2 . Many questions can be expected in advance and it’s wise to have some well-constructed answers that you can tailor more closely on the day. It’s sensible to have a number of key phrases to use. Remember to always try and make your answers positive.

Q1: Tell me about yourself. (The interviewer is really saying “I want to hear you talk.”)

A1: This is just to get things started, but it is a very common question. Write a script, and practice it so that it sounds natural. Spend a maximum of four minutes describing your qualifications, career history and your range of skills. Emphasize those skills that are relevant to the job on offer.

Q2: What have been your achievements to date? (The interviewer is saying “Are you an achiever?”)

A2: Again, this is a common question, so be prepared. Select an achievement that is experience-related and fairly recent. Identify skills you used in this achievement and say what the results were.

Q3: What do you like about your present job? (The interviewer is really trying to find out whether you will enjoy the things the new job has to offer.)

A3: This is a straightforward question. All you have to make sure is that your ‘likes’ correspond to the skills etc. required for the job on offer. Be positive, describe your job as interesting and diverse, but do not overdo it. After all, you are leaving?

Q4: What are your strengths? (The interviewer simply wants a straightforward answer as to what you are good at.)

A4: This is the one question that you are definitely going to get, so there is no excuse for being unprepared. Concentrate on discussing your main strengths. List three or four explanations of how they could benefit the employer. Strengths to consider include technical proficiency; ability to learn quickly; determination to succeed; positive attitude; your ability to relate to people and achieve a common goal. You may be asked to give examples of the above, so be prepared.

Q5: Tell me about the most difficult situation you’ve had to face and how you handled it.

(The interview is really trying to find out your definition of “difficult” and whether you can show a logical approach to problem solving using your initiative.)

A5: This can be a trap! To avoid it, select a difficult work situation that was not caused by you and which can be quickly explained in a few sentences. Explain how you defined the problem, what the options were, why you selected the one you did and what the outcome was. Always end on a positive note.

1. The passage is mainly intended to ________.

A．highlight the importance of looking positive in an interview

B．give suggestions on how to answer interview questions

C．provide some sample answers to interview questions

D．illustrate how to look confident in an interview

2. When asked about what you think of your present job, you’d better ________.

A．talk about what you dislike about it

B．comment positively on your colleagues

C．relates it to the job you are applying for

D．describe how interesting it is as far as possible

3. If an interviewer wants to know whether you can solve a problem properly, what will he ask?

A．Tell me about yourself?

B．Tell me about your strengths?

C．What have been your achievements to date?

D．How did you handle the most difficult situation?

3 . So many of us are terrible at being terrible. As our children venture off to school, sports, dances and music lessons, we urge them: Just try something, keep practicing, you’re only a beginner. And yet, faced with our own failure, we become less confident, and quit altogether.

Images of perfection fill our social-media feeds, along with advertisements assuring us we wouldn’t be so _______ if we just bought this thing or tried that product. Parents often add to the pressure, _______ their kids will end up sliding down the socioeconomic ladder.

What if we’re _______?

“It’s such a _______ not to have to be good,” says Karen Rinaldi, who refers to herself as a horrible surfer. After 20 years on the board, she is still bad, and she loves it. There is the excitement of being out on the water, but there is also the _______ of not having to be the expert, the freedom to _______ help and rely on others in a way she never would at work. Back on land, she says she is more understanding and _______others’ mistakes. “The benefit of not _______ myself every day,” she says, “is that I get to surf every time I want.”

Ms. Rinaldi, whose experience led to a book about what you can learn from failure, recommends asking yourself: “What is it that you’ve always wanted to do or try but were too _______?” Whatever it is, she says, start doing it. Should you struggle, ________ the fact that you’re a beginner. “Go in there with the ________ to say, ‘I’m new,’” she says. “People want to help you learn. It makes them feel good.”

Take myself as another example. I started yoga lessons this summer. When I ________ Syd Schulz, a professional mountain biker, that I was terrible at the poses, her response was “what did you expect?” “It’s a little ________ to people who have spent years and years of their lives acquiring skills to think that you should have those overnight,” says Ms. Schulz. Years spent working on her cycling have taught her that improvement often comes in ________ steps, following long stretches of inactivity or even getting ________.

1.

A．distressing

B．imperfect

C．impressive

D．incredible

2.

A．fearing

B．confirming

C．hoping

D．indicating

3.

A．missing out

B．putting up

C．setting in

D．taking off

4.

A．burden

B．nonsense

C．puzzle

D．relief

5.

A．disappointment

B．nervousness

C．preference

D．satisfaction

6.

A．acknowledge

B．offer

C．refuse

D．seek

7.

A．angry at

B．delighted in

C．embarrassed with

D．patient with

8.

A．awarding

B．forgiving

C．isolating

D．pushing

9.

A．afraid

B．annoyed

C．depressed

D．exhausted

10.

A．accept

B．conceal

C．deny

D．examine

11.

A．excitement

B．modesty

C．potential

D．pride

12.

A．apologized to

B．argued with

C．complained to

D．shouted at

13.

A．abusive

B．amazing

C．annoying

D．attentive

14.

A．careful

B．hesitant

C．involuntary

D．unsteady

15.

A．alert

B．fulfilled

C．improved

D．worse

4 . If you have an investment portfolio (投资组合) of $500,000 or more, get...

About Fisher Investments
Fisher Investments is a money management enterprise serving over 85,000 clients as well as large institutional investors. * We have been managing portfolios through bull and bear markets for over 40 years. Fisher Investments has managed over $169 billion in client investments. *


1. If Mike is considering developing a tax-efficient retirement strategy, which tip can he turn to   for reference?

A．Tip #10.

B．Tip #23.

C．Tip #40.

D．Tip #85.

2. What is “Fisher Investments”?

A．An app.

B．A book.

C．A website.

D．A company.

3. What is the main purpose of this passage?

A．To give investment advice to anyone planning to retire.

B．To provide a free guide on retirement planning to everyone.

C．To seek potential customers who are interested in retirement planning.

D．To offer a special bonus report on maximizing Social Security benefits for retirement.

6 . The Man Who Ate his Boots is a fascinating account of expeditions that went wrong. The book examines the 19th century search for a route to Asia by way of the Northwest Passage through the Arctic Ocean. Author Anthony Brandt describes the many attempts by both land and sea that ended in failure and tragedy, including the 1845 expedition led by Sir John Franklin. Brandt shows how these brave, yet sometimes foolish, explorers could have avoided starvation, frostbite, and even death if they had copied the survival techniques of the local Inuit people. Some of the more surprising details the book reveals include:

IGLOOS The explorers, despite repeatedly watching the Inuit build igloos, insisted on using canvas tents. Tents freeze in sub-zero temperatures and give little protection to anyone inside them. If they had learned to build igloos, the explorers would have been warm even in the worst Arctic weather.

SEALSKIN If the explorers had worn sealskin and furs like the Inuit, they wouldn’t have suffered from the frostbite that was common among them, but rare among the Inuit.

DOG TEAMS Why didn’t the British use dog teams to pull their sleds? Pulling sleds themselves was a tradition among many explorers right into the early 20th century. It cost Scott and his men their lives on their return from the South Pole in 1912.

The British did get something right, however, when Captain Edward Parry grew salad vegetables in boxes on board his ship. It was known that fresh vegetables and fresh meat prevented scurvy (坏血病)，although at that time the reason for this (vitamin C) had not been discovered. Parry’s men wouldn’t have been as healthy if they hadn’t eaten the salads.

1. In The Man Who Ate his Boots’ the author mainly ________.

A．introduces some foolish explorers

B．focuses on some unsuccessful expeditions

C．analyzes the Inuit people’s survival techniques

D．explores the advances in equipment used for expeditions

2. According to Anthony Brandt, what should the explorers have done?

A．They should have learned more about how seals survived in cold water.

B．They should have set up more canvas tents to keep themselves warm.

C．They should have helped the Inuit people build igloos.

D．They should have used dogs to pull the sleds for them.

3. It can be inferred from the passage that________.

A．Edward Parry found a way to prevent scurvy by accident

B．Edward Parry’s successful voyage was a rare case at that time

C．Edward Parry was the first captain that grew salad vegetables on board

D．Edward Parry’s men could have been more healthy if they took vitamin C

7 . Human beings have somehow managed to engineer the night to receive us by filling it with light. This kind of control is no different from the feat ( 壮 举 ) of damming a river. Its benefits come with_________ — called light pollution — whose effects scientists are only now beginning to study. Light pollution is largely the result of bad lighting design. _________ lighting washes out the darkness of night, altering light levels and light rhythms to which many forms of life, including ourselves, have_________. Wherever man-made light spills into the natural world, some aspects of life-migration, reproduction, feeding-is affected.

For most human history, the phrase “light pollution” would have_________. Imagine walking towards London on a moonlit night around 1800, when it was Earth’s most populous city. Nearly a million people lived there, _________ candles, torches and lanterns, as they always had. Only a few houses were lit by gas, and there would be no public gaslights in the streets or squares for another seven years. From a few miles away, you would have been more likely to_________ London than to see its dim collective glow.

We’ve lit up the night as if it were a(n) _________ country. As a matter of fact, among mammals (哺乳动物) alone, the number of species active at night is astonishing. Light is a powerful biological force, and on many species it acts as a magnet attracting them to it. The effect is so powerful that scientists speak of songbirds and seabirds being_________ by searchlights on land or by the light from gas flares on marine oil platforms, circling and circling in the thousands until they drop.

It was once thought that light pollution only affected astronomers, who need to see the night sky in all its glorious clarity. Unlike astronomers, most of us may not need a_________ view of the night sky for our work. __________, like most other creatures, we do need darkness. __________ darkness is pointless. It is as essential to maintaining our biological welfare as__________ itself; the price of modifying our internal clockwork means it doesn’t operate as it should, causing various physical discomforts. So fundamental are the regular rhythms of waking and sleep to our being that__________ them is similar to altering our center of gravity.

In a very real sense, light pollution causes us to__________ our true place in the universe, to forget the scale of our being, which is best__________ against the dimensions of a deep night with the Milky Way — the edge of our galaxy — arching overhead.

1.

A．consequences

B．achievements

C．agreements

D．circumstances

2.

A．Randomly-designed

B．Well-designed

C．Poorly-designed

D．Economically-designed

3.

A．appealed

B．adapted

C．objected

D．amounted

4.

A．come under criticism

B．made no difference

C．come into effect

D．made no sense

5.

A．making do with

B．fed up with

C．identifying with

D．overflowing with

6.

A．visit

B．greet

C．feel

D．smell

7.

A．independent

B．disconnected

C．unoccupied

D．excluded

8.

A．exposed

B．captured

C．dismissed

D．frustrated

9.

A．clear

B．comprehensive

C．traditional

D．critical

10.

A．Subsequently

B．However

C．Therefore

D．Similarly

11.

A．Reviewing

B．Embracing

C．Denying

D．Regulating

12.

A．light

B．rhythm

C．status

D．dawn

13.

A．emerging from

B．withdrawing from

C．messing with

D．coinciding with

14.

A．keep track of

B．lose sight of

C．catch hold of

D．let go of

15.

A．measured

B．neutralized

C．undergone

D．supervised

8 . If people actually embrace the concept of stress, it can make them stronger, smarter and happier, a Stanford expert says.

One reason why how you think about stress matters is that it changes how you _________ stress. Viewing stress as _________ leads people to cope in ways that are less helpful, whether it’ s dragging your feet to avoid stress, or imagining worst- case scenes.

_________, viewing stress more positively seems to encourage people to cope in ways that help them thrive, whether it’s tackling the source of stress, _________ social support or finding meaning in it.

Choosing to see the upside of stress isn’t about _________ the fact that stress can be harmful. It’ s about trying to balance your mindset so that you feel less overwhelmed and _________ about the fact that your life is stressful. Psychologists have found that the ability to embrace stress requires a high _________ for uncertainty. You have to be able to understand that two _________ opposite things can be true at the same time. It can be true that _________ something stressful can make you sick or depressed, and it can also be true that the same stressful experience can ultimately make you stronger, more compassionate and more resilient over time.

Stress is most likely to be harmful when the following conditions are__________: it feels against your will, out of your control and utterly lacking in meaning. If you can __________ any of these conditions — by finding some meaning in it — you can reduce the harmful effects of stress.

Rather than being a sign that something is wrong with your life, feeling stressed can be a( n) __________ of how engaged you are in activities and relationships that are personally meaningful.

One simple mindset reset that can help us face and find the good in the stress in our lives is to view it as a( n) __________to learn and grow. The ability to learn from stress is__________ into the basic biology of the stress response. This is why putting people through practice stress is a key __________ technique for NASA astronauts, emergency responders, elite athletes and others who have to thrive under high levels of stress.

1.

A．contribute to

B．agree to

C．respond to

D．object to

2.

A．beneficial

B．distracting

C．reliable

D．harmful

3.

A．In fact

B．In contrast

C．What’s more

D．After all

4.

A．seeking

B．arousing

C．requiring

D．embracing

5.

A．draining

B．analyzing

C．reversing

D．denying

6.

A．confused

B．unfortunate

C．hopeless

D．serious

7.

A．tolerance

B．demand

C．anxiety

D．preference

8.

A．generally

B．seemingly

C．inevitably

D．significantly

9.

A．putting off

B．coming up with

C．taking care of

D．going through

10.

A．present

B．controversial

C．constant

D．equal

11.

A．mask

B．alter

C．enhance

D．trace

12.

A．code

B．origin

C．monument

D．indicator

13.

A．vacancy

B．substitute

C．opportunity

D．illustration

14.

A．turned

B．built

C．broken

D．divided

15.

A．instrumental

B．conflicting

C．intentional

D．training