“Migrant workers”(外来务工人员) is a familiar term for 17-year-old Shi Jian. Her father and uncle often talk about the problems surrounding this group of people. However, Shi cares more about the children of these migrant workers.
Last year Shi’s housekeeper’s daughter had to give up her schooling in Beijing because she would not be allowed to sit the national college entrance exam. She was forced to continue her high school education in her hometown in Sichuan Province.
Shi thinks the current law is unfair for migrant workers’ children, as it prevents them from studying at public schools, unless their parents pay huge sums. So, Shi decided to do a survey of migrant workers so that she could find some solutions to help solve the problem.
In the last six months Shi spoke to 186 migrant workers in Beijing. Her interviewees include babysitters, guards, keepers, supermarket clerks, house cleaners and construction site workers. Shi found out that 55 of them were parents. Among this group, only eight have children who attend schools in Beijing. The other 47 had to leave children with relatives in the countryside. However, 40 of the 47 would like to enroll(使入学) their children in city schools.
From her interviews, Shi found that the workers’ lowest income was 400 yuan each month. Over one-third earn a monthly wage of or below 1000 yuan. “Even schools for migrant workers’ children charge more than public schools. Morever, parents constantly worry about these schools closing or relocating,” she explained.
Shi has recently completed a report about her survey, in which she makes a series of recommendations. “The government can set up public schools for migrants’ children equal to schools for city children. Second, to offset(弥补) migrant workers’ very low pay, public schools should offer them special rates so they can afford their children’s tuition(学费).What drove Shi to do the survey of migrant workers?
| A．Her curiosity about migrant workers’ lives |
| B．She was asked to do a survey of migrant workers as part of a school project. |
| C．Her housekeeper’s daughter was forced to move to her hometown to continue studying. |
| D．She wanted to draw people’s attention and become famous |
According to Shi’s survey, most migrant workers’ kids _____.
| A．don’t live together with their parents |
| B．attend schools near their parents’ working places |
| C．have to help their parents support the family |
| D．always do better in schools than children from the city. |
All of the following prevent migrant workers’ kids from attending schools in cities EXCEPT _____.
| A．their parents’ low income |
| B．their lack of confidence to face the fierce competitions in city schools |
| C．schools’ high tuitions |
| D．that schools for migrant workers’ children may close or relocate |
Shi suggested in her survey that _____.
| A．more private schools for migrants’ children should be built |
| B．more money should be collected for migrants’ children |
| C．children’s tuition should be reduced |
| D．students from the city and the countryside should be encouraged to communicate more |
He was a hero that saved two children from the jaws of a cougar(美洲狮). Standing barely 1.7 meters, the 22-year-old with black-frame glasses might pass more for a Chinese Harry Potter. Yet Shen Huigang is now getting recognition for his bravery in fighting off a cougar on Vancouver Island, Canada, during a family outing. Shen, also known as Ian, was then an exchange student. With him was a friend, Myles Hagar, and Hagar’s two grandchildren. Silently and suddenly a cougar appeared out of nowhere. By the time they spotted the cat, it already had the head of 18-month-old Julien in its mouth.
“At first, my brain was nothing but blank,” Shen recalled. “But I believed I could get the child back.” He gestured as if he were ready for a fight, and tried to scare the beast off with his bag. Hearing the noise Shen made, the animal dropped the baby and Hagar rushed to grab his grandson. But the animal didn’t run, instead turned toward 3-year-old Iris standing beside Shen. “Had Ian not been there, shouting at the cougar, remaining calm and standing firm, it would certainly have attacked Iris.” Hagar recalled.
They chased the animal back into the woods. “We moved slowly to our vehicle as we waved our fists and bags, pretending to wrestle it,” Shen said. “The vehicle wasn’t far away but it felt like it took us a century to travel the short journey.” As Hagar drove for help, Shen held the heavily-bleeding boy in the passenger seat and calmly kept him awake by hugging and kissing him in case he would go into a coma(昏迷). The boy was flown to a hospital nearby. Doctors later said his little skull had been punctured(刺穿) through to his brain in two places. Luckily, Julien made a full recovery.
“Any hesitation, even a second delay, would have resulted in certain death for Julien, but Ian was there…” Hagar said. Following the incident, the story appeared on Canadian TV networks in every city, and in many small town newspapers---plus many US Internet news sites. The Royal Canadian Humane Association planned to give Shen a Canada Bravery Award, but it couldn’t reach him because he had returned to China.Why did the cougar drop the baby?
| A．Because it was scared by the noise made by Ian’s shouting. |
| B．Because Hagar rushed to grab the baby from its jaws. |
| C．Because it wanted to attack Iris and took her away. |
| D．Because Hagar and Ian were chasing it back into the woods. |
Which of the following statements about Shen Huigang is TRUE?
| A．He was called Chinese Harry Potter because he was very brave. |
| B．His deed was spread both in Canada and the US. |
| C．He was better at fighting and wrestling compared with Hagar. |
| D．He was too shocked to move to the vehicle in the incident. |
What did Ian do in the car to keep the baby awake?
| A．He held, hugged and kissed the baby in the passenger seat. |
| B．He drove the car as quickly as possible to find a hospital. |
| C．He encouraged the baby telling him to be awake. |
| D．He held the heavily- bleeding wound of the baby. |
Which of the following can be the best title for this passage?
| A．Saving Lives From the Jaws of Death |
| B．Experiencing a Family Outing |
| C．Taking Care of Two Children |
| D．Interviewing a Clever Young Student |
It is difficult for doctors to help a person with a damaged brain. Without enough blood, the brain lives for only three to five minutes. More often the doctors can’t fix the damage. Sometimes they are afraid to try something to help because it is dangerous to work on the brain. The doctors might make the person worse if he operates on the brain.
Dr. Robert White, a famous professor and doctor, thinks he knows a way to help. He thinks doctors should make the brain very cold. If it is very cold, the brain can live without blood for 30 minutes. This gives the doctor a longer time to do something for the brain.
Dr. White tried his idea on 13 monkeys. First he taught them to do different jobs, then he operated on them. He made the monkeys’ blood go through a machine. The machine cooled the blood. Then the machine sent the blood back to the monkeys’ brains. When the brain’s temperature was 10°C, Dr. White stopped the blood to the brain. After 30 minutes he turned the blood back on. He warmed the blood again. After their operations the monkeys were like they had been before. They were healthy and busy. Each one could still do the jobs the doctor had taught them.The biggest difficulty in operating on the damaged brain is that _______.
| A．the time is too short for doctors |
| B．the patients are often too nervous |
| C．the damage is extremely hard to fix |
| D．the blood-cooling machine might break down |
The brain operation was made possible mainly by _______.
| A．taking the blood out of the brain |
| B．trying the operation on monkeys first |
| C．having the blood go through a machine |
| D．lowering the brain’s temperature |
With Dr. White’s new idea, the operation on the damaged brain _______.
| A．can last as long as 30 minutes |
| B．can keep the brain’s blood warm |
| C．can keep the patient’s brain healthy |
| D．can help monkeys do different jobs |
What is the right order of the steps in the operation?
a. send the cooled blood back to the brain
b. stop the blood to the brain
c. have the blood cooled down
d. operate on the brain
| A．a, b, c, d | B．c, a, b, d | C．c, b, d, a | D．b, c, d, a |
London: It’s well known that Charles Darwin’s famous theory of evolution annoyed many people because it was against the Biblical view of creation. But few know that it also created problems for Darwin at home with his deeply religious wife, Emma.
“Darwin held back the publication of On the Origin of Species to avoid offending (触怒) his wife,” says Ruth Padel, the naturalist’s great – great – granddaughter. “Emma told him that he seemed to be putting God further and further off”, Padel says in her north London home. “But they talked it through, and Emma once said, ‘Don’t change any of your ideas for fear of hurting me.’”
As the world celebrates the 200th birthday of the man who changed scientific thought forever and the 150th anniversary of his book today, even his opponents admitted he was a giant figure.
Though opposition to his theory continues, it is the elegant explanation of how species evolutes through natural selection that makes his 200th birthday such a major event.
More than 300 celebrations have been planned in Britain alone, where Darwin's face graces (使增光)the 10-pound bill along with that of Queen Elizabeth II.
Shrewsbury, the central England town where Darwin was born and raised, is holding a month-long festival for its most famous son. Down House, his former home near London, will hold a permanent exhibition recreating some of his most famous experiments.
Many more events have been planned all over the world.
What would he be doing if he were alive today? Padel thinks he would properly be studying DNA and the immune system.The main purpose of the author is .
| A．to say something about Darwin and his wife |
| B．to introduce Charles Darwin and his theory of evolution |
| C．to sing high praise for the book On the Origin of Species |
| D．to report some celebrations of Darwin’s 200th birthday and the 150th anniversary of his books |
Which of the statements is NOT true based on the passage?
| A．Everyone agrees with Darwin now. |
| B．Darwin was brought up in Shrewsbury. |
| C．Emma was not really fond of his theory. |
| D．Darwin was very interested in living things. |
The underlined phrase “held back” in the second paragraph probably means .
| A．prevented from | B．kept a secret | C．cared about | D．put off |
It can be inferred that the passage is most probably .
| A．a scientific report | B．a news report |
| C．an English composition | D．a text |
Enter a typical high school, and the first thing you see is the front office， where the principal dwells and grades are stored. The front office also reinforces familiar hierarchy(等级制度): principal at the top, teachers in the middle, kids on the bottom, sitting with hands folded at their desks.
Now, imagine a school where the organizational structure is completely flat. At the New Country School in Henderson, Minn, there is no front office. Visitors are immediately embraced by an airy atrium that is the centerpiece of this one-room schoolhouse. And all around the room, 124 students sit at desks — real office desks — working at their own personal computers on their own projects.
When Dee Thomas and her colleagues got together 15 years ago to design a new high school, they knew there was one thing that had to go: The bell. "You don't go into your job in the morning and say, 'OK, for the first 45 minutes of my job, I'm going to do the math part.' And then a bell goes off, and you do the social history part of your job. You don't do that," Thomas said.
There are no teachers at New Country. Every few weeks, students must present projects they've been working on to the rest of the school community. To prepare for their presentations, they gather at tables in the middle of the school atrium and present their work to their "advisers."
Kids at New Country test better than their peers on the state tests and on the pre-college ACT. The school sends 90 percent of its graduates to college. But that doesn't tell the whole story. New Country struggles to keep its seniors from leaving. The school's senior project is demanding — 300 hours of work.
But for some students, New Country offers a rare alternative, a choice they can't find anywhere else. And the school is constantly visited by educators from around the world looking for new ideas. That's the foundation of efforts to reform American high schools today — that there's a need to experiment with an institution that is failing millions of studentsThe author mentioned the typical high school in the first paragraph ___________.
A. to tell us what the typical high school is like in USA.
B. to present a sharp contrast with the experimental school, New Country.
C. to introduce the topic, New Country, of the passage.
D. to call on students to register in the typical high schoolThe following statements about New Country are all true except________.
| A．New Country students sit in an open environment that looks a lot like a typical office. |
| B．Students consult with "advisers", who "teach" in the traditional sense. |
| C．No bells in New Country, students choose how to spend their time. |
| D．No traditional classes, students work on projects they select themselves. |
Compared with typical high school, New Country is well received for its_________.
| A．high test scores | B．alternative |
| C．comfortable conditions | D．teaching methods |
The passage mainly tells us __________.
| A．experimental school gets rid of classes and teachers. |
| B．typical high school and experimental School. |
| C．new schools in future in America. |
| D．education reform in America. |
At the beginning of my 8:00 a.m. class one Monday at UNLV（拉斯维加斯内华达大学）, I cheerfully asked my students how their weekend had been. One young man said that his weekend had not been very good. The young man then proceeded to ask me why I always seemed to be so cheerful.
His question reminded me of something I’d read somewhere before: “Every morning when you get up, you have a choice about how you want to approach life that day,” I said to the young man. “I choose to be cheerful.”
“Let me give you an example,” I continued. “In addition to teaching here at UNLV, I also teach out at the community college in Henderson. One day a few weeks ago I drove to Henderson. I exited the freeway and turned onto College Drive. But just then my car died. I tried to start it again, but the engine wouldn’t turn over. So I put my flashers on, grabbed my books, and marched down the road to the college.”
“As soon as I got there, the secretary in the Provost’s office asked me what had happened. ‘This is my lucky day’, I replied, smiling.”
“Your car breaks down and today is your lucky day?” She was puzzled, “What do you mean?”
“I live seventeen miles from here. I replied. My car could have broken down anywhere along the freeway. It didn’t. Instead, it broke down in the perfect place: off the freeway, within walking distance of here. I’m still able to teach my class, and I’ve been able to arrange for the tow truck to meet me after class. If my car was meant to break down today, it couldn’t have been arranged in a more convenient fashion.”If you want to be cheerful you should ___________.
| A．try to succeed in doing everything | B．try to please your boss every day |
| C．earn a lot of money by working | D．choose to be cheerful every day |
The underlined phrase “turn over” in the third paragraph means “________”
| A．roll over | B．work normally | C．stopped suddenly | D．move around |
According to this passage we can infer that the teacher’s car broke down ____.
| A．near UNLV | B．along the highway |
| C．near Henderson | D．at the community college |
Which one of the following is TRUE?
| A．The teacher taught not only at UNLV but also at the community college. |
| B．That was the teacher’s lucky day because the teacher liked walking. |
| C．The teacher always hoped that the car would break down often. |
| D．The young man was sad because his car broke down. |