This year’s Newsweek list of the top 100 high schools shows that today those with fewer students are rising.
Ten years ago, when the first Newsweek Top School List based on college-level test participation was published, only three of the top 100 schools had graduating classes smaller than 100 students. This year there are 22.
Fifty years ago, they were the latest thing in educational reform: big, modern high schools outside the cities with thousands of students. Big schools meant economic efficiency, a greater choice of courses, and better football teams. But only years later did we understand that it involved the difficulty of strengthening personal connections between teachers and students. SAT scores began dropping; on average, 30% of students did not complete high school in four years, a figure that rose to 50% in poor city neighborhoods. High schools for a variety of reasons seemed to have made little progress.
Size isn’t everything, but it does matter, and the past decade has seen a noticeable trend toward smaller schools. This has been partly due to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which has invested $1.8 billion in American high schools, helping to open about 1,000 small schools — most of them with about 400 kids, each with an average enrollment of only 150 students per grade. About 500 more are on the drawing board. Districts all over the country are taking notice, along with mayors in cities like New York, Chicago and San Diego. And most noticeable of all, there is the phenomenon of large urban and suburban high schools that have split up into smaller units of a few hundred.
Hillsdale High School in San Mateo, California, is one of those ranking No.423 — among the top 2% in the country. In 2003, Hillsdale remade itself into three “houses”. 300 students arriving ninth graders are randomly assigned to one of the houses, where they will keep the same four core subject teachers for two years before moving on to another for 11th and 12th grades. Teachers meet with students in groups of 25, five mornings a week, for open-ended discussions of everything from homework problems to bad Saturday-night dates. The advisers also meet with students privately and stay in touch with parents. Along with the new structure came the percentage of freshmen taking biology jumped from 17 to 95.”It was rough for some. But by senior year, two-thirds have moved up to physics,” says Jeff Gilbert. “Our kids are coming to school in part because they know there are adults here who know them and care for them.”
But not all schools show advances after downsizing, and it remains to be seen whether smaller schools will be a cure-all solution.
Ranking schools is always controversial. Over the years this system has been criticized for its simplicity — list of top U.S. high schools was made merely according to the proportion of students taking college-level exams. This year a group of 38 superintendents (地区教育主管) from five states wrote to ask that their schools should be excluded from the calculation. “It is impossible to know which high schools are ‘the best’ in the nation,” their letter read. “Determining whether different schools do or don’t offer a high quality of education requires a look at many different measures, including students’ overall academic accomplishments, their later performance in college, and taking into consideration the unique needs of their communities.”What can we learn about the schools sponsored by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation?
| A．They are often located in poor neighborhoods. |
| B．They are popular with high-achieving students. |
| C．They are mostly small in size. |
| D．Another 150 schools invested by the Foundation are planned to be set up. |
According to Jeff Gilbert, the classes at Hillsdale were set up so that students could ______.
| A．tell their teachers what they did on weekends |
| B．experience a great deal of pleasure in learning |
| C．maintain closer relationships with their teachers |
| D．deal with the demanding biology and physics courses |
Newsweek ranks high schools according to ______.
| A．their students’ academic achievement |
| B．the number of their students admitted to college |
| C．the size and number of their graduating classes |
| D．their college-level test participation |
What attitude does the author have towards the present trend in high school education?
| A．Subjective. | B．Objective. | C．Indifferent. | D．Disapproving. |
Which of the following can be the best title for the passage?
| A．Providing Good Education for Baby Boomers |
| B．Top School List Winning National Support |
| C．Small Schools Rising in popularity |
| D．Students Meeting Higher Academic Standards |
第三部分：阅读理解（第一节15小题，第二节５小题；每小题２分，满分4０分）
第一节：阅读下面的短文，从每题所给的四个选项(A、B、C和D)中，选出最佳选项，并在答题卡上将该项涂黑。
Parents often believe that they have a good relationship with their teenagers. But last summer, Joanna and Henry noticed a change in their older son: suddenly he seemed to be talking far more to his friends than to his parents. “The door to his room is always shut.” Joanna noted.
Tina and Mark noticed similar changes in their 14-year-old daughter. “She used to cuddle up (蜷伏) with me on the sofa and talk,” said Mark. “Now we joke that she does this only when she wants something. Sometimes she wants to be treated like a little girl and sometimes like a young lady. The problem is figuring out which time is which.”
Before age 11, children like to tell their parents what’s on their minds. “In fact, parents are first on the list.” said Michael Riera, author of Uncommon Sense for Pare
nts with Teenagers. “This completely changes during the teen years.” Riera explained. “They talk to their friends first, then maybe their teachers, and their parents last.”
Parents who know what’s going on in their teenagers’ lives are in the best position to help them. To break down the wall of silence, parents should create chances to understand
what their children want to say, and try to find ways to talk and write to them. And they must give their children a mental break, for children also need freedom, though young. Another thing parents should remember is that, to be a friend, not a manager, with their children is a better way to know them.
61. “The door to his room is always shut” suggests that the son _______.
A. is always busy with his studies
B. doesn’t want to be disturbed (干扰)
C. keeps himself away from his parents
D. begins to dislike his parents
62. What troubles Tina and Mark most is that ______.
A. their daughter isn’t as lovely as before
B. they can’t read their
daughter’s mind exactly
C. they don’t know what to say to their daughter
D. their daughter talks with them only when she needs help
63. Which of the following best explains “the wall of silence” in the last paragraph?
A. Teenagers talk a lot with their friends.
B. Teenagers do not want to understand their parents.
C. Teenagers do not talk much with their parents.
D. teenagers talk little about their own lives.
When an ant dies, other ants take it out of the nest, often within an hour after its death. This behavior interests scientists and they wonder how ants know for sure—and so soon—that another ant is dead.
One scientist recently came up with a way to explain this ant behaviour. Dong-Hwan Choe is a biologist, a scientist who studies animals and plants. He found that ants have a chemical on the outside of their bodies that signals to other ants, “I'm dead—take me away” when it is dead.
But there's a question to answer: As we know, if an ant is dead, it stops moving. But when an ant is sleeping or knocked unconscious, it is also not moving. However, other ants don't move the living ant out of the nest. How do they know this ant is not dead? Choe found that ants have another chemical on their bodies, which tells nearby ants something like
, “Wait—I'm not dead yet”when 
it is not dead. Choe suspects that when an ant dies, the chemical that says, “Wait I'm not dead yet”quickly goes away. When other ants detect the“dead”chemical without the“not dead yet”chemical, they move away the body.
To test his theory , Choe and his team put different chemicals on ants. When the scientists used the “I'm dead” chemical, other ants quickly moved the treated ant away. When the scientists used the“Wait—I'm not dead yet”chemical, other ants left the treated ant alone. Choe believes this behavior shows that the“not dead yet”chemical overrides the“dead” chemical when picked up by other ants. And that when an ant dies, the “not dead yet” chemical fades away. Other nearby ants then detect the remaining“dead”chemical and remove the body from the nest.
Understanding this behavior can help scientists figure out how to stop ants 
from invading new places and causing problems.
57. What is the function of the first paragraph?
A. Leading the following paragraphs.
B. Showing the main idea of the passage.
C. Introducing the background of the passage.
D. Giving a summary of the passage.
58. Which of the following has the closest meaning to the underlined word “overrides” in the fourth paragraph?
A.is weaker than B. is stronger than C. is better than D. is worse than
59. What can we learn from the passage?
A. Living ants can also be taken away when they are not moving.
B. When an ant dies, it can tell others using a certain chemical.
C. A living ant can pretend to be dead using a special chemical.
D. Ants often use chemicals to communicate with each other.
60. Which of the following descriptions about Dong-Hwan Choe is right?
A. Choe did this study in order to stop ants from invading new places.
B.
Choe is a biologist who is only interested in animals, especially in ants.
C. Choe first came up with an idea to explain this ant behavior，and then did some tests to prove his theory.
D. Choe did the research on this ant behavior on his own
COPENHAGEN—The world is gathered in Copenhagen for the U.N. climate summit, but Denmark’s bicycle-friendly capital has also given its name to a movement of cities trying to find a kinder way to travel to and from work.
Nearly 40 percent of Copenhagen’s population cycle to work or school on ubiquitous（无处不在的） paved cycle paths. Many residents take to their bikes year-round, braving rain and snow through the winter in a city where the bicycles outnumber the people.
Amsterdam and Beijing too are known for their bicycles, but the Danish capital is where urban planners from around the world have been looking for ways to get their people out of cars and up onto bikes, an effort known as Copenhagenisation.
Klaus Bondam, Copenhagen’s technical and environmental chief, calls himself a “mega cyclist” and says the bike’s popularity stems partly from high taxes on cars which meant working-class Danes could not afford to drive in the 1930s and 1940s. “Today you’ll meet everybody on the bicycle lanes — women and men, rich and poor, old and young.” Bondam said.
The local government has during the last three years invested more than 250 million crowns ($49.42 million) in bicycle lanes and to make the traffic safer for bicyclists. Today around a third of the population drive cars to work or study, another third take public transport, while 37 percent cycle -- a figure the city aims to increase to 50 percent by 2015.
There are many benefits when citizens choose bicycles over cars: pollution and noise decline, public health improves, and more people on bikes or walking creates a sense of safety in the city. Fewer parked cars leaves more space for playgrounds, parks, shopping areas and other useful public places.
53. According to the first paragraph, Copenhagen is better known as ___________.
A. a city without cars B. a bicycle-friendly city
C. Denmark’s capital D. the U.N. climate summit
54. We can learn from the second and the third paragraph, __________.
A. there is no path for cars during rainy and snowy days
B. citizens are limited to have only one bike for each person
C. two-thirds of people in Copenhagen cycle to work or school
D. city planners try their best to encourage more citizens to ride bikes
55. Bikes are popular in Copenhagen partly because ___________.
A. the citizens are unable to afford to buy a car
B. the rich tend to keep fit by cycling to work
C. young people regard cycling a fashion to follow
D. high taxes were paid for cars in the 1930s and 1940s
56. We can learn from the passage that __________.
A. cars are forbidden to park in Copenhagen
B. more citizens tend to choose cars in Copenhagen
C. Copenhagen becomes a model for cities’ traffic
D. living standards in Copenhagen are greatly declining
World Footballer of the Year 2009
Football experts from the world have chosen Steven Gerrard, Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo, and Samuel Eto'o as the top footballers in the world. Now it's up to you to vote for the player you think is the king of World Football.
THE CANDIDATES
 |
Vote Now
WHAT THE EXPERTS SAY
＊Why I'd vote for Gerrard
“Gerrard is clearly in his prime and quite rightly rated one of the finest midfield players of his generation.” says Steve Bates, chairman of the FWA.
＊Why I'd vote for Cristiano Ronaldo
Johan Cruyff points out Ronaldo is better than George Best and Denis Law, who were two brilliant and great players in the history of United.
＊Why I'd vote for Samuel Eto'o
Piers Edwards thinks the title of World footballer should go to Samuel Eto'o.
＊Why I'd vote for Messi
Messi’s individual brilliance and year-long persistence has impressed Diego Maradona.
49. The passage is mainly intended to __________.
A. invite readers to vote for the World Footballer of 2009
B. predict the results of the vote of the World Footballer of 2009
C. tell the outstanding performance of the candidates of the World Footballer of 2009
D. share with readers the experts’ opinions on the candidates of World Footballer of 2009
50.Which of the following descriptions about the footballers is RIGHT?
A. Ronaldo has primarily played as a second attacker.
B. Eto'o scored 42 goals in the 2008-2009 season altogether.
C. Diego Maradona believed that Messi could never match him in playing style.
D. Gerrard plays an important role in Liverpool’s challenge to Premier League leaders.
51. We can learn from the passage that Ballon d'Or is __________.
A. an activity about football B. an organization of football
C. a title for excellent footballers D. a team name of football
52. Diego Maradona is more likely to vote___________ to be the World Footballer of the Year.
A. Lionel Messi B. Cristiano Ronaldo
C. Samuel Eto'o D. Steven Gerrard
A special education teacher and former police officer was honored by President Barack Obama at the White House as the 2009 National Teacher of the Year for his innovative（创新的） approach, community focus, and teamwork with other teachers. “In a global economy where the greatest job qualification isn’t what you can do, but what you know, our teachers are the key to our nation’s success,”President Obama stated.
Mullen, a ninth-through twelfth-grade special education teacher at the ARCH School in
Connecticut,is the 59th National Teacher of the Year. Mullen's goal is to provide passion, professionalism(职业特质) ,and perseverance as an educator. “A teacher can receive no greater reward than the knowledge that he or she helped recover a lost student,” Mullen remarked. He will travel for one year as a full-time national and international spokesperson for education beginning June1,2009.
The National Teacher of the Year Program focuses public attention on teaching excellence and is the oldest and most famous national honors program for teachers. ‘ACEI is a proud participant in the selection process for the National Teacher of the Year, and we are pleased to see Anthony Mullen selected. Mr. Mullen is a dedicated individual who possesses a wealth of talents and skills as a teacher. His devotion to young people, however, reaches beyond the call of duty. Mr.Mullen extends himself to adviser and guides children who need to know that they are not forgotten and that they, too, are unique and special,” stated ACEI Executive Director Diane Whitehead.
ACEI is one of 15 national education organizations that select the National Teacher of the Year from among the state teachers of the year, including those representing the District of Columbia, the Department of Defense Education Activity,and five U. S. extra state departments.
45. What is the passage mainly about?
A. A White House ceremony.B. An innovative teaching approach.
C. The 2009 National Teacher of the Year.D. The national education organizations.
46. We can learn from the first paragraph Obama stresses __________.
A. teachers’ role B. community lives
C. teachers’ teamwork D. innovative approach
47. According to Mullen, his success as an educator lies in__________.
A. being a full-time national and international spokesperson
B. providing passion, perseverance and professionalism
C. helping those who can’t find their way home
D. helping the students achieve high scores
48. It can be inferred from the passage that __________.
A. the National Teacher of the Year Program hasn't been well-known
B. ACEI is the only organization in charge of selecting excellent teachers
C. Mullen is devoted to teaching the students for the call of duty
D. Mullen's success may be due to his previous work experience