Parents and kids today dress alike, listen to the same music, and are friends. Is this a good thing? Sometimes, when Mr. Ballmer and his 16-year-old daughter, Elizabeth, listen to rock music together and talk about interests both enjoy, such as pop culture, he remembers his more distant relationship with his parents when he was a teenager.
“I would never have said to my mom, ‘Hey, the new Weezer album is really great. How do you like it?’” says Ballmer. “There was just a complete gap in taste.”
Music was not the only gulf. From clothing and hairstyles to activities and expectations, earlier generations of parents and children often appeared to move in separate orbits.
Today, the generation gap has not disappeared, but it is getting narrow in many families. Conversations on subjects such as sex and drugs would not have taken place a generation ago. Now they are comfortable and common. And parent—child activities, from shopping to sports, involve a feeling of trust and friendship that can continue into adulthood.
No wonder greeting cards today carry the message, “To my mother, my best friend.”
But family experts warn that the new equality can also result in less respect for parents. “There’s still a lot of strictness and authority on the part of parents out there, but there is a change happening,” says Kerrie, a psychology professor at Lebanon Valley College. “In the middle of that change, there is a lot of confusion among parents.”
Family researchers offer a variety of reasons for these evolving roles and attitudes. They see the 1960s as a turning point. Great cultural changes led to more open communication and a more democratic process that encourages everyone to have a say.
“My parents were on the ‘before’ side of that change, but today’s parents, the 40-year-olds, were on the ‘after’ side,” explains Mr. Ballmer. “It’s not something easily accomplished by parents these days, because life is more difficult to understand or deal with, but sharing interests does make it more fun to be a parent now.”
1. The underlined word gulf in Para.3 most probably means _________.
A. interest B. distance
C. difference D. separation
2. Which of the following shows that the generation gap is disappearing?
A. Parents help their children develop interests in more activities.
B. Parents put more trust in their children’s abilities.
C. Parents and children talk more about sex and drugs.
D. Parents share more interests with their children.
3. The change in today’s parent-child relationship is _________.
A. more confusion among parents
B. new equality between parents and children
C.1ess respect for parents from children
D. more strictness and authority on the part of parents
4. By saying “today’s parents, the 40-year-olds, were on the ‘after’ side.” the author means that today’s parents _________.
A. follow the trend of the change
B. can set a limit to the change
C. fail to take the change seriously
D. have little difficulty adjusting to the change
5. The purpose of the passage is to _________.
A. describe the difficulties today’s parents have met with
B. discuss the development of the parent—child relationship
C. suggest the ways to handle the parent—child relationship
D. compare today’s parent—child relationship with that in the past
Each morning Grandpa was up early sitting at the kitchen table, reading his book. His grandson wanted to be just like him and tried to copy him in every way he could.
One day the grandson asked, “Grandpa, I try to read the book just like you, but I don’t understand it, and I forget what I understand as soon as I close the book. What good does reading the book do?”
The grandpa quietly turned from putting coal in the stove and replied, “Take this coal basket down to the river and bring me back a basket of water.”
The boy did as he was told, but all the water leaked out before he got back to the house. The grandpa laughed and said, “You’ll have to move a little faster next time,” and sent him back to the river with the basket to try again.
This time the boy ran faster, but again the basket was empty before he returned. Out of breath, he told his grandpa that it was impossible to carry water in a basket, so he went to get a bucket instead.
The grandpa said, “I don’t want a bucket of water; I want a basket of water. You’re just not trying hard enough.”
The boy again dipped the basket into the river and ran hard, but when he reached his grandpa the basket was empty again. Out of breath, he said, “Grandpa, it’s useless!”
“So, you think it is useless?” the grandpa said, “Look at the basket.”
The boy looked at the basket and for the first time he realized that the basket was different. It had been transformed from a dirty old coal basket and was now clean.
“Grandson, that’s what happens when you read the book. You might not understand or remember everything, but when you read it, you’ll be changed, inside and out.” What puzzled the grandson most was ________.
| A．whether it was useful to read books |
| B．why he forgot what he read soon |
| C．what kind of book he could understand |
| D．how he could read books like his grandpa |
Why did Grandpa ask his grandson to fetch a basket of water?
| A．To train him to run faster. |
| B．To clean the dirty basket in the river. |
| C．To punish him for not reading carefully. |
| D．To get him to realize the use of reading books. |
What lesson can we learn from the story?
| A．The old are always wiser than the young. |
| B．It is foolish to carry water with a basket. |
| C．Reading books can change a person gradually. |
| D．You can’t expect to remember whatever you read. |
Why do people run? That is, why do thousands get up early and put their knees and ankles and hearts and lungs through the hell of 10,000 meters on the roads? For those who stick with it and are lucky, they get into another world: a state of physical and mental grace reached when their blood is racing through every vein (血管).
And in Austin, those who long to get better, even when they know it’s impossible, hang on Gilbert’s every word.
Gilbert’s methods are simple. It’s all about form: how the arms move and the feet land. He pushes his students hard. When they feel like they’re about to die, they look at Gilbert’s scars (伤疤) — the burns along his right arm, and then to his right leg, where the flames ate down to the bone. Whatever they feel, how bad, really, could it be?
“He gets people to believe in themselves,” says Lisa Spenner, one of the fanatics, who are crazy about Gilbert. “He treats everyone like they’re amazing.” If Gilbert is their savior, they are his saviors too. “Eventually, I realized I had to help people. When I help people, I feel good,” he says.
Gilbert’s right leg was so badly burnt that the knee was stuck at a 90-degree angle. The doctor said it would take six months to heal. Frustrated, Gilbert got on a bike. The biking led to walking, which finally led to running a year after he had been left to die.
In truth, runners don’t race other runners. They race against themselves to conquer their wills. So Gilbert spent the spring and summer of 2007 trying to do that, racing men faster than he is, knowing it would make him better.
Gilbert’s students, of course, keep rooting for him, though sometimes they wonder, “How much better can he get?” After all, they see him as more than just a runner and a coach. He’s a flesh-and-blood symbol: the daily struggle to show what you’re made of.What’s the purpose of the first paragraph?
| A．To explain to us why people run in the morning. |
| B．To tell us how important it is for people to run. |
| C．To lead to the topic of the passage. |
| D．To tell us that we may be running the wrong way. |
The underlined word “fanatics” in the fourth paragraph can be replaced by
“_____”.
| A．students | B．friends |
| C．fans | D．relatives |
What do we learn about Gilbert after reading the passage?
| A．He used to work as a fireman. |
| B．He has determination and strong will-power. |
| C．He learnt running from a coach. |
| D．He was advised to ride a bike when he was badly burnt. |
If your family is like many in the United States, keeping a lot of bottled water at home, it’s easy to get a cold one right out of the fridge on your way to a soccer game or activity, right?
But all those plastic bottles use a lot of fossil fuels and pollute the environment. In fact, Americans buy more bottled water than any other nation in the world, and add 29 billion water bottles a year to the problem. In order to make all these bottles, manufacturers use 17 million barrels of crude oil (原油). That’s enough oil to keep a million cars going for twelve months.
So why don’t more people drink water straight from the kitchen faucet? Some people drink bottled water because they think it is better for them than water out of the tap, but that’s not true. In the US, local governments make sure water from the faucet is safe.
People love the convenience of bottled water. But maybe if they realized the problems it causes, they would try drinking from a glass at home or carrying water in a refillable steel container instead of plastic.
Unfortunately, for every six water bottles we use, only one makes it to the recycling bin. The rest are sent to landfills. Or, even worse, they end up as trash on the land and in rivers, lakes and the ocean. Plastic bottles take many hundreds of years to break down.
Water is good for you, so keep drinking it. But think about how often you use water bottles, and see if you can make a change. And yes, you can make a difference. Remember this: recycling one plastic bottle can save enough energy to power a 60-watt light bulb for six hours. No matter who you are, you can do something for the environment. Join us and protect the environment.What’s the best title for this passage?
| A．Drinking water: bottled or from the tap? |
| B．How to save more energy? |
| C．Why is it good to drink water out of the tap? |
| D．Stop drinking bottled water from now on. |
According to the passage, why don’t some people drink water straight from the kitchen faucet?
| A．Because they think bottled water is healthier than water out of the tap. |
| B．Because local governments don’t make sure that water from the faucet is safe. |
| C．Because bottled water is much cheaper than water out of the kitchen faucet. |
| D．Because water out of the kitchen faucet is not provided anywhere. |
The author may disagree that _____.
| A．it is very hard for plastic bottles to break down |
| B．if we used one bottle less, more oil would be saved |
| C．bottled water is very convenient to drink |
| D．plastic bottles have been causing less and less pollution |
Although the United Kingdom, Ireland, Canada, Australia and New Zealand have English as an official language, the United States does not have an official language. This is why it’s possible to become a US citizen without speaking English. Canada also has French as an official language, though it is mostly spoken in the province of Quebec. Because many of the English speakers who originally lived in Canada came from the US, there is little difference in American and Canadian English. Similarly, Australian English and New Zealand English have few differences, except Australia was originally settled as a penal colony (罪犯流放地) and New Zealand was not. New Zealanders were more attached to the Received Pronunciation of the upper class in England, so their dialect is considered closer to British English.
British colonialism (殖民主义) has spread English all over the world, and it is still popular in South Africa, India, and Singapore, among other nations. In South Africa, English became an official language, along with Afrikaans and 9 African languages, in the 1996 constitution. However, only 3% of the country’s 30 million people are native English speakers. Twenty percent are descendants (后代) of Dutch farmers who speak Afrikaans, and the rest are native Africans.
India became independent from Britain in 1947. However, today English and Hindi are the official languages. Indian English is characterized by treating mass nouns as count nouns, frequent use of the “isn’t it?” tag, use of more compounds, and a different use of prepositions. In Singapore, Chinese, Malay and Indian languages all influence the form of English spoken. Everyone is taught English in the school system, but there are a few differences from British English as well. Mass nouns are treated as count nouns, “use to” means usually, and no articles are used before occupations.Why can people become a US citizen without speaking English?
| A．They can learn English there. |
| B．Different languages are spoken in the US. |
| C．The US doesn’t have an official language. |
| D．They can speak their own language there. |
What do we know about South Africa?
| A．English is its only official language. |
| B．It has 11 different official languages. |
| C．English is becoming less important there. |
| D．20 percent of its population are native English speakers. |
What can we infer from the last paragraph?
| A．The Indians are good at English grammar. |
| B．People in Singapore often misuse count nouns. |
| C．Singaporean English is similar to Indian English. |
| D．English is a required subject in Singaporean schools. |
What is the text mainly about?
| A．British colonialism. |
| B．The wide use of English. |
| C．English around the world. |
| D．The history of the English language. |
JULY
| MON. |
TUES. |
WED. |
THURS. |
FRI. |
SAT. |
SUN. |
| 132 |
2 29 |
3 31 |
4 40 |
5 46 |
6 38 |
|
| 7 27 |
8 34 |
9 30 |
10 24 |
1139 |
1245 |
1341 |
| 14 23 |
15 31 |
1628 |
1726 |
1838 |
19 49 |
2039 |
| 2126 |
22 35 |
2327 |
24 25 |
25 43 |
2647 |
2742 |
| 2829 |
2927 |
30 34 |
3129 |
Ms. Rossi owns the Roadside Motel(汽车游客旅馆)，which has 50 units.She wishes to keep a handy record of the number of units occupied(占用).To do this she uses a calendar and writes the number of units occupied in a small box in the right-hand square of each date.The following questions are based on the occupancy rate(率) for July.The total number of units occupied during the week of July 14 through July 20 was ______.
| A．234 | B．239 | C．240 | D．244 |
The average(平均) occupancy rate for Thursday was ________.
| A．29 | B．31 | C．27 | D．28 |
Ms. Rossi regards a 90% occupancy rate as excellent.On how many days during the month did the Roadside Motel have a 90% or better rate of occupancy?
| A．6. | B．5. | C．4. | D．1. |