| A．The number of refugees is increasing sharply. |
| B．Most refugees cannot get necessary services. |
| C．Many refugee children cannot receive education. |
| D．More children cannot afford to go to university. |
| A．No host nations want to change education systems. |
| B．It is impossible to find so many extra teachers. |
| C．Parents can’t afford to send their kids to school. |
| D．The refugee population grows but there’s not enough money. |
| A．The necessity of education. |
| B．The prohibition of child labor. |
| C．The victims of armed conflicts. |
| D．The living conditions of the poor. |
2 . An economist, Adam Smith, famously wrote that “it is not from the benevolence (慈善)of the butcher, the brewer or the baker, that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own self-interest.” Like Smith, many economists today believe that one’s self-interest is what drives competition and growth in market economies. Yet, in an increasingly interconnected society, it is even more crucial to have collaborative skills. Thus we should encourage cooperation to better prepare children for the future.
Firstly, in the present age marked by the transformative potential of technology to facilitate interactions, cooperation is an especially prized soft skill to have. As a research study proves, soft skills such as good communication and empathy consist of qualitative indicators of outstanding employees as compared to technical skills or knowledge. In contrast, excessively (过分地)competitive and individualistic behaviour may fracture social relations in the community of co-workers and since no man is an island, even the most competent employee will not be able to pursue his goals effectively without the help of others who are able to share a common vision and understanding.
Moreover, encouraging cooperation increase a healthy sense of self-esteem in children that better prepares them for the competitive working world. Many modern societies today are consumed by an obsessive drive for success and the pressure to perform has infiltrated both classrooms and offices alike. The consequences of the fierce competitive culture include higher rates of anxiety and depression among university students and office workers, which are all counterproductive. Teamwork can help a maturing individual realise that each has his or her own unique set of abilities to bring to the table and that another person’s strengths do not in any way diminish (降低)the value of his or her talents. Thus, cooperation can affirm the self-worth of children by correcting the violent insight that winning or paper achievement is an exclusive (唯一)measure of success in life.
However, critics may claim that in a cutthroat world, adapting to competition should be of supreme priority in education and parenting. To achieve one’s deepest ambitions, such as to become a medical student, or to create a tech start-up, one has to adopt competition by actively fighting for opportunities and distinguishing oneself from others. Nevertheless, since passion can already stimulate children to work hard to fulfill their ambitions, the need to encourage competition may be at the end of the day. As much as external competition can drive people to pursue excellence, internal motivation is at least equally or arguably even more essential, and collaboration plays an instrumental role in helping one uncover one’s tendency and motivations.
1. What can be inferred from Adam Smith’s words?| A．Our society is increasingly interconnected. |
| B．Our dinner is made out of the regards to markets. |
| C．Self-interest pushes the development of economies. |
| D．The butcher, the brewer or the baker is not sympathy. |
| A．Deepen. | B．Establish. | C．Maintain. | D．Damage. |
| A．Paper achievement is an exclusive measure of success. |
| B．Confidence and ambitions can be achieved through cooperation. |
| C．Actively fighting for distinguishing oneself is a healthy competition. |
| D．Competition is not essential for people to pursue excellence. |
| A．To introduce parents the advantages of cooperation. |
| B．To inform parents to balance cooperation and competition. |
| C．To persuade parents to care about their children’s education. |
| D．To tell parents to encourage their children to learn to cooperate. |
3 . Does Chinese philosophy influence your parenting? It is the question I am most often asked. Chinese philosophy contains many lessons that are useful, accessible and timely when applied to the challenges of parenting. Confucianism and Daoism suggest ways to guide your children toward meaning and fulfilment rather than wealth and fame.
Parenting is tough, especially because there isn’t a one-size-fits-all approach. Different kids need different things. How do we stay focused on what matters most? How do we navigate difficult times with our kids and support them when they struggle? All of us want our children to be successful, partly because we love them and want them to be happy. But it is easy to mistake “success” with certain kinds of academic or athletic achievements.
Of course, one can define success in this way. But ancient Chinese philosophers believed that real success is not measured by fame, money or power. A successful life is one in which a person flourishes: they are happy, fulfilled, and they find meaning in what they do and who they are. This type of fulfilment comes from loving and being loved by others within the context of meaningful, lasting relationships; giving generously of what you have to others; caring for and having a genuine love of nature; and shouldering your responsibility.
Most of us know that having an Ivy League degree and a high-paying job is not going to make our children happy and fulfilled in life. Yet we worry about how they will find things they love to do and that they are good at. Philosophers from the two most influential ancient Chinese traditions — Confucianism and Daoism — talk more about human flourishing, virtue, happiness and fulfilment than about “success”.
Chinese philosophers argued that we genuinely flourish — are happiest and most fulfilled — when we develop these virtues. This can never be measured in terms such as earning power, entering famous schools or getting jobs. Instead, it is measured in how we treat people — how one loves and is loved by one’s family and friends — and in what one does to make the world a kinder, gentler, more humane and beautiful place. They encourage us to help our children learn more about the world around them.
The Confucians and Daoists were a little like yin and yang: Confucians have a lot of active, hands-on ways to help children grow, such as participating in traditions, while the Daoists recommend simpler activities, such as exploring the beauty of nature. Their diverse views on living a good life are precisely what makes Chinese philosophy such a great resource for parents.
Parenting is messy. It is not simple or straightforward but complex and difficult. There are no magic solutions that make things easy or smooth. Most of us will need to piece together different approaches in order to find something that works well and feels right in different situations, for different children, and at different times in a child’s life.
1. According to the author, parenting is challenging because________.| A．Parents don’t know what success refers to |
| B．Children don’t believe in Chinese philosophy |
| C．There are many theories of parenting to choose |
| D．One can’t find a standard approach to suit every child |
| A．People who flourish can feel successful because they live a meaningful life. |
| B．Only when people make contribution to society can they feel successful. |
| C．A successful life can be measured by reputation and wealth. |
| D．Success just means one should be friendly to nature. |
| A．Confucians think graduating from famous university can make children intelligent and fulfilled. |
| B．Daoists are more influential than Confucians because of their simpler activities. |
| C．Confucians and Daoists together can provide parents abundant resources. |
| D．It is enough for parents to just learn Chinese Philosophy well. |
| A．Critical . | B．Objective. |
| C．Indifferent. | D．Suspicious. |
4 . This Is How Scandinavia Got Great
Almost everybody admires the Nordic model. Countries like Sweden, Denmark, Norway and Finland have high economic productivity, high social equality, high social trust and high levels of personal happiness.
Nordic nations were ethnically homogeneous(同质的) in 1800, when they were dirt poor. Their economic growth took off just after 1870, way before their welfare states were established.
The 19th-century Nordic elites did something we haven’t been able to do in our country recently. They realized that if their countries were to prosper they had to create truly successful “folk schools” for the least educated among them. They realized that they were going to have to make lifelong learning a part of the natural fabric of society.
Today, Americans often think of schooling as the transmission of specialized skill sets — the student can read, do math and recite the facts of biology.
The Nordic educators worked hard to cultivate each student’s sense of connection to the nation. Before the 19th century, most Europeans identified themselves in local and not national terms.
That educational push seems to have had a lasting influence on the culture. Whether in Stockholm or Minneapolis, Scandinavians have a tendency to joke about the way their sense of responsibility is always nagging at them. They have the lowest rates of corruption in the world. They have a distinctive sense of the relationship between personal freedom and communal responsibility.
| A．Bildung is the way that the individual matures and takes upon him or herself ever bigger academic responsibility. |
| B．What really launched the Nordic nations was generations of phenomenal educational policy. |
| C．Bildung is designed to change the way students see the world. |
| D．But the Nordic curriculum conveyed to students a pride in, say, their Danish history, folklore and heritage. |
| E．They look at education differently than we do. |
| F．The Nordic educators also worked hard to develop the student’s internal awareness. |
5 . In American culture, I am noticing a lack of respect, especially among children. This should be treated
In 1995, I spent a couple of months in Kenya where I lived with a pastor’s family. This pastor was a part of the Maasai tribes that have some unique customs. One of them is the
In my early 20’s, I worked at a children’s home in South Carolina where the children from 4 to 19 years old were taught to respect their elders. They
Immanuel Kant expressed two
| A．passionately | B．steadily | C．publicly | D．alarmingly |
| A．challenging | B．faking | C．piloting | D．abandoning |
| A．assistance | B．greeting | C．blessing | D．guarantee |
| A．come forward | B．drop by | C．show off | D．fall down |
| A．pretend | B．suspect | C．determine | D．acknowledge |
| A．located | B．ranked | C．addressed | D．defied |
| A．delight | B．delay | C．decline | D．distress |
| A．gesture | B．secret | C．behavior | D．authority |
| A．peers | B．enemies | C．guards | D．owners |
| A．controversial | B．accepted | C．foreign | D．equivalent |
| A．twisting | B．imposing | C．banning | D．sparing |
| A．reason | B．solution | C．harmony | D．consciousness |
| A．similarity | B．response | C．obedience | D．approach |
| A．environmental | B．external | C．voluntary | D．flexible |
| A．luxuries | B．glories | C．instruments | D．models |
6 . The well-known Spanish painter Pablo Picasso once said, “Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once he/ she grows up.”
This is both encouraging and discouraging. The fact that we were all born to be artists is surely exciting. But the reality has proven that remaining to be an artist is a task that many of us have failed. Fortunately, some people have seen the problem and want to solve it. Western educators have suggested that we introduce the concept of “STEAM” instead of “STEM”—traditional “core majors including science, technology, engineering and math—since the “A”, which stands for “art”, is just important as well. And so did the China’s Ministry of Education. It required colleges and universities to provide more art-related courses for students. They need to earn a certain number of art credits (学分) in order to graduate.
These efforts came after many scientific studies had found that art education helps students develop self-confidence and teamwork skills, as well as habits of mind such as problem solving and critical thinking.
It’s true that none of these skills is directly connected with jobs. But as former US ballet dancer Damian Woetzel told The Atlantic, the purpose of art is “to give kids the tools to become adults who are creative, adaptable and expressive— capable of having their eyes and ears and senses alive. And we can now see how we lost track of our born “artist self” on our way to growing up: we failed to keep our capabilities to see, hear and feel, and became blind, deaf and insensitive adults.
Hopefully, art education can help turn things around.
1. What’s the purpose of the first paragraph?| A．To introduce a famous painter. | B．To summarize the whole passage. |
| C．To inspire us to be artists. | D．To lead in the topic. |
| A．Art is as equally important as “core majors”. |
| B．Western education is more useful. |
| C．Traditional “core majors” are out of date. |
| D．All of us should learn art in college. |
| A．every child is an artist. | B．bringing art to life is essential. |
| C．life is full of art. | D．artists are talented |
7 . Psychologist Susan Levine, an expert on mathematics development in young children the University of Chicago, found children who play with puzzles between ages 2 and 4 later develop better spatial skills. Puzzle play was found to be a significant predictor of cognition(认知) after controlling for differences in parents’ income, education and the amount of parent talk, Levine said.
1. In which aspect do children benefit from puzzle play?| A．Building confidence. | B．Developing spatial skills. |
| C．Learning self-control. | D．Gaining high-tech knowledge. |
| A．Parents’ age. | B．Children’s imagination. |
| C．Parents’ education. | D．Child-parent relationship. |
8 . A few years ago I had an “aha!” moment regarding handwriting.
I had in my hand a sheet of paper with handwritten instructions on it for some sort of editorial task. It occurred at first that I did not recognize the handwriting, and then I realized whose it must be. I finally became aware of the fact that I had been working with this colleague for at least a year, maybe two, and yet I did not recognize her handwriting at that point.
It was a very important event in the computerization of life-a sign that the informal, friendly communication of people working together in an office had changed from notes in pen to instant messages and emails. There was a time when our workdays were filled with little letters, and we recognized one another’s handwriting the way we knew voices or faces.
As a child visiting my father’s office, I was pleased to recognize, in little notes on the desks of his staff, the same handwriting I would see at home in the notes he would leave on the fridge-except that those notes were signed “dad” instead of “RFW”.
All this has been on my mind because of the talk about The Rise and Fall of Handwriting, a book by Florey. She shows in her book a deep concern about the fall of handwriting and the failure of schools to teach children to write well, but many others argue that people in a digital age can’t be expected to learn to hold a pen.
I don’t buy it. I don’t want to see anyone cut off from the expressive, personal associations that a pen still promotes better than a digital keyboard does. For many a biographer (传记记者), part of really getting to know their subjects is learning to read their handwriting.
What some people advocate is teaching one of the many attractive handwritings based on the handwriting of 16th century Italy. That may sound impossibly grand-as if they want kids to lean to draw by copying classical paintings. However, they have worked in many school systems.
1. Why was the author surprised at not recognizing his colleague’s handwriting?| A．He had worked with his colleague long enough. |
| B．His colleague’s handwriting was so beautiful. |
| C．His colleague hated to give written notes. |
| D．They used to write notes to each other in work. |
| A．should be used in class | B．attract more attention |
| C．are used mainly among family | D．carry more messages |
| A．does not agree with Florey |
| B．does not want to lose handwriting |
| C．puts the blame on the computer for people’s bad handwriting |
| D．thinks handwriting should be taught based on that of 16th century Italy |
9 . Growing up in the city of Rochester, Kevin Knight never thought there was a difference between going to school in the city and in the suburbs.
A city student himself, Knight described spending summer days meeting research scientists, which gave him valuable insight into the real world application of science. But, later on, he realized this was not the case for everyone. Students who attend suburban schools don’t have the same opportunities to attend scientific events as those who go to urban schools. They don’t have the chance to view things they learn in school in real-life contexts.
“Book learning is great but having the experience of feeling and touching the world gives real meaning to what you learn in the book.” Knight said. That is what drove Knight to create the Urban Suburban Science Team program, which trains middle school and high school students for science competitions.
When Knight was young, the city of Rochester offered many science programs, which were supported financially by Kodak, Bausch, Lomb and Xerox. But as these companies downsized, the programs were scrapped. Now Knight has been the primary sponsor of the science program. “I feed the kids,” he explained.
Knight and his students have competed in cities like Buffalo, New York City, Indianapolis, Minneapolis, South Carolina, and North Carolina. Recently, Knight’s high school students won the Buffalo competition and got an all-expenses-paid trip to Washington D.C. to compete against the best teams in the country. And his middle school students are getting ready for a Department of Energy competition in Buffalo. “They won second place last year; we expect to win first place this year,” Knight said confidently. For the students, such experience is quite valuable and makes them hungry for more and confident about their future.
1. What seems to be the difference between city school students and suburban school students?| A．School activities. | B．Ways of book learning. |
| C．Different focuses of research. | D．Chances to get hands-on experience. |
| A．By starting a science program. |
| B．By holding science competitions. |
| C．By contacting research scientists. |
| D．By financially supporting kids in need. |
| A．Postponed. | B．Scheduled. |
| C．Cancelled. | D．Recovered. |
| A．All the expenses of the competitions are paid up by Knight. |
| B．Knight’s efforts can go a long way in benefiting his students. |
| C．Knight’s high school students defeated the best teams in Washington D.C. |
| D．Knight believes his middle school students will surely win first place this year. |
10 . A Need to Close the Digital Gender Gap
One of the most efficient ways to promote peace and jump-start flagging economies is to empower girls and invest in their education. Today, girls’ lack of access to basic education is
Since 2013 the global gender gap in male and female access to the Internet has actually increased from 11 to 12 percent.
There are many causes for the digital gender gap. They include girls’ obvious
According to the International Institute for Sustainable Development, an independent, non-profit and non-governmental research organization, the gender digital gap is a major
In the words of USAID Senior Gender Coordinator Michelle Bekkering, “A girl’s future should be
| A．improved | B．eliminated | C．worsened | D．resulted |
| A．considerately | B．increasingly | C．only | D．technically |
| A．access | B．approach | C．evaluate | D．promote |
| A．However | B．Worse | C．And | D．Strangely |
| A．possible | B．probable | C．likely | D．feasible |
| A．gap | B．difference | C．data | D．shortage |
| A．digital | B．technical | C．mathematical | D．practical |
| A．restriction | B．exclusion | C．independence | D．division |
| A．implements | B．devices | C．products | D．experts |
| A．research | B．criticism | C．discrimination | D．distinction |
| A．encouraged | B．prevented | C．denied | D．disappointed |
| A．deadlock | B．concern | C．prevention | D．barrier |
| A．With | B．Without | C．Through | D．Despite |
| A．faint | B．lost | C．missed | D．rapid |
| A．defined | B．confined | C．designed | D．outlined |
