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强化练(十五) 新闻报道 (限时：25 分钟)
A
(2022·广东一模)
Desperate to help his 96-year-old mother to speak her mother tongue again ， Keith
McDermott made an appeal on social media and was met with a flood of kind responses.The old
lady，Ray，was moved to tears after talking on the phone with one of the enthusiastic respondents
in Welsh.
Ray moved to America after meeting her husband when she was only 18，hence waving
goodbye to her life in Wales.She continued to speak Welsh with her mum—keeping a little bit of
home.But she lost her beloved mum four decades ago and hadn’t spoken Welsh ever since.
Despite suffering from short-term memory loss and sometimes not remembering what she has
done recently，Ray’s childhood memories in Wales remain clear.“She wants to return but I
know，given her age，such long-distance travel is out of the question，” said Keith.“Once she
mentioned ‘I wish I could speak Welsh again but I suppose I never will.’ It was then that I
thought I should make her wish happen.”
So Keith,70，posted on social media in the New York Welsh area asking for any Welsh
speakers that could speak Welsh with his mum.And he was touched，as well as a little shocked，
to receive over 30 responses within half an hour.Keith thanked everyone and eventually asked
Melisa to give his mum a phone call.“Speaking with Melisa，her (Ray’s) Welsh was a little
rusty.A few more Welsh conversations and I think she’d be fluent again，” added Keith.
“When you have a parent in their nineties，you will find you two have something in
common：you’re both old，so I am very sympathetic to my mother’s feelings of loneliness and
isolation(孤立)．I’m feeling it myself.” Keith hopes to set up more Welsh phone conversations
for his mum and Melisa has promised to send Ray some short stories in Welsh to remind her of her
life in Wales.
1．Why did Keith post a message on social media?
A．To gather American Welsh speakers.
B．To help his mum speak Welsh again.
C．To slow down his mum’s memory loss.
D．To track down his family’s Welsh origin.
2．How did Keith feel after seeing the responses?
A．Surprised and moved.
B．Concerned and thankful.
C．Sympathetic and excited.D．Astonished and isolated.
3．What is conveyed in the story?
A．Social media contribute to closer family ties.
B．Mother tongue means more than a language.
C．Childhood experiences shape one’s later life.
D．One will be more sensitive when getting older.
4．Where is the text probably taken from?
A．A community noticeboard.
B．A health magazine.
C．A language-learning website.
D．A local newspaper.
B
(2022·福建漳州质检)
Guy Bryant never intended to be a father figure.But over the past 12 years，he’s housed
more than 50 foster kids in his Brooklyn apartment.
For decades，Bryant,61，worked with teens aging out of New York’s child welfare
system.His job was to find services that would make the transition(过渡) to living on their own
easier.But he felt that what he could accomplish at the New York City Administration for
Children’s Services office wasn’t enough.So in 2007，he decided to become a foster parent.
In an interview last month，Bryant told Romario Vassell,21，one of his foster children，that
agreeing to care for him was definitely one of the best decisions he made in foster care.Bryant told
Vassell that he was nervous when he took in his first foster child.He said，“I lived alone at that
point，and he was a kid that nobody wanted to take because of his behaviors.He got in a fight and
he appeared at my house.”Bryant said his family thought he was out of his mind for making such
a big lifestyle change and wondered how Bryant would adjust.
Bryant had been Vassell’s assigned case worker when they met.Bryant suggested that
Vassell，then an untidy 18-year-old，consider foster care as an option to get out of the homeless
shelter where he was staying.
At first，Vassell was hesitant.“I didn’t know how foster care was，” he said.
Since living with Bryant，Vassell now feels like he has a support network.“If I feel down
and like I’m cornered，I have someone I can reach out to and talk to，” he said.“And that’s
what I really love.”
Bryant told Vassell，“Whatever you’ve learned from me，I want you to teach it to
someone else.Because that’s what’s important to me.”
5．What is the second paragraph mainly about?
A．The shift of teens’ life.
B．An introduction of Bryant’s task.C．Bryant’s challenge as a foster parent.
D．The reason for Bryant’s being a foster parent.
6．How did Bryant’s family feel about his decision?
A．Disappointed. B．Ashamed.
C．Puzzled. D．Embarrassed.
7．What can we know about Vassell from the text?
A．He is now living alone.
B．He was Bryant’s first foster kid.
C．He refused Bryant’s offer at first.
D．He was instructed to pay kindness forward.
8．What is the author’s purpose in writing the text?
A．To call for social care.
B．To praise Bryant’s deeds.
C．To tell the story of Vassell.
D．To comment on Bryant’s life.
C
Half of all work tasks will be handled by machines by 2025 in a shift likely to worsen
inequality，a World Economic Forum report has forecast.
The think tank said a “robot revolution” would create 97 million jobs worldwide but
destroy almost as many ， leaving some communities at risk.Routine or manual jobs in
administration and data processing were most at threat of automation，WEF said.But it said there
would be a need for new jobs in care，big data and the green economy.
The WEF surveyed 300 of the world’s biggest companies，with more than 8 million
employees globally.More than 50% of employers surveyed said they expected to speed up the
automation of some roles in their companies，while 43% felt they were likely to cut jobs due to
technology.
WEF said the pandemic(疫情) had sped up the adoption of new technologies as firms looked
to cut costs and adopt new ways of working.But it warned workers now faced a double threat from
“accelerating automation and the economic impact from the COVID-19”．
“These things have deepened existing inequalities across labor markets and removed gains in
employment made since the global financial crisis in 2007－2008，” said Saadia Zahidi，
managing director at WEF.“The window of opportunity for active management of this change is
closing fast.”
WEF said currently around a third of all work tasks were handled by machines，with humans
doing the rest，but by 2025 the balance would shift.Roles that relied on human skills such as
advising ， decision-making ， reasoning ， communicating and interacting would rise in
demand.There would also be a sudden large increase in demand for workers to fill green economyjobs，and new roles in areas like engineering and cloud computing.
But it said millions of routine or manual jobs would be displaced by technology，affecting the
lowest paid，lowest skilled workers the most.It said millions would need to be re-skilled to cope
with the change，while governments would have to provide “stronger safety nets” for displaced
workers.
9．Who are included in “some communities” mentioned in Paragraph 2?
A．Unskilled workers.
B．Software engineers.
C．Career consultants.
D．Organic farmers.
10．What is the purpose of Paragraphs 3 and 4?
A．To analyse the reliability of the figures and facts.
B．To provide supporting evidence for the main idea.
C．To introduce two events for discussion.
D．To highlight two causes of the effects.
11．What do the displaced people expect their governments to do?
A．Slow down the automation.
B．Strengthen social security.
C．Improve network safety.
D．Promote the Robot Revolution.
12．What can be a suitable title for the text?
A．Further Inequalities from the Robot Revolution
B．A Double Threat from Automation and Pandemic
C．Half of All Work Tasks to Be Lost
D．Half of All Work Tasks to Be Automated
