Parents are a child’s first teachers. But some parents never learned from good examples. In New York City, a nonprofit agency called Covenant House tries to help homeless young mothers become good parents.

The twelve or so teenagers who live at the shelter attend parenting classes four days a week. The class is called Mommy and Me. Teacher Delores Clemens is a mother of five and a grandmother. She teaches basic skills, like how to give a baby a bath and how to dress a baby depending on the season.

She remembers one student who learned from her mother not to pick up a crying baby. The mother said that would only make the child needy and overly demanding. Delores Clemens says, “that's not true. You have to hold your baby! He is crying for a reason. If you never pick him up, he's going to keep crying. Pick your baby up. Cuddle your baby. Hug him! And she started to do that. They just want a little cuddling and a little love. And it works!”

Delores Clemens says her students also learn how to be good mothers by letting themselves be mothered. Around three hundred fifty teenage mothers graduate from Covenant House's Mommy and Me class every year.

In class, with her baby son is Natasha. She lived on the streets. She is glad not only for the warmth and shelter of Covenant House. As she told reporter Adam Phillips, she is also glad for the help they offer in seeking a more secure life.

The World Health Organization says the United States has forty-one births for every one thousand girls age fifteen to nineteen. That is higher than other developed countries, as well as some developing ones. By comparison, northern neighbor Canada has fourteen births and southern neighbor Mexico has eighty-two.

1.What is the text mainly about?

A. Parents who are a child’s first teachers.

B. A class where teens learn mothering and are mothered.

C. A nonprofit agency that offers a more secure life.

D. A kind teacher who help homeless young mothers.

2.Covenant Houses’ Mommy and Me class is intended to _____.

A. help homeless young mothers become good parents

B. provide homeless young mothers with a warm shelter

C. help mothers in New York be good parents

D. teach some parents how to love their children

3.What can we know about Delores Clemens from the text?

A. She has a mother of five and a grandmother.

B. She thinks a crying baby should be picked up and hugged.

C. She teaches advanced skills on how to be good mothers.

D. She is very glad for the warmth and shelter of Covenant House.

4.According to the World Health Organization, which country has the highest births for girls age fifteen to nineteen?

A. Canada B. the United States of America

C. Mexico D. Britain

If you are afraid of the dark，it’s not a big deal．It’s perfectly normal to feel afraid After all，animals do too. “Fear matters，”says Karen Warkentin，an ecologist．“It’s a good thing，” she adds, “because fear makes you do things that keep you alive.”

Like kids，many animals experience fear and they respond to the feeling in variety of ways．A frightened turtle pulls its head and legs inside its shell．A small fish will swim away when a big，hungry fish approaches．

Some animals respond to fear in ways you might not expect．The first example is that the fear of being eaten can scare some frogs right out of their eggs. Warkentin made the surprising discovery while studying red—eyed tree frogs in Costa Rica.

In this species，female frogs attach jellylike clumps（果冻一样的块状物）of their eggs to the undersides of leaves．The leaves hang on branches that dangle（悬挂）over ponds．After they hatch from the eggs，the tadpoles（蝌蚪）then fall into the water，where they eventually grow into adult frogs.

Tree frog eggs usually grow for 6 days before hatching．If they sense that a hungry snake is about to attack，however，they can hatch up to 2 days ahead of schedule. As the snakes are unable to swim，by falling into the water early，the tadpoles can escape.

If hatching early helps protect red—eyed tree frogs from snakes，you might wonder why their eggs don’t always hatch sooner．It turns out that hatching early brings its own danger．Once tadpoles land in the water，hungry fish and other animals like to eat them too．Staying in their eggs for a full 6 days，then，allows frog embryos（胚胎）to grow big and strong．This extra growth improves their chances of surviving in the water．

1.It can be inferred from the passage that fears .

A. help animals grow bigger and stronger

B. are less common among young animals

C. help animals move a lot to fit the environment

D. are more or less important in order for animals to survive

2.We are told in the passage that tree frogs .

A. face danger both inside their eggs and in the water

B. will grow fast if they fall into the water later

C. are surprisingly clever when inside their eggs

D. stay in their eggs longer if they are frightened

3.Why do the tadpoles hatch up to 2 days ahead of the schedule？Because

A. They like falling into the water early

B. They want to grow into adult frog

C. They sense a hungry snake is about to attack

D. Frog embryos can grow strong

4.What is the best title of the passage ？

A. What is Fear B. Why do we feel afraid

C. You feel afraid，animals do too D. Fear is a good thing

5.What do you think would be discussed in the following paragraph?

A. Further explanations as to why tree frogs hatch ahead of schedule．

B. How the unborn frogs know when a snake is about to attack them．

C. Another example of animals that responds to fear in an unexpected way．

D. How tree frogs improve their chances of survival before falling into the water.

Will you be playing some music at work?

Music is particularly popular in the medical profession, especially among surgeons（外科医生）. A recent survey shows that 90% of surgeons in the UK put music on the sound system in the theatre during operations. Plastic surgeons（整形外科医生）play the most music; it appears that ear, nose, and throat specialists the least.

But it isn’t only in surgeries(外科手术) where music is popular. In another recent survey, one-third of the 1,613 people said they listen to music while working. And 79% of them said that humming（哼歌）along improves their job satisfaction or productivity.

Is listening to music at work a good idea? Yes, say the experts. Many surgeons say that music helps to create a “calm atmosphere”, and a third of them added that it avoids getting bored! Also, listening to music raises the levels of a brain chemical that can help people focus. Office workers say it improves job satisfaction. Several studies suggest that it’s also good for hospital patients. Those listening to music through headphones during surgery require less anesthetic（麻醉剂）, up to 50% less in some cases, and recover more quickly afterwards. “Sure, music reduces anxiety before surgery,” says Zeev Kain, an anesthetist at Yale University.

So, what type of music should we be listening to? Surgeons from the previous survey preferred rock, pop music and classical. And hip-hop is popular too. However, whatever the kind, it appears that self-selected music is the best choice. Pennsylvania State University research showed that when people chose their own music there was more stress reduction(下降). And other researchers found that when listening to self-selected music, surgeons did the maths faster and more accurately than when they were listening to music chosen for them.

1.The underlined word “theatre” in Paragraph 2 probably means ________.

A. an operating room

B. a rest room for surgeons

C. a waiting room in a hospital

D. a building where shows are performed

2.The surveys mentioned in the passage show ________.

A. music is popular in some professions

B. most surgeons in the UK are fond of singing

C. office workers learn a lot from listening to music

D. fewer than half of the people listen to music at work

3.What are the advantages of listening to music at work? ________.

①improving memory

②keeping people relaxed

③improving job satisfaction

④improving eyesight

A. ①④ B. ①②

C. ②③ D. ②④

4.How should you choose music for work time according to the passage? ________.

A. Turn to the surgeons for help

B. Make your selection by yourself

C. Rock, pop music and classical are always good choices

D. The most popular music should be taken into consideration

5.The passage is mainly about ________.

A. how to choose music wisely

B. where to find the best music

C. the popularity of music in hospitals

D. the benefits of listening to music at work

At just 18 years old, Canberra student Lochie Ferrier has already conducted research in a frontier field — aerospace engineering. Aerospace engineering is the primary of engineering concerned with the science and technology of aircraft and spacecraft.

In 2014, he was one of 80 high school students worldwide who a six-week science and engineering program at MIT. During the program, he was by the institute’s scientists, and developed a method to identify inactive satellites. This method, called OASIS, is designed a way to help manage space debris(碎片), which operating satellites.

“One solution to this problem is a robot that can gather pieces of space debris and store them in orbit，” he says. “These pieces could be to new satellites later, thus the costs and launch weights of new satellites.” However, satellite identification technology would be needed for this solution, and that’s what Lochie is working on. “I hope this method would be put into practice in the near future, in the next 10 years,” he says.

Lochie has made the of the Young Innovators category of the Australian Innovation Challenge Awards with his OASIS. This category is open to students aged 21 years or and carries a $ 5,000 prize. If he won, he would use the money to help fund research into OASIS. “My plan for using the money would be to try to use materials which could stand up to the environment of space,” he says.

He is also considering how to the technology to organizations such as NASA and satellite manufacturers.

Lochie’s in aerospace engineering was aroused by the big dish antenna(碟形天线）at NASA’s tracking station near Canberra，which he visited in his early teens. He said his software design and development teacher at Canberra Grammar School him, too. “He taught me valuable project management and skills which I applied to OASIS.”

Lochie has been attending Canberra Grammar School and will soon exams for admission to universities. He his time between schoolwork, his personal projects such as OASIS and the development of apps, rock climbing, and playing classical violin. The teenager is well on his way to realizing his sky-high ambition.

1.A. principle B. presentation C. branch D. criterion

2.A. brought in B. participated in C. set up D. backed up

3.A. guided B. criticized C. surprised D. changed

4.A. in B. for C. with D. as

5.A. follows B. threatens C. splits D. maintains

6.A. recycling B. repairing C. creating D. launching

7.A. switched B. transformed C. attached D. returned

8.A. increasing B. reducing C. balancing D. covering

9.A. optional B. temporary C. reliable D. theoretical

10.A. imagine B. say C. suppose D. consider

11.A. plans B. finals C. competitions D. goals

12.A. under B. beyond C. more D. above

13.A. basic B. further C. academic D. independent

14.A. extreme B. pure C. dark D. friendly

15.A. adapt B. forward C. market D. apply

16.A. influence B. investment C. information D. interest

17.A. inspired B. served C. sponsored D. promised

18.A. join B. sit C. hold D. prepare

19.A. devotes B. spends C. separates D. divides

20.A. instructive B. competitive C. technical D. typica

Red envelopes have been related to the Chinese Lunar New Year for long. I myself have had plenty of experiences both receiving and giving out red envelopes in the past, 1. I mean, who doesn’t love free money?

I’m truly surprised by the extent of people’s obsession with virtual red envelopes this year. In fact, everyone I know spent at least a day or two crazily shaking their smart phones, 2. Thanks to messaging app giant We Chat’s new feature which allows users to send money electronically, grabbing virtual red envelopes has never seemed so easy.

3. here’s how it works. Givers link their We Chat to their bank accounts, and then they can send specified amounts of money to their We Chat accounts through a personal message. They can also put the cash up for grabs in chat groups full of friends, and anyone who acts fast enough will get a share. 4.

In theory, this sounds like a fun game. I’m always for some harmless fun in life, so my natural response would be: Why not? Moreover, I’ve always believed that it’s human nature to want free stuff, regardless of whether you actually need it or not. This may not be a good quality, but it’s not against the law, 5. Considering these reasons, I really can’t fault anyone for their enthusiasm in grabbing virtual red envelopes. I would have done it too, had I not thought linking We Chat to my bank accounts was too much trouble.

A. and we know everyone likes money.

B. and generally speaking, it’s been fun.

C. if you want to be good at grabbing a red envelope.

D. Just in case you are one of the very few people still not on the bandwagon,

E. mostly trying to get as much lucky money as possible.

F. so I won’t get all judgmental here.

G. Later，receivers can transfer the funds from their We Chat back into their own bank accounts.

假定你是李华，你的英国朋友Lucy在当地的一所孔子学院（Confucius Institute）学习，你刚获悉她在学院举办的中文诗词（poetry）比赛中荣获一等奖。请你用英语给她写一封电子邮件表示祝贺，并希望她有机会来中国深造。

注意：

1．词数100左右；

2．可以适当增加细节，以使行文连贯；

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Kathy Fletcher and David Simpson have a son named Santi. He had a friend who sometimes went to school hungry. So Santi invited him to occasionally eat and sleep at his house.

That friend had a friend and that friend had a friend, and now when you go to dinner at Kathy and David’s house on Thursday night there might be 15 to 20 teenagers gathering around the table, and later there will be groups of them crashing in the basement or in the few small bedrooms upstairs. The kids who show up at Kathy and David’s have suffered the pains of modern poverty: homelessness, hunger, abuse.

And yet by some miracle, hostile soil has produced beautiful flowers. Kids come from around the city. Spicy chicken and black rice are served. Cellphones are banned. The kids who call Kathy and David “Momma” and “Dad,” are polite and clear the dishes. Birthdays and graduations are celebrated. Songs are performed. Each meal we go around the table and everybody has to say something nobody else knows about them. Each meal the kids show their promise to care for one another.

The adults in this community give the kids the chance to present their gifts. “At my first dinner, Edd read a poem that I first thought was from Langston Hughes, but it turned out to be his own. Kesari has a voice that somehow appeared from New Orleans jazz from the 1920s. Madeline and Thalya practice friendship as if it were the highest art form.”

“They give us a gift — complete intolerance of social distance. When I first met Edd, I held out my hand to shake his. He looked at it and said, “We hug here,” and we’ve been hugging since.”

Bill Milliken, a veteran youth activist, is often asked which programs turn around kids’ lives. “I still haven’t seen one program change one kid’s life,” he says. “What changes people is relationships. Somebody is willing to walk through the shadow of the valley of adolescence with them.” Souls are not saved in bundles. Love is the necessary force.

1.Why do kids come to Kathy and David’s house on Thursdays?

A. To help the homeless at first hand.

B. To experience the feeling of home.

C. To learn about the modern poverty.

D. To plant beautiful flowers in poor soil.

2.Why isn’t the use of cell phones allowed at Thursday dinners?

A. Kids need to tell stories about themselves.

B. Kids are expected to care more for each other.

C. Kids have to do house chores around the home.

D. Kids prepare songs for birthdays and graduations.

3.What gift did the writer get at a Thursday dinner?

A. The practice of the art form.

B. The pleasure of enjoying jazz.

C. The chance to listen to poems.

D. The zero distance between souls.

4.What does Bill mean in his words?

A. Love is the power to change a kid’s life.

B. Money is needed to start programs for kids.

C. A program can change a group of kid’s lives.

D. Kids change their relationships in a program.

In many countries, schools have long summer holidays, with shorter holidays in between. However, a new report suggests shortening school holidays to stop children forgetting what they have learnt during the long summer break. Instead of three school terms, it says, there should be five eight-week terms. And there should be just four weeks off in the summer, with a two-week break between the other terms.

Sonia Montero has two children at primary school and works full-time. She supports the idea. “The kids,” she says, “have much longer holidays than me and I can’t afford to take several weeks off work, so I need someone to take care of them. But nobody wants the work in the summer months — they all have holidays of their own.”

Not surprisingly, some young people disagree. Student Jason Panos says “It’s a stupid idea. I would hate staying at school in the summer. It’s unfair, too. The people who suggest this had long school holidays when they were young, but now they want to stop us enjoying the summer. The kids in Spain and America have much longer holidays than here, but they don’t forget everything they’ve learnt in a few months.”

Nadia Salib agrees. “Sure,” she says, “the first week at school after the summer is never easy, but you soon get back into it. The real problem round here is that kids get bored after so many weeks out of school, and then some of them start causing trouble. But the answer is to give them something to do, not make everyone stay in school longer.”

1.Why is Sonia in support of shorter school holidays?

A. She doesn’t get any summer holidays in her job.

B. She is worried that her children will forget what they’ve learnt.

C. She can’t afford to pay someone to look after her children.

D. She can’t get anyone to look after her children in summer.

2.What does Jason say about long summer holidays?

A. They can help children forget about school.

B. Schools in other countries don’t have them.

C. These days many older people have them too.

D. They have little influence on children’s education.

3.What does Nadia say about young people on summer holidays?

A. They would like to spend more time at school.

B. Long holidays are very bad for their education.

C. They need something to do to enrich themselves.

D. Long holidays should be shortened to stop them causing trouble.

Earlier this year, the social media website Facebook announced that it would work with several news organizations — including The New York Times, The Guardian, and the BBC — to place news stories directly into users’ personal Facebook webpage. Stories published using Facebook Instant will load more quickly and keep the style of the original publisher, who will keep all the advertising income the stories earn — at least for now. The deal shows how important social media has become to news organizations, and is a clear sign of how the world of news is changing — and has been for a while.

When Google News began in 2002, many saw it as the death of the newspaper. It had no human editor. Instead Google used, and still uses, a secret computer program that selects and displays news stories according to the reader’s personal interests. More recently, Associated Press and Yahoo! have been publishing computer-written articles. Both use special software to automatically produce stories about company financial results and sports reports — areas where the quality of writing is felt to be of secondary importance to the accuracy of the data.

Should we be worried about such developments? I think we should. One concern is that facebook, Google and other social media websites see journalism as a sideline, a way of putting people in front of advertisements. It isn’t their primary function — so if it stops making them lots of money, they're likely to stop doing it.

There’s also a concern that computer-written articles are not actually journalism at all, because what a human news team produces is actually quite complex. A well-written news story puts information in context, offers a voice to each side of an argument and brings the public new knowledge.

Though economics and speed of delivery mean readers will probably choose a computer-written story over a carefully shaped article — at least for daily news — I don't think the computers will be writing any in-depth articles for a while yet.

1.What is the main purpose of the article?

A. To report on a new computer service offered by Facebook..

B. To advise readers against reading computer-written news.

C. To express concern about recent trends in online news.

D. To describe the process of online news reporting.

2.Computer-written news reports have so far focused on sports and finance because ________.

A. these are the most popular topics for online readers

B. there are fewer journalists specializing in these areas

C. information on these topics is more easily available

D. writing style is less important than accuracy in these areas

3.What does the underlined word “It” in Paragraph 3 refer to?

A. Journalism. B. Advertising.

C. Facebook. D. Business.

4.In Paragraph 4, which of the following is mentioned as a characteristic of a well-written news article?

A. The information presented is up-to-date.

B. The author's opinion is clear.

C. Different views on the topic are presented.

D. The language used is vivid.