【推荐2】When the kids are out of school, parents are eager to use the holidays for some quality family time.     1     While there’s great concern among parents about the impact of screens on physical activity and face-to-face communications, parental use of screens is often overlooked. One recent report found that parents spend over nine hours per day with screen media. It s no wonder that families find it hard to have high-quality social interactions.

Want our kids to put down the phones and tablets?    2     It’s necessary that we unplug when we ask our kids to do the same. Some family activities we create can help us engage with our kids without the concern of screen time.

Why not leave the devices at home and go for a tech-free nature walk? It will be an opportunity to make us more connected to the world beyond the screen. Focus on being in the moment and kids may enjoy collecting plant seeds or stones.    3    

A board game night is ideal for bringing family members together and being engaged. Moreover, playing games together fosters social interaction, cooperation, and the development of Social Emotional Learning (SEL).    4    

Some other family activities are wonderfully fun without the use of electronic devices. For example, take the kids swimming, or bring them to an indoor rock climbing gym. Bake a cake for a neighbor or plant a garden.    5    Your kids will get lost in the activity, forgetting the devices.

To be clear, technology has many benefits to parents and children. However, creating some tech-free time can help parents and kids feel more connected to each other.

A．We parents must model that behavior.

B．Even so, too much of a good thing can be bad for family time.

C．However, many of us find it hard to compete with electronics.

D．Parents may learn from their kids about science and nature as well.

E．Best of all, family members can enjoy being engaged in a shared experience.

F．The kids are more likely to have buy-in when they feel like they have a say.

G．All these activities require family members to focus their attention on the task at hand.

【推荐3】Being twins, my brother Ethan and I were dressed in same clothes.     1     As we grew, Ethan and I were excited to start our own identities. We made different friends, wore different clothes. In high school we often prevented talking to each other. Then we chose different colleges and were living apart for the first time in our lives.

This was exciting to me: life without a twin, without people mixing me up with Ethan.     2     Alone at college, I felt like I had lost something.

In some ways, being apart brought Ethan and me closer together. Once we were at colleges in different states, we began calling each other. I can’t remember who called who first, and we never talked about feelings, or philosophy (哲学), or about any serious topic.     3     “I haven’t slept in 24 hours.” “I just ate a huge hamburger.” At the end of my long-distance chats with Ethan, he’d hang up, and I’d be alone again in my room.

    4     So we really got something by crossing the miles.

Ethan and I are living together again for now, back in our childhood home, along with my parents and my sister. We stay up late playing video games, playing jokes, belly-laughing (捧腹大笑) softly so we don’t awake others.     5     Ethan often makes fun of me. It’s nice, not being alone.

A．We looked the same.

B．We went to the same senior high.

C．So I was attracted to this new life.

D．But the change also frightened me.

E．We still seldom talk about serious topics.

F．We’d just give pieces of little new information.

G．The distance allowed us to figure out what we actually like about each other.

【推荐1】One night about nine o'clock, Dr. Eyck, a surgeon (外科医生), had a phone call from Dr. Haydon at the hospital in Clens Falls. The surgeon was asked to go there at once to operate on a very sick boy who shot himself while playing with a gun.

The doctor was soon on his way to Clens Falls. It was 60 miles away. And it was snowing heavily in the city. The surgeon thought he could get there before 12 o'clock.

A few minutes later, the doctor was stopped by a man in an old black coat. Gun in hand, the man ordered the doctor to get out. Then the man drove the car down the road, leaving the doctor in the falling snow.

It was after two o'clock in the morning when the doctor arrived at the hospital in Clens Falls. Dr. Haydon told him that the boy had died an hour before.

The two doctors walked by the door of the hospital waiting room. There sat the man in the old black coat with his head in his hands.

"MR. Cunningham," said Dr. Haydon to the man, "This is Dr. Eyck. He is the surgeon who came all the way from Albany to save your boy."

1. The surgeon was late because________.

A．he was stopped by a beggar

B．the weather was rather terrible

C．Clens Falls was far away from Albany

D．His car was taken away

2. Choose the right order of the events given in the story____.
a. Dr. Eyck was asked to come to the hospital in Clens Falls.
b. Dr. Eyck arrived at the hospital.
c. The boy shot himself.
d. The boy died.
e. The man in an old coat reached the hospital.
f. Dr. Eyck was robbed (抢劫) of his car.

A．c, e, f, a, b, d	B．a, c, f, d, b, e
C．c, a, f, e, d, b	D．a, c, f, e, d, b

3. The boy died because________.

A．he was too far away from hospital

B．Dr. Haydon didn’t do anything to save him

C．Dr. Eyck was not able to arrive at the hospital in time

D．something was wrong with Dr. Eyck’s car

4. Who should be responsible for the boy’s death?

A．The boy’s father.	B．The hospital.
C．Dr. Eyck.	D．Dr. Haydon.

【推荐3】Do you know who invented the slide-fastener, or rather, the zipper(拉链)? No one thought of anything like the zipper until Whitcomb Judson came along. Judson’s slide-fastener was an out-of-blue invention. No one knows what gave him the idea. No one even knows much about him, except that he was a mechanical engineer living in Chicago and that he patented other inventions to do with a street railway system and motorcars.

Judson invented the first zipper in 1891. This ingenious little device looks very simple, and the principle behind it is simple, too; yet it took a lot of years, together with another inventor to make the zipper really practical.

The zipper had to be produced cheaply, because no one would pay a lot of money for it. Judson invented a machine to mass-produce his slide-fastener. But the machine was terribly complicated and kept on breaking down. So in 1905 Judson invented a new fastener, the C-curity, which was easier to manufacture. Clothing manufacturers, however, were not the least bit interested in trying out the fasteners, so the only way Judson could get them on to the market was by letting pedlars sell them from door to door. Moreover, the C-curity fastener was clumsy and had a bad habit of bursting open at inconvenient times.

Then a young Swedish engineer called Sundback came to work for Judson’s struggling company. He thought hard and decided that the interlocking parts needed to be much smaller to give the fastener greater flexibility and to stop it bursting open. After several attempts, Sundback invented a really practical fastener in 1913. It is in all important ways the same as the one we use today.

Clothing manufacturers still refused to use the fastener. But in 1918 an inventor showed the American army a flying suit he had invented. It happened to use the slide-fastener. The army put the suit through such tough tests that it disintegrated(分裂)—all except the fastener! A Navy officer happened to see the tests, and Judson’s unknown little company got an order for ten thousand fasteners. Later, Judson’s invention was used in the manufacture of rubber galoshes by a big company. They called the galoshes `Zippers´. This is how the slide-fastener got its popular name.

1. What does the sentence “Whitcomb Judson’s slide-fastener was called an out-of-blue invention” in the first paragraph mean?

A．That it was blue in color.

B．That it was totally unexpected.

C．That it was excellent in quality.

D．That it was not practical.

2. How many years did it take for a really practical zipper to be invented?

A．22.	B．18.
C．19.	D．13.

3. What do we know about Whitcomb Judson according to the passage?

A．It took Judson a lot of years to invent the first zippers.

B．Judson, together with Sundback invented a really practical fastener in 1913.

C．Judson invented a lot of things, not only including zippers but also a street railway system and motorcars.

D．People know little about Whitcomb Judson except a few facts.

4. What can you conclude from the passage?

A．The invention of the zipper was not easy but its marketing was.

B．At least three inventors worked for the perfection of the zipper.

C．The slide-fastener acquired its present name only after it was used in the manufacturing of army suits.

D．It was only by a stroke of luck that the zipper found its way into a wider market.

5. What is the writer’s purpose of writingthe passage?

A．To tell us how the zipper works.

B．To give abrief sketch about the inventors of the zipper.

C．To give us information about the invention of the zipper.

D．To argue who the real inventor of the zipper was.

【推荐1】Last year, my oldest son Matthew went off to college. Things at home were not as “busy” as they used to be. We still had our 15-year-old Gabriel with us, but we missed having Matthew around. My wife soon had a crazy idea.“Let's get a dog,”she told me. I wasn’t exactly thrilled with the idea, but agreed. I mean, what’s a better way to replace a kid that has gone off to college than to get a dog?

When we got to the animal shelter, it seemed like every dog was a pit bull (比特犬). I’d had many bad experiences with pit bulls as a child, so I didn’t want to take one of them home with me. While I walked along the rows and rows of cold metal cages, a dog caught my eye. He was scared, and looked like he'd given up on life. There was only one problem: he was a pit bull.

As he looked at me with his big, beautiful eyes, I could see into his soul. I could see how scared he was and that he just wanted a happy life. I couldn’t just walk away—I had to at least go over and look at him. I approached his cage, and he just sat there, looking at me. I stuck my finger through the hole in the cage and petted him on the head. I expected him to get mad, but he didn’t. I knew that this dog had never felt love before, and he was enjoying every bit of the love I could give him in that moment. Tears began to stream down my face because I felt everything that this poor creature was feeling right then. He just wanted to be loved; he just wanted a home and a family.

It’s been a year since we took the dog home, and our lives have been changed forever. Now, his favorite thing to do is give us kisses with his giant tongue every morning. He is always there to greet us when we come home with a huge smile. He’s shown us more love than any other living creature on Earth ever had before. And every time I look into his eyes, I see love, compassion and gratitude—things I never thought that a pit bull was capable of feeling.

1. How did the author react to his wife’s idea of getting a dog?

A．He became excited.	B．He thought it was a bad idea.
C．He found it acceptable.	D．It made him feel angry.

2. Why did the author adopt the pit bull in the end?

A．His wife liked the dog a lot.

B．He found the dog was more active than the other dogs.

C．He found the dog was similar to one he used to own.

D．He found he could understand the dog’s feelings.

3. What was the author and his wife’s life like with the pit bull?

A．They lived a life full of love.

B．They found it hard to get along with him.

C．They missed having Matthew around even more.

D．They regretted adopting him.

4. What is the main purpose of the article?

A．To give advice on how to keep a pet.

B．To stress the benefits of keeping a pet.

C．To suggest people keep a pet of their own.

D．To share a warm story about adopting a pet.

【推荐2】“You’re fired!”

Andrew wasn’t joking. At that moment, the high school junior wanted his personal care attendant, Christy, out of his life forever. He didn’t want her to tell him that he didn’t need help using the computer and he could write his own term papers. Enough already.

“You’re fired!” He said it again for extra emphasis. Christy didn’t draw back. She needed this job. Hurricane Katrina had damaged her house. But the retired PE teacher wasn’t discouraged. “I’m a tough nut, ”she says today. “You know, I’ve taught middle schools.”

When Andrew was diagnosed with Asperger’s Syndrome (阿斯伯格综合征), at age eight, people told his mom, Cindy, to “get him on the list” for an attendant to provide after- school care. However, it was eight years before they were matched with Christy. Meanwhile,   Andrew’s family did their best to shelter him from life’s hardships. “I worried about him,” Cindy says. “I tended to handle a lot.”

There was a lot to worry about. Could Andrew graduate from high school? Live independently? Cindy would do anything for her son. Christy saw the problem right away. “Andrew wouldn’t take a step without his mother’s permission,” Christy remembers. “You have to let him fail,” she told the family. “It’s the only way he’s going to learn. To be able to do things on his own.”

No longer would Cindy write Andrew’s papers for him. Christy wouldn’t be helping him with homework either. He complained. Loudly at times. But then things began to change. Andrew would come home from school and start on his homework. He saw that Christy really was there for him. She wouldn’t do his papers for him. But she showed him how to get organized. Once his work was done, Christy offered freedom. She’d take him out to eat his favorite food, sushi.

One step at a time, Andrew gained independence. He graduated from high school and entered college. Last spring Andrew moved into his own apartment. At 25, he says life has never been better.

1. What might lead to Andrew’s desire to fire Christy?

A．His tiredness of learning.

B．His being rid of dependence.

C．Her longing for others’ respect.

D．Her prejudice on unhealthy people.

2. What was Cristy’s first response to Andrew’s threat?

A．She felt huge pressure.

B．She begged to stay

C．She reflected deeply.

D．She stayed calm.

3. What can we infer about the purpose of Christy’s insisting on her approach?

A．To relieve the mother’s concerns.

B．To improve Andrew’s confidence.

C．To remove Andrew’s rooted habits.

D．To cure Andrew’s existing disease.

4. Which of the following best describes Christy as a care attendant?

A．Demanding but patient.

B．Serious and outgoing.

C．Caring and energetic.

D．Stubborn but cautious.

【推荐3】More than 25 years ago, Saroo Brierley was one of many poor children in rural India. One day, he played with his brother along the rail line and fell asleep. When be woke up, finding himself alone, the 4-year-old decided his brother might be on the train he saw in front of him—so he got on.

That train took him across the country to a totally strange city, where he did not speak the language. He lived on the streets, and then in an orphanage (孤儿院). There, he was adopted by an Australian family and flown to Tasmania.

As he writes in bis new book, A Long Way Home, Brierley couldn’t help but wonder about his hometown back in India. He remembered landmarks, but since he didn’t know his town’s name, finding a small neighborhood in a vast country seemed to be impossible.

Then he found Google Earth—a digital mapping program. He spent years searching for his hometown in the program’s satellite pictures. In 2011, he came across something familiar. He studied it and realized be was looking at a town’s central business district from a bird’s-eye view. He thought, “On the right-band side you should see the three-platform train station”—and there it was. “And on the left-hand side you should see a big fountain”—and there it was.

Everything just started to match.

When he stood in front of the house where he grew up as a child, be saw a lady standing in the entrance. “There’s something about me,” be thought—and it took him a few seconds but he finally remembered what she used to look like.

“My mother looked so much shorter than I remembered. But she came forth and walked forward, and I walked forward, and my feelings and tears and the chemical in my brain, you know, it was like a nuclear fusion (核聚变). I just didn’t know what to say, because I never thought seeing my mother would ever come true. And here I am, standing in front of her.”

1. Which of the following statements is NOT true according to the text?

A．Brierley’s mother grew shorter and weaker as she aged.

B．There was a mix of feelings when Brierley saw his mother again.

C．Brierley kept trying and didn’t give up searching for his hometown.

D．Brierley didn’t recognise his mother immediately.

2. Why was Brierley separated from his family about 25 years ago?

A．He was taken away by a foreigner.	B．He was adopted by an Australian family.
C．He got on a train by mistake.	D．He got lost while playing in the street.

3. How did Brierley find his hometown?

A．By analyzing old pictures.	B．By studying digital maps.
C．By spreading his story via his book.	D．By travelling all around India.

4. What does Brierley mainly talk about in the last paragraph?

A．His memory of his hometown.	B．His love for his mother.
C．His long way back home.	D．His reunion with his mother.