Everyone looks forward to progress, whether in one’s personal life or in the general society. Progress indicates a person’s ability to change the way he is living at the moment. Progress must lead to a better life and a better way of doing things. All these, however, remain true only in so far as people want to accept technology and move forward by finding new and more efficient ways of doing things.

However, at the back of the minds of many people, especially those who miss the “good old days”, efficiency comes with a price. When communication becomes more efficient, people are able to contact one another no matter where they are and at whatever time they wish .The click of a button allows people miles apart to talk or to see each other without even leaving their homes. With the communication gadets, such as mobile phones and ipads, people often do not take the effort to visit one another personally. A personal visit carries with the additional feature of having to be in the person’s presence for as long as the visit lasts. We cannot unnecessarily excuse our selves or turn the other persons off.

With efficiency also comes mass production. Such is the nature of factories and the success of industrialization today. Factories have improved efficiency. Unskillful tasks are left to machines and products are better made and and produced with greater accuracy than any human hand could ever have done. However, with the improvements in efficiency also comes the loss of the personal touch when making these products. For example, many handcrafts(手工艺品) are now produced in a factory. Although this means that supply is better able to increase demand, now that the supply is quick and efficient, the demand might fall because mass production lowers the quality of the handcraft and it is difficult to find unique designs on each item.

Nevertheless, we must not commit the mistake of analyzing progress only from one point of view. In fact, progress has allowed tradition to keep up. It is only with progress and the invention of new technology that many old products can be brought back to their old state. New technology is required for old products to stay old.

It is people’s attitude towards progress that causes the type of influence that technology has on society. Technology is flexible. There is no fixed way of making use of it. Everything depends on people’s attitude. The worst effects of progress will fall on those who are unable to rethink their attitudes and views of society. When we accept progress and adapt it to suit our needs, a new “past” is created.

21. According to Paragraph 1, progress can benefit people when they are willing to _______.

  A. live a better life            B. look for better methods

  C. change ways of living       D. accept technology and advance steadily

22. The underlined word “gadgets” is closest in meaning to _______.

   A. tools     B. messages       C. barriers       D. skills

23. The author explains “efficiency comes with a price” by _______.

   A. describing a process           B. using examples

   C. following time order           D. making classification

24. What can be concluded from the last paragraph?

   A. Progress can suit the needs of daily life.

   B. People review the past with great regret.

C. Technology should be introduced in a fixed way.

   D. People’s attitude decides the use of technology.

 Parents should stop blaming themselves because there’s not a lot they can do about it. I mean the teenager problem. Whatever you do or however you choose to deal with it, at certain times a wonderful, reasonable and helpful child will turn into a terrible animal.

I’ve seen friends deal with it in all kinds of different ways. One strict mother insisted that her son, right from a child, should stand up whenever anyone entered the room, open doors and shake hands like a gentleman. I saw him last week when I called round. Sprawling himself（懒散地躺) on the sofa in full length, he made no attempt to turn off the loud TV he was watching as I walked in, and his greeting was no more than a quick glance at me. His mother was ashamed. “I don’t know what to do with him these days,” she said, “He’s forgotten all the manners we taught him.”

He hasn’t forgotten them. He’s just decided that he’s not going to use them. She confessed(坦白) that she would like to come up behind him and throw him down from the sofa onto the floor.

Another good friend of mine let her two daughters climb all over the furniture, reach across the table, stare at me and say，“I don’t like your dress; it’s ugly.” One of the daughters has recently been driven out of school. The other has left home.

“Where did we go wrong?” her parents are now very sad. Probably nowhere much. At least no more than the rest of that unfortunate race, parents.

25.This text is most probably written by.

A．a specialist in teenager studies      B. a headmaster of a middle school

C. a parent with teenage children        D. a doctor for mental health problems

26.The boy on the sofa would most probably be described as.

A. lazy            B. quiet              C. unusual           D. rude

27.From the second example we can infer that the parents of the two daughters.

A. pay no attention to them           B. are too busy to look after them

C. have come to hate them           D. feel helpless to do much about them

28. What is the author’s opinion about the sudden change in teenage children?

A. Parents have no choice but to try to accept it.

B. Parents should pay still more attention to the change.

C. Parents should work more closely with school teachers.

D. Parents are at fault for the change in their children.

   One of the latest trends（趋势）in American Childcare is Chinese au pairs. Au Pair in Stamford, Conn, for example, has got increasing numbers of request for Chinese au pairs from zero to around 4,000 since 2004. And that’s true all across the country.

    “I thought it would be very useful for him to learn Chinese at an early age” Joseph Stocke, the managing director of a company, says of his 2-year old son. “I would at least like to give him the chance to use the language in the future,” After only six months of being cared by a 25-year-old woman from China, the boy can already understand basic Chinese daily expressions, his dad says.

    Li Drake, a Chinese native raising two children in Minnesota with an American husband, had another reason for looking for an au pair from China. She didn’t want her children to miss out on their roots.” Because I am Chinese, my husband and I wanted the children to keep exposed to(接触) the language and culture.” she says.

    “Staying with a native speaker is better for children than simply sitting in a classroom,” says Suzanne Flynn, a professor in language education of Children.” But parents must understand that just one year with an au pair is unlikely to produce wonders. Complete mastery demands continued learning until the age of 10 or 12.”

    The popularity of au pairs from china has been strengthened by the increasing numbers of American parents who want their children to learn Chinese. It is expected that American demand for au pairs will continue to rise in the next few years.

29. What does the term” au pair” in the text mean?

  A. A mother raising her children on her own

  B. A child learning a foreign language at home

  C. A professor in language education of children

  D. A young foreign woman taking care of children.

30. Li Drake has her children study Chinese because she wants them ______.

  A. to live in China some day

  B. to speak the language at home

  C. to catch up with other children

  D. to learn about the Chinese culture

31. What can we infer from the text?

  A. Learning Chinese is becoming popular in America.

  B. Educated woman do better in looking after children

  C. Chinese au pairs need to improve their English skills.

  D. Children can learn a foreign language well in six months.

    Perhaps you think you could easily add to your happiness with more money. Strange as it may seem, if you're unsatisfied, the issue is not a lack of means to meet your desires but a lack of desires—not that you cannot satisfy your tastes but that you don't have enough tastes.

    Real riches consist of well-developed and hearty capacities (能力) to enjoy life. Most people are already swamped(淹没) with things. They eat, wear, go and talk too much. They live in too big a house with too many rooms, yet their house of life is a hut.

   Your house of life ought to be a mansion (豪宅) , a royal palace. Every new taste, every additional interest, every fresh enthusiasm adds a room. Here are several rooms your house of life should have.

    Art should be a desire for you to develop simply because the world is full of beautiful things. If you only understood how to enjoy them and feed your spirit on them, they would make you as happy as to find plenty of hamburgers and eggs when you're hungry.

    Literature, classic literature, is a beautiful, richly furnished room where you might find many an hour of rest and refreshment. To gain that love would go toward making you a rich person, for a rich person is not someone who has a library but who likes a library.

    Music like Mozart's and Bach's shouldn't be absent. Real riches are of the spirit. And when you've brought that spirit up to where classical music feeds it and makes you a little drunk, you have increased your thrills and bettered them. And life is a matter of thrills.

   Sports, without which you remain poor, mean a lot in life. No matter who you are, you would be more human, and your house of life would be better supported against the bad days, if you could, and did, played a bit.

   Whatever rooms you might add to your house of life, the secret of enjoying life is to keep adding.

32. The author intends to tell us that____________.

   A. true happiness lies in achieving wealth by fair means

   B. big houses are people's most valued possessions

   C. big houses can in a sense bring richness of life

   D. true happiness comes from spiritual riches

33. The underlined sentence in the second paragraph probably implies that__________.

   A. however materially rich, they never seem to be satisfied

   B. however materially rich, they remain spiritually poor

   C. though their house is big, they prefer a simple life

   D. though their house is big, it seems to be a cage

34. It can be learned from the passage that __________.

   A. more money brings more happiness

   B. art is needed to make your house beautiful

   C. literature can enrich your spiritual life

   D. sports contribute mainly to your physical fitness

35. What would be the best title for the passage?

   A. House of Life               B. Secret of Wealth

   C. Rest and Refreshment         D. Interest and Enthusiasm

Urbanization

Until relatively recently, the vast majority of human beings lived and died without ever seeing a city. The first city was probably founded no more than 5,500 years ago.   36     In fact, nearly everyone lived on farms or in tiny rural (乡村的) villages. It was not until the 20th century that Great Britain became the first urban society in history— a society in which the majority of people live in cities and do not farm for a living.

Britain was only the beginning.   37   .The process of urbanization— the migration (迁移) of people from the countryside to the city— was the result of modernization, which has rapidly transformed how people live and where they live.

In 1990, fewer than 40% of Americans lived in urban areas. Today, over 82% of Americans live in cities. Only about 2% live on farms.    38   .

Large cities were impossible until agriculture became industrialized. Even in advanced agricultural societies. It took about ninety-five people on farms to feed five people in cities.    39     Until modern times, those living in cities were mainly the ruling elite(精英) and the servants, laborers and professionals who served them. Cities survived by taxing farmers and were limited in size by the amount of surplus food that the rural population produced and by the ability to move this surplus from farm to city.

Over the past two centuries, the Industrial Revolution has broken this balance between the city and the country.    40    . Today, instead of needing ninety-five farmers to feed five city people, one American farmer is able to feed more than a hundred non-farmers.

A. That kept cities very small.

B. The rest live in small towns.

C. The effects of urban living on people should be considered.

D. Soon many other industrial nations become urban societies.

E. But even 200 years ago, only a few people could live in cities.

F. Modernization drew people to the cities and made farmers more productive.

G. Modern cities have destroyed social relations and the health of human beings.