【推荐1】Have you ever agreed to do something only to find out later that you don’t have time? Are you constantly stressed from rushing from one assignment to another? If so, you may have a problem with overcommitment. Overcommitment happens when you decide to do more things than you realistically have time to do.     1     Your quality of life also suffers because overcommitment leaves you less time to take care of yourself. It’s preferable to do one or two things well than to do 10 things poorly - or worse, to back out once you’ve agreed to something.

Time management coach Elizabeth Saunders suggests creating a budget for your time like you do with money. The total amount of time you have each day equals 24 hours minus（减去）the time you need for basic wellness activities.     2    Saunders suggests adding up your time commitments to other people and the time needed to meet your personal goals. If that total is greater than the amount of time you have each day, you have a problem.

    3     Schedule times for everything you need to do – including taking care of yourself. But you don’t have to fill every blank space.

It’s also worth looking at your current commitments. Do your commitments actually match your priorities?     4    

Learning how to say no politely but firmly also helps with overcommitment. It helps to have a good sense of what your priorities are so that you can say yes or no when appropriate.

I have a rule that I never immediately agree to any long-term time commitments.     5    That’s because my first instinct（本能反应）is usually to say yes, even if I don’t really have time. Having time to think about a potential assignment gives me space to say no if I need to.

A．Are you satisfied with your job?

B．I always ask for some time to think.

C．It is worth considering your interest.

D．When this happens, the quality of your work suffers.

E．These include things like sleeping, eating and showering.

F．Could you give up some of them or pass them off to other people?

G．One tool that may be helpful in avoiding overcommitment is a calendar.

【推荐2】After a nail salon turns away a physically challenged woman, a stranger makes a truly beautiful gesture, ''Beauty isn't about having a pretty face. It’s about having a pretty mind, a pretty heart, and a pretty soul, oh, and pretty nails! '' That may well be Angela Peter's motto. Last July, Peters, 36, rolled her wheelchair into a nail salon at the Walmart shopping center in Burton, Michigan, with the idea of painting her fingers. But Peters was turned away. The salon told her that they were afraid it would be too difficult to properly paint her nails given that her hands shook. What was meant to be a day of happiness for Peters was now a disappointment.

Ebony Harris, 40, saw everything and approached Peters. Harris offered to do her nails. They shopped for nail polish. They settled on a bright blue-a color that would catch every eye. They then made their way into a neighbouring Subway, found a table for two, and set up shop. Harris gently took Peters' hand into hers and carefully began painting her nails. Watching it al with awe and admiration was Subway employee Tasia Smith. What struck her most was the ease and gentleness displayed by Harris as she painted Peters' nails, all the while chatting as if they were old friends.

Peters, who runs a poetry website, heavenlypoems.com, harbors no bitterness towards the nail salon that turned her away. The salon says they refused to offer Peters service because they were too busy. ''When people do us wrong, we must forgive, '' Peters wrote on her website. ''I just want to educate people that people with different disabilities, like being in a wheelchair, can have our own business and get our nails done like anyone else. ''

1. Why did Peters go to the Walmart shopping centre?

A．To go shopping.	B．To eat at a Subway.
C．To meet her friend Harris.	D．To have her nails painted.

2. What caused Peters' disappointment?

A．She was disabled.	B．She was refused.
C．The salon was busy.	D．She had no nail polish.

3. How do you find Ebony Harris?

A．Mean.	B．Optimistic.
C．Caring.	D．Stubborn.

4. What can we infer from the passage?

A．It's better to use websites to educate people.

B．The salon had its acceptable reason to decline a disabled woman.

C．Those who did something wrong should not be forgiven.

D．People with different challenges should be treated equally.

【推荐3】How to Improve Your Confidence

Confidence is something that everyone admires. At some point in your life you may question your level of confidence and wish it to be higher.     1     Creating and keeping high levels of confidence is vital to your well-being.

Watch your intake.     2     So reduce the amount of time of soaps and reality TV each day. Read a book or magazine about a topic you are interested in. Listen to a different radio station you have not listened to before. In this way, you challenge the beliefs you hold and raise your awareness of new things.

    3     Spend an allocated period of time being quiet and just reflecting on your life. Remove yourself away from others and focus on the power of silence and improve your levels of concentration.

Believe in yourself. One of the key steps in raising your level of confidence is to believe it for yourself. You need to believe, accept and be in no doubt that you are a confident person.     4     Meanwhile, value the time that you spend doing this process.

Take a look around for people you admire. It can be helpful to have someone in your circle that you admire for their skills or achievements. Observe the way they face new challenges and communicate with people. You also should attend a club or a group associated with a topic you’re interested in.     5    

A．Spend some time being quiet.

B．In this way, your attitude is changed.

C．Spend time imagining you at your absolute best.

D．What you read, watch and listen to affects your mindset.

E．You’ll meet new people different from your present circle of friends.

F．These are the kind of people that can help you to grow in confidence.

G．Your level of confidence affects the decisions you make in your life.

【推荐1】Eli Zied was supposed to focus on his grades and his future plans for college at the age of 15. But at that time, he started his own business and created a fashion brand called Habits 365.

Eli's business talents and interests appeared around age 12 when he started buying and reselling sneakers. It inspired him “to create a brand that everyone could relate to,” Patch Southampton magazine reported.

It was in August 2017 that he came up with the idea to create his own brand. “Habits influence your life, and the better your habits are, the more successful you will be in the long run,” Eh told Forbes.

He created designs and logos for his brand. Meanwhile, Eli brought his older brother Spencer Zied into the company as chief operating officer. Thanks to their early accumulated profits from reselling sneakers, the Zieds gained startup capital to invest in initial inventory and packaging. But one of the difficulties was how to expand their brand exposure. On the first night of their new business, they texted friends and asked them to follow the newly created Habits 365 Instagram account.

They also reached out to influential athletes, musicians and agents through Instagram with offers of free goods in exchange for a photograph or a post. This strategy worked out. Now, even NBA All-Star Giannis has worn the clothes of Habits 365.

For Eli Zied, the teenage CEO, perhaps the biggest challenge is how to balance his study and business. “I do homework and study for exams when I first get home from school and work on the business at the end of the day once my school is completed,” said Eli. “That is still my main priority.”

Eli, now an 18-year-old freshman at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, was surprised by the brands success. Habits 365 will be expected to reach 1 million in profit by the end of 2021, he told Yahoo Finance. “I believe that one day Habits 365 will be one of the biggest streetwear brands in the world,” he told Forbes.

1. What encouraged Eli to develop his own brand?

A．His school reports.	B．His early trade experience.
C．His viewpoints of habits.	D．The success of other brands.

2. Which of the following can best describe Eli?

A．Generous.

B．Helpful.

C．Ambitious.

D．Tolerant.

3. What is the most challenging for Eli at present?

A．Whether to create his own study zone.	B．How to succeed in academy and business.
C．Whether to play to his strengths.	D．How to manage his company.

4. What can be the best title for the text?

A．Time Management	B．A Successful Teen CEO
C．A Respectable Teen	D．Fortune Accumulation

【推荐2】My school appeared on the news last week because we had made an important change in our local area. Our class had planted a large garden in what was once only a vacant lot. It was a lot of work but it was all worth it. I got blisters (水疱) from digging, and we all got insect bites, too.

I learned a lot about gardening and collaboration (合作), and then I learned about the media. Our teacher telephoned the TV station and informed them of what we had accomplished. She spoke with the producer. The producer checked with the directors, but they said there were plenty of stories similar to ours. They wanted to know what was special about our particular garden, since many schools plant them.

The teacher explained that, after going on the Internet to learn about the prairie (大草原), we had made a prairie garden. We had been to a prairie and gotten seeds from the plants, and then we planted them. We did not water the garden, but we did weed it. We decided to let nature water it with rain, since that was how prairies grew in the past. We sent a picture of the garden to the news station. In the picture, the grass was so high that it stood taller than the fourth grade students.

As a result, the producer sent a reporter to our school. The reporter interviewed the headmaster and asked him many questions about the garden. After that, he interviewed us, and we explained to him what we had learned through this project.

That night, we watched the news, and there we were. The news reporter told our story. It was only two minutes long, but it was us. We were famous. All that work, all those blisters, it was worth it. We knew that when we saw the garden every day, but now we knew that the whole city thought so, too.

1. What seemed to be the TV directors' initial reaction to the garden?

A．They were excited.	B．They were surprised.
C．They were uninterested.	D．They were worried.

2. What is special about the garden?

A．The seeds came from the plants of a prairie.

B．The grass grew faster than common grass.

C．Weeds were allowed to spread naturally.

D．Underground water was used for the plants.

3. What does the underlined word ''that'' refer to in the last paragraph?

A．We got blisters on our hands.	B．The garden would be famous.
C．Our hard work was worthwhile.	D．The project would be finished.

4. How did the author feel about the project?

A．Annoyed.	B．Proud.
C．Cocky.	D．Arrogant.

【推荐3】Once I invited a group of friends round to my house, telling them that I was going to record their speech. I said I was interested in their regional accents, and that it would take only a few minutes. Thus, on one evening, three people turned up at my house and were shown into my front room. When they saw the room they were a bit alarmed, for it was laid out as a studio. In front of each easy chair there was a microphone at head height, with wires leading to a tape-recorder in the middle of the floor. I explained that all I wanted was for them to count from one to twenty. Then we could relax and have a drink.
I turned on the tape-recorder and each in turn seriously counted from one to twenty in their best accent. When it was over, I turned the tape-recorder off and brought round the drinks, and for the rest of the evening there was general cheerful conversation—interrupted only by the fact that I had to take a telephone call in another room, which unfortunately lasted some time.
Or at least that was how it would appear. For, of course, the microphones were not connected to the tape-recorder in the middle of the room at all but to another one, which was turning happily away in the kitchen. The participants, having seen the visible tape-recorder turned off, paid no more attention to the microphones which stayed in front of their chairs, only a few inches from their mouths, thus giving excellent sound quality. And my lengthy absence meant that I was able to obtain as natural a piece of conversation as it would be possible to find.
I should add, perhaps, that I did tell my friends what had happened to them, after the event was over, and gave them the choice of destroying the tape. None of them wanted to—though for some years afterwards it always seemed to be my round when it came to the buying of drinks. Linguistic research can be a very expensive business.
1. The writer asked his friends to count from one to twenty because _______.

A．he wanted to record the numbers for his research

B．he wanted to find out whether the tape recorder was working

C．he wanted to make his friends relax before real recording started

D．he wanted his friends to think that was all he wanted to record

2. The writer went into another room to ________.

A．get a natural recording of his friends’ conversation

B．stay away from too much drinking with his friends

C．bring a telephone into the front room

D．answer a long distance phone call

3. The writer turned off the tape-recorder because _______.

A．he had to answer a phone call

B．he wanted his friends to enjoy some drinks

C．he thought the tape-recorder might bother his friends

D．he wanted to make his friends believe he had finished the recording

4. Which one is true according to the passage?

A．The writer destroyed the tape.

B．The writer’s friends destroyed the tape.

C．The writer did tell his friends what had happened.

D．The writer’s friends like to drink.

【推荐1】Everyone needs to be safe,loved and to have a sense of belonging.These are inborn and natural basic needs.In an effort to have these needs satisfied,many of us tend to please others.And it works for a while.We find that we experience less conflict with others,but the conflict within ourselves grows.Saying "no" produces feeling of guilt and saying "yes" brings anger.

My father was in the military,so we moved frequently.Being shy,I didn't make friends.What's more,I grew up in a household where grades,image and how others saw our family were very important.In our household a "C" was unacceptable,a "B" should have been an "A" and an "A" meant the lesson was too easy.I was too skinny,my sister was too fat and my brother's lips and ears were too big for his tiny head.

To stop pleasing others is easier said than done.It's a long process,one in which I am consistently working to perfect.The turning point for me came shortly after I got married.The very first thing we did to end the cycle of catering to others was develop our own identity as individuals and then as a couple.And then we developed a strong set of core（核心）values and a vision for our future.The third and one of the most valuable things we did during this process was develop our own personal influence on others and we valued deeply the opinions of the wiser and more successful people around us.

Besides,we should understand that sometimes helping people actually hurts them.Struggle is necessary to success.Struggle strengthens character,making people determined.So sometimes allowing people to struggle is the best thing you can do for them.

1. How are we likely to feel when pleasing others?

A．Satisfied	B．Angry.
C．Happy	D．Guilty

2. What can we infer from the author's experience as a child?

A．He grew up doing a lot of housework.

B．It was hard for him to adjust to the moving life.

C．He realized the value of opinions from others.

D．His parents had great expectations of the children.

3. What is the third paragraph mainly about?

A．What steps the author took to go on pleasing others.

B．How the author stepped out of the cycle of pleasing others.

C．Why the author further developed his values and character.

D．When the author turned to others for their valuable opinions.

4. What does the author suggest doing?

A．Helping others without delay.

B．Refusing to help others.

C．Thinking twice before offering help.

D．Leaving someone alone in trouble.

【推荐2】Imagine on your way out of class today you trip (绊倒) on a rock and twist your ankle. As a result of the injury, you lose your place in the local sports team, and have to miss an important job interview. Bad luck? Or an opportunity to get rich quick?

Perhaps it's not surprising that an American woman, Roslyn Darch of Houston, Texas, USA felt annoyed when she tripped over a child running around a furniture store, and broke her ankle. But a few months later, she was $ 780,000 richer after successfully suing (控告) the shop. The owners were clearly surprised at the size of Roslyn's payout, particularly since the child she tripped over was her own son.

And it's not only suing cases of physical injuries that are keeping the lawyers busy. A group of overweight New York teenagers sued a giant fast-food company saying that they had not had enough warning that a diet of burgers, fries, and milk shakes would make them fat.

Apart from shop and restaurant, school is not a safe place, either. In an even more strange case, the parents of one nineteen-year-old English schoolgirl successfully sued her school for a compensation (赔偿) of £ 42,000 when she failed to get a top grade in a university entrance exam.

If you think that going on holiday is a good way to get away from all this trouble, think again-in Britain, millions of people sued travel companies, and many receive some form of compensation. Staff at those companies are used to dealing with requests for compensation following poor weather, cancelled air travels and lost luggage. And recently there was a case from someone who said his holiday was ruined because the locals didn't speak English.

Who knows where it will end? Maybe there should be punishment for unreasonable demands, or there should be a limit on payouts. But one thing is for sure-in the end, the only certain winner is the lawyer!

1. How many examples of suing cases are mentioned in the passage?

A．2

B．3

C．4

D．5

2. The writer's attitude towards the suing cases is _____.

A．supportive

B．uncertain

C．uninterested

D．disapproving

3. What is the best title for the passage?

A．To sue or not to sue?	B．Successful suing cases
C．Compensation counts	D．Different forms of compensation

【推荐3】The official opening of Beijing Daxing International Airport caps a long design and building process. Designed by the late architect Zaha Hadid and her Chinese partners, the airport is built for the future, having a terminal the size of 97 soccer grounds--as well as customer-service robots that provide travelers with flight updates and airport information.

Called "starfish" by Chinese media for its shape of five concourses（大厅）connected to a main hall, Daxing Airport aims to reduce the walking distance for passengers. The airport authority has promised a distance of no more than 600 meters（about eight minutes of walking）between security checkpoints and the remotest boarding gate.

This new modern airport employs a special intelligent lighting system, supported by eight big C-shaped columns that let in the sunlight, brightening the architecture and structure. Therefore, it minimizes the need to use electric lighting.

To offer a more refreshing travel experience, five outdoor courtyards with the themes "Silk Garden". "Tea Garden", "Porcelain Garden", "Countryside Garden" and "Chinese garden" feature at the end of the five departure lounges（等候室）for use by passengers waiting for their flights. Travelers will be scanned on cameras using facial recognition. Counters will be fully automated to capture face photos and relay them in each part of the journey through the airport, including security and the departure gate.

China is projected to overtake the United States as the world's biggest air travel market by 2022. The "modest" initial operational target at Daxing is to accommodate 72 million passengers and 2 million tons of goods annually by 2025. The ambitious master plan calls for the building of a total of seven runways, and moving at least 100 million passengers and 4 million tons of goods a year through the airport.

1. Why is the airport in a starfish-shaped design?

A．To hold as many passengers as possible.

B．To make the main hall easier to be found.

C．To keep security checkpoints effective.

D．To make boarding gates within easy reach.

2. What can the airport's lighting system be described as?

A．High-end.	B．Energy-saving.
C．Passenger-friendly.	D．Strangely-formed.

3. What can be inferred about the five outdoor courtyards?

A．They reflect the Chinese tradition.

B．They use popular technique.

C．They promote Chinese goods to people.

D．They follow the latest world trend.

4. According to the passage, which of the following statements is NOT True?

A．The design and construction of Daxing International Airport took a long time.

B．Zaha Hadid, the architect of Daxing International Airport, has passed away.

C．Passengers pass through security and the boarding gate by automatically capturing pictures of faces.

D．China has now overtaken the United States to become the world's largest air travel market.

5. What do the numbers in the last paragraph indicate?

A．The airport's market.	B．The airport's project.
C．The airport's potential.	D．The airport's facilities.

【推荐1】When you think of a national park, you generally picture fresh air and wild animals, right? Well, now you're going to have to add tea shops and something called "the Tube" to your definition, because London, England has signed up to be the first "National Park City."

London was established by the Romans around 2.000 years ago and has been continually inhabited (居住于) since then. In all that time, however, nobody had the idea to replace all the parks with big box stores or high buildings, which means London already has a much lower urban density (密度)than most of the worlds cities. Nowadays about a third of the city is green space,

In July 2019, London announced its willingness to become the world's first National Park City. Now the city is moving toward the goal of achieving 50% green space by the year 2050 by connecting and expanding public parks, greening up unused parking lots and the private yards of existing and new houses, fixing some green roofs on existing buildings and even cutting holes in fences for wildlife to pass through.

"Inspired by the aims and values of our precious rural national parks, the London National Park City is basically about making life better in the capital through both small everyday things and long-term strategic thinking." Daniel Raven-Ellison, who began the campaign to make London a National Park City six years ago said in a press release. "We’ ve been doing that in London for centuries, which is why London is so green and diverse.”

London will have a much easier job achieving this type of green transformation than more densely-urbanized cities like Paris and New York, which have 10% and 27% greenspace respectively. But that doesn't mean it's not possible--- the National Park City Foundation hopes to employ 25 more cities in addition to London by the year 2025. Glasgow. Scotland and Newcastle upon Tyne in northeast England are both currently considering becoming National Park Cities.

1. What makes London more likely to become a national park city than other cities?

A．Its smaller population.	B．Its less dense urbanization.
C．Its citizens' great support.	D．The government's efforts.

2. Where can we find the data on London's measures to achieve its goal?

A．In Paragraph 1.	B．In Paragraph 2.
C．In Paragraph 3.	D．In Paragraph 4.

3. What is Daniel Raven-Ellison trying to talk about in the fourth paragraph?

A．The significance of London's campaign.

B．The effects of national parks on London.

C．The resources of London's green space.

D．The strategic thinking of London for long.

4. What can we infer from the last paragraph?

A．Trying to be a national park city is turning new trend.

B．National park cities are springing up around the world.

C．It is so easy for London to become a national park city.

D．National park cities are making improvements to our life.

【推荐2】Once upon a time，there was a little boy who wanted to meet the king. He set off，walking towards the king’s castle. After many years of walking，the king’s castle came into his view. However，as the boy drew closer to the outside of the castle，the guards took notice of him.

“Get out of here！” commanded the guards.

Well，the little boy didn’t have to be told twice. He turned...and ran right away. All he wanted to do was to tell the king wonderful things，and see all the beautiful things in the king’s house. But he couldn’t even get near the castle! The boy finally stopped running，sat down and cried.

A young man happened to be coming down the path at the very moment. He saw the little boy and came up.“What’s wrong，young man？” he asked.

“Sir，I walked and walked just to see the king. But these guards made me frightened. I wanted to tell the king how lovely everything is and just tell the king that I just wanted to see him！”

The man looked at the little boy thoughtfully.“Look，why don’t you try again. Don’t lose heart. I ’ll come with you this time.”

The little boy got up and took the man’s hand. The king’s guards spotted them.

“Look，mister，we don’t have to do this...I don’t want you to get hurt. We can just turn around now.”

The man held the little boy’s hand and went on. The boy really thought the man might be crazy until he looked back up at the guards. They were all smiling now. The little boy was surprised.

“Who are you？” asked the little boy in surprise.

“Why，I’m the king’s son. You can enter the castle and be with the king，” said the man.

The little boy broke into a huge smile.

1. Why did the boy want to see the king?

A．To ask the king to play with him.

B．To get some help from the king.

C．To invite the king to visit his beautiful village.

D．To share wonderful things with the king.

2. What does the underlined sentence in the third paragraph mean?

A．The little boy understood the guards’ words right away.

B．The little boy didn’t understand the guards’ words at first.

C．The guards repeated the words to the boy.

D．The little boy had been to the castle twice.

3. According to the passage，the young man is         .

A．determined	B．stubborn
C．warm­hearted	D．mean

4. Which of the following best suits the story’s lesson for us?

A．Never judge a book by its cover.

B．Anything is possible if one tried hard enough.

C．Life can sometimes be unfair.

D．Make new friends and keep the old.

【推荐3】Eight years ago, Special Olympics Georgia Forsyth County was introduced to Britt Hall.Britt Hall is a Special Olympics Georgia athlete."The first sport I started competing in with Special Olympics Georgia was softball.I was with the Forsyth Golden Gloves, and we were a pretty good team," said Britt as he looked back upon his first state game.

Since then, the athlete has competed in much more than softball.Britt has gone on to compete in bocce, basketball, athletics, table tennis, volleyball and flag football during his Special Olympics Georgia career (职业生涯).And he performed well in these games."Athletics has always been one of his favorite sports to compete in," said Britt's father."He likes the different competitions within athletics, especially the races (赛跑)."

"I like athletics, but I am excited for flag football this year.We are going to play just as well as the Falcons," Britt said.This year, Britt and his teammates will be returning to Emory University as the Special Olympics Georgia Forsyth County Mean Machine, one of the two flag football teams from Special Olympics Georgia Forsyth County.Despite the word "mean" being in their name, Britt says that their aim is not to be mean to their competitors."We want to win the gold, but we want to be nice to the other teams and encourage them.They are our friends and have worked just as hard as we have for the state competitions," Britt explained.

While athletes are encouraged to try their very best and go for the gold, Special Olympics Georgia centers on sportsmanship and friendship during competitions.Britt has always been a good team player, but he is also very competitive.Special Olympics Georgia has helped him gain confidence as an athlete, which shows him how to cheer on his teammates and the opposing athletes.

"I've learned a lot from being in Special Olympics Georgia.I think there is a lesson for everyone who competes," said Britt.

1. What do we learn about Britt Hall?

A．He's good at many sports.

B．He was born in Georgia.

C．He preferred softball to other sports.

D．He disliked the Forsyth Golden Gloves.

2. Which of the following belongs to athletics?

A．Bocce.

B．Basketball.

C．Flag football.

D．The 1,000­meter race.

3. How does Britt Hall think of what Special Olympics Georgia centers on?

A．He thinks highly of them.

B．He is surprised at them.

C．He's strongly against them.

D．He's concerned about them.

4. After reading the text, we can know ________.

A．Special Olympics Georgia is famous around the world

B．Special Olympics Georgia has played a big role in Britt's life

C．Britt succeeds as an athlete mainly because of his gifts

D．Britt not only won many gold medals but made many friends