More People Are Leaving the Rat Race for the Simple Life
Time is more precious than money for an increasing number of people who are choosing to live more with less—and liking it.
Kay and Charles Giddens, two lawyers, sold their home to start a B&B hotel. Four years later, the couple dishes out banana pancake breakfast, cleans toilets and serves homemade chocolate chip cookies to guests in a B&B hotel surrounded by trees on a hill known for colorful sunsets.
“Do I miss the freeways? Do I miss the traffic? Do I miss the stress? No,” says Ms. Giddens, “This is a phenomenon that’s fairly widespread. A lot of people are reevaluating their lives and figuring out what they want to do. If their base is being damaged, what’s the payoff?”
Simple living ranges from cutting down on weeknight activities to sharing housing, living closer to work, avoiding shopping malls, borrowing books from the library instead of buying them, and taking a cut in pay to work at a more pleasurable job.
Vicki Robin, a writer, lives on a budget equal to a fifth of what she used to make. “You become conscious about where your money is going and how valuable it is,” Ms. Robin says, “You tend not to use things up. You cook at home rather than eat out…”
Janet Luhrs, a lawyer, quit her job after giving birth and leaving her daughter with a nanny for two weeks. “It was not the way I wanted to raise my kids,” she says, “Simplicity is not just about saving money; it’s about me sitting down every night with my kids to a candlelit dinner with classical music.”
Mrs. Luhrs now edits a magazine, Simple Living, which publishes tips on how to buy recycled furniture and shoes, organize potluck dinners instead of expensive receptions, and generally how to consume less.
“It’s not about poverty,” Mrs. Luhrs explains, “It’s about conscious living and creating the life you want. The less stuff you buy, the less money goes out of the door, and the less money you have to earn.”
1.Kay and Charles Giddens sold their home to ______.
A.pay off the debt
B.start a private hotel
C.cut down expenses
D.buy living necessities
2.Simple living includes ______.
A.building a home library
B.living in the countryside
C.enjoying a colorful night life
D.sharing housing with others
3.It can be learned from the passage that now Janet Luhrs ______.
A.spends more time with her kids
B.has an interest in classical music
C.works as a reporter of a magazine
D.helps people buy recycled clothes
4.How does the author develop the passage?
A.By using figures.
B.By asking questions.
C.By giving examples.
D.By making comparisons.
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1.Camp All-Star stands out among the others because it ______.
A.is surrounded by a beautiful lake
B.provides various activities and sports
C.offers timely information on its website
D.allows children to play outside all day long
2.One of the goals of Camp All-star is to ______.
A.fire kids’ imagination B.build up kids’ confidence
C.develop kids’ leadership skills D.promote kids’ self-control
3.The passage is likely to appear in ______.
A.an advertisement B.a guidebook
C.a news report D.a magazine
阅读短文，按照题目要求用英语回答问题。
In June 2011, my life changed and so did my family’s. I remember the day like it was yesterday. I came downstairs all ready for the family swim. Right before I got into the pool, my mom called me inside. She sat me down and waited for my dad and brothers to come to join us. Then, our parents told us the worst news imaginable-- my dad had been diagnosed with Stage III Colon Cancer(结肠癌).
The news hit hard of course. However, in my head, my dad was a superman. As his daughter, I knew that cancer wasn’t going to beat him. I just went out and swam.
As weeks went on, life didn’t change much within our house. My mom still went to work; my brothers and I still went to school; and my dad still worked while also meeting his doctor. However, I didn’t realized how much this new diagnosis was going to change my life.
As treatment progressed with my dad’s cancer, I couldn’t depend on him for things he usually did. And with my brothers being away at college, I had to take on a lot more responsibility. But that was not the hardest part of this new journey. It was the fear. The fear that I could lose my Dad. The fear that I could get a call saying that he was in bad condition. The fear that I could never talk to him again. Yet with all these fears, there was never a doubt in my mind that my dad would beat this cancer. He was a superman.
The day of my dad’s surgery finally came. It was Father’s Day and I had my soccer game that day. I won my battle on the field and my dad won his in the hospital.
May 2013, my dad was completely cancer free. Though this journey proved to be a few of the hardest years of my life, it also proved to me how wonderful my dad really is.
1.What happened to the author’s family in June 2011? (no more than 10 words)
2.How did the author behave after hearing the news from her mother? (no more than 10 words)
3.What’s the meaning of the underlined word “surgery” in Paragraph 6? (no more than 5 words)
4.When did the author’s father completely recover from cancer? (no more than 5 words)
5.What’s your father like? Please explain. (no more than 25 words)
阅读下面材料，在空白处填入适当的内容（1个单词）或括号内单词的正确形式。
Did you grow up in one culture, your parents came from another, and you are now living in a 1. (total) different country? If so, then you are a third-culture kid.
The term ''third-culture kid'' 2. (use) in the 1960s for the first time by Dr. Ruth. She first came across this phenomenon while 3. (research) North American children living in India. In general, third-culture kids benefit from 4. (they) intercultural experience and they often reach excellent academic results.
Yet many 5. (difficulty) may arise from this phenomenon. Third-culture kids may not be able to adapt themselves completely 6. their new surroundings. Also, they often find it hard 7. (develop) new friendships. Additionally, for third-culture kids, it is often 8. (easy) to move to a new country than to return to their homeland. For example, after living in Australia for many years, Louis finally returned to Turkey as a teenager. But she felt out of place when she returned to the country 9. she was born. She didn't know anything about current TV shows 10. fashion trends. And she didn’t share the same values as other teens of her age.
假设你是红星中学的学生李华。请根据以下四幅图的先后顺序，为校刊“英语园地”写一篇短文，记述你参加学校“社团招新”活动的整个过程。
注意：1. 词数不少于60；
2. 短文的开头已给出，不计入总词数。
The new term began and the school clubs were looking for new members.
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假定你是中国高中生李华，今年暑假将去澳大利亚悉尼南部的Kogarah High School学习一个月，并寄宿在 Silvia家中。请给Silvia写一封电子邮件，询问一下那里的生活情况。具体内容如下：
1. 住宿是否有单间；
2. 房间里是否有网络；
3. 是否可以自己煮饭；
4. 是否有便利的交通。
注意：1. 词数80左右；
2. 可以适当增加细节，以使行文连贯；
3. 开头语和结束语已写好，不计入词数。
Dear Silvia,
Greetings from China! I am Li Hua, a high school student in China.
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
I’d appreciate it very much if you could give me a reply.
Yours sincerely,
Li Hua
