For many years the school system in Finland has been very successful. In the PISA survey, which compares reading, math and science knowledge of 15-year-olds around the world, Finland is not only the top European country but also competes with Asian giants like Shanghai, Singapore and South Korea. But what makes the educational system in this small country so different from others in the western world?
Until the 1960s Finland’s school system had been influenced largely by its neighbor, the Soviet Union. Most students left school after six years; some went on to private schools. Only the wealthy ones got a better education. In the middle of the 1960s the Finnish government saw the need to change and modernize their education system if they wanted to be internationally competitive. Lawmakers made a simple decision: a basic school for all the 7- to 16-year-olds. Compulsory education begins at 7. The government makes it possible for all children to attend preschool as well.
Most of Finland’s schools get their money from the government. The people who are in charge of the education system, from teachers to officials are trained teachers, not politicians like in other countries.
Teachers work with their pupils in school as much as possible. When teachers are not with the pupils, they spend a lot of time in schools working on the curriculum and new projects. Schools in Finland are small, at least for international standards. So teachers know every pupil in their school and try everything to succeed with their pupils. That is why dropout rates are low compared to other countries. In contrast to other nations, teachers in Finland are highly respected. Finland selects its teachers very carefully: only talented students go on to a university and receive a master’s degree in education. Finland only takes the best to educate its youth.
All Finnish children, whether they come from the city or the country, whether from a rich or poor family, have the same chances in education. There are not so many differences between the wealthy and poor, as in America or other western European countries. Education experts say that there is very little difference between very good and the worst students. Two thirds of Finnish pupils move on to higher education, the highest rate in the European Union.
1. What can be the best title for the text?| A．What Differences European Schools Have | B．What Good Schools Provide Students with |
| C．Why Finland’s School System Has Changed | D．Why Finland’s School System Is Successful |
| A．They encouraged students to go to private school. |
| B．They changed the school system. |
| C．They lengthened preschool education. |
| D．They learned modern education from neighboring countries. |
| A．the children in Finland attend preschool at the age of six. |
| B．the children in Finland have equal opportunity to receive education. |
| C．the school system in Finland is better than that in Singapore. |
| D．the school equipment in Finland doesn’t meet international standards. |
| A．the school system in Finland has been very successful |
| B．Asian countries are successful in school education |
| C．students in these places are better than those in European countries |
| D．the educational system in Asia is different from that in the western world |
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【推荐1】From early times, man has been interested in art. People have often worked together to collect and save the world’s art treasures.
Fine art treasures from many countries are kept in an art museum called the Louvre in Paris, France. The works of art have been collected by the people of France over many centuries. It is the biggest art museum in the world.
The Louvre has not always been a museum. The first building was a castle. In 1190, it was the king’s castle with high wails and a round tower. It had a river to keep out the enemies.
Over the years, the number of the buildings around the castle grew. By 1350, the castle no longer needed to be extended. The Louvre became a palace home for French kings and queens.
During times of peace, new treasures were brought in. During the days of war, many treasures were stolen, and the buildings, were damaged.
When Francis I became king of France in 1515, he brought in many artists from other countries. One of the artists was Leonardo da Vinci from Italy. Da Vinci’s “Mona Lisa” is the best-known painting in the museum today.
In 1793, the Louvre became a public museum, just as it is now. It is a place where art treasures are kept for everyone to enjoy, every year millions of people from all over the world come to the Louvre to see the masterpieces.
1. How long has the Louvre been a public museum?| A．For over 800 years. | B．Since 1350. | C．Since 1515. | D．For over 200 years. |
| A．Da Vinci once stayed in France. |
| B．“Mona Lisa” is kept in the Louvre. |
| C．The Louvre was once a church as well as a palace. |
| D．The Louvre is a place of interest to different people from all over the world. |
| A．French kings and queens ordered people to build another buildings as their palace home in 1350 |
| B．many treasures were brought into the Louvre in 1190 |
| C．Francis I came into power in 1515 and damaged some buildings |
| D．Some works of art in the museum have been collected from many countries |
| A．an art museum called the Louvre | B．an Italian artist named Leonardo da Vinci |
| C．a king of France named Francis I | D．the best-known painting in the Louvre |
【推荐2】International Women's Day takes place every year on 8 March to celebrate the achievements of women all over the world.It started with a protest (抗议) that took place in New York City in 1908.Then women went out onto the streets to demand the right to vote，shorter working hours and better pay.Since then it has taken many forms and today it's a global event.
| A．In some countries，March 8 is an official holiday. |
| B．It's important for men and women to be totally equal. |
| C．Thus we will see an equal number of men and women in the top jobs. |
| D．They also make us think about the changes that still need to take place. |
| E．In today's world it may appear that women have all the same opportunities as men. |
| F．The role of women has changed in all areas of their lives，both at work and in the family. |
| G．A lot of special events take place in towns and cities to celebrate International Women's Day. |
【推荐3】One of the most famous nursery rhymes(摇篮曲) in the English language is Mary Had a Little Lamb(羔羊).It has touched many children who have read it.It is about the deep love between a young girl and her pet lamb.The poem is from a true story that happened in the early part of the 19th century in the town of Sterling,Massachusetts,in the USA.
Mary Sawyer (1806—1889) lived on a farm with her family.One day,when she was about nine years old,she saw a little lamb that had just been born and left behind by its mother.It was very weak and looked as if it would die at any moment.Mary took pity on the lamb and spent the whole night looking after it.Eventually,it grew strong and became a very close friend with Mary,following her everywhere she went.
One day,the lamb even followed Mary to school.At first she wanted to turn it back but her brother suggested that it would be fun to take the lamb to school.During the class,she hid the lamb under her desk.But when she was called to go to the front of the class,to her surprise,the lamb followed her.Though the students and the teacher thought it was funny to see a lamb at school,the teacher had to ask Mary to keep the lamb out of the school.
That very day,a young man called John Roulstone was visiting Mary’s school.He was so moved by the love between the child and her little pet lamb that he wrote a poem which he handed to Mary the next day.His poem contained twelve lines.
Later,Sara Josepha Hale added another twelve lines to the poem and published it in 1930 under the title “Mary Had a Little Lamb”.The poem has become a classic,loved by children all over the world.The appeal (吸引力) of the poem lies not only in the funny idea of a sheep going to school but also in the true love between the little girl and her pet.The town of Sterling has honoured Mary’s lamb by building a statue of the lamb with Mr Roulstone’s poem below the statue.
1. Why did the poem become a classic?| A．It was written by a young man. |
| B．It had another twelve lines added. |
| C．A statue of lamb was built in the town of Sterling. |
| D．It describes the true love between a little girl and her pet lamb. |
a.Mary found a little lamb.
b.People built a statue to honor the lamb.
c.The poem “Mary Had a Little Lamb” became popular.
d.A young man was moved by the story and wrote a poem.
e.Mary’s brother suggested that she take the lamb to school.
| A．a→e→d→c→b | B．a→d→e→c→b |
| C．a→d→e→b→c | D．a→e→d→b→c |
| A．Mary’s mother was also fond of the little lamb. |
| B．Mary and the little lamb developed a very close friendship. |
| C．Mary wrote to John Roulstone and asked him to write the poem. |
| D．All children were allowed to take their pets to school in America. |
【推荐1】Which are the better pets, cats or dogs? Staff from New Horizon network team have carried out a study which lasted a fortnight and they published their conclusion on their home page last Friday — dogs are better pets than cats by a whisker.
Staff from New Horizon first listed the areas where cats fared better. These included having bigger brains compared to their body size, which is said to make them do better in complex functions such as memory and attention than dogs. Cats’second point was given for being more popular, with 204 million living in the top ten cat-owning nations compared to 173 million dogs in the ten countries where dogs are favored. Cats also get more attention from humans, with purrs (呼噜声) and miaows easily to be noticed. Although dogs can vary their barks, they cannot match the attention-seeking of cats. Additionally, cats can see in lower light than dogs and have a far wider hearing range and a sharper sense of smell. They are also said to be “greener” pets because their smaller appetites mean less area of land required to farm the food.
But in the other six categories examined — many of which related to getting on with humans — dogs had the edge.
Dogs have a longer shared history with humans, maybe as long as 135,000 years. Cats are relative newcomers to our homes. Similarly, dogs have a greater ability to bond with the 订masters. Even four-month-old puppies choose a human companion over another dog. Dogs scored a third point for their better powers of understanding and following human gestures. One study found that a dog called Rico had mastered the meaning of more than 200 words. The ab 山 ty to perform roles such as being a guide dog for the blind meant dogs were rated better than cats when it came to their problem-solving abilities. And they are easier to train.
With the scores tied at five-all, the deciding point fell on usefulness — with dogs coming out on top.
Dogs, studies show, help cut human stress, while taking them for walks keeps their owners fit and helps them meet new people. New Horizon says: “Dogs can hunt and guard. They can sniff out drugs and bombs; they guide blind and deaf people, find someone buried in ruins, and possibly even predict earthquakes.”
The study conducted by the staff and their conclusion went viral the moment it was released and has caused a heated discussion among pet owners. Some frowned at it, arguing that it had only involved character, intelligence and usefulness.
1. Which of the following is cats’advantage?| A．They are better at grasping their owners’ instructions. |
| B．They have larger brains than dogs. |
| C．They have a sharper sense of taste. |
| D．They affect the environment less. |
| A．considerably | B．in some aspects |
| C．a little bit | D．exactly the same |
| A．the study lasted a week |
| B．four-month-old puppies are more capable of picking a human companion |
| C．all the pet owners didn’t agree with the conclusion |
| D．people pet dogs to predict earthquakes |
| A．Cats beat dogs | B．Fight like cat and dog |
| C．Befriend with cats and dogs | D．Cats versus dogs |
【推荐2】
I grew up hearing that it is better to give than to receive, and the older I get, the more I aim to take this message to heart. Nevertheless, here I am, in the midst of the holiday season stressed out about gifts I have not yet purchased.
How did gift buying become an emotionally fraught chore (苦差事)? For a moment, it’s easy to question if it’s worth it. But science tells me that giving makes us feel good.
“The act of giving actually does improve your happiness,” says Michael Norton, a psychologist at Harvard Business School. He has published several studies on the effects of giving.
In one experiment that included about 700 people, the researchers randomly assigned participants to make either a purchase for themselves, or for a stranger. Afterwards, the participants reported how happy they felt. Turns out, giving to others led to a significant happiness boost, whereas spending on oneself didn’t move the needle.
“If you take $5 out of your pocket today, the science really does show that spending $5 on yourself doesn’t do much for you,” Norton says. “But spending that $5 on somebody else is more likely to increase your happiness.”
Take a scarf. If you buy one for yourself, it’s just another thing you don’t necessarily need. But if you buy a scarf for someone else, “you’ve shown them that they’re important to you,” Norton says. Either way, it’s just a scarf. “But it can either be a throwaway object or something that enhances a relationship between two people,” he says.
So, there’s evidence that generosity promotes happiness, but the process of shopping, wrapping and schlepping (搬) gifts can be tiresome — or even extremely annoying considering all of our day-to-day demands and other holiday stressors.
Studies also show when people are given something they are more likely to give back. Reciprocity (互惠) is a foundation of good relationships and when we surround ourselves with generous people, we tend to feel the same. Feeling that spirit of giving and the connection it can bring is what the holidays are all about.
1. Why does the author mention his own experience in paragraph 1?| A．To make a prediction. | B．To introduce the topic. |
| C．To present a reason. | D．To clarify a concept. |
| A．By listing data. | B．By giving examples. |
| C．By making comments. | D．By telling personal experiences. |
| A．It’s difficult and expensive. | B．It happens frequently. |
| C．It’s not valued by others. | D．It requires much effort. |
| A．It is not worth the effort. |
| B．It is a must to enhance a relationship. |
| C．It brings about emotional benefits. |
| D．It gains popularity during holidays. |
【推荐3】Social scientists have long understood that when people are smart and skilled, they’re likely to gain trust. To appear more capable — and therefore more trustworthy — many people tend to boast (吹嘘), according to another longstanding theory that researchers call impression management. But a new paper suggests that the common method people use to gain trust could have the opposite effect.
“If you consider yourself a highly capable individual, have a good education, are successful in life, then don’t talk too proudly about it when presenting yourself to others or managing impressions about what you can do,” said Martin Reimann, the paper’s lead author. “It can backfire, and people might become distrusting.”
“Since impression management is so widespread, we wondered how it impacts the well-known effect of ability on trust,” Reimann said.
To answer the question, the researchers designed seven online experiments concerning participants’ trust. In one experiment, for example, participants shopped for a TV in an online marketplace, similar to Amazon, with third-party vendors (销售商). Customer reviews with star ratings told participants how capable or competent vendors were, and each vendor’s ad either did or did not include a boastful statement of self-promotion.
Designing seven studies, Reimann said, allowed the researchers to reach more people and explore a range of variables that might affect someone’s willingness to trust. There were more than 106,000 participants across all seven studies.
The experiments showed that participants were more likely, unsurprisingly, to trust people or companies that appeared more capable. But every study also showed that highly capable people or companies were viewed as less trustworthy if they also boastfully promoted themselves.
“We see trust as a central concept that holds together society,” Reimann added. “If we don’t trust each other, then a lot of processes could come to a standstill. It’s important to understand what it is in the first place that leads people to trust each other, and how we can encourage that at different levels of society. That’s what we want to further uncover.”
1. According to the text, what do many people do by impression management?| A．Make themselves seem more important. | B．Remind others that boasting will lose trust. |
| C．Show what their impression of someone is. | D．Prove that they have become more capable. |
| A．A TV. | B．Participants. | C．Vendors. | D．Customer reviews. |
| A．The bad effects of boasting. | B．People’s views on boasting. |
| C．Promotion of trust among people. | D．Different levels of trust in society. |
| A．People need to be able to trust each other. | B．Boasting could make people trust you less. |
| C．People’s trust depends on how honest you are. | D．Being good at your job helps you to gain trust. |
【推荐1】It’s generally acknowledged that raising a child has geographic features. A recent survey, for example, looked at the personalities parents wanted their children to have in different countries. The finding was fascinating: Dutch parents focused on rest, cleanliness and routine; Italian parents preferred their children to be even-tempered, well-balanced and likeable; American parents, meanwhile, were more likely to want their kids to be intelligent or cognitively advanced.
The US preference represents the shift in the way American parents raise their children, a transition from the so-called latchkey kids of the 1980s to the helicoptered children of today. With more parents adopting the kind of intensive parenting style common in the US, parenting in European nations, traditionally more relaxed, is changing.
Intensive parenting is a type of parenting that requires a significant amount of time and money, including scheduling children for additional activities, as well as advocating for their needs and talents in communications with schools. It’s not limited to a small circle of parents but the dominant cultural model of parenting in the US.
The increasing fear of inequality makes parents feel the need to help drive their children’s education. The inequality, in their opinions, is making it critical for the kids not to be left behind. And so they will assume a parenting style that is more intense and more success-oriented. Thus the intensive parenting approach has become a parenting style influencing the overall parenting culture in Europe.
The intensification of parenting has consequences for nations, parents and children. One of the problems is that it increases economic inequality. In the 1960s, for example, when there was less emphasis on developing children’s talents and interests, parents across social classes spent similar amounts of time and money on their kids.
Experts also point to the large volume of parenting books, blog posts and articles now available to those raising families. Even if parents are skeptical of expert advice, they are still influenced by it. Turning kids into well-rounded and successful personalities is naturally becoming their life-long pursuit.
1. What does the study mentioned in the first paragraph indicate?| A．A well-balanced child is more 1ikeable in Dutch. |
| B．How kids are brought up varies from area to area. |
| C．A kid’s cognitive ability is fixed by geographic features. |
| D．Being clean is preferred by American parents. |
| A．It needs much involvement of parents. | B．It makes kids more relaxed than before. |
| C．It has been criticized. | D．It is out of date in the US. |
| A．Weakening the ties between parents and their kids. |
| B．Intensifying the inequality among the people economically. |
| C．Relieving the depression and anxiety of parents. |
| D．Meeting a strong protest from most European parents. |
| A．American Parenting Mode Swings Back | B．Returning to the Traditional Parenting Mode |
| C．Parenting Makes Parents over Stressed | D．Intensive Parenting Is Sweeping through the US |
【推荐2】Whenever anyone measures educational success, East Asian countries are always top scorers. But in a recent league table (排名表）, a European country, Finland, was top of the class.
In South Korea the school day is long — typically 7 or 8 hours, followed by hours of private tutoring in the evenings.
Finnish children spend the least time in class in the developed world, often finishing just after lunch. Private tuition is uncommon. The British school day is quite long in comparison, about 6 hours.
The South Korean education system, like many in Asia, is extremely competitive. Finnish education is far less competitive.
South Korea and Finland both do well, yet their education systems are so different.
| A．So what lessons can Britain learn from these two countries? |
| B．Then where do their differences lie? |
| C．South Korea was still in second place, though. |
| D．Time devoted to school is the key to South Korean students’ high scores. |
| E．In those countries, teachers have a high status in society, and education is very highly valued. |
| F．All this hard work leaves South Korean students tired to fall asleep sometimes in class next day. |
| G．Classes are all mixed ability, and there are no league tables. |
【推荐3】Recently, many arguments between anxious parents and children on the use of mobile phones have hit the headlines. According to a survey, children’s addiction to online games is closely related to parent-child relations:
First, parents should not be overly upset or annoyed when their kids play video games.
Last but not least, parents should spend time with their children.
In a word, developing good parent-kid relations is an effective way to keep or draw kids away from smartphones.
| A．There are some other problems that deserve parents’ attention. |
| B．They are one of the most popular entertainments for students. |
| C．What’s more, it is advisable to adopt a friendly way of parenting. |
| D．Besides, some of the problems should be left for time to solve. |
| E．The better the relationship is, the less likely a kid is to be addicted to online games. |
| F．Actually, the most valuable gift for their kids is time, not money or expensive presents. |
| G．Family members can also smooth out their differences and reach consensuses (一致同意)together. |
