【推荐2】Sometimes people come into your life and you know right away that they are meant to be there… to serve some sort of purpose, teach you a lesson or help figure out who you are or who you want to become.

You never know who these people may be but, when you lock eyes with them, you know that every moment they will affect your life in a profound way.

And sometimes things happen to you at the time that may seem horrible, painful and unfair but, upon reflection, you realize that without overcoming those hardships, you would have never realized your potential, strength, willpower or heart.

Everything happens for a reason. Nothing happens by means of good luck. Illness, injury, love, lost moments of true greatness and absolute stupidity all happen to test the limits of you soul.

Without these small tests, life would be like a smooth, straight, flat road to nowhere. Safe and comfortable but meaningless. The people you meet affect your life. The successes and failures that you experience can create who you are, and the bad experiences can be learned from. In fact, they are probably the most important ones.

If someone hurts you, betrays (背叛) you or breaks your heart, forgive them because they have helped you learn about trust and the importance of being careful with whom you open your heart to. If someone loves you, love them back, not only because they love you, but because they are teaching you to love and open your heart and eyes to little things.

Make every day count. Appreciate every moment and take from it everything that you possibly can, for you may never be able to experience it again. Talk to people you have never talked to before, and actually listen. Hold your head up because you have every right to. Tell yourself you are an unique individual and believe in yourself, for if you don’t believe in yourself, no one else will believe in you.

1. The first paragraph tells us that ________.

A．you will never know who will come into your life

B．your life is sometimes influenced deeply by someone

C．you need help to judge who you are in life

D．you know someone the moment you meet him

2. It can be inferred from the fourth paragraph that ________.

A．everything is a test for you	B．there is no good luck in life
C．nothing happens by chance	D．there is a limit to your love

3. The underlined word “ones” refers to ________.

A．the people	B．the small tests
C．the successes	D．the bad experiences

4. According to the passage, you are advised to ________.

A．set a higher life goal	B．open your heart to others
C．live everyday to the full	D．treat yourself as a great person

5. The writer develops the passage by ________.

A．analyzing data	B．reasoning
C．giving examples	D．telling a story

【推荐3】If you are asked to chair a meeting, remember the following golden rules for meeting management.

Assign a note-taker or arrange to have the meeting audio-taped. You may need to refer back to an issue that was discussed during the meeting at a later date.     1    

    2     So many times we think we are going to say and, in the process, block out valid points that other group members may be contributing. Additionally, we often hear only what we want to hear, rather than really listening to other people. Meetings that are characterized by effective listening are successful meetings.

Give everyone an opportunity to be heard.     3     As the leader of the meeting, you need to keep an open mind and make sure everyone feels welcome to contribute and express ideas without criticism.

    4     Many times important issues can get sidetracked in a meeting, especially when everyone has a different opinion about the topic. If you anticipate a conflict prior to the meeting, discuss the issue with participants in advance. If an unanticipated (未预料到的) conflict develops once the meeting is in progress, ask participants involved in the conflict to meet with you after the meeting. Doing so will minimize the chances of wasting participants’ valuable time.

End on time. If you said the meeting would last no longer than one hour, make sure the meeting last for an hour.    5     Running late with a meeting makes members late for other appointments, increases the chances that members will mentally leave the meeting, and reduces your credibility (可靠性) as an effective meeting manager.

A．Learn to listen.

B．Start the meeting on time.

C．Keep the discussion on track.

D．Good record-keeping is a sign of good meeting manager as well.

E．Some people tend to monopolize (独占) meetings, while others wait to be asked.

F．You can appoint a sub committee to look into the problem in order to save time.

G．Meeting participants tend to plan the rest of their day according to the meeting schedule.

【推荐1】I was born in the city of York, in England, in 1632. My father was a man of some wealth, able to give me a good home and send me to school. It was his wish that I should be a lawyer but my head began to be filled very early with thoughts of travel, and I would be satisfied with nothing but going to sea. One day, being at Hull, I met one of my friends who was about to sail for London in his father’s ship, and he invited me to go with him. Without telling my father, I went on board.

On the way to London, our ship was destroyed by a storm, and we almost lost our lives. I went on foot to London, where I met with the master of a large ship which did business with countries on the coast of Africa. He offered me a chance to go with him, which I gladly accepted.

A great storm came up, and the ship was tossed (颠簸) about for many days, until we did not know where we were. Suddenly we hit a bank of sand, and the sea broke over the ship in such a way that we could not hope to have her hold many moments without breaking into pieces. So we used a boat instead. After we had been driven four or five miles, a mountainous wave (波浪) hit us so hard that it overturned the boat at once. I swam well but the waves were so strong that I was pushed against a rock with such force, and left unconscious. But I recovered a little before the waves returned, and, running forward, got to the mainland safely. I never regretted my decisions.

1. What did the author want to do most when he was young?

A．To visit Africa.

B．To sail the seas.

C．To practice law.

D．To move to London.

2. In the last paragraph, the author mainly shows         .

A．what he did on the ship

B．what he went through at sea

C．how he became a man of wealth

D．how he got to know a ship owner

3. What can we learn about the author?

A．He could not swim at all.

B．He made his father very proud.

C．He was not afraid of taking risks.

D．He did business with African countries.

【推荐2】US student Vanessa Tahay stands out from the other teenagers in her school. Her skin is dark, her accent is thick, and if you ask her, she will tell you these are the things she is proudest of. Tahay is a poet, and at 18 she was considered among the best in Los Angeles.

When she is on the stage, audiences often go silent. They also laugh, shout and cry. But this doesn’t come easily for someone who comes from a village that sits at the base of a huge mountain range in Central America. When she first appeared at school, she was teased by others for being short and different. She never spoke, so they called her “mouse”.

“How do I defend myself?” Tahay thought. “I don’t know how.”

“Keep going,” her mother would tell her. “At some point, you’ll learn.”

She spent hours after school and on weekends watching the same DVDs: English without Barriers.

Tahay’s elder brother, Elmer, persuaded her to go to the after-school poetry club. In the last six years, her English teacher Laurie Kurnick has turned Cleveland Charter High School’s poetry program into one of the most respected in the city. Her team draws from the likes of D.H. Laurence, Pat Mora and Kendrick Lamar to create poems about their own lives. The poems focus on many things —some funny, some painful.

The first time Tahay read the group’s poems, chills went up her spine (脊柱). “I wish I could write like that,” she thought. “I want to say something.”

She wrote her first poem about her first year in America. She called it Invisible. The day her turn came to recite in front of the team, she broke down crying. She cried for 15 minutes. “I had so much held in,” Tahay said. “I couldn’t even finish it.”

But she kept at it despite her less-than-perfect grammar, spelling and diction (措辞). Still, she wouldn’t tell her friends about her poetry because she worried they would make fun of her.

But with time, her poems changed her. “They gave me pride,” Tahay said. “They told me that I’m worth something.”

“She had this innocence,” Kurnick said. “This willingness to be genuine and show you things you don’t ever see.”

1. What did Tahay’s mother suggest she do when she was teased by others?

A．Fight with them bravely.

B．Report them to her teachers.

C．Ignore them and keep going.

D．Try hard to make friends with them.

2. What are the themes of Tahay and her team’s poems?

A．Their admiration for the great poets.

B．Their appreciation of natural beauty.

C．Their expectations of a better future.

D．Funny and painful stories about their lives.

3. How did Tahay probably feel when she first read the group’s poems?

A．She was cold.	B．She was excited.
C．She was nervous.	D．She was frightened.

4. How did Tahay benefit from writing poems?

A．She felt more confident about herself.

B．She won many national poetry competitions.

C．She became the first student poet in the city.

D．She improved her grammar and spelling greatly.

【推荐3】Ross had serious health issues at birth and was said to have less than 1%possibility of living.He survived his first days of life,but the health problems continued.He had a brain injury shortly after birth.By the time Ross was two months old,he had already had one heart operation and three brain operations.    1    

When he was a few years old,it became clear that Ross would have trouble walking.Most of the time, he had to get a walking stick to help him.    2    But this never stopped Ross from becoming the best version of himself and exerting a big influence on the people around him.He went to physical therapy(治疗)sessions every day,wishing he would move freely gradually.And he finally made it.The key was his amazing attitude,faith and spirit,and his supporting family.

Ross was willing to try anything.He played soccer and basketball and learned kung fu.    3    Not only did he try these activities,but he stuck with them,facing challenges bravely.He was devoted to the things he cared about.

Ross liked to serve others.His parents were both Emergency Medical Technicians(EMTS).    4    After he became a Junior EMT,he helped his parents train others in CPR as a volunteer training assistant at Westport Volunteer EMS.

    5    He genuinely cared about others and always tried to spread his great attitude to those around him.When people were struggling,he would always come and encourage them.

A．Ross never failed his exams.

B．Sometimes he had to use a wheelchair.

C．Ross was also a great friend to other people.

D．And Ross later trained to be an EMT as well.

E．Ross developed a good relationship with his parents.

F．Meanwhile,he was a member of the Garden Club at school.

G．Ross made it through those early days even with challenges.