and newer books like Anna Dewdney’s Llama Llama series.
Satisfied, the couple set up the Richter Family Foundation and got to work. Since 2004, they have shipped more than 12,200 books to preschoolers in their in their area. Megan Williams, a mother of four, is more than appreciative: “This program introduces us to books I’ve never heard of .”
The Richters spend about ＄400 a month sending books to 200 children. “Some people sit there and wait to die,” says Tim. “Others get as busy as they can in the time they have left.”
What led Tim to think seriously about the meaning of life?
| A．His health problem. | B．His love for teaching. |
| C．The influence of his wife. | D．The news from the Web. |
What did Tim want to do after learning about Imagination Library?
| A．Give out brochures. | B．Do something similar. |
| C．Write books for children | D．Retire from being a teacher. |
According to the text, Dollly Parton is .
| A．a well-known surgeon | B．a mother of a four-year-old |
| C．a singer born in Tennessee | D．a computer programmer |
Why did the Richters go to Dollywood?
| A．To avoid signing up online. |
| B．To meet Dollywood board members. |
| C．To make sure the books were the newest. |
| D．To see if the books were of good quality. |
What can we learn from Tim’s words in the last paragraph?
| A．He needs more money to help the children. |
| B．He wonders why some people are so busy. |
| C．He tries to save those waiting to die. |
| D．Hconsiders his efforts worthwhile. |
Arthur Miller(1915-2005)is universally recognized as one of the greatest dramatists of the 20th century. Miller`s father had moved to the USA from Austria Hungary．Drawn like so many other by the"Great American Dream"However, he experienced severe financial hardship when his family business was ruined in the Great Depression of the earlv l930s.
Milles's most famous play, Death of a SaIesman, is a powerful attack on the American system.with its aggressive way of doing business and its insistence on money and social status as indicators of worth. In Willy Loman, the hero of the play, we see a man who has got into double with his worth. Willy is "burnt out" and in the cruel world of business there is no room for sentiment : if he can't do the work, then he is no good to his employer, the Wagner Company, and he must go. Willy is painfully aware of this, and at loss as to what to do with his lack of sucess. He refuses to face the fact that he has failed and kills himself in the end.
When it was first staged in 1949 ,the play was greeted with enthusiastic revews,and it won the Tony Award for Best Play,the New York Drama Critics` Circle Award,and the Pulitzer Prize for Drama.It was the first play to win all three of these major awards.
Millerl died of hear failure at his home in Roxbury,Connecticut,on the evening of February 10,2005,the 56th anniversary of the first performance of Death of a Salesman on Broadway.
| 1． |
Why did Arthur Miller' s father move to the USA?
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| 2． |
The play Death of a Salesman
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| 3． |
What can we learn about Willy Loman?
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| 4． |
After it was first staged, Death of a Salesman
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| 5． |
What is the text mainly about?
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Which are you more likely to have wath you at sny given mement—your cell phone or your wallet? Soon you may be able to throw your wallet away and pay for things with a quick wave of your smart phone over an electroue scannet.
In January, Starbucks announced that customers could start using their phones to buy coffee in 6,800 of its states. This is the first pay-by-phone practice in the U.S., but we’re likely to see more witeless payment alternatives as something called ucar field communcation(NFC)GETS IN TO America’s consumet electanies. Last Deccmbet some new smart phanes which cantain an NFC chip were introduced to the public.
Already in use in part of Asia and Europe, NFC allows shoppers to wave theie phones a few inchs above a payment terminal-a contact-free system build for speed and convenience. plan a few incees live a payment tetminal a one a few ptaht need to be worked out, like who will get to collect the profitable trunsacian(交易)fees. Although some credit card providers have been experimenting with wave and pay systems that use NFC enabled credit cards, cellphone service providers truay try to mused their way into the point of sale (POS)market. Three big cell phone service providers have formed a joinf tenture(合资企业)that will go into opention over the next 15 months. Its goal is“to lead the U.S. payments industry from cards to mobile phone.”
The other big NFC sue, apart from how paymeats will be processed, is security, For instance, what’s to stop a thief from digitally pickpocketing you? “We’re still not at the point where an attacker can just brush against yee in a crowd and steal all the money out of your phone,”says Jimmy Shah. A mobile security rescarcher, “Usera may also be able to set transaction timeits,requiring a password to be enteced for larger putchases.
Bussiness? Keep in mund you lost your smart phone, it can be located on a located on a map and remotely disabled. Plus, your phone can be password protected, Your wallet isn’t.What is predicted to happen in the U.S.?
| A．The expansion of cellphone companices. |
| B．The boom of pay by phone business. |
| C．The dissppearanceof credit cards. |
| D．The increase of Starbucks sales.s |
The NFC technology can be used to________.
| A．ensure the safety of shoppers |
| B．collect transaction fees easily |
| C．make purchase faster and smpler |
| D．improve the quality of cellphones |
Three cellphone service providers form a joint venture to__________.
| A．strengthen their relationship |
| B．get a share in the payments industry |
| C．sell more cellphones |
| D．test the NFC teehnoingy |
According to the what can users do if they lose their smart phones?
| A．Stop the luneting of niet phones. |
| B．Stop a passwant. |
| C．Cat all the money out of their phones. |
| D．Can large purchases. |
Feeling blue about world ? “Cheer up.” Says science writer Matt Ridley.”The world has never been a better place to live in, and it will keep on getting better both for humans and got nature.”
Ridley calls himself a tat ional optimist—tactical .because he’s carefully weighed the evidence optimistic .because that offence shows human progress to be both unavoidable and good .And this is what he’s set out to prone from unique point of view in his most recent book. The Rant anal Opting .He views mankind as grand enterprise that .on the whole .has done little but progress for 100.000 years. He backed his finding with hard gathered though years of research.
Here’s how he explains his views.
Shopping fuels invention
It is reported that there are more than ten billion different producers for sale in London alone. Even allowing for the many people who still live in poverty .our own generation has access to more nutritious food .more convenient transport .bigger houses, better ears .and of course, more pounds and dollars than any who lived before us .This will continue as long as we there things to make other things, This more we specialize and exchange, the better off we’ll be.
2) Brilliant advances
One reason we are richer, healthier, taller, cleverer, longer-lived and freer than ener before is that the four most basie human needs -food, clothing, fuel and shelter- have grown a lot cheaper. Take one example. In 1800 a candle providing one hour’s light cost six hours’ work. In the 1880s the same light from an oil lamp took 15 minutes’ work to pay for. In 1950 it was eight seconds. Today it’s half second.
3) Let’s not kill ourselves for climate change
Mitigating(减轻) climate change could prove just as damaging to human welface as climate change itself. A child that dies from indoor smoke in a village, where the use of fassil-fuel(化石燃料) electrieity is forhidden by well meaming members of green polucal movements trying to save the world, is just as great a tragedy as a child that mes in a flood caused by climate change. If chmaic change proves to be xxxx, but cutting carbon canses realparn, we may well find that we have stopped a nose bleed by putting a tournquet(止血带) around our necks.What is the theme of Ridley’s most recent book?
| A．Weakness of human nature. |
| B．Concern about climate change. |
| C．Importance of practical thinking. |
| D．Optimism about human progress. |
How does Ridley look at shopping?
| A．It encourages the creation of things. |
| B．It results in shortage of goods. |
| C．It demands more fossil fuels. |
| D．It causes a poverry problem. |
The candle and lamp example is used to show that .
| A．oil lamps give off more light than candles |
| B．shortening working time brings about a happier life. |
| C．advanced technology helps to produce better candles. |
| D．increased production rate leads to lower cost of goods. |
What does the last sentence of the passage imply?
| A．Cutting carbon is necessary in spite of the huge cost. |
| B．Overreaction to cliamate change may be dangerous. |
| C．People’s health is closely related to climate change. |
| D．Careless medical treatment may cause great pain. |