For many parents, raising a teenager is like fighting a long war, but years go by without any clear winner. Like a border conflict between neighboring countries, the parent-teen war is about boundaries: Where is the line between what I control and what you do?
Both sides want peace, but neither feels it has any power to stop the conflict. In part, this is because neither is willing to admit any responsibility for starting it. From the parents’ point of view, the only cause of their fight is their adolescents’ complete unreasonableness. And of course, the teens see it in exactly the same way, except oppositely. Both feel trapped.
In this article, I’ll describe three no-win situations that commonly arise between teens and parents and then suggest some ways out of the trap. The first no-win situation is quarrels over unimportant things. Examples include the color of the teen’s hair, the cleanliness of the bedroom, the preferred style of clothing, the child’s failure to eat a good breakfast before school or his tendency to sleep until noon on the weekends. Second, blaming. The goal of a blaming battle is to make the other admit that his bad attitude is the reason why everything goes wrong. Third, needing to be right. It doesn’t matter what the topic is—politics, the laws of physics, or the proper way to break an egg—the point of these arguments is to prove that you are right and the other person is wrong, for both wish to be considered an authority—someone who actually knows something—and therefore to command respect. Unfortunately, as long as parents and teens continue to assume that they know more than the other, they’ll continue to fight these battles forever and never make any real progress.Why does the author compare the parent-teen war to a border conflict?
| A．Both can continue for generations. |
| B．Both are about where to draw the line. |
| C．Neither has any clear winner. |
| D．Neither can be put to an end. |
What does the underlined part in Paragraph 2 mean?
| A．The teens blame their parents for starting the conflict. |
| B．The teens agree with their parents on the cause of the conflict. |
| C．The teens accuse their parents of misleading them. |
| D．The teens tend to have a full understanding of their parents. |
Parents and teens want to be right because they want to ______.
| A．give orders to the other |
| B．know more than the other |
| C．gain respect from the other |
| D．get the other to behave properly |
What will the author most probably discuss in the paragraph that follows?
| A．Causes for the parent –teen conflicts. |
| B．Examples of the parent –teen war. |
| C．Solutions for the parent –teen problems. |
| D．Future of the parent-teen relationship. |
Only about 30 percent of people in the US know how to perform CPR (心肺复苏术). Recently, a 9-year-old boy showed a Georgia woman how to perform CPR on her newborn baby.
Susanna Rohm said she had experienced a parent’s worst nightmare (噩梦) — her 2-month-old son, Isiah, was not breathing. “I noticed he looked pale. I looked at his arms and his legs and they were limp (无力的),” Rohm told a local newspaper. “Then I noticed that he looked like he wasn’t alive.” In dismay, she dropped and broke her cellphone. Rohm had to run into the street, screaming for help.
“I had him in my arms and screamed over and over. Then I ran outside. I saw two boys playing across the street, and I yelled, ‘Go and ask your parents to call 911,’” Rohm said. But the two boys were able to do more than that. Nine-year-old Ethan Wilson took action, showing Rohm how to perform CPR on little Isiah while ten-year-old Rocky Hurt helped as well.
Rocky said he had learned the CPR technique from a poster in a health class at their school, Sedalia Park Elementary. “I was thinking we’d better give her a helping hand instead of getting scared,” Ethan said. “I told her to push on the baby’s chest five to ten times a minute with only two fingers, tilt back the baby’s head, plug the baby’s nose and breathe into the baby’s mouth,” Ethan said in an interview.
At last, Isiah began crying and was breathing again. He spent two nights in a local hospital. “If the little boy hadn’t shown me what to do right there, my baby would probably not be alive right now,” Rohm said.We can learn from Paragraph 1 that in the US, .
| A．CPR is considered important by most people |
| B．most children are taught how to perform CPR |
| C．many parents don’t know how to perform CPR |
| D．kids must learn how to perform CPR on babies |
What does the underlined word “dismay” in Paragraph 2 probably mean?
| A．Panic. | B．Anger. |
| C．Excitement. | D．Joy. |
What did Rohm do when she saw the two boys?
| A．She asked them to call 911 as soon as possible. |
| B．She asked them to teach her how to perform CPR. |
| C．She asked them to ask their parents for help. |
| D．She asked them to help her perform CPR on her baby. |
What Rohm said in the last paragraph shows that she was .
| A．grateful | B．regretful |
| C．surprised | D．ashamed |
Imagine shopping for clothes online and being able to run your hand across the screen of your computer or smartphone to feel the materials. That kind of simulation (仿真) technology could be available within the next five years.
“We’re talking about reinventing how computers interact （互动）with humans,” said Bernie Meyerson, IBM Vice President. Extending our sense of touch is one of the innovations (创新) IBM believes will change the world in the next five years, according to the company’s annual “Five in Five” list.
Smart machines will also be able to listen to the environment and highlight （强调；突出）the sounds we care about most. For instance, an advanced speech recognition system will tell new parents why their baby is crying. This kind of thing is not possible today, but with an advanced enough system, it’s actually possible.
In the near future, personal computers will be able to do more than recognize images and visual data. Their built-in cameras will be able to analyze features such as colors, and understand the meaning of visual media, such as knowing how to sort family photos.
Smart machines will also be able to smell. If you sneeze on your computer or cellphone, tiny sensors (传感器) in the machine will be able to analyze thousands of molecules (分子) in your breath. “It can give you an alarm and says, ‘Hey, you are probably sick, go to see your doctor immediately,’” Meyerson says.
Mark Maloo is a computer science professor from Georgetown University. He hopes the advances will encourage more students to study science, technology, engineering and math, preparing them to play a role in future innovations. He believes there’s little doubt that advances in computer technology over the next five years will make what now seems like science fiction a part of our everyday lives.The purpose of the text is to show us
| A．how smart machines will replace humans |
| B．what our lives will be like in the future |
| C．how to go shopping on the Internet |
| D．why IBM wants to invent these smart machines |
In the future, if you buy clothes online, you may .
| A．feel the materials of the clothes by touching the screen |
| B．ask your computer to give you some advice |
| C．ask your computer to make the decision for you |
| D．save a lot of money by using a smartphone |
How will a smart machine figure out that you are probably sick?
| A．By analyzing the thousands of molecules in your breath. |
| B．By analyzing your comments about your body condition. |
| C．By referring your condition to doctors. |
| D．By asking you to describe how you feel. |
Chinese girl looking for language exchanger
Posted Feb 10, 2010 16:25 by Sophia
Tag: Seeking Language partners Guangzhou Sex: Female
Race/Ethnicity: Chinese
I am a Chinese girl in my 20’s, can speak and write in English, but I’d like to make some improvement. People always look for making it better, right?
Meanwhile, I also like to meet more friends if we really have some topics to share.
And if you are in Guangzhou or visit here, I am more than willing to show you around in my spare time.
Reply to happycora@hotmail.com or call 15015704625
Tianhe nice apartment for share
Posted Feb 24, 2010 16:47 by Vivian
Tag: Seeking roommates Guangzhou Tianhe District Up to 2000 RMB
I have a room available for rent in a shared apartment in Central Tianhe district.
The room has a big window with a nice view. The apartment itself is on the 22th floor of a new secure building on Tianhe Bei Lu, about 10 minutes walk from metro stations(地铁站) on lines 1 and 3, as well as buses and other transportation methods very close.
If you are interested, please feel free to phone me (Vivian) on 13145751201 (message preferred), or email me on vivian_liu2003@hotmail.com.
Business Interpreter/Guide
Posted Feb 26, 2010 08:46 by Sony
Tag: Business Services Guangzhou Baiyun District
Dear Foreign Friends, I am a professional interpreter（口译者）, now looking for a Freelance interpreter job urgently. Please read my CV at below：
Name: Sony Song
Gender: Male
Age: 22 years old
Education: Studied English in Da Shan Foreign Language College
Birth: 9th Oct 1987, Luohe city, Henan province, China.
Ability: Speak fluent English, know Guangzhou city very well, can also guide you to Shenzhen, Zhuhai, Dongguan, Shunde, Macao, Hongkong, etc.
Contact Detail: E-mail/MSN: sonysong4@hotmail.com; cell phone: 15112015812
Looking for flat
Posted Mar 11, 2010 14:03 by Lucy
Tag: Apartments wanted Guangzhou
Hello,
This is Lucy coming from Peru and looking for a short term flat, from 15th April until 4th May 2010. If somebody can give some information, send me pictures, price and address.
Email: lucitamaron@hotmail.com; cell phone: 13800013900
Thanks a lot in advance!If foreigner wants to learn some Chinese and make friends; he / she can call _________.
| A．15015704625 | B．13800013900 |
| C．13145751201 | D．15112015812 |
To share a department where the traffic is quite convenient, you may send text message to ________.
| A．Sophia | B．Vivian | C．Lucy | D．Sony |
What do the four advisers have in common?
| A．All of them speak both Chinese and English. |
| B．All of them are in their twenties. |
| C．All of them are Guangzhou citizens. |
| D．All of them are hotmail users. |
The information above can be probably found_________.
| A．in a magazine | B．in a newspaper |
| C．at a website | D．in a guidebook |
At last, the mid-term exams are over. You’ve done the hard work, but you can’t relax. You have to prepare for the next exams. Do you hate exams? If you do, you’re not alone. Students in other countries hate them as well.
Luckily for them, British students have fewer exams than Chinese students. They take a test in each subject only every summer. Each test lasts about an hour. These exams don’t count for much. Even if some students do really badly, they can still enter the higher grade the next year. When the results come out, they are then placed in an end-of-year report. The report is sent to the child’s parents. It describes how the student studies at school.
This report is private(私人的), so only the teacher, the student and his or her parents can see it. This means that the student doesn’t know how other students score on the tests. Some students choose to tell each other, but others keep it a secret.
Parents’ meeting are held twice a year, at the end of the winter term and then at the end of the summer term. Children go along with their parents to meet their teachers privately and discuss their performance(表现) at school.According to the passage, British students___________.
| A．need to take a test twice a year. |
| B．have to take a test at the end of a year. |
| C．have to spend about one hour on each test. |
| D．need to take their reports to their parents. |
The end-of year report__________.
| A．is written by students themselves |
| B．can be seen by everyone in the school |
| C．can be used to keep the students safe. |
| D．is about students’ study at school |
The underlined sentence “These exams don’t count for much.” means “______”.
| A．there are too many exams |
| B．these exams play a key role |
| C．these exams don’t mean(意味着) everything |
| D．there are a few exams |
Which of the following is TURE according to the passage?
| A．British students don’t need to prepare for their exams. |
| B．British students are not allowed to tell each other their scores. |
| C．British students should visit their teachers with their parents. |
| D．British students have a piece of report at the end of a term. |
What’s the best title for the passage?
| A．The exam’s report |
| B．The tests’ scores |
| C．British parents’ meeting |
| D．British students’ exams |
Families come in many shapes and sizes-they can be just two people, or hundreds of aunts, uncles and cousins. Every family is different, and what makes a family is different for everyone. Families don’t even have to be related(有亲属关系的)-some families are formed by choice. For this contest, draw us a picture of your family.
Contest rules:
1. Your picture must be your very own artwork. Ideas and words should not be copied.
2. Be sure to include your name, age and full address on your picture.
3. Only one picture each person, please.
4. If you want your picture returned, include a self-addressed, stamped envelope.
5.Your picture must be signed(签名)or e-mailed by a parent, saying it’s your own work and that no one helped you.
6.Mailed picture must be postmarked(盖邮戳) by April 30, 2014.
7.E-mail scanned(扫描的) picture to ask@askmagkids.com, or mail to: Ask Contest, 70 East Lake St., Suite 300, Chicago, IL60601. No faxes, please.The theme of the contest is ______.
| A．robots | B．family | C．friends | D．art |
We can learn from the first rule that_______.
| A．you need to write your ideas on your picture. |
| B．you need to write something about yourself. |
| C．your picture must be your own idea |
| D．you can borrow ideas from others. |
_______ should be included on your picture.
① Age②Name③School
④Address⑤Telephone number
| A．①②⑤ | B．②④⑤ | C．①③④ | D．①②④ |
You can send your picture to Ask Contest________.
| A．by the end of the year. |
| B．by the end of April |
| C．by the end of May |
| D．at any time |
Which of the following is TRUE according to the material(材料)?
| A．You can fax your picture to Ask Contest if you like. |
| B．You can send only one picture to Ask Contest. |
| C．Your parents can help you with your picture. |
| D．Your mailed picture will not be returned. |