All Kent County teens in grades 6-12 are invited to enter films in the Kent County Teen Film Festival. A jury(评审委员会)will review all submitted entries and select films to be screened at the Festival. The Kent County Teen Film Festival is free and open to the public, so please join us at 10:30 a. m. on February 25, 2017 at celebration!

Official Rules:

●All short films must be written, directed and edited by teens in grades 6-12.

●The filmmaker/ director must be a resident of Kent County, Michigan.

●All entries must be teen-produced, and may be either a group project or individual work.

●Films must be no more than 10 minutes in length.

Submission Requirements:

You must fill out an entry form for every film you submit to the festival. Forms together with the films must be submitted by January 20, 2017 to any KDL branch or mailed to; KDL Cascade Township Branch.

Judging & Awards:

All films will be previewed by a jury made up of select individuals, including but not limited to; Kent District Library staff, teen volunteers and Kent District Library staff, teen volunteers and Kent County community members. Library staff will inform all entrants via email by February 10, 2017 as to whether or not their film will be shown.

Prizes will be awarded for the best films in various categories. These prizes include Celebration Cinema and Apple gift cards and film camp scholarships.

21. The submission deadline for films will be on ________.

   A. January 20, 2017           B. February 10, 2017

   C. February 25, 2017          D. Not mentioned

22. Which film may be accepted by the jury?

   A. A film without an entry form        B. A film made by a Chinese boy

   C. A film directed by a 9^th-grader       D. A film of 12 minutes in length

23. From the passage we can learn that _______.

   A. all children aged 6-12 can enter films in the Festival

   B .all entries will be on show at the Festival

   C. the members of the jury are limited to Kent County Library

   D. films of different themes will be awarded during the Festival

   Winston Churchill is probably the most popular British prime minister ever. Having served as a soldier and politician, he is often considered among the greatest of Britons. While his heroic stand against the Nazis is well know, there are still a few facts about the popular politician that might surprise you.

His Cigars

 The classic image of Winston Churchill includes a giant cigar stuck between his lips. Churchill developed his love of cigars as a young man, when he traveled to Cuba. For he rest of his life, he smoked eight or nine cigars every day. However, he almost never took a puff(吸，抽), preferring to chew on the end until it went out, then relight it and start again. To prevent the cigar becoming soggy (湿软的), Churchill invented the “bellybando”, a strip of brown paper which could be glued around the end.

At any given time, Churchill had 3,000 to 4,000 cigars in his house, mostly his favorite Romeo & Juliet brand. On one occasion, the president of Cuba presented Churchill with  2,400 top-quality cigars, although his security team insisted one cigar from each box be sent off and tested for poison. Perhaps the story that best shows his love of cigars occurred during World War II, when he had a special oxygen mask designed so hat he could still smoke his cigar on a high-altitude flight.

His Black Dog

Throughout his life, Churchill probably suffered from depression, which he called his “black dog”. At times, his depression was so severe that he didn’t like standing close to a passing train or looking at the ocean from a ship because he feared that he would commit suicide.

When he was depressed, Churchill would almost spend a great deal of time in bed and lose his ability to concentrate. However, when not depressed, Churchill was full of energy, usually working and talking until the early hours of the morning. He often described how “all the colors come back into the picture”.

24. Why did Churchill’s security team insist on checking the cigars?

   A. To test if they were safe for Churchill

   B. To see if they were of the best quality

   C. To make sure they were Churchill’s favorite

   D. To guarantee they were not out of date

25. Which of the following best shows Churchill’s love of cigars?

   A. He fell in love with cigars at a young age

   B .He smoked many cigars every day

   C. He invented the “bellybando”

   D. He had an oxygen mask specially designed for smoking

26. What does the underlined sentence in the last paragraph mean?

   A. Churchill became energetic again

   B. Churchill remained depressed

   C. Churchill drew colorful pictures

   D. Churchill liked to talk about colors

27. What is probably the best title of the passage?

   A. Achievements of Churchill        B. Anecdotes about Churchill

   C. Personalities of Churchill         D. Hobbies of Churchill

If you’re ever reading a book or watching a movie and get the clear feeling that you’ve come across the story before-or even better, can predict exactly what’s going to happen next---there could be a good reason for that.

Researchers from the Computational Story Laboratory at the University of Vermont studied the complete text of some 1,737 fiction works available on Project Gutenberg, an online collection of more than 50,000 digital books in the public area. They discovered that English literature consist of just six kinds of emotional arcs(情感弧线)that make up nearly all of the most well-known stories. By analyzing the sentiment(情感)of language used in these texts, the researchers were able to show the emotional ups and downs for the stories as a whole. They discovered that negative words like “poverty”, “dead”, and “punishment” dragged the emotion down, while positive terms like “love”, “peace”, and “friend” brought it up.

According to the researchers, those six core emotional arcs are:

● “Rags to riches” (An ongoing emotional rise)

● “Tragedy, or riches to rags” (An ongoing emotional fall0

● “Man in a hole” (a fall followed by a rise)

● “Icarus” (A rise followed by a fall)

● “Cinderella” (Rise-fall-rise)

● “Oedipus” (Fall-rise-fall)

Interestingly, based on download statistics from Project Gutenberg, the researchers say the most popular stories are ones that use more complex emotional arcs, with the Cinderella and Oedipus arcs registering the most downloads. Also popular are works that combine these core arcs together in new ways within one story, such as two “Man in a hole” arcs stuck together, or the “Cinderella” are coupled with a tragic ending.

28. Readers often feel familiar when reading a new story because stories have similar_______.

   A. beginnings          B. endings        C. characters        D. emotional arcs

29. How did researchers carry out their study?

   A. By conducting surveys among readers

   B. By reading books borrowed from libraries

   C. By analyzing works from an online collection

   D. By interviewing authors of the well-known stories

30. Which set of words may drag emotion down?

   A. Hope, fortune and riches        B. Disease, murder and war

   C. Smile, health and beauty        D. Cold, earthquake and spring

31. According to the last paragraph, which kind of works are most popular among readers?

   A. Works with an ongoing emotional rise

   B. Works with an ongoing emotional fall

   C. Works with a rise followed by a fall

   D. Works with more than one rise and fall

   Giving Many Poppins’s magic umbrella some serious competition is the all high-tech “Oombrella”---not only can it predict the weather, it’s also impossible to lose. The smart umbrella syncs(同步进行) with a smartphone app, sending users updates about weather conditions 30 minutes in advance, and reminders if they happen to leave the device behind. And here’s the added bonus – it won’t ever flip inside-out.

Designed by French company Wezzoo, the rainbow-colored umbrella comes in two versions – classic and modern. The classic is 3.1-ft long with a curved handle, while the modern version is 0.8-ft long with a straight handle. The company describes the device as a ‘portable weather station’, made of a reflective surface with built in sensors that record real-time data such as light, humidity, pressure, and temperature. The umbrella collects and processes this data as well as information from a social media community before sending out alerts about when it’s going to start raining.

And if the user happens to accidentally forget it at home on a potentially rainy day, or leaves it in a restaurant, similar alerts will be sent out using GPS technology to make sure you don’t lose it.

“We wanted to make this umbrella unforgettable in terms of design, too,” explains Alexandre, of Escabo design studio. “We developed an exclusive material. It makes you feel you are holding an aurora borealis(北极光) in your hands. It has effects that are amazing with the light and always changing. It really makes the umbrella special.” The ‘capsule’ that integrates all the technology, making the umbrella smart, is located in the handle.

The umbrella is all set to hit global online and physical stores this fall. According to a company spokesperson, it will retail at 9 ($86), but the early bird price on Kickstarter is 9 ($64). For those who are rather attached to their current umbrellas, the company will also release an ‘Oombrella capsule’ that can transform any umbrella into a smart device. Now, if only it could make us fly like Mary Poppins!

32. What does Paragraph 1 mainly tell us about Oombrella?

   A. Its special design          B. Its working principle

   C. Its functions              D. Its structure

33. Which of the following best shows how Oombrella works?

   A. collect—process—record—predict    B. process—record—collect—predict

   C. record—collect—process—predict    D. record—process---collect---predict

34. What can we learn from the last paragraph?

   A. Oombrella is already on sale

   B. Early buyers of Oombrella will save money

   C. It’s impossible to turn an ordinary umbrella into a smart one

   D. Oombrella is a magic device that can make us fly

35. What’s the purpose of the author writing the passage?

   A. To introduce readers a new type of umbrella

   B. To show readers how to predict the weather

   C. To remind readers to take an umbrella at any time

   D. To persuade readers to buy the high-tech umbrella

   The teenage years can be a very confusing time filled with anxiety, especially in high school. Here are some powerful tips which can help you succeed in the years.

   Know yourself and pick a direction. You may be faced with too many choices in your life and it’s unwise to try everything.  36   Consider all the benefits that it brings into your life and then see how you can develop your passion into a possible career option.

Get away from the friends that offer poisonous advice and negativity. There is no place for that kind of behaviour at any stage of your life.  37   This does wonders for self-confidence and overall positivity.

Read as much as you can.  38   Stop spending hours in watching your favorite TV shows and instead use that time to invest in yourself by reading. You’ll notice n a few days how you begin to see things in a different light.

__39   I am 19 years old, so I understand just how much time can be wasted on technology, especially the Internet and cellphones. Once you spend less time doing things that add no value to your life and instead spend that time enriching yourself, your life begins to shape and turn into exactly what you want it to be.

Make mistakes. Look at a mistake you’ve made from every possible angle and take the lessons from it. Your teenage years are meant to be spent getting to know yourself.  40  It’s okay to make mistakes.

A. Try different things

B. Just focus on your favorite

C. Work hard to improve your scores

D. Limit the time spent on social media

E. You can’t achieve this by trying to be perfect all the time

F. Pick up a book on anything that expands your knowledge base

G. And you should value yourself highly enough to get rid of these people.