Eventually, the changes that will strengthen stepfamilies will likely come from shifts in cultural prejudices. Such change is slow, but there are signs that some movement along this line is beginning to take place. For instance, Roger Coleman, a clergyman in Kansas City, Mo., performs marriage ceremonies specifically designed to include children when a parent remarries. In years of officiating second marriages, he says, he became keenly aware of the confusion and insecurities of the children, and the ceremony — which includes a special medal worn by the child — aims to celebrate the “new family” and move the church beyond mere criticism of divorce. This year, Coleman says, over 10,000 families across the country will use the medal in their remarriage ceremony.
Similar changes are occurring in public schools around the country. One of the difficulties for stepfamilies is that schools and other public institutions have typically not recognized the stepparent as a valid parent; school registration forms, field trip permission slips, health emergency information — none of these required or acknowledged the stepparent. The message, whether intended or not, has been that only biological parents count. It’s a message that the stepparent and stepchild internalize, worsening what’s often an already difficult relationship, and one which the larger community takes as another sign that stepfamilies are not legally recognized in American society. Through the efforts of the Step-family Association of America and other advocates, schools around the country have begun changing their policies to acknowledge the increasingly important role of stepparents.
Change is also evident in a marketplace eager to exploit this wide social trend. In a particularly American sign of the times, the Hallmark greeting card company, is about to launch a line of cards devoted entirely to non- traditional families. The cards never use the word “step”, but most of the “Ties That Bind” line is clearly aimed at people who have come together by remarriage rather than biology — or, as one card puts it, “Thrown together without being asked, no chance of escape.” Some are straightforward (“There are so many different types and ways to be a family today”), while others are more indirect (“It’s like at a puzzle where the pieces aren’t where they used to be”). But all are aimed at the vast and growing market of people who don’t identify with the old definitions of family, and who are finding ways to make their new families work. Who knows — soon there may even be a card Tori La Londe can send to her former husband’s former mother-in-law.
1．The marriage ceremonies performed by Roger Coleman _________.| A．always make children feel confused and insecure |
| B．are more romantic than any other marriage ceremony |
| C．are designed to include some children to create an exciting atmosphere |
| D．are arranged to let children attend their parent’s remarriage ceremonies |
| A．biological parents are irreplaceable in the growth of a child |
| B．stepparents are no substitute for the biological ones |
| C．traditional views on the family structure still persist |
| D．efforts are made to facilitate the present situation |
| A．Businesses can benefit more from new patterns of families |
| B．People begin to be open to different new definitions of family |
| C．Sending cards is a good way to tie the bond of the family |
| D．Ex-husband’s ex-mother-in-law plays an important role in the family |
| A．The increasingly important role of stepparents. |
| B．The practical ways to strengthen the stepfamilies. |
| C．The difficulties that are facing the stepfamilies. |
| D．People’s gradual recognition towards stepfamilies. |
Biology is making it clearer that a man’s health and well-being have a measurable impact on his future children’s health and happiness. This is not because a strong, responsible man has a greater
Doctors have been telling men for years that smoking, drinking and recreational drugs can lower the
Lately scientists have been obsessed with(着迷于)a means of
In the past decade or so, the study of epigenetics has become so
| A．passion | B．likelihood | C．opportunity | D．value |
| A．lifestyle | B．genetic | C．habitual | D．parental |
| A．long before | B．long after | C．as long as | D．shortly after |
| A．quantity | B．quality | C．value | D．size |
| A．release | B．produce | C．absorb | D．consume |
| A．Moreover | B．On the contrary | C．In other words | D．On the other hand |
| A．vital | B．potential | C．distinct | D．biological |
| A．inheritance | B．growth | C．development | D．breeding |
| A．where | B．why | C．when | D．how |
| A．regulating | B．determining | C．defining | D．testing |
| A．serious | B．popular | C．significant | D．sensitive |
| A．at the most | B．at the least | C．in general | D．to some degree |
| A．intelligence | B．culture | C．environment | D．psychology |
| A．shocks | B．strikes | C．discourages | D．inspires |
| A．experience | B．suffer | C．support | D．comprehend |
Thank you for your listening!
Bella, a very cute squirrel, had a smooth start to life. But when she reached the age of four weeks old, everything changed. On that day, she was playing alone, when a fierce eagle (老鹰) dived from the sky, attacked and badly wounded her.
Because of this deadly hit, Bella had no chance of surviving her wounds in the wild. Luckily, a warm-hearted hunter Ruby Harrison turned up. She gently hugged Bella, being afraid to hurt her and took her home. Ruby not only gave Bella a new home, but also a family with three other adopted squirrels. Amazingly, the four lovely creatures lived and played in harmony quickly. Day by day, thanks to the considerate care of Ruby, all of them grew strong. Of course, Bella also recovered gradually. But Ruby didn’t want to domesticate (驯养) any of them. “They are part of the wild rather than the pets. They belong to a wider home- nature, and they should return to their own world,” Ruby said.
Although unwilling to depart, it was time to say good -bye to each other. In April 2009, with her eyes watery, Ruby saw them disappear into the trees and never expected to see them often. Then initially, the other three squirrels came back for a treat once and stopped coming by, but Bella was different. She seemed to have a strong connection with the Harrisons that kept her visiting almost every day. Thus, they were tightly tied by an invisible bond.
In the past ten years since her release, it was not just Ruby herself who got Bella’s reach. “Bella sits right at the front door to look in for someone’s attention,” Ruby described. “My husband rushes out of the door to be greeted and hopefully runs back inside to a big bowl of nuts for her.”
More amazingly, this spring came with a surprise. Bella came around again, with her extended family, her three babies waiting for someone to notice.
After a while, Ruby opened the door, only to find them.
Hearing the cry, Ruby’s husband came out.
| A．It may snow during their vacation. |
| B．They may not be able to take their vacation. |
| C．They may fail to join the graduation ceremony. |
| A．They are going skiing. |
| B．They have made bookings for their plane. |
| C．Their flight has been cancelled. |
| A．The earthquake. |
| B．The bad winter. |
| C．A terrible flu. |
| A．Talk to Professor Hampton. |
| B．Speak to all of the other people. |
| C．Call the travel agency. |
I’m sorry to hear that
Yours,
Li Hua
| A．that | B．it |
| C．what | D．which |
What may well be the oldest metal coins in the world have been identified at an ancient abandoned city known as Guanzhuang in China. Like many Bronze Age (青铜时代) coins from the region, they were cast in the shape of spades with finely carved handles. These ancient coins existed during an in-between period between barter (以物易物) and money, when coins were a novel concept, but everybody knew that agricultural tools were valuable.
Reading about this incredible discovery, I kept thinking about the way modern people represent computer networks by describing machines as having “addresses”, like a house. We also talk about one computer using a “port” to send information to another computer, as if the data were a floating boat with destination. It’s as if we are in the Bronze Age of information technology, grasping desperately for real-world reference to transform our civilization.
Now consider what happened to spade coins. Over centuries, metalworkers made these coins into more abstract shapes. Some became almost human figures. Others’ handles were reduced to small half-circles. As spade coins grew more abstract, people carved them with number values and the locations where they were made. They became more like modern coins, flat and covered in writing. Looking at one of these later pieces, you would have no idea that they were once intended to look like a spade.
This makes me wonder if we will develop an entirely new set of symbols that allow us to interact with our digital information more smoothly.
Taking spade coins as our guide, we can guess that far-future computer networks will no longer contain any recognizable references to houses. But they still might bring some of the ideas we associate with home to our mind. In fact, computer networks — if they still exist at all — are likely to be almost the indispensable part of our houses and cities, their sensors inset with walls and roads. Our network addresses might actually be the same as our street addresses. If climate change leads to floods, our mobile devices might look more like boats than phones, assisting us to land.
My point is that the metaphors of the information age aren’t random. Mobile devices do offer us comfort after a long day at work. In some sense, our desire to settle on the shores of data lakes could change the way we understand home, as well as how we build computers. So as we cast our minds forward, we have to think about what new abstractions will go along with our information technology. Perhaps the one thing we count on is that humans will still appreciate the comforts of home.
1．Many Bronze Age coins were made into the shape of a spade because ___________.| A．a lot of emphasis was put on agriculture |
| B．this stylish design made the coins valuable |
| C．these coins also served as agricultural tools |
| D．the handles made the coins easily exchanged |
| A．To show they both used to be new concepts when first invented. |
| B．To explain abstract digital worlds are different from concrete coins. |
| C．To suggest computers will experience dramatic changes as coins did. |
| D．To highlight their same importance in our civilizational transformation. |
| A．Flexible. | B．Essential. | C．Wasteful. | D．Alternative. |
| A．What Coins and Computers Bring Us |
| B．How Agriculture Loses to Digital Industry |
| C．How Bronze Age Develops to Information Age |
| D．What Ancient Money Tells Us About the Future |
Up and down the economic ladder, many Americans who work—and especially those raising kids—are pressed for time, wishing they had more of it to devote to leisure activities (or even just sleeping). At the same time, research has indicated that people who are busy tend to be happier than those who are idle, whether their busyness is purposeful or not.
A research paper released late last year investigated this trade-off, attempting to pinpoint (精确指出) how much leisure time is best. Its authors examined the relationship between the amount of “discretionary time” people had—basically, how much time people spend awake and doing what they want—and how pleased they were with their lives.
The paper, which analyzed data covering about 35,000 Americans, found that employed people’s ratings of their satisfaction with life peaked when they had in the neighborhood of two and a half hours of free time a day. For people who didn’t work, the optimal (最佳) amount was four hours and 45 minutes.
The research traced a correlation (关联) between free time and life satisfaction, but didn’t provide any definitive (最后的) insight into what underlies that correlation—“which is exciting, because this is a work in progress,” says Cassie Mogilner Holmes, a professor at UCLA’s Anderson School of Management and a co-author of the paper, which hasn’t yet been peer-reviewed or published in an academic journal.
An experiment that the researchers arranged hinted at (暗示) a possible explanation of the correlation they found. They asked participants to picture and describe what it would be like to have a certain amount of daily free time, and then report how they’d feel about that allotment (分配). “What we find is that having too little time makes people feel stressed, and maybe that’s obvious,” says Holmes. “But interestingly, that effect goes away—the role of stress goes away—once you approach the optimal point.” After that point, Holmes says, the subjects started to say they felt less productive overall, which could explain why having a lot of free time can feel like having too much free time.
It’s not clear what an individual is to do with these findings, since the amount of free time people have usually has something to do with a variety of factors, such as having children or a degree of control over work schedules. Holmes shared her research with the MBA students in her class on happiness, and some of the most time-crunched among them were comforted by the findings: “I think that two and a half hours creates a nice goal that even if you increase a little bit more of your discretionary time use, you can expect that it will translate into greater life satisfaction.”
1．According to the passage, what happens to Americans occupied with their work?| A．They allow themselves more leisure time. |
| B．They keep themselves busy on purpose. |
| C．They know how much leisure time is best. |
| D．They experience higher level of satisfaction. |
| A．Researchers have cast light on the cause of the correlation. |
| B．Unemployed people need more leisure time to feel content. |
| C．The paper on the correlation has achieved peer recognition. |
| D．Employed people enjoy more leisure time in the neighborhood. |
A． | B． |
C． | D． |
| A．Holmes is optimistic about the influence of her findings |
| B．individuals are encouraged to control their work schedules |
| C．people with tight schedules can’t benefit from the findings |
| D．the MBA students find no free time to obtain life satisfaction |
The excited sound of seventh-grade laughter and voices spilled down the hallway as the students filed into the gym. I weaved my way through the mass of people and sat down next to my best friend, Lauren.
“So, what exactly are we doing here?” she questioned.
“Well, according to Mrs. Marks, we’re supposed to be listening to a speech about bullying and peer pressure.”
As soon as the speaker started talking, I snapped to attention. She had this way about her, as if she knew how to reach into our minds and souls and make us think. I though about the kids who came to school every day, despite knowing that they would have to face cruel comment all day long.
One boy, in particular, came to mind. Every day, this boy came to school late, and I suspected it was because he needed to get medicine from the nurse. But this didn’t stop kids in the class from making fun of him. The boy would put his head down on his desk in shame. The worst, though, was when he tried to fight back. His attackers only laughed and continued the cruelty until the entire room was laughing at his expense.
As I sat in the auditorium, absorbing everything the speaker had to say, thots of this poor boy crept into my head.
“Now, before I leave today, I would like to give everyone here an opportunity to say anything he or she wants to on the subject of bullying or peer pressure. You may apologize to a friend, thank someone for his or her kindness, anything, And this is the one time I can promise that no one, will laugh at you.”
The stillness in the room made me believe her. Slowly, I saw a few hands raise tentatively (犹豫地) in the air behind me, One girl wanted to apologize to a friend she had been ignoring recently. Another thanked a boy for his kindness when she slipped on the steps the other day.
It was then that my moment of courage arrived, inspiring me to act.
Later that day, the boy I had been talking about came up to me privately.
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