Parents who help their children with homework may actually be bringing down their school grades. Other forms of parental involvement, including volunteering at school and observing a child's class, also fail to help, according to the most recent study on the topic.

The findings challenge a key principle of modern parenting where schools expect them to act as partners in their children's education. Previous generations concentrated on getting children to school on time, fed, dressed and ready to learn.

Kaith Robinson, the author of the study, said, “I really don't know if the public is ready for this but there are some ways parents can be involved in their kids' education that leads to declines in their academic performance. One of the things that was consistently negative was parents' help with homework.” Robinson suggested that may be because parents themselves struggle to understand the task. “They may either not remember the material their kids are studying now, or in some cases never learnt it themselves, but they're still offering advice.”

Robinson assessed parental involvement performance and found one of the most damaging things a parent could do was to punish their children for poor marks. In general, about 20% of parental involvement was positive, about 45% negative and the rest statistically insignificant.

Common sense suggests it was a good thing for parents to get involved because “children with good academic success do have involved parents”, admitted Robinson. But he argued that this did not prove parental involvement was the root cause of that success. “A big surprise was that Asian-American parents whose kids are doing so well in school hardly involved. They took a more reasonable approach, conveying to their children how success at school could improve their lives.”

1.The underlined expression “parental involvement” in Paragraph 1 probably means ________.

A. parents' participation in children's education

B. parents' expectation on children's health

C. parents' control over children's life

D. parents' plan for children's future

2.What is the major finding of Robinson's study?

A. Modern parents raise children in a more scientific way.

B. Punishing kids for bad marks is mentally damaging.

C. Parents are not able to help with children’s homework.

D. Parental involvement is not so beneficial as expected.

3.The example of Asian-American parents implies that parents should ________.

A. spend more time improving their own lives

B. set a specific life goal for their children

C. help children realize the importance of schooling

D. take a more active part in school management

Mark Twain was a great writer. He was from the USA. He was born in 1835. He was also a famous speaker. He was famous for his sense of humour. Many people liked to listen to him talk because he liked to tell some interesting stories to make people laugh all the time.

One day Mark Twain was going to a small town because of his writing. Before he was going to leave, one of his friends said to him that there were always a lot of mosquitoes in the town and told him that he’d better not go there. Mark Twain waved (摇动) his hand and said, “It doesn’t matter. The mosquitoes are no relatives of mine. I don’t think they will come to visit me.”

After he arrived at the town, Mark Twain stayed in a small hotel near the station. He went into his room, but when he was just about to have a rest, quite a few mosquitoes flew about him. The waiters felt very sorry about that. “I’m very sorry, Mr Mark Twain. There are too many mosquitoes in our town.” One of them said to him.

Mark Twain, however, made a joke, saying to the waiter, “The mosquitoes are very clever. They know my room number. They didn’t come into the wrong room.” What he said made all the people present laugh heartily.

But that night Mark Twain slept well. Do you know why? That was because all the waiters in the hotel were driving the mosquitoes away for him during the whole night.

1.That day Mark Twain went to the town _____.

A. to see one of his friends

B. because he wanted to do something there for his writing

C. because he was told there were a lot of mosquitoes there

D. to see one of his relatives

2.The waiters felt sorry because _____.

A. they did something wrong to Mark Twain

B. their hotel was too small

C. the room was not very clean

D. there were quite a few mosquitoes in Mark Twain’s room

3.All the people present laughed heartily because _____.

A. the mosquitoes were very clever and they didn’t come into the wrong room

B. the mosquitoes knew Mark Twain’s room number

C. Mark Twain gave the waiters some nice presents

D. Mark Twain made a joke

4.From the story we know _____.

A. no mosquitoes troubled Mark Twain in the night

B. the owner of the hotel told the waiters to look after Mark Twain well at night

C. Mark Twain didn’t have a good rest that night

D. there were not mosquitoes in the hotel any longer

It’s such a happy-looking library,painted yellow,painted yellow,decorated with palm-tree stickers and sheltered from the Florida sun by its own roof.About the size of a microwave oven,it’s pedestrian-friendly,too,waiting for book lovers next to a sidewalk in Palm Beach Country Estates,along the northern boundary of Palm Beach Gardens.

It's a library built with love.

A year ago,shortly after Janey Henriksen saw a Brian Williams report about the Little Free Library organization,a Wisconsin-based nonprofit that aims to promote literacy and build a sense of community in a neighborhood by making books freely available,she announced to her family of four,“That’s what we’re going to do for our spring break!”

Son Austin,now a 10th-grader,didn’t see the point of building a library that resembles(与...相似)a mailbox.But Janey insisted and husband Peter unwillingly got to work.The 5-year-old owner of a ship supply company modified a small wooden house that he’d built years earlier for daughter Abbie’s toy horses,and made a door of glass.After adding the library’s final touches(装点),the family hung a signboard on the front,instructing users to“take a book,return a book”,and making the Henriksen library,now one several hundred like it nationwide and among more than 2500 in the world,the only Little Free Library in Palm Beach County.

They stocked it with 20 or so books they’d already read,a mix of science fiction,reference.titles,novels and kids’ favorites.“I told them,keep in mind that you might not see it again,”said Janey,a stay-at-home mom.Since then,the collection keeps replenishing(补充)itself,thanks to ongoing donations from borrowers.The library now gets an average of five visits a day.

The project's best payoff,says Peter,are the thank-you notes left behind.“We had no idea in the beginning that it would be so popular.”

1.Janey got the idea to build a library from .

A. a visit to Brian Williams

B. a spring break with her family

C. a book sent by one of her neighbors

D. a report on a Wisconsin-based organization

2.The library was built .

A. by a ship supply company B. on the basis of toy horses

C. like a mailbox D. with glass

3.What can we infer about the signboard?

A. It was made by a user of the library.

B. It marked a final touch to the library.

C. It aimed at making the library last long.

D. It indicated the library was a family property.

4.The passage tells us that the users .

A. donate books to the library

B. get paid to collect books for the library

C. receive thank-you notes for using the library

D. visit the library over 5 times on average daily

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