B

A new college guide in the United States compares educational requirements in seven subjects. These include math, science, writing and United States history or government. The other subjects are economics, foreign language and literature.

The free online guide is from the American Council of Trustees and Alumni. The council is a nonprofit group that supports liberal arts education.

Its president, Anne Neal, says these areas of knowledge are needed to succeed in a twenty-first century society and an increasingly connected world. Yet she told VOA’s Faiza Elmasry it was surprising how many students can graduate with, in her words, a “thin education.”

Forty-two of the one hundred colleges and universities surveyed received the lowest marks. This meant they required two or fewer of the seven subjects. Five schools received a top grade for requiring six subjects. These were Brooklyn College in New York City, Texas A&M, the University of Texas-Austin, West Point and the University of Arkansas.

Robert Costrell is a professor of education reform and economics at the University of Arkansas. He says many, if not all, of the top American colleges once had a core curriculum —a set of courses required for all students.

But over the years, many have dropped these requirements. Or they have watered them down, Professor Costrell says, into what became known as distribution requirements. This system lets a student choose from a number of different courses to satisfy a requirement.

ROBERT COSTRELL: “And in many cases these courses went too far, I would say, towards the fluffy treatment of serious material, and students could satisfy their requirement by taking such courses.”

Professor Costrell says schools should not only re-examine what they teach. They should also measure what students have learned — for example, through some form of examinations or papers.

A new report this week from the College Board showed that college prices continue to rise. But Anne Neal from the American Council of Trustees and Alumni says higher prices. do not guarantee a better general education. In fact, the group found that the higher the tuition, the more likely that students have to develop their own general education.

The college guide is on the Web at whatwilltheylearn.com. Anne Neal says her group is surveying more colleges. The hope, she says, is to discover what college graduates have really learned, and how ready they are to compete in the global marketplace.

61. Where does the passage probably come from?

A. A scientific fiction.                      B. A research newspaper.  

C. A fashion magazine.                     D. An entertainment newspaper.

62. The American Council of Trustees and Alumni does all the following EXCEPT _________.

A. support liberal arts education

B. concern itself with education in America

C. devote time to helping improve college education

D. make money by helping with college education

63. The words “watered them down” underlined in Paragraph 6 most likely mean “_______.”

A. reduced required courses                 B. improved required courses

C. increased required courses                D. developed required courses

64. In this passage, the new college guide mainly tells its readers that American colleges  should _____.

A. meet the requirements of the new century        B. reduce the number of required courses

C. have different standards on required courses      D. cut down on their tuitions

 

On October 19, 1959, the first Special English program was broadcast on the Voice of America. It was an experiment. The goal was to communicate by radio in clear and simple English with people whose native language is not English. Experts said the goal was admirable, but the method would not work. They were proved wrong. The Special English programs quickly became some of the most popular on VOA. And they still are.

Forty years later, Special English continues to communicate with people who are not fluent in English. But during the years its role has expanded. It also helps people learn American English. And it provides listeners, even those who are native English speakers, with information they cannot find elsewhere.

     Today, Special English broadcasts around the world seven days a week, five times a day. Each half-hour broadcast begins with ten minutes of the latest news followed by 20 minutes of feature programming. There is a different short feature every weekday about science, development, agriculture and environment, and on the weekend, about news events and American idioms.

Three elements make Special English unique. It has a limited vocabulary of 1500 words. Most are simple words that describe objects, actions or emotions. Some are more difficult. They are used for reporting world events and describing discoveries in medicine and science. Special English is written in short, simple sentences that contain only one idea. No idioms are used. And Special English is spoken at a slower pace, about two-thirds the speed of Standard English. This helps people learning English hear each word clearly. It also helps people who are English speakers understand complex subjects.

Through the years, Special English has become a very popular tool for teaching English, even though it was not designed as teaching program. It succeeds in helping people learn English in a non-traditional way. Individuals record the programs and play them over and over to practice their listening skills. In countries around the world, English teachers assign Special English to their students. They praise it for improving their students' ability to understand American English and for the content of the programs. Universities and private companies in many countries produce packages of Special English materials for student use.

1.At the beginning, Special English program was         .

         A.well received

         B.rejected by native people

         C.doubted by some professionals

         D.intended for teaching English

2.What kind of English is spoken on Special English?

         A.British English.

         B.American English.

         C.Both British and American English.

         D.Not certain.

3.Which of the following are the elements that make Special English unique?

         a.limited vocabulary

         b.short simple sentences

         b.good communication method

         d.slow speed

         e.interesting feature programming

         A.a, b, c                   B.a, c, d                            C.a, b, d                       D.b, d, e

4.Which of the following statements is TRUE?

         A.Special English has been founded for less than 50 years.

         B.Native English speakers don’t have a great affection for Special English.

         C.Special English usually starts with 20 minutes of the latest news.

         D.People can learn some idioms from Special English.

5.From the last paragraph we can infer that        .

         A.listening to Special English can be a student’s homework

         B.listening to Special English can improve the content of the program

         C.some student record the Special English material for sale

         D.learning English from VOA is a traditional way for English learner.

 

Swedish master medical photographer Lennart Nilsson is a pioneer in medical photography.In association with researchers and with the help of advanced, specially designed equipment, he has documented the inside of man down to the level of a cell with his camera.

Born in Strängnäs, a satellite city of Stockholm, in 1922, Nilsson got his first camera from his father when he was 11 years old.From the early stage, he has been interested in looking at ants and taking photos of them.Throughout the years, he has devoted special attention to capturing the creation of a human being, from conception to birth.

In 2006 when his photo book Life was published in both Swedish and English, he was invited to give a lecture at the Stockholm bookstore.He vividly described to the public how he took the photos so that the development process of the embryo can be understood better.Finally when he was signing his name in the book, I asked him what made him so passionate about working on this, he stopped writing and thought for a second, “I think it is the respect for life,” Nilsson said.

Nilsson began his career as a photographic journalist in the middle of the 1940s and published a number of photo-essays in Swedish and foreign magazines, including "Polar Bear Hunting in Spitzbergen" (1947) and Midwife.

 “When I went to the professor to take the embryo photo, I was looking around and then I saw something which was unbelievable, it was a tiny human embryo lies in a very special place, a 10-20 millimeter embryo with hands, arms and eyes, and I got a shock,” Nilsson said.

Nilsson began experimenting with new photographic techniques in the mid-1950s to report on the world of ants and life in the sea.His revealing macro-studies were published in his book on ants, Myror (1959), and in the Life in the Sea (1959), and in Close to Nature (1984).In the 1960s special designed, very slim endoscopes (内窥镜))made it possible for him to photograph the blood vessels and the cavities (空洞) of the body with the necessary depth of field and, in 1970, he used a scanning electron microscope for the first time, he was also considered the pioneer for three dimension digital pictures of the body organs.

After his photographs of human embryo were published, he was encouraged to continue photographing the origins of human being.

Nilsson is very modest and sincere.At age of nearly 88, he is still cooperating with colleagues in Karolinska Institute where the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine is selected every year.

“He can forget all the other things when he is working and he is still working diligently,” Mrs Nilsson told People’s Daily Online.

1.Why does Nilsson want to document the creation of a human being?

    A.Because he is a pioneer in medical photography.                                            

    B.Because he has been interested in taking photos.

      C.Because he thinks it a way to show respect for life.

      D.Because he wished to win a Nobel Prize.

2.What can we learn from the passage?

      A.Nilsson was the only expert in medical photography.

      B.Nilsson’s camera is specially designed.

      C.Nilsson’s photo book Life is better received than his other books.

      D.Nilsson has always been working alone.

3.How many books written by Nilsson are mentioned in this passage?

      A.3.                    B.4.                       C.5.                       D.6.

4.Which of the following word can Not be used to describe Nilsson?

      A.Passionate.          B.Devoted.             C.Forgetful.            D.Dillgent.

5.What can be the title for the passage?

    A.Nilsson, a pioneer medical photographer.                              

    B.Nilsson, a pioneer medical publisher

    C.Nilsson, a person of rich experience

    D.Nilsson, a talented photographer

 

请认真阅读下列短文,并根据所读内容在文章后表格中的空格里填入一个最恰当的单词。

       注意:每个空格只填1个单词。请将答案写在答题卡上相应题号的横线上。

       A newly-established line of research suggests that relationships can keep us healthier. And a new study finds those social connections may also help us live longer.

       This new study combined a large number of previous studies and concluded that a lack of social interactions ranks right up with smoking, obesity(肥胖), and alcoholism as a risk factor for death.

       Researchers from Brigham Young University analyzed 148 studies with a total of some 300,000 participants, tracking their social relationships and whether they survived to the end of their particular study, which averaged about seven years.

       "Those who scored higher on those measures of social relationships were 50 percent more likely to be alive at that follow-up than people who scored low on those measures," said Professor Julianne Holt-Lunstad, one of the authors of the study.

       She pointed out several ways relationships can affect our health. They can help us cope with stress. They can help us maintain healthy habits like eating well, exercising or seeing a doctor. And there's increasing research that shows a direct but poorly-understood link between relationships and physiological(生理的) processes in the body.

       "So for instance, our relationships have been linked to lower blood pressure, better immune(免疫的) functioning, and even inflammatory(发炎的) processes that are implicated in a number of diseases," said Holt-Lunstad. "And so our relationships can influence our health in a variety of ways that are all very important."

       Even though Holt-Lunstad and her colleagues looked at almost 150 different scientific studies, most of them didn't assess the quality of the relationships.

       "And certainly relationship quality matters, and not all relationships are entirely positive," she conceded. "And so it's possible that the effects that we have reported may be a conservative estimate, and that the odds of survival associated with high-quality relationships may actually be larger."

       Speaking via Skype, Julianne Holt-Lunstad said her research suggests that policy makers need to consider relationships as a health issue. So just as no-smoking zones have expanded over the years, she suggests that city planners, for example, should consider whether their decisions might promote or hinder the development of personal relationships.

 

  What will you be doing when you are 26 years old? Studying at university or working for a living? Take a look at what Albert Einstein was doing at the age of 26.

100 years ago, Einstein was working in Switzerland. His hobby was physics. Without much money or help, he wrote five papers(论文) for a physics magazine. Three of these greatly changed the study of physics and our understanding of space, time, light and matter(物质). His most famous work is on the Theory of Relativity(相对论). Einstein was given the Nobel Prize for his discoveries. Although he also did many other things later, the years 1905 has been called Einstein’s “Year of Wonders”. It has been 100 years since then. Because of this, the UN has named 05 the World Year of Physics.

Today, over fifty years after Einstein’s death, a question is asked,  “ Will there ever be another Einstein?” It may take a long time. After all, Einstein was born more than 200 years after Sir Isaac Newton, another great scientist. Besides, physics is a different field now, and education is different, too. Even if you can’t be the next great scientist, it is still helpful to remember some of the things that made Einstein great. He thought independently(独立地) and read widely. He left with us a formula(公式) for life: If A is a success in life, then A="X+Y+Z." X is work, Y is play, and Z is keeping your mouth shut.

1.The year 1905 is known as Einstein’s “Year of Wonders” because           .

A.Einstein was working in Switzerland in 1905

B.Einstein was 26 years old in 1905

C.Einstein made some very important discoveries in 1905

D.Einstein studied physics in 1905

2.Why hasn’t there been another scientist as great as Einstein?

A.Because the study of physics is not enough.

B.Because it is hard to make important discoveries as Einstein did.

C.Because people don’t work hard any more.

D.Because physics is getting more and more difficult.

3.The UN has named 05 the World Year of Physics because           .

A.Einstein is 100 years old this year

B.Einstein has been dead for more than 50 years

C.there have been other great discoveries after Einstein’s death

D.it is the 100th year since Einstein’s “Year of Wonders”

4. What does Einstein’s formula for life mean?

A.Success means years of hard work.

B.Success means all study and no play.

C.Success means working hard, relaxing and not talking too much.

D.Success is a secret that nobody knows.

 

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