Do you often compare yourself to other people? Whether it’s the number of goals you’ve scored at football or how many books you’ve read, it’s easy to compare yourself to someone else. It’s a natural behavior that helps humans learn from each other, live happily together and achieve more. However, it s not always helpful and you can find yourself fall in a comparison trap (陷阱). This is when you always measure yourself against others and base your feelings on how well they seem to be doing.
Comparison can make us feel good and bad about ourselves. “Comparing up” means seeing someone is better than you and using that to encourage yourself to aim higher and try harder. However, sometimes it can make you feel rubbish about yourself and undermine your confidence. “Comparing down” is when you see someone who seems like they’re not doing as well as you. This might make you feel you’re doing well, but it can also stop you wanting to improve.
How do you escape comparison trap? If your feelings depend on what other people are doing, always stay with cheerleaders. Notice how people make you feel and spend time with friends who celebrate your strengths rather than compare themselves to you. If you follow social media (媒体) accounts that make you feel you are failing in any way, unfollow them. Find ones that make you laugh or show you lovely places instead. Finally, pay attention to your own achievements and how you can improve. The best person you can compete with is yourself.
Let’s make positive, healthy comparisons. Instead of trying to be the best aim to be your best. This means you value your own achievements and not someone else’s. Celebrate progress instead of the final result. It doesn’t matter if someone is better or faster than you, it’s how hard you try that’s important. Set some goals and pay attention to your progress. Instead of saying “I can’t do it”, say “I can’t do it yet”.
1. What is the purpose of comparing yourself to others according to the text?| A．To knock your confidence. |
| B．To learn from each other and achieve more. |
| C．To make others feel bad about themselves. |
| D．To stop you want to move. |
| A．Increase. | B．Build. | C．Weaken. | D．Get. |
| A．Competing with yourself is not necessary. |
| B．Your feelings always depend on other people. |
| C．We can follow the ways to escape comparison trap. |
| D．Friends can make you laugh and show you lovely places. |
| A．Valuing others’ achievements. | B．Celebrating your progress. |
| C．Trying to be better than everyone else. | D．Trying to be the best in everything. |
| A．Suggestions on “comparing up”. | B．Keys to stopping comparison. |
| C．Benefits of aiming high. | D．Ideas about making comparison. |
相似题推荐
【推荐1】All through grade school, I got extra help with schoolwork. If I got a D, I was very happy. If I got a C-minus（C-）, I was happy with tears. A’s and B’s were a mountain top I could never reach.
Once my teacher, Miss Mills, gave me a list of ten spelling words. My mother and I went over the list until I knew those words. I felt great. I thought, “Wow! This time, I’m going to pass”. The next day, I went into the classroom and began to write down the words. The first word was “carpe”r. I wrote that one down: c-a-r-p-e-t. I was feeling pretty confident. Then came “neighbor”-I wrote down the letter n. Then “rhythm”-I knew there was an r. “Suburban”-I wrote s-u-b. My confidence failed me. I had gone from 100 percent to maybe a D-minus. Where did the words go?
Some people talk about information sliding off their brain（脑袋）. That was my life.
Now I know I have dyslexia（读写障碍症）. A person with dyslexia might see the as teh, and bird as brid. My brain learns differently. A learning disability（疾病）can really change the way you feel about yourself. Now I know that even if I learn differently, I can still be filled with greatness.
Today when I visit schools as an actor, director, and writer of children’s books, I tell children that everyone has something special inside. It’s our job to find out what that is and get it out, and give it to the world as a gift.
1. What was the writer’s problem in school?| A．He had trouble spelling. | B．He often got C-minuses. |
| C．He could never pass a test. | D．He had a physical disability. |
| A．wrote down 20% words correctly | B．knew he had dyslexia then |
| C．felt sad about himself at last | D．studied hard and got an A |
| A．coming into | B．going through | C．moving around | D．disappearing from |
| A．felt very excited | B．had more difficulties in study |
| C．was filled with sadness | D．changed the way he saw himself |
| A．A Change for Sure | B．People with Dyslexia |
| C．A Gift from the World | D．A Special Spelling Test |
Sam hated his job. However, he loved taking photos, and was taking a two-year course to make him better at it. Every day he said his work was boring. I asked him why he didn’t give up his job and start a business of taking photos. His reply was, “When I finish my course, I will start a business."
Harry worked for a company that allowed him to retire early, but he had to get less money after he retired. Now Harry became very weak and found it difficult to deal with his work. I was worried about his health because too much work was bad for him. "Why don't you retire, Harry? Do something that you want to do, "I said."If I were older, I would get my full pension. When the next summer comes, maybe I will, "Harry replied.
There is an old saying that says:"If and When were planted, and Nothing grew."A year later, Karen is still living in the houses he hates. Sam is still busy with his boring job and hasn't finished his course. Harry is still working and his health is even worse. These people had a lot of stress in their lives and couldn’t change the situations by thinking "if or when".
Life is too short for "ifs and whens". The next time you find yourself thinking "if or when", remember the saying: "If and When were planted, and Nothing grew."
1. How did Karen like her house?
| A．She liked it. | B．She hated it. | C．She valued it. | D．She didn’t mind it. |
| A．Tour-guiding. | B．Advice-giving. | C．Picture-taking. | D．House-painting. |
| A．Because he was very strong and healthy. |
| B．Because he wasn’t allowed to retire early. |
| C．Because his work was interesting and relaxing. |
| D．Because he wanted to get full pay after retiring. |
| A．Sam has finished his course. | B．Karen lives in a new house now. |
| C．Harry is still working in the company now. | D．They didn’t have any stress in their lives at all. |
| A．when to grow plants | B．to take action at once |
| C．to stop working hard | D．how to change yourself |
Personality is also about how people think, behave, and react (反应) to everything around them from day to day.
So what makes people think and behave in certain ways?
Part of the reason is that people are born like this. A baby gets its blood type, genes (基因) and other physical things when it’s still inside its mother. These things may help decide what the baby will be like.
But one’s personality doesn’t stop here. Family life, school learning and life experiences can also make you the person you are. This doesn’t mean it’s impossible to change your personality. You can always try to make yourself better. Don’t get too worried about your shortcomings (缺点). Just accept them. This is a good way to start making changes.
If you don’t know how to make friends, find out why. Is it because you’re too shy? Tell yourself to smile at people. Start talking to people using warm greetings.
Don’t give yourself a hard time about it all. It’s not easy to change lifelong habits in one night. Keep working at it. One day you’ll see that you can turn over a new leaf and be a new you!
1. Personality is about the following except .
| A．how you behave |
| B．what you look like |
| C．how you react to something |
| D．how you think about something |
| A．people are born the way they’ll always be |
| B．a person can try to change his/her personality |
| C．personality decides what a person looks like |
| D．blood type decides what a person will be like |
| A．a shy person can’t make many friends |
| B．you can work hard to improve yourself |
| C．everyone can change him- or herself in life |
| D．there is no way to change your lifelong habits |
【推荐1】Mr. Guo is a teacher from Xi’an. He asked his students to hand in their homework through a QR code(二维码). “We spent an hour or two in class learning how to generate(使产生) the codes, and in the end everything gets easier,”said Guo.“When students finish the homework, they keep it on WeChat(微信). Then, each student makes his own QR code and gives it to me. So I can check their work everywhere using my computer or telephone. ”
The QR codes can be sent to Mr. Guo by email, QQ and WeChat. When Guo scans(扫描)his students’ QR codes, their homework appears on his phone. He finds that their homework becomes more creative, with many pictures, music and even videos.
Guo’s students like the new way and think it is interesting. “We are living in the information age. Many students like to work with computers, which makes learning more fun.”said Tingting, a student of Guo’s.
“The paper is not easy to keep, but the code is easy to keep and share,”Guo said.“It is worth trying to use new technology in education. Education itself is a kind of creation. I don’t want my students to fall behind the times.”
However, some parents are worried. They are afraid that their children will spend too much time on computers and less time communicating with teachers. But in fact, it’s unnecessary. Students still need to look up information in books and write it down when they do their homework. They only use the code when they hand in their work, which doesn’t take them too much time. Also for teachers, it allows them to check the students’ work at any time. And it’s also an easy way to share homework with other students.
1. Guo’s students think the new way is _____.| A．important | B．interesting | C．strange | D．boring |
| A．talk with their teacher face to face |
| B．find the QR codes too difficult to use |
| C．hate the new way of handing in homework |
| D．spend too much time on computers or phones |
| A．Some parents are worried about their children. |
| B．Teachers don’t need to check homework any more. |
| C．Using QR codes makes checking homework easier. |
| D．Students don’t need to hand in homework any more. |
【推荐2】Tourism (旅游业) today is much more important than before. In the past, only people with lots of money could travel on holidays to other countries. More people travel today than in the past because there is a growing middle class in many parts of the world; that is to say, people now have more money for travel. Special plane fares (特价机票) for tourists make travel less expensive and more attractive (吸引人) than ever before. One person doesn’t travel for the same reason as another. But most people enjoy seeing countries that are different from their own. They also like to meet new people and to taste new food.
Tourism causes many changes in a country and in people’s lives. People build new hotels and restaurants and train in the natives as guides to show visitors around places of interest. There’re new night clubs and other activities. International tourism is clearly a big business.
1. More people travel today than in the past because ________.| A．people have nothing to do | B．people can make a lot of money in other counties |
| C．people now have more money for travel | D．there are English classes in many parts of the world |
| A．New hotels and restaurants have been built. | B．More guides are being trained to show beautiful spots. |
| C．Staying in the other countries is less expensive. | D．Travelling by air is much cheaper today. |
| A．当地人 | B．游客 | C．外地人 | D．陌生人 |
| A．they want to make a study of geography | B．they want to spend money |
| C．they want to see different countries, meet different people and have new food | D．they don’t want to do anything else except that they visit friends |
| A．Introduction of Some Places of Interest | B．Tourism in the Past |
| C．How People Travel to Other Countries | D．The Change of Tourism |
【推荐3】When your pen is broken, the battery in your toy runs out, or you have some leftover food, what do you do with these things? You will probably throw them all into one bin（垃圾箱）. But actually, all kinds of rubbish need to be sorted（分类）separately.
Garbage sorting is a big issue worldwide. In recent years, some Chinese cities have been working. hand on it Shanghai has worked with Alipay to create a “green account（账户）” service for its residents（居民）. Account holders get points by sorting their rubbish correctly. Through the Alipay app, they ran exchange the points for milk, phone cards and other products. The city is asking all of its residents to sort their rubbish into four groups: wet, recyclable（可回收的）, harmful and dry.
Wet waste is also known as household waste. "They are things you don't want but that pigs can eat," Guangzhou Daily explained.
Paper, metal（金属）glass and other things that can be reused are recyclable waste.
Harmful waste includes things like medicine, batteries and fluorescent bulbs（荧光灯灯泡）
Finally, any waste that's not wet, recyclable or harmful will go in the "dry waste" bin.
Many other Chinese cities are also using this method to sort their garbage. For example, Shenzhen has been sorting its garbage into the same four groups since 2012. Students there also receive waste-sorting guidebooks that they must study.
China is improving its waste sorting efforts. There is still a long way to go. But it's never too late to learn how to sort your trash properly and protect the environment.
If you don't sort your garbage, it will go to a landfill（垃圾填埋场）and be buried together. These landfills can take up large areas of ground that could have been used for planting trees or crops. The electronic waste you throw away, such as batteries, can pollute the soil and groundwater（地下水）. Other pieces of garbage, like the metal part of a pen, can be used to make other things if they are properly recycled.
1. How should we deal with all kinds of garbage?| A．We can throw them all into one bin. | B．We can sort them separately. |
| C．We can throw them away freely. | D．We can reuse them all. . |
| A．Creating a "green account" service with the help of Alipay. |
| B．Paying people to sort their rubbish correctly. |
| C．Allowing people to exchange rubbish with each other. |
| D．Providing its residents with guidebooks to help them. |
| A．Batteries. | B．Glasses | C．Leftover food. | D．Medicine. |
| A．It started its garbage sorting system in 2012. |
| B．Students have to take waste sorting classes at school. |
| C．There is still a lot of work to be done in this area. |
| D．Burying garbage is common method of getting rid of garbage. |
