We might be surprised at the progress made in every field of study, but the methods of testing a person’s knowledge and ability remain as primitive as ever they were. It really is extraordinary that after all these years, educationists have still failed to design anything more efficient and reliable than examinations. For the claim that examinations test what you know, it is common knowledge that they more often do the exact opposite. They may be a good means of testing memory, or the knack(窍门高☆考♂资♀源?网) of working rapidly under extreme pressure, but they can tell you nothing about a person’s true ability and attitude.

As anxiety-makers, examinations are second to none. That is because so much depends on them. They are the marks of success or failure in our society. Your whole future may be decided in one fateful day. It doesn’t matter that you weren’t feeling very well, or that your mother died. Little things like that don’t count: the exam goes on. No one can give his best when he is in mortal terror, or after a sleepless night, yet this is precisely what the examination system expects him to do. The moment a child begins school, he enters a world of various competitions where success and failure are clearly defined and measured. Can we wonder at the increasing number of ‘drop-outs’: young people who are written off as failures before they have even started a career? Can we be surprised at the suicide rate among students?

A good education should, among other things, train you to think for yourself. The examination system does anything but that. What has to be learnt is rigidly laid down by a syllabus(教学大纲), so the student is encouraged to memorize. Examinations do not motivate a student to read widely, but to restrict his reading; they do not enable him to seek more and more knowledge, but induce cramming. They lower the standards of teaching, for they deprive(剥夺) the teacher of all freedoms. Teachers themselves are often judged by examination results and instead of teaching their subjects, they are reduced to training their students in exam techniques. The most successful candidates are not always the best educated; they are the best trained in the technique of working under pressure.

The results on which so much depends are often nothing more than a subjective assessment by some anonymous examiner. Examiners are only human. They get tired and hungry; they make mistakes. Yet they have to mark piles of hastily scrawled (潦草的) scripts in a limited amount of time. They work under the same sort of pressure as the candidates. And their word carries weight. After a judge’s decision you have the right of appeal, but not after an examiner’s. There must surely be many simpler and more effective ways of assessing a person’s true abilities.

56. The main idea of this passage is _______.

A. examinations produce a harmful influence on education

B. examinations are ineffective

C. examinations are important to students’ development

D. examinations are a burden on students

57. The author’s attitude toward examinations is _______.

A. supportive       B. neutral          C. critical         D. indifferent

58. The fate of students is decided by _______.

A. education        B. examiners       C. examinations    D. students themselves

59. According to the author, the most important of a good education is _______.

A. to encourage students to read widely        B. to train students to think on their own

C. to teach students how to deal with exams                   D. to master his fate

60. What does the author mean by saying “After a judge’s decision you have the right of appeal, but not after an examiner’s”(Para 4, Line 6) ?

A. Judges are not important.

B. The examiner has the final say concerning the result of the examination.

C. Prisoners are more powerful than students.

D. The court decisions are often inaccurate.

You have been badly injured in a car accident. It is necessary to give you a blood transfusion because you lost a great deal of blood in the accident. However, special care must be taken in selecting new blood for you. If the blood is too different from your own, the transfusion could kill you.
There are four basic types of blood; A, B, AB, and O. A simple test can make sure of a person's blood type. Everybody is born with one of these four types of blood. Blood type, like hair color and height, is received from parents.
The four groups must be transfused carefully. A and B cannot be mixed. A and B cannot receive AB, but AB may receive A or B. O can give to any other group; therefore, it is often called the universal donor (万能捐赠者). For the opposite reason, AB is sometimes called the universal recipient（接受者）. However, because so many reactions (反应) can happen in transfusions（输血）, patients usually receive only salt of plasma (liquid part of blood) until their blood can be matched as exactly as possible in the blood bank of a hospital. In this way, it is possible to prevent the transfusion from any bad reactions.
86. People with type A blood can receive type     .
A. AB           B. B       C. O                    D. all of the three
87. If you need a blood transfusion, the best and safest blood for you is    .
A. a mixture of type A and type B
B. a mixture of salt, plasma and type O
C. type AB
D. exactly the same type as your own
88. The phrase "universal recipient" means a person who    .
A. can receive blood of type A or B
B. can receive blood of any other type
C. can give blood to anybody
D. cannot give blood to others
89. A good title for this article is    .
A. Getting Enough Blood
B. Differences Between Blood Types
C. Man's Four Types of Blood
D. How to Give Blood Transfusion
90. Which of the following statement is NOT true?
A. Carelessness in a blood transfusion may lead to death. 
B. AB is the mixture of A and B
C. AB is called the universal recipient because it can receive any other group.
D. In transfusions, patients usually receive only salt of plasma at first.

A 17-year-old boy, caught sending text messages in class, was recently sent to the vice principal's office at Millwood High School in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

The vice principal, Steve Gallagher, told the boy he needed to focus on the teacher, not his cellphone. The boy listened politely and nodded, and that's when Mr. Gallagher noticed the student's fingers moving on his lap. He was texting while being scolded for texting!

"It was a subconscious act," said Mr. Gallagher, who took the phone away. "Yong people today are connected socially from the moment they open their eyes in the morning until they close their eyes at night. It's addictive. They can’t simply stop doing that."

Because so many people in their teens and early 20s are in this constant whir of socializing -- accessible to each other every minute of the day via cellphone, instant messaging and social-networking Web sites -- there are a host of new questions that need to be addressed in schools, in the workplace and at home. Chief among them: How much work can "hyper-socializing" students or employees really accomplish if they are holding multiple conversations with friends via text-messaging, or are obsessively checking Facebook? Almost a quarter of today's teens check Facebook more than 10 times a day, according to a 2009 survey by Common Sense Media, a non-profit group that monitors media's impact on families.

Will these young people get rid of this habit once they enter the work force, or will employers come to see texting and "social-network checking" as accepted parts of the workday?

"In past generations, students got in trouble for passing notes in class. Now students are adept at texting with their phones still in their pockets," said 40-year-old Mr. Gallagher, "and they're able to communicate with someone one floor down and three rows over. Students are just fundamentally different today. They will take suspensions rather than give up their phones."

When the boy was scolded for texting, _________________.

       A. he was polite and regretful

       B. he was trying sending another message

       C. his fingers shouldn’t be put on his lap

       D. he listened carefully and nodded

What does the underlined word “subconscious” mean?

       A. dangerous               B. purposeless                    C. popular                    D. impolite

What can we learn about the students in their teens and early 20s?

       A. All of them are addicted to using cellphones.

       B. They will get rid of the habit once they go to work.

       C. They are greatly different from the past generations.

       D. Most of them check Facebook more than 10 times a day.

What can we infer from the passage?

       A. The employers will accept texting at workday.

       B. The students will give up their phones one day.

       C. It’s convenient for students to communicate with others with cellphones.

D. Facebook is a kind of book students need to read at school.

Today’s teens have a knowledge of the Internet that often surpasses(超过) that of their parents. Because so many teens are Internet savvy(了解, 常识), it is important that they also have an understanding of the dangers that exist online and how to deal with them. Watch teens share their own “Real-Life Stories” about issues affecting them on the Internet such as cyberbullying (网络欺凌), online enticement(诱惑), and giving out too much personal information.

What is your favorite English letter?  Many of you may say Q. Why?  Because
so many of you chat with your friends on QQ. What do you like about QQ?  What do you talk about?  The CCTV reporter,  Miss Wang,  interviews three kids. Let’s listen to what they say.
When do you chat on QQ?  What do you talk about?
　Lin Yuhan,  Xi’an:  On weekends. We talk about homework and chat with each other.
　　Tang Xuting,  Shanghai:  At weekends and when I don’t have much homework. We exchange test answers and chat.
Yang Yuhang,  Dalian:  Our class goes online together at 4: 00～6: 00pm on weekends. We complain about homework,  chat and talk about computer games.
　　What do you put on your QQ blog(博客)？
　　Lin: I put good articles I have found online on my blog. I also write articles myself. They are about funny things that have happened in my class.
　Tang: I put pictures on my blog. Not my own photos,  but pictures from my favorite Japanese cartoons(动画片)like Tennis Prince Conan.
　　Yang: I put DV films on my blog. I shoot(拍摄)them during sports meetings and school parties. The most popular one is about a dancing teacher,   he is so funny that everyone watches it.
　　 How do you like QQ?
　Lin: It’s a good space for us to make a record of our lives of both good times and sad times.
　　Tang: My friends and I may not have time to chat at school. But we can do it on QQ. It’s very helpful to our friendships.
　　Yang: If you chat with friends on the telephone,  your parents sometimes listen to your conversation. There’s no such problem with QQ. You can relax and talk freely.
【小题1】What does Yang Yuhang talk about on QQ on weekends?
①homework　　　  ②chat
③test answers　　　④computer games