Learning new words is learning new ideas: High school students can take control of their learning by
always looking up new words and finding out what they mean. They should keep a dictionary and a
thesaurus (分类词典) close at hand.
     Make clear lists: Students should make a list of everything that they need to get done. They should
check off assignments (作业) once completed. They should include clear due dates.
     Make a commitment: Active learners will resolve to keep up-to-date from the start. They will avoid
procrastinating. They will complete most of their work as early as possible.
     Independent work is best: Students will do all assignments independently-they will never copy! Students
who copy are passive learners. Passive learners do not give their mind a chance to think on its own.
     Organization is key: Students should keep an excellent folder and notebook. All problems should be clearly
stated and solutions given. All tests and quizzes should be corrected and used as study guides for exams and
finals.
     All actions without solutions are dead: Active learners will always show their work needed to solve a
problem. Active learners will never turn in a list of answers without giving an explanation or a solution.
     Advanced reading: Students should do any required reading for the topic before class. They should write
an outline of the section or chapter. They should actively take notes as they read to help them remember.

1. If you want to be successful in exams and finals you should _____.

A. give your mind a chance to think on its own
B. check off your papers once completed
C. keep an excellent folder and notebook
D. hand in your homework on time

2. What does the underlined word "procrastinating" mean?

A. being active doing something
B. finishing doing something
C. delaying doing something
D. doing something ahead

3. The best title of the passage is "_____".

A. How to Be an Effective Reader
B. How to Get Good Scores in Tests
C. How to Collect Academic Information
D. How to Actively Study in High School

     Scientists say they now have proof to support the old-fashioned advice that it's best to sleep on a problem.
They say sleep strengthens the memory and helps the brain organize the masses of information we receive
each day.
     The lead researcher Bob Stickgold at the Harvard Medical School said, "Sleep helps us draw rules from our
experiences. It's like knowing the difference between dogs and cats even if it's hard to explain."
     The US research team studied how well students remembered connections between words and symbols,
reports New Scientist. They compared how the students performed if they had had a sleep between seeing the
words and having the test, and if they had not slept. They found that people were better able to remember lists
of related words after a night's sleep than after the same time spent awake during the day. They also found it
easier to remember themes that the words had in common. But they forgot around one in four more themes if
they had been awake.
     Prof. John Groeger, University of Survey's Sleep Research Centre, said, "People have been trying for years
to find out what the purpose of sleep is, as we know that only certain parts of it have a restorative (促使康复
的) value."
     "We form and store huge numbers of experiences in the head every day, and sleep seems to be the way the
brain deals with them all."

1. The phrase "to sleep on a problem" in Paragraph l most likely means "_____".

A. to pay full attention to a problem
B. to wait until the next day for a decision
C. to sleep to forget a problem
D. to have difficulty in sleeping

2. In the study by the US research team, students were asked to _____.

A. put together words of similar meanings
B. remember words and their meanings
C. show their knowledge of words
D. make up lists of related words

3. Which of the following may be easier to remember?

A. Themes learned right before the test.
B. Rules from personal experiences.
C. Words learned before a good sleep.
D. Ideas stored together in the brain.

4. What may be the importance of the research?

A. It shows that sleep may help us manage information.
B. It helps find out the common themes of words.
C. It tells us that more sleep can improve health.
D. It proves the value of old-fashioned advice.

     A simple water pump is helping to improve the lives of poor families in several Asian and African countries. 
     The treadle pump (脚踏抽水机) is based on a design developed in the 1970s by Norwegian engineer Gunnar
Barnes. It can be made locally and easy to build from bamboo or other wood and two metal cylinders (圆筒)
with pistons (活塞). The pistons go up and down as a person stands on lever (控制杆) devices, treadles, and
uses a natural walking motion.
     How many hours a day the pump needs to be operated depends on the season and how much water is
needed for crops. It could be two hours a day or seven hours a day. Small children sometimes stand with their
parents on the treadles. Everyone in the family can take turns operating the pump.
     Families using them ate more vegetables, because they were able to grow more to eat and to sell. Many of
these families also drank more milk, because they bought a cow with their added earnings. Men with treadle
pumps often no longer have to leave the farm to seek extra work in cities. The pumps can also improve
education. Farmers often use their extra earnings to buy books for their children or to pay for schooling.
     A farmer in Zambia said he hoped to have enough money in three years, to buy a diesel-powered pump.
Then he could grow more crops over a larger area. But the world economic crisis has had an effect on some
farmers. Even some who were able to buy diesel pumps now do not have enough money to buy fuel. So they
are using their treadle pumps again.

     May 1st is an important date in the college admission process in the United States. This is the last day for
high school seniors to accept or reject offers of admission in the fall. But according to a recent report, there
is a great change. Acceptance rates at the top colleges this year were lower than ever. 1.____
     These days, college applicants are applying to more colleges because online and common applications make
the process easier. 52. On the other hand, deciding students much time. Students may not like being put on
waiting lists. Also, some colleges work more to get the students they accept to accept them. Some colleges
hold visiting days that offer a chance to attend classes and stay overnight. Some universities send gifts. 3.____
     For many families, the most important thing colleges can do is to show them the money, especially this year;
the weak economy makes parents nervous. 4.____ The recent problems that spread from the housing market to
credit markets have even affected students' loans. So lately, top schools have to spare lots of money to increase
their financial aid for students.
     5._____ The Education Department expects the number of high school graduates to start to go down. This
will happen as the last of the children of the baby boom generation finishes high school. The number is not
expected to start rising again until 2015.

A. Besides, top colleges are facing changes in the population.
B. What contributes to it?
C. But a mistake can be costly if it happens.
D. But top colleges ignore them.
E. They have international students who know English.
F. It can mean several acceptances to choose from.
G. They cannot afford college as planned.

     More than 6,000 children were expelled (开除) from US schools last year for bringing guns and bombs
to school, the US Department of Education said on May 8.
     The department gave a report on the expulsions (开除) as saying hand-guns accounted for 58 percent
of the 6,093 expulsions in 1996-1997, against 7 percent for rifles (步枪) or shot-guns and 35 percent for
other types of firearms.
     "The report is a clear sign that our nation's public schools are cracking down (严惩) on students who
bring guns to school," Education Secretary Richard Riley said in a statement. "We need to be tough-minded
about keeping guns out of our schools and do everything to keep our children safe."
     In March 1997, an 11-year-old boy and a 13-year-old boy using handguns and rifles shot dead four
children and a teacher at a school in Jonesboro, Arkansas. In October, two were killed and seven wounded
in a shooting at a Mississippi school. Two months later, a 14-year-old boy killed three high school students
and wounded five in Daducah, Kentucky.
     Most of the expulsions, 56 percent, were from high schools, which have students from about age 13. 34
percent were from junior high schools and 9 percent were from elementary schools, the report said.

1. From the first paragraph we can infer that in the US schools ____.

A. students enjoy shooting
B. students are eager to be soldiers
C. safety is a problem
D. students can make guns

2. The report from the US Department of Education shows that ____.

A. the number of the expulsions is not large
B. the number of the expulsions is wrong
C. there are soldiers hiding among the students
D. guns are out of' control in US schools

3. The main idea of paragraph four shows us ____.

A. some examples of shootings in US schools
B. the Americans' feeling
C. some famous schools
D. that some teachers were killed by students

4. From this passage we know that ____.

A. every American cannot have guns
B. only soldiers and police can have guns
C. every American citizen can own guns
D. teachers have on money to buy guns

     The science of physics today is as current as the morning newspaper. Indeed, as a result of new advances
in physics and their rapid application to inventions designed to satisfy man' s wants, the world itself has been
changing rapidly. Space technology, industrial technology, and the technology of the home, the farm, the office,
the bank, and the department store have all been revolutionized.
     Clearly, every grown-up today would understand the world he lives in much better if he knew something
about physics. Whether it is Congress voting huge sums of money for new warships, space exploration, or
atomic energy, the office staff learning to use a new computer, son Bobby wanting to know about going to
the moon or the housewife learning to operate a new electric stove, physics seems to be everywhere.
     Teachers in thousands of schoolrooms in America are trying to communicate some of the excitement and
importance of these new developments to their students. They know that some of their eager students will
someday be scientists and will themselves then contribute to the development of new knowledge or its
application to new things.
     But in any case, they can be sure that if they bring a knowledge of science (any science) to their students in
meaningful and interesting ways, they have contributed much to helping each one live a more meaningful life.

1. The application of new advances in physics to inventions ____.

A. may solve all the problems in teaching
B. can help people understand the meaning of life
C. is intended to meet people's needs
D. makes people communicate easier without face to face  

2. According to the passage, many American teachers are making efforts to do all of the following
    EXCEPT ____.

A. arousing(激起) their students' interest in physics
B. making their students understand the importance of physics
C. giving their students the information of new advances in science
D. creating excitement about their new inventions among their students

3. The word "themselves" in the third paragraph refers to ____.

A. some American teachers
B. some of the eager students
C. the new developments
D. the scientists in physics

4. The first two paragraphs of the passage mainly tell us ____.

A. new advances in physics can result in new inventions
B. physics is widely used in our life
C. the world has been changing rapidly
D. space and industrial technology have all been revolutionized

     [1] The more honest and modest an employee is, the more likely he or she is to receive a higher job
performance assessment by their boss, according to researchers at Baylor University in Waco, Texas.
The study finds that evaluations of honesty and modesty among employees may predict how their bosses
view job performance.
     [2] "As honesty and modesty increase, manager evaluations of job performance increase," said Dr.
Wade Rowatt, one of the study's lead authors. "The effect honesty and modesty have on job performance
goes above and beyond other personality qualities that might be related to good performance."
     [3] Over a period of a year and a half, Rowatt and his team conducted online surveys of about 270
employees from 25 companies in the health care field. Participants in more than 20 states were asked to
self-report on their own character qualities. These results were then compared to performance reviews
completed by the employees' managers, who evaluated each worker according to 35 job skills. Employees
who self-reported high levels of honesty and modesty also received better job performance reviews by
their bosses.
     [4] Rowatt acknowledges that honesty and modesty will not predict job performance in every field,
especially for jobs where a high level of self-promotion is necessary, such as sales roles or entertainers.
He said, however, that in many workplaces, employees who show ____ will be liked by their colleagues.
     [5] "These are people who are trustworthy, down-to-earth, and easy to relate to," he told the Star.
"They probably get along with their managers and co-workers, and this is driving some of the better
performance evaluations."

1. What is the main idea of the text? (no more than 10 words)
2. Which sentence in the text is the closest in meaning to the following one? Honesty and modesty have
    a great effect on job performance than other personalities.
3. Fill in the blank in Paragraph 4 with proper words to complete the sentence. (no more than 6 words)
4. List three qualities that can better one's job performance based on Paragraph 5. (no more than 10 words)
   ①_____ ②_____ ③_____
5. Translate the underlined sentence in Paragraph 3 into Chinese.
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