Speaking in his first National Day Rally speech on 15 August 9 Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said Singapore's education system was set for more reforms in the years ahead, particularly for the primary and secondary education. Read the summary of his thoughts on education below.
For a start, the Government is prepared to send an additional 3, 000 teachers to Singapore schools, cut the courses of study even further and change the way the mother tongue, especially Chinese, is taught. But, for the changes to be successful, parents need to help.
Singapore has a devoted group of teachers and principals and quite a few of them are. outstanding, but the Republic's schools can be even better. To help the schools make a jump in quality, the Government plans that within the next 6 years, it will send 1, 000 more teachers to primary schools, 1, 400 to secondary schools and 550 more to junior colleges. Each school would decide how to use its extra teachers. Some may want to make classes smaller so students get more individual attentions while others may have new teachers assist more senior teachers, but the overall goal is to give teachers the time and space to come up with ways to bring out the best in their students.
More teachers must not mean more homework, however. In fact, the Prime Minister wants to see the courses cut down so that there is less pressure on the students. Good grades are important but they should not be the only goal students have. PM Lee is convinced that "we must teach less so that our children can learn more."
Another change will be in the teaching of the mother tongue so that students can become more fluent. The key is to teach Chinese as a living language not just an academic subject like Latin. Therefore, the focus should be on speaking and reading the language. To do this, there must be an environment outside the classroom that is contributing to strengthening the Chinese lessons. The text is mainly about __________ in Singapore.
| A．the education reform |
| B．adding more teachers |
| C．the mother tongue |
| D．ways of teaching |
The general goal of using extra teachers is to __________.
| A．make classes smaller |
| B．assist more senior teachers |
| C．teach more |
| D．help teachers improve teaching quality |
PM Lee holds that the students should __________.
| A．do more homework |
| B．give up higher grades |
| C．study more courses |
| D．be given more time to learn more |
The key to teach Chinese well is to __________.
| A．make it academic |
| B．have a creative environment |
| C．give more Chinese lessons |
| D．encourage speaking and reading a lot |
The measures to be carried out will have pressure taken off __________.
| A．teachers |
| B．students |
| C．parents |
| D．the Government |
If Confucius(孔子)were still alive today and could celebrate his September 28 birthday with a big cake, there would be a lot of candles. He’d need a fan or a strong wind to help him put them out.
While many people in China will remember Confucius on his special day ,few people in the United States will give him a passing thought. It’s nothing personal. Most Americans don’t even remember the birthdays of their own national heroes.
But this doesn’t mean that Americans don’t care about Confucius. In many ways he has become a bridge that foreigners must cross if they want to reach a deeper understanding of China.
In the past two decades, the Chinese studies programs have gained huge popularity in Western universities. More recently, the Chinese government has set up Confucius Institutes in more than 80 countries. These schools teach both Chinese language and culture. The main courses of Chinese culture usually include Chinese art, history and philosophy(哲学).Some social scientists suggest that Westerners should take advantage of the ancient Chinese wisdom to make up for the drawbacks of Western philosophy. Students in the United States, at the same time, are racing to learn Chinese. So they will be ready for life in a world where China is an equal power with the United States. Businessmen who hope to make money in China are reading books about Confucius to understand their Chinese customers.
So the old thinker’s ideas are still alive and well.
Today China attracts the West more than ever, and it will need more teachers to introduce Confucius and Chinese culture to the West.
As for the old thinker, he will not soon be forgotten by people in the West, even if his birthday is.The opening paragraph is mainly intended to .
| A．provide some key facts about Confucius |
| B．attract the readers’ interest in the subject |
| C．show great respect for the ancient thinker |
| D．prove the popularity of modern birthday celebrations |
We can learn from Paragraph 4 that American students .
| A．have a great interest in studying Chinese |
| B．take an active part in Chinese competitions |
| C．try to get high scores in Chinese exams |
| D．fight for a chance to learn Chinese |
What is the best title for the passage?
| A．Forgotten Wisdom in America |
| B．Huge Fans of the Chinese Language |
| C．Chinese Culture for Westerners |
| D．Old Thinker with a Big Future |
The passage is likely to appear in .
| A．a biography | B．a history paper |
| C．a newspaper | D．a philosophy textbook |
By the mid-nineteenth century, the “icebox” had entered the American language, but ice was still only beginning to affect the diet of ordinary citizens in the United States. The ice trade grew with the growth of cities. Ice was used in hotels, taverns, and hospitals, and by some forward-looking city dealers in fresh meat, fresh fish, and butter. After the Civil War (1861-1865), as ice was used to refrigerate freight cars, it also came into household use. Even before 1880, half the ice sold in New York, Philadelphia, and Baltimore, and one-third of that sold in Boston and Chicago, went to families of their own use. This had become possible because a new household convenience, the icebox, a precursors of modern refrigerator, had been invented.
Making an efficient icebox was not as easy as we might now suppose. In the early nineteenth century, the knowledge of physics of heat, which was essential to a science of refrigeration, was rudimentary. The commonsense notion that the best icebox was one that prevented the ice from melting was of course mistaken, for it was melting of the ice that performed the cooling. Nevertheless, early efforts to economize ice included wrapping the ice in blankets, which kept the ice from doing its job. Not until near the end of the nineteenth century did inventors achieve the delicate balance of insulation and circulation needed for an efficient icebox.
But as early as 1803, an ingenious Maryland farmer, Thomas Moore, had been on the right track. He owned a farm about twenty miles outside the city of Washington, for which the village of Georgetown was the market center. When he used an icebox of his own design to transport his butter to market, he found that customers would pass up the rapidly melting stuff in the tubs of his competitors to pay a premium(奖金) price for his butter, still fresh and hard in neat, one-pound bricks. One advantage of his icebox, Moore explained, was that farmers would no longer have to travel to market at night in order to keep their produce cool.What does the passage mainly discuss?
| A．The influence of ice on the diet. |
| B．The development of refrigeration. |
| C．The transportation of goods to market. |
| D．Sources of ice in the nineteenth century. |
According to the passage, when did the word “icebox” become part of the language of the United States?
| A．in 1803 | B．sometime bore 1850 |
| C．during the civil war | D．near the end of the nineteenth century. |
The phrase “forward-looking” in line 3 is closest in meaning to______.
| A．progressive | B．popular | C．thrifty | D．well-established |
The author mentions “fish” in the passage because _____.
| A．many fish dealers also sold ice. |
| B．fish was shipped in refrigerated freight cars. |
| C．fish dealers were among the early commercial users of ice |
| D．fish was not part of the ordinary person’s diet before the invention of the icebox. |
Daniel Boone was born in the United States in 1734. He didn't go to school and couldn't read, although he learned all about the forests, streams and hunting. He could move silently like an Indian leaving no marks. He loved to live alone in the woods where nothing frightened him.
When he grew up, he married and tried to settle down on a farm. A year later, however, he wasn't satisfied and decided to go into the unknown western lands, crossing the Appalachian Mountains. When he returned after two years, he became famous for his long journey. He brought valuable animal skins and told stories about the Indians.
After this, he chose to keep travelling to unknown places. Once he lost to the Indians in battle and was taken away. The Indians liked him and became his friends.
Daniel Boone died at the age of 86. He is remembered as an explorer(探险者)and a pioneer who lived an exciting life in the early years of American nation.Daniel Boone's early life was mainly spent in ______ .
| A．learning about nature |
| B．hunting with his friends |
| C．learning useful skills from the Indians |
| D．studying at home because he couldn't go to school |
When he got married, Daniel Boone first planned to ______.
| A．set up a large farm |
| B．go on a journey with his wife |
| C．find food, new land for his farm |
| D．live a peaceful life with his family |
Daniel Boone became famous because ______ .
| A．he travelled a lot in the western lands |
| B．he was very good at telling stories |
| C．he found better animal skins than others |
| D．he was the first to climb the Appalachian Mountains |
Why did the Indians want to make friends with him?
| A．Because they wanted to learn from him. |
| B．Because he wanted to make peace with them. |
| C．Because they wanted to make friends with white people. |
| D．No reason is told in this article. |
In this article, Daniel Boone is best described as ______ .
| A．warm-hearted | B．strong |
| C．careful | D．brave |
Now and again I have had horrible dreams, but not enough of them to make me lose my delight in dreams. To begin with. I like the idea of dreaming, of going to bed and lying still and then, by some queer magic(神奇的魔力), wandering into another kind of existence. As a child, I could never understand why grown-ups took dreaming so calmly when they could make such a fuss(大惊小怪) about any holiday, This still puzzles me. I am puzzled by people who say they never dream and appear to have no interest in the subject. It is much more astonishing than it would be if they said they never went out for a walk. Most people do not seem to accept dreaming as part of their lives. They appear to see it as an irritating(令人困扰的) little habit, like sneezing or yawning(打哈欠).I can never understand this. My dream life does not seem as important as my waking life because there is far less of it, but to me it is important.What is the author’s attitude toward dreaming?
| A．He likes it | B．He thinks it puzzling |
| C．He hates it | D．He doesn’t accept it as part of his life |
For the author of the passage, dreaming is .
| A．an irritating little habit |
| B．a horrible but wonderful experience |
| C．a true reflection of reality |
| D．another kind of existence |
The author of the passage suggests that people who say they never go out for a walk are .
| A．interesting | B．mysterious(难以理解的) | C．foolish | D．lazy |
The author of the passage enjoys dreaming most .
| A．only when he was a child | B．only when he is a grown-up |
| C．both as a child and as a grown-up | D．only in his old age |
The author of the passage complains(抱怨) that most people .
| A．are overexcited about their dreams |
| B．have had dreams most of the time |
| C．are not interested in talking about their dreams |
| D．consider their dreams of too much importance |
The man sitting opposite Robert was the Financial Controller. Everybody called him “the FC” for short. He made all the decisions about money. Robert needed some more. That was why he had to see him. The two men did not get on very well. In fact, they had always disliked each other.
“Your request is out of the question,” the FC said. Robert had difficulty in controlling himself, but he managed somehow. He explained that he wanted the money in order to make more programmes.
“And why do you want to do that?” the FC asked sharply. Again, Robert almost lost his temper. “Because more and more people are listening to my department’s programmes. There’s great demand for them,” he answered.
The FC did not seem to believe him. But Robert had a report on the numbers of listeners to all EBC programmes. The FC became less confident. Robert threw the report down on the table and told him to read it.
The FC looked at it in silence. The figures (数字) proved that he had been wrong, but he did not want to admit it. “Well,” he finally said, “I may have made a small mistake.” Robert noticed the word “may.” He got up to leave. But he had the feeling that he would get the money after all.In the story the Financial Controller was a person who was in charge of
| A．Robert’s department’s programmes | B．EBC programmes |
| C．EBC money | D．both B and C |
“Your request is out of the question.”Here “out of the question”means
| A．without any question | B．with some question |
| C．impossible | D．possible |
Robert decided to make more programmes because
| A．he wanted to meet the needs of the listeners |
| B．“the FC” disliked him |
| C．the members of his department wanted him to do so |
| D．he wanted to show himself off |
Why were more and more people listening to Robert’s programmes?
| A．Because he always lost his temper (脾气) |
| B．Because he disliked “the FC” |
| C．Because the programmes were rich and to the taste of the listeners |
| D．We don’t know |
Who do you think won the argument(争论)in the end?
| A．The Financial Controller | B．Robert | C．Nobody | D．The listeners |
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