1 . 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?

2 . Personality may play only a small part in leadership effectiveness, but there is no doubt that some leaders have a certain magic that leaves peers envious and followers entranced. If you could bottle this leadership X-factor—charisma—the queue of interested executives would be a long-one. But what qualities can these often highly successful leaders be said to possess?

As individuals, charismatic leaders have highly developed communication skills, including the ability to convey emotions easily and naturally to others, says Ronald Riggio, professor of leadership and organizational psychology. “They are able to inspire and arouse the emotions of followers through their emotional expressiveness and verbal skills.”

“They connect with followers because they seem to truly understand others’ feelings and concerns.”

“And they are great role models because they have the ability to engage others socially and display appropriate role-playing skills that allow them to walk the talk” Professor Riggio says.

“One quality we like in our leaders is if they are seen to really represent us. We think someone is more charismatic, the more they represent our collective identity,” Professor Van Knippenberg says. In this way, a charismatic leader is somehow a larger-than-life version of ourselves.

Academics say that charismatic leaders also manage to stand out from the crowd. They might do this by being unconventional or by taking a different approach to problem-solving, for example.

“They are up for new things, and they are not stuck in the status quo. They are open to out-of-the-box thinking, etc. An optimistic, energetic quality helps us to see leadership qualities in them and makes us open to their influence,” he says.

“A lot of charismatic leadership, and leadership in general, is very contextual. It’s really good in entrepreneurial firms. It’s also good for turnarounds if the organization is in a bad state because it inspires”, says Kai Peters, the chief executive of Ashridge Business School.

But not every organization needs a charismatic leader. Leaders loaded with the X-factor can be narcissistic (自恋的), self-glorifying, exploitative and authoritarian. As Peters says: “Where it is a problem is where you have ‘look at me, I’m a star.’’’

1. Which word is closest in meaning to “charisma” in the first paragraph?

A．Charm.

B．Character.

C．Gratitude.

D．Optimism.

2. The charismatic leaders become great role models due to their ______.

A．proper role-playing skills	B．subtle emotional expressiveness
C．marvellous problem-solving ability	D．unconventionality in the crowds

3. According to Professor Knippenberg, what kind of leaders would be welcomed by us?

A．The one who has a heroical image.

B．The one who can speak for us.

C．The one who is a collective version of us.

D．The one who resembles us in characteristic.

4. What is Peters’ attitude towards the contextual feature of charismatic leadership?

A．Critical.

B．Approved.

C．Neutral.

D．Suspicious.

3 . Page, my younger brother by four years, has been brain­damaged from birth. He does not speak, cannot hear and see poorly through his remaining eye. He stays home, staring at the television happily. But it wasn’t always this way.

On a lot summer morning, Mum had penciled “VISIT GRANDMA” for Page in large letters on a napkin before we left for the nursing home. No one expected to understand that this might be our last visit.

We arrived there and stepped into her room. The strokes had left grandma trembling and unresponsive. Her mouth hung open, and her wide eyes shut and opened quickly and stared but appeared not to see.

We stood round the bed, smiling uncomfortably, and saying that everything would be all right. For the first time, I was free to talk all I wanted.     1     “We love you, grandma,” I said finally, wondering if I was reaching her.

Page was standing quietly next to the window with his face brilliant red, tears following from his eyes. Just then, he pushed through the group and made his way to the bed. He leaned over Grandma’s withered body and took her cheeks gently in his hands.     2    

Those of us with healthy ears were deaf to the volumes being spoken in that wonderful, wordless exchange.

    3     How wrong I had been about Page. Far better than the rest of us, he knew the true meaning of our visit. He knew it perfectly because he grasped it not with his head but with his heart. He had the freedom, courage and honesty to reach out in pain to grandma. This was love.

We kissed Grandma, and slowly walked out of the room one by one. I was the last to leave. “Bye, Grandma,” I said. As I turned to look at her one last time, I noticed her lips come together, as if she was trying to speak. Somehow, if for a moment, she gathered the strength to say goodbye.    4    

        That afternoon by Grandma’s deathbed, when none of us knew what to say, my speechless brother had said it all.

A．Head bowed, he stood there, his cheeks wet with tears.

B．That is when I knew Page had reached her.

C．I tried to express my love to her.

D．I felt a rush of warmth deep inside me.

E．Nobody thought he would appeared and burst out crying.

F．But I could think of nothing to say to her.

4 . Directions: Complete the following passage by using the words in the box. Each word can only be used once. Note that there is one word more than you need.

A.encouraged	B. excuse	C. featured	D. favor	E. approaches	F. defended
G. access	H. serve	I. regional	J. celebrated	K. lengths

When Coca-Cola was first sold in 1886, nobody thought it could be improved. Nearly a century later, in 1985, New Coke was introduced to replace the original recipe of Coke in order to rebrand the product amidst falling sales——Coke was losing customers to Pepsi, whose sweeter taste was finding     1    . Unfortunately, the Coca-Cola Company saw a significant drop in sales soon after the release of New Coke. Some customers just preferred the “classic” recipe. The old adage(格言), “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it,” seems to apply here.

Something similar is happening with A Bite of China, a     2     food documentary focusing on the stories, traditions and culture surrounding interesting regional dishes from around China. The first two seasons of the show saw great success. However, when the third season began last month, the reviewers were not so “sweet”. With an entirely new production team, Season Three steers away from(偏离) the show’s core focus on     3     dishes and towards intimate life stories, non-food-related subject matter and even product placement(植入广告).

In the first episode of Season Two, a teenager in the countryside collects honey high up in a tree. The scene is stunningly filmed, telling a moving story about the dangerous     4     to which people go to gather food for their families. In the third season, however, the focus is taken almost completely away from the food. In one of its most infamous episodes, DIY lipstick using questionable ingredients bought online is     5    . Viewer response has been swift and severe, with several commentators wondering whether it is still suitable to call the show a food documentary. The production crew have     6     the changes, claiming that the innovation is meant to keep the show fresh and interesting to an expanding audience. While this may     7     in part, to explain the show’s creative differences from previous seasons, it doesn’t     8     the show’s declining professionalism, which has led to some silly mistakes such as mixing up ingredients or confusing the correct names of regional dishes.

Innovation is generally     9     in industries big and small, but a winning formula that has popular     10     is not necessarily something that requires changes. Innovation is a tool often best used when a new direction is called for. By trying to reinvent the wheel, one might just end up with a flat tire. It’s time that A Bite of China took a page out of Coca-Cola’s playbook and returned to the classic recipe, where success has never tasted so sweet.

5 . STREET PHOTOGRAPHY

Even if you are not familiar with the work of Elliott Erwitt, you may perhaps have seen some of his iconic work from around the globe. He has had one of the longest careers of any living photographers, spanning over 50 years.

What I most appreciate about Elliott Erwitt is his wry (冷嘲式的) sense of humour when looking at the world - as well as his straightforward philosophies about photography. In this article, I share some of his thoughts and advice.

DONT’T PLAN TOO MUCH - WANDER AROUND

I think that as a street photographer, sometimes I fall into trap of planning too much. I generally try to focus my attention on projects (having a pre-conceived project in mind when shooting in the streets) but I often find it also takes away from the shooting experience. One of the best things about street photography is to be a flaneur — someone who wanders around without specific destination in mind.

ERWITY: I don’t start out with any specific interests, I just react to what I see.

Takeaway point: Let your curiosity lead you. Just go out and shoot whatever you find interesting. Go down rads that may seem a bit foreign, and you might be lucky enough to stumble upon great street photography shots.

FOCUS ON CONTENT OVER FORM

Great photos are a combination of content (what is happening in the frame) as well as form (composition). But what is more important? Content or form?

ERWITT: My wish for the future of photograph is that it might continue to have some relevance to the human condition and might represent work that evokes knowledge and emotions. That photograph has content rather than just form. And I hope that there will be enough produced to balance out the visual garbage that we see in our current life.

Takeaway point: We often find fascinating characters in the street and take photos of them, but the compositions may not be so good. On the other hand, we might take well-composed photos of a street scene, but there is nothing going on in the photo-it is boring and without soul.

I agree with Erwitt that we should, as street photographers, put more emphasis on content over form. I feel that photos that evoke emotions and the human condition are far more powerful and meaningful than just photos with good composition.

DEVELOP YOUR SKILLS OF OBSERVATION

Erwitt was inspired to go out and take pictures when he saw a photograph by master photographer Henri Cartier Bresson. He realized it was an act of observation which made the photo great and that he could do something similar.

ERWITT: The picture seemed evocative and emotional. Also, a simple observation was all that it took to produce it. I thought, if one could make a living out of doing such pictures that would be desirable.

Takeaway point: One of the most beautiful things about street photography is that it doesn’t rely on having an expensive camera or exotic lenses. Rather, it comes down to having an observant and curious eye for people and the world around you. Therefore cultivate your vision and way of seeing the world. I recommend that you always carry a camera with you, because you never know when the best street photo opportunities will present themselves to you.

A fun exercise: Pretend that you are an alien from another planet and you have come to the planet Earth for the first time. Imagine how strange human beings would seem - and the urban environment they have built for themselves. As an alien, what would you find fascinating, amusing or ridiculous?

Always keep that mindset to be amazed by what you see around you.

1. Why shouldn’t street photographs plan much?

A．Planning is too time-consuming.

B．Things always turn out better than planned.

C．Planning much makes others less curious about their work.

D．Wandering around without planning may result in excellent shots.

2. What do you think Elliott Erwitt means by visual garbage ?

A．Photos that one can see in the trash bin.

B．Photos that value form over content.

C．Photos that emphasize content over form.

D．Photos that combine content with form.

3. What does the writer mean when he talks about keeping an alien attitude?

A．Aliens have better skills in photography.

B．Aliens have different outlooks on beautiful thing in life.

C．Photographers should be curious and observant.

D．Photographers should be emotional and imaginative.

6 . Criticism is judgment. A critic is a judge. A judge must study and think about the material presented to him, accept it, correct it or reject it after thinking over what he has read, watched or heard.

Another word for criticism is appreciation. When I criticize or appreciate some object or another, I look for its good points and bad points. In reading any printed or written matter, I always have a pencil in hand and put any comments in the book or on a separate paper. In other words, I always talk back to the writer.

That sort of critical reading might well be called creative reading because I am thinking along with the author, asking him questions, seeing whether he answers the questions and how well he answers them. I mark the good passages to store them in my memory and ask myself about every other part and about the complete piece of writing; where, how and why could or should I improve upon it?

You might think that doing what I suggested is work. Yes, it is, but the work is a pleasure because I can feel my brain expanding, my emotion reacting and my way of living change.

Reading exercises is a great influence on a person. If pictures, still or moving, accompany the reading, the memory will retain the material for a long time.

Just as evil books can corrupt, so also can good books gradually work a change on a corrupt person.

Let's get back to the beneficial effects of thinking while reading. It helps us to enlarge our minds. We understand more about the universe, its people and many of its wonders. We learn to think and observe in new ways. We certainly do get a feeling for the language we are reading. All good writers in any language have been readers who read critically and continuously.

1. According to the writer, creative reading is ________.

A．raising questions and answering them for the author

B．reading and giving comments on the materials one has read

C．thinking in the same line with the author

D．storing up facts in one's memory

2. The writer says a critic ________.

A．asks what he does not understand

B．talks back to the author

C．understand the background on which the works are based

D．looks for the good and bad points of the material he has read

3. By the phrase “thinking along with” in the third paragraph, the writer means________.

A．following one's thought closely	B．accepting
C．considering	D．agreeing

4. We can learn from the passage that all good readers ________.

A．understand more about their surrounding than others.

B．have a thorough insight to the problem in life.

C．have the feeling of the language they read.

D．have read extensively(广泛地) and critically

7 . Directions: After reading the passage below, fill in the blanks to make the passage coherent and grammatically correct. For the blanks with a given word, fill in each blank with the proper form of the given word; for the other blanks, use one word that best fits each blank.

The trick that makes you overspend

When you buy a cup of coffee, you might have noticed that of the three size choices — small, medium and large — the medium-sized serving often costs almost as much as the large.     1     (get) a good buy, have you ever chosen the biggest and most expensive? If so, you have been tricked by the “decoy effect”, in which the deliberate presentation of an additional, slightly     2     (attractive) choice-in this case, the relatively expensive medium-sized coffee pushes you to pay out more money than you would have sensibly chosen.

The decoy effect shows us just     3     easily our judgement is influenced by the context     4     the facts are presented with additional irrelevant information.

However,     5     you have learned about the decoy effect, you may become less influenced unconsciously. You may even discover ways to put it to your own use     6     a tool for persuasion. If you     7     (discuss) travel plans with friends, for instance, and haven't decided yet where to go, you might present two choices (可供选择的安排) at your city, but one with a slightly more expensive hotel.     8     your friends might have otherwise selected a different location, the comparison might just lead them to choose the one you like.

Just don’t be a victim of decoy effect yourself. whether you are buying headphones or deciding on a retirement plan, ask     9     whether you are buying the one you really need or whether you are distracted by a seemingly attractive selling point. Like an expert sniper (狙击手) trained to avoid being targeted, you     10     find that your judgement suddenly becomes a lot more sensible.

8 . Directions: Fill in each blank with a proper word chosen from the box. Each word can only be used once. Note that there is one word more than you need.

A. defining          B. internationally       C previously        D serving       E driving F historically          G digest             H. dining       I. compared       J. beat       K. cooking

The presence of Cantonese restaurants in the U.S. —due largely to historical reasons — has made weekend dim sum with a pot of tea a gastronomic (美食的)highlight for Chinese communities overseas. In mainland China, however, its Sichuan food that has largely defined     1     out in major cities, which has become arguably the most popular regional cuisine in the country.

The importance of Sichuan food has also been recognized    2    . In 2011, its capita] city Chengdu became the first city in Asia — and second in the world — to receive a UNESCO City of Gastronomy designation.

Of the regional cuisine restaurants registered on Meituan, eateries     3     Sichuan food made up the largest proportion in 2019. It     4     out all other Chinese regional cuisines as well as popular international food choices, according to China F&B Big Data 2020.

According to Meituan’s database, Sichuan cuisine made up the highest percentage of eateries in 2017 and 2018 as well, growing from 4.4% in 2017 to 4.8% in 2018. Meituan also reported that young Chinese millennials born in the 1990s are the     5     force behind this trend, accounting for around 51.4% of all eating out.

Located in southwestern China, Sichuan has     6     been seen as a “land of plenty” due to its climate and topography (地形地貌).Fertile soil and a wetter climate have impacted the robustness of its agriculture, and in turn it’s    7    .

Two of the     8     characteristics of Sichuan food are its two most famous types of spiciness — “aromatic (香的)”and “numbing (麻的) ” . Some diners perceive Sichuan spiciness,     9     to other cuisines known for their hotness in China, as mellower. Therefore, it is easier to    10     for those who did not grow up with a spicy food culture.

9 . Directions: Complete the following passage by using the words in the box. Each word can only be used once. Note that there is one word more than you need.

A. disorder              B. influencing              C. escalates               D. reset                    E. satisfaction F. fruitless              G. refreshed              H. coincidence              I. functions              J. powerful K. recommended

The best thing you can do for your health: sleep well

Do you think you got enough sleep this past week? Can you remember the last time you woke up without an alarm clock, feeling     1    , not needing caffeine? If the answer to any of these questions is “no,” you are not alone. Two-thirds of adults throughout all developed nations fail to obtain the     2     eight hours of nightly sleep.

Insufficient sleep is now one of the most significant lifestyle factors     3     whether or not you will develop Alzheimer’s disease. During sleep, a remarkable sewage system in the brain, called the glymphatic system,     4     at its peak. As you enter deep sleep, this sanitization system clears the brain of a sticky, poisonous protein linked to Alzheimer’s, known as beta amyloid(淀粉样蛋白). Without sufficient sleep, you fail to get that power clean. With each passing night of insufficient sleep, that Alzheimer’s disease risk     5    , like compounding interest on a loan.

Perhaps you have also noticed a desire to eat more when you’re tired? This is no     6    . Too little sleep swells concentrations of a hormone that makes you feel hungry while checking a companion hormone that otherwise signals food     7    . Full as you are, you will still want to eat more. It’s a recipe linked to weight gain in sleep-deficient adults and children alike.

Worse, should you try to diet but don’t get enough sleep while doing so, it is     8    , since up to 70% of the weight you lose will come from lean body mass, not fat. Turn these facts around and you realize that plentiful sleep is a     9     tool for controlling your appetite, your weight and keeping your body in shape.

Put simply: sleep – a consistent seven- to nine-hour opportunity each night – is the single most effective thing we can do to     10     our brain and body health each day, and the reason why I strongly suggest and respect sleep scientifically and personally.

10 . The bus stopped—at the National Academy of Sciences—and 40 teenagers came into the academy’s great hall. They were the 40 finalists of the 47^th annual Westinghouse Science Talent Search, symbols of America’s hopes of scientific leadership in the coming century. When the talent search ended last week, 10 of the high-school seniors were declared winners of scholarships. “    1    ” declared Richard Plass, chairman of biology and earth science at New York’s Stuyvesant High School.

What accounts for this early skill for knowledge? Is it heredity (遗传) or is it hard work?     2     These kids, without expectation, work hard. But why do they strive? The answer to this question usually has plenty to do with parents and teachers. Nearly every Westinghouse winner has been lucky enough to have either an inspiring father or mother or an inspiring teacher. Most had both.     3     “Everything I have,” the great inventor later stated, “I owe it to my mother.”

Of the nearly 1,900 finalists since the competition’s start, 7 of every 10 who are old enough have earned a Ph.D. or an M.D., five finalists received Nobel Prizes. Two got the Fields Medal, Math’s equivalent of the Nobel. The record stretches back to 1942, when Science Service, an educational organization, began running the contest and Westinghouse started putting up the money. Their roles haven’t changed, but much else has. “These kids get better each year,” says Nobel Prize winner Glenn Seaborg, who has interviewed and judged every finalist since 1963,     4     “We get to see the top people, the motivated students that the system can’t block off. There’s no turning those kids off.”

A．The winners answer by repeating a famous line from Thomas Edison: “Genius is 1 per cent inspiration and 99 per cent perspiration.”

B．What some of these kids are doing in labs rivals the work that won Nobel Prizes not many years ago.

C．During the last six years, 33 of 60 scholarship winners have been the children of foreigners.

D．As did Thomas Edison, whose mother quit teaching so she could teach only him.

E．But that does not mean that American schools are getting better.

F．Westinghouse’s talent search, certainly in this decade, is a compliment as much to immigration.