When you put down your pens at the end of the college entrance exam, 12 hard years of study will have come to an end. Forget your studies for a while. It’s time to enjoy yourselves!
There are many ways to celebrate this special month of graduation. You can have photos taken with your classmates and teachers, or dine out together and exchange gifts.
High school students in Western countries such as the United States and Canada usually have a prom to mark their graduation. It’s to mark the time kids turn into young men and women. After the prom, teenagers either go to college or find a job. It means they are no longer as dependent on their parents as they were before.
At the prom, boys usually dress in dinner jackets and bow ties, though many different types of formal clothes are worn. Traditionally, girls give boys matching boutonnieres (a small collection of flowers they pin to their jackets). Girls traditionally wear formal dresses, or dress to shock or be noticed, in shiny or brightly colored materials.
Common prom activities include dining, dancing, the crowning (加冠) of a prom king and queen, and just talking to friends. In some cases, high school students collect funds for their class prom through the four years of their high school.
High schools in or near large cities may rent ballrooms at expensive hotels or, to be unusual, on a pleasure cruise boat.
But often costs are cut by simply using the school gym. Students make a lot of effort to decorate the gym to make the event special. The music played at the prom will be the most popular kinds, like rock and hip-hop.
The students elect the Prom Queen. She is partnered with a Prom King who is elected similarly. These are great honors that the pair take very seriously. The two dance with each other to celebrate their election.
Sometimes teachers and parents also go to the prom. But others like to go with friends, to whom they are soon going to be saying goodbye.
If you like the idea of a prom, why don’t you and your classmates organize one for your graduation?Which of the following indicates that prom is very important to students?
| A．They take pictures at the prom. |
| B．They wear formal clothes or special clothes. |
| C．Music is played at the prom. |
| D．Teachers and parents attend it. |
Which of the following is an economical way to hold the prom?
| A．Renting a ballroom. |
| B．Taking a cruise boat. |
| C．Holding it in the school gym. |
| D．Wearing formal dresses. |
Why do some students attend the prom with their friends?
| A．They will part with their friends in a short time. |
| B．They don’t like to be accompanied by their parents. |
| C．They don’t want to depend on their parents. |
| D．They want to be elected by their friends as the Prom King or Queen. |
What is the writer’s purpose to write this passage?
| A．To tell an interesting experience of high school students. |
| B．To tell how the western students spend the last days of high school. |
| C．To introduce several ways of western students’ killing time. |
| D．To tell how western high school students usually celebrate graduation. |
The English test will be removed from China’s college entrance exam by 2020, according to the Ministry of Education. The national college entrance exam, known as the “Gaokao” has been used to evaluate Chinese students for three decades. The Ministry of Education has worked out a plan for reforming exams and enrollment. Tests will be held several times a year to allow students to choose when and how often they sit the exam so as to reduce study pressure and change China’s once-in-a-lifetime exam system.
The decision has aroused a heated discussion among Shanghai educators and parents who doubted the reform would reduce the burden of learning English or if the substitute test could reflect a student’s English skills and help students learn English better.
“ As far as I see, the reform doesn’t mean English is no longer important for Chinese students after it will be excluded from the unified college entrance exam,” Yu said. “In a way, English is even more important than before since the test would only serve as reference, while every college and university, even every major, can have different requirements of a student’s English skills under a diverse evaluation system. ”
Yu said some students will have their study pressure reduced if the major they choose doesn’t need excellent English while others still need to study hard if they want to be among the best students.
The education ministry said the reform would not affect students attending the college entrance exam over the next three years. What can we learn from the first paragraph?
| A．English will become less and less important in the stage of compulsory education. |
| B．It has been 30 years since English became one subject of national college entrance exam. |
| C．China’s once-in-a-lifetime exam system is unacceptable at all. |
| D．The system that tests are held several times does more good than once-in-a-lifetime exam system. |
According to the passage, Shanghai educators and parents argue that _____.
| A．the new exam and admission system will make no difference |
| B．English shouldn’t be removed from China’s college entrance exam |
| C．the reform may accomplish the very opposite |
| D．Western educational system does not apply to China |
What does the passage try to express in the underlined sentence?
| A．Students needn’t lay a good foundation during the period of high school. |
| B．Whether students should study English hard may depend on their major. |
| C．Students can constantly strive for perfection only in their major. |
| D．English must be close to full mark. |
What’s the purpose of the passage?
| A．To advise students not to devote themselves to English. |
| B．To call on Education Department to remove English from “Gaokao”. |
| C．To support the act of Ministry of Education. |
| D．To encourage students to do as they have planned. |
Online Money Earning
Yes, you can earn money online without any investment or without anytime limit. There is no need to stop any other work. Here I tell you the complete method for online earning.
The Method
You can earn money through “Bux.to” by clicking on ads on “Bux. to” site. First you need to open an account at “Bux. to”. “Bux. to” is a new international and FREE English based service that allows advertisers to reach thousands of potential customers by displaying their ads on our “Surf Ads” page. An exact calculated percentage of all advertising income is paid to our members. “Bux. to” makes money through advertising.
How you make money
You view websites in 30 seconds through the “Surf Ads” page. Once the 30 seconds is up, you’ll either get a green tick sign or a red “x”. The green tick sign means you’ve earned $0.01and the “x” means you have not earned money for the visit. You’ll get red x’s when you have more than one website from the “Surf Ads” page open. When this happens, you get no credit.
Earnings example
You click 10 ads per day =$0.10
20 referrals(转送) click 10 ads per day =$2.00
Your daily earnings =$2.10
Your weekly earnings =$14.70
How to get paid
At present, it only makes payments through “AlertPay”. AlertPay is the payment processing solution that we use to pay members. Your AlertPay address is the e-mail address you use to register with AlertPay. You can get a free AlertPay account at http:// alertpay. com. What is the author’s purpose of writing this passage?
| A．To tell an interesting story. |
| B．To introduce a surprising way to earn money. |
| C．To solve a puzzling problem. |
| D．To present an exciting research. |
You can earn money by ________.
| A．chatting online |
| B．advertising some products |
| C．clicking on advertisement |
| D．choosing green ticks or x’s |
What can we know from the passage?
| A．You’ll earn $0.10 if you click 1 ad. |
| B．You’ll get many green ticks if you have many websites open. |
| C．Your AlertPay account is not for free. |
| D．You can get your payments through AlertPay. |
Charlie Vansant, a college student of Athens, Ohio who reported that his car was stolen, got a surprise when he learned a woman had mistaken it for her daughter's car and taken it－using her key.
Kate Anderson became an accidental car thief when picking up her daughter's car near an Ohio University building last week. Anderson spotted the Toyota Camry（丰田凯美瑞）and used her daughter's key to unlock the car, start the engine and drive home-without realizing that the car wasn't her daughter's.
When Charlie Vansant left class a short time later, he found only an empty parking spot. He first assumed the car had been towed, but when the police couldn't find a record of it, they took a theft report.
The morning after Anderson took the car, her daughter discovered the Camry in the driveway wasn't hers. Anderson said she was able to find Vansant's name on paperwork in the glove compartment and look up his phone number on the website for the university.
When Anderson told Charlie the car was in her driveway, "It sounded real suspicious at first, as she wanted to hold the thing for ransom（赎金）,” said Vansant. He eventually went to the house with a police officer, where he was reunited with his car. According to the police report, the case was closed "because of mistaken car identity", Anderson wasn't charged.
Vansant seemed to blame the car company more than the "thief". "Her key fit not only my lock, but my ignition（点火装置） as well - so high-five for Toyota. I guess." he said. What does the underlined word "towed" mean in paragraph 3?
| A．removed. | B．damaged. |
| C．stolen. | D．sold. |
Which of the following is NOT true according to the passage?
| A．Mrs. Anderson's daughter discovered the car her mother drove was not hers. |
| B．Mrs. Anderson stole Charlie's car at the request of her daughter. |
| C．Charlie had thought he had to give Anderson money to get his car back. |
| D．Mrs. Anderson used her daughter's key to unlock Charlie's car and drive home. |
What does Charlie mean by "high-five for Toyota"?
| A． He is blaming Toyota for the poor quality of car keys. |
| B． He should thank Toyota for returning his car. |
| C． He wants to celebrate with Toyota for getting his car back. |
| D． He thinks highly of Toyota for producing large quantities of cars. |
What is likely to happen next according to the passage?
| A．Mrs. Anderson was charged with stealing a car. |
| B．Charlie blamed Mrs. Anderson for mistakenly taking his car. |
| C．Charlie would ask the Toyota Company to give him an explanation. |
| D．The Toyota Company would give Charlie a new car as compensation. |
Most young people enjoy some forms of physical activity. It may be walking, cycling, swimming, or in winter, skating or skiing. It may be a game of some forms—football, basketball, hockey, golf or tennis. It may be mountaineering.
Those who have a passion for climbing high and difficult mountains are often looked upon with astonishment. Why are men and women willing to suffer cold and hardship, and to take risks in high mountains? This astonishment is caused, probably, by the difference between mountaineering and other forms of activity to which men give their leisure.
Mountaineering is a sport and not a game. There are no man-made rules, as others, as there are for such games as golf and football. There are, of course, rules of different kinds which would be dangerous to ignore, but it is this freedom from man-made rules that makes mountaineering attractive to many people. Those who climb mountains are free to use their own methods.
If we compare mountaineering with other more familiar sports, we might think that one big difference is that mountaineering is not a “team game”. We should be mistaken in this. There are, it is true, no “matches” between “teams” of climbers, but when climbers are on a rock face linked by a rope on which their lives may depend, there is obviously teamwork.
The mountain climber knows that he may have to fight forces that are stronger and more powerful than man. He has to fight the forces of nature. His sport requires high mental and physical qualities.
A mountain climber continues to improve in skills year by year. A skier is probably past his best by the age of thirty. But it is not unusual for men of fifty or sixty to climb the highest mountains in the Alps. They may take more time than younger men, but they perhaps climb with more skills and less waste of effort, and they certainly experience equal enjoyment.What sports are popular among people in winter in the passage?
| A．Soccer and golf. | B．Skiing and skating. |
| C．Cycling and hockey. | D．Mountaineering. |
The underlined word “passion” in Paragraph 2 could best be replaced by ______.
| A．strong emotion | B．good way |
| C．better feeling | D．enough affection |
Mountaineering is a sport, not a game because_______.
| A．it has man-made rules |
| B．it is too dangerous for climbers |
| C．it can’t bring people joy or leisure |
| D．it is free for climbers to use their own methods |
We know from the passage that _______.
| A．mountaineering has no appeal for people |
| B．physical quality is more important than mental one for climbers |
| C．a mountain climber passes his best by the age of thirty |
| D．it is possible for an old man of fifty or sixty to climb the Alps |
What is the best title for the passage?
| A．Sports in winter | B．Team work in climbing |
| C．Mountaineering | D．The quality for mountaineering |
The computer keyboard helped kill shorthand—a system of rapid handwriting, and now it’s threatening to finish off handwriting as a whole. When handwritten essays were introduced on the SAT exams for the class of 2012, just 15% of the most1.5 million students wrote their answers in cursive(草写字母). The rest? Block letters.
And those college hopefuls are just the first edge of a wave of US students who no longer get much handwriting instructions in the primary grades, frequently 10 minutes a day or less. As a result, more and more students struggle to read and write cursive.
At Keene Mill Elementary School in Springfield, all their poems and stories are typed. Children in Fairfax County schools are taught keyboarding beginning in kindergarten. Older students who never mastered handwriting say it doesn’t affect their grades.
There are those who say the culture is at a crossing, turning from the written word to the typed one. If handwriting becomes a lost form of communication, does it matter?
It was at University Virginia that researchers recently discovered a previously unknown poem by Robert, written in his unique script. Handwritten documents are more valuable to researchers, historians say, because their authenticity(真实性) can be confirmed. Students also find them more fascinating.
The loss of handwriting also may be a cognitive(认知的) opportunity missed. Several academic studies have found that good handwriting skills at a young age can help children express their thoughts better—a lifelong benefit.
It doesn’t take much to teach better handwriting skills. At some schools in Prince George’s County, elementary school students use a program called Handwriting Without Tears for 15 minutes a day. They learn the correct formation of manuscript letters through second grade, and cursive letters in third grade.
There are always going to be some kids who struggle with handwriting because of their particular neurological(神经系统的) writing, learning issues or poor motor skills. Educators often point to this factor in support of keyboarding. What is the author concerned about after 2012 Sat exams?
| A．Keyboarding. | B．Shorthand. |
| C．Handwriting. | D．Block letters. |
A poem by Robert mentioned in the passage is used to ____________.
| A．prove how valuable handwriting is |
| B．explain what a famous poet he is |
| C．show how unique his poem is |
| D．stress how fascinating the documents are |
The example of Handwriting Without Tears helps to argue that _____________.
| A．the schools are responsible for the loss of handwriting |
| B．the loss of handwriting is a cognitive opportunity missed |
| C．it doesn’t take much to teach better handwriting skills |
| D．the culture is turning from the written word to the typed one |
According to the author, when is a perfect time to learn handwriting?
| A．Kindergarten. | B．Primary school. |
| C．High school. | D．College. |
What is the author’s attitude towards this debate?
| A．Devotion. | B．Encouragement. |
| C．Critical. | D．Objective. |