For me personally, I could write for days about many different situations where adversity (逆境) _______my life. Now let me tell you one experience where I almost let adversity _______.
We had a glass studio, which was located 50 feet from our home. A couple of years ago we experienced an _______ winter; we had a lot of snow and ice. The _______ of the ice and snow _______ the roof on our studio, taking with it one of our sources of income. _______ it did fall down, we got on the roof and tried to_______ the snow and ice, but when you have 5 feet of ice and temperatures of minus 20 Celsius, it was pretty _______ to do.
We had a partner come in to help us try to _______ the roof by supporting. In the end, there was ________ that could be done. The roof came down. We had moved a lot of our goods and tools from the studio ________ we lost a lot also: glass, kilns, workbenches, to name only a few of the items. It was a ________experience.
Here we were in the middle of winter with our studio collapsed. We couldn't work as we had almost ________ all the material in a building we were not using. We could have done one of two things: we could simply say that we can no longer ________ our glass business. Let me tell you that this was certainly a thought that ________ our mind. Or we could find a way to get our studio back up and running.
We picked the ________ option. We had a large barn that we were not using. So we renovated (翻新) the barn, ________ our working area and today we have a nicer studio than we ________ had. If the adversity we were ________ had not happened, we probably would ________ be working in the old studio — a studio that was less efficient.
1.A. promoted B. influenced C. destroyed D. prevented
2.A. suffer B. escape C. win D. work
3.A. awkward B. awesome C. agreeable D. awful
4.A. size B. height C. weight D. temperature
5.A. collapsed B. limited C. pressed D. struck
6.A. Before B. Unless C. Although D. When
7.A. replace B. reduce C. recycle D. remove
8.A. worthwhile B. tough C. rewarding D. annoying
9.A. examine B. test C. secure D. restore
10.A. something B. enough C. all D. nothing
11.A. for B. but C. or D. so
12.A. vain B. valid C. disastrous D. treasured
13.A. displayed B. arranged C. piled D. presented
14.A. predict B. conduct C. instruct D. quit
15.A. approached B. crossed C. cleared D. comforted
16.A. latter B. former C. easier D. further
17.A. evaluated B. redesigned C. organized D. reserved
18.A. desperately B. hopefully C. eventually D. previously
19.A. faced with B. concerned about C. cautious about D. aware of
20.A. ever B. already C. even D. still
What to Do when Someone Doesn’t Like You
When someone tells me, “I don’t care if people like me,” they are showing me the emotional wall they use to block the hurt of rejection.
As humans are social animals, all of us care if people like us. Based on the need for social connections, your reactions to rejection and negative judgment can range from minor hurt to breakouts of depression. 1.
The first step to handle a negative situation is to recognize your reaction. Ask yourself, “What am I feeling?”. 2. Any betrayal (背叛) or embarrassment in your heart? Identify what feeling has shown up in your body, so you can choose what to do next.
3. When you sense yourself being shut out or feel defensive, ask yourself what the person actually means to do to you. Does he truly mean to offend you, or make fun of you? Your brain works very hard to keep you safe, so it will judge a situation threatening if there is any possibility of social harm.
When our brains sense a possible threat, we react as if we were personally attacked. Take a breath to relieve (减轻) the stress. 4.
Finally, if you believe the person doesn’t like you, ask yourself if this matters. 5. If not, what can you do to release your need to be liked by this person? And, what can you do to stay neutral and not return the dislike? The more you can come to accept others as who they are, the more you can move forward with your goals regardless of whether someone likes you or not.
A. If you can, look the person in his eyes.
B. Do you feel any fear or anger in your head?
C. Ask yourself what is true about the situation.
D. Often people do not realize the impact of their words.
E. Will the person’s judgment of you impact your work or life?
F. The ability to let a show of dislike roll off your back is a learned skill.
G. This will help you relax at present and take you out of your trembling mind.
Is any economist so dull as to criticize Christmas? At first glance, the holiday season in western economies seems a treat for those concerned with such vagaries(奇思遐想)as GDP growth. After all, everyone is spending; in America, retailers make 25% of their yearly sales and 60% of their profits between Thanksgiving and Christmas. Even so, economists find something to worry about in the nature of the purchases being made.
Much of the holiday spending is on gifts for others. At the simplest level, giving gifts involves the giver thinking of something that the recipient would like--he tries to guess her preferences, as economists say--and then buying the gift and delivering it. Yet this guessing of preferences is not easy; indeed, it is often done badly. Every year, ties go unworn and books unread. And even if a gift is enjoyed, it may not be what the recipient would have bought if they had spent the money themselves.
Interested in this mismatch between wants and gifts, in 1993 Joel Waldfogel, then an economist at Yale University, sought to estimate the difference in dollar terms. In a study, he asked students two questions at the end of a holiday season: first, estimate the total amount paid(by the givers) for all the holiday gifts you received; second, apart from the sentimental value of the items, if you did not have them, how much would you be willing to pay to get them? His results were gloomy: on average, a gift was valued by the recipient well below the price paid by the giver.
In addition, recipients may not know their own preferences very well. Some of the best gifts, after all, are unexpected items that you would never have thought of buying, but which turn out to be especially well picked. And preferences can change. So by giving a jazz CD, for example, the giver may be encouraging the recipient to enjoy something that was ignored before. This, a desire to build skills, is possibly the hope held by many parents who ignore their children’s desires for video games and buy them books instead.
Finally, there are items that a recipient would like to receive but not purchase. If someone else buys them, however, they can be enjoyed guilt-free. This might explain the volume of chocolate that changes over the holidays. Thus, the lesson for gift-givers is that you should try hard to guess the preference of each person on your list and then choose a gift that will have high sentimental value.
1.The word “sentimental” in Paragraph 3 is close to “________”.
A. intelligent B. emotional C. social D. practical
2.According to the text, which of the following statements is TRUE?
A. Price is nothing but the factor when you give gifts.
B. Chocolate will be blamed when people receive them as gifts.
C. The receivers often overestimate the values of gifts.
D. Gifts do not always correspond to needs in gift-giving.
3.Which of the following statements can be inferred from the text?
A. The gift-giver tries to neglect the actual needs of the receiver.
B. The best gifts are well picked by the givers.
C. In gift-giving, guessing preferences is often a failure, so it’s the thought that counts.
D. You have to take money into consideration when giving a gift.
4.The text is most likely taken from a ________.
A. users’ handbook B. medical journal C. travel magazine D. consumer-related report
Are Happy Meals Really Happy?
Don’t we all know a “Happy Meal” when we see one--the famous boxed meal that includes a hamburger, kid-sized French fries, fruits and milk, served with a toy that’s extremely popular with children who love to collect them?
A Happy Meal is a form of kids’ meal sold at a certain fast-food chain since 1979. A toy is included in the meal, both of which are usually contained in a box or paper bag. However, collectors of these little toys will not get them any longer, since the company will replace toys with books and each of these books will mainly pass on nutritional messages.
Happy Meals are extremely popular with kids, especially for their collectable toys, when you consider that over 1.3 billion of these packages are sold each year. These packages have been very controversial. Health supporters believe that drawing kids to these meals with toys is a clever way of promoting unhealthy food choices. They see it as an advertising a strategy of “catching its customers young”--a move that has paid off very well for the fast-food company.
Child development experts say that food habits get formed in children by age six and continue through to their adult life. Fatty and sugary foods such as those served in Happy Meals are believed to play a big role in growing health problems such as obesity and diabetes. Public health care costs have gone up and untold amounts of money have been spent on coping with these health problems. On November 2, 2010, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors passed a law requiring that children’s meals sold in restaurants must meet certain nutritional standards before they could be sold with toys, to overcome the problem of childhood obesity--in other words, the State of California tried to ban the toys in Happy Meals. However, it was strongly opposed by some as being heavy-handed, and the ban was thrown out by the government.
While some people believe that the fast-food company, with its large following of children, can create a powerful message through the books, others believe its actions are contradictory. Anyway, the company is trying to spread the message of nutrition while it is serving food that is anything but healthy.
1.The aim of the question raised in Paragraph 1 is______.
A. give a surprise to the toy lovers B. get readers’ attention to the article
C. call on readers to buy boxed meals D. make readers think about the answer
2.Books will be added into Happy Meals to ______.
A. introduce the use of the toys B. increase the cost of the meals
C. help kids learn about nutrition D. spread the message of fast food
3.According to Paragraph 3, Happy Meals_______.
A. have achieved the desired result
B. help the customers stay young
C. cost more money than ordinary meals
D. receive approval from health supporters
4.What is the author’s opinion about Happy Meals?
A. They bring much fun to children.
B. They teach children a lot about nutrition
C. They do no actual good to children’s health.
D. They are popular with the young and the old.
Two graduates from Cambridge University in the United Kingdom found themselves about to graduate, yet with loans to pay off. The pair decided to begin a strange, year-long project to battle their debt.
The men, Ross Harper and Edward Moyse, set up the website BuyMyFace.com last October as a way to get rid of the £50,000 they shared as student loans. The idea behind the project was to earn money by selling their faces as advertising space every day for a year. Each day, they advertise a different business by painting the brand’s name or logo onto their faces and upload the pictures to the homepage of BuyMyFace.com, adding a link to the advertiser’s website and including a short piece of text about it. After they paint their faces and publish them on the website, Harper and Moyse go out to highly populated areas such as music festivals and theme parks to maximize their faces’ exposure. They hope more people will pay attention to the advertisements on their faces.
At this time, Harper and Moyse have advertised their faces for over four months without skipping a day and they’re more than halfway to their goal. Though they first started charging a minimum of about £1.60 per company, the prices have risen as their popularity increases. For advertising space during the rest of April, they range between £250 and £750. Terri L. Rittenburg, associate professor of marketing at the University of Wyoming, said that she had heard of people tattooing (纹身) logos on themselves before, but this idea is much better. According to her, at first the idea would be new and unusual and attract attention. People are interested in this particular style of advertisement and would like to try what they advertise. But she is unsure how long it would last.
At least for now, companies that have bought Harper and Moyse’s faces have written positive comments on the pair’s website. “We had a three percent increase in website traffic on the very day and for two days more afterwards,” said one of the companies.
1.At BuyMyFace.com,you can ______.
A. enjoy a good chat with your friends B. buy everything you want to have
C. share experiences in doing business D. get information on certain goods
2.Harper and Moyse go to highly populated areas to ______.
A. offer their help B. make more friends C. show their faces D. raise more money
3.We can infer from the passage that the two young men ______.
A. get on well with their project B. work hard except on holidays
C. plan to open their own company D. may close their website in future
4.Why does the men’s idea of advertising prove to work?
A. Because an expert has highly praised them.
B. Because people find it unique and appealing.
C. Because the products they advertise are reliable.
D. Because they receive great help from businesses.
Here are our suggestions for keeping busy this week. Dive in!
Take to the waves in Southampton
Always fancied trying your hand at sailing? Now’s your chance. The Southampton Boat Show has plenty of opportunities for visitors to get out on the water to experience boat sailing, power boating or taking a ride on a RIB ― all for free.
Discover an island on the Thames
To celebrate Totally Thames, a month-long festival is held at various locations across London. We’ve discovered 21 of the river’s most fascinating islands ― all of them with interesting stories to tell. Make the most of it with our map here.
Catch great films in Bristol
Over six days, Encounters Film Festival screens up to 400 films from over 60 different countries. The Bristol festival provides a platform for international filmmakers, and offers a gateway to the likes of the BAFTAs, Oscars and European Film Awards. See here for full details.
Get scientific in London
Experience the latest, best and most challenging science covering all areas of our lives and universe at New Scientist Live at ExCel London. New Scientist Live is a four-day festival full of ideas and discoveries from the team behind the world’s most popular science weekly magazine, featuring four zones ― Brain & Body, Technology, Earth and Universe ― as well as talks from experts and over 200 exhibitors.
1.Which is the most suitable for sailing lovers?
A. Take to the waves in Southampton.
B. Discover an island on the Thames.
C. Catch great films in Bristol.
D. Get scientific in London.
2.What is New Scientist Live?
A. A science weekly magazine.
B. A festival to celebrate great scientists.
C. An exhibition to show scientific discoveries.
D. A festival where ideas and discoveries are shared.
3.Where can you find the text?
A. On a noticeboard. B. On a website.
C. In a newspaper. D. In a book review.
