1 . Chinese high school students who want to enter the Universily of Cambridge may find that their scores on the national college entrance examination, or gaokao, will help their applications in the future.
The University of Cambridge said in March that it has been using scores on gaokao as part of its admission criteria (标准)for Chinese students for several years, according to its official Weibo account. In addition to top scores on gaokao, Chinese applicants also need to meet English language requirements, participate in an interview and take a subject-specific wrillcn admission assessment (评估).
The gaokao has been crilicized by some as a one shot exam that focuses on rote learning (死记硬背)rather than creativity. However, more and more people believe that there's no perfect predictor (侦测指标) of academic performance, and gaokao has the advantage of being what educational experts call a criterion-referenced (标准参照) exam—tests when her students are able to master a given body of knowledge , as well as their ability to work hard and consistently. Recent years have seen more and more foreign universities begin to accept gaokao scores as part of the application process.
Despite the gaokao's growing acceptance among US universities, "There is a long way to go before the US education circle fully recognizes the gaokao, as there are still many US universities that don't accept it as part of their application process, " (Chu Zhaohui. a researcher from the National Institute of Education Sciences, told the Global Times.
1. According to Paragraph 2, we can learn that ________.| A．Chinese applicants need to apply for a Weibo account before attending the tests |
| B．apart from the scores on gaokao, Chinese students need to take part in other tests |
| C．scores on gaokao are used as an only admission criterion for Chinese students |
| D．Chinese applicants have to participate in online interviews |
| A．An increasingly number of people have criticized gaokao in recent years. |
| B．As a predictor of academic performance, gaokao is perfect. |
| C．Gaokao has its own advantages regardless of the disadvantages. |
| D．Students will gain the ability to work hard and consistently by attend ing gaokao. |
| A．gaokao will be abolished (废除)in the near future |
| B．most of the US universities have accepted gaokao as their admission criterion |
| C．it will take a long time for more US universities to accept gaokao |
| D．many US students want to apply for universities by attending gaokao |
| A．a science magazine | B．a short-story collection |
| C．a newspaper | D．an advertisement |
2 . When Kevin Durant gave his tearful MVP speech in 2014, the NBA star made sure to thank one person who had been there with him from the very beginning: his mother. His heartfelt words about the sacrifices she made for Durant and his brother led to a lifetime movie about her journey as a single parent, The Real MVP: The Wanda Durant Story.
Today, the NBA superstar’s mom travels the country as a motivational speaker and philanthropist (慈善家). On Monday, she spoke at Thomson Reuters’ in New York about her personal struggles to achieve financial stability and shared the financial advice she gave her son when he entered the league with CNBC.
“I wanted him to realize he has worked hard,” she says, “And it is OK for him to enjoy himself because of his hard work. But it is also imperative that he prepares for his future.” While she advised him to enjoy the rewards of his labor, she also wanted to make sure that her son knew the importance of financial planning.
She told the audience that when she found herself a single parent to two children at 21, she couldn’t follow the financial principles. Rather than planning for the future, she focused only on how her money could make ends meet for that moment.
Recently, Durant has teamed up with Laurene Powell Jobs for a new philanthropic program called College Track which is aimed at helping disadvantaged kids attend college. As part of the program, Durant has committed to donating $10 million to his hometown’s public school system.
Durant’s mom says that in addition to his financial decisions, she is proud of his philanthropic work and his desire to help the community. “I thought giving back was always very important, and so we talked about that and he had seen that from us as a family and it’s one of the things that I taught him,” she says.
1. What is The Real MVP: The Wanda Durant Story mainly about?| A．Durant’s career path. |
| B．Durant’s hard childhood. |
| C．Durant’s mother’s devotion to the family. |
| D．Durant’s mother’s struggling to be independent. |
| A．Enjoyable. | B．Important. |
| C．Unusual. | D．Hopeful. |
| A．Enjoying now and planning for the future. |
| B．Sharing rewards and creating a charity program. |
| C．Spending less money and saving for the emergencies. |
| D．Donating money to the charity and helping more schools. |
| A．His kind heart. | B．His poor hometown. |
| C．His mother’s teaching. | D．His difficult life experiences. |
3 . We might be surprised at the progress made in every field of study, but the methods of testing a person’s knowledge and ability remain as primitive as ever they were. It really is extraordinary that after all these years, educationists have still failed to design anything more efficient and reliable than examinations. For the claim that examinations test what you know, it is common knowledge that they more often do the exact opposite. They may be a good means of testing memory, or the knack(窍门) of working rapidly under extreme pressure, but they can tell you nothing about a person’s true ability and attitude.
As anxiety-makers, examinations are second to none. That is because so much depends on them. They are the marks of success or failure in our society. Your whole future may be decided in one fateful day. It doesn’t matter that you weren’t feeling very well, or that your mother died. Little things like that don’t count: the exam goes on. No one can give his best when he is in mortal terror, or after a sleepless night, yet this is precisely what the examination system expects him to do. The moment a child begins school, he enters a world of various competitions where success and failure are clearly defined and measured. Can we wonder at the increasing number of ‘drop-outs’: young people who are written off as failures before they have even started a career? Can we be surprised at the suicide rate among students?
A good education should, among other things, train you to think for yourself. The examination system does anything but that. What has to be learnt is rigidly laid down by a syllabus(教学大纲), so the student is encouraged to memorize. Examinations do not motivate a student to read widely, but to restrict his reading; they do not enable him to seek more and more knowledge, but induce cramming. They lower the standards of teaching, for they deprive(剥夺) the teacher of all freedoms. Teachers themselves are often judged by examination results and instead of teaching their subjects, they are reduced to training their students in exam techniques. The most successful candidates are not always the best educated; they are the best trained in the technique of working under pressure.
The results on which so much depends are often nothing more than a subjective assessment by some anonymous examiner. Examiners are only human. They get tired and hungry; they make mistakes. Yet they have to mark piles of hastily scrawled (潦草的) scripts in a limited amount of time. They work under the same sort of pressure as the candidates. And their word carries weight. After a judge’s decision you have the right of appeal, but not after an examiner’s. There must surely be many simpler and more effective ways of assessing a person’s true abilities.
1. The main idea of this passage is _______.| A．examinations produce a harmful influence on education |
| B．examinations are ineffective |
| C．examinations are important to students’ development |
| D．examinations are a burden on students |
| A．supportive | B．neutral | C．critical | D．indifferent |
| A．education | B．examiners | C．examinations | D．students themselves |
| A．to encourage students to read widely | B．to train students to think on their own |
| C．to teach students how to deal with exams | D．to master his fate |
| A．Judges are not important. |
| B．The examiner has the final say concerning the result of the examination. |
| C．Prisoners are more powerful than students. |
| D．The court decisions are often inaccurate. |
4 . Teaching Poetry
No poem should ever be discussed or "analyzed"， until it has been read aloud by someone， teacher or student． Better still， perhaps， is the practice of reading it twice， once at the beginning of the discussion and once at the end， so the sound of the poem is the last thing one hears of it．
All discussions of poetry are， in fact， preparations for reading it aloud， and the reading of the poem is， finally， the most telling "interpretation" of it， suggesting tone， rhythm， and meaning all at once． Hearing a poet read the work in his or her own voice， on records or on film， is obviously a special reward． But even those aids to teaching can not replace the student and teacher reading it or， best of all， reciting it．
I have come to think， in fact， that time spent reading a poem aloud is much more important than "analyzing" it， if there isn't time for both． I think one of our goals as teachers of English is to have students love poetry． Poetry is "a criticism of life"， and "a heightening of lief"． It is "an approach to the truth of feeling"， and it "can save your life"． It also deserves a place in the teaching of language and literature more central than it presently occupies．
I am not saying that every English teacher must teach poetry． Those who don't like it should not be forced to communicate this to anyone else． But those who do teach poetry must keep in mind a few thins about its essential nature， about its sound as well as its sense， and they must make room in the classroom for hearing poetry as well as thinking about it．
1. To have a better understanding of a poem， one should ．| A．analyze it by oneself |
| B．discuss it with others |
| C．practise reading it aloud |
| D．copy it down in a notebook |
| A．Extending your life |
| B．Saving your life |
| C．Criticizing life |
| D．Heightening life |
| A．The teaching of poetry is more important than any other subject． |
| B．More importance should be given to the teaching of poetry． |
| C．Poetry is the foundation of all language and literature courses． |
| D．One cannot enjoy life fully without an understanding of poetry． |
| A．provide equipment |
| B．build a school |
| C．set up a house |
| D．leave a certain amount of time |
5 . Generations of children grew up reading comic(漫画) books secretly, hiding out from parents and teachers who saw them as a waste of time and a risk to young minds. Comics are now gaining a new respectability at school. That is thanks to an increasingly popular and creative programme, often aimed at struggling readers, that encourages children to plot, write and draw comic books, in many cases using themes from their own lives.
The Comic Book Project was started in 2001 by Michael Bitz at an elementary school in Queens. Since its creation, the programme, which is mainly conducted after school, has spread to more than 850 schools across the country. It has gotten a big push from the craze(狂热) among adolescents for comic book clubs and for Manga, a widely popular variety of comic originating in Japan.
The point is not to drop a comic book on a child’s desk and say “read this”. Rather, the workshops give groups of students the opportunity to collaborate(合著) on often complex stories and characters that they then revise, publish and share with others in their communities.
Teachers are finding it easier to teach writing, grammar and punctuation with material that students are fully invested in(投入). And it turns out that comic books have other built-in advantages. The pairing of visual and written plotlines that they rely on appear to be especially helpful to struggling readers. No one is suggesting that comic books should substitute for traditional books or for standard reading and composition lessons. Teachers who would once have dismissed comics out of hand are learning to exploit(利用) a style that clearly has a powerful hold on young minds. They are using what works.
1. Which of the following is probably the best title of the passage?| A．Japanese Comic Books. |
| B．Comic Books in the Classroom. |
| C．Reading Efficiently. |
| D．A Current Craze. |
| A．develop the cooperation among adolescents |
| B．make sure that students live a rich and colourful life after school |
| C．help students who have some difficulty in reading |
| D．popularize a new method of teaching |
| A．comic books were first used in Japanese schools |
| B．parents have different opinions about their children reading comic books |
| C．more and more teachers will realize the advantages of comic books |
| D．comic books will be allowed to enter all the schools in the country |
6 . My mother has always been involved in early-childhood education. She often set the scene for children to
Mum was so proud of me after I
Since the Olympics, I have
As I was a kid, my mother came to every
When I was at the University, I completed only one semester and then decided to
“Mum, I have this opportunity, and I think I’m going to take it. What do you think?”
She was as
Supporting your children, trusting their decisions, giving well-thought-out advice—those are definitely important qualities.
1.| A．experience | B．evaluate | C．express | D．expect |
| A．afraid | B．ready | C．relaxed | D．reluctant |
| A．won | B．chose | C．played | D．watched |
| A．rose | B．settled | C．flew | D．appeared |
| A．luck | B．time | C．crossroad | D．opportunity |
| A．demand | B．happiness | C．courage | D．importance |
| A．display | B．follow | C．appreciate | D．abandon |
| A．served | B．attended | C．visited | D．started |
| A．energetic | B．colorful | C．miserable | D．ordinary |
| A．never | B．always | C．seldom | D．usually |
| A．neglect | B．achieve | C．suspect | D．assume |
| A．practice | B．school | C．game | D．kindergarten |
| A．support | B．reward | C．instruct | D．comfort |
| A．surfing | B．jumping | C．jogging | D．running |
| A．sitting | B．speaking | C．standing | D．performing |
| A．compete | B．succeed | C．separate | D．compromise |
| A．drop in | B．drop off | C．drop out | D．drop back |
| A．magic | B．nervous | C．critical | D．serious |
| A．attractive | B．talkative | C．imaginative | D．supportive |
| A．consideration | B．intention | C．suggestion | D．decision |
7 . It is widely acknowledged that it is by no means an easy task to bring up a child well. And our ancestors already understood it well. As an old proverb says, “It takes an entire village to raise a child.” That is being quoted more and more often these days. And I’m pleased about that.
Parents need to be involved in their children’s education in many ways. Helping children with homework and studying, going on a field trip, teaching a craft or coaching a child’s sports team are all great ways to be involved with your child’s education. And don’t forget to communicate with teachers—they need and respect your input. Studies show that children learn more and schools function better when parents and schools work together.
Communities can help children create and achieve new goals. There are other ways such as helping with homework. reading to a child, coaching a children’s team, providing emotional support, helping solve problems and building self-esteem（自尊）. Kids need role models and advisers can be role models by sharing their experiences and wisdom.
Businesses can also help shape our children’s future—invite a class from your local school to visit your workplace. You may be providing a glimpse that opens a new world of possibilities. Show students what goes on during a typical day. Give a mini course for students: how products are made; how machinery works. You may have a developing electrician, a teacher, a nurse, or even a newspaper reporter on your hands.
It really does lake an entire village to raise a child. So share the responsibility－and the joy—of bringing a child to his or her full potential.
1. What does the underlined sentence in Paragraph 1 mean?| A．Raising a child well needs various efforts. |
| B．Communities play an important part in raising a child. |
| C．Our ancestors raised a child by using the whole village’s food. |
| D．People in the same village should take care of a child together. |
| A．Family education. | B．School education. |
| C．Life-long education. | D．Karly childhood education. |
| A．talent | B．health |
| C．grades | D．occupations |
| A．To show his research on education. |
| B．To call for more attention to children. |
| C．To make examples of education reform. |
| D．To introduce some ways to teach children well. |
8 . The story told to all American children about honesty is about the cherry tree that President George Washington cut when he was a boy. In China, every child knows the story of Lei Feng, the young soldier who helped others and was very honest. The stories of George Washington and Lei Feng help us understand the importance of being honest.
Every teacher wants his or her students to be honest. If every student can be honest in their childhood, they will be honest when they become adults. The country will then be known as an honest country and it will be respected by everyone.
Usually, it is the father and the mother who give the first lessons of honesty. George Washington learned honesty from his father.
A favorite Chinese story is about a young man who went to the market to buy food for his mother. There was a very young girl there who was selling flowers. The young man stole one flower when the girl served her customer.
When he went home, he began to think what he had done. He went back to the market to find the girl. He told her that he was sorry and that he wanted to pay her for the flower. The little girl refused and said, "You do not need to pay for the flower, elder brother. Since you took it, I thought you had a reason to take it so I did not worry about receiving money for it."The young man was ashamed that he stole the flower. He could never forget about the importance of being honest.
1. What do we know from the stories of George Washington and Lei Feng?| A．George Washington was the president of America. |
| B．Lei Feng was a young soldier who helped others. |
| C．We had heard the stories when we were only children. |
| D．They help us understand the importance of being honest. |
| A．George Washington. | B．Lei Feng. | C．Parents. | D．Teacher. |
| A．Because the young man had realized his mistake. |
| B．Because her flowers were free. |
| C．Because she knew the young man well. |
| D．Because the flowers were very cheap, and she sent one to the young man. |
| A．Because it is one of the lessons required for study in every country. |
| B．Because if a child is honest in his/her childhood, he/she will be honest when growing up. |
| C．Because honest people are becoming less and less in most countries. |
| D．Because teachers are afraid of students’ stealing things when they are still in school. |
9 . As the world around them is changing, teenagers continue to need guidance and support from both parents. Studies show that teens who have an active relationship with their fathers are less likely (可能的)to involve themselves in dangerous behaviors and more likely ton succeed in school and develop higher self-worth, because their fathers go beyond social expectations to devote attention to them.
Peer (同龄人) pressure has always been a big part of the teens’ experience. Even the best father can’t completely protect their kids from the growing influence of their peer group. However, studies show that teenagers whose fathers focus on their lives are more likely to resist (抵抗) the more bad effects of peer pressure, taking drugs, for example.
Teens may not like to admit it, but they are watching their parents closely and often follow their example. An interesting finding explains just how important parents are, especially Dad. Swiss researchers discovered that if Dad attends church, even though Mom doesn’t, 44 percent of the kids are still more likely to keep going to church as adults. But if Mom goes regularly and Dad never shows up, only 2 percent of the kids continue to attend.
Teenagers face a lot of difficult choices, especially in their later teens. Fathers don’t get to make those choices for them, but they can be influenced. For example, teenagers can learn a lot from their parents’ concern on what to do when they finish high school. Should they go directly to college and, if so, where? Should they consider going to trade schools, joining the army or looking for a job?A father’s guidance brings a long-term perspective that teens often lack to these important decisions.
1. Teenagers without fathers’ focus are more likely to________.| A．have higher self-worth |
| B．experience some dangerous things |
| C．become the best students in school |
| D．resist all bad effects of peer pressure |
| A．More teenagers pay no attention to their parents. |
| B．Teenagers never attend church with their mothers. |
| C．Teenagers often treat their fathers as role models. |
| D．Fewer teenagers like to attend church wit h their fathers. |
| A．lots of concern |
| B．job |
| C．school |
| D．point of view |
| A．Teenagers are greatly influenced by their fathers. |
| B．Teenagers care less about what their parents do. |
| C．Mothers have no effect on their children’s life. |
| D．Fathers should make choices for teenagers directly. |
10 . If you are in a dilemma about being self-taught or getting formal education, you have come to the right webpage. In this article, we note the advantages of each of these to help you decide which one would be the best for you.
Perhaps the biggest advantage of being self-taught is that you are able to save a lot of money. With each passing year, the cost of getting a degree is on the rise. As a result, many students these days tend to graduate from college with a significant amount of debt. This makes it necessary for them to get a job as soon as possible, otherwise a number of serious issues may arise. Besides, it is possible to learn faster on your own, by focusing on only those areas that you are interested in. Finally, learning on your own can be a great confidence builder. You have to struggle to gain knowledge but once you clear the basics on your own, you will find yourself being much more confident about your abilities.
One of the biggest advantages of formal education is that you get a degree which is a mark of recognition that you have achieved a level of knowledge in that particular field. Many companies tend to prefer candidates who have a college degree. What’s more, though formal education lacks the convenience and flexibility of self-education, it offers you much more in terms of the actual structure of the learning process. Last, being formally educated means that you will enter a college or other similar educational institutions. There you will get the benefit of being taught and guided by learned teachers and other subject experts. This will be a big benefit as you will be able to take advantage of their experience and gain in-depth knowledge about the subject.
Thus, both formal education and self-education have their own sets of advantages. The choice between the two comes down to individual preferences as well as personal situations.
1. Which of the following is an advantage of self-education?| A．A faster pace of learning |
| B．Being guided by subject experts |
| C．A wider range of ways to gain knowledge |
| D．Having more chances of getting part-time jobs. |
| A．choose self-education |
| B．enter an educational institution |
| C．work for learned teachers |
| D．make use of webpages about education |
| A．The reputation of educational institutions. |
| B．The knowledge of teachers and experts. |
| C．The opinions of relatives and friends. |
| D．One’s preference and situations. |
| A．To promote a webpage about education. |
| B．To prove that self-education is the best choice. |
| C．To help readers choose between two form of education. |
| D．To prove that it’s difficult to decide on the proper education. |
