【推荐1】“Heaven is where the police are English,the cooks are French the mechanics are German,the lovers are Italian and everything is organized by the Swiss.Hell is where the.police are German,the cooks are English,the mechanics are French,the lovers are Swiss,and everything is organized by the Italians.”

Obviously the national stereotypes（模式化的思想）in this,old joke are generalizations,but such stereotypes are often said to "exist for a reason".Is there actually a sliver of truth in them?Not likely,an international research team now says.

"National and cultural stereotypes do play an important role in how people see themselves and others,and being aware that these are not dependable is a useful thing,"said study author Robert McCrae of the National Institute on Aging."These are in fact unfounded stereotypes.They don't come from looking around you,"McCrae said.

If national stereotypes aren't rooted in real experiences,then where do they come from?One possibility is that they reflect national values,which may become known from historical events.For example,many historians have argued that the spirit of American individualism has its origins in the experiences of the pioneers on the Old West.

Social scientists such as psychologist Richard Robins have given several other possible explanations for stereotypes and why they may be incorrect.Robins notes that some stereotypes may have been correct at one point in history and then remained unchanged while the culture changed.

We may be "hard-wired",to some degree,to keep incorrect stereotypes,since we are less likely to notice and remember information that is different from our stereotypes.Generally,according to Robins,when we meet people who are different from our stereotypes,we see them as unique individuals rather than typical national or cultural groups.

1. What is the function of the first paragraph?

A．To introduce the topic of national stereotypes.

B．To make a comparison between the characters of different countries.

C．To exemplify the argument against stereotyping.

D．To analyze the strengths and weaknesses of people in different countries.

2. Which of the following best describes McCrae's attitude towards national stereotypes?

A．Supportive.	B．Indifferent.
C．Critical.	D．Uncertain.

3. According to social scientists,why aren’t national stereotypes always correct?

A．Because they are formed by individual historians.

B．Because people tend to have false idea about other cultures.

C．Because generalizations are made through personal experience.

D．Because what was true in the past may not be true at present.

4. What does the underlined word "hard-wired" in the last paragraph probably mean?

A．Forgetful.	B．Fixed.
C．Anxious.	D．Helpless.

【推荐2】In his 1930 essay “Economic Possibilities for Our Grandchildren” , John Keynes, a famous economist, wrote that human needs fall into two classes: absolute needs, which are independent of what others have , and relative needs ,which make us feel superior to our fellows. He thought that although relative needs may indeed be insatiable (无止境的) , this is not true of absolute needs.

Keynes was surely correct that only a small part of total spending is decided by the desire for superiority. He was greatly mistaken, however, in seeing this desire as the only source of insatiable demands.

Decisions to spend are also driven by ideas of quality which can influence the demands for almost all goods, including even basic goods like food. When a couple goes out for an anniversary dinner, for example, the thought of feeling superior to others probably never comes to them. Their goal is to share a special meal that stands out from other meals.

There are no obvious limits to the escalation of demand for quality. For example, Porsche, a famous car producer, has a model which was considered perhaps the best sport car on the market Priced at over $120,000, it handles perfectly well and has great speed acceleration. But in 2004, the producer introduced some changes which made the model slightly better in handling and acceleration. People who really care about cars find these small improvements exciting. To get them, however, they must pay almost four times the prices.

By placing the desire to be superior to others at the heart of his description of insatiable demands, Keynes actually reduced such demands. However, the desire for higher quality has no natural limits.

1. According to the passage, John Keynes Believed that________.

A．desire is the root of both absolute and relative needs

B．absolute needs come from our sense of superiority

C．relative needs alone lead to insatiable demands

D．absolute needs are stronger than relative needs

2. What does the word “escalation” paragraph 4 probably mean?

A．Understanding.	B．Increase.
C．Difference       .	D．Expectation.

3. The author of the passage argues that ________.

A．absolute needs have no limits

B．demands for quality are not insatiable

C．human desires influence ideas of quality

D．relative needs decide most of our spending

【推荐3】The age of adulthood is by definition arbitrary. If everyone matured at the same, fixed rate, it wouldn’t be a human process. Indeed, maturation happens at varying speeds across different categories within the same individual, so I’d say I was easily old enough to vote at 16, but nobody should have given me a credit card until I was 32, and I’ve got the county court judgment to prove it.

However, we broadly agree that there’s a difference between a child and an adult, even if we might argue about the transition point. So the political theorist David Runciman’s view that six-year-olds should be allowed to vote goes against any standard argument about the age of civic responsibility. Nobody would say that a six-year-old could be held criminally responsible, could be sent to war, could be capable of consent, could be given responsibility for anything. So allowing them the vote—along with, unavoidably, seven-year-olds who are even sillier, if anything—is quite an amusing proposal.

Runciman’s argument is that this is the only way to rebalance political life, which is currently twisted in favor of the old, who don’t (he added) ever need to demonstrate mental capacity, even long after they’ve lost it.

The first part of his case is self-evident: pensions are protected while children’s centers are closed, concepts such as sovereignty(最高权威) are prioritized over the far more urgent business of the future: climate change. Nostalgia(怀念) for a past the young wouldn’t even recognize plays a central role, which is completely unfair.

Most of the arguments against giving six-year-olds a vote are that children would end up voting for something damaging and chaotic, if someone made unrealistic promises to them, which could never be realized. Well, it’s not children’s fault.

Having said that, children do tend towards the progressive, having a natural sense of justice (which kicks in at the age of six months, psychologists have shown, by creating scenes of great unfairness to babies, and making them cry) and an underdeveloped sense of self-interest. My kid, when he was six, made quite a forceful case against private property, on the basis that, since everybody needed a house, they shouldn’t cost money, because nobody would want anyone else not to have one. Also, food should be free. It was a kind of pre-Marx communism, where you limit the coverage of the market to only those things that you wouldn’t mind someone else not having.

On that particular day, when we were registered as voters, my kid was quite far to the left of me, but in the normal run of things, we’re united, which brings us to the point of the problem: children obey you on almost nothing, but they do seem to believe in your politics until they’re adolescent. So giving kids the vote is really just a way of giving parents extra votes. And what can stop us having even more children, once there’s so much enfranchisement(选举权) in it for us?

Now, if parents could be trusted to use their influence wisely, and hammer into children the politics it will take to assure a better future, then I wouldn’t necessarily have a problem with that, apart from, obviously, that culture is already wildly twisted towards parents, and I can imagine a few non-parents boiling with fierce anger. But that’s not worth talking about anyway, because parents can’t be trusted, otherwise we’d all already vote Green(绿党).

In short: no, six-year-olds should not get the vote; but while we’re here, if any votes come up in the near future, which will have an impact on the next five decades of British political life, alongside EU migrants, 16-year-olds certainly should be enfranchised.

1. The author refers to his age of adulthood to prove that ___________.

A．people mature at different rates in various aspects

B．there’s a common standard for the age of adulthood

C．a credit card is more difficult to get than the vote

D．certain rights are granted at different stages of life

2. People reject David Runciman’s proposal because ___________.

A．they don’t think a child can grow into adulthood earlier

B．they are uncertain whether children can assume responsibility

C．they believe children are far from mature in many ways

D．they know the age to get the vote is not to be questioned

3. What is the base for David Runciman’s argument?

A．A cultural preference for the old.

B．The imbalance in political life.

C．Inequalities of opportunity.

D．Public ignorance of children’s abilities.

4. The author talks about his kid to indicate that ___________.

A．children are good-natured and like to help people in need

B．children are simple-minded and can fall for an adult’s trick

C．children are innocent and don’t want to be involved in politics

D．children are in favor of a just society and tend to be idealistic

5. The author thinks allowing children the vote may lead to ___________.

A．twisted culture	B．misuse of rights
C．parents’ objections	D．unusual maturation

6. What is the main point of the passage?

A．Allowing children the vote is not altogether absurd.

B．There is a difference between adults and children.

C．Parents should introduce politics to their children.

D．The definition of adulthood is quite controversial.

【推荐1】Not long ago I saw the following headline: “An anti-homework trend（趋势）goes global”. The reasoning: It stresses children out and it steals “precious family time”.

Hmm… I wonder. As a teacher, one of the problems I often come across is that students attach far too little importance to their studies, resulting in bad or incomplete work. I also wonder about the “precious family time”. If homework were abolished（废除）, would the time freed up be used for reading poetry aloud at the dinner table or having heart-to-heart discussion about the social and political landscape（局面）? In the age of the Internet and games such as Candy Crush Saga, which have absorbed the time and interest of otherwise intelligent adults, I am doubtful.

When I was a kid, homework actually created precious family time. I still remember, after supper, clearing the table and replacing the dishes with my schoolbooks. And then, in swing shifts, my working-class parents would sit down with me and, to the best of their abilities, help me when and where they could.

I have often thought that the homework question could be dealt with if one thought of homework in terms of learning to play a musical instrument. For me, this was the clarinet（单簧管）, which I began learning to play at age 9. Every week I took a 30-minute lesson from an old Polish man, Mr. Markiewicz. “Practice an hour a day, and you’ll be playing the clarinet before you know it.” Because my motivation was strong, I did practice an hour a day, and I did learn it in a reasonable amount of time.

Let’s get rid of homework, but only the word “homework”, and replace it with “practice”. As a teacher, it’s all I ask: that my students listen up in the class and then go home to practice, so that when they return to me to show how much they understand, I—and their parents—can be proud of them.

1. What might happen in the house with no homework according to the author?

A．Students will play games.

B．Students will develop new interest.

C．There will be more precious family time.

D．There will be more arguments among the family.

2. What does the author intend to do in paragraph 3?

A．Mourn his precious family time’s passing.

B．Show the powerful parental forces.

C．Prove the advantage of homework.

D．Describe his uneasy life as a student.

3. What does the author suggest students do about the homework?

A．Get rid of it.	B．Don’t see it as a load（负担）.
C．Take great pride in it.	D．Improve their motivation（动机）for it.

4. Which is a suitable title for the text?

A．Why to value the family time.

B．An anti-homework trend begins.

C．How to solve the homework problem.

D．Developing hobbies can replace homework.

【推荐2】It is rightly said that one can share any secret with a true friend. He may know your deepest fears and weaknesses and yet will never take advantage of you. However, keeping a friend’s secrets to yourself and not telling the world is what makes the bond grow strong and last forever. You need to develop trust and mutual understanding before you start sharing secrets with each other. With friends, secret talks never seem to end and it can get really amusing to know what has been going on in your friend’s mind.

There is a certain time in life especially from the teenage years when one starts having a personal periphery in life and parents are excluded from it. It is because there are certain things that they can’t understand and we can’t discuss with them. That is when friends become the best secret sharers. They are the ones to whom one reveals one’s feelings and best kept secrets.

It is a general belief that only girls share secrets. But boys have their own secrets that they discuss with only closest friends. The secret talks can range from relationships, talks about fights with parents, secret activities and anything that is not supposed to be known to others! If you think secrets are limited to only teenagers, get your facts right! Secrets can be shared at any age and there is no hard and fast rule that secrets are shared only among youngsters.

Sharing secrets with a friend is not just fun, but it also helps to develop a lasting trust in one another. Sometimes, sharing secrets will tell you more about the person. You will come to know whether your friend is reliable and trustworthy and whether it is worth sharing your secrets with them. You can call it a test of friendship.

1. What do you need to do before sharing secrets?

A．To know about deepest fears and weaknesses.

B．To develop trust and mutual understanding.

C．To know what has been going on in people’s mind.

D．To consider whether she or he is your best friend.

2. What does the underlined word “periphery” in Paragraph 2 refer to .

A．friend

B．preference

C．limit

D．rule

3. What can we learn from Paragraph 3?

A．Boys often share secrets with friends.	B．Teenagers tell more secrets than adults.
C．Secrets sharing can happen at any age.	D．Secrets sharing will follow strict rules.

4. What can be the best title for the text?

A．Sharing Secrets Is a Test of Friendship	B．How to Make Close Friends in One’s Life
C．Whether It Is Worth Sharing Your Secrets	D．The Best People to Share Secrets With

【推荐3】The first time I questioned the traditional wisdom on the nature of a healthy diet, it was 40 years ago, and the subject was salt. Researchers found that salt supplementation(补充) was unnecessary after exercise, and this advice was passed on by health reporters. I recalled high school football practices in hot days. Without salt pills, I couldn’t make it through a two-hour practice.

Although sports nutritionists have recommended consuming more salt when we sweat hard in physical activity, the message that we should avoid salt at all other times remains strong. And salt is still considered deadly.

So why have we been told that salt is so deadly? The advice has always sounded reasonable: Eat more salt, and your body keeps water to maintain a stable concentration of sodium (钠) in your blood. This is why salty food might make us thirsty: We drink more; we keep water. The result can be a temporary increase in blood pressure. The scientific question is whether this temporary phenomenon leads to permanent problems: If we eat too much salt for years, does it cause high blood pressure, and then kill us? It makes sense, but it’s only a hypothesis(假设), which hasn’t been proved but unfortunately accepted as a fact.

In reality, eating less salt can worsen health. Decades ago, Italian researchers’ study reported that reducing salt consumption increased the risk of dying early and that reducing sodium to a government-recommended “safe upper limit” is actually harmful.

Supporters of the eat-less-salt campaign(运动) tend to deal with this opposing evidence (证据) by implying that anyone raising it is a shill(同谋) for the food industry (widely criticized for adding salt to processed foods to improver taste). When several government agencies held a hearing last November to discuss how to ensure Americans eat less salt, anti-salt supporters argued that the latest reports suggesting damage from lower-salt diets should simply be ignored. This attitude, which lacks respect for science, has been held for the anti-salt campaign for decades. Maybe now is the time for it to change.

1. The underlined phrase in paragraph 1 refers to the belief that_________.

A．people should take in salt after exercise

B．salt intake was needless after physical activity

C．salt pills were helpful during football practices

D．a healthy diet does not necessarily include enough salt

2. What does the Italian researchers’ study show?

A．Eating less salt can harm our health.

B．Eating too much salt raises blood pressure.

C．We should try to avoid salt on a daily basis.

D．We should follow the recommended “safe upper limit”.

3. What do the eat-less-salt campaigners do with the opposing evidence?

A．They treat it with some respect.

B．They report it to the government agencies.

C．They do scientific experiments to support it.

D．They suggest that the food industry is behind it.

4. What is the writer’s attitude towards the anti-salt campaign?

A．Supportive.	B．Unconcerned.
C．Puzzled.	D．Negative.

【推荐1】As a teen myself, I’ve seen first-hand the pleasing effects of poetry. Not too long ago, I went on stage to read my poetry at writing workshop, thinking anxiously to myself: Would the audience understand me? More than being nervous about the quality of my poem, I felt anxious about what my voice would sound like. At the time, I was 14, and still suffering from a speech disorder (语言障碍) that had affected me since began talking. As I stood, I experienced a sudden appreciation for the blinding lights. I couldn’t see everyone’s face! That made things much easier. I opened my book and began to read.

After the writing workshop, I gained the confidence to read my own work aloud. I learned that writing wasn’t about pronunciation, but about style and the author’s voice. This lesson helped me grow on endless occasions in my life, convincing me that poetry can have an astonishing influence when taught to teens.

One organization that I am part of, WriteGirl, through monthly creative writing workshops, gives girls the skills they need for a brighter future. Although WriteGirl doesn’t only focus on poetry, the organization still uses poetry to teach, inspire and empower girls all across Los Angeles. While the high school graduation rate in Los Angeles is only 80 percent, every year 100 percent of WriteGirl teens not only graduate from high school, but go to college.

But are these advantages becoming needless with the fast development of technology being placed in young hands?

It seems the answer is quite the opposite—technology has opened whole new world for young poets and writers. On KidBlog, young students can post their poems as a blog post on which others can leave their opinions. The Internet makes it easier for viewers to read poetry. Many people are discovering or rediscovering that poetry is fun and creates many opportunities for self-expression.

As I stepped up to read my writing at the workshop, I learned that poetry is about having a voice, and the courage to use it. With this courage, we free ourselves and become able to influence others.

1. How did the workshop influence the author?

A．It aided her in making a long speech.

B．It contributed to her personal growth.

C．It improved her communication skills.

D．It made her begin to take speech disorder seriously.

2. What can we learn about WriteGirl?

A．It is beneficial to girls’ studies.

B．It brings out girls’ poetic skills.

C．It encourages girls to teach poetry.

D．It helps girls become famous writers.

3. Which of the following may the author agree with?

A．Poetry is old-fashioned in modern times.

B．Technology makes creating poetry easier.

C．Technology serves as a useful tool for poetry.

D．The Internet slows down the development of poetry.

4. What is the best title of the text?

A．How poetry gave me a voice

B．Why teens don’t read poetry

C．Approaches to learning poetry

D．Influence of technology on poetry

【推荐2】Journey to India
DAY 1: Arrive in Delhi

Today arrive in Delhi, the national capital of India. Upon arrival at the airport, our company representative will meet you and transfer you to the hotel for check-in.

Overnight at Delhi hotels
DAY 2: Delhi—Full-day tour(old& New Delhi tour)

Today morning have breakfast in the hotel. At 9:30, the tour guide will meet you at your hotel and later proceed for a full-day guided tour in Delhi starting with Old Delhi visiting Raj Gaht. Jama Masjid, driving past through the Red Fort. Later in New Delhi visit Humayun’s Tomb, India Gate, drive past through Parliament Street and President House and visit Qutub Minar.

Overnight at Delhi hotels
DAY 3: Delhi-Jaipur via Fitehpur Sikri(240 km/5 hours)

Today morning after breakfast. drive to Jaipur, the capita] city of Rajsthan state. Jaipur is also known as “Pink City”. En route visit Fatehpur Sikri, known as Ghost. Later continue the drive to Jaipur. Upon arrival, check in at the hotel. Evening: free at leisure for your own activities.

Optional: visits to Chokhi Dhani Village Resort(US $25 per person)
Overnight at Jaipur hotels
DAY 4：Delhi(256 km/5 hours)

Today morning after breakfast, drive back to Delhi airport. The total distance is 256 kms and you can cover it in 5 hours. Upon arrival in Delhi, board flight to onward journey.

NOTE: Price starts with US $ 215 with 

●Daily breakfast and soft beverages(饮料) and packaged drinking water. 

●Elephant rides at Amber Fort. 

●Sunset or sunrise visits to Taj MahaL 

●All entrance fees to the monuments and train tickets.

1. On which day can you visit Qutub Minar?

A．DAY 1	B．DAY 2
C．DAY 3	D．DAY 4

2. What can we learn from the schedule?

A．The whole journey covers 496 km

B．Travelers will stay in Delhi for two nights

C．Travelers will fly to Delhi airport on DAY 4

D．Travelers will be made to buy things on DAY 3

3. During the trip, you need to pay extra for ______.

A．a sunrise visit to Taj Mahal

B．elephant riding at Amber Fort

C．visits to Chokhi Dhani Village Resort

D．breakfast and packaged drinking water

【推荐3】The hardest part of a new sport or a musical instrument is getting started. Once you figure out the technique, the skills return fairly easily, even if not used for long. Most experts attribute this to “muscle memory which means the brain remembers the action and can recall it when needed. Now some researchers believe the errors made while learning the task may be as important in recalling previously learned motor skills.

The study led by Reza involved asking volunteers to play a simple video game. But the players did not know the researchers reprogrammed it as soon as they mastered the game, thereby forcing them to restart the learning process. What the scientists observed was that though the volunteers did make mistakes every time the game was changed, they got successively faster at mastering it.

Reza believes that this has to do with the fact that in addition to committing the task to muscle memory, the brain is also critiquing each wrong move and learning how to correct it. He compares it to having a coach that points out the mistakes and makes suggestions on how to improve.

What surprised the scientists is that making mistakes not only trains the brain to perform better at a specific task, but also helps it learn faster from errors even when the mistakes are made while learning a completely different task. The researchers believe that the brain keeps a general database of errors and draws on them whenever a new motor skill is being learned, to ensure that mistakes are not repeated. This helps makes following learning processes much faster and probably explains why people who master one sport or musical instrument are able to pick up others, with relative ease.

While these new findings may help improve recovery methods for people with injuries, most people think making mistakes is a good thing. So the next time you needn’t get discouraged by the errors.

1. What really makes your long unused skills return easily?

A．Excellent techniques.	B．Strict training.
C．Previous errors.	D．Muscle memory.

2. What does the underlined word “critiquing” in Paragraph 3 mean?

A．Evaluating.

B．Preventing.

C．Signaling.

D．Calculating.

3. What surprised the scientist in the study?

A．The errors in video games can save players a new learning process.

B．A coach need to advise his trainees to memorize each wrong move.

C．Lessons drawn from the errors kept in mind make learning easier.

D．Making mistakes does good to improving injured people’s recovery.

4. What is the best title for the text?

A．Getting Started Is a Challenging Task	B．You Have to First Fail Before Success
C．Making Mistakes Can’t Be Avoided	D．We Needn’t Correct Errors We Make

【推荐1】Plastics remain one of the most - used materials for making many things. Things made of plastics can be very strong and last a long time. Plastics are also much lighter than metal and can easily be formed into different shapes. Plastics can take hundreds of years to break down on their own. And very few kinds are highly recyclable.

A team of researchers working at the US Department of Energy says it has created a kind of plastic that could lead to products that are 100 percent recyclable. It recently reported the discovery in a study in the journal Nature Chemistry.

The researchers say the new material is a plastic polymer (聚合体)called polydiketoenamine, or PDK. The team reports the material can be broken down in parts at the molecular (分子的)level. It can then be built up again to form plastics of different shapes, textures and colors. The researchers say this process can be repeated over and over again—without the plastic material losing any performance or quality.

"Most plastics were never made to be recycled, ” lead researcher Peter Christensen said in a statement. " But we have discovered a new way to assemble plastics that takes recycling into consideration from a molecular perspective. ”

Many plastics have different chemicals added to them to make them more useful and powerful. The problem is that these chemicals attach to the monomers (单体),which remain in plastics even after the material gets processed at a recycling plant. The research team reported that, with the newly discovered PDK material, the monomers could be recovered and separated from any chemical additives.

Next, the researchers plan to develop PDK plastics "with a wide range of thermal and mechanical properties. These plastics could be used for many kinds of cloth, as well as things such as 3D printed materials and foams. In addition, the team is trying to include plant - based materials in the process.

1. What is the first paragraph mainly about?

A．Plastics are never highly recyclable.

B．Plastics are widely used in our lives.

C．Plastics have both advantages and disadvantages.

D．Plastics take hundreds of years to be broken down.

2. What does the underlined word “It” in paragraph 3 refer to?

A．The new material.	B．The research team.
C．The molecular level.	D．The producing process.

3. Why do many plastics have different chemicals added to them?

A．To make them easy to break down.

B．To make them easy to get processed.

C．To make it possible for them to be recycled.

D．To make them stronger and more widely used.

4. What can we infer from the last paragraph?

A．PDK plastics will be soon put to good use.

B．PDK plastics may have a promising prospect.

C．The researchers are busy developing PDK plastics.

D．Plant - based materials have been used in the new plastics.

【推荐2】It is the golden decade,the time in your life when you are carefree and at your happiest.Never again will you enjoy the freedom and thrills of your 20s.A new study has now confirmed the fears of anyone approaching middle-age-people's 20s are their happiest years.

But,while researchers warn of lower life satisfaction for 40 years,there is hope.Their findings show that life does get better at 65,with happiness levels rising.Dr Ioana Ramia,from the University of New South Wales in Australia,said,"Satisfaction over life decreases from the early 20s,plateaus for about 40 years and then increases from about 65 up."

The aim of the research was to help develop policy to target specific age groups.Dr Ramia and her team found that happiness follows a U-curve with the highest levels experienced by those aged 15 to 24 and over 75.

Dr Ramia said,couples reported greatest satisfaction at life just before having their first child and a decrease from the child's first year of life through to when the child reaches six years old and starts school.She said,"It then stays low,but increases slightly,and is the highest around the age of 80.So that's something to look forward to."Her team's research shows a strong connection between the middle-age happiness state and employment opportunities and financial situations,when"money and...jobs matter most".

There was a greater emphasis on the quality of housing itself into middle age and beyond,along with neighborhood and community."At this time happiness is at its lowest and it only starts to increase when people start focusing on other things,like their free time,"said Dr Ramia.Safety was an important aspect of life satisfaction in every age group,while health appeared twice-in the mid-30s with the first awareness of physical fallibility or illness,and again later in life,she said.

Though her research had shed some light onto the drivers of happiness,Dr Ramia said the peak at young and old age remained poorly understood,with question marks around how satisfaction could remain constant across the major parameters described yet manage to increase with age overall. Defining what"satisfaction"was and how it was rated by subjects was also a challenge for future research,she said.

1. The early 20s are thought to be the happiest years possibly because people

A．enjoy their school life very much then

B．can enjoy more freedom during that period

C．usually have lots of friends in those years.

D．are going to have their own family in their life

2. The underlined word"plateaus"in Paragraph 2 probably means"_

A．keeps a relatively stable level

B．keeps changing

C．reaches a very low level

D．turns more complex

3. Paragraphs 4-5 mainly focus on

A．the factors influencing people's satisfaction at life

B．the differences between the young and the old

C．the reasons why happiness follows a U-curve

D．the matters concerning the middle-aged group

4. What can we learn from the last paragraph?

A．We still have a poor understanding on the old.

B．The drivers of happiness need further research.

C．It's still a challenge to remain happy in our life.

D．People are hard to be satisfied because of their age.

【推荐3】My little grandson Nolan just turned four last week. He loves playing with toy cars. He even sleeps with cars in his hands. So I knew he’d be excited about the car that my husband and I bought him for his birthday.

I talked to Nolan the day I bought his present and told him that Grandmama had something he was really going to like. For the week and a half after that, it was all he could do to wait. He asked if it was big and guessed what it was over and over. And I gave him some strange suggestions. He’d say, “Grandmama, it’s not that!”

The day of his party arrived and as people gathered at Nolan’s house, the pile of presents got bigger and bigger. Nolan came to where I was sitting in the kitchen and said, “Grandmama, did you bring my present?” I told him I did, and we walked into the living room so I could show the wrapped box to him. It was almost as big as he was. A few minutes later, I heard a loud sound and when I looked, he was trying to drag the heavy box into the kitchen. He looked up at me and said, “Can I open it now?” I told him he’d have to wait just a little bit longer until after everyone ate.

He had such a hard time waiting, but when his mama said it was time to open presents, Nolan tore (撕) into that big box and discovered that it was worth waiting.
It’s sometimes the same way in our lives. We know something great is to come. But when it doesn’t arrive right away, we’re just like little Nolan. And then when it still doesn’t arrive, we get impatient. But just as Nolan learned, it’s finally worth the wait.
1. What do we know about Nolan’s hobby?

A．He likes to sleep in his car.	B．He is fond of playing with cars.
C．He is good at driving cars.	D．He loves making toy cars.

2. When did the author buy the present for Nolan?

A．On his birthday.

B．After his birthday.

C．One week before his birthday.

D．More than a week before his birthday.

3. What are the “suggestions” in paragraph 2?

A．Lists of cars.	B．Names of presents.
C．Numbers of toys.	D．Pictures of cars.

4. What does the author intend to do in Paragraph 3?

A．Add some background information.

B．Summarize the previous paragraphs.

C．Provide the descriptions for the waiting.

D．Introduce the celebration of Nolan’s party.

5. What’s the best title for the text?

A．Why is the wait worth it?

B．What is kids’ best present?

C．When is the best time to share?

D．When will something good happen?