It is normal for parents to question their children’s hairstyle or the clothes they wear. But today teenagers and their parents argue over something else: money.
Children are spending lots of it. Parents used to say to their children,“You’re wearing that?”Now they say,“You paid how much for that?”
Children in the US today spend five times more money than their parents did when they were young.
So what are all these children buying? The list is long: iPods, trainers, cell phones and jeans are typical items that children“have to”buy. And they will do anything to get them. They ask their parent’s over and over until they buy them.
But parents also need to take the blame for spending so much money. They want their children to have the best stuff. They end up competing with other parents over what their children have.
So no wonder children find it hard to learn the importance of saving money rather than spending it all the time.
And it’s hard to save when companies use advertising and clever slogans to encourage young people to buy their products. They even encourage children to keep asking their parents for something until they get it.
Today, you don’t even need to have money in order to buy something. Banks give out credit cards and loans all the time so people are saving less and less. We are used to there being lots of money around. And if you don’t have much you can always borrow some.
But this hasn’t always been the case. When our grandparents were young there was very little money and everyone had to save hard for things they bought. They only bought things they needed, not things they just wanted.
The older generation made the wise expression,“Money doesn’t grow on trees.”This is as true now as it was 50 years ago. They give money a great deal of value. And we all have a lot to learn from them. The text mainly tells us _______.
| A．divisions between teenagers and their parents |
| B．children’s high consumption of products |
| C．what is popular among children at the moment |
| D．how to spend money wisely |
Parents are to blame for children’s spending a lot of money because _______.
| A．they don’t give children positive guidance in consumption |
| B．their consumption habits set a bad example to children |
| C．the always give children too much pocket money |
| D．they offer to buy the latest fashions for their children |
People find it hard to save because of all of the following reasons EXCEPT that _______.
| A．banks provide credit cards and loans |
| B．advertisements draw people’s attention to new products |
| C．people have more money than in the past and saving is out of date |
| D．people’s living standard has improved and they can buy what they want |
The saying“Money doesn’t grow on trees.”in the last paragraph seems to tell us that _______.
| A．the older generation understood how to teach children to save |
| B．in the past, people attached more importance to saving money |
| C．money has a great deal of value |
| D．money is not easily earned and people should be careful spending it |
There was one thought that air pollution affected only the area immediately around large cities with factories and heavy automobile traffic. At present, we realize that although these are the areas with the worst air pollution, the problem is literally worldwide. On several occasions over the past decade, a heavy cloud of air pollution has covered the east of the United States and brought health warnings in rural areas away from any major concentration of manufacturing and automobile traffic. In fact, the very climate of the entire earth may be infected by air pollution. Some scientists consider that the increasing concentration of carbon dioxide in the air resulting from the burning of fossil fuels (coal and oil) is creating a “greenhouse effect”— conserving heat reflected from the earth and raising the world’s average temperature. If this view is correct and the world’s temperature is raised only a few degrees, much of the polar ice cap will melt and cities such as New York, Boston, Miami, and New Orleans will be in water.
Another view, less widely held, is that increasing particular matter in the atmosphere is blocking sunlight and lowering the earth’s temperature — a result that would be equally disastrous. A drop of just a few degrees could create something close to a new ice age, and would make agriculture difficult or impossible in many of our top farming areas. Today we do not know for sure that either of these conditions will happen (though one recent government report drafted by experts in the field concluded that the greenhouse effect is very possible). Perhaps, if we are lucky enough, the two tendencies will offset each other and the world’s temperature will stay about the same as it is now. Driven by economic profits, people neglect the damage on our environment caused by the “advanced civilization”. Maybe the air pollution is the price the human beings have to pay for their development. But is it really worthwhile?As pointed out at the beginning of the passage, people used to think that air pollution _______.
| A．cause widespread damage in the countryside |
| B．affected the entire eastern half of the United States |
| C．had damaged effect on health |
| D．existed merely in urban and industries areas |
As to the greenhouse effect, the author __________.
| A．share the same view with the scientist. |
| B．is uncertain of its occurrence |
| C．rejects it as being ungrounded |
| D．thinks that it will destroy the world soon |
The word “offset” in the second paragraph could be replaced by _________.
| A．slip into | B．make up for | C．set up | D．catch up with |
It can be concluded that ____________.
| A．raising the world’s temperature only a few degrees would not do much harm to life on earth |
| B．lowering the world’s temperature merely a few degrees would lead major farming areas to disaster |
| C．almost no temperature variations have occurred over the past decade |
| D．the world’s temperature will remain constant in the years to come |
This passage is primarily about __________.
| A．the greenhouse effect | B．the burning of fossil fuels |
| C．the potential effect of air pollution | D．the likelihood of a new ice age |
You must have been troubled by when to say "I love you" because it is one of the greatest puzzles in our life.
What if you say it first and your partner doesn’t love you back? Or if they do say it but you don’t feel they mean it? Being the first to declare your love can be never racking (紧张) and risky and can leave you feeling as vulnerable as a turtle with no shell. But is the person who says it first really in a position of weakness? Doesn’t it pay to hold back, play it cool and wait until the other half has shown their hand faster?
“A really good relationship should be about being fair and being equal,” says psychologist Sidney Crown. “But love is seldom equal.” “All relationships go through power struggles but,” he says, “if a love imbalance continues for years, the rot will set in.” That feeling of “I’ve always loved you more” may be subverted (颠覆，破坏) for a time, but it never goes away completely and it often emerges in squabbling (大声争吵). In love, at least, the silent, withholding type is not always the most powerful. “The strongest one in a relationship is often the person who feels confident enough to talk about their feelings,” says educational psychologist Ingrid Collins. Psychosexual therapist Paula Hall agrees. "The one with the upper hand is often the person who takes the initiative.” In fact, the person who says “I love you” first may also be the one who says “I’m bored with you’ first.” Hall believes that much depends on how "I love you" is said and the motivation of the person saying it. Is it said when they’re drunk? Is it said before their partner flies off on holiday, and what it really means is “Please don’ t be unfaithful to me” ? By saying “I love you”, they are really saying “Do you love me?” If so, wouldn’t it just be more honest to say that. Collins agrees that intention is everything. "It’s not what is said, but how it’s said. What it comes down to is the sincerity of the speaker.”What is the main idea of this passage?
| A．The importance of "I love you" | B．The meaning of "I love you" |
| C．The time of saying "I love you". | D．The place of saying "I love you" |
In the first sentence the author means that____________.
| A．it is easy to say "I love you" |
| B．it is hard to say "I love you" |
| C．we have many troubles in our life |
| D．people usually do not know when to say "I love you" |
According to the expert, a good relationship should be _____________.
| A．fair and equal | B．fair and kind |
| C．powerful and equal | D．confident and fair |
In the third paragraph, the phrase "with the upper hand" means __________.
| A．being low in spirit | B．having only one hand |
| C．being active | D．being passive |
What is the most important for you to consider when somebody say "I love you" to you?
| A．The intention. | B．The place. | C．The time. | D．The determination. |
I don’t ever want to talk about being a woman scientist again. There was a time in my life when people asked constantly for stories about what it’s like to work in a field dominated by men. I was never very good at telling those stories because truthfully I never found them interesting. What I do find interesting is the origin of the universe, the shape of space-time and the nature of black holes.
At 19, when I began studying astrophysics, it did not bother me in the least to be the only woman in the classroom. But while earning my Ph.D. at MIT and then as a post-doctor doing space research, the issue started to bother me. My every achievement—jobs, research papers, awards—was viewed through the lens of gender (性别) politics. So were my failures. Sometimes, when I was pushed into an argument on left brain versus (相对于) right brain, or nature versus nurture (培育), I would instantly fight fiercely on my behalf and all womankind.
Then one day a few years ago, out of my mouth came a sentence that would eventually become my reply to any and all provocations: I don’t talk about that anymore. It took me 10 years to get back the confidence I had at 19 and to realize that I didn’t want to deal with gender issues. Why should curing sexism be yet another terrible burden on every female scientist? After all, I don’t study sociology or political theory.
Today I research and teach at Barnard, a women’s college in New York City. Recently, someone asked me how may of the 45 students in my class were women. You cannot imagine my satisfaction at being able to answer, 45. I know some of my students worry how they will manage their scientific research and a desire for children. And I don’t dismiss those concerns. Still, I don’t tell them “war” stories. Instead, I have given them this: the visual of their physics professor heavily pregnant doing physics experiments. And in turn they have given me the image of 45 women driven by a love of science. And that’s a sight worth talking about.Why doesn’t the author want to talk about being a woman scientist again?
| A．She feels unhappy working in male-dominated fields. |
| B．She is fed up with the issue of gender discrimination. |
| C．She is not good at telling stories of the kind. |
| D．She finds space research more important. |
From Paragraph 2, we can infer that people would attribute the author’s failures to ________.
| A．the very fact that she is a woman |
| B．her involvement in gender politics |
| C．her over-confidence as a female astrophysicist |
| D．the burden she bears in a male-dominated society |
What did the author constantly fight against while doing her Ph.D. and post-doctoral research?
A. Lack of confidence in succeeding in space science.
B. Unfair accusations from both inside and outside her circle.
C. People’s stereotyped attitude toward female scientists.
D. Widespread misconceptions about nature and nurtured.Why does the author feel great satisfaction when talking about her class?
| A．Female students no longer have to bother about gender issues. |
| B．Her students’ performance has brought back her confidence. |
| C．Her female students can do just as well as male students. |
| D．More female students are pursuing science than before. |
What does the image the author presents to her students suggest?
| A．Women students needn’t have the concerns of her generation. |
| B．Women have more barriers on their way to academic success. |
| C．Women can balance a career in science and having a family. |
| D．Women now have fewer problems pursuing a science career. |
There are two basic ways to see growth: one as a product, the other as a process. People have generally viewed personal growth as an external (外在的) result or a product that can easily be identified and measured. The worker who gets a rise, the student whose grades improve, and the foreigner who learns a new language—all these examples of people who have measurable results to show for their efforts.
By contrast (对照), the process of personal growth is much more difficult to determine, since it is a journey and not the specific signposts or landmarks along the way. The process is not the road itself, but rather the attitudes and feelings people have, their caution or courage, as they meet with new experiences and unexpected difficulties. In this process, the journey never really ends; there are always new ways to experience the world, new ideas to try, new challenges to accept.
In order to grow, to travel new roads, people need to have a willingness to take risks, to face the unknown, and to accept the possibility that they may “fail” at first. How we see ourselves as we try a new way of being is essential to our ability to grow. Do we see ourselves as quick and curious? If so, then we tend to take more changes and to be more open to unfamiliar experiences. Do we think we’re shy and indecisive? Then our sense of fear can cause us to hesitate, to move slowly, and not to take a step until we know the ground is safe. Do we think we’re slow to adapt to change or that we’re not smart enough to deal with a new challenge? Then we are likely to take a more passive role or not try at all.
These feelings of insecurity and self-doubt are both unavoidable and necessary if we are to change and grow. If we do not face and overcome these internal fears and doubts, if we protect ourselves too much, then we stop growing. We become trapped inside a shell of our own making.In the author’s eyes, one who views personal growth as a process would __________.
| A．succeed in climbing up the social ladder |
| B．judge his ability to grow from his own achievements |
| C．face difficulties and take up challenges |
| D．aim high and reach his goal each time |
Which of the following can be viewed as the process of personal growth?
| A．Our manager was always willing to accept new challenges. |
| B．Little Tom won the first prize in the Speech Contest. |
| C．Max picked up French while he was in Paris. |
| D．Daddy’s salary rose from $3,000 to $3,800. |
The best title for this passage should be _________.
| A．Facing new challenges |
| B．Growth ―product or process |
| C．Unavoidable feeling of self-doubt |
| D．Overcoming internal fears |
There are two basic ways to see growth: one as a product, the other as a process. People have generally viewed personal growth as an external (外在的) result or a product that can easily be identified and measured. The worker who gets a rise, the student whose grades improve, and the foreigner who learns a new language—all these examples of people who have measurable results to show for their efforts.
By contrast (对照), the process of personal growth is much more difficult to determine, since it is a journey and not the specific signposts or landmarks along the way. The process is not the road itself, but rather the attitudes and feelings people have, their caution or courage, as they meet with new experiences and unexpected difficulties. In this process, the journey never really ends; there are always new ways to experience the world, new ideas to try, new challenges to accept.
In order to grow, to travel new roads, people need to have a willingness to take risks, to face the unknown, and to accept the possibility that they may “fail” at first. How we see ourselves as we try a new way of being is essential to our ability to grow. Do we see ourselves as quick and curious? If so, then we tend to take more changes and to be more open to unfamiliar experiences. Do we think we’re shy and indecisive? Then our sense of fear can cause us to hesitate, to move slowly, and not to take a step until we know the ground is safe. Do we think we’re slow to adapt to change or that we’re not smart enough to deal with a new challenge? Then we are likely to take a more passive role or not try at all.
These feelings of insecurity and self-doubt are both unavoidable and necessary if we are to change and grow. If we do not face and overcome these internal fears and doubts, if we protect ourselves too much, then we stop growing. We become trapped inside a shell of our own making.In the author’s eyes, one who views personal growth as a process would __________.
| A．succeed in climbing up the social ladder |
| B．judge his ability to grow from his own achievements |
| C．face difficulties and take up challenges |
| D．aim high and reach his goal each time |
Which of the following can be viewed as the process of personal growth?
| A．Our manager was always willing to accept new challenges. |
| B．Little Tom won the first prize in the Speech Contest. |
| C．Max picked up French while he was in Paris. |
| D．Daddy’s salary rose from $3,000 to $3,800. |
The best title for this passage should be _________.
| A．Facing new challenges |
| B．Growth ―product or process |
| C．Unavoidable feeling of self-doubt |
| D．Overcoming internal fears |