1 . Among rich countries, people in the United States work the longest hours. They work much longer than in Europe. This difference is quite surprising because productivity per hour worked is the same in the United States as it is in France, Spain and Germany, and it is growing at a similar speed.
In most countries and at most times in history, as people have become richer they have chosen to work less. In other words they have decided to “spend” a part of their extra income on a fuller personal life. Over the last fifty years Europeans have continued this pattern, and hours of work have fallen sharply. But not in the United States. We do not fully know why this is. One reason may be greatly lower taxes in America, which increase the rewards to work. Another may be more satisfying work, or less satisfying personal lives.
Longer hours do of course increase the GDP (国内生产总值). So the United States has produced more per worker than, say, France. The United States also has more of its people at work, while in France many more mothers and older workers have decided to stay at home. The overall result is that American GDP per head is 40% higher than in France, even though productivity per hour worked is the same.
It is not clear which of the two situations is better. As we have seen, work has to be compared with other values like family life, which often get lost in interest. It is too early to explain the different trends（趋势）in happiness over time in different countries. But it is a disappointing idea that in the United States happiness has made no progress since 1975, while it has risen in Europe. Could this have anything to do with trends in the work-life balance?
1. From the text we know that the author___________.| A．believes that longer working hours is better |
| B．prefers shorter working hours to longer ones |
| C．says nothing certain about which pattern is better |
| D．thinks neither of the patterns is good |
| A．Spain. | B．France. | C．Germany. | D．America. |
| A．family life | B．situations | C．other values | D．trends |
| A．The GDP of Europe is higher than that of America. |
| B．Two possible reasons are given for working longer hours in the US. |
| C．People all over the world choose to work less when they are richer. |
| D．Americans are happier than Europeans. |
| A．Americans and Europeans | B．Staying at Home |
| C．Work and Productivity | D．Work and Happiness |
Every September l6 the Mexican people hold a celebration in Mexico City, their country’s capital. It is their Independence Day. On that date in 1821 they told Spain they would no longer be ruled. Breaking free from Spain caused a war. When it was over, the Mexicans had their own government. They made their own laws.
Today America and Mexico are friends, but it wasn’t always that way. President James Polk wanted America to reach from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean. He tried to buy what is now the American southwest from Mexico. Mexico would not sell. So from l846 to 1848 Mexico and America fought a war to ascertain where their borders would be. When the war ended, Mexico had lost a lot of land. Now the Rio Grande River forms the border between the two nations. America is on the north side of the river. Mexico is on the south side.
Mexico has mountains and a hot, dry climate. Crops can grow on only a small part of the land. Still, Mexicans grow much of the coffee, oranges, and sugar used in the US. Mexicans have influenced building styles in southwestern US and added words such as patio and canton to American English. Americans also enjoy eating many Mexican foods like burritos, tacos, tortillas, and tamales.
1. According to the passage, what happened second on historical timeline?
| A．Mexicans declared their independence from Spain. |
| B．The Spanish ruled Mexico. |
| C．The Aztecs lived in Mexico. |
| D．Americans fought a war with Mexico. |
| A．the US to expand its borders to the Pacific Ocean |
| B．Mexico to change its Independence Day to July 4th |
| C．Mexico to become one of the states of the Union |
| D．Americans to adopt the Mexican language |
| A．inspect | B．cover |
| C．change | D．determine |
| A．building styles | B．vocabulary |
| C．clothes | D．food |
| A．didn’t speak Spanish |
| B．couldn’t read or write any language |
| C．didn’t have tools |
| D．didn’t understand the concept of time |
During this time, all my knowledge of him was limited to occasional meetings about the house，when he would sometimes pass me coldly, and sometimes bow and smile. His changes of manner did not offend me, because I saw that I had nothing to do with the cause of them.
One evening, several days later, I was invited to talk to Mr. Rochester after dinner. He was sitting in his armchair, and looked not quite so severe, and much less gloomy. There was a smile on his lips, and his eyes were bright，probably with wine. As I was looking at him, he suddenly turned, and asked me, “Do you think I am handsome，Miss Eyre? ”
The answer somehow slipped from my tongue before I realized it: “No, sir.” “Ah，you really are unusual! You are a quiet, serious little person, but you can be almost rude.” “Sir，I'm sorry. I should have said that beauty doesn't matter, or something like that,” “No, you shouldn't! I see，you criticize my appearance, and then you stab (刺) me in the back! You have honesty and feeling. There are not many girls like you. But perhaps I go too fast. Perhaps you have awful faults to counterbalance (抵消) your few good points.”
I thought to myself that he might have too. He seemed to read my mind, and said quickly, “Yes，you're right. I have plenty of faults. I went the wrong way when I was twenty-one, and have never found the right path again. I might have been very different. I might have been as good as you, and perhaps wiser. I am not a bad man, take my word for it, but I have done wrong. It wasn't my character, but circumstances which were to blame. Why do I tell you all this? Because you're the sort of person people tell their problems and secrets to, because you're sympathetic and give them hope.”
It seemed he had quite a lot to talk to me. He didn't seem to like to finish the talk quickly, as was the case for the first time.
“Don't be afraid of me, Miss. Eyre,” he continued. “You don't relax or laugh very much, perhaps because of the effect Lowood school has had on you. But in time you will be more natural with me, and laugh, and speak freely. You're like a bird in a cage. When you get out of the cage, you'll fly very high. Good night.”
1. At the beginning Miss Eyre's impressions of Mr. Rochester were all except_____.
| A．busy | B．sociable | C．dull | D．changeable |
| A．Only by meeting him around the house sometimes did I know a little about him. |
| B．Only by coming to the house could I know about him. |
| C．I occasionally met him but my knowledge about him was poor. |
| D．What I knew about him was limited in the house. |
| A．tell her all his troubles | B．tell her his life experience |
| C．blame her for misunderstanding him | D．change his circumstances |
| A．rude | B．cold | C．polite | D．encouraging |
| A．Miss Eyre was at Lowood School before she came to Mr. Rochester’s house. |
| B．Miss Eyre didn’t see Mr. Rochester often. |
| C．Miss Eyre was honest, brave and confident. |
| D．Miss Eyre was brave, polite and warm-hearted. |
4 . Kincaid looked at his watch: eight-seventeen. The truck started on the second try, and he backed out, shifted gears, and moved slowly down the alley under hazy sun. Through the streets of Bellingham he went, heading south on Washington 11, running along the coast of Puget Sound for a few miles, then following the highway as it swung east a little before meeting U.S Route 20.
Turning into the sun, he began the long, winding drive through the Cascades. He liked this country and felt unpressed stopping now and then to make notes about interesting possibilities for future expeditions or to shoot what he called “memory snapshots.” The purpose of these causal photographs was to remind him of places he might want to visit again and approach more seriously. In later afternoon he turned north at Spokane, picking up U.S. Route 2, which would take him halfway across the northern United States to Duluth, Minnesota.
He wished for the thousandth time in his life that he had a dog, a golden retriever, maybe ,for travels like this and to keep him company at home. But he was frequently away; overseas much of the time and it would not be fair to the animal. Still, he thought about it anyway. In a few years he would be getting too old for the hard fieldwork. “I must get a dog then.” He said to himself.
Drives like this always put him into a sentimental mood. The dog was part of it. Robert Kincaid was alone as it’s possible to be—an only child, parents both dead, distant relatives who had lost track of him and he of them, no close friends.
He thought about Marian. She had left him nine years ago after five years of marriage. He was fifty-two now, that would make her just under forty. Marian had dreams of becoming a musician, a folksinger. She knew all of the Weavers’ songs and sang them pretty well in the coffeehouse of Seattle. When he was home in the old days, he drove her to the shows and sat in the audience while she sang.
His long absences—two or three months sometimes—were hard on the marriage. He knew that. She was aware of what he did when they decided to get married, and both of them had a vague sense that it could all be handled somehow. It couldn’t when he came from photographing a story in Iceland and she was gone. The note read, “Robert, it didn’t work out. I left you the Harmony guitar. Stay in touch.”
He didn’t stay in touch. Neither did she. He signed the divorce papers when they arrived a year later and caught a plane for Australia the next day. She had asked for nothing except her freedom.
1. Which route is the right one taken by Kincaid?| A．Bellingham—Washington 11—Puget Sound—U.S Route 20—U.S Route 2—Duluth |
| B．U.S. Route 2—Bellingham—Washington 11—Puget Sound—U.S Route 20—Duluth |
| C．U.S. Route 2—U.S Route 20—Duluth –Bellingham—Washington 11 |
| D．Bellingham—Washington 11—U.S. Route 2—U.S Route 20—Duluth |
| A．Kincaid’s parents were dead and he only kept in touch with some distant relatives. |
| B．Kincaid would have had a dog if he hadn’t been away from home too much. |
| C．Kincaid used to have a golden retriever. |
| D．Kincaid needed a dog in doing his hard fieldwork. |
| A．To write “memory snapshots” |
| B．To remind himself of places he might want to visit again. |
| C．To avoid forgetting the way back. |
| D．To shoot beautiful scenery along the road. |
| A．She died after five years of marriage. |
| B．She was older than Kincaid. |
| C．She could sing very well and earned big money. |
| D．She was not a professional pop singer. |
| A．Marian knew what would happen before she married Kincaid. |
| B．Kincaid thought his absence would be a problem when he married Marian. |
| C．It turned out that Marian could not stand Kincaid’s absence and left him. |
| D．After Marian left him, they still kept in touch with each other. |
Many roads and places in Singapore（新加坡）are named in order that the pioneers will be remembered by future generations. Thus we have names such as Stamford Road and Raffles Place. This is in keeping with traditions in many countries ---- in both the West and the East.
Another way of naming places is naming them after other places. Perhaps they were named to promote friendships between the two places or it could be that the people who used to live there were originally from the places that the roads were named after. The mystery is clearer when we see some of the roads named in former British bases. If you step into Selector Airbase you will see Piccadilly Circus ---- obviously named by some homesick Royal Air Force personnel.
Some places were named after the activities that used to go on at those places. Bras Basah Road is an interesting example, “Base Basah” means “wet rice” in Malay（马来语）. Now why would anyone want to name a road “Wet Rice Road”? The reason is simple. During the pioneering days, wet rice was laid out to dry along this road.
A few roads in Singapore are named by their shapes. There is “Circular Road” for one. Other roads may have part of their names to describe their shapes, like “Paya Lebar Crescent”. This road is called a crescent（月牙） because it begins on the main road, makes a crescent and comes back to join the main road again.
1. We learn from Paragraph 1 that _____.| A．the government is usually the first to name a place |
| B．many places tend to have more than one name |
| C．a ceremony will be held when a place is named |
| D．people prefer the place names given by the government |
| A．Change suddenly. | B．Change significantly. |
| C．Disappear mysteriously. | D．Disappear very slowly. |
| A．Raffles Place. | B．Selector Airbase. |
| C．Piccadilly Circus. | D．Paya Lebar Crescent. |
| A．after a person | B．after a place | C．after an activity | D．by its shape |
| A．Some place names in Singapore are the same as in Britain. |
| B．Some places in Singapore are named for military purposes. |
| C．The way Singaporeans name their places is unique. |
| D．Young Singaporeans have forgotten the pioneers. |
Next time a customer comes to your office, offer him a cup of coffee. And when you’re doing your holiday shopping online, make sure you’re holding a large glass of iced tea. The physical sensation(感觉) of warmth encourages emotional warmth, while a cold drink in hand prevents you from making unwise decisions—those are the practical lesson being drawn from recent research by psychologist John A. Bargh.
Psychologists have known that one person’s perception(感知) of another’s “warmth” is a powerful determiner in social relationships. Judging someone to be either “warm” or “cold” is a primary consideration, even trumping evidence that a “cold” person may be more capable. Much of this is rooted in very early childhood experiences, Bargh argues, when babies’ conceptual sense of the world around them is shaped by physical sensations, particularly warmth and coldness. Classic studies by Harry Harlow, published in 1958, showed monkeys preferred to stay close to a cloth “mother” rather than one made of wire, even when the wire “mother” carried a food bottle. Harlow’s work and later studies have led psychologists to stress the need for warm physical contact from caregivers to help young children grow into healthy adults with normal social skills.
Feelings of “warmth” and “coldness” in social judgments appear to be universal. Although no worldwide study has been done, Bargh says that describing people as “warm” or “cold” is common to many cultures, and studies have found those perceptions influence judgment in dozens of countries.
To test the relationship between physical and psychological warmth, Bargh conducted an experiment which involved 41 college students. A research assistant who was unaware of the study’s hypotheses(假设), handed the students either a hot cup of coffee, or a cold drink, to hold while the researcher filled out a short information form: The drink was then handed back. After that, the students were asked to rate the personality of “Person A” based on a particular description. Those who had briefly held the warm drink regarded Person A as warmer than those who had held the iced drink.
“We are grounded in our physical experiences even when we think abstractly,” says Bargh.
1. According to Paragraph 1, a person’s emotion may be affected by ______.
| A．the visitors to his office | B．the psychology lessons he has |
| C．his physical feeling of coldness | D．the things he has bought online |
| A．adults should develop social skills | B．babies need warm physical contact |
| C．caregivers should be healthy adults | D．monkeys have social relationships |
| A．evaluate someone’s personality | B．write down their hypotheses |
| C．fill out a personal information form | D．hold coffee and cold drink alternatively |
| A．abstract thinking does not come from physical experiences |
| B．feelings of warmth and coldness are studied worldwide |
| C．physical temperature affects how we see others |
| D．capable persons are often cold to others |
| A．Drinking for Better Social Relationships. |
| B．Experiments of Personality Evaluation. |
| C．Developing Better Drinking Habits. |
| D．Physical Sensations and Emotions. |
