1 . It’s not piano lessons or dance classes.Nowadays,the biggest extra-curricular activity in the west is going to a tutor.Pat,a mother in Canada,spends about 800 Canadian dollars a month on tutors when finding out half her daughter’s class have tutors.She feels like her child is going to fall behind because everyone else seems to be ahead.

Shelley,a mother of three,also has tutors constantly coming in and out of her home.She was always yelling when she couldn’t manage to get her children focused.When she gets a tutor once a week,they become focused for one entire hour and can get most of their homework done.

Tutoring isn’t simply a private school phenomenon.Nor is it intended only for lower-achieving students.In Canada alone,seven percent of high school students reported using a tutor in 2010.That increased to 15 percent in 2015.

Overall,parents hire tutors because they are worried school are not meeting their expectations,but there is also a culture shift.A special value is placed on education in Asia,where tutoring is viewed as an extension to the school day. As a large number of Asians emigrated to the west over the recent years,their attitudes towards education have had an influence.

Another reason for the growth in business is parental frustration and their packed schedules.A lot of parents just don’t have time to help their children with homework and some others couldn’t help their children after Grade 3,according to a president of an American tutoring company.

There has been a noticeable change in the attitudes,too.Children used to get bullied（被欺负）for having a tutor, now it’s becoming the norm to have one.

Children don’t seem to mind that they have a tutor.One parent feels surprised that so many of her child’s classmates have tutors.For the amount parents pay in tuition,children should have as much extra help children with a tutor because_______.

1. Shelley decided to equip her children with a tutor because_______.

A．her children’s school is not meeting her expectation	B．over half of her children’s classmates have tutors
C．her children’s homework is too difficult for her	D．she had a hard time getting her children focused

2. In Canada,the population of high school students using a tutor grew by _______from 2010 to 2015.

A．7%.

B．8%.

C．10%.

D．15%.

3. According to the passage,which of the following statement is TRUE?

A．Pat got a tutor because she can’t help her children with homework.

B．Shelley spends about 800 Canadian dollars on tutors every month.

C．Asians usually place more emphasis on education that Canadians.

D．Most students with the help of tutors have poor grades at school.

4. The tutoring business in the west has been seen in growth in recent years because_______.
a.a lot of parents are too occupied to help their children with homework.
b.children no longer get bullied for going to a tutor and getting extra help
c.many schools cannot offer as much help as their students need
d.Asians emigrating to the west have affected people’s attitude to tutoring.

A．a,b,c.

B．a,b,d.

C．a,c,d.

D．b,c,d.

2 . 假定英语课上老师要求同桌之间交换修改作文，请你修改你同桌写的以下作文。文中共有10处语言错误，每句中最多有两处，每处错误仅涉及一个单词的增加，删除或修改。

增加：在缺词处加一个漏字符号（∧），并在其下面写上该加的词。
删除：把多余的词用斜线（＼）划掉。
修改：在错的词下面划一横线，并在该词下面写上修改后的词。
注意：1. 每处错误及其修改均仅限一词；
只允许修改10处，多者（从第11处起）不计分。

How can we help children in poor areas complete his basic education? Since their lack of education mainly result from low family income, to collect money for them is of greatly importance. With enough money, they will finish their education very easily than before. Besides, good teachers are also needed improve the teaching in such areas. They can teach there but help train the local teachers. What’s more, we can organize various event to increase these children’s interest at learning. We can also guide them to realize that the importance of education to their future. After all, their willingness to learn is the key to continue their school education.

3 . Your school asked parents about the social development in children in the last Parents’ Meeting. Here are some opinions. Read following information and answer the questions.

Parent 1: Social development in children is an important part of childhood. Social activities can help enhance children’s social abilities and make them more confident.	Parent 3: Many ball games are a great way to encourage children to communicate with other kids. It’s a good idea for them to play basketball or football together. They can learn teamwork.
Parent 2: Social development should begin at a very young age. It is important for young children before starting school. Playing with other children can help them get skills needed to make friends.	School headmaster: Parents should try to allow children to deal with the situation on their own first. Children can learn what works and what doesn’t work from their failures, which help children act properly in the future’s society.

1. The underlined word, “enhance”, can be replaced by ________.

A．spend

B．improve

C．expect

D．handle

2. What kind of activities may be supported by the third parent for his/her children?

A．Playing basketball with friends.

B．Playing computer games.

C．Holding parties at home.

D．Watching TV alone.

3. Which is NOT the advantage from social development according to these parents and headmaster’s opinions?

A．Children become more confident.

B．Children get skills needed to make new friends.

C．Children learn teamwork.

D．Children are afraid of making mistakes.

4 . When it comes to President Obama, most of his personal business is already known by the public. Personal information about his children, Malia and Sasha, however, has been kept a little more under wraps.

The New York Times recently released a list of rules that Michelle Obama has mentioned over the years that Malia and Sasha must follow during their time in the White House, as well as in general. See how the first family educates their children:

The girls must write reports about what they’ve seen on their trips, even if it’s not required by their school.

Malia may use her cell phone only on the weekend, and she and her sister cannot watch television or use a computer for anything but homework during the week.

Malia and Sasha have to play two sports: one they choose and one selected by their mother.

Malia must learn to do laundry (洗衣服) before she leaves for college.

The girls have to eat their vegetables, and if they say they are not hungry, they cannot ask for cookies or chips later.

While these might be shocking to some, Michelle said, “They’re not little princesses. It’s just basic rules, boundaries, and expectations that we would have normally.”

Michelle also mentions another set of rules ：

The girls must do their chores (家务), though the White House has a large staff. Malia and Sasha have chores of their own.

They must play a team sport, because it’s about learning how to play on a team, how to lose and how to win gracefully.

…

It sounds like Michelle and Barack want the best for their kids and to make them as well rounded as possible. What are your thoughts on the Obama family rules?

1. What’s the passage mainly about?

A．The first family rules.

B．The first family daily life.

C．How to be good parents.

D．How to be good children.

2. What do the underlined words “under wraps” in Para. 1 probably mean?

A．Attractive.	B．Secret.
C．Calm	D．Public.

3. What has to be followed after the girls’ every trip?

A．Emails.	B．Reports.
C．Homework.	D．Photos.

4. Which of the following is the exception for the girls?

A．To learn to do laundry.

B．To play two sports.

C．To use cell phone freely.

D．To eat their vegetables.

5 . When the six very best students from different cities in Guangdong Province all together chose universities in Hong Kong; when the very best students of Beijing picked up HK University while giving up the nearby Beijing or Qinghua University; when the highest enrollment(录取) rate of Hong Kong Science and Industry University reached 48:1, it’s the high time to ask where the real education heaven (天堂) for students in China is.
Years ago, the answer certainly would be “Beijing or Qinghua University”. But now no one could give the exact reaction without hesitation. The only sure thing is that HK universities have gradually showed an unusual attraction to a great many mainland students.
It’s no doubt to call this HK craze (狂热), which is even out of the expectation (预料) of those HK universities themselves.
How can HK universities shake the steady foundations of Beijing and Qinghua and attract so many mainland students?
First, Hong Kong universities offer large-amount scholarship, especially for the top students who can receive the sum scholarship as much as 400,000 HK dollars. Since higher education has become a kind of heavy burden (负担) of many families, it’s easy to understand why the reaction to the generous offering of HK universities is great.
Second, most HK universities receive professors and students from all over the world and carry out bilingual (双语) education. This kind of excellent language atmosphere is another attraction for mainland students.
Furthermore, university students in Hong Kong have a better chance to study abroad as exchange students.
Can mainland top universities like Beijing or Qinghua University be calm as before when facing the unexpected competition from HK? Will they take relevant measures to win back the top students who once help them set the worldwide reputation (名誉)? Time will explain it.
The fierce competition brought by HK universities can be a good thing for an entire improvement of education in China. After the awakening and action-taking of mainland universities, they can perform better together with HK universities.
At least, it reminded the mainland universities the tuition fees (学费) are among students’ top concern when they are choosing universities. It’s time to move.
1. What is the passage mainly talking about?

A．Some thoughts brought by the enrollment of HK universities.

B．Higher education in Hong Kong.

C．The competition between HK University and Beijing University.

D．The fall of mainland universities.

2. Top students from mainland apply for HK universities because________.

A．many students now would love to study abroad to get a better experience

B．they concern only about the tuition fees when choosing universities

C．HK Universities offer higher scholarship, better environment and more opportunities for their further study

D．Beijing University has lost its worldwide reputation

3. What is the author’s attitude toward the competition brought by HK universities?

A．The government should take relevant measures to stop this unfair competition.

B．Mainland universities had better lower their tuition fees and win back the top students.

C．Universities both in mainland and in HK would get an entire improvement during the competition.

D．It may probably cause a complete loss to both sides in the end.

4. From the passage we can see HK universities________.

A．didn’t mean to enroll top students from mainland

B．didn’t expect their enrollment of mainland students would be so popular

C．have strict enrollment rules and only 1out of 48 students can get the chance to study there

D．are proud of their teaching staff and facilities

6 . It is found that American students spend less than 15% of their time in school. While there’s no doubt that school is important, a number of recent studies reminds us that parents are even more so. A study published earlier this month by researchers at North Carolina State University, for example, finds that parental involvement — checking homework, attending school meetings and events, discussing school activities at home — has a more powerful influence on students’ academic performance than anything about the school the students attend. Another study, published in the Review of Economics and Statistics, reports that the effort put forth by parents (reading stories aloud, meeting with teachers) has a bigger impact on their children’s educational achievement than the effort devoted by either teachers or the students themselves. And a third study concludes that schools would have to increase their spending by more than $1,000 per pupil in order to achieve the same results that are gained with parental involvement.
So parents matter. But it is also revealed in researches that parents, of all backgrounds, don’t need to buy expensive educational toys or digital devices for their kids in order to give them an advantage. They don’t need to drive their offspring (子孙，后代)to enrichment classes or test-preparation courses. What they need to do with their children is much simpler: talk.
But not just any talk. Recent research has indicated exactly what kinds of talk at home encourage children’s success at school. For example, a study conducted by researchers at the UCLA School of Public Health and published in the journal Pediatrics found that two-way adult-child conversations were six times as potent in promoting language development as the ones in which the adult did all the talking. Engaging in this reciprocal（双向的) back-and-forth gives children a chance to try out language for themselves, and also gives them the sense that their thoughts and opinions matter.
The content of parents’ conversations with kids matters, too. Children who hear talk about counting and numbers at home start school with much more extensive mathematical knowledge, report researchers from the University of Chicago. While the conversations parents have with their children change as kids grow older, the effect of these exchanges on academic achievement remains strong. Research finds that parents play an important role in what is called “academic socialization” — setting expectations and making connections between current behavior and future goals. Engaging in these sorts of conversations has a greater impact on educational accomplishment.
1. Parents are even more important than schools because ______.

A．parental involvement makes up for what schools are not able to do

B．teachers and students themselves do not put in enough effort

C．parental involvement saves money for schools and the local government

D．students may well make greater achievements with parents' attention

2. It can be inferred from the 2^nd paragraph that ______.

A．educational toys are unaffordable nowadays

B．digital devices can give children an advantage

C．some parents believe in enrichment classes

D．talking with children is a very simple task

3. The word "potent" is closest in meaning to ______.

A．powerful

B．difficult

C．necessary

D．resistant

4. Which of the following will more encourage children's success at school according to the passage?

A．Parents order their children to stop playing video games.

B．Parents discuss with their children the possible future career.

C．Parents lecture their children on getting too low marks on tests.

D．Parents introduce colleges around the US to their children.

7 . May the first is an important date in the college admission process in the United States．This is the last day for high school seniors to accept or reject offers of admission in the fall．But according to a recent report, there is a great change. Acceptance rates at the top colleges this year were lower than ever.    1    
These days, college applicants are applying to more colleges because online and common applications make the process easier.    2    On the other hand, deciding students for top colleges to accept can be difficult because it takes much time. Students may not like being put on waiting lists. Also, common colleges work more to get the students they accept to accept them. Some colleges hold visiting days that offer a chance to attend classes and stay overnight. Some universities send gifts.    3    
For many families, the most important thing colleges can do is show them the money, especially this year; the weak economy makes parents nervous.    4    The recent problems that spread from the housing market to credit markets have even affected student’s loans. So lately, top schools have to spare lots of money to increase their financial aid for students.
    5    The Education Department expects the number of high school graduates to start to go down. This will happen as the last of the children of the baby boom generation finishes high school. The number is not expected to start rising again until 2015.

A．Besides, top colleges are facing changes in the population.

B．What contributes to it?

C．But a mistake can be costly if it happens.

D．But top colleges ignore them.

E．They have international students who know English.

F．It can mean several acceptances to choose from.

G．They cannot afford college as planned.

8 . In this age of Internet chat, videogames and reality television, there is no shortage of mindless activities to keep a child occupied. Yet despite the competition, my 8-year-old daughter Rebecca wants to spend her leisure time writing short stories. She wants to enter one of her stories into a writing contest, a competition which she won last year.
As a writer, I know about winning contests – and about losing them. I know what it is like to work hard on a story only to receive a rejection letter from the publisher. I also know the pressure of trying to live up to a reputation created by previous victories. What if she doesn’t win the contest again? That’s the strange thing about being a parent. So many of our own past scars and destroyed hopes can resurface in our children.
A revelation (启示) came last week when I asked her, “Don’t you want to win again?” “No,” she replied, “I just want to tell the story of an angel going to first grade.”
I had just spent weeks correcting her stories as she spontaneously (自发地) told them. Telling myself that I was merely an experienced writer guiding the young writer across the hall, I offered suggestions for characters, conflicts and endings for her tales. The story about a fearful angel starting first grade was quickly “guided” by me into the tale of a little girl with a wild imagination taking her first music lesson. I had turned her contest into my contest without even realizing it.
Staying back and giving kids space to grow is not as easy as it looks. Because I know very little about farm animals who use tools or angels who go to first grade, I had to accept the fact that I was co-opting my daughter’s experience.
While stepping back was difficult for me, it was certainly a good first step that I will quickly follow with more steps, putting myself far enough away to give her room but close enough to help if asked. All the while I will be reminding myself that children need room to experiment, grow and find their own voices.
1. What do we learn from the first paragraph?

A．A lot of amusements compete for children’s time nowadays.

B．Children have lots of fun doing mindless activities.

C．Rebecca is much too busy to enjoy her leisure time.

D．Rebecca draws on a lot of online materials for her writing.

2. What did the author say about her own writing experience?

A．She was constantly under pressure to write more.

B．Most of her stories had been rejected by publishers.

C．She did not quite live up to her reputation as a writer.

D．Her road to success was full of pain and frustrations.

3. Why did Rebecca want to enter this year’s writing contest?

A．She believed she possessed real talent for writing.

B．She was sure of winning with her mother’s help.

C．She wanted to share her stories with readers.

D．She had won a prize in the previous contest.

4. The underlined sentence probably means that the author was _______.

A．trying not to let her daughter enjoy her own life

B．trying to get her daughter to do the thing as the author wished

C．making sure that her daughter would win the contest

D．helping her daughter develop real skills for writing

9 . Children start out as natural scientists, eager to look into the world around them. Helping them enjoy science can be easy; there’s no need for a lot of scientific terms or expensive lab equipment. You only have to share your children’s curiosity (好奇). Firstly, listen to their questions. I once visited a classroom of seven-year-olds to talk about science as a job. The children asked me “textbook questions” about schooling, salary (薪水) and whether I liked my job. When I finished answering, we sat facing one another in silence. Finally I said, “Now that we’re finished with your lists, do you have questions of your own about science?”

After a long pause, a boy raised his hand, “Have you ever seen a grasshopper (蚱蜢) eat? When I try eating leaves like that, I get a stomachache. Why?”

This began a set of questions that lasted nearly two hours.

Secondly, give them time to think. Studies over the past 30 years have shown that, after asking a question, adults typically wait only one second or less for an answer, no time for a child to think. When adults increase their “wait time” to three seconds or more, children give more logical (符合逻辑的), complete and creative answers.

Thirdly, watch your language. Once you have a child involved in a science discussion, don’t jump in with “That’s right” or “Very good”. These words work well when it comes to encouraging good behavior (行为). But in talking about science, quick praise can signal that discussion is over. Instead, keep things going by saying “That’s interesting” or “I’d never thought of it that way before”, or coming up with more questions or ideas.

Never push a child to “Think”. It doesn’t make sense, children are always thinking, without your telling them to. What’s more, this can turn a conversation into a performance. The child will try to find the answer you want, in as few words as possible, so that he will be a smaller target (目标) for your disagreement.

Lastly, show; don’t tell. Real-life impressions of nature are far more impressive than any lesson children can learn from a book or a television program. Let children look at their fingertips through a magnifying glass (放大镜), and they’ll understand why you want them to wash before dinner. Rather than saying that water vaporates (蒸发), set a pot of water to boil and let them watch the water level drop.

1. According to the passage, children are natural scientists, and to raise their interest, the most important thing for adults to do is _______.

A．let them see the world around

B．share the children’s curiosity

C．explain difficult phrases about science

D．supply the children with lab equipment

2. In the last sentence of the first paragraph, the word “lists” could best be replaced by ______.

A．any questions

B．any problems

C．questions from textbooks

D．any number of questions

3. According to the passage, children can answer questions in a more logical, complete and creative way if adults ________.

A．ask them to answer quickly

B．wait for one or two seconds after a question

C．tell them to answer the next day

D．wait at least for three seconds after a question

4. In which of the following paragraph(s) does the author tell us what to say to encourage children in a science discussion?

A．The second and third.

B．The fourth and fifth.

C．The fifth.

D．The seventh.

5. The author mentions all of the following techniques for adults to share with their children’s curiosity except that adults should ________.

A．tell their children stories instead of reciting facts

B．offer their children chances to see things for themselves

C．be patient enough when their children answer questions

D．encourage their children to ask questions of their own

10 .        Due to the increasing number of violence acts produced in schools all over the world, more and more parents prefer to have their children educated at home rather than at school. This way they can ensure their safety and well-being, although teachers and school representatives are trying to improve the situation in schools by increasing the number of the persons in charge of the safety of the students.
       The main reason for violence acts are the films and cartoons that fill the children’s time. They want to do everything they watch on TV and never think of the consequences, and they may hurt a classmate or a teacher.
       On the other hand, parents are not fully satisfied with the children’s results obtained in classes and they consider private classes would have better results.
     When a teacher has to watch 30 students in class he can’t probably see what each of them is doing, how he is writing, or if he understands the explanations. At home the teacher can explain in details everything the child doesn’t understand as many times as he considers proper.
     And many times the child grows fond of the teacher at home, who becomes his best friend, and who helps him whenever he needs someone to talk to.
       However, the best solution would be a mixture between the education received at school and that at home, because school makes children communicate and socialize. Keeping a child at home for fear there might happen something bad to him only makes the child’s character weak and prevents him from knowing what real life is. Staying in a crystal ball only does harm to the child.
       All in all, schools have been created to help children, not to harm them, so it’s best to keep children in these special places, where they learn, laugh, have fun and make new friends.
1. The writer’s purpose in writing the text is to ________.

A．teach parents the ways to keep their children safe

B．show solutions to developing children’s character

C．explain the main reason for violence acts in schools

D．analyze an education problem and give opinions

2. Which of the following might be the best title of the passage?

A．Advantages and Disadvantages of Private Classes

B．Who is to Blame, Parents or Schools?

C．Which Is Better, School Study or Home Study?

D．The Relationship between Teachers and Children

3. What does “a crystal ball” in the passage refer to?

A．A toy that can be used for entertainment.

B．A safe and comfortable environment.

C．A round object that is made of crystal.

D．An obstacle that is hard to overcome.

4. We can infer from the passage that ________.

A．violence TV programs have bad effects on children’s behavior

B．the teacher at home is more patient than the teacher at school

C．children today are weak from lack of sense of right and wrong

D．there are too many students in class for a teacher to teach