Read the following article and select the best answer. Article: Each new school year brings fresh reminders of what educators call the summer learning gap. Some call it the summer learning setback. Put simply, it means the longer kids are out of school, the more they forget. The only thing they seem to gain is weight. Most American schools follow a traditional nine-month calendar with winter and spring breaks and about ten weeks of summer vacation. Some schools follow a year-round calendar. They hold classes for about eight weeks at a time, with a few weeks off in between. The National Association for Year-Round Education says there were fewer than 3,000 such schools at last count. They were spread among forty-six of the fifty states. But many experts point out that the number of class days in a year round school is generally the same as in a traditional school. Brenda McLaughlin is a research director at the National Centre for Summer Learning at Johns Hopkins University. She says studies of year-round schooling have not found strong learning gains. Lead researcher Paul von Hippel said, "Year round schools don't really solve the problem of the summer learning setback. They simply spread it out across the year." Across the country, research shows that students from poor families fall farther behind over the summer than other students. Experts say this can be prevented. They note that many schools and local governments offer programmes that can help. However, calling such programmes "summer school" could be a problem. The director of the summer learning centre at Johns Hopkins, Ikon Fairchild, said research with groups of different parents in Chicago and Baltimore found that almost all strongly disliked the term "summer school". In American culture, the idea of summer vacation is connected to beliefs about freedom and the joys of childhood. The parents preferred other terms like "summer camp, "extra time" and "hands-on learning. Question: Compared to those in traditional schools, students in the year-round schools _ . - perform better and learn more - have much less time for relaxation every year - have generally the same number of class days - hold more classes and have more weeks off
have generally the same number of class days
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Read the following article and select the best answer. Article: The Segway Human Transporter was invented by Dean Kamen.It is a two-wheeled vehicle designed for a single rider standing upright over its single axle and navigate using a set of handlebars resembling those on a bicycle.Electrically powered, it could travel over 15 miles on a single charge and reach speeds up to twelve miles per hour.Its speed and direction can be controlled by riders' changing their weights. A college dropout and self-taught engineer, Kamen already held over 100 patents for his inventions when he developed the one he hoped would revolutionize short-distance travel.While still in college, Kamen started developing the medical devices that made his name.Later, he changed focus to the challenges faced by wheelchair users.His robotic wheelchair known as IBOT could climb stairs.This robot ended up paving the way for the Segway. Before showing his most recent invention, Kamen had kept it a top secret for months.When it turned out to be little more than a motor scooter, many publicly expressed their disappointment.On closer examination, however, even his critics had to admit that the vehicle was an engineering achievement.It answered the prayers of anyone who is worn out when walking downtown.Not everyone welcomed the Segway's arrival, though.Some complained it was too expensive, while others said it would further weaken the average American ' s fitness.A Japanese inventor even accused Kamen of stealing the idea for the Segway from him. Despite the controversy, the U.S.postal service began using Kamen's invention a month after its appearance, and a factory was built with plans to produce about 40,000 Segways every month.The argument is still on whether the Segway will be remembered as the greatest invention since the light bulb, or just another forgettable electronic device.Anyway, trips to the local supermarket will never be the same again. Question: Some people expressed dissatisfaction with the Segway because of its _ - high cost - danger to traffic - being difficult to use - contribution to laziness
high cost
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Read the following article and select the best answer. Article: The world is not coming to an end on December 21st, 2012, the US space agency announced to dispel widespread rumors fueled by the Internet and a new Hollywood movie. The latest big screen 2012 was based on stories according to the Mayan calendar.It showed that by the end of 2012, a Planet X will collide with the earth. Some websites accuse NASA of hiding the truth on the planet's existence, but the US space agency considered such stories as tricks."There is no basis in fact for these claims," NASA said in its website."If such a collision were real, scientists would have been tracking it for at least the last decade, and we would see _ with our eyes now.Obviously, it doesn't exist and there will be no threat to the earth in 2012," it insisted."After all, our planet has been getting along just well for more than four billion years," added NASA. There is another planet, Eris, floating in space.But the small planet will remain safely fixed in the outer solar system and it can come no closer than four billion miles to the earth, according to NASA. And even if the planets were to line up as some have forecast, the effect on our plant would be very little."And while comets and asteroids have always hit the earth, big hits are very rare," NASA noted.The last major collision was believed to be 65 million years ago, resulting the end of dinosaurs . "We are sure that there are no threatening asteroids as large as the one that killed the dinosaurs," the space agency said. Question: What do we know about Eris according to the passage? - It doesn't exist in the universe. - It won't threaten the earth. - It is too far to be seen. - It is similar to the earth.
It won't threaten the earth.
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