The evidence for harmony （ 和谐）may not be obvious in some families. But it seems that four out of five young people now get on with their parents, which is the opposite of the popularly-held image(形象) of unhappy teenagers locked in their room after endless family quarrels.
An important new study into teenage attitudes surprisingly shows that their family life is more harmonious than it has ever been in the past. "We were surprised by just how positive today's young people seem to be about their families," said one member of the research team. "They're expected to be rebellious(叛逆的) and selfish but actually they have other things on their minds; they want a car and material goods, and they worry about whether school is serving them well. There's more negotiation(商议) and discussion between parents and children, and children expect to take part in the family decision-making process. They don't want to rock the boat."
So it seems that this generation of parents is much more likely than parents of 30 years ago to treat their children as friends. "My parents are happy to discuss things with me and willing to listen to me," says 17-years-old Daniel Lazall. " I always tell them when I'm going out clubbing. As long as they know what I'm doing, they're fine with it." Susan Crome, who is now 21, agrees. "Looking back on the last 10 years, there was a lot of what you could call negotiation. For example, as long as I'd done all my homework, I could go out on a Saturday night. But I think my grandparents were a lot stricter with my parents than that."
Maybe this positive view of family life should not be unexpected. It is possible that the idea of teenage rebellion is not rooted in real facts. A researcher comments, "Our surprise that teenagers say they get along well with their parents comes because of a brief period in our social history when teenagers were regarded as different beings. But that idea of rebelling and breaking away from their parents really only happened during that one time in the 1960s when everyone rebelled. The normal situation throughout history has been a smooth change from helping out with the family business to taking it over."According to the author, teenage rebellion ________.
| A．resulted from changes in families |
| B．is common nowadays |
| C．may be a false belief |
| D．existed only in the 1960s |
What is the passage mainly about?
| A．Education in family |
| B．Harmony in family |
| C．Teenage trouble in family |
| D．Negotiation in family |
The study shows that teenagers don't want to ________.
| A．go boating with their family |
| B．share family responsibility |
| C．make family decisions |
| D．cause trouble in their families |
Compared with parents of 30 years ago, today's parents ________.
| A．care less about their children's life |
| B．go to clubs more often with their children |
| C．give their children more freedom |
| D．are much stricter with their children |
Dogs and cats are not for students who live in the dormitory. Just think about the noise, the smell and all that wild behavior—chewing on whatever they can get their teeth on, or knocking over the trash can. But don’t feel sad. There are smaller and less destructive pets to make your dormitory life colorful.
Betta fish
They make great pets with their big personality and astonishing colors, ranging from bright red, dark blue to lemon yellow. Unlike many fish, most bettas react to their owner’s presence and become more active when they are nearby, which is unusual in the fish world.
Chinchillas
Without bad smell, about the size of a rabbit and with fur so dense that they can’t get pests such as fleas(跳蚤), the friendly creature originally from the Andes Mountains in South America makes an ideal indoor pet. Chinchillas are very social animals, so if you only have one, you will become its family. In cold winter days, in a glace at this fury pet in a dorm will bring you a lot of warmth.
Land hermit crabs
In a society where owners are often asked “Are they tasty?”, land hermit crabs are among the most unlucky animals commonly kept as pets. But they are easy to care for, inexpensive and fascinating to watch. And the fact that they don’t cause any allergic reactions makes them perfect for college dormitories.
Red-eared sliders
If you’re interested in a lifelong friend, a red-eared slider makes a wonderful pet. If well cared for, they can live for around 40 years. But there are a couple of things you should know. Red-eared can grow to an adult size of up to 30cm! So you may need a larger tank quickly. In addition, you will need to provide UV lighting, water heater, and a swimming area and a basking (晒太阳) area. Housing a red eared slider is not easy.All the dormitory pets mentioned in the text are _____.
| A．active and allergic |
| B．quiet and peaceful |
| C．colorful and tasty |
| D．small and smelly |
Which of the following is not true about these creatures?
| A．Bettas are active and rich in colors. |
| B．Chinchillas are originally mountain animals. |
| C．Land hermit crabs are allergic but tasty. |
| D．Red-eared sliders need more care from the owner. |
If you want to keep the pet as long as possible, you’d better choose _____.
| A．Betta fish |
| B．Chinchillas |
| C．Land hermit crabs |
| D．Red-eared sliders |
The text is mainly to _____.
| A．introduce the best way to keep pets |
| B．offer useful tips for choosing pets |
| C．inform students of lifestyle of pets |
| D．recommend some dormitory pets |
Steve knew he’d been adopted as a baby, and when he turned 18, in 2003, he decided he’d try to track down his birth mother. The agency from which he’d been adopted gave him his mother’s name: Tallady. But online searches didn’t turn up any results about it, and Steve had to let it go.
In 2007, though, he searched for the name again online. This time, the search results included a home address near the Lowe’s store where Steve, then 22, worked as a deliveryman. When he mentioned the coincidence to his boss, his boss said, “You mean Tallady, who works here?”
Steve and Tallady, a cashier, had said hello to each other a few times at the store, but they’d never really talked. He hadn’t even known her name. Steve thought there was no possible way she was his mother though they shared the same name. For a few months, Steve avoided Tallady. “I wasn’t sure how to approach her,” he told a local reporter. Finally, the agency volunteered to arrange their reunion.
When Tallady realized that the nice guy she’d been waving at was his son, she sobbed. She’d always hoped to meet her birth son one day. Later that day, mother and son talked for almost three hours at a nearby bar. She’d given him up for adoption in 1985, when she was 23. “I wasn’t ready to be a mother,” she told him. Married with two other children, Tallady says, “I have a complete family now.”Steve gave up the on-line search for his birth mother in 2003 because _____.
| A．the agency didn’t give him any help |
| B．there was no information about his mother |
| C．his mother didn’t turn up online |
| D．he missed the information about his mother |
What did Steve find about his mother online in 2007?
| A．Her home address. |
| B．Her full name. |
| C．Her boss’s name. |
| D．Her new job. |
Why Steve avoided Tallady for months?
| A．Because she didn’t want to talk to him. |
| B．Because he wasn’t fully prepared for the reunion. |
| C．Because she was very difficult to approach. |
| D．Because he didn’t think she was his birth mother. |
The best title for the text is _____.
| A．The Love of Mother |
| B．An Unexpected Meeting |
| C．The Power of the Internet |
| D．An Unusual Reunion |
B
Riding a London subway, a person from China will notice one major difference: in London, people do not look at each other. In fact, eye contact is avoided at all times. That’s not rudeness—people are just too busy to bother looking.
Busy doing what, you ask? Well, they’re certainly not using the time for a moment of quiet reflection, nor are they reading a book. New technology has replaced quiet habits. Today the only acceptable form of book on the London underground is an e-book.
Apple must earn a fortune from London commuters(乘车上下班的人). Since the launch of the iPhone in 2007, over 40,000—yes, that’s 40,000—“apps” (programs downloaded for the iPhone) have been designed.
Commuters love them because they are the perfect time-fillers. One “app”, called iShoot, is a game that features tanks. Another one, Tube Exits, tells passengers where to sit on the train to be closest to the exit of their destination. ISteam clouds the iPhone screen when you breathe into the microphone. You can then write in the “ steam” on your phone screen.
For those without an iPhone, another Apple product, the iPod, may be another choice. It’s not just teenagers who “plug in” to their music—iPods are a popular way to pass the time for all ages.
And if games, e-books and music aren’t enough to keep you engaged, then perhaps you would prefer a film. The development of palm DVD technology means many commuters watch their favorite TV show or film on the way to work. With all these entertainments, it’s amazing that people still remember to get off the train.People in London do not make eye contact on the subway because they are busy_____.
| A．playing games, reading e-books, listening to music or watching films. |
| B．going to work |
| C．reading books |
| D．thinking about private things |
Those who like war games can download _____to their iPhones.
| A．Tube Exits | B．iShoot |
| C．ISteam | D．iPod |
The underlined word “engaged” in the last paragraph probably means______.
| A．delighted | B．busy |
| C．controlled | D．amused |
The article tells us that_____.
| A．London commuters are unfriendly to strangers |
| B．Apple has earned a lot of money from selling 40,000 iPhones |
| C．with all the new time-fillers, London commuters often forget to get off the train. |
| D．technology is changing the way London commuters spend their traveling time. |
A
I left university with a good degree in English Literature, but no sense of what I wanted to do. Over the next six years, I was treading water, just trying to earn an income. I tried journalism, but I didn’t think I was any good, then finance, which I hated. Finally, I got a job as a rights assistant at a famous publisher. I loved working with books, although the job that I did was dull.
I had enough savings to take a year off work, and I decided to try to satisfy a deep-down wish to write a novel. Attending a Novel Writing MA course gave me the structure I needed to write my first 55,000 words.
It takes confidence to make a new start — there’s a dark period in-between where you’re neither one thing nor the other. You’re out for dinner and people ask what you do, and you’re too ashamed to say, “Well, I’m writing a novel, but I’m not quite sure if I’m going to get there.” My confidence dived. Believing my novel could not be published ,
I put it aside.
Then I met an agent（代理商）who said I should send my novel out to agents. So, I did and, to my surprise, got some wonderful feedback. I felt a little hope that I might actually become a published writer and, after signing with an agent, I finished the second half of the novel.
The next problem was finding a publisher. After two-and-a-half years of no income, just waiting and wondering, a publisher offered me a book deal — that publisher turned out to be the one I once worked for.
It feels like an unbelievable stroke of luck — of fate, really. When you set out to do something different, there’s no end in sight, so to find myself in a position where I now have my own name on a contract of the publisher — to be a published writer — is unbelievably rewarding.What does the underlined part in Paragraph 1 mean?
| A．I was waiting for good fortune. |
| B．I was trying to find an admirable job. |
| C．I was being aimless about a suitable job. |
| D．I was doing several jobs for more pay at a time. |
The author decided to write a novel ______ .
| A．to finish the writing course |
| B．to realize her own dream |
| C．to satisfy readers’wish |
| D．to earn more money |
How did the writer feel halfway with the novel?
| A．Disturbed. | B．Ashamed. | C．Confident. | D．Uncertain. |
What does the author mainly want to tell readers in the last paragraph?
| A．It pays to stick to one’s goal. |
| B．Hard work can lead to success. |
| C．She feels like being unexpectedly lucky. |
| D．There is no end in sight when starting to do something. |
E
A German study suggests that people who were too optimistic about their future actually faced greater risk of disability or death within 10 years than those pessimists( 悲观者)who expected their future to be worse.
The paper, published this March in Psychology and Aging, examined health and welfare surveys from roughly 40,000 Germans between ages 18 and 96. The surveys were conducted every year from 1993 to 2003.
Survey respondents (受访者) were asked to estimate their present and future life satisfaction on a scale of 0 to 10, among other questions.
The researchers found that young adults (age 18 to 39) routinely overestimated their future life satisfaction, while middle-aged adults (age 40 to 64) more accurately predicted how they would feel in the future. Adults of 65 and older, however, were far more likely to underestimate their future life satisfaction. Not only did they feel more satisfied than they thought they would, the older pessimists seemed to suffer a lower ratio (比率) of disability and death for the study period.
“We observed that being too optimistic in predicting a better future than actually observed was associated with a greater risk of disability and a greater risk of death within the following decade,” wrote Frieder R. Lang, a professor at the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg.
Lang and his colleagues believed that people who were pessimistic about their future may be more careful about their actions than people who expected a rosy future.
“Seeing a dark future may encourage positive evaluations of the actual self and may contribute to taking improved precautions (预防措施),” the authors wrote.
Surprisingly, compared with those in poor health or who had low incomes, respondents who enjoyed good health or income were associated with expecting a greater decline. Also, the researchers said that higher income was related to a greater risk of disability.
The authors of the study noted that there were limitations to their conclusions. Illness, medical treatment and personal loss could also have driven health outcomes. However, the researchers said a pattern was clear. “We found that from early to late adulthood, individuals adapt their expectations of future life satisfaction from optimistic, to accurate, to pessimistic,” the authors concluded.According to the study, who made the most accurate prediction of their future life satisfaction?
| A．Optimistic adults. |
| B．Middle-aged adults. |
| C．Adults in poor health. |
| D．Adults of lower income. |
Pessimism may be positive in some way because it causes people ______.
| A．to fully enjoy their present life |
| B．to estimate their contribution accurately |
| C．to take measures against potential risks |
| D．to value health more highly than wealth |
How do people of higher income see their future?
| A．They will earn less money. |
| B．They will become pessimistic. |
| C．They will suffer mental illness. |
| D．They will have less time to enjoy life. |
What is the clear conclusion of the study?
| A．Pessimism guarantees chances of survival. |
| B．Good financial condition leads to good health. |
| C．Medical treatment determines health outcomes. |
| D．Expectations of future life satisfaction decline with age. |