1 . It may be the holiday season, but the spirit of peace and good will has not infected the streets of Los Angeles. More drivers seem to be rolling through stop signs and running red lights than ever before. Everyone seems to be in a terrible hurry.
Why is everyone in such a hurry? Where are they rushing to?
I think perhaps the answer lies in answering this question: What does that round of parties and meeting and mad rushing from place to place allow all of us to avoid confronting? T think the answer is clear- ourselves.
There is an experiment where subjects had to choose between being alone with themselves and their thoughts for approximately 15 minutes and receiving electric shocks. The majority chose the shocks-a reflection of how painful, frightening,threatening,confusing,boring(!),you name it... we find being alone with just ourselves and our thoughts.
Our desire not to be with our innermost thoughts is so great that we create and find distractions. In the car, we can make phone calls or listen to music. We live in a world of endless opportunities for distraction.
I understand the desire. Life is hard. Growing is a painfully slow process. To keep moving requires determination and strength - and giving up seems so much easier (as do those electric shocks!) We may win some battles, but the war is never over. Sometimes we are just too tired to fight and just need that music or that book to relax. I just instinctively(本能地）tun on the radio when I get in the car; I don't even give the quiet a moment to sink in.
But it's time for a reality check; otherwise we slip into an avoidance mode. It's challenging. But let's make a change. Instead of rushing from house to car to meeting to groceries to... let's take a moment to stop and think before each activity. What do I want to achieve now? And what is the best way to do that? Maybe I could think of ways to grow.
1. Why does the author mention drivers on the streets of Los Angeles?| A．To describe a strong holiday atmosphere. |
| B．To present a unique social situation in America. |
| C．To raise his question on why people are in a rush. |
| D．To show that it's time to improve road safety in America. |
| A．They found the innermost thoughts great. |
| B．They enjoyed being alone with themselves. |
| C．They refused painful and threatening distractions. |
| D．They wanted to find opportunities for distraction. |
| A．They should be more courageous. |
| B．Their attitude to life was unexpected. |
| C．Their behavior was understandable. |
| D．They should refuse to take part in the experiment |
| A．Fighting distractions. |
| B．Being with ourselves. |
| C．Reviewing our mistakes. |
| D．Rushing from place to place |
2 . I might be letting my young son watch too much television. I am certainly watching too many of his programs. They can really be perplexing as they force you to think carefully about the mysteries of life.
For example, when Franklin (the turtle) wanted a pet, his parents didn’t want it to be a frog. They felt that frogs belong in a pond. Isn’t that where turtles belong?
What does the underlined word “perplexing” in paragraph 1 probably mean?
| A．Boring. | B．Humorous. | C．Confusing. | D．Curious. |
3 . Returning to a book you’ve read many times can feel like drinks with an old friend. There’s a welcome familiarity — but also sometimes a slight suspicion that time has changed you both, and thus the relationship. But books don’t change, people do. And that’s what makes the act of rereading so rich and transformative.
The beauty of rereading lies in the idea that our bond with the work is based on our present mental register. It’s true, the older I get, the more I feel time has wings. But with reading, it’s all about the present. It’s about the now and what one contributes to the now, because reading is a give and take between author and reader. Each has to pull their own weight.
Why does the author like rereading?
| A．It evaluates the writer-reader relationship. |
| B．It’s a window to a whole new world. |
| C．It’s a substitute for drinking with a friend. |
| D．It extends the understanding of oneself. |
4 . Many of us write a list of things we'd like to do before we die—often called a bucket list. Bucket lists have helped some people overcome anxiety which would have stopped them following their dreams. Some of us may choose to write one to fill our life with exciting and new experiences—from skydiving to swimming with sharks—the list is unlimited.
A blogger called Annette White said she made a promise to live her bucket list which continuously pushes the comfort zone to its limits and beyond it. Such a list can be exciting and can indeed help you plan your life and give you focus. When the BBC reporter Helen Fawkes knew she was suffering from incurable ovarian(卵巢的)cancer, she took comfort in drawing up a bucket list——although she called it her “list for living” because these were things for making the most of life. Sadly, she was not able to achieve all of her 50 things before she died at the age of 45.
Creating a bucket list can certainly give us hope, but some people have argued it can be used as a coping strategy to try to control something uncontrollable—death Clinical psychologist Linda Blair told the BBC that she was not really in favor of bucket lists ... “They take you away from the chance to be spontaneous(自发的).” It's probably true that a list can encourage people to follow someone else's idea of the perfect life. And also, following a fixed list of goals makes you less impulsive(冲动的)— your aims and wishes might change as you approach the day when you finally kick the bucket.
But why not at least dream of what we would like to do? Why not reach for the stars, even if we only reach the sky? Whether we want to plan it or just see what happens, we don't know what tomorrow will bring, so maybe we should live for today.
1. What can we know about a bucket list?| A．It encourages people to follow someone else's life. |
| B．It refers to doing something exciting and challenging. |
| C．It includes unlimited choices for us to do before we die. |
| D．It is a strategy to try to control something uncontrollable. |
| A．By analyzing the reasons. |
| B．By giving different examples. |
| C．By conducting a research. |
| D．By asking some questions. |
| A．Ambiguous. | B．Objective. |
| C．Favorable. | D．Disapproving. |
| A．We should live in the moment. |
| B．We can try to reach for the stars. |
| C．We just wait to see what happens. |
| D．We dream of whatever we'd like to do. |
5 . Who is a genius? This question has greatly interested humankind for centuries.
Let’s state clearly: Einstein was a genius. His face is almost the international symbol for genius. But we want to go beyond one man and explore the nature of genius itself. Why is it that some people are so much more intelligent or creative than the rest of us? And who are they?
In the sciences and arts, those praised as geniuses were most often white men, of European origin. Perhaps this is not a surprise. It’s said that history is written by the victors, and those victors set the standards for admission to the genius club. When contributions were made by geniuses outside the club—women, or people of a different color or belief—they were unacknowledged and rejected by others.
A study recently published by Science found that as young as age six, girls are less likely than boys to say that members of their gender(性别)are “really, really smart.” Even worse, the study found that girls act on that belief: Around age six they start to avoid activities said to be for children who are “really, really smart.” Can our planet afford to have any great thinkers become discouraged and give up? It doesn’t take a genius to know the answer: absolutely not.
Here’s the good news. In a wired world with constant global communication, we’re all positioned to see flashes of genius wherever they appear. And the more we look, the more we will see that social factors(因素)like gender, race, and class do not determine the appearance of genius. As a writer says, future geniuses come from those with “intelligence, creativity, perseverance(毅力), and simple good fortune, who are able to change the world.”
1. What does the author think of victors’ standards for joining the genius club?| A．They’re unfair. | B．They’re conservative. |
| C．They’re objective. | D．They’re strict. |
| A．They think themselves smart. |
| B．They look up to great thinkers. |
| C．They see gender differences earlier than boys. |
| D．They are likely to be influenced by social beliefs |
| A．Improved global communication. |
| B．Less discrimination against women. |
| C．Acceptance of victors’ concepts. |
| D．Changes in people’s social positions. |
| A．Geniuses Think Alike | B．Genius Takes Many Forms |
| C．Genius and Intelligence | D．Genius and Luck |
6 . When you first step into a classroom, one of the first things to catch your eye is usually a list of rules. However, there's one rule that you just can't help but question: No electronics. In reality, the classrooms in our school have an aversion to modern technology, so electronic devices（设备）such as computers and cellphones are not allowed, for they are thought to have a bad influence on children's attention at class. However, is it possible that these devices could actually be used to improve our learning experience?
As is known to us, these years we have spent so much time talking about the disadvantages of modern technology that we've failed to see their advantages in a classroom. Many people of the 80's and 90' still remember learning about history by playing the game TheOregonTrail, and many of us 2000's teenagers remember games such as BrainAge that encouraged our cognitive（认知的）development.
It doesn't end with educational games, either. Take Minecraft for example. While a parent may complain（抱怨）that their child spends too much time playing the hit video game, what they probably fail to realize is that their child's brain is being enriched with information allowing creativity and problem-solving. Children who play on public or local computers may also pick up on social skills. For older children, creating computer games can be a great introduction to coding（编码）. Many schools have begun to bring the game into their classrooms.
In the end, it's important that we welcome technological development in our classrooms and see the educational value in having fun. School no longer must mean sitting down for hours in front of a pictureless textbook. Instead, school can be a place where children are able to see learning as a lifelong experience.
1. What does the underlined part "have an aversion to" in Paragraph 1 mean?| A．Change. | B．Dislike. |
| C．Expect. | D．Overuse. |
| A．parents know little about computer games |
| B．children can create better computer games |
| C．children can learn from computer games |
| D．parents only welcome educational games |
| A．He is against them. |
| B．He is in favor of them. |
| C．He is uninterested in them. |
| D．He is uncertain about them. |
