1 . Everyone complains. Even if you argue that you are the happiest person in the world, you still complain sometimes. Sometimes you complain without even realizing it, but rarely is it ever helpful.
When you find yourself thinking or saying a negative comment about something or someone, stop and force yourself to say something positive instead. Seek the help of a cheerful friend to change you when you complain and help you to see the positive in the situation.
Make a list of things you are grateful for.
You often complain about the things you don’t have without noticing those things you already have. Be grateful for what you have in your life because you are lucky simply for being yourselves.
Learn to adapt to the changes.
There are many things you can’t change.
Allow yourself to vent (发泄) your feelings every once in a while.
Constantly ignoring negative thoughts could add up. If you are really going through a rough time, don’t be afraid to share your feelings with a close friend or family member or see a therapist.
Find what makes you happy.
| A．Sometimes this list can be easy, full of hobbies you enjoy. |
| B．The best and only thing you can do is to accept them. |
| C．Change the way you think. |
| D．Are you constantly complaining about your present job? |
| E．Set down things you are thankful for and you’ll see that you don’t have any reason to complain. |
| F．Make friends with positive people. |
| G．So how can you manage to force yourselves to end complaining? |
2 . Why You Should Schedule Some “Me Time” Every Day
Most people in our culture feel the need to be going all the time. If we are not working and putting our energy into something, we believe we are wasting time. We feel taking time for ourselves is a waste. And to some extent, it’s true—pushing yourself nonstop may bring some measure of success.
So, the biggest reason to take a little time out for yourself is to avoid these negative consequences of not doing so.
Taking a little time for yourself refreshes and re-energizes you. It allows you to think more clearly and make better decisions.
| A．Taking “me” time benefits those around you as well. |
| B．Actually it is not that difficult to find a little “me” time. |
| C．Taking “me” time also builds your self-worth over time. |
| D．It might seem easy to schedule a little “me” time, but often it isn’t. |
| E．Realize that there are limits to what you can do, and build your life around that. |
| F．But more than that, “me” time can make you a better person both inside and out. |
| G．However, going for long periods without time for yourself may cost you in the end. |
3 . The world is full of distractions. If you work in an office, it might be emails, phone calls or colleagues with questions to ask, which take your attention away from what you are doing or thinking about. If you are at home, it might be the contents of the fridge or a sudden fixation on dust mites (尘螨) under the sofa. Sometimes it takes even less. If you are sitting and doing work and someone near you says something particularly interesting, that can pull your focus. If you are not careful, you will end up your day with nothing accomplished.
So, how can we stay focused in our wandering minds? Switching off email or messaging services helps. And put your smart phone and other irrelevant screens away—they attract your attention even if they are off. If you tend to pop on headphones and use music to shut out distractions, avoid listening to anything familiar. Knowing the words or tune well will distract you even more.
Not all distractions are bad, however. If you are doing something repetitive like stuffing envelopes or laying bricks, being distracted by listening to music or engaging in a conversation with a co-worker can ultimately increase productivity. Creativity can benefit from distraction too. Jihae Shin, now at the university of Wisconsin-Madison, has found that when people played Minesweeper for five minutes before coming up with new business ideas, they were more creative than those who didn’t play.
Switching between tasks can also help. In general, this is the enemy of productivity: it encourages mistakes, stops us from completing things, promotes forgetfulness and lowers the quality of writing. But when we are trying to come up with creative solutions, task-switching distractions can help prevent “cognitive fixation” on ineffective approaches. So if you are a creative type, try lining up two or more tasks and spend your day switching between them.
1. Why does the author mention many examples in Para.1?| A．To reveal the troubles of distractions. |
| B．To present the findings of recent studies. |
| C．To highlight the values of multitasks. |
| D．To emphasize the importance of being focused. |
| A．It will improve the productivity of the repetitive work. |
| B．It may be shut out by listening to the familiar music. |
| C．It may lower the efficiency of multitasks. |
| D．It will help to come up with new ideas. |
| A．Upsides and downsides of distraction. |
| B．Distraction and creativity. |
| C．How to stay focused. |
| D．Causes of distraction. |
4 . The human brain remembers negative experiences more easily than positive ones. Our brains have developed in this way because threats, like dangerous animals, have a more immediate effect on people’s survival compared to positive things like food or shelter. As a result, you clearly know what makes you unhappy, but do you know what makes you happy?
Research suggests that our level of happiness is partly shaped by the choices we make. If you’ve been chasing wealth, fame, power and some material things, you may be looking for happiness in the wrong places. Psychologists suggest that the following habits can make people happier.
People who own close relationships tend to be happier than those who do not. The number of our friends is not important. What matters is the quality of our relationships. Relationships that bring happiness usually consist of the sharing of feelings, acceptance, mutual (双方的) respect and trust.
People who exercise regularly can improve both their physical and mental well-being. Some research has shown that exercise can be as effective as some medicine in treating depression.
If we are so interested in an activity, we may lose track of time, and we can be in a state of flow. The activity could be playing the piano, surfing the Internet or playing a game… People who experience flow in their work or life tend to be happier.
People are more likely to be happy if they know what their strengths are and can use them regularly. People are especially happy when they can set goals and use their strengths to achieve them.
People, who think positively by being grateful, mindful and optimistic, are more likely to be happy. Being grateful means being thankful. Being mindful means considering, focusing on, and enjoying the experiences of the present moment. Being optimistic means being hopeful about the future.
1. Why do Human brains remember negative things more easily?| A．Because negative things tend to affect human survival immediately |
| B．Because negative things are easy to remember |
| C．Because negative things are much more important than other things |
| D．Because negative things can make people live much happier |
| A．making friends | B．doing sports | C．playing the violin | D．chasing power |
| A．We should think more about our future. |
| B．We should be positive in our life and work. |
| C．We should focus on everything in our life. |
| D．We should only enjoy the present moment. |
| A．Why people remember positive things easily. |
| B．Why people remember negative things easily. |
| C．Some habits that make people happy. |
| D．The habits the people form in their life. |
5 . Are morning people born or made? In my case it was definitely made. In my early 20s, I rarely went to bed before midnight, and I would almost always get up late the next morning.
But after a while I couldn’t ignore the high relationship between success and rising early. On those rare occasions where I did get up early, I noticed that my productivity was almost always higher. So I set out to become a habitual early riser. But whenever my alarm went off, my first thought was always to stop that noise and go back to sleep. Eventually some sleep research showed me that I was using the wrong strategy.
The most common wrong strategy is this:You assume that if you’re going to get up earlier, you’d better go to bed earlier. It sounds very reasonable, but will usually fail.
There are two main schools (流派) of thought on sleep patterns. The first is that you should go to bed and get up at the same time every day. The second school says you should go to bed when you’re tired and get up when you naturally wake up. However, I have found both of them are wrong if you care about productivity. If you sleep at set hours, you’ll sometimes go to bed when you aren’t sleepy enough. You’re wasting time lying in bed awake and not being asleep.
If your sleep is based on what your body tells you, you’ll probably be sleeping more than you need. Also, your mornings may be less predictable if you’re getting up at different times.
The solution for me has been to combine both methods. I go to bed when I’m sleepy and get up with an alarm clock at a fixed time. So I always get up at the same time (in my case 5 am), but I go to bed at different times every night — sometimes at 9:30pm, and other times at midnight. Most of the time I go to bed between 10-11 pm.
However, going to bed only when I’m sleepy, and getting up at a fixed time every morning is my way. If you want to become an early riser, you can try your own.
1. According to the passage, the underlined phrase refers to ________.| A．people who stay up until the next morning |
| B．people who feel sleepy in the morning |
| C．people who get up early in the morning |
| D．people whose productivity is the highest in the morning |
| A．Because he/she wanted to form the habit of going to bed early and getting up early. |
| B．Because he/she wanted to see which of the two main schools of thought on sleep patterns was right. |
| C．Because he/she had found that his / her productivity was higher when he / she got up early. |
| D．Because he/she was told the high relationship between success and rising early. |
| A．asking scholars for advice on sleeping habits | B．getting up early occasionally |
| C．pressing off the alarm to go on sleeping | D．going to bed after midnight |
| A．how to have good sleep |
| B．how to become an early riser |
| C．wrong strategies for getting up early |
| D．main schools of thought on sleep patterns |
6 . There will be days when you do not have much to do. Perhaps because you are waiting for someone else in a different department or a different company to respond to a request. As the clock ticks past 5 pm, there may be no purpose in staying at your desk. But you can see you hard at work and, more important. they can see you. So you make an effort to look busy.
Some of this may he a self-perpetuating(白生自存）cycle. If bosses do not like to go home before their workers, and workers fear leaving before their bosses, everyone is trapped. Staff may feel that they will not get a pay rise, or a promotion, if they are not seen to be putting in maximum effort. This is easily confused with long hours. Managers, who are often no good at judging employees 'performance, use time in the office as an alternative.
The consequence is often wasted effort. Rather than work hard, you work hard to make bosses think that you are. Leaving a jacket on your office chair, walking around purposefully with a notebook or clipboard and sending out emails at odd hours are three of the best-known tricks. After a while this can result in collective self-cheat that this pretence is actual work.
But presenteeism(出勤）has more serious consequences. As well as reducing productivity, this can increase medical expenses for the employer. According to a study, these costs can be six times higher for employers than the costs of absenteeism among workers. To take one example, research published in the British Medical Journal found that Japanese employees with lower-back pain were three times more likely to turn up for work than in Britain. As a result, those workers were more likely to experience greater pain and to suffer from depression. What could be more upset than being in pain while feeling trapped at work?
None of this is to say that employers haven't the right to expect workers to be in the office for an acceptable proportion of time. Unavoidably there will be a need for some(preferably short)meetings. Dealing with colleagues face-to-face creates a feeling of trust and friendship, allows for a useful exchange of ideas and enables workers to have a better sense of their needs.
But modern machinery like smartphones and laptops is portable. It can be used as easily at home as in the office. Turing an office into a prison, with prisoners allowed home for the evenings, does nothing for the creativity that is increasingly demanded of office workers as routine tasks are automated. To be productive you need presence of mind, not being present in the flesh.
1. Why do employees still stay at their desk after work?| A．To keep their bosses company. |
| B．To get more overtime allowance. |
| C．To put extra efforts into their work. |
| D．To give their bosses a good impression. |
| A．employers will pay workers higher wages |
| B．workers will suffer physically and mentally |
| C．workers will perform their job more efficiently |
| D．the effort put in by workers will finally pay off |
| A．build better social bonds |
| B．bring bosses more profits |
| C．organize a meeting efficiently |
| D．satisfy workers 'material needs |
| A．Presenteeism can't help develop creativity. |
| B．Absence from work reduces productivity. |
| C．Presence at work will be more joyful. |
| D．Technology makes life puzzling. |
7 . If you think about it, work-life balance is a strange ambition for a fulfilling life. Balance is about stasis: if our lives were ever in balance-parents happy, kids taken care of, work working-then our overriding thought would be to shout “Nobody move!” and pray all would stay perfect forever. This false hope is made worse by the categories themselves. They imply that work is bad, and life is good. And so the challenge, we are told, is to balance the heaviness of work with the lightness of life.
Yet work is not the opposite of life. It is instead a part of life-just as family is, as are friends and community. All of these aspects of living have their share of uplifting moments and moments that drag us down. The same is true of work. Treat work the same way you do life: by maximizing what you love.
We have interviewed several anesthesiologists (麻醉师) about the thrills they feel in their jobs. One said he loved the thrill of holding each patient hovering at that one precise point between life and death. Another said she loved the bedside conversations before the operation aiming to calm the panic that affects many patients. Another was drawn mostly to the anesthetic mechanism and has devoted himself to defining precisely how each drug does what it does.
Think of your life’s many different activities as threads. Some are black and some are white. But some of these activities appear to be made of a different substance. These activities contain all the tell-tale signs of love: before you do them, you find yourself looking forward to them; while you’re doing them, time speeds up and you find yourself in flow; and after you’ve done them, you feel energetic. These are your red threads, and research by the Mayo Clinic suggests that doctors who weave the fabric of their life with at least 20% red threads are significantly less likely to experience burnout.
The simplest way for you to do this is to spend a week in love with your job. During the week, any time you find yourself feeling one of the signs of love write down exactly what you were doing in the column “Love”. And any time you find yourself feeling the inverse write down what you were doing in the column “Loathe”. By the end of the week you will see a list of activities in your “Love” column, which create in you a positive feeling, one that draws you in and lifts you up.
Our goal should be to, little by little, week by week, intentionally unbalance all aspects of our work toward the former and away from the latter. Not simply to make us feel better, but so that our colleagues, our friends and our family can all benefit from us at our very best.
1. What is the author’s attitude towards work-life balance?| A．Doubtful. | B．Disapproving. |
| C．Supportive. | D．Neutral. |
| A．prove people benefit from work |
| B．indicate doctors take pride in their work |
| C．show people gain joy from different situations |
| D．imply doctors reduce the pressure of work successfully |
| A．arouse your passion | B．satisfy your desires |
| C．improve your motivation | D．require your efforts |
| A．Red threads are necessary for a balanced life. |
| B．Recording activities helps create positive feeling. |
| C．Find love in work instead of keeping work-life balance. |
| D．Maximize what you love to remove the heaviness from work. |
8 . Basically, without the possibility of failure, there is little possibility of success. Education is in danger of becoming a branch of the entertainment industry. Although education should indeed be entertaining where possible, it cannot always be fun. Often, it needs the "hard yards".
Some educationalists feel that if something causes worry it should be avoided at all costs, I would disagree. Facing up to challenges helps develop children. Avoiding challenges can severely limit their potential. Tougher children are able to try and fail. The less tough may simply fail to try anything new.
I’m not advocating putting children under pressure. The real debate is perhaps what pressures are unavoidable. It's not about "throwing children into the deep end", but rather encouraging them to put their foot in the water and giving them the skills to float.
This latter approach is basically the work I and my team do at the University of Hull. We measure mental toughness and then provide interventions to improve this. These interventions include psychological skills such as goal setting, relaxation and thought control. So, for example, many children will say: "What happens if it goes wrong?" We work hard to change this so that the sentence reads: "What happens if it goes right?" One word difference, but a world away when thinking about challenges.
We try to help children deal more effectively with life using a three-step approach. Firstly, it is important to set realistic and achievable goals. Then it is a matter of finding out what factors (因素) are helping children to achieve these goals and what factors are working against this. The final step is to discover which of these factors can be controlled, or at least influenced, and what factors the child is in reality stuck with. Redirecting children's energies to movable obstacles (障碍) can produce huge life changes.
However, I think that for most of us we have become stress averse (反对的) and overreact to it. It has always been there, and it has always been the case that some people enjoy it, some need help to deal with it and some people's lives are ruined by it.
Showing our children that stress can be faced with and beaten offers them a way forward. The more a fear is avoided, the bigger it gets.
1. From the passage, we know the writer believes ____________.| A．education needs challenges |
| B．education should always be fun |
| C．children should avoid facing challenges |
| D．the more challenges, the better for the children |
| A．some children are less tough |
| B．some pressures are avoidable |
| C．some challenges do good to children |
| D．some children are unaware of their potential |
| A．Record what the children do in stressful situations. |
| B．Make the children tougher mentally and physically. |
| C．Put the children under pressure by giving them challenges. |
| D．Give the children challenges and suggest suitable approaches. |
| A．We should try our best to avoid stress. |
| B．We should love stress because stress is unavoidable. |
| C．We should put ourselves to the test in stressful situations. |
| D．We should experience stress and learn skills to deal with it. |
9 . Living alone in nature is the kind of decision that looks great on paper. You could move away from the pressures of city life, to somewhere with a lower cost of living and more privacy. You could enjoy scenic views all year round, and adopt a simpler way of life. It’s not hard to see the appeal of this at all. But what happens when that all goes wrong?
Paul Kingsnorth is a distinguished writer—his novel The Wake was longlisted for the Booker Prize and won the Gordon Burn Prize. His books help develop an awareness of place and history, so it’s not hugely surprising that his latest book, Savage Gods, is about his own rural existence. Savage Gods is in part about Kingsnorth, his wife, and their children moving to western Ireland. He writes, “In my country a small house and a field is beyond the means of anyone who doesn’t earn much money or who refuses to get into debt to chase a dream.” It’s a feeling that anyone who’s looked longingly at rural tiny houses miles from anyone else can relate to.
But Kingsnorth is aware that this is only part of the story. “Because I am not a real farmer, I have to make my money in other places,” he writes, “I need the Internet or the Dublin-to-Holyhead ferry and sometimes both to put food on my family’s table.” To make matters worse, Kingsnorth’s isolation(隔离) results in a crisis of confidence in his own writing abilities—which becomes one of the central themes of Savage Gods.
Kingsnorth isn’t the only writer to make time spent in a vivid countryside landscape sound less enjoyable than one might expect. The French writer Sylvain Tesson takes this to what may be its most extreme point in his book. He lived alone for six months. His book includes impressive descriptions of the landscape and what it’s like to experience depression in the middle of such a landscape.
Some books neatly remind you of the appeal of such an existence, while others make the drawbacks central to their accounts. In Names for the Sea, Moss summarizes the attraction of wilder places. “We’d come for the landscape, for the pale nights and dark shores, rain sweeping over trees and bushes,” she writes. From that, it’s not hard to see why a life in nature—even with its potential downsides—still appeals to so many.
1. According to Paragraph 1, living in isolation makes people_____.| A．look great | B．reveal their privacy |
| C．overcome pressures | D．enjoy a lower living cost |
| A．Paul Kingsnorth helps readers develop an awareness of time and space. |
| B．Paul Kingsnorth starts to have doubts about his ability as a writer. |
| C．Paul Kingsnorth’s family live comfortably in a rural house. |
| D．Paul Kingsnorth couldn’t afford a tiny rural house. |
| A．He thinks it a perfect idea to live alone in nature. |
| B．He earns money somewhere else to make ends meet. |
| C．His latest book is about the attraction of wilder places. |
| D．Living in the countryside landscape results in his depression. |
| A．To inform readers of a famous French writer. |
| B．To praise him for his marvelous writing skills. |
| C．To explain how to live in the peaceful countryside. |
| D．To emphasize more writers experience similar problems. |
| A．To look for something. | B．To buy a ticket. | C．To see a play. |
