【推荐3】John Robert was born in a farm family and his father was a horse trainer. When John was a child, he often went from one farm to another with his father. Sometimes they didn’t have enough money to pay for food, but John still loved this kind of life. He even hoped to own a horse farm when growing up.

When he was in school, his teacher once asked students to write about what they wanted to be and do when they grew up. John wrote a seven-page paper talking about his dream of having a horse farm one day. He even drew a picture of a horse farm on the paper.

The next day John handed it to his teacher. Two days later, he got his paper back. On the front page was a large red “F” with some words “See me after class.” And the boy did and asked his teacher, “Why did I get an F?” The teacher said, “This dream will not come true for a young boy like you. Owning a horse farm needs a lot of money. You have to buy the land. You have to pay for a lot of things. There is no way you could ever do it.” Then the teacher added, “If you write this paper again with a simple dream, I will give you a good grade.”

After school he thought about it carefully. At last, he decided to hand in the same paper, making no changes at all. He wrote, “You can keep the F and I’ll keep my dream.”

Many years later, John had his own 200 acres (英亩) horse farm. His dream came true.

So don’t let someone take away your dream. Follow your dreams, no matter what they are.

1. What happened to John when he was a child?

A．H e hoped to be a teacher.	B．He decided to give up college.
C．He often went hungry for poverty.	D．His father gave him much money.

2. What made the teacher give John an F for his paper?

A．His bad temper.	B．His difficult dream.
C．His poor family.	D．His poor study.

3. What did John do to the marked paper?

A．Change his dream.	B．Rewrite the paper.
C．Make no change.	D．Add some words on it.

4. What does the text mainly want us to do?

A．Work hard to realize our dream.	B．Keep changing our dreams.
C．Follow others’ advice.	D．Refuse the teachers’ help.

【推荐1】“The first and best of victories for a man is to conquer himself; to be conquered by himself is, of all things, the most shameful,” says Plato. Self-control is at the root of all the advantages. Let a man give in to his impulses (冲动) and feelings, and from that moment he gives up his moral freedom.
A single angry word has lost many friends. When Socrates found in himself any temper or anger, he would check it by speaking low in order to control himself. If you are conscious of being angry, keep your mouth shut so that you can hold back rising anger. Many a person has dropped dead in great anger. Fits of anger bring fits of disease. _____________________________ “Keep cool,” says Webster, “anger is not argument.” “Be calm in arguing,” says George Herbert, “for fierceness makes error a fault.”
To be angry with a weak man is to prove that you are not strong yourself. “Anger,” says Pythagoras, “begins with foolishness and ends with regret.” You must measure the strength of a man by the power of the feelings he conquers, not by the power of those which conquer him.
Self-control is man’s last and greatest victory.
If a man lacks self-control he seems to lack everything. Without it he can have no patience, no power to govern himself; he can have no self-confidence, for he will always be controlled by his strongest feeling. If he lacks self-control, the very backbone and nerve of character are lacking too.
1. What’s the main idea of the passage?

A．Self- control is important for a man

B．We should learn to be strong.

C．A man who keeps cool won’t lose any game.

D．The great heroes in history knew how to control themselves.

2. What does the underlined sentence in Paragraph 2 mean?

A．If you are mad, the gods will fail you.

B．If you lose your temper first, gods will fail you first.

C．If you can’t control yourself, you will be crazy.

D．If the gods want to fail you, they will make you mad first.

3. Which of the following is NOT true, according to passage?

A．The first and best of victories for a man is to conquer himself.

B．You will make a small mistake serious if you don’t keep cool.

C．You must measure a man’s strength by the power of the feelings which conquer him.

D．Anger begins with foolishness and ends with regret.

4. Which of the following can’t help you avoid anger, according to the passage?

A．Being calm in arguing

B．Checking your temper or anger by speaking low.

C．Keeping your mouth shut

D．Trying to make the other angry first.

5. If a man lacks self-control,______________________________

A．He will always be controlled by all the people all the time.

B．He will began with foolish everything every day and lack the strength.

C．Moral strength and nerve of character will lack as well.

D．He will have power of gover himself.

【推荐2】Lots of people stress out about talking in front of the class or getting laughed at if they make a mistake in front of an audience.     1     And it’s part of your body’s way of helping you do your best. However, when you feel too stressed about performing, it can cause you to feel cold or sweaty or to feel like you can’t think straight. Luckily, here are some tips that can help you manage that feeling.

● Be prepared. Rehearse (排练) as much as you can — alone or in front of others — at every opportunity.     2     Nothing calms you like the confidence that comes from knowing you’re prepared.

● Instead of focusing on what could go wrong, increase some positive energy. Watch a football team before they run onto the field. They get in a group and sing a team song to pump themselves up with positive energy and team spirit.     3     For example, you can tell yourself “I got this!” “I’m ready to do this — here goes!” or “This is going to be fun!”

● Don’t be afraid of the nervous feeling.     4     Just let it be there. Meanwhile, manage it by using your positive pep talks (鼓励士气的讲话) and calming ways.

●    5     You’ll look and feel your best if you get enough sleep and eat healthy meals before your performance. Along with sleep and nutrition, exercise is also an excellent way of keeping your stress under control.

A．Remind yourself that it’s natural.

B．Practice until you feel relaxed and ready.

C．Take care of yourself before big performances.

D．Feeling nervous before a performance is natural.

E．Some need to be active to relax while others need to be still and calm.

F．You can do this whether you’re performing alone or as part of a group.

G．When you feel nervous before a performance, don’t let the feeling stop you.

【推荐3】As I went down the wooden snowy steps, I held the rough fence with one hand, held my crying daughter Kelly with the other and made my way into the yard. I knew everything would be okay if I located my mother.

Instead of a smile, she greeted me with concern. I knew she had read my face as I’d approached. “What’s wrong?” she asked.

I held the baby out. “I can’t take care of this baby,” I said simply. My mother didn’t take her from my arms as I expected. She smiled slightly, and then replied firmly, “You have to take care of that baby.” This was not the reply I wanted. Couldn’t she hear the baby crying? I wanted her to solve this problem. Instead, she took off her gloves and asked me in for some coffee.

Mom held Kelly while I held the coffee cup. At that moment the baby finally stopped crying. I glanced over at Kelly, content in my mother’s arms. Her tiny blue eyes were focused on me, as if to ask, “What’s the problem here, Mama?” Her sweet, familiar breath eased the stress in the air. I looked at my mother, feeling foolish but relaxed. She stood and placed an arm around my shoulders. “By the time you came along, things were quite different for me. But with your elder brother, I often felt helpless.”

The baby showed no signs of our afternoon struggle, while my own hair remained wet and messy from sweat and worry. “Crying is the only way babies have to communicate. Try to listen to her cries and hear them as language. She’s not crying to annoy you; she’s trying to send a message with the only voice she has.”

Once again, her gentle guidance had supported me through a storm and back into clear skies.

1. Why did the author visit her mother in the rough weather?

A．She was concerned about her mother’s safety.

B．She wanted to learn to care for babies from her mother.

C．She was helpless and needed her mother’s help.

D．She intended to borrow some money from her mother.

2. How did the author’s mother probably feel when bringing her up?

A．Awkward but patient.

B．Experienced and confident.

C．Annoyed but curious.

D．Thoughtless and unconcerned.

3. What did the author’s mother want to express in paragraph 5?

A．Taking care of babies was difficult.

B．Babies enjoyed annoying their parents.

C．Parents should understand and accept babies’ crying.

D．The author should let her baby cry more.

4. What can we infer about the author’s mother?

A．She usually goes shopping with the author.

B．She lives a lonely life without her children.

C．She likes to raise small children for young mothers.

D．She often gives advice to the author in trouble.