Cooking programs and classes for children seem to positively influence children's food preferences and behaviors, according to a recent review. And, although the review didn't look at long-term effects of such programs, the findings suggest that such programs might help children develop long-lasting healthy habits.
This research comes at a time when childhood obesity（肥胖） rates have been rising rapidly. More than one-third of adolescents in the United States were obese in 2012, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). This trend has been caused, at least in part, by a significant decrease in the amount of meals that people consume at home since the 1980s, according to background information in the study.
Cooking education programs, such as Food Explorers, teach children about new healthy foods and how to prepare them. They also stress the importance of eating five fruits and vegetables every day. A volunteer parent explains a new food to the group, and the kids make something based on the lesson, such as fruit or vegetable salad. Depending on the program, kids may be sent home with information about healthy foods to bring to their parents, the review explained.
The study team reviewed eight other studies that tested different types of cooking education programs. Children in these classes were between 5 and 12 years old, according to the review. The goal of the study team was to learn more about developing an efficient program to encourage healthy food choices that last a lifetime. The study found that it is particularly important to expose kids to healthy foods on a number of occasions. This makes them feel comfortable with the new foods, which helps them build healthy habits.
The study stressed the importance of getting parents involved in（参与） their children's eating habits. Parents who are unable to enroll their kids in a cooking class can achieve similar benefits by having their kids help them while they prepare meals at home. Children are more comfortable at home, which makes them more receptive to new foods because they will make the connection to a positive experience.
1. What can we infer from the second paragraph?
A. Eating out frequently causes obesity.
B. Childhood obesity is totally caused by eating habit.
C. Childhood obesity rates have been rising rapidly since 2012
D. Food consumption has decreased significantly since the 1980s.
2. On cooking education programs, ________.
A. children learn how to prepare foods from their parents
B. children will learn how to cook in the company of their parents
C. children may learn information unknown to their parents
D. children focus more on cooking skills than on information about healthy foods
3. Which of the following is true according to the study?
A. Parents should let their kids cook independently at home.
B. A greater willingness to try new foods helps building healthy habits.
C. Children who participate in cooking programs are less likely to become obese.
D. Children who take cooking courses are more likely to choose fruits and vegetables as adults.
4. Which of the following categories does this passage belong to?
A. Education Systems
B. Science and Technology
C. Parent-child Relationship
D. Public Health Research
5. The purpose of the passage is _________.
A. to inform the reader
B. to entertain the reader
C. to discuss with the reader
D. to warn the reader
My family moved from Taiwan to a small town in central Georgia, where my dad got a visa for his family and a job. I had just learned English, and from what little I could gather from my classmates, Santa Claus would come down one’s chimney（烟囱） and put toys in one’s stocking on Christmas Eve! What a great country, I thought. After I looked up “stocking” in my Chinese-English dictionary, I knew what I had to do.
On that fateful night, after everyone went to bed, I took my longest, cleanest knee sock and attached it to a nail already on the mantel(壁炉). Obviously, the previous owners of this house were no strangers to this Santa character.
I woke up before everyone else on Christmas Day and ran to the fireplace. To make a sob story short, I was hit with the reality of an empty sock and the biggest lie ever told. I burst into tears, quickly took down the sock, and stuffed it in the back of a drawer. Santa was dead.
Every December since then, the topic of Christmas memories would unavoidably come up, and I would amuse my friends with my poor-little-me story. I had to make it as funny as possible, or else I would cry.
How could I know that Santa was just late? Nine years ago, on Christmas Eve, an older man with a white beard and a red cap knocked on my front door. He said, “I’ve been looking for you for twenty-five years.” He handed me a bulging red stocking, winked, and left. On top of the stocking was a card. It read: “For Becky—I may have missed you in the second grade, but you’ve always lived in my heart. Santa.”
Through tear-blurred eyes, I recognized the handwriting of Jill, a friend I had met just two months before. I later discovered that the older man was her father. Jill had seen the hurt little girl underneath the thirty-something woman and decided to do something about it.
So now I believe that Santa is real. I don’t mean the twinkle-eyed character of children’s mythology(神话) or the creation of American holiday marketers. Those Santas annoy and sadden me. I believe in the Santa Claus that live inside good and thoughtful people. This Santa does not return to the North Pole after a crazy delivery but lives each day purposefully, really listens to friends, and then plans deliberate acts of kindness.
1. What does the underlined part “what I had to do” in Paragraph 1 refer to?
A. Waiting for Santa Claus.
B. Putting a stocking on the mantel.
C. Asking for gifts from her parents.
D. Looking up “stocking” in the dictionary
2. It can be inferred from the passage that the author’s parents ____.
A. didn’t love their child at all
B. didn’t know the previous owners of the house
C. didn’t know much about Christmas tradition
D. didn’t have enough money to buy the author Christmas presents
3. When the author told her friends about the story, she felt ______in her heart.
A. proud B. amusing C. hate D. regret
4. By writing the passage, the author speaks highly of ________
A. friendship B. parenting
C. religion D. culture
5. The author of the passage is probably ________.
A. a teenager
B. a primary school student
C. a middle-aged woman
D. a native American
When Dekalb Walcott III was just 8 years old, his father, a Chicago fire chief, let him tag along on a call. Dekalb says a lot of kids idolized basketball player Michael Jordan when he was growing up in Chicago in the 1990s. Not him.
"I wanted to be like Dekalb Walcott Jr.," he says of his father.
So when his dad asked if he wanted to go on that call with him when he was 8, Dekalb was excited. "I'm jumping up and down, saying, "Mom, can I go? Can I go?' "
The experience changed Dekalb's life, he tells his dad on a visit to StoryCorps. "My eyes got big from the moment the alarm went off." the younger Dekalb says. " This is the life that I want to live someday. "
Now 27, the younger Dekalb is living that life. He became a firefighter at 21 and went to work alongside his dad at the Chicago Fire Department. Before his father retired, the pair even went out on a call together — father supervising（监督） son.
"You know, it's everything for me to watch you grow," his father says. But he also recalls worrying about one particular fire that his son faced.
"I received a phone call that night. And they said, 'Well, your son was at this fire.' I said, 'OK, which way is this conversation going to go?' " Dekalb Walcott Jr. recalls.
"And they said, 'But he's OK. And he put it out all by himself. Everybody here was proud of him.'
"And the word went around, 'Who was out there managing that fire? Oh, that's Walcott! That's Walcott up there!' So, you know, moments like that, it's heaven on Earth for a dad."
Dekalb Walcott Jr. retired in 2009. The younger Dekalb says he's proud of being a second-generation firefighter. "You know, it makes me look forward to fatherhood as well, because I'm definitely looking forward to passing that torch down to my son."
1. The underlined phrase tag along in Paragraph 1 is closest in meaning to ______.
A. put out fire
B. watch basketball
C. follow his father
D. ask his mother’s permission
2. Dekalb Walcott III determined to become a firefighter at the age of _________
A. 8 B. 21 C. 27 D. 35
3. What did Dekalb Walcott Jr want to do before he was told that the fire was put out?
A. Go on with the conversation
B. Put it out all by himself
C. Supervise his son
D. Go to the fire scene
4. What can we learn from the last paragraph?
A. Dekalb Walcott Jr is proud to be a second-generation firefighter.
B. Dekalb Walcott III wants his son to become a firefighter too.
C. Dekalb Walcott Jr wants to pass the torch to Dekalb Walcott III.
D. Dekalb Walcott III is proud that his son has become an excellent firefighter.
5. Which of the following is the best title of the passage?
A. Passing The Torch: A Firefighter Dad's Legacy
B. Putting Out Fire: A Challenging Job for Father and son
C. Dekalb Walcott III: A Second-generation Firefighter
D. Dekalb Walcott Jr.: A Chicago Fire Chief
My Italian Grandmother was a wonderful woman. I always felt blessed growing up in her home 1. a boy. She worked hard, laughed loud, and was never afraid of 2. life threw at her.
When she fell and broke her hip in her eighties, my Dad 3. (force) to admit that he could no longer take care of her at home. It was with a heavy heart 4. Dad moved Grandmother into a nursing home.
Our whole family gathered together for her 90th birthday in the nursing home dining room. It was a wonderful celebration of her life and the love we all had 5. her.
Shortly after that birthday, however, life gave her the 6. (tough) challenge of all as age and illness started to take her mind from her too. The Dementia（痴呆） grew worse and worse. At times when I visited her she didn’t know 7. I was. During one of these visits I was holding her hand while she slept. When she awoke, her eyes stared at me and I could tell she didn’t recognize 8. . She looked down at my hand 9. (hold) hers and instead of pulling hers away, she smiled at me. Then she closed her eyes and went 10. (peace) back to sleep. I could see then that even though her mind didn’t remember me, her spirit still remembered love.
Air travel makes some people very nervous. The crowds, the noise and flying itself can cause . But there are classes people can take to help them the fear of flying. And there is training for service dogs that suffer the same problem.
Service dogs almost never the side of the people they care for. You will see them working on buses, trains and other public systems. But the busy environment found at an airport can even the best trained working dog.
People with disabilities depend on their dogs. They want the animals to safely them through security areas. They also need the dogs to remain on duty on the airplane, even when the flying is not . This takes special . The Air Hollywood K9 Flight School is one place where such help can be found.
The school has a piece of equipment that provides the sights, sounds and even the feel of an airplane in flight. Dog trainers say training is based on a simple rule: preparation. Dogs need to be exposed gradually and to the environment, to loud noises, to sounds and other dogs so that when this experience happens to them on a daily basis, they're able to act in a way that they're used to acting and that they don't get .
Dog owners who the training at Air Hollywood K9 Flight School say they now feel much more at ease about future . Their dogs also seem ready for takeoff.
1.A. trouble B. unease C. accidents D. diseases
2.A. defeat B. describe C. sense D. record
3.A. professional B. varied C. free D. similar
4.A .approach B. bark C. leave D. take
5.A. association B. running C. transport D. society
6.A. trouble B. attract C. interrupt D. instruct
7.A. follow B. guide C. train D. land
8.A. nervously B. stressfully C. calmly D. enthusiastically
9.A. speedy B. relaxing C. dangerous D. smooth
10.A. interest B. attention C. training D. procedure
11.A. previous B. cooperative C. academic D. successful
12.A. repeatedly B. abruptly C. occasionally D. instantly
13.A. bored B. excitable C. energetic D. fragile
14.A. attended B. inquired C. overlooked D. recommended
15.A. career B. flights C. security D. generations
— Do you have the time? I've got something to tell you.
— Ok, ______ you make your story short.
A. now that B. even if
C. so long as D. in case
