阅读理解

    One morning while Officer Vogel was on his coffee break in a restaurant, a man ran in a yelled. "Officer! A little kid is driving a car down the street!"

    He ran out at once and saw a car going slowly—about 25 miles an hour—but it was going very straight. He jumped into his police car and followed it. When the car was stopped, Officer Vogel looked inside. The driver was a little boy. His name was Rocco Morabiro and was 5. In the back seat was his two-year-old sister. Both children wen crying.

    "I want my mummy!" the boy cried."But she can't get here. I have the car." Then he had an idea."Just a minute." He told Officer Vogel."I can drive. I'll go to get her."

    "No!" Officer Vogel said. "You stay with me!" Then he drove them to the police station and he called their mother. They had many questions for Rocco. The first question was: "Where did you get the car keys?"

    Rocco said. "From the top of the refrigerator."At seven that morning Rocoo's father was work and his mother was sleeping, Rocco saw the keys on top of the refrigerator. He climbed on a chair, and took the keys.

    Rocco got into the car and started the engine (引擎). When Rocco's sister heard the engine she ran to the car and cried. She wanted to go with him.

    It was 7 a.m.—rush hour—so there was much traffic. Rocco drove one mile in heavy traffic. Then Officer Vogel stopped him.

    Newspapers and TV stations heard about Rocco, and a lot of reporters went to his house. A reporter asked Rocco, "What do you want to be when you grow up?"

    "A truck driver,"he said, smiling.

阅读理解

    Bill Gates recently predicted that online learning will make place-based colleges less significant, and five years from now, students will be able to find the best lectures in the world online. I applaud Mr. Gates. But what's taking us so long?

    As early as 1997, MIT (麻省理工) decided to post videos of all university lectures online, for free, for all people. But today, how many students have you met who mastered advanced mathematics or nuclear physics from an MIT online video? Unfortunately, the answer is not many.

    The problem is the poor quality of online education websites and the experience they provide to students. Those who go to the MIT website and watch courses online are surely very smart people, but it's not like playing a video game such as World of Warcraft. Only the most ardent students, those who are highly motivated, will devote themselves to studying these boring online videos.

    The real question is why we aren't spending more to develop better online education platforms. Where is the Avatar of education? Think about this. The market for Hollywood films per year is worth around 30 billion USD. Education in the world is a trillion-dollar-a-year market, hundreds of times bigger than Hollywood movies. Yet the most expensive digital learning system ever built cost well under 100 million dollars.

    Bill Gates' prediction is going to happen. There is no doubt about it. But it will only happen when we create high level educational content and experiences that engage and excite more than has ever been possible in the real world.