【推荐1】An unpleasant smell floated into my nose as the bowl of fried stinky tofu(臭豆腐) settled onto my grandmother's dinner table. I immediately sat back. The smell ruined my appetite, and I pushed the dish away.

“It's supposed to stink. Just give it a try!” my grandmother said.

Holding my breath, I unwillingly took a bite. To my surprise, the tofu beneath the fried skin was warm, soft, and mouth-watering. Since then, whenever I visited my grandmother's house, I would rush to the kitchen for the stinky tofu with excitement. Thus, stinky tofu became more than a household tradition. It became my favorite dish.

Along with the stinky tofu, I would meet my Uncle Chan on every visit. As an immature boy, I never understood my uncle's condition of Down syndrome(唐氏综合征).

He was an unfriendly and terrible creature in my eyes. He constantly walked around the house, talking to himself. Whenever he appeared, I would run away in fear.

However, one day, my view about my uncle suddenly changed. I was just getting out of my bed when I heard soft steps approaching. It was my uncle. My muscles froze. He slowly sat next to me and touched my face gently, as a mother would stroke (抚摸)a baby. A wide smile emerged from his blank expression. How beautiful his smile was! I could not help but smile back. My fear disappeared gradually, and my muscles relaxed. For the first time, I could see softness and warmth in his eyes.

My uncle very much resembles stinky tofu. Stinky tofu smells unpleasant on the outside,yet feels warm and soft in the inside. Like stinky tofu,my uncle's Down syndrome made me keep my distance at first. Yet, I learned that deep inside, he is harmless and has a loving nature.

Some people tend to look down upon disabled people and regard them as unfit for a regular life. As I was unable to see through the outer surface of the tofu, these people are unable to see through the surface of prejudice(偏见). As a result, they judge the disabled with one glance.

The outside and inside of the stinky tofu exist as two extremely different worlds. Perhaps that is what makes it such a tasty dish. Not only is it delicious, stinky tofu offers a valuable lesson:never judge people at first glance, for true beauty comes from the inside.

1. Why did stinky tofu become the author's favorite dish?

A．It was related to family tradition.

B．It turned out to be quite delicious.

C．Grandma encouraged him to try it.

D．His appetite for food had increased.

2. What did the author think of his uncle at first?

A．He was a quiet person.	B．He was an energetic guy.
C．He was an immature man.	D．He was a strange creature.

3. The author's attitude towards Uncle Chan changed when ________.

A．Chan's footsteps woke up the author

B．Chan showed his friendliness to the author

C．Chan displayed his love towards his mother

D．Chan's blank expression made the author smile

4. The comparison between stinky tofu and the author's uncle serves to ________.

A．highlight the nature of Uncle Chan

B．analyze the family relationship

C．describe a childhood memory

D．introduce a traditional Chinese food

【推荐2】Few of us can avoid the frustrations and challenges of daily life — family problems, conflicts at work, illness, stress over money. But a simple, aged-old principle may be part of both the prevention and the cure: Help others to help yourself.

A lot of research shows that people who give time, money or support to others are more likely to be happy and satisfied with their lives — and less likely to be depressed. Carolyn Schwartz, a research professor at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, found that those receiving support from others can gain some mild benefit, but the real favored persons were those lending a supportive ear. In fact, those who offered support experienced great improvements in their quality of life — several times more than those who were helped.

This phenomenon is nothing new. Paul Wink and Michele Dillon found a similar pattern when they looked at the data collected every decade on a group of San Francisco Bay Area residents beginning in the 1930s. Those who volunteered and were engaged in different forms of giving when they were teenagers were much less likely to become depressed, even as they got older. Even better，feeling good and doing good can combine to create a positive feedback circle, where doing good helps us to feel good and feeling good also makes us more likely to do good.

“A number of studies have found that happy people are more helpful,” says Dr. David Myers, asocial psychologist at Hope College and author of The Pursuit of Happiness. “Those who have just found money in a telephone box are more likely to help a passer-by with dropped papers. Those who feel successful are more likely to volunteer as a tutor.”

1. What is a long-held belief towards happiness?

A．Receiving support.	B．Feeling and thinking good
C．Helping others.	D．Volunteering as a tutor.

2. What does the underlined part "lending a supportive ear" Paragraph 2 mean?

A．Offering support to others.	B．Holding a positive attitude.
C．Getting support from others.	D．Following others' advice.

3. From what Dr. David Myers said, we can conclude that____.

A．helpful people are more likely to keep fit

B．happy people are more likely to do good

C．successful people are more likely to feel good

D．old people are less likely to feel depressed

4. What would be the best title for the passage?

A．Be Happy, Be Successful	B．Do Good, Feel Good
C．Be Happy, Be Positive	D．Help Others, Love Yourself

【推荐1】It is hard, it hurts —and yet more than two million of us in the UK run at least once a week.

Of course, some people run to lose weight, or to get fit, and these are great reasons. Running is also easy to do, it's cheap, and you can do it when you want. All these factors certainly contribute to the fact that running is one of the most popular sports in the UK.

But for many of those two million runners, the real reason we head out to beat the roads until our legs hurt is more intangible (无形的) than weight loss or fitness.

Many runners become interested in times. They try to break the 40-minute barrier for the 10K, or run under four hours for the marathon. Yet, really, these times are almost meaningless. And as soon as they are achieved, another target is thrown out almost immediately.

The times are only the carrots we put in front of ourselves. But why do we put them there in the first place? Nobody ever gives a wise answer Deep down, we all know the answer.

Running brings us joy. Watch small children when they are excited, at play, and mostly they can't stop running. There's a great moment in The Catcher in the Rye when Holden Caulfield, caught in the uneasy space between childhood and adulthood, is walking across his school grounds one evening and he suddenly starts to run. “I don't ever know what I was running for---I guess I just felt like it,” he says.

This will to run is born. In fact, humans may well have evolved (进化) the way we did because of our ability to run. As children, and even adolescents, we can respond to this natural call to run whenever the feeling takes us.As we run, we begin to sense that childish joy, which is born to live a wilder existence. As we run, the layers of responsibility and identity we have gathered in our lives, father, mother, lawyer, teacher, all fall away, leaving us with the raw human being.

If we push on, running harder, deeper into the loneliness, further away from the world and the structure of our lives, we begin to feel strangely excited, separated yet a the same time connected, to ourselves. With nothing but our own two legs moving us, we begin 1o get a sense of who, or what, we really are. After a long run, everything seems right in the world. Everything is at peace. To experiencethisis a powerful feeling, strong enough to have us coming back, again and again, for more.

1. Why does the author think setting time goals is almost meaningless?

A．Because those time goals can' be achieved.

B．Because those time goals can be achieved easily

C．Because people will be very proud once the time goals are achieved.

D．Because there will always be a new time goal once the former one is achieved.

2. Which of the following words can best describe the author's attitude towards running?

A．Uncertain.

B．Doubtful.

C．Supportive.

D．Puzzled.

3. What does the underlined word "this “in the last paragraph probably mean?

A．breaking the 40 -minute barrier for the 10K.

B．running under four hours for the Marathon.

C．feeling separated from the world after running

D．feeling everything is right after a long run.

4. What may be the best title of this passage?

A．Running to Keep Fit	B．Running to Break Records
C．Running to Be the Real You	D．Running to Become an Adult

【推荐2】The poverty line is the minimum income that people need for an acceptable standard of living. People with incomes below the poverty line are considered poor. Economists study the causes of poverty in order to find solutions to the problem.

As the general standard of living in the country rises, the poverty line does, too. Therefore, even with today’s relatively high standard of living, about 10 percent of the people in the United States are below the poverty line. However, if these people had stable jobs, they could have an acceptable standard of living. Economists suggest several reasons why poor people do not have jobs.

For one thing, more than half of the poor people in the United States are not qualified to work. Over 40 percent of the poor people are children. By law, children less than 16 years old cannot work in many industries. A large number of poor people are old. Many companies do not hire people over 65 years old, the normal retirement age.

Some poor adults do not look for jobs for a variety of personal reasons: they are sick, they do not have any motivation, they have family problems, or they do not believe that they can find a job.

Other poor people look for a job, but cannot find one. Many poor adults never went to high school. Therefore, when they look for jobs, they have few skills that they can offer.

At the present time, the government thinks it can reduce poverty in the country in the following ways:

First, if the national economy grows, businesses and industries hire more workers. Some of the poor who are qualified to look for jobs may find employment. Then they will no longer below the poverty line.

Second, if society invests in the poor, the poor will become more productive.

If the government spends money on social programs, education and training for poor people, the poor will have the skills to offer. Then it is more probable that they can find jobs.

Finally, if the government distributes society’s income differently, it raises some poor people above the poverty line. The government collects taxes from the non-poor and gives money to the poor. These payments to the poor are called welfare.

Some economists are looking for better solutions to the poverty problem. However, at the present time, many people depend on welfare for a minimally acceptable standard of living.

1. This passage is mainly about ________.

A．the poverty line

B．how to look for jobs

C．how to raise the standard of living

D．the causes of poverty and solutions to the problem

2. If the general standard of living in the country rises, the poverty line ________.

A．falls	B．does not change
C．rises	D．changes at random

3. Which one is not the reason that poor adults do not look for jobs?

A．They are too sick to work.	B．They have no motivation.
C．They family problems.	D．They are too lazy to find jobs.

4. The underlined word “distribute” means “________”.

A．charge	B．share
C．receive	D．deliver

【推荐3】Advertising plays a major role in the competitive business world. Many industries take advantage of the power of advertising to attract or to win customers away from their business competitors. The influence of advertising is so huge that it causes many people to buy things that they do not want at the start.

Advertising encourages people to buy things they don’t want through misleading ideas. Advertising is proven to be a successful tool to stress the features of their product to the public even though it is regarded undesirable (不受欢迎的) such as cigarettes, drugs, alcohol and so on. For example, Dunhill, a cigarette company which sponsors (赞助) many football teams, seems to be promoting cigarettes to the public. Without the sponsorship, the company will be less known to the public, resulting in fewer sales of cigarettes.

Besides that, advertising has a large influence on the decisions made by the people in their everyday life. Many businesses use advertising as a form of promotion to create awareness (意识，认知) about their product in the market. For instance, in a fast food industry, the introduction of a new flavor o f burger needs advertising to reach the public while the other burgers require advertising to increase sales. Children, especially, are easily influenced by the advertisement and will have the desire to dine at fast food restaurants after that. Although fast food is bad for health, it has successfully become attractive to the public through advertising

However, advertising plays a part in helping customers to compare a product in terms of price, quality, reliability (可靠性) and so on. Without advertising, it will be very difficult for customers to judge the worthiness( 价值) of a product. For example, advertisements published by various companies have given the customers the opportunity to choose wisely when buying an item. Without the power of advertising, customers will choose a brand (品牌) which may not offer the best choice.

1. What does the underlined word “it” in Paragraph 2 refer to?

A．Advertising.

B．The product.

C．Feature.

D．The public.

2. The author mentions the fast food restaurants to show that________.

A．food industry is having a hard time

B．the information passed on in advertisements is unreal

C．children are easily influenced by the advertisement

D．advertisements influence people to make decisions

3. The main idea of Paragraph 4 is that advertising________.

A．plays a role in fast food industry

B．helps industries attract customers

C．encourages people to make the right choices

D．makes people buy some unnecessary things

4. The author’s attitude towards advertising can best be described as________.

A．objective	B．supportive
C．uncared	D．doubtful