ON AUGUST 2nd Magdalena Luczak and her partner, Mariusz Krezolek, were jailed for life for the murder of her four-year-old son, Daniel. The pair starved him for months, locked him in a small unheated room, and left him there to die. As with the deaths of Victoria Climbié in 2000 and Peter Connelly in 2007, the boy’s fate has prompted questions about how the authorities missed the abuse (虐待). Attention has again focused on social workers. Recent years have seen numerous attempts to reform and revitalize the profession. In May, a new fast-track training programme, Frontline, was launched in the hope of improving things. It is inspired by Teach First, which sends bright graduates into tough schools for at least two years.
Participants will attend an intensive five-week summer school before taking on two years of closely supervised work in local-authority children’s services. If they measure up, they will qualify as social workers at the end of the first year and gain a master’s degree after the second. Funding will come from private donors, the Department for Education and local authorities. Recruitment(招募)for a pilot scheme, targeting leading universities, begins in September.
Its founders want to boost the status of this profession. “We are dealing with a crisis,” says Lord Adonis, chair of Frontline’s board. Both recruitment and keeping staying on the job are problems: the expected working life of a social worker is eight years, compared with 14 for nurses. Last year some local authorities reported that a third of their positions were unfilled.
Unsurprisingly, given the blame often heaped on the profession, ambitious graduates tend to steer clear. Of the 2,765 people who began master’s courses in social work in 2011, just five had completed undergraduate degrees at Oxford or Cambridge. And too many courses fail to give sufficient practical grounding in hard child-protection work. Frontline recruits will work in small teams with dedicated supervisors in council children’s services.
Reactions to the initiative have been mixed. Some in the profession are angry that it has been set up by outsiders. Boosters, such as Donald Forrester of Bedfordshire University, think the newcomers will bring in much-needed fresh thinking. Another worry is that the programme is too specialized and too short. Focusing just on children’s services is like training doctors only in pediatrics(儿科).
Teach First was set up on the basis that participants would teach first and then go on to other jobs. In fact, over half stay in education. There is no “first” at Frontline. At the end of their course, recruits will be offered the opportunity to pursue further professional training, or encouraged to move up the ranks. But Mr MacAlister hopes that many will stay. This year 9% of all final-year students from Oxbridge applied for Teach First. Frontline hopes to achieve a similar result for social work.
1.The author presents the topic of this article by ______.
A.giving cases of child abuse
B.urging us to care for children
C.attracting our attention to child abuse
D.showing concern for the abuse of children
2.Which of the following about social workers is true?
A.Their training lasts for 8 years.
B.They are prospective in the future.
C.They receive little practical grounding.
D.They should graduate from top universities.
3.The expression “steer clear” in the 5th paragraph means _____.
A.be involved B.stay away
C.touch on D.clear out
4.What is probably the best title of the passage?
A.A topic which starts heated debates.
B.An uncertain fate of a much-needed market.
C.A promising field with strong supporters.
D.An initiative to revive an unfavorable profession.
There are several ways of retelling “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory”. In 2005 Hollywood focused on Willy Wonka, the factory’s owner, portraying him as a purple-gloved man-child. A new musical production of Roald Dahl’s children’s story at the Theatre Royal in London concentrates on the up-from-poverty fortune of Charlie Bucket, the boy who finds the golden ticket.
Tales of upward social mobility attempted or achieved are crowding the London stage. “Billy Elliott”, the story of a miner’s son who strives with the death of family strikes to make it as a ballet dancer, recently celebrated its four-millionth visitor. “Port”, an account of a Stockport girl’s attempts to escape her depressing origins, was a success at the National Theatre this spring. Last year “In Basildon” described strivers in the typical upwardly-mobile Essex town.
It is a respectable theatrical (and literary) theme, but it is being handled in a different way. John Osborne’s 1956 play “Look Back in Anger” showed a working-class man’s anger at the middle class he had married into. By the 1970s and 1980s writers were looking down their noses at social climbers, in plays like “Top Girls” and “Abigail’s Party”, in which a middle-class arriviste (暴发户) serves inferior snacks and the wrong kind of wine.
Social mobility moved away as a topic for a while, as playwrights like David Hare turned to examine carefully the state of the nation. Now it has returned—and is described much more sympathetically. Dominic Cooke, who directed “In Basildon” at the Royal Court Theatre, says this may be a delayed reaction to the collapse of state socialism in Europe.
A possible reason for the sympathetic tone is that upward mobility can no longer be taken for granted. In 2011 researchers at the London School of Economics concluded that intergenerational social mobility, assessed by income for children born between 1970 and 2000, had suspended. Another study, by Essex University academics, found matters had not improved during the crisis.
So it is fantastic fun to see people make it. Charlie Bucket does so spectacularly(壮观地). At the end of “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” he is a pint-size entrepreneur(企业家), with an immigrant workforce of Oompa-Loompas to ensure he does not fall back down the social ladder.
1.What are the versions of “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” mentioned in the passage?
A.Magic and ballet. B.Movie and musical.
C.Drama and painting. D.Novel and documentary.
2.What does “It” in Paragraph 3 refer to?
A.The story of a miner's son.
B.The topic of upward social mobility.
C.An account of a Stockport girl's attempts.
D.A striver in the upwardly-mobile Essex town.
3.According to the author, ______ may attribute to(归因于) being classified as middle-class.
A.gaining by dishonest means
B.serving others what they like
C.being involved in social climbing
D.marrying the one sharing your background
4.How does the author feel about social mobility in reality?
A.Curious. B.Optimistic.
C.Pessimistic. D.Concerned.
Welcome to Iceland! I hope that your trip will be pleasant and that __________ will help you during your stay. It includes very important information you might find useful for your travel and we hope you will enjoy it.
Iceland is becoming a very popular place to visit all year round and we are not surprised. The country with its spectacular, unspoiled, fragile and raw nature, hot springs, icebergs and waterfalls is a feast for the eyes both during summer and winter. Our history and culture is young compared to most other countries. We speak our own language, Icelandic, which due to the country’s isolation in the past, has been very well preserved.
Driving in Iceland can be a bit different from many other countries. We do have a number of gravel roads, single lane bridges, narrow roads, rough mountain roads with unbridged rivers, animal stock near or on the road and weather conditions can change quickly. Therefore driving in Iceland needs your full care during your stay because we want you back safe and happy.
We kindly ask you to help us improve our quality by giving us feedback on how we are doing and what we can do better. Not less importantly, we ask you to help us preserve the Icelandic nature which can be very fragile. Off-road driving is strictly forbidden and please do not litter.
In case of trouble, accident or breakdown please don’t hesitate to contact our emergency phone numbers 840-6010 for south and west Iceland, or 840-6000 for north and east Iceland or one of our many locations around the country and we will do our very best to help you to safely continue your journey.
I trust that your travel in Iceland will be comfortable and pleasant. I wish you a safe journey.
1.Which of the following statements might be most suitable for the blank in Paragraph 1?
A.our travel agency magazine B.this newspaper article
C.the traffic regulations D.police travel guides
2.Which of the following is TRUE about Iceland?
A.Travelling in Iceland is only popular in summer and winter.
B.The country is not much visited because of its special language.
C.Travelers can enjoy nice food when travelling in Iceland.
D.A traveler can both have hot and cold experiences in Iceland.
3.What can a traveler do if his car suddenly breaks down in west Iceland according to the passage?
A.He may have his car repaired.
B.He may call 840-6010 for help.
C.He may push his car off the road.
D.He may drive in the other direction.
Over the centuries Shakespeare’s plays have gained a reputation for being difficult to understand. But if his work is experienced on stage as Shakespeare intended, then it can become much clearer. In fact 95% of the words used in Shakespeare’s plays are the same words we use today.
The meanings of some words have altered significantly, _________, because Shakespeare was writing at a time of great linguistic change. This gave him a certain amount of _________ license in his language.
So what can Shakespeare’s plays tell us about how people really spoke at this time? And did anyone really speak like his characters? The lines spoken by Corin to Rosalind and Celia in As You Like It probably weren’t _________ of an Elizabethan shepherd.
The first thing to remember about Shakespeare’s work is that he wrote plays to entertain. They are _________ works, and the dialogue was exploited to suit the stage. Therefore his characters’ language did not always _________ how real people would have spoken.
For instance, in As You Like It when Corin, the shepherd, talks of love, his lines are beautiful and poetic – but _________ unrealistic. The lines Shakespeare gave Corin probably wouldn’t have been used by an Elizabethan shepherd – instead they _________ to highlight the drama.
Another example of how the theatrical style enriched Shakespeare’s text can be seen in the structure of his lines. According to the practice of the time, Shakespeare wrote his poems in iambic pentameter(抑扬格五音步) so it was _________ for his actors to learn. When Shakespeare was writing, new plays were performed every day so this 10-beat structure was a great help for anyone having to learn a lot of lines for the next day’s play.
_________ this structure meant that, on occasion, Shakespeare made up or adapted words to fit. __________, on several occasions Shakespeare changed the word “vast” to “vasty” when “vast” did not fit the __________ of the line. But if we look beyond the dialogue to the words themselves we can find out a little of how people really spoke.
We can come close to this thanks to “original pronunciation” which is a system of __________ that reproduce how the Elizabethans are believed to have spoken. Today it sounds like a West Country accent, with echoes of other parts of the country. When we __________ this to Shakespeare’s dialogue, rhymes and puns(押韵与双关) that are not heard in modern English are suddenly revealed.
So through Shakespeare’s plays we can __________ a great deal about how people really spoke. His dialogue was on the whole representative of the language of the time and area and now provides us with invaluable insight into a(n) __________ language.
1.A.otherwise B.furthermore C.however D.hence
2.A.creative B.significant C.limited D.practical
3.A.critical B.typical C.proud D.afraid
4.A.valuable B.outstanding C.efficient D.dramatic
5.A.reflect B.mean C.sign D.signal
6.A.luckily B.essentially C.generally D.naturally
7.A.construct B.produce C.function D.illustrate
8.A.easier B.worse C.wiser D.slower
9.A.Falling into B.Varying from C.Agreeing to D.Sticking to
10.A.By contrast B.For example C.What’s more D.In consequence
11.A.structure B.style C.rhythm D.form
12.A.speech B.writing C.communication D.symbol
13.A.fit B.devote C.apply D.input
14.A.keep up B.find out C.take on D.bring about
15.A.lost B.difficult C.ongoing D.global
Directions: Read the following passage. Fill in the blanks to make the passage coherent and grammatically correct. For the blanks with a given word, fill in each blank with the proper form of the given word. For the other blanks, use one word that best fits each blank.
“Melting pot” means a place where people from many different ethnic groups or cultures form a united society. The idea comes from 1. (heat) metals in a container. When they melt, the metals unite and become 2. new and stronger. This term has been used to describe the United States as a nation created from people who came here from many different countries.
A Frenchman who was living in America expressed the idea more than 200 years ago. J. Hector de Crevecoeur 3. (publish) a book called Letters From an American Farmer in 1782. He wrote that America had people from many different countries. He said that they would become a new people 4. work would one day change the world.
For many years, Americans generally accept the idea 5. their country is a melting pot. They welcome immigrants from many nations. Yet some of those immigrants criticize the melting pot idea. They feel they are forced to lose their culture and language 6. (accept) in America. Other people also criticize the idea. They say the aim of the melting pot is to make different cultures disappear into the one 7. (represent) the largest group.
New groups of immigrants from Asia and Latin America are changing the United States today. Some are resisting learning American culture and language. Reports say some Americans fear that the nation is separating into many groups that have no 8. (share) purpose. Others say the melting pot is no longer changing the nation’s immigrants, but the immigrants are changing America.
Some experts who study immigration say they now compare American society 9. a salad bowl. A salad is made of many different foods. They each keep their own taste 10.being part of a successful product. In this way, cultural groups keep their customs and language and are still part of American society.
假定你是李华，曾交换去英国学习，现已回国三个月。你想念在英国的老师Mrs. Smith，请根据以下要点给她写一份封信：
1. 感谢他曾经对你的帮助；
2. 介绍自己现在的学习情况；
3. 邀请他端午节来中国感受中国文化。
注意：1. 词数100左右；
2. 可以适当增加细节，以使行文连贯。
Dear Mrs. Smith,
I'm writing to
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Yours,
Li Hua
