A group of senior high school students are playing outside on a basketball court. They are shouting with excitement. And they all have the same dream. They wish to play in the NBA, just like Huston Rocket’s Yao Ming. “Someday, there will be more Chinese players like Yao in the NBA,” said 15-year-old Xie Tao, a senior 1 boy at Shanghai No. 2 Middle School. Xie always watches Yao playing on TV. “He is a great player. He makes me proud to be Chinese,” he said.
Like Xie, 17-year-old Liu Yan at Beijing No. 22 Middle School is also a big NBA fan. “Since early May, I’ve not missed one game in the NBA,” said the senior 3 student.
Basketball is becoming popular in middle schools across the country. And more young players are starting to like the sport. More students are playing the game.
Jiang Hui, a basketball teacher at Beijing No. 2 Middle School, said that 85 percent of the students at this school like the sport. “Students are full of passion for the game,” Jiang’s team won the regional first prize in the 2004 National High School Boy’s Basketball League in   march. The league is the first national basketball competition for high school students.
Playing basketball is a good way to exercise. But students also enjoy it for other reasons. For Li Yan, a Senior 2 at Shanghai No. 12 Middle School, basketball teaches him lessons in life. “When I am in a game, I feel more confident about my studies, “ he said. “ It also teaches me to have a good team spirit and to enjoy friendship.”
【小題1】The same dream of the group of senior high school students is to ______.

How to deal successfully  with a child showing outstanding musical ability? It’s not always clear how best to develop and encourage his gift. Many parents may even fail to recognize and respond to their children′s need until discouragement explodes into uncooperative(不合作的)behavior. And while most schools are equipped to deal with children who are especially able in academic subjects，the musically gifted require special understanding which may not always be available in an ordinary school. Such children may well benefit from the education offered by a specialist music school.
The five music schools in Britain aim to provide all environment where gifted children can develop their skills under the guidance of professional musicians. Children here spend about half of a day on musical activities，for example，individual lessons，orchestras，chamber(室內(nèi)音樂的)groups，voice training，conducting and theory. They also spend several hours a day practicing in private rooms .The rest of their time is taken up with the subjects：English，maths and basic sciences.
What are the disadvantages? An obvious problem is that the fees are high .However, each school will often scholarships and other forms of financial aid. Secondly, not all parents want to send their children to boarding school, especially at an early age .Almost all the directors of the specialist schools express doubts about the wisdom of admitting children as young as seven into such a tense and disciplined（守紀律的)environment. They stress，however, that their main aim is to turn out “well-rounded and well—balanced individual.”
【小題1】If a child’s musical ability is not recognized___________.

Kids will often ignore your requests for them to shut off the TV, start their chores(雜事),or do their homework as a way to avoid following your directions. Before you know it, you’ve started to sound like a broken record as you repeatedly ask them to do their assignments, clean their room, or take out the trash. Rather than saying “Do your chores now.” you’ll be more effective if you set a target time for when the chores have to be completed. So instead of arguing about starting chores, just say, “If chores aren’t done by 4 pm, here are the consequences.” Then it’s up to your child to complete the chores. Put the ball back in their court. Don’t argue or fight with them, just say, “That’s the way it’s going to be.” It shouldn’t be punitive(懲罰性的)as much as it should be persuasive. “If your chores aren’t done by 4 pm, then no video game time until chores are done. And if finishing those chores runs into homework time, that’s going to be your loss.” On the other hand, when dealing with homework, keep it very simple. Have a time when homework starts, and at that time, all electronics go off and do not go back on until you see that their homework is done. If your kids say they have no homework, then they should use that time to study or read. Either way, there should be a time set aside when the electronics are off.
When a kid wears his iPod or headphones when you’re trying to talk to him, make no bones about it；he is not ignoring you, he is disrespecting you. At that point, everything else should stop until he takes the earplugs out of his ears. Don’t try to communicate with him when he’s wearing headphones — even if he tells you he can hear you. Wearing them while you’re talking to him is a sign of disrespect. Parents should be very tough about this kind of thing. Remember, mutual respect becomes more important as children mature.
【小題1】According to the passage, it seldom happens that ________.

  How would you like to teach yourself, rather than have teachers? According to the UK’s Department of Education and Skills, students will teach themselves in the schools of the future. This means that there will be no more problems such as finding enough teachers.
Estelle Morris, the UK Education Secretary, opened the 2002 Education Technology Conference in London recently. To start the conference, she presented a video showing a computer—generated model of the school of tomorrow.
Greater use of computer technology and classroom assistants will help students develop their own way of learning, Morris said. She added that this is a more exciting as well as a more interesting way of learning.
At the same time, teachers will be “freed from their traditional role as the source of all knowledge”.
Children of all abilities will “form the curriculum(課程)around their individual needs.” They will “l(fā)earn in their own time, at their own speed and in their own environment”.
At home or at school, they will follow their learning programmes by looking at online libraries and watching lessons by world-class teachers and subject experts.
Instead of going on field trips, students will use virtual reality. If they don’t understand something, they can ask other students—“take part in virtual communities with learners with similar needs”—or e-mail their teachers. They will hand in their work electronically to be “auto-marked”.
The classroom of the future is fast becoming a reality.
And the Department of Education will soon produce a guide to help schools adapt buildings for new technology, Morris said. These ideas are based on the UK government’s plan to create an education system that provides students with a strong grounding of knowledge and skills at primary school level. And provides the chance for students to develop their individual skills at secondary school level.
【小題1】According to the UK’s Department of Education and Skills, the school of the future will ______.

Going to college and living away from home for the first time can be terribie．Students tend to have higher academic achievements in college when they enjoy living in the dormitory．Most colleges and universities have many programs that help first-year students adjust to studying and living in a new community．Take advantage of these programs and make new friends as you adjust to your college life．
         ．Greet and meet everyone in the dorm．Find out their class schedules and hobbies．You may be able to find study partners this way．Most students are just like you being away from their home the first time．Don't be afraid toknock on your neighbors'doors and introduce yourself．The residence(居住區(qū))staff will also help you in adjusting tocollege iife．Get to know them as soon as possible．
Get along with your roommate．Your roommates can be eitherr your lifelong friends or enemies．Try to be friends to them．Respect each other, including their space．Do not use your roommates’ belongings without permission．Communicate among each other regarding your daily schedule, study or sleep habits and off campus guest visits. Always say hello．
Get involved．To adjust to college life away from home，you need to got involved in college activities．Join clubs．Attend events that are hosted by your residence life and academic departments．Attend those events with your new friends. Most colleges have many events throughout the semester．Student union is a great place to meet new friends and learn about the upcoming events．
Call home when you need to．College life can be very exciting in the beginning. Most students get lonely and homesick during the middle of the semester or during festivals，It is normal to feel sad．Call home or even visit home when you need to. Talk to your friends back home．Understand that many people love and support you and they are very proud of you．
【小題1】What does the text mainly tell us?

Let children learn to judge their own work. A child learning to talk does not learn by being corrected all the time; _________________, he will stop talking. He notices a thousand times a day the difference between the language he uses and the language those around him use. Bit by bit, he makes the necessary changes to make his language like other people’s. In the same way children, learning to do all the other things without being taught to walk, run, climb, whistle, ride a bicycle, compare their own performances（表現(xiàn)）with those of more skilled people, and slowly make the needed changes. But in school we never give a child a chance to find out his mistakes for himself, let alone correct them. We do it all for him. We act as if we thought that he would never notice a mistake unless it was pointed out to him, or correct it unless he was made to. Soon he became dependent on the teacher.
Why should we teachers waste time on such tiring work? Our job should be to help the child when he tells us that he can’t find the way to get the right answer. Let’s end all this nonsense（荒謬的）of grades, exams and marks. Let us throw them all out, and let the children learn what all educated persons must someday learn, how to measure their own understanding, how to know what they know or do not know.
We should, of course, offer help to them just as they ask for it. The idea that there is a body of knowledge to be learnt at school and used for the rest of one’s life is nonsense in a world as complicated（復(fù)雜的）and rapidly changing as ours. Don’t worry! If something is basic, they will go out into the world and learn it.
【小題1】What is the main idea of the passage? (No more than 8 words.)
_____________________________________________________________________________
【小題2】Which sentence in the passage can be replaced by the following one?
Teachers seem to think that a child can’t find out a mistake or correct it without their help.
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
【小題3】Please fill in the blank in the first paragraph with proper words or phrases to complete the sentence.
(No more than 10 words.)
_____________________________________________________________________________
【小題4】According to the passage, what should a teacher do? (No more than 15 words.)
A teacher should ______________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
【小題5】What is the author’s attitude towards grades, exams and marks at school?
(No more than 5 words.)
The author thinks _____________________________________________________________

As computers become all the more popular in China, Chinese people are increasingly depending on computer keyboards to input Chinese characters. But if they use the computer too much, they may end up forgetting the exact strokes（筆畫） of each Chinese character when writing on paper. Experts suggest people, especially students, write by hand more.
Do you write by hand more or type more? In Beijing, students start using a computer as early as primary school. And computer dependence is more wide-spread among university students. Almost all their homework and essays are typed on a computer.
All the students interviewed say they usually use a computer.
It's faster and easier to correct if using a computer. And that's why computers are being applied more and more often to modern education. But when people are taking stock in computers increasingly, problems appear.
"When I'm writing with a pen, I find I often can't remember how to write a character, though I feel I’m familiar with it."
"I'm not in the mood to write when faced with a pen and paper."
Many students don't feel this is something to worry about. Now that it's more convenient and quick to write on a computer, why bother to handwrite?
Many educators think differently. Shi Liwei , the headmaster of a famous primary school in the capital said "Chinese characters enjoy both practical and aesthetic(審美的) value. But those characters typed with computer keyboards only have their practical value. All the artistic beauty of the characters is lost. And handwriting contains the writer's emotion(情緒). Through one's handwriting, people can get to know one's thinking and personality. Beautiful writing will give people a better first impression of them.”
To encourage students to handwrite more, many primary schools in Beijing have made writing classes compulsory(必修的)and in universities, some professors are asking students to turn in their homework and essays written by hand.
【小題1】The students interviewed prefer to write using a computer mainly because______.

For many parents, raising a teenager is like fighting a long war, but years go by without any clear winner. Like a border conflict between neighboring countries, the parent-teen war is about boundaries: Where is the line between what I control and what you do?
Both sides want peace, but neither feels it has any power to stop the conflict. In part, this is because neither is willing to admit any responsibility for starting it. From the parents’ point of view, the only cause of their fight is their adolescents’ complete unreasonableness. And of course, the teens see it in exactly the same way, except oppositely. Both feel trapped.
In this article, I’ll describe three no-win situations that commonly arise between teens and parents and then suggest some ways out of the trap. The first no-win situation is quarrels over  unimportant things. Examples include the color of the teen’s hair, the cleanliness of the bedroom, the preferred style of clothing, the child’s failure to eat a good breakfast before school or his tendency to sleep until noon on the weekends. Second, blaming. The goal of a blaming battle is to make the other admit that his bad attitude is the reason why everything goes wrong. Third, needing to be right. It doesn’t matter what the topic is—politics, the laws of physics, or the proper way to break an egg—the  point of these arguments is to prove that you are right and the other person is wrong, for both wish to be considered an authority—someone who actually knows something—and therefore to command respect. Unfortunately, as long as parents and teens continue to assume that they know more than the other, they’ll continue to fight these battles forever and never make any real progress.
【小題1】Why does the author compare the parent-teen war to a border conflict?

As a professor I have grown accustomed to the opinion regarding American education. We are repeatedly told that American schools are failing, that colleges are not teaching, and that the students of today are not as good as the students of the past.
There are, of course, problems with the education system. Because of economic inequality some schools are significantly better than others and the ideas of equality of education and equality of opportunity are cruel jokes. However, the mere fact that there are some serious problems does not mean that all the dire claims are true.
One stock (陳腐的) claim is that America has fallen behind the world in education in terms of performance on various tests. While the fact that America is behind other countries is a point of concern, there are at least three points worth considering here. The first is the above-mentioned economic inequality which will tend to result in poorer performance when taking the average for America. The second is that many countries have put considerable effort into improving their education systems and hence it is worth considering that America’s decline is also due to the improvement of others. The third is the matter of the measures— do they, in fact, present an accurate picture of the situation? I am not claiming that the data is bad. I am merely raising a reasonable concern about how accurate our picture of education is at this time.
Another stock claim is that American students are doing badly on standardized tests. While there is clearly value in assessment, it is reasonable to consider whether or not such tests are a proper and adequate measure of education. It is also worth considering whether the puzzle with these tests is itself causing damage to education. That is, as teachers teach for the test and students learn for the test, it might be the case that what is being taught is not what should be taught and what is being learned is not what should be learned.
【小題1】According to the professor, many people’s attitude towards American colleges is          .

It’s five minutes before the exam and you are in a state of panic. You just have to pass it, but how? You didn’t even open the book the night before and you hear a voice in your head saying “Cheat, cheat ...” So what are you going to do, ignore it and fail or go for it? It’s a tough decision many students must make.
Most young people believe that cheating is wrong. However, they have cheated at least once in their high school years. So, why do they do it? Are they too lazy to study? Perhaps, it’s not as simple as that. According to some experts, one main reason why students cheat is that they see their friends get away with it. It’s an easy way out. They avoid embarrassment and their parents’ anger for not doing well in an exam. Another reason is that students think it’s OK to cheat if the subject isn’t important for their future career. What’s more, most students have to put up with the pressure of getting into university. They need to get good marks to carry on with their studies. This means that there will always be students who will do anything for a better mark.
It has never been easier to cheat than it is today. With all the technology available, students needn’t cheat by looking over their shoulders anymore. They use mobile phones to send answers to each other during a test. There is also the Internet. With hundreds of websites, students don’t have to worry because they can find lots of material which they can copy and use in projects. There are even tips on the art of cheating in exams.
Obviously, if you get caught cheating, you fail the exam or the subject. But it doesn’t really matter whether you get caught or not. What’s important is that it’s wrong. You mustn’t cheat because cheating is a lie. It deceives (欺騙) people into thinking you know more than you actually do. How can you be proud of something you have achieved through cheating? In the end, it’s not about deceiving your teachers and your parents, but about fooling yourself that you can do something you really can’t.
【小題1】The tough decision that many students have to make before an exam is         .