Americans are thinking about national education standards recently developed by teachers and other education experts. The National Governors Association (NGA) and the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) led the effort.

　　The United States, unlike other nations, has never had the same school standards across the country. What is the reason? Education is not discussed in the Constitution. That document limits the responsibilities of the federal government. Other responsibilities, like education, fall to each state.

Local control of education probably was a good idea two hundred years ago. People stayed in the same place and schools knew what students needed to learn. But today, people move to different cities. And some people work at jobs that did not exist even twenty years ago.

Many American educators say that getting a good education should not depend on where you live. They say that some states have lowered their standards in order to increase student scores on tests required by the No Child Left behind Act.

　　Kara Schlosser is communications director for the CCSSO. She says the new standards clearly state what a student should be able to do to be successful in college and work.

　　Forty--eight states have already shown approval for the standards. Two states refuse to accept the idea. Critics say that working toward the same standards in every state will not guarantee excellence for all. Some educators in Massachusetts say adopting the national standards will hurt their students because the state standards are even higher. Others say the change will be too costly, requiring new textbooks and different kinds of training for teachers. Still others fear federal control.

　　Supporters say the standards are goals and do not tell states or teachers how to teach. They also say the federal government is not forcing acceptance. However, approving the standards will help states qualify (取得资格) for some federal grant money.

1.What would be the best title for the passage?

A．Local Control of Education Standards out of Date

B．American National Education Standards under Consideration

C．Education Standards in Each State--Good or Bad.

D．Acceptance of the New Standards in the United States

2.Why is local control of education no 1onger a good idea today?

A．Because local standards are limited.

B．Because it is required by the federal government.

C．Because people today moves among states more often than before.

D．Because America has never had the same school standards throughout the country.

3.Some people are against the nationa1 education standards because__________

A．the standards are higher than those of each state

B．they are not yet prepared for the new standards

C．the standards may prevent some students gaining excellence

D．they don't want the federal government to train their teachers

4.If a state agrees to accept the national standards, it will probably get ________.

A．more students                         B．advice on how to improve teaching

C．better textbooks                        D．money from the federal government

Between Virginia and Maryland on the Potomac River lie    1. ________

　　Washington D.C. It is about 220 miles in the south               2. ________

　　of New York City. The pleasantest and easiest ways to               3. ________

　　get there is by long-distance bus, or by the fast

　　(125-mile-an-hour) train which spends a little more money than           4. ________

　　the bus journey and a little less money than flying. I could travel far

　　more than 220 miles to see Washington. It’s not city that has        5. ________

　　been grown up accidently as most big cities have done.              6. ________

　　It was carefully planned for the nation’s capital by a                 7. ________

　　Frenchman, Perril Enfant. The city was named                     8. ________

　　George Washington, the much-loved, much-admired,

　　much-respected first president of the United States.          9. ________

　　In 1791 he himself arranged to buy the land which it stands.      10. ________

C

Can you train your cat to actually use your toilet? Can you not have to deal with litter boxes any more? Well for many people the answers to these questions are yes．

You may have heard that some people have managed to train their cats to use the human toilet, Well this is correct．One advantage to this is the fact that you no longer have to lug heavy bags of litter home from the supermarket, or worry about cleaning out the dirty litter everyday．

Like any other cat training program, training your cat to use the toilet takes times and patience, you just can put your cat on the toilet and hope that they can use it．

By slowly shaping your cat’s behavior over a couple of weeks, you too can end lugging heavy bags of cat litter home from the supermarket．First, start by slowly moving the litter box closer and closer to the toilet each day, so your cat gets used to being in the bathroom and being around the toilet．

Next, when you have had to litter box next to the toilet for several days, slowly raise the litter box higher and higher each day until it is at the level of the toilet．Then find an insert for the top of the toilet, like a shallow pan that can sit in the rim of the toilet and hold litter．

Once your cat gets used to using this litter pan on top of the toilet for a week or so, try removing the pan and your cat should be able to use the toilet．

Like any cat training program, it takes time and effort on the part of the cat owner to do this．Don’t get frustrated with your cat if she is not learning as fast as you would like, many cats learn at their own pace．With a little effort you too can have a toilet trained cat．

64．The author advises you to train your cat to use a toilet so that may    ．

A．keep the toilet clean

B．keep the cat clean

C．save a lot of trouble

D．save a lot of money

65．According to the passage, cat toilet training is a     process．

A．quick                     B．Complicated            C．difficult           D．gradual

66．When you have managed to get your cat to use the toilet, the litter box    ．

A．is no longer needed                B．is still needed

C．should be kept where it is                 D．should be put back where it was

67．We can see from the passage that“a shallow pan”(in Para 6 )    ．

A．is used instead of the litter box               B．is used to protect the cat

C．helps to raise the litter box             D．helps to clean the toilet

My newly-rented small apartment was far away from the centre of London and it was becoming essential for me to find a job, so finally I spent a whole morning getting to town and putting my name down to be considered by London Transport for a job on the underground. They were looking for guards, not drivers. This suited me. I couldn’t drive a car but thought that I could probably guard a train, and perhaps continue to write my poems between stations. The writers Keats and Chekhov had been doctors. T.S. Eliot had worked in a bank and Wallace Stevens for an insurance company. I’d be a subway guard. I could see myself being cheerful, useful, a good man in a crisis（危机）. Obviously I’d be overqualified but I was willing to forget about that in return for a steady income and travel privileges — those being particularly welcome to someone living a long way from the city centre.

The next day I sat down, with almost a hundred other candidates, for the intelligence test. I must have done all right because after about half an hour’s wait I was sent into another room for a psychological test. This time there were only about fifty candidates. The interviewer sat at a desk. Candidates were signaled forward to occupy the seat opposite him when the previous occupant had been dismissed, after a greater or shorter time. Obviously the long interviews were the more successful ones. Some of the interviews were as short as five minutes. Mine was the only one that lasted a minute and a half.

I can remember the questions now: “Why did you leave your last job?” “Why did you leave your job before that?” “And the one before that?” I can’t recall my answers, except that they were short at first and grew progressively shorter. His closing statement, I thought, revealed（显示） a lack of sensitivity which helped to explain why as a psychologist, he had risen no higher than the underground railway. “You’ve failed the psychological test and we are unable to offer you a position.”

Failing to get that job was my low point. Or so I thought, believing that the work was easy. Actually, such jobs — being a postman is another one I still desire — demand exactly the sort of elementary yet responsible awareness that the habitual dreamer is least qualified to give. But I was still far short of full self-understanding. I was also short of cash.

1.．The writer applied for the job chiefly because _________.

2.．The writer thought he was overqualified for the job because _________.

3.．The length of his interview meant that _________.

4.．What does the writer realize now that he did not realize then?

5.．What’s the writer’s opinion of the psychologist?

Everyone can experience anger sometimes, but not everyone can control it properly. To some people, controlling anger seems like the hardest thing in the world to do.

When it comes to anger control, there are lots of tools and things that you can do. The first technique you can use is to recognize stress when it occurs. This is extremely important as you need to understand what causes this pressure and attempt to reduce this stress before it transforms quickly into anger.

Developing empathy (移情) is another anger control skill you can learn. You can teach yourself how to reduce or eliminate (消除)anger completely by seeing things from other people’s perspective.

You need to learn how to respond to situations rather than react. Think about your response and calmly approach this rather than reacting suddenly when stress and pressure are triggered.

When you experience unwanted feelings, control these by talking to yourself in your own mind and enable yourself to deal with those feelings effectively before acting on them. By talking it over in your own head you can work out how you will best deal with the situation instead of acting on impulse (冲动), which can be destructive.

Anger control can also be achieved with the skill of being able to communicate with others with honesty. You can effectively train yourself to respond to situations without getting annoyed about things.

These feelings can quite regularly be set off by a difference in what we expect and what actually get in life. Often if things do not go our way or we feel we have been harshly treated, we will find it hard to control our anger. If you adjust your expectations, then you should be able to handle difficult situations and cope with them much better.

Finally it is vitally important to step back and think about things that are happening rather than acting too quickly. It can sometimes be very hard not to wade in (介入)and start acting before thinking about things first.

Therefore, it is important to remember that everyone has the capacity to lose their temper and controlling it is the real challenge.