A. Set a Good Example for Your Kids

B. Build Your Kids’ Work Skills

C. Place Time Limits on Leisure Activities

D. Talk about the Future on a Regular Basis

E. Help Kids Develop Strategies of dealing with different things

F. Help Your Kids Figure Out Who They Are

G. Build Your Kids’ Sense of Responsibility

How Can a Parent Help?

Mothers and fathers can do a lot to ensure a safe landing in early adulthood for their kids. Even if a job’s starting salary seems too small to satisfy an emerging adult’s need for rapid content, the transition from school to work can be less of a setback if the start-up adult is ready for the move. Here are a few measures, drawn from my book Ready or Not, Here Life Comes, which parents can take to prevent what I call “work-life unreadiness.”

1._________You can start this process when they are 11 or 12. Regularly review their emerging strengths and weaknesses with them and work together on any shortcomings, like difficulty in communicating well or cooperating. Also, identify the kinds of interests they keep coming back to, as these offer clues to the careers that will fit them best.

2.________Kids need a range of real role models. Have regular dinner-table discussions about people the family knows and how they got where they are. Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of your own career and encourage your kids to form some ideas about their own future. When asked what they want to do, they should be discouraged from saying “I have no idea.” They can change their minds 200 times, but having only a foggy view of the future is of little good.

3._______Teachers are responsible for teaching kids how to learn; parents should be responsible for teaching them how to work. Assign responsibilities around the house and make sure homework deadlines are met. Encourage teenagers to take a part-time job. Kids need plenty of practice developing effective organizational skills, such as managing time and setting priorities(优先).

4._________Playing video games encourages immediate content（满足）. And hours of watching TV shows with canned laughter only teaches kids to process information in a passive way. At the same time, listening through earphones to the songs for a long time encourages kids to stay inside instead of participating in other outdoor activities. All these activities can prevent the growth of children’s communication and thinking skills and make it difficult for kids to develop the kind of sustained (持续的) concentration they will need for most jobs.

5._________They should know how to deal with setbacks, stresses and feelings of inadequacy. They should also learn how to solve problems and resolve conflicts, ways to brainstorm and think critically. Discussions at home can help kids practice doing these things and help them apply these skills to everyday life situations.

What about the son or daughter who is grown but seems to be struggling and wandering aimlessly through early adulthood? Parents still have a major role to play, but now it is more delicate. Most of all, these new adults must feel that they are respected and supported by a family that appreciates them.

 

III.阅读理解

                                     A

Some experts feel that cars are certain to fall into disuse. They see a day in the not-too-distant future when all cars will be deserted and made useless. Other experts, however, think the car is here to stay. They hold that the car will remain a leading means of city travel in the foreseeable future.

The car will undoubtedly change greatly over the next 30 years. It should become smaller, safer, and more practical, and should not be powered by the gas engine. The car of the future should be far more pollution-free than present types.

Unless changes take place in the power system, the car in the future will still be the main problem in city traffic jams. One suggested solution to this essential problem is the automated（自动的）system, which seems to hold water.

When the car enters the highway system, a small arm will drop from the car and connect with a rail, which is similar to those powering subway trains electrically. Once joined to the rail, the car will become electrically powered from the system, and control of the car will pass to a central computer. The computer will then monitor all of the car’s movements.

The driver will use the telephone to dial instructions about his position and the place he heads for into the system. The computer will find the best way and reserve space for the car all the way to the correct exit from the highway. The driver will be free to relax and wait for the call that will warn him of his coming exit .It is believed that an automated highway will be able to deal with 10, 000 cars per hour, compared with the 1,500 to 2,000 cars that can be carried by a present –day highway.

36．What is the main concern of the author of the passage?

       A．How to make cars pollution-free.

       B．How to make cars smaller and safer.

       C．How to solve the problem of traffic jam.

       D．How to develop an automated subway system.

37．We can infer from this passage that         .

       A．the car connected to the rail on the highway will be powered by electricity

       B．the lack of oil is forcing people to find new means to power automobiles

       C．the driver under the system will be told where to get out of the highway

       D．The future car will become larger, faster, prettier and less expensive

38．What provides cars with electric power in an automated highway system?

       A．An engine.              B．A rail.     

       C．A computer controller.    D．A small arm.

39．Which of the following statements is true according to the passage?

       A．The driver puts his information in the system by e—mail.

       B．The new system can deal with 10 times as many cars as the present one.

          C．After entering the automated system, the driver needs to do nothing but relax himself.

          D．Some experts are not confident of the future, while the author is in favor of the opposite

view.

As motorways become more and more blocked up with traffic, a new generation on flying cars will be needed to ferry people along skyways. That is the conclusion of engineers from the US space agency and aeronautical firms, who envision future commuters traveling by “skycar”.

These could look much like the concept skycar shown in the picture, designed by Boeing research and development. However, such vehicles could be some 25 years from appearing on the market. Efforts to build flying vehicles in the past have not been very successful. Such vehicles would not only be expensive and require the skills of a trained pilot to fly, but there are significant engineering challenges involved in developing them. “When you try to combine them you get the worst of both worlds: a very heavy, slow, expensive vehicle that’s hard to use,” said Mark Moore, head of the personal air vehicle(PAV) division of the vehicle systems program at Nasa’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, US. But Boeing is also considering how to police the airways-and prevent total pandemonium(吵杂狂乱的喧闹)-if thousands of flying cars enter the skies.

“The neat, gee-whiz part is thinking about what the vehicle itself would look like,” said Dick Paul, a vice president with Phantom Works, Boeing’s research and development arm. “But we’re trying to think through all the consequences of what it would take to deploy(散开) a fleet of these.”

Past proposals to solve this problem have included artificial intelligence systems to prevent collisions between air traffic. Nasa is working on flying vehicles with the initial goal of transforming small plane travel. Small planes are generally costly, loud, and require months of training and lots of money to operate, making flying to work impractical for most people. But within five years, Nasa researchers hope to develop technology for a small plane that can fly out of regional airports, costs less than $100,000(£55,725), is as quiet as a motorcycle and as simple to operate as a car.

Although it would not have any road-driving capabilities, it would bring this form of travel within the grasp of a wider section of people. The new technology would automate many of the pilot’s functions. This Small Aircraft Transportation System(Sats) would divert pressure away from the “hub-and-spoke(中心辐射型)” model of air travel. Hub-and-spoke refers to the typically US model of passengers being processed through large “hub” airports and then on to secondary flights to “spoke” airports near their final destinations.

1.The best title for this text would be      .

A．Developing Skycars	B．The Traffic Jams in the Sky
C．How to Guide Flying Cars in the Sky	D．What Flying Cars Will Look Like

2. The underlined word “envision” in Paragraph 1 most probably means “    ”.

A．see

B．expect

C．think

D．announce

3.When engineers develop the skycars, they have to deal with the following difficulties except      .

A．how to fly out of regional airports

B．how to prevent the disorder of the airways

C．how to reduce expenses and the vehicle’s weight

D．how to fly the skycars to enter skies

4. Now Nasa researchers’ aim is to      .

A．make big flying cars

B．work out the plan——how to transform small plane travel

C．develop a new kind of small plane different from the traditional one

D．build a new kind of small plane with road-driving abilities

 

Some experts feel that cars are certain to fall into disuse. They see a day in the not-too-distant future when all cars will be deserted and made useless. Other experts, however, think the car is here to stay. They hold that the car will remain a leading means of city travel in the foreseeable future. The car will undoubtedly change greatly over the next 30 years. It should become smaller, safer, and more practical, and should not be powered by the gas engine. The car of the future should be far more pollution-free than present types. Unless changes take place in the power system, the car in the future will still be the main problem in city traffic jams. One suggested solution to this essential problem is the automated（自动的）system, which seems to hold water. When the car enters the highway system, a small arm will drop from the car and connect with a rail, which is similar to those powering subway trains electrically. Once joined to the rail, the car will become electrically powered from the system, and control of the car will pass to a central computer. The computer will then monitor all of the car’s movements. The driver will use the telephone to dial instructions about his position and the place he heads for into the system. The computer will find the best way and reserve space for the car all the way to the correct exit from the highway. The driver will be free to relax and wait for the call that will warn him of his coming exit .It is believed that an automated highway will be able to deal with 10, 000 cars per hour, compared with the 1,500 to 2,000 cars that can be carried by a present –day highway. 1．What is the main concern of the author of the passage? 　 A．How to make cars pollution-free. 　 B．How to make cars smaller and safer. 　 C．How to solve the problem of traffic jam. 　 D．How to develop an automated subway system. 2．We can infer from this passage that　　　　 . 　 A．the car connected to the rail on the highway will be powered by electricity 　 B．the lack of oil is forcing people to find new means to power automobiles 　 C．the driver under the system will be told where to get out of the highway 　 D．The future car will become larger, faster, prettier and less expensive 3．What provides cars with electric power in an automated highway system? 　 A．An engine.　　 　 B．A rail. 　 C．A computer controller.　 D．A small arm. 4．Which of the following statements is true according to the passage? 　 A．The driver puts his information in the system by e—mail. 　 B．The new system can deal with 10 times as many cars as the present one. 　 C．After entering the automated system, the driver needs to do nothing but relax himself. D．Some experts are not confident of the future, while the author is in favor of the opposite view.