1 . The teenage years of an individual is marked by evaluating one's values,experiencing a shift in outlooks,and a tendency to act rebellious. It can also be a time when someone becomes extremely
The issue of teenage curfews is widely debated in the United States, where this method is still rather
On the other hand, curfews can be seen as a preventive measure that rob young people of their rights,
What is important for a parent to remember when establishing a curfew for their children is that a teenager's misjudged view of certain
A.opposed | B.subjected | C.related | D.restricted |
A.improving | B.restoring | C.ensuring | D.expanding |
A.principle | B.reference | C.approach | D.efficiency |
A.popular | B.absent | C.practical | D.accessible |
A.Typical | B.Evident | C.Critical | D.Specific |
A.in place of | B.in honor of | C.in case of | D.in favor of |
A.results | B.events | C.patterns | D.links |
A.protecting | B.acknowledging | C.limiting | D.liberating |
A.officially | B.logically | C.particularly | D.physically |
A.By contrast | B.In addition | C.In conclusion | D.In general |
A.take charge of | B.contribute to | C.result from | D.deal with |
A.rules | B.charges | C.crimes | D.relations |
A.impolite | B.unrealistic | C.inadequate | D.unfair |
A.adopt | B.allow | C.avoid | D.address |
A.satisfy | B.spare | C.surround | D.settle |
E-Scooters
A.regardless B.charged C.option D.mostly E. transformative. F.powered G.connectivity H.prospects I.popularity J.champions K.invasion |
Over the past two years, electric scooters have become ever-present in many of Europe and America's biggest cities. Britain is the last major western European country to hold out against the
set up in large numbers. To their
As with a dock less(无桩) bike,scooters are fitted with GPS trackers and wireless
E-Scooters have the potential to solve some of the worlds biggest transport problems. Most cities are already dangerously polluted and heavily congested, and it is simply not a(n)
Scooters are clean, cheap, and they require little new infrastructure. For a country like car dependent America, they could be genuinely
3 . Are we getting more stupid? According to Gerald Crabtree, a scientist at Stanford University in the US, we are.
You may not want to hear this, but Crabtree believes that human intelligence reached its peak more than 2,000 years ago and ever since then has been going downhill. “If an average Greek from 1,000 BC were transported to modern times, he or she would be one of the brightest among us,” Crabtree told The Guardian.
At the heart of Crabtree’s thinking is a simple idea. In the past, intelligence was critical for survival when our ancestors had to avoid dangerous animals and hunt for food. The difference of being smart or stupid is often life or death. However, after the spread of agriculture when our ancestors began to live in dense farming communities, the need to keep their intelligence in peak-condition gradually reduced.
This is not hard to understand. Most of the time, pressure is what keeps us going—you need the pressure from your teachers to finish your homework the pressure of looking pretty encourages you to lose weight when summer comes. And the same is also true of our intelligence-if we think less, we become less smart.
These mutations (变异) are harmful to our intelligence and they were all developed in the past 3,000 years. The other evidence that Crabtree holds is in our genes. He found that among the 2,000 to 5,000 genes that we have that determine human intelligence, there are two or more mutations in each of us.
However, Crabtree’s theory has been criticized by some who say that early humans may have better hunting and surviving abilities, but people today have developed more diverse intelligence. For example, spearing (用矛刺) a tiger doesn’t necessarily require more brainpower than playing chess or writing a poem. Moreover, the power of modern education means lot more people have the opportunity to learn nowadays.
“You wouldn’t get Stephen Hawking 2,000 years ago. He just wouldn’t exist,” Thomas Hills of the University of Warwick, UK, told Live Science. “But now we have people of his intellectual capacity doing things and making insights (洞察力) that we would never have achieved in our environment of evolutionary adaptation (进化适应).”
1. What is Crabtree’s recent finding according to the article?A.The Greeks from 1,000 BC could have been the smartest in human history. |
B.Our ancient ancestors had no better surviving abilities than we do nowadays. |
C.Mutations in genes that decide human intelligence have affected the development of intelligence. |
D.Humans have been getting steadily more intelligent since the invention of farming. |
A.had much more genes that determine human Intelligence |
B.were forced to be smart due to natural selection pressures |
C.relied more on group intelligence than individual intelligence |
D.developed a diverse intelligence to adapt to the hard realities |
A.people today are under much more pressure than early humans |
B.it’s unreasonable to compare hunter’s and a poet’s intelligence |
C.modern education is far more advanced than ancient education |
D.human intelligence nowadays is different from that of the distant past |
A.He is for Crabtree’s theory. |
B.He is against Crabtree’s theory. |
C.He is worried about Crabtree’s theory. |
D.He is confused about Crabtree’s theory. |
impose moral tolerated anger ingredient contain loosing attitudes publish disadvantaged excuses |
A wise man once said that the only thing necessary for the victory of evil is for good men to do nothing. So, as a police officer, I have some urgent things to say to good people. Day after day my men and I struggle to
Accountability isn’t hard to define. It means that every person is responsible for his or her actions and liable for their consequences. Of the many values that hold civilization together --- honesty, kindness, and so on --- accountability may be the most important of all. Without it, there can be no respect, no trust, no law --- and, ultimately, no society.
My job as a police officer is to
Fortunately there are still communities --- smaller towns, usually --- where schools maintain discipline and where parents hold up standards that declare: “In this family certain things are not
The main cause of this breakdown is a radical shift in
I don’t believe it. Many others in equally
5 . There are several ways of retelling “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory”. In 2005 Hollywood focused on Willy Wonka, the factory’s owner, portraying him as a purple-gloved man-child. A new musical production of Roald Dahl’s children’s story at the Theatre Royal in London concentrates on the up-from-poverty fortune of Charlie Bucket, the boy who finds the golden ticket.
Tales of upward social mobility attempted or achieved are crowding the London stage. “Billy Elliott”, the story of a miner’s son who strives with the death of family strikes to make it as a ballet dancer, recently celebrated its four-millionth visitor. “Port”, an account of a Stockport girl’s attempts to escape her depressing origins, was a success at the National Theatre this spring. Last year “In Basildon” described strivers in the typical upwardly-mobile Essex town.
It is a respectable theatrical (and literary) theme, but it is being handled in a different way. John Osborne’s 1956 play “Look Back in Anger” showed a working-class man’s anger at the middle class he had married into. By the 1970s and 1980s writers were looking down their noses at social climbers, in plays like “Top Girls” and “Abigail’s Party”, in which a middle-class arriviste (暴发户) serves inferior snacks and the wrong kind of wine.
Social mobility moved away as a topic for a while, as playwrights like David Hare turned to examine carefully the state of the nation. Now it has returned—and is described much more sympathetically. Dominic Cooke, who directed “In Basildon” at the Royal Court Theatre, says this may be a delayed reaction to the collapse of state socialism in Europe.
A possible reason for the sympathetic tone is that upward mobility can no longer be taken for granted. In 2011 researchers at the London School of Economics concluded that intergenerational social mobility, assessed by income for children born between 1970 and 2000, had suspended. Another study, by Essex University academics, found matters had not improved during the crisis.
So it is fantastic fun to see people make it. Charlie Bucket does so spectacularly(壮观地). At the end of “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” he is a pint-size entrepreneur(企业家), with an immigrant workforce of Oompa-Loompas to ensure he does not fall back down the social ladder.
1. What are the versions of “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” mentioned in the passage?A.Magic and ballet. | B.Movie and musical. |
C.Drama and painting. | D.Novel and documentary. |
A.The story of a miner's son. |
B.The topic of upward social mobility. |
C.An account of a Stockport girl's attempts. |
D.A striver in the upwardly-mobile Essex town. |
A.gaining by dishonest means |
B.serving others what they like |
C.being involved in social climbing |
D.marrying the one sharing your background |
A.Curious. | B.Optimistic. |
C.Pessimistic. | D.Concerned. |
6 . ON AUGUST 2nd Magdalena Luczak and her partner, Mariusz Krezolek, were jailed for life for the murder of her four-year-old son, Daniel. The pair starved him for months, locked him in a small unheated room, and left him there to die. As with the deaths of Victoria Climbié in 2000 and Peter Connelly in 2007, the boy’s fate has prompted questions about how the authorities missed the abuse (虐待). Attention has again focused on social workers. Recent years have seen numerous attempts to reform and revitalize the profession. In May, a new fast-track training programme, Frontline, was launched in the hope of improving things. It is inspired by Teach First, which sends bright graduates into tough schools for at least two years.
Participants will attend an intensive five-week summer school before taking on two years of closely supervised work in local-authority children’s services. If they measure up, they will qualify as social workers at the end of the first year and gain a master’s degree after the second. Funding will come from private donors, the Department for Education and local authorities. Recruitment(招募)for a pilot scheme, targeting leading universities, begins in September.
Its founders want to boost the status of this profession. “We are dealing with a crisis,” says Lord Adonis, chair of Frontline’s board. Both recruitment and keeping staying on the job are problems: the expected working life of a social worker is eight years, compared with 14 for nurses. Last year some local authorities reported that a third of their positions were unfilled.
Unsurprisingly, given the blame often heaped on the profession, ambitious graduates tend to steer clear. Of the 2,765 people who began master’s courses in social work in 2011, just five had completed undergraduate degrees at Oxford or Cambridge. And too many courses fail to give sufficient practical grounding in hard child-protection work. Frontline recruits will work in small teams with dedicated supervisors in council children’s services.
Reactions to the initiative have been mixed. Some in the profession are angry that it has been set up by outsiders. Boosters, such as Donald Forrester of Bedfordshire University, think the newcomers will bring in much-needed fresh thinking. Another worry is that the programme is too specialized and too short. Focusing just on children’s services is like training doctors only in pediatrics(儿科).
Teach First was set up on the basis that participants would teach first and then go on to other jobs. In fact, over half stay in education. There is no “first” at Frontline. At the end of their course, recruits will be offered the opportunity to pursue further professional training, or encouraged to move up the ranks. But Mr MacAlister hopes that many will stay. This year 9% of all final-year students from Oxbridge applied for Teach First. Frontline hopes to achieve a similar result for social work.
1. The author presents the topic of this article by ______.A.giving cases of child abuse |
B.urging us to care for children |
C.attracting our attention to child abuse |
D.showing concern for the abuse of children |
A.Their training lasts for 8 years. |
B.They are prospective in the future. |
C.They receive little practical grounding. |
D.They should graduate from top universities. |
A.be involved | B.stay away |
C.touch on | D.clear out |
A.A topic which starts heated debates. |
B.An uncertain fate of a much-needed market. |
C.A promising field with strong supporters. |
D.An initiative to revive an unfavorable profession. |
7 . Over the centuries Shakespeare’s plays have gained a reputation for being difficult to understand. But if his work is experienced on stage as Shakespeare intended, then it can become much clearer. In fact 95% of the words used in Shakespeare’s plays are the same words we use today.
The meanings of some words have altered significantly,
So what can Shakespeare’s plays tell us about how people really spoke at this time? And did anyone really speak like his characters? The lines spoken by Corin to Rosalind and Celia in As You Like It probably weren’t
The first thing to remember about Shakespeare’s work is that he wrote plays to entertain. They are
For instance, in As You Like It when Corin, the shepherd, talks of love, his lines are beautiful and poetic – but
Another example of how the theatrical style enriched Shakespeare’s text can be seen in the structure of his lines. According to the practice of the time, Shakespeare wrote his poems in iambic pentameter(抑扬格五音步) so it was
We can come close to this thanks to “original pronunciation” which is a system of
So through Shakespeare’s plays we can
A.otherwise | B.furthermore | C.however | D.hence |
A.creative | B.significant | C.limited | D.practical |
A.critical | B.typical | C.proud | D.afraid |
A.valuable | B.outstanding | C.efficient | D.dramatic |
A.reflect | B.mean | C.sign | D.signal |
A.luckily | B.essentially | C.generally | D.naturally |
A.construct | B.produce | C.function | D.illustrate |
A.easier | B.worse | C.wiser | D.slower |
A.Falling into | B.Varying from | C.Agreeing to | D.Sticking to |
A.By contrast | B.For example | C.What’s more | D.In consequence |
A.structure | B.style | C.rhythm | D.form |
A.speech | B.writing | C.communication | D.symbol |
A.fit | B.devote | C.apply | D.input |
A.keep up | B.find out | C.take on | D.bring about |
A.lost | B.difficult | C.ongoing | D.global |
Sneakers (运动鞋) Made from Old Chewing Gum
Dutch fashion and shoe label Explicit Wear is hoping to solve one of life’s sticky situations—the annoyance of stepping in waste chewing gum on the pavement—while helping to keep Amsterdam’s city streets clean. The brand has partnered with local marketing organization Iamsterdam and sustainability firm Gumdrop
Chewing gum causes an incredibly serious ecological problem,
The waste gum will be put to good use to make stylish kicks,
Available for preorder now, the new Gumshoe sneakers—offered in both a bubblegum pink and a black/red colorway—
Nearly 2.2 pounds of gum
To help spread their sustainability message,
9 . Each year, backed up by a growing anti-consumerist movement, people are using the holiday season to call on us all to shop less.
Driven by concerns about resource exhaustion, over recent years environmentalists have increasingly turned their sights on our “consumer culture”. Groups such as The Story of Stuff and Buy Nothing New Day are growing as a movement that increasingly blames all our ills on our desire to shop.
We clearly have a growing resource problem. The produces we make, buy, and use are often linked to the destruction of our waterways, biodiversity, climate and the land on which millions of people live. But to blame these issues on Christmas shoppers is misguided, and puts us in the old trap of blaming individuals for what is a systematic problem.
While we complain about environmental destruction over Christmas, environmentalists often forget what the holiday season actually means for many people. For most, Christmas isn’t an add-on to an already heavy shopping year. In fact, it is likely the only time of year many have the opportunity to spend on friends and family, or even just to buy the necessities needed for modern life.
This is particularly, true for Boxing Day, often the target of the strongest derision(嘲弄) by anti-consumerists. While we may laugh at the queues in front of the shops, for many, those sales provide the one chance to buy items they’ve needed all year. As Leigh Phillips argues, “this is one of the few times of the year that people can even hope to afford such ‘luxuries’, the Christmas presents their kids are asking for, or just an appliance that works.”
Indeed, the richest 7% of people are responsible for 50% of greenhouse gas emissions. This becomes particularly harmful when you take into account that those shopping on Boxing Day are only a small part of our consumption “problem” anyway. Why are environmentalists attacking these individuals, while ignoring such people as Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich, who has his own£1.5bn yacht with a missile defence system?
Anyway, anti-consumerism has become a movement of wealthy people talking down to the working class about their life choices, while ignoring the real cause of our environmental problems. It is no wonder one is changing their behaviours—or that environmental destruction continues without any reduction in intensity.
1. It is indicated in the 1st paragraph that during the holiday season, many consumers .A.ignore resource problems |
B.are fascinated with presents |
C.are encouraged to spend less |
D.show great interest in the movement. |
A.has targeted the wrong persons |
B.has achieved its intended purposes |
C.has taken environment-friendly measures |
D.has benefited both consumers and producers |
A.madness about life choices |
B.discontent with rich lifestyle |
C.ignorance about the real cause |
D.disrespect for holiday shoppers |
A.anything less than a responsibility | B.nothing more than a bias |
C.indicative of environmental awareness | D.unacceptable to ordinary people |
According to an official report on youth violence.“In our country today, the greatest threat to the lives of children and adolescents is not disease or starvation or abandonment, but the terrible reality of violence.”Given that this is the case, why aren’t students taught to manage conflict the way they are taught to solve math problems, drive cars, or stay physically fit?
First of all, students need to realize that conflict is unavoidable. It is reported that most violent incidents between students begin with a relatively minor insult. For example, a fight could start over the fact that one student eats a peanut butter sandwich each lunchtime. Laughter over the sandwich can lead to insults, which in turn can lead to violence.
If the conflict occurs, students can practice the golden rule of conflict resolution: stay calm.
Once the student feels calmer. Once the student feels calmer. He or she should choose words that will calm the other person down as well. Rude words and accusations only add fuel to the emotional fire while soft words can put out the fire before it explodes out of control.
After that, they can use another key strategy for conflict resolution. Listening allows the two sides to understand each other. One person should describe his or her side: and the other person should listen without interrupting. Afterwards, the listener can ask non-threatening questions to clarify the speaker’s position. Then the two people should change roles.
Finally, students need to consider what they are hearing. An argument doesn’t mean trying to figure out the fault of the other person but means understanding what the real issue is. As the issue becomes clearer, the conflict often simply becomes smaller.(280 words)
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