THE New York Times has named the 10 Best Books of 2006. These titles were selected from 100 Best Books listed by The New York Times Book Review last month. The editors' choices include five fiction books ?"Absurdistan" "The Collected Stories of Amy Hempel" "The Emperor's Children" "The Lay of the Land" and "Special Topics in Calamity Physics". The editors also selected five nonfiction books including "Falling Through the Earth: A Memoir" "The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11" "Mayflower: A Story of Courage, Community, and War" "The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals" and "The Places in Between".
United States gets its report card
美国教育评估显示学生英文阅读成绩略有提高
The US National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) has been released by the US Department of Education. NAEP is a standardized test in the US and is called the nation's report card. Each year, the department collects data and statistically paints a portrait of where US education stands. The NAEP results show that the average English reading scores of fourth- and eighth-graders increased two points between 1992 and 2005. It also indicates that the achievement gaps in English reading, from the first assessment in 1992 to 2005, between white and black and white and Hispanic fourth- and eighth-graders have shown little measurable change.
CUP's blended learning goes online
剑桥大学出版社推出新品牌服务英语教学
CAMBRIDGE University Press (CUP), one of the world's leading ELT publishers in the UK, has announced that it is merging its ELT, education and online operations. CUP launched the new brand "Cambridge Learning", which CUP says will pioneer ways to provide educational materials to clients. As well as traditional publishing, "Cambridge Learning" will offer online content creation and resources to support English teaching and learning ?what it calls "blended learning". It has set up partnerships with organizations including Microsoft and Intel.
