1 . You might have heard of the expression “a guilty pleasure”—maybe it’s the chocolate bar you buy on the way home from work, or the new clothes that you don’t really need.
Perhaps not. Psychologists have suggested that buying things for yourself can make you feel better as it provides an opportunity to take control of your situation.
Of course, there are also examples of people turning to destructive behaviour when faced with stressful circumstances. People might spend money that they don’t have or turn to dangerous addictions. Psychologist Leon Seltzer considers the difference between self-indulgence and self-nurturing.
A.Exams are vital for students. |
B.Self-indulgence can have negative consequences |
C.The difference becomes evident when students manage exam pressure |
D.They also recommend embracing activities that could dampen your spirits |
E.Besides, you should avoid things that may make you feel worse afterwards |
F.It comes from the idea that when we treat ourselves, it can sometimes leave us feeling guilty |
G.It can give you social contact as well as a confidence boost from changes you make to your self-image |
2 . Act Your Shoe Size, Not Your Age
As adults, it seems that we are constantly pursuing happiness, often with mixed results. Yet children appear to have it down to an art and for the most part they don’t need self-help books or methods.
What does a child do when he’s sad? He cries. When he’s angry? He shouts. Scared? Probably a bit of both.
A couple of Christmases ago, my daughter, who was nine years old at the time, got a Superman T-shirt for Christmas. It cost less than a five but she was overjoyed, and couldn’t stop talking about it. However, too often we adults believe that a new job, bigger house or better car will be the magic silver bullet that will allow us to finally be content.
Having said all above, it’s necessary to add that we shouldn’t try too hard to be happy.
A.Scientists tell us this can have the opposite effect. |
B.Have you ever noticed how much children laugh? |
C.As we grow up, we learn to control these emotions. |
D.Instead, they look after their well-being unconsciously. |
E.Actually, being grateful for small things is a better way. |
F.Indeed happiness consists in the possession of a lot of money. |
G.People laughing without cause can find the true meaning of happiness. |
3 . When you hear that your friend has passed an exam that you failed earlier, how do you react? Do you share in her happiness? If you do, congratulations!
One method to evoke positive feelings for others is through asking questions. We don’t have to wait for someone else’s good news to practice Freudenfreude. By inviting others to share their victories and genuinely listening to their stories, we can cultivate joy.
Since emotions are contagious (有感染力的), expressing appreciation can also enhance Freudenfreude. We can think of Freudenfreude as something that can be shared when we are experiencing personal happiness.
A.To better understand Freudenfreude, it is important to realize that it is a win-win. |
B.According to social scientists, finding pleasure in another person’s success is what they call Freudenfreude. |
C.However, experiencing Freudenfreude is not always easy. |
D.Despite these challenges, generating Freudenfreude is valuable, and there are ways to cultivate this feeling. |
E.You might ask: “What’s the best thing that happened to you this week?” |
F.It is a term that describes the joy we feel when someone else succeeds. |
G.To do this, we can give credit to others for their support and acknowledge their contribution to our success. |
4 . They say you catch more flies with honey than vinegar. But when it comes to tackling a tricky task, researchers have found that getting angry can also be a powerful motivator.
The experiments suggest people who are angry perform better on a set of challenging tasks than those who are emotionally neutral.
The study, published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, details how researchers at Texas A&M University conducted experiments involving more than 1,000 people, and analysed survey data from more than 1,400 people to explore the possible impact of anger on people in various circumstances.
In one experiment, students were shown images previously found to cause anger, desire, amusement, sadness or no particular emotion at all. Participants were subsequently asked to solve a series of anagrams (变形词).
The results reveal that for a challenging set of anagrams, those who were angry did better — although no difference was seen for easy anagrams.
The researchers say one explanation could be down to a link between anger and greater persistence (坚持), with the team finding those who were angry spent more time on the difficult set of anagrams.
In another experiment, participants who were angry did better at avoiding flags in a skiing video game than those who were neutral or sad, and were on a par with (同水平) those who felt amusement or desire.
“This pattern could indicate that general physical arousal (激起) had a benefit for game scores, as this would be greater in anger, amused, and desire conditions compared to the sad and neutral conditions,” the researchers write. However, no such differences in performance was found when it came to an easier video game.
“People often prefer to use positive emotions as tools more than negative and tend to see negative emotions as undesirable,” said Lench, the first author of the study. “Our research adds to the growing evidence that a mix of positive and negative emotions promotes wellbeing, and that using negative emotions as tools can be particularly effective in some situations.”
1. What tasks did the researchers set for the students?A.Catching flies with honey. |
B.Helping analyze survey data. |
C.Putting tasks into different categories. |
D.Performing tasks in various emotional states. |
A.It brings team spirit into full play. |
B.It promotes a deep insight into the tasks. |
C.It increases effort toward attaining a goal. |
D.It changes challenging tasks into easy ones. |
A.Research result consistent with previous findings. |
B.Potential application of the research finding. |
C.A further explanation of the research method. |
D.A reasonable doubt about the research process. |
A.To present more proofs. | B.To draw a conclusion. |
C.To make a comparison. | D.To criticize old practices. |
5 . Life is like a book, from which we can find happiness and sorrow, success and failure, hope and despair (绝望), and love. Life is a learning process.
Happiness and sorrow
Materialistic happiness is short-lived, but happiness achieved by bringing a smile to others gives a certain level of fulfilment. Peace of mind is the main link with happiness.
Failure is the path to success. It helps us to touch the sky, teaches us to survive and shows us a specific way.
Hope and despair
Love
Love plays a key role in our life.
A.Success and failure |
B.Failure leads to success |
C.Hope is what keeps life going |
D.No mind is happy without peace |
E.Life teaches us not to regret forever |
F.Without love, a person could become cruel and violent |
G.Experiences in life teach us new lessons and make us better people |
6 . Soothe the Sunday scaries
Most of us look forward to the weekend as a time to relax, connect with friends and family, and deal with tasks from a to-do list that gets neglected during the workweek. But as the weekend comes to an end, many are missing out on Sunday Funday and instead experiencing an overwhelming sense of anxiety and even dread about the upcoming week.
Even though the Sunday scaries are common, they are manageable. Here’s how experts say you can ease your end-of-weekend anxiety.
Structure your Sunday.
Don’t forget to relax. If you’re feeling more stress, it’s important to make space for relaxing activities to ground yourself. Maybe a midafternoon shower or bath, maybe an engaging movie or show, whatever feels like a helpful distraction to reground from the scaries.
Identify your anxiety sources. Try to figure out what’s really causing you to dread the week.
End your Sunday with the right energy. Sunday night is a proper wind-down time. Maybe you want to journal, do a face mask, read a few pages of a good book. Do your best to honor this time and make Sunday night all about you.
A.Is it a deadline, meeting or presentation? |
B.Create some excitement for the week ahead. |
C.Experts have referred to this worry as Sunday scaries. |
D.Sunday scaries come from tiredness after a really busy weekend. |
E.Then you feel empowered and confident that you’ll be ready for the next day. |
F.Instead of sitting on the couch and watching the clock, go to do something that you enjoy. |
G.Anxiety is a natural response that happens in preparation for anything that causes pain or discomfort. |
7 . “Mom!” a girl calls out in a busy store. I turn toward it, so do several other women. It doesn’t matter that I’m in the store alone or that my two daughters are much older than this helpless little voice. When I hear “Mom!” I am ready for action and rescue.
Mom is defined in the dictionary as a female parent. But through the years my children have used the word to mean much more.
Jessica, at 7, screams “Mo-hom” in an accusing tone, for she can’t find a matching sock.
For Sarah, at 13, on a morning when she’s already late for school, “Mom!” means “I am desperate for new clothes. I can’t believe I’ve existed in these rags.”
“Mom?” Sarah is almost 17 and rarely knocks on my door in the morning anymore. Yet I recognize the vulnerability in her voice.
“Do you want some help?” I ask her, sleep-blurred.
She nods, and then bursts into tears. “John’s mad at me, and I don’t know why. He won’t talk tome. What should I do?”
I put my arm around her. I want to protect my child from the cruel beasts who make her weep so, but I’ve got a hot potato of my own just now. I feel the disability of being responsible for myself and for my daughters. I talk to my friends and they empathize(共情). I talk to my brother and he solves problems. I need more.
So I dial the familiar number I once called from college.
“Hello?” The voice is crackly, uncertain. It has lived through so much already that it’s cautious about another blow.
“Mom?” I say.
“Honey, are you all right?” my mother asks.
Somehow, that is everything I want to hear.
1. What does the underlined word “vulnerability” mean in paragraph 5?A.Tension. | B.Delight. | C.Weakness. | D.Curiosity. |
A.She has no clue who John is. | B.Her work takes all her attention. |
C.She is too mentally exhausted. | D.She is too sleepy to stay focused. |
A.Ambitious and faithful. | B.Enthusiastic and humorous. |
C.Brave and independent. | D.Sensitive and responsible. |
A.The mother’s mind is the child’s classroom. |
B.A mother always cares for the youngest child. |
C.The world’s all glory and pride all come from the mother. |
D.The most beautiful voice in the world is the call of mother. |
8 . During my first year in college, I was silent. I was too afraid of saying something wrong.
I declared a religion major as a sophomore and took a class from Barbara, a young theologian. My mind was split open by a range of new thinkers and writers and by the quality of Barbara’s questions, I finally had something to say and the energy to say it. I was a frequent visitor during Barbara’s office hours, a rocket of words. She listened and calmly responded, a perfect contrast to my feverish ramblings. I loved what she saw in me, which was a range of abilities I had never seen in myself. In the following years, our relationship gradually deepened, but I was always conscious of a teacher-student dynamic.
This changed fundamentally when I became a parent. I had my son in March 2010, and Barbara was one of the first to congratulate me. When, nine months later, my child was diagnosed with Tay-Sachs disease, a rare and always terminal illness with no treatment and no cure, she sent me a letter-handwritten on a white legal pad. For the next two and a half years, Barbara wrote me regular, sometimes weekly, letters, remarkable letters that are revealing, loving, and kind.
The letter written right before my son died, when he was three, was the most personal and perhaps the most profound. “I think he’s made you better by opening up the great fire of your love,” she wrote, “with his small but magnificent existence.” I have never in my life read a more deeply comforting sentence, one that spoke to my grandest hopes, my deepest fears, and the only faith that remains to me, which is a belief in chaos. Our love had bloomed and deepened from a guarded mutual respect to a richer, deeper friendship.
Mentors are meant to lead those in their charge into fresh understanding, help them sort and filter new experiences, assist in the project of making sense out of the chaos that is human life. Mentors observe and accompany the darkest despair, the wildest sorrow, and the most unexpected joy.
1. What can we learn from paragraph 2?A.The author took the class because she excelled1 in theology. |
B.Their relationship changed significantly beyond a teacher-student mode. |
C.The author was a frequent visitor to Barbara’s home after working hours. |
D.Barbara’s peaceful exterior was a contrast to the author’s overexcited talk. |
A.The way Barbara treated her students. | B.The fact that the author kept silent in class. |
C.The role of the author as a college student. | D.The relationship between Barbara and the author. |
A.Barbara’s efforts to solve the problem. |
B.Barbara’s sympathy shown in the letter. |
C.The author’s in-depth understanding of Barbara. |
D.Barbara’s congratulations on the birth of the author’s son. |
A.Demanding and dedicated. | B.Responsible and reasonable. |
C.Insightful and inspiring. | D.Aggressive and ambitious. |
9 . The Healing Power of Music
Since Mom died and Dad lived alone, he was often angry, and lately he was getting more and more confusing. Today
Sure enough, Dad started
“It’ll take some time for her to learn how to help you,” I
The three of us sat
Linda
The music seemed to drive all the
When I left, he hugged me good-bye and asked me to
I’d come to Dad’s house expecting the
A.promised | B.tended | C.planned | D.needed |
A.choice | B.presence | C.name | D.assistance |
A.absent-minded | B.ill-tempered | C.light-hearted | D.heart-struck |
A.shouting | B.warning | C.remarking | D.complaining |
A.advised | B.directed | C.comforted | D.informed |
A.impatiently | B.anxiously | C.awkwardly | D.boringly |
A.sprang | B.went | C.struggled | D.came |
A.threw | B.placed | C.grabbed | D.played |
A.laughing | B.singing | C.clapping | D.smiling |
A.tension | B.atmosphere | C.sound | D.warmth |
A.longest | B.strangest | C.nicest | D.rarest |
A.check out | B.hang on | C.get through | D.look at |
A.For a moment | B.At a time | C.By the way | D.On the whole |
A.treasuring | B.wasting | C.saving | D.spending |
A.best | B.commonest | C.worst | D.happiest |
10 . During a job interview, you’re so nervous that it’s hard to think. And afterwards, when someone asks you how it goes, you actually can’t remember. You might feel that you’re losing your memory, but according to Dr Ira Fischler, this “blackout” is probably not a loss of memory at all. It’s more likely that you didn’t even have the memory in the first place.
Fischler is a professor of psychology at the University of Florida. “When memories of specific emotional events appear to be lost, it’s most often because our attention during the event is not on the interaction itself,” he told Global News. Instead, it’s common for a person to be engrossed in how they present themselves or their inner emotional state during the interaction—especially at the stressful moments. This would explain why some people struggle to recall the questions asked during a job interview, for example. They are instead concentrating their attention on how they’re presenting themselves to the employers at that moment.
When we’re in a situation that causes nervousness or anxiety, a “fight or flight” reaction is caused, which sends certain hormones (荷尔蒙) out into the body. “It can cause several side effects, like feeling light-headed and dizzy and affect the way our brain remembers situations that we’ve been in,” said psychologist Laura Bloom. She thinks of the hippocampus (海马结构), a part of the brain responsible for memory, as the brain’s library and each memory as a card with all the information about what happened on it.
“When something stressful happens, the experience of trauma (精神创伤) causes our brain not necessarily to keep all of the details properly,” she said “Therefore, it will be extremely important and beneficial for you to replace the ‘fight or flight’ response with calmer and more peaceful approaches.”
1. What does the first paragraph serve as?A.A background. | B.A comment. | C.An explanation. | D.An introduction. |
A.Work out. | B.Focus on. | C.Make for. | D.Go over. |
A.Tips on dealing with stressful events. |
B.Harm of the “fight or flight” response. |
C.Things that affect people’s memory. |
D.The importance of details to the brain. |
A.How Senses Affect Your Memory |
B.How Your Body Responds to Stress |
C.Why You May Lose Memory Under Stress |
D.Why Your Brain Occasionally Fails to Learn |