The Feel-Good Shoebox
Catherine sat on her bed with her chin in her hands. “Why aren't you getting ready for Grandma's birthday party?”asked Mother.
“I can't bake like Sylvia or knit like Anne,” Catherine grumbled. “They made good presents. All I made for her is an ugly card.” “It's a lovely card. And no one can be good at everything,” said Mother. She sat on the bed next to Catherine. “When I was your age, I felt sad when I couldn't do certain things. But one day Grandma showed me the shoebox game, and it made me feel a lot better.” Catherine frowned （皱眉）. “How can a shoebox make me feel better？”“You＇ll see，” said Mother. She disappeared down the hall, then came back carrying a shoe box, a pencil, paper, and scissors.
Catherine watched as Mother cut several pieces of paper into squares. “Nôw, I want you to write down all the things you can do,” said Mother. “Like what?” asked Catherine. “Why not start with things you've learned in school? Give it some thought while I ice Grandma's birthday cake.”
Catherine sat for a while wrinkling （起皱纹） and unwrinkling her eyebrows.Slowly Catherine began to write and write. Before long she had written on every square of paper. She was so busy that she didn't hear Mother come into the room.“My goodness!"said Mother.“Do you think they'll all fit in the shoebox?”“I hope so,” said Catherine. “It was fun thinking of all the stuff I can do.”“And the next time you feel sad because you can't do something, your feel-good shoebox will remind you of how much you can do-just as mine did when I was a little girl,” said Mother,“Now let's finish getting dressed for Grandma's party.”
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。
“Happy birthday！” yelled（欢呼） the children when they arrived at Grandma’s house.
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Then Catherine gave her card to Grandma.
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I have recently been told that I am one of the millions of Americans who will be suffering from Alzheimer's Disease(老年性痴呆).
Upon learning this news, Nancy and I had to decide whether as private citizens we would
In the past Nancy suffered from breast cancer
So now, we feel it is
At the moment I feel just fine. I
Unfortunately, as Alzheimer's Disease
In closing let me thank you, the American people for giving me the great honor of
I now begin this
Thank you my friends. May God always bless you.
Sincerely
Ronald Reagan
1.| A．stay | B．hold | C．keep | D．pretend |
| A．proper | B．good | C．public | D．suitable |
| A．so | B．but | C．or | D．and |
| A．raise | B．make | C．take | D．turn |
| A．by the way | B．as a result | C．on condition that | D．as a whole |
| A．repeat | B．recover | C．return | D．replace |
| A．impossible | B．important | C．pitiful | D．obvious |
| A．awareness | B．encouragement | C．concern | D．decision |
| A．protected | B．affected | C．examined | D．controlled |
| A．continue | B．like | C．love | D．intend |
| A．finally | B．seldom | C．always | D．rarely |
| A．life's | B．one's | C．other's | D．today's |
| A．for | B．on | C．by | D．with |
| A．cures | B．progresses | C．removes | D．advances |
| A．meaningful | B．useful | C．careful | D．painful |
| A．treat | B．see | C．face | D．consider |
| A．having | B．allowing | C．Showing | D．declaring |
| A．whoever | B．wherever | C．Whenever | D．whatever |
| A．life | B．road | C．line | D．journey |
| A．dawn | B．day | C．night | D．evening |
注意： 1. 词数120左右
2. 可适当增加细节，以使行文连贯。
Dear professor Wang,
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As I sat by the window of our schoolhouse that afternoon, my heart began to sink further with each passing car. This was a day I had been looking forward to for weeks. Miss Pace had kept a running countdown on the blackboard, and our class had almost gone crazy by the time the much-anticipated “party Friday” had arrived.
I had happily volunteered my mother when Miss Pace requested cookie volunteers. Mom’s chocolate chips were the best on our block, and I knew they would be a hit with my classmates. But two o'clock passed, and there was no sign of her. Most of the other mothers had already come and gone, dropping off their offerings of dessert. My mother was missing in action.
“Don’t worry, Robbie. She’ll be along soon,” Miss Pace said as I looked sadly at the street. I looked at the wall clock just in time to see its black minute hand shift to half past two.
Around me, the noisy party went on, but I wouldn’t leave my window watch post. Miss Pace did her best to comfort me, but I just stayed there, holding out hope that the familiar family car would appear, carrying my embarrassed mother with a tin of her famous cookies under her arm.
The three o'clock bell soon awoke me from my thoughts and I sadly grabbed my schoolbag and headed home.
On the four-block walk, I plotted my revenge (报复). I would slam the front door upon entering, refuse to return her hug when she rushed over to me, and never speak to her again.
The house was empty when I arrived and I looked for a note on the refrigerator that might explain my mother’s absence, but found none. Heartbroken and angry, I was lying face-down on my bed upstairs when I heard her come through the front door and mount the steps.
When she entered my room and sat beside me on my bed, I didn’t move but instead stared blankly into my pillow, refusing to acknowledge her presence.
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。
“I’m so sorry, honey,” she said. “I just got busy and forgot.”
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I desperately tried to recall the words she had used to comfort me from times past when I cried.
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5 . What makes a home? Love and sympathy and confidence. It is a place where kindly
But for me, sometimes I can't feel the love from my father and can't feel the warmth of the home.
“BANG” the door caused a protest. “Never
A young father who held a child in his arm walked
But now I don't know
I wandered the streets,
I thought to myself, “Is Father waiting for me, or is he still angry with me?” After a long hesitation, I opened the door and instantly tears ran down my cheeks. I suddenly realized that the iron door that I had
| A．greetings | B．suggestions | C．affections | D．education |
| A．activities | B．amusements | C．games | D．difficulties |
| A．put | B．bound | C．caught | D．led |
| A．richest | B．funniest | C．farthest | D．cheeriest |
| A．Regrets | B．Injuries | C．Dangers | D．Quarrels |
| A．put heart in | B．set foot in | C．bury head in | D．keep hand in |
| A．towards | B．past | C．beyond | D．over |
| A．adulthood | B．adolescence | C．childhood | D．youth |
| A．what | B．how | C．why | D．whether |
| A．old | B．stubborn | C．angry | D．emotional |
| A．house | B．door | C．wall | D．block |
| A．with | B．across | C．without | D．from |
| A．unhappy | B．melt | C．confused | D．frozen |
| A．on | B．off | C．out | D．in |
| A．created | B．built | C．opened | D．imagined |
6 . A number of people have asked me whether happiness measures are really accurate and reliable--and it’s a reasonable question. So let’s take a look behind the curtain(帷幕). But not just for intellectual curiosity; as we will see, understanding and measurement of happiness can itself make you better at improving your own well-being--and avoid some critical errors.
Think of the tests to find a vaccine(疫苗)for COVID-19. They take a long time because the drug companies with trial vaccines are conducting experiments that send people to a treatment group(they get the vaccine) and a control group (they get a placebo（无效对照剂), and then waiting to see if the drug is effective and safe by comparing the two groups after enough time has passed. In the research on happiness, this usually isn’t possible. Happiness researchers instead rely on self-reported happiness surveys, where large groups of people report their levels of life satisfaction.
All of the surveys are self-assessments(自我评估), which might cause your doubt. Perhaps people assess their happiness based on their present mood--or maybe they lie when asked about their happiness. To test this, scholars have compared survey data with other sorts of tests--and they’ve found them consistent. For example, self-assessments correlate highly with happiness is usually very close to how others understand your happiness. Further, well-constructed surveys tend to be unchangeable over time and might correlate strongly with other measures of well-being. And in a rare instance of honesty on the Internet, scholars have even proved the accuracy of certain virtual happiness surveys.
Thus, while single-number surveys are great for researchers like me, in order to understand and manage your own happiness you need more different self-tests, of which there are many. Professor Martin Seligman, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania, has created a number of reliable self-tests on emotions,gratitude, optimism, relationships. These self-tests can be extremely useful at a personal level--but they can also be harmful when relied on too much. I have used them to have a huge impact on my life, but I have also seen the worsen problems with unhappiness in others. The key is to remember that happiness self-tests are a source of information to understand ourselves better, work on positive changes (personally, I have made many, and my well-being is much higher as a result), and manage our unique personalities.
The most dangerous use of happiness self-tests is social comparison. Researchers have long found that social comparison is a killer of joy, but you hardly need a study to tell that-just spend a few hours browsing Instagram and see how bad you feel about yourself.
1. How does the author explain the uniqueness of happiness surveys?| A．By introducing a concept. |
| B．By making a comparison. |
| C．By using an expert’s words. |
| D．By referring to previous studies. |
| A．People tend to tell lies on the Internet. |
| B．People know clearly about themselves. |
| C．People’s moods matter to their happiness. |
| D．People vary greatly in views on happiness. |
| A．Their practical applications. |
| B．Their appeal to the public. |
| C．Their major disadvantages. |
| D．Their impacts on our daily life. |
| A．How we can effectively measure happiness. |
| B．What we can get from measuring happiness. |
| C．How we can improve our well-being with self-tests. |
| D．Whether the measurement of happiness is really helpful. |
7 . My relationship with my pen pal (笔友) is one of the most valuable friendships I have ever had, even though I have never met her in
It all started in 2013. I was on my way to USC to meet with Kerstin Zilm, a German radio personality who wanted to interview me about being a
At first, Renate and I emailed each other twice a
Her support kept coming, in
“You really have the heart of a fighter,” she would say in her email, “But fortunately you also got soul,
Whenever I needed encouragement, she always
My friendship with Renate has become so important to me that I can no longer
| A．place | B．total | C．person | D．truth |
| A．struggling | B．fresh | C．lead | D．top |
| A．turned | B．laid | C．carried | D．reached |
| A．locates | B．travels | C．resides | D．gives |
| A．day | B．week | C．month | D．year |
| A．further | B．continue | C．drop | D．deal with |
| A．without | B．beyond | C．under | D．by |
| A．physical | B．moral | C．academic | D．heroic |
| A．collective | B．commercial | C．fancy | D．various |
| A．piece | B．symbol | C．tradition | D．creation |
| A．as well | B．instead | C．at least | D．ever since |
| A．intelligence | B．preference | C．comprehension | D．liberty |
| A．demanded | B．delivered | C．engaged | D．pursued |
| A．reasonably | B．normally | C．directly | D．frequently |
| A．clarify | B．recognize | C．uncover | D．envision |
8 . Even though we may believe that it’s important to say thank you, sometimes expressing gratitude is easier said than done. We might find ourselves getting hung up on the best way to deliver the message.
However, it’s possible that we might be making our thanks more complex. In a paper, researchers compared the effects of expressing thanks in person, over a video call, and over text. And, while people generally expect an in-person thank you to be the most effective, what happened in reality was quite different: Sending a thank-you over text was almost as effective as that. Additionally, texting may be especially well-suited for situations where we feel awkward or embarrassed about expressing our appreciation.
In the study, 219 college students participated in a gratitude activity in which they wrote about three things they were grateful for over a two- week period. After writing, the students were asked to actually thank the persons involved. Some connected with the gratitude recipients (接受者) in person, others via video call, and others via text. At the beginning and end of the two weeks，participants completed surveys measuring their feelings of well-being, connections with others, loneliness and happiness.
The researchers found that people who expressed gratitude gained increased happiness, with only a few differences for the different methods of gratitude expression. Overall, video calls were just as beneficial as meeting in person. Texting was slightly less effective than video calling- it didn’t make people feel more connected and happier, while video calling did. However, participants who sent their thanks over text still experienced benefits: Texting improved their well- being and reduced their loneliness.
Overall, however, the message is that we shouldn’t worry about finding just the “best” way to express our gratitude. In fact, you re better off sending a quick thank you shortly after you receive the kindness than waiting for an occasion to schedule an in-person visit. Don’t put it off just for finding the best way—many times our gratitude goes unsaid because we spend too much time on the details.
1. What does the underlined word “that” in paragraph 2 refer to?| A．Making a video call. | B．Sending a text message. |
| C．Expressing thanks in person. | D．Writing a thank-you letter. |
| A．To find the effect of expressing thanks on them. |
| B．To measure their physical health. |
| C．To collect a lot more ways to express thanks. |
| D．To know their views on gratitude. |
| A．In-person gratitude was less likely to be accepted. |
| B．Expressing gratitude could benefit mental health. |
| C．Ways of gratitude expression should be improved. |
| D．Texting made the gratitude recipients much happier. |
| A．Search for the best way. | B．Wait for an in-person visit. |
| C．Express gratitude in time. | D．Make careful preparations. |
Caneze and her parents moved to the United Sates when she was only two years old and they haven't visited their motherland for ten years. Last month, Caneze's grandfather came to see them, and the family threw a big party. But Caneze didn't spend much time with him that day. He didn't speak English,so how could she have any sort of conversation with him? Caneze spent most of that day in the study room,texting her best friend, Maya, and watching her cousins play video games. There was a huge art competition coming up at school,and Caneze and Maya were planning to compete.
“I wish you'd spent time with your grandfather instead of your phone, Caneze,” Mom said one day on the way home.
“But I don't even know him,” Caneze said, “and he doesn't speak any English. How could I talk to him?”
“And you don't speak any Ukrainian(乌克兰语), Caneze, but he'd love to get to know you. I think you may find that you two have a lot in common. ”
Two weeks later, Caneze came home from school in the afternoon to find her grandfather sitting at the kitchen table chatting with Mom happily. On the table sat some books. The old man smiled warmly at Caneze, and she smiled back as she sat down at the table. As Grandpa and Mom spoke in Ukrainian, Caneze let her mind wander. As the art competition was around the corner,
Maya and she had to be quick for their project. Suddenly, an idea for a picture came to her, so she fetched her sketchbook. Sitting at the table, she sketched while the adults talked. Then Caneze heard Mom say, “I have to run out for a few minutes. You can stay here with Grandpa. ”
Caneze suddenly felt unsure and shy, what would the two of them talk about? “This is going to be awkward,” she thought as her mind was racing for an idea for this embarrassed moment. She gave Grandpa a polite smile and then returned to the lines and shapes she had drawn on the page.
Paragraph 1:
Suddenly she sensed Grandpa was watching her.
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Paragraph 2:
“This is beautiful - I didn't know you were an artist,”Caneze said.
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Raelene seemed to be in trouble with her mother. It seemed like her mother was screaming all the time. Raelene couldn't bear it. She tried to keep to herself and out of her mother's way. At times she shut herself in her room but her mother would follow her in, still shouting at her and telling her to do things.
One day, when her mother had been screaming, Raelene went outside to get away from it all. Her pet dog, Crystal, came running up to her, tail wagging, but Raelene had had enough and screamed at Crystal. Crystal dropped her tail between her legs and turned around to run off, looking for a place to hide. Raelene saw how Crystal had run away when she screamed. She thought how it was like what she did when her mother screamed at her.
At school, Raelene was studying science and had learned about experiments, so she decided to carry out an experiment with Crystal. She sat down on the ground, closer to Crystal's height where she could see Crystal's nose and eyes peeping (偷看) around the corner of the house. Raelene began to talk to Crystal in a soft, gentle voice. This was the experiment. What she said and how she said it were different. Her words said Crystal was a bad dog for running away and hiding. However, she said it in a gentle, loving, and caring voice. Soon Crystal moved out from around the corner and came back with her tail wagging and her whole body full of excitement.
Raelene continued her experiment. She now told Crystal what a good dog she was and how she was the only person who seemed to understand Raelene-- but how she did it was in a loud, shouting voice. Crystal again dropped her tail between her legs and ran around the corner.
“This is interesting,” thought Raelene. She now used the same loving words in a gentle, loving voice. Again Crystal emerged and rested her head on Raelene's lap.
注意：
1.续写词数应为150左右；
2.请按如下格式在相应位置作答。
Raelene continued to experiment with different things.
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After that Raelene began to experiment when her mother was screaming.
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