Passage Fifteen (Contribution of Coeducation)
Imagining being asked to spend twelve or so years of your life in a society which consisted only of members of own sex. How would you react? Unless there was something definitely wrong with you, you wouldn’t be too happy about it, to say the least. It is all the more surprising therefore that so many parents in the world choose to impose such abnormal conditions on their children – conditions which they themselves wouldn’t put up with for one minute!
Any discussion of this topic is bound to question the aims of education. Stuffing children’s heads full of knowledge is far from being foremost among them. One of the chief aims of educations is to equip future citizens with all they require to take their place in adult society. Now adult society is made up of men and women, so how can a segregated school possibly offer the right sort of preparation for it? Anyone entering adult society after years of segregation can only be in for a shock.
A co-educational school offers children nothing less than a true version of society in miniature. Boys and girls are given the opportunity to get to know each other, to learn to live together from their earliest years. They are put in a position where they can compare themselves with each other in terms of academic ability, athletic achievement and many of the extra-curricular activities which are part of school life. What a practical advantage it is ( to give just a small example ) to be able to put on a school play in which the male parts will be taken by boys and the female parts by girls! What nonsense co-education makes of the argument that boys are cleverer than girl or vice-versa. When segregated, boys and girls are made to feel that they are a race apart. Rivalry between the sexes is fostered. In a coeducational school, everything falls into its proper place.
But perhaps the greatest contribution of co-education is the healthy attitude to life it encourages. Boys don’t grow up believing that women are mysterious creatures – airy goddesses, more like book-illustrations to a fairy-tale, than human beings. Girls don’t grow up imagining that men are romantic heroes. Years of living together at school dispel illusions of this kind. There are no goddesses with freckles, pigtails, piercing voices and inky fingers. There are no romantic heroes with knobbly knees, dirty fingernails and unkempt hair. The awkward stage of adolescence brings into sharp focus some of the physical and emotional problems involved in growing up. These can better be overcome in a co-educational environment. Segregated schools sometimes provide the right conditions for sexual deviation. This is hardly possible under a co-educational system. When the time comes for the pupils to leave school, they are fully prepared to enter society as well-adjusted adults. They have already had years of experience in coping with many of the problems that face men and women.
1.What is the best title for this passage?
A.only co-education can be in harmony with society.
B.people are in great need of co-education.
C.any form of education other than co-education is simply unthinkable.
D.co-education has many features.
2.what does co-education offer to children?
A.A society.
B.A true small model of society.
C.A real life.
D.True version of social condition.
3.According to the passage, what is one of the chief aims of education?
A.It is for students to acquire knowledge.
B.It is to equip future citizens with scientific technology.
C.It is to equip future citizens with what is required in getting a position in society.
D.It is for students to get academic achievements.
4.Why do boys and girls in co-education have no illusion about each other?
A.They live together and know each other too well.
B.Years of living together at school dismiss such illusion.
C.co-education encourage them to have an healthy attitude toward life.
D.They are familiar with each other’s problems.

Contribution of Coeducation

       Imagining being asked to spend twelve or so years of your life in a society which consisted only of members of own sex. How would you react? Unless there was something definitely wrong with you, you wouldn’t be too happy about it, to say the least. It is all the more surprising therefore that so many parents in the world choose to impose such abnormal conditions on their children – conditions which they themselves wouldn’t put up with for one minute!

       Any discussion of this topic is bound to question the aims of education. Stuffing children’s heads full of knowledge is far from being foremost among them. One of the chief aims of educations is to equip future citizens with all they require to take their place in adult society. Now adult society is made up of men and women, so how can a segregated school possibly offer the right sort of preparation for it? Anyone entering adult society after years of segregation can only be in for a shock.

       A co-educational school offers children nothing less than a true version of society in miniature. Boys and girls are given the opportunity to get to know each other, to learn to live together from their earliest years. They are put in a position where they can compare themselves with each other in terms of academic ability, athletic achievement and many of the extra-curricular activities which are part of school life. What a practical advantage it is ( to give just a small example ) to be able to put on a school play in which the male parts will be taken by boys and the female parts by girls! What nonsense co-education makes of the argument that boys are cleverer than girl or vice-versa. When segregated, boys and girls are made to feel that they are a race apart. Rivalry between the sexes is fostered. In a coeducational school, everything falls into its proper place.

       But perhaps the greatest contribution of co-education is the healthy attitude to life it encourages. Boys don’t grow up believing that women are mysterious creatures – airy goddesses, more like book-illustrations to a fairy-tale, than human beings. Girls don’t grow up imagining that men are romantic heroes. Years of living together at school dispel illusions of this kind. There are no goddesses with freckles, pigtails, piercing voices and inky fingers. There are no romantic heroes with knobby knees, dirty fingernails and unkempt hair. The awkward stage of adolescence brings into sharp focus some of the physical and emotional problems involved in growing up. These can better be overcome in a co-educational environment. Segregated schools sometimes provide the right conditions for sexual deviation. This is hardly possible under a co-educational system. When the time comes for the pupils to leave school, they are fully prepared to enter society as well-adjusted adults. They have already had years of experience in coping with many of the problems that face men and women.

What is the best title for this passage?

A only co-education can be in harmony with society.

B people are in great need of co-education.

C any form of education other than co-education is simply unthinkable.

D co-education has many features.

what does co-education offer to children?

A A society.           B A true small model of society.

C A real life.          D True version of social condition.

According to the passage, what is one of the chief aims of education?

A It is for students to acquire knowledge.

B It is to equip future citizens with scientific technology.

C It is to equip future citizens with what is required in getting a position in society.

D It is for students to get academic achievements.

Why do boys and girls in co-education have no illusion about each other?

A They live together and know each other too well.

B Years of living together at school dismiss such illusion.

C co-education encourage them to have an healthy attitude toward life.

D They are familiar with each other’s problems.

Twelve years ago, when I was 50,I wondered what 60 or 70 would be like? I looked around and saw only one style of living. It’s not fair, I thought. Young people have so many styles to choose from, but older people have just one choice. So I decide to do something about it , something practical.

I worked on my fitness by joining exercise classes in town. A few years later, my husband and I moved to a retirement community, and I wanted to teach aerobic（有氧运动的）classes. The community center wouldn’t give me a room to teach in, so I had to walk around and find any available empty room.

One day, the community center staff came to me and asked if I would help with the entertainment for a Hawaiian luau（夏威夷式宴会）they were putting on. I said yes. Then I talked five other ladies into dancing with me. We performed the hula（呼啦舞）and a war chant and brought the house down. Someone had a camera and took pictures, and then sent them to our local paper. We got requests for more engagements, which in turn led to more publicity and yet more engagements. Soon we had invitations from all over the country. The Dancing Grannies were born!

??? I think the real secret of the Dancing Grannies is out attitude. I was raised extremely poor ---no-food poor. If we wanted toys we had to make things up to play with ,so I learned early to be very creative. And you know,I think being poor was one of the best things that ever happened to me because I learned to look for treasures.

That’s what I’m still doing today—looking for the treasure in growing old. I’m getting better and better.

It’s true that antiques have to be treated a bit differently, with a little care, but they still have a beauty of their own.?

1.What did the writer think of the living style of the older people when she was 50?

A. Unsatisfying?????? B. Favorable??????? C. Pleasant??????? D. Practical

2.Why did the writer have to walk around and find an empty room?

A. Because she couldn’t offer an expensive room.

B. Because she wasn’t given a room to teach in by the community center.

C. Because she wanted to find a better one.

D. Because she wanted to keep fit by walking.

3.What can we infer from the writer’s performance???

A. It was just so-so.??? B. It was a failure.??

C. It was average.???? D. It was a success.

4.What made the writer learn to look for treasures?

A. Being active?????? B. Being creative????

C. Being rich???????? D. Being poor

5.What does the underlined word “antiques” (in the last paragraph) refer to???

A. Ancient treasures?? B. Poor children

C. Old people??????? D. The Dancing Grannies

Tom accumulated a grate deal of knowledge about plants and agriculture in growing strawberries, he went back to the abandoned          of spreading straw under the fruit to reduce the necessary amount of watering.

A. custom           B. approach          C. practice        D. principle

When nature is left alone, a balance is reached among the animals and plants living in one area. But when man starts his work in nature, the balance is likely to be destroyed. He grows a crop and takes it away to eat ;then there are no dead leaves to fall on the ground, holding water while it sinks into the surface, or decaying (腐烂) and adding humus (腐殖质) to the soil. Unless a farmer acts with knowledge and skill, he is therefore most likely to make the land poorer. To take the place of the useful matter in the crops that he removes, he uses some kind of fertilizer (肥料). Chemical fertilizers are of great help, but the waste products of animals and decaying remains of plants should also be put on the land. In some places, it is a habit to burn waste material lying about, but such burning destroys the useful matter in the dead plants. Although the ashes that are left are valuable when put on the land, a better practice is to bury the waste so that it decays and increases the humus in the soil.

In the past, when the world population was much lower than it is now, a man had little difficulty in ordinary times in growing the food that was needed. When a field had been used some years and had become tired, the farmer could move to another place. The tired land then slowly recovered. By and by grasses and other plants would appear on it and its productive power would slowly return to normal through their decay. But nature, left alone, would take a long time to bring back the land to its former state; the length of time required would depend on local conditions, but it might well be ten years.

It is a bad practice to grow the same crop in a field year after year. If the crop is changed, the land will suffer less because it is treated and used in a different way. Different plants have different effects on the soil. Therefore, a change of crop will do less harm than the growing of the same crop year after year and a regular change to grass will do good to the soil. Much will therefore be gained if different crops are grown one after another, a method known as the rotation (轮作) of crops.

1.According to the passage, the land will become poorer (   )

A. if all the dead leaves are cleared away        B. if the humus is increased after the harvest

C. if dead leaves decay in the soil by themselves  D. if waste plant material lying about is buried

2.We can learn from the passage that the tired land has slowly recovered (   )

A. when grasses and other plants appear again

B. when the treatment is given by nature alone

C. after new grasses and other plants have decayed again

D. after nature has been left alone for several months

3.A modern farmer can hardly move to another place as he did before because (   )

A. the productive power of a new field isn't higher than that of an old one

B. there are few free fields left for him to do farming

C. it takes a farmer more than ten years to start farming in a new field

D. there will be too many grasses in a new field to grow crops

4.It is most likely that the author will go on to (   ) in the paragraph following the passage above.

A. introduce other methods of planting crops     B. deal with how to prevent land getting tired

C. start another topic of how to make use of land  D. further explain what the rotation of crops is