Is there a nationwide shortage of nurses? It’s hard to say．However, some characteristic symptoms often indicate that there is indeed a shortage．
One symptom is the vacancy rate, or the percentage of budgeted positions that are unfilled．New England’s hospitals currently report that an average of 7 to 12 percent of their registered nurse positions are vacant, the highest level since the last shortage in the late 1980s．Vermont has a relatively low vacancy rate, at 7．8 percent．But its vacancies were at 1．2 percent just five years ago．
Another symptom is the increased use of stopgap measures to fill empty positions．For instance, many nurses report an upswing in how frequently they are asked to stay past their shifts．According to Murphy, working in the St．Elizabeth’s Hospital, “The shortage has definitely created a lot of opportunities of overtime for our nurses, whether they want them or not．” Similarly, a national survey of registered nurses shows that in an average week, nurses in the U．S．work 2．4 more hours than they are scheduled to．Much of this extra time is voluntary, as nurses earn overtime pay when they stay to fill in blanks in the schedule．
When they can’t fill open positions by more traditional means, health care providers hire temporary staff to tide them over．Travelling workers are the largest part of the temporary health care workforce, hired for thirteen-week reduction at health care facilities facing short-term lack of workers．Temporary workers, mainly nurses, cost hospitals $ 7．2 billion in 2000．
“Any successful solution to the shortage depends on convincing more people to become nurses, and that is not an easy goal to reach．To achieve it,” says Buerhaus, “society needs to place more value on nursing．Legislation （法规） can’t do that – it should come from people．” And if this continues, we might have to learn to care for ourse
lves in the hospital．The temporary staff hired by a hospital _______．
| A．cost a large part of the hospital’s budget |
| B．meet the need for nurses in the hospital for a short time |
| C．should work on a weekly basis and on a scheduled timetable |
| D．ought to work passively for thirty continuous weeks |
According to Buerhaus, what is a successful solution to the nurse shortage?
| A．To convince people of the benefits of being a nurse． |
| B．To ask the government for help to work out specific legislation． |
| C．To publicize the past achievements of nurses． |
| D．To make people aware of the importance of being a nurse． |
What’s the probable meaning of the underlined word “upswing” in Paragraph 3?
| A．Symptom | B．Decrease | C．Increase | D．Figure |
What’s the author’s attitude towards nurse shortage?
| A．Worried | B．Indifferent | C．Doubtful | D．Optimistic |
On the night of November 14, 1978,a six-year-old Korean boy was flying to the United States. All he knew was that he was on a plane heading for somewhere. The plane landed at Kennedy International Airport, where he was greeted by a family. This young boy was me.
I have grown up in a town where there were few Asians, so I stuck out in the crowd. I made friends quickly and they treated me just like anyone else. You may ask if anyone made fun of my appearance. Well, of course, I met that' kind of person. I just shrugged it off.
As an adopted child, I have something that others don't have. I have had the benefit of two families. I'm lucky to have got a chance to start a new life. But we must try never to forget our past. Someday I will go back to Korea to find out what kind of culture I left behind.
There is only one thing that I regret about being adopted. When I argue with my parents and they realize they are losing the argument, they sometimes wonder what I would be doing if I were back in Korea. I don't understand this because I thought the purpose of adopting someone was to give them a better chance of growing up in a family. Some day when I am older, I want to adopt a girl and raise her the way my parents have raised me, but I would do it better, for I know what went well and what did not. We learn that when the writer was on the way to his new family,______.
| A．he was with his own parents |
| B．he was very happy and excited |
| C．he was about ten years old then |
| D．he didn't know he was going to be adopted |
If someone sticks out in the crowd, it means that he/she_______.
| A．is very good-looking |
| B．is very kind-hearted |
| C．is easily noticed by others |
| D．is disliked by others |
When the writer was made fun of by others, he _______.
| A．was deeply hurt |
| B．wanted to go back to Korea |
| C．didn’t care about it that much |
| D．tried to make friends with them |
What can we learn from Paragraph 3?
| A．The writer wants to forget his past. |
| B．The writer isn't sad about being adopted. |
| C．The writer isn't interested in Korean culture. |
| D．The writer aren't know anything about Korea. |
What does the writer want to do when he is older?
| A．Go back to live with his parents in Korea. |
| B．Tell his parents what they have done wrong. |
| C．Find out how to raise children in a better way. |
| D．Adopt a girl and raise her in a good way. |
My favourite book is The Adventure of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain．Tom lives with his aunt Polly in a quiet street of St. Petersburg, Missouri．He’s a lively and clever young boy，and he finds himself in many exciting adventures．He runs away with his two friends，Huck Finn and Joe，to an island in the middle of the Mississippi River for several days．With Huck he goes looking for treasure, with Becky he gets lost in a cave．and finally，they find a box of gold．
My favourite scene in the book is when everyone thinks Tom is dead．He decides to go to his own funeral．He hides and watches for a time and then suddenly he appears． Everyone is astonished to see him but they’re also pleased to see him alive．
Tom is the hero of the story，but there are other important characters．Huck is an outsider and everyone is afraid of him．Becky is pretty with fair hair，Joe is Tom’s best friend．and Injun Joe is the bad man of the story.
The theme of the story is about children growing up．It describes how strangers are seen in small towns of America. Finally, it talks about freedom，social rules and how people are punished for bad behaviour.
Why do I think The Adventure of Tom Sawyer is a great book? Mark Twain wrote the story in 1876，but it's still read and loved by people all over the world today． And although it’s only a story, Twain wrote it in the everyday English of the southern states of America in the 19th century，so it sounds very real. Today it’s thought to be one of the greatest books in American literature. Go on--- read it! I know you’ll enjoy it，too.．Where does Tom run away with his two friends?
A．To a quiet street． B To a small town．
C．To an island． D．To a forest．．Who is the bad man in the story?
A．Huck Finn． B Injun Joe． C．Becky． D．Polly．．How did people feel when Tom appeared at his own funeral ?
| A．They were surprised and happy． | B．They were surprised and sad |
| C．They were worried and excited． | D．They were frightened and happy． |
．The whole book is mainly about _______ ．
| A．freedom and social rules | B．children’s bad behaviour |
| C．the growth of young children | D．strangers in American small towns |
．The writer writes the article to ____．
| A．ask us to read the book |
| B．tell us how popular the book is today |
| C．tell us when Mark Twain wrote the story |
| D．tell us why the story sounds very real |
Winter is dangerous for drivers because it’s so difficult to know what is going to happen and accidents take place easily. Bad weather can be waiting to meet you. Ice might be hiding under the snow, waiting to send you off the road. The car coming towards you might suddenly move across the road. Here are two rules for driving safely on icy roads:
Rule Number One is to drive smoothly. Irregular movements can make a car very difficult to manage. So each time you either turn the wheel, touch the brake or increase your speed, you must be as gentle and slow as possible. Just imagine you are driving with a full cup of hot coffee on the seat next to you. You should drive carefully enough in order that you wouldn’t get the coffee out of the cup.
Rule Number Two is to pay attention to what might happen. The more ice there is, the farther you have to look down the road. Test how long it takes to stop by gently braking. Remember that you may be driving more quickly than you think. Generally speaking, allow double your normal stopping distance when the road is wet, three times this distance on snow, and even more on ice. Try to stay in control of your car at all times, or you will get into trouble.Driving in winter is dangerous because _________.
| A．drivers usually have too much coffee |
| B．people drive three times faster than usual |
| C．unexpected things may often happen |
| D．people drive more gently and slowly |
Rule Number One mainly tells us _________.
| A．to drive fast on snowy roads | B．to increase the driving speed |
| C．to manage your car irregularly | D．to drive smoothly on icy roads |
Why does the writer mention “a full cup of hot coffee” in Paragraph2?
| A．To enjoy the driving with a cup of coffee. |
| B．To explain the importance of careful and smooth driving. |
| C．Because drinks are important for drivers. |
| D．Because he wants drivers to have a rest. |
Which of the following can be the best title of the passage?
| A．Winter Driving | B．Careless Driving |
| C．Traffic Accidents | D．Bad Weather |
Where do you think you might read such a passage?
| A．In dictionaries. | B．In cookbooks. |
| C．In advertisements. | D．In magazines. |
Many people go to school for an education. They learn languages, history, geography, physics, chemistry and mathematics. Others go to school to learn a skill so that they can make a living. School education is very important and useful. Yet no one can learn everything from school. A teacher，no matter how much he knows can not teach his students everything they want to know. The teacher’s job is to show his students how to learn. He teaches them how to read and how to think. So much more is to be learned outside school by the students themselves.
It is always more important to study by oneself than to memorize some facts or a formula(公式). It is actually quite easy to learn a certain fact in history or a formula in maths. But it is very difficult to use a formula in working out a maths problem. Great scientists, such as Einstein，Newton and Galileo didn’t get everything from school. But they were all so successful. They invented so many things for mankind. The reason for their success is that they worked hard all their lives, wasting not a single moment. They would ask many questions as they read and they did thousands of experiments.
Above all, they knew how to use their brains.. The subject which is not spoken of in the article is _____
| A．maths | B．history | C．physiology（生理学） | D．physics |
. The teacher’s job is to teach ___________.
| A．everything the students want to know |
| B．the students everything that they know |
| C．the students some facts of formulas |
| D．the students how to learn |
.Einstein,Newton and Galileo did so many things for mankind because_____.
| A．they learned a lot at school |
| B．they knew how to learn new things outside class by themselves |
| C．they were so useful |
| D．they went to college and learned form professors |
. Who does the article say didn’t waste a single moment?
| A．Great people | B．Persons who work as teachers |
| C．The great scientist－Newton | D．Great scientists |
. From the passage we know that if we want to be successful, we should________ .
| A．Only learn more at school |
| B．needn’t go to school |
| C．Only learn science subjects |
| D．learn to learn at school and learn more outside school |
A beautiful and very successful actress (女演员) was the star for a new musical show. Her home was in the countryside, but she did not want to go back there every night, so she bought an expensive house in the centre of the city, got some beautiful furniture and got a man to paint the rooms in new colours.
It was very difficult to get tickets for her show, because everybody wanted to see it. So she decided to give the painter two of the best seats. She hoped that this would make him work better for her. He took the tickets without saying anything, and she heard no more about them until the end of the month, when she got the painter’s bill (帐单). At the bottom of it were these words: “ Four hours watching Miss Hall sing and dance : 3 pounds,” with this note: “ After 5 p.m. I get 15 shillings (先令) an hour instead of 10 shillings.”The actress bought a house in the centre of the city because _______.
| A．she liked to live in the busiest place. |
| B．she didn’t like to live in the country. |
| C．her home was far away from where she worked. |
| D．she didn’t want to go back to her hometown any longer. |
. In order to make the painter work better for her, the actress ___________.
| A．gave him two tickets for her show |
| B．sang and danced for him for hours |
| C．paid him 3 pounds |
| D．decided to pay him 15 shillings an hour |
. The actress got the painter’s bill ______.
| A．to ask for the money of his painting work. |
| B．to ask her to pay for his watching her show |
| C．in which he showed his thanks for the tickets |
| D．in which he expressed his dissatisfaction |
. It can be learned from the text that one pound is___________ shillings.
| A．10 | B．12 | C．20 | D．15 |
. What kind of man was the painter?
| A．He was a careful man. | B．He was a poor man. |
| C．He was not friendly to others. | D．He knew little about music and dances. |
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