1 . Saying farewell to someone you love, even for a night, can be difficult, much less saying goodbye for a lifetime or forever in death. Juliet bid Romeo adieu (再见) for the evening with the words, “Parting is such sweet sorrow.” Sweet sorrow is an oxymoron. But this seeming contradiction is true in the context of relationships.

Relationships are based on feelings, emotions, and passion. Deep friendships and loving relationships are measured by the level of emotional attachment. Emotions intensify over time. People spend time with the people they like. The more one person likes another person, the closer the relationship becomes. Each person in the relationship receives an emotional benefit from knowing the other person.

Saying goodbye means separating from the people who make up a significant part of your emotional identity. Separation, even a temporary absence, from the people you have a deep emotional connection with can cause sorrow because you will no longer be able to enjoy their company.

The sweet side of saying goodbye is the emotional fulfillment of being in a close relationship. The time spent together is emotionally rewarding, especially if that person is seen as a soulmate. Humans are social beings. We seek the love and comfort of other people. Loneliness devastates the human condition and leads to sadness. Sad people will do anything they can to find fulfilling relationships. Likewise, happy people will do anything they can to maintain or enhance relationships. Herein lies the essential point of the emotional problem.

The more intense relationships become, the more devastating the emotional loss that is felt upon separation. The exhilaration of relationships cannot be truly measured without experiencing the overwhelming loss of a deep emotional connection.

Enjoy the company of the person you are with as long as you can; knowing the pain you will feel at the end of the relationship is the true measure of the relationship. If it doesn’t hurt to say goodbye, perhaps it wasn’t worth saying hello.

1. Which of the word group can create the same effect as “sweet sorrow”?

A．icy cold

B．clicking sound

C．deafening silence

D．endless speech

2. What can we learn from paragraph 3?

A．Saying goodbye is unavoidable in our daily life.

B．The companion of close friends can lessen sorrow.

C．A person’s identity is connected with relationship.

D．Separation is the sorrowful part of saying goodbye.

3. What gives a person emotional satisfaction in social life?

A．Making more communication with others.

B．Building deep emotional connections with others.

C．Comforting friends with love and intense feelings.

D．Being a thoughtful person by standing in others’ shoes.

4. What is the main idea of the passage?

A．Sweet sorrow is very common in close relationships.

B．The pain of separation is the measure of relationships.

C．Human beings are eager to get emotional fulfillment.

D．Happiness is meaningless without sadness to compare it.

2 . 假定你是李华，你和另一个学生是合住一间宿舍的常住生。你发现无法忍受室友的一些行为，请给宿舍管理员写一封信，申请下学期更换房间。
内容包括：(1)提出换房要求，
(2)阐述具体原因。
注意：字数80左右。
Dear Sir or Madam,
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Yours sincerely,

Li Hua

3 . Have you ever felt the need to be alone for a while? I don’t mean situations when you should be alone, but occasions where you are with a group of people at a party or a restaurant. You get tired of jumping from conversation to conversation, and your mind starts to wander towards that interesting book you left halfway done, or that movie you have been meaning to watch.     1     Now before you rush to defense, please understand that being an introvert (内向的人)is completely normal.

A common misunderstanding about introverts is that they are loners or anti-social.     2     They have friends, probably not as many as extroverts (外向的人), but enough to suit their needs for human interaction. Scientifically, all humans fall somewhere between being an introvert and being an extrovert, and at least 25 percent of us are introverts.

    3     Therefore, the ability to network is extremely valuable. Of course, sometimes introverts might be as capable of talking with people as extroverts, but sometimes they have to force themselves to engage with others in order to “fit in”. While extroverts feel comfortable shaking hands and making jokes, introverts get increasingly exhausted.     4     For the introverted, to continue in this awkward situation could really end up bringing them harm, with individuals reporting to suffer from loss of sleep, panic attacks and depression.

    5     They form deep thoughts, conduct themselves carefully, and pay significant attention to detail. So, for the best results in a project involving group work, both introverts and extroverts are needed.

A．Society appears to favor extroverts.

B．Most introverts, however, are just regular people.

C．These are feelings usually typical of an introvert.

D．Introverts tend to recover by spending time alone.

E．You might have ignored that “strange” thought you had before.

F．Introverts, just like extroverts, have their own set of advantages.

G．Even if standing alone for a while, they get asked “Why are you all by yourself?”

4 . People-pleasers are those who try hard to make others happy.     1     . They always put the needs of others ahead of their own as well. When they're asked to do something or to help someone, they often feel forced to say yes, even if it means taking their own valuable time or resources away from them.

    2    . However, what separates people-pleasing from a healthy agreement is that after the fact, the people-pleaser will feel “trapped” or “stuck” doing something that they actually don’t want to do. If you’re feeling this way, then it is a sign that you made the wrong choice.

People-pleasing, while intended to make others happy, is a barrier to true closeness. Constantly giving in and trying to give the person what they want without sharing your true feelings will only create the opposite effect.    3    . However, the truth is that it only creates distance over time.

Sometimes you trick yourself into thinking that you're doing this because it is “noble” or “admirable”, but if the pattern continues in the relationship, you will likely suffer emotionally and start to feel angry at the people in your life. Sometimes pleasing others leads you to deny how really really feel.     4     . And as long as you give in without checking with yourself, you’ll waste more opportunities to develop or save the relationship.

People respect you more when you are clear about your boundaries, personal values and goals. Take the time you need to think thing through, dig deeper, and then make the right decision.Say yes to yourself first.     5     .

A．Remember that saying no has its benefits

B．Agreeing to help someone isn’t a problem

C．You must value your own thoughts and feelings

D．You think you’re doing it to improve the relationship

E．They will often go out of their way to please someone

F．Then you’ll find the confidence to make a healthy choice

G．In this case, you will likely feel upset, unappreciated or misunderstood

5 . Everyone thinks they're great listeners. But the truth is that hearing isn’t necessarily listening, nor is it necessarily listening well. Listening is an art as well as a basic life skill that we are encouraged to practise and master.    1    

●Don't interrupt

    2     To master the art of listening, you need to stop any good thoughts that come to mind and let the person say everything they need to say. Often times people simply need someone to talk to, not someone who will cut in and give their own thoughts and opinions.

●Practice active listening.

To understand better in communication, you can first practice active listening. The art of listening isn't simply about staying quiet 100% of the time, it's also about asking questions, which are for clarification or for further explanation, so that you can fully understand what the speaker is telling you.     3     You can also make noises that show you agree with what he person is saying such as “yes”, ‘'yeah", and “okay.”

●    4    

About 60-75% of our communication is accomplished without speaking. In order to know whether to encourage the speaker, or to open yourself more, it's essential to know what the person's body is saying. Do they display signs of discomfort? Are they cautious about you? Their body language tells a lot.

●Create a suitable environment.

It can be difficult to listen to another person when the TV is screaming, your phone is buzzing and there are thousands of cars passing by.     5     Also, when you indicate it would be good to “find a quiet place," you put importance in the person and what they say, and then you show care and consideration.

A．Listen to non-verbal communication.

B．Let the person speak without interruption.

C．Listen without forming responses in your mind.

D．Here's how to bring the vital life skill into your daily existence.

E．Additionally, it's important to hold back your negative judgments.

F．Another great way to show your understanding is to respond by nodding.

G．When you remove the distractions and find a quiet place it’s easier to listen attentively.

6 . Internal communication, also known as IC, refers to a group of processes responsible for effective circulation of message within an organization. These messages are information that is valuable to the organization and are supposed to be kept confidential(机密的). The means of transferring this information is often done through emails, letters, notice boards, and even with the help of social media like Skype, Zoom, and Google Meet, in the current times.

Honest internal communication is the healthiest way to keep your organization growing. With honesty around the workplace, it is a safer environment for the employees to voice their opinions which could help in the modification of a certain operation that might have been outdated. Other than changes, not opening up to your colleagues can result in frustration and give rise to “gossip culture” at the workplace. When information is not passed out with lucidity, not only does the quality of work get affected but it also gives rise to questioning the worth of the time spent in the company.

An atmosphere of honesty also encourages growth in responsibility, leadership, and self-accountability. If the CEO of a company voices the shortcomings of his team in a respectful manner, it would bring room for each and every employee to take it on a positive note and bring around the change for the one common goal of development of the company that they are working for. This brings a lot of change in the attitude of every individual employee since they start seeing the company that they are working for as an asset that they cherish (珍爱) dearly.

In a workplace, things go both wrong and right, so it is important to both appreciate and criticize when such situations occur from the end of both the leadership and the employees. The positives should be celebrated while the negatives should be taken as positive criticisms that could help the company grow into something better. The main goal of unity and development should always be kept in mind.

1. Which is considered one main character of IC?

A．It comes with the times of social media.	B．It exists within the leadership of a company.
C．It is often kept secret within an organization.	D．It needs a long and difficult process in most cases.

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

A．Clearness.

B．Appreciation.

C．Authority.

D．Assistance.

3. What is the third paragraph mainly about?

A．The main responsibilities of the CEO.	B．The importance of unity for a company.
C．The advantage of a powerful leadership.	D．The role of an honest leadership in a company.

4. What does the author suggest to us in a workplace in the last paragraph?

A．Communicating both the positives and the negatives.

B．Taking responsibilities bravely for our mistakes.

C．Trying all possible means to avoid the negatives.

D．Strengthening unity mainly among the employees.

7 . Having to deal with a rejection can be extremely difficult. But something that many people find even more difficult is to be the one who has to reject. Sometimes we accept out of politeness, in other cases because we simply don’t know in what possible way to say no.     1     So why not learn how to politely decline a request and save a lot of time and nerves? It’s time to stop being everybody’s darling!

Saying “no” in a proper way is quite difficult.     2     So, whenever a person makes a demand on us, we will have to decide either to accept or reject it based on whether we like it, feel comfortable with it or not. If you like it you accept it.     3    

But due to the fact that we are no robots, it is not easy for us to make a decision based on whether we just like something or not.     4     In many cases, social factors affect our willingness to say “no”, whenever we fear to hurt the other person’s feelings.

Anytime you say “yes” when you know that you should have said “no”, no matter whether you rationalize (使合理化) it as a sign of friendship or kindness, in the end, it doesn’t change the fact that you have agreed to do something you absolutely do not want to do. That’s just because you don’t want to give others a reason to think negatively of you or believe that they will quit the friendship when you’re not doing everything they demand.     5     And no true friend will quit the friendship with you, just because you aren’t willing to do a favor in a given situation.

A．If you don’t like it you just say “no” and reject it.

B．You can finally live the life the way you want it to.

C．As a result, we always end up with amounts of extra work.

D．It might help to see the situation just as emotionless as a robot.

E．Would you clearly express that you will not be able to do the extra work?

F．There will always be other factors that highly influence our decision-making process.

G．But actually a real friend will try to get his life straight without taking advantage of you.

8 . Will Covid-19 Kill the Handshake?

The handshake might date back to the 14^th century, when knights (骑士) and soldiers would extend their unclenched(松开的) right hands toward each other in greeting to show that they were carrying no weapons.

    1     Or rather, its tendency for picking up and holding onto germs (细菌) from polluted surfaces, or from   our own eyes or noses when we have certain illnesses. Those germs can then be transferred into the hands of the people we greet, while we can pick up their germs. We then will probably touch our own eyes or noses or mouths, potentially sickening ourselves and restarting the cycle.

Now that a novel coronavirus is spreading fast, our hands are being cast in a new, doubtful light.     2     And lately, the Internet has been full of suggestions for socially acceptable ways to greet each other that don’t involve passing germs along unintentionally from one person to the next.

    3     In fact, the tradition of shaking hands isn’t the only greeting to take a fresh look. A Maori tribe in New Zealand put the brakes on hongi, the traditional nose-to-nose hello.     4     Maybe people will stop making fun of the Hollywood air kiss, though it’s not a huge improvement health-wise.

COVID-19 is a real threat, and we shouldn’t take the warning lightly. We may, indeed, need to keep our hands to ourselves for the time being. But we’re not ready to send handshake into the dustbin of history. Humans long for making a physical connection with friends. For now, perhaps, a regretful smile and nod might work as a shared acknowledgment.     5    

A．Could we hug each other or nod?

B．Could this be the end of the handshake?

C．As we all know, shaking hands has become a habit.

D．After all, our friendly intentions were not to infect or be infected by others.

E．These days, it would seem, the potential weapon isn’t a knife, but the hand itself.

F．We’re being drilled in handwashing techniques as if we were all second-graders.

G．The French have been advised to abandon the familiar kiss on the cheek greeting.