[单项选择]The popularity of these schools is growing steadily ______ their high tuition fees.
A. instead of
B. in favor of
C. in spite of
D. in place of

[单项选择]Boarding schools are losing their popularity among pupils because ______.

[单项选择]The growing popularity of microchips, currently found in applications ranging from cellular phones to cars, ______this new technology's increasing affordability.
A. (A) illustrates
B. (B) belies
C. (C) addresses
D. (D) contains
E. (E) incites

[单项选择]Vacation schools and extracurricular activities are mentioned in Para. 2 to illustrate alternatives to formal education pro- vided ______ by public schools.
A. the importance of educational changes
B. activities that competed to attract new
C. immigrants to their programs
D. the increased impact of public schools on students

[单项选择]

Reaching new peaks of popularity in North America is Iceberg Water, which is harvested from icebergs off the coast of Newfoundland, Canada.   
Arthur von Wiesenberger, who carries the title Water Master, is one of the few water critics in North America. As a boy, he spent time in the larger cities of Italy, France and Switzerland, where bottled water is consumed daily. Even then, he kept a water journal, noting the brands he liked best. “My dog could tell the difference between bottled and tap water,” He says.   
But is plain tap water all that bad Not at all. In fact, New York’s municipal water for more than a century was called the champagne of tap water and until recently considered among the best in the world in terms of both taste and purity. Similarly, a magazine in England found that tap water from the Thames River tasted better than several leading brands of bottled water that were 400 times more expensive.&
A. It is a kind of iced water.
B. It is just plain tap water.
C. It is a kind of bottled water.
D. It is a kind of mineral water.

[单项选择]Another distinctive quality of American schools was that ______.
A. the local government was free to organize its own educational system
B. the local government was compelled to follow the central authority
C. each community was free to decide whether to provide education or not
D. the school was controlled by the federal government

[单项选择]The popularity of photography has not only revolutionized the way people communicate, but it has
A. benefited the economy to a large extent.
B. increased the efficiency of information conveyance.
C. improved the understanding between human beings.
D. All of the above.

[单项选择]The popularity of the novel proves that Some criticism against it is______.


A. improved
B. misguided
C. unreasonable
D. unjustified

[单项选择]With the popularity of the Internet, both commercial computers and personal ones are more ______ to the computer viruses than ever before.


A. liable
B. vulnerable
C. subjective
D. subordinate

[单项选择]

The outside world begins creeping into the schools when the children reach the age of 13 and older, the age when they begin to make subject choices and when, according to a careers officer,“they know if they’re a scientific lot or more inclined to the arts”. The difficult part is bringing the outside world to life with all its opportunities and realities. Schools are handicapped because they are staffed by people who only know about schools. Careers services are heavily influenced by what is readily available in the area, which may be sausage making in Wiltshire or shipbuilding in riverside. Somewhere out in the world there are landscape gardeners and girls who polish Elizabeth Taylor’s diamonds, but the careers officer knows little of them. What he knows about is engineering and hairdressing (理发,美容)and opportunities in the Army. It is not surprising that this constant friction (摩擦) between grand aspirations and uninspired reality produces cynicism
A. they feel they are misled by careers officers
B. they can't accomplish in reality their strong desires to become scientists or to do something great
C. what they learn at school is quite different from what they see in society
D. they me treated unfairly in society