【推荐1】iOS 10 The world’s most advanced mobile operating system.

Easy to Use

From the moment you pick up your iOS device, you’re up and running. Tap your favorite app and get right to work or play. Swipe from the right side of the Lock screen to quickly pull up your camera. Scroll through thousands of photos in seconds. Everything about iOS is designed to look beautiful and work beautifully.

So smooth and responsive you won’t even notice it. And that’s the point.

Because iOS is engineered specifically for iPhone and iPad, everything looks and feels incredibly fluid. iOS uses a framework called Metal to maximize graphics performance. Whether you’re surfing the web, moving from app to app, or playing the most complex 3D video game, the graphics and responsiveness are amazingly smooth. No other mobile operating system is so effortless and natural.

An OS with a remarkably high IQ.

With sophisticated features like proactive(积极主动的) suggestions, predictive typing, and everybody’s favorite personal assistant, Siri, iOS 10 makes everything you do easier, quicker, and more fun.

Nobody understands you quite like Siri.

Siri learns how you talk, not the other way around. Thanks to Apple-developed machine-learning technology, you can simply speak naturally. So whether you say “Get a Lyft to SFO” or “I’d like a ride to SFO using Lyft,” Siri will read you loud and clear.

Siri even works with your favorite apps.

You can ask Siri to send someone a payment using Square Cash, book a reservation through OpenTable, and much more. And the number of apps incorporating Siri is growing every day.

1. Instead of the complicated procedures of starting a camera on an iPhone, you can easily ________.

A．start the camera by tapping the right side of the screen

B．start the camera from the Lock screen

C．start the camera by tapping the app from the Lock screen

D．start the camera by scrolling thousands of photos in seconds

2. According to the passage, “Metal” is ______.

A．an app which helps you surf the web

B．a framework which helps everything look more beautiful

C．something that can promote the graphic performance

D．an app helping play the most complex 3D video games

3. According to the passage, you can easily complete a payment on an iPhone by ____.

A．Square Cash	B．Siri
C．Opentable	D．apps developed only by Apple

【推荐2】Kids nowadays have computers in the classroom, more than one television in their homes, and pads in their backpacks. It seems impossible to separate them from digital equipment.     1     Establish rules around screen time early on. Before giving your child their first smartphone, make sure that both you and   your child   learn   about digital   responsibility, signs of cyberbullying (网络暴力) and coping ways.       2    Basic, but important ones, can include not responding to texts from unknown numbers and never sharing their personal information online or with anyone they don’t know.

    3     When establishing   contracts and limits on   technology   with   your child,   remember they will feel more willing to follow rules when you do, too. Telling your child to avoid screens if you are constantly attached to one is likely to result in tension and frustration. As a parent, it’s important to be a good role model for your child, not only with regards to technology but within everyday life.

Stress the value of physical play. I understand that we can’t keep children from enjoying screen time.    4     Try to replace screen time with physical activity, and even reward your child with items they enjoy if they reduce their time on digital devices.    5    

A．Lead by example.

B．As a result, their study and health suffer.

C．Make a rule for the whole family to agree to.

D．But we can find a happy medium where we enable kids to be kids.

E．Here, as a father of four, I’d like to share my thoughts with parents.

F．This shared information helps your child fully understand and respect rules.

G．In this way, they rely less on technology and seek happiness from creative play.

【推荐3】The joy of absence

How some companies fight the curse of presenteeism (出勤主义)?

RONALD REAGAN famously joked that “it’s true hard work never killed anybody, but I figure, why take the chance?” Beyond a certain level, extra effort seems to be self-defeating. Studies suggest that, after around 50 hours a week, employee productivity declines sharply.

But that doesn’t stop some managers from demanding that workers stay chained to their desk for long periods. Jack Ma, the founder of Alibaba, the Chinese e-commerce group, recently praised the 996 model, where employees work from 9a.m. to 9p.m., six days a week, as a “great opportunity”. Yet presenteeism is the curse of the modern office worker.

There will be days when you do not have much to do; perhaps because you are waiting for someone else in a different department, or a different company, to respond to a request. As the clock ticks past 5p.m., there may be no purpose in staying at your desk. But you can see your boss hard at work and, more importantly, they can see you. So you make an effort to look busy.

The consequence is often wasted effort. Rather than work hard, you slave to make bosses think that you are. But presenteeism has more serious consequences. As well as reduced productivity, this can mean greater medical expenses for the employer. According to a study in the Journal of Occupation and Environmental Medicine, these costs can be six times higher for employers than the costs of absenteeism among workers.

None of this is to say that employers are not called to expect workers to be in the office for a proper period of time. Surely there will be a need for some (preferably short) meetings. Dealing with colleagues face-to-face creates a feeling of togetherness, allows for a useful exchange of ideas and enables workers to have a better sense of their mutual needs.

Turning an office into a prison, with inmates (囚犯) allowed home for the evenings, does nothing for creativity that is increasingly demanded of office workers as routine tasks are automated. To be productive you need presence of mind, not being present in the flesh.

1. Why does the author mention Ronald Reagan’s joke in Para. 1?

A．To encourage people to grasp the chance to work hard.

B．To show that hard work is harmless.

C．To introduce the topic of the passage.

D．To praise Ronald Reagan’s accomplished joking skills.

2. What is the meaning of the underlined sentence?

A．Extra effort causes problems or difficulties.

B．With extra effort, we can defeat anybody.

C．We should say no to extra effort.

D．Extra effort isn’t necessarily helpful.

3. According to the passage, which of the following situation is helpful to the company?

A．Your team has a ten-minute meeting after work for an urgent problem.

B．You don’t go home until 7:30 p.m. because your boss is in his office and he can see you.

C．The manager tours the engineering department at 7:30 p.m. to check people are at their desks.

D．You attend the office even when you suffer lower back pain.

4. Which of the following opinions agrees with the passage?

A．Some managers expect workers tie themselves up with a chain to their desks.

B．Reduced productivity can mean greater medical expenses for the employer.

C．With growing demand of creativity on office workers, a prison-like office is not a wise option.

D．Presence of mind guarantees your productivity.

【推荐1】Many people count on faster, cheaper and better technology to offer a vision of a brighter future. Nevertheless, as the 2020s dawn, optimism is in short supply. The new technologies that dominated the past decade seem to be making matters worse. Social media were supposed to bring people together, but they are better known for leaking privacy. E-commerce, ride-hailing and the gig economy (零工经济) may be convenient, but they are charged with underpaying workers, worsening inequality and blocking the streets with vehicles.

Today’s pessimistic mood is centered on smart phones and social media, which took off a decade ago. Yet concerns that particular technologies might be doing more harm than good have arisen before. The 1920s witnessed a criticism against cars, which had earlier been seen as an answer to the problems caused by horse-drawn vehicles which filled the streets with noise and animal waste and caused accidents. And industrialization was criticized in the 19th century by Romantics who worried about the replacement of skilled workers, the robbing of the countryside and the suffering of factory hands.

However, that pessimism can be overdone. Too often people focus on the drawbacks of a new technology while taking its benefits for granted. Worries about screen time should be weighed against the much more substantial benefits of convenient communication and the instant access to information and entertainment that smartphones make possible. A further danger is that Luddite (反对技术进步者) efforts to avoid the short-term costs associated with a new technology will end up denying access to its long-term benefits—something Carl Benedikt Frey, an Oxford academic, calls a “technology trap”. Fears that robots will steal people’s jobs may discourage their use. Yet in the long run countries that wish to maintain their standard of living as their workforce ages and shrinks will need more robots, not fewer.

Any powerful technology can be used for good or ill. It is the choices people make about it that shape the world. Perhaps the real source of anxiety is not technology itself, but growing doubts about the ability of societies to hold this debate, and come up with good answers. So as the decade turns, put aside the pessimism for a moment. To be alive in the tech-obsessed 2020s is to be among the luckiest people who have ever lived.

1. According to the passage, which of the following is a problem caused by new technologies?

A．Endless hacking.	B．Network viruses.
C．Convenient communication.	D．Leaking privacy.

2. Which word can best describe Romantics’ concern over industrialization?

A．Negative.

B．Uncertain.

C．Sympathetic.

D．Enthusiastic.

3. What might be a result of a “technology trap”?

A．A lack of good jobs in the job market.

B．An increase in the number of Luddites.

C．A decrease in the number of skilled workers.

D．An interruption to the advancement of a new technology.

4. What can we know from the passage?

A．Man is blessed to live in the 2020s with high tech advancing fast despite some drawbacks.

B．All the people object to the progress technology brings because it harms our civilization.

C．The 2020s is the Age of Technology and mankind is suffering a lot due to its influence.

D．Humans completely depend on our future caretakers—robots.

【推荐2】People’s distrust of scientists arises partly from the blurring (模糊的) of boundaries between science and technology, between discovery and manufacture. Most governments, perhaps all governments, justify public expenses on scientific research in terms of the economic benefits the scientific business has brought in the past and will bring in the future. Politicians remind their voters of the splendid machines “our scientists” have invented, the new drugs to relieve old disorders, and the new surgical equipment and techniques by which previously unmanageable conditions may now be treated and lives saved. At the same time, the politicians demand of scientists that they tailor their research to “economics needs”, and that they award a higher priority to research proposals that are “near the market” and can be translated into the greatest return on investment in the shortest time. Dependent, as they are, on politicians for much of their funding, scientists have little choice but to obey. Like the rest of us, they are members of a society that rates the creation of wealth as the greatest possible good. Many have reservations, but keep them to themselves in what they regard as a climate unfavourable to the pursuit of understanding for its own sake and the idea of an inquiring, creative spirit.

In such circumstances no one should be too hard on people who are suspicious of conflicts of interest. When we learn that the distinguished professor assuring us of the safety of a particular product holds a consultancy (顾问工作) with the company making it, we cannot be blamed for wondering whether his fee might cloud his professional judgment. Even if the professor holds no consultancy with any firm, some people may still distrust him because of his association with those who do, or at least wonder about the source of some of his research funding.

This attitude can have damaging effects. It questions the integrity (诚实正直) of individuals working in a profession that prizes intellectual honesty as the supreme virtue, and plays into the hands of those who would like to discredit scientists by representing them as corruptible (腐败的). This makes it easier to dismiss all scientific pronouncements (声明), but especially those made by the scientists who present themselves as “experts”. The scientist most likely to understand the safety of a nuclear reactor, for example, is a nuclear engineer, and a nuclear engineer is most likely to be employed by the nuclear industry. If a nuclear engineer declares that a reactor is unsafe, we believe him, because clearly it is not to his advantage to lie about it. If he tells us it is safe, on the other hand, we distrust him, because he may well be protecting the employer who pays his salary.

1. What is the chief concern of most governments when it comes to scientific research?

A．Quick economic returns.	B．Support from the voters.
C．The reduction of public expenses.	D．The budget for a research project.

2. Scientist have to adapt their research to “economic needs” in order to ______.

A．translate knowledge into wealth	B．impress the public with their achievements
C．pursue knowledge for knowledge’s sake	D．obtain funding from the government

3. According to the author, people are suspicious of the professional judgment of scientists because ______.

A．some of them do not give priority to intellectual honesty

B．they could be influenced by their association with the project concerned

C．their pronouncements often turn out to be wrong

D．sometimes they hide the source of their research funding

4. Why does the author say that public distrust of scientists can have damaging effects?

A．Scientists themselves may doubt the value of their research findings.

B．It makes things difficult for scientists to seek research funds.

C．People will not believe scientists even when they tell the truth.

D．It may wear out the enthusiasm of scientists for independent research.

【推荐3】Many kids help out around the house with chores (家庭杂务) such as emptying a dishwasher, putting dry clothes away, and taking out trash. In exchange, some kids get allowances or other rewards such as extra computer time.

But some people do not think that kids should get rewards for doing chores. Susie Walton, a parenting educator and family coach, believes that by rewarding kids, parents are sending a message that work isn’t worth doing unless they get something in return. “Running any kind of household is a team effort,” Susie said. “A home is a living space for everyone in the family. It’s important for kids to see that they all have responsibilities in the house, and that a family decides together how they want their home to look, and how they are going to keep it looking like everyone wants it to look.”

Other people believe that getting a cash allowance or other rewards encourages kids to do chores, and it also teaches them real-world lessons about how we need to work to earn money. There are also new applications that give kids points and digital gifts that can be redeemed (兑取) either online or in the real world. With the ChoreMonster app, kids earn digital points by completing chores that they can turn in (提交) for real-life rewards such as extra Xbox time or a trip to the mall. “Our goal is to encourage kids to earn rewards,” says Chris Bergman, founder of ChoreMonster, “Kids need positive reinforcement (强化) to help encourage them to do so.”

What do you think? Should kids be rewarded for doing chores? Or should kids help out around their homes without getting anything in return? Write a 200-word response. Send it to tfkasks4you@time forkids.com. Your response may be published in a future issue of Time For Kids. Please include your grade and contact information of your parent or teacher if you want your response to be published. The deadline for responding is February 18.

1. What does the underlined word “they” in paragraph 2 refer to?

A．The educators.	B．The kids.
C．The parents.	D．The family.

2. What is Chris Bergman’s point of view?

A．Kids should be rewarded for doing chores,

B．Parents decide what kids can do for the family.

C．Parents should do all the housework for their family.

D．Kids should help do housework without getting anything in return.

3. How can kids get digital points through the ChoreMonster app?

A．By playing on their Xbox.	B．By finishing some chores.
C．By making a trip to the mall.	D．By applying for real-life rewards.

4. What information should be included in a kid’s 200-word article?

A．His or her parents’ professions.	B．His or her character.
C．His or her hobbies.	D．His or her grade.