We are enrolled in the full-time school called “life”. Every day in this school, we have opportunities to learn new lessons. No matter whether we like these lessons or not, we have to take them, because they are our lessons.
Why are we here in this world? What is the purpose of life? Humans have tried to discover the meaning of life for thousands of years, but failed to get the answer, because the meaning of life is different from person to person.
Each one of us has his or her special purpose and path, unique and different. As we travel on our life path, we will learn many great lessons in order to fulfill that purpose. Learning our lessons well is the key to discovering the real meaning of our own life.
As we travel through our lifetime, we may be taught hard lessons that others don't have to face, while others spend years struggling with problems we don’t need to deal with. We may never know why we love English, not physics, which indicates that our path is different. While traveling on our own path, sometimes alone, we should, first of all, take a basic lesson in openness.
Openness means being receptive. Life will present us with so many lessons, none of which are useful to us unless we can recognize them and are open to their values. These lessons are not easy to learn, but we should regard them as gifts. But how can we recognize these lessons? It is a matter of what “glasses” we are wearing at the time. It is not difficult to spot them if we take them as opportunities. So when we are not open to learning our lessons, failing a weekly English test might be like a disaster rather than an opportunity to us. Of course, the hard lessons may not be fun, but they can actually be the biggest gifts we receive from life.
1. The author may be in favor of the viewpoint that all men are born .| A．equal | B．different |
| C．to learn lessons | D．ready for challenge |
| A．choose our own path in life |
| B．need to face some hard lessons |
| C．discover the meaning of our own life |
| D．realize the necessity of openness |
| A．angles of view |
| B．common value system |
| C．experiences from life |
| D．willingness to face challenge |
| A．Life and lesson | B．Life as School |
| C．Life School and Students | D．Gifts from Life |
相似题推荐
【推荐1】It was a cold May morning when I received an intriguing (有趣的) email from an old high school friend inviting me to join a 10-day all-girls surf trip. I knew I had to say yes.
The trip seemed simple enough. Ten women aged 30 to 45, all complete strangers, gathered on the coast of Portugal to try something new: surfing in the Atlantic Ocean.
I have always loved traveling, so I eagerly sent an email to my boss seeking permission from him to make the once-in-a-life trip.
If there’s one thing I’ve learned over my past 33 years, it’s that adults typically spend their days mastering the things they’ve done before. It seems like we pride ourselves on becoming experts in whatever field we’ve fallen into, knowing more and more about less and less.
Now, in theory, this is a great strategy, as it allows you to become really, really good at one particular thing, but it also kind of ends up leaving some skills lacking.
I met my new surfing companions on the grass of the hotel lawn in a small surf town called Ericeira. Despite our different personalities and backgrounds, we were all united in a relentless desire to challenge ourselves, learn, tackle and grow.
The shores at Ericeira, where the beginners learn to surf, are shallow and covered with slippery rocks. They make for softer waves but are difficult to navigate.
Guided by our amazing coaches, together, we faced the waves. Sometimes, it poured with rain, and the waves crashed around us, but we were still out there. And with every slip and fall, words of encouragement filled the air.
Honestly, I probably spent most of my days frozen to the bone, but that didn’t matter because a new level of genuine joy and personal achievement had been unlocked. Learning a new skill taught me the humility that can come from doing badly at something new, and the pride that develops when you finally manage to grasp something you’ve been working on.
While surfing might not be my calling, trying it out inspired me to take more risks in life, to step outside of my comfort zone and to never stop believing in myself. You never know what you’re capable of if you don’t go out there and try.
1. What motivated the author to join the surf trip to Portugal?| A．Her love for surfing and improving existing skills. |
| B．Her desire to reconnect with a high school friend and make new friends. |
| C．Her passion for embracing challenges and exploring new places. |
| D．The chance to take a break in Portugal from work. |
| A．It blocks creativity and exploration. | B．It is essential for career success. |
| C．It disturbs one’s work-life balance. | D．It narrows one’s abilities. |
| A．Tough but rewarding. | B．Relaxing but unpredictable. |
| C．Difficult but interesting. | D．Tiring but meaningful. |
| A．She discovered her true calling atter the trip. |
| B．She used to lack confidence in herself. |
| C．She became more willing to challenge herself. |
| D．She went on to become an expert surfer. |
| A．The need to seek professional training in all new skills. |
| B．The value of pushing your limits and running the risk of something unpleasant. |
| C．The benefit of exploring new places with unknown companions. |
| D．The importance of being an expert in on field. |
【推荐2】“The movie American Sniper is on. ”I said to my husband.
We decided to watch，thinking it would take our minds off my husband’s situation at work. He had been working with the same organization for about twenty-three years，and the management，he suspected，was preparing to let him go. The signs were pretty clear and I felt his pain.
I wondered if American Sniper was the wrong movie to watch and considered changing the channel. Maybe something lighter was good. A family comedy with laughter would have been more uplifting for my husband.
We turned the volume down as our son James was studying in the next room.
“You know this movie is based on a true story，”I said，half thinking about my husband’s situation and half watching the movie.
“Yes. ”he replied. “It’s based on Chris Kyle’s book. ”
I thought about all the young men who had lost their lives in Iraq. “Some of those boys were only a couple of years older than James，”I said.
As I watched the movie，I began to realize how small our problems really were. “You know，other couples are wondering if their sons are safe on a battlefield，and here we are with our son perfectly safe in the next room. ”
Over the next hour，the mood in our room changed from depression to gratitude. How fortunate we were ! Our son was healthy and safe. We had a roof over our heads and could walk outside without worrying whether there would bebullets(子弹)flying through the air. As for my husband’s job，he could do something else—something that he would love.
Looking at the big picture and moving from“depression to reflection”have made all the difference.
1. What problem did the author’s family face?| A．The house roof was broken. |
| B．The husband would lose his job. |
| C．The son did poorly in his studies. |
| D．The relationship between the couple was bad. |
| A．The movie was very boring. |
| B．She preferred something lighter. |
| C．Her husband liked family comedies. |
| D．She was considerate towards her husband. |
| A．Watching a funny family comedy, |
| B．Thinking of unfortunate families. |
| C．The touching story in the movie. |
| D．Her husband’s words of comfort. |
| A．Be grateful for what we have. |
| B．Get some power from a movie. |
| C．We can always control our life. |
| D．Stay strong in the face of difficulty. |
【推荐3】Fifteen years ago, I took a summer vacation in Lecce in southern Italy. After climbing up a hill for a panoramic (全景的) view of the blue sea, white buildings and green olive trees, I paused to catch my breath and then positioned myself to take the best photo of this panorama.
Unfortunately, just as I took out my camera, a woman approached from behind, and planted herself right in front of my view. Like me, this woman was here to stop, sigh and appreciate the view.
Patient as I was, after about 15 minutes, my camera scanning the sun and reviewing the shot I would eventually take, I grew frustrated. Was it too much to ask her to move so I could take just one picture of the landscape? Sure, I could have asked her, but something prevented me from doing so. She seemed so content in her observation. I didn’t want to mess with that..
Another 15 minutes passed and I grew bored. The woman was still there. I decided to take the photo anyway. And now when I look at it, I think her presence in the photo is what makes the image interesting. The landscape, beautiful on its own, somehow comes to life and breathes because this woman is engaging with it.
This photo, with the unique beauty that unfolded before me and that woman who “ruined” it, now hangs on a wall in my bedroom. What would she think if she knew that her figure is captured (捕捉) and frozen on some stranger’s bedroom wall? A bedroom, after all, is a very private space, in which some woman I don’t even know has been immortalized (使……永存). In some ways, she lives in my house.
Perhaps we all live in each others, spaces. Perhaps this is what photos are for: to remind us that we all appreciate beauty, and that we all share a common desire for pleasure, for connection, for something that is greater than us.
That photo is a reminder, a captured moment, an unspoken conversation between two women, separated only by a thin square of glass.
1. What happened when the author was about to take a photo?| A．Her camera stopped working. | B．A woman blocked her view. |
| C．Someone asked her to leave. | D．A friend approached from behind. |
| A．enjoying herself | B．losing her patience |
| C．waiting for the sunset | D．thinking about her past |
| A．The rich color of the landscape. |
| B．The perfect positioning of the camera. |
| C．The woman’s existence in the photo. |
| D．The soft sunlight that summer day. |
| A．a particular life experience | B．the pleasure of traveling |
| C．the art of photography | D．a lost friendship |
【推荐1】In the United States, waiting at tables is more a profession than a job. Wages are not important and staff expect to live off their tips. The more professional the service given, the more massive the reward is. In Britain, the experience tells a different tale. Money and respect are handed out in more carefully guarded measures to those who serve food.
Yet lack of respect hasn’t stopped students from taking waiting jobs to make up for a steadily shrinking bank balance. Nicola Sizer is finishing a four-year teaching degree at college. A large debt at the end of her first year forced her into waitressing in a Greek restaurant in London. Most of her money comes from tips, but they’re variable. “Some nights, people don’t leave you anything.” she says. “People forget that the waitress isn’t there to have a good time.”
Dave Turn bull, district officer, admits there are particular problems with tipping. “It depends on what form the tips are in,” he says. “Also, there’s nothing in law to say that the service charge goes to the waiter.” But he admits that working at the right place can be financially very rewarding.
Jane Stocks is 34 and has been waitressing for five years. She’s been at the Chicago Pizza Pie Factory in central London for one year. Waitressing is her career choice — she enjoys the social aspect of the work and the fact that her opinion counts.
However, not everybody can handle waitressing. Jane Stocks agrees: “You’ve got to be able to take a lot of responsibility, a lot of stress and concentrate on a lot of things for a long time. You’ve also got to be all different things to all people.”
1. What does the writer say about waiters in the USA?| A．They receive low wages. |
| B．Their work needs less profession. |
| C．They are not given enough respect. |
| D．They make a living largely on wages. |
| A．To enjoy herself. |
| B．To pay back some money. |
| C．To try a different profession. |
| D．To work in a Greek environment. |
| A．Waiters are generally poorly paid. |
| B．A law is needed to be made for waiters. |
| C．Some waiters earn much more money than others. |
| D．Waiters may not receive money intended for them. |
| A．Waitressing is a relatively easy work. |
| B．Waitressing is a job with professional requirements. |
| C．Everyone can never handle the work of waitressing. |
| D．Waitressing only needs concentration on food order. |
【推荐2】Promises, promises
We make them and we break them, because some promises are very hard to keep. Here are the top five most common broken promises.
You always hear this from builders, repairmen, and electricians. But the truth is very different. They won’t come back until next week (or later). And you will probably need to phone them five times first.
I won’t tell anyone.
This won’ t hurt.
A favourite phrase of doctors, dentists, and nurses. They usually say it just before they give you an injection (注射).
I’ll write.
You make a new friend on holiday or on a bus journey, you swap e-mail addresses, and you make this promise.
I’ll pay you back tomorrow.
In Hamlet, Shakespeare told us never to borrow or lend money. He was right. When we lend people money they always make this promise, but then they forget. If we then ask for the money back, they think we are mean.
| A．I’ll start very soon. |
| B．I’ll come back tomorrow. |
| C．But the phrase is not complete. |
| D．And at the time we really mean it. |
| E．If we don’t ask, we never get the money back. |
| F．We love hearing secrets and we happily make this promise. |
| G．Six months later you find an e-mail address on an old piece of paper. |
【推荐3】Sharon downsized her parents’ home and then cleared out her father’s stuff after he died. “So much of it hadn’t been used in years. So I decided that we wouldn’t do the same thing to our children.” Sharon spent six months looking over each object in her home. Each day, she sold, donated or threw one away. “It was liberating,” she said. “Now, life is much simpler and the clutter (杂乱) is gone.”
This process has its own reality TV show, The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning. Inspired by a best-selling book by Magnusson, 89, three Swedes travel across the Atlantic to help Americans clean house and face death. “A loved one wishes to inherit (继承) nice things from you,” mentions Magnusson in her book, “not all things from you.” If you’re lucky enough to meet your material needs, then letting go of some of your stuff, or not buying it in the first place, can bring immediate benefits. The clutter is linked to stress and anxiety, even depression. Prioritizing relationships and experience over possessions has been proven to boost our happiness.
What is Swedish death cleaning? It isn’t about clearing out closets. It’s about rethinking your relationship with things. Rather than making do with less, it’s about getting more from the things that make you happy. Death cleaning happens to agree with scientists’ understanding of our relationship with things and why we’re unwilling to part with them. Decades of research has shown that we subconsciously see our possessions as physical extensions of ourselves. For most of us, of course, a degree of attachment is healthy, but it’s not the number of things or the quality that matters. It’s about the symbolic meaning of it. That can bring a lot of happiness.
Things take up space in our minds, well beyond what our storerooms and garages hold. By clarifying what’s important and what’s not, you make room. Your loved ones can receive what they might like before you go, relieving themselves of the burden of cleaning up once you’re gone.
1. Why does the author mention Sharon’s experience in paragraph 1?| A．To lead to the topic. | B．To make a comparison. |
| C．To support an argument. | D．To reach a conclusion. |
| A．To reduce the waste. | B．To remember their loved ones. |
| C．To boost their happiness. | D．To make the reality TV show. |
| A．The quantity. | B．The popularity. |
| C．The significance. | D．The degree of attachments. |
| A．Old Stuff: a Heavy Burden or a Sweet Memory. |
| B．Everyone’s Stuff: Physical Extensions of Himself. |
| C．The Way to Deal with Your Belongings: Give Away. |
| D．Swedes’ Secret to Happiness: You Aren’t Your Stuff. |
