There’s a quote putting, “life doesn’t come with a manual (手册); it comes with a mother.” Thankfully, for Jabez and Christopher, their manual — or mother — found a creative way to keep her little boys’ fingers safe around a sewing machine. And as a result, she turned them into successful business owners.
Queenie Jenkins from Atlanta worked in the fashion industry and in her spare time, made matching scarves and skirts on her sewing machine at home. But once she became a mother with two energetic boys at her feet, her hobby became both difficult and dangerous. So, she turned the problem into a life lesson. Jenkins taught her boys how to use the sewing machine skilfully and safely. It wasn’t long before the boys were no longer green hands. As they grew older, they knew how to change the trousers into shorts for the summer months well.
When Jabez’s elementary school held a Career Day, he made 30 bow ties and 30 hair bows to sell. Within minutes, all of them had sold out. Then Jabez launched Kings and Gents Accessories, a small workshop, in 2018 with his brother. In addition to making and selling their bow ties, the brothers have also written a book and created a YouTube channel to host meetings for other potential “kidpreneurs (儿童企业家)”.
Now as a freshman in high school, Jabez said inspiring the next generation of business owners is an important part of their mission. “We just wanted to show younger kids how we got started, and how they can get started,” said Jabez, “We’re no different than any other kids.”
Jenkins has plenty to be proud of. Not only have her boys created a successful business, but they’ve gained valuable life skills along the way. “They’ve learned not to give up, to be more creative, and to be thinkers,” said Jenkins. “They don’t allow their fear to stop them.”
1. In which aspect do Jabez and Christopher benefit most from their mother’ sewing machine?| A．Life skills. | B．Safety rules. |
| C．Business plans. | D．Cloth materials. |
| A．Awkward learners. | B．Attractive experts. |
| C．Admirable pioneers. | D．Amazing artists. |
| A．Over-all. | B．One-sided. | C．Short-lived. | D．Far-reaching. |
| A．Mama’s sewing machine |
| B．Business on the rocks |
| C．Sewing the seeds of success |
| D．Developing creative thinking |
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【推荐1】Tyler Skiuzacek’s father, Patrick, could not sleep through the night. It was 2007, and Patrick had just returned from a year in Iraq, where he served in the U. S. Army. Patrick Skluzacek was energetic and happy when he left for Iraq, Tyler says. But when he returned, he was unhappy and drinking alcohol too much. It turned out Patrick was suffering from sleep panic attacks. Patrick would wake up every night. His heart would beat too fast. He would sweat. The nighttime panic attacks prevented Patrick from feeling good the next day, because he was so tired.
Almost 10 years later, Tyler was in a position to help his father. He thought he could make a computer program that might help his father. So he entered a competition in Washington, D. C, trying to solve the problem Tyler’s father and other U. S. war veterans (老兵), were having. People called them”night terrors. ”The students had 36 hours to come up with a program. They called it myBivy—That name comes from bivouac, a military term for a safe place to sleep.
The application uses a smart watch and a smart phone together. The watch tracks the wearer’s heartbeat. It sends the data to the program on the smart phone. Research shows that a person’s heart rate will increase right before a night terror. So if the wearer’s heartbeat started to rise, myBivy would respond. The smart watch would vibrate and gently wake up the sleeping person. That was enough to prevent a night terror from happening.
Patrick wore the watch for two weeks to get used to it. Then, Tyler turned on the application. On the first night, the vibrations from the watch prevented 10 nightmares. Patrick said he had not slept that well in many years. Tyler and his team won the contest in Washington, D. C. The prize was $1,500. Then the group tried to raise more money from investors, and they were surprised when they took in over$25,000. By the spring of 2016, Tyler and his team were testing the app with volunteers, and hoped to make it available to the public soon.
1. What might be the cause of Patrick’s problem?| A．His experience in the war. | B．His drinking habit. |
| C．His family troubles. | D．His sleeping disorder. |
| A．the US government tries to help war veterans |
| B．people look down upon the night terrors |
| C．many other veterans suffer similar problems |
| D．myBivy was named after a great soldier |
| A．How effective the app is. | B．How to download the app. |
| C．How to design the app. | D．How the app works. |
| A．Valueless. | B．Promising. |
| C．Tough. | D．Controversial. |
So they quit their jobs, took their sons, then aged six and nine, out of school and went to southern Spain where they bought a 15-meter yacht (游艇) and headed up the coast to Barcelona. Soracah was not even three. And they brought along Poppy, the family dog. Now, two and a half years and 10,000 km later, they don’t intend to stop. Tedd is a yacht engineer and can find work in ports. But, says Phillida, a supply teacher(代课老师), “Any family could do this”.
The children are home-schooled using a correspondence course（函授课程）. My son had a recent project on the weather. The weather is vital to us. My son knows more than most adults about weather systems, compasses, maps and directions. The weather, for him, means life or death.
Other subjects have become equally vivid. “They’re living geography and history all the time. We’ve sailed round Italy, Sardinia, Sicily, and seen tiny islands we didn’t know. The kids learned about ancient Romans by visiting Rome. One summer off the Italian coast we sailed past a volcano at 2am. We woke the kids. There it was, under the moon, with fire coming out the top―you don’t get that in a textbook.”
But what about social development? Again, Phillida is sanguine. “The children have become much more socially confident since we set out. They play with tones of families of all nationalities on other boats we meet.”
Living for the moment, they believe, is a huge life lesson. “Our children never say they’re bored.” The other day they stopped mid-ocean and the kids swam, 110km from land. “That’s the kind of freedom we want for them,” says Phillida. “That’s the kind of freedom they’ve got.”
1. The couple quit their jobs and took their children traveling because .
| A．their children wanted to make friends of all nationalities. |
| B．they wanted to experience more in their lives. |
| C．their children wanted completed freedom. |
| D．they were unhappy with their lives. |
| A．patient | B．curious | C．excited | D．optimistic |
| A．using examples |
| B．making comparisons |
| C．following the order of importance |
| D．describing the changes in space order |
| A．they plan to stop for a rest. |
| B．they have toured for more than 3 years |
| C．they believe any family can do the same thing as they can do |
| D．They have made several geographical and historical discovers |
Having Dinner with Children
Even if you are not there at home for a whole day, you should make sure that you have dinner with your children. Moreover, you should make it a point that you are having dinner with your entire family. Also, you should avoid watching TV when you are having dinner with your family.
Helping Child Complete Homework
Helping your child complete homework will help you know how he/she is at studies. It is not that you have to spend hours regularly helping your child with homework. But, sometimes you can help your child solve some questions. In this way, you will get to spend time with your child as well as get to know about his or her studies.
Fun Activities
During weekends you can indulge your child in fun activities like gardening, painting etc. However, do not force your child to do so. You can also spend some time in teaching your child finger painting, vegetable painting and craft work. You may even help your child complete his or her art and craft assignments. These activities will help you improve creativity of your child as well as the interaction between you and your child.
1. The passage is mainly about_________.
| A．the importance of spending time with children |
| B．the ways to spend time with children |
| C．the reasons to spend time with children |
| D．the activities children like to take part in |
| A．watch TV with their children |
| B．stay at home a whole day |
| C．spend time with the whole family |
| D．avoid listening to some music |
| A．push | B．put | C．ask | D．allow |
| A．Spending time with children for parents is a must. |
| B．Parents should spend time regularly with children’s homework. |
| C．Helping children with homework will help improve their creativity. |
| D．Parents should pick up their children regularly. |
【推荐1】By day, Robert Titterton is a lawyer. In his spare time he goes on stage beside pianist Maria Raspopova—not as a musician but as her page turner. “I’m not a trained musician, but I’ve learnt to read music so I can help Maria in her performance.”
Mr. Titterton is chairman of the Omega Ensemble but has been the group’s official page turner for the past four years. His job is to sit beside the pianist and turn the pages of the score(总谱) so the musician doesn’t have to break the flow of sound by doing it themselves. He said he became just as nervous as those playing instruments on stage.
“It’s a demanding job. A lot of skills are needed for it. You have to make sure you don’t turn two pages at once and make sure you find the repeats in the music when you have to go back to the right spot.” Mr. Titterton explained.
Being a page turner requires plenty of practice. Some pieces of music can go for 40 minutes and require up to 50 page turns, including back turns for repeat passages. Silent onstage communication is key, and each pianist has their own style of “nodding” to indicate a page turn which they need to practise with their page turner.
But like all performances, there are moments when things go wrong. “I was turning the page to get ready for the next page, but the wind from the turn caused the spare pages to fall off the stand.” Mr. Titterton said. “Luckily I was able to catch them and put them back.”
Most page turners are piano students or up-and-coming concert pianists, although Ms Raspopova has once asked her husband to help her out on stage.
“My husband is the worst page turner.” she laughed. “He’s interested in the music, feeling every note, and I have to say: ‘Turn, turn!’ Robert is the best page turner I’ve had in my entire life.”
1. What should Titterton be able to do to be a page turner?| A．Read music. | B．Play the piano. | C．Sing songs. | D．Fix the instruments. |
| A．boring | B．tiring | C．challenging | D．creative |
| A．Counting the pages. |
| B．Recognizing the “nodding”. |
| C．Catching falling objects. |
| D．Performing in his own style. |
| A．He has very poor eyesight. |
| B．He ignores the audience. |
| C．He has no interest in music. |
| D．He forgets to do his job. |
| A．Satisfied. | B．Disappointed. | C．Doubtful. | D．Hateful. |
【推荐2】Born in New York in 1918, scientist Gertrude B. Elion had an impressive career, during which she developed medicines to cure many major diseases.
Gertrude B. Elion spent her early youth in Manhattan. She attended senior high school and had, in her words, “an unbelievable thirst for knowledge”.
Influenced by the death of her grandfather, who died of cancer, Elion entered Hunter College at age 15 and graduated in chemistry at age 19. She had difficulty finding employment after graduation, because many laboratories refused to hire women chemists. She found part-time jobs as a lab assistant and went back to school at New York University. Elion worked as a high school teacher for a few years while finishing work on her master’s degree, which she earned in 1941.
The start of World War II created more opportunities for women. Elion was able to get a job at Burroughs-Wellcome in 1944, where she began a 40-year partnership with Dr. George H. Hitchings. Her thirst for knowledge impressed Dr. Hitchings, and he permitted her to take on more responsibility.
Elion and Hitchings set out on a course of creating medicines by studying the chemical composition of diseased cells. Rather than relying on old trial-and-error methods, they used the differences in biochemistry between normal human cells and pathogens (病原体) to design medicines. In all, Elion obtained 45 patents on medicine and was awarded 23 honorary degrees (名誉学位).
In 1988, Elion received the Nobel Prize for Medicine, together with George H. Hitchings and Sir James Black. She received other awards for her work, including the National Medal of Science in 1991, and that same year, she became the first woman to be absorbed into the National Inventors Hall of Fame. In 1997, she was awarded the Lemelson-MIT Lifetime Achievement Award.
1. What can we say about Elion as a student?| A．She was talented. | B．She was fond of learning. |
| C．She had a very clear goal. | D．She made great achievements. |
| A．To meet her grandfather’s wishes. | B．To find a good job after graduation. |
| C．To be a chemistry teacher in future. | D．To create medicines to cure diseases. |
| A．She relied on teamwork. | B．She dared to try new ways. |
| C．She improved traditional methods. | D．She had enough medical knowledge. |
| A．Her later life. | B．Her honors in life. |
| C．Her significant contributions. | D．Her interest in chemistry. |
【推荐3】Jiang Shumei wasn’t educated as a child, learning her first Chinese character at the age of 60. Now, the 87-year-old grandmother is the proud author of six books. She learned her first character in 1996, after her husband died in a car accident, when her daughter Zhang Ailing suggested that she learn to read to take her mind off the loneliness and sorrow.
Zhang says that her mother had her own way of learning. Whenever she came across characters she didn’t know at bus stops or shop signs, she found someone to ask. Once Jiang had learned enough characters, Zhang started giving her books to read. Enjoying the books, Jiang told her daughter that she wanted to write down her own stories to share.
She first put pen to paper in 2012, at the age of 75. It was not easy. Sometimes,completing a single sentence could take a day. Jiang usually started writing at 3 or 4 am, and revised the pieces several times until she was satisfied.
Zhang began publishing her mother’s stories on social media platforms in 2013. When Zhang and her mother drew the attention of Zhang’s writer friends, the pair made a decision to publish them. The first book, Time of Trouble, Time of Poverty, was published later that year, and proved to be a success. Some critics even praised it as the “live history of a nation plagued by tough times”. The book earned Jiang a lot of fans and sympathy.
So far, the elderly woman has published six books, totaling more than 600, 000characters in length. She lives a healthy life, exercising every day, drinking milk and soy milk, as well as having regular exercise. “If I could live as long as 130, would you still say that it is too late for me to start after 60?” she asks, jokingly.
1. Why did Jiang learn to read in her later years?| A．To become a proud author. |
| B．To make up for not going to school. |
| C．To encourage her friends and families. |
| D．To reduce the impact of her husband’s death. |
| A．A strong inner desire. | B．The attention from other writers. |
| C．Her daughter’s encouragement. | D．The development of social media. |
| A．Aided. | B．Enlarged. | C．Troubled. | D．Defeated. |
| A．One is never too old to learn. |
| B．All roads lead to Rome. |
| C．Where there is life, there is love. |
| D．Gold can’t be pure and man can’t be perfect. |
【推荐1】Ruth Ginsburg spent her life fighting for women to be treated equally. In doing so, she became an inspiring role model for women and girls around the world.
Her passion for women’s rights began when she was young. She started off her adult life having trouble finding a job. Even though she had earned a law degree from Columbia University and was smart and capable of doing the job, she was passed over primarily. She felt she was being treated unfairly, or looked down on, only because she was a woman. She knew this was wrong and wanted to do something about it. But at the time there were no laws in the United States to protect her.
She decided to devote her career to being a lawyer and fighting for equal rights of women. Then, early in her lawyer career, when she was 29 years old, Ms. Ginsburg took a trip to Sweden to perform legal research.
To begin, in Sweden, she saw a female judge hosting a judgment. Then she observed law school classrooms where about 25% of the students were female vs. her own law school where only about 2% were female. Seeing the progress women had made in Sweden, she was even more sure that America was behind and wrong in its treatment of women. What she saw really focused her on fighting for women in the workplace.
Back in the USA, where laws advocating for women’s rights were missing, she decided to help invent laws, write them, and defend them. Ginsburg also became a professor to help other women to become lawyers so that they could do the same thing.
In 1993, after years of practicing and teaching law, she became the second female judge of the Supreme (最高) Court and one of the most respected judges in history. She changed the lives of many women and girls in the United States and beyond.
1. Why did adult Ginsburg fail to find a job at first?| A．Because she failed to obtain a necessary degree. |
| B．Because she was unable to do the job well. |
| C．Because she had poor working experience. |
| D．Because she received unfair treatment. |
| A．Creative and passionate. | B．Energetic and brave. |
| C．Determined and devoted. | D．Generous and strong-willed. |
| A．Ginsburg received many honors as a female judge. |
| B．Ginsburg ever majored in law at a university in Sweden. |
| C．The research in Sweden had a great influence on Ginsburg. |
| D．Ginsburg managed to make laws to ensure America’s freedom. |
【推荐2】Anaya Elick was born without hands – she has stubs（残端）where most people’s wrists begin.
To hold a pencil, she must balance it between her wrists, then use her arms to push it along the page. But that didn’t sop her from winning a national handwriting contest when she was in first grade.
In the two years since, she has taken on greater challenges. Last week, she won another national handwriting contest, this one for cursive（草书）. And by all accounts from her teachers at Greenbrier Christian Academy, she has become an accomplished artist.
Anaya isn’t one to boast about her successes. She unwillingly says they make her proud but adds that they come from “lots of practice.”
Her friends at school said, “She inspires everybody by what she does and how she does it” child to fail, and raising one who was born with a disability can heighten that protective instinct.
Before Anaya was born, doctors knew about her condition, although not its cause. Other than having no hands, she is a regular 9-year-old girl. Middleton said being a parent can be scary. “No one wants their child to fail, and raising one who was born with a disability can heighten that protective instinct.”
Anaya succeeds because she is not afraid to fail, Middleton said. The two began practicing cursive last year, when Anaya was in second grade. She struggled sometimes, because unlike traditional penmanship, which allows for breaks after each letter, cursive words are written straight through – and added effort for someone who must balance rather than hold the pencil.
Middleton could see her daughter thinking through the challenge, figuring out how she could do better. She’d get frustrated at times, but she never hesitated to do things as often as it took to get them right.
“I don’t think I’ve ever heard Anaya say I can’t do something,” Middleton said.
That attitude carries over to her other interests.
Recently, Anaya and her classmates sat in Cheryl Leader’s art room, working on an exercise. The goal was to get them thinking about different concepts, like color combinations and how an image can be formed by fully coloring inside straight and diagonal lines.
1. How did she make her writing? ________.| A．by hand | B．with her arms |
| C．with her wrists | D．with her mouth |
| A．Because she doesn’t want her child to fail. |
| B．Because she love her child very much. |
| C．Because raising one who was born with a disability can be a burden. |
| D．Because she wants to protect her child from failing. |
| A．brave, hard-working and proud |
| B．brave, warm-hearted and kind |
| C．brace, diligent and modest |
| D．brave, diligent and shy |
| A．Girl without hands inspires everybody. |
| B．A special artist. |
| C．Mother and daughter. |
| D．We can do everything that we want. |
【推荐3】Bea, a five-year-old girl, was born with a severe illness which means she has to be kept away from other children of her age, because her body is so weak that she would be unable to fight off a common cold.
Bea was diagnosed (诊断) with this disease when she was five months old. Since then, the hospital has become her second home, medicines for food, and all kinds of treatments her friends. Bea received a very special treatment when she was four years old, which would allow her to be like a normal child if successful. After that, she spent two weeks in ICU before living for four months on a separate ward(病房). Bea was allowed home in February but still needed a special tube in her nose to send in medicine every two days.
Her parents clean the house from top to bottom every two days and hoover (用吸尘器清扫) each morning to make sure Bea is free from any possible bacteria. Anna, Bea’s mother, said, “She is weak but so strong. We’ve never seen any child stronger than her. It seems as if nothing in the world could beat her. We really hope to send her to school next year.” She used to drive on the local playground, but Bea was only allowed to watch sitting in the car. “It was heartbreaking to see Bea staring at the running and laughing children there. She never stopped fighting the disease. I know she’s dying for such a normal life.”
Hearing of Bea’s story, the MakeAWish Foundation has paid for a play park to be built in her back garden.“Bea is very brave and she has encouraged many children like her, ” said the chairman of the foundation.
1. If Bea stayed with other children freely, ________.| A．other children would have a higher chance to catch her disease |
| B．she would catch a common cold which would kill her quickly |
| C．her life would be in great danger as she could fall ill easily |
| D．she would be lost in playing and forget to receive treatment |
| A．Bea will need a tube in her nose all the time |
| B．Bea has to stay in hospital until she is an adult |
| C．Bea’s parents will send her to school next year |
| D．Bea’s mother feels proud when talking about her |
| A．honor her bravery in fighting against her disease |
| B．call for attention to this immune system deficiency |
| C．encourage more children like Bea to be optimistic |
| D．launch a campaign against this serious disease |
| A．Her parents’ encouragement and care. |
| B．Her dreaming of owning a play park. |
| C．Her wish to become a normal child. |
| D．Her doctor’s skills and experience. |
