1 . Empathy
Last year, researchers from the University of Michigan reported that empathy, the ability to understand other people, among college students had dropped sharply over the past 10 years.
Jennifer Freed, a co-director of a teen program, has another explanation, Turn on the TV, and you’re showered with news and reality shows full of people fighting, competing, and generally treating one another with no respect, Humans learn by example — and most of the examples on it are anything but empathetic.
There are good reasons not to follow those bad examples, Humans are socially related by nature.
Empathy is also an indication of a good leader. In fact, Freed says, many top companies report that empathy is one of the most important things they look for in new managers.
What’s the best way to up your EQ? For starters, let down your guard and really listen to others.
| A．Everyone is different, and levels of empathy differ from person to person. |
| B．Having relationships with other people is an important part of being human — and having empathy is decisive to those relationships. |
| C．“One doesn’t develop empathy by having a lot of opinions and doing a lot of talking,” Freed says. |
| D．Empathy is a matter of learning how to understand someone else — both what they think and how they feel. |
| E．Good social skills — including empathy — are a kind of "emotional intelligence" that will help you succeed in many areas of life. |
| F．That could be because so many people have replaced face time with screen time, the researchers said. |
2 . We are the sum of our actions. I believe that the actions you take determine who you are. But, you say, had an abusive father/mother, I was poor growing up, just wasn’t born smart, I have a disease... All of these things do not make you who you are. They only broaden your knowledge or experience. They are things that happen to you, circumstances. You are not the sum of your circumstances, but of your “action” to them.
This is why rich kids become drug addicts or wife beaters; kids from ghetto (贫民窟) become doctors or loving fathers, and everything in between. All walks of life produce all walks of life. So, it is all about your own choices/reactions/actions/behavior, Every human being has within them a mechanism that guides their actions. The more you rebel against your inner guide, the more you tune your selective hearing to the “me” channel, the father down the “bad” side of the scale you will slide. On the other hand, if you not only listen to but act upon, the “universal” channel, the farther up the “good” side of the scale you will fly.
Even psychiatrists have in recent years discovered that in order to change thinking, a person must frst change behavior. At first thought, it would seem the opposite is true, it is not. We all have the same range of human emotions. When we feel slighted (被看轻), it sounds in our heads like: “I want to slap them, curse them, get even, and cause them the same pain they caused me. Acting upon these thoughts perpetuates (使继续) cycles of abuse, addiction, and pain. It’s when you choose not to act upon these thoughts, and instead, forgive and heal, that your thoughts and perceptions will start to change also. You change because right actions produce right results. You are choosing to heal properly by forgiving, and accepting life and mankind as it is, and in turn yourself as you are, which is the only way to have peace, joy, and true happiness.
I will admit that if you have a parent who accepts you as a whole person, inclusive of “good and bad”, you may have an edge or jumpstart (快速启动) on understanding life, yourself, and others. If you don’t, it may just take you longer to understand, accept, and act on it. Either way, who you are is determined by you, and you are determined by your actions. So, tune in everybody, to that universal channel, and act right!
1. The author argues that an abusive parent a person once had ________.| A．affects the reaction he will take in different circumstances |
| B．prevents him from understanding life |
| C．has little to do with what kind of person he is |
| D．determines the tough circumstances he lives in |
| A．poor children are more likely to succeed in their work |
| B．the occupation a person engages in affects his personality |
| C．wealthy children tend to be spoiled by their parents |
| D．circumstances contribute little to a person’s future success |
| A．our behavior is guided by our thought | B．human beings share similar emotions |
| C．we have to cultivate our behavior first | D．it’s wrong to act upon your thoughts |
| A．we should accept life and mankind as it is |
| B．everyone is determined by what he does |
| C．understanding life promotes right action |
| D．it is better to have a parent who accepts both your “good and bad” |
3 . Camera flashes cut across the softly lighted downtown Los Angeles restaurant, as the crowd at Ludo Bites jostles (推挤) for the photo-of the Columbian River king salmon duck. “This is the game we all now play, ” chef and owner Ludo Lefebvre said. “We cook, we smile-and the people, they don’t eat. They get their cameras.”
Not so long ago, diners, hungry for special meals, would pull out a point-and-shoot at a restaurant for a quick picture of sliced birthday cake.
No more. Taking a cue from Twitter and Facebook cultures, serious foodies (美食家) and casual consumers alike are using digital technology to document each bite, then sharing the pictures online.
Flickr, the photo-sharing website, has seen the number of pictures tagged as “food” jump from about half a million in 2008 to more than 6 million today, according to company officials. In the group “I Ate This” on Flickr’s site, nearly 20,000 people have uploaded more than 307,000 images of their latest meals.
Camera manufacturers are joining the trend, selling cameras that offer “food” settings, which adjust to enhance colors and textures (质地) on close-ups.
“I am sharing my experiences with my friends,” said Hong Pham, 33, a Los Angeles radiologist who runs the food blog Ravenous Couple. “Why shouldn’t I share what inspires me?”
But what is documentary fun for people such as Pham is souring the gastronomic (烹饪的) set.
Managers regularly face diners demanding to be moved away from camera flashes and sounds. Waiters find themselves tongue-tied as customers take out voice recorders to capture a recitation of each course. Some chefs have had enough.
Chef Grant Achatz allows only no-flash photography in his restaurant. He, like many other chefs, finds himself torn between being flattered by the public’s enthusiasm and annoyed with the effect the picture-taking is having on the restaurant’s operation.
Some consumers now believe food should be consumed visually as well as physically. “What happened to the enjoyment of just eating the food?” said Andrew Knowlton, the restaurant editor for Bon Appetite magazine. “People are losing sight of why you go out.”
1. Who is the most supportive of taking pictures of food in restaurants?| A．Grant Achatz. | B．Andrew Knowlton. |
| C．Hong Pham. | D．Ludo Lefebvre. |
| A．delicately-made dishes are visually inviting |
| B．they will share with others their dining experience |
| C．cameras can be specially set for food photography |
| D．they can profit by selling pictures to famous websites |
| A．More pictures will be uploaded at websites like Twitter and Facebook. |
| B．Consumers used to take pictures in restaurants only for their birthdays. |
| C．Rules should be set out that there is no food photography in restaurants. |
| D．Chefs are likely to accept picture-taking in their restaurants to a limited extent. |
| A．news story | B．feature article |
| C．commercial advertisement | D．survey report |
4 . I teach economics at UNLV three times per week. Last Monday, at the beginning of class, I
His question
“Let me give you an example,” I continued, addressing all sixty students in the class. “In addition to teaching here at UNLV, I also teach out at the community college in Henderson, 17 miles down the freeway from where I live. One day a few weeks ago, I drove those 17 miles to Henderson. I
“As soon as I got there, I called AAA (汽车协会) and asked them to arrange for a tow truck to meet me at my car after class. The secretary in the office asked me what has happened. “This is my
“‘But your car breaks down’, she was confused, ‘What do you mean?’”
“‘I live 17 miles from here,’ I replied. ‘My car
“The secretary’s eyes opened wide, and then she smiled, I smiled back and headed for class.” So ended my story.
I scanned the sixty faces in my economics class at UNLV. Somehow, my story had touched them. Or maybe it wasn’t the story at all. In fact, it had all started with a student’s
| A．deliberately | B．cheerfully | C．curiously | D．typically |
| A．reminded | B．assured | C．informed | D．relieved |
| A．arrange | B．evaluate | C．approach | D．improve |
| A．missed | B．followed | C．exited | D．took |
| A．dragged | B．marched | C．struggled | D．wandered |
| A．awkward | B．unexpected | C．glorious | D．lucky |
| A．shouldn’t | B．must | C．couldn’t | D．might |
| A．near | B．off | C．down | D．on |
| A．convenient | B．confusing | C．cautious | D．challenging |
| A．objection | B．implication | C．observation | D．suspicion |
