1 . Directions：Complete the following passage by using the words in the box. Each word can only be used once. Note that there is one word more than you need.

A.simple   B.heard   C.difficult   D.faster   E.personal   F.shapes   G.goal   H.receive   I.shared   J.come   K.happiness

Everybody has different ways achieving happiness and the reasons for feeling happy may change from year to year, or even from day to day. For example, happiness may     1     from getting a good grade on school assignment or from a very     2     thing like having full stomach. This kind of happiness is inside of you — it is     3     happiness. Happiness is also something you can communicate to other people. The good grade you     4     on your paper will probably make your parents happy and proud. Another way of communicating happiness is to help other people over     5     experiences in their own lives. In this situation, you give off your own happiness to make others happy.

The most important things to remember in your pursuit (追求) of     6     are:

1. Happiness should not be your only     7    — a real goal, like better grades, a better job, or closer friends, is sure to give more happiness than chasing after a feeling.

2. Happiness may come in all sizes and     8    . If you keep your sense of humor and see things in a balanced way, happiness will come to you     9     than to the person who is always worrying about what tomorrow will bring.

3. Happiness is meant to be     10    . “Laugh and the world laughs with you, cry and you cry alone.”

2 . Directions: After reading the passage below, fill in each blank with a proper word given in the box. Each word can only be used once. Note that there is one word more than you need.

A. steadily B. predicts C. biology D. temporary E. dramatic F. recovers G. permanent H. grounded I. expansion J. formed K. kindly

Teens Are Still Developing Empathy Skills

The teen years are often full of door-slamming, eye-rolling and seeming insensitivity, even by kids who behaved     1     before. Some parents worry that they are doing something wrong or that their children will never think of anyone but themselves. A six-year study published in Developmental Psychology shows that     2     is partly to blame.

In adolescence, critical social skills that are needed for one to feel concern for other people and to understand how they think are undergoing major changes. Adolescence has long been known as prime time for developing cognitive skills for self-regulation and executive function.

“Cognitive empathy,” or the mental ability to take others’ perspective, begins to rise     3     in girls at the age of 13, according to the study co-authored by Jolien van der Graaff at Utrecht University in the Netherlands. By comparison, boys do not begin until the age of 15 to show increases in perspective-taking, which helps in problem-solving and avoiding conflict.

Adolescent boys actually show a     4     decline, between the ages of 13 and 16, in a related skill—“affective empathy,” or the ability to recognize and respond to others’ feelings. This may be the result, at least in part, of a     5     rise in the primary male sex hormone, during adolescence, which sparks a desire for dominance and power. Fortunately, the boys’ sensitivity     6     in their late teens. Girls’ affective empathy remains relatively high and stable throughout adolescence.

This doesn’t mean, however, that we can do nothing but just wait for teenagers to develop a feeling of empathy. In fact, parents can help instill(灌输) affective empathy into their children. Affective empathy is     7     in marginal region of the brain, which regulates emotions. This capacity begins to develop in infancy. Children learn to practice empathy by watching their parents and by experiencing it themselves—being well treated by adults who sensitively respond to their emotions. While cognitive empathy arises from a different part of the brain, the two abilities are linked. Children’s affective empathy     8     their level of cognitive empathy as teens.

The findings reflect a major     9     in researchers’ understanding of cognitive growth during adolescence. They used to believe that both forms of empathy were fully     10     in childhood. Now, it is clear that “the brain regions that support social cognition, which helps us successfully understand and interact with others, continue to change dramatically” in our teens, says Jennifer Pfeifer at the University of Oregon. Research in her lab also suggests that cognitive empathy rises in teens. The discoveries serve as a new lens for exploring such teen behavior as bullying and drug abuse.

3 . Directions: Complete the following passage by using the words in the box. Each word can only be used once. Note that there is one word more than you need.

A. stillness       B. refuge   C. thundering   D. withered   E. oppressive F. unattended G. gripped       H. creaked   I. approaching J. somewhere   K. hastily

On the morning of the first of September, Scarlett awoke with suffocating sense of dread upon her, a dread she had taken to her pillow the night before. She thought, dulled with sleep: ‘What was it that I was worrying about when I went to bed last night? Oh, yes the fighting. There was a battle,     1    ,yesterday! Oh, who won?’ She sat up    2    , rubbing her eyes, and her worried heart took up yesterday’s load again.

The air was    3     even in the early morning hour, hot with the scorching promise of a noon of glaring blue sky and pitiless bronze sun. The road outside lay silent. No wagons    4     by. No troops raised the red dust with their tramping feet, no pleasant sounds of breakfasts being prepared, for all the near neighbors except Mrs. Meade and Mrs. Merriwether had sought    5    in Macon. And she could hear nothing from their houses either. Farther down the street the business section was quiet and many of the stores and offices were locked and boarded up, while their occupants were somewhere about the countryside with rifles in their hands.

The     6    that greeted her seemed even more sinister this morning than on any of the mornings of the queer quiet week preceding it. She rose quickly, without her usual preliminary burrows and stretches, and went to the window, hoping to see some neighbor’s face, some heartening sight. But the road was empty. She noted how the leaves on the trees were still dark green but dry and heavily coated with red dust, and how     7    and sad the untended flowers in the front yard looked.

As she stood, looking out of the window, there came to her ears a far-off sound, faint and sullen as the first distant thunder of a(n)    8    storm.

‘Rain,’ she thought in the first moment, and her country-bred mind added, ‘We certainly need it.’ But, in a split instant: ‘Rain? No! Not rain! Cannon!’

Her heart racing she leaned from the window, her ear cocked to the far-off roaring, trying to discover from which direction it came. But the dim     9    was so distant that, for a moment, she could not tell. ‘Make it from Marietta,’ she prayed. ‘Or Decatur. But not from the south! Not from the south!’ She    10    the windowstill tighter and strained her ears and the far-away booming seemed louder. And it was coming from the south.

4 . Directions: Fill in each blank with a proper word chosen from the box. Each word can only be used once. Note that there is one word more than you need.

A. content B. demands   C. guard     D. depressed   E. prioritized   F. fits G. failure   H. meant   I. competed     J. mere     K. independent

Happiness, as the Brazilian poet Vinicius de Moracs put it, is “like a feather flying in the air. It flies light, but not for very long.”

Humans are not designed to be happy or even     1    . Instead, we are designed primarily to survive and reproduce, like every other creature in the natural world. A state of contentment is discouraged by nature because it would lower your     2     against possible threats to your survival.

Evolution has     3     the development of a big frontal lobe(脑叶)in our brain (which gives us excellent executive and analytical abilities) over a natural ability to be happy. Different geographical locations and circuits in the brain are each associated with certain neurological(神经系统的)and intellectual functions, but happiness, being a(n)     4     idea with no neurological basis, cannot be found in the brain tissue.

In fact, experts in this field argue that nature’s     5     to eliminate depression in the evolutionary process is due precisely to the fact that depression as an adaption plays a useful role in times of difficulty, by helping the     6     individual get away from risky and hopeless situations in which he or she cannot win.

Our emotions are mixed and at times contradictory, like everything else in our lives. Research has shown that positive and negative emotions can coexist in the brain relatively     7     of each other. This models show that the right hemisphere processes negative emotions preferentially, whereas positive emotions are dealt with by the left-sided brain.

It’s worth remembering, then, that we are not designed to be consistently happy. Instead, we are designed to survive and reproduce. These are difficult tasks, so we are     8     to struggle, seek safety, fight off threats and avoid pain. The model of competing emotions offered by coexisting pleasure and pain     9     our reality much better than the unachievable bliss(极乐)that the happiness industry is trying to sell us. In fact, pretending that any degree of pain is abnormal will only develop feelings of inadequacy and frustration.

So, if you are unhappy at times, this is not a shortcoming that     10     urgent repair. Far from it. This fluctuation(波动)is, in fact, what makes you human.

5 . Directions: Complete the following passage by using the words in the box. Each word can only be used once. Note that there is one word more than you need.

A. fatigue       B. qualified          C. challenge       D. routine       E. persistent F. meant        G. necessarily       H. fueled            I. suffer          J. recognize       K ideally

For the entirety of our life we have been coping with anxiety. But having some anxiety, especially in a stressful situation, isn’t     1     bad and can actually be beneficial, experts say. The right amount of anxiety can improve performance.

Anxiety is an uncomfortable emotion, often     2     by uncertainty. It can create intense, excessive and     3     worry and fear, not just about stressful events but also about everyday situations. There are usually physical symptoms too, like fast heart rate, muscle tension, rapid breathing, sweating and     4    .

Too much anxiety can be debilitating (使体弱力衰). But a normal amount is     5     to help keep us safe, experts say. “The emotion of anxiety and the underlying physiological stress response evolved to protect us,” Wendy Suzuki, a neuroscientist and the author of “Good Anxiety,” said, “Managing stress may be more useful than getting rid of it.” According to the Yerkes-Dodson Law, a theory that originated in the early 20th century from experiments on mice, increasing amounts of cognitive arousal, or stress, can improve performance — but only up to a certain point. The theory, represented by a curve shaped like a mountain, shows that after it peaks, greater levels of stress cause performance to     6    .

When anxiety is turned up too high, Dr. Suzuki added, it tends to become less useful. The first step in controlling anxiety that holds you back is to     7     when you’re feeling overly anxious and try to dial it down.

A certain degree of anxiety can help people prepare for a potential     8    , remain cautious and stay organized. But if anxiety is making you “uncomfortable more often than not” or interfering with     9     functioning and preventing you from living the life you want to live, that signals the need for additional support,     10     from a mental health professional.

6 . Directions: Fill in each blank with a proper word chosen from the box. Each word can only be used once. Note that there is one word more than you need.

A. grounded B. thrives C. taper off D. absent E. vulnerability F. fantasizing G. hang out H. illusion I. digestive J. compromised K. survive

Many people seek love or to be in a relationship , but that involves growth which can at times be painful, compromised and vulnerability. Love demands that we constantly improve, be more understanding and practice patience. Here are 5 signs you were never in Love.

One, you move things fast with your partner. Infatuation (obsession)     1     on speed while love takes time to develop. Relationship expert Susan Winter says “Infatuation lives in     2    . Love can survive reality”. When you’re quick to jump in a relationship with someone, you base it off your dreams more than whose really in front of you. Common examples include     3     about your future with them, lusting after them, and obsessing about them, all done only after a few weeks of knowing them.

Two, you expect them to be flawless, and then you get angry or disappointed when they show you their true colors. Winter states that, ‘Infatuation needs perfection in order to     4    . ‘When you expect your partner to be consistently well dressed, good with their words or impressive with their accomplishments, you’re not giving them space to be honest with you. Love, on the other hand, is     5    . When you love someone, you accept their imperfections, work through the bad and enjoy the good together.

Three, you’re not comfortable enough around them. Okay, who has not felt self conscious about saying the wrong thing or making a bad impression? But when you truly fall in love in someone, that’s when you can let loose and stop caring so much. Doctor Brennade Brown research expert on     6     discovered that those who have a strong sense of love and belonging are more open to vulnerability. Whereas those who feel disconnected with their partners consistently build their walls up. When you don’t share your emotions and struggles, nor secrets with someone, you haven’t fully loved.

Four, you become more distant. It’s normal for passion to intensify initially only to     7     into a steady relationship. But two people in love will still want to be around each other frequently. If you find yourself wanting to get away from your partner more and more these days, cancelling dinner plans often because you’d rather go     8     with your friends or family or cat, then something’s up.

Five. You’ve developed anxiety. Have you been experiencing     9     problems or have trouble sleeping? Psychologist K. Bylist say that anxiety can show in this bodily dysfunctions. You might have something you need to get off your chest and dread how to break the news off to your partner. Remember, you can only run away from the truth for so long before it catches up to you. Forcing love when it’s     10     will only hurt the two of you. Both of you deserve to find love elsewhere if it cannot be found in your relationship.

7 . 选用适当的单词或短语补全短文。

A. influence   B. devoted     C. physically   D. circumstance   E. affected F. overall     G. financially   H. decision   I. positive       J. strive     K. joyful

Happiness, according to the Oxford English dictionary, is based on luck or good fortune. Joy on the other hand, is described as a vivid emotion of pleasure. Thus, happiness depends on     1    ; joy, on our emotional well-being.

If you know joyful people, you will probably notice common traits among them. Joyful people are often healthy, both     2     and mentally; they value strong     3     relationships, and they don’t allow the extremes of life -- sudden highs or sudden lows -- to     4     them too much. Joyful people lead a more stable life. But these abilities do not just arrive; they have to be worked at.

Teaching ourselves to be joyful may be one of the greatest things we can do to enhance our     5     health. However, it is important to understand that joy is an emotion that arises from within us and is not     6     by the things that happen to us. Instead of looking for external things to provide happiness in our lives, we must     7     to find the joy within. We must educate ourselves about joy and work to enhance it in our lives. One way to start is to make a     8     to wake up every morning and find joy in our lives. Think about a special person or a     9     pet. It is our choice to be joyful or fearful. Let’s take the time to train ourselves to be    10     -- our lives will be both happier and healthier for it.

8 . Directions: Complete the passage with the words in the box. Each word can only be used once. Note there is one more word than you need.

A. retire        B. ran       C. settle       D. count       E. honor       F. challenge G. worthy        H. responsibility       I. fulfillment       J. curiosity       K. divides

When I was a young man, I though life was all about me — about how I’d make my way in the world, become successful, and get the things I want. But then the two of you came into my world with all your     1     and mischief and those smiles that never fail to fill my heart and light up my day. And suddenly, all my big plans for myself didn’t seem so important anymore. I soon found that the greastest joy in my life was the joy I saw in yours. And I realized that my own life wouldn’t     2     for much unless I was able to ensure that you had every opportunity for happiness and     3     in yours. In the end, girls, that’s why I     4     for President: because of what I want for you and for every child in this nation.

I want all our children to go to schools     5     of their potential — schools that     6     them, inspire them, and instill in them a sense of wonder about the world around them. I want them to have the chance to go to college — even if their parents aren’t rich. And I want them to get good jobs: jobs that pay well and give them benefits like health care, jobs that let them spend time with their own kids and     7     with dignity.

I want us to push the boundaries of discovery so that you’ll live to see new technologies and inventions that improve our lives and make our planet cleaner and safer. And I want us to push our own human boundaries to reach beyond the     8     of race and region, gender and religion that keep us from seeing the best in each other.

Sometimes we have to send our young men and women into war and other dangerous situations to protect our country — but when we do, I want to make sure that it is only for a very good reason, that we try our best to     9     our differences with others peacefully, and that we do everything possible to keep our servicemen and women safe. And I want every child to understand that the blessings these brave Americans fight for are not free — that with the great privilege of being a citizen of this nation comes great     10    .

9 . Directions: Complete the following passage by using the words in the box. Each word can only be used once. Note that there is one word more than you need.

A. adopting	B. delight	C. differently	D. employ	E. help	F. instructed
G. predicted	H. regulate	I. orderly	J. shifting	K. surprisingly

All Weekends Can Be Holidays

There is a reason most people return to work Monday feeling no better than they did Friday afternoon. Exhaustion and stress on the job are problems for two out of three workers, and weekends usually aren’t much    1    , studies shows.

New research suggests a rather    2    simple solution: Pretend your weekend is a vacation.

People    3    to adopt a vacation mindset on the weekend returned to work feeling happier and more refreshed, without spending any additional money or time off, according to research on nearly 1,000 full-time workers. Although participants spent a little more time eating and staying with loved ones, researchers found after controlling the results for specific behaviors that just one factor — their increased focus on the present moment, or mindfulness —     4     greater happiness. Cassie Holmes, a researcher on the project, said, “Merely    5    how you’re thinking can have these wonderful effects on your emotional experience and your time.”

This doesn’t always require changing your    6     weekend routine. It may mean just thinking about and prioritizing activities    7    . Interviews with a dozen people who consciously cultivate mindfulness on the weekend offer insights into the time management and planning skills they    8    .

Mindfulness has been shown in research to improve self-control, helping people    9    their emotions. Those who enjoy vacations tend to take great    10    in positive emotions, expanding feelings of joy and happiness, according to a 2018 study.