Years ago, I lived in a building in a large city. The building next door was only a few feet away from mine. There was a woman who lived there, whom I had never met, yet I could see her seated by her window each afternoon, sewing or reading.
After several months had gone by, I began to notice that her window was dirty. Everything was unclear through the dirty window. I would say to myself, "I wonder why that woman doesn't wash her window. It really looks terrible."
One bright morning I decided to clean my flat, including washing the window on the inside.
Late in the afternoon when I finished the cleaning, I sat down by the window with a cup of coffee for a rest. What a surprise! Across the way, the woman sitting by her window was clearly visible. Her window was clean!
Then it dawned on me. I had been criticizing (批评) her dirty window, but all the time I was watching hers through my own dirty window.
That was quite an important lesson for me. How often had I looked at and criticized others through the dirty window of my heart, through my own shortcomings?
Since then, whenever I wanted to judge someone, I asked myself first, “Am I looking at him through my own dirty window?”
Then I try to clean the window of my own world so that I may see the world about me clearly.The writer couldn't see everything clearly through the window because_____.
| A．the woman's window was dirty | B．the writer's window was dirty |
| C．the woman lived nearby | D．the writer was near-sighted |
The writer was surprised that_____.
| A．the woman was sitting by her window |
| B．the woman's window was clean |
| C．the woman did cleaning in the afternoon |
| D．the woman's window was still terrible |
The underlined sentence "It dawned on me" probably means _______.
| A．I began to understand it | B．it cheered me up |
| C．I knew it grew light | D．it began to get dark |
It's clear that _____.
| A．the writer had never met the woman before |
| B．the writer often washed the window |
| C．they both worked as cleaner |
| D．they lived in a small town |
From the passage, we can learn ______.
| A．one shouldn't criticize others very often |
| B．one should often make his windows clean |
| C．one must judge himself before he judges others |
| D．one must look at others through his dirty windows |
D
“The really big concern over the last decade,” according to Dr. David Whitehead, “is the relative loss of opportunities for children to engage in child-led play.” That's true. One of the exhausting aspects of modern parenting is that everything, even doing nothing, has to be purposeful. Now that “parenting” has become a verb — a state of doing, rather than simply being — it can fed unnatural to leave your children to their own devices. Yet it creates spaces in which good things can happen. The psychology lecturer is responding to a survey showing that 80 percent of parents of small children feel under pressure to fill their days with “structured” activities. This, says Dr. Whitehead, is a mistake. Leaving your children to play on their own or with their peers enables them to develop “self-regulation abilities”, which in turn leads to better academic achievement.
One afternoon last autumn, sitting on a bench doing no parenting at all, I suddenly felt I was getting the hang of it.
That afternoon, my sister and I took our children to the park. We had lots to talk about, so we sat down on a bench and drove the children away. After briefly complaining, the cousins wandered off and started jumping into puddles (水洼).
They jumped and jumped, and then one of them kicked some muddy water at the others. My sister and I, deep in conversation, didn't notice this. So my nephew became more adventurous. He scooped up a handful of mud and threw it on my son's head. My son caught his breath happily, wiped the mud out of his eyes, and threw one back. My nephew, who has a talent for naming things, puffed out his tiny chest and roared: “Let's play Muddikins!”
The rules of Muddikins are simple. You run around throwing mud at each other until everyone is so thickly coated that you can no longer be sure which child is whose. Nothing is learnt from it; nobody is improved. It is pure fun, of the sort that can only happen when parents drop the reins (缰绳). They did it. “ Whoa, that's so cool,” said one. “I wish my mum was like you.”What is stressed in Paragraph 1?
| A．Child-led play matters in the development of children. |
| B．Parents' concern over their children is unnecessary. |
| C．Children's activities should be well organized. |
| D．Parenting is everything in a family. |
What does the author think of the behavior of the children in the puddles?
| A．Amazing. | B．Troublesome. |
| C．Adventurous. | D．Worthwhile. |
By saying “They did it” in the last paragraph, the author means that ______.
| A．The reins were dropped. |
| B．She failed to distinguish her child. |
| C．The children learned from the Muddikins. |
| D．She confirmed Dr. David Whitehead's theory. |
The text is mainly about the relationship between _____.
| A．parents and children |
| B．individual and group |
| C．play and acquisition |
| D．theory and practice |
C
In 1932 the warning of the British politician, Stanley Baldwin, that “the bomber will always get through” made a deep impression in Britain, the only state to make serious plans to evacuate civilians from large towns before the war started.
The British Government developed plans for evacuating 1 million children to the United States and Canada and other Commonwealth nations. It established the Children's Overseas Reception Board (CORB) in May 1940. After the fall of France, many people thought the war was lost and some saw this as one way of ensuring that Britain could survive even if invaded.
The Germans eventually began bombing British cities in September. Some children were evacuated by ship to British Dominions, including Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and South Africa. The CORB selections were not done on a first-come, first-served basis. CORB classified and prioritized the children. Charges soon appeared in the press that the well-to-do were being given priority. CORB arranged for the transportation. The Government paid the passages. Quite a number of children had already been evacuated. This tended to be children from rich families with money and overseas contacts. The British public eventually demanded the government pay so that less privileged children were also eligible.
World War II occurred before the beginning of trans-Atlantic air travel. Liners were used to transport the children and this proved to be dangerous because the U-boats quickly emerged as the greatest threat. And this put the evacuee children trying to cross the Atlantic to safety in danger. Two ships carrying child evacuees were torpedoed (破坏)in 1940. One was the Dutch liner Volendam with 320 children on August 30. The crew managed to get the life boats off and saved the children. They were returned to Glasgow. The other was the City of Benares, an ocean liner with 200 British and foreign civilian passengers and 93 British children with a guard of nurses, teachers, and a clergyman. It was torpedoed on September 13. The crew attempted to launch the life boats as Benares began to sink. The rough weather made this difficult, so many of the passengers in the life boats died in the extreme conditions. Only 15 children survived. Churchill, when he learned of the disaster, decided to end the overseas evacuation scheme.The whole passage is mainly about _____.
| A．bombing Britain |
| B．children evacuation |
| C．German U-boats |
| D．loss of children |
What can we learn about the British people according to the passage?
| A．They were concerned about their children. |
| B．They were threatened by Stanley Baldwin. |
| C．They were frightened by German invasion. |
| D．They longed to go to commonwealth nations. |
The underlined word “eligible” in the last sentence of Paragraph 3 probably means _____.
| A．qualified | B．accessible |
| C．hopeful | D．popular |
Churchill decided to end the evacuation scheme mainly because _____.
| A．so many people needed evacuating |
| B．the weather in the Atlantic was rough |
| C．the crew were inexperienced in saving people |
| D．liners easily became the targets of the German U-boats |
B
The Sieferts are the kind of environmentally conscious family who has solar panels atop their home. They use timers on their kids' showers and have planted drought-tolerant landscaping. But they feel kind of guilt. “I haven’t thought about the pool as much as I probably should,” said Annette Siefert.
As California's drought worsens, swimming pools have become a target for those who think the classic backyard greens waste water. Some water districts have banned new pools from being filled and have limited how much water existing pools can use.
But some of those agencies are walking back the rules as they make a surprising discovery: Pools aren't the water wasters some have made them out to be. Analyses by various water districts, along with scientific studies, conclude that pools and their surrounding landscapes use about the same amount of water as a lawn(草坪) of the same size. Over time, pools might even use less water. With pool covers, experts say water evaporation(蒸发)can be cut by almost half, making pools significantly less wasteful than grass and about as efficient as drought-tolerant landscaping.
Facing complaints over a recent ban on filling pools, the Santa Margarita Water District conducted its own water-use analysis. It found that pools require thousands of gallons of water to fill initially, but they use about 8,000 gallons less water than a traditional landscape after that. By the third year, the analysis found, the savings add up, and a pool's cumulative water use falls below that of a lawn.
Water agencies such as the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power have come to similar conclusions. Armed with new information, Santa Margarita Water District officials will reconsider their ban next week.
“We want to respect the people's rights to use their property. There are many families we know that have saved for pools,” said Jonathan Volzke, spokesman for the 155,000-customer district. “But at the same time, the reality around us is that we're in the third year of a serious drought, and we don't know if we're in the third year of a three-year drought or the third year of a 10-year drought.”Annette Siefert feels guilty mainly because of ______.
| A．being a typical water waster |
| B．the water-use of their swimming pool |
| C．her control over her kids' showers at home |
| D．the construction of the drought-tolerant landscaping |
According to analyses and scientific studies, a swimming pool ______.
| A．had belter be filled up in the beginning |
| B．becomes more efficient against drought |
| C．isn't what people think to be wasteful of water |
| D．consumes more water than a lawn of the same size |
What does Jonathan Volzke try to express in the last paragraph?
| A．He expects the serious drought to come to an end. |
| B．He thinks highly of those who have saved for pools. |
| C．He appeals for reasonable use of the swimming pools. |
| D．He tries to maintain the right to use the swimming pools. |
What would be the best title for the passage?
| A．Water Crisis In California |
| B．Strict Ban On Filling Pools |
| C．The Sieferts—Real Environmentalists? |
| D．Pools—A Big Factor During Drought? |
A
While growing up in Jersey in the 1960s, I always seemed to be building things. One summer I build a model car with my father. It was a simple affair, and as a capable 12-year-old, I could have easily done it alone. But my father spent the time together with me, and before I knew it, we were both out in the garage, working away.
I wish I had thought about this when I was raising my first son. We never built anything together. Oh, we had a lot of fun, for sure. But we never undertook a common work of our hands.
A few years ago, when Anton, my second son, asked if we could build a treehouse in the big silver maple behind our house, his suggestion immediately reminded me of the memory. Yes, I thought. Of course. My second chance. And so, one day while Anton was in school and I had some free time, I bought some wood. But one thing led to another and we got only as far as the ladder and a simple platform. His vision for the treehouse was not fulfilled that summer, and the three following summers saw me involved with other things. In the middle of our quiet supper last night, I looked at Anton, a high school student now and asked, “Anton, are you still interested in finishing the treehouse?” “Sure, Dad,” he said, and within that “sure” was contained, perhaps, his own self-awareness of a childhood to which he was still attached.
We continued where we had left off. I was surprised at how good a worker Anton had become. Where four years ago all he could really do with confidence was hammer nails, now he was measuring and cutting. In one moment that took my breath away, he attempted to center a support beam(支撑梁)while looking to me for direction. “Is it centered, Dad?” I waved him a little to the right. Then a little more. Then I said. “Perfect.”
And it was perfect. As was this second chance, I finally realized that my father hadn't had to help me build that model car in 1966. He wanted to. And that made all the difference.Not having built anything together with his first son, the author felt _____.
| A．disappointed | B．satisfied |
| C．regretful | D．relieved |
Why didn't they finish building the treehouse at first?
| A．It was too hot those summers. |
| B．Anton wasn't confident enough. |
| C．They gradually lost interest in it. |
| D．They were both occupied with other things. |
From the fourth paragraph, we can see that the father _____.
| A．was proud of his son |
| B．missed the last chance |
| C．felt content with the treehouse |
| D．hoped to finish the work perfectly |
It can be inferred that the author realized _____.
| A．the quiet passing of childhood |
| B．the difficulty in raising children |
| C．the children's dependence on their father |
| D．the significance of undertaking a common work with children |
Imagine a house that keeps itself warm in the wintertime. Think of the savings in terms of fuel bills and unfriendly emissions. Such houses in fact exist, called “passive houses”. The concept of these highly energy-efficient buildings took root in the 1990s, before slowly consolidating as a niche construction (生态位构建) concept in the 2000s. Are passive houses now actively moving into the mainstream as sustainable buildings?
For Brian Mc Garry, an economics lecturer who built a family house based on passive housing criteria in the Pyrenees this year, the arguments look convincing. As his first full winter in the low energy house draws in, we asked him to keep us informed. Do passive houses work?
I had never heard of a passive house in February 2012, when I purchased a plot of land. Nor did I expect that I would be persuaded to build a pre-constructed, custom-designed house based on energy-efficient passive house criteria. It promised to be easier and quicker to build, cheaper to run, and more comfortable to live in. The objective was to incorporate the fundamental concepts of passive energy management into my project: an airtight and highly insulated building envelope; large south facing double or triple-glazed windows (if possible, filled with argon gas) that passively capture the energy of the sun; a heat recovery ventilation system to provide fresh air; and a simple, low-cost heating system consisting of a modern wood-burning stove, a bathroom heater and a portable radiator backup for when the sun doesn’t shine and temperatures decline. No significant limitations were placed on the design, and it had excellent environmental credentials. Moreover, the cost was no more than a conventional build.
After six months in use, the house is proving to be both cheap to run and remarkably comfortable–staying cool in the hot summer was effortless, as long as the windows were shuttered or shaded from the sun. Nowstaying warm in the cold, high-altitude December climate also seems easy, so far.
Winter arrived in force in the Pyrenees in November, with abundant snowfalls and temperatures as low as minus 8° Celsius. Though early days, the house has responded well: the stove is lit during cold evenings but the portable radiator has not yet been needed. This type of construction seems not only to make economic and environmental sense, but to enhance our quality of life, too.We can learn from Paragraph one that passive houses __________.
| A．consume extra energy to keep warm in winter and cool in summer |
| B．had been introduced for a decade before the birth of the theory |
| C．appeal to both the self-builders and those constructors |
| D．refer to a certain house comfortable, costly and also pleasing |
Regarding the passive energy management, the houses have characteristics EXCEPT _______
| A．using south-facing windows to take in solar energy |
| B．Providing energy for taking a shower when it’s rainy |
| C．supplying fresh air with a special heat recovery system |
| D．placing more demands and restrictions on the design |
How did Brian McGarry find his self-built passive house?
| A．very unaffordable |
| B．Energy-consuming |
| C．comfortable to live in |
| D．Awkward to use |
What is the writer’s attitude towards the passive housing?
| A．supportive | B．critical |
| C．oppositive | D．doubtful |