Having long been underrated(低估) and ignored, the penny is one of America's most enduring failures. But a recent proposal to ban the penny by some US congress members seeks to put the coin to sleep — permanently.

Representative Jim Kolbe from Arizona is the man who proposed the bill to stamp out penny. He says the coin has outlived its usefulness. With metal prices soaring, Kolbe says it costs 1.23 cents to produce a penny. Producing the coins will amount to a $20 million waste each year.

It is not simply about the cost of production. Centuries of inflation have made the penny—first put into circulation in 1787—close to worthless.

Many Americans don’t even view pennies as currency any more. They take them only reluctantly in change and then put them in jars or desk drawers at home. An estimated $10.5 billion in pennies, or $93.75 per household, sits idle in piggy banks and behind sofas.

Anti-penny advocates argue that 1-cent coins cost US companies more than $300 million a year in lost productivity. This comes mostly from the time and effort spent counting and putting pennies into paper rolls for bank deposits.

Jim Kolbe suggests that all cash transactions be rounded to the nearest nickel. For example, items that cost 11 or 12 cents would be rounded down to 10, 13- and 14-cent items would be rounded up to 15. People paying by credit or bank card, however, would likely continue to pay exact amounts.

But plenty of Americans oppose the ban. Some say eliminating the penny would cause significant hardship to a wide range of people.

US economist Raymond Lombra says that moving to the 5-cent nickel would cost consumers $ 3 billion over five years. The poor suffer more since they tend to buy with cash instead of credit cards.

Penny supporters point out that the penny is the only coin carrying the image of America’s much respected president Abraham Lincoln. Some major charities are also alarmed by talk of a penny ban. They often base fund-raising campaigns on donations of pennies and other coins. One such campaign is called “Pennies for Patients”. They have raised more than $68 million through coin collections since 1994.

A recent US Today poll found that 55 percent of adults want to keep the penny. They may not value pennies as currency like before, but they remain attached to them as an old, familiar friend.

“The penny has been a necessary part of the American experience---whose childhood would be complete without penny candy and other small purchases?” read a post supporting the penny on a forum.

It shapes US superstitions. “Find a penny, pick it up, and all day you will have good luck.” “A penny saved is a penny earned.” And little girls are sometimes called “as pretty as a penny”.

Title: Ban    1   Or Not?

   2  :

They have long been underrated and ignored.

Reasons for the ban:

● The coin has outlived its usefulness.

●    3   to produce coins are rising fast.

● Centuries of inflation have made the penny close to worthless.

● Large amount of    4   is wasted counting and putting pennies into paper rolls for

bank deposits.

   5  :

● All cash transactions are rounded to    6  .

● People paying by credit or bank card would continue to pay exact amounts.

Reasons against the ban:   

● Eliminating the penny would cause significant hardship to a wide range of people.

● Rounding to the 5-cent nickel would cost consumers $3 billion over five years.

● The penny is the only coin carrying the image of America’s much respected president___7  .

●    8   base fund-raising campaigns on donations of pennies and other coins.

● 55 percent of adults regard it as a necessary part of    9  .

● The penny shapes    10  .

As we have seen, the focus of medical care in our society has been shifting from curing disease to preventing disease—especially in terms of changing our many unhealthy behaviors, such as poor eating habits, smoking, and failure to exercise. The line of thought involved in this shift can be pursued further. Imagine a person who is about the right weight, but does not eat very nutritious (有营养的) foods, who feels OK but exercises only occasionally, who goes to work every day, but is not an outstanding worker, who drinks a few beers at home most nights but does not drive while drunk, and who has no chest pains or abnormal blood counts, but sleeps a lot and often feels tired. This person is not ill. He may not even be at risk for any particular disease. But we can imagine that this person could be a lot healthier.
The field of medicine has not traditionally distinguished between someone who is merely “not ill” and someone who is in excellent health and pays attention to the body’s special needs. Both types have simply been called “well”. In recent years, however, some health specialists have begun to apply the terms “well” and “wellness” only to those who are actively striving to maintain and improve their health. People who are well are concerned with nutrition and exercise, and they make a point of monitoring their body’s condition. Most important, perhaps, people who are well take active responsibility for all matters related to their health. Even people who have a physical disease or handicap (缺陷) may be “well” in this new sense, if they make an effort to maintain the best possible health they can in the face of their physical limitations. “Wellness” may perhaps best be viewed not as a state that people can achieve, but as an ideal that people can strive for. People who are well are likely to be better able to resist disease and to fight disease when it strikes. And by focusing attention on healthy ways of living, the concept of wellness can have a beneficial impact on the ways in which people face the challenges of daily life.
【小题1】Today medical care is placing more stress on ________.

________ in the queue for half an hour, Tom suddenly realized that he had left his wallet at home.

1. A.
   To wait
2. B.
   Have waited
3. C.
   Having waited
4. D.
   To have waited

When my daughter, Sophie, was admitted to a college we were very happy, but a little worried about becoming empty nesters. I knew I had to do something to help myself adapt, starting with the summer before she left.
Sophie had a pack of colorful T-shirts. I knew she wouldn’t wear them any more, so I decided to make a quilt out of them for her bed at college. It focused my energy, and also let me relive some memories. I tried to work on the quilt when Sophie wasn’t at home----which turned out to be often. She was very busy with her friends. Even when she was around, her door was shut more than usual. I felt a bit hurt. After all, we didn’t have much time together before she went to college, I was already missing her, and she hadn’t ever left yet.
When we arrived at the college, a wave of emotion flooded me. I tried to hold it back, but Sophie saw it in my face. She took a big red book from her bag. “I made this for you, Mom,” she said. Then I knew why she had been staying behind a closed door that summer. It was an album of photographs documenting the life of our family over the last 17 years.
I broke into tears. Some of it was sadness at having to let her go, but some of it was joy. I knew that our connection was more powerful than ever, and that we’d always be connected by the strongest of threads, the love that went into every stitch of her quilt and every photo of my album.
In Sophie’s dormitory I unfolded the quilt on her bed. For a moment she was speechless. Then she threw her arms around me. “Mom, I love you,” she said. One of her new friends was calling her outside. Sophie turned, and I let her go.
【小题1】
What do we learn about Sophie from the passage?

Children who speak English as their first language are now a minority in inner-city London primary schools，official figures show.
Youngsters with foreign mother tongues form a majority at primary schools in 13 out of33 London cities. Across the country，English is a foreign language to more than one in seven primary school youngsters.
The figures from the Department for Children，Schools and Families (DCSF) point to major demographic (人口的) changes over the past few decades，with around a fifth of pupils now coming from ethnic minorities.
There are concerns that school finances are coming under stress from the growing numbers of youngsters requiring help with English. The government has been urged to provide more funding，and give fair treatment to schools with large concentrations of non-English speakers.
In Tower Hamlets almost four out of five youngsters do not have English as their mother tongue. In other areas，including Leicester，Luton and Bradford the proportion approaches 50 percent.
The figures indicate that many recent migrants have settled in London. Sir Andrew Green，Founder and Chairman of Migration Watch UK，says，“These figures confirm the huge impact immigration is having on our society. When government funds are as tight as they are，this is bound to have a negative impact，since children for whom English is a second language need extra tuition (学费).”He adds，“In inner London it's hard to know with whom immigrant chil­dren are supposed to practice English，since the number of immigrant children is much larger than that of local. ”
A spokesman for DCSF stresses that the figures “only indicate the language to which a child was initially exposed at home，regardless of whether he or she comes to speak English fluently later on. It is only a relatively few recent arrivals for whom communication problems are serious”.“We are increasing funding to the Ethnic Minority Achievement Grant (助学金)to £206 million by 2010，to help bring students weak in English up to speed. We’re also equipping schools to offer effective English as an Additional Language teaching to new arrivals，”he adds
72.A minority of London primary school students speak English as their first language because
      .
A. local children prefer to speak other languages
B. more and more immigrant children are attending school in London
C. children learning English as an additional language need extra tuition
D. English is too difficult a language for primary school children to learn
73.Some people worry about      .
A. the increasing number of adults needing help with English
B. the government taking no measures to help the schools
C. non-English speakers putting school finances under stress
D. London schools not providing adequate service for children in need
74.It can be inferred from the passage that         .
A. most immigrant children make a great effort to learn English
B. the government used to treat non-English speakers unfairly
C. it's not easy to find English speakers for immigrant children in some parts of London to communicate with
D. local children are influenced by immigrant children
75.According to the spokesman for DCSF，the figures indi­cate       .
A. that children will speak English fluently later on
B. that immigration is having a huge impact on English society
C. what the language the children were exposed to first was
D. that funding is increasing to help students weak in English