【推荐1】Directions: Read the passage carefully. Fill in each blank with a proper sentence given in the box. Each sentence can be used only once. Note that there are two more sentences than you need.
            Suppose you become a leader in an organization. It’s very likely that you’ll want to have volunteers to help with the organization’s activities. To do so, it should help to understand why people undertake volunteer work and what keeps their interest in the work.

Let’s begin with the question of why people volunteer.     1     For example, people volunteer to express personal values related to unselfishness, to expand their range of experiences, and to strengthen social relationships. If volunteer positions do not meet these needs, people may not wish to participate. To select volunteers, you may need to understand the motivations of the people you wish to attract.

People also volunteer because they are required to do so. To increase levels of community service, some schools have launched compulsory (义务的) volunteer programs. Unfortunately, these programs can shift people’s wish of participation from an internal factor (e.g., “I volunteer because it’s important to me”) to an external factor (e.g., “I volunteer because I’m required to do so”). When that happens, people become less likely to volunteer in the future.     2    

Once people begin to volunteer, what leads them to remain in their positions over time? To answer this question, researchers have conducted follow-up studies in which they track volunteers over time. For instance, one study followed 238 volunteers in Florida over a year. One of the most important factors that influenced their satisfaction as volunteers was the amount of suffering they experienced in their volunteer positions.     3     The researchers note that attention should be given to “training methods that would prepare volunteers for troublesome situations or provide them with strategies for coping with the problem they do experience”.

Another study of 302 volunteers at hospitals in Chicago focused on individual differences in the degree to which people view “volunteer” as an important social role.     4     Participants indicated the degree to which the social role mattered by responding to statements such as “Volunteering in Hospital is an important part of who I am.” Consistent with the researchers’ expectations, they found a positive relationship between the strength of role identity and the length of time people continued to volunteer. These results, once again, lead to definite advice: “Once an individual begins volunteering, continued efforts might focus on developing a volunteer role identity.... Items like T-shirts that allow volunteers to be recognized publicly for their contributions can help strengthen role identity”.

A．People volunteer mainly out of academic requirements.

B．People must be sensitive to this possibility when they make volunteer activities a must.

C．It was assumed that those people for whom the role of volunteer was most part of their personal identity would also be most likely to continue volunteer work.

D．Individual differences are most likely to motivate volunteers to continue their work.

E．Although this result may not surprise you, it leads to important practical advice.

F．Researchers have identified several factors that motivate people to get involved.

【推荐2】Decisions in life are rarely black and white but usually involve shades of gray. At dinner time, the decision you face is not between fasting and eating like a pig, but whether to take that extra spoonful of food. When exams are around the corner, your decision is not between quitting them and studying 24 hours a day, but whether to spend an extra hour reviewing your notes. Economists use the term “marginal changes” to describe minor adjustments to an existing plan of action.

In many situations, people make the best decisions by thinking at the margin. Margin means “edge”, so marginal changes are adjustments around the edges of what you are doing. Suppose, for instance, that you ask a friend for advice about how many years to stay in school. If he compares the lifestyle of a person with a Ph. D. to that of a grade school dropout, you might complain that this comparison is not helpful for your decision. You have some education already and most likely are deciding whether to spend an extra year or two in school. To make this decision, you need to know the additional benefits that an extra year in school would offer (higher salaries throughout life and the pure joy of learning) and the additional costs that you would pay (tuition and the forgone salaries while you are in school). By comparing these marginal benefits and marginal costs, you can evaluate whether the extra year is worthwhile.

Individuals and firms can make better decisions by thinking at the margin. A rational decision-maker takes action if and only if the marginal benefit of the action exceeds the marginal cost.

1. What does “fasting” underlined in Paragraph 1 mean?

A．Eating or drinking a lot.	B．Eating little or no food.
C．Eating on a regular basis.	D．Eating without appetite.

2. Why does the author give an example in Paragraph 2?

A．To explain marginal thinking.	B．To solve real-life problems.
C．To evaluate marginal thinking.	D．To encourage adjustments.

3. What can we infer from the text?

A．It is unnecessary to make minor adjustments to plans.

B．Comparison makes little sense in decision-making.

C．People often weigh up benefits and costs of decisions.

D．Marginal changes are controversial among individuals.

4. Which of the following can be the best title for the text?

A．Marginal Thinking Leads to Better Decisions

B．Marginal Benefit Goes beyond Marginal Cost

C．Rational Thinkers Exist in All Aspects of Life

D．Pleasure Results from Effective Comparison

【推荐3】We’ve all heard it before: to be successful, get out of bed early. After all, Apple CEO Tim Cook gets up at 3:45 am, Fiat CEO Sergio Marchionne at 3:30 am and Richard Branson at 5:45 am- - -and, as we know, “The early bird catches the worm.” Indeed, it may be true that those who get up early have a jump start on the day before others are even out of bed.

But just because some successful people wake up early, does that mean it’s a trait most of them share? And if the idea of having exercised, planned your day, eaten breakfast, visualized and done one task before 8 am. makes you want to roll over and hit snooze until next Saturday, are you really doomed to a less successful life?

For about half of us, this isn’t really an issue. It’s estimated that some 50% of the population isn’t really morning- oriented or evening oriented, but somewhere in the middle. Roughly one in four of us, though, tend more toward bright-eyed early risers, and another one in four are night owls. For them, the effect can go beyond falling asleep in front of the TV at10 pm or being regularly late for work.

Numerous studies have found that morning people are more self-directed and agreeable. And compared to night owls, they are less likely to be depressed, drink or smoke.

Although morning types may achieve more academically, night owls tend to perform better on measures of memory, processing speed and cognitive ability, even when they have to perform those tasks in the morning. Night-time people are also more open and more creative. And one study shows that night owls are as healthy and wise as morning types- and a little bit wealthier.

Still think the morning people sound more like CEO material? Don’t set your alarm for 5 am just, yet, as it turns out, overhauling (大修) your sleep times may not have much effect.

“If people are left to their naturally preferred times, they feel much better. They say that they are much more productive. The mental capacity they have is much broader,” says Oxford University biologist Katharina Wulf. On the other hand, she says, pushing people too far out of their natural preference can be harmful. When they wake early, for example, night owls are still producing melatonin (褪黑激素 ). “Then, you disrupt it and push the body to be in the daytime mode. That can have lots of negative, physiological consequences,” Wulff says like a different sensitivity to insulin and glucose (葡萄糖) which can cause weight gain.

1. What can we know from the 4th and 5th paragraphs?

A．Neither night owls no morning persons perform better than the middle ones.

B．To beat night-time people, ask them to do maths calculation in the morning.

C．Night owls tend to sacrifice their health for their wealth.

D．Morning types are more conservative but more optimistic.

2. Which of the following does Katharina Wulff support?

A．Don’t fall asleep in front of the TV.

B．Better not overhaul your sleep times.

C．Stop sting your alarm for 5 am.

D．Avoid being-regularly late for work.

3. What does the author do in the first three paragraphs?

A．raising the problem→analysing the problem→solving the problem.

B．presenting author’s viewpoint → providing supporting proofs→making a conclusion.

C．leading in the topic→challenging a viewpoint → discussing about the topic.

D．introducing a viewpoint -raising the question→presenting author’s viewpoint.

4. Why does the author write this article?

A．To argue against the view that the early bird catches the worm.

B．To compare the differences between early risers and night owls.

C．To advise people to get up neither too early nor too late.

D．To explain why some people are more successful.

【推荐1】For generations, the standard way to learn how to ride a bicycle was with training wheels. But in recent years, many parents prefer to train their kids with balance bikes, two-wheelers that enable children to develop the competence needed for bicycling.

Given the benefits of balance bikes, why did it take so long for them to replace training wheels? There are plenty of other examples in which ignored solutions that involve subtraction(减法) turn out to be better alternatives. In some European cities, for example, urban planners have gotten rid of traffic lights and road signs to make streets safer.

Leidy Klotz, an engineer at the University of Virginia, noticed that reformative designs, in which elements are removed from an existing model, were uncommon. So he reached out to Adams, a social psychologist, to try to figure out why this was the case. The two researchers hypothesized(假设) that there might be an explanation: when faced with a problem, people tend to select solutions that involve adding new elements rather than taking existing components away.

Adams, Klotz and their colleagues set out to test if their hypothesis was correct. The researchers first carried out a set of studies. In one, they asked 91 participants to make a pattern symmetrical(对称的) by either adding or removing colored boxes. Only 18 people used subtraction. In another, the team scanned through ideas for improvement submitted to an incoming university president and found that only 11 percent of 651 project plans involved getting rid of an existing regulation, practice or program.

These findings suggest that “additive solutions have sort of a priority”, says Benjamin Converse, a co-author of the study. “Subtractive solutions are not necessarily harder to consider, but they take more effort to find.”

For now the team hopes that these findings will encourage people across various fields to think about subtractive options that might be typically ignored. “The hope is that, just by getting people to think about this more, maybe it will help inspire some other ignored subtractions,” Converse says.

1. What is the purpose of paragraph 1?

A．To present a problem.	B．To introduce the topic.
C．To give some examples.	D．To put forward a concept.

2. What can we learn from the first two paragraphs?

A．Balance bikes are not good for training kids.

B．People used to learn riding bikes effortlessly.

C．Parents now train kids to ride bikes pointedly.

D．Some European cities ignore their governance.

3. What does Converse say about subtractive solutions?

A．They are superior to additive solutions.

B．They are often harmful for creativity.

C．They are always overlooked by our brain.

D．They are often preferred by conservatives.

4. Which of the following could be the best title for the text?

A．A New Way of Management

B．A Trend of Avoiding Regulations

C．A New Concept of Problem-solving

D．A Study on Problem–solving Methods

【推荐2】Chinese writer Mo Yan’s Nobel Prize for Literature might ignite an explosion of global interest in Chinese literature and lead to more titles translated into English, European experts say.

“Hopefully, the award means more people will read Chinese literature and more works will get translated,” says Michel Hockx, professor of the Languages and Cultures of China and Inner Asia from University of London. “Many very good Chinese writers have been accepted globally for a long time already. Mo Yan is probably the most translated Chinese writer alive, with at least five of his novels made available in English over the past 20 years.”

Jonathan Ruppin, web editor of bookseller Foyles, says Mo’s win coincides with growing interest in Chinese literature and recognizes the talents of a distinctive and visionary writer. “We are very excited by the fact that English translations of more of his books should now become available,” Ruppin says. He made the comment after Mo became the first Chinese citizen to win the Nobel Prize for Literature in its century-long history.

As East-West cultural exchange has been booming, Chinese literature has been attracting growing attention in recent years. Hockx explains, “It’s mainly because there are many more opportunities for Chinese writers to visit other countries, to publish their works outside China and to interact with readers abroad. At the same time, more and more people globally are learning Chinese and taking an interest in the Chinese language and culture .”

University of Oxford lecturer in modern Chinese literature Margaret Hillenbrand says, “The obvious reason for the growing global presence of Chinese literature is the growing global presence of China itself. People have come to realize that there is a serious knowledge deficit between China and its international counterparts — in particular,China knows incomparably more about Europe and America than the other way round— and reading Chinese literature is an effective, simple means of solving that gap.”

1. The underlined word “ignite” in Paragraph 1 probably means “________”.

A．start out	B．burn up
C．set off	D．appeal to

2. Chinese literature has been attracting growing attention mainly because ________.

A．Chinese writers have been writing more and more books in English

B．the Chinese language has become the most wide used language in the world

C．the Chinese government attaches great importance to literature

D．the cultural communication between China and western countries has developed

3. Which of the following is true according to the passage?

A．Chinese literature has spread with the development of China.

B．The Nobel Prize for Literature has a history of hundreds of years.

C．In the past, no Chinese writers were accepted outside China.

D．Foreigners know about China mainly by reading Mo Yan’s works.

4. How do you understand the underlined sentence in the last paragraph?

A．China knows more about Europe and America than before.

B．China knows more about Europe and America than they know about China.

C．China, Europe and America know one another more than before.

D．Compared with America, China knows more about Europe.

【推荐3】NASA has big plans for returning astronauts to the moon in 2024, a stepping stone on the path to sending humans to Mars. But where should the first people on the Red Planet land? While there are lots of places on Mars scientists would like to visit, few would make practical landing sites for astronauts. Thanks to the researchers, their newly-published paper in Geophysical Research Letters will help by providing a map of water ice believed to be as little as an inch (2. 5 centimeters) below the surface.

Water ice will be a key consideration for any potential landing site. With little room to spare aboard a spacecraft, any human missions to Mars will have to harvest what’s already available for drinking water. Liquid water can’t last in the thin air of Mars. With so little air pressure, it turns from a solid to a gas when exposed to the atmosphere. On this planet, water ice is locked away underground. Buried water ice changes the temperature of the Martian surface, so the study’s authors relied on heat-sensitive instruments to find ice that astronauts could easily dig up. The authors of the new paper make use of data from spacecrafts to locate water ice that could potentially be within reach of astronauts on the Red Planet.

The paper’s lead author, Sylvain Piqueux of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California said, ‘‘We’re continuing to collect data on buried ice on Mars, aiming to find the best places for astronauts to land.” Piqueux is planning a comprehensive campaign to continue studying buried ice across different seasons, watching how the abundance of this resource changes over time.

1. What’s the benefit of the study?

A．To produce a map of the surface of Mars.

B．To help decide where to land on Mars.

C．To speed up the harvest of ice deep inside Mats.

D．To arouse attention to seasonal changes on Mars.

2. Why is water ice important for any landing site?

A．Because it is the source of power.

B．Because water only exists in the form of solid on Mars.

C．Because it can serve as drinking water.

D．Because astronauts are too busy to collect pure water.

3. How can heat-sensitive instruments tell the location of buried ice?

A．By measuring the surface temperature of Mars.

B．By digging up the surface of Mars.

C．By collecting the data of rocket fuel.

D．By calculating the amount of liquid in the air.

4. In which section of a website may this text appear?

A．Education.	B．Travel.
C．Sport.	D．Technology.