18. A. Incapable teaching staff. B. Inaccessible laboratory.

C. Insufficient budget. D. Unmotivated students.

19. A. It's unsuitable for complex experiments. B. It's too complicated to use.

C. It's more than satisfactory. D. It's much better than expected.

20. A. The professorsshould be more devoted to the program.

B. Some professors may go elsewhere to teach.

C. Some professors can't get budge to conduct experiments.

D. The professors aren't academically recognized.

II. Grammar and vocabulary

Section A

Directions:After reading the passage below, fill in the blanks to make the passage coherent and grammatically correct. For the blanks with a given word, fill in each blank with the proper form of the given word; for the other blanks, use one word that best fits each blank.

　　We want our children to succeed in school and, perhaps even more importantly, in life. But the paradox(悖论) is that our children can only truly succeed (21) ______ they first learn how to fail. Consider the finding that world-class figure skaters fall over more often in practice than low-level figure skaters. Why are the really good skaters falling over the most?

The reason is actually quite simple. Top skaters are constantly challenging themselves in practice. (22) ______ (stretch) their limitations, they keep trying their best. They fall over so often, but it is precisely why they learn so fast. Lower-level skaters have a quite different approach. They are always attempting jumps they can already do very easily, (23) ______ (remain) within their comfort zone. This is why they don't fall over. In a superficial sense, they look successful, because they are always on their feet. Never (24) ______ (fail) in practice prevents them from making progress.