In ancient Egypt, the pharaoh（法老）treated the poor message runner like a prince when he arrived at the palace, if he brought good news. However, if the exhausted runner had the misfortune to bring the pharaoh unhappy news, his head was cut off.
Shades of that spirit spread over today’s conversations. Once a friend and I packed up some peanut butter and sandwiches for an outing. As we walked light-heartedly out the door, picnic basket in hand, a smiling neighbor looked up at the sky and said, ”Oh boy, bad day for a picnic. The weatherman says it’s going to rain.”I wanted to strike him on the face with the peanut butter and sandwiches. Not for his stupid weather report, for his smile.
Several months ago I was racing to catch a him As I breathlessly put my handful of cash across the Grey hound counter, the sales agent said with a broad smile ,”Oh that bus left five minutes ago.”Dreams of head-cutting!
It’s not the news that makes someone angry. It’s the unsympathetic attitude with which it’s the unsympathetic attitude with which it’s delivered. Everyone must give bad news from time to time, and winning professionals do it with the proper attitude. A doctor advising a patient that she needs an operation does it in a caring way. A boss informing an employee he didn’t get the job takes on a sympathetic tone. Big winners know, when delivering any bad news, they should share the feeling of the receiver.
Unfortunately, many people are not aware of this. When you’re tired from a long flight, has a hotel clerk cheerfully said that your room isn’t ready yet? When you had your heart set on the toast beef, has your waiter mainly told you that he just served the last piece? It makes you as traveler or diner want to land your fist right on their unsympathetic faces.
Had my neighbor told me of the upcoming rainstorm with sympathy, I would have appreciated his warming .Had the Greyhound salesclerk sympathetically informed me that my bus had already left, I probably would have said, ” Oh, that’s all right I’ll catch the next one.” Big winners, when they bear bad news ,deliver bombs with the emotion the bombarded（被轰炸的）person is sure to have.
1.In Paragraph 1,the writer tells the story of the pharaoh to ____.
A. make a comparison B. describe a scene
C. introduce a topic D. offer an argument
2.From “Dreams of head-cutting!”（Paragraph3），we learn that the writer___.
A. was mad at the sales agent
B. was reminded of the cruel pharaoh
C. wished that the sales agent would have had dreams
D. dreamed of cutting the sales agent’s head that night.
3.What is the main idea of the text?
A. Learning ancient traditions can be useful.
B. Receiving bad news requires great courage.
C. Helping others sincerely is the key to business success.
D. Delivering bad news properly is important in communication.
Most mornings, the line begins to form at dawn: scores of silent women with babies on their backs, buckets balanced on their heads, and in each hand a bright-blue plastic jug. On good days, they will wait less than an hour before a water tanker goes across the dirt path that serves as a road in Kesum Purbahari, a slum on the southern edge of New Delhi. On bad days, when there is no electricity for the pumps, the tankers don’t come at all. “That water kills people,” a young mother named Shoba said one recent Saturday morning, pointing to a row of pails filled with thick, caramel (焦糖)-colored liquid. “Whoever drinks it will die.” The water was from a pipe shared by thousands of people in the poor neibourhood. Women often use it to wash clothes and bathe their children, but nobody is desperate enough to drink it.
There is no standard for how much water a person needs each day, but experts usually put the minimum at fifty litres. The government of India promises (but rarely provides) forty. Most people drink two or three litres—less than it takes to wash a toilet. The rest is typically used for cooking and bathing. Americans consume between four hundred and six hundred litres of water each day, more than any other people on earth. Most Europeans use less than half that. The women of Kesum Purbahari each hoped to drag away a hundred litres that day—two or three buckets’ worth. Shoba has a husband and five children, and that much water doesn’t go far in a family of seven, particularly when the temperature reaches a hundred and ten degrees before noon. She often makes up the difference with bottled water, which costs more than water delivered any other way. Sometimes she just buys milk; it’s cheaper. Like the poorest people everywhere, the people of New Delhi’s slums spend a far greater percentage of their incomes on water than anyone lucky enough to live in a house connected to a system of pipes.
1.The underlined word “slum” most likely means ______.
A. a village
B. a small town
C. the part of a town that lacks water badly
D. an area of a town with badly-built, over-crowded buildings
2.Sometimes the water tanker doesn’t come because ______.
A. there is no electricity B. the weather is bad
C. there is no water D. people don’t want the dirty water
3.A person needs at least ________ litres of water a day.
A. forty B. four hundred C. a hundred D. fifty
4.The passage mainly tells us ______.
A. how India government manages to solve the problem of water gets their water
B. how women in Kesum Purbahari
C. how much water a day a person deeds
D. that India lacks water badly
Next time a customer comes to your office, offer him a cup of coffee. And when you’re doing your holiday shopping online, make sure you’re holding a large glass of iced tea. The physical sensation（感觉）of warmth encourages emotional warmth, while a cold drink in hand prevents you from making unwise decisions—those are the practical lesson being drawn from recent research by psychologist John A. Bargh.
Psychologists have known that one person’s perception（感知）of another’s “warmth” is a powerful determiner in social relationships. Judging someone to be either “warm” or “cold” is a primary consideration, even trumping evidence that a “cold” person may be more capable. Much of this is rooted in very early childhood experiences, Bargh argues, when babies’ conceptual sense of the world around them is shaped by physical sensations, particularly warmth and coldness. Classic studies by Harry Harlow, published in 1958, showed monkeys preferred to stay close to a cloth “mother” rather than one made of wire, even when the wire “mother” carried a food bottle. Harlow’s work and later studies have led psychologists to stress the need for warm physical contact from caregivers to help young children grow into healthy adults with normal social skills.
Feelings of “warmth” and “coldness” in social judgments appear to be universal. Although no worldwide study has been done, Bargh says that describing people as “warm” or “cold” is common to many cultures, and studies have found those perceptions influence judgment in dozens of countries.
To test the relationship between physical and psychological warmth, Bargh conducted an experiment which involved 41 college students. A research assistant who was unaware of the study’s hypotheses（假设）, handed the students either a hot cup of coffee, or a cold drink, to hold while the researcher filled out a short information form. The drink was then handed back. After that, the students were asked to rate the personality of “Person A” based on a particular description. Those who had briefly held the warm drink regarded Person A as warmer than those who had held the iced drink.
“We are grounded in our physical experiences even when we think abstractly,” says Bargh.
1.The author mentions Harlow’s experiment to show that ________.
A. babies need warm physical contact
B. caregivers should be healthy adults
C. adults should develop social skills
D. monkeys have social relationships
2.In Bargh’s experiment, the students were asked to ________.
A. write down their hypotheses
B. evaluate someone’s personality
C. fill out a personal information form
D. hold coffee and cold drink alternatively
3.We can infer from the passage that ________.
A. abstract thinking does not come from physical experiences
B. feelings of warmth and coldness are studied worldwide
C. physical temperature affects how we see others
D. capable persons are often cold to others
4.What would be the best title for the passage?
A. Drinking for Better Social Relationships.
B. Developing Better Drinking Habits.
C. Experiments of Personality Evaluation.
D. Physical Sensations and Emotions.
People diet to look more attractive．Fish diet to avoid being beaten up，thrown out of their social group，and getting eaten as a result．That is the fascinating conclusion of the latest research into fish behavior by a team of Australian scientists．
The research team have discovered that subordinate(低一等的) fish voluntarily diet to avoid challenging their larger competitors．"In studying gobies we noticed that only the largest two individuals，a male and female，had breeding（繁殖）rights within the group，" explains Marian Wong．"All other group members are nonbreeding females，each being 5-10% smaller than its next largest competitor．We wanted to find out how they maintain this precise size separation．"
The reason for the size difference was easy to see．Once a subordinate fish grows to within 5-10% of the size of its larger competitor，it causes a fight which usually ends in the smaller goby being driven away from the group．More often than not，the evicted fish is then eaten up．
It appeared that the smaller fish were keeping themselves small in order to avoid challenging the boss fish．Whether they did so voluntarily，by restraining how much they ate，was not clear．The research team decided to do an experiment．They tried to fatten up some of the subordinate gobies to see what happened．To their surprise，the gobies simply refused the extra food they were offered，clearly preferring to remain small and avoid fights，over having a feast．
The discovery challenges the traditional scientific view of how boss individuals keep their position in a group．Previously it was thought that large individuals simply used their weight and size to threaten their subordinates and take more of the food for themselves，so keeping their competitors small．
While the habits of gobies may seem a little mysterious，Dr．Wong explains that understanding the relationships between boss and subordinate animals is important to understand how hierarchical（等级的）societies remain stable．
The research has proved the fact that voluntary dieting is a habit far from exclusive to humans．"As yet，we lack a complete understanding of how widespread the voluntary reduction of food intake is in nature，" the researchers comment．"Data on human dieting suggests that，while humans generally diet to improve health or increase attractiveness，rarely does it improve long-term health and males regularly prefer females that are fatter than the females' own ideal．"
1.When a goby grows to within 5-10% of the size of its larger competitor，it _________．
A．leaves the group itself B．has breeding rights
C．eats its competitor D．faces danger
2.The underlined words "the evicted fish" in Paragraph 3 refer to _________．
A．the fish beaten up B．the fish driven away
C．the fish found out D．the fish fattened up
3.The experiment showed that the smaller fish _________．
A．fought over a feast B．preferred some extra food
C．challenged the boss fish D．went on diet willingly
4.What is the text mainly about?
A．Fish dieting and human dieting． B．Dieting and health．
C．Human dieting． D．Fish dieting．
You must have heard these words like how happy it is to be a child． But would you 16 change places with a child? Think of the years at school: the years 17 living in constant fear of examinations and school 18 ． Every movement you make, every thought you think is 19 by some adults． Think of the 20 you had to go to bed early, you had to eat 21 thing that was supposed to be good for you． Remember 22 “gentle” pressure was given to you with words like “If you don’t do as I say, I will…”． I’m sure you will never forget!
23 these are only part of child’s 24 ． No matter how kind and loving parents may be, children often 25 from some terrible and illogical 26 since they can’t understand the world around them． They often have such fears in the dark or in the dream． Adults can 27 their fears with other adults 28 children have to face their fears alone．
But the most 29 part of childhood is a period when you 30 to go out of it, the period when you go into adolescence（youth）．Teenagers start to be 31 their parents and this causes them great 32 ． There is a complete lack of self-confidence during this time． Adolescents pay much attention to their 33 and the impression they make on others．They feel shy, awkward and clumsy（笨拙的）． Feelings are strong and hearts 34 broken． Teenagers 35 moments of great happiness or black despair． And through this period, adults seem to be more unkind than ever．
1.A．willing B．unhappily C．friendly D．honestly
2.A．spent B．taken C．had D．devoted
3.A．results B．exercises C．reports D．teachers
4.A．observed B．seen C．known D．watched
5.A．years B．times C．evenings D．days
6.A．helpful B．harmful C．hateful D．delicious
7.A．what B．why C．that D．how
8.A．Though B．Even so C．But D．Therefore
9.A．difficulties B．life C．trouble D．fears
10.A．gain B．suffer C．receive D．get
11.A．troubles B．fears C．diseases D．worries
12.A．enjoy B．deliver C．share D．break
13.A．while B．when C．so D．however
14.A．exciting B．interesting C．painful D．forgettable
15.A．have B．need C．remember D．begin
16.A．dislike B．be against C．cheat D．be for
17.A．unhappiness B．interests C．happiness D．determination
18.A．confidence B．patience C．appearance D．action
19.A．really B．truly C．naturally D．easily
20.A．pass B．experience C．face D．take
If I long enough to have a job, I would choose to be a doctor, those AIDS patients．
A．had lived; helping B．should live; help
C．were to live; helping D．should have lived; help
