阅读理解Passage 1 Every day, millions of shoppers hit the stores in full force both online and on foot searching frantically for the perfect gift

阅读理解best answer and blacken the corresponding letter on the Answer Sheet. Passage One(丰富) so many lives. Why, then, is it not central to our education system? This is a question I recently put forward to an all-party group on music education.1 am 20 years old and began playing the piano at the Barracudas Band in Barrow-in Furness,agedseven. The funding for the centre has now been cut. I took part in the primary tuition project, aged 11.The funding for that has also been cut now. It is a common problem across the country. Music is not an add-on, a “ soft" subject or a luxury- it is absolutely essential to our existence.Every child deserves the opportunity to experience its benefits. Until music is heldinthe same regard as the“core”subjects of our curriculum, our society will be worse off. We needjoy, empathy ( 共 情 ) and hope on this planet more than ever, and taking away children’sprograms and projects to encourage young musicians (“Every Child a Musician," “Awards for Young Musicians ,”to name but a few)，we are reaching a crisis point. We are in danger of destroying creativity, innovation (创新) and expression. Learning an instrument can help developso many fundamental life skills. It promotes discipline,empathy, determination and cooperationas well as providing a sense of community and worth. Music has changed my life. It is a huge part of who I am. I have learned so much about the worldthrough music and the inspiring figures I have met through it. I feel I have a duty to help ensurethat others can benefit from its magic. Let us make it available to every single child. Why did the author raise the question on music education?

阅读理解The survey shows that ________ have the best understanding of health concerns. 

阅读理解It was a sunny Saturday afternoon in Oklahoma City

阅读理解Passage Two: Questions are based on the following passage

阅读理解Why do dogs wear a guilty look according to the researchers?

阅读理解Why it matters that teens are reading lessA) Most of us spend much more time with digital media than we did a decade ago. But today’s teens have grown up with smartphones. Compared with teens a couple of decades ago, the way they interact with traditional media like books and movies is fundamentally different.B) Analysis of surveys of over one million teens in the United States collected since 1976 reveals a major shift in how teens are spending their leisure time. Paper books are being ignored, in favor of screens. Digital devices are changing other behaviors, too. More and more, young people choose spending time on their electronic devices over engaging in other activities, regardless of the type. Indeed, by 2016, the average American high school senior said they spent six hours a day writing text messages, on social media, and online during their free time. And that covers just three activities, and if other digital media activities were included, that estimate would no doubt rise.C) Teens did not always spend that much time with digital media. Online time has doubled since 2006, and social media use has moved from a periodic activity to a daily one in the same period. By 2016, nearly nine out of ten young women in the 12th grade said they visited social media sites every day. Meanwhile, time spent playing video games rose from under an hour a day to an hour and a half on average. One out of ten American 8th grade students in 2016 spent 40 hours a week or more playing video games. Let me emphasize that this is equal to the time most adults spend per week at work.D) If teens are spending so much time using electronic devices, does that mean they have to give up some other activities? Maybe not. Over the years, many scholars have insisted that time online does not necessarily take away time spent engaging with traditional media or on other activities. Some people, they argue, are just more interested in certain kinds of media and entertainment. Thus, using more of one type of media does not necessarily mean less of the other.E) That may be true, but that still does not tell us much about what happens across a whole generation of people when time spent on digital media grows. Large surveys conducted over the course of many years tell us that American youth are not going to the cinema nearly as often as they did in the past. While 70 percent of 8th and 10th grade students used to go to the movies once a month or more, now only about half do this. More and more, watching a movie is something teens choose to do on their electronic devices. Why is this a problem? One reason is that going to the cinema is generally a social activity. Now, watching movies is something that most teens do alone. This fits a larger pattern. In another analysis, researchers found that today’s teens go out with their friends much less often than previous generations did.F) But the trends related to movies are less disturbing compared with the change in how teens spend their time. Research has revealed an enormous decline in reading. In 1980, about 60 percent of senior high school students said they read a book, newspaper or magazine every day that was not assigned for school. By 2016, only 16 percent did. This is a huge drop and it is important to note that this was not merely a decline in reading paper books, newspapers or magazines. The survey allowed for reading materials on a digital device.G) Indeed, the number of senior high school students who said they had not read any books for pleasure in the last year was one out of three by 2016. That is triple the number from two decades ago. For today’s youth, books, newspapers and magazines have less and less of a presence in their daily lives. Of course, teens are still reading. But they are generally reading short texts. Most of them are not reading long articles or books that explore deep themes and require critical thinking and reflection. Perhaps not accidentally, in 2016 reading scores were the lowest they have ever been since 1972.H) This might present problems for young people later on. When high school students go on to college, their past and current reading habits will influence their academic performance. Imagine going from reading texts as short as one or two sentences to trying to read entire books written in complex language and containing sophisticated ideas. Reading and comprehending longer books and chapters takes practice, and American teens are no longer getting that practice.I) So how can this problem be solved? Should parents and teachers take away teens’ smartphones and replace them with paper books? Probably not. Research has shown that smartphones are currently American teens’ main form of social communication. This means that, without a smartphone, teens are likely to feel isolated from their peers. However, that does not mean teens need to use electronic devices as often as they do now. Data connecting excessive digital media time to mental health issues suggests a limit of two hours a day of free time spent with screens, a restriction that will also allow time for other activities—like going to the movies with friends or reading longer, more complicated texts.J) The latter is especially important. I would argue that of all the changes brought about by the widespread use of digital devices, the huge decline in reading is likely to have the biggest negative impact on today’s teens because reading books and longer articles is one of the best ways to learn critical thinking. It helps people to understand complex issues and to separate fact from fiction. Thus, deep reading is crucial for being a good citizen, a successful college student and a productive employee. If serious reading dies, a lot will go with it.

阅读理解Passage 1 Many artists have been vital to Los Angeles, but for some the citys seminal son is Mike Kelley, who committed suicide in 2012, aged 57

阅读理解Passage One Throughout this long, tense election, everyone has focused on the presidential candidates and how theyll changeAmerica

阅读理解Which of the following is the best for the text?

阅读理解The phrase "progressive education" is one, if not of protest, at least of contrast, of contrast with an education which was predominantly static in subject-matter, authoritarian in methods, and mainly passive and receptive from the side of the young. But the philosophy of education must go beyond any idea of education that is formed by way of contrast, reaction and protest. For it is an attempt to discover what education is and how it takes place. Only when we identify education with schooling does it seem to be a simple thing to tell what education actually is, and yet a clear idea of what it is gives us our only criterion for judging and directing what goes on in schools. 　　It is sometimes supposed that it is the business of the philosophy of education to tell what education should be. But the only way of deciding what education should be, at least, the only way which does not lead us into the clouds, is discovery of what actually takes place when education really occurs. And before we can formulate a philosophy of education we must know how human nature is constituted in the concrete; we must know about the working of actual social forces; we must know about the operations through which basic raw materials are modified into something of greater value. The need for a philosophy of education is thus fundamentally the need for finding out what education really is. We have to take those cases in which we find there is a real development of desirable powers, and then find out how this development took place. Then we can project what has taken place in these instances as a guide for directing our other efforts. The need for this discovery and this projection is the need for a philosophy of education. 　　What then is education when we find actual satisfactory specimens of it in existence? In the first place, it is a process of development, of growth. And it is the process and not merely the result that is important. A truly healthy person is not something fixed and completed. He is a person whose processes and activities go on in such a way that he will continue to be healthy. Similarly, an educated person is the person who has the power to go on and get more education. 　　In any case, development, growth, involve change, modification, and modification in definite directions. It is quite possible for a teacher, under the supposed sanction of the idea of cultivating individuality, to fixate a pupil more or less at his existing level. Respect for individuality is primarily intellectual. It signifies studying the individual to see what is there to work with. Having this sympathetic understanding, the practical work then begins, for the practical work is one of modification, of changing, of reconstruction continued without end. The change must at least be towards more effective techniques, towards greater self-reliance, towards a more thoughtful and inquiring disposition, one more capable of persistent effort in meeting obstacles.

阅读理解Passage G In some ways the employment interview is like a persuasive speech because the applicant (interviewee) seeks to persuade the employer (interviewer) to employ him or her

阅读理解Passage 1 Britain and France are separated by the English Channel, a body of water that can be crossed in as few as 20 minutes

阅读理解Which of the following statements is true about office speak?

阅读理解 This is an approach to quality improvement based on the statistical work of Joseph Juran, one of two American pioneers of quality management in Japan. Sigma is a Greek letter used in mathematics to denote standard deviation, a statistical measure of the extent to which a series of numbers or readings deviates from its mean. One Sigma indicates a wide scattering of the readings. If the mean is the required quality standard of a particular process or product, then One Sigma quality is not very good. The higher the number, the closer the readings come to total perfection. At the Six Sigma level, there are only 3.4 defects per million. This may sound complicated, but in practice it has proved a popular way for managers to put quality management into effect. One of its great advantages is that it avoids the idea of aiming for 'zero defects', or total perfection-a frighteningly inaccessible goal for most. It presents a system for improving quality gradually. Companies or operational groups move step-by-step up the Sigma ladder, the ultimate goal being to reach the Six Sigma state-still just short of perfection. Reasonably unsophisticated computer programs do the necessary calculations when fed with data on the goals (the specifications of the perfect product or process) and the organization's actual achievements. Six Sigma sounds like some sort of secret coven. Its advocates insist that it is no such thing. But it has certain attributes of the exclusive society. Anyone in an organization who goes on a basic training course for a Six Sigma program is called a Green Belt. Anyone who is given the full-time job of leading a team that is embarking on a Six Sigma exercise is given further training and is called a Black Belt. Beyond this there are a special few who are trained even more, and they are called Master Black Belts. Their role is to champion the exercise throughout the organization and to watch over the Black Belts and ensure that they are consistently improving the quality of their team's output. Pioneered in the United States by Motorola in the 1980s, Six Sigma became hugely popular in the 1990s after Jack Welch adopted it at General Electric. To achieve Six Sigma quality at GE, a process must produce no more than 3.4 defects per million 'opportunities'. An opportunity is defined as 'a chance for non-conformance, or not meeting the required specifications'. The company says: 'Six Sigma has changed the DNA of GE. It is now the way we work-in everything we do and in every product we design'.

阅读理解Passage Three: Questions are based on the following passage

阅读理解Passage 1 Not even the combined powers of Spiderman, Iron Man, the Incredible Hulk, Captain America and the X-Men could keep The Mouse at bay

阅读理解EThe idea of renting clothes might seem strange to some, but it's certainly not unheard of. Weddings, formal occasions, a fancy-dress party .. people rent clothes for these occasions all the time. But now some people are also renting clothes for everyday life, like friend gatherings, family trips or anytime they don't want to be the same, they choose to rent clothes instead of buying them.As we know, the whole idea behind Fast Fashion is to wear clothes two or three times and then throw them away. This is where renting makes more sense. Many businesses have shown up over the last few years offering customers some kinds of dresses, which would only be voguish for one season. This way, one dress can be rented and worn by dozens of people, stopping each person from buying it themselves.With a recent study showing that half of the young women polled said they felt the need to wear a different look every time they went out, renting clothes might just be the answer to the Fast Fashion problem. Not only can renting clothes be better for the environment, but consumers can also save money, and open up space in their home.56. What is the Dew trend in renting clothes nowadays?

阅读理解Freezing cold, exhausted, soaked through, with massive waves crashing down on me, I was struggling to right my capsized catamaran

阅读理解Passage 2 A few years back, the decision to move the Barnes, a respected American art institution, from its current location in the suburban town of Merion, Pa