1 . When I first began to learn photography, a photographer offered me a simple ______ for taking a good picture.

Don’t just “point and ______ ”, as one camera used to advertise. After ______ your intended subject through the lens(镜头), pause and think about how you ______ in the moment. Then after deciding the specific part of your subject that ______ that emotion, simply cut away everything else and press the button. ______ : focus on what matters most.

This advice could also be applied to ______ . Focus on what matters most; ______ everything else. When we go about our lives with little ______ or difficulty, we may be tempted to “take it all in” and thus ______ to focus on what matters most and find it ______ to get rid of unnecessary things.

All is too often it is not until our lives are in ______ that we suddenly realize that we’ve ______ our focus. We have ______ paid attention to the important aspects of existence—justice, kindness, and humanity. ______, we actually have a chance to focus again. As we make difficult ______ about what offers meaning and purpose, we may discover that even ______ things have the potential to turn good and ______ . We just need to reframe the ______ before us. Then we can ______ and pay attention to the meaningful things of life.

1.

A．example

B．reward

C．tip

D．course

2.

A．shoot

B．reframe

C．catch

D．focus

3.

A．recognizing

B．considering

C．designing

D．spotting

4.

A．behave

B．feel

C．stand

D．play

5.

A．maintained

B．aroused

C．recalled

D．recovered

6.

A．In other words

B．As a whole

C．In a way

D．On the contrary

7.

A．work

B．photography

C．life

D．study

8.

A．lose track of

B．make use of

C．get hold of

D．let go of

9.

A．surprise

B．challenge

C．happiness

D．regret

10.

A．struggle

B．fail

C．intend

D．expect

11.

A．tough

B．strange

C．helpless

D．aimless

12.

A．surprise

B．doubt

C．crisis

D．pride

13.

A．abandoned

B．cancelled

C．misplaced

D．forget

14.

A．merely

B．rarely

C．always

D．sometimes

15.

A．Thus

B．Moreover

C．Instead

D．However

16.

A．comments

B．requests

C．promises

D．decisions

17.

A．impossible

B．active

C．negative

D．complex

18.

A．beautiful

B．long

C．fresh

D．memorable

19.

A．picture

B．figure

C．memory

D．story

20.

A．react

B．relax

C．reappear

D．refocus

2 . What is talent? Are you born with it? Or does it seem to develop over time? Before I start, I’d like to say that one thing everyone agrees on is that the most skilled musicians have worked hard to get there.

While it’s true that a few of us had enough “talent” to avoid extra practice to do just as well as those who did, those who worked hard easily beat us. It is, in fact, very likely that if some of us “talented ones” had actually been practicing and improving our skill, we would have achieved a whole different level.

Another aspect of talent seems to be heart and passion (酷爱). The people I see who are the most talented musicians are crazy about music. They eat, breathe, and live music and they make an extraordinary effort to make it part of their lives. As Remus Badea said, desire for the musician-to-be is significant for them to be successful. This desire is easily found in those considered to be talented. When you want and love something so bad, it drives you and your entire character can be shaped around it. Such determined passion seems to produce incredible skill and talent.

The third aspect (方面) of talent is having talent around you. When surrounded by talented musicians, it only seems natural that you start to catch up to their level Take a look at almost any group of musicians in history. The more talented people in the group the more talented the group is as a whole. A great example of this is the relationship between audio producer and artist. The artist turns up to the studio with their song, and as they work through recording it, the audio producer will often suggest various changes to the song to make it better.

1. What can we learn from Paragraph 2?

A．Pride goes before a fall.

B．It’s never too old to learn.

C．Practice contributes to talent.

D．Talent determines achievements.

2. What is the key to success according to Remus Badea?

A．Passion.

B．Character .

C．Skill.

D．Talent.

3. Why is the example mentioned in the last paragraph?

A．To introduce what real talents are.

B．To explain how a song is composed.

C．To prove talents need team spirit.

D．To show the benefits of being with talents.

4. What might the author probably agree with?

A．Music has no limits.

B．Musicians are born with talent.

C．Music favors the talented.

D．Musicians are created, not born.

3 . A study of violinists found that merely good players practised as much as better players, leaving other factors such as quality of education, learning skills and perhaps natural talent to account for the difference.

This finding challenges the 10, 000-hour rule promoted in Malcolm Gladwell’s 1993 study of violinists and pianists. Gladwell states that enough practice will make an expert of anyone. “The idea has been popular and entrenched in our culture for years. It’s not an idiom but an overstatement,” said Brooke Macnamara, the lead author. “When it comes to human skill, a complex combination of environmental factors and genetic factors explains the performance differences across people.”

Macnamara and her colleagues set out to repeat part of the 1993 study to see whether they reached the same conclusion. They interviewed three groups of 13 violinists regarded as best, good, or less accomplished about their practice habits, before having them complete daily diaries of their activities over a week. While the less skillful violinists reached an average of about 6,000 hours of practice by the age of 20, there was little to separate the good from the best, with each reaching an average of about 11,000 hours. In all, the number of hours spent practising accounted for about a quarter of the skill difference across the three groups.

Macnamara believes practice is less of a driver. “Once you get to the highly skilled groups, practice stops accounting for the difference. Everyone has practised a lot and other factors are at play in determining who goes on to a higher level,” she said. “The factors depend on the skill being learned: in chess it could be intelligence or working memory; in sport it may be how efficiently a person uses oxygen. To complicate matters further, one factor can drive another. Children who enjoy playing the violin, for example, may be happy to practise because they do not see it as a trouble.”

The authors of the 1993 study are unimpressed. Macnamara said it was important for people to understand the limits of practice, though. “Practice makes you better than you were yesterday, most of the time,” she said. “But it might not make you better than your neighhour or the other kid in your violin class.”

1. What does the underlined word “entrenched” in paragraph 2 probably mean?

A．Rooted.

B．Advanced.

C．Changed.

D．Unconfirmed.

2. What can we learn about Macnamara’s study?

A．It convinced Malcolm Gladwell.	B．It involved violinists and pianists.
C．Its process was similar to the 1993 study.	D．Its result is consistent with the 1993 study.

3. What does Macnamara find about highly skilled people?

A．Practicing for 11,000 hours is their main driver.

B．They enjoy keeping diaries about their progress.

C．Environmental factors have little relation to their success.

D．More practice makes little difference to their further progress.

4. What is the best title for the text?

A．What makes an expert?	B．Does practice make perfect?
C．The early bird catches the worm	D．Enthusiasm is the key to success