B

Laws that would have ensured pupils from five to 16 received a full financial education got lost in the ‘wash up’. An application is calling on the next government to bring it back.

At school the children are taught to add up and subtract（减法） but, extraordinarily, are not routinely shown how to open a bank account — let alone how to manage their finances in an increasingly complex and demanding world.

Today the parenting website Mumsnet and the consumer campaigner Martin Lewis have joined forces to launch an online application to make financial education a compulsory element of the school curriculum in England. Children from five to 16 should be taught about everything from pocket money to pensions, they say. And that was exactly the plan preserved in the Children, Schools and Families bill that was shelved by the government in the so-called “wash-up” earlier this month — the rush to legislation before parliament was dismissed. Consumer and parent groups believe financial education has always been one of the most frustrating omissions of the curriculum.

As the Personal Finance Education Group (Pfeg) points out, the good habits of young children do not last long. Over 75% of seven- to 11-year-olds are savers but by the time they get to 17, over half of them are in debt to family and friends. By this age, 26% see a credit card or overdraft（透支） as a way of extending their spending power. Pfeg predicts that these young people will “find it much harder to avoid the serious unexpected dangers that have befallen many of their parents' generation unless they receive good quality financial education while at school.”

The UK has been in the worst financial recession（衰退）for generations. It does seem odd that — unless parents step in — young people are left in the dark until they are cruelly introduced to the world of debt when they turn up at university. In a recent poll of over 8,000 people, 97% supported financial education in schools, while 3% said it was a job for parents.

61. The passage is mainly about _____________.

A. how to manage school lessons

B. how to deal with the financial crisis

C. teaching young people about money

D. teaching students how to study effectively

62. It can be inferred from the first two paragraphs that __________.

A. the author complains about the school education

B. pupils should not be taught to add up and subtract

C. students have been taught to manage their finances

D. laws on financial education have been effectively carried out

63. The website and the consumer campaigner joined to _________.

A. instruct the pupils to donate their pocket money

B. promote the connection of schools and families

C. ask the government to dismiss the parliament

D. appeal for the curriculum of financial education

64. According to Pfeg, ___________.

A. it is easy to keep good habits long

B. teenagers spend their money as planned

C. parents are willing to pay the debt for their kids

D. it will be in trouble if the teenagers are left alone

65. A poll is mentioned to ___________.

A. stress the necessity of the curriculum reform

B. show the seriousness of the financial recession

C. make the readers aware of burden of the parents

D. illustrate some people are strongly against the proposal

 

B

Laws that would have ensured pupils from five to 16 received a full financial education got lost in the ‘wash up’. An application is calling on the next government to bring it back.

At school the children are taught to add up and subtract（减法） but, extraordinarily, are not routinely shown how to open a bank account — let alone how to manage their finances in an increasingly complex and demanding world.

Today the parenting website Mumsnet and the consumer campaigner Martin Lewis have joined forces to launch an online application to make financial education a compulsory element of the school curriculum in England. Children from five to 16 should be taught about everything from pocket money to pensions, they say. And that was exactly the plan preserved in the Children, Schools and Families bill that was shelved by the government in the so-called “wash-up” earlier this month — the rush to legislation before parliament was dismissed. Consumer and parent groups believe financial education has always been one of the most frustrating omissions of the curriculum.

As the Personal Finance Education Group (Pfeg) points out, the good habits of young children do not last long. Over 75% of seven- to 11-year-olds are savers but by the time they get to 17, over half of them are in debt to family and friends. By this age, 26% see a credit card or overdraft（透支） as a way of extending their spending power. Pfeg predicts that these young people will “find it much harder to avoid the serious unexpected dangers that have befallen many of their parents' generation unless they receive good quality financial education while at school.”

The UK has been in the worst financial recession（衰退）for generations. It does seem odd that — unless parents step in — young people are left in the dark until they are cruelly introduced to the world of debt when they turn up at university. In a recent poll of over 8,000 people, 97% supported financial education in schools, while 3% said it was a job for parents.

61. The passage is mainly about _____________.

A. how to manage school lessons

B. how to deal with the financial crisis

C. teaching young people about money

D. teaching students how to study effectively

62. It can be inferred from the first two paragraphs that __________.

A. the author complains about the school education

B. pupils should not be taught to add up and subtract

C. students have been taught to manage their finances

D. laws on financial education have been effectively carried out

63. The website and the consumer campaigner joined to _________.

A. instruct the pupils to donate their pocket money

B. promote the connection of schools and families

C. ask the government to dismiss the parliament

D. appeal for the curriculum of financial education

64. According to Pfeg, ___________.

A. it is easy to keep good habits long

B. teenagers spend their money as planned

C. parents are willing to pay the debt for their kids

D. it will be in trouble if the teenagers are left alone

65. A poll is mentioned to ___________.

A. stress the necessity of the curriculum reform

B. show the seriousness of the financial recession

C. make the readers aware of burden of the parents

D. illustrate some people are strongly against the proposal

D

The government of Norway is planning to build an unusual storage center on an island in the Arctic Ocean. The place would be large enough to hold about two million seeds. The goal is to present all crops known to scientists. The British magazine New Scientist published details of the plan last month. The structure will be designed to protect the world’s food supply against nuclear war, climate change and other possible threats. It will be built in a mountain on the Norwegian island of Spitsbergen. The mountain is less than one thousand kilometers from the North Pole, the northernmost position on earth.

     An international group called the Global Crop Diversity Trust is working on the project. The director of the group, Cary Fowler, spoke to New Scientist. He said the project would let the world rebuild agriculture if, in his word, “the worst came to the worst”. Norway is expected to start work next year. The project is expected to cost three million dollars. Workers will drill（钻孔） deep in the side of a sandstone mountain. Temperatures in the area never rise above 0??C. The seeds will be protected behind walls a meter thick and high-security door.

     The magazine report says the collection will represent the products of ten thousand years of farming. Most of the seeds at first will come from collections at seed banks in Africa, Asia and Latin America. To last a long time, seeds need to be kept in very low temperatures. Workers will not be present all the time. But they plan to replace the air inside the storage space each winter. Winter temperatures on the island are about eighteen degrees below 0??C. The cold weather would protect the seeds even if the air could not be replaced.

Mr. Fowler says the proposed structure will be the world’s safest gene bank. He says the plant seeds would only be used when all other seeds are gone for some reason. Norway first put forward the idea in the 1980s. But safety concerns delayed the plan. At that time, the Soviet Union was meeting in Rome of the Food and Agriculture Organization.

53．The project is meant to ______.

    A．increase the world’s food output in the future

    B．carry out some scientific experiments on plant genes

    C．build an exhibition centre of the world’s plant seeds

    D．protect crop seeds from dying out in case of possible disasters

54．Which of the following statements is TRUE according to the above passage?

    A．The government of Norway will perform the project alone.

    B．Seeds to be collected there were produced ten thousands years ago.

    C．Spitsbergen is chosen because it is free of the nuclear war forever.

    D．Temperature is a major consideration when choosing the storage place.

55．We can infer from the text that _______.

    A．Norway had meant to build the storage centre about 20 years before.   

B．The storage center will greatly promote world agriculture

    C．People will get newly-developed seeds from the center every year.

    D．There haven’t been any seed storage centres in the world before.

56．What is probably the best title of the passage?www.

   A．The Best Place to Store Seeds        B．Noah’s Ark（诺亚方舟）of Plant Seeds in Plan

   C．Concerns of World Food Supply     D．A New Way to Feed the World

B

Laws that would have ensured pupils from five to 16 received a full financial education got lost in the ‘wash up’．An application is calling on the next government to bring it back.

At school the children are taught to add up and subtract（减法） but, extraordinarily, are not routinely shown how to open a bank account — let alone how to manage their finances in an increasingly complex and demanding world.

Today the parenting website Mumsnet and the consumer campaigner Martin Lewis have joined forces to launch an online application to make financial education a compulsory element of the school curriculum in England．Children from five to 16 should be taught about everything from pocket money to pensions, they say．And that was exactly the plan preserved in the Children, Schools and Families bill that was shelved by the government in the so-called “wash-up” earlier this month — the rush to legislation before parliament was dismissed．Consumer and parent groups believe financial education has always been one of the most frustrating omissions of the curriculum.

As the Personal Finance Education Group (Pfeg) points out, the good habits of young children do not last long．Over 75% of seven- to 11-year-olds are savers but by the time they get to 17, over half of them are in debt to family and friends．By this age, 26% see a credit card or overdraft（透支） as a way of extending their spending power．Pfeg predicts that these young people will “find it much harder to avoid the serious unexpected dangers that have befallen many of their parents' generation unless they receive good quality financial education while at school.”

The UK has been in the worst financial recession（衰退）for generations．It does seem odd that — unless parents step in — young people are left in the dark until they are cruelly introduced to the world of debt when they turn up at university．In a recent poll of over 8,000 people, 97% supported financial education in schools, while 3% said it was a job for parents．

61．The passage is mainly about _____________.

       A．how to manage school lessons

       B．how to deal with the financial crisis

       C．teaching young people about money

       D．teaching students how to study effectively

62．It can be inferred from the first two paragraphs that __________.

       A．the author complains about the school education

       B．pupils should not be taught to add up and subtract

       C．students have been taught to manage their finances

       D．laws on financial education have been effectively carried out

63．The website and the consumer campaigner joined to _________.

       A．instruct the pupils to donate their pocket money

       B．promote the connection of schools and families

       C．ask the government to dismiss the parliament

       D．appeal for the curriculum of financial education

64．According to Pfeg, ___________.

       A．it is easy to keep good habits long

       B．teenagers spend their money as planned

       C．parents are willing to pay the debt for their kids

       D．it will be in trouble if the teenagers are left alone

65．A poll is mentioned to ___________.

       A．stress the necessity of the curriculum reform

       B．show the seriousness of the financial recession

       C．make the readers aware of burden of the parents

       D．illustrate some people are strongly against the proposal

B

The government of Norway is planning to build an unusual storage center on an island in the Arctic Ocean. The place would be large enough to hold about two million seeds. The goal is to represent all crops known to scientists. The British magazine New Scientist published details of the plan last month. The structure will be designed to protect the world’s food supply against nuclear war, climate change and other possible threats. It will be built in a mountain on the Norwegian island of Spitsbergen. The mountain is less than one thousand kilometers from the North Pole, the northernmost position on Earth.

An international group called the Global Crop Diversity Trust is working on the project. The director of the group, Cary Fowler, spoke to New Scientist. He said the project would let the world rebuild agriculture if, in his words,“the worst came to the worst.” Norway is expected to start work next year. The project is expected to cost three million dollars. Workers will drill deep in the side of a sandstone mountain. Temperatures in the area never rise above zero degrees Celsius. The seeds will be protected behind concrete walls a meter thick and high—security doors.

The magazine report says the collection will represent the products of ten thousand years of farming. Most of the seeds at first will come from collections at seed banks in Africa, Asia and Latin America. To last a long time, seeds need to be kept in very low temperatures. Workers will not be present all the time. But they plan to replace the air inside the storage space each winter. Winter temperatures on the island are about eighteen degrees below zero Celsius. The cold weather would protect the seeds even if the air could not be replaced.

Mr. Fowler says the proposed structure will be the world’s most secure gene bank. He says the plant seeds would only be used when all other seeds are gone for some reason. Norway first proposed the idea in the 1980s. But security concerns delayed the plan. At that time, the Soviet Union was permitted use of Spitsbergen. New Scientist says the plan won United Nations approval in October at a meeting in Rome of the Food and Agriculture Organization.

55.The project is meant to_______.

A.increase the world’s food production in the future

B.carry out some scientific experiments on plant genes

C.protect crop seeds from dying out in case of possible disasters

D.build an exhibition centre of the world’s plant seeds

56.Which of the following statements is TRUE according to the above passage?

A.The government of Norway will perform the project alone.

B.Seeds to be collected there were produced ten thousand years ago.

C.Spitsbergen is chosen because it is away from the threat of unclear war forever.

D.Temperature is a major consideration when choosing the storage place.

57.We can infer from the text that_______.

A.People will get newly?developed seeds from the center every year

B.The storage center will greatly promote the development of world agriculture

C.Norway meant to have built the storage centre more than 20 years ago

D.There haven’t been any seed storage centers in the world before

58.What is probably the best title of the passage?

A.Noah’s Ark(诺亚方舟) of Plant Seeds in Plan.      B.The Best Place to Store Seeds.

C.Concerns of World Food Supply.                 D.A New Way to Feed the World.