To be sure, only children experienced some things differently from those with sisters and brothers. Many feel more pressure to succeed. In the absence of brothers and sisters, only children also tend to look more exclusively to their parents as role models.
In India, 10-year-old Saviraj Sankpal founded a support group for the tiny minority of only children. Among other things, the group does volunteer work to counter the myth that they are not responsible. “People think we’re treated too kindly and ruined,” says Sankpal, a computer engineering student. “But I’d like to remind them how lonely it can get.”
Most only children, however, say they wish for sisters or brothers only when it comes to caring for aging, unhealthy parents. Britain’s David Emerson, coauthor of the book The Only Child, says that such a person bears a terrible burden in having to make all the decisions alone. Emerson knows from experience: After his father died, he chose to move his elderly mother from their family home, where she was vulnerable(易受攻击的) to house breakers, to a new one with more security. “The move was quite hard on her, and she might feel that I pushed her into it,” he says. “After all, I am left with that responsibility.”
In the future, more and more only children will likely face similar choices. With working mothers increasingly the rule, many families are finding they simply don’t have the time, money or energy to have more than one child. As only children become common, perhaps the world will realize that the charge made against them is unjust.
| A．critical | B．objective | C．hostile | D．unjust |
| A．find a support group for their only children |
| B．do volunteer work to help their only children |
| C．let their only children make all the decision alone |
| D．set good examples for their only children |
| A．is the only one who cares about her |
| B．doesn’t want to leave her alone |
| C．wants to share the responsibility with her |
| D．is worried about her safety |
| A．spend all her time and money on her only child |
| B．be responsible for bringing up her only child |
| C．have and bring up only one child |
| D．devote all her energy to her job |
It helps to choose the colors you plan to live with in your home with awareness of how different colors affect your emotional and physical states. Every color has a unique meaning, and this can significantly affect how you feel in a room.
Simple Solution:
Using this simple chart, you can choose a room’s color to be in balance and harmony with the role you want a room to have in your and your family’s life.
| Red: A room that is painted red will energize, inspire activity and movement, help passion, and be powerful and stimulating. it is a great choice for such gathering places. Orange enhances parties, |
Orange: Orange rooms encourage happy, joyful, social gatherings. While an orange dining room or family room can stimulate the appetite, it is a great choice for such gathering places. Orange enhances parties, communication, positive feelings, and general good cheer. |
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| Yellow: Yellow rooms inspire intellectual clarity, organization, clear-headed thinking, and happy energy. Yellow is considered a color for the logical left side of the brain. Yellow is also very bright and somewhat energizing. |
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| Blue: Blue rooms are often chosen for bedrooms and meditation (冥想) rooms because its cool energy is very calming, restful, peaceful, and spiritual. Blue helps inspire a quiet meditative quality, and color therapy with blue has been found to reduce blood pressure. Blue is also useful to make one to sleep. |
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| Green: Green rooms are very restful but combine with an energizing quality. Green is the color of outdoors, calm and active at the same time. Green brings balance and harmony to a room, and can be used as a calming place for people who are troubled or in need of refreshment. |
What impression can green rooms give to you?
| A．Passionate and powerful. | B．Refreshing and harmonious. |
| C．Cool and calming. | D．Inspiring and bright. |
If you are going to hold a family gathering, which color of the room can best enhance your atmosphere?
| A．Red. | B．Orange. | C．Blue. | D．Green. |
Which of the following statements about color is NOT true?
| A．Yellow rooms inspire logical and clear thinking. |
| B．Blue creates a quiet meditative quality. |
| C．Different colors affect you emotionally and physically. |
| D．Red rooms are acceptable when you are in a bad mood. |
A new study of 8,000 young people in the Journal of Health and Social Behavior shows that although love can make adults live healthily and happily, it is a bad thing for young people. Puppy love (早恋) may bring stress for young people and can lead to depression (忧郁症). The study shows that girls become more depressed than boys, and younger girls are the worst of all.
The possible reason for the connection between love and higher risk of depression for girls is “loss of self”. According to the study, even though boys would say “lose themselves in a romantic relationship”, this “loss of self” is much more likely to lead to depression when it happens to girls. Young girls who have romantic relationships usually like hiding their feelings and opinions. They won’t tell that to their parents.
Dr Marian Kaufman, an expert on young people problems, says 15% to 20% young people will have depression during their growing. Trying romance often causes the depression. She advises kids not to jump into romance too early. During growing up, it is important for young people to build strong friendships and a strong sense of self. She also suggests the parents should encourage their kids to keep close to their friends, attend more interesting school activities and spend enough time with family.
Parents should watch for signs of depression -- eating or mood changes -- and if they see signs from their daughters or sons, they need to give help. The good news is that the connection between romance and depression seems to become weak with age. Love will always make us feel young, but only maturity (成熟) gives us a chance to avoid its bad side effects.What’s the main idea of the passage?
| A．Puppy love may bring young people depression. |
| B．Parents should forbid their children’s love. |
| C．Romance is a two edged sword for adults. |
| D．Romance is good for young people. |
Which of the following is more likely to have depression?
| A．Young people who have a strong sense of selfishness. |
| B．Young boys whose parents watch for their behavior. |
| C．Young girls who always hide their feelings and opinions. |
| D．Careless parents whose children are deep in love. |
What can be inferred from the passage?
| A．Lacking love can lead young people to grow up more quickly. |
| B．Early love makes young people keep close to their friends and parents. |
| C．Parents should help their children to be aware of the signs of depression. |
| D．The older a woman is，the less likely she seems to lose herself in romance. |
What’s the author’s attitude towards puppy love?
| A．Confused. | B．Disapproving. | C．Disinterested. | D．Scared. |
Will it matter if you don't take your breakfast? Recently a test was given in the United States. Those tested included people of different ages, from 12 to 83. During the experiment, these people were given all kinds of breakfasts, and sometimes they got no breakfast at all. Special tests were set up to see how well their bodies worked when they had eaten a certain kind of breakfast. The results show that if a person eats a proper breakfast, he or she will work with better effect than if he or she has no breakfast. This fact appears to be especially true if a person works with his brains. If a student eats fruit, eggs, bread and milk before going to school, he will learn more quickly and listen with more attention to class.
Opposite(相反的) to what many people believe, if you don't eat breakfast, you will not lose weight. This is because people become so hungry at noon that they eat too much for lunch, and end up gaining weight instead of losing. You will probably lose more weight if you reduce your lunch and super!During the test, those who were tested were given ________.
| A．no breakfast at all | B．very rich breakfasts |
| C．little food for breakfast | D．different breakfast or none |
The results of the test show that ________.
| A．breakfast has great effect on work and studies |
| B．breakfast has little to do with a person’s work |
| C．a person will work better if he has a simple breakfast |
| D．those working with brains should have much for breakfast |
The passage mentions that many people believe that if you don't eat breakfast, you will _________.
| A．lose weight | B．not lose weight |
| C．be healthier | D．gain a lot of weight |
Which of the following is not true according to the passage?
| A．Poor breakfasts affect those who work with brains. |
| B．Morning diet may cause one person to get fatter. |
| C．Reducing lunch and supper is of less help in weight losing. |
| D．Eating less in lunch and supper may help to lose weight. |
According to the passage, if a student does not eat breakfast, ___________.
| A．he will fall ill |
| B．he will not listen to his teacher |
| C．he will not make progress in his study |
| D．his mind will work more slowly |
Jungle(丛林) country is not friendly to man，but it is possible to survive there. You must have the right equipment and you must know a few important things about woodcraft(山林野外知识). Then your chances of staying alive are very good.
No one should go into the jungle without the right equipment. You need lightweight clothing, a good knife, and a compass. Fishhooks and a line，a rifle，matches in a waterproof container and a poncho(雨披) are necessary too. So is a mosquito net(蚊帐) to protect the head.
In the jungle you can get hopelessly lost within five minutes after leaving known landmark(地界碑). That is why you should always carry a compass. In open country during the day, you can tell which way to go by studying the sun. At night the stars are sure guides to direction. But in most places the jungle rooftop is so thick that it is impossible to see the sun or the stars. Again and again you must check your position by the compass.
Keep alert(警惕的). Watch the ground in front of you carefully. Stop and listen now and again. Avoid haste(匆忙), and rest often. In a place that is hot and humid(潮湿的), the person who sets a fast pace will soon become tired. A steady and even pace is wisest in the long run.
If you lose your way, don't panic. Try to decide how long it has been since you were sure of your position. Mark the spot where you are with blazes on a tree. Put them on four sides of the tree, so that you will be able to see them from any direction. Then you can begin retracing your steps(going back exactly the way you have come), knowing that you can always find the spot from which you started. Except in an emergency, never try to travel the jungle at night.
Whenever possible, it is wise to follow streams and rivers that are going in your general direction. This may cause you many extra miles of travel. But in the end it will save time and energy. Nothing is more exhausting (extremely tiring) than hacking(cutting) a way through unbroken jungle.
Surviving in the jungle is a science. The jungle people have become perfect in this science, and you can too. Learn as much as you can about what to expect in the jungle. Make sure you have the right equipment. Then no part of the jungle will seem completely or frightening. In fact, you will be able to “live off” it for a long time.To keep alive in the jungle, you should make it clear that the right equipment is _________.
| A．more important than a knowledge of woodcraft |
| B．less important than a knowledge of woodcraft |
| C．just as important as a knowledge of woodcraft |
| D．not as important as a knowledge of woodcraft |
If you lose your way in the jungle, which of the following can NOT be done?
| A．Check your position by the compass again and again. |
| B．Decide how long ago it was that you got lost. |
| C．Tell which way to go by studying the sun/the stars. |
| D．Mark blazes on four sides of a tree and be sure to see them from any direction. |
The author is strongly against traveling at night probably because __________.
| A．one tends to move too slowly at night |
| B．some animals will attack you |
| C．emergencies occur most frequently at night |
| D．it is more difficult to check your position |
“It is wise to follow streams and rivers”, which will ensure you to _________.
| A．avoid animals’ attacks |
| B．save many extra miles of travel |
| C．avoid hacking a way through unbroken jungle |
| D．have a rich supply of drinking water |
When Jackie Robinson walked onto Ebbets Field in Brooklyn, New York, on April 15, 1947, he changed baseball forever. As the first African American to play in the Major League in modern times, many believe he changed the country forever.
Robinson was born in 1919. He lived in a time when rules controlled what African Americans could do. He was a top athlete, playing football, basketball and baseball. But playing for a major league team was off limits to Robinson because of his race.
Branch Rickey, president and manager of the Brooklyn Dodgers, signed(和…签约)Robinson in 1947. He believed that Robinson not only had the skills, but the courage to face the challenge of becoming modern baseball’s first black player.
It wasn’t easy. Robinson sometimes faced boos(嘘声)from fans. But he became a star, anyway. In 1962, he became the first African-American player chosen to enter the Baseball Hall of Fame. In 2005, he was awarded a Congressional Gold Medal, the highest award can give to an American.
By breaking baseball’s color barrier(肤色障碍), Robinson opened the door for many to follow his footsteps, not only in baseball, but in other areas of life as wall. After he stopped playing the game, Robinson worked as a manager for a coffee company. He wrote a newspaper column(专栏). He also started a bank.According to Branch Rickey, Jackie Robinson was _____________.
| A．poor but clever | B．unlucky but confident |
| C．proud and strong | D．brave and skilled |
We can know that Jackie Robinson’s story _______________.
| A．changed many African’s ideas |
| B．had an effect on many black people’s lives |
| C．encouraged black people to fight with whites |
| D．started a hot discussion about the color barrier |
Which of the following is NOT what he once did?
| A．a newspaper column writer | B．a banker |
| C．a university teacher | D．a manager in a company |