An American educational expert, Frederick M. Hess, says that a long summer vacation doesn’t make sense in today’s world.
This summer, 50 million kids will spend much time talking online, watching TV, playing video games and asking older brothers or sisters to take them to the supermarket. They will also be putting their academic futures at risk.
During much of the 20th century, many Americans worked in factories that did not need a college degree but still offered a high salary. Also, in the 19th century, there was no air condition. And poor hygiene (卫生) meant that crowded schools had health risks.
Things have changed. For today’s students, academic skills are key to future success. Many countries don’t give kids an American-style summer vacation. They offer no more than seven consecutive (连续的) weeks of vacation. Most American school districts offer up to 13 weeks. To compete in global marketplace, Americans must be prepared to go up against international competitors.
Summer vacation also causes challenges for today’s families. In the 1960s, more than 60% of families had a stay-at-home mum. Now, two-thirds of American children live families where every adult works. For these families, summer vacation can be more burden than break. Someone must watch the kids.
But the biggest problem may be how summer vacation hurts academic achievement. Scientist have found that disadvantaged students lose important ground in the summertime.
A school year can allow time-limited teachers to conduct richer and more imaginative lessons. Schools would have more time for sports, languages, music and the arts.Before the 20th century, a long summer vacation might ______.
| A．reduce income for Americans |
| B．reduce health risks for students |
| C．cause career failure for Americans |
| D．cause loss in global market for America |
How long does an American-style summer vacation last？
| A．No more than two months. |
| B．Less than three months. |
| C．As long as three months. |
| D．As long as four months. |
According to the text, who will benefit from a long school year?
| A．American students, teachers and parents. |
| B．American students, parents and shop owners. |
| C．American students, parents and international competitors. |
| D．American students, teachers and international competitors. |
How many reasons did the writer give to support his/her opinion?
| A．One. | B．Two. | C．Three. | D．Four. |
The $11 billion self-help industry is built on the idea that you should turn negative thoughts like "I never do anything right" into positive ones like "I can succeed." But was positive thinking advocate Norman Vincent Peale right? Is there power in positive thinking?
Researchers in Canada just published a study in the journal Psychological Science that says trying to get people to think more positively can actually have the opposite effect: it can simply highlight how unhappy they are.
The study's authors, Joanne Wood and John Lee of the University of Waterloo and Elaine Perunovic of the University of New Brunswick, begin by citing (引证) older research showing that when people get feedback which they believe is overly positive, they actually feel worse, not better. If you tell your friend who is slow to learn that he has the potential of an Einstein, you're just underlining his faults. In one 1990s experiment, a team including psychologist Joel Cooper of Princeton asked participants to write essays opposing funding for the disabled. When the essayists were later praised for their sympathy, they felt even worse about what they had written.
In this experiment, Wood, Lee and Perunovic measured 68 students' self-esteem. The participants were then asked to write down their thoughts and feelings for four minutes. Every 15 seconds, one group of students heard a bell. When it rang, they were supposed to tell themselves, "I am lovable."
Those with low self-esteem didn't feel better after the forced self-affirmation (自我肯定). In fact, their moods turned significantly darker than those of members of the control group, who weren't urged to think positive thoughts.
The paper provides support for newer forms of psychotherapy (心理治疗) that urge people to accept their negative thoughts and feelings rather than fight them. In the fighting, we not only often fail but can make things worse. Meditation (静思) techniques, in contrast, can teach people to put their shortcomings into a larger, more realistic viewpoint. Call it the power of negative thinking.The first paragraph is written ___________.
| A．to raise an argument about positive thinking |
| B．to introduce the power of positive thinking |
| C．to encourage people to have positive thoughts |
| D．to introduce the $11 billion self-help industry |
According to the study of the Canadian researchers, ___________.
| A．positive thinking is not as powerful as negative thinking |
| B．encouraging positive thinking may actually discourage people |
| C．happy people can think positively while unhappy people can’t |
| D．getting people to think positively can strengthen their confidence |
What does the underlined sentence in Paragraph 3 mean?
| A．You are pointing out the mistakes he has made. |
| B．You are reminding him that he is not intelligent. |
| C．You are not taking his mistakes seriously enough. |
| D．You are showing he has great potential in spite of faults. |
We can learn from the last paragraph that ___________.
| A．negative feelings must be got rid of |
| B．there’s no point in thinking positively |
| C．it doesn’t make sense to think negatively |
| D．negative thinking is not always negative |
Facial expressions carry meaning that is determined by situations and relationships. For example, in American culture the smile is in general an expression of pleasure. Yet it also has other uses. A woman’s smile at a police officer does not carry the same meaning as the smile she gives to a young child. A smile may show love or politeness. It can also hide true feelings. It often causes confusion (困惑) across cultures. For example, many people in Russia consider smiling at strangers in public to be unusual and even improper. Yet many Americans smile freely at strangers in public places (although this is less common in big cities). Some Russians believe that Americans smile in the wrong places; some Americans believe that Russians don’t smile enough. In Southeast Asian cultures, a smile is frequently used to cover painful feelings. Vietnamese people may tell a sad story but end the story with a smile.
Our faces show emotions (情感), but we should not attempt to “read” people from another culture as we would “read” someone from our own culture. The fact that members of one culture do not express their emotions as openly as do members of another does not mean that they do not experience emotions. Rather, there are cultural differences in the amount of facial expressiveness permitted. For example, in public and in formal situations many Japanese do not show their emotions as freely as Americans do. When with friends, Japanese and Americans seem to show their emotions similarly.
It is difficult to generalize about Americans and facial expressiveness because of personal and cultural backgrounds in the United States. People from certain cultural backgrounds in the United States seem to be more facially expressive than others. The key is to try not to judge people whose ways of showing emotion are different. If we judge according to our own cultural habits, we may make the mistake of “reading” the other person incorrectly.What does the smile usually mean in the U.S.?
| A．Love | B．Politeness | C．Joy | D．Thankfulness |
The author mentions the smile of the Vietnamese to prove that a smile can ________.
| A．show friendliness to strangers |
| B．be used to hide true feelings |
| C．be used in the wrong places |
| D．show personal habits |
What should we do before attempting to “read” people?
| A．Learn about their relations with others |
| B．Understand their cultural backgrounds |
| C．Find out about their past experience |
| D．Figure out what they will do next |
What would be the best title for the test?
| A．Cultural Differences |
| B．Smiles and Relationships |
| C．Facial Expressiveness |
| D．Habits and Emotions |
Have you heard of the saying, “If anything is worth doing, it is worth doing well”? The proverb is a piece of advice to make effects towards perfection in whichever job one does. It could be a small task like folding up your clothes, or a major one like organizing a business meeting in your later life.
Perfection just needs paying attention to details. If it is your job to dust the furniture at home, dust it so that not a single spot of dirt shows from any direction. If your task is to make the beds, make them so that not a single crease（皱纹）shows on the bed-covers.
There are only two ways to do a job: either sloppily, or well. If you choose the latter, you need to realize that any job that qualifies as (取得…的资格)“your” work deserves your best. Perfection is an attitude that can be developed with just a little effect. It is a habit that is helpful to a person in later life. Let us prove with an example: you may be asked to turn in an essay on, for example, wildlife, for a school project. Instead of writing carelessly a few facts that you already know, you could make the project more effective by looking up a reference books, encyclopedias（百科全书）or websites for additional information. You could then go over the finished essay for slips（疏漏）and errors, and provide pictures where necessary. If you make it a habit to put in extra effort in your school homework, will it not help you to handle more difficult projects at the college or university level?
As Michelangelo, the famous 16th century sculptor and painter, once put it: Trifles（琐事）go to make perfection, and perfection is no trifle.According to the passage, to achieve perfection is _______.
| A．to realize the quality of the work |
| B．to pay attention to details of one’s work |
| C．to do as many jobs as possible |
| D．to form the habit of doing things ahead of time |
The underlined word “sloppily” in paragraph 3 may mean _______
| A．badly | B．patiently | C．carefully | D．slowly |
What can be inferred from the third paragraph?
| A．It is necessary to provide pictures for your essay. |
| B．Websites are the sources of information you want. |
| C．Perfection is a habit that promises a good future. |
| D．You should make much effort to develop perfection. |
The purpose of writing this passage is to _______.
| A．introduce the famous painter Michelangelo |
| B．advise us to do the things that are worth doing |
| C．explain to us the meaning of the perfection |
| D．expect us to give our best to our work |
The united States has about 475,000 school buses — all painted yellow. Each day they carry more than 25,000,000 children, half of all schoolchildren in the country. But these buses, on average, use four liters of diesel (柴油) fuel to travel less than sixteen kilometers. When the school year began last fall, diesel averaged 55 cents a liter nationally. The price nearly doubled, to a dollar and 8 cents, by the end of school in June.
Bob Riley speaks for the American School Bus Council. He says fuel prices for schools are not much lower than others have to pay. As a result, schools are looking for ways to reduce transportation costs. Bus routes are being redrawn or, in some cases, canceled. Some areas are buying buses that use natural gas or other alternative fuels. Other steps include fewer field trips and less travel by sports teams. And some school districts may end any bus service not required by law.
Studies show that school buses are the safest form of transportation to and from school. The American School Bus Council says cuts in bus service are bad for children and possibly the environment. It says removing buses from the road will mean an increase in other vehicles transporting students. Spokesman Bob Riley says another concern is that reducing bus services might reduce attendance.
But it could also get more children to walk or bicycle to school. And that would surely make people happy at the National Center for Safe Routes to School. More kids walking or biking safely to school is the aim of a three-year-old federal program, part of an international movement. The goal is to increase physical activity and reduce air pollution. The United States will celebrate Walk to School Day on October eighth this year. But for some students, high fuel prices could make every day a walk-to-school day.What does this passage mainly tell us?
| A．High fuel prices’ influences on school buses. |
| B．New measures to transport school students. |
| C．The safest form of student transportation. |
| D．The origin of Walk to School Day. |
In order to cut down transportation cost, many schools take the following measures EXCEPT_____.
| A．changing some bus routes |
| B．stopping some bus routes |
| C．asking parents to drive children to and from school |
| D．using other types of fuels |
The National Center for Safe Routes to School encourages more children to walk or bike to school in order to ____.
| A．save more fuels and diesel for the country |
| B．keep the children safe on their way to school |
| C．make the children live a simple life |
| D．keep the children healthy and the environment clean |
Hank Viscardi was born without legs．He had not legs but stumps（残肢）that could be fitted with a kind of special boots, People stared at him with cruel interest．Children laughed at him and called him ‘Ape Man’ （猿人）because his arms practically dragged on the ground．
Hank went to school like other boys．His grades were good and he needed only eight years to finish his schooling instead of the usual twelve．After graduating from school, he worked his way through college．He swept floors, waited on table, or worked in one of the college offices．During all this busy life, he had been moving around on his stumps．But one day the doctor told him even the stumps were not going to last much longer．He would soon have to use a wheel chair．
Hank felt himself got cold all over．However, the doctor said there was a chance that he could be fitted with artificial legs（假腿）．Finally a leg maker was found and the day came when Hank stood up before the mirror, for the first time he saw himself as he has always wanted to be a full five feet eight inches tall．By this time he was already 26 years old．
Hank had to learn to use his new legs．Again and again he marched the length of the room, and marched back again．There were times when he fell down on the floor, but he pulled himself up and went back to the endless marching．He went out on the street．He climbed stairs and learned to dance．He built a boat and learned to sail it．
When World War II came, he talked the Red Cross into giving him a job．He took the regular training．He marched and drilled along with the other soldiers．Few knew that he was legless．This was the true story of Hank Viscardi, a man without legs．Children laughed at Hank and called him ‘Ape Man’ because．
| A．he didn’t talk to then |
| B．he kept away from them |
| C．his arms touched the ground when he moved |
| D．he couldn’t use his arms |
The sentence “he talked the Red Cross into giving him a job” implies that the Red Cross．
| A．was only glad to give him a job |
| B．gave him a job because he was a good soldier |
| C．gave him a job after he talked to someone whom he knew in the organization |
| D．was not willing to give him to job at first |
When Hank marched and drilled along with the other soldiers, he------
| A．did everything the other soldier did |
| B．did most of the things the other soldiers did |
| C．did most of the things the other soldiers did |
| D．took some special training |
The writer suggests that Hank Viscardi．
| A．had no friends |
| B．never saw himself as different from others |
| C．was very shy |
| D．was too proud to accept help from others |