Directions: Read the following passage. Summarize in no more than 60 words the main idea of the passage and how it is illustrated. Use your own words as far as possible.
e-learning: Hazy past—better future?
How much of an effect does technology have on students’ learning? A significant one, it seems, according to experts. Currently available technologies, the most important of which are computers and the Internet, apparently provide a learning environment in which problem-solving and intellectual enquiry can flourish. The process of learning in the classroom may become significantly more effective as students can deal with information on the computer. Or so the theory goes. My own viewpoint is rather different, I’m afraid.
Computers have been around for two decades as part of school equipment. There are, of course, obstacles like costs to overcome, but it’s just a matter of time and effort. This is because schools have done what every organisation does when it sees an innovation—it applies the innovation to its existing model, which adds cost but doesn’t transform the standard classroom. We have, during that period, spent over $60 billion on them, but in my view they seem to have had little or no effect on learning in schools. Content is king and the mode of delivery is irrelevant. If a teacher makes the subject matter interesting, it does not matter what, if any, equipment is used.
However, change is on the horizon. I think student-centred learning will become the norm and transform education. Computers will pave the way for far more independent learning. Students who currently don’t have access to schools or teachers are now able to get online. They can study from home thanks to the fact that more learning programmes are being written for learners who are forced by their circumstances to be self-sufficient. This would prove especially beneficial in those areas of the world where quality education is limited or extremely expensive. Therefore, in a few years’ time we could have a completely different conversation about technology and its impact on learning.
Directions: Complete the following passage by using the sentences given below. Each sentence can be used only once. Note that there are two more sentences than you need.
One Dollar a Night in New York
When it comes to finding a place to stay for a night in New York, things don’t always come cheap.
However, artist Miao Jiaxin, a Shanghai native who moved to New York in 2006, is offering people the chance to stay in his apartment in Brooklyn. 1.
Guests can easily book Miao’s room on the Internet. Nevertheless, although they will be housed in his apartment, it appears to have more in common with a jail cell than a regular bedroom as a cage in the center of the room is where guests will stay.
2. Guests must stay in the cage for three hours each morning. “From 9 a.m. to 12 p.m., you can’t access the Internet, and there are no electronic devices, books, radio, pens or craftwork. You can’t talk to anybody. You can’t do Yoga or any other exercises. And you can’t even sleep,” writes Miao. If you break any of those rules above, you will be fined 100 dollars.
Meanwhile, the cage is monitored and recorded by two cameras and the activity of guests is filmed for the whole time they stay in the cell.
3. They can enjoy great views of New York on the roof deck outside the room.
The room is inspired by the alienation (疏离感) Miao felt as a new immigrant—feelings he believes are universal. “It’s not for fun. It’s for an experience. 4.” said Miao.
A.It’s too expensive for common people to afford.
B.Actually, Miao’s room is so popular that you have to book three months in advance.
C.It’s only one dollar a night.
D.Miao says that to live in his jail cell, people don’t have to be a criminal, but there are a number of rules that need to be followed.
E.More like a psychological New York City experience.
F.Despite the strict rules, guests are given a key to the cage to let themselves in and out as they please.
The goings-on in the consulting room have become more transparent(透明的）recently. Thank goodness. We know more than the lines supplied by the movies in which the therapist knows all and gives wisdom to those who, sitting on a couch, consult with them. Therapists are interested in how the individual, the couple or the family experiences and understands their difficulties. That has to be a starting place. We can be of value if our first port of call is to listen, to gradually feel ourselves into the shoes of the other, to absorb the feelings that are being conveyed and to think and then to say some words.
The thinking and talking that I do inside the consulting room is at odds with many features of ordinary conversation. Not that it is mysterious, but it isn't concerned with traditional ways of sharing or identifying. The therapist makes patterns and theories, but they are also reflecting on the words that are spoken, how they are delivered and how the words, once spoken, affect the speaker and the therapist themselves.
Words can give voice to previously unknown feelings and thoughts. That’s why it’s called the talking cure. But just as words reveal so, too, can they obscure, and this gets us to the listening and feeling part of the therapy. Whatever and however the words are delivered, they will have an impact on me as a therapist. I might feel hopeless, I might feel energized, I might feel pushed away, I might feel demanded of, I might feel pulled to find solutions.
The influence of the other is what makes any relationship possible or impossible. A therapist is trained to reflect on how those who consult with them affect them. As I try to step into the shoes of the other and then out again, my effort is to hold both those experiences, plus an awareness of my ease or discomfort with what I encounter in the relationship.
Feelings are the bread and butter of our work in the consulting room. They inform or modify our ideas and they enable us to find an emotional bridge to what can so hurt for the people we are working with. Along with the more commonly thought-about theories and ideas we have about the psyche, they are an essential part of the therapist's toolkit, certainly for me. The talking cure means talking, yes. It also means the therapist is listening, thinking and feeling.
1.In which way is the thinking and talking the writer does different from ordinary conversation?
A.It may not be understood by patients.
B.It is full of terms used by most therapists.
C.It is a good reflection of traditional talking.
D.It involves thinking about how people speak.
2.The word" obscure"(paragraph 3) is closest in meaning to________.
A.cancel B.clarify
C.confirm D.conceal
3.Which of the following is the writer most likely to agree with?
A.Patients' influence has been neglected by therapists for too long a time.
B.Therapists need to think from their own perspectives as well as patients'.
C.It is no easy job for therapists to realize how uncomfortable their patients are.
D.Therapists had better push away those negative emotions acquired from patients.
4.Which of the following might be the best title of the passage?
A.Awareness of feelings B.It’s good to talk—and listen
C.Theories that help therapists D.What is the point of being a therapist
GETTING A GRANT Who pays? The local education authority (LEA) for the area in which the student is living. Who can get this money? Anyone who gets a place on a first degree course, although a student who has already attended a course of advanced further education may not. Students must also have been resident in the UK for at least three years, which can exclude some students from overseas. |
SPECIAL CASES |
If a student has worked before going to college? A student who is 26 or more before the course starts and who has worked for at least three of the previous six years will get extra money – £155 a year if 26, increasing to a maximum of £615 at 29 or more. If a student is handicapped? LEAs will give up to £500 to help meet extra expenses – such as buying a tape recorder for a blind student, extra heating or special food. Banking? Most of the big banks offer special services to students who open accounts (in the hope that they will stay with the bank when they become rich officials). A student won’t usually have to pay bank charges as long as the account stays in credit. Some banks allow students to overdraw by £100 or so, and still don’t make charges (though they do charge interest). |
1.The phrase “a grant” in the first line most probably means _____.
A.bank interest B.a credit card
C.an education fee D.financial aid
2.A student from Japan who has been studying in England for a year and intends to go to college in a few months will _____.
A.be unable to get money from any LEA
B.get money if taking a first degree course
C.get money from LEA when finishing his course
D.have to open a bank account before getting money
3.A 31-year-old nurse wishes to qualify as a doctor at a university. She has worked since she was 25. How much extra money will she get a year?
A.None. B.£155. C.£615. D.£515.
Jane Austen was born in the English countryside more than 200 years ago. She lived a simple life. She seldom travelled. She never married and she died from illness when she was only 41.
However, people all over the world remember her. Why? It is because Jane Austen is the author of some of the best-loved novels in the English language. These novels include Emma, Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility and Persuasion.
Jane completed her last novel Persuasion in 1816, but it was not published until after her death. Persuasion is partly based on Jane’s naval brother.
Anne, the daughter of Sir Walter Elliot, falls in love with Captain Wentworth, a person of a lower social position. But she breaks off the engagement when persuaded by her friend Lady Russell that such a match is unworthy. The breakup produces in Anne a deep and long-lasting regret. Eight years later, Wentworth returns from sea a rich and successful captain. He finds Anne’s family on the edge of financial ruin. Anne and the captain rediscover their love and get married.
Jane Austen once compared her writing to painting on a little bit of ivory（象牙）, two inches square. Readers of Persuasion will see that neither her skill of delicate, ironic(讽刺的) observations on social custom, love, and marriage nor her ability to apply a sharp focus to English manners and morals has abandoned her in her final finished work.
Persuasion has produced three film adaptations: a 1995 version starring Amanda Root and Ciaran Hinds, a 2007 TV miniseries with Sally Hawkins and Rupert Penry-Jones, and a 1971 miniseries with Ann Firbank and Bryan Marshall.
People who are interested in Jane Austen can still visit many of the places she visited and lived. These places include the village of Steventon, although her family house is now gone. Many of the places Jane visited in Bath are still there. You can visit Jane Austen’s home in Chawton, where she did her best writing, and Winchester, where she died.
1.What is the theme of Persuasion?
A.Never regret what you’ve chosen.
B.True love lasts forever.
C.Be matched for marriage.
D.Love waits for no man.
2.Which of the following CANNOT describe Jane’s writing style?
A.Her application of symbolism.
B.Her delicate observations.
C.Her focus on manners and morals.
D.Her use of irony.
3.Which of the following about Jane Austen is TRUE?
A.Her family house is now in the village of Steventon.
B.Many of the places she visited in Bath are still available.
C.The latest film adaptation of Persuasion was produced in 1995.
D.Her last novel Persuasion is considered her most successful one.
4.The article mainly talks about _______.
A.Jane Austen’s unique writing style
B.the original residence of Jane Austen
C.Jane Austen’s last novel: Persuasion
D.the popularity of Jane Austen’s novels
You already know that colors can suggest a mood or attitude, but do you know that color is a ________ that can persuade us to buy things? According to some researches, color can be up to 85 percent of the reason we ________ to purchase something. Smart marketers know: Color ________!
“Right” colors make products “better”
Colors ________ how we feel about the food we eat. For example, orange juice with ________ orange color was preferred over naturally colored orange juice and was thought to be sweeter.
In the case of ________, color also plays a role. Have you ever noticed that pink is often used as the color of face creams? That’s for a good reason. In a research study, some women were given pink and white face creams, which were ________ except for their color. One hundred percent of the women said that the pink face creams were more effective and ________ on sensitive skin.
More colorful, more personalized
We need not only good quality products, but personalized ones. This urges manufacturers to make their products more and more “colorful”.
Take M&M’s Milk Chocolate Candies for example. Having a packet of M&M’s candies in ________, choosing which ones to eat first according to their colors -- many of us probably have had such experience.
A variety of colors is the ________ of the classic candies. Now they have come with even more custom colors that will be sure to “________ in your mouth, not in your hand!” Gold, silver, pink and many other colors are available to choose from. Eating such candies must be a ________ “sweet” experience.
Another successful color marketing example is Apple’s iPod. Does Apple have ________ MP3 technology? Maybe, but that’s not the point, marketing experts say. What makes the iPod so successful is “the ________ that makes it easy for people to express themselves through color choices.” The fourth generation of iPod Nano features nine colors -- pink, red, orange, yellow and so on. Color, as a personal statement, adds a touch of ________ to the MP3 player.
1.A.sign B.therapy C.tool D.phenomenon
2.A.decide B.cause C.refuse D.swear
3.A.advertises B.sells C.claims D.exclaims
4.A.reflect B.recall C.influence D.stimulate
5.A.improved B.developed C.strengthened D.addicted
6.A.fashion B.cosmetics C.physiology D.psychology
7.A.ideal B.smooth C.identical D.ripe
8.A.efficient B.influential C.practical D.milder
9.A.mind B.mouth C.hand D.pocket
10.A.signature B.taste C.innovation D.signal
11.A.swallow B.digest C.chew D.melt
12.A.specially B.particularly C.normally D.unusually
13.A.inferior B.superior C.priority D.supportive
14.A.design B.color C.content D.system
15.A.humanity B.popularity C.individuality D.activity
