【推荐1】As I stood in the return line and watched people, I became extremely impatient. My daughter had got four Barbie dolls and two identical Cabbage Patch Kids on Christmas, so I was eager to return toys that she didn’t need. Suddenly a strong idea came to me. I eyed the lady in front of me with three small girls on her leg. The family looked poor. The children were without coats, and they had dirty faces and hair. “You are ready to get out of here, aren’t you? Give her the things you want to return,” the still voice spoke. “Give them to her? These are mine. I’m not giving her my stuff,” I argued. I swallowed the urge that threatened to escape my lips when the voice spoke again. “Give her the toys.” I was familiar with the voice. I know I couldn’t argue with that voice.

I sighed and tapped the lady on the shoulder. “Ma’am,” I cleared my throat. She looked at me with kind, tired eyes surrounded by wrinkles. “Yes?” she asked. “Would your little girls like to have these toys?” I pointed to my basket full of returns. “Would your children like to have them?” She was speechless, and I swore that tears were about to well up in her eyes. “You’d be doing me a favor. I can’t stand in this line in a moment longer.” “You have no idea,” she shook her head. “You have no idea what that means to me.”

I started loading her basket as the excited girls watched. “Merry Christmas,” I said, “God bless you.” She replied as I nodded and exited the line. I didn’t want to go the Walmart that day, but I went. I didn’t want to give the lady my kid’s toys, but I did. Sometimes doing what we don’t want to do is exactly what we’re supposed to do.

1. The author decided to return some of the gifts because ________.

A．she wanted to get some money	B．her daughter needed money then
C．her daughter didn’t like them at all	D．all of them weren’t in need

2. When the author saw the woman and her three girls, she ________.

A．gladly helped them	B．didn’t want to help them
C．pretended not to know them	D．hesitated about whether to help them

3. The lady was speechless after hearing the author’s words because ________.

A．she was too surprised to say anything	B．she was too moved to say anything
C．she didn’t believe the author at first	D．she was considering the author’s words

4. Which of the following can be the best title for the passage?

A．A Poor Lady	B．Holiday Spirit
C．Giving Happiness	D．Holiday Shopping

【推荐2】As you grow older, you’ll be faced with some challenging decisions—like whether to cut class or try cigarettes. Making decisions on your own is hard enough, but when other people get involved and try to pressure you one way or another it can be even harder. People who are your age, like your classmates, are called peers. When they try to influence how you act, to get you to do something, it’s called peer pressure.
Peers can have a positive influence on each other. Maybe another student in your science class taught you an easy way to remember the planets in the solar system. Maybe you got others excited about your new favorite book, and now everyone’s reading it. These are examples of how peers positively influence each other.
Sometimes peers influence each other in negative ways. For example, a few kids in school might try to get you to cut class with them; your soccer friend might try to convince you to be mean to another player and never pass him the ball.
It is tough to be the only one who says “no” to peer pressure, but you can do it. Paying attention to your own feelings and beliefs about what is right and wrong can help you know the right thing to do.
You’ve probably had a parent or teacher advising you to “choose your friends wisely.” Peer pressure is a big reason why they say this. If you choose friends who don’t cut class, smoke cigarettes, or lie to their parents, then you probably won’t do these things either, even if other kids do.
If you continue to face peer pressure and you’re finding it difficult to handle, talk to someone you trust. Don’t feel guilty if you’ve made a mistake or two.
1. For whom is the passage most probably written?

A．Parents.	B．Teachers.
C．Students.	D．Doctors.

2. In the last three paragraphs, the author mainly_____.

A．explains why friendship is so important

B．shows how to make more good friends

C．discusses how peers influence us

D．gives advice on how to deal with peer pressure

3. Which of following may help handle peer pressure?

A．Spending more time with classmates.

B．Taking up more relaxing hobbies.

C．Choosing friends with no bad habits.

D．Helping others who are in trouble.

4. What is the topic of the passage?

A．Friendship.	B．Making decisions
C．Self-confidence	D．Peer pressure

【推荐3】We’ve all been there: those times you need to argue your point of view to someone who you know disagrees with you. You immediately go to your keyboard and start to type out that 280-character tweet, the Facebook reply, or a paragraphs-long email. Surely the reason, logic, and strong power of your written words will convince whoever it is who disagrees with you to see your point of view. But new research suggests a different idea.

That research was conducted by Juliana Schroeder, assistant professor of University of California, Berkeley, and her colleagues. In Schroeder^’s study of almost 300 people, participants were asked to watch, listen, and read arguments about subjects they agreed or disagreed with. They were asked to judge the character of the communicator and the quality of the argument. Schroeder’s team found that the participants who watched or listened to the communicator were less dismissive (抵触的)of their claims than when they read that communicator’s same argument.

The idea for her study came from a newspaper article about a politician. One of us read a speech that was printed in a newspaper from a politician with whom he strongly disagreed. The next week, he heard the exact same speech playing on a radio station. He was shocked by how different his reaction was toward the politician when he read the speech compared to when he heard it. When he read the statement, the politician seemed idiotic, but when he heard it spoken, the politician actually sounded reasonable.

So in the workplace, speaking to someone in person often involves nothing more than walking a few doors down to their office. And that’s exactly what you should do if you need to convince that boss or colleague of why your blueprint for the company or project is the right one.

Only as a last way should you try to communicate with someone who you disagree with over social media. Twitter’s limited text allowance and social media users’ short attention make arguing your point an uphill battle.

1. What’s the result of the research?

A．Written words are more logical and reasonable.

B．People prefer to communicate with key board.

C．When reading an argument, the participants were less dismissive than hearing it.

D．Oral, not written, communication works better.

2. Why is the politician mentioned in paragraph3?

A．To introduce the topic for discussion.

B．To summarize the previous paragraphs.

C．To explain why Schroeder conducted the research.

D．To introduce the politician’s speech.

3. What does the underlined word “idiotic’’in paragraph 3 mean?

A．Wise.

B．Practical.

C．Silly.

D．Special.

4. What can we infer from the last two paragraphs?

A．To persuade your boss, you need to walk to his office and leave a message.

B．It’s difficult to fully explain your points due to social media’s limitation.

C．Arguing over social media is more convenient than speaking in person.

D．Communicating with others over social media is encouraged.

【推荐1】Claude Monet, Pablo Picasso and Leonardo da Vinci ... the art world has never lacked talent. And now, a new painter is ready to join the list, although this one isn’t even human.

Next month, auction house(拍卖行) Christie’s Prints and Multiples will make history by offering the first piece of art created by artificial intelligence for sale. The painting is a portrait of a man called Edmond De Belamy, and is expected to be sold for up to $10,000 (69,000 yuan).

The work, which features a man with a mysterious look on his face, was created by software developed by the French art group Obvious. Laugero-Lasserre, an art collector from France, called the work “ridiculous and amazing at the same time”. This isn’t the first example of AI-produced artwork, as AI has already been used to write poems and compose songs. However, many people doubt whether it should be called art at all.

According to Russian writer Leo Tolstoy, art is about creating emotion. It’s “a means of … joining people together in the same feelings”, he once said.

So, if the emotion behind art is what makes the art, the ability to create and use tools is what makes human beings different from other species. And as a tool itself, the AI technology used to create the portrait is the result of a lot of effort made by several designers. Together, they “fed” the AI a huge collection of paintings from the 14th to the 18th centuries, until it was able to work out how to make similar paintings of its own.

The introduction of AI art could be the beginning of a new artistic movement. However, not everyone is ready to welcome these high-tech artists just yet.

1. Why are Monet, Picasso and da Vinci mentioned at the beginning of the passage?

A．To list world famous talented artists.	B．To introduce a new painter as great as them.
C．To show the prosperity of the art world.	D．To highlight the inhuman painter by contrast.

2. Why does the painting mentioned in Paragraph 2 gain special concern?

A．It’s the first AI-produced artwork for sale.

B．It’ll be auctioned in a famous auction house.

C．It’s the portrait of a man with mysterious look.

D．Its auction price is expected to be the highest.

3. Which of the following statement may Leo Tolstoy agree with?

A．AI technology is a tool for artistic creation.

B．AI is taught to express human emotions in art.

C．AI copied paintings of the14th-18th centuries.

D．AI art joins people together in the same feelings.

4. What might be the future of the new artistic movement?

A．Popular.

B．Unclear.

C．Predictable.

D．Unacceptable.

【推荐2】Adding math talk to story time at home is a winning factor for children's math achievement, according to a new research from the University of Chicago. The study from psychologists Sian Beilock and Susan Levine shows a marked increase in math achievement among children whose families used Bedtime Math, an iPad app that delivers engaging math story problems for parents and children to solve together.

Even children who used the app with their parents as little as once a week saw gains in math achievement by the end of the school year. The app's effect was especially strong for children whose parents tend to be anxious or uncomfortable with math.

Previous research from this group has demonstrated the importance of adults' attitudes about math for children's math success. For example, a recent study found that math-anxious parents who help their children with math homework actually weaken their children's math achievement.

The new findings demonstrate that structured, positive interactions around math at home can cut the link between parents' uneasiness about math and children's low math achievement.

"Many people experience high levels of anxiety when they have to solve a math problem, with a majority of adults feeling at least some worries about math," said Beilock, professor in Psychology and author of Choke, a book about stress and performance. "These math-anxious parents are probably less likely to talk about math at home, which affects how competent their children are in math. Bedtime Math encourages a dialogue between parents and kids about math, and offers a way to engage in high-quality math interactions in a low-effort, high-impact way."

Study participants included 587 first-grade students and their parents. Families were given an iPad installed with a version of the Bedtime Math app, with which parents and their children read stories and answer questions involving math, including topics like counting, shapes and problem-solving. A control group received a reading app that had similar stories without the math content and questions related to reading comprehension instead. Children's math achievement was assessed at the beginning and end of the school year. Parents completed a questionnaire about their nervousness with math.

The more times parents and children in the math group used the app, the higher children's achievement on a math assessment at the end of the school year. Indeed, children who frequently used the math app with their parents outperformed similar students in the reading group by almost three months in math achievement at year's end.

1. Bedtime Math is an iPad app that ________.

A．requires parents and children to answer reading comprehension questions

B．assesses children's math achievement and parents' nervousness with math

C．encourages children together with their parents to solve math story problems

D．teaches children how to count, recognize shapes and solve practical problems

2. The previous study found that ________.

A．help from math-anxious parents improves children's math achievement

B．interactions around math at home will cut off the family relationship

C．children's math achievement is related to parents' attitude about math

D．children can achieve more success if they see the importance of math

3. We can infer from the passage that ________.

A．it is the math problems related to the stories that make the great difference

B．children whose parents are uneasy about math outperform other students

C．children using the app for three months can see gains in math achievement

D．the frequency of using the app has nothing to do with children's achievement

4. Which does the author want to tell us?

A．High-anxiety parents influence children's attitude about math.

B．Frequent use of app can develop problem- solving ability.

C．Low-effort activities create good parent-child relationship.

D．High-quality math interactions improve children's performance.

【推荐3】Choosing a name for a child is often a headache for parents, but new research shows that picking well could be more crucial than previously thought.

Academics have found that your first name actually changes the way you look. For example, someone called ‘Bob’ is expected by society to have a rounder and happier face than a man called ‘Tim’. That expectation eventually leads ‘Bobs’ to become more social, while ‘Tims’ may appear thinner and reserved. The connection may be linked to the “bouba-kiki” effect which suggests that across languages, rounder and smoother objects are labelled with rounded ‘bouba’ sounds, while thinner pointed objects have ‘kik’ sounds. Likewise ‘Winstons’ are believed to be feeling blue, while ‘Marys’ are considered to be moral, both traits which may change appearance, and over time, change face shape. And a woman named ‘Katherine’ is considered to be more serious and dependable than a girl named ‘Bonnie’. Such cultural expectations may encourage ‘Katherines’ to be more studious and academic, which could gradually influence the development of facial muscles, perhaps through increased concentration.

“Prior researches have shown there are cultural stereotypes attached to names, including how someone should look,” said lead author Dr Yonat Zwebner, of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. “For instance, people are more likely to imagine a person named Bob to have a rounder face than a person named Tim. We believe these stereotypes can, over time, affect people’s facial appearance.”

To find out if face shape was linked to name, researchers conducted eight studies to see whether it was possible for strangers to correctly identify the names of people simply by looking at their faces. In every experiment, the participants were significantly better (up to 40 percent accurate) at matching the name to the face than random chance (20-25 percent accurate) even when nationality, age and other socioeconomic variables were controlled for. “Together, these findings suggest that facial appearance represents social expectations of how a person with a particular name should look. In this way, a social tag may influence one’s facial appearance,” said co-author Dr Ruth Mayo.

1. What does the second paragraph mainly talk about?

A．How your name sounds simply counts.

B．Your name may tell how you look.

C．Social expectations determine your name.

D．It’s important to concentrate on facial muscles.

2. What can we learn from the eight studies?

A．Most of the participants match the name with the face correctly.

B．The findings are contradictory to those of the previous research.

C．They are based on the data from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

D．The findings are similar to those of the previous research.

3. According to Dr Ruth Mayo, one’s facial appearance is basically affected by ___________.

A．social expectations	B．the experience of their life
C．their parents’ preference	D．the meaning of their names

【推荐1】Gene therapy (基因治疗) is a revolutionary new technique for treating people with health problems. Up until very recently, the most commonly available methods for treating patients were either through drugs or operations. Gene therapy provides a third option for treatment by transforming or replacing cells with new genetic materials and instructions. Scientists can be very precise in the kinds of changes they make in patients.

Gene therapy works by using a delivery system, such as a virus, to enter a patient's body. Once inside the body, the virus combines with a host cell and delivers the new DNA. The proteins then begin to repair the affected cells. New techniques have focused on removing cells from the patients and transforming them outside the body before reintroducing them to the patients.

The two types of gene therapy are called somatic and germline. Somatic therapy refers to changing or replacing a body cell. In this case, the treatment is restricted to the patient only. This will not affect the patient's future children because the patient's germ (生殖) cells are unaffected. In germline therapy, the patient germ cells are treated, which may affect the patient's future generation.This is highly controversial (有争议的) because it is not clear exactly how this might affect them and further generations. For this reason, many countries have passed laws that prohibit this kind of treatment.

Despite the promise of gene therapy, there are still many barriers that need to be overcome before it comes into widespread use. One of the issues is that the use of viruses to deliver DNA may actually cause unexpected problems in patients if the virus grows and attacks the body. Another problem is the nature of many diseases is very complex and spread throughout multiple genes. The use of gene therapy to change a single gene in the body would probably not be sufficient as a cure. Finally, the costs of gene therapy are high. Some gene therapy procedures may cost over$1 million to undertake and require specialized doctors and equipment.

1. What does the underlined word ''them'' in paragraph 2 refer to?

A．Techniques.

B．Cells.

C．Patients.

D．Proteins.

2. What can we learn about gene therapy?

A．Gene therapy has been put into practice widely.

B．The cells of patients are developed in healthy people.

C．Viruses entering the body can mix with host cells and form new DNA.

D．Both somatic and germline therapy have side effects on later generations.

3. What's the last paragraph mainly about?

A．The disadvantages of gene therapy.

B．The promising future of gene therapy.

C．The high costs of treatment procedures.

D．The issues related to viruses and complex genes.

4. What can be a suitable title for the text?

A．Why Gene Therapy Procedures Are Extremely Expensive

B．Gene Therapy: A Dangerous New After-operation Treatment

C．Gene Therapy: A Contemporary Progressive Treating Method

D．Scientists Are Accurate in Performing the Categories of Surgery

【推荐2】Fire ants dig tunnels efficiently by only a small percentage of the group doing most of the work. Free-loaders just sit around while their hard-working colleagues get things done. But might freeloaders actually be necessary for society to function efficiently? The answer could be yes.

Fire ants are highly social organisms. So, Goldman, a physicist at Georgia Tech, and his colleagues wanted to know how individual ants knew what to do without a central leader issuing orders. To find out, Goldman's team labeled individual fire ants with paint and then watched them dig their narrow tunnels —barely wide enough for two workers. Turns out, just 30 percent of the ants did 70 percent of the labor. “I was surprised that we ended up with so few workers actually doing the work at any one time. ” A quarter of the ants never even entered the tunnel. Others crawled inside, but left without digging single grain of dirt. These idling behaviors ensured the tunnels did not get clogged with insect traffic, which would make the construction process stop.

And when the scientists removed the five hardest working ants from the colony, others immediately jumped in to compensate (补偿) — with no reduction in the group's productivity. It seems that it doesn’t matter which ants are working or freeloading at a given time, as long as there is some division of labor to keep the tunnels flowing smoothly. The findings are in the journal Science.

The study could have implications for robotics. Imagine groups of robots sent to search rubble (碎石) for disaster survivors. Or nanobots (纳米机器人) coursing through our bodies to diagnose illness and deliver targeted medical treatment. Such robot groups will need to avoid getting jammed up in tight spaces. It might be necessary to program them so some just sit back and watch their comrades work.

1. How do fire ants get the work done when digging tunnels?

A．Only the leaders do most of the work.

B．They all work under the order of one leader.

C．They all cooperate together to do the work efficiently.

D．Individual fire ants know their tasks and work efficiently.

2. The underlined word “clogged ” in the second paragraph can be replaced by _______.

A．crowded	B．transported
C．organized	D．covered

3. What will happen if the hardest-working ants are taken away?

A．The ants will have no idea what to do.

B．Other ants will take their place and do the work.

C．The tunnels will get blocked and the work will stop.

D．The leader will compensate them and give them food as the reward.

4. We can learn from the passage that _______.

A．fire ants are the most diligent insects.

B．scientists may diagnose illness more easily.

C．people may feel happy when they watch their colleagues do nothing.

D．scientists can deal with robotics better when coming to specific programs.

【推荐3】It is already known that dogs can use their highly developed sense of smell to search out drugs, and disaster survivors. Now, some are being trained to find a different kind of threat — a plant species (物种) that can harm the environment.

The plant is a yellow-flowered bush called Scotch broom. It is common in areas of America’s Pacific Northwest, but still fairly new to New York. And its rapid growth can also close off areas to wildlife. Officials are trying to stop the plant’s growth before it becomes widespread.

A 2010 study reported high success rates of dogs using their noses to search out invasive (入侵的) species. The study found that trained dogs could smell and find two times more invasive plants than humans could watch with their eyes. Joshua Beese, a dog handler with the Trail Conference group, said, “If we have to find all these plants ourselves, searching the grass for every tiny plant, it will take much longer. And we will still miss a lot, because hundreds of small plants like Scotch broom are largely hidden by other local plants’ growth.”

Another organization working on the problem is Working Dogs for Conservation. It tries to train dogs to protect wildlife and wild places, including invasive species work. The group has trained dogs in several states including Montana, Iowa, Colorado and Hawaii.

Human teams had tried for years to find and remove a destructive (破坏性的) plant in one area of Montana without much success. But after two trained dogs from Working Dogs for Conservation were brought in to help, the species nearly disappeared within a few years, because they could smell plants hidden among other species. That’s a game-changer. Each plant can set up to 15,000 seeds (种子) a year, and seeds can live for seven years in the soil. Dogs find plants before they flower and reproduce.

1. Why do New York officials try to stop Scotch broom’s growth?

A．They know little about the plant.

B．They cannot control the plant’s growth.

C．They find the plant harmful to the environment.

D．They want to see if their dogs are well trained.

2. What difficulty do humans have in finding invasive plants?

A．The number of the plants is too large.	B．They look too much like local plants.
C．It’s hard to train the dogs.	D．It’s not easy to see them.

3. How does the author feel about the solution to the problem of invasive plants?

A．Useful.

B．Doubtful.

C．Puzzled.

D．Surprised.

4. The organization Working Dogs for Conservation tries to train dogs to _______.
①protect wildlife                     ②protect wild places
③protect invasive species        ④search out invasive species

A．①②

B．①②③

C．①②④

D．①②③④

5. What is the best title for the text?

A．The ways to find invasive plants	B．The threat brought by invasive plants
C．Scotch broom spreading widely in New York	D．Dogs smelling out dangerous plant invaders

【推荐1】Japan’s biggest airline is betting that the future of travel isn’t traveling at all.

For the last month, a married couple has been interacting with a robot—called an Avatar—that’s controlled by their daughter hundreds of miles away. Made by ANA Holdings Inc., it looks like a vacuum cleaner (真空吸尘器) with an iPad attached. But the screen displays the daughter’s face as they chat, and its wheels let her move about the house as though she’s really there.

“Virtual travel” is nothing new, of course. Storytellers, travel writers and artists have been inspiring the senses of armchair tourists (足不出户的旅行者) for centuries. It’s only in recent decades that frequent, safe travel has become available to the non-wealthy.

Yet even as the worlds middle classes climb out of the armchair and into economy-class seats, there are hints of a post-travel society coming. Concerns about sustainability (可持续发展) are causing a loss to carbon-intensive airlines, which do harm to our environment. And the aging of wealthy societies is both limiting physical travel and creating demand for alternative ways to experience the world. For the travel industry, virtual reality offers an inviting response to these trends.

Of course, far-out technologies encourage far-out claims. ANA doesn’t plan to start selling Avatars until next year. Profits, too, will probably be a barrier. By one estimate, the global market for this kind of technology will be worth only about $300 million by 2023. By contrast, ANA’s traditional travel business brought in more than $19 billion last year.

But if the business case for virtual vacations is still weak, the market for technologies that bridge physical distances between families and coworkers seems likely to only expand. ANA’s robots may not replace its airplanes any time soon, but they’ll almost certainly be a part of travels high-tech future.

1. What do we know about Avatar?

A．It’ll take the place of ANA’s airplanes soon.

B．It s a kind of the latest vacuum cleaner.

C．It is invented by ANA Holdings Inc.

D．It’s on sale right now.

2. What prevents Avatars coming into market at present?

A．Lower Profits.	B．Aging society.
C．Physical distances between families.	D．Concerns about environment.

3. The writer s attitude towards future virtual travel is ________.

A．Critical.	B．Objective.
C．Doubtful.	D．Positive.

4. What’s the best title for the passage?

A．Difficulties for the armchair tourists

B．The coming trend of virtual vacation

C．Something about virtual reality

D．The popularity of Avatar

【推荐2】Years ago, when I started looking for my first job, wise advisers advised, “Barbara, be enthusiastic（热情的）! Enthusiasm will take you further than any amount of experience.” How right they were!

“Nothing great was ever done without enthusiasm,” wrote Ralph Waldo Emerson. It is the paste（浆糊） that helps you hang in there when the things get tough. It is the inner voice that tells you, “I can do it!” when others shout, “No, you can’t!” It took years and years for the early work of Barbara McClintock, a geneticist who won the 1983 Nobel Prize in medicine, to be generally accepted. Yet she didn’t stop working on her experiments.

We are all born with wide-eyed, enthusiastic wonder and it is the childlike wonder that gives enthusiastic people such youthful air, whatever their age. At 90, cellist Pablo Casals would start his day by playing the cello（大提琴）. As the music flowed through his fingers, his shoulders would straighten and joy would reappear in his eyes. As writer and poet Samuel Ullman once worte, “Years wrinkle(起皱纹) the skin, but to give up enthusiasm wrinkles the soul.”

Enthusiastic people also love what they do, not considering money or title or power. Patricia Mellratl, a retired director of the Missouri Rpertory Theater in Kansas City, was once asked where she got her enthusiasm. She replied, “My father, long ago, told me, ‘I never made any money until I stopped working for it.’”

We can’t afford to waste tears on “might-have-been”. We need to turn the tears into sweat as we go after “what-can-be”. We need to live each moment whole-heartedly, with all our senses finding pleasure in the sweet of a backyard garden, the simple picture of a six-year-old, and the beauty of a rainbow.

1. What is the passage mainly talking about?

A．Enthusiasm is more important than experience.

B．Enthusiasm can give people more success and fame

C．Enthusiastic people will never get old

D．Enthusiasm can make you succeed and enjoy life.

2. We can infer that enthusiasm is more important for a person especially when __________.

A．he is in trouble	B．he is getting old
C．he can do what he love	D．he has succeeded

3. The author mentions Pablo Casals in the third paragraph to show that ______.

A．enthusiasm can make people feel young

B．music can arouse people’s enthusiasm

C．enthusiasm can give people inspiration needed to succeed

D．enthusiasm can keep people healthy

4. How many examples are referred in the passage to show the importance of enthusiasm?

A．Three

B．Four

C．Five

D．Six

5. Which proverb(谚语) may the writer agree with according to the last paragraph?

A．A good beginning makes a good ending

B．Don’t cry over the spoiled milk

C．Love me, love my dog

D．All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy

【推荐3】Last night, I found my mother sit with her legs crossed on the sofa, looking through her iPhone with her glasses. This is not the first time I have caught her like this. My father once tapped (敲) away on his phone with a serious look on his face, saying the “I’ll be with you shortly” line. I have learned by now that this is to tell me to leave him alone for the next 10 minutes. Although they don’t like admitting it, both of my parents                    couldn’t go without their phones as I do.

Growing up, we are repeatedly reminded that we are those who prefer to text our friends in the same room rather than make eye contact with them. We are ruining the English language because we like using heart-eyes emojis (表情符号) instead of spelling it out. And even though I can recognize myself as a social media (媒体) addict, I think parents should at least consider that not only the young generation (代), but also they like phones.

I get upset when I receive the “I’ll be with you shortly” line from a parent. But, at the same time, leaving the room to wait until my father is finished with his “serious business” has now become the norm.

Whether you want to escape your noisy children for a while, or want to stay up late tapping through Twitter, all of these are common. But you should fully understand it. We—your children—know how addictive it can be and how difficult it is to turn it off. So before calling us out and telling us to “put our phones away at the table” or even worse, saying how damaging social media can be to us, maybe you should lead by example and consider how much time you spend on the phone as well as how this is influencing your children and your relationship with them. Maybe in this way we can work on our addiction together.

1. What can we learn about the author’s parents?

A．They become addicted to phones like him.

B．They’ve been forced to use phones by him.

C．They like buying their phones online at home.

D．They often communicate with him by phone.

2. What is the young generation’s weakness according to paragraph 2?

A．Having fewer chances to learn social skills.

B．Failing to express themselves in a right way.

C．Getting angry easily when facing their parents.

D．Giving up the ways of communicating directly.

3. What does the underlined word “norm” in paragraph 3 mean?

A．Fixed tradition.	B．Accepted behavior.
C．Expected decision.	D．Unforgettable experience.

4. What advice is given to parents in the last paragraph?

A．Behaving well in front of children.	B．Putting the phones away at the table.
C．Taking more time to stay with children.	D．Having good communication with children.