Since the 1990s, education has been required for all South Africans from age seven to fifteen. Last December, the government announced that 70% of students passed their final examination to finish high school. In 2008, the pass rate was about 63%. There have been increases each year since then.
Professor Shireen Motala says basic education is no longer a problem in South Africa. Most children stay in school until they are about sixteen. The problem is that large numbers of them leave without completing high school.
Students take an examination known as the “matric”(高考) in Grade Twelve. Professor Motala says, “Less than half of the children who started school in 2000 sat for the matric last year. Many dropped out of school, so only around 45% took the matric. And the worry is where those students actually go.” Those who drop out have to compete with better educated people for jobs.
Educational researchers also point to another problem. South African schools do not produce enough students with the skills for higher education in maths and science. Many schools are not well-equipped. Children do not see laboratories, and, as a result, their science marks are not very good. They do not have libraries at school. Also, many teachers do not have the skills or training to do their jobs.
In South Africa, a number of teachers were poorly trained before. Secondly, teachers have been confused by the many educational reform efforts in the last fifteen years. Finally, language differences in the classroom have not got as much attention as they should, which is a huge problem. Subjects such as maths and science are taught in English starting at about the age of ten. But South Africa has eleven official languages.
South Africa’s minister of basic education promises a number of improvements. Angie Motshega says teacher development efforts will focus on subject and content knowledge, making sure that the correct teachers are in the correct jobs.From the first paragraph we can learn that ______.
| A．South Africans are badly in need of education |
| B．South African teenagers do very well at school |
| C．the South African government takes education seriously |
| D．South African teenagers have become more clever |
What is the real concern of Shireen Motala?
| A．Something is wrong with the country’s basic education system. |
| B．Most children have to find a job at an early age. |
| C．The final exam is too difficult for most children. |
| D．Most children cannot complete high school until they are 16. |
South African students perform poorly in science for all of the following reasons, EXCEPT ______.
| A．they don’t work hard enough |
| B．their schools do not have laboratories |
| C．they cannot get help from libraries |
| D．there are not enough skilled teachers |
With which of the following would Shireen Motala most probably agree?
| A．Schools should focus more on maths and science than any other subject. |
| B．More educational reforms should be carried out in South African schools. |
| C．The more teachers teach maths and science, the better marks students may get. |
| D．More attention should be paid to language differences in maths and science classes. |
[1] Ashley Power’s mother bought a computer for her when she was eight. When she was thirteen, she was surfing the Internet regularly, but she couldn’t find anywhere for teenagers to meet and talk. And one day she thought, “If I had my own website, I’d make it a really interesting site for teenagers.”
[2]So, when Ashley was sixteen, she launched her own website, called Goosehead. She had no idea how big a success it would be, but three years later, the site was the most successful teen site in the USA! It was getting 100,000 hits every day, and Ashley had about 30 employees.
[3] After a few years, the website closed down. Then Ashley, who lives in Los Angeles, was asked to write a book called The Goosehead Guide to Life. The book is about how to design a website and start a business. It begins with a section called “All About Ashley,” where Ashley tells readers what it is like to be the boss of a company when you are only sixteen. “ I was so happy. But it was crazy in a lot of ways. I got very stressed. I mean, I was only sixteen — I didn’t even have a car! If you were sixteen and you had your own company, you’d be stressed, too！“
[4] In an interview Ashley gave advice to teenagers who wanted to start their own business, “Just be strong and have your dreams and work hard at them. And don’t listen when _______, because I heard ‘no’ a lot. Just keep going until you hear ‘yes’!”For what purpose did Ashley create GooseHead?(no more than 10 words)
_______________________________________________________________________________What is the main idea of Paragraph 2？ （no more than 6 words）
_______________________________________________________________________________According to paragraph 3, what did Ashley do after GooseHead closed down?(no more than 10 words)
_______________________________________________________________________________How did Ashley feel as a young boss of a company?(no more than 5 words)
_______________________________________________________________________________Fill in the blank in Paragraph 4 with proper words.
_______________________________________________________________________________
For those who are tired doing the laundry, Samsung has found an answer: a washing machine that can tell you when your laundry is done via a smartphone app(application).
Strange though it may seem - "my wife already does that" was a common response among attendees viewing the device when it was introduced at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) this week - Samsung is just one of many appliance makers racing to install (安装) a large number of internet-connected features in machines in an effort to make them "smart".
Last year, it was a refrigerator that tweeted. This year, it's Wi-Fi-enabled laundry machines and fridges that can tell you when your groceries are going bad.
The washers and dryers, available starting in the spring, connect to any smartphone through a downloadable application. The phone can then be used as a remote control, so the machines can be turned on and off while their owners is at work or on the bus.
Samsung says it's not just something new - the app connection actually has some practical uses.
"If you started to dry clothes in the morning and forgot to take them out, you can go to your phone and restart your dryer for the time when come home, so your clothes are refreshed and ready to go," said spokesperson Amy Schmidt.
The company also says that with electricity rate(电价)varying depending on the time of day, more control over when the machines are used can help save money.
Perhaps, but what they will probably really accomplish is what all good technologies do -enable laziness. Rather than getting up to check on whether the laundry is done, users will instead monitor it on their phones while watching TV.
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What can be inferred from the common response of the attendees at the CES?
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| 2． |
What can we learn about the new laundry machines?
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| 3． |
We can conclude form Samsung's statements that.
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| 4． |
What is the main idea of the last paragraph?
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San Francisco has its cable cars. Seattle has its Space Needle. And, Longview has its squirrel bridge. The bridge, which has attracted international attention, is now a local landmark.
The Nutty Narrows Bridge was built in 1963 by a local builder, Amos Peters, to give squirrels a way to cross the busy road without getting flattened by passing cars.
The original bridge was built over Olympia Way on the west edge of the library grounds. Before the bridge was built, squirrels had to avoid traffic to and from the Park Plaza office building where office staff put out a nutty feast for the squirrels. Many times, Peters and others who worked in and near Park Plaza witnessed squirrels being run over.
One day Peters found a dead squirrel with a nut still in its mouth, and that day’s coffee break discussion turned into squirrel safety. The group of businessmen cooked up the squirrel bridge idea and formed a committee to ask the blessing of the City Council(市政会).The Council approved, and Councilwoman Bess LaRiviere named the bridge “Nutty Narrows.”
After architects designed the bridge, Amos Peters and Bill Hutch started Construction, They built the 60-foot bridge from aluminum and lengths of fire hose(消防水带). It cost 1,000.
It didn’t take long before reports of squirrels using the bridge started. Squirrels were even seen guiding their young and teaching them the ropes. The story was picked up by the media, and Nutty Narrows became know in newspapers all over the world.
In 1983, after 20 years of use, Peters took down the worn-out bridge. Repairs were made and crosspieces were replaced. The faded sign was repainted and in July 1983, hundreds of animal lovers attended the completion ceremony of the new bridge.
Peters died in 1984, and a ten-foot wooden squirrel sculpture was placed near the bridge in memory of its builder and his devotion to the project. The Nutty Narrows Bridge was built in order to ________.
| A．offer squirrels a place to eat nuts |
| B．set up a local landmark |
| C．help improve traffic |
| D．protect squirrels |
What happened over the coffee break discussion?
| A．The committee got the Council’s blessing. |
| B．The squirrel bridge idea was born |
| C．A councilwoman named the bridge |
| D．A squirrel was found dead. |
What does the underlined phrase “teaching them the ropes” probably means in the text?
| A．passing them a rope |
| B．Directing them to store food for winter |
| C．Teaching them a lesson |
| D．Showing them how to use the bridge. |
Which of the following is true of the squirrel bridge?
| A．It was replaced by a longer one. |
| B．It was built from wood and metal. |
| C．it was rebuilt after years of use. |
| D．It was designed by Bill Hutch. |
What can we learn about Amos Peters?
| A．He is remembered for his love of animals. |
| B．He donated $1,000 to build the bridge. |
| C．He was a member of the City Council. |
| D．He was awarded a medal for building the bridge. |
One of the greatest contributions to the first Oxford English Dictionary was also one of its most unusual. In 1879, Oxford University in England asked Prof. James Murray to serve as editor for what was to be the most ambitious dictionary in the history of the English language. It would include every English word possible and would give not only the definition but also the history of the word and quotations (引文)showing how it was used.
This was a huge task. So Murrary had to find volunteers from Britain, the United States, and the British colonies to search every newspaper, magazine, and book ever written in English. Hundreds of volunteers responded, including William Chester Minor. Dr. Minor was an American Surgeon who had served in the Civil War and was now living in England. He gave his address as "Broadmoor, Crowthorne, Berkshire," 50 miles from Oxford.
Minor joined the army of volunteers sending words and quotations to Murray. Over the next years, he became one of the staff's most valued contributors.
But he was also a mystery. In spite of many invitations, he would always decline to visit Oxford. So in 1897， Murray finally decided to travel to Crowthorne himself. When he arrived, he found Minor locked in a book-lined cell at the Broadmoor Asylum for the Criminally insane.
Murray and Minor became friends, sharing their love of words. Minor continued contributing to the dictionary, sending in more than 10,000 submissions in 20 years. Murray continued to visit Minor regularly, sometimes taking walks with him around the asylum grounds.
In 1910, Minor left Broadmoor for an asylum in his native America. Murray was at the port to wave goodbye to his remarkable friend.
Minor died in 1920, seven years before the first edition of the Oxford English Dictionary was completed. The 12 volumes defined 414,825 words, and thousands of them were contributions from a very scholarly and devoted asylum patient.
| 1． |
According to the text, the first Oxford English Dictionary.
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| 2． |
How did Dr. Minor contributed to the dictionary?
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| 3． |
Why did Dr. Minor refuse to visit Oxford?
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| 4． |
Prof. Murray and Dr. Minor became friends mainly because.
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| 5． |
Which of the following best describe Dr. Minor?
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What does the text mainly talk about?
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The Pacific island nation of Nauru used to be a beautiful place. Now it is an ecological disaster area. Nauru’s heartbreaking story could have one good consequence — other countries might learn from its mistakes.
For thousands of years, Polynesian people lived the remote island of Nauru, far from western civilization. The first European to arrive was John Fearn in 1798. He was the British captain of the Hunter, a whaling ship. He called the island Pleasant Island.
However, because it was very remote, Nauru had little communication with Europeans at first. The whaling ships and other traders began to visit, bringing guns and alcohol. These elements destroyed the social balance of the twelve family groups on the island. A ten-year civil war started, which reduced the population from 1,400 to 900.
Nauru’s real troubles began in 1899 when a British mining company discovered phosphate (磷酸盐)on the island. In fact, it found that the island of Nauru was nearly all phosphate, which a very important fertilizer for farming. The company began mining the phosphate.
A phosphate mine is not a hole in the ground; it is a strip mine. When a company strip-mines, it removes the top layer of soil. Then it takes away the material it wants. Strip mining totally destroys the land. Gradually, the lovely island of Nauru started to look like the moon.
In 1968, Nauru became one of the richest countries in the world. Every year the government received millions and millions of dollars for its phosphate.
Unfortunately, the leaders invested the money unwisely and lost millions of dollars. In addition, they used millions more dollars for personal expenses. Soon people realized that they had a terrible problem — their phosphate was running out. Ninety percent of their island was destroyed and they had nothing. By 2000, Nauru was financially ruined. Experts say that it would take approximately $433,600,000 and more than 20 years to repair the island. This will probably never happen. What might be the author’s purpose in writing the text?
| A．To seek help for Nauru’s problems. |
| B．To give a warning to other countries |
| C．To show the importance of money |
| D．To tell a heartbreaking story of a war. |
What was Nauru like before the Europeans came?
| A．Rich and powerful | B．Modern and open |
| C．Peaceful and attractive | D．Greedy and aggressive |
The ecological disaster in Nauru resulted from _______.
| A．soil pollution | B．phosphate overmining |
| C．farming activity | D．whale hunting |
Which of the following was a cause of Nauru’s financial problem?
| A．Its leaders misused the money |
| B．It spent too much repairing the island |
| C．Its phosphate mining cost much money |
| D．It lost millions of dollars in the civil war. |
What can we learn about Nauru from the last paragraph?
| A．The ecological damage is difficult to repair. |
| B．The leaders will take the experts’ words seriously. |
| C．The island was abandoned by the Nauruans |
| D．The phosphate mines were destroyed |