题目内容
Today is National Bike-to-Work Day. And on New York City’s jammed streets, people are cycling on hundreds of miles of new bike lanes. But New York’s widespread efforts to make streets safer for bikes have also left some locals complaining about the loss of parking spots and lanes for cars.
When the weather is good, Aaron Naparstek likes to pedal（用踏板踩） his two young kids to school on a special Dutch-made bicycle. Naparstek supports the new lane.
Aaron: The bike lane on Prospect Park West is really introducing a lot of new people to the idea that it’s possible to use a bike in New York City for transportation or to travel around. This is what 21st century New York City looks like.
Prospect Park West is still a one-way road, but where it used to have three lanes of car traffic, now it has two, plus a protected bike lane. Supporters say that makes the road safer for everyone, including pedestrians, by slowing down cars and taking bikes off the sidewalk. But some longtime residents disagree. Lois Carswell is president of a group called Seniors for Safety. She says the two-way bike lane is dangerous to older residents who are used to one-way traffic.
Lois: We wanted a lane — the right kind of lane that would keep everybody safe, that would keep the bikers safe. But we want it to be done the right way. And it has not been done the right way.
Craig Palmer builds bars and restaurants in Manhattan. I was interviewing him for a different story when he brought up the bike lanes all on his own.
Craig: I think the biggest problem is that Bloomberg put all these bike lanes in. You took what used to be a full street and you’re shrinking it.
Then there are the Hasidic Jews in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, who forced the city to remove a bike lane through their neighborhood. But polls show that the majority of New Yorkers support bike lanes by a margin of 56% to 39%. Bicycle advocate Caroline Samponaro of Transportation Alternatives calls that a mandate.
Caroline: If this was an election, we would have already had our victory. The public has spoken and they keep speaking. And I think, more importantly, the public is starting to vote with their pedals.
1.What does Aaron mean by saying “This is what 21st century New York City looks like.”?
A. There are hundreds of miles of new bike lanes in 21 st century New York City.
B. Drivers slow down their cars and bikes are taken off the sidewalk in New York.
C. It’s possible to make the streets safe for pedestrians in New York.
D. Bikes are used as a means of transport in 21 st century New York City.
2.According to the passage, which of the following CANNOT support the opponents of these new bike lanes?
A. Drivers lose parking spots and lanes for cars.
B. We took what used to be a full street so the road is broader than before.
C. The two-way bike lane is dangerous to older residents.
D. The removal of one bike lane through a neighbourhood in Brooklyn was not supported by the majority of New Yorkers.
3.“A mandate” in Paragraph 8 was referred to a demand or command from ________.
A. the authorityB. the government
C. the supportersD. the public
4.Which of the following might be the best title of the passage?
A. Ride on National Bike-to-Work Day
B. A Bike Lane Divides New Yorkers
C. A New Bike Lane Appears in New York
D. Who Wins an Election
请认真阅读下列短文，并根据所读内容在文章后表格中的空格里填入一个最恰当的单词。
The back-to-school season is upon us, and once again, parents across the country have loaded their kids’ backpacks up with snack packs and school supplies. It’s a good moment to reflect on what else we should be giving our kids as they head off to school.
American parents are feeling particularly anxious about that question this year. The educational process feels more than ever like a race, one that starts in pre-school and doesn’t end until your child is admitted to the perfect college. Most parents are more worried than they need to be about their children’s grades, test scores and IQ. And what we don’t think about enough is how to help our children build their character—how to help them develop skills like perseverance, optimism, responsibility, and self-control, which together do more to determine success than S.A.T. scores or I.Q.
There is growing evidence that our anxiety about our children’s school performance may actually be holding them back from learning some of these valuable skills. If you’re concerned only with a child’s G.P.A., then you will likely choose to minimize the challenges the child faces in school. With real challenge comes the risk of real failure. And in a competitive academic environment, the idea of failure can be very scary, to students and parents alike.
But experiencing failure is a critical part of building character. Recent research by a team of psychologists found that adults who had experienced little or no failure growing up were actually less happy and confident than those who had experienced a few significant setbacks in childhood. “Overcoming those obstacles,” the researchers assumed, “could teach effective coping skills, help engage social support networks, create a sense of mastery over past adversity, and foster beliefs in the ability to cope successfully in the future.”
By contrast, when we protect our children from every possible failure—when we call their teachers to get an extension on a paper; when we urge them to choose only those subjects they’re good at—we are denying them those same character-building experiences. As the psychologists Madeline Levine and Dan Kindlon have written, that can lead to difficulties in adolescence and young adulthood, when overprotected young people finally confront real problems on their own and don’t know how to overcome them.
In the classroom and outside of it, American parents need to encourage children to take chances, to challenge themselves, to risk failure. In the meantime, giving our kids room to fail may be one of the best ways we can help them succeed.
Back to School: Why Perseverance Is More Important than Good Grades? | |
Common phenomena | Parents throughout America 1.______ their kids’ backpacks up with snacks and school supplies. |
Many American parents don’t 2._______ enough importance to their kids’ character building. | |
The writer’s 3._________ | Parents should pay more attention to their kids’ character building. |
Evidence and 4._____ findings | Parents’ anxiety about their kids’ performance may 5. them from learning some valuable skills. |
Parents concerned only with a kid’s G.P.A. have a 6. to minimize the challenges the child faces. | |
Adults who have experienced a few significant setbacks in childhood are 7. and more confident than those who haven’t. | |
Denying kids character-building experiences can 8. in difficulties in adolescence and young adulthood. | |
The writer’s suggestions | 9.________ kids to be risk-takers. |
Give kids room to experience 10.____________. | |