“Have a dream. Don’t be afraid to want something.” That’s the advice from Florence Bergeron, associate director of knowledge mobilization (动员) for the Students Commission of Canada. The group organized the country’s annual “Take Our Kids to Work Day” initiative on November 1.
Across Canada, ninth-grade students had the chance to visit the workplace of a parent, relative or friend. Bergeron said over 450,000 people participated this year.
The initiative began in 1994. “The principle was to bring their own children into the workplace so they could see what their parents were doing and prepare for taking on that same role,” Bergeron explained. The purpose of the day has changed over the years, as many kids now follow careers different from their parents’.
According to Dorota Peacock, who is the district coordinator for career education in the Surrey School District in British Columbia, the event is beneficial in various ways. “It’s valuable for exposing students to what people do in the adult workforce that they normally wouldn’t see,” Peacock said. “They get to ask questions and decide what’s interesting.”
Peacock added that students also learned what they were loath to do, which was just as valuable. That was the case for three ninth graders from Ecole Salish Secondary School in Surrey. Mia Kim, Rithi Murugaselvam, and Eljie Salimbagat said that they enjoyed visiting their parents’ workplaces, but realized that they, themselves, would likely follow different paths. Rithi,14, who visited a day care center where her mother worked, said that “much patience is required for working with kids.”
All three students agreed that learning to socialize is essential, no matter what career path you follow. “I learned that for a lot of jobs, you needed to learn how to communicate with others to be successful,” said Mia, 13.
Peacock hoped that the event inspired Canada’s ninth graders to have a deeper appreciation for their parents. “They are smart, productive people, and not just people who come home and help with homework and make meals,” Peacock said. “They’re an actual person in the world doing really cool things.”
1. What was the purpose of the initiative?| A．To expose children to the busy life. | B．To prepare students for their career options. |
| C．To improve parent-child relationships. | D．To educate children on possible changes. |
| A．Unwilling. | B．Nervous. | C．Ready. | D．Eager. |
| A．The ability to adapt. | B．The adventurous spirit. |
| C．The sense of success. | D．The communication skill. |
| A．Family count above all else. | B．Parents’ work is much more meaningful. |
| C．Children should admire their parents. | D．Children lack appreciation for housework. |
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【推荐1】Part of the reason American shoppers are so attracted to wholesale (批发) shopping is their belief that it not only prevents waste but can save time and money, providing more value for the dollar. However, recent research suggests that the opposite may be true.
Victoria Ligon, an expert on consumer sciences, studied food purchasing habits of consumers and found that people tended to buy too much food and waste more of it than they realized. “The problem is that people are not shopping frequently enough,” Ligon said. “People are very price sensitive at the grocery store, but tend to overlook the cost of unused and wasted food at home.”
A common practice is to visit different stores for different items on a grocery list. “But people tend to overbuy at each of the places,” Ligon said. “People are not planning for the next day, but planning for the next week or two.”
“In theory, planning a week or more in advance sounds ideal. But given the reality of many people’s lives, this is challenging to do well,” Ligon said. “All of our food promotions are designed to get people to buy more. We believe it’s cheaper if we buy more now, but we rarely take into account how much we throw out in the end.”
Ligon noted shifts in the grocery industry that appear promising to help customers reduce food waste. Examples include cost-effective delivery services such as Amazon Fresh and Google Express, which allow consumers to purchase food items when they want to consume them, also reducing their need to frequent so many different stores. However, the study resulted in another troubling finding: The majority of people involved in the study had no idea that they were buying too much and wasting so much.
“When you read advice about reducing waste, it usually centers on what people do after the food is purchased,” Ligon said. “But more importantly, shop on a more frequent basis, so that you are only buying what you are going to consume in the short term.”
1. What do people often ignore when buying food in large quantities?| A．How good the food is. | B．How much the food costs. |
| C．How often they should shop. | D．How much will be wasted. |
| A．It is worth trying. | B．It is not practical. | C．It takes great effort. | D．It is not good for health. |
| A．Food prices are lowered. | B．Food waste is prevented. |
| C．Food consumption is reduced. | D．Food purchasing can be done at home. |
| A．Shop More, Buy Less | B．Shop Wisely, Eat Wisely |
| C．Eat Cheaply or Expensively? | D．The More You Shop, the More You Waste |
【推荐2】A quick look at Instagram will show you thousands of girls sharing their clothing of the day. Many of these girls are sharing completely new clothes every day. And they’re feeling the pressure to never repeat clothes. This attitude of not being able to wear something again after sharing it on Instagram is far too common. It is a sad thing when some girls feel sorry for appearing in the same clothes more than once on Instagram.
Clothes businesses push new “must-haves” every week, which adds to the pressure to keep up. Clothes have been so cheap because of the competition between clothes businesses that it’s shockingly easy to buy new clothes every day. These clothes businesses have made it possible for a normal person to never be seen in the same clothes twice. Often the quality of these clothes is so low that they don’t even survive the wash so there is no chance of that second wear.
Consider everything that goes into making a single piece of clothing—for example: plenty of water, energy and petrochemicals, finishing and labor of each worker throughout making it. It’s shocking to think after all this, a piece of clothing might be worn once, maybe twice, and then thrown away so that they can follow fast fashion.
The fashion of throwing clothes away after use needs to change. Proudly post the same clothes you’ve worn before online. Get creative with mixing and matching, and borrow from friends for special times. The possibilities are endless so there’s no need to shop frequently.
1. What is a sad thing according to the first paragraph?| A．Some girls like showing off on the Internet. |
| B．Some girls spend too much time on social media. |
| C．Some girls care too little about their appearances. |
| D．Some girls think posting the same clothes online again wrong. |
| A．Online shopping. | B．Parents’ pressure. |
| C．Clothes businesses. | D．Laziness to wash clothes. |
| A．To tell us we should treasure clothes. |
| B．To show fast fashion’s great influence. |
| C．To show the development of the clothes industry. |
| D．To tell us we should have our own dressing styles. |
| A．Offer reasons. | B．Give suggestions. |
| C．Give encouragement. | D．Offer more information. |
【推荐3】At the beginning of every school year, I feared coming home with the heavy homework of the first day after a summer of fun. And I feared getting another teacher who had a long list of rules and a stare that could kill a cat.
But there was always one part of beginning a new school year that I enjoyed. I always liked going to the store to arm myself with new school supplies—even if I didn’t need them.
Sure, my pencils, erasers and notebooks from the previous school year may have had some life left in them. But this didn’t matter. Every year, Dad would pile us into the car, take us to Wal-Mart and let us buy the newest and coolest pencils, rainbow-coloured erasers and spiral notebooks.
Besides school supplies, many parents also take their kids on annual shopping spree for new clothes and book bags just in time for school. During the whole process, children are in high spirits, buying a lot of stuff and are back home exhausted.
Every year, most of my classmates and I show up to school on the first day with something smelling like a new car. We’d put our new stationery on top of the desks, just to make sure others see them.
Leftover supplies from past years were always stuffed into the living room desk. Used clothes that had lost their appeal were sent to second-hand shops, where they would be sold for 50 cents a piece.
However, all of the new stuff could only make us excited about going to school for one week, after which the usual boredom and fear come back.
1. What is NOT TRUE about the author at the beginning of a new school year in the passage?| A．He often has to face a new teacher. |
| B．He doesn’t enjoy the load of work from school. |
| C．He doesn’t appreciate strict teachers. |
| D．He obtains new school supplies from the school. |
| A．Because the old ones are used up. |
| B．Because new pencils help them to study better. |
| C．Because they want to show their new stuff off. |
| D．Because it’s required by the school. |
| A．competition | B．considerable embarrassment |
| C．wild celebration | D．emotional pain |
| A．They are put aside and forgotten. | B．They are given to poorer children. |
| C．They are sold online . | D．They are treasured by the students. |
【推荐1】The Secret to Happiness
A new report makes it clear that when it comes to the life satisfaction of UK citizens, the ball is in the government’s court. For some time, sensible people have been arguing that governments need to focus less on economic growth and more on the wellbeing of citizens. Be careful what you wish for.
In response to this demand, the UK government begins to gather data on people’s self-reported happiness and life satisfaction. Little practical good has come from this so far, but a new report by George Bangham for the Resolution Foundation is one of the best attempts to make useful sense of the data. He concludes: “The best prospects for policymakers targeting future increases in national wellbeing lie in raising job quality, raising incomes, particularly at the lower end, and policies to improve security in the housing market.”
The happiness of pensioners is not just a function of their age, but of policy. On average, 70-year-old boomers today are the most affluent retirees in history, often owning their own homes and in receipt of generous pensions. People of 70 are not going to be as content in 30 or 40 years’ time if they are unable to retire, don’t own their homes and have small incomes.
However, there is one respect in which teens and recent retirees are remarkably similar. Compared to other age groups, they tend to inhabit a sweet spot of having high degrees of freedom. The typical 16-year-old has new freedoms without ever having had any serious responsibilities. The typical 70-year-old, having experienced a lifetime of work and family duties, has a very different kind of freedom, one born from relief.
Besides, it should not surprise us to find that people tend to be happier when they have fewer worries. But this, too, has important political implications. If the government is really interested in raising overall national happiness, it has to make sure as many citizens as possible feel secure in their health, their housing and their incomes. Different states’ records in achieving this is one important reason why Nordic countries repeatedly score highly in international life satisfaction surveys and North America underperforms relative to its GDP. Whichever way you look at it, there is no escaping the conclusion that increasing wellbeing across society requires joined-up, long-term policy efforts. This is exactly what the Resolution Foundation recommends.
1. What can be conveyed from the sentence “the ball is in the government’s court” in Paragraph 1?| A．The government officials are fond of playing ball games. |
| B．The government determines national happiness. |
| C．The government makes citizens feel happy. |
| D．The government is in a ball game. |
| A．They are responsible. | B．They are careful. |
| C．They are honest. | D．They are rich and easy. |
| A．income | B．health | C．security | D．luck |
| A．Negative. | B．Positive. | C．Doubtful. | D．Unsatisfying |
【推荐2】“Pale Moon rains. Red Moon blows. White Moon neither rains nor snows.” For generations, people have watched the Moon for signs of changes in the weather. The Moon does, in fact, affect the Earth’s climate and weather patterns in different ways.
The most obvious effect the Moon has on the Earth can be seen in the ocean tides. A world without tides would have very different weather systems. Tides are one factor that influences the movement of ocean currents (洋流), which move warm or cool water around the Earth. Thus, the water temperature changes. Warm ocean currents bring warmer and wetter weather, while cold ocean currents bring colder and drier weather.
The Moon is also thought to affect polar temperatures and contribute to changes in the amount of Arctic ice. Tidal forces (潮汐力) act to break up ice sheets and change ocean heat flows, changing the amount of ice in the Arctic Ocean. Satellite measurements have shown that the poles are 0.55℃ warmer during a full Moon.
The Moon’s influence, sometimes slight and sometimes strong, has had an important impact on life on Earth. Some scientists argue that it is the Moon that made life possible in the first place. The Moon makes the Earth move steadily as it is spinning (自转), helping to give us a steady climate. Without it, the Earth would lose balance. The Moon is our closest friend, without which the Earth would be a very lonely place.
1. Why do people watch the Moon according to Paragraph 1?| A．To appreciate the moon. |
| B．To record weather patterns. |
| C．To prepare for extreme weather. |
| D．To observe signs of weather changes. |
| A．It influences water temperature. |
| B．It makes weather hard to predict. |
| C．It turns the earth colder and drier. |
| D．It changes the size of ocean currents. |
| A．Tides are the main factor influencing the movement of ocean currents. |
| B．The ocean water temperature changes are likely related to the Moon. |
| C．The poles are 0.55℃ colder during a full moon. |
| D．The Moon has had little effect on life on Earth. |
| A．Changes of Ocean Heat Flows. |
| B．Patterns of the Earth’s Climate. |
| C．Causes of Changes in Polar Weather. |
| D．Effects of the Moon on Global Weather. |
【推荐3】Avoiding the worst effects of climate change will require action. But it’s hard to take action when you don’t even know there’s a problem. Around the world, only half of adults understand that humans are causing climate change through activities that produce greenhouse gases. But the picture is different for kids. Previous work has shown that children are more engaged and more knowledgeable than adults are about climate change. The question is, can we harness this to make a difference?
“We had come across this idea that kids are capable of influencing their parents. And when we say influence, we really mean just teaching them.” said Daniella Lawson, a social scientist at NC State University. “That’s what we set out to really investigate: can we design things in such a way that kids are able to teach their parents about climate change. A parent is willing and able to listen to their children speaking to them instead of just an adult on the street or a different climate communicator. ”
To test the idea, Lawson set up a wildlife-based climate course for kids. This approach was based on previous courses, but the team added a twist: involving the parents. First, parents were invited to come along to an event that formed a part of the course. And that’s not all. “So we also had students interview their parents. And this interview never mentioned climate change specifically. But it had questions like: how have you seen the weather change over the last five to ten years? Do you believe the sea level is rising? How do you think that could impact our communities?”
The study showed that the course did indeed increase concern about climate change: not just among the kids, but their parents too. And there were some surprising findings in the results. These findings come at a time when more kids are becoming climate activists. And Lawson says that her study shows just how persuasive young people’s voices can be.
1. What does the underlined word “harness” in paragraph one refer to?| A．Adopt. | B．Accumulate. |
| C．Review. | D．Control. |
| A．Effective actions have been taken to deal with climate change. |
| B．Most adults have realized the climate damages caused by themselves. |
| C．Children better adults in the area of climate change and its effects. |
| D．Adults and children will cooperate to deal with climate change. |
| A．Kids can be taught by adults. |
| B．Adults can learn from the kids. |
| C．Climate communicators are more professional. |
| D．Parents are more likely to consult street adults. |
| A．The course involved is completely new. |
| B．Interviews and questionnaires are necessary in the course. |
| C．Adults and kids study separately during the course. |
| D．The course is relatively effective in climate education. |
We are in the 21st century now, but step into almost any college classroom and you step back in time at least a hundred years Desks are normally in straight rows, so students can clearly see the teacher but not all their classmates. The assumption behind such an arrangement is obvious: Everything of importance comes from the teacher.
With a little imagination and effort, unless desks are fixed to the floor, the teacher can correct this situation and create space that encourages interchange among students. In small or standard-size classes, chairs, desks, and tables can be arranged in a variety of ways: circles, U-shapes or semicircles. The primary goal should be for everyone to be able to see everyone else.
Arrangement of the classroom should also make it easy to divide students into small groups for discussion or problem-solving exercises. Small classes with movable desks and tables present no problem. Even in large lecture halls, it is possible for students to turn around and form groups of four or six. Breaking a class into small groups provides more opportunities for students to interact with each other, think out loud, and see how other students’ thinking processes operate---all these are essential elements in developing new modes of critical thinking.
In courses that regularly use a small group format, students might be asked to stay in the same small groups throughout the course. A colleague of mine, John, allows students to move around during the first two weeks, until they find a group they are comfortable with. John then asks them to stay in the same seat, with the same group, from that time on. This not only creates a comfortable setting for interaction but helps him learn students’ names and faces.
1. The final purpose of arranging desks in circles or U-shapes is __________.
| A．for teachers to divide students into small groups |
| B．to make it possible for students to interact with each other |
| C．for teachers to find out how students think |
| D．to give students more opportunities to practice speaking |
| A．college classrooms often reminded people of their past |
| B．critical thinking was encouraged even one century ago |
| C．desk arrangement in a classroom was quite different from that a hundred years ago |
| D．today’s arrangement of college classroom space has little difference from past’s |
| A．students can be easily prevented from cheating during tests |
| B．it is convenient for teachers to monitor students |
| C．teachers play a significant role in a classroom |
| D．it is good for students to concentrate on listening to teachers |
As a writer, I know about winning contests – and about losing them. I know what it is like to work hard on a story only to receive a rejection letter from the publisher. I also know the pressure of trying to live up to a reputation created by previous victories. What if she doesn’t win the contest again? That’s the strange thing about being a parent. So many of our own past scars and destroyed hopes can resurface in our children.
A revelation (启示) came last week when I asked her, “Don’t you want to win again?” “No,” she replied, “I just want to tell the story of an angel going to first grade.”
I had just spent weeks correcting her stories as she spontaneously (自发地) told them. Telling myself that I was merely an experienced writer guiding the young writer across the hall, I offered suggestions for characters, conflicts and endings for her tales. The story about a fearful angel starting first grade was quickly “guided” by me into the tale of a little girl with a wild imagination taking her first music lesson. I had turned her contest into my contest without even realizing it.
Staying back and giving kids space to grow is not as easy as it looks. Because I know very little about farm animals who use tools or angels who go to first grade, I had to accept the fact that I was co-opting my daughter’s experience.
While stepping back was difficult for me, it was certainly a good first step that I will quickly follow with more steps, putting myself far enough away to give her room but close enough to help if asked. All the while I will be reminding myself that children need room to experiment, grow and find their own voices.
1. What do we learn from the first paragraph?
| A．A lot of amusements compete for children’s time nowadays. |
| B．Children have lots of fun doing mindless activities. |
| C．Rebecca is much too busy to enjoy her leisure time. |
| D．Rebecca draws on a lot of online materials for her writing. |
| A．She was constantly under pressure to write more. |
| B．Most of her stories had been rejected by publishers. |
| C．She did not quite live up to her reputation as a writer. |
| D．Her road to success was full of pain and frustrations. |
| A．She believed she possessed real talent for writing. |
| B．She was sure of winning with her mother’s help. |
| C．She wanted to share her stories with readers. |
| D．She had won a prize in the previous contest. |
| A．trying not to let her daughter enjoy her own life |
| B．trying to get her daughter to do the thing as the author wished |
| C．making sure that her daughter would win the contest |
| D．helping her daughter develop real skills for writing |
【推荐3】I am a strong believer that if a child is raised with approval, he learns to love himself and will be successful in his own way. Several weeks ago, I was doing homework with my son in the third grade and he kept standing up from his chair to go over the math lines. I kept asking him to sit down, telling him that he would concentrate better. He sat but seconds later, as if he didn’t even notice he was doing it, he got up again. I was getting frustrated (挫败的), but then it hit me. I started noticing his answers were much quicker and accurate when he stood up. Could he be more absorbed while standing up?
This made me start questioning myself and what I had been raised to believe. I was raised to believe that a quiet, calm child was a sure way to success. This child would have the willpower to study hard, get good grades and become someone important in life.
Now those same people perhaps come to realize that their kids are born with their own sets of DNA and personality qualities, and all you can do is loving and accepting them. As parents, throughout their growing years and beyond that, we need to be our kids’ best cheerleaders, guiding them and helping them find their way.
I have stopped asking my son to sit down and concentrate. Obviously, he is concentrating just in his own way and not mine. We need to learn to accept our kids’ ways of doing things. Some way may have worked for me but doesn’t mean we need to carry it through generations. There is nothing sweeter than being personal and unique. It makes us free and happy and that’s just the way I want my kids to live their own life.
1. Time and again the author got his son seated in order to make him________.| A．work fast | B．go polite | C．stay relaxed | D．keep attentive |
| A．his son’s doing better while standing up |
| B．his failure in keeping his son under control |
| C．his own experience as a school boy |
| D．his disappointment with his active child |
| A．correct their kids’ manners from the early ages |
| B．respect and trust their kids’ ways of behaviors |
| C．develop a good relationship with their children |
| D．guarantee their children’s freedom at home |
| A．Parental help with teens’ study | B．Adult influence on teen growth |
| C．Kids’ success in their own styles | D．Friendship between generations |
