As any homemaker who has tried to keep order at the dinner table knows, there is far more to a family meal than food. Sociologist Michael Lewis has been studying 50 families to find out just how much more.
Lewis and his co-workers carried out their study by videotaping(录像)the families while they ate ordinary meals in their own homes. They found that parents with small families talk actively with each other and their children. But as the number of children gets larger, conversation gives way to the parents’ efforts to control the loud noise they make. That can have an important effect on the children. “In general the more question-asking the parents do, the higher the children’s IQ scores,” Lewis says. “And the more children there are, the less question-asking there is.”
The study also provides an explanation for why middle children often seem to have a harder time in life than their siblings(兄弟姐妹). Lewis found that in families with three or four children, dinner conversation is likely to center on the oldest child, who has the most to talk about, and the youngest, who needs the most attention. “Middle children are invisible,” says Lewis. “When you see someone get up from the table and walk around during dinner, chances are it’s the middle child.” There is, however, one thing that stops all conversation and prevents anyone from having attention: “When the TV is on,” Lewis says, “dinner is a non-event.”The writer’s purpose in writing the text is to ______.
| A．show the relationship between parents and children |
| B．report on the findings of a study |
| C．teach parents ways to keep order at the dinner table |
| D．give information about family problems |
Parents with large families ask fewer questions at dinner because ______.
| A．they are busy serving food to their children |
| B．they have to pay more attention to younger children |
| C．they are busy keeping order at the dinner table |
| D．they are tired out having prepared food for the whole family |
Lewis’ research provides an answer to the question ______.
| A．why middle children seem to have more difficulties in life |
| B．why TV is important in family life |
| C．why parents should keep good order |
| D．why children in small families seem to be quieter |
Which of the following statements would the writer agree to?
| A．It is important to have the right food for children. |
| B．It is a good idea to have the TV on during dinner. |
| C．Elder children should help the younger ones at dinner |
| D．Parents should talk to each of their children frequently. |
Absence
If a student is absent, parents are asked to contact the school and report that absence. Simply ring the school and you will be directed to the absence phone system. You should then give the name of the student and their tutor teacher.
Attendance
School hours are 08:35 to 15:00. If a student is late, they must sign in at the Student Office.
School times are as follows: Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday.
08:35 - 09:35 Period 1
09:35 - 10:35 Period 2
10:35 - 10:50 Tutor Time
10:50 - 11:10 Interval
11:10 - 12:05 Period 3
12:05 - 13:00 Period 4
13:00 - 13.45 Lunch
13:45 - 14:05 School-wide reading
14:05 - 15:00 Period 5
Wednesday Only
09:00 - 09:55 Period 1
09:55 - 10:50 Period 2
Rest of the times are the same as for the other days.
Cellphones
The current cell phone policy is that, although permitted at school, they must not be used or turned on during class time.If a student is absent, ______ should call the school and report the absence.
the student’s parentsB. the student himself
C. the student’s tutor D. the student’s teacherThe school doesn’t have Tutor Time ______.
| A．on Monday and Friday | B．on Tuesday |
| C．on Thursday | D．on Wednesday |
Students can use their cell phones at ______ every day.
| A．09:00 | B．10:00 |
| C．11:00 | D．12:00 |
Which of the following is true?
| A．When you report an absence, you speak directly to the Student Office. |
| B．You are not late if you go to your classroom at 8 o’clock on Thursday. |
| C．You must ring the school if you are late. |
| D．Wednesday afternoon is free. |
Old-Fashioned Play-For Pay
Kids! Come to have a ball! Or 60,000 of them! There’s a new type of business franchise（特许经销权）that is appearing in shopping malls and neighborhood across America offering pay-per-use indoor playgrounds, which feature toys, games, guided fun and a workout that doesn’t break the family bank.
As public playgrounds grow increasingly worn and dirty, the for-profit centers offer clean, safe guided activity as well as a variety of challenging exercises to develop kids’ physical fitness, usually for a fee of around $ 5 an hour. “Playgrounds are dirty, not guided,” says Dick Guggenheimer, owner of the two-month-old Discovery Zone in Yonkers, N. Y., part of Kansas City-based chain, “We are indoors; we are padded; parents can feel their child is safe”.
In order to satisfy the need of two-earner families, the new franchise stays open in the evenings, long after traditional public playgrounds have grown dark and unusable. However, these new playgrounds are not meant to be day-care centers. Parents are expected to go stay and play with their kids rather than drop them off. But several also provide high-tech baby-sitting services. At some of the Discovery Zones, parents can register their children in special guided programs, then leave them and slip away for a couple of hours to enjoy a movie or dinner. If there is a problem, Mom and Dad are called.
The most fun of all, though, is getting to do what parents used to do in the days before two-earner families and two-hour commutes（两小时上下班往返）, play with their kids. That, at least, is old-fashioned, even at per-hour rates.What is this article mainly talking about?
| A．Children can play without parent’s care. |
| B．The fast development of Discovery Zone. |
| C．A new type of business franchise of kids. |
| D．The disadvantages of outdoor playgrounds. |
According to the article, which of the following is TRUE to the new playground?
| A．The cost is high for a family. |
| B．It doesn't allow parents to leave their kids. |
| C．It stays open in the evening just as traditional playgrounds. |
| D．It's a place where parents can play together with their kids. |
What does the writer mean by saying "old-fashioned"?
| A．The so-called new playground is out of date. |
| B．The new playground is actually enjoyed by parents. |
| C．The new playground is also enjoyed by old people. |
| D．The new playground offers a fashion which is popular in the past. |
The writer’s attitude toward the new playground is_______________.
| A．agreeable | B．negative |
| C．doubtful | D．unknown |
Life is difficult.
But life is no longer difficult once we truly understand and accept it. Most do not fully see this truth. Instead they complain about their problems and difficulties as if life should be easy. It seems to them that their difficulties represent a special kind of suffering especially forced upon them or else upon their families, their class, or even their nation.
What makes life difficult is that the process of facing and solving problems is painful. Problems, depending on their nature, cause us sadness or loneliness or regret or anger or fear. These are uncomfortable feelings, often as any kind of physical pain. And since life causes an endless series of problems, life is always difficult and is full of pain as well as joy.
Yet, it is in this whole of solving problems that life has its meaning.
Problems are the serious test that tells success from failure. When we desire to encourage the growth of the human spirit, we encourage the human ability to solve problems just as in school we set problems for our children to solve. It is through the pain of meeting and working our problems that we learn. As Benjamin Franklin said, “Those things that hurt, instruct.” It is for this reason that wise people learn not to fear but to welcome the pain of problems.The writer uses just one short sentence in the first paragraph probably to _________.
| A．make a suggestion | B．persuade readers |
| C．make readers laugh | D．get readers’ attention |
According to the passage, we give school children difficult problems to solve in order to __________ .
| A．encourage them to learn |
| B．make them suffer |
| C．make their life easier |
| D．help them understand life is difficult |
“Those things that hurt, instruct.” from Benjamin Franklin suggests that ________ .
| A．we do not learn from experience |
| B．we do not learn when we are in pain |
| C．pain teaches us important lessons |
| D．pain cannot be forgotten |
From the passage, it can be inferred that __________.
| A．not everybody has the same problems |
| B．we become stronger by facing and solving the problems in life |
| C．life is difficult because our problems bring us pain |
| D．people like to complain about their problems |
Tea, the most important of English drinks, is a relative latecomer to British shores. Although the custom of drinking tea dates back to the third millennium BC in China, it was not until the mid 17th century that tea first appeared in England.
Afternoon tea was introduced in England by Anna, the seventh Duchess of Bedford, in the year 1840. The Duchess would become hungry around four o’clock in the afternoon. The evening meal in her household was served fashionably late at eight o’clock, thus leaving a long period of time between lunch and dinner. The Duchess asked her servant to bring a tray of tea, bread, butter and cake to her room during the late afternoon. This became a habit of hers and she began inviting friends to join her.
This pause for tea became a fashionable social event. During the 1880’s upper class and society women would change into long gowns(长袍), gloves and hats for their afternoon tea which was usually served in the drawing room between four and five o’clock.
Traditional afternoon tea consists of a selection of dainty(讲究的) sandwiches, scones(烤饼)served with cream and jams. Cakes and pastries(面团) are also served. Tea grown in India or Ceylon is poured from silver teapots into delicate bone china cups.
Nowadays, however, in the average suburban home, afternoon tea is likely to be just a biscuit or small cake and a mug of tea, usually produced using a teabag.The title of the passage is __________.
| A．Anna, the seventh Duchess of Bedford |
| B．Tea, the most important of English drinks |
| C．Anna, a person introducing afternoon tea to England |
| D．Afternoon tea, a very British tradition |
Afternoon tea was introduced in English in _________.
| A．1880 | B．the mid 17th century |
| C．1840 | D．3 BC |
Traditional afternoon tea is made up of __________.
| A．sandwiches, scones as well as cakes and pastries |
| B．a biscuit or small cake and a mug of tea |
| C．a tray of tea, bread, butter and cake |
| D．a selection of dainty sandwiches |
According to the passage, we can learn that _________.
| A．Tea appeared in England much earlier than in China |
| B．The reason why the Duchess was hungry at 4 p.m. is that dinner time came quite late |
| C．In the suburban home, afternoon tea is also served in a dainty way |
| D．Tea grown in India or Ceylon is poured from china teapots into delicate bone silver cups. |
A team of engineers at Harvard University has been inspired by Nature to create the first robotic fly. The mechanical fly has become a platform for a series of new high-tech integrated systems. Designed to do what a fly does naturally, the tiny machine is the size of a fat housefly. Its mini wings allow it to stay in the air and perform controlled flight tasks.
“It’s extremely important for us to think about this as a whole system and not just the sum of a bunch of individual components (元件),” said Robert Wood, the Harvard engineering professor who has been working on the robotic fly project for over a decade. A few years ago, his team got the go-ahead to start piecing together the components. “The added difficulty with a project like this is that actually none of those components are off the shelf and so we have to develop them all on our own,” he said.
They engineered a series of systems to start and drive the robotic fly. “The seemingly simple system which just moves the wings has a number of interdependencies on the individual components, each of which individually has to perform well, but then has to be matched well to everything it’s connected to,” said Wood. The flight device was built into a set of power, computation, sensing and control systems. Wood says the success of the project proves that the flying robot with these tiny components can be built and manufactured.
While this first robotic flyer is linked to a small, off-board power source, the goal is eventually to equip it with a built-in power source, so that it might someday perform data-gathering work at rescue sites, in farmers’ fields or on the battlefield. “Basically it should be able to take off, land and fly around,” he said.
Wood says the design offers a new way to study flight mechanics and control at insect-scale. Yet, the power, sensing and computation technologies on board could have much broader applications. “You can start thinking about using them to answer open scientific questions, you know, to study biology in ways that would be difficult with the animals, but using these robots instead,” he said. “So there are a lot of technologies and open interesting scientific questions that are really what drives us on a day to day basis.”The robotic fly project has been conducted __________.
| A．just by accident |
| B．within a decade |
| C．just by a professor |
| D．for more than ten years |
The difficulty the team of engineers met with while making the robotic fly was that __________.
| A．they had no model in their mind |
| B．they did not have sufficient time |
| C．they had no ready-made components |
| D．they could not assemble the components |
Which of the following can be learned from the passage?
| A．The robotic flyer is designed to learn about insects. |
| B．Animals are not allowed in biological experiments. |
| C．There used to be few ways to study how insects fly. |
| D．Wood’s design can replace animals in some experiments. |
Which of the following might be the best title of the passage?
| A．Father of Robotic Fly |
| B．Inspiration from Engineering Science |
| C．Robotic Fly Imitates Real Life Insect |
| D．Harvard Breaks Through in Insect Study |