Singles' Day ---- the Chinese opposite of Valentine’s Day has turned into a massive online shopping event. It is a day when single people are supposed to buy themselves presents. But there are sociological reasons behind China's “celebration” of single life. And the imbalance could have big consequences for the country.
There were 34 million more men than women in China in 2011. Part of that is natural – usually there are 105 boys born for every 100 girls. But the Chinese gender ratio (性别比例) at birth is much more obvious. It was 116 boys to 100 girls in 2012. The one child policy is largely to blame. Brought in to limit population expansion, the policy allows only one child per family. But because male children are seen as more valuable, as well as more likely to support their parents in old age, some parents choose to have a son over a daughter. The result is that large numbers of men will likely never get married. In fact, one study has predicted that by 2030, 1 in 5 Chinese men in their 30s will never have married, while another states that 94% of unmarried people in China are men.
Traditionally, China has seen high levels of marriage, usually among the young. Besides, the increased education and career opportunities for women have meant that marriages are happening later. It is also traditional that women often marry men of a higher socioeconomic status than themselves. So women at the top and men at the bottom find themselves alone. One study has even suggested a link between an imbalanced gender ratio and growth in violent crime in the country.
Singles’ Day can’t solve all the problems China’s singles face. Indeed, it is possible that it is causing even more problems, as men resort to increasingly risky lines of work to increase their chances of gaining money and thus a wife. I am worried that as money starts to overcome romance, there is evidence that China ' s marriage market is increasingly materialistic.
In 2012, if 50 girls were born, how many boys were probably born?
| A．50. | B．52. | C．58. | D．60. |
What made women in China get married late?
| A．Their support of the government’s late marriage policy. |
| B．Their higher education level and more work chances. |
| C．That they expect to enjoy their single time when young. |
| D．That there are too many excellent young men to choose from. |
What’s the writer’s attitude to the imbalance gender ratio in China?
| A．Optimistic | B．Concerned |
| C．Indifferent | D．Unknown |
We can learn from the passage that .
| A．Singles' Day is celebrated all over the world. |
| B．by 2030, 1 in 5 Chinese women in their 30s will be out of marriage. |
| C．an imbalanced gender ratio is related to the growth in violent crime. |
| D．Singles' Day will solve all the problems China’s singles face. |
Part-Time Trainer -- Hong Kong (Financial Markets)
Objectives and responsibilities:
•Teach public and/or in-house training programs, based on Kaplan training materials
•Work 1 or 2 mornings/afternoons on weekends or a few evenings on weekdays
•Flexibility to work in our centre
Requirements:
•Provide legal advice to banks or financial institutions
•Possess solid knowledge in finance and risk management
•Years of experience as a banker, lawyer, business advisor or analyst
•Strong communication skills
Email your cover letter and resume to seiling.ng@kaplan.com
Lecturer
Requirements:
•Holder of accountancy qualification
•Deliver accounting material in clear and straight-forward manner
•Understand students learning needs
•Keen on teaching & able to work flexible hours
•Full time Universities or Institutions teaching experience is a must.
Send your application letter with full resume stating present and expected salary to: Human Resources Manager, Kaplan Hong Kong via email hr@kaplan.com.hk.
Part-time helper
Duties:
•To add Chinese to videos by using a software, training will be provided
Requirements:
•University Graduate
•Proficient (精通) in English & Chinese
•Able to read & understand simplified Chinese
•Proficient in MS office and Chinese Word Processing (simplified or traditional Chinese)
•Being immediately available is a must.
Send your application letter with full resume stating present and expected salary to: Human Resources Manager, Kaplan Hong Kong via email hr@kaplan.com.hkIf you want to apply for Part-Time Trainer, you should ____.
| A．email hr@kaplan.com.hk |
| B．have experience of teaching before |
| C．speak fluent English and Chinese |
| D．be able to communicate with people easily |
Who can get the job of Lecturer?
| A．A man who has a clear way of teaching accounting materials. |
| B．A man who has ever taught part time in Universities and Institutions. |
| C．A man who can just work on fixed time. |
| D．A man without an accountancy qualification but are keen on teaching |
If a man meets all the requirements but can’t go to the new job at once, which job is NOT suitable?
| A．Part-Time Trainer | B．Lecturer |
| C．Part-time helper | D．All the three jobs |
The evidence for harmony may not be obvious in some families. But it seems that four out of five young people now get on well with their parents, which is the opposite of the popularly-held image of unhappy teenagers locked in their room after endless family quarrels.
An important new study into teenage attitudes surprisingly shows that their family life is more harmonious than it had ever been in the past. “We were surprised by just how positive today’s young people seem to be about their families,” said one number of the research team. “They’re expected to be rebellious and selfish but actually they have other things on their minds: they want a car and material goods, and they worry about whether school is serving them well. There’s more negotiation and discussion between parents and children, and children expect to take part in the family decision-making process. They don’t want to rock the boat.”
So it seems that this generation of parents is much more likely than parents of 30 years ago to treat their children as friends. “My parents are happy to discuss things with me and willing to listen to me,” says 17-year-old Daniel Lazall. “I always tell them when I’m going out clubbing. As long as they know what I’m doing, they’re fine with me.” Susan Crome, who is now 21, agrees. “Looking back on the last 10 years, there was a lot of what you could call negotiation. For example, as long as I’d done all my homework, I could go out on a Saturday night. But I think my grandparents were a lot stricter with my parents than that.”
Maybe this positive view of family life should not be unexpected. It is possible that the idea of teenage rebellion is not rooted in real facts. A researcher comments, “Our surprise that teenagers say they get along well with their parents comes because of a brief period in our social history when teenagers were regarded as different beings. But that idea of rebelling and breaking away from their parents really happened during that one time in the 1960s when everyone rebelled. The normal situation throughout history has been a smooth change. ”What is the popular image of the teenagers today?
| A．They worry about school. |
| B．They quarrel a lot with other family members. |
| C．They have to be locked in to avoid troubles. |
| D．They dislike living with their parents. |
Compared with parents of 30 years ago, today’s parents ____________.
| A．go to clubs more often with their children |
| B．are much stricter with their children |
| C．give their children more freedom |
| D．care less about their children’s life |
According to the writer, teenage rebellion __________.
| A．may be a false belief |
| B．is common nowadays |
| C．existed only in the 1960s |
| D．resulted from changes in families |
What is the passage mainly about?
| A．Negotiation in family. |
| B．Education in family. |
| C．Harmony in family. |
| D．Teenage trouble in family. |
Everyone, please imagine, a big explosion breaks out as the plane takes us high in the sky. The plane is full of smoke and the engine sounds scary. Two minutes later, the engines are turned off. We are now sitting in a plane with no sound. And we can see: Life is over.
That really happened. In January 2009, I had a front-row seat on Flight 1549, the plane that crash-landed in the Hudson River in New York.
Now let me tell you the three things I learned when the silence came.
First, I thought about all the people I wanted to reach out to but didn’t. I thought about all the experiences I wanted to have but never did. I no longer wanted to put off anything in life. Second, I really regretted the time I wasted on things that did not matter. I decided to remove negative energy from my life. Third, I realized, wow, dying was not scary. But it was very sad just because I only wished I could have seen my kids grow up.
Fortunately, I was given the gift of a miracle of not dying that day. I was given another gift, with which I was to see into the future and come back and live differently.
About a month later, my wife and I were at a performance by my daughter, not much artistic talent. Yet, I’m crying. I realized that above all, the only goal in my life was to be a good father.
Audience, again, imagine the same thing happening on your plane. How would you change? What would you get done? And more than anything, are you being the best parent you can?
Thank you.Which of the following can be the best title for the text?
| A．Air crash is always a tragedy. |
| B．What I learned from the air crash. |
| C．Life is a miracle as we imagine. |
| D．How to become a good father. |
When does the idea “Life is over” come into being?
| A．Exactly during the explosion. |
| B．When the plane was full of smoke. |
| C．Before the engines sounded scary. |
| D．When the engines were turned off. |
What is the author’s final goal in life?
| A．Never to put off anything in life. |
| B．To remove negative energy from life. |
| C．To see his daughter grow up. |
| D．To be a good father. |
What type of writing is this text?
| A．A speech on one’s air travel experience. |
| B．An emergency crash-landing guide. |
| C．An introduction of an adventure novel. |
| D．A safety training for air passengers. |
Have you ever wondered why birds sing? Maybe you thought that they were just happy. After all, you probably sing or whistle when you are happy.
Some scientists believe that birds do sing some of the time just because they are happy. However, they sing most of the time for a very different reason. Their singing is actually a warning to other birds to stay out of their territory.
Do you know what a “territory” is? A territory is an area that an animal, usually the male, claims（声称）as its own. Only he and his family are welcome there. No other families of the same species (物种) are welcome. Your yard and house are your territory where only your family and friends are welcome. If a stranger should enter your territory and threaten you, you might shout. Probably this would be enough to frighten him away.
If so, you have actually scared the stranger away without having to fight him. A bird does the same thing. But he expects an outsider almost any time, especially at nesting（筑巢）season. So he is screaming all the time, whether he can see an outsider or not. This screaming is what we call a bird’s song, and it is usually enough to keep an outsider away.
Birds sing loudest in the spring when they are trying to attract a mate and warn others not to enter the territory of theirs.
You can see that birds have a language all their own. Most of it has to do with attracting mates and setting up territories.Some scientists believe that most of the time birds’ singing is actually __________.
| A．an expression of happiness | B．a way of warning |
| C．an expression of anger | D．a way of greeting |
What is a bird’s “territory”?
| A．A place where families of other species are not accepted. |
| B．A place where a bird may shout at the top of its voice. |
| C．An area for which birds fight against each other. |
| D．An area which a bird considers to be its own. |
Why do birds keep on singing at nesting season?
| A．Because they want to invite more friends. |
| B．Because their singing helps frighten outsiders away. |
| C．Because they want to find outsiders around. |
| D．Because their singing helps get rid of their fears. |
How does the writer explain birds’ singing?
| A．By comparing birds with human beings. |
| B．By reporting experiment results. |
| C．By describing birds’ daily life. |
| D．By telling a bird’s story. |
Some children are natural-born bosses. They have a strong need to make decisions, manage their environment, and lead rather than follow. Stephen Jackson, a Year One student, “operates under the theory of what’s mine is mine and what’s yours is mine,” says his mother. “The other day I bought two new Star Wars light sabers(剑). Later, I saw Stephen with the two new ones while his brother was using the beat-up ones.”
“Examine the extended family, and you’ll probably find a bossy grandparent, aunt, uncle or cousin in every generation. It’s an inheritable trait.” says Russell Barkley, a professor at the Medical University of South Carolina. Other children who may not be particularly bossy can gradually gain dominance（支配地位）when they sense their parents are weak, hesitant, or in disagreement with each other.
Whether it’s inborn nature or developed character at work, too much control in the hands of the young isn’t healthy for children or the family. Fear is at the root of a lot of bossy behavior, says family psychologist John Taylor. Children, he says in his book From Defiance to Cooperation, “have secret feelings of weakness” and “a desire to feel safe.” It’s the parents’ role to provide that protection.
When a “boss child” doesn’t learn limits at home, the stage is set for a host of troubles outside the family. The overly willful and unbending child may have trouble obeying teachers or coaches, for example, or trouble keeping friends. It can be pretty lonely as the top dog if no one likes your bossy ways.
“I see more and more parents giving up their power,” says Barkley, who has studied bossy behavior for more than 30 years. “They bend too far because they don’t want to be as strict as their own parents were. But they also fell less confident about their parenting skills. Their kids, in turn, feel more anxious.”Bossy children like Stephen Jackson __________.
| A．make good decisions | B．show self-centeredness |
| C．lack care from others | D．have little sense of fear |
The study on bossy behavior implies that parents __________.
| A．should give more power to their children |
| B．should be strict with their children |
| C．should not be so anxious about their children |
| D．should not set limits for their children |
Bossy children may probably become __________.
| A．relaxed | B．skillful |
| C．hesitant | D．lonely |
What is the passage mainly about?
| A．How bossy behavior can be controlled. |
| B．How we can get along with bossy children. |
| C．What leads to children’s bossy behavior. |
| D．What effect bossy behavior brings about. |
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