part of it—they fear that if they are not constantly watching their children may break their necks, which is the least rational. Despite the impression you get from watching crime dramas, children in rich countries are safe, so long as they look both ways before crossing the road. The other popular parental fear—that your children might not get into an Ivy League college—is more rational. Academic success matters more than ever before. But beyond a certain point, parenting makes less difference than many parents imagine. Studies in Minnesota and Sweden, for example, found that identical twins grew up equally intelligent whether they were raised together or apart. A study in Colorado found that children that adopted and raised by brainy parents ended up no brainier than those adopted by average parents.
This doesn’t mean that parenting is irrelevant. The families who adopt children are carefully screened, so they tend to be warm, capable and middle-class. But the twin and adoption studies indicate that any child given a loving home and adequate stimulation is likely to fulfill her potential. Put another way, better-off parents can afford to relax a bit. And if you are less stressed, your children will appreciate it, even if you still make them eat their fruit and vegetables. 58. Which of the following statements is NOT a misguided idea of parenting mentioned in the
passage?
A. Children should be protected from any dangers by their parents
B. The more conscientious parents are, the more children will surely benefit from parenting C. Children will die unless ceaselessly watched
D. Children are likely to fulfill their potential with a loving home and adequate stimulation 59. The underlined word “laggard” in Paragraph 2 probably means a country that __________. A. is ahead in development
B. falls slow behind others
C. is free from physical or mental disorder D. moves to a higher position
60. Which of the following can we learn from the passage? A. Only warm, capable and middle-class people can adopt a child.
B. When it comes to child-raising, Economist readers will become more rational.
C. Children in rich countries are in greater danger due to the bad influence of crime dramas. D. Although poor parents spend more time with their kids than they once did, they spend less than rich parents do.
61. This passage is mainly written to __________.
A. urge American laws concerning parenting to be changed B. advise modern parents to learn from their previous generations
C. persuade stressed parents to learn to relax and give more freedom to their children D. call on the government to do more to help poor parents with school-age children
C
For years，studies have found that first-generation college students—those who do not have a parent with a college degree —lag other students on a range of education achievement factors. Their grades are lower and their dropout rates are higher. But since such students are most likely to advance economically if they succeed in higher education，colleges and universities have pushed for decades to recruit more of them. This has created “a paradox” in that recruiting first-generation students，but then watching many of them fail，means that higher education has “continued to reproduce and widen，rather than close” achievement gap based on social class, according to the depressing beginning of a paper forthcoming in the journal Psychological Science.
But the article is actually quite optimistic，as it outlines a potential solution to this problem， suggesting that an approach（which involves a one-hour, next-to-no-cost program）can close 63 percent of the achievement gap（measured by such factors as grades）between first-generation and other students.
The authors of the paper are from different universities, and their finding are based on a study involving 147 students（who completed the project）at an unnamed private university. First generation was defined as not having a parent with a four-year college degree Most of the first-generation students（59.1 percent） were recipients of Pell Grants，a federal grant for undergraduates with financial need，while this was true only for 8.6 percent of the students with at least one parent with a four-year degree.
Their thesis-that a relatively modest intervention could have a big impact-was based on the view that first-generation students may be most lacking not in potential but in practical knowledge about how to deal with the issues that face most college students They cite past research by several authors to show that this is the gap that must be narrowed to close the achievement gap.
Many first-generation students “struggle to navigate the middle-class culture of higher
education，learn the rules of the game，'and take advantage of college resources，” they write. And this becomes more of a problem when colleges don't talk about the class advantage and disadvantages of different groups of students because US colleges and universities seldom acknowledge how social class can affect students' educational experience，many first-gene ration students lack sight about why they are struggling and do not understand how students' like them can improve.
62. Recruiting more first-generation students has______.
A. reduced their dropout rates C. missed its original purpose
B. narrowed the achievement gap D. depressed college students
63. The author of the research article is optimistic because______.
A. the problem is solvable C. the recruiting rate has increased
B. their approach is costless D. their findings appeal to students
64 The study suggests that most first-generation students______.
A. study at private universities C. are in need of financial support
B. are from single-parent families D. have failed their college
65. The author of the paper believes that first-generation students______.
A. are actually indifferent to the achievement gap B. can have a potential influence on other students C. may lack opportunities to apply for research projects D. are inexperienced in handling their issues at college
D
Motion pictures are so much a part of our lives that it’s hard to imagine a world without them. We enjoy them in theatres, at home, in offices, in cars and buses, and on airplanes.
① For about 100 years, people have been trying to understand why this medium has so attracted us. Films communicate information and ideas, and they show us places and ways of life we might not otherwise know. Important as the benefits are, though, something more is at stake. Films offer us ways of seeing and feeling that we find deeply satisfying. They take us through experiences. The experiences are often driven by stories, with characters we come to care about, but a film might also develop an idea or explore visual qualities or sound textures. A film takes us on a journey, offering a patterned experience that engages our minds and emotions.
② Films are designed to have effects on viewers. Late in the 19th century, moving pictures emerged as a public amusement. They succeeded because they spoke to the imaginative needs of a broad-based audience. All the traditions that emerged－ telling fictional stories, recording actual events, animating objects or pictures, experimenting with pure form－aimed to give viewers experiences they couldn’t get from other media. The men and women who made films discovered that they could control aspects of cinema to give their audience richer, more engaging experiences. Learning from one another, expanding and refining the options available, filmmakers developed skills that became the basis of film as an art form.
③ The popular origins of cinema suggest that some common ways of talking won’t help us much in understanding film. Take the distinction between art and entertainment. Some people would say that blockbusters(大片) playing at the multiplex are merely “entertainment”, whereas films for a narrower public－perhaps independent films for festival fare, or specialized experimental works－are true art. Usually the art / entertainment split carries a not-so-hidden value judgment: art is high-brow, whereas entertainment is superficial. Yet things aren’t that simple. As we just indicated, many of the artistic resources of cinema were discovered by filmmakers working for the general public. During the 1910s and 1920s, for instance, many films that aimed only to be entertaining opened up new possibilities for film editing. As for the matter of value, it’s clear that popular traditions can promote art of high quality. Cinema is an art because it offers filmmakers ways to design experiences for viewers, and those experiences can be valuable.
④ Sometimes, too, people treat film art as opposed to film as a business. This split is related to the issue of entertainment, since entertainment generally is sold to a mass audience. Again, however, in most modern societies, no art floats free of economic ties. Novels good, bad, or indifferent are published because publishers expect to sell them. Painters hope that collectors and museums will acquire their work. True, some artworks are funded through taxes or private donations, but that process, too, involves the artist in a financial transaction(交易). Films are no different. Others are funded by patronage or public moneys. Even if you decide to make your own digital movie, you face the problem of paying for it－and you may hope to earn a little extra for all your time and effort.
The crucial point is that considerations of money don’t necessarily make the artist any less
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