Several recent studies have found that being randomly (随机地) assigned to a roommate of another race can lead to increased tolerance but also to a greater likelihood (可能性)of conflict.
Recent reports found that lodging with a student of a different race may decrease prejudice and force students to engage in more ethnically diverse friendships.
An Ohio State University study also found that black students living with a white roommate saw higher academic success throughout their college careers. Researchers believe this may be caused by social pressure.
In a New York Times article, Sam Boakye – the only black student on his freshman year floor -said that "if you're surrounded by whites, you have something to prove."
Researchers also observed problems resulting from pairing interracial students in residences.
According to two recent studies, randomly assigned roommates of different races are more likely to experience conflicts so strained that one roommate will move out.
An Indiana University study found that interracial roommates were three times as likely as two white roommates to no longer live together by the end of the semester.
Grace Kao, a professor at Penn said she was not surprised by the findings. "This may be the first time that some of these students have interacted, and lived, with someone of a different race," she said.
At Penn, students are not asked to indicate race when applying for housing.
"One of the great things about freshman housing is that, with some exceptions, the process throws you together randomly," said Undergraduate Assembly chairman Alec Webley. "This is the definition of integration."
"I've experienced roommate conflicts between interracial students that have both broken down stereotypes(模式化形象) and strengthened stereotypes," said one Penn resident advisor (RA). The RA of two years added that while some conflicts "provided more multicultural acceptance and melding (融合)," there were also "jarring cultural resistance."
The RA said that these conflicts have also occurred among roommates of the same race.
Kao said she cautions against forming any generalizations based on any one of the studies, noting that more background characteristics of the students need to be studied and explained.
1.What can we learn from some recent studies?
A．Conflicts between students of different races are unavoidable.
B．Interracial lodging may have diverse outcomes.
C．Students of different races are prejudiced against each other.
D．Interracial lodging does more harm than good.
2.What does the Indiana University study show?
A．Few white students like sharing a room with a black peer.
B．Roommates of different races just don't get along.
C．Interracial roommates are more likely to fall out.
D．Assigning students' lodging randomly is not a good policy.
3.What does Alec Webley consider to be the "definition of integration"?
A．The school randomly assigns roommates without regard to race.
B．Students of different races are required to share a room.
C．Interracial lodging is arranged by the school for freshmen.
D．Lodging is assigned to students of different races without exception.
4.What can be inferred from Grace Kao’s saying about interracial lodging?
A．Schools should be cautious when making decisions about student lodging.
B．Students' racial background should be considered before lodging is assigned.
C．Experienced resident advisors should be assigned to handle the problems.
D．It is unscientific to make generalizations about it without further study.
As the railroads and the highways shaped the American West in the past centuries, a new electrical generating(发电)and transmission (输送) system for the 21st century will leave a lasting mark on the West, for better or worse. Much of the real significance of railroads and highways is not in their direct physical effect on the scenery, but in the ways that they affect the surrounding community. The same is true of big solar plants and the power lines that will be laid down to move electricity around.
The 19 th century saw land grants(政府拨地) offered to railroad companies to build the transcontinental railroads, leaving public land in between privately owned land. In much of the West, some of the railroad sections were developed while others remained undeveloped, and in both cases the landownership has presented unique challenges to land management. With the completion of the interstate highway system, many of the small towns, which sprang up as railway stops and developed well, have lost their lifeblood and died.
Big solar plants and their power lines will also have effects far beyond their direct footprint in the West. This is not an argument against building them. We need alternative energy badly, and to really take advantage of it we need to be able to move electricity around far more readily than we can now.
So trade-offs will have to be made. Some scenic spots will be sacrificed. Some species(物种) will be forced to move, or will be carefully moved to special accommodations. Deals will be struck to reduce the immediate effects.
The lasting effects of these trade-offs are another matter. The 21st century development of the American West as an ideal place for alternative energy is going to throw off a lot of power and money in the region. There are chances for that power and money to do a lot of good. But it is just as likely that they will be spent wastefully and will leave new problems behind, just like the railroads and the highways.
The money set aside in negotiated trade-offs and the institutions that control it will shape the West far beyond the immediate footprint of power plants and transmission lines. So let’s remember the effects of the railroads and the highways as we construct these new power plants in the West.
1.What was the problem caused by the construction of the railways?
A．Small towns along the railways became abandoned.
B．Land in the West was hard to manage.
C．Some railroad stops remained underused.
D．Land grants went into private hands.
2.What is the major concern in the development of alternative energy according to the last two paragraphs?
A．The use of money and power.
B．The transmission of power.
C．The conservation of solar energy.
D．The selection of an ideal place.
3.What is the author’s attitude towards building solar plants?
A．Disapproving. B．Approving. C．Doubtful. D．Cautious.
4.Which is the best title for the passage?
A．How the Railways Have Affected the West
B．How the Effects of Power Plants Can Be Reduced
C．How Solar Energy Could Reshape the West
D．How the Problems of the Highways Have Been Settled
You never see him, but they're with you every time you fly. They record where you are going, how fast you're traveling and whether everything on your airplane is functioning normally. Their ability to endure almost any disaster makes them seem like something out of a comic book. They're known as the black box.
When planes fall from the sky, as a Yemeni airliner did on its way to Comoros Islands in the India ocean on June 30, 2009, the black box is the best bet for identifying what went wrong. So when a French submarine (潜水艇) detected the box's homing signal five days later, the discovery marked a huge step toward determining the cause of a tragedy in which 152 passengers were killed.
In 1958, Australian scientist David Warren developed a flight-memory recorder that would track basic information like altitude and direction. That was the first mode for a black box, which became a requirement on all U.S. commercial flights by 1960. Early models often failed to withstand crashes, however, so in 1965 the box was completely redesigned and moved to the rear of the plane – the area least subject to impact – from its original position in the landing wells (起落架舱). The same year, the Federal Aviation Authority required that the boxes, which were never actually black, be painted orange or yellow to aid visibility.
Modern airplanes have two black boxes: a voice recorder, which tracks pilots' conversations, and a flight-data recorder, which monitors fuel levels, engine noises and other operating functions that help investigators reconstruct the aircraft's final moments. Placed in an insulated (隔绝的) case and surrounded by a quarter-inch-thick panels of stainless steel, the boxes can stand massive force and temperatures up to 2,000℉. When submerged, they're also able to emit signals from depths of 20,000 ft. Experts believe the boxes from Air France Flight 447, which crashed near Brazil on June 1,2009, are in water nearly that deep, but statistics say they're still likely to turn up. In the approximately 20 deep-sea crashes over the past 30 years, only one plane's black boxes were never recovered.
1.What does the author say about the black box?
A．It is an indispensable device on an airplane.
B．The idea for its design comes from a comic book.
C．Its ability to avoid disasters is incredible.
D．It ensures the normal functioning of an airplane.
2.What does the underlined word in the 3rd paragraph mean?
A．witness B．experience C．resist D．ensure
3.Why was the black box redesigned in 1965?
A．New materials became available by that time
B．Too much space was needed for its installation.
C．The early models didn't provide the needed data.
D．The early models often got damaged in the crash.
4.What do we know about the black boxes from Air France Flight 447?
A．There is an urgent need for them to be reconstructed.
B．There is still a good chance of their being recovered.
C．They have stopped sending homing signals.
D．They were destroyed somewhere near Brazil.
This Teaching Assistant Level 3 course is designed for people who either are, or wish to become a teaching assistant. Teaching assistants carry out their tasks under the direction of the class teacher. This is a fully supported home study course, and the help is available whenever you need it --- either online or over the phone. There is a huge demand for teaching assistants around the country but also many thousands of applicants for these positions. Having this Teaching Assistant Level 3 qualification will help you stand out from other applicants. Our Level 3 Teaching Assistant course is similar to the NVQ (National Vocational Qualification) Level 3 because it is an equivalent (同等的) level of learning.
The teaching assistant is able to contribute in four main areas:
Supporting the teacher
Supporting the pupil
Supporting the school
Supporting the curriculum
The salary a teaching assistant is expected to earn a year:
London fringe (外围):￡16,856 - ￡26,052
Outer London: ￡18,789 - ￡27,992
Inner London: ￡19,893 - ￡29,088
Rest of England and Wales: ￡15,817 - ￡25,016
The fee and the time of enrolment (入学)
Enroll for only a ￡35 deposit. Teaching Assistant Level 3 is only ￡345. To help you on your way towards achieving your qualification, we are offering all of our potential students a ￡115 reduction in their enrolment fees for June. The normal fee for this course is ￡460 but for this month it has been reduced to only ￡345. There has never been a better time to start learning and take that first step towards a brighter future!
100% money back guarantee, if you are not satisfied. That’s why we’ll happily give you your money back on any course returned within 7 days. It’s easy for you to enroll now by telephone 01223 923 913. You can get free friendly help and advice from 9:00 am to 4:00 pm, on Monday to Friday. Call 01223 923 915.
1.How can people study this Teaching Assistant Level 3 course?
A．Go to the night school.
B．Go to the full-time school.
C．Study at home at any time.
D．Study at weekends or vacations.
2.What’s the teaching assistant’s task?
A．Listening to the teacher’s lecture all the time.
B．Only helping teachers prepare their lessons.
C．Helping promote effective learning and teaching.
D．Often giving lessons in place of the formal teacher.
3.If a teacher assistant earns ￡28,000 a year , he probably works in ______.
A．downtown Wales B．the fringe of London
C．outer London D．downtown London
4.How much should you pay in June if you have paid the deposit?
A．￡35 B．￡310 C．￡345 D．￡460
It's not a new phenomenon, but have you noticed how many nouns are being used as verbs? We all use them, often without noticing what we're doing.
I was arranging to meet someone for dinner last week, and I said “I’ll pencil it in my diary”, and my friend said “You can ink it in”, meaning that it was a firm arrangement not a tentative one!
Many of these new verbs are linked to new technology. An obvious example is the word fax. We all got used to sending and receiving faxes, and then soon started talking about faxing something and promising we'd fax it immediately. Then along came email, and we were soon all emailing each other madly. How did we do without it? I can hardly imagine life without my daily emails.
Email reminds me, of course, of my computer and its software, which has produced another couple of new verbs. On my computer I can bookmark those pages from the World Wide Web that I think I'll want to look at again, thus saving all the effort of remembering their addresses and calling them up from scratch. I can do the same thing on my PC, but there I don't bookmark; I favorite—coming from “favorite pages”, so the verb comes from an adjective not a noun.
Now my children bought me a mobile phone, known simply as a mobile and I had to learn yet more new verbs. I can message someone, that is, I can leave a message for them on their phone. Or I can text them, write a few words suggesting when and where to meet, for example. How long will it be before I can mobile them, that is, phone them using my mobile? I haven’t heard that verb yet, but I’m sure I will soon. Perhaps I’ll start using it myself!
1.“I’ll pencil it in my diary” in the second paragraph probably means .
A．it was a firm arrangement
B．he prefers a pencil to a pen
C．the arrangement should be written as a diary
D．it was an uncertain arrangement
2.A website address can be easily found if it has been______.
A．favorited B．messaged C．emailed D．texted
3.Which of the following has not been used as a verb yet?
A．message B．mobile C．email D．page
4.The best title for this passage is____.
A．Technology and Language.
B．Development of the English language
C．New Technology and New words
D．New Verbs from Nouns
This is a part from US President Barack Obama’s speech on May 14 at Bamard College in New York.
… My last piece of advice – this is simple, but perhaps most important: 36. Nothing worthwhile is easy. No one of achievement has avoided failure – sometimes catastrophic failures. But they keep at it. They learn from mistakes. They don’t 37.
When I first arrived on this 38, I was with little money, fewer options. But it was here that I tried to find my place in this world. I knew I wanted to make a difference, but it was 39 how in fact I’d go about it. But I wanted to do my part to 40 a better world.
So even as I worked after graduation in a few 41 jobs here in New York, even as I went from motley (鱼龙混杂的)apartment to motley apartment, I 42.
… And I wish I could say that this perseverance came from some innate (天生的)toughness in me. But the truth is, it was 43. I got it from 44 the people who raised me. I grew up as the son of a single mom who struggled to put herself through 45 and make ends meet. She had a marriage that fell apart; 46 went on food stamps at one point to help us 47. But she didn’t quit. And she earned her degree, and made sure that 48 scholarships and hard work, my sister and I earned 49.
And 50, I met a woman who was assigned to advise me on my first summer job at a law firm. And she gave me such good advice that I married her. And Michelle and I gave everything we had to balance our careers and a 51 family. We made that marriage work.
… So 52 it’s starting a business, or running for office, or 53 an amazing family, remember that making your 54 on the world is hard. It takes patience. It takes commitment. It comes with plenty of 55 and it comes with plenty of failures.
1. A．compete B．persevere C．struggle D．preservation
2. A．rest B．decline C．quit D．regret
3. A．campus B．downtown C．farm D．country
4. A．confident B．uncertain C．ambitious D．proud
5. A．shape B．instruct C．organize D．lead
6. A．amazing B．disturbing C．meaningful D．unsatisfactory
7. A．reached out B．put out C．gave out D．made out
8. A．presented B．structured C．learned D．created
9. A．copying B．detecting C．persuading D．watching
10. A．life B．work C．school D．business
11. A．yet B．even C．still D．also
12. A．get by B．come by C．get along D．come along
13. A．during B．through C．across D．over
14. A．mine B．us C．ours D．hers
15. A．for the time being B．long before C．up to now D．later on
16. A．young B．poor C．weak D．strong
17. A．as if B．if C．whether D．unless
18. A．rising B．raising C．arousing D．arising
19. A．view B．stay C．remark D．mark
20. A．goals B．advantages C．shortcomings D．setbacks
