1 . One of my earliest memories was walking up to the smell of camp smoke and my mother’s hot chocolate. My parents were poor, and we lived in the countryside in Portland. Dad had two jobs and Mom was disabled, but that didn’t stop them from heading into the Cascade Mountains several times a year.
Our clothes were old and worn and our food was usually cheap and simple. However, we were always satisfied with our hot chocolate, which was made in a traditional way handed down from my grandmother to my mother.
There was no store to buy anything we needed. We just had powdered cocoa in our camp.
Mom would set the smoke-blackened coffee pot at the side of the fire and slowly warm the milk, adding chocolate and sugar, and stirring (搅拌) until the contents became thick and rich brown. The wonderful smell of chocolate filled the camp. More than once, I could remember people that we had just met hours before stepping into our camp to enjoy mother’s creation.
Once we were trapped in our tent (帐篷) for days because of a terrible rainstorm. Every morning I was woken up by the attractive smell of Mom’s hot chocolate.
Now, many years have passed, when we head for the mountains, I still use that worn coffee pot. And we always bring extra cups for the neighbours who will certainly turn up.
I have told my family a lot about Mom, and it seems that nothing brings back those warm memories better than sitting around the fire at night and tasting sweet hot chocolate.
1. Where did the author live when she was a child?| A．In a village. | B．In a big city. | C．In a hotel. | D．In a palace. |
| A．Kind. | B．Friendly. | C．Disabled. | D．Serious. |
| A．Her parents were poor. | B．Her mom had two jobs. |
| C．Her mom was a boss of Coffee House. | D．Her dad stopped them from camping. |
| A．Saved. | B．Absorbed. | C．Caught. | D．Suffered. |
| A．Camp Smoke | B．Mom’s Hot Chocolate |
| C．My Neighbours | D．Grandmother’s Creation |
2 . These days, it's not unusual to see middle-aged men collecting Star Wars action figures, office workers wearing Hello Kitty accessories, or celebrities like David Beckham playing with Lego bricks. It's becoming more and more common to see adults taking an interest in toys, comic books and the activities that are traditionally associated with children. This phenomenon has given rise to a new word: kidult.
What lies behind the phenomenon? One is about adults' nostalgia （怀旧之情）for the carefree days of childhood, and this is especially true with today's fast-paced, stressful lifestyles. Another is about a societal change in recent decades where people are starting families later. As a result, they have more time and money to spend on themselves. Some adults could only window-shop for their dream toys when they were kids, but now they can afford that radio controlled car or high-priced doll they have always wanted.
Businesses have been quick to exploit the kidult trend, and the number of toy stores that target adults has risen. Companies are repackaging products from past decades and also bringing out new ones for adults. Lego, for example, has brought out an architectural series featuring landmarks from around the world.
Society traditionally disapproves of adults who refuse to put aside childhood interests, viewing the refusal as a sign of social immaturity and irresponsibility. Those who agree with this view sometimes claim that kidults are suffering from the pop-psychology concept known as Peter Pan Syndrome, an anomaly （异常）that people remain emotionally at the level of teenagers. On a grander scale, these kidult opponents （对手）argue that such delayed adulthood causes couples to marry later and have fewer children. This in turn can lead to shrinking national economies, for there needs to be a generational replenishment （补充）
of the workforce.
From the standpoint of kidults, though, this phenomenon is seen as nothing but harmless fun. Kidults insist that having youthful interests keeps them young, happy and creative, and their refusal to conform to society's acceptable tastes shows independent thinking. Besides, they argue that being part of the social trend of delayed adulthood is not purely a personal choice. The real causes include expensive housing, increased educational requirements for employment and poor work opportunities.
Whether the kidult phenomenon will continue to grow or prove to be a passing trend is anyone's guess. As the debate about it continues, remember that there is nothing wrong with being young at heart.
1. What does the kidult phenomenon refer to?| A．Adults act like children. |
| B．Adults have child-like tastes. |
| C．Adults go in for collecting toys. |
| D．Adults like playing with children. |
| A．Different living conditions. |
| B．More choices about toys. |
| C．High pressure of modern life. |
| D．Good memories of childhood. |
| A．Get used to. |
| B．Look forward to. |
| C．Take advantage of. |
| D．Make way for. |
| A．By strongly opposing kidult opponents. |
| B．By convincing readers to accept kidults. |
| C．By refusing to take a stand on the issue. |
| D．By presenting both sides of the argument. |
| A．Doubtful. | B．Positive. |
| C．Disapproving. | D．Uncaring. |
3 . To grow sugary dates in the sand, Siwa’s farmers must first make the desert suitable for farming. An oasis (绿洲) in Egypt, Siwa has been home to humans for thousands of years. Since ancient times, the oasis has hosted farms producing some of the most valuable dates in Egypt, and sugary dates have appeared on Egyptians, tables.
The desert environment in Siwa is not quite fit for plants to grow. For example, the water there contains much salt. However, with local people’s efforts, the Siwa oasis contains complex agricultural fields, where date trees, crops and other plants grow in harmony. That impressed me a lot during my visit to the oasis. To make a new piece of field, farmers first remove the top soil and replace it with a mixture of sand and waste matter from animals. The first plants are medicinal plants. Then, farmers plant date trees and olive trees. These farming skills are passed down from generation to generation.
To grow date trees is demanding. And it takes 10 years for a new date tree to mature, but once it does, the tree produces generous fruit: around 110 pounds of dates per year. Each farmer picks dates with the skilled hands. They climb the trees using nothing more than a belt. In total, Siwa grows more than 25,000 tons of dates from 280,000 trees per year.
The dates can be eaten fresh, or made dry. Every part of the date tree is significant in Siwa, from leaves made into beds and boxes to wood used to build houses. And then, of course, there’s the fruit itself. The dates can be cooked with goat meat or mixed with eggs for breakfast. They can also be mixed with flour, water, and olive oil, and boiled slowly to make a local dessert.
Local farmers once developed many unique date varieties, which their camels carried to Cairo. But later many of those varieties perished. And today only several major varieties remain and some have become quite rare and been at risk. The 1985 construction of a road in the oasis made the survival of local agricultural tradition even tougher.
1. What can we learn about sugary dates from Paragraph 1?| A．They can adapt to tough environment. |
| B．They have existed for a long time. |
| C．They’re introduced to Egypt from abroad. |
| D．They’re the most valuable fruit in Egypt. |
| A．The great variety of plants grown there, |
| B．The hard but happy life of local people. |
| C．The great complexity of the local agriculture. |
| D．The local farmers’ wisdom and contribution to farming. |
| A．It’s worthwhile to make an effort to grow date trees. |
| B．It’s easy for farmers to pick dates from the trees. |
| C．It costs a lot to grow date trees in the basis. |
| D．It’s necessary to develop agriculture in Siwa. |
| A．People’s preference for dates. |
| B．The introduction to local food, |
| C．The usage of date trees’ different parts. |
| D．The locals’ high expectations of date trees. |
| A．Died out. | B．Spread out. |
| C．Got created. | D．Became known. |
4 . It’s good to make mistakes, and here is why.
First of all, mistakes are a clear sign that we are trying new things. It’s always good to try new things because when we are trying new things, we are growing. If we never try anything new, how can we improve? How can we expand? The simple answer is “We can’t”. Look around us. With very few exceptions, either everything you see in your physical world or every single detail of every single thing is the result of someone trying something new.
Another good thing about mistakes is this: When we are making mistakes, we are learning. Consider this --- Edison failed 10,000 times before he perfected the light bulb. When asked how it felt to fail that many times, he said that he had learned 10,000 things that didn’t work.
Finally, when we make a mistake, we are much closer to success. Why? Because when all is said and done, we will have tried some number of things before we succeeded. Every time we make a mistake, we eliminate one of those things and are one step closer.
But all this doesn’t mean that we should go through life without considering the consequences of a mistake. Quite the contrary, when we try something new, we have to be willing to set some reasonable limits so that in the event that it doesn’t work out the way we want it to, we will be in a position to try again. We all have limited resources --in the form of time and money -- so we shouldn’t blow them all on one approach to a problem. Realize that it probably won’t be perfect the first time and allocate these resources appropriately so we can learn, make corrections, and try it again. Only by accepting and using our mistakes in this way can we make significant advances in our lives.
There is an old saying that goes, “If you’re not making mistakes, you’re not trying hard enough.” So go forth and make mistakes. And learn. And grow. And prosper.
1. From the second paragraph, we can conclude that ________.| A．mistakes are unnecessary for development | B．mistakes let us see our own limits |
| C．it’s common for people to make mistakes | D．making mistakes is better than not trying |
| A．move forward | B．never fail | C．obtain nothing | D．be closer to mistakes |
| A．make up for | B．get rid of | C．avoid | D．solve |
| A．avoiding making the same mistakes | B．accepting the outcome willingly |
| C．making proper arrangements for our next try | D．reflecting on the consequences after each mistake |
| A．how to deal with mistakes | B．what benefits making mistakes brings |
| C．how to achieve success | D．how to make use of our mistakes |
| A．Never mind, I tried my best. | B．That’s all right. I’ll try again. |
| C．Great! Now I have learned something. | D．Look at this mess. Anyone would be upset. |
5 . Many parents worry that showing negative emotions in front of their children will cause them to suffer. For example, children may end up thinking it's their fault or simply "catch" the emotion. Indeed, this worry has a sound basis — the phenomenon of “emotional contagion"（情绪感染）is real, and one recent study found that parents can transfer their fear of going to the dentist, for example, to their children.
On the other hand, there is the natural idea that we should “be real" with our children, and that they will benefit from watching a parent who struggles and eventually deals with their negative emotions like any other human being.
There are three concepts to consider when it comes to emotional display in front of children: suppression （压抑），"uncontained" expression, and talking about emotions. Suppression of emotion is when you hide the outward signs of an emotion. Unfortunately, it doesn't work very well — the act of suppressing your emotion actually increases your blood pressure. Observers can pick up on your distress despite your efforts to hide it, making them feel stressed. The recent research has also found that when parents feel negative emotions and keep them from their children, they experience lower relationship quality and decreased responsiveness to their child's needs.
On the other hand, “uncontained" expression of anger and sadness by the parent is also not salutary for the child. Uncontained means high intensity emotion, with no attempts to regulate or take ownership of it. Shouting, smashing （摔）things and blaming someone else for "making you angry" are all example of this .
So, what is the middle ground? That would be talking about emotion taking ownership of them and showing your child that you are trying to deal with them. Classic research found that six-year-old kids had better emotional understanding and perspective-taking skills if their mothers had talked to them about their emotions at the age of three. In fact, the more the mothers had talked, the better the outcome would be.
So next time you feel sad, angry or frustrated and your child is watching you expressing emotion, do explain what's going on in terms they can understand.
1. The author uses the example of going to the dentist mainly to _______.| A．explain parents' common fear |
| B．introduce the topic of negative emotions |
| C．show children may catch parents' emotions |
| D．present the consequences of transferring negative emotions |
| A．she will not make her kids feel stressed |
| B．she can hide her emotions from her kids |
| C．she will often shout at her kids for no reasons |
| D．she can't respond effectively to her kids' needs |
| A．Enough. | B．Beneficial. |
| C．Necessary. | D．Reliable. |
| A．To encourage parents to "be real" with our children. |
| B．To call on parents to develop a positive attitude to life. |
| C．To inform parents of the consequences of negative emotions. |
| D．To recommend parents to talk about negative emotions with children. |
A． | B． |
C． | D． |
6 . Over the next decade, technology will decimate more jobs in many professions.
Some robots already cost less to operate than the salaries of the humans they replace, and they are getting cheaper. Boston Consulting Group predicts that, by 2025, the operating cost of a robot that does welding (焊接) will be less than $2 per hour, for example. That’s more affordable than the $25 per hour that a human welder earns today in America.
Uber and many other companies are working on developing cars and trucks that don’t need a driver in the driver’s seat. According to the American Trucking Associations, approximately 3 million truck drivers were employed in the United States in 2010, and 6. 8 million others were employed in other jobs relating to trucking activity. So roughly one of every 15 workers in the country is employed in the trucking business. We could be talking about millions of jobs disappearing in the early 2020s.
And then there is the “Gig Economy (零工经济)” that has some businesses moving toward part-time, on-demand employment. Uber has already done this to taxi drivers, and other technology companies are doing it to a wide range of jobs. A study by Intuit predicted that, by 2020, 40% of American workers will be self-employed, and that full-time jobs will be harder to find. We are talking about 60 million people in this category. The problem is that not only do such part-time workers lack reliable full-time jobs and sick pay, but they can’t enjoy health insurance and longer-term benefits.
The measures to be taken are to raise trade barriers. But closing the doors to foreign trade won’t bring jobs back. It will only slow the global economy and hurt American exports, shrinking the U. S. economy and accelerating job loss.
1. The underlined word “decimate” in Paragraph 1 can be replaced by “______”.| A．make someone interested in | B．equip someone for |
| C．wipe out | D．bring back |
| A．Robots will become smarter and smarter. |
| B．Uber’s labor cost will be lower and lower. |
| C．More and more truck drivers will be needed. |
| D．Taxi drivers can enjoy more health insurance. |
| A．It may be flexible. |
| B．It may offer sick pay. |
| C．It is full of adventure. |
| D．It is always well-paid. |
| A．Welcoming foreign trade. |
| B．Offering more part-time jobs. |
| C．Using fewer robots to stop job loss. |
| D．Developing more new technologies. |
| A．To show technology advances in our daily life. |
| B．To prove technologies cause low incomes. |
| C．To introduce what the Gig Economy is. |
| D．To warn the Gig Economy is coming. |
7 . When John was growing up, other kids felt sorry for him. His parents always had him weeding the garden, carrying out the garbage and delivering newspapers. But when John reached adulthood, he was better off than his childhood playmates. He had more job satisfaction, a better marriage and was healthier. Most of all, he was happier. Far happier.
These are the findings of a 40-year study that followed the lives of 456 teenage boys from Boston. The study showed that those who had worked as boys enjoyed happier and more productive lives than those who had not. ＂Boys who worked in the home or community gained competence(能力) and came to feel they were worthwhile members of society,＂ said George Vaillant, the psychologist(心理学家) who made the discovery. ＂And because they felt good about themselves, others felt good about them.＂
Vaillant’s study followed these males in great detail. Interviews were repeated at ages 25,31 and 47. Under Vaillant, the researchers compared the men’s mental-health scores with their boyhood-activity scores. Points were awarded for part-time jobs, housework, effort in school, and ability to deal with problems.
The link between what the men had done as boys and how they turned out as adults was surprisingly sharp. Those who had done the most boyhood activities were twice as likely to have warm relations with a wide variety of people, five times as likely to be well paid and 16 times less likely to have been unemployed. The researchers also found that IQ and family social and economic class made no real difference in how the boys turned out.
Working — at any age — is important. Childhood activities help a child develop responsibility, independence, confidence and competence — the underpinnings(基础) of emotional health. They also help him understand that people must cooperate and work toward common goals. The most competent adults are those who know how to do this. Yet work isn’t everything. As Tolstoy once said, ＂One can live magnificently in this world if one knows how to work and how to love, to work for the person one loves and to love one’s work.＂
1. What do we know about John?| A．He enjoyed his career and marriage. |
| B．He had few childhood playmates. |
| C．He received little love from his family. |
| D．He was envied by others in his childhood. |
| A．a description of personal values and social values |
| B．an analysis of how work was related to competence |
| C．an example for parents’ expectations of their children |
| D．an explanation why some boys grew into happy men |
| A．recording the boys’ effort in school |
| B．evaluating the men’s mental health |
| C．comparing different sets of scores |
| D．measuring the men’s problem solving ability |
| A．Quick to react. | B．Having a thin edge. |
| C．Clear and definite. | D．Sudden and rapid. |
| A．Competent adults know more about love than work. |
| B．Emotional health is essential to a wonderful adult life. |
| C．Love brings more joy to people than work does. |
| D．Independence is the key to one’s success. |
