1 . To Friend or Not to Friend
We all love our parents and turn to them when we're in need, but would you like them to hear the conversations you have with your friends on the school playground or lunch queue? Social networking sites have become extensions of the school hallways, so would you add your parents as "friends” and allow them to view your online activities and conversations with friends?
In the past the generation gap included a technology gap, where children were up to date with latest technology and parents were left behind, content to continue their day to day lives as they always had because they had no need to know more about technology. However, more and more parents are beginning to realize just how important social networks are in their lives. This realization has given many parents the motivation to educate themselves about social networking sites.
These days many people are attracted to social networking sites because they can choose who they have around them; there's also a certain amount of control over privacy that we don't get in real life. Sometimes we feel that privacy is violated when we must accept a "friend" request from a parent or family member.
It's a difficult choice whether or not to allow a parent to become a part of our online lives. On the one hand we don't want to "reject" their request because that might hurt their feelings or make them feel you have something to hide. On the other hand if you do accept, then you could have a sense of being watched and no longer feel free to comment or communicate the way you did before.
A recent survey suggested that parents shouldn't take it personally if their child ignores their request: "When a teen ignores a parent's friend request, it doesn't necessarily mean that they are hiding something, but it could mean that this is one part of their life where they want to be independent." Perhaps talking with parents and giving explanations would help soften the blow if you do choose not to add them to your friends list.
1. From Paragraph 2, we learn that| A．parents feel secure about the privacy online |
| B．social networks successfully fill the generation gap |
| C．parents have realized the importance of social networks |
| D．social networks offer a platform for parents to communicate |
| A．they hide something from their parents |
| B．they are unwilling to be watched by parents |
| C．their parents tend to fall behind in technology |
| D．their parents make negative comoments on them |
| A．parents* friend requests | B．social networks |
| C．privacy online | D．the generation gap |
| A．teachers | B．parents |
| C．teenagers | D．researchers |
I gave a dress to my granddaughter Anne for her birthday. With a pause at the dress, she smiled lovingly at me and
Mia rushed home and threw open the front door. Her mother turned around, surprised that Mia was home from school so early. “I won first place in the art contest!” she said
I picked up the phone, slowly dialing the number to her house. All I could think was
5 . If there was a subject at school that made me anxious, it was science. Maybe that’s because in my tenth grade, I couldn't understand my physics teacher's instructions, causing me to accidentally set fire to the classroom. So, when my husband and I decided to home-school our daughters, we made a deal: he would teach science, while I would handle everything else. But that’s not how things have been going these past few weeks, since my husband has been too busy to teach the girls.
Recently, while out on my morning hike before starting lessons, I noticed that the sky was a beautiful blue, and the air was filled with the sweet smell of flowers. That s why I decided that the day’s lessons would be taught outside, although I remembered that my daughters hadn't had any science classes from my husband for a while.
I returned to the house to get the girls ready. We headed up into the forest, settling ourselves by a pond that rarely has any visitors. My daughter Saoirse started to pick up pond weeds and catch frogs, while my other daughter Ula looked at me, waiting to be instructed. I handed her a drawing board and colored pencils. "We wait, "I told her, " and see if something comes along. In the meantime, just draw what's around you.”
We worked for more than an hour, hardly speaking. A bird flew across the water, and then settled in a front of a fallen tree. I quickly told Ula, worried that she’d not seen the creature. But she had, and she started drawing it. An hour later, she’d not finished her picture and I stared down at it. She drew the bird on her paper with amazing accuracy. But there was one other interesting fact about this drawing: she also drew me, sitting beside her.
I realized, as I stared at this child's drawing of us watching a bird, how I'd lived for 40 years, gathered 10 years of higher education, and never understood the foundation of science before this moment. The foundation of science is a sense of wonder; it isn't about accurately reciting words from a textbook. It is first and foremost about stepping outside our busy lives and amazing at the world around us.
1. How did the author feel about science when in school?| A．She was nervous about it. | B．She was fond of it. |
| C．She was confused about it. | D．She was eager for it. |
| A．the fallen tree | B．the forest |
| C．the bird | D．the picture |
| A．She's very outgoing. | B．She's good at observing. |
| C．She's very hard-working. | D．She shares interests with her sister. |
| A．Attention to accuracy. |
| B．Curiosity about the outside world. |
| C．Determination to find out the truth. |
| D．Ability to understand teachers' instructions. |
Welcome back to school. My child is so happy to be in your class this year. We know you care so much about your students. I want to tell you a little bit about my child. Although he really loves to learn, he is somewhat anxious about being back in school again.
My child is thought to be gifted and that has brought some unexpected challenges to him and our family. To many people, being gifted means he will do very well in school, but that hasn’t always been true for him. He is just a kid thinking differently, and he sometimes struggles in school. Last year, school wasn’t easy for him for a few reasons.
He may be ahead a few grade levels in some subjects, but not in all subjects. He just doesn’t do better in all areas all the time. And although he may seem older than his years, he doesn’t always behave like you would think he should. I’m sure you know how gifted children can be emotionally immature –that is exactly my kid.
Also, he can be really intense in class when you are teaching one of his favorite topics. He may raise his hand often and constantly talk about what he thinks about it. I’ll apologize in advance because he will also likely challenge you on information or facts which he feels are not quite right especially when it’s a topic he is hooked on. He is not being impolite and he isn’t just being a know-it-all, or a show-off, he is really just very excited to be learning about a subject he feels strong about. He just gets carried away!
Last year, he was teased about looking like a know-it-all in school by some of his classmates, which hurts him A LOT. Being teased is part of his fear of going back to school. He fears being called a show-off at school and he feels like he doesn’t fit in. His teacher said he often kept to himself and chose to work alone. I know as a teacher, you are incredibly busy, but could you keep an eye out for anyone teasing him or if he seems to be keeping to himself too much?
Lastly, his therapist（理疗师） mentioned that because of the teasing and maybe because he was bored last year in school, he is showing signs of becoming an underachiever. Please let me know if his grades start slipping.
Thank you for taking the time to read and understand about my child .Don’t hesitate to call or email me if there are any problems with him at school. Believe me, we know very well how sensitive, emotional and intense he can be.
I hope you have a wonderful school year!
Sincerely,
Mom of a Gifted Child
1. From the passage, we learn that the author’s son .| A．fails to get along well with classmates | B．has fallen behind the other students |
| C．has lost interest in learning | D．is rude to the teachers |
| A．He has been taken away from school. | B．He is too excited to control himself. |
| C．He is so absorbed in observing. | D．He has been overpraised. |
| A．Annoyed. | B．Proud. |
| C．Pleased. | D．Worried. |
| A．To ask the teacher to reduce children’s burden. |
| B．To call on the school to stop school teasing. |
| C．To suggest that his child has special needs. |
| D．To explain how gifted her child is. |
（1）你们原相约7月份一同爬长城；
（2）由于你自身某种原因（请说明具体原因），你无法按原计划前往；
（3）表达你的歉意并建议将旅行推迟到8月份。
注意：
1. 词数不少于50；
2. 开头和结尾已经给出，不计入总词数。
Dear Chris,
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Yours,
Li Hua
8 . It is rightly said one can share any secret with a true friend. He may know your deepest fears and weaknesses and yet will never take advantage of you. However, keeping a friend’s secrets to yourself and not telling the world is what makes the bond grow strong and last forever. You need to develop trust and mutual (互相的) understanding before you start sharing secrets with each other. With friends, secret talks never seem to end and it can get really amusing to know what has been going on in your friend’s mind.
There is a certain time in life especially from the teenage years when one starts having a personal periphery (界限) in life and parents are excluded (排斥) from it. It is because there are certain things that they can’t understand and we can’t discuss with them. That is when friends become the best secret sharers. They are the ones to whom one reveals one’s feelings and best kept secrets.
It is a general belief that only girls share secrets. But boys have their own secrets that they discuss with only closest friends. The secret talks can range (变化) from relationships, talks about fights with parents, secret activities and anything that is not supposed to be known to others! If you think secrets are limited to only teenagers, get your facts right! Secrets can be shared at any age and there is no hard and fast rule that secrets are shared only among youngsters.
Sharing secrets with a friend is not just fun, but it also helps to develop a lasting trust in one another. Sometimes, sharing secrets will tell you more about the person. You will come to know whether your friend is reliable and trustworthy and whether it is worth sharing your secrets with them. You can call it a test of friendship.
1. What is an advantage of sharing secrets with a friend?| A．It helps a lot in your study. |
| B．It leads you to a carefree life. |
| C．It makes you popular with other people. |
| D．It contributes to a long-term mutual belief. |
| A．Parents are always the best people to share secrets with. |
| B．Teenagers prefer to share secrets with their friends. |
| C．Parents should build trust with teenagers. |
| D．Teenagers grow to be independent. |
| A．proves | B．tells |
| C．gets | D．holds |
| A．It’s limited to girls. |
| B．It follows strict rules. |
| C．It can happen at any age. |
| D．It does harm to a strong bond. |
9 . Blameless
I was a freshman in college when I met the Whites. They were completely different from my own family, yet I felt at home with them immediately. Jane White and I became friends at school, and her family welcomed me like a long-lost cousin.
In my family, it was always important to place blame when anything bad happened.
“Who did this?” my mother would scream about a dirty kitchen.
“This is all your fault, Katharine,” my father would insist when the cat got out or the dishwasher broke.
From the time we were little, my sister, brothers and I told on each other. We set a place for blame at the dinner table.
But the Whites didn’t worry about who had done what. They picked up the pieces and moved on with their lives. The beauty of this was driven home to me the summer Jane died.
In July, the White sisters and I decided to take a car trip from their home in Florida to New York. The two older sisters, Sarah and Jane, were college students, and the youngest, Amy, had recently turned sixteen. Proud of having a new driver’s license，Amy was excited about practicing her driving on the trip. She showed off her license to everyone she met.
The big sisters shared the driving of Sarah’s new car during the first part of the trip, but when they reached less crowded areas, they let Amy take over. Somewhere in South Carolina, we pulled off the highway to eat. After lunch, Amy got behind the wheel. She came to a crossroads with a stop sign. Whether she was nervous or just didn’t see the sign no one would ever know, but Amy continued into the crossroads without stopping. The driver of a large truck, unable to stop in time, ran into our car.
Jane was killed immediately.
I was slightly injured. The most difficult thing that I’ve ever done was to call the Whites to tell them about the accident and that Jane had died. Painful as it was for me to lose a good friend, I knew that it was far worse for them to lose a child.
When Mr. and Mrs. White arrived at the hospital, they found their two daughters sharing a room. Sarah had a few cuts on the head; Amy’s leg was broken. They hugged us all and cried tears of sadness and of joy at seeing their daughters. They wiped away the girls’ tears and made a few jokes at Amy as she learned to use her crutches（拐杖）.
To both of their daughters, and especially to Amy, over and over they simply said, “We’re so glad that you’re alive.”
I was astonished. No blame. No accusations.
Later, I asked the Whites why they never talked about the fact that Amy was driving and had run a stop sign.
Mrs. White said, “Jane’s gone, and we miss her terribly. Nothing we say or do will ever bring her back. But Amy has her whole life ahead of her. How can she lead a full and happy life if she feels we blame her for her sister’s death? ”
They were right. Amy graduated from the University of California and got married several years ago. She works as a teacher of learning-disabled students. She’s also a mother of two little girls of her own, the oldest named Jane.
1. The author of the passage is _____.| A．Mrs. White’s niece |
| B．Jane’s school friend |
| C．The Whites’ cousin |
| D．Sarah’s friend from college |
| A．The author’s parents were less caring. |
| B．The author’s parents were less loving. |
| C．The author’s parents were less friendly. |
| D．The author’s parents were less understanding. |
| A．Amy didn’t stop at a crossroads and a truck hit their car. |
| B．Amy didn’t know what to do when she saw the stop sign. |
| C．Amy didn’t slow down so their car ran into a truck. |
| D．Amy didn’t get off the highway at a crossroads. |
| A．Florida |
| B．California |
| C．South Carolina |
| D．New York |
| A．they didn’t want Amy to feel ashamed and sorry for the rest of her life |
| B．Amy was badly injured herself and they didn’t want to add to her pain |
| C．they didn’t want to blame their children in front of others |
| D．Amy was their youngest daughter and they loved her best |
| A．Amy has never recovered from the shock |
| B．Amy changed her job after the accident |
| C．Amy lost her memory after the accident |
| D．Amy has lived quite a normal life |
10 . In the ongoing battle between Tiger Moms, French Mamas, and everyone else who wants to know what is the best way to raise their kids, a new study adds evidence that the extreme Tiger-style may do more harm than good. Authoritarian parents are more likely to end up with disrespectful children with violent behaviors, the study found, compared to parents who listen to their kids with the goal of gaining trust.
It was the first study to look at how parenting styles affect the way teens view their parents and, in turn, how they behave. The study considered three general styles of parenting. Authoritative parents are demanding and controlling while also being warm and sensitive to their children’s needs. Authoritarian parents, on the contrary, are demanding and controlling without the appearance of caring, attachment and receptiveness. They take a “my way or the highway” approach to their kids. Permissive parents, the third group, have warm and receptive qualities, but they set few boundaries and carry out few rules.
Using data on early 600 kids from an ongoing study of middle school and high school students in New Hampshire, researchers from the University of New Hampshire were able to find “my way or the highway” parenting with more violent behaviors like robbery, drug-taking, and attacking someone else with the intention of hurting or killing. Firm but loving parenting, on the other hand, led to fewer lawbreakers. Permissive parenting, surprisingly, didn’t seem to make much of a difference either.
To explain the link between parenting style and behavior in kids, the researchers suggested that what matters most is how reasonable kids think their parents’ power is. This sense comes when kids trust that their parents are making the best decisions for them and believe that they need to do what their parents say even if they don’t always like how their parents are treating them. When kids respect the power of their parents, the researchers reported in the journal of Adolescence, their behavior is better. Previous research has also linked firm but caring parenting with kids who have more self-control and independence.
“When children consider their parents to be the reliable figure, they trust the parents and feel that they have a duty to do what their parents tell them to do,” said lead researcher Pick Trinkner. “This is very important as the parent doesn’t have to rely on a system of rewards and punishments to control behavior and the child is more likely to follow the rules when the parent is not physically present.”
1. Tiger Moms and French Mamas are mentioned in the first paragraph to ________.| A．give an example of authoritarian parenting |
| B．show the advantage of parenting |
| C．compare two types of parenting |
| D．introduce the topic |
| A．Caring parenting. | B．Permissive parenting. |
| C．Authoritarian parenting. | D．Authoritative parenting. |
| A．Allowing the kids to stay up late at weekends as the kids like. |
| B．Beating the kids if the kids don’t follow their instructions. |
| C．Refusing to listen to the kid’s requests and demands. |
| D．Setting some rules and checking the kids’ behaviors. |
| A．their parents listen to them totally |
| B．they believe in and accept their parents |
| C．their parents are sensitive to their needs |
| D．their parents demand and control their behaviors |
