There is a woman named Tao Porchon-Lynch. She was born in India in 1918. So, if you do the math, she is 99. And at the age of 99, she has been recognized as the oldest yoga teacher in the world. She has been teaching yoga in a gym in her hometown, full-time, since1967.
But that’s not all she’s done. She has also been a model, actress and dancer. She became a model after she graduated from high school. She acted in more than ten fields. She won a lot of medals as a dancer in many competitions. She once said, “If you try your best and never give up, nothing is impossible.” And she is a firm believer in positive thinking. She dreams the impossible dreams, and she is also well known as a thinker.
Tao Porchon-Lynch is not the person who talks the talk; she is the person who walks the walk. When she makes up her mind to do something, she takes action to do it without delay. At the age of 85, she learned how to dance and even won several dance competitions. She offers this piece of advice to others, “Don’t put off till tomorrow what you can do today. Don’t delay. Tomorrow never comes.”
So, what about retirement? At 98, she is well past the age when many people make retirement plans. Retiring, it turns out, is not Tao’s style. “A little girl, who is only 6 years old and is now learning yoga with me, once asked me, ‘Dear granny, what are you going to do when you retire?’ ” Tao Porchon-Lynch told the little girl that she had no plans to retire but instead would continue to teach yoga and dance her way to next planet.
1.What is Tao Porchon-Lynch’s job now? (No more than 5 words)
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2.What is Tao Porchon-Lynch’s secret of success in so many fields? (No more than 8 words)
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3.How do you understand the underlined sentence in Paragraph3? (No more than 10 words)
_______________
4.What is Tao Porchon-Lynch’s following plan now? (No more than 10 words)
_______________
5.Do you agree with Tao Porchon-Lynch’s attitude toward life? Give reasons in your own words. (No more than 20 words)
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1.Tom was late again. It made the teacher annoyed. (用非限制性定语从句改写)
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2.He works so hard that he always takes the first place in the class. (用倒装句改写)
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3.To help people out of trouble is his lifelong mission.(用it做形式主语改写)
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4.As the National Day is approaching, children get more and more exited. (用with复合结构改写)
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5.We are given two more hours. We will reach the top of the mountain. (用非谓语动词改写)
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1.Lucy has a very _____________(与众不同的) way of walking.
2.The girl had difficulty _______________(简化) the sentence.
3.She went for a trip to Changbai Mountain with his four ____________(同伴) in the summer vacation.
4.Tom r____________ his father in appearance and nature.
5.At school, it is e_____________ that every child be treated equally regardless of family background.
What makes us happy?
There has long been an opinion that money buys happiness. However, although “we really, really tired that for a couple of generations, it didn’t work,” said Francine Jay, author of The Joy of Less, A Minimalist Living Guide: How to Declutter, Organize, and Simplify Your Life.
Thanks to a travel- inspired revelation (启发), Jay has been happily living a simpler life for 12 years. “I always packed as lightly as possible, and found it exhilarating (令人高兴的) to get by with just a small carry-on bag,” she told CNN. “I thought if it feels this great to travel lightly, how amazing would it be to live this way? I wanted to have that same feeling of freedom in my everyday life.”
Jay decided to get rid of all her excess(额外的) possessions and live with just the essentials. “I wanted to spend my time and energy on experiences, rather than things.”
Jay is a follower of a movement called “minimalism(极简主义)”. Growing numbers of people have been attracted to this lifestyle all over the world. They share the same feeling of disappointment with modern life and a desire to live more simply. Minimalists are typically progressive and concerned about the environment, Leah Watkins, a lead researcher at Otago University in New Zealand, told Stuff magazine in March.
But many simply experienced unhappiness caused by owning too many possessions. Depression with the materialism of our world isn’t new. English romantic poet Willian Wordsworth summed up how dispiriting this was back in 1802, at the beginning of the industrial age, when he wrote: “Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers”. His preference was to go back to nature. Closer to our own times, the hippies(嬉皮士)of the 1960s also sought to “drop out ”of modern life.
And for many minimalists, their key is to unload. Without objects, they “believe people are forced more and more into the present moment and that’s where life happens,” wrote Stuff. But does simplicity ever feel like a sacrifice?
“It’s eliminating the excess—unused items, unnecessary purchases—from your life. Well, I may have fewer possessions, but I have more space…Minimalism is making room for what matters most,” said Jay.
And “the real questions”, according to Duane Elgin, US social scientist, are “what do you care about?” and “What do you value?” He told CNN: “It is important for people to realize minimalism isn’t simply the amount of stuff we consume. It is about our families, our work, our connection with the larger world, our spiritual dimension. It is about how we touch the whole world. It is a way of life.”
1.What inspired Francine Jay to live a simple life？
A. A book she came across.
B. A follower of minimalism she met on a trip.
C. The pleasure she enjoyed from traveling lightly.
D. Her desire to keep up with modern life.
2.According to Leah Watkins，a typical minimalist tends to________.
a. be fed up with materialism
b. like saving and visiting nature often
c. be disappointed with his or her current life
d. be environmentally friendly and live with fewer things
A. a, b B. a, d C. a, b ,c D. b, c, d
3.The underlined word"eliminating"in the second-to-last paragraph probably means_______.
A. removing B. distinguishing C. accepting D. improving
4.Which of the following would Duane Elgin probably agree with？
A. Minimalism is a healthy lifestyle that is in conflict with modern life.
B. Minimalism means people have to sacrifice some pleasure to live simply.
C. Minimalism limits people's freedom to enjoy their lives to the fullest.
D. Minimalism enables people to reflect on what truly counts in their lives.
5.What was the author's main purpose in writing the text？
A. To argue whether money buys happiness.
B. To recommend one of Francine Jay's books.
C. To explore the trend of minimalism.
D. To give tips on how to lead a happy life.
Taking photographs at a birthday or a wedding has become as natural as blowing out candles or cutting the cake. But our obsession with recording every detail of our happiest moments could be damaging our ability to remember them, according to new research. A study has shown that taking pictures rather than concentrating fully on the events in front of us prevents memories taking hold.
Dr. Linda Henkel, from Fairfield University, Connecticut, described it as the "photo-taking impairment effect". She said: "People so often pull out their cameras almost mindlessly to capture a moment, to the point where they are missing what is happening right in front of them. When people rely on technology to remember for them—counting on the camera to record the event and thus not needing to attend to it fully themselves—it can have a negative impact on how well they remember their experiences."
Dr Henkel and her team carried out an experiment in a museum, to learn if taking pictures of the exhibits was hindering the ability of visitors to remember what they had seen.
A group of university students were led on a tour at the Bellarmine Museum of Art at Fairfield University and were asked to either photograph or try and remember objects on display. The next day their memory was tested. The results showed that people were less accurate in recognizing the objects they had photographed than those they had only looked at. It was found that their memory for the details of the objects they had photographed was poorer.
Henkel's lab is currently investigating whether the content of a photo, such as whether you are in it, affects later memory. She is also researching whether actively choosing what to photograph might influence what we remember.
Previous research suggests that reviewing photos we have taken does help us remember the objects, but only if we take the time.
"Research has suggested that the sheer volume and lack of organization of digital photos for personal memories discourages many people from accessing and recalling them. In order to remember, we have to access and interact with the photos, rather than just collect them," said Dr Henkel.
1.What does the word “them”, in the first paragraph, refer to?
A. Gifts at a birthday.
B. People who go to parties.
C. Photos taken at a wedding.
D. Details of the happiest moments.
2. What is the “photo-taking impairment effect”?
A. Some unhappy events may impair the effects of photos.
B. Taking photographs of objects ruins one’s memory of them.
C. The effects of photos are strongly affected by bad cameras.
D. Memories last forever when people take the photos they like most.
3.What can we learn about Dr. Linda Henkel’s study?
A. A group of high school students were involved.
B. The memory of participants was tested the following week.
C. People who just looked at the objects remembered fewer details.
D. People who photographed objects were worse at recognizing them.
4.With which of the following may Dr. Linda Henkel agree?
A. Reviewing photos improves memories of objects.
B. Focusing on people at events is the best way to remember.
C. Relying on technology to remember affects the memory.
D. Counting on cameras to record events is always reliable.
5.The passage is probably taken from________.
A. a health magazine B. a cultural overview
C. an economics report D. an entertainment website
Human beings are the most intelligent of all animals because we are gifted with the ability to think and reason logically. Scientists and even common people with special intelligence have made a lot of inventions and contributions to modern lifestyle in the past. "Houses" have been the most popular area for discoveries and inventions in the past and even now.
Many household items have been the result of inventions of people who desired better functioning of the existent products. Every individual has intelligence and if it is used properly for the right purpose it leads to invention of a new tool or device. Many new household inventions are made almost every day and there are specific companies, which particularly keep a record of all these inventions.
A lot of inventions have been made recently in the household field. These products are patented(专利的)and have trade mark licenses. The patented sliding cinch is a very simple but effective method to prevent shoulder stress and injury for those who work before computers all day long. Vanity PC is a type of computer furniture that specifically hides all the computer wires and keeps a clean and good look. All the outdoor dust, mud and snow can be kept out of the house by fixing the dirt drain(排水管)at the entrance of the door. Another important invention is the automatic toilet night-light, in which a small light starts when the lid of the toilet seat is opened and closes as soon as the lid is closed.
These are some of the new household inventions invented mostly by common people. Thus, a variety of new household items are invented every day, which helps in a better functioning of household chores(家务)and in a more useful manner.
1.The first paragraph is intended to ________.
A. stress the importance of inventions
B. introduce the topic of the article
C. show the advantages of modern lifestyle
D. tell the differences between human beings and animals
2.According to the passage, people make house inventions to ________.
A. earn more money and gain awards
B. accumulate their wealth
C. improve the present living conditions
D. meet the new demands of new science
3.It can be inferred that the sliding cinch is used to ________.
A. prevent your shoulder from being over-pressured
B. keep your shoulder safe and sound when you are in an accident or an operation
C. help you practice your shoulder more often and reduce shoulder pains
D. cover your shoulder and make it stronger to resist the outside strike
4.Common people can also make good inventions because ________.
A. wisdom and inspiration sometimes come from everyday life
B. some inventions are easy to be made and can be mastered by them
C. common people have a strong desire to do something for science research
D. success is often connected with hardship and bitter experience of common people
5.The passage mainly talks about ________.
A. the correct use of household facilities
B. different ideas about household inventions
C. the history of household inventions
D. household inventions and their influence
