--- Four dollars a pair? I think it’s a ...

For all these years I have been working for others.I’m hoping I’ll         my own business someday.

A.turn up B.fix up C.set up D.make up

    We talk continuously about how to make children more”resilient(有恢复力的)”，but whatever were doing, it's not working. Rates of anxiety disorders and depression are rising rapidly among teenagers. What are we doing wrong?

Nassim Taleb invented the word “antifragile” and used it to describe a small but very important class of systems that gain from shocks, challenges, and disorder. The immune system is one of them: it requires exposure to certain kinds of bacteria and potential allergens(过敏源)in childhood in order to develop to its full ability.

Children’s social and emotional abilities are as antifragile as their immune systems. If we overprotect kids and keep them “safe” from unpleasant social situations and negative emotions we deprive(剥夺)them of the challenges and opportunities for skill-building they need to grow strong. Such children are likely to suffer more when exposed later to other unpleasant but ordinary life events, such as teasing and social rejection

It's not the kids fault. In the UK, as in the US, parents became much more fearful in the 1980s and 1990s as cable TV and later the Internet exposed everyone, more and more, to those rare occurrences of crimes and accidents that now occur less and less, Outdoor play and independent mobility went down; screen time and adult-monitored activities went up.

Yet free play in which kids work out their own rules of engagement, take small risks, and learn to master small dangers turns out to be vital for the development of adult social and even physical competence, Depriving them of free play prevents their social-emotional growth. Norwegian play researchers Ellen Sandseter and Leif Kennair warned: “We may observe an increased anxiety or mental disorders in society if children are forbidden from participating in age adequate risky play.”

They wrote those words in 2011. Over the following few years, their prediction came true. Kids born after 1994 are suffering from much higher rates of anxiety disorders and depression than the previous generation did. Besides, there is also a rise in the rate at which teenage girls are admitted to hospital for deliberately harming themselves.

What can we do to change these trends? How can we raise kids strong enough to handle the ordinary and extraordinary challenges of life? We can’t guarantee that giving primary school children more independence today will bring down the rate of teenage suicide tomorrow. The links between childhood overprotection and teenage mental illness are suggestive but not clear-cut. Yet there are good reasons to suspect that by depriving our naturally antifragile kids of the wide range of experiences they need to become strong, we are systematically preventing their growth. We should let go-and let them grow.

1.Why does the author mention the immune system in Paragraph 2?

A.To stress its importance B.To analyze the cause of anxiety

C.To question the latest discovery. D.To help understand a new word

2.Parents overprotect children because_______

A.they want to keep children from being teased

B.they are concerned about their children's safety

C.parent-monitored activities are a must

D.children are not independent enough

3.According to the author, free play can_________

A.develop children' s leadership skills B.strengthen children' s friendship

C.reduce children's risky behavior D.promote children's resilience

4.Which of the following does the author probably agree with?

A.Stop trying to perfect your child

B.It takes great courage to raise children

C.Prepare the child for the road, not the road for the child.

D.While we try to teach our children all about life, our children teach us what life is all about.

    The morning had been a disaster. My tooth was aching, and I’d been in an argument with a friend. Her words still hurt: “The trouble with you is that you won’t put yourself in my place. Can’t you see things from my point of view?”I shook my head stubbornly--and felt the ache in my tooth. I’d thought I could hold out till my dentist came back from holiday, but the pain was really unbearable. I started calling the dentists in the phone book, but no one could see me immediately. Finally, at about lunch time, I got lucky.

“If you come by right now,” the receptionist said, “the dentist will fit you in.”

I took my purse and keys and rushed to my car. But suddenly I began to doubt about the dentist. What kind of dentist would be so eager to treat someone at such short notice? Why wasn’t he as busy as the others?

In the dentist’s office, I sat down and looked around. I saw nothing but the bare walls and I became even more worried. The assistant noticed my nervousness and placed her warm hand over my ice-cold one.

When I told her my fears, she laughed and said, “Don’t worry. The dentist is very good.”

“How long do I have o wait for him?”I asked impatiently.

“Come on, he is coming. Just lie down and relax. And enjoy the artwork,” the assistant said.

“The artwork?” I was puzzled.

The chair went back, suddenly I smiled. There was a beautiful picture, right where I could enjoy it :on the ceiling. How considerate the dentist was! At that moment, I began to understand what my friend meant by her words.

What a relief!

1.Which of the following best describes the author’s feeling that morning?

A.Cheerful.

B.Nervous.

C.Upset.

D.Satisfied.

2.What made the author begin to doubt about the dentist?

A.The dentist’s agreeing to treat her at very short notice.

B.The dentist’s being as busy as the other dentists.

C.The surroundings of the dentist’s office.

D.The laughing assistant of the dentist.

3.Why did the author suddenly smile?

A.Because the dentist came at last.

B.Because the assistant kept comforting her.

C.Because she could relax in the chair,

D.Because she saw a picture on the ceiling.

4.What did the author lean from her experience most probably?

A.Strike while the iron is hot.

B.Have a good word for one’s friend

C.Put oneself in other’s shoes

D.A friend in need is a friend indeed.

    Plastic-Eating Worms

Humans produce more than 300 million tons of plastic every year. Almost half of that winds up in landfills(垃圾填埋场), and up to 12 million tons pollute the oceans. So far there is no effective way to get rid of it, but a new study suggests an answer may lie in the stomachs of some hungry worms.

Researchers in Spain and England recently found that the worms of the greater wax moth can break down polyethylene, which accounts for 40% of plastics. The team left 100 wax worms on a commercial polyethylene shopping bag for 12 hours, and the worms consumed and broke down about 92 milligrams, or almost 3% of it. To confirm that the worms’ chewing alone was not responsible for the polyethylene breakdown, the researchers made some worms into paste(糊状物) and applied it to plastic films. 14 hours later the films had lost 13% of their mass — apparently broken down by enzymes (酶) from the worms’ stomachs. Their findings were published in Current Biology in 2017.

Federica Bertocchini, co-author of the study, says the worms’ ability to break down their everyday food — beeswax — also allows them to break down plastic. ＂Wax is a complex mixture, but the basic bond in polyethylene, the carbon-carbon bond, is there as well, ＂she explains, ＂The wax worm evolved a method or system to break this bond. ＂

Jennifer DeBruyn, a microbiologist at the University of Tennessee, who was not involved in the study, says it is not surprising that such worms can break down polyethylene. But compared with previous studies, she finds the speed of breaking down in this one exciting. The next step, DeBruyn says, will be to identify the cause of the breakdown. Is it an enzyme produced by the worm itself or by its gut microbes(肠道微生物)?

Bertocchini agrees and hopes her team’s findings might one day help employ the enzyme to break down plastics in landfills. But she expects using the chemical in some kind of industrial process — not simply ＂millions of worms thrown on top of the plastic.＂

1.What can we learn about the worms in the study?

A.They take plastics as their everyday food.

B.They are newly evolved creatures.

C.They can consume plastics.

D.They wind up in landfills.

2.According to Jennifer DeBruyn, the next step of the study is to            .

A.identify other means of the breakdown

B.find out the source of the enzyme

C.confirm the research findings

D.increase the breakdown speed

3.It can be inferred from the last paragraph that the chemical might            .

A.help to raise worms

B.help make plastic bags

C.be used to clean the oceans

D.be produced in factories in future

4.What is the main purpose of the passage?

A.To explain a study method on worms.

B.To introduce the diet of a special worm.

C.To present a way to break down plastics.

D.To propose new means to keep eco-balance.

如今, 选美比赛在青少年中越来越普及, 因此你们班就此开展了一场“Should beauty contests be held among teenagers?”的讨论, 请你根据下面表格内容写一份总结。

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