SHANGHAI, June 7（AP）―A 16-year-old girl's suicide after she was barred from a key exam draw attention to increasing worries over academic pressures, as millions of Chinese students began annual college entrance tests on Wednesday.

The three-day exam, viewed as important to future career and financial success, has a record 9.5 million high school students across China competing for just 2.6 million university places. For kids and parents alike, it's a difficulty that experts say causes extreme emotional distress. "Pressure from study and exams is a top reason for psychological problems among Chinese youth," said Jin Wuguan, director of the Youth Psychological Counseling Center at Shanghai's Ruijin Hospital.

In China's increasingly success oriented, pressure-cooker cities, academic stress is seen as a rising cause of youth suicides and even murders of parents by children who are driven crazy by intolerable pressure to perform.

According to her family and newspaper accounts, 16-year-old Wu Wenwen drowned herself after she was stopped at the exam room door because her hair wasn't tied back as her school required. Returning in tied hair, she was then told the end-of-term exam had already started and she was too late to take it. In tears, Wu called her mother, and then disappeared. Her body was found the same night in a nearby lake.

China doesn't keep comprehensive statistics on student suicides, but Jin said health care professionals see the problem worsening, even among elementary students. Most Chinese schools still lack advisers and teachers receive little training in spotting symptoms of emotional distress, Jin said. Parents are little help, often piling on pressure while ignoring their children's emotional development, he said. "It's a basic unwillingness or inability to recognize and deal with with emotional problems," Jin said.

Wang Yufeng, of Peking University's Institute of Mental, estimates the rate of emotional disorders such as depression among Chinese students under age 17 at up to 32 percent , a total of 30 million students.

Others say that figure may be as high as 50 percent. A survey last year by the government's China Youth and Children Research Center showed 57.6 percent of students felt highly distressed by academic pressures.

65. What is the function of the first paragraph?

A. To explain the meaning of academic pressures.     B. To lead to the main topic.

C. To describe the girl’s suicide.                            D. Tell how important the college entrance tests are.

66. The 16-year-old girl committed suicide because ______.

A. she did not tied back her hair as required      B. she couldn’t get high mark in the exam

C. she had an unpleasant talk with her mother   D. she wasn’t allowed to attend the examination

67. We can learn from the passage that ____.

A. the problem of student suicides is getting worse according to a research on the accurate statistics

B. teachers have enough ability to sense the emotional distress of students

C. parents place neither pressure nor care on their children

D. both teachers and parents should learn more to deal with the problem of student suicides.

68. Where will we most probably find the article?

A. In a newspaper.                      B. In a magazine.

C. In a text book                         D. In a survey.

 (湖北省新洲区实验高中2009届高三5月检测B篇)

SHANGHAI, June 7（AP）—A 16-year-old girl's suicide after she was barred from a key exam draw attention to increasing worries over academic pressures, as millions of Chinese students began annual college entrance tests on Wednesday.

The three-day exam, viewed as important to future career and financial success, has a record 9.5 million high school students across China competing for just 2.6 million university places. For kids and parents alike, it's a difficulty that experts say causes extreme emotional distress. "Pressure from study and exams is a top reason for psychological problems among Chinese youth," said Jin Wuguan, director of the Youth Psychological Counseling Center at Shanghai's Ruijin Hospital.

In China's increasingly success oriented, pressure-cooker cities, academic stress is seen as a rising cause of youth suicides and even murders of parents by children who are driven crazy by intolerable pressure to perform.

According to her family and newspaper accounts, 16-year-old Wu Wenwen drowned herself after she was stopped at the exam room door because her hair wasn't tied back as her school required. Returning in tied hair, she was then told the end-of-term exam had already started and she was too late to take it. In tears, Wu called her mother, and then disappeared. Her body was found the same night in a nearby lake.

China doesn't keep comprehensive statistics on student suicides, but Jin said health care professionals see the problem worsening, even among elementary students. Most Chinese schools still lack advisers and teachers receive little training in spotting symptoms of emotional distress, Jin said. Parents are little help, often piling on pressure while ignoring their children's emotional development, he said. "It's a basic unwillingness or inability to recognize and deal with with emotional problems," Jin said.

Wang Yufeng, of Peking University's Institute of Mental, estimates the rate of emotional disorders such as depression among Chinese students under age 17 at up to 32 percent , a total of 30 million students.

Others say that figure may be as high as 50 percent. A survey last year by the government's China Youth and Children Research Center showed 57.6 percent of students felt highly distressed by academic pressures.

65. What is the function of the first paragraph?

A. To explain the meaning of academic pressures.    

B. To lead to the main topic.

C. To describe the girl’s suicide.    

D. Tell how important the college entrance tests are.

66. The 16-year-old girl committed suicide because ______.

A. she did not tied back her hair as required  

B. she couldn’t get high mark in the exam

C. she had an unpleasant talk with her mother  

D. she wasn’t allowed to attend the examination

67. We can learn from the passage that ____.

A. the problem of student suicides is getting worse according to a research on the accurate statistics

B. teachers have enough ability to sense the emotional distress of students

C. parents place neither pressure nor care on their children

D. both teachers and parents should learn more to deal with the problem of student suicides.

68. Where will we most probably find the article?

A. In a newspaper.                      B. In a magazine.

C. In a text book                  D. In a survey.