1 . A group of young adults are building wooden boats, serving as workers in a boat building program sponsored by the Alexandria Seaport Foundation to be taught skills, self-confidence and discipline to change their lives for the better.
The young workers learn their craft at the foundation's seaport center, a floating wooden house on the banks of the Potomac River in Alexandria, once a busy seaport town in America. The yearlong program teaches small groups of young adults from 18 to 22 years old how to build small wooden sailboats. The program pays them a small wage.
A number of the young adults have not finished high school, and the foundation works to help them pass their GED, a high school equivalency. Those who do not have adequate math skills receive tutoring from a volunteer. One of the young workers, Chris, said he was a good student but had to drop out of high school to work due to his family situation. The program manager, once a role model of the group, remarked: “They know I'm living proof of what hard work and dedication gets you to. ” Now more than halfway through his apprenticeship, Chris said he feels better about himself.
When the wooden boats are finished, they will be sold. Chris said he will be sad to see them go5 but knows that, like life, they are meant to sail forward. "There is so much creativity that gets into making them. They're beautiful on the water. I'm delighted they're going to be a good home."
1. What is the boat building program intended to do?| A．Offer boats to companies that need them. |
| B．Donate boats to the poor community nearby. |
| C．Help more people learn about the history of boats. |
| D．Make a better life for those young adults in trouble. |
| A．They learn how to manage a program. |
| B．They learn how to build up confidence. |
| C．They learn how to build boats and sell them. |
| D．They learn how to teach others math problems. |
| A．The boats built are meant for tourism. |
| B．Chris dropped out of school for poor marks. |
| C．The young workers are all taught by volunteers. |
| D．Participants of the program are not all teenagers. |
| A．Hard work is what leads to success. |
| B．The art of building boats is hard to learn. |
| C．The future of the youth lies in themselves. |
| D．Building boats improves the young's lives. |
2 . A survey said the average Asian dad spent one minute a day with his children. I was shocked. I mean, a whole minute? Every day? Get real. Once a week maybe. The fact is, many Asian males are terrible at kid—related things. In fact, I am one of them.
Child—rearing (养育) doesn’t come naturally to guys. My mother knew the names of our teachers, best friends and crushes. My dad was only vaguely aware there were short people sharing the apartment. My mother bought healthy fresh food at the market every day. My dad would only go shopping when there was nothing in the fridge except a jar of capers and a bay leaf. Then he’d buy beer. My mother always knew the right questions to ask our teachers. My dad would ask my English teacher if she could get us a discount on school fees. My mother served kid food to kids. My dad added chili sauce to everything, including our baby food.
The truth is, mothers have superpowers. My son fell off a wall once and hurt himself all over. I demanded someone bring me a computer so I could google what to do. My wife ignored me and did some sort of chanting phrase such as “Mummy kiss it better,” and cured l7 separate injuries in less than 15 seconds.
Yes, mothers are incredible people, but they are not always right. Yet honesty forces me to record the fact that mothers only know best 99.99 percent of the time.Here are some famous slip-ups.
The mother of Bill Gates: “If you’re going to drop out of college and hang out with your nerdy friends, don’t come running to me when you find yourself penniless.” The mother of Albert Einstein: “When you grow up, you’ll find that sitting around thinking about the nature of time and space won’t pay the grocery bills.” The mother of George W. Bush: “You’ll never be like your dad, who became President of the United States and started his own war.”
1. The tone for the writer to write the passage is ___.| A．cruel | B．humorous | C．disapproving | D．critical(批评的) |
| A．females love kids more than males | B．males are not good at child—rearing |
| C．Males are not interested in child-rearing | D．child-rearing is difficult both for females and males |
| A．stories | B．shortcomings | C．mistakes | D．advantages |
| A．providing different examples | B．following the order of space |
| C．making comparisons | D．analyzing causes |
