1 . This week my client asked me whether I will be working between Christmas and the New Year. I did not know. I had been charging full speed ahead and had not thought about it. I am grateful to my client for motivating me to look up from my computer and take a moment to reflect on 2020 ending and 2021 approaching.

The end of December is a time when people share their reflections on how the last year has gone, and set resolutions in the hope that they will do better in the New Year. However, considering the uncertainty of carrying out resolutions, I invite you to consider the idea of setting intentions now.

Take a moment to reflect on how resolutions work for you.

The Cambridge dictionary defines resolutions as ‘a promise to yourself to do or to not do something’. The first thing that comes to mind when I read this is: what happens when we break the promise to ourselves?

This is typically how it goes for me: Throughout January I am going strong with those resolutions. Then comes mid-February, the novelty (新鲜劲) of the resolutions fades, with the increased demands of life. At last, those resolutions start to take a backseat. This brings a frustration or disappointment at “not succeeding” and a gradual abandonment of the resolutions as though they were never really important. By the next New Year, I would have forgotten what my resolutions were in the first place.

If setting New Year resolutions works for you, then go tor it.

Setting intentions

What if we try setting intentions instead?

Intentions are based on what our values are, i.e., what is important to us in different areas of our life such as our physical health, mental health, career, hobbies and relationships with family, friends, partners and education. They have a broader focus on the present moment and on how we act now. They give us a direction and determination that empower us to achieve goals and meanwhile live a meaningful life in the present.

1. Why did the author mention his conversation with the client?

A．To summarize the whole text.

B．To introduce the topic he'll discuss.

C．To show what a busy life he lived.

D．To inform the New Year is coming.

2. What can we learn about the author's resolution?

A．He didn't make it.

B．He forgets it on purpose.

C．He likes to make it big.

D．He often fails to realize it.

3. Which can be seen as an example of setting intentions?

A．David determines to pass TOEFL next year.

B．Cathy hopes to be cheerful at the party today.

C．Tom aims to have his own car after graduation.

D．Elizabeth promises to lose weight in one year.

4. What does the underlined word “empower” in the last paragraph mean?

A．Enable.

B．Force.

C．Persuade

D．Order

5. What could be the best title for the passage?

A．Reflecting On the Past, a Good Habit?

B．Setting New Year Resolutions, Difficult?

C．Carrying Out Resolutions, a Piece of Cake?

D．Setting New Year Resolutions or Living with Intentions Now?

2 . We once had a poster competition in our fifth grade art class.
“You could win prizes,” our teacher told us as she wrote the poster information on the blackboard. She passed out sheets of construction paper while continuing, “The first prize is ten dollars. You just have to make sure that the words on the blackboard appear somewhere on your poster.”
We studied the board critically. Some of us looked with one eye and held up certain colors against the blackboard, rocking the sheets to the right or left while we conjured up our designs. Others twisted their hair around their fingers or chewed their erasers while deep in thought. We had plans for that ten-dollar grand prize, each and every one of us. I’m going to spend mine on candies, one hopeful would announce, while another practiced looking serious, wise and rich.
Everyone in the class made a poster. Some of us used parts of those fancy paper napkins, while others used nothing but colored construction paper. Some of us used big designs, and some of us preferred to gather our art tidily down in one corner of our poster and let the space draw the viewer’s attention to it. Some of us would wander past the good students’ desks and then return to our own projects with a growing sense of hopelessness. It was yet another grown-up trick of the sort they seemed especially fond of, making all of us believe we had a fair chance, and then always—always—rewarding the same old winners.
I believe I drew a sailboat, but I can’t say that with any certainty. I made it. I admired it. I determined it to be the very best of all of the posters I had seen，and then I turned it in.
Minutes passed.
No one came along to give me the grand prize, and then someone distracted me, and I probably never would have thought about that poster again.
I was still sitting at my desk, thinking, What poster? when the teacher gave me an envelope with a ten-dollar bill in it and everyone in the class applauded for me.
1. What was the teacher’s requirement for the poster?

A．It must appear in time.

B．It must be done in class.

C．It must be done on a construction sheet.

D．It must include the words on the blackboard.

2. The underlined phrase in Paragraph 3 most probably means ________.

A．formed an idea for

B．made an outline for

C．made some space for

D．chose some colors for

3. After the teacher’s words, all the students in the class________.

A．looked very serious

B．thought they would be rich

C．began to think about their designs

D．began to play games

4. After seeing the good students’ designs, some students________.

A．loved their own designs more

B．thought they had a fair chance

C．put their own designs in a corner

D．thought they would not win the prize

5. We can infer from the passage that the author________.

A．enjoyed grown up tricks very much

B．loved poster competitions very much

C．felt surprised to win the competition

D．became wise and rich after the competition