M: How do you engage children, reduce the chances they will drop out and increase their chances of success? Tonight, we put some of those questions to the Council of Chief State School Officers’ 2012 Teacher of the Year, Rebecca Mieliwocki. She joins me now from Burbank, California, where she teaches seventh grade English at Luther Burbank Middle School. And, Rebecca, is this something you can feel yourself getting better at the longer you do it? W: Oh. Oh, absolutely. That one of the brilliant things about this career is that the learning curve is enormous. You start out, and it’s such a struggle and you really feel like you’re finding your way every day. And at the end of the day, you know 100 percent more than you knew at the start, and at the end of the year the feeling of accomplishment is tremendous. And that just builds on itself. So about five years in, you start to hit your stride and feel really confident about what you do. And I have been at it 15 years now and I know two things. I’m far better than 1 was when I started and I have a lot still to learn. M: I have heard teachers talk about middle schoolers as being particularly tough to teach. What’s going on in kids these age intellectually, physically, socially that makes them a tough group? W: Oh, my gosh. They’re a party coming and going. I can’t imagine a funner-funner? A teacher said funner—a more fun group of kids to teach. They have so much just native energy and enthusiasm about the world around them. And it’s my job to kind of harness that energy and that enthusiasm and direct it toward the things that I need them to learn as far as being 21st century communicators and thinkers and problem-solvers. M: You often hear that teachers can tell who’s going to have trouble in high school early on, in the earlier grades. Do you agree with that? W: I think what the best teachers are, are seekers. We are given a family’s child to teach. We’re given their most precious resource, their child. And our job is to send them out better than when they walk through the door. And better doesn’t necessarily mean that they can ace a standardized test. Better means that I have seen deep within each child what his or her unique potential is. And so great teachers give assignments that are seeking to find that resource within each child. So, we will give activities that require, you know, debating skills one day. And the next day, it will be a research skill, and the next day it will be artistic or musical because we’re looking for what each child’s native talent and capacity is, so that we can provide the education that child needs and help him or her find him or her best path to success. M: Right. This is the end of Conversation Two. Questions 6 to 10 are based on Conversation Two. 6. Who is Rebecca? 7. According to Rebecca, what is the learning curve for teachers? 8. How long has the woman been teaching? 9. What does the woman think of middle school students? 10. Why do teachers give various activities on different skills? An education TV program host. Teacher of the year 2010. A school headmaster from California. A seventh grade English teacher.

Few institutions are more important than the police, / yet there are few subjects that historians know so little about. / Most of the early academic interests developed among political scientists, / who usually examined it with only a nod toward the past. / Yet urban society has always placed a wide responsibility on its police. / Not only were they to maintain order and prevent crime / but they were also to assist in health services, / fight fires, supervise elections, and direct traffic./ In addition, it was assumed that the police were the special guardians / of the citizens’ liberties and the community’s peace.

“Would you mind if I turned up the heating?“ The past tense used in the if-clause of the sentence indicates______. impossibility tentativeness past time hypothesis

“Had it not been for his lies, he would still stay in the relationship.“ The inverted structure used in the sentence______. emphasizes the possibility expresses the emotion of regret reveals the consequence indicates the hypothesis

She has bought herself______dress. a cotton, purple, expensive an expensive, purple cotton a purple, expensive cotton a cotton, expensive, purple

____man can now create radioactive elements, there is nothing he can do to reduce their radioactivity. As Whether While Now that

Sensibility and Sensitivity is a good movie by any standards:______it should rank high on any list of romance. consistently consequently invariably subsequently

A doctor’s obligation when he can no longer_____the approach of death is to make the patient comfortable, including easing his pain. hang around hang on hold back hold on

(1) I see this principal all over as I go through my day. I see rims on car wheels that cost upwards of $500, just for a little bit of decoration on a vehicle. I see people spend four or five dollars for a cup of coffee, hundreds of dollars for cell phones that they almost never use, thousands of dollars on huge television sets that they almost never watch. All around us are ads and commercials that keep us wanting to buy things that keep us dissatisfied with the way things are, and those ads and commercials are trying to convince us that if we just buy some more stuff—no matter what the cost—we’ll be happier and more content. (2) But somewhere along the line we have to learn to make our own decisions about value. There’s a common law of economics that states that many poor people will stay poor because of the decisions that they make about how to spend their money. How many people have you known or known of, for example, who have little money yet who buy a very expensive car with high monthly payments? And how many people are in trouble right now because they bought houses that were more expensive than they could afford? (3) While I wouldn’t say that the answer to our money issues would be to skimp and save every penny and never have any fun in life, it is important that we learn about value and about when to spend how much. A few years ago, for example, my wife and I had cell phones. At the time I worked half an hour from home, I was on the road with sports teams a lot, and my wife also was on the road quite a bit. The cell phones made sense, even though we didn’t use them much—at least we knew that if anything happened, we could contact one another. (4) Then we moved someplace where we didn’t need the phones any more, for we both worked close to one another and we weren’t on the road much. Suddenly, the $75 every month to keep the phones made no sense, so we got rid of them. They were now just a luxury item, no longer as necessary as they were before. They simply didn’t have the same value that they had had before. And even though it had been quite convenient to make an occasional phone call from wherever I happened to be, that convenience was no longer worth the amount of money we would have had to pay to maintain it. (5) The best that we can do is to learn to define the value of our money for ourselves and to exchange our money for goods and services that have equal or even greater value. Money is here, and it’s a part of our lives. We can live with it and have it work for us, or we can squander it and lose it and become angry and frustrated with our loss. The choice is ours, but one thing is for sure—the path to happiness doesn’t lie in exchanging our money for goods or services of little value: rather, we need to make sure that the money we spend is money well spent. Only then can we avoid the resentment and frustration that will come over having wasted money when we didn’t need to.

(1) The sun rose upon a tranquil world, and beamed down upon the peaceful village like a benediction. Breakfast over, Aunt Polly had family worship: it began with a prayer built from the ground up of solid courses of Scriptural quotations, welded together with a thin mortar of originality: and from the summit of this she delivered a grim chapter of the Mosaic Law, as from Sinai. (2) Then Tom girded up his loins, so to speak, and went to work to “get his verses.“ Sid had learned his lesson days before. Tom bent all his energies to the memorizing of five verses, and he chose part of The Sermon on the Mount, because he could find no verses that were shorter. At the end of half an hour Tom had a vague general idea of his lesson, but no more, for his mind was traversing the whole field of human thought, and his hands were busy with distracting recreations. Mary took his book to hear him recite, and he tried to find his way through the fog: (3) “Blessed are the — a — a —“ (4) “Poor“ — (5) “Yes — poor: blessed are the poor — a — a —“ (6) “In spirit—“ (7) “In spirit: blessed are the poor in spirit, for they — they —“ (8) “THEIRS —“ (9) “For THEIRS. Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are they that mourn, for they — they —“ (10) “Sh—“ (11) “For they — a—“ (12)“S,H,A—“ (13) “For they S, H — Oh, I don’t know what it is!“ (14) “SHALL!“ (15) “Oh, SHALL! for they shall — for they shall — a — a — shall mourn — a— a — blessed are they that shall — they that — a — they that shall mourn, for they shall — a — shall WHAT? Why don’t you tell me, Mary? — what do you want to be so mean for?“ (16) “Oh, Tom, you poor thick-headed thing, I’m not teasing you. I wouldn’t do that. You must go and learn it again. Don’t you be discouraged, Tom, you’ll manage it — and if you do, I’ll give you something ever so nice. There, now, that’s a good boy.“ (17) “All right! What is it, Mary, tell me what it is.“ (18) “Never you mind, Tom. You know if I say it’s nice, it is nice.“ (19) “You bet you that’s so, Mary. All right, I’ll tackle it again.“ (20) And he did “tackle it again“ — and under the double pressure of curiosity and prospective gain he did it with such spirit that he accomplished a shining success. Mary gave him a brand-new “Barlow“ knife worth twelve and a half cents: and the convulsion of delight that swept his system shook him to his foundations. True, the knife would not cut anything, but it was a “sure-enough“ Barlow, and there was inconceivable grandeur in that — though where the Western boys ever got the idea that such a weapon could possibly be counterfeited to its injury is an imposing mystery and will always remain so, perhaps. Tom contrived to scarify the cupboard with it, and was arranging to begin on the bureau, when he was called off to dress for Sunday-school.

PASSAGE THREE

Car Safety 1. The focal point of the project: Road Rage - e.g. A man hit the driver who had 【T1】______him earlier 【T1】______ 2. Findings of the survey - 93% experienced road rage, including 【T2】______had their cars 【T2】______ damaged and 79% were being shouted at - 15% been hit—police only dealt physical violence 3. 【T3】______adopted to ensure safety 【T3】______ - get key ready before 【T4】______the car 【T4】______ - leave room for 【T5】______【T5】______ - lock doors all the time 4. Self-protection skills when rage happens - police interference: — Maryland: hefty 【T6】______as the front line 【T6】______ — California: an automated system to 【T7】______the license plates 【T7】______ - effective approach: apology — If the driver 【T8】______, the road rager would drop the matter. 【T8】______ — If the careless drivers looked 【T9】______, the road rager would 【T9】______ teach them a lesson. - how to make an apology in the car: a “ SORRY“ sign — The potential 【T10】______smile when drivers raise a “SORRY“ 【T10】______ sign to them.Car Safety Well, good afternoon. In today’s session I will be sharing some of the findings of my project from last term. I had been interested and horrified by several newspaper reports on what people call “road rage“. For example the famous incident of a man getting out of his car in a car park and hitting the driver of a van who had overtaken him earlier. So I decided to make this the focus of the project. For our research we depended mainly on talking to individuals, asking them questions rather than using written questionnaires. Well, we found 93% of respondents had had some kind of problem. A surprisingly large percentage—24% had their car damaged in some way, but the main type of incident was being shouted at—79% had experienced that. The police tended only to be informed when there was physical violence involved. So what strategies had people developed to ensure their own safety? We found that both sexes made the point that it’s much safer to get keys out well in advance as you go towards your car. Men were very aware that muggers or whatever might be concealed behind the car. They also made the point that you should leave plenty of room when you park your car so you can make a quick getaway if you need to. Finally, locking doors at all times. Besides self-protection skills, when road rage does happen at the very moment, something needs to be done. Maryland, like many other states, is working on the problem by stepping up efforts to crack down on aggressive drivers. Hefty fines for dangerous drivers and speeders are on the front line against road rage. California is approaching the problem with technology. A new automated system being installed by the state automatically takes photographs of the license plates of vehicles that run red lights. It even captures accident scenes for police review. A key factor in reversing the process is an apology. A road rager can become upset because you accidentally cut in front of him or her, or for other reasons that were not intentional. Over 85% of road ragers said that they would drop the matter if the other “careless“ driver simply apologized. Instead, road ragers claim, the “careless“ driver seems to be unconcerned about what they just did and, therefore, needs to be taught a lesson. In a car, only one method is effective in conveying an apology: A sign. We have found that it is very effective in warding off anger. In fact, many drivers actually smile when we raise a “SORRY“ sign to them after we have accidentally done something wrong. We keep a “SORRY“ sign in the map holder on the driver’s door and the passenger’s door. It could also be kept under the sun visor if it is fastened with a clip or rubber band so that it doesn’t hit you in the face when the visor comes down. To sum up, I have described the phenomenon of road rage, explained the findings of the survey, and presented the strategies to ensure safety and self-protection skills. That’s it for today.

M: How do you engage children, reduce the chances they will drop out and increase their chances of success? Tonight, we put some of those questions to the Council of Chief State School Officers’ 2012 Teacher of the Year, Rebecca Mieliwocki. She joins me now from Burbank, California, where she teaches seventh grade English at Luther Burbank Middle School. And, Rebecca, is this something you can feel yourself getting better at the longer you do it? W: Oh. Oh, absolutely. That one of the brilliant things about this career is that the learning curve is enormous. You start out, and it’s such a struggle and you really feel like you’re finding your way every day. And at the end of the day, you know 100 percent more than you knew at the start, and at the end of the year the feeling of accomplishment is tremendous. And that just builds on itself. So about five years in, you start to hit your stride and feel really confident about what you do. And I have been at it 15 years now and I know two things. I’m far better than 1 was when I started and I have a lot still to learn. M: I have heard teachers talk about middle schoolers as being particularly tough to teach. What’s going on in kids these age intellectually, physically, socially that makes them a tough group? W: Oh, my gosh. They’re a party coming and going. I can’t imagine a funner-funner? A teacher said funner—a more fun group of kids to teach. They have so much just native energy and enthusiasm about the world around them. And it’s my job to kind of harness that energy and that enthusiasm and direct it toward the things that I need them to learn as far as being 21st century communicators and thinkers and problem-solvers. M: You often hear that teachers can tell who’s going to have trouble in high school early on, in the earlier grades. Do you agree with that? W: I think what the best teachers are, are seekers. We are given a family’s child to teach. We’re given their most precious resource, their child. And our job is to send them out better than when they walk through the door. And better doesn’t necessarily mean that they can ace a standardized test. Better means that I have seen deep within each child what his or her unique potential is. And so great teachers give assignments that are seeking to find that resource within each child. So, we will give activities that require, you know, debating skills one day. And the next day, it will be a research skill, and the next day it will be artistic or musical because we’re looking for what each child’s native talent and capacity is, so that we can provide the education that child needs and help him or her find him or her best path to success. M: Right. This is the end of Conversation Two. Questions 6 to 10 are based on Conversation Two. 6. Who is Rebecca? 7. According to Rebecca, what is the learning curve for teachers? 8. How long has the woman been teaching? 9. What does the woman think of middle school students? 10. Why do teachers give various activities on different skills? An education TV program host. Teacher of the year 2010. A school headmaster from California. A seventh grade English teacher.

“The doctor must have sat up all night with his patient, for you see, he looks tired and sleepy.“ In this sentence the clause “for you see, he looks tired and sleepy“ serves to______ reveal the actual cause provide the basis for the inference designate the purpose indicate the outcome

“I can’t praise his high efficiency______“, George said, “even though I don*t like him personally.“ sufficiently adequately enough abundantly

It is only when you nearly lose someone______fully conscious of how much you value him. do you become then you become that you become have you become

____that he’s already heard the news. Chances are Chance is Opportunities are Opportunity is

We rarely perceive more than a minute_____of the sights and sounds that fall upon our sense organs: the great majority pass us by. fiction function fraction friction

The Spanish team, who are not in superb form, will be doing their best next week to______themselves on the German team for last year’s defeat. remedy reproach revive revenge

What professor Clinton mentioned just now was a virtually extinct Caucasian language spoken ______in Turkey. exceedingly excessively extensively exclusively

The______talks between China and Japan were the base of the later agreement. initial primitive fundamental terminal