How can educators better develop students' STEM skills, according to the author?

A. By blending them with traditional, stimulating activities
By inviting business leaders to help design curriculums
C. By enhancing students' ability to think in a critical way.
D. By showing students the best way to learn is through play

How do children acquire the skills needed for the 21st century?

A. By engaging in activities involving specific technologies
By playing with things to solve problems on their own
C. By familiarizing themselves with high-tech gadgets
D. By mastering basic principles through teamwork

What can we do to help children learn the basics of math and geometry?

A. Stimulate their interest as early as possible
B. Spend more time playing games with them
C. Encourage them to make things with hands
D. Allow them to tinker freely with calculators.

What does the author advise disadvantaged schools and communities to do?

A. Train students to be makers to meet future market demands
B. Develop students' creative skills with the resources available
C. Engage students with challenging tasks to foster their creativity.
D. Work together with companies to improve their teaching facilities

Passage TwoQuestions 6 to 10 are based on the following passageBeing an information technology, or IT, worker is not a job I envy. They are the ones who, right in the middle of a critical meeting, are expected to instantly fix the projector that's no longer working. They have to tolerate the bad tempers of colleagues frustrated at the number of times they've had to call the help desk for the same issue. They are also the ones who know there are systems that are more powerful, reliable and faster, but their employer simply will not put up the funds to buy them.According to a recent survey, employees who have a job reliant on IT support consider IT a major source of job dissatisfaction. Through no fault of their own, they can suddenly find their productivity deteriorating or quality control non-existent. And there's little they can do about it.The experience of using IT penetrates almost the entire work field. It has become a crucial part of employees overall work experience. When IT is operating as it should, employee self-confidence swells. Their job satisfaction, too, can surge when well-functioning machines relieve them of dull tasks or repetitive processes. But if there's one thing that triggers widespread employee frustration, it's an IT transformation project gone wrong, where swollen expectations have been popped and a long list of promised efficiencies have been reversed. This occurs when business leaders implement IT initiatives with little consideration of how those changes will impact the end user.Which is why managers should appreciate just how influential the IT user experience is to their employees, and exert substantial effort in ensuring their IT team eliminates programming errors and application crashes. Adequate and timely IT support should also be available to enable users to cope with technological issues at work. More importantly, IT practitioners need to understand what employees experience mentally when they use IT.Therefore, businesses need to set up their IT infrastructure so that it is designed to fit in with their employees' work, rather than adjust their work to fit in with the company's IT limitations.What does the author say about working in IT?

A. It is envied by many.
B. It does not appeal to him.
C. It is financially rewarding.
D. It does not match his abilities.

What is the finding of a recent survey on employees who have a job reliant on IT support?

A. IT helps boost productivity.
B. IT helps improve quality control.
C. Many employees are deeply frustrated by IT.
D. Most employees rely heavily on IT in their work.

What is said to happen when IT is functioning properly?

A. There is a big boost in employees work efficiency.
B. Employees become more dependent on machines.
C. There are no longer any boring or repetitive tasks.
D. Employees become more confident in their work.

What should business leaders do before implementing new T initiatives?

A. Consider the various expectations of their customers.
B. Draw up a list of the efficiencies to be promised.
C. Assess the swollen cost of training the employees.
D. Think about the possible effects on their employees.

How can a business help improve its employees' experience in using IT?

A. By designing systems that suit their needs.
By ensuring that their mental health is sound.
C. By adjusting their work to suit the IT system.
D. By offering them regular in-service training.

Directions: There are 20 blanks in the following passage. For each blank there are four choices marked A, B, C and D. You should choose the ONE that best fits into the passage.There are two factors which determine an individual’s intelligence. The first is the sort of brain he is born 1) _________ .Human brains 2)__________considerably, some being more capable than others. But no matter how good a brain he has to begin with, an 3 )___________ will have a low order of intelligence4)_____________he has opportunities to learn. So the second factoris what 5)____________to the individual in the sort of environment in which he is brought6)__________ . If an individual is handicapped7)___________ , it is likely that his brainwill8)__________to develop and he will never 9)____________the level of intelligence of which he is 10 )___________ .The importance of environment in determining an individual’s intelligence can be 11)___________ by the casehistory of the identical twins, Peter and John. When the twins werethree months old, their parents died, and they were placed in12)___________foster （寄养）homes. Peter was13)______________by parents of low intelligence in an14)_____________community with poor educational15)______________ . John, however was educated in the home of well-to-do parents who had been to college. This environmental16 )______________ continued until the twins were 17)______________ their late teens,18)_______________they were given tests to 19)_____________ their intelligence. John’s I.Q.(智商) was 125, twenty-five points higher than the20)____________and fully forty points higher than his identical brother.1.A.forB.byC.withD.in2.A.changeB.differC.getD.grow3.A.individualB.personC.brainD.intellectual4.A.ifB.thoughC. asD.unless5.A.refersB.happensC.appliesD.concerns6.A.aboutB.upC.forwardD.forth7.A.relativelyB.intelligently C.relevantlyD.environmentally8.A.failB.helpC.manageD.stop9.A.surpriseB.attainC.failD.have10.A.ableB.capableC.availableD.acceptable11.A.demonstratedB.denied C.neglectedD.ignored12.A.separateB.similarC.remoteD.individual13.A. fearedB.broughtC.raisedD.cultivated14.A.omittedB.isolatedC.enclosedD.occupied15.A. capacitiesB.opportunitiesC. possibilitiesD.responsibilities16.A.exceptionB.divisionC.differenceD.alteration17.A.inB.onC.atD.for18.A.whileB.sinceC.whenD.because19.A.estimateB.countC.decideD.measure20. A.averageB.commonC.usualD.ordinary