1 . Educators across the US are calling for major changes to the admissions process in higher education. The Harvard school of Greduate Education, along with 80 other schools and organizations, released a report called “Turning the Tide Making Caring Common” in January, 2016. The report argues that the process schools use to choose students causes major problems.
David Hawkins is the Executive Director for Educational Content and Policy at the National Association for College Admissions Counseling. Hawkins told Voice of America that most colleges and universities require many things from students when they apply. Schools usually ask for an essay describing a student's interests or why they want to study at that school. The schools also ask for letters from teachers or other responsible adults describing why a student is a good candidate. But, Hawkins says, the area that schools are most concerned about is a student’s high school grades and standardized test results.
The report suggests that paying attention to academic success over other qualities works well for some students but hurts others. In addition, academic success is not the most important quality a student should have. More attention should be paid to showing whether or not a student wants to do well in the world, according to the report.
The report goes on to state that the best way to change the admissions process is by changing college applications. It suggests that schools should ask for evidence that students care about other people. But the report does have its critics. Bob Schaeffer, Public Education Director for the National Center for Fair and Open Testing, said that every few years, someone makes the same argument for changes, but no real change has happed yet. Even many of the schools that agree with the report still make no changes.
Lloyd Thacker, Executive Director of the Education Conservancy, said that until a majority of schools agree to make the changes, there will still be problems. However, he said, the admissions process was better in the past. If bad changes can affect the process, so can good ones.
1. What is the problems of the admissions process according to the report?| A．The schools ask too many things from the applying students. |
| B．The schools attach too much importance to students’ academic records. |
| C．The number of students getting admitted is too small. |
| D．Admissions officers consider too many unimportant factors. |
| A．The reasons to attend the school. |
| B．A description of interests. |
| C．Recommendation letters from adults. |
| D．Evidence that students care about others. |
| A．not all changes are good |
| B．the largest schools are expected to make changes first |
| C．no schools currently agree with the report |
| D．some schools don’t make changes even if they agree |
| A．Confident. | B．Negative. |
| C．Doubtful. | D．Unclear. |
2 . It is commonly believed that all over the world, boys and girls attend a mixed school, where they study together. But boys schools are the perfect place to teach young men to express their emotions（情感） and involve them in activities such as art, dance and music.
Always boys at single-sex schools were said to be more likely to get involved in cultural and artistic act“boy code” of hiding their emotions to be a“real man”.
Surprisingly, the findings of the study go against received wisdom that boys do better when taught alongside girls.
George Carl, headmaster of Eton, warned that boys were being failed by the British education system because it had become too focused on girls. He criticized teachers for failing to recognize that boys are actually more emotional than girls.
The research argued that boys often perform badly in mixed schools because they become discouraged when girls do better earlier in speaking and reading skills.
But in single-sex schools teachers can adjust lessons to boys’ learning style, letting them move around the classroom and getting them to compete in teams to prevent boredom, wrote the study’s author, Abigail James, of the University of Virginia.
Teachers could encourage boys to enjoy reading and writing with “boy-focused” approaches such as themes and characters that appeal to them. Because boys generally have more acute eye, learn best through touch, and are physically more active, they need to be given “hands-on” lessons where they are allowed to walk around. “Boys in mixed schools view classical music as feminine(女性的) and prefer the modern genre (类型) in which violence and sexism are major themes,” James wrote.
Single-sex education also made it less likely that boys would feel that they had to be “masterful and in charge” in relationships. “In mixed schools, boys feel forced to act like men before they understand themselves well enough to know what that means,” the study reported.
1. Traditionally, in a mixed school ,boys __________.| A．behave more responsibly | B．perform relatively better |
| C．grow up more healthily | D．receive a better education |
| A．encourage boys to express their emotions more freely |
| B．help boys to be more competitive in schools |
| C．force boys to be their emotions to be “real men” |
| D．naturally strengthen boys’ traditional image of a man |
| A．boys can choose to learn whatever they are interested in |
| B．boys can focus on their lessons without being distracted(分心) |
| C．teaching can be adjusted to suiting the characteristics(特征) of boys |
| D．teaching can be designed to improve boys’ team spirit |
| A．lovely | B．serious | C．sharp | D．dull |
3 . Daniel Anderson, a famous psychologist, believes it’s important to distinguish television’s influences on children from those of the family. We tend to blame TV, he says, for problems it doesn’t really cause, overlooking our own roles in shaping children’s minds.
One traditional belief about television is that it reduces a child’s ability to think and to understand the world. While watching TV, children do not merely absorb words and images (影像). Instead, they learn both explicit and hidden meanings from what they see. Actually, children learn early the psychology of characters in TV shows. Furthermore, as many teachers agree, children understand far more when parents watch TV with them, explaining new words and ideas. Yet, most parents use an educational program as a chance to park their kids in front of the set and do something in another room.
Another argument against television is that it replaces reading as a form of entertainment. But according to Anderson, the amount of time spent watching television is not related to reading ability. TV doesn’t take the place of reading for most children; it takes the place of similar sorts of recreation, such as listening to the radio and playing sports. Things like parents’ educational background have a stronger influence on a child’s reading. “A child’s reading ability is best predicted by how much a parent reads,” Anderson says.
Traditional wisdom also has it that heavy televisionwatching lowers IQ (智商) scores and affects school performance. But here, too, Anderson notes that no studies have proved it. In fact, research suggests that it’s the other way around. “If you’re smart young, you’ll watch less TV when you’re older,” Anderson says. Yet, people of lower IQ tend to be lifelong television viewers.
For years researchers have attempted to show that television is dangerous to children. However, by showing that television promotes none of the dangerous effects as conventionally believed, Anderson suggests that television cannot be condemned without considering other influences.
1. By watching TV, children learn ________.| A．images through words |
| B．more than explicit meanings |
| C．more about images than words |
| D．little about people’s psychology |
| A．on his own | B．with other kids |
| C．with his parents | D．with his teachers |
| A．Radiolistening. |
| B．Televisionwatching. |
| C．Parents’ reading list. |
| D．Parents’ educational background. |
| A．To advise on the educational use of TV. |
| B．To describe TV’s harmful effects on children. |
| C．To explain traditional views on TV influences. |
| D．To present Anderson’s unconventional ideas. |
Should parents leave all of their money to children and let them live a carefree life without even the necessity of earning money to support themselves? Here are two pieces of news about two celebrities:
Bill Gates: Bill Gates has promised to give all of his $ 58 billion fortune to charity he has set up with his wife, The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which funds health and education projects around the world. He wanted to make a positive contribution to the world.
Zuckerberg: We will give 99% of our Facebook shares during our lives to advance human potential and promote equality. We know this is a small contribution compared to all the resources and talents of those already working on these issues. But we want to do what we can, working alongside many others.
Many world-famous wealthy businessmen choose to donate almost all of their possessions to the charity instead of leaving their fortune to their children. In their opinion, it is better to develop the quality of independence of their children, making them possess the competence of living by themselves.
【写作内容】
1. 以约30个词概括上述材料的主要内容。
2. 以约120个词谈谈你对以上材料的看法，内容包括：
⑴ 你是否赞同这些名人的做法以及你的理由；
⑵ 请你就父母如何培养孩子的独立性方面，谈谈你的看法(两到三点)。
【写作要求】
1. 写作过程中不能直接引用原文语句;
2. 作文中不能出现真实姓名和学校名称;
3. 不必写标题。
【评分标准】
内容完整, 语言规范，语篇连贯, 词数适当。
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5 . Generations of children grew up reading comic(漫画) books secretly, hiding out from parents and teachers who saw them as a waste of time and a risk to young minds. Comics are now gaining a new respectability at school. That is thanks to an increasingly popular and creative programme, often aimed at struggling readers, that encourages children to plot, write and draw comic books, in many cases using themes from their own lives.
The Comic Book Project was started in 2001 by Michael Bitz at an elementary school in Queens. Since its creation, the programme, which is mainly conducted after school, has spread to more than 850 schools across the country. It has gotten a big push from the craze(狂热) among adolescents for comic book clubs and for Manga, a widely popular variety of comic originating in Japan.
The point is not to drop a comic book on a child’s desk and say “read this”. Rather, the workshops give groups of students the opportunity to collaborate(合著) on often complex stories and characters that they then revise, publish and share with others in their communities.
Teachers are finding it easier to teach writing, grammar and punctuation with material that students are fully invested in(投入). And it turns out that comic books have other built-in advantages. The pairing of visual and written plotlines that they rely on appear to be especially helpful to struggling readers. No one is suggesting that comic books should substitute for traditional books or for standard reading and composition lessons. Teachers who would once have dismissed comics out of hand are learning to exploit(利用) a style that clearly has a powerful hold on young minds. They are using what works.
1. Which of the following is probably the best title of the passage?| A．Japanese Comic Books. |
| B．Comic Books in the Classroom. |
| C．Reading Efficiently. |
| D．A Current Craze. |
| A．develop the cooperation among adolescents |
| B．make sure that students live a rich and colourful life after school |
| C．help students who have some difficulty in reading |
| D．popularize a new method of teaching |
| A．comic books were first used in Japanese schools |
| B．parents have different opinions about their children reading comic books |
| C．more and more teachers will realize the advantages of comic books |
| D．comic books will be allowed to enter all the schools in the country |
6 . Recently, online high schools in America have caused a debate about whether or not taxpayers’ money should be used to support online education. Online schools receive the same amount of funding as all other public schools, even though they don’t have to pay for rent or school equipment. States should use their educational funds to improve education at real schools, not to support online programs.
Some students only use online classes to supplement（补充）their school work. They benefit from the social experience of a traditional high school, while still taking online courses.
However, about 90 thousand students in America receive their education only from online schools. 50 thousand of these students take courses at Florida Virtual School, the largest online school in the country. While this method of schooling helps students who live in remote regions, most school systems are upset that they are losing more students each year to these online programs.
Although online learning allows children to work at their own pace, these online schools have only one teacher per several hundred students. Often, teachers can’t give struggling students the help they need as they are unable to talk face-to-face with them, to find exactly what they’re having difficulty with.
Additionally, even though online schooling accommodates（顾及）students who live in more remote states, students in online programs may suffer in social situations because they will not learn valuable communication skills from their schooling. Similar to students who are home schooled, those who take only online classes won’t learn social etiquette（礼节）, and will be treated differently by their peers.
Online schooling might be useful for places where there are not enough students for a real school, such as agricultural regions, but states should only spend taxpayers’ money on online schools in extreme cases.
1. What is the passage mainly about?| A．Whether students should study at online schools. |
| B．Whether online schools should be allowed to exist. |
| C．Whether taxpayers should pay for online schools. |
| D．Whether traditional schools should be replaced. |
| A．is helpful to students living in remote regions |
| B．allows students to work together |
| C．makes it possible for students to get immediate help |
| D．develops students’ critical thinking |
| A．might lose interest in learning |
| B．would play online games |
| C．could not receive teachers’ help |
| D．could not become fully developed |
| A．Taxpayers should not pay for online schools at all. |
| B．Taxpayers should pay more for online schools than real schools. |
| C．Taxpayers’ money should be spent on online schools conditionally. |
| D．Taxpayers should support online schools in different ways. |
7 . A long-term American study shows the importance of early education for poor children. The study is known as the Abecedarian (初步的) Project. It involved more than one-hundred young children from poor families in North Carolina.
Half of the children attended an all-day program at a high-quality childcare center. The center offered educational, health and social programs. Children took part in games and activities to increase their thinking and language skills and social and emotional development. The program also included health foods for the children.
The children attended the program from when they were a few weeks old until the age of five years. The other group of children did not attend the childcare center. After the age of five, both groups attended public school.
Researchers compared the two groups of children. When they were babies, both groups had similar results in tests for mental and physical skills. However, from the age of eighteen months, the children in the educational child care program did much better in tests.
The researchers tested the children again when they were twelve and fifteen years old. The tests found that the children who had been in the childcare center continued to have higher average test results. These children did much better on tests of reading and mathematics.
A few years ago, organizers of the Abecedarian Project tested the students again. At the time, each student was twenty-one years old. They were tested for thinking and educational ability, employment, parenting and social skills. The researchers found that the young adults who had the early education still did better in reading and mathematics tests. They were more than two times as likely to go to college or to have completed college. In addition, the children who received early education were older on average, when their first child was born.
The study offers more evidence that learning during the first months and years of life is important for all later development.
The researchers of the Abecedarian Project believe their study shows a need for lawmakers to spend money on public early education. They believe these kinds of programs could reduce the number of children who do not complete school and are unemployed.
1. The Abecedarian Project has lasted ______.| A．almost one year | B．about five years | C．more than 20 years | D．no more than 15 years |
| A．They were more likely to go to college. | B．They had children earlier． |
| C．They had the same results in tests. | D．They are less sociable． |
| A．involves children from rich families |
| B．doesn’t provide food for children |
| C．offers foreign teachers to help improve children’s language skills |
| D．studies the importance of an early education for poor children |
| A．How important early education is for poor children. |
| B．What the children learned at the child-care center. |
| C．How many children are involved in the Abecedarian Project. |
| D．Whether lawmakers will spend money on public early education. |
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 . Once a child reaches their teenage years, many parents may think it is too late to help them change a negative attitude. This is not the case, and while it may take longer, it is possible to help your child develop a positive attitude. Having a positive attitude is important to a teenager’s happiness and success.
Judge your own attitude.
Teach your teen to aim high, while showing her how to acknowledge her limitations.
Try to praise your teenager when he deserves it. Show him you value him and recognize when he makes positive choices.
| A．Teach them how to self-talk. |
| B．A child’s attitude is a learned behavior. |
| C．Avoid unkind blames to affect your teen’s attitude. |
| D．A negative attitude can result in them feeling upset. |
| E．There is no problem having reasonable dreams. |
| F．Most teenagers will appreciate their parent’s praise. |
| G．Encourage him to take up new hobbies or interests. |
10 . My mother has always been involved in early-childhood education. She often set the scene for children to
Mum was so proud of me after I
Since the Olympics, I have
As I was a kid, my mother came to every
When I was at the University, I completed only one semester and then decided to
“Mum, I have this opportunity, and I think I’m going to take it. What do you think?”
She was as
Supporting your children, trusting their decisions, giving well-thought-out advice—those are definitely important qualities.
1.| A．experience | B．evaluate | C．express | D．expect |
| A．afraid | B．ready | C．relaxed | D．reluctant |
| A．won | B．chose | C．played | D．watched |
| A．rose | B．settled | C．flew | D．appeared |
| A．luck | B．time | C．crossroad | D．opportunity |
| A．demand | B．happiness | C．courage | D．importance |
| A．display | B．follow | C．appreciate | D．abandon |
| A．served | B．attended | C．visited | D．started |
| A．energetic | B．colorful | C．miserable | D．ordinary |
| A．never | B．always | C．seldom | D．usually |
| A．neglect | B．achieve | C．suspect | D．assume |
| A．practice | B．school | C．game | D．kindergarten |
| A．support | B．reward | C．instruct | D．comfort |
| A．surfing | B．jumping | C．jogging | D．running |
| A．sitting | B．speaking | C．standing | D．performing |
| A．compete | B．succeed | C．separate | D．compromise |
| A．drop in | B．drop off | C．drop out | D．drop back |
| A．magic | B．nervous | C．critical | D．serious |
| A．attractive | B．talkative | C．imaginative | D．supportive |
| A．consideration | B．intention | C．suggestion | D．decision |
