2017年北京市中考英语真题及答案解析

Summer Programs at Museums

The Sixth Time I Went to the Principal’s Office When I was in the seventh grade, I had problems behaving. My heart was in the right place, but I couldn’t always follow the rules. I played many tricks on my schoolmates. Once, I even pulled a girl’s hair on the school bus to get her attention. As a result, I was repeatedly sent to the office of the principal（校长）. Although I hated going there, I did not hate the principal, Mr. Ratcliff. Mr. Ratcliff was a kind, elderly man. When he spanked（ 打屁股） me for putting some ants into a classmate’s pencil box, it didn’t hurt at all, but it did hurt my feelings. I thought so much of him and moments like that seemed to prove I was hopelessly bad. When I got called to Mr. Ratcliff’s office for the sixth time, I had no idea what I had done. I felt disappointed as I walked down there. I went into his office, sat down, and looked at the floor. Then he said the last thing I expected to hear:” Kevin, I’ve heard you’ve been behaving really well lately. I want you to know how proud I am of you, and I just called you down to my office to give you a peppermint.” “Really?” I was surprised. “Yes. Now you can take that peppermint and go back to class.” I carried the peppermint with me as if it was a gold coin. When I got into my classroom, I bragged （ 吹嘘） to my classmates about my turnaround,excitedly. I wasn’t so bad after all. Mr. Ratcliff was really kind. He made me realize that I was just a kid who had problems with behavior.He bought some peppermints and took the time to notice me when I got something-anything-right. Mr.Ratcliff gave me some hope by giving me some love. I will just remember him for the rest of my life.

Buying Is Doing? How important is shopping to you? How much time do you spend buying things? And how much time do you spend organizing these things in your home? In the future, how much time will you spend in movie theaters, at amusement parks, at shopping malls, or at convenience stores? When you add it all up, you will probably see you spend a lot of your life consuming（消费）things. Consuming products is not necessarily bad. However, if we spend too much time doing it, we should look at it carefully. Imagine that you have a week off from school. You don’t have to go to class. However, in this week, you cannot spend any money ----- no shopping, no movies, no eating out. How would you spend your time? What things would bring you happiness? Perhaps you would take a walk with your best friend. Perhaps you would help a child read. Or you might spend time with your family. When we look back, it is likely that non-consuming experiences like these will be our most important memories. Why? Non-consuming activities are active, not passive. They don’t come in a package. You make the experience yourself. For example, each person who reads to a child will have a different experience. The experience changes with the reader, the child, and the book. Similarly, when you have a conversation with a friend, you are actively creating an experience. The conversation that you have with your friend cannot be experienced or recreated by anyone else. However, if you watch a movie with a friend, you will each have a package experience. It requires no action and little interaction between the two of you. The environment we live in encourages us to have packaged experiences. We feel that we must consume because we believe that buying is doing. However, we can start a personal revolution （ 变革） against consumerism. How? By consuming less. We can ask ourselves what experiences bring us the greatest satisfaction. Then we can organize our lives so that we have more of those kinds of experiences.

Say you’re sitting around with some friends playing video games and someone mentions a game that happens to be one of your favorites. “Oh, that game’s easy. So not worth the time,” one of your friends says.The others agree. Although you enjoy the game quite a lot, not wanting to argue with them, you go along with the crowd. You have just experienced what is commonly referred to as peer pressure（同伴压力）, also called peer influence. You will adopt a certain type of behavior, dress, or attitude in order to be accepted as part of a group of your “peers”. As a teen, you are likely to have experienced the effect of peer pressure in a number of different areas. We are all influenced by our peers at any age. For teens, as school and other activities take you away from home, you may spend more time with your friends than with your family. As you become more independent, your peers naturally play a greater role in your life. According to Dr. Casey from Cornell University, teens are very quick and accurate in making decisions on their own and in situations where they have time to think. However, when they make decisions in the heat of the moment or in social situations, their decisions are often influenced by factors like peers. In a recent study, teen volunteers played a video driving game, either alone or with friends watching. The researchers discovered that the number of risks teens took more than doubled when their friends were watching, compared with when they played alone. This shows that teens may find it more difficult to control risky behavior when their friends are around, or in situations where they are extremely angry. Just as people can influence us to make unwise choices, they can also influence us to make good ones. A teen might join in a volunteer project because his or her friends are doing it, or get good grades because his or her friends think getting good grades is important. In fact, friends often encourage each other to study, or try out for sports. While we are always influenced by those around us, the decision to act or not is up to us. So when it comes to decision making, the choice is up to you.