Sometimes I scratch my head when I read about the government’s efforts to improve schools: new standards and tests to be applied, strict teacher evaluations, and threats of school closures and job losses. They frighten the school employees, not to mention the students. Instead of making people unable to solve problems or try new ideas-which is what fear does to us-research on school reform strongly suggests that policy-makers should encourage school leaders to take a more humane approach. In their study on the reform efforts of twelve Chicago public schools, Bryk and Schneider found that enabling positive social relationships between the adults was the key to successful school improvement and that trust was at the heart of those relationships.
Trust in schools comes down to one thing: psychological safety or safety to speak one’s mind, to discuss with openness and honesty what is and isn’t working, to make collective decisions.
Yet this kind of safety doesn’t come easily to schools. According to Bryk and Schneider, the adults in school rely on each other to do their jobs correctly and with integrity (正直). The challenge is that our expectations are very diverse based on our unique backgrounds.
At one school where I taught, each teacher had different expectations about how much effort teachers should put into their work-a big difference between the teachers who left at the last bell and those who worked into the evening. And when expectations are unspoken, it becomes impossible for others to live up to them.
We also make assumptions about the intentions behind a person’s behavior. As we all know, assumptions are often wrong. For example, parents and teachers may think the principal takes particular decision based on his career advancement rather than that is best for the students, who don’t feel psychologically safe to question our assumptions, trust files out the window and our relationships suffer.
1. According to Paragraph 1, why does the author scratch his head?| A．Because he doesn’t know what to do once schools are closed. |
| B．Because he is not sure about the practicability of those new tests. |
| C．Because he is concerned that many teachers will lose their jobs. |
| D．Because he is not in favor of the government’ s reform efforts. |
| A．New standards and tests in schools. |
| B．Positive social relationships. |
| C．Strict teacher and student evaluations. |
| D．Assistance of the government. |
| A．Freedom to express one’ s views. |
| B．Extra effort teachers put into their work. |
| C．Independence of the teachers in schools. |
| D．Unconscious and unspoken expectations. |
| A．They should be trusted. |
| B．They are often bold. |
| C．They are often incorrect. |
| D．They should be encouraged. |
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【推荐1】A new study suggests classic paintings by well-known Impressionists Joseph Turner and Claude Monet may have been influenced by air pollution during the Industrial Revolution.
The study, published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences by authors from Harvard and Sorbonne universities, analyzed 60 oil paintings by Turner from 1796 to 1850 and 38 paintings by Monet from 1864 to 1901.
Scientists don’t know exactly how polluted the cities were during that time for lack of data. However, researchers say examining the works of Turner and Monet can give a picture of long-term environmental change with the air pollution.
In particular, researchers said changes in local sulfur dioxide emissions from burning coal may explain changes in the colour contrast and intensity (强度) of Turner, Monet, and others’ works, even after taking into account the artistic trends and subject matter of the time.
Scientists successfully measured painters’ representation of nature, focusing on differences in local weather patterns which influenced colour in works painted in different parts of Europe. Paintings’ done in Britain generally feature a paler blue sky than other works in other parts of the continent. Generally, artists can historically accurately represent their environment, so Turner and Monet were chosen because they are famous for their landscape and cityscape paintings and also because they were active during the Industrial Revolution, when air pollution grew at a rate never seen before.
Additionally, researchers say that as the air in London and Paris became more polluted, the cities would appear hazier (模糊) to the eyes as well as in photographs. By comparing the paintings of Turner and Monet to pictures from the era, they were able to determine the artists were at least partly influenced by the change in emissions.
1. What did the researchers find in the works of Turner and Monet?| A．Air pollution at that time. | B．Change in subject matter. |
| C．Social trends of the period. | D．Development of photography |
| A．European artists preferred landscape paintings. |
| B．Scientists focused on studying weather patterns. |
| C．Turner and Monet intended to present pollution. |
| D．Britain suffered from air pollution most in Europe. |
| A．By referring to relevant historical records. |
| B．By comparing the paintings of Turner and Monet. |
| C．By relating the paintings to the air conditions then. |
| D．By analyzing the data during the Industrial Revolution. |
| A．To inform people of a new discovery. | B．To instruct people to appreciate paintings. |
| C．To introduce the Industrial Revolution. | D．To call on people to protect the environment. |
【推荐2】A researching team analyzed data from long-running studies conducted in Brazil and South Africa to assess whether children exposed to early adversities（逆境）, such as extreme poverty, low birth weight, and pre-term birth, could reach their full learning potential by experiencing responsive caregiving and opportunities to learn in their home. They found that early life adversities matter throughout life. Teenagers who had been exposed to multiple adversities early in life had lower IQ scores, were more likely to have difficulties adjusting socially and psychologically, and achieved a lower physical height compared to teenagers exposed to fewer adversities. They also found that being raised in a nurturing（培育）environment could significantly counteract the negative effect of early adversities on IQ and help children achieve their full potential of intelligence.
Globally, more than 250 million children younger than 5 years are at risk of not reaching their developmental potential because of adversities that co-occur early in life and worsen with age. In the US, almost one in five children are raised in poverty and 15 percent do not complete high school. Exposing these children to a nurturing environment, whether at home or in daycare or pre-school settings, can lead to cognitive（认知的）benefits that last into teenage and beyond.
Parents should provide nurturing environments, which include interacting with young children in a positive way such as reading children's books from the library, singing songs together, and playing games with numbers and letters. Children who join in age-matched housework like picking up toys and clearing the table gain skills and feel good about helping. Get children involved in friendly activities as much as possible rather than park them in front of a screen. Children love to learn and in a nurturing environment, they can grow into teenagers and adults with the abilities to care for themselves, their families, and their communities.
1. What is the purpose of the study?| A．To explore the ways of improving children's IQ. |
| B．To discover what adversities children can suffer. |
| C．To compare IQ of children from all over the world. |
| D．To find out how to deal with adversities' effects on IQ. |
| A．Weaken. | B．Target. | C．Enhance. | D．Simplify. |
| A．Create the best possible living environment. |
| B．Encourage kids to play as much as possible. |
| C．Try to provide a better nurturing environment. |
| D．Teach kids to adjust physically and psychologically. |
| A．Early Adversities and IQ |
| B．The Best Nurturing Environment |
| C．The Intellectual Potential of Children |
| D．Cognitive Benefits from Adversities |
【推荐3】On our first morning at the Thwaites Glacier in West Antarctica, the air was still. The captain made a brave choice: Our ship would hold close to the ice shelf so that the sonar system would peer beneath it while producing a detailed map of the seafloor. The scientists on board, along with the writers like me, were the first people in the history to visit this part of Thwaites. Our task was to bring back as much information as possible about the place where ocean and ice meet.
If Antarctica collapsed, it could threaten the entire West Antarctic Ice Sheet, causing global sea levels to jump 10 feet or more. In terms of the fate of our coastal communities, this particular glacier is the biggest wild card, the largest known unknown. Will Miami even exist 100 years? Thwaites will decide.
Reading about the collapse of Antarctica’s glaciers, I feel I am being encouraged to jump to a conclusion: that no matter what we do now, what lies ahead is bound to be worse than what came before. This kind of thinking turns Antarctica into a passive symbol of the coming disaster. But what if we were to see Antarctica as a harbinger of change rather than doom(厄运)? This is why I came to Thwaiters. I wanted to find out: Antarctica has the power to rewrite all our maps.
This week a paper analyzed the data from that exploration. The authors suggested that sometime Thwaites retreated at two to three times the rate we see today. Put another way: At the coldest period of the planet, Thwaiters is stepping farther outside the script we imagined for it, likely challenging even our most detailed predictions of what is to come.
It took us nearly a month to arrive at the edge of Thwaiters. It is one of the most remote region on Earth. But despite the distance, what happens there is shaping us just as much as we are shaping it. If we can begin to recognize the agency of this faraway glacier, we will be one step closer to embracing the modesty that climate change demands.
1. Why did the captain decide to approach the ice shelf?| A．To find out where ocean and ice meet. |
| B．To get scientists to do experiments on it. |
| C．To help the author write down the history moment. |
| D．To get information about the seafloor in details. |
| A．The biggest decisive factor. |
| B．The wildest thing to take control of. |
| C．The most difficult thing to predict. |
| D．The remotest place to reach. |
| A．Doubtful. | B．Approving. | C．Tolerant. | D．Indifferent. |
| A．To escape the coastal cities in time. |
| B．To respect the power of Antarctica. |
| C．To prevent the collapse of Antarctica’s glaciers. |
| D．To be modest in predicting climate change. |
【推荐1】Solving the mystery of the Loch Ness Monster would be considered as a good deed, right? On that basis, a webcam(网络摄像头) has been setup overlooking the lake. Anyone can tune in at any time. If you see something suspicious, you simply click the “snapshot” (快拍) button to submit a picture for further analysis. It is free, easy, and you can do it for as little or as long as you like, with no login or signup required. What you are doing is micro-volunteering, which offers volunteers a series of easy tasks that can be done anytime, anywhere, on their own terms.
Micro-volunteering could involve anything from retweeting a message to joining a flash mob(快闪). Volunteers don’t need to go through an application or training process, or to make any ongoing commitment. The vast majority of micro-volunteering takes place online, but it doesn’t have to. Weeding a garden in a local community center counts just as much.
The key benefit of micro-volunteering is its flexibility. People frequently cite their lack of time as the biggest barrier to volunteering. For many, micro-volunteering removes the need to worry about making long-term commitments once they start volunteering. It enables people who might lose interest in traditional ways of volunteering to participate.
To some extent, micro-volunteering is an approach that aims to help lots of people come together to make a difference. It could take a while to see its impacts. Studies, however, have shown that 65 percent of those who have micro-volunteered are still actively doing so one year later. Even though micro-volunteering cannot replace long-term commitments, it serves as complement(补充)to the more traditional methods of promoting good causes.
1. Why does the author mention the Loch Ness Monster in paragraph 1?| A．To illustrate a famous monster film. |
| B．To introduce a new way to volunteer. |
| C．To tell more information of the monster. |
| D．To offer readers a series of volunteer tasks. |
| A．It’s available only online. | B．Volunteers need receive training. |
| C．It’s flexible and time-wise. | D．It needs long-term commitments. |
| A．It could take the place of traditional volunteering. |
| B．It might have a great influence on the world at once. |
| C．It can make people have more ongoing commitments. |
| D．It may offer more chances for people to make a difference. |
| A．Barriers to promoting good causes |
| B．A wonderful complement to volunteering |
| C．Reflections on traditional ways of volunteering |
| D．An answer to the mystery of the Loch Ness Monster |
The good news is that in 2007, Congress recognized that there were so many students in Wheeler’s position that it passed the College Cost Reduction and Access Act. There were two programs established by this act that Wheeler should look into.
The first is the income-based repayment plan, which allows lower-income graduates with a lot of debt to reduce their monthly payments. Depending on a graduate’s income and level of debt, the program, which goes into effect on July 1, could limit his or her annual educational loan debt repayment to 15 percent of discretionary income(可随意支配的收入)，said Peter Mazareas, vice chairman of the College Saving Foundation.
The second is the public service loan forgiveness plan, in which the federal government will forgive the remaining debt of borrowers who make 10-year loan payment while working full time in public-service jobs. But the graduate must have a certain loan which is listed in the plan. Depending on the level of debt Wheeler ends up with and how much she repays over 10 years, Mazareas said she could end up with about $75,000 of her debt forgiven. “ Typically, it is projected that a borrower who performs public service under this program will repay only about one-fourth to one-half as much money as a borrower who does not”, he said. He also pointed out that public service is broadly defined and includes any government and nonprofit organization job.
1. How much debt will Erin Wheeler be probably in when she graduate?
| A．$ 8,000 | B．$92,000 |
| C．$75,000 | D．$ 50,000 |
| A．The programs in the act take effect in 2008. |
| B．The act only aims to help college students who are in debt. |
| C．There are two helpful programs in the act. |
| D．The graduates who work in public service benefit the most. |
| A．The interest of the debt will be lowered. |
| B．The total amount of debt could be reduced. |
| C．The income tax will be cut down. |
| D．People will have more time to pay back the debt. |
| A．Because she plans to work in public service. |
| B．Because she will have a master degree. |
| C．Because she will be heavily in debt upon graduation. |
| D．Because she has borrowed money from the federal government. |
| A．The total expense in American universities is too high. |
| B．The federal government is trying to relieve graduates from heavy debt. |
| C．The US government encourages students to choose public service jobs. |
| D．There are a lot of different programs to help students pay their tuition. |
【推荐3】Bioluminescence (生物发光) is a natural phenomenon wherein a chemical reaction within an organism’s body produces light. It can be found in many places in nature — fireflies, some mushrooms — but mostly in the deep sea.
Recently, Rambouillet, a small historic French town, has teamed up with a company called Glowee to turn the city into a full-scale bioluminescence laboratory. The goal is to change the way in which cities use light. The company uses marine (海的) bacteria harvested from the coast of France. It makes some of the town’s public light up in the cool blue of bioluminescence.
These bioluminescent bacteria are stored in a seawater filled tube, giving the bacteria room to float around and light up. The light provided by the bacteria is part of their natural metabolism, so producing the light requires no energy other than that which is needed to feed the organisms. This makes it much more environmentally friendly and sustainable than electric light, which consumes a huge amount of non-renewable energy.
“On the way to lighting up the world with bioluminescence, you have to feed the bacteria and add water as they grow. That’s not so easy. The phenomenon will be very temperature-dependent and I doubt that it will work in the winter. Also, bioluminescence is not very bright compared to electrical lighting, though they have improved the light intensity,” Carl Johnson, a professor from Vanderbilt University said.
One potential solution to these issues — and one that Glowee is looking into — is to remove the biological aspect of the whole process. Theoretically, luciferase (荧光素酶) can be removed from the bacteria and used to create light instead of the bacteria itself. Because luciferase is non-living, it doesn’t need to be fed. Creating new means of sustainable lighting is a way of being environmentally friendly without plunging the earth back into darkness.
1. What do we know about Glowee?| A．It is an ancient laboratory in France. |
| B．It solves power shortages in coastal cities. |
| C．It adopts bioluminescence as a light source. |
| D．It feeds marine organisms to produce chemicals. |
| A．The reasons for energy waste. |
| B．The advantages of the marine bacteria as light. |
| C．The living conditions of the bioluminescent bacteria. |
| D．The difficulties of storing bioluminescent organisms. |
| A．The bacteria work more efficiently under low temperatures. |
| B．It will cost too much to improve the luminescence intensity. |
| C．The application of bioluminescence enjoys a bright prospect. |
| D．The development of bioluminescence faces many challenges. |
| A．A Historic Town Lit up by Nature |
| B．The First Zero-carbon City in the World |
| C．A Reform of Producing Electricity in Cities |
| D．The Discovery of Luciferase in Marine Bacteria |
