Reading for pleasure is declining among primary-age pupils, and increasing numbers of "time poor" parents are dropping the practice of sharing bedtime stories with their children once they start school.
Research presented to a conference last week found that, while parents read to preschoolers, this later tails off, and by the final year of primary school only around 2% read to their children every day. Once children can read skillfully, parents tend to step back, and this usually happens at the age of seven or eight. The report also found that 82% of teachers blame the government's “target--driven" education policies for the fact that fewer children are reading for pleasure.
They believe that a straitjacket (束缚) of strictly organized schooling is containing young people's ability to read more widely. Two-thirds of teachers surveyed said they lacked time in the school day to introduce a variety of books and that this was a “major obstacle to being able to develop a level of reading". Teachers also cited as main factors the reduction in the number of school librarians, who could put interesting books before children, and the rise in "screen time", switching children from reading to playing games.
The majority of teachers said the curriculum's (课程) " emphasis on reading as a skill to be mastered" was increasing the pressure. This was compounded by parents who saw reading just as a focus of learning, a skill critical to career advancement in a competitive world.
Reading habits and the digital revolution in publishing were key topics of debate at the conference. The theme of the lack of British culture was supported by children's writer Frank Cottrell Boyce, who wrote the scripts(手稿 ) for the opening and closing ceremonies of the 2012 Olympics.
“We discovered the whole nation had forgotten that they did the industrial revolution," he said.
“Books are so central to it; books can be written by anyone. A lot of the pleasure of a book is listening to somebody read it to you. "
"We found a real love of reading among teachers, and a strong desire ,to encourage more children to read for pleasure ,”said Rob Cheney," However, the teachers also had an overpowering sense of frustration with their situation." "Touch-screen phone and tablets ( 平板电脑)are naturally attractive to children ," the survey Said ,and predicted a period of awkwardness as everyone else adapts . By 2018, children's television will have adopted the presence of this second screen, and it "will be strange not to have children, at home drawing along on tablets and then having these appearing live in the show ".
The hope is “that user-friendly screens could, if material is adapted and downloaded easily, present an opportunity for more ambitious publishing - for example, books children can either read or choose to have read to them; or digital books with moving pictures instead of photos to clarify factual and scientific points. Parental controls that are easy to use would be key, the conference was told, such as "a warning for when devices use the Wi-Fi, especially after bedtimes", to allow parents to shut off access to children in the home.What leads to parents' dropping the practice of sharing bedtime stories with their children?
A.Children have less time to spend with their parents after they start school. |
B.Parents think it unnecessary to do so when children can read themselves. |
C.The government’s education policies have placed much burden on children. |
D.Children don't like parents reading stories to them when they are seven or eight. |
Which of the following is not teachers' point of view?
A.Children are prevented from reading widely enough in school. |
B.Schools pay attention to reading skills instead of reading for fun. |
C.Playing video games reduces children's time spent on reading. |
D.School libraries can't provide good books for lack of money. |
The word "compounded" (Paragraph 4) most probably means ______.
A.worsened | B.preserved | C.reduced | D.improved |
It can be inferred from the article that ______.
A.children don't like reading because books are not attractive |
B.British people enjoyed reading books very much in the past |
C.teachers forbid their students to read more books for fun |
D.children should enjoy more freedom to use the Wi-Fi at home |
What is the passage mainly about?
A.Parents should set a limit to their children's using electric devices at home. |
B.Children are encouraged to read as many interesting books as they can. |
C.Children miss out on pleasures of reading a good book in modern life. |
D.Experts appeals to the government to reduce the heavy burden on children. |
There are some things humans can go without. We can lose a kidney or a lung, an arm or two and still live perfectly well. But some fish put us to shame. They can get by without stomachs.
One such fish is the stout longtom. The group it belongs to carries a more appropriate name: the needlefish. All needlefish lack stomachs. Their ancestors had them, but later they were lost.
The stout longtom can reach 1.3 meters in length, and lives near the sea surface. Like all needlefish, it can jump out of the water to escape its enemies. Tropical fishermen are sometimes injured by needlefish. In 1977, a 10-year-old Hawaiian boy was killed when a needlefish jumped through his brain. The longtom eats smaller fish. It teeth are not good at cutting fish into pieces, so it swallows fish whole.
Ryan Day from Australia and his colleagues wanted to know how the longtom digests its meaty meals without a stomach, so they ran some chemical tests about the fish.
Day’s results show that the longtom can consume food without the help of a stomach. It uses a special material called trypsin that can break down proteins without acid — although the approach is less efficient than using a stomach.
Because it’s a meat-eating animal, the longtom gets a lot of protein in its food, so it can afford this slightly less efficient system for absorbing it. Two plant-eating fish that Day studies actually had higher levels of trypsin in their body, as their food was low in protein.
Day thinks that the longtom and its stomachless relatives might actually have arrived at an energy-saving solution. He says that although the stomach is critical to many kinds of animal, the organ is “a fairly expensive organ to run”. This perhaps explains why some animals have got rid of theirs. What does the underlined phrase “get by” mean?
A.Recover. | B.Fight. | C.Hunt. | D.Live. |
Ryan Day ran the chemical tests in order to find out how the longtom ______.
A.catches smaller fish in the water | B.digests the smaller fish in its body |
C.can jump so high to escape its enemies | D.uses acid to break down the protein |
What plays a key role in the longtom’s digestion process?
A.Trypsin. | B.Acid | C.The stomach. | D.Protein in its body. |
Ryan Day’s results show that ______.
A.the longtom can make acid easily |
B.the longtom often waste energy |
C.the longtom’s high-protein food helps its unique way of consuming food. |
D.meat –eating fish have higher levels of trypsin in their bodies than plant-eating fish |
Here is some information about several famous local bakeries(面包房) in Indiana, the US. They serve as a social gathering place for locals.
Maple Lane Bakery
At 8260 S. State Rd. Claypool, IN. (574) 566-2917, it offers a variety of cooked pies, cookies, and bread. With 20 years’ experience Maple Lane Bakery has specialized in the making of pies. The menu includes peach pie $7.19, berry pie $ 7.70, apple pie $7.19 and banana pie $6.99. Feel free to place an order at least 24 hours in advance.
Betty’s cakes & Candy Shop
At 816 E. Winona Avenue Warsaw, IN. (574) 269-1231, it specializes in cakes and offers cookies and candies. The chocolate cookies are sold at $ 8.99 a dozen. Betty’s cakes & Candy Shop, started half a century ago, specializes in wedding cakes and birthday cakes. Buying a cake from Betty’s will not disappoint you as they are always excellent.
Crepes’ Quality Bakery
At 217S. Cavin Street Ligonier, IN.(260) 894-3024, this third generation bakery is located downtown Ligonier. It offers cookies and cupcakes, and specializes in rolls and bread. If you plan to buy cookies for the office or work area, you had better get there early as the building workers arrive just before 5:00 am waiting for the doors to open.
Olympia Candy Kitchen
At 136N. Main Street Goshen, IN. (574) 533-5040, it has been welcoming visitors for almost a century in its unchanged location in downtown Goshen, Indiana. Its tradition began in 1912 when Greek Nicholas began making his own chocolates. Today this family-owned operation offers all kinds of candies and boxed candies. If you need an order, you should call ahead of time to see if they can meet your request.Which of the following pies is the most expensive?
A.Berry pie. | B.Banana pie. | C.Apple pie. | D.Peach pie. |
If you want to order a birthday cake, you are advised to call ______.
A.(574) 566-2917 | B.(574) 533-5040 |
C.(260) 894-3024 | D.(574) 269-1231 |
Which of the following bakeries has the shortest history?
A.Olympia Candy Kitchen | B.Crepes’ Quality Bakery |
C.Maple Lane Bakery | D.Betty’s cakes & Candy Shop |
The author wrote this passage mainly to ______.
A.warn customers to order bakeries in advance |
B.make the bakeries better known to readers |
C.tell readers some travel information |
D.persuade more people to eat pies |
After my brother died in an accident, my mother was in deep sadness. I was only a four-year-old girl at the time, but I still understood the sudden shift in my mom’s attitude towards safety. Suddenly everything around us was potentially dangerous. Overnight, the world had gone from a playground to a dangerous zone. I grew up with a lot of limits and rules. I couldn’t walk home from school by myself, even though everyone I knew already did. I couldn’t go to summer camp because what if something happened to me?
As I got older, the list of things of fear got longer. My whole life was divided into “things you should avoid”, and “things you needed to do in order to have a good, long life.” I became a natural worrier. I worry about things like getting cancer, losing my wallet, car accidents, earthquakes, and losing my job — disasters big and small, real and imagined.
The funny part is that you’d never know it by looking at my life. In fact, I’ve developed a rule for myself: If it scares me, then I have to do it at least once. I’ve done lots of things that my mom would have worried about: I’ve ridden a motorcycle; I’ve traveled —a lot. I’ve performed stand-up comedy, and I’m planning my second wedding.
There’s something else I don’t usually talk about, but it’s a cornerstone in my belief: When I was 14, my mother died suddenly in a car accident. At my mom’s funeral I remember making a choice. I could either live out the rest of my life trying to be “safe” or I could be brave enough to live out a fulfilling, exciting and, yes, sometimes dangerous life.
I worry that I may have betrayed(背叛) my mother by writing her in this light, but she has been a driving force in my life and, in the end I think she would have been proud of me. Courage isn’t a natural character of human beings. I believe that using courage is like developing a muscle. The more often I do things that scare me or that make me uncomfortable, the more I realize that I can do a lot more than I originally thought I could do.
Even though I inherited (继承) my mother’s cautious nature. I’ve also come to believe that fear can be a good thing, if we face it. Believing that has made my world a less scary place. In the writer’s childhood, the limits and rules were used to ______.
A.improve her behavior | B.develop her independence |
C.be in memory of her dead brother | D.protect her from possible danger |
How does the writer deal with the things that frighten her?
A.She just ignores them. | B.She faces up to them. |
C.She turns to her mother for help. | D.She does them with her friends. |
From the passage, we can learn that ______.
A.the writer failed in her first marriage |
B.nothing can make the writer afraid now |
C.frightening things made the writer lose her self-confidence |
D.the writer’s mother felt annoyed with her |
What does the passage mainly talk about?
A.Mothers influence their children much. |
B.Fear is in fact not a bad thing. |
C.Facing fear bravely produces courage. |
D.The world is not as scary as people expect. |
In the past few years development in medical technology has made it possible for people to live longer than in the past. New medicines and machines are being developed every day to extend(延长) life. However, some people, including some doctors, are not in favor of(支持) these life extending measures, and they argue that people should have the right to die when they want to. They say that the quality of life is as important as life itself and that people should not be forced to go on living when conditions of life have become terrible. They say that people should be allowed to die with dignity (尊严) and to decide when they want to die. Others argue that life under any conditions is better than death and that the duty of doctors is always to extend life as long as possible. And so the argument goes on and on without a final answer.The best title for this passage is _____.
A.The Right to Live | B.The Right to Die |
C.The Doctor’s Duty | D.The Right to Live or Die |
In recent years, people can live longer than in the past. It’s because of __ .
A.the development of medical technology |
B.big hospitals |
C.good doctors |
D.both B and C |
According to some people whether a dying patient has the right to die or not is decided by _____ .
A.the doctors |
B.the head of the hospital |
C.his or her family |
D.the patient himself or herself |
Which of the following statements is true according to the passage?
A.Most of the medical workers join in the argument. |
B.The argument has ended in favor of the patient. |
C.The argument hasn’t ended yet. |
D.The quality of life is not as important as life itself. |
If you have a chance to go to Finland, you will probably be surprised to find how “foolish” the Finnish people are.
Take the taxi drivers for example. Taxis in Finland are mostly high-class Benz with a fare(车费) of two US dollars a kilometer. You can go anywhere in one, tell the driver to drop you at any place, say that you have some business to attend to, and then walk off without paying your fare. The driver would not show the least sign of anxiety.
The dining rooms in all big hotels not only serve their guests, but also serve outside diners. Hotel guests have their meals free, so they naturally go to the free dining rooms to have their meals. The most they would do to show their good faith is to wave their registration(登记) card to the waiter. With such a loose check, you can easily use any old registration card to take a couple of friends to dine free of charge.
The Finnish workers are paid by the hour. They are very much on their own as soon as they have agreed with the boss on the rate. From then on they just say how many hours they have worked and they will be paid accordingly.
With so many loopholes (漏洞) in everyday life, surely Finland must be a heaven to those who love to take “petty advantages”. But the strange thing is, all the taxi passengers would always come back to pay their fare after they have attended to their business; not a single outsider has ever been found in the free hotel dining rooms. And workers always give an honest account of the exact hours they put in. As the Finns always act on good faith in everything they do, living in such a society has turned everyone into a real “gentleman”.The underlined words in this passage means to “______”。
A.be ready to help others |
B.make good use of one’s friends |
C.be a little ahead of others |
D.gain something at other’s loss |
Which of the following is NOT true according to the passage?
A.While taking a taxi in Finland, you can get off without first paying your fare. |
B.In a big hotel in Finland, you can enjoy free meals if you’re living in the hotel. |
C.The bosses in Finland pay the employees according to registration of t heir working hours. |
D.The workers are always honest with their working hours. |
We can infer from the passage that ______.
A.the Finnish society is of very high moral (道德) level |
B.there are many loopholes in everyday life in Finland |
C.in Finland, most taxi drivers will not charge you anything |
D.everyone in Finland is like a gentleman, for they have faith in themselves |
Which of the following is the best title of the passage?
A.Life in Finland |
B.A Society with “Foolish” People |
C.What a Life |
D.Honest accounts of the Finns |