With the popularity of Harry Potter novels, the number of children applying to boarding schools has risen, many of them hoping to find their own version of Hogwarts. However, others have interpreted this trend as a reaction to longer working hours and the break up of more marriages. The boarding schools of fiction are presented as one long midnight feast with pillow fights making firm friendships. However, some people say the reality is children having more homesickness and a lack of individual attention. Modern boarding schools have done much to get rid of the image of the mass dormitories with 40 or more beds in one room, some going as far as providing private rooms with bathrooms. Similarly, they make great announcements for their academic advantage, particularly in light of the increase in exams, homework and university entrance requirements facing children wishing to succeed in the modern world.
Alongside these more conventional schools, two types of boarding schools have also become more popular recently. Sports academies and stage schools seek to cater for children with particular interests and talents, while so-called troubled-teens have been able to turn to a range of religious or wilderness schools to solve their problematic behavior.
Boarding schools allow children a safe space in which to accomplish greater control and independence over their daily lives. Teachers and staff can look after and support but they are unlikely to be over-protective. This can be a great preparation for university or for working away from home in later life as it provides an intermediate step between childhood and full independence.
However, parents are a child’s most natural support and best role models to learn from. If they are separated from them for long periods of time, this may damage their relationship and leave the child feeling anxious or alone. Schools are unlikely to be able to copy the detailed knowledge of each individual child that a parent has and therefore cannot be as effective in supporting the child.
To sum up, boarding schools have both their advantages and disadvantages, so it is up to you to decide whether to send your children to boarding schools or not.
1.What do we know from the passage?
A．More and more children go and visit Hogwarts on their own.
B．Pillow fights in boarding schools make firm friendships in reality.
C．More children want to go to boarding schools because of Harry Potter novels.
D．There aren’t special schools for the particularly talented children.
2.What kind of schools may be the most suitable for the so-called troubled-teens?
A．sports academies B．Wilderness schools
C．Conventional schools D．Stage schools
3.We learn from Paragraph 4 that __________.
A．teachers of boarding schools are the best examples for children to learn from
B．children can be more independent if they are separated from their parents
C．parents know their children better than teachers of boarding schools
D．schools are much more effective than parents in supporting children
4.What is the author’s opinion of boarding schools?
A．Neutral （中立的） B．Negative C．Positive D．Critical
Why do men die earlier than women? The latest research makes it known that the
reason could be that men’s hearts go into rapid decline when they reach middle age.
The latest study of the effects of ageing on the heart has found that women’s longevity may be linked to the fact that their hearts do not lose their pumping power with age.
“We have found that the power of the male heart falls by 20-25 percent between 18 and 70 years of age,” said the head of the study, David Goldspink of Liverpool John Moores University in the UK.
“Within the heart there are millions of cells that enable it to beat. Between the age of 20 and 70, one-third of those cells die and are not replaced in men,” said Goldspink. “This is part of the ageing process.”
What surprises scientists is that the female heart sees very little loss of these cells. A healthy 70-year-old woman’s heart could perform almost as well as a 20-year-old one’s.
“This gender difference might just explain why women live longer than men,” said Goldspink. They studied more than 250 healthy men and women between the ages of 18 and 80, focusing on healthy persons to remove the confusing influence of disease. “The team has yet to find why ageing takes a greater loss on the male heart,” said Goldspink.
The good news is that men can improve the health of their heart with regular exercise. Goldspink stressed that women also need regular exercise to prevent their leg muscles becoming smaller and weaker as they age.
1.The text mainly talks about ________.
A．men’s heart cells B．women’s ageing process
C．the gender difference D．hearts and long life
2.According to the text, the UK scientists have known that ________.
A．women have more cells than men when they are born
B．women can replace the cells that enable the heart to beat
C．the female heart loses few of the cells with age
D．women never lose their pumping power with age
3.We can know from the passage that ________.
A．the reason why ageing takes a greater loss on the male heart has been found out
B．scientists are on the way to finding out why the male heart loses more of the cells
C．the team has done something to prevent the male from suffering the greater loss
D．women over 70 could lose more heart cells than those at the age of 20
Without proper planning, tourism can cause problems. For example, too many tourists can crowd public places that are also enjoyed by the inhabitants(居民) of a country. If tourists create too much traffic, the inhabitants become angry and unhappy. They begin to dislike tourists and to treat them impolitely. They forget how much tourism can help the country’s economy. It is important to think about the people of a destination(目的地) country and how tourism affects them. Tourism should help a country keep the customs and beauty that attract tourists. Tourism should also advance health and happiness of local inhabitants.
Too much tourism can be a problem. If tourism grows too quickly, people must leave other jobs to work in the tourism industry. This means that other parts of the country’s economy can suffer.
On the other hand, if there is not enough tourism, people can lose jobs. Businesses can also lose money. It costs a great deal of money to build large hotels, airports, first-class roads, and other support facilities(设施) needed by tourist attractions. For example, a major international-class tourist hotel can cost as much as 50 thousand dollars per room to build. If this room is not used most of the time, the owners of the hotel lose money.
Building a hotel is just a beginning. There must be many support facilities as well, including roads to get to the hotel, electricity, sewers(阴沟) to handle waste, and water. All of these support facilities cost money. If they are not used because there are not enough tourists, jobs and money are lost.
1.Which of the following has most probably been discussed in the paragraph that goes before the passage?
A．It is not important to develop tourism.
B．Building roads and hotels is important.
C．Support facilities are highly necessary.
D．Planning is of great importance to tourism.
2.Too much tourism can cause all these problems except _____.
A．a bad effect on other industries
B．a change of the customs of the country
C．air and water pollution
D．pressure on traffic
3.Not enough tourism can lead to _____.
A．the fact that some people may be out of work
B．an increase in tourist attractions
C．the higher cost of support facilities
D．a rise in price and a fall in pay
4.The word “handle” in the last paragraph most probably means _____.
A．carry away B．pick up C．get in D．take down
A special laboratory at the University of Chicago is busy only at night. It is a dream laboratory where researchers are at work studying dreamers. Their findings have discovered that everyone dreams from three to seven times a night, although in ordinary life a person may remember none or only one of his dreams.
While the subjects—usually students—sleep, special machines record their brain waves and eye movements as well as the body movements that signal the end of a dream. Surprisingly, all subjects sleep soundly.
Observers report that a person usually fidgets(烦躁不安) before a dream. Once the dream has started, his body relaxes and his eyes become more active, as if the curtain had gone up on a show. As soon as the machine shows that the dream is over, a buzzer wakens the sleeper. He sits up, records his dream, and goes back to sleep—perhaps to dream some more.
Researchers have found that if the dreamer is wakened immediately after his dream, he can usually recall the entire dream. If he is allowed to sleep even five more minutes, his memory of the dream will have disappeared.
1.According to the passage, researchers at the University of Chicago are studying ____.
A．contents of dreams B．dreamers while they dream
C．the meaning of dreams D．the progress of sleeping
2.Their finding has discovered that _____.
A．everyone dreams every night
B．dreams are easily remembered
C．dreams are likely to be frightening
D．One person dreams only one dream a night
3.The machines being used in the experiment record _____.
A．the depth of sleep
B．the subjects’ brain waves and eye movements
C．how many dreams a person has
D．what a sleeper dreams during his sleep
4.A person would be most likely to remember the dream that _____.
A．was of most interest to him
B．occurred immediately after he went to sleep
C．occurred just before he woke up
D．was the longest one to him
My father was raised in a fatherless home at a time when the family of five struggled to survive, which caused my father to be extremely tightfisted(吝啬) with money.
When we children became 16 that other children got pocket money from their parents, we made a(n) 17 to ask our father from some. Immediately his face turned stone-cold, and he said, “If you’re old enough to ask, you’re old enough to 18 .” And we had to seek odd jobs about the neighborhood.
He didn’t 19 his attitude as we grew into adulthood. There was a time when 20 of us had a car, so we had to ride a 21 whenever we came home. Though the bus stopped about two miles from home, Dad never met us, 22 in bad weather. If someone 23 (and my brothers did a lot), he’d say in his 24 father-voice. “That’s what your legs are 25 !”
One spring morning I was on the bus home from 26 . Tests and long hours in labs had 27 me exhausted. As other students were 28 at their stops. I looked silently out of the window. Finally, the bus came to a 29 at my destination, and I 30 , carrying my suitcase to begin the long journey home.
The row of privet hedge(树篱) came into 31 , which lined the driveway that climbed the hill to our house. I stopped to put a book in the suitcase. When I stood up, I saw something gray 32 along the top of the hedge toward the house.
It was the top of my father’s head. I 33 then, each time I came home, he would stand behind the hedge, watching, 34 he knew I had arrived safely. I held back my tears. He did care, 35 .
Upon reaching home, I found my father innocently in his chair. “So! It’s you!” he said, his face lengthening into surprise.
1. A．aware B．certain C．surprised D．excited
2. A．attempt B．suggestion C．trouble D．plan
3. A．spend B．earn C．survive D．raise
4. A．strengthen B．soften C．take D．show
5. A．neither B．each C．all D．none
6. A．bicycle B．car C．train D．bus
7. A．especially B．only C．even D．once
8. A．refused B．complained C．cried D．intended
9. A．strangest B．lowest C．softest D．scariest
10. A．on B．in C．by D．for
11. A．work B．home C．town D．college
12. A．led B．made C．found D．proved
13. A．treated B．received C．met D．greeted
14. A．stop B．house C．street D．corner
15. A．stepped off B．went off C．jumped on D．climbed on
16. A．mind B．view C．flower D．leaf
17. A．shining B．flying C．failing D．moving
18. A．understood B．thought C．imagined D．realized
19. A．since B．after C．until D．though
20. A．after all B．above all C．in advance D．in total
---Tom. answer my question.
---Oh, sorry, ______. I beg your pardon?
A．I didn’t get that B．Say it again
C．Don’t mention it D．That’s all right
