Do you want to live with a strong sense of peacefulness, happiness, goodness, and self-respect? The collection of happiness actions broadly categorized as “honor” help you create this life of good feelings.
Here is an example to show how honorable actions create happiness.
Say a store clerk fails to charge us for an item. If we keep silent, and profit from the clerk’s mistake, we would drive home with a sense of mean excitement. Later we might tell our family of friends about our good fortune. On the other hand, if we tell the clerk about the uncharged item, the clerk would be grateful and thank us for our honesty. We would leave the store with a quiet sense of honor that we might never share with another soul.
Then, what is it to do with our sense of happiness?
In the first case, where we don’t tell the clerk, a couple of things would happen. Deep down inside we would know ourselves as a type of thief. In the process, we would lose some peace of mind and self-respect. We would also demonstrate that we cannot be trusted, since we advertise our dishonor by telling our family and friends. We damage our own reputations by telling others. In contrast, bringing the error to the clerk’s attention causes different things to happen. Immediately the clerk knows us to be honorable. Upon leaving the store, we feel honorable and our self-respect is increased. Whenever we take honorable action we gain the deep internal rewards of goodness and a sense of nobility.
There is a beautiful positive cycle that is created by living a life of honorable actions. Honorable thoughts lead to honorable actions. Honorable actions lead us to a happier existence. And it’s easy to think and act honorably again when we’re happy. While the positive cycle can be difficult to start, once it’s started ,it’s easy to continue. Keeping on doing good deeds brings us peace of mind, which is important for our happiness.
1.According to the passage, the positive action in the example contributes to our ______.
A.self-respect B.financial rewards
C.advertising ability D.friendly relationship
2.The author thinks that keeping silent about the uncharged item is equal to ______.
A.lying B.stealing C.cheating D.advertising
3.The underlined phrase “bringing the error to the clerk’s attention” means ______.
A.telling the truth to the clerk
B.offering advice to the clerk
C.asking the clerk to be more attentive
D.reminding the clerk of the charged item
4.How will we feel if we let the clerk know her mistake?
A.We’ll be very excited.
B.We’ll feel unfortunate.
C.We’ll have a sense of honor.
D.We’ll feel sorry for the clerk.
5.Which of the following can be the best title of this passage?
A.How to Live Truthfully
B.Importance of Peacefulness
C.Ways of Gaining Self-respect
D.Happiness through Honorable Actions
That morning, I stepped into the classroom, ready to share my knowledge and experience with seventy-five students who would be my English Literature class. Having taught in 1 for seventeen years, I had no 2 about my ability to hold their attention and to 3 on them my admiration for the literature of my mother tongue.
I was shocked when the monitor shouted, " 4 !" The entire class rose as I entered the room, and I was somewhat 5 about how to get them to sit down again, but once that awkwardness was over, I quickly 6 my calmness and began what I thought was a fact-packed lecture, sure to gain their respect—perhaps 7 their admiration. I went back to my office with the rosy glow which came from a sense of achievement.
My students 8 diaries. However, as I read them, the rosy glow was gradually 9 by a strong sense of sadness. The first diary said, "Our literature teacher didn’t teach us anything today. 10 her next lecture will be better." Greatly surprised, I read diary after diary, each expressing a 11 theme. "Didn’t I teach them anything? I described the entire philosophical framework of Western thought and laid the historical 12 for all the works we’ll study in class," I complained." How _13 they say I didn’t teach them anything?"
It was a long term, and it 14 became clear that my ideas about education were not the same as_15 of my students. I thought a teacher’s job was to raise 16 questions and provide enough background so that students could 17 their own conclusions. My students thought a teacher’s job was to provide _18_ information as directly and clearly as possible. What a difference!
_19 , I also learned a lot, and my experience with my Chinese students has made me a 20 American teacher, knowing how to teach in a different culture.
1. A.the UK B.the US C.China D.Australia
2. A.worry B.idea C.doubt D.experience
3. A.impress B.put C.leave D.fix
4. A.Attention B.Look out C.At ease D.Stand up
5. A.puzzled B.sure C.curious D.worried
6. A.found B.returned C.regained D.followed
7. A.more B.even C.yet D.still
8. A.passed B.borrowed C.read D.kept
9. A.replaced B.taken C.caught D.moved
10. A.Naturally B.Perhaps C.Fortunately D.Reasonably
11. A.different B.strong C.similar D.usual
12. A.happenings B.characters C.development D.background
13. A.should B.need C.will D.must
14. A.immediately B.certainly C.simply D.gradually
15. A.that B.what C.those D.ones
16. A.difficult B.interesting C.ordinary D.unusual
17. A.draw B.look C.search D.offer
18. A.strange B.standard C.exact D.serious
19. A.Therefore B.However C.Besides D.Though
20. A.normal B.happy C.good D.better
—Sorry, Bill, I can’t go straight on and spend more time with you in Paris.
—________.
A.It was just like you
B.Accideats will happen
C.Isn’t it as bad as that
D.You’re really a wet blanket
After being brought up in the countryside for a decade, the daughter returned to the big city, ________ worked his parents.
A.which B./ C.where D.when
—George hasn’t applied to the department for the position.
—What? He was to ________ yesterday.
A.have applied B.have C.apply for D.apply
The total cost of this project will be more than ________ that of the one last century, which is expected to cost below US a score billion.
A.twice as many as B.as much as twice C.twice than D.double