单选题Ask an American schoolchild what he or she is learning in school these days and you might even get a reply, provided you ask it in Spanish. But don"t bother, here"s the answer: Americans nowadays are not learning any of the things that we learned in our day, like reading and writing. Apparently these are considered fusty old subjects, invented by white males to oppress women and minorities. What are they learning? In a Vermont college town I found the answer sitting in a toy store book rack, next to typical kids" books like "Heather Has Two Mommies and Daddy Is Dysfunctional." It"s a teacher"s guide called "Happy To Be Me", subtitled "Building Self-Esteem." Self-esteem, as it turns out, is a big subject in American classrooms. Many American schools see building it as important as teaching reading and writing. They call it "whole language" teaching borrowing terminology from the granola people to compete in the education marketplace. No one ever spent a moment building my self-esteem when ! was in school. In fact, from the day I first stepped inside a classroom my self-esteem was one big demolition site. All that mattered was "the subject," be it geography, history, or mathematics. I was praised when I remembered that "near", "fit", "friendly", "pleasing", "like" and their opposites took the dative case in Latin. I was reviled when I forgot what a cosine was good for. Generally I lived my school years beneath a torrent of castigation so consistent I eventually ceased to hear it, as people who live near the sea eventually stop hearing the waves. Schools have changed. Reviling is out. For one thing more important, subjects have changed. Whereas I learned English, modem kids learn something called "language skills". Whereas I learned writing, modem kids learn something called "communication". Communication, the book tells us, is seven per cent words, 23 per cent facial expression, 20 per cent tone of voice, and 50 per cent body language. So this column, with its carefully chosen words, would earn me at most a grade of seven per cent. That is, if the school even gave out something as oppressive and demanding as grades. The result is that, in place of English classes, American children are getting a course in How to Win Friends and Influence People. Consider the new attitude toward journal writing: I remember one high school English class when we were required to keep a journal. The idea was to emulate those great writers who confided in diaries searching their souls and honing their critical thinking on paper. "Happy To Be Me" states that journals are a great way for students to get in touch with their feelings. Tell students they can write one sentence or a whole page. Reassure them that no one, not even you, will read what they write. After the unit, hopefully all students will be feeling good about themselves and will want to share some of their entries with the class. There was a time when no self-respecting book for English teachers would use "great" or "hopefully" that way. Moreover, back then the purpose of English courses (an antique term for "unit") was not to help students "feel good about themselves," which is good, because all that reviling didn"t make me feel particularly good about anything.

单选题Contradictory to popular belief, recent surveys show that besides housewives, many college students are also ______ to soap operas. A. appealed B. addicted C. adjusted D. attracted

单选题Next time you have a problem, think about how you can improve the situation instead of ______ all the negative aspects. A. dwelling on B. counting on C. barking on D. touching on

单选题The fact that there tire marks in the drive______the theory that the thieves used a car to take away the stolen property.

单选题 The texture of the soil depends on the relative amounts of different-sized particles that combine to make up the soil. These particles can be as large as stone and gravel or as small as clay. A typical clay soil is composed of approximately 60 percent actual clay, 20 percent silt, and 20 percent sand. The particles in a sandy soil are so fine that it tends to be compact and interferes with the oxygen supply for plant roots. Water has trouble entering this impervious soil, and runoff is very common during rainfalls. A typical light sandy soil is composed of approximately 70 percent sand, 20 percent silt, and 10 percent clay. The particles in a sandy soil are comparatively large, permitting water to enter the soil and to pass through it so quickly that it often carries nutrients with it and dries out very rapidly. The texture of sandy soils is generally very difficult to modify because huge amounts of organic material must be added. A typical loam soil is composed of approximately 40 percent sand, 40 percent silt, and 20 percent clay, making it an ideal garden soil. It is easily worked and retains water and nutrients, which are slowly absorbed by plant roots. A typical adobe soil is a clay soil present in hot, dry areas of the country and is often very hard and cracked. It has all the disadvantages of a heavy clay soil and, being much drier, is more difficult to correct.

单选题The bitterness of the French people toward the English language shows ______.

单选题During the Renaissance, graphs and diagrams ______.

单选题Cooked vegetables are also valuable sources of certain vitamins and minerals, if the juice is eaten and if not cooked ______ .

单选题Although the body is made up of many different tissues, those tissues are arranged in an ______ and orderly fashion.

单选题His theories, though criticized by economists of more orthodox bent, have had enormous ______ on government fiscal policy.

单选题People innately ______ for superiority over their peers although it sometimes takes the form of an exaggerated lust for power.

单选题The typical shoe of the Middle Ages was a soft, clinging moccasin that extended to the ankle.

单选题This style of writing, incidentally, is suggestive of what is called the "newsreel technique" of John dos Passos.

单选题Naturalists say that (there is evidence) to support the assertion (which) anthropoids, (whether in) (captivity) or in the native state, sometimes beat their breasts.

单选题According to this passage, which of the following statements is NOT True?

单选题{{B}}Passage Two{{/B}} It is hard to predict how science is going to turn out, and if it is really good science it is impossible to predict. If the things to be found are actually new, they are by definition unknown in advance. You cannot make choices in this matter. You either have science or you don't, and if you have it you are obliged to accept the surprising and disturbing pieces of information, along with the neat and promptly useful bits. The only solid piece of scientific truth about which I feel totally confident is that we are profoundly ignorant about nature. Indeed, I regard this as the major discovery of the past hundred years of biology. It is, in its Way, an illuminating piece of news. It would have amazed the brightest minds of the 18th century Enlightenment to be told by any of us how little we know and how bewildering seems the way ahead. It is this sudden confrontation with the depth and scope of ignorance that represents the most significant contribution of the 20th century science to the human intellect. In earlier times, we either pretended to understand how things worked or ignored the problem, or simply made up stories to fill the gaps. Now that we have begun exploring in earnest, we are getting glimpses of how huge the questions are, and how far from being answered. Because of this, we are depressed. It is not so bad being ignorant if you are totally ignorant; the hard thing is knowing in some detail the reality of ignorance, the worst spots and here and there the not-so-bad spots, but no true light at the end of the tunnel nor even any tunnels that can yet be trusted. But we are making a beginning, and there ought to be some satisfaction. There are probably no questions we can think up that can't beanswered, sooner or later, including even the matter of consciousness. To be sure, there may well be questions we can't think up, ever and therefore limits to the reach of human intellect, but that is another matter. Within our limits, we should be able to work our way through to all our answers, if we keep at it long enough, and pay attention.

单选题We don't know if the story is tree, but we'll try our best to ______ it.

单选题His difficulty in expressing himself clearly will be a ______ to his plans to become a lawyer. A. hesitation B. hinge C. highlight D. handicap