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剑
9 1-2
Some
experts
believe
that
it
is
better
for
children
to
begin
learning
a
foreign language at primary school
rather than secondary school.
Do the
advantages of this outweigh the disadvantages?
Traditionally
children
have
begun
studying
foreign
languages
at
secondary
school,but introducing them earlier is
recommended by some educationalists.
This
policy
has
been
adopted
by
some
educational
authorities
or
individual
schools,with both
positive and negative outcomes.
The obvious argument in its favour is
that young children pick up languages
much more easily than teenagers. Their
brains are still programmed to acquire
their
mother
tongue,
which
facilitates
leaning
another
language,
and
unlike
adolescents, they are not inhibited by
self-consciousness.
The
greater flexibility of the primary timetable
allows for more frequent,shorter
sessions
and
for
a
play-centred
approach,
thus
maintaining
learners
’
enthusiasm
and
progress.
Their
command
of
the
language
in
late
life
will
benefit
from this early exposure, while learning other
languages subsequently
will
be
easier for
them.
They
may
also
gain
a
better
understanding
of
other
cultures.
There
are,however,
some
disadvantages.
Primary
school
teachers
are
generalists,
and
may
not
have
the
necessary
language
skills
themselves.
If
specialists
have
to
be
brought
in
to
deliver
these
sessions,
the
flexibility
referred
to
above
is
diminished,
if
primary
language
teaching
is
not
standardised, secondary schools could
be faced with a great variety of levels
in different languages within their
intake,resulting in a classroom experience
which undoes the earlier gains. There
is no advantage if enthusiastic primary
pupils
become
demotivated
as
soon
as
they
change
r,these
issues can be addressed strategically
within the policy adopted.
Anything
which
encourage
language
learning
benefits
society
culturally
and
economically,
and
early
exposure
to
language
learning
contributes
to
this.
Young
children
’
s innate abilities
should be harnessed to make these benefits
more achievable.
剑
9 2-1
The
chart
below
shows
the
total
number
of
minutes
(in
billions)
of
telephone calls in the UK, divided into
three categories, from 1995-2002.
Summarise the information by selecting
and reporting the main features,
and
make comparisons where relevant.
The chart shows the time spent by UK
residents on different type of telephone
calls between 1995 and 2002.
Local
fixed
line
calls
were
the
highest
throughout
the
period,
rising
from
72
billion
minutes
in
1995
to
just
under
90
billion
in
1998.
After
peaking
at
90
billion
the
following
year,
these
calls
had
fallen
back
to
the
1995
figure
by
2002.
National
and
international
fixed
line calls
grew
steadily
from
38
billion to
61
billion at the end of the period in
question, though the growth slowed over the
last two years.
There
was
a
dramatic
increase
in
mobile
calls
from
2
billion
to
46
billion
rise was particularly noticeable
between 1999 and 2002, during
which
time the use of mobile phone tripled.
To sum up, although local fixed line
call were still the most popular in 2002, the
gap between the three categories had
narrowed considerably over the second
half of the period in question.
剑
9 3-2
Some
people
say
that
the
best
way
to
improve
public
health
is
by
increasing the number of
sports facilities. Others, however, say that this
would
have
little
effect
on
public
health
and
that
other
measures
are
required.
Discuss both these views and give your
own opinion.
A problem of
modern societies is the declining level of health
in the general
population,
with
conflicting
views
on
how
to
tackle
this
worrying
trend.
One