"It hurts me more than you", and "This is for your own good" --these are the statements my mother used to make years ago when I had to learn Latin, clean my room, stay home and do homework. That was before we entered the permissive period in education in which we decided it was all right not to push our children to achieve their best in school. The schools and the educators made it easy for us. They taught that it was all right to be parents who take a let-alone policy. We stopped making our children do homework. We gave them calculators, turned on the television, left the teaching to the teachers and went on vacation. Now teachers, faced with children who have been developing at their own pace for the past 15 years, are realizing we've made a terrible mistake. One such teacher is Sharon Clomps who says of her students--"so passive" --and wonders what has happened. Nothing is demanded of them, she believes. Television, says Clomps, contributes to children's passivity. "We're talking about a generation of kids who' vet never been hurt or hungry. They have learned somebody will always do it for them, instead of saying 'go and look it up', you tell them the answer. It takes greater energy to say no to a kid." Yes, it does. It takes energy and it takes work. It's time for parents to end their vacation and come back to work. It' s time to take the car away, to turn the TV off, to tell them it hurts you more than them but it' s for their own good. It's s time to start telling them no again. We learn from the passage that the author's mother used to lay emphasis on _ . A) learning Latin B) discipline C) natural development D) education at school
B
She was returning from teaching out in a small community . It was a moonless night, and a heavy snow was falling. She remembered back to when she had first started teaching out in small communities. In those days she had always picked up hitchhikers , until the day her sister told her of a friend who had been shot in the head by a hitchhiker, all because she had stopped out of kindness to help him during a storm. Her family didn't become concerned about her safety over the hitchhikers until the family heard the promise: "No more hitchhikers!" The snow that night was making her think back to this. Then she saw a man waving. She slowed down for him, but now as he ran toward the car in the dark she shook with fear. Yet she thought that if he was truly in need she couldn't leave him here in this storm. The stranger explained that his car was dead, and she told him to get in. They drove for an hour into the next city and she took him to a telephone booth . She waited until he had made a call. When he reported back to her that a family member would soon come for him, she wished him well and left. _ "I hope they'll understand why I had to break my promise," she thought. What made her family worried about her safety? A) She had been hurt by a hitchhiker. B) Her sister's friend was killed by a hitchhiker. C) There were often snowstorms on her way home. D) Her car often broke down on her way home.
B
Q: A simple piece of clothesline hangs between some environmentally friendly Americans and their neighbors. On one side stand those who see clothes dryers as a waste of energy and a major polluter of the environment.As a result, they are turning to clotheslines as part of the "what-I-can-do environmentalism." On the other side are people who are against drying clothes outside, arguing that clotheslines are unpleasant to look at.They have persuaded Homeowners Associations (HOAs) access the U.S.to ban outdoor clotheslines, because clothesline drying also tends to lower home value in the neighborhood. This has led to a Right-to-Dry Movement that is calling for laws to be passed to protect people's right to use clotheslines.So far, only three states have laws to protect clothesline.Right-to-Dry supporters argue that there should be more. Matt Reck, 37, is the kind of eco-conscious person who feeds his trees with bathwater and reuses water drops from his air conditioners to water plants.His family also uses a clothesline.But on July 9, 2007, the HOA in Wake Forest, North Carolina, told him that a dissatisfied neighbor had telephoned them about his clothesline.The Recks paid no attention to the warning and still dried their clothes on a line in the yard."Many people say they are environmentally friendly but they don't take matters into their own hands," says Reck.The local HOA has decided not to take any action, unless more neighbors come to them. North Carolina lawmakers are saying that banning clotheslines is not the right thing to do.But HOAs and housing businesses believe that clothesline drying reminds people of poor neighborhoods.They worry that if buyers think their future neighbors can't even afford dryers, housing prices will fall. Environmentalists say such worries are not necessary, and in view of global warming, that idea needs to change.As they say, "The clothesline is beautiful.Hanging clothes outside should be encouraged.We all have to do at least something to slow down the process of global warming." One of the reasons why supporters of clothes dryers are trying to ban clothesline drying is that _ . A) clothes dryers are more efficient B) clothesline drying reduces home value C) clothes dryers are energy-saving D) clothesline drying is not allowed in most U.S.states
A: B
(Q).
Stubbornness(,) can push a business to hold on but can also kill your business if it keeps stopping you. Because I'm stubborn. I chased my dream of creating a pet-food company that sells what it claims to sell and not some unidentifiable substance in a dressed-up bag. Originally we packed our foods in transparent bags, which became our guiding philosophy. To start the company in 2003, I visited every pet-food store in Manhattan and some outside the city. By 2006 Stella&Chewy's was sold in 250 stores, mostly in New York City. In 2007 I moved the company to Wisconsin, with our earnings reaching almost $500,000 that year.But getting my product into stores was just the beginning. We were competing against much bigger pet-food companies whose monthly marketing budgets were more than our yearly sales. So we invested in advertisements and a website and even stood on sidewalks giving our samples. With more customers came more feedback , much of which I ignored, I was also receiving complaints about ice crystals on the food, which form when the air temperature changes during transport. For this reason, most frozen foods are packaged in opaque bags or boxes. Studies have proved that ice crystals have little effect on either the quality or the taste of the food. So I ignored the complaints. After all, we were better than our competitors that wouldn't even show their products. We didn't hide anything. In 2007 our sales kept growing, but not as fast as those of our competitors. We were told that new consumers were choosing products packaged in opaque bags. When I visited the stores and forced myself to consider my products objectively, I had to degree: The ice crystals reduced the look I wanted. The food looked as if a snowstorm had hit the inside of the bag. We switched to opaque bags and tried to make ice crystals smaller. Customers responded: In 2009 Stella$Chewy's was sold in 2,500 stores across the country. According to the passage, ice crystals _ . A) only appear on frozen food B) may make pets feel uncomfortable C) won't form if the foods are transported well D) almost don't affect the quality of pet foods
(A).
D