1 . Ask most people which day of the week they fear the most and the answer is likely to be Monday. The first day of the working week can make us depressed.     1    

The most depressing day of the year is the third Monday in January, when it’s cold and dark outside. This day was named “Blue Monday” by psychologist Cliff Arnall. Even if there was little science behind Blue Monday, it’s probably true that the sound of our alarm clock on any Monday morning means the coming of a new working week and possibly the end of our weekend of fun.     2     It’s what psychologists call an emotional shift, and no other part of the week has a transition(过渡) like it.

Apparently, Monday means the end of weekend lie-ins.     3     According to a website, “If you can’t stand your job, then the Monday blues can be very real.” And it can be especially difficult to start another seemingly endless workweek. Your case of the Mondays can have a negative impact on your performance, productivity and the people around you.

    4     Feeling a bit low shouldn’t be confused with more serious depression, caused by other factors. Claudia Hammond, an author and presenter, argues that this low feeling might be untrue.     5     She mentions an Australian study of how people reflected on their mood and found the day that scored the lowest was in fact Wednesdays. So, when Monday comes, maybe we should give it a second chance!

A．But is Monday as bad as we like to think it is?

B．What exactly makes us feel down remains unknown.

C．Weekends are definitely happy days in all countries.

D．That’s why the feeling is described as the Monday blues.

E．There is a strong cultural idea that we don’t like Mondays.

F．Our Monday mood can be based on a direct comparison to the day before.

G．It’s back to the routine and the realization that there are five days of working ahead.

2 . The human mind suffers from a lot of stress and anxiety in daily life. There are many sounds that can help the people to concentrate on current situation or matters.     1     The following is the best relaxing music to improve your concentration.

Classical music is music played with instruments including orchestra, sitar, etc.     2     It is best for introverts (内向的人) as well as for the people who want to focus on their studies and want to be quiet.

Spa music is the music that is used in spa centers. This music has special slow beats which arouse the relaxing cells. It feels relaxing and good to the mind and ear. These sounds are used as a soul spa therapy in many countries.

    3     Sounds of whispering grass, the hustle of leaves, the humming of birds, sound of the raindrop, a cool breeze, a wind, etc. These sounds greatly affect the ability to do work and provide relaxation to mind and soul.

Electrical music is also instrumental music, but it is different from classical. Classical is Sufi music. On the other hand, this music is produced with the help of new digital instruments and devices.     4     Mostly, it is composed of beats or instrumental sounds.

These mentioned sounds are those few that help the people to rebuild their concentration.     5     Some introverts like slow and rhythmic music while some like sounds with lyrics (歌词). Hence, it depends on the mental ability and nature of the people.

A．This music has no or fewer lyrics.

B．Nature beat consists of natural sounds.

C．Most of the music have unknown original authors.

D．Music isn’t just a means of entertaining ourselves.

E．The selection of music varies from person to person.

F．This music is also related to the soul of religious music.

G．So many people do music therapy to stabilize their minds.

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. 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.

4 . We’ve all heard the expression, “Money doesn’t buy happiness.” Since happiness is a side effect of laughter, shift your focus from the secret of happiness to experiences that bring you laughter. Instead of asking yourself “How can I be happy?”, ask “What makes me laugh?” This approach creates space for more actionable practices.     1    

•Look at the situation through a child’s eyes.

When times get stressful, take a moment to think about how you saw things as a kid. The more we can experience that childlike wonder and enthusiasm, the less we sweat even the big stuff.

•Add laughter to your mornings.

    2     Therefore, laughter should be right up there with brushing your teeth on your priority list. If you’re short on time, kill two birds and brush your teeth to a funny YouTube clip (短视频)!

•Learn to laugh at yourself.

Relieving yourself of pressure is the joy of learning to laugh at yourself. It also allows you to show more of your true self.     3     And set an intention to find humor in hardship. Merely laughing will fight off depression and fill you with light.

•     4    

There is no better way to practice laughing at yourself than going outside your comfort zone. From learning German to taking up rollerblading and Zumba, plenty of new activities will fuel your laughter. With so many ways to laugh more, why wait for your bit of happiness?     5     A bit of laughter can be the best medicine!

A．Hang out with friends.

B．Take up something new.

C．Permit yourself to be silly.

D．Morning routines set the tone for the entire day.

E．Read on four ways to get your daily amount of laughter.

F．Money doesn’t buy happiness but it can help us find happiness.

G．Instead, try any of the ideas above, and start feeling better now.

5 . My mom taught me songs. However, she never taught me how to sing. Of course I never really learned the English ________ then, but I realize as I grow up that one does not really ________ to understand the language of a song in order to ________ it completely. I also realize that music has become an important aspect of my ________. I use music to ________ my emotions, my joys, and my sorrows. Also, music is an ________ aspect of our culture. For example, some people use music to celebrate weddings.

When I came to the UK I realized that music has ________ me to deal with times when I miss home. It has become my ________ and when I miss home, especially my mum,   I find myself ________ the songs that we used to sing together. ________ I hear a song that makes me think of my brother and I find myself smiling or crying.

People use ________ instruments to create music, yet none of the lyrics and ________ have similar effect on all of us. When I listened to people singing as they ________ the world cup, I realized that music can actually bring ________ to this world and through songs the people of this world can be ________ as one!

1.

A．interaction

B．gesture

C．club

D．language

2.

A．hope

B．plan

C．want

D．need

3.

A．enjoy

B．catch

C．create

D．remember

4.

A．history

B．life

C．home

D．story

5.

A．change

B．express

C．hide

D．record

6.

A．essential

B．initial

C．outstanding

D．appropriate

7.

A．persuaded

B．helped

C．forced

D．employed

8.

A．nature

B．protection

C．hobby

D．habit

9.

A．dancing to

B．performing

C．listening to

D．writing

10.

A．Seldom

B．Sometimes

C．Strangely

D．Suddenly

11.

A．similar

B．suitable

C．wonderful

D．different

12.

A．poems

B．movies

C．videos

D．sounds

13.

A．hosted

B．discussed

C．celebrated

D．missed

14.

A．peace

B．creation

C．instruments

D．police

15.

A．made

B．considered

C．united

D．shared

6 . Nature has developed the emotional state we call anger to help us stay alive. Anger energizes us to prepare us for action. It can be used either in productive ways or just the opposite. When we feel energized by anger, we might ask ourselves how we put this energy to the most productive use.

Perhaps the most helpful thing to remember about anger is that it is a secondary emotion. A primary feeling is what is felt immediately before we feel angry. We might first feel afraid, attacked, offended, trapped, or disrespected. If any of these feelings are intense enough, we think of the emotion as anger. Generally speaking, secondary feelings do not identify the unmet emotional need. When all I can say is “I feel angry”, neither I nor any one else knows what would help me feel better. A helpful technique, then, is to always identify the primary emotion.

Assume someone wants us to do something we prefer not to do. At first we feel a little pressured, but not enough to get angry. When they keep pushing us, we begin to get irritated. If they continue, we get angry. Such anger damages relationships.

If we feel angry, it is evident that we feel strongly about something. Instead of saying, “I can’t believe how irresponsible she is. What a cold-hearted, evil witch she is.” A more productive response is: “Am I really upset by this? Why does it bother me so much? What specifically am I feeling?” From the answers, we can decide to pick the best one to calm the anger. As soon as we “upshift” and begin to think about our options and their consequences, we start to feel more in control and less threatened. We get out of the automatic stimulus-response mode and realize that we have choices.

There is a quote from Victor Frankl that goes like this: “Between stimulus and response, there is a space. In that space lie our growth and freedom.”

1. What’s the author’s attitude towards anger?

A．Favorable.

B．Neutral.

C．Doubtful.

D．Negative.

2. What can we know about anger?

A．It reflects one’s intense feeling.	B．It refers to a minor emotion.
C．It can identify emotional need.	D．It surely causes a violent reaction.

3. What does Paragraph 4 mainly deal with?

A．What questions we ask about anger.	B．How we respond to the anger.
C．How we develop growth and freedom.	D．When we consider the consequence.

4. What is the text mainly about?

A．Ways to know about anger.	B．Reasons to arouse anger.
C．Managing anger in a good way.	D．Calming anger at the right time.

7 . 阅读下面短文在空白处填入1个适当的单词或括号内单词的正确形式。

One day something that upset me happened. It brought     1     (tear) to my eyes and made me angry. The incident took me out     2    balance and disturbed my inner peace.

To restore calm, I put on my outdoor equipment, grabbed my skis (滑雪板) and     3    (go) to the park. I skied at     4    slow steady pace. I listened to the sound of the snow beneath my skis and the wind blowing through the bare branches of the trees.

I was honest with myself,     5     (acknowledge) that I was angry and could let it go. With each pass around the park, I felt my inner peace returning. I began to hear the birds singing. I noticed the wind had filled in my tracks with snow in some areas, creating a clean snowfield. I felt the     6     (strong) of my arms and legs as they worked together     7     (make) the skiing an enjoyable experience. I felt the healing power of being in nature.

I forgave     8     (I) for reacting with anger when it served no purpose. I forgave those     9    gave me cause to lose my temper. My heart     10     (fill) with light and love for all that is.

8 . Humans are emotional beings, showing feelings in our behavior and facial expressions. But whether these mean the same thing in different cultures has been hotly debated. Now a new study has found that in different social contexts, such as weddings, funerals and sports, people indeed show universal facial expressions.

For the new study, Alan Cowen’s team used a machine learning model, Deep Neural Network (DNN), to systematically analyze facial expressions in thousands of different contexts. These contexts come from more than six million videos uploaded to You Tube between July 2009 and May 2018 by people in 144 countries.

Facial expressions were rated by English speakers in India by selecting applicable emotions from a list of 31 labels, resulting in a total of 16 distinct facial expressions. Meanwhile, contexts were classified in a separate experiment. The results showed that people from different cultures share about 70% of the facial expressions used in response to different social and emotional situations.

“This supports Darwin’s theory that expressing emotions in our faces is universal among humans,” the study co-lead author Dacher Keltner said. “The physical display of our emotions may define who we are as a species, enhancing our communication and cooperation skills and ensuring our survival.”

However, Lisa Barrett, from the Northeastern University College of Science notes that the English speakers in India were given the emotional word ratings rather than labeling the expressions themselves. They used emotion labels such as “anger”, “fear” and “sadness” instead of descriptive terms, thereby inferring the emotions behind the expressions.

She further comments that the raters (评定者) saw the faces in contexts which can’t necessarily be separated from the emotions themselves, and that the key point is that the raters are from just one country. “The ultimate value of Cowen and his colleagues’ study might lie not in the answers it provides,” she concludes, “but in the opportunity for further discovery that it opens up.”

1. What can we learn from the text?

A．The study is opposite to Darwin’s theory.

B．People in different cultures show similar facial expressions.

C．The team conducted the study by downloading facial expressions.

D．Facial expressions and contexts were classified in the same experiment.

2. How did Alan Cowen’s team conduct the study?

A．By using a learning machine.

B．By uploading videos to YouTube.

C．By analyzing facial expressions.

D．By using emotion labels.

3. What can we infer from Dacher Keltner’s words?

A．Social success is dependent on facial expressions.

B．Facial expressions have constantly changed over time.

C．Social skills reflect the ability of one’s expression management.

D．Facial expressions play a vital role in humans’ development.

4. What is Lisa Barrett’s attitude towards the study?

A．Objective.

B．Ambiguous.

C．Critical.

D．Contradictory.

9 . The Happy Man

The happy man lives objectively, and has free love and wide interests, through which he secures his happiness. To be the receivers of love is a vital cause of happiness, but the man who demands love is not the man to whom it is given.     1     But it is useless to attempt to give love as a calculation, for it is not sincere and is not felt.

What then can a man do who is unhappy because he is enclosed in self? If he is to get out of the vicious (恶性的) circle of unhappiness, it must be by true interests. But before that, he should analyze his trouble first.     2     If fear is his trouble, let him practice exercises designed to give courage.

Admit to himself every day at least one painful truth.     3     Exercises of this sort will enable him to admit facts and will free him from the fear to a large extent.

    4     Do not say to yourself in advance, “I should be happy if I could become interested in stamp-collecting,” and thus set to work to collect stamps, for it may well happen that you will altogether fail to find stamp-collecting interesting. You may be pretty sure that true objective interests will grow up as soon as you have learnt not to be self-centered.

All unhappiness depends upon lack of integration (融合). There is disintegration within the self,consciously and unconsciously or between the self and society.     5     Such a man feels himself a citizen of the universe, enjoying what it affords, untroubled by the death because he feels not separate from those who will come after him.

A．There is much he can do about it.

B．The man who receives love is the man who gives it.

C．The interests will arise when you overcome being self-centered.

D．The happy life is to an extraordinary extent the same as the good life.

E．Teach himself life is worth even not having great virtue or intelligence.

F．Self-denying leaves a man self-absorbed and aware of his own sacrifice.

G．Neither divided against the self nor the world, the happy man never fails to unite.

10 . Self-esteem is the ruling view you have of yourself. This includes your beliefs about your inner qualities and how you think others see you.     1     Someone can develop low self-esteem even when they are highly functional and greatly skilled. Understanding this mysterious emotional currency might be the key to unlocking your own self-worth.

People with healthy self-esteem don't need to boast about themselves to others. People with low self-esteem may tell you how much everyone loves them, what a great job they do at work, and how amazing they are at pretty everything under the sun even though they really wonder if it's true. People may see them as obnoxious or “full of themselves”.     2     They are not shy about sharing ideas, including constructive criticisms of others. They also take care of themselves without second-guessing or apologizing. They are the people who we say seem “sure of themselves”.

If you're starting to think you may have low self-esteem, you can work on the way you talk to yourself. When you turn off negative self-talk, you can open the floor to positive reinforcements and access the courage to show different sides of yourself. It isn't going to feel good at first, though. Keep going until it becomes less and less and maybe even a few awkward laughs in the mirror may help.     3    

However, in serious cases of low or even non-existent self-esteem, you may want to call in a professional or a specialist. Good mental health is important, and professionals doing psychotherapy do not pass judgement or give corrections.     4     It is the best way to get at the roots of your real self-esteem problems.

    5     It will take some work but your entire life — from your relationships to your body image to your work habits — will be touched with the kind of power that only comes from someone believing in themselves. This is the hardest part, and the greatest leap. With some changes and support, you can improve your self-esteem and see how everything else changes as a result.

A．Self-esteem is not always rooted in reality, though.

B．You have the power to shape a new self-perception.

C．This encourages you to speak openly without worry.

D．The real test of character is whether they can learn from their mistakes.

E．Self-esteem refers to a person's overall sense of his or her value or worth.

F．People with a healthy level of self-esteem present themselves with a casual confidence.

G．With some practice and persistence, you will win this internal struggle to see your self-worth.