“Can we eat this one, Dad?” my four-year-old daughter, Alicia, asks. We’re on one of our Thursday adventures, searching the nearby woods for eatable mushrooms. She’s pointing at a bright-red cap covered with white dots. I pull out my handy mushroom-identification app, which notes that Amanita muscaria, while eatable if prepared properly, is also a known hallucinogen (致幻剂). I have a firm “tell them the truth and be as precise as possible” philosophy and explain what the app says, and that I don’t think our Thursday adventures are ready to get quite that adventurous yet.
Watching your kids learn new skills is extraordinarily rewarding, but I’ve experienced more personal growth than I have at any other point in my life.
Last year, after a winter of practicing skiing on the green tracks for beginners each week, Alicia was french-frying her way down blues and even attempted her first black. That month also witnessed me visiting the mountain more times than in the 15 years combined and I’ve got myself a partner for life.
It’s not all easy—but sometimes that’s the point. Alicia practices the violin every day, and although she enjoys it, even 15 minutes of practice can upset her. The trick, I’ve found, is to let her watch me try to get better at something, too. I start taking piano lessons at 41 years old with the idea that if she sees me struggling as I practice and then improve, she’ll understand that things don’t come easy, even for grown-ups. I know there’s going to be a time when I’ll end up on the sideline cheering her on as she finds her own passions. I’m okay with this, and I’m hoping that by then she’ll carry the joy of practice and knowledge through life.
1. What does the father imply by saying “I’ve got myself a partner for life.”?| A．It is rewarding to learn new skills. | B．Skiing has become his lifelong hobby. |
| C．He will explore more with his daughter. | D．His daughter will accompany him forever. |
| A．To prove it is never too old to learn. | B．To set a good example for his daughter. |
| C．To experience the joy of piano practice. | D．To share with his daughter musical knowledge. |
| A．Rigid and humorous. | B．Cautious and inspiring. |
| C．Creative and thoughtful. | D．Ambitious and patient. |
| A．The Thrill of the Skill | B．Practice Makes Perfect |
| C．Like Father, Like Daughter | D．The Power of Knowledge |
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【推荐1】When Dekalb Walcott III was just 8 years old, his father, a Chicago fire chief, let him tag along on a call. Dekalb says a lot of kids idolized basketball player Michael Jordan when he was growing up in Chicago in the 1990s. Not him.
“I wanted to be like Dekalb Walcott Jr.,” he says of his father.
So when his dad asked if he wanted to go on that call with him when he was 8, Dekalb was excited. I’m jumping up and down，saying, “Mom, can I go? Can I go?”
The experience changed Dekalb’s life, he tells his dad on a visit to StoryCorps.“My eyes got big from the moment the alarm went off.” the younger Dekalb says. “This is the life that I want to live someday.”
Now 27, the younger Dekalb is living that life. He became a firefighter at 21 and went to work alongside his dad at the Chicago Fire Department. Before his father retired, the pair even went out on a call together-father supervising (监督) son.
“You know, it’s everything for me to watch you grow,”his father says. But he also recalls worrying about one particular fire that his son faced.
“I received a phone call that night.” And they said, “Well, your son was at this fire.” I said, “OK, which way is this conversation going to go?” Dekalb Walcott Jr. recalls.
And they said, “But he’s OK. And he put it out all by himself. Everybody here was proud of him.”
And the word went around, “Who was out there managing that fire? Oh, that’s Walcott! That’s Walcott up there! So, you know. moments like that, it’s heaven on Earth for a dad.”
Dekalb Walcott Jr. retired in 2009. The younger Dekalb says he’s proud of being a second-generation firefighter. “You know, it makes me look forward to fatherhood as well, because I’m definitely looking forward to passing that torch down to my son.”
1. The underlined phrase tag along in Paragraph 1 is closest in meaning to ______．| A．put out fire |
| B．watch basketball |
| C．follow his father |
| D．ask his mother’s permission |
| A．8 | B．21 | C．27 | D．35 |
| A．Go on with the conversation |
| B．Put it out all by himself |
| C．Supervise his son |
| D．Go to the fire scene |
| A．Dekalb Walcott Jr is proud to be a second-generation firefighter. |
| B．Dekalb Walcott III wants his son to become a firefighter too. |
| C．Dekalb Walcott Jr wants to pass the torch to Dekalb Walcott III. |
| D．Dekalb Walcott III is proud that his son has become an excellent firefighter. |
| A．Passing The Torch: A Firefighter Dad’s Legacy |
| B．Putting Out Fire: A Challenging Job for Father and son |
| C．Dekalb Walcott III: A Second-generation Firefighter |
| D．Dekalb Walcott Jr. : A Chicago Fire Chief |
【推荐2】Having a healthy family life can lower risk of heart attack and boost your chance of living longer.
Care for elders in a loving way
Caring for an elderly loved one is a wonderful way to show compassion and service, and it doesn't mean you have to sacrifice everything.
Cultivate an attitude of gratitude
Healthy families set a culture of being grateful for the things you appreciate in life, big and small. Set up a respectful space where at the end of each day, each family member share what they are grateful for.
Keep treats out of sight(and out of mind)
What you see is what you want to eat.
Healthy families will create a safe environment for healthy communication, where each individual feels like their feelings are acknowledged. When conflict arises, they don't have to agree with each other but they still need to acknowledge each other's feelings. They still feel their opinions are valued. They also learn tools for how conflicts can be resolved. No one shuts down, or runs away when there is disagreement. They work it out.
| A．Fight fair |
| B．Live healthily |
| C．Keep healthy snacks highly visible in your kitchen |
| D．If you keep fighting，you will hurt your family |
| E．Here’s how to maximize this amazing health asset(资产) |
| F．This sets up an atmosphere of appreciation that all can benefit from |
| G．Healthy families have boundaries with aging parents and grandparents |
【推荐3】Does Chinese philosophy influence your parenting? It is the question I am most often asked. Chinese philosophy contains many lessons that are useful, accessible and timely when applied to the challenges of parenting. Confucianism and Daoism suggest ways to guide your children toward meaning and fulfilment rather than wealth and fame.
Parenting is tough, especially because there isn’t a one-size-fits-all approach. Different kids need different things. How do we stay focused on what matters most? How do we navigate difficult times with our kids and support them when they struggle? All of us want our children to be successful, partly because we love them and want them to be happy. But it is easy to mistake “success” with certain kinds of academic or athletic achievements.
Of course, one can define success in this way. But ancient Chinese philosophers believed that real success is not measured by fame, money or power. A successful life is one in which a person flourishes: they are happy, fulfilled, and they find meaning in what they do and who they are. This type of fulfilment comes from loving and being loved by others within the context of meaningful, lasting relationships; giving generously of what you have to others; caring for and having a genuine love of nature; and shouldering your responsibility.
Most of us know that having an Ivy League degree and a high-paying job is not going to make our children happy and fulfilled in life. Yet we worry about how they will find things they love to do and that they are good at. Philosophers from the two most influential ancient Chinese traditions — Confucianism and Daoism — talk more about human flourishing, virtue, happiness and fulfilment than about “success”.
Chinese philosophers argued that we genuinely flourish — are happiest and most fulfilled — when we develop these virtues. This can never be measured in terms such as earning power, entering famous schools or getting jobs. Instead, it is measured in how we treat people — how one loves and is loved by one’s family and friends — and in what one does to make the world a kinder, gentler, more humane and beautiful place. They encourage us to help our children learn more about the world around them.
The Confucians and Daoists were a little like yin and yang: Confucians have a lot of active, hands-on ways to help children grow, such as participating in traditions, while the Daoists recommend simpler activities, such as exploring the beauty of nature. Their diverse views on living a good life are precisely what makes Chinese philosophy such a great resource for parents.
Parenting is messy. It is not simple or straightforward but complex and difficult. There are no magic solutions that make things easy or smooth. Most of us will need to piece together different approaches in order to find something that works well and feels right in different situations, for different children, and at different times in a child’s life.
1. According to the author, parenting is challenging because________.| A．Parents don’t know what success refers to |
| B．Children don’t believe in Chinese philosophy |
| C．There are many theories of parenting to choose |
| D．One can’t find a standard approach to suit every child |
| A．People who flourish can feel successful because they live a meaningful life. |
| B．Only when people make contribution to society can they feel successful. |
| C．A successful life can be measured by reputation and wealth. |
| D．Success just means one should be friendly to nature. |
| A．Confucians think graduating from famous university can make children intelligent and fulfilled. |
| B．Daoists are more influential than Confucians because of their simpler activities. |
| C．Confucians and Daoists together can provide parents abundant resources. |
| D．It is enough for parents to just learn Chinese Philosophy well. |
| A．Critical . | B．Objective. |
| C．Indifferent. | D．Suspicious. |
Going to extremes
James Kevin recently jumped out of a plane over a mountain, and then snow boarded down it.
One popular theory is that extreme sports have evolved as a reaction to our increasingly safe lifestyles. In the past, just staying alive and finding enough food to eat was a daily challenge but now in most developed countries, that is no longer the case.
Another theory argues that extreme sports attract adrenaline junkies.
However, for psychologist Eric Brymer, neither of these theories is accurate. Having interviewed many extreme sports men and women, he doesn’t believe they are thrill-seekers who risk their lives for an adrenaline high, or people who find modern life too safe so feel the need to take risks.
It seems that extreme sports participants may have been given a bad press. Whichever theory you believe, you may be able to benefit from some extreme sports. They aren’t all as dangerous as base jumping. So why not give one a go？
| A．Critics say that these foolhardy people endanger themselves and others and should therefore have to pay for their own treatment. |
| B．These are people who do them for the danger, because they get an adrenaline rush and feel a “high” when they participate. |
| C．Last year he tried base jumping and whitewater kayaking. |
| D．Not everyone enjoys the thrill of extreme sports-- for some people that are a terrifying experience. |
| E．In contrast, his research shows that for participants risk-taking doesn’t come into it at all. |
| F．As a result, some people feel that need to experience the thrill of risk-taking to counteract this. |
【推荐2】I have a friend who bird watches. She feels comfortable whenever she’s doing it. If you ask her why she likes it, she will say things like “Well, birds are the world’s most magical creatures.” I have another friend who knits. She likes it because it’s satisfying, and has an astonishingly impressive impact on people for whom being able to knit gloves is out of reach.
As a term, “hobby” has always been of arguable meaning. Ask someone what they think a hobby is, and you’ll get a dictionary definition that they will have just looked up on their phones and, then, a passionate speech on all of the activities that can under no circumstances be put into groups as hobbies by their own highly unique and inflexible standards. Being online is not a hobby, apparently, nor is listening to music.
Hardly anyone knows what a hobby is, and this is particularly the case now that so many of us are spending our leisure time online arguing about these sorts of basic definitions with people, as the writer Max Read put it in an essay, “to whom the world has been created again every morning, for whom every settled argument of modernity must be rewritten, but this time with their engagement.”
Even taking these difficulties into account, however, it seems obvious that birdwatching and knitting are classic hobbies. They are enjoyable, involve practice and reward effort, and they are given immediate access to a group with the same interests. They are the sorts of hobbies advice columnists (专栏作家) have in mind when people write in about their imbalanced lives. It’s interesting, then, that not one of my two clearly hobby-having friends would admit to the practice.
They worried that their hobbies, which give them pleasure and keep them far from their computers, made them seem like they had too much leisure time and too Lew inner resources that would enable them to naturally avoid boredom. They are fully paid-up members of society, with busy lives, fulfilling interpersonal relationships and, again, hobbies that make them happy. It’s just that hobbies have an undeservedly bad reputation, one made worse by the Internet, like everything else.
The birdwatcher said the problem with having a hobby was that it made people seem like they were contributing and learning nothing. The knitter said that she personally connected hobbies with having no friends and no idea of what normal people do to have fun, Actually, they do not want to be seen as mad people who intentionally get away from the correct course.
Well, I enjoy certain light operas. I play music for my own amusement. And yes, I am an ordinary student, and that is not a sign of madness.
1. The author mentions two friends with different hobbies in Paragraph 1 mainly to .
| A．explain the definition of “hobby” |
| B．attract the readers’ attention to hobbies |
| C．stress the importance of having a hobby |
| D．compare two different types of hobbies |
| A．“Hobby” as a term can only be defined without the Internet. |
| B．People online discuss the definition of “hobby” to change lives. |
| C．People create a new world by expressing their ideas of hobbies online. |
| D．It is hard for online people to reach an agreement on the definition of “hobby”. |
| A．They are afraid of being seen as crazy people. |
| B．They fear their hobbies are not impressive enough. |
| C．They find it necessary to share hobbies to balance their lives. |
| D．They refuse to share their feelings about their hobbies with mad people. |
| A．Hobbies are great for people’s mental health. |
| B．Different people have their own standards of hobbies. |
| C．It is reasonable and normal for people to have hobbies. |
| D．People who suffer from madness can also have hobbies. |
【推荐3】I remember from a young age being attracted by the world around me. Whenever I observed my surroundings, I would always wonder about what they were made of.
In this day and age, as a means to continuously increase an interest in the natural sciences in your child, labs are available that provide an ideal learning environment for modern students.
Science jobs in these subjects are and will continue to be required by industry and society.
| A．These days, you can make a home chemistry lab. |
| B．Instead, it has increased as I have continued to learn. |
| C．Encourage your children to find out about different jobs. |
| D．They require great attention to details, teamwork and skills. |
| E．A particular field of study which I was most interested in was chemistry. |
| F．Help children see mathematics, science and technology that exist around them. |
| G．For a student to do well in science, having knowledge of it in advance is necessary. |
【推荐1】About 15 years ago, I taught A Problem from Hell, a book on genocides (大屠杀), to a group of 18- and 19-year-olds in a mid-west university in the US. In my class there was a young man who had spent his boyhood in Bosnia as NATO bombed his hometown. My other students, amazed by his connection to the genocide in the textbook, asked him what it was like to grow up in a war-zone. “A pretty normal childhood as you had here,” he said. “We played cards inside a lot, and when there was no bombing we kicked a ball in the street.”
In the past few years, the world has seen a rapid increase in refugees (难民), with the number hitting 60 million. Viet Thanh Nguyen’s story collection The Refugees reminds us that literature is news that stays news. Set in the Vietnamese communities in California as well as in Vietnam, the stories do not aim to surprise us with new twists or shock us with wonderful details, as war and refugee stories could easily choose to do. Rather, like the young man from Bosnia, Nguyen’s characters tell these stories because they are the only ones known to them.
Included in the collection are two of the most touching pieces, both about siblings (兄弟或姊妹) separated by geography and history. In “Black-Eyed Women”, the narrator (讲述人), a young Vietnamese woman, is visited by the ghost of her elder brother, who died young on the boat when the family took flight from the war. The tale of love and loss, violence and violation, may not be unfamiliar to the reader, but the determination of the brother’s ghost (he has taken decades to swim across the Pacific to reach America) and the sister’s abandoning herself to a half death make the story lasting.
As an echo, the closing story, “Fatherland”, explores a more complex situation between two siblings. The narrator, a young Vietnamese woman, meets her half-sister, visiting from the US for the first time. Adding to the tension is the fact that her father has named the narrator and her siblings after his first set of children. Two sisters, one American and one Vietnamese, yet named the same by the father – it may sound strange, but isn’t it the fate many refugees have to face: a life left behind, that could have been theirs; and a life in an adopted country.
The theme of doubleness – choice and inevitability (不可避免性), home and homelessness, starting afresh and being stuck – is present not only in the stories of Vietnamese refugees, but also of those who have become refugees from their own homes and loved ones. “Smiling at your relatives never got you very far, but smiling at strangers and acquaintances sometimes did.” So a pilot, who fought in the Vietnam war and is now revisiting the country for the first time, thinks while waving at the locals from a tour bus. He’s distant from his daughter, just as a Mexican American in the collection is distant from his wife, or a young man from Hong Kong is distant from his father.
The collection is full of refugees, whether from external or from a deeper, more internal conflict between even those who are closest to each other. With anger but not despair, with reconciliation (和解) but not unrealistic hope, and with genuine humour that is not used to insult anyone, Nguyen has breathed life into many unforgettable characters.
1. The first paragraph is intended to .| A．describe the boring life of war victims |
| B．appeal to the readers to help war victims |
| C．criticize NATO’s killing of innocent people |
| D．introduce the story collection The Refugees |
| A．It tells the news in a literary form. |
| B．It is full of surprising twists and plots. |
| C．The author experiences the stories himself. |
| D．Its characters narrate their own stories. |
| A．By giving examples. |
| B．Bymaking contrasts. |
| C．By providing evidence. |
| D．By making classifications. |
| A．relatives hate their loved ones for being left behind |
| B．separation from loved ones tends to make them distant |
| C．people become refugees due to their double character |
| D．smiling is a good way to keep loved ones together |
| A．Despair, suffering, and regret. |
| B．Anger, humour and hope. |
| C．Sympathy, regret, and reconciliation. |
| D．Dream, hope, and expectation. |
| A．the problems of identity, love, and family for refugees |
| B．the miserable lives of refugees in the adopted countries |
| C．the refugees’ reunion with their families after separation |
| D．the various reasons for people’s being reduced to refugees |
【推荐2】Huckleberry Finn didn’t have a home because his mother died and his father, who was often drunk, rarely stayed in one place. For a while, Huck lived with a kind old lady called Widow Douglas and her sister, Miss Watson. He liked Widow Douglas, but he was unhappy that she wanted him to wear clean clothes and went to school.
Huck was pleased when his father returned and took him to live in a hut in the woods. But soon Mr Finn started hitting the boy and locking him inside the hut when he went out. Huck ran away to Jackson Island, where he happened to meet Jim, Miss Watson's slave, who was hiding there. After a few days Huck dressed as a girl and went into town to find out what was happening. He discovered that people thought Jim was on the island and that there was a reward of $300 for anyone who found him. So Huck and Jim decided it's time to leave.
They got on the raft as fast as they could, put all their things on it, and moved off down the river. When it began to get light, they hid. When it was dark again, they traveled on. On the fifth night they passed St Louis, and they decided to go on down to Illinois. There were no slaves in Illinois.
They slept for most of that day and they began their journey again when it was dark. After some time, they saw lights on the Illinois side of the river and Jim got very excited.
After that, they went on down the river. Suddenly, a big steamboat came at them very fast, Jim and Huck jumped off the raft into the water.
When Huck came up out of the water. He couldn't see Jim anywhere. He called out his name again and again,but there was no answer.“He's dead!” Huck thought. Slowly, Huck swam to the side of the river and got out. Suddenly a lot of very angry dogs jumped out at him. They made a terrible noise and someone called from the house “Who’ s there?”
“George Jackson”, Huck answered quickly."I’ve fallen off a river boat.”
Well,the people who lived in that house were very kind, and they took Huck in and gave him some new clothes and a good meal. He told them that his family were all dead, so they said he could stay with them as long as he wanted. It was a beautiful house and the food was good there, so he stayed.
1. Why did Huck escape to Jackson Island?| A．He wanted a free life. | B．He didn’t want to go to school. |
| C．He liked to stay with Jim. | D．He went there to look for his father. |
| A．He wore a girl's dress for fun. | B．He didn't want to be recognized. |
| C．He didn’t have any other dress. | D．He was robbed of his own clothes. |
| A．The bright lights on the river bank. |
| B．That they finally got rid of the people who came to catch them. |
| C．The prospect of breaking away from slavery. |
| D．That they found a place to stay for a rest. |
| A．Huck was a clever and quick-minded boy |
| B．Huck was very happy to find his last home |
| C．Jim escaped alone to Illinois |
| D．the people who lived near the riverside wanted to take in Huck as a family laborer |
【推荐3】The tornado came without any sign—the sky was blue and the sun had been out. The first alert my husband, Jimmy, 67, and I, 65, got came around 9 p.m., from some scrolling text on the TV Jimmy was watching. He ran upstairs to find me in our third-floor bedroom, and we changed the channel to our local Pensacola, Florida, station.
No sooner had we found coverage of the tornado than it was on top of us. The bones of the house shook, and the power went out. Pink insulation（绝缘材料） flew into the room from a trapdoor to the attic, and the wind began to roar through the house. We had three flights of steps to navigate to get to the relative safety of the first floor. Because the closet down there is wedged （塞进） underneath a brick staircase, it seemed like the sturdiest(坚固的) place in our town house to wait things out.
I didn’t know how or if we would make it down the steps. It felt as if there were no floor underneath me as the wind lifted me off my feet. I gripped the banister(楼梯扶手) and tried to move forward, but this intense pressure held me in place. In those seconds of stillness, I could hear everything around me rattling.
As we reached the last flight of steps, our front door blew out. Shards of glass that looked like broken ice flew everywhere. Suddenly, a three-foot-long tree branch whipped through the doorframe. It flew over our heads, missing us by inches. Had we been one step up, it would have impaled us. The back wall of the house followed suit and tore off into the darkness outside.
Instantly I reached the closet, Jimmy pushed me down to the closet floor, but he couldn’t get inside himself because of the wind. I gripped Jimmy’s arm as the tornado sucked the door open and tried to bring Jimmy with it. My knees and scalp were full of glass, but in that moment, I felt no pain. If I had let go, Jimmy would have flown right out and into the bay. “Hold on! Hold on!” he yelled. But there was nothing in this closet to hold on to.
All of a sudden, Jimmy lifted off his feet like people in tornadoes do in the movies. I thought he was gone. And then everything stopped. He landed on his feet. In those first quiet moments, I couldn’t believe it was over. Jimmy said he’d go outside to check. “No,” I said. “Don’t leave me.”
Our neighbor says the storm lasted four minutes. In that time, four of the twelve town houses in our unit were completely destroyed. Of the houses left standing, ours suffered the most damage. Amazingly, none of us were severely injured.
1. Paragraph 2—4 mainly tell us______.| A．the tornado was on top of us |
| B．the tornado caused great damage |
| C．the coverage of the tornado became a reality |
| D．the tornado was so strong that it lifted the author off her feet |
| A．the author’s nervousness about the tornado |
| B．the force from the tornado on the author |
| C．the stress the author felt from her life |
| D．the pressure the banister gave the author |
| A．Neither the author nor her husband was injured. |
| B．the author’s house was completely destroyed. |
| C．they were aware of the tornado before it came. |
| D．it became dark outside when the tornado hit the town |
| A．share with us her experience of surviving a tornado |
| B．warn us of the danger caused by tornados |
| C．show us how to fight against a tornado |
| D．tell us tornados are dangerous and how to protect us from them |
