Parenting styles have shifted over the years with the rapid changes in the world. Nowadays parents generally spend more time in finding out how best to raise their child whether it’s through technology or tried-and-tested parenting practices.
With easy access to countless websites and social media groups interested in parenting, modern parents are capable of finding answers to their questions, from managing a baby’s cries to communicating with a moody teenager. This increased availability (可利用性) of resources has made parents more involved in their children’s academic, emotional, and social development. They are also more eager to find out effective parenting methods to help them raise well-behaved and confident children.
A modern parenting style that has appeared is helicopter parenting, where parents are too much focused on their children. They help children with tasks that children can do on their own, like selecting activities and friends for them, or calling their teachers about homework matters. Such a parenting style can stifle the development of the children’s ability to handle responsibilities independently. Children might be ill-equipped with life skills such as making the bed, clearing their plates or doing their schoolwork. Always protecting children from failures may also stop them from developing adaptability and gaining skills like problem-solving.
On the other hand, parents in the past tended to monitor less. Children were given more freedom to manage their schoolwork and choose the friends they want to play with. In some families, children of the past were often expected to shoulder the responsibilities of caring for younger brothers and sisters and managing housework. Living in the pre-Internet era, parents were less informed about different parenting methods, and their parenting styles were guided more by their personalities, common sense and friendly advice from their parents and neighbours, rather than by social media influences or parenting websites. There is no one right way to raise a child. Each child is unique and should be raised differently by parents who are present, but not wandering; who are supportive but not controlling; and who protect but not care too much.
1. How does the increased availability of resources influence parenting style?| A．It saves parents’ much time spent on children. |
| B．It makes parents more relaxed in raising children. |
| C．It encourages parents to be less strict with their children. |
| D．It enables parents to be more active in their children’s development. |
| A．Bring about. | B．Hold back. | C．Take down. | D．Set up. |
| A．They educated kids in a strict way. |
| B．They over-judged their kids’ independence. |
| C．They afforded kids more space for self-growth. |
| D．They tended to stay away from social activities. |
| A．How parents raise all-round children. |
| B．How people improve parent-child relationship. |
| C．How parenting modes have changed over the years. |
| D．How information technology affects people’s lifestyles. |
相似题推荐
【推荐1】Many people spend more than four hours per day on WeChat, and it is redefining the word “friend.” Does friending someone on social media make him or her your friend in real life?
Robin Dunbar, a professor at Oxford University, found that only 15, of the 150 Facebook friends the average user has, could be counted as actual friends and only five as close friends. WeChat may show a similar pattern.
Those, with whom you attended a course together, applied for the same part-time job, went to a party and intended to cooperate but failed, take up most of your WeChat friends. In chat records, the only message may be a system notice, “You have accepted somebody’s friend request”. Sometimes when seeing some photos shared on “Moments”, you even need several minutes to think about when you became friends. Also, you may be disturbed by mass messages sent from your unfamiliar “friends”, including requests for voting for their children or friends, links from Pinduoduo.com (a Chinese e-commerce platform that allows users to buy items at lower prices if they purchase in groups) and cookie-cutter blessings in holidays.
You would have thought about deleting this type of “friends” and sort out your connections. But actually you did not do that as you were taught that social networking is valuable to one’s success. Besides, it would be really awkward if they found that you have unfriended them already. Then, you keep increasing your “friends” in social media and click “like” on some pictures that you are not really interested. But the fact is that deep emotional connections do not come with the increasing number of your friends in social media.
If the number of your friends reaches 150, maintaining these relationships can be tough to you, and sometimes even will make you anxious. According to Robin Dunbar, 150 is the limit of the number of people with whom one can maintain stable social relationships.
1. What can we learn from Robin Dunbar’s finding in Paragraph 2?| A．A Facebook user has 250 friends on average. |
| B．Most of the social media friends can be actual friends. |
| C．Among our social media friends, only a few people matter. |
| D．Only 15 people of a person’s Facebook friends can be close friends. |
| A．You have deep communication with them. |
| B．You benefit a lot from their mass messages. |
| C．You just have a nodding acquaintance with them. |
| D．You become friends with them in important occasions. |
| A．We will be anxious if we make friends online. |
| B．We should avoid making any friends in social media. |
| C．We should make as many friends as possible in social media. |
| D．We have difficulty managing relationships with over 150 people. |
【推荐2】Artificial intelligence (AI) tools designed to operate at human levels have greatly expanded in popularity over the past year. These include OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Google’s Bard and Microsoft’s AI-powered search engine Bing. Such tools, also known as chatbots or generative AI, are computer-powered systems. They are designed to interact smoothly with humans and perform high-level writing and creative work.
In recent months, these tools have demonstrated an ability to produce high-quality work. This has led some technology experts to warn that generative AI systems could end up replacing workers in many industries.
This year, researchers at Harvard Business School and other organizations carried out an experiment. It aimed to test how well AI tools could help workers perform their usual duties or tasks. It involved more than 700 business advisors, called consultants, from Massachusetts-based Boston Consulting Group.
Harvard Business School recently published the results from the experiment in a working paper. The main findings suggest that AI tools like ChatGPT can greatly improve worker performance. For example, researchers found that, on average, workers who used OpenAI’s latest ChatGPT 4 tool completed 12 percent more tasks than non-ChatGPT users. Tasks carried out with help from the AI technology were completed 25 percent faster. And the team found the quality of work performed by consultants using ChatGPT 4 increased by about 40 percent.
However, the paper also noted areas where the performance of consultants using ChatGPT 4 dropped. The researchers said this was especially true with tasks the AI tool was not good at completing. “Of tasks the AI was good at, the experiment showed it significantly improved human performance,” the paper said. “But for tasks ChatGPT 4 was not right for, humans relied too much on the AI and were more likely to make mistakes.”
The team suggests one of the biggest barriers to companies effectively using AI is not knowing which tasks can be completed best with the technology. Finding this out will require businesses to carry out thoughtful research and training efforts in order to find the right mix of AI and human-level work.
1. What is a purpose of designing AI tools according to the text?| A．To perform low-level writing. | B．To replace technology experts. |
| C．To finish high-quality work. | D．To improve interpersonal communication. |
| A．To explain the disadvantages of AI tools. |
| B．To show how well AI tools could help workers. |
| C．To forecast changes in the future working environment. |
| D．To compare the work performance between humans and AI tools. |
| A．Companies need to balance the work of AI and humans. |
| B．It is useless to train so many workers to learn to use AI. |
| C．It is easy to find the right mix of AI and human-level work. |
| D．Research on using AI effectively has been made by businesses. |
| A．ChatGPT Can See, Hear and Speak Now |
| B．Ways to Improve Your Performance at Work |
| C．The Fast Development of Artificial Intelligence |
| D．AI Tools Help but also Harm Worker Performance |
【推荐3】Grandparents Answer a Call
As a third generation native of Brownsville, Texas, Mildred Garza never pleased move away. Even when her daughter and son asked her to move to San Antonio to help their children, she politely refused. Only after a year of friendly discussion did Ms. Gaf finally say yes. That was four years ago. Today all three generations regard the move to a success, giving them a closer relationship than they would have had in separate cities.
No statistics show the number of grandparents like Garza who are moving closer to the children and grandchildren. Yet there is evidence suggesting that the trend is growing. Even President Obama’s mother-in-law, Marian Robinson, has agreed to leave Chicago and into the White House to help care for her granddaughters. According to a study grandparents com. 83 percent of the people said Mrs. Robinson ‘s decision will influence the grandparents in the American family. Two-thirds believe more families will follow the example of Obama’s family.
“In the 1960s we were all a little wild and couldn’t get away from home far enough fast enough to prove we could do it on our own,” says Christine Crosby, publisher of Grate magazine for grandparents. We now realize how important family is and how important to be near them, especially when you’re raining children.”
Moving is not for everyone. Almost every grandparent wants to be with his or her grandchildren and is willing to make sacrifices, but sometimes it is wiser to say no and visit frequently instead. Having your grandchildren far away is hard, especially knowing your adult child is struggling, but giving up the life you know may be harder.
1. Why was Garza’s move a success?| A．It strengthened her family ties. |
| B．It improved her living conditions. |
| C．It enabled her make more friends. |
| D．It helped her know more new places. |
| A．17% expressed their support for it. |
| B．Few people responded sympathetically. |
| C．83% believed it had a bad influence. |
| D．The majority thought it was a trend. |
| A．They were unsure of raise more children. |
| B．They were eager to raise more children. |
| C．They wanted to live away from their parents. |
| D．They bad little respect for their grandparent. |
| A．Make decisions in the best interests’ of their own |
| B．Ask their children to pay more visits to them |
| C．Sacrifice for their struggling children |
| D．Get to know themselves better |
【推荐1】Plastic remains one of the most-used materials for making many of the things we use in our everyday lives. Things made of plastic can be very strong and last a long time. They also do well in extreme heat and cold. Plastic is also much lighter than metal and can easily be formed into different shapes. This makes the material ideal for countless uses across many different industries.
But the widespread use of plastics across the world is causing major problems for the environment. Plastic material is flooding landfills and causing severe damage in the world's oceans. Plastics can take hundreds of years to break down on their own. It has been estimated that even the most reusable kinds of plastic can only be recycled at a rate of 20 to 30 percent. Even when recycling is possible, the process is costly, can use a lot of energy and, in many cases, produces poor-quality materials.
But a team of researchers working at the U.S. Department of Energy says it has created a kind of plastic that could lead to products that are 100 percent recyclable. The team recently reported the discovery in a study in the journal Nature Chemistry. The researchers say the new material is a plastic polymer(聚合物)called polydiketoenamine, or PDK. The team reports that the material can be broken down in parts at the molecular(分子)level. It can then be built up again to form plastics of different shapes, textures, colors and more. The researchers say this process can be repeated over and over again—without the plastic material losing any performance or quality.
Brett Helms is a scientist who worked on the study. He said, "Then we would be able to more effectively divert(转移)plastic from landfills and the oceans." "This is an exciting time to start thinking about how to design both materials and recycling facilities to enable circular plastics," he added.
1. What is the feature of plastic according to Paragraph1?| A．Light and cold. | B．Easy to break down. |
| C．Firm and changeable. | D．Colorful and endurable. |
| A．Few are highly recycled. | B．They have quality problems. |
| C．They are environmentally friendly. | D．The process of recycling is cheap. |
| A．Doubtful. | B．Optimistic. |
| C．Indifferent. | D．Negative. |
| A．A science fiction. | B．A research plan. |
| C．A medical report. | D．A science magazine. |
【推荐2】If you have a high temperature or are recovering from heart surgery, it is difficult to be fully focused at work. Sick days are meant to prevent people from hurting themselves, their co-workers, or customers on the job. However, working from home has changed this logic.
The work-from-home revolution has raised the bar for what counts as being sick. At the height of the pandemic people worked from home even with serious symptoms such as fever, shortness of breath or nausea. Many still do. Nicholas Bloom of Stanford University has been tracking work- from-home habits since before the Covid-19 popularized them. In a recent working paper, he presents the results of a randomized controlled trial at a large multinational company, where sick days fell by 12% for employees working from home two days a week relative to those coming in full time.
To be in bed not doing anything means discomfort both physically and mentally. Salaried workers, who are often evaluated on the basis of their attendance, find it hard to call in sick for a few days now that they don’t need to worry about spreading germs in the office. For high-achievers, putting in the hours is not a chore but a way of life. As the economic recession (萧条) puts future job security into question, showing yourself to be useful becomes even more important.
Though all this is understandable, it is also troubling. Being even mildly sick can impair brain function. It is difficult to exercise proper judgment if one cannot focus on the task at hand. It is why people with lower oxygen concentration sometimes remove protective clothes atop Mount Everest; some freeze to death. Firing off emails while feeling dizzy will put the body under further stress. Soldiering on (硬挺) may make the employee both sicker and less productive for longer. Digital presenteeism (超时工作), for that is what such persisting amounts to, is in no one’s interest.
1. How has the work-from-home revolution affected employees?| A．It has heightened their enthusiasm. |
| B．It has made it harder to ask for sick leave. |
| C．It has popularized relevant studies. |
| D．It has improved their welfare. |
| A．Whether to take a sick or not is a random choice. |
| B．The Covid-19 has popularized work-from-home habits. |
| C．Those who work full time in office tend to get more sick leave. |
| D．Work-from-home habits mostly happen in big companies. |
| A．Endangering their current jobs. |
| B．Bringing germs to the office. |
| C．Failing to be high-achievers. |
| D．Feeling uncomfortable in bed. |
| A．The importance of staying healthy. |
| B．The future of flexible working habit. |
| C．The proper attitude towards taking a sick leave. |
| D．The benefits of working from home. |
【推荐3】Corsicana Middle School is now offering a new elective (选修科目), Outdoor Education, which covers several areas of learning. The course includes hunter and angler education, camping, survival skills and archery. The students recently got a visit from Captain Heath Butaud from the Corsicana Fire Department and learned more about putting out and preventing fires along with how to use a fire extinguisher. They then were allowed to put their knowledge to the test with a simulated (模拟的) fire on a screen and an extinguisher. These types of activities among the others mentioned all teach problem-solving skills to students which they can use for life-long learning.
The course began as an idea that CMS Principal Johnson came up with after spending time outside of work hunting. The class currently has 60 students and is a mix of those who have outdoor experience and those who don’t. “The course is really about the interaction,” Vice Principal Hervey said. “It doesn’t matter who is better or worse; everyone is at the same level, doing the same tasks.”
While the class does do several exciting activities and field trips, the meaning behind the course runs much deeper. “The idea is to get the kids outdoors,” Owen said. “The byproduct (副产品) of that has turned into working together, building new relationships and the feeling of fulfillment the course brings.” The learning and completion of new tasks such as cooking chicken and vegetables on an open flame, using a compass and more have allowed for the students to have more discipline, self-esteem and perform better overall academically.
As the program begins to grow, the ideas behind the basis of the course have stayed the same. “We want to have the ideal that there are no racial, physical, gender or socioeconomic boundaries,” Hervey said. “Students can therefore enjoy an equal opportunity to participate and become engaged in extracurricular activities.”
1. What’s the purpose of offering the students a new elective?| A．To acquire problem-solving skills. | B．To train them to be future firemen. |
| C．To apply knowledge to their exams. | D．To obtain more methods of learning. |
| A．Adapting quickly to technology. | B．Experiencing exciting activities. |
| C．Improving cooperative abilities. | D．Surviving some sudden illnesses. |
| A．The program proves ideal. | B．Social inequality still exists. |
| C．Self-discipline means success. | D．The program needs promoting. |
| A．An education magazine. | B．A business analysis. |
| C．An economic report. | D．A science fiction. |
【推荐1】Two and a half millennia ago, Socrates complained that writing would harm students. With a way to store ideas permanently and externally, they would no longer need to memorize. However, studies today have found that writing on paper can improve everything from recalling a random series of words to better understanding complex concepts.
For learning material by repetition, the benefits of using a pen or pencil lie in how the motor and sensory memory of putting words on paper reinforces that material. The scribbling (涂鸦) on a page feeds into visual memory: people might remember a word they wrote down in French class as being at the bottom-left on a page.
One of the best-demonstrated advantages of writing by hand seems to be in note-taking. Students typing on computers wrote down almost twice as many words directly from lectures, suggesting they were not understanding so much as rapidly copying the material. However, handwriting forces note-takers to process and organize ideas into their own words. This aids conceptual understanding at the moment of writing, resulting in better performance on tests.
Many studies have confirmed handwriting’s benefits, and policymakers have taken note. Though America’s curriculum from 2010 does not require handwriting instruction past first grade (roughly age six), about half the states since then have required more teaching of it. In Sweden there is a push for more handwriting and printed books and fewer devices. England’s national curriculum already includes the teaching of basic cursive writing (连写体) skills by age seven.
However, several school systems in America have gone so far as to ban most laptops. This is too extreme. Some students have disabilities that make handwriting especially hard. Nearly all will eventually need typing skills. Virginia Berninger, professor of psychology at the University of Washington, is a longtime advocate of handwriting. But she is not a purist; she says there are research tested benefits for “manuscript” print-style writing but also for typing.
Socrates may or may not have had a point about the downsides of writing. But no one would remember, much less care, if his student Plato had not noted it down for the benefit of future generations.
1. According to the text, why does writing on paper have benefits for learning?| A．It provides visual enjoyment in class. |
| B．It improves the effect of memorization. |
| C．It promotes the motor and sensory ability. |
| D．It helps to remember the information forever. |
| A．By giving examples. | B．By providing statistics. |
| C．By making comparisons. | D．By making classification. |
| A．Difficulties faced by the disabled. |
| B．Unreasonableness of forbidding typing. |
| C．The research-tested benefits of typing. |
| D．The longtime advocacy for handwriting. |
| A．To thank Plato for his efforts. |
| B．To defend Socrates’ point of view. |
| C．To show people’s indifference to typing. |
| D．To confirm the importance of handwriting. |
【推荐2】There’s no doubt that language in all its richness — written,spoken,sung or read aloud — plays a crucial role in our early development. It has become increasingly common to begin teaching children literacy(读写能力)skills at an early age. The thinking often goes that starting early gives children more time to learn and get ahead.
However,many studies show little benefit from an early overly-academic environment. Children who attend academically focused preschools do not have higher academic abilities in later grades than those who did not,several studies now show. Too much academic pressure may even cause problems in the long run. A study published in January 2022 suggested those who attended preschools with a strong academic emphasis,showed lower academic achievements a few years later,compared to those who didn’t.
Anna Cunningham,a senior lecturer in psychology at Nottingham Trent University who studies early literacy,argues that if a setting is too academically focused early on,it can cause the teachers to become stressed over tests and results,which can in turn affect the kids. “Academic requirements early on don’t end up being meaningful. Children end up memorizing rather than understanding context,”adds Anna.
In many countries,formal schooling starts at 4. But not everyone favors an early start. In Finland,often known as the country with one of the best education systems in the world,children begin school at seven. Despite a later start,Finnish students score higher in reading comprehension than students from the UK at age 15. Besides,the Finnish kindergarten years are filled with more play and no formal academic instruction.
Research also found that later readers catch up — even are slightly better than the early readers in comprehension abilities. Learning later allows children to more efficiently match their knowledge of the world to the words they learn. So our craze with early literacy appears to be somewhat unfounded.
1. What might supporters for an early start agree with?| A．Early start gives an advantage. |
| B．Early reading makes perfect kids. |
| C．Children are more sensitive to language. |
| D．Literacy skills are good for early development. |
| A．Memorizing textbooks. |
| B．Knowing more than the surface. |
| C．Focusing on test results. |
| D．Reading aloud in the morning. |
| A．To praise Finland’s education. |
| B．To criticize the UK’s education. |
| C．To show a way to improve reading. |
| D．To prove the benefit of a later start. |
| A．Later readers — Harder to catch up |
| B．Earlier readers — Not necessarily better |
| C．No rush — The later to begin,the better |
| D．Learning to read — The secret to getting ahead |
【推荐3】Do you remember what it was like to be a kid?
Sometimes kids listen to the instructions and sometimes they don’t. And when they don’t, that can be very frustrating for parents.
The idea is simple. For at least 5 minutes a day, sit down with your child and join them in an activity. That includes drawing, playing with dolls, building blocks — anything that doesn’t have a right or wrong way to play (like video games).
This kind of playtime can be helpful in treating behavior in children who like destroying things. According to a 2022 review of literature, parent-child interaction therapy — which includes special time — has long been regarded as an “effective intervention for plenty of emotional and behavioral difficulties” since it was developed in the 1970s.
| A．Make it a special time to remember. |
| B．Don’t ask questions or give commands. |
| C．So how can parents get their kids to obey? |
| D．So much of the day was directed by adults. |
| E．Playtime is a period of time when children can play outside. |
| F．And it’s been shown to boost attention spans and social skills in children. |
| G．Special time increases opportunities for closeness between a parent and child. |
