1 . Editor’s note: Believe it or not, children’s homework is making their parents ill. One parent suffered a heart attack because of the stress of helping their child with homework, according to a post on Sina Weibo. Who is to blame for the parent’s heart attack?
Li Haonan,16:
I think the student should be responsible for this tragedy. As we students grow older, we should be more independent than we used to be. We can take good care of ourselves. Doing homework with the help of our parents sounds unreasonable. It’s obvious that we can finish it alone. So it’s the student’s dependence that leads to such a sad story.
WangKerui,16:
In my opinion, there’s a connection between this sad incident and school. Homework gives students a chance to examine the knowledge they’ve got. However, school always gives us tons of homework at once. If we have problems, we will turn to our parents for help. When our parents are very busy, they will get angry.
Zhou Xueyao,17:
I think parents themselves are to blame. They always put great pressure on their children, which has bad effects on both parents and children. They should take it easy and let their children do their homework by themselves.
【写作内容】
1. 用约 30 个单词概述上文中的主要内容；
2. 分析引起那位家长心脏不适的原因可能会是什么；
3. 谈谈你对这一现象的看法, 并提出解决方法。
【写作要求】
1. 写作过程中不能直接引用原文语句；
2. 作文中不能出现真实姓名和学校名称；
【评分标准】
内容完整，语言规范，语篇连贯，词数适当。
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1. What’s the discussion about?
| A．Children’s independence. |
| B．Teachers’ medical treatment. |
| C．Parents' accompanying(陪伴)their children at school. |
| A．About 30%. | B．About 50%. | C．About 70%. |
| A．Set up goals. | B．Do the housework. | C．Finish their homework. |
| A．Neither. | B．The first one. | C．The second one. |
3 . What will higher education look like in 2050? That was the question addressed Tuesday night by Michael Crow, president of Arizona State University.
“We’re at the end of the fourth wave of change in higher education,” Crow began, arguing that research universities followed the initial establishment of higher education, public colleges, and land-grant schools in the timeline of America.
In less than a half-century, he said, global market competition will be at its fastest rates of change ever, with several multi-trillion-dollar economies worldwide. According to a recent projection, the nation’s population could reach 435 million, with a large percentage of those residents economically disadvantaged. In addition, climate change will be “meaningfully uncontrollable” in many parts of the world.
The everyday trends seen today, such as declining performance of students at all levels, particularly in math and science, and declining wages and employment among the less educated, will only continue, Crow maintained, and are, to say the least, not contributing to fulfilling the dream of climbing the social ladder mobility, quality of life, sustainable environment, and longer life spans that most Americans share.
“How is it that we can have these great research universities and have negative-trending outcomes?” Crow said in a talk “I hold the universities accountable. … We are part of the problem.”
Among the “things that we do that make the things that we teach less learnable,” Crow said, are the strict separation of disciplines, academic rigidity, and conservatism, the desire of universities to imitate schools at the top of the social ranks, and the lack of the computer system ability that would allow a large number of students to be educated for a small amount of money.
Since 2002, when Crow started being in charge at Arizona State — which he calls the “new American university” — he has led more than three dozen initiatives that aim to make the school “inclusive, scalable, fast, adaptive, challenge-focused, and willing to take risks.”
Among those initiatives were a restructuring of the engineering and life sciences schools to create more linkages between disciplines; the launch of the School of Earth and Space Exploration and the School of Sustainability; the start of a Teachers College to address K-12 performance and increase the status of the Education Department at the university; and broadened access, increasing the freshman class size by 42 percent and the enrollment of students living below the poverty line by 500 percent.
Universities must start, Crow noted, “by becoming self-reflective architects, figuring out what we have and what we actually need instead of what legend tells us we have to be.” Research universities today have “run their course,” he added. “Now is the time for variety.”
During a discussion afterward, Crow clarified and expanded on some of his points. He discussed, for example, the school’s distance-learning program. “Nearly 40 percent of undergraduates are taking at least one course online,” he said, which helps the school to keep costs down while advancing interactive learning technologies.
He said that Arizona State is working to increase the transfer and completion rates of community-college students, of whom only about 15 percent, historically, complete their later degrees. “We’ve built a system that will allow them to track into universities,” particularly where “culturally complex barriers” beyond finances limit even the most gifted students.
1. The fourth wave of change in America’s higher education refers to _______.| A．public colleges | B．land-grant schools |
| C．initial higher education | D．research universities |
| A．People enjoy a quality life. | B．People live longer and longer. |
| C．The freedom to move around. | D．An environment that is sustainable. |
| A．Restructuring the teachers College. |
| B．Launching the School of Life Sciences. |
| C．Ignoring the linkages between disciplines. |
| D．Enrolling more students from poor families. |
| A．enroll 40% of its students online |
| B．provide an even greater number of courses |
| C．attract the most gifted students all over the world |
| D．keep costs down without a loss of quality |
4 . An introduction to this book is as superfluous as a candle in front of a powerful searchlight. But a convention of publishing seems to require that the candle should be there, and I am proud to be the one to hold it. About ten years ago I picked up from the pile of new books on my desk a copy of Sons and Lovers by a man of whom I had never heard, and I started to race through it with the immoral speed of the professional reviewer. But after a page or two I found myself reading, really reading. Here was—here is—a masterpiece in which every sentence counts, a book packed with significant thought and beautiful, arresting phrases, the work of a remarkable genius whose gifts are more richly various than those of any other young English novelist.
To appreciate the rich variety of Mr. Lawrence we must read his later novels and his volumes of poetry. But Sons and Lovers reveals the range of his power. Here are combined and blended(混合的) sort of “realism” and almost lyric(抒情的) imagery and rhythm. The speech of the people is that of daily life and the things that happen to them are normal adventures and accidents; they fall in love, marry, work, fail, succeed, and die. But of their deeper emotions and of the relations of these little human beings to the earth and to the stars, Mr. Lawrence makes something near to poetry and prose(散文) without violating its proper “other harmony.”
Take the marvellous paragraph on next to the last page of Sons and Lovers (Mr. Lawrence depends so little on plot in the ordinary sense of the word that it is perfectly fair to read the end of his book first):
Where was he? One tiny upright speck of flesh, less than an ear of wheat lost in the field. He could not bear it. On every side the immense dark silence seemed pressing him, so tiny a spark, into extinction, and yet, almost nothing, he could not be extinct. Night, in which everything was lost, went reaching out, beyond stars and sun, stars and sun, a few bright grains, went spinning round for terror, and holding each other in embrace, there in the darkness that outpassed them all, and left them tiny and daunted(气馁). So much, and himself, infinitesimal, at the core a nothingness, and yet not nothing.
Such glorious writing lifts the book far above a novel which is merely a story. I beg the reader to attend to every line of it and not to miss a single one of the many sentences that await and surprise you. Some are enthusiastic and impressive, like the paragraph above; others are keen, “realistic” observations of things and people. In one of his books Mr. Lawrence makes a character say, or think, that life is “mixed.” That indicates his philosophy and his method. He blends the accurately literal and trivial(琐碎的) with the extremely poetic.
To find a similar blending of tiny daily detail and wide imaginative vision, we must go back to two older novelists, Hardy and Meredith. I do not mean that Mr. Lawrence derives(源于) immediately from them or, indeed, that he is clearly the disciple(弟子) of any master. I do feel simply that he is of the elder stature(名望) of Hardy and Meredith, and I know of no other young novelist who is quite worthy of their company. When I first tried to express this comparison, this connection, I was contradicted by a fellow-critic, who pointed out that Meredith and Hardy are entirely unlike each other and that therefore Mr. Lawrence cannot resemble both. To be sure, nothing is more hateful than forced comparisons, nothing more boring than to discover parallels between one work of art and another. An artist’s mastery consists in his difference from other masters. But to refer a young man of genius to an older one, at the same time pronouncing his independence and originality, is a fair, if not very superior, method of praising him.
1. The underlined word “superfluous” in paragraph 1 is closest in meaning to _______.| A．meaningful | B．unnecessary |
| C．fundamental | D．unbelievable |
| A．They equally reveal his genius power. |
| B．They contain lots of great lyric poetry. |
| C．They present some real living situations. |
| D．They focus on relations between humans. |
| A．The plot of the novel has little to do with daily life. |
| B．It is wise to read Lawrence’s books from the end. |
| C．Lawrence is capable of telling good stories. |
| D．The language in Lawrence’s books is elegant. |
| A．They taught Lawrence literature when he was young. |
| B．They were the realistic novelists of Lawrence’s time. |
| C．They were novelists who resemble each other in writing. |
| D．They were novelists combining details with imagination. |
| A．He must have personal diversity. |
| B．He must have the critical spirits. |
| C．He must be happy to be compared. |
| D．He must be a man of genius. |
| A．To introduce Lawrence’s novel Sons and Lovers. |
| B．To show his experiences of reading classics. |
| C．To analyze Lawrence’s writing characteristics. |
| D．To compare the styles of different novelists. |
5 . Philosophy of Education is a label applied to the study of the purpose, process, nature and ideals of education. It can be considered a branch of both philosophy and education. Education can be defined as the teaching and learning of specific skills, and the imparting of knowledge, judgment and wisdom, and is something broader than the societal institution of education we often speak of.
Many educationalists consider it a weak and imprecise field, too far removed from the practical applications of the real world to be useful. But philosophers dating back to Plato and the Ancient Greeks have given the area much thought and emphasis, and there is little doubt that their work has helped shape the practice of education over the millennia.
Plato is the earliest important educational thinker, and education is an essential element in “The Republic” (his most important work on philosophy and political theory, written around 360 B.C.). In it, he advocates some rather extreme methods: removing children from their mothers’ care and raising them as wards of the state, and differentiating children suitable to the various castes(社会等级), the highest receiving the most education, so that they could act as guardians of the city and care for the less able. He believed that education should be holistic(全面的), including facts, skills, physical discipline, music and art. Plato believed that talent and intelligence is not distributed genetically and thus is to be found in children born to all classes, although his proposed system of selective public education for an educated minority of the population does not really follow a democratic model.
Aristotle considered human nature, habit and reason to be equally important forces to be cultivated in education, the ultimate aim of which should be to produce good and virtuous citizens. He proposed that teachers lead their students systematically, and that repetition be used as a key tool to develop good habits, unlike Socrates’ emphasis on questioning his listeners to bring out their own ideas. He emphasized the balancing of the theoretical and practical aspects of subjects taught, among which he clearly mentions reading, writing, mathematics, music, physical education, literature, history, and a wide range of sciences, as well as play, which he also considered important.
During the period of Middle Age, the idea of Perennialism was first formulated by St. Thomas Aquinas in his work “De Magistro”. Perennialism holds that one should teach those things deemed to be of everlasting importance to all people everywhere, namely principles and reasoning, not just facts (which are apt to change over time), and that one should teach first about people, not machines or techniques. It was originally religious in nature, and it was only much later that a theory of worldly Perennialism developed.
During the Renaissance(文艺复兴), the French doubter Michel de Montaigne (1533 - 1592) was one of the first to critically look at education. Unusually for his time, Montaigne was willing to question the conventional wisdom of the period, calling into question the whole structure of the educational system, and the assumption that university-educated philosophers were necessarily wiser than uneducated farm workers, for example.
1. Why do many educationists consider philosophy a ‘weak and imprecise field’?| A．It is the practical applications of the real world. |
| B．Its theoretical concepts are easily understood. |
| C．It is irrelevant for education. |
| D．It is not practically applicable. |
| A．Aristotle felt the need for repetition to develop good habits in students; Socrates felt that students need to be constantly questioned. |
| B．Aristotle felt the need for rote-learning; Socrates emphasized on dialogic learning. |
| C．There was no difference. |
| D．Aristotle emphasized on the importance of paying attention to human nature; Socrates emphasized upon science. |
| A．that is unnecessary. | B．that is of ceaseless importance. |
| C．that is abstract and theoretical. | D．that exists no more. |
| A．Facts are not important. |
| B．Facts do not lead to holistic education. |
| C．Facts change with the changing times. |
| D．Facts are frozen in time. |
Should parents leave all of their money to children and let them live a carefree life without even the necessity of earning money to support themselves? Here are two pieces of news about two celebrities:
Bill Gates: Bill Gates has promised to give all of his $ 58 billion fortune to charity he has set up with his wife, The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which funds health and education projects around the world. He wanted to make a positive contribution to the world.
Zuckerberg: We will give 99% of our Facebook shares during our lives to advance human potential and promote equality. We know this is a small contribution compared to all the resources and talents of those already working on these issues. But we want to do what we can, working alongside many others.
Many world-famous wealthy businessmen choose to donate almost all of their possessions to the charity instead of leaving their fortune to their children. In their opinion, it is better to develop the quality of independence of their children, making them possess the competence of living by themselves.
【写作内容】
1. 以约30个词概括上述材料的主要内容。
2. 以约120个词谈谈你对以上材料的看法，内容包括：
⑴ 你是否赞同这些名人的做法以及你的理由；
⑵ 请你就父母如何培养孩子的独立性方面，谈谈你的看法(两到三点)。
【写作要求】
1. 写作过程中不能直接引用原文语句;
2. 作文中不能出现真实姓名和学校名称;
3. 不必写标题。
【评分标准】
内容完整, 语言规范，语篇连贯, 词数适当。
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Then one day Ethan’s mother made an offer in order to draw him back to his school subjects. She promised that she would give him $200 if he could go a full month without watching any TV. None of us thought Ethan could do it, but he did quite well. His mom paid him $200. He went out and bought a TV, the biggest he could find.
In recent years, hundreds of schools have carried out experiments with paying kids with each for showing up or getting good grades. All school kids admire this trend. But it upsets adults. Teachers say that we are rewarding kids for doing what they should be doing of their own will. Psychologists warn that money can actually make kids perform worse by making the act of learning cheap. The debate has become a typical battle over why our kids are not learning at the rate they should he despite decades of reforms and budget increases.
[写作内容] 1. 以约30词概括上文的主要内容。
2. 以约120词对用金钱鼓励孩子学习的现象进行议论，内容包括：
(1)你对用金钱鼓励孩子学习的看法;
(2)你的父母(或其他亲人)是如何鼓励你学习的；
(3)你认为怎样才能更好地鼓励孩子学习。
[写作要求]
1. 可以使用实例或其它论述方法支持你的论点，也可以参照阅读材料的内容，但不得直接引用原文中的句子；
2. 标题自定。
3. 作文中不能出现真实姓名和学校名称。
[评分标准]概括准确，语言规范，内容合适，篇章连贯。
Little wonder the latest survey concludes that the extent and type of hospital teaching available differ a great deal across the country. It is found that half the hospitals in England which admit children have no teacher. A further quarter have only a part-time teacher. The special children’s hospitals in major cities do best; general hospitals in the country and holiday areas are worst off. From this survey, one can estimate that fewer than one in five children have some contact with a hospital teacher—and that contact may be as little as two hours a day. Most children interviewed were surprised to find a teacher in hospital at all. They had not been prepared for it by parents or their own school. If there was a teacher they were much more likely to read books and do math or number work; without a teacher they would only play games.
Reasons for hospital teaching range from preventing a child falling behind and maintaining the habit of school to keeping a child occupied, and the latter is often all the teacher can do. The position and influence of many teachers was summed up when parents referred to them as “the library lady” or just “the helper”. Children tend to rely on concerned school friends to keep in touch with school work. Several parents spoke of requests for work being ignored or refused by the school. Once back at school children rarely get extra teaching, and are told to catch up as best as they can.
Many short-stay child-patients catch up quickly. But schools do very little to ease the anxiety about falling behind expressed by many of the children interviewed.
1. Which of the following statements is true?| A．Every child in hospital receives some teaching. | B．Not enough is known about hospital teaching. |
| C．Hospital teaching is of poor quality. | D．The special children's hospitals are worst off. |
| A．hospital teaching across the country is similar |
| B．each hospital has at least one part-time teacher |
| C．all hospitals surveyed offer education to children |
| D．only one-fourth of the hospitals have a full-time teacher |
| A．not welcomed by the children and their parents | B．necessary |
| C．not welcomed by the hospitals | D．capable |
| A．hospital teachers | B．schoolmates | C．parents | D．school teachers |
| A．unfavorable towards children receiving education in hospitals |
| B．in favor of the present state of teaching in hospitals |
| C．unsatisfied with the present state of hospital teaching |
| D．satisfied with the results of the latest survey |
