When it comes to President Obama, most of his personal business is already known by the public. Personal information about his children, Malia and Sasha, however, has been kept a little more under wraps.
The New York Times recently released a list of rules that Michelle Obama has mentioned over the years that Malia and Sasha must follow during their time in the White House, as well as in general. See how the first family educates their children:
The girls must write reports about what they’ve seen on their trips, even if it’s not required by their school.
Malia may use her cell phone only on the weekends, and she and her sister cannot watch television or use a computer for anything but homework during the week.
Malia and Sasha have to play two sports: one they choose and one selected by their mother.
Malia must learn to do laundry(洗衣服) before she leaves for college.
The girls have to eat their vegetables, and if they say they are not hungry, they cannot ask for cookies or chips later.
While these might be shocking to some, Michelle said, “They’re not little princess. It’s just basic rules, boundaries, and expectations that we would have normally.”
Michelle also mentions another set of rules:
The girls must do their chores(家务), though the White House has a large staff. Malia and Sasha have chores of their own.
They must play a team sport, because it’s about learning how to play on a team, how to lose and how to win gracefully.
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It sounds like Michelle and Barack want the best for their kids and to make them as well-rounded as possible. What are your thoughts on the Obama family rules? What’s the passage mainly about?
| A．The first family daily life. | B．The first family rules. |
| C．How to be good parents. | D．How to be good students. |
What do the underlined words “under wraps” probably mean?
| A．Attractive. | B．Calm. | C．Secret. | D．Public |
What has to be followed after the girls’ every trip?
| A．Emails. | B．Photos. | C．Homework. | D．Reports. |
Which of the following is the exception for the girls?
| A．To use cell phone freely. | B．To play two sports. |
| C．To learn to do laundry. | D．To eat their vegetables. |
Which of the following is NOT True according to the passage?
| A．The girls have to obey the rules only when they live in the White House. |
| B．The girls must do their chores though there might be lots of help around. |
| C．The girls must play a team sport to gain team spirit by working together. |
| D．The parents want to make the girls grow healthily as common children. |
I am a writer. I spend a great deal of my time thinking about the power of language — the way it can evoke（唤起） an emotion, a visual image, a complex idea, or a simple truth. Language is the tool of my trade. And I use them all—all the Englishes I grew up with.
Born into a Chinese family that had recently arrived in California, I’ve been giving more thought to the kind of English my mother speaks. Like others, I have described it to people as “broken” English. But feel embarrassed to say that. It has always bothered me that I can think of no way to describe it other than “broken”, as if it were damaged and needed to be fixed, as if it lacked a certain wholeness. I’ve heard other terms used, “limited English,” for example. But they seem just as bad, as if everything is limited, including people’s perceptions（认识）of the limited English speaker.
I know this for a fact, because when I was growing up, my mother’s “limited” English limited my perception of her. I was ashamed of her English. I believed that her English reflected the quality of what she had to say. That is, because she expressed them imperfectly her thoughts were imperfect. And I had plenty of evidence to support me: the fact that people in department stores, at banks, and at restaurants did not take her seriously, did not give her good service, pretended not to understand her, or even acted as if they did not hear her.
I started writing fiction in 1985. And for reasons I won’t get into today, I began to write stories using all the Englishes I grew up with: the English she used with me, which for lack of a better term might be described as “broken”, and what I imagine to be her translation of her Chinese, her internal（内在的）language, and for that I sought to preserve the essence, but neither an English nor a Chinese structure: I wanted to catch what language ability tests can never show; her intention, her feelings, the rhythms of her speech and the nature of her thoughts. By saying “Language is the tool of my trade”, the author means that ______.
| A．she uses English in foreign trade | B．she is fascinated by languages |
| C．she works as a translator | D．she is a writer by profession |
The author used to think of her mother’s English as ______.
| A．impolite | B．amusing | C．imperfect | D．practical |
Which of the following is TRUE according to Paragraph 3?
| A．Americans do not understand broken English. |
| B．The author’s mother was not respected sometimes. |
| C．The author’ mother had positive influence on her. |
| D．Broken English always reflects imperfect thoughts. |
The author gradually realizes her mother’s English is ______.
| A．well structured | B．in the old style | C．easy to translate | D．rich in meaning |
What is the passage mainly about?
| A．The changes of the author’s attitude to her mother’s English. |
| B．The limitation of the author’s perception of her mother. |
| C．The author’s misunderstanding of “limited” English. |
| D．The author’s experiences of using broken English. |
The US government has started a website, Admongo, to help children think critically about the advertising aimed at them. It claims to provide visitors with an “aducation” through games and other entertainment.
A cartoon man dressed in old time pilot clothing greets visitors to Admongo. "Call me Haiz", he says upon arrival in a rocket ship that opens up with a crazy world inside it. Spacey dance music plays in the background as Haiz tells visitors that they need to learn about advertising.
Its inventors say eight to twelve years old is the age kids develop their critical thinking abilities. Kids that age are also a big market for advertisers.
The idea behind Admongo is to teach children three things: To identify the advertiser. To know what the advertiser is really saying. And to know what the advertisement is trying to get the child to do.
Children learn these things through a video game. They create their own game character. They can choose different skin colors, hair styles, eye and mouth shapes. Then they begin a trip through ad-land, where there are ads on buses and billboards. The players have to find all the marketing in the neighborhood before they can move on to the next level.
The Admongo game takes players inside a home, to the advertising studio and everywhere else ads can be found. It is a complete exploration of the world of marketing.
One such area is food marketing. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) says it is a big business. The FTC estimates that food, drink and fast-food restaurants spent more than one and a half billion dollars on advertising to young people in 2009.
The FTC says children are important for three reasons. They buy products. They influence parents and caregivers to buy. And they are the future adult buyers of the products.
A recent study says most advertising aimed at children is for foods of the lowest nutritional value. First Lady Michelle Obama has said she would like to see advertisers marketing healthy foods for children.What is the best title of the text?
| A．A website aimed at children’s food | B．The cartoon guide named “Haiz” |
| C．An “aducation” website for children | D．A popular online video game |
Why did the government start the website?
| A．To advertise the video game for children. | B．To help children know about advertising. |
| C．To attract the biggest market of buyers. | D．To sell the products of its company. |
What can players do in the website game?
| A．Play video games during the trip. | B．Travel to a supermarket. |
| C．Eat in a fast-food restaurant. | D．Choose appearance for their character. |
Children are important for advertising because they are ______.
| A．important for the society | B．the most potential buyers |
| C．easily influenced by ads | D．easily affected by poor products |
According to Michelle Obama, lots of foods advertised for children are ________.
| A．of low quality | B．yummy | C．of high nutrition | D．healthy |
In the past ten years, many scientists have studied the differences between men and women. And they all got the same answer: The sexes are different, because their brains are different. And this, the scientists say, makes men and women see the world in different ways.
Boys, for example, generally are better than girls at mathematical ideas. Boys also generally are better than girls at the kind of hand and eye movements necessary for ball sports. Girls, on the other hand generally start speaking earlier than boys. And they generally（通常）see better in the dark than boys and are better at learning foreign languages.
What makes men and women better at one thing or another? The answer is the brain. The brain has two sides connected by nerve（神）tracks. The left side generally is used for mathematics, speech and writing. The right side is used for artistic creation and the expression for emotions（情感). In men and women, different areas in each side of the brain develop differently. In boys, for example, it’s the area used for mathematics. In girls, it is the area used for language skills. Another interesting difference is that the two sides of a man’s brain are connected by a smaller nerves than the two sides of a woman’s brain are.Which of the following is best to outline（概括）the article?
| A．Research on the Brain | B．Differences between Men and Women |
| C．People’s Different Brains | D．Who Are Better, Boys or Girls |
______ men and women think differently.
| A．Sex makes | B．The different brains make |
| C．The different experiences make | D．The influences of society make |
According to the article, girls are generally better than boys at ______ in your school.
| A．Mathematics | B．Physics | C．English | D．Chemistry |
Which of the following is true?
| A．The left side of brain in boys generally develops better than that in girls. |
| B．The left side of brain in girls generally develops better than that in boys. |
| C．Men are better than women in all things. |
| D．The area in girls used for language skills develops better. |
In men and women the number of nerves connecting the halves of brain _______.
| A．is the same | B．is different | C．is zero | D．can’t be found out |
Scientists are not sure how the brain follows the tracks of time．One theory holds that it has a group of cells specialized to record the intervals （间隔）of time, while another theory holds that some neural processes （神经突）act as an inside clock．
Whichever theory it may be, studies find, the cells have a poor grasp of longer interval．Time does seem to slow during an empty afternoon and race when the brain focuses on challenging work．Stimulants （兴奋剂）, including caffeine, tend to make people feel as if．time is passing faster; complex jobs, like doing taxes, can seem to drag on longer than they actually do．And emotional events — a breakup, a promotion, a transformative trip abroad —tend to be sensed as more recent than they actually are, by months or even years．In short, some psychologists say, the findings support the philosopher Martin Heidegger' s observation that time "persists merely as a consequence of the events taking place in it．"
Now researchers are finding that the opposite thing may also be true: if very few events come to mind, then the sense of time does not persist; the brain shortens the interval that has passed．
In one classic experiment, a French explorer named Michel Siffre lived in a cave for two months, cut off from the rhythms of night and day and man-made clocks．He appeared then, convinced that he had been isolated for only 25 days．Left to its own devices, the brain tends to shorten time．
In earlier work, researchers found that a similar case at work in people’s judgment of intervals that last only moments．Relatively infrequent stimuli, like flashes or tones, tend to increase the speed of the brain' s internal pacemaker．
On an obvious level, these kinds of findings offer an explanation for why other people' s children seem to grow up so much faster than one's own．Involved parents are all too well aware of first step in their own children; however, seeing a cousin's child once every few years, without bothering memories, shortens the time．What can we infer from the first paragraph?
| A．Scientists have agreed about how the brain records time． |
| B．Scientists all think that some cells record the intervals of time． |
| C．Scientists haven't agreed on how the brain records time． |
| D．Scientists all hold the theory that neural processes are an inside clock． |
According．to Paragraph 3, if we have few things to do, the brain will____．
| A．make the intervals of time long |
| B．make the intervals of time short |
| C．keep a state of rest |
| D．stop working |
Which of the following is TRUE according to the passage?
| A．Michel Siffre didn' t think he had stayed in the cave for as long as two months． |
| B．Parents tend to think their own children grow faster than others． |
C．Michel Diffre actually stayed in  the cave for twenty-five days． |
| D．Children usually bring bad memories to their parents． |
In which column of a newspaper can we find this passage?
| A．Social news | B．Community activities |
| C．Science | D．Children s life |
You maybe surprised to learn that one of the best steps you can take to protect your health is to step outside and spend some time in the grass, dirt and water．
Our ancestor
s enjoyed the healing power of nature , and now scientists are starting to catch up．According to research in recent years, just having a view of nature has been shown to improve hospital patients' recovery and reduce illness rates among office workers．Also, exposure （曝露）to wildlife, horseback riding, hiking, camping and farms can be helpful for a variety of health conditions in adults and children．
Much of this type of research is focusing on children, and in fact an entire movement has quickly developed to connect kids with the healing power of nature．
Obesity （肥胖）．Rates of childhood obesity have grown sharply in recent years, and this is partly because of reduced outdoor activity time．Increasing the time students spend learning about nature, both in and outside the classroom, would help solve this problem．Such lessons are often more attractive for students and often lead them to become more active outside．
Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder （ADHD） （注意力缺失症）．Exposure to ordinary natural settings （环境） in the course of common after-school and weekend activities may be effective in reducing attention deficit symptoms in children．Participation in green activities —such as nature walks—helped ADHD patients from a wide range of backgrounds to stay focused and complete tasks．
Stress．Access to nature, even houseplants, can help children cope with stress．
Depression and seasonal emotional disorder．Major depression requires medical treatment, but physical activity, especially outdoors, can help ease symptoms．For your average case of winter blues, experts suggest spending time outside every day and, if possible, taking the family to a sunny vacation spot in mid-winter．
Experts emphasize that you needn' t go to wilderness preserves to enjoy nature' s benefits—simply walking in a city park or growing in a rooftop garden can make a difference．It can be inferred from the first two paragraphs that____．
| A．ancient people were not familiar with the healing power of nature． |
| B．modern people are not familiar with the healing power of nature． |
| C．the healing power of nature works better on children． |
| D．the healing power of nature works better on office workers． |
According to Para．4, lessons about nature_____．
| A．should engage parents in them |
| B．should take place outdoors |
| C．are used widely at schools |
| D．are liked by students |
Exposure to green areas in neighborhoods can_____．
| A．improve children' s skills at learning |
| B．help reduce ADHD symptoms |
| C．treat major depression |
| D．cure winter blues |
What can be inferred from the last paragraph?
| A．You can only enjoy nature's benefits in the wilderness． |
| B．A common natural setting is beneficial to your health． |
| C．A city park and a rooftop garden have different benefits． |
| D．Too many people in the wilderness will reduce the benefits of nature． |
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