题目内容
Schedules (timetables), as the 21st century people know, simply did not exist in the 17th and 18th centuries. We are upset if a plane arrives an hour late. Our ancestors weren’t upset if an April ship didn’t show up until June. They began to worry in July and were often happy when it showed up in August. When a long-distance ship finally did get to the port, the whole city became busy and excited. Businessmen hurried down to check the goods they had ordered. The ship would probably stay in port for at least three days, often a week, to take on businessmen, give the sailors a rest, find out about the latest news, weather conditions, and so on.
Travel time could only be approximate (近似的). One never knew when the winds would be good. So even though “average(平均的) sailing time” was given, time could change considerably, shortening the voyage (travel by sea) by up to 25% or putting it off by up to 500% or more! The average run from England to Boston was about a month and a half, but there were also voyages of three months. One voyage in 1640 lasted six months!
Travel time is not the same in both directions, due to the winds and currents. This is especially true in the Caribbean, where winds are from the southeast the entire year. Ships sailing west across the Atlantic spend longer than ships sailing east, and the contrary (opposite) winds can prevent a ship from actually making it to the harbor even if it gets close. One ship was held off the North Carolina coast for 17 days before being able to land!
What can we learn from the first paragraph?
A. No sailor was allowed to have fun when the ship reached land.
B. People in ancient times didn’t care about other people’s safety.
C. The ship would leave for a voyage when all of the preparations were made.
D. A long-distance ship would create a lot of excitement in the place where it landed.
According to the passage, travel time can’t be fixed due to _____.
A. the people at the port B. average sailing time
C. the changeable climate D. the businessmen and the sailors
The underlined word “currents” in the third paragraph means ______.
A. the movement of water B. the movement of winds
C. direction of the traveling ship D. travel time of ships
What is the difference between a modern voyage timetable and the one from the 17th or 18th century?
A. There were no exact timetables for traveling both in ancient and modern times.
B. Travel time was the same in both directions in ancient times while the modern one was not.
C. The modern voyage timetable is more exact than the ancient one.
D. The modern voyage timetable is only approximate while the ancient one was not.
Why did the ships sailing west spend longer than ships sailing east in Caribbean?
A. Because of the southeast winds the entire year.
B. Because sailors didn’t know when the winds blew.
C. Because travel time was not affected by wind.
D. Because sometimes the ship was held off by the wind.
【小题1】D
【小题2】C
【小题3】A
【小题4】C
【小题5】A
解析:
略
阅读快车系列答案任务型阅读(共10题；每小题1分，满分10分)
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最恰当的单词。
注意：每空格1个单词。
D. R. Gaul Middle School is in Union, Maine, a blueberry-farming town where the summer fair finds kids competing in pig scrambles and pie-eating contests.
Gaul, with about 170 seventh- and eighth-graders, has its own history of lower level academic achievement. One likely reason: Education beyond the basic requirements hasn't always been a top priority for families who've worked the same land for generations. Here, few adults have college degrees, and outsiders (teachers included) are often kept at a respectful distance.
Since 2002, Gaul's students have been divided into four classes, each of them taught almost every subject by two teachers. The goal: To find common threads across disciplines to help students create a big picture that gives fresh meaning and context to their classwork -- and sparks motivation for learning.
Working within state guidelines, each team makes its individual schedules and lesson plans, incorporating non-textbook literature, hands-on lab work and field trips. If students are covering the Civil War in social studies, they're reading The Red Badge of Courage or some other period literature in English class. In science, they study the viruses and bacteria that caused many deaths in the war.
Team teaching isn't unusual. About 77 percent of middle schools now employ some form of it, says John Lounsbury, consulting editor for the National Middle School Association. But most schools use four- or five-person teams, which Gaul tried before considering two-person teams more effective. Gaul supports the team concept by "looping" classes (跟班) so that the same two teachers stick with the same teens through seventh and eighth grades. Combining teams and looping creates an extremely strong bond between teacher and student. It also, says teacher Beth Ahlholm, "allows us to build an excellent relationship with parents."
Ahlholm and teammate Madelon Kelly are fully aware how many glazed looks they see in the classroom, but they know 72 percent of their eighth-graders met Maine's reading standard last year -- double the statewide average. Only 31 percent met the math standard, still better than the state average (21 percent). Their students also beat the state average in writing and science. And in2006, Gaul was one of 47 schools in the state to see testing gains of at least 20 percent in four of the previous five years, coinciding roughly with team teaching's arrival.
|
A Classroom With Context |
|
|
Problems of the school |
Being a farming town, it (1) little in education before. |
|
(2) education is considered less important. |
|
|
The community is relatively （3) ____ rather than open to the outsiders. |
|
|
Ways of solving the problems |
The division of classes is made and students are well (4) ____. |
|
Individual schedules and lesson plans are (5) ____ by each team. |
|
|
A strong (6) ____ between teacher and student is established through combining teams and looping. |
|
|
Signs of (7) ____ |
72 percent of the eighth-graders (8) ____ Maine's reading standard |
|
(9)________ percent higher than the state average in maths |
|
|
the school beating the state average in writing and science |
|
|
four of the previous five years (10) ____ at least 20 percent test gains |
