Stepfamilies are commonplace in the United States and their number continues to grow. While stepfamilies differ widely in their make-up， they all consist of a parenting couple and children， one or more of whom is of a previous union. Such combinations of his kids， her kids， and then， possibly， kids of the new union make for complicated and often trying difficulties， more challenging than those of traditional families.
Since stepfamilies involve more people and， consequently， more potential problems from the start than do childless new marriage， it is wise for the couple to do some careful planning prior to (＝before) marriage. Not only do the prospective(预期的) marital partners need agreement about their own carriers， life goals， finance and special interests， they must also prepare for new relationship with their children and attempt to accommodate their individual needs and feelings. Furthermore， there are often the rights of other relatives to consider.
As for any family， the basic ingredient(成分) of a successful stepfamily are affection， kindness and mutual(相互的) respect. However， love alone is not enough. Certainly love is the cornerstone upon which the foundation of any family is built， but there are also many other important ingredients involved in building a successful stepfamily.
Surveys reveal that successful families regard the ability to communicate openly as the most important factor in their success. Communication is what keeps families on track and functioning as a unit. Although healthy communication is easier for some people than for others， this skill can be learned and improved. Healthy communication involves speaking clearly and listening carefully.
By their very nature， stepfamilies often are complicated by past events that give rise to ambivalent(矛盾的) loyalties， lingering(持久的) hurts， fears， feelings of guilt and unrealistic dreams. The difficulties that arise within the stepfamilies are human and understandable. However， there are ways to confront(面临) and resolve them. For example， support groups and professional counselors(法律顾问) are available in most communities to provide help and guidance when communications stopped and problems seem overwhelming(压倒性的).
Planning and building a stepfamily is not a responsibility to take lightly. It can be a very trying and， at times， seemingly impossible effort. Many potential troubles can arise and threaten to destroy the stepfamily. Nevertheless， meeting and mastering these special challenges can bring unexpected satisfactions and rewarding depths of family closeness and affection.According to the passage， there are in the United States.
| A．no stepfamilies |
| B．more stepfamilies than ever before |
| C．fewer stepfamilies than ever before |
| D．fewer stepfamilies than traditional ones |
Which of the following can help avoid the potential problems arising in a stepfamily？
| A．The pursuit of the same careers. |
| B．Professional interventions(干涉). |
| C．The development of special interests. |
| D．Careful planning before the marriage. |
Many people believe that contributes most to the building of a successful stepfamily.
| A．everlasting loyalties |
| B．open communication |
| C．kindness and mutual respect |
| D．persistent(持久稳固的) affection |
It is natural for a stepfamily to be .
| A．unrealistic |
| B．complicated |
| C．ambivalent |
| D．guilty |
According to the author， planning and building a stepfamily is .
| A．impossible |
| B．satisfying and rewarding |
| C．discouraging and frustrating |
| D．a difficult and trying experience |
Expensive and new gloves allow chatterboxes (话匣子) to take the term "handsfree" to a new level—by talking into them as they make a call. The gloves are known as "Talk to the Hand" and cost £1,000 a pair. They fixed a speaker unit into the thumb and a microphone into the little finger that can be connected to any mobile handset using Bluetooth.
Artist Sean Miles designed the new gloves that double as a phone in part of his project that shows the possibilities of gadget (小玩意) recycling. He uses outdated gloves and combines them with parts from mobile handsets recycled through O2, which took up the project. Mobile phone users will be able to keep their hands warm while they chat without taking their phones out of their pockets or handbags.
Mr. Miles designed two pairs of the new gloves — one in pink and the other in brown and yellow. They will appear in an exhibition this July and visitors will be able to win the gloves. If demand is high, they will then be produced on a larger scale. O2 Recycle, which backed the project, estimates that there are already 70 million unused mobile handsets in the UK. The service pays up to £260 to those who recycle gadgets including phones, handheld consoles (操纵台), MP3 players and digital cameras.
Designer Sean Miles hopes his work will get people thinking about recycling. The 41-year-old said, "I hope that my 'Talk to the Hand' project will get people to think again about the waste created by not recycling gadgets. If a few more people recycle their gadgets rather than send them to trash, I think this project will have fulfilled its aim."
Bill Eyres, head of O2 Recycle, urges people to recycle their phone responsibly. He said, "There’s a pressing need for all of us to look at outdated handsets, and all the gadgets that we move on from or upgrade each year. Whether they are consoles or cameras, we should think of them as a resource that we need to recycle responsibly rather than throw them away."The underlined word "O2" in Paragraph 2 is probably the name of ______.
| A．an artist | B．a mobile |
| C．a company | D．an exhibition |
Consumers can buy the "Talk to the Hand" gloves ______.
| A．in the exhibition |
| B．from Mr. Miles |
| C．after they recycle the gadgets |
| D．when they are mass-produced |
The purpose of the project is to _______.
| A．promote the technology of IT |
| B．enable people to talk to their hands |
| C．raise peoples awareness of recycling |
| D．attract visitors’ attention in the exhibition |
What is the passage mainly about?
| A．New mobiles which are fashionable. |
| B．Outdated handsets which are upgraded. |
| C．Outdated gadgets which can be used for recycling. |
| D．New gloves which can be used for making phone calls. |
Shanghai Xintiandi Style Mall is filled with a festive mood, featuring large-scale equipment, knit works and various activities, under the theme "kiss".
"Kissing is seldom taken as the theme of artworks because in oriental (东方的) culture, people restrain themselves from expressing their emotions," says Jiang Shan, who is in charge of the exhibition.
"Through the exhibition, we hope to encourage people to be confident and brave in expressing their love."
Inside the mall, which covers a large area from Zizhong Lu (Road) to Fuxingnan Lu (Road), dozens of colorful decorations, including balloons, lollipops and lip-shaped decorations are hung on the walls and from the ceiling.
Among the decorations, a bright-colored wool artwork attracts most eyeballs and brings about a feeling of warmth.
The designer, Gu Yeli, says the art piece, Kiss Forest, was inspired by US artist Andy Warhol’s 1963 experimental film Kiss, which featured various couples kissing for three and a half minutes each. Gu also organizes a small workshop to teach knitting (编织) to children.
Artist Wang Xuejun sets up a stainless-steel mirror at the mall's gate leading to Zizhong Lu. Visitors, including men, are invited to put on lipstick and kiss the mirror, thus kissing themselves.
The Beast Floral Shop, a flower shop in Shanghai, contributes two walls of flowers that are made into the shape of a book, named Kiss Book. Artifacts (手工艺品) of bees and butterflies are fixed among the blossoms, kissing the flowers. The work represents love and harmony in nature.
Architect Ma Ke creates a Kiss Bridge with transparent (透明的) acrylic boards and ceramic（陶瓷的）fishbowls. Bridges are often spots for dating lovers in traditional Chinese folk stories and the goldfish in the bowls are witnesses of the lovers' kisses.
In the south plaza, an 18-meter-high interactive tree-shaped light equipment encourages people to kiss. Each kiss turns a certain light on, reminding audiences of their sweet childhood memories of kisses.
At the side of the tree is a counter, in which each kiss is counted and represents a donation to charity organizations. What is the main idea of the article?
| A．It tells people how important kisses are to life. |
| B．It introduces an exhibition under the theme "kiss". |
| C．It describes what Shanghai Xintiandi Style Mall looks like. |
| D．It introduces various activities in Shanghai Xintiandi Style Mall. |
What does the underlined sentence in Paragraph 2 mean?
| A．people encourage themselves to express their emotions. |
| B．people teach themselves to express their emotions. |
| C．people discourage themselves from expressing their emotions. |
| D．people learn a lot from expressing their emotions. |
What can we learn from the article?
| A．Most people are interested in Jiang Shan's art piece, which brings about a feeling of warmth. |
| B．Most visitors will kiss each other in front of the stainless-steel mirror at the gate. |
| C．All the decorations in the mall are aimed at encouraging lovers to express their love bravely. |
| D．The 18-meter-high interactive tree-shaped light equipment will be on for each kiss. |
The article above probably is taken from a ____________.
| A．textbook | B．science and technology magazine |
| C．travel leaflet | D．news website |
Strong winds and cold temperatures tested New York City Marathon runners on Sunday. Despite the tough conditions, about 50,000 people completed the 26.2-mile course. They wound (曲折而行) their way from the starting line in Staten Island through Brooklyn, Queens, and the Bronx toward the finish line in Manhattan’s central Park.
Wilson Kipsang from Kenya won the marathon in 2 hours, 10 minutes, 59 seconds. Because of the wind, his time was the slowest winning time in New York since 1995. it was more than 7 and a half minutes off the world record he set just over a year ago in Berlin. The runners adjusted carefully to 30 mph winds by sticking to a slow pace at the start.
Keitany, also from Kenya, won the women’s title with a final time of 2:25:07. In her previous NYC Marathon, Ke
itany took an early lead but this year she held back. She and Kenya’s Jemima Sumgong entered Central Park side by side, and Sumgong appeared to be pulling away with just over a mile left. But Keitany had one last burst left and won by 3 seconds. It was the tightest finish in the history of the women’s race. “In the closing miles, my target was to win,” Sumgong said, “but it was Keitany’s day.”
The New York City Marathon has grown from a Central Park race with 55 finishers to the world’s biggest and most popular marathon. Sunday was the 44th edition of the NYC Marathon. The race had its millionth finisher in history.
Keitany, a two-time London Marathon champ, hadn’t run a 26.2-mile race since 2012 because of the birth of her second child. “I worked hard for this opportunity,”she said. “I’m happy because I have a victory today.”How did Wilson Kipsang perform at the 44th NYC Marathon?
| A．He was the first man to reach the finish line. |
| B．He finished the course in less than two hours. |
| C．He ran at a fast pace from the very beginning. |
D．He set the worst reco rd in his marathon history. |
At the 44th NYC Marathon, Mary Keitany .
| A．won by over a mile |
| B．took an early lead as usual |
| C．didn’t win an easy victory |
| D．beat the former world record holder |
What is Paragraph 4 mainly about
?
| A．The purpose of the NYC Marathon. |
| B．The importance of the NYC Marathon. |
| C．The uniqueness of the NYC Marathon. |
| D．The development of the NYC Marathon. |
A single 10-second kiss can transfer as many as 80 million bacteria, according to Dutch scientists.
They monitored the kissing behavior of 21 couples and found those who kissed nine times a day were most likely to share salivary bugs (唾液细菌).
Studies suggest the mouth is home to more than 700 different types of bacteria – but the report reveals some are exchanged more easily than others.
The research is published in the journal Microbiome (微生物组). A team from the Netherlands Organization for Applied Scientific Research (TNO) asked the couples a series of quest
ions to assess their kissing habits, including how frequently they had kissed in the last year and when they last locked lips.
Scientists took bacterial samples from the volunteers tongues and saliva before and after a strictly timed 10-second kiss. One member of the couples then drank a probiotic (益生菌) drink, containing an easily identifiable mixture of bugs. On the couple’s second kiss, scientists were able to detect the volume of bacteria transferred to the other partner – on average 80 million bacteria in a single 10-second kiss. But while bacteria in the saliva seemed to change quickly in response to a kiss, bug populations on the tongue remained more stable.
Prof Remco Kort, who led the research, said: “French kissing is a great example of exposure to a gigantic（巨大的）number of bacteria in a short time.
These types of investigations may help us design future bacterial therapies and help people with troublesome bacterial problems.
A growing number or researchers are looking at the microbiome an ecosystem of some 100 trillion micro-organisms that live in and on our bodies. Scientists say these populations may be essential for health and the prevention of disease.According to the passage, bacteia can be exchanged during a kiss through .
| A．saliva | B．tongues | C．lips | D．breath |
Why did the scientists have one of the couples drink a probiotic drink?
| A．Because they want to observe the response of their bodies. |
| B．Because they intend to protect the bacteria in the couples’ mouths, |
| C．Because they want to detect the volume of the transferred bacteria. |
| D．Because they want to keep a balanced environment in the couples’ bodies. |
What’s the purpose of the research?
| A．To guide healthy kiss. |
| B．To limit the times of kissing. |
| C．To avoid kissing different people. |
| D．To help design future bacteria therapies. |
We can learn from the passage that .
| A．French kissing should be advocated |
| B．we need to lock lips when kissing if we love her / him |
| C．the exchanged bacteria through kissing do great harm to the other |
| D．some of the microbiome may be essential for health though exchanged during a kiss |
One in four Britons would not trust their neighbors to take delivery of a parcel and 10 per cent suspect them of having stolen a parcel in the past, a survey has found.
A study of 2,000 shows that barely half of people know who their neighbors are. A majority would never ask their neighbors to look after such things as keys (68 percent), pets (89 percent) while they were out and even taking in parcels is taking trust too far for more than a third of us (35 percent), according to research for InPost UK.
One in ten (11 percent) have had parcels taken by a neighbor or from right outside their house. When it comes to deliveries, almost a quarter (26 percent) have gone into work late or have left early to wait in for a parcel. This gives rise to people queuing in the Post Office more than 20 minutes to pick up or send a parcel.
As a result, shoppers are looking for more convenience this Christmas. While 83 percent will still get gifts sent to their home, one in five (19 percent) will have parcels delivered to their office and 33 percent will click and collect in store or from a nearby shop.
In addition, almost two thirds of online shoppers (64 percent) are considering using parcel lockers because they provide a local 24/7 service.
Jonathan Smith, chairman at InPost UK, said: “It’s surprising that people don’t trust those closest to them to help them out and to see that missed deliveries are still such an issue, especially as we head into the peak shopping period.”What’s the problem of British delivery parcels?
| A．They are always stolen by strangers. |
| B．Some missing parcels are suspected to be taken by neighbors. |
| C．Most of the parcels have to be picked up in the post office. |
| D．Deliveries almost cause 50% going into work late or leaving early. |
According to the passage, we can learn that .
| A．merely half of people know their neighbors |
| B．only one in four Britons trust their neighbors to take delivery of a parcel |
| C．a majority would ask their neighbors to look after their pets |
| D．two thirds of online shoppers still get their parcels sent to their home |
What’s the attitude of Jonathan Smith towards the issue?
| A．Unexpected. | B．Critical. |
| C．Overstate. | D．Optimistic. |
What’s the best title for the passage?
| A．The delivery problem in Britain |
| B．How can we trust each other |
| C．The trust crisis（危机） in neighborhoods in Britain |
| D．The way to improve delivery |