| A．Husband and wife. | B．Colleagues. | C．Salesperson and customer. |
2 . Parents and kids today dress alike, listen to the same music, and are friends. Is this a good thing? Sometimes, when Mr. Ballmer and his 16-year-old daughter, Elizabeth, listen to rock music together and talk about interests both enjoy, such as pop culture, he remembers his more distant relationship with his parents when he was a teenager.
“I would never have said to my mom, Hey, the new Weezer album is really great. How do you like it?” says Ballmer. “There was just a complete gap in taste.”
Music was not the only gulf. From clothing and hairstyles to activities and expectations, earlier generations of parents and children often appeared to move in different orbits (轨道).
Today, the generation gap has not disappeared, but it is getting narrow in many families. Conversations on subjects such as sex and drugs would not have taken place a generation ago. Now they are comfortable and common. And parent-child activities, from shopping to sports, involve (包含) a feeling of trust and friendship that can continue into adulthood.
No wonder greeting cards today carry the message, “To my mother, my best friend.”
But family experts warn that the new equality (平等) can also result in less respect for parents. “There’s still a lot of strictness and authority (权威) on the part of parents out there, but there is a change happening,” says Kerrie, a psychology professor at Lebanon Valley College. “In the middle of that change, there is a lot of confusion among parents.”
Family researchers offer a variety of reasons for these changing roles and attitudes. They see the1960s, as a turning point. Great cultural changes led to more open communication and a more democratic (民主) process that encourages everyone to have a say.
“My parents were on the ‘before’ side of that change, but today’s parents, the 40-year-olds, were on the ‘after’ side,” explains Mr. Ballmer. “It’s not something easily achieved by parents these days, because life is more difficult to understand or deal with, but sharing interests does make it more fun to be a parent now.”
1. The underlined word “gulf” in Para. 3 most probably means ________.| A．difference | B．problem | C．interest | D．closeness |
| A．Parents help their children develop interests in more activities. |
| B．Parents put more trust in their children’s abilities. |
| C．Parents and children talk less about sex and drugs. |
| D．Parents share more interests with their children. |
| A．Less confusion among parents. |
| B．New equality between parents and children. |
| C．More respect for parents from children. |
| D．More strictness and authority on the part of parents. |
| A．describe the difficulties today’s parents have met with |
| B．discuss the change of the parent-child relationship |
| C．suggest the ways to handle the parent-child relationship |
| D．stress the importance of parent-child relationship |
| A．Husband and wife. |
| B．Father and daughter. |
| C．Employer and employee. |
4 . Communication Tips
Here are some suggestions about making your talk with your parents turn out for the best.
Be honest.
If you’re always honest, your parents will be likely to believe what you say. If you sometimes hide the truth, parents will have a harder time to believe what you tell them.
Be brave and start talking.
It’s easy to say “Hi, Mum” or “Dad, can you pass the potatoes?”
If you have a disagreement, can you consider things from your parents’ points of view? If you can, telling your parents you understand their views and feelings helps them be willing to understand yours, too.
Try not to argue.
Using a friendly and respectful tone makes your parents more likely to listen to you and take what you say seriously.
What if it doesn’t work? If you still can’t talk to your parents, seek other adults’ help.
| A．Explain your situation. |
| B．Try to understand them. |
| C．If you lie, they’ll find it hard to trust you. |
| D．Parents are the most important people in your life. |
| E．But it can be harder to start talking about personal topics. |
| F．It also makes it more likely that they’ll talk to you in the same way. |
| G．Find a relative or a teacher who will listen to, understand and care about you. |
1. What did the woman do last week?
| A．She published a book. |
| B．She attended an interview. |
| C．She gave a speech to children. |
| A．Selfish. | B．Peaceful. | C．Independent. |
| A．They are aggressive. | B．They’re not considerate. | C．They are stubborn. |
6 . Life offers its fair share of challenges. At any given time, anyone can face difficult sea- sons in their life. It is true for you. When you're experiencing difficulty, it's always helpful to have a support system to get through it.
Offer legal resources. If you have family members who are in trouble with the law, you can offer assistance by pointing in the direction of various legal resources, You can even decide to cover a part of their legal fees in court.
Provide encouragement. When people are down on their luck, it's really easy for them to get discouraged and give up. Instead, it's a wise move to offer words of encouragement to the person. Always remind them that they're strong, capable and more powerful than they realize.
Be a safe place. Sometimes, people struggle because they don't feel any love or support from anyone around them.
| A．No man is an island. |
| B．Encourage independence |
| C．In fact, they are surrounded by pressure. |
| D．Always compete with your family members. |
| E．Tell them that they will get through this situation. |
| F．It's all up to you to decide how you can help them. |
| G．However, you know that there's nothing you can do. |
7 . You might assume that being the apple of your mother’s eye could only be a good thing. But adults who believe they are their mother’s favourite child are at an increased risk of depression, according to a study.
Researchers think that being the target of sibling (兄弟姐妹) competition and feeling responsible towards their parents both take their toll on the preferred child. “There is a cost for those who realize they are the closest emotionally to their mothers, and these children report higher depressive symptoms,” said Professor Jill Suitor from Purdue University in Indiana, who led the study. “This cost comes from higher sibling tension experienced by adult children who are favoured for emotional closeness, or the greater feelings of responsibility for the emotional care of their older mothers,” added Dr. Megan Gilligan from Iowa State University, who also worked on the research.
The researchers used data collected from 725 adult children with an average age of 49, analysing levels of emotional closeness, conflict, pride and disappointment.
The researchers said that earlier studies had found that those who were closer to their mothers experienced less closeness with their siblings. Further, tension with siblings has been found to be especially high when adult children are both favoured and provide care for their mothers—a context that is particularly common when mothers are in their late 70s and 80s, as is the case in the present study.
Though few mothers or fathers would admit that they have a favourite son or daughter, studies have suggested they often do. One such piece of research, which was carried out by the University of California in 2005, found that 65 percent of mothers and 70 percent of fathers showed a preference for one of their children over their siblings. Also, a study carried out by Professor Suitor and Dr. Gilligan found that mothers tended to favour an adult child who they thought to be similar to them, in terms of values and beliefs.
Therefore, how we learn to love and be loved by people, how accepted we feel, how easy we find it to relate to others and expect them to relate to us can often connects with our upbringing.
1. The underlined words “take their toll on” in the second paragraph probably mean “________”.| A．set an example for | B．bring benefits to |
| C．have a bad effect on | D．take advantage of |
| A．have heavier work pressure | B．have higher depressive symptoms |
| C．care for their mothers more | D．have a greater sense of responsibility |
| A．The child who is kind to others. |
| B．The child who shows respect for her. |
| C．The child who is responsible for others. |
| D．The child who has much in common with her. |
8 . 假定英语课上老师要求同桌之间交换修改作文，请你修改你同桌写的以下作文。文中共有10处语言错误，每句中最多有两处。每处错误仅涉及一个单词的增加、删除或修改。
增加：在缺词处加一个漏字符号( ^ )，并在其下面写出该加的词。
删除：把多余的词用斜线( \ )划掉。
修改:在错的词下画一横线，并在该词下面写出修改后的词。
注意：1.每处错误及其修改均仅限一词；
2.只允许修改10处，多者（从第11处起）不计分。
The Moments (朋友圈) section of WeChat has become the popular part of the social networking platform. We can share everything about their life on it with our friend. Many teenagers, however, chose to keep their parents out their Moments. They argue that if their parents get involved, and they will feel upset. As far as I am concerning, I feel happily when my parents comment on my posts in my Moments. It shows their love and care for me. What’s more, shut them off may make the generation gap bigger and bigger, when inviting them in would help us communicate better and feel closer to each other than before.
假设你正在参加全省中学生英语演讲比赛，请你针对有些父母经常翻看孩子日记或书包这一现象，写一篇演讲稿，陈述你的观点。
演讲稿的主要内容应包括：
认为同学们不必为此苦恼；
希望能够体谅父母的苦衷；
建议与父母进行交流和沟通。注意：
1. 词数100左右；
2. 可以适当增加细节，以使行文连贯；
3. 开头和结尾已为你写好，不计入总词数。
Good morning, ladies and gentleman.
Some of us are having problems with our parents, as they often look into our schoolbags or read our diaries.
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Thank you!
