1 . Many kids help out around the house with chores such as emptying the dishwasher, putting laundry away, and taking out the trash. In exchange, some kids get allowances or other rewards such as extra computer time.
But some people do not think that kids should get rewards for doing chores. Susie Walton, a parenting educator and family coach, believes that by rewarding kids, parents are sending a message that work isn’t worth doing unless you get something in return. “Running any kind of household is a team effort,” Susie said. “A home is a living space for everyone in the family. It’s important for kids to see that we all have responsibilities in the house, and that families decide together how they want their home to look, and how they are going to keep it looking like everyone wants it to look.”
Other people believe that getting a cash allowance or other rewards motivates kids to do chores, and it also teaches them real world lessons about how we need to work to earn money. There are also new applications that give kids points and digital gifts that can be redeemed (兑取) either online or in the real world. With the Chore Monster app, kids earn digital points by completing chores that they can turn in for real-life rewards such as extra Xbox time or a trip to the mall. “Our goal is to encourage kids to earn rewards.” says Chris Bergman, founder of Chore Monster. “Kids need positive reinforcement to help motivate them.”
What do you think? Should kids be rewarded for doing chores? Or should kids help out around their homes without getting anything in return?
Write a 200-word response. Send it to tfkasks4you@timeforkids. com. Your response may be published in a future issue of Time For Kids. Please include your grade and contact information of your parent or teacher if you want your response to be published. The deadline for responding is 18 February.
1. How does the author start the passage?| A．By stating his own experiences. | B．By presenting some facts. |
| C．By comparing different views. | D．By listing some evidence. |
| A．Kids should be rewarded for doing chores. |
| B．Parents decide what kids can do for the family. |
| C．Kids have the responsibility to share housework. |
| D．Kids can get extra computer time for doing chores. |
| A．Chris Bergman’s opinion on raising kids. |
| B．Main reasons why kids need encouragement |
| C．How to motivate kids to try new applications. |
| D．The advantage of rewarding kids for doing chores. |
| A．To invite readers to express their opinions. | B．To present the author’s viewpoint about parenting. |
| C．To call on readers to reflect on their behavior. | D．To inform readers of two different opinions. |
增加：在缺词处加一个漏字符号（∧），并在其下面写出该加的词。
删除：把多余的词用斜线（\）划掉。
修改：在错的词下划一横线，并在该词下面写出修改后的词。
注意：1.每处错误及其修改均仅限一词；
2.只允许修改10处，多者（从第11处起）不计分。
Nowadays more and more students attend different kind of training classes or hire tutors to improve their grades at weekends.
Some of the students think that necessary to do so. Firstly, it's more effective to study under a teacher's help than by themselves. Secondly, students can make up for that they miss or fail to understand in class on weekdays. Besides, they can have more chances and time communicate with teachers.
Therefore, others don't think so. For one thing, the students can easily develop the habit of dependence, causing some students not to listen attentive in their regular classes. For another, students needed time for rest and recreation at weekends. What's worse, attend training classes means costing them much money.
3 . In general, elderly people, after retirement, can spend time in
The majority would prefer home-based care,
The government is encouraging home-based care for the aged not only because it is the top choice of the elderly
To help the elderly people, the government is sponsoring day-care centers in local communities in many cities, where the government
For those who prefer to stay
| A．celebrations | B．meetings | C．activities | D．movements |
| A．or | B．but | C．yet | D．and |
| A．spending | B．to spend | C．costing. | D．to cost |
| A．which | B．that | C．it | D．where |
| A．as | B．so | C．therefore | D．however |
| A．optional | B．national | C．additional | D．traditional |
| A．below | B．under | C．over | D．above |
| A．making | B．considering | C．supposing | D．believing |
| A．As if | B．Only if | C．Even if | D．If only |
| A．merely | B．only | C．mostly | D．nearly |
| A．but for | B．but also | C．and then | D．and yet |
| A．of | B．on | C．off | D．with |
| A．handling | B．to handle | C．handled | D．being handled |
| A．requires | B．recommends | C．guides | D．provides |
| A．are advised | B．is advised | C．are operated | D．is operated |
| A．taste | B．turn | C．take | D．touch |
| A．at home | B．at abroad | C．at dinner | D．at ease |
| A．immediately | B．lately | C．justly | D．necessary |
| A．but | B．yet | C．and | D．thus |
| A．so that | B．however | C．although | D．now that |
4 . Pengci (碰瓷) has been a disgusting matter for a long time. When driving on a road, if you see an old man or woman walking by the road, you may be afraid that he or she will hit your car on purpose, and then ask you for much money. Even worse, it has been reported that a pupil saw an old woman fall onto the ground, so he walked over to help her. But she grabbed him and said she was pushed down by him. Then she tried to extort much money from the pupil’s parents.
What a shame! How to deal with it? Our authorities have taken aim at pengci.
On October 14, three top judicial (司法的) organs issued a guideline to clarify the application of the law in extortion cases involving deliberately fabricated (捏造的) accidents or similar happenings. The guideline was issued by the Ministry of Public Security, the Supreme People’s Court and the Supreme People’s Procuratorate. For the first time, authorities have defined the pengci trick, in which people pretend they have been harmed by another party and then ask that party for money or property as compensation.
The guideline stipulates (规定) punishment for the two main types of pengci-fraud and extortion. Criminals who intentionally or negligently cause harm to others while carrying out pengci tricks may be charged with the crimes of intentional homicide, intentional injury, negligently (疏忽地) causing others’ death or causing serious injury to others, the guideline said.
The guideline also stipulates that whoever deliberately causes a traffic accident and blackmails the victim, which meets the relating provisions (条款) of the Criminal Law, shall be punished as the crime of extortion by blackmail.
According to this guideline, we can avoid being extorted by ill persons and warm-hearted persons can help those who really need help.
1. What does the underlined word“extort”in Paragraph 1 refer to?| A．Threaten to get something illegally. | B．Earn something by working. |
| C．Ask somebody for something. | D．Give something for free |
| A．To protect old men and women. |
| B．To punish criminals seriously. |
| C．To help students do good deeds. |
| D．To clarify the application of the law in extortion cases. |
| A．All the criminals referred to in this passage shall be charged. |
| B．The guideline stipulates one who causes a traffic accident by chance shall be punished. |
| C．Those who play pengci tricks usually pretend to have been harmed. |
| D．If a man plays pengci tricks, he may be very poor. |
| A．Help cautiously when necessary. | B．Help without hesitation. |
| C．Look on nearby. | D．Call the police quickly. |
5 . When you walk into your place of work in the morning, are you walking in as yourself or as a stranger? While the workplace is a place to wear your professional face, it's also a place where you should feel comfortable and connected to your coworkers. There's a good reason for this: A new study finds that hiding your true self at work is not good for your career and your sense of belonging in the workplace.
"When someone hides their true identity, their social connections suffer and this has an impact not just on the individual, but also on the organization they work for," says co-author Professor Manuela Barreto."Our findings suggest openness about one's identity is often beneficial for individuals, the group and their workplace."
When employers fail to create this sense of belonging among their employees, it's difficult for the individuals to find their purposes in work. This then impacts their ability to be productive. More specifically, the researchers found that hiding these characteristics from coworkers reduces their self-respect, job fulfillment and job commitment.
For the study, researchers at University of Exeter focused on commonly stigmatized(感到羞耻的) characteristics, like having a history of poverty or mental or physical illnesses. They sought to see how hiding such conditions could affect one's ability to grow.
The findings were based on multiple studies they analyzed from the Netherlands and the USA.In one.of the experiments, they had 95 men and women describe a time when they either hid or revealed(展现) a stigmatized characteristic about themselves, In another one, the researchers offered imaginary scenarios(情景) to 303 participants that again either hid or revealed themselves.
In both experiments, participants were then asked how they'd feel after hiding or sharing the stigmatized characteristic. The answers of those who hid themselves resulted in the conclusion stated above: lower sense of belonging and job fulfillment and commitment.
So we need environments where people don't need to hide. Encouraging complete openness can turn the office into a more comfortable place that allows employees to enjoy working.
1. Why is Professor Manuela Barreto mentioned?| A．To clarify the process of the study. | B．To explain the findings of the study. |
| C．To state the purposes of the study. | D．To show the influence of the study. |
| A．They always look down upon others. |
| B．They are often content with their work. |
| C．They are likely to get tired of their work. |
| D．They can ruin their coworkers ' confidence. |
| A．To tell their stigmatized memories. | B．To participate in real scenarios. |
| C．To describe others' characteristics. | D．To report their true feelings. |
| A．Openness is beneficial to your job promotion. |
| B．Stigmatized characteristics need hiding properly. |
| C．Hiding who you are is harmful in the workplace. |
| D．The sense of belonging benefits employees a lot. |
6 . Technology is supposed to make our lives easier, allowing us to do things more quickly and efficiently. But too often it seems to make things harder. This increase in complexity, often called "feature creep," costs consumers time, but it also costs business money. Product returns in the U.S. cost a hundred billion dollars a year, and a recent study by Elke den Ouden, of Philips Electronics, found that at least half of returned products have nothing wrong with them. Consumers just couldn't figure out how to use them. Companies now know a great deal about problems of usability and consumer behavior, so why is it that feature creep proves unstoppable?
In part, fieature creep is the product of the so-called internal-audience problem: the people who design and sell product are not the ones who buy and use them, and what engineers and marketers think is important is not necessarily what's best for consumers. The engineers tend not to notice when more options make a product less usable. And marketing and sales departments see each additional feature as a new selling point, and a new way to attract customers.
You might think, then, that companies could avoid fieature creep by just paying attention to what customers really want. But that's where the trouble begins, because although consumers find overloaded gadgets（ 配件）unmanageable, they also find them attractive. It turns out that when we look at a new product in a store we tend to think that the more features there are, the better. It is only once we get the product home and try to use it that we realize the virtues of simplicity.
It seems strange that we don't expect feature tiredness and thus avoid it. But, as numerous studies have shown, people are not, in general, good at predicting what will make them happy in the future. As a result, we will pay more for more features because we systematically overestimate how often we'll use them. We also overestimate our ability to figure out how a complicated product works.
The fact that buyers want bells and whistles but users want something clear and simple creates an unusual problem for companies. A product that doesn't have enough features may fail to catch our eye in the store. But a product with too many features is likely to annoy consumers.
1. What does the first paragraph mainly discuss?| A．The benefits brought by the advanced technology. |
| B．The recent study conducted by Elke den Ouden. |
| C．The loss caused by the feature creep of technology. |
| D．Many problems of usability known by the consumers. |
| A．It is the audience problem that leads to feature creep. |
| B．What matters to designers and marketers is not good for consumers. |
| C．Feature creep brings blessings to the people in marketing and sales. |
| D．The engineers will not pay attention to the quality of the product |
| A．They are deeply convinced that all the products work in simple way. |
| B．They are fed up with the more and more features of the products. |
| C．They are too confident of their ability to use the complicated products. |
| D．They are quite clear about the products which will make them happy. |
| A．Saying No to Feature Creep is No Easy Thing |
| B．Feature-heavy Products in Demand |
| C．The More Features, the Better |
| D．Simplicity Outweighs Complexity |
7 . In a country known for high-tech ambitions and giant state-owned firms, the plight of street hawkers may seem insignificant. But in China these days, people like Shui Jin, an old lady riding a wooden cart filled with fruit, are in the spotlight.
Faced with rising unemployment, officials have concluded that pavement stands can help solve the economy’s problems. Shui Jin, who used to face the danger of heavy fines, may sell her fruit with more confidence as she slowly makes her way through the narrow lanes of Suzhou. Her family needs the money. Both her daughters-in-law recently lost their jobs, among the tens of millions in China hurt by the coronavirus outbreak.
The government’s support for street hawkers is something of an about-turn. For years Municipal authorities pushed out hawkers, trying to tidy up the colourful chaos that once characterized China’s cities. In the name of “civilizing” urban life, they wanted to see dumplings, plastic toys and T-shirts bought inside shopping malls, not sold from the back of carts. But on June 1st Li Keqiang, the prime minister, signalled a change. Stopping by a snack stand in the city of Yantai, he declared that street hawkers and small shops were vital to the economy. “Only when the people are in good shape can the nation be in good shape,” he said.
Mr. Li’s compliment has produced a feeling of excitement about the revival of China’s “street- stand economy”. At least 27 provinces and cities have announced that they will create markets for hawkers or, in some cases, let them move their things being sold onto the pavement in front of their shops. The shining example is Chengdu, a busy and noisy city in Sichuan province in the south-west, where businesses started setting up street stands in March. The local government there claims that more than 10000 jobs have been created in the process.
1. According to the passage, street hawkers in China used to_________.| A．clean the street | B．be in the spotlight |
| C．run a shop | D．be given heavy fines |
| A．a local government | B．a complete change |
| C．a good shape | D．a clean city |
| A．They can make few jobs created for the unemployed people. |
| B．They can make the people and the nation in good shape. |
| C．They can make people like Shui Jin selling their fruit. |
| D．They can make the city tidy and noisy. |
| A．China turns to once-banned hawkers to revive its economy. |
| B．China’s street-stand economy has a long history. |
| C．China has high-tech ambitions and giant state-owned firms. |
| D．China is now faced with rising unemployment. |
8 . American children are still eating lots of fast food---and in spite of restaurants’ promises of healthy options, most kids are sticking with fries over salads. Some infamous chains like McDonald’s and Wendy’s have promised to offer healthier options on their kid’s menus, but they aren’t all sticking it, according to a report from the Rudd Center.
In fact, nearly all parents are buying their kids at least one fast food meal a week. Healthy fruits and vegetables may be all the rage among adults, but busy parents still choose quick meals for themselves and their kids. It doesn’t look like fast food is going away any time soon.
Scientists at the Rudd Center surveyed about 800 parents in 2010, then again in 2013 and 2016. Things have not improved much over the years. Of the vast majority of parents who had made a trip to McDonald’s, Burger King, Wendy’s or Subway in the last week, 74% ordered an unhealthy side or drink. The older the children, the more likely their parents were to choose fries instead of a fruit, or a similar less healthy menu item. And about 35% of parents ordered regular adult menu items for their 2 to 11--year-old children, meaning these kids were often getting larger, less nutritious lunches and dinners.
Even as they introduced options like fruit juices, low-fat milk and yogurt to their menus, some restaurants have also added desserts and other calorie-heavy options to their kids’ menu items. So despite what’s now on offer, kids are getting equally or less nutritious meals, nowadays, which is mostly because fast food restaurants still promote their unhealthy options, and sides like fries are still allowed.
“While most fast-food restaurants do have healthier kids’ meal drinks and sides available, many do little to make parents aware of the healthier options or to encourage parents to choose the healthier options instead of unhealthy ones,” said lead study author Jennifer Harris. “If restaurants are serious about children’s health, they will make the healthiest choice and easiest for parents and the most appealing choice for children.”
1. What do the underlined words “all the rage” in Paragraph 2 mean?| A．popular. | B．necessary. | C．potential. | D．modern. |
| A．Many parents like to eat in McDonald’s. |
| B．Many parents think eating fast food is healthy. |
| C．Many parents tend to choose unhealthy food in their daily life. |
| D．Many parents always ignore the healthy food in their daily life. |
| A．Fruits juices. | B．Desserts. | C．Low-fat milk. | D．Yogurt. |
| A．Offer healthier meals for kids. | B．Take children’s health seriously. |
| C．Be honest about their business. | D．Guide parents how to order a healthy meal. |
9 . Just how much does the Constitution(宪法) protect your digital data? The Supreme Court will now consider whether police can search the contents of a mobile phone without a warrant (授权令) if the phone is on or around a person during an arrest.
California has asked the justices to restore the practice that the police may search through the contents of suspects’ smartphones at the time of their arrest. It is hard, the state says, for judges to assess the implications of new and rapidly changing technologies .
The justices would be careless if they followed California's advice. They should start by rejecting California’s weak argument that exploring the contents of a smart phone is similar to say, going through a suspect's wallet. The court has ruled that police don't offend against the Fourth Amendment(修正案) when they go through the wallet of an arrestee without a warrant. In fact, exploring one's smartphone is more like entering his or her home. A smartphone may contain an arrestee's reading history, financial history, medical history and comprehensive records of recent correspondence.
Americans should take steps to protect their own digital privacy and should avoid putting important information in smartphones. But keeping sensitive information on these devices is increasingly a requirement of normal life. Citizens still have a right to expect private documents to remain private and protected by the Constitution's prohibition on unreasonable searches.
In many cases, it would not be very difficult for authorities to obtain a warrant to search through phone contents. They could still trump(打出王牌) the Fourth Amendment protections when facing severe and dangerous circumstances, such as the threat of immediate harm, and they could take reasonable measures to ensure that phone data are not deleted or altered while a warrant is on the way. The justices, though, may want to allow room for police to cite situations where they are entitled to more flexibility.
But the justices should not swallow California's argument whole. New technology sometimes demands fresh applications of the Constitution's protections. Orin Kerr, a law professor, compares the explosion and accessibility of digital information in the 21st century with the establishment of automobile use as a digital necessity of life in the 20th. At that time, the justices had to explain new rules for the new personal domain(领域) of cars. Similarly, the justices must sort out how the Fourth Amendment of the Constitution applies to digital information now.
1. The author’s attitude toward California’s argument is _____________.| A．skeptical | B．tolerant |
| C．indifferent | D．disapproving |
| A．getting into one's residence | B．handing one's historical records |
| C．scanning one's correspondences | D．going through one's wallet |
| A．principles are hard to be clearly expressed |
| B．citizens' privacy is not effectively protected |
| C．phones are used to store sensitive information |
| D．the court is giving police less room for action |
| A．the Constitution should be implemented flexibly |
| B．Principles of the Constitution should never be changed |
| C．New technology requires reinterpretation of the Constitution |
| D．California's argument violates principles of the Constitution |
10 . With the young unable to afford to leave home and the old at risk of isolation(孤独), more families are choosing to live together.
The doorway to peace and quiet, for Nick Bright at least, leads straight to his mother-in-law, she lives on the ground floor, while he lives upstairs with his wife and their two daughters.
Four years ago they all moved into a three-storey Victorian house in Bristol - one of a growing number of multigenerational families in the UK living together under the same roof. They share a front door and a washing machine, but Rita Whitehead has her own kitchen, bathroom, bedroom and living room on the ground floor.
“We floated the idea to my mum of sharing at a house,” says Kathryn Whitehead. Rita cuts in: “We spoke more with Nick because I think it’s a big thing for Nick to live with his mother-in-law.”
And what does Nick think? “From my standpoint, it all seems to work very well. Would I recommend it? Yes, I think I would.”
It’s hard to tell exactly how many people agree with him, but research indicates that the numbers have been rising for some time. Official reports suggest that the number of households with three generations living together had risen from 325,000 in 2001to 419,000 in 2013.
Other varieties of multigenerational family are more common. Some people live with their elderly parents; many more adult children are returning to the family home, if they ever left. It is said that about 20% of 25-34-year-olds live with their parents, compared with 16% in 1991.The total number of all multigenerational households in Britain is thought to be about 1.8 million.
Stories like that are more common in parts of the world where multigenerational living is more firmly rooted. In India, particularly outside cities, young women are expected to move in with their husband’s family when they get married.
1. Who mainly uses the ground floor in the Victorian house in Bristol?| A．Nick. | B．Rita. | C．Kathryn | D．The daughters. |
| A．Positive. | B．Carefree. | C．Tolerant. | D．Unwilling. |
| A．Family traditions. | B．Financial reports. | C．Published statistics. | D．Public opinions. |
| A．Lifestyles in different countries. | B．Conflicts between generations. |
| C．A housing problem in Britain. | D．A rising trend of living in the UK. |
