The national assistance system for poor college students is getting more effective as proved by fewer phone calls to the hotline of the National Center for Student Assistance Administration.
"Poor college students and their parents are getting more satisfied with the national assistance system," said Ma Wenhua, deputy director of the administration, on Saturday. Over the past three years, the hotline received 8,488 calls. Statistics show 62 percent of the calls were made to ask about the funding policy, while 38 percent (3,200 calls) complained local colleges had failed to abide by the rules to support the students.
Complaints were seen a year-on-year decrease from 2006 to 2008. Ma said some poor families might still overlook what they should do to get support for their child. To ensure education equality, the government has introduced a set of favorable policies to help poor students, such as scholarships, grants, student loans, tuition waivers(学费全免) and the work-study programs under which poor students are helped out in libraries, teachers' offices or service departments to earn money.
Statistics show the government spent 29.3 billion yuan last year to aid college students, up 7.6 percent from the previous year. Around 40 million persons of college students received the national aid.
The Ministry of Education of the government would ensure that no students drop out of colleges or universities because of poverty.
Among the 20 million students in the country's public and private universities and colleges last year, about 20 percent came from poor backgrounds, official figures show.The national assistance system is set up ___.
| A．for parents and students to complain |
| B．to help poor college students |
| C．for poor students to get free education |
| D．to help students find jobs |
The underlined phrase "abide by" in the second paragraph probably means ____.
| A．follow | B．break | C．bear | D．agree to |
From the passage, we know that ____.
| A．students will drop out of university because of poverty |
| B．Chinese poor college students are more satisfied with national assistance system |
| C．more and more parents are complaining about their local colleges |
| D．college students are suffering from great economic pressure |
Metrorall (地铁)
Each passenger needs a farecard to enter and go out .Up to two children under age five may travel
Free with a paying customer .
Farecard machines are in every station .Bring small bills because there are no change machines in the stations and farecard machines only provide up to $5 in change.
Get one ticket of unlimited Metrorall rides with a One Day Pass .Buy it from a farecard machine in Metro stations .Use it after 9:30 a,m. until closing on weekdays , and all day on weekends and holidays .
Hours of service
Open 5am Mon-Fri 7a.m Sat-Sun
Open midnight Sun-Thur.
Last train times vary .
Train times Posted in stations
Metrobus
When paying with exact charge , the fare is $1.35.When paying with a SmarTripⓇcard , the fare is
1.25.
Fares
Senior citizens 65 and older and disabled customers may ride for half the regular fare .On Metrorail and Metrobus , use a senior/disabled farecard or Smar/Trip Ⓡcard .For more information about buying senior .disabled farecard , SmarTripⓇcards and passes , please visit MetroOpensDoors .com or call 202-637-7000and 202-637-8000.
Senior citizens and disabled customers can get free guide on how to use proper Metrobus and Metrorall services by calling 202-962-1100.
Travel tips (提示)
. Avoid riding during weekday rush periods –before 9:30 a.m. and between 4and 6p.m.
. If you lose something on a bus or train or in a station, please call Lost &Found at 202-962-1195,What should you know about farecard machines?
| A．They start selling tickets at 9:30 a.m. |
| B．They are connected to change machines . |
| C．They offer special service to the elderly . |
| D．They make change for no more than $5. |
At what time does Metroarll stop service on Saturday ?
| A．At midnight . |
| B．At 3 a.m. |
| C．At 5 a.m. |
| D．At 7a.m. |
What is good about a SmarTripⓇcard ?
A. It is convenient for old people .
B. It saves money for its users
C It can be bought at any train
D. It is sold on the InternetWhich number should you call if you lose something on the Metro?
| A．202-962-1195 |
| B．202-962-1100 |
| C．202-637-7000 |
| D．202-637-8000 |
One of the latest trend（趋势） in American Childcare is Chinese au pairs. Au Pair in Stamford, for example, has got increasing numbers of request for Chinese au pairs from aero to around 4,000 since 2004. And that’s true all across the country.
“I thought it would be useful for him to learn Chinese at an early age” Joseph Stocke, the managing director of s company, says of his 2-year old son. “I would at least like to give him the chance to use the language in the future,” After only six months of being cared by 25-year-old woman from China, the boy can already understand basic Chinese daily expressions, his dad says.
Li Drake, a Chinese native raising two children in Minnesota with an American husband, had another reason for looking for an au pair from China. She didn’t want her children to miss out on their roots.” Because I am Chinese, my husband and I wanted the children to keep exposed to(接触) the language and culture.” she says.
“Staying with a native speaker is better for children than simply sitting in a classroom,” says Suzanne Flynn, a professor in language education of Children.”But parents must understand that just one year with au pair is unlikely to produce wonders. Complete mastery demands continued learning until the age of 10 or 12.”
The popularity if au pairs from china has been strengthened by the increasing numbers of American parents who want their children who want their children to learn Chinese. It is expected that American demand for au pairs will continue to rise in the next few years.What does that term” au pair” in the text mean?
| A．A mother raising her children on her own |
| B．A child learning a foreign language at home |
| C．A professor in language education of children |
| D．A young foreign woman taking care of children. |
Li Drake has her children study Chinese because she wants them ______.
| A．to live in China some day |
| B．to speak the language at home |
| C．to catch up wit other children |
| D．to learn about the Chinese culture |
What can we infer from the text?
| A．Learning Chinese is becoming popular In America, |
| B．Educated woman do better in looking after children |
| C．Chinese au pairs need to improve their English Skills. |
| D．Children can learn a foreign language well in six months. |
Since the first Earth Day in 1970,American have gotten a lot “greenter” toward the environment . “We didn’t know at that time there even was an environment,let alone that there was a problem with it,”says Bruce Anderson,president of Earth Day USA.
But what began as nothing important in public affairs has grown into a social movement .Business people,political leaders, university professors,and especially millions of grass-roots Americans are taking part in the movement. “The understanding has increased many ,many times,”says Gaylord Nelson,the fromer govermor from Wisconsin,who thought up the first According to US government reports , emissions (排放)from cars and trucks have dropped from 10.3 million tons a year to 5.5 tons .The number of cities producing CO beyond the standard has been reduced from 40 to 9 .Although serious problems still remain and need to be dealt with , the world is a safer and healthier place .A kind of “Green thinking ” has become part of practices .
Great improvement has been achieved .In 1988 there were only 600 recycling programs ,; today in 1995 there are about 6,600 .Advanced lights ,motors , and building designs have helped save a lot of energy and therefore prevented pollution .
Twenty –five years ago , there were hardly any education programs for environment .Today , it’s hard to find a public school , university , or law school that does not have such a kind of program .” Until we do that , nothing else will change! ” say Bruce Anderson .According to Anderson , before 1970, Americans had little idea about ___
| A．the social movement |
| B．recycling techniques |
| C．environmental problems |
| D．the importance of Earth Day |
Where does the support for environmental protection mainly come from?
| A．The grass –roots level |
| B．The business circle |
| C．Government officials |
| D．University professors |
What have Americans achieved in environmental protection ?
| A．They have cut car emissions to the lowest |
| B．They have settled their environmental problems |
| C．They have lowered their CO levels in forty cities. |
| D．They have reduced pollution through effective measures . |
What is especially important for environmental protection according to the last paragraph ?
| A．Education |
| B．Planning |
| C．Green living |
| D．CO reduction |
ArrivinginSydneyonhisownfromIndia, my husband ,Rashid, stayedina hotel for a short time while looking for a house for me and our children.
During the first week of his stay, he went out one day to do some shopping. He came back in the late afternoon to discover that his suitcase was gone. He was extremely worried as the suitcase had all his important papers, including his passport.
He reported the case to the police and then sat there，lost and lonely in strange city, thinking of the terrible troubles of getting all the paperwork organized again from a distant country while trying to settle down in a new one.
Late in the evening, the phone rang. It was a stranger. He was trying to pronounce my husband's name and was asking him a lot of questions. Then he said they had found a pile of papers in their trash can（垃圾桶）that had been left out on the footpath.
My husband rushed to their home to find a kind family holding all his papers and documents. Their young daughter had gone to the trash can and found a pile of unfamiliar papers. Her parents had carefully sorted them out, although they had found mainly foreign addresses on most of the documents. At last they had seen a half-written letter in the pile in which my husband had given his new telephone number to a friend.
That family not only restored the important documents to us that day but also restored our faith and trust in people.We still remember their kindness and often send a warm wish their way.
| 1． |
What did Rashid plan to do after his arrival in Sydney?
|
| 2． |
The girl's parents got Rashid's phone number from.
|
| 3． |
What does the underlined word"restored"in the last paragraph mean?
|
| 4． |
Which of the following can be the best title for the text?
|
Scientists today are making greater effort to study ocean currents (洋流) . Most do it using satellites and other high-tech equipment. However, ocean expert Curtis Ebbesmeyer does it in a special way -- by studying movements of random floating garbage. A scientist with many years’ experience, he started this type of research in the early 1990s when he heard about hundreds of athletic shoes washing up on the shores of the northwest coast of the United States. There were so many shoes that people were setting up swap meets to try and match left and right shoes to sell or wear.
Ebbesmeyer found out in his researches that the shoes — about 60,000 in total — fell into the ocean in a shipping accident. He phoned the shoe company and asked if they wanted the shoes back. As expected, the company told him that they didn't. Ebbesmeyer realized this could be a great experiment. If he learned when and where the shoes went into the water and tracked where they landed, he could learn a lot about the patterns of ocean currents.
The Pacific Northwest is one of the world's best areas for beachcombing(海滩搜寻) because winds and currents join here, and as a result, there is a group of serious beachcombers in the area. Ebbesmeyer got to know a lot of them and asked for their help in collecting information about where the shoes landed. In a year he collected reliable information on 1, 600 shoes. With this data, he and a colleague were able to test and improve a computer program designed to model ocean currents, and publish the findings of their study.
As the result of his work, Ebbesmeyer has become known as the scientist to call with questions about any unusual objects found floating in the ocean. He has even started an association of beachcombers and ocean experts, with 500 subscribers from West Africa to New Zealand. They have recorded all lost objects ranging from potatoes to golf gloves.The underlined phrase swap meets in Paragraph 1 is closest in meaning to ______________.
| A．fitting rooms |
| B．trading fairs |
| C．business talks |
| D．group meetings |
Ebbesmeyer phoned the shoe company to find out _____________.
| A．what caused the shipping accident |
| B．when and where the shoes went missing |
| C．whether it was all right to use their shoes |
| D．how much they lost in the shipping accident |
How did Ebbesmeyer prove his assumption?
| A．By collecting information from beachcombers. |
| B．By studying the shoes found by beachcomber. |
| C．By searching the web for ocean currents models. |
| D．By researching ocean currents data in the library. |
Ebbesmeyer is most famous for ___________________.
| A．traveling widely the coastal cities of the world |
| B．making records for any lost objects on the sea |
| C．running a global currents research association |
| D．phoning about any doubtful objects on the sea |
What is the purpose of the author in writing this passage?
| A．To call people's attention to ocean pollution. |
| B．To warn people of shipping safety in the ocean. |
| C．To explain a unique way of studying ocean currents. |
| D．To give tips on how to search for lost objects on the beach. |