Carmen Arace Middle School is situated in the pastoral town of Bloomfield, Conn., but four years ago it faced many of the same challenges as inner-city schools in nearby Hartford: low scores on standardized tests, dropping enrollment and high rates of detention. Then the school's hard-driving principal, Delores Bolton, persuaded her board to shake up the place by buying a laptop computer for each student and teacher to use, in school and at home. For good measure, the board provided wireless Internet access at school. Total cost: $2.5 million.

　　Now, an hour before classes start, every seat in the library is taken by students eager to get online. Fifth-grade teacher Jen Friday talks about sedimentary rocks as students view them at a colorful website. After school, students on buses pull laptops from backpacks to get started on homework. Since the computers arrived, enrollment is up 20%. Disciplinary suspensions are down 80%. Scores on state achievement tests are up 35%. Bolton, who is black, is proud to run "a school with 90% black enrollment that is on the cutting edge."

　　Indeed, school systems in rural Maine and New York City are eager to follow Arace Middle School's example. Governor Angus King has proposed using $50 million from an unexpected budget surplus to buy a laptop for all of Maine's 17,000 seventh-graders--and for new seventh-graders each fall. The funds would create a permanent endowment whose interest would help buy the computers. The plan, scaled back to $30 million in a compromise with the legislature, is scheduled to be voted on this week.

　　In the same spirit, the New York City board of education voted unanimously on April 12 to create a school Internet portal, which would make money by selling ads and licensing e-commerce sites. The portal will also provide e-mail service for the city's 1.1 million public school students. Profits will be used to buy laptops for each of the school system's 87,000 fourth-graders. Within nine years, all students in grades 4 and higher will have their own computers.

　　Back in Bloomfield, the school board is seeking federal grant money to expand its laptop program to high school students. In the meantime, most of the kinks have been worked out. Some students were using their computers to goof off or visit unauthorized websites. But teachers have the ability to track where students have been on the Web and to restrict them. "That is the worst when they disable you," says eighth-grade honors student Jamie Bassell. "You go through laptop withdrawal." The habit is rubbing off on parents. "I taught my mom to use e-mail," says another eighth-grader, Katherine Hypolite. "And now she's taking computer classes. I'm so proud of her!"

　　1.The example of Carmen Arace Middle School in the text is used to ___________.

　　[A] show the challenges schools are faced with today

　　[B] prove that a school with high black enrollment can do well

　　[C] emphasize the importance of computers and the Internet in modern education

　　[D] indicate that laptops can help improve students’ school performance

　　2.According to the author, students in New York City’s public schools will ___________.

　　[A] all have their own laptops within nine years

　　[B] become more interested in their class activities with the application of laptop

　　[C] spend more time visiting unauthorized websites with the expansion of the laptop program

　　[D] enjoy e-mail service provided by the city’s school system in the near future.

　　3.By introducing the laptop program, Delore Bolton has ______________.

　　[A] shaken the beliefs of both teachers’ and students’

　　[B] witnessed a remarkable improvement in enrollment and students’ test scores

　　[C] found herself followers all over the country

　　[D] revolutionized class-room teaching in public schools

　　4.The word “kink” (line 2, paragraph 4) most probably means ______________.

　　[A] plan

　　[B] method

　　[C] problem

　　[D] process

　　5.From the passage we learn that __________________.

　　[A] the laptop program also has a positive influence on parents

　　[B] the laptop program in public schools is sponsored mainly by endowment

　　[C] a school Internet portal is the key to a laptop program

　　[D] students generally like the idea of having their online activities tracked

　　答案：DDBCA

　　篇章剖析：

　　本篇文章是一篇说明文，介绍了美国的一些学校给学校师生配置笔记本电脑，引入网络教学的情况。文章一开始就引用卡曼·阿雷斯中学在引入笔记本电脑和网络教学之后发生的积极变化，以此说明这种做法值得尝试。接下来在第三段和第四段介绍了缅因州和纽约市的类似做法。最后一段介绍了教师如何确保学生将这一资源用于学习，以及这一举措的衍生价值：对家长产生积极的影响。

　　词汇注释：

　　detention: [di5tenFEn] n. 阻止, 滞留

　　laptop: [5lAptCp] n. 便携式电脑

　　sedimentary: [sedI5mentErI] adj. 沉淀性的；冲积成的

　　backpack: [5bAkpAk] n. 背包，背囊

　　disciplinary:[5disiplinEri] adj. 纪律的，执行纪律的

　　suspension: [sEs5penFEn] n. 暂停, 中止

　　surplus: [5sE:plEs] n. 盈余；余款

　　endowment:[in5daumEnt] n. 资助，捐赠

　　scale:[skeil] v. （与up, down连用）按比例逐步增加； 按比例逐步减少

　　unanimously: [ju(:)5nAnimEsli] adv. 全体一致地,无异议地

　　portal: [5pC:tEl] n. （计）门户

　　license: [5laIsEns] v. 准许；发给执照；批准

　　e-commerce: 电子商务

　　kink: [kiNk] n. （计划，系统中的）小问题

　　goof off：打发时间

　　unauthorized: [5Qn5C:WEraizd] adj. 未被授权的, 未经认可的

　　rub off on: （感情，习惯或者某种特点）感染，影响他人

　　难句突破

　　Then the school's hard-driving principal, Delores Bolton, persuaded her board to shake up the place by buying a laptop computer for each student and teacher to use, in school and at home.

　　主体句式：the school's … principal persuaded her board to …

　　结构分析：这一句是个简单句，容易造成理解困难的是hard-driving这个单词和shake up the place这个短语。hard-driving用于指人的作风“强硬”，shake up the place的意思是：“令这个地方震动”，说明这一措施非常大胆。

　　句子译文：后来该校作风强硬的校长德洛丽斯·博尔顿说服校