阅读试题

Holidays are really important. Many of us will have childhood memories of summer holidays where we were taken away from home to experience new environments and learn in different ways.

But holidays are expensive and, for those on low wages or living on benefits, they are often unobtainable. Even the cheapest holidays require travel and other additional costs that are difficult for many families to meet.

For working parents, the long summer break can be a very difficult problem for childcare. When an annual leave allowance amounts to only five weeks, there is a need to spread this across the year. Couples can find themselves taking leave in turn in order to care for children who are on holiday. For some, this makes even an affordable family holiday difficult.

The schools that I visit in Nottingham are full of experienced staff committed to giving our children a caring and inspiring learning environment. The number of children receiving free school meals is quite large in Nottingham and many schools have breakfast clubs to make sure that children get a healthy start to the day. Most schools undertake programs of group or individual educational support. Schools also have an important role in safeguarding children's welfare through the ongoing touch and support with their pupils. During the long summer holidays, much of this is missed.

While teachers are holidaying in the UK, many of their pupils spend the whole six weeks on the street where they live. The lack of free school meals for six weeks can result in pressure on a family budget and an inability to afford the inspiring experiences that help children to continue their learning.

In setting out its plans for a five-term year, Nottingham City Council (委员会）is seeking to reduce the summer holiday down to four and a half weeks, with a more balanced five terms of roughly eight weeks, each followed by a two-week break. We believe this will give real "down time"for school staff and pupils alike but will be short enough not to cause a real break in learning.

We acknowledge that this change may be difficult for some school staff, particularly whose own children are educated in other authorities. However, this must be weighed against the benefits for city children for whom we all have the greatest duty of care.

阅读试题

71. The passage is probably written by _____.

A. an experienced teacher 　　

B. a working parent

C. an inspired student 　　

D. a city council member

72. The underlined word "they"in the second paragraph refers to "____".

A. environments　

B. holidays 　

C. wages 　

D. benefits

73. It is suggested in the passage that the summer break be reduced to _____.

A. 2 weeks 　

B. 4.5 weeks 　

C. 5 weeks 　

D. 6 weeks

74. The plans for a shorter summer holiday will help students _____.

A. obtain the cheapest holidays without additional costs

B. get a chance to spend, six weeks a term with teachers in school

C. benefit more from the caring and inspiring learning environment

D. have more school days to receive free school meals

75. It can be inferred from the passage that _____.

A. working parents can enjoy a five-week break to care for their children

B. the suggested plans for a five-term school year can hardly be carried out

C. the long summer holiday gives teachers and students real "down time"

D. some school staff will say "No"to the plans for a shorter summer holiday

参考译文

假期确实很重要。我们大多数人都有关于暑假的童年记忆，暑假时期我们都会离开家去体验新环境及用不同的方法学习。

但是对于那些低收入者和依靠福利生活的人而言，假期也是很昂贵的，是他们承担不起的。甚至，最便宜的假期也需要支付旅行及其他附加费用，而支付这些费用对许多家庭来说也是很困难的。

对于工薪阶层的父母来说，在漫长的暑假里，照顾孩子是一大难题。当带津贴的年假共计才五个星期时，将年假分散在全年是很有必要的。为了照顾处于假期的孩子们，夫妻们发现，他们自己要轮流请假。对于有些人而言，这使得度过一个负担得起的家庭假日都很困难。

我在诺丁汉参观的学校拥有经验丰富的教员，他们尽力给孩子们提供一个充满关怀而又能启发灵感的学习环境。在诺丁汉接受校餐的孩子的数量相当大，而且许多学校还有早餐俱乐部以确保孩子们在一天中有一个健康的开始。大多数学校承担小组或个人教育支持的项目。凭借持续的影响力和孩子们的支持，学校在捍卫孩子的福利方面也扮演着重要的角色。但在漫长的暑假里，大部分的福利都错过了。

当老师们在英国度假的时候，他们的许多学生却要在他们居住的街上度过整整六个星期。这六个星期，他们没有学校提供的免费食物，这给家庭预算造成了压力，同时也不能给予帮助孩子继续学习的令人进取的经历。

在陈述一年分为五个学期的计划时，诺丁汉城市委员会试图将暑假缩短到四个半星期，这样更能保持五个学期的平衡，差不多八个星期为一个学期，而每学期后有两周的休息时间。我们相信这同样会给教员和学生提供一个真正的“停工时期”，但时间足够短所以不会造成学习上的真正中断。

我们承认对一些教员来说这一改变可能很难，尤其是他们自己的孩子在其他机构接受教育的教员。但是，对于那些我们最应该关照的城市孩子来说，其利弊还有待权衡。

答案解析

71. D 考查主旨大意。本篇文章多次提到了假期的一些问问题，也提到了诺丁汉市议会缩短学校假期的计划，再根据作者在最后一段中的口吻可以推出可能是一个市议会成员写的这篇文章。

72. B 考查词义猜测。假期是会有大笔花销的，对于那些拿低工资或依靠救济金生活的人来说是很难度过的。因此they指的是holidays。

73. B 考查细节理解。根据文章第六段第一句中的"down to four and a half weeks"可知答案。

74. C 考查推理判断。从文章的第四段可知作者认为学校能给孩子提供关爱的和激励学习的环境，所以缩短假期的话，学生就会受益更多。因此答案为C。

75. D 考查推理判断。文章最后一段的第一句话提到一些学校教员可能会反对这个计划，故选D。