1 . Growing Pains
The term "adulting started as a sort of joke 一一 whenever a millennial（千禧一代）would do something age-appropriate, this was an act of "adulting." Now, though, millennials obviously require training in being an adult.
Rachel Flehinger has co-founded an Adulting School, which includes online courses on simple sewing, conflict resolution and cooking. The cause for such classes is that many millennials "haven’t left childhood homes" 一一 in America 34 percent of adults aged 18 to 34 still lived with their parents as of 2015, up from 26 percent a decade before.
There's a good deal of truth to this. If you're living at home, with Mom and Dad doing their best to spoil（(溺爱）you, you're less likely to know how to do laundry, cook or balance a checkbook. Dependency breeds enervation.
But here's the catch: Living at home doesn't necessarily lead to dependency. As of 1940, more than 30 percent of 25- to 29-year-olds lived at home with parents or grandparents. They were adulting, even while living at home. Parents expected their kids to do chores, to prepare for life. Instead of blaming living at home, then, we have to blame our style of parenting. The truth is that we've simply become lazier as parents.
So what's the real problem?
We're more likely to let our kids crash on our couches（长沙发）than tell them to get a job and pay rent. We don't push our kids to build families of their own, as life expectancy has increased, so has adolescence. Americans aren't expected to start building a life, particularly middle- and upper-class Americans, until they're nearing their 30s. Then the question is how we can encourage young people to "'adult" in non-circumstance-driven fashion.
1. What does the last sentence in the third paragraph "Dependency breeds enervation." mean?| A．Parents would like to do housework by themselves |
| B．Present kids are too lazy to do housework. |
| C．Dependency makes kids unable. |
| D．Kids depend on their parents. |
| A．Millennials would like to be trained in being an adult. |
| B．Parents are too lazy to do chores. |
| C．Millennials don't adult because they still live in their childhood homes. |
| D．In the 1940s kids were adulting even when they were living at home. |
| A．"Adulting" is hard, but only because parents are too lazy to teach their kids. |
| B．Millennials should leave home early to adult. |
| C．Americans aren't expected to start building a life until they're nearing their 30s. |
| D．Adulting schools with online courses are popular. |
| A．The government should push off the age of adulthood. |
| B．Parents should leave kids in charge of society. |
| C．Parents should put responsibility on young people. |
| D．Pushing kids to adult is painful for parents. |
2 . An ageless question: When is someone “old”?
What does “old” really mean these days? This isn’t a meaningless question — not only does the definition of “old” have an outsized impact on how we feel about ourselves (not to mention how others view us), it also matters to policymakers determining how to plan for aging populations.
The United Nations historically has defined older persons as people 60 years or over (sometimes 65). It didn’t matter whether you lived in the United States, China or Senegal, even though life expectancy is quite different in each of those countries. Everyone became old at 60.
Researchers Sergei Scherbov and Warren Sanderson, who study aging, are suggesting overturning the one-size-fits-all-across-the-globe definition of old. Instead, they talk about “prospective age”, which looks to the future. Everyone with the same prospective age has the same expected remaining years of life.
Scherbov explained that young and old are relative concepts, and their common reference point is life expectancy. It makes sense that “old” would vary between nations, especially between more-and less-developed countries, with differences in education, death rates, access to health care and life expectancy.
But who is “old” also varies-widely-between individuals. The point, says Scherbov, is that personal age is dependent on our “characteristics” — understanding abilities, disability, health history and even education levels. Those with more education tend not to smoke, exercise more frequently, have better diets and have regular checkups — and, therefore, live longer, meaning the beginning of their old age comes later, says Scherbov.
1. What is the first paragraph mainly about?| A．How do we feel about ourselves? |
| B．How do others view us? |
| C．The importance of the definition of “old”. |
| D．The plan for aging populations. |
| A．The expected remaining years of one’s life. |
| B．The beginning of one’s old age. |
| C．The differences of our “characteristics”. |
| D．The age when one becomes old. |
| A．Understanding abilities. | B．Nations. |
| C．Education. | D．The reference point. |
| A．As much exercise as possible. | B．Losing weight. |
| C．Studying history. | D．Improving the education level. |
3 . Could bike share programs lead to greater cycling safety?
In April 2015, Philadelphia introduced a bike share program. By 2019, there were more than 1,300 bikes and 400 pedal-assisted electric bicycles available. People used them for about 50,000 trips a month.
Before the introduction of the bike share program, the rate of bicycle-car accidents had been gradually increasing. By May 2015, the month after the introduction of the program, the rate was twice that of January 2010.
But the researchers, writing in the American Journal of Public Health, found that from that time through the end of 2018, the rate decreased by an average of 13 percent a year, despite the increases over those years in the number of bicycles on city streets, and even though Philadelphia made no major basic construction changes, like adding many protected bike lanes (自行车道).
The lead author, Ghassan B. Hamra, an assistant professor at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, said it appeared that there is safety in numbers: the more bikes on the road, the more car drivers adapt to their presence, and the safer cyclists may be.
“We all know that bike riding is a healthy activity, physically and mentally,” he said, “but there might be concerns that if you introduce a bike share program there will be negative consequences. We saw no evidence of that in Philadelphia.”
1. What has happened to the number of bicycle-car accidents with the introduction of the bike share program?| A．It has increased. | B．It has reduced. |
| C．It remains the same. | D．It is unknown. |
| A．Many protected bike lanes have been added. |
| B．Car drivers are more used to their presence. |
| C．More people take up bike riding as a healthy activity. |
| D．Negative consequences have appeared. |
| A．He is in favor of it. | B．He disapproves of it. |
| C．He brought it in. | D．He is concerned about it. |
| A．Sharing bikes, cutting accidents | B．Problems with sharing bikes |
| C．Basic construction changes | D．Share program in Philadelphia |
4 . Do you like to show off your expensive items? You could find yourself without friends! Scientists prove that expensive status symbols make you look less socially attractive.
Items such as a fancy car and a Rolex watch are often thought to increase our social standing(地位) and often come with a high price tag(标签).According to the latest research, however, it has the opposite effect and people would prefer to be friends with someone who places less value on material objects.
“Often we think that status symbols will make us look more socially attractive to others,” says Stephen Garcia, the study's leading author from the University of Michigan. He adds, “However, our research suggests that these status signals actually make us look less socially attractive.
The researchers conducted six studies which assessed how people presented themselves and how people viewed strangers. People who chose to wear higher status items tended to get a negative response, but people wanted to be friends with people who preferred lower status symbols.
The study took the role of the luxury(奢侈) item to see if it was possible that the expensive item itself played a part in people's reactions. The definition of a status symbol changed based on a person's socioeconomic status, but the same effect of keeping off potential friends was seen regardless of social position.
"At a social level, we may be wasting billions of dollars on expensive status symbols that finally keep others from wanting to associate with us, "says Kimberlee Weaver Livnat at the University of Haifa. She says, "And to the extent that close friendships are important to well-being, and we may be unintentionally hurting ourselves.”
However, Patricia Chen of the National University of Singapore said this does not necessarily mean status symbols are a bad thing. She says, "Our findings right now only apply to the formation of new friendships. Status symbols may be beneficial at other times and in other settings, such as when trying to establish new business contacts.”
1. Which is the negative influence of expensive status symbols?| A．Preventing people from making friends. | B．Lowering people's social status. |
| C．Doing harm to people's health absolutely. | D．Changing people s consumption concept. |
| A．People who are very rich. | B．People with high social status. |
| C．People with charming appearance. | D．People who keep a low status. |
| A．Unconcerned. | B．Positive. |
| C．Critical. | D．Casual. |
注意：1.行文连贯流畅；2.参考词汇：低头族：phubber 3.词数100词左右 Dear Henry,
How's everything going?
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Yours,
Li Hua
