Some American high schools are for students with special interests, like science or the arts. New York City even has a program for those interested in the food service industry, called Food and Finance High School.
New York also has what are called international high schools, or internationals, for immigrant students. They must be new learners of English who have been in the United States less than four years. The first school opened in nineteen eighty-five. The city will begin the new term next month with ten.
New York works with a nonprofit organization, the Internationals Network for Public Schools. Support from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has helped the network expand. The network says the graduation rate was seventy percent last year in the four New York schools open long enough to have graduating classes. That, compared with twenty-three percent for English language learners in all of the city schools.
Over all, New York officials recently reported that the city’s four-year graduation rate, reached fifty-two percent last year. At the same time, they reported that the city’s dropout rate fell below fifteen percent. The Internationals Network says its schools have an average dropout rate of just five percent.
Claire Sylvan is the executive director of the group. She says students drop out mainly because their families need them to work or because parents arrange marriages for girls.
The Internationals Network mainly helps find teachers and trains them in the teaching method of the internationals. Claire Sylvan says the teaching approach is to have students use their different strengths to help each other. They work in small groups, but she says they are not grouped by ability. She says the students discuss issues, then produce a product like a paper, a play, a poster or a report. They learn English as they work.The international high school in New York is __________
A.for immigrant students with special interests |
B.for new immigrant students who have been living in New York less than four years |
C.for new learners of foreign language from around the world |
D.for new young learners of English language living in the US less than four years |
The international high schools in New York _______
A.have been opened for less than 20 years and set a good example |
B.can bring great profit for the Internationals Network for Public Schools |
C.will expand from having one school to having ten |
D.have given great support to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation |
Which of the following shows the graduation rate of the schools of the International Networks last year in the four New York schools?
One of the reasons why some students drop out of school is that _____.
A.their parents can’t afford to pay for the education |
B.they have to help their parents with the work |
C.girls are forced to make money for their families |
D.they have trouble in passing all kinds of exams |
Claire Sylvan would agree with all the following statements EXCEPT _____.
A.with the help of the network, the students can find right teachers. |
B.students use their different strengths to help each other |
C.students can be divided into different classes according to their ability |
D.students can discuss with each other and finish their work by themselves |
The following notice is posted in the bus station.
Time Table:
●Buses leave the Railway Station, New York City, from7:00 a.m. and every half-hour thereafter, until 11:30 p.m. (7 days a week)
●Buses leave Brennan Station 20 minutes before and after every hour from 6:20 a.m. to 11:40 p.m. (7 days a week)
●Evening rush hours (5:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m.); Buses leave the Railway Station, New York City every 15 minutes.(Monday—Friday)
●Holidays Buses leave every hour on the hour, each direction.(Trip time:30minutes each way)
●All tickets must be bought at Window 12, the Railway Station, New York City, or at the Brennan Station Window BEFORE boarding buses.If you want to take a bus in the evening rush hour, you should take the ____ in the Railway Station, New York City on Monday.
A.6:20 p.m. | B.5:45 p.m. | C.8:00 p.m. | D.7:15 p.m. |
You’ll go back home from work in Brennan. Which of the following bus will you take?
A.7:30 p.m. | B.6:00 a.m. | C.5:45 p.m. | D.6:20 p.m. |
Where should passengers buy their tickets?
A.From the bus driver. |
B.On the bus after getting on it. |
C.From the conductor. |
D.At the station before boarding. |
People believe that climbing can do good to health. Where can you learn the skill of climbing then? If you think that you have to go to the mountains to learn how to climb, you’re wrong. Many Americans are learning to climb in city gyms (体育馆). Here, people are learning on special climbing walls. The climbing wall goes straight up and has small holding places for hands and feet.
How do people climb the wall? To climb, you need special shoes and a harness (保护带) around your chest to hold you. There are ropes (绳索) tied to your harness. The ropes hold you in place so that you don’t fall. A beginner’s wall is usually about 15 feet high, and you climb straight up. There are small pieces of metal that stick out for you to stand on and hold on to. Sometimes it’s easy to see the next piece of metal. Sometimes, it’s not. The most difficult part is to control your fear. It’s normal for humans to be afraid of falling, so it’s difficult not to feel fear. But when you move away from the wall, the harness and the ropes hold you, and you begin to feel safe. You move slowly until you reach the top.
Climbing attracts people because it’s good exercise for almost everyone. You use your whole body, especially your arms and legs. This sport gives your body a complete workout. When you climb, both your mind and your body can become stronger. What can we infer from the passage?
A.People are fairly interested in climbing nowadays. |
B.It’s impossible to build up one’s body by climbing. |
C.People can only learn the skill of climbing outdoors. |
D.It’s always easy to see holding places in climbing. |
The most difficult thing to do in wall climbing is _________.
A.to tie ropes to your harness | B.to control your fear |
C.to move away from the wall | D.to climb straight up |
The word “workout” underlined in the last paragraph most probably means.
A.settlement | B.exercise |
C.excitement | D.tiredness |
Why does the author write this passage?
A.To tell people where to find gyms. |
B.To prove the basic need for climbing. |
C.To encourage people to climb mountains. |
D.To introduce the sport of wall climbing. |
Everybody hates rats. But in the earthquake capitals of the world—Japan, Los Angeles, Turkey—rats will soon be man’s new best friends.
What happens after an earthquake? We sent in rescue dogs. Why? Because they can smell people. Dogs save lives. They help rescuers to find living people. But dogs are big and they can’t get into small spaces. So now a new research project is using a smaller animal to save lives: the rat.
How does it work? First, the rat is trained to smell people. When this happens, the rat’s brain gives a signal (信号). This is sent to a small radio on its back, and then the rescuers follow the radio signals. When the rat’s brain activity jumps, the rescuers know that someone is alive. The rat has smelled that person.
Although there are already robots which can do this job, rats are better. Christian Linster at Cornell University, New York, says, “‘Robots ’noses don’t work well when there are other smells around. Rats are good at that.” Rats can also see in the dark. They are cheaper and quicker to train than dogs, and unlike robots, they don’t need electricity(电)!
The “rat project” is not finished, but Julie Ryan of International Rescue Corps in Scotland says, “It would be fantastic. A rat could get into spaces we couldn’t get to and a rat would get out of it if it wasn’t safe.” Perhaps for the first time in history, people will be happy to see a rat in a building (but only after an earthquake, of course).In the world earthquake capitals, rats will become man’s best friends because they can.
A.take the place of man’s rescue jobs |
B.find the position of people alive who are trapped in buildings |
C.serve as food for people alive who are trapped in buildings. |
D.get into small spaces |
In doing rescue jobs, .
A.rats smell better than dogs |
B.dogs don’t need to be trained to smell people |
C.robots’ sense of smell can be affected by other smells around |
D.rats can see in the dark and smaller than robots |
Rats have all the following advantages EXCEPT that .
A.they are more fantastic than other animals |
B.they are less expensive to train than dogs |
C.they don’t need electricity |
D.they are small and can get into small places |
After reading the passage we can know .
A.at present rats have taken the place of dogs in searching for people |
B.the “rat project” has been completed |
C.people are now happy to see a rat in a building |
D.now people still use dogs and robots in performing rescues |
If you are planning on traveling, there are few simple rules about how to make life easier both before and after your journey.
First of all, always check and double-check departure (出发) time. It is surprising how few people really do this carefully. Once I arrived at he airport a few minutes after ten. My secretary had got the ticket for me and I thought she had said that the plane left at 10:50. When I arrived at the airport, the person at the departure desk told me that my flight was closed. Therefore, I had to wait three hours for the next one and missed an important meeting.
The second rule is to remember that even in this age of credit cards (信用卡), it is still important to have some local money in cash (现金). Once I arrived at a place at midnight and the bank at the airport was closed. The only way to get to my hotel was by taxi but because I had no dollars, I offered to pay in pounds instead. “Listen! I only take real money!” the driver said angrily. You can imagine how terrible I felt at that moment.
The third and the last rule is to find out as much as you can about the weather at your destination(目的地) before you leave. I feel sorry for some of my workmates who travel in heavy suits and raincoats in May, when it is still fairly cool in London or Manchester, to places like Athens, Rome of Madrid, where it is already beginning to get quite warm during the day.Where is the writer most probably from?
A.Britain | B.The USA | C.Italy | D.Greece |
When the writer found he had no dollars to pay the taxi driver, he.
A.asked the driver to give him a free ride |
B.offered to pay in pounds |
C.gave the driver some fake(假) money |
D.tried to pay by credit card |
Generally, in May the weather in London is.
A.warm and dry | B.cold and dry |
C.hot and wet | D.cool and rainy |
The writer mainly tells us.
A.how to make life easier |
B.how to be well prepared for a trip |
C.how to enjoy ourselves on trip |
D.how to schedule our trip |
Sarah Williams went to a boarding school. Here is one of the
letters she wrote to her parents from the school.
Wentworth Girls' School
Beachside
July 20th
Dearest Mom and Dad,
I'm afraid I have some very bad news for you. I have been very naughty and the school principal is very angry with me. She is going to write to you. You must come and take me away from here. She does not want me in the school any longer.
The trouble started last night when I was smoking in bed. This is against the rules, of course. We are not supposed to smoke at all.
As I was smoking, I heard footsteps coming towards the room. I did not want a teacher to catch me smoking, so I threw the cigarette away.
Unfortunately, the cigarette fell into the waste-paper basket, which caught fire.
There was a curtain near the waste-paper basket which caught fire, too. Soon the whole room was burning.
The principal phoned for the fire department. The school is a long way from the town and by the time the fire department arrived, the whole school was in flames. Many of the girls are in the hospital.
The principal says that the fire was all my fault and you must pay for the damage. She will send you a bill for about a million dollars.
I’m very sorry about this.
Much love,
Sarah
P. S. None of the above is true, but I have failed my exams. I just want you to know how bad things could have been!Why did Sarah write home?
A.To tell her parents about the fire. |
B.To ask for a lot of money. |
C.To tell her parents she had failed her exams. |
D.To tell her parents she had to leave school. |
Why did Sarah tell her parents the story about the fire?
A.She wanted to worry them. |
B.She wanted to make them laugh. |
C.She wanted to make them less angry at the real news. |
D.She wanted to warn them about what the principal was going to do. |
The letter before the. P. S. was .
A.mostly true | B.partly true |
C.completely true | D.completely untrue |