题目内容
Parents in three Midwestern states will soon know just how good or bad their kids' driving is when their children take the car for a spin (疾驶).
Starting today, American Family Insurance is offering customers with teen drivers free cameras that record what happens when a sudden change in the car's movement occurs.
The cameras record the action inside and in front of the car in 20 - second audio - video clips (剪辑). The clips are then transmitted to Drive Cam, a San Diego company that analyzes the clips for risky behavior.
Among things the analysts look for is the response time of the drivers and if they are paying attention to the road. Parents can receive a report on their kids' driving and view the clips on a home computer.
Car accidents are the leading cause of death among U. S. teens, according to the NHTSA
(National Highway Traffic Safety Administration).
"There will be fewer accidents," Rick Fetherston, vice president at American Family said of the new system. American Family will test the system out by offering it for free for one year to 30.000 families in Wisconsin, Indiana and Minnesota to see whether the system results in fewer accidents. If the system is proven to prevent accidents, customers who volunteer to use it might see their insurance premiums (保险费) drop. The company would not be viewing the videos or individual score cars, unless there is an accident.
Bruce Moeller, president of Drive Cam, says his company's system is already being used by companies with lots of cars. "Some of our customers are reporting a 30% to 90% reduction in their risky driver events," Moeller says.
But a lawyer in Minneapolis says. "If I felt I needed a camera in the car to watch over my kids, I shouldn't be letting them drive."
American Family tested the system in two high schools in Minnesota and Wisconsin.
Megan Ireland, 17, said the camera caught her stopping too late and taking turns too fast. The student at Prior Lake High School in Savage, Minn., said she didn't like it because she felt it invaded her privacy (侵犯隐私) but has warmed up to the system. "Now I don't really have a problem with it because it's made me a better driver," she says. "For real."
69.The camera is being offered to________by________free of charge now.
A.teen drivers; a company called Drive Cam
B.insurance companies; a San Diego company
C.families with teen drivers; an insurance company
D.American Family Insurance; the NHTSA
70.The camera is used to________.
A.record what the teen driver does while driving
B.prevent the teen drivers from speeding
C.reduce the insurance premiums
D.provide videos and score cards for the police
71.Which of the following states is NOT true according to the passage?
A.Drive Cam will analyze the clips to find if the driver drives riskily.
B.All the students in Minnesota and Wisconsin don't like the system.
C.The insurance company will never look at the clips or score cards of the customers.
D.If the system can reduce the number of accidents, the fees for insurance will be reduced.
72.The best title for this passage might be________.
A.Teens, drive carefully B.A free camera for kids
C.Cameras invade Privacy D.Cameras keep watch on teen driving
【小题1】C
【小题2】A
【小题3】C
【小题4】D
阅读快车系列答案The rise of the so-called “boomerang generation” is revealed in official figures showing that almost one in five graduates in their late 20s now live with their parents.
By contrast, only one in eight university graduates had failed to fly the nest by the same age 20 years ago. It also found that grown-up sons are twice as likely as their sisters to still be living with their parents in their late 20s. With nearly a quarter of men approaching 30 still living at home, the findings are bound to lead to claims of a “generation of mummy’s boys”.
Young professionals in their late 20s or early 30s have been nicknamed the “boomerang generation” because of the trend toward returning to the family home having initially left to study. Recent research has suggested that young people in Britain are twice as likely to choose to live with their parents in their late 20s than their counterparts elsewhere in Europe.
Rising property prices, mounting student debts and the effects of recession on the job market have forced a wave of young people to move back into the family home at an age when they would normally be moving out. But commentators warned that the phenomenon may have more to do with young people facing “dire” prospects than simply a desire to save money.
While the proportion of those of university or college age moving out from the family home has continued to
rise in the last 20 years, among those in their mid and late 20s the trend has been reversed. Overall 1.7 million people aged from 22 to 29 now share a roof with their parents, including more than 760,000 in their late 20s. In 1988, 22.7 per cent of men aged 25 to 29 were still living with their parents bu
t last year the proportion was 24.5 per cent.
【小题1】 What is the main idea of the passage?
| A．The economic crisis has shown its effect on the young generation. |
| B．More young professionals are returning home to live. |
| C．British parents are suffering more loads from their grown-up children. |
| D．Britain is suffering more than any other country in Europe. |
| A．Male children seem to more independent than females. |
B．Eighty percent of university graduates were able to live indepen den tly two decades ago. |
| C．The grown-up children choose to live with their parents only to save money. |
| D．More and more children are moving out at university age. |
| A．promising. | B．inconvenient. | C．very bad. | D．hopeful |
t _____. | A．that living prices have risen a lot. |
| B．that it’s difficult to land a job. |
| C．that education has already cost them a lot |
| D．that parents can help them more |
Computer programmer David Jones makes 35,000 poun
ds a year designing new computer games, yet he cannot find a b
ank prepared to let him have a credit card (信用卡). Instead, he has been told to wait another two years, until he is 18.
The 16-year-old boy works for a small firm in Liverpool, where the problem of most young people of his age is finding a job. David’s firm puts two new games on the home market each month.
But David’s biggest headache is what to do with his money. In spite of his salary, made by inventing new programs within a quite short period of time, the bonus payments and profit-sharing (奖金和分红), he cannot dri
ve a car, get some money from a bank to buy a house, or get credit cards.
He lives with his parents in their house in Liverpool, where his father is a bus driver. His firm has to pay ￡150 a month in taxi fares to get him the five miles to work and back every day because David cannot drive.
David got his job with the firm a year after leaving school with six 0-levels and working for a time in a computer shop. “I got the job because the people who run the firm knew I had already written some programs,” he said.
“I suppose 35,000 pounds sounds a lot but actually that’s not good enough. I hope it will come to more than that this year.” He spends some of his money on records and clothes, and gives his mother 20 pounds a week. But most of his spare time is spent working.
“Unfortunately, computing was not part of our studies at school,” he said. “But I had been studying it in books and magazines for four years in my spare time. I know what I wanted to do and never considered staying on at school. Most people in this business are fairly young, anyway.”
David added, “I would like to earn a million and I suppose early retirement (退休) is a possibility. You never know when the market might di
sappear.”
【小题1】Why is David different from other young people of his age?
A．He earns a very hi gh salary. | B．He has not a job. |
| C．He does not go out much. | D．He lives at home with his parents. |
| A．making the banks treat him as a grown-up | B．inventing computer games |
| C．spending his salary | D．learning to drive |
| A．he had worked in a computer shop | B．he had written some computer programs |
| C．he worked very hard | D． he had learned to use computers at school |
| A．he did not enjoy school |
| B．he wanted to work with computers and staying at school did not help him |
| C．he was afraid of getting too old to start computing |
| D．he wanted to earn a lot of money |
| A．One has to be young to write computer programs. |
| B．He wants to stop working when he is a millionaire. |
| C．He thinks computer games might not always sell so well. |
| D．He thinks his firm might go bad. |
Grandparents might be known for spoiling grandchildren, but a new study says they might also be helping the kids improve their social skills and behavior.
Spending time with grandma and grandpa especially appears to help children from single-parent, divorced/separated or stepfamily households, according to the report, published in the February Journal of Family Psychology.
"Grandparents are a positive force for all families but play a significant role in families undergoing difficulties," the study's lead author, Shalhevet Attar-Schwartz, of The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, said in an American Psychological Association news release. "They can reduce the negative influence of parents separating and be a resource for children who are going through these family changes."
In interviewing 11- to 16-year olds from England and Wales, Attar-Schwartz and her team found that the more conversations the youths had with a grandparent, including asking for advice or even money, the better they got along with their peers and the fewer problems they had, such as hyperactivity and disruptive behavior.
"This was found across all three family structures," she said. "But adolescents in single-parent households and stepfamilies benefited the most. The effect of their grandparents' involvement was stronger compared to children from two biological parent families."
The study did not look at children who lived solely with their grandparents, though.
The findings have great implications for people in the United States, the authors said, because American grandparents are increasingly sharing living space with their grandchildren. A 2004 U.S. Census Bureau survey found that more than 5 million households include a grandparent and a grandchild under 18, up 30 percent since 1990, according to background information in the news release.
【小题1】It is generally believed that a grandmother __________ .
| A．can help a child through hard times |
| B．can help kids develop social skills |
| C．can spoil a child |
| D．is a positive force for all families |
| A．from two biological parent families |
| B．from a single—parent household |
| C．from a divorced household |
| D．from a stepfamily household |
| A．have difficulty in getting along with his peers |
| B．still get along well with his peers |
| C．be easier to be spoiled than his peers |
| D．not be popular with peers |
| A．there are more families in America undergoing difficulties |
| B．American parents are much busier than those from other countries |
| C．American grandparents are much better at bringing up their grandchildren |
| D．American kids like to share more living space with their grandparents |
| A．children who live solely with their grandparents may benefit the most |
| B．grandparents are a source of comfort to children from families undergoing difficulties |
| C．grandparents play a more positive role than parents in children’s growth |
| D．all families should leave their children to be brought up by grandparents |
Most British parents give their teenagers pocket money．Teenagers get between￡7 and￡20 a week．They spend it on fast food，designed clothes，the cinema，concert，magazines and mobile phones．
1)Lazy parents?
37％of parents pay teenagers to clean the living room，66％of parents pay teenagers to take the rubbish out．
2)Lazy teens?
51％of teenagers don’t make their beds before they leave home．
Only 1 3％of teenagers wash the car for money．
Some parents even pay their teenagers to do their homework．
3)Equality?Not Yet!
Boys get more money than girls for most odd jobs．
For washing the dishes，boys get about￡4 and girls get about￡1．
4)And if you need some more money?
Teens get an extra￡250 a year out of their parents on top of pocket money!
About 50％of teens get gifts or money from their grandparents．
Go to Mum if you need extra money! She gives more than Dad．
5)Where you live makes a difference!
Parents in Scotland and the North of England give more pocket money．
6)Spending
51％of teenagers spend their money on clothes．
39％of teenagers buy cosmetics(装饰品)，jewellery and toiletries(洗漱用品)．
Less than 30％of teenagers save any money．
7)Earnings
Here are some children who tell us about their pocket money：
Emma：I get￡30 a month．I have to take the rubbish out and tidy my room．
James：I get￡10 a week．But I have to clean the car，hoover(用真空洗尘器清洗)the house and load and unload the dishwasher．I usually save the money．
Lain：I get￡7．50 a week．I have to be“good”but I don’t have to do any jobs for the money．
Richard；I get￡5 a week．But our neighbors go away a lot and they give me￡25 a week for looking after their cats．
【小题1】This passage is mainly about ．
| A．teenagers everywhere get pocket money |
| B．how to spend pocket money |
| C．some bits about pocket money in Britain |
| D．how to get pocket money |
| A．Parents are lazy so they let children do housework． |
| B．Teens are too lazy to do housework unless they are given pocket money． |
| C．The pocket money boys and girls get is not equal． |
| D．It is not right for children to ask for pocket money． |
| A．boys earn more money at home than girls |
| B．girls earn more money at home than boys |
| C．only rich parents give children pocket money |
| D．most children spend their pocket money |
| A．Emma | B．J ames | C．Lain | D．Richard |