69．It can be concluded from the passage that ______.

　　　 A．soon people will be able to travel in a space lift

　　　 B．scientists don’t think it is practical to build a space lift

　　　 C．a space lift can only exist in science fiction

　　　 D．difficulties need to be solved before scientists can develop a workable space lift

68．What is Andrew Petro’s attitude towards the space-lift project?

　　　 A．Positive.　　 　　 B．Negative.　　 C．Indifferent.　　 D．Suspicious.

67．Lasermotive didn’t get the top prize because ______.

　　　 A．their robot didn’t reach the top

　　　 B．they only managed to get their robot off the ground

　　　 C．their robot didn’t reach the top within the time limit

　　　 D．their robot didn’t move as fast as that of the Kansas City Space Pirate

66．Which of the following statements about the competition is TRUE?

　　　 A．The competition was organized only by NASA.

　　　 B．The first prize winner could get as much as $2 million.

　　　 C．In the competition, robots were laser-beamed up a 1 km-long lead to the top.

　　　 D．Only one team managed to send their robot up to the top.

65．We can infer from the passage that the writer does not favour _______.　　　

　　　 A．father's helping his son with his study

　　　 B．written reports to the parents from the teachers

　　　 C．talking bout children's shortcomings

　　　 D．having the parents help their children with their lessons

C

　　 We’re used to the idea of space travel now. countries frequently send up rockets to deliver satellites into orbit (轨道), and probes (探测器) to investigate other planets in our solar system. But how about a “space-lift”? An elevator you can step into to take you into space, just like the kind you ride to take you to your apartment on the 20th floor? If it sounds like science fiction, that's because up to now that's all it has been – a fantasy.

But we may be a little nearer the day when fantasy becomes reality, after a competition held in the Mojave Desert in the US early this month. Three engineering teams tried to build a lift that could climb up to a height of a kilometer, with a heavy load. They were eyeing a prize of $2 million to be used to further develop their work, offered by NASA and the Spaceward organization, the event’s organizers. This is the third year of the event.

How did the teams go about this real challenge of a task? It must have been a fascinating thing to observe. A helicopter held up a 1-km-long lead. On its turn, a team shined a laser (激光) up onto a robot on the chain, to try to make it move up.

The New York Times reports that LaserMotive, a company from Kent, Washington, did the climb in 4 minutes 2 seconds. After a second try, they were able to cut the time to 3 minutes 48 seconds.

This effort won them the $900,000 second-place prize. Lasermotive failed to get the $1.1 million top prize, which required that the robot reach the top of the chain in three minutes.

The two other teams did less well. The robot of the Kansas City Space Pirates nearly but didn't quite reach the top. And students from the University of Saskatchewan barely managed to get their robot off the ground, the Times reports.

But there seems to be a long road to travel before science fiction becomes science reality. The website Daily Tech reports that an actual space-lift would require a cable (电缆) be fixed at the equator (赤道) and extended up thousands of kilometers. The Earth's centrifugal force (离心力) would have to keep the line taut (绷紧的). It seems a fantastically difficult project to imagine, let alone realize.

The Times points out a number of problems facing scientists and technicians: the huge cost of such a space lift; the unavailability as yet of strong enough cable; and the problem of the lift and cable being hit by asteroids (小行星).

But as Andrew Petro of NASA told the newspaper, just the effort of trying can lead to interesting technological advances: “It’s a way to get work done in an interesting area that probably wouldn't be done otherwise.”

64．The writer implies that _______.　　　　　　　　　

　　　 A．interesting activities can improve one’s achievement

　　　 B．too many children are lazy and have poor work habits

　　　 C．teachers should often make home visits to parents

　　　 D．headmasters do more than teachers in this area

63．What way that the writer doesn't talk about can improve the present situation?

　　　 A．Classes for parents.　　　　　　　　　　　　 B．New type of report card.　　

　　　 C．Parent-teacher talk.　　　　　　　　　　　 D．Dinner or party.

62．From this passage we can know that the writer _______.　　　　　

　　　 A．is satisfied with the　 relationship between school and home

　　　 B．feels that parent-teacher talks can be made much more constructive

　　　 C．believes that schools can't teach pupils well

　　　 D．calls on parents to teach their children mathematics at home

61．The main idea of the passage is that _______.　　　 　　　　

　　　 A．home training is more important than school training

　　　 B．parents should help their children to do their homework

　　　 C．there’re many ways in which the mathematics program can be carried out at home

　　　 D．teachers can and should help parents to use better ways to teach their children

60．The main purpose of writing the passage is to 　　　　.

　　　 A．introduce the history of Chinatowns in the world

　　　 B．attract more visitors to Chinatowns in the areas

　　　 C．let Chinese earliest immigrants settle in the areas

　　　 D．communicate with other people in the world

B

　　 However important we may regard school life to be, there is always the fact that children spend more time at home than in the classroom. Therefore, the teacher should realize that parents have a great influence on their children. Parents can become strong allies (助手) of the school or they can get in the way of the school education.

Experts have realized the need to deep parents informed of the newer methods used in schools. Many headmasters have conducted workshops explaining such matters as the reading readiness, 　program, writing and mathematics to parents.

Moreover, the classroom teacher, with the permission of the superlisors (管理者), can also play an important part in giving more knowledge to reporting pupils progress, teachers can help portents a lot in educating their children and parents can give much help to teachers.

Suppose that a father has been drilling Junior arithmetic lessons night after night. In a friendly talk between the teacher and the father, the teacher can help the parent to make Junior interested in it. He might be persuaded to let Junior join in discussing the family budget , buying the food, using a ruler or measuring cup at home, setting the clock, calculating the distance of a trip and engaging in scores of other activities that have a mathematical basis.

If the father follows the advice, it is reasonable to say that he will soon realize that his son is making satisfactory progress in mathematics, and at the same time, enjoying the work.

Too often, however, teachers' talks with parents are devoted to small accounts of children's misdemeanors (不良行为). They talk about the laziness and poor work habits of the children.

What is needed is a more creative way in which the teacher, as an adviser, plants ideas in parents' minds to make sure that the child spends the many hours out of the classroom learning something useful. In this way the school and the home join forces in educating children.