The cost of medical care in the US is very high．The time and money that  1  spend on their medical education is probably one reason  2  this problem．

A visit to a doctor’s office    3    from fifteen to fifty dollars．It is almost   4   for people to pay for the medical care they need．Many people in the US think that doctors  5  overpaid． Most doctors ,however,．    6   ．They say that they are required to study    7  for a long lime．Tuition(学费)for many    8  of medical education costs   9   money .Doctors say that it is necessary for most medical students to borrow money from  10   to pay their tuition．Because this money must be repaid to the bank．  11   doctors need to receive a lot of money for their work .  12   ，they charge(收费)people   13   prices for medical care．

Therefore．it is possible that the high cost of medical care in   14   is necessary，because high tuition is one cause of high costs．One way to  15  costs would be to have medical schools that are free or have low tuition．

1．A．teachers    B．soldiers    C．doctors    D．workers

2．A．for        B．of        C．about       D．at

3．A．spends     B．pays      C．costs       D．uses

4．A．impossible  B．possible   C．necessary   D．unnecessary

5．A．aren’t      B．are       C．were       D．weren’t

6．A．disagree with B．agree to  C．agree       D．disagree

7．A．physics    B．medicine   C．maths      D．chemistry

8．A．years      B．months    C．days       D．weeks

9．A．little      B．a lot of     C．many      D．a number of

10．A．shops    B．schools     C．factories    D．banks

11．A  young    B．old        C．men       D．women

12．A．And     B．but        C．However    D．So

13．A，low      B．lots of     C．high       D．many

14．A．China    B．America   C．England    D．Japan

15．A．lower    B．taller      C．higher      D．shorter

The world has many beautiful sounds. We can hear the songs of birds and the laugh of people. We can listen to the cool music and news reports. And it’s all because of our ears! They bring us a world of sounds.
But some people can’t hear any sound at all. Some are born deaf. Others can hear well in their childhood, but too many loud sounds hurt their ears later on.
Many people in China can’t hear ordinary sounds clearly. A large number of them are children. Most of them are born with good hearing. But six children of every 1,000 have hearing problems when they are born. And if a child has hearing problems, he or she usually will also have some learning problems at school.
A lot of things can cause hearing problems. For example, too much earwax is not good for our hearing. And noise louder than 85 decibels (分贝) can hurt our ears and make us lose our hearing for a short time or even for ever.
Hearing is important for all of us. So we should do our best to give our ears special care. Don’t forget to do the following:
● Try to stay away from places with too much noise. If you have to go, wear earplugs. A pair of good earplugs can cut the noise by 30 decibels.
● When swimming, remember to put earplugs into your ears to stop water from getting in.
● Never put anything sharp into your ears. If you think you have too much earwax, ask your mum or dad to help you clean it out.
Keep these things in mind! Then you won’t be saying “WHAT? WHAT?” when you are older.
【小题1】What does the underlined word “earwax” mean in the passage?

China Youth says that more and more girl students have entered colleges to study in recent few years. As we know, once the number of boys was larger than that of girls, and the boys did much better than girls in our country for a long time. Now things have changed a lot.
In recent years, the proportion of girl students is growing fast. In 1998, about 39.7% of college students were girls. In 2000, it was 41.07% and in 2001, the number was 42.14%.
There are several reasons for this.
Firstly, there is little difference between boys and girls in their intelligence(智力). That’s to say, girls are as clever as boys. And boys have more interests than girls, so they may not do well in their study.
Secondly, girls are more careful and more sensible than boys. They work harder at school and they do better in all exams.
Another reason is that with the development of society, people pay more and more attention to girls’ education.
【小题1】China Youth says that more and more ______