1 . By now you’ve probably heard about the “you’re not special” speech, when English teacher David McCullough told graduating seniors at Wellesley High School: “Do not get the idea you’re anything special, because you’re not.” Mothers and fathers present at the ceremony — and a whole lot of other parents across the Internet — took issue with McCullough’s ego-puncturing words. But lost in the uproar was something we really should be taking to heart: our young people actually have no idea whether they’re particularly talented or accomplished or not. In our eagerness to elevate their self-esteem, we forgot to teach them how to realistically assess their own abilities, a crucial requirement for getting better at anything from math to music to sports. In fact, it’s not just privileged high-school students: we all tend to view ourselves as above average.
Such inflated self-judgments have been found in study after study, and it’s often exactly when we’re least competent at a given task that we rate our performance most generously. In a 2006 study published in the journal Medical Education, for example, medical students who scored the lowest on an essay test were the most charitable in their self-evaluations, while high-scoring students judged themselves much more strictly. Poor students, the authors note, “lack insight” into their own inadequacy. Why should this be? Another study, led by Cornell University psychologist David Dunning, offers an enlightening explanation. People who are incompetent, he writes with coauthor Justin Kruger, suffer from a “dual burden”: they’re not good at what they do, and their very incapability prevents them from recognizing how bad they are.
In Dunning and Kruger’s study, subjects scoring at the bottom of the heap on tests of logic, grammar and humor “extremely overestimated” their talents. What these individuals lacked (in addition to clear logic, proper grammar and a sense of humor) was “metacognitive skill”: the capacity to monitor how well they’re performing. In the absence of that capacity, the subjects arrived at an overly hopeful view of their own abilities. There’s a paradox here, the authors note: “The skills that lead to competence in a particular domain are often the very same skills necessary to evaluate competence in that domain.” In other words, to get better at judging how well we’re doing at an activity, we have to get better at the activity itself.
There are a couple of ways out of this double bind. First, we can learn to make honest comparisons with others. Train yourself to recognize excellence, even when you yourself don’t possess it, and compare what you can do against what truly excellent individuals are able to accomplish. Second, seek out feedback that is frequent, accurate and specific. Find a critic who will tell you not only how poorly you’re doing, but just what it is that you’re doing wrong. As Dunning and Kruger note, success indicates to us that everything went right, but failure is more ambiguous: any number of things could have gone wrong. Use this external feedback to figure out exactly where and when you screwed up.
If we adopt these strategies — and most importantly, teach them to our children — they won’t need parents, or a commencement (毕业典礼) speaker, to tell them that they’re special. They’ll already know that they are, or have a plan to get that way.
1. Which can be the best title of this passage?| A．Special or Not? Teach Kids To Figure It Out |
| B．Let’s Admit That We Are Not That Special |
| C．Tips On Making Ourselves More Special |
| D．Tell The Truth: Kids Overestimate their Talents |
| A．we don't know whether our young people are talented or not |
| B．young people don't know how to assess their abilities realistically |
| C．no requirement is set up for young people to get better |
| D．we always tend to consider ourselves to be privileged |
| A．They usually give themselves high scores in self-evaluations. |
| B．They tend to be unable to know exactly how bad they are. |
| C．They are intelligently inadequate in tests and exams. |
| D．They lack the capacity to monitor how well they are performing. |
| A．know how to cultivate clear logic and proper grammar |
| B．tend to underestimate their performance because they know their limits |
| C．tend to regard themselves as competent due to their strict self-judgement |
| D．tend to be very competent in judging their performance in their high-scoring fields. |
2 . Great work is work that makes a difference in people’s lives, writes David Sturt, Executive Vice President of the O.C. Tanner Institute, in his book Great Work: How to Make a Difference People Love. Sturt insists, however, that great work is not just for surgeons or special-needs educators or the founders of organizations trying to eliminate poverty in sub-Saharan Africa. The central theme of Great Work, according to Sturt, is that anyone can make a difference in any job. It’s not the nature of the job, but what you do with the job that counts. As proof, Sturt tells the story of a remarkable hospital cleaner named Moses.
In a building filled with doctors and nurses doing great life-saving work, Moses the cleaner makes a difference. Whenever he enters a room, especially a room with a sick child, he engages both patients and parents with his optimism and calm, introducing himself to the child and, Sturt writes, speaking “little comments about light and sunshine and making things clean.” He comments on any progress he sees day by day (“you’re sitting up today, that’s good.”) Moses is no doctor and doesn’t pretend to be, but he has witnessed hundreds of sick children recovering from painful surgery, and parents take comfort from his encouraging words. For Matt and Mindi, whose son McKay was born with only half of a heart, Moses became a close friend. As Sturt explains, “Moses took his innate (与生俱来的) talents (his sensitivity) and his practical wisdom (from years of hospital experience) and combined them into a powerful form of patient and family support that changed the critical-care experience for Mindi, Matt and little McKay.”
How do people like Moses do great work when so many people just work? That was the central question raised by Sturt and his team at the O.C. Tanner Institute, a consulting company specialized in employee recognition and rewards system.
O.C. Tanner launched an exhaustive Great Work study that included surveys to 200 senior executives, a further set of surveys to 1,000 managers and employees working on projects, an in-depth qualitative study of 1.7 million accounts of award-winning work (in the form of nominations (提名) for awards from corporations around the world), and one-on-one interviews with 200 difference makers. The results of the study revealed that those who do great work refuse to be defeated by the constraints of their jobs and are especially able to reframe their jobs: they don’t view their jobs as a list of tasks and responsibilities but see their jobs as opportunities to make a difference. No matter, as Moses so ably exemplifies (例证), what that job may be.
1. According to Sturt, which of the following is TRUE?| A．It’s not the nature of the job, but what you do that makes a difference. |
| B．Anyone in the world is responsible to delete poverty and change the world. |
| C．Anyone can make a difference in people’s lives no matter what kind of job he does. |
| D．Surgeons, special-needs educators and founders of organizations can succeed more easily. |
| A．By keeping optimistic and calm when facing patients and their parents at hospital. |
| B．By showing his special gift and working experience when working at hospital. |
| C．By showing his sympathy and kindness to patients when entering their rooms. |
| D．By pretending to be a doctor or nurse when entering a room with a sick child. |
| A．demands | B．advantages | C．disadvantages | D．limitations |
| A．Great work is work that makes a difference in people’s lives no matter what you do. |
| B．If a boss has trouble recognizing his employees, he can ask O. C. Tanner for advice. |
| C．Moses makes a difference through his sensitivity and his practical wisdom. |
| D．Those who do great work are never defeated by others or their jobs themselves. |
3 . Once there was a circle that was missing a piece. A large triangular wedge (三角形楔子) had been cut out of it. The circle wanted to be whole with nothing missing, so it went around looking for its missing piece. But because it was incomplete, it could roll only very slowly. As it rolled slowly, it admired the flowers along the way. It chatted with worms. It enjoyed the sunshine. It found lots of different pieces, but none of them fit. So it left them all by the side of the road and kept on searching. Then one day the circle found a piece that fit perfectly. It was so happy. Now it could be whole, with nothing missing. It took the missing piece into itself and began to roll. Now that it was a perfect circle, it could roll very fast, too fast to notice the flowers or talk to the worms. When it realized how different the world seemed when it rolled so quickly, it stopped, left its found piece by the side of the road and rolled slowly away.
The lesson of the story was that in some strange sense we are more whole when we are missing something. The man who has everything is in some ways a poor man. He will never know what it feels like to yearn (渴望), to hope, to nourish (滋养) his soul with the dream of something better. He will never know the experience of having someone who loves him give him something he has always wanted and never had. There is a wholeness about the person who has come to terms with his limitations, who has been brave enough to let go his unrealistic dreams and not feel like a failure for doing so. There is a wholeness about the man or woman who has learned that he or she is strong enough to go through a tragedy and survive, who can lose someone and still feel like a complete person.
When we accept that imperfection is part of being human, and when we can continue rolling through life and appreciating it, we will have achieved a wholeness that others can only long for. That, I believe, is what God asks of us — not “Be perfect”, not “Don’t ever make a mistake”, but “Be whole”. And in the end, if we are brave enough to love, strong enough to forgive, generous enough to rejoice in another’s happiness, and wise enough to know there is enough love to go around for us all, then we can achieve a fulfillment that no other living creature will ever know.
1. According to paragraph 1, the circle gives up the missing piece, because __________.| A．it is not the perfect fit for the circle |
| B．it is different from the circle’s wish |
| C．it stops the circle from enjoying life |
| D．it slows down the speed of the circle |
| A．Because this man hasn’t found his missing piece. |
| B．Because this man could no longer nourish his soul. |
| C．Because this man never has someone who loves him. |
| D．Because this man has nothing left for him to live for. |
| A．abandon | B．accept | C．adjust | D．assess |
| A．an attitude to accept and live with the imperfect selves |
| B．a kind of care for all the people around as well as ourselves |
| C．the ability to avoid making any kind of mistake in our lives |
| D．the appreciation of nature, like flowers, worms, sunshine |
4 . After the age of sixteen, as has been discovered, the number of our brain cells begins to decrease at a speed of several million a year. They simply die off. In certain types of activity, the human brain is at its highest point in the early twenties, when it has collected enough information to be able to use the vast number of cells freely in the most effective way. Pure mathematics is one of the fields in which this happens, and we know that Albert Einstein made all his world-shaking discoveries between the age of about 20 and 25, and spent the rest of his life tidying them up and arranging them.
But in certain other types of activity (of which being an author is perhaps one), experience is more important than sharpness of brain, and there one usually finds that a person reaches his or her climax much later in life.
Besides sharpness of brain and experience, here is another thing that is very important, and that is wisdom. One can have a very quick, inventive brain and plenty of experience, but if one uses these foolishly, one harms both oneself and others. Wisdom does not always come with age — there are plenty of foolish middle-aged people about — but the average person tends to learn wisdom as he gets older, usually by making painful or embarrassing mistakes. Learning to be wise is basically learning what is not possible and what is possible but so difficult that it is not worth all the trouble one has to go through to get there. Mostly, it is learning about human nature; how real people behave and react, as against how one would like them to behave and react. One can read and hear lot of idealistic stuff about how to make the world a better place, which would be found if it was based on an accurate observation of human nature, but which is basically a waste of time because it is not.
1. According to the writer, the great discoveries made by Albert Einstein were mainly a result in .| A．sharpness of the brain | B．years of hard work |
| C．rich experience | D．his deep understanding of nature |
| A．they have to learn lessons from failures |
| B．they do not have a chance to show their talents |
| C．their work often requires much experience |
| D．they fail to realize earlier the importance of hard work |
| A．it helps to avoid various mistakes |
| B．it contributes to one’s creativity |
| C．it provides the right direction of efforts |
| D．it encourages one to go forward in face of difficulty |
| A．it is always a waste of time to make plans about the future |
| B．one has to use wisdom in deciding what is the best thing to do |
| C．one should always challenge the impossible to push the society forward |
| D．it is human nature to make attempts on what looks impossible |
5 . I was making a stop on my book tour. A sweet woman approached me, and pleasantly
She laughed and said, "Well, sure. That's true with everything, right?"
A light came on in my brain. She was righter than she knew. I said, "Yes, but not how you mean. Success is a
A lot of the time our methods of working are a series of habits, good and bad, we
I wasn't crazy about his statement back then, because I was uncomfortable, but still wasn't an artist. I see the
As actors, we know we can become anything with enough rehearsal.
| A．suggested | B．admitted | C．shouted | D．decided |
| A．even | B．hardly | C．just | D．also |
| A．attempt | B．consider | C．refuse | D．manage |
| A．tired from | B．annoyed about | C．fed up with | D．happy with |
| A．product | B．cause | C．factor | D．kind |
| A．standard | B．watch | C．goal | D．speed |
| A．reflect | B．create | C．refuse | D．prepare |
| A．broke | B．chose | C．developed | D．arranged |
| A．annoying | B．comfortable | C．confident | D．useless |
| A．wisdom | B．beauty | C．hope | D．history |
| A．never | B．persistently | C．fortunately | D．unwillingly |
| A．contents | B．questions | C．pages | D．answers |
| A．money | B．time | C．effort | D．potential |
| A．So | B．But | C．And | D．Instead |
| A．read | B．follow | C．redraw | D．lose |
6 . Why Gratitude Is Significant
As far as I'm concerned, no matter what you’re going through, there is always a reason to be thankful. But not only that — being thankful might just be exactly what you need to do if you’re going through a tough time.
Researchers found that having a grateful attitude helps strengthen one’s immune system, lower blood pressure, improve sleep and motivate people to exercise regularly.
Having gone through a period of depression myself after cancer surgery 10 years ago, I can tell you this illness can be severe.
During that time I sought forms of treatment for depression, including professional counseling and exercise. One thing recommended to me by a counselor was keeping a gratitude journal.
| A．Every day, I would set down three things I was thankful for in life. |
| B．Now I realize depression does not go away by practicing a single exercise. |
| C．It itself carries a host of health benefits. |
| D．Being grateful accounts for your recovery. |
| E．Gratitude is good for your mind, body and soul. |
| F．Depression makes you feel as if you are dead inside. |
| G．For example, I would sincerely convey my gratitude loudly. |
7 . Looking at a pile of old photos, I couldn’t help feeling rather regretful.
I’ve never got into the habit of sorting out photos. However, it’s almost a habit of mine to have photos taken thoughtlessly. Thus, photos have been piling up in my childhood to womanhood. In spite of that, those black-and-white pictures taken in my early years are rarely kept, except a few survivals regarded as antiques. The bald baby picture of me that I treasured, the only one left, it’s now missing.
Familiar faces flash one by one before my eyes. Though the world is so small and we all live in it, yet we are separated by physical and psychological distances, some smaller, some larger. With the passage of time, one cannot, regretfully relive (重温) it with the same feeling as one had in the picture. What one can get from the old photos is but a bit of the past joy.
One takes pictures with different persons in different time and places. They fill one with nostalgia (怀旧) in various degrees — some more, some less, and others none. That’s why one has conflicting feelings towards the old photos. Still kept with the current ones, they’re even less favored than a daily-used cup, which is always close to the owner.
How these pieces of thought influence me! Photos keep our images rather than our sentiment, which may not remain. The image is always there but not its owner, whom the photo can’t keep, neither can it keep the event.
Of course, there are some of the photos still holding my affection, such as those taken with my family members, with favorite playmates, fellow girl-students and best friends, not only in pictures but also in my life and heart.
Now, since I have learned all this, I will not allow myself to be included casually in a photo taken with others. I’ll make sure that the friendship can last before I take a photo with somebody.
1. Why did the writer have only a few black-and-white pictures?| A．She took fewer of them. | B．She took photos thoughtlessly. |
| C．She didn’t take good care of them. | D．She only liked the bald baby picture. |
| A．All the past events. | B．All the past excitement. |
| C．Some past happiness. | D．The everlasting memory. |
| A．Feeling. | B．Thought. | C．Look. | D．Influence. |
| A．To take the photo happily. | B．To refuse the request politely. |
| C．To ignore the request casually. | D．To think carefully before action. |
8 . As I drove along the road, small car flew across the center divider from the opposite direction and crashed into my car head-on. I fell unconscious and was awakened by the ringing of my mobile phone.
I was brought to Kuala Lumpur General Hospital bleeding on from my nose, mouth and legs. But the hospital staff was too busy to attend to me, so I called a friend to tell him about the accident. Some friends arrived very soon and sent me to a private hospital nearby. I saw my injured feet hanging from my body, blue and lifeless, and I begged the doctors to save them at all cost. They calmly promised to do their best.
The doctors made it. After I was discharged, I was given ten months medical leave. My heart sank, knowing that it meant I, a big man, couldn't work. How was I going to support my 65-year-old mother and other family members? I felt completely helpless, but a la of unexpected blessings came my way. When I was recovering at home, friends and relatives helped me with my banking, insurance or simply came to cheer me up.
When the casts（石膏）were removed, I did not let the sight of my weak legs discourage me. I worked hard at my physiotherapy（物理疗法）with only one aim. After eight months, I was walking without the aid of a walking stick. Oh February the following year, I returned to my job again. Today, after eight years, I have travelled to many counties as a tour leader.
The accident makes me realize how lives can change in a second. I value life more, not only of my own but also of everyone I know, and I will always try to help when I know of someone in trouble.
1. What made the author come back to life in the traffic accident?| A．Someone made a call to him. |
| B．A car crashed into his ear head-on. |
| C．One of his friends gave him first aid. |
| D．His mobile phone was out of order suddenly. |
| A．Was inspired. | B．Got injured. |
| C．Was discovered. | D．Left hospital. |
| A．He is honest and strong. | B．He is learned and intelligent. |
| C．He is optimistic and determined. | D．He is discouraged and desperate. |
| A．Life is very precious to people. | B．It's a hard job to be a tour guide. |
| C．Many people are in trouble in life. | D．It's a must for someone to help others. |
9 . When I first came to Rochester from Austin, Texas — a place where fall is practically non-existent — I was excited for a real northern fall. But, I wasn’t
Regardless of this
Everyone
This oncoming change is why I think it is so important to
| A．interested in | B．exposed to | C．ashamed of | D．prepared for |
| A．accident | B．possibility | C．shock | D．motivation |
| A．beyond | B．against | C．for | D．after |
| A．rare | B．real | C．hard | D．strange |
| A．take in | B．pick up | C．call back | D．refer to |
| A．shift | B．conclusion | C．improvement | D．experience |
| A．spoil | B．keep | C．turn | D．avoid |
| A．cold | B．warm | C．hot | D．cozy |
| A．prevents | B．expects | C．urges | D．suspects |
| A．grateful | B．creative | C．considerate | D．comfortable |
| A．luckily | B．actually | C．helpfully | D．instantly |
| A．terrible | B．casual | C．unpleasant | D．valuable |
| A．questions | B．emphasizes | C．recalls | D．analyzes |
| A．relax | B．change | C．harvest | D．rest |
| A．steadily | B．hardly | C．helpfully | D．narrowly |
| A．if | B．since | C．as | D．before |
| A．control | B．describe | C．appreciate | D．hide |
| A．process | B．disadvantages | C．fear | D．result |
| A．disappointing | B．puzzling | C．gone | D．broken |
| A．inside | B．forward | C．backward | D．outside |
10 . Give yourself a test. Which way is the wind blowing? How many kinds of wildflowers can be seen from your front door? If your awareness is as sharp as it could be, you’ll have no trouble answering these questions.
Most of us observed much more as children than we do as adults. A child’s day is filled with fascination, newness and wonder. Curiosity gave us all a natural awareness. But distinctions that were sharp to us as children become unclear; we are numb to new stimulation, new ideas. Relearning the art of seeing the world around us is quite simple, although it takes practice and requires breaking some bad habits.
The first step in awakening senses is to stop predicting what we are going to see and feel before it occurs. This blocks awareness. One chilly night when I was hiking in the Rocky Mountains with some students, I mentioned that we were going to cross a mountain stream. The students began complaining about how cold it would be. We reached the stream, and they unwillingly walked ahead. They were almost knee-deep when they realized it was a hot spring. Later they all admitted they’d felt cold water at first.
Another block to awareness is the obsession (痴迷) many of us have with naming things. I saw bird watchers who spotted a bird, immediately looked it up in field guides, and said, a “ruby-crowned kinglet” and checked it off. They no longer paid attention to the bird and never learned what it was doing.
The pressures of “time” and “destination” are further blocks to awareness. I encountered many hikers who were headed to a distant camp-ground with just enough time to get there before dark. It seldom occurred to them to wander a bit, to take a moment to see what’s around them. I asked them what they’d seen. “Oh, a few birds,” they said. They seemed bent on their destinations.
Nature seems to unfold to people who watch and wait. Next time you take a walk, no matter where it is, take in all the sights, sounds and sensations. Wander in this frame of mind and you will open a new dimension to your life.
1. According to Paragraph 2, compared with adults, children are more ________.| A．anxious to do wonders | B．sensitive to others’ feelings |
| C．likely to develop unpleasant habits | D．eager to explore the world around them |
| A．To avoid jumping to conclusions. | B．To stop complaining all the time. |
| C．To follow the teacher’s advice. | D．To admit mistakes honestly. |
| A．The natural beauty isn’t attractive to them. |
| B．They focus on arriving at the camp in time. |
| C．The forest in the dark is dangerous for them. |
| D．They are keen to see rare birds at the destination. |
| A．fill our senses to feel the wonders of the world |
| B．get rid of some bad habits in our daily life |
| C．open our mind to new things and ideas |
| D．try our best to protect nature |
