What’s the matter with the woman?
A. She has caught a bad cold. B. She stayed online too long. C. She can’t stand paint smell.
How does the man think of the book?
A. Humorous. B. Scientific. C. Popular.
What is the problem for the man?
A. He has to meet many people. B. He has to leave his friends. C. He has to travel a lot.
Yesterday, the Peoples Court of Qi County in Henan Province had a special plaintiff, an eleven-year-old boy in the fifth grade. He accused his parents of peeping at his diary, which violated his privacy.
After looking into the case, the judge found out what had happened to the boy and his parents. Li used to be an excellent student, but recently, he couldn’t focus on his studies. His parents were busy with their business, so they caredlittle about him. However, after learning about their son’s change, they managed to peep at his diary. From the diary, they learned that their son had a love affair with a girl in the same class. Then they got very angry and scolded him severely. As a result, the boy charged his parents with violating his privacy.
Facing the special case, the judge said, “Li is not a grown-up, but he has privacy protected by law. But in this case, what his parents did was to try to understand his thought in order to help him grow up healthily, which couldn’t be defined as an invasion.” Later, the judge told the parents it was unwise to peep at the child’s diary. Instead, they should try to talk to him. With the help of the judge, the boy promised to concentrate on his studies.
（写作内容）
1. 以约30个词概括阅读材料的主要内容；
2. 以约120个词谈谈你对“父母偷看子女日记”的看法，包括以下要点:
(1)看完新闻你有何感受？
(2) 如果你是文中主人公，你会如何做？
(3)你认为子女和父母应该如何更好地相处。
（写作要求）
1. 作文中可以使用自己亲身的经历或虚构的故事，也可以参照阅读材料的内容，但不得直接引用原文中的句子；
2. 作文中不能出现真实姓名和学校名称。
（评分标准）
概括准确，语言规范，内容合适，篇章连贯。
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On a visit to Sussex on February 16th, David Cameron announced that, if the Conservatives win the election on May 7th, young people who are out of work, education or training for six months will have to do unpaid community work to get benefits. The speech was part of a pre-election push to show the Conservative Party is tough on welfare reform (though critics insist such schemes rarely promote employment). “The well-worn path—from the school gate down to the job centre and on to a life on benefits—has got to be wiped away,” said the prime minister.
The welfare bill has fallen a bit as unemployment drops. But the main attempt to reform working-age benefits—known as universal credit (UC)—has gone away. In 2011 Mr Cameron said it would be part of “the most ambitious and fundamental changes to the welfare system since it began”. The latest stage of UC was also started from February 16th, but its future is not certain at all.
UC combines six working-age benefits, including tax credits, housing benefit and job-seeker’s allowance, into a single payment. It aims to provide the poorest Britons with a ladder to climb out of welfare dependency by simplifying a system that provides perverse incentives(反常动力) to stay on benefits rather than work. Its champion, Iain Duncan Smith, the secretary for work and pensions, claims it is as much about changing culture as about saving money.
The project has crawled along, hitting many obstacles on the way, such as an overly ambitious timetable that had to be reset in 2013 and an IT system that had to be abandoned, costing tens of millions of pounds. Mr Duncan Smith debated often with George Osborne, the harder-nosed chancellor of the exchequer(财政大臣).
Other problems have come from technical complexities, such as linking the tax system’s computers with those at the department for work and pensions. Critics say that moving all claims online is foolish when many people do not even have access to a computer. Similarly foolish, they say, are plans to pay benefits monthly rather than weekly to people who cannot budget, and to give housing benefit to applicants who may waste it rather than directly to the landlords of their government-funded housing. Defenders say the poor need to be given more responsibility. “The current benefits system is just ‘process and pay’,” says Christian Guy, Mr Duncan Smith’s former speechwriter, now head of the Centre for Social Justice. “UC makes the assumption of ambition.”
This week’s limited demonstration will mean that 250 job centres—roughly one in three—will offer UC. But these numbers refer to a system used for single recipients with no dependents. The bigger “digital” system, covering complex applicants with children, has not yet been tested. “The reason this week’s announcement means nothing is that we are still not sure if the system works for most people,” says Jonathan Portes of the National Institute of Economic and Social Research. “They’re producing a system they are not going to use.” The government hoped that 1 million people would be using UC by April 2014, but only 64,000 have used it so far.
There is no guarantee it will be carried out in full, even if the Tories form the next government. “I wouldn’t put money on UC continuing under either major party,” says Colin Talbot of the University of Manchester. Opponents say gains will be the lowest. They accuse Mr Duncan Smith and his team of trying to change the world. Mr Guy contradicts: “At least someone is trying.”
Title: The government’s welfare reform is in 1.
Introduction | ◆David Cameron expressed his 2. to promote welfare reform if the Conservatives win the election. |
Present 3. | ◆The welfare bill has dropped because of increasing 4.. |
◆The latest stage of universal credit, 5. UC, was started in spite of its uncertain future, 6. six working-age benefits into a single payment. | |
Obstacles and problems
| ◆It caused many debates among experts. ◆Moving all claims online is not practical because computers are not 7.to many people. ◆The poor need to be given more responsibility. ◆The reason this week’s limited demonstration means nothing is that we still 8. if the system works for most people |
Different attitudes | ◆Colin Talbot wouldn’t put money on UC 9.. ◆Opponents are not optimistic about the gains. ◆Mr. Guy insists that trying is 10. than waiting. |
An old man in a faded yellow shirt sat in a windowless room on a raised concrete form. The only source of heat came from somewhere beneath the plastic mattress and the rough blanket the blank-faced police woman had handed him after taking his thumb prints. He heard voices and metallic clang as the cell door swung open.
At the front desk a tired looking policeman handed the old man back his belongings, his worn-out cap and the Seiko watch that had stopped working the day his beloved Evelyn left. The policeman dramatically held the blue plastic bag at an arm’s length to the old man who took it and made sure its contents were undamaged: the goat meat, palm oil, leaves and spices. He ignored the confused expression on the officer’s face and signed the document declaring he had been returned the possessions they had taken off him the night before.
No one spoke to him as he walked slowly towards the exit.
“Mr. Easy-nwa?” He stopped and prayed to the God who now took care of Evelyn to please take him far away from this unhappy place of expressionless faces, clipped accents and people who did not even attempt to pronounce his name right.
“Ezenwa,” He said and looked at a woman with tangerine lips, her name tag said Jessica Harlow, Social Services. “A bit far from home”，she said as she drove fast and with confidence the way Evelyn used to. He wondered if she meant the 50 miles from Liverpool or the 50,000 miles from Enugu，a city in Nigeria. He did not bother replying as this woman had plenty to say about the weather, bad drivers, her daughter’s school play...
At last she drew up outside the block of flats where he lived.
“Got here in the end”，said she seriously, “Really Mr. Easy-nwa, if you keep getting lost, we will have to consider moving you into a home”.
“No need, I was not lost，”he answered.
He carefully rolled up the sleeves of the oversize bomber jacket he wore and turned on the tap to wash his hands, relieved the pipes were not frozen. In a clean pan he placed the chopped pieces of goat meat. The herbs and spices that had taken him three months to track down, the uziza seeds had taken him into the heart of Granby Market in Liverpool, his uchanwu leaves down a shady back alley in Manchester, and yesterday, among other food items, the finest goat meat from a Sierra Leonean Butcher in Birmingham. That had taken some time, so much he missed the last train and when the police found him shivering outside the locked up station, so cold he couldn’t answer loudly enough the pink-faced big copper who yelled in his face, “What’s your name sir?” spraying his face with spittle (吐沫）as he did so, leaving them with no choice but to search an exhausted, frozen old black man and finding him in possession of mysterious condiments (调味品）including a bag of dried bitter-leaf which could of course be mistaken for anything that resulted in him getting read his rights and charged with ...possession?
He lifted the lid of the bubbling soup, the room was filled with the rich and spicy scent of his culinary (烹饪的）effort. He served two bowls, taking the chipped one and placing the other opposite where Evelyn would have sat. He would tell her about his adventure, it was their anniversary and this was the perfect pepper soup to celebrate.
Ken Onyia, UK (Nigeria) Commonwealth Sport Short Story Prize
1.Why was Mr. Ezenwa taken to the prison for a night?
A. He was too weak to move.
B. He couldn’t find his way back home.
C. He then had nowhere else to go.
D. He was suspected of possessing drugs.
2.When Mr. Ezenwa was to leave the prison,
A. his thumb print was taken immediately
B. the policeman was confused about what he had
C. a social worker was assigned to drive him back home
D. the policeman was so kind as not to damage his belongings
3.What did Mr. Ezenwa do for his wedding anniversary?
A. He collected all sorts of valuables as presents.
B. He cooked native food as a surprise for his wife.
C. He prepared a special Nigerian pepper soup carefully.
D. He travelled a lot, attempting to get his wife back.
4.What words can be used to describe Mr. Ezenwa?
A. Hopeless and pessimistic.
B. Mysterious and troublesome.
C. Affectionate and persistent.
D. Energetic and sympathetic.
5.What theme does the author want to express through the story?
A. Racial prejudice.
B. Hard life of the elderly.
C. Struggle for freedom.
D. Preservation of tradition.
