Tired of bad handwriting, Richie decided to perfect his penmanship (书法) last January. Though the year progressed, his writing didn’t. “My penmanship just got worse,” he says. “I get tired of trying to write neatly.”
Like Richie, many teenagers make resolutions in the New Year. More than half of Americans say they make a New Year’s resolution – but only one-third of them keep to it, reports the University of North Carolina, US.
Demanding (追求) perfection  stops people working on their resolutions, says Chicago life coach Alison Miller.
Resolutions sometimes can be unrealistic (不现实).. Going for a goal  that’s too hard to achieve can leave a person feeling sad. “Saying ‘I’m going to look like a super-model’ is going to make you unhappy,” she says.
Sure, it’s a great idea to aim for improvement, but not all resolutions are helpful. The difference between good and bad resolutions is whether you expect too much from yourself, Miller says. For example, it’s OK to say, “I’m going to eat fewer French fries,” but striving (力争)  for a perfect body isn’t reasonable.
Timing can also damage a resolution. Kevin M., 16, says he doesn't set resolutions because 12 months is unrealistic. “It’s too long and you start putting off keeping your resolution during summer,” he says.
He’s considering a career in music, but says school is his main focus. Knowing how hard he has to work, he says he’ll “be lucky to get 30 minutes a day” of practice. But a bit is better than nothing, and making reminders can help you make progress. Miller says teenagers should write down their goals and say to themselves, “What can I do today to make my goal a reality?”
“It’s just small steps along the way. It’s not about doing it all at once,” Miller says.
【小题1】What’s the writer’s purpose by talking Richie in the first paragraph?

Tired of bad handwriting, Richie decided to perfect his penmanship (书法) last January. Though the year progressed, his writing didn’t. “My penmanship just got worse,” he says. “I get tired of trying to write neatly.”

Like Richie, many teenagers make resolutions in the New Year. More than half of Americans say they make a New Year’s resolution – but only one-third of them keep to it, reports the University of North Carolina, US.

Demanding (追求) perfection  stops people working on their resolutions, says Chicago life coach Alison Miller.

Resolutions sometimes can be unrealistic (不现实).. Going for a goal  that’s too hard to achieve can leave a person feeling sad. “Saying ‘I’m going to look like a super-model’ is going to make you unhappy,” she says.

Sure, it’s a great idea to aim for improvement, but not all resolutions are helpful. The difference between good and bad resolutions is whether you expect too much from yourself, Miller says. For example, it’s OK to say, “I’m going to eat fewer French fries,” but striving (力争)  for a perfect body isn’t reasonable.

Timing can also damage a resolution. Kevin M., 16, says he doesn't set resolutions because 12 months is unrealistic. “It’s too long and you start putting off keeping your resolution during summer,” he says.

He’s considering a career in music, but says school is his main focus. Knowing how hard he has to work, he says he’ll “be lucky to get 30 minutes a day” of practice. But a bit is better than nothing, and making reminders can help you make progress. Miller says teenagers should write down their goals and say to themselves, “What can I do today to make my goal a reality?”

“It’s just small steps along the way. It’s not about doing it all at once,” Miller says.

1.What’s the writer’s purpose by talking Richie in the first paragraph?

A．To advise people to keep their New Year’s resolutions.

B．To show that some people fail to keep their New Year’s resolutions.

C．To tell readers why Richie isn’t a good hand writer.

D．To show why New Year’s resolutions are important.

2.Many Americans stop working on their New Year’s resolutions because ______.

A．they think it is silly to make resolutions

B．they find keeping resolutions is boring

C．the time of keeping resolutions is too short

D．their choice of resolution turns out to be unrealistic

3.Which of the following statements would Miller probably agree with?

A．Teenagers should set themselves perfect goals.

B．To achieve your goals, you needn’t write them down.

C．People should try to realize their goals step by step.

D．A good resolution helps people realize their possibility.

Maybe you're wondering how we spend our free time in the year 2059, so I, ll tell you what I did last weekend.

On Saturday morning, I stayed in bed until 11 o’clock, when my mother woke me up. “Wang Mang! Get out of bed, you lazy little pig!” she said. “You can’t lie in bed all day, and you’ve got homework to do, haven’t you?” Were mothers so annoying fifty years ago?

Anyway, I got out of bed and asked the robot to make me a quick brunch—hamburger and French fries. But the robot said, “Sorry, Mang. Your mother says I can only give you hamburgers 3 times a week, and you had 2 hamburgers yesterday. Fast food is not healthy. I suggest you have some of the dumplings I made yesterday. Or perhaps some fruit salad” You see, my mother has programmed the robot to stop it giving me the things 1 really want to eat. I feel like a prisoner (囚犯）！

After finishing my brunch, I got out my homework pad. The pad looks like a piece of paper, but it’s actually a computer. We don’t use paper much any more. Paper books are really expensive, so we usually buy cheap computer books.

I had to do my math homework on Saturday. We never need to use math in our daily lives—computers solve all the math problems for us. But our math teacher says that if people stop studying math, they’ll forget how to think and become like vegetables. Well, I want to be a vegetable. I hate math!

56. The underlined word “brunch” in the third paragraph means           .

A. breakfast and lunch    B. breakfast with milk

C. lunch with coffee      D. lunch and dinner

57. Wang Mang says he feels “like a prisoner” because          .

A. he is completely controlled by the robot           B. he has to get out of bed too early

C. he doesn’t know how to use the robot             D. he isn’t allowed to eat what he likes

58. One difference between the year 2059 and today is that          .

A. computer books are cheaper than paper books

B. children aren’t allowed to eat fast food

C. students have to do homework at the weekend

D. there is no paper in the year 2059

59. Wang Mang thinks that studying math is          .

A. interesting                 B. useless                      C. too hard                 D. too easy

60. Which can be the best title for the article?

A. A Day in the Future                                       B. A Modern Robot at Home

C. Paper Books V.S. Computers                          D. Math or Vegetables