Frederick M. Hess is the director of education policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute, which is a nonprofit organization that conducts research on many public issues. He says that a long summer vacation doesn’t make sense in today’s world.

Can American students afford to take a summer vacation? In a summer vacation, millions of kids spend valuable time sending messages, watching TV, playing video games and doing shopping in the mall. They will also be putting their academic futures at risk.

Summer vacation once made sense in the past when you didn’t need an education to get a good job. But now things have changed. For today’s students, academic skills are important to students’ future success, but such skills are affected in the summertime. Many nations don’t give kids an American-style summer vacation. They offer no more than seven consecutive(連續(xù)的) weeks of vacation. Most American school districts offer up to thirteen weeks. To compete in the global marketplace, Americans must be prepared to go up against international competitors.

Summer vacation also causes challenges for today’s families. In the 1960s, more than 60% of families had a stay-at-home Mom. Now two-thirds of American children live in households where every adult works. For these families, summer vacation can be more burden than break. Someone must watch the kids.

But the biggest problem may be how summer vacation hurts academic achievement. Researchers have found that disadvantaged students lose significant ground in the summertime.

A longer school year does not have to be an invitation to hard boring work. Rather, it should allow time-pressed teachers to conduct richer and more imaginative lessons. Schools would have more time to devote to athletics, languages, music and the arts. Summer vacation can be a grand thing. But in the 21st century, it may also be outdated.

Title: Summer Vacation

閱讀下面短文，然后按要求寫一篇150詞左右的英語(yǔ)短文。

“When should I begin to acquire good habits?”a young boy asked his teacher.

“How old are you?” asked the teacher.

“Eight years old, sir.”answered the boy.

“Then you have just lost eight years,”the teacher replied.

There is no doubt that habits are formed at a very early age. When one is young, it is easy to acquire good habits.

Good habits are practices that help us in our daily life. The habit of brushing one’s teeth in the morning, for instance, keeps one’s teeth clean and prevents a bad smell which is unpleasant to others. Bad habits such as sticking one’s tongue out, biting one’s fingernails and picking one’s nose, are undesirable ways of behaving in front of others. If we want people to enjoy being with us, we should try to develop habits that are pleasant.

It is said, “We sow an act; we reap a habit. We sow a habit and we reap a character.” The habits we formed at an early age shape our character. Habits are like tributaries(支流) which flow into a river. The river is made up of all its tributaries; a person’s character is made up of all the habits that he or she has acquired over the years.

【寫作內(nèi)容】

1. 以約30個(gè)詞概括本文內(nèi)容；

2. 以約120個(gè)詞談?wù)勀銓?duì)好習(xí)慣養(yǎng)成的看法，并包括以下要點(diǎn)：

（1）你認(rèn)為好習(xí)慣重要嗎，為什么？

（2）你身上有哪些好習(xí)慣，它們對(duì)你的學(xué)習(xí)或生活有什么影響？

（3）怎樣才能養(yǎng)成良好的習(xí)慣？

【寫作要求】

1. 作文中可以使用親身經(jīng)歷或虛構(gòu)的故事，也可以參照閱讀材料的內(nèi)容，但不得直接引用原文的句子。

2. 作文中不得出現(xiàn)真實(shí)姓名和學(xué)校名稱。

---Why was the movie a turn-off? I thought you liked thrillers.

--- Well, I do enjoy it. However, I dislike______ when the actors’ expressions are so fake and unnatural.

A. that B. those C. them D. it

Next door to ours _______, who seem to have settled in this community for quite a long time.

A. are living a black couple B. are a black couple living

C. live a black couple D. do a black couple live

“American will fulfill the commitments that we have made: cutting our emission in the _________ of 17 percent by 2020”, said Obama.

A. form B. range C. state D. need

A lot of the waste thrown away in the U.S. __________ being shipped overseas to China, India, and other developing countries.

A. breaks up B. clears up

C. sums up D. ends up

---I wonder what makes you a good salesperson

---I _______ as a waiter for three years , which contributes a lot to my today’s work.

A. serve B. have served

C had served D. served

Body mass index, or BMI, is a measure of a person’s weight_________ height. A person with a BMI of twenty-five to twenty-nine is considered overweight.

A. in view of B. in relation to

C. in terms of D. in response to

China has said it will _______ support for foreign investment in the country’s car industry to encourage domestic car-makers.

A. withdraw B. distribute

C. command D. appeal

“The Mozart effect” is a study described in 1993 in Nature ________ aroused public interest about the idea ________ listening to a classical music somehow improves the brain.

A. that; which B. what; why

C. who; that D. which; that