1 . Turning soil, pulling weeds, and harvesting cabbage sound like tough work for middle and high school kids. And at first it is, says Abby Jaramillo, who with another teacher started Urban Sprouts, a school garden program at four low-income schools. The program aims to help students develop science skills, environmental awareness, and healthy lifestyles.
Jaramillo’s students live in neighborhoods where fresh food and green space are not easy to find and fast food restaurants outnumber grocery stores. “The kids literally come to school with bags of snacks and large bottles of soft drinks,” she says. “They come to us thinking vegetables are awful, dirt is awful, insects are awful.” Though some are initially scared of the insects and turned off by the dirt, most are eager to try something new.
Urban Sprouts’ classes, at two middle schools and two high schools, include hands-on experiments such as soil testing, flower-and-seed dissection, tastings of fresh or dried produce, and work in the garden. Several times a year, students cook the vegetables they grow, and they occasionally make salads for their entire schools.
Program evaluations show that kids eat more vegetables as a result of the classes. “We have students who say they went home and talked to their parents and now they’re eating differently,” Jaramillo says.
She adds that the program’s benefits go beyond nutrition. Some students get so interested in gardening that they bring home seeds to start their own vegetable gardens. Besides, working in the garden seems to have a calming effect on Jaramillo’s special education students, many of whom have emotional control issues. “They get outside,” she says, “and they feel successful.”
1. What do we know about Abby Jaramillo?| A．She used to be a health worker. | B．She grew up in a low-income family. |
| C．She owns a fast food restaurant. | D．She is an initiator of Urban Sprouts. |
| A．The kids’ parents distrusted her. | B．Students had little time for her classes. |
| C．Some kids disliked garden work. | D．There was no space for school gardens. |
| A．Far-reaching. | B．Predictable. |
| C．Short-lived. | D．Unidentifiable. |
| A．Rescuing School Gardens | B．Experiencing Country Life |
| C．Growing Vegetable Lovers | D．Changing Local Landscape |
2 . Education today really isn’t that much different from what it was a hundred years ago. It’s still classrooms full of students all learning the same thing at the same pace from teachers who spend thirty years teaching more or less the same thing.
However, the world that the next generation will grow up in will be different from anything we have seen. It will be a world filled with artificial intelligence, genetic engineering, automation, virtual reality, personalized medicine, self-driving cars, and people on Mars; a world where people might not even have jobs and where society itself may be arranged in fundamentally different ways. How are we supposed to know how to prepare them to succeed in a world that we cannot predict?
It starts by rethinking what a school is. The role of school should no longer be to fill heads with information, rather it should be a place that inspires students to be curious about the world they live in. Don’t hold back that curiosity by making them spend their childhoods preparing for one test after another.
The ability to adapt and learn something new should be valued above all else. Gone are the days when you pick a profession and just do that one thing for the rest of your life. People will need to know how to learn something new multiple times over in their lives because our knowledge of the world and who we are is progressing incredibly quickly. If the last time you learned anything new was when you were in school then you will be missing out on the new ways of understanding the world.
In addition, education should give people an understanding that the world is not divided up into different subjects. All fields of knowledge bleed into each other and none can be fully understood in isolation (孤立).
Much of this may seem idealistic or unrealistic, but change is needed if we are going to figure out how to live in the future.
1. What’s the purpose of the first paragraph?| A．To present the complexity of education. |
| B．To stress the importance of education. |
| C．To describe what education used to be like. |
| D．To suggest education is far behind the times. |
| A．To inspire students’ curiosity. |
| B．To guarantee happy childhood. |
| C．To provide sufficient information. |
| D．To prepare students for a lifelong profession. |
| A．One should learn as much as he can at school. |
| B．Schools should teach new ways to change the world. |
| C．Students’ ability to adapt should be the priority of education. |
| D．School subjects reflect how the world is divided into different fields. |
| A．Standards Tests Remove Students’ Curiosity |
| B．Gone Are the Days of Traditional School Education |
| C．It’s Time to Change How We Educate Our Children |
| D．Change in Education Is Too Idealistic and Unrealistic |
3 . Thousands of students, faculty and staff boycotted classes and staged rallies across the 10-campus University of California (UC) on Thursday to protest dramatic cuts to the system’s budget and proposed additional hikes in undergraduate fees.
The authorities of the University of California, stung by a 20% cutback in state support due to the state budget crisis, are planning to increase student fees another 32%. The University of California system must chop $637 million out of its budget this year following the agreement between Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and the legislature on how to close California’s massive $26 billion gap in July. Many of the protesters believe the constant increase in fees over the past decade is endangering the university’s mission as a public university that offers students an outstanding education at a cost that middle- and working-class families can afford.
“It’s not just an economic crisis,” says Shannon Steen, a UC Berkeley professor who helped form Save the University to protest cuts to the budget, “it’s really a political crisis around the two-thirds rule in the legislature that holds the state hostage to a minority of legislators who are not doing what the people of California want”. California is the only state in the nation that has a two-thirds requirement for the passage of tax increases and to pass a budget. These two rules are at the root of the state’s chronic budget grief.
UC Irvine Anthropology Professor Victonia Bernal spoke passionately to about 125 students in the Social Science Hall saying “the beauty of the University of California is that it is an elite intellectual institution, but it is not elitist. If there were huge problems with the University of California, that would be one thing. Instead, we are taking something that by all measures is a great success and tearing it down.” Student leader Isaac Miller says the university community came together to “protest the defunding of public education by the State of California and the crisis of priorities of the university administration.” “It was stunning,” says Steen. “In the 20 years since I was an undergraduate here, I have never seen anything like this.”
The demonstrations did not disrupt schoolwork. A spokesman for University of California President Mark Yudof said most classes were held and that “most of the action was at the rallies.” But there will be more rallies. Protest organizers at Berkeley said that discussions are under way for a march on Sacramento that would include participants from the UCs, the 23-campus California State University system and the states’ junior colleges.“This is just the beginning,” says Miller. “It’s a wake up call to students about what is happening to their education.”
1. The University of California system must cut its budget because______ .| A．it has a financial deficit this year |
| B．it reached an agreement with the governor |
| C．the state is in financial difficulty |
| D．the state ordered it to cut undergraduate fees |
| A．It embodies the concept of democracy. |
| B．It helps the state avoid a political crisis. |
| C．It ensures the benefits of the majority. |
| D．It puts the state in the hand of the few. |
| A．the state should give priority to education |
| B．the state should give priority to the UC |
| C．the UC is prioritizing its administration |
| D．the UC is losing control of its priorities |
| A．intensified | B．alleviated | C．reshaped | D．specified |
4 . A new study from North Carolina State University found that biology textbooks have done a poor job of including material related to climate change. For example, the study found that most biology textbooks published in the 2010s included less information about climate change than they did in the previous decade--despite significant advances in our understanding of how climate change is influencing ecosystems and the environment.
“In short, we found biology textbooks are failing to share enough information about climate change, which is a generation-defining topic in the life sciences,” says Jennifer Landin, author of the study. “These books are the baseline texts for helping students understand the science of life on Earth, yet they are providing very little information about a phenomenon that is having a great impact on habitats, ecosystems, agriculture--almost every aspect (方面) of life on Earth,”
For the study, researchers investigated coverage of climate change in 57 college biology textbooks published between 1970 and 2019. The researchers found climate coverage has varied greatly over those five decades and that the amount of climate coverage in textbooks fell off in the 2010s. In addition to length, the nature of the content has also changed greatly over time.
“One of the most troubling findings was that textbooks are devoting less space to addressing climate solutions now than they did in the 1990s--even as they focus more on the effects of climate change,” Landin says. “That suggests to students that nothing can be done,which is both wildly misleading and contributes to a sense of fatalism (宿命论) regarding cli-mate change.”
“We are hoping that this study will serve as a wake-up call for publishers and instructors. We need to do a much better job of putting climate change into our courses if we want to pre-pare students to understand the role that climate change is playing in shaping life on Earth and how we study it,” Landin says.
1. What is the example in paragraph 1 used to do?| A．Prove biology textbooks’ poor performance. |
| B．Show the dissatisfaction with climate change. |
| C．Attract the attention of students studying biology. |
| D．Show the content of textbooks published in the 2010s. |
| A．No enough material about climate change. |
| B．Providing little new information about biology. |
| C．Not covering every aspect of life on Earth. |
| D．No generation-defining topics in the textbooks. |
| A．By tracking textbook publishers. |
| B．By doing surveys of students in colleges. |
| C．By observing climate change for 50 years. |
| D．By investigating college biology textbooks. |
| A．A wake up call for biology science. |
| B．A warning to take biology seriously. |
| C．A direction of studying climate change. |
| D．An alarm bell for publishers and teachers. |
5 . “The arrival of ChatGPT will push educators to focus more on teaching subjects that technology is not good at.” Andreas Schleicher said, who is director of education and skills for the Organization of Economic Co-operation and Development. He welcomes this development and thinks it gives people the chance to concentrate less on tasks that technology can also do well.
The future is not about technology vs humans. The future is about integrating technology with humans. ChatGPT pushes us to think harder of what makes us human.
“The world no longer rewards you just for what you know. Baidu knows everything. The world rewards you for what you can do with what you know, and ChatGPT pushes us to work harder on this. If students are only as smart as a smartphone, it means educators are not doing enough. People should focus on developing human skills that actually are important, such as imagination and creativity.” Schleicher said in an interview with China Daily on the sidelines of the World Digital Education Conference.
The arrival of artificial intelligence (AI) really pushes people to think hard about what education is and the purpose it serves, as well as what knowledge, skills, attitudes and values humans have that complement (补充) artificial intelligence.
ChatGPT is not connected to the Internet, so it can’t replace search engines. Search engines such as Google or Baidu simply extract (提取) knowledge, while ChatGPT goes a step further and analyzes a search before providing a single answer.
As a device, ChatGPT is going to make learning much more interesting and powerful, but as a purpose and objective, humans need to work very hard to win that race with technology.
1. What may Schleicher agree with?| A．ChatGPT is fighting against humans. |
| B．Students are just as smart as a smartphone. |
| C．People who can do with their knowledge will be more successful. |
| D．ChatGPT pushes educators to concentrate more on subjects technology is good at. |
| A．ChatGPT has connection to the Internet. |
| B．ChatGPT has the function of analysis. |
| C．ChatGPT is a more powerful search engine. |
| D．ChatGPT knows more than Google and Baidu. |
| A．ChatGPT to Influence Future Education |
| B．The Future Development of ChatGPT |
| C．The Development of Future Education |
| D．The Race between ChatGPT and Humans |
| A．Tourism. | B．Business. |
| C．Education. | D．Amusement. |
1. How many villagers were unable to read?
| A．Six percent. | B．Fifty percent. | C．Sixty percent. |
| A．Making a speech. | B．Singing. | C．Farming. |
| A．All children can receive a good education. |
| B．Hunger can be defeated in the world. |
| C．There is no war in the world again. |
7 . Parents and teachers worry about the loss of learning caused by the COVID-19 and want to catch up immediately. But it’s unrealistic to think that a few months will fully close the gaps.
Educators tend to underestimate the importance of knowledge, as though rote (死记硬背) teaching harms teaching higher-order thinking. But science shows otherwise. The processes that teachers care about most, like critical thinking, are closely interconnected with factual knowledge stored in long-term memory. Yet we continue to romanticize an impossible shortcut: teaching critical thinking as if it were a universally applicable skill.
Take the subject of reading, which schools see as thinking skills that can be taught directly: I will teach students what an inference is. Actually, students make inferences when they can read fluently and have the vocabulary and background knowledge to name what is unsaid.
Educators also often underestimate memory. Cognitive (认知的) scientist Paul Kirschner argues that building memory is “the aim of all teaching” and that “if nothing has changed in long-term memory, nothing has been learned”. At the end of a lesson, if students appear to understand an idea, their teacher may think, “Great, they really understand the point.” But if weeks later, the students forget it, learning has not really occurred.
Finally, we must consider students’ emotional needs. Belonging is one of the most profound (深切的) human emotions. Consider a classroom in which students are socialized to comment: “I agree with Cassidy and want to provide another example.” That conveys to Cassidy that her comments were meaningful. This would also be achieved if, when Cassidy is speaking, her classmates are looking at her, nodding and sending positive nonverbal social signals that they value her words. Only peers can provide this sense of belonging, but teachers can cultivate the environment.
All in all, if we want to benefit students, we must ground our teaching in the science that value knowledge and memory, and the role that belonging plays in students’ study.
1. What can we know about critical thinking according to the passage?| A．It can be taught directly. | B．It is gradually formed. |
| C．It is deeply rooted in reading. | D．It is universally applicable. |
| A．When students perform well in class activities. |
| B．When students understand what has been taught. |
| C．When students achieve changes in long-term memory. |
| D．When students start to forget unnecessary information. |
| A．Nonverbal social signals matters in class. |
| B．Being sociable in the classroom is important. |
| C．Students should support each other in class discussions. |
| D．Classrooms are where the feeling of belonging is developed. |
| A．To urge schools to teach more knowledge. |
| B．To show concern about the influence of COVID-19. |
| C．To promote higher-order thinking like critical thinking. |
| D．To suggest a scientific way to catch up the loss of learning. |
8 . One morning, my four-year-old daughter and I were getting ready to leave the house when she suddenly yelled “Idiot!” right at me. As I processed the word, I noticed she was upset. Tears streamed down her face as she half whispered and half yelled “you are an IDIOT Mama.” Total silence followed as we looked at each other. We were staring at each other for so long, and I nearly forgot to breathe out, and in again. Idiot. How could my daughter call me an idiot?
There are many behaviors that really push parents’ buttons. Disrespectful, rude words tend to top the list. The wrong response to such rude remarks is often a serious warning. But I didn’t offer any serious remarks.
I realized that my daughter’s intention wasn’t to disrespect me. She was expressing the disconnection. And punishment doesn’t solve disconnection. It creates more of it. Her choice of word said it all. She was annoyed. She sensed the stress. I needed to hear her. I was being careless. I was the one being rude to her.
So, why punish our children when they need guidance? We must know the words we use matter, and become our children’s words too. The words include those we use to handle emotional overload. Idiot is a word I regretfully must admit to using when I’m extremely annoyed. Not at my children, but yes, they have heard me say it. So, instead of punishing my daughter for misbehavior, I chose to focus on her real message: Idiot means that “Mom, you are stressing me out!”.
No blame. No punishment for honest feelings. No criticizing her choice of words. Just focus on our relationship. I admitted my ignoring her, and we hugged and kissed each other. I walked into her play school with interest and was ready to see all her current projects.
Don’t be afraid to focus on your relationship, to show kindness, and to model forgiveness. Don’t be afraid to look beyond misbehavior, find the true message and trust the power of connection.
1. After hearing her daughter’s words, the author ________.| A．lost her temper | B．gave her a warning |
| C．couldn’t believe it | D．had a talk with her |
| A．Cheer parents up. | B．Make parents annoyed. |
| C．Follow parents’ advice. | D．Distract parents’ attention. |
| A．calm and considerate | B．brave and tolerant |
| C．sensitive but overprotective | D．intelligent but bad-tempered |
| A．To settle conflicts between parents and children. |
| B．To explain why children disrespect their parents. |
| C．To encourage readers to express their true feelings. |
| D．To suggest a positive response to children’s misbehavior. |
9 . In the last school year, nearly 1 in every 10 students in New York City public schools was homeless, according to new data released on Wednesday. A total of 104,383 children lacked permanent housing during the 2021-22 school year across districts, an increase of about 3.3 percent from the previous school year, according to an annual report released by Advocates for Children New York,a nonprofit organization that annually collects data on homeless students.
About 28 percent or more than 29,000 students were living in city shelters, while nearly 5 percent or about 5,500 students were considered “Unaltered”, living in cars, parks and abandoned buildings, according to the report. Nearly 360 children lived in hotels or motels. About 69,000 children were “doubled up”, meaning they stayed with extended family and friends after losing permanent housing or facing economic difficulties, the report found.
Meanwhile,the country’s largest school district has been losing students,with roughly 120,000 leaving over the last five years. Public school enrollment(入学) has dropped by nearly 9.5 percent since the pandemic started.
“While the city works to address the issue of homelessness, we also must ensure that students who are homeless get to class every day and receive the targeted support they need to succeed in school,” Kim Sweet, executive director of Advocates for Children, said.
During the last school year, almost 2 in 3 students living in shelters were considered “chronically (经常反复发生地) absent”, which means they missed at least 10 percent of school days. Chronic absence hurts students’ academic performance. In the 2020-21 school year, 70 percent of students who were homeless graduated, compared with 81 percent of all students. They were also more than three times more likely to drop out of high school than their classmates who do have housing.
“If we want to break this bad cycle of poverty and homelessness, we have to make sure we’re prioritizing education of students in temporary housing,”Jennifer Pringle, director of Project Learning in Temporary Housing for Advocates for Children, told The New York Times.“The consequences are just awful and without a coordinated(协调一致的), targeted response, we’re not going to see a change.”
1. How many students took city shelters as their living places in the 2021-2022 school year in NYC?| A．Nearly 360. | B．About 5,500. |
| C．Over 29,000. | D．About 69,000. |
| A．The causes of so many homeless children. |
| B．The ways the homeless children lived their life. |
| C．The measures to solve the problem of homeless children. |
| D．The influences of homelessness on the children’s education. |
| A．Treating something as being more important than other things. |
| B．Stopping something from being done especially by law. |
| C．Getting something,especially by making an effort. |
| D．Trying to discover facts about something. |
| A．Homeless students in NYC face challenges in life |
| B．NYC works to address issue of homelessness |
| C．Nation’s largest school district—NYC loses students |
| D．1 in 10 NYC students homeless during last school year |
1. What is the research talking about?
| A．University scholarship. |
| B．Studying in universities. |
| C．The expenses for studying overseas. |
| A．The United Kingdom. | B．Australia. | C．The United States. |
| A．About US $ 22,000. | B．About US $ 24,000. | C．Over US $ 30,000. |
| A．The top 10 best colleges. |
| B．The top 10 largest colleges. |
| C．The top 10 most famous colleges. |
