There are some new drivers going back to school. Teens who have recently gotten their driver's licenses may be taking the wheel to drive to school this fall. However, parents fear when their teen starts driving. And it turns out that such parental fears are justified—so it's worth reviewing how to keep your teen safe while he or she is behind the wheel.
Motor vehicle crashes are the leading cause of death in US teens. Drivers 16 to 19 years old are at the greatest risk for crashes. In fact, their risk is 4 times greater than for older drivers. The teens at the greatest risk are those who are male, those carrying other teenage passengers in the car, and those still in their first year of driving. Nearly 50 percent of teen deaths related to automobile crashes happen on Fridays ’ Saturdays ’ or Sundays between the hours of 3 p. m. and midnight.
Why are teens at higher risk for motor vehicle crashes?
Development. Teens haven’t completely matured mentally and have greater risk-taking behaviors, possibly because they tend to underestimate（低估）the risk associated with a particular behavior. Teens also have a greater tendency to speed and to drive too close to the cars in front of them.
No seatbelts. Teens have the lowest rate of seatbelt use among all driving groups.
Alcohol. At least 25 percent of motor vehicle deaths in teens are related to alcohol use.
Technological distractions (分散注意力).Cell phones, texting，MP3 players, and the like can all distract drivers greatly.
Be aware of your teen ’ s driving practices and discuss safe driving habits when opportunities present themselves. Check out the applications and devices now available for restricting your teen’s use of technology while driving. Some applications alert you to when your teen is texting while the vehicle is moving. Another device blocks incoming and outgoing texts when the car is running—incoming messages get an automatic reply ( e. g, " I ’ m driving right now")，and phone calls go directly to voicemail. You can also get notifications if your teen tries to shut off the program. There are also GPS programs that let you know your new driver' s whereabouts（下落） at all times. All in all, you can't be too cautious when teaching your teen how to be safe on the road.What factor is least related to the teen drivers’ high risks of crashes?
| A．Driver age | B．Passenger gender(性别) |
| C．Driving experience | D．Driving time |
Teens probably turn away their attention from driving when they are_____.
| A．using no seatbelts | B．drinking water |
| C．carrying passengers | D．answering cell phones |
According to the passage, which should be prevented during teens' driving?
| A．Texting | B．GPS programs |
| C．Automated replies | D．Voicemail |
The author writes the last paragraph in order to_____.
| A．offer parents practical suggestions |
| B．summarize teen' s driving practices |
| C．advocate different driving habits |
| D．establish examples for the future |
At a psychology conference in England years ago, a woman said to me: “I’ll knock you up in the morning.” I was taken aback by her strange suggestion, but it occurred to me that I might not have understood what she really meant. As it turned out, what she had meant was, “I’ll knock on your door in the morning so that we can meet for breakfast to discuss the panel we’re on.”
This example of the difference in the meaning of “knock you up” in British and American English shows the complicated situations that can result from cultural misunderstandings. A cultural misunderstanding occurs when something — a word, gesture, object, social context, or almost anything you can think of — has a different meaning in two cultures. Sometimes the misunderstandings get resolved, sometimes they lead nowhere, and sometimes they can become the starting point of something much more extreme, from love to war.
Race is one area where cultural misunderstandings are common. We Americans tend to assume that racial categories are biological rather than social, so it may not occur to us that people from other cultures have a different set of racial concepts and classify themselves and us differently. Some African Americans complain that certain immigrants from other countries, such as Haiti or Jamaica, “act as if they aren’t black.” The cultural misunderstanding is that, in the immigrants’ countries of origin, they would never describe themselves as “black”. This doesn’t mean that they think they are white. It just means that their cultures have more categories, like marabou or grimaud in Haiti, or fair or brown in Jamaica, than are used in the United States. Meanwhile, white people in America, unaware of this cultural diversity, sometimes refer to all darker-skinned people as “black” without realizing that an issue exists.
Resolving cultural misunderstandings can clear the air or even lead to laughter. Sometimes, though, when it comes to race, unidentified cultural misunderstandings can create tension, unhappiness and distrust.The main purpose of the first paragraph is to .
| A．show that language misunderstandings would cause big problems |
| B．show the differences between British and American English |
| C．explain in general what cultural misunderstandings are |
| D．introduce the idea of cultural misunderstandings with a story |
The underlined word “resolved” probably means .
| A．complicated | B．settled | C．accepted | D．noticed |
We can learn from the passage that cultural misunderstandings .
| A．mostly come from body language |
| B．are the most serious social problem in the US |
| C．can cause negative feelings among people |
| D．can be cleared up with laughter |
What is the author’s opinion about cultural misunderstandings?
| A．There’s no need to notice racial differences. |
| B．Haitians prefer to be described as fair or brown. |
| C．Cultural misunderstandings based on racial categories may be difficult to spot. |
| D．Americans are especially likely to misunderstand people from other cultures. |
Charles Blackman: Alice in Wonderland
An Exhibition at the National Gallery of Victoria (NGV), Australia
10 June—12 August 2013
Venue(地点) The lan Potter Centre
Admission Free entry
Charles Blackman is famous for his beautiful painting of dreams. In 1956, he heard for the first time Lewis Carroll’s extraordinary tale of Alice in Wonderland—the story of a Victorian girl who falls down a rabbit hole, meets a lot of funny characters and experience all kinds of things. At that time, Blackman’s wife was suffering from progressive blindness. The story of Alice moving through the strange situations, often disheartened by various events, was similar to his wife’s experiences. It also reflected so much of his own life. All this contributed to the completion of the Alice in Wonderland paintings.
Illustrator Workshop
Go straight to the experts for an introductory course in book illustration(插图). The course includes an introduction to the process of illustration and its techniques, workshop exercises and group projects.
Dates Sunday 17June & Sunday 5 Aug. 10 am—1 pm
Venue Gas Works Arts Park
Wonderful World
Celebrate the exhibition and Children’s Book Week with special activities just for the day, including a special visit from Alice and the White Rabbit.
Date Sunday 24 June, 11 am—4 pm
Venue Exhibition Space. Level 3
Topsy-Turvy
Visit the exhibition or discover wonderful curiosities in artworks in the NGV Collection and make a magic world in a box. Alice and the White Rabbit will be with you. Walt Disney’s Alice in Wonderland will be screened.
Dates Sunday 8,15,22,29 July, and Tuesday 24—Friday 27 July, 12 noon—3 pm
Venue Theatre, NGV Australia
Drawing Workshop
Distortions of Scale(比例失真)can make artworks strange but interesting. Find out how Charles Blackman distorted scale in his paintings to create a curious world, then experiment with scale in your own drawings. More information upon booking.
Date Friday 27 July, 10:30 am—3 pm
Venue Foyer, Level 3Charles Blackman’s paintings come from .
| A．his admiration for Lewis Carroll |
| B．his dream of becoming a famous artist |
| C．his wish to express his own feelings |
| D．his eagerness to cure his wife’s illness |
Which two activities can you participate in on the same day?
| A．Illustrator workshop and Wonderful World. |
| B．Illustrator workshop and Drawing Workshop. |
| C．Wonderful World and Topsy-Turvy. |
| D．Topsy-Turvy and Drawing Workshop. |
To understand the Alice in Wonderland paintings, you should go to .
| A．Exhibition Space. Level 3 | B．Gas Works Arts Park |
| C．Theatre, NGV Australia | D．Foyer, Level 3 |
Activities concerning children’s books are to be held .
| A．on June 24 | B．on July 15 | C．on July 24 | D．on August 5 |
Catherine and I were on our way to our nephew’s birthday party one rainy Saturday morning, driving along what some people call moose(驼鹿) alley. It was early, there were few other cars on the road and we were looking forward to a good day with the family. Suddenly, a moose rushed across our path. Fortunately, a quick swerve(突然转向) to the other lane prevented a full impact, with only a small collision on the right side of our car ripping off the mirror and knocking the moose to the pavement.
By the time I stopped and looked back in my rear view mirror, the moose was getting up. It ran into the bush. Shaken but unharmed, we both looked at each other shocked by what had happened. We knew that moose accidents had claimed many lives throughout the years, and that we had been very fortunate to escape with no personal injury or worse. After a quick check of our vehicle, we drove off.
Even though the moose accident lasted just a few seconds, we still remember it to this day. Why?
We had often talked about the frailty of life, the here today and gone tomorrow potential we all face, but it had never felt so real. And it wasn’t that we hadn’t had friends, relatives and colleagues die before, it was that this experience was much more personal. In a matter of seconds, lives can easily change.
The effect of that one near miss with death has been positive, and made us appreciate life. Each one of us has only a limited time on this Earth; no one can predict when your time will end. We should give thanks for each day, to see the sun rise again, and to know that you can accomplish and assist others to appreciate their life if they are caught in the “poor-me” syndrome（综合症状）.What can we learn about the accident form the first two paragraphs?
| A．Fortunately, they didn’t hit the moose. |
| B．They themselves were slightly injured. |
| C．Many people have died from similar accidents. |
| D．The author should be blamed for the accident. |
What did the accident teach the author?
| A．Being open to unexpected turns in life is important. |
| B．Life is long if you know how to use it. |
| C．Life is measured by thoughts and actions, not by time. |
| D．Life is unpredictable, so we should treasure every moment. |
How should we spend every day according to the author?
a. being thankful and helpful
b. appreciating the natural beauty of the world
c. being confident
d. making every effort to succeed
| A．ab | B．bc | C．abc | D．bcd |
Virginia is set to begin enforcing the toughest drunken-driving punishment, one that will require thousands of first-time offenders—whether they were highly drunk or slightly over the limit – to install (安装) in their cars blood-alcohol testing devices that can lock the ignition. The devices work like this－A driver must blow into a blood alcohol device linked to the car’s ignition. If the result is higher than the legal limit, the car will not start. The device also requires random “rolling retests” once the driver is on the road.
Virginia’s current law requires only repeat drunken-driving offenders or those with a blood alcohol level of 0.15 or higher to have an ignition interlock device in their car.
The new law, which takes effect in July, will roughly increase the number of people required to use ignition interlock devices four times, and offenders will have to pay about $ 480 for a typical six-month installation.
The measure has caused a debate between groups battling drunken driving and those representing offenders. Such groups as Mothers Against Drunk Driving and the Washington Regional Alcohol Program say that Virginia’s 274 alcohol-related road deaths and more than 5,500 injuries in 2010 remained unacceptably high despite years of cracking down on drunken driving. Ignition interlock devices, they say, reduce repeat offenses. But some public defenders and lawyers argue that the devices are too severe a punishment for offenders at the legal blood alcohol limit of 0.08, and that the court system will be burdened by more cases going to trial and lower-income drivers will be affected by the fees.
Del. Sal R. laquinto, who sponsored the bill, had a simple reply for concerns about the costs of the interlock devices: “How much does a life cost?” “Blowing into a tube for six months, you will remember that, ” Iaquinto said, “ and you are not likely to offend again. ”The ignition probably refers to the part in a car where ______.
| A．the alarm goes off | B．the car is fueled |
| C．the key is placed | D．the engine starts |
Who are required to install the blood-alcohol devices according to the current law?
| A．The repeat drunken-driving offenders. |
| B．The first time drunken-driving offenders. |
| C．Drivers whose blood alcohol level is below 0.15. |
| D．The drivers who are not able to pay offence fees. |
Some groups support the new law because ______.
| A．the government can be financed to build roads |
| B．some traffic deaths and injuries may be avoided |
| C．lower-income drivers will not afford to drink again |
| D．the court system is forced to work more effectively |
The debate aroused by the measure suggests that ______.
| A．justice has long arms |
| B．punishment is the key to all |
| C．no law is absolutely perfect |
| D．prevention is better than cure |
Barcodes(条形码) aren’t given much thought by the majority of consumers, but these codes were fairly recently applied in a working fashion in 1970.
A small food store owner decided one day that keeping records of the inventory(存货) of his stock and the associated prices were an extremely laborious process, and so, in 1948, he contacted The Drexel Institute of Technology in a bid to work towards a solution. Bernard Sliver rose to the challenge and set out to study the problem and began working on a solution involving an automatic way of keeping track of items that had been sold. Sliver and a group of students from the institute realized their answer in the form of ultraviolet light (紫外线), ink and a scanner.
The system worked initially, but possessed some negatives. It was incredibly costly to carry out on a large scale and the system was also unstable. If the invention was to become commonplace（寻常的事）in grocery stores, these two problems had to be solved.
The patent (专利) for the bar code system was filed by Sliver and one of his students, Woodland. The patent was not granted immediately; in fact, it took three years for the patent agency to grant their invention patent for the barcode, occurring on 7th October, 1952.
Despite the patent being issued, the system was still not welcomed by the majority of store owners. It was not until 1966 that the system began moving its way into more and more grocery stores. This system was soon criticized, as there was no central mechanism for controlling uniformly（统一地）coded items. In 1970, Logicom developed the Universal Grocery Products Identification code( UGOIC), soon shortened to Universal Identification Number (UPC). It was Marsh’s superstore, in Troy, which was the very first store to install this complex barcode reading system, and its popularity has soared(升温) ever since, and is obviously now commonplace in all types of stores worldwide. What is stressed in the second paragraph?
| A．The heavy work of store owners. |
| B．The function of ultraviolet light, ink and a scanner. |
| C．The origination of barcodes. |
| D．Bernard Sliver’s education background. |
Which of the following was NOT a drawback of Sliver’s system?
| A．It was expensive to be applied on a large scale. |
| B．It was a laborious process. |
| C．The system was not stable. |
| D．It lacked a central mechanism. |
The popularity of the barcode rose quickly after.
| A．1948 | B．1952 | C．1966 | D．1970 |
What is the purpose of the text?
| A．To tell people that failure is the mother of success. |
| B．To praise scientists’ efforts in making people’s lives easier. |
| C．To describe shop owners’ opinions of barcodes. |
| D．To provide information about the development of barcodes. |