1 . On Jan. 3, a netizen (网民) nicknamed “Programmer Humor” published a short story on his micro-blog. It said that there was an old lady who swept nearly every inch of his Internet company. When she passed by a programmer, she took a look at the codes on the programmer’s computer and kindly reminded him, “Be careful, the stack is overfilled!”
Certainly, it is a casual and fictitious (虚构的) story made up by the micro-blogger. However, no one would have guessed that the short blog would eventually cause the first great Internet meme (网络快速爆红现象) of 2011 in China. Suddenly, the mysterious “Sweeping Old Lady” is showing up nearly everywhere and reminding professionals of their mistakes. From 8 a. m. on Jan. 5, some netizens collected stories of the “Sweeping Old Lady” and found she had appeared to give advice in 150 kinds of careers. A netizen even said he had met with a similar situation in real life.
Actually, the “Sweeping Old Lady” is not new figure, but is based on the “sweeping monk (和尚)”in Louis Cha’s famous Kung fu novel of “Tian Long Ba Bu”. The “sweeping monk” is an old monk and does the lowest class of work in Shaolin Temple, but he is actually the No. 1 master in the noel both in Kung fu and in the study of Buddhism.
The “Sweeping Old Lady” is also a great modest master. Lots of netizens wish that they could have such a lady beside them to give them precious suggestions at a key time.
Although there may be 1,000 “Sweeping Old Ladies” in 1,000 people’s minds, it cannot prevent the “Sweeping Old Lady” from becoming the most popular figure on the Internet.
“Programmer Humor” said he is just a programmer in the real world and once he saw the story about the “Sweeping Old Lady,” he wrote it down in his micro-blog because it was funny. He never knew who the original writer of the story was and never thought the story could be so popular.
1. What quality does the “Sweeping Old Lady” have?| A．Honest and knowledgeable. | B．Modest and patient. |
| C．Modest and knowledgeable. | D．Honest and patient. |
| A．She is an old lady good at sweeping the Internet. |
| B．She is just an imaginary figure created by a netizen. |
| C．She is well-know as the old “sweeping monk.” |
| D．She likes to give instructions everywhere. |
| A．The sweeping old lady is always looking down on the people around her. |
| B．We should ask sweeping old lady for advice when meeting with difficulties. |
| C．People want to have a “Sweeping Old Lady” nearby to do the cleaning. |
| D．We shouldn’t judge a person by his or her appearance and we’d better respect everyone. |
| A．She should be praised and respected. |
| B．She shouldn’t mind others’ business. |
| C．She should go in for network. |
| D．She shouldn’t show off before professionals. |
2 . I live in the land of Disney, Hollywood and year-round sun. You may think people in such a glamorous, fun-filled place are happier than others. If so, you have some mistaken ideas about the nature of happiness.
Many intelligent people still equate happiness with fun. The truth is that fun and happiness have little or nothing in common. Fun is what we experience during an act. Happiness is what we experience after an act. It is a deeper, more abiding emotion.
Going to an amusement park or ball game, watching a movie or television, are fun activities that help us relax, temporarily forget our problems and maybe even laugh. But they do not bring happiness, because their positive effects end when the fun ends.
I have often thought that if Hollywood stars have a role to play, it is to teach us that happiness has nothing to do with fun. These rich, beautiful individuals have constant access to glamorous parties, fancy cars, expensive homes, everything that spells “happiness”. But in memoir after memoir, celebrities reveal the unhappiness hidden beneath all their fun: depression, alcoholism, drug addiction, broken marriages, troubled children and profound loneliness.
Ask a bachelor why he resists marriage even though he finds dating to be less and less satisfying. If he’s honest, he will tell you that he is afraid of making a commitment. For commitment is in fact quite painful. The single life is filled with fun, adventure and excitement. Marriage has such moments, but they are not its most distinguishing features.
Similarly, couples that choose not to have children are deciding in favor of painless fun over painful happiness. They can dine out ever they want and sleep as late as they want. Couples with infant children are lucky to get a whole night’s sleep or a three-day vacation. I don’t know any parent who would choose the word fun to describe raising children.
Understanding and accepting that true happiness has nothing to do with fun is one of the most liberating realizations we can ever come to. It liberates time: now we can devote more hours to activities that can genuinely increase our happiness. It liberates money: buying that new car or those fancy clothes that will do nothing to increase our happiness now seems pointless. And it liberates us from envy: we now understand that all those rich and glamorous people we were so sure are happy because they are always having so much fun actually may not be happy at all.
1. Which of the following is true?| A．Fun creates long-lasting satisfaction. |
| B．Fun provides enjoyment while pain leads to happiness. |
| C．Happiness is enduring whereas fun is short-lived. |
| D．Fun that is long-standing may lead to happiness. |
| A．write memoir after memoir about their happiness |
| B．tell the public that happiness has nothing to do with fun |
| C．teach people how to enjoy their lives |
| D．bring happiness to the public instead of going to glamorous parties |
| A．are lucky since they can have a whole night’s sleep |
| B．find fun in tucking them into bed at night |
| C．find more time to play and joke with them |
| D．derive happiness from their endeavor |
| A．stop playing games and joking with others |
| B．make the best use of his time increasing happiness |
| C．give a free hand to money |
| D．keep himself with his family |
3 . Criticism is judgment. A critic is a judge. A judge must study and think about the material presented to him, accept it, correct it or reject it after thinking over what he has read, watched or heard.
Another word for criticism is appreciation. When I criticize or appreciate some object or another, I look for its good points and bad points. In reading any printed or written matter, I always have a pencil in hand and put any comments in the book or on a separate paper. In other words, I always talk back to the writer.
That sort of critical reading might well be called creative reading because I am thinking along with the author, asking him questions, seeing whether he answers the questions and how well he answers them. I mark the good passages to store them in my memory and ask myself about every other part and about the complete piece of writing; where, how and why could or should I improve upon it?
You might think that doing what I suggested is work. Yes, it is, but the work is a pleasure because I can feel my brain expanding, my emotion reacting and my way of living change.
Reading exercises is a great influence on a person. If pictures, still or moving, accompany the reading, the memory will retain the material for a long time.
Just as evil books can corrupt, so also can good books gradually work a change on a corrupt person.
Let's get back to the beneficial effects of thinking while reading. It helps us to enlarge our minds. We understand more about the universe, its people and many of its wonders. We learn to think and observe in new ways. We certainly do get a feeling for the language we are reading. All good writers in any language have been readers who read critically and continuously.
1. According to the writer, creative reading is ________.| A．raising questions and answering them for the author |
| B．reading and giving comments on the materials one has read |
| C．thinking in the same line with the author |
| D．storing up facts in one's memory |
| A．asks what he does not understand |
| B．talks back to the author |
| C．understand the background on which the works are based |
| D．looks for the good and bad points of the material he has read |
| A．following one's thought closely | B．accepting |
| C．considering | D．agreeing |
| A．understand more about their surrounding than others. |
| B．have a thorough insight to the problem in life. |
| C．have the feeling of the language they read. |
| D．have read extensively(广泛地) and critically |
4 . When I was four, I lost my sight by falling off a box car and landing on my head. Now I’m thirty-two. I can vaguely remember the brightness of sunshine and what color red is. It’d be wonderful to see again, but a disaster can do strange things to people.
It took me years to discover and strengthen this belief. It had to start with the most trivial things. Once a man gave me an indoor baseball. “I can’t use this,” I was hurt, thinking he was teasing me. “Take it with you,” he insisted, “and roll it around.” The words stuck in my head. By rolling the ball I could feel where it went.
The hardest lesson I had to learn was to believe in myself. Had I not done that, I’d have broken down and become a chair rocker for the rest of my life. And the path to the belief is never smooth.
| A．I’d fail sometimes, but on average, I made progress |
| B．This gave me an idea on something I had thought impossible to achieve |
| C．As people always say, it takes steel and temper to make a difference |
| D．It came into my mind all of a sudden |
| E．It occurred to me the other day that I might not have come to love life as I do now if I hadn’t been blind |
| F．Life asks a continuous series of adjustments to reality |
5 . I’ve worked in the factories surrounding my hometown every summer since I graduated from high school, but making the transition between school and full-time blue-collar work during the break never gets any easier. For a student like me who considers any class before noon to be uncivilized, getting to a factory by 6 o'clock each morning is torture. My friends never seem to understand why I’m so relieved to be back at school or that my summer vacation has been anything but a vacation.
There’re few people as self-confident as a college student who had never been out in the real world. People my age always seem to overestimate the value of their time and knowledge. In fact, all the classes did not prepare me for my battles with the machine I ran in the plant, which would jam whenever I absent-mindedly put in a part backward or upside down.
The most stressful thing about blue-collar life is knowing your job could disappear overnight. Issues like downsizing and overseas relocation had always seemed distant to me until my co-workers told me that the unit I was working in would shut down within six months and move to Mexico, where people would work for 60 cents an hour.
After working 12-hour shifts in a factory, the other opinions have become only too clear. When I’m back at the university, skipping classes and turning in lazy rewrites seems too irresponsible after seeing what I would be doing without school. All the advice and public-service announcements about the value of an education that used to sound stale now ring true.
These lessons I’m learning, however valuable, are always tinged with a sense of guilt. Many people pass their lives in the places I briefly work, spending 30 years where I spend only two months at a time. “This job pays well, but it’s hell on the body,” said one co-worker. “Study hard and keep reading,” she added.
My experiences in the factories has inspired me to make the most of my college years before I enter the real world for good.
1. What does the author think of his summer days while at college?| A．They brought him nothing but torture. |
| B．They were no holiday for him at all. |
| C．They were a relief from his hard work at school. |
| D．They offered him a chance to know more people. |
| A．They expect too much from the real world. | B．They have little interest in blue-collar life. |
| C．They have a feeling of trust in themselves. | D．They are not confident of their future. |
| A．He learned to be more practical. | B．He acquired a sense of urgency. |
| C．He came to respect blue-collar workers. | D．He came to appreciate his college education. |
| A．He realizes there is a great divide between his life and that of blue-collar workers. |
| B．He looks down upon the mechanical work at the assembly line. |
| C．He has not done much to help his co-workers at the factory. |
| D．He has stayed at school just for the purpose of escaping from the real world. |
6 . To be really happy and really safe, one ought to have at least two or three hobbies, and they must all be real. It is no use starting late in life to say “I will take an interest in this or that.” Such an attempt only aggravates the strain of mental effort. A man may acquire great knowledge of topics unconnected with his daily work, and yet hardly get any benefit or relief. It is no use doing what you like; you have got to like what you do.
Broadly speaking, human beings may be divided into three classes: those whoare toiledto death, those who are worried to death and those who are bored to death. It is no use offering the manual labourer, tired out with a hard week’s sweat and effort, the chance of playing a game of football or baseball on Saturday afternoon. It is no use inviting the politician or the professional or business man, who has been working or worrying about serious things for six days, to work or worry about trifling things at the weekend. As for the unfortunate people who can command everything they want, who can gratify every caprice and lay their hands on almost every object of desire — for them a new pleasure, a new excitement is only an additional satiation. In vain they rush frantically round from place to place, trying to escape from the avenging boredom by mere clatter and motion. For them discipline in one form or another is the most hopeful path.
It may also be said that rational, industrious, useful human beings are divided into two classes: first, those whose work is work and whose pleasure is pleasure; and secondly, those whose work and pleasure are one. Of these the former are the majority. They have their compensations. The long hours in the office or the factory bring with them as their reward, not only the means of sustenance, but a keen appetite for pleasure even in its simplest and most modest forms. But Fortune’s favoured children belong to the second class. Their life is a natural harmony. For them the working hours are never long enough. Each day is a holiday, and ordinary holidays when they come are grudged as enforced interruptions in an absorbing vacation. Yet to both classes the need of an alternative outlook, of a change of atmosphere, of a diversion of effort, is essential. Indeed, it may well be that those whose work is their pleasure are those who most need the means of banishing it at intervals from their mind.
1. What does “are toiled” in the 2ndparagraph mean?| A．have hobbies | B．feel pleased |
| C．work very hard | D．are busy |
| A．Being late in life to attempt to cultivate hobbies adds to mental stress. |
| B．Great knowledge irrelevant to the daily work can’t guarantee benefit. |
| C．Those tired out for a week’s labour are reluctant to play football on weekends. |
| D．Unfortunate people need discipline to help them build up hope. |
| A．are very willing to work long hours in the office or the factory |
| B．earn a large amount of money due to their hard work for a long time |
| C．are keen to enjoy the pleasure when they are off duty |
| D．usually enjoy themselves in the simplest and most modest forms |
| A．The first class are lazy and the second class are bound to succeed. |
| B．The second class never need holidays because their life is harmonious. |
| C．The minority are more favoured by fortune because they never stop working. |
| D．One really needs alternation for a change in order to work better. |
7 . There is a cry of anger, and a tennis racket crashes to the ground. Jake, age 7, has just lost another match and is now in tears beside the court. His sister Sally, just one year older, looks at her mother and rolls her eyes: it is hard to enjoy winning when this keeps happening. It is not an unusual situation, and it is one reason why many people argue that competition is bad for children. However, the truth is that competitive games are a valuable preparation for adult life.
Games with winners and losers give children the chance to experience life’s ups and downs. Take Jake, for example. Even though he is unhappy now, he will probably be smiling and laughing with his sister in a few minutes, just like the last time this happened. Gradually, he will learn that the world does not end when you lose a game. Eventually, he may even be able to lose with a smile on his face. This is an important lesson. Not everything in life goes the way you would like, and it is important to know how to handle disappointment when it occurs.
Children who participate in competitive games develop qualities that allow them to succeed in the complex world of adult life. For example, one of the missions of the Youth Olympic Games is to inspire young people to adopt the Olympic values, which include striving, determination and optimism. Competition creates a desire to do better. Children have to learn to succeed in a competitive atmosphere in order to take advantage of opportunities in the future. Although it is possible to win by chance occasionally, people who win and keep winning work very hard to achieve their success.
On the negative side, there are those who will say that competition actually encourages some values, which does happen. It is common to see sports competition in which the desire to win has replaced the desire to have fun. You may even see very young children playing violently----like the superstars they see on TV. While the bad behavior of young athletes is troubling, the problem is not the competition itself. In reality, the blame lies with the professional players who are bad role models for these children. In fact, a recent study of young athletes by the school of Physical Health Education at the University of Wyoming showed an improvement in mood after exercise, athletes were less depressed or tense.
Of course, there are parents who argue that children of Jake’s age are too young to handle the pain of losing. But whether we like it or not, adult life is very competitive, and keeping children away from competition does them more harm than good. If children do not learn how to compete, they will be defeated by people who can. It is an unfortunate fact of life: whether ten or a hundred people want the same job, there can be only one winner. Wouldn’t you want your child to be that person?
1. Competitive games prepare children for their adult life by_______| A．enabling them to know to handle life’s ups and downs |
| B．allowing them to succeed in the complex world of adult life |
| C．Ending their feeling about the world when they lose |
| D．Helping them to smile even when they are disappointed |
| A．Competitions develop children’s qualities to succeed in their future life |
| B．the Olympic Values should be promoted among young people |
| C．Taking advantages of future opportunities makes one desire to do better |
| D．Only by working hard to keep winning can one achieve true success |
| A．The desire to win | B．The desire to have fun |
| C．Good role models | D．An improvement in mood |
| A．They should learn how to handle pain of losing |
| B．Children should know earlier the competitive adult life |
| C．They shouldn’t keep children away from competition |
| D．They should encourage their children to get the job |
