Gran had only recently planted the seed ...

Apathy

Apathy is a state of lacking interest, enthusiasm or concern. 1.They may also exhibit unfeelingness. Christians have condemned apathy as a lack of love and devotion to God and His works.

2. Also meaning "absence of passion" in Greek, the term "apatheia" was used by the Stoics (禁欲主义者) to show a desirable state of indifference towards events and things which lie outside one's control.

The modern concept of apathy became well known after World War I, when it was called “shell shock. " Soldiers, living in the trenches among the bombing and gun fires, saw the battlefields filled with dead and wounded companions.3.In 1950, US novelist Passos wrote "Apathy is one of the characteristic responses of any living being when it is subjected to something too tense or too complicated to deal with. " US philosopher Robert M. Hutchins summarizes the concerns about political indifference. He claims that the death of democracy is not likely to be a sudden murder from ambush (埋伏)．4.

There may be other things contributing to a person's political apathy. Activist Dave Meslin argues that apathy is often the result of social systems actively blocking engagement and involvement. He describes various barriers that prevent people from knowing how or why they might get involved in something,5.These include: political media that make it difficult for potentially interested individuals to find relevant information, and media descriptions of heroes as "chosen" by outside forces rather than self-motivated. He suggests that we redefine social apathy not as a population that is stupid or lazy, but as a result of poorly designed systems that fail to invite others to participate.

A. It will be a slow process of fading away from apathy and indifference.

B. Apathetic people may lack a sense of purpose or meaning in their life.

C. The word "dispassion" is used for "apatheia", so as not to confuse it with apathy.

D. He focuses on design choices that unintentionally or intentionally exclude people.

E. So they gradually developed a sense of disconnected numbness to normal social interaction.

F. Although the word "apathy" originates from "apatheia", it is important not to confuse the two terms.

G. Author John McManamy argues apathy is a psychological problem for some depressed people, in which they get a sense that "nothing matters".

    Basically, without the possibility of failure, there is little possibility of success. Education is in danger of becoming a branch of the entertainment industry. Although education should indeed be entertaining where possible, it cannot always be fun. Often, it needs the "hard yards".

Some educationalists feel that if something causes worry it should be avoided at all costs, I would disagree. Facing up to challenges helps develop children. Avoiding challenges can severely limit their potential. Tougher children are able to try and fail. The less tough may simply fail to try anything new.

I’m not advocating putting children under pressure. The real debate is perhaps what pressures are unavoidable. It's not about "throwing children into the deep end", but rather encouraging them to put their foot in the water and giving them the skills to float.

This latter approach is basically the work I and my team do at the University of Hull. We measure mental toughness and then provide interventions to improve this. These interventions include psychological skills such as goal setting, relaxation and thought control. So, for example, many children will say: "What happens if it goes wrong?" We work hard to change this so that the sentence reads: "What happens if it goes right?" One word difference, but a world away when thinking about challenges.

We try to help children deal more effectively with life using a three-step approach. Firstly, it is important to set realistic and achievable goals. Then it is a matter of finding out what factors (因素) are helping children to achieve these goals and what factors are working against this. The final step is to discover which of these factors can be controlled, or at least influenced, and what factors the child is in reality stuck with. Redirecting children's energies to movable obstacles (障碍) can produce huge life changes.

However, I think that for most of us we have become stress averse (反对的) and overreact to it. It has always been there, and it has always been the case that some people enjoy it, some need help to deal with it and some people's lives are ruined by it.

Showing our children that stress can be faced with and beaten offers them a way forward. The more a fear is avoided, the bigger it gets.

1.From the passage, we know the writer believes ____________.

A.education needs challenges

B.education should always be fun

C.children should avoid facing challenges

D.the more challenges, the better for the children

2.The writer disagreed with some educationalists because ________________.

A.some children are less tough

B.some pressures are avoidable

C.some challenges do good to children

D.some children are unaware of their potential

3.What do the writer and his team do at the University of Hull?

A.Record what the children do in stressful situations.

B.Make the children tougher mentally and physically.

C.Put the children under pressure by giving them challenges.

D.Give the children challenges and suggest suitable approaches.

4.What is the correct attitude towards stress according to the writer?

A.We should try our best to avoid stress.

B.We should love stress because stress is unavoidable.

C.We should put ourselves to the test in stressful situations.

D.We should experience stress and learn skills to deal with it.

    The Commonwealth games have meant that the eyes of the world have been focused on our fair city-Melbourne. And it would look pretty good, wouldn't it? And what better way to regain our title as world's most livable city? I'm told that we recently lost the right to say this to foreign friends proudly when the international list was re-examined and we slipped to the fourth place.

It's hard to see how Melbourne could have lost its crown (桂冠) when you look at what it has to offer. 24 hours Coles, free transport for drunks on New Year's Eve, a new freeway, it's all here.

The first focus for the international press will obviously be the endless stadiums dotted around the city. But as well as being full every other weekend, these great places often play host to slightly older kids. At Rod Laver, even the olds get a look-in as the Christian evangelical (教会的) road show rolls into town once a year for a night of stadium worship (崇拜).

Another pleasure Melbourne enjoys is that it's very easy to get around. There's a bit of a squeeze during rush hour for sure, but nothing like Bangkok, where the journey home can take longer than growing a beard and parking is barely distinguishable from the drive itself. Driving here is a piece of cake. It must be because the wise people who hand out the taxis seem to actively encourage a career behind the wheel within 24 hours of landing in the country as an educational tool for getting to know the city. No slowing down for learning bends, just go, go, go!

As for the social life, with over 40 million bars in Melbourne's CBD alone, we have plenty of places for spectators to celebrate national victory, making this town as good as any and it happens 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Unfortunately, the athletes themselves don't get to smell the roses to the same degree. But the rest of the world will know that this is the place to be. The most livable city in the world. By far the easiest place on earth to cheat death, which is essentially what we're talking about.

1.In Paragraph 1 and 2 the author is wondering ________________.

A.how Melbourne has fallen behind

B.when the international list was re-examined

C.what they should do to regain the world's focus

D.whether Melbourne can offer greater convenience

2.What does the author mainly want to show in the passage?

A.The casual life styles of Melbourne.

B.The competitive advantages of Melbourne.

C.The various social activities in Melbourne.

D.The convenient transportation in Melbourne.

3.From the underlined sentence, we can infer the athletes __________.

A.have minimum social activities

B.take no interest in the beauty of the city

C.are forbidden to live in the busy city center

D.are unwilling to celebrate the victory publicly

4.Which of the following shows the structure of the passage?

CP: Central Point   P: Point   Sp: Sub-point(次要点)   C: Conclusion

A. B.

C. D.

    My daughter and I collected the empty cans and bottles in our home this morning. We had 6 full garbage bags later so I knew we would be spending a bit more of time at the recycling center. When we got there, a man and his kids were also doing the morning recycling and were using two of the four machines to recycle their plastic and cans. Luckily, we were able to use the 2 remaining machines.

Of course, there were others that came, but when they saw the two families with garbage bags full of recycled things, they quickly left. However, one woman came in with just 5 cans and looked as if she was in a hurry. So I stopped what I was doing and let her in to recycle her cans. Of course, she was grateful, and it felt good to let her go ahead of me. But that was not the whole story.

My daughter and I continued to work through the bags, but the plastic recycling machine stopped working because it was full, My daughter was left with nothing to do. The other family was still using the other two plastic recycling machines, but it seemed that they were almost done. I just told my daughter we would have to wait until they were done. But the man of the other family came through with another act of kindness. He offered to let us go ahead of him. I was really surprised, because we had more than 5 bottles, but he didn't seem to mind. I happily accepted it.

It was great to give and then to get an act of kindness in turn. It was small, I didn't expect it, but it surely brightened up my day.

1.From Paragraph 1 we can learn that _____________.

A.the author did collecting every morning

B.the author usually had 6 bags of cans to recycle

C.most people did recycling in the morning

D.there were four recycling machines in all

2.The author let the woman recycle her cans first because ___________.

A.there were many other families there

B.the woman seemed to be in a hurry

C.the author wanted to hear a story

D.the woman was very grateful

3.Why couldn't the author finish her recycling in time?

A.Because her daughter's machine stopped working.

B.Because the other family was still using the machines.

C.Because she let the other family use her machine first.

D.Because she helped recycle the other family's bags first.

4.What does the underlined word "it" in Paragraph 3 refer to?

A.The kindness. B.The offer.

C.The machine. D.The 5 bottles.

    It was the summer of 1936. The Olympic Games were being held in Berlin. I had trained, sweated and disciplined myself for 6 years on the running broad jump. A year before, as a college student at the Ohio State, I'd set the world's record of 26 feet 8 1/4 inches. Nearly everyone expected me to win.

I was in for a surprise. When the time came for the broad-jump trials (选拔赛), I was shocked to see a tall boy hitting the pit (坑) at almost 26 feet on his practice leaps. He turned out to be a German named Luz Long. He had easily qualified for the finals on his first attempt.

A nervous athlete is an athlete who will make mistakes. I fouled (犯规) twice on my qualifying jumps. Walking a few yards from the pit, I kicked at the dirt disgustedly. Suddenly I felt a hand on my shoulder. I turned to look into the friendly blue eyes of Luz Long. "Hi, I'm Luz Long. I don't think we've met." "Glad to meet you," I said. Then, trying to hide my nervousness, I added, "How are you?" "I'm fine. Something must be eating you. You should be able to qualify with your eyes closed." He said.

He seemed to understand my nervousness, and took pains to reassure me. Finally, seeing that I had calmed down somewhat, he said, "What does it matter if you're not the first in the trials? Tomorrow is what counts." All the tension left my body as the truth of what he said hit me. Confidently I qualified with almost a foot to spare.

Luz broke his own record and pushed me on to a peak performance. The instant I landed from my final jump — the one which set the Olympic record of 26 feet 5 1/16 inches — he was at my side, congratulating me.

1.The author said "I was in for a surprise" because he _____.

A.beat Luz Long B.met a great competitor

C.qualified for the final D.joined in the Olympic Games

2.What can we learn about the author from the passage?

A.He remained confident in the Olympic Games.

B.He had qualified for the finals on his first attempt.

C.He broke the world record of the running broad jump.

D.He had prepared for Berlin Olympics in Ohio State.

3.What is the passage mainly about?

A.A memorable experience in the Olympics.

B.A reliable man in the Olympic Games.

C.A surprising result in the Olympic Games.

D.A good suggestion on how to win in the Olympics