In communities north of Denver, residents are pitching in to help teachers and administrators as the Vrain school District tries to solve a $13.8 million budget shortage blamed on mismanagement. “We’re worried about our teachers and principals, and we really don’t want to lose them because of this,” one parent said. “If we can help ease their financial burden, we will.”
Teachers are grateful, but I know it may be years before the district is solvent(有综合能力的). They feel really good about the parent support, but they realize it’s impossible for them to solve this problem.
The 22,000-student district discovered the shortage last month. “It’s extraordinary. Nobody would have imagined something happening like this at this level,” said State Treasurer Mike Coffman.
Coffman and district officials last week agreed on a state emergency plan freeing up a $9.8 million loan that enabled the payroll(工资单) to be met for 2,700 teachers and staff in time for the holidays.
District officials also took $1.7 million from student-activity accounts of its 38 schools.
At Coffman’s request, the District Attorney has begun investigating the district’s finances. Coffman says he wants to know whether district officials hid the budget shortage until after the November election, when voters approved a $212 million bond issue for schools.
In Frederick, students’ parents are buying classroom supplies and offering to pay for groceries and utilities to keep first-year teachers and principals in their jobs.
Some $36,000 has been raised in donations from Safeway. A Chevrolet dealership donated $10,000 and forgave the district’s $10,750 bill for renting the driver educating cars. IBM contributed 4,500 packs of paper.
“We employ thousands of people in this community,” said Mitch Carson, a hospital chief executive, who helped raise funds. “We have children in the school, and we see how they could be affected.”
At Creek High School, three students started a website that displays newspaper articles, district information and an email forum. “Rumors about what’s happening to the district are moving at lighting speed,” said a student. “We wanted to know the truth, and spread that around instead.”
46. What has happened to the Vrain School District?
A. A huge financial problem has arisen.
B. Many schools there are mismanaged.
C. Lots of teachers in the district are planning to quit.
D. Many administrative personnel have been la
id off.
47. How did the residents in the Vrain School District respond to the budget shortage?
A. They felt somewhat helpless about it.
B. They accused those responsible for it.
C. They made their efforts to help solve it.
D. They demanded a thorough investigation.
48. In the view of State Treasurer Mike Coffman, the educational budget shortage is ________.
A. unavoidable B. unbelievable C. insolvable D. invisible
49. Why did Coffman request an investigation?
A. To see if the financial problem was covered up on purpose
B. To find out how serious the consequence of the case would be.
C. To make sure that the school principals were innocent.
D. To stop the voters approving the $212 million bond issue.
50. Three high school students started a website in order to ________.
A. attract greater public attention to their needs
B. appeal to the public for contributions and donations
C. expose officials who neglected their duties
D. keep people properly informed of the crisis
Nuclear power's(核能的) danger to health, safety, and even life itself can be described in one word; radiation(辐射). Nuclear radiation has a certain mystery about it, partly because it cannot be detected (探测) by human senses. It can't be seen or heard, or touched or tasted, even though it may be all around us. There are other things like that. For example, radio waves are all around us but we can't detect them, sense them, without a radio receiver. Similarly, we can't sense radioactivity without a radiation detector. But unlike common radio waves, nuclear radiation is not harmless to human beings and other living things. At very high levels, radiation can kill an animal or human being completely by killing masses of cells (细胞) in important organs (器官). But even the lowest levels can do serious damage. There is no level of radiation that is completely safe. If the radiation does not hit anything important, the damage may not be significant. This is the case when only a few cells are hit, and if they are killed completely. Your body will replace the dead cells with healthy ones. But if the few cells are only damaged, and if they reproduce themselves, you may be in trouble. They reproduce themselves in an unusual way. They can grow into cancer. Sometimes this does not show up for many years.
This is another reason for some of the mystery about nuclear radiation. Serious damage can be done without the knowledge of the person at the time that damage has occurred. A person can be irradiated(放射治疗) and feel fine, then die of cancer five, ten, or twenty years later as a result. Or a child can be born weak or easy to get serious illness as a result of radiation absorbed by its grandparents. Radiation can hurt us. We must know the truth.According to the passage, the danger of nuclear power lies in __________.
| A．nuclear mystery | B．radiation detection |
| C．radiation level | D．nuclear radiation |
Radiation can lead to serious results even at the lowest level ________.
| A．when it kills few cells |
| B．though the damaged cells can repair themselves |
| C．if it damages few cells |
| D．unless the damaged cells can reproduce themselves |
Radiation can hurt us in the way that it can _____.
| A．kill large numbers of cells in main organs so as to cause death immediately |
| B．damage cells which may grow into cancer years later |
| C．affect the healthy growth of our younger generation |
| D．lead to all of the above results |
Which of the following can be best inferred from the passage?
| A．The importance of protection from radiation cannot be too overemphasized (过分强调). |
| B．The mystery about radiation remains unsolved. |
| C．Cancer is mainly caused by radiation. |
| D．Radiation can hurt those who do not know about its danger. |
Ellis Island is located in New York Harbor. Ellis Island is open daily year round from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., with extended hours during summer. It is closed December 25. There is no admission charge to Ellis Island; but donations are gratefully accepted.
At Your Fingertips
Park information (212) 363-7620
Emergencies (212) 363-3260
Ferryboat information (212) 269-5755
Lost and found (212)363-7620
Dining, gifts & audio tour 344-0996
Transportation
Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island Ferry; Boats leave from Battery Park, Manhattan, and from Liberty State Park, New Jersey. They run about every 30 to 45 minutes beginning at 9:15 a.m.
(The time for ferry is changeable)
Hours: May vary; call the number above
Closed: December 25
Ferry fees (includes Liberty and Islands) adults, $7; senior citizens, $6; Children (age 3~17), $5. (Group rates are available for 25 or more adults.)In summer, visitors will have ______ to visit Ellis Island.
| A．a limited time | B．a longer time |
| C．a shorter time | D．a wonderful time |
Which number would you call if your friends were suddenly ill?
| A．(212)344-0996 | B．(212)363-7620 |
| C．(212) 363-3260 | D．(212) 269-5755 |
We may infer from the passage that______.
| A．visitors prefer to go to Ellis Island by boat |
| B．there are more visitors in winter |
| C．Ellis Island is open every day |
| D．Boat is the only transportation to Ellis Island |
Lisa Pina never thought she would need the fire safety training she received during her apprenticeship (学徒期) as a union painter and dry waller. On Friday morning，she was thanking God she had it.
On Thursday night，while Pina was babysitting her granddaughter，nephew and two nieces in her sister’s apartment，she smelled smoke and realized the apartment building was on fire. When her 4yearold granddaughter Ilean Garcia began saying，“We’re going to die，”she knew she had to act.Pina,39，first sealed the door，and then told all four children to get on the floor. After calling 911，she told the children to start singing and promised them all treats as soon as they reached safety. “I said，‘OK，we’re going to lie down and we’re all going to play a game，’” Pina said. “We all started singing our ABCs and 123s.I was just trying to make it fun.” Pina patiently waited，and a few minutes later，Riverside County sheriff’s deputies (治安官的助手) arrived. Pina，Ilean,8yearold Gabriel Parga,5yearold Aubreyana Parga and 4yearold Meriyah Parga were all trapped on the second floor as flames filled the first story. Pina did the only thing she could. She opened the window and dropped the children，onebyone，into the arms of the sheriff’s deputies about 15 to 20 feet below. “I just needed to keep the kids calm so they wouldn’t be afraid，”Pina said.“I was deathly afraid inside，but I couldn’t let them know that.”[Not long after dropping the children out of the window，firefighters arrived with a ladder and rescued her. Ten people were treated at the scene for suffering smoke，but nobody was seriously injured.
The text is mainly about________.
| A．a big fire without serious injury |
| B．an urgent call 911 |
| C．a brave babysitter |
| D．a babysitter rescuing kids from a big fire |
The underlined word “it” in Paragraph 1 refers to________.
| A．a union painter |
| B．a dry waller |
| C．the fire safety training |
| D．the apprenticeship |
Before Lisa Pina called 911，in order to prevent the fire，she________.
| A．let children get on the floor |
| B．opened the windows of the second floor |
| C．closed the door hard |
| D．had children start singing |
According to the text，we know that________.
| A．Lisa Pina was the last one to be rescued |
| B．the fire didn’t cause any injury |
| C．the children were sent to hospital after the fire |
| D．during the fire Lisa Pina wasn’t afraid at all |
When I asked my daughter which item she would keep; the phone, the car, the cooker, the computer, the TV, or her boyfriend, she said “the phone”. Personally, I could do without the phone entirely, which makes me unusual. Because the telephone is changing our lives more than any other piece of technology.
Point 1 The telephone creates the need to communicate, in the same way that more roads create more traffic. My daughter comes home from school at 4:00 pm and then spends an hour on the phone talking to the very people she has been at school with all day. If the phone did not exist, would she have anything to talk about?
Point 2 The mobile phone means that we are never alone. “The mobile saved my life,”says Crystal Johnstone. She had an accident in her Volvo on the A45 between Otley and Skipton. Trapped inside, she managed to make the call that brought the ambulance(救护车) to her rescue.
Point 3 The mobile removes our secret. It allows marketing manager of Haba Deutsch, Carl Nicolaisen, to ring his sales staff all round the world at any time of day to ask where they are , where they are going, and how their last meeting went.
Point 4 The telephone separates us. Antonella Bramante in Rome says, “We worked in separate offices but I could see him through the window. It was easy to get his number. We were so near——but we didn’t meet for the first two weeks!”
Point 5 The telephone allows us to reach out beyond our own lives. Today we can talk to several complete strangers simultaneously ( 同时地) on chat lines (at least my daughter does. I wouldn’t know what to talk about). We can talk across the world. We can even talk to astronauts (if you know any) while they’re space-walking. And, with the phone line hooked up to the computer, we can access(存取) the Internet, the biggest library on Earth.
How do you understand‘Point 1 —The telephone creates the need to communicate, …’？
| A．People don’t communicate without telephone. |
| B．People communicate because of the creating of the telephone. |
| C．People communicate more since telephone has been created. |
| D．People communicate more because of more traffic. |
Which of the following best shows people’s attitude towards mobile phones?
| A．Mobile phones help people deal with the emergency. |
| B．Mobile phones bring convenience as well as little secret to people. |
| C．Mobile phones are so important and should be encouraged. |
| D．Mobile phones are part of people’s life. |
It is possible to talk to several complete strangers simultaneously through _______.
| A．the TV screen |
| B．a fax machine |
| C．the phone line hooked up to the computer |
| D．a microphone |
The best heading for the passage is _________.
| A．Phone Power | B．Kinds of Phone |
| C．How to Use Phones | D．Advantage of Phones |
Envy seems to be bad-but it doesn't have to be. Researchers are finding that, if approached the right way, there can actually be an advantage.
Psychologists classify envy in two ways: negative and positive. With positive envy, you are motivated by another person's success and struggle to follow it. With negative envy, you want to cut the advantaged person down so you look better by comparison. Let's say you feel sufferings of envy after your rival(对手) at another firm gets promoted. Negative envy might drive you to destroy his success, but positive envy would inspire you to work harder and get promoted, too.
Studies show positive envy can be a great motivator(动力). In a 2011 study published in the Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, researchers in the Netherlands conducted a series of experiments with more than 200 university students. Researchers found that when they caused feelings of positive envy----as opposed to admiration or negative envy----in the students, it drove them to want to study more and perform better on a test measuring creativity and intelligence. While admiration may feel better, the researchers found, it doesn't motivate performance like the pain and frustration of envy.
“Those painful sufferings of envy are there for an evolutionary(进化的) reason,” says Texas Christian University researcher Sarah E. Hill, “warning us that someone has something of importance to us.” Building on this theory, Dr. Hill and others conducted a series of experiments, published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, to test whether envy improves attention and memory----the tools needed to copy a rival's steps to success. In one experiment, half of the participants were asked to recall past feelings of envy; the other half weren't. The two groups were then shown mock(模拟的) interviews of imaginary peers. The group filled with envy paid closer attention and better recalled details about the interview subjects. In other words, envy made them more astute（机敏的）. Not only can envy motivate us to reach for higher goals, it may even give us the cognitive push to get there.What’s the bad effect of negative envy?
| A．It makes you lose heart and gets discouraged. |
| B．It has you feel motivated. |
| C．It makes you harm or hurt others on purpose. |
| D．It reminds you to struggle to follow your dreams. |
What’s the benefit of positive envy?
| A．It inspires you to find a possible rival to try to defeat them. |
| B．It encourages you to work harder with a positive attitude. |
| C．It won’t hurt your opponents in the same firm. |
| D．It won’t destroy your success at another firm. |
Compared to admiration, positive envy can__________.
| A．make you feel worse in all sides |
| B．be more likely to get you to admire others |
| C．make you feel the pain in your performance |
| D．be more likely to get you inspired to get success |
What is the main idea of the passage?
| A．Envy seems to be bad. |
| B．Keep your envy in secret. |
| C．Make full use of positive envy. |
| D．Forget about your envy now. |
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