Eight-year-old Bethany and seven-year-old Eliza are having a great time jumping around in the orchard of their home in a village near Penrith. They can play any time they like because they don't go to school. Instead, they are educated at home by their parents, Paul and Veronika Robinson. But they don't have lessons, have never used a timetable and learn only what and when they want to learn. .www..com

“I want my kids to have freedom in their childhood, not spend it in an institution," says 37-year-old Veronika, "School is all about control and following the rules." Veronika and her 56-year-old husband Paul have never experienced the daily rush to get dressed and out of the door that is common in most households with school-aged children. "We get up at our leisure - usually around 8:30," says Veronika. "We might visit a friend, or go to the library, and on Tuesdays we shop at the market. In summer, we spend most of our time outside and the girls entertain themselves a lot.” .www..com

New research due to be published this spring reveals a very different picture of Britain's home educators. "Out of 297 families, 184 said that they never use a timetable,” says Mike Fortune-Wood of Home Education UK. "Ninety per cent never or rarely use textbooks, and nearly all said that happiness, contentment and self-fulfillment were more important than academic achievement. Only 15% felt that planning what to learn was very important.” .www..com

So far, so good. But what, you might ask, are the children actually learning?

"It wasn't important to me that the girls could read by a certain age, but they both picked it up for themselves at around seven," says Robinson. "Weighing cooking ingredients uses maths, and making a shopping list teaches them to write. Observing five hens has taught the girls about survival of the fittest. "

But what about when the children grow up? Can they go to university? The home educators' answer is they can if they want to. There are a variety of routes into higher education, but probably the most common is to join a local college. This is what Gus Harris-Reid has done. "I was educated at home all my life. I'd never had a lesson or been inside a classroom until I started GCSEs," says the 18-year-old. "I'm now studying for 4 A-levels at Exeter Colle ge. I've had no problem with the work or with fitting in." When asked to reflect on his experience of home education, his considered response is, "Like a permanent holiday, really!" Not a bad start for someone who plans to take a mechanical engineering degree next year. .www..com

What is the topic of this article?

　　A. New ways of learning to read and write   B. Problems with UK schools

　　C. Home education in the UK                    D. Wild, undisciplined children

According to the article, in homes with school-going children, ______.

　　A. mornings are rushed and stressful.

　　B. the children hardly ever go outside.

　　C. the family wakes up around 8:30am.

　　D. the children must ask permission to go to the toilet.

Which of the following statements is NOT true?

　　A. Most home educators believe that happiness is more important than good grades.

　　B. Most home educators believe that planning is important.

　　C. Most home educators do not follow a timetable or use textbooks.

　　D. Most home educators are not worried about when their children learn to read and write.

What does the article say about home-educated children getting into university?

　　A. They learn so many useful skills at home that universities are happy to accept them.

　　B. They can get into university if they have 4 A-levels.

　　C. They can go to school later and get the qualifications they need in order to enter university.

D. Home education is so relaxed that they are likely to experience problems when faced with the pressures of a degree course.

(10·四川B篇)

Boiler rooms are often dirty and steamy, but this one is clean and cool. Fox Point is a very new47-unit living building in South Bronx, one of the city’s poorest areas. Two-thirds of the people living there are formerly (以前) homeless people, whose rent is paid by the government. The rest are low-income families. The boiler room has special equipment, which produces energy for electricity and heat. It reuses heat that would otherwise be lost to the air, reducing carbon emissions(碳排放)while also cutting costs.

Fox Point is operated by Palladia, a group that specializes in providing housing and services to needy, people. Palladia received support from Enterprise Community Partners (ECP), which helps build affordable housing by providing support to housing developers.

ECP has created national standards for healthy, environmentally (环境方面) clever and affordable homes which are called, the Green Communities Standards. These standards include water keeping, energy saving and the use of environmentally friendly building materials. Meeting the standards increases housing construction costs by 2%, which is rapidly paid back by lower running costs. Even the positioning of a window to get most daylight can help save energy.

Michael. Bloomberg, New York's mayor, plans to create 165,000 affordable housing units for500,000 New Yorkers. Almost 80% of New York City’s greenhouse-gas emissions come from buildings, and 40% of those are caused, by housing.. So he recently announced that the city’s Department of Housing and Preservation and Development (DHPD) , whose duty is to develop and keep the city’s supply of affordable housing, will require all its new projects to follow ECP’s green standards.

Similar measures have been taken by other cities such as Cleveland and Denver, but New York’s DHPD is the largest city developer of affordable housing in the country.

45. What is the purpose of describing the boiler room in the first paragraph?

A. To explain the measures the city takes to care for poor people.

B. To suggest that affordable housing is possible in all areas.

C. To show how the environment-friendly building works.

D. To compare old and new boiler rooms.

46. What is an advantage of the buildings meeting the Green Communities Standards?

A. Lower running costs.

B. Costing less in construction.　

C. Less air to be lost in hot days.

D. Better prices for homeless people.

47. It can be learned from the text that,　　　　　

A. New York City is seriously polluted

B. people’s daily life causes many carbon emissions in New York City

C. a great number of people in New York City don't have houses to live in

D. some other cities have developed more affordable housing than New York City

48. What is the main purpose of this text?

A. To call on people to pay more attention to housing problems.

B. To prove that some standards are needed for affordable housing.

C. To ask society to help homeless people and low-income families.

D. To introduce healthy, environmentally clever-and affordable housing.

　　A new study has found that it may be possible to train people to be more intelligent，increasing the brainpower they had at birth.
　　Until now，it has been widely assumed that the kind of mental ability that allows us to solve new problems without having any relevant previous experience—what psychologists call fluid intelligence—is innate and cannot be taught（though people can raise their grades on tests of it by practicing）.
　　But in the new study，researchers describe a method for improving this skill，along with experiments to prove it works.
　　The key, researchers found, was carefully structured training in working memory—the kind that allows memorization of a telephone number just long enough to dial it. This type of memory is closely related to fluid intelligence，so the researchers reasoned that improving it might lead to improvements in fluid intelligence.
　　First they measured fluid intelligence of volunteers using standard tests. Then they trained each in a complicated memory task—the child’s card game，in which they had to recall a card they saw and heard. During the course, they needed to ignore irrelevant items，monitor ongoing performance，manage two tasks at the same time and connect related items to one another in space and time.
　　The four groups experienced a half-hour of training daily for 8，12，17 and 19 days，respectively. To make sure they were not just improving their test-taking skills，the researchers compared them with control groups that took the tests without the training.
　　The results, published Monday in The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences，were striking. Improvement in the trained groups was a lot greater. Moreover，the longer they trained, the higher their scores were. All performers，from the weakest to the strongest，showed significant improvement.
　　“Our results show you can increase your intelligence with proper training.”said Dr Jaeggi, a co-author of the paper.“No one knows how long the gains will last after training stops，”he added，“and the experiment’s design did not allow the researchers to determine whether more training would continue to produce further gains.”
67．The researchers thought the key to improving the intelligence was ______________.
A．memorizing telephone numbers
B．improving working memory
C．training in concentration
D．recalling a card
68．The following aspects of the training help increase intelligence EXCEPT___________.
A．ignoring irrelevant items
B．monitoring ongoing performance
C．managing two tasks at the same time
D．using previous experience
69．When the experiment was conducted，the researchers______________.
A．trained the four groups for the same period of time
B．only made comparisons between the four groups
C．compared the four groups with control groups
D．trained the four groups together
70．By writing the article，the writer intends to ______________.
A．inform the readers of a new study
B．call on people to be trained to increase intelligence
C．prove one’s born brainpower can be improved
D．tell people the improved intelligence will last forever

第二节：完形填空(共20小题；每小题1分，满分20分)

阅读下面短文，掌握其大意，然后从每题所给的四个选项(A、B、C和D)中，选出最佳选项。

Mary had her own special kind of joy, and she knew exactly how to spread it around. She lifted children from 　31　 into laughter, love, and belonging. Each time she found a new 　32　 for a child, she gave the family one of her little homemade paper roses. It had become a 　33　 for her, and the families didn't ever forget it.

One evening, Mary was 　34　a meeting for adoptive parents. One of the 　35　 fathers stood up to introduce himself. But before he spoke, he reached into his coat pocket and held up a 　36　, red paper rose.

“Twenty years ago today, I felt alone and 　37　. I didn't know the talents inside me or what was possible for me.

Then Mary 　38　 two wonderful people into my life. They taught me what it was like to feel 　39　. They not only loved me 　40　. They opened a world of 　41　 that I didn't know existed. My new parents told me, ‘Reach for your dreams!’

I did, and today I'm 　42　 to be giving that chance to a child who 　43　 just like me. My mother gave me this little rose. By now, all of you 　44　 where she got it so long ago.

Mary sent me a new rose just yesterday. And my new rose 　45　a new spring, a beautiful new 　46　 for my own little girl. It 　47　 me to show her what unconditional love is, and to teach her to reach for her own beautiful dreams.

Thank you, Mary, for the special little things like roses that 　48　 our lives together. And thank you for all you've done for me and so many families over the years!”

One brief even can send our spirits soaring or 　49　 us in quiet to ponder a new beginning.　50　 it is also the very small things, like Mary's roses, that tie together the meaningful things.

31.A. poverty                    B. loneliness              C. misery                   D. suffering

32.A. home               B. place             C. school             D. life

33.A. glory                B. favor              C. habit              D. tradition

34.A. organizing      B. planning                C. hosting             D. attending

35. A. new                 B. grateful                 C. kind               D. active

36. A. broken              B. faded                         C. treasured           D. dried

37.A. tasteless             B. powerless                C. priceless             D. worthless

38.A. directed             B. introduced             C. brought            D. accepted

39.A. loved            B. protected          C. cared             D. cheered

40.A. silently              B. continuously             C. unintentionally      D. unconditionally

41.A. necessities         B. possibilities                     C. beauties            D. riches

42.A. eager            B. willing                  C. proud             D. lucky

43.A. started out        B. came up                 C. turned out          D. grew up

44.A. understand         B. guess                     C. tell               D. know  

45.A. replaces           B. symbolizes               C. equals            D. creates

46.A. chance           B. mystery                    C. challenge           D. beginning

47.A. reminds              B. helps                        C. accompanies        D. drives

48.A. fix              B. close                C. tie                  D. gather

49.A. cause              B. push                        C. put                           D. leave

50.A. Yet               B. Besides                    C. Otherwise          D. Therefore