One silly question I simply can’t stand is “How do you feel?” Usually the question is asked of a man in action—a man on the go, walking along the streets, or busily working at his desk. So what do you expect him to say? He’ll probably say, “Fine, I’m all right,” but you have put a bug in his ear —maybe now he’s not sure. If you are a good friend, you may have seen something in his face, or his walk that he overlooked that morning. It starts worrying him a little. First thing you know, he looks in a mirror to see if everything is all right, while you go merrily on your way asking someone else, “How do you feel?”
Every question has its time and place. It’s perfectly acceptable, for instance, to ask “How do you feel?” if you’re visiting a close friend in the hospital. But if the fellow is walking on both legs, hurrying to make a train, or sitting at his desk working, it’s no time to ask him that silly question.
When George Bernard Shaw, the famous writer of plays was in his eighties, someone asked him “How do you feel?” Shaw put him in his place. “When you reach my age,” he said, “either you feel all right or you’re dead.”
1. The question “How do you feel?” seems to be correct and suitable when asked of ________.| A．a friend who is ill | B．a man working at his desk |
| C．a person having lost a close friend | D．a stranger who looks somewhat worried |
| A．cheerfulness | B．cleverness |
| C．ability | D．politeness |
| A．made him laugh | B．shown concern for him |
| C．made fun of him | D．given him some kind of warning |
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【推荐1】When meeting someone for the first time, who won’t know you habitually frown if you’re concentrating, you will be misunderstood.
Ignore the context
Find meaning in a single gesture
People often try to evaluate your state of mind by monitoring your body language. But they take more notice of any single sign that indicates you’re in a bad mood and not to be approached.
Evaluate you through the biases (偏见)
A neighbour likes me from the moment we met. Before long. I know it’s because I resemble her favorite aunt. That’s how biases can work —the so-called “halo effect.” But biases can also work against you. What if you remind people of someone they dislike? In that case, their original response to you wouldn’t be a good one.
Compare your behavior with their culture
Most of culture’s values are absorbed unconsciously at an early age. Such values affect how people think and act, and more importantly, the kind of criteria by which people judge others.
Therefore, there are many mistakes people make when reading your body language. Under-standing them, and trying not to make the same mistakes, will help you display nonverbal ability.
| A．Nonverbal signals are very common in our daily life. |
| B．They would even look for your behavior that confirmed this bias. |
| C．What they didn’t realize was that, for this individual, it was a normal behavior. |
| D．In fact, people easily make mistakes reading and reacting to others’ body language. |
| E．What’s proper and correct in one culture may be ineffective or even rude in another. |
| F．Besides, they often assign meaning to negative messages than it does to positive ones. |
| G．Context includes locations, relationships, time, experience, and even room temperature. |
【推荐2】Despite being used by 1.34 billion people each year, traveling on the Tube in London can actually be quite lonely.
One citizen, however, is trying to change this. “You get on the Tube and it’s completely silent and it’s weird(怪异的),” says Jonathan Dunne, who has started a worldwide dialogue after giving out badges (徽章) with the words “Tube chat?” last month, encouraging passengers in London to get talking to one another. “I handed out 500 badges during rush hour in a city of 8 million, expecting most of them to be thrown away, but after about 24 hours it completely snowballed,” he says. Dunne and his “Tube chat” campaign have since been reported by media across the world, seeing TV interviews in Sweden, Brazil and the UK, as well as countless website, newspaper and magazine appearances.
Although Dunne says he’s received mostly positive feedback, not everyone agrees with his idea. Londoner Brian Wilson responded with a campaign of his own, handing out 500 badges with the words “Don’t even think about it” on them. Michael Robinson, 24, a student from London, agrees. “Being on the Tube is the only peace and quiet some people get on their journeys to and from work. It doesn’t need to be spoiled by people coming up and chatting to you,” he says.
“People assume that I just walk up and talk to strangers, which I don’t, but it’s been a great way to meet people you would never have normally spoken to,” Dunne says.
So if you ever end up using public transport in the West, why not say hello to the person next to you? Just make sure to check for a badge first.
1. In what way did Dunne encourage London passengers to talk with each other?| A．By putting up posters on the tube. |
| B．By offering passengers special badges. |
| C．By advocating his idea on the media. |
| D．By starting a dialogue with passengers. |
| A．Most passengers have refused to accept it. |
| B．It has become a worldwide campaign. |
| C．It has caught international attention. |
| D．Wilson has made great efforts to promote it. |
| A．Hand in their feedback in time. |
| B．Walk up and talk to strangers. |
| C．Stop using public transport. |
| D．Enjoy the peace quietly. |
| A．Tube Chat or Not |
| B．Lonely Travel in the London Tube |
| C．Silence on the Tube |
| D．Tube Passengers Wearing Badges |
【推荐3】Once upon a time, sewing and mending clothes was common.
Why should you learn to mend?
Beyond the functional benefits, mending is about using what you have, embracing imperfections, fixing what’s broken, and rejecting the idea that new er is better. The other aspect of mending is mindfulness.
If you are interested in sewing and mending, it is the perfect time to learn the new skill. which can especially have a positive impact on the world.
| A．But all hope is not lost. |
| B．Because it is a means of making a living. |
| C．Mending is a great way to reject consumerism. |
| D．Buying secondhand goods makes it possible to be sustainable. |
| E．This way, you may find yourself upcycling pieces into ones that suit you. |
| F．At some point in the last few decades, though, it became something of a lost art. |
| G．You focus on the task at hand and use your creativity to make your clothes unique. |
【推荐1】People believe that every word has its correct meaning(s). When we are not sure, we usually check online, or turn to our teachers or dictionaries. But do you know how dictionaries were made in the past?
Dictionary writers first read the important books of the period or the subject that the dictionary was about. As they read, they copied necessary information on cards: interesting words, common words — both in their daily uses and unusual uses, and also the sentences where they were used. That is to say, the words, along with the uses of each word, were collected. For a really big dictionary, millions of such cards were collected. This task could last for years. As the cards were collected, they were put in alphabetical (字母的) order (A-Z). When this was done, there would be several hundred cards for each single word.
Then, to define (定义) a word, the dictionary writer placed its hundreds of cards before him. He read the cards closely, threw away some, read the rest again, and divided up the cards according to what he thought were the common uses of the word. Finally, he wrote the definitions, following the hard-and-fast rule: each definition must come from an example on a certain card in front of him.
So, the writing of a dictionary was not a task of inventing meanings of words, but a task of recording their meanings. The writer of a dictionary was a historian, not a law maker.
As time develops, the way of producing dictionaries has greatly changed. Nowadays, we can use online dictionaries too. When choosing our words in speaking or writing, we can be guided by the dictionary. However, we cannot be controlled by it, because new situations, new experiences, new inventions, and new feelings are always pushing us to give new uses to old words.
1. Why did dictionary writers read important books?| A．To know more about the period. | B．To collect words and their uses. |
| C．To understand different subjects. | D．To learn to use interesting words. |
| A．It was long-time hard work. | B．It had to use the law-making rules. |
| C．It should be done by historians. | D．It was a task of inventing and recording. |
| A．①—③—④—② | B．①—②—④—③ |
| C．③—①—④—② | D．③—④—②—① |
| A．Dictionaries: The Long-lost Art |
| B．Guidebook of Using A Dictionary |
| C．Famous Dictionary Writers in History |
| D．Creating A Dictionary: A Brief History |
Of course not. In fact，the difference in spelling was created by Noah Webster (1758-1843). He is a teacher who reformed English to make American identity stronger. Linguists (语言学家) celebrated his 250th birthday on October 16. After the Revolutionary War (1775~ 1783)，Webster believed that Americans should have their own dictionary，rather than rely on British versions (版本). He dropped the British "u" in some words. And he changed "centre" into "center" for children to learn English by spelling words more like they sounded.
Webster wasn't shy about expressing his opinions. In defining (定义) preposterous (unreasonable)，he wrote: "A republican government in the hands of females is preposterous."
Webster spent 28 years on the project before completing the 70,000-word dictionary in 1828 with his American-style spellings. He also added local words. His dictionary was widely used in schools. Linguists believed it helped a new nation achieve unity and cultural independence at a time when most were focused on political freedom.
"He was the shaper of our language and the shaper of American identity，"said Joshua Kendall，who is working on a biography (传记) about Webster. "He at last bonded (联合)us through our language."
1. Which of the following would probably be the best title for the passage?
| A．The shaper of American English. |
| B．American identity. |
| C．Webster's dictionary. |
| D．Spelling differences between American and British English. |
| A．voicing his opinion | B．changing "centre" into "center" |
| C．adding local words | D．dropping "u" in all the British words |
| A．Interesting. | B．Meaningful. | C．Unfinished. | D．Boring. |
| A．Because he wanted to make English simple and easy. |
| B．Because he wanted to show that the USA is stronger than the UK. |
| C．Because he wanted to achieve political freedom. |
| D．Because he wanted American English to have its own characteristics. |
| A．In 1758. | B．In 1783. | C．In 1800. | D．In 1828. |
【推荐3】Have you ever asked yourself why people often have trouble learning English? I hadn't, until one day my five-year-old son asked me whether there was ham in a hamburger. There isn't. This made me realize that there is no egg in eggplant either. Neither is there pine nor apple in pineapple. This got me thinking how English can be a crazy language to learn.
For example, in our free time we can sculpt a sculpture(雕塑) and paint a painting, but we take a photo. And when we are traveling we say that we are in the car or the taxi, but on the train or bus! While we're doing all this traveling, we can get seasick at sea, airsick in the air and carsick in a car, but we don't get homesick when we get home. And speaking of home, why aren't homework and housework the same thing?
If "hard" is the opposite of "soft", why are "hardly" and "softly" not an opposing pair? If harmless actions are the opposite of harmful actions, why are shameless and shameful behaviors the same?
When we look out of the window and see rain or snow, we can say "it's raining" or "it's snowing". But when we see sunshine, we cannot say "it's sunshining".
Even the smallest words can confuse(混淆) you. When you see the capitalized "WHO" in a medical report, do you read it as the "who" in "Who's that?" What about "IT" and "US"?
You also have to wonder at the unique madness of a language in which a house can burn up as it burns down, in which you fill in a form by filling it out, and in which an alarm is only heard once it goes off.
English was invented by people, not computers, and it reflects the creativity of the human race. That is why when the stars are out, they are visible(看得见的), but when the lights are out, they are invisible. And that is why when I wind up my watch, it starts, but when I wind up this passage, it ends.
1. What is the author's purpose in writing the text?| A．To tell us English is a crazy language to learn. |
| B．To require us to enrich English vocabulary. |
| C．To persuade us to learn English well enough. |
| D．To suggest better ways to command English. |
| A．crazy | B．spoiled | C．homesick | D．frightened |
| A．burn up / burn down | B．fill in / fill out |
| C．visible / invisible | D．hardly / softly |
| A．The fast pace of our life. | B．Humans' identity. |
| C．The command of language. | D．Humans' creativity. |
| A．confusing | B．shocking | C．regular | D．embarrassing |
