We are all interested in equality，but while some people try to protect the schoo

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We are all interested in equality，but while some people try to protect the school and examination system in the name of equality，others，st

ill in the name of equality，want only to destroy it．
Any society which is interested in equality of opportunity and standards of achievement must regularly test its pupils．The standards may be changed—no examination is perfect--but to have no external(外部的)tests or examinations would mean the end of equality and of standards．There are groups of people who oppose this view and who do not believe either in external examinations or in any contr schools or on teachers.This would mean that everything would depend on luck every pupll would depend on the efficiency(效率)，the ideal and the purpose of teacher．
Without external examinations， employers will 1ook for employees from highly respected schools and from families known to them--a form of favoritism will replace equality．At the moment，the bright child from an ill—respected schoo1 can show certificates(证书)to prove he or she is suitable for a job，while the lack of a certificate shows the unsuitability of a dull child attanding a well—respected schoo1.This defence of excellence and opportunity would disappear if external examinations were taken away，and the bright child from a poor family would be a prisoner of his or her school’s fame(名誉)，unable to compete for employment with the child from the favored schoo1．
The opponents(对手)of the examination system suggest that examinations are an evil force because they show differences between pupils．According to these people，there must be no special，different，academic class． They have even suggested that there should be no form of difference in sport or any other area：all jobs or posts should be filled by unsystematic selection．The selection would be made by people who themselves are probably selected by some computer．
小题1: The word “favoritism” in paragraph 3 is used to decribe the phenomenon that _____.

A．bright children also need certificates to get satisfying jobs.

B．Pooor children with certificates are favored in job markets.

C．Children attending ordinary schools achieve great success.

D．children from well-respected schools tend to have good jobs.

小题2:What would happen if examinations were taken away according to the author?

A．Children’s job opportunity would be affected by their school reputation.

B．Schools for bright children would lose their reputation

C．There would be more opportunities and excellence.

D．Children from poor families would be able to change their schools.

小题3: The opponents of the examination sys

tem will agree that _____.

A．Computers should be selected to take over many jobs.

B．Special classed are necessary to keep the school standards.

C．Jobs should not be assigned by systematic selection.

D．Schools with academic subjects should be abolished.

小题4: The passage mainly focuses on ____.
A. schools and certificates B opportunity and employment
C. examinations and equality D. standards and reputation

答案

小题1:D小题1:A小题1:C小题1:C

解析

略

举一反三

Holidays
Holiday News
Vacations(空位) now and in the school holidays at a country hotel in Devon. This comfortable, friendly home-from-home lies near the beautiful quiet countryside, but just a drive away from the sea. The food is simple but good. Children and pets are welcome. Reduced prices for low season.
The Snowdonia Centre
The Snowdonia Centre for young mountain climbers has a mountain climbing lesson. The beginners’ costs are 57 for a week, including food and rooms. Equipment is included except walking shoes, which can be hired at a low cost.
You must be in good health and prepared to go through a period of body exercises. This could be the beginning of a lifetime of mountain climbing adventure.
The world Sea Trip of a Lifetime
Our World Sea Trip of 2008 will be unlike any holiday you have ever been on before. Instead of one hotel after another, with all its packing and unpacking, waiting and travelling, you just go to bed in one country and wake up in another.
On board the ship, you will be well taken care of . Every meal will be first-class and every cabin like your home.
During the trip, you can rest on deck(甲板)，enjoy yourself in the games rooms and in the evening dance to our musical team and watch our wonderful play.
You will visit all the places most people only dream about---from Acapulco and Hawaii to Tokyo and Hong Kong.
For a few thousand, all you’ve ever hoped for can be yours.
小题1:What can you do if you like to go on holidays with pets?

A．Choose the holiday in Devon.	B．Go to the Snowdonia Centre.
C．Join the World Sea Trip of 2008.	D．Visit Acapulco and Hawaii.

小题2:In what way is the Snowdonia Centre different from the other two holidays?

A．It provides chances of family gatherings.

B．It provides customers with good food.

C．It offers a sports lesson.

D．It offers comfortable rooms.

小题3:What is special about the World Sea Trip of 2008?

A．You can have free meals on deck every day.

B．You can sleep on a ship and tour many places.

C．You will have chances to watch and act i

n a play.

D．You have to do your own packing and unpacking.

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The bus is a usable form of transportat

ion all over the world because we can easily take it to go everywhere. Also, we do not need to worry about danger on a long-distance trip. Now, we have comfortable buses in London. I would like to describe how comfortable they are. First, the number of seats on a bus has been reduced from 44 to 19. The reason why the number of seats is now 19 is that the seats have been changed to big and comfortable sofas.
Originally, they chang

ed the normal seats to airplane seats and took out ten seats from the buses. However, every customer wanted to have a more comfortable seat on the bus when they went on long-distance trips, so they changed them to sofas. Also, the owners of the bus companies wanted to make more money, so they tr

ied to meet the passengers’ needs. They changed the airplane seats to sofas, so the number of seats is now 19.
As the new buses appear, the prices go up, too. The owners have many ideas, which you have probably never thought about before. Now they have bus attendants who serve water, snacks, newspapers, and towels.
Also, you can change the direction and the height of the sofa to make yourself more comfortable, and there is a service bell on each sofa. Moreover, some companies show movies on the buses. In addition, when you go on a long-distance trip, they have luxurious(豪华的) buses that have an LCD screen on each seat. That is not the only surprising thing on the bus. They also have different TV channels, movie channels, and seventy TV games for killing time while you are on the bus.
小题1:How many airplane seats did they put in a bus originally?

A．10 seats.

B．19 seats.

C．34 seats.

D．44 seats.

小题2: The direction and height of the sofas can be changed so that ______.
A. they can take up less space B. they can hold more people
C. passengers can feel more comfortable D

. passengers can watch a movie
小题3:If you are thirsty and want to have a drink while sitting in the bus, you’d better _____.

A．go to the front of the bus to get it	B．get off the bus to buy some by yourself
C．change the direction of the seat	D．ring the bell on your sofa

小题4:Though there are fewer seats on the buses, _____.

A．the bus can pick up as many passengers as before

B．the owners get more money by offering better service

C．the bus fare remains the same as before

D．the bus is as crowded as it was before

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In 2006, a large number of new Internet sites became popular around the world. Some of these are for communication, others for entertainment.
The blog is one form of communication that increased in popularity. Through these personal websites, people can share their lives, ideas and opinions on the Internet. People of all ages have their own blogs. For young people, they are a way to show their writing and other forms of self-expression. Blogs also connect people with other people who have the same interests. For example, teachers use blogs to share ideas with other teachers’, as well as experiences and concerns about their work.
YouTube is another Internet site that became more popular last year. This website lets anyone create, share and watch short videos. These include videos of people singing or dancing, or animals doing funny things. Three young men created YouTube almost two years ago as a personal video sharing service. They recently sold it to Google for more than one and a half billion dollars.
Games and entertainment also became a l

arger part of the Internet last year. One Internet social site is called Second Life. It is an online world in which computer u

sers create a new self and live a different life. They get married, build homes, operate businesses, buy and sell goods, work, play and attend school.
People also take part in fantasy sports leagues with the help of the Internet. A fantasy sport is a game in which each member of a group acts as the owner of a team. Each owner creates a team of real-life professional players to compete against other teams in the league. More than fifteen million American adults play fantasy sports. The industry earns more than one billion dollars each year from publications, memberships and other costs.
小题1:The passage is mainly about __________.

A．the most popular Internet technology in 2006

B．some new ways for people to communicate or have fun on the Internet

C．one online game called Second Life

D．the high price of playing online

小题2:Who is the owner of YouTube now?

A．Three young men.

B．Google.

C．Computer users.

D．Yahoo.

小题3: Whom does the underlined word “they” in Paragraph 4 refer to?

A．The people who are interested in blogs.

B．The people who play games on YouTube.

C．The people who play Second Life.

D．The people who are created in Second Life.

小题4: What do we know from the passage?

A．Teachers can share ideas, experiences and concerns about their work with other teachers on any website.

B．More than fifteen millio

n American teena

gers play fantasy sports.

C．Second Life helps people get married, buy and sell goods, work, play and attend school in real life.

D．Fantasy sports, a game in which each member of a group acts as the owner of a team, is very popular around the world.

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We produce 500 billion of plastic bags in a year worldwide and they are thrown away pollu

ting oceans, killing wildlife and getting dumped in landfills where they take up to 1,000 years to decompose. Researchers have been unsuccessfully looking for a solution.
The 16-year-old Canadian high school student, Daniel Burd, from Waterloo Collegiate Institute, has-discovered a way to make plastic bags degrade(降解) in as few as 3 months, a finding that won him first prize at the Canada Wide Science Fair, a ＄10,000 prize, a ＄20,000 scholarship, and a chance to revolutionize a major environmental issue.
Burd’s strategy was simple: Since plastic does eventually degrade, it must be eaten by microorganisms (微生物). If those microorganisms could be identified, we could put them to work eating the plastic much faster than under normal conditions.
With this goal in mind, he grounded plastic bags into a powder and concocted(调制) a solution of household chemicals, yeast(酵母) and tap water to encourage microbes growth. Then he added the plastic powder and let the microbes work their magic for 3 months. Finally, he tested the resulting bacterial culture on plastic bags, exposing one plastic sample to dead bacteria as a control. Sure enough, the plastic exposed to the live bacteria was 17% lighter than the control after six weeks.
The inputs are cheap, maintaining the required temperature takes little energy because microbes produce heat as they work, and the only outputs are water and tiny levels of carbon dioxide.
“Almost every week I have to do chores and when I open the closet door, I have piles of plastic bags falling on top of me. One day, I got tired of it and I wanted to know what other people are doing with these plastic bags. The answer: not much. So I decided to do something myself.” Said Daniel Burd.
小题1:Daniel Burd won first prize at the Canada Wide Science Fair because .

A．he found a new kind of microorganism

B．he contributed much to environmental protection

C．he found a way to degrad

e plastics in shorter time

D．he could encourage microbe growth in an easier way

小题2: Daniel Burd exposed one plastic sample to dead b

acteria to .

A．make the live bacteria work better	B．test how effective his method was
C．know which bacteria worked faster	D．control the temperature in the process

小题3:
Maintaining the required temperature takes little energy because .

A．plastics can get hot easily	B．microbes can produce heat themselves
C．much carbon dioxide is produced	D．the temperature can be controlled

小题4: Daniel Burd got his idea from .

A．his school textbook	B．the failure of researchers
C．his everyday work	D．the practice of other people

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Libraries everywhere in the world have always been people’s only access to important sources of information. This historical function of libraries has worked out for centuries and has made libraries a necessity to people. Now, that function has been called into question by the fast development of digital media over the past several decades. In order to continue to hold the public interest, libraries everywhere are forced to develop means of granting access to these expensive new services to average people.
In the past, the publishing industry maintained the rights of libraries to freely provide published materials on the condition that libraries bought so many of their books. Since the new

electronic publications can ea

sily be copied in their completeness by the library readers, the publishing industry is reconsidering its f

ormer support of the library system. There have even been attempts to stop libraries from delivering digital media.
In addition to the reluctant cooperation of the publishing industry, there is the problem that the newer forms of information are much more specialized than those which they replace. Deciding how to transfer already limited resources is increasingly difficult as there are more methods. While a single reference index(索引) might have covered an entire field in the past, now there are frequently several specialized indexes available in electronic form. Above all, in order to continue to make use of the newer technology, libraries must decide which kinds of material are most useful to the majority of their readers. There are many different solutions being applied, but only the process of trial and error will help find out the most effective method.
（Note: Answer the questions or complete the statements in NO MORE THAN 20 WORDS）
1. What has been called into question?
2. In the past, publishers cooperate with libraries because ______________.
3. The most important way to use the new technology is to determine ________
4. According to the passage, how can best solutions be found?

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