题目内容
Carmen Arace Middle School is situated in the pastoral town of Bloomfield, Conn., but four years ago it faced many of the same problems as inner-city schools in nearby Hartford: low scores on standardized tests and dropping enrollment（入学注册）. Then the school’s hard-driving headmaster, Delores Bolton, persuaded her board to shake up the place by buying a laptop computer for each student and teacher to use, in school and at home. What’s more, the board provided wireless Internet access at school. Total cost: $2.5 million.
Now, an hour before classes start, every seat in the library is taken by students who cannot wait for getting online. Fifth-grade teacher Jen Friday talks about different kinds of birds as students view them at a colorful website. After school, students on buses pull laptops from backpacks to get started on homework. Since the computer arrived, enrollment is up 20%. Scores on state tests are up 35%.
Indeed, school systems in rural Maine and New York City also hope to follow Arace Middle School’s example. Governor Angus King had planned using $50 million to buy a laptop for all of Maine’s 17,000 seventh-graders – and for new seventh-graders each fall.
In the same spirit, the New York City board of education voted on April 12 to create a school Internet portal（入口）, which would make money by selling ads and licensing public school students. Profits（盈利）will also provide e-mail service for the city’s 1.1 million public school students. Profits will be used to buy laptops for each of the school system’s 87,000 fourth-graders. Within nine years, all students in grades 4 and higher will have their own computers.
Back in Bloomfield, in the meantime, most of the kinks have been worked out. Some students were using their computers to visit unauthorized（非法的）websites. But teachers have the ability to keep an eye on where students have been on the Web and to stop them. “That is the worst when they disable you,” says eighth-grade honors student Jamie Bassell. The habit is rubbing off on parents. “I taught my mom to use e-mail,” says another eighth-grader, Katherine Hypolite. “And now she’s taking computer classes. I’m so proud of her!”
【小题1】The example of Carmen Arace Middle School in the passage is used to ______.
| A．show the problems schools are faced with today |
| B．prove that a school without high enrollment can do well |
| C．express the importance of computers in modern education |
| D．tell that laptops can help improve students’ school performance |
| A．enjoy e-mail service in the near future |
| B．make money by selling ads on websites |
| C．all have their own laptops within nine years |
| D．become more interested in their studies with laptops |
| A．plans | B．projects | C．problems | D．products |
| A．a school Internet portal is the key to a laptop program |
| B．the laptop program also has a good influence on parents |
| C．students slowly accept the fact their online activities controlled |
| D．the laptop program in public school is mainly for the eighth-graders |
【小题1】D
【小题2】A
【小题3】C
【小题4】B
解析试题分析：短文大意：这篇短文主要讲述了一些学校为了改善学生们的在校学习状况，为老师和学生们配备了笔记本电脑，并取得了一些成效，因此一些其它学校也打算在学校中推出类似服务。
【小题1】细节理解题。根据短文第一二段描述，可知作者举卡门艾瑞斯中学的例子主要是为了说明笔记本电脑有助于改善学生们的在校表现。故选D。
【小题2】细节理解题。根据短文倒数第二段描述可知，在不久的将来，纽约公立学校的学生将会享受电子邮件服务。故选A。
【小题3】词义猜测题。联系后一句Some students were using their computers to visit unauthorized（非法的）websites.描述，可知已经发现了大部分问题。故选C。
【小题4】推理判断题。根据最后一段The habit is rubbing off on parents. “I taught my mom to use e-mail,” says another eighth-grader, Katherine Hypolite. “And now she’s taking computer classes. I’m so proud of her!”描述，可知这个笔记本电脑项目同样对家长们有好的影响。故选B。
考点：考查教育类阅读
“I had a Welsh speaking test. I'd had to memorize a paragraph in front of the whole class. I just couldn’t do it,” says 13-year-old Mary. “I pretended to be ill.” But Mary did not enjoy her day off. “I watched TV all day — it was boring. I wished I had gone to school.”
Mary’s story is not unusual in Britain. According to the latest government figures, pupil absences are rising, despite schools taking a hard line on truancy (逃学)．
Philippa James, a PhD researcher at Cardiff University’s school of social sciences, thinks she knows why: “The more schools improve methods of detection（检查）, the more children work out better methods of deception.” Teenagers told her it was now harder to skip a single lesson, so they’d miss whole days to avoid being caught.
For several years, James has researched student truancy of 60 teenagers, aged 13 and 14, including Mary, to see how the teenagers truant, for how long, and why.
Through online conversations and face-to-face interviews, she discovered that most truancy was “a response to factors within the school”. Truants are not necessarily less advanced or less intelligent. They complained of teachers who failed to engage them, and of “boring” lessons. “Many truants really enjoy school and believe in education, but drop out when aspects of it were ineffective.” James says.
The views of students like Adam, who believes that skipping lessons has little impact on his schooling, were common. “I only take-off for a lesson, or a couple of days. It doesn’t affect my education,” he told James.
James’ study concludes that schools need to address the question of why pupils want to leave in the first place. “Pupils need help from the start.” she says. “It’s a two-way process – schools must be responsive. We need to look at the reasons for truancy rather than the number, so that instead of walking away from school, students have the skills and chances to talk through problems and make a change.”
【小题1】What is one of the reasons for school truancy according to James’ study?
| A．Truants are fallen behind in their studies. |
| B．Truants have no interest in school subjects. |
| C．Truants have more interesting things to do. |
| D．Truants are not satisfied with the teachers. |
| A．experiencing a problem with | B．having a strict attitude towards |
| C．finding it difficult to solve | D．having little success with |
| A．school education is not efficient and needs improvement |
| B．it’s a popular belief that occasional truancy won't cause much harm |
| C．school truancy is becoming more serious and needs more concern |
| D．even good students may sometimes need a break from school |
| A．Schools should solve the problem of teachers. |
| B．Schools should be more active in helping beginner truants. |
| C．Schools should have a better control of hidden truants. |
| D．Schools should find out who truant and how they it. |
Here is an interview with a painter. Read and choose the best.
Reporter:Mr Shum, you were one of Taiwan’s most outstanding youths last year. Why was that?
Mr Shum:Well, I can tell you that there are two reasons.First, I am a painter. Second, and more important reason is I am handicapped﹙残疾的﹚。I have no arms and only one leg.
Reporter:Well, how do you paint then if you’ve got no arms? Do you use your foot?
Mr Shum:Hah! For some handicapped people, it’s true and they are able to use their feet.No,I use my mouth. I put my paintbrush or my crayons or pencils or whatever I am using in my mouth. I hold it firmly in my teeth and paint or draw like that. It was a little strange for me at first, but it quickly became very easy.
Reporter:I know you feel that you are first a painter and only secondly that you are a disablbed person, but can we talk first about your handicap?
Mr Shum:Well,in fact I think of myself firstly as a person, secondly as a painter and thirdly as someone with a physical handicap. Can I say that I am not happy with the word “handicapped”?
I am a popular painter because my paintings are good, not because they were painted by a handicapped person. “handicapped”means you can’t do anything. It is difficult for me to do some things like getting dressed.
Reporter: Were you born with your handicap?
Mr Shum:No. An accident happened to me when I was 15 years old.After that I became depressed﹙沮丧﹚and even tried to end my life, but my mother was always there for me.
【小题1】Mr Shum is a painter who has no ____.
| A．mouth | B．teeth | C．feet | D．arms |
| A．a person | B．a painter | C．a hit | D．a star |
| A．he can do anything |
| B．there are some things he can’t do |
| C．there are somethings he can do very well |
| D．he doesn’t want others to look him down |
| A．紧紧地 | B．随意地 | C．缓缓地 | D．轻轻地 |
| A．Comfort in living by painting |
| B．Pleasure of living with a brave mother |
| C．Help gives people happiness. |
| D．What really matters is how you face it. |
All students should have good study habits. When you have good study habits, you can learn things quickly. You also remember them easily(容易地).
Do you like to study in the living-room? This is not a good place because it is usually too noisy. You should study in a quiet place, like your bedroom. A quiet place will help you only think about one thing, and you will learn better.
Before you begin to study, do not forget to clean your desk. A good desk light is important, too .You’ll feel tired easily if there is not much light .
【小题1】When you have good study habits, you will _____________.
| A．learn things quickly | B．remember things easily |
| C．think about one thing | D．both A and B |
| A．安静的 | B．繁忙的 | C．热闹的 | D．吵闹的 |
| A．the living room | B．the kitchen | C．the bedroom | D．the restaurant |
| A．good | B．much | C．not much | D．nice |
| A．Study in the Bedroom | B．Good Study Habits |
| C．How to study | D．Desk Light is Important |
We all have our own ways of sharing our life experiences with others.
Photographers use cameras, artists use brushes, musicians use songs and writers use stories.
Spencer Johnson’s story Who Moved My Cheese? shows changes exist in(存在于)our life. Life changes and so we do. We must change ourselves to face the changing environment, or we will fail.
Just look at the cycle(循环)of the seasons. Trees bud(发芽)in spring and in summer their leaves turn green. In autumn, their leaves start to fall onto the ground. When winter comes, there are no leaves on trees. Next spring the cycle begins again. Since we know there are cycles in nature, we can prepare for them. We know it is colder in winter and hotter in summer, so we can dress properly.
Since we accept the cycles of nature, we should also accept the changes in our life.
We can prepare ourselves for changes by becoming more flexible(灵活的). We can regard the changes in our life as chances. As we keep changing ourselves, we can keep up with the changes in our life.【小题1】 Who Moved My Cheese? tells us that ______________.
| A．changes exist in our life |
| B．we should move others’ things |
| C．we should use books to share our life experiences |
| D．there are difficulties in our life |
【小题2】 The cycle of the seasons means _____________.| A．we should wear warm clothes in winter |
| B．we should accept the changes in our life |
| C．we should prepare for the weather |
| D．leaves turn yellow in autumn |
【小题3】 If you fail a test, what should you think according to the passage?| A．I have no chance to pass the test. |
| B．Exams are hard for me. |
| C．I have bad luck. |
| D．It’s good for me because I know there are more to learn. |
【小题4】What’s the main idea of this passage?| A．Weather changes in different seasons. |
| B．Who Moved My Cheese? is a good book. |
| C．We should change ourselves when life changes. |
| D．We should not lose heart when we meet with difficulties. |
【小题5】 If you have failed in the past to try to make big changes in life, try again now, one tiny step at a time.
Every year it's the same. As December comes to an end, you think about the new year and all the ways you want to improve your life. But as you start to write down your hopes for the new year, you think about the last year. You excitedly write down all the changes you are going to make, but by the end of January those ideas get lost in your busy life.
Here's a suggestion: Forget the too big, hard-to-achieve goals and just think about the small ones. “We often think that we have to do everything in big steps, even though it's so hard for us to reach it.” said Robert Maurer, who recently wrote the book One Small Step Can Change Your Life. “What we try to do is to begin with such a small step that we can’t find any excuse not to do it.”
“Kaizen”, a Japanese word, is used to mean to change behavior and attitudes (态度). During World War II, American factory managers were able to increase productivity by trying small, continuous improvements instead of sudden changes. After the war, the idea was brought to a rebuilding (重建) Japan. It made Japan develop fast. The Japanese called it “kaizen”, which means “improvement”.
Maurer studied the idea and did some experiments with it. “Kaizen” could possibly help people succeed in doing everything.
【小题1】At the end of December, people usually ___________ .
| A．plan for the last year | B．fail to make big changes |
| C．try to lose their ideas | D．think about the new year |
| A．we should do everything in big steps |
| B．how to find a small step without any excuse |
| C．we should try a lot of sudden changes |
| D．how to change one’s life with one small step |
| A．增加成本 | B．提高待遇 | C．提高生产率 | D．增加出口量 |
| A．take a tiny step to achieve big goals |
| B．make changes at the end of the year |
| C．do few experiments with “kaizen” |
| D．do things with hard-to-achieve goals |
| A．You can't find any excuse not to reach a big goal. |
| B．You can achieve your goals if you are not too busy. |
| C．”Kaizen” was brought to Japan during World WarⅡ. |
| D．Robert Maurer studied “kaizen” and found it helpful. |
Reading comprehensionA. Choose the best answer. (12分)
Letter A
| To the Editor: Why do our children have 11 weeks of summer vacation? Many years ago, 85 percent of Americans worked on farms. Children needed summer vacation because they helped with the farm work. Today only 3 percent of Americans work on farms. But our children still have long summer vacations. American students lose one or two months of learning during their summer vacations. Away from school for so many weeks students forget what they learned. Experts say that students lose maths skills and reading skills. At the beginning of school in September, teachers have to review last year’s studies for the first four to six weeks of school. Summer vacations are not great opportunities for learning. Most parents work outside of the home. They can’t be with their kids during the long summer months. Some families can pay for summer camps, but many can’t. Most children stay home and watch TV. They are bored. Most children do not learn new skills during the summer. James, Teacher |
| To the Editor: I am against a longer school year. I believe people learn everywhere, not just in school. I believe children gain experience in the world. Summer vacation is a great opportunity. Kids can discover the world outside of school. They can learn to do things they can’t learn in a classroom. They can learn to swim and ride bikes. They can travel or go to summer camps. They can take time to do things like cooking and art. Some can get summer jobs. They can get work experience or help people in the community. They can spend time with people of other ages. Basically, they can get more experience in the world. Long summer vacations give families time together. During the school year, everyone is busy. During summer vacations, we take time to do things together. Vacations are good for families. Linda, Parent |
【小题1】According to the chart, which two countries have the same number of school days?
| A．England and Australia . | B．Singapore and Thailand. |
| C．Japan and the United States. | D．South Korea and China. |
| A．study in school | B．go to summer camps |
| C．have new experiences | D．help on the farm |
| A．travel abroad | B．are with their children |
| C．are busy with their work | D．go to summer camps |
| A．no time to watch TV | B．more work experience |
| C．more classroom time | D．better reading skills |
| A．they learn to swim and ride bikes | B．they go to summer camps |
| C．they do cooking | D．they improve maths skills |
| A．Yes to a Longer School Year | B．Vacations Are a Way of Experiencing |
| C．Adults Need More Vacation Time | D．Vacations Are Boring to Families |
We are all busy talking about and using the Internet, but how many of us know the history of the Internet? Many people are surprised when they find that the Internet was set up in the 1960s. At that time, computers were large and expensive. Computer networks didn't work well. If one computer in the network broke down, then the whole network stopped. So a new network system had to be set up. It should be good enough to be used by many different computers. If part of the network was not working, information could be sent through another part. In this way computer network system would keep on working all the time, At first the Internet was only used by the government, but in the early 1970s. universities, hospitals and banks were allowed to use it, too. However, computers were still very expensive and the Internet was difficult to use. By the start of 1990s, computers became cheaper and easier to use. Scientists had also developed software that made "surfing" the Internet easier. Today it is easy to get on-line and it is said that millions of people use the Internet every day. Sending e-mail is more and more popular among young people. The Internet has now become one of the most important parts of people's life.
【小题1】How long has the Internet been used?
| A．For over 10 years. | B．For over 20 years. |
| C．For over 40 years. | D．For over 60 years. |
| A．The other computers would wait. |
| B．The other computers would still work. |
| C．Some of the others still worked. |
| D．The other computers wouldn't work. |
| A．Hospitals | B．Universities | C．Banks | D．The government |
| A．They became cheaper and easier to use. |
| B．They became larger and larger. |
| C．People couldn't buy them anywhere. |
| D．People could get information only from them. |
| A．People will die without the Internet. |
| B．All people should set up their own network. |
| C．People live easily without the Internet. |
| D．People will more and more depend on the Internet. |
