1 . To know parents’ influence on students’ learning, researchers studied 438 kids and their parents. Before a school year started, the researchers asked parents to write down how anxious they would feel in different situations connected with math like planning their money spending or checking their house’s size. They also checked their children’s math ability and math anxiety in a school year.
The study found kids whose parents were anxious about math learned less math over the school year. And these kids didn’t perform as well on the tests as those who hadn’t been exposed to math anxiety. Besides, these kids also were more likely to become nervous about math themselves. But these kids only “ caught ” that anxiety if their parents had often tried to help with their homework. This is an example of good intentions having a bad result.
The study’s result appeared in Psychological Science. Erin Maloney led the study. As someone who has personally experienced math anxiety, she says, “ I was always very nervous about math, not only taking tests but also learning the new concepts. So I really tried to balk at math, including finding excuses to miss math tests and not wanting to do math homework. ” It was only after she saw how math could be applied to her passion that she started to enjoy math.
Parents with math anxiety should still support their kids as the kids work on math homework, though. But they should know helping kids with schoolwork requires more than just going over facts and concepts. Parents should help kids look for ways to have fun with math, like playing math-based games. When kids have difficulty in learning, encourage them to bravely face it but don’t make them nervous.
What can students do if they’re already nervous about math? Maloney says, “ My earlier study showed that students who wrote about their fears of math for 7 to 10 minutes before taking a math test performed better on that test. After the writing process，many students said their fears weren’t such a big deal. ”
1. The 438 kids’ parents were asked to present ______ .| A．their attitudes to school education | B．their opinions on kids’ math ability |
| C．their ways to solve kids’ math anxiety | D．their math anxiety levels in their daily life |
| A．Kids are more likely to be afraid of math. |
| B．Some parents pay little attention to their kids’ study. |
| C．Kids can pick up negative thoughts about math from their parents. |
| D．Parents should help with their kids’ homework as little as possible. |
| A．Enjoy. | B．Avoid. | C．Learn. | D．Understand. |
| A．Working closely with their math teachers. |
| B．Seeking help during their learning process. |
| C．Sparing some time to go over their notes daily. |
| D．Removing math anxiety by admitting it to themselves. |
2 . Charity is simple in theory: A heart warms, a hand reaches out. In practice, though, charity can become a troubled mix of motives (动机) and consequences. Giving can be driven by guilt (负罪感), duty, praise, or perhaps the hope that giving will somehow make up for past cruelty (残酷) or ignorance. Too little charity is far less than valuable. Too much can cause dependence, which makes the receiver continuously ask for more.
Giving from the heart is good. But critics (批评家) have long worried about misdirected charity that does more harm than good. In his 2012 book, Harmful Charity: How Churches and Charities Hurt Those They Help (And How to Solve the Problem), Robert Lupton, an experienced social worker of 40 years of community work in inner-city Atlanta, argues that charity must not do for the poor what they can do for themselves.
Due to emergencies such as natural disasters, the afterward financial aid is greatly welcome. Mr. Lupton advocates (提倡) it should focus on the development of self-supporting. The task can be carried out via, for instance, offering microloans (小微贷款), hiring local builders and suppliers, and trying to found self-supported, locally owned and operated factories. What seldom works, he argues, are untargeted handouts from far-off providers and the sudden arrival of inexperienced volunteer-tourists hoping to earn personal reputation by digging wells or mending roofs that locals are perfectly able to take care of themselves.
Getting charity right isn’t easy. But from money raising to the rising in volunteering among Millennials (千禧一代), from the increasing worldwide willingness to give to the efforts by charity organizations to become more effective and fruitful, there is strong evidence that human beings’ ability of taking care of others is growing along with their ability to help without harming.
Charity can be as simple as holding the door for a stranger and as complex as a global campaign to get rid of malaria (疟疾). Charity works best when it returns the weak to strength, and helps a small town shaken by an earthquake get back on its feet. A successful charity is one that eventually is no longer needed.
1. What have critics worried about?| A．There is much less charity than needed. | B．Charity can be driven by guilt and praise. |
| C．Some charity providers are inexperienced. | D．Misdirected charity may cause dependence. |
| A．Hiring local workers. | B．Founding factories. | C．Building houses for victims. | D．Giving untargeted handouts. |
| A．It’s easy to give charity without harming. | B．Millennials enjoy earning personal reputation. |
| C．People’s ability of giving charity is improving. | D．Charity organizations are spreading all over the world. |
| A．To appeal for more charity. | B．To advocate getting charity right. |
| C．To introduce Robert Lupton’s book. | D．To criticize unjust motives for charity. |
3 . Last year, 138,000 San Francisco residents used Airbnb, a popular app designed to connect home renters and travelers. It’s a striking number for a city with a population of about 850,000, and it was enough for Airbnb to win a major victory in local elections, as San Francisco voters struck down a debatable rule that would have placed time restrictions and other regulations on short-term rental services.
The company fiercely opposed the measure, Proposition F, with a nearly $10 million advertising campaign. It also contacted its San Franciscan users with messages urging them to vote against Proposition F.
Most people think of Airbnb as a kind of couch-surfing app. The service works for one-night stays on road trips and longer stays in cities, and it often has more competitive pricing than hotels. It’s a textbook example of the “sharing economy”, but not everyone is a fan.
The app has had unintended consequences in San Francisco. As the San Francisco Chronicle reported last year, a significant amount of renting on Airbnb is not in line with the company’s image: middle-class families putting up a spare room to help make ends meet. Some users have taken advantage of the service, using it to turn their multiple properties into vacation rentals or even full-time rentals. Backers of Proposition F argued that this trend takes spaces off the conventional, better-regulated housing market and contributes to rising costs.
“The fact is, widespread abuse of short-term rentals is taking much needed housing off the market and harming our neighborhoods,” said ShareBetter SF, a group that supported Proposition F. Hotel unions have protested the company’s practices in San Francisco and other cities, saying that it creates an illegal hotel system.
San Francisco is in the middle of a long-term, deeply rooted housing crisis that has seen the cost of living explode. Actually, explode is a generous term. The average monthly rent for an apartment is around $4, 000. Located on a narrow outcropping of land overlooking the bay, San Francisco simply doesn’t have enough space to accommodate the massive inflow of young, high-salaried tech employees flocking to Silicon Valley.
As the Los Angeles Times reported, some San Francisco residents supported the measure simply because it seemed like a way to check a big corporation. Opponents of Proposition F countered that the housing crisis runs much deeper, and that passing the rule would have discouraged a popular service while doing little to solve the city’s existing problems.
1. The intention of Proposition F is to ________.| A．place time limits in local election. | B．set limits on short-term rental. |
| C．strike down a controversial rule. | D．urge users to vote against Airbnb. |
| A．It shrinks the living space of middle-class families. |
| B．Users are taken advantage of by the service financially. |
| C．It makes the house market more competitive. |
| D．It indirectly leads to high house rental price. |
| A．explosion of the living cost | B．its geographic characteristics |
| C．generosity of local enterprises | D．inflow of migrant population |
| A．objective | B．supportive |
| C．negative | D．indifferent |
4 . British parents encourage their children to play musical instruments as part of a family tradition(传统) rather than raise their children’s competitiveness as the American parents do.
Dr. Aaron Reeves from Oxford University found that the UK parents did not see musical practice as character building or useful in getting university places or jobs for their children. Instead, they usually encouraged their children to follow their interests.
This is different from what the other researchers had found in America. Middle-class parents in the US appear to associate(与……相联系) these cultural practices with other worldly benefits and often center these music activities around the school subjects.
Researchers think that it may be due to(由于) the fact that the US parents have become increasingly worried about providing their children with skills and abilities enabling them to stand out from their competitors.
However, for British parents, no such direct connection was made with future educational or job advantages. The parents interviewed here did not connect music with usefulness but rather they just paid attention to the value of music as a family tradition and, to some degree, as something valuable in its own right.
One Scottish parent said during an interview, “We’ve got two learning musical instruments. If they think it is fun, we try and encourage them, but we wouldn’t force them.” Another housewife said, “My son has just turned five and I want him to play the guitar because his uncle is good at it, but it’s up to my son.”
“Lots of UK parents don’t think music practice could be very helpful for the children’s confidence or school success. They say that it takes time and some talent for the children to gain a competing advantage,” said Dr. Reeves. “I think they are right.”
1. What does the underlined word “their” in paragraph 2 refer to?| A．The US parents’. | B．The UK children’s. |
| C．The UK parents’. | D．The US children’s. |
| A．It is useful for their children to get better jobs. |
| B．It can be helpful to build their children’s confidence. |
| C．It helps their children to succeed in their schoolwork. |
| D．It would be better to take it as a hobby for the children. |
| A．Both the US and UK parents are right. |
| B．The other researchers’ findings are misleading. |
| C．Dr. Reeves agrees more with the UK parents. |
| D．Only the talented children can benefit from music learning. |
| A．The benefits of extra music learning for children. |
| B．The American parents’ attitude towards music learning. |
| C．Differences in the British and American parenting styles. |
| D．Different attitudes towards music learning in the UK and USA. |
5 . As we all know, it isn’t healthy to stay up late and poor sleep quality can leave us feeling low. However, many people still cannot get enough sleep, especially the young.
Over 60% Chinese youths aged 6 to 17 sleep less than eight hours a day, according to a report released by the Chinese Sleep Research Society (CSRS). Among 13-to 17-year-olds, the figure is more than 81%.
According to the study, too much school homework is a major cause for sleep loss among young people. For example, from Monday to Thursday, 8.4% of them would still be busy with their homework after 11 pm. Another major cause of young people’s inadequate sleep is the frequent use of electronic devices (电子设备). More than 41% children and teenagers who sleep too little use electronic devices such as computer tablets and mobile phones, the survey found.
Lack of sleep among children and teenagers has raised concern. “Sleep loss can lead to weakened immunity (免疫力) and memory, and can also prevent physical growth,” Wang Zan, a member of the CSRS, told People’s Daily.
To reduce students’ academic burden, the Ministry of Education and eight other departments released a guideline (指南) on Dec 28. For example, it says that junior high students should spend no more than 90 minutes on homework and senior high students must do their homework in a proper time limit. Local education authorities across China should also take more steps to help students get more sleep, including delaying the start of morning classes by half an hour.
1. What does the CSRS report find?| A．About 81% children sleep less than eight hours. |
| B．About 41% youths have serious sleep problems. |
| C．More than 60% young people suffer lack of sleep. |
| D．Only 8.4% students finish homework before 10:30 pm. |
| A．They start to do their homework very late. | B．They often watch TV for hours after work. |
| C．They take too many after-school courses. | D．They have too much homework to finish. |
| A．Weight gain. | B．Poor memory. | C．Mental problems. | D．Bad mood. |
| A．By limiting the amount of homework. | B．By getting homework done at school. |
| C．By shortening the time a certain class. | D．By allowing a half-an-hour early leave. |
A typical job for a students would be working
Sometimes students also hold more responsible positions such as managers, or if they are lucky, positions in their area of study,
