Double Trouble
When I was eight, I wanted a toy and needed $10 to buy it. But, as usual, I was broken. I decided to ask my 11-year-old sister, Kathleen, for a loan. I went to her room, _______her for the cash. Laughing, she agreed to_______ me the money, but added, “I will charge you 10 percent compound interest every ______until you pay me back.”
“Compound interest---what’s that?” I asked.
“Well, interest is what you call the_______money borrowers have to pay back on a loan,” she explained. “Compound interest means that the interest payments get bigger and bigger the______you take to pay back the loan. To repay the loan, you will need to give me $11 after one month. If you wait two months to pay me back, your______ will grow from $10 to $11. So I’ll be charging you interest on $11. Then I will add that interest to the $11 you already owe me, for a _____of $12.10. That’s what you’ll owe after two months.”
“Sure. I get it,” I said. Though truthfully, I was getting ______.
Kathleen lent me the money, and I bought the toy. My birthday came a month later, and my mom gave me $10. _____,that was just the amount I needed to buy another toy I wanted ______. I put off paying my sister for a month. After another month, I_______about the loan.
Several months later, on Christmas morning, my sister and I each found a $02 bill in our stockings. I was just putting it into my pocket ______Kathleen tapped me on the shoulder.
“Sorry, kiddo. That’s mine. I’m ______on your debt.”
“Huh?” Then I remembered the loan. “Hey! How can it be that much? I ______borrowed $10.”
“True,” she said, “but interest has been compounding for eight months. Now you _____me $21.43.” She paused, then added. “You can pay me the $1.43.”
I ______to believe that a $10 loan could more than double so quickly. Much to my ______, my sister got her pencil and tablet and showed me exactly how it all added up.
My head _____as I tried to keep track of Kathleen’s ______, but this time, I got the basic idea of compound interest. I ______the hard way that borrowing money can be “double trouble” in no time.
1.A.blaming B.begging C.searching D.preparing
2.A.pay B.send C.lend D.hand
3.A.month B.year C.week D.day
4.A.little B.same C.enough D.extra
5.A.shorter B.longer C.more D.less
6.A.cash B.saving C.note D.debt
7.A.total B.cost C.number D.bill
8.A.encouraged B.shocked C.confused D.satisfied
9.A.Gradually B.Obviously C.Unfortunately D.Hopefully
10.A.seriously B.anxiously C.secretly D.desperately
11.A.forgot B.knew C.talked D.cared
12.A.after B.until C.while D.when
13.A.carrying B.collecting C.relying D.focusing
14.A.normally B.nearly C.only D.really
15.A.owe B.offer C.take D.give
16.A.decided B.refused C.pretended D.managed
17.A.relief B.delight C.annoyance D.regret
18.A.turned B.nodded C.stuck D.hurt
19.A.calculations B.excuses C.directions D.discoveries
20.A.explored B.learned C.explained D.questioned
Try This at Home!
Are you looking for a new pastime that will create a balance between physical activity and relaxation? Then yoga may be the perfect choice for you. Yoga can be practiced by people of all ages and levels of fitness.1. It's a great way to strengthen your muscles and become more flexible.
In the 1930s, Indian Sri Tirumali and K. Pattabhi developed one of the most popular forms of yoga practised worldwide today. They worked together using an ancient Sansknt text called Yoga Korunta to create a set routine of yoga movements and breathing exercises. 2.
Ashtanga is different from other forms of yoga. It is a very powerful form of aerobic (有氧的)exercise which creates deep heat in the body. 3. In other forms of yoga, however, the routine can change each time and the stretching exercises aren't aerobic.
4.As well as making you stronger and more flexible, it can also help you to stay calm. By focusing on your breathing while doing physical exercise, you are able to get a balance between mind and body. In addition, yoga helps to make us healthier so we are less likely to get common illnesses like colds.
Furthermore, yoga encourages you to think about what you're doing. Often you will close your eyes while doing certain movements.5.After a few lessons you'll stop looking at what the others around you are doing. You will stop comparing yourself and start focusing on yourself.
A. It can also be done anywhere at any time.
B. The result of their co-operation was ashtanga yoga.
C. Whatever kind of yoga you choose, there are many long-term benefits.
D. This allows you to concentrate better and it makes you less competitive.
E. Every time someone practices ashtanga, he or she does exactly the same movements.
F. If you're interested in yoga, but can find a class near you, then it might be an excuse to travel.
G. Recently, it has become extremely common for beginners as well as advanced yoga students to go on yoga holidays.
At one time or another in your life you have probably done origami, even if it was just making a paper airplane or something more complicated like a paper crane. The chances are that as you did it, you reflected on how inventive this traditional art is. Animals, boxes, flowers, boats: it all can be created from a single square or rectangular sheet of paper simply by folding it. No cutting, no pasting.
But did you ever stop to think how the same techniques might be applied to engineering? Equipment that could be of real practical use? Origami meets the demand for things that need to be small when transported and large when they arrive, like the everyday umbrella. In fact, origami-inspired creations have already flown in space; in 1995, Japanese engineers launched a satellite with solar panels that folded like a map.
“It’s now mathematically proven that you can pretty much fold anything,” says physicist Robert J. Lang, who quit his engineering job eight years ago to fold things full time. Lang, an origami enthusiast since age six, advised a advised well-known ear manufacturer the best way to fold an airbag into a dashboard. He is currently working on a space telescope lens that, if all goes according to plan, should be able to unfold to the size of a football field.
At the other end of the scale, researchers are also working on tiny folding devices that could lead to breakthroughs in medicine and computing. There’s no doubt that computers of the future may contain tiny, folded motors or capacitors for faster processing and better memory.
Applications for origami engineering go further than many of us might imagine. “Some day,” says MIT’s Erik Demaine, “we’ll build reconfigurable (可重构的) robots that can fold on their own from one thing into another, like Transformers. Too much like science fiction to be true? Maybe—though you certainly wouldn’t want to bet against it.”
1.What do we know about origami?
A.It consumes lots of time. B.It involves interesting ideas.
C.It requires complex techniques. D.It has to do with cutting and pasting.
2.Which of the following is an application of origami?
A.A space telescope lens can be folded to the size of an umbrella.
B.A satellite is equipped with solar panels and a folded map.
C.An airbag can be better folded into a dashboard of a car.
D.A future computer contains many huge folded motors.
3.What is Erik Demaine’s attitude towards origami engineering?
A.Hopeful B.Doubtful.
C.Disapproving. D.Ambiguous.
4.In which section of a newspaper may this text appear?
A.Entertainment. B.Culture.
C.Education. D.Pop-science.
What inspires kids to be creative and pursue academic excellence? Some teachers use rewards in recognition of students’ effort or achievement, giving them prizes, medals, certificates, or money.
Psychologists take opposite views of how external rewards, from warm praise to cold cash, affect motivation and creativity. Behaviorists, who study the relation between actions and their consequences, argue that rewards can improve performance at work and school. Cognitive researchers, who study various aspects of mental life, believe that rewards often destroy creativity by encouraging dependence on approval and gifts from others.
The latter view has gained many supporters, especially among educators. But the careful use of small monetary(金钱的) rewards sparks creativity in primary school children, suggesting that properly given stimuli(刺激) indeed encourage creativity, according to a study in the June Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.
"If kids know they're working for a reward and can focus on a relatively challenging task, they show the most creativity," says Robert Eisenberger of the University of Delaware in Newark. "But it's easy to kill creativity by giving rewards for poor performance or creating too much desire for rewards."
A teacher who continually draws attention to rewards or who hands out high grades for ordinary achievement ends up with students lacking in creativity and motivation, Eisenberger says. As an example of the latter point, he particularly mentions growing efforts to tighten grading standards and adopt failing grades at major universities.
In earlier grades, the use of rewarding system, in which students handle challenging problems and receive performance-based points toward valued rewards, shows promise in raising effort and creativity, Eisenberger claims.
1.Psychologists are divided in their attitudes toward _____.
A.the choice between spiritual encouragement and monetary rewards
B.the amount of monetary rewards for students' creativity
C.the relationship between actions and their consequences
D.the effects of external rewards on students' performance
2.Which of the following does NOT belong to examples of “external rewards”?
A.Tom received a certificate for winning a speech competition.
B.Mary was praised by the teacher for making progress in English.
C.Jacky made great efforts to enter a major university.
D.John was offered a free summer camp due to his hard work.
3.Which of the following can best raise students' creativity according to Robert Eisenberger?
A.Assigning them tasks they have not dealt with before.
B.Assigning them tasks which require creativity.
C.Giving them rewards they really deserve.
D.Giving them rewards they hope for.
4.It can be inferred from the passage that major universities are trying to tighten their grading standards because they think _____.
A.rewarding poor performance may kill the creativity of students
B.punishing students is more effective than rewarding them
C.failing unmotivated students helps improve their academic standards
D.discouraging students’ expectation of easy rewards is important
I stood outside my front door catching my breath. After a lazy Christmas holiday, I had to recover from climbing stairs with carry-on bags and a suitcase. I looked up and blinked. Red tape crossed the door. I didn’t understand Hungarian, but the one English word said enough: “POLICE”.
Google Translate told me I would be arrested if I entered, so I didn’t. Finally, I called my rental agent. He went to the police station for more details.
My agent returned with authorization to enter. Not only were my files undisturbed, but so were the TV and printer. The burglars had taken a few items from the top drawer as well as a small amount of foreign currency in the bottom drawer. Somehow they hadn’t found the jewelry box in the third drawer.
I was in shock. My agent’s words were fuzzy, something about fixing the locks tomorrow and making a list for the police.
Then one day, I remembered that I’d left another jewelry box in the flat. My heart sank as I thought of another locket that had been in that box, a gold engraved one with a picture of my late honey Grandma inside. When I realized the box was missing, the whole experience seemed to crash down on me. I cried.
At the end of January, I received a registered letter from the police. The burglar hadn’t been found, and the case was closed. I slept with my purse by my bed. I hid my laptop when I showered. And then another challenge rose. I was unexpectedly laid off.
Then one July night, I reached into my third drawer, pulled out my jean shorts, and heard a small thud. I looked down and blinked: It was the tiny jewelry box I thought had been stolen six months earlier.
Inside was the locket with honey Grandma smiling at me, being there for me, telling me not to give up. I started to cry.
1.What did the red tape across the writer’s door mean?
A.There was a burglary here. B.The house couldn’t be entered freely.
C.The rent had to be paid quickly. D.The rental agent advertised for the house.
2.What did the agent promise to do?
A.To fix the locks the next day. B.To report the burglary to the police.
C.To have an iron security gate fixed. D.To pay for missing things for the writer.
3.Which can best show the change of the author’s feeling after she learned of the burglary?
A.puzzled→ anxious→ relaxed. B.shocked→ sorrowful→ nervous.
C.shocked→ desperate→ hopeful. D.puzzled→ relieved→ confident.
4.What is the best title for the passage?
A.Red Tape B.A Jewelry Box C.“Lost” Smile D.Grandma’s Advice
It was just before 8 a.m.on October 17, 2010.She’d checked the higher summits forecast posted by the Mount Washington Observatory before she left.Based on her experience, Bales knew that her hike was realistic.Besides, she had two plans and extra layers of clothing to better regulate her temperature as conditions changed.
At 10:30 a.m., the weather was showing its teeth.Bales added even more layers, including a jacket to protect herself from the cold winds and heavy fog.She made her way across the snow—covered ridge toward Mount Washington and began to think about calling it a day.Then she noticed something:a single set of footprints in the snow ahead of her.She’d been following faint tracks all day and hadn’t given them much thought, because so many people climbed Jewell Trail.But these, she realized, had been made by a pair of sneakers.She silently scolded the absent hiker for breaking normal safety rules and walked on.
Now she felt genuinely alarmed.She was sure the hiker could not navigate(找到方向)in the low visibility and was heading straight toward the challenging trails of the Great Gulf Wilderness.Bales stood there, shocked.The temperature and clouds were in a race to find their lowest point, and darkness was mere hours away.If Bales continued to follow the tracks.she’d add risk and time to the route she’d already adjusted to manage both.But she could not let this go.She turned to the left and called out, “Hello!”into the frozen fog.
Bales wouldn’t get an answer until a week later, when the president of her rescue group received a letter in the mail.It read: “I hope this reaches the right group of rescuers.I want to remain anonymous(匿名的), but I was called John.On Sunday, October 17, I went up my favorite trail, Jewell, to end my life.Weather was to be bad.Thought no one else would be there.I was dressed to go quickly.Next thing I knew this lady was talking to me, changing my clothes, giving me food, making me warmer.
1.What does the underlined sentence mean?
A.The weather began to get worse.
B.Nobody controlled the weather.
C.Weather could never be predicted.
D.Weather was generally changeable.
2.Why did Bales feel really frightened?
A.Because she lost her way completely.
B.Because the terrible weather was on the way.
C.Because she was blinded by the frozen fog.
D.Because she was convinced that someone was in trouble.
3.What is the purpose of John’s hiking?
A.To challenge his limit.
B.To go up his favorite trail.
C.To donate some money to rescue group.
D.To kill himself without being discovered.
