The English test will be removed from China’s college entrance exam by 2020, according to the Ministry of Education. The national college entrance exam, known as the “Gaokao” has been used to evaluate Chinese students for three decades. The Ministry of Education has worked out a plan for reforming exams and enrollment. Tests will be held several times a year to allow students to choose when and how often they sit the exam so as to reduce study pressure and change China’s once-in-a-lifetime exam system.
The decision has aroused a heated discussion among Shanghai educators and parents who doubted the reform would reduce the burden of learning English or if the substitute test could reflect a student’s English skills and help students learn English better. Cai Jigang, a professor from Fudan University said, “The reform shows China is to give students more test-taking chances. But more chances might become more of a burden since Chinese students are likely to repeat the test until they get the highest score.”
“In my opinion, the reform doesn’t mean English is no longer important for Chinese students after it will be excluded from the unified college entrance exam,” said Yu Lizhong, chancellor of New York University Shanghai, “In a way, English is even more important than before since the test would only serve as reference, while every college and university, even every major, canhave different requirements of a student’s English skills under a diverse evaluation system.”
Yu said some students will have their study pressure reduced if the major they choose doesn’t need excellent English while others still need to study hard if they want to be among the best students.
The education ministry said the reform would not affect students attending the college entrance exam over the next three years. But parents with younger children are concerned. Zhang Hui, the mother of a fourth-grade girl at Pudong Zhuyuan Primary School, said English was her daughter’s strength, so canceling the English test would not favor her child.What can we learn from the first paragraph?
| A．English will become less and less important in the stage of compulsory education. |
| B．It has been 30 years since English became one subject of Chinese “Gaokao”. |
| C．China’s once-in-a-lifetime exam system is unacceptable at all. |
| D．The system that tests are held several times does more good than once-in-a-lifetime |
According to the passage, some Shanghai educators and parents argue that _____.
| A．the new exam and admission system will make no difference |
| B．English shouldn’t be removed from China’s college entrance exam |
| C．the reform may accomplish the very opposite |
| D．Western educational system does not apply to China |
According to Yu Lizhong, _______________.
| A．Students needn’t lay a good foundation during the period of high school. |
| B．Whether students should study English hard may depend on their major. |
| C．Students can constantly strive for perfection only in their major. |
| D．English must be close to full mark. |
What’s the purpose of writing the passage?
| A．To advise students not to devote themselves to learning English. |
| B．To call on Education Department to remove English from “Gaokao”. |
| C．To support Education Department’s act of removing English from “Gaokao” |
| D．To report people’s opinions on English being removed from “Gaokao” |
Winners Club
You choose to be a winner !
The Winners Club is a bank account specially designed for teenagers. It has been made to help you better manage your money. The Winners Club is a transaction account（交易账户）where you receive a key-card so you can get to your money 24/7 – that’s 24 hours a week !
It’s club with impressive features for teenagers:
● No account keeping fees !
You’re no millionaire so we don’t expect you to pay large fees. In fact, there are no account keeping or transaction fees !
● Excellent interest rates !
You want your money to grow. The Winners Club has a good rate of interest which gets even better if you make at least two deposits（储蓄）without taking them out in a month.
● Convenient
Teenagers are busy – we get that. You may never need to come to a bank at all. With the Winners Club you can choose to use handy tellers and to bank from home using the phone and the Internet … You can have money directly deposited into your Winners Club account. This could be your pocket money or your pay from your part-time job !
● Mega magazine included
Along with your regular report, you will receive a FREE magazine full of good ideas to make even more of your money. There are also fantastic offers and competitions only for Winners Club members.
The Winners Club is a great choice for teenagers. And it is so easy to join. Simply fill in an application form. You will have to get permission from your parent or guardian (so we can organize that cool key-card) but it is easy. We can’t wait to hear from you. It’s the best way to choose to be a winner !Which of the following is TRUR about the Winners Club?
| A．Special gifts are ready for parents. |
| B．The bank opens only on work days. |
| C．Services are convenient for its members. |
| D．Fees are necessary for the account keeping. |
The Winners Club provides magazines which_____.
| A．encourage spending | B．are free to all teenagers |
| C．are full of adventure stories | D．help to make more of your money |
If you want to be a member of the Club, you must _____.
| A．be an Internet user | B．be permitted by your parent |
| C．have a big sum of money | D．be in your twenties |
What is the purpose of this text?
| A．To set up a club | B．To provide part-time jobs. |
| C．To organize key-cards | D．To introduce a new banking service. |
I am a good mother to three children. I have tried never to let my profession stand in the way of being a good parent.
I no longer consider myself the center of the universe. I show up. I listen. I try to laugh. I am a good friend to my husband. I have tried to make marriage vows(誓约) mean what they say. I am a good friend to my friends, and they to me. Without them, there would be nothing to say to you today.
So here's what I wanted to tell you today: Get a life. A real life, not a desire of the next promotion(提升), the bigger paycheck, the larger house.
Get a life in which you are not alone. Find people you love, and who love you. And remember that love is not leisure(空闲), it is work. Pick up the phone. Send an e-mail. Write a letter. And realize that life is the best thing and that you have no business taking it for granted.
It is so easy to waste our lives, our days, our hours, our minutes. It is so easy to exist instead of to live. I learned to live many years ago. Something really, really bad happened to me, something that changed my life in ways that, if I had my choice, it would never have been changed at all. And what I learned from it is what, today, seems to be the hardest lesson of all.
I learned to love the journey, not the destination. I learned to look at all the good in the world and try to give some of it back because I believed in it, completely and totally. And I tried to do that, in part, by telling others what I had learned. By telling them this: Read in the backyard with the sun on your face. Learn to be happy. And think of life as a deadly illness, because if you do, you will live it with joy and passion as it ought to be lived.The best title of this passage probably is________.
| A．Love your friends | B．Live a real life |
| C．Don't waste time | D．Be a good mother and wife |
The underlined sentence "It is so easy to exist instead of to live" in the fifth paragraph probably has the same meaning as________.
| A．it is so easy to keep alive but not to live a real life |
| B．it is very hard to live a real life |
| C．it is so easy to make a living |
| D．it is more difficult to exist than to live a happy life |
What's the author's attitude toward work?
| A．Do it well to serve others. |
| B．To earn enough money to make life better. |
| C．Try your best to get higher position and pay. |
| D．Don't let it affect your real life. |
It can be inferred from the passage that_________.
| A．the author is a success in personal life |
| B．the author didn't try her best to work well |
| C．the author spent all her time caring for her children |
| D．the author likes traveling very much |
When first entered ,Vanak Restaurant does not look like much of a restaurant, but once the pleasant smells of kabob（烤羊肉串）hit the senses ,you are incapable of calling it anything less.
Owned by a local couple, this Persian restaurant has an inviting, homelike atmosphere that many restaurants lack.
The space is small with only a few dining tables and nearly no decoration, but the environment is truly charming.
Lying in a hardly noticeable street corner, the restaurant still attracts all customers, especially those experienced in the delights of Middle Eastern cooking.
A common sight is that of old Persian men sitting in the corner talking loudly about world topics, watching news events on TV, drinking a black tea known as Persian chai, and reading local Persian newspapers all the while trying to finish off their plate piled with food.
The variety of food at the restaurant is limited, but the amount of each dish is fairly large. Most of the meals can serve two people and are under $10,so not only is it affordable but practical as well.
The food, especially appeals to health-conscious eaters because each dish is very healthy, made with limited fat and oil and served straight off the grill（烤肉架）.
The main dish that the restaurant is popular for is its kabobs, which are different style of grilled meat.
One delicious and extremely healthy dish is the Joojeh Kabob, which is made of grilled chicken pieces served with either rice or bread. Another great kabob is the Chelo Kabob, kabob consisting of grilled beef.
Although the restaurant is small, the atmosphere and the food is delicious. It is a place that should not be overlooked.When first entering the restaurant, one can find that it
| A．is splendidly decorated | B．has pleasant smells of kabobs |
| C．is crowded with dining tables | D．looks like a common restaurant |
What activity is also mentioned apart from dining in the restaurant?
| A．Watching news events on TV | B．Drinking a kind of black coffee |
| C．Reading local English newspapers | D．Discussing world topics in low voices |
The food of the restaurant
| A．is served in small amounts | B．is rather expensive |
| C．is rich in variety | D．is very health |
It can be inferred from the passage that the restaurant .
| A．occupies a large space | B．owns a favorable location |
| C．is popular for its special food | D．has a quiet environment inside |
What happens inside the skull of a soccer player who repeatedly heads a soccer ball? That question motivated a challenging new study of the brains of experienced players that has caused discussion and debate among soccer players, and some anxiety among those of us with soccer-playing children.
For the study, researchers at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York selected 34adults, men and women. All of the volunteers had played soccer since childhood and now competed year-round in adult soccer leagues. Each filled out a detailed questionnaire developed especially for this study to determine how many times they had headed a soccer ball in the previous year, as well as whether they had experienced any known concussions (脑震荡) in the past.
Then the players completed computerized tests of their memory and other learning skills and had their brains scanned, using a complicated new M.R.I. technique which can find structural changes in the brain that can't be seen during most scans.
According to the data they presented at a Radiological Society of North America meeting last month, the researchers found that the players who had headed the ball more than about 1,100 times in the previous 12 months showed significant loss of white matter in parts of their brains involved with memory, attention and the processing of visual information, compared with players who had headed the ball fewer times.
This pattern of white matter loss is "similar to those seen in traumatic (外伤的) brain injury", like that after a serious concussion, the researchers reported, even though only one of these players was reported to have ever experienced a concussion.
The players who had headed the ball about 1,100 times or more in the past year were also generally worse at recalling lists of words read to them, forgetting or fumbling the words far more often than players who had headed the ball less.The passage is most probably a______.
| A．news report | B．research report |
| C．story for soccer players | D．text for doctors |
In which way can we find the structural changes in the brain?
| A．Computerized test. | B．Questionnaire.. |
| C．Scanning. | D．M.R.I. technique. |
From the passage we can conclude that frequent heading may have_____.
| A．significant effect on brain | B．little effect on one's brain |
| C．nothing to do with the brain injury | D．one's memory improved |
What is likely to be the cause of memory loss?
| A．Playing soccer frequently. | B．Tests of their memory. |
| C．White matter loss. | D．Information processing. |
The underlined word "fumbling" is closest in meaning to______.
| A．remembering | B．misunderstanding |
| C．recalling | D．missing |
A Swedish man was dug out alive after being snowed in his car on a forest track for two months with no food, police and local media reported on Saturday.
The 45-year-old from southern Sweden was found on Friday, February17, too weak to say more than a few words.
He was found not far from the city of Umea in the north of Sweden by snowmobilers who thought they had come across a ruined car until they dug their way to a window and saw movement inside.
The man, who was lying in the back seat in a sleeping bag, said he had been in the car since December 19.
“Just incredible that he’s alive considering that he had no food, but also since it’s been really cold for some time after Christmas.” a rescue team member told regional daily Vasterbottens- Kuriren, which broke the news.
Ebbe Nyberg, duty officer at the Umea police, said police saw no reason to doubt that the man had been stuck in the car for a very long time.
“We would not make up something like this. The rescue services were on site too and saw the same as us.” he told Vasterbottens-Kuriren.
Umea University Hospital, where the man is recovering after being rescued by police and a rescue team, said in a statement he was doing well considering the circumstances.
Doctors at the hospital said humans would normally be able to survive for about four weeks without food. Besides eating snow, the man probably survived by going into a dormant-like(休眠似的) state, physician Stefan Branth told Vasterbottens-Kuriren.
“A bit like a bear that hibernates. Humans can do that.” he said. “He probably had a body temperature of around 31 degrees which the body adjusted to. Due to the low temperature, not much energy was used up.”
“Why the man ended up under the snow in the forest remains unknown,” police said.Who found the Swedish man in the snow?
| A．Snowmobilers | B．The police | C．A rescue team | D．Local people |
“Police saw no reason to doubt that the man had been stuck in the car for a very long time.” implies that .
| A．police didn’t think it true | B．police were sure of the fact |
| C．police had some doubt on the fact | D．police had reasons to doubt the fact |
The reason why the man could survive was most probably that .
| A．he was only forty-five year old | B．he did not use any energy |
| C．he slept in the sleeping bag | D．he was in a dormant-like state |
Which is the correct order of the following events?
a．The Swedish man was stuck in the snow. b．He was sent to Umea University Hospital.
c．He was found by snowmobilers. d．He was recovering after treatment.
e．He stayed in his car for nearly two months. f．He was dug out by people.
| A．e, a, c, d, f, b | B．a, e, c, f, b, d | C．a, f, c, e, b, d | D．e, c, f, a, d, b |
Which of the following can be the best title of the passage?
| A．A Traffic Accident | B．A Long Sleep in Winter |
| C．An Incredible Survival | D．A Successful Rescue |
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