Two weeks earlier, my son, Ben, had got ...

Practical ways to get motivated

Be mindful of your "why".

If I need to clean the floor, but I really don't like cleaning, then I won't feel very motivated to do it. However, if I have a big enough reason to do it—because I'm having some guests to come over, or I love the feeling of having a clean floor, then that "bigger purpose" can be strong enough to get me to act, even though I don't enjoy cleaning. If I stay mindful of why I'm doing it, I can get motivated to do it. 1.

Celebrate your successes.

It's easy to get down on yourself because you haven't reached your goal yet. You may overlook all of the hard work and small goals that you've accomplished. Remember to reward yourself and to celebrate your successes. 2. In the same way, how can you motivate yourself if you're not going to reward yourself and celebrate your successes?

3.

Imagine how good you'll feel when you've reached your goal. Take a moment and think about how you'll feel and what you'll think after you've achieved it. What does it feel like? 4. Focus on that feeling, and use it to drive you right now to move towards your goal. Just think of how good it will be.

Get inspired.

Read stories, watch movies, listen to other people who have achieved what you want to achieve. Imagine what they had to go through to get to where they are. Imagine how big the heart is of some of your biggest heroes and how badly they wanted what they achieved. 5.

A. Imagine having already achieved it.

B. Get help and support when you're not feeling motivated.

C. So remind yourself of why you're doing what you're doing.

D. What kind of self-talk would you use to motivate yourself?

E. Let them inspire you to access your own great desire within.

F. You might feel proud, happy, satisfied, or any other emotion.

G. Would you be able to properly train a dog without rewarding him?

    ​The position of a car's fuel door (if you can actually remember where it is) remains one of the greatest unsolved motoring mysteries.

Do car company engineers draw straws (抽签) to decide what side of the car the fuel door goes on? No. According to Ford spokesman Mark Schirmer, as reported on the Allstate Blog, engineers are free to place fuel doors on the side of the car that offers the easiest packaging. And while one on each side would be rather convenient, we're not likely to see double fuel doors anytime soon—there's neither the room nor the demand for them.

"The placement of the fuel door is mainly a factor of fuel tank design, location, and underbody packaging," Nissan's Steve Yaeger told the Allstate Blog." With all of the structure and components located underneath the vehicle, engineers would quickly encounter restrictions in trying to route the filler tube to the same side on every vehicle."

Schirmer says Americans prefer fuel doors on the left side of their cars, probably because it makes it easier for them to place their car's left fender close to the fuel pump. For this reason, itˈs possible that drivers in the U. K., Australia, New Zealand, India, and other countries who drive on the left side of the road favor a right-hand-side fuel door. But thereˈs nothing to confirm that driver preference is a factor. There are regulations about where the fuel door should be positioned, but these donˈt specify the right or left side of the car.

If you canˈt remember the location of your fuel door, simply look at the little diamond-shaped arrow on the fuel gauge (燃油量表) on your dashboard—it points to the side of the car where the fuel door is. Do it before you pull up to the pump, to avoid the embarrassment of having to get back into your car and drive to another pump.

1.Why don't all cars have gas tanks on the same side?

A.Engineers place fuel doors where they like.

B.Drivers ask for its position due to their driving habits.

C.It troubles engineers if they are on the same side.

D.There are regulations about which side it should be positioned.

2.Why do Americans prefer fuel doors on the left side?

A.They are left-handed.

B.Itˈs convenient for their fuel filling.

C.It is easier to place their carˈs right fender near the fuel pump.

D.There are many cars with a right-hand-side fuel door in America.

3.What does the underlined word "it" in the last paragraph refer to?

A.The fuel door. B.The fuel gauge.

C.The dashboard. D.The diamond-shaped arrow.

4.What is the best title for the text?

A.Tips to Identify the Location of the Fuel Door

B.The Popularity of a Right-hand-side Fuel Door to American Drivers

C.Reasons for Gas Tanks on Different Sides

D.The Motoring Mysteries

    "I am my paintings," says Vincent van Gogh, played by Willem Dafoe in a career-best performance, in Julian Schnabelˈs At Eternityˈs Gate, which follows the artist through his last turmoil (动荡骚乱) and astonishingly prolific years in the late 1880s in the south of France. Watching this film, you can believe it.

Schnabel is, of course, a famous artist as well as a powerful, if powerfully uneven, filmmaker, and what he captures here is what it must have been like to be Van Gogh. Itˈs an artistˈs imagining of what another artist might have felt. He never does break away from the romantic, madness-of-genius cliché(陈词滥调) that has been with so many movies and comments about Van Gogh. Instead, he accepts it because he believes it proves the turmoil that goes into creating great art. Of course, turmoil can also create bad art, but such is Schnabelˈs enthusiasm that I bought into the reality even though I think Van Gogh was a great artist despite rather than because of his mental pain.

I have a bit less sympathy for the ways in which the filmmakers got guess and frank mythmaking into the narrative. But the film comes to a great and sorrowing finish when we hear Vincentˈs words, "I thought an artist has to teach a way to look at the rest of the world. Not anymore. Now I just think of my relationship with eternity. " One of the great achievements of this movie is that, in the end, Van Gogh's words enter into our soul with the same force as the paintings.

1.Who starred in At Eternity's Gate?

A.Vincent van Gogh. B.Julian Schnabel.

C.Willem Dafoe. D.Robert Gulaczyk.

2.What do we know about Julian Schnabel?

A.He tries to break away from the traditional style.

B.He is as good an artist as a film maker.

C.His film is better than the previous ones.

D.He thinks turmoil creates bad art.

3.What can we know from the last paragraph?

A.The film ends happily.

B.Van Gogh figured out his relationship with eternity.

C.What Van Gogh said has a major influence on us.

D.The film teaches us a way to look at the rest of the world.

4.From which is the text probably taken?

A.An art textbook. B.An art magazine.

C.A movie advertisement. D.A research paper.

    It is 6:00 am on the first day of the school year. In Cherrybrook Technology High School, mathematics teacher Eddie Woo is already at work.

One of the first things before the first bell rings is to set up his tripod(三脚架) and iPad in the middle of the classroom. This technology is Mr. Woo's core tool of the trade. "I'm Mr. Woo. I record my lessons. I record all of them. In fact, I'm about to record this one," he explains to his new maths class.

The unique approach to teaching mathematics has not gone unnoticed. Mr. Woo is arguably the most famous teacher in Australia - a maths teacher by day and an internet sensation(轰动) by night.

He started posting videos online in 2012 for a student who was sick with cancer and missing a lot of school. Other students in the class then wanted to watch Mr. Woo's videos on his free YouTube channel and website, so he started sharing them across the country and beyond. Wootube now boasts more than 38,000 subscribersc用户 ) and has attracted almost 4 million views worldwide.

Cherrybrook Technology High School principal Gary Johnson said Mr. Woo was helping address a standing shortage of maths teachers in Australia, and making maths popular again. “ He has an ability to simplify mathematics to a level where kids can really understand it," Mr. Johnson said.

12-year-old student Emily Shakespear said Mr. Woo's teaching style made maths irresistible. "I don't want to say it, but he sucked me into maths," she said. Owen Potter, who attends high school in Cobar, agreed. "It's difficult to understand how someone in Sydney can influence thousands of people across the whole country," he said.

Mr. Woo won the 2017 University of Sydney Young Alumni Award for Outstanding Achievement, and he was one of 12 Australian teachers honored at the Commonwealth Bank Teaching Awards.

1.Eddie Woo set up an iPad in the middle of the classroom with the purpose of

A.listening to music B.playing a video

C.recording his class D.showing pictures

2.What can we infer from the statistics in the fourth paragraph?

A.Mr. Woo's teaching videos online are very popular.

B.Mr. Woo had made a lot of money by selling videos.

C.Mr. Woo posted videos online helping many adults.

D.Mr. Woo created his Wootube in 2012 in Sydney.

3.According to Gary Johnson, Mr. Woo's maths lessons are

A.difficult to follow B.easy to understand

C.simple to handle D.challenging to learn

4.What is the main idea of the last paragraph?

A.Mr. Woo is the most well-known maths teacher in Australia.

B.Mr. Woo graduated from the University of Sydney with honors.

C.Mr. Woo won the Commonwealth Bank Teaching Awards.

D.Mr. Woo's contributions to teaching have been recognized.

    Before birth,babies can tell the difference between loud sounds and voices.They can even distinguish their mother’s voice from that of a female stranger.But when it comes to embryonic learning（胎教），birds could rule the roost.As recently reported in TheAuk:Ornithological Adrances,some mother birds may teach their young to sing even before they hatch(孵化)。New-born chicks can then imitate their mom’s call within a few days of enering the world.

This educational method was first observed in 2012 by Sonia Kieindorfer,a biologist at Flinders University in South Australia,and her collcagues.Femake Australian superb fairy wrens were found to repeat one sound over and over again while hatching their eggs,When the eggs were hatched,the baby birds made the similar chirp to their mothers—asound that served as their regular “feed me!”call.

To find out if the special quality was more widespread in birds,the researchers sought the red-backed fairy wren,another species of Australian songbird.Firstthey collected sound datd from 67 nests in four sites in Queenslang before and after hatching,Then they identified begging calls by analyzing the order and numberof notes.A computer analysis blindly compared calls produced by mothers and chicks,ranking them by similarity.

It turns out that baby red-backed fairy wrens also emerge chirping like their moms. And the more frequently mothers had called to their eggs,the more similar were the babies’ begging calls. In addition,the team set up a separate experiment that suggested that the baby birds that most closely imitated their mom’s voice were rewarded with the most food.

This observation hints that effective embryonic learning could signal neurological(神经系统的)strengths of children toparents.An evolutionary inference can then be drawn.”As a parent,do you investin quality children,or do you invest in children that are in need?”Kleindorfer asks.”Our results suggest that they might be going for quality.”

Before birth,babies can tell the difference between loud sounds and voices.They can even distinguish their mother’s voice from that of a female stranger.But when it comes to embryonic learning（胎教），birds could rule the roost.As recently reported in TheAuk:Ornithological Adrances,some mother birds may teach their young to sing even before they hatch(孵化)。New-born chicks can then imitate their mom’s call within a few days of enering the world.

This educational method was first observed in 2012 by Sonia Kieindorfer,a biologist at Flinders University in South Australia,and her collcagues.Female Australian superb fairy wrens were found to repeat one sound over and over again while hatching their eggs,When the eggs were hatched,the baby birds made the similar chirp to their mothers—a sound that served as their regular “feed me!”call.

To find out if the special quality was more widespread in birds,the researchers sought the red-backed fairy wren,another species of Australian songbird.First they collected sound data from 67 nests in four sites in Queenslang before and after hatching,Then they identified begging calls by analyzing the order and number of notes.A computer analysis blindly compared calls produced by mothers and chicks,ranking them by similarity.

It turns out that baby red-backed fairy wrens also emerge chirping like their moms. And the more frequently mothers had called to their eggs,the more similar were the babies’ begging calls. In addition,the team set up a separate experiment that suggested that the babybirds that most closely imitated their mom’s voice were rewarded with the most food.

This observation hints that effective embryonic learning could signal neurological(神经系统的)strengths of children to parents.An evolutionary inference can then be drawn.”As a parent,do you investin quality children,or do you invest in children that are in need?”Kleindorferasks.”Our results suggest that they might be going for quality.”Before birth,babies can tell the difference between loud sounds and voices.They can even distinguish their mother’s voice from that of a female stranger.But when it comes to embryonic learning（胎教），birds could rule the roost.As recently reported in TheAuk:Ornithological Adrances,some mother birds may teach their young to sing even before they hatch(孵化)。New-born chicks can then imitate their mom’s call within a few days of enering the world.

This educational method was first observed in 2012 by Sonia Kieindorfer,a biologist at Flinders University in South Australia,and her collcagues.Female Australian superb fairy wrens were found to repeat one sound over and over again while hatching their eggs,When the eggs were hatched,the baby birds made the similar chirp to their mothers—a sound that served as their regular “feed me!”call.

To find out if the special quality was more widespread in birds,the researchers sought the red-backed fairy wren,another species of Australian songbird.First they collected sound data from 67 nests in four sites in Queenslang before and after hatching,Then they identified begging calls by analyzing the order and number of notes.A computer analysis blindly compared calls produced by mothers and chicks,ranking them by similarity.

It turns out that baby red-backed fairy wrens also emerge chirping like their moms. And the more frequently mothers had called to their eggs,the more similar were the babies’ begging calls. In addition,the team set up a separate experiment that suggested that the babybirds that most closely imitated their mom’s voice were rewarded with the most food.

This observation hints that effective embryonic learning could signal neurological(神经系统的)strengths of children to parents.An evolutionary inference can then be drawn.”As a parent,do you investin quality children,or do you invest in children that are in need?”Kleindorferasks.”Our results suggest that they might be going for quality.”

Before birth,babies can tell the difference between loud sounds and voices.They can even distinguish their mother’s voice from that of a female stranger.But when it comes to embryonic learning（胎教），birds could rule the roost.As recently reported in TheAuk:Ornithological Adrances,some mother birds may teach their young to sing even before they hatch(孵化)。New-born chicks can then imitate their mom’s call within a few days of enering the world.

This educational method was first observed in 2012 by Sonia Kieindorfer,a biologist at Flinders University in South Australia,and her collcagues.Female Australian superb fairy wrens were found to repeat one sound over and over again while hatching their eggs,When the eggs were hatched,the baby birds made the similar chirp to their mothers—a sound that served as their regular “feed me!”call.

To find out if the special quality was more widespread in birds,the researchers sought the red-backed fairy wren,another species of Australian songbird.First they collected sound data from 67 nests in four sites in Queenslang before and after hatching,Then they identified begging calls by analyzing the order and number of notes.A computer analysis blindly compared calls produced by mothers and chicks,ranking them by similarity.

It turns out that baby red-backed fairy wrens also emerge chirping like their moms. And the more frequently mothers had called to their eggs,the more similar were the babies’ begging calls. In addition,the team set up a separate experiment that suggested that the babybirds that most closely imitated their mom’s voice were rewarded with the most food.

This observation hints that effective embryonic learning could signal neurological(神经系统的)strengths of children to parents.An evolutionary inference can then be drawn.”As a parent,do you investin quality children,or do you invest in children that are in need?”Kleindorferasks.”Our results suggest that they might be going for quality.”

1.The underlined phrase in Paragraph 1 means“ ”.

A.be the worst B.be the best

C.be the as bad D.be just as good

2.What are Kleindorfer’s findings based on?

A.Similarities between the calls moms and chicks.

B.The observation of fairywrens across Australia.

C.The data collected fromQueensland’slocals.

D.Controlled experiments on wrens and other birds.

3.Embryonic learning helps mother birds to identify the baby birds which

A.can receive quality signals B.are in need of training

C.fit the environment better D.make the loudest call