An allowance is an important tool for teaching kids how to make plans for the use of money, save and make their own decisions. Children remember and learn from mistakes when their own dollars are lost or spent foolishly. How large an allowance is suitable? Experts say there is not right amount. Actual amounts differ from region to region, and from family to family. To set an suitable allowance for your child, work up a weekly plan. Allow for entertainment costs such as movies and snacks. Next, include everyday expenses such as lunch money, bus fare, school supplies. "If you make the child responsible for these bills'," says Josephine Swanson, a consumer specialist, " he or she will learn to plan for necessary costs." Finally, add some extra money to make saving possible. If you can keep your child's allowance in line with that of his friends. A child whose buying power falls away below his peers' can feel left out. It can be tough, but don't excuse your children when they make a mistake with their allowance. When Brooke Stephens was ten and growing up in Jacksonville, her mother gave her $5 a week, $1.75 of which was for bus fare and lunch." If you lose your money," Brooke's mother told her, "you walk home." One week the girl spent all her allowance in a candy store, then she called home for a ride. " Mom made me walk home," recalls Stephens, now a financial planner in Brooklyn. " At first I was angry. But I finally realized that she was trying to teach me an important lesson. " Experts advise that an allowance should not be tied directly to a child's daily housework at home. Kids should help around the house not because they get paid for it but because they share responsibilities as members of a family. You might, however, pay a child for doing extra jobs at home, which can develop his or her early habits. It can be inferred from the passage that if a child is given an allowance, he or she may _ . A) spend all the money very soon B) fall into the bad habit of wasting money C) feel responsible and careful about money D) lose the money and can not return home
C
Almost two-thirds of children want their parents to spend more time reading to them before bed, and most prefer Mum's storytelling to Dad's, researchers said. They carried out a study that showed younger children aged 3-4 were most hungry for more stories, with over three-quarters saying they wished their parents read to them more often. More than half of all children aged 3-8 said story time was their favourite _ with their parents. "The results of our research confirm the traditional activity of storytelling continues to be a powerful learning and emotional resource in children's lives," said child psychologist Richard Woolfson. Storytelling ranked higher than television or video games among pastimes for kids, and 82 percent said reading a story with their parents helped them sleep better, according the survey of 500 children aged 3-8 in Britain. The best storytellers were mothers who used funny voices to illustrate different characters or made their own special sound effects to keep the story moving, researchers said. When mum and dad are not at hand, celebrities will do: over 30 percent of children said they would like to hear a bedtime story from Harry Potter star Daniel Radcliffe, with teen idols Zac Efron, Miley Cyrus and Emma Watson. "It can be very difficult for parents to find the time to read with their children, but these moments can help build strong relations and play a vital part in their child's development," said Woolfson. Reading a story with their parents helped most kids aged 3-8 _ . A) grow stronger B) become more emotional C) sleep better D) become more powerful
C
Q: At dawn on Friday, May 19, 1780, farmers in New England stopped to wonder at the pink color of the sun. By noon the sky had darkened to midnight blackness, causing Americans, still in the painful struggle of a prolonged war of independence, to light candles and tremble at thoughts of the Last Judgment. As the birds quieted and no storm accompanied the darkness, men and women crowded into churches, where one minister commented that "The people were very attentive." John Greenleaf Whittier later wrote that "Men prayed, and women wept; all ears grew sharp . . ." A recent study of researchers, led by Richard Guyette from the University of Missouri's Tree Ring Laboratory, has shown that vast forest fires in the Algonquin Highlands of southern Ontario and elsewhere in Canada brought this event upon New England. The scientists have discovered "fire scars" on the rings for that year, left when the heat of a wildfire has killed a part of a tree's cambium . Evidence collected also points to a drought that year. An easterly wind and low barometric pressure helped force smoke into the upper atmosphere. "The record fits pretty close," says Guyette. "We had the right fuel, the drought. The conditions were all there." Lacking the ability to communicate quickly over long distances, Americans in 1780 remained in the dark about the event, which had disappeared by the next day. Over the next several months, the papers carried heated debates about what brought the darkness. Some were the voices of angry prediction, such as one Massachusetts farmer who wrote, "Oh! Backsliding New-England, attend now to the things which belong to your peace before they are forever hid from your eyes." Others gave different answers. One stated that a "flaming star" had passed between the earth and the sun. Ash, argued another commentator. The debate, carried on throughout New England, where there were no scientific journals or academies yet, reflected an unfolding culture of scientific enquiry already sweeping the Western world, a revolution... What can we know about the debates after the dark day? A) They focused on causes of the event. B) They swept throughout the Western world. C) They were organized by scientific institutions. D) They improved Americans' ability to communicate.
A: A
(Q).
I sometimes wonder if old Finchley has the right personality to be a research scientist. He keeps asking when he'll be coming back. After all, it was his own fault. Nobody tries out what has just been invented on themselves any more but Finchley. Well, he must have pumped about a thousand cc into himself before I noticed he was clearly becoming smaller. It was funny watching him, because his clothes remained the same in size. They simply piled up around him so that he looked like a small boy in his father's clothes. But he kept getting smaller and smaller. As my colleague Dawson and I watched him, he disappeared! All we could see was Finchley's clothes on the floor. They looked so strange, because the lab coat was on top, shirt and trousers inside and, I suppose, underclothes inside again. It gave me a strange feeling, and I think Dawson was a bit shaken, too. Dawson was sitting on his chair in front of a microscope he'd been using to examine a family of mites . He looked through the scope kind of absently again, and was nearly scared to lose awareness when he found old Finchley waving back from the other end. It seems as if Finchley had taken a free ride on a dust mite and landed on the land of the mite family. Of course, we didn't know till Finchley told us later. But anyhow, as I said, Dawson nearly passed out. He jumped off his chair and pointed at the microscope, too shocked to speak. It can be inferred that Finchley, Dawson and the writer have possible invented _ . A) a machine to make people small B) a new way to study the family of mites C) a new powerful microscope D) some kind of medicine
(A).
D