【推荐2】Were you into skateboarding, surfing or snowboarding when you were a kid? We can remember our first (less than successful) go at skateboarding, as well as the first time we managed to stand up on surfboards.

It was so much fun that we were hooked on extreme sports. However, not everyone thinks that introducing children to extreme sports is a good idea.

Writer Jon Lackman considers whether sports like snowboarding, climbing and skateboarding could be dangerous to the growing bodies of young children. Lackman also looks for advice from medical professions.”

“Kids aren’t mentally ready for these activities,” says a doctor, Vani Sabesan. “They cannot realize the risks, and their parents can’t always be trusted to stop them.”

Sabesan is particularly worried about the influence of extreme sports on TV and the Internet on children. “What we’re seeing is that a lot of kids think they can do what the professional athletes can do.”

If someone, who was encouraged to go surfing at the age of five, was presented with a surfboard when he/she was seven, I think these worries are a little overstated(夸大的), if not misplaced.

Extreme sports can be dangerous, but there’s as much chance of falling off your bike or your roller skates(四轮滑冰鞋鞋) as off a skateboard or surfboard.

My own experience of extreme sports leads me to think that I’ll allow my own kids to try them in the same way my parents allowed me.

In sports such as surfing and snowboarding, there’s a sense of adventure and courage. It is important to tell young children about it.

Did I fall off my surfboard? All the time. Did I get back on? Every time.

1. What is the purpose of the first paragraph?

A．To introduce the topic of the text.

B．To tell us what are extreme sports.

C．To encourage people to play sports.

D．To tell us what kind of sports the author liked.

2. Which of the following can replace the underlined part “hooked on” in Paragraph 2?

A．attracted by

B．shocked at

C．disappointed at

D．worried about

3. What do Vani sabesan’s words mean?

A．Kids who are mentally ill should not play extreme sports.

B．Parents are responsible for kids’ safety in extreme sports.

C．Kids are too young to realize the danger of extreme sports.

D．Kids should be encouraged to do what professional athletes do.

4. What’s the authors’ attitude to kids playing extreme sports?

A．He/She is against it.

B．He/She supports it.

C．He/She is doubtful about it.

D．He/She is unconcerned about it.

【推荐3】I started collecting shopping lists around 1997. One day, I was shopping for my daughter’s birthday party in St Louis, Missouri, where we lived. After leaving the store, I came across a yellow note in the parking lot. I picked it up and it was somebody’s shopping list. I thought, “That’s interesting. Well, whenever I see one, I will keep it.”

People collect all sorts of things you would never expect. It’s as if all these separate, unimportant things, when put together as a collection, suddenly become revealing. The first list I found was nothing special. But after you see a lot of them, the weird ones stick out. One I found is a long list of stuff and then, in the margin (空白处), someone had written: “If you buy any more rice, I’ll punch you.” Another one says at the bottom: “NO MORE CHIPS, JESSICA”.

The shopping list project started slowly. At first, it was just me and people I knew who would save lists for me. Then, at the beginning of the 2000s, I put it online. At that point, blogs were going mainstream. I had people messaging me, saying, “I work at a grocery store and have my own little collection, but I am not going to do anything with them. Do you want them?”

So I started receiving lists from everywhere in the world. It seemed there was a never-ending supply. At first, I kept my lists in an envelope. Then, as the collection grew, they went to a grocery bag, a cardboard box and finally a large plastic storage bin.

In 2012, I was approached by a publisher who wanted to turn my collection into a book. Then I started going through all my lists, figuring out ways to categorize and interpret them. Lists can tell you all sorts of things about a person. Some of them are organized and divide lists into sections—fruit, vegetables, dairy. Most of them are not. Some are on a budget.

The project is continuing, but it grows more slowly now. People can’t help peeking into the secret lives of others, but technology has made shopping lists more private. Most people use apps, like I do. I guess there might not be another book.

1. How did the author start collecting shopping lists?

A．It was by chance.	B．It was out of interest.
C．It was for his daughter’s birthday.	D．It was inspired by a shopping experience.

2. What can we learn about the author’s shopping list project?

A．It won instant fame.	B．It got worldwide support.
C．It helped solve family conflict.	D．It was funded by a grocery store.

3. Why did the author go through his collection in 2012?

A．To save room for more lists.	B．To make preparations for a book.
C．To dig out stories behind each list.	D．To pick out some lists for a publisher.

4. How is the text developed?

A．By giving vivid examples.	B．By showing relevant facts.
C．By following the time order.	D．By explaining various ideas.

【推荐2】Last year, a popular restaurant released a live stream of a family dining in it, without asking their permission. After finding out what the restaurant was doing, the family showed their objection, but the restaurant ignored it and insisted that they had the right to do it. Moreover, they tried to silence the family, saying that their behavior was damaging the restaurant's image. This event has caused a debate on the violation of privacy and portrait rights by webcasts.

It doesn't bother some people when their images are unconsciously recorded by cameras and shown through live streams on different online platforms. They may even enjoy appearing on screens and cooperate with some businesses. In that way, the restaurant can have more public exposure and thus attract more customers, which is their purpose of webcasting. However, others including the family mentioned above, are against it. The family thought that their portrait rights were violated, considering no one had asked if it was okay to use the images of them. They found intolerable that their actions captured by the camera were webcast live to millions of viewers, not to mention the fact that some of them were not so decent. Thus they demanded an apology from restaurant.

People may behave in a relaxed way when eating or resting, and they don't want others to see them in this way. Thus, from a legal perspective, if businesses webcast their customers for commercial reasons, they have violated customers portrait rights.

Webcasting someone without his or her consent amounts to a violation of portrait rights, which is getting increasingly common these days as cellphone webcasting is growing in popularity for technical convenience, However, public awareness of privacy protection is still falling behind. More should be done to make sure webcasting is developing sustainably, without violating people's legal rights.

1. What is the major issue argued in the passage?

A．A famous restaurant published a live stream of a family dining in it.

B．The family showed their objection to the famous restaurant's webcast.

C．The restaurant ignored the objection and insisted they had the right to do it.

D．The restaurant claimed that the family was damaging the restaurant's image.

2. What does the underlined word "that" in Paragraph 2 refer to?

A．Customers enjoy appearing on screens.

B．Customers cooperate with some businesses.

C．Customers are shown through live streams online.

D．Customers are unconsciously recorded by cameras.

3. Which of the following behaviors may violate customers' privacy and portrait rights?

A．Businesses webcast customers live according to their agreement.

B．Businesses webcast customers for commercial reasons and pay them.

C．Businesses webcast customers improper actions with their permission.

D．Businesses webcast customers behaving in a relaxed way without informing them.

4. What is the best title for the passage?

A．Public awareness of privacy protection is increasing

B．A famous restaurant released a live stream of a family

C．How can people behave in a relaxed way when having a rest

D．A debate on whether webcasts violate privacy and portrait rights

5. What is the author's attitude toward webcasts?

A．Objective.

B．Negative.

C．Positive.

D．Subjective.

【推荐3】First, I want to tell you how proud we are. Getting into Columbia shows what a great well-rounded student you are. Your academic, artistic, and social skills have truly blossomed（开花）in the last few years. You have become a talented and accomplished young woman. You should be as proud of yourself as we are.

College will be the most important years in your life. It is in college that you will truly discover what learning is about. I want to tell you: “education is what you have left after all that is taught is forgotten”. What I mean by that is the materials taught isn’t as important as you gaining the ability to learn a new subject, and the ability to analyze a new problem. That is really what learning in college is about—this will be the period where you go from teacher-taught to master-inspired, after which you must become self-learner.

Follow your passion in college. Take courses you think you will enjoy. Steve Jobs says when you are in college, your passion will create many dots, and later in your life you will connect them. In his great speech given at Stanford, he gave the great example where he took calligraphy（书法）, and a decade later, it became the basis of the beautiful letters in Microsoft Word. So don’t worry too much about what job you will have, and don’t be too utilitarian（功利的）, and if you like Japanese or Korean, go for it! Enjoy picking your dots, and be assured one day you will find your calling, and connect a beautiful curve through the dots.

Most importantly, make friends and be happy. College friends are often the best in life, because during college you are closer to them physically than to your mom and I. Pick a few friends and become really close to them-pick the ones who are honest and sincere to you. Don’t worry about their hobbies, grades, looks, or even personalities. You have developed some real friendships in high school in your last two years, so trust your instinct, and make new friends.

College is the four years where you have the greatest amount of free time, the first chance to be independent, the most possibilities to change and the lowest risk for making mistakes. So please treasure your college years! May Columbia become the happiest four years in your life, and may you blossom into just what you dream to be.

1. What’s the purpose of this passage?

A．To explain why Columbia is a world famous university.

B．To tell “you” to be happy and enthusiastic in college.

C．To stress the importance of attending college.

D．To provide useful tips for college.

2. The writer believes that learning in college is about ________.

A．gaining the ability to become a self-learner

B．forgetting all that you have been taught

C．learning every new subject seriously

D．solving practical problems

3. What can you infer from the passage?

A．“You” have found out the truth of education.

B．“You” should be practical while choosing courses.

C．It is in college when “you” first become self-reliant.

D．“You” should try to make friends with as many students as possible.

4. The example of Steve Jobs was given to show that ________.

A．passion is the most important thing in college years

B．the more dots you create, the more successful you will become

C．Steve Jobs was quite good at creating dots and connecting them

D．have a strong interest in what you learn and someday it might be useful

5. This passage is probably written by ________.

A．a high school teacher

B．a parent of a freshman

C．the president of the University of Columbia

D．an upperclassman of the University of Columbia

【推荐1】Years ago, if a teenager had some problems in his or her life, he or she might write in his or her diary. Now a teenager with the same problems might go onto the Internet and write about them in a blog. In many ways, a diary and a blog are almost the same. So, what makes a blog different from a diary?

The biggest difference is that a blog is much more public than a diary. Usually, a teenager treats his or her diary like a book full of secrets. Both diaries and blogs tell what happened to the writer that day.

I have a little sister, and sometimes I go online to read her blog. She writes about things like waking up early for swimming practice and not studying enough for her chemistry exam. When I was her age, I wrote about the same things, but only in my diary. Then, after I finished writing. I would hide my diary in a secret place because I was worried that my sister might read it!

Because a blog is such a public way of writing. It has both good and bad points. The biggest problem with a blog is that anyone can read what you write. If I am angry with a friend during school and write something bad about her in my diary, she will never know. However, if my sister writes something bad about a friend, that friend may read her blog and get angry. So we have to be very careful of what we write.

A blog has good point, of course. People choose to write in blogs because they know that their friends will read what they write. If I am feeling sad one day and write in my diary, “Nobody cares about me.” No one will know about it. However, if my sister writes the same words in her blog. Her best friends will quickly and tell her how much they like her.

If people are careful about what they write, blogs are a very good way to write about everyday life. However, I still prefer my old diary!

1. The biggest difference between a blog and a diary is that ________.

A．a blog is more popular	B．a blog is more convenient
C．a blog has more good points	D．a blog is more public

2. Why did the writer hide the diary after finishing writing?

A．Because he didn’t want his sister to read it.

B．Because he thought his family would read it.

C．Because he liked hiding everything.

D．Because he was worried that what he wrote made his sister angry.

3. Which one is NOT the writer’s idea?

A．A diary is safer than a blog.

B．A diary and a blog are almost the same in many ways.

C．Blogs can help people stay in contact with their friends.

D．Blogs are the best way to write about everyday life.

4. The passage mainly talks about ________.

A．the teenagers’ problems in their lives	B．the differences between a diary and a blog
C．the good points of writing blogs	D．different ways to write about everyday life