Dear Editors of Macquarie Dictionary,
My name is Wendy, a second generation Chinese-Australian migrant(移民)and a mother of two young children. I’m writing to express my disappointment in one of Macquarie Dictionary’s entries, namely the definition of the word “monolid”.
In both the paper version(7th edition)and online version of the Dictionary, Macquarie defines “monolid” as: “An upper eyelid without a fold, perceived by some in Asia to give an appearance of laziness.” This definition has disturbed me and many Asians living in Australia. Linguistically(从语言学角度讲), the term “monolid” is a pretty unbiased description of a physical characteristic that involves no feelings, common to over 50% of people of East Asian origin. It’s no different to other terms describing a physical feature including “blonde” or “freckle”.
Take a minute and consider this. Would it be appropriate if the definition of “blonde” became “having fair or light-coloured hair, thought by some in Western countries as possessing little or no intelligence”? Or would it be appropriate if the definition of “freckle” was “a small brownish spot in the skin or face, thought by some as creating an ugly appearance”?
In addition, it is also inappropriate that Macquarie Dictionary — a dictionary of choice by many Australian schools — defines a term in a way which may create negative racial connection for Australian children of East Asian origin. Both my kids are born with monolids, a constant reminder of their cultural background. It therefore breaks my heart to imagine a scene where they turn to the dictionary to find that their physical feature is associated with “laziness”. What if they get teased by their school friends that they are born “lazy”? What if my sensitive older son starts hating himself and his race classification for being associated with something negative?
For the reasons above, I urge Macquarie Dictionary to adjust the current definition of “monolid”. Looking forward to hearing from you.
Regards,
Wendy
1.Why does the author write this letter?
A.To ask for information about a definition.
B.To express dissatisfaction with a definition.
C.To offer advice on how to define a word.
D.To give examples of defining physical features.
2.What does “unbiased” underlined in paragraph 2 probably mean?
A.General. B.Precise.
C.Subjective. D.Objective.
3.What is the function of paragraph 3?
A.Calling for readers’ attention.
B.Supporting the author’s position.
C.Raising the author’s concern.
D.Introducing two words in the dictionary.
4.In what way is the author worried about her children?
A.They might get into bad habits and be lazy.
B.They might choose to use the dictionary.
C.They might become victims of the definition.
D.They might have monolids.
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3.What type of writing does this text belong to?
A.A study. B.A direction
C.An advertisement. D.A notice.
请阅读下面短文，并按照要求用英语写一篇150词左右的文章。
Is youth lingo ruining the Chinese language?
Young people often create their own language that goes beyond rigid linguistic rules. This year’s latest slang (俚语) terms add a further simplification: the use of pinyin acronyms (首字母缩略词). “Awsl,” in pinyin, for instance,means “Ah, wo si le” (Oh, I’m gonna die), and is used if something is too cute or adorable to bear. “Pyq” stands for “pengyou quan”, the social feed on the popular Chinese social media app WeChat, and “nsdd” stands for “ni shuo de dui” (you’re right).
Teens want to be different from their parents, so it’s natural for them to create and use their own linguistic terms to show that. In doing so, young people are indeed driving linguistic change. They aren’t the only factor influencing language development, but they can indeed transform how future generations communicate.
Critics fear that Chinese internet slang will have the potential to negatively influence broader linguistic trends of Mandarin Chinese, in particular, the gradual taking over of pinyin. As pinyin gets widely used when texting or writing on mobile phone or computer, while less and less people write characters by hand, people gradually forget how to write them. The phenomenon has got a name in China: Character amnesia(健忘症).
（写作内容）
1. 用约30个单词概述上文年轻人使用网络语言的现象；
2. 用约120个单词发表你的观点，内容包括:谈谈你的看法，用2〜3个理由或论据支撑你的看法。
（写作要求）
1. 写作过程中不能直接引用原文语句；
2. 作文中不能出现真实姓名和学校名称；
3. 不必写标题。
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请认真阅读下列短文，并根据所读内容在文章表格中的空格里填入一个最恰当的单词。
Generally speaking, perfectionism is a good thing, if it makes you do better work and try harder to complete tasks well. However, perfectionism can become a bad thing when it stops you feeling satisfied with yourself or what you’ve accomplished. Every artist knows how important it is to stop adding touches to their paintings and how constantly adding elements can end up ruining the work. If you constantly demand only the very best from yourself, this can damage your self-respect as you find nothing you do will live up to your expectations. And if you extend this harsh (无情的) judgment to your friends and family and only focus on the negatives around them, you will find that they begin to dislike and avoid you.
So how do you get rid of these kinds of negative perfectionism? The following suggestions might help you a lot.
First of all, you’d better think twice about your standards. Look at what other people do. How long does it take them to carry out a project? Are their lower standards getting them fired? Do they still accomplish good work? Are your exacting (苛求的) standards worth the cost in terms of time and energy? I am sure that you can learn a lot from your answers.
Secondly, don’t always compare yourself with others. Perfectionists tend to have high standards. For example, an artist who thinks his work is never done might be comparing his paintings to those of Vincent van Gogh, Leonardo da Vinci or other great artists. Remember that only a few people can become great masters and that most of us are just common people.
Last but not least, try to look at the situation objectively. If you are constantly adjusting things and never feel satisfied, then the chances are that you are too close to the situation and that you can’t judge it rightly any more. You’d better ask those around you what they think and whether they think your work is good enough. Besides, give your project some breathing space by leaving it alone for some time, so you can come back to it with “fresh eyes”.
Nobody, nor any idea, is perfect. If you have a perfectionist streak in you, try and let it go, and embrace the process of getting your idea out into the world, rather than focusing on the end result.
Perfectionism is holding you back | ||
1. perfectionism can cause | It can make one 2. with himself or his achievements. It can get one’s self-respect damaged. It can make one lose3. among his friends and family members. | |
Ways of 4. perfectionism | 5. your standards | You need to find out what other people’s standards are. |
Avoid making unwise 6. | It is not sensible for you to 7. yourself to become a great master. | |
Get a(n) 8. view | Ask others for their 9. about your work. Step back for a while and then return to your work with “fresh eyes” | |
Conclusion | Perfection doesn’t actually 10.. Striving to do your best is good enough and will eventually lead you down a brilliant path. |
Although Bertha Young was thirty she still had moments like this when she wanted to run instead of walk, to take dancing steps on and off the pavement, to throw something up in the air and catch it again, or to stand still and laugh at — nothing — at nothing, simply.
What can you do if you are thirty and, turning the corner of your own street, you are overcome, suddenly by a feeling of happiness — absolute happiness.
Oh, is there no way you can express it without being “drunk and disorderly”? How stupid civilization is! Why should you be given a body if you have to keep it shut up in a case like a rare, rare fiddle(小提琴)?
“No, that about the fiddle is not quite what I mean,” she thought, running up the steps and feeling in her bag for the key — she’d forgotten it, as usual — and rattling the letter-box. “It’s not what I mean, because — Thank you, Mary” — she went into the hall. “Is nurse back?”
“Yes, M’m.”
“I’ll go upstairs.” And she ran upstairs to the nursery.
Nurse sat at a low table giving Little B her supper after her bath. The baby looked up when she saw her mother and began to jump.
“Now, my lovey, eat it up like a good girl,” said nurse, setting her lips in a way that Bertha knew, and that meant she had come into the nursery at another wrong moment.
“Has she been good, Nanny?”
“She’s been a little sweet all the afternoon,” whispered Nanny. “We went to the park and I sat down on a chair and took her out of the pram (婴儿车) and a big dog came along and she pulled its ear. Oh, you should have seen her.”
Bertha wanted to ask if it wasn’t rather dangerous to let her pull a strange dog’s ear. But she did not dare to. She stood watching them, her hands by her side, like the poor little girl in front of the rich girl with the doll.
The baby looked up at her again, stared, and then smiled so charmingly that Bertha couldn’t help crying.
“Oh, Nanny, do let me finish giving her supper while you put the bath things away.
“Well, M’m, she oughtn’t to be changed hands while she’s eating,” said Nanny, still whispering. “It unsettles her, it’s very likely to upset her.”
How absurd it was. Why have a baby if it has to be kept—not in a case like a rare, rare fiddle — but in another woman’s arms?
“Oh, I must!” said she.
Very offended, Nanny handed her over.
“Now, don’t excite her after her supper. You know you do, M’m. And I have such a time with her after!”
Thank heaven! Nanny went out of the room with the bath towels.
“Now I’ve got you to myself, my little precious,” said Bertha, as the baby learned against her.
She ate delightfully, holding up her lips for the spoon and then waving her hands. Sometimes she wouldn’t let the spoon go; and sometimes just as Bertha had filled it, she waved it away to the four winds.
When the soup was finished Bertha turned round to the fire. “You’re nice — you’re very nice!” said she, kissing her warm baby. “I’m fond of you. I like you.”
And indeed, she loved Little B so much — her neck as she bent forward, her pretty toes as they shone transparent in the firelight — that all her feeling of happiness came back again, and again she didn’t know how to express it — what to do with it.
“You’re wanted on the telephone,” said Nanny, coming back in victory and seizing her Little B.
1.In paragraph 3 and 15, a “rare, rare fiddle” is used to show that ________.
A.Bertha is frustrated by not feeling free to express her musical talents
B.wealthy mothers are not allowed to look after their children
C.Bertha considers her baby girl an extraordinary child
D.people of a certain age are expected to follow a certain code of behavior
2.Nanny’s facial expression on seeing Bertha’s arrival in the nursery suggest ________.
A.a vain attempt to hide her joy at seeing Bertha
B.fear of dismissal from her job for untidy nursery
C.dislike for Bertha’s ill-timed visits to the nursery
D.a relief as she can at last eat her supper
3.What does the underlined sentence in Paragraph 11 imply?
A.Bertha wishes to have care-giving time with her baby.
B.Bertha lacks emotional and psychological strength.
C.Bertha desires a closer relationship with Nanny.
D.Bertha suffers from an unrealistic hope of having more babies.
4.Which of the following best describes the relationship between Bertha and Nanny?
A.Bertha feels that Nanny is a competent nurse and will do anything liberate her from chores.
B.Nanny considers herself the baby’s primary caregiver and Bertha just an occasional visitor.
C.Bertha prefers to leave the child in Nanny’s care so that she can fulfill her inappropriate fantasies.
D.Nanny is tired of working hard for Bertha and would like to find other pleasant employment.
5.In Nanny’s eyes, what was Bertha like?
A.She is a kind employer but a strict mother.
B.She is a thoughtless person and inexperienced mother.
C.She is excited and is always lost in her overactive imagination.
D.She is forgetful and has no sense of class distinctions in society.
6.Which of the following sentences best describes Nanny’s possessiveness (占有欲)?
A.“She’s been a little sweet all the afternoon,” whispered Nanny. “...Oh. you should have seen her.”
B.“Now, my lovey, eat it up like a good girl,” said nurse, setting her lips in a way that Bertha knew.
C.“Now, don’t excite her after her supper. You know you do, M’m. And I have such a time with her after!”
D.“You’re wanted on the telephone,” said Nanny, coming back in victory and seizing her Little B.
California has been facing droughts for many years, with certain areas even having to pump freshwater hundreds of miles to their distribution system. The problem is growing as the population of the state continues to expand. New research has found deep water reserves under the state which could help solve their drought crisis. Previous drilling of wells could only reach depths of 1,000 feet, but due to new pumping practices, water deeper than this can now be extracted (抽取). The team at Stanford investigated the aquifers (地下蓄水层) below this depth and found that reserves may be three times what was previously thought.
It is profitable to drill to depths more than 1,000 feet for oil and gas, but only recently in California has it become profitable to pump water from this depth. The aquifers range from 1,000 to 3,000 feet below the ground, which means that pumping will be expensive and there are other concerns. The biggest concern is the gradual setting down of the land surface. As the water is pumped out, the vacant space left is pressed by the weight of the earth above.
Even though pumping from these depths is expensive, it is still cheaper than desalinating (脱盐) the ocean water in the largely coastal state. Some desalination plants exist where possible, but they are costly to run and can need constant repairs. Wells are much more reliable sources of freshwater, and California is hoping that these deep wells may be the answer to their severe water shortage.
One problem with these sources is that the deep water also has a higher level of salt than shallower aquifers. This means that some water may even need to be desalinated after extraction, thus increasing the cost. Research from the study of groundwater has just been published. New estimates of the water reserves now go up to 2,700 billion cubic meters of freshwater.
1.According to the text, what causes the water crisis in California?
A.Previous drilling of wells. B.The messy distribution system.
C.Constant droughts in the area. D.The adoption of new pumping practices.
2.The research teams think it ________ to extract water from deeper aquifers.
A.expensive but practical B.reliable and profitable
C.cost-free but demanding D.cheap and environment-friendly
3.What is mentioned as a consequence of extracting water from deep underground?
A.The damage to aquifers. B.The sinking of land surface.
C.The decrease in operation costs. D.The negative effects on the climate.
4.What is the author’s purpose in writing the text?
A.To encourage people to save water.
B.To promote the seawater desalination.
C.To introduce a new way of extracting freshwater.
D.To draw people’s attention to the droughts in California.
