WorldReadingDaywassetupbytheUN-优题课

Boys' schools are the perfect place to teach young men to express their emotions and involve them in activities such as art, dance and music.
Far from the traditional image of a culture of aggressive masculinity (阳刚), the absence of girls gives boys the chance to develop without pressure to obey a stereotype（陈规旧俗），a US study says.
Boys at single-sex schools were said to be more likely to get involved in cultural and artistic activities that helped develop their emotional expressiveness, rather than feeling they had to obey the "boy code" of hiding their emotions to be a "real man".
The findings of the study go against received wisdom that boys do better when taught alongside girls.
Tony Little, headmaster of Eton, warned that boys were being failed by the British education system because it had become too focused on girls. He criticized teachers for failing to recognize that boys are actually more emotional than girls.
The research argued that boys often perform badly in mixed schools because they become discouraged when their female peers do better earlier in speaking and reading skills.
But in single-sex schools teachers can tailor lessons to boys' learning style, letting them move around the classroom and getting them to compete in teams to prevent boredom, wrote the study's author, Abigail James, of the University of Virginia.
Teachers could encourage boys to enjoy reading and writing with "boy-focused" approaches such as themes and characters that appeal to them. Because boys generally have more acute vision learn best through touch, and are physically more active, they need to be given "hands-on" lessons where they are allowed to walk around. "Boys in mixed schools view classical music as feminine (女性的) and prefer the modern type in which violence and sexism are major themes, "James wrote.
Single-sex education also made it less likely that boys would feel they had to obey a stereotype that men should be "masterful and in charge" in relationships. "In mixed schools boys feel forced to act like men before they understand themselves well enough to know what that means," the study reported.
The author believes that a single-sex school would ______.

A．force boys to hide their emotions to be "real men"

B．encourage boys to express their emotions more freely

C．help to cultivate masculine aggressiveness in boys

D．naturally reinforce in boys the traditional image of a man

It is commonly believed that in a mixed school boys ______.

A．perform relatively better	B．grow up more healthily
C．behave more responsibly	D．receive a better education

What does Tony Little say about the British education system?

A．It fails more boys than girls academically.

B．It focuses more on mixed school education.

C．It fails to give boys the attention they need.

D．It places more pressure on boys than on girls.

According to Abigail James, one of the advantages of single-sex schools is ______.

A．teaching can be tailored to suit the characteristics of boys

B．boys can focus on their lessons without being distracted

C．boys can choose to learn whatever they are interested in

D．teaching can be designed to promote boys' team spirit

Which of the following is characteristic of boys according to Abigail James' report?

A．They enjoy being in charge.	B．They obey stereotypes.
C．They are violent and sexist.	D．They have sharper vision.

In modern society there is a great deal of argument about competition. Some value it highly, believing that it is responsible for social progress and prosperity. Others say that competition is bad; that it sets one person against another; that it leads to unfriendly relationship between people.
I have taught many children who held the belief that their self-worth relied on how well they performed at tennis and other skills. For them, playing well and winning are often life-and-death affairs. In their single-minded pursuit of success, the development of many other human qualities is sadly forgotten.
However, while some seem to be lost in the desire to succeed, others take an opposite attitude. In a culture which values only the winner and pays no attention to the ordinary players, they strongly blame competition. Among the most vocal are youngsters who have suffered under competitive pressures from their parents or society. Teaching these young people, I often observe in them a desire to fail. They seem to seek failure by not trying to win or achieve success. By not trying, they always have an excuse: “I may have lost, but it doesn’t matter because I really didn’t try. “What is not usually admitted by themselves is the belief that if they had really tried and lost, that would mean a lot. Such a loss would be a measure of their worth. Clearly, this belief is the same as that of the true competitors who try to prove themselves. Both are based on the mistaken belief that one’s self-respect relies on how well one performs in comparison with others. Both are afraid of not being valued. Only as this basic and often troublesome fear begins to dissolve (缓解) can we discover a new meaning in competition .
What does this passage mainly talk about?

A．Competition helps to set up self-respect.

B．Opinions about competition are different among people.

C．Competition is harmful to personal quality development.

D．Failures are necessary experiences in competition.

Why do some people favor competition according to the passage?

A．It builds up a sense of duty.	B．It pushes society forward.
C．It improves personal abilities.	D．It encourages individual efforts.

The underlined phrase “the most vocal” in Paragraph 3 means ______.

A．those who try their best to win

B．those who value competition most highly

C．those who are against competition most strongly

D．those who rely on others most for success

What is the similar belief of the true competitors and those with a “desire to fail”?

A．One’s worth lies in his performance compared with others’.

B．One’s success in competition needs great efforts.

C．One’s achievement is determined by his particular skills.

D．One’s success is based on how hard he has tried.

Which point of view may the author agree to?

A．Every effort should be paid back.

B．Competition should be encouraged.

C．Winning should be a life-and-death matter.

D．Fear of failure should be removed in competition.

The Beijing government has set out to recruit thousands of university graduates to work as junior officials in rural areas to both improve rural administration and ease the city’s employment problems.
The government plans to recruit 3,000 university graduates this year,1,000 more than last year, to work as assistants to village heads or Party secretaries in suburban areas.
People interested in jobs in Beijing’s rural villages and townships can submit applications to the Beijing Municipal Personnel Bureau or online at www. Bjbys. com from February 1 through March 15.
“We hope university graduates will seize this opportunity to use their knowledge in rural villages and to start their careers,” Sun Zhenyu, deputy director of Beijing Personnel Bureau, told Xinhua News Agency.
The government has promised successful candidates a monthly salary of 2,000 yuan
( $ 250) in the first year, 2,500 yuan ($ 320) the second year and 3,000 yuan ($ 385) the third year, provided their performance is up to the required standards, Sun said.
Wang Lina, who graduated from Beijing Union University last year, was one of the first graduates to find work in the city's countryside. After majoring in industrial and commercial administration, Wang served as the assistant to the village head of Ertiaojie Village in suburban Beijing's Pinggu District. For one project, Wang contacted people at the Beijing Academy of Agricultural Sciences and arranged for the local farmers to receive training in strawberry planting. Her efforts paid off. The village had a plentiful harvest of organic strawberries earlier this year.
Nationwide, about 150,000 university graduates found employment in rural areas last year, according to figures provided by the Ministry of Education.
The ministry predicts that 4. 95 million students will graduate from universities across the country this year, 820,000 more than last year. About 1.4 million of them are unlikely to find jobs when they graduate.
In Beijing, a record 200,000 people are expected to graduate from university this year. Less than half of them are expected to be offered jobs, according to the personnel bureau.
The underlined word “recruit” in the first paragraph probably means______.

A．employ

B．force

C．encourage

D．train

We can see from the passage that______.

A．once you are hired as a junior official, you can get an endlessly rising salary

B．the government guarantee a gradually high salary for the successful candidates

C．working as junior officials is easy but very meaningful

D．the competition for the job as junior officials is very fierce

From the story of Wang Lina we can learn that______.

A．the sooner you go to the countryside, the sooner you will be successful

B．local farmers can get big harvests if they learn more knowledge

C．university graduates can also realize their value in rural areas

D．Wang had great difficulty in helping villagers planting organic strawberries

The last two paragraphs aim to tell us that______.

A．more and more graduates will work as junior officials

B．the universities should not have so many students

C．there are more and more graduates in recent years

D．it is not easy for graduates to find jobs nowadays

Which of the following can be the best title for this passage?

A．What is the best career?

B．Graduates go to the countryside.

C．Job hunting for university graduates.

D．A good choice for university graduates.

Summer school is something a kid will never forget. For some, it’s a way to advance past their classmates. For most, summer school is a requirement in order to graduate with their classmates. I can remember being forced into taking a summer school course. It was not the school that forced me into this awkward situation; it was my mother.
I was a 16-year-old kid in a new school. My school did not offer summer courses so I had to take my course at an alternative school in the city. It was an experience I will never forget. I was not concerned with making friends. I was there to get credit (学分) for a course that I should have received credit for the previous semester. It was my doing that landed me in the situation and it was important that I understood this.
The fees were lowest but the experience was amazing. I enjoyed. I didn’t miss the day. The course was from Monday to Friday for an entire month. I passed the course with an A. I was thrown into an awkward situation and actually enjoyed it. My friends didn’t even know I took the course. Most of them were still sleeping by the time my course ended each day.
Awkward situations are so important for personal growth. This situation made me feel more independent. I made friends. I finally understood what sacrifice and hard work were all about. While attending college, I remembered how much I enjoyed summer school and I chose to take summer school in my first three years of college. Some kids get pushed too much but some don’t get pushed enough. I was never pushed enough.
Enable your children to struggle for success. If your child needs summer school you explain to them why it’s important. Some parents are surprised by the situation and may want to be more involved in their children’s education. Follow through and follow up.
Most students go to the summer school in order to ______.

A．find good jobs after graduation	B．become top students in their class
C．have a chance to make more friends	D．graduate successfully on time

What made the author go to summer school for the first time?

A．What he had done .	B．His mother’s wish.
C．His own requirement.	D．Study competition.

Which of the following was NOT the benefit got by the author through attending summer school?

A．It helped him get rid of bad habits.

B．It helped him make new friends.

C．It helped him understand what sacrifice and hard work were.

D．It increased his independence.

From the last paragraph we can learn that the author ______.

A．does not like summer school at all even though it is useful

B．thinks summer school is unnecessary for children

C．encourages parents to make their children attend summer school

D．is against forcing children to attend summer school

What does the author think of summer school?

A．He thinks it is awkward.	B．He thinks it is significant.
C．He doesn’t think it is suitable.	D．He thinks nothing of it.

“NOW I just don't believe that. ”Surely all of us, at some point, have watched a movie and thought: It's simply badly researched，or the makers must think we're fools. Recently, The Daily Telegraph ran a humorous piece on untrue tech moments from some top movies. Let’s see what they are all about.
Tom Chiver, the writer of The Daily Telegraph uses his first example from the movie Independence Day, in which a character comes up with a virus（病毒）which destroys Windows the computer system the alien （外星人）spacecraft uses. “It's a good thing that they didn't have Norton Anti-virus，” jokes Chivers.
It's just one case of a movie that takes a lot of license with its science. Another one Chivers mentions is from the movie Star Wars, where the glowing light beams (光束）traveling through space look very impressive. But the problem is that in space there are no air particles (粒子）for the light to reflect off. In reality, they'd be invisible（看不见的）, which wouldn’t look so cool on the big screen.
Most people think that the mind—bending Matrix films are made for great viewing. But for Chivers, the science in the movies is a little bit silly. He comments “…the film is based on the idea that humans are kept alive as electricity generators (发电机). This is not just unlikely —it's basically impossible. They would need more energy to stay alive than they would produce. It's just like saying that you'll power the car with batteries, and keep the batteries charged by running a generator from the wheels. ”
And finally, as Chivers points out, DNA is not replaceable. But this bit of elementary genetics passed the makers of the 2002 Bond film Die Another Day by. In the film the bad guy has “gene treatment” to change his appearance and his DNA, which is completely impossible in our real world.
Which of the following does the writer agree with about the movie Independence Day?

A．It's a science fiction movie.

B．It's about the alien spacecraft.

C．It's produced by Tom Chiver.

D．It's a jokey and humorous one.

What is mainly talked about in the 4^th paragraph?

A．How we can power the car with batteries.

B．How Tom Chiver thinks of the Matrix films.

C．How humans are kept alive as power generator.

D．How the Matrix films are made for great viewing.

Which of the following is true according to the passage?

A．The movie Star Wars is about the light beams in space.

B．The author doesn't take the science in movies seriously.

C．Nowadays nobody believes in science movies any more.

D．There is a horrible virus in the movie Independence Day.

The underlined word “They” in the 4^th paragraph refers to ______.

A．human beings	B．car wheels
C．Matrix films	D．electricity generators

A．loves reading	B．never reads
C．does little reading	D．hates reading