1 . A new trend called “praise groups” or “in-need-of-praise” chat groups has become popular on Chinese social media. In Chinese culture, where modesty (谦逊) is valued, openly seeking and giving praise is uncommon. These chat groups provide a platform for people to receive compliments (赞扬) and encouragement, which are often lacking in their daily lives.
To join a praise group, users can pay a fee on e-commerce sites, starting at 50 yuan for five minutes of compliments. The group members will then show the person with praises and kind words. The compliments can be designed for a friend or loved one as well. Participants have found that being praised by strangers can help lift their spirits and improve their self-confidence.
For example, Meng Zha, a student at Shanghai’s Tongji University, tried the service and found it amusing and uplifting. She received compliments on her appearance and even quotes (引用) from popular songs. Ms Meng couldn’t help but laugh at the compliments and expressed her desire to post such high-quality praises in the future.
Praise groups have appeared as a way for people in China to seek and receive compliments and encouragement that may be lacking in their daily lives. It provides a positive and uplifting experience for participants, improving a sense of happiness and self-worth.
Those who support the groups, see them as an antidote to extremely bad moods (情绪) which are often associated with things happening on the Internet. “At first, the purpose of this group is to make us learn to praise others and accept others’ praises confidently. Here we can drop everything, and use our heart to praise and support others,” one member said. But the life journey is long and there are some unexpected situations that we can only count on ourselves to face when there is no one out there to offer help.
1. What is the purpose of praise groups?| A．To make praise popular. | B．To have everyone supported. |
| C．To share common interests. | D．To give people hope and happiness. |
| A．She was not strong enough. | B．She was under working stress. |
| C．She was satisfied with the service. | D．She was a gifted singer in her area. |
| A．A way of making new friends. | B．A kind of medicine. |
| C．A method of being confident. | D．The wisdom of solving problems. |
| A．Objective. | B．Critical. | C．Supportive. | D．Unclear. |
2 . Conflict (冲突) between teenagers and parents happens for a lot of reasons. Sometimes conflict happens between teenagers and parents just because conflict happens between human beings anyway. Humans have different needs, different feelings, different opinions about what they want, and the relationship with people can be really difficult. However, teenagers can cause further conflict because of the hormonal (生理的) changes that are happening and the stage of life that they're in.
Teenagers and parents have different understanding about rules and at times they find it difficult to look into the future. So parents and teenagers will often experience conflict about many things, do chores, homework, whether teenagers speak respectfully or not and about what they're allowed to do.
Before we think about rule boundaries (界线) for teenagers, we need to make sure that we have a really good relationship base. There's no point saying “From now on, you have to listen to me”: if you don't have a positive relationship with your teenager. We need to go back and make sure there is some degree of shared respect, and some degree of positive communication and enjoyment being together. you do that first, it means that rule boundaries are a lot easier to set up.
Often we're dealing with conflict on the fly. This is not the right time to be dealing with it. We really want parents and teenagers to sit down and think about the kinds of things that may happen in the house before the problems come. The more detailed your rule boundaries are for teenagers, the more likely it is that they are going to follow them. So this means we don't have rule boundaries like “Have the bathroom cleaned”. It needs to be “The floors mopped, nothing on the countertop and the mirrors cleaned by ten o'clock every Saturday”: Rule boundaries need to be written down, and set out ahead of time so the teenager knows exactly what's expected.
1. What's important to set up a rule boundary easily for teenagers?| A．Being strict from the start. | B．Developing a good relationship with them first. |
| C．Saying"No" to their requirements. | D．Avoiding close talks with them. |
| A．Doing some housework. | B．Having a good reading habit. |
| C．Cleaning the bathroom. | D．Finishing your homework by five. |
| A．In a hurry. | B．On the plane. | C．By oneself. | D．Another day. |
| A．Growing Pains | B．Teenage Problems |
| C．Parent-Child Conflict and Solutions | D．Knowing the Conflict |
3 . The evidence for harmony (和睦) may not be obvious in some families. But it seems that four out of five young people now get on with their parents.
An important new study into teenage attitudes shows that their family life is more harmonious than it has ever been in the past. “We were surprised by just how positive today’s young people seem to be about their families,” says one member of the research team. “They’re expected to be rebellious (叛逆的) but actually they have other things in their minds; they want a car and other material goods, and they worry whether school is serving them well. There’re more negotiations (协商) between parents and children, and children expect to take part in the family decisionmaking process.”
So it seems that this generation of parents is much more likely than parents of 30 years ago to treat their children as friends. “My parents are happy to discuss things with me and willing to listen to me,” says 17 year old Daniel Lazall. “I always tell them when I’m going out. As long as they know what I’m doing, they’re fine with it.” Susan Crome, who is now 21, agrees. “Looking back on the last 10 years, there was a lot of what you could call negotiations. For example, as long as I’d done all my homework, I could go out on a Saturday night. But I think my grandparents were a lot stricter with my parents than that.”
One of the researchers comments, “Our astonishment that teenagers say they get along well with their parents comes because of a brief period in our social history when teenagers were regarded as different beings. But that idea of rebelling and breaking away from their parents really only happened during that one time in the 1960s when everyone rebelled. Now, the situation has changed.”
1. What does the new study show?| A．Teenagers are more rebellious. |
| B．Teenagers worry more about studies. |
| C．Teenagers dislike making family decisions. |
| D．Teenagers have more negotiations with families. |
| A．They are stricter than before. |
| B．They are more independent. |
| C．They give their children more freedom. |
| D．They care less about their children’s life. |
| A．Surprise. | B．Aim. |
| C．Memory. | D．Option. |
| A．Discussion in family. |
| B．Harmony in family. |
| C．Teenage trouble in family. |
| D．Teenage education in family. |
写作要点：随着世界太空技术的发展，人类的太空梦不再是梦。但是也有人觉得耗费大量的人力和财力来研究和开发太空资源不切实际，不如将这些人力和财力用来着重解决人类当前面临的重大问题，改善地球的生存环境。对此，你有何看法？
注意：1. 词数100左右；
2. 可适当增加细节，以使行文连贯。
Developing space technology, worthwhile or not?
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________5 . 17-year-old Arul Mathur has developed a new fire extinguisher（灭火器）to help put out wildfires near houses. The fire extinguisher is called the Fire Activated Canister Extinguisher（FACE）.
Over the past three years, there have been almost 7,500,000 acres of wildfires in California alone, which demolish nearly 50,000 buildings. This has caused many local people to become homeless. Arul grew up in New Jersey where wildfires were hardly heard of. After moving to California in 2012, he began to hear about wildfires. In the summer of 2019, a wildfire threatened his family to leave their home. Upon questioning himself on the reason behind the spread of wildfires, Arul realized the fact. By the time firefighters get the notice of a wildfire, the wildfire has already grown out of control.
FACE can help stop wildfires before they burn houses. It puts out wildfires by itself after sensing extreme heat without humans. It can stand the extreme condition which is a high-temperature environment. Moreover, it has a bracket（支架）that allows it to be placed in a variety of high-risk areas. Unlike traditional fire extinguishers, FACE has a mixture of water and an environmentally-friendly fire retardant（阻燃剂）within it.
Arul said, "I think that by owning FACE, people no longer have to rely on the fire department to save their houses." Firefighters could focus on controlling the fire, while people could protect their homes. He is now running a pilot test with some of his friends from the media platform Kickstarter. He said, "In general, FACE has been very well-received through the media platform."
Arul has great interest in fire safety and prevention and actively searches for ways to spread awareness. He loves to explore advances in technology and he is happy to give communities some advice on fire prevention. Arul is now planning to develop larger units for specific use in forest applications. He said, "Humans have seen great progress in technology. Now, we need to use present technology to develop more environmentally-friendly solutions for fire prevention.”
1. What does the underlined word "demolish" in paragraph 2 probably mean?| A．Destroy. | B．Cause. | C．Protect. | D．Build. |
| A．It has to work with the help of humans. |
| B．It does very little harm to the environment. |
| C．It can not stand high temperatures. |
| D．It uses the same materials as a traditional one. |
| A．Set up a media platform with his friends. |
| B．Keep people updated on new technologies. |
| C．Develop huger FACE for forest applications. |
| D．Make greater contributions to clean energy. |
| A．Friendly and wealthy. | B．Lazy but creative. |
| C．Hardworking but selfish. | D．Clever and helpful. |
6 . Every boy and every girl expects their parents to give them more pocket money. Why do their parents just give them a certain amount?
The amount of money that parents give to their children to spend as they wish differs from family to family.
First of all, children are expected to make a choice between spending and saving. Then parents should make the children understand what is expected to pay for with the money. At first, some young children may spend all of the money soon after they receive it. Parents are usually advised not to offer more money until it is the right time.
In order to encourage their children to do some housework, some parents give pocket money if the children help around the home. Some experts think it not wise to pay the children for doing that.
Pocket money can give children a chance to experience the three things they can do with the money. They can spend it by giving it to a good cause. They can spend it by buying things they want.
| A．Some children are good at managing their pocket money. |
| B．One main purpose is to let kids learn how to manage their own money. |
| C．By doing so, these children will learn that spending must be done with a budget（预算）. |
| D．Because helping at home is a normal part of family life. |
| E．Learning how to make money is very important for every child. |
| F．They can save it for future use. |
| G．Timing is another consideration. |
7 . When we see a person in trouble our immediate reaction is to lend a hand. But what if we se an animal in trouble, does the same rule apply?
This question was raised after a group of penguins were saved from an icy gully (峡谷) in Antarctica. It was filmed for the BBC wildlife series Dynasties. After seeing that a group of penguins had fallen into a gully and been trapped with their young the film crew were so concerned about their safety that they built a slope (斜坡) so that a few of the penguins could save themselves.
The case has taken the international media by storm. Viewers watching this film let out a sigh of relief. "I'm so glad. I understand not taking action directly involved, but a helping hand isn't bothering, right?" viewer Kathryn Shaw said on her Facebook.
However, others think human interference (干涉) is unnatural. "You can't have sunshine throughout your life. To have done anything else would only make matters worse," said the show's creator David Attenborough, according to The Times.
In this case, however, Mike Gunton, the executive producer of the series, said that this was a one-off situation. "There were no animals going to suffer by interfering. You weren't touching the animals and it was just felt by doing this. They had the chance not to have to keep slipping down the slope," he told the BBC.
Such cases are familiar to Paul Nicklen, wildlife photographer for National Geographic. He told Metro, "If it's ever a predator (捕食者) situation，no matter how gut-wrenching，you stay out of the way. Even when you're watching a male polar bear eat a baby bear."
"There's no rule book in those situations. You can only respond to the facts that are right there in front of you," Will Lawson, the show's director, told Daily Mail.
1. What has caused to a heated media discussion?| A．People's various comments on penguins. |
| B．The ways of helping the trapped penguins . |
| C．Some penguins' sufferings in a gully. |
| D．Ways of filming the series Dynasties. |
| A．Anxious. | B．Sad. |
| C．Annoyed. | D．Thrilled. |
| A．Shooting an eagle catching a snake. |
| B．Preventing a polar bear eating a baby bear. |
| C．Watching a lion attacking a deer. |
| D．Distracting a crocodile biting an antelope. |
| A．The Necessity of Lending a Hand to Animals in Trouble. |
| B．Suggestions on How to Save Animals in Trouble. |
| C．Effects of Human Interference on Animals in Trouble. |
| D．Opinions on Whether to Help Animals in Trouble. |
8 . Online games are very popular among people. They make a large amount of money and have a large user base, including lots of teenagers. But now, new rules on online games have been introduced, which are aimed at fighting against addiction (成瘾) among underage players.
Adult players need to spend most of their time paying attention to work and family, and cannot play games as often as they want. However, underage players have more spare time, but less responsibility and self-control. Children without a clear purpose in life, where there is less family education and school management, might easily become addicted to all kinds of online games and online novels.
The most direct impact of an addiction to online games among underage players is on their psychological (心理) health. According to psychologists, people seriously addicted to games can become anxious, bad tempered, and avoid responsibility.
However, Chinese parents are more worried that their children will lack interest in studying if they become addicted to online games, as academic success is important for students. Additionally, when their children become addicted to such games, most parents do not know how to deal with the situation.
To carry out the new rules to the best effect, more specific issues need to be solved, such as managing foreign online games, ensuring that facial recognition technologies used by games companies have the wanted effect or making sure online game providers can only offer one-hour services to underage players on Saturdays and Sundays. While there are always loopholes (漏洞) in new rules, authorities should act quickly to close them.
There is no doubt that online games have harmful effects on young people. It is not acceptable for a large number of teenagers or those even younger, to become addicted to these games.
1. What’s the purpose of the new rules on online games?| A．To raise awareness of Internet safety. |
| B．To bring in new computer programs. |
| C．To reduce the grown-up user base. |
| D．To prevent the teenagers’ addiction. |
| A．They can learn more knowledge on the Internet. |
| B．They have more free time and less self-control. |
| C．They have purposes in life but lack higher education. |
| D．They maintain a sense of curiosity about the Internet. |
| A．How to reduce parents’ anxiety about kids’ study. |
| B．How to find loopholes in the popular online games. |
| C．How to control the service time of online game providers. |
| D．How to invent a facial recognition game for young players. |
| A．Confused. | B．Negative. |
| C．Supportive. | D．Uninterested. |
9 . Being a teenager can be hard, for you have to face a lot of difficult problems, but a new program called Nfusion is working hard to help teens with mental(精神的)health needs. Nfusion gives teenagers classes where they study or discuss some troubling subjects. Drugs and bullying(欺凌)are just a few of the topics discussed during the class on Saturday.
"I had a bad attitude, " said 17-year-old Titeana Davis. Davis went through the Nfusion Program last year. The teen, who once had trouble with her attitude towards others, says the program has changed her life. "They taught me a bad attitude is not going to get you anywhere, "said Davis.
Nfusion is a new program that meets teens mental health needs and provides help for their families. The program is designed to help teens aged 14—21 live through a difficult period.
"They're still growing, still developing and still there are a lot of things they don't know how to address. So this is a good program for them to be a part of, " said Lakicha Jemigan, who worked for the Nfusion Program.
Teens like Davis are just a few who have come through the program successfully. Now thanks to Nfusion, Davis says she's looking forward to a bright future. "After I graduate from college, I want to work at a primary school and I want to be a second grade teacher, " added Davis.
1. Why is it necessary to help teens?| A．Teens are in need of money. |
| B．They have to face a lot of problems. |
| C．Teens may face lots of problems in their study. |
| D．Teens are too weak to deal with lots of difficulties. |
| A．To provide teens with some programs. |
| B．To help teens fight for a better future. |
| C．To help teens receive a good education. |
| D．To meet the mental health needs of teens. |
| A．look for | B．deal with | C．talk about | D．learn from |
| A．She became a teacher. | B．She worked for Nfusion. |
| C．She went back to school. | D．She got along well with others. |
Did you grow up in one culture, your parents came from another, and you are now living in a
The term “third-culture kid”
Yet many
