1 . Much of the public debate around early childhood education comes down to which matters more： academics or play. That's a false dilemma. Play is really the way that young children learn and guided play is the key. It's a way that they experience the world, and it helps them learn more deeply.
We should be concerned that the“skill and drill”approach to teaching academics is most frequently used in classrooms serving at-risk preschoolers, in an attempt to close the gap on school readiness. Unfortunately, these teaching methods can turn young kids off to school and introduces the possibility of shame and anxiety. 46 Skill and drill” doesn't teach kids the curiosity and critical (批判的）thinking skills that they need to develop in early childhood.
However, pure free play—an approach advocated more frequently by wealthier groups—also misses the mark. “I hear a lot about just ‘free play classrooms’. ” But Suzanne Bouffard, an education researcher, said if it only involves setting out materials and not thinking about learning goals, there’s a real missed opportunity. For example, she said, researchers have found that children used more complex language about building activities when they had a goal in mind.
What effective preschools aim for is “guided play”，in which adults create a purposeful play environment that encourages students to explore，For example, in setting up blocks, a teacher might put up pictures of buildings to inspire kids. They may ask students, “What are you doing?” and gently push kids’ thinking by offering new information.
Of course, the ability to find this balance rests with teachers. Good teachers make it look really easy，That's why it's really important that we invest(投入）in teachers and give them the training to guide play without overly controlling it and to encourage kids to develop an understanding of letters and numbers without “skill and drill”.
1. Which of the following matters most in early childhood education?| A．Having guided play. | B．Learning after play. |
| C．Seeing the world. | D．Studying academic courses. |
| A．It works best for preschoolers. |
| B．It helps develop kids’ curiosity. |
| C．It limits kids’ development. |
| D．It bridges the gap on school readiness. |
| A．Meets learning goals. | B．Loses points in exams. |
| C．Troubles the classroom. | D．Fails to achieve the goal. |
| A．To encourage the kids to copy. |
| B．To offer extra information. |
| C．To share the teaching purpose with the kids. |
| D．To inspire the kids to explore. |
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 . Reducing class size has traditionally been seen as an important way to improve a student’s educational experience. Many often believe that smaller classes would permit teachers to give more personal attention to their students.
But one recent study suggests there's not much research-based evidence to support this idea. The research was collected by a team from Denmark's Danish Center for Social Science Research.
The study notes that one of the main problems with reducing class size is that it can have very high costs.
The new study began by examining 127 studies on classroom size. Its goal was to examine the major research studies already completed on the subject.
The researchers concluded that there's some evidence to suggest that reducing class size may lead to some improvement in a student 's reading achievement.
| A．But they said the effect is very small |
| B．For mathematics achievement, the result was 49 percent |
| C．This can theoretically lead to improved academic results for students |
| D．Many public opinion studies have shown teachers favor smaller class sizes |
| E．The effects of larger class size can stay long after the students complete their education |
| F．Increasing class size is one of the most common ways school systems control education spending |
| G．They especially centered on those trying to measure if smaller class size led to greater academic success |
4 . With golden sunshine and a gentle breeze（微风）, autumn is the most beautiful seasons in the year. This is a great time to go outside and have fun. Go to a valley to see red maple trees,go and pick fruit in an orchard or find an open field to fly your kite in.
However, for many high school students, these great activities may be just a dream. With plenty of work to do, they spend all their hours indoors, struggling for a high mark in their exams. Of course, study is one of the most important things for teenagers. But life is definitely much more than that.
Sometimes we spend so much time studying that we forget how to make life wonderful. In doing so, we lose the real purpose of life —to be a valuable and happy person. To enjoy just how great it is to be alive, we have to put down our books and pens and look around us. Students, take some exercise to improve your health, talk with your parents and friends for understanding and walk around outside to refresh（振作）our body and mind.
Going out and enjoying the beautiful countryside often helps our creativity in our work. Chinese craftsman, Lu Ban created a saw to help woodworkers. But if he hadn’t walked outside, he would not have been inspired by a kind of toothed（锯齿状的）grass. We could also suppose if Newton hadn’t rested under that apple tree, then he wouldn’t have been hit by an apple, and his classic（经典的）theories would not have come out.
Going out is not only a break from hard work, but a chance to add to life experience. So come on, give your brain a good rest. Step out of the books and get your bag ready for an autumn outing. We are sure you will get much more than knowledge from the exciting journey.
1. In which paragraph does the writer make a summary about his opinion?| A．Paragraph 1. | B．Paragraph 2. |
| C．Paragraph 4. | D．Paragraph 5. |
| A．They are unhappy to do so. |
| B．They have too much work to do for getting high marks in the exams. |
| C．Their parents don’t allow them to do so. |
| D．They think study is the most important thing for them. |
| A．describing the beautiful scenery in Autumn |
| B．pointing out the present situation of high school students |
| C．making predictions |
| D．reasoning and giving examples |
| A．Going out can make high school students get more. |
| B．Nature is power. |
| C．All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. |
| D．The author isn’t happy with our education at all. |
5 . Encouraging early reading skills can build a path to a lifelong love of reading and can help your child get a head start in school. While reading to your child is still the most important thing you can do to build reading skills, there are many techniques that can help.
Make reading fun. Play games with your child as you read. Many traditional children’s games can be adapted to encourage reading skills. While reading or during play, tell your child, “I spy with my little eye, something that begins with the letter ‘b’.” Help the child find something on the page or in the room that begins with that letter. For example, “I see a barn.” This can also be used to teach beginning letter sounds. “I spy with my little eye, something that begins with the sound‘s’.” Help the child find a word that begins with the “s” sound.
In this variation(变化) on the popular game, instruct the child that, “Simon says, ‘point to something that starts with the letter ‘n’.’” The child can then find an object in the room or a body part, such as the nose, that starts with the letter presented. This can also be used to teach beginning sounds.
Make a game out of rhyming (押韵) words by making up silly words to rhyme with the child’s name or favorite toys. This sets the stage for rhyming real words by showing the child the similarities of sounds. As the child masters making up the words, begin rhyming real words to one another.
Tips to raise a successful reader:
Put books in places where the child plays. If books are easily accessible, children are more likely to pick them up.
Let children “read to you” by looking at pictures. Making up stories to go along with illustrations helps children discover how words relate to pictures.
Take books along on trips or even short visits to the doctor’s office or grocery store.
Have children help you shop. Reading grocery lists and looking for specific items help build vocabulary.
1. Which of the following statements is TRUE?| A．A good reading habit can benefit your child at school. |
| B．Computer games help children develop reading skills. |
| C．You should be careful as for what books to read. |
| D．Children enjoy reading poems to their parents. |
| A．The most important thing is to make reading funny. |
| B．Children have a preference for stories with pictures. |
| C．Rhyming games should begin only with real words. |
| D．Children tend to read more if books are at hand. |
| A．Interest is the best teacher |
| B．Practice makes perfect |
| C．Good methods are half done |
| D．Failure teaches success |
| A．Parents. |
| B．Children |
| C．Educators. |
| D．People in general. |
6 . Daniel Anderson, a famous psychologist, believes it’s important to distinguish television’s influences on children from those of the family. We tend to blame TV, he says, for problems it doesn’t really cause, overlooking our own roles in shaping children’s minds.
One traditional belief about television is that it reduces a child’s ability to think and to understand the world. While watching TV, children do not merely absorb words and images (影像). Instead, they learn both explicit and hidden meanings from what they see. Actually, children learn early the psychology of characters in TV shows. Furthermore, as many teachers agree, children understand far more when parents watch TV with them, explaining new words and ideas. Yet, most parents use an educational program as a chance to park their kids in front of the set and do something in another room.
Another argument against television is that it replaces reading as a form of entertainment. But according to Anderson, the amount of time spent watching television is not related to reading ability. TV doesn’t take the place of reading for most children; it takes the place of similar sorts of recreation, such as listening to the radio and playing sports. Things like parents’ educational background have a stronger influence on a child’s reading. “A child’s reading ability is best predicted by how much a parent reads,” Anderson says.
Traditional wisdom also has it that heavy televisionwatching lowers IQ (智商) scores and affects school performance. But here, too, Anderson notes that no studies have proved it. In fact, research suggests that it’s the other way around. “If you’re smart young, you’ll watch less TV when you’re older,” Anderson says. Yet, people of lower IQ tend to be lifelong television viewers.
For years researchers have attempted to show that television is dangerous to children. However, by showing that television promotes none of the dangerous effects as conventionally believed, Anderson suggests that television cannot be condemned without considering other influences.
1. By watching TV, children learn ________.| A．images through words |
| B．more than explicit meanings |
| C．more about images than words |
| D．little about people’s psychology |
| A．on his own | B．with other kids |
| C．with his parents | D．with his teachers |
| A．Radiolistening. |
| B．Televisionwatching. |
| C．Parents’ reading list. |
| D．Parents’ educational background. |
| A．To advise on the educational use of TV. |
| B．To describe TV’s harmful effects on children. |
| C．To explain traditional views on TV influences. |
| D．To present Anderson’s unconventional ideas. |
7 . A long-term American study shows the importance of early education for poor children. The study is known as the Abecedarian (初步的) Project. It involved more than one-hundred young children from poor families in North Carolina.
Half of the children attended an all-day program at a high-quality childcare center. The center offered educational, health and social programs. Children took part in games and activities to increase their thinking and language skills and social and emotional development. The program also included health foods for the children.
The children attended the program from when they were a few weeks old until the age of five years. The other group of children did not attend the childcare center. After the age of five, both groups attended public school.
Researchers compared the two groups of children. When they were babies, both groups had similar results in tests for mental and physical skills. However, from the age of eighteen months, the children in the educational child care program did much better in tests.
The researchers tested the children again when they were twelve and fifteen years old. The tests found that the children who had been in the childcare center continued to have higher average test results. These children did much better on tests of reading and mathematics.
A few years ago, organizers of the Abecedarian Project tested the students again. At the time, each student was twenty-one years old. They were tested for thinking and educational ability, employment, parenting and social skills. The researchers found that the young adults who had the early education still did better in reading and mathematics tests. They were more than two times as likely to go to college or to have completed college. In addition, the children who received early education were older on average, when their first child was born.
The study offers more evidence that learning during the first months and years of life is important for all later development.
The researchers of the Abecedarian Project believe their study shows a need for lawmakers to spend money on public early education. They believe these kinds of programs could reduce the number of children who do not complete school and are unemployed.
1. The Abecedarian Project has lasted ______.| A．almost one year | B．about five years | C．more than 20 years | D．no more than 15 years |
| A．They were more likely to go to college. | B．They had children earlier． |
| C．They had the same results in tests. | D．They are less sociable． |
| A．involves children from rich families |
| B．doesn’t provide food for children |
| C．offers foreign teachers to help improve children’s language skills |
| D．studies the importance of an early education for poor children |
| A．How important early education is for poor children. |
| B．What the children learned at the child-care center. |
| C．How many children are involved in the Abecedarian Project. |
| D．Whether lawmakers will spend money on public early education. |
8 . Once a child reaches their teenage years, many parents may think it is too late to help them change a negative attitude. This is not the case, and while it may take longer, it is possible to help your child develop a positive attitude. Having a positive attitude is important to a teenager’s happiness and success.
Judge your own attitude.
Teach your teen to aim high, while showing her how to acknowledge her limitations.
Try to praise your teenager when he deserves it. Show him you value him and recognize when he makes positive choices.
| A．Teach them how to self-talk. |
| B．A child’s attitude is a learned behavior. |
| C．Avoid unkind blames to affect your teen’s attitude. |
| D．A negative attitude can result in them feeling upset. |
| E．There is no problem having reasonable dreams. |
| F．Most teenagers will appreciate their parent’s praise. |
| G．Encourage him to take up new hobbies or interests. |
The criminal said: one day, my mother brought some apples and asked my brother and me: “Which do you want?” “The reddest and biggest one,” my little brother said. My mother stared at him and said to him angrily: “You should learn to give the good things to others; you shouldn’t always think of yourself.” Seeing this, I suddenly changed my idea and then said to my mother, “Mum, please give me the smaller one and give the bigger one to my little brother.” Hearing my words, my mother was very happy. She kissed me on my face and gave the reddest and biggest apple to me as a prize. From them on, I learned to tell lies, fight, steal and rob. In order to get what I wanted, I played hard. As a result, I was sent into prison.
The famous man from the white house said, One day, my mother brought some apples. She said to my brother and me: “You all want the reddest and biggest one, right? Well, let’s have a competition. Now I divided the grassland in front of the gate into two and I will give one to each of you and you must shear(修剪) it well. And I will give the reddest and biggest apple to him who does it the most quickly and best.”
After the competition, I won and I got the biggest apple. In our family, as long as you want to get the best things, you must take part in competition. I think it is fair. No matter what you want, you must pay lots of efforts.
1. The criminal got the reddest and biggest apple because______.
| A．he knew how to make his mother happy from her answer |
| B．he told the truth that he wanted a smaller one |
| C．elder brother should of course have the bigger one |
| D．his mother loved him more than she loved the younger brother |
| A．it’s wrong to ask children to choose apples when they are not old enough. |
| B．it’s wrong to ask children not to always think of themselves. |
| C．it’s important to make children aware that no matter what they want, they must pay work |
| D．it’s always necessary to have a competition when we give children apple. |
| A．organizing it in the order of time. |
| B．describing it in the order of space |
| C．providing some scientific information |
| D．making a comparison between two men |
| A．a mother’s educational method has a great influence on a child’s growing. |
| B．in order to get what we want, we should play hard. |
| C．we should always try to win competitions which can bring us a lot. |
| D．giving children apples will lead them to become criminals. |
One cost-cutting proposal is to allow college students to get a bachelor’s degree in three years instead of four. Educational institutions have been actively exploring ways to make the learning process more efficient. But there’s a question: Would the quality of undergraduate education suffer? Few US universities have formally approved a “three-year degree” model.
I doubt that mainstream North American colleges will carry out a three-year curriculum any time soon. For one thing, most universities already allow highly qualified students to graduate early by testing out of certain classes and obtaining a number of college credits. In addition, at famous universities, the committee who determine which courses are required and which courses are electives are unlikely to suddenly “throw out” one quarter of the required credits. Professors will resist “diluting(稀释)”the quality of the education they offer.
In my opinion, a quality four-year education is always superior to a quality three-year education. A college education requires sufficient time for a student to become skilled in their major and do coursework in fields outside their major. It is not a good idea to water down education, any more than it’s not a good idea to water down medicine. If we want to help students find their way through university, we should help them understand early on what knowledge and skills they need to have upon graduation. We should allow students to test out of as many courses as possible. We should give them a chance to earn money as interns(实习生)in meaningful part-time jobs that relate to their university studies, such as the five-year co-op program at Northeastern University.
1. Which of the following can be the best title?
| A．It’s time to shorten the learning process |
| B．Best learning takes place over time |
| C．University education should be watered down |
| D．College education calls for reform |
| A．some excellent students can graduate ahead of time |
| B．college students are offered the co-op program |
| C．electives’ credits make up one quarter of the required credits |
| D．all students are required to finish four-year education before graduation |
| A．the author is a college professor |
| B．the author considers the university education quality very important |
| C．the author thinks the cost of a university education is too high for people to afford |
| D．the author pays special attention to the all-round development of college students |
| A．explanation | B．Definition | C．Comment | D．introduction |
