1 . Recently, my college degree has just been completed. The last project was called “Smile”. The class was asked to go out to smile at three people and write down their reactions. I am a very friendly person and always smile at everyone and say hello anyway. So, I thought this would be a piece of cake.
My husband, the youngest son and I went out to McDonald. We were standing in line when all of a sudden everyone around us began to back away. As I turned around, an unpleasant body smell came to my nose and two poor homeless men stood just behind me. As I looked at the short blue-eyed gentleman closest to me, he was “smiling”. The second man fumbled (摸索) with his hands as he stood behind his friend.
The young lady at the counter asked him what they wanted. He said, “Coffee is all, Miss.” because that was all they could afford.
Then I really felt it-I embraced (拥抱) the little man with the blue eyes. That is when I noticed all eyes in the restaurant were set on me, judging my every action. I smiled and asked two more breakfast meals and gave them to the men.
The blue-eyed gentleman looked up at me, with tears in his eyes, and said, “Thank you.” I turned in my project. My teacher said, “Can I share this?” I slowly nodded as she got the attention of the class. She began to read and that is when I knew that we as human beings share this need to make people happy and to be made happy.
In my own way I had touched the people at McDonald’s and every soul that heard the story in the classroom. But I graduated with one of the biggest lessons I would ever learn.
1. The underlined part “a piece of cake” in Paragraph 1 means ______.| A．comfortable | B．embarrassing | C．moving | D．easy |
| A．Because they were very polite to the two men. |
| B．Because the two men smelt terrible. |
| C．Because they were moved by the two men. |
| D．Because the two men seemed unfriendly. |
| A．A friend in need is a friend indeed. |
| B．Nothing is difficult to a willing heart. |
| C．Helping others can bring pleasure to many people. |
| D．Don’t judge people according to their appearance. |
2 . It was our last class before summer break. I was finishing up the first year of an MFA program in poetry. I was tired and puzzled. "Was I good enough to be in the program?" When a professor asked about our summer plans, I panicked. I didn't want to appear idle(闲散的). "Gardening," I responded immediately. Actually I knew nothing about plants! My professor nodded, saying, "What a good idea, Mari! Emily Dickinson loved gardening." Emily Dickinson had lived in the countryside, studying plants as a child. I was in my late twenties, living in the city without gardening experience.
A few days later, I bought a jalapeño seedling(青辣椒秧苗). At least I could say I'd tried gardening. I watered and changed the dirt for my little plant. I even talked to it. And over the summer, it grew bigger and bigger. I was proud. Maybe I didn't have a black thumb after all.
I started the second year of my MFA, and then it was almost December and my jalapeño was suffering. It was brown in some places; many of its leaves had fallen off. Would my little guy make it? I prayed, "Please be okay." As if its survival were closely linked to mine.
I worked hard in school. Spring came. My jalapeño plant came back to life. It grew bigger, with new leaves. And then it flowered. I handed in my graduate paper--a book of poems--in May. "Your poems are strong," my professor said.
A huge weight lifted. I'd done it! At that time, I found the flowers on my jalapeño plant were gone. I watched closer. Where a flower had been, a tiny green fruit pushed through. I smiled. I had succeeded in my MFA program, and my jalapeño plant had grown right beside me, and I successfully did things I hadn't thought possible.
1. Why did the author begin gardening?| A．Just by accident. |
| B．For the love for gardening. |
| C．To express fancy for Emily Dickinson. |
| D．Because of the reminding of a professor. |
| A．In her childhood. | B．In one of her summer breaks. |
| C．In her teens. | D．In her first year of MFA program. |
| A．A talent to grow plants. | B．A dirty finger to touch plants. |
| C．A good fortune to do everything. | D．An inability to do gardening. |
| A．Nothing is impossible to a willing mind. |
| B．Easier said than done. |
| C．It's never too old to learn. |
| D．Do not teach fish to swim. |
3 . When we think about people who are leaders, we often get a mental picture of someone who is older, smarter, and wiser than ourselves. Studies of leadership, though, have usually found that there is almost no relationship between skill as a leader and traditional measures of intelligence.
Some recent research by psychologist Red Fiedle and his colleagues suggests that both intelligence and experience may be important—but just now how important depends upon how stressful the work situation is and what kind of task is to be accomplished. The researchers obtained measures of intelligence, experience, performance, and stress.
Overall, these variables did not relate to one another. Men with high and low intelligence were equally likely to give good performance, as were men with more and less experience, or more and less stress with their bosses. When you look separately at those men who have high stress with their bosses, however, the picture changes.
In high stress situations, there was no connection between intelligence and performance, but there was between experience and performance. In other words, in difficult situations, it was helpful to “know the ropes”. In low stress situations, the findings were just the opposite. Experience was not related to good performance, but intelligence was. That is, when things are going well, intelligence is very useful in leadership.
A study of fire fighters’ performance under high and low stress conditions also found the experienced officers performed best under situations of stress. None of this is really very surprising. If you have ever had a supervisory job, you probably found that at least as much energy went into dealing with people as went into managing the job itself. Tests of intelligence—at least the ones we have now—do not predict success in dealing with people.
1. What kind of people can do the best job in stress situation?| A．intelligent people | B．experienced people |
| C．calm people | D．skilled people |
| A．to understand the situation | B．to control the situation |
| C．to get rid of the situation | D．to make sure what to do about the situation |
| A．a management job | B．an advisory job |
| C．a teaching job | D．an organizing job |
| A．In stress situations, there are no association between experience and performance. |
| B．Some recent research suggests that most leaders are lack of intelligence. |
| C．In low stress situations, intelligence plays an important role in leadership. |
| D．Generally speaking leaders are likely to be cleverer than ordinary people. |
4 . I was drowned(淹没) in work. I was convinced that it was because my job was demanding, but as I changed my job and eventually became self-employed and I could call my own shots, I was still drowned in work and things were still out of control. Now I come to realize that I have a tendency to drown myself in work and the problem is not the job I’m in.
One of the reasons why work-life balance is hard is that we attribute (把……归咎于) the problem to our environment when we ourselves are the problem actually. I enjoy making my clients happy. “Dushka, your work is unbelievable.” “Dushka, we would not have survived without you.” This is my instinctive (本能的) desire. I, a good girl, should make someone I love proud. What can get in the way of work-life balance is that approval often matters more than the balance I claim I want.
I am ambitious and want to do great things and as soon as a project is done I’m hungry for the next one. I want hard work. I want to push myself and test myself. I want to learn. Sometimes work-life balance is hard because there is a difference between what I say I want and what I really want.
My life is constantly changing. If a friend visits me from out of town I want to work less, if I happen to be particularly inspired I want to work more, and if a family member needs me I don’t want to have to worry about work at all. Work-life balance is hard because my definition of it is a moving target. It means different things to me depending on different situations.
What is work-life balance, anyway? Does it mean I get to go home every day when the clock strikes 5:00 pm? Does it mean that I work hard for a few weeks and then take a long weekend off? Do I want daily balance, or do I want things to balance out over the course of a few weeks, even months?
On one side, work-life balance doesn’t mean that the only way to do something well is to do it yourself. Your ego (自我) gets in the way of your being free. On the other side, work-life balance can be hard if you are worried that someone else can do your job better than yourself. Then you live in a constant state of suspicion (怀疑) and never allow yourself to step away. Your fear is calling the shots, not your ambitions.
Work-life balance can be hard if you are more worried about looking good than doing good work. If you want to make sure everyone sees you are the first one to come and the last one to leave, what others think of you has more weight than your desire of getting home in time for dinner.
My boss assures me that employees come first and that people are the most important, yet I don’t see him telling me it’s time to go home because I worked really late the night before.
Wait a minute. Why should my work-life balance be the company’s problem, in particular when I’ve already identified that my needs are ever-changing? How can I expect someone else to stay on top of that? The only person responsible for that is me.
1. What does the underlined part in Paragraph 1 mean?| A．Demand less from myself. | B．Pay more attention to work. |
| C．Complete more excellent jobs. | D．Control a situation by myself. |
| A．she is afraid to lose her job | B．she always desires to be approved |
| C．she wants to gain work-life balance | D．she could make a profit in that way |
| A．Her ego gets in the way of her success. |
| B．She is always satisfied with the current situation. |
| C．The achievement of work-life balance is easy for her. |
| D．She doesn’t have an exact definition of work-life balance. |
| A．Work-life balance relies on our own selves. | B．It’s no use working hard for our boss. |
| C．Profits are more important than employees. | D．Some leaders don’t mean what they say. |
5 . A nine-year-old child will become the youngest ever person to complete a university degree.
This December, Laurent Simons will gain his electrical engineering bachelor's degree (学士学位) from Eindhoven University of Technology, a challenging course even for 18-year-olds. It has taken Laurent only 9 months to complete what should be a four-year course. Laurent's teacher said, “He is three times smarter than the best student I have met in my long working experiences. He achieves what many adult students never reach.” The young gifted child finished easily the entire primary school courses in only 12 months and then took just 18 months to complete his secondary school studies. Laurent comes from a family of doctors, and his parents cannot offer any explanation as to why their son is so academically gifted. Every time he can pass every test effortlessly with flying colors.
While Laurent is clearly able to learn faster than most, his parents are being careful to let him enjoy himself too. His father said, “We don't want him to get too serious. He does whatever he likes. We need to find a balance between being a child and his talents.” Laurent enjoyed playing with his dog Sammy and playing on his phone, like many young people.
1. How many months did Laurent spend completing his courses in primary and secondary schools?| A．18. | B．12. | C．30. | D．9. |
| A．A little nervously. | B．Very hurriedly. | C．Very successfully. | D．A little satisfactorily. |
| A．Laurent always wants to get too serious in his study. |
| B．Laurent hardly balances between being a child and his talents. |
| C．Laurent's parents are careful to let him express himself. |
| D．Laurent's parents pay great attention to his growth as a child. |
6 . A young man applied for a job as a farmhand. When the farmer asked for his qualifications(资历), he said, “I can sleep when the wind blows.” This puzzled the farmer. But he liked the young man, and hired him.
A few days later, the farmer and his wife were awakened in the night by a violent storm. They quickly began to check things to see if all was safe from damage. They found that the doors of the farmhouse had been safely fastened, and a lot of wood had been set next to the fireplace.
The young man slept soundly.
The farmer and his wife then looked at their property (财产) carefully. They found that the farm tools had been placed in the storage room, safe from the bad weather. The tractor had been moved into the garage. The barn was properly locked. Even the animals were calm. All was well.
The farmer then understood the meaning of the young man’s words, “ I can sleep when the wind blows.”
The farmhand did his work loyally. When the sky was clear, he had prepared for the storm in case it broke. So when the wind blew, there was no need for him to be afraid. He could sleep in peace.
1. The underlined word “fastened” in Para. 2 can be replaced by ______.| A．closed | B．damaged |
| C．taken | D．moved |
| A．at first the farmer understood his words well |
| B．the young man was awakened in the night by a violent storm |
| C．the young man had prepared for the storm before it came |
| D．the young man was too sleepy to wake up in the night |
| A．Sleeping in peace through the storm | B．A violent storm |
| C．A young man and his dream | D．A clever farmer |
| A．Lookers-on see more than players |
| B．A stitch（针）in time saves nine |
| C．Two heads are better than one |
| D．No man can do two things at a time |
7 . I remember the day when I first learned to ride a bike. It was a frightening, yet fun experience. My granddad was the one who taught me and he helped me when I got hurt. The first time I got on a bike, I had no idea what I was doing, and just about everything went wrong. My granddad told me to just put my feet on the pedals and start pedaling (骑自行车). He also told me he would hold onto the back of the bike the whole time, yet he didn’t.
As soon as I started trying to balance myself, he let go. I happened to look back just then. I was scared, to death that I was going to fall and hurt myself. When I was scared, my mind went blank from pedaling, and I just wanted off. I forgot how to use the brakes (车闸) and fell right off the bike. My granddad kept encouraging me to get up and try again, and after about 15 minutes, 1 finally stopped crying, got up and tried again.
As soon as I started pedaling again, my pants got caught in the chain, and I fell flat on my face and hit my nose. Since that happened t my granddad decided to call it a day and try again the next morning. The next morning I woke up bright and early, and was very eager to try to ride my bike. My nose felt better, so I wasn’t that afraid of falling anymore.
Though I knew there were a lot of difficulties on the way to mastering the skills in riding a bike, I believed I could do well with my granddad’s help. After all, riding a bike was what I wanted to do eagerly.
1. How was the author when he was on the bike first?| A．He didn’t know where he would be going. |
| B．He thought balancing himself was easy. |
| C．He was nervous and didn’t know what to do next. |
| D．He put his feet on the pedals and started pedaling. |
| A．Remember what happened this day. |
| B．Make the author feel happy. |
| C．Stop practicing bicycling. |
| D．Go on to ride a bike. |
| A．Supportive. | B．Grateful. |
| C．Indifferent. | D．Negative. |
| A．The Experience of My First Riding a Bike |
| B．The Difficulty I Met with My Granddad |
| C．The First Time I Got My Own Bike |
| D．The Great Moment When I Stayed with My Granddad |
