Surprisingly, no one knows how many children receive education in English hospitals, still less the content or quality of that education. Proper records are just not kept. We know that more than 850,000 children go through hospital each year, and that every child of school age has a legal right to continue to receive education while in hospital. We also know there is only one hospital teacher to every 1,000 children in hospital.
Little wonder the latest survey concludes that the extent and type of hospital teaching available differ a great deal across the country. It is found that half the hospitals in England which admit children have no teacher. A further quarter have only a part-time teacher. The special children’s hospitals in major cities do best; general hospitals in the country and holiday areas are worst off. From this survey, one can estimate that fewer than one in five children have some contact with a hospital teacher—and that contact may be as little as two hours a day. Most children interviewed were surprised to find a teacher in hospital at all. They had not been prepared for it by parents or their own school. If there was a teacher they were much more likely to read books and do math or number work; without a teacher they would only play games.
Reasons for hospital teaching range from preventing a child falling behind and maintaining the habit of school to keeping a child occupied, and the latter is often all the teacher can do. The position and influence of many teachers was summed up when parents referred to them as “the library lady” or just “the helper”. Children tend to rely on concerned school friends to keep in touch with school work. Several parents spoke of requests for work being ignored or refused by the school. Once back at school children rarely get extra teaching, and are told to catch up as best as they can.
Many short-stay child-patients catch up quickly. But schools do very little to ease the anxiety about falling behind expressed by many of the children interviewed.
【小题1】Which of the following statements is true?

A．Every child in hospital receives some teaching.

B．Not enough is known about hospital teaching.

C．Hospital teaching is of poor quality.

D．The special children's hospitals are worst off.

【小题2】It can be inferred from the latest survey that________.

A．hospital teaching across the country is similar

B．each hospital has at least one part-time teacher

C．all hospitals surveyed offer education to children

D．only one-fourth of the hospitals have a full-time teacher

【小题3】Hospital teachers are found________.

A．not welcomed by the children and their parents	B．necessary
C．not welcomed by the hospitals	D．capable

【小题4】In order to catch up with their school work, children in hospital usually turn to________.

A．hospital teachers

B．schoolmates

C．parents

D．school teachers

【小题5】We can conclude from the passage that the author is________.

A．unfavorable towards children receiving education in hospitals

B．in favor of the present state of teaching in hospitals

C．unsatisfied with the present state of hospital teaching

D．satisfied with the results of the latest survey

“It hurts me more than you” and “This is for your own good” — these are the statements my mother used to make years ago when I had to learn Latin, clean my room, stay home and do homework.
That was before we entered the permissive period in education in which we decided it was all right not to push our children to achieve their best in school. The schools and the educators made it easy for us. They taught that it as all right to be parents who take a let-alone policy. We stopped making our children do homework. We gave them calculators, turned on the television, left the teaching to the teachers and went on vacation.
Now teachers, faced with children who have been developing at their own pace for the past 15 years, are realizing we’ve made a terrible mistake. One such teacher is Sharon Klompus who speaks of her students “so passive” and wonders what has happened. Nothing is demanded of them, she believes. Television, says Klompus, contributes to children’s passivity. “We’re talking about a generation of kids who've never been hurt or hungry. They have learned somebody will always do it for them, instead of saying  'go and look it up’, you tell them the answer. It takes greater energy to say no to a kid.”
Yes, it does. It takes energy and it takes work. It’s time for parents to end their vacation and come back to work. It's time to take the car away, to turn the TV off, to tell them it hurts you more than them but it's for their own good. It's time to start telling them no again.
【小题1】Children are becoming more inactive in study because _______.

A．they watch TV too often	B．they have done too much homework
C．they have to fulfill too many duties	D．teachers are too strict with them

【小题2】By “permissive period in education” (L.1, Para. 2) the author means a time _______.

A．when everything can be taught at school

B．when every child can be educated

C．when children are permitted to receive education

D．when children are allowed to do what they wish to

【小题3】The main idea of the passage is that _______.

A．parents should leave their children alone

B．kids should have more activities at school

C．it's time to be more strict with our kids

D．parents should always set a good example to their kids

A common misconception (误解) -about scholarships is that they are only available for the smartest students with the highest GPAs. However, this just isn't even close to true. There are scholarships out there for every type of student seeking a college education. Let's take a look at each type a bit more in depth.
Academic Scholarships
Academic scholarships are also often referred to as merit (优点) scholarships, though a merit scholarship can mean anything that has some level of contest to it. These are fox; the students with the 4.0 GPAs, the years as a part of several extracurricular (课外的) activities and the well- rounded applications. They typically have the highest payouts and are considered very well- known as they are often national awards.
Athletic Scholarships
For students with strong academics (学业的) and physical skills, athletic scholarships are the way to go. There is practically a scholarship for every single sport, from volleyball to football; gymnastics to cheerleading. So, if you are good at anything physical, you should definitely pursue an athletic scholarship.
Scholarships for Minorities
There are also many scholarships for minorities available. Some of these are general and for "all minorities as a collective whole, while others are intended for individual ethnic (种族的) groups. It is also a good idea to apply for a minority scholarship if you are part of fully of a certain ethnicity. You will get to represent your culture and possibly win money -- what more could you ask for?
Scholarships for Women
As with the scholarships for minorities above, there are also scholarships specifically for women. Since colleges were dominated (主宰) by men for many years, scholarships have been created for strong, career-minded women that need assistance paying for college expenses. If you are female, it is strongly recommended you pursue a scholarship for women. Moreover, scholarships for women are typically available in just about any field. Be specific!
【小题1】In the author's opinion, ______.

A．most people are well - informed about scholarships

B．most people think scholarships should go to the smartest students

C．most people have some misunderstanding about scholarships

D．most people deserve scholarships though not having applied for them

【小题2】Tom does well in his lessons and is especially good at sports. The best scholarship he can apply for ______.

A．Academic Scholarships	B．Athletic Scholarships
C．Scholarships for Minorities	D．Scholarships for Women

【小题3】Alice is an Indian -American. She prefers to study her own culture and something about ethnology (民族学). Then she'd better apply for ______.

A．Academic Scholarships	B．Athletic Scholarships
C．Scholarships for Minorities	D．Scholarships for Women

【小题4】 How many scholarships are intended for all ethnic students?

A．One.

B．Two.

C．Three.

D．Four.

For many parents, raising a teenager is like fighting a long war, but years go by without any clear winner. Like a border conflict（冲突）between neighboring countries, the parent-teen war is about boundaries: Where is the line between what I control and what you do?
Both sides want peace, but neither feels it has any power to stop the conflict. In part，this is because neither is willing to admit any responsibility for starting it. From the parents’ point of view, the only cause of their fight is their adolescents’ （青少年）complete unreasonableness. And of course, the teens see it in exactly the same way, except oppositely. Both feel trapped.
In this article, I’ll describe three no-win situations that commonly arise between teens and parents and then suggest some ways out of the trap. The first no-win situation is quarrel on unimportant things. Examples include the color of the teen’s hair, the cleanness of the bedroom, the preferred style of clothing, the child’s failure to eat a good breakfast before school, or his tendency to sleep until noon on the weekends. Second, blaming. The goal of a blaming battle is to make the other admit that his bad attitude is the reason why everything goes wrong. Third, needing to be right. It doesn’t matter what the topic is—politics, the laws of physics, or the proper way to break an egg—the point of these arguments is to prove that you are right and the other person is wrong，for both wish to be considered an authority—someone who actually knows something—and therefore to command respect. Unfortunately, as long as parents and teens continue to assume that they know more than the other, they’ll continue to fight these battles forever and never make any real progress.
【小题1】Why does the author compare the parent teen war to a border conflict?

A．Both can continue for generations.

B．Both are about where to draw the line.

C．Neither has any clear winner.

D．Neither can be put to an end.

【小题2】What does the underlined part in Paragraph 2 mean?

A．The teens blame their parents for starting the conflict.

B．The teens agree with their parents on the cause of the conflict.

C．The teens accuse their parents of misleading them.

D．The teens tend to have a full understanding of their parents.

【小题3】Parents and teens want to be right because they want to__________.  

A．give orders to the other	B．know more than the other
C．gain respect from the other	D．get the other to behave properly

【小题4】What will the author most probably discuss in the paragraph that follows?

A．Causes for the parent-teen conflicts

B．Examples of the parent-teen war

C．Solutions for the parent-teen problems

D．Future of the parent-teen relationship

When you are learning English, you find it not clever to put an English sentence, word for word, into your own language. Take the sentence “How do you do?” as an example. If you look up each word in the dictionary, one at a time, what is your translation? It must be a wrong sentence in your own language.
Languages do not just have different sounds, they are different in many ways. It’s important to master(掌握) the rules for word order in the study of English, too. If the speaker puts words in a wrong order, the listener can’t understand the speaker’s sentence easily. Sometimes when the order of words in an English sentence is changed, the meaning of the sentence changes, But sometimes the order is changed, the meaning of the sentence doesn’t change. Let’s see the difference between the two pairs of sentences.
“She only likes apples.”               “Only she likes apples.”
“I have seen the film already.”           “I have already seen the film.”
When you are learning English, you must do your best to get the spirit(精神实质) of the language and use it as the English speaker does.
【小题1】From the passage we know that _______when we are learning English.

A．we shouldn’t put every word into our own language

B．we should look up every word in the dictionary

C．we need to put every word into our own language

D．we must read word by word

【小题2】The writer thinks it is _______ in learning English.

A．difficult to understand different sounds

B．necessary to remember the word order

C．important to master the rules in different ways

D．easy to master the rules for word order

【小题3】We can learn from the passage that ________.

A．the meaning of an English sentence always changes with the order of the words

B．The order of words can never change the meaning of an English sentence

C．sometimes different order of words has a different meaning

D．if the order of words is different, the meaning of the sentence must be different

【小题4】“She only likes apples.” ________.

A．is the same as “Only she likes apples.”

B．is different from “Only she likes apples.”

C．means “She likes fruit except apples.”

D．means “She doesn’t like apples.”

I began working in journalism when I was eight. It was my mother’s idea. She wanted me to “make something” of myself, and decided I had better start young if I was to have any chance of keeping up with the competition.
With my load of magazines I headed toward Belleville Avenue. The crowds were there. There were two gas stations on the corner of Belleville and Union. For several hours I made myself highly visible, making sure everyone could see me and the heavy black letters on the bag that said THE SATURDAY EVENING POST. When it was suppertime, I walked back home.
“ How many did you sell, my boy?” my mother asked.
“ None.”
“ Where did you go?”
“ The corner of Belleville and Union Avenues.”
“ What did you do?”
“ Stood on the corner waiting for somebody to buy a Saturday Evening Post.”
“ You just stood there?”
“ Didn’t sell a single one.”
“ My God, Russell!”
Uncle Allen put in, “ Well, I’ve decided to take the Post.” I handed him a copy and he paid me a nickel. It was the first nickel I earned.
Afterwards my mother taught me how to be a salesman. I would have to ring doorbells, address adults with self-confidence, and persuade them by saying that no one, no matter how poor, could afford to be without the Saturday Evening Post in the home.
One day, I told my mother I’d changed my mind. I didn’t want to make a success in the magazine business.
“ If you think you can change your mind like this,” she replied, “ you’ll become a good-for-nothing.” She insisted that, as soon as school was over, I should start ringing doorbells, selling magazines. Whenever I said no, she would scold me.
My mother and I had fought this battle almost as long as I could remember. My mother, dissatisfied with my father’s plain workman’s life, determined that I would not grow up like him and his people. But never did she expect that, forty years later, such a successful journalist as me would go back to her husband’s people for true life and love.
【小题1】Why did the boy start his job young?

A．He wanted to be famous in the future.	B．The job was quite easy for him.
C．His mother had high hopes for him.	D．The competition for the job was fierce.

【小题2】From the dialogue between the boy and his mother, we learn that the mother was _______.

A．excited

B．interested

C．ashamed

D．disappointed

【小题3】What did the mother do when the boy wanted to give up?

A．She forced him to continue.	B．She punished him.
C．She gave him some money.	D．She changed her plan.

【小题4】What is the text mainly about?

A．The early life of a journalist.

B．The early success of a journalist.

C．The happy childhood of the writer.

D．The important role of the writer in his family.

Roughly speaking, teachers in traditional education may feel that students are too young to know much about the world, and have to be told what to do most of the time. By contrast, open education offers teachers quite different feelings. Students are expected to be responsible for their own education—to discover subjects by themselves instead of being made to study them. This way of teaching allows the students to grow independently and to develop their own interests in many subjects. Some students who do badly in a traditional classroom will be happier in an open classroom and enjoy learning. They will not have to worry about grades or rules at all.
However, many students won’t do well in an open classroom. For these students, they will do little in school if there are too few rules. They will not make good use of open education, which is so different from traditional class, because they may have a problem getting used to making so many choices on their own. For them it is important to have some rules to direct them. They may worry about the rules even when there are no rules. In addition to that, some traditional teachers do not believe in open education and do not like it either.
Since both of some good points and bad points of the open education have been explained clearly, you may have your own opinion on the issue. Personally, I think that the concept of open education is good only in theory. In actual fact, it may not work very well in a real class or school. I believe, most students, but of course not all students, need some structure in their classes. They may want and need to have rules.
In some cases, they must be made to study some subjects. Many students are pleased to find subjects they have to study interesting. They would not study those subjects if they did not have to.
【小题1】Open education allows the students to_________________.

A．grow as the educated

B．be responsible for their life

C．discover subjects outside class

D．develop their own interests

【小题2】Open education may be a good idea for the students who __________.

A．worry about grades and rules

B．aren’t used to making choices

C．do well in a traditional classroom

D．enjoy having some rules in class

【小题3】Some students will do little in an open classroom because___________.

A．there are too many rules

B．they don’t like activities

C．there are too few rules

D．they worry about the rules

【小题4】Which of the following best summarizes the passage?

A．Open education is a really complex idea.

B．Open education is better than traditional education.

C．Traditional teachers don’t believe in open education.

D．The writer thinks open education is practical.

Going to school means learning new skills and facts in different subjects. Teachers teach and students learn, and many scientists are interested in finding ways to improve both teaching and learning processes.
Sian Beilock and Susan Leving, two psychologists at the University of Chicago, are trying to learn about learning. In a new study about the way kids learn math in elementary school, Beilock and Levine found a surprising relationship between what female teachers think and what female students learn: If a female teacher is uncomfortable with her own math skills, then her female students are more likely to believe that boys are better than girls at math. “If these girls keep getting math-anxious female teachers in later grades, it may create a snowball effect on their math achievement,” Levine told Science News. The study suggests that if these girls grow up believing that boys are better at math than girls are, then these girls may not do as well as they would have if they were more confident.
Just as students find certain subjects to be difficult, teachers can find certain subjects to be difficult to learn—and teach. The subject of math can be particularly difficult for everyone.
The new study involved 65 girls, 52 boys and 17 first-and second-grade teachers in elementary schools in the Midwest. The students took math achievement tests at the beginning and end of the school year, and the researchers compared the scores.
The researchers also gave the students tests to tell whether the students believed a math superstar had to be a boy. Then the researchers turned to the teachers: To find out which teachers were anxious about math, the researchers asked the teachers how they felt at times when they came across math, such as when reading a sales receipt. A teacher who got nervous looking at the numbers on a sales receipt, for example, was probably anxious about math.
Boys, on average, were unaffected by a teacher’s anxiety. On average, girls with math-anxious teachers scored lower on the end-of-the-year math tests than other girls in the study did. Plus, on the test showing whether someone thought a math superstar had to be a boy, 20 girls showed feeling that boys would be better at math—and all of these girls had been taught by female teachers with math anxiety.
According to surveys done before this one, college students who want to become elementary school teachers have the highest levels of anxiety about math. Plus, nine of every 10 elementary teachers are women, Levine said.
【小题1】Sian Beilock and Susan Levine carried out the new research in order to ___________.

A．know the effects of teaching on learning

B．study students’ ways of learning math

C．prove women teachers are unfit to teach math

D．find better teaching methods for teachers

【小题2】The underlined part in paragraph 2 most probably means that girls may ___________.

A．end up learning math anxiety from their teachers

B．study the ways their female teachers behave

C．have an influence on their math-anxious female teachers

D．gain unexpected achievement in such subjects as math

【小题3】In the study, what were the teachers required to do?

A．Prepare two math achievement tests for the students

B．Tell their feelings about math problems

C．Answer whether a math superstar had to be a boy

D．Compare the students’ scores after the math tests

【小题4】What is the finding of the new study?

A．No male students were affected by their teachers’ anxiety

B．Almost all the girls got lower scores in the tests than the boys

C．About 30% of the girls thought boys are better at math than girls

D．Girls with math-anxious teachers all failed in the math tests

【小题5】Which of the following is TRUE according to the text?

A．117 students and teachers took part in the new study

B．The researchers felt surprised at the findings of their study

C．Beilock and Levine are interested in teaching math

D．Men teachers are better at teaching math than women teachers

Many parents watch the news or other shows as children play nearby. But new research shows that even when the television is just background noise，it may be disruptive to a child’s normal development.
It’s estimated that 75 percent of very young children in the United States live in homes where the television is on most of the time，even though the kids often aren’t watching it. The University of Massachusetts researchers recently studied how TV background noise might affect young children. The study looked at 50 1­，2­and 3­year­olds. Each child came to a lab with a parent and was allowed to play for an hour with various toys. For half the time，a television was on in the room，showing the adult game show as well as advertisements. During the other half hour，the TV was turned off.
As expected，the children paid little attention to the adult television show，glancing at it for less than a few seconds at a time，and less than once a minute. Even so，the distraction (分心) of the background noise had a significant effect on how children at every age played. When the television was on，the children played with each toy for far shorter periods of time，and focused attention during play was also shorter compared to how they played when the TV was off.
Researchers said that even though the children aren’t interested in the show，background TV affects their ability to do various types of play. The finding is important because many well­meaning parents who wouldn’t let their young children watch television may not realize that even adult programs that don’t interest children still can have an effect.
“Background TV is potentially a chronic (长期的) environmental risk factor affecting most American children，” said the lead author of the study. “Parents should limit their young children’s exposure (接触)．”
【小题1】We know from the passage that________.

A．background TV noise has little effect on adults

B．most young children in America live in homes exposed to TV noise

C．the effect of background TV noise on children is immediate

D．most parents in America wouldn’t let their children watch TV

【小题2】The underlined word “disruptive” in Paragraph 1 is closest in meaning to________.

A．harmful

B．important

C．similar

D．related

【小题3】In the study，the children________.

A．were all 3­year­olds	B．were asked to watch adult TV shows
C．played for an hour while the TV was on	D．played with more than one toy

【小题4】What does the study show?

A．Children pay much attention to adult TV shows.

B．Children should be allowed to watch TV for kids only.

C．The background TV noise affects children’s ability to focus.

D．The more toys a child has，the shorter time he plays with each one.

Have you ever thought of such questions as “Why do I have to study math?”or “I am not interested in history at all. My dream is to be an actor. Should I give history up?”
Maybe you are right. After you leave school, it’s not necessary for you to understand everything. But please remember that at school,besides getting knowledge, you should pay attention to some other important things.
First, try to find what you are most interested in. At school, you study many subjects. Try to find what you like and what you don’t like. This may be helpful to you in the future.
Second, maybe you don’t like math and you want to drop it. But the logical thinking ability from math can help you solve some problems.At school, you should practice your brain by thinking.
Third, you should believe in yourself. Maybe you learn French at school, but you don’t need to speak French at all.But learning French can prove that you have the ability of learning languages. Suppose you go to France one day and find a good job well. At school I learned French well, and now I must be able to learn German. But if you have no confidence, what will happen?
Try to challenge yourself as often as possible. I think many of us like playing computer games. When we fail in a game, we always want to try it again. Why? Because it is hard for us to get the highest mark. If we want to challenge ourselves, we must face more difficult things and make greater progress.
【小题1】At school you should             .

A．stop learning the subjects you don’t like

B．both get knowledge and improve your ability

C．pay more attention to math and French

D．learn French instead of English

【小题2】Math can improve one’s           .

A．logical thinking ability

B．skills in computer

C．interest in other subjects

D．ability of finding a job

【小题3】Which of the following is TRUE?       

A．You will use everything you learn at school in your future job.

B．It’s not necessary to know what you like at school.

C．Everything you learn at school has an influence on you.

D．Logical thinking ability is the most important ability.

【小题4】Learning French can help us            .

A．have confidence in learning languages

B．go to France

C．get a good result in the exam

D．make greater progress

【小题5】The last paragraph tells us that             .

A．everyone loves to play computer games

B．it is not easy to get high marks in computer games

C．we should do some very different things

D．we should challenge