1 . Which is more important for parents, making more money to give the kids a better life or spending more time with them? It is a problem for parents and it is not easy to decide. A new study shows that today’s parents are spending more time with their children than parents in the past. According to the study, today’s college-educated mothers spend about 21.2 hours a week taking care of their children. But women with less education spend about 15.9 hours. Before 1995, it was only 12 hours.
Dads are spending more time on ball games. Before 1995, fathers with college educations only spent about 4.5 hours a week playing with their children. Today, it increases to 9.6 hours a week. For fathers with high school education, the time goes up from 3.7 hours to 6.8.
These days, parents don’t care more about the cleaning or the cooking. They are trying their best to spend time with their families. As for the kids, they don’t mind how much time their parents spend with them. They just want to enjoy the time their parents do be with them.
So, take part in the kids’ activities when you are with them, such as helping with homework or playing soccer with them.
1. How long do college-educated mothers spend taking care of their kids a week?A.About 9.6 hours. | B.About 12 hours. |
C.About 15.9 hours. | D.About 21.2 hours. |
A.Women with less education spend about12 hours staying with their kids, |
B.Mothers in the past spent less time staying with kids than mothers these days. |
C.Mothers with college education are lazier than those with less education. |
D.Dads spend more time staying with their kids than mothers do. |
A.About 4.5 hours. | B.Less than 9 hours. |
C.About 13.5 hours. | D.About 18 hours. |
A.They care about how much money their parents can make. |
B.They care about how much time their parents spend with them. |
C.They care if their parents are really with them. |
D.They care if their parents can give them a better life. |
2 . We’ve all been there: in a lift, in line at the bank or on an airplane, surrounded by people who are, like us, deeply focused on their smartphones or, worse, struggling with the uncomfortable silence.
What’s the problem? It’s possible that we all don’t have enough conversational ability. It’s more likely that none of us start a conversation because it’s embarrassing and challenging, or we think it’s annoying and unnecessary. But the next time you find yourself among strangers, consider that small talk is worth the trouble. Experts say it’s a valuable social practice that leads to big benefits.
It is easy to consider small talk as unimportant, but we can’t forget that deep relationships wouldn’t even exist (存在) if there weren’t casual conversations. Small talk is the grease (润滑剂) for social communication, says Bernardo Carducci, director of the Shyness Research Institute at Indiana University Southeast. “Almost every great love story and each big business deal begins with small talk,” he explains. “The secret to successful small talk is learning how to connect with others, not just communicate with them.”
In a 2014 study, Elizabeth Dunn, professor of psychology at UBC, invited people to a coffee shop. One group was asked to interact with its waiter, the other, to speak only when necessary. The results showed that those who chatted with their server reported obviously higher positive feelings and a better coffee shop experience. “It’s not that talking to the waiter is better than talking to your husband,” says Dunn. “But interactions with peripheral (边缘的) members of our social network is important for our happiness and health.”
Dunn believes that people who reach out to strangers feel a greater sense of belonging, a link with others. Carducci believes developing such a sense of belonging starts with small talk. “Small talk is the basis of good manners,” he says.
1. What does the underline word “casual” in paragraph 3mean?A.Addictive | B.Public | C.Personal | D.Informal |
A.Showing good manners. | B.Making business deals. |
C.Focusing on a topic. | D.Keeping in contact with other people. |
A.It raises people’s confidence. | B.It makes people feel good. |
C.It improves family relationships. | D.It matters as much as a formal talk. |
A.Conversation Counts | B.Ways of Making Small Talk |
C.Importance of Small Talk | D.Uncomfortable Silence |
1. Who did Fred have a fight with last night?
A.A storekeeper. | B.A policeman. | C.His brother. |
A.At home. | B.In the hospital. | C.In the police station. |
A.At about7. | B.At about 8. | C.At about 9. |
Teenage life is full of adventures and challenges. Doing voluntary work is popular among some teenagers. And extra-curricular activities
1. How does the woman feel now?
A.Shocked. | B.Afraid. | C.Angry. |
A.A doctor. | B.A policeman. | C.The woman’s friend. |
A.A locker. | B.A letter. | C.Some money. |
7 . Keeping animals safe on the road
Roadkill is not a rare sight when driving down most highways and sometimes also on roadways in cities.
They chose Nanjing as the study subject, where there are more than 9,700 kilometers of paved roads. A total of nine roads were chosen for the research, including three national highways.
A.You may not feel good about seeing roadkill |
B.The object is to educate people about road safety |
C.The length of the roads combined was over 224.27 kilometers |
D.It refers to animals being hit by cars or other vehicles by accident. |
E.Cats, dogs and blackbirds were the three commonly killed animals |
F.In the past, research in China focused on roadkill in nature reserves |
G.Roadkill incidents are more likely to happen in November and January |
8 . For those of us who grew up watching Star Trek, exploring space has been about discovering strange new worlds. And there are plenty of worlds to explore in time, but we still need major technological advancements to reach planets that are light years away.
What we are doing in space today is providing unbelievable benefits right now, right here on Earth. From space, we can monitor, manage and care for our planet. Satellite-based sensors show us the short- and long-term effects of human activity on our environment. Many companies are using their interest in space to help solve problems here, from using hyperspectral imaging(高光谱成像), which enable us to map vegetation(植被) and rain forests, to microsatellites that provide global connectivity for the network of things.
My company, OneWeb, is focusing on what I believe is one of the world’s most important issues: the need for equal access to the Internet. The Internet has become our economic lifeblood. And yet, nearly half of the world’s population doesn’t have Internet access. Space is playing a key role in bridging this digital divide. OneWeb is launching 1,980 satellites to help bring Internet access to people everywhere, and our first production satellites are already flying in space and have shown very high download speeds.
Fiber and cable Internet access technologies already cover most financially viable(可行的) major cities. Similarly, these regions will also be the first to be served with 5G. Poor communities are the last to get connected, and without connectivity, those communities have no chance to lift themselves from poverty. OneWeb’s satellites will reach every community in the world and enable equal access to the Internet for the world’s less developed places.
Fifty years from the day when man first walked on the moon, we are still only approaching the possible. There will be tens of thousands of new satellites, space stations and factories in the coming years to bring advancements in communications, scientific research, monitoring the earth, exploring space and more. This is exciting, but we must take action carefully.
1. What is the second paragraph mainly about?A.Benefits space exploration can bring to us. |
B.Problems space exploration leads to. |
C.Steps of space exploration requires. |
D.Equipment space exploration needs. |
A.Increase download speeds. |
B.Narrow the gap in Internet learning. |
C.Help people set up and maintain a website. |
D.Enable people to make use of the Internet equally. |
A.More than six decades ago, man first walked on the moon. |
B.More than half of the world’s people have no access to the Internet. |
C.OneWeb’s satellites will make it possible for most people to be served with 5G. |
D.Without the Internet, poor communities can hardly help themselves out of poverty. |
A.The risks of furthering space exploration. |
B.The value of setting up space stations. |
C.The way we could monitor our earth. |
D.The features of microsatellites. |
9 . Once I told someone I wanted to get a master’s degree of fine arts in creative writing and they told me it was the second-to-worst post-graduation plan they’d ever heard from a student. Arts degrees—especially fine arts degrees, which usually come in the form of music, studio art, creative writing and theater—have been, over the years, labeled useless.
It’s true that for the most part, STEM degrees lead to higher paying jobs than liberal and fine arts degrees, and it’s understandable why young people care about a higher starting salary and financial security. Student loan debt is playing a role in the physical and mental stress of young people.
And while STEM majors usually have starting salaries that are $20,000 higher than those of liberal arts majors, by the time people reach the age of 40, the salaries between those who majored in the liberal arts and those who majored in STEM are virtually the same. For example, women who major in STEM earned nearly 50% more than social science and history majors at ages 23-25, but only 10% more by ages 38-40, a New York Times analysis reported. So even in terms of salary, which doesn’t solely determine whether or not a degree is useful, liberal arts degrees aren’t all that far behind STEM.
It seems too that since people nowadays are going to have to work longer, it’s more important than ever that we actually like and care about what we’re doing. Pursuing something enjoyable, or else a passion, is continuously found to be a key factor in maintaining healthy relationships, mental health, physical health and energy. In other words, not useless.
Art is also a method of communication. It allows people from different backgrounds, from different walks of life to communicate with each other. In a world where borders and division seem to be all over the place, we need art more than ever. We need liberal arts majors. And more than anything, we need to be able to pursue what we love with confidence, and we need to not get caught up in the ”usefulness“ of what we love.
And just because someone’s primary job isn’t in their field of study—a writer who teaches high school for example—doesn’t make the degree useless. It just means that their way of finding a stable income is different. The same goes for artists who have to work multiple jobs to support themselves. They might have to find other means of supporting themselves and their artistry. It might be copy editing or it might be tutoring,
So I am going to graduate school, and I am going to graduate school for writing. I might be paying rent by way of overnight restaurant shifts—there’s so much I’m not sure of. But one thing I am sure of is this—I would rather be a writer working two jobs to pay my bills than be no writer at all.
1. A New York Times analysis report is mentioned in Paragraph 3 to .A.analyse the potential value of different majors |
B.put forward the opinion on majors by example |
C.prove the argument against arts degrees wrong |
D.demonstrate the link between majors and incomes |
A.Following one’s dream of arts keeps one in good condition. |
B.Doing what one loves builds up one’s self-confidence in arts. |
C.Mastering arts improves one’s understanding of different jobs. |
D.Developing a love for arts helps one maintain passion for work |
A.Students learning arts are more concerned about the value of life. |
B.People tend to place income in the first place when choosing majors. |
C.The man who doesn’t love his work won’t stick with the job for long. |
D.Graduates can find a broader space of development in the field of arts. |
10 . 阅读下列短文,根据短文内容填空,在未给提示词的空白处仅填写1个适当的单词,在给出提示词的空白处用括号内所给词的正确形式填空。
Shakespeare and Company is an English-language bookshop in the heart of Paris. It