Many public school advocates take a harsh attitude toward home schoolers, perceiving their actions as the ultimate slap in the face for public education and a damaging move for the children. Home schoolers harbor few kind words for public schools, charging shortcomings that range from lack of religious perspective in the curriculum to a herdlike approach to teaching children.
Yet, as public school officials realize they stand little to gain by remaining hostile to the home-school population and as home sehoolers realize they can reap benefits from public schools, these hard lines seem to be softening a bit. Public schools and home shoolers have moved closer to tolerance and, in some cases, even cooperation.
Says John Marshall, an education official, “We are becoming relatively tolerant of home schoolers.” The idea is, “Let′s give the kids access to public school so they′ll see it′s not as terrible as they′ve been told, and they′ll want to come back.”
Perhaps, but don′t count on it, say home-school advocates. Home schoolers oppose the system because they have strong convictions that their approach to education—wether fueled by religious enthusiasm or the individual child′s interests and natural pace—is best.
“The bulk of home schoolers just want to be left alone,” says Enge Cannon, associate director of the National Center For Home Education. She says home schoolers choose that path for a variety of reasons, but religion plays a role 85 percent of the time.
Professor Van Galen breaks home schoolers into two groups. Some home schoolers want their children to learn not only traditional subject matter but also “strict religious doctrine and a conservative political and social perspective. Not incidentally, they also want their children to learn—both intellectually and emotionally—that the family is the most important institution in society.”
Other home schoolers contend “not so much that the schools teach heresy (異端邪說(shuō)) , but that schools teach whatever they teach inappropriately,” Van Galen writes, “These parents are highly independent and strive to ′take responsibility′ for their own lives within a society that they define as bureaucratic and inefficient.”
1. According to the passage, home schoolers are .
A. those who engage private teachers to provide additional education for their children
B. those who educate their children at home instead of sending them to school
C. those who advocate combining public education with home schooling
D. those who don′t go to school but are educated at home by their parents
2. Public schools are softening their position on home schooling because .
A. there isn′t much they can go to change the present situation
B. they want to show their tolerance for different teaching systems
C. home schooling provides a new variety of education for children
D. public schools have so many problems that they cannot offer proper education for all children
3. Home-school advocates are of the opinion that .
A. things in public schools are not so bad as has often been said
B. their tolerance of public education will attract more kids to public schools
C. home schooling is superior and, therefore, they will not easily give in
D. their increased cooperation with public school will bring about the improvement of public education
4. Most home schoolers′ opposition to public education stems from their .
A. respect for the interests of individuals
B. worry about the inefficiency of public schools
C. concern with the cost involved
D. devotion to religion
5. According to Van Galen some home schoolers believe that .
A. public schools take up a herdlike approach to teaching children
B. teachers in public school are not as responsible as they should be
C. public schools cannot provide an education that is good enough for their children
D. public schools are the source of bureaucracy and inefficiency in modern society
參考答案：B A C D C
Every year television stations receive hundreds of complaints about the loudness of advertisements. However, federal rules forbid the practice of making ads louder than the programming. In addition, television stations always operate at the highest sound level allowed for reasons of efficiency. According to one NBC executive, no difference exists in the peak sound level of ads programming. Given this information, why do commercials sound so loud?
The sensation of sound involves a variety of factors in addition to its speak level. Advertisers are skillful at creating the impression of loudness through their expert use of such factors. One major contributor to the perceived loudness of commercials is that much less variation in sound level occurs during a commercial. In regular programming the intensity of sound varies over a large range. However, sound levels in commercials tend to stay at or near peak levels.
Other “tricks of the trade” are also used. Because low-frequency sounds can mask higher frequency sounds, advertisers filter out any noises that may drown out the primary message. In addition, the human voice has more auditory (聽(tīng)覺(jué)的) impact in the middle frequency ranges. Advertisers electronically vary voice sounds so that they stay within such a frequency band. Another approach is to write the script so that lots of consonants ( 輔音 ) are used, because people are more aware of consonants than vowel ( 元音 ) sounds. Finally, advertisers try to begin commercials with sounds that are highly different from those of the programming within which the commercial is buried. Because people become adapted to the type of sounds coming from programming, a dramatic change in sound quality draws viewer attention. For example, notice how many commercials begin with a cheerful song of some type.
The attention-getting property of commercial can be seen by observing one-to-two -year-old children who happen to be playing around a television set. They may totally ignore the programming. However, when a commercial comes on, their attention is immediately drawn to it because of its dramatic sound quality.
1. According to the passage, the maximum intensity of sound coming from comme rcials .
A. does not exceed that of programs
B. is greater than that of programs
C. varies over a large range than that of programs
D. is less than that of programs
2. Commercials create the sensation of loudness because .
A. TV stations always operate at the highest sound levels
B. their sound levels are kept around peak levels
C. their sound levels are kept in the middle frequency ranges
D. unlike regular programs their intensity of sound varies over a wide range
3. Many commercials begin with a cheerful song of some kind because .
A. pop songs attract viewer attention
B. it can increase their loudness
C. advertisers want to make them sound different from regular programs
D. advertisers want to merge music with commercials
4. One of the reasons why commercials are able to attract viewer attention is that .
A. the human voices in commercials have more auditory impact
B. people like cheerful songs that change dramatically in sound quality
C. high-frequency sounds are used to mask sounds that drown out the primary message
D. they possess sound qualities that make the viewer feel that something unusual is happening
5. In the passage, the author is trying to tell us .
A. How TV ads vary vocal sounds to attract attention
B. how the loudness of TV ads is overcome
C. how advertisers control the sound properties of TV ads
D. how the attention-getting properties of sounds are made use of in TV ads
參考答案：A B C D D
Not content with its doubtful claim to produce cheap food for our own population, the factory farming industry also argues that “hungry nations are benefiting from advances made by the poultry (家禽) industry”. In fact, rather than helping the fight against malnutrition (營(yíng)養(yǎng)不良) in “hungry nations”, the spread of factory farming has, inevi tably aggravated the prohlem.
Large-scale intensive meat and poultry production is a waste of food resources. This is because more protein has to be fed to animals in the form of vegetable matter than can ever be recovered in the form of meat. Much of the food value is lost in the animal′s process of digestion and cell replacement. Neither, in the case of chicken, can one eat feathers, blood, feet or head. In all, only about 44% of the live animal fits to be eaten as meat.
This means one has to feed approximately 9—10 times as much food value to the animal than one can consume from the carcass. As a system for feeding the hungry, the effects can prove disastrous. At times of crisis, grain is the food of life.
Nevertheless, the huge increase in poultry production throughout Asia and Africa continues. Normally British or US firms are involved. For instance, an American based multinational company has this year announced its involvement in projects in several African contries. Britain′s largest suppliers chickens, Ross Breeders, are also involved in projects all over the world.
Because such trade is good for exports, western governments encourage it. In 1979, a firm in Bangladesh called Phoenix Poultry received a grant to set up a unit of 6,000 chickens and 18,000 laying hens. This almost doubled the number of pouhry kept in the country all at once.
But Bangladesh lacks capital, energy and food and has large numbers of unemployed. Such chicken-raising de mands capital for building and machinery, extensive use of energy resources for automation, and involves feeding chickens with potential famine-relief protein food. At present, one of Bangladesh′s main imports is food grains, be cause the country is unable to grow enough food to feed its population. On what then can they possibly feed the chicken?
1. In this passage the author argues that .
A. efficiency must be raised in the poultry industry
B. raising poultry can provide more protein than growing grain
C. factory farming will do more harm than good to developing countries
D. hungry nations may benefit from the development of the poultry industry
2. According to the author, in factory, vegetable food .
A. is easy for chickens to digest
B. is insufficient for the needs of poultry
C. is fully utilized in meat and egg production
D. is inefficiently converted into meat and eggs
3. Western governments encourage the poultry industry in Asia because they regard it as an effective way to .
A. boost their own exports
B. alleviate malnutrition in Asian countries
C. create job opportunities in Asian countries
D. promote the exports of Asian countries
4. The word “carcass” (Line 2, Para. 3 ) most probably means .
A. vegetables preserved for future use
B. the dead body of an animal ready to be cut into meat
C. expensive food that consumers can hardly afford
D. meat canned for future consumption
5. What the last paragraph tells us is the author′s .
A. detailed analysis of the ways of raising poultry in Bangladesh
B. great appreciation of the development of poultry industry in Bangladesh
C. critical view on the development of the poultry industry in Bangladesh
D. practical suggestion for the improvement of the poultry industry in Bangladesh
