Three Boys and a Dad

    Brad closed the door slowly as Sue left home to visit her mother. Expecting a whole day to relax, he was thinking whether to read the newspaper or watch his favorite TV talk show on his first day off in months. “This will be like a walk in the park,” he'd told his wife. “I'll look after the kids, and you can go and visit your mom.”

    Things started well, but just after eight o'clock, his three little “good kids”—Mike, Randy, and Alex—came down the stairs in their night clothes and shouted “breakfast, daddy.” When food had not appeared within thirty seconds, Randy began using his spoon on Alex's head as if it were a drum. Alex started to shout loudly in time to the beat（节拍）. Mike chanted “Where's my toast, where's my toast” in the background. Brad realized his newspaper would have to wait for a few seconds.

    Life became worse after breakfast. Mike wore Randy's underwear on his head. Randy locked himself in the bathroom, while Alex shouted again because he was going to wet his pants. Nobody could find clean socks, although they were before their very eyes. Someone named “Not Me” had spilled a whole glass of orange juice into the basket of clean clothes. Brad knew the talk show had already started.

    By ten o'clock, things were out of control. Alex was wondering why the fish in the jar refused his bread and butter. Mike was trying to show off his talent by decorating the kitchen wall with his colour pencils. Randy, thankfully, appeared to be reading quietly in the family room，but closer examination showed that he was eating apple jam straight from the bottle with his hands. Brad realised that the talk show was over and reading would be impossible.

    At exactly 11:17, Brad called the daycare centre (日托所）.“I suddenly have to go into work and my wife's away. Can I bring the boys over in a few minutes?” The answer was obviously “yes” because Brad was smiling.

根据短文内容，选择最佳答案，并将选定答案的字母标号填在题前括号内。

    BUS SERVICE

    New York City — Brennan, New Jersey

    (Trip time: 30 minutes each way )

    Timetable

    Buses leave the Railway Station, New York 7:00 a.m. and every half-hour thereafter(此后) until 11:30 p.m. (7 days a week).

    Buses leave Brennan Station 20 minutes before and after every hour from 6:20 a.m. to 10:40 p.m. (7 days a week ).

    Evening rush hours(5:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m.) buses leave the Railway Station, New York every 15 minutes (Monday — Friday).

    Holidays: buses leave every hour on the hour time, each direction.

All tickets must be bought at Window 12, the Railway Station, New York, or at the Brennan Station Window before boarding buses.

    You don't have to be a superhero to help the environment. Even small, simple actions can add up to big change. People around the world will celebrate Earth Day on April 22. But anyone – including kids – can work to help the earth at any time. TFK (Time for Kids) talked to a few kids about how they are protecting the planet. Let them inspire you!

    Mari, 10, lives in Flint, Michigan, where people have been without clean drinking water since 2014. That is when the water became polluted with lead（铅）. Children in Flint have suffered from health problems due to lead poisoning. Mari has worked hard to spread awareness of Flint's water crisis by organizing fundraisers and other events.

    At age 3, Ryan went with his dad to recycling center near his home, in Orange County, California. The next day, Ryan began collecting recyclables from neighbors. Soon, Ryan's Recycling Company was born. “Recycling keeps bottles and cans out of the ocean,” Ryan, now 8, told TFK, “so animals don't get sick from them and die.” So far, Ryan has helped customers recycle 320,000 bottles and cans. He has also donated nearly $6,000 to the Pacific Marine Mammal Center.

    Joris, 11, has always loved cheetahs. When he learned that the big cats might disappear in his lifetime, he set out to help protect them. Joris began raising money. So far, Joris has raised more than $14,000. The money goes to a wildlife sanctuary（避难所）in Namibia, a country in Africa. This helps prevent the animals from being killed. Jorin has spent three summers volunteering at the sanctuary.

    Eleven leatherback turtles (棱皮龟) are swimming across the Pacific Ocean to the Galapagos Islands in a "race". It will be reported online to attract people's attention to the situation of the endangered (濒危的) animals.

    People have put small tracking devices (跟踪装备) on the turtles so that they can monitor their journeys as they head south from their birthplace to their feeding grounds near the Galapagos, about 1,500 km away.

    People can choose a turtle online and track it at http://www.greatturtlerace.com. The turtle that travels furthest in two weeks' swimming will be the winner.

    There is no prize for the winner of the "race". Rather, they just want to help people take notice of the dangers facing the animal that has lived in the oceans for 100 million years.

    Scientists say 95 percent of the turtles in the Pacific Ocean have disappeared in the last 20 years, because of human activities like fishing, stealing their eggs and building near their homes.

    Thousands of leatherback turtles lived at Playa Grande 10 years ago, but the number has dropped below 100 in the last 5 years.

    The leatherback turtle "race" will not be broadcast on TV at the same time because the turtles leave Costa Rica at different times. Instead, a group will provide a day-to-day showing of the first 14 days of their journeys at the same time as if they were racing.

    The activity will collect money to protect Playa Grande.

    Off the Beaten Cart Path

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    Parents

    The most popular magazine for parents who want to raise smart and loving children. It has child development guidance, advice on your child's health and safety, and the best way to encourage your child's learning

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    Best Weekend Projects

    The projects are chosen from 80 special ideas to create an unusual living space. They are practical, as well as creative. They will improve your home and yard and can be made on weekends. And the most important of all, they are easy to follow.

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    Lucky

    The shopping magazine with the best buys, and the fashion tips. You'll need them before you go to the stores. What makes Lucky really special is that it gives you the information you need before anyone else has it.

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Most of the 20th century has been a development on the Industrial Revolution taken to an extreme: people now own more products than ever before; there are enough unclear weapons to destroy the earth several times over; there is hardly any forest left and pollution has got to the point where we buy water. Within a few years I predict you will be able to buy air. (There once was a time when you didn't need to buy food or shelter either.)

Important developments in the last century are the breaking down of the class structures left over from the Industrial Revolution stage, bringing with it the empowerment of the "common man": the working day is set by law to only 8 hours a day; everyone has the vote; the media has less obvious government control; people have landed on the moon, sent spacecrafts to Mars and so on. Families have also shrunk drastically (强烈地); the nuclear family came about, and especially in the last half of the 20th century, one­parent families are becoming more common. This shrinking in the size of the family shows the increased independence of people — once upon a time people had to live in large groups to survive.

As humans have "become the gods", they have realized their individuality and independence and taken their control of the world to an extreme. In many countries the land is almost completely used in the production of food and as living space and they live in small cities which are entirely human constructed, made from materials which are also entirely human constructed (concrete bricks) with hardly any remains of nature. Weeds are poisoned because they are messy; even parks have trees grown in tidy lines; grass is mowed to keep it short and so on. I think the massive drug "problem" troubling people is a result of too much of this influence, humans needing to escape the stark world they have created by entering fantasy worlds.

Over the last 100 years, the 20th century consciousness has spread throughout the world; most of Asia has been thoroughly "Westernized", and most of the Third World is being overrun by Western ways of doing things and living.