Women in Nazi Germany were to have a very special job. Hitler was very clear about this. This job was that they should be good mothers bringing up children at home while their husbands worked. Except for some special fields, Hitler saw no reason why a woman should work. Within months of Hitler coming to power, many female doctors, teachers and lawyers were sacked. By the start of the Second World War, very few German women were in fulltime work. From their earliest years, girls were taught that all good German women married at a young age to a proper German and that the wife’s job was to keep a good home for her working husband and to have children.
One of the earliest laws passed by Hitler once he came to power in 1933, was the Law for the Encouragement of Marriage. This law stated (声明) that all newly married couples would get a government loan (贷款) of 1000 marks. This loan was not to be simply paid back. The birth of one child meant that 25% of the loan did not have to be paid back. Two children meant that 50% of the loan didn’t need to be paid back. Four children meant that the entire loan was cleared.
What was more, as housewives and mothers, their lives were controlled. Women were not expected to wear make-up or trousers. Only flat shoes were expected to be worn. Women were discouraged from slimming as this was considered bad for child birth. The aim of the Law for the Encouragement of Marriage was to ________.
| A．attract more young people to join the army willingly |
| B．make those married couples become rich quickly |
| C．encourage people to loan more from the government |
| D．encourage couples to have as many children as they could |
The underlined word “sacked” in Paragraph one probably means “________”.
| A．punished | B．fired | C．killed | D．raised |
According to the passage, women in Nazi Germany ________.
| A．could make up or wear beautiful clothes |
| B．were to have children and do housework |
| C．could receive a good education at school |
| D．were offered the equal rights as men |
Which of the following is a suitable title for the text?
| A．The life of women in Nazi Germany |
| B．The cruel rule of Hitler in Germany |
| C．The marriage policy in Nazi Germany |
| D．Hitler — a powerful leader in Germany |
A full-time nanny is employed by the parents to provide high quality childcare for their children and to undertake all tasks related to the providing of that care. Nannies provide childcare in the family’s private home.
Full-time nannies with parents meet the physical, social, emotional and intellectual needs of the children. They typically do the children’s laundry, keep the children’s areas neat and clean, and prepare meals and snacks for the children. Depending on the age of the child and the family’s needs, the nanny may be responsible for bathing the child, transporting the child to activities and assisting the child with homework.
Since nannies work in the private home and serve as caretakers, and educators, nannies must be trustworthy. Nannies are often hired so that parents can fulfill their personal and professional tasks. For this reason, nannies must be dependable and reliable.
Full-time nannies work on average 40 to 60 hours per week and may live with the family as live-in nannies. For parents who hire a live-in nanny, at minimum they should provide a separate bedroom and bathroom and all meals and snacks. One of the benefits of nanny care is that the parents set the nannies weekly schedule. Nannies are typically required to have some scheduling flexibility.
Nanny employers must pay what is commonly referred to as the nanny tax, which includes social security taxes and medicare taxes, total about 7. 65% of the nanny’s wages. The other federal tax is referred to as FUTA. It is the Federal Unemployment Tax. State unemployment taxes may also apply and vary from state to state.
In addition to nanny employer taxes the nanny is responsible for her share of the FICA taxes. Nannies are responsible for paying their own income tax payments, however many employers agree to manage the payments for them.
Typical nanny benefits include 2 weeks of paid vacation, paid sick days and paid personal days and full contributions to health insurance. Nanny employers may also wish to contribute to a retirement savings plan for their nanny.What does a full-time nanny usually do?
| A．She should do all the tasks connected with childcare. |
| B．She must be able to communicate well with parents. |
| C．She should provide excellent care for the family. |
| D．She must avoid dealing with her private secrets. |
We can learn from the second paragraph that .
| A．the nanny should stop the kid from eating snacks |
| B．the parents must prepare every meal for the nanny |
| C．the nanny should be a person with education |
| D．the parents must take responsibility for the nanny |
If you applied to be a full-time nanny .
| A．you would work at most 8 hours a day | B．you would get your private space |
| C．you would work seven days a week | D．you would have no time of your own |
What do you know about the nanny tax?
| A．The nanny must pay such a tax according to her wages. |
| B．The tax almost covers one-fifth of the nanny’s wages. |
| C．The employers should pay the nanny tax for nannies. |
| D．The tax is said to be the highest of all walks of life. |
Which one is NOT the benefit of the typical nanny?
| A．Having a 2-week holiday with payment. |
| B．Getting paid for sick leave. |
| C．Having full contributions to health insurance. |
| D．Having personal days but without pay. |
Before leaving work, Steve Lee likes to use his cell phone to turn on his heat and air condition system at home. So by the time he gets through traffic into his front door, the temperature inside is perfect. You may wonder what a so-called smart home can do inside.
Lee works for a company called Smarthome. com, testing and living with many of his company’s home automation gadgets(自动化小配件), like this multifunction touch screen that controls devices around the house and even connects to the Internet traffic cameras.
“I have cameras, and they follow all the way down the freeway to work, ”said Lee with pride, “What’s going on at home when you are away? No problem, install some wireless cameras and controllers and from any computer in the world with an Internet connection, you can watch your house. ”
“You can check on the house, and I can look at the temperature. Believe it or not, if I want to turn on lights ahead of time, I can, ”added Lee.
We sat in Steve’s California kitchen and with the right password, turned on the kitchen counter lights at his boss’ house in Wisconsin. Steve did have permission to log on(登录).
“If you do know the password and you want to play a trick on your wife, you could turn lights on and off remotely. ”
This new technology, which can automatically turn on water sprinklers when humidity is low, or turn off a pool pump when it is not in use, is no longer expensive. Several hundred dollars for a basic system is enough and it is not hard to install.
Sure the convenience is nice but many people who like the security advantages like making sure kids are safe with the help of camera monitors and bedside alerts.
“I can notice that maybe one of my children wakes up in the middle of the night once the light switch is turned on. ”
What a smart home can’t do is get you a snack and you have to leave the couch for that.What does the underlined word “password” in Paragraph 5 mean?
| A．Security code. |
| B．Crossword. |
| C．Passport. |
| D．Touch screen. |
What can be inferred from this passage?
| A．Steve’s boss trusted him very much. |
| B．Steve doesn’t like to play jokes on his family. |
| C．Steve could log on his boss’ home because he had been given the key. |
| D．It’s expensive and difficult to apply a basic smart home system. |
According to the passage, the following is often a must for a smart home EXCEPT a .
| A．cell phone | B．computer |
| C．camera | D．car |
What can’t a smart home do according to the passage?
| A．Turning on the light automatically. |
| B．Getting the owner some food. |
| C．Turning off a pool pump. |
| D．Watching over the home’s safety. |
In which section of a newspaper will this passage probably be found?
| A．Entertainment. |
| B．Science & Technology. |
| C．Health & Care. |
| D．Biography. |
Some colors people see late at night could cause signs of the condition mental health experts call clinical depression(临床抑郁症). That was the finding of a study that builds on earlier study findings. They show that individuals who live or work in low levels of light overnight can develop clinical depression.
Doctors use the word clinical depression to describe severe form of depression. Signs may include loss of interest or pleasure in most activities, low energy levels and thoughts of death or suicide.
In the new study, American investigators designed an experiment that exposed hamsters（仓鼠）to different colors. The researchers chose hamsters because they are nocturnal, which means they sleep during the day and are active at night. The animals were separated into four groups. One group of hamsters was kept in the dark during their night-time period. Another group was placed in front of a blue light, a third group slept in front of a white light, while a fourth was put in front of a red light. After four weeks, the researchers noted how much sugary water the hamsters drank. They found that the most depressed animals drank the least amount of water.
Randy Nelson, at Ohio State University, says animals that slept in blue and white light appeared to be the most depressed. “What we saw is that these animals didn’t show any sleep interruptions at all but they did mess up biological clock (生物钟) genes and they did show depressive sign but if they were in the dim red light, they did not.” He says there’s a lot of blue in white light. This explains why the blue light and white light hamsters appear to be more depressed than the hamsters seeing red light or darkness. From the text we know that ________ made the hamster feel depressed.
| A．the amount of the water |
| B．the colour of the light |
| C．the loss of pleasure |
| D．the level of energy |
What was the purpose of the experiment on hamsters?
| A．To show how well they slept. |
| B．To see how much sugary water they drank. |
| C．To explain why they liked dark colours. |
| D．To find out what caused the depression on them. |
The author explains the clinical depression by _________.
| A．reporting an experiment process |
| B．presenting research data |
| C．setting down general rules |
| D．giving his own experience |
Where can we probably find the text?
| A．In a science magazine. |
| B．In a physics textbook |
| C．In a tourist guidebook. |
| D．In an official announcement. |
“Selfie” (自拍) joins ranks of dictionary words.
In 2002, an Australian man went to his friend’s 21st birthday party. He got drunk, tripped on some steps and cut his lip. He took a picture of his injuries and shared it with his friends on an online forum. “And sorry about the focus,” he wrote, “it was a selfie.” That was the first recorded use of the word “selfie”, according to linguistic experts at Oxford Dictionaries.
On Nov 19, Oxford Dictionaries declared “selfie” Word of the Year for 2013, in honor of the term having taken over the world thanks to millions of smart phone self-portraits and the resulting shares on social media.
So what does the choice of the word say about our culture? Mary Elizabeth Williams, writing in Salon magazine, says the word reminds us that contemporary culture is defined by our narcissism(自恋).Megan Jackson from a local newspaper points out a selfie may only focus on appearance.
Selfies invite judgment based on appearance alone. What kind of cultural influence does this have on women? Erin Gloria Ryan on Jezebel says selfies teach young woman to obsess over their appearance and judge themselves on the basis of beauty rather than accomplishments. “They’re a reflection of the warped way we teach girls to see themselves as decorative,” said Ryan.
In Slate magazine, Rachel Simmons has the opposite view. She argues that selfies are an example of young women promoting themselves and taking control of their own self-presentation. Think of each one, she says, as “a tiny pulse of girl pride —a shout-out to the self”. Which of the following is true about the first use of “selfie”?
| A．The Australian man created it to celebrate his friend’s 21st birthday. |
| B．The Australian man created by chance when he got drunk and shared his photo online. |
| C．The Oxford Dictionary used it to thank the creation of smart phone. |
| D．The social media were so advanced that they made the word transmitted. |
The underlined word “tripped” in the first paragraph probably means “________”.
| A．traveled | B．stepped lightly |
| C．fell down | D．made mistakes |
Who holds a positive opinion towards selfie in the life of women?
| A．Mary Elizabeth. | B．Megan Jackson. |
| C．Erin Gloria Ryan. | D．Rachel Simmons. |
The text is mainly concerned with ________.
| A．the introduction of the word “selfie” |
| B．the choice of the word “selfie” |
| C．the history of the word “selfie” |
| D．the characteristics of the word “selfie” |
Tayka Hotel De Sal
Where: Tahua, Bolivia
How much: About $95 a night
Why it’s cool: You’ve stayed at hotels made of brick or wood, but salt? That’s something few can claim. Tayka Hotel de Sal is made totally of salt—including the beds (though you’ll sleep on regular mattresses (床垫) and blankets).The hotel sits on the Salar de Uyuni, a prehistoric dried-up lake that’s the world’s biggest salt flat. Builders use the salt from the 4,633-square-mile flat to make the bricks, and glue them together with a paste of wet salt that hardens when it dries. When rain starts to dissolve the hotel, the owners just mix up more salt paste to strengthen the bricks.
Green Magic Nature Resort
Where: Vythiri, India
How much: About $240 a night
Why it’s cool: Ridding a pulley(滑轮)-operated lift 86 feet to your treetop room is just the start of your adventure. As you look out of your open window—there is no glass!—you watch monkeys and birds in the rain forest canopy. Later you might test your fear of heights by crossing the handmade rope bridge to the main part of the hotel, or just sit on your bamboo bed and read. You don’t even have to come down for breakfast—the hotel will send it up on the pulley-drawn “elevator”.
Dog Bark Park Inn B&B
Where: Cottonwood, Idaho
How much: $92 a night
Why it’s cool: This doghouse isn’t just for the family pet. Sweet Willy is a 30-foot-tall dog with guest rooms in his belly. Climb the wooden stairs beside his hind leg to enter the door in his side. You can relax in the main bedroom, go up a few steps of the loft in Willy’s head, or hang out inside his nose. Although you have a full private bathroom in your quarters, there is also a toilet in the 12-foot-tall fire hydrant outside.
Gamirasu Cave Hotel
Where: Ayvali, Turkey
How much: Between $130 and $475 a night.
Why it’s cool: This is caveman cool! Experience what it was like 5,000 years ago, when people lived in these mountain caves formed by volcanic ash. But your stay will be much more modern. Bathrooms and electricity provide what you expect from a modern hotel, and the white volcanic ash, called tufa, keeps the rooms cool, about 65℉in summer.(Don’t worry—there is heat in winter.)What is the similarity of the four hotels?
| A．Being expensive. | B．Being beautiful. |
| C．Being natural. | D．Being unique. |
What does the underlined part “Sweet Willy” refer to?
A. The building of Dog Bark Park Inn B&B.
B. The name of a pet dog of the hotel owner.
C. The name of the hotel.
D. The name of the hotel owner.Which of the hotel makes you have a feeling of living in the far past?
| A．Tayka Hotel De Sal |
| B．Green Magic Nature Resort |
| C．Dog Bark Park Inn B&B |
| D．Gamirasu Cave Hotel |