Children’s lives have changed greatly over the last 50 years. But do they have a happier childhood than you or I did?
It’s difficult to look back on one’s own childhood without some element of nostalgia(怀旧的). I have four brothers and sisters, and my memories are all about being with them, playing board games on the living room floor, or spending days in the street with the other neighborhood children, racing up and down on our bikes, or exploring the nearby woods. My parents scarcely appear in these memories, except as providers either of meals or of severe blame after some particularly risky adventure.
These days, in the UK at least, the nature of childhood has changed dramatically. Firstly, families are smaller. It is common for both parents to work outside the home and there is the feeling that there just isn’t time to bring up a large family, or that no one could possibly afford to have more than one child. As a result, today’s boys and girls spend much of their time alone. Another major change is that youngsters today tend to spend a huge amount of their free time at home, inside. This is due to the fact that parents worry far more than they used to about real or imagined dangers, so they wouldn’t dream of letting their children play outside by themselves.
Finally, the kind of toys children have and the way they play is totally different. Computer and video games have replaced the board games and more interesting activities of my childhood. The irony(讽刺) is that so many ways of playing games are called “interactive”. The fact that you can play electronic games on your own further increases the sense of loneliness felt by many young people today.
Do these changes mean that children today have a less relaxing childhood than I had? I personally believe that they do, but perhaps every generation feels exactly the same.What is the purpose of the direct question given in the first paragraph?
| A．To get people’s attention and lead in the topic. |
| B．To gather people’s opinions on childhood. |
| C．To show who the passage is written for. |
| D．To compare the childhood lives of two generations. |
Which is NOT a reason for the changes?
| A．Families are smaller today. |
| B．Parents worried too much about their children. |
| C．Toys can be played by children alone at home. |
| D．It’s too dangerous to play outside. |
What has the writer focused on in the fourth paragraph?
| A．Young people today shouldn’t play electronic games. |
| B．Some games that young people play today aren’t really good. |
| C．Computer and video games have replaced the board games. |
| D．Board games are much more interesting than computer games. |
The writer’s attitude towards the childhood changing is ________ .
| A．approving | B．unconcerned |
| C．objective | D．optimistic |
Two men dressed as police officers stole about ＄200 million worth of art from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum early this morning.
The two burglars knocked on a side door of the museum at about 1:15 am. They told the two security guards on duty that there was a disturbance in the area. The guards then made the very serious mistake of allowing the two men to go into the building. After they went in, the two burglars tied the guards up with tape.
The two men stole 11 paintings and an ancient Chinese vase. The stolen works included three paintings by Rembrandt. A maintenance（保卫）worker discovered the two guards at about 7 am and called police.
One of the greatest losses was Rembrandt’s works, “The Storm on the Sea of Galilee.” It was a very popular attraction at the museum and was one of the most valuable works stolen.
Museum officials said that the value of the stolen art is at least 200 million dollars, and may in fact be much more. The true value of the paintings is unknown, because they have not been on the market for nearly a century. This is considered to be the biggest theft ever in the United States. Officials are waiting to see whether the burglars will demand a ransom for the paintings or try to sell them to a private collector.
Museum officials and police are not sure why the burglars chose certain works and not others. There are other paintings in the museum that are even more valuable than the ones that were stolen.
Special investigators are looking into the theft and the museum’s security system. They believe that this is a “professional job,” because the people involved were well prepared and knew what they wanted. How did the two burglars get into the museum?
| A．They broke into the museum. |
| B．They had the key to the museum. |
| C．They tied the guards up with tape. |
| D．The security guards opened the door for them. |
According to the passage, “The Storm on the Sea of Galilee” was the following except that .
| A．it was the most valuable work at the museum |
| B．it was Rembrandt’s works |
| C．it was very attractive to visitors |
| D．it was one of the greatest losses |
Which of the following best explains “demand a ransom for the paintings”?
| A．Ask for money to give the paintings back. |
| B．Send the paintings to some foreign country. |
| C．Hide the paintings in a secret place. |
| D．Change them into more valuable things |
The investigators believe that this is a “professional job” because the burglars .
| A．were dressed as police officers |
| B．didn’t steal the most valuable works |
| C．liked Rembrandt’s work and made careful plans about the theft |
| D．made careful plans about the theft |
TV Shows and Long Bus Trips
Long bus rides are like television shows. They have a beginning, a middle, and an end— with ads thrown in every three or four minutes. The ads are unavoidable. They happen whether you want them or not. Every couple of minutes a billboard appears outside the bus window.“Buy Super Clean Toothpaste.”“Drink Good’n Wet Root Beer.”“Fill up with Pacific Gas.” Only if you sleep, which is equal to turning the television set off, are you spared the unending cry of “You Need It! Buy It Now!”
The beginning of the ride is comfortable and somewhat exciting, even if you’ve traveled that way before. Usually some things have changed—new houses, new buildings, sometimes even a new road. The bus driver has a style of driving and it’s fun to try to figure it out the first hour or so. If the driver is particularly daring, the ride can be as exciting as a suspense(悬念) story. Will the driver pass the truck in time? Will the driver move into the right or the left-hand lane?After a while, of course, the excitement dies down. Sleeping for a while helps pass the middle hours of the ride. Food always makes bus rides more interesting. But you’ve got to be careful of what kind of food you eat. Too much salty food can make you very thirsty between stops.
The end of the ride is somewhat like the beginning. You know it will soon be over and there’s a kind of expectation and excitement in that. The seat, of course, has become harder as the hours have passed. By now you’ve sat with your legs crossed, with your hands in your lap, with your hands on the arm rests—even with your hands crossed behind your head. The end comes just at the right time. There are just no more ways to sit.According to the passage, what do the passengers usually see when they are on a long bus trip?
| A．Buses on the road. |
| B．Films on television. |
| C．Advertisements on billboards. |
| D．Gas stations. |
What is the purpose of this passage?
| A．To talk about the similarities between long bus trips and TV shows. |
| B．To persuade you to take a long bus trip. |
| C．To display the differences between long bus trips and TV shows. |
| D．To describe the billboards along the road. |
The writer of this passage would probably favor
| A．bus drivers who weren’t caring. |
| B．driving alone. |
| C．a television set on the bus. |
| D．no billboards along the road. |
The writer feels long bus rides are like TV shows because
| A．the ads both on TV shows and on the billboards along the road are fun. |
| B．they both have a beginning, a middle, and an end, with commercials in between. |
| C．the drivers are always daring on TV shows just as they are on buses. |
| D．both traveling and watching TV are not exciting. |
The writer thinks that the end of the ride is somewhat like the beginning because both are
| A．exciting. |
| B．comfortable. |
| C．tiring. |
| D．boring. |
It is difficult for parents of nearly every family to teach their children to be responsible for housework, but with one of the following suggestions, you really can get your children to help at home.
If you give your children the impression that they can never do anything quite right, then they will regard themselves as unfit or unable persons. Unless children believe they can succeed, they will never become totally independent.
My daughter Carla’s fifth grade teacher made every child in her class feel special. When students received less than a prefect test score, she would point out what they had mastered and declared firmly they could learn what they had missed.
You can use the same technique when you evaluate your child’s work at home. Don’t always scold and give lots of praise instead. Talk about what he has done right, not about what he hasn’t done. If your child completes a difficult task, promise him a Sunday trip or a ball game with Dad.
Learning is a process of trying and failing and trying and succeeding. If you teach your children not to fear a mistake of failure, they will learn faster and achieve success at last.The whole passage deals with ________.
| A．social education | B．school education | C．family education | D．pre - school education |
The article gives us a good suggestion about how to evaluate（评价）your child’s work at home. That is to ________.
| A．praise his success | B．promise him a trip |
| C．give him a punishment | D．promise him a ball game |
The author advises readers to________.
| A．learn from himself, for he has a good way of teaching |
| B．take pride in Carla’s fifth - grade teacher |
| C．do as what Carla’s teacher did in educating children |
| D．follow Carla’s example because she never fails in the test |
Having read the last paragraph, we can conclude that ________.
| A．pride goes before a fall | B．practice makes perfect |
| C．no pains, no gains | D．failure is the mother of success |
How does a place become a World Heritage Site? It takes a lot of people to decide.
1）If a country wants one of its places to be on the World Heritage List, it has to ask UNESCO. The place must be important and special. UNESCO put the Great Wall on the list in 1987 because, it said, it was a great part of Chinese culture and beautifully made to go with the land．When a country asks, it must also make a plan for taking care of the place.
2）The World Heritage Committee of UNESCO talks about different places and decides whether to put them on the list. The committee meets every June. Many experts help the committee to decide.
3）After a new place goes on the list, UNESCO gives money to help keep it looking good．If a place is in serious danger, it may be put on the List of World Heritage Sites in Danger. UNESCO gives special care and help to those places.
4）Countries have to give UNESCO regular reports about places on the list. If UNESCO thinks a country isn’t taking good enough care of a place, the site will be taken off the list.The passage implies that _____.
| A．becoming a world heritage site takes hard work |
| B．a place with beautiful scenery is often on the World Heritage List |
| C．a place which was taken good care of is often on the World Heritage List |
| D．the Great Wall became a World Heritage Site for its long history. |
If a place successfully becomes a World Heritage Site, the country _____.
| A．can ask UNESCO for more money and help |
| B．should continue to take special care of it |
| C．won’t take trouble of caring for it |
| D．will try to put it on the List of World Heritage Sites in Danger |
The passage mainly discusses ______.
| A．how the World Heritage Committee of UNESCO decides a World Heritage Site |
| B．how the World Heritage Committee of UNESCO protects a World Heritage Site |
| C．how the Great Wall becomes a World Heritage Site |
| D．how a place becomes a World Heritage Site |
The purpose of putting a place on the World Heritage List is _____.
| A．to attract more tourists from other countries |
| B．to get more money and help from other countries |
| C．to have it taken better care of |
| D．to make it known to other countries |
Modern society cannot well do without the contribution that women can make in the professions and other kinds of work. There is a serious shortage of nurses and teachers, to mention only two of the occupations followed by women. It is a waste to give years of training at public expense only to have the qualified teacher or nurse marry after a year or two and be lost forever to her profession. The training, it is true, will help her in her duties as a mother, but if she continued to work, her service would be more widely useful. Many factories and shops, too, are largely staffed by women, many of them married. While here the question of training is not so important, industry and trade would be seriously short of staff if married women did not work.
We can see then that there are good reasons for regarding it as desirable that married women should have some occupation outside the home. However, there are serious objections. Schools do not keep children occupied the whole day and school holidays are long. The mother’s working day will almost certainly end well after the school day and her holiday will not begin at the same time as her children’s. There will be therefore a period when children are not taken care of unless a substitute for the mother can be found, or unless it becomes more generally possible for women to work part-time. There seem to be some grounds for believing that there is more bad behavior among the children of working mothers than among those of mothers who stay at home, but more evidence is required before we can be certain of this. What we can be certain of, however, is that many more will continue to do so.According to the writer, women nurses and teachers ought to carry on their occupation after marriage because______.
| A．they are not allowed to give up their jobs |
| B．their training should not be wasted |
| C．they want to make a living by themselves |
| D．they must still improve themselves as mothers |
According to the writer, one possible way for the children of working mothers to be attended to is that________.
| A．schools keep children occupied the whole day |
| B．their mothers change their occupation |
| C．their mothers do not work full time |
| D．their mothers should stay at home |
The clause “unless a substitute for the mother can be found” means_______.
| A．if someone takes over the mother’s occupation |
| B．if no mother works all day |
| C．if no one takes care of the children for the mother |
| D．if someone takes care of the children for the mother |
The writer believes that bad behavior among the children of mothers who do not work is _________ among the children of working mothers.
| A．possibly less than | B．about the same as |
| C．a little greater than | D．certainly more than |
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