I’m told that the job is open to everyone ____ their previous experience. So it’s a chance for a green hand like you.

 A．apart from      B．due to      C．in case of    D．in spite of

 

A growing number of college students are applying to take entry tests for medical and dental （牙科的） schools among increasing graduate unemployment in Korea.

“I’ve decided to apply for the test to enter a medical college to become a doctor, changing from my original plan to prepare for a lawyer qualification exam in order to get a more stable job in the future,” said a 24-year-old college graduate, Lee, who majored in business administration during his undergraduate schooling.

The new medical and dental school system is getting popularity, attracting an increasing number of students every year since its appearance in 2004, as it is open to all college graduates regardless of their previous majors.

The Education Development introduced the new medical and dental education system, in which college students with bachelor’s degrees are allowed to study medicine or dentistry by taking the Medical Education Test (MET) and Dental Education Test (DET).

Ten medical schools and six dental colleges that have used the new system have received 4,377 applications (申请) for the entrance exams.

Applicants are getting younger compared with those in their 20s representing 76.9 percent of the total. The tests might be easier for students with biology and chemistry majors, but graduates from other majors are also applying for the tests.

Under the existing medical and dental education system, students should take a two-year premedical course followed by a four-year medical course.

Students graduating under the new medical or dental education system are given master’s degrees, while those graduates who studied under the previous system have bachelor’s degrees.

1.Why do more and more Korean students apply for medical schools?

A．Because doctors are highly respected in Korea.

B．Because they want to get a more stable job.

C．Because medicine is easier to learn than other subjects.

D．Because the medical education system is reasonable.

2.Students in the old system may spend _______ years at college to get bachelor’s degrees.

A．two              B．four              C．six               D．seven

3.We can learn from the passage that _______.

A．it takes a longer time to get the master’s degree in the old system

B．students may find it a lot easier to get a bachelor’s degree in medicine

C．graduates from other majors like history are not allowed to apply for those schools

D．the new system are not so popular as expected because of its high unemployment

4.What would be the best title for the passage?

A．New Medical and Dental School System Is Carried Out in Korea

B．Korean College Students Have a New Job Choice

C．Korean College Students Rush to Medical and Dental Schools

D．Doctors Are Becoming Popular in Korea

 

The new school is _____ our previous one.

A. as three times big as                        B. three times so big as           

C. three times the size of                      D. three times as bigger as

 

The national assistance system for poor college students is getting more effective as proved by fewer phone calls to the hotline of the National Center for Student Assistance Administration.

     "Poor college students and their parents are getting more satisfied with the national assistance system," said Ma Wenhua, deputy director of the administration, on Saturday. Over the past three years, the hotline received 8,488 calls. Statistics show 62 percent of the calls were made to ask about the funding policy, while 38 percent (3,200 calls) complained local colleges had failed to abide by the rules to support the students.

     Complaints were seen a year-on-year decrease from 2006 to 2008. Ma said some poor families might still overlook what they should do to get support for their child. To ensure education equality, the government has introduced a set of favorable policies to help poor students, such as scholarships, grants(助学金), student loans, tuition waivers(学费全免) and the work-study programs under which poor students are helped out in libraries, teachers' offices or service departments to earn money.

    Statistics show the government spent 29.3 billion yuan last year to aid college students, up 7.6 percent from the previous year. Around 40 million persons of college students received the national aid.

    The Ministry of Education of the government would ensure that no students drop out of colleges or universities because of poverty.

    Among the 20 million students in the country's public and private universities and colleges last year, about 20 percent came from poor backgrounds, official figures show.

1.The national assistance system is set up ___.

  A. for parents and students to complain

B. to help poor college students

  C. for poor students to get free education

 D. to help students find jobs

2.The underlined phrase "abide by" in the second paragraph probably means ____.

A. follow                 B. break               C. bear            D. agree to

3.From the passage, we know that ____.

  A. students will drop out of university because of poverty

  B. Chinese poor college students are more satisfied with national assistance system

  C. more and more parents are complaining about their local colleges

  D. college students are suffering from great economic pressure

 

Babies understand what their mothers say, even when they speak a language their children have never heard before, scientists claim.

The researchers found that one-year-olds reacted in exactly same way to their mothers’ voices regardless of whether they were speaking English or Greek, showing what mothers have long known – that babies pick up on tone of voice rather than the words themselves.

The researchers, from Cardiff University’s School of Psychology, observed babies as they watched their mothers perform actions with toys using the English words “whoops” and “there”. The scientists studied reactions from one-year-old babies to their mums’ voices even when they were speaking both English and Greek, and keeping the same tone of voice. The academics found that babies reproduced the same reactions regardless of whether they knew the language.  

Study leader Dr Merideth Gattis of Cardiff University’s School of Psychology says, “What this work showed was that children could have access to understanding simply through tone of voice. We did ‘whoops’ and ‘there’ in two languages and got exactly the same results.” The research, published in the journal Cognitive Development, was conducted on 84 babies aged between 14 and 18 months, over the course of a year, with none of the babies having any previous exposure to Greek.

Dr Gattis says that children respond to tone clues in their parents’ voices from an early age.

She says, “Tone of voice is a really useful signal of what someone is thinking. We never have direct access to other people’s minds, except the signals in language that they give out.” She says the study shows that it is less important what parents say than how they say it.

Dr Gattis adds, “A child may ask if you like his / her drawing, for example. You might say yes, but if you don’t sound enthusiastic, the meaning may not get across.” Before children begin to speak, parents should use exaggerated tone when speaking to them.

1.According to the text, what have mothers long-known?

A．Babies have a better understanding of English.

B．Babies pick up on tone of voice.

C．Babies like their mothers’ performances.

D．Babies like drawing from an early age.

2.Which of the following is TRUE, according to the study?

A．Tone of voice is the most useful sign of what someone is thinking.

B．After children begin to speak, tone becomes unimportant.

C．The babies acted the same way regardless of the language.

D．The research was conducted on 48 babies.

3.According to the text, Dr. Gattis believes that _________.

A．we have no access to other people’s minds

B．babies can’t understand what “yes” means

C．parents should always sound enthusiastic

D．how a parent speaks is more important than what he or she says

4.What’s the text mainly about?

A．The content of the journal Cognitive Development.

B．The famous works of Dr. Gattis.

C．Babies understanding their mothers through tone.

D．Babies having the potential to learn language well.

5.The text can be classified as _________.

A．a report          B．an advertisement    C．a handbook        D．a guide