1 . Should teens do housework after school?    1    Some might claim that doing housework is a waste of time, while others feel that housework is a good opportunity for teens to become more mature. As for me, I strongly argue that it is indeed necessary for teens to do household work to help develop a sense of responsibility.

First of all, to be responsible, teenagers should learn how to manage their time.     2    When I was in senior high, I had to wash dishes every day. Therefore, I learned how to do my chores (家务) quickly to save more time for studying and relaxing. On the other hand, my little brother did not do any housework, so he always struggled to keep to his schedule.

    3    Doing household chores can train teens to become independent people. For instance, when my sister was in high school, she had to do her own washing and cleaning, and even cook her own food. As a result, she knew how to take care of herself. She rarely relied on anyone.

Finally, doing household chores can help teens become better leaders.     4    When my family clean the house together, I often give orders and see everyone do his or her own work. My sister is in charge of dusting the floor, I clean the windows, and my brother takes out the waste.     5    Moreover, statistics show that a lot of students who are class leaders often are responsible for the main household chores in their families.

A．Take my personal experience for example.

B．People adopt different stands toward this issue.

C．Besides, being responsible means being independent.

D．Parents feel angry if their teens don't help with the housework.

E．Secondly, it gives teens the sense that they're part of the family.

F．Doing household work can help them develop good time management skills.

G．As a result, when I was selected as the leader in group projects, I felt confident about it.

2 . Everyone would agree that it is parents’ job to teach their kids right from wrong. The rise in teen crime suggests that some parents are failing at these tasks. To correct the problem, lawmakers in some states require parents to serve jail time when their children get into serious trouble again and again. The lawmakers hope that this punishment will motivate parents to take their responsibilities seriously.

Supporters of these laws believe that the threat of jail will scare parents into paying more attention to their teens’ behavior than before. They think that these parents would be happy to let the state try to straighten out their kids at juvenile detention centers (少管所), because the centers took the responsibility off the parents’ shoulders. With the new laws, the responsibility is put back on the parents. “The hope is,” a supporter said, “that if parents are held legally responsible, they’ll work harder to keep their youngsters in line.”

However, many people think the laws are unfair. They argue that parents should not be punished for the criminal acts of their children, unless it can be shown there is a contributory fault on the parents’ part.

People who oppose parental responsibility laws also believe that punishing parents won’t create a change in the kids’ behavior. These people argue that parents may not be at fault. The children of good parents can fall in with the wrong kids and get into trouble, they say. Worse yet, if mom is in jail, there may be no one at all to control her kid. …

The unfortunate fact is that jailing a parent punishes the rest of the family. The jailed parent cannot work to help support the family and may also be fired from a job for missing too much work. Furthermore, little evidence exists to support the idea that the threat of punishment improves a parent’s ability to control a teenager. Opponents of parental responsibility laws say that parents who are in this situation need help, not a jail sentence.

1. The phrase “keep their youngsters in line” (in Paragraph 2) is closest in meaning to “________”.

A．get their kids to stay at home	B．make their kids behave well
C．help their kids make a living	D．require their kids to queue in public

2. Which of the following sentences may best end Paragraph 4?

A．So, they believe that it’s easy for mom to control her kid’s behavior.

B．So, they believe that mom should be jailed for her contributory fault.

C．So, they believe that lack of mom’s control may then lead to more crime.

D．So, they believe that mom’s control has a negative effect on her kid’s behavior.

3. Opponents of parental responsibility laws think that ________.

A．parents should never be punished for their kids’ crimes

B．jailing a parent may drive the family into a worse situation

C．the laws are unfair even if they help parents control their kids

D．responsible parents needn’t worry that their kids will commit crimes

4. What does the passage mainly talk about?

A．Whether parents should be jailed for their kids’ criminal acts.

B．How parents deal with young troublemakers in their daily life.

C．What parents need when their kids commit crimes again and again.

D．Why laws should be made to hold parents responsible for their kids.

3 . When comparing U.S. and Chinese schools,despite(尽管）many differences, one finds a number of unexpected similarities.

Students in both countries, in some ways, have much in common. This includes their experiences with popular culture like technology and social media, mutual care for the environment, and the fact that all were terribly influenced by COVID-19.

Students in both countries belong to what might be described as a“TikTok culture,”although this Chinese app is likely more popular in the U.S. than in China itself.The Chinese term kuaicanshi yule,which means fast-food type entertainment, is the better expression, one that conveys“snackable content”for often meme-oriented, fast moving fashion that compete for short attention spans. Whatever the app or device, students have been much influenced by technology, positively and negatively. In fact,Chinese students do face more controls from their schools about their use of social media, although many are good at finding ways to avoid them.

Furthermore, many students in both countries are attracted to similar styles, in both fashion and food, in music and film, with Chinese and American students often being similarly up-to-date on the latest hits, including television series.

Finally, what both have most in common is the strong wish to live a good life, be successful and secure. The U.S. and China approach these wishes in different ways educationally, but both could learn from each other. This is especially true given the fact that we all live in an increasingly globalized world, and must learn to work together to solve not only global problems like climate change and disease outbreaks, but unfortunate frictions between the U.S. and China. Indeed, with the last point in mind, a significant weakness in the educational systems of both countries is that neither really understands the other. This is not a new problem, but solving it needs serious attention.

1. What can we learn about the students in the U.S. and China from Paragraph 2?

A．They show no interest in traditional culture.

B．They have chances to experience social media.

C．They are satisfied with their living environment.

D．They were hardly influenced by COVID-19.

2. What do Chinese students face about using social media in school?

A．Rules to control.

B．Supports from parents.

C．Agreement from schools.

D．Risk to leave.

3. What do U.S.and Chinese students have in common?

A．Schools stop them from using social media.

B．They have little interest in television series.

C．They achieve their wishes educationally similarly.

D．They can't fully understand each other educationally.

4. Which of the following can be the best title?

A．U.S.and Chinese Schools

B．U.S.and Chinese Students

C．Similarities between U.S. and Chinese Students

D．Differences between U.S. and Chinese Schools

4 . Reading out loud is one of the most useful ways to practice when you are learning a foreign language. If you want to improve your fluency, you should read a lot, and not silently but out loud!

This competition is designed to encourage all the Chinese learners to read Chinese out loud. And we hope to introduce the importance of reading out loud when learning Chinese. Also, we have brilliant prizes for the top three competitors! We look forward to hearing from you reading Chinese stories, poems, tongue twisters, lyrics, etc. We would post the recordings on our official account anonymously (匿名) and ask everyone to vote online for the recordings.

The top six will get the prizes below:

First prize (1 person): 5 hours one-to-one Chinese lesson

Second prize (2 people): 3 hours one-to-one Chinese lesson

Third prize (3 people): one 200 RMB voucher (代金券) for our course

Timeline

Please choose one from the ten materials given to you at the bottom of this web page, from 6 to 10 are lyrics, you can read or sing.

Sign up before 11 p.m., 16th of February.

Record the name: your file with your name and nationality (eg: Mike+US)

Send your recordings to hanlinmandarin@163.com, before 7 p.m., 19th of February.

We will post the anonymous recordings on HLC official account on the 21st of February. Vote online from 21st of February to 25th of February.

The result would be posted on HLC official account on the 26th of February.

If you don’t know Chinese characters, you can copy them and change them into pinyin on the following website https://www.pinyinzi.com/hanzipinyin/.

1. What is the competition intended to do?

A．To encourage more people to learn Chinese.

B．To inspire Chinese learners to read out loud.

C．To introduce how to learn a foreign language.

D．To stress the importance of Chinese learning.

2. What are listed at the bottom of the web page?

A．Reading materials.	B．Names of winners.
C．Rules of the competition.	D．Lists of prizes.

3. When will the result be made public?

A．On the 16th of February.	B．On the 19th of February.
C．On the 21st of February.	D．On the 26th of February.