2 . I have trouble focusing on one thing at a time. I get excited about something and I’ll devote all my ________ to it for a couple of weeks. Then I’ll find something else that I’ll get even more excited about and focus on that ________. Many tasks get halfway finished and abandoned (放弃). It’s hard for me to fully ________ anything without setting a goal for myself. My head works better with a plan than without it.

I find this to be ________ for a lot of people: self- imposed (自我强加的) plans get things done more ________ than simply taking uninformed actions.

If your goal is to lose weight, the actions you take (what you eat, how much you exercise,   the amount of sleep you get) should all be ________ by the desire to lose weight. If you go out there ________ and do what you like, you may find yourself eating a whole box of cookies, saying, “Damn, I love Oreos (奥利奥)!”

Bringing yourself back to your ________ is a great way to stay grounded and motivated. Whenever I’ve lost sight of my goals, I feel the difference. I feel ________ and bad about myself, like I’m letting myself ________. When I’m aiming for a goal and taking ________ toward it, I feel inspired.

People against goals would tell me that it’s because I set the goals in the ________ place that I feel guilty and bad about myself. I wonder if feeling bad about myself because I’m ________to live up to my full potential is such a bad thing, I think we should always ________ to achieve more in our lives and be ________ for what we have.

1.

A．life

B．space

C．efforts

D．actions

2.

A．instead

B．again

C．indeed

D．anyway

3.

A．complete

B．understand

C．remember

D．explain

4.

A．necessary

B．ready

C．true

D．fair

5.

A．normally

B．certainly

C．regularly

D．quickly

6.

A．informed

B．tricked

C．battled

D．acquired

7.

A．frequently

B．specially

C．blindly

D．directly

8.

A．lessons

B．goals

C．tasks

D．desires

9.

A．guilty

B．strange

C．serious

D．particular

10.

A．around

B．down

C．out

D．off

11.

A．attitudes

B．risks

C．steps

D．notes

12.

A．first

B．same

C．right

D．familiar

13.

A．affording

B．expecting

C．refusing

D．failing

14.

A．promise

B．try

C．offer

D．pretend

15.

A．careful

B．famous

C．eager

D．grateful

3 . I could never imagine myself being in any other profession than teaching.

As a child, I often ________ I was teaching a classroom with my toy animals. However, it wasn't a ________ when I received a phone call about teaching a summer tennis camp to 3- to 5-year-old campers.

The first day of tennis camp arrived. I started the ________ by introducing myself and teaching the kids how to hold their tennis rackets(球拍)．Boom! They all ________ it right away. The next minute they were all doing it the wrong way. “Is this what it's like to be a________?”I thought. Instead of getting ________ or giving up, I found myself feeling encouraged to be patient and ________ my students until they understood certain concepts about the game.

The rest of the week reassured(使安心)me of my ________ to teach students the game of tennis and this ________ led me to an “aha” moment. I realized how much I________ working with younger children. And this is exactly what encouraged me to ________ teaching.

I'm in my fourth year of teaching kindergarten, and I'm often asked about my ________ to be teacher. People would make negative remarks about my________ . “You know you're not going to make any money, right?” was something I heard often. To me, teaching isn't about the money. It is about making a(n)________ to the lives of children. I knew I would encounter many challenges, but I also knew the positive would always________ the challenges I might face.

1.

A．wondered

B．dreamt

C．pretended

D．agreed

2.

A．game

B．chance

C．promise

D．plan

3.

A．class

B．show

C．interview

D．project

4.

A．expected

B．found

C．forgot

D．got

5.

A．player

B．teacher

C．student

D．monitor

6.

A．sick

B．sleepy

C．upset

D．afraid

7.

A．respect

B．remind

C．protect

D．accept

8.

A．struggle

B．turn

C．abilities

D．rights

9.

A．service

B．education

C．experience

D．example

10.

A．tried

B．regretted

C．missed

D．enjoyed

11.

A．pursue

B．practise

C．postpone

D．promote

12.

A．guidance

B．inspiration

C．assistance

D．position

13.

A．preparation

B．suggestion

C．knowledge

D．decision

14.

A．impression

B．influence

C．difference

D．profit

15.

A．help

B．outweigh

C．enhance

D．favour

4 . It may be the holiday season, but the spirit of peace and good will has not infected the streets of Los Angeles. More drivers seem to be rolling through stop signs and running red lights than ever before. Everyone seems to be in a terrible hurry.

Why is everyone in such a hurry? Where are they rushing to?

I think perhaps the answer lies in answering this question: What does that round of parties and meeting and mad rushing from place to place allow all of us to avoid confronting? T think the answer is clear- ourselves.

There is an experiment where subjects had to choose between being alone with themselves and their thoughts for approximately 15 minutes and receiving electric shocks. The majority chose the shocks-a reflection of how painful, frightening,threatening,confusing,boring(!),you name it... we find being alone with just ourselves and our thoughts.

Our desire not to be with our innermost thoughts is so great that we create and find distractions. In the car, we can make phone calls or listen to music. We live in a world of endless opportunities for distraction.

I understand the desire. Life is hard. Growing is a painfully slow process. To keep moving requires determination and strength - and giving up seems so much easier (as do those electric shocks!) We may win some battles, but the war is never over. Sometimes we are just too tired to fight and just need that music or that book to relax. I just instinctively(本能地）tun on the radio when I get in the car; I don't even give the quiet a moment to sink in.

But it's time for a reality check; otherwise we slip into an avoidance mode. It's challenging. But let's make a change. Instead of rushing from house to car to meeting to groceries to... let's take a moment to stop and think before each activity. What do I want to achieve now? And what is the best way to do that? Maybe I could think of ways to grow.

1. Why does the author mention drivers on the streets of Los Angeles?

A．To describe a strong holiday atmosphere.

B．To present a unique social situation in America.

C．To raise his question on why people are in a rush.

D．To show that it's time to improve road safety in America.

2. Why did the majority of subjects choose electric shocks?

A．They found the innermost thoughts great.

B．They enjoyed being alone with themselves.

C．They refused painful and threatening distractions.

D．They wanted to find opportunities for distraction.

3. What does the author think of the people who chose the shocks in.the experiment?

A．They should be more courageous.

B．Their attitude to life was unexpected.

C．Their behavior was understandable.

D．They should refuse to take part in the experiment

4. What's the best title of the text?

A．Fighting distractions.

B．Being with ourselves.

C．Reviewing our mistakes.

D．Rushing from place to place

7 . “The really frightening thing about middle age,” the actor Doris Day is said to have joked, “is that you know you'll grow out of it.” We may bravely try to claim that life begins at 40- but for many people，it can feel more like the beginning of the end.

Mid life wasn't always seen this way. It isn't clear why we have a more negative view today, but Margie Lachman, director of the lifespan development lab at Brandeis University in Massachusetts, suggests it may be linked to the pressures that begin piling up in our 30s. “Midlife is a period of high stress today, more so than in the past,” she says. “One is exactly in the middle of work and family careers. This can affect one's ability to focus on one's own well-being.”

There are, however, many reasons to feel positive about this crucial period. In a series of experiments, Laura Germine at Harvard Medical School has tested tens of thousands of people to examine the differences in cognitive abilities between age groups. Germine's studies have included the famous “mind in the eyes” test, for instance, which gets people to infer emotional states from small differences in facial expressions. She found that people in their late 40s scored highest. This may be due to practice, she suggests. “When you think about the amount of social differences that one has to learn across the lifespan- that's where we think that comes from.”

Germine found similar patterns in a task demanding continuous attention. In this, the participants had to watch different scenes fade into one another and adapt their response according to what they saw-pressing a button when they saw a city and releasing it when they saw a mountain. 40-somethings found it much easier to “get into the zone” than younger people.

It is interesting to note that middle-aged people frequently bring in the most supplies in traditional hunter-gatherer societies. According to various studies, hunter-gatherers often take decades to learn their skills, and these abilities continue to grow into their 40s.

There are some downsides to hitting this age, of course. Our skin tends to become loose and our body fat starts to be redistributed around the midriff. But after a drop in life satisfaction, happiness is already set to rise at the end of this decade and the beginning of the next.

Contrary to popular opinion, humans seem to have evolved to flourish into middle age and beyond.

1. What can we infer from the first paragraph?

A．Doris Day felt excited in her 40s.	B．It's believed that life begins at 40.
C．Lots of people feel worried at 40.	D．We are supposed to be braver at 40.

2. Which of the followings is TRUE according to the text?

A．People in their 40s attach more importance to their well-being.

B．There seem to be reasons for us to be optimistic about middle age.

C．The participants in their 40s did badly in Germine's experiments.

D．Humans' physical appearance definitely gets worse in their 40s.

3. The underlined word “flourish” in the last paragraph is closest in meaning to ________.

A．Succeed

B．Panic

C．Calm

D．Decline

4. Where is the text probably taken from?

A．A textbook	B．An art review.
C．A science magazine.	D．A biography.

8 . In life, do you choose to take the road everyone has taken, or do you choose the path that is best for you? It might be ________ to choose what everyone has done, especially if it seemed to work for them. But is that what truly ________ for you?

On a recent hiking ________, my partner and I decided to take a popular trail in the ________ direction. This was an old, well-traveled trail that people had been hiking and biking from A to Z for years. For our own reasons, we chose to travel from Z to A. Going backwards made more sense with my ________. The trip would take several days and going backwards ________ that I would end the trip closer to the airport for my flight home.

As my partner and I walked, everyone crossing our path had something to say, “You're going the wrong way. Are you lost? Are you returning ________ you forgot something? Are you crazy? The path occasionally crossed a ________. When it did, even passing cars beeped to ________ us in the “right” direction.

Why did people only see one way? Because that's what everyone does? Because that's how it's always been done? We even ________ to talk to a Danish woman who said, “We have a(n)       ________ in my country: when you go backwards to everyone else, it's because you're avoiding something.” I couldn't believe it. We were just enjoying connecting with nature, hiking the way that best ________ us. Had we gone the “wrong” way? No. At least, not for us.

I decided to ________ the path I chose. ________, we had an amazing experience. Choosing the “wrong” path was right for me. When your inner ________ tells you something is right (or wrong), listen to it. It's your instinct. It's speaking to you for a reason and it knows, better than anyone, what's best for you.

1.

A．anxious

B．normal

C．awkward

D．impressive

2.

A．designs

B．plans

C．works

D．prepares

3.

A．race

B．test

C．project

D．trip

4.

A．opposite

B．wrong

C．common

D．accessible

5.

A．emotion

B．target

C．schedule

D．request

6.

A．supposed

B．ensured

C．provided

D．permitted

7.

A．if

B．because

C．while

D．yet

8.

A．plain

B．valley

C．trail

D．highway

9.

A．point

B．inspire

C．protect

D．support

10.

A．expected

B．stopped

C．agreed

D．hesitated

11.

A．saying

B．point

C．myth

D．spell

12.

A．instructed

B．confused

C．offered

D．suited

13.

A．show off

B．think over

C．pick out

D．stick to

14.

A．Probably

B．Hopefully

C．Eventually

D．Knowingly

15.

A．desire

B．feeling

C．voice

D．reaction