HOMEWORK
OPEN CLOZE TEST
PART 1: WILL TECHNOLOGY REPLACE SCHOOLS?
Some people believe that soon schools will no longer be necessary. These
people say that because of the Internet and other new technology, there is
no longer any need for school buildings, formal classes, or (1) _____________.
Perhaps this will be true one day, but it is hard for me to imagine a world
without (2) _____________. In fact, we need to look at how we can use new
technology to make schools (3) _____________, not to eliminate them.
We should invent a new kind of school that is linked to libraries, museums,
science centers, laboratories, and even companies. Experts could give (4)
_____________ on videos or over the Internet. TV networks and local stations
could develop programming about things students are actually (5)
_____________ in school.
Is this just a dream? No. Already there are several towns where this is
beginning to (6) _____________. Blacksburg, Virginia, is one of them. Here the
(7) _____________ city is linked to the Internet, and learning can take place at
home, at school and in the (8) _____________. Businesses provide programmes
for the schools and the community. The schools provide computer labs for
people without their own (9) _____________ at home. Because everyone can
use the Internet, older people participate as much as younger ones, and
everyone can visit distant libraries and museums as easily as (10)
_____________ ones.
PART 2: Grandparents
Always a sure source of affection, my grandparents (11) _______________
hugely important figures in my life. They would shower my sisters and me
with sweets, indulgences and stories, (12) _______________ tales about my
parents as naughty children. When the last of (13) _________ died, we all
wondered who would hold the family together.
People have relied on grandparents in Britain since the Industrial Revolution,
(14) _______________ whole families moved into cities from the country to get
work in the new factories, taking grandmother along to look after the
children. (15) _______________ the fact that more grandmothers are working
now, grandparents are still the backbone of childcare in Britain. They provide
44% of full-time care for pre-school children, which (16) _______________ you
wonder how the country would manage without them.
The traditional image of a grandparent is a smiling old person surrounded by
a cohort of happy children, but this doesn't match the facts. (17)
_______________ we have now is the so-called ‘beanpole family,’ thinly
stretched over several generations, with fewer family members in each and
with growing (18) _______________ of single-parent families. Grandparents are
getting younger - more than 50% of grandparents have already had their
first grandchild by the age 54. For many of them, grandparenthood means
juggling a job, involvement with grandchildren and, sometimes, the care of
their own parents. It is up to us to balance the demands we make on them if
we don't want to wear them (19) _______________. Grandparents are (20)
_______________ a valuable part of the family that we just cannot do without
them.
PART 3
What Cats Catch
In a recent survey, people in the 173-household English village of
Felmersham collected their cats’ prey. Over one year their seventy cats
produced over 1,000 prey items. A professor in America saw these figures
and worked out that on this basis the cat population of Britain must be killing
100 million birds and small mammals each year!
The mesmeric effect of big numbers seems to have stultified reason. It is not
realistic just to multiply the number of catches of these rural cats by the
entire cat population of Britain. Most cats are town cats with small ranges,
and catch fewer items of prey than the cats in this survey. The key question
should have been this: are the numbers sustainable? The answer would
seem to be yes.
In winter many householders feed birds, while garden trees and buildings
provide nesting sites, and in this way the bird population is kept at well
above ‘natural’ levels. The survey found that the cat is a significant predator,
but not that it is devastating Britain’s bird population.
21. What is suggested about the American professor?
A. He did not use his common sense.
B. He did not understand English village life.
C. He misunderstood the results of the survey.
D. He asked the wrong questions.
22. What point is made about cats in Britain?
A. They are no more dangerous than other predators.
B. They have an effect on the numbers of birds.
C. They are not increasing in numbers.
D. They do less harm in rural areas.
