1 . Some people think working overtime means you’re a hard worker. You have to sacrifice your personal time to stay at work, produce something, help the company, and be a more devoted employee. But is that right?
A good manager knows how to encourage his employees to work to their full potential instead of expecting them to work late even if they don’t have something to do. People who stay in their office until late hate their jobs.
Overworking may negatively influence the level of productivity and efficiency. Any company that makes their employees work those hours is not being managed well.
Nowadays, it’s hard for a young person to build a good future, for pressures are on his (or her) shoulders: housing, children, parents, themselves, etc. But everyone must keep working hard to have ourselves on the way to the good future, which is not certain.
| A．No one wants to work overtime. |
| B．The boss thinks highly of overworking. |
| C．Working too many hours only means you are inefficient. |
| D．For it affects their performance, as well as other aspects of their life. |
| E．What’s sure is that if you’re lazy and don’t work hard, no good future will come. |
| F．Managers believe that overworking is an evidence of devotion from their employees’ side. |
| G．In many countries, overworking would be criticized because it reflects poor work efficiency. |
2 . Modern life is full of things that can influence your ability to be sensitive and responsive to your child. These include extra work, lack of sleep, and things like mobile devices. Some experts are concerned about the effects that distracted (分心) parenting may have on emotional bonding and children’s language development, social interaction, and safety.
If parents are inconsistently available, kids can get distressed and feel hurt, rejected, or ignored. They may have more emotional outbursts and feel alone. They may even stop trying to compete for their parent’s attention and start to lose emotional connections to their parents.
“There are times when kids really do need your attention and want your recognition,” explains Crnic, a psychologist. “Parents need to communicate that their kids are valuable and important, and children need to know that parents care what they’re doing,” he says.
It can be tough to respond with sensitivity during tantrums, arguments, or other challenging times with your kids. “If parents respond by being bad-tempered or aggressive themselves, children can copy that behavior, and a negative cycle then continues to upgrade,” explains Dr. Carol Metzler, who studies parenting at the Oregon Research Institute.
According to Crnic, kids start to regulate their own emotions and behavior around age three. Up until then, they depend more on you to help them regulate their emotions, whether to calm them or help get them excited. “They’re watching you to see how you do it and listening to how you talk to them about it,” he explains. “Parents need to be good self-regulators. You’re not only trying to regulate your own emotions in the moment, but helping your child learn to manage their emotions and behavior.”
As kids become better at managing their feelings and behavior, it’s important to help them develop coping skills, like active problem solving. Such skills can help them feel confident in handling what comes their way.
“When parents engage positively with their children, teaching them the behaviors and skills that they need to cope with the world, children learn to follow rules and regulate their own feelings,” Metzler says.
1. What may distract parenting according to the text?| A．Working overtime. | B．Too much sleep. | C．Negative emotions. | D．Social interactions. |
| A．Bad habits of ignored children. | B．Bad effects of parents’ absence. |
| C．The outcome of parents’ availability. | D．The behavior of emotional children. |
| A．Mental relaxation. | B．Extreme anger. | C．Heated discussions. | D．Desperate hunger. |
| A．Be strict with your children | B．Regulate your emotions |
| C．Stay available to your children | D．Set a good example for children |
3 . There is a popular saying in the English language: “Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me.” Well, that is not true. Unkind words, name-calling or even the so-called “the silent treatment” can hurt children as much as being physically hit, sometimes even more so. A recent study of middle school children showed that verbal (言语的) abuse by other children can harm, the development in the brain. The study was a project of researchers at Harvard Medical School in Massachusetts. Researcher Martin Teicher and his team studied young adults, aged 18 to 25. These young men and women had not ever been treated in a cruel or violent way by their parents. The researchers asked the young people to rate their childhood exposure to verbal abuse from both parents and other children. Then the researchers performed imaging tests on the brains of the subjects.
The images showed that the people who reported suffering verbal abuse from peers in middle school had underdeveloped connections between the left and right side of the brain. The two sides of the brain are connected by a large bundle of connecting fibers called the corpus callosum. This was the area that was underdeveloped.
The middle school years are a time when these brain connections are developing. So, unkind, hurtful comments from children or adults during this period have the greatest effect. The researchers tested the mental and emotional condition of all the young people in the study. The tests showed that this same group of people had higher levels of fear, depression, anger and drug abuse than others in the study.
The researchers published their findings online on the American Journal of Psychiatry's website.
Parents cannot control what other people say to their children, but they can prepare their children.
1. Why does the author use the popular saying at the beginning?| A．To show the power of words. |
| B．To introduce an opposite view. |
| C．To prove the author's argument. |
| D．To show ancient people's wisdom. |
| A．They were hurt by unkind words. |
| B．They performed poorly in imaging tests. |
| C．They had their brain slightly damaged. |
| D．They experienced no physical abuse at home. |
| A．Comments on the findings. |
| B．Approaches to further studies. |
| C．Suggestions to parents. |
| D．Different opinions on the matter. |
| A．Unkind words hurt the brain. |
| B．Verbal violence should be stopped. |
| C．The way we speak matters. |
| D．Words are worse than sticks and stones. |
Nowadays, millions
Singles are flocking(涌向) to the Internet
Despite all the advantages, online dating also presents its own set of problems. People aren’t always those who they declare to be in their online
5 . Nobody likes to fail. It makes people feel embarrassed and discouraged. What's worse, it may cause major professional or personal trouble and lead to negativity. Basically, failure is no fun for most people. However, a vast body of research tells us that failure provides us with a chance to grow and develop, increases adaptability, and helps protect against anxiety.
It's hard to change the mindset (心态) of a lifetime. But even if we still can't get over the broken marriage or the failed College Entrance Examination or the work presentation that went fearfully wrong, it might not be too late for our kids.
Christy Pennison, a professional consultant, says she works with an increasing number of kids and teens who show significant anxiety around a fear of failure. She said, "We want to protect our children, and we want them to live happy and meaningful lives, so we frequently tell them the harm of failure and ask them to avoid failure. The children experiencing internal and sometimes extenal pressure think they shouldn't fail. Meanwhile, we always have high expectations of them. So when they don't live up to a certain standard, or things don't go according to the plans, they will feel upset and anxious."
Pennison argues that failures, are often the hidden learning chances that can help people develop positive qualities, like persistence, focus, flexibility, patience, and positive self-image.
So what can parents do to help their children embrace (拥抱) failure instead of avoiding it at all costs? Pennison suggests directing praise towards the effort, not the result. "This allows children to build confidence in themselves, "she explains." Acknowledging the effort can give children permission to try new things without a fear of failure. And the bigger picture is that the development of the mindset —'I'd rather try and fail than not try at all.'—helps them keep a belief in themselves, and expands their world of possibilities." As Pennison points out, we all fail, but how we get up after we fail is what matters.
1. What aspect do most people focus on when thinking of failure?| A．The great courage to face it. |
| B．The efforts made to handle it. |
| C．Unexpected benefits it brings. |
| D．Unpleasant side effects it brings. |
| A．Bring up the main topic. |
| B．List the challenges in our life. |
| C．Add some background information. |
| D．Stress the importance of the mindset |
| A．The causes of children's anxiety. |
| B．Christy Pennison's comments on adolescents. |
| C．The consequences of overprotecting children. |
| D．Christy Pennison's experience in educating children. |
① Praise kids' every achievement.
② Make kids embrace a bright mindset.
③ Focus on the process of kids' effort
④ Expand kids' knowledge about the world.
⑤ Encourage kids to make new attempts.
| A．①②④ | B．②③④ | C．②③⑤ | D．①③⑤ |
6 . US author Henry Rollins once wrote: “Loneliness adds beauty to life. It puts a special burn on sunsets and makes night air smell better.” Indeed, in the eyes of artists, loneliness never seems to go out of style. There are paintings that portray loneliness, songs that are inspired by loneliness, and many works of literature that center around this theme.
In the eyes of UK economist Rachel Reeves, however, loneliness is far from romantic (浪漫的). Instead, it’s a “giant evil” that’s become a serious problem in the country.
So just how serious is it? On Jan 17, UK Prime Minister Theresa May appointed politician Tracey Crouch as the country’s very first “Minister for Loneliness”. Her job is to tackle (处理) the loneliness that the country’s been feeling – a problem which, according to UK government research, is affecting more than 9 million people in the country, and is more harmful to one’s physical and mental health than smoking 15 cigarettes a day.
And the problem hasn’t just appeared recently. Back in 2014, the UK was given the title of the “loneliness capital of Europe” by The Telegraph. A survey carried out by the newspaper found that British people were less likely to get to know their neighbors or build strong relationships with people than those from other European countries.
“There is something British about wanting to deal with problems yourself,” Christian Guy, director of the Centre for Social Justice think-tank (智囊团), told The Telegraph.
But this doesn’t mean that the problem only affects Britons. In fact, we’re all suffering from loneliness now more than ever, in spite of most of the world now having access to the internet, which has enabled us to be more connected than ever.
What we need, according to Kim Leadbetter, sister of the late UK politician Jo Cox, is to have “proper human connections”. “Our lives nowadays are so busy. We spend the vast majority of our time on our phones, on our laptops. We need to press pause on that and actually sit down and speak to human beings,” Leadbetter said at an event last year.
But the first steps toward fighting this problem are to accept its existence and not be ashamed or intimidated (吓倒) by it. After all, without loneliness, many beautiful paintings, songs, and literary works wouldn’t even exist. And “evil” or not, being lonely is simply part of the experience of being human.
1. What can we learn about the UK’s loneliness problem?| A．The UK became the loneliest country in the world in 2014. |
| B．More than half of British people suffer from loneliness. |
| C．The government is working to solve the problem. |
| D．British people communicate less with their neighbors than ever. |
| A．has become a problem worldwide |
| B．didn’t attract the public’s attention until recently |
| C．is mainly caused by the wide use of the internet |
| D．does more harm mentally than physically |
| A．Making more phone calls to our friends. |
| B．Stopping the use of electronic products. |
| C．Interacting with the people around us face to face more often. |
| D．Accepting its existence calmly. |
| A．Loneliness is a giant evil of society. |
| B．Only artists can appreciate the beauty of loneliness. |
| C．It is hard to find a solution to social loneliness. |
| D．Loneliness is just a normal part of our life. |
Kyrgyzstan(吉尔吉斯斯坦) is a mountainous country where nearly two thirds of the people live in rural areas. The UN notes that the local economy depends
The UN Development Programme studied records about the country’s college
Nineteen-year-old Alina Anisimova,
Actually, the number of women in science, technology, engineering and math areas
The world’s first 5G-enabled railway station is
A 5G network in the railway station will be part of the effort
While 4G changes our life, 5G will change the society,
9 . Across the world, studies have consistently found that girls perform significantly better than boys in reading. These studies show that girls typically read more frequently than boys, and have a more positive attitude toward reading.
There are several reasons that help explain these gender-based differences. Parents read more with their daughters. This sends a strong and early message that books are for girls, as well as equipping girls with a significant advantage. Recent research has found even though boys read less frequently than girls, girls still receive more encouragement to read from their parents.
So how can parents and educators help bridge this socially-engineered gap for boys’ reading?
To improve boys’ reading performance, parents and educators may look for ways to connect boys with reading. This has led to discussion about the importance of promoting so-called “boy-friendly” books that boys supposedly “prefer” These are typically assumed to be non-fiction works, as many people believed that boys prefer to read non-fiction.
But this belief is not supported by recent research, which in fact suggests boys are more likely to choose to read fiction than non-fiction. Encouraging all boys to read non-fiction under the mistaken belief that it is their preference may actually be harmful. Fiction readers read more frequently and demonstrate faster language learning and higher language ability.
Besides encouraging more fiction reading, there are a number of ways that we can help connect boys with books. Firstly, don’t assume that boys of the same age have the same interests or that their interests stay the same over time. To match boys with suitable reading material, have regular discussions about reading for pleasure in order to keep up with their interests.
Schools should also provide access to libraries during lessons throughout the years of schooling. Girls visit the library in their free time more than boys, and as students move to higher grades they often have less access to libraries during class. Access to books for boys is essential to promote reading.
In addition, we should keep paper books available because research shows that boys are less likely to choose to read on screens than girls. Finally we should promote reading as an enjoyable pastime by being a role model. Let your children or students see you read for pleasure.
1. According to the author, what is the main cause of the difference in boys’ and girls’ reading ability?| A．Social factors. |
| B．Teaching methods. |
| C．Personal preferences. |
| D．Psychological differences. |
| A．To persuade boys to read more often. |
| B．To learn what boys are most interested in. |
| C．To help boys improve their language ability. |
| D．To show that adults are good reading role models. |
| A．Before and after class. |
| B．At any time of the school day. |
| C．At regular times during class. |
| D．When they are in the lower grades. |
| A．To show students ways to improve their reading. |
| B．To explain why boys are not as good at reading as girls. |
| C．To urge governments to provide more reading resources. |
| D．To provide strategies that can help improve boys’ reading ability. |
10 . There are many programs for high school students today thathelp isolated teenagers cope with loneliness．However，loneliness is not only an issue for teens but also an important and rarely acknowledged one in the elderly．
In Britain，Tracey Crouch was appointed to be the first Minister of Loneliness in order to address the issues caused by loneliness．This is the first time such a position has been created．
In Britain，there are around 9 million people who say they are lonely frequently．In Germany，a study conducted by Ruhr University Bochum found that 20 percent of people over the age of 85 felt lonely，and 14 percent of those between age 45 and 65 felt socially isolated．In the United States，more than 25 percent of the population lives alone，more than 50 percent are unmarried．
Isolation is generally associated with cardiovascular disease，depression，obesity，and anxiety．Additionally，the stress from loneliness can cause your cells to change on a molecular(分子)level that reduces its abilities to defend your body against diseases．In fact，doctors believe having feelings of loneliness is equivalent to smoking 15 cigarettes per day in regard to its impact on health!
In Britain，the new Minister of Loneliness will help establish government policies on the issue and fund charities to devote their efforts towards aiding loneliness．There are charities that link lonely seniors to high school students in order to give them a line of communication whenever they feel lonely!
The possibilities for the new Minister of Loneliness are endless．For example，she can provide education services to household businesses so that they can identify lonely customers if they see one．Loneliness fits into the category of being a social issue that must be monitored by the entire community in order to help those in need．Hence，government involvement in medical services and care for seniors and others is essential for happy seniors．
1. What’s the main idea of the passage?| A．UK becomes the capital of loneliness． | B．Loneliness affects old people’s life． |
| C．Many teenagers suffer from loneliness． | D．UK appoints Minister of Loneliness． |
| A．By listing some specific numbers． |
| B．By giving examples of lonely people． |
| C．By pointing out similarities and differences． |
| D．By comparing different cultures in different countries． |
| A．Relevant． | B．Equal． |
| C．Opposite． | D．Superior． |
| A．Do housework for lonely people． |
| B．Develop friendships with the elderly． |
| C．Help fund charities to aid lonely people． |
| D．Communicate with depressed school students． |
