It’s rare that you see the words “shyness” and “leader” in the same sentence. After all, the common opinion is that those outgoing and sociable guys make great public speakers and excellent net-workers and that those shy people are not.
A survey conducted by USA Today referred to 65 percent of managers who believed shyness to be a barrier to leadership. Interestingly, the same article stresses that roughly 40 percent of leaders actually are quite shy — they’re just better at adapting themselves to situational demands. Bill Gates, Warren Buffet and Charles Schwab are just a few “innies”.
Shy people take a cautious approach to chance. They listen attentively to what others say and absorb it before they speak. They’re listening so they can learn what to say. Along the same lines, shy people share a common love of learning. They are intrinsically (内在地) motivated and therefore seek content regardless of achieving an outside standard.
Being shy can also bring other benefits. Remember being in school and hearing the same kids contribute, until shy little Johnny, who almost never said a word, cut in? Then what happened? Everyone turned around to look with great respect at little Johnny actually talking. This is how shy people made good use of their power of presence: they “own” the moment by speaking calmly and purposefully, which translate to a positive image.
Shyness is often related to modesty. Not to say that limelight-seekers (引人注目的人) aren’t modest, but shy people tend to have an accurate sense of their abilities and achievements. As a result, they are able to recognize mistakes, imperfections, knowledge gaps and limitations.
Since shy people have a lower desire for outside rewards than outgoing ones, they’re more comfortable working with little information and sticking to their inner desires. Shy people are also more likely to insist on finding solutions that aren’t primarily apparent. Albert Einstein once said, “It’s not that I’m so smart, it’s that I stay with problems longer.” Obviously, finding certainty where uncertainty is typically popular is a huge plus for any successful person.
1. What is the traditional belief to the shy people?| A．They are good at making friends. |
| B．They are not popular with people. |
| C．They like making speeches in public. |
| D．They are unlikely to become leaders. |
| A．Shy people. | B．Public speakers. |
| C．Net-workers. | D．Survey conductor. |
| A．They focus on achieving themselves outside rewards. |
| B．They make the best of the power of presence actively. |
| C．They realize their abilities and imperfections clearly. |
| D．They perform more confidently than outgoing people. |
| A．By making contrasts and giving examples. |
| B．By quoting authorities and making evaluations. |
| C．By explaining problems and providing solutions. |
| D．By giving definitions and presenting research results. |
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【推荐1】Most people follow others blindly just under the effect of peer pressure or because they feel it safe to follow a large number of people. In some rare cases it might be right to follow the crowd, but in most cases this can be a big mistake. Actually there are reasons why we shouldn’t follow the crowd blindly.
According to a study, people often follow the crowd when they aren’t sure about the direction they should take. This means a large number of people could be following others without understanding what’s right and what’s wrong! This makes more people follow and as a result most people move in a certain direction even if it isn’t right.
A man who wants to be successful always hopes for other’s guidance and he usually follows the same path of most people, but the question this man never asks himself is! Are all of these successful? Of course not! If you want to follow a crowd, then follow a successful one. However, in real life you’ll only find one successful person among hundreds of people,and that’s why following the crowd makes no sense at all.
Most people act emotionally without thinking wisely. If you always follow others because they are greater than you in number, the sooner or later you’ll discover that you’re taking emotional decisions you might regret later.
However, should we never follow the crowd? No. I’m not trying to say you should never follow the crowd, but instead I’m just asking you to think wisely before you take a decision. If you find others are right, there is no problem in following them, but if you have doubts about the direction they’re moving in, don’t follow them blindly.
1. Why do most people follow others blindly according to the passage?| A．Because they don’t know what to do. |
| B．Because they believe they take the right direction. |
| C．Because they feel it safe to do that. |
| D．Because they want to make good impressions on people. |
| A．It needs some time to think wisely. |
| B．We shouldn’t regret what we have done. |
| C．We should think wisely before deciding to follow others. |
| D．Making others follow us is better than following others. |
| A．It is wrong to follow other people. |
| B．Those who follow others won’t succeed. |
| C．Only those foolish people will follow others. |
| D．One should use his head before following others. |
| A．Effects of following others. |
| B．Reasons for not following others blindly. |
| C．Advantages of making wise decisions. |
| D．Ways of finding successful people to follow. |
【推荐2】The mysterious science of reading gestures is explained using practical explanations and clear images. Gestures are products of both genetic (遗传的) and environmental influence. Understanding our gestures is not as difficult as some people would have you believe. All human beings use them and so actually have a “built-in” ability to recognize and read it.
Fingers crossed
Generally this means “wishing for good luck or fortune”. Another explanation could be seen as “here’s hoping”. The gesture probably has Christian origins where the gesture was believed to get away from evil. As such, people believe that crossing the fingers when telling a lie somehow gets away from the evil of the lie. Some historians believe that crossing your fingers is a hidden or secret way of making the Christian sign of cross—a piece way of defeating evils. As a gesture it has both good and bad meanings. Luck or lies.
Waving the first finger
Mothers and teachers are common users with this hand gesture. In general it is used to warn a single person. It is a change of the “you” gesture. If translated into language it would say “Stop whatever you are doing and pay attention to me. I am your superior and I am waring you!” Classified as a “silent” parent to child gesture, it is completely unacceptable in a professional environment where it will be interpreted (诠释) as both rude and domineering (盛气凌人的). Some psychologists believe that it has a meaning of the whip.
1. What can we infer from the first paragraph?| A．Reading gestures is a secret. |
| B．Gestures are formed in daily life. |
| C．Some people make reading gestures difficult on purpose. |
| D．It is hard to explain gestures by images. |
| A．Showing he isn’t lucky. | B．Wishing to succeed. |
| C．Getting rid of the evil of the lie. | D．Crossing the street. |
| A．To wish for good luck. | B．To stop you. |
| C．To praise yon. | D．To help you. |
| A．Because it is rude. | B．Because it is friendly. |
| C．Because it is surprising. | D．Because it is helpful. |
【推荐3】You either have it or you don’t — a sense of direction, that is. But why is it that some people could find their way across the Sahara without a map, while others can lose themselves in the next street?
Scientists say we’re all born with a sense of direction, but it is not properly understood how it works. One theory is that people with a good sense of direction have simply worked harder at developing it. Research being carried out at Liverpool University supports this idea and suggests that if we don’t use it, we lose it.
“Children as young as seven have the ability to find their way around,” says Jim Martland, Research Director of the project. “However, if they are not allowed out alone or are taken everywhere by car, they never develop the skills.”
Jim Martland also emphasizes that young people shou1d be taught certain skills to improve their sense of direction. He makes the following suggestions:
• If you are using a map, turn it so it relates to the way you are facing.
• If you leave your bike in a strange place, put it near something like a big stone or a tree. Note landmarks on the route as you go away from your bike. When you return, go back along the same route.
• Simplify the way of finding your direction by using lines such as streets in a town, streams, or walls in the countryside to guide you. Count your steps so that you know how far you have gone and note any landmarks such as tower blocks or hills which can help to find out where you are.
Now you need never get lost again!
1. Scientists believe that ________.| A．some babies are born with a sense of direction |
| B．people learn a sense of direction as they grow older |
| C．people never lose their sense of direction |
| D．everybody possesses a sense of direction from birth |
| A．They never have a sense of direction without maps. |
| B．They should never be allowed out alone if they lack a sense of direction. |
| C．They have a sense of direction and can find their way around. |
| D．They can develop a good sense of direction if they are driven around in a car. |
| A．tie it to a tree so as to prevent it from being stolen |
| B．draw a map of the route to help remember where it is |
| C．avoid taking the same route when you come back to it |
| D．remember something easily recognizable on the route |
| A．ask policemen for directions |
| B．use walls, stream, and streets to guide yourself |
| C．remember your route by looking out for steps and stairs |
| D．count the number of landmarks that you see |
After the accident, my roommate called a doctor for me. I was very grateful and determined to repay him one day. But the next day, he asked me to pay him $200 for what he had done. I was astonished. He had good reason to charge me, he said. And if I wanted to collect money from the person who was responsible for my injury, I’d have to have a good lawyer. And only a good doctor can help me get a good lawyer. Now that he had helped me find a good doctor, it was only fair that I should pay him.
But every day I went to see the doctor, I had to wait about 50 minutes. He would see two or three patients at the same time, and often stop treating one so as to see another. Yet he charged me $115 each time. The final examination report consisted of ten lines, and it cost me $215.
My lawyer was all smiles the first time we met. But after that he avoided seeing me at all. He knew very well the other party was responsible for the accident, yet he hardly did anything. He simply waited to collect his money. He was so irresponsible that I decided to dismiss him. And he made me pay him $770.
Now I had to act as my own lawyer. Due to my inexperience, I told the insurance company the date I was leaving America. Knowing that, they played for time…and I left without getting a cent.
My experiences taught me two things about America: firstly, in a country like America money is everything. It is more important than friendship, honor or professional morality (道德). Secondly, foreigners are still being unfairly treated. So when we talk about America, we should see both its good and bad sides.
1. The author’s roommate offered to help him because ________.
| A．he felt sorry for the author |
| B．he thought it was a chance to make some money |
| C．he knew the doctor was a very good one |
| D．he wanted the author to have a good lawyer |
| A．be properly treated |
| B．talk with the person responsible for the accident |
| C．recover before he leaves America |
| D．eventually get the responsible party to pay for his injury |
| A．be responsible | B．accuse | C．ask as a price | D．claim |
| A．friendly | B．selfish | C．professional | D．busy |
| A．Going to court is something very common in America. |
| B．One must be very careful while driving a car. |
| C．There are more bad sides in America than good sides. |
| D．Money is more important than other things in the US. |
【推荐2】Smart phones are greatly changing the way we walk down the street. Office workers and young people are walking like the old as they check emails and messages.
Scientists have found mobile phones make us walk more slowly, with modest steps, to avoid falling over. The leader of the study said the walk is just like someone in their eighties. Researchers found people writing a text message walk more than twice as slowly as those without a phone, finding it harder to stay in a straight line.
The scientists examined 252 people walking while reading a text message, writing one, speaking on their phones or without their phones at all. Writing a text is the hardest activity, causing people to look down at their phone 46 percent more, and 45 percent longer, than when reading a message. This led people to walk 118 per cent more slowly than when they were without their phones. People walked almost a third more slowly while reading a text and 19 per cent while talking on the phone.
Smart phones were found to stop people from walking in a straight line, putting them at greater risk of running into other people, cars or street lamps. This increased the need to slow down and take more careful steps.
John Timmis said the idea for this study came from following someone walking down the street in the afternoon, who was walking as if he had had several drinks. I thought it was a bit early for that, then walked up alongside him and saw that he was on his phone. Simply being on the phone changes the way people walk.
1. What does the underlined word “modest” mean in the second paragraph?| A．Young. | B．Straight. |
| C．Low. | D．Small. |
| A．Those not carrying phones. |
| B．Those writing a text message. |
| C．Those reading a text message. |
| D．Those speaking on their phones. |
| A．The need to walk straight. |
| B．The desire to use their phones. |
| C．The chance of possible accidents. |
| D．The traffic jams during rush hours. |
| A．Seeing office workers walking like the elderly. |
| B．Seeing people walking in the street hurriedly. |
| C．Watching young people who were walking normally. |
| D．watching a person who was walking in the street in a strange way . |
【推荐3】Many Chinese people used to greet each other with “Have you had your meal? “show to their friendliness. Recently, a new greeting has emerged in many Chinese cities, namely “Have you lost weight?”
In recent years, food-delivery services have been growing and Chinese people can easily get access to foods from all over the world. But people are paying more and more attention to their health. On food-delivery platforms, replacement meal and food labeled with “low calories” and “light food“ are becoming popular. More people are becoming familiar with various terms, such as “sugar cut-off” and “low calorie Fast Diet plan”.
As the quality of life for most has greatly improved over the past decades, most people no longer need to worry about whether they have enough food, but rather whether they have a healthy diet. According to statistics from global market research firm Euromonitor International, the global meal replacement market reached $66.16 billion in 2017, of which the Chinese market contributed about $8.45 billion. The figure is expected to double in 2022.
Despite healthier diets, many people believe, to lose weight, exercise is also of vital importance. Besides training in the gym, many people choose to take fitness equipment home. Over the past two years, the online consumption of fitness equipment has increased significantly, particularly among women who attach great importance to body management. Many people even like to run marathons. In China’s major cities, holding marathons has become a fashion. 1,828 marathons were held nation-wide in 2019, with 7.12 million participants.
According to Wang Hufeng, a professor at the Renmin University of China, health is a major issue of concern for the Chinese people and health is becoming a huge industry. “Health is an important indicator of a state’s soft power, and the improvement of overall health conditions can have a positive impact on economic development,” Wang said.
1. What can we know about the change of people’s greeting?| A．People become friendlier to others. | B．People care less about their meals. |
| C．People show more health concern. | D．People prefer a more direct manner. |
| A．Food trading in China is expected to grow in 2022. |
| B．Chinese people are changing their food choice greatly. |
| C．Chinese people are more willing to spend on food. |
| D．China has greater purchasing power in food. |
| A．People’s enthusiasm about exercise. | B．Advances in fitness equipment. |
| C．Women’s preference for sports. | D．The popularity of marathon. |
| A．China’s economy depends on health industry. | B．Food safety should be stressed in the future. |
| C．Government should develop health care industry. | D．Health plays an important role in society. |
【推荐1】We can text WhatsApp, Facebook message and Snapchat — but are we losing the convenience of the phone conversation? Who has time to chat when you can spend hours on WhatsApp?
Most of my phone calls are less than a minute long. If I unintentionally hit answer instead of pressing ignore button, I usually say, “Hold on, I’ll call you back,” before quickly typing out a “whatsup?” text. My list of recent phone calls is limited to four people and unless we live together, are related, or dating, there’s very little chance that you’ll be added to that list.
It seems I’m not the only who’s abandoning the phone call. The average adult spends more time on media or communication per day than on sleeping, but among all that communication, the phone call is the medium that’s falling.
So why has the phone call fallen out of favour? Many messaging apps seem to have created a grade of communication, so that the phone call is no longer the standard way of conversing long distance, but a relatively intimate thing.
Rachel, 24, says that she used to speak to all her girlfriends on the phone but now only calls a few. “I rarely even speak to good friends on the phone and if they call me I’m like, ‘Hello, is something wrong?’,” says Rachel. “If I do a phone call it feels really official, like it’s a big deal.”
Instead of taking the time to ring a friend and catch up, it now seems easier to send a short message. And unless you’re very close to someone, an unscheduled phone call can feel like an intrusion. While text messages can be put to one side for hours or even days, a phone call demands attention in the moment.
But while text messages and emails may be a more efficient way of sharing basic facts and information, they’re not necessarily the best way of communication. We may be communicating more than ever before, but we seem to be listening far less.
1. What does the author intend to tell us in paragraph 1?| A．People chat much less on the phone now. | B．People are addicted to messaging apps. |
| C．People find no time to chat face-to-face. | D．People have many ways to communicate. |
| A．Taking on. | B．Picking out. | C．Bringing about. | D．Giving up. |
| A．Text messages demand immediate attention. |
| B．An unscheduled phone call may be unwelcome. |
| C．People communicate less than before. |
| D．It is hard to keep track of friends on messaging apps. |
| A．Doubtful. | B．Uncaring. | C．Supportive. | D．Hopeful. |
【推荐2】Life has gone mostly online for many people around the world. With more people going online during the COVID-19 pandemic, global Internet traffic has become a big problem. Between January and late March. many major cities experienced an increase in Internet traffic.
Video meetings, online classrooms and stay-at-home entertainment have become a daily routine. This increase in traffic is testing the Internet' s strength. In March. major phone networks in the UK experienced mass outages(断供). People were not able to take calls, receive texts or use mobile data.
In the US, major telecommunications companies like AT&T said traffic was up 21 percent month over month. Video streaming services like You Tube, Netflix and Facebook have cut their picture qualities and download speeds. This is being done to reduce network traffic jams.
China has seen an Internet traffic increase of around 50 percent compared to the end of 2019. The country's network speeds went down sharply in early February. However, they returned to normal soon afterwards and have been working well. This is due to China’s work in building network infrastructure(基础设施), especially 5G technology. By the end of February, 164,000 5G base stations had been built nationwide. This has given Chinese networks the power to handle increased traffic.
“If there were no such development in the Internet network field. people could hardly enjoy such a colorful life at home. Online working and teaching could never be realized so smoothly," said Wen Kun, an official with the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.
1. What happened to the Internet due to COVID-19?| A．Internet traffic was jammed. | B．Internet access was cut off. |
| C．Internet service was ignored. | D．Internet community was ruined. |
| A．To increase Internet strength. | B．To improve picture qualities. |
| C．To avoid Internet breakdown. | D．To reduce the number of users. |
| A．suffered bigger losses | B．recovered faster |
| C．cost less money | D．started earlier |
| A．Doubtful. | B．Uncaring. |
| C．Critical. | D．Positive. |
【推荐3】Jeremy from America cannot understand why a lady he met outside the Hyde Park in London said, “Ooh, isn’t it cold?”, and he thinks of this behaviour as a distinctively English concern about the weather. In fact, the female was just trying to strike up a conversation with Jeremy. Not necessarily a long conversation — just an exchange of greetings. It is not always quite that obvious, but all English weather conversations have a distinctive structure conducted according to unwritten but accepted rules.
The unpredictable nature of our weather ensures that there is always something new to comment on, or perhaps most importantly, agree about. We have already established that weather-speak greetings like “Cold, isn’t it?” require the response expressing agreement, as in “Yes, isn’t it?” .It would be very rude to respond with “No, actually it’s quite mild.” or “It’s pretty hot to me.” If you deliberately break the rule, you will find that the atmosphere becomes rather tense and awkward. There may be an uncomfortable silence. Most likely, they will either change the subject or continue talking about the weather among themselves politely, if coldly, ignoring your faux pas.
There is, however, one situation in which English weather-speakers are not required to observe the agreement rule at all and that is the male-bonding argument, particularly the pub-argument. In the special environment of the pub, constant disagreement not just on the weather, but on everything else as well is a means of expressing friendship.
While we may spend much of our time complaining about our weather, foreigners are not allowed to criticize it. Indeed, this brings us to the weather as family rule. In this respect, we treat the English weather like a member of our family: one can complain about the behavior of one’s own children or parents, but any blame from an outsider is unacceptable. The weather may be one of the few things about which the English are still unconsciously and unashamedly patriotic （爱国的）.
1. Why did the lady comment on the weather to Jeremy?| A．To build up friendship. |
| B．To begin a casual chat. |
| C．To send seasonal greetings. |
| D．To express dissatisfaction. |
| A．Improper response. |
| B．Careless attitude. |
| C．Rude interruption. |
| D．Frequent complaint. |
| A．Male bonding in pubs. |
| B．Argument about weather. |
| C．Exception to the agreement rule. |
| D．Making friends by disagreement. |
| A．Politeness Tips for Foreigners |
| B．Accepted Rules in Social Life |
| C．English Politeness in Weather Conversation |
| D．Hidden Rules of English Weather Conversation |
