Forty years ago, Finland was a small country with ordinary public schools. Today, Finland is still small but no one calls Finland's public schools ordinary anymore. In 2000, the Finns surprised the world when their 15yearolds scored at the top of a closelywatched international exam called the PISA, the Program for International Student Assessment. Finland has stayed near the top ever since, while the US scores around the middle. Pasi Sahlberg, an official of Finland's Ministry of Education and Culture, is in Seattle this week to share the story of Finland's success, and what states like Washington can learn from it. Sahlberg's message, although he is too polite to put it so directly: Stop testing so much. Trust teachers more. Give less homework. Shorten the school day. On Tuesday, in a room filled with teachers, principals, professors, schoolboard members and policy makers, Sahlberg joked about the Finns' reputation for being a quiet, humble people. When Finland hit the top of the PISA, he said, the biggest disbelievers were Finns. More seriously, he said, Finland never set out to create the world's top school system. Instead, he said, the country decided in the 1970s that it wanted to ensure that a student's success didn't depend on family background. To achieve that goal, Finland relied on cooperation among teachers and schools, rather than on competition. Rather than judges teachers and schools based on test scores, he said, Finland puts trust in its teachers and principals. Teachers develop the curriculum  in Finland, and design their own tests. There are no national tests, except one at the end of high school. That's just the start. Along with a shorter school day, Finnish students don't even start school until they are 7 years old. Many primary schools have a policy against giving homework. But Finland, he said, succeeded in part by adapting ideas from the US and other countries. And those countries, he said, can learn from Finland, too. People first learned Finland's success in education from   _  . A) its ordinary public schools B) its international exchange students C) lectures given by Pasi Sahlberg D) its students' performance in an International exam
D


More and more, the operations of our businesses, governments, and financial institutions are controlled by information that exists only inside computer memories. Anyone clever enough to modify this information for his own purposes can get big reward. Even worse, a number of people who have done this and been caught at it have managed to get away without punishment. It's easy for computer crimes to go undetected if no one checks up on what the computer is doing. But even if the crime is detected, the criminal may walk away not only unpunished but with a glowing recommendation from his former employers. Of course, we have no statistics on crimes that go undetected. But it's disturbing to note how many of the crimes we do know about were detected by accident, not by systematic inspections or other security procedures. The computer criminals who have been caught may have been the victims of uncommonly bad luck. Unlike other lawbreakers, who must leave the country, commit suicide, or go to jail, computer criminals sometimes escape punishment, demanding not only that they not be charged but that they be given good recommendations and perhaps other benefits. All too often, their demands have been met. Why? Because company executives are afraid of the bad publicity that would result if the public found out that their computer had been misused. They hesitate at the thought of a criminal boasting in open court of how he juggled   the most confidential records right under the noses of the company's executives, accountants, and security staff. And so another computer criminal departs with just the recommendations he needs to continue his crimes elsewhere. Which of the following statements is mentioned in the passage? A) A strict law against computer crimes must be enforced B) Companies usually hesitate to uncover computer crimes to protect their reputation C) Companies will guard against computer crimes to protect their reputation D) Companies need to impose restrictions on confidential information
B


Q: IPhone owners are vainer and spend more on clothes and grooming than those who have BlackBerrys and Android phones, new research claims.BlackBerry owners earn the most and are more likely to have long-term relationships, while people with Android handsets are most creative and the best cooks. The study, carried out by TalkTalk Mobile, surveyed 2,000 owners of the three major smartphone brands to determine whether the choice of handset was an extension  of their personality. The study rated users in various walks of life using a point scoring system including personalities, daily habits and the type of industries they work in. Other results from the study found that people with an iPhone are more _ and generally consider themselves more attractive than those with other handsets. They are most likely to describe themselves as adventurous, bright and are most likely to work in media, publishing and education. They also believe their boss rates them highly. Apple owners also tend to have done more travelling and are the most active on social media sites. BlackBerry owners were found to be the least punctual , but despite putting in the least hours at work they are the most active phone user--sending more texts and making more calls in the average day than any other phone user. They are more social and have more friends overall. They also earn nearly two and a half thousand pounds a year more than other smartphone owners, with an average salary of $27,406. BlackBerry users classed themselves so loud and mainly work in the health, finance or property sectors. They were also found to drink more tea and coffee each day than any other phone user. Android owners were found to watch more TV than others and drink the most alcohol--consuming more in an average week than iPhone and BlackBerry drinkers. They have the most jobs in engineering, the government and public services and environmental services. They have the best manners and are more shy and relaxed than their counterparts. Dan Meader, Director of Mobile at... Dan Meader may agree that the kind of mobile phone we use   _  .. A) will decide the way we live our life B) can be a window into the lives we lead C) can change our personalities gradually D) has become the most important part of our life
A: B


*Question*
A few years ago, in one experiment in behavioural psychology, Stanley Milgram of Yale University tested 40 subjects for their willingness to obey instructions given by a "leader" in a situation in which the subjects might feel a personal dislike of the actions they were called upon to perform. Specifically, Milgram told each volunteer "teacher-subject" that the experiment was in the noble cause of education, and was designed to test whether or not punishing pupils for their mistakes would have a positive effect on the pupils' ability to learn. The teacher-subjects were placed before a panel of thirty switches with labels ranging from "15 volts of electricity (slight shock)" to "450 volts (danger -- severe shock)" in steps of 15 volts each. The teacher-subject was told that whenever the pupil gave the wrong answer to a question, a shock was to be administered. The supposed "pupil" was in reality an actor hired by Milgram to pretend to receive the shocks by giving out cries and screams. Milgram told the teacher-subject to ignore the reactions of the pupil, and to administer whatever level of shock was called for. As the experiment unfolded, the "pupil" would deliberately give the wrong answers to questions, thereby bringing on various electrical punishments, even up to the danger level of 300 volts and beyond. Many of the teacher-subjects _ administering the higher levels of punishment, and turned to Milgram. In these situations, Milgram calmly explained that the teacher-subject was to carry on with the experiment and that it was important for the sake of the experiment that the procedure be followed through to the end. What Milgram was trying to discover was the number of teacher-subjects who would be willing to administer the highest levels of shock, even in the face of strong personal and moral revulsion  against the rules and conditions of the experiment. Before carrying out the experiment, Milgram explained his idea to a group of 39 psychiatrists and asked them to predict the average percentage of people... Why did Milgram do the experiment? A) To discover people's willingness for orders from leaders. B) To display the power of punishment on ability to learn. C) To test people's willingness to sacrifice for science. D) To explore the biological basis of social behavior.
**Answer**

D