1 . How to feel more affection for 'very annoying' 14-year-old son
Hi Carolyn: I have two children who are both fundamentally good kids. But one is a very, very cute 10-year-old daughter and the other is a very, very annoying 14-vear-old son. One is cuddly and sweet and funny. The other is only rarely cuddly or sweet, funny but snarky (言辞尖刻的) and seems to adore one thing: contradicting every statement I make.
I know this is normal teenage behavior, but right now. I feel only annoyance toward him. And then I feel guilty, because I think he can sense the difference. What can I do?
–Annoyed
Hi Annoyed: As you know - and as you've sensed in his sensing the difference-he still needs you around and wants your approval. The surly (脾气坏的) stuff isn't everything. There's an interesting person developing in there. The cute-caterpillar (毛毛虫) stage was always going to be temporary. Be the person who sees him grow and transform into a butterfly, and delight in it.
Readers' thoughts:
·Been there. Survived. One action I took: I hugged him every day. Whether I wanted to or not.
—Linda
·Teens want to be seen as adults. Appreciate his desire to be independent and praise him when he is.
—David
·I recently saw a social media post that said: "You think you've got it bad? Some people are 15. "He has to survive being a teenager. Please be kind to him.
—Jeff
·I remember my parents started letting me set aside a summer weekend or two where I could stay up as late as I wanted. The rest of the year, I lived life according to our family's schedule and needs. But those precious few nights were 100 percent MINE.
—Sue
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Write to Carolyn Hax at tellme@washitonpost.com. Get her column delivered to your inbox each morning at wapo.st/gethax.
1. Which of the following could best sum up Carolyn Hax's reply?| A．Blame and label. | B．Support. Don't judge. |
| C．Model and persuade. | D．Seek help. Don't ignore. |
| A．Linda. | B．David. | C．Jeff. | D．Sue. |
| A．Feature story. | B．Critic review. |
| C．Advice column. | D．Classified ad. |
2 . Do extroverts (外向者) make better leaders?
There is a general impression that you're better off in the workplace and in life — if you're an extrovert. Understandably, this idea is most likely to be spread by extroverts themselves, who are "
In what could be
| A．loud | B．slow | C．quiet | D．serious |
| A．wonderful | B．terrible | C．foreign | D．fake |
| A．fortune | B．right | C．courage | D．edge |
| A．discover | B．create | C．enjoy | D．provide |
| A．pretends | B．questions | C．argues | D．promises |
| A．fail | B．hesitate | C．plan | D．tend |
| A．However | B．Besides | C．Therefore | D．Instead |
| A．absence | B．respect | C．company | D．loyalty |
| A．While | B．Once | C．If | D．As |
| A．distracted | B．delighted | C．discouraged | D．determined |
| A．hardly | B．purely | C．nearly | D．partly |
| A．stick to | B．object to | C．refer to | D．contribute to |
| A．understand | B．govern | C．change | D．deny |
| A．listening | B．debating | C．acting | D．teaching |
| A．analyze | B．accept | C．support | D．doubt |
3 . Female birds sing, too, but scientists tend to tune in to male birdsong and ignore female songs. It highlights a long-standing bias (偏见) and helps us think about why that bias persists (持续).
Since the beginning of modern birdsong research, the field has focused on male songbirds. Any serious birder could tell you that females do sing, sometimes as frequently as males. However, early birdsong researchers tended to be men. Men are significantly less likely than women to lead research projects studying female songs. Thus, we are missing key behaviors as a result of historical biases caused by a lack of diverse participation in science.
So how do we make science welcoming and accessible for all? We need to communicate better with nonscientists. Engaging the public in science is essential for basic science findings that influence how we perceive the world around us.
For example, understanding that female birds do sing matters not only to scientists but also to the billions of people who hear the sounds of wild birds every day. In many species, males and females look similar from a distance, but can be distinguished by ear. Paying close attention to which sounds each sex makes and thinking about why they might be producing them opens up a richer window into the environment around us. It turns out female birds use songs for all the same reasons male birds do: to signal individual identity, defend valuable territories and attract potential mates.
Public awareness of female birdsong has the potential to change the science itself. Apps like eBird collect millions of public observations and audio recordings of birds every year. Increasing public engagement and involvement with research promises to benefit the scientific community and society more broadly. In many cases, scientists and experts already have strongly held biases about the way the world works, and these biases allow mistaken conclusions to persist. Public observers often make better observers of the world around them because they lack preconceived ideas.
Female birds sing! We welcome a future where research and communication combine to improve our understanding of the world around us and deepen our connections to each other and the natural world.
1. What does the second paragraph mainly talk about?| A．Who is to blame for the long-standing bias. |
| B．Why female birdsong is long ignored by scientists. |
| C．What contributes to diverse participation in science. |
| D．How men have conducted modern birdsong research. |
| A．It will enable us to become real scientists. |
| B．It will help us distinguish bird species by ear. |
| C．It will expand our understanding of the world. |
| D．It will make advanced science accessible for all. |
| A．Biased. | B．Creative. |
| C．Mistaken. | D．Varied. |
| A．Why we Didn't Know That Female Birds Sing? |
| B．Advancing Science: How Bias Leads Us Forward |
| C．New Research Has Found Female Birds Sing Too! |
| D．A Case Study of Gender Bias in Science Reporting |
4 . It was a method favoured by the inventor Thomas Edison and the artist Salvador Dali. Waking from a nap exactly at the point before deep sleep in an effort to inspire creativity.
Edison held a metal ball in his hand so that if he nodded off he would drop it and the sound would wake him. For Dali, it was a key landing on a plate. Now scientists have found that they might have been onto something.
Researchers at the Paris Brain Institute studied people’s ability to find a hidden rule in a maths puzzle. Identifying the trick would make solving the problem far simpler but to do so required thinking creatively. The scientists found that participants who had been woken just before falling into a deep sleep, using a technique like that used by Edison and Dali, were more likely to find the shortcut.
This “twilight zone” is known as non-rapid eye movement sleep stage 1, or N1. Scientists described it like an exaggerated form of mind-wandering, where dream-like thoughts fill the mind. It is thought that as people start to disengage (脱离) from their environment they can “freely watch their minds wander, while maintaining their ability to identify creative sparks (火花)”.
For the study 103 people were given a maths problem to solve. To reach the final answer they had to apply the rules step by step but, unknown to them, a “hidden rule” would allow them to bypass most of the steps and get to the solution much more quickly. The results showed that 83 percent of those in the N1 group had found the shortcut, compared with 31 percent in the group who were awake and 14 percent of those in a deep sleep.
Researchers conclude that the brain activity common to the twilight zone between sleep and wakefulness set off creative sparks. “Although the neural mechanisms (神经机制) involved are not yet known, our findings suggest that there is a creative sweet spot within the twilight zone,” said Dr Thomas Andrillon, co-author of the study.
1. Why did the author mention “a metal ball” and “a key” in Paragraph 2?| A．To clarify a method. | B．To explain a theory. |
| C．To present a concept. | D．To make a comparison. |
| A．It prevents your mind from wandering. |
| B．It determines what your dreams will be like. |
| C．It is known as rapid eye movement sleep stage. |
| D．It is a state of being half asleep and half awake. |
| A．The maths problem. | B．The final answer. |
| C．The hidden rule. | D．The added step. |
| A．Doubtful. | B．Critical. |
| C．Indifferent. | D．Favorable. |
5 . Mount Tai, located just north of Tai’an city in East China’s Shandong Province, is a mountain of historical and cultural
Among the Five Sacred Mountains (the other four are Heng Mountain of Hunan Province, Hua Mountain of Shaanxi Province, Song Mountain of Henan Province and Heng Mountain of Shanxi Province), Mount Tai is only the third highest. Why is it seen as the
In absolute terms, Mount Tai cannot be considered as the highest of China’s mountains, but because it is
Many Chinese emperors climbed to the top for enthronement (登基) or other significant ceremonies in ancient China, for they considered it to be a
Mount Tai is famous for its various stone inscriptions, which are the works of either ancient emperors or celebrities. The stone inscriptions
| A．evidence | B．significance | C．confidence | D．existence |
| A．partner | B．member | C．leader | D．laggard |
| A．close | B．far | C．remote | D．proper |
| A．absolute | B．relative | C．real | D．perfect |
| A．altitude | B．width | C．longitude | D．attitude |
| A．However | B．Therefore | C．Otherwise | D．Moreover |
| A．chance | B．change | C．death | D．renewal |
| A．gift | B．symbol | C．beginning | D．call |
| A．look at | B．go through | C．look for | D．go back |
| A．preserved | B．ruined | C．collected | D．hid |
| A．newspapers | B．information | C．articles | D．advertisements |
| A．combine | B．change | C．stop | D．increase |
| A．exciting | B．famous | C．delicate | D．rough |
| A．importance | B．magnificence | C．possibility | D．difference |
| A．powerless | B．pale | C．weak | D．forceful |
6 . Whether hunting or competing for limited space and resources, humans are the planet’s super predator (捕食者). As the human population expands, it’s getting harder for other creatures to find somewhere to hide during the day. Now new findings indicate animals around the world have come up with another strategy: They are becoming nocturnal (夜间活动的).
In a paper published in Science, researchers analyzed 76 previous scientific studies about human impact on animal activity. They compared animals’ activity during the day and night in areas of high human disturbance (from hunting or farming to hiking and other outdoor recreation) and low human disturbance (relatively natural conditions). The analysis showed animals are becoming an average of 1.36 times more nocturnal due to high human disturbance.
For example, in Poland wild boars go from 48% nocturnal in natural forests to 90% nocturnal in urban areas. Even activities people consider relatively innocuous, such as hiking and wildlife viewing, strongly affected animals’ daily rhythms. “We think that we’re leaving no trace often when we’re outdoors, but we can be having lasting consequences on animal behavior,” says Kaitlyn Gaynor, lead researcher for the study.
This is not the first time animals have had to live at night; during the time of dinosaurs, they were also nocturnal. “Dinosaurs were this ubiquitous (无处不在的), scary force, and only after their extinction did mammals (哺乳动物) emerge into the daylight,” Gaynor says. “And now humans have taken over and are pushing other animals back into the night.”
Scientists suspect becoming nocturnal may hurt those species highly adapted to the sun. They might not be able to live well at night, which would ultimately hurt their chances of survival and reproduction. Perhaps even more alarming effects could be in the wider ecosystem. In California’s Santa Cruz Mountains, coyotes have been more nocturnal in response to hikers and have started to alter their diets from daytime prey, such as squirrels and birds, to nocturnal prey, such as rats and rabbits.
Exactly how ecological communities will change, and whether it will be for better or worse, requires further study. Some nighttime shifts may benefit both animals and humans, Gaynor notes. For instance, tigers in Nepal are avoiding potentially deadly conflicts with people as they become more nocturnal.
Studies like this one will eventually help conservation managers make better decisions about how to protect ecosystems. “We’ll need to understand local dynamics to really understand how we should be changing management of wildlife populations or human activities,” Gaynor notes, “One potential approach might be to manage the timing of human activities so that we leave some of the daylight for other animals.”
1. How do animals respond to increasing human disturbance?| A．By limiting food intake. | B．By leaving their habitat. |
| C．By controlling population. | D．By adjusting daily routine. |
| A．Harmless. | B．Recreational. | C．Organized. | D．Irregular. |
| A．To highlight the importance of daylight. | B．To indicate the domination of humans. |
| C．To illustrate mammals’ adaptability. | D．To demonstrate dinosaurs’ power. |
| A．It has led to a new ecological balance. | B．It demands more conservation areas. |
| C．It may encourage bio-diversity. | D．It might be double-edged. |
7 . A new study combining linguistic, genetic and archaeological evidence has traced the origins of the family of languages including modern Japanese, Korean, Turkish and Mongolian and the people who speak them to millet (粟) farmers who inhabited a region in northeastern China about 9,000 years ago．
The findings detailed on Wednesday document a shared genetic ancestry for the hundreds of millions of people who speak what the researchers call Transeurasian languages across an area stretching more than 8,000 kilometers.
The findings illustrate how humankind’s embrace of agriculture following the Ice Age powered the movements of some of the world’s major language families. Millet was an important early crop as hunter-gatherers transitioned to an agricultural lifestyle.
There are 98 Transeurasian languages. This language family’s beginnings were traced to millet farmers in the Liao River valley, an area including parts of the Chinese provinces of Liaoning and Jilin and the region of Inner Mongolia. As these farmers moved across northeastern Asia, the descendant languages spread north and west into Siberia and east into Korea and over the sea to Japan over thousands of years.
The research stressed the complex beginnings for modern populations and cultures.
“Accepting that the roots of one’s language, culture or people lie beyond the present national boundaries is a kind of surrender of identity, which some people are not yet prepared to make,” said comparative linguist Martine Robbeets, lead author of the study published in the journal Nature.
“Powerful nations such as Japan, Korea and China are often pictured as representing one language, one culture and one genetic profile. But a truth is that all languages, cultures and humans, including those in Asia, are mixed,” Robbeets added.
The origins of modern Chinese languages arose independently, though in a similar fashion, with millet also involved. While the ancestors of the Transeurasian languages grew millet in the Liao River valley, the originators of the Sino-Tibetan language family farmed millet at roughly the same time in China’s Yellow River region, paving the way for a separate language expansion.
1. What is the new study mainly about?| A．The migration routes of millet farmers. |
| B．The ancient origins of a large language family. |
| C．The different ancestries of Transeurasian speakers. |
| D．The shared features of some neighboring languages. |
| A．The transition of power. | B．The diversity of lifestyles. |
| C．The interaction of cultures. | D．The adoption of farming. |
| A．Those from agricultural countries. |
| B．Those who deny their cultural identity. |
| C．Those with a strong sense of nationalism. |
| D．Those who are afraid to cross boundaries. |
| A．To draw a conclusion. |
| B．To present likely consequences. |
| C．To highlight the theme. |
| D．To offer additional information. |
8 . There are many ways to define fame. But one of them, surely, is to see your name in lights above bustling New York streets. A Chinese writer saw just an illumination in July when his name appeared on the big screen in Times Square. For Liu Zhenyun, it was a spectacular and fully-deserved promotion of his latest book, Laughter and Tears: A Novel.
Liu, one of the best-selling authors of novels in contemporary China, has penned a number of popular works, including Someone to Talk To, Remembering 1942 , and I Did Not Kill My Husband.
His works have been translated into more than 28 languages, and Someone to Talk To was awarded the 2011 Mao Dun Literature Prize.
Laughter and Tears： A Novel can be worthily called another ‘high peak’after Someone to Talk To, Zhang Xudong, a professor of comparative literature and East Asian studies at New York University, says. The novel is based on the folklore of a legendary figure Hua Emiang, and describes the paintings of the narrator’s uncle, telling of the humor and life of people in Yanjin, Henan province, Liu’s hometown.
In the book, everyone from Yanjin is humorous and can tell excellent jokes. Hua Emiang, the spirit of a widow waiting eternally for her husband, as in Yanjin folklore, will come into people’s dreams. In this state she will ask them to tell her a joke. If she thinks the joke is boring, she will instruct them to carry her to a place where she can drink spicy soup. But they die in the effort as she crushes them following her transformation into a mountain. However, if she likes the joke, she will give them a persimmon (柿子).As a result, people from Yanjin tell really good jokes.
Corriere della Sera, an Italian newspaper, called Liu “the Kalka of Beijing”. In 2018, Liu was awarded France’s Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters.
An author at Kirkus Reviews, a book review site in the United States, writes, “Liu has written a masterful tale that will make you laugh even as you despair”. Liu’s tragedies often have a feature of comedy and his comedies are also like tragedies. He tells many jokes and ridiculous stories in his books, and you will laugh when you read them. However, the truth behind the jokes could be cruel and sorrowful.
1. Why did Liu Zhenyun’s name appear on the big screen in Times Square?| A．Because he enjoys great reputation. |
| B．Because his new book has been sold out. |
| C．Because he is eager to establish his fame. |
| D．Because he wants to promote his best book. |
| A．Liu Zhenyun is a legendary figure. |
| B．No book beats Someone to Talk To. |
| C．Liu's novels belong to comparative literature. |
| D．Laughter and Tears: A Novel is worth reading. |
| A．punishment | B．assignment |
| C．award | D．warning |
| A．Liu Zhcnyun, a Master of Tragedy |
| B．Zhang Xudong, the Kafka of Beijing |
| C．A Writer with Tale to Tell Pens a New Book |
| D．A Book Was Awarded Mao Dun Literature Prize |
9 . A simple project to help a family in need stopped Lack Mickelson in his tracks. In 2017, he and his family were
Born and
Using his daughter’s bunk bed
| A．excited | B．amused | C．inspired | D．embarrassed |
| A．widespread | B．tough | C．constant | D．objective |
| A．built | B．founded | C．switched | D．appealed |
| A．fetches | B．gathers | C．collects | D．delivers |
| A．fed | B．raised | C．employed | D．worked |
| A．coached | B．guided | C．served | D．displayed |
| A．creaming | B．chasing | C．sleeping | D．playing |
| A．extraordinary | B．fascinating | C．distinguished | D．peaceful |
| A．for | B．as | C．like | D．by |
| A．joined | B．attended | C．present | D．involved |
| A．Owing to | B．Through | C．With | D．Due to |
| A．branches | B．columns | C．garages | D．devices |
| A．instant | B．rapid | C．intense | D．efficient |
| A．last | B．former | C．first | D．latter |
| A．difference | B．change | C．history | D．future |
10 . It all started when I learned to read,or rather,before I learned to read.Throughout my childhood, I'd always had a bunch of ideas about who I would become when I was older. I'd be an inventor,a doctor,a waitress, or an artist. But the ideas ran out in middle school. I spent a few years wandering aimlessly through life,having no clue what I was passionate about.
In my first year of high school, I had an English teacher-let's call her Mrs.A-who changed my life.She was the type of person who captured everyone's attention the second they walked in a room. Midway through the year,I realized that I didn't just want to get a good grade in her class for my own sake,but I wanted to make her proud. Months went by, and I worked harder. I wrote in class and practiced essays at home on top of that.And each time,I'd bring it to her for feedback."Veronica," said Mrs.A after pulling me aside on the last day of school."I told the editors of the school newspaper you should write for them.”aimlessly anymore-I had a destination.I had decided I'd become a writer.Doing well at the school newspaper was the first step to get there.
No way.They wouldn't take me.I applied anyway,A few months later,I was editor-in-chief. somewhere.
Thirteen years after I wrote my first word, three years after Mrs.A gave me the "go ahead".I’m writing for newspapers all around the world. Each article reminds me of the little girl who said she’d become a writer.
It's still the bottom rung of the ladder, and I've got miles left to climb, but at least I’ve made it somewhere.
1. Which of the following words best describe Mrs.A?| A．Patient and intelligent. | B．Inspiring and remarkable. |
| C．Out-going and helpful. | D．Approachable and imaginative. |
| A．Panicked. | B．Surprised. |
| C．Confused. | D．Unconfident. |
| A．Be brave enough to try. | B．Be ready to voice her opinions. |
| C．Cherish whatever life has to offer. | D．Continue to improve her writing skills. |
| A．To inspire passion for writing. | B．To discuss a teacher's role |
| C．To highlight the key to success. | D．To share her journey to writing. |
