单选题{{I}}Questions 18～21 are based on the following dialogue on a reading list.{{/I}}

单选题Questions 22--25 are based on the following dialogue.

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单选题{{B}}Text 1{{/B}} Rowena and Billy Wrangler are model high school students. They study hard and do extremely well on achievement tests. And next year, Rowena will be attending Harvard University. Billy, her younger brother, hopes to go to Cornell. What makes Rowena and Billy different from most students is that they don't go to school. In fact, they've never been to school. Since kindergarten, they've studied at home. Neither Rowena nor Billy feels as if they've missed out on anything by being taught at home. Like many of more than one million people who receive home schooling in the United States, they feel as if they've gotten a good education. The home-schooling trend began in the U. S. in the 1980s with parents keeping their children out of public schools so they could provide religious education at home. Today, as the home-schooling trend continues to grow, parents are more likely to consider home schooling as an option because they believe schools don't do a very good job of teaching and are occasionally dangerous places. But can parents really do a better job? The answer in many cases is yes. In many studies, students taught at home ranked average or above average when compared to students who went to public schools. More importantly, these students were often more self-directed and have a greater depth of knowledge. "They are very well prepared for academic challenges," says Patricia Riordan, the dean of admissions at George Mason University. One such student, Robert Conrad, now a sophomore at university, claims he really learned how to study and schedule his time during his eight years of home schooling. Still, not every student is as successful as Robert. "For every home-schooling success story, there are an equal number of failures," states Henry Lipscomb, an educational researcher. "There are just so many disadvantages that students taught at home have to overcome. " For example, they have fewer chances to interact with others of their own age. Consequently, they sometimes lack the usual social skills. "No matter what, though," states Lipscomb, "home-schooling is a growing trend. I think we'll be seeing more and more of this. "

单选题Whatwastheonlyuseoftrainsbeforethe20thcentury?A.Theuseforshort-distancetransportation.B.Theusefordaytodaytransportation.C.Theuseforlong-distancetransportation.D.Theusefortransportationofpreciousthings.

单选题At sixteen Ron Mackie might have stayed at school, but the future called to him excitedly. "Get out of the classroom into a job," it said, and Ron obeyed. His father, supporting the decision, found a place for him in a supermarket. "You're lucky, Ron," he said. "For every boy with a job these days, there's a dozen without." So Ron joined the working world at twenty pounds a week. For a year he spent his days filling shelves with tins of food. By the end of that time he was looking back on his school-days as a time of great variety and satisfaction. He searched for an interest in his work, with little success. One fine day instead of going to work Ron got a lift on a lorry going south. With nine pounds in his pocket, a full heart and a great longing for the sea, he set out to make a better way for himself. That evening, in Bournemouth, he had a sandwich and a drink in a cafe run by an elderly men and his wife. Before he had finished the sandwich, the women had taken him on for the rest of the summer, at twenty pounds a week, a room upstairs end three meals a day. The ease and speed of it rather took Ron's breath away. At quiet sea Ron had to check the old man's arithmetic in the records of the business. At the end of the season, he stayed on the coast. He was again surprised how straightforward it was for a boy of seventeen to make a living. He worked in shops mostly, but once he took a job in a hotel for three weeks. Later in October he was taken on by the sick manager of a shoe shop. Ron soon found himself in charge there; he was the only one who could keep the books.

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单选题If you want to stay young, sit down and have a good think. This is the research finding of a team of Japanese doctors, who say that most of our brains are not getting enough exercise and as a result, we are aging unnecessarily soon. Professor Taiju Matsuzawa wanted to find out why otherwise healthy farmers in northern Japan appeared to be losing their ability to think and reason at a relatively early age and how the process of aging could be slowed down. With a team of colleagues at Tokyo National University, he set about measuring brain volumes of a thousand people of different ages and varying occupations. Computer technology enabled the researchers to obtain precise measurements of the volume of the front and side sections of the brain, which relate to intellect and emotion, and determine the human character. The rear section of the brain, which controls functions like eating and breathing, does not contract with age, and one can continue living without intellectual on emotional faculties (功能). Contraction of front and side parts—as cells die off—was observed in some subjects in their thirties, but it was still not evident in sixty-and seventy-year-old. Matsuzaswa concluded from his tests that there is a simple remedy to the contraction normally associated with age—using the head. The findings show in general terms that contraction of the brain begins sooner in people in the country than in the towns. Those least at risk, says Matsuzawa, are lawyers, followed, by university professors and doctors. White collar workers doing routine work in government offices are, however, as likely to have shrinking brains as the farm worker, bus driver and shop assistant. Matsuzawa''s findings show that thinking can prevent the brain from thinking. Blood must circulate properly in the head to supply the fresh oxygen the brain cells needed. "The best way to maintain good blood circulation is through using the brain." he says, "Think hard and engage in conversation. Don''t rely on pocket calculators."

单选题HowdidPlatodescribeSocrates?A.Funny-looking.B.Talkative.C.Verywise.D.Humorous.

单选题Whatdoesthewomanmean?A.Thezooisnearby.B.Thereisazooaroundhere.C.Shedoesn'thearthequestion.D.Shedoesn'tknowaboutthezoo.

单选题Whatarethesepeopleconcernedabout?

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