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My 10-year-old granddaughter was happy the day before yesterday because her mother took her and her friend to a park to celebrate Children’s Day. For a whole day, the two girls played heartily---no homework, no extra-curricular (课外) skills training. The happy life lasted only for one day. Yesterday, everything returned to normal: doing homework till late at night and going over lessons learned at last weekend’s English and “Olympic maths” courses.
Every time I went to my daughter’s house in the evening, I saw her sitting by the small desk in the room doing her homework. On the wall behind the desk are some words she wrote. One sentence reads: “Why is the exercise endless?” Poor girl!
Although teachers have stopped giving after-school homework to primary school children, parents have been forcing their kids to attend different courses-learning English, painting, “Olympic maths” and so on, every Saturday and Sunday.
Are these extra-curricular courses really necessary in children’s education? The answer is certainly “No”. Take the so-called “Olympic maths” for example. These courses are very difficult for the children to understand. Often, they are difficult even for adults.
1.The writer’s granddaughter celebrated her Children’s Day by ________.
A. playing all day B. doing nothing
C. having a party D. going over lessons
2.Usually at weekends the girl will ________.
A. stay at home B. play with their classmates
C. do whatever she likes D. go to different kinds of training courses
3.The writer thinks that her granddaughter ________.
A. lives a happy life B. goes to bed early at weekend
C. has too much homework D. likes to do more exercises
4.Which is true according to the passage?
A. The “Olympic Maths” is too difficult for kids.
B. The grandfather thinks playing is more important than learning.
C. Teachers often give students useless homework.
D. The parents don’t want their kids to do lots of homework.
难度: 困难查看答案及解析
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The robin (知更鸟) stood on an old climbing plant, and sang his most beautiful song. Suddenly the wind made the plant move, and Mary saw something under the dark green leaves. The thick, heavy plant was covering a door. Mary’s heart was beating fast and her hands were shaking as she pushed the leaves away and found the keyhole. She took the key out of her pocket, and it fit the hole. Using both hands, she managed to unlock the door. Then she turned round to see if anyone was watching. But there was no one, so she pushed the door, which opened, slowly, for the first time in ten years. She walked quickly in and closed the door behind her. At last she was inside the secret garden!
It was the loveliest, most exciting place she had ever seen. There were old rose trees everywhere, and the walls were covered with climbing roses. She looked carefully at the grey branches (枝条). Were the roses still alive? Ben would know. She hoped they weren’t all dead. But she was inside the wonderful garden, in a world of her own. It seemed very strange and silent, but she did not feel lonely at all. Then she noticed some small green shoots coming up through the grass. So something was growing in the garden after all! When she found a lot more shoots in different places, she decided they needed more air and light, so she began to pull out the thick grass around them. She worked away, clearing the ground, for two or three hours, and had to take her coat off because she got so hot. The robin hopped around, pleased to see someone gardening.
1.What did Mary see under dark green leaves?
A. a robin B. a door C. a key D. rose trees
2.How did Mary feel after walking in the secret garden?
A. excited B. sad C. angry D. calm
3.How many years has the garden been empty?
A. Never B. 10 C. 5 D. 1
4.Why did Mary pull out the thick grass around the shoots?
A. Because the thick grass was ugly.
B. Because she wanted to plant more rose trees.
C. Because she wanted to give shoots more air and light.
D. Because she felt hot in this secret garden.
难度: 困难查看答案及解析
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Music and Art will enter the Entrance Exam for the high school in Jiangsu. Without music, life would be a mistake. Music is a big part of our lives. But in recent years, some US schools have cut music classes to control budgets (预算).
For example, Chicago public schools hurt arts education when it fired (解雇) over 1,000 teachers. Among them, 10 percent of the teachers taught art or music, according to The Washington Times. In fact, this is not just a problem in the US. In other countries, such as China and the UK, music classes are not thought to be as important as ones like science, math and history. That’s partly because music is not seen as a very important life skill, and it isn’t tested. Many students are busy with schoolwork, so parents and students choose to focus on subjects that are tested more often.
However, learning music is beneficial (有益的) in many ways.
(4) When playing music, you need different abilities to work together. It is not as simple as it looks, according to Kenneth Guilmartin of Music Together, an early childhood music development program. For example, when playing the piano, people see music notes and decode (解码) them in their brains. They also use their fingers to make sounds. You need to deal with all these things at the same time.
Music has a special connection with science as well. You can see that many scientists are good at playing music: Einstein played the violin, and German physicist Max Planck was talented in playing the piano.
1.Some schools in the US cut music classes, because ________.
A. students in the US weren’t interested in music
B. they were too difficult to learn
C. there weren’t enough music teachers in the US
D. the schools wanted to control budgets
2.In Paragraph 2, what does the underlined word “them” refer to (指代)？
A. Public schools. B. Fired teachers.
C. Parents in Chicago. D. Students in Chicago.
3.What’s the main idea of Paragraph 4?
A. Different abilities are needed to work together while we are playing music.
B. Playing the piano needs people to use fingers to make sounds.
C. Decoding music notes is needed while we are playing music.
D. Playing the piano needs people to see music notes.
4.What’s the writer’s opinion according to this passage?
A. Music is as simple as it looks.
B. Music classes should be cut in some schools.
C. Music is a big part of our lives.
D. Music isn’t a very important life skill for us.
难度: 困难查看答案及解析
