1 . When Eugenie George first heard that her friend passed a financial exam, her heart sank. She’d ______ the same test weeks earlier.

“Envy was eating me up,” recalls George. But anyway she ______ her friend. “And I told her I failed and admitted I was ______,” she says. George knew that being ______ would ease her envy, but she was surprised that it also enabled her to ______ her friend’s happiness and experience her own in turn.

Finding ______ in another person’s good fortune is what social scientists call freudenfreude, the great joy we feel when someone else succeeds, ______ it doesn’t directly involve us. Freudenfreude is like a kind of social______, says Catherine Chambliss, a professor of psychology. It makes relationships “closer and more enjoyable.”

Too often, we think our friends ______ us most during their hard times: a job ______, getting divorced. In fact, how friends ______ our joy is even more important for us than how they respond to our ______. Too often, we think of joy passively. We see it as something that come to us, instead of something we can ______. While it can be difficult in practice, freudenfreude can lift us up and ______ our day. So celebrating our friends’ ______ is a win-win to us all.

1.

A．taken

B．passed

C．failed

D．prepared

2.

A．congratulated

B．forgave

C．blamed

D．ignored

3.

A．badly-behaved

B．over-burdened

C．short-sighted

D．green-eyed

4.

A．tough

B．honest

C．tolerant

D．optimistic

5.

A．imagine

B．understand

C．share

D．increase

6.

A．hope

B．passion

C．confidence

D．pleasure

7.

A．even if

B．as if

C．now that

D．so that

8.

A．platform

B．glue

C．booster

D．routine

9.

A．support

B．annoy

C．upset

D．need

10.

A．loss

B．change

C．interview

D．application

11.

A．look forward to

B．contribute to

C．get used to

D．react to

12.

A．envy

B．complaints

C．suffering

D．mistakes

13.

A．predict

B．produce

C．choose

D．measure

14.

A．fill

B．start

C．brighten

D．balance

15.

A．survival

B．success

C．recovery

D．generosity

2 . I ask every student I interview for admission to my institution, Pitzer College, the same question, “What do you look forward to the most in college?” I was astonished and delighted recently when a student replied, “I look forward to the possibility of failure.” Of course, this is not how most students respond to the question when sitting before the person who can make decisions about their academic futures, but this young man took a risk.

“You see, my parents have never let me fail,” he said. “When I want to take a chance at something, they remind me it’s not a safe route to take. Taking a more demanding course or trying an activity I may not succeed in, they tell me, will ruin my chances at college admission.”

I wish I could tell you this is an uncommon story, but kids all over the world admit they are under great pressure to be perfect. When I was traveling in China last fall and asked a Chinese student what she did for fun, she replied: “I thought I wasn’t supposed to tell you that? I wouldn’t want you to think I am not serious about my work!”

Students are usually in shock when I laugh and tell them I never expect perfection. Of course, this goes against everything they’ve been told. How could a dean (院长) of admission at one of America’s most selective institutions not want the best and the brightest? The reality is, perfection doesn’t exist, and we don’t expect to see it in a college application. In fact, admission officers tend to question students who present themselves as individuals without shortcomings.

We get the most excited when we read an application that seems real. It’s so rare to hear stories of defeat. If their perspectives are of lessons learned, these applicants tend to jump to the top at highly selective colleges. We believe an error in high school should not define the rest of your life, but how you respond could shape you forever.

1. What can we learn about the student in the first two paragraphs?

A．He is taught not to take risks.

B．He tries to avoid any chance of failure.

C．He cares little about his academic futures

D．He is seldom allowed to take part in activities.

2. Why does the author mention the Chinese student in paragraph 3?

A．To emphasize the importance of hard work.

B．To compare students from different countries.

C．To give an example of the students he favors.

D．To illustrate the widespread stress on students

3. What is probably admission officers’ attitude towards a perfect application?

A．Doubtful.

B．Confused.

C．Favorable.

D．Casual.

4. What is the key to success in college according to the author?

A．A desire for perfection

B．The ability to learn from defeats.

C．The opportunity of making mistakes.

D．An experience of defeat in high school

3 . Philosophers have a bad reputation for expressing themselves in a dry and boring way. The ideals for most philosophical writing are precision, clarity, and the sort of conceptual analysis that leaves no hair un-split.

There is nothing wrong with clarity, precision, and the like — but this isn’t the only way to do philosophy. Outside academic journals, abstract philosophical ideas are often expressed through literature, cinema, and song. There’s nothing that grabs attention like a good story, and there are some great philosophical stories that delight and engage, rather than putting the reader to sleep.

One of the great things about this is that, unlike formal philosophy, which tries to be very clear, stories don’t wear their meanings on their sleeve — they require interpretation, and often express conflicting ideas for the reader to wrestle with.

Consider what philosophers call the metaphysics (形而上学) of race — an area of philosophy that explorers the question of whether or not race is real. There are three main positions that you can take on these questions. You might think that a person’s race is written in their genes (a position known as “biological realism”). Or you might think of race as socially real, like days of the week or currencies (“social constructionism”). Finally, you might think that races are unreal — that they’re more like leprechauns (一种魔法精灵) than they are like Thursdays or dollars (“anti-realism”).

A great example of a story with social constructionist taking on race is George Schuyler’s novel Black No More. In the book, a Black scientist named Crookman invents a procedure that makes Black people visually indistinguishable from Whites. Thousands of African Americans flock to Crookman’s Black No More clinics and pay him their hard-earned cash to undergo the procedure. White racists can no longer distinguish those people who are “really” White from those who merely appear to be White. In a final episode, Crookman discovers that new Whites are actually a whiter shade of pale than those who were born that way, which kicks off a trend of sunbathing to darken one’s skin-darkening it so as to look more While.

Philosophically rich stories like this bring more technical works to life. They are stories to think with.

1. What does the author think of philosophical stories?

A．The meaning behind is very obvious.

B．They am extremely precise and formal.

C．They often cause conflicts among readers.

D．They are engaging and inspire critical thinking.

2. Which category might “Christmas” fall into according to paragraph 4?

A．Social constructionism.	B．Anti-realism.
C．Biological realism.	D．Literary realism.

3. What is Black No More in paragraph 5 mainly about?

A．Racial issues caused by skin colors.

B．A society view on race and self-image.

C．Black people accepted by the white society.

D．The origin of sun bathing among white people.

4. What is the best title of the text?

A．Stories Made Easy	B．Stories to Think with
C．Positions in Philosophy	D．Nature of Philosophical Writing

4 . There’s a widely held belief that self-discipline means being able to do something when people don’t actually want to do it.    1    But this view of self-discipline is not right.

Containing one’s authenticity comes at a cost.     2    There was a time when I lived very inauthentically. Instead of following my sincere desire to become a psychologist, I studied engineering. I neglected, my authentic self and tried to meet social expectations. I thought I was doing what I should do to succeed and be respected by society.     3    And this loss of connection cost me dear, causing me to develop lots of health problems. So what does it really mean to be self-disciplined?

    4    Rather than trying to contain or control their genuine feelings, they try to understand them. Then they learn how to allow their authentic self to develop. And by doing so, they live lives of wholeness and happiness.

But how does someone become such a person in the first place? They follow their own interests and deal with the challenges that they personally feel called to manage.     5    For them, self-control is never a problem. They move as one harmonious unit their perfect self works harmoniously with the authentic self to promote their growth.

So here’s the secret to self-discipline. Self-discipline is not about forcing yourself to meet social expectations, but following your own dream and allowing your authentic self to develop.

A．I know this from first-hand experience.

B．I didn’t believe this in my previous life.

C．Truly self-disciplined people are followers of themselves.

D．Forcing yourself to do things you don’t want to do is not self-discipline.

E．They go after what they genuinely want, not what society tells them to do.

F．Gradually, I became out of touch with my own true feelings, desires, and nature.

G．For them, self-discipline means ignoring their real self in favour of the perfect self.

5 . Long ago, in a village lived a wise old man. All the villagers were unhappy because they thought their neighbours had better lives, so day and night the _________ townsfolk would burst into the old man’s house for endless _________ about their fortune.

Early one brisk autumn morning, the old man posted a huge sign in the village square that _________: ALL CITIZENS WILL GATHER HERE AT NOON. BRING A BIG GREEN PICKLE (泡菜).

At twelve sharp all the villagers gathered in the square with a big, green pickle. The old man said, “I want you all to put your pickle down by your feet!” The crowd became _________. After considerable _________ and complaining, the villagers did as the old man said.

Then the old man spoke once again, “Imagine that everything you are — your wisdom and your _________, your blessings and your misfortune, your _________ and your weaknesses — is in your pickle. If you don’t like your pickle, no big deal. _________ someone else’s. Go ahead and choose.”

With that _________, all the villagers now had the overwhelming __________ of deciding whose pickle they wanted. The baker’s eye __________ fell on the schoolteacher’s pickle. The schoolteacher’s eye __________ over to the tailor’s. Every eye __________ every pickle in town. However, when it was over, the townspeople — every single one of them — had __________ their very own pickles.

Since that day, whenever a villager approached the old man to complain, he would simply say, “It’s your __________; you picked it.”

1.

A．boring

B．noisy

C．nervous

D．envious

2.

A．complaints

B．quarrels

C．discussions

D．suggestions

3.

A．wrote

B．read

C．noted

D．displayed

4.

A．excited

B．awkward

C．silent

D．restless

5.

A．approving

B．attempting

C．doubting

D．reviewing

6.

A．foolishness

B．intelligence

C．courage

D．inspiration

7.

A．shortcomings

B．talents

C．confidence

D．wealth

8.

A．Pick

B．Admire

C．Post

D．Value

9.

A．assistance

B．command

C．announcement

D．promise

10.

A．profit

B．task

C．method

D．fear

11.

A．gradually

B．constantly

C．immediately

D．casually

12.

A．circled

B．passed

C．pulled

D．shot

13.

A．examined

B．marked

C．competed

D．labeled

14.

A．put away

B．taken back

C．missed out

D．set aside

15.

A．fortune

B．choice

C．pickle

D．lesson

6 . Your moral compass, conscience, and ethics may all sound like the same set of values, but your moral compass can sometimes steer you away from rigid societal laws. Thus, when you’re faced with a decision, how you react is often driven by personal values you’ve acquired.     1    

What is your moral compass?

Morality is what defines whether an action is perceived as good or bad. Morals guide your individual behavior within a society, which aren’t fixed.     2     Your moral compass provides guidance in making ethical decisions, while your conscience serves as an internal alarm system to alert you when you have violated our moral code. As for ethics, they tend to be the cultural and societal standards that outline how “everyone” is expected to behave.

    3    

According to modern psychologists, moral development is a part of three phases in childhood.

· Pre-conventional phase: Behaviors are driven by punishment avoidance and rewards.

· Conventional phase: Laws and rules of society are considered to gain others’ approval.

· Post-Conventional phase: Moral decisions are made from the perspective of individual rights.

How to find your moral compass?

It’s not always easy to know right from wrong, but you can try the following methods. Your moral compass is made up of your beliefs, so it may be helpful to actively review them.     4     You may also find it helpful to speak with people who can engage in open discussions about their moral positions.

    5     It is what guides your behavior in times when societal rules regarding human rights and conduct conflict with your beliefs. Just hold it firmly and properly.

A．How does your moral compass develop?

B．Your moral compass is your personal guide.

C．What are the modern concepts of moral compass?

D．Not everyone would reach the final level in their lifetime.

E．Another way is by learning about the societies around you.

F．They may change as you face new experiences and gain life lessons.

G．Some of these values, which affect your judgement, make up your moral compass.

7 . As a child, I was proud of my southern origin. My own voice reflected my family’s past and present-part northern Mississippi, part Tennessee, all southern. There was no sound I loved more than my grandmother’s accent: thick, sweet, warm.

While growing up, I began to realize outside of our region, southerners were often dismissed as uncultured and ignorant. I was ready to leave behind my tiny town in West Tennessee, starting a new life and jumping at big chances in some far-off cities. In that embarrassing space between “teen” and “adult”, my accent was a symbol of everything I thought I hated about my life in the rural South. I feared it would disqualify me from being a noted magazine writer. I would have to talk less “country”. So I killed a piece of myself. I’m ashamed of it, but I’m more ashamed that I tried to kill that part of someone else-change Emily’s accent.

I met Emily in college. She was determined to work for the student newspaper, which was where I spent most of my waking hours, and we became friends. She, unlike me, accepted her roots. Early in our friendship, her mother asked where I was from, assuming it was somewhere up north. Then I felt my efforts paid off and even wanted to ignore the mistake.

Emily is two years younger and she cared about my opinion. I advised her to be more like me and hide her signature Manchester accent. I stressed that throughout our college years, often by making fun of her vowel (元音) sounds. I told myself I was helping her achieve her dream of working as a reporter. Now, I see that it was actually about justifying my hiding part of myself.

Grandma Carolyn used to tell me, “Girl, don’t forget where you come from.” Now I truly understand that. Many things have faded from memory, but this sticks in my mind with uncomfortable clarity. Now that I am grown and have left the South, it’s important to me.

1. What made the author want to leave her hometown?

A．Appeal of convenience in cities.

B．Her dream of becoming a writer.

C．Outside prejudice against southerners.

D．Her desire for the northern accent.

2. How did the author feel about the mistake of Emily’s mother?

A．Upset.

B．Pleased.

C．Ashamed.

D．Surprised.

3. Why on earth did the author try to change Emily’s accent?

A．To prove herself right.	B．To help Emily be a reporter.
C．To make herself influential.	D．To protect Emily’s self-dignity.

4. What message does the text want to convey?

A．Stay true to your roots.	B．Never do things by halves.
C．Hold on to your dreams.	D．Never judge a person by his accent.

8 . Many years ago, I was living with my best friend and we had many happy moments together. But there was one night that ________ our lives forever.

On the night of November 25, 2011, I got into a fistfight with my best friend in our kitchen. It all started because I was trying to help him. He was drinking a lot, arguing with everyone and ________ himself from others by keeping silent most of the time. This had been going on for weeks and finally I decided it was time for a(an) ________ I told him that he needed to stop drinking so much and tried to ________ his alcohol and he got angry and started ________ with me. It was scary, but by the end of the night, we were able to calm down and talk to each other.

I thought alcohol ________ was his main problem. But he was just using alcohol to ________ himself through. He was lonely, heartbroken and struggling to connect with people. So during the Christmas season a few weeks later, I gave him a ________ that I didn’t even know I had.

That Christmas my friend didn’t have any place to go, so I invited him home to my parents’ house in Lancaster. They ________ cleaned up our guest room for him and even bought him some Christmas gifts. I’ll never forget the night we arrived at my home. My parents were already ________, but my mom had prepared dinner for us, baked some cookies and left us a note. My parents are known for their ________, so I wasn’t surprised by this warm welcome. But when my friend read my mom’s note and saw all that she had prepared, he broke down and cried. That’s when I ________ how much I took my loving family for granted.

That year my friend and I both received gifts that we would ________ forever. I gave him the gift of a warm, loving, safe place to spend Christmas. And he gave me the gift of a new ________ on life. If I hadn’t shared my home with him, I wouldn’t have understood how ________ I am.

1.

A．defined

B．inspired

C．created

D．changed

2.

A．defending

B．separating

C．protecting

D．locking

3.

A．communication

B．investigation

C．exploration

D．promotion

4.

A．put up

B．take away

C．break out

D．call off

5.

A．talking

B．crying

C．fighting

D．laughing

6.

A．access

B．addition

C．abuse

D．affection

7.

A．look

B．break

C．drive

D．carry

8.

A．time

B．holiday

C．gift

D．family

9.

A．happily

B．generally

C．formally

D．hurriedly

10.

A．awake

B．asleep

C．available

D．absorbed

11.

A．generosity

B．curiosity

C．ability

D．creativity

12.

A．admitted

B．realized

C．recognized

D．accepted

13.

A．exchange

B．present

C．treasure

D．appreciate

14.

A．day

B．test

C．skill

D．eye

15.

A．kind

B．grateful

C．blessed

D．healthy

9 . Joe Horan, a physical education teacher, has started the program Building Men to create a positive vision of manhood not just for himself, but also for the boys he teaches. Looking back, Mr. Horan says his program developed from a low point in his life. In 2004 as he went through a hard time, he felt society’s definition of manhood was leading him down the wrong path. His life, he says, lacked substance and depth. “A desire became planted in my heart, that is, to find healing from the unhealthy messages I believed about manhood,” he says. Then, his sister recommended a book, Season of Life by Jeffrey Marx, which digs into the discovery of what being a man is all about. Joe took all the clues and started to put life lessons into his class.

Despite limited resources and funding, Building Men began at one middle school in the district in 2006. It grew on a shoestring budget, expanding school by school, year by year. Today, 33 teachers, like Mr. Colabufo, work across 18 schools. Mr Colabufo has known Mr. Horan for several years, noting many people are aware of the program’s success. “Joe’s a legend in this district,’’ Mr Colabufo says.

The program appeals to boys at first because of a basketball component, but its secret is how it dives into off-the-court issues through discussions on character. Building Men helps participants gain insight, work to restore self-worth, and learn to calm emotions. SIR is a central component of lessons, standing for significance, integrity, and relationships.

At a recent breakfast fundraiser, Shateek Nelson, a senior at Nottingham High School, shared his experience, having participated in Building Men since middle school. He said he learned to see the bigger picture, rather than living in the moment. He also came to realize his actions affect others, and now he factors that into his decisions.

1. What motivated Joe Horan to start the program Building Men?

A．An instructional book.	B．His personal experience.
C．His sister’s suggestion.	D．The society’s expectation.

2. What does the underlined word “shoestring” in paragraph 3 probably mean?

A．Flexible.

B．Proper.

C．Tight.

D．Balanced.

3. What did Shateek Nelson learn from participating in BuildingMen?

A．One should dream big and then start small.

B．One should live each day as if it were the last day.

C．It is good to gain real-life experience at middle school.

D．It is essential to think more of others in decision-making.

4. What is the best title for the text?

A．SIR: Core Component of Physical Education

B．Healthy Life: Involving Substance and Depth

C．Building Men: Teaching Boys About Manhood

D．Manhood: Teenagers’ Power of Handling Issues

10 . 阅读下面材料，根据其内容和所给段落开头语续写两段，使之构成一篇完整的短文。

My twin sister, Mary, and I lived together for eighteen years before we went to college. We’d known each other so much and always enjoyed shared time. We happily sang and danced together, had dinner and went to bed together, and discussed the maths problems and recited the poems together.

But one small thing couldn’t be shared smoothly and that’s the trouble with toothpaste.

Crest(佳洁士)made us give in and demanded to know what we were made of. You see, Mary likes to carefully fold and roll the toothpaste tube. I like to grab it in the middle and squeeze(挤). I might call her folding a bit too careful. She might consider my squeezing careless and rude. This difference in style may seem mild, but it caused the big trouble in the later days.

At first, it was a little joke. I’d squeeze. She’d roll. Ha, ha. I’d squeeze again. She’d roll again. Annoying. I’d squeeze even when I wasn’t brushing my teeth. She’d slip in to roll, roll, roll.

After slipping and squeezing, tip-toeing and rolling for two weeks, it was unavoidable that we finally met face to face in our tiny pink bathroom with our hands on the toothpaste. We actually yelled at each other. I may have even cried. Why was she so obsessive(过分的)? Why was I so vindictive(报复性的)? Why couldn’t she loosen up? Why couldn’t I calm down? Were we still talking about the toothpaste?

The toothpaste had become more than something to brush our teeth with; it had become a symbol for aspects of our individual personalities that we did not always care to reveal. Maybe I was being a little vindictive. Maybe she was being a bit obsessive. Maybe it really didn’t matter how we dealt with the toothpaste. But maybe it did.

注意：1. 续写词数应为150左右;
2. 请按如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。

Thankfully, we thought of a solution.

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Years later, I had new roommates in college.

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________