"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 _ 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 Klompus who says of her students "so passive" and wonders what has happened. Nothing is demanded of them, she believes. Television, says Klompus, contributes to children's passivity. "We're talking about a generation of kids who've 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 time to start telling them no again. What is the main idea of the passage? A) Parents should leave their kids alone B) Kids should have more activities at school. C) It's time to be stricter with our kids. D) Parents should set a good example to their kids.
C
Boys and girls,as we all know,most people,especially young people ,tend to care about their hair much because hair plays a very important role in our appearance.But can you imagine what other uses hair has?Do you have any idea that human hair may become a new solar energy soutce?Before we begin with the new content of our Physics ,let me tell you a new invention first. It's reported that a Nepali teenager has designed a $32 solar panel using human hair. Milan Karki,who is 18 years old and lives in a village in rural Nepal,used human hair to replace silicon ,which is a common but expensive componet of solar panels. By using hair as a replacement,Karki says that solar panels can be produced for around $32,a price that could be halved if they were mass-produced. The solar panel works,because melanin ,which gives hair its colour,is light sensitive and can act as an elecrtical conductor.Kaiki was inspired to think of the idea by a Stephen Hawking book ,which explained how to create elecrtic energy from hair. The device that Karki has invented is capable of producing 9V or 18V of energy--plenty to charge a mobile phone. "Half a kilo of hair can be bought for only 16p in Nepal and lasts a few months;whereas a pack of batteries would cost50p and lasts few nights,"according to The Daily Mail. The solar panel is claimed to be easy to service as the hair is easy to replace. Karki has now seng out several devices to other disrticts near his home for tetimg .He said,"First I wanted to provide elecricity for my home,then my village .Now I am thinking for the whole worle." So next time when you have a haircut,do remember to keep your hair cut down to use for energy.Perhaps you can also provide elecrticity for your home,even your village using your own hair. What's the advantage of using hair as a new solar energy source? A) It is a common but expensive component of solar panels. B) It can create electric energy. C) It can produce energy plenty to charge a mobile phone. D) It is cheap and easy to replace.
D
Q: Today, we send millions of Christmas cards every year. But in fact the Christmas card is a ly modern invention. In the Middle Ages, European wood engravers produced prints with religious themes. But the first real Christmas card, as we understand the term today, was designed in London, England in 1840. It went on sale in 1843. The designer was John Callott Horsley, a well- known British painter and member of the Royal Academy. He designed the card at the suggestion of his friend Sir Henry Cole, who was the first director of the Victoria & Albert Museum. Horsley produced 1,000 cards and offered them for sale at 1s (one shilling) each. They were printed on stiff card and coloured by hand, with the greeting: "A Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to You". The card shows three pictures: in the center, a family party; to one side the hungry receiving food; to the other side the poor being clothed. Puritans immediately _ the card, since it showed people drinking in the family party. But with most people the idea was a great success and the Christmas card quickly became very popular. Christmas cards were not the first greetings cards. Since 1796, with improvements in printing, merchants had been sending cards to their customers offering "best wishes" for the new year. In many countries, Christmas cards gradually became even more popular than New Year's cards. As Christmas is the birthday of Jesus Christ, cards often show scenes of His nativity. Others show images connected with Christmas such as wintry scenes of snow-laden pine, Father Christmas card is "Merry Christmas", but many other greetings are also used, such as "Happy Xmas" or "Happy Noel". The text is written to introduce to us _ . A) Father Christmas and John Horsley B) the greeting cards C) the Christmas cards D) the New Year's cards
A: C
(Question)
Michele Langlois is a young Canadian who works for the police as a handwriting expert. She has helped catch many criminals by using her special skill. When she was only fourteen, Michel was already so interested in the differences in her school friends' handwriting that she would spend hours studying them. After finishing college she went to prefix = st1 /Francefor a special two-year class to learn how to analyze handwriting at theSchoolofPolice Science. On her return, she began her work for theQuebecpolice. Michele says that it is impossible for people to disguise their handwriting. She can discover most of what she needs to know simply by looking at the writing with her own eyes, but she also has machines that help her analyze different kinds of paper and ink. This knowledge is often of help to the police. Michele also believes that handwriting is a good sign of the kind of person the writer is. "I wouldn't go out with a fellow if I didn't like his handwriting," she says. But she adds that she fell in love with her future husband, William Smith before she studied his handwriting. _ later proved to be all right, however. Besides helping the police Michele uses her skill to _ . A) teach her friends B) look for a husband C) decide if a person will do something wrong D) told what kind of person the writer is from his handwriting
(Answer)
D