When Nick Pasqua hits his bedroom after school, he's tired. The 14-year-old high school freshman from New Rochele, New York, plays computer video games online for a couple of hours, pausing only to instant-message his friends, check his blog or download a new song to his IPOD. When his cell phone vibrates , he scans the text message and fires back a reply. "We're leagues behind," sighs Nick's mom, Kimberly Pasqua, 45. And many parents like her are feeling increasingly out of step with their children. The technology gap between parents and kids is widening, says Amenda Lenhart, senior research specialist for Internet & American Life Project, a research group that explores the impact of the Internet on children and families. In a series of reports released last year, researchers found that 87 percent of the prefix = st1 /United States' kids aged 12 to 17 use the Internet, compared to only 66 percent of adults. Half of those teens go online daily. Eighty-one percent play games online and 75 percent use instant-messaging. Nearly half(45 percent) have a cell phone. One out of five has a blog. Why are children increasing past their parents? Because today's kids learn to use computers by playing and think technology is fun, says Lenhart. But adults generally view computers as mere tools for work , not toys. Despite this difference, most parents realize that computers, cell phones and the like are fixtures in their children's lives. With that acceptance comes worry about what makes appropriate usage and more important, what's safe. Experts say the best way to keep up is to learn the technology for yourself. Visit blogs. Send some instant and text messages. Download music. "This stuff may never be as necessary to your life as it is to your kids," says Susannah Stern, assistant professor in the Communications Department at UniversityofSan Diego, "but you won't get their respect about online issues if you don't know what they're talking about." Children can be great teachers, so let them show you the ropes. "It's... According to Susannah Stern, parents should _ . A) learn computer knowledge from their children B) stop their children going online C) let their children be D) be tied by their children with ropes
A
Tokyo, the capital of Japan, is one of the largest cities in the world. It is also one of the world's most modern cities. Twice last century, the city was destroyed and rebuilt. In 1923 a major earthquake struck the city. Thousands of people were killed and millions were left homeless as buildings collapsed and fires broke out throughout Tokyo. It took seven years to rebuild the city. During World War II, Tokyo was destroyed once again. As a result of these disasters, there is nothing of old Tokyo remaining in the downtown area. After the war, the people of Tokyo began to rebuild their city. Buildings went up at a fantastic rate, and between1945 and 1960, the city's population more than doubled. Because of the Olympic Games held in Tokyo in 1964, many new stadiums, parks and hotels were built to treat visitors from all over the world. As a result of this rapid development, however, many problems have risen. Housing shortage, pollution, and waste disposal have presented serious challenges to the city, but the government has begun several programs to answer them. Which of the following problems is NOT mentioned in the passage? A) Housing shortage. B) Waste disposal. C) Heavy traffic. D) Pollution.
C
Q: Way back in 1662,John Evelyn,a brilliant Englishman known for his detailed diaries,wrote About disastrous effects of coal-burning on the city of London .In it,he described an infernal scene of smog.air filled with "Columns and Clouds of Smoke''given out by small industries and residences that burned coal for fuel. I found the description in the 2003 book When Smoke Ran like Water,by epidemiologist and environmental advocator Devra Davis.In it,Davis looks back at several historic pollution events and their disastrous effect on human human health-and at how these phenomena were often Ignored or even actively covered up by then people in charge at that time. As Davis points out,John Evelyn was ahead of his time when writing about how London's polluted air affected the well-being of its residents.It wasn't until nearly 300 years later,after what became well-known as the Great Smog of 1952,that the government began to address the problem in a systematic way. For four days.Between December 5th"and 9th",due to all accident of the weather pattern,the city was buried in a heavy fog .People were still burning coal for fuel,and low-grade coal at that time, because 0f wartime condition.A temperature inversion trapped the smoke from the city's fires, creating a black cloud in which people could barely find their way down the most familiar streets Some tried to protect themselves,but most people simply went about their business But l952's fog was far worse than any other in memory.In the same week of the previous year, 1852 people had died in London;inl952,that number was 4703 And the deaths didn't stop when the weather changed and the fog lifted.Davis and her colleagues analyzed data from the next several months and found that about 13000 more people died between December and March than one would have predicted from historical averages Many of them died of pneumonia .The government, she writes.Tried to blame a bad flu season.Her detailed analysis found that explanation simply did not pan out. Davis... The passage is written to A) warn people of the danger from air pollution B) introduce London's Great Smog of l952 C) blame the government for the smog D) explain the reasons for air pollution
A: A
Who's in control of your life? Who's pulling your strings ? For the majority of us, it's other people--society, colleagues, friends, family or our religious community. We learned this way of operating when we were very young, of course. We were brainwashed. We discovered that feeling important and feeling accepted was a nice experience and so we learned to do everything we could to make other people like us. As Oscar Wilde puts it, "Most people are other people. Their thoughts are someone else's opinions, their lives a mimicry , their passions a quotation." So when people tell us how wonderful we are, it makes us feel good. We long for this good feeling like a drug--we are addicted to it and seek it out wherever we can. Therefore, we are so eager for the approval of others that we live unhappy and limited lives, failing to do the things we really want to. Just as drug addicts and alcoholics live worsened lives to keep getting their fix , we worsen our own existence to get our own constant fix of approval. But, just as with any drug, there is a price to pay. The price of the approval drug is freedom--the freedom to be ourselves. The truth is that we cannot control what other people think. People have their own agenda , and they come with their own baggage and, in the end, they're more interested in themselves than in you. Furthermore, if we try to live by the opinions of others, we will build our life on sinking sand. Everyone has a different way of thinking, and people change their opinions all the time. The person who tries to please everyone will only end up getting exhausted and probably pleasing no one in the process. So how can we take back control? I think there's only one way--make a conscious decision to stop caring what other people think. We should guide ourselves by means of a set of values--not values imposed from the outside by others, but innate values which come from within. If we are driven by these values and not by the changing opinions and value systems of others, we will live a more... It can be concluded from the passage that _ . A) it's better to do what we like B) we shouldn't care what others think C) we shouldn't change our own opinions D) it's important to accept others' opinions
B