Standardized exam in American public education are being reformed. Over the next four years, hundreds of university professors and testing experts will work together to design new assessment system.
The new tests will be computer-based and will measure higher-order skills ignored by the multiple-choice exams used in all states，including students’ ability to read complex texts, synthesize(合成)information and do research projects．
Because the new tests will be computerized and will be administered several times throughout the school year, they can provide faster feedback(反饋)to teachers．If these plans work out, It’ll turn the current testing system upside down．
One group，led by Florida，will be made up of 25 states and the District of Columbia．The group was awarded $170 million．The other group,
whose membership over-laps the first，has31 states and is led by Washington．The group was given $160 million．Twelve of the 44 states are
participating in both groups but are expected eventually to choose one set of tests．
The two groups are supposed to work in a friendly competition，though their plans are very similar．Both groups will produce tests that rely heavily on technology and both groups’ tests will include so-called performance-based tasks，designed to mirror complex，real-world situations．
In performance-based tasks，students are given a problem－they could be told, for example, to suppose they are a mayor who needs to reduce a city’s pollution—and must write about how they would solve the problem．
The new tests could be useful to teachers by giving them information on what their students are le
arning, but it might also require some mid-course adjustments.
Over the past decade, the federal
No Child Left Behind law has emphasized helping low-achieving students improve their basic reading and math by encouraging states to produce tests that measure relatively low-1evel skills. Although the Bush-era law is still on the books, two
years of Obama administration policy have been leading schools in new directions．
小題1:. . What is the main idea of this passage?
| A．Obama’s education policy takes the lead. |
| B．A computer-based testing system is adopted. |
| C．American education system has been changed. |
| D．Experts are reinventing the student testing system. |
小題2:. Why are multiple-choice exams to be given up?
| A．Because they are not computer-based. |
| B．Because they can’t test students’ higher-order skills. |
| C．Because they can’t provide proper feedback for teachers. |
| D．Because they can’t test students’ general reading ability. |
小題3:. The underlined part in Para. 4 probably means________.
| A．the two groups have some shared members |
| B．the other group is more demanding than the first |
| C．the groups have different tasks of their own |
| D．the other group does better than the first group in the task |
小題4:. According to the passage, performance-based tasks may refer to tasks that______.
| A．a(chǎn)re related to real-world problems |
| B．have to be performed in an imaginary world |
| C．teach us theories through complex problems |
| D．can only be completed by relying heavily on technology |
小題5:. . From the last paragraph, we can infer that_________.
| A．the No child Left Behind policy is not helpful |
| B．the Obama administration’s policy is highly praised |
| C．the two policies both emphasize math and reading abilities |
| D．the two policies both emphasize the development of practical skills |
land and its 42 go all over the Pacific looking for fish
to 43 . The Japanese sometimes eat uncooked fish, and they also eat a lot of rice. 
portant food is 45 or potatoes. People there usually make their bread from wheat flour. They 46 potatoes in different ways. They can boil them and fry them.
our they make 49 kinds of bread and cakes. Many Africans are very 50 and so they can’t afford to eat much 5
1 with their cereal. 
t or fish or 54 that comes from animals. They eat only food from 55 . Some people say that food f
rom plants is better for us than meat.
Though it’s often 26 to arrive at a party on time，on the other hand，the host or hostess 27 guests to arrive and leave between certain times，so you can 28 at any time between the times he or she gives you．
hungry
pronunciation
ntleman’s
lde Trip to Jerusalem”, which dates back to the year 1189 AD and is probably the oldest pub in England.
ness. People do not have enough spare money to spend on beer. Recently, the UK government banned smoking in all pubs, and that may also have affected the number of customers going to pubs.
g back up there just as soon as we get out of the hospital.”
the snow-covered ledge, _____.
s