1 . On one day my grandma died, I went for a walk to clear my mind. The small purse I carried with me was a gift from her. The bag only weighted several pounds but it felt like I was dragging heavy luggage.
As I was walking, I spotted Mary who gave me an excited hug. She asked how I was. “How are you” is a question that can turn meaningless or meaningful, depending on how you answer it. I considered going the meaningless route. Then I remembered that she is a friend from church. We once celebrated an activity together. Maybe I could lean on her for some comfort. I explained that my grandma died and I was feeling in bad shape emotionally.
Mary expressed kind regards. Then she asked the question everyone asks when you tell them someone died, “Were you two close?” It’s the main standard that determines the appropriate size someone’s sadness can take. The answer to this question depends on how someone defines closeness. I tend to feel close to people I can have heart-to-heart with. I nodded to Mary and said, “Yeah, we were.”
She nodded back, playing her role in the cultural script (剧本)we all know. Mary gathered information about the funeral arrangements, and then we parted. Seeing her was a catalyst (催化剂) to my quickly getting in touch with my sorrow. I cried loudly on the street directly.
Later that night I texted my friend Roger to tell him what had happened. I expected a text back with sympathy. Instead, the phone rang. Soon he was asking me what my favorite song was. While I hesitated, he started singing the hymn, “It Is Well With My Soul.” He finished it and prayed for me over the phone. It really made me exhilarated. I felt that a heavy burden was removed. But I cried again because of the spiritual synchronization(同步). I didn’t share stories of my grandmother or try to explain my complicated emotions over the phone.
Then I realized that courtesy (客套话) is generally good practice, but it can’t compare to personalized, thoughtful communication. And that kind of pat statement really has no place if you want to make a real connection.
1. What can we learn from Paragraph 2?A.The author used to offer Mary advice to Mary. |
B.The author and Mary enjoyed social activities. |
C.The author and Mary often shared their secrets. |
D.The author hesitated to turn to Mary for comfort. |
A.judge how sad the author was |
B.determine what sadness it was |
C.prove that they were close friends |
D.see if the author needed comfort |
A.Mary decided to attend the funeral |
B.the author felt touched to see Mary |
C.the author got no real comfort from Mary |
D.Mary felt helpless about relieving the author’s pain |
A.Cheered me up | B.Made me satisfied |
C.Let me down | D.Kept me down |
A.A friend in need is a friend indeed. |
B.Spiritual communication is better than courtesy. |
C.Crying is an effective way to ease people’s pain. |
D.It’s hard to recover from the pain of losing a loved one. |
2 . I do think that a book can inspire ideas and ways of thinking that have the power to transform our lives. Here are some books to serve the purpose.
Thinking, Fast and slow
Daniel Kahneman is a Nobel Prize winner who has written an amazing book that dives into the mysterious world of our conscious and unconscious thinking patterns. By reading this book, you’ll gain a deeper understanding about how to make decisions and react to certain things in your life. Yes, this is a super thick book that seems challenging, but somehow the author makes it accessible and really fun to read.
The Power of Habit
Written by award-winning New York Times business reporter Charles Duhigg, this book is an awesome mix of research, stories, and revelations(启示) about habits: how we form them, how we can change them, and how knowledge about human habits is transforming everything.
The Road Less Traveled
The first words in this classic and powerful book are: Life is difficult. Without hiding the true realities of life which is filled with conflicts, difficulties, and challenging decisions, M. Scott Peck guides us to a deeper level of self-understanding and creates a path we can follow to a fuller, more peaceful life.
The Power of Now
The key message of the book is simple and powerful: The way to true happiness is through learning to live in the now, without reliving the past or racing to the future. Eckhart Tolle helps us understand how our thoughts and emotions get in the way and what to do about it.
1. What do we learn about Thinking, Fast and Slow?A.It’s too abstract to understand. |
B.It helps readers to make decisions. |
C.It divides our thinking patterns into different types. |
D.It enables readers to understand themselves better. |
A.Daniel Kahneman’s | B.Charles Duhigg’s |
C.M. Scott Peck’s | D.Eckhart Tolle’s |
A.The challenges of life. |
B.A path to a better life. |
C.The author’s understanding of humans. |
D.The best way to settle conflicts. |
A.Thinking, Fast and Slow | B.The Power of Habit |
C.The Power of Now | D.The Road Less Traveled |
A.They are classic and refreshing. |
B.They are adventurous and challenging. |
C.They are accessible and full of fun. |
D.They are inspiring and helpful. |
3 . Originally, I don’t think about getting older. Perhaps it’s because I like to keep busy and just don’t think about it.
I used to be a radio broadcaster and recently I was
One of them, it turns out, is
The thought of being dead doesn’t
A.Therefore | B.However | C.Though | D.Meanwhile |
A.believe | B.regret | C.prevent | D.consider |
A.doubted | B.questioned | C.contacted | D.interviewed |
A.pay | B.enjoy | C.intend | D.allow |
A.similar | B.diverse | C.different | D.special |
A.activity | B.custom | C.tradition | D.routine |
A.chatting with | B.looking for | C.working with | D.cheering for |
A.look up to | B.look out for | C.look down upon | D.look back at |
A.permanently | B.relatively | C.accidentally | D.practically |
A.show up | B.hold up | C.move about | D.hold on |
A.worse still | B.what’s more | C.on the contrary | D.on the other hand |
A.secretly | B.gradually | C.directly | D.suddenly |
A.related | B.connected | C.bound | D.limited |
A.independently | B.optimistically | C.comfortably | D.disappointedly |
A.fed on | B.cared for | C.trained | D.educated |
A.primitively | B.occasionally | C.instantly | D.rarely |
A.understanding | B.deciding | C.knowing | D.guessing |
A.surprise | B.help | C.bother | D.excite |
A.nervous | B.sorry | C.help | D.great |
A.tiresome | B.meaningless | C.interesting | D.upsetting |
4 . You can relax if remembering everything is not your strong suit. Recent research makes the case that being forgetful can be a strength — in fact, selective memory can even be a sign of stronger intelligence.
Traditional research on memory has focused on the advantages of remembering everything. But looking through years of recent memory data, researchers Paul Frankland and Blake Richards of the University of Toronto found that forgetting can be just as important to our decision-making as what our minds choose to remember.
Making intelligent decisions does not mean you need to have all the information at hand, it just means you need to hold onto the most valuable information. And that means clearing up space in your memory palace for the most up-to-date information on clients(客户) and situations. Our brains do this by generating new neurons(神经元) in our hippo-campus(海马体), which have the power to overwrite existing memories that are influencing our decision-making.
When we forget the names of certain clients and details about old jobs, our brain is making a choice that these details do not matter. Although too much forgetfulness can be a cause for concern, the occasional lost detail can be a sign of a perfectly healthy memory system. The researchers found that our brains further decision-making by stopping us from focusing too much on minor past details.
If you’re an analyst who meets with a client weekly, your brain will recognize that this is a client whose name and story you need to remember. If this is someone you may never meet again, your brain will weigh that information accordingly.
We can get blamed for being absent-minded when we forget past events in perfect detail. These findings show us that our brains are working smarter when they aim to remember the right stories, not every story.
1. Researchers of the University of Toronto found that forgetting could __________.A.help make intelligent decisions |
B.do harm to the brain |
C.indicate people’s low intelligence |
D.make people focus on everything |
A.Make an intelligent decision. |
B.Influence our decision-making. |
C.Provide room in your memory. |
D.Remember clients and situations. |
A.People needn’t worry about forgetfulness at all. |
B.Our brain is smart enough to select useful details. |
C.Forgetting details is a sign of an unhealthy memory. |
D.Focusing on all details contributes to decision-making. |
A.the memory | B.the relationship | C.the frequency | D.the detail |
A.To show how to remember the right stories. |
B.To introduce the necessity of forgetting. |
C.To help people make smart decisions. |
D.To explain how the brain actually works. |
5 . Readers have never had it so good. But publishers need to adapt better to the digital world.
During the next few weeks publishers will release a great number of books, pile them onto delivery lorries and fight to get them on the display tables of bookshops in the run-up to Christmas. It is an impressive display of competitive commercial activity. It is also increasingly pointless.
More quickly than almost anyone predicted, e-books are becoming popular quickly. Amazon, the biggest e-book retailer( 零售商), has lowered the price of its Kindle — e-readers to the point where people do not fear to take them to the beach. In America, the most advanced market, about one-fifth of the largest publishers’ sales are of e-books.
For readers, this is excellent. Amazon has successfully shortened distance by bringing a huge range of books to out-of-the-way places, and it is now fighting against time, by enabling readers to download books instantly. Moreover, huge choice and low prices are helping books hold their own on digital devices. For publishers, though, it is a dangerous time. Some of the publishers’ functions—packaging books and promoting them to shops—are becoming out of date.
Yet there are still important jobs for publishers.
The music and film industries have started to pack electronic with physical versions of their products—by, for instance, providing those who buy a DVD of a movie with a code to download it from the Internet. Publishers, similarly, should combine e-books with paper books.
They also need to become more efficient. In the digital age it is stupid to take months or even years to get a book to market. And if they are to distinguish their products from self-published dross( 糟粕), they must get better at choosing books, sharpening ideas and polishing copy. If publishers are to hold readers’ attention, they must tell a better story—and edit out all the spelling mistakes as well.
1. According to the author, what publishers do before Christmas is becoming __________.A.efficient | B.satisfying | C.meaningless | D.worthwhile |
A.By analyzing. | B.By giving examples. |
C.By comparing. | D.By listing numbers. |
A.Readers will have a wider choice than before. |
B.The price of books will become much higher. |
C.Traditional publishers will be out of work. |
D.Traditional bookstores will completely disappear. |
A.Spend more time editing a good book. |
B.Change work to music and film industry. |
C.Get rid of self-published dross completely. |
D.Learn from what music and film industry did. |
A.The Disappearing Ink. |
B.The Book and Music Industry. |
C.Golden Times for Publishers. |
D.The Coming of the Digital Age. |
6 . I am traveling home. It is bitterly cold and snowy, but the warm train is right on time. I feel pleasantly satisfied as I look out at the rush hour traffic on the motorway. I feel more satisfied as the smell of fresh coffee announces the arrival of the drinks service. Swiss friends often tell me, proudly, that their rail service is the best in the world, but recently, one experience has proved that the great Swiss love affair with their railway has turned a little sour.
It all began with the decision to end ticket sales on trains. One cold morning I arrived at my local station only to find that the ticket machine was broken. No matter, I thought, I have got a smart phone, and I hurriedly set about buying my ticket that way. This was not as easy as I had expected, busying myself between credit card and phone with freezing cold fingers, but, by the time I got on the train to Geneva, I had an e-ticket and I proudly showed it to the conductor. Unfortunately she told me that my ticket was not valid. Several weeks later a letter arrived from Swiss railways together with a fine for 190 francs ($ 210).
The good people there tell me the formal payment for my ticket from my credit card company arrived four minutes after my train left the station. That means, they say, that I bought my ticket on the train—and that is strictly prohibited.
Swiss railways say their policy is designed to protect honest ticket-paying passengers, but a quick look at their balance sheet suggests something else. The company is making about $ 2 million a month from fines.
Although train travel is still popular, those seats do not feel as comfortable; the coffee does not smell quite so good—because Swiss railways have lost, for now anyway, something far more precious than $ 2 million a month: good relations with their customers.
1. What can we learn from Paragraph 1?A.The Swiss trains usually come late. |
B.Traffic on the motorway goes smoothly. |
C.The author regrets traveling on the Swiss train. |
D.Swiss people think highly of their train service. |
A.the decision to end ticket sales on trains |
B.the experience of buying a train ticket |
C.the difficulty of buying an e-ticket |
D.the fine for escaping a train ticket |
A.It was purchased online. |
B.It was purchased on a ticket machine. |
C.It was paid for on a smart phone. |
D.It was paid for after the train’s departure. |
A.To show the fine was unfair. |
B.To show the conductor was impolite. |
C.To show e-tickets are getting popular. |
D.To show credit cards can be inconvenient. |
A.It attracts more people to travel by train. |
B.It makes the company lose a lot of money. |
C.It damages company-customer relations. |
D.It protects honest ticket-paying passengers. |
7 . Welcome to Olympic National Park!
The park is located in the western state of Washington and it is on the Olympic Peninsula, in the northwest part of the state. It covers more than 400,000 hectares. Each area of the park offers visitors something special. Here are some places to go.
★ Elwha Valley
The Elwha Valley is in the central part of the park. It is the Olympic Peninsula’s largest watershed(分水岭). Long ago, the rivers in this area held the most salmon(鲑鱼) outside of Alaska. In the 1920s, a growing community of settlers built two hydroelectric(水力发电) dams to provide energy for the local economy. The dams created many problems for the river. They decreased the water in the rivers, which caused the fish population in the area to decrease. This affected the other animals that depended on fish for food.
The community later decided to fix these problems. In 1992, Congress passed the Elwha River Ecosystem and Fisheries Restoration Act. Both dams have been removed. Today, the Elwha River is the site of one of the largest ecosystem restoration projects in National Park Service history.
★ Hoh River Valley
The Hoh River is on the west side of the park. The river is formed from melted glacial ice on top of Mount Olympus. The river is 80 kilometers long. It empties into the Pacific Ocean.
The area receives about 400 centimeters of rain each year. Because of the amount of rain, many different types of plants grow in the Hoh rainforest.
The Hoh River Valley is protected from any logging or development.
★ Hurricane Ridge
Hurricane Ridge is a mountain area in the northern part of the park. It is easy to enter, and provides incredible views of the Olympic Mountains.
The ridge has many hiking paths. In winter, people come here to ski. They also come here to take part in other fun winter activities, like sledding and snowboarding.
Hurricane Ridge usually has snow from December through the end of March. Visitors must be prepared for icy roads and severe weather.
1. What’s the purpose of the passage?A.To attract visitors to the park. |
B.To tell about the park’s history. |
C.To show the variety of the park. |
D.To stress the importance of ecosystem. |
A.Local settlers had enough energy. |
B.The Elwha Valley was formed. |
C.The ecosystem was greatly affected. |
D.Animals’ living conditions became better. |
A.Through earthquake. | B.From sea water. |
C.From rain water. | D.From melted glacial ice. |
A.You will easily get lost. |
B.You will have no fun. |
C.You will slip over on the icy road. |
D.You will enjoy fine sunshine. |
A.Elwha Valley | B.Hurricane Ridge |
C.Hoh River Valley | D.The Hoh rainforest |
8 . I got addicted to cigarettes about 11 years ago. As a smoker, I certainly realizes the
For so many years I always felt unrested after a night’s
It was my birthday’s eve and I was back home by 10 pm. Usual birthday calls from friends made me
Today it’s exactly 526 days
A.mistake | B.harm | C.benefit | D.energy |
A.task | B.pleasure | C.advantage | D.competition |
A.choice | B.use | C.price | D.sight |
A.dropped | B.lit | C.saw | D.borrowed |
A.activity | B.party | C.sleep | D.dream |
A.colorful | B.comfortable | C.slight | D.terrible |
A.silently | B.angrily | C.hopelessly | D.surprisingly |
A.cut | B.shook | C.burned | D.colored |
A.answered | B.helped | C.questioned | D.enjoyed |
A.crazy | B.sleepy | C.awake | D.happy |
A.gift | B.punishment | C.warn | D.wish |
A.confused | B.scared | C.considered | D.struck |
A.hobby | B.body | C.thought | D.addiction |
A.keep up with | B.end up with | C.come up with | D.break up with |
A.expensive | B.empty | C.attractive | D.beautiful |
A.ability | B.desire | C.way | D.decision |
A.before | B.after | C.since | D.till |
A.force | B.strength | C.luck | D.money |
A.get | B.tell | C.create | D.make |
A.planned | B.agreed | C.chose | D.regretted |
9 . Everyone experiences tiredness at work sometimes. At some point (usually around 2:00 pm), you find yourself ready for a nap. Your energy changes naturally throughout the day. Productivity expert Chris Bailey recorded his motivation, focus, and energy levels for 21 days and found that all three tend to spike between 7:00 and 8:00 am, 11:00 am and 12:00 pm, and 6:00 and 7:00 pm. For all those highs, he also noticed time when focus, energy, and motivation were nowhere to be found.
Your peak productivity time may be different from Mr. Bailey’s, but you also have your own ups and downs. The amount of sleep you have, the food you eat, and how you exercise are a few of the factors that cause rises and falls in your energy level.
We can fill up on coffee and sugar as much as we want, but we’re fighting a natural downturn (消退期) in energy when we do this. Your tiredness may seem like an inconvenience, but it’s really your body telling you that it needs rest. The best way to beat it is to satisfy this need.
Our bodies operate on a natural clock called a circadian rhythm (生理节奏). This sleep/wake cycle is perfectly adapted to give us enough sleep over the course of a 24-hour period. Natural light is the primary way that your body uses to decide whether or not you should be asleep.
Therefore, circadian rhythms do not agree with the average 9 to 5 job. Irregular sleep schedules, the light from electronic devices, and natural light exposure (暴露) for a long time can also affect the cycle. This is why people working the night shift (夜班) have an increases risk of developing health problems. They must remain awake when their body tells them it’s time for bed, and their sleep schedule is constantly ruined when they try to stay awake on days off.
1. What’s the author’s purpose of mentioning Expert Chris Bailey’s record?A.To introduce the topic. | B.To make a comparison. |
C.To serve as an example. | D.To draw the reader’s attention. |
A.Get to the lowest point. | B.Get to the average point. |
C.Get to the highest point. | D.Get to the sleeping point. |
A.What you eat. | B.Where you work. |
C.How you exercise. | D.How long you sleep. |
A.Just stop working and take a break. | B.Fight against it with all our energy. |
C.Listen to some light music to relax. | D.Drink some coffee to lift up our spirits. |
A.A manager who suffers from huge pressure. |
B.A teacher who has a long holiday every year. |
C.A guard who has to work in a museum at night. |
D.A bus driver who doesn’t go to work at weekends. |
10 . She was sitting up at four months, walking at eight months and completing 100-piece jigsaw puzzles (拼图玩具) at 15 months. So it is no surprise that Abigail Wilson, 15, from Connecticut, USA, recently made history when she became the youngest black girl ever accepted into an American university! “I’m proud of myself for getting in, but I usually find it hard to get excited. It’s pretty cool, I guess,” said Abigail.
Her mother, Nancy, said that Abigail was a quiet baby. She didn’t speak her first words until she was 22 months old! Her parents thought something must be wrong, but when she started to talk, her speech was perfect. She already knew colors, letters and was able to read. Her parents read her normal bedtime stories and they didn’t know she was learning all of it.
Abigail has always been the youngest person in her class. At six she was in the fourth grade, at ten she took her first high school class in Maths. She has studied several languages, including Spanish, French, Chinese, Russian, Arabic and German.
Abigail says that she doesn’t usually plan when she studies, she calls herself scatterbrained (浮躁的) and she always delays things up to the last minute. This gives her the motivation to really do something.
In her free time, Abigail plays basketball, surfs the Internet, reads, cooks and hangs out with her friends. She has also studied music. Her mother says that Abigail’s music lessons helped her to be a normal teen. She believed that Abigail needed to be in a situation where she had to fail in order to learn. “She found playing the piano very difficult, but it made her learn better,” said Nancy. “She can’t always be successful, she won’t be able to learn anything! People always learn more from their failures than from their successes.”
1. Why is it not surprising that Abigail went to university at 15?A.Because she was hard-working. |
B.Because she was always ahead of other kids. |
C.Because she was brought up in a special way. |
D.Because she was not different from other black girls. |
A.She is crazy about sports. | B.She has a gift for language. |
C.Her favorite subject is math. | D.Her success is due to good habits. |
A.has perfect plans | B.has no desire to study hard |
C.won’t finish things ahead of time | D.prefers to finish things in advance |
A.Abigail failed to have a normal life. | B.Abigail was good at playing the piano. |
C.Abigail needed to learn from failures. | D.Abigail always wanted to be successful. |
A.The wonderful life of a talented girl. | B.A mother bringing up a wonderful girl. |
C.A black girl wanting to live a normal life. | D.A gifted girl being admitted into university. |