Parents annoyed by their children’s picky eating habits have taken to social media to share a host of creative ways to deal with them in a new thread gaining popularity online. In these lunch box notes posted onto sites, mothers and fathers have used threats, persuasion and even little white lies to talk their youngsters into finishing their sandwiches.

One talented father created the tag “Dadfact” in an effort to persuade his child into eating their sandwiches using information that might not be completely reliable. He scribbled on a napkin, “Every time you don’t eat your sandwich a unicorn(獨(dú)角獸) dies Dadfact Love, Dad”. A further technique from a separate note was a drawing of a scary monster, ordering the little one to, “Eat your food!”

Everyone knows coming to terms with bread crusts is a difficult job. One parent’s inspiring note encouraged their child to leave the world of crustless sandwiches behind. They wrote, “I left the crusts on. Today is the first day of the rest of your life.”

Another cheered on their child with a note which read, “You can do it! Love yourself.” A father appeared to be laying down the law when he wrote, “New rule: I will keep packing this sandwich until you eat it. Good luck. Love, Dad.”

One youngster Julian retorted (反駁) with a handwritten moan of his own. When his mother wrote to him, saying, “Dear Julian, have a great day, love Mom”, he replied simply on the same piece of paper, in big letter, “I will not.”

But cheery parents shared more positive feelings on post— it’s attached to their children’s lunch. A mother wrote, “Have a great day! I love you.” Another simply put, “You are my sunshine.”

Other parents shared jokes in their children’s lunchbox to perk them up during the day. One included, “When do astronauts eat? At launch time.” And another shared, “Why did the student eat his homework? Because the teacher said it’s a piece of cake.”

1.What does the underlined phrase “perk...up” mean in the last paragraph?

A. make active B. make feel proud

C. give promise D. give praise

2.By saying “Every time you don’t eat your sandwich a unicorn dies Dadfact Love, Dad”, the parents are actually giving their children ________.

A. persuasion. B. encouragement.

C. threats. D. white lies.

3.Most parents leave notes in their children’s lunch boxes by _____________.

A. drawing pictures B. playing word games

C. quoting sayings D. using further technique

4.How do the children respond to the notes according to the passage?

A. The children are very particular about the notes.

B. The children are greatly motivated by the encouraging notes.

C. Not all children feel cheered and inspired at the notes.

D. None of the children are touched by the messages in the notes.

Flying is fine if you want to save time, but nothing beats the railway for a relaxing and down-to-earth journey. The Zhengzhou---Xuzhou and Xi’an---Fuzhou high-speed railways put into operation in September mark a connection of high-speed railways in China’s eastern and middle-western regions, and they have brought out some of the country’s best landscapes and cuisines.

Here are four signature dishes(招牌菜) that you shouldn’t miss as you travel along the railways.

Yangrou Paomo, Xi’an

If one dish could represent Xi’an, the capital of Shaanxi, locals would tell you without doubt that it’s Yangrou Paomo. It is a bowl of lamb soup served with hard flour “bread”, which is broken up and added to the soup. The soup is topped with slices of mutton, scallion(蔥) and coriander(香菜). Then it is usually eaten with picked sweet garlic.

Soup Dumpling, Kaifeng

A popular snack in Kaifeng, Henan, the dish is made up of three things: skin, meat and soup. The skin is made from flour, while the filling is usually pork. And just as its name suggests, the soup dumplings are filled with tasty soup. But how does the steaming hot soup get into the dumplings? It’s actually been cooled and cut into cubes, which fit easily into the dough(面團(tuán)). Along with the pork, the cubes become liquid soup once they’re steamed.

Smelly Mandarin Fish, Huangshan

Despite its name, Smelly Mandarin Fish(臭鱖魚(yú)) is known for its good taste. A lot of travelers who visit Huangshan in Anhui want to taste it because they have heard of its reputation. Once the skin has been removed, the fresh is preserved in salty water for six to seven days, then fried and cooked in soy sauce. Although salting gives the fish its special smell, the original tender flesh is preserved well and given a delicious and unique taste.

Buddha Jumps Over the Wall, Fuzhou

The dish has enjoyed an over 100-year-long worldwide reputation since it was invented in Fuzhou, Fujian in the late Qing Dynasty(1644-1911). Fotiaoqiang, or Buddha Jumps Over the Wall, got its interesting name from a poem a customer wrote. The poem said the dish was so delicious that upon smelling it, monks in the neighboring temple would jump over the wall to come and get some. Buddha Jumps Over the Wall is made up of many ingredients, including sea cucumber(海參), chicken, pork and mushroom. Because of these ingredients, it tastes extremely delicious while being highly nutritious at the same time.

1.You may probably read the passage from a ________.

A. science journal B. sports website

C. traveling magazine D. bulletin board

2.All of the following signature dishes are mentioned except ________.

A. Buddha Jumps Over the Wall B. Beijing Roast Duck

C. Soup dumpling D. Smelly Mandarin Fish

3.Which of the following is true according to the passage?

A. People get the heated soup into the dough skillfully to make soup dumplings in Kaifeng.

B. The Smelly Mandarin Fish is similar to Choudoufu both in smell and taste.

C. Yangrou Paomo is a typical tasty food in Taiyuan, Shanxi Province.

D. Buddha Jumps Over the Wall has got the name from literary works.

In a class this past December, after I wrote some directions on the board for students about their final examination, one young woman quickly took a picture of the board using her smart phone. When I looked in her direction, she apologized, “Sorry. Was it wrong to take a picture?”

“I can’t read my own handwriting,” the young woman explained. “It’s best if I take a picture of your writing so I can understand the notes.”

That remark started a class-wide discussion about taking a picture instead of taking notes. For those in the photo-taking camp, reasons extended(擴(kuò)展) beyond their inability to comprehend their own handwriting. Some took pictures of notes because they knew their phone was a safe place to store material. They might lose paper, but they wouldn’t lose their phones. Some took photos because they wanted to record exactly the way in which I had noted information on the board. Others told me that during class they liked to be able to listen to the discussion attentively.

Yet the use of cameras may be convenient, it does raise questions for the classroom. Is a picture an effective replacement for the process of note-taking?

Teachers encourage students to take notes because the act of doing so is more than just recording necessary information—it helps prepare the way for understanding. Encouraging students to take notes may be an old-fashioned method, but just because a method has a long history doesn’t mean it’s out of date. Writing things down engages a student’s brain in listening, visual, and kinesthetic(觸覺(jué)的) learning. The act of writing down information enables a person to begin to memorize, to process and combine it, helping learning new knowledge.

Taking a picture does indeed record the information, but it lacks some of the necessary mental activities that taking notes employs. So can the two be equally effective?

1.The woman apologized in the class because she_________.

A. took a picture of the board B. missed the teachers’ directions

C. had the bad handwriting D. disturbed other students’ learning

2.According to the passage, which of the following may NOT explain students’ unwillingness to take notes?

A. They believe smart phones are much safer for storing notes.

B. They want to listen more attentively in class.

C. They lack proper techniques for taking notes.

D. They want to have the exact version of the notes on the board.

3.According to the passage, taking notes by hand__________.

A. requires students to think independently

B. seems unsuitable for students to learn new ideas

C. proves to be an old and useless learning method

D. helps students actively participate in learning

4.What is the main idea of this passage?

A. The traditional way of note-taking should be replaced.

B. Note-taking by hand is not out of date.

C. A modern way of note-taking is catching on.

D. A picture is worth a thousand words.

You’ve probably heard such reports. The number of college students majoring in the humanities (人文學(xué)科) is decreasing quickly. The news has caused a flood of high-minded essays criticizing the development as a symbol of American decline.

The bright side is this: The destruction of the humanities by the humanities is, finally, coming to an end. No more will literature, as part of an academic curriculum, put out the light of literature. No longer will the reading of, say, “King Lear” or D.H. Lawrence’s “Women in Love” result in the annoying stuff of multiple-choice quizzes, exam essays and homework assignments.

The discouraging fact is that for every college professor who made Shakespeare or Lawrence come alive for the lucky few, there were countless others who made the reading of literary masterpieces seem like two hours in the dentist’s chair.

The remarkably insignificant fact that, a half-century ago, 14% of the undergraduate population majored in the humanities (mostly in literature, but also in art, philosophy, history, classics and religion) as opposed to 7% today has given rise to serious reflections on the nature and purpose of an education in the liberal arts.

Such reflections always come to the same conclusion: We are told that the lack of a formal education, mostly in literature, leads to numerous harmful personal conditions, such as the inability to think critically, to write clearly, to be curious about other people and places, to engage with great literature after graduation, to recognize truth, beauty and goodness.

These serious anxieties are grand, admirably virtuous and virtuously admirable. They are also a mere fantasy.

The college teaching of literature is a relatively recent phenomenon. Literature did not even become part of the university curriculum until the end of the 19th century. Before that, what came to be called the humanities consisted of learning Greek and Latin, while the Bible was studied in church as the necessary other half of a full education. No one ever thought of teaching novels, stories, poems or plays in a formal course of study. They were part of the leisure of everyday life.

It was only after World War II that the study of literature as a type of wisdom, relevant to actual, contemporary life, put down widespread institutional roots. Soldiers returning home in 1945 longed to make sense of their lives after what they had witnessed and survived. The abundant economy afforded them the opportunity and the time to do so. Majoring in English hit its peak, yet it was this very popularity of literature in the university that spelled its doom, as the academicization of literary art was accelerated.

Literature changed my life long before I began to study it in college. Books took me far from myself into experiences that had nothing to do with my life, yet spoke to my life. But once in the college classroom, this precious, alternate life inside me got thrown back into that dimension of my existence that bored me. Homer, Chekhov and Yeats were reduced to right and wrong answers, clear-cut themes and clever interpretations. If there is anything to worry about, it should be the disappearance of what used to be an important part of every high-school education: the literature survey course, where books were not academically taught but thoroughly introduced—an experience unaffected by stupid commentary and useless testing.

The literary classics are places of quiet, useless stillness in a world that despises (鄙視) any activity that is not profitable or productive. Literature is too sacred to be taught. It needs only to be read.

Soon, if all goes well and literature at last disappears from the undergraduate curriculum—my fingers are crossed—increasing numbers of people will be able to say that reading the literary masterworks of the past outside the college classroom, simply in the course of living, was, in fact, their college classroom.

1.The author mentions “two hours in the dentist’s chair” in Paragraph 3 to indicate that _______.

A. the average literature class in college is two hours long

B. reading literary works is made unbearable by professors

C. it actually does not take long to read the classics of literature

D. college students don’t spend much time on literary masterworks

2.The sharp drop in the number of majors in the humanities _______.

A. has given rise to quite a shock in the intellectual world

B. promises the remarkable destruction of the humanities

C. shows more people read literature outside the classroom

D. has caused the author to reflect on the nature of literary creation

3.Which of the following opinions may the author hold?

A. The disappearance of literature should be strongly applauded.

B. Literature teaching can improve our critical thinking ability.

C. Reading literature doesn’t require specialized knowledge and skills.

D. Literature should be taught through analyzing different writing styles.

4.What is the author’s purpose in writing the passage?

A. To urge college students to read more literary classics.

B. To introduce the present situation of literature teaching.

C. To voice his opinion on the shrinkage of literature teaching.

D. To show his serious concern for college literature teaching.

The young dolphin swam in the waters off Brisbane, Australia, and found his seafood dinner. Suddenly he realized that he was not the only hungry predator(捕食者)in the area. A ten-foot tiger shark aimed at the same fish. The dolphin refused to give up the meal and dashed to the shark. The shark attacked him, biting down hard into his back. 1.

Later, on the sandy beach nearby, staff at the Tangalooma Resort were shocked to see the severely wounded male. He was a regular visitor, a playful 12-year-old dolphin called Nari. “We’ve known him all his life, since he was a baby,” says resort director Trevor Hassard. 2.The wound measure about a foot long and more than an inch deep. He took photos of Nari and sent them to vets at Sea World, a local marine mammal park. They agreed that Nari needed emergency care.

The next day, Sea World staff traveled to the beach to catch Nari.3.Nor did he appear the next evening. Everyone was depressed and worried about him.

4.“I had started thinking the worst,” Hassard says. “Words can’t describe how excited we were.” Six rescuers surrounded Nari and carried him to Sea World. The vets performed an operation to remove the dead flesh from around the bite. Nari was then moved to a special pool where his wound was cleaned and treated regularly.

5.Sea World decided to tansort Nair back to his home beach. Hassard had worried that the other dolphins might reject Nari after such a long absence. That concern disappeared when Nari’s friend Echo instantly recognized him and moved close to his side.

A. But Nari didn’t show up

B. Three days later, Nari finally turned up.

C. He felt quite worried when he took a close look at Nari’s injury

D. After seven weeks, Nari was fully recovered but growing restless.

E. Shark researchers are trying to warn people to escape without being eaten

F. The five-meter-long dolphin simply swam away, disappearing into the water below.

G. Luckily, the wounded dolphin managed to escape from the shark’s biting with violent struggle.