单选题All over the world, your chances of success in school and life depend more on your family circumstances than on any other factor. By age three, kids with professional parents are already a full year ahead of their poorer peers. They know twice as many words and score 40 points higher on IQ tests. By age 10, the gap is three years. By then, some poor children have not mastered basic reading and math skills, and many never will: this is the age at which failure starts to become irreversible. A few school systems seem to have figured out how to erase these gaps. Finland ensures that every child completes basic education and meets a rigorous standard. One Finnish district official, asked about the number of children who don"t complete school in her city, replied, "I can tell you their names if you want." In the United States, KIPP charter schools enroll students from the poorest families and ensure that almost every one of them graduates high school 80 percent make it to college. These success stories offer lessons for the rest of us. First, get children into school early. High-quality preschooling does more for a child"s chances in school and life than any other educational intervention. One study, which began in the 1960s, tracked two groups of students from disadvantaged backgrounds. Some were given the opportunity to attend a high-quality preschool: others were not. Thirty-five years later, the kids who went to preschool were earning more, had better jobs, and were less likely to have been in prison or divorced. Second, recognize that the average kid spends about half his waking hours up until the age of 18 outside of school—don"t ignore that time. KIPP students spend 60 percent more time in school than the average American student. They arrive earlier, leave later, attend more regularly, and even go to school every other Saturday. Similarly, in 1996, Chile extended its school day to add the equivalent of more than two more years of schooling. Third, pour lots of effort into training teachers. Studies in the United States have shown that kids with the most effective teachers learn three times as much as those with the least effective. Systems such as Singapore"s are choosy about recruiting; they invest in training and continuing education; they evaluate teachers regularly; and they award bonuses only to the top performers.

单选题If you don't want to talk to him, I'll speak to him______.

单选题Besides its main mission, the orbiter would also be used as

单选题A professional wine taster relies (on) sight, smell and (tasting) (to determine) the quality of (a wine).

单选题{{B}}Passage Five{{/B}} The number of permanent crew on the International Space Station will be increased, and possibly doubled, from 2006 by providing it with an extra "lifeboat". The move, announced in Japan last week by the ISS partner nations, means the space station crew will at last be able to do useful scientific research. The number of crew on the ISS has been limited to three by the capacity of the Russian Soyuz capsules that would return them to Earth in an emergency. But running the ISS requires the full-time attention of more than two crew members, leaving just half the time of one of the crew free for research. This is woefully inadequate, and a NASA-commissioned report concluded in July that no meaningful research is possible with a three-person crew. NASA originally planned to replace the Soyuz rescue capsule with a seven-person "crew return vehicle", which would have allowed the ISS to carry a significantly larger permanent crew. But faced with a $ 5 billion budget overrun, the agency cancelled the project last year. Then last month NASA announced plans for an orbital spaceplane as a successor to the ageing fleet of space shuttles. This could double as a rescue vehicle for at least six people, but it will not be ready until 2010. Waiting for the spaceplane could be a big problem as Soyuz capsules have only a six-month lifespan and the Russian agreement to supply them expires in 2006. This could leave a four-year gap with no guaranteed rescue vehicle for the ISS, and hence no crew. Russia has already warned that cash shortages could force it to stop making the capsules. If the cash can be raised, however, the new plan is to permanently station two Soyuz capsules at the ISS, raising the rescue capacity to six. The ISS's Russian-built modules have three ports where Soyuz can dock, one of which is usually used for uncrewed cargo modules.

单选题Embarrassed, l nodded, trying to think of some way to______my error.

单选题 Genetically modified (GM) foodstuffs are here to stay. That's not to say that food produced by conventional agriculture will disappear,{{U}} (61) {{/U}}simply that foodbuying patterns will polarize. It may even be that GM food will become the food of{{U}} (62) {{/U}}because consumers come to appreciate the health benefits of reduced pesticide use. The reason GM food will not go away is that we need a three-fold increase in food production by the year 2050 to keep{{U}} (63) {{/U}}with the world's{{U}} (64) {{/U}}population growth to ten or eleven billion. It's not just a question of more mouths to feed either.{{U}} (65) {{/U}}is often forgotten is that all these extra people will take up space,reducing the overall land{{U}} (66) {{/U}}for agriculture. It may well be that in the long term it is the developing world{{U}} (67) {{/U}}benefits most from GM foods. It's true that for the next ten years or so GM crops may be{{U}} (68) {{/U}}expensive. But the lesson of personal computers is applicable here—once the technology has been developed for money spinning crops,{{U}} (69) {{/U}}maize, soy beans and cotton,it will become{{U}} (70) {{/U}}for all. This doesn't mean, unfortunately, that families will{{U}} (71) {{/U}}, but severity and duration will be helped by an{{U}} (72) {{/U}}ability to produce and distribute food. {{U}} (73) {{/U}}we move into this new era of agriculture we're embarking on a journey the world has seen many number of times with experiments before. We have been refining species of wheat for several thousand years. Genetic engineers like me are not doing anything as{{U}} (74) {{/U}}as making a cabbage into a cauliflower{{U}} (75) {{/U}}has been done by plant breeders in the past. We're simply tapping into the whole gene pool, rather than concentrating on one species at a time.

单选题A: Why, you went to the cocktail party wearing such a shabby tie and so worn a suit? You are really a gentleman! B: ______.

单选题The weekend event will be centred around Wye College in Ashford, Kent, but the outing to the docks should be the Uhighlight/U.

单选题Woman: Since we have nothing in common, we don't have to live under the same roof. Man: If you really want to settle the problem, I'm ready to meet you half-way. Question: What does the man mean?

单选题What may be the best title for the passage?

单选题For many people today, reading is no longer relaxation. To keep up their work they must read letters, reports, trade publications, interoffice communications, not to mention newspapers and magazines: a never-ending flood of words. In (61) a job or advancing in one, the ability to read and comprehend (62) can mean the difference between success and failure. Yet the unfortunate fact is that most of us are (63) readers. Most of us develop poor reading (64) at an early age, and never get over them. The main deficiency (65) in the actual stuff of language itself—words. Taken individually, words have (66) meaning until they are strung together into phrases, sentences and paragraphs. (67) , however, the untrained reader does not read groups of words. He laboriously reads one word at a time, often regressing to (68) words or passages. Regression, the tendency to look back over (69) you have just read, is a common bad habit in reading. Another habit which (70) down the speed of reading is vocalization—sounding each word either orally or mentally as (71) reads. To overcome these bad habits, some reading clinics use a device called an (72) , which moves a bar (or curtain) down the page at a predetermined speed. The bar is set at a slightly faster rate (73) the reader finds comfortable, in order to "stretch" him. The accelerator forces the reader to read fast, (74) word-by-word reading, regression and subvocalization, practically impossible. At first (75) is sacrificed for speed. But when you learn to read ideas and concepts, you will not only read faster, but also your comprehension will improve.

单选题It is reported that in China about one million school-age children drop out of school each year and 80 percent of our country"s annual drop-outs are from families too poor to keep their children in school.

单选题Woman: Good morning, Prof. David. My name is Susan Gray. I'm with the local newspaper. Do you mind if I ask you a few questions? Man: Not at all. Go ahead, please. Question: What is Susan Gray?

单选题A: ______ B: Why don't we go down the lake? It's not far from here.

单选题The city of Winston-Salem, North Carolina, received its name in 1913, when the adjoining towns Winston and Salem were combined.

单选题The house is adjacent to the bar.

单选题From observers' estimates of the brightness of the fireball, he ______ that the body in the space was between 40 feet and 260 feet in diameter.

单选题 {{B}}Passage One{{/B}} Astronaut Jim Voss has enjoyed many memorable moments in his career, including three space flights and one space walk. But he recalls with special fondness a decidedly earthbound (为地球吸引所束缚的) experience in the summer of 1980, when he participated in the NASA-ASEE Summer Faculty Fellowship Program. Voss then a science teacher at West Point, was assigned to the Marshall Space Flight Center's propulsion (推进) lab in Alabama to analyze why a hydraulic fuel pump on the space shuttle was working so well when previous seals had failed. It was a seemingly tiny problem among the vast complexities of running the space program. Yet it was important to NASA because any crack in the seal could have led to destructive results for the astronauts who relied on them. "I worked a bit with NASA engineers," says Voss, "but I did it mostly by analysis. I used a handheld calculator, not a computer, to do a thermodynamic (热力学的) analysis." At the end of the summer, he, like the other NASA-ASEE fellows working at Marshall, summarized his findings in a formal presentation and detailed paper. It was a valuable moment for Voss because the ASEE program gave him added understanding of NASA, deepened his desire to fly in space, and intensified his application for astronaut status. It was not an easy process. Voss was actually passed over when he first applied for the astronaut program in 1978. Over the next nine years he reapplied repeatedly, and was finally accepted in 1987. Since then he has participated in three space mission. The 50-year-old Army officer, who lives in Huston, is now in training for a four-month mission as a crew member on the International Space Station starting in July 2000. Voss says the ASEE program is wonderful for all involved. "It brings in people from the academic world and gives NASA a special property for a particular period of time. It brings some fresh eyes and fresh ideas to NASA, and establishes a link with our colleges and universities," Voss explains, "There's an exchange of information and an exchange of perspectives that is very important." For the academic side, Voss says, the ASEE program also "brings institutions of higher learning more insight into new technology. We give them an opportunity to work on real-world problems and take it back to the classroom."

单选题A: I don't know how it happened. But I got two different appointments at lunch tomorrow. I'm supposed to meet both David and Jim. B：______