Why do students cut classes so frequently? I can cite the immediate causes ,but I first want to note that they can cut because they are allowed to. They cut because of the climate of acceptance that comes from our belief that responsibility can be developed only when one is free, free even to act against personal best interests. That this is a misapplied belief in this case can be easily demonstrated. When substantial numbers of students do not attend, classroom learning is depreciated, the morale of both students and teacher suffers, and academic standards are compromised (受损). Students who miss classes unnecessarily are hurting more than themselves. They are undermining what colleges and universities are all about. Students cut for two main reasons. They have things to do that appear more important than the class, or they wish to avoid what they fear will be painful consequences if they attend. In regard to the first, nursing ’an illness or attending family weddings are good excuses for missing a class. But other excuses-- the demands of outside jobs, social engagements (including recovering from the hangover) ,completing assignments for other courses- are, at best ,questionable. The other main reason is more disturbing and perhaps less well recognized. Once, I asked several classes what they most disliked about the way courses are taught, and the answer was plain--anything that produced sustained tension or anxiety, I believe cutting has something to do with this kind of aversion. Cutting class is a form of students’ protest against a certain teaching style or professional inadequacy. This kind of response feeds on itself, as frequent absences make attending even more threatening. But what accounts for frequent cutting where the teacher tries to make the material interesting, knows the students by name, and approaches them with respect and help.* I simply tell my students: attend my classes regularly or drop the course. That is the rule.

According to the woman, what governs the clothes we wear?M: So you really believe that clothes carry a kind of message for other people and that what we put on is in some way a reflection of what we feel? W: Oh yes, very much so. Now people are beginning to take seriously the idea of a kind of psychology of clothing, to believe that there is not just individual taste in our clothes but also a thinking behind what we wear which is trying to express something we may not even be aware of ourselves. M: But surely this has always been the case. We all dress up when we want to impress someone, such as for a job interview with a prospective employer, we tend to make an effort and put on something smart. W: True, but that’s a conscious act. What I am talking about is more of a subconscious thing. Take the student who is away from home at college or university for example: if he tends to wrap himself up more than the others, this is because he is probably feeling homesick. Similarly, a general feeling of insecure can sometimes take the form of over - dressing in warmer clothes than are necessary. M: Can you give any other examples? W: Yes. I think people who are sociable and out - going tend to dress in an extrovert way, preferring brighter or more dazzling colors - yellows, bright reds, and so on. In the same way, what might be seen as parallel with the animal kingdom, aggressive clothes might indicate an aggressive personality or attitude to life. Think about the threat displays used by animals when they want to warn off opponents. M: Do you think the care, or lack of it over the way we actually wear our clothes has anything to tell us? W: Yes, indeed. The length, for example, of a man’s trousers speaks volumes about his awareness of his own image. Or, if his trousers are very short or hanging loosely, this probably means he’s absorbed by other things. A desire to express oneself and display one’s wealth. Individual taste and love for beauty. Love for beauty and a desire to impress other people. Individual taste and a desire to express oneself.

What was the report given by the weather station in Chicago?On the area weather map, most stations in southern Michigan are still reporting sunny skies. It’s seventy-nine degrees at Detroit, seventy -three degrees at Lansing. Chicago is reporting light showers. South Bend is cloudy as the cloudiness moves in from the southwest. The temperature at Ann Arbor airport in degrees Celsius is twenty -three point three. That’s seventy -four degrees on the Fahrenheit scale. Sixty - six degrees is the water temperature of the lake with winds gusting at twenty knots. The relative humidity is fifty -five percent and the barometric pressure is thirty point eleven inches of mercury and falling. The pollution index today is seventy - five. The quality of our air is fair. Sunrise will be at six o’clock tomorrow morning. And now for the extended forecast for tonight, we expect partly cloudy conditions and mild temperature with tonight’s about sixty degrees low and only a twenty percent chance of any showers this evening. Tomorrow morning, look for mostly cloudy conditions with a seventy percent chance of showers and thunder showers continuing into the evening. It looks like it will be a mild, but rainy weekend. Sunny skies. Cloudiness, but no rain. Light showers. Thunderstorms.

When was he born?He was born in Atlanta, Georgia, on January 15, 1929. He was black. He lived only thirty - nine years, but he became world -famous in that short time. He grew up in the southeastern part of the United States. He studied at Morehouse College where he met many outstanding men whose ideas he found important and exciting. There he read the writings of Thoreau, which gave him many ideas about freedom. After he graduated from Morehouse, he went on to study at the University of Pennsylvania, Harvard University, and Boston University. At Boston University, he met his wife, Coretta. In 1954, after he got his Ph. D. degree, he became the minister of a small church in the South. There he became the leader of the black people, who were poor and without power. He gave speeches and led marches. For his ideas and actions, he went to prison for a short time. Many years later, in Washington, D. C. , he spoke to a crowd of 250,000 people. He told them, “I have a dream.“ That speech, is still famous. In 1964, he won the Nobel Peace Prize. His work was not finished when he died, on April 4, 1968. Who was he? He was Dr. Martin Luther King. On January 15, 1929. On January 15, 1920. On June 15, 1929. On July 15, 1920.

Children learn almost nothing from television, and the more they watch the less they remember. They regard television purely【C1】______entertainment, resent programs that【C2】______on them and are surprised that anybody should【C3】______the medium seriously. Far from being over-excited by programs, they are mildly【C4】______with the whole thing. These are the main conclusions from a new study of children and television. The author-Cardiac Cullingford【C5】______that the modern child is a【C6】______viewer. The study suggests that there is little【C7】______in the later hours. All 11-year-olds have watched programs after midnight. Apart from the obvious waste of time【C8】______, it seems that all this viewing has little effect. Cullingford says that children can recall few details. They can remember exactly which programs they have seen but they can【C9】______explain the elements of a particular plot. Recall was in“【C10】______proportion o the amount they had watched.“ It is precisely because television,【C11】______a teacher, demands so little attention and response【C12】______children like it, argues Cullingford. Programs seeking to【C13】______serious messages are strongly disliked.【C14】______people who frequently talk on screen. What children like most are the advertisements They see them as short programs【C15】______their own right and particularly enjoy humorous presentation. But again, they【C16】______strongly against high-pressure advertisements that attempt openly to【C17】______them. On the other hand, they are not【C18】______involved in the programs. If they admire the stars, it is because the actors lead glamorous lives and earn a lot of money,【C19】______their fictional skills with fast cars and shooting villains. They are perfectly【C20】______the functions of advertisements. And says Cullingford, educational television is probably least successful of all in imparting attitudes or information.

President Coolidge’s statement, “The business of America is business,“ still points to an important truth today-that business institutions have more prestige in American society than any other kind of organization, including the government. Why do business institutions possess this great prestige? One reason is that Americans view business as being more firmly based on the ideal of competition than other institutions in society. Since competition is seen as the major source of progress and prosperity by most Americans, competitive business institutions are respected. Competition is not only good in itself, it is the means by which other basic American values, such as individual freedom, equality of opportunity, and hard work, are protected. Competition protects the freedom of the individual by ensuring that there is no monopoly of power. In contrast to one, all-powerful government, many businesses compete against each other for profits. Theoretically, if one business tries to take unfair advantage of its customers, it will lose to competing business that treats its customers more fairly. Where many businesses compete for the customers’ dollar, they cannot afford to treat them like inferiors or slaves. A contrast is often made between business, which is competitive, and government, which is a monopoly. Because business is competitive, many Americans believe that it is more supportive of freedom than government; even though government leaders are elected by the people while business leaders are not. Many Americans believe, then, that competition is as important as, or even more important than, democracy in preserving freedom. Competition in business is also believed to strengthen the ideal of equality of opportunity. Competition is seen as an open and fair race where success goes to the swiftest person regardless of his or her social class background. Competitive success is commonly seen as the American alternative to social rank based on family background. Business is therefore viewed as an expression of the idea of equality of opportunity rather than the aristocratic idea of inherited privilege.

The picnics, speeches, and parades of today’s Labor Day were all part of the first celebration, held in New York City in 1882. Its promoter was an Irish-American labor leader named Peter J. MeGuire. A carpenter by trade, McGuire had worked since the age of eleven, and in 1882 was president of the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners(UBCJ). Approaching the City’s Central Labor Union that summer, he proposed a holiday that would applaud the industrial spirit- “the great vital force of every nation, “On September 5 his suggestion bore fruit ,as an estimated 10, 000 workers, many of them ignoring their bosses’ warnings, left work to march from Union Square up Fifth Avenue to the 42nd Street. The event gained national attention, and by 1893 thirty states had made Labor Day an annual holiday. The quick adoption of the scheme may have indicated less about the state lawmakers’ respect for working people than about a fear of risking their anger. In the 1880s the United States was a land sharply divided between the immensely wealthy and the very poor. Henry George was accurate in describing the era as one of“ progress and poverty. “In a society, in which factory owners rode in private Pullmans while ten-year-olds slaved in the mines, strong anti-capitalist feeling ran high. Demands for fundamental change were common throughout the labor press. With socialists demanding an end to“ wage slavery“ and anarchists singing the praises of the virtues of dynamite, middle of-the-roarers like Samuel Gompers and McGuire seemed attractively mild by comparison. One can imagine practical capitalists seeing Labor Day as a bargain: a one-day party certainly cost them less than paying their workers decent wages.

You are Cindy Molly. You know that the English Language and Literature Department in Belling Foreign Studies University has a position vacant. You want to get that position. And then you write this letter to them expressing your interests in this position. (120～170 words)

Read the following paragraphs in which five people talk about beauty. For questions 61 to 65. match the name of each speaker (61 to 6.5) to one of the statements (A to G) given below. Mark your answers on your ANSWER SHEET 1. Mitcheck: According to Mileto, one of the seven wise people of Greece. said: “If the beauty of your face opens the doors to you, only the beauty of your manners can maintain them open. “What he meant, the outer beauty is passing and useless if a person has no real beauty that comes from within. I quite agree with what this wise Greek, said about the real beautifulness for a person. Melissa: All of us have a right to attractiveness and graciousness. Yeah, some of us even have a surgery operation to have a flawless appearance and to hide the inferiorities that we once have. Thus. the more we look good the more confident we are and at most we tend to forget what we really are. Actually a truly beautiful appearance is not encouraged by a desire to show off or to gain praise; it comes from a desire to communicate with others and to serve them as pleasingly as possible. Edher: Once there was an artist in the process of painting a sculpture of a man, then a person passed by and asked him: “Why are you painting his eyes brown instead of beautiful vivid red? “The artist answered“ I wouldn’t make a pair of eyes so beautiful that they would stop being what they really are; a pair of eyes. In other words, one shouldn’t risk function for beauty. Benjy: But I think looking in the mirror and finding yourself “attractive“ has nothing to do with how you look and everything to do with how you feel. That is why there are lots of depressed pretty girls who think they are ugly, plainer girls who are a million times more attractive because they feel good about themselves. I am one of those plain girls, plainer I think, and I know I am not an “attractive beauty.“ But who cares? ! I have my family, my best friends and my fan’s club! I may not be beautiful, but I have a magnet with people! Artrella: The inner vs. outer beauty debate can be traced to the Bible, which, as expected, picks the former over the latter as what’s desirable. (By the way, these recommendations were made mostly by guys. ) But in our visually-oriented world where Hollywood has the final word on what’s beautiful and ugly, our current criteria are based on what you see with your eyes and not on what you can infer from having a conversation with someone, especially a woman. Now match each of the persons (61 to 65) to the appropriate statement. Note: there are two extra statements. Statements [A] Beauty will make one confident. [B] A quality of contact and helpfulness makes one beautiful. [C] People do not care about beauty any longer. [D] Confidence makes one charming. [E] Today’s society prefers physical beauty to inner beauty. [F] Beauty often gives way to functions. [G] Beauty inside will make one beautiful.

Below is a graph showing the average number of hours a student spends on the computer per week. kook at the graph and write about an essay of 120 words making reference to the following points: (1) The change of the hours a student spends on the computer per week from 1990 to 2000. (2) The possible reasons of the change and the problems and difficulties college students face when they use computers. [*]

What is the probable relationship between the two speakers?M: Excuse me. Do you have anything on the history of basketball? W: I believe so. Look in the card catalogue under sports and also under hobbies. Bookstore assistant and customer. Teacher and student. Librarian and student Father and son.

What will the woman do?M: Can you help me to borrow these books on this list? W: I’ll look them up to see whether they are in, but I don’t take them out with my card. She will borrow the books for the man. She doesn’t want to borrow the books with her card. She doesn’t have a car. She wants to borrow the man’s car.

What is Mrs. Smith’s first impression of Manchester?Mrs. Gates: Good morning, are you Mrs. Smith? Mrs. Smith: Yes, I am. Mrs. Gates: I’m Mrs. Gates. I live in the house next door. Mrs. Smith: I’m very glad to meet you, Mrs. Gates. Mrs. Gates: How do you like Manchester? Mrs. Smith: Well, we’ve only been here for a few days, but I think I’m going to like it very much. I just hope we’ll be able to make friends easily. It was very sad to leave all our old friends in Blackpool. Mrs. Gates: I’ll be glad to introduce you to people. We only moved here two years ago ourselves, and so I know how you feel. Most of the people living in this neighborhood haven’t lived here very long, and we all try to be friendly to newcomers. Mrs. Smith: That’s good to know. It can be lonely in a new place without any friends. Mrs. Gates: I’ll be glad to help you any way I can. Mrs. Smith: One thing I’d like to know is the best place to shop for groceries. Mrs. Gates: That’s no problem. There’s new shopping center that just opened a month ago. It’s only about a mile from here. I can drive you there this afternoon and show you around. They have everything there you want. There’s a branch of a big downtown department store, two supermarkets, a drugstore, several little shops, and even a new cinema. Since the shopping center opened, I find that I hardly ever go downtown for anything. It’s very convenient. Mrs. Smith: That sounds wonderful. If you’re going this afternoon, I would like to join you. Mrs. Gates: Fine. Shall I pick you up about 2 o’clock? Why don’t you and your family come over for dinner tonight? I know how much work it is unpacking in a new house. Mrs. Smith: Thank you Mrs. Gates. We’d love to. It’s awfully nice of you to ask us. Mrs. Gates: Fine. Good -bye now. I’ll see you tonight. Mrs. Smith: Thank you. Bye. Just so so. Bad. Good. No impression yet.

The word“ this“ ( Line 4, Para 1 ) refers to ______.

Why do university students so often cut classes?

The word“ aversion“ ( Line 4, Para 3 ) means ______.

What is the result of the students’ frequent cutting?

What is the author’s attitude towards students who often cut classes?