1 . According to a new national survey of parents of school-age children, teachers and adults, Americans generally consider math the subject most in need of updating.
Parents and teachers want a more attractive set of math courses with up-to-date lessons that are relevant and applicable to the real world. And most parents agree the changes will help their kids succeed, including preparing them for careers in science, technology, engineering and math.
The results of the nationwide survey of more than 1,500 adults, 730 teachers and 800 parents and corresponding research showed that many people see a disconnect between the K12 math education they believe young people need to develop well in life and the one student’s are actually getting.
At the same time, most people agree that children who excel at math “are more likely to succeed later in life”, as some research showed. From the earliest grades, students are divided into math people and non math people, and that’s tragic. All students can succeed in math, and when students fail it, they’re more likely to drop out and not graduate from school.
Some districts already are trying out new math courses this year. However, many schools are trying to catch students up from math achievement lost during the COVID-19 pandemic, let alone make important course changes. Yet some education experts have argued that while schools are toying with ways to catch students up in math and reading, now is the best time to act. The teachers surveyed said they know they need to better attract students with better math lessons, but they’re struggling to do so in part because they have to put a large number of courses into the school year. Course development and educator training and flexibility are also a few of the barriers preventing immediate changes.
1. What is the public’s attitude to school math courses?| A．Doubtful. | B．Unsatisfied. | C．Approving. | D．Unclear. |
| A．They are unnecessary and useless. | B．They are too difficult and complex. |
| C．They are secondary and irrelevant. | D．They are uninteresting and impractical. |
| A．Be expert. | B．Be impatient. | C．Be interested. | D．Be concerned. |
| A．Fair treatment of students. | B．Educator training and flexibility. |
| C．Criticism of math courses. | D．Development of school courses. |
2 . It’s an unconventional setting. Children of varying ages are reading actively. Seated next to them are teenagers, many of them girls, staring at the Hindi alphabet(字母表)on the blackboard. In charge of this class are three young girls, not much older than their students. But when Tabassum, Tarannum and Rubina, no more than 22, start speaking, you know the difference. Their confidence takes you by surprise.
A little over 10 kilometres from Varanasi lies the village of Sajoi where illiteracy(文 盲)was quite common. It had blocked out modernity until recently, especially when it came to its women. Educating girls was considered pointless, and the possibility of women stepping out of their homes, unthinkable.
Things began to change in 2010 when Human Welfare Association (HWA), identified Sajoi for a planned intervention. HWA set up a centre in Sajoi to offer free education but the villagers needed to be convinced to join in. The organization needed volunteers who valued education. Tabassum, Tarannum and Rubina embraced the opportunity.
After completing their high school education, the girls set out on another important mission-persuading the locals to send their children to schools. “We went knocking at every door, talking to elders, “recalls Rubina. Some villagers asked them to mind their own business. “We didn’t let all this distract our attention from the main goal, ” Rubina says.
The girls honed their approach. They didn’t ask people to stop their children from working, but urged them to send them to schools for an hour or two. Slowly, children started trickling(缓 慢增加)in. Motivational Learning Centre, as the girls call it, is no replacement for school. It is there, in fact, that they create the hunger for knowledge. It also helps school-going children so they don’t lose interest and drop out.
Those who doubted the girls’ intentions now recommend the centre to others. The number of admissions to schools has steadily increased and the dropout rate in Sajoi has fallen.
1. How does the author start the text?| A．By describing a typical scene. |
| B．By comparing different views. |
| C．By analyzing certain reasons. |
| D．By providing background information. |
| A．Most families had a tight budget. |
| B．They were engaged in working. |
| C．The locals didn’t value education much. |
| D．The educational resources were insufficient. |
| A．Abandoned. |
| B．Explained. |
| C．Adopted. |
| D．Improved. |
| A．To explain the consequences of poor knowledge. |
| B．To show efforts to fight against illiteracy in India. |
| C．To reflect on the current educational situation in India. |
| D．To inform us of the urgent need for the youth to get educated. |
3 . John, who has ADHD (多动症), was removed from the classroom after he refused to stop using a pair of safety scissors to cut his fingernails.
The practice is known as informal removal, defined by the U. S. Department of Education as an action taken by school staff in response to a child’s behavior that excludes the child for part or all of the school day—or even indefinitely. Informal removals can happen through frequent parent pickups, shortened school days or hours spent in”time-out“ rooms.
Too much use of informal removals amounts to a form of off-the-books discipline-in fact a denial of education that escapes responsibility, legal experts say. It has special meanings for kids with disabilities; Informally removing these students circumvents (规避) federal law that protects them from being repeatedly disciplined or removed from school for behaviors related to their disability.
In the law, if they are suspended (停学) for more than 10 days, families are entitled to a meeting with the school to determine whether the behaviors are a result of the child’s disability. If so, then the school must offer adjustments instead of suspension.
The Education Department’s July guidance made it clear that children who are informally removed have the same rights, such as reviews of whether the students’ behavior was a result of their disability, as those who have been officially suspended.
The Associated Press interviewed 20 families in 10 states who described being called repeatedly and at all hours of the school day to pick up their children. They had to leave work to get their child so frequently that they lost their jobs. Many felt they had no choice but to change schools, or even districts. It’s common and the reason for it is that most parents don’t know their rights, and the consequence for the school system is not enough to make them not do it. Families often do not know who they have to complain to. Sometimes they aren’t aware their child should not have been suspended in the first place.
1. What can be known about informal removal?| A．It is a right of teachers. |
| B．It only happens to kids with no disabilities. |
| C．It only lasts for several hours. |
| D．It’s equal to shaking off responsibility. |
| A．Call their parents to pick them up. |
| B．Let them go home ahead of time. |
| C．Keep them in a separate room alone. |
| D．Talk with parents to find a solution. |
| A．Change their children’s schools for a better one. |
| B．Educate their children at home by themselves. |
| C．Protect their children’s rights by means of law. |
| D．Complain to schools about their practical difficulty. |
| A．The rights of kids with disabilities. |
| B．Informal removal and formal removal. |
| C．Informal removal for disabled children. |
| D．Special regulations for children with ADHD. |
4 . “You have to tell us where you are going and you lied,” my sons’ father said to him after telling him he wouldn’t be able to hang out with his friends for two weeks.
My youngest knows the rules: You have to tell us where you will be at all times, and if the plans change,you have to ask before you participate. I’ve drilled this into his head over and over because I’m that anxious mom, the one that worries, the one who is afraid her kids are going to get into a bad situation if she doesn’t repeatedly remind them to make the right choices and follow the rules.
Parents can constantly tell their kids to follow the rules, act politely and do things the “right” way. We can teach them the lessons and hope they follow our advice. But the truth is, even though your child can hear your voice in their ear while they are getting ready to stick their big toe into something that they know would make your head spin, it might not be enough to stop the them.
There are times when they need to experience feeling scared, uneasy or guilty in order to learn and keep them from repeating the same mistake over and over again. It’s one of the scariest realizations I’ve had as a parent, but after living with three teens for a few years it’s my truth-and it’s the truth of every other parent of a teenager.
Looking back upon my young life, I know nothing really sank in unless I experienced it for myself, like when I stopped eating chocolate late at night and found I was finally able to sleep at night. It took me long to stop damaging my own sleep even though not eating the chocolate was the simple solution. And I am not a stubborn teen.
I’ve realized the importance of stepping back (just a bit), and letting my teens navigate (寻找) their own way. It’s made all the difference.
1. What does the author expect her son to do?| A．Stop being so anxious. |
| B．Follow the family rules. |
| C．Learn to tell right from wrong. |
| D．Communicate more with parents. |
| A．Became fully understood. |
| B．Played an important role. |
| C．Sounded possible. |
| D．Made progress. |
| A．Let go of your children |
| B．Give your kids more love |
| C．Step back when necessary |
| D．Learn important life lessons |
5 . Do you want to raise mentally strong kids? Stop doing the following things.
Ignoring Your Child’s Feelings
You’re implying that your children's feelings are wrong, when you say “Don’t worry about it. It’s not a big deal.”
It’s easy to give in when your children are losing their tempers. But each time you give them what they want, you teach your children that their unacceptable acts are an effective way to get their needs met. If you want to, raise mentally strong kids, stick to your limits.
Spoiling Your Children
Expecting Perfection
While high expectations are good for kids, setting the bar too high is likely to backfire. Whether you expect too much from your child on the sports field, or your academic expectations are unreasonable, kids who feel they can’t succeed are likely to stop trying.
| A．Giving in to misbehavior |
| B．Keeping to your principles |
| C．Set limits on what you give your children |
| D．Teach them not to give up dreams easily |
| E．Kids need to have a wide variety of emotions |
| F．You may think its cute to spend more money on your children |
| G．They are also more likely to struggle with self- respect issues |
6 . Not long ago I saw the following headline: “An anti-homework trend（趋势）goes global”. The reasoning: It stresses children out and it steals “precious family time”.
Hmm… I wonder. As a teacher, one of the problems I often come across is that students attach far too little importance to their studies, resulting in bad or incomplete work. I also wonder about the “precious family time”. If homework were abolished（废除）, would the time freed up be used for reading poetry aloud at the dinner table or having heart-to-heart discussion about the social and political landscape（局面）? In the age of the Internet and games such as Candy Crush Saga, which have absorbed the time and interest of otherwise intelligent adults, I am doubtful.
When I was a kid, homework actually created precious family time. I still remember, after supper, clearing the table and replacing the dishes with my schoolbooks. And then, in swing shifts, my working-class parents would sit down with me and, to the best of their abilities, help me when and where they could.
I have often thought that the homework question could be dealt with if one thought of homework in terms of learning to play a musical instrument. For me, this was the clarinet（单簧管）, which I began learning to play at age 9. Every week I took a 30-minute lesson from an old Polish man, Mr. Markiewicz. “Practice an hour a day, and you’ll be playing the clarinet before you know it.” Because my motivation was strong, I did practice an hour a day, and I did learn it in a reasonable amount of time.
Let’s get rid of homework, but only the word “homework”, and replace it with “practice”. As a teacher, it’s all I ask: that my students listen up in the class and then go home to practice, so that when they return to me to show how much they understand, I—and their parents—can be proud of them.
1. What might happen in the house with no homework according to the author?| A．Students will play games. |
| B．Students will develop new interest. |
| C．There will be more precious family time. |
| D．There will be more arguments among the family. |
| A．Mourn his precious family time’s passing. |
| B．Show the powerful parental forces. |
| C．Prove the advantage of homework. |
| D．Describe his uneasy life as a student. |
| A．Get rid of it. | B．Don’t see it as a load（负担）. |
| C．Take great pride in it. | D．Improve their motivation（动机）for it. |
| A．Why to value the family time. |
| B．An anti-homework trend begins. |
| C．How to solve the homework problem. |
| D．Developing hobbies can replace homework. |
7 . Parents should stop blaming themselves because there' s not a lot they can do about it. I mean the teenager problem. Whatever you do or however you choose to deal with it, at certain times a wonderful, reasonable and helpful child will turn into a terrible animal.
I’ve seen friends deal with it in all kinds of different ways. One strict mother insisted that her son, right from a child, should stand up whenever anyone entered the room, open doors and shake hands like a gentleman. I saw him last week when I called round. Sprawling himself (懒散地躺) on the sofa in full length, he made no attempt to turn off the loud TV he was watching as I walked in, and his greeting was no more than a quick glance at me. His mother was ashamed. "I don' t know what to do with him these days," she said. "He' s forgotten all the manners we taught him.”
He hasn' t forgotten them. He' s just decided that he' s not going to use them. She confessed (坦白) that she would like to come up behind him and throw him down from the sofa onto the floor.
Another good friend of mine let her two daughters climb all over the furniture, reach across the table, stare at me and say, "I don' t like your dress; it' s ugly. " One of the daughters has recently been driven out of school. The other has left home.
"Where did we go wrong?" her parents are now very sad. Probably nowhere much. At least, no more than the rest of that unfortunate race, parents.
1. The boy on the sofa would most probably be described as _______.| A．lazy | B．quiet |
| C．unusual | D．rude |
| A．pay no attention to them | B．are too busy to look after them |
| C．have come to hate them | D．feel helpless to do much about them |
| A．Parents have no choice but to try to accept it. |
| B．Parents should be to blame for it. |
| C．Parents should work more closely with school teachers. |
| D．Parents are at fault for the change in their children. |
| A．a specialist in teenager studies | B．a headmaster of a middle school |
| C．a parent with teenage children | D．a doctor for mental health problems |
8 . When it comes to generation gap (代沟), we usually think of different tastes in music, or pastimes. But now the generation gap is handwriting. After one teacher in Tennessee discovered that she had students who couldn’t read what she was writing on the board, she posted it on the Internet saying that handwriting should be taught in schools.
Others who are against it claim that handwriting has become out of time in our modern world. Typed words have become a main form of communication. Once a practical skill, handwriting is no longer used by most of Americans. It is no longer taught in schools, and some claim that the time that it would take to teach it could be put to better use, for example, by teaching the technical skills.
But even in today’s world there are still plenty of reasons to pick up a pen and write on the paper. In America, signatures (签字) by hand are still often required, for example, signing for a registered letter and buying a house. And original signatures are much more difficult to fake (伪造).
There is also strong evidence that writing by hand is good for the mind. It makes a different part of the brain active and improves fine moving skills in young children. People are also more likely to remember what they write by hand than what they type, and the process of writing by hand has been shown to stimulate ideas. Not only those, studies have shown that kids who write by hand learn to read and spell earlier than those who don’t.
Yes, we live in a modern world, but we live in a modern world of basic and important values.
1. What did the teacher find in her class?| A．Her students were too lazy to follow her class. |
| B．Her handwriting was too terrible to understand. |
| C．There was something wrong with some students, eyes. |
| D．Some students could not recognize her written words on the board. |
| A．handwriting is a practical skill |
| B．handwriting is no longer popular |
| C．it’s difficult to fake typed signatures |
| D．handwriting is no longer used by Americans |
| A．3. | B．4. | C．7. | D．8. |
| A．cause | B．collect | C．exchange | D．influence |
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 . I think adults are affected by media, songs, and the Internet, and that is hard enough. After looking in all of the magazines and at models, my friends and I agree that our least favorite day of the year is when we wear swimsuits! It affects your whole mood and self-image for the day. Think about how hard it is for young girls if they believe “how hot you look” is how valuable you are.
Here are some ways parents can be proactive in encouraging a healthy self-image in their children.
First, teach what real value is. I think kids sometimes are confused about values. How valuable you are is not measured by how pretty you are on the outside and success is not measured by how famous you are. We were watching the Oscars and my 6-year-old son said “She is so pretty,” and then quickly looked at me and said “You are prettier, Mom.” And I said, “It’s okay. There are many people prettier than me on the outside. I know that’s not why you love me.” It is important to teach children this from an early age.
Second, tell your kids about “the grass is always greener syndrome.” It is very easy for all of us to see the glamour (魅力), whether it be in a famous singer or the most popular girl in the school. Do not dehumanize and judge famous people. Talk about what problems they might have that are different from the problems your child has and maybe some of the same struggles, like maybe wanting acceptance from peers (同龄人).
At last, use your mouth. Don’t be afraid to have conversations with your child about how they’re feeling about ads, songs, etc... Boys too! You are the parent! Kids of all ages want and need boundaries whether they admit it or not. Take a stand and have confidence enough not to be followers and not to purchase clothing, music, or magazines that you don’t believe sends the right message to your children!
1. What does the underlined word “It” in Paragraph 1 refer to?| A．Singing with friends. | B．Learning swimming skills. |
| C．Showing imperfect figures. | D．Reading fashion magazines. |
| A．to praise his mother | B．to comfort his mother |
| C．because he didn’t like stars | D．because he really thought so |
| A．Lots of people like judging others. |
| B．Kids want to be popular in school. |
| C．People tend to like famous singers. |
| D．People always think others’ life is better. |
| A．set limits for their kids |
| B．make friends with their kids |
| C．teach their kids how to be confident |
| D．encourage their kids to be themselves. |
