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 lend me the money, but _______, “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 _______ it takes you 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 ________ paying my sister for a month. After another month, I forgot about the loan.
Several months later, on Christmas morning, my sister and I each found a $20 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 ________ your debt.”
“Huh?” Then I ________ the loan. “Hey! How can it be that much? I only borrowed $10.”
“True,” she said, “but interest has been compounding for eight months. Now you owe me $21.43.” She paused, and then, smiling triumphantly, said, “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 ________.
My head ________ as I tried to keep track of Kathleen’s calculations, but this time, I got the basic ________of compound interest. I learned from this ________experience that borrowing money could be “double trouble” in no time.
1.A.begging B.blaming C.searching D.preparing
2.A.suggested B.swore C.explained D.added
3.A.month B.year C.week D.day
4.A.little B.extra C.enough D.same
5.A.shorter B.more C.longer D.less
6.A.cash B.debt C.note D.saving
7.A.total B.cost C.number D.bill
8.A.encouraged B.shocked C.satisfied D.confused
9.A.Gradually B.Obviously C.Hopefully D.Unfortunately
10.A.seriously B.desperately C.secretly D.willingly
11.A.decided on B.put off C.gave away D.cared about
12.A.after B.until C.while D.when
13.A.carrying B.relying C.collecting D.focusing
14.A.neglected B.complained C.stated D.remembered
15.A.decided B.pretended C.refused D.managed
16.A.relief B.delight C.annoyance D.regret
17.A.added up B.showed up C.turned up D.sped up
18.A.turned B.hurt C.stuck D.nodded
19.A.idea B.lesson C.benefit D.discovery
20.A.unfair B.worthless C.painful D.decisive
In today’s fast-paced world, busy lifestyle easily puts stress on relationships. Disappointment is a fact of life. Sometimes other people will unavoidably disappoint you or let you down. 1. But you don’t have to let it prevent you living a happy and successful life. The tips below can help you recover from the hurt or anger.
Allow your feelings. 2. Don’t try to hide them, because it’s natural to feel disappointed when the people you trust don’t come through for you. Putting the feelings into words can help.
Figure out why you feel let down or betrayed. 3. Do you need understanding, support, commitment or consideration? Let yourself feel the disappointment of the unmet need and then accept it or come up with ways you can meet the unmet need for yourself.
4. Think about whether it would be useful to speak up about your feelings of disappointment or betrayal. If you decide to speak up, think about how you could do so mindfully rather than with angry reactions that can make things worse.
Set boundaries if you need to. If you’ve spoken up clearly and the person still doesn’t take responsibility or change his / her behavior, how can you best take care of yourself? 5. Boundaries can help you feel emotionally safe, and they help restore your self-respect.
A.Decide if you need to speak up.
B.You can’t stop people from letting you down.
C.Learn to be your own supporter and best friend.
D.Decide if this is someone you still want in your life.
E.Feeling refused or betrayed can cause sadness, anxiety or anger.
F.If you need practical help, consider turning to your parents or friends.
G.Think about what needs of yours aren’t being met by this person’s response.
Imagine you are 10 years old. You live in a big city and want to visit your best friend, a five-minute walk away, and then you can go to the park, another 10 minutes’ walk. The problem is that there’s a big dangerous road between you and your friend, and another between your friend’s home and the park. When you ask your parents if you can walk there, they say no. But they are too busy to take you there themselves.
Instead, you have a video conversation with your friend, or perhaps you play a video game on the sofa. You’ve lost out on exercise and time outside, interacting with your neighborhood and, of course, play time with your friend. This is the reality for many kids today - but it doesn’t have to be this way.
Tim Gill, the author of Urban Children: Growing Up in a Risky Society, says a child-friendly city is one that allows “everyday freedom”, so children can spread their wings as they grow. “It’s not enough to just talk about playgrounds and nice, pretty public spaces. That just creates play places they have to be taken to by adults,” says Gill.
“Society’s mistake is that our planning systems just focus on cars, house-building and the economy - rather than the environment, health and quality of life,” argues Gill, “You won’t find any urban planners who can disagree with that. It’s because our decision-makers fail to look beyond the next two or three years.”
Tim Gill lists five challenges for urban children in his book: traffic and pollution, high-rise living, crime and social fears, inadequate and unequal access to the city.
Designing cities with young people in mind - particularly outdoor spaces that encourage safe movement and social interaction - stands to be an issue of growing concern globally. By 2050, around 70 percent of people will live in cities, and the majority of them will be under 18. Today, over a billion children are growing up in cities.
1.Why does the author make an assumption in the first paragraph?
A.To show his doubts. B.To give an example.
C.To present the issue. D.To express his opinion.
2.What problem does the author want to raise about urban children?
A.They have few friends.
B.They spend much time on videos.
C.They are unhealthy for lack of exercise.
D.They lose “freedom” because of the risky society.
3.What does the underlined word “that” in Paragraph 4 refer to?
A.Low quality of life. B.Lack of public spaces.
C.Improper city planning. D.Criticism on city planners.
4.What would be the best title for the text?
A.Paying attention to young children B.The call for a child-friendly city
C.Challenges for urban children D.Problems in modern cities
When you look in the mirror, you see yourself. That puts you in the company of animals like dolphins, elephants and chimpanzees. The mirror test is often used as a way of measuring whether animals have self-awareness. And an animal that is aware of itself has a high level of intelligence. Now, a species of fish - the cleaner wrasse - has also spotted its reflection.
Alex Jordan, a biologist at the Max Planck Institute in Germany, is one of the researchers of the study on cleaner wrasse consciousness. He and his team conducted many tests that show the fish does seem to recognize its reflection - when the researchers added a colored mark to its body, the fish would even try to remove the mark upon catching sight of it in the mirror. It seems to indicate the clever fish species has some sense of self or individuality.
But Jordan said, “I’m the last to say that the cleaner wrasse is as smart as chimpanzees.” Instead, he believes that the measure scientists have used for nearly 50 years is imperfect.
One problem with the test, for example, is that it uses vision to measure self-awareness. Yet not all animals rely on sight to recognize themselves. It may well be that a bat, for example, which depends on sonar (声波定位) to get around, is self-conscious. Elephants, while able to pass the mirror test, rely more heavily on smell than on sight.
Consciousness in humans or animals is not easy to measure or understand. Philosophers and scientists have long wrestled with the questions of how a sense of self is assessed, and how it relates to physical processes. Jordan believes the cleaner wrasse is self-cognizant (自我知晓的), but not the same extent (程度) as a human. This means scientists need to reconsider whether some concepts centered on humans can be used in understanding animals.
1.The study on the cleaner wrasse made Alex Jordan .
A.doubt whether the mirror test is reliable
B.discover the secret about the fish’s sight
C.develop a better method to replace the mirror test
D.believe the cleaner wrasse is as smart as chimpanzees
2.Which of the following can replace the underlined part “wrestled with” ?
A.Presented with. B.Ended with.
C.Agreed with. D.Struggled with.
3.What can we learn from the text?
A.It is relatively easy to test animals' consciousness.
B.Some concepts for humans can’t be applied to animals.
C.Animals rely on at least two senses to get to know themselves.
D.More mirror tests are needed to prove the cleaner wrasse is self-aware.
When I reached inside the floorboard, my hand touched what felt like a book. I pulled it out. It was an old and small book: Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations. I wondered whom the quotations (引语) were supposed to be familiar to. What I did know, thanks to Ms. Rattray, my seventh-grade teacher, was the correct way to use quotation marks. I decided to see what was inside this little book.
On the top corners of each page was a word or phrase, I opened it to “comfort and despair” and then “doubt” and “light”. I’d never thought about “light” any other way except as a lamp or daylight. It turned out that Mr Bartlett didn’t feel all these emotions himself. He had gathered up quotations from thousands of other people.
I was relieved to discover that those people were not afraid to express what they thought, including the fears and that they had so many thoughts about things that troubled me. Before this, I was lonely and I didn’t know whom talk to about the world and my role in it.
In ninth grade, I worked as an assistant at our local library. I often hid in the comer, where no one would see me, and I would read. It was at this library that I realized how some of those emotions I’d felt while reading Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations came to life in the characters I had started discovering in novels.
I have bought a few of the newer editions, but the original one is the one that helped me explore my inner self and see more than young mind and heart were able to understand.
1.How might the author feel when he found the book by chance?
A.Curious. B.Familiar. C.Thankful. D.Puzzled
2.What does Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations mainly include?
A.Bartlett’s real personal feelings.
B.Thoughts of thousands of people.
C.Emotional stories of other people.
D.A representative word collection.
3.What do we know about the author in ninth grade?
A.He found time to read Bartlett’s books again.
B.He volunteered to work as a school librarian.
C.He vividly understood the characters’ feelings.
D.He learned to analyze Bartlett’s life in depth.
听下面一段独白，回答以下小题。
1.What did Bill often request the speaker to do?
A.To clean the room.
B.To share the homework.
C.To discuss their study.
2.Why does the speaker like his job?
A.He can help others.
B.He can get a high salary.
C.He can work in his hometown.
3.What do we know about the speaker and Bill?
A.Their friendship has ended up.
B.They still have a lot in common.
C.Different ways of living have changed their relationship.
