When Benjamin Cherkasky was in eighth grade, he quit the swim team. It wasn’t because he lacked the passion; he just couldn’t accept failures in matches. “I’m not Michael Phelps, why am I even on the team?” he said.
A US therapist (治疗专家) who researches perfectionism at Northwestern University realized years later what had happened. Cherkasky’s perfectionism was creating unrealistic standards. Unable to meet them, he quit.
“My perfectionism prompted (导致) very high expectations, and that caused real suffering,” he said.
Cherkasky is not alone in feeling that perfectionism can breed anxiety. So many millennials (千禧一代) suffer from the ills of perfectionism that psychologists are issuing warnings and schools are emphasizing the need to accept failure.
Northwestern had held several seminars that offered tips on how students could deal with a perfectionism problem.
Jessica Rohlfing Pryor, a psychologist leading the events, said every generation is a sponge for the messages it receives.
“Millennials, more than any other generation in American society, are receiving clear messages around achieving,” she said. “There’s an absence of messaging that trying your hardest is still OK.”
The American Psychological Association also found out that recent generations of college students have reported higher levels of perfectionism than earlier generations.
This “desire to achieve along with being overly critical of oneself and others” affects young people’s mental health, according to its research, which analyzed data from over 40,000 college students.
Researchers noted that social media adds comparative pressure, along with the drive to earn money and achieve career goals. Perfectionists often create even higher goals, which can lead to a higher risk of failure.
In college, Cherkasky found himself surrounded by so many intelligent people that he felt he should have been achieving a higher level than he was. “It makes you feel kind of crazy,” he said.
This type of thinking can lead people to putting in less effort, which, as they fall behind, can create more anxiety. “It makes people feel kind of isolated.” Cherkasky added, “And that can cause students to drift away from their school”. Northwestern is not the only school eager to help students.
Brown University includes perfectionism in its counseling (咨询) services, asking students if they ever feel that what they accomplish isn’t good enough.
1. Why did Cherkasky quit the swim team in eighth grade?| A．He wanted more time to study. | B．He found he had no passion for swimming. |
| C．He couldn’t reach the goal he set for himself. | D．He always did badly in swimming competitions. |
| A．Millennials are unwilling to work hard. |
| B．Young people should accept being imperfect. |
| C．Young people should learn to deal with pressure. |
| D．Perfectionism can benefit individuals and society. |
| A．Social media users were more likely to be perfectionists. |
| B．Perfectionism could have a negative impact on physical health. |
| C．Few universities offered help to students with mental problems. |
| D．College millennial students suffer more perfectionism problems than ever. |
| A．the harm of being a perfectionist | B．the effect of isolation on perfectionists |
| C．the pressure college students experience | D．the challenges underachievers have to overcome |
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【推荐1】Every 40 days a language dies. This “catastrophic” loss is being intensified by the climate crisis; according to linguists. If nothing is done, conservative estimates suggest that half of all the 7000 languages currently spoken will be extinct by the end of the century.
Speakers of minority languages have experienced a long history of persecution (迫害) , with the result that by the 1920s half of all indigenous (土著的) languages in Australia, the US, South Africa and Argentina were extinct. The climate crisis is now considered the “final nail in the coffin” for many indigenous languages and the knowledge they represent.
“Languages are already endangered,” says Anastasia Richl, director of the Strathy language unit at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario. Huge factors are globalization and migration, as communities move to regions where their language is not spoken or valued, according to Richl. “It seems particularly cruel,” she says, “that most of the world’s languages are in parts of the world that are growing unpleasant to people.” Vanuatu, a South Pacific island nation measuring 12,189km2, has 110 languages, the highest density (密度) of languages on the planet. It is also one of the countries most at risk of sea level rise, she says. “Many small language communities are on islands and coastlines easily subject to hurricanes and sea level rise.” Others live on lands where rising temperature threatens traditional farming and fishing practices, leading to migration.
In response to the crisis, the UN launched the International Decade of Indigenous Languages in 2022. Promoting and conserving languages of indigenous communities is “not only important for them, but for all humanity”, said Csaba Korosi, the UN general assembly president, urging countries to allow access to education in indigenous languages.
1. What is the writer mainly concerned about?| A．The disappearance of languages. | B．The challenge of climate change. |
| C．The reaction to the language crisis. | D．The trend of the speedy globalization. |
| A．To explain the main reason for language density. |
| B．To show the common features of endangered languages. |
| C．To stress the impact of geographical position on migration. |
| D．To illustrate the situation of minority language communities. |
| A．Support migrants to access local education. |
| B．Discourage people from massive migration. |
| C．Improve the living conditions of minority groups. |
| D．Preserve the languages of indigenous communities. |
| A．Faced with Disasters: Communities Have to Leave |
| B．Lost for Words: Rising Seas Bring Threat of Catastrophe |
| C．Upset at Extinction: UN Urges International Cooperation |
| D．Involved in Action: Experts Seek Solutions to Climate Crisis |
When we were growing up in our grandparents’ home, Jack, my grandfather, was always in his room sitting in the chair and listening to the radio. The voices speaking from the metal box day and night, taught us that there was a larger world outside. He would roll the black dial (刻度盘) back and forth until the signal was clear. Then he would listen.
Now he is old and falls ill. When I went to visit him, he said to me, “I dislike the Internet. The problem is that we’re losing primary contact with each other. No more shaking hands. Everyone is so busy. We want too much and in the process of getting it we miss so much.” He stopped for a while. “It makes me feel lonely and sad.” Then he looked at me, “I just want to hear your voices.”
I think of all the voices on the radio he has spent a lifetime listening to. I asked, “How did you become interested in the radio?” “I don’t know,” he said. “It was another way to reach people. I was always interested in searching for a better signal, a clearer, more powerful signal that could communicate with someone somewhere.”
“And I’ll tell you another funny thing: you can electronically eliminate all kinds of noise from the signal, but you can’t remove natural noise caused by thunder and lightning, rainstorms, or snowstorms.”
He closed his eyes and smiled. “I was just thinking that in spite of all our technologies, maybe we haven’t progressed that far as human beings. We shouldn’t forget we still have the same basic needs.”
1. What did Jack use to do in his room? (No more than 15 words)2. Why did Jack roll the black dial back and forth? (No more than 8 words)
3. How is Jack feeling now? (No more than 10 words)
4. What does the underlined word “eliminate” in Paragraph 4 mean? (4 words)
5. What should you do to solve the problem of losing direct contact with others?(No more than 20 words)
【推荐3】In the house where I grew up, we had a room we called the library. It wasn’t a real library, of course, it was just a small room dominated by a television set. But there were bookshelves built into all four walls, and hundreds of book — hardback books of many colors — surrounded us in that room. The books, collected by my parents and grandparents throughout their lifetimes, were a part of my childhood.
But in the 1970s, I’m noticing a worrying trend: a move away from books. American homes might soon lack dedicated spaces for libraries, and hardcover books, once symbols of enduring thought and wisdom, may become endangered.
A friend who owns a bookstore in a college town tells me he struggles to sell hardback books; paperbacks, though easier to sell, still disappoint him. Students, once seen with books, now carry music records. Reading seems to be giving way to listening. Recent observations support this shift: the University of Illinois reported that a significant portion of freshmen have reading skills no better than an average eighth grader, with many of these students having been top performers in high school.
University professors note that even college graduates struggle with reading and writing. The cultural impact of this change is evident. A successful fiction book might sell a mere 3,000 copies, while a music album by a new band, Boston, has sold millions. This reflects our passive consumption era, where listening to music or watching shows requires little active engagement, unlike reading a book, which demands effort and intent.
In the past, reading was a fundamental part of life, but now, in the era of fast information access, books are losing their significant place. Today’s young Americans are more likely to read a disposable paperback than to cherish and reread a hardcover. In a society that values speed and convenience, the book for keeping and rereading is a weighty dinosaur.
1. What trend in the 1970s does the author find concerning?| A．The rise of paperback books. | B．The increase in television watching. |
| C．The struggle to sell hardback books. | D．The decline in book reading and interest in libraries. |
| A．They may have difficulty in reading and writing. | B．They read more hardbacks than paperbacks. |
| C．They are buying more books than music records. | D．They are more likely to engage in demanding work. |
| A．A valuable resource. | B．A popular trend. |
| C．An outdated relic. | D．A new innovation. |
| A．Library: A Valuable Place | B．Books: An Endangered Species? |
| C．Reading Makes People Wise | D．Hardcovers Are Symbols of Wisdom |
【推荐1】Spiders are pretty remarkable. They live almost everywhere, from rainforests to deserts. Some even spend most of their lives underwater. They are smarter than you think, with some able to make plans and count. Scientists think they might even dream when they sleep. Yet many people find these eight-legged animals scary. Now, it seems, fake news maybe mostly to blame.
Media reports about people’s encounters with spiders tend to be full of falsehoods, a new study finds. “The vast majority of the spider content out there is about their being scary and hurting people, ”says arachnologist Catherine Scott. In reality, researchers note, “Spiders almost never bite people.” In fact, many spiders protect us by eating insects, such as mosquitoes, which spread disease. Even spiders that could pose a threat rarely bite people, Scott says.
For the new study, Scott and their colleagues analyzed more than 5,000 online newspaper stories about humans and spiders. Each had been published between 2010 and 2020. They came from 81 countries and were written in 40 languages. The researchers didn’t just find errors in the stories. More than four in ten, articles had overblown the spiders’ behaviors and often used sensational words like killers and nightmares to describe them.
If people knew the truth about spiders, they would spend less time blaming them for bites caused by other animals, Scott argues. People might also be less likely to kill spiders with pesticides that are poisonous to other species including humans. Clearing spiders’ name would be good for them, too. Say, for instance, the ones in your house that don’t get squashed (压扁) out of fear.
Improving spiders’ public image could even boost conservation efforts in general. “Spiders are kind of unique in that they seem to be really good at grabbing people’s attention,” says Lisa Taylor, an arachnologist who was not involved in the study. “If that attention is paired with real information about how fascinating they are, then I think spiders are well-suited to serve as tiny ambassadors for wildlife in general.”
1. What probably contributes to spiders’ ill names?| A．Scientific studies. | B．Untrue stories. |
| C．Their errors. | D．Their ugly looks. |
| A．Spiders are smarter than you. | B．Spiders never bite people. |
| C．Most spiders spread disease. | D．Spiders protect people in a way. |
| A．Spiders are not good at disguising themselves. |
| B．Spiders would be better protected if treated rightly. |
| C．Public attention is consistent with real information. |
| D．Improvement in spiders’ public image makes no sense. |
| A．Spiders Unfairly Negative | B．Spiders’ Public Image |
| C．Well-suited Ambassadors | D．Spiders Actually Scary |
【推荐2】As the coronavirus pandemic spread out, the demand for smell training therapy (疗法) stepped up, as potentially millions of those who had COVID-19 experienced losing their sense of smell.
Unlike some other viruses that can cause the loss of smell by directly infecting cells involved in detecting smell, the virus that causes COVID-19 spares them. Instead, the coronavirus infects surrounding support cells. To defend the body against the virus, immune cells rush to this site of infection and generate antiviral proteins, which then lead to the loss.
Approximately 80% of COVID-19 patients who had lost their sense of smell regained it without any treatment within one to four weeks. But as three months went by, patient Chris Rogers’ situation barely improved, so he started to seek out smell training therapy.
Twice a day for 10 weeks, Rogers sniffed four kinds of essential oils—rose, lemon, eucalyptus, and clove—to potentially strengthen the survival of newly formed smell-detecting cells or speed up their production and rebuild the connection between his nose and brain. To assess whether this smell therapy was effective, the doctor asked Rogers to distinguish between a number of additional smells before and after the smell training. Rogers did the therapy for 10 weeks and started noticing improvements at week six. At least five months since the smell training ended, the improvements can be more like 75%.
While scientists have recorded improvements in some individuals’ ability to smell, it has been difficult to show how much of that improvement comes from the therapy itself or natural recovery occurring over time, said Eric Holbrook, a doctor at Massachusetts Eye and Ear Hospital. “But I continue to recommend the therapy because such training could speed up the healing process. Also, it’s one of very few and often the only therapeutic options that’s available to millions of COVID-19 patients who haven’t been able to regain their sense of smell for months,” Eric Holbrook added.
Although the benefits of smell training can vary considerably among patients, depending on their starting point, “it is generally not considered harmful,” says Bradley Goldstein, a specialist studying at Duke University. “But we still need to find specific, more effective drug therapies. It’s really an unmet need.”
1. What is the second paragraph mainly about?| A．The ways of restoring the sense of smell. |
| B．The significance of smell training therapy. |
| C．The main symptoms of coronavirus infection. |
| D．The reason for the loss of smell in COVID-19 patients. |
| A．To estimate the effectiveness of smell training. |
| B．To improve the sensitivity of Rogers’ sense of smell. |
| C．To make Rogers remember the smell of common oil. |
| D．To rebuild the connection between Rogers’ nose and brain. |
| A．Favorable. | B．Indifferent. | C．Ambiguous. | D．Disapproving. |
| A．Encouraging patients to recover naturally. |
| B．Developing better drug therapies for patients. |
| C．Conducting the smell training on a large scale. |
| D．Providing long-term health guidance for patients. |
【推荐3】Culture shock has many stages. Each stage can appear only at certain times. Culture begins with the “ honeymoon”. This is the period of time when we first arrive in which everything about the new culture is strange and exciting. This honeymoon stage can last for quite a long time. Afterwards, the second stage presents itself. A person may encounter some difficult times in daily life. This period of culture adjustment (调整) can be very difficult and lead to the new arrival rejecting the new culture. This “rejection stage” can be quite dangerous because the visitor may develop unhealthy habits, such as smoking, drinking too much.
The third stage is characterized by gaining some understanding of the new culture. A new feeling of pleasure and sense of humor may be experienced. And you are becoming stronger by learning to take care of yourself in the new place. Things are still difficult, but you are now a survivor! This is called the “adjustment stage”. The fourth stage can be called “ at ease at last”. Now you feel quite comfortable in your new environment. You can deal with most problems. You may still have problems with the language, but you know you are strong enough to deal with them. If you meet someone from your country who has just arrived, you can be the expert on life in the new culture and help them to deal with their culture shock.
The fifth stage is the stage that is called the “re-entry shock. ” This occurs when a return to the country of origin is made. One may find that things are no longer the same. For example, some of the newly learned customs are not in use in the old culture.
1. What could be the best title of the passage?| A．How to Fight Cultural Shock | B．Stages of Cultural Shock |
| C．Origin of Cultural Shock | D．How to Adjust to New Cultural |
| A．The “honeymoon stage” | B．The “rejection stage” |
| C．The “adjustment stage” | D．The “re-entry shock” |
| A．The place is not the same as before |
| B．The old customs have changes over the years |
| C．They are not used to the local customs. |
| D．They are no longer what they used to be. |
【推荐1】Mrs. Timms listened as the radio announcer gave a hurricane (飓风) warning for her town. Then she woke up her sons, Eddie and Jasper, and quickly explained, "We’ve got a lot to do, boys. There is no school today, and my office is closed. The hurricane is coming!
Just then, the boys grandfather arrived from his seaside home. Grandpa explained that the local government had told people to evacuate their homes by the sea. It just wasn’t safe for anyone to stay near the ocean during the hurricane.
Soon afterwards, Mrs. Timms left to buy supplies that the family would need during the storm. Batteries, bottled water and canned food were a few of the items on her list.
Grandpa stayed with the boys, and the three of them made preparations for the storm. First, they filled the bathtub and all the empty water bottles they could find. Next, they unplugged(拔掉插头)almost everything in the house. Then, Eddie helped Grandpa strengthen the windows. Meanwhile, Jasper put the outdoor chairs inside.
Later, as the storm approached, the family stayed in protected areas away from the windows and outside walls. Mrs. Timms and Grandpa moved chairs to a protected space near the staircase. Eddie and Jasper sat under a strong table next to them, reading and playing games. They waited for the radio announcer to declare that the hurricane had passed.
1. What did Mrs. Timms do after hearing the hurricane warning?| A．She went to work. | B．She woke up her sons. |
| C．She prepared breakfast. | D．She watched the hurricane. |
| A．lock | B．reach | C．repair | D．leave |
| A．filled the bathtub | B．turned off the lights |
| C．put the outdoor chairs inside | D．sat under a strong table |
| A．A Happy Family. | B．A Seaside House. |
| C．The Damage of the Hurricane. | D．The Day of the Hurricane. |
【推荐2】Not too long ago a thirty-year-old financial analyst was complaining to me over a period of months about her tendency to procrastinate (拖延) in her job. We had worked through her feelings about her employers and how they related to her feelings about authority in general, and to her parents specifically. We had examined her attitudes toward work and success and how these related to her marriage, her sexual identity, her desire to compete with her husband, and her fears of such competition. Yet despite all this standard psychoanalytic (精神分析的) work, she continued to procrastinate as much as ever Finally one day, we dared to look at the obvious.
"Do you like cakes?" I asked her.
She replied that she did.
"Which part of the cake do you like better," I went on, " the cake or the frosting (糖霜)? "
"Oh, the frosting!" she responded enthusiastically.
"And how do you eat a piece of cake?" I inquired, feeling that I must be the silliest psychiatrist that ever lived.
"I cat the frosting first, of course," she replied.
From her cake-eating habits we went on to examine her work habits and as was to be expected we discovered that on any given day she would devote the first hour to the more satisfying half of her work while the remaining six hours to the objectionable (令人反感的) another half.
I suggested that if she were to force herself to finish the unpleasant part of her job during the first hour, she would then be free to enjoy the other six.
It seemed to me, I explained, that one hour of pain followed by six hours of pleasure was preferable to one hour of pleasure followed by six hours of pain. She agreed, and, being basically a person of strong will, she no longer procrastinated.
Delaying satisfaction is a process of scheduling the pain and pleasure of life in such a way as to improve the pleasure by meeting and experiencing the pain first and getting it over with. It is the only good way to live.
1. Why did the author ask about her friend’s cake-eating habits?| A．To have a relaxing chat with her. |
| B．To know more about her habits in her life and work. |
| C．To share their favorite food. |
| D．to find out something obvious. |
| A．Forcing herself to finish the unpleasant part of the job. |
| B．Being free to enjoy the job. |
| C．Experiencing and overcoming the pain first. |
| D．Being a person of strong will. |
| A．A Friend's problem | B．Delaying your satisfaction |
| C．Experience the pain | D．A cake in life |
【推荐3】Forests are home to many wild animals. The population explosion and more human activities in the forests have caused many of their native species(物种)to become endangered.
Giant Panda
The giant panda, one of the most recognizable endangered species, is a large, docile species of bear native to the forest of eastern China, Myanmar and Vietnam. Because of its limited diet- the panda’s main source of food is bamboo- the species is limited in its habitat to areas where bamboo is available. Now the species only can be found today in 20 small patches of forest at the western edge of its historic range.
Gray and Red Wolves
The gray wolf, which once ranged from the East Coast of America to the West, and south to Mexico, now has a population of only 5, 000 in the lower 48 states, mostly in the Rocky Mountains. The red wolf, native to the southeastern United States, was declared extinct(已灭绝的) in the wild in 1980.
Red-Crowned Crane
The red-crowned crane is native to Japan, Korea and eastern China. Agricultural expansion and deforestation (森林砍伐) in these areas have removed a great deal of the marshes and forests that are the crane’ s primary habitats. For a time, the crane was thought to have completely disappeared from Japan, but the recent discovery of cranes in Japanese marshlands has restarted conservation efforts. Today, around 2, 500 cranes live in the wild, including 1,000 in Japan.
1. What has caused the wild animals to become endangered?| A．Global warming. |
| B．International trade. |
| C．Environmental pollution. |
| D．Human activities. |
| A．European Mink. |
| B．Red Wolves. |
| C．Red － Crowned Crane. |
| D．Giant Panda. |
| A．To call for more efforts to protect forests. |
| B．To study the living habits of wild animals. |
| C．To introduce some endangered species. |
| D．To find ways to protect wild animals. |
【推荐1】DO THANH, Vietnam-The last remains of the 39 Vietnamese who died while being carried illegally in a truck to England last month were sent back to their home country on Saturday. Photos by the official Vietnam News Agency showed the arrival at the Hanoi airport of 16 bodies and seven urns (骨灰盒), which had been flown from London. They were loaded into ambulances on a foggy morning for a trip to their hometowns in several provinces in northern and central Vietnam.
The bodies were found Oct 23 in the English town of Grays, east of London. Police said the victims were aged between 15 and 44. While no cause of death has been officially confirmed, the circumstances suggested asphyxiation (窒息). The 31 men and eight women are believed to have paid human traffickers (人贩子) for their entering England secretly. Several people have been arrested in the UK and Vietnam.
Shortly after noon on Saturday, the body of one victim, 19-year-old Bui Thi Nhung, arrived at Phu Tang church in the village of Do Thanh. More than 100 villagers and family members waited for the body’s arrival at a highway leading to the village. They held white flowers, standing by the side of the road as the ambulance carrying the body passed. After 15 minutes at the church, the mourners moved to Nhung’s home nearby. One of Nhung’s nieces held her portrait to lead the procession.
Nhung’s coffin was placed in the middle of the living room of the one-story house, with the family weeping by the sides. Relatives and neighbors came into the home to place incense (香). A funeral will be held for Nhung at her home on Sunday, followed by a ceremony at the church before she was buried.
An initial (最初的) group of 16 bodies were handed over to their families on Wednesday, and funerals were held the following day.
The impoverished villages the victims were born in have largely been left out of the economic development that has turned urban centers in Vietnam such as Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi into boom (繁荣) towns, sending many on a risky journey looking for a better life abroad.
1. How did the 39 Vietnamese lose their lives?| A．They died in a terrible traffic accident. |
| B．They lost their lives due to lack of food. |
| C．They were killed by the human traffickers. |
| D．There has been no definite answer up to now. |
| A．Her coffin was placed in a two-storey house. |
| B．She is a teenager girl coming from a village. |
| C．Her brother held her portrait to lead the procession. |
| D．She will be buried without a ceremony at the church. |
| A．Poor. | B．Modern. |
| C．Attractive. | D．Dirty. |
| A．39 Vietnamese bodies found Oct 23 in Grays |
| B．Vietnam receives last of 39 remains of Victims |
| C．39 Vietnamese are carried illegally in a truck to England |
| D．Several paople arrested related to 39 Vietnamese dead bodies |
【推荐2】A storm hit Houston, Texas, on Tuesday. It brought heavy rains and rising flood-waters. By Tuesday night, some parts of the city had received 10 inches of rain. Police and firefighters helped people move to safe places. They also saved people from cars and buses that were stuck on roads.
Certain areas around Houston were hit really hard. In just four hours, more than seven inches of rain fell in Sugar Land in the southwest of Houston. Cars could not pass through any of the areas main roadways. On Twitter, Sugar Land city officials asked people to get to high ground.
Tuesday’s rain hit parts of Texas that Hurricane Harvey had already damaged almost two years ago. Hurricane Harvey in August, 2017 was the second most costly hurricane in US history. It caused $125 billion worth of damage in Texas. In the Houston area, 36 people died and about 150, 000 homes were flooded.
A spokesman for the Harris County Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Management spoke with the Houston Chronicle. The spokesman said that this week’s rain is “not in any way a Harvey-level event.”
But the worst may not be over yet. People will have a break from the heavy rain on Wednesday. According to the National Weather Service, the Texas Gulf Coast will continue to experience heavy rain later in the week. "Today should be our quietest over the next few days for rainfall,” said Don Oettinger, a National Weather Service meteorologist (气象学家).
Houston Fire Chief Samuel Peia warned, “As there is too much water on the ground, these are perfect conditions for flash floods, so we hope people are careful of what they’re doing and encourage them to stay home. There’s no sense in putting yourself, firefighters or anybody in danger needlessly.”
1. What are Paragraphs 1 and 2 mainly about?| A．Flood damage in Houston. | B．Flood prevention in Houston. |
| C．Heavy floods hitting Houston. | D．People fighting floods in Houston. |
| A．It caused no deaths or injuries. | B．It did a lot of damage to Texas. |
| C．It was less serious than this week’s rain. | D．It was the biggest hurricane on record. |
| A．Fine days are coming. | B．It will rain a little non-stop. |
| C．A hurricane is unavoidable. | D．Floods will continue. |
| A．Stay indoors. | B．Join firefighters. |
| C．Give up needless things. | D．Comfort those who lost homes. |
【推荐3】Spring will soon be upon us and a new term is here. All over the world spring is the season of new life: flowers bloom，baby animals are born, and the weather becomes warmer. During this time of year, people usually walk around with a spring in their steps and a feeling of fresh beginnings. However, for a fresh beginning it takes more than the bright colors and fresh air of spring. We need to look at ourselves, set new goals, and decide how to improve ourselves.
In England, people usually do this on the first day of the year. We look at the past year and think about what we’d like to change or improve in our lives, and we call this a New Year’s resolution (决心). These can be anything from improving one’s health through exercise or giving up bad habits, to studying harder for better grades or trying to find a good work or life balance.
Luckily, we don’t have to wait for the beginning of a new year to try and become better people. We can do this whenever we like. The milestone of a new term is just a good place to start.
Sometimes it’s difficult to take the first step in achieving newly set goals, but an old saying is “to begin is to be half-way there. ” I agree with this because taking on a new task or changing habits can seem daunting at first, but once we begin, they get easier.
The trick with deciding on a resolution for a new term is not to set unrealistic goals. If we do this, it’s easy to lose heart, because the final goal seems so far away. Try to make many small goals that you want to reach on the way to your final goal. This way, you can see your progress easily.
1. What should we do in spring according to the first paragraph?| A．To have an animal for a pet. |
| B．To set goals for a fresh beginning. |
| C．To take a walk around outdoors. |
| D．To enjoy fresh air and bright colors. |
| A．changeable | B．difficult | C．lovely | D．dangerous |
| A．If you see no progress,you’ll be sad. |
| B．Whatever happens，stick to your dreams. |
| C．Your goals should be realistic and small. |
| D．Never lose heart when meeting with difficulties. |
| A．Well begun is half done. |
| B．All roads lead to Rome. |
| C．All that ends well is well. |
| D．Be swift to hear,slow to speak. |
