题目内容
It is still unknown _____________________________(杨利伟是否将再被送到太空去)
Whether Yang Liwei will be sent into space once again
BEIJING — China’s education authority will tighten the widely criticized policy of “extra credits” for the national college entrance examination to ensure a fairer chance for all exam-takers.
Under the policy, high school students who win awards in national Olympic competitions could get ‘‘extra credits’ up to 20 points for the national college entrance exam. Students with talent in sports and students who are from ethnic groups can also benefit from this policy. The extra credits have increased these students’ chances of being admitted by famous universities. Some parents were found to have helped their children fabricate(伪造)award experiences or falsify qualifications to get extra credits.
“It has harmed education equality,” the ministry said.
Xiong Bingqi, vice-chief of the 21st Century Education Research Institute, said the policy is designed to help students who have special talents but may be weak in academic performance to have a chance to receive higher education. uIt will still be needed but it is time to make the rules fairer," he said.
The ministry said it will reduce the range of competitions whose winners can get extra credits, and limit the winners, privileges(优先权).
The new policy will apply to students who begin high school in 2011, it said.
Chen Lei, a mother of a 10-year-old girl, said she welcomed the ministry's policy adjustment as she does not want her daughter to become an Olympic competition geek.
But not all the Chinese parents welcomed the new policy. “It is like a thunderbolt for me. My - 13-year-old son has spent so much time studying Olympic math,and participated in so many technological competitions during vacations. It is useless now,” said Dong Wen, a 43-year-old mother.
A student said, “Many students have changed the current study plan, and they can abandon the competition. I will be interested in learning the courses which can improve my abilities.”
Yuan Guiren, minister of education, told China Daily that the reform is an attempt to consider the overall quality of an applicant. “But the country will not stop the national college entrance examination as it is still the most objective way to evaluate talent in China,” lie said.
【小题1】It can be inferred from the passage that_____.
A.high school students with talent in sports are weak in academic performance |
B.students who win awards in Olympic competitions can’t get extra credits in 2011 |
C.the number of competitions whose winners can get extra credits will be smaller |
D.the extra credits have reduced students' chances of being admitted by famous colleges |
A.a winner | B.a smart learner | C.a competitor | D.a dull student |
A.Xiong Bingqi | B.Chen Lei | C.Dong Wen | D.Yuan Guiren |
A.“Extra credits policy in China to be adjusted |
B.Promotion of national Olympic competitions |
C.Advice on the national college entrance exam |
D.Chinese government to push education reform |
There is a joke among flu researchers: “If you've seen one flu season, you've seen one flu season.” The joke is about the unpredictable nature of the flu virus. Every year it looks different, and every strain (类型) follows its own pattern — it's the reason why new strains like H1N1 are extremely difficult to predict.
Dr. Michael Osterholm is a former adviser to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. “I know less about influenza today than I did 10 years ago,” he says in a joking way. “Every stone we've turned over, we get more questions.”
The flu rectums every season and the world experiences terrible pandemics (全国或全世界范围流行的疾病), but researchers still do not understand why some strains infect people and others do not; they are not entirely sure about how the flu is transmitted; nor do they understand why some patients become seriously ill while others develop mild symptoms (症状). As a result, when a new strain shows up — like H1N1 — they often have little information to fall back on, and the lessons of previous pandemics are only somewhat helpful. While researchers are still putting together a complete picture of H1N1, for example, its most striking difference with the seasonal flu is that the elder1y are not the most vulnerable (易受攻击的) population.
Influenza's unpredictable nature makes it a moving target for researchers, says researcher Allison Aiello at the University of Michigan. “Even if we had complete seasonal flu data from the past, it wouldn't be much helpful for a new strain of influenza,” she explains.
Whi1e researchers are frustrated by the holes in their knowledge, they say, however, that the pub1ic--health community is generally doing a very good job responding to H1N1 with seasonal flu data that do exist. Studying influenza, says Osterholm, is “like looking through the windows of a house you can't get into because the door is locked.” Gathering the data researchers do have is like “looking through the windows to get a pretty good picture of what the inside looks like.”
One thing researchers do know for sure: the best way for people to protect against H1N1 is to get the vaccine once it becomes available to them.
【小题1】What do we learn about H1N1 from the passage?
A.In fact it is not a kind of influenza virus. |
B.It is quite possible to predict it in theory. |
C.Old people are more likely to contract it than kids. |
D.Receiving vaccines will be effective to protect against it. |
A.rely on | B.pass on | C.col1ect | D.exchange |
A.It is useless to study them. |
B.It is still necessary to study them. |
C.They are misleading most of the time. |
D.They are much more helpful than expected. |
A.Outbreaks of the flu | B.Symptoms of the flu |
C.Mysteries of the flu | D.Risks of the flu |
Europe is now the biggest market for organic food in the world, having grown by 25 percent a year over the past 10 years. Denmark’s agriculture minister is herself an organic farmer. The UK market for organic food grew by 55 percent in 2000, while the food market as a whole grew by only one percent. Yet only seven percent of British shoppers account for nearly 60 percent of organic sales. However popular the idea of organic farming may be, it is still an interest for only a few people.
So what makes the idea of organic farming popular? Organic farming means farming with natural materials, rather than with man-made fertilizers or pesticides. Organic farmers rely on many methods — such as crop rotation (农作物的轮作) and the use of resistant(有抵抗力的) varieties, because they are necessary for organic farmers to compensate for the shortage of man-made chemicals.
Organic farming is often supposed to be safer than traditional farming for the environment. Yet after a long research on organic farming worldwide for a number of years, science continues to be against this opinion. The House of Commons committee on agriculture publicized that, even with complete research work, it would fail to find any scientific evidence to prove “that any of claims (宣称) made for organic farming is always true”.
However, the talk about the benefits of organic farming is going on. This is partly because many people depend on their individual farm, the soil, the weather, and so on.
【小题1】The first paragraph mainly tells us _____.
A.organic farming has been performed only in Europe over the past 10 years |
B.governments of European countries have cared less about organic farming |
C.organic farming is far from being as popular as expected |
D.European countries need organic food more than the other countries in the world |
A.argue for | B.care for | C.struggle for | D.pay for |
A.It refers to farming with natural materials, instead of chemical fertilizers. |
B.It refers to farming with chemical fertilizers rather than natural fertilizers. |
C.It refers to farming with soil rather than any other thing. |
D.It refers to growing crops with man-made fertilizers and pesticides. |
A.organic farming is safer than traditional farming for the environment |
B.the idea that organic farming is safer has not been proven by science |
C.organic farming is accepted by the UK’s House of Commons committee |
D.organic farming is preferred to traditional farming |
A.The UK’s agriculture minister is an organic farmer. |
B.Organic farming is popular with young people. |
C.Farmers make use of many different kinds of methods to improve the organic sales system. |
D.Ninety-three percent of British shoppers don’t buy organic products. |
If you ask people to name the one person who had the greatest effect on the English language, you will get answers like “Shakespeare,” “Samuel Johnson,” and “Webster,” but none of these men had any effect at all compared to a man who didn’t even speak English-William the Conqueror.
Before 1066, in the land we now call Great Britain lived peoples belonging to two major language groups. In the west central region lived the Welsh, who spoke a Celtic language, and in the north lived the Scots, whose language, though not the same as Welsh, was also Celtic. In the rest of the country lived the Saxons, actually a mixture of Anglos, Saxons, and other Germanic and Nordic peoples, who spoke what we now call Anglo-Saxon (or Old English), a Germanic language. If this state of affairs had lasted, English today would be close to German.
But this state of affairs did not last. In l066 the Normans led by William defeated the Saxons and began their rule over England. For about a century, French became the official language of Eng-land while Old English became the language of peasants. As a result, English words of Politics and the law come from French rather than German. In some cases, modern English even shows a distinction (区别) between upper-class French and lower-class Anglo-Saxon in its words. We even have different words for some foods, meat in particular, depending on whether it is still out in the fields or at home ready to be cooked, which shows the fact that the Saxon peasants were doing the farming, while the upper-class Normans were doing most of the eating.
When Americans visit Europe for the first time, they usually find Germany more "foreign" than France because the German they see on signs and advertisements seems much more different from English than French does. Few realize that the English language is actually Germanic in its beginning and that the French influences are all the result of one man's ambition.
【小题1】 The two major languages spoken in what is now called Great Britain before l066 were
A.Welsh and Scottish | B.Nordic and Germanic |
C.Celtic and Old English. | D.Anglo-Saxon and Germanic |
A.president, Lawyer, beef | B.president, bread, water |
C.bread, field, sheep | D.folk, field, cow |
A.Most advertisements in France appear in English. |
B.They know little of the history of the English language. |
C.Many French words are similar to English ones. |
D.They know French better than German. |
A.The history of Great Britain. |
B.The similarity between English and French. |
C.The rule of England by William the Conqueror. |
D.The French influences on the English language. |