Something extraordinary is happening in London this week: in Lambeth, one of the city’s poorest boroughs(区), 180 children are starting their secondary education in a brand new school. The state- funded school was set up by parents who were fed up with the quality of local education. In countries with more enlightened education systems, this would be unremarkable. In Britain, it is an amazing achievement by a bunch of desperate and determined people after years of struggle.
Britain’s schools are in a mess. Average standards are not improving despite billions in extra spending, and a stubbornly long tail of underachievers straggles(拖后腿) behind. A couple of years ago, a consensus emerged among reformers that councils had too much control and parents too little.
One might have expected more from the Conservatives, who stood for election on a pledge to bring in school vouchers. Yet the Tory policy group charged with thinking deep thoughts about public servi
A. The new school in Lambeth is financed by parents not satisfied with the local education.
B. Reformers recently agreed that parents had less control over British schools than the councils.
C. The establishment of this school is more remarkable in Britain than in some other countries.
D. British schools have managed to use a large sum to ameliorate the level of education.
Many things make people think artists
are weird—the odd hours, the nonconformity, the clove cigarettes. However, the
weirdest may be this: artists’ only jobs are to explore emotions, and yet they
choose to focus on the ones that feel lousy. This wasn’t always so. The earliest
forms of art, like painting and music, are those best suited for expressing joy.
But somewhere in the 19th(上标) century, more artists began seeing happiness as
insipid, phony or, worst of all, boring. In the 20th(上标) century, classical
music became more atonal, visual art more unsettling. Sure, there have been exceptions, but it would not be a stretch to say that for the past century or so, serious art has been at war with happiness. In 1824, Beethoven completed his "Ode to Joy". In 1962, novelist Anthoy Burgess used it in A Clockwork Orange as the favorite A. They wear special clothes. B. They rarely work in the daytime. C. They mainly depict distressing things. D. They are liable to take illegal drugs. [单项选择]
Hollywood and American Movie Industry When we think of Hollywood a term I use loosely to describe American movie production in general, not simply films made in Los Angeles we think of films aimed at amusing audiences and making money for producers. During the early years of the new century, as workers won their demands for higher wages and a shorter working week, leisure assumed an increasingly important role in everyday life. Amusement parks, professional baseball games, nickelodeons (五分钱戏院), and dance halls attracted wide array of men and women anxious to spend their hard earned dollars in the pursuit of fun and relaxation. Yet of all these new cultural endeavors, films were the most important and widely attended source of amusement. For a mere five or ten cents, even the poorest worker could afford to take himself and his family to the local nickelodeon or storefront theatre. "Every little town that has never been able to afford A. the term Hollywood. B. American movie production. C. the history and function of the film. D. the early films. 我来回答: 提交
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