Most students in grades K-12 attend school for 6 to 7 hours a day, 180 days per year. Some schools offer extended learning by adding extra time to the school day or increasing the length of the school year. Some states are moving to this type of schedule in an attempt to increase student achievement. Is it worthwhile? Longer days allow for more instruction in core classes, individualized attention and additional tutoring time for struggling students. Schools that switched to longer days reported significant gains in language arts, math and science. The most notable change was a gain of about 20 percent more proficiency in math from 2006 to 2010. However, the additional time must be accompanied by quality instruction to have an impact. Longer school days also have positive implications for teachers, allowing for more collaboration with colleagues, planning time and opportunities for on-campus professional development. Some districts that use extended time have raised salaries and increased benefits to compensate teachers for the extra hours. Longer days can also help close the achievement gap between socioeconomic groups. Families who can afford it often supplement their children’s education with additional classes and tutoring. With longer days, children from less-wealthy families would have these same opportunities. Students in schools with extended days average seven hours of instruction in art, music and physical education, which is double the national average. Advocates of longer days argue that American students spend less time in school than their counterparts in other nations and are consequently lagging behind. In fact, American students attend school for 900 to 1,000 hours per year. Finland, which consistently performs well on standardized tests, averages 608 hours of instruction at the elementary level per year. By middle school, many American students have received many more instructional hours than students in Japan, Korea and Finland, yet these three countries continue to post high scores. Additional time in school means more energy costs, higher salaries and more resources. While adding time appears to have positive effects, it comes at a cost that some schools cannot afford. Adding time to the school day increases school budgets an additional 6 to 20 percent more per year. Cash-strapped schools may not be able to cover this additional cost without revising their budgets. The question that schools must answer is whether the additional instruction and enrichment time is worth the additional costs.

W: I’ve got to give my oral presentation in class tomorrow. And I am so nervous. M: Maybe you just need a trial run. Why don’t you use me as your audience? Q: What does the man imply the woman should do? Find out who will listen to her tomorrow. Try not to think about her audience. Watch him make his presentation. Practice her presentation in front of him.

The United States bought Alaska from Russia in 1867 for seven million dollars. That is less than five cents a hectare. At the time, many Americans criticized the purchase. But it was one of the best deals the country ever made. Alaska proved rich in oil and minerals. Gold was found nearby in the Yukon area of Canada in the eighteen nineties. Thousands of people traveled to the Yukon through Alaska hoping to get rich, but never did. But some of them decided to stay in Alaska. Mainly they earned their money as miners, fishermen, animal trappers and store owners. Alaska became an official territory of the United States in 1912. Four years later, the first Alaskan statehood bill was proposed in Congress. Opponents argued that Alaska was far away, disconnected from the other states and little populated. Only about 58,000 people lived there at the time. Yet those were not the only concerns. Historians say Congress was also unsure about the loyalties of native Alaskans—the Aleuts, Indians and Eskimos. But during World War Two, national leaders recognized the importance of the territory to security in the Pacific. The United States entered the war in 1941 after Japanese planes attacked the Navy base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. The surprise attack sank many ships. After that, Congress provided billions of dollars in defense spending for Alaska. Today, federal spending is one of the most important parts of the state economy. Finally, in 1958, Congress passed the Alaska Statehood Bill and President Dwight Eisenhower signed it into law. Alaskans accepted it, and on January third, 1959, President Eisenhower declared Alaska the forty-ninth state. Today, Alaska has more than 730,000 people. The biggest industry in Alaska is oil and gas production. But tourism and fishing are also important. Q10: Why was the purchase of Alaska one of the best deals the country ever made? Qll: Which was not the concern of the opponents to the first Alaskan statehood bill? Q12: When did Alaska become a state? Because gold was found in Alaska. Because Alaska has an abundance of seafood. Because Alaska proved rich in oil and minerals. Because Alaska is bordered by Yukon.

A computer failure can destroy thousands of memories. You can avoid this by keeping your photos backed up______(3 words).As you know, cameras and photography have changed. What used to appear on paper now appears on computers and phones. No matter the format, we still love our photos and now they have new powers. But first, let’s be practical. These days a fire may not be your biggest worry. A computer failure can destroy thousands of memories. You can avoid this by keeping your photos backed up on the Internet. A number of sites make it inexpensive and easy for you to upload your photos for safe keeping. To make our point, let’s look at the old way. You visit the Grand Canyon and take beautiful photos. You get them developed, and a few days later you add them to a photo album that sits on a shelf. Few people see them and it’s a pain to find a specific photo in all those albums. Now, let’s look at the new way, with a popular service called Flickr. You visit the Grand Canyon and take beautiful photos with a digital camera. Once you’re home, you move the photos onto your computer, and then upload them on to the Flickr website. You click “upload,“ find the photos on your computer, and upload them to the web for safe keeping. Ah, sweet piece of mind. Yay! But it doesn’t stop there. You need to make sure that it’s easy to find photos in the future. Along with adding titles, you can add keywords or tags that describe the photo. You might use tags like “Grand Canyon,“ ’Arizona,“ “Park,“ “Scenery,“ “2007“ to describe this photo. Each of these tags becomes a way for you to find photos in the future. Just click a tag and a thousand photos become a few related ones. Now, once your photos are online and findable, it’s time to look at another fun part of online photo sharing—the actual sharing. You can choose to make your photos public or private, it’s up to you. Private is like a photo on your wall, few see it. But public is like taking your photos to a party. They become a representation of you and offer a way to make friends. So, photo sharing sites like Flickr do two things really well: One, they keep your photos safe, organized and findable; and two, they make photo sharing fun by making photos social.

To be happy-go-lucky is to be cheerful about almost everything and forget about the stresses and pressures of everyday life. pessimistic upset light-hearted courteous

Governmental officials are expected to work in the interest of the ordinary people. for the sake of with the support of with a view to on the basis of

The sad truth is that ecosystems are______fragile and intensely complicated. inherently humbly cautiously industriously

It has been proved that good weather can boost one’s______. feeling emotion sense mood

Experts hope the plane’s flight recorder will______the cause of the air crash. make sense of let go of shed light on fit in with

This trip offers a unique opportunity to______these fascinating creatures in their natural environment. interact with comply with coincide with part with

Floods and droughts take a heavy______on farmers living in disaster-prone areas. loss casualty influence toll

She said that she would invite me to dinner, but I wonder if she was kidding or______. in all in advance in earnest in depth

Corporate culture is a not a new term. It has been used to describe the【C1】______beliefs, value systems, and processes that provide a company with its own unique flavor and attitude.【C2】______businesses of all sizes offer a specific range of services or products, every company has a set of values and goals that help to define what the business is all【C3】______. Here are some examples of elements that【C4】______creating and defining a corporate culture. At the foundation of any company culture are the standards for the operation of the business. These standards are usually expressed【C5】______the policies and procedures that define how the company will operate. This will include how different departments or functions【C6】______one another in the production process, the line of communication established between management and departmental employees, and rules【C7】______acceptable conduct of everyone who is part of the company. This basic organizational culture makes it possible to develop other layers of corporate culture based on these foundational factors. When employees have【C8】______to make suggestions that could improve the productivity or the general working environment of the company, the corporate culture is【C9】______, as it allows for free communication【C10】______everyone employed by the business.

Things are finally being made in the U.S.A. again! Better yet, a whole new crop of newer businesses are growing based on the fact that every product they sell is manufactured right here in the United States. Most newer businesses are for products made and marketed locally, such as a dog biscuit brand out of San Luis Obispo, but old standards like Unionwear are still going strong. In fact, Unionwear owner has had a whole host of new customers calling him. The fact that more consumers are seeking out American-made products in greater numbers is a good thing for business owners. That means that they will be willing to pay a little bit more for your products and services—as long as you capitalize on the fact that your products were made here. The shift back to treasuring American-made goods follows several horrific disasters in factories overseas. Coupled with the public’s strong desire to see the American economy rise again, many consumers are looking for products made in the U.S.A., even if they cost a bit more. Even Walmart is making an effort to carry more domestically made goods in stores. Ultimately, your customers want to buy things without having to wonder if a small child made it for just pennies a day. This renewed passion for domestic products is great for businesses. Forecasters predict that labor costs in China are going to rise, which means that the country will no longer be the center of cheap manufacturing. If the cost of Chinese labor surges, it will no longer be cost-efficient for companies to ship their manufacturing jobs overseas. If your business is not already manufacturing domestically, maybe now is the time you should start. If your business already makes its products in the United States, now is a great time for marketing. When you are reminding potential customers that your products are America-made, be sure to be clear. False patriotism will turn your customers off, even if you have a great product. The fact that consumers are seeking American products with renewed intensity encourages all business owners to take advantage of this passion by cleverly marketing the fact that you are a domestic or local business. With patriotic summer holidays upon us, why not have a sale to capitalize on your company’s patriotic support of the American economy? Your customers will love it and so will you.

I was desperately nervous about becoming car-free. But eight months ago our elderly people carrier was hit by a passing vehicle and the damage was so bad it had to be written off. No problem, I thought: we’ll buy another. But the insurance payout didn’t even begin to cover the costs of buying a new car—I worked out that, with the loan we’d need plus petrol, insurance, parking permits and tax, we could easily be looking at around ￡600 a month. And that’s when I had my fancy idea. Why not just give up having a car at all? The more I thought about it, the more sensible it seemed. I live in London. We have a railway station behind our house, a tube station 10 minutes’ walk away, and a bus stop at the end of the street. A new car club had just opened in our area, and one of its shiny little red Peugeots was parked nearby If any family in Britain could live without a car, I reasoned, then surely we were that family? But my new car-free passion, sadly, wasn’t shared by my family. My teenage daughters were horrified. What would their friends think about our family being “too poor to afford a car“?(I wasn’t that bothered what they thought, and I suggested the girls could take the same approach.) My friends, too, were astonished at our plan. What would happen if someone got seriously ill overnight and needed to go to hospital?(an ambulance?)How would the children get to and from their many events?(buses and trains?)People smiled indulgently, as though this was another of my mad ideas, before saying they were sure I’d soon realize that a car wasn’t a luxury, it was a necessity. Eight months on, I wonder whether we’ll ever own a car again. The idea that you “have“ to own a car, especially if you live in a city, is all in the mind. I live— and many other city-dwellers do too—in a community that has never been better served by public transport, and yet car ownership has never been higher. We worry about rising car costs, but we’d be better off asking something much more basic. Do I really need a car? The answer turned out to be no, and I’m a lot richer because I dared to ask the question.

中国一些农村地区容易遭灾，使农民收入很难逐年增加。个人对于自然灾害可能无计可施，但政府要认真对待灾难的预测，以便把灾难造成的损失减少到最低程度。亲自到农村看看是了解社会现实的好机会。虽然长远规划不一定产生预计的效果，但至少能提醒人们经济要向哪个方向发展。

“A penny saved is a penny earned.“ This old saying calls attention to the wisdom of saving money. “Putting money away for a rainy day“ is another way to talk about saving for the future. In the United States, people who want to start a savings account have different choices of where to put their money. These include banks and credit unions. Credit unions are cooperatives for people who have some kind of connection. For example, the members might work for a university or a government agency. Most credit unions are nonprofit organizations. Credit unions, banks and other financial institutions pay interest on savings accounts. But the interest rates are low. Certificates of deposit pay higher returns. With a certificate of deposit or CD, a person agrees not to withdraw the money for a certain period of time. This term could be anywhere from a few months to several years. Longer terms, and larger amounts, pay higher interest. People can withdraw their money early but they have to pay a penalty. Another way to save is through a money market fund. This is a kind of mutual fund. Mutual funds invest money from many people. The money is sometimes placed in short-term government securities. Money market funds, however, may not be federally guaranteed like other kinds of savings. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation guarantees savings up to two hundred fifty thousand dollars. In a number of countries, people have been saving less over the years. The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development is a group of thirty-four countries. This organization says in nineteen ninety Americans had a household savings rate of seven percent. This year, that rate is expected to be a little more than two percent. Many European countries have higher rates, but Americans save more than families in Japan. Q13: What is true about a certificate of deposit? Q14: Which kind of savings may not be federally guaranteed? Q15: Where is the household savings rate relatively high? It guarantees savings up to 250,000 dollars. A person can make early withdrawals penalty free. Its term ranges from a few months to several years. It pays lower returns than a savings account.

Tabin asked me to remind you of the party on Friday evening lest you forget about it. so that as if in case even if

The company has announced that it will undertake an investigation into this accident. enter upon put off turn in set aside

The visit of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to the Yasukuni shrine outraged China and South Korea. angered condoled bewildered imposed

The young man told me a convincing story, but it seemed that he concealed his true motives. put up took up picked up covered up

Some schools in the U.S. add extra time to the school day or school year to______.

As a result of extended school days,______.

According to Paragraph 4, longer school days______.

Paragraph 5 argues that American students______.

The last paragraph is mainly concerned with______.

The central idea of this passage is that______.