People hold different views on what or how much homework should be. It is partly due to the fact that people can't seem to agree on the purpose of homework. Some teachers think that homework is necessary to reinforce what is learned in school. And so they ask their students to memorize what was discussed in class through homework. Some teachers think the point of homework is to cover material that the class didn't have time to get to, so their homework is to let students learn additional things. Other teachers like homework simply because they want students to form work habits and still others believe homework is necessary because it's the best way for parents to learn what their children do in school. However, many parents seem to have different ideas. Elisa Cohen, who has twins at Lafayette Elementary School, doesn't like the fact that third-grade students in DC elementary schools are asked to write about 25 book summaries a year. She said, "They do the same thing over and over without really getting into alternate ways of thinking about books, reading and writing." Some education reformers , such as Howard Gardner, a Harvard University professor well-known for his theory on multiple intelligence, think that Cohen is on the right track. But it's often hard to persuade overworked teachers to give much thought to homework tasks. Some education reformers think we should improve our school education by _ . A) increasing homework B) changing schools C) changing teachers D) reducing homework
D
Alone in the wilderness. Nothing but jungle. A world of shadow with the rays of light falling like blonde hair from the crowns of the giant trees. Jungle in the midday sun. Everything motionless. Not a sound from sky or earth. Complete silence. Only some coconuts falling, at long intervals, very far away. The world reduced to the soft touch of cool grass along my naked back, and a sweet smell of rich soil and vegetation. Stretched out with closed eyes beside my heavy burden of fruit and firewood, I enjoyed the feeling of fresh blood streaming through every part of my body and fresh jungle air filling every corner of my lungs. Resting motionless, I could see the sun through my closed eyelids, alone in the sky, as lonely as I, and as motionless and silent as everything else. The earth had surely stopped turning and somewhere on this planet there was supposed to be roaring traffic in busy streets. What a crazy, unbelievable thought! Another coconut fell, to make the world come to a complete standstill. I had to roll over onto my stomach to feel that at least I could move and make noises. Then I found company. A little brown ant was struggling to find its way with a bit of dry straw through the jungle of leaves and grass below my nose. I wondered if I could give the little fellow a lift with its burden, but it showed not the slightest sign of tiredness and struggled on with all six legs, head first or head last, waving its feelers energetically as if the trip had just started. Who ever saw a tired ant? Tiredness, disagreeable tiredness, is restricted to hunted animals, slaves and modern man. It is as great an effort for an office clerk to walk five blocks with a loaded brief-case as it is for a jungle-dweller to cross a valley with a goat on his back. It is as hard to get up and climb or run when you have been seated for years as it is to get up and walk when you have been in bed for months. The body is strange. Spare it, and you get really tired for almost nothing; use it, and almost nothing makes you really... We can learn from the passage that the author _ . A) enjoyed being alone B) experienced a world of quietness C) missed his busy life in the city D) had an unforgettable adventure
B
Q: Has the recent economic downturn affected your life? For many young Chinese, it has driven them to embrace a far more frugal (economical) lifestyle. Wang Hao, 24, is a prefix = st1 /Beijingoffice worker. He made a resolution in June last year to limit his weekly living expenses to 100 yuan. That's the cost of eight Big Macs inChina. "The financial crisis has taught a spending lesson to young people in China, including me," said Wang, who posted his resolution on his blog, which has drawn over 200,000 hits. As the financial crisis affects the economy, white-collar workers speak of reducing salaries. Some are unemployed. And university students are facing the worst job prospects since China's economic reform began 30 years ago. To save money, people have started to share dinners, houses, taxis and other activities with strangers they meet online. Web users post their activities on sites, such as www.Pinkewang.com and invite others to join them. Lin Xiongbo, the founder of Pinkewang, said his website saw a 100 percent increase of visitors last November after the global financial crisis broke out. People are also using websites like Lin's to share other activity ideas such as training programs, sports, and entertainments. "Sharing activities with others can save a lot of money without lowering one's quality of life," said 27-year-old Xu Li. He's a manager at a public relations firm and a long-time user of websites like Pinkewang. It was on the Internet that Xu recently found another person to take part in an English training program with him. By joining the program with another person, he and his partner received a 10 percent discount for the course, saving them more than 1,000 yuan. Young Chinese born in the 80s used to be accused of being materialistic. They favored designer clothes and the latest electronic products, and many of them spent their monthly salaries rather than saving them. They became known as the "Yueguang group". However, since the economy slowed down, this lifestyle has lost much of its charm.... The passage was written to _ . A) advertise a website called www.Pinkewang.com B) show how young Chinese are dealing with the economic situation C) show the life conditions of white-collar workers in China D) tell the readers about the economic problems China is facing
A: B
(Q).
An Australian inventor has designed and built an environmentally friendly ferry that uses solar and wind power to transport people around Sydney Harbor. Robert Dane and his Solar Sailor were given the top prize at the Australian Design Awards recently. The Solar Sailor has been in use for six months. It uses four sources of energy for its power -- solar, wind, battery power with stored solar energy and a fuel generator in store all controlled by computers. The ferry can travel up to 7.5 knots on just wind and solar power. It's solar wings and fiberglass solar panels which not only take in sunlight and store it in batteries, but also act as sails. "We angle our solar panels to the sun in two planes , which increases the amount of energy we get from the sun by 40 percent," Dane says. "And also we can use that same structure to do another job, which is also the sail, and so these wing sails actually push the ferry forward just like a soft sail does." Computers check the sun and wind and angle the solar wings to take in the most sunlight. If there isn't much wind or it is a cloudy day, energy stored in the batteries runs the electric motor for up to five hours. "If the batteries are too low, then the computer turns the generator on so the boat is always able to meet a commercial schedule, or get from point A to point B no matter what," Dan explains. Dane got his idea for the Solar Sailor from a book on insects. He was amazed how insects use their wings to collect solar energy to warm themselves. "When I read that, I realized there was a good example in nature for what we were going to do, which was to use a solar wing to collect solar energy and also to sail," he says. What is the Solar Sailor? A) A sailor who is good at using solar energy. B) An Australian inventor. C) A ferry that uses solar and wind power. D) A new type of generator designed by Dane.
(A).
C