1 . Jewel White, a 15-year-old student, gathers her books and signs herself out of a routine morning math class. She is not leaving school for the day, but is off to try some more challenging equations. This practice is not uncommon at Westmount Secondary School in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, where an unconventional learning approach is prevailing.
Westmount is one of the eight regular schools in the country where students work at their own pace and set their own direction, spending as much or as little time as they need on subjects. Teachers act as advisers. With the classroom teachers’ permission, students can sign out of a class to work on other materials or walk into another class to catch up on another subject. And every two weeks they make plans for their own learning time, with support from their adviser.
At a time when a shrinking student population is causing boards to close schools. Westmount sits at 30 percent overcapacity with 1,500 students. Its bursting number led education officials to consider expanding the program to other locations.
“If students are interested, we are going to do our best to provide that sort of programming,” said Todd White, chair of the Hamilton-Wentworth District School Board.
When students like Jewel are not in a classroom, they can usually be found in the school’s learning commons, a study area for all students. There are teachers available to help, but generally students are working on their own assignments or projects.
Jewel said Westmount’s self-paced style caught her attention when she was looking at high schools. Westmount is not the school close to her home. She said at elementary school she would often cause trouble in class because she would complete her work early and not have much else to do. “I find this kind of academic environment in Westmount is a lot better for me,” she said. “I like the thought of being able to work faster or slower if needed.”
1. What does the word “prevailing” underlined in paragraph I mean?| A．Catching on. | B．Giving way. | C．Slowing down. | D．Causing trouble. |
| A．Complex but familiar. | B．Flexible and efficient. |
| C．Traditional and common. | D．Difficult but interesting. |
| A．Tolerant. | B．Doubtful. | C．Positive. | D．Unconcerned. |
| A．It was a school closest to her home. |
| B．It provided too much homework for students. |
| C．Its learning atmosphere was not very satisfying. |
| D．Its students did not work as fast as Westmount. |
2 . Everyone has “down days”. Maybe it’s because of the bad weather, or the disappointing grades on a difficult test, and some days teenagers just act uninterested in life or school. But these symptoms(症状) often pass quickly, as teens move on to new school subjects, or meet with friends to prevent themselves from thinking what troubles them at the moment. But if a teenager displays symptoms of sadness for more than two lasting weeks, it might point to something serious.
As teenagers develop, they push new boundaries(边界), complain about rules and look for more free rights from their parents. According to the online Health Guide on Adolescent Development, parents must be lasting figures in their teenagers’ life, providing safe boundaries for teens to grow, even if the teenagers act like these boundaries are unwanted.
Parents need to provide rules, while also remaining flexible(灵活的) and respectful of the growing teens’ need for freedom. For example, teenagers will often feel frustrated, embarrassed, and even angry that thought they want freedom, they still need to ask their parents for an agreement to go to a friend’s house, or need their mothers to take them to school.
The US Department of Education says that parents should respect and support their teen’s choices as long as those choices won’t have long-term harmful effects. For example, even if a parent doesn’t enjoy the music his or her teen listens to, it’s unlikely that the choice of music will prevent that teen from entering a good college, or lead to health problems. However, if that teen is drinking alcohol and driving, parents must get through strict punishments to teach that there are bad results for poor choices that come with increased freedom.
1. Why do teen’s feelings of bad days usually disappear quickly?| A．Their teachers help them. |
| B．They take some medicine. |
| C．Their parents talk with them. |
| D．They change their attention. |
| A．Freedom must be given at anytime. |
| B．Teens are mad at being controlled. |
| C．Teens need both freedom and proper rules. |
| D．Rules must be absolutely strict for teens. |
| A．Support their helpful hobbies. | B．Tell them which college to attend. |
| C．Cancel their after-school activities. | D．Get them away from singing pop songs. |
| A．How to Be With Growing Teens |
| B．Causes of Teens’ Sadness |
| C．Teens’ Worries About Strict Rules |
| D．The Importance of Making Friends With Teens |
3 . Sun Rui, a mother in Beijing, changed some of her plans for her 8-year-old son’s summer vacation. She had looked for an out-of-school English course, but in the end, she changed it to a swimming training class. “It is because of the strict rules on subject-tutoring classes out of schools, many parents like me choose sports or other classes for developing interests instead,” Sun said.
Sun’s choice is part of the result of the government’s growing efforts to reduce the academic pressure on young students.
On July 24, Chinese government introduced the rules in order to reduce the burden of homework and after-class tutoring for primary and junior high school students. It lists requirements in areas such as reducing the amount and the difficulty of homework and after-class services provided by schools. For example, homework for primary children below the third grade is not allowed, while homework for junior high school students should take no longer than 90 minutes to finish. Out-of-school classes cannot teach students knowledge that is ahead of the school curriculum. No subject lessons can be given on weekends, national holidays or during winter and summer vacations.
According to Global Times, more than 75 percent of Chinese children in cities, from grade l to grade 12, take part in out-of-school subject classes. This has led to many social problems such as students’ falling levels of physical fitness, more mental health problems and huge family costs, said Chu Zhaohui, senior researcher with the National Institute of Education Sciences.
Many parents showed their support for the new moves. “Subject leaning is enough at school and we hope the children’s life can be more relaxing during holidays”, a parent in Guangzhou told Xinhua. However, there are also some parents who have new fears. A parent in Shanxi said that although she agreed with the new rules, she was worried that both she and her husband had no time to be with her son
1. The reason why Sun Rui let her son sign up for a swimming class instead of an English course is that ______.| A．many parents chose classes for developing interests |
| B．the government made rules on out-of-school subject classes. |
| C．the government made an effort to advocate subject-tutoring classes. |
| D．she wanted to reduce the academic pressure on her son. |
| A．primary students in grade one and grade two have no homework after school. |
| B．junior high school students should do their homework for more than 90 minutes. |
| C．out-of-school classes can’t teach any knowledge in school textbooks. |
| D．during summer vacations, junior students can have subject classes outside schools. |
| A．help children stay fit. |
| B．have a positive effect on children’s mental health. |
| C．increase some families’ extra spending. |
| D．help children lean better at school. |
| A．Some parents feel anxious about their children’s study at school. |
| B．They want their children to take part in more out-of-school classes. |
| C．They all think it is hard for them to accept the rules right now. |
| D．Some parents worry that they have no time to keep their children company after school. |
4 . An economist, Adam Smith, famously wrote that “it is not from the benevolence (慈善) of the butcher, the brewer or the baker, that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own self-interest.” Like Smith, many economists today believe one’s self-interest is what drives competition and growth in market economies. Yet, in an increasingly interconnected society, it is even more crucial to have cooperative skills. Thus we should encourage cooperation to better prepare children for the future.
Firstly, cooperation is an especially prized soft skill in the present age. As a study proves, soft skills such as good communication and empathy (共情) indicate outstanding employees as compared to technical skills or knowledge. In contrast, extremely competitive and individualistic behavior may damage social relations in the community of co-workers. Even the most competent employee may fail to pursue his goals effectively without others’ help.
Moreover, encouraging cooperation boost children’s self-respect that better prepares them for the competitive world. Many modern societies are consumed by a crazy drive for success and the pressure to perform has infiltrated both classrooms and offices, causing higher rates of anxiety and depression among people. Teamwork can help an individual realize each has his or her own unique abilities and that another person’s strengths don’t discount his or her talents. Thus, cooperation can confirm children’s self-worth by correcting the insight that winning or paper achievement is the only measure of success.
However, critics may claim adapting to competition should be given priority in education and parenting. To achieve one’s ambitions, one has to actively fight for opportunities and distinguish oneself from others. Nevertheless, since passion can already stimulate children to fulfill their ambitions, the need to encourage competition may be at the end of the day. As much as external competition can drive people to pursue excellence, internal motivation is at least equally or even more essential, and cooperation plays an instrumental role in helping one uncover one’s motivations.
1. What can be inferred from Adam Smith’s words?| A．Our society is increasingly interconnected. |
| B．Our dinner is made out of the regards to markets. |
| C．Self-interest pushes the development of economies. |
| D．The butcher, the brewer or the baker is not sympathetic. |
| A．Brightened. | B．Decorated. | C．Defended. | D．Entered. |
| A．Paper achievement is the only measure of success. |
| B．One’s ambitions can be achieved through cooperation. |
| C．Competition is not necessary for people to pursue excellence. |
| D．Actively fighting for distinguishing oneself should be prioritized. |
| A．To introduce the advantages of cooperation. |
| B．To compare cooperation with competition. |
| C．To suggest enhancing competitive skills. |
| D．To advocate teaching children to cooperate. |
5 . Can you imagine a world without music? Studies show that public schools across the country are cutting back on music classes to save money. Worse, some schools have never had music classes to begin with. But without them,students’ academic growth and emotional health could suffer. In fact, music classes are necessary for all students in schools.
Recent studies by Brown University have shown that students who received music education classes were better in maths and reading skills than those without music classes. Another study by the College Board found that students taking music and art classes got higher points. Students' academic success seems to depend on their taking part in music education.
Music programmes in public schools also help to add to a students sense of pride and self-confidence. Teens today have too many learning tasks. Besides, they have family problems, self-confidence problems, relationship troubles, and other troubles. All of these can stop academic success, but music education can help. A study by the Texas Commission on Alcohol and Drug Abuse found that students who took part in school music programmes were less likely to turn to drugs. Music programmes encourage students to work together to produce an excellent performance.
Music crosses language, class, cultural and political boundaries. Music allows students from different countries to connect. For example, at a school talent show, a new Japanese student played a piano duet with an American classmate. Although they could not communicate verbally, they were able to read the music in order to play the duet. Two students from different cultures worked as a team with self-confidence and common purpose through music.
The gift of music is priceless. We need to be sure to have necessary music classes for all students. The world is losing its music, and putting music into schools is the first step to get it back.
1. What can we learn about education with music classes?| A．It allows schools to make more profits. |
| B．It leads to a lot of emotional problems easily. |
| C．It helps students to improve their schoolwork. |
| D．It has a great influence on the culture of the country. |
| A．Not all students take part in music lessons. |
| B．Students with great success like to attend music lessons. |
| C．Music plays an important role in students’ success. |
| D．Students having music classes are better in all lessons. |
| A．different cultures have different styles of music |
| B．music makes cross-country communication possible |
| C．Japan has a good international relationship with America |
| D．Japanese and American students are good at playing the piano |
| A．How to Get Music Back | B．Music Education in Schools |
| C．Music—a Bridge to Understanding | D．The Importance of Listening to Music |
6 . Disappointment is a natural human emotion that occurs after a failure. For our young children, this failure can look like not getting the toy they wanted, not being invited to a classmate’s birthday party or losing their favourite stuffed animal.
It is essential for children’s mental health, well-being and overall development that they experience how to deal with disappointment well. But this can be difficult for parents to handle, particularly around holidays that have grown to involve gift-giving and expectations.
North American culture often mistakenly links love and happiness with material goods such as toys; the Santa story promises magical wish fulfillment. This can cause conflict for parents when children do not get the “right” gift.
On holidays, there’s social and personal pressure to provide happiness and joy to children through material objects, which can be confused with providing the necessities. For parents who do not have the resources to provide the perfect or desired gift, this can cause additional stress, shame, guilt and fear around disappointment. Parents may feel as though they have let down their child and that they have impacted the child’s experience or memory of their “special day”.
This is especially true if the child has difficulty with or is learning to regulate emotions and expresses disappointment through tantrums (发怒) or sulking (生闷气). These behaviours can affect parents profoundly, often leading them to feel badly about themselves or that the child does not love them.
Changing our focus from giving rather than receiving can help our children develop and appreciate the strength in gratitude. Research has linked gratitude to significant health and wellness benefits such as improving self-esteem, improving sleep and developing empathy.
The other thing to know is that although disappointment feels awful, it is a part of life and is actually a positive and healthy emotion that’s central to children’s emotional, cognitive and social development throughout their lives.
1. Why is it difficult for parent to handle disappointment on Christmas?| A．It is connected with children’s overall development. |
| B．It is the custom to give gifts or show expectations. |
| C．Children are easy to have tantrums or sulking. |
| D．Children often expect too much of their parents. |
| A．Positive. | B．Concerned. | C．Interested. | D．Supportive. |
| A．It can avoid disappointment in life. |
| B．It can help children’s academic development. |
| C．It is a necessary part of one’s life. |
| D．lt helps children realize the benefits of being grateful. |
| A．What Christmas Can Teach Kids about Disappointment |
| B．How We Can Meet Our Children’s Expectations Best |
| C．What Harm Disappointment Does to Most Children |
| D．What Are the Rights to Give to Your Children on Christmas |
7 . Devote yourself to the work you do, not the prize you might get. Hao Jingfang, a Tsinghua University graduate, is pursuing her passion for writing and education.
In 2016, she won the admired Hugo Award with her novella, Folding Beijing, which made her the first female writer in China to bring home this prize. Later on, the author turned to education. She set up Tongxing Academy for public welfare education and WePlanets to promote children’s creativity after school.
In this interview with Easy Talk, Hao discusses her life experience-not only as a writer and educator, but also a parent.
“The major task for society is to help people get better education, to elevate their skill set in line with future technological advancements, and to broaden their horizons,” Hao said.
Since founding her company, Hao has been carrying out voluntary teaching programs in rural areas. “We really want these kids to have better education resources like kids from the cities,” she said. “We hope that the children from rural China, if one day they manage to live in the cities, can do more than car maintenance, for example. They will have the skills to take on other jobs.”
Different from the typical Chinese parents so ambitious for their children, Hao suggests giving kids more space for trial and error. “I do believe the best mentality for parents is to stand behind your children,” Hao said. “Let the child cope with the reality and decide for themselves. If they struggle with obstacles, you can offer them some guidance or encouragement.”
“I’ve had a wide variety of interests since childhood. I’ve got used to doing different things,” says the 35-year-old.
Being an economic researcher, a writer and businessperson herself, she encourages all women to discover their passions. “We live in a big, big world with boundless possibilities, various trades and different vocations. Don’t be too afraid to try something new. When you find the one thing that you want to commit to, you will become fearless to follow your dream.”
1. What does the underlined word “elevate” in paragraph 4 mean?| A．research | B．improve |
| C．recognize | D．evaluate |
| A．let their children go freely. |
| B．be ambitious for their children. |
| C．give their children a hand only if necessary. |
| D．remove their children’s obstacles ahead of time. |
| A．Helpful and committed. | B．Creative and stubborn. |
| C．Narrow-minded and responsible. | D．Imaginative and demanding. |
| A．How to discover a person’s passions. |
| B．The effective ways to achieve your dream. |
| C．Great achievements made by Hao Jingfang. |
| D．Hao Jingfang’s views on writing, education and parenting. |
8 . For a generation now, school reform has meant what students must be taught and carried out by standardized（标准化的）tests.
Here’s a thought experiment. Suppose that next year almost every student passed the tests. What would the reaction be from people? Would they shake their heads in respect and say, “Damn, those teachers must be good!”?
Of course not. Such remarkable success would be used as evidence that the tests were too easy and it needs to raise standards. “High standards” really means “standards that all students will never be able to meet”. My little thought experiment uncovers a truth that we have been taught to respond with doubt whenever all members of any group are successful. In America, success doesn’t count unless it is got by only a few.
Consider widespread complaints about “grade inflation（膨胀）” in higher education. Many people don’t even bother to stress that grades have risen over time. They simply point to how many students get A’s right now. The goal, in other words, isn’t to do well but to defeat other people who are also trying to do well. Grades in testing should be used to announce who’s beating whom. A school’s final task, apparently, is not to help everyone learn but to prepare the game so that there will always be losers.
This makes no sense in any situation. Perhaps, for example, we can defend rating states or nations based on the quality of their air, health care or schools, but ranking them is foolish. School testing ranking doesn’t lead to improvements in performance but tends to hold us back from doing our best. It makes productive teamwork less likely and leads all concerned to focus not on meaningful improvements but on trying to beat everyone else.
Most of all, it encourages the false belief that excellence is a zero-sum game. It would be more reasonable to rescue the spirit of the concept: Everyone may not succeed, but at least in theory all of us could.
1. What did the writer’s thought experiment prove?| A．Good teachers represent higher test scores. |
| B．Excellence is regarded as a rare thing. |
| C．American tests are usually too easy. |
| D．Students don’t meet the test standards. |
| A．Promote teachers to teach better. | B．Remove the belief of beating others. |
| C．Help all students do well at school. | D．Ensure the existence of failures. |
| A．Disapproving. | B．Optimistic. |
| C．Sympathetic. | D．Unconcerned. |
| A．How Can Students Succeed? | B．Why Can’t Everyone Get A’s? |
| C．What Standards Do Schools Set? | D．Who Get Best Grades at School? |
9 . Parents do not owe （欠） their children a college education. If they can afford it, they can certainly send them to a good university. But they needn’t feel guilty if they can’t. When children grow up and want to get married, their parents do not owe them an apartment. They do not have the duty to look after their grandchildren, either. If they want to do it, it must be considered a favor, not an obligation.
Do parents owe their children anything? Yes, they owe them a great deal.
One of their obligations is to give their children a personal worth. Children who are always made to feel stupid and unworthy, constantly compared with brighter brothers, sisters, or cousins will become so unsure, so afraid of failing that they won’t try at all. Of course they should be properly corrected when they do wrong, but it’s often better to let children learn their mistakes by themselves in time. All their parents should do is to trust them, respect them, understand them and give them chances to try and fail. They must learn to stand failure. When criticisms （批评） are really needed, they should be balanced with a smile and a kiss. That is the way children learn.
Parents owe their children a set of solid values around which to build their lives. This means teaching them to respect the rights and opinions of others; it means being respectful to elders, to teachers, and to the law. The best way to teach such values is by deed. A child who is lied to will lie. A child who sees no laughter and no love in the home will have difficulty laughing and loving.
No child asks to be born. If you bring a life into the world, you owe the child something.
1. The author thinks parents ________.| A．should send their children to college |
| B．should support their children after they get married |
| C．need to buy an apartment for their children |
| D．needn’t feel guilty if they can’t send their children to universities |
| A．Right. | B．Promise. |
| C．Duty. | D．Excuse. |
| A．Understand them and tell them not to do that again. |
| B．Let them learn the mistakes by themselves in time. |
| C．Compare them with brighter brothers or sisters. |
| D．Correct their mistakes immediately. |
| A．The duties of parents. |
| B．The best way to teach children. |
| C．The reason why children feel stupid and unworthy. |
| D．The reason why parents owe their children something. |
10 . We talk continuously about how to make children more “resilient (有恢复力的)”, but whatever we’re doing, it’s notworking. Rates of anxiety disorders and depression are rising rapidly among teenagers. What are we doing wrong?
Nassim Taleb invented the word “antifragile” and used it to describe a small but very important class of systems that gain from shocks, challenges, and disorder. The immune (免疫的) system is one of them: it requires exposure to certain kinds of bacteria and potential allergens (过敏原) in childhood in order to develop to its full ability.
Children’s social and emotional abilities are as antifragile as their immune systems. If we overprotect kids and keep them “safe” from unpleasant social situations and negative emotions, we deprive (剥夺) them of the challenges and opportunities for skill-building they need to grow strong. Such children are likely to suffer more when exposed later to other unpleasant but ordinary life events, such as teasing and social rejection.
It’s not the kids’ fault. In the UK, as in the US, parents became much more fearful in the 1980s and 1990s as cable TV and later the Internet exposed everyone, more and more, to those rare occurrences of crimes and accidents that now occur less and less. Outdoor play and independent mobility went down; screen time and adult-monitored activities went up.
Yet free play in which kids work out their own rules of engagement, take small risks, and learn to master small dangers turns out to be vital for the development of adult social and even physical competence. Depriving them of free play prevents their social-emotional growth. Norwegian play researchers Ellen Sandseter warned: “We may observe an increased anxiety or mental disorders in society if children are forbidden from participating in age adequate risky play.”
They wrote those words in 2011. Over the following few years, their prediction came true. Kids born after 1994 are suffering from much higher rates of anxiety disorders and depression than did the previous generation.
What can we do to change these trends? We can’t guarantee that giving primary school children more independence today will bring down the rate of teenage suicide tomorrow. The links between childhood overprotection and teenage mental illness are suggestive but not clear-cut. Yet there are good reasons to suspect that by depriving our naturally antifragile kids of the wide range of experiences they need to become strong, we are systematically preventing their growth. We should let go—and let them grow.
1. Why does the author mention the immune system in Paragraph 2?| A．To stress its importance. | B．To analyze the cause of anxiety. |
| C．To question the latest discovery. | D．To help understand a new word. |
| A．they are concerned about their children’s safety |
| B．they want to keep children from being teased |
| C．parent-monitored activities are a must |
| D．children are not independent enough |
| A．promote children’s resilience |
| B．strengthen children’s friendship |
| C．reduce children’s risky behavior |
| D．develop children’s leadership skills |
| A．Stop trying to perfect your child. |
| B．It takes great courage to raise children. |
| C．Prepare the child for the road, not the road for the child. |
| D．The more exposed the children are to the risks, the more resilient they would become. |
