1 . I have quite a bit of experience with Toastmasters, an organization aiming to help people overcome speech anxiety. I joined many years ago with the hope of improving my public speaking. After one of my speeches, the comments I received were harsh. Constructive or not, the critique was hard to take. I felt my feelings were hurt.
I learned many things from my time with Toastmasters, and one was the value of good feedback. Welcoming the critique of others is hard for adults, even when it’s well-intentioned. So naturally, we can expect that children will also struggle with it. But the feedback our children receive from teachers and parents is important to their growth and development. So as parents, we must learn how to deliver our feedback effectively, and we’ll need to train our children on how to accept it with openness and wisdom.
The way parents deliver their feedback is as important as the specific words used. It’s possible to have good intentions, but when feedback is poorly given, it can be harmful and not helpful.
It’s important to create a welcoming, safe environment in the home for intaking and processing feedback. Especially between a child and parent, the feedback needs to be healthy, constructive and regular.
The words used are also important. In a New York Times article written by Dr. Adam Grant, an organizational psychologist at the Wharton School, he shares that it is “22 to 29 percent more effective” to encourage children with nouns than verbs, but when it comes to giving negative feedback, it’s generally better to use verbs.
A parent’s feedback provides the scaffolding (脚手架) for how a child will manage their inner monologue. Consider, as an example, a discussion you may have with your child about their goals. Your feedback can encourage them not just to focus on where they are now but to reflect on how far they’ve come. This kind of feedback can spur them on to reach the finish line.
1. Why does the author mention his experience with Toastmasters?| A．To tell us what is good feedback. | B．To tell us to join Toastmasters. |
| C．To show the main function of feedback. | D．To show the necessity of proper feedback. |
① You’re a big helper. ② You’re a poor math learner.
③ You’ve been helpful this afternoon. ④ You didn’t do well on this math test.
| A．①② | B．①④ | C．②③ | D．③④ |
| A．Limit. | B．Monitor. | C．Persuade. | D．Inspire. |
| A．The way to respond to feedback | B．The value of accepting feedback |
| C．How to give effective feedback | D．How to become a better speaker |
2 . For many of us, asking for help is a difficult concept. We may feel as if we are admitting a weakness that world would not have known about, had we not asked for help.
However, people who are able to deliver well-positioned requests for help are often seen as very strong individuals. When they demonstrate the humility (谦卑) to ask for help, they earn the respect of others. People who receive a heartfelt request for help are usually honored by the request. In turn, we are strengthened by the very help that is provided.
One of my clients named Kira recently made a shift in how she was interacting with her boss. When asked to prepare presentations, she assumed that she was expected to develop the content, deliver it at the required meeting and then wait for feedback from her boss. However, Kira recognized that she had not yet made use of her boss’s support. She could learn far more about creating attractive presentations by walking through a draft with her boss and obtaining feedback earlier in the process rather than at the back end. So she made the request for his support.
The outcome? Her boss was delighted to coach Kira and was enthusiastic about teaching presentation skills to her. By taking the time to work together on presentation for a number of Kira’s key presentations, she benefited from her boss’s thought process and thus improved her own presentations. Kira’s presentations now have punch!
Some of us are uncomfortable asking for help because we believe that our request places burdens on the other person. However, we may miss an opportunity to show others how we value and respect them. People who know you and think well of you are often highly motivated to help. Furthermore, the more specific you can be about what you need from them, the easier it is for them to assist you.
1. Which of the following may the author agree with?| A．Weak people often need more help. |
| B．Helping others is helping oneself. |
| C．Well-positioned requests for help are welcomed. |
| D．Asking for help means admitting weaknesses. |
| A．It turned out rewarding. | B．It led to her promotion. |
| C．It was turned down. | D．It benefited her boss in return. |
| A．Her presentations are forceful. | B．Her presentations are controversial. |
| C．Her presentations are positive. | D．Her presentations are motivating. |
| A．To illustrate how to ask for help. | B．To call for attention to others’ requests. |
| C．To show the importance of mutual help. | D．To encourage people to ask for help. |
3 . After eight years of construction, the Padma Multipurpose Bridge in Bangladesh opened to the public on June 26, reducing travel time from parts of the southwest of the country to the capital Dhaka from seven to eight hours to as little as just 10 minutes.
The 21.5-meter-wide, 6.15-kilometer-long bridge built over the Padma River, the main branch of the Ganges, has two levels with the upper tier having a four-lane highway and the lower tier a single-track railway, according to Wuhan-based China Railway Major Bridge Engineering Group, or MBEC, one of China’s biggest bridge makers. Before that, travelers and goods were transported via boat or ship because of the vast width and fast-flowing nature of the river, and the tendency of the area to flood.
In 2014, the Bangladeshi government awarded MBEC a $1.54-billion contract to build the core structure of the bridge, making it the country’s largest infrastructure(基础建设) project as well as the largest foreign bridge project undertaken by Chinese companies in terms of total cost.
“The construction was much harder than expected as the complex geological conditions brought multiple challenges to us,” said Shen Tao, deputy general manager of the project. “The bridge is located above a river with banks on loose soil, and downpours in the rainy season often caused flooding, bringing us numerous difficulties we had never experienced before.” “During the construction, we had to adjust the design plan to adapt to environmental changes whenever necessary,” he added.
“However, through continuous learning and adaptation, construction teams have greatly improved their abilities including technology, communication and adaptability.” said Wen Wusong, chairman of MBEC. “They demonstrated the strength of China’s road bridge construction to the whole world and the bridge is a model of international cooperation.”
Over the past eight years, the project has created over 50,000 jobs for local residents, according to MBEC.
1. What do we know about the bridge?| A．It is over the Ganges. |
| B．It is across the Padma River. |
| C．The upper tier has a single-track railway. |
| D．The lower tier has a four-lane highway. |
| A．Costs of building the bridge. |
| B．Features of the newly-built bridge. |
| C．Benefits the bridge can bring about. |
| D．Difficulties in constructing the bridge. |
| A．Measured | B．Adapted. | C．Showed. | D．Preserved. |
| A．China-made bridge opens in Bangladesh |
| B．Eight years of China’s constructing a bridge in Bangladesh |
| C．Constructing a bridge creates over 50,000 jobs in Bangladesh |
| D．Bangladeshi government awards MBEC $1.54-billion contract |
4 . Samsung Electronics America announced that Galaxy device owners can make their own repairs to the Galaxy S20 and S21 family of products, as well as the Galaxy Tab S7+, starting August 2nd.
Samsung is cooperating with iFixit, the leading online repair community, to deliver their Self-Repair program. This program adds to Samsung’s continued expansions for convenient repair for consumers and helps them with sustainable solutions to support a more circular economy by extending the life of their devices, as well as minimizing e-waste.
Samsung consumers who wish to make their own repairs can now purchase real device parts and convenient, easy-to-use repair tools, available through iFixit, Samsung retail (零售) and service locations, at the same pricing offered to our repair providers. In addition, Galaxy device owners will have full access to online repair guides that provide both visual and written step-by-step instructions, and best of all, at no cost.
“Making replacement parts available is a key sustainability strategy. We’re excited to be working directly with Samsung and their customers to extend the lifetime of their phones,” said CEO of iFixit.
Starting today, Galaxy device owners can replace the phone screen, back glass, and charging ports. In the future, Samsung plans to expand self-repair to include more devices and repair options from our extensive product portfolio (档案).
Furthermore, the program makes it easy for consumers to return their thrown-away parts for responsible recycling, as the new display kits will come with a return label to ship thrown-away parts back to Samsung — at no cost to the consumer.
In addition to the convenience of these new self-repair options, Galaxy smartphone owners have a choice on how they can extend the life of their devices across Samsung’s expansive care options, including: Through Samsung’s perfect care network, customers have access to over 11,000 Samsung Mobile certified repair technicians in the U.S.
1. Who will do the repair work under the Self-Repair program?| A．The iFixit community. | B．The Galaxy consumers. |
| C．Samsung Repair staff. | D．The devices themselves. |
| A．To promote a circular economy. | B．To make full use of the old parts. |
| C．To enrich the life of the phone users. | D．To ensure better service by iFixit. |
| A．The Samsung device parts. | B．New Samsung products. |
| C．The written repair instructions. | D．The easy-to-use repair tools. |
| A．A New Invention | B．A New Technology |
| C．A Successful Cooperation | D．An Initiative practice |
5 . Are you patient? Do you have attention to detail, free time and access to a computer? Well, then a scientist might welcome your help. Researchers in the UK say it’s becoming important to count on common people to help them with their projects. They need people to examine data and submit their observations online.
British teenagers Sasha and Matthew are taking part in a study of penguins (企鹅) from the comfort of their homes. The pair look at pictures and tag (加标签于) photos identifying adults, chicks and eggs. Every click of their mouse is helping to build up a detailed picture of penguin colonies (群). They, and thousands of others, are helping scientists to understand why some colonies are growing and others are decreasing. Within the first four hours of Penguin Watch going live, “citizen scientists” marked more images than the research team did in five years.
Dr. Tom Hart, Penguin Watch Coordinator at Oxford University, says, “When you go beyond what a scientist can analyse to what a mass audience can do, then it increases beyond what any other project could do.”
The British Science Association says families are helping out with careful research. It made a difference to the Planet Hunters Project, which ran for five years. Volunteers looked at dots which showed how the brightness of a star changed at different points in its solar system.
According to Dr. Robert Simpson from Oxford University, who took part in the project, the volunteers discovered planets and these are now in published papers. He says with pride, “We can go and look at these planets with other telescopes and we know they exist because of those helpers.”
But how do scientists guard their research against accidental or deliberate mistakes in observation? Dr. Simpson isn’t worried. “We get lots of people looking at the same things, ”he says. The researcher warns that people who are mistakenly clicking on the site are very obvious and can be identified very quickly. So, there’s no fooling the scientists.
And to make sure things go well, the Penguin Watch paper will go through a peer review before being published. After that, every “citizen scientist” will be credited.
1. According to the passage, who will be suitable to help the scientists?| A．An engineer who works in a company. |
| B．A university student who likes science. |
| C．A businessman who invests in a new project. |
| D．A careful teenager who uses the computer smoothly. |
| A．Publish his observation data by himself. |
| B．Observe pictures and record his observation. |
| C．Discuss his observation with other volunteers. |
| D．Take his report to the scientist and correct mistakes. |
| A．By working with volunteers. | B．By using their own data. |
| C．By identifying pictures and photos. | D．By going through a peer review. |
| A．Objective | B．Supportive. | C．Negative. | D．Doubtful. |
6 . How to Speak Confidently in Public?
Giving a speech to public is an art.
The speaker must be self-confident. Look confident, even if you don’t feel it. When speaking without confidence, people unknowingly overly increase or decrease their voice volume (音量) or move their body parts.
Another important thing to keep in mind while speaking to the public should be the class of the audience to whom one has to address. Don’t memorize your speech or practice it word for word. For example, while addressing a group of businessmen, stress can be laid on economic activities and profits which will naturally appeal to them.
Speaking to the public may seem challenging at first.
| A．Yet practice makes perfect. |
| B．Stay focused on what you are saying. |
| C．It is also a fun and rewarding experience. |
| D．The clearness of the message matters most. |
| E．Like any other one, it takes time, patience and talents to master it. |
| F．This can be very noticeable to the audience and leave a bad impression. |
| G．Briefly, one has to address proper class and target their attention with proper language. |
The World Winter Sports (Beijing) Expo 2021
He believes the expo also offers an opportunity for the Italian ice and snow sports industry to promote
8 . The success of any group will largely depend upon the ability of the members to get along.
“Active listening” refers to making an effort to listen to—and understand—someone who is speaking to us.
One of the most important things: putting down your phone and avoiding other distractions.
| A．Give the other person your full attention. |
| B．One way of active listening is giving feedback. |
| C．There is a difference between hearing and listening. |
| D．It makes sense that there are so many misunderstandings. |
| E．That actually will not happen without good communication. |
| F．Listening is the mental act of translating that sound into thoughts. |
| G．As a result, they might tell us more than they’d originally planned. |
9 . By day, Robert Titterton is a lawyer. In his spare time though he goes on stage beside pianist Maria Raspopova — not as a musician but as her page turner. “I’m not a trained musician, but I’ve learnt to read music so I can help Maria in her performance.”
Mr Titterton is chairman of the Omega Ensemble but has been the group’s official page turner for the past four years. His job is to sit beside the pianist and turn the pages of the score so the musician doesn’t have to break the flow of sound by doing it themselves. He said he became just as nervous as those playing instruments on stage.
“A lot of skills are needed for the job. You have to make sure you don’t turn two pages at once and make sure you find the repeats in the music when you have to go back to the right spot.” Mr Titterton explained.
Being a page turner requires plenty of practice. Some pieces of music can go for 40 minutes and require up to 50 page turns, including back turns for repeat passages. Silent onstage communication is key, and each pianist has their own style of “nodding” to indicate a page turn which they need to practise with their page turner.
But like all performances, there are moments when things go wrong. “I was turning the page to get ready for the next page, but the draft wind from the turn caused the spare pages to fall off the stand,” Mr Titterton said, “Luckily I was able to catch them and put them back.”
Most page turners are piano students or up-and-coming concert pianists, although Ms Raspopova has once asked her husband to help her out on stage.
“My husband is the worst page turner,” she laughed. “He’s interested in the music, feeling every note, and I have to say: ‘Turn, turn!’ Robert is the best page turner I’ve had in my entire life.”
1. What should Titterton be able to do to be a page turner?| A．Read music. | B．Play the piano. |
| C．Sing songs. | D．Fix the instruments. |
| A．Boring. | B．Well-paid. |
| C．Demanding. | D．Dangerous. |
| A．Counting the pages. | B．Recognizing the “nodding”. |
| C．Catching falling objects. | D．Performing in his own style. |
| A．He has very poor eyesight. | B．He ignores the audience. |
| C．He has no interest in music. | D．He forgets to do his job. |
10 . Listening has been critical to the career of Richard Mullender, who was a British police officer for 30 years. Eventually he became a hostage negotiator, dealing with everything from crisis interventions to international kidnaps. When he left the force in 2007, he realised that his skills might be applicable in the business world. So he set up a firm called the Listening Institute.
Many people think that good listening is about nodding your head or keeping eye contact. But that is not really listening, Mr Mullender argues. A good listener is always looking for facts, emotions and indications of the speaker's values. And when it comes to a negotiation, people are looking for an outcome. The aim of listening is to find out what the other side is trying to achieve.
The mistake many people make is to ask too many questions, rather than letting the other person talk. The listener's focus should be on analysis. If you are trying to persuade someone to do something, you need to know what their beliefs are. If someone is upset, you need to assess their emotional state. Of course, a listener needs to speak occasionally. One approach is to make an assessment of what the other person is telling you and then check it with them. That gives the other party a sense that they are being understood. The fundamental aim is to build up a relationship so the other person likes you and trusts you, Mr Mullender says.
The pandemic has meant that most business conversations now take place on the phone or online. Some might think this makes listening more difficult; it is harder to pick up the cues that people reveal in their facial expressions and body language. But Mr Mullender says that too much is made of body language. It is much easier to understand someone if you can hear them but not see them, than if you can see but not hear them.
1. What do we know about Mr. Mullender in paragraph 1?| A．He protected kids internationally. |
| B．He helped prevent potential dangers. |
| C．He ensured security of the British police. |
| D．He founded a company before leaving the army. |
| A．To look for facts and emotions. | B．To show approval by nodding head. |
| C．To indicate the speaker's values. | D．To find out what the speaker wants. |
| A．Comment occasionally. |
| B．Speak as little as possible. |
| C．Be in the speaker's shoes. |
| D．Judge the speaker's content. |
| A．expressions | B．clues | C．differences | D．secrets |
