Educating Girls Is a Real Lifesaver
Clare Short knows it. Every developing economist knows it. The World Bank knows it. The education of girls is the surest way to reduce poverty.
The reason is simple. All the evidence shows that taking girls out of the fields and homes, and putting them behind desks, raises economic productivity, lowers infant and maternal(产妇) death rates, reduces birth rates, and improves environmental management.
Why, then, are 90 million primary school-age girls around the world not in school? For the same reason that when Charles Dickens was writing David Copperfield 150 years ago girls were absent from the British education system: Men in power mostly prefer it that way, or are not interested enough in changing the situation to commit energy and money to doing so.
The countries with the poorest record for having women in positions of power or influence have the worst figures for girls’ education. High-profile intervention(介入) by organizations such as the World Bank has begun successfully with several countries, and more of the same will probably be needed to bring change in conservative, male-run states.
Even if there were no development payoff from gender equality in schools, the education of girls would still be a cause worth fighting for. Education is a human right, and the denial of it to girls is a scar on the community in the twenty-first century.
To be born a girl in a rural area in Nepal, Pakistan, Indonesia, Morocco, Togo, or Sudan — half a dozen of the most shameful performers — means being condemned to a life without school, education, or clean water, marriage and babies coming too early, too many births, children who die of preventable diseases, backbreaking work in the fields, subordination(从属) to husband and his family, and an early death.
Every year, almost 12 million children under the age of five needlessly die of infectious diseases associated with poverty. But each additional year spent by their mothers in primary school lowers the risk of premature child deaths by about 8 percent. In Pakistan, an extra year of school for 1,000 girls could prevent sixty infant deaths.
With women and girls being the main farmers in Africa and southern Asia, their education offers a chance to develop more efficient farming practices, improve output, and raise awareness of the ecological needs of the land with tree planting and farming. Therefore, the world community cannot afford to ignore this avenue of change.Which is Not the reason why educating girls reduces poverty?
| A．It improves environmental management. |
| B．It raises economic productivity. |
| C．It creates more children. |
| D．It lowers maternal death rates. |
What does the underlined word “it” in Paragraph 3 refer to?
| A．The poor economy at that time. |
| B．Girls’ absence from school. |
| C．Energy and money. |
| D．The education of girls. |
Which of the following is TRUE according to the passage?
| A．The countries where women have great influence and are in power always do worse in girls’ education. |
| B．Some organizations such as the World Bank haven’t taken the lead in girls’ education. |
| C．Some girls in Sudan and Indonesia are bound to live a life without education when they are born. |
| D．Each extra year of school for girls has nothing to do with the birthrate and maternal deaths. |
How many more infants will survive when 100 girls stay in school for another year?
| A．5 | B．6 | C．8 | D．12 |
What does the author think of girls’ education?
| A．essential | B．terrible |
| C．indifferent | D．helpless |
Sports shoes that work out whether their owner has done enough exercise to warrant time in front of the television have been devised in the UK.
The shoes — named Square Eyes — contain an electronic pressure sensor and a tiny computer chip to record how many steps the wearer has taken in a day. A wireless transmitter(传话器) passes the information to a receiver connected to a television, and this decides how much evening viewing time the wearer deserves, based on the day’s efforts.
The design was inspired by a desire to fight against the rapidly ballooning waistlines among British teenagers, says Gillian Swan, who developed Square Eyes as a final year design project at Brunel University to London, UK. “We looked at current issues and childhood overweight really stood out,” she says. “And I wanted to tackle that with my design.”
Once a child has used up their daily allowance gained through exercise, the television automatically switches off. And further time in front of the TV can only be earned through more steps.
Swan calculated how exercise should translate to television time using the recommended daily amounts of both. Health experts suggest that a child take 12,000 steps each day and watch no more than two hours of television. So, every 100 steps recorded by the Square Eyes shoes equals precisely one minute of TV time.
Existing pedometers （计步器） normally clip onto a belt or slip into a pocket and keep count of steps by measuring sudden movement. Swan says these can be easily tricked into recording steps through shaking. But her shoe has been built to be harder for lazy teenagers to cheat. “It is possible, but it would be a lot of effort,” she says. “That was one of my main design considerations.”
51.According to Swan, the purpose of her design project is to ________.
A.keep a record of the steps of the wearer
B.deal with overweight among teenagers
C.enable children to resist the temptation of TV
D.prevent children from being tricked by TV programs
52.Which of the following is true of Square Eyes shoes?
A.They regulate a child’s evening TV viewing time.
B.They determine a child’s daily pocket money.
C.They have raised the hot issue of overweight.
D.They contain information of the receiver.
53.What is stressed（强调）by health experts in their suggestion?
A.The exact number of steps to be taken.
B.The precise number of hours spent on TV.
C.The proper amount of daily exercise and TV time.
D.The way of changing steps into TV watching time.
54.Compared with other similar products, the new design ________.
A.makes it difficult for lazy teenagers to cheat
B.counts the wearer’s steps through shaking
C.records the sudden movement of the wearer
D.sends teenagers’ health data to the receiver
55.Which of the following would be the best title for the text?
A.Smart Shoes Decide on Television Time B.Smart Shoes Guarantee More Exercise
C.Smart Shoes Measure Time of Exercise D.Smart Shoes Stop Childhood Overweight
If you look for a book as a present for a child. You will be spoiled for choice even in a year when there is no new Harry Patten J.K Rowling’s wizard is not alone: the past decade has been a harvest for good children’s books ,which has set off a large quantity of films and in turn led to increased sales of classics such as The Lord of the Rings.
Yet despite that ,reading is increasingly unpopular among children .According to statistics, in 1997 23% said they didn’t like reading at all . In 2003, 35% did . And around 6% of children leave primary school each year unable to read properly.
Maybe the decline is caused by the increasing availability of computer games. Maybe the books boom has affected only the top of the educational pile . Either way , Chancellor Cordon Brown plans to change things for the bottom of the class .In his pre-budget report , he announced the national project of Reading Recovery to help the children struggling most.
Reading Recovery is aimed at six-year-olds ,who receive four months of individual daily half-hour classes with a specially trained teacher . An evaluation earlier this year reported that children on the scheme made 20 months’ progress in just one year, whereas similarly weak readers without special help made just five months’ progress ,and so ended the year even further below the level expected for their age.
International research tends to find that when British children leave primary school they read well ,but read less often for fun than those elsewhere .Reading for fun matters because children who are keen on reading can expect lifelong pleasure and loving books is an excellent indicator of future educational success . According to the OECD, being a regular and enthusiastic reader is of great advantage.
46.Which of the following is true of Paragraph 1?
A.Many children’s books have been adapted from films.
B.Many high-quality children’s books have been published .
C.The sales of classics have led to the popularity of films.
D.The sales of presents for children have increased.
47.Statistics suggested that _______.
A.the number of top students increased with the use of computers
B.a decreasing number of children showed interest in reading
C.a minority of primacy school children read properly
D.a large percentage of children read regularly
48.What do we know about Reading Recovery?
A.An evaluation of it will be made sometime this year.
B.Weak readers on the project were the most hardworking.
C.It aims to train special teachers to help children with reading.
D.Children on the project showed noticeable progress in reading.
49.Reading for fun is important because book-loving children _________.
A.take greater advantage of the project B.show the potential to enjoy a long life
C.are likely to succeed in their education. D.would make excellent future researchers
50.The aim of this text would probably be _________.
A.to overcome primary school pupils reading difficulty.
B.to encourage the publication of more children’s books
C.to remind children of the importance of reading for fun
D.to introduce a way to improve early childhood reading
The evidence for harmony may not be obvious in some families. But it seems that four out of five young people now get on with their parents, which is the opposite of the popularly-held image （形象）of unhappy teenagers locked in their room after endless family quarrels.
An important new study into teenage attitudes surprisingly shows that their family life is more harmonious than it has ever been in the past. “We were surprised by just how positive today’s young people seem to be about their families,” said one member of the research team. “They’re expected to be rebellious（叛逆的）and selfish .but actually they have other things on their minds: they want a car and material goods, and they worry about whether school is serving them well. There’s more negotiation（商议）and discussion between parents and children, and children expect to take part in the family decision-making process. They don’t want to rock the boat.”
So it seems that this generation of parents is much more likely than parents of 30 years ago to treat their children as friends. “My parents are happy to discuss things with me and willing to listen to me," says 17-year-old Daniel Lazall. “I always tell them when I’m going out clubbing. As long as they know what I’m doing, they’re fine with it.” Susan Crome, who is now 21, agrees. “Looking back on the last 10 years, there was a lot of what you could call negotiation. For example, as long as I’d done all my homework, I could go out on a Saturday night. But I think my grandparents were a lot stricter with my parents than that.”
Maybe this positive view of family life should not be unexpected. It is possible that the idea of teenage rebellion is not rooted in real facts. A researcher comments, “Our surprise that teenagers say they get along well with their parents comes because of a brief period in our social history when teenagers were regarded as different beings. But that idea of rebelling and breaking away from their parents really only happened during that one time in the 1960s when everyone rebelled. The normal situation throughout history has been a smooth change from helping out with the family business to taking it over.”
41. What is the popular image of teenagers today?
A. They worry about school. B. They dislike living with their parents.
C, They have to be locked in to avoid troubles. D. They quarrel a lot with other family members.
42. The study shows that teenagers don’t want to__________ .
A. share family responsibilityB. cause trouble in their families
C. go boating with their family D. make family decisions
43. Compared with parents of 30 years ago, today’s parents__________ .
A. go to clubs more often with their children B. are much stricter with their children
C. care less about their children’s life D. give their children more freedom
44. According to the author, teenage rebellion__________ .
A. may be a false belief B. is common nowadays
C. existed only in the 1960s D. resulted from changes in families
45. What is the passage mainly about?
A. Negotiation in family. B. Education in family.
C. Harmony in family. D.Teenage trouble in family.
Mr Reese was born in a big city. His father had several companies and got a lot of money. He could give his son all the young man wanted. He was busy with his business and never asked him how he got along with his studies. So the boy spent most time in the restaurants or cinemas. Of course he was weak at his lessons and learned nothing at school. He made many friends but none of them was good and when they knew he came from a rich family, they began to teach him to gamble（赌博）. Of course he lost much money.
Now Mr Reese was twenty and finished middle school. He could not do anything. But his father didn't mind it until one day he found the young man had sold one of his companies. He became so angry that he made him leave his house. The young man couldn't gamble any longer. His friends made him pay his debt. He had to ask his mother to help him and the woman often gave him some money. But one evening his father happened to find it. The old man stopped his wife from doing so. They began to fight in the room. The young man brought out a knife and killed his father. His mother helped him to run away, but soon after that he was caught and sentenced（判刑）to death.
It was a cold and wet day. Suddenly it began to rain hard when Mr Reese was being sent to the execution ground（刑场）. Soon both he and the soldiers were wet through. He said angrily, “Bad luck! I shall be shot in such bad weather!”
“Don't complain（抱怨）, brother, ”said one of the soldiers. ‘You're luckier than us all. We'll have to go back to the city after that!”
68. Old Reese never wanted to know about his son's studies because ____.
A. he was sure his son was good at his lessons B. he spent all his energies on his business
C. he knew nothing about the education D. his wife looked after their children
69. The bad young men taught Young Reese to gamble in order ____.
A. to play with him
B. to spend spare time
C. that the could get much money from him
D. that they could find jobs in his father's companies
70. Old Reese became angry because ____.
A. his son had learned nothing at school. B. his son was weak at all his lessons
C. his son couldn't do anything in the companies D. his son had lost one of his companies
71. Mr Reese complained ____.
A. he was sentenced to death B. he would be shot
C. he went to the execution ground on foot D. he would be shot in bad weather
Paul was a good athlete when he was a middle school student. He liked running and jumping and won some medals at the sports meetings. So he was tall and strong. Suddenly war broke out and the young man joined the army. He was sent to the front and killed several enemy soldiers. Two years later he raturned to his home town and found a job at the police station. People had known about his bravery by then and they all liked the polite young man.
One day a few young men had drunk too much before they came in a cinema. They danced and sang there and the film couldn't be shown. Paul was ill that day and went to the hospital. When he was passing there, the young men were beating an old man. He went to stop them and they began to fight. He caught them all and sent them to the police station. Since then all the bad men in the town were afraid of the brave policeman.
It was a summer evening. The weather was hot and few people could stay indoors. Paul was on duty and sat by the telephone. Suddenly in rushed a beautiful girl with a book in her hand. She stood there, shaking in her shoes.
“What's the matter, madam? ”asked Paul.
“I wish you could protect me sir, ”answered the girl.
“Protect? ”Paul said in surprise. “For what? ”
The girl showed the book to Paul. The young man understood at once: it was a book about Ghosts（鬼）！
64. Paul won some medals because ____.
A. he was a middle school student B. he was tall and strong
C. he kept doing morning exercises D. he was good at running and jumping.
65. Paul was ____ after he joined the army.
A. a good athlete B. a brave soldier C. a polite policeman D. a brave policeman
66. Paul sent the young men to the police station because ____.
A. they made some trouble（闹事）at the cinema B. they drank much in the restaurant
C. they wouldn't see the filin D. they wanted to fight with him
67. Paul sat by the telephone that evening because ____.
A. he was waiting for an important call B. he was going to call somebody
C. he was on duty D. he wasn't afraid of hotness