Richard is a very a successful businessman. It is common for him to work hard with a non-stop. He wasn’t aware that he might wear himself out or die an early death until he overslept one morning, which was a sort of alarm. And then what happened? He had a week’s leave during which time he read novels, listened to music and walked with his wife on a beach, which has enabled Richard to return to work again.
In our modern life, we have lost the rhythm between action and rest. Amazingly, within this world there is a universal but silly saying: “I am so busy.”
We say this to one another as if our tireless efforts were a talent by nature and an ability to successfully deal with stress. The busier we are, the more important we seem to ourselves and, we imagine, to others. To be unavailable to our friends and family, and to be unable to find time to relax — this has become the model of a successful life.
Because we do not rest, we lose our way. We miss the guide telling us where to go, the food providing us with strength, the quiet giving us wisdom.
How have we allowed this to happen? I believe it is this: we have forgotten the Sabbath, the day of the week — for followers of some religions — for rest and praying. It is a day when we are not supposed to work, a time when we devote ourselves to enjoying and celebrating what is beautiful. It is a good time to bless our children and loved ones, give thanks, share meals, walk and sleep. It is a time for us to take a rest, to put our work aside, trusting that there are larger forces at work taking care of the world.
Rest is s spiritual and biological need; however, in our strong ambition to be successful and care for our many responsibilities, we may feel terribly guilty when we take time to rest. The Sabbath gives us permission to stop work. In fact, “Remember the Sabbath” is more than simply permission to rest; it is a rule to obey and a principle to follow.
1. What’s the function of the paragraph 1?A.To tell us that Richard lives a healthy life. |
B.To bring up the topic of the passage. |
C.To give us a brief introduction of Richard |
D.To tell Richard is a successful businessman. |
A.a signal of stress | B.a warning of danger |
C.a sign of age | D.a spread of disease |
A.be able to work without stress | B.be more talented than other people |
C.be more important than anyone else | D.be busying working without time to rest |
A.Praying for our family. | B.Taking a good break. |
C.Only working for two hours. | D.Enjoying delicious meal. |
A.We should balance work with rest. |
B.The Sabbath gives us permission to rest. |
C.It is silly for anyone to say “I am busy.” |
D.We should be available to our family and friends. |
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【推荐1】I once met a young woman who had dreams of swimming for the U.S Olympic team. She had to get up every morning at 4 a.m. to swim for 3 hours before going to school. She did not party with her friends on Saturday night. She had to study and keep her grades up, just like everyone else.
When I asked her what compelled her with such super-human ambition and sacrifice (牺牲). She simply said, “I do it for myself and the people I love. It’s love that gets me over the hurdles and sacrifices.”
A reason or a purpose is a combination of “wants” and “don’t wants”. When people ask me what my reason for wanting to be rich is, it is a combination of deep emotional “wants” and “don’t wants”.
I will list a few. First the “don’t wants”, for they create the “wants”. I don’t want to work all my life. I don’t want what my parents aspired for, which was job security and a big house. I don’t like being an employee. I hated it that my dad always missed my football games because he was so busy working on his career. I hated it when my dad worked hard all his life and the government took most of what he worked for at his death.
Now the “wants”. I want to be free to travel the world and live in the lifestyle I love. I want to be young when I do this. I want control over my time and my life. I want money to work for me.
Those are my deep-seated, emotional reasons. What are yours? If they are not strong enough, the reality of the road ahead may be greater than your reasons. I have lost money and been set back many times, but it was the deep emotional reasons that kept me standing up and going forward. I wanted to be free by age 40, but it took me until I was 47 with many learning experiences along the way.
I wish I could say it was easy. It wasn’t, but it wasn’t hard either. But without a strong reason or purpose anything in life is hard.
1. The passage is started by __________.A.giving an example | B.explaining the causes |
C.pointing out similarities | D.describing the differences |
A.committed | B.inspired | C.forced | D.combined |
A.the “wants” lead to the “don’t wants” |
B.the “wants” come from the “don’t wants” |
C.the “don’t wants” have little to do with the “wants” |
D.the “don’t wants” are more important than the “wants” |
A.The reality is greater than the deep emotional reasons. |
B.With stronger emotional reasons, life must be much easier. |
C.With deeper emotional reasons, the road ahead is likely to be harder. |
D.In reality, we may meet many more obstacles without deeper emotional reasons. |
【推荐2】What does it mean to live a good life? This question has been debated by may philosophers(哲学家). In the field of psychology (心理学), two main ideas of the good life are influential: A happy life, full of stability, enjoyment and positive emotions, and a meaningful life, full of purpose, virtue and devotion. But what if these aren’t the only choices?
In recent years, the psychologically rich life has been receiving greater research attention. It is full of strong emotions, both positive and negative, and new and interesting experiences. They are, however, seldom boring or dull.
In a new study, Shigehiro Oishi and his colleagues found that many people’s self described ideal lives include psychological richness. When to chose a life, however, the majority chose a happy life and a meaningful life. Even so, some people still favored the psychologically rich life.
These findings suggest that while most people do struggle to be happy and have meaning and purpose in their lives, a sizable number of people are content only living a psychologically rich life. Indeed, other new research suggests that for a lot of people, the intensity (强度) of the experience matters more than only how “positive” or “negative” it was. As Oishi and his colleagues conclude, “we believe that taking the psychologically rich life seriously will deepen, broaden and enrich our understanding of well-being.”
At the end of the day, there is no one acceptable path to the good life. You have to find a path that works best for you. As Nietzsche put it: “No one can build you the bridge on which you, and only you, must cross the river of life. There may be countless bridges but there is one path in the world that none can walk but you. Where does it lead? Don’t ask, walk!”
1. The author mentions the two main ideas of the good life to _________.A.introduce another aspect of a good life |
B.compare two different ways of life |
C.explain how to live a good life |
D.tell readers some good ways to live |
A.full of meaning and purpose |
B.nothing but different emotions |
C.strong emotions and interesting experiences |
D.all about being content with what you have |
A.the psychologically rich life is the best one |
B.more people prefer to live a psychologically rich life |
C.there is no difference between,’ positive’ and ‘negative’ experience |
D.studying psychological richness helps to understand well-being better |
A.the suitable one is the best one |
B.all roads lead to Rome |
C.God helps those who help them |
D.nothing is impossible for willing heart |
【推荐3】Ms Keller often said, "Without Anne Sullivan, the name of Helen Keller would have remained unknown."
As a little girl, Sullivan was no stranger to hardship(困苦). She almost couldn't see anything and was, at one time, locked in a dark underground room of a mental institution (精神病院) because of mental problems. Little Anne Sullivan would attack anyone who came near sometimes. However, an elderly nurse believed there was hope and she offered to help the child. Every day she made all her efforts to give little Anne words of love and encouragement.
At last, doctors noticed a change in the girl. They had ever saw anger and hostility(敌意) in her eyes, while now they noted a little gentleness and love. They moved her upstairs where she continued to become better. Then the day finally came when this seemingly "hopeless" child was released.
Anne Sullivan grew into a young woman with a desire to help others as she herself was helped by the kind nurse. It was she who saw hope in Helen Keller. She loved her, played with her until the flickering candle became a bright light to the world. Anne Sullivan brought wonders into Helen's life. But without that kind and warmhearted nurse, how could little Anne become such a kindhearted teacher?
And so it goes. Just how far back does the chain of love extend? And how far forward will it lead? You can never ignore the power of your love. It is a fire that, once lit, may burn forever.
1. What does the underlined sentence in the second paragraph mean?A.When young, Sullivan was not afraid of hardship. |
B.Hardship knew Sullivan when she was young. |
C.When young, Sullivan experienced much hardship. |
D.When young, Sullivan knew much about hardship. |
A.the secret life of Sullivan | B.how Keller succeeded |
C.the hardship of Sullivan | D.the power of love |
A.Keller's teacher was completely blind and deaf. |
B.Sullivan was once mentally ill. |
C.Sullivan recovered with the help of an old nurse. |
D.Sullivan tried to be as helpful as the old nurse. |
A.Burning brightly. | B.Burning weakly. |
C.Shining violently. | D.Shining strongly. |
【推荐1】During the pandemic, millions of people replaced their large open-plan offices with their living rooms. Now, some companies say their employees need never come back in.
Brynn Harrington, Vice President of Facebook, said, “Facebook believes that remote work is the future. We want to be able to give our employees choice to live and build lives in places that they love, and we want to increase our ability to hire from places around the world, not just places where we currently have offices.”
Not everyone approves of working from home. Some people are eager to get back into the office. Facebook estimates that more than half of its staff could work remotely in the coming years, but it insists the move is not about saving costs. And it says it’s committed to keeping its offices open.
Other tech giants such as Microsoft and Twitter have also indicated staff could stay remote — even after lockdowns ease. On Wall Street, they seem less enthusiastic about the idea. The boss of Goldman Sachs rejected working from home as a new normal — labelling it an “aberration” instead. There are also fears that it could create more inequality.
For many companies, the answer probably lies somewhere in the middle — with workers dividing their time between office and home.
Tushar Agarwal from Hubble said, “The office does have a future. We believe the future is hybrid (混合). We believe the future is flexible. The demand for flexible workspace has just gone through the roof. Just in the month of March, we’re back to about sixty to seventy percent of pre-Covid levels, and actually huge amounts of companies that are demanding flexible space used to be in traditional rent space, so now people want more and more flexibility than ever before.”
One thing’s clear — the world of work will look very different to how it did before this crisis.
1. Why do some companies prefer home-working?A.It can save cost. |
B.It creates more equality. |
C.It decreases interpersonal conflicts. |
D.It offers more possibilities for companies. |
A.Objective. | B.Varied. |
C.Intolerant. | D.Favorable. |
A.A normal thing. | B.A flexible thing. |
C.An interesting thing. | D.An untypical thing. |
A.It will remain unchanged. |
B.It will mainly be remote work. |
C.It will mix different types of working places. |
D.It will have an open space in a large building. |
【推荐2】The more women and minorities make their way into the ranks of management, the more they seem to want to talk about things formerly judged to be best left unsaid. The newcomers also tend to see office matters with a fresh eye, in the process sometimes coming up with critical analyses of the forces that shape everyone’s experience in the organization.
Consider the novel views of Harvey Coleman of Atlanta on the subject of getting ahead. Coleman is black. He spent 11years with IBM, half of them working in management development, and now serves as a consultant to the likes of AT&T, Coca-Cola, Prudential, and Merch. Coleman says that based on what he’s seen at big companies, he weighs the different elements that make for long-term career success as follows: performance counts a mere 10%; image, 30%; and exposure, a full 60%. Coleman concludes that excellent job performance is so common these days that while doing your work well may win you pay increases, it won’t secure you the big promotion. He finds that advancement more often depends on how many people know you and your work, and how high up they are.
Ridiculous beliefs? Not to many people, especially many women and members of minority races who, like Coleman, feel that the scales have dropped from their eyes. “Women and blacks in organizations work under false beliefs,” says Kaleel Jamison, a New York-based management consultant who helps corporations deal with these issues. “They think that if you work hard, you’ll get ahead—that someone in authority will reach down and give you a promotion.” She adds, “Most women and blacks are so frightened that people will think they’ve gotten ahead because of their sex or color that they play down(淡化)their visibility.” Her advice to those folks: learn the ways that white males have traditionally used to find their way into the spotlight.
1. According to the passage, the underlined sentence probably refers to_________.A.criticisms that shape everyone’s experience |
B.the opinions which contradict the established beliefs |
C.the tendencies that help the newcomers to see matters with a fresh eye |
D.the ideas which usually come up with new ways of management in the organization |
A.work as a consultant to your superiors |
B.project a favorable image to the people around you |
C.let your superiors know how good you are |
D.perform well your tasks given by your superiors |
A.know someone in authority will reach down and give them a promotion |
B.don’t want people to think that their promotions were due to sex or color |
C.don’t want to give people the impression that they work under false beliefs |
D.believe they can get promoted by reason of their sex or color |
A.The Importance of Being Visible |
B.Job Performance and Advancement |
C.Role of Women and Minorities in Management |
D.Sex and Career Success |
【推荐3】What do you want to be when you are growing up? A doctor, an engineer — or maybe a footballer or actor? We all have big plans for our futures and believe there is a dream job waiting for us — one that will pay well and give great job satisfaction. But how realistic is that?
Today, in the UK at least, young people are being warned that some of their career hopes and dreams don’t match the types of jobs available. Research by the charity Education and Employers suggests five times as many 17 and 18 year-olds in the UK want to work in art, culture, entertainment and sport than there are jobs.
The excitement of working in these employment sectors (部门) is obviously an attraction. But those looking for these types of job will be disappointed. That’s what the report, Disconnected: Career ambitions and jobs in the UK, says. Writing about this for the BBC, Katherine Sellgren points out that although young people are keen to work in art, entertainment, culture and sport, the economy is unlikely to need them all. At the same time, there is a shortfall of young people wanting to work in careers such as catering and retail(零售).
Previous research about the career ambitions of young people by the Office for National Statistics also found a “reality gap” between their dreams and the sometimes disappointing truth by the time they reached their early to late-20s. Apart from those who aimed to go into teaching, fewer than one in 50 were in the jobs they had wanted — such as a doctor, vet, firefighter or actor. Most were working as sales assistants, careers or in sales and marketing.
Although it’s good to have ambitions, the aims of young people need to be realistic. This latest report suggests that children need to be made more aware of a wider variety of occupations at a younger age. It also calls for improved career advice in secondary schools. A spokeswoman for the Department for Work and Pensions told the BBC that “early careers advice can help young people set out on the right path to the job that channels their interests and unlocks their potential.”
1. Which employment sector in the UK needs more people to work in?A.Sport. | B.Service industry. |
C.Art & culture. | D.Entertainment. |
A.ambition and reality | B.males and females |
C.theory and practice | D.the past and the present |
A.They ought to be offered better career advice in secondary schools. |
B.They should know more kinds of jobs at an early age. |
C.The government should create more jobs for the young. |
D.Their employment ambition should be realistic. |
A.Unemployment Problems in Britain |
B.Young People’s Lifestyles in Britain |
C.Tips for Finding Dream Jobs in Britain |
D.Unrealistic Career Ambitions in Britain |
【推荐1】Put "crottin de chevre," into Google Translate, and you'll be told it means goat dung (waste). So if it appears on a menu, you may pass. Alas! You will rule out a delicious cheese made of goats5 milk that is often served as a starter in France.
Such misunderstandings are why Google Translate is not intended to replace human translators. Tourists might accept a few misunderstandings because the technology is cheap and convenient, but when in business, law or medicine, these services often fall short. " Using Google Translate can lead to some serious errors, especially when words have multiple meanings, which is often the case in fields such as law and engineering, " says Samantha Langley, a court-approved French — to — English legal translator in France.
That is not to say professional translators do not use computer assisted translation (CAT) tools. One of the most popular new tools is the translation earpiece. Usually paired with a smart-phone app, they pick up spoken foreign languages and translate them. For conferences, wearable translation tools like Waverly's are undoubtedly popular. But even this new generation tech has limitations. Users must wait at least a few seconds for a phrase to be translated, or more if the Internet connection is poor. And computers still lack the subtlety (微妙之处)of human communication.
"If you want to create a relationship with the user, you need a human translator to make sound natural and capture the sentiment, which often involves restructuring a sentence completely, says Zoey Cooper, director at Wordbank. "I believe CAT tools get in the way of creativity, " says Antonio Navarro Gosalvez, an English-to- Spanish translator in Spain.
Mr. Ochoa Spencer, chief executive of US start-up Waverly Labs, thinks this problem could be resolved within the next 10 years. "When it comes to expressing emotion and intonation, we need sentiment analysis, which may well be in ten years time, " he says. Yet, nowadays foreign language skills are still in demand in the labour market.
1. The writer uses the example of "crottin de chevre" to ______.A.criticize Google Translate | B.regret missing the cheese |
C.bring in the main topic | D.introduce a starter in France |
A.Precise and cheap. | B.Cheap but inaccurate. |
C.Convenient and effective. | D.Fast but incorrect. |
A.Samantha Langley. | B.Zoey Cooper. |
C.Antonio Navarro Gosalvez. | D.Ochoa Spencer. |
A.The various disadvantages of Google Translate. |
B.The chances of human translators being replaced by AI. |
C.The difference between computer and human translation. |
D.The disappearance of human translators in the near future. |
【推荐2】Plato believed that men are divided into three classes: gold, silver and bronze. Vilfredo Pareto, an Italian economist, argued that “ the vital few” contributed to most progress. Such viewpoints are taboo (禁忌) today in public life. Politicians avoid talking of a “leadership class” or “the vital few”. School recruitment turns away from picking winners. Universities welcome the masses: more people now teach at British universities than attended them in the1950s.
In the private sector things could hardly be more different. The world’s best companies struggle tirelessly to find and keep the vital few. They offer them fat pay packets, extra training, powerful instruction and more challenging assignments. Private-equity (私人股权) firms rely heavily on a few stars. Firms in emerging markets are desperate to find high-flyers who can cope with rapid growth and fast-changing environments.
Few people know more about how companies manage talent than Bill Conaty and RamCharan. Mr. Conaty led the human-resources department at General Electric (GE) for 14years. Mr. Charan has spent the past few decades presenting proposals to some celebrated entrepreneurs (企业家). Their recent book, The Talent Masters, provides. a nice mix of portraits of well-known talent factories, such as GE and Procter & Gamble (P&G).
Successful companies make sure that senior managers are involved with “ talent development”. Jack Welch and A. G. Lafley, former bosses of GE and P&G, claimed that they spent 40% of their time on personnel. Andy Grove, who ra n Intel, a chipmaker, obliged all the senior people, including himself, to spend at least a week a year instructing high-flyers . Nitin Paranjpe, the boss of Hindustan Unilever, recruits people from campuses and regularly visits high-flyers in their offices.
Elitism (精英主义) has its drawbacks. In their rush to classify people, companies can miss potential stars. Those who are singled out for special treatment can become too full of themselves.
1. The change that occurred in British universities reflects that .A.more students enroll for schools |
B.people of today are much cleverer |
C.UK attaches importance to education |
D.elitism in public organizations declines |
A.Potential clients. | B.Faithful employees. |
C.Competent managers. | D.Celebrated politicians. |
A.By listing examples. | B.By classification. |
C.By analyzing causes. | D. By describing a process. |
A.Discrimination in workplaces will get more serious. |
B.Famous companies’ elitism management is worth trying. |
C.The Talent Masters offers advice to some leading bosses. |
D.Elitism may get some potential talented people excluded. |
【推荐3】As a CEO of a startup, you get used to hearing"no".You also face an endless continuation of what feels like shocking crises, like nearly running out of cash, losing a key customer,discovering a widespread product failure, or having to shut down operations because of a global pandemic. But it turns out that these disasters can actually be good for you. In fact,I'm not sure whether you can innovate without them. Here's what all our crises have taught me.
It's good to be uncomfortable. We once had a key customer request-a battery capability that we'd never developed before. The customer made it clear that if we couldn't develop this capability, they'd be less confident in our product. We wrestled with the risks, not least of which was the potential embarrassment if we couldn't meet the customer's needs. We knew we'd face many technical problems if we tried to go into operation. Yet we decided to try to satisfy the customer, even if it wasn't obvious at first how we could get it done. A few weeks later we delivered something beyond what the customer had asked for, and we've since grown this capability into a powerful sales tool and potential revenue stream-not to mention it strengthened our relationship with the customer.
Short-term failure is good. A few years ago, our company began to expand our manufacturing output in response to a customer's need. In the process we discovered something unusual we hadn't seen during smaller-scale production. Our team dived into failure analysis, and we finally put the problem down to a single material within the battery. We'd used this material for years, but now we needed a replacement. Once we made that change,the battery quality and reliability greatly improved.
It's okay to show weakness. One of my hardest days as CEO was the day when I found out I was pregnant.We were in the middle of raising a funding round, and I had been traveling nonstop for a year. Until that day, I had assumed that my role as CEO was to display strength and confidence. With the mounting pressure I was harder on myself than I needed to be, and now I had the added stress of being pregnant.I decided to acknowledge to my team that I was breaking down. They united together and found ways to operate more smoothly and communicate more effectively, supporting me to focus my time on most pressing goals. This gave me not only the space to plan for the company’s future,but also to prepare for my own new normal: leading while becoming a first-time mother.
1. What does the underlined word "them" in Paragraph 1 refer to?A.Frequent rejections. |
B.Financial crises. |
C.Global pandemics. |
D.Endless disasters. |
A.Customers' requests should be carefully evaluated. |
B.Meeting challenges can bring about extra benefits. |
C.The company should keep launching new products. |
D.Innovation is the only way to win fierce competition. |
A.By drawing a comparison. |
B.By giving an example. |
C.By challenging assumptions. |
D.By doing an experiment. |
A.Learn to let go |
B.Make it as a CEO |
C.Think deep sometimes |
D.Make friends with crises |