Each new school year brings fresh reminders of what educators call the summer learning gap．Some call it the summer learning setback Put simply, it means the longer kids are out of school，the more they forget．The only thing they might gain is weight．

Most American schools follow a tradltional nine-month calendar with winter and spring breaks and about ten weeks of summer vacation．Some schools follow a year-round calendar. They hold classes ror about eight weeks at a time，with a few weeks off in between．The National Association for Year-Round Education says there were fewer than 3,000 such schools at last count．They were spread among forty-six of the tifty states．

       But many experts point out that the number of class days in a year-round school is generally the same as in a traditional school．Brenda McLaugblin is research director at the National Center for Summer Learning at Johns Hopkins University．She says studies of year-round schooling have not found strong learning gains．Lead researcher Paul von Hippel said，“Year-round schools don’t really solve the problem of the summer learning setback．They simply spread it out across the year．”

       Across the country, research shows that students from poor families fall farther behind over the summler than other students．Experts say this can be prevented．They note that many schools and local governments offer programs that can help．

       But calling them“summer school”could be a problem．The director of the summer learning center at Johns Hopkins, Ron Fairchild, said research with groups of different parents in Chicago and Baltimore found that almost all strongly disliked the term“summer school”．In American culture，the idea of summer vacation is connected to beliefs about freedom and the joys of childhood．The parents welcomed other terms like“summer camp。”“extra time”and“hands-on learning．”

1.According to the first paragraph，the summer learning gap     

       A．helps children to gain weight                          

B．leads children to work harder

       C．improves children’s memories                           

D．affects children’s regular studies

2.Compared to traditional schools，students in the year-round ones      ．

       A．perform better and have more learning gains

        B．have much less time for relaxation every year

       C．have generally the same number of class days

       D．hold more classes with more free weeks off

3.Which of the following statements is true?

       A．Students from poor families often fall behind after the vacation．

       B．Year-round schools can solve the problem of the learning gap

       C．There are schools in each state following a year-round calendar

       D．Nothing can help the students who fall behind after the vacation．

4.Why did almost all parents dislike the term“summer school”?

        A．They are worried about the quailty of the“summer school”

        B．They cherish the children’s rights of freedom very much．

       C．They want their children to be forced to make up the gap．

       D．They can’t afford to the further study during the vacation．

5.What would be the best title of this passage?

       A．Opening Summer Camps                                

B．Forbidding Summer Schools

       C．Minding the Summer Learning Gap              

D．Reforming Year-Round Education

 

Many of us have heard of the saying: everything is possible if you can just believe. But few of us really know the power of faith and perseverance(坚定).  South African swimmer Natalie du Tiot embodies(体现)those virtues.

   Du Tiot, 24, became the first swimmer to compete in both the Olympic Games and the Paralympics (残奥会)in Beijing. Although she finished 16^th in the tough 10km marathon in the able-bodied Games, she has collected three golds in the Paralympics so far.

   One of the most successful disabled athletes of all time, Natalie du Tiot was already a promising swimmer when she lost her leg in a motorcycle accident in 2001, at just 17.

   “There are a lot of dark moments,” she said, “There are some days when I cry. But I try to remember that better days are ahead. You just go on.”

    Within a few months, she was back in the swimming pool.

    She still completes and still succeeds. The only difference is she has switched to longer events—from 200m and 400m individual medley to 800m and 1,500m freestyle—to make up for her loss of speed with only one leg. But she made no adjustment to her mental look(精神面貌).

    “Going out in the water, it feels as if there’s nothing wrong with me. It doesn’t matter if you look different. You’re still the same as everybody else because you have the same dream.”

     She is the owner of many world records, and she also won gold when competing against able-bodied swimmers in the 1,500m freestyle at the All African Games in 2007.

     But there is no magic recipe(秘诀) for success. It all comes down to hard work and determination. “She is stubborn, which is good and bad,” said her coach Karoly Von Toros. “Good for the swimming, but bad for the coach.”

     There is a poem that hangs on her wall that reads:

     The tragedy (悲剧)of life does not lie in not reaching your goals;

     The tragedy of life lies in not having goals to reach for.

Natalie du Tiot is a vivid example that____________________.

   A. you are what you believe

   B. your biggest enemy is yourself

   C. results are not so important as the process

   D. you must set reasonable goals or you will fail

According to the text , Natalie du Tiot became________________.

   A. the first athlete to compete with able-bodied swimmers in the world

   B. the youngest disabled swimmer to break the world record in the 1,500m freestyle

   C. the youngese disabled swimmer to collect three golds in a single Paralympics

   D. the first swimmer to compete in both the Olympic Games and the Paralympics

Which of the following is the correct order of the events that happened to Natalie du Tiot？

   a. She won gold at the All Africa Games.

   b. She finished 16^th in the tough 10km marathon in the Olympics

   c. She adjusted herself to long events.

   d. A motorcycle accident disabled her.

   A. cdab               B. dcba             C. dcab          D.dacb

In dark moments it was_______________ that pushed her on.

   A. her coach     B. her family    C. hope and faith    D. her love of swimming

阅读下面短文,根据所读内容在文后小题的空格里填上适当的单词或短语，并将答案转写到答题卡上。注意：每空不超过3个单词。

Bicycles are very popular around the world today. People ride their bicycles for exercise and enjoyment. In some places, people use a bicycle to get to work. In other places, bicycle riding is a very popular exercise to people who live in cities. But who invented the first bicycle?

   In 1791, a Frenchman named Comte de Siverac invented and owned the first bicycle. Mrs. Sivrac rode the bicycle in Paris. The handles(把手) and the seat were wooden. This bicycle was very difficult to move. A rider even had to pick up the front wheel to change direction. Finally, the bicycle had no brakes for stopping or pedals for the feet! Riding a bicycle was a great risk!

   In 1817, a German named Baron von Draus de Sauerbrun made the first bicycle better. The seat became more comfortable. The wheel could now change direction. His ride in the forest took only one hour instead of three hours on foot, which surprised people at that time.

   Sauerbrun brought this kind of bicycle from Germany to France. Then Denis Johnson, an Englishman, made a bicycle for women. It had spaces for their dresses to hang down. But these bicycles still had no brakes or pedals, and riders often got hurt. These bicycles and the people who rode them were not very popular.

   It took another forty-five years for the bicycle to become popular. More than 100 years later, bicycle riding is more popular than ever. In fact, in India and China, there are still many more bicycles than cars.

The Great Invention

Time	Names	Items	Features
In 1791	1.
2.	Baron von Daris de Sauerbrun	Made the first bicycle better	Easier to ride
Unknown	3.	A  4.	Having space for dresses to hang down
Functions of riding bicycles —for exercise, 5.   and transportation

 

 

The average college student in America spent an estimated seven hundred dollars on textbooks last year. The National Association of College Stores reported more than five billion dollars in sales of textbooks and course materials. Association spokesman Charles Schmidt says electronic textbooks now represent just two to three percent of sales. But he says that is expected to reach ten to fifteen percent by 2012. Online versions are now available for many of the most popular college textbooks. E-textbooks can cost half the price of a new print textbook. But students usually lose access after the end of the term. And the books cannot be placed on more than one device (装置) so they are not easy to share.
So what do students think of e-textbooks? Administrators at Northwest Missouri State University wanted to find out. Earlier this year they tested them with five hundred students in twenty classes. The university is unusual. It not only provides laptop computers to all seven thousand of its full-time students. It does not require students to buy their textbooks either. They rent them to save money. The school aims to save even more by moving to e-textbooks. The students in the survey reported that downloading the books from the Internet was easy. They liked the idea of carrying lighter backpacks. And fifty-six percent said they were better able to find information. But most found that using e-textbooks did not change their study habits. And sixty percent felt they read more when they were reading on paper. In all, almost half the students said they still liked physical textbooks better. But the survey found that cost could be a big influence. Fifty-five percent said they would choose e-textbooks if using them meant their textbook rental fee would not increase. Roger Von Holzen heads the Center for Information Technology in Education at Northwest Missouri State. He tells us that administrators are disappointed with the e-textbooks now available because the majority are not interactive. He thinks growth will come when more digital books include video, activities, games and other ways to interact with the information. The technology is improving. But for now, most of the books are just words on a screen.
【小题1】The passage mainly tells us about ________.

A．the development of e-textbooks

B．different attitudes towards e-textbooks

C．the sales of textbooks and course materials

D．the differences between e-textbooks and physical text-books

【小题2】According to the survey, over half of the students think e-textbooks ________.

A．can be rented for less money	B．help in finding more information
C．are convenient to carry around	D．help them do better in their lessons

【小题3】It can be inferred from the passage that e-textbooks ________.

A．will replace physical textbooks	B．are available at any time
C．have a very bright future	D．still have a lot to improve

第二节：语法填空: 根据短文内容，在空格中填上合适的单词。（共15分，每空1.5分）

In the United States, there were 222 people   81        (report) to be billionaires in 2003. The  82      of these is Bill Gates, worth at least $41 billion, who made his money 83  starting the company Microsoft. Mr Gates was only 21 years old   84     he first helped to set up the company in 1976. He was a billionaire  85     the time he was 31.

86     , there are still some other people who have made lots of money at even 87   (young) ages. Other young people who have struck it rich include Jackie Coogan and Shirley Temple.    88      of these child actors made over a million dollars    89     (act) in movies before they were 14. But    90    youngest billionaire is Albert von Thurn and Taxis of Germany, who, in 2001, inherited a billion dollars when he turned 18.