It’s a beautiful fall day. Before we camp near the river, the children dashed along the water’s edge, leaping off the bank into the slow current, pushing through the mud. The scene is happily familiar. We’ve been coming to rivers since our daughters were babies. In the beginning we went to the wilderness because my husband and I loved it and selfishly wanted them to love it, too. Now we go because we can’t live without it.
According to a report released in February, teenagers in the U.S. are in the midst of an alarming mental health crisis. A survey conducted in fall 2021 found that 30% of teen girls have seriously considered suicide, a jump of 60% in the past decade. Boys are struggling, too. The CDC report calls for greater school involvement in supporting at-risk kids, better access to mental-health services and higher standards for health education. As the mother of two teenage girls, these statistics are terrifying. What can we as parents do?
For our family, the answer has always been nature. After they started school, wilderness trips became our way of disconnecting from our digitized lives, and reconnecting with each other ourselves and the natural world. What began as a family experiment was now a cornerstone in our parenting philosophy: a way of raising healthy, curious, kind, resilient (对困境有承受力的) kids in an increasingly messy world.
I’ve seen firsthand how even a few nights out a few times a year have taught our daughter valuable life skills like cooperation, compassion, resilience, problem-solving and adaptability, which is relevant to everything we do in life.
Will our strategy work? We’re still in the thick of the experiment, so it’s too soon to tell. All we can do is pay attention, keep talking, keep trying and keep going.
1. What might be the initial reason for the couple to take their daughters to nature?| A．They loved going to the wilderness. |
| B．Their daughters liked camping. |
| C．It was a beautiful day for an outing. |
| D．It started as a family experiment. |
| A．Americans are suffering mental crisis. |
| B．Girls tend to be more helpless than boys. |
| C．The findings have aroused social concern. |
| D．No mental-health services could be accessed. |
| A．Why she loves taking her daughters to the wild. |
| B．What they experience in the outdoor adventures. |
| C．How the daughters’ growth has been transformed. |
| D．How the daughters balance schooling and recreation. |
| A．How to play in the wild. | B．How to be positive. |
| C．How to conquer nature. | D．How to see connections. |
相似题推荐
【推荐1】Do you often talk with your parents? Here is some advice on how to talk with them.
Try to start your talk with something fun. This will make talking easier. For example, ask them questions about their day. How’s their work? They love this.
Make it clear what you want to tell your parents. If they have an opinion, let them finish it and don’t stop their talking. Ask them to do the same for you.
Show them respect (尊敬). Listen to them carefully and look them in the eyes.
Be honest. Honesty builds trust (信任). Life is good when your parents trust you.
If your parents don’t understand you, that’s OK. It doesn’t mean they don’t love you. Sometimes you have to explain (解释) the things to them again.
When you finish the talk, thank them for listening. Say something like, “Thanks, that helped.” It will let them know this is important to you, and make them want to do it more often.
1. The writer advises that we should be ________ if we hope our parents trust us.| A．fun | B．respectful | C．talented | D．honest |
| A．explain your idea to them | B．argue with them |
| C．look them in the eye | D．ask them to stop |
| A．By trusting them. | B．By talking to them. |
| C．By finishing the talk. | D．By saying “thanks” to them. |
| A．How to respect our parents. | B．How to trust our parents. |
| C．How to love our parents. | D．How to talk with our parents. |
【推荐2】 I was waiting for a phone call from my agent. He had left a message the night before, telling me that my show was to be cancelled. I called him several times, but each time his secretary told me that he was in a meeting and that he would call me later. So I waited, but there was still no call. Three hours passing by, I became more and more impatient. I was certain that my agent didn’t care about my work, and he didn’t care about me. I was overcome with that thought. I started to shout at the phone, “Let me wait, will you? Who do you think you are?”
At that time, I didn’t realize my wife was looking on. Without showing her surprise, she rushed in, seized the phone, tore off the wires, and shouted at the phone, “Yeah! Who do you think you are? Bad telephone! Bad telephone!” And she swept it into the wastebasket.
I stood watching her, speechless. What on earth…?
She stepped to the doorway and shouted at the rest of the house, “Now hear this! All objects in this room – if you do anything to upset my husband, out you go!” Then she turned to me, kissed me and said calmly, “Honey, you just have to learn how to take control.” With that, she left the room.
After watching a crazy woman rushing in and out, shouting at everything in sight, I noticed that something in my mood(情绪) had changed. I was laughing. How would I have trouble with that phone? Her antics helped me realize I had been driven crazy by small things. Twenty minutes later my agent did call. I was able to listen to him and talk to him calmly.
1. Why did the author shout at the telephone?| A．He was mad at the telephone. |
| B．He was angry with his agent. |
| C．He was anxious about his wife |
| D．He was impatient with the secretary. |
| A．She said nothing | B．She shouted at him. |
| C．She called the agent | D．She threw the phone away |
| A．His own behavior. | B．His wife’s suggestion |
| C．His changeable feelings | D．His wife’s sweet kiss. |
| A．Smart words | B．Unusual actions |
| C．Surprising Looks | D．Anxious feelings |
【推荐3】Raised in a fatherless home, my father was extremely strict with us children. His attitude didn’t soften as I grew into adulthood and went to college. I had to ride the bus whenever I came home. Though the bus stopped about two miles from home, Dad never met me, even in severe weather. If I spoke unhappily, he’d say in his loudest father-voice, “That’s what your legs are for!”
The walk didn’t bother me as much as the fear of walking alone along the highway and country roads. I also felt less than valued that my father didn’t seem concerned about my safety. But that feeling disappeared one spring evening.
It had been a particularly difficult week at college after long hours in labs. I longed for home. When the bus reached the stop, I stepped off and dragged my suitcase to begin the long journey home.
A row of hedge(树篱) edged the driveway that climbed the hill to our house. Once I had turned off the highway to start the last lap of my journey, I always had a sense of relief to see the hedge because it meant that I was almost home. On that particular evening, the hedge had just come into view when I saw something gray moving along the top of the hedge, moving toward the house. Upon closer observation, I realized it was the top of my father’s head. Then I knew, each time I’d come home, he had stood behind the hedge, watching, until he knew I had arrived safely. I swallowed hard against the tears. He did care, after all.
On later visits, that spot of gray became my watchtower. I could hardly wait until I was close enough to watch for its secret movement above the greenery. Upon reaching home, I would find my father sitting innocently in his chair. “So! My son, it’s you!” he’d say, his face lengthening into pretended surprise. I replied, “Yes, Dad, it’s me. I’m home.”
1. We can infer from the text that_______.| A．the author’s grandfather had a deep influence on his father |
| B．the author’s father knew that his son had found out his secret |
| C．the author’s attitude towards his father changed one spring evening |
| D．the author’s father often criticized his son for his lack of courage |
| A．he wanted to help his son build up courage |
| B．he wanted to surprise his son |
| C．he was embarrassed to meet his son on the way home |
| D．he wanted to make sure that his son was safe on his way home |
| A．My Terrible Journey Home | B．A Silly Mistake |
| C．My Father and I | D．The Gray Spot Guiding Me Home |
(1)=paragraph 1 (2)=paragraph 2 (3)=paragraph 3 (4)=paragraph 4 (5)=paragraph 5
| A．(1) → (2) (3) (4) → (5) | B．(1) (2) → (3) (4) → (5) |
| C．(1) → (2) → (3) (4) (5) | D．(1) (2) (3) → (4) (5) |
【推荐1】Last year, I went on a vacation in Italy. After climbing up a hill for a panoramic (全景的) view of the blue sea, white buildings and green olive trees, I paused to catch my breath and then positioned myself to take the best photo of this panorama.
Unfortunately, just as I took out my camera, a woman approached from behind, and planted herself right in front of my view. Like me, this woman was here to stop, sigh and appreciate the view.
Patient as I was, after about 15 minutes, I grew depressed. Was it too much to ask her to move so I could take just one picture of the landscape? Sure, I could have asked her, but something prevented me from doing so. She seemed so content in her observation. I didn’t want to mess with that.
Another 15 minutes passed and I grew bored. The woman was still there. I decided to take the photo anyway.
Now when I look at the photo, I think her presence in the photo is what makes the image interesting. The landscape, beautiful on its own, somehow comes to life and breathes because this woman is engaging (融入) with it.
This photo, with the unique beauty that unfolded before me and that woman who “ruined” it, now hangs on a wall in my bedroom. What would she think if she knew that her figure is captured (拍摄) and frozen on some strangers bedroom wall? A bedroom, after all, is a very private space, in which some woman I don’t even know has been immortalized (永存). In some ways, she lives in my house.
Perhaps we all live in each other’s spaces. Perhaps this is what photos are for: to remind us that we all appreciate beauty, that we all share a common desire for pleasure, for connection, for something that is greater than us.
That photo is a reminder, a captured moment, an unspoken conversation between two women, separated only by a thin square of glass.
1. What happened when the author was about to take a photo?| A．A woman said “Hello” to him. | B．Someone asked her to leave. |
| C．A woman blocked her view. | D．Her camera stopped working. |
| A．thinking about her past | B．enjoying herself |
| C．losing her patience | D．waiting for the sunset |
| A．The woman’s existence in the photo. | B．The rich color of the landscape. |
| C．The soft sunlight that summer day. | D．The perfect positioning of the camera. |
【推荐2】When I was younger, I faced one obstacle, the divorce (离婚) of my parents. I wanted to know why my mother left and no longer lived in my house, but I was not able to understand exactly what had happened. Puzzles became my escape as I knew that all puzzles have an answer; they had unknowingly become a large part of my childhood as they made sense to me unlike what was going on in my life.
My love for puzzles led me to buying a Rubik’s cube (魔方) after I saw my friend solve his own. In the beginning, I was unable to follow the guide that came with the first Rubik’s cube I bought, but then I searched up a tutorial online and learned by watching. Using my skill of memory, I was able to remember possible patterns that the Rubik’s cube could be after each step.
After I learned how to solve a Rubik’s cube and learned that it could be solved many ways, I never got tired of solving it, because there were so many combinations that every time I mixed it up, there was a different solution.
My outlook of the world changed, as I realized that there is not one concrete solution to everything, but multiple solutions. Being able to see things differently, the ways I solved some problems with multiple solutions were uncommon among my classmates. My 10th grade math teacher had acknowledged this when he wrote a comment on my test, saying he had not thought about solving a problem the way I had solved it. I gained a new perspective in approaching the challenges of life. The obstacles that we encounter throughout our lifetime are preparation in order for us to solve the everlasting mystery of life.
1. What were the puzzles for the author at the beginning?| A．A replacement for friends. | B．A way to understand parents. |
| C．A solution to the mysteries of life. | D．A distraction from parents’ divorce. |
| A．For the joy in the process. | B．For the achievements in learning. |
| C．For the possibility to different solutions. | D．For the praise from teachers and classmates. |
| A．Hard work pays off. | B．Rome isn’t built in one day. |
| C．Failure is the mother of success. | D．There is more than one way to go in life. |
| A．They make life more challenging. | B．They prepare people for life puzzles. |
| C．They test people’s problem-solving skills. | D．They prevent people from finding solutions. |
【推荐3】Our first year in New York we rented a small apartment with a Catholic school nearby, taught by the Sister of Charity, strong women in long black gowns and bats. I liked them a lot, especially my grandmotherly fourth grade teacher，Sister Zoe. I had a lovely name, she said, and she had me teach the whole class how to pronounce it: Yo-lan-da. As the only immigrant in my class, I was put in a special seat in the first row by the window, apart from the other children so that Sister Zoe could tutor me without disturbing them. Slowly, she enunciated(发音) the new words for me to repeat: cornflakes, subway, snow.
Soon I picked up enough English to understand a horrible wars was in the air. Sister Zoe explained to us that Russian missiles(导弹) were being collected and brought together, aimed supposedly on New York City.On the television. President Kennedy, looking worried too, was in the television at home, explaining we might have to go to war against the enemies. At school, we had air-raid drills: a worrying bell would go off and we’d move into the hall, fall to the floor, and shelter our heads with our coats. And at home, Mom and I prayed for world peace. I heard new vocabulary: nuclear bomb, radioactive fallout(放射性沉降物), bomb shelter. Sister Zoe explained how it would happen. She drew on the blackboard a picture of a mushroom and a cloud of dusty fallout that would kill us all.
The months grew cold, November, December. It was dark when I got up in the morning, and frosty when I followed my breath to school. One morning, as I sat at my desk daydreaming, out the window, I saw dots in the air like the ones Sister Zoe had drawn—random at first, then lots and lots. I screamed, “Bomb！Bomb！” Sister Zoe hurried to me. A few girls began to cry.
But then Sister Zoe’s shocked look disappeared. “Why, Yolanda dear, that’s snow!” She laughed. “Snow.”“Snow，” I repeated. I looked out the window cautiously. All my life I had heard about the white snow that fell out of American skies in the winter. From my desk I watched the fine-powder dust the sidewalk and parked cars below.“Each flake(雪花) was different，”Sister Zoe had said，“like a person，irreplaceable and beautiful.”
1. Why was the author seated apart from the other children?| A．Because she was punished for not speaking English. |
| B．Because the teacher could help her without bothering others. |
| C．Because she had trouble hearing the teacher clearly. |
| D．Because she was shy and afraid of talking to other students. |
| A．She paid no attention to the performance of her students. |
| B．She was an immigrant from America. |
| C．She taught students to draw a picture of mushroom. |
| D．She was a thoughtful and caring teacher. |
| A．hide themselves under their desks. |
| B．run to their homes immediately. |
| C．pray for world peace together. |
| D．cover their heads with their coats. |
| A．move into the hall immediately | B．corrected her patiently. |
| C．scolded her for making other girls cry | D．announced an air-raid-drill. |
| A．Snow | B．Air-raid-drills. |
| C．The Sister of Charity | D．My Childhood in New York. |
【推荐1】Encouraging children to think about the feelings of others improves their creativity, new research suggests.
The findings are from a year-long study with Design and Technology (D&T) year 9 students (aged 13 to 14) at two London schools. Students at one school spent the year following course-required lessons, while the other group’s D&T lessons used some thinking tools which are aimed at developing students’ ability to have empathy, while solving real-world problems.
Both groups of students were judged for creativity at both the start and end of the school year using a perfect test.
The results showed a significant increase in creativity among students who use the thinking tools. At the start of the year, the creativity scores of the students who followed the required curriculum, were 11% higher than those following D&T lessons. By the end, however, the situation had completely changed: creativity scores among the D&T group were 78% higher than the required-course group.
The researchers also examined specific types within the test: such as “emotional expressiveness” and “open-mindedness”. Students from the D&T group again scored much higher in these types, showing that obvious progress in empathy was improving the overall creativity scores.
Nicholl, Senior Lecturer in D&T Education, said: “When I taught Design and Technology, I didn’t see children as someone who would one day do good to society; they were people who needed to be ready to go into the world at 18. Teaching children to understand another person’s feelings and experiences is about building a society where we appreciate each other’s point of view. Surely that is something we want education to do.”
1. What’s the purpose of adopting the thinking tools?| A．To understand the feelings of others. |
| B．To develop students’ creativity. |
| C．To design new technologies. |
| D．To deal with realistic problems. |
| A．Both the groups took courses required by the curriculum. |
| B．The two groups of students were tested twice during the one-year study. |
| C．Students from the required course scored much higher in these specific types. |
| D．Creativity among the students from the D&T lessons has been slightly improved. |
| A．He is indifferent to whether the children benefit society. |
| B．The D&T lessons can be an effective way to improve grades. |
| C．Education is expected to build a society with different opinions appreciated. |
| D．The D&T lessons surely need to be taken before the children go into the world. |
| A．Emotional Education Matters |
| B．Teaching Students to Be Better |
| C．Creativity Offers Great Chances |
| D．Empathy Significantly Improves Creativity |
【推荐2】There is a popular saying in the English language, “Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me.” Well, that is not true.
Unkind words, name-calling or even the so-called “silent treatment” can hurt children as much as being physically hit, sometimes even more so. A developing brain can be damaged by unkind words, a study shows. A recent study of middle school children showed that verbal abuse by other children can harm development in the brain. The study was a project of researchers at Harvard Medical School in Massachusetts.
Researcher Martin Teicher and his team studied young adults aged between 18 and 25. These young men and women had no experience with domestic (家庭的) violence, or physical abuse by their parents. The researchers asked the young people to rate their childhood exposure to verbal abuse from both parents and other children. Then the researchers performed imaging tests on the brains of the subjects.
The images showed that the individuals who reported suffering verbal abuse from their peers in middle school had underdeveloped connections between the left and right side of the brain. The two sides of the brain are connected by a large bundle of connecting fibers called the corpus callosum (胼胝体). This was the area that was underdeveloped.
The middle school years are a time when these brain connections are developing. So, unkind, hurtful comments from children or adults during this period have the greatest effect. The researchers tested the mental and emotional condition of all the young people in the study. The tests showed that this same group of individuals had higher levels of fear, depression, annoyance and drug abuse than others in the study.
The researchers published their findings online on the American Journal of Psychiatry’s website. We cannot control what other people say to our children. But we can prepare them. A website called CreativeWithKids. com suggests 64 things that all children need to hear. Here are our top 20.
1. Why is the saying in the first paragraph quoted?| A．To arouse readers’ concern. |
| B．To introduce the topic of the passage. |
| C．To summarize the whole passage. |
| D．To act as the basis of the research. |
| A．middle school students have underdeveloped connections between who sides of the brain |
| B．drug abuse affects middle school students more than verbal abuse |
| C．only hurtful comments from children have the greatest effect on brains |
| D．the corpus callosum will be underdeveloped if affected by unkind words |
| A．Actions speak louder than words |
| B．Words will never hurt you |
| C．Unkind words hurt the brain |
| D．Spare the words, spoil the child |
| A．Some beneficial words to say. |
| B．Ways to deal with middle school students. |
| C．Further research done in the field. |
| D．Different opinions about the findings. |
【推荐3】Teaching the true meaning of the holidays
While parents are focusing on this all year round, the holidays are a major built-in opportunity for parents to help children develop character and values. Receiving gifts has no long-term effect on a child’s development, but contributing to others and learning about giving and selflessness does.
Show historical significance
It’s important to help children understand the history of the holidays their own family celebrate. Read fiction or non-fiction books about the holidays and visit places where holidays are celebrated in different days.
Encourage thoughtful planning
When preparing for the holidays, involve your child in the act of cooking or buying gifts.
Get crafts with giving
Find ways for your child to give back to teach the true meaning of holiday giving. Suggest that each child get a toy by donating toys to those in need.
Set an example
| A．Share and create traditions. |
| B．They are giving and getting all at the same time. |
| C．So it is time to teach children the true meaning of the holidays. |
| D．Classics can inspire your child to think about the true meaning of the holidays. |
| E．Ask your child to make a list of people who devote their lives to helping others. |
| F．Help them make connections between the values of the holidays and their actions. |
| G．Parents are the role models who can teach children the true meaning of the holidays. |
