【推荐1】       Everyone procrastinates. We put things off because we don’t want to do them, or because we have too many other things on our plates. Putting things off—big or small—is part of being human.
       But procrastination does have consequences. When your procrastination leaves you feeling discouraged, it is time to take action, and one of the best ways to get rid of it is to make an un-schedule.
       An un-schedule is a weekly calendar of all the ways in which your time is already accounted for. You consider not only your timed commitments such as classes and meetings, but also your untimed activities such as meals, exercise, time with friends, and the like. Once you have made your un-schedule, you may be able to see your time is often filled with more activities than you realize, for instance, that you really don’t have five hours to spend writing on the night before your paper is due. Procrastinators’ views of time tend to be unrealistic, and the un-schedule can help you outline a realistic plan. By planning accordingly, you will not only get a better night’s sleep, you may also end up with a better paper.
       The un-schedule might also be a good way to get started on a larger project, such as a term paper or an honors paper. You may think that you have “all semester” to get the writing done, but if you really map out how much time you have available to write on a daily and weekly basis, you will see that you need to get started sooner, rather than later. In addition, the un-schedule may reveal especially busy weeks or months, which will help you budget time for long-term projects.
       Perhaps most importantly, the un-schedule can help you examine how you spend your time. You may be surprised at how much time you spend watching television, and decide to make a change. It’s especially important that you build time for fun activities into your un-schedule. Otherwise, you will procrastinate in order to steal time for relaxation.
       You can also use the un-schedule to record your progress towards your goal. Reward yourself for your small successes. Seeing what you’ve achieved will help reinforce (强化) the productive behavior, and you will feel more motivated in the following process.
       As you explore ways to conquer procrastination, don’t expect overnight transformation. You developed the habit over a long time; you aren’t going to stop magically. But you can change the behavior, bit by bit. If you start to make an un-schedule now, you will eventually develop new habits.
1. From Paragraph 2, we can know that procrastinators __________.

A．usually have sleeping problems

B．tend to be unrealistic in daily life

C．spend more time in doing exercise

D．often fail to notice untimed activities

2. Which of the following statements best reflects an un-schedule?

A．“Now I have more time for fun.”

B．“I can start my big project later.”

C．“I’ll treat myself to a movie for my progress.”

D．“I’m going to have more time to finish my paper.”

3. According to the writer, people need to make an un-schedule because of their __________．

A．interests in doing things differently

B．determination to try out new things

C．inability to manage time properly

D．lack of concentration on a project

4. The author writes the passage to __________.

A．show concerns

B．offer suggestions

C．express dissatisfaction

D．make comments

【推荐2】I started out in life with few advantages. I didn't graduate from high school. I worked at menial (不体面的) jobs. I had limited education, limited skills and a limited future.

And then I began asking, "Why are some people more successful than others?" This question changed my life.

Over the years, I have read thousands of books and articles on the subjects of success and achievement(成就). It seems that the reasons have been discussed and written about for more than two thousand years, in every possible way. One quality that most philosophers, teachers and experts agree on is the importance of self-discipline (自律). As Al Tomsik summarized it years ago, "Success is tons of discipline."

Some years ago, I attended a conference in Washington. It was the lunch break and I was eating at a nearby food fair. The area was crowded and I sat down at the last open table by myself, even though it was a table for four. A few minutes later, an older gentleman and a younger woman who was his assistant came along carrying trays of food, obviously looking for a place to sit. With plenty of room at my table, I immediately invited the older gentleman to join me. He was hesitant (犹豫), but I insisted. Finally, thanking me as he sat down, we began to chat over lunch.

It turned out that his name was Kop Kopmeyer. As it happened, I immediately knew who he was. He was a legend in the field of success and achievement. Kop Kopmeyer had written four large books, each of which contained 250 success principles that he had obtained from more than fifty years of research and study. I had read all four books from cover to cover, more than once.

After we had chatted for a while, I asked him the question that many people in this situation would ask, "Of all the one thousand success principles that you have discovered, which do you think is the most important?”

He smiled at me, as if he had been asked this question many times, and replied, without hesitating, "The most important success principle of all was stated by Thomas Huxley many years ago.   He said, 'Do what you should do, when you should do it, whether you feel like it or not.'"

He went on to say, "There are 999 other success principles that I have found in my reading and experience, but without self-discipline, none of them work."

1. Why did the writer ask the question in Paragraph 2 ?

A．Because he wasn't satisfied with himself.

B．Because he was a person of self-discipline.

C．Because he dislike those successful people.

D．Because he wanted to share his idea on success.

2. What made the writer invite the older gentleman to join him ?

A．His great kindness.	B．The gentleman's fame.
C．His eagerness for success.	D．The gentleman's habit.

3. What are the four large books about ?

A．Personal changes	B．The secret of success
C．Sayings of wisdom	D．The gentleman's manners.

4. What's the best title for the text ?

A．The Magic of Reading	B．An Unexpected Conversation
C．A Question that Changed My Life	D．The Power of Self-discipline

【推荐3】阅读下面短文，根据题目要求回答问题。

When I was in Grade 4, I got my first diary as a present from my mother. It made me feel very important because it was a precious gift to me in the year when a printed diary was rare. During the first week of my life as a diary owner, I kept looking at it. My heart filling with pride. In the second week, I suddenly felt nervous. I had not written a single word in the diary. And now each page seemed to be looking at me in sorrow for the way it was being gored (弄褶皱), so I decided to keep an account of how I spent the day at school.

I kept my promise to the diary that every day after coming back from school, I would take out the diary, open the page dated for that day and write about what happened. But a strange thing happened — each page looked dull, instead of looking as if it came straight out of a famous writer’s book.

I recently read a 4000-year-old account of a young boy’s day in school. It surrounded almost the same thing as mine! I was shocked. This boy was from Summer (苏美尔). The Sumerians, as they were called, invented a lot of things. They constructed the first cities. They stuck to an idea that children must go to a place like school for education.

What was the account of the boy’s day in school like? Well almost like mine but 4,000 years ago! I read it in a book called The Mammoth Book of How it Happened, by Jon E. Lewis. In a fascinating manner, he has put the important and usual things together into one collection, eye-witness accounts of moments in history, also eventful and ordinary.

The book told me that for schoolchildren anywhere in the world and probably at any time in history, school has always meant the same. Perhaps writing diaries too.

1. What did the author do with his first diary during the first week?
________________
2. Who is Jon E. Lewis?
________________
3. Please underline the false part in the following statement and explain why.
▷The author felt dull when he read a 4000-year-old account of a young boy’s day, because the diary surrounded almost the same thing as his.
________________
4. What do you think about writing dairies? (In about 40 words)
________________

【推荐1】

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From: benjaminrothschild

To: evaluation@midlandsmusic.com

Subject: Piano restoration

Date: November 1

Hello Mr. Parkes,

I own a piano that I would like to have restored. It is one of the very first Steinway & Sons pianos produced, and dates back to the late-1800s.

I would like to have the piano fully restored. This restoration will involve the piano’s internal mechanics (机械部件) as well as the piano’s wood, which has a rough surface. The piano stool (琴凳) will also need restoring. Remarkably, all of the piano’s keys are still in perfect condition.

As I would probably qualify for free pickup and delivery, could you also tell me which transport company you use?

I look forward to hearing from you soon.

Regards,

Benjamin Rothschild

1. It can be inferred that Midlands Music __________.

A．employs a team of experts.

B．provides free service for musicians.

C．carries different instruments for sale.

D．runs operations from anywhere in the world.

2. What do we know about Steinway & Sons?

A．Its pianos are of poor quality.	B．Its owner likes to play the piano.
C．It has recently gone out of business.	D．It was formed over a century ago.

3. What will NOT be required to restore Mr. Rothschild’s piano?

A．Restoring the piano stool.	B．Fixing several piano keys.
C．Smoothing the wood surface.	D．Repairing some mechanical faults.

【推荐2】Graham Moore is the best-selling author of The Sherlockian and the screenwriter of The Imitation Game. His new book The Last Days of Night is out now. He is talking about some of his favorite books.

Murder in Three Acts

BY AGATHA CHRISTIE

My mother is a crime fiction（侦探小说）lover and, when I was having trouble learning to read, we'd sit in my bed at home in Chicago and take it in turns to read a paragraph. It was the first book I read cover-to-cover and I later became a writer because of that experience. Not only did it give me a love of crime fiction but, more importantly, it taught me that reading can be a shared experience.

Cryptonomicon

BY NEAL STEPHENSON

This book showed me that historical fiction need not be dry, but can be lively and enjoyable. Stephenson asks readers to take science seriously, but writes the story in a funny way. I'd long known of Alan Turing, but Stephenson's technique（手法）of describing him was surprising; I saw how a writer can bring a real person to life for modern readers.

A Visit from the Goon Squad

BY JENNIFER EGAN

Egan uses a technique that I drew on when writing The Imitation Game. She tells stories from different voices and times, and uses many styles that say to readers, "I've done a lot of work, but now you have to join in and work it out for yourselves. "

With my latest book, my greatest hope is that readers will want to get other people discussing the book. I've just started the conversation.

1. What helped Moore to be a writer?

A．Reading crime fiction in secret.	B．Having trouble learning to read.
C．Writing stories at a young age.	D．Reading a book with his mother.

2. Who was Alan Turing?

A．Moore's Friend.	B．A writer.
C．A historical character.	D．Moore's teacher.

3. What's the purpose of writing the passage?

A．To discuss some books.	B．To introduce readers some books.
C．To tell writer's stories.	D．To discuss the book with others.

【推荐1】Nelle Harper Lee was born on April 28, 1926. Since Lee’s mother was mentally ill, she was raised by her father. She became very close to her father.

The naughty Lee loved reading, and would make up stories with Truman, her neighbour who was two years older than her. Seeing her daughter’s imagination, Lee’s father gave her a typewriter.

Before her final year in the university of Alabama, Lee dropped out to become a writer. She moved to New York City where her childhood friend Truman was already established as a famous writer. While there, she worked on her first book—To Kill a Mockingbird. It won her the Pulitzer Prize in 1961 and was made into an Academy Award winning movie the following year. To Kill a Mockingbird tells the story of six-year-old Scout and her brother who lived in the town of Maycomb Alabama with their single father Attics. Attics is a lawyer who defends the blacks. At a young age, Scout is exposed to the terrors of segregation(宗族隔离). Then, in 2014, the first draft of a new book—Go Set a Watchman was discovered among Lee’s papers. It is the story of 26-year-old Scout who returns to Maycomb to visit her father. She is shocked to find her father a changed man. Attics has turned into a segregationists! The story shows the mixed feelings Scout has for the changes that have taken place in her hometown and father.

A loner for most of her life, Lee stayed unmarried, preferring to lead a small town life. On February 19,2015, Lee passed away at the age of 89.

1. What can we learn about Lee?

A．She became a professional writer at college.

B．She developed a gift for writing in childhood.

C．She was persuaded to become a writer by Truman

D．She got interested in writing after getting a typewriter.

2. What did the characters Lee described show?

A．Her love for writing stories.

B．The effect of having an ill mother

C．Her experience of living in a small town

D．Her childhood relationship with her father

3. What happened to Scout’s father in Go Set a Watchman?

A．He had complex feelings towards the black.

B．He struggled for the equal right of the black

C．He supported segregating the blacks and the whites.

D．He failed to get used to the changes of his hometown

4. What can we infer about Lee?

A．She has no taste for social life.

B．She write only a book in her life.

C．She feels lonely for most of her life.

D．She enjoys the fame for her successful book.

【推荐2】Louise Elisabeth Glück is an American poet. She won the 2020 Nobel Prize in literature.

Louise Glück was born in New York City. She grew up on Long Island. Her father, Daniel, an immigrant from Hungary, helped invent and market the X-Acto Knife. Glück graduated in 1961 from George W. Hewlett High School. She went on to attend Sarah Lawrence College and later Columbia University; however, she did not graduate from either of them.

Glück won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1993 for her collection The Wild Iris. Glück is the recipient of the National Book Critics Circle Award, the Academy of American Poet’s Prize, as well as numerous Guggenheim fellowships. She lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and was previously a Senior Lecturer in English at Williams College in Williamstown, MA. Glück currently teaches at Yale University. She has also been a member of the faculty of the University of lowa and taught at Goddard College in Vermont.

Glück is the author of twelve books of poetry, including: A Village Li fe (2009), Averno(2006), The Seven Ages (2001), Vita Nova (1999), Meadowlands (1996), The Wild Iris(1992), Ararat (1990), and The Triumph o fAchilles (1985). The First Four Books collects her early poetry.

Glück has also published a collection of essays, Proofs and Theories : Essays on Poetry(1994). In 2001 Yale University awarded Louise Glück its Bollingen Prize in Poetry. Her other honors include the Lannan Literary Award for Poetry, the Sara Teasdale Memorial Prize(Wellesley, 1986), the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Anniversary Medal (2000), and fellowships from the Guggenheim and Rockefeller foundations and from the National Endowment for the Arts. A Village Life (2009) has been nominated(提名)for the Griffin Poetry Prize. The latest collection, Faith ful and Virtuous Night, was published in September 2014 and won the National Book Award for Poetry.

She is a member of the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters, and in 1999 was elected a Chancellor of the Academy of American Poets. In 2003 she was named as judge for the Yale Series of Younger Poets and served in that position through 2010. Glück was appointed the US Poet Laureate from 2003-2004, succeeding Billy Collins.

1. What is the second paragraph mainly about?

A．Glück’s childhood.	B．Glück’s family.
C．The X-Acto Knife.	D．Glück’s early life.

2. When was Glück given the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry?

A．In 1992.

B．In 1993.

C．In 2009.

D．In 2020.

3. What award did Faithful and Virtuous Night bring Glück?

A．The 2020 Nobel Prize in literature.

B．The Lannan Literary Award for Poetry.

C．The National Book Award for Poetry.

D．The National Book Critics Circle Award.

4. Which of the following can be inferred from the text?

A．Billy Collins became the US Poet Laureate before Glück.

B．Glück did well in her study during the university.

C．A Village Life made Glück win the Griffin Poetry Prize.

D．Glück has published twenty books of poetry.

【推荐3】Born in Detroit, Michigan, on January 10^th, 1928. Philip Levine was formally educated in the Detroit public school system. After graduation from university, Levine worked a number of industrial jobs, including the night work in factories, reading and writing poems in his off hours. In 1953, he studied at the University of Iowa. There, Levine met Robert Lowell and John Berryman, whom Levine called his “one great guide”.

About writing poems, Levine wrote: I believed even then that if I could change my experience into poems I would give it the value and honor that it did not begin to have on its own. I thought too that if I could write about it, I could come to understand it: I believed that if I could understand my life — or at least the part my work played in it — I could write it with some degree of joy, something obviously missing from my life.”

Levine published his first collection of poems, On the Edge in 1961, followed by Not This Pig in 1968. Throughout his life Levine published many books of poems, winning many prizes. A review said, “Levine writes poems about the bravery of men, physical labor, simple pleasures and strong feelings, often set in working-class Detroit or in central California, where he worked or lived.”

He taught for many years at California State University, Fresno and served as Distinguished Poet in Residence for the Creative Writing Program at New York University. After retiring from teaching, Levine divided his time between Brooklyn, New York, and Fresno, California, until his death on February 14^th, 2015. His final poem collection, The Last Shift, as well as a collection of essays and other writings, My Lost Poets: A Life in Poetry, were published in 2016.

1. How did Levine make a living right after graduation?

A．He worked as a full-time writer.	B．He worked as a worker in factories.
C．He worked as a teacher in university.	D．He worked as a great guide in writing.

2. What can we infer from Levine’s words?

A．He had lived the life he wanted.	B．Poems made him misunderstand life.
C．His life was valueless and dishonorable.	D．Poems could give him much pleasure.

3. Which poem collection was published after his death?

A．The Last Shift.	B．Not This Pig.
C．My Lost Poets: A Life in Poetry.	D．On the Edge.

【推荐1】Considered to be not only an outstanding businesswoman, but also a leader that all of us can learn from, Shazi Visram is a daughter of immigrants who took life-changing risks in order to create a better world for their children. For as long as she can remember, she has wanted to be a part of something bigger than herself. Ms. Visram has always sought to create abundance and pay it forward-the question was: how? Her journey took her to Columbia Business School, where she had an "Aha! Moment" while listening with a sympathetic ear to a friend's concern about the difficulty of finding the time to make her own baby food, and the lack of healthy options in traditional baby food. In that moment, Happy Family was born.

Ms. Visram made it her mission to create a progressive business that could positively affect the health of our children while giving back to those in need and also supporting sustainable(可持续的) agriculture. Under Ms.' Visram's guidance, Happy Family has continued to grow, announcing a partnership with Groupe Danone, a global company whose mission is to bring health through food to people everywhere. The partnership will raise the bar for children's nutrition in the US, combining their shared   devotion to social responsibility.

Ms. Visram's accomplishments have earned her the respect and admiration of her peers and colleagues. Happy Family was recognized as one of the fastest growing companies in the country by Inc. Magazine.

In addition to her MBA from Columbia Business School, Ms. Visram holds a BA in history from Columbia College. In addition, she works with the Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship as an instructor to young and ambitious entrepreneurs (企业家) from low-income communities.

1. What can be inferred about Shazi Visram?

A．She traveled a lot when she was young.

B．She has been ambitious since an early age.

C．She was born into a wealthy immigrant family.

D．She took risks to create a better life for her family.

2. What gave Shazi Visram the inspiration for Happy Family?

A．The concern of a friend.

B．Her journey to a big company.

C．Her concern about poor children.

D．The lack of traditional baby food.

3. What's Paragraph 2 mainly about?

A．The nutrition levels of children.

B．Shazi Visram's contributions to society.

C．The importance of sustainable agriculture.

D．Happy Family's partnership with Groupe Danone.

4. What is the best title for the text?

A．A woman who is recognized for running a business

B．A woman who holds two degrees and instructs others

C．A woman who raises the bar for children's nutrition

D．A woman who creates abundance and pays it forward