1 . What makes us love some things and hate others? We know that sometimes even the tiniest change can result in a huge difference in how we perceive something, so is there any rhyme or reason to our tastes and preferences? Here are three factors which play a role.

1. Conforming to expectation

In London a few years ago, two talented rappers called Silibil N' Brains took to the stage to perform at a music industry show for unsigned bands. They were an instant hit. Their outrageous West Coast - American style, brilliant rap lyrics and couldn't - care - less attitude had the music industry's talent spotters falling over themselves to sign the pair. In a short space of time, Silibil N’ Brains had a deal with a top management company, a contract with a major record label and an advance of $70,000 -- and they hadn’t even made a record. Before long, they were on tour with Eminem and out partying with Madonna. They were living the dream.

But two years ago the same two rappers were laughed off stage by the same talent spotters for singing the same sons. So what was the difference? Amazingly, it was their accent. You see, Silibil N' Brains weren't, in fact, from West Coast U. S. A. at all. They were from Dundee in Scotland. During the first audition they had used their Scottish accents when rapping and it had not gone down well. ''They just laughed at us, '' recalled Brains. ''We were heartbroken. We went back to Scotland with our tail between our legs''. The lesson for them was that to succeed, you have to conform to expectations and at that time everyone expected rappers to be American.

2. The benefit of hindsight

Some people are simply ahead of their time. It's common knowledge that Vincent van Gogh sold only one painting in his lifetime -the other 900 or so were unknown and unloved until after his death. Monet’s paintings. at least in his early career, was considered incomplete and ugly by critics at the time, while Vermeer, the painter of Girl With a Pearl Earring, even had to use his mother-in-law as a guarantor when he borrowed money -- so unable was he to sell any of his work! Now that public taste has caught up with these artists, more or less anything they touched has an astronomical price tag attached to it. Perhaps the reason is that it just takes a while to get used to something - after all, not all beauty is obvious at first sight.

3. A reassuring price tag

In a world where the range of products on offer can be completely bewildering, we often look to price as an indication of quality. We may think we prefer the expensive wine to the cheap one, but we may simply be influenced by the price tag. Even professionals can make the mistake. A researcher from the University of Bordeaux in France took an average bottle of red wine and poured it into two empty bottles, on with an expensive label and the other with a cheap one. Then he invited 57 wine ''experts'' to taste the wine. Forty of them recommended the wine from the expensive bottle, describing it as ''agreeable'', ''complex'', ''balanced'' and ''rounded''. while the same wine from the expensive bottle, describing it as ''agreeable'', ''complex'', ''balanced'' and ''rounded'', while the same wine from the cheap bottle was described as ''weak'' and ''flat'', with only 12 of the experts recommending it. The study made the researcher unpopular with the French wine tasters, but he did prove that price has a significant impact on taste.

1. Which of the following statements about Silibil N’ Brains is true?

A．Talent spotters fell in love with them at first sight.

B．They are from the West Coast of America

C．Their success was attributed to behaving and sounding like American rappers.

D．They were friends with famous stars like Madonna even before they succeeded.

2. The underlined phrases ''with our tail between our legs'' indicates that _________.

A．their first audition proved a failure

B．they felt proud of their performance

C．they learned a valuable lesson

D．being humble might contribute to their future success

3. We can infer from the second factor that ________.

A．some artists are better known when they are alive than when they are dead

B．public taste usually falls behind famous artists

C．beauty at first sight lasts much longer

D．Monet's paintings are priceless because of their incompleteness

4. What can we learn from the last paragraph?

A．A price tag always fails to indicate the quality of a product.

B．A price tag is less likely to confuse customers than the packaging.

C．Low price will make the wine unpopular with tasters

D．A price tag will cloud a person’s judgement of something.

2 . Directions: Write a summary of the passage in more than 60 words and the original sentences in the passage are not allowed to use.

Who is in control of your life? Who is pulling your strings? For the majority of us, it’s other people-society, colleagues, friends, or our family. We learned this way of operating when we were very young, of course. We were brainwashed. We discovered that feeling important and feeling accepted was a nice experience and so we learned to do everything we could to make other people like us. As Oscar Wilde puts it, “Most people are other people. Their thoughts are someone else’s opinions, their lives a mimicry(模仿), their passions a quotation.”

When people tell us how wonderful we are, it makes us feel good. We long for this good feeling like a drug-we are addicted to it and seek it out wherever we can. Therefore, we are so eager for the approval of others that we live unhappy and limited lives, failing to do the things we really want to. Just as drug addicts and alcoholics live worsened lives to keep getting their drug, we worsen our own existence to get our own constant drug of approval.

But, just as with any drug, there is a price to pay. The price of the approval drug is freedom-the freedom to be ourselves. The truth is that we cannot control what other people think. Everyone has a different way of thinking, and people change their opinions all the time. Moreover, people have their own business, and in the end, they’re more interested in themselves than in you. The person who tries to please everyone will only end up getting exhausted and probably pleasing no one in the process.

So how can we take back control? I think there’s only one way-make a conscious decision to stop caring what other people think. We should guide ourselves by means of a set of values-not values imposed(强加)from the outside by others, but values which come from within. If we are driven by these values and not by the changing opinions and value systems of others, we will live a more authentic, effective, purposeful and happy life.

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

3 . Giving generously and receiving gratefully make it easier to live happily with others.

Yet, why do we have such difficulty accomplishing these things in our relationships?

Let me start with the idea of giving generously. I think people are unwilling to be generous with others because they fear to be used. For example, my husband and I have family members who only contact us when they need money. We usually accept their requests, but we rarely receive a "thank you". Most people would say that my husband and I are being used, and I suppose we are. But when we give, we shouldn't be giving for the purpose of getting gratitude or praise. Rather, we should be giving because it's the good thing to do. A “thank you” is merely the icing on the cake.

Everything that we have, from our ability to wake up each morning to the money in our bank account, is a gift from the world. In return, the world asks us to use these gifts to help others, either by giving them our time or our resources.

The good news is that when we live our lives being nice to others, our lives run more smoothly(顺利地).

If you're generous, yes, some people will use you. But if you practice being generous, most of your relationships will improve.

And at the same time, we should remember to receive gratefully. I truly believe that you cannot say “thank you” enough. So often we get lazy about expressing gratitude. Parents can feel unappreciated by their children, and teachers can feel unappreciated by their students. Just because a task is part of someone's job description doesn't mean that you shouldn't thank them for it.

Words of appreciation make others feel good about themselves like nothing else. It's good for us to say “thank you” because we regularly need to remind ourselves of how lucky we are. And hearing those two words can make us feel great for days.

If you are looking for a secret solution to improve your life, I can give you one: Give generously and receive gratefully.

1. The author mentions her family members in the passage mainly to explain ________.

A．why we should give even if we feel we are being used

B．why people have trouble expressing gratitude

C．why we should accept whatever others request

D．why it's necessary to express gratitude or praise

2. What does the underlined phrase "the icing on the cake" in Paragraph 3 probably refer to?

A．something that is necessary

B．something that is not of much help

C．something that leads to an unexpected result

D．something that makes an experience better

3. According to the author, why should we be grateful to those who help us?

A．Because it makes us feel lucky.

B．Because words of gratitude delight people.

C．Because it's not other people's duty to help us.

D．Because all we normally get are gifts from the world.

4. What's the purpose of writing this passage?

A．To stress the importance of being generous.

B．To persuade people to give generously and receive thankfully.

C．To show how to express our gratitude to others.

D．To give tips on how to improve other people's lives.

4 .

[1] I am often asked to describe the experience of raising a child with a disability-to try to help people who have not shared that unique experience to understand it, to imagine how it would feel. It’s like this… [2] When you’re going to have a baby, it’s like planning a marvellous vacation trip-to Italy. You buy a bunch of guidebooks and make wonderful plans: the Coloseum①, the Michelangelo② David, the gondolas③ in Venice, etc. You may learn some handy phrases in Italian. It’s all very exciting. [3] After months of eager expectation, the day finally arrives. You pack your bags and off you go. Several hours later, the plane lands. The airhostess comes in and says, “Welcome to the Netherlands.” [4] “The Netherlands?!” you say. “What do you mean, the Netherlands?? I signed up for Italy! I’m supposed to be in Italy. All my life I’ve dreamed of going to Italy.” [5] But there’s been a change in the flight plan. They’ve landed in the Netherlands and there you must stay. [6] The important thing is that they haven’t taken you to a horrible, awful, dirty place, full of diseases. It’s just a different place. [7] So you must go out and buy new guidebooks. And you must learn a whole new language. And you will meet a whole new group of people you would never have met. [8] It’s just a place. It’s slower paced than Italy, less flashy than Italy. But after you’ve been there for a while and you catch your breath, you look around and you begin to notice that the Netherlands④ …and the Netherlands has tulips⑤. The Netherlands even has Rembrandts⑥. [9] But everyone you coming and going from Italy and they’re all boasting about what a wonderful time they had there. And for the rest of your life, you will say, “Yes, that’s where I was supposed to go. That’s what I had planned. [10] And the pain of that will never, ever, ever, ever go away because the loss of that dream is a very, very significant loss. [11] But if you spend your life regretting the fact that you didn’t get to Italy, you may never be free to enjoy the very special, the very lovely things about the Netherlands.

① ② (1475~1564) Italian artist and architect ③ ④ ⑤ ⑥(1606~1669) Dutch painter

1. The author compares her motherhood to ________.

A．her involvement in traveling abroad

B．her experience with an unfamiliar task

C．her dream of enjoying beautiful scenery

D．her journey to an unplanned destination

2. By “you begin to notice that the Netherlands has windmills ... and the Netherlands has tulips’’ (paragraph 8), the author actually means that ________.

A．the Netherlands has many scenic spots to visit and enjoy

B．the Netherlands is a country with many paintings to appreciate

C．a mother of a disabled child can also feel the bright side of her life

D．a mother who has traveled a lot can receive a special treat from her child

3. From paragraph 9, we can tell that other mothers are ________.

A．proud

B．anxious

C．sociable

D．sensible

4. To the author, the special experience of being a mother is ________.

A．beyond her endurance	B．more a gift than a loss
C．worthy of others’ sympathy	D．preferable to going to Italy

5 . I had a teacher who used to wake up in class by shouting: “The early bird gets the worm!” I say “let him have the worm”. I hate food that doesn’t stay still, and avoid Japanese restaurants for that very reason. Anyway, I stopped eating worms at the age of three, switching to regular breakfasts of cereal(谷物), to which I would add extra sugar.

Recently I was thinking about early birds and the competitive spirit after receiving a letter from a reader in Malaysia: ”My son deliberately throws away marks because he doesn’t like to be top of the class. What shall I do?” Give him a round of “applause” for being smart! Actually many children in Asia tend to be the focus by performing better.

Placed into a very competitive class when I was 11, I quickly learned the ideal position was second to last. The top three performers and the very last person are highlighted; the second-to-last contestant is INVISIBLE. And it’s an easy position to get—just deliberately underperform at every test. I could do that. I once came second to last in eight straight sports day races. No one suspected anything. I was so invisible that I could have robbed a bank in my street and no one would have noticed.

At the London Olympics a few months ago, badminton pairs from three Asian countries deliberately tried to lost matches to draw good lots in later rounds. It was funny to watch, but they were all thrown out for poor sportsmanship. What they really needed were acting lessons, their moves were so unconvincing. “Oops, I hit the ball in entirely the wrong direction.”

The other day, I took the children out and they raced for the car. “I’m first,” said one. The second said: “First is worst, second is best.” Together they sang at the last one: “And third’s the one with a hairy chest.”

It struck me that the organizers of sports matches could use this song when people deliberately lost matches. “I lost,” the delighted loser will say. The judges could still declare them winners, pointing to a new, optional regulation: “First is worst, second is best, third’s the one with a hairy chest.”

1. Why did the author dislike Japanese restaurant?

A．Its food was served raw.	B．Its food contained worms.
C．He was tempted by cereal.	D．He was affected by the saying.

2. How did the author manage to be invisible in a competitive class?

A．He highlighted the top three students.

B．He came to second in sports races.

C．He hid himself in a bank skillfully.

D．He intentionally underperformed.

3. What can be learned from the passage?

A．The judge is encouraged to eliminate the dishonest players.

B．Players disqualified from Olympic doubles for using drugs.

C．Children’s song praises the dramatic acting skills of athletes.

D．players purposefully failed for easier lots in the following rounds.

4. Which saying might the author possibly support?

A．Great minds think alike.	B．God favors those who are prepared.
C．Honesty is the best policy.	D．A bird in hand is worth two in the bush

6 . 阅读下面材料，在空白处填入适当的内容（1个单词）或括号内单词的正确形式。

One day, Nick invited his friends to supper. He was cooking some delicious food in the kitchen. Suddenly, he    1    (find)that he had run out of salt. So Nick called to his son, "Go to the village and buy some salt, but pay a fair price for it: neither too much    2    too little. "

His son looked surprised. "I can understand why I shouldn't pay too much, Father, but if I can pay less,     3    not save a bit of money? "

"That would be a very    4    (reason)thing to do in a big city, but it could destroy a small village like ours," Nick said.

Nick's guests,     5    had heard their conversation, asked why they should not buy sale more cheaply if they could. Nick replied, "The only reason a man would sell sale    6    a lower price would be because he was desperate for money. And anyone who took advantage of that situation would be showing a lack of respect    7    the sweat and struggle of the man who worked very hard to produce it."

"But such a small thing couldn't    8    (possible)destroy a village."

"In the beginning, there was only    9    very small amount of unfairness in the world, but everyone added a little, always    10    (think)that it was only small and not very important, and look where we have ended up today. "

7 . Agnes de Mille was a dancer and a choreographer (编舞). Early in her career, de Mille had created the choreography for a ballet called Three Virgins and a Devil. She thought it was good work, but nobody made much of it.

A few years later, de Mille choreographed a ballet named Rodeo. Again, she thought her work was solid, but it resulted in little commercial fame.

Then, in 1943, de Mille choreographed Oklahoma!, a musical show that enjoyed nearly instant success. In the coming years, Oklahoma! would run for an incredible 2,212 performances, both around the nation and abroad. In 1955, the film version won an Academy Award.

But the success of Oklahoma! didn’t bring her much happiness. She thought that her work on Oklahoma! was only average compared to some of her other creations. She later said, “After the opening of Oklahoma!, I suddenly had unexpected success for a work I thought was only fairly good, after years of neglect for work I thought was fine. I began to think that perhaps my entire scale of values was untrustworthy. I talked to Martha.”

Martha was Martha Graham, perhaps the most influential dance choreographer of the 20th century. (Although not as well-known by the general public, Graham has been compared to other creative geniuses like Picasso or Frank Lloyd Wright.)

During their conversation, de Mille told Martha Graham about her frustration. “I confessed that I had a burning desire to be excellent, but no faith that I could be.”

Graham responded by saying:

“There is a vitality, a life force, an energy, a quickening that is translated through you into action, and because there is only one of you in all of time, this expression is unique. And if you block it, it will never exist through any other medium and it will be lost. The world will not have it. It is not your business to determine how good it is nor how valuable nor how it compares with other expressions. It is your business to keep it yours clearly and directly, to keep the channel open.”

1. What can be learned about de Mille’s ballet named Rodeo?

A．It earned her a large fortune.	B．It made her rise to fame overnight.
C．It didn’t enjoy much success.	D．It laid a solid foundation for her career.

2. How did de Mille feel about the great success of the musical Oklahoma!?

A．Relieved.

B．Ashamed.

C．Confused.

D．Proud.

3. Picasso and Frank Lloyd Wright were mentioned in the passage to suggest that Martha Graham ______.

A．was outstanding in visual arts and architecture

B．enjoyed the same popularity as them

C．had been influenced greatly by them

D．was the most influential artist in her field

4. Which of the following statements best represents Graham’s words in this passage?

A．Comparing with others prevents you from maintaining uniqueness.

B．You should always keep yourself open to the urges that motivate you.

C．Your action reveals the inner landscape, which is the soul of music.

D．Choosing to be positive is going to determine how you live your life.

8 . A star athlete stopped by my office and she was eaten up by self-criticism after committing a few errors during a weekend match. “I’m at peak _________ and I practise hard. How is this happening?” This student, like many I teach, believes she should be able to _________ the outcomes of her life by virtue of her hard work.

I study and write about resilience (复原力), and I’m noticing a(n)_________ increase in students like this athlete. When they win, they feel powerful and smart. When they fall short of what they imagine they should _________, however, they are crushed by self-blame.

We talk often about young adults struggling with failure because their parents have protected them from _________. But there is something else at play among the most advantaged in particular: a _________ promise that they can achieve anything if they are willing to work for it.

Psychologists have sourced this phenomenon to a misapplication of “mind-set” research, which has found that praising children for _________ will increase academic performance. Developed by Stanford psychologist Carol Dweck, mind-set education has spread across classrooms worldwide. But a 2018 analysis found that while praising hard work over ability may benefit economically disadvantaged students, it does not _________ help everyone.

One possible explanation comes from Nina Kumar, who argued in a research paper last year that for teens in wealthy, pressure-cooker communities, “It is not a _________ of motivation and perseverance that is the big problem. __________, it is unhealthy perfectionism and difficulty with backing off when they should, when the fierce drive for achievements is over the top.” This can __________ physical and emotional stress. In a 2007 study, psychologists Gregory Miller determined that adolescent girls who refused to give up the __________ goals showed elevated levels of CRP, a protein that serves as a marker of systemic inflammation (炎症) linked to diabetes, heart disease and other medical conditions.

The cruel reality is that you can do everything in your power and still fail. This knowledge comes early to underrepresented minorities whose experience of discrimination (歧视) and inequality teaches them to __________ what is, for now, largely beyond their control to change. Yet for others, the belief that success is always within their grasp is a setup. Instead of allowing our kids to beat themselves up when things don’t go their way，we should all question a culture that has taught them that how they perform for others is more important than what __________ inspires them and that where they go to college matters more than the kind of person they are. We should be wise to remind our kids that life has a way of disappointing us when we least __________ it. It’s often the people who learn to say “stuff happens” who get up the fastest.

1.

A．coolness

B．fitness

C．goodness

D．readiness

2.

A．control

B．change

C．adjust

D．celebrate

3.

A．amusing

B．inspiring

C．troubling

D．touching

4.

A．apply

B．approve

C．appreciate

D．accomplish

5.

A．disbelief

B．disagreement

C．discovery

D．discomfort

6.

A．bright

B．false

C．general

D．flexible

7.

A．virtue

B．ability

C．effort

D．status

8.

A．originally

B．obviously

C．necessarily

D．regularly

9.

A．choice

B．command

C．display

D．lack

10.

A．Instead

B．Otherwise

C．Therefore

D．However

11.

A．result from

B．apply for

C．associate with

D．lead to

12.

A．immoral

B．impersonal

C．impossible

D．impolite

13.

A．challenge

B．accept

C．assess

D．inquire

14.

A．plainly

B．probably

C．immediately

D．actually

15.

A．exhibit

B．expect

C．establish

D．recognize

9 . Questions are based on the following passage.
1.

A．He qualified as a teacher.

B．He became a student.

C．He became a government researcher.

D．He conducted a research on Zimbabwe.

2.

A．Children’s minds are not used to the full.

B．It is a great drain on children’s time and energy.

C．It highlights the flexibility of children’s minds.

D．It prevents children from seeking answers by themselves.

3.

A．To teach people to understand the world

B．To instruct people how to raise good questions.

C．To encourage people to study as they get older.

D．To inform people of problems in foreign countries.

10 . Directions: After reading the passage below, fill in the blanks to make the passage coherent and grammatically correct. For the blanks with a given word, fill in each blank with the proper form of the given word; for the other blanks, use one word that best fits each blank.

I was eighteen, summer fading, when my parents drove me to my university apartment. It was my first apartment.     1     (walk) my parents solemnly back to their car, I noticed that my mother had tears in her eyes. I     2     (struggle) to hold back my own. Such a strong woman was she     3     it was rare to see such a show of emotion. At the time, I was rather surprised. Being the youngest of five children, I thought that my parents were accustomed to     4     (let) go. But maybe it’s something that never gets any easier,     5     many practice swings you get. As my parents drove off, I realized that they would return to an empty home,     6     all of their children leaving to pursue dreams and lives of their own. Their nest, full of love and joy for so long, was now empty. Relishing (憧憬) my new-found freedom, I concentrated on my college life. My parents did their best to give me space to learn and grow, even if I neglected to call or visit. It was a time of “firsts,” and a taste of first “lasts.”

I have recently been playing Travel Frog, a mobile game that has me emotionally     7     (influence). In the game you gather resources, send your frog on his adventures and your payoff is, *drum roll please* ... postcards. That’s right, postcards. I thought it was a silly, overly-simplistic game at first, but then it started to bring back memories from long ago.

While the game lacks the narrative detail or the interactivity of other games, you have a lesson     8     (learn) from your itinerant (四处奔波的) “Frog Son”. You do not control when he sets off on his adventures,     9     can you be sure that your hard work will land you a coveted (梦寐以求的) postcard. This game, however, has emotionally affected many players. They     10     (remind) of their parents who restlessly await their return home, their familiar voices, their love. Parents sacrifice a large part of themselves for their children. It is a sacrifice that can only be paid back with love.