1 . The other day, my sister and I were sitting in a restaurant, trying to have a conversation, but her children, four-year-old Willow and seven-year-old Luca, would not stop fighting. The arguments—over a fork, or who had more water in a glass—never stopped.

Then my sister reached into her handbag, produced two shiny iPads, and handed one to each child. Suddenly, the two were quiet. They sat playing games and watching videos, and we continued with our conversation.

After our meal, as my sister stuffed the iPads back into her bag, she said, “I don’t want to give them the iPads at the dinner table, but if they keep them occupied for an hour so we can eat in peace, I often just hand them over. I’m afraid it’s bad for them. I do worry that it makes them think it’s OK to use electronics at the dinner table in the future.”

Dr. Gary Small, director of the Longevity Center at the University of California, Los Angeles says that the brain is highly sensitive to stimuli (刺激物), like iPads and smartphone screens, and if people spend too much time on one technology, and less time interacting (互动) with people like parents at the dinner table, that could prevent the development of certain communication skills.

“Conversations with each other are the way children learn to have conversations with themselves, and learn how to be alone,” said Sherry Turkle, a professor of science, technology and society at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She fears that children who do not learn real interactions, which often have imperfections, will come to know a world where perfect, shiny screens give them a false sense of intimacy (亲密) without risk. However, they need to be able to gather themselves and know who they are. So someday they can form a relationship with another person without a panic of being alone. “If you don’t teach your children to be alone, they’ll only know how to be lonely,” she said.

1. What did Willow and Luca fight about?

A．iPads.

B．Little things.

C．Delicious food.

D．Interesting things.

2. How did the author’s sister feel about offering children iPads?

A．She was critical of it.	B．She felt it was worth a try.
C．She was uncertain about it.	D．She felt surprised at its effect.

3. According to Dr. Small, what should parents do?

A．Provide their children with various technologies.	B．Teach their children communication skills.
C．Talk to their children at the dinner table.	D．Limit their children’s screen time.

4. What is Sherry Turkle worried?

A．Children are afraid of taking risks.	B．Children try to escape from the real world.
C．Children can’t live without electronic devices.	D．Children can’t deal with companion—less situations.

5. What is the purpose of this text?

A．To tell a true story.	B．To discuss a phenomenon.
C．To give practical suggestions.	D．To compare different opinions.

6 . We often hear such statements “I spilled juice, but it wasn’t my fault.”, “I got in trouble at school, but it wasn’t my fault.” Or “I was in a car accident, but it wasn’t my fault.” That “It’s not my fault.” is a go-to response for so many people and especially teenagers.

Parents complain they are tired of the “excuse”. The reason why variations(变体) of “It’s not my fault.” are so popular is that it lets us off the hook from guilt and blame. I’m a fan of not owning responsibility for things that I can’t control. Teens who often say “It’s my fault.” when something bad happens tend to be highly self-critical, perfectionistic and more easier to be troubled by anxiety and depression.

While it is important to recognize a lack of reason to blame oneself, many teens over-rely on “It’s not my fault.” When trying to get them to take responsibility, parents usually attempt to convince their teens that something is their fault. The approach tends to be ineffective and turn into a power struggle. No one wins. A more effective approach can be to stress significant drawbacks to consistently focusing on removing our responsibility with this phrase.

Overuse of the phrase can result in feelings of lack of ability to control their own lives. This sense has been shown to cause low motivation. Besides creating feelings of lack of ability, overuse of “It’s not my fault.” focuses a teen’s attention on what is done as opposed to what needs to be done.

People may not have caused all their problems, but they have to solve them anyway. The example I frequently share with teens is the question of what one will do if he is pushed into a deep lake. One can certainly stay in water, yelling, “It’s not my fault.” However, that won’t get him out of water. He needs to swim to the shore, regardless of the fault.

If you take a proper approach to communicating with your teens, you can help them avoid over-reliance on “It’s not my fault.”.

1. What phenomenon is described in Paragraph 1?

A．The teenagers’ dislike for school life.

B．The common trouble faced by teenagers.

C．The reasons for blaming others for accidents.

D．The tendency for people not to be responsible for mess in life.

2. What type of teens tends to suffer great mental pressure according to the text?

A．Those lacking confidence and ambition.

B．Those allowing others to find excuses.

C．Those unable to get along well with others.

D．Those often blaming themselves for some incidents.

3. What’s the author’s attitude to parents’ usual way of guiding children?

A．Supportive.

B．Negative.

C．Ambiguous.

D．Neutral.

4. What’s Paragraph 4 mainly about?

A．It’s harmful to overuse “It’s not my fault.”.

B．It’s important to learn lessons from faults.

C．It’s difficult for people to admit their fault.

D．It’s absurd to often find excuses for mistakes in life.

5. What lesson is conveyed in the example often shared by the author?

A．We should try to avoid troubling others.

B．We should focus on how to solve problems.

C．We should dare to point out others’ mistakes.

D．We should be self-critical as much as possible.

7 . 阅读下面短文，按照要求完成阅读任务。

The Yosufs’ house is unlike any other house. In the sitting room, instead of a television, there is a blackboard on the wall. For two hours every day, Mr Yosuf writes complex mathematical problems on the board. His daughter, Zuleika, copies them into an exercise book and solves them.

Zuleika is special. She’s five years old, but instead of watching cartoons or playing computer games, her favourite pastimes are solving equations and reading books. She already spends hours every day in a university library. Next year Zuleika will become Britain’s youngest “A” level student.

Not surprisingly, the Yosufs are a very clever family. Zuleika’s two sisters and a brother, aged 16, 14 and 12 are also good at maths and are already at university. Her father, who specialises in maths research, has taught them all. “Zuleika is very competitive, says her father.” She sees her brother and sisters working every day and she can’t wait to catch up with them. I remember teaching the others maths when they were eight. Zuleika solves the same problems now, although she took up maths much earlier. We could see she was interested in numbers at a much younger age. ”

So what is the secret of their success? When their first child arrived, Mr Yosuf and his wife made up their minds to teach all of their children at home. They say that home tuition combined with love and understanding has helped their children to succeed. “We’ve been patient and supportive, and they take pride in what they do,” says Mr. Yosuf. “Maybe Zuleika has a natural talent for maths, but I believe given the right surroundings, any child could do well. ”

One thing all child prodigies(神童) do have in common is a complete dedication to and love of their subject. They spend many more hours working at it than the average child, and this extra effort is reflected in their achievements. It is not necessary to be extremely talented to be a child prodigy, but you do have to have a lot of motivation.

1. What is the blackboard in the sitting room used for? (no more than 20 words)
____________________________________________________________
2. Why is Zuleika special? (no more than 15 Words)
____________________________________________________________
3. What does the underlined word “surroundings” in paragraph 4 probably mean? (1 word)
____________________________________________________________
4. What do all child prodigies have in common according to the text? (no more than 15 words)
____________________________________________________________
5. What do you think of studying at home?Give your reasons. (no more than 20 words)
____________________________________________________________

9 . The United States seems to have become extremely enthusiastic about competition. The famous Scripps National Spelling Bee—an annual spelling contest—now allows kids who last in regional competitions but whose parents agree to pay an entry fee (费用) along with their own food and accommodation to compete. And while some kids are working for what they call a spelling “career”, others are approaching chess competitions, dance competitions, cooking or other passions that previous generations developed somewhat later in life.

I’m disturbed by the phenomenon (现象), which seems to be getting worse and more intense.

My teacher always warned us that competition is a destructive quality; that the goal is never to beat anyone else. I think he’ll be cheered by author Peggy Noonan’s idea that a lot of us are running our own races, trying to rise to the occasion and beat some past and limited conception of ourselves by doing something great.

I heartily agree. Instead of paying attention to the accomplishments or possessions of others, we need to focus on our own potential, our own growth and take pleasure in our own particular set of circumstances. The battle for life is not against anyone else but against the darkness inside that tries to bring us down. I wish you only well. Your good doesn’t reduce mine. Your bad gives me no pleasure

Ms. Noonan also suggests that “you’re running your own race alongside others running theirs, and in the same direction. You’re doing something great together.” If we stop worrying about what our neighbor is earning or driving, the size of his house, the success of his marriage, the accomplishments of his children, we can sit back and enjoy our own lives. And if we all focus on what we each can achieve, regardless of anyone else, we have a chance of working as one, of actually being united.

Competition divides us. There are winners and losers. But that’s a very limited picture of reality. It may apply to spelling bees and soccer matches and even in some college classes, but life isn’t about triumphing (战胜) over someone else; it’s about triumphing over ourselves. The only acceptable competition is one where we encourage each other to be the best human being possible, and that’s the only game where “everyone is a winner”.

1. What does the author worry about?

A．Youth competition is fierce.	B．Youth competition is expensive.
C．Youth competition lacks fairness.	D．Youth competition lacks diversity.

2. What do you know about Peggy Noonan?

A．She’s also a student of the author’s teacher’s.

B．She thinks competition is a destructive quality.

C．She taught the author how to understand competition.

D．She and the author’s teacher have similar views on competition.

3. What should we do in the battle for life according to the author?

A．Know our competitors well.	B．Leave everything to chance.
C．Get rid of the bad things inside us.	D．Learn from others’ successes and failures.

4. How does Peggy Noonan describe the way people live their lives?

A．People take turns to lead the race.

B．People follow parallel paths to each other.

C．One man’s loss is another man’s gain.

D．No one goes in the same direction as anyone else.

5. What could be the best title for the passage?

A．Your Real Competition Is With Yourself

B．Everyone Is a Winner in the Battle for Life

C．Competition Is a Good Thing, But Not to the Youth

D．Through Competition, We Become Better Ourselves

10 . If you’re worried about the planet, please make sure your rubbish is buried under the ground.

People talk about “reduce, reuse, recycle.” It sounds like a good idea. There is a problem, though. Recycling costs too much money.

Even the U. S. Environmental Protection Agency(EPA) says it only makes sense economically and environmentally to recycle about 35 percent of thrown materials, Among those materials are paper and aluminum cans (铝罐), Recycling 1 ton of paper or aluminum cans, the agency says, can save about 3 tons of CO2 emissions (排放) overproducing those materials again. Paper producers pay for the trees they process If it was cost-effective to recycle paper. producers would be beating down your door to bay it. But they aren’t. That means it’s more expensive to recycle old paper than to cut trees and then replant trees for processing.

Plastic can be recycled too. Because of the recent drop in crude oil (原油) prices. it is now cheaper to make a new plastic container (塑料容器) than to recycle an old one. Even if that were not true, the EPA says that recycling a ton of plastic saves only about a ton of CO2. However, it doesn’t take into consideration the water most people use to wash their plastic containers before having them recycled. The New York Times Journalist John

Tierney recently wrote. “If you wash plastic in water that was heated by electricity, them the effect of your recycling could be mere carbon in the air.

Glass is another recyclable material. To reduce greenhouse gas emissions by I ton, you have to recycle 3 tons of glass. If one includes the cost of collecting glass waste from neighborhoods, and the pollution produced by the collection trucks and the recycling process itself, glass recycling creates more greenhouse gas emissions and is more expensive than making new glass, which comes primarily from sand that exists everywhere.

If recycling were truly cost-effective, private companies would be lining up at your doorstep to buy your rubbish. Don’t look now because they’re not there.

1. What’s the EPA’S attitude to recycling aluminum cans?

A．It is helpful to the environment.	B．It is actually a waste of money.
C．It costs less than recycling paper.	D．It costs the same as producing new cans.

2. What increases the cost of recycling plastic?

A．The crude oil.	B．The water pollution.
C．The process to clean it.	D．The electricity for lights.

3. What can be learned about making new glass?

A．It results in lots of waste in neighborhoods.

B．The material for new glass can be easily got.

C．It is slightly more expensive than recycling glass.

D．Making 3 tons of new glass produces I ton of carbon emissions.

4. What does the author mean by saying the underlined sentence?

A．Recycling will disappear soon.

B．Companies will line up at your doorstep.

C．Recycling is a way to deal with your rubbish.

D．Companies won’t bother to collect thrown materials.

5. What’s the best title for the text?

A．Whose fault is it?	B．Where does waste go?
C．Is everything recyclable?	D．Is it really worth the effort?