1 . For many parents, raising a teenager is like fighting a long war, but years go by without any clear winner. Like a border conflict between neighboring countries, the parent-teen war is about boundaries: Where is the line between what I control and what you do?
Both sides want peace, but neither feels it has any power to stop the conflict. In part, this is because neither is willing to admit any responsibility for starting it. From the parents’ point of view, the only cause of their fight is their adolescents’ complete unreasonableness. And of course, the teens see it in exactly the same way, except oppositely. Both feel trapped.
In this article, I’ll describe three no-win situations that commonly arise between teens and parents and then suggest some ways out of the trap. The first no-win situation is quarrels over unimportant things. Examples include the color of the teen’s hair, the cleanliness of the bedroom, the preferred style of clothing, the child’s failure to eat a good breakfast before school, or his tendency to sleep until noon on the weekends. Second, blaming. The goal of a blaming battle is to make the other admit that his bad attitude is the reason why everything goes wrong. Third, needing to be right. It doesn’t matter what the topic is—politics, the laws of physics, or the proper way to break an egg—the point of these arguments is to prove that you are right and the other person is wrong, for both wish to be considered an authority—someone who actually knows something—and therefore to command respect. Unfortunately, as long as parents and teens continue to assume that they know more than the other, they’ll continue to fight these battles forever and never make any real progress.
1. Why does the author compare the parent-teen war to a border conflict?| A．Both are about where to draw the line. |
| B．Both can continue for generations. |
| C．Neither has any clear winner. |
| D．Neither can be put to an end. |
| A．The teens tend to have a full understanding of their parents. |
| B．The teens agree with their parents on the cause of the conflict. |
| C．The teens cause their parents of misleading them. |
| D．The teens blame their parents for starting the conflict. |
| A．give orders to the other |
| B．know more than the other |
| C．gain respect from the other |
| D．get the other to behave properly |
| A．Solutions for the parent-teen problems. |
| B．Examples of the parent-teen war. |
| C．Causes for the parent-teen conflicts. |
| D．Future of the parent-teen relationship. |
2 .
Karen, grown up in a very traditional family in the western United States, maintained high moral (道德的) standards throughout her youth. In 1984, at the age of 23, she married Bill. They were blessed with two children, a boy and a girl.
By 1991 their love had deepened, and they were happy. Later that year, Bill developed a white spot on his tongue. He visited a doctor.
One day shortly after that, Bill called Karen to sit beside him. He said with tears in his eyes that he loved her and wanted to live forever with her. The doctor suspected that he had been infected with HIV, the virus that leads to AIDS.
The family was tested, Bill and Karen’s results were positive. Bill had become infected before he met Karen then he passed the virus on to Karen. The children’s results were negative. Within three years. Bill was dead, “I don’t know how to express what it is like to watch the once handsome man you love and intend to live with forever dying slowly. I cried many nights. He died three months short of ten years of our marriage,” says Karen. Though a doctor told Karen that she would soon follow her husband into death, she is still alive. The infection has progressed to the early stages of AIDS.
Karen is just one of about 30 million people now living with HIV/AIDS, a figure larger than the combined populations of Australia, Ireland and Paraguay. According to one UN report, Africa has 21 million of these victims. By the turn of the century that number could reach 40 million and the disease will bring on the greatest disaster in human history. Of the world’s sexually active adults aged 15 to 49. 1 in 100 has already been infected with HIV. Of these, only 1 in 10 realizes that he or she is infected. In some parts of Africa, 25 percent of the adults are infected.
Since the beginning of the spread of AIDS in1981, about 11.7 million people have died of it. It is roughly calculated that in 1997 alone, about 2.3 million people died of it. Nevertheless, there are fresh reasons for optimism in the battle against AIDS. During the past few years, there has been a drop in new AIDS cases in wealthy nations. In addition, promising drugs hold out hope of better health and longer life.
1. By telling the story of Karen , the author intends to .| A．warn people against high risk behaviors |
| B．stress the importance of medical tests |
| C．express sympathy for AIDS victims |
| D．show the consequences of AIDS |
| A．were lucky in having |
| B．were asked to adopt |
| C．regretted having |
| D．gave birth to |
| A．he got married to Karen |
| B．the family members were tested |
| C．Karen persuaded him to see the doctor |
| D．he found something wrong with his tongue |
| A．promising drugs will soon stop AIDS |
| B．the spread of AIDS could be controlled |
| C．it is hopeless to win the battle against AIDS |
| D．the death rate of AIDS patients has been reduced |
She found that personality had a major impact on learning. The braver baboons learnt, but the shy ones did not learn the task although they watched the baboon perform the task of finding the novel food just as long as the brave ones did. In effect, despite being made aware of what to do, they were still too shy to do what the experienced baboon did.
The same held true for anxious baboons compared with calm ones. The anxious individuals learnt the task by observing others while those who were relaxed did not, even though they spent more time watching.
This mismatch between collecting social information and using it shows that personality plays a key role in social learning in animals, something that has previously been ignored in studies on how animals learn to do things. The findings are significant because they suggest that animals may perform poorly in cognitive (认知的 ) tasks not because they aren’t clever enough to solve them, but because they are too shy or nervous to use the social information.
The findings may impact how we understand the formation of culture in societies through social learning. If some individuals are unable to get information from others because they don’t associate with the knowledgeable individuals, or they are too shy to use the information once they have it, information may not travel between all group members, preventing the formation of a culture based on social learning.
1. What is the first paragraph mainly about?
| A．The design of Dr. Carter’s research. |
| B．The results of Dr. Carter’s research. |
| C．The purpose of Dr. Carter’s research. |
| D．The significance of Dr. Carter’s research. |
| A．Those that have more experience. |
| B．Those that can avoid potential risks. |
| C．Those that like to work independently. |
| D．Those that feel anxious about learning. |
| A．Some baboons are intelligent but slow in learning. |
| B．Some baboons are shy but active in social activities. |
| C．Some baboons observe others but don’t follow them. |
| D．Some baboons perform new tasks but don’t concentrate. |
| A．storing information |
| B．learning from each other |
| C．understanding different people |
| D．travelling between social groups |
Worse, nearly 18 million children under the age of five around the world are estimated to be overweight. What’s going on?
We really don’t have many excuses for our weight problems. The dangers of the problem have been drilled into us by public health campaigns since 2001 and the message is getting through—up to a point.
In the 1970s, Finland, for example, had the highest rate of heart disease in the world and being overweight was its main cause. Not any more. A public health campaign has greatly reduced the number of heart disease deaths by 80 per cent over the past three decades.
Maybe that explains why the percentage of people in Finland taking diet pills doubled between 2001 and 2005, and doctors even offer surgery of removing fat inside and change the shape of the body. That has become a sort of fashion. No wonder it ranks as the world’s most body conscious country.
We know what we should be doing to lose weight—but actually doing it is another matter. By far the most popular excuse is not taking enough exercise. More than half of us admit we lack willpower.
Others blame good food. They say: it’s just too inviting and it makes them overeat. Still others lay the blame on the Americans, complaining that pounds have piled on thanks to eating too much American style fast food.
Some also blame their parents—their genes. But unfortunately, the parents are wronged because they’re normal in shape, or rather slim.
It’s a similar story around the world, although people are relatively unlikely to have tried to lose weight. Parents are eager to see their kids shape up. Do as I say—not as I do.
1. What is the “strange” point mentioned in the first sentence?
| A．The good life is a greater risk than the bad life. |
| B．Starvation is taking more people’s lives in the world. |
| C．WHO report shows people’s unawareness of food safety. |
| D．Overweight issue remains unresolved despite WHO’s efforts. |
| A．A lot of effective diet pills are available. |
| B．Body image has nothing to do with good food. |
| C．They have been made fully aware of its dangers. |
| D．There are too many overweight people in the world. |
| A．the cause of heart disease |
| B．the fashion of body shaping |
| C．the effectiveness of a campaign |
| D．the history of a body conscious country |
| A．Actions or Excuses? |
| B．Overweight or Underweight? |
| C．WHO in a Dilemma |
| D．No Longer Dying of Hunger |
The paper, published this March in Psychology and Aging, examined health and welfare surveys from roughly 40,000 Germans between ages 18 and 96. The surveys were conducted every year from 1993 to 2003.
Survey respondents were asked to estimate their present and future life satisfaction on a scale of 0 to 10, among other questions.
The researchers found that young adults (age 18 to 39) routinely overestimated their future life satisfaction, while middle-aged adults (age 40 to 64) more accurately predicted how they would feel in the future. Adults of 65 and older, however, were far more likely to underestimate their future life satisfaction. Not only did they feel more satisfied than they thought they would, the older pessimists seemed to suffer a lower ratio of disability and death for the study period.
“We observed that being too optimistic in predicting a better future than actually observed was associated with a greater risk of disability and a greater risk of death within the following decade,” wrote Frieder R. Lang, a professor at the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg.
Lang and his colleagues believed that people who were pessimistic about their future may be more careful about their actions than people who expected a rosy future.
“Seeing a dark future may encourage positive evaluations of the actual self and may contribute to taking improved precautions (预防措施),” the authors wrote.
Surprisingly, compared with those in poor health or who had low incomes, respondents who enjoyed good health or income were associated with expecting a greater decline. Also, the researchers said that higher income was related to a greater risk of disability.
The authors of the study noted that there were limitations to their conclusions. Illness, medical treatment and personal loss could also have driven health outcomes.
However, the researchers said a pattern was clear. “We found that from early to late adulthood, individuals adapt their expectations of future life satisfaction from optimistic, to accurate, to pessimistic,” the authors concluded.
1. According to the study, who made the most accurate prediction of their future life satisfaction?| A．Optimistic adults. |
| B．Middle-aged adults. |
| C．Adults in poor health. |
| D．Adults of lower income. |
| A．to fully enjoy their present life |
| B．to estimate their contribution accurately |
| C．to take measures against potential risks |
| D．to value health more highly than wealth |
| A．They will earn less money. |
| B．They will become pessimistic. |
| C．They will suffer mental illness. |
| D．They will have less time to enjoy life. |
| A．Pessimism guarantees chances of survival. |
| B．Good financial condition leads to good health. |
| C．Medical treatment determines health outcomes. |
| D．Expectations of future life satisfaction decline with age. |
Recently. Edinburgh is faced with the problem of disposing of (处理)about250,000 Million tons of waster a year. Despite different ways to dispose of much of it in a green manner —largely through encouraging tecycling---its aging facilities such as the Powderhall landfill do not have the ability to deal with it.
The European Union (EU) has issued a new policy, regulating how such mountains of waster are to disposed of. The five councils (Edinburgh. East Lothian. West Lothian. Midlethian and Borders) face fine around $18million a year from 2013 it they don’t increase recycling levels and rely less on landfill. With this in mind, the councils got together with the idea of building a lage incinerator plant (垃圾焚烧厂) to burn half of the waste produced in their districts. But the plan fell apart after the change of target levels by a new UK government waste policy which required that no more than 25% of the city’s waste should be disposed of in this way by 2025.
After the plan was abandoned, a private company which already transported millions of tons of the city’s wast by train to a landfill site near Dunbar, offered an alternative soution when it suggested opening a huge waste site near Portobello.
Since Powderhall is supposed to close in 2015, it seemed necessary for the members of the Edinburgh Council to accept the suggestion. But soon they turned it down—after 700 local objections reached them — because it would have meant hundreds of lorries a day making loud noise through heavily populated areas.
That still leaves eth council with a problem. By 2013,only 50% of 1995 levels of waste will be allowed to be sent to landfill. Even if recycling targets are met, there will still be a large amount of rubbish to be burnt up. Due build an Edinburgh and Midlothian councils have now decided to work together to build an incinerator plant as time to find a solution is fast running out.
1. The main way of handling waste in a green manmer in Edinburgh is________________ .
| A．recycling | B．restoring | C．burying | D．burning |
| A．reduce the roast of burying waste |
| B．meets the EU requirements |
| C．speed up waste recycling |
| D．tempter landfill sites |
| A．a name from a private company |
| B．the comelier was not interested in it |
| C．it was not supports by EU |
| D．the local people was against it |
| A．To open a new landfill nearby |
| B．To close the powder hall landfill in 2015 |
| C．To set up a plan for burning waste |
| D．To persuade people to deduce their waste. |
