I served as a Newport Beach ocean lifeguard in Orange County, California. Late in a shift, another guard, Mike, phoned me,”Hey, I got a couple of kids playing close to the dangerous water section. I 'm going to give them a___ . Keep an eye out for anything unusual.”
Sure enough, as soon as he____, a huge wave sucked the two kids into the water.
Mike saw it and rushed towards the ocean.
Their mother_________what was happening. She was on her feet, _________. Before I was even halfway there, Mike had __________ into the deep water to pull them up. They were so ___that they couldn't walk, so Mike was carrying them, one under each_____
The mother let out a sigh of relief._______, a new kind of panic washed over her as though there was some new, equally dangerous______ on her kids ' lives. She rushed up, seized her kids and left. Not even a thank-you.
Mike had a___ growing experience. His frightening tattoos( 纹 身 ) and shaved head with scars showed he wasn't the ____ guard on the beach. I _______, I didn't really get along with Mike. But everything he_____ in PR( 沟 通 ) skills was made up for in his saving ability. If any other guard had been _______that night, there would have been a very real___ that the mother wasn't going home with both her kids.
I couldn't ______ the depth of her terror and her assessment of Mike. Maybe he wasn't her idea of a knight in shining armor. But that didn't change the fact that he had just ___ her kids.
That was over ten years ago. If you ask Mike about it today, I doubt if he'll still remember, but I won't _________. As I jogged back to work that day, I _________ myself I'd never let my own fear and___ prevent me from recognizing a hero when I see one.
1.A.lesson B.choice C.warning D.surprise
2.A.hung up B.turned up C.called up D.came up
3.A.realized B.discussed C.confirmed D.recovered
4.A.whispering B.fighting C.arguing D.screaming
5.A.slipped B.sank C.dived D.fell
6.A.excited B.tired C.confused D.annoyed
7.A.leg B.arm C.shoulder D.foot
8.A.Obviously B.Fortunately C.Gradually D.Suddenly
9.A.threat B.anxiety C.surprise D.fear
10.A.caring B.rough C.normal D.steady
11.A.patient B.dull C.friendly D.strange
12.A.admitted B.believed C.knew D.expected
13.A.owed B.lacked C.allowed D.required
14.A.on duty B.on time C.in turn D.in vain
15.A.honor B.doubt C.chance D.fact
16.A.predict B.imagine C.receive D.follow
17.A.returned B.stopped C.frightened D.saved
18.A.regret B.ignore C.remind D.forget
19.A.comforted B.changed C.promised D.devoted
20.A.confidence. B.comment C.appreciation D.prejudice
The older your parents get, the less stable they are on their feet, so you need to make sure that their home is as easy to walk around as possible. One of the most important rooms that needs to be accessible is the bathroom.1. In this article, we are going to give you some tips on how you can make your bathroom more accessible.
One of the best ways to make your bathroom more accessible is to fix some rails or handles.2. Rails can also be added near the shower and in other places in the bathroom to make the whole room a lot more accessible.
It is hard to predict how much your parents are going to be able to walk when they are older, so you need to make sure that you are thinking about the future. 3. If they need to use a wheelchair then they will find that with small entrances, they won’t be able to get the wheelchair through.
4. This is because as they get older, their eyesight can start to worsen and so they need a little more light to be able to see things. Think about fixing some overhead lighting as well as lights beside important things in the bathroom. This will help to prevent any sort of trips or falls and they will be able to feel a lot safer when they are using your bathroom in the future.
Are you planning on making your parents’ home a lot more accessible in order to prepare for the future?5.
A.Get advice from the experts.
B.This room can be very slippery.
C.Don’t ignore the lighting in their bathroom.
D.Keep reading if you want your parents to be more accessible.
E.Try out some of the tips that we have given you in this article.
F.This is why you need to think about making the doors in their home a lot wider.
G.These give them something to hold onto when your parents get up and down from the toilet.
Can I talk about salary at work? In a word:yes.As HR company Insperity put it in a recent blog post:Can your employees discuss their salaries or wages with their co-workers? Yes.Even if you have a company policy against it? Yes.
The freedom to discuss your salary at work is a protected right under federal labor law.The National Labor Relations Act of 1935 protects your right to discuss the conditions of your employment，including issues related to safety and pay，even when you're not protected by a union.
Talking about salary with colleagues can be uncomfortable，since there's such a taboo about discussing money matters，but it's an important step towards achieving equal pay for equal work.One barrier，however，stems from how we think of our own financial worth.Too many people I talk to wrongly consider their salary a reflection of their worthiness，a statement about their skills，experience，or value.At the end of the day，if we can all separate our self-worth from our salaries a bit more，it'll become easier to talk frankly with our colleagues.
Asking about money outright can be tough，so one trick I've picked up along the way is to ask for your colleagues to confirm or deny.For instance，you might volunteer your salary first and ask“Does that sound about right to you?”by way of comparison.Or，let's say you're interviewing for a promotion to become a manager.You might ask a fellow manager about the kind of salary you should expect by saying，“I'm seeing salaries for this kind of position ranging from $65，000 to$70，000—does that seem accurate to you?”This way，even if your colleague isn't comfortable sharing their salary outright，they can help you identify if your expectations are on point or way off.
1.What makes co-workers uncomfortable to talk about salaries?
A.The safety issue.
B.The federal 1abor law.
C.The wrong idea about salaries.
D.The reflection of their worthiness.
2.What does“taboo”underlined in Paragraph 3 refer to?
A.A prohibited practice.
B.A religious belief.
C.A general agreement.
D.A social custom.
3.What is mainly talked about in Paragraph 4？
A.One of my interview experiences.
B.My way of asking about money.
C.The method of raising questions.
D.An example of getting promoted.
4.What can be the best title for the text?
A.How to Discuss Salaries at Work
B.Ways of Talking about Salaries
C.Do Salaries Stand for Self-worth?
D.Can Salaries be Talked about at Work?
Sleep, considered a luxury by many, is essential for a person's wellbeing. Researchers have found that insufficient sleep and tiredness increase a person's risk of developing severe medical conditions, such as obesity (being very overweight), high blood sugar levels, and heart disease. Now, a new study has found that getting sufficient sleep is also the key to improving academic performance.
Jeffrey Gross, the university science professor who led the research, was not trying to find the relationship between sleep and grades when he handed out smart watches to the 100 students in his chemistry class. Instead, the professor hoped the wrist-worm devices, which track a person's physical activity, would show a connection between exercise and academic achievement.
While Gross's data showed no relationship between these two factors, the study found something surprising. As the researchers were analyzing their data, they noticed that there was a straight-line relationship between the average amount of sleep a student got and their results in the course's 11 quizzes, three midterm tests, and the final exam.
Even more interesting, it was not sufficient for students to just head to bed early the night before a test. Instead, it's the sleep you get during the days when learning is happening that matters most.
The time students went to bed each night was similarly important. Those who went to bed in early hours of the morning performed poorly, even if the total sleep time was the same as a higher-performing student. "When you go to bed matters," Gross says, "If you go to bed at 10, or 12, or 1 at night, and sleep for seven hours, your performance is the same. But if you go to bed after 2, your performance starts to go down even if you get the same seven hours. So, quantity isn't everything."
Perhaps the most interesting was the huge impact that small differences in sleep patterns had on the students' grades. The overall course grades for students averaging six and a half hours of sleep each night were 25% lower than students who averaged just one hour more sleep. Similarly, students who varied their bedtime by even one hour each night had grades that dropped 45% below those with more regular bedtimes.
Who knew getting A's just required some extra ZZZ's?
1.Based on his original objectives, which best describes Professor Gross's research findings?
A.Accidental. B.Complete. C.Convincing. D.Doubtful.
2.Who were the people taking part in the study?
A.Middle school chemistry students. B.Volunteers from different universities.
C.Professor Gross's own students. D.University student athletes.
3.How did Professor Gross's team measure academic performance?
A.Making the students wear a special watch.
B.Using students' university entrance test results.
C.Giving the students regular after class quizzes.
D.Using the students' normal test and quiz grades.
4.Based on the study's findings, who is likely to perform best academically.
A.A person who has a good night's sleep the night before an important test.
B.A person whose normal bedtime varies between 9 p.m. and 12 p.m.
C.A person who sleeps from 11 p.m. to 6 a.m. each day.
D.A person who sleeps for a total of 7 hours each night.
When I watched the film “The Farewell” recently, I found it not only reminded me of my own family’s great lie, but it also reopened old wounds.
Its main characters tell lies that flow from their mouths smoothly. Billi, a Chinese-American artist in New York, and her grandmother in China, tell lies to each other on the phone. Billi, in cold wind, tells her grandma that she’s wearing a hat. She’s not. Her grandma says she’s visiting her sister, while she’s actually ill in hospital. They’re lying to avoid worrying each other, but in fact the grandma has lung cancer. The family know it but won’t tell her for fear that anxiety over the diagnosis (诊断) could kill her before the cancer.
When I was a teenager girl, my parents, both immigrants, got divorced. We never had a discussion about how things would change. We didn’t tell anyone. Instead, we pretended as if nothing had happened. My father did not run away; he slept in a separate room. In the presence of relatives, we acted as a close family. I was puzzled why we insisted on creating the illusion(假象) that everything was O.K..
I asked a professor of multicultural psychology. “Asians tend to have indirect communication,” he said, “In indirect communication, what’s not said is more important than what is said. Eastern philosophy emphasizes balance and harmony, and indirect communication minimizes conflict. So some Asian cultures value the ability to understand indirect messages.”
In the film, the family members show their love for grandma by keeping secret about her condition. Similarly, perhaps my parents intended to save face and preserve harmony. As an Asian-American, maybe all I’ll ever have is a secondhand understanding, and that’s the best I can do.
1.Why does Billi’s grandma tell lies to her according to Paragraph 2?
A.Because she’s afraid of the diagnosis.
B.Because she knows she has lung cancer.
C.Because she doesn’t want Billi to worry.
D.Because she has been used to telling lies.
2.What did the author’s parents do after they got divorced?
A.They left their home. B.They kept secret in public.
C.They had a discussion. D.They asked relatives for help.
3.How did the author feel about her parents’ behavior when she was a teenager?
A.Confused. B.Skeptical.
C.Unconcerned. D.Annoyed.
4.According to the psychology professor, what do Asian cultures attach importance to?
A.Severe conflicts. B.Ability of showing love.
C.Balance and harmony. D.Direct communication.
RD Talks: Jan’s Journey to Peace This is an inspiring podcast ( 播 客 ) from RD Talks. In this quick yet heartfelt story, a young nurse gains inspiration from the courage of her patients. Despite living with her own cancer, she helps her patients make themost out of every single day. |
You Must Remember This Love the Golden Age of Hollywood? You Must Remember This is the podcast exploring the secret and/or forgotten histories of Hollywood’s first century. It is one of the top film podcasts around. This podcast is a heavily-researched work of creative nonfiction.
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Slow Burn If you’re interested in political scandals ( 丑闻), you can listen to the first season of this podcast by Leon Neyfakh, which covers the infamous 1970s Woodward and Bernstein’s “Watergate” investigation.
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Effortless English The Effortless English Show with AJ Hoge teaches how to speak English powerfully. AJ is the author of “Effortless English: Learn To Speak English Like A Native” and is known as “The World’s English Teacher”. Learn English. Learn English vocabulary. Learn about American culture.
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HOW TO GET PODCASTS TO LISTEN ON THE WEB: Google the website for “Slow Burn”, for example, and click on the play button. TO DOWNLOAD: Download an app such as Podcatchers or iTunes on your phone or tablet and simply search by title. |
1.What can we listen to on You Must Remember This?
A.Inspiring stories. B.Histories of Hollywood.
C.Political scandals. D.English Shows.
2.Who is known as an English teacher according to the text?
A.Leon Neyfakh. B.Woodward. C.Bernstein. D.AJ Hoge.
3.Which magazine is the text probably taken from?
A.Science. B.Travelling. C.Business review. D.Reader’s digest.
