We are all interested in equality, but while some people try to protect the school and examination system in the name of equality, others, still 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 tests or examination 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 examinations or in any controls in schools or on teachers. This would mean that everything would depend on luck since every pupil would depend on the efficiency， the values and the purpose of each teacher.
Without examinations, employers will look for employees from the 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 school can show certificates to prove he or she is suitable for a job, while the lack of certificate indicates the unsuitability of a dull child attending a well-respected school. This defense of excellence and opportunity would disappear if examinations were taken away, and the bright child from a poor family would be a prisoner of his or her school’s reputation, unable to compete for employment with the child from the favored school.
The opponents（反对者） 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.
1.The word “favoritism” in paragraph 3 is used to describe the phenomenon that .
A．bright children also need certificates to get satisfying jobs.
B．poor children with certificates are favoured in job markets.
C．children from well-respected schools tend to have good jobs.
D．children attending ordinary schools achieve great success.
2.What would happen if examinations were taken away according to the author?
A．Schools for bright children would lose their reputation.
B．There would be more opportunities and excellence.
C．Children from poor families would be able to change their schools.
D．Children’s job opportunity would be affected by their school reputation.
3.The opponents of the examination system will agree that .
A．jobs should not be assigned by systematic se lection
B．computers should be selected to take over many jobs.
C．special classes are necessary to keep the school standards
D．schools with academic subjects should be done aw ay with
4.The passage mainly focuses on .
A．schools and certificates
B．examination and equality
C．opportunity and employment
D．standards and reputation
Sydney—A shark savaged a schoolboy's leg while he was surfing with his father at a beach in Sydney on February 23．It was the third shark attack along the coast of Australia's largest city in a month．
The 15-year-old boy and his father were in the water off Avalon, on Sydney's northern beaches, around dawn when he was attacked．The city's beaches are packed with locals and tourists during the summer months．
"The father heard a scream and turned to see his son trashing （扭动） about in the water," police said．"Fortunately, the shark swam away and the boy was helped to shore by his father．
Lifesaving Club spokesman Nick Miller: "It got him around the top of his left leg and the father came and dragged him out of water．" He said the boy was bleeding heavily when he was brought to shore．"There was a lot of pain, as you can imagine"．The teenager was airlifted to hospital for treatment for leg injuries．
Police said the bites" cut through to the bone" , but the boy did not appear to have sustained any fractures （骨折）．He was in a stable condition now．
Several beaches were closed after the attack．Water police and lifeguards were searching for the shark, while police hoped to identify its species by the shape of the bite marks．But they said it was too early to say what type of shark attacked the boy．"I don't even know if he saw it," Miller said．
Many shark species live in the waters off Sydney's beaches, but attacks on humans are still relatively rare．However, there were two attacks on successive days earlier this month, one on a navy diver in Sydney harbor, not far from the famous Opera House, and the other on a surfer at the city's world-famous Bondi beach．
Fishermen say shark numbers are on the rise．There is a ban on commercial fishing in the harbor, which has increased fish stocks．Marine experts also claim environmental protection has created a cleaner environment, attracting sharks closer to shore as they chase fish．Many shark species, including the Great White—the man-eater made famous in Steven Spielberg's Jaws—are protected in Australian waters．
1.The report mainly tells us _______．
A．shark attacks on humans are on the rise
B．sharks attacked humans three times in one month
C．a boy was attacked by a shark at a Sydney beach
D．shark numbers are increasing in the waters off Sydney's beaches
2.The underlined word" savaged "in the first paragraph probably means _______．
A．attracted B．dragged
C．bit D．packed
3.What do we know about the city of Sydney from the passage?
A．It is one of the largest cities in Australia．
B．Sydney harbor is not far from the famous Opera House．
C．There are many locals and tourists on its coast all year round．
D．There are few shark species in the waters off Sydney's beaches．
4.All the followings are the causes of Australia's sharks increasing EXCEPT that_______．
A．environmental protection has created a cleaner environment
B．a ban on commercial fishing has increased fish numbers
C．many shark species are protected in Australia waters
D．the film Jaws made the Great White famous
People have wondered for a long time how their personalities and behavior are formed. It is not easy to explain why one person is intelligent and another is not, or why one is cooperative and another is competitive.
Social scientists are of course extremely interested in these types of questions. They want to explain why we possess certain characteristics and exhibit certain behavior. There are no clear answers yet, but two distinct schools of thought on the matter have developed. As one might expect, the two approaches are very different from each other, and there is a great deal of debate between proponents of each theory. The controversy is often conveniently referred to as “nature and nurture”．
Those who support the “nature” side of the conflict believe that our personalities and behavior patterns are largely determined by biological factors. That our environment has little, if anything, to do with our abilities, characteristics and behavior is central to this theory. Taken to an extreme，this theory states that our behavior is predetermined to such a great degree that we are almost completely governed by our instincts(本能)．
Proponents of the “nurture” theory, or, as they are often called, behaviorists, claim that our environment is more important than our biologically based instincts in determining how we will act. A behaviorist, B. F. Skinner, sees humans as beings whose behavior is almost completely shaped by their surroundings. The behaviorists' view of the human being is quite mechanistic. They state that, like machines, humans respond to environmental stimuli (刺激) as the basis of their behavior.
Socially and politically, the consequences of these two theories are far-reaching. In the US，for example, blacks often score below whites on standardized intelligence tests. This leads some “nature” proponents to conclude that blacks are genetically lower in status than whites. Behaviorists, on the contrary, say that the differences in scores are due to the fact that blacks are often robbed of many of the educational and other environmental advantages that whites enjoy, and that, as a result, they do not develop the same responses that whites do.
Neither of these theories can yet fully explain human behavior. In fact, it is quite likely that the key to our behavior lies somewhere between these two extremes and that the controversy will continue for a long time is certain.
1.This passage is mainly concerned with ________.
A. relation between personality and behavior
B. relation between behavior and environment
C. different accounts of patterns of human behavior
D. different theories of the formation of human behavior
2.The underlined word “proponents” in Paragraph 2 means ________.
A. creators B. advisors
C. advocates D. judges
3.In Paragraph 5, the author mainly writes about ________.
A. the considerable influence of the two theories
B. differences between the blacks and whites
C. racial discrimination in the United States
D. different responds to intelligence tests
4.What's the author's purpose in writing the passage?
A. To call our attention to the changes of human behavior.
B. To urge scientists to do more research in social science.
C. To give us a detailed explanation of human behavior.
D. To present an argument in the field of social science.
When my husband and I got married, he worked as a mechanic (机修工) from midnight to 8 a．m. However, I worked during the __ . So as he came home from work each morning, I was getting ready to _ _.
We had very little __ then, so when Valentine's Day came around that first year, I knew we couldn't ___ _ anything for each other. After he left to go to work the night before Valentine's Day, I decided to ___ _ and make a Valentine's Day card for him. I ___ wrote a poem on the front of the card. When he came home the next __ _， I felt foolish as I handed him the card, ___ _ that he wouldn't laugh at it. When he had finished ___ _ it, he slowly raised his head and looked at me. Then he reached down into his pocket. When he pulled his ___ _ out, he was holding __ .
He told me that he had _32_ it for me during his lunch hour, but he had been ___ _ to give it to me because he thought I might think it was ___ _， and that I might laugh at it.
It was a small heart made out of aluminum (铝). ___ _ I had stayed up all night making him a valentine card, he had been cutting out a __ _ for me. I still have the aluminum heart, and I ___ it in my desk. Every time I see it, all those ___ _ come flooding back to me. Over the years, we've been able to buy each other very nice, __ presents for Valentine's Day. But none has ever been as dear or ___ _ as much as those handmade gifts made from our hearts the first year that we were married.
1.A. day B. night C. weekend D. holiday
2.A. cook B. leave C. rest D. help
3.A. time B. chance C. money D. energy
4.A. buy B. choose C. find D. borrow
5.A. look out B. call back C. slow down D. stay up
6.A. still B. only C. even D. again
7.A. morning B. noon C. afternoon D. evening
8.A. imagining B. hoping C. guessing D. noticing
9.A. studying B. reading C. examining D. playing
10.A. hand B. foot C. arm D. leg
11.A. everything B. anything C. nothing D. something
12.A. written B. drawn C. made D. invented
13.A. surprised B. happy C. angry D. afraid
14.A. wrong B. difficult C. dangerous D. silly
15.A. Before B. Though C. While D. If
16.A. heart B. card C. toy D. book
17.A. change B. keep C. cut D. divide
18.A. problems B. pains C. memories D. choices
19.A. strange B. special C. expensive D. satisfying
20.A. meant B. proved C. influenced D. explained
_____ time, the teacher had us do half of the exercises in class and complete the other half for our homework.
A. To saveB. Save
C. SavingD. Having saved
Anyone ______ trying to take knives on board flights would be caught by the police.
A. findsB. being found
C. foundD. will find
