United States and Canada are multicultural countries with many national, religious and cultural differences, where people attach great importance to individualism—the uniqueness among people. Teachers value the qualities that make each student special and different. You can see such values through their educational systems. For example, students needn’t memorize lots of information. Instead, they work independently and find answers on their own. There are discussions for children to show their own ideas and opinions.

By contrast, people have the same language, history, and culture in most Asian societies. As a result, Asia’s educational system reflects society’s belief in group goals and purposes rather than individualism. Children in China, Japan, and Korea learn to work together and help one another in assignments. And the teaching methods are often very formal and serious. In class, teachers give lectures while students listen and take notes. Discussion is replaced by reciting rules of information that have been memorized.

These two systems both have advantages and disadvantages. One advantage in Japan is that there is much more math and science than American students learn by the end of high school. In addition, students study more hours each day and more days each year than North Americans do. The difficult system also prepares students for a society that place emphasis on discipline and self-control. However, while memorization is an important learning method in Japanese schools, yet many students admit forgetting much of the information that they have memorized after exams.

On the other hand, the educational system in North American has an advantage that students learn to think for themselves, which prepares them for a society that values creativity. The disadvantage is that when they graduate from high school, they haven’t recited as many basic rules and facts as students in other countries have.

1.People in multicultural countries such as the US or Canada lay more stress on __________.

   A. team work     B. self-control     C. discipline       D. individualism

2.What is the advantage of the educational system in North America？

   A. There is not much discussion.

   B. Learning to think for themselves

   C. Learning much less math and science  

   D. They haven’t memorized basic rules and facts.

3.Which words is most suitable to describe the author's attitude in writing this passage?

   A. Supportive        B. Opposite         C. Objective        D. Subjective

4.The main idea of this passage is___________.

A. cultural differences in countries such as the United States or Canada

B. comparisons of educational system between North America and Asia

C. there are more advantages of Asian education system of than that of North American

D. there are more disadvantages of Asian education system than that of North American

Parents are often amazed at how fast their child grows and develops. New research has determined that the ability to quantify may develop much sooner than most parents realize.
Kristy vanMarle, professor of the University of Missouri, has determined that contrary to what previous studies have shown, infants（婴儿）are able to quantify substances（物质）—like sand or water—as early as 10 months. As long as the difference between the two substances is large enough, infants will choose the larger amount, especially when it comes to food.
With the assistance of her team researchers, vanMarle tested the quantifying skills of babies by presenting them with two cups: one containing a small amount of food, and one containing a larger amount. Consistently, the babies chose the larger amount.
“Several studies throughout the last 15 years have shown that infants are very good at telling how many objects they see; however, infants don’t seem to count things like water or sand,” vanMarle said. “What we’re saying is that they can quantify substances; it’s just much harder. The infants can see how much food goes into each cup and compare that in their memories. They decide which amount is larger, and they almost always select the larger one.”
This information further refutes（驳斥）the long-held idea that babies “know nothing of the world,” vanMarle said.
“Since psychologists have begun studying infants with sensitive measures, we’ve discovered a lot of early abilities. I think for parents, it should be exciting to know that there’s somebody in there that has some fundamental and basic knowledge of the world, and that knowledge is guiding their development,” vanMarle said.
In the future, vanMarle says this kind of study could be linked to a child’s progress in math-related skills, although programs marketed to increase those abilities, such as “Baby Einstein,” still have mixed reviews when it comes to academic study.
【小题1】The quantifying ability refers to the ability to     .

A．by saying numbers	B．with the help of parents
C．on personal preference	D．through their natural abilities

So the evening turned to night, and the night turned to morning. And before I knew it , the SAT was before me. I wasn’t sure  if I was ready, but I knew one thing: I wanted to get it over with.

SAT for the students is like tooth pulling. For those smart Asian kiddos, it’s like walking through the park: easy and carefree. For me, a Chinese American, …it’s: walking through the park and then tripping on a stone.

As I arrived outside of the dining hall, already a mob of students were sitting, talking, or standing silently waiting to get in. Jones students are lucky not only to have such a testing center at school, but also the feeling of their home school where it feels comfortable and familiar.

“ID, please,” my former math teacher asked at the door.

“Okay.” She looked over my ID, checked off my name on her list, and pointed towards the dining hall tables inside.

With hesitation, I picked up my feet and was directed to a large round table in the middle of the dinning hall. At least fourteen people could sit at this table but only four were allowed to take their test here.

“I’m glad it’s multiple choices.” I heard one student say. All the questions on the test have five choices except for one math section where they have only four. If you get an answer wrong, you don’t get any point, plus you get a penalty of a 1/4 point. If you don’t answer a question, you don’t get any point, nor penalties.

When everyone had a seat and the actual SAT I booklet in front of them, the proctor of the test called for our attentions. “In front of you, you should have a SAT I test and a scantron（答题卡）. Please do not open the test booklet until I say so.” He then went on to talk about the procedures, the amount of time, signature of honesty, etc. After thirty minutes of instruction reading, he gave us all a solemn expression before saying, “You may begin now. Good luck.”

I could hear a hundred booklets being opened and pencils scratching the surface. I looked to my right, I looked to my left, I did a quick prayer for whoever was in charge up in the heavens, and started my test. At least I wouldn’t know my score until summer time.

1.How did the author feel before the test?

A．Confident.         B．Carefree.          C．Confused.         D．Nervous.

2.Jones students are lucky because __________.

A．they can take the test in a dining hall

B．they can talk during the test

C．they can take the test in their home school

D．they have their math teacher supervising the test

3.By the underlined sentence, the writer intends to say that_________.

A．the test would be so difficult that she might not pass it

B．the test seemed easy but she still needed to be careful with it

C．the test would be much easier for her than for the other Asian students

D．she found herself not as smart as the other Asian students

4.Which of the following statements is true according to the passage?

A．Fourteen students sat around a large round table, taking the test.

B．There were four math problems on the test.

C．You will lose more points if you get the answer wrong than if you give up the question.

D．The proctor announced the instructions as soon as the test began.

Going to school means learning new skills and facts in different subjects. Teachers teach and students learn, and many scientists are interested in finding ways to improve both teaching and learning processes.

Sian Beilock and Susan Leving, two psychologists at the University of Chicago, are trying to learn about learning. In a new study about the way kids learn math in elementary school, Beilock and Levine found a surprising relationship between what female teachers think and what female students learn: If a female teacher is uncomfortable with her own math skills, then her female students are more likely to believe that boys are better than girls at math. “If these girls keep getting math-anxious female teachers in later grades, it may create a snowball effect on their math achievement,” Levine told Science News. The study suggests that if these girls grow up believing that boys are better at math than girls are, then these girls may not do as well as they would have if they were more confident.

Just as students find certain subjects to be difficult, teachers can find certain subjects to be difficult to learn—and teach. The subject of math can be particularly difficult for everyone.

The new study involved 65 girls, 52 boys and 17 first-and second-grade teachers in elementary schools in the Midwest. The students took math achievement tests at the beginning and end of the school year, and the researchers compared the scores.

The researchers also gave the students tests to tell whether the students believed a math superstar had to be a boy. Then the researchers turned to the teachers: To find out which teachers were anxious about math, the researchers asked the teachers how they felt at times when they came across math, such as when reading a sales receipt. A teacher who got nervous looking at the numbers on a sales receipt, for example, was probably anxious about math.

Boys, on average, were unaffected by a teacher’s anxiety. On average, girls with math-anxious teachers scored lower on the end-of-the-year math tests than other girls in the study did. Plus, on the test showing whether someone thought a math superstar had to be a boy, 20 girls showed feeling that boys would be better at math—and all of these girls had been taught by female teachers with math anxiety.

According to surveys done before this one, college students who want to become elementary school teachers have the highest levels of anxiety about math. Plus, nine of every 10 elementary teachers are women, Levine said.

1.Sian Beilock and Susan Levine carried out the new research in order to ___________.

A．know the effects of teaching on learning      B．study students’ ways of learning math

C．prove women teachers are unfit to teach math D．find better teaching methods for teachers

2.The underlined part in paragraph 2 most probably means that girls may ___________.

A．end up learning math anxiety from their teachers

B．study the ways their female teachers behave

C．have an influence on their math-anxious female teachers

D．gain unexpected achievement in such subjects as math

3.In the study, what were the teachers required to do?

A．Prepare two math achievement tests for the students

B．Tell their feelings about math problems

C．Answer whether a math superstar had to be a boy

D．Compare the students’ scores after the math tests

4.What is the finding of the new study?

A．No male students were affected by their teachers’ anxiety

B．Almost all the girls got lower scores in the tests than the boys

C．About 30% of the girls thought boys are better at math than girls

D．Girls with math-anxious teachers all failed in the math tests

5.Which of the following is TRUE according to the text?

A．117 students and teachers took part in the new study

B．The researchers felt surprised at the findings of their study

C．Beilock and Levine are interested in teaching math

D．Men teachers are better at teaching math than women teachers

 It was graduation day at the university where I work and a beautiful day quite unlike the first graduation I attended as a young professor. On that cold day years ago, as we watched the students walking into the hall, one of my colleagues turned to me and said, "Graduation will be one of the happiest and one of the saddest time of your life." At my inquiry, he answered, "Because the students you have gotten to know have to leave."

As years went by, my previous confusion about my colleague's words no longer existed. When I came across naughty students, I have had to rethink why I chose to be a teacher. It obviously isn't the money. Once a former computer science student of mine called me, asking me if I wanted to have a change. He was working at Nintendo Corporation. His salary was higher than my current one, though I have more education and have worked for over a decade. With my programming skills, he said he could get me hired. I thanked him, but declined his kind offer.

A few days before this current graduation, while working on final grades, I found a note a student had slipped in with her homework. She thanked me for being her teacher and said the things she had learned in my class — not about math, but about life — would be things she would remember long after the math skills had faded away. As I finished reading, I remembered why I had become a teacher.

Now, on this sunny graduation day, as I again observed the sea of blue hats and gowns, I did so with renewed dedication (奉献) and a deeper sense of satisfaction — I will always be grateful that I am a teacher.

1.Hearing his colleague's description of graduation for the first time, the author         .

A. quite agreed with his colleague        B. thought it very funny

C. was very puzzled                   D. was very sad.

2.The computer science student called up the author because he         .  

A. wanted to inform the author of his present job

B. tried to persuade the author to work with him

C. wanted the author to share his joy and satisfaction

D. thought the author wasn't fit to be a teacher

3.The underlined part blue hats and gowns refers to         .  

A. university colleagues                        B. life memories

C. graduates' clothes                        D. decorations in the hall

4.The author wrote this passage to         .  

A. express his devotion to being a teacher

B. compare two different graduation ceremonies

C. talk about the meaning of graduation

D. give advice on how to be a good teacher

5.The reason why he earns less than the computer science student is that         . 

A. he was only a young professor   

B. he didn't do well in his work

C. he taught his students more about life than math

D. salaries for different careers are different