1.中学生做家务状况描述；
2.造成此状况的原因；
3.你的观点。
注意：1.词数100左右；
2.短文的题目和首句已为你写好。
The Importance of Doing Housework
It’s widely known that Labor Education will be included in the education of middle schools in China.
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2 . Two hundred years ago, the clock began to control the world of work. Paid on the basis of how many hours they worked, people rushed to and from work.
The clock’s power may at last be weakening. Flexible working existed well before the pandemic?(疫情). Now remote working has brought a greater degree of freedom. A survey of 4,700 home-workers across six countries conducted by Slack, a corporate-messaging firm, found that flexible working was viewed very positively, improving both people’s worksite balance and productivity. Flexible workers even scored more highly on a sense of belonging to their organization than those on a nine-to-five schedule.
It is hardly surprising that workers prefer flexibility. Working an eight-hour schedule is restricting. Those are also the hours when most shops are open, and when doctors will take appointments. Parents on a conventional routine may be able to take their children to school in the morning but are unlikely to be able to pick them up in the afternoon.
It is also not astonishing that home-workers feel they are more productive. After all, few people can concentrate for eight hours on end. There are points in the day where people feel like staring out of the window or going for a walk; these may be moments when they find inspiration or recharge themselves for the next task. When they do this in an office, they risk the boss’s disapproval; at home, they can work when they are most motivated.
What is striking about Slack’s study is the widespread support for home-working. Overall Just 12% of the workers surveyed wanted to return to a normal office schedule. In America black, Asian and Hispanic employees were even more enthusiastic than their white colleagues. Women with children were generally happy about it, reporting an improvement in their work-life balance.
Of course, the new schedule carries dangers: people may lose all separation between work and home life. To maintain some human contact, companies may adopt a mixed model in which workers go into the office for part of the week. But overall office-workers’ freedom is to be welcomed. The clock was a crud master and many people will be happy to escape its control.
1. What is the benefit of remote working according to the text?| A．Workers can spare more time to work. |
| B．Workers can balance work and life well. |
| C．Workers can earn more money by working at home. |
| D．Workers can take more jobs to increase their income. |
| A．there is a will, there is away. |
| B．God helps those who help themselves. |
| C．All work and no play make Jack a dull boy. |
| D．Early to bed, early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise. |
| A．Workers’ preference for office-working. |
| B．Workers’ widespread favor of flexible working. |
| C．Workers’ great worry about flexible working. |
| D．Workers’ productivity increased by home-working. |
| A．To fix a time for their employees to work in the office. |
| B．To give their employees as much freedom as they need. |
| C．To require their employees to separate work from home life. |
| D．To praise their employees for being punctual for their work. |
3 . For almost all of human history, the Earth's population has tended to be younger. But since the last World Population Day on July 11, a major shift occurred: There are now more people aged 65 and older than there are under age five.
World Population Day was established by the United Nations Development Program in 1989 to bring attention to population issues. Having more people on the planet is not the only concern, though, since a population's age structure matters too.
Increased lifetime is a remarkable human success story, but having more elderly people also creates a number of socioeconomic concerns. The global population will continue to age as these two groups grow in opposite directions. By 2100, the percentage of the population aged 65 and older will rise to nearly 25 percent — about five times that of children under five.
“Most developed countries have been aging for a century, giving them time to prepare for the changes. But developing countries will become old before they become rich,” says researcher Toshiko Kaneda. Many countries in Latin America and Asia are aging much faster and have less time and resources to prepare health-care systems.
What are the consequences of an older global population? Supporting elderly people is more expensive than caring for young ones. Pressing issues arise like how to provide long-term care, and maintain a labor force. In developed regions like Europe, where 10 percent of the population over age 50 is childless, elderly care is a major worry.
“Not a single country has been able to change declining trends in fertility (生育) despite government requests for people to reproduce as has been done across Europe and in Japan,” Kaneda says. “The aging trend is continuous. ”
But declining fertility rates can have positive effects too, says Kaneda. When fertility rates decline but the population hasn't aged yet, governments can spend more on secondary and higher education, and benefit the economy. Both Thailand and South Korea have seized the opportunity during this ideal period.
1. What do we know about the global population?| A．It tended to be younger until now. |
| B．People are living longer and having fewer kids. |
| C．Age structure matters more than population size. |
| D．Developed countries are facing tougher challenges. |
A． | B． |
C． | D． |
| A．Critical. | B．Objective. | C．Optimistic. | D．Doubtful. |
| A．The declining trend in the fertility rates. |
| B．The consequences of the aging population. |
| C．The establishment of World Population Day. |
| D．The present situation of the global population. |
4 . Adding a baby to a family can also add stress to a career. Now, a new study backs that up with some astonishing numbers: After science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) professionals become parents, 43% of women and 23% of men switch fields, change over to part-time work, or leave the workforce entirely.
The results are based on the career paths of 629 men and 212 women who were full-time STEM workers in 2003 and became first-time parents in 2006, as compared with more than 3,000 STEM workers without children. By 2010, 78% of new fathers were still working in STEM, the vast majority full time. For new mothers, 68% were still in STEM, but only 57% worked full time.
For professionals without children, on the other hand, 84% of men and 76% of women were predicted to still be working in STEM full time in 2010. For the new parents across all fields, 16% of women were working part-time and 15% had left the workforce, as compared with just 2% and 3% for men. These obvious differences make clear that mothers still face particular career challenges.
“The researchers have considered causes including societal expectations, women’s preferences, parenthood and unfriendly working environments. This new study suggests that parenthood does indeed play a role, but it probably acts in concert with other contributors (因素),” says Donna Ginther, a professor at the University of Kansas. “Contained in these data is what type of company you’re working for and the climate within different fields,” she says. In other words, someone who tolerates a negative work climate before they have children may decide, when they become a parent, that the compromise is no longer worth it. But that doesn’t mean that parenthood is the root cause; it’s the straw that broke the camel’s back.
1. What does the author think of the findings of the study?| A．Surprising. | B．Frightening. | C．Uncommon. | D．Unacceptable. |
| A．They compared the career paths of 629 men and 212 women. |
| B．They compared the career paths of new fathers and new mothers. |
| C．They compared the career paths of full-time workers and first-time parents. |
| D．They compared the career paths of first-time parents and those without children. |
| A．New parents across all fields in STEM are less motivated. |
| B．Professionals without children are more popular in STEM. |
| C．Female workers in STEM need to deal with more challenges in work. |
| D．Clear differences in STEM suggest mothers are treated with prejudice. |
| A．It is the root cause of the situation. | B．It is better than unfriendly working environments. |
| C．It helps people to tolerate a negative work climate. | D．It is what makes the situation eventually unbearable. |
5 . Recently, I was talking with a friend of mine about a mutual(共同的) friend of ours. “I wish I could be like Jenny. She always seems so happy. I’m not joking; I honestly think she has the perfect life,” said my friend.
If you were to look at the Instagram account of Jenny, you would indeed see what looks like the perfect life. However, despite the enviable content of her Instagram, I learned through a conversation with this girl that it was all carefully handled. Everything was put together to maintain the public image that she was a happy-go-lucky and carefree girl. When she was sad or upset, there was no indication of these emotions on her Instagram.
In fact, we all choose our online media presence. Look through your Instagram — I bet that you don’t post pictures where you don’t feel camera-ready. On Instagram, we always show our “good side”. Think about it. Would you rather post “I tried so hard but I ended up failing my test” or “ I treated myself to a hot coffee after studying hard all week”?
We all want to present the best parts of our lives, to show what’s going well and what we’re proud of. We take photos of the nice things we own, or of any sorts of events considered “special”, such as invite-only or formal parties. We post photos of the good times rather than the bad times. No matter what happens, we try to make our online image perfect.
There’s absolutely nothing wrong with making your online presence perfect — everyone does it in some way or another. However, when it comes to feeling envious of someone else’s Instagram posts, remember that just like you, they’re showing their good side.
1. What’s Jenny’s life like indeed?| A．She lives a perfect life. | B．Her life is full of sadness. |
| C．Her life is boring and meaningless. | D．She lives an ordinary life just like others. |
| A．That people dream of living a perfect life. |
| B．That people hide their bad side online. |
| C．That people love reading posts online. |
| D．That people want to please others online. |
| A．We shouldn’t perfect our online image. |
| B．We should always show our good side. |
| C．We should stop reading online stories. |
| D．We don’t need to envy others’ online presence. |
| A．A professor’s speech. | B．A survey of people’s life. |
| C．A personal online account. | D．An entertainment magazine. |
6 . The World Health Organization says the widespread use of sugar in food products and drinks is a major concern in many areas. So WHO officials are calling on governments to require taxes on sugary drinks in an effort to limit their usage and popularity. The officials believe the taxes also would reduce the risk of health problems resulting from obesity.
Obesity is a condition in which the body stores large, unhealthy amounts of fat. Obese individuals are considered overweight. A new report says that in 2014 more than one-third of the adults in the world were overweight, and 500 million were considered obese. The United Nations agency estimates that in 2015, 42 million children under age 5 were either overweight or obese. It says that number represents an increase of about 11 million during the past 15 years. Almost half of these boys and girls live in Asia and one-fourth in Africa.
The U. N. agency blames unhealthy diets for a rise in diabetes cases. There are 422 million cases of the disease worldwide. WHO says 1.5 million people die from it every year. It says the use of sugar in food products, like sugary drinks, is a major reason for the increase in rales of obesity and diabetes.
Temo Waqanivalu is with the agency’s Department for the Prevention on Non-Communicable Diseases: He told VOA that taxing sugary drinks would reduce consumption and save lives. Waqanivalu noted that Mexico enacted a law of a 10 percent tax on sugary drinks in 2014. He said by the end of the year, there was a 6 percent drop in the consumption of such drinks. Among poor people, the number of people who consumed sugary drinks dropped by 17 percent.
The WHO says people should limit the amount of sugar they consume. It says they should keep their sugar intake to below 10 percent of their total energy needs, and reduce it to less than 5 percent for improved health.
1. Why are taxes on sugary drinks required?| A．To warn people to change their life style. | B．To readjust the economic structure. |
| C．To limit their use and popularity. | D．To ensure the market’s diverse development. |
| A．Obesity is a severe worldwide problem. |
| B．Adult obesity is ignored at present. |
| C．Obesity can block economic development. |
| D．Obesity is most serious in developed countries. |
| A．Abolished. | B．Passed. | C．Promised. | D．Reduced. |
| A．Tax policies are unfair to the poor. | B．Taxing sugary drinks makes a difference. |
| C．The poor consume more sugary drinks. | D．Sugary drinks are a threat to health. |
Cotton bags have become a means for brands, retailers and supermarkets to indicate a planet-friendly mindset-or,
So far, so Earth-friendly? Not exactly. It turns out the wholehearted acceptance of cotton bags may
An organic cotton bag needs to be used 20,000 times to reduce
Cotton is water-intensive, and figuring out ways of
“You can’t, for example, just put a bag in a bin. Even when a bag does make it to a treatment plant, most materials used to print logos onto them are PVC-based and thus not
That’s not to say cotton is worse than plastic. In the end, the
With the rapid development of third-party mobile payment tools,
Transactions (交易)
Alipay and WeChat Pay, the nation’s two major third-party mobile payment tools, have also launched campaigns to encourage more merchants and customers
However, experts believe that a cashless society does not mean that cash will
9 . The Chinese fashion icon, qipao, was born a century ago in Shanghai. However, the dress made its way through history from the hands of old craftsmen and is deep-rooted in Chinese culture.
“Qipao used to be so popular,” Leung Long-kong, 89, a well-known qipao craftsman, says, adding that the dress was an everyday outfit among women, from the less well-off to women at the highest levels of society. “Now, nobody is wearing them except on grand and happy occasions.”
To carry on the tradition, fashion designer Mary Yu, 41, who has been attending classes teaching knot button-making techniques, is trying to renew the design of qipao by taking symbols from Chinese history and literature.
“I feel I should look into Chinese culture and learn more about the past. People should have an in-depth understanding of their culture in order to move on,” Yu says. “Fashion design requires a profound knowledge of one’s culture before visualizing it.”
“After a period of wearing foreign brands all the time, there will be a day when one looks back to traditional Chinese culture. It is about finding the stuff that exists in your genes and suits you best.”
Yu set up her own qipao brand in 2016. Most of the clothes were made by tailors based in Shenzhen and Hangzhou, for their lower cost and more traditional work.
In the constantly evolving fashion industry, qipao is catching up with the times. Zippers, digital print patterns and new materials such as lace and denim have been introduced to a new generation. More daring ideas like 3D printed qipao have also become a reality. Yu believed that with the help of these new technologies, qipao will find its way back to the daily life of Chinese people in the near future.
1. Which of the following best describes Mary Yu?| A．Creative. | B．Conservative. | C．Cautious. | D．Considerate |
| A．To call on Chinese women to wear qipao in everyday life. |
| B．To introduce the development of qipao in China. |
| C．To emphasize the importance of qipao in China nowadays. |
| D．To show that qipao is no longer as popular as it was. |
| A．She devoted herself to using new technologies to make qipao. |
| B．She borrowed some symbolic designs from foreign brands. |
| C．She added some elements from Chinese culture to the design. |
| D．She learned the tailor techniques in Shenzhen and Hangzhou. |
| A．Qipao is an iconic sign in the fashion industry. |
| B．Qipao is on its way back to the daily life of Chinese. |
| C．Qipao enjoys a good reputation in the world. |
| D．Qipao is seen as a symbol of wealth in modern China. |
1. 倡议的目的；
2. 过度使用社交媒体的危害；
3. 发出倡议。
注意：
1. 词数100左右；
2. 可适当增加细节, 以使行文连贯；
3. 开头和结尾已给出, 不计入总词数；
4. 参考词汇：社交媒体social media.
Dear all,
I'm Li Hua, chairman of the Students' Union,
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Students' Union
