Whatever happened to the familiar scene from the past of children playing “tag(捉人游戏)” in the streets while their parents chatted with the neighbors over the garden fence? This picture is fading fast today, as children are now leaving the streets in favor of a screen.
Several organizations are attempting to change this situation. One of these organizations is Play England, which aims to improve opportunities for children to play outside. A leading figure in the campaign is 50-year-old Adrian Voce, who has childhood memories of days spent in the “Big Woods” near his house with his older brothers. “We were given a packed lunch and told not to talk to strangers. I can still remember wandering in and out of each other’s houses.” he says.
However, it is not only the children that Mr. Voce and his organization have to convince. In many cases the parents themselves block his efforts. A survey in 2014 found that 85 percent of adults agreed that it was important for children to be able to play safely in the road or street where they live. However, many of them were not prepared to park their cars an extra 50 meters away from their homes.
Mr. Voce’s attempts to encourage children to play outside include the organization of campaigns like National Playday. Hundreds of communities all over the country take part in this effort, yet it can take a lot of people to give children a taste of what it is like to play in the streets. On one street in Aldershot last year there were five policemen, three community support officers, a traffic management crew, a closed-circuit television van, and a team of "play workers.”
Society today has changed to such an extent that children do not feel safe on the streets and their parents no longer feel comfortable about letting them play there. It is not only the appeal of computers and video games that has driven children inside, but also the presence of traffic, crime, and violent young people. However, thanks to the efforts of people like Adrian Voce, it may not be too late to turn back the clock.
1. What kind of feeling does Adrian Voce show when he looks back on his childhood?| A．Regret | B．Shame |
| C．Delight | D．Surprise |
| A．They don’t want their children to be outside. |
| B．They are worried about the safety of the streets. |
| C．They are not optimistic about Mr. Voce’s campaign. |
| D．They won’t make the street safer for their children to play in. |
| A．It has rapidly spread to other countries. |
| B．A lot of people are needed to make it work. |
| C．It has not lived up to the organizers’ expectations. |
| D．It aims to call on parents to play with their children. |
| A．Worried. | B．Hopeful. |
| C．Unclear | D．Shocked. |
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【推荐1】Math causes anxiety for kids. It is worsened by the pressure of knowing that math is the gatekeeper to science and technology that drive our society.
When our kids ask why they need to know algebra, we tell them that it will be useful.
Regrettably, the mathematical journey is imagined as a terrifying mountain: The wide base is arithmetic, accessible to everyone. Climbing higher brings us to algebra, geometry, and eventually calculus and beyond.
In reality, math is alive and still advancing, and most of it remains a vast and unexplored countryside.
Here’s one: Can every even number be written as a sum of two prime numbers (质数)? Even numbers such as 8 and 30 can be written as 3+5 and 7+23.
As our kids try to solve this kind of problems, an encouraging truth will appear in their anxious hearts: It’s OK to struggle with math since everyone does. These unsolved puzzles make us realize that we are on the same level as the great mathematicians, all of us staring over the unknown abyss (深渊), looking for a way down into the mystery.
| A．Girls can do as well as boys in math. |
| B．But can this be done for every even number? |
| C．But do we listen to jazz because it is useful? |
| D．Happily, unlocking the pleasure of math is simple. |
| E．But do they really understand the importance of math? |
| F．We believe that new math ideas have been nearly exhausted. |
| G．Fresh ideas are constantly being discovered, opening up new and fascinating puzzles. |
People going shopping in America can expect to be treated with respect from the very beginning. Most places don’t have a “furniture street” or a “computer road” which allow you to compare prices easily. Instead, people often “let their fingers do the walking” through the store hot lines. From the first “hello”, customers receive a satisfying response to their questions. This initial contact can help them decide where to shop.
When customers get to the store, they are treated as honored guests. Customers don’t usually find store clerks sitting around watching TV or playing cards. Instead, the clerks greet them warmly and offer to help them find what they want. In most stores, the clear signs that label each department make shopping a breeze. Customers usually don’t have to ask how much items cost, since prices are clearly marked. And unless they’re at a flea market or a yard sale, they don’t bother trying to bargain.
When customers are ready to check out, they find the nearest and shortest checkout lane. But as Murphy’s Law would have it, whichever lane they get in, all the other lanes will move faster. Good stores open new checkout lanes when the lanes get too long. Some even offer express lanes for customers with 10 items or less. After they pay for their purchases, customers receive a smile and a warm “thank you” from the clerk. Many stores even allow customers to take their shopping carts out to the parking lot. That way, they don’t have to carry heavy bags out to the car.
1. By quoting (引用) the McDonald’s ad: “We do it all for you”, the author intends to_______.
| A．suggest that customers believe what commercials say deeply |
| B．show readers the American idea on good customer service |
| C．express all the stores pay much attention to the customers |
| D．persuade readers to choose the stores with ads correctly |
| A．To visit a professional street with lots of similar stores. |
| B．To compare prices in many shops in the same street. |
| C．To make phone calls and get better shopping choices. |
| D．To receive other customers’ answers to the questions. |
| A．The store clerks don’t usually sit around watching TV or playing cards. |
| B．Some stores offer price bargain to the customers like a yard sale. |
| C．The clerks give customers a smile and a warm “thank you” after paying. |
| D．Some stores open new checkout lanes when the lanes are crowded. |
| A．Customer Service in America |
| B．Excellent Stores in America |
| C．Shopping Rules in America |
| D．Being King or Queen in America |
【推荐3】Nowadays, the world is slowly becoming a high-tech society and we are now surrounded by technology. Facebook and Twitter are innovative tools; text messaging is still a somewhat existing phenomenon and even e-mail is only a flashing spot on the screen when compared with our long history of snail mail. Now we adopt these tools to the point of essentialness, and only rarely consider how we are more fundamentally affected by them.
Social media, texting and e-mail all make it much easier to communicate, gather and pass information, but they also present some dangers. By removing any real human engagement, they enable us to develop our abnormal self-love without the risk of disapproval or criticism. To use a theatrical metaphor (隐喻), these new forms of communication provide a stage on which we can each create our own characters, hidden behind a fourth wall of tweets, status updates and texts. This unreal state of unconcern can become addictive as we separate ourselves a safe distance from the cruelty of our fleshly lives, where we are imperfect, powerless and insignificant. In essence, we have been provided not only the means to be more free, but also to become new, to create and project a more perfect self to the world. As we become more reliant on these tools, they become more a part of our daily routine, and so we become more restricted in this fantasy.
So it is that we live in a cold era, where names and faces represent two different levels of closeness, where working relationships occur only through the magic of email and where love can start or end by text message. An environment such as this reduces interpersonal relationships to mere digital exchanges.
Would a celebrity have been so daring to do something dishonorable if he had had to do it in person? Doubtful. It seems he might have been lost in a fantasy world that ultimately convinced himself into believing the digital self could obey different rules and regulations, as if he could continually push the limits of what’s acceptable without facing the consequences of “real life.”
1. Which word can replace the underlined word “innovative” in Paragraph 1?| A．Traditional. | B．Dangerous. | C．Useful. | D．New. |
| A．Sheltering us from virtual life. | B．Removing face-to-face interaction. |
| C．Leading to false mental perception. | D．Making us rely more on hi-tech media. |
| A．Technologies have changed our relationships. |
| B．The digital world is a recipe for pushing limits. |
| C．Love can be better conveyed by text message. |
| D．The digital self need not take responsibility. |
| A．Addiction to the Virtual World | B．Cost of Falling into Digital Life |
| C．Interpersonal Skills on the Net | D．The Future of Social Media |
【推荐1】Everyone needs help sometimes. People depend on one another. That’s why communities have special people ready to lend a helping hand to anyone who needs it.
For example, what would we do without a community fire station? If a home catches on fire, as the Jackson place did last week, it might be burned down and people get hurt… or worse. We’re so lucky to have firemen to come to save people and put out the fire safely. If the fire station hadn’t come so fast, the Jacksons might have lost everything.
And what about our local police who protect our families, our homes and valuable things? The police have helped so many families this past year, especially saving people and pets and protecting our houses and other things after the heavy rains.
Think about all the other service workers we have in this community. We have people who collect waste and rubbish and keep our community sanitary. We have road workers who put up and repair traffic signs and fix holes in the streets to protect not just us, but our cars! And where would this community be without the teachers in our school and the doctors, and nurses in our community hospitals?
Think again about what we eat every day; think again about what we wear every day. We cannot produce them, but we use them all the time. We get a lot from all these tireless workers who keep our community running. We need these people in the community. We depend on each other. Let’s support each other and help each other. Only in this way can we make our community a better place.
1. What happened to the Jacksons last week?| A．Their pets were lost. | B．Their car was badly burnt. |
| C．Their house caught on fire. | D．Their valuable things were stolen. |
| A．Firemen. | B．Doctors. | C．Road workers. | D．Local police. |
| A．Clean | B．Safe | C．Quiet | D．Busy |
| A．Did the writer make us laugh? |
| B．Did the writer want us to do something? |
| C．Did the writer tell us about how to become a teacher? |
| D．Did the writer teach us what to do when a fire breaks out? |
【推荐2】A 17-year-old boy, caught sending text messages in class, was recently sent to the vice principal's office at Millwood High School in Halifax, Nova Scotia. The vice principal, Steve Gallagher, told the boy he needed to focus on the teacher, not his cellphone. The boy listened politely and nodded, and that's when Mr. Gallagher noticed the student's fingers moving on his lap. He was texting while being scolded for texting. “It was a subconscious act,” says Mr. Gallagher, who took the phone away. “Young people today are connected socially from the moment they open their eyes in the morning until they close their eyes at night. It's compulsive.”
A study this year by psychology students at Covenant College in Lookout Mountain, Ga., found that the more time young people spend on Facebook, the more likely they are to have lower grades and weaker study habits. Heavy Facebook users show signs of being more sociable, but they are also more likely to be anxious, hostile or depressed. (Doctors, meanwhile, are now blaming addictions to 'night texting' for disturbing the sleep patterns of teens.)
Almost a quarter of today's teens check Facebook more than 10 times a day, according to a 2009 survey by Common Sense Media, a nonprofit group that monitors media's impact on families. Will these young people get rid of this habit once they enter the work force, or will employers come to see texting and 'social-network checking' as accepted parts of the workday?
Think back. When today's older workers were in their 20s, they might have taken a break on the job to call friends and make after-work plans. In those earlier eras, companies discouraged non-business-related calls, and someone who made personal calls all day risked being fired. It was impossible to imagine the constant back-and-forth texting that defines interactions among young people today.
Educators are also being asked by parents, students and educational strategists to reconsider their rules. “In past generations, students got in trouble for passing notes in class. Now students are adept at texting with their phones still in their pockets,” says 40-year-old Mr. Gallagher, the vice principal, “and they're able to communicate with someone one floor down and three rows over. Students are just fundamentally different today. They will take suspensions rather than give up their phones.”
1. The underlined word “a subconscious act” refers to an act ________.| A．on purpose | B．without realization | C．in secret | D．with care |
| A．are good at dealing with the social relationships and concentrate on their study |
| B．have high spirits and positive attitudes towards their life and work |
| C．have been influenced mentally in the aspects of behaviors and habits |
| D．are always in bad mood and have poor performance in every respect |
| A．like to break rules and have the same means of sending messages |
| B．are always the big problem for the educators and their parents |
| C．like sending text messages but those today do it in a more secret and skillful way |
| D．cannot live without a cellphone |
| A．Teenagers and Cellphones |
| B．Teenagers’ Texting Addiction |
| C．Employers and Teenagers |
| D．Teenagers’ Education |
【推荐3】On a parenting site, a friendly dad wrote that crying was, actually, a good thing, because tears contain cortisol, the stress hormone (荷尔蒙). Crying is, therefore, just stress leaving the body.
I’ve written about my son’s anger before. His tempers are so bad that it’s hard to get him to leave the house, or return to the house, or persuade him to perform any task on command at all. One of his favourite pastimes is deciding he doesn’t want to do anything at all. He sits heavily to the ground, his arms and legs waving around without control. If I had to rate his temper skills I’d put this well inside the top two or three. The genius of this technique is that it removes all of the rigid (僵硬的) angles from his upper body, making him effectively impossible to hold, let alone lift.
This results in me grasping him by the folds of his clothing, just to drag him away from stairs, a footpath or the oncoming traffic. What’s worse, my son makes constant twisting movements, leaving me having to use every bit of my strength until my knuckles (指关节) go white.
My son is not yet three, but has a special way to make his 13kg body feel too heavy for me to manage. I’m sympathetic, of course. He’s experiencing so many feelings and frustrations for the first time, and he needs me to keep calm and carry on while he learns the ropes. It’s no use for me to get angry.
As much as I can, I try to get to his eye level and explain, quietly and with empathy. Within a few minutes he’s calmed down, ready to rejoin civilisation even though he had been spitting at me just moments before. Maybe, I think to myself, that was just stress leaving the body, too.
1. What does the writer think of tears?| A．Tears are not cortisol. | B．Tears are no stress hormone. |
| C．Tears help release stress. | D．Tears are harmful to health. |
| A．The writer’s patience with his son. |
| B．The writer’s disappointment with is son. |
| C．The writer’s skills dealing with his son. |
| D．The writer’s description of his son’s temper. |
| A．Understandable. | B．Unbelievable. |
| C．Unacceptable. | D．Unquestionable. |
【推荐1】When I opened my closet door this morning, I saw a sign that says, “Good morning, beautiful business.” It’s a reminder to me of just how beautiful business can be when we put all our creativity, energy, and care into producing one product or service in exchange for another. Economic exchange can be one of the most meaningful and beautiful interactions among human beings.
Over the past years since I started the White Dog Café, my business has not only provided me with a way of making a living and a way of serving others but also been my teacher. In reading Small Is Beautiful I realized that so much of what my business has taught me can be found in the great lessons of E.F. Schumacher: it is of great benefit to keep your business focusing on the needs of workers rather than only on what they produce; you’d better use a management style that balances freedom and order; you should build sustainable local economies and respect the land and nature. The effects of industrialization that worried Schumacher decades ago have gotten even worse: namely, wealth inequality and the growing degradation (退化) of our environment.
Today much of what I care about ---nature, animals, communities, family farms, family businesses, native cultures, the character of our towns and cities, even our children’s future---is being threatened by corporate globalization. To protect all that I care deeply about, I need to step out of my own company, out of the White Dog Café. I started my journey with the simple idea that a sustainable global economy must be compromised of sustainable local economies. Rather than a global economy controlled by large international corporations, our movement advocates a global economy with a network of local economies made up of small independent businesses that create community wealth while working in harmony with natural system.
I opened the White Dog Café in 1983 on the first floor of my house in a neighborhood of Philadelphia. It is the house I have lived in since I was a child. Today much of the food I serve at the White Dog Café comes from the same land where my ancestors once farmed. When I opened the café years ago, it was a simple coffee and cake take-away shop serving students who lived nearby. Over the years we have expanded our menu and grown to occupy five buildings. We now employ more 100 people, can seat more than two hundred customers, and earn over $5 million a year! I owe our success to making decisions not for the purpose of maximizing profits but instead maximizing the relationships with our customers and staff, with our community, with our suppliers and with our natural environment.
Now I still live above the shop. I still have the old-fashioned way of doing business---the way it was in the old days with the family farm, the family inn, and the corner store. Living and working in the same community has given me a stronger sense of place and a different business outlook. When I make a business decision, it comes naturally for my decision to be made in the common interest of all involved because every day I see the people affected by my decision---my neighbours, my customers, and my employees as well as the natural world. There is a short distance between the business decision-maker and those affected by the decision. I believe that when we are surrounded by those affected by our decisions, we are more likely to make a decision from the heart as opposed to the head.
Business schools teach “grow or die”. But I make a conscious decision to continue to be a small business because I know that when we grow in physical size, we give up something very important ---authentic relationships with the people around us and those we do business with. I have come to realize that we can measure our success by measuring how much we improve our knowledge, deepen our relationships, achieve happiness, and have more fun.
1. What do we know about the sign on the author’s closet door?| A．It has been her family motto for years. | B．It comes from one of her favourite book |
| C．It serves as an inspiration to her.. | D．It helps her forget difficulties in business. |
| A．She fought against the global economy in her community. |
| B．She worked together with other independent businesses. |
| C．She expanded her own business at home and abroad. |
| D．She learned from large international corporations. |
| A．It gets along well with the people involved. | B．It has been run as a family business. |
| C．It makes big profits by developing fast. | D．It always has regular customers. |
| A．She wants to stay close to her family. |
| B．Neighbors can be her customers or employees. |
| C．Food in her café can be served immediately. |
| D．She can learn about others’ opinions easily. |
| A．Business schools teach when to expand or leave the business. |
| B．We tend to measure success in business by constant growth. |
| C．We usually learn how to do business in business school. |
| D．Business schools focus on the basic principles of business. |
【推荐2】World Heritage Sites (遗址) You Need to Visit
Los Glaciares National Park
Located in the southwest of Santa Cruz province of the Argentine part of Patagonia in a remote area known as the Austral Andes, Los Glaciares National Park is a heaven of mountains lakes. and countless glaciers ( 冰川) that cover half the 600, 000-hectare expanse. Travelling through this amazing scenery is a once- in-a-lifetime experience.
Jeronimos Monastery
Travel to the Belem district at the entrance to the port of Lisbon to find the Jeronimos Monastery, which dates back to the 15th century. This highly religious building was constructed and donated to the monks (和尚) of Saint Hieronymus to pray for sailors on their voyages. It’s the characteristic of Portuguese Gothic style.
Old Québec
Founded by the French explorer Samuel de Champlain in 1608, Québec is among the oldest settlements in North America and one of the most popular travel destinations in Canada. Centuries-old attraction is on full display in its perfectly preserved historic district, a shining example of a city built by early settlers with stone paths, churches. And landmarks like Chateau Frontenac and Place Royale.
Angkor Wat
Exploring Angkor Wat in Siem Reap, Cambodia lops our list of unforgettable trips that won’t break the bank. It is part of one of the most significant archaeological (考古的) sites in Southeast Asia in the ancient capital of the Khmer Empire, from the 9th to the 14th century. This great temple complex was originally constructed as a place of showing respect to the god Vishnu and is the largest religious structure on the planet !
1. If you’re interested in natural scenery, which of the four places would you visit?| A．Los Glaciares National Park. | B．Jeronimos Monastery. |
| C．Old Québec. | D．Angkor Wat. |
| A．Old Québce and Angkor Wat. |
| B．Jeronimos Monastery and Old Québec. |
| C．Jeronimos Monastery and Angkor Wat. |
| D．Los Glaciarcs National Park and Jeronimos Monastery. |
| A．Mountain views. | B．Great voyages. |
| C．Gothic style landmarks. | D．Low expenses. |
【推荐3】Dieters have long sworn that grapefruit helps them lose weight. The Grapefruit Diet, also called the Hollywood Diet, dates back to the 1930s and has a host of celebrity fans including singer Kylie Minogue. It involves having grapefruit or grapefruit juice with every meal while cutting back on calories.
Now, scientists are beginning to believe them.
A study has found that drinking grapefruit juice when eating fatty food lowers the amount of weight put on by up to a fifth.
The research also suggested that grapefruit could be as good as prescription drugs at keeping blood sugar levels under control—a key part of managing diabetes.
The experiments were conducted on mice—but researchers say the results are true for humans. Professor Joseph Napoli, of the University of California, Berkeley, said, “We see all sorts of tricks about nutrition. But these results, based on controlled experiments, make it necessary to study the potential health-promoting properties of grapefruit juice further.”
The researchers found that when the mice were fed fatty food for three months, those given grapefruit juice to drink gained up to 18 percent less weight than those given water.
They also had lower blood sugar and insulin levels—despite eating the same number of calories and doing the same amount of exercise as the mice who drank water. In fact, grapefruit juice was as good at controlling insulin as the widely used diabetes drugs, the journal PLOS ONE reports.
However, the fruit juice only had an effect on weight when the animals ate fatty food. The researchers said they did not know how grapefruit stops the pounds from piling on.
Spokesman Mariette Abrahams, a dietician, said until then it is too early for people to try grapefruit diets. “Grapefruit should be part of a healthy balanced diet, but it shouldn’t be the focus of the diet.” she said.
1. What can be known about the Hollywood Diet?| A．It’s the origin of the Grapefruit Diet. |
| B．It was more popular in the 1930s than any time. |
| C．It may appeal to fat people. |
| D．Scientists may think it is nonsense. |
| A．They should have been conducted on humans. |
| B．The results apply to humans too. |
| C．Grapefruit could cure diabetes. |
| D．Mice prefer grapefruit juice to water. |
| A．The mice with high blood sugar. |
| B．The mice doing a lot of exercise. |
| C．The mice on a fatty diet. |
| D．The mice taking prescription drugs. |
| A．Nutrition of Grapefruit |
| B．Experiment on Grapefruit |
| C．Grapefruit Makes a Hit |
| D．Grapefruit Helps Keep Fit |
【推荐1】Thanks to research currently being done ih the field of nanotechnology, it may be possible to cure a disease like cancer using tiny particles(微粒) injected into a person — particles that would not only find the cancer, but also destroy it without harming anything else in the body.
The main thing to know about nanotechnology is that it’s small — really small. The prefix nano refers to a nanometer, which is one-billionth of a meter. How small is that exactly? A comma on a page of a book may be more than half a million nanometers wide.
Researcher Ted Sargent, a leader in the field of nanotechnology, describes how using quantum (量子) dots—particles that are a few nanometers in size — will help diagnose a disease. The particles, Sargent explains, shine brightly when exposed to UV light and can be inserted into the body. They can also be programmed to bond only to a particular cancer cell. Doctors can then use a camera and look for the colored particles, which will help them determine where cancer cells are growing in a person’s body. Using this technology, it will be possible to detect cancer at a stage when there are perhaps only a thousand bad cells.
Once a certain type of cancer is detected, nanotechnology will also improve the way it is treated. Nanoparticles will allow doctors to attack cancerous tumors (肿瘤) without disturbing healthy cells. Doctors can deliver cancer-killing drugs, carried via the nanoparticles, to the bad cells only or they can also destroy cancer cells identified by nanoparticles, using laser rays. Ultimately, technologies like this will allow doctors to deliver cancer treatment earlier, faster, and more thoroughly, with fewer side effects.
Unfortunately, though nanoparticles have great medical potential, there are serious concerns that they could have negative environmental and health effects. In recent studies researchers found that half the human cells died after exposing lab-grown human cells to water containing large amounts of nanoparticles.
Because nanotechnology is so potentially useful, many scientists don’t think research into its many uses should be stopped; learning more about nanotechnology should remain a priority. Scientists do believe that governments should allocate more money for safety-related studies—to make sure that large concentrations of nanoparticles do not get into our food and water supplies and cause serious problems.
1. What is this passage mainly about?| A．The dangers and side effects of nanotechnology. |
| B．The various ways of detecting different cancers. |
| C．The development and application of nanotechnology. |
| D．How nanotechnology can be used in medical science. |
| A．The size of a comma. | B．One-billionth of a meter. |
| C．A billion nanoparticles wide. | D．The same size as a quantum dot. |
| A．does not have any influences | B．may prevent many side effects |
| C．causes one second cells’ death | D．could cure a variety of cancers |
| A．Nanotechnology proved to be useless and the research should be ended. |
| B．Scientists want to see research into nanotechnology continue with caution. |
| C．Many scientists think that nanotechnology is too dangerous to be permitted. |
| D．Nanotechnology is so useful that many governments are investing in research. |
【推荐2】I have received many Christmas gifts over the years. The best gift I ever received was presented to me by a stranger. I never even knew his name and I only had contact with him for less than 60 seconds. His Christmas present to me changed the way I think about people and about Christmas.
It was several years ago when my wife asked me to meet her at the local department store on Black Friday morning. They had advertised a child’s bike that she wanted to purchase for our son. We stood with a very large crowd, waiting for the manager to blow the whistle. I told my wife that if we got a bike, fine, but if we did not, I was OK with that too.
As the shelf of bikes began to gradually decrease in size, I saw my polite opportunity to wrap my hands around the corner of one of the boxes. I lifted it off the box and suddenly felt some mild resistance. I looked up to see one of the largest gentlemen I had ever seen in my life. Threat was not the word to describe his presence. He was decorated with numerous belts of metal pointed leather around both arms and even his neck. Tattoos (纹身) were an obvious passion of his.
I started to return anxiously the box but he gently pushed it back in my direction and back into my hands. He then directed it into my shopping cart. He looked at me, smiled, and said, “Merry Christmas.” My wife and I went to the checkout, paid for the bike and went home. All the way home I was thinking that this moment was by far the best Christmas gift I had ever received. The kindness of a stranger that broke all previous views I may have had of stereotypes and prejudices. I will never forget the tenderness of a human heart in a simple act.
1. Why does the author see the gift as best?| A．Because it was given by a stranger. | B．Because it was donated by a charity. |
| C．Because it improved his level of living. | D．Because it changed his way of thinking. |
| A．He is eager for it. | B．It doesn’t matter. |
| C．It depends on its price. | D．He doesn’t like it at all. |
| A．Strong and kind. | B．Tall and cautious. |
| C．Lovely and energetic. | D．Handsome and polite. |
| A．A True Gentleman I Met | B．The Best Gift I Ever Received |
| C．A Choice That Changed My View | D．A Stranger Who Gave Me a Gift |
【推荐3】You’re enjoying a quiet evening at home when suddenly your neighbor’s dog starts barking(吠叫)and doesn’t stop. Sure, dogs need to bark every now and then, but if the barking is getting in the way of your daily life, you need to do something.
“Before you take action, make records of when the dog is disturbing,” says expert Sharon Schweitzer. “Record the dates and time when the barking appears to find out the features of the barking. Check them carefully and get your facts straight. You might notice the barking only happens when the owners are at work, or during thunderstorms.”
After two to three weeks, visit your neighbors with the facts. “Since you’re trying to keep a good relationship, you can’t go when you’re angry and frustrated,” says Schweitzer. Plus, your neighbors might not even realize the barking is a problem, for the worst noise may happen when they’re gone.
Explain the time when the barking gets bad, then suggest a way to solve the problem. “You can sit and complain all day, but that will go nowhere,” says Schweitzer. Ask if the dog can stay inside during the storm, or suggest a dog training class. Be open to compromise(妥协)because the owners might have other ideas about how to deal with the noise.
Befriending the dog could help. Have your neighbors introduce you to their dogs. “If they become more comfortable in your presence, they’re less likely to bark when they see you or when they’re in the backyard,”says Schweitzer. You might even be able to use commands such as “quiet” once the dog trusts you.
Avoid gossiping(说长道短)with other neighbors about the dog.“That’s when things escalate.” After all, most people will want to solve the problem.
1. What can you do first when the barking of your neighbor’s dog influences your life?| A．Bring the dog to a training class. |
| B．Show it to your neighborhoods. |
| C．Drive it out of your neighborhood. |
| D．Record the dates and time of the barking. |
| A．They may like the barking. |
| B．They all think their dogs are friendly. |
| C．They have been used to the barking of the dogs. |
| D．They may be out when the worst barking happens. |
| A．Become better. |
| B．Become worse. |
| C．Remain unchanged. |
| D．Become more personal. |
| A．Love me, love my dog. |
| B．Barking dogs seldom bite. |
| C．Good communication is a must. |
| D．Treat violence with violence(暴力). |
