The structure and workings of the university are ever changing. The university of the past is not like the university of the present and the university of the present will not be like the university of the future. This “adaptation” to the times is what can make some universities great or make some universities among the worst in the nation.
In the past the university was very set in their ways. They did things the way they wanted them done. They paid no attention to the rest of the society and the way the ones paying the bills wanted them done. In the past the professors would lecture endlessly to the students, which often left the students bored and with no idea what was really said to them in the lecture. This is no way to try and teach students; students need interaction with the professors that are paid to teach them. As Paulo Freire believed there needs to be communication between the students and the professors and the class should not be totally memorization. This is the way that things were done in the past.
In the present many universities have either changed or are changing the way that they run their universities. The universities now are taking on many of the modern educational beliefs in order to make changes in the teaching methods. Universities are breaking down many of the divides between majors that they offer. By breaking these barriers the universities are becoming less specialized and more diverse. This goes along with the ideas of Berry who believes that the schools are over-specialized and that the universities are now just machines that are merely meant to produce workers. In the past few years the colleges have been lowering the standards of admission, which in turn lowers the standards of all the schools below the college level. The universities are now on the right track by increasing the standards of admission into their colleges. In the author’s view, what can decide a university’s quality?
| A．What its structure is like. | B．How its workings are run. |
| C．What times it belongs to. | D．Whether it’ll adjust itself. |
Which of the following is NOT a feature of universities in the past?
| A．They were run in a fixed way. |
| B．They ignored the needs of society. |
| C．They had lower standards of admission. |
| D．Professors lacked interaction with students. |
What is the author’s main attitude towards universities in the present?
| A．Positive. | B．Doubtful. | C．Passive. | D．Uncertain. |
What would the author most probably focus on in the following part of this passage?
| A．Universities in the future. |
| B．The standards of schools. |
| C．The admission into some colleges. |
| D．Other changes of teaching methods. |
When Dean Arnold got his first job, he was miserable (痛苦的), Each time he went to work, he coughed and he couldn’t breathe．Working in a bakery(面包房) when you are allergic to (对…过敏) flour can be painful.
But Arnold stayed with the National Biscuit Company for ten years．He was a businessman and he helped them improve production．At last his health problems became too serious．He left and formed his own company.
With his wife and mother, he founded Arnold Bakery．They tried new recipes (配方)．changing the kind and amount of flour used．This enabled Arnold to work there without too much pain．The bread, made with unbleached flour (标准粉), was baked in a brick oven (烘炉).
They began by baking two dozen loaves．The bread was sold door to door for fifteen cents a loaf．Winning customers to his unusual, old-fashioned bread took time．But Arnold, struggling against his allergy, built his bakery into one of the largest in the United States.A good title for this passage would be.
| A．A Sick Baker | B．A Brick-oven Bread Baker |
| C．An Old-fashioned Baker | D．How to Overcome Allergy |
Dean left the National Biscuit Company because he _______．
| A．suffered from allergy to flour | B．didn’t like the job |
| C．wanted to make more money | D．wanted to form his own company |
During his stay in the National Biscuit Company, _______.
| A．he founded Arnold Bakery |
| B．he tried a new method of baking |
| C．he helped the company improve their production |
| D．he became successful in his business |
Which of the following is NOT mentioned in the passage?
| A．Arnold’s bread was baked in a brick oven. |
| B．Arnold’s bread was made with unbleached flour. |
| C．Arnold’s bread was sold at a low price. |
| D．Arnold’s bread was of poor quality. |
From the passage we can conclude that Arnold was ________.
| A．determined | B．brave | C．usual | D．unhealthy |
One day a few years ago a very funny thing happened to a neighbour of mine．He is a teacher at one of London’s big medical schools, He had finished his teaching for the summer term and was at the airport on his way to Russia to give a lecture.
He had put a few clothes and his lecture notes in his shoulder bag, but he had put Rupert, the skeleton (人体骨骼) to be used in his lecture, in a large brown suitcase (箱子)．At the airport desk, he suddenly thought that he had forgotten to buy a newspaper．He left his suitcase near the desk and went over to the shop.
When he got back he discovered that someone had taken his suitcase by mistake．He often wonders what they said when they got home and found Rupert.Who wrote the story?
| A．Rupert’s teacher. | B．The neighbour’s teacher. |
| C．A medical school teacher. | D．The teacher’s neighbour. |
Why did the teacher put a skeleton in his suitcase?
| A．He needed it for the summer term in London. |
| B．He needed it for the lecture he was going to give. |
| C．He wanted to take it to Russia for medical research. |
| D．He wanted to take it home as he had finished his teaching. |
What happened at the airport?
| A．The skeleton went missing. | B．The skeleton was stolen . |
| C．The teacher forgot his suitcase. | D．The teacher took the wrong suitcase . |
Which of the following best tells the teacher’s feeling about the incident?
| A．He is very angry . | B．He thinks it rather funny . |
| C．He feels helpless without Rupert. | D．He feels good without Rupert . |
Which of the following might have happened afterwards?
| A．The teacher got back the suitcase but not Rupert. |
| B．The teacher got back neither the suitcase nor Rupert. |
| C．The teacher got back Rupert but not the suitcase. |
| D．The teacher got back both the suitcase and Rupert. |
About 90 percent of Chinese believe the polarization(分化) between the rich and poor is “serious” in China, according to a survey conducted by China Youth Daily. And more than 80 percent of the respondents(对象) surveyed said something must be done to narrow the expanding gap between the rich and poor, while 14.1 percent said it was necessary.
The polarization has aroused wide concern among the public in recent years. The State Development and Reform Commission(国家发改委) said the Gini Coefficient had reached 0.47 for China, up from o.29 two decades ago. Usually, a country with a number above 0.4 is warned to pay attention to the income inequality problem.
To find out the people’s view, the survey covered 10,250 respondents, between the ages of 20 and 30 with a college education and a monthly salary between 1,000 and 3,000 yuan. Surprisingly, most disagreed with the view of experts who claim the urban-rural difference is causing the widening gap. More than 70 percent of the respondents believed that “ the group of special interests” is the prime reason for the polarization, followed by “people in power” 68 percent, and “bosses” 50 percent.
Another unexpected finding is that almost all agreed that a good educational background and knowledge were not the decisive factors in gaining wealth. About 95 percent said rich people are not necessarily those who are able to speak English or have a college education.
Today in China, rich people , accounting for 10 percent of the population, control 45 percent of the total social fortune, and poor people, also 10 percent of the population, only control 1.5 percent, according to an investigation published by the National Bureau of Statistics last June.
1. It can be inferred that the Gini Coefficient ( in paragraph 2) would probably be ________.
A. the unit used in advanced mathematics
B. the degree of a country’s development
C. the level of the citizen’s living standard
D. a measure of income inequality
2. Experts hold the view that the main reason for the polarization is ________.
A. the urban-rural difference
B. the group of special interests
C. the people in power
D. the bosses
3. Which of the following can show the correct proportion of the social fortune
among
population?
4. What’s the best title of the passage?
A. Close the Gap between the Rich and Poor
B. Surveys conducted by Chins Youth Daily
C. Higher education, Higher pay
D. Rich-Poor Divide Serious, Study Finds
In Victorian times, certain flowers expressed meanings because the flower selection was limited. Therefore, flower as a gift was an effective tool in social communication. With so many choices today, we have no rules in flower choosing. However, people tend to give a certain flower their own personal meaning--- maybe it can remind them of some particular friends or events. Here I would introduce the traditional meanings of some gift flowers as a reference for your flower choosing.
Carnation（康乃馨） is a good gift for your female teacher or mother, but not all kinds of carnations mean respect and love. Different colours have different meanings. Generally, carnation means “fascination and woman love”. Specifically, pink carnation means “I’ll never forget you” and red carnation says “I admire you”. But some carnations have very negative meanings. If you want to say goodbye to your girlfriend, you can send her a bunch of striped carnations or yellow ones, because it means “Sorry I can’t be with you. You disappointed me.”
Rose is no doubt the best gift for girls in love. Basically, it relates to the love between men and women, but roses with different colours stand for different stages of love. Red rose is man’s best friend when he wants to show his love to a girl. In the peak of his love, pink rose is more suitable because it means “perfect happiness and please believe me”. While the love gets into trouble, yellow rose seems to be the best symbol. It means “the decrease of love and jealousy”.
Though you are free to choose any kind of flower as long as it is beautiful, I think this brief introduction can help you avoid making mistakes. Besides, the receivers must be happier if he or she gets to know the good will you convey in flowers.
1. Why do we choose certain flowers as gifts?
A. Because they are the best gifts for you.
B. Because flowers all look beautiful
C. Because different flowers smell good.
D. Because they can express specific meanings.
2. In different stages of love, ________.
A. roses of different colours show love to a girl.
B. you can choose red rose at any occasion
C. yellow rose is the best symbol for your love
D. pink rose implies that your love comes to maturity(成熟).
3. What does the passage mainly talk about?
A. Carnation is better than roseB. Like the carnation, like the rose
C. Different flowers have different meanings D. Flowers of different colours
We lived in a technological society where most goods are mass-produced by unskilled labor. Because of this, most people think that craft(手艺) no longer exists.
One of the ways these people wrongly support their view is by pointing to 100-year-old homes which are still solid, and arguing that it is the craftsmanship that is responsible for their durability(持久性). “Homes in those days were well-built,” they say. No doubt these homes were well-built, but what these people have done is mix up the quality of material used in the house with the quality of the craftsmanship.
Homes today could be built to last just as long as those old homes if people were willing or able to pay the price. For example, more people can no longer afford solid oak stairways, although they were once fairly common in older homes. Nor can they afford the high labor cost of employing a carpenter to build the stairway. Yet if someone can pay the high cost, there are still plenty of carpenters around able to make those stairways. And not only would these carpenters know how to build them, they would probably do a better job than carpenters of old.
One thing the modern carpenter has which enables him to do a better job is much more advanced tools. Such tools as laser beams and power planes help them lay out a house better and make more precision cuts on the wood. Also, it is not uncommon any more to find carpenters with college degrees and carpenters with a solid knowledge of mathematics, which would enable them to deal with more difficult house designs.
The problems of modern quality, then, really boils down to the problem of material, for the modern carpenter is just as able to produce craftsmanship as the carpenter of fifty years ago, but only if given proper material.
1． Compared to the carpenters in the past, modern carpenters are _______.
| A．more successful | B．more learned |
| C．more imaginative | D．more hardworking |
2． What does the underlined word “they” (paragraph 2) refer to?
carpenters who are fond of oak stairways.
carpenters who have college degrees.
people who think highly of carpenters of old.
people who think that modern material is of low quality.
3． What does the third paragraph mainly discuss?
People in the past preferred to use oak to build stairways.
It is now expensive to employ a carpenter.
Modern houses last as long as the old one.
Good carpenters still exist in modern times.
4． What would be the best title for the text?
Is Craft Dead?
Craft, Back to life?
History of craftsmanship
Carpenters Today and Yesterday