Leisa Duckwall has worked for four years as a food nutrition service worker at the school, serving students breakfast and lunch. But not once had she ever seen a student say “hello”, or “good morning”, or even “thank you”, Duckwall is deaf. But now, the entire school is learning sign language, the students specifically to better communicate with Duckwall. No more point-ing, now, there are words, including “hello”, “good morning”, and “thank you”. When asked how it’s made her feel, Duckwall got straight to the point. “Happy,” she said.
Before spreading to the entire school, it started in Kari Maskelony’s fourth-grade classroom. Maskelony grew up with hard-of-hearing family members. She knows sign language, but throughout her life, she has witnessed her loved ones’ frustrations when people are unable to understand them. “I noticed that all the kids realized that Ms Duckwall couldn’t hear them,” Maskelony said. So she asked her students, “Do you guys want to learn how to sign to Ms Duckwall what you want for lunch instead of pointing?” They said yes. The class started with the basics of what they would need to know for interactions with Duckwall. They started with the main dishes, learning the sign language words for chicken, fish and other typical school cafeteria cuisines.
Next, the students learned to sign letters. It didn’t take long before principal Janet Wright Davis heard about what was going on. “Is it just Ms Maskelony’s class who are doing it? Let’s teach the whole school,” Janet said. “Let’s teach the whole school sign language.”
“Not only is it great for the kids because they can learn a new skill that they can carry with them and actually use with other people that they meet, but I think it is great because equal inclusivity (包容性) and equal access is so important,” Janet said. “It’s just something that we don’t often see.”
The teachers claim their students love sign language. The adults claim the kids think it’s “fun”, and they agree. Every single fourth-grader in Maskelony’s class gave sign language a positive review. And they all liked their collective hard work, if for nothing else, to make Duckwall feel included.
1. What can we know about Leisa Duckwall?| A．She was often misunderstood. |
| B．She feels sad to be pointed at. |
| C．She serves students three meals a day. |
| D．She was unable to interact with students well before. |
| A．Her students’ requests. |
| B．The principal’s suggestion. |
| C．Her hard-of-hearing families. |
| D．Leisa Duckwall’s desire. |
| A．She gave a big prize to Maskelony. |
| B．She decided to promote the practice. |
| C．She began to learn sign language too. |
| D．She praised the fourth-grade students. |
| A．Sign language benefits students’ study. |
| B．It’s important for students to learn more skills. |
| C．Students should communicate more with others. |
| D．Learning sign language helps students have better values. |
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【推荐1】Do you still remember what happened when you went to school on the first day? I still remember my interesting first day of school. On that day, I hurried to my science class in the morning and found a seat in the back.I waited there for 15 minutes before the bell rang. The science teacher told us about some class rules. No one talked to me nor did I talk to anyone else. I was one of those very shy girls. After the science class, I had an English class. I thought it would be boring but it turned out to be very funny. When the classes of the morning ended I went to lunch. I sat outside the dining room with no one to talk to and no food because I was too nervous to join the lunch line. I kept looking around hoping to see someone I knew but I never saw anyone.
Lunch ended and I went to have my art class. I was the first one there and even my teacher was not there yet. So I sat at my desk and started drawing some pictures. I didn't notice the rest of the class walking in or the girl that was standing behind me till I was surprised by the voice, “So what are you drawing?” It was a girl who had really long hair.She ended up being my best friend and one of the kindest and liveliest girls I know.
In the next class meeting, the teacher asked us to talk about the past holiday.I was glad to make some new friends in the class.The first day of high school was hard for me but I got through it.
1. What do we know about the writer's science class?| A．She was 15 minutes late for it. | B．She made some new friends. |
| C．She learned some class rules. | D．She sat in the front row. |
| A．boring | B．Useful | C．hard | D．interesting |
| A．was afraid to stand in line | B．forgot the lunchtime |
| C．wasn't hungry | D．didn't like the dining room |
【推荐2】Like any new ninth-grader on the first day of school, Joemar Class had ninth-grader- emotion (情绪). He’s not used to school in Hartford. He’s used to going to school in his home town of Florida, used to seeing his friends, used to having class in Spanish.
“Nervioso,” he said in Spanish.
We first met Joemar in mid-October in the San Juan Airport. His father, Guillermo Class, had sold his car to buy plane tickets to get his kids and fly them up from Puerto Rico. The island was almost destroyed by the deadly storm—Hurricane Maria.
Now, they are settling into their new home in Hartford’s South End. A week later, and, using his wife’s car, Class drove 16-year-old Joemar to his first day at Bulkeley High School. After a short ride, he got out in front of his new school. Inside, he met Gretchen Levitz—the school’s program director.
“I see you have new uniform (校服),” Levitz said. “You look great. Are you ready for a good first day?”
Then he met couple of teachers.
“Hello,” they each said in Spanish. They asked where he’s from, and told him they were happy to see him. Then Levitz took him on a quick tour of the school before classes began—to her office the school store, the library, and the dining hall.
A total of 19 languages are spoken in Bulkeley High School. “We have so many new students coming here from other countries every single day,” Levitz said. “So it’s not like he’s the only one who has that feeling.”
“You could tell he’s a little worried," Guillermo said as we left.” But, at the same time, he’s looking forward to it.”
1. What kind of feeling did Joemar have on his first day of school?| A．Annoyed | B．Excited. | C．Anxious | D．Confident |
| A．He wanted to see his mother. | B．His old school closed down. |
| C．His town was hit by a terrible storm. | D．He expected to have a new life. |
| A．He had a short look around his new school. | B．He learned some simple Spanish words. |
| C．He said hello to some of his classmates. | D．He had a long talk with his father. |
【推荐3】Are you carrying too much on your back at your back at school? I’m sure lots of children of your age will say “Yes”. Not only the students in China have this problem, but children in the United States also have heavy school bags.
Doctors are starting to worry that younger and younger students are having back and neck problems as a result of school bags being too heavy for them.
“It’s hard for me to go upstairs with my bag because it’s so heavy,” said Rick Hammond, an 11-year-old student in the US.
Rick is among students who have common school bags with two straps（带子）to carry them, but many other students choose rolling（有滚轮的）bags.
But even with rolling bags, getting up stairs and buses is still a problem for children. Many of them have hurt their backs and necks because of the heavy school bags.
But how much is too much? Doctors say students should carry no more than 10% to 15% of their own body weight.
Scout Batch, a back doctor, said children under Grade 4 should stay with 10%. But it is also important that older children don’t stay with over 15%, because their bodies are still growing.
“Children are losing their balance and falling down with their school bags,” he said.
Parents and teachers are starting to tell children to only take home library books they will be reading that night. Some teachers are using pieces of paper or thin workbooks for students to take home.
One of the best answers is, as some children said, to have no homework at all!
1. From the passage we can know that ________.| A．only children in China carry too heavy school bags |
| B．children in other countries don’t carry too heavy bags |
| C．both children in China and the US carry too heavy school bags |
| D．only children in the US carry too heavy school bags |
| A．his feet will be hurt | B．his head and arms will be hurt |
| C．his hands will be hurt | D．his back and neck will be hurt |
| A．5 kilos | B．3 kilos | C．5.5 kilos | D．4.5 kilos |
| A．they should have a little homework to do after they get home |
| B．they should only take home library books they will read that night |
| C．their teachers had better not ask them to do any homework |
| D．they should use thin workbooks instead of thick ones |
【推荐1】Mark Twain, the famous American writer and a great master of humor, liked to play jokes on others. But once a joke was played on him. One day Mark Twain was invited to give a talk in a small town. At lunch he met a young man,one of his friends.
The young man said that he had an uncle with him. He told Mark Twain that his uncle never laughed or smiled, and that nobody and nothing was able to make his uncle smile or laugh.
“You bring your uncle to my talk this evening,” said Mark Twain. “I’m sure I can make him laugh.”
That evening the young man and his uncle sat in the front. Mark Twain began to speak. He told several funny stories and made everyone in the room laugh. But the man never even smiled. Mark Twain told more funny stories, but the old man still kept quiet. Mark Twain continued to tell his funny stories. Finally he stopped. He was tired and quite disappointed.
Some days later, Mark Twain told another friend what had happened. “Oh,” said his friend,“I know that man. He’s been deaf for years.”
1. The writer wrote the passage mainly to________.| A．tell readers Mark Twain liked playing jokes |
| B．tell readers a joke played on Mark Twain |
| C．tell readers Mark Twain was a great writer |
| D．tell readers how to tell a funny story |
| A．a friend | B．his brother |
| C．his teacher | D．a young girl |
| A．disappointed | B．sorry |
| C．ill | D．sleepy |
| A．his jokes were not funny |
| B．the old man wasn’t interested in the jokes |
| C．the old man could tell more funny jokes |
| D．the old man was deaf |
【推荐2】When Jenny Benson was eight, her mother took her to soccer practice for the first time.
“She’s never played soccer before,” Mrs Benson told the coach.“I’m not sure how she’ll do.”
Jenny ran onto the field and joined the other players. Over the next hour, Mrs Benson and the coach watched as Jenny outran many of the more experienced players.
“I knew then that soccer would be Jenny’s sport.” Mrs Benson recalls. And she was right.
It may have helped that Jenny had spent much of her time trying to keep up with her three brothers.“I wanted to be just like them,” Jenny says.“My family has inspired me for my entire life.”
Jenny has retired from the United States women’s national soccer team. She started out on her professional career in the Philadelphia Charge, a team in the Women’s United Soccer Association (WUSA)．Later on, she joined FC Energy Voronezh, and then New Jersey Wildcats.
When the WUSA was being formed, league officials watched many college soccer games, looking for players good enough to join the league. They were very interested in Jenny, who played for the University of Nebraska.
“Throughout that college season, I knew I was being watched,” Jenny says, “I knew I couldn’t be perfect, so I just tried to be very consistent and have fun.”
As a professional, Jenny relied on her focused but funloving attitude. “In a game, I try never to put too much pressure on myself. The more I concentrate on having fun, the better I play.” She says. “I have good and bad days, just like everyone else, but I know the sun will always come up after a bad day. So all I have to do is to adjust myself, either to the change of my inner feelings or to the change of circumstances.That helps me get through anything.”
1. What can we learn from Jenny’s first soccer practice?| A．She was not sure how to play soccer. |
| B．She was gifted in playing soccer. |
| C．She was instructed by the soccer coach. |
| D．She was more experienced than other players. |
| A．New Jersey Wildcats. |
| B．FC Energy Voronezh. |
| C．The University of Nebraska. |
| D．The Philadelphia Charge. |
| A．Talented but impatient. |
| B．Confident and considerate. |
| C．Concentrated and adaptable. |
| D．Absorbed but selfcentered. |
| A．How Jenny developed her soccer career. |
| B．Why Jenny retired from the national team. |
| C．How Jenny’s brothers influenced her career. |
| D．What made Jenny a good soccer player. |
【推荐3】Sometime in the early 1960s, a significant thing happened in Sydney, Australia. The city discovered its harbor. Then, one after another, Sydney discovered lots of things that were just sort of there — broad parks, superb beaches, and a culturally diverse population. But it is the harbor that makes the city.
Andrew Reynolds, a cheerful fellow in his early 30s, pilots Sydney ferryboats for a living. I spent the whole morning shuttling back and forth across the harbor. After our third run Andrew shut down the engine, and we went our separate ways — he for a lunch break, I to explore the city.
“I’ll miss these old boats,” he said as we parted.
“How do you mean?” I asked.
“Oh, they’re replacing them with catamarans. Catamarans are faster, but they’re not so elegant, and they’re not fun to pilot. But that’s progress, I guess.”
Everywhere in Sydney these days, change and progress are the watchwords (口号), and traditions are increasingly rare. Shirley Fitzgerald, the city’s official historian, told me that in its rush to modernity in the 1970s, Sydney swept aside much of its past, including many of its finest buildings. “Sydney is confused about itself,” she said. “We can’t seem to make up our minds whether we want a modern city or a traditional one. It’s a conflict that we aren’t getting any better at resolving (解决).”
On the other hand, being young and old at the same time has its attractions. I considered this when I met a thoughtful young businessman named Anthony. “Many people say that we lack culture in this country,” he told me. “What people forget is that the Italians, when they came to Australia, brought 2000 years of their culture, the Greeks some 3000 years, and the Chinese more still. We’ve got a foundation built on ancient cultures but with a drive and dynamism of a young country. It’s a pretty hard combination to beat.”
He is right, but I can’t help wishing they would keep those old ferries.
1. What does Shirley Fitzgerald think of Sydney?| A．It is losing its traditions. | B．It should speed up its progress. |
| C．It should expand its population. | D．It is becoming more international. |
| A．A city can be young and old at the same time. |
| B．A city built on ancient cultures is more dynamic. |
| C．Modernity is usually achieved at the cost of elegance. |
| D．Compromise should be made between the local and the foreign. |
【推荐1】A star athlete at the college where I work recently stopped by my office. After committing a few unforced errors during a weekend match, she was torn apart by self-criticism. “I can’t stop beating myself up.” she told me. “I’m at peak fitness, and I practice hard. How is this happening?”
Many students I teach, like this athlete, believe that all-nighters in the library and hours on the field should get them exactly where they need to go. When they fall short of what they imagine they should accomplish, they are crushed by self-blame.
We talk often about young adults struggling with failure because their parents have protected them from discomfort. But there is something else at play among the most privileged in particular: a false promise that they can achieve anything if they are willing to work for it.
Psychologists have sourced this phenomenon to a misapplication of “mind-set” research, which has found that praising children for effort will increase academic performance. But a 2018 analysis found that while praising effort over ability may benefit high-risk or economically disadvantaged students, it does not necessarily help everyone.
The cruel, messy reality is that you can do everything in your power and still fail. Instead of allowing our kids to beat themselves up when things don’t go their way, we should all question a culture that has taught them that feeling anything less than overwhelmed means they’re lazy, and that where they go to college matters more than the kind of person they are. It’s suggested that parents and teachers spend time helping students find purpose, or goals they genuinely love to pursue and that make an impact on the world, which may help them gain greater life satisfaction and become more psychologically mature.
The point is not to give our kids a pass on working hard. But we would be wise to remind our kids that life has a way of sucker-punching (出其不意地击打) us when we least expect it. It’s often the people who learn to say “stuff happens” who gets up the fastest.
1. What can we learn from paragraph 4?| A．Praising effort over ability will surely be beneficial to all kids. |
| B．Parents should lay more emphasis on their kids’ academic performance. |
| C．The result of the “mind-set” research doesn’t apply to all cases. |
| D．Whether praising kids’ effort over ability does good to kids depends. |
| A．By encouraging them to stick to a worthy cause that they truly love. |
| B．By discouraging them from working hard. |
| C．By choosing where to go to college for them. |
| D．By pushing them to fight against the cruel reality. |
| A．Students don’t care about failure at all. |
| B．Students with positive attitudes can move on more easily. |
| C．Students should bear all the failures on their own. |
| D．Students are sure to succeed if they try their best. |
【推荐2】Researchers have found that being grateful isn’t just a nice personal quality that leads to good manners. I also leads to a great payoff. By being truly thankful for all that life provides, a child has more chance of being emotionally, and socially Successful.
“Gratitude opens your mind and lets you recognize the goodness in your life,” says Froh, a psychology professor who has conducted eight studios on gratitude over the past three years. According to Froh, a grateful child feels more connected and loved. After all, if he’s able to understand that many others care enough to make an effort for him, his life is improved. When older children aged 14 to 19 are able to acknowledge their good fortune, they’re more likely to be happy and experience lower levels of depression, envy and selfness.
For the past decade, experts like Froh have been conducting “gratitude interventions(干预)”, in which kids are encouraged to do a series of exercises, from writing a thank-you note to reciting it to make a gratitude journal, Overall, the results have been encouraging: Just in comparison with adults, it seems that children become more grateful.
Yet there remains much to be learned about children and gratitude. There’s some evidence suggesting that girls are more grateful than boys, Also, Froh says that while there’s not yet any hard data, there’s possibility that a child’s ability to be grateful depends on his or her age. One study looked at gratitude and life satisfaction in kids aged 3 to 9 and found that only 7 to 9-year-olds followed the example set by their parents in their ability to feel true gratitude. Most 3 to 6-year-olds don’t have the emotional development to see outside themselves enough to be truly grateful.
So how do people apply these newfound scientific findings? Froh encourages parents not to command children to express their thanks, but to let them show gratitude in whatever way is most comfortable. As Froh points out, children learn best when grown-ups model the very behavior they’d like to see in their kids.
1. What can we know about children who are grateful?| A．They are less likely to feel depressed. |
| B．They seem to be more thoughtful. |
| C．They feel proud of others’ good fortune. |
| D．They attach importance to selfness. |
| A．By asking kids to do hard work. |
| B．By comparing kids with adults. |
| C．By guiding kids to follow good examples. |
| D．By encouraging kids to express their thanks. |
| A．Show kids true gratitude. |
| B．Set a good example to kids. |
| C．Provide a comfortable life for kids. |
| D．Tell kids how to express gratitude. |
| A．A New Scientific Finding |
| B．The Power of Gratitude |
| C．Children and Gratitude |
| D．How to Express Gratitude |
【推荐3】All parents know that one of their most important tasks is to prepare their children for an independent life, but any parent can tell you that it’s hard to let go of your children. That balance between keeping your children safe and allowing them to learn from their own mistakes can be heartbreaking. Years of experience means that parents often do know best, but on the other hand, the young, being less bound by tradition, are often more creative, more able to find new solutions to old problems. Revolutions are led by the young.
Good teachers make the growth of critical thinking easier in their students, only to find that this can lead to a questioning of the teachers’ basic beliefs. Schools encourage. parents to become involved, but are often embarrassed when parents have reservation about some of the educational methods being used. Governments encourage unimportant groups to empower themselves in order to participate fully in the development process. And they are often surprised when the new leaders of these groups turn around and attack the policies of that same government. The rebellious(叛逆的) young and the newly unimportant groups are important in social development. They are not necessarily representatives of those they want to represent or not realistic in their demands, but their voices must be heard.
Good parents know that just forbidding particular behaviors does not prevent their children from finding ways to engage in these forbidden activities. Indeed, sometimes the forbidden fruit is more inviting, just because it is not accepted by authority. Parents must work with their children to educate them on the facts, know as much as possible about the lives of their children, provide a good example, encourage more wholesome activities but also support their children when they don’t follow what is expected of them. But the most important point is that they also need to learn how to let go.
1. By saying “Revolutions are led by the young”, the author indicates that young people are more ________.| A．conventional | B．realistic |
| C．creative | D．heartbreaking |
| A．teachers’ basic beliefs should be questioned by students |
| B．schools encourage parents to question their education methods |
| C．movement is satisfied with the new leaders’ attack on the policies |
| D．the voice of the rebellious young should be heard by the government |
| A．forbid particular behaviors in their daily life |
| B．know them well and set a good example to them |
| C．educate them with facts and expect much of them |
| D．know as much as possible as their children |
| A．Letting Go—for Children’s Independent life |
| B．Parents’ Tasks—in Children’s Development |
| C．Way of Growth—for the Young Groups |
| D．Teaching Methods—for Teachers and Schools |
