LONDON, Feb. 18，2014（Xinhua News agency）—Britain will send experts to East China's Shanghai to learn from the city's experience in maths teaching in an attempt to raise the teaching standards.
British Education Minister Elizabeth Truss is to lead a delegation of experts on a fact-finding mission to Shanghai's schools next week to see how children there have become the best in the world at maths, to get a first-hand look at maths classes and teaching methods there, and particularly to investigate why the performance of almost all children in Shanghai is high, regardless of gender or income.
Britain was last year placed 50th out of 148 countries and regions in the World Economic Forum's competitiveness ranking in quality of maths and science education. Two years ago, Shanghai topped the 2012 international PISA tables for maths, while England was ranked in 26th place. The top five were all in Southeast Asia, with 15-year-olds in Shanghai judged to be three years ahead of their peers in maths.
The education department said: "England's performance in maths has lagged behind while other countries have improved and overtaken us, including Poland and Germany." Actually, it is the latest step in the government's drive to raise standards in maths, looking at what has made schools in the far East the most successful in the world in teaching the subject.
"Shanghai is the top-performing part of the world for maths—their children are streets ahead. Shanghai and Singapore have teaching practices and a positive mind that make the difference. They have a belief that diligence makes up for lack of ability," Truss said. "Our new curriculum has borrowed from theirs because we know it works—early learning of key arithmetic, and a focus on times tables and long division（长除法）, for instance."
She was determined to change the situation as performance in maths is weakening the country's skills base and threatening the productivity and growth. The government is emphasizing maths because of the importance of good grades in the subject to young people competing for good jobs in a global labor market and to the economy more generally.
An education and skills survey released by the Confederation of British Industry last year showed that 30 percent of employers reported dissatisfaction with the standard of school and college leavers' numeracy. More than two-thirds of employers said they wanted both maths and science promoted more in schools.
1.Why does the British government send a delegation of experts to Shanghai?
A. To see how children from rich families have become the best at maths.
B. To investigate why the performance of almost all children in China is high.
C. To get a first-hand look at science classes and teaching methods there.
D. To raise the teaching standards in maths in Britain.
2.Which of the following statements is true according to the two international competition results?
A. British students performed better in 2013 than in 2012.
B. British students did better than the students from Poland in 2013.
C. The students from Singapore did better than the students from Germany.
D. The students from Germany did better than the students from Poland.
3.What has made schools in Shanghai the most successful in teaching maths in the eye of Truss?
A. Curriculum and teaching methods.
B. Teaching practices and a positive mind.
C. Early learning of key arithmetic and times tables.
D. A focus on times tables and long division.
4.How will students’ poor performance in maths affect the country?
A. By threatening the country's competitiveness of economy.
B. By weakening the country's political system.
C. By losing international competitions in education.
D. By failing to find jobs in a global labor market.
5.What can we infer from the news?
A. The students in Britain don’t work hard at Maths.
B. The students in shanghai are the smartest in the world.
C. The education of science in Britain is no better than that of maths.
D. Most British citizens are dissatisfied with teachers’ work.
My six-year-old came home from school this week with two envelopes. One was for a donation to help people in the Philippines. The other was to help hungry families have a Thanksgiving meal.
“I’ll put a check in each of these. Then you can add your own money from your piggy bank, okay?” I said, thinking he’d be so excited to put his own stamp on things.
“That’s okay, mom. You put money in. I don’t want to waste mine,” he sweetly sang as he colored. “I want to fill my bank all the way up.”
Ack! I guess I know what our dinnertime discussion will be about tonight, I thought.
I had figured that through watching his parents donate items, helping us take toys from time to time to needy kids and putting money in the basket at church, he would just understand why it was important to help people in need — and even want to do it himself.
But of course he doesn’t really understand yet. “There’s a big disconnect between the people ‘over there’ and my piggy bank,” said parenting educator Vicki Hoefle.
“There’s nothing wrong with the child. There’s just no connection.”
As for having that conversation immediately, or forcing my son to put money into the envelopes: “Try not to do it now,” Hoefle said. Teaching a child about donating their own money or toys or time to people in need “should be a gentle introduction into what we hope will be a way of life for our kids.”
She suggested these things to help children understand the importance of giving:
* Just talk about it. Then explore the issue from a perspective he can understand.
* Use the course of a year to introduce kids to opportunities. That way, they won’t be shocked when you ask them to stuff their own money into an envelope （like this writer just did）.
* Pick a family charity for the year and have a conversation about how you all can help throughout the year.
* Think of this not as something you must teach, but as something to expose them to.
At her house, Hoefle said, “When you got something new, you gave something up.” Each birthday, her children would pick what toys they had outgrown and give them away. “There was a comfort in it. It just became a natural part of the kids’ lives.”
So I will fill those envelopes alone this time. But I’ll make sure he understands why they should be filled—gradually.
1.When the writer asked her son to give money to help the poor, he __________.
A. declined to donate
B. sang a sweet song
C. put all his money in a bank
D. seemed very surprised
2. Hoefle’s attitude towards children’s unwillingness to donate money can be best described as “___________”.
A. criticalB. tolerant
C. positiveD. worried
3.Which of the following is Hoefle’s approach to educating kids about charity?
A. Giving courses about charity.
B. Setting a rule for children to give.
C. Inviting a lot of poor people home.
D. Giving children enough real life chances.
4.What can we learn about the writer from the passage?
A. She often makes donations for people in need.
B. She taught her son a lesson over dinner that evening.
C. She is at a loss as for what she should do next.
D. She invited a parenting educator home for advice.
5.What is the best title of the passage?
A. Kids, please help those in need.
B. Why are kids unwilling to donate?
C. Kindness is lost in the young generation.
D. How can we help kids learn generosity?
A. New teachers’ opinions of involving parents
B. An argument over an assignment
C. A conflict between assumption and reality
D. Difficulties in sharing goals
E. The best way to score high
F. Proper ways of parental involvement
1. _______ An Iowa high school counselor gets a call from a parent protesting the “C” her child received on an assignment. “The parent argued every point in the essay,” recalls the counselor, who soon realized why the mother was so disappointed about the grade. “It became apparent that she’d written it. ”
2._______ In a survey, 90% of new teachers agreed that involving parents in their children’s education is a priority at their school, but only 25% described their experience working with parents as “very satisfying”. When asked to choose the biggest challenge they face, 31％ of them quoted involving parents and communicating with them as their top choice. 73％ of new teachers said too many parents treat schools and teachers as enemies.
3._______ At a time when competition is rising and resources are limited, when battles over testing force schools to adjust their priorities, when cell phones and e-mail speed up the information flow and all kinds of private ghosts and public quarrels slip into the parent-teacher conference, it’s harder for both sides to step back and breathe deeply and look at the goals they share.
4._______ Everyone says the parent-teacher conference should be pleasant, civilized, a kind of dialogue where parents and teachers build partnership. But what most teachers feel, and certainly what all parents feel, is anxiety and panic.
5._______ When a teacher asks parents to be partners, he or she doesn’t necessarily mean Mom or Dad should be camping in the classroom. Research shows that though students benefit modestly from having parents involved at school, what happens at home matters much more. According to research based on the National Education Longitudinal Study, a sample of nearly 25,000 eighth graders, among four main areas of parental involvement (home discussion, home supervision, school communication, and school participation), home discussion was the most strongly related.
It’s a sad and familiar voice that we often hear in big cities: “Can you spare some change?”
Usually, when faced with that particular , I have feelings of guilt if I pass by giving a coin or two.
I had that feeling in Venice while on a tour of Italy’s famous sites in 2006. I had taken refuge（躲避）from the in a quiet café. Outside, there was an old woman kneeling on the hard, ancient paving stones, .
Steady of tourists were walking past her. A young backpacker stood away from the crowd, drinking in the vistas（景观、景色）, but I noticed the young traveler was also the old woman.
A tourist group walked along the street, the woman and walked on. group of tourists arrived and walked past the old lady. The backpacker watched everybody else went on their way, focused on the around them. Then, I was preparing to leave when I caught sight of the backpacker stepping forward and some money in the woman’s cup. He did this somewhat just before the arrival of another tourist group. As I , the leader of the group stopped and put some money in the cup. Having been shown the way, other tourists followed suit and some more coins to the cup.
His work done, the young man walked over to the old beggar-woman, patted her on the shoulder and said, “I hope that a little.”
I don’t know if the woman understood his English or what had just happened, but I did.
I placed some money in the woman’s cup and continued my travels, after witnessing such a act of kindness.
1.A. soundB. questionC. excuseD. command
2.A. beyondB. afterC. withoutD. before
3.A. many timesB. some times C. only onceD. once again
4.A. crowdsB. familiesC. streetsD. signs
5.A. singingB. cryingC. beggingD. trembling
6.A. streamsB. packsC. massesD. groups
7.A. simplyB. seeminglyC. similarlyD. specially
8.A. showingB. followingC. checkingD. observing
9.A. glanced atB. laughed atC. rushed atD. stared at
10.A. OneB. MoreC. AnotherD. Other
11.A. ifB. sinceC. becauseD. as
12.A. stonesB. sightsC. signsD. tourists
13.A. lendingB. borrowingC. placingD. taking
14.A. accidentallyB. successfullyC. purposefullyD. cheerfully
15.A. watchedB. shownC. understoodD. walked
16.A. changedB. chargedC. foundD. added
17.A. measuresB. helpsC. explainsD. matters
18.A. recognizedB. caughtC. realizedD. figured
19.A. pleasantB. annoyedC. disappointedD. light-hearted
20.A. beautifulB. smartC. pureD. happy
—Do you think Catherine likes Fred?
—__________. They don’t seem to get on very well together.
A. It depends B. I hope so
C. I imagine not D. Sounds reasonable
—I had the computers repaired yesterday.
— How much did they _________ for that?
A. cost B. spend
C. take D. charge
