Chokwe Selassie, aged 13, is working hard to help drivers avoid potholes(坑洼). The eighth-grader was inspired to kick off his creation on a recent morning, when his mother was driving him to school. Their car was damaged as it went over a huge pothole in the middle of the street in their hometown of Jackson, Mississippi. He decided to do something about the pothole problem in his city. His solution: an app that warns drivers when there is a pothole ahead.
Chokwe developed the app with his friends Rodriguez Ratliff and Emmanuel Brooks. When the app detects a pothole, it is highlighted in red. And if you get close to the pothole, your phone will warn you. Drivers can also use the app to report any potholes they meet, and to look for other routes they can take to avoid roads that have them.
The app relies on current available information about the streets of Jackson. It works by using the city’s 311 call system, and uses information already stored in a database. Through the call system, citizens dial 311 to report non-emergency problems, which include potholes. Chokwe and his friends determined that focusing on the 10 busiest streets in Jackson would give them a large enough sample size to test the prototype(原型).
Although the app isn't yet available for sale, Chokwe is already looking for ways to improve it. The prototype remains limited to 10 streets in Jackson, but he hopes to add more, so that it includes every street in the city. And then he wants to go even farther until it's nationwide.
1.The passage is mainly about ________.
A. a solution to traffic jams B. an App to detect potholes
C. pothole problems in big cities D. poor road conditions
2.What’s the closest meaning of the underlined phrase “kick off” in Paragraph 1?
A. leave B. invent
C. begin D. change
3.How does the app work through the 311 call system?
A. By replying to citizens’ calls.
B. By broadcasting traffic accidents.
C. By settling non-emergency problems.
D. By using its information about potholes.
4.Which can be Chokwe’s future target?
A. Encouraging more kids to create apps.
B. Taking part in more learning programs.
C. Making the app available for sale online.
D. Making the app include streets nationwide.
“What’s that?” my ten-year-old daughter, Genie, asked. She’d caught me laughing at a piece of mail I’d just opened. “Wake-up service, $2.50 per call.” At the bottom was a phone number and a drawing of a rotary phone, like the one my great- aunt Sara had owned 40 years ago.
“Is that mail funny?” Genie asked.
“Not really,” I admitted. “It’s just outdated.”
“What’s a wake-up call?” She asked. I explained how, before smart-phones, people sometimes paid someone to wake them with a call.
“Who sent this flyer（传单）?” she pressed.
“Probably someone older,” I said.
Her eyes lit up. “Can we order a wake-up?” she asked.
“We don’t need it.” I picked it up and headed for the recycling bin.
“Wait!” she screamed. “I feel sorry for the wake-up man, if he needs some money,” she said, tearing up. “Can’t we order?”
I looked at the flyer with its drawing of a rotary phone. I remembered, again, my great-aunt Sara and her rotary phone. As a kid, I’d visited her over Labor Day, when Jerry Lewis would host his charity event for the disabled kids. Aunt Sara would squeeze my hand, then reach for the rotary phone, dialing the number on the screen. Holding the receiver between us, we’d announce to the operator, “We’d like to help those kids.”
Now here was my own child, showing the same big heart I’d once been encouraged to have, and how could I ignore her? I googled the flyer’s return address. The address belonged to a man called Raymond. He was in his mid-60s. We called him and, holding the receiver between us, the way Aunt Sara and I used to, told him we needed his services. “Great!” Raymond said in a shaky but friendly voice, clearly amazed at receiving an order from a child.
Genie was happy all week.
Technology has made some things outdated. But there are still other things the world will always require. In the rush of my daily life, I’d temporarily forgotten that, I guess I just needed a wake-up call.
1.Why did Genie beg to order the service?
A. She was afraid of being late.
B. She wanted to help the old man.
C. She was curious about the service.
D. She was interested in the rotary phone.
2.What made the author finally decide to order a wake-up call?
A. Her own childhood experience.
B. The less fortunate wake-up man.
C. Genie’s curiosity about the service.
D. The information she found on Google.
3.How did Raymond feel when receiving our order?
A. Excited. B. Disappointed.
C. Doubtful. D. Regretful.
4.What could be the best title for the passage?
A. A Wake-up Man B. A Kindhearted Girl
C. The Wake-up Call D. The Rotary Phone
A Step-by-Step guide to Writing Great Papers
Time For Kids
Want to be a better writer? TFK’s “Write Ideas” gives your writing a rise by walking you through every step involved in writing a paper. Using sample papers, idea organizers and checklists, you can write better research papers, persuasive essays, news stories and much more.
Spelling, Grammar and More
English Zone
This is the perfect site for English homework; It has a section on almost every topic you will cover in English class, such as spelling, parts of speech and writing. It does not just give you summary of the topic; rather it makes sure you understand it completely.
Reading Rocks!
Reading Rockets
From this great resource, learn to love reading or to love it even more! Read articles about reading and education, and share them with your teachers and parents. You can even read books by famous authors like Jane Yolen and Patricia MacLachlan.
Definitions, Rhymes and Word Games
Merriam-Webster Word Central
If you want to review words you know and learn new ones, visit this site. Here you’ll visit a school called “Word Central” where you can click on different areas to learn things like definitions and rhymes for different words or play word games.
Help with Foreign Languages
Kidspace @ The Internet Public Library
This is a really cool site if you need help with foreign-language homework. It teaches you how to say hello in many different languages and has a lot of other useful information. It also tells how you can listen to real people saying the words in other languages.
1.Which of the following sites can help you remember the new words?
A. Time For Kids. B. English Zone
C. Reading Rockets. D. Merriam-Webster Word Central.
2.What can “Help with Forreign Languages” teach you?
A. How to read books by famous authors.
B. How to say hello in many different languages.
C. How to write better research papers.
D. How to use grammar in a right way.
3.The ad is mainly intended .
A. to increase the students’ learning skills
B. to offer some useful sites in language study
C. to attract the students to join some learning clubs
D. to help students understand language study better
据报道，越来越多的农民去城市打工，孩子被留在农村，成为“留守儿童”。而缺少父母关爱对“留守儿童”的成长极为不利。假设你是林晓，请就这一问题给21st Century编辑部写一封信，阐述“留守儿童”存在的下列问题，并呼吁社会关注。
1．情感寂寞；
2．与人交流出现困难；
3．学习成绩不理想；
4．很多儿童出现心理问题；
5．容易受到伤害。
参考词汇：农村(rural area)；心理的(psychological)
要求：字数100左右。开头和结尾已经为你写好，不计入总词数。
Dear editor，
I'm writing to say something about the problems of children left behind in rural areas.
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Only in this way can we ensure that they will have a good future as other kids.
Best wishes.
Yours，
Lin Xiao
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、删除或
修改。
增加：在缺词处加一个漏字符号(∧)，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：在错的词下画一横线，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。
An old man was seating in an armchair at home, reading his newspaper. Beside him lay a dog sleep soundly. The old man decided to leaving home for a while, and he couldn’t go out with his slippers on. So he woke up the dog and let it fetched the shoes for him. Out of its expectation, the dog didn’t even stand, but just barked with two eyes closed again. He was complete puzzled. As he was wondering what was happening, a cat appeared in the front of him. Why do you think a cat came there?
According to a recent survey, violence did 1.(existence) in schools. Students showed their fear and parents and teachers also expressed their great concern about it. 2.(obvious), it’s time for the whole society to pay more attention to the mental health of adolescents (青少年).
Nowadays, school violence is 3. hot issue. I think this is a phenomenon (现象) 4. calls for our great concern. We should try every effort to prevent violence from 5.(happen) at school, for more and more students would drop out of school 6. their personal safety could not be ensured. In fact, violence can 7.(learn). Children learn violent behavior from adults or from 8. they see on television or on the Internet.
If I meet with school violence, I will not answer violence 9. violence, for it will result in more fighting. I will tell my teachers or parents about it. I think they will help me deal with it well and they will protect me from the bad guys.
All in all, every student 10. behave himself and keep away from violence.
