China is having such a huge influence on the United States that many Americans are struggling to learn the Chinese language in a bid to keep competitive.
"Interest in learning Chinese am
ong American youth and their parents has grown quickly in the past five years," said Vivien Stewart, vice president at the Asia Society. China's quick rise to near-superpower and its effects politically, economically and culturally are driving the American's interest to learn the language, experts say. From kindergartens to high schools, studies by the Asia Society show, there is a "rapid rise" in interest among pupils to study the Chinese language.
"The Chinese rich cultural traditions and blossoming economy mean that it is now important for all of our students to be better prepared," said Michael Levine, Asia Society's executive director of education. A survey found that 2,400 high students—an unbelievable high number—would be interested in offering the Advanced Placement(AP) courses in Chinese language and culture when the courses become available in 2006.
China, the worl
d's most populous nation, is important to the United States because it is a leading trader, consumer and investor. Its political influence is also rising across the world. It has replaced the United States as the world's largest consumer and could become the second largest economy in the world, after the United States, in the next two to three decades.
Even though the US State Department has described the Chinese language "critical" to national prosperity and security, "the current facilities to support recruitment (招募)of students and teachers as well as the growth of high quality programs is terribly not enough," an Asia Society study says. The Society has set an aim of having at least five percent of American high school students learning
Chinese by 2015.
"Millions of Chinese are learning English, but only 24,000 Americans are learning Chinese," said Andrew Corcoran of the San Francisco-based Chinese American International School. The most popular languages after English in US schools at present are Spanish and French while Japanese is the most popular Asian language.
53. The underlined word blossoming (Para. 3) means _________.
A. developed B. developing C. old D. weak
54. Why do more and more Americans begin to learn the Chinese language?
A. To keep competitive. B. To gain advantage in trade.
C. Because they are always interested in it. D. To
be a bridge between the two big countries.
55. What problem is the US faced with when it comes to learning Chinese?
A. Too many Chinese are learning English.
B. N
ot many people want to learn foreign languages.
C. The language is rather difficult compared with English.
D. A lack in current facilities to support recruitment of students 
and teachers and programs.
56. What is the best title for this passage?
A. Danger from China B. Foreign Language Learning
C. The Chinese Language gets More Popular D. Difficulties in Learning the Chinese Language
The end of the World Cup does not mean the end of international competition, in Brazil this year. A major football event will happen in the South American country later this month, but with teams of robots playing the game, which is known as soccer in the United States. The robot teams are guided by teams of humans from around the world. The event is known as RoboCup.
Technology students at the University of Pennsylvania are trying for their fourth victory at the competition, which is held this year in the coastal city Joao Pessoa. The students have won the last three RoboCup competitions.
Watching robots play football is similar to watching children play the game. The kicks are not good, there's a lot of falling down, and people are there to guide and support the team members. Jian Qiao Li is one of the leaders of the University of Pennsylvania team.
He says one goal he has for the robot team is to make sure the machines can find the goal and the ball. He also wants the robots to be able to know where they are on the playing field. And he wants the team to be able to better control the walking and kicking abilities of the robots.
Qin He is another leader of the robot team. She says the abilities of the robots increase every year. Ms. He says the US team is meeting its goals. The robots know the differences between the colors green and red, and they can decide where to go and where the ball is on the playing field. She says if there are three robot players on the field at the same time, they will communicate with each other to decide the different responsibilities for each robot.
U. S. Team member Christopher Akatusuka hopes for another victory in Brazil. The team has won the RoboCup the past three years in the Netherlands, Mexico and Turkey.
“They have every good team player right now. As long as their detection is good, I think they'll be very competitive; we just hope to compete against the real good German teams eventually, because the Germans always do very well, ” says Akatsuka.
Mr Akatsuka says RoboCup is an exciting technology competition.
“Each team develops their own software; basically it's a competition of who has the best software, who has the best decision—making at a given point... it’s really exciting, ” says Akatsuka.
The event begins July 19th and ends July 25th. Some RoboCup participants hope to develop a team of robots that can play against humans by 2050.According to the first paragraph, Robocup _____.
| A．is held every four years |
| B．is played by robots |
| C．is a symbol of World Cup's ending |
| D．is a celebration of World Cup |
The robots' performance of playing the game is _______ .
| A．marvelous | B．awkward |
| C．flexible | D．awesome |
The same goal for the robots that Jian Qiao Li and Qin He mention is _______ .
| A．to locate the ball | B．to communicate with each other |
| C．to play at will | D．to distinguish colors |
Akatsuka's final hope for his robot team is ______ .
| A．to invent the best software |
| B．to win the championship in Brazil |
| C．to make the best decision |
| D．to compete with humans |
阅读理解（共20小题；每小题2分，满分40分）
The “babies” tend to be on or near me, or crying, or both. I spend a fair amount of time trying to get William to sleep, to get Elliott to get involved in something that will actually keep him happy for a little while, or to get William to play on the floor for 10 minutes straight so that I can get something done. But, a lot of days, it seems like I'm not succeeding in any of those efforts.
So, yesterday, a friend of mine posted a picture on Facebook. This particular friend has a baby who is about a month younger than William. The picture was of the baby, who had made his way across the floor to the toys housed along the side of the room. I just kept looking at that picture and thinking that if only William had some different toys to play with, perhaps he would stay occupied a bit longer at a stretch. But William seems so bored with all of his toys! And I am so ready for him to be ready to play. In order to find a way to make him playing longer, I kept looking at that picture. Suddenly, I realized my sons need to play closer to me.
So I cleared off the cubby(围起来的)shelves in the playroom, and my husband and I moved it to the living room. We found all of the toys that would be safe for William and put them in the cubbies. Then, we pulled the play kitchen in.
William was so interested in what I was doing that he sat there and played and chewed on his toys while we moved furniture. When we were done, I moved him over closer to the cubbies and he got so excited that he didn't disturb for an hour, while I made dinner and cleaned up! Even Elliott played happily for a few hours. It was a dream come true! And I got to know that my lack of happy children was because of my desire for a toy—free living room.The babies were unhappy and trapped the author because they_______.
| A．fought with each other |
| B．were told not to play on the floor |
| C．were blamed for destroying property |
| D．were given a living room without a toy |
The underlined sentence “And I am so ready for him to be ready to play. ” means that ______.
| A．the author is determined to keep her son playing longer |
| B．the author is willing to play with her son |
| C．the author is prepared to teach her son to play |
| D．the author is tired of her son's naughty behavior |
Why did the author move furniture and toys into the living room?
| A．Because she wanted to sort out her house. |
| B．Because she wanted to throw the unnecessary items. |
| C．Because she wanted to have her sons closer to her. |
| D．Because she wanted to teach her sons to cook. |
What was the author's dream?
| A．She could keep the living room tidy. |
| B．Her sons could learn to stand by themselves. |
| C．Her sons could be interested in what she was doing. |
| D．She could do what she desired without interruption. |
When Danny Wallace, 26, got bored, he put an ad on the worldwide web reading simply: “Join Me. Send a passport photo.” A year and a half later his east London flat is the headquarters for a global internet-based “club” whose members carry out good deeds for strangers every Friday.
It’s not common for people in London to talk to strangers. If you see someone struggling with something, part of the brain goes “I want to help”. But the trained part of the brain says: “They will think you are mad or going to mug them”, so you walk away.
Join Me now has about 3,000 members around the world who do an act of kindness every Friday. For example, I’m usually out on a Friday so I go for one of the standard acts — the unexpected cup of coffee. You might be sitting in a cafe and see an old man in the corner drinking coffee or tea, and you walk up with another cup of whatever they are drinking , and say: “ I’ve bought you a coffee” and walk away. It’s a pleasure to see the look of surprise on their faces. There can be some suspicion, but I think that was mostly in the early days when I didn’t know how to do it properly. I would walk up quite nervously like I was doing something wrong and I didn’t know when to leave. In the end, I learned through trial and error. Sometimes it worked, other times it didn’t. I discovered that you have to walk up with confidence and humour and not “get in their faces”. You say: “This is for you”, then you go. It’s hit-and-run kindness. And there is no point in doing it half-heartedly. You’ve got to do it because you really mean it.
Join Me is without geographical boundaries, but there are quite a few members in London, and such stories about things happen on the underground or on the buses. One lady got on the bus and put a £10 note down and said: “That’s for me and the next nine people”. So at every stop, anyone who got on was told it was paid for. A lot of people were doing this sort of thing anyway. For them it’s an excuse or reason to do something nice for a complete stranger, and it gives them the confidence to walk up and start chatting.
When Londoners see someone in trouble, they _______.
| A．often give a hand |
| B．pretend not to have seen it |
| C．stop and ask questions |
| D．telephone the police |
According to the passage, members of Join Me often _______.
| A．put an advertisement on the worldwide web |
| B．go out and make friends with strangers |
| C．do an act of kindness every Friday |
| D．buy coffees for the strangers |
The underlined expression in the third paragraph possibly means _______ .
| A．finding something very difficult |
| B．doing something without much effort |
| C．making a few mistakes |
| D．experimenting to get the right result |
Which would be the best title for the passage?
| A．Hit-and-run Kindness | B．History of Join Me |
| C．Danny Wallace and Join Me | D．Why not Join Me |
Entering Space, astronauts can give us a fascinating account of a shuttle flight, describing the pressure of a countdown and launch, the complexities of living the days in the strange weightless environment, the challenges of working in space, the emotional effect of seeing earth from space, the drama of the meteoric landing.
However, there are also plenty of things that astronauts can’t do because of their weightless environment, and that’s very sad. What’s more, they can’t even let their sadness show, because it’s impossible to cry in zero gravity.
Of course, astronauts can still produce tears. But crying is much more difficult in space, reported The Atlantic in January. Without gravity, tears don’t flow downward out of the eyes like they do here on Earth. This means that when you cry in space, your tears have nowhere to go – they just stick to your eyes.
In May 2011, astronaut Andrew Feustel experienced this during one of his spacewalks. “Tears,” he said, “don’t fall off of your eye... They just kind of stay there.”
Besides making your vision unclear, this can also cause physical pain. Back on Earth, tears are supposed to bring comfort to the eyes. But that’s not the case in space. The space environment dries out astronauts’ eyes, and when tears suddenly wet the eyes, it can cause pain rather than comfort. “My right eye is painful like crazy.” Feustel told his teammate during the walk.
Since gravity doesn’t work in space, astronauts need some extra help to get rid of the tears. Feustel chose to rub his eyes against his helmet to wipe the tears away. Another choice is to just wait – “When the tears get big enough they simply break free of the eye and float around,” astronaut Ron Parise told The Atlantic.
There are lots of small things – things like crying – that we are so used to on Earth. We usually take them for granted, until they become a problem in a totally different environment, like space. There, astronauts can’t talk to each other directly. They also can’t eat or drink in normal ways. They can’t even burp (打嗝), because there is no gravity to hold the food down in their stomach. If they do burp, they just end up throwing up (呕吐) everything in their stomach, according to the UK National Space Center.
Thus, perhaps it’s only space explorers who can honestly say: “Gravity, you’re the best.”What can we conclude from the 2nd and 3rd paragraphs?
| A．Astronauts are unable to feel sad in space. |
| B．Tears produced in space don’t flow downward. |
| C．Astronauts produce fewer tears in space. |
| D．Tears produced in space flow down more slowly. |
What can the astronaut do to get rid of the tears?
| A．Get the tears big enough to break away from his eyes. |
| B．Get the tears big enough to fall off of his eyes. |
| C．Rub his eyes against his helmet to let the tears float forward. |
| D．Rub his eyes by hand to let the tears float around. |
What’s the second-to-last paragraph mainly about?
| A．Suggestions on how astronauts can stay comfortable in space. |
| B．Why burping is impossible in space. |
| C．Things that humans can’t do without gravity. |
| D．Other basic things that are difficult to do in space. |
What can be the best title of this passage?
| A．In the sky, you can’t cry |
| B．In the sky, you can’t burp |
| C．No Gravity, no tears |
| D．Better life with gravity |
Thank you, Dean Areen, for that very generous introduction, and very special thanks to my good friends President Lucy Reed and Executive Director Betsy Andersen for the extraordinary work you do with the American education.
It is such a pleasure to be back here at the ASIL. I am embarrassed to confess that I have been a member of ASIL for more than 30 years, since my first year of education school, and coming to the annual meeting has always been a highlight of my year. Let me start by bringing you special attention on something you already know.
As a professor I have grown accustomed to the opinion regarding American education. We are repeatedly told that American schools are failing, that colleges are not teaching, and that the students of today are not as good as the students of the past.
There are, of course, problems with the education system. Because of economic inequality some schools are significantly better than others and the ideas of equality of education and equality of opportunity are cruel jokes. However, the only fact that there are serious problems does not mean that all the dire claims are true.
One stock（陈腐的）claim is that America has fallen behind the world in education in terms of performance on various test. While the fact that America is behind other countries is a point of concern, there are at least three points worth considering here. The first is the above-mentioned economic inequality which will tend to result in poorer performance when taking the average for America. The second is that many countries have put considerable effort into improving their education systems and therefore it is worth considering that America’s decline is also due to the improvement of others. The third is the matter of the measures---do they, in fact present an accurate picture of the situation? I am not claiming that the data is bad. I am merely raising a reasonable concern about how accurate our picture of education is at this time.
Another stock claim is that American students are doing badly on standardized tests. While there is clearly value in assessment, it is reasonable to consider whether or not such tests are a proper and adequate measure of education. It is also worth considering whether the puzzle with these tests is itself causing damage to education. That is, as teachers teach for the test and students learn for the test, it might be the case that what is being taught is not what should be taught and what is being learned is not what should be learned. According to the professor, many people’s attitude towards American colleges is ______.
| A．approving | B．positive |
| C．indifferent | D．negative |
What does the underlined word “dire” in the second paragraph mean?
| A．Extremely serious or terrible |
| B．Long and boring |
| C．Fair or objective |
| D．Exact or precise |
Judging by the text, the claims are centered on ______.
| A．fair judgment of American education |
| B．an accurate picture of American colleges |
| C．American students’ performance on tests |
| D．what should be taught in the American classroom |
The passage is written mainly to ______.
| A．explain why American students do badly on tests |
| B．show dissatisfaction with American education |
| C．defend American system |
| D．offer advice on American education reform |
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