阅读理解

　　Every day 25 million U．S．children ride school buses．The safety record for these buses is much better than for passenger cars; but nevertheless, about 10 children are killed each year riding on large school buses, and nearly four times that number are killed outside buses in the loading zones．By and large, however, the nation’s school children are transported to and from school safe．

　　Even though the number of school bus accidents is not large, the safety of children is always of intense public concern．While everyone wants to see children transported safely, people are divided about what needs to be done－particularly whether seat belts should be compulsory．

　　People in favour of seat belts on school buses－many of them parents and medical organizations－argue that seat belts are necessary not only to reduce fatality and injury, but also to teach children lessons about the importance of using them routinely in any moving vehicle．A side benefit, they point out, is that seat belts help keep children in their seats, away from the bus driver．

　　People who object to seat belt installation suggest that children are already well protected by the school buses that follow the Nation Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s(NHTSA)safety requirements set in 1977．They also believe that many children won’t wear seat belts anyway, and that may damage the belts or use them as weapons to hurt other children．

　　A new Research council report on school bus safety suggest that there are alternate safety devices and procedures that may be more effective and less expensive．For example, the study committee suggested that raising seat backs four inches may have the same safety effectiveness as seat belts．

　　The report sponsored by the Department of transportation at the request of Congress, reviews seat belts extensively while taking a broader look at safety in and around school buses．

阅读理解

　　As more women in the United States move up the professional ladder, more are finding it necessary to make business trips alone．Since this is new for many, some tips are certainly in order．If you are married, it is a good idea to encourage your husband and children to learn to cook a few simple meals while you are away．They will be much happier and probably they will enjoy the experience．

　　If you will be eating alone a good deal, choose good restaurants．In the end, they will be much better for your digestion．You may also find it useful to call the restaurant in advance and state that you will be eating alone．You will probably get better service and almost certainly a better table．

　　Finally, and most importantly, anticipate your travel needs as a businesswoman；this starts with lightweight luggage which you can easily manage even when fully packed．Take a folding case inside your suitcase；it will come in extremely handy for dirty clothes, as well as for business documents and papers you no longer need on the trip．And make sure you have a briefcase so that you can keep currently required papers separate．Obviously, experience helps, but you can make things easier on yourself from the first by careful planning, so that right from the start you really can have a good trip！

阅读理解

　　If you are ever lucky to be invited to a formal dinner party in Paris, remember that the French have their own way of doing things, and that even your finest manners may not be “correct”by French custom．For example, if you think showing up promptly at the time given on the invitation, armed with gifts of wine and roses, complimenting your hostess on her cooking, laughing heartily at the host’s jokes and then leaping up to help the hostess will make you the perfect guest, think again．

　　Here Madame Nora Chabal, the marketing director of the Ritz Hotel in Paris, explained how it works．

　　The first duty of the guest is to respond to the invitation within 48 hours．And, the guest may not ask to bring a guest because the hostess has chosen her own．

　　Flowers sent in advance are the preferred gift．They may also be sent afterwards with a thank-you note．It is considered a very bad form to arrive with a gift of flowers vase when she is too busy to do that．

　　See, that’s the logic! The type of flowers sent has a code of its own, too．One must never send chrysan-themums because they are considered too humble a flower for occasion．Carnations are considered bad luck, and calla lilies are too reminiscent(令人联想)of funerals(葬礼)．A bouquet of red roses is a declaration of romantic intent．Don’t send those unless you mean it, and never to a married hostess．And though the French love wine, you must never bring a bottle to a dinner party．Why, it’s as if you feared your hosts would not have enough wine on hand, and that’s an insult．You may, however, offer a box of chocolates which the hostess will pass after dinner with coffee．?

　　If an invitation is for eight o’clock, the considerate guest arrives at 8∶15．Guests who arrive exactly on time or early are mere thoughtless ones who are not giving the hostess those last few minutes she needs to deal with details and crises．The “correct” guest arrives between 15 to 20 minutes after the hour because dinner will be served exactly 30 minutes past the time of the invitation．

阅读理解

　　The May Day holiday gives Chinese families a good chance to travel and leave behind the daily routine(日常琐事)．

　　When the seven-day vacation was first put in place in 2000, groups of Chinese tourists went to the mountains “to see temples and get off buses to take photos”．However, as Chinese travellers diversified(使多样化)their interests, more and more people decided to travel on their own．?

　　Millions of families with their own cars prefer to travel by car．

　　Cui Xiaotang, a career(职业)woman, and her two friends left from Beijing Saturday in a car．They did not have a firm destination but drove southwards．“Maybe when there is no road for cars, we will stop and stay one night in a local farmer’s house, ” Cui said excitedly about her plan．

　　Exchanges between north and south and between cities and rural areas are two trends emerging(出现)during the holiday．

　　Northerners can enjoy the beauty of southern rivers, while southerners can travel to cooler parts of the country．

　　While millions of travellers made their way to Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, people there decided to go somewhere else．

　　A large number of tourists join groups with plans to travel abroad．Every year, those groups go farther and farther away．There are also those, however, who choose to stay where they are．Sun Bin, a graduate student representing a large number of “stayers”, chose the simplest way to avoid tourist crowds during the holiday．“I’d rather stay in the Beijing Library for the seven days to read ?National Geographic magazine．I have the whole world in my mind but avoid queuing up in the airport, ” he said．

阅读理解

　　Education is not an end, but a means to an end．In other words, we do not educate children only for the purpose of educating them．Our purpose is to fit them to life．

　　In some modern countries it has for some time been fashionable(流行的)to think that by free education for all whether rich or poor, clever or stupid－one can solve all the problems of society and build a perfect nation(国家)．But we can already see that free education for all is not enough; we find in such countries a far larger number of people with university degree(学位); they refuse to do what they think “low”work; and, in fact, work with hands is thought to be dirty and shameful in such countries．But we have only to think a moment to understand that the work of a completely uneducated farmer is far more important than that of a professor, we can live without education, but we die if we have no food．If no one cleaned our streets and took the rubbish away from our houses, we should get terrible diseases in our towns．．．

　　In fact, when we say that all of us must be educated to fit us for life, it means that we must be educated in such a way that, firstly, each of us can do whatever work suited to our brains and ability and, secondly, that we can realize that all jobs are necessary to society, and that it is very bad to be ashamed of one’s work．Only such a type of education can be considered valuable(有价值的)to society．

阅读理解

　　Many things about language are a mystery(谜), and many will always remain so．But some things we do know．

　　First, we know that all human beings have a language of some sort．There is no race(种族)of men anywhere on earth so backward that it has no language, no set of speech sounds by which the people communicate with one mother．Furthermore, in historical times, there has never been a race of men without a language．

　　Second, there is no such thing as a primitive(原始的)language．There are many people whose cultures are undeveloped, who are, as we say, uncivilized(不开化的，落后的), but the languages they speak are not primitive．In all known languages we can see complexities that must have been tens of thousands of years in developing．

　　This has not always been well understood; indeed, the direct contrary has often been stated．Popular ideas of the language of the American Indians will illustrate．Many people have supposed that the Indians communicated in a very primitive system of noises．Study has proved this to be nonsense(胡说，没有根据的话)．There are, or were, hundreds of American Indian languages, and all of them turn out to be very complicated and very old．They are certainly different from the languages that most of us are familiar with, but they are no more primitive five than English and Greek．

　　A third thing we know about language is that all languages are perfectly adequate．That is, each one is a perfect means of expressing the culture of the people who speak the language．

　　Finally, we know that language changes．It is natural and normal for language to change; the only languages which do not change are the dead ones．This is easy to understand if we look backward in time．Change goes on in all aspects of language．Grammatical features change as do speech sounds, and changes in vocabulary are sometimes very extensive(广泛的)and may occur very rapidly．Vocabulary is the least stable part of any language．

阅读理解

　　A child who has once been pleased with a tale likes, as a rule, to have it retold in almost the same words, but this should not lead parents to treat printed fairy stories as formal texts．It is always much better to tell a story than read it out of a book, and, if a parent can produce what, in the actual situation of the time and the child, is an improvement on the printed text, so much the better．

　　A charge made against fairy tales is that they harm the child by frightening him or making him sad thinking．To prove the latter, one would have to show in a controlled experiment that children who have read fairy stories were more often sorry for cruelty than those who had not．As to fears, there are, I think, some cases of children being dangerously terrified by some fairy story．Often, however, this arises(出现)from the child having heard the story once．Familiarity with the story by repetition turns the pain of fear into the pleasure of a fear faced and mastered．

　　There are also people who object to(反对)fairy stories on the grounds that they are not objectively(客观地)true, that giants, witches, two-headed dragons, magic carpets, etc．do not exist; and that, instead of being fond of the strange side in fairy tales, the child should be taught to learn the reality by studying history．I find such people, I must say so peculiar(奇怪的)that I do not know how to argue with them．If their case were sound, the world should be full of mad men attempting to fly from New York to Philadelphia on a stick or covering a telephone with kisses in the belief that it was their beloved girl-friend．

　　No fairy story ever declared to be a description of the real world and no clever child has ever believed that it was．

阅读理解

　　High school dropouts(辍学者)earn an average of ＄9000 less per year than graduates．Now a new study dispels a common belief why they quit．It’s much more basic than flunking out(不及格)．

　　Society tends to think of high school dropouts as kids who just can’t cut it．They are lazy, and perhaps not too bright．So researchers were surprised when they asked more than 450 kids who quit school about why they left．

　　“The vast majority actually had passing grades and they were confident that they could have graduated from high school, ” John Bridgeland, the executive researcher said．About 1 million teens leave school each year．Only about half of African-American and Hispanic(美籍西班牙的)student will receive a diploma(证书), and actually all dropouts come to regret their decision．So, if failing grades don’t explain why these kids quit, what does?Again, John Bridgeland：“The most dependable finding was that they were bored．” “They found classes uninteresting; they weren’t inspired or motivated．They didn’t see any direct connection between what they were learning in the classroom to their own lives, or to their career aspirations．”

　　The study found that most teens who do drop out wait until they turn sixteen, which happens to be the age at which most states allow students to quit．In the US, only one state, New Mexico, has a law requiring teenagers to stay in high school until they graduate．Only four states：California, Tennessee, Texas and Utah, plus the District of Columbia, require school ?attendance? until age 18, no exceptions, another researcher, says raising the compulsory(义务的)attendance age may be one way to keep more kids in school．

　　“As these dropouts look black, they realize they’ve made a mistake．And anything that sort of gives these people an extra push to stick it out and it through to the end, is probably helpful measure．”

　　New Hampshire may be the next state to raise its school attendance age to 18．But critics say that forcing the students unwilling to continue their studies to stay in school misses the point－the need for reform．It’s been called for to reinvent(彻底改造)high school education to make it more challenging and relevant(中肯的, 切题的), and to ensure that kids who do stick it out receive a diploma that actually means something．

阅读理解

　　What do you think of British people and American people? You might think that there are no differences between the people in the two countries．After all they speak the same language, don’t they? But if you ask a British or an American person．The differences are quite great．

　　What do British people think Americans are like? The British think Americans are very strange．They make a lot of noise and they laugh too loudly．They are rich．and they only think about money．But the British do say that Americans are kind, friendly people．They are happy to help you if you are in trouble．

　　What do Americans think of the British? Well, they think the British are cold and very unfriendly．They are not interested in success or in making lots of money．They think Britain is the best country in the world．They look down upon other countries．But Americans say that the British are quite good workers．They are brave and honest．And in time of trouble they face difficulties happily．

　　You can see that these ideas can cause misunderstanding between the British and Americans．But when American and．British people become friends, they usually find things are not as bad as they expected．

阅读理解

　　I am glad to be your guest speaker today．It is a great pleasure to visit your school and to meet all of you．

　　I would like to tell you about myself．I have been a news reporter for the past fifteen years．I chose this job so that I could travel the world．And the job has taught me many unforgettable lessons．I have seen famines, wars, earthquakes, poverty and death．But I have also seen courage, hope and happiness．

　　In India, I visited a city where there were many homeless children．Some were as young as four years old．They lived in the streets and survived by begging or stealing．But then a wonderful lady called Rosa opened a home for them．Within me year, she was looking after two hundred children．She clothed them, fed them and taught them．She gave them hope．

　　Another time, I was in Turkey after a terrible earthquake．In one place, I found an old lady whose house was in ruins．Her son was missing and rescue workers said there was no chance that he was still alive．But the old lady did not give up hope．For four days, she moved heavy stones one at a time by herself．She did not stop until she found her son．He was alive．

　　Here in China, I met a young boy with a serious medical condition．He had “undergone” twenty operations and spent nearly his whole life in hospital．I thought he would be sad, but when I met him, his smile was so warm and welcoming．

　　In life, we need role models that we can admire and learn from．When my lire was difficult, I try to remember the courage and goodness of these three people．