1 . I once knew a high school teacher who made, in my mind, a curious comment. Referring to a naughty student, he remarked, with a tone of gloomy resignation, “People don’t change.” I knew the kid well. He was what one would call a “juvenile delinquent(不良少年)”. But if schooling held no promise of making positive changes in kids, what was the point teaching?
My own son, Alyosha, growing up, was athletic, energetic, and occasionally hard to handle. But he never showed the least interest in tools, or working with his hands in any way. The result was that he couldn’t tell a screwdriver from a paintbrush. I recall one day, as I fussed under the car, calling out to him to bring me an adjustable wrench(知动扳手). He fetched a pair of pliers(钳子). “No,” I pleaded while trying to hold an oily car part in place. “Pliers.” He went back into the garage and returned with a bar. “No, no,” I corrected him. “The adjustable wrench! For loosening a nut.” To which, in his own defennce, he exclaimed, “Well, I don’t know!”
Years passed. And then, one day, well into his 20s, he told me he had decided on a technical school: machinery technology. I nodded approvingly, but already knew that it was a challenging field, full of moving parts, tools, and dreaded math.
During his period in Coast Guard technical school I thought about him daily, wondering what the outcome would be. I had prepared myself for the phone call telling me that it was just too much and he was being sent to sea as a deckhand.
It didn’t happen. The phone did ring, but it was Alyosha asking me to fly to Virginia to attend his graduation and pin his new rank on his collar. Prouder I couldn’t have been.
As I stood before my son, Alyosha, standing at attention and staring dead ahead, glanced at me. “You want me to help you, Dad?” he said. “Always,” I answered, “but not this time.”
Yeah, people do chance. And, in my experience, it’s usually something to see.
The examples in Paragraph 3 are used to show Alyosha___________.
| A．lacked team spirit | B．knew nothing about mechanics |
| C．had a bad relationship with his dad | D．was unwilling to learn any handwork |
A. Time can run out.
B. Tomorrow won’t be better.
C. Ideas need time to develop.
D. Your professor will be impatient.
E. You blow off your chances for help.
F. You are probably overestimating (高估) the pain.
Never Put off Tomorrow What You Can Do Today
Want to put off studying for the physics test? Or writing that thirty-five-page research paper on future uses of biotechnology? Sure you do? And who wouldn’t? But it’s still a silly idea to put off doing something until a future time. Here is why ....
1. __________. The task will be still the same. It won’t be any more fun and you still won’t want to do it. As the deadline gets closer and closer, the task seems to become larger and larger if you haven’t started the work. And the stress increases. Now not only do you have to write that paper, you have to do it under great pressure.
2. _________ . Before you start, it seems that the task is unlikely to be accomplished. But you know what? You’re probably miscalculating. Get started -------- maybe on a small piece ------ And you will discover that you have more resources and know more about the subject than you thought. Result? You won’t experience nearly as much suffering as you expected to. Things are guaranteed ------ 100 percent ------- to get better.
3. _____________ . If you leave your work before the night before it’s due, you give up the possibility of getting input from your professor. Professors regularly give advice ----- or at least a few useful tips ---- during office hours. Unfortunately though, they don’t usually hold office hours at midnight, so you will be out of luck when you discover the night before the midterm that you have no idea how to do the questions that will count for two-thirds of your grade.
4. ________ . Ever wonder why the professor assigns the papers two weeks before it’s due? It’s because he or she expects you to be thinking about the issue, or doing the research, for two weeks. No, not every waking moment, but at least some of the time. After all, the professor could just as easily have given the assignment one week before it was due if he or she expected less thinking. When you throw together a paper or a report at the last minute, your ideas are half-baked. And your professor will know it.
5. ________ . If you put things off at the last minute, you might find that you haven’t budgeted enough minutes to finish the necessary tasks. It’s the easiest thing in the world to miscalculate how long it will take to do all the work especially when new issues arise ------ like illness, family problems, computer breakdowns, trouble at work, and all the other things ------- as you are thinking through your paper argument or preparing yourself for the coming test. If you keep delaying, you don’t allow yourself time for those various life events that have an adverse (不利的) effect on your ability to complete your assignment.
3 . Two years ago, Shirley, wife, mother and doctor, found herself worn out. She got up earlier, and went to bed later, just to meet everyday
She and her husband, a lawyer, began searching for ways to
So the couple chose to live more simply, shopping with care for necessities and enjoying inexpensive
Then Shirley
Shirley and her husband are
For most people,
| A．activities | B．services | C．demands | D．exercises |
| A．time | B．strength | C．money | D．ability |
| A．lead | B．simplify | C．adapt | D．consider |
| A．comfortable | B．interesting | C．important | D．hard |
| A．study | B．help | C．meet | D．play |
| A．pleasures | B．places | C．tasks | D．goods |
| A．found | B．received | C．took | D．quit |
| A．read | B．wrote | C．showed | D．told |
| A．us | B．yourself | C．children | D．herself |
| A．attending | B．organizing | C．having | D．going |
| A．life | B．result | C．balance | D．difference |
| A．office | B．hospital | C．park | D．school |
| A．gone | B．better | C．strong | D．obvious |
| A．a bit | B．far from | C．much too | D．more than |
| A．keep pace | B．settle down | C．take off | D．slow down |
| A．expect | B．doubt | C．complain | D．imagine |
| A．How | B．When | C．Where | D．Why |
| A．traveling | B．reading | C．shopping | D．working |
| A．aware | B．afraid | C．proud | D．sure |
| A．value | B．control | C．success | D．experience |
