Going to school from 8 am until 5 pm may sound terrible,but Sydney Shaw,a seventh grader at the Alain Locke Charter Academy on Chicago's West Side,has come to like it—as well as the extra 20 or so days that she's in class every year.“I'm sure every kid at this school says bad things about the schedule sometimes,”says Sydney, who was at school on Columbus Day, when most Chicago schools had a holiday.“But we all know it's for our benefit.”
Finding ways to give kids more classroom time,through longer hours,a longer school year,or both,is getting more attention.“If you want to look at schools where the achievement gap is narrowing, they're saying they couldn't do it without the added time,”says Jennifer Davis.“Even when you get good teachers into schools,you also need more time.”
According to studies, low-income students fall back more than two months in their reading skills over summer vacations.“It's over the summer months that poor kids fall behind,”says Karl Alexander,a sociologist.“If you have parents who themselves didn't succeed at school and aren't highly educated,kids aren't going to get those skills at home.”
Schools are asked to take a full year to plan how to best use the extra time—a process involving teachers,principals,students and parents.They are given outside support to help them base their plans on the best available analyses of student needs.It's still early,but officials are already seeing stronger test scores and a narrowing achievement gap.
But some critics are worried.“We risk producing something that's very expensive and time-consuming, and that will give educators a lot of trouble,”says Frederick Hess.“Before we spend all that extra money,I'd much rather see if we can figure out how to get 50 percent more instructional time out of the current school day.”
【小题1】From the first paragraph,we learn that      

A.the longer schedule is harmful to kid's health
B.all Chicago students had a holiday on Columbus Day
C.Sydney Shaw supports the added time
D.few kids are bored with the lack of holidays
【小题2】Low-income students fall behind in summer because      
A.no good teachers are willing to teach them
B.they can't get help from their parents
C.their parents are unwilling to hire private teachers
D.they themselves have no desire to learn
【小题3】Some people are worried about adding school hours mainly because      
A.it will have a bad effect on the kids’ futures
B.the current school day has been too busy
C.no one supports the idea
D.it will be costly and time-consuming
【小题4】The text is mainly about      
A.whether a longer school day will help narrow the achievement gap
B.how students have benefited from additional school hours
C.why the achievement gap among students needs to be narrowed
D.what causes the achievement gap among students

PART THREE  READING COMPREHENSION

Directions: Read the following three passages. Each passage is followed by several questions or unfinished statements. For each of them there are four choices marked A, B, C and D. Choose the one that fits best according to the information given in the passage.

Jascha Richter once sang “don't need too much talking without saying anything” to reveal his lonely feeling in a crowd.

Dad always told me never to ever reveal my true opinions towards other people if such opinions are negative. He said this is the “Chu Shi Zhe Xue”, the philosophy of dealing with social network.

It seems that everybody here just follows this philosophy very, very well.

Friends. I would say that if I were given true friendship I would definitely treasure it with my greatest care. If I really regard someone as my close friend, I would never leave her alone whenever she's in need, either financially or mentally. And I always believe, as long as I treat people with whole-hearted honesty, I would have some rewards—at least, just ONE true friend of the same gender(性别).

Sometimes I just miss my friends in China. Perhaps when we became friends, we were still young, too young to have been polluted by any dirt in the society. But here, it is simply different. It seems that all of us have learnt how to SURVIVE in a foreign land and such an experience actually makes us learn how to extract (榨取) the most benefits from the surroundings in order to survive.

All are friends around me. I've looked through all the dark sides of their personalities and yet I have to pretend that I know nothing. THEY ARE GOOD. THEY ARE GOOD. AND WE ARE FRIENDS. And then I can make myself comfortable enough to talk to people I hate the most. And of course, they don't say any words truly from their hearts. Neither do I.

But, sometimes I just feel unwilling to talk to these people. Sometimes, I just want to be alone, quietly, without being forced to listen to their gossip or other useless words.

“Standing on a mountain high

Looking at the moon through a clear blue sky

I should go and see some friends

But they don't really comprehend”

Jascha Richter expresses my feelings also.

1. What do we know about the writer’s father according to this passage?

A. He is really a good philosopher.                          

B. He possibly gets on well with others.

C. He told the writer to reveal her true opinions.       

D. The passage doesn’t tell us at all.

2. What does the writer mean by saying “All are friends around me” in Paragraph 7?

A. People around her all like her.                B. She has a lot of friends.

C. There are no real friends.               D. No one is friendly to her.

3. What’s the most probable reason the writer mentions Jascha Richter’s song twice in the passage?

A.She likes Jascha Richter’s song.

B.Jascha Richter is one of her friends.

C The song were expresses her feelings.

D.She uses it to perfects her article.

4. Which of the following statements about the writer is TRUE?

A. She is now living abroad but doesn’t enjoy the life there.

B. She absolutely believes in her father’s philosophy.

C. She shows a positive attitude towards her relationship with others.

D. She thinks highly of her friends by repeating “They are good”.

5. The writer mostly expresses her ______ in this passage.

A. happiness      B. homesickness       C. sadness          D. loneliness 

 

Jascha Richter once sang “don't need too much talking without saying anything” to reveal his lonely feeling in a crowd.

   Dad always told me never to ever reveal my true opinions towards other people if such opinions are negative. He said this is the “Chu Shi Zhe Xue”, the philosophy of dealing with social network.

   It seems that everybody here just follows this philosophy very, very well.

   Friends. I would say that if I were given true friendship I would definitely treasure it with my greatest care. If I really regard someone as my close friend, I would never leave her alone whenever she's in need, either financially or mentally. And I always believe, as long as I treat people with whole-hearted honesty, I would have some rewards—at least, just ONE true friend of the same gender(性别).

    Sometimes I just miss my friends in China. Perhaps when we became friends, we were still young, too young to have been polluted by any dirt in the society. But here, it is simply different. It seems that all of us have learnt how to SURVIVE in a foreign land and such an experience actually makes us learn how to extract (榨取) the most benefits from the surroundings in order to survive.

   All are friends around me. I've looked through all the dark sides of their personalities and yet I have to pretend that I know nothing. THEY ARE GOOD. THEY ARE GOOD. AND WE ARE FRIENDS. And then I can make myself comfortable enough to talk to people I hate the most. And of course, they don't say any words truly from their hearts. Neither do I.

   But, sometimes I just feel unwilling to talk to these people. Sometimes, I just want to be alone, quietly, without being forced to listen to their gossip or other useless words.

   “Standing on a mountain high

Looking at the moon through a clear blue sky

I should go and see some friends         

But they don't really comprehend”

    Jascha Richter expresses my feelings also.

67. 1.What do we know about the writer’s father according to this passage?

A. He is really a good philosopher.                          

B. He possibly gets on well with others.

C. He told the writer to reveal her true opinions.       

D. The passage doesn’t tell us at all.

68. 2.What’s the most probable reason the writer mentions Jascha Richter’s song twice in the passage?

A. She likes Jascha Richter’s song.

B. Jascha Richter is one of her friends.

C. The song expresses her feelings.

D. She uses it to perfects her article.

69. 3.Which of the following statements about the writer is TRUE?

  A. She is now living abroad but doesn’t enjoy the life there.

  B. She absolutely believes in her father’s philosophy.

  C. She shows a positive attitude towards her relationship with others.

  D. She thinks highly of her friends by repeating “They are good”.

70. 4.The writer mostly expresses her ______ in this passage.

A. happiness      B. homesickness    C. sadness           D. loneliness 

 

A husband-and-wife team from California reached the Pacific Ocean after a 4,900- mile-cross

-country walk, becoming the first to backpack the American Discovery Trail in one continuous

walk. 

Marcia and Ken powers, of Pleasanton, started the travel across 13 states, through 14 national parks and 16 national forests on Feb. 27 from Cape Henlopen in Delaware. Nearly eight months later, the excited couple walked through water into the Pacific Ocean at Point Reyes, a day ahead of time. 

“We are a little sad that a great adventure is over. It was a fantastic adventure. And now we go home and just do housework. It's really sad.” Marcia, who said she's in her 50s, and her 60-year-old husband traversed cities, desert, mountains and farmland before reaching the Pacifics alone with arms around each other' s backpacks.

They overcame deep snow in the East, a quicksand in Utah, close lightning strikes in the Mid- west and strong desert sandstorms in the West while averaging 22 miles a day and taking only four days off. But they enjoyed the French history of St. Louis' the beauty of the Colorado Rockies and the kindness of strangers they met along the way. They particularly remember two brothers ---- a

doctor and dentist-------who put them up in their homes, after terrible days, and a motorcyclist who gave them water after they failed to find any on Utah's lonely Wah Wah Desert.

“Americans are truly warm-hearted and wonderful people.” Marcia Powers said. “We got to meet people that we would never meet in our daily living at home. We got to touch it with our feet and hands and smell all its scents and hear its wildlife. It' s an amazing country,” she added.

1.Which of the following about couple's walk is TRUE?

A.The walk covered more than 13 states.

B.The walk lasted about half a year.

C.The walk didn't meet any desert.

D.The walk might end before October 27.

2.The underlined word “traversed” in the third paragraph means “____________.”

A.enjoy

B.move across, through or over

C.overcome

D.look at

3. According to the text, we can infer that during the walk the couple __________.

A.were treated warm-heartedly by the local people

B.never stopped to have a rest

C.were ever caught in a heavy rain and became ill

D.felt the quicksand in Utah was very interesting

4.The couple went through many places except ____________.

A.big rivers

B.desert

C.hills

D.fields

 

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