Most Americans believe that someone isn’t grown-up until the age of 26 and they should complete their education, have a full-time job, have a family to support and be financially independent. They also believe that becoming a real grown-up is a process which begins at about the age of 20 and takes about five years, according to the report from the University of Chicago’s National Opinion Research Center.
The findings are based on a representative sample of 1,398 people over the age of 18 who were surveyed in person. The survey found that people expect the transitions to grown-up status to be completed at the following ages: age 20.9 self-supporting; age 21.1 no longer living with parents; age 21.2 having a full-time job; age 22.3 education completed; age 24.5 being able to support a family financially; age 25.7 getting married; and age 26.2 having a child.
“There is a large degree of agreement across social groups on the relative importance of the seven transitions,” said Tom Smith, director of the survey. The only obvious pattern of differences is on views about supporting a family, having children and getting married. Older adults consider these more important than younger adults do. This probably shows in large part a change in values across generations away from traditional family values. The most valued step toward reaching adulthood, the survey found, is completing education, followed by full-time employment, supporting a family, financial independence, living independently, and marriage.According to the first paragraph, someone is a grown-up when he _______.
| A．has found a full-time job |
| B．has finished his study in university |
| C．can make money and support himself after completing his education |
| D．can support a family and be financially independent after graduation |
A young man of 24 may be busy ________.
| A．finding a job |
| B．finding a girl friend |
| C．making money |
| D．preparing for his wedding |
The underlined word “status” in the second paragraph probably means “________”.
| A．position | B．rank | C．level | D．situation |
From the passage, we learn that _________.
| A．being grown-up is just a matter of age |
| B．being grown-up is a process which takes some time |
| C．all people think completing education means being grown-up |
| D．the survey found everyone had a different view about being grown-up |
The best title for the passage should be “________”
| A．It takes a long time to grown up. |
| B．Are we grown-up yet? |
| C．Getting married means being grown-up. |
| D．Completing education means being grown-up. |
Everybody knows that words can carry messages. People communicate with words. Books, magazines, TV，radio and films all help us to know what is going on in the world and what people are thinking about.
Do you think you can communicate without words? A smile on your face s
hows you are happy or friendly. Tears in your eyes tell others that you are sad. When you put up your hand in class, the teacher knows that you want to say something or ask a question. You shake your head, and people know you are saying “No”. You nod and people know you are saying “Yes”.
Other things can also carry messages. For example, a sign at the bus stop helps you to know which bus to take. A sign on the wall of your school helps you to find the library. Signs on doors tell you where to go in or out. Have you ever noticed there are a lot of signs around you and you receive messages from them all the time? People can communicate in many ways without words. For example, an artist can use his drawings to tell about beautiful mountains, seas and many other things. Choose the best title for this passage.
| A．Ways for Communication. | B．The Best Way for Communication. |
| C．The Only Way for Communication. | D．Words Can Carry Messages. |
How can people communicate with each other?
| A．With words only | B．Only without words. |
| C．Either with words or without words. | D．Just by using different kinds of signs. |
Which of the following is NOT a way for communication without words?
| A．A cry for help | B．A smile on your face | C．Making a face | D．Nodding your head |
One day newly wedded Nancy lost her ring while helping to plant potatoes. Friends were called and the field was searched long but in vain(徒劳). Later, when the potatoes were harvested, Everyone looked out for the ring but it remained lost. Another year came round and all the farmers working in the field kept their eyes open. The following year was the same. And year after year, whoever had business in the field always had Nancy’s ring in his mind.
Then the farm changed hands but it went no farther than to cousins. So the memory of the lost ring remained alive until thirty-eight years had passed. Then came a spring day when a man was ploughing the field behind a pair of horses. Even after thirty-eight years he still looked out for the ring, a
nd knew just which part of
the field Nancy had lost it in. At this time, when he came there, he found it .He picked it up, put it carefully into his pocket, left his horse, and ran all the way down to the village and placed it into Nancy’s hand. How did Nancy come to lose her ring?
| A．She lost it while helping to harvest tomatoes in the field |
| B．She lost it while watering the plants in the field. |
| C．She lost it while working in the field. |
| D．She lost it while helping to plant potatoes in the field. |
Why did people keep looking for the ring even after the farm changed hands?
| A．It was a very expensive ring | B．They all wanted to solve the mystery. |
| C．They all loved Nancy. | D．Everybody wanted to have this ring. |
What did the ploughman do after finding the ring?
| A．He picked it up and put it in his pocket. |
| B．He ran back to tell everybody in the village. |
| C．He placed it in a secret spot. |
| D．He returned it to the owner. |
. What can you infer from the story?
| A．The ring was invaluable. |
| B．People on the farm were honest and helpful. |
| C．The ring’s disappearance was the work of supernatural power. |
| D．Nancy no longer expected that her ring would be found again. |
Every culture has a recognized (公认的) point when a child becomes an adult, when rules must be followed and tests passed.
In China, although teenagers can get their ID cards at 16, many only see themselves as an adult when they are 18. In the US, where everyone drives, the main step to the freedom of adult life is learning to drive. At 16, American teens take their driving test. When they have th
eir license, they drive into the grown-up world.
“Nobody wants to ride the bus to school,” said Eleanor Fulham, 17. She 
remembered the pressure, especially from kids from richer families. “It’s like you’re not cool if you don’t have a car,
” she said.
According to recent research, 41% of 16 to 19-year-olds in the US own cars, up from 23% in 1985. Although, most of these cars are bought by parents, some teens get part-time jobs to help pay.
Not all families will buy cars for their children. In cities with subways (地铁) and limited parking, some teenagers don’t want them. But in rich suburban (郊区的) areas without subways, and where bicycles are more for fun than transportation, it is strange for a teenager not to have a car.
But police say 16-year-olds have almost three times more accidents than 18 and 19-year-olds. This has made many parents think carefully before letting their kids drive.
Julie Sussman, of Virginia, decided that her son Chad, 15, will wait until he is 17.
Chad said he has accepted his parents’ decision, although it has caused some teasing (奚落) from his friends. “They say that I am unlucky,” he said. “But I’d rather 
be alive than driving, and I don’t really trust my friends on the road either.”
In China as more families get cars, more 18-year-olds learn to drive. Will this become a big step to becoming an adult?The story is mainly about _______.
| A．the recognized point between childhood and adulthood |
| B．American teens want to drive a car when they turn 16 |
C．whether teenager s should have a car |
| D．the fact that it’s safer for teens to drive a car at an younger age |
Which of the following is not one of the reasons that kids want to have a car?
| A．With a car, it would be easy to move around. |
| B．A great number of teenagers have cars. |
| C．Having a car would mean more excitement. |
| D．Parents’ support for kids to have a car at an early age. |
.Which of the following is not true?
| A．Some of Chad’s friends have cars. |
| B．When deciding whether to buy a car for their kids, safety weighs heavily on many parents’ mind. |
C．In the US, 16 is consid ered the point between childhood and adulthood. |
| D．More kids from cities own cars than those from the countryside. |
The word “license”
in Paragraph 2 means closest to ______.
| A．driving permit | B．ID card | C．learner’s permit | D．test result |
If you want to stay young, sit down and have a good think. This is the research finding of a team of Japanese doctors, who say that most of out brains are not getting enough exercise, and as a result, we are growing old unnecessarily soon.
Professor Taiju Matsuzawa wanted to find out 
why quite healthy farmers in northern Japan appeared to be losing their ability to think and reason at a rather early age, and how the speed of getting old could be slowed down.
With a team of researchers at Tokyo National University, he set about measuring brain sizes of a thousand people of different ages with different jobs.
Computer technology helped the researchers to get most exact measurements of the sizes of the front and side parts of the brain
, which have something to do with thinking and feeling, and decide the human character. As we all know, the back part of the brain, which controls task like eating and breathing, does not contract(萎缩) with age.
Contraction of front and side parts, as cells(细胞) die off, was seen in some people in their thirties, but it was still not found in some sixty and seventy-year-olds.
Matsuzawa concluded from his tests that there is a simple way to prevent the contraction---using the head.
The fin
dings show that contraction of the brain begins sooner in people in the country than those in the towns. Those with least possibility, says Matsuzawa, are lawyers, followed by university professors and doctors. White-collar workers doing the same work day after day in government offices are, however, as possible to have contracting brains as the farm workers, bus drivers and shop assistants. The team of doctors wanted to find out ____.
| A．at what point people grow live longer. |
| B．how to make people live longer |
| C．the size of certain people’s brains. |
| D．which group of people are the busiest |
Their research findings are based on ______.c
| A．an examination of farmers in northern Japan |
| B．using computer technology |
| C．examining the brain sizes of different people |
| D．tests given a thousand old people |
The doctor’s tests show that ______.
| A．our brains contract as we grow older |
| B．one part of the brain does not contract |
| C．sixty-year-olds have better brains than thirty-year-olds |
| D．contraction of the brain begins sooner in people in the country |
According to the article, _____ are growing mentally old earlier.
| A．engineers | B．office clerks | C．professors | D．researchers |
The most possible conclusion of the article is that ____.
| A．most of us should take more exercise |
| B．it’s better to live in the towns |
| C．the brain contracts if it is not used |
| D．the more one uses his brain, the sooner he becomes old |
In the 1960s, medical researchers Thomas Holmes and Richard Rahe developed a checklist of stressful events. They appreciated the tricky point that any major change can be stressful. Bad events like “serious illness of a family member” were high on the list, but so were some helpful life changing events like marriage.
When you take the Holmes Rahe you must remember that the score does not show how you deal with stress -- it only shows how much you have to deal with. And we now know that the way you deal with these events dramatically affects your chances of staying healthy. By the early 1970s, hundreds of similar studies had followed Holmes and Rahe. And millions of Americans who work and live under stress worried over the reports. Somehow the research got boiled down to a memorable message. Women’s magazines ran titles like “Stress causes illness.”
If you want to stay physically and mentally healthy, the articles said, avoid stressful events. But such simplistic advice is impossible to follow. Even if stressful events are dangerous, many -- like the death of loved one--are impossible to avoid. Moreover, any warning to avoid all s
tressful events is a prescription for staying away from chances as well as trouble. Since any change can be stressful, a person who wanted to be completely free of stress would never marry, have a child, take a new job or move. The idea that all stress makes you sick also takes no notice of a lot of what we know about people. It supposes we're all vulnerable and not active in the face of the difficult situation. But what about human ability and creativity? Many come through periods of stress with more physical and mental strength than they had before. We also know that a long time without change
or challenge can lead to boredom and physical and mental pressure..
The score of the Holmes Rahe test shows ____ .
| A．how you can deal with life changing events |
| B．how helpful events can change your life |
| C．how stressful a major event can be |
| D．how much pressure you are under |
.
. Which of the following expressions has the meaning most close to the underlined phrase “got boiled down to” in paragraph two ?
| A．was argued about | B．made clear |
| C．was concentrated on | D．put an end to |
.
. The studies on stress in the early 1970s led to ____ .
| A．popular avoidance of stressful jobs |
| B．great fear over the mental disorder |
| C．a careful research into stress related illnesses |
| D．widespread worry about its harmful effects |
.
Why is “such simplistic advice ”(Line 2, Para.3) impossible to follow?
| A．No one can stay on the same job for long. |
| B．More effective ways have been found to get rid of stressful events. |
| C．People have to get married some day. |
| D．You could be missing chances as well. |
.
. According to the passage people who have experienced ups and downs may become ____.
| A．nervous when faced with difficulties |
| B．physically and mentally tired |
| C．more able to deal with difficulties |
| D．cold toward what happens to them |