The evidence for harmony may not be obvious in some families. But it seems that four out of five young people now get on with their parents, which is the opposite of the popularly held image(印象)of unhappy teenagers locked in their room after endless family quarrels.
An important new study into teenage attitudes surprisingly shows that their family life is more harmonious than it has ever been in the past. “We were surprised by just how positive today’s young people seem to be about their families,” said one member of the research team. “They’re expected to be rebellious(叛逆的)and selfish but actually they have other things on their minds: they want a car and material goods, and they worry about whether school is serving them well. There’s more negotiation and discussion between parents and children, and children expect to take part in the family decision-making process. They don’t want to rock the boat.”
So, it seems that this generation of parents is much more likely than parents of 30 years ago to treat their children as friends. “My parents are happy to discuss things with me and willing to listen to me,” says 17-year-old Daniel Lazall. “I always tell them when I’m going out clubbing. As long as they know what I’m doing, they’re fine with it.” Susan Crome, who is now 21, agrees. “Looking back on the last 10 years, there was a lot of what you could call negotiation. For example, as long as I’d done all my homework, I could go out on a Saturday night. But I think my grandparents were a lot stricter with my parents than that.”
Maybe this positive view of family life should not be unexpected. It is possible that the idea of teenagers’ rebellion is not rooted in real facts. A researcher comments, “Our surprise that teenagers say they get along well with their parents comes because of a brief period in our social history when teenagers were regarded as different beings. But that idea of rebelling and breaking away from their parents really only happened during one time in the 1960s when everyone rebelled. The normal situation throughout history has been a smooth change from helping out with the family business to taking it over.”
1.What is the popular images of teenagers today?
A.They always worry about school.
B.They dislike living with their parents.
C.They have to be locked in to avoid troubles.
D.They quarrel a lot with other family members.
2.The study shows that teenagers don’t want to ______.
A.cause trouble in their families B.share family responsibility
C.go boating with their family D.make family decisions
3.Compared with parents of 30 years ago, today’s parents _____.
A.care less about their children’s life
B.give their children more freedom
C.are much stricter with their children
D.go to clubs more often with their children
4.What is the passage mainly about?
A.Negotiation in family. B.Harmony in family.
C.Education in family. D.Teenage trouble in family.
Tiny as they are, bats have the ability to “see” in the dark by using a special skill called echolocation (回声定位法).They make noises and wait for sound waves, or an echo, to bounce back off objects. They can tell the distance of various objects by how quickly the sound waves bounce back off them. If no sound bounces back, they can then fly forward.
This special ability has been copied in the human world for a long time, such as in submarines and planes. But apart from helping vehicles “see” where they are, what if blind people could use echolocation for themselves? American Daniel Kish, who is blind, is known as “Batman”. This isn’t because he walks around in a cape (披风)and a mask, but because he has a bat-like ability to locate where he is through sharp clicks he makes by moving his tongue against the roof of his mouth. Kish is so skilled at echolocating that he can ride a bike and hike on his own.
Recently, a research carried out at the University of Durham in England shed some light on the power of human echolocation. Kish, as well as other volunteers, worked with a group of scientists who studied the way blind people listen to the echoes that they produce from clicks. The team found that people were capable of hearing even very faint echoes, ones far fainter than had been previously thought.
Lore Thaler, lead scientist of the group, said, “We found that in some conditions, they were really faint—about 95 percent softer than the actual clicks, but the echolocators were still able to sense this.”
Andrew Kolarik, another expert in echolocation, told BBC News that echolocation “can be very useful at providing information at face or chest height” and could help people “avoid objects like low hanging branches that might not get detected by the cane or a guide dog”
According to BBC News, echolocation is a skill blind people can acquire and develop, just like learning a language. As Kolarik said, “Teaching echolocation skills could provide blind people with the means of exploring new places.”
1.What does “this special ability” in Paragraph 2 refer to?
A.The ability to make noises in the dark.
B.The ability to bounce back off objects.
C.The ability to measure the distance quickly.
D.The ability to use sound waves to echolocate.
2.What do we know about Daniel Kish from the text?
A.He is fond of riding a bike and hiking alone.
B.He is called “Batman” because he looks like a bat.
C.He is able to hear echoes he produces from clicks.
D.He conducted the experiment to circulate echolocation.
3.What is Kolarik’s attitude towards the future use of echolocation in blind people?
A.Hopeful. B.Ambiguous.
C.Tolerant. D.Doubtful.
4.What’s the best title for the text?
A.Echolocation in Human World B.Finding New Way to “See”
C.A Very Special Batman D.A Breakthrough in Echoing
My father loves his garden. He planted some seeds in it. But at that time, I didn’t understand why working in the dirt excited him so much.
Unfortunately, in early May, my father was seriously injured in an accident. He had to stay in bed for a while. My mother had several business trips, so she couldn’t take care of the garden. I didn’t want my father to worry, so I said that I would take care of his garden until he recovered. I assumed that the little plants would continue to grow as long as they had water, and luckily it rained fairly often, so I didn’t think much about the garden.
One Saturday morning, my father said to me, “Christine, the vegetables should be about ready to be picked. Let’s have a salad today!” I went out to the garden and was upset to see that many of the lettuce leaves and carrots had been half eaten by bugs. There were hundreds of bugs all over them!
I panicked for a moment but then I quietly went to the nearest store to buy some vegetables.
When I gave the salad to him, he said, “Oh, Christine, what a beautiful salad! I can’t believe the carrots are this big already. You must be taking very good care of my garden.” I felt a little bit guilty.
Coming home, my mother saw the bag from the supermarket in the kitchen. I was embarrassed and I admitted, “Dad wanted a salad, but the garden was a disaster. I didn’t want to disappoint him, so I went to the store.” She laughed but promised to help me in the garden and weeks later I was finally able to pick some.
I carefully made a salad and took it to my father. He looked at it with a hint of a smile. “Christine, the carrots are smaller in this salad, but they taste better.”
Now, I better understand how putting a lot of effort into caring for something can help you appreciate the results more, however small they may be. Perhaps this was one of the reasons for my father’s love of gardening.
1.Why did Christine originally promise she would do the gardening?
A.She was asked by her father to do it.
B.She was interested in growing vegetables.
C.She knew it was important to her father.
D.She wanted to improve her gardening skills.
2.Which of the following was a problem in the garden?
A.Insects destroyed the lettuce and carrots.
B.Animals often dug holes in the garden.
C.The plants were given too much water.
D.The vegetables were marked incorrectly.
3.Why could Christine secretly make the salad from store-bought vegetables?
A.Her mother helped her to buy the vegetables.
B.Her mother regularly helped her to make a spray.
C.Her father couldn’t see the garden’s progress.
D.Her father went on a business trip at that time.
4.What did Christine learn through her experience of gardening?
A.Always get ready for a rainy day.
B.Don’t be disappointed by bugs.
C.Working alone produces results.
D.Hard work can often be rewarding.
It's easy to get defeated completely by something negative in your daily life. Give these apps a try if you want to be more positive instead of being negative in your daily life.
Shine
Shine is a text messaging service based on the idea that sometimes you need some external phrases to guide your internal positive thinking.
Visit the website, and you'll have the ability to sign up to receive a daily text message ——all you need to provide is a first name and a phone number. Then you'll receive one message per day with inspirational quotes from successful people from Monday through Friday.
Kwippy
In many cases, statements that come from other people can be more powerful than ones you make to yourself. That's where Kwippy comes in.
The app Kwippy has a positive, lively community focused on fun while keeping negativity out. It is a new kind of social media platform that will send you random challenges throughout the day, prompting you to take a photo of something in your nearby environment.
ThinkUp
If you're feeling confident and good about your place in life, download the app, come up with some positive statements about yourself and record them for future generations. If you're feeling less creative or don't know what to say, don,t worry 一 the app also has a list of shared positive statements that you can choose from.
Smiling Mind
Smiling Mind, a nonprofit organization, was founded by and is currently operated by psychologists and educators. Everything there is supported by scientific evidence. The app is free to use but you can make a donation if you want to continue supporting their efforts, displaying friendly and thoughtful acts to others.
In the app, you'll find different choices, which can help you remove negative thoughts and focus on the positivity of the present moments.
1.Which app makes people feel encouraged regularly?
A.Shine. B.Kwippy.
C.ThinkUp. D.Smiling Mind.
2.Who is Kwippy suitable for?
A.Those who need to face a big life challenge.
B.Those who look for a friendly neighborhood.
C.Those who long for a great sense of belonging.
D.Those who want to live an enjoyable social life.
3.What is the purpose of the article?
A.To show the power of some advanced apps.
B.To introduce some apps for avoiding people feeling down.
C.To compare the advantages of some apps.
D.To list the wide usage of apps in our daily life.
你居住的社区是个国际化程度很高的地方，为了确保与来自各个国家的外国朋友的有效沟通，社区发起了英语志愿者招募活动。假如你是学生李华，希望能成为其中一员。请按要求用英文给社区写一封申请信，内容包括： 1.个人情况；2.自身优势； 3.服务承诺。
注意：1.词数 100 左右； 2.可以适当增加细节，以使行文连贯；3.开头和结尾已为你写好，不计入总词数。
Dear Sir/Madam,
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Yours faithfully,
Li Hua
假定英语课上老师要求同桌之间交换修改作文，请你修改你同桌写的以下作文，文中共有10处语言错误，每句中最多有两处，每处错误仅涉及一个单词的增加、删改或修改。
增加：在缺词处加一个漏字符号（Λ），并在其下面写出该加的词。
删除：把多余的词用斜线（\）划掉。
修改：在错的词下划一横线，并在该词下面写出修改后的词。
注意：1.每处错误及其修改均仅限一词；2.只允许修改10处，多者（从第11处起）不计分。
Dear John,
I was very happy to receive your e- mail in that you asked me about my life. As a Senior 3 student, I was now working very hard to preparing for the National College Entrance Examination. In class, I listen to the teachers attentively and take notes careful. Out off class, I take an active part in various sport to keep healthy, which, I believe, is very important for my study.
Both my teachers and parents give me many support. With their help and encouragement, I have been made great progress and been able to build up our confidence. I have decided to attend medical university.
Best wishes,
Yours，
Mary
