A.In a hospital. | B.In the police office. | C.On the street. |
2 . Children seem to care so much about their names. A study shows that most of young people wish their parents had given them a different name.
Some people choose to change their names when they grow up. Many people in show business don’t use the names their parents gave them. Have you ever listened to Joanne? No? The answer could be “yes” if we call her stage name instead! You may never heard of Margaret. But if we tell you her stage name, you might know her as a famous dancer.
In many cultures, there are special ideas about how to choose a name. For example, many people choose a name that has been in their family for many years. It tells the child where he or she comes from.
Choosing a good name isn’t easy. Many parents search books that tell them the meanings of names. They could choose a name that carries a message. For example, Edith means “valuable gift”. Amanda means “love”. And Fara means “joy”.
Names like these tell family and friends how happy they are with their new baby. Other names can say something about the events during the birth of the child. In Africa, a first born son may have the name Mosi and the name Ama means “born on Saturday”.
Is every boy called Curitis polite? And is every girl called Mahira quick and full of energy? No parents can tell what kind of person their child will grow up to be. Just because parents name a boy Fahim, it doesn’t mean he will be clever. All they can do is hope.
1. What can we know about the study?A.Young kids don’t care about their future. |
B.Most of young people care about their names. |
C.Most girls want to change their names. |
D.Most parents want to rename by themselves. |
A.To prove some people hope to be renamed. |
B.To introduce a famous dancer to readers. |
C.To introduce her true name. |
D.To tell the benefit of name. |
A.Kids always want to rename. |
B.It is hard to change kids’ names. |
C.Parents aren’t sure if their kids will like the name. |
D.Parents want to choose a meaningful name. |
A.Names can never influence our lives | B.Your parents’ wish is behind names |
C.Love your parents, love your name | D.Methods to choose a suitable name |
3 . Many people dream of becoming a programmer for a leading tech company, as such work can secure a high salary that is envied by many. However, it may also mean having routinely to accept overtime work.
Recently, a programmer created a project called “996.ICU” on github.com, the well-known code-sharing website. The project criticized the “996 work schedule” where employees work from 9 am to 9 pm, 6 days a week, with the prospect of ending up in an intensive care unit (ICU).
The work schedule is common among Chinese tech companies. On the website, many programmers working for China’s tech companies shared evidence showing that their companies asked them to work the long hours. Among them were major names like e-commerce leaders Alibaba and JD.com, as well as telecoms equipment manufacturer Huawei.
Several bosses of tech companies have defended “996” as a kind of work culture. Jack Ma, founder of Alibaba, said it’s “a huge blessing” for young workers to work “996”. “If you don’t do ‘996’ when you’re young, when will you?” Ma said, according to a post on Alibaba’s WeChat account. “If you don’t invest more time and energy than others, how will you achieve the success you want?”
However, People’s Daily said that those who questioned “996” should not be labeled. “Valuing hard work does not equal forcing employees to work overtime,” commented the newspaper. “One should not attach the moral labels of ‘slackers’ or ‘not willing to strive’ to employees who are against ‘996’.”
Meanwhile, Cui Zhendong, a lawyer with the Yiqian Law Firm, said that it is illegal for a company to introduce a compulsory “996” work schedule for employees, since the Labor Law clearly states that the working hours of an employee should not exceed an average of eight hours daily, or 44 hours a week. Employers may extend working hours after consultation with an employee, but shall not exceed three hours a day or 36 hours a month.
A senior developer with the e-commerce giant Alibaba, who asked not to be named to protect his career, said employers seldom say the schedule is compulsory, but failure to follow the rules could lead to low performance scores and layoffs. “Refusal to overwork can also lead to losing your annual bonus, which is a lot of money,” he said.
“When resorting to the legal system for protection, there is a price to pay: time, money and the risk of losing your job, therefore they turn to cyberspace,” Jiang Ying, a professor of law said.
To better protect workers from harsh treatment, Jiang suggested that the systems for appealing to the court of law should be beefed up.
1. What can we infer from the passage?A.The “996”work schedule is merely a rare case among companies. |
B.The “996” work schedule is a newly invented system that is unique to China. |
C.People’s Daily thinks it forgivable to criticize those who challenge the “996” work schedule. |
D.In reality it’s so difficult for employees to defend their right against overwork through law. |
A.3. | B.8. | C.9. | D.11. |
A.Improved. | B.Banned. | C.Exposed. | D.Encouraged. |
A.A government report. | B.A newspaper. |
C.A scientific essay. | D.A code-sharing website. |
4 . Several studies in recent years have suggested that ride-sharing services like Uber and Lyft can worsen traffic problems in cities, which continue to have high rates of private vehicle ownership.
Recently, a new study has found that ride-sharing services result in much more pollution than other kinds of private and public transportation. Ride-sharing trips also draw passengers away from more environment-friendly methods of travel, like public transportation, walking or biking, the study found.
The new study, carried out by the not-for-profit group Union of Concerned Scientists, represents an attempt to center on how ride-sharing services affect pollution. The research examined the effects of ride-sharing services on seven of America’s largest cities.
Overall, the researchers reported that ride-sharing trips now “result in an estimated 69 percent more climate pollution on average than the trips they displace.” The study notes that the same passengers could have chosen to travel by bus, train, bike, scooter or on foot.
One of the big reasons they give for this result is that ride-sharing vehicles are often driven with no passengers in the car. This happens when drivers are either waiting for rider requests, are on the way to pick up passengers or are driving in between pickups. This situation, known as “deadheading”, takes up about 42 percent of all ride-sharing driving activity, the study found. The researchers said that deadheading results in about 50 percent more carbon dioxide than one person driving in a private vehicle. Both Uber and Lyft do offer a choice of a “pooled” ride, which involves drivers picking up additional riders during the same trip.
The study urges services like Uber and Lyft to work to increase the number of pooled rides. It also urges the two companies to increase the number of electric vehicles on the road and to improve connections to public transportation centers.
Both Uber and Lyft have said in the past that most studies on the subject overstate the effects of their services on pollution. They have noted that the majority of vehicles on the road belong to private individuals or companies. Uber told Reuters news agency in a statement it had no comment on the latest report. But the company said it aims to be part of the solution to address climate change by working directly with cities. The statement added that Uber would continue to promote pooled trips and other means of transportation.
1. What does the underlined word “they” in Para. 4 refer to?A.The researchers. | B.Ride-sharing trips. |
C.The same passengers. | D.Environment-friendly methods of travel. |
A.Most studies have overstated the effects of Uber’s and Lyft’s services on pollution. |
B.Ride-sharing services are playing an active role in dealing with climate change. |
C.People may be discouraged from taking public transportation due to ride-sharing services. |
D.Climate pollution resulting from ride-sharing trips has increased by 69 percent on average. |
A.Ride-sharing services like Uber and Lyft can worsen traffic problems in cities. |
B.The reasons for more pollution caused by ride-sharing services have been found. |
C.Ride-sharing trips lead to more pollution than other kinds of private and public transportation. |
D.The disadvantages of ride-sharing trips outweigh the advantages they have brought to people. |
5 . Since App Store was set up, it has been selling consumers one simple thing: choice. Whether you wanted to play games, read the news, or do a thousand other things, there was something for whatever you desired.
Then something funny happened. Logging into the App Store today is like going into a shopping mall with only a coupon (优惠券) for one thing: There’s so much choice; it might be easier to give up than to choose.
It isn’t just consumers who are burdened, though. Too much content of all kinds also has economic effects. When countless choices are available, it causes pressure, pushing prices down and driving us a bit crazy.
So what is the way forward? Less choice itself may be a sensible strategy. There are already signs that this is happening. Firstly content companies are looking to prevent their offerings from getting lost in the tons of stuff. Most obvious is Disney, which is planning to open its own streaming service next year. The point is to narrow the focus so that those seeking Disney cartoons will have one place to go, rather than being around various services.
Yet if that represents a careful first step, there are more extreme options too. Consider the idea of a wine club: from tens of thousands of bottles each year, subscribers pay someone to select the most interesting ones. Perhaps what comes next for digital content is similar — carefully selected offerings from trusted sources that put choices in the hands of customers in order to get rid of the anxiety of choosing.
Up to now, too much choice in digital media has only one solution: the algorithm (运算法则). But we’ve seen the trouble with algorithms on You Tube. They feed you only what you’ve already said you like, not things you may not know you’re into. Worse, they have a tendency to serve up disturbing content. The way forward can’t simply be more or better algorithms.
Instead, it’s time for digital companies to start thinking about how to put limits on things: on how much we can use a device, or what we are available to choose from. As we move further into the digital revolution, what people ask for is clear: Less.
1. Faced with too much choice, consumers are more likely to__________.A.choose carefully | B.feel anxious | C.use a coupon | D.push down prices |
A.To teach customers how to choose a bottle of wine wisely. |
B.To show digital companies how to narrow customers’ focus. |
C.To demonstrate what some customers’ extreme options are. |
D.To save customers from getting lost in the choice of the APP Store. |
A.In order to sell choice better, digital companies should offer less. |
B.You Tube tends to feed people what they are possibly interested in. |
C.Algorithms can help consumers and companies make better choices. |
D.Those seeking Disney cartoons have easy and quick access to them. |
A.It manages to offer what consumers will possibly like |
B.It helps to remove disturbing content from digital media |
C.It offers consumers things based on what they’ve said they like |
D.It’ll solve the problem of having too much choice |
6 . I decided to write the article on British Sign Language (BSL) being taught in school. This is because both of my parents are completely deaf which means they can’t hear at all and another reason I decided to do this topic is because I have realised how much of a problem it has become.
It might come to a surprise to learn that nearly all communication is non-verbal (非语言的) and only a little bit is verbal. Over half of the non-verbal communication is body language. Deaf pupils often struggle (挣扎) in school because they can’t get proper help from their teachers as they might not understand each other.
Sign Language is a language that uses hand gestures and body language. These are different ways of communication that deaf or hard of hearing people use to communicate with people. Some deaf people are what you might call “mute”, which means they use Sign Language but don’t use speech. Other deaf people may use speech, most of whom either use hearing aids or have a cochlear implant (人工耳蜗) which can help them hear.
By teaching BSL it would open doors for the deaf community and it would reduce a lot of language barriers (障碍) between deaf and hearing people. The more people learning BSL through education means that it would give deaf people more options for further education and good jobs. By teaching Sign Language in school it can help deaf awareness (意识). With young people growing up and learning it together there wouldn’t be a problem with getting jobs.
I think that deaf awareness is better than it used to be but it still isn’t good enough. In the end teaching Sign Language will be the best for everyone. There would be less language barriers, which means communication will be easier between hearing people and deaf people.
1. What made the author write the text?A.His own hearing problem. | B.The difficulty of the deaf. |
C.The school’s sincere invitation. | D.His parents’ encouragement. |
A.They are too shy to ask for help. |
B.Their classmates use body language. |
C.Their teachers are unwilling to help them. |
D.They have difficulty communicating with others. |
A.We should offer deaf people good jobs. |
B.Schools should teach British Sign Language. |
C.Schools should provide further education for the deaf. |
D.Young people should learn more about Sign Language. |
A.It is nearly close to success. | B.It still needs to be improved. |
C.It isn’t understood by hearing people. | D.It’s bad for breaking language barriers. |
7 . Children’s lives have changed greatly over the last 50 years. But do they have a happier childhood than you or I did?
It’s difficult to look back on one’s own childhood without feeling nostalgic(怀旧的). I have four brothers and sisters, and my memories are all about being with them, playing board games on the living room floor, or spending days in the street with the other neighbourhood children, or racing up and down on our bikes. My parents hardly appear in these memories, except as providers of meals.
These days, in the UK at least, the nature of childhood has changed greatly. Firstly, families are smaller, and there are far more only children. It is common for both parents to work outside the home and there is the feeling that there just isn’t time to bring up a large family, or that no one could possibly afford to have more than one child. As a result, today’s boys and girls spend much of their time alone. Another major change is that youngsters today prefer to spend most of their free time at home, inside. More than anything this is because of the fact that parents worry far more than they used to about real or imagined dangers, so they wouldn’t dream of letting their children play outside by themselves.
Finally, the kind of toys children have and the way they play is totally different. Computer and video games have replaced(取代) the board games and more active pastimes of my childhood. The irony(讽刺) is that so many of these games are called “interactive(互动的)”. The fact that you can play computer games on your own further increases the sense of loneliness felt by many young people today.
Do these changes mean that children today have a less pleasant childhood than I had? I personally believe that they do, but perhaps every generation(一代人) feels exactly the same.
1. Why did the author mention his childhood in Paragraph 2?A.To thank his parents. | B.To make a comparison. |
C.To introduce some games. | D.To remember a good time in the past. |
A.The hard time of the UK family. |
B.The difficulties in raising children. |
C.The most challenging thing for parents. |
D.The reason why childhood has changed. |
A.They are very exciting. |
B.They are not really good. |
C.They are too risky for children. |
D.They help children connect with each other. |
A: Oh, Nick, what are those on the walls?
B: They are “graffiti (涂鸦). I remember that I borrowed a book from the school library and it is about the history of graffiti (涂鸦). I have learnt about some people who
A: I’m not interested at all. I don’t understand why people try to paint on the walls.
B: Graffiti has become more and more popular in the past few years, especially with young people although it’s not widely
A: I don’t think my likes and dislikes are decided by my
B: I don’t agree with you, grandma. With the
A: You seem to have a point in some ways. But if all walls are painted, I can’t imagine what our city will look like.
B: Don’t worry about it. The painters must get the government’s permission to do so and only certain walls are
A: That’s
9 . China is a great country with the largest population in the world. In order to solve the population problem, our government carried out one﹣child policy (政策)before. When it is carried out for some time, many people not only see its advantages but also disadvantages.
From 2016, two﹣child policy is put into effect. In my opinion, two﹣child policy is good. First of all, two﹣ child policy is the gift for some only child. For some families, maybe the parents are only child and they also can have only child. Besides the loneliness of their child, when their child grows up and they grow older, their child marry an only child girl, the burden(负担)on their child and his wife is too heavy. Their child and his wife have to take care of two couples. Usually, a young couple looking after an old couple is a little difficult. But if their parents have two children, they can share the burden of taking care of their parents. It would be much better. Secondly, two﹣child policy can guarantee (保证) the number of Chinese population.
All in all, one﹣child policy has been out of date. And two﹣child policy is needed and necessary. It can solve the problems of nowadays (现在)and the future.
1. Which country has the largest population in the world?A.America | B.Britain | C.China | D.Japan. |
A.携带 | B.取消 | C.禁止 | D.实行 |
A.solve the population problem |
B.take care of two old couples |
C.share the burden of taking care of their pa rents |
D.argue that two﹣child policy should be put into effect |
A.One﹣child policy has its advantages and disadvantages. |
B.It’s easy for a young couple to look after an old couple. |
C.China is a great country with the largest population in the world. |
D.For some families,maybe the parents are only child and they also can have |
A.Two﹣child policy is needed and necessary. |
B.Our government carried out one﹣child policy. |
C.Two﹣child policy is the gift for some only child. |
D.Two﹣child policy can guarantee the number of Chinese population. |
10 . “Snowplow (扫雪机) parenting” is the newest parenting style that can include parents booking their adult children haircuts, calling their college kids to wake them up so that they don’t sleep through a test, and even calling their kids’ employers.
“‘Helicopter (直升机) parenting’ means monitoring their kids’ every activity, which is out of date.” Claire Cain Miller and Jonah Engel Bromwich wrote in The New York Times. “Some rich mothers and fathers now are more like snowplows: clearing any problems in their children’s path to success so that they don’t have to meet failure or lose opportunities.”
There is a mother who started a charity (慈善机构) in her son’s name to try to raise his chances of being accepted to the college. Another parents spent years helping their daughter avoid foods with sauce, which she didn’t like. Once she got to college, she had problems with the food in her school because it was all covered in sauce.
A survey says that three-quarters of parents of children between the ages of 18 and 28 ask for doctor visits or haircuts for their children, and 11% say they would call their kids’ bosses whether their children are having an issue at work.
As reported, wealthy parents try to get their children into top colleges by giving a large amount of money to a school, such as paying for a building. This parenting has become the most popular way to raise children, whatever the income, education, or race is.
Julie, a teacher at Stanford, told the Times that “snowplow parenting” is not a reasonable approach. “The parents should prepare the kid for the road, instead of preparing the road for the kid,” she said.
1. What do we know about “snowplow parenting”?A.It is out of date. |
B.Parents help kids deal with most problems. |
C.It gets kids ready for school life. |
D.Parents encourage kids to do their own things. |
A.Parents make kids popular. |
B.Parents provide little money for kids. |
C.Parents ask kids to care for themselves. |
D.Parents watch over kids’ every activity. |
A.Do as wealthy parents do. |
B.Do as little as possible. |
C.Prepare kids for the future. |
D.Clear the roads for kids. |
A.Helicopter Parenting | B.The Similarity in Parenting |
C.A Research on Parenting | D.A New Kind of Parenting |