M: It’s a simple question at the center of almost any discussion on education reform. What makes a good teacher? But the answers are many and often complex, and the question can lead to debates over exactly how and how often teachers should be evaluated on their job performance. At the front lines of this debate are charter schools, the fastest-growing sector of American education, with 2 million students now enrolled in more than 5,000 such institutions across the U.S. Today we have with us Dacia Toll, CEO of Achievement First, a network of 22 charters along the East Coast serving mainly low-income minority students. Achievement First has developed a comprehensive checklist to evaluate its teachers. W: In the past, teacher evaluation has focused on observations, which, at their worst, become staged dog and pony show experiences that don’t actually tell you a lot about teachers’ effectiveness or even more importantly how they need to improve. The teaching model at Achievement First is different from the teaching model at most other schools in terms of the way the lessons are set up. So, it is extremely beneficial initially because teachers can get immediate feedback. M: Can teachers get feedback every day? W: Yes, teachers here find out every day how effectively they have taught a lesson with short quizzes called exit tickets. Students are required to take one at the end of each class to measure their level of comprehension. But test scores and the results of classroom observations are not the only factors here that determine the quality of a teacher. M: So what are the other factors? W: We have parent, student, peer and principal surveys, so the teacher is really getting a whole 360 take on what they are doing well and what they need to improve. M: A large part of the Achievement First plan to keep excellent teachers and those with potential to become great is the teacher career pathway. W: Yes, it’s a model designed to place classroom educators into five career stages depending on experience and classroom effectiveness, beginning at intern and concluding at master teacher. Reaching the fifth and final stage would bring a significant pay increase, although exact compensation figures are still being worked out. The goal is to encourage teachers to stay in the classroom, rather than move toward administrative jobs with higher salaries. We have got to improve student outcomes. And in order to do that, we have got to attract and retain very talented people, as our teachers—as our international competitors have done. And we think a big part of that is saying, you can make this a meaningful, rewarding career. M: That’s right. This is the end of Conversation Two. Questions 6 to 10 are based on Conversation Two. 6. How many students are there in charter schools? 7. Who take the majority of Achievement First students? 8. How does Achievement First teaching model differ from those of the other schools? 9. How will teachers be evaluated in Achievement First? 10. Why would excellent teachers be willing to teach rather than be an administrator? 2 million. 5000. 22. 5.

Among the sentences below, it is sentence______that denotes “future of present cause“. The hugely successful British boy band will split soon. The hugely successful British boy band may be splitting soon. The hugely successful British boy band is going to split soon. The hugely successful British boy band is splitting soon.

“The boy will misspell his name, whatever you say.“The modal auxiliary verb “will“ in the sentence indicates______ prediction insistence willingness intention

His features were agreeable: his body,______slight of build, had something of athletic outline. somehow as though somewhat

Whatever I say, my wife would______immediately, which makes me lose face in front of my friends even before my colleagues many times. contradict compound curse calculate

Bob assured his boss that he would______all his energies in doing this new job. call for call off call forth call on

One of the main goals of the modern woman’s liberation movement, which started in the early 1960s, was to______sex discrimination in the workforce, and open up careers for women that were previously reserved for men. abolish eliminate diminish extinguish

Extensive reporting on television has helped to______interest in a wide variety of sports and activities. gather generate assemble yield

(1) Animation is older than cinema, indeed almost as old as photography. Niepce made the first still photograph in 1826, just six years before Plateau invented the Phenakistoscope. The Zoetrope appeared just a year later in 1833. These two devices were examples of what today we would call drawn animation, presenting a series of pictures to the viewer in rapid succession to give the illusion of movement. While such toys were highly popular in the nineteenth century, it was not until the birth of cinema at the end of the century that animated films could tell stories. (2) Before the advent of CGI in the 1980s, animation techniques could be divided into two broad categories—drawn animation and model (or stop-motion) animation. The former involves photographing a series of two-dimensional images, usually drawings but sometimes cut-out shapes, while the latter uses three-dimensional puppets and models. Both techniques developed rapidly in the early years of cinema, with Cohl (“Fantasmagorie“, 1908) and McCay (“Little Nemo“, 1911) among the drawn animation pioneers and Starewicz (“The Revenge of a Kinematograph Cameraman“, 1912) the pre-eminent puppet animator. (3) The invention of eel animation by Hurd in 1914 was a key milestone. Not only did it reduce the work required to produce drawn animation by eliminating the need to redraw the backgrounds, it also made it possible to divide the work up among a team of specialists. One artist could design the characters, one draw the backgrounds, another produce key character frames as outline drawings, while yet others would work on the less inventive tasks of inking in outlines or filling in character movements ( “in-betweeners“ ). The development of “rotoscoping“ by the Fleischer brothers was another key improvement, leading to much more realistic character movement. (4) While the cel technique transformed drawn animation into a streamlined production-line process, model animation remained very much an individual art. As a result it languished, while by the 1930s eel-animated shorts had become part of nearly every film program. As well as Disney, several of the studios, Warner Brothers and MGM in particular, had flourishing animation departments. Disney produced the first full-length animated feature, “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs“ in 1937 and from then on released a new one roughly every other year. (5) The advent of widespread television in the 1960s had a profound effect on film programs. First newsreels were abandoned, as television news proved more efficient and immediate. Cartoon shorts were edged out more slowly, but became rare by the end of the 1960s. The animation studios, instead of making five-minute shorts for cinema exhibition, started making thirty-minute TV cartoons for children (“Top Cat“, “Deputy Dawg“ and “The Flintstones“ for example). While stories of necessity became more complex, the cartoon drawings themselves became highly simplified to meet the budgets that TV imposed. (6) Within the domain of animated shorts almost every conceivable technique has continued to be used, but until recently cartoon features have been produced exclusively using cel animation. Indeed, for more than forty years, from “Snow White“ (1937) until “The Secret of NIMH“ (Bluth/Goldman, 1982) almost all the feature-length cartoons came from a single studio, Disney. Model animation, while often used for special effects in fantasy and science fiction films, was not used for a feature-length animated film until “Nightmare“ (1993). Despite the success of “Nightmare“ we have not seen many more stop-motion 3D cartoons. Indeed there has been just one, “Chicken Run“ (Lord/Park, 2000), although the long middle section of “James and the Giant Peach“ (Selick, 1996) is entirely stop-motion. Instead there has been a series of very successful 3D cartoons generated completely by computers, starting with “Toy Story“ in 1995.

PASSAGE THREE

Getting Better Grades 1. Attend all your classes Reasons: - Absorb 【T1】______【T1】______ - Make 【T2】______known 【T2】______ - Earn 【T3】______【T3】______ - Record the class notes 2. Use time 【T4】______【T4】______ Tips: - Tackle 【T5】______first 【T5】______ - Take breaks as 【T6】______【T6】______ - Do not 【T7】______:learn to say no 【T7】______ 3. Be a good 【T8】______【T8】______ Hints: - Know what to expect on exams - Read questions carefully and 【T9】______【T9】______ - Ask questions 4. Consider your professors as your 【T10】______, not your 【T10】______ enemies.Getting Better Grades As a college professor, I am often asked for my advice on how students can get better grades. And after a couple of years of refining my ideas, I have developed some tips that will work for you—whether you are a first-year student or a senior. These tips are universal. First, attend all your classes. Many students skip classes for one reason or another. But if you want good grades, there are several reasons why you should attend all your classes: Absorb classroom material. Even if the professor follows the textbook pretty closely, sitting in the classroom and listening to the lectures will help you absorb the materials. Make presence known. One of the benefits of going to college should be that you form a mentoring relationship with some of your professors. And often faculty have participation points, so beyond just attending, make an effort to be involved in the class discussions. Earn attendance points. Many professors have attendance policies, so you can have a direct impact on your grade simply by attending. Record the class notes. These notes are vital clues to what the professor thinks is the most important material for you to learn, so besides taking notes, learn how to better use them to your advantage. Second, use time wisely Even if you do not procrastinate and are the most organized person in the world, time can be one of your biggest enemies in college. Here are some tips for using time wisely: Tackle harder work first. Yes, tackle the harder stuff first so that you are sure to have enough time to complete it. You’ll feel a greater sense of accomplishment completing the work in this order. Take breaks as reward for work. Reward yourself for completing a major task by taking a break and chatting with a friend or watching some television. Not only are the breaks good motivation to help you complete something, you’ll also be more refreshed. Do not overextend yourself: learn to say no. Besides all your academic work, you will also be asked to get involved in all sorts of clubs and organizations while in college — and at some point, you will have to learn to say no to some requests of your time. Third, be a good test-taker. Just about all college classes have exams, and sometimes the exams are the major portion of your final grade, so it’s important to become a good test-taker. Here are some hints: Know what to expect on exams. Every professor has a style of test development, so obtain old copies or ask the professor directly. Know the types of questions that will be asked — as well as the content that will be covered. Read questions carefully and plan answers. Take your time at the beginning of the test to read through all the instructions and make a plan of attack. Ask questions. If you don’t understand something, or need clarification of the question, ask the professor. Don’t wait to get the exam back and find you answered a question the wrong way. Final thoughts on improving your grades Following these guidelines should help your grades immensely, but here is one other tip. Remember to think of your professors as your allies, not your enemies. And if you’re struggling with some aspect of the course, just go see the professor. We’re here to help you become the best you can be.

W: Bob, as a successful businessman, do you enjoy being a leader? M: Yes, of course. I think if you wanna get some excitement in your life, you ought to become a leader. How do you influence others? How do you make a difference in their life and the organizations that you are gonna lead? W: But not everyone is a born leader, they need a little help along the way. What are some of the big mistakes that people make when they are in leadership responsibilities? M: Well, I think the biggest mistake is they don’t realize that there are two parts of leadership. One is the visionary direction part, which is where we’re going, you know, what are the goals? What are we trying to accomplish? And the leaders got to take a major role in setting those. And once the goals are clear now the second part of leadership is how we get there. That’s when you have to philosophically go to the bottom in the pyramid, and become the coach, cheerleader, supporter of people as they are the ones that are gonna be accomplishing the goals, so we teach people about vision and direction and implementation. W: So what’s your outlook on those who want to lead and organize their own business? M: Well, I think first of all, you have to find something that you love to do, that you have energy with because then you’ll take the time to be the best. And then you have to find out, OK, how can I make a business out of that? You know, “do I wanna be a coach?“ er, “do I wanna be a teacher?“ er, “do I have a product that I think people might be interested in?“ So find something you are passionate about and then of course the biggest issue in running a business is you need good finances and so you need to have some people that’ll help you and then you got to know more about managing and leading people. W: All right, and say you are someone who is just now entering the workforce. You get it into the job place or the job market and then you know suddenly you are kind of disillusion that wow, this is a little bit harder than I thought. How do you maintain that kind of excitement so that you can excel? M: Well, I think the best advice I’ve ever given to people is when you go to a job, find a mentor, find somebody who’s older than you that has more experience than you and ask them if they would be your mentor. Because a lot of times we get a job and it’s more difficult than we thought and we don’t know where to rum and so a lot of companies don’t set that up, so set it up for you, yourself. W: Good idea. This is the end of Conversation One. Questions 1 to 5 are based on Conversation One. 1. Why does the man enjoy being a leader? 2. What is the biggest mistake leaders make? 3. What should a leader be in the implementation stage? 4. What is the biggest issue in running a business? 5. What does mentor mean? Because he gets excitement out of it. Because he is a born leader. Because he can influence others. Because he is a successful businessman.

We’re late. I expect the film______by the time we get to the cinema. will have started has started will start may start

There was a teapot fashioned like a china duck, out of______open mouth the tea was supposed to come. which its that whose

A light with no more power than______by an ordinary electric light bulb becomes intensely strong as it is concentrated to a pinpoint-sized beam. as is produced that produced that is produced produced

Physics is the present-day equivalent of______used to be called natural philosophy from which most of present-day science arose. that all which what

If it is left_____, this fast spreading disease is likely to affect millions of Asian and African children, including more and more injured grown-ups. unchecked uncontrolled aggravated contaminated

Sometimes the tension produced by fears is so great that we cannot suppress it. At such times we need to _____the tension by laughing or crying. discard disperse disguise discharge

A. information B. law C. damage D. ensure E. secure F. initially G. particularly H. agreement I. limited J. completely K. profile L. coverage M. magic N. implementing O. enforcing Everyone is hopping on the Airbnb bandwagon these days. The room and house rental website has completely revolutionized the travel industry and put hotels on notice that they need to step up to their competition. But even though Airbnb can be【C1】______ wonderful, it can also be confusing for first-timers. Just yesterday I was talking to a neighbor who was so excited about renting out her apartment. She was pretty sure all she had to do was download the app and like【C2】______ someone would come to her place and give her money while she went out of town. It is simple, but it isn’t that simple. Here are a few things you need to know before you get started. 1. You might be breaking the【C3】______. Cities like New York and San Francisco have really cracked down on people renting out their places on Airbnb. Not only are they cracking down, but they are【C4】______ fines, and those fines can run up to $10,000. Make sure to check out your local laws and check in with your landlord before you even create a【C5】______ page. 2. You are protected. Hosts are protected up to $1,000,000 with an Airbnb Host Guarantee. Essentially it means you are protected from major property【C6】______ when a guest stays in your home. 3. There are some things that aren’t protected. Airbnb is very clear on its website that “certain types of property, such as jewelry, collectibles and artwork have more【C7】______ protections. Hosts may want to 【C8】______ or remove such valuables when renting their place.“ 4. You should have homeowners or renters insurance. You should have this anyway, but【C9】______ if you are renting your house out to strangers on the Internet. There are plenty of situations in which your own insurance will give you【C10】______ that Airbnb cannot.

PASSAGE TWO