1 . You often find somebody who works around you complaining all the time, don’t you?     1     About 70% of Americans say being around non-stop complainers sometimes has a bad influence on them. Luckily, here are 4 tips to help form positive patterns.

1. Self-awareness

When a negative thought pops into your mind, immediately correct it. Instead of telling yourself “That’s a nice shirt, but I can’t afford it,” change the message to “That will look great with my black pants when I can afford it.”     2     Of course, everyone complains sometimes. But the less frequently you complain, the better you will feel.

2. Distance yourself

    3     Excuse yourself and go somewhere quiet, somewhere outdoors in the fresh air. Think of something pleasant before returning. You have to take this seriously because negative people can and will pull you into the quicksand (难以摆脱的困境).

3. Don’t try to change complainers

If you find yourself trapped in a group of complainers in a meeting or at a social event, simply choose silence. Let their words bounce off you while you think of something else. Attempting to stop the complaining can make you a target.     4     If someone says, “I hate Mondays, weekends are too short,” try to think, “I’m glad I rested up over the weekend, so I’m ready to make some improvement on that big project.”

4.     5    

When someone is shouting at you angrily, throw the responsibility back at them by asking, “So what do you intend to do about it?” In most cases, complainers don’t really want a solution. They just want to speak them out. If you make them aware that they themselves have to find the solutions, they will leave you alone and find someone else to complain to. If so, you will be happy.

A．Find solutions

B．Change responsibility

C．You have got a lot of company.

D．By doing this, it will lead to positive behaviors.

E．But you can redirect the discussion in your own mind.

F．Whenever possible, escape from negative conversations.

G．You will never know what they are going to talk about.

2 . Tayka Hotel De Sal

Where: Tahua, Bolivia

How much: About $95 a night

Why it’s cool: You’ve stayed at hotels made of brick or wood, but salt? That’s something few can claim. Tayka Hotel de Sal is made totally of salt—including the beds (though you’ll sleep on regular mattresses (床垫) and blankets).The hotel sits on the Salar de Uyuni, a prehistoric dried-up lake that’s the world’s biggest salt flat. Builders use the salt from the 4,633-square-mile flat to make the bricks, and glue them together with a paste of wet salt that hardens when it dries. When rain starts to dissolve the hotel, the owners just mix up more salt paste to strengthen the bricks.

Green Magic Nature Resort

Where: Vythiri, India

How much: About $240 a night

Why it’s cool: Riding a pulley(滑轮)-operated lift 86 feet to your treetop room is just the start of your adventure. As you look out of your open window—there is no glass!—you watch monkeys and birds in the rain forest canopy. Later you might test your fear of heights by crossing the handmade rope bridge to the main part of the hotel, or just sit on your bamboo bed and read. You don’t even have to come down for breakfast—the hotel will send it up on the pulley-drawn “elevator”.

Dog Bark Park Inn B&B

Where: Cottonwood, Idaho

How much: $92 a night

Why it’s cool: This doghouse isn’t just for the family pet. Sweet Willy is a 30-foot-tall dog with guest rooms in his belly. Climb the wooden stairs beside his hind leg to enter the door in his side. You can relax in the main bedroom, go up a few steps of the loft in Willy’s head, or hang out inside his nose. Although you have a full private bathroom in your quarters, there is also a toilet in the 12-foot-tall fire hydrant outside.

Gamirasu Cave Hotel

Where: Ayvali, Turkey

How much: Between $130 and $475 a night.

Why it’s cool: This is caveman cool! Experience what it was like 5,000 years ago, when people lived in these mountain caves formed by volcanic ash. But your stay will be much more modern. Bathrooms and electricity provide what you expect from a modern hotel, and the white volcanic ash, called tufa, keeps the rooms cool, about 65℉in summer.(Don’t worry—there is heat in winter.)

1. What is the similarity of the four hotels?

A．Being expensive.	B．Being beautiful.
C．Being natural.	D．Being unique.

2. What does the underlined part “Sweet Willy” refer to?

A．The building of Dog Bark Park Inn B&B.

B．The name of a pet dog of the hotel owner.

C．The name of the hotel.

D．The name of the hotel owner.

3. Which of the hotel makes you have a feeling of living in the far past?

A．Tayka Hotel De Sal

B．Green Magic Nature Resort

C．Dog Bark Park Inn B&B

D．Gamirasu Cave Hotel

3 . 请认真阅读下面短文，从短文后各题所给的A、B、C、D四个选项中，选出最佳选项，并在答题卡上将该项涂黑。
It was in my high school science class. I was doing a task in front of the classroom with my favorite shirt on.
A ____ came, “Nice shirt,” I smiled from ear to ear. Then another voice said, “That shirt belonged to my dad. Greg’s mother works for my family. We were going to ____ that shirt away, but gave it to her ____” I was speechless. I wanted to hide.
I ____ the shirt in the back of the closet and told my mum what had happened. She then dialed her ____, “I will no longer work for your family,” she told him. That night, Mom told my dad that she couldn’t clean anymore; she knew her life’s ____ was something greater.
The next morning she ____ with the personnel manager at the Board of Education. He told her that without a proper education she could not teach. So Mom decided to _________.
After the first year in college, she went back to the personnel manager. He said, “You are ____, aren’t you? I think I have a ____ for you as a teacher’s assistant. This opportunity deals with children who are mentally challenged with little or no chance of ____” Mom accepted the opportunity very ____
For almost five years, as a teacher’s assistant, she saw teacher after teacher give up on the children and quit, feeling ____ Then one day, the personnel manager and the principal _____________________________________ the children and how they communicate with you and admire your hard-working ____ over the last five years. We are all in agreement that you ____ be the teacher of this class.”
My mom spent more than 20 years there. ____ her career, she was voted Teacher of the Year. All of this came about because of the ____ comment made in the classroom that day. Mom showed me how to handle ____ situations and never give up.1.

A．noise

B．voice

C．sound

D．tune

2.

A．get

B．take

C．carry

D．throw

3.

A．otherwise

B．anyhow

C．instead

D．actually

4.

A．settled

B．pushed

C．stored

D．stuck

5.

A．teacher

B．employer

C．director

D．adviser

6.

A．purpose

B．encouragement

C．achievement

D．victory

7.

A．went

B．met

C．worked

D．stayed

8.

A．visit

B．continue

C．attend

D．prepare

9.

A．serious

B．fortunate

C．careful

D．responsible

10.

A．career

B．duty

C．position

D．part

11.

A．learning

B．judging

C．obeying

D．imagining

12.

A．patiently

B．eagerly

C．successfully

D．skillfully

13.

A．upset

B．frightened

C．guilty

D．ashamed

14.

A．looked up            B went up

B．took up

C．showed up

15.

A．believe

B．protect

C．treat

D．receive

16.

A．spirit

B．intention

C．action

D．attempt

17.

A．must

B．would

C．might

D．should

18.

A．At

B．During

C．On

D．With

19.

A．worthless

B．thoughtless

C．hopeless

D．helpless

20.

A．challenging

B．different

C．dangerous

D．strange

4 . Our house was directly across the street from the clinic entrance of John Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore. We lived downstairs and rented the upstairs rooms to the patients at the clinic.
One evening as I was fixing supper, there was a knock at the door. I opened it to see a truly awful-looking man. He’s hardly taller than my eight-year-old son. “Good evening. I’ve come to see if you’ve a room. I came for a treatment this morning from the eastern shore, and there’s no bus till morning.” He told me he’d been hunting for a room since noon but with no success. “I guess it’s my face…I know it looks terrible, but my doctor says with a few more treatments…” For a moment I hesitated, but his next words convinced me: “I could sleep in this chair on the porch. My bus leaves early in the morning.”
I told him we would find him a bed. When I had finished the dishes, I talked with him. He told me he fished for a living to support his five children, and his wife, who was hopelessly crippled (残疾的) from a back injury. He didn’t tell it by way of complaint. Next morning, just before he left, as if asking a great favor, he said, “Could I come back and stay the next time?” He added, “Your children made me feel at home.”
On his next trip he arrived a little after seven in the morning. As a gift, he brought a big fish and the largest oysters (牡蛎) I had ever seen. I knew his bus left at 4:00 a.m. and I wondered what time he had to get up in order to do this for us.
In the years he came to stay overnight with us and there was never a time that he did not bring us vegetables from his garden. I know our family always will be grateful to have known him; from him we learned how to accept the bad without complaint when facing the misfortune.
1. Why did the author agree to let the man spend the night in his house at last?

A．Because the man said others refused to accommodate him.

B．Because the man said he would not cause much inconvenience.

C．Because the man said he had come from the eastern shore.

D．Because the man said he had been hunting for a room since noon.

2. How long would it take the man to travel from his home to Baltimore by bus?

A．About 1 hour.	B．About 2 hours.
C．About 3 hours.	D．About 4 hours.

3. From the text we can know that __________.

A．the author’s children were kind and friendly to the man

B．the man was fed up with his hard-work and his family

C．John Hopkins Hospital provided rooms for the patients to live in

D．the author and his family were thought highly of by his neighbors

4. The author’s family were grateful to know the man because __________.

A．he often brought them fish and vegetables from his garden

B．he paid them money for his staying

C．he taught them how to accept the bad without complaint

D．he stayed only overnight with the writer’s family