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A

Like most fathers, Rick Conklin worries about his three children and fears failing them.

The 47-year-old West Scranton, Pennsylvania resident juggles (兼顾) the doctors appointments, dance recitals, track meets and concerts. He wants to find the right balance between giving the children structure and space. He worries about them dating and making the same mistakes he made in his youth.

Unlike most fathers, Mr Conklin has to do it alone and joins the growing ranks of single dads who are celebrating Father’s Day today.

According to the US Census, 6,292 single fathers lived in the seven-county region of Northeast Pennsylvania in 2000. By 2011, the number of men classified as “male household, no wife present” with children grew to 7,840 – a 24.6 percent increase.

That rate slightly outpaces the increase in single mothers, although there are still significantly more single moms than single dads. The most recent US Census data shows Northeast Pennsylvania has 22,948 single mothers, a 22.8 percent increase from 17,705 in 2000.

Mr Conklin spoke of the struggles and rewards of being a single parent to 15-year-old Breonna, 13-year-old Mercadeze and 11-year-old Rickey Jr.

“It’s what makes it 10 times harder doing this, that I’m the only adult in the house,” Mr. Conklin said. “There isn’t that partner to take half of that frustration load or half of the arguments that the kids go through and the wars that go on. ... There’s just me.”

Mr Conklin knows he is not perfect and strives to improve. He said he tries to research ways to be a good single parent through books and the Internet, and has taken family-strengthening classes with his children.

Although Mr Conklin sometimes finds being a father a thankless job, Breonna said she thinks he’s “doing a really good job on his own”.

He may be a little “strict”, Breonna said, but he is also “energetic”. She said her father cooks and cleans every day and is always trying to get his daughters involved with activities, through which Breonna said she has learned quite a bit about herself.

1. We can learn from the passage that Mr Conklin ______.

A. has clear plans for each of his children

B. puts in a lot of effort to become a good parent

C. has great expectations for his children

D. receives little gratitude and understanding from his children

2. In Northeast Pennsylvania, people are likely to find that ______.

A. single fathers have outnumbered single mothers

B. the increase rate of single parent has recently dropped

C. most single fathers are struggling to meet basic needs of life

D. various sources are available for single fathers to improve family relations

3. The underlined word “this” in paragraph 7 refers to ______.

A. teaching the kids to get along well

B. finding someone to listen to your worries

C. taking care of three children altogether

D. hiring someone to do the housework

4. Which would be the best title for the passage?

A. How to become a qualified single parent

B. Dads in Pennsylvania celebrating Father’s Day

C. Struggles and rewards of being a single parent

D. More dads raising children on their own

5. According to the article, what does Breonna think of her father being a parent?

A. Responsible. B. Demanding.

C. Distant. D. Unconfident.

B

Kara Stewart stares straight ahead, eyes on the road. Not a peep comes from her mouth as the 15-year-old, who just received her driving permit last week, carefully heads down Picacho Avenue in Las Cruces, New Mexico. It’s her second time driving with LTD Driving School instructor David Fresquez.

Fresquez casually tells Kara to turn on her blinker here, narrow a turn there, joking how quiet and focused she is even though she’s good friends with his daughter.

“Every kid in here is confident about driving until they get behind the wheel with an instructor,” he said before two climbed in a driver’s education car.

Dozens of kids like Kara are back in “school” this summer, learning the art of left turns and yellow lights in private driving courses.

Two-week sessions at Las Cruces’s two private schools run three hours per day, Monday through Friday, throughout the summer. Both schools offer morning and afternoon classes and seven hours of hands-on driving time with an instructor.

Fresquez typically sees about 35 students per session in the summer, the busiest driving season as kids are out of school. Most of his students barely look old enough to attend high school, let alone drive; but receiving their license, when they turn 16, is a rite of passage to adulthood, a path to gaining freedom.

Local high schools also offer drivers ed for free during the school year, though the classes don’t include hands-on driving instruction.

“Students that take these classes, usually the parents want them to have some hands-on driving,” Fresquez said. “A lot of parents have a fear of driving with their kids, especially with traffic as heavy as it is.”

The most important lesson Kara learned in class is to be cautious of other drivers, her mother Sonja Stewart said, “because you never know what they’ll do.”

“I’m still a little nervous,” Stewart said while waiting outside the school. “I think she’s doing good. She loves to drive.”

6. Kara Stewart attended training sessions at LTD Driving School because ______.

A. she needed practice to get her driving permit

B. she was a friend with the daughter of instructor David Fresquez

C. her parents didn’t have time to teach her about driving

D. she needed real life driving experience to get her license

7. In the driver’s education car, Kara Stewart was ______.

A. casual B. confident

C. experienced D. concentrated

8. We can conclude from the passage that Sonja Stewart ______.

A. is proud of her daughter and confident in her driving skills

B. doesn’t believe kids can deal with driving under heavy traffic

C. is worried about her daughter’s progress in driving courses

D. is one of the parents who believe in hands-on driving instruction

9. What is the passage mainly about?

A. What a driving license means to American kids.

B. What driving lessons American kids can have.

C. American kids take hands-on driving courses in summer.

D. How much Kara Stewart and kids like her love driving.

C

A woolen coat was found beside a melting glacier (冰川) in south Norway. It was found 2,000 meters above sea level on what may have been a Roman-era trade route in south Norway. Carbon dating showed it was made around 300 AD.

“It’s worrying that glaciers are melting but it’s exciting for us archaeologists,” Lars Piloe, a Danish archaeologist who works on Norway’s glaciers, said at the first public showing of the coat, which has been studied since it was found in 2011.

A Viking mitten dating from 800 AD and a walking stick, a Bronze age leather shoe, ancient bows, and arrow heads used to hunt reindeer are also among 1,600 finds in Norway's southern mountains since melting accelerated in 2006.

“This is only the start,” Piloe said, predicting many more finds.

The 1991 discovery of Otzi, a prehistoric man who lived in the Alps 5,300 years ago between Austria and Italy, is the best known glacier find. In recent years, other finds have been made from Alaska to the Andes, many because glaciers are shrinking.

The shrinkage is blamed on climate change, fueled by man-made emissions (排放) of greenhouse gases from burning fossil (化石) fuels.

The archaeologists said the coat showed that Norway’s Lendbreen glacier, where it was found, had not been so small since 300 AD. When exposed to air, untreated ancient fabrics (织物) can fall apart in weeks because of insect and bacteria attacks.

“The coat was well used – it was repaired several times,” said Marianne Vedeler, a conservation expert at Norway’s Museum of Cultural History. Only a handful of similar coats have survived so long in Europe.

The warming climate is having an impact elsewhere. Patrick Hunt, a Stanford University expert who is trying to find the forgotten route that Hannibal took over the Alps with elephants in a failed invasion (入侵) of Italy in 218 BC, said the Alps were unusually clear of snow at 2,500 meters last summer.

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