More students than ever before are taking a gap year(间隔年) before going to university. It used to be the “year off” between school and university. The gap-year phenomenon originated(起源) with the months left over to Oxbridge applicants between entrance exams in November and the start of the next academic year.
This year, 25,310 students who have accepted places in higher education institutions have put off their entry until next year, according to statistics on university entrance provided by the University and College Admissions Service (UCAS).
That is a record 14.7% increase in the number of students taking a gap year. Tony Higgins from UCAS said that the statistics are good news for everyone in higher education. “Students who take a well-planned year out are more likely to be satisfied with, and complete, their chosen course. Students who take a gap year are often more mature and responsible,” he said.
But not everyone is happy. Owain James, the president of the National Union of Students (NUS), argued that the increase is evidence of student hardship – young people are being forced into earning money before finishing their education. “New students are now aware that they are likely to leave university up to￡15,000 in debt. It is not surprising that more and more students are taking a gap year to earn money to support their study for the degree. NUS statistics show that over 40% of students are forced to work during term time and the figure increases to 90% during vacating periods,” he said.What do we learn about the gap year from the text?
| A．It is flexible in length. |
| B．It is a time for relaxation |
| C．It is increasingly popular |
| D．It is required by universities |
According to Tony Higgins. students taking a gap year ____.
| A．are better prepared for college studies |
| B．know a lot more about their future job |
| C．are more likely to leave university in debt |
| D．have a better chance to enter top universities |
How does Owain James feel about the gap-year phenomenon?
| A．He’s puzzled |
| B．He’s worried |
| C．He’s surprised |
| D．He’s annoyed |
What would most students do on their vacation according to NUS statistics?
| A．Attend additional courses. |
| B．Make plans for the new term |
| C．Earn money for their education |
| D．Prepare for their graduate studies |
Whenever my dog, Barney, comes into the house after having been for a ride in the car, he runs to the pen(围栏) we have set up for him by the back door. It’s not something we intentionally trained him to do. The habit came simply because my husband tended to put him in his pen whenever they came in. After doing it a few times, Barney just figures that’s what you do when you come inside after a car ride.
It’s the same with your thinking. You get into the habit of thinking a certain way and then you’ll rarely question it after that.
This is especially true when you were growing up. You developed habits that just made things easier for you. You probably didn’t even think about them. That’s just the way it was and that’s what you did. Just like Barney thinks he has to go into his pen, you do things automatically as well.
For example, when you were a kid, you may have been told not to “talk back” and to just keep quiet about things that were bothering you. These are habits that might have worked to keep you safe and out of trouble when you were young.
Now that you're grown up, you may be finding that these previous strategies are actually causing you problems. In a relationship, not communicating isn't going to work as your partner can’t read your mind. What works when you're a child may not work when you become an adult.
When you decide you need to change your thoughts, your brain may at first feel that it's not a safe thing to do. Lots of practice and years of experience says it’s not. Also, you don’t know to question the thought. It’s a truth for you. The trick is to look at your results and see if your thoughts are the cause. Be willing to question your thinking and ask yourself if there are thoughts that are hindering (妨碍) you. As you are now in a different phase of your life, different strategies may be needed.As with the dog Barney, people _______.
| A．think in a habitual way |
| B．enjoy having a car ride |
| C．usually behave in a friendly way |
| D．have a good memory |
According to the passage, as a kid, one tends to _________.
| A．be afraid to make mistakes |
| B．have the experience of playing with a dog |
| C．learn much from adults like his/her parents |
| D．form a habit which can keep his/her out of trouble |
In the writer’s opinion, adults should _______.
| A．not“talk back” |
| B．avoid causing any problem |
| C．change the habit which will bring troubles |
| D．value their habits formed in their childhood |
It can be concluded from the passage that ________.
| A．the author’s husband must be good at training dogs |
| B．childhood is the best time for developing good habits |
| C．one can change his/her life by changing his/her thoughts |
| D．you should change all your childhood habits when you grow up |
When I first saw the book Alice in Lace, I thought I was going to like it. And as it turned out, I love it! I love books about life and being a kid. And Alice in Lace is just that kind. It’s a humorous book about being thirteen and the problems kids might face. Alice and her friends get a strange assignment from their totally cool teacher, Mr. Everett. It was like playing the game of “Life,” but you had to act it out.
So Pamela is pregnant, Elizabeth buys a car and Alice gets married. Well, of course, Pamela wasn’t really pregnant, but she walked around with a pillow under her shirt to get people’s reactions. Elizabeth didn’t really buy a car, but she went to the car lot and made the sales guy think she was. The whole class got assignments like these! I would love to do something like that for school.
In the book Alice has a lot to think about. “Getting married is hard!” Alice says. She has to plan the ceremony, the honeymoon, find a place to live, pay for furniture and two months’ rent and food. Maybe she and her “husband” could work it out — if they were getting on fine!
Although this book was funny, it really made me think about how problems like these could really mess up your life. Take teenage pregnancy for example. How could you have a baby and stay in school? You couldn’t find a babysitter every day to stay with your kid. A child really consumes your life. I understand what the teacher was trying to do. He was trying to discourage the class from getting into these problems by giving them a glimpse of life. As someone about to become a teenager myself, I can say sometimes a story makes you think about what’s up ahead.
Overall, I would say this book is wonderful. My favorite part of the book is discovering that if I like it, there are seven other Alice books I can check out at my local library. I love this book, and I hope you will too.We can infer from the passage that Pamela, Elizabeth and Alice _______.
| A．turn out to be the author’s classmates |
| B．are characters in Alice in Lace |
| C．get along quite well |
| D．become dismissed from school |
By saying “getting married is hard” in the paragraph 3, Alice means ______.
| A．life isn’t easy as expected |
| B．it is hard to deal with her husband |
| C．she regrets getting married |
| D．it’s fun to get married |
Why did Mr. Everett give his students such assignments?
| A．To encourage them to enjoy a meaningful life. |
| B．To prevent them getting into those troubles at an early age. |
| C．To make them realize the hardship of life. |
| D．To teach them how to make a living. |
The author writes the passage mainly to _____.
| A．advise us to buy Alice in Lace |
| B．tell us how wonderful Mr. Everett’s idea is |
| C．share her inspiration from Alice in Lace |
| D．show off her reading ability |
Television will turn 86 years old on September 7, 2013, and it has never looked better. In its youth, television was a piece of furniture with a tiny, round screen showing unclear pictures of lowbudget programs. In spite of its shortcomings, it became well-received. Between 1950 and 1963, the number of American families with a television jumped from 9% to 92% of the population.
As the audience got larger, the technology got better. Television sets became more reliable through the 1960s. Both of the reception and the picture improved. The major networks started broadcasting programs in color.
Even greater improvements were coming according to Sanford Brown, who wrote an article for the Post in 1967. Surprisingly, just about every prediction he made in the article became a reality. For example: All sets in the notdistant future will be color instruments. He also predicted that TV sets would become smaller, simpler, more reliable and less expensive and may forever put the TV repairman out of work. Smaller sets do not, of course, mean smaller screens. TV engineers expect screens to get much bigger. However, today's 3D TV is even farther away, if it's coming at all. There is some doubt whether the public would be eager to pay for it, in view of people's cold reception given to 3D movies.
But the technology with the greatest potential, according to Brown, was cable television (有线电视), which was still in its early stages then. As he predicted, the future of cable television was highly interactive. It wasn't cable television that gave Americans their electronic connection to the world, however. It was the Internet. He even foresaw the future office: using picture phones, bigscreen televisions for conferences, and computers providing information, at the touch of a button.
Brown ever said, “The future of television is no longer a question of what we can invent. It's a question of what we want.”What can we infer about television sets in the 1960s?
| A．They were very popular with Americans. |
| B．Their appearance remained unchangeable. |
| C．They showed blackandwhite pictures. |
| D．Their pictures were of poor quality. |
Which of the followings did Sanford Brown fail to predict?
| A．Television's good quality. |
| B．The invention of 3D TV. |
| C．The more functions of TV. |
| D．The potential of cable TV. |
From the passage we know _________.
| A．TV will certainly take the place of computers |
| B．There won’t be further improvement on TV |
| C．TV repairmen will be out of work in the future |
| D．3D movies don’t appeal to people very much |
What is the text mainly about?
| A．The shortcomings of television. |
| B．The advantages of television. |
| C．The development of television. |
| D．The invention of television. |
As I sit at home thinking about my upcoming adventure and the things I need to bring, it makes me even more excited to begin my travel. I will be making my way around the world.
The first places on the list are Andalusia and Africa in the book The Alchemist. I will need to pack a lot of things and make sure I have enough money to provide myself with food and enough to drink. The Sahara desert is always hot and requires plenty of water.
Next I will head to Mexico in the book Born to Run, where I will meet the Tarahumara Indian tribe(部落). I will need to get into shape and do some jogging(慢跑) if I want to keep up with them. I will have to pack my running shoes, though, because the Tarahumarans have mastered the art of running on the tough land.
After Mexico, my journey takes me to the Egyptian desert in the novelThe Paris Vendetta. There I hope to help uncover an ancient conspiracy (阴谋) that goes back centuries. Just like my trip to Andalusia, I will have to make sure I have plenty of water. Packing the Camelbak products seems like the best idea, so I will have enough on hand at all times. I expect this adventure to be quite interesting, and I am very excited about it.
Lastly, I will make my way back to America in the book Shattered: Struck Down, But Not Destroyed. This makes me feel excited because like the main character in the book, I also wanted to become a professional athlete when I was younger. For this trip, I will go with an open mind and hopefully meet some friends along the way.
I am ready to embark on my adventure of traveling, and I cannot wait any longer!How will the author go on adventure?
| A．By carrying a lot of equipment. |
| B．By reading novels. |
| C．By daydreaming. |
| D．By marking out routes. |
According to the passage, the Tarahumaras _______.
| A．come from India | B．are good at running |
| C．need running shoes | D．own amounts of land |
The Camelbak products are probably made to _______.
| A．help people find out the truth |
| B．supply people with water |
| C．protect people from the sun |
| D．show people the right direction |
The underlined words“embark on” in the last paragraph probably mean “________”.
| A．start | B．prepare | C．appreciate | D．record |
Feeling blue about world? “Cheer up.” Says science writer Matt Ridley．”The world has never been a better place to live in, and it will keep on getting better both for humans and for nature．”
Ridley calls himself a rational optimist—rational, because he’s carefully weighed the evidence; optimistic, because that evidence shows human progress to be both unavoidable and good．And this is what he’s set out to prove from a unique point of view in his most recent book．The Rational Optimist．He views mankind as grand enterprise that on the whole, has done little but progress for 100,000 years．He backs his finding with hard facts gathered through years of research．
Here’s how he explains his views．
1) Shopping fuels invention
It is reported that there are more than ten billion different products for sale in London alone．Even allowing for the many people who still live in poverty, our own generation has access to more nutritious food, more convenient transport, bigger houses, better ears, and of course, more pounds and dollars than any who lived before us．This will continue as long as we use these things to make other things. The more we specialize and exchange, the better off we’ll be．
2）Brilliant advances
One reason we are richer, healthier, taller, cleverer, longer-lived and freer than ever before is that the four most basic human needs -food, clothing, fuel and shelter- have grown a lot cheaper．Take one example．In 1800 a candle providing one hour’s light cost six hours’ work．In the 1880s the same light from an oil lamp took 15 minutes’ work to pay for．In 1950 it was eight seconds．Today it’s half second．
3）Let’s not kill ourselves for climate change
Mitigating（减轻）climate change could prove just as damaging to human welfare as climate change itself．A child that dies from indoor smoke in a village, where the use of fossil-fuel（化石燃料）electricity is forbidden by well - meaning members of green political movements trying to save the world, is just as great a tragedy as a child that dies in a flood caused by climate change．If climate change proves to be mild, but cutting carbon causes real pain, we may well find that we have stopped a nose - bleed by putting a tourniquet（止血带）around our necks．What is the theme of Ridley’s most recent book?
| A．Weakness of human nature． |
| B．Concern about climate change． |
| C．Importance of practical thinking． |
| D．Optimism about human progress． |
How does Ridley look at shopping?
| A．It encourages the creation of things． |
| B．It results in shortage of goods． |
| C．It demands more fossil fuels． |
| D．It causes a poverty problem． |
The candle and lamp example is used to show that ．
| A．oil lamps give off more light than candles |
| B．shortening working time brings about a happier life． |
| C．advanced technology helps to produce better candles． |
| D．increased production rate leads to lower cost of goods． |
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