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More students than ever before are taking a gap-year (间隔年) before going to university. It used to be called the “year off” between school and university. The gap-year phenomenon originated with the months left over to Oxbridge applicants between entrance exams in November and the start of the next academic year.
This year, 25,310 students who have accepted places in higher education institutions have put off their entry until next year, according to statistics on university entrance provided by University and College Admissions Service (UCAS).
That is a record 14.7% increase in the number of students taking a gap year. Tony Higgins from UCAS said that the statistics are good news for everyone in higher education. “Students who take a well-planned year out are more likely to be satisfied with, and complete, their chosen course. Students who take a gap year are often more mature and responsible,” he said.
But not everyone is happy. Owain James, the president of the National Union of Students(NUS), argued that the increase is evidence of student hardship –young people are being forced into earning money before finishing their
education. “New students are now aware that they are likely to leave university with up to ￡15,000 in debt. It is not surprising that more and more students are taking a gap year to earn money to support their study for the degree. NUS statistics show that over 40% of students are forced to work during term time and the figure increases to 90% during vacation periods,” he said.What do we learn about the gap year from the text?
| A．It is flexible in length. |
| B．It is a time for relaxation. |
| C．It is increasingly popular. |
| D．It is required by universities. |
According to Tony Higgins, students taking a gap year_________.
| A．arc better prepared for college studies |
| B．know a lot more about their future jobs |
| C．are more likely to leave university in debt |
| D．have a better chance to enter top universities |
What would most students do on their vacation according to NUS statistics?
| A．Attend additional courses. |
| B．Make plans for the new term. |
| C．Earn money for their education. |
| D．Prepare for their graduate studies. |
Welcome to Arundel Castle which is situated in West Sussex, England. The castle has a history of nearly 1000 years and has welcomed visitors traveling from all over the world. Arundel Castle also plays a starring role in many films.
The Gardens
The White Garden is planted with soft white Iceberg Roses, and Snow White Lilies.
The Rose Garden is newly planted with lovely old-fashioned English roses that are at their very best in June and July.
The Organic Kitchen Garden produces a wide range of seasonal fruit and vegetables, pears, cherries and apples.
The Castle Shop
In the Castle Shop, you will discover a wide and interesting range of gift ideas for everyone. It offers gifts and souvenirs designed to appeal to all tastes and pockets. Foods, china, books, and stationery (文具)are all available. Many are sold in this Castle Shop only.
At Arundel Castle we pride ourselves on supporting local suppliers and actively encourage environmentally friendly products.
The Arundel Festival 2014
Saturday 16th to Monday 25th August
The annual Arundel Festival gets bigger and better every year. It is one of the most amazing, diverse and easily accessible arts festivals in the UK, offering a mix of visual arts, music, theatre and street entertainment.
Parking
Coaches and mini-buses can drop off at the main Castle entrance in Mill Road and park in the main town car park that is opposite the Castle entrance. Please inform us when making your booking of how many parking permits are required.
When visiting the castle, you can________.
| A．get old-fashioned English roses as gifts |
| B．buy eco-friendly products in the Castle Shop |
| C．get seasonal fruit and vegetables for free |
| D．see how the local gifts are being made |
How long does the Arundel Festival last this year?
| A．10 days | B．One week | C．16 days | D．One month |
Where can you park the coach?
| A．In Mill Road |
| B．Inside the Castle |
| C．In the main town car park |
| D．At the main Castle entrance |
A recent survey in the United States showed that the average family spent more money on its pets than on its children. Although rather shocking, it should not surprise anyone who has seen the doggy parlors(客厅) where loved pets rest. Are Americans unique in treating their little friends in this way? No, the English, too, pay more attention to their pets.
This can clearly be seen when we look at pet foods, which often contain more vitamins than human food. They certainly cost much. Last year the British public spent two hundred million pounds on pet food alone, to say nothing of veterinary bills or animal furniture. It is difficult not to feel angry about this when considering what the same amount could do for victims of starvation and poverty, so it is not unusual for me to get hot under collar when I read an old man left all his money to his dog instead of his children.
There are a variety of reasons why I find pets-raising alarming. They cause physical problems. An example of this is New York where they have great difficulty getting rid of the mess that dogs leave on the streets. Many people find this funny, but in a number of large cities it is a major problem. Animals can cause disease, too. It is the threat of rabies — a disease with no known cure.
Another problem is the carelessness of pet owners. Most little children want a dog or a cat, and they continually push their mothers and fathers until they get one. It is only when the "sweet little thing" has been brought home that the parents realize how much time and money must be spent on "Rover" or "Bonzo". Then they just abandon it. As a result, they are allowed to run free. English farmers lose hundreds of sheep a year, killed by someone's pet and you must have read of children being hurt by some pets of their own.
Lastly, I would only suggest that we have got our priorities wrong and that something should be done about it. In my view, it's time we stopped being sentimental about pets. I can see no reason why we should get upset when animals are cut up for medical experiments. This will lead us to discovering cures for serious human diseases, then I say, “keep cutting!”The doggy parlors are mentioned in the 1st paragraph to show ________.
| A．where Americans keep their pets |
| B．what costly lives the pets are living |
| C．why children love their pets so much |
| D．how much pets depend on their masters |
In the second paragraph "to get hot under the collar" probably means ________.
| A．getting quite hot | B．feeling overwhelmingly angry |
| C．becoming excited | D．receiving a fashionable shirt |
According to the author, in which field can animals be most useful?
| A．Pet. | B．Food. | C．Medicine. | D．Sports. |
What is author’s attitude towards pets-raising?
| A．Pitiful. | B．Neutral. | C．Opposed. | D．Supportive. |
My family moved from Taiwan to a small town in central Georgia, where my dad got a visa for his family and a job. I had just learned English, and from what little I could gather from my classmates, Santa Claus would come down one’s chimney and put toys in one’s stocking on Christmas Eve! What a great country, I thought. After I looked up “stocking” in my Chinese-English dictionary, I knew what I had to do.
On that fateful night, after everyone went to bed, I took my longest, cleanest knee sock and attached it to a nail already on the mantel(壁炉). Obviously, the previous owners of this house were no strangers to this Santa character.
I woke up before everyone else on Christmas Day and ran to the fireplace. To make a sob story short, I was hit with the reality of an empty sock and the biggest lie ever told. I burst into tears, quickly took down the sock, and stuffed it in the back of a drawer. Santa was dead.
Every December since then, the topic of Christmas memories would unavoidably come up, and I would amuse my friends with my poor-little-me story. I had to make it as funny as possible, or else I would cry.
How could I know that Santa was just late? Nine years ago, on Christmas Eve, an older man with a white beard and a red cap knocked on my front door. He said, “I’ve been looking for you for twenty-five years.” He handed me a bulging red stocking, winked, and left. On top of the stocking was a card. It read: “For Becky—I may have missed you in the second grade, but you’ve always lived in my heart. Santa.”
Through tear-blurred eyes, I recognized the handwriting of Jill, a friend I had met just two months before. I later discovered that the older man was her father. Jill had seen the hurt little girl underneath the thirty-something woman and decided to do something about it.
So now I believe that Santa is real. I don’t mean the twinkle-eyed character of children’s mythology or the creation of American holiday marketers. Those Santas annoy and sadden me. I believe in the Santa Claus that live inside good and thoughtful people. This Santa does not return to the North Pole after a crazy delivery but lives each day purposefully, really listens to friends, and then plans deliberate acts of kindness.What does the underlined part “what I had to do” in Paragraph 1 refer to?
| A．Waiting for Santa Claus. |
| B．Putting a stocking on the mantel. |
| C．Asking for gifts from her parents. |
| D．Looking up “stocking” in the dictionary |
It can be inferred from the passage that the author’s parents ________.
| A．didn’t love their child at all |
| B．didn’t know the previous owners of the house |
| C．didn’t know much about Christmas tradition |
| D．didn’t have enough money to buy the author Christmas presents |
When the author told her friends about the story, she felt ________ in her heart.
| A．proud | B．amusing | C．hate | D．regret |
The author of the passage is probably ________.
| A．a teenager | B．a primary school student |
| C．a middle-aged woman | D．a native American |
Can eating a chocolate bar every day really prevent age-related memory loss? No. But a new research shows that large amounts of flavones, substances found in cocoa, tea and some kinds of vegetables, may improve age-related memory failure.
Dr. Scott Small is a professor of neurology (神经病学) at Columbia University in new York City. He is the lead writer of a research paper describing the effects of cocoa flavones on brain activity. His study involved 37 volunteers aged between 50 and 69. Researchers gave them a high-level flavones drink made from cocoa beans or a low-level flavones drink. For a period of three months, some subjects got 900 milligrams of flavones a day. The others got 10 milligrams of flavones each day. Brain imaging and memory tests were given to each study subject before and after the study. Dr. Small says that the subjects who had the high-level flavones drink showed much improvement on memory tests.
The researchers warn that more work is needed to be done because this study was performed only on a small group. Dr. Joann Manson is the lead researcher of a four-year study involving 18,000 adults. This study will use flavones capsules(胶囊). The study subjects will be divided into two groups and will take two pills per day. The capsules used will all look the same. But one group's capsules will contain flavones, while the other group will take capsules made of an inactive substance, or placebo
Dr. Manson says it's not necessary for people to start eating more chocolate, because a person would have to eat a huge amount of chocolate to get the same level of flavones given to the rest subjects. He adds many manufacturers have planned to remove the flavones from their chocolate products. Similarly, Dr. Manson says a cocoa-based flavones extract(提取)may be developed in the future But he says that more studies are needed to see how much flavones is good for our health.What was done to the subjects after Dr. Small’s study?
| A．They were asked to take a high-level flavones drink. |
| B．They were given capsules containing flavones. |
| C．They were given brain imaging and memory tests. |
| D．They were asked to take two pills of flavones capsules per day. |
What's the similarity of the two experiments?
| A．Both use high-level flavones capsules. |
| B．The number of the subjects is the same. |
| C．Drinks and placebos are used in both experiments. |
| D．The subjects are divided into two groups in both experiments. |
Why will Dr. Manson carry out the four-year study?
| A．To prove the first experiment is wrong. |
| B．To carry out the experiment further. |
| C．To test how much flavones can improve our memory. |
| D．To show eating chocolate is better to improve memory. |
What can we learn from the last paragraph?
| A．It’s not necessary for us to eat chocolate. |
| B．The more we eat flavones, the better our health will be. |
| C．In the future we can get flavones without eating chocolate. |
| D．It’s easy for people to get the same level of flavones given to the test subjects. |
NEW YORK－Australian mining enterprise Clive Palmer on Tuesday unveiled(公布)blueprints for TitanicⅡ, a modern copy of the doomed ocean liner, although he didn't call the ship unsinkable any more.
The ship will largely recreate the design and decoration of the fabled original, with some modifications to keep it in line with current safety rules and shipbuilding practices, and the addition of some modern comforts such as air conditioning, Palmer said at a press conference in New York.
The three passenger classes, however, will be prevented from mingling(混杂), as in 1912, Palmer said. “I'm not too superstitious(迷信的).”Palmer said when asked whether recreating a ship bestknown for sinking was tempting fate.
White Star Line, the operator of the original ship, had said the Titanic was designed to be unsinkable. About 1, 500 people died on Titanic’s maiden voyage in 1912 from Southampton to New York after the ship collided with an iceberg in the North Atlantic.
Palmer, who created the company Blue Star Line last year, refused to make a similar boast.
“Anything will sink if you put a hole in it, ” Palmer said. “I think it would be very cavalier to say it.”
Unlike the original, TitanicⅡwill have more than enough space in its lifeboats for every person on board and will have additional escape staircases. Markku Kanerva, sales director at Deltamarin, the Finnish company designing the ship, said it would be the “safest cruise ship in the world”．
Palmer refused to answer questions about the project's cost. Although the Titanic was the world's largest ship in her time, she would be smaller than many of today's modern cruise ships.
“It’s not about the money，” Palmer said. “I've got enough money for it. I think that’s all that matters.”
Forbes estimated Palmer's net worth to be $795 million in 2012.He describes himself as a billionaire.
TitanicⅡwill be built by Chinese state-owned CSC Jinling Shipyard, which has already built four ore carriers for Palmer’s mining business, he said. The contract to build TitanicⅡhas not yet been signed, Palmer said.What’s the meaning of the underlined word “maiden” in Paragraph 4?
| A．First. | B．Trial. | C．Second. | D．Last. |
What can be inferred about TitanicⅡfrom the passage?
| A．TitanicⅡwill have more space in its lifeboats than the Titanic. |
| B．TitanicⅡwill be the largest cruise ship in the world. |
| C．TitanicⅡwill allow different classes of passengers to mingle. |
| D．TitanicⅡwill be a real unsinkable cruise ship. |
Which of the following statements is TRUE according to the passage?
| A．1, 500 people died on Titanic’s maiden voyage in 1912. |
| B．The Titanic collided with an iceberg in the South Pacific. |
| C．The Titanic was equipped with air conditioning. |
| D．The Titanic was the world’s largest ship at that time. |
What’s the author’s purpose of writing the passage?
| A．To tell us the story of the Titanic. |
| B．To tell us TitanicⅡwill cost a lot of money. |
| C．To tell us about the future TitanicⅡ. |
| D．To tell us a Chinese Shipyard will build TitanicⅡ. |