In a 2013 study, it was reported that almost 66 percent of recent high school graduates went to college, a 4 percent decline since 2009, when college enrollment(入学) reached an all-time high.
So, what are the other 35 percent of high school graduates doing after they walk out of their school for the last time? Here are what some Robinson High students have planned.
For Robbie Claiborne, graduation means the start of a military career.He plans to join the Coast Guard after graduation."I was born around the ocean.I love the water.I want to fight for my country and for what I love," said Claiborne.
Others just want a break from school."I really want to take a gap year," Liliam Clavijo said."I'd really love to work in Spain for a year before going to college."
Most students, however, are rather excited.Eban Trunk, a junior, has been planning his future career since middle school."I really want to be a mailman.It just seems like a cool job.Everyone loves the mailman," Trunk said."One day the idea just came to me, and I knew that was what I wanted to do."
For many students, a high school diploma means more choices."I'm not really sure what I'll do after high school," senior Joshua Loring said."I might do technical school.I'm in auto shop classes right now."
Meanwhile, Cassidy Grunderson plans on working at Busch Gardens full time."I just want to live on my own, get a job and move out," Grunderson said.
Stephen Hambleton, who teaches auto tech classes at Robinson, says many of his students choose to enter the automobile industry after graduation."It's an instant job, and after taking years of auto shop in high school, it's easy to get hired," he said.Several seniors in his class, including Loring, plan to enter the industry upon graduation.
"College isn't for everyone, and I really respect people who decide to do their own thing," said Coleman Parks, a senior student."I think too many people feel that they're only as valuable as their degree."
Graduates are proving that college isn't the only option when high school ends.What can we learn from the study in 2013?
| A．College enrollment in 2013 reached the highest point in history. |
| B．College enrollment in 2013 is not as high as that in 2009. |
| C．Only a small number of graduates go to college after graduation. |
| D．Some students fail to graduate from senior high school. |
What is the meaning of the underlined phrase “a gap year”?
A.a year of differences
B.a year of many choices.
C a year between senior high graduation and college.
D.a year between college graduation and workplace. According to the passage, which of the following is TRUE?
| A．Cassidy Grunderson plans to enter the automobile industry upon graduation |
| B．For many students, a high school diploma gives them limited choices. |
| C．Senior high school graduates are faced with more choices than just going to college. |
| D．Eban Trunk plans to work in Spain for a year. |
What might be the best title for the story?
| A．Fewer Senior High Graduates Go to College |
| B．Cool Jobs for Senior High Graduates |
| C．Gap Year or College? |
| D．Confused Senior High Graduates |
During the school year many parents take on the role of driver as they drive their children from one lesson to another. Many of us want our children to have a little taste of everything, from organized sports to music, dance and more. But we can overdo it, leaving our children feeling a little burnt out, and according to parent educator Diane Loisie, it's their school work that suffers the most. "After school, if they're busy in a number of sporting events, besides they need to do their homework, then the time they'll feel sleepy is in the classroom. Your child needs free time. So if you're filling up that after school time, then it's during the day that they're going to be taking a break. "
Professor Claire McDermott agrees that there's a lot to be gained from sometimes putting those scheduled lessons and activities away. "Relaxing time is important for children. It's time just to do the things they want to do. A child can go up to their room, or they can play around. It doesn't look like productive time; parents certainly wouldn't be saying ‘Wow, are they ever learning things now?’ But this relaxing time gives both the body and the brain just a wonderful chance to relax after a day. It helps a child prepare for sleep, and it also helps to understand the learning that's gone on that day. "
It's hard to prevent signing our kids up for some activities and lessons. After all, many of us want our children to have a head start in life and the chance to join in great activities in the arts or sports is a part of that. However, Loisie feels that in the long run most children feel better with just a few key activities because it gives them an opportunity to master them. "When we get our children in too many activities because we want our children to experience everything, then what we're doing is setting them up not to be good at one thing or gaining a skill." So choose your children's activities wisely. It may be one of the best things you've ever done for your kids.
1. What is the biggest disadvantage for children to attend too many lessons after school?
A. They can get bored easily about everything.
B. They might have no time to do the homework.
C. They might not pay much attention to learning.
D. They can not easily focus on learning during the day.
2. What should we think of children's playing around aimlessly?
A. It is productive.
B. It is helpful.
C. It is a bad habit.
D. It is a waste of time.
3. Why should parents limit the activities our children attend?
A. Because children have no time.
B. Because children cannot learn many things.
C. Because children do not have enough sleep.
D. Because children cannot focus on too many activities.
4. What is the main idea of this passage?
A. Don't be children's drivers after school.
B. Choose activities for your children wisely.
C. Make your children learn as much as possible.
D. Let children learn something from various subjects.
第三部分:阅读理解(共20小题;每小题2分,满分40分)
阅读下列短文，从每篇短文后所给各题的四个选项（A、B、C和D）中，选出最佳选项，并在答题卡上将该项涂黑。
Staying positive through the cold season could be your best defense against getting ill, new study findings suggest.
In an experiment that exposed healthy volunteers to a cold or flu virus, researchers found that people with a generally sunny character were less likely to fall ill. The findings, published in the journal Psychosomatic Medicine, build on evidence that a "positive emotional style" can help to protect us from suffering the common cold and other illnesses.
Researchers believe the reasons may be both objective — as in happiness improving immune function — and subjective — as in happy people being less troubled by a sore throat or runny nose. "People with a positive emotional style may have different immune responses to the virus," explained lead study author Dr Sheldon Cohen of Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh. "And when they do get a cold, they may interpret their illness as being less severe."
Cohen and his colleagues had found in a previous study that happier people seemed less likely to catch a cold, but some questions remained as to whether the emotional style itself had the effect.
For the new study, the researchers had 193 healthy adults complete standard measures of personality characteristics, self-felt health and emotional style. Those who had a tendency to be happy, energetic and easy-going were judged as having a positive emotional style, while those who were often unhappy, tense and aggressive had a negative style.
The researchers gave them nasal (鼻腔的) drops containing either a cold virus or a particular flu virus. Over the next six days, the volunteers reported on any aches, pains or sneezing they had, while the researchers collected objective data. Cohen and his colleagues found that based on objective measures of nasal troubles, happy people were less likely to develop a cold.
1. Which is the best title for the passage?
A. Stay Away from Being Negative
B. Positive or Negative？It’s Up to You.
C. Emotional Style and Flu.
D. Optimistic People Likely to Keep Diseases Away.
2. According to Dr Cohen’s research, the reason why some people are unlikely to catch a cold may be that _____.
A. their cheerful mood benefits the immune system
B. they have developed a certain way against flu virus
C. they are less likely to have a sore throat and runny nose
D. they have got a stronger self-confidence in their health
3. The research is done by _____.
A. getting volunteers in one emotional group and analyzing them
B. conducting a medical experiment on volunteers of different emotional styles
C. collecting and analyzing volunteers' objective nasal production data
D. having volunteers answer questions on personality, health and emotions
4. The passage is probably written for _____.
A. medical students B. lead authors C. the public D. the volunteers
Dear College Dean
It is my understanding that this college has received a large donation to be used to enhance (improve) the quality of life for students: expand the bookstore or add computers to the computer lab. It is the tradition of this school to promote education and to be at the vanguard of new technology. That is why I strongly argue in favor of the addition of more computers to the computer lab.
Although expanding the campus bookstore to include CDs, gifts, and a snack bar will give a nicer look to the college, we have to think about a greater goal and a more practical way to enhance the quality of life for students. What do we want for our students and our college? Do we want our college to be known as a place with a great bookstore where you can find CDs and gifts, or as a place where the students can explore and research in their field using the best tools provided by technology? In addition, there are already several snack bars on campus, and there are music stores nearby, so students do not depend on the college bookstore for these things.
We live in a highly technological world and computers play an increasingly important role in how we live. As a learning institution, this college has the responsibility to offer its students the best technology to help them prepare for their future. Many students will be expected to be familiar with the latest software and other tools when they go on to work or to graduate school.
While they are in college, students find they are expected to use computers. Many professors expect students to use computers to do homework or to complete projects. Students are asked to create PowerPoint presentations and use spreadsheets and database programs, as well as to research many topics on the Internet. Since students are competing for good grades, those who have limited access to computers are at a great disadvantage. Furthermore, being able to do projects using the computer enhances the process of learning, giving students the opportunity to find information that without a computer would be much more difficult to find.
If there are more computers, students will also be able to complete their work more efficiently. No more will they have to wait in line, paper and disk in hand, while scanning the room for an empty chair and computer. No longer will they have to sit and wait while an outdated computer struggles to follow their commands. Having more new and faster computers available will enable students to finish their work more quickly.
The more computers are used in society the more colleges will depend on them as a tool of teaching and learning. Making computers more available to students facilitates their learning process by making the process easier, more interesting, more engaging, and in the process enhancing their quality of life
1．The purpose of the author in writing the passage is____________.
A．to describe the problems caused by lack of computers
B．to explain why students are in great need of computers
C．to tell us what benefits students can gain from computers
D．to persuade the Dean to purchase more adva
nced computers
2．From the passage we can infer that_______________.
A．present computers in the college cannot meet the demands of the students
B．computers in the college will be updated to meet the student’s demands soon
C．the college has the responsibility to help the students to prepare for their future
D．it is also necessary to expand the college bookstore by using part of the donation
3．In paragraph 4, the author mainly wants to tell us that____________.
A．computers are beneficial to students’ academic success
B．computers are helpful to student’s competition for success
C．students find it convenient to do assignments by using computer
s
D．students wish to use the money to buy more advanced computers
4．Which of the following shows the organization of the passage?
Last Sunday I made a visit to some new neighbors down the block. No specific purpose in mind, just an opportunity to sit at the kitchen table, have some tea and chat. As I did so, it occurred to me how rare the Sunday visit has become.
When I was a kid in the New Jersey of the 1960s, Sunday visits were routine. Most stores were closed, almost nobody worked, and the highways, as a result, were not the desperate steeplechases（障碍赛跑） they have become today. My family normally traveled eight city blocks to the home of my grandmother—the same house my father was raised in, where adults would sit on the front porch and chat while we children played hide-and-seek.
The Sunday visit was something to desire strongly. It was the repetition to church, our reward for an hour of devotion, an opportunity to take advantage of the fact that Dad was not at work, we were not in school, and there were no chores that couldn’t wait until Monday. Sunday was, indeed, different from all the other days of the week, because everyone seemed to be on the same schedule, which means that there was one day when everyone seemed to have time for everybody else.
Sunday as a day of rest is, or was, so deeply rooted in the culture that it’s surprising to consider that, in a short span of time, it has almost entirely lost this association. In my childhood, it was assumed that everyone would either be home or visiting someone else’s home on Sunday. But now the question is, “What do you plan to DO this Sunday?” The answer can range from going to the mall to participating in a road race to jetting to Montreal for lunch. If one were to respond, “I’m making a Sunday visit to family,” such an answer would feel sepia-toned, an echo from another era.
I suppose I should be grateful to live in Maine, a state of small towns, abundant land and tight relationships. Even though folks work as hard here as they do anywhere else, the state’s powerfully rural cast（特质）still harbors at least
remnants of the ethic of yesterday’s America, where people had to depend on one another in the face of economic vagaries（反复无常的情况）and a challenging environment.
1．The writer’s general impression of the Sunday in the past was a day when _______.
A. everyone was paying a visit to some relative far away
B. everyone seemed to be free and could have some leisure
C. Dad was not at work while Mom was busy cleaning the house
D. nearly every adult would go to church and children were not at school
2．In the fourth paragraph, the writer compares the response “I’m making a Sunday visit to family” to an echo from another era because _______.
A. people nowadays prefer staying at home on Sunday
B. such answers are rarely heard in our modern society
C. people in the city dislike being disturbed on Sunday
D. visiting someone on Sunday might take a lot of time
3．From the last paragraph we may infer that _______.
A. people in Maine suffer more from economic depression and the changed environment
B. people in Maine has abandoned their tradition and lived an absolute new life
C. land in Maine is short, thus the relationship between people is tense
D. people in Maine always help each other when they are in need
4．Which word we may use to describe the writer’s attitude towards the Sunday today
?
A. Unsatisfied. B. Anxious. C. Treasured. D. Teased.
When our son, Alex, was young, he hated to travel. We endured refusals to visit one more museum, even if it was the Louvre. We coped with a child who resisted even a taste of onion soup in Paris and who insisted he would like nothing more than ordering room service at the hotel and watching TV.
Over the years, we have come up with several hard-earned but realistic strategies to help kids cope on long-distance trips.
First, we recognize that some children have trouble adjusting to new environments, food, time zones and schedules. So, in advance of a trip to England, we gave our son a taste of the new culture by making shepherd’s pie for supper. He loved the mashed potatoes, chopped meat and brown gravy（肉汁）. For Italy, we sampled homemade pesto（香蒜沙司） served over linguine（扁面条）. For Amsterdam, I cooked up a pot of comforting pea soup and baked a delicious apple pancake called pannekoeken. Then, when we traveled to these places, he ate these foods and they seemed like a taste of home.
In addition to food, we always sample the culture beforehand by reading books and renting movies from the countries we will be visiting. For Italy, the book Italian Folktales by Italo Calvino and the films Johnny Stecchino, Cinema Paradiso, and Il Postino gave our son a glimpse of the Italian way of life. For Britain, we rented Mr. Bean and Billy Elliot, and enjoyed stories by J.R.R. Tolkien and E. Nesbit. For Amsterdam, he finished The Diary of Anne Frank.
Before we leave home, we also ask Alex to go through our tour books and pick out activities that appeal to him. He was excited about visiting the London Dungeon and the Imperial War Museum, and taking a ride in the London Eye. They turned out to be big hits. Because Alex’s preferences were given equal attention, he was more tolerant of his parents’ selections, such as visiting Charters Cathedral and the Van Gogh Museum.
We’ve also learned the hard way that dragging our son out of bed early in the morning ,thus making him grumpy all day. Now that he is a teenager, we let him sleep in while we sip coffee at a café, work out at the hotel gym, or take a long walk. This makes our time together much more enjoyable
1．According to the writer, parents are advised to _______.
A. cook children’s favorite food
B. postpone traveling until the kids are in college
C. allow their kids a ride in the L
ondon Eye
D. take children’s interest and preferences into account
2．Cinema Paradiso and Il Postino are mentioned as _______.
A. particular desires of children B. an approach to interest the future possible visit
C. highly appreciated films for tourists D. comfortable activities children could pick out
3．The underlined word “grumpy” in the last paragraph is similar in meaning to _______.
A. bad-tempered B. tolerant C. energetic D. nervous
4．Which of the following might serve as a possible title for this passage?
A. Kids and Parents. B. Joys of Traveling.
C. Whether You Go or Not. D. How to motivate Kids to travel
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