Creating art or engaging in artistic efforts has numerous benefits for young people — from fewer disciplinary infractions to better academic performance and increased likelihood of struggling for post-secondary education.
And yet students’ participation in arts classes varies by what school they attend. Higher-poverty schools in King County have lower enrollment in arts classes.
That’s one data point evident in a new dashboard released by the cultural funding agency 4Culture and the state superintendent’s office. It shows the percentage of high school students taking different kinds of arts classes in individual schools within King County’s 19 school districts. It’s intended to let anyone in the public research arts class participation and compare schools. For example, more than two-thirds of students at Bellevue’s International School took a music class compared with just 12 percent at Kent — Meridian High School in the Kent School District in the 2018-19 school year.
“We strongly believe the arts can make for a happier, healthier education in every single way,” said Charlie Rathbun, director of arts programs with 4Culture. “So we will be looking at outcomes around the dropout rate, discipline rate, graduation rate, things like that.”
Overall, the dashboard shows higher participation in visual arts and music classes than in theater or dance. “Dance, for example, being almost non-existent in our schools — we have to ask why and think about those students who might respond quite positively to dance,” Rathbun said.
Alternative schools and dropout re-engagement programs have very low participation in arts classes. Students across the state are required to take two arts courses to graduate.
1.What does the underlined word “infraction” in paragraph 1 most probably mean?
A.Obedience. B.Offence.
C.Sense. D.Authority.
2.Why will Charlie Rathbun be looking at the outcomes?
A.To know about students’ academic performance.
B.To understand the reason for his students’ dropout.
C.To prove the function of arts education at school.
D.To encourage students to take dance, not other arts.
3.Which can best describe the conclusion Charlie Rathbun will make about arts participation?
A.Reliable. B.One-sided.
C.Personal. D.Abstract.
4.What is the best title for the text?
A.Arts Class Participation At School: Yes Or No
B.New Dashboard: Participation In Arts Classes
C.New Dashboard For King County High Schools
D.Low Participation In Arts Classes At High School
高三英语阅读理解中等难度题查看答案及解析
Bats quickly eat the insects that bite us and ruin our crops. They pollinate (授粉) flowers and they replant forests by spreading seeds around. But as agriculture overtakes rain forests and jungles, humans have come into conflict with one bat species: the common vampire bat (吸血蝙蝠).
Well, vampire bats are ugly little animals. They’ve got these wrinkly noses that have infrared (红外线的) heat sensors so they can detect warm blood flowing beneath the skin. They’ve got ears that can pick up the sound of low frequencies. That’s the sound of big animals breathing. And they have super sharp teeth. So when you’re bitten by one of these bats, you don’t even feel it. They also have amazing movement skills. They can fly, but they can also run with their wings,
And vampire bats mainly interact with humans who are raising livestock. They’ll drink the blood of cows and pigs and chickens. You can find newborn cows with bites from vampire bats, chicken coops that are covered in drips of blood. Children will regularly wake up with vampire bat bites on their feet. Actually, the bites aren’t that big of a health problem. The main problem is that very rarely these bats are sick with rabies (狂犬病). And they can spread this fatal disease to cattle and people.
Gerry, a scientist, does experiments where he keeps one of the bats away from food for a night. And that’s something that actually happens in the wild all the time. The bat will go out and it can’t find anything to eat. And if that happens two nights in a row, the bat could actually starve to death. But what happens is that another bat will come in and they’ll rescue that hungry bat. They’ll let out a little blood to feed it. And this behavior is seen between mothers and their children and between siblings. But surprisingly, it’s also seen between bats that aren’t related at all.
1.What does the second paragraph mainly want to tell us about vampire bats?
A.Their physical organs. B.Their super powers.
C.Their living habits. D.Their attacking skills.
2.What is the vampire bat’s biggest threat to human beings?
A.It drinks the blood of livestock. B.It prefers to bite little children.
C.It can spread a fatal disease. D.It is often infected with rabies.
3.What do Geny’s experiments find out?
A.Bats, not related by blood, share blood. B.Bats usually live a hard life in the wild.
C.Different bats live a quite different life. D.Blood is even more important for bats.
4.What can we can infer from the text?
A.Vampire bats are human’s natural enemy.
B.Human should try to get rid of vampire bats.
C.Vampire bats are human’s true friends.
D.Vampire bats should not always be blamed.
高三英语阅读理解中等难度题查看答案及解析
Many people heard about the “Little Free Library”, which was a movement that let people swap a book for another or take it and bring it back. Now, people are joining in the “Little Free Pantry” idea, which shares a similar value of spreading kindness with mini pantries.
One family who live in Boise, Idaho, have a three-year-old son who wanted to build something for his third birthday, so they decided that they would build a community pantry box that they would share with their neighbors. They felt that they had everything they wanted, so they wanted to give a little something back to the community and help the people in need.
The idea is that the family fill this box up with non-perishable (不易腐的) items, which include tins, toiletries, and other goods. However, it’s meant to be a community give and take, so other people would also contribute to adding to this mini-pantry.
It seems that the idea has taken off in other communities who also want to give a little something back and help those in need. It’s the kind of movement that helps the struggling members of the community, allowing them to live knowing that they can have a can of soup for dinner if they have nothing else. Or that sanitary products are available.
The Millers keep their little pantry going, realizing that it’s emptiest toward the end of the month, so they know that it’s really helping people. They don’t believe that anyone has taken advantage of it and that it’s only helped people.
Various other communities have taken on the mini pantries project in order to spread a little kindness within their community.
1.Why is “Little Free Library” mentioned in the first paragraph?
A.To show the striking difference between it and “Little Free Pantry”.
B.To help readers have a better understanding of “Little Free Pantry”.
C.To encourage people to take “Little Free Library” as an example.
D.To prove that most people are just so kind as to help those in need.
2.Why did the family build the “Little Free Pantry”?
A.To let others know about their son’s birthday.
B.To show that they lived in great abundance,
C.To egress gratitude and offer help to others.
D.To test if people in the community are honest.
3.Whom is Free Pantry most helpful to?
A.Those who can’t go shopping often. B.Those who want to show kindness.
C.Those who want to celebrate birthdays. D.Those who live in great poverty.
4.How is the “Little Free Library” idea going?
A.The community pantry box is always empty.
B.People take advantage of others’ kindness.
C.More items are badly needed to refill the box.
D.It is gaining more and more popularity.
高三英语阅读理解中等难度题查看答案及解析
John Perry decided it was time to go home. It had been a perfect day. He had filled his bag with all sorts of seashells, enough to study for a month. The island had been a good place to find shell but mow the sun was going down, he must leave before it got dark. He came to the sand reef that connected the island and the shore of the mainland. He stopped for a moment to enjoy the sunset on the ocean water. Then he began to walk along the sand reef toward the shore.
He hurried on. Then, suddenly he stepped into the water. Before he knew what had happened, he dropped down and down. The water was covering his head. He rose to the top of the water, struggling to get back on to the dry sand, surprised. To his horror he saw long grey sharks there in the sea, but where was the sand reef? What had happened to it?
He began to walk back toward the island. While he had searched for shells on the island, the strong ocean waves had washed a large part of the sand reef away. He did not know much about Sharks/but he was a good swimmer. He tried to remember what he had read about sharks. Did sharks find their food by smelling it? If they did, it meant they looked for food at all times, even during the night,
①Most of the night he lay down and looked up at the stars thinking. He thought of the people in the village. He was their doctor, the only doctor in the village felt good to be needed. He thought of wood for a fire, wood to signal for help, but there was no wood. At last he thought of sleep. He slept until the sun rose.
②The sharks were there because the fish were there. The same waves that had washed the sand reef away had somehow pushed large schools of fish into the area. He watched the sharks kill.
He looked at the sea, if he swam to shore, he would be in the water 5,6 minutes. A lot could happen during that time. A wind blew across the water. Small waves rushed across the top and stopped him from seeing the bottom. He hoped the wind would stop. Somehow, clear water seemed less dangerous.
③But first, he looked all around before he took off all his clothes He kept only his belt and his small knife. He silently slipped into the water. He went deep down and looked around. He was about to rise to the top and start swimming when he saw a long grey body below him. He kicked himself up to the top and struggled to the sand.
④ He stood up and looked around again. How could he make the sharks move out to sea? He put the knife against his leg and cut deep into the flesh, blood running out. He caught it on his white shirt. When the shirt was red and wet, he tied some cloths around his leg to stop the flow of blood. He tied a long piece of cloth to the shirt, then he threw the shirt into the water and pulled it with a piece of cloth.
The sharks smelled the blood; they came racing toward the shirt. He was leading then away from shore. Suddenly he dropped the cloth turned toward shore and ran as fast as he could He jumped into the water and swam. He kicked and shouted as loud as he could. He touched the shore with his fingers and pulled himself up the stones.
The shark was excited by the smell of blood and the chase went after him; its great body crushed against the stones. The other sharks jumped on it The end came quickly as the sharks’ blood turned the water red. The injured shark was eaten alive as it tried to escape.
Perry slowly got to his feet. So, he said, “you did not get me.”
He looked down at the sharks still eating even though they were full of food.
1.What happened to the sand reef while John Perry was searching for seashells?
A.It was destroyed by the ocean waves.
B.It was covered by the rising tide of the ocean.
C.It fell down hen sharks were running after fishes around
D.It was washed away by the ocean waves created by the sharks.
2.What made him think he was important to the villagers?
A.His seashells. B.His swimming skill.
C.His bravery. D.His occupation.
3.Why didn't he choose to escape in the night?
A.Darkness made no difference to sharks at all.
B.Darkness would increase the risk of his behavior.
C.Sharks could still see him clearly in the darkness
D.Sharks seldom attacked humans during the daytime.
4.Where should the sentence "He decided to swim." be put in the passage?
A.① B.② C.③ D.④
5.What do you think of John Perry?
A.Cruel and violent. B.Clever and smart.
C.Skilled but careless. D.Courageous but silly.
6.What can be a suitable title for the passage?
A.A narrow escape from hungry sharks B.An unforgettable day with sharks
C.A close fight against fierce sharks D.An unexpected meeting with sharks
高三英语阅读理解中等难度题查看答案及解析
Dog owners swear that their furry best mend is in tune with their emotions, Now it seems this sense of interspecies connection is real: dogs can smell your emotions, and adopt them as their own
We already know dogs can see and hear the signs of human emotions says Biagio D'Aniello at the University of Naples Federico II, Italy. But nobody had studied whether dogs could pick up on olfactory(嗅觉的) signals from humans.
“The role of the olfactory system has been largely undervalued, maybe because our own species is more focused on the visual system.” says D'Aniello. However, dogs 'sense of smelling is far superior to ours, D'Aniello and his colleagues tested whether dogs could really sniff out our emotions. First, human volunteers watched videos designed to induce fear, happiness or a neutral response and the team collected samples of their sweat. Next, the researchers presented these sweat samples to dogs ,and monitored their behavior and heart rates. Dogs exposed to fear smells showed more signs of stress than those sniffing happy or neutral smells. They also had higher heart rates, and made less social contact with strangers.
D'Aniello's study suggests humans can unconsciously, hijack their dogs' emotion by releasing smells .A second study suggests dogs can return the favour, using their expressive faces.
Juliane Kaminski at the University of Portsmouth, UK, and her colleagues have found that dogs' faces fare most expressive when they know people are looking at them.
The researchers introduced dogs to a human who was either looking at them or facing away and either offering food or nothing. The team analyzed how much the dogs' facial movements varied in the four situations. They found that the dogs' facial expressions varied most when the person was looking at them. Kaminski says there was no sign of a “dinner table effect”, which “would predict that dogs try and look super-cute when they want something from the humans”.
It's not clear precisely how dogs visually signal us and how we respond, says Monique Udell of Oregon State University in Corvallis. “This kind of research is needed to fully understand the nature of the human-dog relationship.”
1.How did D'Aniello's research team carry out their study on dog's ability of sniffing out humans' emotions?
A.By analyzing the sweat samples from the dogs.
B.By monitoring dogs' response Co the same videos
C.By letting the dogs watch the volunteers 'expressive faces.
D.By watching the dogs' reactions to the given sweat samples.
2.The underlined word "hijack" probably means?
A.Study. B.Control.
C.Find. D.Display,
3.What can we infer from the second study?
A.Dinner-table effect really exists.
B.Dogs are very sensitive to human attention.
C.Dogs showed no facial expression when offered nothing
D.Dogs' facial expressions vary most when they want attention.
4.What is still puzzling scientists according to the passage?
A.How dogs react to human smells.
B.How dogs respond to humans 'attention.
C.How dogs hear and see the signs of humans' emotions.
D.How dogs communicate with humans by the sense of slightly.
高三英语阅读理解中等难度题查看答案及解析
Over the past few months huge groups of locusts(蝗虫), one of which occupied an area more than three times the size of New York City, have eaten up crops across the Home of Africa and the Middle East, leaving an estimated 20 million people at risk of famine(饥荒). The first generation's eggs are starting to hatch, and now even bigger swarms(虫群) are forming threatening. Countries from the Democratic Republic of Congo to Yemen, Iran, Pakistan and India, “representing a threat to food security and livelihoods,” says the U.N.'s Food and Agriculture Organization(FAO).
Desert locusts' populations explode when weather conditions are right. That explosion can create huge swarms that can travel great distance-more than 90 miles in a day-in search of food. Warm weather and unusually heavy rains in the Horn of Africa at the end of 2019 provided the moist(湿润的) soil necessary for hatching eggs. From there, the insects spread rapidly, resulting in one of the worst outbreaks the region has seen in more than 70 years.
A typical swarm numbering 4 billion to 8 billion locusts, can consume in one day the same amount of food as 35 million people. Some swarms have been so thick in parts of Kenya that they have prevented planes from taking off. Governments have used widespread aerial spraying of pesticides when available; in poorer regions, where aircraft are unavailable, soldiers battle the swarms with handheld spray pump.
The FAO has appealed for $138 million to support affected communities, If the locusts are not stopped before the next generation hatches, the impact could be terrible: the FAO guesses that an additional 25 million people across the region could lose their crops. Scientists in Kenya hope a new computer-assisted tracking program that combines satellite data with weather-mapping software will help predict the swarms next destination, buying-regional authorities enough time to prepare a response. Buy coronavirus- related travel restriction have delayed relief efforts as well as response mechanisms. The locusts have no such travel limitations.
1.The author uses many statistics in the passage to show_____
A.the disastrous consequence of the outbreaks of locusts
B.the serious conditions facing the New York City
C.the speed of swarms of locusts travelling
D.the exact number of crops consumed by locusts
2.What is Paragraph 2 mainly about?
A.The great distances locusts can travel.
B.The explosion of locusts' population.
C.The perfect conditions for hatching their eggs.
D.The result of the unusual outbreaks of locusts.
3.What does the last paragraph imply?
A.The travel restrictions may probably worsen the urgent situation.
B.It is unlikely to predict the swarms' next destination now.
C.A lot of money has been raised after the FAO's appeal
D.It's not difficult for humans to win the battle against the locust
高三英语阅读理解中等难度题查看答案及解析
FESTIVALS IN LONDON |
London hosts each year a variety of celebrations and festivals. All of them are national and Foreign holidays. Below we show you the most amazing holidays and festivals in London. |
New Year's Day Parade This Parade is a free event which takes place annually on I January since 1987.M lasts about 2 hours 30 minutes, featuring more than 10.000 Participants representing 20 countries worldwide. There are marching bands, cheerleading groups, vehicles, animals, clowns and giant inflatables(充气物). |
Oxford and Cambridge Boat Race Since 1829 each spring the two England's most famous universities race along a 6.7 kilometer stretch of the Thames River in what is perhaps the most famous rowing event in the world. The race attracts a massive crowd of around a quarter of a million fan to the banks of the Thames |
London Marathon The Flora London Marathon, one of the World Marathon Majors, has been held each year since 1981. Currently around 32,000 runners take part in this annual event, including professionals and amateurs. There are live bands entertainment and thousands of cheering fans. It is also one of the largest events to collect money in the world in order to attract more funds, some runners dress up in fancy costumes. |
Wimbledon Wimbledon runs annually from late June through early July, Wimbledon is the oldest and most famous tennis tournament in the world, the only Grand Slam event played on grass courts. Started in 1877, he event is often attended by members of the Royal Family, Wimbledon traditions include the eating of strawberries and cream that can be accompanied by an optional glass of champagne. |
1.Which of the four festivals has the longest history?
A.New Year's Day Parade. B.Oxford and Cambridge Boat Race.
C.London Marathon. D.Wimbledon.
2.London Marathon is different from the other three in that______.
A.it has the purpose of donating money to other events
B.it attracts many more fans from around the world
C.it is the only festival accompanied by live band
D.it has the function of raising money
高三英语阅读理解中等难度题查看答案及解析
It turns out that overworking your brain with either physical or mental exercise may lower your ability to delay self-satisfaction. And that may set you up for poor choices in your self-care and finances.
A new study published Thursday in the journal Current Biology asked excellent endurance athletes to overtrain for three out of nine weeks, and compared them to a group who did a normal 9-week training program.
Not only did those overworked athletes perform worse on a cycling test at the end of the overtraining MRls(核磁共振) of their brains during behavioral tasks showed more exhaustion in the cognitive control part of the brain system. “Cognitive control in this situation is the capacity to maintain exercise despite things like muscle pain,” said study author Bastien Blain, a research associate at University College London. “And what we found is that there is an intelligence factor involved in exercising and it has a limited capacity. You cannot use it forever.”
In other words, your brain will burn out and affect your body’s ability to exercise. But that’s not all. Overworking that part of the brain also reduced the athletes’ abilities to resist temptation of an immediate reward, “For example, they were asked whether they preferred $10 now or $50 in six months,” Blain said. “And those who overtrained were more likely to choose the immediate reward, which is interesting. It could provide a mechanism to explain why some athletes are using drugs to improve their performance.”
One caution about the exercise study is that it only looked at endurance athletes, said. Dr. Marc-Andre Cornier, who is associate director of Colorado University’s Anschutz Health and Wellness Center. “This is potentially very important for the higher end athlete who is overdoing it,” Cormier said. “But does this have anything to do with the average Joe going to the gym? You can’t conclude that from this study.”
1.What does the underlined word “it” in the third paragraph refer to?
A.The brain system. B.A limited capacity.
C.An intelligence factor. D.The cognitive control.
2.Why did overworked athletes tend to choose the immediate reward?
A.Because they were too eager to succeed.
B.Because all parts of their brain burned out.
C.Because overtraining led to their bad decisions.
D.Because they took drugs to improve their performance.
3.What is the passage mainly about?
A.A study about self-satisfaction.
B.Negative effects of too much exercise.
C.The relation between brain and exercise.
D.Poor choices in people’s self care and finances.
4.What can we infer from the passage?
A.There is a limit to the brain.
B.Higher end athletes have great potential.
C.Top athletes may suffer from overtraining.
D.Delaying self-satisfaction results in better performance.
高三英语阅读理解中等难度题查看答案及解析
The amount of time young children in the United States spend with mobile screens might raise some eyebrows, as a new report found it has tripled in just four years.
Children 8 and younger spent about 15 minutes a day staring at a mobile screen in 2013 and now they spend 48 minutes a day, according to the report by Common Sense Media, a nonprofit organization focused on helping children, parents, and educators navigate the world of media and technology.
The report, released on Thursday, also found that 42% of children 8 and younger now have their own tablet devices, a sharp increase from 7% four years ago and less than 1% in 2011.
Children spending more time on mobile devices comes as no shock to Douglas Gentile, a psychology professor at Iowa State University who was not involved in the new report but has studied the effects of media use on children.
“On the one hand, it's not surprising because it's what we look around ourselves and can see.I can see it at the airport, for example, I can see it at restaurants and I can even see it in my own home where my younger daughter watches almost no television, but she'll watch lots of TV shows on her phone, "Gentile said.
“On the other hand, it's been getting harder for parents to really monitor a lot of what their kids are seeing and doing.At the same time, they're relying on the seeming benefit of being able to quiet the kid at a restaurant with a device,” he said. “We may be building a bit of a Frankenstein’s monster, because we re using that power for our benefit, not for the child’s benefit.”
These changing patterns in how children interact with media appear to be great, said James Steyer, chief executive officer and founder of Common Sense Media.in an email to CNN. “One of the most shocking findings is that mobile devices are now as popular in the home as TVs-98% of households with kids under 8 have a mobile device,” he said. “The ubiquity of mobile is changing childhood.”
1.The writer uses figures in the second paragraph to_________.
A.prove the reliability of the report.
B.praise the efforts made by Common Sense Media.
C.indicate the popular use of mobile devices nowadays.
D.illustrate the increase of time children spend on mobile devices.
2.According to Douglas Gentile, parents_________.
A.can totally control children's use of mobile devices .
B.always use mobile devices in favor of their children.
C.partly cause children's increasing use of mobile devices.
D.often discourage their children from using mobile devices.
3.The underlined word in the last paragraph most probably means “_________”.
A.rare use. B.important role.
C.obvious benefit D.common existence
高三英语阅读理解中等难度题查看答案及解析
With TV shows like ''Sex and The City” and "Baywatch" making the leap to the big screen, fans of 90s sitcom "Friends" had been hoping and praying that a movie would be on the way.
Sadly, Jennifer Aniston - who played Rachel Green throughout the sitcom's 10 seasons - has now flattened hopes of a restart. In an interview with Variety, the 50-year-old actress said that although there was some interest in a movie, producers wouldn't allow it.
Asked if her former castmates Courteney Cox (Monica Geller), Lisa Kudrow (Phoebe Buffay), Matt LeBlanc (Joey Tribbiani), Matthew Perry (Chandler Bing) and David Schwimmer (Ross Geller) would be open to repeating their roles, she continued, "It depends. I mean, we haven't all sat in a room. But would we have loved to have done something together? Yeah. It would have been fun. We could have redesigned it for a couple of episodes. But whatever. Maybe it's better this way, but we'll never know.”
Aniston said she was surprised that fans are still watching reruns of the show on Netflix, 25 years after it first premiered. “It's a phenomenon that I am amazed by. To have a whole new generation of children adoring the show as much as they did back in the day when it was airing for the first time is incredible.”
Aniston's comments come just months after Adam Sandler, her co-star in the new Netflix comedy “Murder Mystery,” called on her and the cast of “Friends” to “make a movie”. “‘Friends' was a powerhouse,” he told People in June.
Marta Kauffman- who co-created the show with David Crane - has said in the past that a restart ran the risk of ruining the show's heart. “One, the show is about a time in your life when your friends are your family. It's not that time anymore,” she told Rolling Stone magazine in 2013. “All we'd be doing is putting those six actors back together, but the heart of the show would be gone. Two, I don't know what good it does us. The show is doing just fine, people love it. A reunion could only disappoint.”
1.Jennifer Aniston was amazed mainly because_____ .
A."Friends” are still being shown on Netflix
B.producers wouldn't allow the reunion of "Friends”
C.even today's young people like "Friends" so much
D.fans of 90s “Friends” expect its movie to be on the way
2. “The heart” of “Friends” mentioned by Marta Kauffman may indicate_____ .
A.the happy time of the old generation
B.the important roles of friends in modem times
C.the value of friendship in young adults’ life back then
D.the balance between friends and families 25 years ago
3.We can conclude from the passage that .
A.a "Friends" movie may never happen
B.Variety is pushing "Friends" to be filmed
C.actors of "Friends" all hope to see a reunion
D.Jennifer shows high expectation on filming "Friends"
高三英语阅读理解中等难度题查看答案及解析