Has anyone noticed how, with the passage of time, one’s relationship with one’s grown-up daughters and sons becomes changed? I’ve been aware of this for some time but I’m not quite sure how to deal with it.

Take the kitchen sink for example.

Following a family get-together at my place, I walked into the kitchen to find Kate, my daughter carefully cleaning the sink.

“Don’t do that; what are you doing that for?” I said, unhappy about the hidden criticism.

“Mum,” she said, “you really ought to put your glasses on when you clean the sink. Behind the tap here was black!”

But it’s not just things like kitchen sinks. Another time Kate arrived to pick me up to lunch. She looked at me and then asked, “Mum, why do you use brown eyebrow pencil when your hair is grey?”

A sudden memory of her, aged 14, going to her first mixed party flooded back. She had come in to say goodbye. For a moment I thought she’d been an accident. Both eyes were black. I remember suggesting that perhaps a little less eye make-up might be more effective.

Now I told her, “My hair used to be brown.”

“It looks absurd.”

“Mrs. Menzies had dark eyebrows with grey hair.”

“Yes, but you’re not Mrs. Menzies, are you?” she said triumphantly, as if that proved her point.

But a recent event made me realize that something really must be done.

She had returned some for a few weeks before getting married. One evening I went out on a dinner date. By the time my companion left me at the front door, it was about 2am. As I stepped in, an angry figure in a white nightgown stopped me.

“Well, what time of night is this to be coming home?” she shouted. “Where have you been? I’ve been worried sick!”

Shades of the past come back to disturb me. But what should I do about all this? Nothing, probably. Maybe, after all, it’s only a stage young people are going through.

The daughter thought her mother didn’t clean the kitchen sink well because of her        .

       A．laziness    B．carelessness      C．unhappiness     D．poor-quality glasses

From the passage we know the daughter         .

       A．didn’t want to help with the sink

       B．didn’t like brown eyebrow pencils

       C．had an accident when she went to her first party

       D．shouted at her mum because she came home late

How does the mother feel after all these have happened?

       A．Shocked.  B．Proud.      C．Envious.   D．Confused.

The author writes the stories to prove that         .

      A．their relationship became stronger 

       B．their roles changed as time passed

       C．her daughter very much cared about her

       D．her daughter got upset as she grew up

A Notice of Delnor Hospital (the “Hospital”)

We understand that medical information about you and your health is personal. We are committed to protecting your medical information. We create a record of the care and services you receive at the Hospital. We need this record to provide you with quality care and to comply （遵从）with certain legal requirements.

This notice explains the ways in which we may use and disclose medical information about you. We also describe your rights and certain obligation we have regarding the use and disclosure of medical information.

HOW WE MAY USE AND DISCLOSE MEDICAL INFORMATION ABOUT YOU

The following categories describe different ways that we use and disclose your medical information. Not every use or disclosure in every category is listed. However, all of the ways we are permitted to use and disclose information will fall within one of the categories.

For Treatment. We may use your medical information to provide you with medical treatment or services. We may disclose your medical information to doctors, nurses and technicians. In addition, the doctor may need to tell the dietician if you have diabetes so that we may arrange appropriate meals. Different departments within the Hospital also may share your medical information. 

For Payment. We may use and disclose your medical information so that the treatment and services you receive at the Hospital may be billed and payment may be collected from you, an insurance company or a third party. We also may tell your health plan about a treatment you are going to receive to obtain prior approval or to determine whether your plan will cover the treatment.

For Health Care Operations. We may use and disclose your medical information for the Hospital operations purposes. These uses and disclosures are necessary to run the Hospital and to make sure that all of our patients receive quality care. We also may combine your medical information with those of many Hospital patients to determine whether additional services should be offered, what services are no longer needed and whether certain new treatments are effective.

From the notice, we can learn _______may read your medical information.

A. doctors         B. nurses         C. dietician       D. all above

Besides abiding by certain legal requirement, the record about every patient is created to _______.

A. protect the patient’s medical information

B. comply with all requirements

C. provide patients with quality care

D. use the patient’s medical information

Which of the following isn’t mentioned in the notice?

A. The Hospital creates a record of the care and services.

B. The patient will be told how soon he can recover after an operation

C. The patient can be told his health plan about a treatment

D. The Hospital can arrange appropriate meals for patients.

What can be inferred from the notice?

A. Patients couldn’t be informed of his medical information

B. All persons in the Hospital know patients’ information

C. Patients in the Hospital could receive proper care and treatment

D. The Hospital could never combine your medical information with those of many Hospital patients.

Many people will remember the flight of the space shuttle （航天飞机）Challenger , in June, 1993．The achievement of Sally Ride, America’s first woman astronaut to fly into space, made this flight especially memorable．Students from two high schools in Camden, New Jersey, however, are likely to remember Norma rather than Sally whenever they think about the flight．

       Norma didn’t travel alone．She brought about 100 companions along with her．Norma was an ant, a queen ant who, with her subjects, made up the first ant colony （群体） to travel into space．The ants were part of a science experiment designed by the students to test the effects of weightlessness on insects．

       The equipment designed by the students for their colony functioned perfectly throughout the long space trip．The young scientists and their teachers were very sad to find that their insect astronauts had all died at some point before the container was returned to the school and opened．The problem did not occur in space, but on the ground after Challenger had landed．The container remained in the desert for nearly a week before the ant colony was removed．The hot, dry desert air dried out the colony’s container and the ants died from lack of moisture （水分）．

       The project was termed a success because it did provide useful information．Students will continue their efforts to find out exactly what went wrong．They will try to prevent the same difficulties from recurring （再发生） on future missions ．They don’t want to be discouraged either by the death of the ants or by the $10,000 shuttle fare they will have to pay to send the next colony of ants into space．

The story is mainly about        ．

       A．Sally Ride’s first ride    

       B．space equipment for insects

       C．a space experiment with ants

       D．going to school in New Jersey

The project wasn’t a failure because        ．

       A．some important things were learned     

       B．dead ants are better

       C．everything went as expected  

       D．students wrote about it

The ants died because        ．

       A．weightlessness harmed them  

       B．space caused too much pain   

       C．no one fed them in space      

       D．they dried out in the desert

On the next space trip , ants        ．

       A．will be sent without people   

       B．should not be left in the desert too long

       C．will have to pay double fare  

       D．will escape the trip completely

BUKHANNON, West Virginia—Two rescue teams slowly moved along a two-mile path on Monday night to the site of a coal mine explosion that trapped 13 miners, who had not been heard from since the early morning accident．

Meanwhile, at a nearby church, more than 250 family members and friends gathered, waiting for updates（最新报道）on the rescuers’ progress．

The miners were trapped at about 6:30 and many families weren’t informed of the accident until about 10 a．m-more than three hours after it happened．“It’s very upsetting, but you’ve got to be patient, I guess,” said John Helms, whose brother, Terry, was trapped in the mine．

The trapped miners were about 260 feet underground and about 10,000 feet from the Sago Mine’s entrance, said Roger Nicholson, general counsel from International Coal Group．

At a late night news conference, Nicholson said one team had advanced about 4, 800 feet in the four hours since entering the mine just before 6 p．m．Another team entered the mine about 30 minutes later．

He said the crew was very experienced, with some members having worked underground for 30 to 35 years．The miners were equipped with about one hour of breathable oxygen each．The company has not released the names of the miners．

The teams test the air about every 500 feet, and have to disconnect （remove） the power to the phones they use to communicate with the surface before doing that．“ We don’t want to be energizing anything if it’s in an atmosphere with burnable gases,” Kips said．

The cause of the explosion was not immediately known．High levels of carbon monoxide were discovered shortly after the explosion, which delayed rescue efforts, but those levels have since subsided（减退）, authorities said．

According to the passage, we can infer that ________．

       A．all the miners who were trapped underground were still alive

       B．communication with the trapped miners was cut off

       C．the two rescue teams entered the mine at the same time

    D．the rescue started as soon as the accident happened

If the first team advanced at an average speed, they could dig about _______ per hour．

 A．1,000 feet     B．2,400 feet        C．1,200feet        D．4,800feet

Where can the passage be seen?

       A．In a magazine．           B．In a newspaper．        

       C．In a science book．．      D．On an advertisement．

Which of the following shows the position where the miners were trapped?

1  It might understand more than you think． 

    A dog named Rico recognizes the names of about 200 objects，say researchers in Germany．  2  Its word-1earning skills are as good as those of a parrot or chimpanzee．  

  In one experiment，the researehers took all 200 items that Rico is supposed to know and divided them into 20 groups of 10 objects． 3  In the tests，Rico got 37 out of 40 commands right．As the dog couldn’t see anyone to get clues，the seientists believe Rico must understand the meanings of certain words．   

In another experiment，the scientists took one toy that Rico had never seen before and put it in a room with seven toys whose names the dog already knew． 4  .

The correct object was chosen in seven out of 10 tests．suggesting that the dog had worked out the answer by process of removing．A month 1ater，Rico remembered half of the new names，which is even more impressive．

  5  Even if they do，they call’t talk back．Still．it wouldn’t hurt to sweet-talk your dog every now and then．You might just get a big，wet kiss in return!

   A．The owner then told Rico to fetch the object，using a word the dog had never heard before．  

   B．Do dogs more understand us than some friends?

   C．It’s hard to know if all dogs understand at least some of the words we say．

   D．Be careful of what you say around your dog．

   E．The dog also appears to be able to learn new words．

   F．Then the owner told the dog to go and fetch one of the items．

   G．Rico is thought to be smarter than the average dog．