1 . Parenting roles evolve from the full control and safekeeping of a young baby to the delicate dance between independence and guidance in adolescence (青春期). Eventually, our children become adults, and if we are lucky, we will have lifelong friendships with them.
Play is a key element of friendship with children. With babies and very young children, we play with them, engaging in back-and-forth activities. They often start the game, and we join in. They pull us into play, and we love it. In the language of experts who research children from birth to 3 years old, we express delight in these interactions. But delight often hits a snag when our children learn how to say “no”. From this point onward — into adolescence — we focus on getting children to behave. We tend to be the parent, not the friend, often saying “because I said so”. Highlighting our role as taskmasters limits our parenting tools. If we can leave time and space for child-driven play and activities — without adult demands or expectations — we can return to delight. These friendly interactions expand our relationship with our children. It’s not the same as peer friendship, but we are being friends.
Beyond play, the other foundational component of parent friendship is the child-directed conversation. Maintaining a friendly, non-judgmental standpoint in conversation with your kids can provide you with a world of trust and engagement. Being quiet and not saying anything are undervalued parenting tools. Instead, we can keep our ears open for informal chatter and then listen with intention and presence. And it’s usually best if we don’t offer ad vice unless asked for it. Being curious and compassionate and listening deeply to their stories and worries build emotional bonds, maintain communication, and produce trust, which sounds like friendship.
In my experience as a child, a parent, and a child psychiatrist, I think we can be more than command-and-control. And I firmly believe that we can treat children with affection and respect, as companions.
1. What does the underlined word “snag” in paragraph 2 mean?| A．Misjudgement. | B．Demand. | C．Challenge. | D．Response. |
| A．Be a deep listener. | B．Start the topic of a talk. |
| C．Never make any comments. | D．Avoid any informal chatter. |
| A．Doubtful. | B．Approving. | C．Unclear. | D．Negative. |
| A．Parent-child Friendship Bonds | B．Lifelong Parent-child Relationship |
| C．Fundamental Elements of Friendship | D．Parenting Roles in Children’s Growth |
2 . If you feel discouraged because of your plain looking, here are some practical ways that you can rethink about your own appearance self-esteem(自尊).
Throw away conventional, media-defined ideas of beauty.
Define yourself in ways other than how you look. Make your self-esteem based on your inner, not outer qualities. Focus on what you like about your abilities, personality and perspective on the world. These almost always show improvement over time.
Use others as a sounding board. You may think your nose is huge, but those who care about you may find the very features that bother you the most lovely. If you’re feeling that you “look funny” or “fat”, ask your nearest and dearest.
To sum up, changing our society’s views of attractiveness won’t be easy.
| A．Focus on keeping healthy |
| B．Be concerned about how you feel inside |
| C．They may, surprisingly, give supporting ideas |
| D．Shifts in our viewpoint can make no difference |
| E．So work your way through the tips listed above |
| F．You’re not going to change society’s definition of beauty |
| G．And they are often more changeable than facial or bodily features |
3 . Rick Guidotti put aside his career as a fashion photographer to turn his lens (镜头) to people living with genetic, physical and behavioral differences.
He says what changed his perception (看法) of beauty was a chance encounter with an albino (患白化病的) girl. “I was just tired of people telling me who was beautiful. Every season that face would change but I was always told who was beautiful. As an artist, I don’t see beauty just on covers of magazines. I see it everywhere. So that was my original intention — that opened my eyes a little wider and wider.”
Guidotti has created Positive Exposure, a not-for-profit organization that uses photography and video to transform public perceptions and promote a world where differences are celebrated. Guidotti and Positive Exposure are featured in a new documentary called On Beauty.
One of the women featured in the film is Jayne Waithera. “I never thought I was beautiful because nobody said that to me, but meeting him was my profound moment. I remember that particular day. He took my picture and I felt so good like I felt there’s somebody who, like, really loves me and sees me for who I am and who sees me more than my condition.”
Guidotti is travelling from city to city to promote On Beauty. He says his tour is not about money; it’s about the message. “As I travel from community to community, I’m taking photographs and I’m empowering (给某人……的权力) individuals with a positive sense of who they are. They’re seeing beauty in their reflection but I’m also empowering their families and they in turn are empowering their communities as well. All is based on the philosophy of change — how you see, how you change.”
1. Why did Guidotti change his career?| A．He intended to establish his own company. |
| B．He expected to earn more money than before. |
| C．The beauty on covers of magazines is beyond satisfaction. |
| D．The meeting with an albino girl changed his view on beauty. |
| A．It enjoys high profit. | B．It welcomes differences. |
| C．It spreads photography skills. | D．It enhances community bond. |
| A．Jayne was beautiful indeed. | B．Jayne disliked being photographed. |
| C．The film became a hit thanks to Jayne. | D．The photographs made Jayne more confident. |
| A．Beauty comes from life. | B．Attitude affects behavior. |
| C．Travel enriches experience. | D．Communities influence individuals. |
4 . Go Sledding (滑雪橇) around Baltimore
From steep slopes (陡坡) to gentle hills, there’s no shortage of local sledding rides in the Baltimore area. Here are a few of the favorites.
Leakin Park
1901 EAGLE DRIVE
There’s a sweet slide behind the Crimean Mansion off Eagle Drive — also known today as Friends of Orianda House — which is accessible and also one of the best-kept sledding secrets inside city lines. The Winans Meadow area is super scenic year-round, but especially so when it snows.
Baltimore Country Club
4712 CLUB ROAD
The golf course is a legendary sledding destination, but make sure to be aware that the steep slope here is nicknamed “Adventure Hill” for a reason. No small number of green hands have rolled down here. As one Reddit commenter said, “It left me hurt many a time as a kid” — words no doubt that frighten some but also attract more than a few.
Herring Run Park
3800 BELAIR ROAD
The 375-acre northeast area may be the top spot in the city for the variety of hills to choose from. Created by the Olmstead Brothers more than a century ago, the stream valley park is also home to fox and deer, which you might just spot wandering about in their winter coats. Visitors can enjoy the benefit of sufficient parking for private vehicles.
Federal Hill
300 WARREN AVE.
It’s an obvious destination, given its picturesque view overlooking the Inner Harbor, for sledding and building snowmen and snowwomen. The hills here are very steep, however. Just be careful not to rush out onto Key Highway or into the back of the American Visionary Art Museum.
1. Where is the destination with easy access to parking lot?| A．At 1901 EAGLE DRIVE. | B．At 4712 CLUB ROAD. |
| C．At 3800 BELAIR ROAD. | D．At 300 WARREN AVE. |
| A．They enjoy beautiful scenery. | B．Sledding there is challenging. |
| C．Visitors can interact with animals. | D．They are perfect for building snowmen. |
| A．Travel. | B．Environment. | C．Health. | D．Culture. |
5 . Landscape architect Kotchakorn Voraakhom has designed a new green roof on the Rangsit Campus of Thammasat University, about 25 miles north of central Bangkok, Thailand. Her imaginative work challenges the common thinking that urbanization has a negative impact on the planet, whether flooding, excess(过度的)energy use, disrupted biodiversity or the heat island effect.
The 236,806-square-foot structure, which opened in December 2019, includes a flood water management system and Asia’s largest rooftop organic farm. It combines modern landscape architecture with traditional agricultural knowledge, creating a green and friendly environment.
The green roof, containing an H-shaped landscape, looks like a futuristic hill with a brick building beneath it. The hill features a complex pattern of zigzagging terraces(之字形梯田)of planted beds, leading all the way down to the bottom. When rainwater hits the roof, it flows down the zigzags while being absorbed by the soil in the beds. The excess water is directed into four storage ponds—with a capacity of up to 3 million gallons. The process slows down the flow speed of rainwater runoff compared to a normal concrete rooftop. This keeps the area from flooding during heavy rains.
The roof’s terraces are filled with organically grow n crops, including a drought tolerant variety of rice, many local vegetables and herbs. The farm can supply the canteens on campus with a large amount of rice, herbs and vegetables a year. The food waste is composted(把……制成堆肥)to make the soil of the farm richer, and water from the storage ponds is used to water plants, creating an entirely localized and circular system.
The farm serves as an outdoor classroom and a source of local jobs, too. Farmers offer workshops on sustainable agriculture and nutrition as part of the university’s sustainability course. “Students and community members are invited to participate in seasonal seeding, harvesting, and soon,” says Voraakhom. “The urban farm is training a new generation of organic farmers with real-world skills. It also promotes a sense of community.”
1. What can we say about Voraakhom’s work?| A．It’s creative. | B．It’s demanding. |
| C．It’s short-lived. | D．It’s energy-consuming. |
| A．To look more distinctive. | B．To increase water storage. |
| C．To plant diverse vegetables. | D．To decline the flow rate of water. |
| A．It features recycling. |
| B．It improves students’ lifestyle. |
| C．It develops the most healthy crops. |
| D．It has better outputs than other farms. |
| A．To complain about the poor employment. |
| B．To encourage innovation in local communities. |
| C．To show the possibility for farmers to become professors. |
| D．To speak favorably of the students’ access to hands-on knowledge. |
6 .
Plan your time carefully. When planning your work, you should make a list of things that you have to do. After making this list, you should make a schedule of your time. First your time for eating, sleeping, dressing, etc. Then decide a good, regular time for studying.
Find a good place to study. Look around the house for an area suitable for study. Keep this space, which may be a desk or simply a corner of your room, free of everything but study materials. No games, radios, or television. When you sit down to study, concentrate on the subject.
Make good use of your time in class.
Study regularly. When you get home from school, go over your notes, review the important points that your teacher is going to discuss the next day, and read that material.
Develop a good attitude towards tests. The purpose of a test is to show what you have learned about a subject. This helps you remember your new knowledge. The world won’t end if you don’t pass a test, so don’t be over worried.
| A．Take advantage of class time to listen to what the teacher says. |
| B．Don’t forget to set aside enough time for entertainment. |
| C．There are other methods that might help you with your studying. |
| D．Maybe you are an average student. |
| E．No one can become a top student unless he or she works hard. |
| F．Make full use of class time to take notes of everything the teacher says in class. |
| G．This will help you understand the next class. |
7 . Recently Chinese scientists have solved a food challenge of the ages! They cultivated (培育) the world’s first crucian carp (鲫鱼) without intermuscular (肌间的) fish bones.
The new fish ends a world-wide debate which has lasted for more than 50 years on whether intermuscular fish bones can be reproduced.
Crucian carp is a popular freshwater fish with tender meat and a fresh flavor, but its many tiny bones can easily get stuck in people’s throats when the fish is eaten. A research team from Heilongjiang Province started a project to solve the problem in 2009 and chose the key gene from about 1,600 fishes, in order to control the growth of the fish’s intermuscular bones. Researchers knocked out the bmp6 gene without influencing the fish’s growth.
“In 2020, we successfully cultivated the first generation of crucian carp without intermuscular fish bones with a success rate of 12.96 percent and the second generation at the rate of 19 percent in 2021,” said a researcher from the team. “At the beginning of 2022, we set free around 20,000 fish of the third generation at the test base in Harbin. The fish grew well and is quite different from normal crucian carp. The results of an examination in August showed that we succeeded completely.”
Experts said, “People will no longer have to pick out tiny fish bones. It could greatly change the fish diet of the world in the future.” In addition, the research can help promote industrial processing of the fish, marking a great breakthrough in the field of aquaculture (水产养殖) breeding in China.
1. What challenge have Chinese scientists solved?| A．They’ve found a wild fish. |
| B．They’ve created a fish with a fresh flavor. |
| C．They’ve cultivated a fish with tender meat. |
| D．They’ve produced a fish with no small bones. |
| A．The fish can’t live in the sea. |
| B．The fish grow very slowly in freshwater. |
| C．The fish’s intermuscular bones are long and thin. |
| D．The fish’s tiny bones are stuck in people’s throats easily. |
| A．100% | B．50% | C．19% | D．12.96% |
| A．The fish diet in the future. |
| B．The problem of tiny fish bones. |
| C．The importance of the research. |
| D．The aquaculture breeding in China. |
8 . At the end of 2019,I learned that Here After AI, whose goal is to let the living communicate with the dead, was looking for applicants of its new AI project. Interested in what it was promising, I applied to experiment the software on my very-much-alive parents.
At first, I thought it would be just a fun project to see what was technologically possible. Then their health condition added some urgency to the experiment. I was frightened that my parents might die since my father had been diagnosed with cancer and my mother was recently developing symptoms of early Alzheimer’s disease, and that with the distance between us, I might never have the chance to say goodbye.
The first step was an interview. My parents were asked questions by a techician for hours-about everything from their earliest memories to what they believe will happen after they die. Whether through illness-generated concerns or a willingness to humor their daughter, my parents put up zero resistance. The company then took their responses and started to create the voice assistants. A few months later, my virtual parents arrived via email attachment.
When I communicated with them through the app on my phone, my hands were shaking. I hadn’t seen my actual, real parents for six months. They told me personal stories I’d never heard. They gave me life advice and told me things about their childhoods, as well as my own. It was mesmerizing.
Personally, I have mixed feelings about my experiment. I’m glad to have my virtual parents. They’ve enabled me to learn new things about my parents, and it’s comforting to think that those softwares will be there even when my parents aren’t. On the other hand, I can’t help but find it sad that it took a stranger interviewing my parents for me to properly appreciate the complex people they are. But I feel lucky to have had the chance to grasp that-and to still have the precious opportunity to spend more time with them and learn more about them, face to face, no technology involved.
1. Why did the author initially join the AI project?| A．To test out the new technology. |
| B．To preserve her parents’ voice. |
| C．To learn more about her parents’ life. |
| D．To remove the worry about her parents’ health. |
| A．They liked talking a lot. |
| B．They died from the illnesses. |
| C．They opposed joining the project at first. |
| D．They provided data for the project. |
| A．Alarming. | B．Fascinating. | C．Inspiring. | D．Disgusting. |
| A．AI means never saying goodbye to our parents. |
| B．The advances in AI technology have pros and cons. |
| C．The real connection with our parents matters most. |
| D．AI allows us to learn more about our virtual parents. |
9 . Four Wonderful Books
Worried Whippet: A Book of Bravery
by Jess Bolton
This beautifully illustrated story is about an anxious dog who navigates (驾驭) moments of bravery and acts of courage as she goes about her everyday life.
Written for adults and children who are struggling with anxiety, Jess’s hope is that the book can encourage you to take small steps of bravery as well, just as the worried Whippet does.
All Through the Night
by Dani Robertson
Author and dark sky officer Dani Roberston is on a mission to protect the world from the effects of light pollution. In doing so, she helps us to understand why the dark nights are so important for ourselves, animals, and plants, and turns the switch on why it’s something that should be embraced (欣然接受).
The Book of Nordic Self-Care
by Elisabeth Carlsson
If your typical self-care routine isn’t cutting it, now is the time to embrace self-care the Nordic way. From wellness practices to Nordic foods, nutritionist and lifestyle coach Elisabeth Carlsson reveals the secrets from the world’s happiest countries that will help you bring peace and balance to your life.
The Britannias : An Island Quest
by Alice Albinia
Put on your walking boots and head off on this tour through the history of Britain’s islands.
In tracing the nation’s geographical periphery (周边), author and journalist Alice Albinia also, fittingly, sets out to recentre the narrative on stories sometimes pushed to the edges: those of women, for instance, or of people regarded with suspicion. Part history, part travelogue (游记), this is an interesting exploration of how a land shapes its people.
1. What is the book Worried Whippet: A Book of Bravery about?| A．The story of an anxious but brave dog. |
| B．The effects of light pollution. |
| C．The history of Britain’s islands. |
| D．Nordic self-care practices. |
| A．Jess Bolton. | B．Dani Robertson. |
| C．Elisabeth Carlsson. | D．Alice Albinia. |
| A．Worried Whippet: A Book of Bravery. |
| B．All Through the Night. |
| C．The Book of Nordic Self-Care. |
| D．The Britannias: An Island Quest. |
10 . Given the chance, 15-year-old Lenny King likes nothing more than to climb over seven foot-high garden fences and run across the busy road to the Co-op, which he associates with free biscuits. His sister Daisy, 17, frequently falls over, and she was told she’d never walk.
The eldest, 19-year-old Rosie, might launch into an outburst of swearing (咒骂) at any moment. The King family are special in a number of ways. Not only are all three children on the autism (自闭症) spectrum, but their parents — rather than see their situation as at best unlucky and at worst a curse (诅咒) — regard it as a blessing. “In some ways my children are forever young, so while in most families the children grow up and pull away from their parents, mine continue to be a source of childlike surprises,” says Mum Sharon, 47.
Sharon and Richard King met in a Wakefield nightclub. Sharon had a normal pregnancy (怀孕) and gave birth to Rosie, who was a highly developed youngster. While her parents thought her “a bit different”, they saw no reason to be concerned about having a second child. Two years later Daisy was born and, within 12 months, she was diagnosed (诊断) with the rare genetic condition Kabuki Syndrome which is a rare, multi-system disorder characterized by abnormalities including distinctive facial features, growth delays, varying degrees of intellectual disability.
The Kings were told that Daisy may never walk or talk, though she proved the doctors wrong in the first instance by getting to her feet, aged five. Sharon and Richard, a 52-year-old civil engineer, were also advised to think carefully about having any more children. At that point Sharon was already six months pregnant with Lenny. When their son was 18 months old, the Kings noticed that he wasn’t meeting his developmental milestones and doctors raised the possibility that he might be autistic. Lenny was finally diagnosed with classic autism before his third birthday, which then raised questions about nine-year-old Rosie. Tests revealed she had high functioning Asperger’s (阿斯伯格综合征).
Now Lenny and Daisy are collected by an autism resource centre at 8 a. m. each day and returned at 4 p. m. People who are not defeated by suffering are brave warriors in life, and they definitely will have a bright future.
1. Which can best describe Sharon?| A．Optimistic. | B．Pitiful. | C．Inspiring. | D．Grateful. |
| A．They were healthy. | B．They prefer a large family. |
| C．Rosie seemed almost normal. | D．There was no history of the illness in them. |
| A．She was infected by Lenny. | B．She also carried some disease. |
| C．She was ignored by her parents. | D．She was diagnosed with autism at birth. |
| A．To explain the unfairness of life. | B．To encourage readers to offer help. |
| C．To persuade people to focus on autism. | D．To tell people to be positive about misfortune. |
