One topic is rarely mentioned in all the talk of improving standards in our schools: the almost complete failure of foreign-language teaching. As a French graduate who has taught for more than twenty-five years, I believe I have some idea of why the failure is so total.  55  the faults already found out in the education system as a whole — such as child-centred learning, the “discovery” method, and the low expectations by teachers of pupils — there have been several serious  56  which have a direct effect on language teaching.

The first is the removal from the curriculum (课程) of the thorough teaching of English  57 . Pupils now do not know a verb from a noun, the subject of a sentence from its object, or the difference between the past, present, or future.

Another important error is mixed-ability teaching, or teaching in ability groups so  58  that the most able groups are  59  and are bored while the least able are lost and  60  bored. Strangely enough, few head teachers seem to be in favour of mixed-ability school football teams.

Progress depends on memory, and pupils start to forget immediately they stop having 61  lessons. This is why many people who attended French lessons at school, even those who got good grades, have forgotten it a few years later.  62  they never need it, they do not practice it.

Most American schools have accepted what is inevitable and  63  modern languages, even Spanish, from the curriculum. Perhaps it is time for Britain to do the same, and stop 64  resources on a subject which few pupils want or need.

55. A. Due to  B. In addition to     C. Instead of   D. In spite of

56. A. errors   B. situations    C. systems      D. methods

57. A. vocabulary   B. culture       C. grammar    D. literature

58. A. wide    B. similar       C. separate      D. unique

59. A. kept out       B. turned down      C. held back   D. left behind

60. A. surprisingly B. individually       C. equally       D. hardly

61. A. extra    B. traditional  C. basic   D. regular

62. A. Although     B. Because      C. Until   D. Unless

63. A. restored       B. absorbed    C. prohibited  D. withdrawn

64. A. wasting       B. focusing     C. exploiting   D. sharing


C?
Disposing (处理) of waste has been a problem since humans started producing it. As more and more people choose to live close together in cities, the waste disposal problem becomes increasingly difficult. ?
During the eighteenth century, it was usual for several neighboring towns to get together to select a faraway spot as a dump site. Residents or trash haulers (垃圾拖运者) would transport household rubbish, rotted wood, and old possessions to the site. Periodically some of the trash was burned and the rest was buried. The unpleasant sights and smells caused no problem because nobody lived close by. Factories, mills, and other industrial sites also had waste to be disposed of. Those located on rivers often just dumped the unwanted remains into the water. Others built huge burners with chimneys to deal with the problem.?
Several facts make these choices unacceptable to modern society. The first problem is space. Dumps, which are now called landfills, are most needed in heavily populated areas. Such areas rarely have empty land suitable for this purpose. Property is either too expensive or too close to residential neighborhoods. Long distance trash hauling has been a common practice, but once farm areas are refusing to accept rubbish from elsewhere, cheap land within trucking distance of major city areas is nonexistent. Awareness (意识) of pollution dangers has resulted in more strict rules of waste disposal. Pollution of rivers, ground water, land and air is a price people cannot longer pay to get rid of waste. The amount of waste, however, continues to grow.?
Recycling efforts have become common place, and many towns require their people to take part. Even the most efficient recycling programs, however, can hope to deal with only about 50 percent of a city’s reusable waste.
64. The most suitable title for this passage would be__________.?
A. Places for Disposing Waste     B. Waste Pollution Dangers?
C. Ways of Getting Rid of Waste   D. Waste Disposal Problem ?
65. During the 18th century, people disposed their waste in many ways EXCEPT________.
A. burying it  B. recycling it  C. burning it  D. throwing it into rivers ?
66. What can be inferred from the third paragraph??
A. Farm areas will continue accepting waste from the city in modern society.?
B. There is cheap land to bury waste in modern society.?
C. It is difficult to find space to bury waste in modern society.?
D. Ways to deal with waste in modern society stay the same. ?
67. The main purpose of writing this article is to _______.?
A. draw people’s attention to waste management?
B. warn people of the pollution dangers we are facing?
C. call on people to take part in recycling programs?
D. tell people a better way to get rid of the waste ?


B
When TV news programs report wars or disasters, the editors rarely use the most horrifying pictures of dead or wounded victims because they don’t want to upset their viewers. Even so, viewers are usually warned in advance that they may find some of these scenes disturbing, so they can look away if they choose. But the men and women whose job is to record those scenes-the TV cameramen-have no such choice. It is their duty to witness the horrors of the world and record them, no matter how terrible and unpleasant they may be. Consequently, it is one of the most dangerous, exposed and emotionally taxing jobs the world has to offer.
Today, the demand for their work is rising. The explosion of satellite broadcasting and 24-hour news in recent years has created an almost insatiable (贪得无厌的) demand for TV information. But major broadcasters and the TV news agencies—such as Reuters and WTN-have never had enough staff to meet the worldwide demand for up-to-date pictures, so increasingly they turn to “freelance” TV cameramen.
These freelance cameramen are independent operators tied to no particular organization. They will work for any company which hires them, be it for just a few hours or for several weeks in a war zone. But if the freelance cameraman is injured in the course of the job, the TV company is not responsible for him. The freelancer must survive on his own.
TV will always need hard, vivid moving pictures which are fresh, but these companies feel uncomfortable with large numbers of employees on their books, explains Nick Growing, once foreign editor for Britain Channel 4 News and now a BBC news presenter.
By hiring freelancers, they can buy in the skills they need only when they need them. It also enables them to contract out the risk, he says.
69. The freelance cameramen             .
A. have better skills than other cameramen
B. are tied to many TV news agencies
C. have to take tremendous(巨大的) risks in the course of work
D. need to contract out risks of work for TV companies
70. It is implied in the passage that          .
A. TV cameramen have to witness disasters and killing whether they like them or not
B. TV cameramen are a special group of people who enjoy horrifying pictures
C. TV cameramen should be given greater choice of work
D. the development of TV resulted in the growing demand for TV cameramen’s work
71. According to this passage, some major broadcasters and TV news agencies            .
A. have employed enough cameramen
B. are not willing to employ many cameramen
C. are very mean to freelancers
D. are responsible for the freelancer if he is injured
72. The author of this passage shows his           the freelance cameramen.
A. respect for      B. sympathy to       C. anger to        D. admiration to


D
11-year-old Courtney Thompson was so passionate about gymnastics that she would practice five hours a day until her arms were sore and her elbows swollen.She rarely complained about her tough schedule,and for good reason.Courtney was ranked the best gymnast in the State for her age,and she dreamed of going to the Olympics.But on January 12th,2005,while practicing a routine exercise,she felt an unbearable pain in the left elbow.The medical examination then revealed a severe injury,resulting in an immediate surgery and a slow,painful recovery.
What happened to Courtney Thompson is a red flag in America's growing epidemic of youth sports injuries.Across the country,younger and younger athletes are injuring themselves in the pursuit of sports achievement.The U.S.Consumer Product Safety Commission reports that 2.8 million Americans aged 5 through 24 received medical treatment for a sports-related or recreation-related injury in 2003.Severe injuries that used to be limited to professionals are now showing up in high school and even junior high athletes.
There are many reasons behind the outbreak in sports injuries,hut most experts agree on one:the extreme culture of organized youth sports.Gone are the days when children played a variety of games on playgrounds.Child kidnapping and street crime have ended casual neighborhood athletics in many places,leading parents to enroll their children in organized sports under the watchful, though demanding,eyes of adult volunteers and coaches.And movies like Friday Night Lights glorify the thrill of victory for young athletes with single-minded dedication to athletic achievement.
From high school gyms to county hall fields,41 million children younger than 19 participated in organized youth sports in 2005,according to the latest research by the National Council of Youth Sports. The figure represents a 25 percent increase since 1997.
Parental involvement 1”youth sports has also made childhood games less about having fun and more about training and competing for the top spot.1anding a college scholarship or launching a promising career Hoping to nurture the next Michelle Kwan or Apolo Ohno,some parents guide their children into specializing in one sport But the repetitive training required to master a sport places enormous stresses on hones and muscles that are still developing.
67.The passage is mainly about_________
A.children’s participation in organized sports
B.the main causes of the youth sports injuries
C.the way to train children in organized sports
D.the common occurrence of youth sports injuries
68.The underlined part “Fed flag” in the second paragraph most probably means“_______”.
A.warning              B.problem      C. symbol       D.mark
69.Why is the number of sports injuries among children in America growing?
A.Because of their increasing fondness for sports.
B.Because children are not professional enough fur sports
C.Because more children are seeking for sports achievements.
D.Because of the involvement of the parents and more organized sports
70. We can learn from the passage that __________     
A.about 10.25 million youngsters participated in organized sports in 1997
B.parents give limited chances for children to choose their sports
C.serious injuries often happened to young students in the past
D.courtney Thompson will never become a famous gymnast

In our life, we have rarely expressed our gratitude to the one who lived those years with us. In fact, we don't have to wait for anniversaries to thank the ones closest to us and the ones so easily overlooked. If I have learned anything about giving thanks, it is this: give it now! While your feeling of appreciation is alive and sincere, act on it. Saying thanks is such an easy way to add to the world's happiness.
Saying thanks not only brightens someone else's world, it brightens yours. If you're feeling left out, unloved or unappreciated, try reaching out to others. It may be just the medicine you need. Of course, there are times when you can't express gratitude immediately. In that case, don't let embarrassment sink you into silence and speak up the first time you have the chance.
Once a young minister, Mark Brian, was sent to a remote parish(教区)of Kwakiutl Indians in British Columbia. The Indians, he had been told, did not have a word for thank you. But Brian soon found that these people had unusual generosity. Instead of saying thanks, it is their custom to return every favor with a favor of their own, and every kindness with an equal or superior kindness. They do their thanks. I wonder if we had no words in our vocabulary for thank you, would we do a better job of communicating our gratitude? Would we be more responsive, more sensitive, more caring?
Thankfulness sets in motion a chain reaction that transforms people all around us-including ourselves. For no one ever misunderstands the melody(旋律)of a grateful heart. Its message is universal; its poems transcend(超越)all earthly barriers; its music touches the heaven.
【小题1】Who do we easily forget to express our thanks to according to the writer?

A.Friends not meeting for a long time.B.Former teachers and friends.
C.People we want to get close to.D.Our family members and good friends.
【小题2】 When we say something for what others do for us, it ______.
A.benefits the people who do something for us
B.is good for both us and people who help us
C.wastes our and our friends' time at the same time
D.does harm to both us and people who help us
【小题3】What does the writer mean in the third paragraph?
A.The only way to thank others is to express by your own words.
B.The best way to thank others is to do something for them.
C.We can thank people who help us in various ways.
D.We can thank people who help us in two ways.
【小题4】The way to make us feel happy is ______ when we think we ourselves are forgotten in the world.
A.to help and appreciate othersB.to ask others to help us
C.to remind others of our helping themD.to ask someone to help others

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