Every year in America, high-school students who want to go to college take a national examination called the Scholastic Aptitude Test, or SAT in a shortened way. Their score is an important factor in determining which colleges will admit them or whether any will be admitted at all. The Scholastic Aptitude Test measures one’s mathematical ability and use of the English language. Traditionally, the English portion（部分）involved grammatical questions and paragraphs that test reading comprehension.

    But the SAT folks have added a single question, to be answered in an essay, hand-written on the spot. That’s an interesting way to test writing ability, put content aside, have you ever seen young people’s handwriting lately? Or anyone’s for that matter, in this age of computer keyboards? Students write numbers and sign their names on bank checks. They scribble class notes in what can generously be described as the written word. And they hand-write, or more often print, a word or two of identification on luggage and lunch bags. Otherwise penmanship (书法) — once taught so morally and easefully by second-grade teachers, has gone the way of the dodo bird which has died out.

    Yet today’s kids are asked to write, thoughtfully and legibly (字迹清楚地), for several minutes on this SAT Test. Good luck to the text scorers who must work out difficultly the scrawl of young people who’ve been typing on computers since the age of three! Teachers insist that good handwriting can not only help one’s score on the SAT, but also, later on in life, impress potential employers and earn bigger tax refunds (退税) because the tax inspectors can actually read the computations (计算结果). And don’t forget, we all have to turn to handwriting from time to time, as computers go down when power goes out.

1. The subjects to be tested in the SAT include ______.

    A. math, English, reading and handwriting

    B. math, grammar, reading and writing

    C. math, foreign language and writing

    D. math, English and handwriting

2.The author writes this passage to introduce the fact that ______.

    A. writing seems to be very important in the SAT

    B. those who will go to colleges have to take the SAT

    C. students should practice handwriting more often

    D. in the computer age kids know how to write legibly

3. What does the underlined word “scribble” probably mean?

    A. Write quickly and roughly.               B. Take notes difficultly.

    C. Print penmanship carefully.               D. Describe written word generously.

4.According to the passage good handwriting can ______.

    A. help students get high scores in tests        B. make a student more popular

    C. measure students’ ability                 D. assist one to get a job

If Confucius(孔子)were still alive today and could celebrate his September 28 birthday with a big cake, there would be a lot of candles（蜡烛）. He’d need a fan or a strong wind to help him put them out.
While many people in China will remember Confucius on his special day, few people in the United States will give him a passing thought. It’s nothing personal. Most Americans don’t even remember the birthdays of their own national heroes.
But this doesn’t mean that Americans don’t care about Confucius. In many ways he has become a bridge that foreigners must cross if they want to reach a deeper understanding of China.
In the past twenty years, the Chinese studies programs have gained huge popularity in Western universities. More recently, the Chinese government has set up Confucius Institutes(孔子学院) in more than 80 countries. These schools teach both Chinese language and culture. The main courses of Chinese culture usually included Chinese art, history and philosophy(哲学). Students in the United States, at the same time, are racing(比赛)to learn Chinese. So they will be ready for life in a world where China is an equal power with the United States. Businessmen who hope to make money in China are reading books about Confucius to understand their Chinese customers.
So the old thinker’s ideas are still alive and well.
Today China attracts the West more than ever, and it will need more teachers to introduce Confucius and Chinese culture to the West.
As for the old thinker, he will not soon be forgotten by people in the west, even if his birthday is

1. 1.

   The opening paragraph is mainly intended to______

   1. A.
      provide some key facts about Confucius
   2. B.
      attract the readers’ interest in the topic
   3. C.
      show great respect for the ancient thinker
   4. D.
      prove the popularity of modern birthday celebrations
2. 2.

   We can learn from Paragraph 4 that American students______

   1. A.
      have a great interest in studying Chinese
   2. B.
      take an active part in Chinese competitions
   3. C.
      try to get high scores in Chinese exams
   4. D.
      fight for a chance to learn Chinese
3. 3.

   What is the best title for the passage?

   1. A.
      Forgotten Wisdom in America
   2. B.
      Huge Fans of the Chinese Language
   3. C.
      Old Thinker with a Big Future
   4. D.
      Chinese Culture for Westerners
4. 4.

   The passage is likely to appear in a _______

   1. A.
      leaflet
   2. B.
      history paper
   3. C.
      newspaper
   4. D.
      philosophy textbook

Everyone knows about straight—A students. We see them frequently in TV situation comedies and in movies like Revenge of the Nerds(《菜鸟大反攻》)，a comedy film satirizing(讽刺)social life in college. They get high grades，all right，but only by becoming dull laborers，their noses always stuck in a book. They are not good at social communication and look clumsy while doing sports.

How，then, do we account for Domenica Roman or Paul Melendres?

Roman is on the tennis team at Fairmont Senior High School. She also sings in the school singing group, serves on the students’ union and is a member of the mathematics society. For two years she has kept up A’s in every subject. Melendres, a freshman at the University of New Mexico，was student-body president at Valley High School in Albuquerque. He played soccer and basketball well, exhibited at the science fair，and meanwhile worked as a reporter on a local television station. Being a speech giver at the graduation ceremony，he achieved straight A’s in his regular classes，plus rewarding points for A’s in two college-level course.

How do super—achievers like Roman and Melendres do it? Brains aren’t the only answer “Top grades don’t always go to the brightest students,” declares Herbert Walberg, a professor of education at the University of Illinois at Chicago, who has conducted major studies on super—achieving students “Knowing how to make the most of your innate(天生的)abilities counts far more. Much more.”

In fact，Walberg says，students with high IQ sometimes don’t do as well as classmates with lower IQ. For them，learning comes too easily and they never find out how to get down.

Hard work isn’t the whole story, either．“it’s not how long you sit there with the books open．”said one of the many—A students we interviewed. “It’s what you do while you’re sitting.” Indeed，some of these students actually put in fewer hours of homework time than their lower-scoring classmates. The kids at the top of the class get there by mastering a few basic techniques that others can readily learn.

1.What can we conclude from the first paragraph?

A．Most TV programs and films are about straight-A students

B．People have unfavorable impression on straight—A students

C．Everyone knows about straight-A students from TV or films

D．Straight-A students are well admired by people in the society

2.What will be talked about after the last paragraph?

A．The interviews with more students

B．The role IQ plays in learning well

C．The techniques to be better learners

D．The achievements top students make

3.What can we infer from the passage?

A．IQ is more important than hard work in study

B．The brightest students can never get low glades

C．Top students certainly achieve all-around developments

D．Students with average IQ can become super-achievers

Changsha,

Hunan Province

May 6, 2010

Dear editor,

Under China’s current (现在的) educational system, there are those who do nothing but study. They of course are thought to be model students.

But I feel that there is another type of student who, perhaps not as diligent (勤奋的) as the first type, uses his time more efficiently and achieves a lot academically.

Last year, a classmate of mine was accepted by a top university. It surprised all of us. It was because, unlike most of us, he didn’t spend too much of his time studying.

When I asked him the secret of his success, he said that the key was properly and scientifically arranging his time.

“ I spent a lot of time keeping fit and as a result, I was able to better concentrate (集中) on my class work.”

The moral (教训) of the story is: it isn’t necessary to sit at your desk all day long to get high academic (学术) grades.

Yours,

Zhang Zishu

1.What does the letter-writer (a reader) think leads to the fact that many students do nothing but study?

2.It seems that this reader thinks        .

3.The reader wrote the letter in order to        .

4.What would be the best to stand for (代表) the letter-writer’s opinion?