Everybody cheats. Whether it’s the taxi driver who tricks a visitor and takes them the long way round, or the shop assistant who doesn’t give the correct change, or the police officer who accepts a bribe (賄賂) – everybody’s at it. Cheats in the nest include the scientist whose research was based on fake data, the game show competitors who worked with a friend in the audience or win a million pounds, and the doctor who made up his qualifications and wasn’t really a doctor at all. Everybody cheats; nobody’s playing the game.
Is cheating acceptable, a natural way of surviving and being successful? Or is it something that should be frowned on, and young people discouraged from doing? If it’s the latter how can we explain to children why so many bend the rules?
Take sport for example. The Word Cup was filled with cheating. Whether diving, pretending to be hurt or denying a handball, footballers will do anything for a free – kick or a penalty shot. France striker Henry denied cheating to win the free – kick which led to his side’s second goal in their 3 – 1 victory over Spain. Many footballers, however, are often putting it on. Whatever the nationality there’s one common ploy: the player rolls over holding their leg, ankle or head seeming to be in great pain. As a result a yellow card and / or free – kick is given for the foul and then, a few seconds later, the player is up and about as if nothing had happened ! The ref (裁判) may be taken in by it but youngsters watching the game aren’t. they also see their heroes getting away with it.
Of course it’s not just football. In 1998 the Tour de France, the world’s greatest cycling event, was hit by a drug – taking scandal (丑聞). The 40 bottles of forbidden drugs found with the Fustian team caused a massive investigation that almost caused the Tour to be abandoned. One rider, Veronique, was banned for 9 months. He claimed: “You have cheats in sport, just as you do in business – there will always be people trying to take a short cut. At least we’re not turning a blind eye to the problem, which other sports are.”
Is it all unavoidable? There’s huge pressure on all athletes to perform for their fans and for their sponsors. It’s success, money and power that rule professional sport rather than an honest at tempt to do the best one can.
Meanwhile companies around the world are losing billions of dollars to fake products. From cut price CDs and DVDs to sportswear, cheap fake products are everywhere. It has become socially acceptable to buy fake Gucci bags and illegal copies of films. If parents are doing this, their children will follow.
So perhaps it’s not surprising that around the world more pupils than ever are caught cheating during exams. In one case missing exam papers were put up for sale on the Internet. In another, widespread cheating took place by pupils using their mobile phones to receive tested answers. They blame the pressure put on them to do well in exams. It doesn’t help that their role models are also cheats. Surely we can’t complain when we’re setting such a bad example.
【小題1】According to the passage, in which way can a game show player cheat?

A．By taking an indirect way.	B．By gaining aid from a friend.
C．By taking forbidden drugs.	D．By selling fake products.

【小題2】The phrase “be frowned on”(Paragraph 2) most probably means           .

A．to be disapproved of	B．to be pushed forward
C．to be taken the place of	D．to be stuck with

【小題3】The writer’s suppose for writing this passage is to         .

A．explain why people in almost every field cheat

B．complain about cheats in school education

C．persuade young people not to cheat in exams

D．blame the society for tolerating cheats

【小題4】The writer mentions the example of the World Cup in Paragraph 3 in order to           .

A．show cheating is a common phenomenon nowadays

B．discuss the relationship between sport and cheating

C．explore the nature of cheating in important events

D．warn coaches and athletes of the danger of cheating

【小題5】Which of the following is the main idea of the passage?

A．Exams are not a good way of testing children.

B．Children are natural cheats.

C．If adults cheat, children will cheat too.

D．Everyone including children cheats.

What time is it？Most people are pretty accurate in their answer. And if you don’t know for sure, it’s very likely that you can find out. There may be a watch on your wrist; there may be a clock on the wall, desk, or computer screen; or maybe you’re riding in a car that has a clock in the dashboard .
Even if you don’t have a timepiece of some sort nearby, your body keeps its own beat. Humans have an internal clock that regulates (調節(jié)) the beating of our heart, the peace of our breathing, the discharge (排出) of chemicals within our bloodstream, and many other bodily functions.
Time is something from which we can’t escape. Even if we ignore it, it’s still going by, ticking away, second by second, minute by minute, hour by hour. So the main issue in using your time well is, “who’s in charge？” We can allow time to slip by and let it be our enemy. Or we can take control of it and make it our ally.
By taking control of how you spend your time, you'll increase your chances of becoming a more 
successful student. Perhaps more importantly, the better you are at managing the time you devote to your 
studies, the more time you'll have to spend on your outside interests. 
The aim of time management is not to schedule every moment so we become slaves of a timetable that 
governs every waking moment of the day. Instead, the aim is to make informed choices as to how we use 
our time. Rather than letting the day go by, largely without our awareness, what we are going to discuss 
next can make us better able to control time for our own purposes.
【小題1】The underlined word “ally” in Para.3 most likely means somebody or something that is ________.

A．your slave and serves you

B．your supporter an helps you

C．under your control and obeys you

D．under your influence and follows you

【小題2】The author intends to tell us that time ________.

A．could be regulated by a timepiece such as a clock or a watch

B．could be managed by the internal clock by human bodies

C．should be well managed for our own interest

D．should be saved for outside interests

【小題3】In the next part, the author would most probably discuss with you ________.

A．how to keep up with the times	B．how to make up for lost time
C．how to have a good time	D．how to make good use of time

One is never too old to learn. Life learning (sometimes called un-schooling or self-directed learning) is one of those concepts that are almost easier to explain by saying what it isn’t than what it is. And that’s probably because our own schooled backgrounds have convinced us that learning happens only in a fine building on certain days, between certain hours, and managed by a specially trained professional.
Within that schooling framestudy, no matter how hard teachers try and no matter how good their textbooks, many bright students get bored, many slower students struggle and give up or lose their self-respect, and most of them reach the end of the process unprepared to enter into society. They have memorized a certain body of knowledge long enough to rush back the information on tests, but they haven’t really learnt much, at least of the official curriculum.
Life learners, on the other hand, know that learning is not difficult, that people learn things quite easily if they’re not compelled and forced, if they see a need to learn something, and if they are trusted and respected enough to learn it on their own timetable, at their own speed, in their own way—no matter what age and no matter whether we’re at school or at home.
Life learning is independent of time, location or the presence of teacher. It does not require mom or dad to teach, or kids to work in workbooks at the table from 9 to noon. Life learning is learner-driven. It involves living and learning—in and from the real world. It is about exploring, questioning, experimenting, making messes, taking risks without fear of making mistakes, being laughed at and trying again.
Furthermore, life learning is about trusting kids to learn what they need to know and about helping them to learn and grow in their own ways. It is about providing positive experiences that enable children to understand the world and their culture and to interact with it.
【小題1】It is implied in the text that it is hard to ______.

A．tell the nature of life learning	B．carry life learning through
C．learn without going to school	D．find a specially trained teacher

【小題2】According to the author, the schooling framestudy often ______.

A．produces slow students with poor memories

B．ignores some parts of the official curriculum

C．fails to provide enough knowledge about life

D．gives little care to the quality of teaching materials

【小題3】Life learners recognize that learning will not be difficult if they are ______.

A．able to respect other people	B．careful to make a time table
C．clear about why to learn	D．cautious about any mistakes

【小題4】According to the author, life learning ______.

A．could prevent one from running risks

B．teaches a kid how to avoid being laughed at

C．makes a kid independent of his parents

D．could be a road full of trials and errors

【小題5】Through life learning, children ______.

A．will grow without the assistance from parents

B．will be seperated from the negative side of society

C．will be driven to learn necessary life knowledge

D．will learn to communicate with the real society

Tre’S mom，Christina Thompson, cannot believe how much her son already learned this year in his full-day, free pre-school class in Oklahoma City. “Since he’s been in school his vocabulary has increased surprisingly,” Thompson says. “The other day he came home and said, ‘You know what ，mom? You are being ridiculous，” Thompson laughs quietly. “And then he asked, ‘Do you know what ‘ridiculous’ means, mom?’” Tre knows the entire alphabet, his numbers to 100，and he’s starting to read. And letters and numbers aside, Thompson is most struck by how fast Tre is absorbing vocabulary and language.
Of course, not all pre-school is created equal. High quality pre-schools have well-trained, well-educated teachers in the classroom (much like Tre Thompson’s teacher Mrs. Wallace, who uses play-based learning to teach both academics and social skills and can rattle off (飛快說出） a battery of data on how well her students are progressing towards their year-end goals). Texas can also offer a model for educator development: its Texas School Ready! Campaign has proven to increase the quality of participating pre-schools by providing early childhood teachers with coaching, professional development, research-based curriculum (課程)，and progress monitoring. States and districts should also combine pre-school with the K-12 system, as Oklahoma does ，so that children enter kindergarten smoothly.
Oklahoma is one of the leading states in providing students like Tre with free ，full-day pre-school. And the results are already paying off: According to a 2012 study, Oklahoma kids that went through pre-school showed vocabulary gains 28% higher than those of children without pre-school, and math gains 44% higher than non-pre-school kids. And we know that high-quality pre-school doesn’t just mean higher scores in elementary school. They were more likely to have graduated from high school and less likely to have committed a violent crime. They also earned more money and were more likely to be employed.
We know pre-school works, so let’s stop talking and start building a system where all children have access to excellent early childhood education. As any well-educated four year old could tell us, not doing so would be ridiculous.
【小題1】The case of Tre in the first paragraph serves as the evidence of______.

A．children’s disrespect towards parents

B．the bad performance of students at school

C．the positive effect of pre-school on children

D．Thompson’s doubt about her son’s education

【小題2】At high quality pre-schools, children may learn by______

A．playing

B．modelling

C．researching

D．monitoring

【小題3】It can be inferred that______.

A．children can not enter kindergarten without pre-school

B．Oklahoma is the best state offering full-day pre-school

C．all pre-schools have well-trained, well-educated teachers

D．kids with pre-school may be better equipped for their future

【小題4】What would be the best title for the passage?

A．Not all pre-school works

B．All pre-school is created equal

C．We owe our kids universal pre-school

D．Pre-school goes well with K-12 system