I used to hate running. It seemed too hard, and pushing outside my comfort zone was not what I was ________ to do. My husband Charles had been a serious competitive ________ for many years. After our marriage, he wouldn’t ________talk- ing about how much he missed it. So he picked it up again, and after about a year, I started to ________ him at the track. Just a few weeks later, Charles________ us both up for a five-kilometer race. I ________ about doing it. It was too soon.
But on race day, there I was. The gun ________. Thousands of runners pushed forward. The first kilometer was tough. “I don’t think I’m gonna make it.” I was already breathing ________ and painfully aware of the group of runners pounding past me. “No, you’re doing great,” said Charles. He was trying to encourage me, to get me focused on something else _______ my discomfort. “I can’t,” I said, barely audibly (听得见地). He tried a ________ way to persuade me. “Just make it to that house and let’s see how you __________.”
After another minute I saw the three-kilometer mark. All I could think of was that I was dying and that my husband made me _______. Miserable doesn’t even begin to describe how I felt. “You’ll be fine. You’ve got less than a kilometer to go.” I rounded a corner, and saw both sides of the street ________ with people watching the race, all cheering the runners on. I willed my ________ to keep going. Then I looked up and saw the clock. The seconds ticking away gave me ______. I knew that if I ____
finished this race I would achieve something. ________, I straightened up and kicked it. I had my arms held higher when I passed through the finish line. A volunteer ________ a medal around my neck.
“You did great! I’m so proud of you!” Charles was ________ that I’d made it. “That was AMAZING! I want to do another race. This running stuff is amazing!” I proudly ________ my medal as we walked to the post-race festivities. My lungs and my comfort zone both expanded.
1.A. accepted B. permitted C. pushed D. raised
2.A. runner B. policeman C. doctor D. lawyer
3.A. regret B. mind C. stop D. forget
4.A. follow B. attend C. join D. urge
5.A. signed B. gathered C. involved D. registered
6.A. commented B. hesitated C. wondered D. enquired
7.A. went off B. went out C. broke off D. broke out
8.A. smoothly B. heavily C. quickly D. abruptly
9.A. or rather B. more than C. rather than D. better than
10.A. pleasant B. reasonable C. casual D. different
11.A. react B. describe C. feel D. realize
12.A. ashamed B. painful C. embarrassed D. nervous
13.A. rich B. loose C. ready D. thick
14.A. arms B. mind C. heart D. legs
15.A. strength B. patience C. expectation D. wisdom
16.A. formally B. immediately C. normally D. actually
17.A. However B. Therefore C. Yet D. Instead
18.A. rewarded B. handed C. put D. presented
19.A. thrilled B. amused C. shocked D. frozen
20.A. enjoyed B. hugged C. kept D. seized
If one thing on your wish-list is a stress-free holiday, then here are some shopping tips prepared for you, which will save both your time and money.
Don’t be tough on your brains. 1. Don’t be afraid to look for clues and ask for ideas. First, see whether the folks on your to-buy-for list have already dropped some valuable hints of their dreamed items. If you strike out, encourage your lucky recipients to post items they wish someone would buy for them. You can also find inspiration in the many online gift guides. 2. — Gifts for Dads, Gifts for Golfers and such. Then you’ll get the idea.
3. You really can enlist your own personal helpers. Don’t feel guilty about that—after all, Santa employs helpers too. Many stores have free professional shoppers who can pick out presents for you. We’re not talking just high-end stores such as Blooming-dale’s and Nordstrom. 4. They’re all hungry to win your business away from online retailers. But you’ll likely need an appointment, so call ahead or search stores’ websites for “personal shopping”. You’ll typically find a link on the home page under Contact Us or Services.
Have gifts delivered.Time is money, and for not a lot of money you can save a lot of time by having your gifts delivered right to your door. Some mom-and-pop shops offer delivery service while chain stores tend to charge for that, but it still might be worth paying for the convenience. 5. First go to postmates.com or download the free app and see whether it’s available in your area. Then type the name of a store into the search bar, click on the store, and enter the item you want.
A. Make an appointment ahead.
B. Can’t figure out what to buy?
C. Do you wish for a stress-free holiday?
D. Get someone else to do shopping for you.
E. They are typically organized by recipient, interest, and/or price range.
F. Others like Macy’s and J. Crew will also let you leave the shopping to them.
G. For local stores that don’t offer this convenience, try the Post-mates delivery service.
A pretty face is never forgotten. Do you believe so? But maybe it is untrue! Psychologists believe beautiful people are less likely to be recognized. A new study suggests that attractiveness can actually prevent the recognition of faces, unless a pretty face has particularly distinctive features, such as Angelina Jolie’s.
German psychologists think the recognition of pretty faces is distorted (扭曲) by emotions. Researchers Holger Wiese, Carolin Altmann and Stefan Schweinberger at the University of Jena, Germany, discovered in a study that photos of unattractive people were more easily remembered than pretty ones when they showed them to a group of people.
For the study, which was published in science magazine Neuropsychologia, the psychologists showed photos of faces to test subjects. Half of the faces were considered to be more attractive and the other half as less attractive, but all of them were being thought of as similarly distinctive looking. The test subjects were shown the faces for just a few seconds to memorize them and were shown them again during the test so that they could decide if they recognized them or not.
The researchers were surprised by the result. “Until now we assumed that it was generally easier to memorize faces which are being considered as attractive, just because we prefer looking at beautiful faces,” Dr. Wiese said. But the study showed that such a connection cannot be easily proven. He assumes that remembering pretty faces is distorted by emotional influences, which enhance the sense of recognition at a later time. The researchers’ idea is backed up by evidence from EEG-recordings (脑电图记录) they used during their experiment which show the brains’ electric activity.
The study also revealed that in the case of attractive faces, considerably more false positive results were detected. In other words, people thought they recognized a face without having seen it before. “We obviously tend to believe that we recognize a face just because we find it attractive.” Dr. Wiese said.
1.What do we know about the photos from Paragraph 3?
A. They were all of pretty faces.
B. They were selected at random.
C. They were not distinctive at all.
D. They were showed twice to the test subjects.
2.What does the underlined phrase “false positive results” in the last paragraph mean?
A. People actually only recognize few pretty faces.
B. People recognize more ugly faces than pretty ones.
C. People claim to recognize a face they have never seen.
D. People recognize fewer faces than they have thought.
3.What can be inferred from the new study?
A. People are reluctant to recognize ugly faces.
B. Beautiful people are particularly distinctive.
C. Attractiveness prevents the recognition of faces.
D. Attractive faces are always easy to be recognized.
4.Which word can show the author’s attitude towards the findings of the research?
A. Doubtful. B. Disapproving.
C. Favorable. D. Objective.
LOS ANGELES, Nov. 12 (Xinhua)—Legendary comic book writer Stan Lee has died at the age of 95, according to media reports on Monday.
Lee, born in Stanley Lieber on Dec. 28th, 1922, began his career in 1939 and joined the Marvel Comics in 1961.
He is considered as one of the most legendary names in the history of comic books and the leading creative force behind the rise of Marvel Comics. He co-created iconic fictional characters such as Spider-Man, X-Men, the Avengers, and many more.
Lee’s characters often have super powers, but they also have weaknesses. They were humans, not gods. They not only struggled to save the world, but also to pay their bills, make friends, and hold jobs. This made Marvel comic book heroes stand apart from its competitor DC, which produced the seemingly perfect heroes like Superman and Wonder Woman. Those superheroes have been adapted into blockbuster films, most of which were made after Disney acquired Marvel in a 4-billion-dollar deal in 2009.
In a statement, Bob Iger, chairman and CEO of the Walt Disney Company said Stan Lee was as extraordinary as the characters he created.
Marvel also praised Lee on its website by putting on one of Lee’s famous quotes, which goes, “I used to be embarrassed because I was just a comic-book writer while other people were building bridges or going on to medical careers. And then I began to realize: entertainment is one of the most important things in people’s lives. Without it, they might go off the deep end. I feel that if you’re able to entertain, you’re doing a good thing. ”
Praise from his Hollywood peers and colleagues was generous. President of Marvel Studios Kevin Feige appreciated Lee’s unparalleled impact on the industry. “No one has had more of an impact on my career than Stan Lee,” Feige said. “Our thoughts are with his family and the millions of fans who have been forever touched by Stan’s genius, charisma and heart.”
1.How do Lee’s characters differ from those of DC?
A. They are perfect heroes.
B. They often have super powers.
C. They are not humans, but gods.
D. They have human shortcomings.
2.We can learn from Lee’s statement in Paragraph 6 that ________.
A. it is embarrassing to be a comic-book writer
B. a taste of entertainment is necessary in people’s lives
C. entertainment is the most important thing in the world
D. you can do everything well if you are able to entertain
3.According to the passage, we could know that ________.
A. Lee influenced Kevin Feige’s career a lot
B. Lee joined the Marvel Comics in his forties
C. Lee created the fictional characters all by himself
D. The superheroes were adapted into films before Disney acquired Marvel
4.What can be the best title for the passage?
A. Comics Legend—the Marvels and DC
B. The Superheroes in Stan Lee’s Comics
C. Marvel’s Comics Legend Stan Lee Dies at 95
D. The Life Story of Marvel Comics Legend Stan Lee
Dr. Amanda Harris was ready for sleep since it was already 11 pm. The phone rang. On the other end of the line was a woman about to break a promise. The woman was her mother’s neighbor. Flora Harris had made the neighbor swear she wouldn’t tell her daughter she’d had a heart attack and was in hospital. The neighbor wisely decided to disobey orders.
Amanda desperately wanted to get to the hospital immediately, but she couldn’t. She lives in Washington D. C., and her mother lives in California. For the past year and a half, Amanda has gone to Los Angeles every other month to take care of her mother. Flora Harris takes care of her husband, James, who’s 91 and has Alzheimer’s disease. They live in their own home, and a caregiver comes to help them a few hours a day.
Amanda is one of many Americans facing the heartache of how to take care of aging parents from afar. She’s often worried and guilty, not to mention busy with a demanding job, two teenage daughters and the frequent trips to California.
In some ways, Amanda is lucky. She has the resources to make the trips to Los Angeles. Plus, she is a doctor who treats the elderly. She’s treated countless patients whose children live far away.
“But it’s still tough,” she says. “I can foresee what the next few years are going to look like, and it’s not a pretty picture. There will come a time when my father won’t recognize me and I worry he’s going to be violent and hurt my mother.”
So what do you do when you live a continent away from your aging, sick parents? You can hire someone to help, but you can’t count on it completely.
1.Why is Amanda worried and guilty?
A. She is tired of taking care of her husband.
B. She cannot afford to go to California often.
C. She cannot take good care of her aging parents.
D. She has heart disease and cannot do a demanding job.
2.The author considers Amanda lucky because ________.
A. her parents are well cared by a caregiver
B. she has experience of treating the elderly
C. her parents are not very old
D. she has a lot of free time
3.What’s one of the symptoms of a person with Alzheimer’s disease?
A. Having no sense of pain.
B. Having heart attacks often.
C. Always feeling worried and guilty.
D. Being unable to recognize relatives.
4.The writer writes this passage in order to _________.
A. stress the importance of tending aging parents
B. give some advice on tending aging parents from afar
C. introduce the current situation of aging parents in the USA
D. show the difficulty of tending aging parents living far away
Your 2018 Reading List, Provided by Bill Gates
Most of us can’t live like billionaire Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, but we can read like him. Gates recommended four books in 2018—though some were published earlier.
Leonardo da Vinci, by Walter Isaacson (2017)
The bestselling biographer of Steve Jobs and Albert Einstein researched deeply into da Vinci’s contributions beyond art, highlighting the breadth of his scientific, technological, and creative output. “Leonardo nearly understood almost all of what was known on the planet at the time. That’s mostly because of his curiosity about every area of natural science and the human experience,” said Gates.
The Best We Could Do: An Illustrated Memoir, by Thi Bui (2017)
Gates calls this graphic novel “really impressive”. Bui is the daughter of Vietnamese refugees who came to America after the fall of Saigon, and becoming a parent inspired her to look into her own parents’ miserable history. “I was struck by how the experiences Bui illustrates manage to be both universal and specific to their circumstances,” said Gates.
Lincoln in the Bardo, by George Saunders (2018)
Saunders, a long-time short story writer, won high praise for this novel. The book imagines the ghosts that haunt (萦绕) the basement of Willie Lincoln, Abraham Lincoln’s son, who died at 11 in real life. “Willie’s death after the Civil War made the president have a new understanding of the grief he’s creating in other families by sending their sons off to die in battle,” said Gates.
Origin Story: A Big History of Everything, by David Christian (2018)
This new book is by the creator of Big History, a free, online social studies course. It traces history in wide, sweeping movements, starting with the Big Bang, and it provides, in effect, a short course in modern science. This is a brief history of the universe. “David gets a little stuck on the current economic and political problems in the West, and I wish he talked more about the role innovation will play in preventing the worst effects of climate change,” said Gates.
1.Which books refer to the field of science?
A. Origin Story and Leonardo da Vinci.
B. Lincoln in the Bardo and Origin Story.
C. Leonardo da Vinci and The Best We Could Do.
D. The Best We Could Do and Lincoln in the Bardo.
2.If you are interested in thrillers, whose book will you most probably choose?
A. Walter Isaacson. B. Thi Bui.
C. George Saunders. D. David Christian.
3.Which of the following statements is TRUE?
A. The Best We Could Do is an autobiography.
B. Lincoln in the Bardo has been warmly received.
C. David Christian talks much about the part that innovation will play.
D. Readers can only read about Leonardo da Vinci’s contributions towards art.
