PASSAGE 6
One-room Schools One-room schools are part of the United States, and the mention of them makes people feel a vague longing for "the way things were." One-room schools are an endangered species, however. For more than a hundred years one-room schools have been systematically shut down and their students sent away to centralized schools. As recently as 1930 there were 149,000 one-room schools in the United States. By 1970 there were 1,800. Today, of the nearly 800 remaining one-room schools, more than 350 are in Nebraska. The rest are scattered through a few other states that have on their road maps wide-spaces between towns.
Now that there are hardly any left, educators are beginning to think that maybe there is something yet to be learned form one-room schools, something that served the pioneers that might serve as well today. Progressive educators have come up with progressive-sounding names like "peer-group teaching" and "multi-age grouping" for educational procedures that occur naturally in the one-room schools. In a one-room schools the children teach each other because the teacher is busy part of the Time teaching someone else. A fourth grader can work at a fifth-grade level in math and a third-grade level in English without the stigma associated with being left back or the pressures of being skipped ahead. A youngster with a learning disability can find his or her own level without being separated from the other pupils. In larger urban and suburban schools today, this is called "mainstreaming". A few hours is a small school that has only one classroom and it becomes clear why so many parents feel that one of the advantages of living in Nebraska in their children have to go to a one-room school.
1. It is implied in the passage that many educators and parents today feel that one-room schools
A)need to be shut down.
B)are the best in Nebraska.
C)are a good example of the good old day.
D)provide good education.
2. Why are one-room schools in danger of disappearing?
A)Because they all exist in one state.
B)Because they skip too many children ahead.
C)Because there is a trend towards centralization.
D)Because there is no fourth-grade level in any of them.
3. What is mentioned as a major characteristic of the one-room school in the second paragraph?
A)Some children have to be left back.
B)Teachers are always busy.
C)Pupils have more freedom.
D)Learning is not limited to one grade level at a time.
4. Which of the following can best describe the author's toward one-room schools?
A)Praising.
B)Angry.
C)Critical.
D)Humorous.
5. It can be inferred from the last sentence that parents living in Nebraska
A)don't like centralized schools.
B)received educational in one-room schools.
C)prefer rural life to urban one.
D)come from other states.
KEY: DCDAA
PASSAGE 7
David Jones and His Salary
Computer programmer David Jones earns ￡35,000 a year designing new computer games, yet he cannot find a bank prepared to let him have a cheque card. Instead, he has been told to wait another two years, until he is 18.
The 16-year-old works for a small firm In Liverpool, where the problem of most young people of his age is finding a job. David's firm releases two new games for the home computer market each month.
But David's biggest headache is what to do with his money. Despite his salary, earned buy inventing new programs, with bonus payments and profit-sharing, he cannot drive a car, buy a house, or obtain credit cards.
He lives with his parents in Liverpool. His company has to pay ￡150 a month in taxi fares to get him the five miles to work and back every day because David cannot drive.
David got his job with the Liverpool-based company four months ago, a year after leaving school and working for a time in a computer shop. "I got the job because the people who run the firm knew I had already written some programs," he said.
"I suppose ￡35,000 sounds a lot but I hope it will come to more than that his year." He spends some of his money on records and clothes, and gives his mother ￡20 a week. But most of his spare time is spent working.

"unfortunately, computing was not part of our studies at school," he said. "But I had been studying it in books and magazines for four years in my spare time. I knew what I wanted to do and never considered staying on at school. Most people in this business are fairly young, anyway."
David added: "I would like to earn a million and I suppose early retirement is a possibility. You never know when the market might disappear."
Exercise
1. Why is David different from other young people of his age?
A) Because he earns an extremely high salary.
B) Because he is not unemployed.
C) Because he does not go out much.
D) Because he lives at home with his parents.
2. David's greatest problem is
A) finding a bank that will treat him as an adult.
B) inventing computer games.
C) spending his salary.
D) learning to drive.
3. He was employed by the company because
A) he had worked in a computer shop.
B) he had written some computer programs.
C) he had worked very hard.
D) he had learned to use computers at school.
4. He left school because
A) he did not enjoy school
B) he wanted to work with computers and staying at school did not help him.
C) he was afraid of getting too old to start computing.
D) he wanted to earn a lot of money.
5. Why does David think he might retire early?
A) Because you have to be young to write computer programs.
B) Because he wants to stop working when he is a millionaire.
C) Because he thinks computer games might not always sell so well.
D) Because he thinks his firm might go bankrupt.
Keys: ACBBC