Teenage life: better now, or in the past?
Does this situation sound familiar(熟悉的)?
You’re complaining(抱怨) to your parents about something. Maybe your computer isn’t powerful enough to play the latest games.
“When I was your age, there weren’t any computers or video games. And I didn’t get a bike until I was 16. And it was second-hand.
So is it really true that life is better for teenagers now? It is certainly true that many teenagers have got more things nowadays.
However, technology often means we spend more time at home. And often it’s just us, with our computer or television. Teenagers don’t do enough exercise.
What do you think? How is teenage life better these days?
| A．And it was too big for me. |
| B．A typical family is smaller now. |
| C．You get very unhappy with this. |
| D．Or your friends’ bikes are better than yours. |
| E．So they aren’t as healthy as the teenagers in the past. |
| F．Life was not easy in the past. |
| G．Technology is probably the greatest change in our life. |
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【推荐1】 Downing the last drop of an expensive famous brand H2O as well as remembering to throw the empty bottle in the recycling bin, makes you feel pretty good about yourself, right? It shouldn’t. Even when the bottles are recycled, there are all kinds of other consequences of swallowing bottled water, says Melissa Peffers, the air-quality program manager for Environmental Defense.
The containers are often filled in faraway lands, then shipped from abroad, and stored in refrigerators at your local store. Compare that with the influence on environment of turning on your tap, filling a glass, and drinking up!
Anyone who is choosing bottled water for health reasons is misguided, says Peffers, “Most bottled water is just tap water.” And what comes out of your tap is carefully monitored to follow the strict rules. Consider another fact that bottled water is surprisingly expensive, especially when compared with the alternative, which is almost free, and it is astonishing that America’s desire for bottled water seems impossible to satisfy, reaching nearly 30 billion bottles a year.
“My parents’ generation never had bottled water,” says Isabelle Silverman, an Environmental Defense legal adviser. She has made a commitment to going bottle free. “You don’t need to fetch it home from the store, and it’s cheaper,” she adds.
Bottled water’s role as a status symbol needs to change, Peffers points out. So when a waiter at an expensive restaurant offers “And what’s your drink?” that’s no reason to forget your conviction(信念). “Don’t be afraid to say, ‘I’ll have tap.’ Say it loud enough that the other tables nearby can hear you,” Peffers says. “And then spend that money on a dessert.”
1. In the first paragraph, the underlined sentence “It shouldn’t.” suggest that people _______.| A．shouldn’t feel pleased with finishing the water in the bottle |
| B．shouldn’t feel good about drinking an expensive brand H2O |
| C．shouldn’t be content with just recycling empty bottles |
| D．shouldn’t be satisfied with drinking only bottled water |
| A．as safe as bottled water |
| B．morel likely to be polluted |
| C．healthier than bottle water |
| D．less convenient than bottled water |
| A．making bottled water free |
| B．abandoning bottled water |
| C．recycling use water bottles |
| D．providing free water containers |
| A．To encourage them to set an example for others to follow. |
| B．To advise them to save the money for one more dessert. |
| C．To remind them to be aware of their social status. |
| D．To persuade them to speak confidently in public. |
阅读下列短文，从每题所给的四个选项（A、B、C和D）中，选出最佳选项。
What is it that makes people laugh? More than two thousand years ago the ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle defined (定义) jokes as the pleasure that results from a feeling of triumph(胜利) by showing we're better than someone else in a certain way. According to Aristotle and many other philosophers，all jokes depend mainly on showing inferiority in another person or group of persons—that is，putting it clearly，on showing that they are worse off than ourselves. Jokes raise our good opinion of ourselves at someone else's expense.
Showing how much better than other people we are is only one reason we like jokes. Someone may also use a joke to express their anger or their cruelty or any other kind of action that is not acceptable to us. We feel free to laugh when we hear about someone sliding on a banana skin. The joke lets us express those attitudes which are usually unacceptable to society. This is probably the reason why some of the jokes，especially those involving cruelty，are so popular with certain people.
Besides，all jokes depend on our enjoyment of laughing at something that is strange and out of place because it's different from things which are happening around it. The same situation can be either sad or pleasant，depending entirely on how strange and out of place it is. If a girl in a bathing suit falls into a swimming pool，we don't laugh because nothing unusual has happened. But if a man in a smart suit falls in，the situation is at once unusual in a pleasant way and we laugh. A good joke-teller will always try to build up a situation in which one thing is expected until something unexpected suddenly happens，and so we laugh.
1. According to Aristotle，all jokes depend mainly on ________.
| A．showing inferiority in another person or group |
| B．resulting in a sense of success |
| C．having a good opinion of other people |
| D．making people laugh unexpectedly |
| A．something that is not as good as something else |
| B．something that is better than something else |
| C．someone that is not as good as someone else |
| D．someone that is better than someone else |
| A．Showing we are better than other people is the only one reason we like jokes. |
| B．When people are angry，they would like to hear jokes. |
| C．People who like jokes are usually cruel. |
| D．To express those attitudes usually unacceptable to society is one of the reasons we like jokes. |
| A．Make a sad situation into a pleasant one. |
| B．Make different things happen at the same time. |
| C．Make an unexpected thing happen in an expected situation. |
| D．Make people laugh at something unusual and out of place. |
【推荐3】Nowadays, there’s lots of advice on how to give praise and positive comments to others, but few suggestions on how to receive the flattering (奉承的) messages. Accepting praise can make many people feel like a fish out of water even if we are proud of our achievements. This is exactly how I felt at my dad’s birthday party.
Just a few days before, I received my university results; my parents were so proud of me. On arrival, every guest already knew my grades. As the party went on, I was surrounded by so much unexpected praise! Concerned about stealing my dad’s spotlight, I tried to turn the kind attention away from myself by joking that the professor must have been in a very good mood when she marked my paper, and that I was just “lucky”.
Few of us wish to appear vain (自负的) for fear that our honor will cause envy (如忌) from others. In the workplace, there’s fear that praise might bring extra work and higher expectations.
Looking back, the praise I received from the guests at the party was heartfelt. My degree hadn’t helped them in any way so there was no duty for them to comment, but they still cared enough to say “well done". Instead of ignoring the praise, I should comment on how kind they were for noticing, or how pleased I was with my achievements.
Another good choice is to “forward” praise—perhaps other people played a part in your success and deserve (应得) to share the attention. If you’re still lost for words, a simple “thank you” is the best way to go. So, the next time you get the praise you deserve, don’t hide your pride and try to enjoy the moment.
1. How did the author feel at her father’s birthday party?| A．Proud. | B．Confident. | C．Ashamed. | D．Restless. |
| A．To express her appreciation to the praise. |
| B．To show her pride in her achievement. |
| C．To credit her achievements to the professor. |
| D．To hide her embarrassment about the praise. |
| A．Make a joke. | B．Hide your achievements. |
| C．Accept it and say thanks. | D．Ask for more praise. |
| A．Never spare your praise | B．Enjoy what you deserve |
| C．Show what you are proud of | D．Be humble and avoid attention |
【推荐1】Over the past few months, COVID-19 has caused great uncertainty around the world affecting people's lives in all aspects.Education is also greatly affected. With students all turning to online instruction, live-streamed classes have become popular among schools and universities.
In China, the use of e-learning is unusual not only in size but also in depth.
In fact,online instruction as an alternative teaching mode has been expanding rapidly in recent years.Many Chinese start-ups focus on AI applications in online courses,and various online educational platforms are set up.
Compared with formal instruction,online courses save abundant costs and create a flexible teaching mode(模式）－homeschooling,especially during a crisis.
| A．However,online teaching has its own disadvantages. |
| B．The traditional face-to-face teaching style has been challenged. |
| C．Chinese colleges and universities started the spring term online. |
| D．Moreover,online education is fairly acceptable to college education. |
| E．Online teaching provides a chance to reconsider the current education system. |
| F．For one thing,the impressive practice sets a good example to other countries. |
| G．So,it's early to predict how the future of the education system will look like. |
【推荐2】Now that members of Generation Z are graduating college this spring—the most commonly-accepted definition says this generation was born after 1995, give or take a year—the attention has been rising steadily in recent weeks. Gen Zs are about to hit the streets looking for work in a labor market that’s tighter than it’s been in decades. And employers are planning on hiring about 17 percent more new graduates for jobs in the U.S. this year than last, according to a survey conducted by the National Association of Colleges and Employers. Everybody wants to know how the people who will soon inhabit those empty office cubicles will differ from those who came before them.
If “entitled” is the most common adjective, fairly or not, applied to millennials (those born between 1981 and 1995), the catchwords for Generation Z are “practical and cautious”. According to the career counselors and expert who study them, Generation Zs are clear-eyed, economic pragmatists. Despite graduating into the best economy in the past 50 years, Gen Zs know what an economic train wreck looks like. They were impressionable kids during the crash of 2008, when many of their parents lost their jobs or their life savings or both. They aren’t interested in taking any chances. The booming economy seems to have done little to assuage this underlying generational sense of anxious urgency, especially for those who have college debt. College loan balances in the U.S. now stand at a record $1.5 trillion, according to the Federal Reserve.
One survey from Accenture found that 88 percent of graduating seniors this year chose their major with a job in mind. In a 2019 survey of University of Georgia students, meanwhile, the career office found the most desirable trait in a future employer was the ability to offer secure employment (followed by professional development and training, and then inspiring purpose). Job security or stability was the second most important career goal (work-life balance was number one), followed by a sense of being dedicated to a cause or to feel good about serving the great good.
1. Generation Zs graduating college this spring ________ .| A．are recognized for their abilities |
| B．are in favor of job offers |
| C．are optimistic about the labor market |
| D．are drawing growing public attention |
| A．what a tough economic situation is like |
| B．what their parents expect of them |
| C．how they differ from past generations |
| D．how valuable a counselors advice is |
| A．define | B．relieve | C．maintain | D．deepen |
| A．care little about their job performance |
| B．give top priority to professional training |
| C．think it hard to achieve work-life balance |
| D．have a clear idea about their future job |
【推荐3】People duck responsibility for reasons ranging from simple laziness or a fear of failure, through to a sense of feeling frightened by the scale of a problem or a situation. Whatever the reason, if people fail to take responsibility, they’ll fail in their jobs, they’ll fail their teams, and they’ll fail to grow as individuals. All of this makes it important to address the issue.
Signs of not being responsible
There are several signs to watch out for. These include:
Lacking interest in their work, and in the well-being of the team
Blaming others for mistakes and failures
Missing deadlines
Avoiding challenging tasks and projects, and not taking risks
Regularly complaining about unfair treatment by team leaders and members and engaging in self-pity
Avoiding being dependent on others for work, advice and instructions
Lacking trust in team members and leaders
Ways to encourage responsibility
Start by talking
Your first step is to talk to the individuals concerned. Are there circumstances that are contributing to the situation, or problems that you can deal with?
Communicate roles, responsibilities and objectives
Your people need to know clearly what their roles and responsibilities are. Ensure that you have an up-to-date job description for each team member, and be as detailed as possible about every responsibility that they have.
Re-engage people
Your people will be more engaged if their work is supported with their values. Talk to them to find out what they are. Then, illustrate how their daily tasks and responsibilities go with those values.
Give plenty of praise
Finally, be sure to give your people plenty of praise when they do take responsibility. And help them improve by providing them with regular, effective and fair feedback.
1. What will happen if John fails to take responsibility?| A．He can complete his jobs. |
| B．His teams may suffer. |
| C．His growth will continue. |
| D．He will lose his life. |
| A．“It’s not my fault.” |
| B．“I’ll have it completed tomorrow.” |
| C．“It’s tough, but I can manage it.” |
| D．“I need resources to solve the problem. ” |
| A．Let him know their specific tasks. |
| B．Get them to find out the values of work. |
| C．Praise them for their good jobs. |
| D．Have a chat with him to find out problems. |
