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(養(yǎng)育子女) 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 were 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' expectation on children's health

B. parents' participation in children's education

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. Parental involvement is not so beneficial as expected.

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

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

A. help children realize the importance of schooling

B. set a specific life goal for their children

C. spend more time improving their own lives

D. take a more active part in school management

As more people use smart phones to pay bills and store personal information, strict password security has become more important than ever. A new study shows that free-form gestures–sweeping fingers in shapes across the screen of a smart phone—can be used to unlock phones. These gestures are less likely to be observed and reproduced by others than traditional typed passwords.

“All that it takes to steal a password is a quick eye,” said one of the researchers of the study. “With all the personal information we have on our phones today, improving their security is becoming increasingly necessary.” In developing a secure solution to this problem, the researchers studied the practicality of using free-form gestures. With the ability to create any shape in any size and location on the screen, the gestures were popular as passwords. Since users create them without following a template, the researchers predicted these gestures would allow for greater complexity.

The researchers carried out a create-test-retest experiment where 63 people were asked to create a gesture, recall it, and recall it again 10 days later. The gestures were captured on a recognizer system designed by the team. Using this data, they tested the complexity and accuracy of each gesture using information theory. The result of their analysis is that people are favorable to use free-form gestures as passwords.

To put their analysis into practice, the researchers then had seven students in computer science and engineering, each with considerable experience with touchscreens（觸摸屏）, attempt to steal a free-form gesture password by observing a phone user secretly. None of them were able to copy the gestures with enough accuracy. The gestures appear to be extremely powerful against attacks.

Though the testing is in its early stage and widespread adaptation of this technology is not yet clear, the research team plans to continue to analyze the security and management of free–form passwords in the future. They believe this is the first study to explore free-form gestures as passwords. They will soon publish their findings.

1.What can we learn about free-form gestures?

A. They are improving mobile security in a way.

B. Users will have to make use of simple gestures.

C. They will never be copied by others.

D. Users must move their fingers in fixed shapes.

2.The experiment in paragraph 4 is to test _________ of free - form gestures.

A. templateB. applicationC. accuracyD. security

3.According to the text, the researchers think that ________.

A. it is easy to steal any password with a quick eye

B. better ways of setting passwords should be developed

C. people had better not use smart phones to pay bills

D. personal information should not be stored in a phone

4.The main purpose of the text is to ________.

A. advise people to use free-form gestures

B. discuss whether smart phones are safe

C. talk about the practicality of passwords

D. introduce the study of a new password

They are the little sweeties who look pretty cute in a photo, or when sleeping—but a lot less appealing at 30, 000 ft, crying loudly in the seat right next to you.

According to a new survey, almost seven in ten Britons dislike flying with babies so much that they would like to see child-free areas introduced on planes. As for long-distance flights where people want to sleep, almost one in four British travelers believes that no-kid-zones should be fixed as required sections.

The survey was conducted by bookings website LateDeals.co.uk, with 1,108 UK consumers questioned as to what they hate most about air travel.

And our dislike of noisy children and babies on planes runs deep, it seems.

More than a third of us—35 percent—would pay extra to travel on a childless service.

Long-distance passengers would be prepared to pay an additional ￡63 to the cost of a return ticket if it meant adults only on board. And on short-distance flights, an extra ￡28 on the price of a return fare would be considered good value if it guaranteed an absence of angry babies in the middle of the economy-class aisle(走道).

However, screaming babies are not the only source of annoyance for British travelers. In fact, according to the research on the most annoying types of airline passengers, a crying baby ranks as only the fourth. Over half of those surveyed—58 percent—selected “drunk travelers” as their pet peeves. People with “bad personal hygiene(衛(wèi)生)” and travelers who kick the back of the seat in front were also near the top of the list, causing anger to 48 and 47 percent of us respectively(分別地).

Crying babies came in at fourth on the list, a pet peeve for 43 percent of those surveyed.

1.Britons dislike flying with babies because they_________.

A. make too much noise

B. get angry easily

C. sleep right next to them

D. stay in the economy-class aisle

2.How many British travelers surveyed would like to have no-kid-zones on planes?

A. About 35％.B. About 43％.

C. About 70％.D. About 58％.

3.What type of writing is this text?

A. A brochure.B. A tourist guide.

C. An announcement.D. A news report.

4.What does the underlined phrase “pet peeves” in the last fourth line mean?

A. Pets on a plane.

B. Passengers with a baby.

C. People who annoy you.

D. People who were surveyed.

根據(jù)短文內(nèi)容，從選項中選出能填入空白處的最佳選項，選項中有兩項為多余選項。

Retired or not?

Is retirement harmful to your health?

It’s an interesting question in light of a new study that finds senior citizens who work are in better health than their counterparts who don’t.

Researchers from the University of Miami examined data on more than 83,000 Americans. All of them were at least 65 years old. 1. The majority of these workers ―61 percent―held white collar positions.

Compared to people with white-collar jobs, those who were unemployed or retired were 2.75 times more likely to report their health as “poor” or “fair.”

2. For example, the survey included information on serious conditions like cancer and heart disease. Compared to those with white-collar jobs, those who were unemployed or retired were 49 percent more likely to have a history of at least two of these health problems.

Finally, interviewers asked whether people needed any assistance or special equipment to do things like stand, walk or climb stairs. 3. .

“Being unemployed or retired was associated with the greatest risk of poor health across all health status measures. 4. ”, the study authors concluded.

The results don’t show that working past retirement age is what made senior citizens with jobs healthier than their non-working neighbors. 5. This also makes them sad.

Still understanding the health benefits connected with working past age 65 could motivate business to find ways to hire older workers even if they have some limitations, researchers wrote.

A. People were amazed at the results.

B. Older Americans with jobs also ranked higher on health.

C. 13 percent of them were still working part time or full time.

D. Even after controlling for smoking, people still can’t be healthy.

E. Most retired Americans are reported to be unhealthy for some reason.

F. Retired seniors were 88 percent more likely than white-collar workers to have limitations.

G. Indeed, the authors stated that health problems force some people to drop out of the work.

閱讀下面材料，在空白處填入適當(dāng)?shù)膬?nèi)容（不多于3個單詞）或括號內(nèi)單詞的正確形式。

Scientists have discovered that1._________(stay) in the cold could help us lose weight. Researchers at the University of California found that exposure to the cold increases levels of a protein that helps form brown fat — the type of fat that produces heat and keeps us warm. Brown fat burns energy, 2._________ helps us lose weight. White fat stores extra energy, which results 3.____ weight gain. The researchers said that because air conditioning and heating give us constant, 4.__________ (comfort) temperatures, our body's need for brown fat has decreased. They found that: "Outdoor workers in northern Finland who 5._______(expose) to cold temperature have 6._____significant amount of brown fat when 7.________(compare) to same-aged indoor workers."

The research was conducted on two different control groups of mice. 8.__________ group was injected with the protein that helps create brown fat. This group later gained 30% less weight after both groups were fed high-fat diets. The researchers say this could be good news in the fight against obesity. People who are obese have 9. (low) levels of brown fat than thinner people. Head researcher Hei Sook Sul said: "This protein could become an important target for research into the treatment and prevention of obesity and obesity-related diseases." She added: "If you can somehow increase levels of this protein, you could 10._________(possible) lose more weight even if eating the same amount of food."

假定英語課上老師要求同桌之間交換修改作文，請你修改你同桌寫的以下作文。文中共有10處語言錯誤，每句中最多有兩處。每處錯誤僅涉及一個單詞的增加、刪除或修改。

增加：在缺詞處加一個漏字符號(∧)，并在其下面寫出該加的詞。

刪除：把多余的詞用斜線(\)劃掉。

修改：在錯的詞下劃一橫線，并在該詞下面寫出修改后的詞。

注意：1.每處錯誤及其修改均僅限一詞；

2．只允許修改10處，多者(從第11處起)不計分。

Dear Liu Jun,

How are you? I have studied in Detroit for almost one year, when the teachers and students are very friend with me. With their help, I’ve made a great progress in my studies. The climate isn’t what I expect. I have never gone through such a cold winter. However, I have gradually adapted me to it. Detroit, whose industry is famous, belongs to the developed world. All kind of lights on at night, Detroit is extreme beautiful. The people there live at a fast pace. They are always on the go, so they have less time chat with each other.

How is everything with you? I’d like to hear about you soon.

Yours,

Li Hua

最近某高中擬開展以“校園拒絕零食”為主題的活動。假如你是該校學(xué)生會主席，請你以學(xué)生會的名義，參考下面的內(nèi)容提示，給全校學(xué)生寫一封倡議書。

內(nèi)容提示： 1．描述吃零食的現(xiàn)象；

2．闡述吃零食的影響；

3．提出合理化的建議。

注意： 1．詞數(shù)80-100，開頭已為你寫好(不計入總詞數(shù))。

2．參考詞匯：snacks零食；phenomenon現(xiàn)象。

Dear fellow students,

There is a serious phenomenon in our school.

_______________________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________________

Dear Alfred,

I want to tell you how important your help is to my life.

Growing up, I had people telling me I was too slow, though, with an IQ of 150+ at 17, I’m anything but stupid. The fact was that I was found to have ADHD. Anxious all the time, I was unable to keep focused for more than an hour at a time.

However, when something did interest me, I could become absorbed. In high school, I became curious about the computer, and built my first website. Moreover, I completed the senior course of Computer Basics, plus five relevant pre-college courses.

While I was exploring my curiosity, my disease got worse. I wanted to go to college after high school, but couldn’t. So, I was killing my time at home until June 2012 when I discovered the online computer courses of your training center.

Since then, I have taken courses like Data Science and Advanced Mathematics. Currently, I’m learning your Probability course. I have hundreds of printer paper, covered in self-written notes from your videos. This has given me a purpose.

Last year, I spent all my time looking for a job where, without dealing with the public, I could work alone, but still have a team to talk to. Luckily, I discovered the job—Data Analyst—this month and have been going full steam ahead. I want to prove that I can teach myself a respectful profession, without going to college, and be just as good as, if not better than, my competitors.

Thank you. You’ve given me hope that I can follow my heart. For the first time, I feel good about myself because I’m doing something, not because someone told me I was doing good. I feel whole.

This is why you’re saving my life.

Yours,

Tanis

1.Why didn’t Tanis go to college after high school?

A. She had learned enough about computer science.

B. She had more difficulty keeping focused.

C. She preferred taking online courses.

D. She was too slow to learn.

2.As for the working environment, Tanis prefers ________.

A. working by herselfB. dealing with the public

C. competing against othersD. staying with ADHD students

3.Tanis wrote this letter in order to ________.

A. explain why she was interested in the computer

B. share the ideas she had for her profession

C. show how grateful she was to the center

D. describe the courses she had taken so far

The Process of Ageing

At the age of twelve years, the human body is at its most vigorous. It has yet to reach its full size and strength, and its owner his or her full intelligence; but at this age the possibility of death is least. Earlier, we were infants and young children, and consequently more vulnerable (易受傷的); later, we shall undergo a progressive loss of our vigorous and resistance which, though vague at first, will finally become so steep that we can live no longer, however well we look after ourselves, and however well society, and our doctors, look after us.

This decline in vigorous with the passing of time is called ageing. It is one of the most unpleasant discoveries which we all make that we must decline in this way, that if we escape wars, accidents and disease we shall eventually “die of old age”, and that this happens at a rate which differs little from person to person, so that there are heavy odds in favor of our dying between the ages of sixty-five and eighty. Some of us will die sooner, a few will live longer — on into a ninth or tenth decade. But the chances are against it, and there is a virtual limit on how long we can hope to remain alive, however lucky and physically strong we are.

Normal people tend to forget this process unless and until they are reminded of it. We are so familiar with the fact that man ages, that people have for years assumed that the process of losing vigorous with time, of becoming more likely to die the older we get, was something self-evident, like the cooling of a hot kettle or the wearing-out of a pair of shoes. They have also assumed that all animals, and probably other organisms such as trees, or even the universe itself, must in the nature of things “wear out”.

Most animals we commonly observe do in fact age as we do, if given the chance to live long enough; and mechanical systems like a wound (上發(fā)條的) watch, or the sun, do in fact ran out of energy in accordance with the second law of thermodynamics (熱力學(xué)). But these are not similar or equivalent to what happens when man ages. A run-down watch is still a watch and can be rewound. An old watch, by contrast, becomes so worn and unreliable that it eventually is not worth mending. But a watch could never repair itself — it does not consist of living parts, only of metal, which wears away by friction (摩擦). We could, at one time, repair ourselves — well enough, at least, to overcome all but the most instantly fatal illnesses and accidents. Between twelve and eighty years we gradually lose this power, an illness which at twelve would knock us over, at eighty can knock us out, and into our grave. If we could stay as vigorous as we are at twelve, it would take about 700 years for half of us to die, and another 700 for the survivors to be reduced by half again.

1.What can be learned from this passage is that ______.

A. people usually are unhappy when they are reminded of ageing

B. children reach their full intelligence at the age of twelve years

C. people are usually more likely to die at the age of twelve years

D. our first twelve years represent the peak of human development

2.The underlined word “it” in the last sentence of Paragraph Two refers to ______.

A. remaining alive until 65

B. dying before 65 or after 80

C. remaining alive after 80

D. dying between 65 and 80

3.What does “ageing” mean according to the passage?

A. It is a fact that people cannot live any longer.

B. It refers to a gradual loss of vigor and resistance.

C. It is usually a phenomenon of dying at an old age.

D. It is a period when people are easily attacked by illness.

4.What do the examples of the watch refer to in the last paragraph?

A. Normally people are quite familiar with the ageing process.

B. The law of thermodynamics functions in the ageing process.

C. All animals and other organisms undergo the ageing process.

D. Human's ageing process is different from that of mechanisms.

Not all bodies of water are so evidently alive as the Atlantic Ocean, an S-shaped body of water covering 33 million square miles. The Atlantic has, in a sense, replaced the Mediterranean as the inland sea of Western civilization. Unlike real inland seas, which seem strangely still, the Atlantic is rich in oceanic liveliness. It is perhaps not surprising that its vitality has been much written about by ancient poets.

“Storm at Sea”, a short poem written around 700, is generally regarded as one of mankind’s earliest artistic representations of the Atlantic.

When the wind is from the west

All the waves that cannot rest

To the east must thunder on

Where the bright tree of the sun

Is rooted in the ocean’s breast.

As the poem suggests, the Atlantic is never dead and dull. It is an ocean that moves, impressively and endlessly. It makes all kinds of noise—it is forever thundering, boiling, crashing, and whistling.

It is easy to imagine the Atlantic trying to draw breath—perhaps not so noticeably out in mid–ocean, but where it meets land, its waters bathing up and down a sandy beach. It mimics(模仿) nearly perfectly the steady breathing of a living creature. It is filled with symbiotic existences, too; unimaginable quantities of creatures, little and large alike, mix within its depths in a kind of oceanic harmony, giving to the waters a feeling of heartbeat, a kind of sub-ocean vitality. And it has a psychology. It has personalities: sometimes peaceful and pleasant, on rare occasions rough and wild; always it is strong and striking.

1.Unlike real inland seas, the Atlantic Ocean is ________.

A. always energetic

B. lacking in liveliness

C. shaped like a square

D. favored by ancient poets

2.What is the purpose of using the poem “Storm at Sea” in the passage?

A. To describe the movement of the waves.

B. To show the strength of the storm.

C. To represent the power of the ocean.

D. To prove the vastness of the sea.

3.What does the underlined word “symbiotic” mean?

A. Living together.B. Growing fast.

C. Moving harmoniously.D. Breathing peacefully.

4.In the last paragraph, the Atlantic is compared to ________.

A. a beautiful and poetic place

B. a flesh and blood person

C. a wonderful world

D. a lovely animal