About 21,000 young people in 17 American states do not go to classes in school buildings. Instead, they receive their school education by working at home on computers. The Center for Education Reform says the United States has 67 public “cyberschools,” and that is about twice as many as two years ago.
The money for students to go to a cyberschool comes from the governments of the states where they live. Some educators say cyberschools receive money that should support traditional public schools. They also say it is difficult to know if students are learning well.
Other educators praise this new form of education for letting students work at their own speed. These people say cyberschools help students who were unhappy or unsuccessful in traditional schools. They say learning at home by computer ends long bus rides for children who live far from school.
Whatever the judgment of cyberschools, they are getting more and more popular. For example, a new cybershool called Common-wealth Connections Academy will take in students this fall. It will serve children in the state of Pennsylvania from ages five through thirteen.
Children get free equipment for their online education. This includes a computer, a printer, books and technical(技术的) services. Parents and students talk with teachers by telephone or by sending emails through their computer when necessary.
Students at cyberschools usually do not know one another. But 56 such students who finished studies at Western Pennsylvania Cyber Charter School recently met for the first time. They were guests honor at their graduation.
【小题1】What do we know from the text about students of a cyberschool?

Edward Snowden—the fugitive （逃亡者） former U．S．intelligence employee —appears to be stuck in Moscow, unable to leave without a valid American passport, according to interviews Sunday with two men who had sought to aid him: WikiLeaks’ Julian Assange and Ecuadoran President Rafael Correa．

    Snowden, 30, arrived at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo International Airport last weekend, after previously taking refuge in Hong Kong． Moscow was only supposed to be a stopover．WikiLeaks, the anti-secrecy organization, had said Snowden was headed on to Ecuador—whose president has been critical of the United States — and that he would seek asylum there．

    Now, however, both men said Snowden is unable to leave．

    "The United States, by canceling his passport, has left him for the moment trapped in Russia," said Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, on ABC ' s " This Week With George Stephanopoulos"． The United States canceled Snowden' s passport last weekend． Assange criticized the United States, saying: " To take a passport from a young man in a difficult situation like that is a disgusting action．"

    President Correa spoke to the Associated Press in Puerto Viejo, Ecuador． For now, he told the AP, Snowden was "under the care of the Russian authorities． "

    "This is the decision of Russian authorities． He doesn't have a passport． I don't know the Russian laws, I don' t know if he can leave the airport, but I understand that he can' t," Correa said． He said that the case was now out of Ecuador' s hands． "If Snowden arrives at an Ecuadoran Embassy, we' 11 analyze his request for asylum．"

    Snowden traveled from Hong Kong to Moscow on his U．S．passport． Although the U．S．had already revoked it, Hong Kong authorities said they hadn’t received the official request to cancel the passport before Snowden left．

    An official at the Ecuadoran Embassy in London had also issued a letter of safe passage for Snowden． But Snowden apparently did not use it for his trip to Moscow．

    And it doesn’t appear that the Ecuadoran government would make a similar gesture again．

    On Sunday, Correa told the AP that an Ecuadoran official at that embassy had committed "a serious error" by issuing the first letter without consulting officials back home． Correa said the consul would be punished, although he didn’t specify how．

    Correa' s tone seemed to have shifted after a conversation with Vice President Biden on Friday．Where Correa had earlier been aggressive and determined, he now voiced respect for U．S．legal procedures．

1.Edward Snowden is a person who once worked in a federal department ______．

A．to assist the governor of one state

B．to collect information secretly for the US

C．to organize overseas promotion campaign

D．to educate intelligence employees

2.Which of the following word can take the place of the underlined word in Para．2 ?

A．shelter．          B．praise．        C．position．      D．forgiveness．

3.By what means did Edward Snowden leave Hong Kong for Moscow' s Sheremetyevo International Airport?

A．A letter of safe passage from the Ecuadoran Embassy．

B．Permission from Chinese government

C．Invitation of the Russian authorities．

D．An American passport．

4.What can be inferred from the last paragraph?

A．Edward Snowden will live in Moscow forever．

B．Ecuadoran government will provide Edward Snowden protection．

C．Through U．S．legal procedures Edward Snowden has been caught．

D．Correa hesitated to assist Edward Snowden．

Last year my wife and I spent a most interesting month in Turkey. Before we left, we were reminded of the difficulties of driving in Turkey. We certainly did not find this to be the case and, except for a few places in faraway mountainous areas, the roads were wide, and well-paved (铺). We drove for 12 days along the Western Coast of Turkey and had no problems at all. We found the Turkish drivers very polite and well-educated. We also found that eating lunch in the smaller towns was difficult so we picnicked almost every day.

    The following day after our arrival was Turkey’s Children’s Day, started by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk. Ataturk loved children and he often said, “Children are a new beginning of tomorrow.” He even devoted the day 23rd of April to the children which today is celebrated as Children’s Day as well as the date when the Republic of Turkey was founded.

    On that day certain children are picked to take over the places of the government, and a lucky kid will be the president of Turkey for a whole day. He can decide what’s going to happen and whether or not he is going to have the president next to him. There are a very large number of possibilities of things he can do but some shops aren’t open because they are celebrating the day as well.

    All in all, it was a more enjoyable trip. I would recommend (推荐) a trip to Turkey to anyone with an adventurous spirit!

1.Before the author and his wife went on a trip to Turkey, they were told that ________.

A. it was difficult to travel in Turkey

B. it was not easy to drive in Turkey

C. the streets in Turkey were dangerous

D. there were many mountain roads

2.What do we know from the first paragraph?

A. Places in mountainous areas were difficult to reach.

B. It took the couple 12 days to drive to Turkey.

C. The Turkish drivers had good manners.

D. It was difficult to eat meals in Turkey.

3.The underlined word “He” in paragraph 3 refers to “________”.

A. everyone of us                  B. the government

C. the president of Turkey      D. the lucky child

4.What can be inferred(推断) from the passage?

A. The couple had little difficulty making their way in Turkey.

B. Turkey doesn’t celebrate International Children’s Day.

C. The author joined in celebrating Turkey’s Children’s Day.

D. On Turkey’s Children’s Day, everyone had holidays.

It was a very foggy day in London. The fog was so thick that it was impossible to see more than a foot or so. Buses, cars and taxis were not able to run and were standing by the side of the road. People were trying to find their way about on foot but were losing their way in the fog. Mr. Smith had a very important meeting at the House of Commons and had to get there but no one could take him. He tried to walk there but found he was quite lost. Suddenly he bumped into a stranger. The stranger asked if he could help him. Mr. Smith said he wanted to get to the Houses of Parliament. The stranger told him he would take him there. Mr. Smith thanked him and they started to walk there. The fog was getting thicker every minute but the stranger had no difficulty in finding the way. He went along one street, turned down another, crossed a square and at last after about half an hour’s walk they arrived at the Houses of Parliament. Mr. Smith couldn’t understand how the stranger found his way. “It is wonderful,” he said. “How do you find the way in the fog?”

“It is no trouble at all to me,” said the stranger, “I am blind.”

1.According to the passage, we can infer that “bump into” means _______.

A. knock off

B. meet by chance

C. strike

D. traffic accident

2.Which of the following statements are NOT true?

A. The stranger has a better sight than Mr. Smith.

B. Heavy fog can cause traffic accidents.

C. It’s easy to get lost in a foggy day.

D. The fog was getting thicker and thicker.

3.Why is it no trouble at all to the stranger to find the way in the fog?

A. Because he is a local inhabitant of London.

B. Because he lives next to the Houses of Parliament.

C. Because he is familiar with the route.

D. Because he finds the way not by sight but by heart.

4.This article mainly tells us that ________.

A. London is a foggy city.

B. Mr. Smith works for the government.

C. A blind stranger led the way for Mr. Smith in a foggy day.

D. Mr. Smith had a very important meeting and lost his way in the fog.

Scientists are uncovering the secrets of two port cities lost under the waters of the Mediterranean Sea, a researcher said yesterday.

Herakleion and Menouthis were rich and proud cities until something reduced them to rubble (碎石) and buried them in the mud beneath 30 feet of sea water, French underwater explorer Franck Goddio said at the American Geophysical Union conference.

“This is a mystery that is ongoing,” said Goddio, a founder of the European Institute of Marine Archeology, a Paris-based underwater research organization backed by the wealthy Hilti Foundation of Liechtenstein(列支敦士登基金会).

The destruction of the twin port cities has haunted Goddio ever since he happened upon the site about 15 miles from Alexandria while exploring sunken ships from Napoleon’s fleet.

Goddio and his group of expert divers, marine archeologists(海洋考古学家) and others, are using high powered vacuums, satellite navigation systems and sophisticated sonar(声纳) to excavate(挖掘) the sunken cities from underneath a carpet of silt about one meter (three feet) high.

Walls of shops, remains of streets and gold artifacts have been found and recovered.

Some experts believe that the port cities were destroyed by a series of massive earthquakes, much like the quakes scientists believe felled Troy(特洛伊城), Jericho and other ancient cities. The uniform direction of the collapsed columns and walls suggest an earthquake, Goddio said, but no fault lines have been found nearby.

Other researchers believe a massive wave, caused by either an offshore earthquake or a distant underwater landslide, could explain the catastrophe. Still others think rising seas and a shift in the Nile River outlet doomed the cities.

“The argument, as you can see, continues,” Goddio said.

The reason why the two port cities disappeared under the waters of Mediterranean Sea is that ______.

A. the two port cities were destroyed by huge earthquakes

B. the disappearance of the two port cities was caused by underwater landslide

C. rising seas and a shift in the Nile River outlet doomed the cities

D. the story didn’t tell us at all

From the story we can draw a conclusion that _______.

A. the two port cities were famous for their wealth and the mystery

B. the two cities belonged to France

C. some mysterious creatures from other planets destroyed the two cities

D. the American Geophysical Union conference was once held in one of the two cities

This article is probably from _______.

A. a scientific magazine       B. a report to the government

C. a school text book         D. a scientific report in a newspaper