1 . A few years back I worked in a university building that also housed a department full of psychologists, all of whom seemed to see us as perfect guinea pigs（豚鼠） for their latest theories. If an eager graduate student showed up in my office bearing desserts and asked me to pick one, I'd cast a careful glance and ask “Why?” before grabbing the apple pie.
So one day, when someone from the Psychology Department posted instructions in the bathroom persuading all of us to “Think about five things for which you're grateful every day for a week!”, my response was frankly doubtful. I did the math. Five things a day for seven days is a lot of brainpower to expend without so much as the promise of an apple pie.
I wandered into the office of Heidi Zetzer, the director of our school's Psychological Services Clinic.“What's with the gratitude thing?”I asked. You don't ask an academic question－even a simple one unless you're prepared for a long answer. Heidi came alive, and I sat down. That's when I first heard the term “positive psychology”. The gratitude thing, as I had called it, was but one small and simple element of the practice. “Kind of like training the brain to focus on joy,” my friend Heidi explained. “It's only a week,” she urged. “Try it.” I did. And guess what? It worked.
Every day for a week, I found five distinct things for which I was thankful. They had to be different every day. I couldn't get away with just being grateful for my wonderful husband. But I could, suggested Collie Conoley, another positive psychologist, express my gratitude for specific aspects of a certain person each day. He's a great cook. He always puts our family first.
Life will never be perfect. I still see new stories that annoy me. The traffic in my city is maddening. I wish I could speed up my recovery. But with just one simple exercise, I'm rediscovering the peace of that old saying: accepting the things I can't change, working without complaint to change what I can, and being wise enough to know the difference.
And all it took was a little gratitude.
1. What's the author's attitude toward the student with desserts?| A．Cautious. | B．Respectful. |
| C．Indifferent. | D．Supportive. |
| A．Because she thought it wasn't worth the effort. |
| B．Because she didn't like expressing thanks often. |
| C．Because she needed to ask her friend to do it first. |
| D．Because she could do five things every day easily. |
| A．Be grateful to her wonderful husband. |
| B．Be thankful for things but not people. |
| C．Be a great cook and put her family first. |
| D．Be specific about what she's thankful for. |
| A．Don't Be Bothered by Small Things |
| B．We Can Change Everything If We Want |
| C．Practicing Gratitude Changed My Life |
| D．Being Grateful to One Good Person |
2 . When young, I loved going on trail（小路） runs. It was my favorite way to escape stress. So, when I was back in my hometown after a tough first year of my Ph. D. program, I thought a trail run was just what I needed. But instead of helping me relax, the run did just the opposite.
After I moved to the city for college, where my runs were on flat concrete paths instead of winding dirt trails, I used a GPS watch. When I went on trail runs again in the country, it constantly reminded me of the fact that I wasn’t keeping up with my usual pace. I turned my watch off, thinking that would allow me to enjoy my surroundings and find the peace I expected, but I worried I was underperforming. “Why can’ t I let go and just enjoy myself?” I wondered. But after some introspection（反省）, I realized why I was struggling—both on trail runs and in graduate school.
Going into my Ph. D. , I had thought that my solid undergraduate track record would set me up for instant success. To my surprise, I was wrong. I lacked confidence in my research abilities which I thought stopped me performing well and I constantly felt my progress was too slow. Other students’ self-confidence and their excellent results made me feel insecure. Finally, one day I broke down in tears in my adviser’ s office.
Then came my visit home: I was having trouble because I hadn’ t properly adjusted my expectations to the differences between an urban run and a trail run.
A Ph. D. is like a trail run: Sometimes you can run fast. Sometimes you might find yourself climbing up a steep, winding trail at a snail’ s pace. And that’ s OK. Barriers are unavoidable, and success looks and feels different on a challenging trail than it does on a smooth, flat path. Sometimes it’ s best to take a deep breath and do your best to meet the challenge.
1. How did the author feel when he was on trail runs again?| A．Relaxed. | B．Tired. |
| C．Anxious. | D．Happy. |
| A．His lack of confidence. | B．His lack of hard work. |
| C．His poor research abilities. | D．His poor track record. |
| A．His desire for success. | B．His confidence of trail runs. |
| C．His expectations in his study. | D．His realization after the trail run. |
| A．Failure is the mother of success. |
| B．Working out regularly is beneficial. |
| C．It’ s important to make necessary adjustments. |
| D．It’ s vital to turn to others for help. |
3 . The bus screamed to a stop in Nazareth, Israel. Five Australian backpackers boarded and struck up a conversation with me. They asked typical travelers’ questions—where was I going and why was I traveling alone? My plan was to travel with a friend of a friend, I explained, but when I called her that morning, she didn’t pick up and I had no other way to reach her. My stomach was in knots, but I decided to head out anyway, thinking I might run into her if I traveled to Tiberius, where we had planned to go together.
“Why don’t you travel with us?” one of the backpackers offered. They were experienced adventurers who would work for a few months, save, then travel for as long as they could. Their current plan was to explore the Middle East and Europe in three months while working in London.
It seemed risky to travel with strangers, but my instinct said yes. For the next two weeks, I explored Israel with the backpackers and learned to trust my instincts in all types of new and interesting situations. When they hook a ride, I took the bus, but when they wanted to steal into the King David Hotel’s swimming pool, I led the way. The world opened up to me because I chose to travel alone. I joined complete strangers, who become close friends. Years later, one couple from the backpacking group even flew from Sydney to Phoenix to be in my wedding. The trip was such a special experience that it gave me confidence in all areas of my life. Since then, I’ve backpacked alone across South Africa, sky-dived from 12,000 feet in New Zealand and even moved across the U.S. with no job lined up.
On my third day wandering in Israel with my new friends, I bumped into the woman I was supposed to meet. Though I was happy she was all right, I was grateful she hadn’t picked up the phone.
1. By “My stomach was in knots” (in paragraph 1), the author most likely means that she was ______.| A．sick of riding on a bumpy bus | B．nervous of meeting strangers |
| C．upset about the sudden change | D．sorry about the impractical plan |
| A．Courageous but disrespectful. | B．Jobless and poorly educated. |
| C．Warmhearted and trustworthy. | D．Homeless but lighthearted. |
| A．she would get along with the backpackers | B．it might cause trouble to have a swim |
| C．she ought to stay away from the backpackers | D．it could add excitement to get a free ride |
| A．Most of the backpackers became the author’s lifelong friends. |
| B．The author gathered the courage to be a fulltime backpack traveler. |
| C．The woman missed the phone call with the purpose of traveling alone. |
| D．The author considered it the best decision of her life to travel on her own. |
4 . The family of a 6-year-old adopted Chinese girl who badly needs a bone marrow transplant (骨髓移植) believes they have found a match in China.
Kailee Wells suffers from a serious aplastic anemia (再生障碍性贫血), which prevents bone marrow from producing new blood cells. She has taken courses of treatment but has shown little sign of recovery.
The best help for such patients is a transplant of healthy marrow or blood cells from a suitable donor. Certain tissue of the patient and the donor must match.
Kailee’s mother, Linda Wells, made her second trip to China earlier this month to find a donor. Her husband, Owen Wells, said that his wife believed doctors there had found a match.
“For these last 22 months, we’ve been living in fear that Kailee would take a turn for the worse and there would be nothing we could do about it,” he said. “Now we have something we can use and save our little girl. We are just about ready to start jumping up and down and rejoicing.”
Wells said a Chinese girl who is about a year old has a blood sample that matches Kailee’s perfectly. The next step, he said, would be to make sure the sample is safely harvested and protected for transplant, the details of which have yet to be worked out.
Linda Wells first traveled to China in February to try to locate the girl’s birth mother, who is likely to be a match. But she found no relatives and decided to try again this month.
“This gives us so much encouragement because now we found what we thought we would never be able to find for Kailee,” Owen Wells said. “We’re going to continue our blood donor drive to try to continue to help as many people as we possibly can. We’re just so happy.”
1. What do we know about Kailee Wells?| A．She was adopted by a Chinese family. |
| B．She has a one-year-old sister in China. |
| C．She was recovering from aplastic anemia. |
| D．She is unable to produce new blood cells. |
| A．waving | B．moving |
| C．cheering | D．crying |
| A．Linda Wells has found the girl’s birth mother. |
| B．Owen and Linda tried every means to cure Kailee. |
| C．Doctors have worked out plans to protect the sample. |
| D．Owen and Linda visited China twice to find a perfect match. |
| A．Long and deep friendship between two families. | B．Faith leads to hope. |
| C．Match found for a bone marrow transplant. | D．The journey to China. |
5 . One February afternoon, Jesus Delgado was on break behind T2 Tacos, where he works as a cook, when he heard a commotion(骚动). He ran to the front of the Los Angeles Taco stand and saw a man and a woman arguing. She was screaming for help and had two young boys at her side. All of a sudden, the man hit her in the mouth, seized the smaller boy, and ran down the street .
“1 followed my judgement and chased him.” Jesus, 35, told the Argonaut newspaper. The older boy ran in the other direction to get help. A group of teenagers who had witnessed the attack assisted the woman, Lauren Kornacki, and called 911. She told them that she was the boys’ babysitter.
Within a few blocks, Jesus caught up to the man, Andron Gazarov, 33. They fought, and Jesus wrestled (抢夺) the young boy from Gazarov’s arms. Then Gazarov threw himself onto the sidewalk. “He was yelling at me that the kid didn’t belong to me. I was telling him the kid didn’t belong to him,” Jesus told the Argonaut.
Minutes later, Los Angeles police officers arrived and arrested Gazarov, who was charged with kidnapping, attempted kidnapping, and attack. He faces up to 12 years in prison, if convicted (定罪). The kids, Brendan O’Brien, 6, and Grady O’ Brien, 4, were unharmed.
The next night, the boys’ father, Tom O’Brien, went to the Taco stand to thank Jesus for his actions. He also started an online fund to help Jesus pay the medical expenses for his special-needs daughter. By May, more than $27,000 had been raised.
1. Why were the man and the woman arguing at the Los Angeles Taco stand?| A．The woman’s scream annoyed the man. |
| B．The man was trying to take away a boy from the woman. |
| C．The man’s break was disturbed by the woman with two children. |
| D．The woman was hit by the man in the mouth. |
| A．Gazarov has been sentenced to 12 years in prison. |
| B．Not both kids were harmed, but frightened. |
| C．The boys’ parents went to thank Jesus for his brave actions. |
| D．Many people offered support to Jesus Delgado’s daughter in need. |
| A．The Cook, Who Ran after and Caught a Kidnapper |
| B．Los Angeles, a City with Warm-hearted Citizens |
| C．Cooperation, the Key to Solving Tough Problems |
| D．T2 Tacos, a Dangerous Place for Kids |
| A．Jesus Delgado |
| B．Lauren Kornacki |
| C．Tom O’brien |
| D．Brendan O’brien |
6 . I’ve never been the kind of person to say, “it’s the thought that counts” when it comes to gifts. That was until a couple of weeks ago, when my kids gave me a present that blew me away.
For years now, I’ve been wanting to sell our home, the place where my husband and I raised our kids. But to me, this house is much more than just a building.
In the front room, there’s a wall that has hundreds of pencil lines, marking the progress of my children’s growth.
Every growth stage is marked in grey, with each child’s name and the date they were measured. Of all the objects and all the memories, it’s this one thing in a home that’s the hardest to leave behind. Friends I know have returned home after work only to discover their wall of heights has been freshly painted over. A new paint job wouldn’t normally be greeted by tears, but erasing that evidence of motherhood hurts more than it should. Our kids grow in so many ways, but the wall is physical evidence of their progress, right there for everyone to see.
Over the years, I’ve talked about how much I would hate leaving that wall behind when I moved, even though the last marks were made 10 years ago when my kids stopped growing.
So one day, while I was at work, my children decided to do something about it.
They hired Jacquie Manning, a professional photographer whose work is about capturing (捕捉) the beautiful things in life, from clear lakes and skies to diamonds and ballgowns (舞会礼服).
She came to our house while I was at work, and over several hours, took photos of the hundreds of drawings and lines, little grey fingerprints (手印), and old marks. Somehow, she managed to photograph all those years of memories perfectly. Afterwards, she put all the photos together into one image, transforming them into a beautiful history of my family.
Three weeks later, my children’s wonderful gift made its way to me—a life-size photo of the pencil lines and fingerprints that represents entire lifetimes of love and growth.
1. The underlined phrase in Para. I “blew me away” probably means “________”.| A．attracted me | B．surprised me |
| C．accepted me | D．refused me |
| A．A house. | B．Buildings. |
| C．An object. | D．Memories. |
| A．Finding the wall repainted. |
| B．Erasing the fingerprints. |
| C．Greeting them by tears. |
| D．Leaving the wall unfinished. |
| A．Gift Made with Love |
| B．Buildings Made by Children |
| C．A Very Wonderful Painting |
| D．A Family History |
7 . On a Sunday morning, I was driving down a road and saw something I couldn’t believe. A little girl, less than two, was pushing her stroller (婴儿车) across the road. It was Sunday morning and traffic was not heavy.
I stopped my car at once and ran toward her. This little girl knew enough to run from a stranger. I tried to catch her in order that I could get her out of the road. Suddenly her father came running down a hill across the road from where I had parked my car. He ran right to her and caught her up, saying “bad girl” to her. I picked up the stroller and gave it to him. The father grabbed (抓住) the stroller and walked toward where he came from without a word. I went back and sat in my car for a few minutes with my son. My hands were shaking and tears were about to run out of my eyes. “Do you feel cold, Mom?” asked my son. I just shook my head.
After this happened, I thought about how thankful I am. Even though the father didn’t say thank you, I feel that I did something good. Doing something for someone else is pleasing, even when it’s only a matter of being in the right place at the right time. I didn’t really “save” her, but I feel like it was important that I happened to be there. It is sad that I was the only one who stopped. It really made me a little disappointed that no one else stopped to help.
1. When the author saw the little girl, _____.| A．the girl had lost her way |
| B．she was driving to work in a hurry |
| C．the girl feared to go across the road |
| D．there weren’t many cars on the road |
| A．she wanted to stay on the road |
| B．she didn’t know the author at all |
| C．she wanted to look for her father |
| D．she needed to catch her stroller |
| A．Because she was not feeling well. |
| B．Because she was too excited to keep calm. |
| C．Because the weather was very cold at that time. |
| D．Because she failed to be understood by the girl’s father. |
| A．really necessary |
| B．worth praising |
| C．not welcome |
| D．not useful |
