The United States will introduce a new exam system for students who seek to study in the USA and other English-speaking countries, Xinhua News Agency reported from New York．
The exam, which means a great change from the current English level test, was introduced by Theresa Jen, associate director of the International Service of the USA College Board, America's leading educational organization．
"The Advanced Placement International English Language （APIEL） will be offered for the first time all over the world on May 10, 2012," said Jen．
However, the APIEL is a strange title to most Chinese students, and it is unlikely to soon gain the similarity of other already existing exams, such as the TOEFL （Test of English as a Foreign Language）, the GRE （Graduate Record Examination）, or the IELTS （International English Language Testing System）．
"I have never heard of such a test and I would prefer the IELTS if I need another exam," said Xu Jingyan, a graduating student from Beijing University, who wants to study in England and has already taken the TOEFL．
Most of Xu's classmates have never heard of the APIEL．"The APIEL is made for international students who wish to get university studies in English-speaking countries, including the United States, Britain, Canada and Australia．" Jen said．
"The APIEL will be used," said Jen, "because the TOEFL can no longer perfectly show the students' abilities of using English．" Xinhua reported that a large number of foreign students who had high scores in TOEFL exam turned out to be very ordinary educational performers after being admitted．
"Compared with the TOEFL, the APIEL measures a student's ability to read, write, speak and understand 'English through testing his or her skills in listening comprehension, speaking with fluency, and writing in an organized way．" Jen said．The underlined word "current" in the second paragraph means____．
| A．high | B．present | C．low | D．formal |
We can learn from the passage that____．
| A．the TOEFL is more popular with the Chinese than the IELTS |
| B．it will take quite a period of time for people to accept the APIEL |
| C．Chinese students will prefer the IELTS rather than the APIEL even in the future |
| D．a student will have to take the APIEL if he/ she wants to study in English-speaking countries from 2012 |
The APIEL is designed for students who want to study in English-speaking countries, such as____．
| A．the United States and Canada | B．Canada and Ireland |
| C．Australia and India | D．Britain and France |
According to the passage, the United States will introduce a new exam because____．
| A．it will bring the US government quite a lot of money |
| B．more and more students want to get further education in the USA |
| C．the existing exam systems can no longer perfectly show the students' abilities |
| D．the Chinese pay special attention to English studies with China's entry into the WTO |
Which of the following would be the best title for this passage?
| A．A New Exam Designed for Students |
| B．The Four Skills in Learning English |
| C．The Key to English-speaking Countries |
| D．TOEFL, IELTS and GRE to Be out of Date |
Listening to your favorite music can make a person feel great and can make their emotions change. The song you are listening to can affect how you feel. Different types of music may make you cry, laugh, or even feel anger. According to researches, music is a complex sound that causes a large variety of emotional responses in listeners.
The nature of emotions created by music has been a matter of much debate. Researches have shown that basic emotions, such as happiness, anger, fear, and sadness, can be recognized in and created by musical stimuli (刺激) in humans.
I know from experience that when I am in a bad mood, I’ll listen to my favorite CD. I don’t know what it is about the music but it just makes me feel better almost instantly. All of you have CDs or songs that make you feel great when you’re feeling down. Music has that power and none of us realize that until we really think about it. The physical effects that music has on us are almost the same as the emotional ones.
Music can change you in many ways, depending on the kind of music you are being exposed to. According to “Music and Emotions”, electronic music with loud sounds will physically affect you more easily than any other type of music. Certain types of music can give you courage and strengthen your willpower, while other types can make you relaxed. I can think of a good example for music bringing willpower and strength to you, when you are getting ready before a sport. The sport I play is football and I know that if I don’t listen to a certain mix of songs, my head is all over the place. If I listen to some certain songs I become very energized and feel better about things.
Music affects your emotions in many ways. It also affects your physical status. Music also is the key to your enjoying of a movie. Music affects your emotions by being able to change your state of mind from a sad mood to a happy one. It can also make a person feel great before a competition. Music is also the key to Movies. Without music in movies there would be no suspense, no horror and no excitement. It makes movies what they are to us.The main idea of Paragraph l is .
| A．the effects of different types of music |
| B．music can affect our emotions |
| C．how music affects our emotions is complex |
| D．why people laugh, cry or become angry when listening to music |
The underlined sentence in the 2nd paragraph probably means “ ”.
| A．people have different opinions in what is the best kind of music |
| B．people can’t agree with each other in what is the nature of music |
| C．people have been arguing about the effects of music on our emotions |
| D．people have been discussing about what causes our emotions |
The main purpose of the last paragraph is to illustrate .
| A．music will also be accepted by movies |
| B．music can change us in many ways |
| C．music can be popular with music lovers forever |
| D．music will give the common people excitement |
Which of the following is TRUE according to the passage?
| A．Music may cheer you up, but it can’t let you down. |
| B．Music used to comfort sport players in games. |
| C．Electronic music can affect our emotions much less. |
| D．Different music will cause different emotions in us. |
My mother is the only living person who has never communicated via email or text. She has never turned on a computer, registered an email account, used data storage media or searched the Internet. Since 1955, she has settled in Silicon Valley, married to an extremely technical specialist in applied physics and engineering, designing photometric systems for NASA. Only when Dad suffered from cancer could we convince her she needed a cell phone. Mom’s being separated from the information age is voluntary and deliberate.
Mom is still that farm girl, and she takes the most pride in it. She sees her neighbor and her community “real”. She shows no interest in the digital and virtual life. My mother saw Depression, World War II and the beginning of the Cold War before reaching voting age. She enjoyed country music on “The Sons of the Pioneers”, a Canadian broadcast. The battery was so precious a resource that radio was limited to the barn because Grandma thought it helped cows produce milk. In the age when Churchill moved millions for the first time with radio broadcasts, she only experienced live media monthly, if at all.
In her early twenties, Mom completed nurses’ training and worked in that field before marriage, family and church became her life’s concerns. She never really warmed up to television, though I think she appreciated a few of the series we watched, comedies like All in the Family. Computers, the Internet and mobile apps are simply not part of her experience.
Mom disagrees with the opinion that technology simplifies life. In her life, she sees online records, email and paperless systems as mysteries in which no written reference can assist her.
However, I can partly understand: I like such kind of experience and relationship one has with physical books. I am a child of television who only recently switched to online viewing. I’ve written down my awkward, love-hate relationship with my devices. Mom’s technophobia surely played a role here, but it works for her. She’s happiest as she is.The author’s mother began to use mobile phone when .
| A．she found it hard to contact with her husband |
| B．she settled in Silicon Valley for fifty years |
| C．she got marred to a technical specialist |
| D．her husband suffered from cancer |
What is the author’s mother most proud of according to the passage?
| A．Having so many close neighbors. |
| B．Experiencing too much all her life. |
| C．Living simply and in her own style. |
| D．Being involved in modern technology. |
What is the author’s attitude towards his mother’s such kind of experience?
| A．Critical. | B．Positive. |
| C．Neutral. | D．Negative. |
It is implied in the underlined sentence that .
| A．the author should make efforts to learn from his mother |
| B．the author prefers watching movies online to watching TV |
| C．Mom’s attitude towards technology has an effect on the author |
| D．Mom should also set down the relationship with physical books |
In a class this past December, after I wrote some directions on the board for students about their final examination, one young woman quickly took a picture of the board using her smart phone. When I looked in her direction, she apologized: “Sorry. Was it wrong to take a picture?”
“I can’t read my own handwriting ,”the young woman explained.“It’s best if I take a picture of your writing so I can understand the notes.”
That remark started a class-wide conversation about taking a picture instead of taking notes. For those in the photo-taking camp, motivations extended beyond their inability to comprehend their own handwriting. Some took pictures of notes because they knew their phone was a safe place to store material. They might lose paper, they reasoned, but they wouldn’t lose their phones. Some took photos because they wanted to record exactly the manner in which I had noted information on the board. Others told me that during class they liked to be able to listen to the discussion attentively.
Yet the use of cameras as note takers, though it may be convenient, does raise significant questions for the classroom. Is a picture an effective replacement for the process of note-taking?
Instructors encourage students to take notes because the act of doing so is more than merely recording necessary information—it helps prepare the way for understanding. Encouraging students to take notes may be an old-fashioned instructional method, but just because a method has a long history doesn’t mean it’s out of date. Writing things down engages a student’s brain in listening, visual, and kinesthetic（触觉的）learning—a view supported by a longstanding research. The act of writing down information enables a person to begin committing it to memory, and to process and combine it, establishing the building blocks of learning new concepts.
Taking a picture does indeed record the information, but it deletes some of the necessary mental engagement that taking notes employs. So can the two be equally effective?
I’m not sure how to measure the effectiveness of either method. For now, I allow students to take notes however they see fit—handwritten or photographed—because I figure that some notes, no matter the method of note-taking, are better than none.The woman apologized in the class because she_________.
| A．took a picture of the board |
| B．missed the teachers’ directions |
| C．had the bad handwriting |
| D．disturbed other students’ learning |
Students refuse to take notes by hand because__________.
| A．they are unable to take notes |
| B．they are more likely to lose notes |
| C．they are interested in using their phones |
| D．they have a good memory of teachers’ instructions |
According to the passage, taking notes by hand__________.
| A．requires students to think independently |
| B．is unsuitable for students to learn new ideas |
| C．helps students actively participate in learning |
| D．proves to be an old and useless learning method |
What’s the author’s opinion towards taking notes by phones?
| A．Supportive. |
| B．Neutral. |
| C．Doubtful. |
| D．Disapproving. |
Self-control can make you happier not only in the long-run, but also in the moment.
The research showed that self-control isn’t about giving up desires, but more about managing conflicting goals. Since most people consider highly self-controlled ones as being more task-centered, the scientists decided to find out the connection between self-control and people’s happiness to determine if being self-disciplined leaves people feel less joyful.
Through a set of tests-including one that assessed 414 middle-aged participants on self-control and another that randomly interviewed volunteers on their smart phones about their mood and any desires they might be experiencing, researchers found a strong connection between higher levels of self-control and satisfaction.
The smart phone experiment also showed how self-control may improve mood. Those who showed the greatest self-control reported more good moods and fewer bad ones. But this didn’t appear to be linked to being more able to resist temptation(诱惑)—it was because they exposed themselves to fewer situations that might inspire desires in the first place. They were doing a number of things that bring them happiness and avoiding problematic desires and conflicts.
That became clear in the study’s last experiment, which looked into how self-control affects the way people handle goals that conflict with one another. In particular, the researchers were interested in how self-disciplined and less-disciplined people differed when it came to choosing among “virtues” and “vices” like the pleasure of eating sugar cookie vs. the pain of gaining weight. Participants were asked to list three important goal conflicts they experienced regularly and were also questioned on how they managed to balance the goals.
The highly self-controlled showed an obvious difference from those with less discipline over their lives. They tended to avoid creating situations in which their goals would conflict, and reported fewer instances of having to choose between short-term pleasure and long-term pain. As a result, they experienced fewer negative emotions.
And self-control doesn’t always mean self-denial: it may mean saving now to get big payoff later. For dieters, it means making choices to avoid entering a bakery since you are more likely to buy a cupcake. Granted, self-control isn’t the best way to instant satisfaction, but it may bring something even better: long-term contentment.According to the research, the self-controlled people _____.
| A．enjoy less pleasure of life |
| B．focus less on completing their tasks |
| C．make others feel less delighted |
| D．are better solving problems and conflicts |
From the smart phone experiments, the researchers found self-controlled people _____.
| A．like to challenge more goals |
| B．may have more good moods |
| C．are easier to resist temptation |
| D．are less satisfied with their life |
Different from the less-controlled ones, the highly self-controlled people_____.
| A．rarely prefer pleasures |
| B．often create conflicting goals |
| C．like to put up with pain |
| D．stay away from negative emotions |
The underlined word ‘self-denial’ in the last paragraph probably means______.
| A．self-sacrifice |
| B．self-help |
| C．self-confidence |
| D．self-improvement |
We’re always looking for well-written reviews of books, music, movies, television shows, websites, video games and other products. When writing a review, concentrate on exactly what you liked or didn’t like. Give examples of strengths and weaknesses, be descriptive and provide background information on an author, director, actor or musician, if possible. Find professional reviews in magazines or newspapers and see how reviewers deal with their topic, but be sure to express your own voice in your review.
Grammar Hint for Reviews: When describing a book, movie, album or anything else, use the present tense.
Book Reviews
Discuss an author’s technique, strengths and weaknesses instead of focusing on the plot. Does the story flow? Is there a strong sense of character and place? Did you stay up until dawn to finish it? Is it good reading for teenagers? What influence did it have on you and why? If you’ve read other books by the same author, discuss how this book compares.
Movie Reviews
Think of the major Oscar categories and consider the performances, music, lighting and setting, etc. Do these work together? Did some hold up while others didn’t? If the movie is based on a book, discuss whether one is better than the other and why. If the movie is a remake, compare the film to its original.
Remember that a well-written movie review should discuss strengths and weaknesses. Some readers may not have seen a movie yet, so don’t give away an exciting scene or the ending!
College Reviews
Begin by providing an overview of the college, including location, size and a description of the campus and/or dorm life. Think about all aspects of your college visit. What academic, athletic and after-class programs are available? What are the students like? What makes the college different from others? Every school has strengths and weaknesses. Be objective. Consider what the school has to offer and who might enjoy or benefit the most from attending there.When writing a review, you ________.
| A．cannot refer to any previous review |
| B．must express your own views and opinions |
| C．must provide some information about the author |
| D．needn’t give any examples to support your views |
Which aspects should be included in all three reviews?
| A．Strengths and weaknesses. | B．Plot and character. |
| C．Programs and scenes. | D．Location and description. |
Where can you probably find the passage?
| A．In a personal diary. |
| B．In an official report. |
| C．In a tourist guidebook. |
| D．In a popular magazine. |
粤公网安备 44130202000953号