I wanted to set myself the writing challenge of citing some of the many positive things about having a baby. It’s addressed to one person, but I hope that those who find themselves at a similar crossroads get help from it.
To my friend A,
All you ever seem to hear about parenthood is negative. I do not feel this. You create a new life in that child, and with that baby, you get a new life, too. When I became a mother, my own mother’s embrace, and my father’s, not to mention my extended family’s, have kept me going.
We are used to hearing about how motherhood limits your life, less so about how it can expand it. I have always believed that life is fundamentally about human relationships, and having a baby has enhanced mine. Becoming a mother—and giving birth—has enhanced my feelings of solidarity with other women. Parenting has also allowed me to experience childhood again. I have always wanted to give someone else a childhood. My wide-eyed little boy is at the stage where he is simply in love with the world, and that love is thrillingly unconditional. It is a privilege to witness, and it makes me determined to maintain it for him as much as I am able to, because his laugh is the best sound that I have ever heard.
A note about sleep: you will be OK-you’ve had enough wild nights to know you can cope. And you can get your body back, whatever that might mean to you. As for your career, it’s normal to worry. I speak only for myself when I say that I wish I had spent less time worrying beforehand about how I would write. I have far less time, now, but I’m still writing. Even a paragraph a day adds up to a novel, eventually. There is so much untapped joy and love there waiting for you, and I hope I’ve given you a small glimpse of some of it to hold on to.
1. Who might be the intended audience for this article?| A．Self-centered parents. |
| B．Those fearing to have a baby. |
| C．Broken-hearted friends. |
| D．Those avoiding marriage. |
| A．By explaining ideas. | B．By quoting sayings. |
| C．By comparing facts. | D．By concluding opinions. |
| A．To show how successful she was as a writer. |
| B．To note that where there is a will there is a way. |
| C．To tell her friend that giving birth is a piece of cake. |
| D．To persuade her friend not to worry about her career. |
| A．Opinion. | B．Headline. | C．Health. | D．Culture. |
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My mother insisted on knowing where we were at all times．She had to know who our friends were and what we were doing．We had to wear clean clothes every day．Other kids always wore their clothes for days． We reached the height of disgrace （耻辱） because she made our clothes herself, just to save money．
The worst is yet to come．We had to be in bed by 9:00 each night and up at 7:45 the next morning．So while my friends slept, my mother actually had the courage to break Child Labor Law．She made us work I
believed she lay awake all night thinking up mean things to do to us．Through the years, our friends' report cards had beautiful colors on them, black for passing, red for failing．My mother, however, would only be satisfied with black marks．None of us was allowed the pleasure of being a dropout （辍学者）．
She forced us to grow up into educated and honest adults．Using this as a background, I'm now trying to bring up my three children．I'm filled with pride when my children think I am mean because now I thank God every day for giving me the meanest mother in the world．
1. From the passage we can learn that the writer's mother was____．
| A．not generous at all | B．very cruel to her children |
| C．very mean with money matters | D．very strict with her children |
| A．Eating differently from other kids． | B．Letting mother know where they were． |
| C．Going to bed early and getting up early． | D．Wearing clean clothes made by mother． |
| A．the writer's family lived a miserable life |
| B．all the other kids studied better than the writer |
| C．Mother was punished for breaking the Labor Law |
| D．the writer worked hard and usually got good grades in studies |
| A．The writer is very thankful to her mother． |
| B．The writer has a deep hatred for her mother． |
| C．Mother practiced economy in running her home． |
| D．The writer is strict with her children when bringing them up． |
| A．humorous | B．hateful | C．ridiculous | D．impatient |
When her five daughters were young, Helene An always told them that there was strength in unity (团结). To show this, she held up one chopstick, representing oneperson. Then she easily broke it into two pieces. Next, she tied several chopsticks together, representing a family. She showed the girls it was hard to break the tied chopsticks. This lesson about family unity stayed with the daughters as they grew up.
Helene An and her family own a large restaurant business in California. However, when Helene and her husband Danny left their home in Vietnam in 1975, they didn't have much money. They moved their family to San Francisco. There they joined Danny's mother, Diana, who owned a small Italian sandwich shop. Soon afterwards, Helene and Diana changed the sandwich shop into a small Vietnamese restaurant. The five daughters helped in the restaurant when they were young. However, Helene did not want her daughters to always work in the family business because she thought it was too hard.
Eventually the girls all graduated from college and went away to work for themselves, but one by one, the daughters returned to work in the family business. They opened new restaurants in San Francisco and Los Angeles. Even though family members sometimes disagreed with each other, they worked together to make the business successful. Daughter Elisabeth explains, "Our mother taught us that to succeed we must have unity, and to have unity we must have peace. Without the strength of the family, there is no business."
Their expanding business became a large corporation in 1996, with three generations of Ans working together. Now the Ans' corporation makes more than $20 million each year. Although they began with a small restaurant, they had big dreams, and they worked together. Now they are a big success.
1. Helene tied several chopsticks together to show ______.
| A．the strength of family unity |
| B．the difficulty of growing up |
| C．the advantage of chopsticks |
| D．the best way of giving a lesson |
| A．started a business in 1975 |
| B．left Vietnam without much money |
| C．bought a restaurant in San Francisco |
| D．opened a sandwich shop in Los Angeles |
| A．They did not finish their college education. |
| B．They could not bear to work in the family business. |
| C．They were influenced by what Helene taught them. |
| D．They were troubled by disagreement among family members. |
| A．How to Run a Corporation |
| B．Strength Comes from Peace |
| C．How to Achieve a Big Dream |
| D．Family Unity Builds Success |
【推荐3】When we're in need, we always turn to our parents for help. But would you like them to hear the conversations you have with your friends on the school playground or lunch queue? Social networking sites have become extensions (延伸)of the school hallways, so would you add your parents as "friends" and allow them to view your online activities and conversations with friends？
In the past the generation gap included a technology gap, where children were up to date with the latest technology and parents were left behind, content to continue their day-to-day lives as they always had because they had no need to know more about technology. However, more and more parents are beginning to realize just how important social networks are in their lives. This realization has given many parents the motivation to educate themselves about social networking sites.
These days many people are attracted to social networking sites because they can choose who they have around them; there's also a certain amount of control over privacy(隐私) that we don't get in real life. Sometimes we feel that privacy is violated when we must accept a "friend" request from a parent or family member.
It's a difficult choice whether or not to allow a parent to become a part of our online lives. On the one hand we don't want to "reject" their request because that might hurt their feelings or make them feel you have something to hide. On the other hand if you do accept, then you could have a sense of being watched and no longer feel free to comment or communicate the way you did before.
A recent survey suggested that parents shouldn't take it personally if their children overlook their requests. When a teenager overlooks a parent's friend request, it doesn't necessarily mean that he/she is hiding something, but it could mean that this is one part of his/her life where he/she wants to be independent.
Perhaps talking with parents and explaining would help soften the blow if you do choose not to add them to your friend list.
1. What is the passage mainly about?| A．Privacy online. | B．Parents' friend requests. |
| C．The generation gap. | D．Social networks. |
| A．Parents have realized the importance of social networks. |
| B．Parents feel secure about their privacy online. |
| C．Social networks successfully fill the generation gap. |
| D．Social networks offer a platform for parents to communicate. |
| A．Their parents make negative comments on them. |
| B．They hide something from their parents. |
| C．They are unwilling to be watched by parents. |
| D．Their parents tend to fall behind in technology. |
| A．Parents. | B．Teachers. |
| C．Researchers. | D．Teenagers. |
【推荐1】An advance in electronic publishing could make the e-book you are reading seem as dated as a silent film. Publishers hope to explore the growing success of e-books by releasing versions with added soundtracks(电影配音) and musical accompaniments.
The noises in the first multimedia books — released in Britain on Friday — include rain hitting a window in a Sherlock Holmes tale. When the plot of a book reaches the most exciting part, background scores will create tension.
Supporters argue that sound effects are the next logical development for e-books and will add excitement for younger readers. Critics, however, will argue that the noise will ruin the simple pleasure of having the imagination stimulated by reading.
Caroline Michel, chief executive of the literary agency, said the new generation of computer- literate readers was used to multiple sensory input. She said, “Young people have split computer screens where they may be watching television and replying to an email at the same time. If that‟s what the market wants then we should respond to the market.”
Book track‟s sound effects work by estimating the user‟s reading speed. Each time you turn a page, the software reassesses where you have reached in the text and times the sounds to switch on accordingly. If the soundtrack becomes out of synch (同步), a click on any word will reset it.
Some authors fear that a soundtrack could destroy the peace and quiet of libraries and ruin the pleasure, of reading. David Nicholls, author of Our Day, the bestseller now released as a film, said, “This sounds like the opposite of reading. I have enough trouble reading an e-book because I‟m constantly distracted by emails.”
Stuart Mat Bride, the crime writer whose novel Shatter the Bones was an e-book bestseller, sells 18% of his books as electronic downloads. He said, “If I‟m reading, I will do the noise in my head. I don‟t need someone to tell me what tea cups clinking sounds like. That would irritate(激怒) me.”
1. What does the underlined word “dated” in Paragraph 1 mean?| A．interesting | B．new |
| C．beautiful | D．old-fashioned |
| A．Help to release an e-book as a film. |
| B．Help readers improve reading speed. |
| C．Add tension at a book's exciting point. |
| D．Get readers familiar with the background. |
| A．Mr. Darcy. | B．Caroline Michel. |
| C．David Nicholls. | D．Stuart MacBride. |
| A．Opinions about e-books with soundtracks. |
| B．Response to the need of the book market. |
| C．Reasons for traditional e-books becoming outdated. |
| D．Suggestions on encouraging readers' imagination. |
【推荐2】The year 2020 is stormy, but rainbows are everywhere. Across the COVID-19 stricken world, bright and happy rainbows have become window colors and choices on store shelves.
The rainbows started appearing all over Italy within a few days of schools closing for the first lockdown, back in March. Crayon drawings were taped to the inside of windows; poster-painted banners hung from balconies.
When the pandemic came to Britain, the rainbows came too, with the Italian message of positivity morphing into thanks to the NHS. Then, during the months of lockdown, the rainbows moved inside our homes, with a craze for arranging books by colour in pursuit of an aesthetically pleasant Zoom background.
In April this year, the largest cabin hospital in the Philippines was completed, divided into six wards of different colors. The colors of the rainbow were not only pleasing to the eye, but also conveying a positive and optimistic spirit to patients.
The rainbow is to 2020 what “keep calm and carry on” was to 1939. And just as “keep calm and carry on” began as a public information campaign but became a tea towel industry, what began as a gesture of hope is now a big business. John Lewis reports that a rainbow baubles nearly festive bestseller. Tracksuit enthusiasts are sitting out the second lockdown in Olivia Rubin’s £150 rainbow stripe tracksuits.
Optimism is the hottest commodity of 2020. But some people are irritated by the way consumer culture commodifies the human experience, packaging our hopes and dreams as if they were just another product in the warehouse. But the fashion editor-turned-designer JJ Martin says, “It’s great to have the colourful dress, but the magic of a rainbow isn’t really about the pot of gold. What actually counts is the flame you turn on inside yourself. ”
1. Where might people see the rainbow?| A．In the Italian message of thanks to the NHS. | B．On the banners of the schools under lockdown. |
| C．In the study with the books sorted by color. | D．On the outside of Britain’s largest cabin hospital. |
| A．Fascinated. | B．Angered. | C．Challenged. | D．Embarrassed. |
| A．They helped people out of the lockdown. | B．They conveyed thanks to the medical staff. |
| C．They came to the same end | D．They displayed a feature of the towel industry. |
| A．The relaxation of mind is equal to wealth. |
| B．The tracksuits of Olivia Rubin are to be mass-produced. |
| C．The commercialization of feelings is somewhat reasonable. |
| D．The significance of the rainbow is to lift people up. |
【推荐3】With the development of AI technology, many people are debating the boundary between robot and man -- Will robots become more intelligent and eventually replace humans? By contrast, what we really need to worry about is actually “men being forced to become machines”.
The tasks of takeout riders are controlled by an invisible hand -- the intelligent distribution system. “In order to make the riders more focused on food delivery, this system replaces our human logic to the maximum extent possible.” The riders don’t need to think; they just have to follow the guide of the system to fulfill their tasks. All they have to do is riding as fast as they can. The navigation system charts the “best route” for these riders to go over an overpass, through a fence, or even on the wrong side of the road, which, of course, promises the shortest delivery time. That is why these riders have to race against time as they over-speed, run red lights and go on the wrong road; they have to be faster, and faster. Their actions may be against the traffic law, but they are pushed by the pressure of “system time”. Takeout riders are just individuals who labor with their time, and they can’t go against the “system time”, so all they have to do is speeding. The riders’ physical conditions and the weather are completely invisible to the “intelligent distribution system”. It only sees a moving cartoon image on the software interface.
The scariest part of the system is that it is not only the platform, but the riders themselves that push them to go faster and faster. Every order they’ve delivered has been uploaded to the cloud data of the platform, and the algorithm will calculate the speed limit of the riders. When everyone gets faster and faster, the algorithm will speed them up appropriately. This is really a vicious circle.
Of course, each one of us can be a number in statistics, but “a person” can never be just a number. Algorithms can be cold, but human-beings are not. Data, as a tool, should serve people, but not enslave them. Technology keeps moving forward, but it also should be moving toward kindness.
1. According to the passage, what can we learn about the application of technology?| A．Robots have become more intelligent and taken the place of humans. |
| B．AI technology is accelerating takeout riders with navigation system. |
| C．The navigation system has mapped out the perfect route for these riders. |
| D．Algorithms will speed takeout riders up appropriately depending on weather. |
| A．A cartoon character accompanies every takeout rider when they perform their tasks. |
| B．Takeout riders only see a moving cartoon when they use the phone navigation system. |
| C．The navigation system ignores the real-time environment when it charts the “best routes”. |
| D．Takeout riders can’t be seen on the software interface when they navigate with their phone. |
| A．Supportive | B．Doubtful | C．Negative | D．Cautious |
| A．To call for kind application of technology in daily life |
| B．To introduce the rapid development of Takeout industry |
| C．To explain the relationship between technology and humans |
| D．To praise the contributions of technology to Takeout industry |
