ThestateofColoradohasfourofthe-优题课

You have to log on to your school's online system to check your grades, but you find the system is kind of inconvenient．What do you do?
When Daniel Brooks was a senior at Pioneer High School in the US, he came up with a Silicon Valley-style solution; he developed an iPhone app（application, 应用程序）I C Connector．
When he tried out his school's new Web-based student information system earlier this year, he immediately noticed some shortcomings．He could no longer view his current grades for all his classes at once．Checking several classes required several clicks-which for a teenager is so much work．To save himself all this trouble, Brooks developed the app and sold it on the Apple app store．Now it has 2,300 users who have downloaded it across the US．
"It ended up on every iPhone and iPad and portable device that any student and teacher had on campus," said Scott Peterson, the campus tech support worker at Pioneer High．
Brooks said he didn't create the app to get rich - it is free．"A student is not going to want to pay 99 cents," Brooks said．"They just want to see their grades more easily．"
However, in the months that followed, Brooks experienced highs and lows．His app is now so successful that users want more, in particular, his teachers have started pushing him to develop a version for them．However, the company Infinite Campus, which developed the information system, has been less positive．
The company said in an e-mail that he was confusing users and violating the company's copyright by using Infinite Campus' name and logo in the app’s name．Brooks' father, Michael Brooks, has offered to change the name, but says he needs time to get Apple's approval．Daniel also e-mailed and called Infinite Campus．They got no response．
Daniel Brooks starts at a California university this autumn．Despite Infinite Campus' attitude, he continues to try to improve the app and hopes to put out an Android version soon．
Why did Daniel Brooks develop an iPhone app IC Connector? （No more than 8 words）
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What is Brooks' teachers' attitude towards the app he developed? （No more than 14 words）
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What does Paragraph 7 talk about between Infinite Campus and Brooks? （No more than 7 words）
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What does Brooks’ aim to do now? （No more than 10 words）
________________________________________________________
Use one word to describe Brooks.

Disease, poverty, hate, love-Charles Dickens' stories opened his readers' eyes to the most important themes of his age．Two hundred years on, his stories still speak volumes across the world, proving that Dickens' legacy （遗产） was far greater than just "great literature"．
February 7 marks the 200th anniversary of the writer's birthday．To mark this date, BBC writer Alex Hudson listed six things Dickens gave the modern world．Let's take a look at two of them．
A while Christmas
Dickens is described as "the man who invented Christmas" -not the religious festival, but the cultural aspects that we associate with the festive （喜庆的） season today．
In the early 19th century, Christmas was barely worth mentioning, according to critic and writer Leigh Hunt．The committee which ran the Conservative Party even held ordinary business meetings on Christmas Day - unthinkable in the West nowadays, when everyone, but the most necessary workers takes at least three days off．
Many people believe that Dickens' popular depictions（描绘） of the festive period became a blueprint for generations to come．In his classic novel, A Christmas Carol, he not only put forward the idea of snow at Christmas,but also painted a picture of glowing warmth-“home enjoyments, affections and hopes"．
In his biography of Dickens, Peter Ackroyd wrote, "Dickens can be said to have almost single-handedly created the modern idea of Christmas．"
"Dickensian" poverty
Dickens was one of the first to take an honest look at the underclass and the poor of Victorian （the period during British Queen Victoria's reign from 1837 to 1901） London．
He helped popularize the term "red tape" to describe situations where people in power use needless amounts of bureaucracy （官僚作风） in a way that particularly hurts the weaker and poorer members of society．
"Dickensian" has now become a powerful word for describing an unacceptable level of poverty．In 2009, when the president of the Association of Teachers and Lecturers in the UK wanted to talk about deprivation in some areas, of Britain, she did not use words like "terrible" or "horrific", but rather described it as "life mirroring the times of Dickens"．
What is the main idea of the article?

A．Charles Dickens' impact on the world．

B．An introduction to Charles Dickens' classic novels．

C．Charles Dickens' amazing characters．

D．Why Charles Dickens is popular across the world．

Why is Dickens called "the man who invented Christmas"?

A．Because he created the religious festival.

B．Because one of his novels helped to shape Christmas celebrations．

C．Because many of his novels have something to do with Christmas．

D．Because he was the first man to have proposed celebrating Christmas．

According to the article, the phrase “red tape” refers to __.

A．rules or procedures that are required to accomplish a task

B．a situation in which poor members of society are hurt

C．conflict between people in power and weaker people

D．pointlessly time-consuming official procedures

What can we infer from the passage?

A．Dickens is still popular today in Britain．

B．everyone takes at least three days off at Christmas．

C．Dickens invented Christmas

D．Dickens gave the modern world six things．

It is found that American students spend less than 15% of their time in school. While there’s no doubt that school is important, a number of recent studies reminds us that parents are even more so. A study published earlier this month by researchers at North Carolina State University, for example, finds that parental involvement — checking homework, attending school meetings and events, discussing school activities at home — has a more powerful influence on students’ academic performance than anything about the school the students attend. Another study, published in the Review of Economics and Statistics, reports that the effort put forth by parents (reading stories aloud, meeting with teachers) has a bigger impact on their children’s educational achievement than the effort devoted by either teachers or the students themselves. And a third study concludes that schools would have to increase their spending by more than $1,000 per pupil in order to achieve the same results that are gained with parental involvement.
So parents matter. But it is also revealed in researches that parents, of all backgrounds, don’t need to buy expensive educational toys or digital devices for their kids in order to give them an advantage. They don’t need to drive their offspring (子孙，后代)to enrichment classes or test-preparation courses. What they need to do with their children is much simpler: talk.
But not just any talk. Recent research has indicated exactly what kinds of talk at home encourage children’s success at school. For example, a study conducted by researchers at the UCLA School of Public Health and published in the journal Pediatrics found that two-way adult-child conversations were six times aspotentin promoting language development as the ones in which the adult did all the talking. Engaging in thisreciprocal（双向的) back-and-forth gives children a chance to try out language for themselves, and also gives them the sense that their thoughts and opinions matter.
The content of parents’ conversations with kids matters, too. Children who hear talk about counting and numbers at home start school with much more extensive mathematical knowledge, report researchers from the University of Chicago. While the conversations parents have with their children change as kids grow older, the effect of these exchanges on academic achievement remains strong. Research finds that parents play an important role in what is called “academic socialization” — setting expectations and making connections between current behavior and future goals. Engaging in these sorts of conversations has a greater impact on educational accomplishment.
Parents are even more important than schools because ______.

A．parental involvement makes up for what schools are not able to do

B．teachers and students themselves do not put in enough effort

C．parental involvement saves money for schools and the local government

D．students may well make greater achievements with parents' attention

It can be inferred from the 2^ndparagraph that ______.

A．educational toys are unaffordable nowadays

B．digital devices can give children an advantage

C．some parents believe in enrichment classes

D．talking with children is a very simple task

The word "potent" is closest in meaning to ______.

A．powerful

B．difficult

C．necessary

D．resistant

Which of the following will more encourage children's success at school according to the passage?

A．Parents order their children to stop playing video games.

B．Parents discuss with their children the possible future career.

C．Parents lecture their children on getting too low marks on tests.

D．Parents introduce colleges around the US to their children.

An old woman had two large pots (罐), one on each end of a pole (扁担). She carried the pole with the pots across her neck.
One of the pots had a crack (裂缝) in it while the other pot was perfect and always delivered (递送) a full pot of water. At the end of the long walk from the well to the house, the cracked pot arrived only half-full.
For two years this happened daily, with the woman bringing home only one and a half pots of water. Of course, the perfect pot was proud. But the poor cracked pot was ashamed of its own imperfection.
One day, the cracked pot spoke to the woman by the well: “I am ashamed of myself because this crack in my side causes water to leak out all the way back to your house.”
The old woman smiled: “Did you notice that there are flowers on your side of the path, but not on the other pot’s side? That’s because I have always known about your crack, so I planted flower seeds on your side of the path. And every day while we walk back, you water them.”
“For two years I have been able to pick these beautiful flowers to decorate (装饰) the table. Without you being just the way you are, I would not have this beauty.”
Each of us has our own cracks. But it’s these cracks that make our lives together so interesting and meaningful.
How did the cracked pot feel about itself at first?

A．Proud.

B．Happy.

C．Excited.

D．Ashamed.

Where were the flowers growing?

A．On both sides of the path.

B．In the woman’s house.

C．On the perfect pot’s side.

D．On the cracked pot’s side.

Which is the correct order of the following events?
① The woman picked the flowers and decorated the table.
② The woman told the truth to the cracked pot.
③ The cracked pot talked to the woman about its crack.
④ The woman found a crack on one pot.
⑤ The woman planted some flower seeds.

A．④⑤①③②	B．⑤④③②①
C．④③①②⑤	D．④⑤③①②

What does the passage mainly want to tell us?

A．Never laugh at old women.

B．Imperfection makes life meaningful.

C．Try your best to be perfect in life.

D．Don’t use a cracked pot to carry water.

Why do Chinese people love hot pot so much? As the winter months begin to settle in, I find myself wondering what it is about this traditional meal, which has existed for more than 1，000 years, that makes it a Chinese food favorite．But it seems that the answer lies beyond the dish itself．
Hot pot isn't just designed to keep you warm during the cold months; it's also a social experience．It's a "theater” cuisine that turns a meal into an event．There is a lot of fun for everyone to have in adding ingredients to the hot pot．
Hot pot is eaten over two to three hours．For this reason, it is often, considered an evening's entertainment, and time to spend with friends and family．However, many westerners would be put off by the idea of other people sticking chopsticks in their food．When we come to eat at the table in the UK, we tend to have our own individual portions （份额）, although the experience is still a social one．
A similar experience to the hot pot one can be found in Korean barbecue restaurants, which let you cook your own meat．This allows people to have their meat done however they want．
For most Westerners, the idea of going to a restaurant to cook their own food is bizarre （古怪的）．But having given hot pot a go, I find it's now one of my favorite meals in Beijing．The steam from the pot left my clothes smelling of food when I got home, but perhaps this is also part of the experience．When the chilly （刺骨的） wind is blowing outside, just grab （抓） some chopsticks, some good friends, and dig in．For me it's like throwing a dinner party where my taste buds （味蕾） and my appetite are equally satisfied in the warm company of friends．
According to the author, hot pot is popular in China because ________．

A．it is a fun social experience

B．it has been developing for over 1,000 years

C．it involves many unique ingredients

D．it keeps people warm in winter and it is creative

We can conclude from the article that generally British people _______.

A．prefer a Korean barbecue to Chinese hot pot

B．find it interesting to cook their own food in restaurants

C．don't like sharing food with others

D．don't mind the smell of food staying on their clothes after dinner

The underlined word "put off" in the third paragraph probably means _____

A．excited

B．disappointed

C．puzzled

D．discouraged

What is the tone of the article?

A．Appreciative

B．Longing

C．Humorous．

D．Serious．