Two friends have an argument that breaks up their friendship forever, even though neither one can remember how the whole thing got started. Such sad events happen over and over in high schools across the country. In fact, according to an official report on youth violence, "In our country today, the greatest threat to the lives of children and adolescents is not disease or starvation or abandonment, but the terrible reality of violence". Given that this is the ease, why aren't students taught to manage conflict the way they are taught to solve math problems, drive ears, or stay physically fit?
First of all, students need to realize that conflict is unavoidable. A report on violence among middle school and high school students indicates that most violent incidents between students begin with a relatively minor insult. For example, a fight could start over the fact that one student eats a peanut butter sandwich each lunchtime. Laughter over the sandwich can lead to insults, which in turn can lead to violence. The problem isn't in the sandwich, but in the way students deal with the conflict.
Once students recognize that conflict is unavoidable, they can practice the golden rule of conflict resolution: stay calm. Once the student feels calmer, he or she should choose words that will calm the other person down as well Rude words, namecalling, and accusations only add fuel to the emotional fire. On the other hand, soft words spoken at a normal sound level can put out the fire before it explodes out of control.
After both sides have calmed down, they can use another key strategy for conflict resolution : listening. Listening allows the two sides to understand each other. One person should describe his or her side, and the other person should listen without interrupting. Afterward, the listener can ask non-threatening questions to clarify the speaker's position. Then the two people should change roles.
Finally, students need to consider what they are hearing. This doesn't mean trying to figure out what's wrong with the other person. It means understanding what the real issue is and what both sides are trying to accomplish. For example, a shouting match over a peanut butter sandwich might happen because one person thinks the other person is unwilling to try new things. Students need to ask themselves questions such as these: How did this start? What do I really want? What am I afraid of? As the issue becomes clearer, the conflict often simply becomes smaller. Even if it doesn't, careful thought helps both sides figure out a mutual solution.
There will always be conflict in schools, but that doesn't mean there needs to be violence. After students in Atlanta started a conflict resolution program, according to Educators for Social Responsibility, “64 percent of the teachers reported less physical violence in the classroom; 75 percent of the teachers reported an increase in student cooperation; and 92 percent of the students felt better about themselves”. Learning to resolve conflicts can help students deal with friends, teachers, parents, bosses, and coworkers. In that way, conflict resolution is a basic life skill that should be taught in schools across the country.
1.This article is mainly about ________.
A.the lives of school children
B.the cause of arguments in schools
C.how to analyze youth violence
D.how to deal with school conflicts
2.From Paragraph 2 we can learn that ________.
A.violence is more likely to occur at lunchtime
B.a small conflict can lead to violence
C.students tend to lose their temper easily
D.the eating habit of a student is often the cause of a fight
3.Why do students need to ask themselves the questions stated in Paragraph 5?
A.To find out who is to blame.
B.To get ready to try new things.
C.To make clear what the real issue is.
D.To figure out how to stop the shouting match.
4.After the conflict resolution program was started in Atlanta, it was found that ________.
A.there was a decrease in classroom violence
B.there was less student cooperation in the classroom
C.more teachers felt better about themselves in schools
D.the teacher-student relationship greatly improved
5.The writer's purpose for writing this article is to ________.
A.complain about problems in school education
B.teach students different strategies for school life
C.advocate teaching conflict management in schools
D.inform teachers of the latest studies on school violence
One of the world's richest men has taken a close interest in one of man’s most basic functions: visiting the toilet.Bill Gates’s charitable organization, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, is looking for inventors to design the loo of the future, which, they hope, would improve sanitation for millions of people around the world.
So, what's wrong with the traditional flush toilet? Firstly, it wastes a huge amount of potential drinking water.Secondly, they are more likely to cause pollution.This is a real problem in many areas of the developing world, where, according to United Nations estimates, unsafe sanitation causes half of all hospitalizations.Younger people are particularly at risk.Illnesses which cause diarrhea are responsible for the deaths of about 1.5 million children a year.Finally, standard lavatories simply aren’t practical in remote areas.
The challenge set by Bill Gates was to come up with a latrine which works without running water, electricity or aseptic tank(化粪池).It also needed to operate for less than 5 cents.28 designs were displayed at the recent Reinvent the Toilet Fair in Seattle, USA.Among them was one which turned human waste into electricity using microwaves, another which converted human waste into charcoal, and yet another which used urine for flushing.
But the winner was a solar-powered design which generated hydrogen gas and electricity.The team from the California Institute of Technology(CIT)picked up a prize of $ 100,000.
But clearly Bill Gates doesn’t feel he’s flushing money down the toilet.After the Seattle event he said, “We, couldn’t be happier with the response we’ve gotten,” Gates has even pledged $370m more to the future toilet project.They hope to field test more prototypes over the next three years.
1.Why is Bill Gates paying people to invent new toilets?
A.Because he wants to test people’s sense of creativity.
B.Because he wants to improve sanitation for many people.
C.Because he thinks the traditional ones are out of fashion.
D.Because he can’t design this kind of things himself.
2.Which of the following is NOT a problem with the traditional flush toilet?
A.They waste too much water.
B.They might cause diseases.
C.They are not always practical.
D.They are too complicated to use.
3.The underlined word “latrine” in the third paragraph might have similar meanings to the word “__ ”n the text.
A.Loo B.sanitation C.diarrhea D.prototype
4.The team from CIT won the prize because their design .
A.can change human waste into electricity
B.can turn human waste into charcoal
C.can produce power with solar energy
D.can use urine for flushing
5.If someone “flush money down the toilet”, they are .
A.showing off their wealth
B.being angry with their work onditions
C.wasting money for nothing
D.expressing their great determination
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1.According to the passage, Moisture Surge is the name of _______.
A.a product of eyes
B.an oil-free formula
C.a sun-blocking cream
D.a series of skin care products
2.What do we know about Moisture Surge Extra Refreshing Eye Gel and Moisture Surge Refreshing Eye Mask?
A.They can be used at any time.
B.They may be good for eyes.
C.They are a kind of gel.
D.They have been tested on doctors.
3.Which of the following products can NOT be used over makeup?
A.Moisture Surge Face Water Thirsty Skin Relief.
B.Moisture Surge Extra Refreshing Eye Gel.
C.Moisture Surge Extended Thirty Relief.
D.Moisture Sheer Tint SPF15.
4.How many products mentioned in the passage can be bought all over the world?
A.Two B.Four C.Six D.Eight
5.This text is most probably taken from a ______.
A.textbook B.Doctor’s notebook C.magazine D.bottle of medicine
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