单选题By saying "you might tolerate the odd road-hog... the rode. "( Par

单选题{{B}}Directions:{{/B}}Read the following text. Choose the best word(s) for each numbered blank and mark A, B, C or D on ANSWER SHEET 1. Reading and writing have long been thought of as complementary skills: to read is to recognize and interpret language that has been written; to write is to plan and produce language{{U}} (1) {{/U}}it can be read. It is therefore widely{{U}} (2) {{/U}}that being able to read implies being able to writer, at least, being able to spell. Often, children are taught to read but{{U}} (3) {{/U}}no formal tuition in spelling; it is felt that spelling will be"{{U}} (4) {{/U}}up". The attitude has its{{U}} (5) {{/U}}in the methods of 200 years ago, when teachers carefully taught spelling, and assumed that reading would{{U}} (6) {{/U}}automatically. Recent research into spelling errors and "slips of the pen" has begun to show that matters are{{U}} (7) {{/U}}so simple. There is no necessary link between reading and writing: good readers do not always{{U}} (8) {{/U}}good writers. Nor is there any necessary link between reading and spelling: there are many people who have no{{U}} (9) {{/U}}in reading, but who have a major persistent{{U}} (10) {{/U}}in spelling—some researchers have estimated that this may be as{{U}} (11) {{/U}}as 2% of the population. With children, too, there is{{U}} (12) {{/U}}that knowledge of reading does not automatically{{U}} (16) {{/U}}to spelling. If there{{U}} (14) {{/U}}a close relationship, children should be able to read and spell the{{U}} (15) {{/U}}words: but this is not so. It is{{U}} (16) {{/U}}to find children who can read{{U}} (17) {{/U}}better than they can spell. More surprisingly, the{{U}} (18) {{/U}}happens with some children in the early stages of reading. One study{{U}} (19) {{/U}}. children the same list of words to read and spell: several{{U}} (20) {{/U}}spelled more words correctly than they were able to read correctly.

单选题The number of city schools put on a list for strict scrutiny by the state for poor academic performance went up slightly this year. and the number of city schools taken off the list by showing improvement dropped, the state's commissioner of education announced yesterday. Ten city schools—now at risk of being shut down—were added to the list of Schools Under Registration Review, known as SURR, bringing the total in the city m 40. Statewide. 61 schools are under review, said the commissioner, Richard Mills. The addition of 10 city schools reverses what had been a trend in the past few years: the number of schools on the list had been falling. There were 55 schools in 2003, 46 in 2004 and 35 last year, an all-time low. But this year a new factor was at work: The state raised the level of performance required to pass its standards. In addition, 6 of the 10 newly named schools are middle schools--and those schools have for years confounded educators by resisting the improvements that have worked in lower grades and even in high schools. Three city schools were removed from the list this year for improvement in academic performance, but that number was significantly lower than the number removed in each of the past several years. For instance, 16 schools were taken off the list last year. Schools Chancellor Joel I. Klein observed that the number of endangered schools still remains at a near-record low. "Nevertheless. we cannot accept failing performance by any of our schools for any reason," he said. "If a school proves incapable of providing a high-quality education m our students despite efforts to improve it, it will be closed." He said 8 of the 40 schools that have been on the list were scheduled m be closed this year and 5 more will be closed next year. The state also expanded its review process for the first time this year m District 75, which covers special education schools, and one District 75 school, Public School 12 in the Bronx, was put on the list. Despite the additions, Mr. Mills said he was pleased. "I think it's impressive since we have been rinsing the bar," he said. "The city has essentially been staying ahead of a moving locomotive." Elsewhere in the state, three schools in Buffalo and two in Syracuse were added to the list. The 10 New York City schools on the list are Legacy School for Integrated Studies in Manhattan; P.S. 220, P.S. 12, Junior High School 123 and Middle School 302 in the Bronx; J.H.S. 265. J.H.S. 57, M.S. 143, Intermediate School 291 and P.S. 12 in Brooklyn. The three schools removed from the list are P.S. 140 in the Bronx. Repertory Company High School in Manhattan and EBC/ENY High School for Public Safety and Law in Brooklyn.

单选题The author implies that the cause of the agrarian discontent was

单选题The author's attitude towards superpills can best be described as one of______.

单选题El Nino is the term used for the period when sea surface temperatures are above normal off the South American coast along the equatorial Pacific, sometimes called the Earth's heartbeat, and is a dramatic but mysterious climate system that periodically rages across the Pacific. El Nino means "the little boy" or "the Christ child" in Spanish, and is so called because its warm current is felt along coastal Peru and Ecuador around Christmas. But the local warming is just part of an intricate set of changes in the ocean and atmosphere across the tropical Pacific, which covers a third of the Earth's circumference. Its intensity is such that it affects temperatures, storm tracks and rainfall around the world. Droughts in Africa and Australia, tropical storms in the Pacific, torrential rains along the Californian coast and lush greening of Peruvian deserts have all been ascribed to the whim of EI Nino. Until recently it has been returning about every three to five years. But recently it has become more frequent--for the first time on record it has returned for a fourth consecutive year--and at the same time a giant pool of unusually warm water has settled down in the middle of the Pacific and is showing no signs of moving. Climatologists don't yet know why, though some are saying these aberrations may signal a worldwide change in climate. The problem is that nobody really seems sure what causes the El Nin o to start up, and what makes some stronger than others. And this makes it particularly hard to explain why it has suddenly started behaving so differently. In the absence of EI Nino and its cold counterpart, La Nina, conditions in the tropical eastern Pacific are the opposite of those in the west. the east is cool and dry, while the west is hot and wet. In the east, it's the winds and currents that keep things cool. It works like this. Strong, steady winds, called trade winds, blowing west across the Pacific drag the surface water along with them. The varying influence of the Earth's rotation at different latitudes, known as the Coriolis effect, causes these surface winds and water to veer towards the poles, north in the northern hemisphere and south in the southern hemisphere. The surface water is replaced by colder water from deeper in the ocean in a process known as upwelling. The cold surface water in turn chills the air above it. This cold dense air cannot rise high enough for water vapor to condense into clouds. The dense air creates an area of high pressure so that the atmosphere over the equatorial eastern Pacific is essentially devoid of rainfall.

单选题What does the author mean by "... has become its flip-flopper" (Para. 1)?

单选题The use of mobile-phone signals in monitoring traffic is

单选题The US population in the 1970s is ______ largest of the world.

单选题{{B}}Part A{{/B}}{{B}}Directions:{{/B}} Read the following four texts. Answer the questions below each text by choosing A, B, C or D. Mark your answers on ANSWER SHEET 1. {{B}}Text 1{{/B}} Something extraordinary is happening in London this week: in Lambeth, one of the city's poorest boroughs(区), 180 children are starting their secondary education in a brand new school. The state- funded school was set up by parents who were fed up with the quality of local education. In countries with more enlightened education systems, this would be unremarkable. In Britain, it is an amazing achievement by a bunch of desperate and determined people after years of struggle. Britain's schools are in a mess. Average standards are not improving despite billions in extra spending, and a stubbornly long tail of underachievers straggles(拖后腿) behind. A couple of years ago, a consensus emerged among reformers that councils had too much control and parents too little. One might have expected more from the Conservatives, who stood for election on a pledge to bring in school vouchers. Yet the Tory policy group charged with thinking deep thoughts about public services paid only lip service to parent power in its report. Where schools are failing, it said, parents or charities should get taxpayers 'money to open new ones. But only 2.9% are actually failing, on official definitions. And another proposal, that children in failing schools get extra funding if they go elsewhere, was so lacking in detail as to be meaningless. Worry about underperforming schools is hardly confined to Britain: in America, in Italy, in Germany, even in once-proud France education is a hot-button topic. Yet a number of countries seem to have cracked it. Although specific problems differ in different societies, parental choice is at the heart of most successful solutions. What are the lessons? The first is that if a critical mass of parents wants a new school and there is a willing provider, local government should be required to finance it as generously as it does existing state schools. The second is that if a charity wants to open a school in the hope that children will come, then taxpayers' money should follow any that do. Third, rules about what, where and how schools teach should be relaxed to avoid stifling innovation and discouraging newcomers with big ideas. In any event, public-examination results would give parents the information they needed to enforce high standards. These proposals may seem radical, yet parents in the Netherlands have had the right to demand new schools since 1917, and those in Sweden have been free since 1992 to take their government money to any school that satisfies basic government rules. In the Netherlands 70% of children are educated in private schools at the taxpayers' expense; in Sweden 10% already are. In both countries state spending on education is lower per head than in Britain, and results are better. It doesn't take a genius IQ -- just a little political courage -- to draw the correct conclusion.

单选题The word "outsource" (Line 3, Paragraph 1) may be best replaced by