As nanny(保姆), cook, cleaner, shopper, driver, and gardener, she has one of the most demanding jobs in Britain today. And paying someone else to do the chores(家务活) which take the average housewife 71 hours a week would cost ?349.

   At over ?18,000 a year that’s more than the earnings of 70 percent of the population, including train drivers, firemen, prison officers, and social worker. Looking after a baby less than a year old takes a housewife into a even higher pay league. According to a stud, she earns ?457 a week – at nearly ?24,000 a year, the same as teachers, engineers, and chemists.

   Researchers put a price on each chore, then tried to find out how long the average person takes doing them. They found housewives spend an average 70.7 hours a week on housework – with looking after the children (17.9hours) and cooking and cleaning (12.9 hours each) the most time-consuming(费时).

   A wife with a part-time job still works and average of 59 hours a week at home. Those in full-time employment put in longer hours at home than in the workplace. The good news is that these hours sharply as children get older. While the average mother with child under one puts in 90 hours weekly, the figure drops to 80 hours from one to four and to 66 hours from five to ten.

   Mother-of-four Karen Williams from London said, “Paying the housewives may not be practical, but the government should recognize the value of housework, perhaps through the tax. Running a house takes a lot of time and most husbands don’t understand this. For example, my husband only puts a shelf up now and again. He never cleans the kitchen – that’s the real test.”

Who earns most according to the text?

   A. A social worker.                    B. A fireman.

   C. A gardener.                        D. A teacher.

We lean from the text that looking after children ______.

   A. takes more time than doing any other housework

   B. means more duties than being a teacher

   C. requires the mother to be well-educated

   D. prevents the mother from working outside

According to the text, a housewife with a baby less than one year old may work _____.

   A. 66 hours a week               B. 71 hours a week

   C. 80 hours a week               D. 90 hours a week

By mentioning her husband, Karen Williams wants to show that ______.

   A. housework is no easy job

   B. her husband has no time to clean the kitchen

   C. a housewife needs to be paid for cleaning

   D. the kitchen is hard to clean

My opinion about the modern education is not similar to _________of the other teachers’.

This was no ordinary class. The students who came together were all science or engineering professors at Cornell University. They had interrupted their research to accept an invitation to take part in an unusual experiment: “an interesting week of poetry.” This class was part of a study to answer the questions: Why is science difficult for many nonscience students? What can teachers learn about teaching if they take a class that is not in their field?

The students in the poetry class listened to lectures and took notes. They had reading tasks and had to write three short papers. All students noticed one thing – the importance of spoken words. In science and engineering classes, the instructors put tables and drawings on the blackboard. But in this poetry class, the instructors just talked. They didn’t write anything on the board.

The scientists and engineers noticed one similarity between science and poetry. In both subjects, students need to find layers (层次)　of meaning . Some layers are simple, clean, and on the surface; other layers are deeper and more difficult. This search for different levels of meaning doesn’t happen much in undergraduate(本科)　science classes, but it is important later, in graduate school. And it is always important in humanities(人文科学).

Both the poetry instructors and their students learned something about teaching from this experience. One poetry instructor, for example, now sees the importance of using informative as he teaches. Most of the scientists agreed on several points. First, humanities classes might help science students to see patterns and decide which information is important. Second, the poetry class was fun. One engineer decided, “We need to change the way we teach engineering to make to make it an enjoyable experience for students.”

But perhaps the most important result of the experience was this; All of the professors began to think about how they teach and how they cam teach better.

What do we know about this unusual class?

A. The teachers did lots of writing on the board

B. The teacher were invited to attend several lectures.

C. The student were professors from a university

D. The students were studying science and humanities.

The experiment was designed to find out              

   A. how to teach the students in the science class

B. whether poetry is difficult for science students

C. what to be taught in the humanities class

D. why many humanities students find science hard.

Finding levels of meaning is            .

   A. important for graduate students in humanities

B. difficult for graduate students in humanities

C. common for undergraduate students in science

D. easy for undergraduate students in science.

What did the science professors learn after the experiment?

   A. They should change the way they teach

B. A poem could be explained in clear definitions.

C. A poetry class could be more informative.

D. Their teaching was an enjoyable experience.

Topping the class academically was certainly an advantage. Studying was a breeze for

Nigel. The reward was certainly incomparable to the little effort that he had to put it. It begin when he was selected to help the teachers in the computer laboratories.

The peak of his school career came not when he topped the school but when he was selected for the nationwide competition. Unlike everyone else, Nigel wanted to join the contest because he liked playing with the Lego sets and making something out of them. Nigel spent the next two months rebuilding the robot. It was during the time that Nigel found out about the prizes for the competition. Its well us auspices competitor. Alicia, from a neighboring school. His early intentions were forgotten. Getting the thousand-dollar prize was more important than anything else. Nigel decided to befriend Alicia. Unaware of his intentions, she told him all about the robot that she had been building for the competition. He even helped her to put the finishing branches to her robot. He was glad with the way things had progressed. His robot looked even better than Alicia’s and it was able to become a ball with its arms, something Alicia had failed to do.

On the day of the competition, he says Alicia. Everything dawned on her the minute she saw him among the competition. She stared at him, puzzled at first, then angry and finally a look of helplessness came over her.

The flashbulbs of the camera exploded in Nigel’s try. The robot bird performed actions so unique and different that the specialist judgments were the same. Nigel was so personal with himself that he did not even notice the girl standing a few feet away from him. Without her, he would never win the competition.

What reward did Nigel receive for doing well in his school work?

A. He was offered a part-time job      B. He was honored with a scholarship

C. He helped his teacher construct a robot      D. He helped in the computer laboratories

Nigel’s original intention of joining the contest was to ___.

A. be the top student of the school             B. being great honor to his school

C. constructs a robot with the Lego sets         D. wins the thousand-dollar prize

Why did Nigel help Alicia finish her robot?

A. He tried to make friends with her       B. He was fond of building robots

C. He intended to help her               D. He didn’t want her to suspect him

What is the author’s attitude towards Nigel’s actions?

A. He is mildly critical           B. He is strongly critical

C. He is in favor of them          D. His attitude is not clear

Thousands of teachers _______into their new fiats and the rest of them         for theirs. The government say many more apartment buildings________

A. have moved; is waiting; are to be built

B. have been moved; are waiting; will be completed

C. have been moved; is waiting; will have been putting up

D. have moved; are waiting; are to be set up