3 . The summer holidays have just begun, but it is a busy morning at Cadoxton Primary School, in Barry, an industrial town in Wales. It runs a summer programme for hard-up (拮据的) children, providing meals and activities over the holidays with the aim of helping kids to spend the time more meaningfully. As young people run laughing and screaming into the school cafeteria for breakfast, their parents hung out, some visibly relieved. Just three days into the six-week school holidays one mother says her nine-year-old daughter has already asked five times to go bowling. “Without the school’s help,” she says, “it would be a long and expensive six weeks.”

In the popular imagination, school summer holidays conjure up (使……呈现于脑际) a picture of carefree youthful exploration. But many parents rely on the term-time services that schools give their kids, such as tutors and meals. If the holidays approach, they can suddenly find their schedules and budgets stretched. Researchers also say that the long break often sets back children’s learning, and that children from poorer backgrounds are desperately affected due to their shortage of money.

Many poor children fall behind their wealthier peers over the holidays. “Summer is the most unequal time of the year,” says Matthew Boulay of the National Summer Learning Association. “Well-off parents can fill the gap left by school and consolidate (使巩固) their children’s unfamiliar knowledge well, keeping their children stimulated with summer camps, trips abroad or private tutors. Poorer families, apparently, find this harder, since their income is relatively low and demand for sponsored activities offered by governments,” he adds.

Holidays can be a financial stress, which is absolutely true. In countries where some children receive free school meals, summer means bigger grocery bills for hard-up families. Households where both parents work have to pay for extra childcare, too. The Family and Childcare Trust, a charity, says that in Britain, where childcare costs are the highest in the OECD, a club of mostly rich countries. Parents will spend an average of 33 per child per week on childcare this summer, mainly because of the sharp shortage of governmental funding sponsor.

1. What is the purpose of the summer programme?

A．To lengthen students’ school life.	B．To keep students busy all the time.
C．To provide students with free meals.	D．To enrich students’ summer holidays.

2. What does the underlined word “stretched” in Paragraph 2 probably mean?

A．Rich.

B．Tight.

C．Reasonable.

D．Affordable.

3. Which statement does Matthew Boulay probably agree with?

A．Badly-off parents are likely to give up sponsoring their kids.

B．Well-off parents are unwilling to offer their kids extra tutors.

C．Students from poor family can well deal with the peer pressure.

D．Students from rich family can strengthen their learned knowledge.

4. Why must British parents pay for the childcare in summer holiday?

A．Because of insufficiency of free tutors.	B．Because of shortage of social sponsor.
C．Because of shortage of free school meals.	D．Because of lack of governmental support.

7 . If having to make a choice between reading an e-book and a printed book, which would most people choose? Some would go for an e-book while some still prefer the hard-printed book.

Undoubtedly, e-books do have benefits. Firstly, changes to an electronic publication are relatively easy to make. They are quicker to obtain. E-books are more easily updated. The printed books on many subjects can become outdated very quickly. Secondly, e-books can be easily and quickly kept up to date. You usually get far more than just the e-books. Most e-books are sold with bonuses and related information that usually do not come with the purchase of a printed book. Moreover, they take up less space. Instead of a big library, you can fit literally thousands of books on your computer. It also makes it easier to share this information with families and friends.

For nearly twenty years, additionally, futurists have been predicting the development of printed books. The conventional view has been that digital e-books are on the verge of replacing paper books. However, this has not been the case. A printed book has its advantages too. Firstly, it is an object that can be carried and used alone. It needs no electric outlet (插座), no batteries, nothing. Secondly, e-books will always require some forms of support that the printed book does not need.

I believe that the online publishing has not taken off because people want real books. What is being published online more and more are pamphlets (小册子) and things that really do not need to be in print. These are stuff that people throw away afterward. More often, people do not want to read a book on the computer. What could be better than a paper book? It lasts a long time. These books are designed to last a long time without disappearing.

To sum up, there is no denying that the printed book is still very much preferred over its digital cousins. Reading electronic publications is just not the same when it comes to books. People are still very interested in real books and notebooks.

1. What can we know about an e-book?

A．It will never be out of date.	B．It always gives you an added bonus.
C．It can deliver information quickly.	D．It has taken the place of printed books.

2. Which statement would futurists probably agree with?

A．Printed books will disappear.	B．Printed books can be used alone.
C．E-books have many restrictions.	D．E-books have no drawbacks.

3. What is one cause of the failed online publishing?

A．The low demand for book industry.	B．The expectations from people.
C．The guidance of policy.	D．The desire for the printed books.

4. What does the author think of the future of the printed book?

A．Hopeless.

B．Unpredictable.

C．Costly.

D．Promising.

8 . Most natural experiments in school disruption come after isolated natural disasters. The covid-19 pandemic is leading to a simultaneous global experiment, however. In America, where schools have been significantly disrupted for the better part of a year, the first batches of reliable data are being gathered to assess how bad the damage has actually been. Sorting through them shows that sadly, America has not defied the gloomy predictions.

A recent analysis of standardised tests carried out by McKinsey, a consulting firm, found that pupils examined in the autumn had learned 33% less maths and 13% less reading than expected. For schools that are majority non-white, the learning losses were much steeper: pupils there had learned 41% less maths and 23% less reading.

In Washington, DC, 73% of white children in kindergarten and 45% of black children typically show adequate reading progress. When examined this year, white children showed a modest drop in adequate literacy to 67%, while black children experienced a much larger one—to 31%. The gaps are also showing up in coursework, not just exams.

Teachers in Los Angeles are reporting a stark increase in the number of failing grades—with the greatest increase in poor neighbourhoods. Researchers from Brown and Harvard universities examining data from Zearn, an online maths-teaching platform, found that pupils from high-income families are actually performing 12% better in their coursework than in January 2020. But for students from low-income families, scores fell by 17%.

The results suggest that the fears of worsening achievement gaps at the start of the pandemic were justified. There are enormous racial gaps in the kinds of instruction being received: 70% of black and Hispanic children are receiving fully remote education, compared with 50% of white pupils. Parents with the means to do so appear to be pulling their children out of public education altogether.

1. How did people estimate the damage?

A．By doing experiments.	B．By analyzing the gathered data.
C．By sorting through the students.	D．By making predictions.

2. What conclusion can we get from the survey results?

A．White students learned 33% less reading than predicted.

B．Non-white students learned better than white students.

C．The reading ability of black children dropped more obviously.

D．The falling range was only revealed in examinations.

3. What was the main factor that influenced the achievement of students according to Para4?

A．Race difference	B．Family income
C．Learning ability	D．Quality of assignment

4. What’s the best title of this passage?

A．Shutting schools has hit poor American children’s learning

B．American parents intend to pull their children out of public education.

C．The pandemic led to a global education experiment.

D．Americans are pessimistic about the gloomy results.