2026年山西版《学位英语》冲刺试卷三

Walking through the woods alone can be a frightening prospect for a kid， but not for 7-year-old Matthew of Portland， Oregon. He doesn't have a backyard to__21__in， so the woods behind his house serve the same__22__. He spends hours out there swinging on a swing，__23__across the valley to a friend's house， and__24__garden knives to cut a path. He lays__25__sticks to form a bridge across the small stream. And he does all of this alone.Matthew's mom， Laura Randall， wants her son to gain skills and confidence that only__26__with doing things alone. But she didn't just__27__ her 7-year-old outside the door with garden tools one day.They worked up to it gradually with what Randall calls“experiments in independence.”
“Just those moments， increasingly longer moments，where he can choose to be__28__his own.”Randall explains. Randall knows this isn't the __29__for today's parenting style. Gone are the days.__30__kids ride their bikes alone until the streetlights come on.Randall has met people who think she's a__31__parent.Once，an off-duty police officer started yelling at her when she left Matthew alone in the car.__32__a few minutes while she ran into a shop.Randall knows that parents in several states have been arrested for.__33__their kids walk to the park alone， or even__34__them to walk to school. And so she was a bit__35__about what this man might do.Anyway， they talked it out， and the man walked__36__. Randall felt confident about.__37__her parenting， partly__38__she had connected with a group__39__Free Range Kids. This group.__40__childhood independence， and gives families the information they need to push back against a culture of overprotection.

Passage 1
“High tech” and “state of the art” are two expressions that describe the modern technology. High tech is just a shorter way of saying high technology. And high technology describes any invention， system of device that uses the newest ideas or discoveries of science and engineering. What is high tech？ A computer is high tech. So is a communications satellite. A modern manufacturing (生产) system is surely high tech.High tech became a popular expression in the United States during the early 1980’s. Because of improvements in technology， people could buy many new kinds of products in American stores， such as home computers， microwave ovens， etc.“State of the art” is something that is as modern as possible. It is a product that is based on the very latest methods and technology. Something that is “state of the art” is the newest possible design or product of a business or industry. A state of the art television set， for example， uses the most modern electronic design and parts. It is the best that one can buy.“State of the art” is not a new expression.Engineers have used it for years， to describe the best and most modern way of doing something. Millions of Americans began to use the expression in the late 1970’s. The reason was the computer revolution.Every computer company claimed that its computers were “state of the art”.Computer technology changed so fast that a state of the art computer today might be old tomorrow. The expression “state of the art” became as common and popular as computers themselves. Now all kinds of products are said to be “state of the art”.

Passage 2
As any middle-class parent knows， unpaid work experience can give youngsters a valuable introduction to a secure job. The government has recognized it too， abandoning rules in 2011 that had formerly stopped 16 to 24-year-olds from doing unpaid work while claiming unemployment benefit. But moving from that to forcing them to work without pay in order to collect these benefits has proved a big step.More than one million young people in Britain are unemployed， the highest number since the mid-1980s. Keen both to cut the welfare bill and to avoid the depressed future wages that may result from early unemployment， the government has introduced an ambitious program of reform to get youngsters off welfare and into work. A key part of it is ensuring that no one gets benefit from the government for long; ministers are keen to avoid what happened after the early-1980s recession (衰退)， when unemployment continued in some parts of the country for a long time after the economy began to improve.To help young people into work， ministers had persuaded lots of employers， including bakery chains， bookshops and supermarkets， to take on unemployed youths， who receive work experience but no pay， with the prospect of a proper job for those who shine. Some 35，000 youngsters participated last year; half found paid work soon after finishing the scheme.The idea of getting young adults used to showing up for work is popular with voters: according to a survey published in February， about 60% of people support the program. Equally attractive was the option of compelling them to work: Under the existing arrangements youngsters could choose whether or not to accept a place， but if they dropped out after the end of the first week， they stood to lose up to two weeks’ benefits.Yet the scheme has also polarized(两极分化的) opinion: a third of people are consistently opposed. Following a noisy “Right to Work” campaign that accused employers of co-operating secretly with the government in “forced labor”， several firms dropped out of the program. To prevent this from getting worse， Chris Grayling， an employment minister， admitted that young people could leave their work experience at any time without being punished for doing so. This not only halted the flight of employers (for now， at least) but also enabled him to announce that new firms have agreed to take part in the program.