As nanny(保姆), cook, cleaner, shopper, driver, and gardener, she has one of the most demanding jobs in Britain today. And paying someone else to do the chores(家务活) which take the average housewife 71 hours a week would cost ?349.

    At over ?18,000 a year that’s more than the earnings of 70 percent of the population, including train drivers, firemen, prison officers, and social worker. Looking after a baby less than a year old takes a housewife into a even higher pay league. According to a study, she earns ?457 a week – at nearly ?24,000 a year, the same as teachers, engineers, and chemists.

     Researchers put a price on each chore, then tried to find out how long the average person takes doing them. They found housewives spend an average 70.7 hours a week on housework – with looking after the children (17.9hours) and cooking and cleaning (12.9 hours each) the most time-consuming(费时).

     A wife with a part-time job still works and average of 59 hours a week at home. Those in full-time employment put in longer hours at home than in the workplace. The good news is that these hours sharply decrease as children get older. While the average mother with child under one puts in 90 hours weekly, the figure drops to 80 hours from one to four and to 66 hours from five to ten.

     Mother-of-four Karen Williams from London said, “Paying the housewives may not be practical, but the government should recognize the value of housework, perhaps through the tax. Running a house takes a lot of time and most husbands don’t understand this. For example, my husband only puts a shelf up now and again. He never cleans the kitchen – that’s the real test.”

Who earns most according to the text?

   A. A social worker.    B. A fireman.   C. A gardener.   D. A teacher.

We lean from the text that looking after children ______.

  A. takes more time than doing any other housework

B. means more duties than being a teacher

  C. requires the mother to be well-educated

  D. prevents the mother from working outside

According to the text, a housewife with a baby less than one year old may work _____.

  A. 66 hours a week    B. 71 hours a week    C. 80 hours a week    D. 90 hours a week

By mentioning her husband, Karen Williams wants to show that ______.

   A. housework is no easy job                B. her husband has no time to clean the kitchen

   C. a housewife needs to be paid for cleaning   D. the kitchen is hard to clean

Kids will often ignore your requests for them to shut off the TV, start their chores(杂事),or do their homework as a way to avoid following your directions. Before you know it, you’ve started to sound like a broken record as you repeatedly ask them to do their assignments, clean their room, or take out the trash. Rather than saying “Do your chores now.” you’ll be more effective if you set a target time for when the chores have to be completed. So instead of arguing about starting chores, just say, “If chores aren’t done by 4 pm, here are the consequences.” Then it’s up to your child to complete the chores. Put the ball back in their court. Don’t argue or fight with them, just say,“ That’s the way it’s going to be.” It shouldn’t be punitive(惩罚性的)as much as it should be persuasive. “If your chores aren’t done by 4 pm, then no video game time until chores are done. And if finishing those chores runs into homework time, that’s going to be your loss.” On the other hand, when dealing with homework, keep it very simple. Have a time when homework starts, and at that time, all electronics go off and do not go back on until you see that their homework is done. If your kids say they have no homework, then they should use that time to study or read. Either way, there should be a time set aside when the electronics are off.

When a kid wears his iPod or headphones when you’re trying to talk to him, make no bones about it；he is not ignoring you, he is disrespecting you. At that point, everything else should stop until he takes the earplugs out of his ears. Don’t try to communicate with him when he’s wearing headphones—even if he tells you he can hear you. Wearing them while you’re talking to him is a sign of disrespect. Parents should be very tough about this kind of thing. Remember, mutual respect becomes more important as children mature.

1.According to the passage, it seldom happens that _______________________.

A．kids turn a deaf ear to their parents’ requests

B．parents’ directions sound like a broken record

C．children are ready to follow their parents’ directions

D．parents are unaware of what they are repeating to their kids

2.Parents will be able to deal with their children more effectively if they ________________.

A．avoid direct ways of punishment

B．make them do things at their request

C．argue and fight with their children

D．allow their children to behave in their own way

3.It can be inferred from the passage that _________________________.

A．parents should take off his headphones when trying to have a talk with their child

B．it will make no difference that a kid is wearing his earplugs while talking to his parents

C．parents shouldn’t give in to their kid when he shows no sign of respect

D．kids’ purposely talking to their parents with iPod gives them a sense of power and control

4.The main idea of the passage is ______________________________.

A．that respecting each other is more important than anything else

B．how kids behave to ignore and disrespect their parents

C．that children should make choices and decisions on their own

D．how parents can deal with their kids’ behavior effectively

This is news on the Hour, Ed Wilson reporting. The president and First Lady will visit Africa on a goodwill tour in May. They plan to visit eight African countries.

 Reports from Chinese want close ties between China and the US and Western Europe. A group of top Chinese scientists start in ten-nation tour next month.

Here in Miami, the mayor is still meeting with the leaders of the Teachers’ Union to try to find a way to end the strike. City schools are still closed after two weeks.

In news about health, scientists in California report findings of a relationship between the drinking of coffee and the increase of heart disease among women.  According to the report in the American Medical Journal (杂志), the five-year study shows this: Women who drink more than two cups of coffee a day have a greater chance of having heart disease than women who do not.

In sports, the Chargers lost again last night. The BBS beat them 1 to nothing. The Wingers had better results. They beat the Rifles 7 to 3. It was their first win of their last five matches. That’s the news of the Hour. And now back to more easy listening with Jan Singer.

To improve the ties between China and the US and Western Europe, China ______.

A. will send a group of Chinese scientists to visit the US and. Western Europe

B. has expressed its strong wishes

C. will send some scientists to visit the US only

D. has given many reports to improve the ties

From the news in Miami we know ______.

    A. a peaceful way will soon be found

    B. students can’t go into the school because the classrooms are locked

    C. students haven’t been to school for two weeks

    D. the teachers’ strike will last long

The news about health tells us that ______.

    A. no heart disease will be found if people don’t drink coffee

    B. no one should drink more than two cups of coffee a day

    C. the more coffee people drink, the more chance they’ll get to have heart disease

    D. women’s heart disease has something to do with their drinking coffee

From the last news we do not know ______.

A. the results of the two matches      

B. the number of the teams which played last night

C. how many wins the BBS has had altogether

D. the Wingers played against the Rifles

 根据对话内容，从对话后的选项中选出能填入空白处的最佳选项。选项中有两项为多余选项。

－Mary, do you want to see the pictures of my holiday in Italy?

－61  

－Ah, it was great! The food was great! The wine was great! But the traffic was terrible!

－62  

－Those Italians are crazy drivers! I don’t want to think about it!

—  63

－Yes, so here’s a picture of the Tower of Pisa.

－How nice!

－It was raining that day, but it was still wonderful. We climbed to the top!

－64  

－That’s a photo of the Arno River. That’s the “Ponte Vecchio”, the old bridge.

－65  

－It was very interesting. There were beautiful old buildings in the city, and lots of wonderful museums.

－That’s nice.

A.And what’s this?

B.Why was it so bad?

C.Yes, it was wonderful.

D.   What was Florence like?

E.Let’s return to the good parts.

F.Sure, what was your holiday like?

G.   Well, did you like your hotel there?

根据对话内容，从对话后的选项中选出能填入空白处的最佳选项。选项中有

两项为多余选项。并将答案填入答题卡。）

Mike：Oh, Mr. Ding , my wife and I would be very happy if you and your wife could come and have dinner with us on Friday evening .

Ding：     What time would you like us to come ?

Mike：      

Ding：Yes, that’ ll be fine . But I’m not sure that I have your address .

Mike：     Here’s my card with my address and phone number .

Ding：Thank you .      I’ll just take a taxi .

Mike：That’s the best way , I think . Well , we’ll be seeing you on Friday evening then .

Ding：Yes.   

A．That’s right .

B．I’ve never been to your part of the city , but I think I can manage .

C．I’ve enjoyed the evening very much .

D．I quite agree with you .

E．Thank you very much for your offer , Mr. Mike .

F．Would seven o’clock be all right with you ?

G．Why , that would be very nice .