A simple, yet powerful UK program has been fighting elderly loneliness by recruiting young adults as volunteers to read to seniors with vision problems and mental diseases.
Lily has benefited from the program having her vision “restored” by 15-year-old Amy, a school girl who was paired with Lily through the Reading Friends project. Lily was a librarian and enthusiastic reader who would read “two to three books every week”. After developing a terrible disease, however, Lily found herself unable to read or watch television for any length of time without her eyes hurting.
Not only have Lily’s regular reading sessions with Amy helped to reconnect her with her passion for literature, they have also built a strong intergenerational friendship between the two ladies. “I chose a book and she would come along and read it to me,” Lily said. “But we have only got through two books so far because we end up chatting too much. We have read two historical novels and get on very well.”
Research shows that reading together can help older people to build social networks and connect with others. Evidence also shows that reading has a positive impact on the elderly’s wellbeing and can reduce the risk of developing mental diseases.
Rose, a teacher, is responsible for connecting schoolchildren like Amy with the program and she says that it has had an amazing impact on the youngsters. “We have wonderful young people at our school and we wanted to get them into the community,” Rose said. “It has been fantastic to see them blossom as well as improving their literacy and social skills. They are meeting community members like Lily that they are making friendships with, and library staff can help them, not only with education but outside as well.”
1.What is the main responsibility of volunteers according to the passage?
A.Read books to seniors. B.Have a chat with seniors.
C.Fight diseases for seniors. D.Make friends with seniors.
2.What can we learn from Lily’s reading sessions with Amy?
A.They benefit Lily a lot by restoring her vision.
B.They help Amy pick up her love for literature.
C.They help Lily volunteer in the reading project.
D.They build up the friendship between two ladies.
3.How does the program mostly benefit the elders?
A.By reducing elderly loneliness.
B.By curing the elders of vision problems.
C.By improving their literacy and social skills.
D.By enabling them to read books for a long time.
4.Where is this text most likely from?
A.A diary. B.A guidebook.
C.A magazine. D.A novel.
We didn’t expect to see her again so soon: After a tearless farewell with my daughter, we left her new dorm room but then in the campus we saw her jogging against the August heat. I quickly rolled down the car window and Sarina didn’t miss a step as she turned, nodded at us and waved goodbye. I was in disbelief why the tears hadn’t come when we parted on her first day in university.
Our first separation, the day she left my body, was a nightmare of pain and suffering. While all births are amazing, not all women feel amazed about the births. However, our togetherness in the days and months that followed was so sweet that I felt her small body still seemed to be attached to mine. In the years to come, the sound of her feet running across the wooden floors of our house was like the gentle pounding that reminded me my little girl was here and that someday she would run to the paths I couldn’t follow.
Last year Sarina turned 16 and decided to pursue art in college. She was in excitement about college life with so much to expect but I was uneasy because it would be a long plane ride away from home. I tried to imagine what separation would be like, but I couldn’t. Separation, although on the horizon, still felt distant.
That’s why it wasn’t until the next morning when I awoke in a house absent of her footsteps that the tears finally came—and wouldn’t stop. I understood that Sarina had left the house, and I held onto the memory of her running. When the tears stopped, I was relieved that her body knew what it needed on separation day, and that with our love and support, she had the courage to run into an unfamiliar distance, to glance back, yet to keep moving forward.
1.What happened to the author on her daughter’s first day in college?
A.She burst into tears and had a painful farewell.
B.She appeared calm and didn't cry at their departure.
C.She asked her daughter to show them around the campus.
D.She was cross that her daughter went jogging when they departed.
2.What is the purpose of Paragraph 2?
A.To expect her daughter’s bright future.
B.To remind herself other daughter's pounding steps.
C.To recall the suffering during her daughter’s growth.
D.To show the strong attachment between mother and daughter.
3.Which of the following best describes the author when separation was approaching?
A.Excited. B.Worried.
C.Relieved. D.Frustrated.
4.What can be the most suitable title for the passage?
A.A heartbroken separation B.The story of a successful mom
C.How to deal with homesickness D.Moving forward with love and support
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几个月以来，全国人民都投入到新冠肺炎疫情防控阻击战中。假定你是晨光中学的李 津，获悉21世纪英文报正在组织以“A Touching Figure in My Heart”为主题的征文活动。请你根据以下要点写一篇征文：
(1)疫情爆发期间最令你感动的人物或是群体；
(2)令你感动的理由；
(3)最想跟他/她或这个群体说的话。
注意：
(1)词数不少于120；
(2)可适当加入细节，使内容充实、行文连贯。
参考词汇：流行病；(迅速的)泛滥、蔓延epidemic
新型冠状病毒 novel corona-virus / Covid-19
A Touching Figure in My Heart
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阅读表达
Just like everyone, I have experienced ups and downs in my life. I am an aerospace engineer from India, I was told by my relatives, close friends and others that it was hard for a non-IT student to pursue a master's degree in IT and graduate from a US university.
I had never taken courses related to computers or programming. I was never interested in being a programmer, but things changed. I became so fascinated with the convenience IT has brought to our life that I made up my mind in chasing a master's degree in IT.
At first, I came across too many difficulties and setbacks. Coming from a middle-class family, the huge cost per credit was a big issue. My English accent was terrible. Most importantly, the course seemed impossible at first. Although I felt so discouraged and frustrated, I never thought of giving up.
Then I decided to choose my university because it promised its students to help them learn practically. During my first month, it was difficult to understand the Americans' accent and finish my assignments. But I never gave in. I walked two miles to the university every day so that I could use my travel money to buy a meal. I started looking for jobs and I got an offer to work as a student assistant, which meant lifting benches and chairs every day.
I took all these challenges as my chances, and I believed that hard work was my strength. Right now I am graduating with a GPA of 3.96/4 and a job offer from a multinational company that has asked me to start right after graduation.
When you have a dream to realize, there is nothing that can stop you. All you need is the diligence and persistence. Hard work always pays off. Having a determined will is also necessary.
1.Why did the author's family and friends say that it was hard for him to pursue a master's degree in IT? (no more than 8 words)
2.What does the underlined part in paragraph 2 mean? (no more than 5 words)
3.What is the main idea of paragraph 3? (no more than 10 words)
4.What made the author graduate with a higher GPA and a good job offer? (no more than 15 words)
5.How does the author's story inspire you? (no more than 25 words)
What is it about kids these days that makes older generations so easily angry? In some way or another, older generations have been disappointed at the youth's decline since the earliest days of civilization. Even Aristotle talked smack about how young folks thought they knew everything back in the 4th century BC.
So why do people throw all the shade on the next generation? A study out last month in Science Advances shows that negative opinions about kids aren't always based on their actions; it's more about how adults praise their past and current selves.
In the study, researchers looked at a trio of characteristics in three groups of US adults: respect for elders or authoritarianism（权威主义），intelligence, and enjoyment of reading. The team, led by John Protzko, a cognitive scientist at the University of California, Santa Barbara, asked the participants whether they thought kids in the modern age shared the same qualities. They found that adults who tested especially strong in one of the categories tended to see children today as weak in il. For example, if an adult got tagged or self-identified as intelligent, they were more likely to see "kids these days" as less intelligent than they used to be. This, Protzko thinks, is because they remembered their younger selves to be smarter, whether true or not. What's more, they only reserved their strong opinion for characteristics they related to.
In another stage of the study, the authors assigned random scores to participants to trick them into thinking how well-read they were. Many of the adults changed their opinions on kid's reading ability as a result, Protzko speculates that there are two reasons for the shift: How memories can go wrong and the lack of objective knowledge of what childhood is really like. "People who are high in a trail arc imposing（迫使）their current high standing in that trait back in time, thinking 'Oh this must have been what all kids were like,' " he says. Over the years, the same memory bias（偏见）keeps occurring, making it seem like kids arc somehow failing more and more. In fact, （he older a participant was, the more heavily this bias came into play, Protzko says.
While there's still a lot to learn about why adults might see younger generations as mediocre, this research can hint that an age-old phrase can boil down to one classic human trail： vanity（自负）.
―From Popular Science
1.What does the underlined phrase in the first paragraph mean?
A.Expressed his a flection for . B.Talked positively about.
C.Spoke ill of. D.Thought highly of.
2.What does a study published last month in Science Advances indicate?
A.Negative opinions about kids come from their ill behavior.
B.Adults always keeps their previous and present glories in mind.
C.Adults hold positive opinions about kids for their actions.
D.Kids are always blamed by adults who are more outstanding.
3.According to the study, why were adults more likely to consider "kids these days" as less intelligent?
A.Because adults got tagged or self-indentified as intelligent.
B.Because adults thought they themselves much smarter.
C.Because adults hold the view that kids were weaker than them.
D.Because adults only remembered their own strengths subjectively.
4.Which of the following statements may Protzko agree with?
A.Adults hold the bias that kids these days are failing.
B.Adults probably forgot all kids have the same characteristics.
C.That the same memory bias keeps occurring led to kid's failure.
D.The participants ignored the bias as they grew older.
5.What is the structure of the passage?
A.①②--③④⑤ B.①--②③④---⑤
C.①②③--④---⑤ D.①---②---③---④⑤
