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For high school leavers starting out in the working world, it is very important to learn particular skills and practice how to behave in an interview or how to find all internship(实习). In some countries, schools have programs to help students onto the path to work. In the United States, however, such programs are still few and far between.
Research shows that if high schools provide career-related courses, students are likely to get higher earnings in later years. The students are more likely to stay in school, graduate and go on to higher education.
In Germany, students as young as 13 and 14 are expected to do internships. German companies work with schools to make sure that young people get the education they need for future employment.
But in America, education reform programs focus on how well students do in exams instead of bringing them into contact with the working world. Harvard Education school professor Robert Schwartz has criticized (批评)education reformers for trying to place all graduates directly on the four-year college track. Schwartz argued that this approach leaves the country’s most vulnerable(易受影响的)kids with no jobs and no skills.
Schwartz believed that the best career programs encourage kids to go for higher education while also teaching them valuable practical skills at high school. James Madison High School in New York, for example, encourages students to choose classes on career-based courses. The school then helps them gain on-the-job experience in those fields while they’re still at high school.
However, even for teens whose schools encourage them to connect with work, the job market is daunting. In the US, unemployment rates for 16-to 19-year-olds are above 20 percent for the third summer in a row. “The risk is that if teenagers miss out on the summer job experience, they become part of this generation of teens who had trouble in landing a job,” said Michael, a  researcher in the US.
What’s the main idea of the text?

A.The lack of career-based courses in US high schools.
B.Tips on finding jobs for high school leavers.
C.Arguments about recent US education reform.
D.Advice for American high school leavers.

According to Robert Schwartz, _________.

A.there is no need for kids to go for higher education in the US
B.students should get contact with the working world at high school
C.education reform should focus on students’ performance in exams
D.teenagers in the US can’t miss out on the summer job experience

The underlined word “daunting” in Paragraph 6 most probably means __________.

A.creative B.interesting C.discouraging D.unbearable

What can be inferred from the text?

A.High school leavers with no practical skills can’t find a job at all.
B.Students with career-based courses never have problems finding a job.
C.US companies work with schools to prepare young people for future employment.
D.Unemployment rates for US teenagers remain high at the moment.
科目 英语   题型 阅读理解   难度 中等
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Do you ever pull your phone out of your pocket, thinking it is vibrating (振动) , only to find that it isn't?
This phenomenon, which scientists call " phantom (幻觉的) phone vibration" , is very common.Around 80% of people surveyed say they have imagined their phones vibrating when they were actually still.
So, what leads to this universal behavior? According to the BBC, the explanation lies in your brain's ability to discover signals from the outside world.
When your phone is in your pocket, there are two possible states: it is either vibrating or not.Meanwhile, you also have two possible states of mind: the judgment that the phone is vibrating, or that it isn't.
Ideally, you match the four states correctly.However, sometimes your brain decides that the consequences of missing a call are more serious than a "false alarm".Therefore, you become more sensitive to vibrations so that you don't miss anything.
This is just like the fire alarm in your home --- it can be annoying when it goes off in response to just a tiny bit of smoke.But that's a small price to pay compared to a fire really breaking out because the alarm fails to alert you.
Now, you might still ask: why can't our brains just make every judgment correctly without being too sensitive to false signals?
The answer is that your brain bears a heavy burden every day.“You get a large amount of sensory information that's coming from your eyes, ears and skin, and you can't deal with all that information all the time," Michael Rothberg, a researcher at Baystate Medical Center in Springfield, US, told Live Science.
For example, the rustling ( 沙沙声) of clothing or the growling (咕咕声) of your stomach may both lead your brain to believe that they come from the vibration of your phone -it is like trying to hear your name being called in a noisy room.
So, perhaps you should just check your phone whenever you think it's vibrating.It's not too much trouble to do that, is it?
According to this passage, phantom phone vibration _____.

A.is common among people with mental problems
B.can measure people's ability to collect information
C.happens when our brains react sensitively to false signals
D.helps our brains to make quick and accurate decisions

According to Michael Rothberg, which is mainly responsible for phantom phone vibration?

A.A noisy background.
B.A lack of much attention.
C.A heavy burden every day.
D.An overflow of sensory information.

Why is the fire alarm used as an example in this passage?

A.To help us understand the cause of phantom phone vibration better.
B.To show us the fire alarm is as sensitive as the phone vibration.
C.To tell us the phone vibration usually happens when a fire breaks out.
D.To convince us it's important to check our phones like checking a fire alarm.

What does the author suggest we do about phantom phone vibration?

A.We should always fully believe our own sense of listening.
B.We should just check our phones whenever we think they're vibrating.
C.We should ignore the vibration bothering when our phones are actually still.
D.We should think of the vibration carefully before we make correct judgments.

Be careful what you say around your dog. It might understand more than you think.
A border collie named Rico recognizes the names of about 200 objects, say researchers in Germany. The dog also appears to be able to learn new words as easily as a 3-year-old child. Its word-learning skills are as good as those of a parrot or chimpanzee(黑猩猩).
In one experiment, the researchers took all 200 items that Rico is supposed to know and divided them into 20 groups of 10 objects. Then the owner told the dog to go and fetch one of the items and bring it back. In four tests, Rico got 37 out of 40 commands right. As the dog couldn't see anyone to get clues, the scientists believe Rico must understand the meanings of certain words.
In another experiment, the scientists took one toy that Rico had never seen before and put it in a room with seven toys whose names the dog already knew. The owner then told Rico to fetch the object, using a word the dog had never heard before.
The correct object was chosen in seven out of l0 tests, suggesting that the dog had worked out the answer by process of elimination(排除法). A month later, Rico remembered half of the new names, which is even more impressive.
Rico is thought to be smarter than the average dog. For one thing, Rico is a border collie, a breed (品种)known for its mental abilities. In addition, the 9-year-old dog has been trained to fetch toys by their names since the age of nine months.
It's hard to know if all dogs understand at least some of the words we say. Even if they do, they can't talk back. Still, it wouldn't hurt to sweet-talk your dog every now and then. You might just get a big, wet kiss in return!
From paragraph 2 we know that __.

A.animals are as clever as human beings
B.dogs are smarter than parrots and chimpanzees
C.chimpanzees have very good word-learning skills
D.dogs have similar 'learning abilities as 3-year-old children

Both experiments show that.

A.Rico is smart enough to get all commands right
B.Rico can recognize different things including toys
C.Rico has developed the ability of learning mathematics
D.Rico won't forget the names of objects once recognizing them

Which of the following statements is true?

A.The purpose of the experiments is to show the border collie's mental abilities.
B.Rico has a better memory partly because of its proper early training.
C.The border collie is world-famous for recognizing objects.
D.Rico is born to understand its owner's commands.

What does the writer want to tell us?

A.To train your dog.
B.To talk to your dog.
C.To be friendly to your dog.
D.To be careful with your dog.

Even at school there had been an unhealthy competition between George and Richard.
“I’ll be the first millionaire in Coleford!” Richard used to boast.
“And you’ll be sorry that you knew me,” George would reply “because I’ll surely be the best lawyer in our town!”
After graduation, George never became a lawyer and Richard was anybody but a millionaire …. Instead, it happened that both men opened bookshops on opposite sides of Coleford High Street, while it was hard to make much money from books then, which made the competition between them worse. Eventually, Richard closed down his, dreaming of making a fortune elsewhere.
Now, with only one bookshop in the town, business was better for George. But sometimes he sat in his narrow old kitchen and gazed out of the dirty window, thinking about his former rival (竞争对手)。Perhaps he missed him?
George was very interested in old dictionaries, and he had recently found a collector in Australia who was selling a rare first edition. When the parcel arrived, the book was in perfect condition and George was quite delighted. But while he was having lunch, George glanced at the photo in the newspaper that the book had been wrapped in. He was astonished — the smiling face was older than he remembered but unmistakable! Trembling, George started reading: “Bookends Company has bought ten bookstores from its competitors. The company, owned by multi-millionaire Richard Pike, is now the largest bookseller in this country.”
George and Richard were at school.

A.roommates B.good friends
C.competitors D.booksellers

How did George feel about Richard after his disappearance?

A.He envied Richard’s good fortune very much.
B.He thought about Richard from time to time.
C.He felt unlucky with no more rival in the town.
D.He was unhappy of Richard’s disappearance.

George got information about Richard from .

A.a dictionary collector in Australia
B.one of Richard’s competitors
C.some rare edition of a dictionary
D.the wrapping paper of a book

What happened to George and Richard in the end?

A.Both George and Richard became millionaires by selling books.
B.Both of them realized their original ambitions, which were the same.
C.George established a successful business while Richard was missing.
D.Richard became a millionaire while George had no great success.

When Frida Kahlo's paintings were on show in London, a poet described her paintings as “ a ribbon (丝带)around a bomb”. Such comments seem to suggest Kahlo had a big influence on the art world of her time. Sadly, she is actually a much bigger name today than she was during her time.
Born in 1907 in a village near Mexico City , Kahlo suffered from polio(小儿麻痹症)at the age of seven. Her spine (脊柱)became bent as she grew older. Then, in 1925, her back was broken in several places in a school-bus accident. Throughout the rest of her life, the artist had many operations, but noting was able to cure the terrible pain in her back. However, the accident had an unexpected side effect. While lying in her bed recovering, Kahlo taught herself to paint.
In 1929, she got married to Diego Rivera, another famous Mexican artist. Rivera’s strong influences on Kahlo’s style can be seen in her early works, but her later works from the 1940s, known today as her best works, show less influence from her husband.
Unfortunately, her works did not attract much attention in the 1930s and1940s, even in her home country. Her first one-woman show in Mexico was not held until 1953. For more than a decade after her death in 1954, Kahlo’s works remained largely unnoticed by the world, but in the 1970s her works began to gain international fame at last.
What does the phrase “a much bigger name” in paragraph 1 most nearly mean?

A.a far better artist B.a much more famous person
C.a much stronger person D.a far more gifted artist

The terrible pain Kahlo suffered was caused by.

A.back injuries B.her bent spine
C.polio D.the operations she had

Kahlo’s style had become increasingly independent since the.

A.1930s B.1970s C.1950s D.1940s

What is author’s attitude toward Kahlo?

A.Devotion B.Encouragement
C.Worry D.Sympathy

Are we getting more stupid? According to Gerald Crabtree, a scientist at Stanford University in the US, we are. You may not want to hear this, but Crabtree believes that human intelligence reached its peak more than 2,000 years ago and ever since then has been going downhill. “If an average Greek from 1,000 BC were transported to modern times, he or she would be one of the brightest among us,” Crabtree told The Guardian.
At the heart of Crabtree’s thinking is a simple idea. In the past, intelligence was critical for survival when our ancestors had to avoid dangerous animals and hunt for food. The difference of being smart or stupid is often life or death. However, after the spread of agriculture, when our ancestors began to live in dense farming communities, the need to keep their intelligence in peak condition gradually reduced.
This is not hard to understand. Most of the time, pressure is what keeps us going – you need the pressure from your teachers to finish your homework; the pressure of looking pretty prompts(促使) you to lose weight when summer comes. And the same is also true of our intelligence – if we think less, we become less smart.
These mutations(变异) are harmful to our intelligence and they were all developed in the past 3,000 years. The other evidence that Crabtree holds is in our genes. He found that among the 2,000 to 5,000 genes that we have that determine human intelligence , there are two or more mutations in each of us.
However, Crabtree’s theory has been criticized by some who say that early humans may have better hunting and surviving abilities, but people today have developed a more diverse intelligence. For example, spearing a tiger doesn’t necessarily require more brainpower than playing chess or writing a poem. Moreover, the power of modern education means a lot more people have the opportunity to learn nowadays.
“You wouldn’t get Stephen Hawking 2,000 years ago. He just wouldn’t exist,” Thomas Hills of the University of Warwick, UK, told Live Science. “But now we have people of his intellectual capacity doing things and making insights(洞察力) that we would never have achieved in our environment of evolutionary adaptation.”
What is Crabtree’s recent finding according to the article?

A.The Greeks from 1,000 BC could have been the smartest in human history.
B.Our ancient ancestors had no better surviving abilities than we do nowadays.
C.Humans have been getting steadily more intelligent since the invention of farming.
D.Mutations in genes that decide human intelligence have affected the development of intelligence.

According to Crabtree, ancient humans _______.

A.had much more genes that determine human intelligence
B.were forced to be smart due to natural selection pressures
C.relied more on group intelligence than individual intelligence
D.developed a diverse intelligence to adapt to the hard realities

Some argue that Crabtree’s theory is false because they think _______.

A.people today are under much more pressure than early humans
B.it’s ridiculous to compare a hunter’s and a poet’s intelligence
C.modern education is far more advanced than ancient education
D.human intelligence nowadays is different from that of the distant past

What is Thomas Hills’ attitude toward Crabtree’s theory?

A.Supportive B.Unfavorable
C.Worried D.Confused

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