School education in Britain

In Britain, all children have to go to school between the ages of 5 and 16.

In England and Wales, the s    1     that children should study and the levels of achievement they should reach are required by the National Curriculum (全国统一课程). But it does not apply (适用) in Scotland, where each school decides w    2     subjects it will teach.

At 16 students in England and Wales take GCSE examinations. These examinations are t    3     by students of all levels of ability in all subjects. At 18 some students take A-level e    4    , usually in not more than 3 subjects. It is n    5     to have A-levels in order to go to a university.

In Scotland, h    6    , students take different exams — the SCE examinations. A year later, they can take examinations which are c    7     Highers, and then they can either go straight to a university or s    8     another year at school and take the CSYS. In Scotland, the university system is also d    9     from that in England and Wales. Courses usually last 4 years rather t    10     3 years, and students study a larger number of subjects as part of the degree.

The most     1     earthquake in the past 40 years caused a tsunami that     2    into coastlines across Asia yesterday，killing more than 6,500 people in Indonesia, India, Thailand, Malaysia, and at least four other countries. Fishermen, tourists, hotels, homes, and cars were     3     away by huge     4     caused by the strong earthquake that reached a magnitude of 9.0. The undersea quake     5     around 7:00 a.m., Sunday off the coast of Indonesia’s Sumatra Island. In that area alone, at least, 1,870 people were killed.

I’m sorry to hear that you are having difficulty in learning math.     1     is well known to us, math is playing a more and more important role in the development of science.

You’d better have both feet on the ground in several aspects.     2    , interest is the best teacher, so try to get interested in it.     3    , it’s really important to form a good habit of learning math.     4    , you should make every effort to develop all kinds of abilities concerning learning math.

Please remember that hard work pays off.

Yours,

Li Hua

Some body language has many different uses. Perhaps the best example is smiling. A smile can   help us get through difficult situations and find friends in a world of strangers.    1     We can use a smile to apologize, to greet someone, to ask for help, or to start a conversation . Experts suggest smiling at yourself in the mirror to make yourself feel happier and stronger. And if we are felling down or lonely,     2     seeing the smiling face of a good friend.

During my second month of nursing school, our professor gave us a quiz with a question: “What is the first name of the woman, who cleans the school?” Surely this was some kind of joke. I     1     (see) the cleaning woman before, but how could I know her name? I handed in my paper,     2     (leave) the last question blank. Before the class ended, one student asked if the last question would count toward our quiz grade. “Absolutely.” said the professor. “You're likely     3     (meet) many people. They all deserve your attention and care.”

I've never forgotten that lesson.

In our community, there is a large activity room. For the past few years, our community     1     (举行了10多场会议) there. Since 2018, five computers     2     (已被安装) there for the residents. Today, the residents’ lives     3     (被大大地改变了) by these computers, because some residents     4     (被教) to use the Internet. Although they     5     (没有买) any goods online, their confidence     6     (被激起) by these things. Who can guess what their future life will be like?