Pushing children too hard is a really big social problem that seems to be getting worse.Now we have 6-month-olds in music classes and swimming classes.Parents fear that if other children are attending these classes,they will be holding their own children back if they do not enroll,too.

    The other extreme,simply taking a laissez-faire approach and letting children do—or refuse to do—whatever they want,is not the answer either,of course.

    Dr Taylor emphasizes that parents need to push their children based on what is best for the children,not what is best for themselves.If children understand that an activity is in their best interests,then they will accept it, he finds.

    Dr Taylor and other family experts remain pessimistic about the possibilities for widespread social change.“The force of our popular culture,driven by money and superficial(表面上的) values,cannot be resisted,” he says.But change can take place at a“micro-level,” in families and schools.

    When changes do occur,the rewards can benefit everyone in the family.One mother supporting this new approach toward parenting mentions the advantages her family experienced after her children cut back on activities.“The biggest thing is that since we have done this,we are rested,” she says.“Not only are our kids rested,because they're not in a ton of stuff, but my husband and I are rested,because we're not driving them everywhere.We weren’t living in the moment when we were always busy.We were living by the schedule.The return on our investment of spending time together has been enormous.”

One of the reasons why parents push children so hard is that they       

   A. believe in early development in children

   B. are too busy to take care of their children

   C. don't want their children to lag behindw(w w.ks&5 u.c*o m

   D. want to repeat what their parents did to them

The phrase“a laissez-faire approach”(in Line 1,Paragraph 2)most probably refers to      .

   A. denying them what they need

   B. controlling children in a flexible way

   C. developing a keen interest in children

   D. letting children do whatever they want

The best way to encourage children to work hard is           .

   A. to make them believe it’s in their best interests

   B. to consider the matter from parents' standpointw(w w.ks&5 u.c*o m

   C. to emphasize the importance of hard work from time to time

   D. to make it interesting and enjoyable to them

What the author doesn’t approve of in the essay is _______.

   A. achieving a balance between pushing the children too hard and leaving them alone

   B. going from one extreme of pushing children too hard to the other of leaving them alone

   C. involving children in activity that will probably contribute to their development

   D. enrolling them in music and swimming classes at the very early age

Peter and Paul had a permission from their parents to camp in a field close to their farm. But, being adventurous boys, they know it would be more 36    to camp in the woods that lay beyond the river. Excitedly, the boys  37   with their tent and food.

Carrying their heavy 38  , the two brothers walked along the riverbank, hardly noticing the distance or the sun beating down. . They were eager to reach their 39  before lunchtime. As they entered the cool, shadowy woods, they began to search for a suitable camping spot. Peter wanted to 40  close to the river at the edge of the woods, 41  Paul, who was older, insisted that they camp further away. 42  Peter followed his brother deeper into the 43 . “This really is a wonderful setting!” said Paul in excitement. They 44 the tent , and settled down to eat the sandwiches they had made, then decided to find their way 45  to the river to catch some fish.

 “Are you sure that this is the right 46  ?” whispered Peter shakily. “I’m sure we passed that hollow tree just a while ago. ” Paul walked 47  silently. “Look, there it is again. We’re lost, aren’t we?” complained Peter. Paul had to admit that he didn’t know where they were. 48  , they were a long distance from where they were 49 to be. They were not even 50  of where they had set up their camp. They set in 51 for a few minutes until Peter had a bright idea. “Why don’t we look for clues(线索) the way trackers 52 in the movies? We weren’t careful about how we walked, so I’m sure we would have left 53 some broken tree branches and leaves. ”

Carefully, the boys 54 the marks that they had left, until finally they found their campsite. Hurriedly, they packed their belongings and set off 55 the direction of the river.

What would their parents think of their adventure?

36. A. surprising   B. exciting C. annoying D. frightening

37. A. went round   B. went back    C. went away    D. went though

38. A. load B. torn C. food D. storage

39. A. grassland    B. destination  C. field    D. river

40. A. live B. lie  C. wait D. stay

41. A. but  B. and  C. or   D. so

42. A. Unconsciously    B. Unfortunately    C. Unwillingly  D. Uninterestingly

43. A. woods    B. farm C. setting  D. camp

44. A. put off  B. put on   C. put down D. put up

45. A. forward  B. near C.  back   D. further

46. A. place    B. mark C. way  D. time

47. A. alone    B. about    C. in   D. on

48. A. After all   B. At last C. Above all   D. At first

49. A. discovered   B. encouraged   C. persuaded    D. supposed

50. A. afraid   B. sure C. informed D. reminded

51. A. enjoyment    B. satisfaction C. disappointment   D. imagination

52. A. appear   B. do   C. work D. behave

53. A. behind   B. out  C. aside    D. amount

54. A. fetched  B. watched  C. followed D. collected

55. A. for            B. to                C. at                 D. in

Ryan and Lowry had been friends since high school, but it wasn’t until after college that they hit on the idea of a home-care-products company.“We were shocked to learn how toxic cleaning products were” says Ryan.Why couldn’t they create green products that would be just as environmentally pure as Aveda’s skin-and-hair-care lines?

When Ryan’s mom heard about the plan,she stared at him blankly: “I’ve never even seen you clean your room!” Not discouraged,Lowry experimented with nontoxic ways to clean while Ryan focused on marketing.In February 2001,they mixed their first four cleaning sprays and convinced the managers of 20 grocers to try them· Once they had their approval,they tapped friends and family and pooled their  savings to come up with $90,000 in seed money.

From the start,“Go big or go home’’ was their mantra(口头禅).Their first financing— that $l million—was due to be signed on September 11, 2001. By the time they got it, two months later,says Ryan, "we had$16 in the bank and personally owed$300,000.”

Seeking a national retailer(零售商)proved just as troublesome.The friends set their sights on Target,known for its trendy,affordable goods.“But Target didn’t like the product or the brand,”recalled Ryan.“We thought the deal was dead,but then a new buyer saw that even though we weren’t selling big volumes, we were  profitable, just on a smaller scale.”They won over Target.

Consumers were hooked on the natural things and wonderful fragrance. Today, the partners sell 130 products in more than 8,000 stores,and taxes are over$100 million. Such rapid growth has at times  stressed the men’s friendship. “Eric and I agree on ‘what’ but never on ‘how,’ says Lowry. “Although we are willing to challenge each other,we come up with interesting and smarter solutions.There’s little fire and ice between us.”

The underlined word “toxic” in Paragraph 1 most probably means——·

  A.poisonous    B.dirty    C.expensive    D.troublesome

When Ryan told his mom his plan, ___________.

A.he knew his mom was sure to support him

B.his mom asked him to clean his room

C.his mom suspected his ability

D.he was discouraged by his mom

We can learn from the third paragraph that ___________.

    A.Ryan and Lowry wanted to give up and go home at first

    B.their plan didn’t go smoothly at the very beginning

    C.they made profit two months later after their first financing

    D.$1 million was not enough as their seed money

The partners’ cleaning products are sold very well because_________.

    A.the products are made of natural material and smell nice

    B.their friends and family offered to use their products

    C.they cooperated with a well—known national retailer

    D.they convinced 20 grocer managers to try them

It can be inferred from the passage that___________.

    A.Aveda’s skin-and-hair-care lines are not so successful as Ryan and Lowry’s

    B.Target is a famous environment-friendly cleaning brand

    C.The friends "cooperation with Target was very successful

D.The partners get on well with each other in their business     


第三节完形填空(共20小题;每小题1.5分,满分30分)
     When I was 6 years old, my parents got me a used __21____ for Christmas.
A year or so later, I badly wanted a Sting-Ray, a tricked-out bike that was __22__in the 1960s. So my father took my old bike, slapped a new coat of paint on it, and _23____ it with a banana seat, monkey handlebars and a sissy bar(保护杠). ___24___didn't matter to me that some friends had new Sting-Rays straight from the Schwinn factory. Or even that my dad put the sissy bar on backward, _25____ exposed me to some teasing(嘲笑) before we _26____ it. I loved that bike.
  So it was for my __27___. We weren't poor. But we always had modest Christmases. And I _28____ to do the same when I got married 27 years ago.
  My wife, Clarissa, had different _29____. She, too, had some __30___Christmases growing up. She vividly remembers when she was 14 or 15 years old and her father lost his __31__in the construction industry. She overheard her __32___ talking about how _33___ they were.
  So when her parents asked her what she wanted that year, she said, 'Nothing.' When her mother insisted she had to get ___34__, Clarissa asked for socks. 'I felt very good about myself afterward,' she recalls.
  But as her family's finances _35_____, Christmas went back to being a __36__ bigger production. By the time I arrived on the scene, the __37__ family -- more than 20 people -- would gather at her grandmother's house in Mexicali, Mexico, on Christmas Eve. Around 10 p.m., Santa (my future brother-in-law in a costume) showed up with an enormous bag of _38____ and stepped into a roomful of children crying with __39____
  'It was all about the children,' says Clarissa, who thought the experience was _40___ .And she has spent hundreds of dollars on presents every year to duplicate(重温 )it.
21.A.car             B.bike          C.book           D.coat
22.A.popular        B.common       C.ordinary        D.regular
23.A.add         B.equipped      C.placed         D.supplied
24.A.That           B.This          C.It           D.What
25.A.so            B.thus          C.Which         D.it
26.A.bought         B.placed         C.fixed          D.changed
27.A.childhood      B.life           C.children        D.youth
28.A.imagined      B.expected       C.suggested      D.supposed
29.A.ideas          B.life           C.childhood      D.Christmas
30.A.unforgettable   B.modest         C.happy         D.wonderful
31.A.life          B.job            C.interest        D.present
32.A.friends        B.mother        C.father         D.parents
33.A.broke         B.rich           C.wealthy        D.well-off
34.A.nothing        B.something     C.everything       D.anything
35.A.improved     B.caught         C.reduced       D.decreased
36.A.very          B.more          C.less           D.much
37.A.all         B.big            C.small         D.entire
38.A.bikes         B.food          C.presents        D.books
39.A.surprise       B.joy           C.fear           D.satisfaction
40.A.wasteful       B.valueless      C.priceless    D.useful

On the day Apple debuted the often-delayed white-colored iPhone 4, the company’s marketing department gave a nod to the product’s troubled history.

“Finally.” read the big headline Thursday above a picture of the white phone on the homepage of Apple. com.

The white model was supposed to ship alongside the black one at the iPhone 4’s launch(推出) last June. But design and manufacturing complications delayed the process by 10 months, catching Apple off guard, executives say.

As CNN reported last month, earlier test models of the white iPhone 4 produced unclear photos, especially when the flash(闪光灯) was used. Its whiteness confused the proximity sensor (距离传感器) , which detects when the phone is held next to someone’s head and turns off the touch screen to save battery life.

These problems weren’t present in older iPhones that came in white because they didn’t have flash photography; the proximity sensor was unaffected because the front side of previous models was black.

“We thought we were there a year ago, or less than that, when we launched the iPhone 4, and we weren’t,” Philip Schiller, Apple’s chief marketing executive, said in an interview. “It’s not as simple as making something white. There’s a lot more that goes into both the material science of it —how it holds up over time…but also in how it all works with the sensors. “

Ticonderoga Securities analyst Brian White predicts that the white model could help drive sales of Apple’s phones. He says Apple could sell 1 million to 1. 5 million every three months until the next iPhone model is unveiled, which is expected to be this fall.

Forty-five people were lined up at Apple’s flagship New York store Thursday morning to buy white iPhones, according to a CNN Money report.

1.

The reason why white-colored iPhone 4 was delayed by 10 months is that _______.

A.it’s always sold out due to its popularity

B.it met some problems concerning design and manufacture

C.it lacked white manufacturing materials

D.its proximity sensor can’t save battery life

2.

According to the passage, which of the following statements is TRUE?

A.There are multi-colored models of iPhone 4.

B.The same design problems were also found in older white iPhones.

C.IPhone4 will be launched this fall.

D.Originally designers thought they could solve the problems before iPhone 4 was launched.

3.

What would be the best title for this passage?

A.Why the White iPhone 4 Took So Long

B.The History of iPhone 4

C.The Attraction of White iPhone 4

D.The Design and Manufacture of iPhone 4

4.

What does the underlined word “unveil” in the last paragraph mean?

A.to remove one’s mask from his face

B.to remove a cloth from something, especially as part of a ceremony

C.to show to the public for the first time

D.to disappear from the public for the first time

 

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