A public primary school in New York City has stopped giving its students homework.
P.S. 116 Principal Jane Hsu wrote a letter to parents last month, explaining that after more than a year of analyzing (分析) studies, the school had decided that students’ after-school time would be better spent on activities like reading at their own pace (步伐) and playing instead of working on homework.
Hsu’s letter says that many studies show that there is no connection between homework and academic (学业的) success. Some other studies also show that the connection between homework and success is dubious at the primary school level.
Harris Cooper, a social psychologist who researches education, found that doing homework makes students perform better in school as they grew older. In later grades, students who did homework performed increasingly better than students who did not. In 2006, Cooper published a study that analyzed 15 years’ worth of data on the influence of homework. He found that homework had a good influence on students as they aged.
Some parents are not happy with the decision to give up homework. “I think they should have homework. I want my daughter to have fun, but I also want her to be working towards a goal,” Daniel Tasman, the father of a second-grader at the school, said to the reporter.
“Students have to do homework in order to gain. Students have to do homework because they may not be able to understand everything in school,” Sharon Blake, a student’s grandmother told ABC news.
The passage is probably from a .
| A．newspaper | B．comedy | C．cartoon | D．novel |
Jane Hsu wrote a letter to parents to explain .
| A．how students should read at their own pace |
| B．what activities students could take at home |
| C．why the school gave up homework recently |
| D．how important the homework is for students |
The word “dubious” in Paragraph 3 probably means “not ”.
| A．clear | B．public | C．real | D．special |
What can we infer (推断) according to the passage?
| A．Cooper found homework had a bad influence on students as they aged. |
| B．Some parents are worried about their children if there is no homework. |
| C．Some students are not happy with the decision to give up school homework. |
| D．Daniel Tasman wanted his daughter to have fun instead of working to a goal. |
When he was a teenager, Hunter Adam was very unhappy and he spent many years in a special hospital for people with mental health problems.
When he left the hospital, Adam decided to become a doctor, so he went to a medical school in Virginia, USA. But when he was there, he did things in a different way. For example, he didn’t like the doctor’s white coats, so he wore shirts with flowers on them when he visited his patients and he tried to make them laugh. The doctors at the medical school didn’t like Adams because he was too different.
But Adams believed that people in hospital need more than medicine. He saw unhappy and lonely people, and he tried to help them as patients, but as people too. He spent a lot of time with children in the hospital and often dressed up like a clown to make the children laugh
When he finished medical school and become a doctor, Adams opened his own hospital, called “the Gusundheit Institute”，together with some other doctors. They wanted it to be a place with a different way of working with sick people.
Hunter Adams became famous during the 1980s, and in 1988, Universal Pictures made a film about his life. It was very successful. In the film, Robin Williams played Adams. Williams said,:”hunter is a really warm person, who believes that patients need a doctor who is a friend. I enjoyed playing him.”When did Adams have mental health problems?
| A．after he left medical school |
| B．during the 1980s |
| C．When he was a teenager boy |
| D．after the film came out |
Why did the doctors at the medical school dislike Adams?
| A．because he was a warm person |
| B．because he had mental health problem |
| C．because he was a clown |
| D．because he wasn’t the same as others |
The Gusundheit Institute
| A．was a hospital |
| B．belonged to Universal Pictures |
| C．could make films |
| D．was a medical school |
According to the passage, which statement is NOT true?
| A．Adams wore shirts instead of white uniforms when visiting patients |
| B．Robin Williams believed that patients need a doctor who is a friend. |
| C．In Adams’ opinion, not only medicine was needed for patients |
| D．Robin Williams was an actor |
The passage mainly tells us about
| A．how to cheer up patients |
| B．people with mental health problems |
| C．a film about Adams |
| D．a doctor named Hunter Adams |
Dear Alan,
Guess what? I have a chance to choose my new place to live in! I’m excited and a little nervous. Could you please give me some help?
I’m not sure whether I will live in a house or in an apartment. On the one hand, a house will be too big for just one person, so maybe I should rent an apartment. On the other hand, if I rent a house, I could find someone else to share with me. The only problem is that a house full of people might be too noisy for me. I prefer to have my own space. The city has some nice apartments, but they are also too expensive. However, if I could find a two-bedroom apartment and get a roommate, that would make it more affordable. I just need to search for a roommate who is neat and quiet. You know I can’t live with someone who is loud and messy. I don’t have a car, so I also need to think carefully about the location. I probably need to look for somewhere near a bus stop or an underground station. That way I will have more time to study and spend less time travelling.
I’m looking forward to your reply.
Love, VictorVictor feels excited because .
| A．he has a new house to live in |
| B．he can decide where to live |
| C．he is going to see Alan |
| D．Alan helped him out with his problem |
Victor wants to share the house with a (an)person.
| A．neat and quiet | B．outgoing and messy |
| C．neat and loud | D．quiet and messy |
If Victor finds a roommate, he will .
| A．waste money | B．buy a car |
| C．save money | D．have more time to study |
Victor doesn’t have a car, so he wants.
| A．a two bed-room apartment | B．to ask Alan for help |
| C．to have his own space | D．a place with convenient traffic |
According to the passage, the underlined word “travelling” meansin Chinese.
| A．观光旅行 | B．路途奔波 |
| C．广为流传 | D．跋山涉水 |
An important part of learning something is making sure you plan your time and use it well. If you want to remember
things well, you need to review information you’ve learned. Try to follow the advice:
| DO |
DON’T |
| ●Make a study timetable at least three weeks before your exams and follow time to relax and have fun. ●Review little and often. ●While you’re studying, have short regular breaks. A short break every 45 minutes is good idea. Stand up and walk around— you will feel more awake. ●Try making a weekly plan showing what you do every day(school, travel, meals, etc). You might see where you’re wasting time that you could use to study or read. |
●Study for hours every night a week before your exam! Studying for hours the night before will make you tired and your brain won’t work well. ●Study for a long period of time without a break. You probably won’t remember information very well if you do this ●Worry too much. If you feel nervous, you won’t learn as well as if you’re relaxed. |
When learning something, you’d better make a plan first.
Make sure to review as much as possible every time.
You’ll feel more awake after a 45-minute break while studying.
If you worry too much, you can’t learn well.
You should stay up late the night before exams.
No one knows exactly when jazz was invented, or by whom. But it is said that it began in the early 1900s.
Jazz was a new kind of music, for America and the world, and New Orleans was its birthplace.
Who were the jazz pioneers? Most were blacks. This music was not written down, and at first only blacks played it. It was hard for white musicians to learn the new style. But soon they, too, were playing jazz.
The popularity of this music spread. From New Orleans, it traveled up the Mississippi to Chicago, then to Kansas City and New York. By the 1920s, there were many jazz musicians, both black and white. Many of them were famous. One man was better than the rest. His name was Louis Armstrong.
Louis Armstrong was a born musician. He was not only talented but also hard-working. He also had a good sense of humor and a big, good-natured smile. These personal qualities were valuable in his rise to fame. After he became famous, he traveled around the world. It seemed that everyone wanted to hear Louis play. But life was not always easy, especially at the beginning.
Louis Armstrong was born in 1900 in New Orleans. His father never went to school and his mother could hardly read. When Louis was still a kid, his parents separated, and Louis lived with his mother. How hard their life was can readily be imagined. And yet Louis smiled through everything. He later wrote, “My whole life has been happiness. Life was there for me and I accepted it. Whatever happened has been beautiful to me. I love everybody.”What can we know exactly from the first paragraph?
| A．Who invented jazz. |
| B．When jazz was invented. |
| C．Where jazz was invented. |
| D．Why jazz was invented. |
The underlined word “they” in Paragraph 2 refers to（指）________.
| A．New styles. | B．Jazz pioneers. |
| C．Black musicians. | D．White musicians. |
What made Louis Armstrong become the best jazz musician?
| A．His family background. |
| B．His talent and hard work. |
| C．His good sense of humor. |
| D．His big, good-natured smiles. |
Which of the following best expresses Louis Armstrong’s attitude (态度) to life?
| A．He laughs best who laughs last. |
| B．Failure is the mother of success. |
| C．When you smile, the world smiles ba ck. |
| D．Without music, life is a journe y through a desert. |
What is the passage mainly about?
| A．The development of jazz. |
| B．The influence of jazz on Americans. |
| C．The achievements of Louis Armstrong. |
| D．The development of jazz and its best musician. |
There is an unusual holiday in the US that falls on the fourth Thursday of April every year. It is very different from Christmas, Thanksgiving, or other well-known holidays. It is called Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work Day. This holiday is meant to be educational as well as fun. The idea is simple, and the name says it all. It is a day for working parents to show their kids what they do all day.
Although this holiday doesn’t seem very complex(复杂的), it has meaningful purposes. There are many
good reasons why a child should know what his or her parents do at work. For one thing, it is hard for children to understand the life of an adult when all they know is school. Therefore, this holiday helps children learn what it means to have a job. It also helps them learn about the differences and similarities between their world and the grown-up world. When young people know more about their parents’ lives, they can form stronger parent-child relationships. This alone is worth a day of celebration.This year’s Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work Day falls on _____ .
The underlined part in the first paragraph is closest in meaning to ___ .
| A．every holiday needs a name |
| B．the name says it is known to all |
| C．the name explains the idea clearly |
| D．it is very different from Christmas |
The writer thinks the holiday is ____.
| A．usual | B．simple | C．complex | D．meaningful |