Parents should stop blaming themselves because there’s not a lot they can do about it. I mean the teenager problem. Whatever you do or however you choose to deal with it, at certain times a wonderful, reasonable and helpful child will turn into a terrible animal.
I’ve seen friends deal with it in all kinds of different ways. One strict mother insisted that her son, right from a child, should stand up whenever anyone entered the room, open doors and shake hands like a gentleman. I saw him last week when I called round. Sprawling himself (懒散地躺) on the sofa in full length, he made no attempt to turn off the loud TV he was watching as I walked in, and his greeting was no more than a quick glance at me. His mother was ashamed. “I don't know what to do with him these days,” she said. “He’s forgotten all the manners we taught him.”
He hasn’t forgotten them. He’s just decided that he’s not going to use them. She confessed (坦白) that she would like to come up behind him and throw him down from the sofa onto the floor.
Another good friend of mine let her two daughters climb all over the furniture, reach across the table, stare at me and say, “I don’t like your dress; it’s ugly.” One of the daughters has recently been driven out of school. The other has left home.
“Where did we go wrong?” her parents are now very sad. Probably nowhere much. At least, no more than the rest of that unfortunate race, parents.This text is most probably written by ______.
| A．a specialist（专家） in teenager studies | B．a headmaster of a middle school |
| C．a parent with teenage children | D．a doctor for mental health problems |
The underlined word “it” in the second paragraph refers to ______.
| A．the change from good to bad that’s seen in a child |
| B．the way that parents often blame themselves |
| C．the opinion that a child has of his parents |
| D．the advice that parents want their children to follow |
From the second example we can infer that the parents of the two daughters __.
| A．pay no attention to them | B．are too busy to look after them |
| C．have come to hate them | D．feel helpless to do much about them |
What is the author’s opinion about the sudden change in teenage children?
| A．Parents have no choice but to try to accept it. |
| B．Parents should pay still some attention to the change. |
| C．Parents should work more closely with school teachers. |
| D．Parents are at fault for the change in their children. |
Looking back on my childhood. I am convinced that naturalists are born and not made. Although we were brought up in the same way, my brothers and sisters soon abandoned their pressed flowers and insects. Unlike them, I had no ear for music and languages. I was not an early reader and I could not do mental arithmetic.
Before Word War I we spent our summer holidays in Hungary. I have only the dim memory of the house we lived in, of my room and my toys. Nor do I recall clearly the large family of grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins who gathered next door. But I do have a crystal clear memory of dogs, the farm animals, the local birds and above all, the insects.
I am a naturalist, not a scientist. I have a strong love of the natural world, and my enthusiasm has led me into varied investigations. I love discussing my favorite topics and enjoy burning the midnight oil reading about other people’s observations and discoveries. Then something happens that brings these observations together in my conscious mind. Suddenly you fancy you see the answer to the riddle. Because it all seems to fit together .This has resulted in my publishing 300 papers and books. Which some may light honor, with the title of scientific research.
But curiosity a keen eye, a good memory and enjoyment of the animal and plant world do not make a scientist? One of the outstanding and essential qualities required is self-discipline, a quality I lack. A scientist can be made a naturalist. If you can combine the two, you get the best of both worlds.According to the author, a born naturalist should first of all be _____
| A．full of ambition | B．self-disciplined |
| C．full of enthusiasm | D．knowledgeable |
The first paragraph tells us that the author _____
| A．lost his hearing when he was a child |
| B．didn’t like his brothers and sisters |
| C．was interested in flowers and insects in his childhood |
| D．was born to a naturalist’s family |
The author says that he is a naturalist rather than a scientist probably because he thinks he ____.
| A．just rends about other peoples observations and discoveries. |
| B．Lacks some of the qualities required of scientist. |
| C．Has a great deal of trouble doing mental arithmetic. |
| D．Come up with solutions in most natural ways. |
The author can’t remember him relatives clearly because__
| A．He didn’t live very long with them |
| B．He was too young when he lived with them. |
| C．The family was extremely large |
| D．He was fully occupied with observing nature. |
Which of the following statements is true?
| A．The author believes that a born naturalist can not be scientist. |
| B．The author read a lot of books about the natural world and oil industry |
| C．The author’s brothers and sisters were good at music and languages. |
| D．The author spent a lot of time working on riddles. |
My newly-rented small apartment was far away from the centre of London and it was becoming essential for me to find a job, so finally I spent a whole morning getting to town and putting my name down to be considered by London Transport for a job on the underground. They were looking for guards, not drivers. This suited me. I couldn’t drive a car but thought that I could probably guard a train, and perhaps continue to write my poems between stations. The writers Keats and Chekhov had been doctors. T.S. Eliot had worked in a bank and Wallace Stevens for an insurance company. I’d be a subway guard. I could see myself being cheerful, useful, a good man in a crisis. Obviously I’d be overqualified but I was willing to forget about that in return for a steady income and travel privileges — those being particularly welcome to someone living a long way from the city centre.
The next day I sat down, with almost a hundred other candidates, for the intelligence test. I must have done all right because after about half an hour’s wait I was sent into another room for a psychological test. This time there were only about fifty candidates. The interviewer sat at a desk. Candidates were signaled forward to occupy the seat opposite him when the previous occupant had been dismissed, after a greater or shorter time. Obviously the long interviews were the more successful ones. Some of the interviews were as short as five minutes. Mine was the only one that lasted a minute and a half.
I can remember the questions now: “Why did you leave your last job?”“Why did you leave your job before that?”“And the one before that?” I can’t recall my answers, except that they were short at first and grew progressively shorter. His closing statement, I thought, revealed a lack of sensitivity which helped to explain why as a psychologist, he had risen no higher than the underground railway. “You’ve failed the psychological test and we are unable to offer you a position.”
Failing to get that job was my low point. Or so I thought, believing that the work was easy. Actually, such jobs — being a postman is another one I still desire — demand exactly the sort of elementary yet responsible awareness that the habitual dreamer is least qualified to give. But I was still far short of full self-understanding. I was also short of cash.The writer applied for the job chiefly because _________.
| A．he could no longer afford to live without one |
| B．he wanted to work in the centre of London |
| C．he was not interested in any other available job |
| D．he had received some suitable training |
The writer thought he was overqualified for the job because _________.
| A．he often traveled underground | B．he had written many poems |
| C．he had worked in a company | D．he could deal with difficult situations |
What does the writer realize now that he did not realize then?
| A．How unpleasant ordinary jobs can be |
| B．How unsuitable he was for the job. |
| C．How difficult it is to be a poet |
| D．How badly he did in the interview. |
The length of his interview meant that _________.
| A．he did not like the interviewer at all |
| B．he had not done well in the intelligence test |
| C．he was not going to be offered the job |
| D．he had little work experience to talk about |
What’s the writer’s opinion of the psychologist?
| A．He was rather unsympathetic. | B．He was unhappy with his job. |
| C．He was quite inefficient. | D．He was very aggressive（有进取心的）. |
In many African countries, the care of orphans has been mainly led by foreign donor organizations. However, Sister Florence has changed all that. Using her own resources, Sister Florence is leading the work of raising orphans from different backgrounds. Sister Florence Wanjala’s biggest motivation to start the orphan program was when she saw a little boy whose parents had died. The boy was living with a cruel grandparent and he would visit the grave of his mother, crying for support. Sister Wanjala wanted to give a helping hand and give him hope. From that time, she started feeling the call to help a larger number of orphans.
She opened an office with a few friends and coordinated (协调)a program to help the orphans. All the registrations were done in the office and the program so far has 8000 children. Sister Wanjala said, “My dream is to help the orphan to live a holistic (完整)life and be a good Kenyan citizen to help this country. Many people think that the way to support orphans is to put them in an institution. Others support them up to the age of eighteen, but here, we do it very differently.” For Sister Wanjala, putting a child in an institution is normally her last choice. She prefers the orphans to live in a foster home.
She said, “I’m so encouraged and happy to see the orphans succeeding. When they come first or second in class, it shows how the program has helped them, and that’s encouraging to me as I continue to coordinate the program.” Through her charity work, more than 1000 orphans have been able to find a home. Sister Wanjala, as a mother, takes care of her own family.What inspired Sister Wanjala to start the orphan program?
| A．Her preference for kids. | B．Her own similar experience. |
| C．A sad story about an orphan. | D．Her successful charity work. |
Sister Wanjala opened an office mainly to ______.
| A．set up as many institutions as possible for orphans |
| B．start a program to offer orphans a foster family |
| C．provide school education for those orphans |
| D．raise more money for the homeless kids |
What does the underlined sentence probably mean?
| A．She didn’t want orphans to live in an institution. |
| B．She preferred to put orphans into an institution. |
| C．She had no choice but to put orphans in institutions. |
| D．She sent orphans into an institution in the end. |
What can we learn from the text?
| A．Sister Wanjala finally adopted the little boy. |
| B．Sister Wanjala found foster homes for 8000 orphans. |
| C．Sister Wanjala was too busy to care for her own family. |
| D．Sister Wanjala was not alone in helping orphans. |
Dieters' who eat meals high in protein might lose a bit more weight than those who get less protein and more carbohydrates (碳水化合物)一all other things being equal, a new analysis of past studies suggests. Researchers found that over an average of 12 weeks, people having a high一protein diet lost about 1.8 extra pounds, and more body fat, than those having a standard-protein diet.
Wycherley from the University of South" Australia in Adelaide, the lead author on the study says it’s possible that the body may spend more energy and bum more calories while dealing with protein, compared to carbohydrates. Another explanation for the link his team observed is that eating protein helps preserve muscle mass and muscle mass bums more calories, even when the body is resting, than other types of mass. He says people in the studies tend to get protein from a variety of animal and vegetable sources. Vegetable sources of protein include beans.
It is not obvious why a higher protein-to-carbohydrate ratio might help people lose more pounds——and one obesity researcher not involved in the new analysis questioned whether the trials were strong enough to make that conclusion. “The studies are generally far too short to tell effect,” Dr. James Levine from the Mayo Clinic in Scottsdale, Arizona, told Reuters Health in an e-mail. But given the limitations of the present evidence, Levine said, “It makes no real difference which of the weight-loss ways one chooses.”According to Wycherley’s analysis, dieters should take in more ______.
| A．fat | B．carbohydrates | C．protein | D．calories |
What can we learn from the studies?
| A．It bums more calories to deal with carbohydrates. |
| B．Protein helps keep muscle mass which bums calories. |
| C．Vegetables contain more protein than animals. |
| D．No more calories are burned while the body is resting. |
What is Levine’s attitude towards the conclusion of the studies?
| A．Doubtful. | B．Supportive. | C．Curious. | D．Agreeable. |
Legends about the development of coffee are varied and interesting, involving chance occurrences, political tricks, and the pursuit of wealth and power.
According to one story, a sheepherder named Kaldi, as he tended his sheep, noticed the effect of coffee beans. He noticed that the sheep became excited after eating the red “cherries" from a certain plant when they changed pastures (牧场). He tried it himself, and was soon as overactive as his sheep. Another story relates that a monk happened to discover that this fruit from the shiny green plant could help him stay awake.
Another legend gives us the name for coffee, “mocha”. Omar, an Arabian was thrown to the desert with his followers to die of starvation. In desperation, Omar had his friends boil and eat the fruit from an unknown plant. Not only did the soup save the group, but the residents of the nearest town, Mocha, took their survival as a religious sign. The plant and its beverage (饮料) were named Mocha to honor this event.
Coffee was introduced much later to countries beyond Arabia, whose inhabitants believed it to be a tasty thing and guarded its secret as if they were top secret military plans. The government forbade transportation of the plant out of the Moslem nations. The actual spread of coffee was started illegally. One Arab named Baba Budan smuggled (走私) beans to some mountains near Mysore, India, and started a farm there. Early in this century, some of those original plants were found still growing fruitfully in the region.
Coffee today is grown and enjoyed worldwide, and is one of the few crops that small farmers in third-world countries can profitably export.What does the second paragraph mainly talk about?
| A．A sheepherder used coffee beans to keep sheep excited. |
| B．Coffee was a special kind of red cherry from a certain plant. |
| C．A sheepherder and a monk accidently discovered coffee’s effect. |
| D．Sheep ate a lot of coffee beans while they changed pastures. |
Which of the following involves political tricks?
| A．Kaldi’s story. | B．The monk’s story. |
| C．Omar’s story. | D．Baba Budan’s story. |
Mocha is originally the name of ______.
| A．a town | B．an Arabian | C．a kind of coffee | D．a sheepherder |
What can be the best title for the text?
| A．The Secret of Coffee | B．The Tales of Coffee |
| C．People’s Love for Coffee | D．The Function of Coffee |