C

Eyeglasses correct many different types of sight problems, including nearsightedness, farsightedness or astigmatism (散光). Trying to understand those different numbers on an eyeglass prescription (验光单) requires understanding the measurements optometrists (验光师) use when fitting you for corrective lenses (镜片).

Diopters (屈光度)

The numbers on your prescription are given in diopters, whose short form is "D". It is used to measure the focusing power, or amount of correction.

O.S. and O.D.

Optometrists use the Latin short form O.S. and O.D. to distinguish between your eyes. O.S. refers to your left eye, while O.D. refers to the right eye.

Generally, your prescription will show a number for O.S. and O.D. (given in diopters). The farther this number is on a number line from zero, the more correction your eyeglasses should provide. A plus sign means the eye is farsighted, while a minus sign means the eye is nearsighted.

Spherical Value

This plus or minus number for each eye is called the spherical value, or the degree of nearsightedness or farsightedness you have. Its short form is "S."

Cylinder

If you have an astigmatism, the optometrist will also measure its degree. The higher the number (given in diopters) marked as the cylinder of astigmatism, (its short form is "C"), the more astigmatism there is in that eye.

Axis

An astigmatism is also measured in terms of its axis, which is a number between 0 and 180. The axis of the astigmatism does not relate to the amount of cylinder, just the location of the irregularity of the astigmatism on that particular eye.

64. According to the first paragraph, various sight problems ______.

A. should be understood by the patients

B. can be avoided by wearing corrective lenses

C. should be tested by different optometrists

D. can be corrected by wearing eyeglasses

65. If you need a pair of corrective lenses, the optometrist will first value the numbers of ______.

A. Diopters B. Spherical Value C. Cylinder D. Axis

66. From the prescription above we can learn that Li Hua ______.

A. is farsighted B. is nearsighted C. has no astigmatism D. is normal in sight

67. The text is probably taken from ______.

A. an education report B. a school bulletin

C. a local newspaper D. an encyclopedia (百科全书)

D

Parties and social gatherings no longer excite us the same way they once did. This is not due to a lack of desire to socialize, but the smartphone.

At parties, more people are on their smartphones than on their drinks. According to a recent International Data Corporation study, well over half of all Americans have a smartphone and reach for it the moment they wake up, keeping it in hand all day. In addition, too much of society is using smartphones while driving and as a result getting into car crashes. 34 percent of teens admit to text while driving, and they confirm that text messaging is their number one driving interruption. People's attachment to their smartphones is unbelievably becoming more important than the lives of themselves and others.

Just as drivers dismiss the importance of focusing while on the road, many people also fail to recognize the significance of human interaction. When with their friends, some people pointlessly check or send text messages in the presence of a friend, which sends a message to that friend: the person I am texting is more important than you. In addition, relying on our smartphone to make friends does not give us the same advantage as being able to make new friendships in the real world. Face-to-face conversations will give us much stronger communication skills in the long run.

As many people risk their lives and the lives of people around them just to send a text or mindlessly check their massages, smartphones are in many ways more dangerous to people. The quality of this technology is de-advancing societal achievements and weakening the value of communication. Not only is the smartphone affecting our desire to interact (交流) face-to-face but it is also lowering society's ability to communicate.

68. The purpose of this text is to ______.

A. call for an end to use the smartphone while driving

B. appeal to us to pay attention to communication skills

C. express a concern about the overuse of the smartphone

D. advise us to be cautious about the addiction to the smartphone

69. The second paragraph is developed by ______.

A. giving examples B. listing figures C. comparing facts D. analyzing the effects

70. The author advocates us to make new friends ______.

A. by using smartphones B. in a face-to-face way

C. in different ways D. under a free circumstance

71. Over dependence on the smartphone leads to the fact that ______.

A. parties and gatherings limit their social circle

B. people are more and more narrow-minded

C. people's communication skills are weakened

D. face-to-face communication becomes less important

E

After students come home from a tiring day at school, they tend to worry a lot about their homework.

Whether students are working on English or chemistry homework, they are simply working on the assignment in order to get it done, attempting to memorize the concepts for the time being and do not absorb any of the information afterward. Students are wasting their time on insignificant assignments rather than effectively using that time to achieve other accomplishments. According to www.dailymail.com, many parents are concerned that homework is being assigned rather than being used to integrate (整合) what teachers are covering in the classroom. In their eyes, if less homework is assigned, students would have much less stress and could focus more on their passions and hobbies.

Homework gets in the way of participating in community service events as well as opportunities for getting a job or being a part of an extra-curricular activity. These responsibilities are important for teenagers to take on because they prepare the teenagers for the "real world." Without the proper exposure to work that is not school related, students will find themselves lost after they graduate. If homework were no longer given, students would have a lot more time to mature in other fields rather than being educated only on academics.

In spite of the fact that teachers want students to do better on tests and absorb the material that they are teaching, homework is not accomplishing its purpose. Because school is becoming increasingly more competitive and challenging, homework is becoming a setback rather than extra practice. Its removal would benefit the well being of teenagers as well as encourage them to get out in the "real world" and discover themselves instead of staring at a pile of assignments.

72. Students are wasting their time on insignificant homework because

A. they are working on it carelessly and hurriedly

B. they attempt to get only part of the information memorized

C. they spend too much time doing it without understanding

D. they fail to take in the information after finishing it

73. Many parents think that teachers should ______.

A. help students integrate the homework

B. simplify what they teach in the classroom

C. reduce homework to develop students' own interests

D. assign more effective homework for students

74. From the third paragraph, we can infer that homework might ______.

A. leave students lack of job opportunities

B. make students lose the sense of responsibilities

C. weaken students' social adaptation ability

D. cause students to feel lost after graduation

75. The author insists that homework should be ______.

A. made simpler and easier B. completely cancelled

C. connected with social activities D. switched over to subject competitions