【推荐1】Do Cyber Schools Make the Grade?

Students in Caldwell, Idaho, can attend class in their pajamas!

At Vallivue Virtual Academy, courses are taught online. Students work at home with parents, who serve as learning coaches. A certified teacher oversees the students' progress.

The cyber school was launched as a free option for students in kindergarten through grade 8 who have trouble succeeding in the district's traditional public school. Supporters of the program say that virtual learning can help students work at their own pace. If students struggle with subjects, they can take those courses online and spend more time on them. Valerie VanSelous, a teacher from Hopewell Township, N.J・，agrees. "Teachers, students, and parents need to accept new technology and not be afraid of it. Offering different teaching aids just might be the key to unlocking a student' s potential. "

Some also believe that attending virtual school can prepare students for college and for work after graduation. "We need to be responsible for working on our own,” says Angela Goscilo, a senior from Pound Ridge, N.Y. "We need to develop technology skills that will help us in whatever we do. Getting an early start is a good idea."

Not everyone gives cyber schools a passing grade， however. Some educators argue that online learning makes it hard for students to make friends. Payton Mcdonough, 13, a seventh grader from Glencoe, m., agrees. " I don't know how I could sit at a computer all day without actually interacting with my peers and teachers," he says.

In addition, virtual schools don’t have enough structure. Students who take online courses can set their own schedules, which will cause problems for students who have trouble staying motivated.

Many parents also feel that cyber schools put unrealistic time demands on them because they have to oversee their kids' daily work. Many of them have full-time jobs. How are they going to run their children's education, excel in their jobs, and take care of their other responsibilities at home?

1. What is the cyber school intended for?

A．Reducing the time students spend online.

B．Helping those who struggle in traditional schools.

C．Allowing teachers to work at their own pace.

D．Encouraging students to learn about technology.

2. What does the underlined sentence mean in paragraph 5?

A．Not everyone approves of cyber schools.

B．Not everyone has attended a cyber school.

C．Not everyone has given cyber schools a test.

D．Not everyone cares about students in cyber schools.

3. How do working parents feel about overseeing their kids' daily work?

A．It's worthwhile.

B．It's unnecessary.

C．It's demanding.

D．It's discouraging.

4. What is the main idea of the text?

A．Students in Caldwell can attend class at home every day.

B．There are various arguments for and against virtual schools.

C．It's important for students to learn to work in the virtual world.

D．Cyber schools are better than traditional schools in many ways.

【推荐2】Is studying abroad a good idea or not? There are certainly some advantages for students who would like to communicate and studly in foreign countries during their high school or college.

As a future global leader, you need to feel at home in a fast-changing world. By studying abroad, you will experience new perspectives, lean how to deal with different cultures, work with diverse colleagues, and communicate in other languages, Whether you are a future businessman, engineer, scientist, doctor, journalist, teacher or diplomat(外交官), these are the skills that will prepare you to solve the world’s toughest challenges, make you more competitive in the job market, and transform you into a responsible citizen.

An international experience should be part of your education, whatever your goals, social position, or field of study are. Every year, more than 300, 000 American students study or volunteer abroad for academic credit on programs ranging from two weeks to a full academic year. International educational experiences that you get with thoughtfulness and purpose are valuable, regardless of duration or form.

This site will not only help you discover studly abroad opportunities offered by the U. S. government, but will also help you discover programs offered by foreign governments around the world. View students’ videos on this site to learn from graduates who study abroad about why the experience is important to their education, and hear how they have become more independent while dealing with academic, financial, or personal challenges, and how they have attained better leadership, organizational skills and realized their studying goals. After reviewing this site, talk to your study abroad adviser and other students—including international students on your campus—to learn about your options.

Study abroad to build skills and knowledge, prepare to solve the world’s toughest challenges, and compete in the 21st century workforce. The world is yours to discover. Take the first step today.

1. What does Paragraph 2 focus on?

A．The diversity of selecting jobs.	B．The importance of studying abroad.
C．The necessity of facing difficulties.	D．The potential of international communication.

2. What is shown in students’ videos?

A．Why they get financial support.	B．How they set their studying goals.
C．Where they discover the programs.	D．What they achieve studying abroad.

3. Where is this text most likely from?

A．A website.

B．A health magazine.

C．A chemical paper.

D．A fiction novel.

4. What is the author’s purpose in writing this text?

A．To help people to overcome challenges.

B．To introduce ways to choose future career.

C．To attract people to study in foreign countries.

D．To explore the possibility to enlarge the job market.

【推荐3】High school in the United States starts too early．Given teenagers' sleep patterns, the ideal school start time could be as late as 11:30 a.m.-when many high school students have already finished half a school day and are eating lunch．

Researchers from Harvard and Oxford wrote about this new finding in a recent article in the journal Learning．Media, and Technology．In the article, Paul Kelley supposed that, given when kids and teenagers are biologically conditioned to wake up,10-year-olds should start school at 8 a.m.．16-year-olds should start between 10 a.m. and 10:30 a.m., and 18-year-olds should start between 11 a.m. and 11:30 a.m.

There's been lots of research done on sleep and performance in school-but this article thinks that school should start even later than most proposals for a later start time call for．Teens aren't lazy-adults need to adjust．This isn't laziness-sleep patterns are a biological necessity．Reviewing evidence from studies around the world, the researchers think that starting school later would help students learn more, perform better on tests, and even make teenagers less annoyed．When the Minneapolis Public Schools moved their start time from 7:15 a.m. to 8:40 a.m., students liked the change and reported that "attendance, achievement, behavior, and mood improved．"

Parents were positive, too．92 percent said they liked the change, and parents reported that their kids were easier to live with when they weren't getting up so early．At the US Air Force Academy, where students were randomly assigned to classes with earlier and later start times, students who started earlier performed worse all day long on those days．

The researchers consider that this is partly cultural, and that getting up early is still seen as a virtue．That's wrong, they write: "A common belief is that adolescents are tired because they choose to stay up too late, or are difficult to wake in the morning because they are lazy．Educators tend to think that adolescents learn best in the morning and if they simply went to sleep earlier, it would improve their concentration．．．The truth is that adults need to be educated．"

1. What does the passage mainly argue about?

A．The time to start high school．	B．The performance of teenagers．
C．The sleep patterns of the teenagers．	D．The common belief of adolescents．

2. From Paul Kelley's research, people can conclude _______________．

A．the earlier the children get up, the cleverer they will become

B．the elder the children are, the later they should start learning

C．the more time children spend learning, the better they will be

D．the later children wake up, the less knowledge they can get

3. Which is NOT the benefit of starting school later in Paragraph 3?

A．Gaining more knowledge．	B．Getting higher marks．
C．Making mood better．	D．Doing less homework．

4. How did the parents think of starting late?

A．The students are losing a virtue．	B．The adults need to be taught．
C．The students benefit from that．	D．The adults become lazier．

5. What should the students do to perform well in school, according to the educators?

A．They should have the wonderful virtue．	B．They should develop the common belief．
C．They should become lazier and lazier．	D．They should get habits of sleeping early．

【推荐2】Chinese are very generous(慷慨的) when it comes to educating their children. Not caring about the money, parents often send their children to the best schools or even abroad to England, the U.S. or Australia. They also want their children to take extra-course activities where they will either learn a musical instrument or ballet, or other classes that will give them a head start in life. The Chinese believe that the more expensive an education is, the better it is. So parents will spend unreasonable amount of money on education. Even poor couples will buy a computer for their son or daughter.

However, what most parents fail to see is that the best education they can give their children is usually very cheap.

Parents can see that their children’s skills vary, skilled in some areas while poor in others. What most parents fail to realize though, is that today’s children lack self-respect and self-confidence.

The problem is that parents are only educating their children on how to take multiple-choice tests and how to study well, but parents are not teaching them the most important skills they need to be confident, happy and clever.

Parents can achieve this by teaching practical skills like cooking, sewing and doing other housework.

Teaching a child to cook will improve many of the skills that he will need later in life. Cooking demands patience and time. It is an enjoyable but difficult experience. A good cook always tries to improve his cooking, so he will learn to work hard and gradually finish his job successfully. His result, a well-cooked dinner, will give him much satisfaction and a lot of confidence.

Some old machines, such as a broken radio or TV set that you give your child to play with will make him curious and arouse his interest. He will spend hours looking at them, trying to fix them; your child might become an engineer when he grows up. These activities are not only teaching a child to read a book, but rather to think, to use his mind. And that is more important.

Title: What Chinese Parents Do in     1     Their Children

Attitude towards Children’s education	●Chinese are very     2    , serious and devoted in education.
Measures	●Never       3     too much of money. ●Send them to the best schools or abroad. ●Want their children to take       4     in extra-course activities.
Belief	●The more investment in education, the       5     the result will be.
What they can see in their children	●Their children skill in some fields with     6     skills.
What they can’t see in their children	●Lack of self-respect and     7     in themselves.
8     of their failure	●Only teach them how to take multi-choice tests and       9     hard at study. ●Never teach them the most important skills they need to be confident, happy and clever.
How to    10    with the problems	●Only by teaching practical skills, can they succeed in education.

【推荐3】Just what is a tiger mother？Amy Chua is a law professor at America's Yale University and her recent book on the subject is making waves. She's been called “dangerous”，“outrageous”，even a “monster” for her descriptions of how she brought up her two daughters.

Her book Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother describes fighting with a daughter for hours at the piano to ensure the child gets a piece of music right. She rejected birthday cards made for her by her girls because she didn't think they had made enough effort. She compared one child negatively with the other，threatening to burn their toys. Her rules include：schoolwork always comes first; an A ­ minus is a bad grade; children must be two years ahead of their classmates in math，and playing the violin or the piano is a must.

Ms. Chua considers the Chinese hard work ethic(道德) as a way of creating happy，successful children—at least in her case. Although she's had a large amount of flak for her theories，one thing can't be ignored—the success of Chinese children in the education system.

In Britain，shocking research shows that Chinese girls，for example，are outperforming all other foreign groups at GCSE—79 percent getting 5 A ­ C Grades，compared with 58 percent of white British girls. So what is it about Chinese parenting that's leading to high achievers？And how do Amy Chua's theories play into that success?

She told me that if her daughter came back from school with 96/100 in a test，Chua would ask her what happened to the other 4 points. It's about always knowing “you can do better”，she told me.

Interestingly，in China，the birthplace of the tiger mother，people are moving away from traditional Chinese parenting. They are following more western parenting styles.

1. After reading Amy Chua's recent book，the public ______.

A．feel very sorry for their own children

B．consider her a very successful mother

C．realize their methods of bringing up children are wrong

D．don't think highly of her methods of bringing up her children

2. The underlined word in the third paragraph probably means_____.

A．Attention	B．Criticism
C．Curiosity	D．Contribution

3. It can be inferred from the text that ______.

A．Amy Chua will change her methods

B．Amy Chua considers her methods useful

C．Amy Chua's children don't love their mother

D．Amy Chua's children prefer western parenting styles