Lilian Hanson, a college student, expects to graduate in about two years. What makes Mrs Hanson different from her classmates is her age — 73 years. She has been studying at college, a few courses at a time, for 27 years.

  When Lilian Hanson graduated from high school, she went to the bank to borrow money for further education. The banker gave her no encouragement. He didn’t think that a country girl should borrow money to go to college. He thought she should be at home doing work in the house or around the farm. So Lilian Hanson went home and raised a family of nine children instead of going to college.

   Mrs Hanson never forgot her dream of getting a higher education. When her children were grown, she tried again. She finds the hardest part of going back to school at her age is the sitting in class for long periods of time. Because she is not as flexible（易适应的） as she used to be, Mrs Hanson often gets up and walks around between classes to keep from getting stiff（僵硬）. At the beginning of a course in using the computer, the other students all stood and gave her a warm welcome when she introduced herself and explained why she was there and what her aims were.

1.The difference between Lilian and her classmates is that         .

A. she works harder at her lessons

B. she is eager to graduate from college

C. she is much older

D. she is a country girl

2.Lilian wasn’t able to go to college after graduation from high school because ________.

A. she wanted to teach herself       B. she got married

C. she had to look after her children  D. she hadn’t enough money

3.The writer wrote the passage in order to show us that ________.

A. a friend in need is a friend indeed

B. one is never too old to learn

C. knowledge is power

D. education is of great importance

4.Lilian could get a higher education when she was old because ________.

A. she borrowed money from the bank

B. her husband and children helped her

C. her classmates encouraged her to get it

D. the reason isn’t mentioned in the passage

Last year I had a wonderful experience. I went on a student exchange to Japan. It was an exciting time of my life and I       learned many things about the school system in Japan. I was in Grade 11, which is second year of high school in Japan, but I was younger than most of my classmates. That’s because Japanese children enter first year of elementary school (小学) in April following their sixth birthday. I started school when I was still five years old.

In Japan, Children attend elementary school for six years, where they study Japanese, arithmetic, science, social studies, music, crafts, physical education, and home economics (simple cooking and sewing skills). During their three years in middle school, English is added to this list. Most schools have access to computers and the Internet.

The classes in my school seemed rather big to me, around 30 students in a typical high school class. We ate lunch in the classroom, instead of a cafeteria and enjoyed a healthy, nutritious meal prepared by the school or by a local “school lunch centre” instead of eating the same, dry sandwiches every day. I really like the Japanese interpretation of school lunches. I also enjoyed the field trips and activities. At Japanese schools, there are many school events during the year, such as field day when students compete in tug-of-war, field trips, and arts and cultural festivals.

1.The writer went to Japan _____ last year.

2.Children in Japan may start their elementary school at the age of ____.

3.Japanese students start to learn English _____.

4.In the writer’s country, there are normally _____ students in a high school class.

5. In the writer’s country, students probably _____.

Contrary to many people believe, highly intelligent children are not necessarily certain to achieve academic success. In fact, so-called gifted students may fail to do well because they are unusually smart. Ensuring that a gifted child reaches his or her potential requires an understanding of what can go wrong and how to satisfy the unusual learning requirements of extremely bright young people.
One common problem gifted kids face is that they, and those around them, place too much importance on being smart. Such an emphasis can encourage a belief that bright people do not have to work hard to do well. Although smart kids may not need to work hard in the lower grades, when the work is easy, they may struggle and perform poorly when the work gets harder because they do not make the effort to learn. If the academic achievement of highly intelligent children remains below average for an extended period, many teachers will fail to recognize their potential. As a result, such students may not get the encouragement they need, further depressing their desire to learn. They may fall far behind in their schoolwork and even develop behavior problems.
IQ is just one element among many in the recipe for success—Children develop well or struggle in school for a host of reasons apart from IQ. These include motivation and persistence, social competence, and the support of family, educators and friends.
Because highly gifted children solve the most varied thought problems faster and more thoroughly than those with more average talents do, they need additional intellectual stimulation while they wait for the rest of the kids to learn the basics. Two central approaches are used to satisfy the educational needs of such children: acceleration and enrichment. Acceleration means studying material that is part of the standard subjects for older students. Enrichment involves learning information that falls outside the usual subjects.
A child might skip one or more grades as a way of accelerating in school. But being with older children for the entire school day—and perhaps for grade-based extracurricular activities such as sports—can make a child feel inferior in every filed outside of academics. One very bright fourth-grader who had skipped two grades remained far ahead of his classmates intellectually, but as his classmates reached adolescence, his social and other shortcomings became painfully apparent. While acceleration is not an option, or not a good one, enrichment can be. After all, school is not a race but an adventure in learning. As such, the goal is not finishing first but absorbing as much knowledge as possible in the time assigned. Thus, providing opportunities for a child to study topics outside the regular subjects can be at least as valuable as pushing him or her through the required material faster.
【小题1】What is the basic reason for the low academic achievement of highly intelligent children?

A．Skipping one of more grades and studying together with older children.

B．Learning the same material in the standard subjects for older students.

C．Learning information that is not included in the regular subjects.

D．Learning how to read with fluency even in their pre-school days.

A．He is in favor of enrichment rather than acceleration.

B．He is in favor of acceleration rather than enrichment.

C．He speaks highly of both enrichment and acceleration.

D．He thinks neither enrichment nor acceleration is a good choice.