1 . Most people know about the boomerang(回力棒)，the legendary Australian throwing tool which，once released，returns to its owner.But have you heard of the boomerang generation? This refers to a phenomenon of people who move back home after briefly leaving their parents' houses for university in Western culture.Most of these young adults were born between the mid1970s and mid1980s.They are likened(比作) to the boomerang because they return to their home，just like the throwing tool.
Monster，a job search company，reported in a survey that 48 percent of prospective(未来的)graduates planned on becoming “boomerang kids”，returning home after graduation.Although many expected to just make a quick stop before getting their own place，Monster discovered that 42 percent of graduates said they were still living with their parents.
What is the cause of this passive generation? It may not be only the young people's fault.The longterm economic recession(不景气)has made it difficult for college graduates to find jobs，while the cost of living has continued to rise.And as a result，many young people have lost hope and selfconfidence.Moreover，the unconditional love and support of parents allow the boomerang kids to rely on them without feeling much guilty.
Boomeranging is not all negative.Kids get the chance to reconnect with their parents after university，and parents get the opportunity to be a big part of their children's adult lives，which can lead to closer bonds.
But critics of this phenomenon argue that this situation affects young adults.Without the stress or ambition to succeed，boomerang kids tend to become more passive in their search for good jobs，harming their professional ambitions.And finally，the extra financial burden on parents can become too heavy to bear，leading to deep and often permanent damage to the relationship.
1. What does the passage mainly tell us？| A．Many young adults like boomerang. |
| B．The boomerang generation are passive. |
| C．Adult children are moving back home. |
| D．The boomerang kids are burdens on parents. |
| A．Boomerang kids didn't stay long at home. |
| B．The number of boomerang kids was large. |
| C．Boomerang kids were close to their parents. |
| D．There were few jobs for young adults to do. |
| A．Because parents want to play a role in their kids' lives. |
| B．Because graduates want to reconnect with their parents. |
| C．Because it costs too much for graduates to live on their own. |
| D．Because graduates can easily succeed with their parents' help. |
| A．Boomerang kids will be selfconfident. |
| B．Parents may have a bad relationship with their kids. |
| C．Parents will be free from the burden of raising kids. |
| D．Boomerang kids tend to lose their desire for knowledge. |
Culture shock isn’t a clinical term or medical condition. It’s
To understand culture shock, it is vital to understand what culture is. You may know that genes determine a big part of
Your environment isn’t just the air you breathe and the food you eat, though; a big part of your environment is culture. Culture
The differences between cultures can make
3 . It is a live celebration of the lasting power of letter writing!
Letters Live, which started in December 2013, was held at the Freemasons’ Hall in London from March 10 to 15. The show invited various great performers who read remarkable letters that had been written around the world over the centuries.
“Bringing letters alive through outstanding performances is one of the most powerful ways in which the joy and pain and humor and tragedy of being human can be shared，” Jamie Byng, managing director of Canongate Books publishing firm, told the Nowness video channel.
British actor Benedict Cumberbatch agreed. “Letters are windows into the love, beauty, pain and humor of their creators and receivers，” he told The Guardian. “Letters Live makes us stop and imagine the lives behind the letters read and where they came from. It’s a privilege to read this most ancient of communications live to an audience.”
This year, the movie Sherlock star treated the audience by playing the part of a 17year Tom Hanks. He put on the young actor’s voice when he read his letter to the Hollywood director George Roy Hill, a letter that urged Hill to “discover” him. The letter revealed that twotime Oscar winner Hanks’ teenage dream was not to “be a bigtime Hollywood superstar” but to one day own a Porsche car and call his favorite US actor Robert Redford his nickname “Bob”．
Other famous faces at the event included Carey Mulligan, who played a fictional laundry worker, a female activist fighting for women’s rights in the 2015 movie Suffragette. The British actress once again played the role of a suffragette, when she read a very enthusiastic letter demanding the vote for women. The suffragette sent a precious 1913 note to The Daily Telegraph newspaper.
“Everyone seems to agree upon the necessity of putting a stop to Suffragist anger, but no one seems certain how to do so，” Mulligan read out. “There are two, and only two, ways in which this can be done. Both will be effectual. One, kill every woman in the UK. Two, give women the vote.”
1. What was Cumberbatch’s attitude towards Jamie Byng’s opinion?| A．Doubtful. | B．Positive. |
| C．Optimistic. | D．Cautious. |
| A．To become an actor. |
| B．To call himself “Bob”． |
| C．To win Oscar Awards. |
| D．To have a famous car. |
| A．sends a valuable note to newspaper |
| B．reads out a letter to the audience |
| C．advocates women’s right to vote |
| D．plays a famous role in a movie |
| A．Famous People Gathering |
| B．Letters of Great Performers |
| C．Letters Brought to Life |
| D．Rights Given to Women |
4 . We all have been taught that the shortest distance between any two points is a straight line.Moving forward along the straight line always represents the most
The other day, I visited an Australian friend.There I
As we follow our enthusiasm and move toward
| A．important | B．efficient | C．necessary | D．frequent |
| A．designed | B．made | C．saw | D．lost |
| A．plants | B．animals | C．constructions | D．flags |
| A．unique | B．strange | C．perfect | D．common |
| A．alike | B．familiar | C．natural | D．special |
| A．talent | B．characteristic | C．shape | D．status |
| A．correct | B．different | C．opposite | D．fixed |
| A．In spite of | B．In addition to | C．As to | D．Due to |
| A．quickly | B．smoothly | C．seldom | D．always |
| A．popular | B．particular | C．complicated | D．surprising |
| A．something | B．nothing | C．anything | D．everything |
| A．challenge | B．success | C．chance | D．luck |
| A．and | B．as | C．or | D．so |
| A．eventually | B．immediately | C．suddenly | D．gradually |
| A．grateful | B．prepared | C．willing | D．glad |
| A．belong to | B．wait for | C．result in | D．depend on |
| A．change | B．establish | C．add | D．reach |
| A．straight | B．long | C．thick | D．continuous |
| A．risks | B．steps | C．roles | D．turns |
| A．follow | B．stop | C．forget | D．fail |
5 . Kids with Special Needs
Kids with special needs refer to any kid who might need extra help because of medical, emotional, or learning problems. For example, disabled kids need wheelchairs. They not only need the equipment that helps them get around, but they might need to have ramps (斜坡) or elevators available.
Kids with an illness would have special needs, too.
Other kids also can be a big help. How? By being a friend. Kids who use a wheelchair or have lots of health problems want friends just as you do. But meeting people and making friends can be difficult.
Being friendly to kids with special needs is one of the best ways to be helpful. As you get to know, they may help you understand what it’s like to be in their shoes. And you’ll be helping fill a very special need, one that everybody has — the need for good friends.
| A．Some kids might laugh at or make fun of them. |
| B．They also might need to get a special bus to school. |
| C．Life can be challenging for a kid with special needs. |
| D．Someone could have trouble with anxiety, but you wouldn’t know it unless told about it. |
| E．Also try to be helpful if you know someone with special needs. |
| F．Kids with special needs usually live a harder life than normal kids. |
| G．They might need medicine or other help as they go about their daily activities. |
Fake news has long been
But recently a survey
7 . A young woman sits alone in a café sipping tea and reading a book. She pauses briefly to write in a nearby notepad before showing her words to a passing café waiter: "Where are the toilets please?"This is a familiar scene in Tokyo’s so-called "silent cafés", where customers are not allowed to speak, and only communicate by writing in notepads.
The concept rises by a desire to be alone among young Japanese, a situation brought by economic uncertainty, a shift in traditional family support structures and the growing social isolation. The phenomenon is not limited to coffee shops but covers everything from silent discos, where participants dance alone wearing wireless headphones connected to the DJ, to products such as small desk tents designed for conversation-free privacy in the office. One Kyoto company even offers single women the opportunity to have a "one woman wedding"—a full bridal affair, complete with white dress and ceremony, and the only thing missing is the groom. The trend has its own media expression-“botchi-zoku”, referring to individuals who consciously choose to do things completely on their own.
One recent weekday afternoon, Chihiro Higashikokubaru, a 23-year-old nurse, travelled 90 minutes from her home, to Tokyo on her day off in order to enjoy some solo time. Speaking quietly at the entrance of the cafe, Miss Higashikokubaru said: “I heard about this place via Twitter and I like the idea of coming here. I work as a nurse and it's always very busy. There are very few quiet places in Tokyo, and it's a big busy city. I just want to come and sit somewhere quietly on my own. I’m going to drink a cup of tea and maybe do some drawings. I like the idea of a quiet, calm atmosphere.”
The desire to be isolated is not a new concept in Japan, home to an estimated 3.6 million "hikikomori" - a more extreme example of social recluses(隐士) who withdraw completely from society.
1. What is special about the “silent cafes”?| A．It provides various tea and books. |
| B．It has attracted many popular young people. |
| C．It offers service by writing not by speaking |
| D．People are not allowed to communicate. |
| A．Unstable economic situation |
| B．A change in traditional family support pattern |
| C．The rising demand for privacy |
| D．The increasing social isolation |
| A．She doesn’t like to be a nurse. | B．She doesn’t like the life in big cities. |
| C．She travelled to Tokyo on her work days. | D．She enjoys her solo time in a quiet place. |
| A．Lonely Japanese | B．One woman wedding |
| C．Social recluses in Japan | D．Silent cafes |
8 . The spread of Western eating habits around the world is bad for human health and the environment. These findings come from a new report in the journal Nature.
David Tillman, a professor of ecology at the University of Minnesota, America, examined information from 100 countries to identify what people ate and how diet affected health. He noted a movement beginning in the 1960s. He found that as nations industrialized, population increased and earnings rose, more people began to adopt what has been called the Western diet.
The Western diet is high in sugar, fat, oil and meat. By eating these foods, people began to get fatter and sicker. David Tillman says overweight people are at greater risk of non-infectious diseases like diabetes (糖尿病)and heart disease.
Unfortunately, when people become industrialized, if they adopt this Western diet, they are going to have these health problems, especially in developing countries in Asia. China is an example where the number of diabetes cases has been jumping from less than one percent to 10 percent of the population as it began to industrialize over a 20-year period. And that is happening all across the world, in Nigeria and so on.
And, a diet bad for human beings is also bad for the environment. As the world’s population grows, more forests and tropical areas will become farmland for crops or grasslands for cattle. We are likely to have more greenhouse gas in the future from agriculture than that coming out of all forms of transportation right now.
Mr. Tillman calls the link between diet, the environment and human health, “a dilemma”, a problem offering a difficult choice. He says one possible solution is leaving the Western diet behind.
1. David Tillman believes that .| A．diet, the environment and human health are closely connected |
| B．the Western diet is the only choice as nations industrialized |
| C．people in tropical areas are more likely to have heart disease |
| D．traditional diet is more balanced than the Western diet |
| A．transportation | B．developing countries |
| C．agriculture | D．developed countries |
| A．Nigeria has the largest number of diabetes cases. |
| B．Overweight people are at higher risk of infectious diseases. |
| C．The examined information comes from developing countries. |
| D．Industrialization contributes to the spread of the Western diet. |
| A．Call on us to protect the environment. |
| B．Warn us of the danger of the Western diet. |
| C．Remind us of the importance of health. |
| D．Advise us to have a balanced diet. |
9 . Do you hear that birds of a feather flock together? It certainly appears that they do. We are likely to hang around with individuals who are similar to ourselves. Poor people like to surround themselves with other poor people, and rich people with other rich people. Intelligent people associate with like-minded people, and artists typically seek out other artists.
It appears that we all have comfort zones we attempt to stay within. Very stressed and poor people don’t feel comfortable associating with rich people. We owe it to each other to be successful because success breeds more success. And if we are not feeling successful, looking at who we have as friends and associates can tell us and others a lot about ourselves and why. The longer we associate with a group of individuals, the more our thinking processes become like theirs.
A few years ago, a doctor friend of mine began associating with a new group of people. At the time, he had a successful practice and a positive and grateful attitude to life. However, within the first six months of his association with these individuals, his attitude and goals changed , he was angry at how things were and was dissatisfied with those who’d become his opposition. He became very stubborn. As a result his practice dropped in quality of service. His facial expressions often showed anger and stress.
After about two years of association with this group, he learned some valuable lessons. He realized that always focusing on problems or being dissatisfied with others doesn’t lead to a rewarding life, nor does it solve as many problems as it creates. He decided that he’d rather get back into serving his patients.
This doctor put his heart and soul into his practice, and his life changed again. He began to attract people who focused on solutions instead of problems. His success was now more obvious than his stress—his achievement more obvious than his frustration.
Whom we hang out with does make a difference. The old saying “If you want to soar (翱翔) with the eagles, don’t flock with the turkeys.” has a point.
1. What does the underlined part “birds of a feather flock together”in Paragraph 1 mean?| A．Birds like to take a risk to fly high in the sky. |
| B．Birds are more likely to fly together than other creatures. |
| C．People are more likely to have different attitudes to life. |
| D．People of the same kind are found together. |
| A．stressed | B．successful |
| C．patient | D．rich |
| A．show his great literary talent |
| B．make his article more persuasive |
| C．raise another similar question |
| D．suggest the end of his article |
| A．bad luck never comes alone |
| B．success breeds more success |
| C．someone has no control over his own life |
| D．people are likely to become like those who they associate with |
1. 描述漫画内容；
2. 说出其中的寓意；
3. 发表你的观点。
注意：
1. 可适当增添内容，使文章层次分明，行文连贯。
2. 词数100左右。
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