1 . Signs That You Are Growing

Growing is a lifelong process. Here are the signs that show that you are actually growing and not getting stuck in the process.

    1    

Often, we see how badly people look when they get overly upset due to unimportant things. So the first sign of maturity (成熟) is letting the small things go and not getting angry over a tiny detail that didn’t go as you planned.

You start forgiving and understanding other people

When we are young, we are often unforgiving. As we mature, we are better able to understand the world beyond black and white.     2    . It enables us to look beyond the obvious and let go of simple judgments. We begin to understand better that others have complex (复杂的) lives and personalities, and so we become more willing to forgive their mistakes.

You always complete things that matter

Immature people don’t know when to commit (承诺) themselves and their energy or resources are always not well employed.     3    . In this way, they can often keep their promises and honor their commitments.

You accept the possibility of being wrong

    4    . They are always able to accept the possibility that they are wrong, that they don’t know something, because there is always more to learn.

Being mature is knowing that you are always growing up. You are never done learning and developing. This means that you don’t set yourself up as the highest authority.     5    .

A．You follow the crowd

B．You let the small things go

C．Instead, mature people focus on completing things that matter

D．Immature and mature people can both have plans for their lives

E．Rather, you open your mind to other ideas and new possibilities

F．Becoming more understanding is a sign of strength, not weakness

G．Mature people appear more confident, however, they are not overconfident

2 . A girl is smiling at me from a picture on my desk. She is one of my sponsor (资助) children. I didn’t spend much money helping her. The joy from helping her gives me, however, is over the picture.

I can still remember the first time that I decided to help a child. It was many years ago, I was only a middle school student. I had a little extra (额外的) money each month. I didn’t feel like buying anything, though. A few years ago, we lost everything in a house fire. That fire bought me a lot. I cleared that I didn’t need a lot of things to be happy. From then on I began to care about the suffering of children in poor countries. With my mom’s help, I soon found a few groups and joined them. They were helping others around the world.

It felt so good being able to reach out and help others in need. It felt so good being able to make even one life better. I could feel the love growing in my head and beginning to change me. This feeling makes us into better people with bigger hearts. It helps us to love, to be kind, and to make this world a better place.

1. The writer began to sponsor a child ________.

A．when he studied in the middle school	B．before his house had a fire
C．when he felt like buying something	D．before he had a little extra money

2. What’s the Chinese meaning of the underlined word “suffering”?

A．苦难

B．经验

C．情绪

D．要求

3. What’s the third paragraph mainly about?

A．Why the writer helped poor children.	B．How the writer found a few groups.
C．When the writer began to care about others.	D．How the writer felt after helping others in need.

4. Which of the following is true?

A．The writer needed a lot of money to be happy before.

B．The writer spent much money on his sponsor child.

C．The writer spent lots of money doing shopping every month.

D．After joining the groups, the writer changed a lot in his heart.

5. From the passage, we can learn that the writer is a ________ person.

A．rich

B．lucky

C．kind

D．careless

3 . 幸福是什么，幸福是父母为你营造的温馨的家，幸福是老师望向你的赞许的目光，幸福是孤独时朋友送来的一杯奶茶，请你以“My happiness”为话题，写一件曾经发生过的令你感到幸福的事情。
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

4 . Why You Should Stop Complaining

When living out our daily lives, it’s often easy to blame the world for our problems.     1     But the biggest difference is simply our reactions to them. Here are three reasons why you should change your reaction to a situation and stop complaining.

The world owes you nothing.

The world really does have nothing to do with you or anyone else. The planet will continue to exist without you on it.     2     However, it really isn’t the case once we’re an adult. The world doesn’t provide us with the same blanket of comfort as our carers once did, which only means one thing: It’s up to us to provide that blanket for ourselves and no one else.

    3    

If you look back at your own life, you’ll begin to realize that everything you have ever done was all a result of the decisions you’ve made sure there may have been people around you who have convinced you to do something. But it all ultimately depends on your decisions.     4     Your life is just like a blank canvas, and you are the painter. Start to think about what your hopes and dreams might be and remind yourself daily that it’s all up to you to make things happen.

You can’t be a leader if you behave like a victim.

It’s really easy to put blame on things that are external to you.     5     So what can you change? Being a leader in your life takes courage and requires the willingness to face your fears, experience failure, and take complete personal responsibility of everything that happens to you.

A．What are you worrying about?

B．So who’s really to blame?

C．You are in charge of your own life.

D．You are helped by people around you.

E．We were nurtured and looked after as kids.

F．It’s true that there are things in the world we can’t control.

G．As it avoids personal responsibility and allows you to refuse the possibility that you may have things that can be changed.

5 . Once there was a farmer with a wife and two sons. He became quite________through hardworking. He wanted his children to have a(n)________life, so he and his wife did all the work and________made them do anything.

After some time, his wife died and________he didn’t want his children to________, so he did the field labor and all the housework. But as time went on, he became old and________, and started to worry about his________when he died.

So he thought about this for a long time and he________his sons and said, “Look, my inheritance (遗产) to you is a lot of gold. I’ve________all my gold in the fields, so it’s up to you to plough (耕作) them and________the gold.”

And he called his neighbors and said, “I’m going to________and my children don’t know how to________themselves. So please cook for them until they can take care of themselves.”

So the neighbors provided them with________for some time.

Certainly the brothers didn’t want to be robbed of the________so they did the digging themselves. They________one field after another and after they had dug all the fields, they found no gold.

So the brothers sat down and one________the other, “Do you think our father________us?”

But the other brother said, “No, I think our father was saying that the________is a golden profession. And if we dig up all the________we can become rich.”

So like all the other________, they sowed wheat in the fields they had dug and became very rich in the end.

1.

A．rich

B．strong

C．clever

D．busy

2.

A．hard

B．easy

C．different

D．ordinary

3.

A．always

B．often

C．never

D．sometimes

4.

A．also

B．thus

C．ever

D．still

5.

A．work

B．move

C．study

D．play

6.

A．healthy

B．sick

C．foolish

D．wise

7.

A．brothers

B．friends

C．children

D．relatives

8.

A．showed

B．taught

C．visited

D．called

9.

A．lost

B．hidden

C．planted

D．put

10.

A．harvest

B．find

C．buy

D．use

11.

A．leave

B．travel

C．die

D．disappear

12.

A．look at

B．look out

C．look after

D．look for

13.

A．relief

B．money

C．water

D．food

14.

A．gold

B．silver

C．oil

D．coal

15.

A．dug

B．piled

C．operated

D．searched

16.

A．advised

B．asked

C．followed

D．doubted

17.

A．loved

B．cared

C．understood

D．cheated

18.

A．gardening

B．fishing

C．building

D．farming

19.

A．roots

B．stones

C．fields

D．pipes

20.

A．farmers

B．workers

C．fishers

D．builders