What does the word“youth” mean to you? Many define it as a precious time in their life when they are young, when fun, passion, and imagination seem limitless. But for most high school students, youth is a time of determination and willpower for achieving their goals.

This is vividly shown in Mark of Youth, a movie that opened on Feb 5. Mark of Youth tells the story of four Senior 3 students in a top high school in the days leading up to the national college entrance examination.

Each character represents a different type of student, ranging from the most mischievous(调皮的)to the most motivated. Like most teenagers, they enjoy carefree moments and like to talk about their schoolmates. But the tension of the approaching exam, probably their first life-changing event, is common—they must memorize seemingly endless English words and Chinese poems, work through piles of practice test papers, and improve their scores despite the increasing pressure.

But life exists beyond campus. That the college entrance examination is coming up doesn’t mean they can escape family changes, such as when one character’s parents get divorced or another’s father is arrested. Can these four young people handle their problems and eventually make it to their ideal universities despite their on –and –off campus stress?

The story is set in Hubei Huanggang Middle School, known for its students’ outstanding performances on the big exam. The four students are played by the actors who played in the reality shows Happy Boys and Happy Girls. HongKong actor Alex Fong plays their teacher.

Students may look more fashionable in Mark of Youth than in real life, but it is the story about the final year of high school that many viewers relate to.

“The film is very inspiring,” said Senior 2 student Yao Lingqian, 16, from Leshan Foreign Language School in Sichuan province. “A total commitment(投入)to hard work, though it can be lonely and no fun at all, will leave precious marks on my youth.”

And for Senior 3 student Gao Jing, the film has given her optimism. “The characters taught me that what you score is not the only important thing. The way you approach the exam matters the most,” said the 17-year-old from Zhenping County No 1 High School in Nanyang, Henan province.

“The film really reflects senior 3students’life.” Zhang Ping, a teacher from a senior high school in Qingdao, commented.

1.What is the function of the first paragraph in the passage?

A．To tell us what the word “youth” means.

B．To introduce what will be mainly talked about.

C．To tell youth is a time of determination and willpower.

D．To introduce some famous actors.

2.Why must the four Senior 3 students memorize seemingly endless English words and Chinese poems?

A．They want to enjoy carefree moments.

B．They want to gossip about their schoolmates.

C．They want to work through piles of practice test papers.

D．They want to improve their scores.

3.Which of the following is true about the film?

A．Mark of Youth tells a story that happened on Feb 5.

B．The characters in the film have to face the pressure from both study and their families.

C．The film tells a story that really happened in Hubei Huanggang Middle School.

D．Most characters in the film are played by actors from HongKong.

4.What kind of belief does the film convey?

A．Youth is a wonderful thing.

B．We youth should face challenge with smile.

C．Entrance examination is very important in our life.

D．The entrance examination isn’t so terrible.

5.Which of the person can we see in the film?

A．Alex Fong         B．Yao Lingqian        C．Gao Jing           D．Zhang ping

High school dropouts（辍学者）earn an average of $ 9,000 less per year than graduates. Now a new study dispels a common belief why they quit. It’s much more basic than flunking out（不及格）.

    Society tends to think of high school dropouts as kids who just can’t cut it. They are lazy，and perhaps not too bright．So researchers were surprised when they asked more than 450 kids who quit school about why they left.

    “The vast majority actually had passing grades and they were confident that they could have graduated from high school.” John Bridgeland, the executive researcher said. About 1 million teens leave school each year. Only about half of African-American and Hispanic（美籍西班牙的）student will receive a diploma（证书），and actually all dropouts come to regret their decision. So， if failing grades don’t explain why these kids quit, what does? Again，John Bridgeland："The most dependable finding was that they were bored.” “They found classes uninteresting; they weren’t inspired or motivated. They didn’t see any direct connection between what they were learning in the classroom to their own lives, or to their career aspirations.”

    The study found that most teens who do drop out wait until they turn sixteen, which happens to be the age at which most states allow students to quit. In the US，only one state，New Mexico，has a law requiring teenagers to stay in high school until they graduate. Only four states: California, Tennessee, Texas and Utah, plus the District of Columbia, require school attendance until age 18, no exceptions, another researcher，says raising the compulsory（义务的）attendance age may be one way to keep more kids in school．

 　“As these dropouts look back，they realize they’ve made a mistake. And anything that sort of gives these people an extra push to stick it out and it through to the end, is probably helpful measure.”

    New Hampshire may be the next state to raise its school attendance age to 18. But critics say that forcing the students unwilling to continue their studies to stay in school misses the point－the need for reform. It's been called for to reinvent high school education to make it more challenging and relevant, and to ensure that kids who do stick it out receive a diploma that actually means something. 　

Most high school students drop out of' school because＿＿．

A. they have failing grades                                B. they take no interest in classes

C. they are discriminated against                        D. they are lazy and not intelligent

Acceding to the passage，which state has a law requiring school attendance until they graduate?

A. New Hampshire        B. Utah　　C. New Mexico  　　D. The District of Columbia

The underlined words “stick it out” probably means“＿＿”．

A. complete schooling                                      B. solve the problem

C. love having classes                                       D. believe in themselves

From the passage，we can infer the following EXCEPT that＿．

A. the grades of most dropouts at school were acceptable

B. about 500, 000 high school dropouts are black and Spanish

C. classes don't appeal to dropouts

D. on average dropouts cannot get good jobs

Andreea,18,from Romania, sent a photograph of the view from her window and included a brief apology, “Sorry, this picture is plain and boring. No one would like it.”
At home in New Jersey, US, Coreen Burke,16, clicked on the same image on the internet. She saw a village with its rooftops and walls painted in reds and yellows, a distant chimney(烟囱) giving off smoke. “Isn’t this amazingly different from my country?” She thought to herself.
Burke, a teenager with a skill for computers, saw beauty in that photo. She posted it to her blog, Outside My Window, which features a daily snapshot(快照) of someone’s window view around the world.
The concept is simple: We can all relate to the act of staring through a piece of glass, onto the scene on the other side. “Maybe if we understood the way people from all over the world live,” she explained, “we would all get along better than we have been lately.”
With a click of a mouse, you can see Frederic’s window in the south of France, looking out on sailboats anchored (抛锚) in a peaceful harbor. Or Virginia’s view in Canada, a winter scene with trees laced in white.
Like most high school students, Burke has traveled the world. But she says someday she hopes to collect stamps in her passport, starting with Greece and India. Her recent break was devoted to launching the site with a blogger account and recruiting(招募) contributors from deviant ART, an online art community. She posted the first window view from Switzerland, a sunset photographed by an 18-year-old. Then others came flowing in by email, up to seven a day, from as far as Kazakhstan and Indonesia.
Contributors are marked on maps pinned on her bedroom wall: a blue dot indicates their country and a pink dot shows their city, if they provide it. The most responses have come from Europe – Estonia, Poland, Italy, Germany and Sweden, to name a few. She is crossing her fingers, thinking that she’ll receive a photo from Africa or Antarctica, which are unrepresented so far.
While she’s become a cyber crusader(网络革新者) for appreciating the beauty outside our own windows, get this: She has no windows in her bedroom. She has a nice skylight（天窗）, though.
66. What does Burke think of the picture she received from Andreea?
A. Boring      B. Charming    C. Strange    D. Plain
67. Outside My Window is a blog intended to show_______.
A. the view from Burke’s window
B. pictures of rural New Jersey
C. photos of window views taken by people all over the world
D. beautiful scenes of famous places of interest
68. We can conclude from the article that Burke _______.
A. believes we should reach out to people of different cultures
B. has traveled around the world and taken many pictures
C. is a member of an online art community
D. has made a lot of money by selling beautiful pictures
69. Which of the following is not true?
A. Burke is likely to receive a photo from Africa or Antarctica.
B. Burke is a junior middle school student.
C. Burke has photos from many countries in the world, including Kazakhstan.
D. Burke wants a photo of window view from Africa or Antarctica.
70．What is the best title of this passage?
A. World Windows
B. Beautiful Pictures
C. Pictures on the Internet
D. Windows in Bedrooms

What does the word“youth” mean to you? Many define it as a precious time in their life when they are young, when fun, passion, and imagination seem limitless. But for most high school students, youth is a time of determination and willpower for achieving their goals.
This is vividly shown in Mark of Youth, a movie that opened on Feb 5. Mark of Youth tells the story of four Senior 3 students in a top high school in the days leading up to the national college entrance examination.
Each character represents a different type of student, ranging from the most mischievous(调皮的)to the most motivated. Like most teenagers, they enjoy carefree moments and like to talk about their schoolmates. But the tension of the approaching exam, probably their first life-changing event, is common—they must memorize seemingly endless English words and Chinese poems, work through piles of practice test papers, and improve their scores despite the increasing pressure.
But life exists beyond campus. That the college entrance examination is coming up doesn’t mean they can escape family changes, such as when one character’s parents get divorced or another’s father is arrested. Can these four young people handle their problems and eventually make it to their ideal universities despite their on –and –off campus stress?
The story is set in Hubei Huanggang Middle School, known for its students’ outstanding performances on the big exam. The four students are played by the actors who played in the reality shows Happy Boys and Happy Girls. HongKong actor Alex Fong plays their teacher.
Students may look more fashionable in Mark of Youth than in real life, but it is the story about the final year of high school that many viewers relate to.
“The film is very inspiring,” said Senior 2 student Yao Lingqian, 16, from Leshan Foreign Language School in Sichuan province. “A total commitment(投入)to hard work, though it can be lonely and no fun at all, will leave precious marks on my youth.”
And for Senior 3 student Gao Jing, the film has given her optimism. “The characters taught me that what you score is not the only important thing. The way you approach the exam matters the most,” said the 17-year-old from Zhenping County No 1 High School in Nanyang, Henan province.
“The film really reflects senior 3students’life.” Zhang Ping, a teacher from a senior high school in Qingdao, commented.
【小题1】What is the function of the first paragraph in the passage?

C
Andreea,18,from Romania, sent a photograph of the view from her window and included a brief apology, “Sorry, this picture is plain and boring. No one would like it.”
At home in New Jersey, US, Coreen Burke,16, clicked on the same image on the internet. She saw a village with its rooftops and walls painted in reds and yellows, a distant chimney(烟囱) giving off smoke. “Isn’t this amazingly different from my country?” She thought to herself.
Burke, a teenager with a skill for computers, saw beauty in that photo. She posted it to her blog, Outside My Window, which features a daily snapshot(快照) of someone’s window view around the world.
The concept is simple: We can all relate to the act of staring through a piece of glass, onto the scene on the other side. “Maybe if we understood the way people from all over the world live,” she explained, “we would all get along better than we have been lately.”
With a click of a mouse, you can see Frederic’s window in the south of France, looking out on sailboats anchored (抛锚) in a peaceful harbor. Or Virginia’s view in Canada, a winter scene with trees laced in white.
Like most high school students, Burke has traveled the world. But she says someday she hopes to collect stamps in her passport, starting with Greece and India. Her recent break was devoted to launching the site with a blogger account and recruiting(招募) contributors from deviant ART, an online art community. She posted the first window view from Switzerland, a sunset photographed by an 18-year-old. Then others came flowing in by email, up to seven a day, from as far as Kazakhstan and Indonesia.
Contributors are marked on maps pinned on her bedroom wall: a blue dot indicates their country and a pink dot shows their city, if they provide it. The most responses have come from Europe – Estonia, Poland, Italy, Germany and Sweden, to name a few. She is crossing her fingers, thinking that she’ll receive a photo from Africa or Antarctica, which are unrepresented so far.
While she’s become a cyber crusader(网络革新者) for appreciating the beauty outside our own windows, get this: She has no windows in her bedroom. She has a nice skylight（天窗）, though.
51. What does Burke think of the picture she received from Andreea?
A. Boring      B. Charming    C. Strange    D. Plain
52. Outside My Window is a blog intended to show_______.
A. the view from Burke’s window
B. pictures of rural New Jersey
C. photos of window views taken by people all over the world
D. beautiful scenes of famous places of interest
53. We can conclude from the article that Burke _______.
A. believes we should reach out to people of different cultures
B. has traveled around the world and taken many pictures
C. is a member of an online art community
D. has made a lot of money by selling beautiful pictures
54. Which of the following is not true?
A. Burke is likely to receive a photo from Africa or Antarctica.
B. Burke is a junior middle school student.
C. Burke has photos from many countries in the world, including Kazakhstan.
D. Burke wants a photo of window view from Africa or Antarctica.
55．What is the best title of this passage?
A. World Windows
B. Beautiful Pictures
C. Pictures on the Internet
D. Windows in Bedrooms