1 . In Britain all children have to go to school between the ages of 5 and 16. In the US children must go to school from the age of 6 to the ages between 14 and 16, depending on the state they live in.
Subjects
In England and Wales the subjects taught in schools are laid down by the National Curriculum, which was introduced in 1988 and sets out in detail the subjects that children should study and the levels of achievement they should reach by the ages of 7, 11, 14, and 16, when they are tested. The National Curriculum does not apply to Scotland, where each school decides what subjects it will teach.
Examinations
At 16, students in England and Wales take GCSE examinations. These examinations are taken by students of all levels of ability in any of a range of subjects, and may involve a final examination, an assessment of work done during the two-year course, or both of these things. At 18 some students take A-level examinations, usually in no more than three subjects. It is necessary to have A levels in order to go to university.
In Scotland students take the SCE examinations. A year later, they can take examinations called Highers, after which they can either go straight to a university or spend a further year at school and take the Certificate of Sixth Year Studies. In Scotland the university system is different from that in England and Wales.Courses usually last four years rather than three, and students study a large number of subjects as part of their degree.
1. According to the passage, children have to go to school between the ages of in both Britain and the US.| A．5—14 | B．6—14 |
| C．5—15 | D．6—17 |
| A．England and Wales. | B．England and Scotland. |
| C．US and Britain. | D．Wales and Scotland. |
| A．GCSE. | B．SCE. |
| C．Highers. | D．The Certificate of Sixth Year Studies. |
| A．In the US, only local government can decide the subjects. |
| B．In Scotland, students can take either the SCE examinations or the Certificate of Sixth Year Studies. |
| C．In England and Wales, one cannot go to university without A levels. |
| D．As for a 16-year-old student in England and Wales, he has to take both GCSE examinations and a final examination. |
2 . When parents ask, “What grade did you get?” there is a common follow-up question: “So who got the highest grade?” The practice of making such social comparisons(比较) is popular in all corners of the world. Many teachers choose and publicly announce the “best student” in a class. Adults praise children for doing better than others. People cheer for the athletes who defeat others.
Social comparisons are well meaning: we want to make children feel proud and push them to achieve more. Yet social comparisons can backfire: children can learn to always compare themselves with others and become caught up in a harmful cycle(循环) of competition.
One well-known method to remove social comparisons is to provide participation prizes for children who take an active part in activities. Such prizes, however, may not end social comparisons: A high achiever who receives the same prize as a low achiever may feel unfairly treated. More generally, those who are highly praised unexpectedly may come to believe that they do better than others and thus have reason to be given a prize.
How, then, can we make children feel proud of themselves and encourage them without the unwanted side effects? We believe a better way is to use temporal comparisons—encouraging children to compare themselves with their past self rather than with others, such as by checking on their progress. Adults should teach children that doing better than oneself is more important than doing better than others and that even small achievements can be celebrated.
1. Why do parents compare their children with others?| A．To make the practice more popular. | B．To give children the desire to do better. |
| C．To give children courage to face defeats. | D．To prevent children from being too proud. |
| A．Make no difference. | B．Bring great benefits. |
| C．Have opposite effects. | D．Cause short-term changes. |
| A．It’s better than social comparisons. | B．It gives low achievers a wrong idea. |
| C．It weakens the confidence of high achievers. | D．It’s a reasonable suggestion for inspiring children. |
| A．You will be the best! | B．You are No. 1 again! |
| C．You are doing better than before! | D．You make greater progress than Li Hua! |
3 . The number of overweight children in the United States has more than doubled in the past 20 years, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention(CDC). Being seriously overweight can lead to health problems later in life.
As a result, schools in several states, from California to Pennsylvania , have started sending home ”BMI report cards”. Those schools send home a report of a student’s body mass index(BMI). BMI is a calculation(计算) of weight and height that tells whether a person is overweight for his or her age.
Should schools send home BMI reports?
Some lawmakers say BMI reports warn parents of their children’s health and help fight obesity(肥胖). In 2003, former Arkansas official Mike Huckabee helped start the first program to report students’ BMI. The obesity rates in that state have since stopped increasing.
Not everyone thinks that reporting students’ BMI is a good idea. Parents protest that the reports hurt their children’s self-esteem(自尊心). Join Smith, a researcher, argues that schools that describe students as overweight are acting unfairly. Parents Brett Levy and Black Rashid from Chicago, believe that schools should teach kids to lead healthy lifestyles instead of reporting their BMIs. “telling a boy or girl BMI is not education” Brett told World News.
1. What does the US CDC find according to paragraph 1?| A．All the children are in poor health. |
| B．American children eat little green food. |
| C．The number of sick children has dropped. |
| D．The number of overweight children has increased. |
| A．John Smith. | B．Mike Huckabee. |
| C．Brett Levy | D．Black Rashid. |
| A．Telling kids BMIs is good education. |
| B．US CDC should send BMIs to parents. |
| C．Schools should teach kids to lead healthy lifestyles. |
| D．World News reports hurt children’s self- esteem. |
4 . A number of people hold a positive attitude toward artificial intelligence’s ability to reshape education nowadays. However, many feel such claims are not trustworthy.
Kentaro Toyama, a professor at the University of Michigan School of Information, is one of those doubtful about the idea of using AI in the classroom.
Toyama mentioned a situation he came across while working in an after-school program in digital literacy. He said,“In trying to teach students to use technology, the greatest difficulty in their learning was the technology itself.” As soon as he looked away from the students, they would “very quickly find the most fun games they could find on the computer and start playing them”. That suggests the problem with putting too much faith in AI for teaching. “There is great potential for it to be a distraction,” he said.
Toyama once surveyed a large group of people about their preference for the following educational scenarios (情景): a school with no teachers but powerful AI,one with bad teachers and no computers, one with bad teachers but strong computers, one with good teachers but no computers, one with good teachers and some computers, or one with great teachers and many computers. The result showed that nobody would send their children to a school with powerful AI but no teachers, or one with bad teachers but strong computers. Toyama concluded “Good teachers are what matters; everything else is secondary compared to that.”
Toyama is also concerned that AI and technology may widen the gap between disadvantaged schools and wealthier schools. He said, “The best way to think about technology is that it amplifies (放大) underlying forces. In the case of schools,well-resourced schools will find the best ways to use technology. But if you’re in a school district that is underfunded and parents are not involved, it doesn’t make a difference how good the technology is, and it will not turn that situation around.”
When asked when schools should adopt AI, Toyama suggested that they should wait until the basics are in place, teachers want it, and the technology is proved to have positive educational value.
1. What does the underlined word “it” in Paragraph 3 probably refer to?| A．AI. | B．Faith. | C．Teaching. | D．Computer. |
| A．To stress the key factor in education. |
| B．To recommend his favorite school for parents. |
| C．To compare the differences between Al and teachers. |
| D．To prove that preference for schools varies among people. |
| A．Poor parents are troubled by their money problems. |
| B．AI may completely change teaching and learning one day. |
| C．It is not the right time to put AI to good use in the classroom. |
| D．Teachers and technology are equally important to a school. |
| A．A novel. | B．A report. | C．A textbook. | D．An announcement. |
Recent studies show that a large percentage of teens today are getting their cigarettes from stores, mostly gas stations or convenience stores. As teens continue to be able to buy their own cigarettes, more and more communities begin to punish those who sell cigarettes to the teens.
One community has experienced success in their attempts to stop the sale of tobacco products to children. Woodridge, Illinois, started a program seven years ago which forbade and strictly punished the sale of tobacco products to children. The entire program includes local licensing of vendors (小贩), repeated undercover inspections to see if the sale to children has stopped, and education programs in schools. Woodridge has become a model community as other communities are moving to stop teen tobacco use.
A recent national study showed that 36.5% of females, and 40.8% of males buy their cigarettes from stores, whether it is a gas station or a supermarket. Hopefully, as more and more sellers see the trouble they face if caught selling to children, they will stop selling.
True, tightening down on stores that sell tobacco to children isn’t going to completely stop the problem of teen tobacco use. Teens continue to get them from other sources. But it definitely does prevent their efforts. With more education in schools, and perhaps stronger punishments for teens caught with tobacco, more and more teens will see the problems with the tobacco usage, and will stop the habit.
1. To stop teens from smoking, more and more communities are ________.
| A．punishing those who sell cigarettes to teens more severely |
| B．punishing teens caught with tobacco more severely |
| C．educating those who sell cigarettes about the danger of teen smoking |
| D．stopping the sale of tobacco products in stores |
| A．Local licensing to tobacco sale. | B．Repeated undercover inspections. |
| C．Education programs in schools. | D．Stronger punishment of teens caught smoking. |
| A．teens can only buy cigarettes from gas stations and convenience stores |
| B．more communities have succeeded in stopping teen tobacco use |
| C．More males than females have the habit of smoking in America |
| D．Punishment alone cannot solve the problem of teen tobacco use |
| A．Negative | B．Optimistic | C．Uncertain | D．Uncaring |
Here are some opinions from the panel:
Harris Cooper, psychologist, Duke University: “The long summer vacation disrupts(打乱) the rhythm of instruction, leads to forgetting and requires time be spent reviewing old material when students return to school in the fall. My advice? Teachers, you need to be careful about what and how much summer homework you assign. Summer homework shouldn’t be expected to overcome a student’s learning deficits(不足); that’s what summer school is for. Parents, if the assignments are clear and reasonable, support the teachers. ”
Nancy Kalish, co-author of the Case Against Homework: “Schools should rethink summer homework, and not just because it stresses out kids (and parents). The truth is, homework doesn’t accomplish what we assume it does. According to a Duke University review of more than 175 studies, there is little or no connection between homework and standardized test score or long-term achievement in primary school.”
Mark Bauerlein, professor of English at Emory University: “To the general question of whether or not schools should assign summer homework, the answer is ‘Yes.’ The reason comes not only from the brain drain(脑力消耗) of summer. It relates also to an attitude young people take toward education. They tie knowledge to the syllabus(教学大纲), not to themselves. They read and study to write the paper and score highly in the test, not to furnish their minds. In a word, they regard learning as a classroom thing. That’s all.”
It seems to me that summer homework is a good idea to keep the brain cells moving, but like everything else it should be given in moderation.
1. Harris Cooper seems to believe that_________.
| A．more summer homework causes students’ learning difficulties |
| B．students should go to summer school if they have no homework |
| C．teachers should give careful consideration to summer homework |
| D．parents should tell teachers how much homework their kids need |
| A．making comparisons | B．giving research findings |
| C．raising questions | D．telling stories |
| A．should be based on the school’s teaching program |
| B．has no direct connection to students’ higher grades |
| C．brings more pressure to both students and their parents |
| D．helps students develop the right attitude toward learning |
