【推荐2】It’s hard to talk to Dad sometimes. His silence about his feelings and thoughts made him mysterious and hard to see through. You could never break his hard shell and get to know him. And he seemed to want to stay that way too.

But a year ago when my relationship with my wife and career took a hit, I needed my dad to pull back the curtain so I could see him as real and accessible. I was facing serious problems and I wanted to know whether he had faced them before and how he had found his way, because I felt like I had lost mine. In desperation, it occurred to me that sending an email might be the key, so I wrote him one, telling him about my regrets and fears, and I asked him to answer, if he felt like it.

Two weeks later, it showed up in my inbox: a much-thought, three-page letter. Dad, a 68-year-old retired technologist and grandfather of four, had carefully considered my message, and crafted a response. He mentioned his lost love, the foolish mistake he made in career and the stupid pride he had between him and his parents. He comforted me that “life will still find its right track despite many of its twists and turns”.

I closed the email and started to cry, because I wished I had opened up earlier but was grateful it wasn’t too late. I cried because at 33, in the midst of my own struggles, his letter instantly put me at ease. And I cried because in the end, it was so simple: I just had to hit “Send”.

We’ve since had many email exchanges. This increasing communication opened a door into his world. My problems haven’t been magically solved, but getting to know my dad better has made the tough thing more manageable and life sweeter. It’s hard to talk to Dad sometimes, but I’m glad I found a way to talk to mine.

1. Which of the following best describes the author’s father?

A．Quiet and caring.

B．Optimistic but careless.

C．Selfish and lonely.

D．Simple but proud.

2. Why did the author write to his father?

A．To make an apology.

B．To express thanks.

C．To turn to him.

D．To blame him.

3. What can we infer from the last two paragraphs in the text?

A．The author regretted not writing to Dad earlier.

B．Dad’s letter of reply is simple.

C．Dad helped settle the author’s problems.

D．The author can talk to Dad easily.

【推荐3】We are surrounded by mixed messages about mistakes: we're told we earn by making them, but we work hard to avoid them. So the result is that most of us know that we are going to make mistakes, but deep down, we feel we shouldn't.
Experiments with schoolchildren who did well on a given test show that those who were praised for being smart and then offered a more challenging or less challenging task afterward usually chose the easier one. On the other hand, children praised for trying hard-rather than being smart-far more often selected the more difficult task.
If we try hard to avoid mistakes, we aren't open to getting the information we need in order to do better. In a writing study, experiments showed that those who are so scared to make mistakes perform worse in writing tasks than those who aren't as worried about being perfect. They fear receiving any kind of negative feedback, so they don't learn where they went wrong and how to get better.
We don't just learn more when we're open to mistakes, we learn deeper. Research tells us that if we're only concerned about getting the right answer, we don't always learn the underlying concepts that help us truly understand whatever we're trying to figure out. Mistakes need to be seen not as a failure to learn, but as a guide to what still needs to be learned. As Thomas Edison said, “I am not discouraged, because every abandoned wrong attempt is another step forward. "
Furthermore, we often make mistakes because we try new things-we wander away from accepted paths. Teflon, penicillin-these are examples of great discoveries made by mistake. Take a page from Albert Einstein, who said, "Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new. "
1. What will happen to students praised for being smart in face of choosing tasks compared to students praised for working hard?

A．He will choose a less challenging task.

B．He will hide his mistakes from his teachers.

C．He will work harder to avoid mistakes.

D．He will ask his teachers for advice.

2. Which of the following statements is NOT acceptable according to the passage?

A．The more mistakes we make, the more we learn.

B．Mistakes can be used as a positive factor for success.

C．Being open to mistakes help you understand the truth.

D．A step forward may come from mistakes you've made.

3. What does the last paragraph want to tell us?

A．One must follow a correct path to avoid mistakes.

B．To become an Einstein, you should make mistakes.

C．You can't make mistakes unless you try new things.

D．Making mistakes is not a disadvantage in a way.

4. What's the main idea of the passage?

A．We can never avoid making mistakes when we work.

B．Success can't be achieved without making mistakes.

C．Mistakes should be treated with a correct attitude.

D．Try every means to avoid mistakes in our daily life.

【推荐2】My mother is the most important person in my life and she means the whole world to me. She was a nurse at Stony Brook University Hospital and she always took the night shift so that she could come home in time to drive me to school. She’d sleep during the day and be ready when I returned home before heading out again in the evening. This went on for 23 years. She never complained. No matter how tired she was, she always had enough energy to be my mom.

She often had to work on Christmas, Christmas Eve or New Year’s Eve, and sometimes Thanksgiving, which made me upset. However, before holidays she always decorated the inside and outside of our house. She’d also have cookies baking in the oven, a holiday-themed movie in the VCR, and music playing throughout our house for me. But when it was time to go to work, there was no room for debate. “Why do you have to work on this day of all days?” I’d ask sadly. “They need me, too, dear son,” she’d respond, compassion in her tone.

For a long time I didn’t understand why she should care so much about those sick strangers. Recently, as my grandmother became ill, I found myself spending more time in hospitals. The scenes I saw in the hospital made me see the different side of my mother. The nurses checked heart, blood and oxygen levels, and made sure patients were comfortable. They lifted patients in and out of bed and helped them to the bathroom. Beyond their duties, the nurses displayed consideration for each patient.

What I saw helped me to understand why my mother was devoted to her occupation. I was filled with more admiration for my mother.

1. Why did the author’s mother work at night?

A．To earn more money.	B．To take care of her kid.
C．To sleep during the day.	D．To attend school in time.

2. What made the author annoyed?

A．Spending holidays in the hospital.	B．Too much housework during holidays.
C．His mother’s absence at holiday nights.	D．His mother’s concern about her patients.

3. What does Paragraph 3 mainly talk about?

A．How the author came to understand his mother.	B．What qualities are required to be a good nurse.
C．How challenging it is to work as a nurse.	D．Why the author’s mother loved her work.

4. Which of the following may best describe the author’s mother?

A．Hardworking and cautious.	B．Devoted and humorous.
C．Loving and responsible.	D．Patient and ambitious.

【推荐3】My 83-year-old mother came to live with me a year ago last November. She was very ill and I had to put my life on hold to care for her.

Each morning, I got her up and dressed her and made her breakfast and sat with her. I rushed for a bowl when she felt sick, and lit fires to keep her warm. I cooked and persuaded her to take a few bites.

It’s a hard job caring for a sick or dying parent, whoever you are. But it was especially hard for me, I feel, because I am a doctor myself. I couldn’t help looking at her in two different ways. The medical professional saw a body and scrutinized it with the coldness that medicine requires. But the daughter saw the woman who had given birth to me, wiped my nose, sent me off to college and had been a constant presence in my life for over half a century.

Also, my mother didn’t appreciate how hard it was for me to care for her. I remember an exchange between her and the nurse who came to see her once a week:

“You could get some more help with care.”

“Oh, I don’t think I need that,” Mom said.

Mom didn’t understand that the help would have taken some of the burden off me. None of the treatments her doctors gave her worked, and finally her life became about comfort. She refused painkillers (止痛药) for a long time, but finally the pain convinced her. And when she accepted the painkillers she accepted the fact that she would die.

Illness and needs took us across personal boundaries I’d never before considered. And yet, while living and being and dying with Mom I witnessed something precious dawning. We became closer. We shared so many stories from our past that it was as if our memories had become one.

In the past our relationship had been difficult. We had often argued. But when the end came, both of us simply accepted that we looked at the world in different ways. We were daughter and mother and we loved each other. That was all that mattered.

1. Why was taking care of her mom especially hard for the author?

A．She was too busy living her own life.

B．She and her mom had a difficult relationship.

C．She was too old to attend to her mom carefully.

D．She viewed her mom both as a patient and a loved one.

2. The underlined word “scrutinized” in Paragraph 3 probably means “_______”.

A．held	B．checked
C．ignored	D．left

3. How did the author probably feel about the conversation between her mom and the nurse?

A．Helpful.	B．Thankful.
C．Surprised.	D．Depressed.

4. What did the author learn from the experience of looking after her sick mother?

A．Love is more important than differences.

B．Being alive was the most important thing.

C．We should learn to understand other people.

D．It was better for family members to live independently of each other.

【推荐1】I always wondered how people would react if I tried to approach a total stranger for help in a busy place like a street corner or in a noisy mall. I have always hurried past a stranger who tried to catch my attention in a busy place or when I am rushing around.

Yesterday, I was in a busy shopping mall buying a large piece of luggage because I just had the time to do it after many days of planning. After the purchase in one of the large shops, I picked up my phone from my pocket to call my driver waiting in the parking lot but my phone was dead.

I then requested the shop assistant who had just sold me the luggage to ring the number of my driver for me and she replied that it was the shop policy that they cannot use mobile phones while working in the shop.

I got out of the shop onto the busy street in front and approached a young mother with her two kids to make a request. As soon as I said “Excuse me, madam”, she grabbed both her kids and ran. I felt like a kidnapper.

I stood there, wondering how many times I had reacted to strangers like the young mum. I stood there in the busy street with people rushing by, looking at their faces to see if there was a sign of kindness on their faces.

I saw a man pretty shabbily dressed. He seemed to have noticed me and I just stopped him expecting him to rush past. My request escaped the lips. He immediately called the number of my driver and waited till my car came to be sure I was picked up, and he turned around before I could thank him adequately and was gone. I was surprised by his kindness and hope I will do likewise to strangers who try to catch my attention from now on.

1. The author turned to others for help to       .

A．charge up his dead phone	B．test their reaction to a stranger
C．call his driver to pick him up	D．catch their attention to him

2. Who gave the author a helping hand at last?

A．The shop assistant.	B．The shabbily-dressed man.
C．The mother with two kids.	D．Nobody.

3. Why did the author expect the man to rush past when stopping him?

A．The author was hopeless after seeking help in vain.

B．The man may be too poor to own a phone.

C．The man didn’t look safe.

D．The author found himself mistaken for a bad person.

4. What does the author learn from his experience?

A．Kindness can turn strangers into friends.

B．Helping strangers is easier said than done.

C．Experience is better gained through practice.

D．Do to others what you would like others to do to you.

【推荐2】Do you want to live with a strong sense of peacefulness, happiness, goodness, and self- respect? The collection of happiness actions broadly categorized as "honor" help you create this life of good feelings.
Here's an example to show how honorable actions create happiness.
Say a store clerk fails to charge us for an item. If we keep silent, and profit from the clerk's mistake, we would drive home with a sense of sneaky excitement. Later we might tell our family or friends about our good fortune. On the other hand, if we tell the clerk about the uncharged item, the clerk would be grateful and thank us for our honesty. We would leave the store with a quiet sense of honor that we might never share with another soul.
Then, what is it to do with our sense of happiness?
In the first case, where we don't tell the clerk, a couple of things would happen. Deep down inside we would know ourselves as a type of thief. In the process, we would lose some peace of mind and self-respect. We would also demonstrate that we cannot lie trusted, since we advertise our dishonor by telling our family and friends. We damage our own reputations by telling others. In contrast, bringing the error to the clerk's attention causes different things to happen. Immediately the clerk knows us to be honorable. Upon leaving the store, we feel honorable and our self-respect is increased.   Whenever we take honorable action we gain the deep internal rewards of goodness and a sense of nobility.
There is a beautiful positive cycle that is created by living a life of honorable actions. Honorable thoughts lead to honorable actions. Honorable actions lead us to a happier existence. And it's easy to think and act honorably again when we're happy. While the positive cycle can be difficult to start, once it's started, it's easy to continue. Keeping on doing good deeds brings us peace of mind, which is important for our happiness.
1. According to the passage, the positive action in the example contributes to our

A．self-respect

B．financial rewards

C．advertising ability

D．friendly relationship

2. The author thinks that keeping silent about the uncharged item is equal to___.

A．lying

B．stealing

C．cheating

D．advertising

3. The phrase "bringing the error to the clerk's attention" (in para. 5) means___.

A．telling the truth to the clerk	B．offering advice to the clerk
C．asking the clerk to be more attentive	D．reminding the clerk of the charged item

4. How will we feel if we let the clerk know her mistake?

A．We'll be very excited.	B．We'll feel unfortunate.
C．We'll have a sense of honor.	D．We'll feel sorry for the clerk.

5. Which of the following can be the best title of this passage.*

A．How to Live Truthfully	B．Importance of Peacefulness
C．Ways of Gaining Self-respect	D．Happiness through Honorable Actions

【推荐2】To tell the truth, I don't remember seeing Mom actually read her old Bible. As far as I could tell, it just sat on the nightstand next to her bed. And that was the best place for it, since it probably wouldn't have survived any meaningful use anywhere else. The black cloth cover was ragged and time-worn, and its dog-eared pages yellowed. Once I accidentally knocked it off the nightstand, launching loose pages all over Mom's and Dad's bedroom. I expected a tongue-lashing for my carelessness, but Mom was so busy gathering the pages, gently smoothing them and returning them to their place in the book that she paid no attention to me.

Soon after I moved away from home, my sister Kathy and I bought a new Bible for Mom for her birthday. It was a black leather volume, twice as big as her old Bible. The pages were decorated in gold, and there were maps, references and a complete Bible dictionary included within its pages. We even had her name carved on the front with gold-leaf lettering. It was a beautiful book and Mom was touched and pleased. I remember watching her thumb carefully through the pages, admiring the quality of the paper and the clarity of the printing. From that day on, that Bible was the one she took with her to church and the one from which she read during the family Nativity Pageant. But for some reason, it never replaced the old Bible from its place for honor on her nightstand. And that bothered me a little.

“I don't know why you keep that old thing,” I told her as we prepared to pack it among her most precious belongings for what would turn out to be the last of many movements in her life-this time to warm Southern California. “That new Bible we got for you is the best that money can buy. You can't even use this old one anymore.”

Mom smiled at me weakly and sat on the edge of her bed, carefully rapping the old Bible in an equally old, equally shabby white cloth.

“Just because a thing isn't useful anymore, that doesn't mean it isn't valuable, “she said softly and deliberately.” You look at this and see an old, worn-out book. However, I see the gift your father gave me on our wedding day. I see the friend that was always there to provide me with strength and comfort when your father served at the front. I see the storybook from which I read stories to all of my children, and the book from which you all read your first Bible poems.”

“This Bible has been in the family as long as we've been a family."She continued, caressing it through the shabby white cloth.“Even though it isn't especially useful anymore, there is still value in what it represents.At least, there is to me.”

Suddenly it occured to me that she wasn't just talking about the old Bible. We live in an age of fanatically obsessive utilitarianism. Everything is disposable. If it's old or odd-looking or not particularly useful, we toss it out. We forget that there is value beyond use, and worth beyond “what's in it for me right now.”

When Mom passed away, Dad gave me her “new” Bible. It's among my most cherished possessions. It's the Bible I read and take to church. It means a lot to me, and it's really beautiful and incredibly useful. But I would trade it in a minute for Mom's old useless Bible. I even have the perfect place for it: on the nightstand next to my bed.

1. What does the underlined word “tongue-lashing” in Paragraph 1 mean?

A．Defense.

B．Challenge.

C．Criticism.

D．Recognition.

2. According to the passage, what bothered the author a little?

A．Her mom didn't take the new Bible to church.

B．Her mom was unwilling to move to Southern California.

C．Her mom couldn't find an appropriate place for the new Bible.

D．Her mom had a strong love for the old Bible after owning the new one.

3. What does paragraph 6 mainly tell us?

A．The Bible is too old to use.

B．The Bible has been part of their family.

C．The author should have read all the stories in the Bible.

D．The author should have shown respect for the Bible.

4. According to the author, what is “utilitarianism”?

A．Too much spoils, while too little is nothing.

B．The most valuable things are the most useful.

C．People nowadays are materially better off than ever before.

D．The importance of the necessities of life has been overstated.

5. What's the best title for the passage?

A．Mom's Old Useless Bible.	B．The Power of Utilitarianism.
C．The Making of a Holy Man.	D．Mom's Perfect Nightstand.

【推荐3】I was driving home the other day on a sunny afternoon. It was such a beautiful day that I felt very happy. My good mood (心情) ended, however, when I suddenly heard a piece of news on the radio about a rich famous man who had broken the law. I shook my head as I came to a red traffic light.

As I stopped I noticed four leather-jacketed motorbikers. They were standing in the middle of the road with two on either side of the light. They looked dangerous, but as I got closer I noticed each one was holding their helmet (头盔) in their hands. I rolled down my window as one approached my car. “We are the Brother of the Wheel,” he said. “We are collecting money for Christmas Toy Drive for needy children.” As I pulled a dollar out of my wallet I looked past his beard and into his eyes. They shined with kindness that came right from his heart. I dropped the money in his helmet and waved to the other three men as I drove off. My good                           mood had returned. And I remembered once again never to judge (判断) people by their appearance (外表).

Our society often judges books by their covers. Perhaps one day we will realize that actions (行为) are much more important than appearance.

1. The writer’s good mood ended when ________.

A．he had to give money to the man	B．he had to stop at a red traffic light
C．he heard a rich man broke the law	D．he saw four leather-jacketed motor bikers

2. What were the four motor bikers doing at the traffic lights?

A．Selling helmets to the passers-by.	B．Preparing for Christmas holidays.
C．Having a motorbike race in the street.	D．Raising money to help kids in need.

3. What is the meaning of the underlined word   needy in the 2th passage?

A．bad	B．poor
C．kind	D．jobless

4. The writer wants to tell us that we should ________.

A．judge others by their actions	B．change our attitude to society
C．manage to help others in need	D．trust young people