【推荐1】Some pals and I were in the midst of a pinball competition at a bar the other night when the machine kept breaking down. We called over a very busy employee who’s responsible for helping keep the place running. He put everything aside to fix our problematic pinball machine twice.    1    A couple of the guys immediately objected, saying the employee was just doing the job he was paid to do. I insisted and got the group to agree to the plan, although somewhat reluctantly.   

My pinball wizard didn’t stretch out his hand, but how many times have we run across those payment screens that suggest a 20% tip for being handed a sandwich we ordered?    2    There is data to back up the trend: 66% of American adults have a negative view of tipping, and 32% say they’re sick of those payment-screen hints, according to a recent Bankrate survey.   

    3    I admit there are times I suspect the tipping thing has gone too far - say, when I’m at a self-checkout line and there’s still request to leave something extra. But I’m generally willing to err on the side of caution: If someone is expecting a tip, I’ll assume they have financial reasons to do so.     4    

Plus, tipping is good karma (因果报应). It’s always worth it to tip in unexpected situations- ones that don’t necessarily involve a hint on a payment screen.       5    He was so grateful for the $10 tip that later that night, he rewarded our group with well more than $10 in free tokens (代金券) for future play.   

So next time, there must be no arguments with my friends when times come to tip.

A．This leads to what’s been called "tipping fatigue (疲劳)”

B．So, why am I willing to go against the trend and say yes?

C．I suggested we tip him $10 and split the tip among all of us.

D．There’s an argument that we should ban tipping altogether.

E．Guess what happened next with my pinball-machine fixer at the bar?

F．One dollar or two won’t make or break me, but it can possibly help with their rent.

G．Should they earn far below the minimum wage, employers must make up the difference.

【推荐3】My four-and eight-year-olds are closer now than they were before the pandemic. I can hear the sounds of giggling from their bedroom several times a night. But the more time my girls spend together, the more they fight, too. The most common battlegrounds for my kids are injustices and fighting for position.

On days when we are trapped in the house together and their screaming matches reach operatic levels, their dad and I worry we did something horribly wrong as parents to encourage this volume of conflict. But according to Jeanine Vivona, a professor of psychology at the College of New Jersey who studies sibling rivalry (较量), “competition with siblings is just a fact of life. And we can just try to manage it as best we can.”

Studies have shown that sibling conflicts may occur up to eight times an hour. “Conflict does decrease into adolescence; it’s sort of levels off,” said Mark Ethan Feinberg, a research professor at Pennsylvania State University. “Early and middle childhood are particularly difficult times for sibling aggression.”

While most siblings aren’t fighting for actual quarrels, psychologically, sibling rivalry serves a developmental purpose: it helps children figure out what is unique and special about themselves, known as “differentiation”. Children want to be seen as the most special by their parents, so they’re always going to push for preferential treatment over their siblings. But they may also shape their interests and personalities around their siblings’ skills and desires.

For example, let’s say the older son is a soccer star. The younger child or children may then avoid soccer altogether, either because they are afraid they won’t be as good or because they fear they might be better—and they don’t want to take that risk either.

1. Why is there conflict between the author’s daughters?

A．Because they play the screaming matches.

B．Because they always compete for priority.

C．Because they can’t stand living with each other.

D．Because they receive obviously unfair treatment.

2. What can we infer from the text?

A．Sibling rivalry could be useful as motivation for children.

B．Parents should intervene sibling rivalry as much as they can.

C．Most sibling conflicts begin to fall when children become adults.

D．Life throughout childhood will be miserable due to sibling rivalry.

3. Which can be a suitable title for the text?

A．Kids’ struggle with sibling rivalry

B．Parenting solutions to sibling rivalry

C．The psychology behind sibling rivalry

D．An unintended upside of sibling rivalry

【推荐1】When I was younger, I thought science would make good things for everybody. It was obviously useful; it was good. But then during the war I worked on the atomic bomb. This result of science was obviously very serious — it represented the destruction of people and put our future at risk. I had to ask myself, “Is some evil involved in science?” I thought long and hard about this question, and I will try to answer it in this talk.

The first way in which science is of value is familiar to everyone: scientific knowledge is an enabling power to do either good or bad — but it does not carry instructions on how to apply it. Such power has obvious value — even though the power may be denied by what one does with it.

Another value of science is the intellectual enjoyment it can provide us with. When we look at any question deeply enough, we feel the excitement mystery coming into us again and again. With more knowledge comes a deeper, more wonderful mystery, inspiring one to look deeper still. Never concerned that the answer may let us down, with pleasure and confidence we turn over each new stone to find unimagined strangeness, just like opening a box of chocolate.

I would now like to turn to a third value that science has. The scientist has a lot of experience with ignorance and doubt and uncertainty, and this experience is of great importance. When a scientist doesn’t know the answer to a problem, he is ignorant. When he has an idea as to what the result is, he is uncertain. And when he is pretty sure of what the result is going to be, he is still in some doubt.

Our freedom to doubt was born out of deep and strong struggle against authority in the early days of science. In order to progress, we must not forget the importance of this struggle; we must recognize our ignorance and leave room for doubt. Permit us to question — to doubt — to not be sure.

1. What is the purpose of the first paragraph?

A．To blame science.

B．To introduce the topic.

C．To doubt the value of science.

D．To emphasize the serious situation.

2. What can we infer from the passage?

A．The author made an atomic bomb accidentally.

B．Scientists are short of knowledge and certainty.

C．Science is valueless if falling into the wrong hands.

D．Science generates wonderful questions and mysteries.

3. What does the last paragraph mainly talk about?

A．Scientists are scared to question the authority.

B．Struggle is not necessary in the science research.

C．Challenging the authority always exists in science.

D．Sureness is an important factor to scientists’ success.

4. What can be a suitable title for the text?

A．The Value of Science.

B．The Uncertainty of Science.

C．The Power of Science.

D．The Destruction of Science.

【推荐3】Mars is no stranger to life. Seven U. S. spacecraft have successfully landed there, and all of them took microbes to the planet’s surface(though the bugs probably did not survive for long). Yet the world’s space agencies continue to maintain strict spacecraft sterilization (消毒) procedures in the hope of minimizing the spread of Earth life beyond our planet. For decades this idea — known as planetary protection—is widespread. Now, some scientists say, these procedures are preventing the search for life beyond Earth by raising costs and preventing innovative missions-without meaningful benefits.

Of all missions to Mars to date, only the Vikings, the first trip to the Red Planet, were intended to test for life. Spacecraft that went later did not have that ability. But a future mission will, and the protectionist thinking goes, a spacecraft might not be able to distinguish between a life form native to Mars and one with origins on Earth. In July 2013 astrobiologists Dirk Schulze-Makuch and Alberto Fairen argued against this in Nature Geoscience.

“If Earth life can thrive on Mars, they almost certainly already do,” the authors write. “If they cannot, the transfer of Earth life to Mars should be of no concern, as it would simply not survive.”

With clear evidence of a water y history and some signs of water present, Mars could be where we find life in our solar system. And with the development of Curiosity’s precise landing system, we can finally reach the mysterious parts of the planet. But it’s these areas that require a craft sterilization process.

In the 1970s Vikings 1 and 2 revealed what seemed like a dead planet, so planetary-protection requirements were relaxed. Now, with more knowledge of Mars’ environment, missions set to visit areas with evidence of flowing water below the surface have to meet the strict-and more costly- Vikings standards.

Finally, there’s the philosophical problem of what responsibility, if any, we have to other planets and any life we leave there. The truth is we’re never going to be able to fully protect Mars if we intend to explore it. And spreading is simply what life does.

“If we want to survive for a long time, we have to expand beyond Earth,” Schulze-Makuch says. “There’s no other way.”

1. Strict spacecraft sterilization procedures are meant to ______.

A．decrease the costs of space exploration

B．help the search for life forms beyond Earth

C．contribute to innovative missions in the universe

D．prevent Earth life being transferred to other planets

2. Planetary-protection requirements were relaxed in the 1970s because ______.

A．there was no preclse landing system

B．Mars was considered to be a lifeless planet

C．the mysterious parts of Mars remained unknown

D．flowing water was found below the surface of Mars

3. Dirk Schulze-Makuch and Alberto Fairen are most likely to agree that ______

A．Mars is now on the edge of being destroyed

B．human beings are too ambitious to expand beyond Earth

C．there is no need to worry about bringing Earth life to Mars

D．we need to be responsible for keeping Mars what it is like now

4. Schulze-Makuch takes a(n)______attitude towards planetary protection.

A．optimistic

B．relaxed

C．debatable

D．negative