C
Only 60 percent of students seeking a bachelor's degree at an American college or university finish their study program within six years. That information comes from the United States Department of Education. It was part of a report released in May. The report talks about full-time students who attended a four-year college or university for the first time in 2008. It states that 60 percent of them completed their degree program by 2014.
Experts say there are many reasons why this number is so low. But many schools are looking for ways to increase the graduation rate. For example, every American college or university requires students to identify the main subject, or "major," of their studies. After all their requirements have been met, students receive their degree in that major. Some universities require individuals to declare a major at the beginning of their studies. Other schools let students wait until their second year. Changing majors is also acceptable. But some experts argue against changing majors. They note it may cause students to take more time to complete their degree program.
However, a new study suggests that students who change their majors may be more likely to graduate. The Education Advisory Board (EAB) released the report on the study last month. The board studies higher education and tries to help American colleges and universities make improvements. The study was based on information gathered from over 78,000 college students. It looked at the graduation rate of students who changed majors within the first four years of study. On average, their graduation rate was between about four to six percent higher than students who never changed majors. The report also suggests that changing majors within the first three years of study has little to no effect on the average time it takes students to complete their degree.
The EAB's senior director Ed Venit wrote the report. He would not comment on whether or not college students should change majors. But he said that about 80 percent of students do change at some point. Venit also said it is not completely clear why changing majors might help students. But he thinks some people become more invested in their studies once they have had time to decide what they truly want to do.
"Students who chose a major early on: maybe they didn't have full information about what they wanted to do. Maybe they just picked something that felt familiar ... or their parents pushed them to something, whatever it might be. But maybe they didn't make a full choice early on. ... Those students were only, perhaps ... just kind of attached to their major, versus students who either wait and explore a little bit longer or have declared something, explored further and found something else that they like even better."
Venit added that the Department of Education's graduation rate information is not completely correct. It only includes the rates for students studying for the first time -- not for those who have changed schools. These students represent about 40 percent of the university population across the United States.
62. What is the present condition of American university students?
A. Most of them can fulfill their degree program on time.
B. Too many extracurricular activities take students study time.
C. Many undergraduates were forbidden to change majors.
D. 60 percent is considered as a low graduation rate.
63. What is the usual way for schools to increase the graduation rate?
A. To offer more time for students to make up their lessons.
B. To offer students a chance to alter their majors.
C. To await students to choose their favorite majors in 2 years.
D. To invest more money for the major establishment.
64. What does the report by Ed Venit tell us?
A. Too many undergraduates have no interest in first-chosen majors.
B. Changing majors can increase graduate rate by over 10 percent.
C. Changing majors had better happen in the first two years.
D. Students who change majors will definitely have a better future.
65. What is the attitude of Ed Venit to major changing?
A. Agreeable B. Opposed C. Neutral D. Sustainable
D
The birth of each human being begins with a complex process of adaptation to the outside world. To successfully adapt to the outside environment the newborns must make many physiological and behavioral adjustments. They exert an enormous amount of energy establishing stability of different body systems, often in less ideal circumstances.
In the past few decades, hospitals have become the accepted environment for childbirth and post birth adjustment. The majority of infants born in Western civilization spend the first one to three days of their lives in the hospital environment. Recently, "rooming-in" or accommodating the mother and her newborn in one room has become popular. Despite this shift away from nursery - focused care, many newborns still spend a considerable portion of their hospital stay in the normal newborn nursery. Karraker explains that this occurs due to "...illness of either the mother or the infant, the mother's need for rest, avoiding infections when the mother receives visitors, and the mother's desire to be relieved of caretaking duties at times".
The hospital newborn nursery is designed and operated according to specific regulations or standards. These standards result in environmental conditions of bright, continuous light and a high level of noise. Hilton referenced Kosten and Van Os as stating that the recommended noise level in the hospital setting should be no more than 35 decibels (分贝) during sleep periods and 40 decibels when the client is awake. Keefe described the nursery environment as having a noise level of over 80 decibels for an average of 146.8 minutes per four hour period of observation. Keefe warns that an 80 decibel noise level is comparable to loud traffic noise. She found that the most striking and persistent noise was the sound of other infants crying.
The multiple adjustments that the newborn makes are challenging even in a quiet, noticeable environment. The previously described nursery environmental characteristics present additional challenges because newborns undergo profound physiological adjustments and are particularly vulnerable to hazardous environmental conditions.
Conditions such as excessive light and sound levels affect not only the infants' physiological processes but also their behavioral states. Recently, professionals studying newborns have focused their attention on newborn behavioral patterns. Thoman, Denenberg & Sievel wrote that "A newborn's state behaviors reflect both its own internal processes and external influences from the environment". Stability of state organization over time appears to be an important characteristic of clinically healthy newborns. In their 1981 study of newborn state organization, Thoman and colleagues observed that the newborns who exhibited irregular or "poorly organized" state patterns all later developed conditions ranging from delayed development, aplastic anemia, and hyperactivity to Sudden Infant Death Syndrome.
Obstetrical (助产) nurses assume a major responsibility for monitoring the childbirth adjustment in both the mother and her newborn. Nursing interventions designed to reduce or mask the impact of harmful stimuli in the nursery environment are desirable. Not only must the environment be beneficial to physiological inner adjustment but "...the pattern of infant state cycles must become harmoniously integrated with the reappearing features of the environment". Few studies have examined the impact of such interventions on newborns in nursery settings. Research in this area is necessary because despite changes in policy related to "rooming - in", newborns continue to spend significant amounts of time in the nursery.
66. What does a newborn need after birth?
A. A clean environment B. A stable body system
C. A stable adjustment D. A successful adaption
67. According to Karraker, which of the following is RIGHT?
A. The mother and her newborn must be accommodated together.
B. The short-term hospital environment is enough for the newborn.
C. The mother and her newborn should be forbidden to meet visitors.
D. The newborn can easily be infected by illnesses from visitors.
68. What is the most harmful noise to the newborn?
A. The traffic noise B. The environmental condition
C. The infant crying D. The nurses’ voice
69. Which of the following can be the main idea of paragraph five?
A. Poor nursery conditions cause harm to newborns.
B. Environment mainly influences a newborn's behavior.
C. Importance of promoting stable state organization.
D. Poor organization develops poor behavioral patterns.
70. What can be inferred from the article?
A. Hospitals are most suitable for mothers and infants.
B. Rooming-in is now quite popular around the world.
C. Current nursery environment is far from satisfactory.
D. Nurses should be responsible for infants’ adjustment.
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Argentina in the late nineteenth century was an exciting place. Around 1870, it was experiencing an economic boom, and the capital，Buenos Aires，attracted many people. Farmers and ranchers，called gauchos in Argentina, came to Buenos Aires seeking jobs. These jobs didn’t pay well，and many people felt lonely and frustrated with their new life in the city. As the unhappy gauchos and new immigrants mixed together in the poor parts of the city, the dance known as the tango evolved.
The tango at the beginning was a dance of the lower classes. It was danced in the bars and streets of Buenos Aires and at that time there were many fewer women than men，so if a man didn’t want to be left out and wanted to practice the new dance, his only choice was to dance with another man. Groups of men would get together to practice so that he could attract the attention of the few available women. Gradually, the dance came into the upper classes of Argentinean society and became seen as being more respectable.
In Europe at this time, intense interest in dance from around the world was beginning. This interest in international dance was especially evident in Paris. Every kind of dance from ballet to belly dancing could be found on the stages of the Paris theaters. Tango dancers from Argentina arrived in Europe on board the boats carrying beef from Argentina. They began to draw the interest of the public as they performed their exciting dance in the cabarets and cafes. Not everyone was for the new dance, however. In fact, it raised a few eyebrows among the more conservative members of society, who found the tango was a little too shocking. However, the dance did find enough supporters so that even the tango’s many critics could not put an end to its spreading popularity.
In the early 1900s, dance masters in both Paris and London developed more modest versions of the tango to teach to their students. These students then carried the tango into the ballrooms of Europe. Two forms of the tango emerged at this time—the fluid, stylish Paris tango and the stiffer, more conservative British tango. Neither of these tamed tangos carried the raw passion of the original Argentinian tango though.
Soldiers who returned to the United States from World War I brought to the tango to North America. However, Rudolf Valentino, who danced the tango in the 1921 film The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, really contributed to the growth and popularity of the tango across America. The tango danced in the ballrooms of the United States closely resembled the stiff, proper British tango.
The tango reached Japan in 1926, thanks mainly to one man —Baron Tsunayoshi “Tsunami” Megata. This Japanese nobleman had been living in Europe for 6 years when he returned to Tokyo in 1926. When he returned to Japan, he took with him a handful of tango records and an excellent understanding of the Paris tango. Baron Megata wasted no time in setting up a dance academy in Tokyo in which he could teach his wealthy friends the tango and other popular ballroom dances of Europe. Around 1930, British dance masters began setting up their own dance schools in Kobe, and the British tango soon became the most popular version of the tango danced in Japan. Baron Megata is reported to have said, “Whenever you dance, remember you should feel as though you are in love with your partner, even if you have just met the person.”
The popularity of the tango continued to grow in many other parts of the world, including Asia. In Japan, the 1996 film Shall We Dance? which featured flamenco and tango dancing, led to a dance boom around the country. In 2003 the Argentinean embassy in Seoul hired a local tango dancer to act as a kind of dance ambassador to promote tango dancing throughout South Korea. In addition, tango festivals are now held annually in Japan and Korea.
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