Students are being forced to take additional exams to get into leading universit

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Students are being forced to take additional exams to get into leading universities because good A-levels do not always indicate the brightest candidates.
Sixth-formers applying to courses such as medicine and law are being asked to sit American-style aptitude（智能）tests, which are designed to assess（评价）thinking skills, among fears that too many A-level candidates are getting top grades. Last year, almost one in six students applying to universities such as Oxford and Cambridge from independent schools had to sit additional test to secure a place.
Head teachers criticized the move, which they said would pile more pressure on schools and students. But universities insisted that the reforms were unavoidable, because A-level exams were no longer an accurate barometer（标准）of ability.
In 1986, 40 percent of students starting at Oxford achieved straight. As at A-level, Mike Nicholson, its admissions director, said that this year almost every candidate offered a place would get perfect grades. It meant the university had to stage additional test to identify the most able candidates. “The ability to achieve three A grades is no longer the end-point in the admissions process,” he said. “The potential to achieved three A grades will allow them to enter the race for a place.”
Oxford is not the only university turning to aptitude tests. At Cambridge, the number of students taking the university’s Thinking Skills Assessment shot up 26 percent to more than 3,000. A survey of 16,830 sixth formers applying to higher education from private schools last year showed that 2,860 had to sit at least one exam.
Earlier this year, the National Foundation for Educational Research recommended that most sixth formers should sit SAT tests — a standard reasoning exam widely used in American colleges —to make it easier to pick out the best candidates.
5．What is the attitude of head teachers to the reform?
A. Approving. B. Doubtful. C. Opposed. D. Neutral（中立的）
6．Which British university first started to use aptitude tests to pick out the best candidates?
A. Harvard. B. Oxford. C. Cambridge. D. Washington D.C.
7．What can we know about the A-level system?
A. It can indicate the brightest candidates.
B. It was designed to assess students’ thinking abilities.
C. It is longer an accurate way to assess students’ abilities.
D. It was recommended by the National Foundation for Educational Research.
8．What can we infer from the passage?
A. The reform is more popular in American colleges than in British ones.
B. The reform will be applied by all universities in the future.
C. Universities used to depend on the A-level system to choose the best students.
D. Passing additional tests will allow the student to enter Oxford, regardless of whether he or she gets As.
9．What is the passage mainly about?
A. How to get into leading universities.
B. The disadvantages of the A-level system.
C. Different ways to identify students’ abilities.
D. Universities using extra exams to choose students.

答案

5--9 ABCCD

解析

现在的成绩为A不再是学生进入大学的唯一评判标准，得到分数A的学生太多啦，A-level不能再准确地区分出最好的学生。学生们需要参加额外的考试才能进入大学。
5．A 细节理解题。根据第三段“Head teachers criticized the move, which they said would pile more pressure on schools and students.”得出答案。
6．B 细节理解题。根据第五段的第一句“Oxford is not the only university turning to aptitude tests.”可推知答案为B。
7．C 细节理解题。文章第一段就提出了“good A-levels do not always indicate the brightest candidates”，结合后面的内容可知答案为C。
8．C 推理判断题。根据第三段中的“But universities insisted that the reforms were unavoidable, because A-level……..”可知答案为C。
9．D 主旨大意题。文章开头就指出学生必须通过额外的考试才能进入一流大学，接下来分析了原因：现在得到分数A的学生太多了，A-level不能再准确地区分出最好的学生，故选D为最佳。

举一反三

Everyone agrees that it’s necessary to reduce carbon emissions （排放物） around the world. There is less agreement over exactly how nations should go about achieving a more carbon - free planet. Thus, the environmental equivalent: cap – and – trade carbon emissions, or place a carbon tax on all users?
With cap – and – trade programs, governments limit the level of carbon produced by an industry. Companies that hold their emissions below the cap can sell their remaining allowance on a carbon market, while companies that go beyond their limit must purchase credits on that market. Carbon taxes are more straightforward: a set tax rate is placed on the consumption of carbon with the idea that raising the price will encourage industries and individuals to consume less. At the moment, cap – and – trade has the upper hand, but doesn’t defeat the tax just yet.
Supporters of the tax argue that a cap – and – trade system would be too difficult to administer – and too easily gamed by industries looking to sidestep emissions caps. Cap – and – trade advocates contradict that like all other flat taxes, a carbon collection would relatively burden lower – income families, who spend a greater percentage of their income on energy than rich households.
So which system will have a larger effect on carbon consumption? A 10% carbon tax might reduce the demand for carbon about 5 % or less, according to an analysis by the Carbon Tax Center, an environmental advocacy group. That may not be enough. Businesses and governments haven’t figured out how the two competing systems can work together, but in the end, the world may need both.
1. The passage focuses on_________.
A. programs of collecting taxes
B. systems of reducing carbon emissions
C. reasons for reducing carbon emissions
D. contradictions between the two systems
2. According to the cap – and – trade program, companies_________ .
A. are forbidden to produce carbon emissions
B. are allocated the same amount of carbon consumption
C. can sell their remaining allowance within their limits
D. can sell the extra amount of carbon at a higher price
3. Carbon taxes work by _________.
A. burdening well – off families
B. encouraging industries to consume carbon
C. raising the price for carbon consumption
D. limiting the carbon consumption of industries only
4. The underlined word “cap” in the second paragraph most likely refers to_________.
A. limit B. credit C. level D. rate
5. We can learn from the passage_________ .
A. carbon taxes are difficult to carry out
B. cap – and – trade plays a greater role at present
C. cap – and – trade will be preferable in the future
D. carbon taxes will be preferable in the future

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Learning another language isn"t easy, but most people can learn a second language well if they’re willing to put in the necessary time. Here are some practical suggestions for studying effectively, overcoming anxiety, and learning the grammar and skills necessary for success in foreign language classes.
Study every day
Language learning is cumulative: you cannot put it off until the weekend. Study one or two hours for every class hour if you want a good mark.
Distribute your study time in 15 to 30 minutes period throughout the day
Study a different task each time: vocabulary now, grammar next, etc. Get an overview during the first half hour: spend 10 minutes reviewing dialog, 10 minutes learning new vocabulary, 10 minutes learning new grammar... So you"ll at least have looked at it all. About 80~of your study time should be spent on recitation or practice.
Attend and participate in every class—even if you aren"t well prepared
Class time is your best opportunity to practice, learn the grammar and vocabulary outside of class in order to make full use of the class time. Spend a few minutes "warming up" before each class by speaking or reading the language.
Make yourself comfortable in the classroom
Get to know your classmates, so you"ll feel you’re among friends. Visit your teacher during office hours to get aquainted(熟悉的)：explain your goals and fears about the course to your teacher.
Learn grammar if you don"t already know it
Grammar is the skeleton(骨架) and the basic structure of a language, and you must learn it.
Practice for tests by doing what you"ll have to do on the test
If the test will require you to write, then study by writing--including spelling and accents. If you"re asked to listen, practice listening. Ask for practice questions and make up your own test questions. Try to invent changes on patterns and forms. Over learning is also required in tests preparation：study beyond the paints of recognition to mastery.
Develop a good attitude
Have a clear personal reason for taking the class. Set personal goals for what you want to learn. Leave perfectionism at the door; give yourself permission to make mistakes and learn from them.
16. What does the underlined word "cumulative" in Paragraph 2 probably mean?
A. process of gaining knowledge or skill by doing and seeing things
B. having to do with comparison
C. having ability to do what is needed
D. increasing in amount by one addition after another
17. A good learner is one who ________ according to the passage.
A. never permits himself to make mistakes
B. can learn something from the mistakes he makes
C. follows the goals that other persons set for themselves
D. can get to know his classmates and doesn"t take his teachers" advice
18. What would be the best title for the passage?
A. Tips on studying a foreign language.
B. Advice on how to learn grammar.
C. Suggestions for studying vocabulary effectively.
D. How to make yourself comfortable in the classroom.

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Reading is the key to school success and, like any skill, it takes practice. A child learns to walk by practising until he no longer has to think about how to put one foot in front of the other. A great athlete practises until he can play quickly, accurately, without thinking. Tennis players call that ”being in the zone.” Educators call it “automaticity”.
A child learns to read by sounding out the letters and decoding the words. With practice, he stumbles less and less, reading by the phrase. With automaticity, he doesn’t have to think about decoding the words, so he can concentrate on the meaning of the text.
It can begin as early as first grade. In a recent study of children in Illinois Schools, Alan Rossman of Northwestern University found automatic readers in the first grade who were reading almost three times as fast as the other children and scoring twice as high on comprehension tests. At fifth grade, the automatic readers were reading twice as fast as the others, and still outscoring them on accuracy, comprehension and vocabulary.
“It’s not I.Q. but the amount of time a child spends reading that is the key to automaticity,” according to Rossman. Any child who spends at least 3.5 to 4 hours a week reading books, magazines or newspapers will in all likelihood reach automaticity. At home, where the average child spends 25 hours a week watching television, it can happen by turning off the set just one night in favor of reading.
You can test your child by giving him a paragraph or two to read aloud—something unfamiliar but appropriate to his age. If he reads aloud with expressions, with a sense of the meaning of the sentences, he probably is an automatic reader. If he reads haltingly, one word at a time, without expression or meaning, he needs more practice.
13．The first paragraph tells us            .
A．what automaticity is                    B．how accuracy is acquired
C．how a child learns to walk               D．how an athlete is trained
14．The Illinois study shows that the automatic reader’s high speed         .
A．costs him a lot of work            B．affects his comprehension
C．leads to his future success         D．doesn’t affect his comprehension
15．A bright child         .
A．also needs practice to be an automatic reader
B．always achieves great success in comprehension tests
C．becomes an automatic reader after learning how to read
D．is a born automatic reader
16．The main idea of the passage is           .
A．how to score high on comprehension tests
B．reading is the key to school success
C．how to test your child’s reading ability
D．automaticity is important for efficient reading

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Faces, like fingerprints, are unique. Did you ever wonder how it is possible for us to recognize people? Even a skilled writer probably could not describe all the features that make one face different from another. Yet a very young child --- or even an animal, such as a pigeon --- can learn to recognize faces. We all take this ability for granted. We also tell people apart by how they behave. When we talk about someone’s personality, we mean the ways in which he or she acts, speaks, thinks and feels that make that individual different from others.
Like the human face, human personality is very complex. But describing someone’s personality in words is somewhat easier than describing his face. If you were asked to describe what a nice face looked like, you probably would have a difficult time doing so. But if you w

ere asked to describe a nice person, you might begin to think about someone who was kind, considerate, friendly, warm, and so forth.
There are many words to describe how a person thinks, feels and acts. Gordon, an American psychologist, found nearly 18,000 English words characterizing differences in people’s behavior. And many of us use this information as a basis for describing, or typing his personality.
Bookworms, conservatives（保守派）, military（军人或军事的）types --- people are described with such terms. People have always tried to type each other. Actors in early Greek drama wore masks to show the audience whether they played the villain’s or the hero’s role. In fact, the words “person” and “personality” come from the Latin persona, meaning mask. Today, most television and movie actors do not wear masks. But we can easily tell the good guys from the bad guys because the two types differ in appearance as well as in actions.
6.The passage tells the readers ______.
A. how to describe people’s faces
B. how to describe p

eople’s personality
C. how to differ good persons from bad ones
D. how to describe people both inward and outward
7. What is the possible role of the writer?
A. Psychologist B. Behaviorist C. Writer D. Sociologist
8. Which of the following is incorrect?
A. Different people may have different personalities.
B. People differ from each in appearance.
C. People can describe all the features of others.
D. People can learn to recognize faces.
9. It is easier to describe a person’s personality in words than his face because ______.
A. a person’s face is more complex than his personality
B. a person’s personality is easily distinguished
C. people’s personalities are very alike
D. many words are available when people try to describe one’s personality
10. People classify a person into certain type according to ______.
A. his way of acting and thinking
B. his way of speaking and behaving
C. his learning and behavior
D. his physical appearance and his personality

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People and the sources of air pollution are found in the same places. This means that cities with large populations have the biggest problem of dirty air. Air pollution is caused by many different things. A major source of air pollution is the gas fumes from cars. Statistics show that 93 percent of all auto trips are within cities. Another major source of dirty air is the burning of coal and oil for energy. This energy is needed to make electricity. Of course, much more electricity is used in the city than in the country.
On the average, we throw away more trash and garbage than the year before. The burning of garbage contributes to air pollution. Many major industries are also responsible for the dirty air in the around cities. The fumes from iron, steel, chemical, and petroleum production add particles to the air.
The effects of air pollution range from mild headaches to death. The levels of pollution found in heavy for traffic may cause headaches for loss of clear vision. Wherever coal and oil are used for fuel, fumes may kill trees and plants and cause metal to corrode. In some of the larger cities, these fumes endanger the live of human beings by contributing to lung diseases and causing early death.
15．The key point of the passage is that _________.
A. the cause of air pollution is people
B. the causes and the effects of air pollution are both found in cities
C. the effects of air pollution range from headaches to death
D. air pollution is caused by dirty air
16．What is the purpose of this passage?
A. to persuade people to stop polluting the air
B. to tell the causes of air pollution
C. to tell why cities are bad places to live
D. to describe why cities are bad places to live
17. Why is air pollution more grave in the city than in the country?
A. Because there larger populations in cities.
B. Because the air in the city is dirty.
C. Because there are more cars in the city.
D. Because there are much more gas fumes from cars and burning of coal and oil for energy
in the city than in the country.
18．The fumes from coal and oil may cause metal ______.
A. to turn black                              B. to become rusty
C. to corrode                            D. to twist
19. In larger cities, the fumes from coal and oil may contribute to ___________.
A. heart disease                      B. lung diseases
C. loss of clear vision              D. serious headache

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