1 . Across the country, October is National Financial Planning Month, a time when you might want to look back on your retirement statement or rethink investments (投资) for the new year. The month also serves as a good reminder to teach the ones you love a thing or two about money basics. Whether it’s explaining the value of a dollar or delayed enjoyment for a beloved toy, you can explain to children where money comes from, how best to keep it, and the ways that you can use well-earned cash to shape the world we live in.

Financial literacy, simply put, is the know-how to prepare, track expenses, save, plan for retirement, and manage debt. Money-saving expert Andrea Woroch says it’s never too early to start talking about finances, and it can be as simple as taking them shopping or doing everyday tasks around the house. “Your children learn from your habits and the way you spend or save and even talk about money will shape how your children manage money in the future, even if you don’t realize it,” says Woroch.

Most people think that the easiest way to teach their kids about money is to let them watch what they do—from the convenience store to online shopping. But the right way is to practice being a role model of what you hope they (and you) would do when faced with money problems or opportunities.

Woroch says including kids in setting up a budget (预算) for an upcoming event can be a great learning experience. When you have to make a budget cut, think before you complain. Watch how you talk about sacrificing (牺牲) short-term pleasure for long-term gain.

If your family is doing well despite economic downturn, you can teach your kids to appreciate what they have and encourage them to help others in need. Ramirez, a senior advisor at Tend, suggests that parents “increase children’s awareness about how money can benefit others, not just themselves, by encouraging them to raise money for a cause.” This is also a great way to develop their social awareness.

1. Why should kids have financial literacy?

A．To avoid debts.	B．To obtain happiness.
C．To become experts.	D．To form a smart view towards money.

2. Which is suggested for parents to teach children financial literacy?

A．Setting a good example.	B．Opening an online store.
C．Asking them to shop alone.	D．Making them solve money issues.

3. What does Ramirez like to see according to the last paragraph?

A．Parents praise children’s efforts.	B．Parents donate money for charity.
C．Children save money for a cause.	D．Children make money by themselves.

2 . When you hear the word “culture”, you may think of nations or societies.     1     What is family culture? It is the combination (结合) of values, expectations, and experiences that describes a family and shapes the way its members get along with each other.

Everyone has a unique culture that determines who they are as a person. Your family culture helps you understand your traditions and explains the reason for your behavior every day. It’s important to you.     2     A deeper sense of unity and togetherness is important for a family culture. The following will help you understand how to uncover your cultural story with your family.

    3     You can find out what your family’s values are and what they stand for by looking at the traditions around those values. You can do this by talking to people you respect in your family or by using some simple Internet searches. Through looking into your family’s history, you will understand the context of their culture.

After this, it’s time to write a detailed description of your family’s culture.     4     So you need to take your time with this step. In this description, you need to give a specific account of your family’s culture, traditions, values, and history.

The last step is to share it with people. You can talk to your family about their culture and let them know that you’ve written down what they are like. You can also talk to friends who know little about your family’s culture.     5    

Exploring your family’s culture is an exciting process that will bring new meaning to everything you’ve ever held dear. So start your journey of uncovering it right now!

A．This is a key part of the process.

B．But every family has a culture, too.

C．Know how to talk with your family.

D．Start by researching your family’s history.

E．It also contributes to your family togetherness.

F．Then they can start a process of self-exploration.

G．So they will know better what your family is all about.

3 . Dusting is particularly annoying. Nearly two-thirds of household dust content comes from the outdoors, some of which may contain harmful chemicals. So, keeping your home as dust-free as possible is important to improve overall health.     1    ？

In general, you should dust your home’s most exposed surfaces on a weekly basis. This means items such as tables, shelves, beds, dressers, counter-tops and windows.     2    . Use microfiber or natural-fiber cloths that will pick up the dust.

Change your bed sheets weekly, as dust mites (螨) especially love bedding.     3    . Every three to six months, clean behind and under furniture, and wash your bedding.

Since so much dust comes in from the outdoors, you can cut down on the amount gathering in your home by keeping doors and windows closed as often as possible, and placing carpets on both sides of doors.     4    , changing them for a pair of slippers or private house shoes.

Get rid of odds and ends, which can easily attract dust, and be careful how you handle clothes. Since clothes both collects dust and sheds (掉落) fibers, regularly wash any clothes or don’t throw clothing on the ground.

When you’re getting ready to clean a room, always work from the top down.     5    , the dust on the highest surfaces will drift down to everything you’ve just cleaned.

A．If you dust from the bottom up

B．How can we keep the home dust-free

C．Why should we keep the home dust-free

D．You can remove your shoes when you come home

E．You can buy some new shoes before you return home

F．Don’t use feather dusters that simply push the dust around

G．Items that don’t collect dust easily can go a month without cleaning

4 . Clever Ways to Organize Your Refrigerator

When you’re watching your grocery budget, a refrigerator can be your best friend. It’s great for people who only occasionally have time to cook. Because you can either buy ready-made meals or make up big batches periodically and divvy them up for convenient weeknight meals. The issue, of course, is freezer organization. Having wonderful food on hand is just annoying if you can’t actually find it when you want it!     1    

iDesign Linus Divided Refrigerator Storage Bin

A lot of the convenience foods we put into the refrigerator come in boxes.     2     This is because they tend to slide around and fall over. A clear storage bin with dividers (分隔物), like the one from iDesign, is just what you need.     3     So it’s small enough to be a good fit for refrigerators. The divider means boxed items will still stand upright. In most refrigerators, you’ll be able to fit two or more as needed, and they’ll slide out for easy access to items at the back.

YouCopia FreezeUp Refrigerator Bin

Another type of “problem packaging” is the stand-up, zipper-seal bags that many kinds of fruit and vegetables are sold in. They’re convenient to use, but there’s not really a good way to pile or organize them when they go back into the refrigerator. This refrigerator bin from YouCopia, with its four or six removable dividers, is just the thing to keep them in line. It’s clear and has a low wall at one side.     4     You can put those packages in and take out of the refrigerator without effort.

Removable Refrigerator Food Labels

Physical organizing isn’t the only kind you’ll need to do to get the most out of your refrigerator and its contents.     5     In this case labels will be needed. Labeling everything that goes into your refrigerator will help you keep track not just of the contents of each bag and package, but also to know which items need to be used up in which order. These labels from Chinco are just the thing. They’ll stick to storage bags or containers made of plastic and glass, but after they’ve been used, they’ll peel off easily and leave no residue (残留) behind.

A．It’s popular due to its small size.

B．It’s just 11 inches deep and 5 inches wide.

C．So it’s easy to see what you’ve got.

D．You need to make full use of your refrigerator.

E．Small boxes in particular can be a pain to store.

F．Now we have got the clever solutions to the problem.

G．You’ll also need to keep track of what’s in there.

5 . A new survey finds the gender gap in home cooking has widened, with women cooking more meals than men in nearly every country worldwide.

Women cooked just under nine meals per week, on average, in 2022. Men cooked about four per week. These are the results of an annual survey by Gallup and Cookpad, which tracks how often people prepare and eat home-cooked meals in countries around the globe.

When the survey began in 2018, traditional gender roles were well established, but during the pandemic years the survey results showed that men were cooking more. This narrowed the gender gap, explains Andrew Dugan, a research director at Gallup, who has worked on the survey since it began. The latest results, which Dugan says come as a surprise, point to a reversal (颠倒) of this trend. In 2022, women continued to cook at about the same frequency, but men started to cook less.

“It’s the first year that the gap actually widened,” Dugan says, pointing out that the gap has reverted back to its starting point in 2018, “What it might suggest is that the traditional gender roles are starting to reassert themselves,” Dugan says.

The gender gap varies by country. In the United States, women cook about two more meals per week on average, than men. The survey report charts the countries with the largest gender gaps, including Ethiopia, Egypt, and Nepal where women are making about eight more meals per week than men. The countries with the smallest gender differences in cooking are clustered (成群的) in Europe, including Spain, the UK, France, and Ireland.

It’s not clear why the gender gap widened in all the other countries including the U. S., but chef Mike Friedman, who operates several restaurants in the Washington D. C. area, has his take. “The survey may not capture the whole picture,” Friedman says, “In my house, lots of meals are collaborations (合作). My wife does a lot of the cooking. But we talk about it and we talk through what we should make tonight. And most times she’ll start and I’ll finish and then I’m always left with the dishes”.

1. What do we know about the survey?

A．It began across the U. S. in 2022.	B．It indicated men cooked less in 2018.
C．It measured how often people ate out.	D．It focused on gender gaps in eating habits.

2. What can be inferred from Paragraph 5?

A．Women are more willing to do the cooking.

B．Traditional cooking methods stay unchanged.

C．The researchers come from different countries.

D．Gender gaps in cooking are smaller in richer countries.

3. What can we learn from Friedman’s words?

A．Friedman thinks the survey has limitations.

B．Friedman is critical of women’s roles in cooking.

C．Friedman’s household seldom works together on meals.

D．Friedman’s household has a strict division of cooking roles.

4. What is the best title for the text?

A．Traditional Gender Roles in Cooking	B．The Pandemic’s Impact on Home Cooking
C．Chef Friedman Comments on the Survey	D．Gender Gap Widens in Home Cooking

6 . Sometimes parents wonder if they should really give their children chores (家务活). After all, isn’t it the parents’ responsibility to manage the household? And don’t children need an opportunity to “just be children” for now because they have the rest of their lives to worry about chores?

Most children have really busy schedules. They rush around from one activity to another with little time to clean the house. Despite those concerns, however, giving your children chores may be one of the most important things you’ll ever do.

While giving your children chores can certainly take some of the stress off you, that’s not the only reason you should expect your children to do the chores. Studies show chores are good for children. Research from a well-known 75-year Harvard study shows that chores can shape children to be more likely to become happy, healthy and independent adults.

Why are chores like sweeping the floor and clearing the table so important to children’s happiness in life? One reason is that children feel a sense of achievement when they do their chores. No matter whether they’re making their beds or they’re sweeping the floor, helping out around the house makes children feel capable. Doing chores also helps children feel like they’re part of the team and learn responsibility. Helping family members is good for them and it encourages them to be good adults.

Children who do chores gain important life skills that will serve them well throughout their lives. Life skills such as meal preparation, mowing the lawn, or doing the laundry will be important after high school, which helps your children live independently.

1. Why does the author raise questions in paragraph 1?

A．To express doubts.	B．To make a warning.
C．To lead in the topic.	D．To provide background information.

2. What helps children grow up healthily according to research from the Harvard study?

A．Chores.	B．Less homework.
C．School activities.	D．Learning schedules.

3. What does the underlined word “capable” mean in paragraph 4?

A．Tired.	B．Nervous.
C．Having no time.	D．Having the ability.

4. What does this text focus on?

A．Skills to deal with chores.	B．Advantages of doing chores.
C．The importance of life skills.	D．Ways to balance study and chores.

7 . You know how every November the cooking magazines are full of articles on how you should shake up the traditional Thanksgiving meal and make it new and exciting? Out with the boring mashed potatoes, in with the roasted smashed potatoes! And who wants to roast a whole turkey? Why not braise (焖烧) the turkey legs instead?

I used to think these ideas were great until this year when we tried some of them. In fact, we reinvented it so much that it wasn’t even Thanksgiving dinner anymore. We ate chicken with a Parmesan panko crust, roasted carrots, and a salad. For dessert (饭后甜点) we had bourbon pound cake with ice cream. In other words, it was like any other nice meal I’d have at my parents’ house.

We had to do this out of necessity. My family runs a wood-fired pizza company that usually shuts down at the beginning of September, but this fall, it stayed open until Thanksgiving. Its last day of operation (营业) was Saturday, and we had our traditional Thanksgiving meal on Sunday. My whole family were so tired from pizza-making that we had no energy left for a feast. Then our ‘lazy’ Thanksgiving dinner was made with what we already had.

As usual the meal was delicious and the company pleasant, but it wasn’t until after the weekend that I was left with a sense of loss, as if something were missing. That’s when I realized that, for me, Thanksgiving is very much about the food, and no just the lovely people who share the dinner with me. It’s my one chance to taste dishes that I don’t eat at any other time of year, and that is truly why it’s so special.

1. According to the author, what do cooking magazines usually do every November?

A．Call for a change in cooking.	B．Hunt for articles from readers.
C．Help readers in potato cooking.	D．Introduce recipes for roast turkey.

2. Which can best describe the author’s Thanksgiving dinner this year?

A．Fancy.	B．Common.
C．Long-awaited.	D．Well-balanced.

3. What does the author mainly explain in paragraph 3?

A．His family background.

B．His way to make a Thanksgiving pizza.

C．How his family-run pizza company works.

D．How he celebrated this year’s Thanksgiving.

4. What is the major significance of Thanksgiving to the author?

A．It is a way to kill a sense of loss.

B．It is an occasion to enjoy once-a-year dishes.

C．It is a chance to spread festival happiness.

D．It is an opportunity for the whole family to gather.