题文
During her junior year of high school, Diane Ray's teacher handed her a worksheet and instructed the 17-year-old to map out her future financial life. Ray pretended to buy a car, rent an apartment, and apply for a credit card. Then, she and her classmates played the "stock market game", investing(投资) the hypothetical(虚拟的) earnings from their hypothetical jobs in the market in the disastrous fall of 2008. "Our pretend investments crashed," Ray says, still frightened. "We got to know how it felt to lose money."That pain of earning and losing money is a feeling that public schools increasingly want to teach. Forty states now offer some type of financial instruction at the high-school level, teaching students how to balance checkbooks and buy stock in math and social-studies classes. Though it's too early to measure the full influence of the Great Recession(大萧条), the interest in personal-finance classes has risen since 2007 when bank failures started to occur regularly. Now, many states including Missouri, Utah, and Tennessee require teenagers to take financial classes to graduate from high school. School districts such as Chicago are encouraging money-management classes for kids as young as primary school, and about 300 colleges or universities now offer online personal-finance classes for incoming students. "These classes really say, 'This is how you live independently,' " says Ted Beck, president of National Endowment for Financial Education.
Rather than teach investment methods or financial skills, these courses offer a back-to-the-basics approach to handling money: Don't spend what you don't have. Put part of your monthly salary into a savings account, and invest in the stock market for the long-term rather than short-term gains. For Ray, this means dividing her earnings from her part-time job at a fast-food restaurant into separate envelopes for paying bills, spending and saving. "Money is so hard to make but so easy to spend," she says one weekday after school. "That is the big takeaway."
Teaching kids about the value of cash certainly is one of the programs' goals, but teachers also want students to think hard about their finances long term. It's easy for teenagers to get annoyed about gas prices because many of them drive cars. But the hard part is urging them to put off the instant satisfaction of buying a new T-shirt or an iPod. "Investing and retirement aren't things teenagers are thinking about. For them, the future is this weekend," says Gayle Whitefield, a business and marketing teacher at Uth’s Riverton High School.
That’s a big goal for these classes: preventing kids from making the same financial missteps their parents did when it comes to saving, spending, and debt. Though the personal savings rate has increased up to 4. 2 percent, that’s still a far distance from 1982, when Americans saved 11. 2 percent of their incomes. “It’s hard for schools to reach strict money-management skills when teenagers go home and watch their parents increase credit-card debt. It’s like telling your kids not to smoke and then lighting up a cigarette in front of them,” Beck says.
Even with these challenges, students such as Ray say learning about money in school is worthwhile. After Ray finished her financial class, she opened up a savings account at her local bank and started to think more about how she and her family would pay for college. “She just has a better understanding of money and how it affects the world,” says her mother, Darleen-and that’s sown to the details of how money is spent from daily expenses to various taxes. All of this talk of money can make Ray worry, she says, but luckily, she feels prepared to face it.
小题1:The “stock market game” mentioned in Paragraph 1 is meant to .A.introduce a new course to studentsB.help students learn about investmentC.teach how to apply for a credit card D.encourage students’ personal savings小题2:How does the writer show us that schools’ interest in teaching financial classes has increased in paragraph 2_________?A.By giving examples. B.By providing data. C.By raising questions.D.By making comparisons. 小题3:According to the passage, taking money-management courses will .A.better students’ learning methodsB.prevent students going into debtC.help students get accepted by collegesD.make students become very wealthy小题4:After completing the financial class, Diane Ray is likely to .A.pay off all her debts. B.handle her money betterC.find a job in a bank. D.manage the family income小题5:The passage is mainly about .A.ways to teach students to earn moneyB.how Diane Ray learns to value moneyC.the push to teach personal finance in schoolD.how students choose a proper financial class 题型:未知 难度:其他题型
答案
小题1:B
小题2:A
小题3:B
小题4:B
小题5:C
解析
由于受金融危机的影响,公立学校正在逐渐开设金融课,来教授学生基本知识,认识金钱和如何使用、分配金钱,并未将来做打算。
小题1:根据第一段“instructed the 17-year-old to map out her future financial life.”可知,老师是在指导Ray如何进行投资,故选B。
小题2:根据“Now, many states including Missouri, Utah, and Tennessee require teenagers to take financial classes to graduate from high school. School districts such as Chicago are encouraging money-management classes for kids as young as primary school, and about 300 colleges or universities now offer online personal-finance classes for incoming students.”可知,作者通过举例子的方式来说明学校对教授金融课的兴趣的增加,故选A。
小题3:根据第三段“Rather than teach investment methods or financial skills, these courses offer a back-to-the-basics approach to handling money: Don't spend what you don't have. Put part of your monthly salary into a savings account, and invest in the stock market for the long-term rather than short-term gains.”和第五段“That’s a big goal for these classes: preventing kids from making the same financial missteps their parents did when it comes to saving, spending, and debt.”可知,学校更多的是教授学生基本的用钱之道,而不是教授投资技巧和金融知识,目标是防止孩子犯他们父母犯过的错误,故选B。
小题4:根据最后一段“Ray say learning about money in school is worthwhile. After Ray finished her financial class, she opened up a savings account at her local bank and started to think more about how she and her family would pay for college.”可知,Ray在上过金融课之后,会更好地分配钱,故选B。
小题5:根据“That pain of earning and losing money is a feeling that public schools increasingly want to teach. ...the interest in personal-finance classes has risen since 2007 when bank failures started to occur regularly”可知,经济危机带来的损失正在越来越促使各地对的学校开设金融课,故选C。
考点
据考高分专家说,试题“During her junior ye.....”主要考查你对 [科教类阅读 ]考点的理解。科教类阅读
科教类阅读的概念:
科教类阅读主要考查考生对书面语篇的整体领悟能力和接受及处理具体信息的能力。试题的取材,密切联系当前我国和世界经济、科技等方面的变化,有关数据的来源真实可信。
科教类文章阅读技巧:
一、材料特点:
这类文章的总体特点是:科技词汇多,句子结构复杂,理论性强,逻辑严谨。具体说来它有以下几个特点:
1、文章中词汇的意义比较单一、稳定、简明,不带感情色彩,具有单一性和准确性的特点。这类文章通常不会出现文学英语中采用的排比、比喻、夸张等修辞手法,一词多义的现象也不多见。
2、句子结构较复杂,语法分析较困难。为了描述一个客观事物,严密地表达自己的思想,作者经常会使用集多种语法现象于一体的长句。
3、常使用被动语态,尤其是一些惯用被动句式。
二、命题特点:
科普类阅读的主要命题形式有事实细节题、词义猜测题、推理判断题以及主旨概括题等,其中推理判断题居多。
三、应对策略:
1、要想做好科普英语阅读理解题,同学们就要注意平时多读科普知识类文章,学习科普知识,积累常见的科普词汇,从根本上提高科普英语的阅读能力。
2、要熟悉科普类文章的结构特点。科普类文章一般由标题(Head line),导语(Introduction),背景(Back ground),主体(Main body)和结尾(End)五部分构成。标题是文章中心思想高度而又精辟的概括,但根据历年的高考情况来看,这类阅读理解材料一般不给标题,而要同学们选择标题。导语一般位于整篇文章的首段。背景交待一个事实的起因。主体则对导语概括的事实进行详细叙述,这一部分命题往往最多,因此,阅读时,同学们要把这部分作为重点。结尾往往也是中心思想的概括,并与导语相呼应,命题者常在此要设计一道推理判断题。
3、在进行推理判断时,同学们一定要以阅读材料所提供的科学事实为依据,同时所得出的结论还应符合基本的科普常识。
科普类阅读应试策略:
【命题趋势】
阅读理解题主要考查考生对书面语篇的整体领悟能力和接受及处理具体信息的能力。试题的取材,密切联系当前我国和世界经济、科技等方面的变化,有关数据的来源真实可信。因此科普知识类文章是每年的必考题。分析历年的科普类文章我们不难发现以下特点:
1、文章逻辑性强,条理清楚,语法结构简单,用语通俗。
2、文章内容注重科技领域的新发现。内容新颖,从而使文章显得陌生,内容抽象复杂。
3、命题方面注意对具体细节的准确理解和以之为依据的推理判断。
4、以人们的日常行为或饮食健康入手,探讨利弊,诠释过程,阐述概念。
【应试对策】
许多考生在考试时感到困惑的是:为什么一些没有超越中学语法和词汇范围的篇章,读起来却不能正确理解,或者要花费很多时间才能读懂呢?这种现象的产生与阅读方法有很大的关系。例如,有的考生在考试时一见到文章就立刻开始读,结果读了半天,还不知道短文讲的是什么,试题要求了些什么,结果浪费了大量的时间,而阅读效果并不好。那么,怎样读效果才好呢?任何一种阅读方法或技巧的使用,都是由篇章特点和试题本身的要求决定的,应根据不同的体裁和试题要求采取不同的策略。
1、浏览。浏览的主要目的就是确定文章的体裁。如果文章属于人物传记、记叙文、故事、科普小品和有关社会文化、文史知识的文章,一般来说,应该先看看文章的试题考查内容,对题目类型做到心中有数,针对不同问题,在通读时有粗有细地去阅读,这样不仅能把握篇章的基本结构和逻辑线索,也能做好有关具体事实信息考查的试题。
2、挖掘寓意,掌握中心思想,推出结论。任何文章,作者在行文时都有一定的写作目的和主要话题。在通读篇章时应该吃透作者的写作意图,抓住文章的主题句,充分发挥自己的想象力和概括力,作出对中心思想的归纳和结论的推断。
3、把握篇章结构,利用上下文进行推测。高考中的阅读理解篇章往往是一个较完整的短文,其结构、思想,前后上下连贯统一。考试时应充分利用这一特点推测一些生词、短语在句中的含义,切莫盲目孤立猜测。
4、综观全篇,前后呼应。这是阅读理解的最后一步,在做完阅读理解题后,要立足于文章整体,再迅速读一遍短文,短文中的问题和答案的设置前后都是相关联的,有着一定的连续性,体现着文章的基本脉络。



