Last August, Joe and Mary Mahoney began looking at colleges for their 17-year-old daughter, Maureen. With a checklist of criteria in hand, the Dallas family looked around the country visiting half a dozen schools. They sought a university that offered the teenager’s intended major, one located near a large city, and a campus where their daughter would be safe.
“The safety issue is a big one,” says Joe Mahoney, who quickly discovered he wasn’t alone in his worries. On campus tours other parents voiced similar concerns, and the same question was always asked: what about crime? But when college officials always gave the same answer — “That’s not a problem here.” — Mahoney began to feel uneasy.
“No crime whatsoever?” comments Mahoney today. “I just don’t buy it.” Nor should he: in 2008 the U.S. Department of Education had reports of nearly 600,000 serious crimes on or around our campuses. “Parents need to understand that times have changed since they went to colleges,” says David Nichols, author of Creating a Safe Campus. “Campus crime mirrors the rest of the nation.”
But getting accurate information isn’t easy. Colleges must report crime statistics (统计数字) by law, but some hold back for fear of bad publicity, leaving the honest ones looking dangerous. “The truth may not always be obvious,” warns S. Daniel Carter of Security on Campus, Inc., the nation’s leading campus safety watchdog group.
To help concerned parents, Carter promised to visit campuses and talk to experts around the country to find out major crime issues and effective solutions.
The Mahoneys visited quite a few colleges last August ______.
A.to express the opinions of many parents |
B.to choose a right one for their daughter |
C.to check the cost of college education |
D.to find a right one near a large city |
It is often difficult to get correct information on campus crime because some colleges
______.
A.receive too many visitors |
B.mirror the rest of the nation |
C.hide the truth of campus crime |
D.have too many watchdog groups |
We learn from the text that “the honest ones” in the fourth paragraph most probably refers to colleges ______.
A.that are protected by campus security |
B.that report campus crimes by law |
C.that are free from campus crime |
D.the enjoy very good publicity |
What is the text mainly about?
A.Exact campus crime statistics. |
B.Crimes on or around campuses. |
C.Effective solutions to campus crime. |
D.concerns about kids’ campus safety. |
Mr. Robinson had to travel somewhere on business and as he was in a hurry, he decided to go by air. He liked to sit beside a window when he was flying. So, when he got on to the plane, he looked for a window seat. He found all of them had already been taken except one. There was a soldier sitting in the seat beside this one and Mr. Robinson was happy that he had not taken the one by the window; but, anyhow, he at once went towards it. When he reached it, however, he saw there was a notice on it. It was written in ink and said “This seat is reserved for proper load balance. Thank you.” Mr. Robinson had never seen such a notice in a plane before, but he thought that the plane must be carrying something heavy in its baggage room which made it necessary to have the passengers properly balanced, so he walked on and found another empty seat, not beside a window, to sit in. Then, when the plane was quite full, a very beautiful girl stepped into the plane. The soldier quickly took the notice off the seat beside him and in this way succeeded in having the girl beside him during the whole trip. When he got on the plane he was happy to find that _______.
A.a notice was put in a window seat |
B.some of the seats were not occupied |
C.there was a seat that he had hoped to have |
D.the plane was not very crowded |
Which of the following is TRUE according to the passage?
A.Mr. Robinson was the last passenger to get on board the plane. |
B.Mr. Robinson was surprised to see the notice in the seat. |
C.The window seats were all occupied when Mr. Robinson got on hoard the plane. |
D.The plane Mr. Robinson took was heavily loaded with luggage. |
In the end Mr. Robinson found out that _________.
A.the notice was put on the seat by the soldier. |
B.the solider was waiting for his girl friend |
C.the girl was the last passenger who got on the plane. |
D.the seat by the window was kept for the last passenger. |
This short passage may be taken from a _____.
A.novel | B.news report | C.science fiction | D.magazine. |
For years we have been told that encouraging a child’s self-respect is important to his or her success in life. But child experts are now learning that too much praise can lead to the opposite effect. Praise-aholic kids who expect it at every turn may become teens who seek the same kind of approval from their friends when asked if they want to go in the backseat of the car.
The implication(含义) of saying “You are the prettiest girl in class,” or talking about the goals she scored but not her overall effort, is that you love her only when she looks the best, scores the highest, achieves the most. And this carries over to the classroom.
Social psychologist Carol Dweck, PHD, tested the effects of over-praise on 400 fifth graders while she was at Columbia University. She found that kids praised for “trying hard” did better on tests and were more likely to take on difficult assignments than those praised for being “smart”.
“Praising attributes(品质) or abilities makes a false promise that success will come to you because you have that quality, and it devalues effort, so children are afraid to take on challenges,” says Dweck, now at Stanford University, “They figure they’d better quit while they’re ahead.”The underlined words “Praise-aholic kids” refer to kids who are ______.
A.tired of being praised | B.worthy of being praised |
C.very proud of being praised | D.extremely fond of being praised |
The author quoted Dr.Dweck’s words in the last paragraph in order to make the article ______.
A.better-known | B.better-organized |
C.more persuasive | D.more interesting |
We can infer from the passage that _______.
A.praise for efforts should be more encouraged |
B.praise for results works better than praise for efforts |
C.praising a child’s achievements benefits his or her success in life |
D.praising a child’s abilities encourages him or her to take on challenges |
Teachers and parents usually call attention to the pictures when they read storybooks to pre-school children. But a new study suggests that calling attention to the words and letters on the page may lead to better readers.
The two-year study compared children who were read in this way in class with children who were not. Those whose teachers most often discussed the print showed clearly higher skills in reading, spelling and understanding. These results were found one year and even two years later.
Shayne Piasta, an assistant professor of teaching and learning at Ohio State University, was an author of the study. She says most pre-school teachers would find this method manageable and would need only a small change in the way they teach. They already read story-books in class. The only difference would be increased attention to the printed text. “If you get children to pay attention to letters and words, it makes sense that they will do better at word recognition and spelling.” But she says research suggests that very few parents and teachers do this in a systematic way.
More than 300 children aged four and five were observed in classrooms. They came from poor families and were below average in their language skills. For thirty weeks, the children took part in a program called Project STAR--- Sit Together and Read. The project is based at Ohio State. It tests the short-term and long-term results of reading regularly to pre-school children in their classrooms.
There are different ways that adults can talk to children about print. They can point to a letter and discuss it, and even trace the shape with a finger. They can point out a word and discuss the meaning of the print or how the words tell the story. And they can talk about the organization of the print--- for instance, showing how words are written left to right in English. What do we know about the ways pre-school children are usually taught?
A.More attention is paid to the pictures ,with words and letters being ignored. |
B.Preference is given to the shape of letters and the organization of the print. |
C.The focus of the teaching is on bringing them up to be good readers. |
D.Equal attention is paid to the texts and the pictures. |
What does Shayne Piasta suggest pre-school teachers should do in class?
A.Teach children how to draw pictures to get an idea of what they mean. |
B.Change the way they teach and pay more attention to words and letters. |
C.Adopt different methods according to the students’ difference in reading skills. |
D.Read storybooks to children rather than explain the meaning of the pictures. |
Which of the following is TRUE about the study on language skills of pre-school children?
A.Many teachers want to change their way of teaching pre-school children. |
B.Attention on the pictures has made the children uninterested in reading. |
C.Project STAR aims to research into the results of reading books to pre-school children in the classroom. |
D.Teachers are often prevented from taking different approaches to language teaching. |
Which section of a magazine does the passage probably come from?
A.Fashion. | B.Economy . | C.Entertainment. | D.Education. |
Online Money Earning
Yes you can earn money online without any investment or without anytime limit. I have many useful easy methods for earning easy money while we all spend our useful time on the Internet by surfing, chatting, downloading and other work. There is no need to stop any other work. We can earn with or without our daily routine. Here I tell you the complete method for online earning.
First Method
Earn money with “Bux. to”. You can earn money through “Bux.to” by clicking on ads on “Bux. to” site. First you need to open an account at “Bux. to”.
“Bux. To” is a new international and FREE English based service that allows advertisers to reach thousands of potential customers by displaying their ads on our “Surf Ads” page. An exact calculated percentage of all advertising income is paid to our members. “Bux. to” makes money through advertising.
How you make money
You view websites in 30 seconds through the “Surf Ads” page. Once the 30 seconds is up, you’ll either get a green tick(对号) sign or a red “x”. The green tick sign means you’ve earned $0.01and the “x” means you have not earned money for the visit. You’ll get red x’s when you have more than one websites from the “Surf Ads” page open. When this happens, you get no credit.
Earnings example
You click 10 ads per day =$0.10
20 referrals(转送) click 10 ads per day =$2.00
Your daily earnings =$2.10
Your weekly earnings =$14.70
Your monthly earnings =$63.00
How to get paid
If you have at least $10.00 accumulated, you can click on your account balance within your states area and it will meet your request. At present, it only makes payments through “AlertPay”. It will soon be using other methods of payment.
AlertPay is the payment processing solution that we use to pay members. Your AlertPay address is the e-mail address you use to register with AlertPay. You can get a free AlertPay account at http:// alertpay. com.
Method 2 will publish soon… What is the author’s purpose of writing this passage?
A.To tell an interesting story. |
B.To introduce a surprising way to earn money. |
C.To solve a puzzling problem. |
D.To present an exciting research. |
You can earn money by ________.
A.chatting online | B.advertising some products |
C.clicking on advertisement | D.choosing green ticks or x’s |
The underlined word “accumulated” can be replaced by “_________”.
A.wasted | B.spent | C.lost | D.gathered |
What can we know from the passage?
A.You’ll earn $0.10 if you click 1 ad. |
B.You’ll get many green ticks if you have many websites open. |
C.You can get your payments through AlertPay. |
D.Your AlertPay account is not for free. |
Recently, South Korean star PSY’s ‘Gangnam style” video has been popular on the Internet. It has become most people’s favorite music.
In fact, the song has set the Guinness World Record for the most popular video in the history of the Internet. More than two million people have said “like” since the song was on the Internet on July 15.
PSY”s special dance moves and funny horse riding style have attracted many people. Although many people do not understand the language, the video has become the talk of the Internet. The song has come to first place in the music charts(排行榜) in 31 countries, including the United States, the United Kingdom, and Canada.
“I just sang for my South Korean fans. I have never expected it to be popular in other countries,” PSY told the reporters on a concert. The song was so popular that a few of South Korean’s politicians showed PSY’s moves to attract supporters.
“The song came out in mid-July. It sings about the rich life of South Korea —especially Gangnam in Soeoul, where a lot of rich people live.
Millions of people have watched the video. Many stars, such as Katy Perry, Robbie Williams and Nelly Furtado said that they love the song. These stars performed part of the song at a recent concert.
Riding high on the success of “Gangnam Style”, PSY was signed by Scooter Braun to Braun’s Schoolboy Records, a label distributed by Universal Republic.
PSY has written many hit songs of varying styles for different singers. Prior to “Gangnam Style” his most famous composition perhaps was Lee Seung Gi’s debut(首次亮相) song “Because You Are My Woman”.What makes PSY’s “Gangnam Style” the famous music of millions of people?
A.The song has set the Guinness World Record. |
B.The song has come to first place in the music chart. |
C.They like the dance moves and the horse riding style. |
D.They don’t understand the words of the song. |
Why did some of South Korea’s politicians show PSY”s moves?
A.They wanted to tell people that they were also fond of music. |
B.They wanted people to support them. |
C.They were PSY’s fans. |
D.They liked PSY’s dancing style. |
What’s “Gangnam Style” about?
A.The way of horse riding. |
B.The rich life of people of Gangnam in Seoul. |
C.The Guinness World Record. |
D.The love of stars. |
What is the best title of the passage?
A.Life of the Music Star PSY |
B.“Gangnam Styly” —— Most people’s favorite Music |
C.PSY’s Famous Compositions |
D.Meaning of “Gangnam Style” |