1 . When parents ask, “What grade did you get?” there is a common follow-up question: “So who got the highest grade?” The practice of making such social comparisons(比较) is popular in all corners of the world. Many teachers choose and publicly announce the “best student” in a class. Adults praise children for doing better than others. People cheer for the athletes who defeat others.
Social comparisons are well meaning: we want to make children feel proud and push them to achieve more. Yet social comparisons can backfire: children can learn to always compare themselves with others and become caught up in a harmful cycle(循环) of competition.
One well-known method to remove social comparisons is to provide participation prizes for children who take an active part in activities. Such prizes, however, may not end social comparisons: A high achiever who receives the same prize as a low achiever may feel unfairly treated. More generally, those who are highly praised unexpectedly may come to believe that they do better than others and thus have reason to be given a prize.
How, then, can we make children feel proud of themselves and encourage them without the unwanted side effects? We believe a better way is to use temporal comparisons—encouraging children to compare themselves with their past self rather than with others, such as by checking on their progress. Adults should teach children that doing better than oneself is more important than doing better than others and that even small achievements can be celebrated.
1. Why do parents compare their children with others?| A．To make the practice more popular. | B．To give children the desire to do better. |
| C．To give children courage to face defeats. | D．To prevent children from being too proud. |
| A．Make no difference. | B．Bring great benefits. |
| C．Have opposite effects. | D．Cause short-term changes. |
| A．It’s better than social comparisons. | B．It gives low achievers a wrong idea. |
| C．It weakens the confidence of high achievers. | D．It’s a reasonable suggestion for inspiring children. |
| A．You will be the best! | B．You are No. 1 again! |
| C．You are doing better than before! | D．You make greater progress than Li Hua! |
2 . Sam and Joe were spacemen. There was once a very dangerous trip and the more experienced spacemen knew there was only a small chance of coming back alive Sam and Joe, however, thought it would be full of excitement though a little dangerous.
“We’re the best men for the job,” they said to the boss. “There may be problems, but we can find the answers.”
“They’re the last people I’d trust,” thought the boss. “But all the other spacemen have refused to go.”
Once they were in space, Joe had to go outside to make some repairs. When the repairs were done, he tried to get back inside the spaceship. But the door was locked. He knocked but there was no answer. He knocked again, louder this time, and again no answer came. Then he hit the door as hard as he could and finally a voice said. “Who’s there?” “It’s me! Who else could it be?” shouted Joe. Sam let him in but you can imagine that Joe never asked to go on a trip with Sam again!
1. Why didn’t most of the spacemen want to go on the trip?| A．It wasn’t exciting enough | B．They weren’t experienced enough. |
| C．They thought they might get killed. | D．There was little chance of being selected |
| A．It would be exciting. | B．It would be long and tiring. |
| C．There wouldn’t be any danger. | D．There would be serious problems. |
| A．To make people think. | B．To make people laugh. |
| C．To show the funny side of the spacemen’s life. | D．To show the dangerous side of the spacemen’s life. |
3 . A few years ago, a friend sent me a restaurant gift card for Christmas, and I picked a pretty, sunny Sunday afternoon to use it. It felt good taking my two grown sons and daughter to a nice sit-down restaurant instead of the fast food places we usually ate at. The meal was delicious, and we all had a good time just being together. The gift card covered almost all of the check. I reached into my wallet to get enough cash to cover the rest. I saw two bills in the front of it. The first would cover the rest of the check. The second would cover the check and give the waitress a nice tip. I reached down to pick out the first one.
At that moment, my mind flashed back to 30 years ago. I was working as a busboy (餐厅勤杂工) in a restaurant much like the one we were in. It was long hours of hard work for low pay. I went home just barely making enough to feed my young family. I also remembered how more than once I saw the waitresses counting their small tips while worrying about how they were going to pay the rent and buy their kids the things they needed. I remembered the pain in their eyes and saw the sadness in their faces at the end of the day.
I blinked (眨眼睛) and was back in the present again, with my fingers touching the smaller bill in my wallet. I smiled, pushed it back down and picked out the larger bill. I folded it around the gift card and covered both of them with the check. As we all got up from the table, I handed them to the hardworking waitress. “You keep the change,” I said with a smile and a happy heart.
We are all one family in this world. We live together and suffer together. Do your best to be kind. Do your best to be a good person and replace the suffering with joy.
1. What do we know from the first paragraph?| A．The author’s family had a hard life. |
| B．The gift card was enough to pay the check. |
| C．The author seldom ate together with his family. |
| D．The author values spending time with his children. |
| A．describe struggles he faced in the past | B．complain about his job at the restaurant |
| C．explain why he chose the larger bill | D．show how hard waiters work |
| A．Moved. | B．Pleased. | C．Puzzled. | D．Concerned. |
| A．To tell people to be kind. |
| B．To remind us not to forget our hard days. |
| C．To stress the importance of tipping servers. |
| D．To show that we should thank friends and family. |
| A．Tipping: a kind tradition |
| B．Helping hand for servers |
| C．Working as a busboy |
| D．Kindness makes the world go around |
4 . All you need to know about German Tutor
Do you call yourselves language novices or beginners? Whatever you like to call yourselves, we can enable you to speak a new language.
In order to put our money where our mouth is, we commissioned researchers from two universities in America to conduct a study that tested the effectiveness of our German Tutor app for German beginners in just two months. Then we challenged 15 employees to learn as much German as possible by using the app in just three weeks.
Here are three reasons why you should use German Tutor to learn a new language.
1. You will make great progress.
The study’s findings: 85% of our participants were complete beginners to German.However, they learned the language faster than more advanced learners.
German Tutor challenge’s findings: Although our employees were complete beginners, they made satisfactory progress. Before taking the challenge, they struggled to even comprehend German sentences, but after only three weeks, they could successfully talk with a native.
2. You don’t need to spend a lot of time.
The study’s findings: Our study drew a conclusion that participants only needed to study by using the German Tutor app for about two hours per week to improve their German by at least one college semester level, while the complete German beginners only needed a total time of 15 hours over two months to improve by one college semester level.
German Tutor challenge’s findings: Our employees spent about 15 minutes a day on German Tutor during their three-week challenges.
3.You will enjoy learning with German Tutor.
The study’s findings: An amazing 99% of the participants said that they wouldn’t stop using German Tutor after the study, as it is easy to use and the sense of success can greatly motivate them to continue their learning.
German Tutor challenge’s findings: Most of our employees fell in love with German and many of them promised to continue learning it.
1. Why did German Tutor carry out the study?| A．To show how the app works | B．To see how popular the app is |
| C．To find how often the app is used | D．To prove how effective the app is |
| A．15 hours | B．Three weeks | C．Two months | D．Over two months |
| A．They could teach complete beginners. |
| B．They could talk with native German speakers |
| C．They could only comprehend German sentences. |
| D．They could reach the same level as more advanced learners. |
| A．Personal preference | B．Low cost |
| C．Innovative design | D．The sense of success |
| A．You will make great progress after using German Tutor. |
| B．German Tutor challenge found that 99% of the participants would stop using German Tutor after the study. |
| C．Using German Tutor may save your time in learning German. |
| D．German Tutor is an app for language novice. |
5 . If you're planning on hitting up a festival this summer, make sure you check out the latest packing guide to camping music festivals.
Quebec City Summer Festival
When: July 4-14
Where: Toronto, Quebec
300 shows, 10 places and 11 days of music make this festival one of Canada's biggest music festivals. Every year, this festival attracts over one million festivalgoers to Quebec City's historic district for concerts by international superstars and top new talents.
Center of Gravity
When: July 28-30
Where: Kelowna, British Columbia
Canada's hottest beach festival is back! Now in its 10th year, the biggest and exciting festival to hit the Okanagan includes three days packed with extreme sports, sandy beaches, and some of the biggest DJ names in the world.
Future Forest
When: August 5-7
Where: Fredericton, New Brunswick
Future Forest is an outdoor camping festival with a focus on electronic music. The festival originated in 2012 as a fundraiser for a brilliant DJ, Jay Hamilton, who was diagnosed with cancer. Future Forest proudly shows the idea that there are no audience at the event but rather participants who in some way contribute to the overall experience.
Shambhala Music Festival
When: August 9-10
Where: Salmo River Ranch, British Columbia
This is Canada's earliest electronic music festival. Cutting edge talent, lights and sound come together to give life to this event. Seeing it for yourself is the only way to understand exactly what is Shambhala.
1. What can people do in the Quebec City Summer Festival?| A．Enjoy the performances of superstars. | B．Learn about Quebec City's history. |
| C．Do some extreme sports. | D．Play on the sandy beaches. |
| A．To honor brilliant Jay Hamilton. | B．To raise money for a cancer patient. |
| C．To provide outdoor camping activities. | D．To promote electronic music. |
| A．Quebec City Summer Festival. | B．Center of Gravity. |
| C．Future Forest. | D．Shambhala Music Festival. |
6 . How much sleep do we need? It’s a fundamental question about a basic human function we’ve been practicing for long, but there’s still no simple answer. But whether you’re a morning or evening person could be guided by your genes. That said, your sleeping pattern will change naturally with age, which is also reflected in the National Sleep Foundation recommendations: it suggests 14-17 hours of shuteye a day for newborn babies and only 7-8 hours for over-65s.
But scientists said it’s about more than simple duration. Teens and people in their early 20s do want to go to bed later and get up later too, something researchers suggest might be to do with changing hormones(荷尔蒙). “On average, there’s about a two-hour difference in preferred sleep times of somebody in their late teens or early twenties to somebody in their late 50s or early 60s,” he said. “So asking a teenager to get up at 7 o’ clock in the morning is the equivalent of asking a 55-year-old to get up at five in the morning.”
At the end of the day, the best way to measure how much sleep you each need is to listen to your own body. Do you rely on an alarm clock to wake up? Do you take a long time to feel awake? Are you dependent on coffee drinks to keep you focused during the day? Are you overly impulsive(冲动的) or do you find yourself running a lot of traffic lights, for instance? All these could be signs that you’re not getting enough sleep.
And that, we know today, is bad. The environment can affect your sleep preferences but your genes stay. Scientists said that the understanding of the importance of sleep was “one of the great achievements of modern neuroscience(神经科学),” and that society was moving away from the all-nighter culture to respect the need for sleep.
1. What’s the writer’s intention of writing the passage?| A．To report his research results. | B．To express the importance of sleep. |
| C．To list some sleeping patterns. | D．To persuade people to have enough sleep. |
| A．Age. | B．Genes. |
| C．Hormones. | D．Sleeping pattern. |
| A．Not getting enough sleep. | B．Listening to your own body. |
| C．Running a lot of traffic lights. | D．Not understanding of the importance of sleep. |
| A．Sleeping Patterns |
| B．The Importance of Sleep |
| C．A Great Achievement of Neuroscience |
| D．Different People Need Different Amounts of Sleep |
7 . People made wings and strapped them to their arms. They flapped their arms but couldn’t fly. They built gliders(滑翔机), light aircraft with wings. Some didn’t work, but some did.
The gliders that worked had special wings. These wings were arched on both the top and the bottom. The air pulled the wings from above and pushed the wings from below. When the wings went up, so did the glider! Arched wings help create a force called lift. Lift is the force that keeps the gliders in the air.
Most gliders have long, thin wings. The wings create enough lift to carry the aircraft and its passengers. Gliders usually ride currents of air the same way a hawk soars(飞翔).
Gliders are very light, and long wings and air currents can give them enough lift to fly. But to carry more than just a passenger or two, an aircraft needs a lot more lift. The question is: How do you create more lift?
The engine is the answer!
The engine is a machine that changes energy into movement. The forward movement that an airplane needs to fly is called thrust. More thrust makes an airplane move forward faster. Moving faster creates more lift. And with more lift, an airplane can carry more weight so an aircraft with an engine can carry passengers or cargo.
In 1903 the Wright brothers figured out how to get wings and an engine to work together in order to give an airplane enough thrust to fly. They made the first powered flight at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina.
Since then people have made airplanes that can fly faster than sound can travel. They have made airplanes that can fly all the way around the world without stopping.
Today, thousands of people travel in airplanes every day. People really have learned how to fly!
1. If a flyer wants to stay in the air, it needs enough ________.| A．lift | B．thrust |
| C．wings | D．engines |
| A．The air. | B．The lift. |
| C．The thrust. | D．The wind. |
| A．the lift | B．the thrust |
| C．the sound | D．the engine |
| A．how gliders were built | B．how important the engine was |
| C．how people learned to fly | D．how the first airplane was made |
| Science for Kids This month’s most popular books. | |
| 1. Women in Science by Rachel Ignotofsky Price $25 We all know the story of Marie Curie and her many scientific achievements. But many other brilliant female scientists are far less well known. This book is a great introduction to the lives and works of some of the most important and up-to-now unknown women in science. Recommended for Ages: 12-15 【Order Now »】 | Special Offer For this month only, all Besthooks Book Club members will pay 20% less for every book ordered. Join our club for free and save big money! Delivery We bring every book you order right to your door within three days. For Bestbooks Book Club members, this is free. Non-members must pay an extra $2 per book. |
| 2. First Big Book of How by Jill Esbaum Price $15 An excellent book about sea life for young children. The book is divided into 4 parts, one for each of the Pacific, Atlantic, Indian and Arctic oceans. It focuses on the different animals found in each of these seas, along with interesting facts and amazing pictures. Ages: 5-10 【Order Now »】 | |
| 3. A Really Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson Price $15 Bill Bryson takes readers on a very funny and educational trip through the history of modern science-from its unexpected successes to its great failures and everything in between. Ages: 14 and over 【Order Now »】 | |
| 4. National Geographic’s First Big Book of the World by Jan Carn. Price $20 This book is the perfect introduction to the seven continents. It tells young readers about the different animals that live on each of these lands and gives a simple descnption of the people’s history and culture. Ages: 5-12 【Order Now »】 | |
| A．By price. | B．By popularity. |
| C．By reader’s age. | D．By writer’s name. |
| A．$24. | B．$26. |
| C．$30. | D．$34. |
| A．Women In Science |
| B．First Big Book of How |
| C．A Really Short History of Nearly Everything |
| D．National Geo-graphic’s First Big Book of the World |
| A．To sell books to young readers. |
| B．To attract new book club members. |
| C．To encourage students’ interest in science. |
| D．To review books young readers might like. |
9 . A couple from Miami, Bill and Simone Butler, spent sixty-six days in a life raft (救生艇)in the seas of Central America after their boat sank.
Twenty-one days after they left Panama in their boat, in Simony, they met some whales (鲸).“ They started to hit the side of the boat,” said Bill,“ and then suddenly we heard water. ” Two minutes later, the boat was sinking. They jumped into the life raft and watched the boat go under the water.
For twenty days they had tins of food, biscuits, and bottles of water. They also had a fishing line and a machine to make salt water into drinking water—two things which saved their lives. They caught eight to ten fish a day and ate them raw(生的).Then the line broke. “So we had no more fish until something very strange happened. Some sharks(鲨鱼) came to feed, and the fish under the raft were afraid and came to the surface. I caught them with my hands.”
About twenty ships passed them, but no one saw them. After fifty days at sea their life raft was beginning to break up. Then suddenly it was all over. A fishing boat saw them and picked them up. They couldn’t stand up. So the captain carried them onto his boat and took them to Costa Rica. Their two months at sea was over.
1. Bill and Simone were traveling _______ when they met some whales.| A．in a lake | B．in a river |
| C．in a sea | D．in a desert |
| A．jumped into the sea | B．heard water |
| C．watched the boat sail away | D．stayed in the life raft |
| A．they stood up as quickly as possible |
| B．they climbed onto the boat easily |
| C．their life raft was in good condition |
| D．their two months at sea was over |
10 . A characteristic of American culture that has become almost a tradition is to respect the self-made man — the man who has risen to the top through his own efforts, usually beginning by working with his hands. While the leader in business or industry or the college professor occupies a higher social position and commands greater respect in the community than the common laborer or even the skilled factory worker, he may take pains to point out that his father started life in America as farmer or laborer of some sort.
This attitude toward manual (体力的) labor is now still seen in many aspects of American life. One is invited to dinner at a home that is not only comfortably but even luxuriously (豪华地) furnished and in which there is every evidence of the fact that the family has been able to afford foreign travel, expensive hobbies, and college education for the children; yet the hostess probably will cook the dinner herself, will serve it herself and will wash dishes afterward; furthermore the dinner will not consist merely of something quickly and easily got from contents of various cans and a cake or a pie bought at the nearby bakery. On the contrary, the hostess usually takes pride in careful preparation of special dishes. A professional man may talk about washing the car, digging in his flowerbeds, painting the house. His wife may even help with these things, just as he often helps her with the dishwashing. The son who is away at college may wait on table and wash dishes for his living, or during the summer he may work with a construction gang on a highway in order to pay for his education.
1. What can we infer from Paragraph 1?| A．In America, people tend to have a high opinion of the self-made man. |
| B．In America, people can always rise to the top through their own efforts. |
| C．In America, college professors win great respect from common workers. |
| D．In America, people feel painful to mention their fathers as labors. |
| A．Because servants in America are hard to get. |
| B．Because she takes pride in what she can do herself. |
| C．Because she can hardly afford servants. |
| D．Because it is easy to prepare a meal with canned food. |
| A．Work in a furniture shop. | B．Keep accounts for a bar. |
| C．Wait to lay the table. | D．Serve customers in a restaurant. |
| A．A respectable self-made family. |
| B．American attitude toward manual labor. |
| C．Characteristics of American culture |
| D．The development of manual labor. |
