1 . Ridgewood is a small town 20 miles from Manhattan, New York. It is a quiet town, perfect for raising children away from the rapid pace of the city. However, besides hours of homework, many Ridgewood children have too many afterschool activities－from swimming to piano classes. Some kids compare their life to that of a New York general manager who has an 80hour workweek.
Children's schedules filled with homework and activities made a lot of townspeople worried, so the town decided to start a movement called “Ridgewood Family Night－Ready, Set, Relax！” The mayor (市长) made a public statement, calling for a townwide night for families to do nothing. And schools and clubs agreed to support the movement so families could relax and get together.
Some parents like to talk about their childhood, one without so many scheduled afterschool activities. As kids, they just went out to play with neighborhood friends after school. However, almost all these parents take their children to their regularly scheduled activities. These fathers and mothers feel it is their duty to make sure their children are prepared to survive in today's highpressure work environment. They are afraid that their children can't enter the “right” universities and won't succeed in a more and more competitive world.
However, it seems that Family Night worked, at least to a certain degree. Cars moved freely around Ridgewood's normally busy downtown streets. Some families ate supper together for the first time in months. One family watched home movies of when the children were little, baked cookies and played games together.
At first, some people were excited that they could take back their lives. But sadly, few families now believe that one night will change them. Nearly all of the townspeople are sure that they will fall back into the old habit.
1. Which of the following can be used to describe the life of Ridgewood children?| A．Really exiting. | B．Very relaxing. |
| C．Quite peaceful. | D．Terribly busy. |
| A．They can learn and share knowledge. |
| B．They can rest and enjoy family time. |
| C．They have more time to discuss family matters. |
| D．They have enough time to talk about schoolwork. |
| A．Spending a happy childhood. | B．Doing things at their own pace. |
| C．Working hard for a better future. | D．Enjoying a more relaxed lifestyle. |
| A．It won't change their lifestyle. | B．It will help take back their lives. |
| C．It can't be accepted by the public. | D．It may help break kids' bad habits. |
2 . I am a strong believer that if a child is raised with praise, he will learn to love himself and will be successful in his own way.
Several weeks ago, I was doing homework with my son in the third grade and he kept standing up from his chair to go over the math lines. I kept asking him to sit down, telling him that he would concentrate better. He sat but seconds later, as if he didn’t even notice he was doing it, he got up again. I was getting frustrated, but then it hit me. I started noticing his answers were much quicker and accurate (准确的) when he stood up. Could he be more intent (专心的) while standing up?
This made me start questioning myself and what I had been raised to believe. I was raised to believe that a quiet, calm child was a sure way to success. This child would have the discipline (纪律) to study hard, get good grades and become someone important in life.
Now those same people perhaps come to realize that their kids are born with their own sets of DNA and personality traits (特点) and all you can do is loving and accepting them. As parents, throughout their growing years and beyond that, we need to be our kids’ best cheerleaders, guiding them and helping them find their way.
I have stopped asking my son to sit down and concentrate. Obviously, he is concentrating just in his own way and not mine. We need to learn to accept our kids’ ways of doing things. Some way may have worked for me but doesn’t mean we need to carry it through generations. There is nothing sweeter than being individual (个人的) and unique (独一无二的). It makes us free and happy and that’s just the way I want my kids to live their own life.
1. At the beginning, the author tried to keep his son seated in order to make him _____.| A．pay more attention to his study | B．keep silent in the room |
| C．finish his homework on time | D．get right answers |
| A．the importance of parents | B．the old form of education |
| C．the relationship between kids and their parents | D．the good grades of some kids |
| A．We should help kids correct their wrong ways. |
| B．Parents should study their kids’ DNA. |
| C．Kids should be taught to behave themselves. |
| D．Parents should love and accept their kids. |
| A．Study hard and you’ll be successful |
| B．Be friendly to your children |
| C．Children’s success in their own style |
| D．Parents’ help with their children’s study |
1. When is the first meeting of the Garden Club this year?
| A．On Monday. | B．On Wednesday. | C．On Friday. |
| A．To teach students to grow food. |
| B．To promote healthy and organic food. |
| C．To grow food for the school. |
| A．Cabbages. | B．Cucumbers. | C．Tomatoes. |
| A．They can only work in the school garden. |
| B．They are not allowed to join the club. |
| C．They will be in charge of community garden. |
4 . LONDON — A British judge on Thursday sentenced a businessman who sold fake bomb detectors (探测器) to 10 years in prison, saying the man hadn’t cared about potentially deadly consequences.
It is believed that James McCormick got about $ 77.8 million from the sales of his detectors — which were based on a kind of golf ball finder — to countries including Iraq, Belgium and Saudi Arabia. McCormick, 57, was convicted of cheats last month and sentenced Thursday at the Old Bailey court in London.
“Your cheating conduct in selling a great amount of useless equipment simply for huge profit promoted a false sense of security and in all probability materially contributed to causing death and injury to innocent people,” Judge Richard Hone told McCormick. “You have neither regret, nor shame, nor any sense of guilt.”
The detectors, sold for up to $ 42, 000 each, were said to be able to find such dangerous objects as bombs under water and from the air. But in fact they “lacked any grounding in science” and were of no use.
McCormick had told the court that he sold his detectors to the police in Kenya, the prison service in Hong Kong, the army in Egypt and the border control in Thailand.
“I never had any bad results from customers,” he said.
1. Why was McCormick sentenced to prison?| A．He sold bombs. |
| B．He caused death of people. |
| C．He made detectors. |
| D．He cheated in business. |
| A．increased the cost of safeguarding |
| B．lowered people’s guard against danger |
| C．changed people’s idea of social security |
| D．caused innocent people to commit crimes |
| A．They have not been sold to Africa |
| B．They have caused many serious problems. |
| C．They can find dangerous objects in water. |
| D．They don’t function on the basis of science. |
| A．sold the equipment at a low price |
| B．was well-known in most countries |
| C．did not think he had committed the crime |
| D．had not got such huge profit as mentioned in the text |
