任玲：阅读第一课

Text 1The kids are hanging out. I pass small bands of students, in my way to work these mornings. They have become a familiar part of the summer landscape.These kids are not old enough for jobs. Nor are they rich enough for camp. They are school children without school. The calendar called the school year ran out on them a few weeks ago. Once supervised by teachers and principals, they now appear to be “self care”.Passing them is like passing through a time zone. For much of our history, after all, Americans arranged the school year around the needs of work and family. In19th-century cities, schools were open seven or eight hours a day, 11 months a year. In rural America, the year was arranged around the growing season. Now, only 3 percent of families follow the agricultural model, but nearly all schools are scheduled as if our children went home early to milk the cows and took months off to work the crops. Now, three-quarters of the mothers of school-age children work, but the calendar is written as if they were home waiting for the school bus.The six-hour day, the 180-day school year is regarded as something holy. But when parents work an eight-hour day and a 240-day year, it means something different. It means that many kids go home to empty houses. It means that, in the summer, they hang out.“We have a huge mismatch between the school calendar and realities of family life,”says Dr. Ernest Boyer, head of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching.Dr. Boyer is one of many who believe that a radical revision of the school calendar is inevitable.＂School, whether we like it or not, is educational. It always has been.”His is not popular idea. Schools are routinely burdened with the job of solving all our social problems. Can they be asked to meet the needs of our work and family lives?It may be easier to promote a longer school year on its educational merits and, indeed, the educational case is compelling. Despite the complaints and studies about our kids’ lack of learning, the United State still has a shorter school year than any industrial nation. In most of Europe, the school year is 220 days. In Japan, it is 240 days long. While classroom time alone doesn’t produce a well-educated child, learning takes time and more learning takes more time. The long summers of forgetting take a toll.The opposition to a longer school year comes from families that want to and can provideother experiences for their children. It comes from teachers. It comes from tradition. And surely from kids. But the most important part of the conflict has been over the money.1. Which of the following is an opinion of the author’s?A. “The kids are hanging out.”B. “They are school children without school.”C. “These kids are not old enough for jobs.”D. “The calendar called the school year ran o ut on t hem a few weeks ago.”2. Why was Dr. Boy’s idea unpopular?A. He argues for the role of school in solving social problems.B. He supports the current school calendar.C. He thinks that school year and family life should be considered separately.D. He strongly believes in the educational role of school.3. “The long summers of forgetting take a toll ”in the last paragraph but one means thatA. long summer vacation slows down the progress go learning.B. long summer vacation has been abandoned in Europe.C. long summers result in less learning time.D. long summers are a result of tradition.4. The main purpose of the passage isA. to describe how American children spend their summer.B. to explain the needs of the modern working families.C. to discuss the problems of the current school calendar.D. to persuade parents to stay at home to look after their kids.SECTION B SHORT ANSWER QUESTIONSIn this section there are five short answer questions based on the passages in Section A. answer the questions with NO more than THEN words in the space provided on ANSWER SHEET TWO.1.What was the American school year in 19th-centry rural America based on?2.What does the author think of the current school year?Text 2 (2009B)Nowadays, a cellphone service is available to everyone, everywhere. Probably thousands of people have already been using it, but I just discovered it, so I'm going to claim it and also name it: Fake Foning.The technology has been working well for me at the office, but there are infinite applications. Virtually in any public space.Say you work at a big university with lots of talky faculty members buzzing about. Now, say you need to use the restroom. The trip down the hall will take approximately one hour, because a person can't walk into those talky people without getting pulled aside for a question, a bit of gossip, a new read on a certain line of Paradise Lost.So, a cellphone. Any cellphone. Just pick it up. Don't dial. Just hold that phone to your face and start talking. Walk confidently down the hall engaged in fake conversation, making sure to tailor both the topic and content to the person standing before you whom you are trying to avoid.For standard colleague avoidance, I suggest fake chatting about fake business:"Yes, I'm glad you called, because we really need to hammer out the details. What's that? Yes, I read Page 12, but if you look at the bottom of 4, I think you can see the problem begins right there."Be animated. Be engaged in your fake fone conversation. Make eye contact with the people passing, nod to them, gesture keen interest in talking to them at a later time, point to your phone, shrug and move on.Shoppers should consider fake foning anytime they spot a talky neighbor in the produce department pinching (用手捏) unripe peaches. Without your phone at your face, you'd be in for a 20-minute speech on how terrible the world is.One important caution about fake foning. The other day I was fake foning my way past a colleague, and he was actually following me to get my attention. I knew he wanted to ask about a project I had not yet finished. I was trying to buy myself some time, so I continued fake foning with my doctor. "So I don't need the operation? Oh, doctor, that is the best news."And then: Brrrrrrng! Brrrrrmg! Brrrrrmg! My phone started ringing, right there while it was planted on my face. My colleague looked at me, and I at him, and naturally I gasped."What is the matter with this thing?" I said, pulling the phone away to look at it, and then putting it back to my ear."Hello? Are you still there?"Oops.1. Which of the following statements is INCORRECT?A. Cellphone service is popular among people.B. Cellphone has much use in office.C. Fake foning is a new cellphone service.D. Fake foning is a new discovery.2. What is fake foning _____.A. a strategy to avoid peopleB. a device newly producedC. a service provided everywhereD. a skill of communication3. In the author's opinion, in order to make fake foning look real one has to____.A. talk about interesting mattersB. behave politely to people passing byC. hold the phone while walkingD. appear absorbed in conversation4. What does the last example show?A. One effective way is to fake fone one's doctor.B. One has to be careful while fake foning.C. Fake foning may not cheat people.D. Fake foning is always quite successful.5. After his phone suddenly began ringing, the author_______.A. immediately started talking to the callerB. immediately started talking to his colleagueC. put the phone away and stopped talkingD. continued with his fake conversationSECTION B SHORT ANSWER QUESTIONSIn this section there are five short answer questions based on the passages in Section A. answer the questions with NO more than THEN words in the space provided on ANSWER SHEET TWO.1. What is the tone of the passage?。