With my hands and knees on the floor of the airplane, I was searching for an old lady’s missing hearing aid during the flight from Sydney to Los Angeles. It occurred to me that this may not be the most dignified posture for a Buddhist nun(尼姑).
I had seen the old lady from the seat in front of me as she walked up and down the passage with a flashlight. I asked a few times what was wrong, but she didn’t answer at first —– she couldn’t hear me. She was wearing a woolen coat. Judging from her accent, she came from Eastern Europe.
Do you know what hearing aids cost? Thousands, especially for the new tiny hidden-in-the-ear type she described. It takes a long time for an appointment to make a new one, and many doctor visits to get the thing adjusted right. Therefore, my dignity seemed less important than finding that hearing aid. But how does one find a tiny black object in a shadowy jet cabin(机舱)?
The lady wasn’t even sure where or when she had lost it. At one point, a couple of flight attendants did a random search around the lady’s seat; I wasn’t impressed. They left suggesting that she search the seat of her previous flight! My flashlight turned up all kinds of small objects, bits of plastic, broken pieces of headphones.
The old lady said that she gave up. Yet I couldn’t. After we landed, as passengers streamed past us, I insisted that the lady move aside while awaiting her wheelchair. Then I got into a real down and dirty search among the dust under her seat and on the floor.
Look! A little peanut-sized shiny black object caught the light of my flashlight in a floor crack near her seat.
What a rush. “I found it!”
With great astonishment and gratitude, the old lady responded, “I haven’t the words to express my thanks!”
1. Why did the author put her hands and knees on the floor?
A.She is a religious Buddhist nun. |
B.She fell down from her seat. |
C.She helped the old lady look for her hearing aid. |
D.She wanted to stand out among the passengers. |
A.She ignored the author’s question on purpose. |
B.She is an American. |
C.She lost her hearing aid by accident. |
D.It was not difficult for her to get the hearing aid at all. |
A.On the previous flight. |
B.Close to the old lady’ seat. |
C.On the wheelchair. |
D.In another jet cabin. |
A.Respectful. | B.Doubtful. |
C.Supportive. | D.Grateful. |
A.To tell us a story about kind help. |
B.To warn us to be more careful. |
C.To teach us how to find the lost thing. |
D.To present the love from all people on board. |
What __________do they possess to make them a hot guy? Remember it's not always about__________. Some people find unconventionally handsome men________. It may be a personality trait(品质). It might be the way they _________, or just a certain sense of confidence. What is within your circle of control? Could you ________up to go to an expensive salon to find a haircut that matches your_________? Could you simply pluck in between your eyebrows to make sure your face is more defined(轮廓分明的)? Maybe you need to start going to the gym or giving up drinking alcohol or eating___________.
What could you do today that will bring you towards what you believe is a hot guy? Now start to _________like that hot guy. Imagine that you're him. If you can imagine yourself as a hot guy you're that bit _________to being there. If nothing else, the confidence that will bring will make you__________. There may be somebody that you work with, maybe somebody in your family, maybe a friend who you think is very cool. If that's the_______, really watch what they do. Watch how they live their lives and you can start to________ that. Keep the motto "I'm cool and calm" in your head and if you keep ________that, that's exactly what you'll become. That is how to be a hot guy.1.
A.remember | B.consider | C.remind | D.inform |
A.angry | B.satisfied | C.familiar | D.patient |
A.experiences | B.feelings | C.skills | D.features |
A.looks | B.characters | C.wealth | D.status |
A.rich | B.strong | C.friendly | D.popular |
A.behave | B.demand | C.treat | D.dress |
A.live | B.save | C.stay | D.stand |
A.figure | B.weight | C.height | D.face |
A.fast | B.little | C.healthily | D.slowly |
A.act | B.walk | C.talk | D.smile |
A.farther | B.closer | C.earlier | D.harder |
A.funny | B.respectable | C.successful | D.attractive |
A.case | B.belief | C.way | D.matter |
A.accept | B.copy | C.receive | D.understand |
A.explaining | B.improving | C.repeating | D.writing |
3 . You may not pay much attention to your daily elevator ride. Many of us use a lift several times during the day without really thinking about it. But Lee Gray, PhD, of the University of North Carolina, US, has made it his business to examine this overlooked form of public transport. He is known as the “Elevator Guy”.
“The lift becomes this interesting social space where etiquette (礼仪) is sort of odd (奇怪的),” Gray told the BBC. “They [elevators] are socially very interesting but often very awkward places.”
We walk in and usually turn around to face the door. If someone else comes in, we may have to move. And here, according to Gray, liftusers unthinkingly go through a set pattern of movements. He told the BBC what he had observed.
He explained that when you are the only one inside a lift, you can do whatever you want – it’s your own little box.
If there are two of you, you go into different corners, standing diagonally (对角线地) across from each other to create distance.
When a third person enters, you will unconsciously form a triangle. And when there is a fourth person it becomes a square, with someone in every corner. A fifth person is probably going to have to stand in the middle.
New entrants to the lift will need tosize upthe situation when the doors slide open and then act decisively. Once in, for most people the rule is simple – look down, or look at your phone.
Why are we so awkward ( adj. 尴尬的) in lifts?
“You don’t have enough space,” Professor Babette Renneberg, a clinical psychologist at the Free University of Berlin, told the BBC. “Usually when we meet other people we have about an arm’s length of distance between us. And that’s not possible in most elevators.”
In such a small, enclosed space it becomes very important to act in a way that cannot be construed (理解) as threatening or odd. “The easiest way to do this is to avoid eye contact,” she said.
1. The main purpose of the article is to _____.A.remind us to enjoy ourselves in the elevator |
B.tell us some unwritten rules of elevator etiquette |
C.share an interesting but awkward elevator ride |
D.analyze what makes people feel awkward in an elevator |
A.turn around and greet one another |
B.look around or examine their phone |
C.make eye contact with those in the elevator |
D.try to keep a distance from other people elevator? |
A.A | B.B | C.C | D.D |
A.judge | B.ignore | C.put up with | D.make the best of |
A.someone’s odd behaviors |
B.the lack of space |
C.their unfamiliarity with one another |
D.their eye contact with one another |
“Parents and teachers who catch their children lying should not be alarmed. Their children are not going to turn out to be abnormal liars,” says Dr. Lee, a professor at the University of Toronto and director of the Institute of Child Study. He has spent the last 15 years studying how lying changes as kids get older, why some people lie more than others as well as which factors can reduce lying. The fact that children tell lies is a sign that they have reached a new developmental stage. Dr. Lee conducted a series of studies in which they bring children into a lab with hidden cameras. Children and young adults aged 2 to 17 are likely to lie while being told not to look at a toy, which is put behind the child’s back. Whether or not the child takes a secret look is caught on tape.
For young kids, the desire to cheat is big and 90% take a secret look in these experiments. When the test-giver returns to the room, the child is asked if he or she looked secretly. At age 2, about a quarter of children will lie and say they didn’t. By 3, half of kids will lie, and by 4, that figure is 90%, studies show.
Researchers have found that it’s kids with better understanding abilities who lie more. That’s because to lie you also have to keep the truth in mind, which includes many brain processes, such as combining several sources of information and faking that information. The ability to lie — and lie successfully — is thought to be related to development of brain regions that allow so called “executive functioning”, or higher order thinking and reasoning abilities. Kids who perform better on tests that involve executive functioning also lie more.
1. What’s the purpose of children telling lies?
A.To help their friends out. |
B.To get rid of trouble. |
C.To get attention from others. |
D.To create a popular image. |
A.tell lies | B.handle troubles |
C.raise questions | D.do research |
A.which factors can reduce lying |
B.why some lie more than others |
C.it is normal for kids to tell lies |
D.how lying changes as kids grow |
A.children’s lies are the same as adults’ |
B.the better kids are, the more they lie |
C.the older kids are, the more they lie |
D.kids always keep the truth in their mind |
A.The reasons why kids tell lies. |
B.Which kind of kids tells more lies. |
C.Experiments about lying of young kids. |
D.What to do with lying children. |