On average, American kids aged 3 to 12 spent 29 hours a week in school, eight hours more than they did in 1981. They also did more household work and took part in more of such organized activities as 题目和参考答案——青夏教育精英家教网—

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On average, American kids aged 3 to 12 spent 29 hours a week in school, eight hours more than they did in 1981. They also did more household work and took part in more of such organized activities as soccer and ballet. Involvement in sports, in particular, rose almost 50% from 1981 to 2004; boys now spend an average of four hours a week playing sports; girls spend half that time. All in all, however, children's leisure time dropped from 40% of the day in 1981 to 25%.

"Children are affected by the same time crunch (危机) that affects their parents," says Sandra Hooferth, who headed the recent study of children's timetable. A chief reason, she says, is that more mothers are working outside the home. Nevertheless, children in both double-income and "male breadwinner" households spent comparable amounts of time with their parents, 19 hours and 22 hours respectively. In contrast, children spent only 9 hours with their single mothers.

All work and no play could make for some very disordered kids. "Play is the most powerful way a child explores the world and learns about himself," says T. Berry Brazeiton, professor at Harvard Medical School. Unstructured play encourages independent thinking and allows the young to deal with their relationships with their peers(同辈), but kids aged 3 to 12 spent only 12 hours a week engaged in it.

The children sampled spent a quarter of their rapidly decreasing "free time" watching television. But that, believe it or not, was one of the findings parents regard as good news. If they're spending less time in front of the TV set, however, kids aren't replacing it with reading. Despite efforts to get kids more interested in books, the children spent just over an hour a week reading. Let's face it, who's got time?

1．The author is concerned about the fact that American kids _______.

A．are involved less and less in household work

B．are spending more and more time watching TV

C．are engaged in more and more organized activities

D．are increasingly cared for by their working mothers

2．By mentioning "the same time crunch" Sandra Hofferth means _______.

A．children have little time to play with their parents

B．both parents and children suffer from lack of leisure time

C．both parents and children have trouble managing their time

D．children are not taken good care of by their working parents

3．According to the author a child develops better if _______.

A．he has plenty of time reading and studying

B．he is free to interact with his working parents

C．he is left to play with his peers in his own way

D．he has more time taking part in school activities

4．We can infer from the passage that _______.

A．most parents believe reading to be of benefit to children

B．efforts to get kids interested in reading have been fruitful

C．most children will turn to reading with TV sets switched off

D．organized activities improve children's intelligence

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High school dropouts（辍学者）earn an average of $ 9,000 less per year than graduates. Now a new study dispels a common belief why they quit. It’s much more basic than flunking out（不及格）.

Society tends to think of high school dropouts as kids who just can’t cut it. They are lazy，and perhaps not too bright．So researchers were surprised when they asked more than 450 kids who quit school about why they left.

“The vast majority actually had passing grades and they were confident that they could have graduated from high school.” John Bridgeland, the executive researcher said. About 1 million teens leave school each year. Only about half of African-American and Hispanic（美籍西班牙的）student will receive a diploma（证书），and actually all dropouts come to regret their decision. So， if failing grades don’t explain why these kids quit, what does? Again，John Bridgeland："The most dependable finding was that they were bored.” “They found classes uninteresting; they weren’t inspired or motivated. They didn’t see any direct connection between what they were learning in the classroom to their own lives, or to their career aspirations.”

The study found that most teens who do drop out wait until they turn sixteen, which happens to be the age at which most states allow students to quit. In the US，only one state，New Mexico，has a law requiring teenagers to stay in high school until they graduate. Only four states: California, Tennessee, Texas and Utah, plus the District of Columbia, require school attendance until age 18, no exceptions, another researcher，says raising the compulsory（义务的）attendance age may be one way to keep more kids in school．

　“As these dropouts look back，they realize they’ve made a mistake. And anything that sort of gives these people an extra push to stick it out and it through to the end, is probably helpful measure.”

New Hampshire may be the next state to raise its school attendance age to 18. But critics say that forcing the students unwilling to continue their studies to stay in school misses the point－the need for reform. It's been called for to reinvent high school education to make it more challenging and relevant, and to ensure that kids who do stick it out receive a diploma that actually means something. 　

Most high school students drop out of' school because＿＿．

A. they have failing grades B. they take no interest in classes

C. they are discriminated against D. they are lazy and not intelligent

Acceding to the passage，which state has a law requiring school attendance until they graduate?

A. New Hampshire B. Utah　　C. New Mexico 　　D. The District of Columbia

The underlined words “stick it out” probably means“＿＿”．

A. complete schooling B. solve the problem

C. love having classes D. believe in themselves

From the passage，we can infer the following EXCEPT that＿．

A. the grades of most dropouts at school were acceptable

B. about 500, 000 high school dropouts are black and Spanish

C. classes don't appeal to dropouts

D. on average dropouts cannot get good jobs

Once in a blue moon there is one on New Year's Eve. Revelers ringing in 2010 will be treated to a so-called blue moon. According to popular definition, a blue moon is the second full moon in a month. But don't 1 it to be blue - the name has nothing to 2 the color of our closest celestial（天体） neighbor.

A full moon 3 on December 2. It will appear again on Thursday in time for the New Year's countdown.

"If you're in Times Square, you'll see the 4 moon right above you. It's going to be that brilliant," said Jack Horkheimer, director emeritus of the Miami Space Transit Planetarium and host of a weekly astronomy TV show.

The New Year's Eve blue moon will be 5 in the United States, Canada, Europe, South America and Africa. For partygoers in Australia and Asia, the full moon does not show up 6 New Year's Day, making January a blue moon month for them.

However, the Eastern Hemisphere can celebrate with a partial lunar eclipse（月蚀） on New Year's Eve when 7 of the moon enters the Earth's shadow. The 8 will not be visible in the Americas.

A full moon occurs 9 29.5 days, and most years have 12. 10 , an extra full moon in a month - a blue moon - occurs every 2.5 years. The 11 time there was a lunar double take was in May 2007. New Year's Eve blue moons are rarer, occurring every 19 years. The last time was in 1990; the next one won't 12 again until 2028.

Blue moons have no astronomical 13 , said Greg Laughlin, an astronomer at the University of California, Santa Cruz.

"`Blue moon' is just a 14 in the same sense as a `hunter's moon' or a `harvest moon,'" Laughlin said in an e-mail.

The popular definition of blue moon 15 after a writer for Sky & Telescope magazine in 1946 misunderstood the Maine Farmer's Calendar and marked a blue moon as the second full moon in a month. In fact, the calendar 16 a blue moon as the third full moon in a season with four full moons, not the usual three.

Though Sky & Telescope corrected the 17 decades later, the definition caught on. For purists（语言纯正癖者）, however, this New Year's Eve full moon doesn't even qualify as a 18 moon. It's just the first full moon of the winter season.

In a tongue-in-cheek essay 19 on the magazine's Web site this week, senior contributing editor Kelly Beatty wrote: "If skies are clear when I'm 20 celebrating, I'll take a peek（眯着眼睛看） at that brilliant orb（天体） as it rises over the Boston skyline to see if it's an icy shade of blue. Or maybe I'll just howl."

( ) 1. A. wish B. wait C. hope D. expect

( ) 2. A. deal with B. do with C. develop with D. form into

( ) 3. A. occurred B. came C. ran D. went

( ) 4. A. full B. half C. bright D. part

( ) 5. A. out of sight B. visible C. big D. clear

( ) 6. A. until B. when C. before D. since

( ) 7. A. part B. all C. any D. none

( ) 8. A. moon B. eclipse C. sun D. shadow

( ) 9. A. each B. every C. either D. all

( ) 10. A. On the whole B. Generally speaking C. On average D. In addition

( ) 11. A. last B. next C. other D. another

( ) 12. A. go B. see C. come D. look

( ) 13. A. point B. evident C. theory D. significance

( ) 14. A. name B. object C. phenomenon D. tradition

( ) 15. A. created B. came about C. made D. copied

( ) 16. A. named B. called C. introduced D. defined

( ) 17. A. error B. name C. reality D. number

( ) 18. A. blue B. red C. yellow D. grey

( ) 19. A. published B. posted C. printed D. written

( ) 20. A. in B. out C. away D. on

It was a bad year for films, _______ both quantity and quality.

Too cold for recess? School policies vary as much as temps

When is it too cold for schoolchildren to go outside for recess（课间休息）? The answer varies widely based on where a school is located and what the kids are used to.

Consider: One northern Minnesota school says it has to be 15 below zero before kids are kept inside. But in areas along the East Coast, temperatures below 35 to 40 degrees could keep kids inside. Canceling recess because of the cold is no small issue considering that much of the USA is trembling through what may be its coldest winter in a generation, according to AccuWeather.

There is no national temperature standard for when to keep kids inside during the winter months, the U.S. Department of Education says. Decisions are made at the local level, either by principals or school districts.

Consequently, policies are all over the map:

• In International Falls, Minn., the self-described "Icebox of the Nation," where the average high temperature in January is 13 degrees, Falls Elementary School Principal Jerry Hilfer says, "if it's 15 below (or warmer), they go out, no matter what." "At 20 below, it gets iffy," he adds.

• In Wicomico County, Md., principals typically keep children indoors when temperatures drop below freezing, or if it's raining or snowing, says Susan Jones, the school system's director of elementary education.

"That's the bottom line," says Curtis Twilley, principal of Pemberton Elementary School in Salisbury, Md. Twilley says students get little exercise when recess stays indoors. At Pemberton Elementary, the students will typically play board games or computer games in a classroom because the school's gym is occupied with other classes, he says.

• For schools in Marquette, Mich., which averages about 12 feet of snow per season, school officials acknowledge students are probably a little more prepared than those in some more mild climates.

1.Which of the following is not true according to the passage_________.

A. No national temperature standard is made for when to keep kids inside during the winter months.

B. Susan Jones insists students get little exercise when recess stays indoors.

C. In Wicomico County, children are kept indoors when temperatures dip below freezing.

D. Mich has about 12 feet of snow per season on average.

2. Which place calls itself Box of Ice?

Wicomico County B. Marquette C.Salisbury D. Minn

3. Considering_______, canceling recess In USA because of the cold is a big issue.

A. different schools have different principles.

B. much of the USA has very cold winter.

C. physical activity can boost student performance.

D. decisions are made at the local level,

4. The underlined word iffy means _______.

A. uncertain B. surprising C. serious D. worse

5. What will be talked about next?

A. More school policies

B. The reasons why school policies vary.

C. Measures to improve the situation.

D. Necessities to improve the situation

The hole in the Earth's ozone layer (臭氧层) has until now protected Antarctica from the worst effects of global warming. But scientists have warned that as the hole closes up in the next few decades, temperatures on the continent could rise by around 3°C on average, with melting ice contributing to a global sea level increase of up to 1.4 meters.

In the past decades the western Antarctic has seen rapid ice loss as the world has warmed, but the other parts of the continent have, paradoxically, been cooling, resulting in a 10% increase in ice in the seas around the region. This is because the hole in the ozone layer has increased cold winds in Antarctica, making much of the continent surface colder than usual.

But now that the gasses that cause the ozone hole have been banned, scientists expect the hole to repair itself within the next 50 to 60 years. By then the cooling effect will have faded out and the Antarctic will face the full impact of global warming. This means an increase in average air temperatures of around 3°C and a reduction in sea ice by around a third.

The biggest threat to the continent comes from warming seas. Robert Johnson, a scientist who monitors Antarctica ice sheets, said, "The ice sheets in Antarctica are hundreds of metres thick. But once warm ocean waters start flowing underneath, the ice will begin thinning and could break up very quickly. "Thinning ice sheets cause ice to break away from the continent and to melt even faster. Escaping ice from western Antarctica has already resulted in a 10% rise in global sea level in recent decades.

Johnson believes that international action to reduce global warming is required immediately or it may be too late. "Everything is connected —Antarctica may be a long way away but it is an important part of the Earth's system," said Johnson. "It contains 90% of the world's ice, 70% of the world's fresh water and that is enough, if it melts completely, to raise sea levels by 63 meters."

Even in a worse-case situation scientists don't expect the ice to entirely disappear, but predict that, because of the melting ice sheets, average sea level rise will be around 1.4 meters higher by the end of the century.

1. The underlined word "paradoxically" (in Paragraph 2) most probably means "__".

A. rapidly B. approximately C. contradictorily D. apparently

2.What is the effect of the hole in the ozone layer on Antarctica?

A. It is causing the ice to melt faster.

B. It is making much of the continent colder.

C. It is making the effects of global warming in the region worse.

D. It is reducing the amount of water in Antarctica.

3.What do scientists think is the biggest danger facing Antarctica?

A. Rising sea levels. B. Warming sea water temperature.

C. Water pollution. D. Growing ice sheets.

4.Which of the following is true according to the passage?

A. Antarctica is currently experiencing the full effects of global warming.

B. The average temperature has increased by3°C in recent decades.

C. Antarctica contains most of the world's fresh water.

D. Ten percent of Antarctica's ice has already been lost.

5. The best title for the passage is ______.

A. Our planet in danger B. Antarctica melting away

C. Action plan to save Antarctica D. Let's save the ozone layer

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