Finland’s education system is considered one of the best in the world. Finland (芬兰) 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 (私人的) schools. Only the wealthy ones got a better education. In the middle of the 1960s the Finnish government saw the need to reform and modernize (使现代化) their education system if they wanted to be internationally competitive.
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.
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 (比率) in the European Union.
1. What did the Finland government do in the middle of the 1960s?A.They encouraged students to go to private school. |
B.They lengthened preschool education. |
C.They reformed the school system. |
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 are educated equally |
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 |
A.What Differences European Schools Have | B.Why Finland’s School System Has Changed |
C.What Good Schools Provide Students With | D.Why Finland’s School System Is Successful |
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【推荐1】Developing new materials requires significant time and labor, but some chemists are now hopeful that AI could one day shoulder much of this burden. In a new study in the Journal of the American Chemical Society, a team used a popular AI model, ChatGPT, to perform one particularly time-consuming task: searching scientific literature. With that data, they built a second tool, a new model to predict experimental results.
Reports from previous studies offer a vast amount of information that chemists need, but finding and analyzing the most relevant details can be laborious. For example, those interested in designing highly porous, crystalline (晶体) metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) — which have potential applications in areas such as clean energy—must sort through hundreds of scientific papers describing a variety of experimental conditions. Researchers have previously attempted to let AI take over this task; however, the language processing models they used required significant technical expertise , and applying them to new topics meant changing the program. Omar Yaghi and colleagues wanted to see if the next generation of language models, which includes ChatGPT, could offer a more accessible, flexible way to extract information.
To analyze text from scientific papers, the team gave ChatGPT prompts (提示符) it through three processes intended to identify and summarize the experimental information the papers contained. The researchers carefully constructed these prompts to minimize the model’s tendency to make up responses, and to ensure the best responses possible.
When tested on 228 papers describing MOF syntheses (合成), this system drew more than 26, 000 factors relevant for making roughly 800 of these mixtures. With these data, the team trained a separate AI model to predict the crystalline state of MOFs based on these conditions. And finally, to make the data more user-friendly, they built a chatbot to answer questions about it. The team notes that, unlike previous AI-based efforts, this one does not require expertise in coding. What’s more, scientists can shift its focus simply by adjusting the narrative language in the prompts. This new system, which they call the “ChatGPT Chemistry Assistant,” could also be useful in other fields of chemistry.
1. What does the research team hope the new model to do?A.Search and classify scientific literature. |
B.Analyze data and predict laboratory findings. |
C.Prevent the model from making up responses. |
D.Generate a faster language processing system. |
A.To suggest their potential applications in clean energy. |
B.To illustrate the laborious analysis of scientific papers. |
C.To confirm they are of importance in chemistry industry. |
D.To stress the testing system is extraordinarily complicated. |
A.Secure. | B.Virtual. | C.Practical. | D.Specialized. |
A.Making the MOFs be more useful |
B.Doing further analysis for scientific papers |
C.Improving the language processing models |
D.Turning ChatGPT into a “chemistry assistant” |
【推荐2】In the far north, well above the Arctic Circle in Alaska, ground squirrels (地松鼠) are like little balls within a deep hole in the ground. If you look at one, you might think it is dead. The squirrel is as cold as ice. Its body temperature is –2℃. Its heart beats only once every 15 seconds. Its breathing stops for minutes at a time.
It’s not exanimate, of course — just hibernating (冬眠). But spring is on its way to Alaska. As the days are becoming longer and the ground becomes warm, the Arctic ground squirrels will be warm, too. At first, the increase will be almost too small to notice. “You see them begin to breathe a little more quickly — see their heart rate speed up,” says Brian Barnes, a zoologist of the University of Alaska. “As they get up to 10 to 20℃, you see them shivering (颤抖) quite clearly,” he notes, “just as we shiver.” This shivering is a type of way to create heat. “Once their body temperatures rise above 30℃,” he says, “they wake up, clean themselves, and move.” A squirrel that looked dead a few hours before is now very much alive.
Arctic ground squirrels are among the world’s coolest hibernators. Chilling out (放松) for months at a time lets them grow in this extremely cold place, where food is short. By studying how ground squirrels hibernate, scientists hope to answer some big questions. Among them: How do these animals go from warm to cold and back again? And might people ever do the same? The ability to chill out could help humans who suffer from brain injuries and heart problems survive.
1. What does the underlined word “exanimate” in the second paragraph mean?A.Cold. | B.Weak. | C.Dead. | D.Tired. |
A.To increase its body temperature. |
B.To speed up its heart rate. |
C.To restore its breathing. |
D.To clean its body. |
A.To show the results of the study. |
B.To show the purpose of the study. |
C.To show how the study was carried out. |
D.To show people’s interest in ground squirrels. |
【推荐3】Be black or white, the exact color of a person’s skin is determined by a combination of his parentage and random chance and it affects how every single person treats you. You can’t take your skin off, even if you’re terrified or ashamed to wear it, even if you’re sick and tired of wearing it.
Freddie Gray, who was arrested in 2016 for possessing a legal knife and died in police custody (拘留), was born Black. TamirRice, who barely lived more than one being Black, was shot at the age of 12 for playing with a toy gun in 2014. Breonna Taylor, who was shot and killed in March when two plainclothes police officers entered her apartment unannounced, didn’t choose to be Black. But the police officers who shot her chose their careers. They chose to shoot her, too. Police across America also chose to shoot 336 other unarmed Black people from 2013-2019.
Each of these victims did not possess a weapon at the time of their murder, and in all but few of the cases they lost their lives because someone “thought” they were reaching for a gun that turned out to be a wallet, cell phone or nothing at all. This is absolutely unacceptable. We’re not saying they shouldn’t have been captured with all necessary force and imprisoned accordingly. A criminal is a criminal and should be handled as such. But even a criminal, as long as he lives in this great country, is an American worthy of justified handling and a fair trial.
Black people don’t get to sign up for lives of discrimination and terror. They often found themselves moving through wave upon wave of white faces that usually mirrored the same emotions—shock, disbelief and anger. It is the fear of black skin that plays a part in each of these murders. African Americans can no longer tolerate the unjustified killings of their loved ones. As a country, it’s time to start effective dialogues to end this pitiless trend. It has to be a long struggle and pain before Black people overcome prejudice to win the chance of being understood by white ones.
1. What is the author’s purpose of mentioning the murders in Paragraph 2?A.To provide examples of unjustified killings of black people. |
B.To give an explanation why police officers choose to shoot black people. |
C.To offer a description of police officers’ hatred towards black people. |
D.To make an analysis of how hard lives black people were living. |
A.Forgiving. | B.Cautious. |
C.Disapproving. | D.Indifferent. |
A.The process of overcoming prejudice towards the black is on its way. |
B.Black people are ashamed to wear their skin color which leads to injustice. |
C.Black people will turn to violence to stop the unjustified killings among them. |
D.The police should have chosen a proper way to treat black “criminals”. |
A.Sufferings of whites. |
B.Blacks’ calling for justice. |
C.Policemen’s fair trial. |
D.Fight for mutual trust. |
【推荐1】Devote yourself to the work you do, not the prize you might get. Hao Jingfang, a Tsinghua University graduate, is pursuing her passion for writing and education.
In 2016, she won the admired Hugo Award with her novella, Folding Beijing, which made her the first female writer in China to bring home this prize. Later on, the author turned to education. She set up Tongxing Academy for public welfare education and WePlanets to promote children’s creativity after school.
In this interview with Easy Talk, Hao discusses her life experience-not only as a writer and educator, but also a parent.
“The major task for society is to help people get better education, to elevate their skill set in line with future technological advancements, and to broaden their horizons,” Hao said.
Since founding her company, Hao has been carrying out voluntary teaching programs in rural areas. “We really want these kids to have better education resources like kids from the cities,” she said. “We hope that the children from rural China, if one day they manage to live in the cities, can do more than car maintenance, for example. They will have the skills to take on other jobs.”
Different from the typical Chinese parents so ambitious for their children, Hao suggests giving kids more space for trial and error. “I do believe the best mentality for parents is to stand behind your children,” Hao said. “Let the child cope with the reality and decide for themselves. If they struggle with obstacles, you can offer them some guidance or encouragement.”
“I’ve had a wide variety of interests since childhood. I’ve got used to doing different things,” says the 35-year-old.
Being an economic researcher, a writer and businessperson herself, she encourages all women to discover their passions. “We live in a big, big world with boundless possibilities, various trades and different vocations. Don’t be too afraid to try something new. When you find the one thing that you want to commit to, you will become fearless to follow your dream.”
1. What does the underlined word “elevate” in paragraph 4 mean?A.research | B.improve |
C.recognize | D.evaluate |
A.let their children go freely. |
B.be ambitious for their children. |
C.give their children a hand only if necessary. |
D.remove their children’s obstacles ahead of time. |
A.Helpful and committed. | B.Creative and stubborn. |
C.Narrow-minded and responsible. | D.Imaginative and demanding. |
A.How to discover a person’s passions. |
B.The effective ways to achieve your dream. |
C.Great achievements made by Hao Jingfang. |
D.Hao Jingfang’s views on writing, education and parenting. |
【推荐2】I’d like to talk about my first teaching experience. It was in the fall of 2010—I had to teach integral calculus (积分学). I had taught before but it was always 2-3 students at a time. I had no experience of classroom teaching. So I had butterflies in my stomach.
Anyway, the appointed hour came and I had no choice but to go on. I introduced myself, asked each one of them to do a brief introduction and got down to business. Fortunately, it was a worksheet session, so I didn’t have to do much. The students were well prepared—most of them had done AP calculus. The first day was a success.
As the quarter went by, I found the work more and more easygoing. So I was lax and stopped preparing the homework problems beforehand. How wrong I was!
One day we were doing surfaces of revolution. I used to do them in a more different way than it was taught in the text. I tried to do the first problem but it wasn’t just a piece of cake—I had to step back and think for five minutes before the solution came to me. To the credit of my students, no one showed any sign of impatience in the meantime. I was feeling doubly uncomfortable because it was a day of observation by the school leaders.
The next class I tried to give some additional resources on advanced materials, especially to students who would stay after the class or come to my office hours.
My evaluations were mixed. Two major complaints were about my accent and my handwriting on the board.
I learned a lot about teaching after this course. In my view, teaching is like a performing art. No amount of reading or attending workshops will prepare you for the challenge. You only get better with practice.
1. What made the author feel uneasy at first?A.Teaching a difficult subject. | B.Lack of teaching experience. |
C.Missing the appointed hour. | D.Failure of choosing a topic. |
A.Careless. | B.Tense. | C.Annoyed. | D.Amused. |
A.Because he delayed doing surfaces of revolution. |
B.Because the students showed no sign of interaction. |
C.Because he was stuck in his class watched by leaders. |
D.Because the leaders blamed him for his performance. |
A.Do as the Romans do. | B.Well begun is half done. |
C.It never rains, but it pours. | D.Practice holds the key to progress. |
Under plans, schools will operate longer days and work outside standard academic terms.
Each pupil will be expected to spend between four hours and two days a week on work placements with businesses linked to the school and teenagers will be assigned a personal coach to act as an academic “line manager”.
The reforms are put forward due to the fears that too many teenagers are now finishing full-time education lacking the skills needed to succeed in the workplace. According to a recent report, more than two-thirds of employers believe school and college leavers lack important “employability skills” such as customer awareness, while 55 per cent say they are unable to manage their time or daily tasks. And the number of NEETs has hit a record high, with almost one-in-five young people being left without a job or training place.
The Department for Education will announce the establishment of 12 studio schools -- meeting the need of around 3,600 teenagers -- in areas such as Liverpool, Stevenage, Stoke-on-Trent and Fulham, west London. Each one, opening in 2012, will be linked to a series of local employers. Under plans, pupils will be able to transfer out of ordinary schools to attend them between the age of 14 and 19.
The Government said all subjects would be taught “through projects, often designed with employers” -- with disciplines such as science being linked directly to local engineering firms or hospitals. Schools will operate a longer day to give pupils a better understanding of the demands of the workplace. Along with their studies, pupils will carry out work placements for four hours a week, rising to two days a week of paid work for those aged 16 to 19. They will also get the chance to take professional qualifications linked directly to the needs of local employers.
1. According to the passage, the NEETs are referred to those who ________.
A.often miss classes from school | B.refuse to take any kind of part-time jobs after school | C.depend on their parents to find jobs after they graduate | D.have no jobs without accepting education and work training |
A.interesting and lovely cartoons to make study easier | B.chances to get future jobs with expert job training | C.possibilities to make friends without going outside | D.lessons helping them to be admitted to universities |
A.The determination to solve the problem of lacking workers. | B.The doubt about whether full-time education is perfect. | C.The worry about educated people lacking working skills. | D.The increasing number of teens who drop out early. |
A.They can find suitable jobs earlier with good qualification. |
B.They will be admitted to top companies with received training. |
C.They needn’t go to university thanks to received training here. |
D.They may have more free time to find part-time jobs after school. |