1 . Spanish-American Institute

Student Cub Notes

Free and Low Cost Gyms, Health Clubs and Pools

NYC Department of Parks Recreation Centers

www.nycgovparks.org

Recreation Centers: The NYC Department of Parks has many Recreation Centers throughout New York City. Recreation Centers offer a wide range of free and membership programs and services. Some have indoor swimming pools. Almost all have weight rooms, basketball courts, dance studios, boxing rings, art studios, game rooms, etc. 

All Recreation Centers offer a wide range of programs such as aerobics, dance, tai chi, fencing, computer classes, and art. Many programs are free and open to the general public but many require membership. 

You do not need to be a New York City resident to use a Recreation Center. You may use your annual membership at any and all Centers. Use one near the Spanish-American Institute and then use one near your home. 

Costs: Free and membership programs. Standard annual membership is $50 for Recreation Centers and $75 for Recreation Centers with pools. (Do you know anyone 55 and older? The senior membership is only $10 a year.)

Standard annual membership provides scheduled access to the gym, pool, and all the other facilities. Instructor-led courses such as aerobics, martial arts, music, or yoga may require an additional fee. 

Membership and Program Information: Go to the www.nycgovparks.org home page. On the “Facilities” menu, click on “Recreation Centers.” On the “Recreation Centers” page, you will find information about membership and fees. You will also see links to Recreation Facilities by borough (Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan, Queens, and Staten Island).

On the “Facilities” menu, you may also want to check out other NYC Department of Parks facilities such as beaches, ice skating rinks, nature centers, running tracks, soccer fields, etc.

Recreation Centers: There are several Parks Department Recreation Centers in each borough. After you go to the “Recreation Centers” page and click on a borough, you will find a list of the centers in that borough with their addresses, phone numbers, and web links. The list will look like that for Manhattan below. Click on the link for a particular Center to learn more about its services, schedules, and programs.

1. What special benefits can an annual member of Recreation Centers enjoy?

A．Having access to all the facilities all year.

B．Experiencing all programs and services free.

C．Taking free Instructor-led courses.

D．Using only the center near your home free.

2. If your parents and grandparents (both over sixty) want to get the memberships, how much will they pay?

A．At least $20.

B．At least $120.

C．At least $180.

D．At least $220.

3. You will probably fail to find ________ on the www.nycgovparks.org home page.

A．the cost for various memberships	B．the locations of recreations centers
C．the staff and provided services	D．the facilities, phones and web links

2 . Last Thursday, the French Senate passed a digital services tax, which would impose an entirely new tax on large multinationals that provide digital services to consumers or users in France. Digital services include everything from providing a platform for selling goods and services online to targeting advertising based on user data, and the tax applies to gross revenue from such services. Many French politicians and media outlets have referred 10 this as a "GAFA tax", meaning that it is designed to apply primarily to companies such as Google, Apple. Facebook and Amazon - in other words, multinational tech companies based in the United States.

The digital services lax now awaits the signature of President Emmanuel Macron, who has expressed support for the measure, and it could go into effect within the next few weeks. But it has already sparked significant controversy, with the United States trade representative opening an investigation into whether the tax discriminates against American companies, which in turn could lead to trade sanctions against France.

The French tax is not just a unilateral move by one country in need of revenue. Instead, the digital services tax is part of a much larger trend, with countries over the past few years proposing or putting in place an alphabet soup of new international lax provisions. These have included Britain's DPT (diverted profits lax), Australia's MAAL (multinational anti-avoidance law), and India's SEP (significant economic presence), to name but a few. At the same time, the European Union, Spain, Britain and several other countries have all seriously contemplated digital services taxes.

These unilateral developments differ in their specifics, but they are all designed to tax multinationals on income and revenue that countries believe they should have a right to tax, even if international tax rules do not grant them that right. In other words, they all share a view that the international tax system has failed to keep up with the current economy.

In response to these many unilateral measures, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) is currently working with 131 countries to reach a consensus by the end of 2020 on an international solution.

Both France and the United States are involved in the organizations' work, but France's digital services tax and the American response raise questions about what the future holds for the international tax system.

France's planned tax is a clear warning: Unless a broad consensus can be reached on reforming the international tax system, other nations are likely to follow suit, and American companies will face a cascade of different taxes from dozens of nations that will prove burdensome and costly.

1. The French Senate has passed a bill to ________.

A．regulate digital services platforms	B．protect French companies' interest
C．impose a duty on tech multinationals	D．curb the influence of digital technology

2. It can be learned from Paragraph 2 that the digital services tax ________.

A．may trigger countermeasures against France

B．is apt to arouse criticism at home and abroad

C．aims to ease international trade tensions

D．will prompt the tech giants 10 quit France

3. The countries adopting the unilateral measures share the opinion that ________.

A．redistribution of tech giants' revenue must be ensured

B．the current international tax system needs upgrading

C．tech multinationals' monopoly should be prevented

D．all countries ought to enjoy equal taxing rights

4. What can we infer from the passage?

A．OECD's current work on the international tax system has uncertain prospects.

B．France's digital services tax mirror in detail Britain's DPT. Australia's MAAL and India's SEP.

C．France's digital services tax is targeted on such companies as Google, Apple, Facebook and Amazon and their users.

D．Other nations are likely to follow the example of France and make a joint effort to impose taxes on American multinationals.

3 . Economists have long tried to calculate the value of unpaid housework. In terms of inputs and outputs, the_______of a stay-at-home parent can easily be overlooked, hidden in the _______ of freshly ironed shirts and the contents of a full belly. The courts, too, have tried their hand at putting a price on housework.

Last month China was shocked when a court ordered a man to pay his wife $7,700 for housework during their live-year marriage. The wife, known as Ms Wang, told a judge in Beijing that she "looked after the child and managed the household _______ while her husband did not care about or participate in any other household affairs besides going to work". On average, Chinese women spend four hours a day on housework, compared with about an hour and a half for men.

The court ruling was widely _______. But on Weibo many users were disappointed with the amount _______ to Ms Wang. One user commented: "Women should never be stay-at-home wives. When you divorce, you are left with nothing whatsoever." The government has adopted policies aimed at advancing co-parenting and protecting women's rights. Most provinces, for example, have in recent years introduced _______ leave for new fathers. But many people argue that it is too short—an average of just two weeks—to _______ new mothers, who receive a minimum of 98 days, from child care.

In the West, where the starting principle is an equal split of the couple's assets on divorce, claims for extra compensation are _______ by the courts. Housework is seen as equivalent to financial contributions, so neither spouse _______ financially by doing more cooking and ironing than their partner.

In Britain, the concept of compensation fell out of use for over a decade before resurfacing in 2020, bringing the question of pay for housework into the ________. Last year a woman was compensated and received £400,000 ($520,000) for giving up her legal career to focus on the family. When her marriage broke down and the couple's assets were divided, she asked for an additional sum to ________ the sacrifice she had made by cutting her career short. The judges agreed, but only because she was already a high earner and could prove she had been on track to become one of her firm's leading money makers. She was compensated not for the housework, but her forgone legal career. So Ms Wang's claim for extra compensation would probably have failed anywhere in Europe. But she may never have felt the need to make it ________.

Many women have no option but to leave the workforce when they start a family—the cost of child care might ________ the benefits of a second salary, particularly if working hours and earnings are reduced to ________ family responsibilities. Legal and financial recognition of unpaid domestic work would change this calculation. But it would be simpler (and fairer) to share domestic burdens more evenly. More important than writing new rules about compensation for housework is strengthening existing ones that ________ shared parental leave. With both spouses more involved in parenting, family responsibilities can be shared. Why wait until the divorce to quibble over who did the housework?

1.

A．accusations

B．ambitions

C．contributions

D．exclamations

2.

A．fabrics

B．folds

C．packages

D．pockets

3.

A．appliances

B．chores

C．conflicts

D．expenses

4.

A．approved

B．celebrated

C．circulated

D．questioned

5.

A．awarded

B．channeled

C．furnished

D．transferred

6.

A．additional

B．compulsory

C．free

D．paid

7.

A．free

B．help

C．relieve

D．suspend

8.

A．considered

B．encouraged

C．favored

D．rejected

9.

A．gives out

B．loses out

C．misses out

D．wears out

10.

A．forum

B．horizon

C．lens

D．spotlight

11.

A．admit

B．recall

C．reflect

D．signal

12.

A．at first glance

B．for the first time

C．first of all

D．in the first place

13.

A．counter

B．eliminate

C．outweigh

D．replace

14.

A．accommodate

B．escape

C．fortify

D．shift

15.

A．check

B．distinguish

C．promote

D．publicize

4 . Directions: After reading the passage below, fill in each blank with a proper word given in the box. Each word can only be used once. Note that there is one word more than you need.

A. documenting     B. resigned   C. viral     D. sensation     E. rooted   F. rarely G. appeal       H. reassured   I. fixed   J. waking     K. marvelously

A Chinese "Auntie" Went on a Solo Road Trip. Now, She's a Feminist Icon

SuMin, a 56-year-old retiree from Henan province in central China, has never been happier. "I've been a wife, a mother and a grandmother," Su said. "I came out this time to find myself."

After fulfilling her family's expectations of dutiful Chinese womanhood, Su is embracing a new identity: fearless road-tripper and internet     1    . For six months, she has been on a solo drive across China,     2     her journey for more than 1.35 million followers across several social media platforms.

Her main     3     is not the scenic vistas she captures, although those are plentiful. It is the intimate revelations she mixes in with them, about her abusive marriage, dissatisfaction with domestic life and newfound freedom. Her blunt but vulnerable demeanor has made Su— a former factory worker with a high school education — an accidental feminist icon of a sort     4     seen in China.

Her unexpected popularity speaks to the collision of two major forces in Chinese society: the rapid spread of the internet and a flourishing awareness of gender equality in a country where traditional gender roles are still deeply     5    , especially among older generations.

Still, Su said, she never considered a divorce, worried about a social stigma that is still pervasive in much of China. She     6     herself to her life at home. Then, in late 2019, she came across a video online of someone introducing their camping gear while on a solo road trip. She remembered her childhood dream of driving — the freedom and comfort it had represented. Soon, she made up her mind to embark on a trip of her own. Her family was resistant. Su     7     her daughter that she would be safe. She ignored her husband, who she said mocked her.

On September 24, she     8     her tent to the top of the car, packed a mini-fridge and rice cooker, and set off from her home in the city of Zhengzhou. She posted video updates as she drove, and in October, one of them went     9     on Douyin, the Chinese TikTok.

In her videos, she marvelled at her newfound freedom. She could drive as fast as she wanted, brake as hard as she liked. Still, Su blushes when asked about her new fame. She also says she is not yet qualified to claim the mantle of feminist. "It took me so many years to realize that I had to live for myself." She paused: "It's something I'm     10     up to, not something that I just am."

5 . Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), which means “Doctors Without Borders”, was established in 1971. It is now one of the world’s largest organizations that provide emergency medical relief. In 1999, it won the Nobel Peace Prize. Its aim is to help people who have suffered badly in wars or natural disasters, such as earthquakes or floods.

Each year, about 3,000 people are sent abroad to work in more than 60 different countries worldwide.     1     In most projects, there are about seven local members to every one of foreigner. Volunteers are paid about $1,400 each month and receive travel expenses. They usually work on a project for six months to a year. Many volunteers go on more than one mission.

One volunteer reports, “Working in politically sensitive areas with limited resources can be frustrating, but there is huge satisfaction in making even a small or temporary difference to people. What better recommendation than to say, “I’m about to leave on a third mission!”

    2     You have to be able to deal with stress, and you need to be able to work independently as well as in a team. You are not required to have medical qualifications. Besides medical expertise, MSF needs the skills of technical staff such as building engineers and food experts.

           3     “One of my biggest challenges was organizing a team to open a new hospital in a town that had had no medical care for three years,” one volunteer said. This volunteer said the project was a success because of the reduction of deaths and the fact that the local people were so thankful. Another volunteer says, “With MSF, I have had the chance to travel and test my skills to the limits both professionally and personally.     4    ”

A．In some countries, there are even more volunteer professionals than locally hired staff.

B．The rewards can be enormous.

C．MSF relies on volunteer professionals but also works closely with about 25,000 locally hired staff.

D．What do volunteers have in common?

E．What qualities and skills do you need to become a volunteer?

F．The reaction of volunteers returning from MSF speaks for itself.

6 . Care for a zoom-in observation of animals with no bars between you and the observed opposed to ordinary zoos? Where to have close-up encounters with some of the world’s most rare animals? We are revealing for you.

       

Right whales, Bay of Fundy, Canada

Northern right whales are on the brink of extinction, but survivors arrive in the Bay of Fundy each summer (May through October) to feed east of Grand Manan Island. They are recognized by a broad back and no dorsal fin, which distinguish them from other whales entering the bay.

Planning: Whale-watching tours operate out of Digby Neck peninsula on Nova Scotia and nearby islands, such as Brier Island, St. Andrews, Grand Manan Island, and Deer Island.

Grizzly bears, Alaska, USA

Grizzlies like salmon. In mid-July and again in mid-August, grizzlies make for Alaskan rivers to hook out the fish with their formidable claws. The bears gather in large numbers at rapids and pools, sometimes fighting for the best sites. Brooks Falls in Katmai National Park, and Fish Creek, near Hyder, have viewing platforms.

Planning: Most fishing sites are accessed by chartered light aircraft and a hike. Hyder is off the Stewart-Cassiar Highway.

Monarch butterflies, Sierra Chincua, Mexico

Each fall, millions of North American monarch butterflies migrate thousands of miles to the oyamel fir forests of the Transvolcanic Mountain Range, in the state of Michoacán. They flock intimately on tree trunks, bushes, and on the ground, fully showing their gregarious nature and occupy Sierra Chincua and four neighboring hills that make up the Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve.

Planning: Chincua is one of two hills in the reserve open to the public from November through March.

Komodo dragons, Komodo Island, Indonesia

Landing on Komodo, you would feel like stepping back to a time when dinosaurs ruled the Earth, as park maps reported, “Here be dragons!” This mountainous volcanic island is home to the world’s largest living lizard – the Komodo dragon. Weighing 79 to 91kg, the Komodo dragon has a tail as long as its body. You can hike to a viewpoint at Banugulung and watch as park rangers feed food to the lizards, some of which are more than 10ft long.

Planning: Komodo is reached solely by boat from Bima (on eastern Sumbawa) or Labuan Bajo (on western Flores).

Wildebeest migration, Serengeti, Tanzania

Undoubtedly the world’s most spectacular wildlife sight is the annual wildebeest migration, when 1.4 million wildebeest and 200,000 zebras and gazelles are on the move across the Serengeti plains. The animals are trekking to chase the clean water and fresh grass. Along the way, lions and hyenas stalk them, and crocodiles lie in wait.

Planning: The herds migrate across Tanzania from December through July, and then pass through the Masai Mara in Kenya in August and September.

1. In which place can a variety of types of animals be viewed?

A．Alaska.

B．Sierra Chincua.

C．Komodo Island.

D．Serengeti.

2. The underlined word “gregarious” probably means ______.

A．being able to climb	B．preferring group living
C．migrating in huge numbers	D．moderate in temper

3. Which of the following statements is NOT true according to the passage?

A．Right whales are distinguished from other whales by unique appearance features.

B．Viewing spots for grizzly bears can be reached through air and on foot.

C．Komodo dragons are similar to dinosaurs in living period.

D．Wildebeest herds travel to pursue favorable food conditions.

7 . Directions: After reading the passage below, fill in the blanks to make the passage coherent and grammatically correct. For the blanks with a given word, fill in each blank with the proper form of the given word; for the other blanks, use one word that best fits each blank.

    1     I think about the beauty and appeal of Chinese culture, one of the first things that enter my mind is images of complicated Chinese calligraphy. I love to watch the older folks in the park dip and sweep their brushes across the stones. I imagine as they swing their arms that their movements are part of     2     dance and the watery messages left behind are the words to the song playing in their head. Unfortunately, just as the water slowly evaporates from sight, so, too, the art of Chinese calligraphy seems     3     (fade) away gradually.

This is the fear of Cui Zhiqiang, a senior calligraphy master with the China Calligraphers Association. “The style of writing among Chinese people today has been changed or ruined,” he laments. He explains this as the unavoidable effect     4     the everyday use of cellphones and computers. With the help of the pinyin system, people     5     “write” the characters by simply spelling out the phonetic equivalent. Skillful strokes have been replaced with tapping and typing.

It isn’t just the written form of Chinese that is being impacted by this phenomenon, though. The English language has been impacted, too. Computer skills are now considered so basic that the time once spent     6     (teach) cursive writing in elementary school is now being used to teach keyboarding. Furthermore, people have become so dependent on the spellcheck and autocorrect features     7     their ability to spell is suffering.

Language and culture are inextricably linked. The written form of the Chinese language     8     (carry) with it the stories of the traditional characters and the reasons for each and every change through the years. In light of its value, many people celebrated CCTV’s summer show,     9     brought together groups of Chinese youth to compete in a dictation contest. The show was well received and generated an interest in young people to improve their handwriting skills and encouraged parents to enroll their children in calligraphy classes.

Not all see the changing forms of our written languages as a negative thing. If you look at language solely as a tool for communication, then perhaps you might agree. Modern ways of writing are efficient and effective. But if you also see language as an art form, then we are truly losing something     10     (beautiful).

8 . Directions: After reading the passage below, fill in the blanks to make the passage coherent and grammatically correct. For the blanks with a given word, fill in each blank with the proper form of the given word; for the other blanks, use one word that best fits each blank.

Human memory is notoriously (众所周知地) unreliable. Even people with the sharpest facial recognition skills can only remember so much.

It’s tough to quantify how good a person is     1     remembering. No one really knows how many different faces someone can recall, for example, but various estimates tend to hover in the thousands – based on the number of acquaintances a person     2     have.

Machines aren’t limited this way. Give the right computer a massive database of faces, and it can process what it sees – then recognize a face it     3     (tell) to find – with remarkable speed and precision. This skill is     4     supports the enormous promise of facial-recognition software in the 21^st century. It is also what makes contemporary surveillance (监控) systems so scary.

The thing is, machines still have limitations when it comes to facial recognition. And scientists are only just beginning to understand what those constraints are.     5     (figure) out how computers are struggling, researchers at the University of Washington created a massive database of faces – they call it MegaFace – and     6     (test) a variety of facial-recognition algorithms(算法) as they scales up in complexity. The idea was to test the machines on a database that included up to 1 million different images of nearly 7,000 different people – and not just a large database     7     (feature) a relatively small number of different faces, more consistent with what’s been used in other research.

As the databases grew, machine accuracy dipped across the board. Algorithms     8     were right 95% of the time when they were dealing with a 13,000-image database, for example, were accurate about 70% of the time when     9     (face) with 1 million images. That’s still pretty good, says one of the researchers, Ira Kemelmacher-Shlizerman. “Much better than we expected,” she said,

Machines also had difficulty adjusting for people who look a lot alike –either doppelgangers (长相极相似的人), whom the machine would have trouble       10     (identify) as two separate people, or the same person who appeared in different photos at different ages or in different lighting, whom the machine would incorrectly view as separate people.

9 . The World Trade Organization (WTO) was formed in January of 1995. It deals with the regulation of international trade.     1     Although the key focus is on trade agreements themselves, there are many ways in which it works to enhance the welfare of the international community at large.

Here we will focus on two of those aspects: doing business internationally and raising living standards worldwide. Before the WTO, countries relied on independent partnerships to accomplish trade. Doing trade was often expensive, as tariffs were high. With one place for all of these countries to meet, and discuss new trade deals together, it is easier for them to make trade deals that are advantageous for all parties.     2     When employees work only from home, they will need to communicate a lot with their coworkers to accomplish something. But when they all work in the same building, holding regular meetings, it becomes much faster and easier to discuss things.

How does the WTO raise the standard of living globally? In modern life, we rely heavily on trade to have the things we need and want. For example, China exports a lot of manufactured items to many countries. These frequent international transactions can also raise living standards by introducing new jobs to different countries. Without international business and trade, there would be far fewer jobs in all countries.     3     In addition, because of the WTO being an international organization, they must meet international standards for health and environmental protection.

There are many benefits of being in the WTO. However, sometimes it leads to international disputes.     4     Though globalization can be a good thing, it can sometimes lead to loss of local culture. In addition, sometimes the WTO requirements are too difficult for developing nations to meet.

A．It is similar to having an office to accomplish work.

B．With jobs, citizens are able to earn income and have a better life.

C．The WTO also seeks to increase awareness of unity and cooperation.

D．It currently has over 160 participating members.

E．The functions of the WTO are constantly changing and developing.

F．Some have accused the WTO of promoting too much globalization.

10 . “Chinese tourists have overtaken (超过) Germans as the world’s biggest-spending travelers after a decade of rapid growth in the number of Chinese vacationing abroad,” the United Nations World Tourism Organization said.

Chinese tourists, known for travelling in organized tours and ________ luxury fashion abroad, spent $102 billion on foreign trips last year, 41 percent more than the year before, ________ deep-pocketed travelers from Germany and the United States.

Tourists from other fast-developing economies with a growing middle class, such as Russia and Brazil, also ________ spending in 2012. In decline-hit Europe, however, French and Italian tourists controlled their holiday ________.

“The impressive growth of tourism spending from China and Russia reflects the ________ into the tourism market of more middle classes from these countries,” said Taleb Rifai, secretary-general of the UN World Tourism Organization, which is based in Madrid.

The German Travel Association said it was to be expected that the Chinese tourists would ________ overtake Germans in spending, given that the country had more ________ than North America, Russia, and Europe put together.

“But that they have overtaken us already is ________,” said Juergen Buechy, president of the German Travel Association.

“The Chinese make more long-distance trips than Germans, who ________ go to Mediterranean (地中海) destinations, meaning that the ________ vacation spending per holiday was greater,” he added.

China is the world’s fastest-growing tourist-source market, ________ higher spendable incomes in the world’s second-largest economy and looser foreign travel restrictions.

Chinese tourists made 83 million ________ trips in 2012, compared with 10 million in 2000.

“Hotels, tour companies, restaurants and even taxi drivers will need to improve ________ of Chinese cooking, culture and language if they are to ________ them away from favourite destinations such as Thailand and the Maldives,” European tourism officials have said.

Other countries in the top 10 posted growth in travel spending. ________, only Russia came close to China’s huge growth, with a 32 percent increase in vacation budgets (预算).

1.

A．starting

B．buying

C．showing

D．designing

2.

A．costing

B．passing

C．beating

D．controlling

3.

A．increased

B．limited

C．postponed

D．checked

4.

A．lengths

B．budgets

C．destinations

D．plans

5.

A．inquiry

B．investigation

C．research

D．entry

6.

A．eventually

B．secretly

C．suddenly

D．normally

7.

A．businessmen

B．housewives

C．residents

D．immigrants

8.

A．exciting

B．frightening

C．amazing

D．interesting

9.

A．usually

B．reluctantly

C．purposefully

D．ideally

10.

A．public

B．additional

C．free

D．average

11.

A．in spite of

B．thanks to

C．except for

D．in addition to

12.

A．family

B．business

C．exploratory

D．foreign

13.

A．knowledge

B．appreciation

C．criticism

D．ability

14.

A．tear

B．attract

C．drive

D．cheat

15.

A．Otherwise

B．Therefore

C．Besides

D．However