On a typical school night, Jilly Dos Santos was lucky if she got six hours of sleep. Even when she finished her homework early, she often didn’t feel tired enough to fall asleep. So when her school board planned to change her high school’s start time from 7:50 a.m. to 7:20 a.m. — a full half hour earlier — she was outraged. “I thought it was the worst idea I’d ever heard,” she says.
Fired up, Jilly used social media to encourage other students to join her in speaking up at the next school board meeting, and she started an online petition (请愿), which got 200-plus signatures. Then, with the help of another student, she put up more than 100 posters on school walls and emailed teachers to spread the word. The fight was on!
The good news is that Jilly wasn’t alone — once she started her fight, she became part of a growing movement demanding to start school later. Now, about 43 percent of public high schools in the U.S. start school before 8 a.m., which is earlier than at most workplaces. One big reason schools have historically preferred early start times: They allow outdoor athletic teams to practice after school while the sun is still out.
As she prepared for the school board meeting, Jilly learned all of the ways that more sleep makes for better students. At the school board meeting, Jilly shared what she had learned. “My heart beat so fat,” she admits. But her schoolmates gave her confidence. “About 30 students came to support me.”
Armed with facts, Jilly explained her case convincingly. “The school board liked how I didn’t get emotional and just provided evidence. When I presented, I kept thinking, ‘If this were a class, what would get me an A?’ instead of ‘How loud can I yell?’ ”
All of that hard work paid off. The school board decided that instead of making Jilly’s high school’s start time earlier, they would change the bus schedule and make the start time even later, at 8:55 a.m.
25. What does the underlined word “outraged” in Paragraph 1 mean?
A. Angry. B. Excited. C. Surprised. D. Interested.
26. Jilly used social media to ______.
A. win other students’ support B. show the importance of sleep
C. make her school’s plan known D. ask her school to help some students
27. According to Paragraph 3, why do many schools start school early?
A. To save electricity in the evening.
B. To encourage students to sleep earlier.
C. To spare the time for outdoor practice.
D. To make students spend more time at school.
28. What do we know about Jilly’s performance at the school board meeting?
A. She wasn’t nervous at all. B. She expressed her ideas calmly.
C. She worked well with other students. D. She received praise for her suggestions.
AACB
A. Profits enlarging B. Technology developing C. Education investing D. Benefits transferring E. Dominance disappearing F. A nation rising |
The following is an imaginary diary entry written by US president. This diary is part of Global Trends 2025, which was written by the US National Intelligence Council
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The
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The
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Global wealth and economic power will shift from West to East.
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The transition from old fuels to new will be slow, as will the development of new technologies that present feasible alternatives to fossil fuels or help eliminate food and water problems. All current technologies are inadequate, and new ones will probably not be commercially possible by 2025