What my father wore embarrassed me! I wanted him to dress like a doctor or lawyer, but he always dressed like my father, getting up before dawn every day to make breakfast for my mother and me.
We lived in South Texas, where my father worked as a repairman. He often wore a pair of jeans and a shirt, keeping his pencils, glasses and wrenches (扳手) in his breast pocket. His boots were those with steel toes that made them difficult to pull off his feet, which I sometimes helped him with when he returned from repairing cars — his job that also shamed me.
I blamed the way he dressed. I felt that my classmates laughed at me because they’d seen him mowing lawns (修剪草坪) in cut-off jeans and black boots. My classmates’ families paid men to beautify their lawns, while their fathers travelled in the bay wearing lemon-yellow sweaters and expensive shoes.
He preferred clothes that allowed him the freedom to move under cars. So even when taking part in a school trip with me, he was dressed in his repairman’s suit. On the school bus to the campsite, all students on the bus happily chatted with their parents except me, who lowered the head, avoiding spotting my classmates’ mocking glance (讥笑的眼光) or hearing their jokes, which I thought was about nothing else but what my father wore.
I regretted telling my parents the school trip, and I was very angry why my mother had no spare time while my father happened to have a vacation. But my father failed to read my mind. He was very happy, whistling a tune along the way.
Though my father didn’t sense my bad mood, the school bus seemed as sad as I was. It drove more and more slowly and finally it stopped on the roadside. The driver got out to check the bus but found nothing wrong. Students and parents on the bus began to whisper about what was happening, worried that the delay might spoil the journey.
注意：
1.续写词数应为150 左右；
2.请按如下格式在答题卷的相应位置作答。
When others were complaining, my father stood up.
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The school bus restarted and everyone cheered.
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The telephone rang. Jack answered the call from his mother, “Mr. Richard died last night. The funeral is Wednesday.” Memories flashed through his mind like an old newsreel (新闻影片) as he sat quietly remembering his childhood days. It had been some time since Jack had seen the old man. College, career, and life itself got in the way. In fact, Jack moved across the country in pursuit of his dreams. There, in the rush of his busy life, Jack had little time to think about the past and often no time to spend with his wife and son.
“Jack, did you hear me?”
“Oh, sorry, Mom. Yes, I heard you. It’s been so long since I thought of him.” Jack said.
“Well, he didn’t forget you. Every time I saw him he’d ask how you were doing. He’d reminisced (追忆) about the many days you spent over ‘his side of the fence’ as he put it,” Mom told him.
After Jack’s father died, Mr. Richard stepped in to make sure Jack had a man’s influence in his life and it was Mr. Richard who taught Jack many things. Jack wouldn’t have been in this business if it hadn’t been for Mr. Richard.
Busy as he was, he returned home and attended the funeral, which was small and uneventful. Mr. Richard had no children of his own, and most of his relatives had passed away.
The night before Jack had to return home, he and his mother stopped by to see the old house next door one more time. Standing in the middle of the room, Jack paused for a moment. It was like crossing over into another dimension, a leap through space and time. The house was exactly as he remembered. Every step held memories. Every picture, every piece of furniture... Jack stopped suddenly.
“What’s wrong, Jack?” Mom asked.
“Where is the watch, the thing he valued most?” he seemed to ask himself.
注意：
1. 续写词数应为150左右；
2. 请按如下格式在答题纸的相应位置作答。
“It was a gold pocket watch that he used to wear every day,” he told his mom.
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One day Jack received a package on his desk.
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3 . How many different emotions do you think you can communicate to people with your face? Do you have the same facial expressions as the people from different cultures? Read this passage to find out what scientists have just discovered about this topic.
New research suggests that there are only four basic facial expressions of emotion. However, how these expressions are interpreted (解释) might depend on where you are from. Research by scientists from the Institute of Neuroscience and Psychology at the University of Glasgow has challenged the traditional view of how the face expresses emotions. It was widely believed that six basic emotions (happiness, sadness, fear, anger, surprise and disgust) were expressed and recognized across different cultures. However, the University of Glasgow’s work now suggests that the human face only has four basic expressions of emotion. This is because some pairs of emotions are impossible to distinguish(辨别). Fear and surprise, for example, both share wide open eyes. The facial expressions for anger and disgust also look the same.
So if our faces are only able to express four basic emotions, how do we communicate a much more complex kind of feeling? The study found that the way expressions are interpreted is different in different cultures. However, while looking at how people from the East and West look at different parts of the face during facial expression recognition, scientists found that although there are some common features across cultures, the six basic facial expressions of emotion are not recognized universally.
What interests people about the cross-cultural aspect of the research? This work leads to understanding which emotions we share and appreciating our differences.
1. What did the University of Glasgow find?| A．Six basic emotions greatly influence our character. |
| B．Six basic emotions can be recognized. |
| C．It is easy to tell from the basic facial expressions. |
| D．Some of the six facial expressions are similar. |
| A．Sadness, fear, anger and surprise. | B．Anger, sadness, fear and happiness. |
| C．Happiness, surprise, sadness and fear. | D．Disgust, happiness, anger and sadness. |
| A．Basic facial expressions are not universal. |
| B．Facial expressions can’t show complex feelings. |
| C．Western people have more kinds of facial expressions. |
| D．The way to express emotions changes with time. |
| A．What Does Your Face Say? | B．How Do We Communicate? |
| C．What Are the Six Basic Emotions? | D．Do We Have the Same Expressions? |
4 . Have you ever bought a new car and started noticing the exact color and model of car everywhere? Has that type of car just become popular in your city? Were they there before? Or are you just going crazy?
You’re not going crazy. The reason you are now just noticing them is what psychologists call “priming”. Basically, the cars were always there. You just didn’t recognize them consciously. However, when that certain model of car becomes part of your conscious thinking, you start “automatically” recognizing all of the other cars that are the same, because you are already “primed” to do so.
The priming effect takes many forms. In one study, students were asked to walk around a room for 5 minutes at a rate of 30 steps per minute, which was about one-third their normal pace. After this brief experience, the participants were much quicker to recognize words related to old age, such as forgetful, old, and lonely. Reciprocal priming effects tend to produce a coherent reaction: if you are primed to think of old age, you would tend to act old, and acting old would reinforce the thought of old age. This research shows that the way we think influences the way we act, and the way we act influences the way we think.
A similar conclusion was reached by the American psychologist William James a century ago, but he emphasized the effect on feeling. “Actions seem to follow feeling, but really actions and feeling go together; and by regulating the action, which is under the more direct control of the will, we can indirectly regulate the feeling, which is not. Thus the path to cheerfulness, should our cheerfulness be lost, is to sit up cheerfully and to act and speak as if cheerfulness were already there.”
So, that’s it. If you want to be happy, just sit up and act happy. Based on these scientific findings, we can adopt certain priming effects to help make ourselves consistently happier.
One thing we have in common is our ability to think, and thus feel. Pleasant thoughts have been proven to produce the chemicals that make us feel happy, particularly thoughts and feelings of gratitude. When we purposefully go through and think about the things we’re grateful for and deliberately feel as much gratitude as we can, we are flooding our mind with the “happy chemicals”. Furthermore, by consciously thinking, feeling and expressing gratitude, we will not only be happier in the moment, we will be “primed” to recognize the things in our life to appreciate. Each time this happens, the “happy chemicals” will be produced. Do this every day and we will become consistently happier. This makes up for the momentary happiness we gain from eating chocolate or buying new clothes. More than that, combining thoughts of gratitude with happy acts like smiling and laughing will have a supplementary positive effect on our state of mind.
1. Which of the following is an example of the priming effect?| A．Walking much faster after attending a lecture about old age. |
| B．Donating money to the poor after seeing pictures of cute cats. |
| C．Learning about various types of cars after purchasing the first car. |
| D．Completing SO_P as SOUP rather than SOAP after seeing the word EAT. |
| A．Related. | B．Two-way. | C．Well-rounded. | D．Opposite. |
| A．Eating or shopping leads to consistent feelings of happiness. |
| B．Our will has greater control over emotions than over actions. |
| C．Happy chemicals make us think about the things we’re grateful for. |
| D．Practicing gratitude frequently prepares us for long-term happiness. |
| A．Prime Yourself to Be Happier |
| B．Share Happiness to Enhance Wellbeing |
| C．Why Gratitude Is Important in Psychology |
| D．How Happy Chemicals Affect People’s Thoughts |
I had a very peaceful childhood and I mostly ignored the fact that my elder sister was different. She got “Asperger Syndrome” (社交困难症). It turned my parents’ world upside down - but they never let it affect me. My parents worked very hard at ensuring that everything seemed pleasant and quiet for me.
It was only at the age of ten that I started to notice the differences and became aware of my social life and self-image that I had carefully built up. My sister on the other hand, was socially awkward. She could not look at people in the eye. She would whisper to herself and repeat the words she had just said. However, she was academically capable, so we attended the same primary school. Despite this, I never admitted in public that she was my sister.
However, there was one incident that changed how I viewed my sister and changed me.
Being in primary six, about to graduate, my sister and her classmates had to put on a performance, whether in a group, or on their own. Because she failed to join others, she was the only one left without a group. The school had made it a must for everyone to perform, so my sister had to do it by herself. “I’ll sing,” my sister told my parents, somewhat confidently.
Hearing that, I was completely shocked. How could my sister who was socially awkward, sing in front of the school? I knew so very well that if I allowed this to happen, she would embarrass me. “No!” I protested. My parents shot me a look and I knew my sister was going to perform anyway, and I was going to be part of the audience watching her. Silently, I wished that something would happen and I would not have to watch my sister lose face.
注意：1. 续写次数应为130左右；
2. 请按如下格式在答题卡相应位置作答。
On the day of performace, I sat in the hall.
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I felt relaxed and appreciated it with excitement.
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I like staying overnight at my Gramma’s house — that is, until Gramma starts telling me how wonderful my cousin Maya is. Then it’s Maya this and Maya that until I don’t ever want to hear another word about her.
That’s why I wasn’t too excited when Gramma called me on the phone to “come on over and bring your pajamas.” When I got there, it was worse than I’d expected. There, in Grandpa’s big leather rocker, sat Maya, all dressed up and formal-looking and wearing fancy shoes as if she’d just been to a party.
“Surprise, Kristen!” Gramma said. “Your cousin Maya and her parents have traveled in from the East Coast on business. Maya gets to stay with us this afternoon.” Gramma chattered away about how excited she’d been for this surprise get-together, and how cousins ought to get to know each other better.
I hung my baseball cap in the closet and set my backpack by the stairway, all the time smiling and nodding as if I’d been waiting forever for this chance to spend an afternoon with Maya. Grandpa’s chair squawked (咯咯叫) as Maya rocked back and forth. It’s the chair I like best in the house, the one I usually sit in. I sat down on the sofa across from her.
Shortly, Gramma went off to the kitchen to “see about some lunch,” she’d said. That left me stuck in the living room with rocking Maya.
She was still small but taller than I’d remembered her from her last visit four years ago. She was good at small talk, though, and was chatting away about how nice it was to see me again. But I could tell that she didn’t really think so. The last time she was here, we’d had hours of fun together building caves out of Gramma’s sofa pillows.
After that, I’d heard about her only through Gramma’s tales. Maya taking piano lessons. Maya learning math. Maya, Maya, Maya. Now Maya was here, looking great with the latest haircut and a fancy dress.
注意：
1. 续写词数应为150左右；
2. 请按如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。
Glancing down at my jeans and my old sneakers, I wished I hadn’t come.
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“How do you know all these things about me?” I asked.
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7 . Back in 1964, in his book Games People Play, psychiatrist Eric Berne described a pattern of conversation he called “Why Don’t You — Yes But”, which remains one of the most annoying aspects of everyday social life. The person adopting the strategy is usually a chronic complainer. Something is terrible about their relationship, job, or other situation, and they complain about it endlessly, but find some excuse to dismiss any solution that’s proposed. The reason, of course, is that on some level they don’t want a solution; they want to be validated (认可) in their position that the world is out to get them. If they can “win” the game — dismissing every suggestion until interlocutor (对话者) gives up in annoyance — they get to feel pleasurably righteous (正当的) in their anger and excused from any obligation to change.
Part of the trouble here is the so-called responsibility/fault fallacy (谬误). When you’re feeling hard done by — taken for granted by your partner, say, or obliged to work for a stupid boss — it’s easy to become attached to the position that it’s not your job to address the matter, and that doing so would be an admission of fault. But there’s a confusion here. For example, if I were to discover a newborn at my front door, it wouldn’t be my fault, but it most certainly would be my responsibility. There would be choices to make, and no possibility of avoiding them, since trying to ignore the matter would be a choice. The point is that what goes for the baby on the doorstep is true in all cases: even if the other person is 100% in the wrong, there’s nothing to be gained, long-term, from using this as a justification to evade responsibility.
Should you find yourself on the receiving end of this kind of complaining, there’s a clever way to shut it down — which is to agree with it. Psychotherapist Lori Gottlieb describes this as “over-validation”. For one thing, you’ll be spared further complaining, since the other person’s motivation was to confirm her beliefs, and now you’re confirming them. But for another, as Gottlieb notes, people confronted with over-validation often hear their complaints afresh and start arguing back. The concept that they’re utterly powerless suddenly seems unrealistic, not to mention rather annoying — so they’re prompted instead to generate ideas about how they might change things.
“And then, sometimes, something magical might happen, ” Gotlieb writes. The other person “might realize she’s not as trapped as you are saying she is, or as she feels. ” Avoiding responsibility feels comfortable, but turns out to be a prison; whereas assuming responsibility feels unpleasant, but ends up being freeing.
1. What is the characteristic of a chronic complainer, according to Eric Berne?| A．They are angry about their ill treatment and feel bitter towards whoever tries to help. |
| B．They are habitually unhappy and endlessly find fault with people around them. |
| C．They constantly dismiss others’ proposals while taking no responsibility for dealing with the problem. |
| D．They lack the basic skills required for successful conversations with others. |
| A．People tend to think that one should not be held responsible for others’ mistakes. |
| B．It is easy to become attached to the position of overlooking one’s own fault. |
| C．People are often at a loss when confronted with a number of choices. |
| D．A distinction should be drawn between responsibility and fault. |
| A．Stop them from going further by agreeing with them. |
| B．Listen to their complaints attentively and sympathetically. |
| C．Ask them to validate their beliefs with further evidence. |
| D．Persuade them to clarify the confusion they caused. |
| A．What is the responsibility/fault fallacy for chronic complainers? |
| B．How can you avoid dangerous traps in everyday social life? |
| C．Who are chronic complainers and how to deal with them? |
| D．Why should we stop being a chronic complainer and assume responsibility? |
Public places have been difficult for my family since Myles was diagnosed with autism(自闭症) at two. He had quickly turned into a silent child frozen in a world completely inaccessible to us. One time, I got up the courage to take Myles out to Golden Corral without my husband. Lots of people and noise caused overload for him. First came the screaming, and then more noises. With my nerves stretched thin, I noticed a sweet old lady coming my way.
“Can you keep him quiet?” she snapped. “I’m trying to eat!”
I held my tongue out of respect for my elders. I apologized and left with as much dignity as I could. I had to escape the weight of the eyes around. After that, I built a wall around my heart to protect my heart from other people’s opinions about my family. I still had the great privilege of raising this very special child. It didn’t matter what anyone thought, but I had lost something. I stopped looking for the opportunity to help them understand. I assumed the worst about them.
So when I was back at Golden Corral with my son, who started shouting and hitting the table again, I looked up at the middle-aged woman approaching. Her face was calm as she assessed the situation. If she complained about my son’s behavior, I was prepared to fight back.
“I hope you don’t mind me asking,” she said. “But does your son have autism?”
“Yeah,” I replied to the lady, who was waiting patiently.
“Well, I raised a child with autism. My name is Pam,” she said. “If you ever need any help, please call me. I have connection with a lot of people like you and me.” I looked at the hands she extended, holding a slip of paper with her name and number on it.
“Thank you,” I managed to whisper.
“Call me,” she said, smiling at me, and saving a special, knowing smile for Myles before walking away.
注意：1.续写词数应为150左右；
2.请按如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。
Later I called her, and she became as close as family.
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Of course, there are moments when we simply felt hopeless.
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This new little stepsister is getting on my nerves. She won’t stop talking. What was Dad trying to prove with this family vacation? We can’t instantly become the ideal family. I just became a teenager, and Christina is only 8 years old.
Dad and I finished putting up the large tent. Then I walked back to the car for my backpack, only to knock a pink one to the ground. Before I could pick it up, Christina appeared. “Why’d you throw my stuff on the ground?” she roared.
After lunch, Dad suggested I take Christina to see the sequoia pines (红杉松树), circling on the map where giant sequoias were.
I jammed the map into my pocket and then set off. When I glanced back at Christina, all I saw was a pink cap. I shook my head. Dad and my new stepmom were crazy if they thought we’d instantly bond. I was not ready to be a big brother.
As we walked the trail, the forest canopy (树冠) became thicker, blocking out direct sunlight, making the temperature drop slightly.
“You warm enough?” I asked. She nodded but didn’t look at me. I noticed her hands had got completely covered with the sap (汁液) of a plant. I took a hand wipe from my pack and wiped her hands.
Reaching a small hill, we climbed up it. Sunshine filled the meadow (草地) below. I could see the tops of sequoia pines popping out above the forest on the other side. I pointed them out excitedly to Christina and finally saw a smile light her face.
“Come on, Sean!” She grabbed my hand and pulled me down into the meadow. Then I saw it, sitting on a rock in the middle of the field: a brown-colored bear cub (幼熊). Cute as it seemed, I knew it was dangerous.
注意：1. 续写词数应为150左右；
2. 请按如下格式在答题纸的相应位置作答。
I instructed Christina to stay close to me and hold my hand firmly.
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Keeping a tight hold on her hand, we walked on along the trail marked on our map.
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10 . About 50 years ago, the famous British band The Beatles sang that “money can’t buy me love”. Today, British economists are saying that it perhaps can’t buy you happiness cither. This is showed by the Happy Planet Index (HPI 快乐指数) published recently by the New Economics Foundation (NEF) in London.
The index is about how well countries are using their resources. It shows how well they provide people with better health and longer and happier lives, and at what cost to their environment.
It would seem to be common sense that people in richer countries live happier lives, while those in developing countries are having a harder time. But the results are surprising, even shocking. The numbers show that some of the so-called developed countries are performing very badly. The United States, for example, ranks number 150th. On the other hand, some little-known developing countries are doing a much better job. A tiny island in the Pacific, Vanuatu, comes in first. There are 178 countries and areas in the index. China ranks number 31.
Countries are graded on the basis of information supplied in response to the following questions. How do people feel about their lives? How long does an average person live? How greatly does a country need to use its natural resources to maintain its living standards? This is what the index calls the “ecological footprint”.
The NEF found that the people of island nations enjoy the highest HPI rankings. Their populations live happier and longer lives, and use fewer resources.
The results also seem to show that it is possible to live longer, happier lives with a much smaller environment impact. The index points out that people in the US and Germany enjoy similar lives.
“However, Germany’s ecological footprint is only about half that of the US. This means that Germany is around twice as efficient as the US at producing happy lives,” says Nic Marks, head of NEF’s Center for well-being.
So the Happy Planet Index (HPI) tells us a brand-new concept of understanding “being happy”. HPI figures out different countries or individuals’ HPI through their “Ecological Footprint” and “Life Satisfaction Level” or “Life Expectancy”. Clearly, people’s HPI is related to their consumption of the resources on the earth.
You can find out your own HPI by visiting http: //www, happyplanetindex.org.
1. The passage is mainly about __________.| A．in which country people feel the happiest |
| B．why money can’t buy you happiness |
| C．what index can influence people’s happiness |
| D．what Happy Planet Index is |
| A．the richness of natural resources |
| B．the efficiency of energy consumption |
| C．the development of economy |
| D．the life expectancy of the people |
| A．The happiest countries listed in the index are quite different from those expected. |
| B．Developing countries are having & hard time reaching the top of the index. |
| C．Countries that have high HPI rankings have a greater impact on the environment. |
| D．The less happy countries depend on the developed countries’ resources. |
| A．some developed countries are performing badly ecologically |
| B．it is possible to live a happy life with fewer resources |
| C．not all the people in developed countries enjoy happy lives |
| D．history and culture play an important role in people’s lives |
