Educating girls quite possibly outputs a higher rate of return than any other investment (投资) available in the developing world. Women’s education may be an unusual field for economists, but raising women’s contribution to development is actually as much an economic as a social problem. And economics, with its emphasis on motivation, provides an explanation for why so many girls can’t receive education.
Parents in low-income countries fail to invest in their daughters because they do not expect them to make an economic contribution to the family: girls grow up only to marry into somebody else’s family and bear children. Girls are thus seen as less valuable than boys and are kept at home to do housework while their brothers are sent to school—the prediction turns into reality, trapping women in a vicious circle (恶性循环) of neglect.
An educated mother, on the other hand, has greater earning abilities outside the home and faces an entirely different set of choices. She is likely to have fewer but healthier children and can insist on the development of all her children, ensuring that her daughters are given a fair chance. The education of her daughters then makes it much more likely that the next generation of girls, as well as of boys, will be educated and healthy. The vicious circle is thus transformed into a good circle.
Few will disagree with it that educating women has great social benefits. But it has enormous economic advantages as well. Most obviously, there is the direct effect of education on the wages of female workers. Wages rise by 10 to 20 per cent for each additional year of schooling. Such big returns are impressive by the standard of other available investments, but they are just the beginning. Educating women also has a significant influence on health practices, including family planning.The author argues that educating girls in developing countries is ________.
| A．troublesome | B．rewarding |
| C．labor-saving | D．expensive |
What does the underlined part probably mean?
| A．Girls will turn out to be less valuable than boys. |
| B．Girls will be capable of realizing their own dreams. |
| C．Girls will eventually find their goals in life beyond reach. |
| D．Girls will be increasingly discontented with their life at home. |
The author believes that a vicious circle can turn into a good one when ________.
| A．women care more about education |
| B．girls can gain equal access to education |
| C．a family has fewer but healthier children |
| D．parents can afford their daughters’ education |
The passage mainly discusses ________.
| A．unequal treatment of boys and girls in developing countries |
| B．the potential earning power of well-educated women |
| C．the major contributions of educated women to society |
| D．the economic and social benefits of educating women |
Down-to-earth means being honest, open, and easy to deal with. It is a pleasure to find someone who is down-to-earth. A person who is down-to-earth is easy to talk to. He or she accepts others as equals. A down-to-earth person may be an important member of society, of course, but they do not let their importance go to their heads, and they do not consider themselves to be better than others who are less important. Someone who is filled with self-importance and pride, often without cause, is said to have his nose in the air. There is no way a person with his nose in the air can be down-to-earth.
Americans use another expression that is similar in some way to down-to-earth. The expression is both feet on the ground. Someone with both feet on the ground is a person with a good understanding of reality. He has what is called common sense. He may have dreams but he does not allow them to block his knowledge of what is real. The opposite kind of person is one who has his head in the clouds. A man with his head in the clouds is a dreamer whose mind is not in the world. Sometimes such a dreamer can be brought back to reality; and sharp words from the teacher, for example, can usually get a daydreaming student to put both feet back on the ground.
The person who is down-to-earth usually has both feet on the ground. But the opposite is not always true. Someone with both feet on the ground may not be as open and easy to deal with as someone who is down-to-earth. When we have both our feet firmly on the ground, we are realistic and we act honestly and openly toward others, and our lives are like the ground below us, solid and strong.If a person has his nose in the air, he _______.
| A．is confident |
| B．is easy to deal with |
| C．is down to the earth |
| D．is always self-important and pride. |
What can a daydreamer probably be like?
| A．A person full of dreams in life. |
| B．A person with his head in the clouds. |
| C．A person with both his feet on the ground |
| D．A person with a good understanding of reality. |
The underlined sentence “But the opposite is not always true.” most probably means that ______.
| A．the opposite direction is always wrong |
| B．the person who has his nose in the air is not true |
| C．a man with his head in the clouds is often not intelligent |
| D．a person who has both feet on the ground may not be down-to-earth |
From the passage, we can infer the person who is _____ is the most popular kind of person.
| A．down-to-earth | B．standing on the ground |
| C．with his nose in the air | D．with his head in the clouds |
Grand Opening
Bentwood Truck Museum
Saturday, November 8, at 10:00 A. M.
After eighteen months of hard work by more than 100 volunteers, the Bentwood Truck Museum is ready to open. The old factory had been scheduled to be destroyed. When Roger Haygood heard about the plan to tear down the building, he bought it so that he could store his collection of old trucks there. Then he had the idea of turning the building into a truck museum.
During the past year and a half, the old building has been transformed into a treasure chest of memories. Instead of a dark and dull house, the building has become a cheery, bright home for all kinds of trucks from the past. The museum now houses 68 trucks, and we hope to have even more soon. There is a 1959 school bus, a 1942 bakery truck, and a 1937 fire engine. Our oldest vehicle is a 1919 milk truck. Our newest vehicle is a 1966 tow truck.
You can take a ride on a fire truck, a mail truck, or an ice-cream truck. Rides are $ 2.00, but you can get a ticket for a free ride at any grocery store in Bentwood.
Help us celebrate our grand opening by bringing your family and friends! There is something to interest everyone who attends. The Bentwood Truck Museum is a special piece of our history.
To get to Bentwood Truck Museum, take Route 29 (Kingston Highway) to Palmer Street. Go south on Palmer Street for one block and take a left onto Norman Drive. You will see the museum building and the amusement park on your left. Parking is available across the street, on your right.Where is Bentwood Truck Museum?
| A．On Norman Drive. | B．On Palmer Street. |
| C．On Kingston Highway. | D．On Route 29. |
What is special about this museum?
| A．It is built on the ruins of an old building. |
| B．It offers visitors free rides to the museum. |
| C．It exhibits trucks dating back to about 100 years ago. |
| D．It's transformed from an old factory by volunteers. |
What's the purpose of writing this passage?
| A．To introduce the old history of Bentwood Truck Museum. |
| B．To persuade readers to attend the opening of the museum. |
| C．To explain why Bentwood Truck Museum was set up. |
| D．To call on the visitors to take a ride in old trucks. |
Not many years ago, a wealthy and rather strange old man named Johnson lived alone in a village in the south of England. He had made a lot of money in trading with foreign countries. When he was seventy – five, he gave $ 60,000 to the village school to buy land and equipment for a children’s ground.
As a result of his kindness, he became famous. Many people came to visit him. Among them was a newspaperman. During their talk, Johnson remarked that he was seventy-five and expected to live to be hundred. The newspaperman asked him how he managed to be healthy at seventy-five. Johnson had a sense of humor. He liked whisky and drank some each day. “I have an injection (注射) in my neck each evening,” he told the newspaperman, thinking of his evening glass of whisky.
The newspaperman did not understand what Johnson meant. In his newspaper he reported that Johnson was seventy-five and had daily injection in his neck.Within a week Johnson received thousands of letters from all over Britain, asking him for the secret of his daily injection.Johnson became a rich man through _______.
| A．doing business | B．making whisky |
| C．cheating | D．buying and selling land |
The gift of money to the school suggests that Johnson _______.
| A．had many children in the school | B．was a strange old man |
| C．was very fond of children | D．was very kind |
Many people wrote to Johnson to find out _______.
| A．what kind of whisky he had |
| B．how to live longer |
| C．how to become wealthy |
| D．where to have an injection |
When Johnson said he had an injection in his neck each evening, he really meant that _______.
| A．he needn’t an injection in the neck |
| B．there was something wrong with his neck |
| C．he liked drinking a glass of whisky in the evening |
| D．a daily injection in the evening would make him sleep well |
Barditch High School decided to an All-School Reunion. Over 450 people came to the event. There were tours of the old school building and a picnic at Confederate Park. Several former teachers were on hands to tell stories about the old days. Ms. Mabel Yates, the English teacher for fifty years, was wheeled to the Park.
Some eyes rolled and there were a few low groans(嘟囔声)when Ms.Yates was about to speak. Many started looking at their watches and coming up with excuses to be anywhere instead of preparing to listen to a lecture from an old woman who had few kind words for her students and made them work harder than all the other teachers combined.
Then Ms. Yates started to speak:
“I can’t tell you how pleased I am to be here. I haven’t seen many of you since your graduation, but I have followed your careers and enjoyed your victories as well as crying for your tragedies. I have a large collection of newspaper photographs of my students. Although I haven’t appeared in person, I have attended your college graduations, weddings and even the birth your children, in my imagination.”
Ms. Yates paused and started crying a bit. Then she continued:
“It was my belief that if I pushed you as hard as I could, some of you would succeed to please me and others would succeed to annoy me. Regardless of our motives, I can see that you have all been successful in you chosen path.”
“There is no greater comfort for an educator than to see the end result of his or her years of work. You have all been a great source of pleasure and pride for me and I want you to know I love you all from the bottom of my heart.”
There was a silence over the crowd for a few seconds and then someone started clapping. The clapping turned into cheering, then into a deafening roar(呼喊). Lawyers, truck drivers, bankers and models were rubbing their eyes or crying openly with no shame all because of the words from a long forgotten English teacher from their hometown.What can be inferred from Paragraph 2?
| A．Some graduates were too busy to listen to Ms. Yates’ speech. |
| B．Many graduates disliked Ms. Yates’ ways of teaching. |
| C．Some people got tired from the reunion activities. |
| D．Most people had little interest in the reunion. |
We can learn from Ms. Yates’ speech that she ________.
| A．kept track of her students’ progress |
| B．gave her students advice on their careers |
| C．attended her students’ college graduations |
| D．went to her students’ wedding ceremonies |
What was Ms.Yates’ belief in teaching teenagers?
| A．Teachers’ knowledge is the key to students’ achievements. |
| B．Pressure on students from teachers should be reduced. |
| C．Hard-pushed students are more likely to succeed. |
| D．Students’ respect is the best reward for teachers. |
Which of the following can best describe Ms. Yates?
| A．Reliable and devoted. | B．Tough and generous. |
| C．Proud but patient. | D．Strict but caring. |
Is it ever a good idea admitting a teenager to carry a credit card?
My kids watch closely as I swipe the card through the register. They’ve seen me do it hundreds, thousands of times. Cool. They are itching to swipe it through the machine themselves. When we walk out of the store with our groceries or pet food, or whatever, it’s almost as though money has not changed hands, painless, easy.
So it shouldn’t be shocking to discover that teenagers are becoming card carrying consumers in their own right. The question is, should they?
While some argue it’s best to teach kids how to use a credit card while still living under the family roof, not everyone agrees. Dave Ramsey, financial expert says getting credit card for your teenager is actually “an excellent way to teach him or her to be financially irresponsible.”
Now parents are required to co-sign on credit cards for children under 21. “If their name is on the credit card, then the parent may say, Hey, my name is on this. Don’t get me into trouble,” says Mary Beth Pinto, a marketing professor. “When parents were the co-obligors (共同借贷人), the children caused less debt. If the parents are the co-obligors, the tendency is that the parents were explaining how to use the cards.” Still, Pinto believes parents should start the process much earlier. “Yes, there has to be teaching going on and it has to start when they’re younger. You’re not going to get rid of credit cards. They are here to stay. You have to have them. You can’t fight progress,” Pinto said.
Ramsey, however, disagrees. “Throwing teens into a pool of (credit) sharks is a sure way to guarantee a life-time of heartache.” he said, “You can make online purchases and rent a car with a credit card. Of course, you must have money in your bank account before you can make a purchase with a credit card. But paying for things with money is what you are supposed to do.”The author mentioned her experience in Para 2 mainly to _____.
| A．prove the convenience of using credit cards |
| B．tell what impression credit cards leave on kids |
| C．give advice on using credit cards wisely |
| D．explain the pleasure credit cards bring to customers |
The underlined word “itching” in Para 2 can be replaced by _____.
| A．eager | B．afraid | C．embarrassed | D．thankful |
What’s Ramsey’s attitude towards teens’ using credit cards?
| A．He feels it is worth a try. |
| B．He is very supportive. |
| C．He is strongly against it. |
| D．He considers it as a pleasant experience. |
Pinto will most likely agree that _____.
| A．parents should let teens own their credit cards earlier |
| B．you shouldn’t be in control of credit cards |
| C．it is never good for anyone to get a credit card |
| D．learning to use credit cards is practical |
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