“I had a test and didn’t want to do it, so I pretended to be ill”, says 13-year-

“I had a test and didn’t want to do it, so I pretended to be ill”, says 13-year-

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“I had a test and didn’t want to do it, so I pretended to be ill”, says 13-year-old Mary. But Mary did not enjoy her day off. “It was boring. I wished I had gone to school.”
Mary’s story is not unusual in Britain. According to the latest government figures, pupil absences are rising, despite schools taking a hard line on truancy (逃学).
Dr Philip James from Cardiff University thinks she knows why: “As schools make more efforts to find and punish missing students, students find better ways to avoid being caught.”
For several years, James has researched teenager truancy and discovered that most truancy was “a response to factors within the school”. Students that skip school are not necessarily less advanced or less intelligent. They complained of teachers who failed to engage them, and of “boring” lessons. “Many of them really enjoy school and believe in education, but drop out when aspects of it are ineffective.” James says.
The views of students like Adam, who believes that skipping lessons has little impact on his schooling, are common. “I only take off for a lesson, or a couple of days. It doesn’t affect my education,” he told James.
James believes that schools need to address the question of why pupils want to leave in the first place. “Pupils need help from the start.” she says. “Schools need to look at the reasons for truancy rather than the number, so that instead of walking away from school, students have the skills and chances to talk through problems and make a change.”
小题1:What is one of the reasons that many students skip school according to James’ study?
A.They feel they have fallen behind in their studies.
B.They have no interest in school education.
C.They now have more interesting things to do.
D.They find some lessons and teachers uninteresting.
小题2:The underlined phrase “taking a hard line” (Paragraph 2) is closest in meaning to “________”.
A.experiencing a problem withB.having a strict attitude towards
C.finding it difficult to deal with D.having little success with
小题3:The writer used Adam’s comments (Paragraph 5) to show that ________.
A.school education needs improvement
B.good students also need a break from school
C.schools need to pay more attention to truancy
D.many students believe occasional truancy isn’t serious
小题4:What does Dr James suggest schools do about truancy?
A.Fire all their unqualified teachers.
B.Improve communication with students.
C.Develop better ways to discover truancy.
D.Introduce more serious punishments.

答案

小题1:D
小题1:B
小题1:D
小题1:B
解析

举一反三
PALO ALTO, California------"Switching off the television may help prevent children from getting fatter------ even if they do not change their diet or increase the amount they exercise," US researchers said last week.
  A study of 192 third and fourth graders, generally aged eight and nine, found that children who cut the number of hours spent watching television gained nearly two pounds(0.9kg) less over a one-year period than those who did not change their television diet.
  "The findings are important because they show that weight loss can only be the result of a reduction in television viewing and not any other activity," said Thomas Robinson, a pediatrician(儿科专家) at Stanford University.
  "American children spend an average of more than four hours per day watching television and videos or playing video games, and rates of childhood being very fat have doubled over the past 20 years," Robinson said.
  In the study, presented this week to the Pediatric Academic Societies‘ annual meeting in San Francisco, the researchers persuaded about 100 of the students to reduce their television viewing by one-quarter to one-third.
  Children watching fewer hours of television showed a significantly smaller increase in waist size and had less body fat than other students who continued their normal television viewing, even though neither group ate a special diet or took part in any extra exercise.
  "One explanation for the weight loss could be the children unstuck to the television may simply have been moving around more and burning off calories," Robinson said.
  "Another reason might be due to eating fewer meals in front of the television. Some studies have suggested that eating in front of the TV encourages people to eat more," Robinson said.
小题1:The author tries to tell us in the first two paragraphs that ________.
A.children will get fatter if they eat too much
B.children will get thinner if they eat less
C.children will get fatter if they spend less time watching TV
D.children will get fatter if they spend more time watching TV
小题2:According to the passage, the time American children usually spend on watching TV_____.
A.is more than four hours a dayB.is less than four hours a day
C.doubled in the last twenty yearsD.is more than on any other activities
小题3: The time children spend on TV viewing every day is suggested to be about ________.
A.six hoursB.eight hoursC.three hoursD.one hour
小题4:Which one of the following is right?
A.Children usually eat fewer while watching TV.
B.Children usually eat more while watching TV.
C.Children eat the same amount of meals while watching TV.
D.Children usually eat nothing while watching TV.
小题5:Why can watching TV increase kids’ weight according to the passage?
  A. They usually eat more while watching TV.
  B. They burn off fewer calories.
  C. They change their diet while watching TV.
D. Both A and B.
题型:不详难度:| 查看答案
It’s interesting that the arrival of snow has effect on people in different countries. For some countries it is an important happening to celebrate each year, while for others a catastrophe(灾害) or even a wonder.
  But there are countries between these two kinds that normally expect snow some time over the winter months, but never receive snow regularly or in the same quantities every year. Britain is one of them, for which the arrival of snow quite simply causes problems. Within hours of the first snowfalls, however light, roads are blocked, trains and buses have to stop in the middle of the way. Normal communication is affected as well: telephone calls become difficult and the post immediately takes more time than usual. And almost within hours, there are also certain shortages----bread, vegetables and other things-----not because all these things can no longer be produced or sent to shops, but mainly because people are frightened and go out and store up with food and so on…just for fear that something bad should happen.
  But why does snow have this effect? After all, the Swiss, the Austrians and the Canadians don‘t have such problems. It is simple because there is not enough planning and preparation. We need money to buy equipment to deal with snow and ice. To keep the roads clear, for example, requires snow-ploughs(扫雪机) and machines to spread salt. The reason why a country like Britain does not buy snow-ploughs is that they are used for a few days in any one year, and the money could be more useful in other things such as hospital, education, helping the old and so on..
 小题1:According to the writer, Britain is a country ________.
A.which has regular snowB.which is not well prepared for snow
C.for which snow is a catastropheD.for which snow is a wonder
  小题2:After a few hours’ snowing there are often some shortages of food because ______.
  A. shops have closed down B. people buy as much as they can
  B. farmers cannot produce any more D. people eat more vegetables in winter
  小题3:The words "two kinds" in the passage mean the countries ______.
A.which have weather as yearly happening to celebrate or as rare(少见) weather
B.which either have heavy snow or light snow
C.to which snow either causes problems or no problems
D.which either have snow-ploughs or no snow-ploughs

题型:不详难度:| 查看答案
It’s hard to track the blue whale, which has almost been killed off by commercial whaling. Attaching radio devices to it is difficult and visual sightings are too unreliable to give real insight into its behavior.
So biologists were delighted early this year when, with the help of the US Navy, they are able to track a particular blue whale for 43 days recording its sounds. This was possible because of the Navy’s former top secret system of underwater listening devices across the oceans.
Tracking whales is but one example of an exciting new world just opening to civilian scientists after the cold war as the Navy starts to share and partly uncover its global network of underwater listening system built over the decades to track the ships of potential enemies.
Earth scientists announced at a news conference recently that they had used the system for closely observing a deep-sea volcanic eruption for the first time and that they planned similar studies. Other scientists have proposed to use the network for tracking ocean currents and measuring changes in the ocean and global temperatures. Different layers of ocean water can act as channels for sounds focusing them in the same way a stethoscope(听诊器) does when it carries faint noises from a patient’s chest to a doctor’s ear. This focusing is the main reason that even relatively weak sounds in the ocean, especially low-frequency ones, can often travel thousands of miles.
小题1:The underwater listening system was originally designed _________________.
A.to trace and locate enemy ships
B.to observe deep sea volcanic eruptions
C.to study the movement of ocean currents
D.to replace the global radio communications network
小题2:The deep-sea listening system makes use of __________________.
A.the ability of sound to travel at high speed
B.the top-level technology of focusing sounds under water
C.the unique characteristic of layers of ocean water in carrying sound
D.low-frequency sounds traveling across different layers of water
小题3:What can we infer from the passage?
A.New radio devices are developed for tracking the blue whales.
B.Blue whales are no longer endangered with the new system.
C.Opinions differ on the use of military technology.
D.Military technology has great potential in civilian use.
小题4:What is the passage chiefly about?
A.An effort to protect an endangered marine species.
B.The civilian use of a military detection system.
C.The exposure of a US Navy top-secret weapon.
D.A new way to look into the behavior of blue whales.

题型:不详难度:| 查看答案
It is interesting how NASA(美国航天航空局) chose their astronauts for landing them on the moon. They chose men   36  the ages of twenty and thirty-five. There were about fifty of them. Some were   37  air pilots, and  38  were scientists with two or three degrees. NASA telephoned each man they were going to choose, told him the plans and the   39  they might get into. They then asked him if he was willing to be trained as an astronaut, “How could any man   40  such an exciting job?” One of them said, “Dangerous? Of course. It’s dangerous   41  most exciting.”
The health and physical condition of the people was,  42 , very necessary. Only those in very good health and physical condition were   43 .
While being trained to be astronauts, they went through many   44 . They studied the star and the moon, and they also studied geology, the science of rocks. This was necessary   45  astronauts would have to look for rocks on the moon. They would try to find rocks which might help to tell the   46  of the moon. They were all   47  to fly in helicopters. There helicopters landed straight down to give them some   48  of the way the spaceship would actually land on the   49 . They were also taught the known facts about the   50  in space. They learnt about all the scientists and engineers who   51  spaceships. They visited the   52 where spaceships were repaired. They learnt how every   53  of a spaceship and its instruments work. They also learnt every detail of ground-control   54 .
In a word, to be chosen as astronaut, one must be in good   55 , well-informed in science and good at piloting.
小题1:
A.atB.betweenC.ofD.on
小题2:
A.experiencedB.oldC.handsomeD.retired
小题3:
A.noneB.fewC.othersD.both
小题4:
A.dangersB.sadnessC.realityD.protection
小题5:
A.shareB.treatC.offerD.refuse
小题6:
A.butB.ifC.thoughD.when
小题7:
A.in allB.of courseC.so farD.at last
小题8:
A.noticedB.chosenC.praisedD.examined
小题9:
A.jobsB.placesC.coursesD.ways
小题10:
A.soB.because C.as ifD.even though
小题11:
A.sizeB.sceneC.ageD.name
小题12:
A.shownB.trainedC.toldD.allowed
小题13:
A.adviceB.experienceC.surpriseD.thought
小题14:
A.waterB.rockC.moonD.earth
小题15:
A.secretsB.traditionsC.theoriesD.conditions
小题16:
A.drewB.developedC.designedD.discovered
小题17:
A.officesB.shopsC.collegesD.factories
小题18:
A.partB.movementC.stepD.body
小题19:
A.methodB.difficultyC.systemD.trick
小题20:
A.shapeB.positionC.orderD.health

题型:不详难度:| 查看答案
Supermarkets are trying out new computers that make shopping carts more intelligent. They will help shoppers find paper cups or toilet soap, and keep a record of the bill.
The touch-screen devices are on show at the Food Marketing Institute’s exhibition here this week, “These devices are able to create value and get you around the store quicker,” said Michael Alexander, manager of Springboard Retail Networks Inc., which makes a smart cart computer called the Concierge.
Canadian stores will test the Concierge in July. A similar device, IBM’s “Shopping Buddy”, has recently been test-marketed at Stop & Shop stores in Massachusetts.
Neither device tells you how many fat grams or calories are in your cart, but they will flash you with items on sale. The idea is to make it easier for people to buy, not to have second thoughts that maybe you should put something back on the shelf.
“The whole model is driven by advertisers’ need to get in front of shoppers,” said Alexander. “They’re not watching 30-second TV ads anymore.”
People can use a home computer to make their shopping lists. Once at the store, a shopper can use a preferred customer card to start a system(系统)that will organize the trip around the store. If you’re looking for toothpicks, you type in the word or pick it from a list, and a map will appear on the screen showing where you are and where you can find them.
The device also keeps a record of what you buy. When you’re finished, the device figures out your bill. Then you go to the checker or place your card into a self-checkout stand and pay.
The new computerized shopping assistants don’t come cheap. The Buddy devices will cost the average store about $ 160, 000, and the Concierge will cost stores about $ 500 for each device.
小题1:The underlined word “they”(paragraph 1)refers to ____________.
A.supermarketsB.shop assistants
C.shopping cartsD.shop managers
小题2:We can learn from the last paragraph that ___________.
A.intelligent shopping carts cost a large sum of money
B.the Concierge is cheaper than the Buddy devices
C.shop assistants with computer knowledge are well paid
D.average stores prefer the Concierge to the Buddy devices
小题3:What might be the most suitable title for the text?
A.New age for supermarkets
B.Concierge and Shopping Buddy
C.New computers make shopping carts smarter
D.Touch-screen devices make shopping enjoyable

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