Pupils work harder in lessons if they are taught by a man, a study has claimed. Male teachers are more likely to improve pupils' self-esteem and are judged by pupils to be more fair, according to a study published by the Department for Education.                                                             
But there is a significant shortage of male teachers, especially in primary schools, with reports last month indicating that almost one in three primaries has an all-female teaching staff. The latest figures heightened fears that schools are becoming dominated (主宰) by women and children are being denied access to male role models in the classroom.                        
Researchers at the London School of Economics and Westminster University conducted an experiment in which each of 1,200 pupils in 29 schools was given £2. They could use the money to "buy" up to 10 questions at a cost of 20p each, which they then had to answer. If they were right they were given an extra 20p, but if they were wrong they lost 20p. Boys and girls who had a male teacher chose on average almost half a question more than those taught by women, indicating that they had a more positive outlook on the rewards of effort, the the study said.                                            
Researchers wrote: "One of the most significant results featured in this experiment is the positive effect of male teachers on effort. The experiment suggests that higher ability pupils either believed that the teacher would reward them more favorably or had a preference for working hard to please the teacher."                                                     
According to the Good Teacher Training Guide, 86 per cent of new teachers entering primary schools are female, along with 62 per cent of those entering secondary schools.                                             
Professor Alan Smithers, of Buckingham University, said: "This is an interesting and somewhat surprising finding, but it does underline the importance of having a good mix of male and female teachers in classes."
【小题1】Which of the following is true of the passage?  

A．Researchers at the London School of Economics and Westminster University conducted an experiment.

B．Students could use the money to "buy" up to 10 questions and then had to answer them.

C．Boys and girls who had a male teacher chose on average almost half a question more than those taught by women.

D．The experiment shows that students taught by male teachers had a more positive outlook on the rewards of effort.

What happens inside the skull of a soccer player who repeatedly heads a soccer ball? That question motivated a challenging new study of the brains of experienced players that has caused discussion and debate among soccer players, and some anxiety among those of us with soccer-playing children.
For the study, researchers at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York selected 34adults, men and women. All of the volunteers had played soccer since childhood and now competed year-round in adult soccer leagues. Each filled out a detailed questionnaire developed especially for this study to determine how many times they had headed a soccer ball in the previous year, as well as whether they had experienced any known concussions (脑震荡) in the past.
Then the players completed computerized tests of their memory and other learning skills and had their brains scanned, using a complicated new M.R.I. technique which can find structural changes in the brain that can't be seen during most scans.
According to the data they presented at a Radiological Society of North America meeting last month, the researchers found that the players who had headed the ball more than about 1,100 times in the previous 12 months showed significant loss of white matter in parts of their brains involved with memory, attention and the processing of visual information, compared with players who had headed the ball fewer times.
This pattern of white matter loss is "similar to those seen in traumatic (外伤的) brain injury", like that after a serious concussion, the researchers reported, even though only one of these players was reported to have ever experienced a concussion.
The players who had headed the ball about 1,100 times or more in the past year were also generally worse at recalling lists of words read to them, forgetting or fumbling the words far more often than players who had headed the ball less.
【小题1】The passage is most probably a______.

虎妈，美国耶鲁大学的华裔教授蔡美儿Amy Lynn Chua，出版了一本名叫《虎妈战歌》Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother的书，在美国引起轰动。在接受采访时，回答了记者的5个问题（第61—65题）。请从下列提问（A、B、C、D、E和F）中选出与她的回答相匹配的问题，并在答题卡上将相应选项涂黑。选项中有一项是多余选项。

Questions

A．What do you think of the competition between China and the US?

B．What do you think of the image of “tiger mom?”

C．How do your daughters take the criticism about you after your book was published?

D．You said you would not get her Christmas gifts or anything when your daughter refused to repeatedly practice the music. How did your husband respond?

E．What do you think makes a good mother?

F．What does your husband think of your method of bringing up kids?

1.       

Chua’s answer: Well, actually I think there are many ways of being a good mother. In my book my focus is just a memory about my own family story, me trying to raise my own children in a kind of traditional Chinese way. I make mistakes and I make fun of myself. It’s amazing the way the book has been received internationally, because. I didn’t intend my book to be telling other people of view and I am a proud strict “tiger mom”. But I’m not trying to tell other people what are the best ways to teach or raise their children.

2.       

Chua’s answer: Well, the title may sound a little frightening. Let me tell you why I chose the title. I was born in the year of the tiger. And “battle Hymn” in the United States comes from “The Battle Hymn of the Republic”. The book is really about finding some sort of balance: how can we find the balance between the eastern way of parenting and the western way of parenting. In ways the book as been misunderstood maybe because of the title.

3.       

Chua’s answer: I didn’t write this book to have any foreign policy implications. But it’s been taken into the foreign policy realm. It is of course true that there is a connection between child-raising and the future of nations. We are raising, as parents, the next generation. So I think Henry is right. We tapped into this thing of insecurity, American’s fear about the rising power of china. A friend of mine told me that if the book had been called The Battle Hymn of an Italian Mother or The Battle Hymn of a Mexican Mother, nobody would have cared. It’s really “China”. you know.

4.       

Chua’s answer: I don’t think he opposes my idea of raising children. I’d like to think we have a combination, which is the right solution. You need a balance. From my perspective, what I give my kids is something that I thought was lacking in the US educational system. You know, they hate memorization, while in China you have too much of it. In the US, learning should be fun, a lot of games,. So I brought hard work and disciplines. My husband and I think this is a great thing always teaching them to question the authority and to ask why. Don’t accept everything just because somebody tells you. Figure it out yourself. I really think you need to combine both these qualities if you want creativity and dynamism.

5.       

Chua’s answer:  They both are stronger than I am. I am really proud of them. Their friends and communities supported them. At a time, I couldn’t even look at the Internet because there are so many negative comments. And they would find the good ones and text them to me, saying “here’s a good one mommy, hang in there.” This experience has actually brought my family together. Believe it or not, not just my kids, also my parents and my three younger sisters have supported me.

D
●Tower Bridge is one of London’s most well known landmarks. Opened in 1894, this hydraulic(液压的)  bridge can be raised to permit river traffic to pass underneath.
Vistors to Tower Bridge can enjoy wonderful views of the River Thames from the bridge towers. There is also a museum which explain how the bascule bridge operates and discusses its history. Tower Bridge is often incorrectly referred to as London Bridge.London Bridge, however, is a different bridge that is located directly upstream from Tower Bridge.
●The British Museum is a “must do” for all visitors to London England. Treasures from around the world can be found in Britain’s largest and most popular museum. To top it off, admission to the British Museum is free of charge.
Due to the enormous size of the museums, visitors should priortize what they wish to see. One “must see” is the Rosetta Stone – a key puzzle piece in the recorded history of humankid. The british Museum is locted in the Bloomsbury district of London in London WC1.
●Greenwich Park is a beautiful large park located a few kilometers away from the centre of London. Attractions in Greenwich include the Cutty Sark, the Gypsy Moth and the Old Royal Observatory. A painted line at the obsevatory inicates zero degrees of longitude（经度）.
Many visitors to Greenwich enjoy having their photos taken with one leg in the western hemisphere（半球）and the other in the eastern hemisphere. Greenwich is the place where time was officially tracked – “Greenwich Mean Time” or “GMT”.
Greenwich is located in London SE10.
●The Eurostar high – speed train service provides fast connections between London and Paris and London and Brussels. The Eurostar trains pass through the 32 – mile Channel Tunnel under the English Channel. The tunnel is also known as the “Euro Tunnel” or “Chunnel”. The Channel Tunnel is considered to be one of the world’s great engineering wonders.
Trains leave form the Waterloo Rail Station which is located in south London.
68．If a tourist doesn’t have any money on him, which of the following can he do?
A．Visit Tower Bridge. B．Visit the British Museum.
C．Go around Greenwich Park.    D．Take a Eurostar high – speed train.
69．Where can we find the attraction of the Cutty Sark?
A．On London Bridge.  B．In the Old Royal Observatory.
C．In the British Museum.    D．In Greenwich Park.
70．What can we learn from the passage?
A．Tower Bridge can be raised mainly to let the water folw faster.
B．The British Museum is the largest museum in the world.
C．Greenwich Park is where the western hemisphere and the eastern hemisphere meet.
D．The Eurostar train can take people from London to many cities in Europe directly.
71．In what web page do you think the passage is probably found?
A．International news.                 B．Study abroad.
C．Tourist Information and Travel Guide.   D．Art of architecture.

Suppose that we lined up our roughly 14 million United States businesses in order of size, starting with the smallest, along an imaginary road from San Francisco to New York. There will be 4,500 businesses to the mile, or a little less than one per foot. Suppose further that we planted a flag each business. The height of the flag pole represents the yearly volume of sales (销量) , each $ 10, 000 in sales in shown by one foot of pole.

The line of flagpoles is a very interesting sight. From San Francisco to about Reno, it is almost unnoticeable, a row of poles about a foot high. From Reno eastward the poles increase in height until, near Columbus, Ohio - about four - fifths of the way across the nation - flags fly about 10 feet in the air.

But as we approach the eastern terminus (终点) , the poles suddenly begin to mount (升高) . There are about 300, 000 firms in the country with sales over $ 500, 000. These firms take up the last 75 miles of the 3,000 - mile road. There are 200, 000 firms with sales over $ 1 million. They take up the last 50 miles. Then there are 1, 000 firms with sales of $ 50, 000, 000 or more. They take up the last quarter of a mile before the city limits, flags flying at cloud height, 5 , 000 feet up .

At the very gate of New York, on the last 100 feet of the last mile , we find the 100 largest industrial firms . They have sales of at least $ 1.5 billion, so that their flags are already miles high. Along the last 10 feet of road , there are 10 largest companies . Their sales are roughly $ 10 billion and up : their flags fly 190 miles in the air , almost in the stratosphere (平流层) .

1.What is the author’s main purpose in this passage?

A．To tell the reason why the largest firms are in New York.

B．To show the geographical distribution (分布) of the United States businesses.

C．To provide a general idea of the size of businesses in the United States.

D．To tell us how the United States businesses are arranged.

2.What’s the correct order of the following places from east to west?

A．San Francisco, Reno, New York, Columbus.

B．San Francisco, Reno, Columbus, New York.

C．New York, Columbus, Reno, San Francisco

D．New York, Reno, Columbus, San Francisco

3.Among the four parts of the imaginary road , which part , considering all the firms in it , has the largest total volume of sales ?

A．The last 75 miles.                        B．The last 50 miles.

C．The last 100 feet of the last mile.            D．The last quarter of a mile

4.Which of the following diagrams (图表) shows the right order of size of the US businesses , according to the text ?

S =" San" Francisco  R =" Reno"  C =" Columbus"  N =" New" York  H =" height"  F = feet