Holidays are really important. Many of us will have childhood memories of summer holidays where we were taken away from home to experience new environments and learn in different ways.
But holidays are expensive and, for those on low wages or living on benefits, they are often unobtainable. Even the cheapest holidays require travel and other additional costs that are difficult for many families to meet.
For working parents, the long summer break can be a very difficult problem for childcare. When an annual leave allowance amounts to only five weeks, there is a need to spread this across the year. Couples can find themselves taking leave in turn in order to care for children who are on holiday. For some ’ this makes even an affordable family holiday difficult.
The schools that I visit in Nottingham are full of experienced staff committed to giving our children a caring and inspiring learning environment. The number of children receiving free school meals is quite large in Nottingham and many schools have breakfast clubs to make sure that children get a healthy start to the day. Most schools undertake programs of group or individual educational support. Schools also have an important role in sofeguaiding children's welfare through the ongoing touch and support with their pupils. During the long summer holidays, much of this is missed.
While teachers are holidaying in the UK, many of their pupils spend the whole six weeks on the street where they live. The lack of free school meals for six weeks can result in pressure on a family budget and an inability to afford the inspiring experiences that help children to continue their learning.
In setting out its plans for a five-term year, Nottingham City Council (委员会)is seeking to reduce the summer holiday down lo four and a half weeks, with a more balanced five terms of roughly eight weeks, each followed by a two-week break. We believe this will give real “down time" for school staff and pupils alike but will be short enough not to cause a real break in learning.
We acknowledge that this change may be difficult for some school staff, particularly whose own children are educated in other authorities. However, this must be weighed against the benefits for city children for whom we all have the greatest duty of care.
【小题1】 The passage is probably written by   .

The booking notes of the play “The Age of Innocence”.

Price: $10

BOOKING

There are four easy ways to book seats for performance:

-----in person

The Box Office is open from Money to Saturday, 10 a.m.----8 p.m.

-----by telephone

Ring 01324976 to reserve your tickets or to pay by credit card (Visa, Master Card and Amex accepted)。

-----on-line/online

Simply complete the booking form and return it to Global Theatre Box Office.

-----online/on-line

Complete the on-line booking form at www. Satanfiedtheatre. com.

DISCOUNT

Saver: $2 off any seat booked any time in advance for performances from Monday to Thursday. Savers are available for children up to 16 years old, those over 60 and full-time students.

Supersavers: half-price seats are available for people with disabilities and one companion. It is advisable to book in advance. There is a maximum of eight wheelchair spaces available and one wheelchair space will be held until an hour before the show.

Standby: best available seats are on sale for $6 from one hour before the performance for people eligible for Saver and Supersaver discounts and thirty minutes before for all other customers.

Group booking: there is a ten percent discount for parties of twelve or more.

School: school parties of ten or more can book $6 standby tickets in advance and will get every tenth ticket free.

PLEASE NOTE: we are unable to exchange tickets for refund money unless a performance is cancelled due to unpredicted circumstances.

1.If you want to book a ticket, you CANNOT______.

A. go to the Box Office on Sundays        

B. use the Internet

C. ring the booking number and pay the tickets by credit card

D. complete a booking form and post it to the Box Office

2.If you make a group booking for a group of 14 adults, how much should you pay?

A. $120          B. $126               C. $140            D. $150

3.Which of the following is NOT true according to the passage?

A. There are only 8 wheelchair spaces in the theatre.

B. A school party of 15 students should pay $90 for the standby tickets.

C. Full-time students can get best seats for $6 from one hour before the performance.

D. The audience can’t refund money if the performance is on show.

4.What kind of tickets are the cheapest?

A. The standby tickets for school parties of ten or more.

B. The standby tickets.

C. The ticket for saver discount.

D. The tickets for group booking.

短文改错(共10小题；每小题1分，满分10分)

此题要求改正所给短文中的错误。对标有题号的每一行作出判断：如无错误，在该行右边横线撒谎能够画一个勾（√）；如有错误（每行只有一个错误），则按下列情况改正：

此行多一个词：把多余的词用斜线（\）划掉，在该行右边横线上写出该词，并也用斜线划掉。

此行缺一个词：在缺词处加一个漏字符号(^), 在该行右边横线上写出该加的词。

此行错一个词：在错的词下面划一横线，在该行右边横线上写出改正后的词。

注意：原行没有错的不要改。

One day, while my friend and I was traveling through           76__________

Germany, we were not very hungry but we only had a little       77__________

money. We decided stop at a village market to buy              78__________

something to eat. We choose the cheapest biscuits and           79.__________

ate it under a tree. We thought the biscuits were great.            80__________

“Let’s got some more,” I said, “They’re cheap and they          81__________”

really taste well.” My friend could read some German, but        82__________

I couldn’t, and I gave her the biscuit bag to find the name.        83._________

She looked at it and started to laugh, “How are you laughing?”     84._________

I asked. “Because they’re dog biscuits!” She said.               85._________

   C

Thousands of people living in the Chinese eapital will celebrate the start of the Chinese New Year by heading for the ski resorts(滑雪场).Never mind that Beijing’s dry weather seldom produces

Now. It is cold enough in winter for snow-making machines to make a covering for the hills north to

The capital. And the rapid growth of a pleasure-seeking middle class has formed the basis for this

New craze(热潮).

Since Beijing’s first ski resort was opened ten years ago, the sport has enjoyed an astonishing increase.There are now more than a dozen resorts. Clothes markets in the city have added bright colored ski suits to their winter collections. Mr.Wei, a manager of a newly-opened ski resort in Beijing, sees the growth of an industry that could soon lead Chinese to head for the ski resorts of Europe. In recent years ski resorts offering natural snow have opened in China. But many are in faraway areas of the country and can’t really match the equipment and services of some ski resorts

In Europe.

Beijing’s sking craze is partly a result of the recent increase in private(私有的)cars. This has led to the growth of a leisure industry in the capital’s suburbs(郊区).which until the late-1990s were unreachable to ordinary people. According to Mr. Wei,About 40％ of the visitors to his resort some in their own cars. The rest are bused in by schools, businesses or government offices.

The problem is making money.Starting ski resorturequires quite a lot of money:hiring land from the local government,preparing the hills,buying snow machines,making sure there are enough

water and electricity to run them,and buying ski equipment for hiring out to customers.The ski resort where Mr.Wei works cost nearly $4m to set up.And,as so often in China when someone comes up with a good idea,many others rush in and price wars break out.Beijing now offers some of

the cheapest ski training classes in the world,though with most people rather new to the sport, expecting a few more doing the same job.

50.What does this text mainly talk about?

A．Convenience for skiers brought about by private cars

B．Skiing as a new way of enjoying one’s spare time

C．Things to be considered when starting a ski resort

D．A sudden increase of ski training classes in Beijing

51.Why are some Chinese likely to go skiing in Burope?

A．To visit more ski areas

B．To ski on natrual snow

C．For a large collection of ski suits

D．For better services and equipment

52.The underlined words”leisure industry”in Paragraph 3 refer to        

A．transport to ski resorts

B．production of familycars

C．business of providing spare time enjoyments

D．part-time work for people living in the suburbs

53.What is the main problem in running a ski resort?

A．Difficulty in hiring land

B．Lack of business experience

C．……ski resorts.

D．Shortage of water and electricity

A study involving 8,500 teenagers from all social backgrounds found that most of them are ignorant when it comes to money. The findings, the first in a series of reports from NatWest that has started a five-year research project into teenagers and money, arc particularly worrying as this generation of young people is likely to be burdened with greater debts man any before.

University tuition fees (学费) are currently capped at ??3,000 annually, but this will be reviewed next year and the Government is under enormous pressure to raise the ceiling.

In the research, the teenagers were presented with die terms of four different loans but 76 per cent failed to identify the cheapest. The young people also predicted that they would be earning on average ?? 31.000 by the age of 25, although the average salary for those aged 22 to 29 is just ?? 17,815. The teenagers expected to be in debt when they finished university or training, although half said that they assumed the debts would be less than ?? 10.000. Average debts for graduates are ?? 12，363.

Stephen Moir, head of community investment at the Royal Bank of Scotland Group which owns NatWest, said. "The more exposed young people are to financial issues, and the younger they become aware of them, the more likely they arc to become responsible, forward-planning adults who manage their finances confidently and effectively."

Ministers are deeply concerned about the financial pressures on teenagers and young people because of student loans and rising housing costs. They have just introduced new lessons in how to manage debts. Nikki Fairweathcr. aged 15. from St Helens, said that she had benefited from lessons on personal finance, but admitted that she still had a lot to learn about money.

1. Which of the following can be found from the five-year research project?

A. Students understand personal finances differently.

B. University tuition fees in England have been rising.

C. Teenagers tend to overestimate their future earnings.

D. The students' payback ability has become a major issue.

2. The phrase "to raise the ceiling" in paragraph 2 probably means "______".

A. to raise the student loans      B. to improve the school facilities

C. to increase the upper limit of the tuition     D. to lift the school building roofs

3. According to Stephen Moir, students_______.

A. are too young 10 be exposed 10 financial issues

B. should learn 10 manage their finances well

C- should maintain a positive attitude when facing loans

D. benefit a lot from lessons on personal finance

4. What can we learn from the passage?

A. Many British teenagers do not know money matters well

B. Teenagers in Britain are heavily burdened with debts.

C. Financial planning is a required course at college.

D. Young people should become responsible adults.