1 . New parents often spend a long time debating what to call their newborn. Should they name them after a relative, a famous person, or just pick a name at random?
Names usually stay with us for a lifetime, unless we decide to change them. They become part of our identity. Quite often we hear stories of celebrities giving their children unusual names, while other people give their children names which have special meanings, for example,
So, what if you don’t like your given name? A study led by psychologist Jean Twenge found that a person who hates the nickname given to them is more likely to have greater psychological adjustment issues — possibly due to low self-esteem. This is because our title becomes a symbol of our self.
And what if your name is no longer popular? While names like Ethel and Gladys were once in fashion, they now sound a bit out of date, which can be embarrassing.
However, if you choose an unusual name, it’s not all bad news. According to a study conducted by Professor David Zhu, people with uncommon names can develop a sense of uniqueness.
So, when choosing your successor’s name, there are a fair few things to consider — but going for something too common or too old-fashioned may not be a great choice.
| A．the name Sarah comes from a Hebrew word meaning “princess”. |
| B．They can often become more creative and open-minded. |
| C．A person who likes his name will be more self-confident. |
| D．For many of us it can be quite the tiring task, |
| E．And when it comes to unpopular names which aren’t fashionable, they may even affect our lives. |
| F．If we hate our name, our confidence may be affected. |
| G．Unpopular names also has many advantages. |
2 . What’s your baby doing right now? I hope he or she is not rolling on the floor. Such behaviour might seem natural and age-appropriate but this laid-back environment could come back to haunt you at a later date.
Eventually you may be forced to reflect upon those wasted opportunities. In allowing your baby to unproductively behave just like, well, a baby, you may be failing to foster his or her personal growth. Are you denying your child the chance to achieve his or her full potential as a well-rounded baby?
You see, some parents are hot-housing their infants as we speak. While your baby’s programme revolves around the traditional routines of sleeping, eating and playing, other people’s offspring are on the fast-track to certain giftedness. And Baby Einstein DVDs, which were all the rage when I was a new mother, are really the least of your problems.
Ever eager to exploit our perceived inadequacies, smart marketers have found something else for parents to feel guilty about. There’s a manufactured fear that we’re squandering those valuable moments when a baby’s brain is said to be like a sponge, ready and willing to soak up new information at an alarming rate.
I’ve never seen the point of deliberately setting up your little one to be more advanced than his or her peers. I like the idea of babies just being babies and children just being children. Anyway, if they can read at the age of three then what will they learn in their first year of school?
One thing’s for sure: for some people parenting has taken on the proportions of a competitive sport. Some children wrestle with after-school activities every day of the week. Others are enrolled in extra tuition — sometimes simply to reach an acceptable standard and other times in order to be top of the class. There are tennis camps, swim academies and dancing schools. Some households even speak English downstairs and French upstairs. What? That’s not how you run your home? Oh dear. I see bilingualism passing your child by, for sure.
1. What does the author imply in paragraph 2?| A．The author likes raising baby at home. |
| B．Many parents don’t realize their babies’ potentials. |
| C．We don’t have enough time or money to raise babies. |
| D．Many parents foster their children’s personal growth by any chance. |
| A．They were good enough for mothers. |
| B．They were effective in teaching babies. |
| C．They were cheaper than other products. |
| D．They were popular with many mothers. |
| A．It’s a good way to build up potentials. |
| B．It’s not helpful to baby’s development. |
| C．It’s vital to develop baby’s brain. |
| D．It’s not so cheap to be invested by all parents. |
| A．Give children more sports. |
| B．Develop children more. |
| C．Let babies grow as they are. |
| D．Develop children’s bilingualism. |
3 . Sometime in the early 1960s, a significant thing happened in Sydney, Australia. The city discovered its harbor. Then, one after another, Sydney discovered lots of things that were just sort of there — broad parks, superb beaches, and a culturally diverse population. But it is the harbor that makes the city.
Andrew Reynolds, a cheerful fellow in his early 30s, pilots Sydney ferryboats for a living. I spent the whole morning shuttling back and forth across the harbor. After our third run Andrew shut down the engine, and we went our separate ways — he for a lunch break, I to explore the city.
“I’ll miss these old boats,” he said as we parted.
“How do you mean?” I asked.
“Oh, they’re replacing them with catamarans. Catamarans are faster, but they’re not so elegant, and they’re not fun to pilot. But that’s progress, I guess.”
Everywhere in Sydney these days, change and progress are the watchwords (口号), and traditions are increasingly rare. Shirley Fitzgerald, the city’s official historian, told me that in its rush to modernity in the 1970s, Sydney swept aside much of its past, including many of its finest buildings. “Sydney is confused about itself,” she said. “We can’t seem to make up our minds whether we want a modern city or a traditional one. It’s a conflict that we aren’t getting any better at resolving.”
On the other hand, being young and old at the same time has its attractions. I considered this when I met a thoughtful young businessman named Anthony. “Many people say that we lack culture in this country,” he told me. “What people forget is that the Italians, when they came to Australia, brought 2000 years of their culture, the Greeks some 3000 years, and the Chinese more still. We’ve got a foundation built on ancient cultures but with a drive and dynamism of a young country. It’s a pretty hard combination to beat.”
He is right, but I can’t help wishing they would keep those old ferries.
1. What can we know about Sydney’s harbor?| A．It is a culturally respected area. | B．It used to be a striking architecture. |
| C．It’s crucial to Sydney’s development. | D．It was a famous tourist attraction in 1960. |
| A．Anxious. | B．Negative. | C．Doubtful. | D．Supportive. |
| A．Controlling. | B．Discovering. | C．Solving. | D．Distinguishing. |
| A．A city being young and old is more attractive. |
| B．A city built on ancient cultures is more dynamic. |
| C．Modernity is usually achieved at the cost of elegance. |
| D．Italians bring Australians more cultures than Chinese. |
4 . Any parent knows how challenging it can be to separate kids from social media, messaging apps, or online games and videos.
Be a good role model. Children have a strong impulse (冲动) to imitate, so it’s important you manage your own smartphone and Internet use. Don’t let your own smartphone use distract from parent-child interactions.
Encourage other interests and social activities. Get your child away from screens by exposing them to other hobbies and activities, such as team sports and after-school clubs.
Talk to your child about underlying issues. Compulsive smartphone use can be the sign of deeper problems.
Get help. Teenagers often rebel against their parents, but if they hear the same information from a different authority figure, they may tend to listen.
| A．Is your child having problems fitting in? |
| B．Spend time as a family away from screens. |
| C．Is your child having trouble working harder? |
| D．Try a sports coach, doctor, or respected family friend. |
| E．Use apps to monitor and limit your child’s smartphone use. |
| F．Turn devices off and leave them in another room overnight to charge. |
| G．Youngsters lack the maturity to control their smartphone use on their own. |
5 . Doctors in the U. K. are warning children born in the age of tablets(平板)and touch screens are missing the fine motor skills needed to operate the simpler tools in life: pens and pencils.
After all, it’s easier to give a child an iPad than encouraging them to do muscle-building play such as building blocks.
Certainly penmanship(书法)has been on the decline since the appearance of keyboard. Some Arizona educators are even considering dropping cursive(草书)writing entirely from classes. They think teaching a kid to use soon-to-be ancient tools like pens and pencils is a waste of time and money.
The thing is, there’s more than one point to penmanship. A pencil is what develops hand strength and dexterity(灵巧)that children will need throughout their lives. It’s a lifelong learning tool that helps the world produce its surgeons and pilots.
And the bad cursive writing opens the door for an all-important lesson on the virtues of practice. A keyboard, on the other hand, ticks off each letter with perfect precision from the very start. But it robs a kid not only of the joys of getting something right, but also developing a written identity.
Consider that if society stops teaching children how to push a pen, how long before we won’t be able to read it? Maybe the pen will someday be history. But we all need to know how to read history.
As blogger Starre Vartan puts it, “As an art lover, I visit as many museums as I can, and a major part of many exhibitions, original written documents are included, all of which requires the reader to be able to decipher(破译)handwriting from times past.”
And, in an age when people turn increasingly to the same old emoji(表情符号)to express themselves, those lines on paper may be one of the few remaining bastions(堡垒)of identity.
1. Which of the following may belong to hand muscle-building play according to the text?| A．Hide-and-seek. | B．High jumping. |
| C．Role playing. | D．Cutting and sticking. |
| A．It is a traditional art. | B．It is out of date. |
| C．It brings people joy. | D．It does harm to kids. |
| A．Penmanship is beneficial. | B．Penmanship needs practice. |
| C．The keyboard is also important. | D．Every kid needs a written identity. |
| A．Learning cursive is necessary. |
| B．Written documents are treasures. |
| C．Readers need to write much more. |
| D．Cursive writing can hide messages. |
6 . According to a research, more than 130 billion pounds of uneaten food go to waste in Laura’s county each year. That is about 30% of the yearly food supply (供应). It is a sad fact, especially when you consider how many families and homeless people are in hunger.
When Laura saw her school dining hall throw away food that was not eaten at all every day, she came up with an idea. She started a project to help her school dining hall to give away uneaten food to homeless shelters (避难所) in her community. In the past three years, the same protect has spread to other schools and some fast food restaurants throughout the city. The project is called Feed & Find, which has already fed thousands of people in her city.
How does it work? Through an app, Feed & Find matches local homeless shelters with school dining halls and restaurants that have uneaten food to provide. When dining halls or restaurants have uneaten food left, they can use the app to share the information about the food. A truck driver working for the project is then sent to pick it up and take it to a shelter.
Pretty cool, right? It’s not surprising that people in other cities have got in touch with Laura, to hoping that she could help develop similar projects for their communities.
Some people, however, dread the safety of the uneaten food. They think such food may not be clean enough. Still, this project is a clever way to help solve the problem of food waste and it helps those in need.
1. The numbers in Paragraph 1 tell us ________.| A．some people are poor | B．food waste is serious |
| C．the population is large | D．the research is interesting |
| A．her school dining hall | B．her family |
| C．a fast food restaurant | D．a homeless shelter |
| A．find a truck driver | B．visit their communities |
| C．give away food to them | D．help develop projects like hers |
| A．ways | B．secrets | C．worries | D．decisions |
7 . How did nearsighted people manage in the pre-glasses past? Have you ever thought about this? Aristotle may have written the first observations of myopia around 350 B.C. Because their eyeballs are too long, people with this condition can see objects that are close by, but distant objects tend to look blurry.
Neil Handley, a museum curator, said not much is known about how people dealt with myopia before the first lenses for nearsighted people were invented in the 15th century in Europe. And he noted that “even in the history of the invention of spectacles, that is a late development.”
There are 13th-century European examples of handheld convex lenses that were used to treat age-related vision loss known as presbyopia. But the technology wasn’t applied to treat nearsightedness for another 200 years.
“Because of the way that lens is held, you can see through it, and the artist has captured the effect that the glass has,” Handley said. Myopia could be something of a modern condition. Rates of myopia have risen sharply in recent decades, and researchers have projected that half the world will be myopic by 2050.
Doctors are still trying to figure out the cause behind this trend. Some have blamed genetic causes or an increase in studying and screen time.
It’s likely that myopia didn’t affect as many people in the past as it does now. Handley said the late creation of nearsighted glasses suggests that treating the small number of people with myopia wasn’t regarded as a priority and that people could have gotten by with this condition by making some adaptations in their lifestyle. Or, maybe there was more of an emphasis on putting people in jobs that were suited to their ability to see, he said.
For example, people with myopia were historically valued in artisan contexts, such as medieval European monasteries, where illuminating manuscripts and painting required making tiny, precise skills.
1. What can be learned about the first myopia glasses?| A．They came into people’s view around 350 B.C. |
| B．They could help shorten people’s eyeballs. |
| C．They didn’t come out until the 15th century. |
| D．They were initially designed for old people. |
| A．Noticed. | B．Predicted. | C．Doubted. | D．Conducted. |
| A．People in the past didn’t develop myopia. |
| B．My opia could be cured by changing one’s lifestyle. |
| C．People with myopia could also lead a normal life. |
| D．Most art-related jobs favored near sighted people. |
| A．Glasses for nearsighted people have developed a lot. |
| B．Nearsightedness is increasing at an alarming rate. |
| C．Various reasons contribute to modern myopia. |
| D．Myopia was not so disturbing in the past. |
8 . Nearly 10,000 protesters came out in support of the Black Lives Matter rally in London. Londoners filled Victoria Park in support of the Black Lives Matter movement against the systemic racism and police brutality (暴行) happening in the United States and Canada.
The Black Lives Matter movement has seen thousands of people across Canada, the United States and the world join together following the death of George Floyd, a black man died in police custody after a white police officer was filmed kneeling on his neck. Floyd’s death in Minneapolis was only the latest in a number of cases of Black men dying while in police custody.
“Racism happens here, it happens to me, it happens to my son, it happens to my friends, and we have just been quiet and silent for far too long,” said Alexandra Kane, a spokesperson for Black Lives Matter London movement. She is hoping that from the Black Lives Matter movements they can see reform and changes within the government so that both Black and Indigenous people are “viewed and treated fairly”. “We want people within our own Black community to know we support each other. We don’t often congregate and come together, but now we can do so safely without the fear of being put into a stereotypical category.”
“I can’t even begin to name all of the times in the 18 years of my life that someone or something has made me feel less than because of the color of my skin,” one of the organizers, Simone Schacht, said when speaking at the rally. Meanwhile, “It disgusts me because we are human beings just like anyone else and we should not be treated differently,” cried 10-year-old Noah.
Nichelle Samuel was there with her husband and daughter in solidarity with her fellow Black Canadians calling for change. “Every time my husband leaves the house, it’s a constant worry something may happen,” she said. “Seeing what happens in the states only kind of effects here on a silent level. I want this rally to let people know this stuff happens silently, and if you see it, you hear it, do something about it.”
1. What does the author indicate to us by the example of Floyd in Paragraph 2?| A．American police are very violent. |
| B．Floyd’s tragic death was caused by a white cop. |
| C．People all over the world sympathized with Floyd. |
| D．Black people have long suffered from racial discrimination. |
| A．Nichelle Samuel. | B．Alexandra Kane. | C．Simone Schacht. | D．Noah. |
| A．unite | B．defeat | C．transform | D．congratulate |
| A．The government should not be blamed for the failure of white police. |
| B．The death of Floyd was a trigger for the Black Lives Matter. |
| C．Discrimination based on skin color is bad but inevitable. |
| D．Black Lives Matter rally may not work. |
9 . Buying clothes for special events, hiding the price tickets and returning them to the store the next day has for years been the method of money-saving shoppers. Today people are doing it just for social media.
A survey conducted by the credit card company Barclaycard showed that nearly one in ten UK shoppers admits to buying clothing only to post photos on social media for likes. After the “outfit (装束) of the day” (OOTD) makes it online, they return it back to the store. According to Barclaycard, the “try before you buy” policy of online retailers (零售商) — where people pay for clothing they order online after they try it on at home — could be leading to this rising trend.
But the rise of social media means that everyone, not just superstars, expects to build and maintain a personal brand. Since we’re recording our lives and posting them online for public judgement, getting caught in the same outfits more than once should be avoided. And the cost of all those outfits of the day adds up, which makes returning a popular way.
There are brands that make clothes specially for social media shoppers, like Fashion Nova. “These are clothes made for social media: meant to be worn once, photographed and abandoned,” Allison P. Davis wrote in her report about the brand. Another favourite of the social media age is Rent the Runway, which lets customers rent designer clothing for a fee.
Some, however, are moving in the opposite direction. Groups promoting “work uniforms” have increased greatly in recent years, aiming to free women from “the trouble of clothing decisions”. The concept of the “capsule wardrobe (胶囊衣橱)”, which calls for purchasing a small number of high-quality pieces instead of lots of trendy throwaway clothes, is also making a comeback.
1. What does the survey by Barclaycard suggest?| A．Britons follow the fashion stars closely. |
| B．Some Britons over-order and return clothes. |
| C．Britons try on clothes before online purchases. |
| D．Some Britons send outfits back after taking pictures. |
| A．Renting top designers’ clothes. |
| B．Offering customers single-use clothes. |
| C．Creating unique shopping experiences. |
| D．Helping shoppers improve their clothing style. |
| A．Better fewer, but better. | B．Less addition, but more enjoyment. |
| C．Less uniform, and more freedom. | D．More choices, and less trouble. |
| A．To compare different wearing trends. |
| B．To introduce Britain’s new wearing trend. |
| C．To support buying high-quality clothes. |
| D．To criticize the “try before you buy” policy. |
10 . What do you want from life? Perhaps you want to spend more time with your family, or get a more secure job, or improve your health. But why do you want those things? Chances are that your answer will come down to one thing: Happiness.
Yet there is some evidence that too much pursuit of happiness is associated with a greater risk of depression. Modern conceptions of happiness are primarily practical, focusing on what we might call the techniques of happiness. The concern is not what happiness is, but instead on how to get it.
But maximizing pleasure isn’t the only option. Every human life, even the most fortunate, is filled with pain. Painful loss, painful disappointments, the physical pain of injury or sickness, and the mental pain of long-suffering boredom, loneliness, or sadness. Pain is an unavoidable consequence of being alive. All the good things in life involve suffering. Writing a novel, running a marathon, or giving birth all cause suffering in pursuit of the final, joyous result.
There are other factors as well. In the eyes of Aristotle, we get happiness by exercising our uniquely human capabilities to think and reason. But thinking and reasoning are as much social activities as they are individual. Happiness requires others; it is not an emotional state so much as it is the excellence of the relations we cultivate with other people.
But even that cannot guarantee happiness. Aristotle recognised that our happiness is hostage（人质）to fortune. Events beyond any individual’s control—war, poverty, and global pandemics—will often make happiness impossible. Happiness is not a mental state that can be permanently won, but instead it’s a practice which we hone（磨练）, imperfectly, in circumstances only partly of our making.
Recognizing this will not secure a good life, but it will avoid the illusory（虚幻的）hope of permanent contentment. No life worth living should meet the only standard. Instead, aim with Aristotle to embrace those faults and to flower in spite of them.
1. Where can you find negative effects of focusing too much on “happiness”?| A．In paragraph 2. | B．In paragraph 3. |
| C．In paragraph 4. | D．In paragraph 5. |
| A．By making comparisons. | B．By analyzing causes. |
| C．By giving examples. | D．By telling stories. |
| A．Happiness is a stable emotional state. |
| B．Good personal relationships lead to happiness. |
| C．Taking part in social activities guarantees happiness. |
| D．Happiness promotes independent thinking and reasoning. |
| A．Happiness is what humans pursue forever. |
| B．Happiness lies in the process of pursuing it. |
| C．Our pursuit of happiness may be imperfect. |
| D．Depression and happiness are equally important. |
