Dear Guys,
I’d like to talk to you about the shame you subjected me to last night. Let me first refresh your memory: You, a group of fit, young men, were playing soccer on the field across from my apartment building. I, a better-than-average looking young woman, was walking along the sidewalk with my groceries. That’s when your ball came flying over the fence and landed in front of me.
One of you approached and asked politely if I would throw the ball back to you. Fighting the urge to drop my bags and run screaming down the street, I reluctantly (勉强地) agreed.
Before I continue, let me explain something that I didn’t have a chance to mention last night: I hate sports. More specifically, I hate sports involving balls. This results from my lack of natural ability when it comes to throwing, catching and hitting. I’m bad at aiming too. So you can understand why I’d be nervous at what I’m sure seemed to you like a laughably simple request.
However, wanting to appear agreeable, I put my bags down, picked up the ball and, eyes half-shut, threw it as hard as I could.
It hit the middle of the fence and bounced back to me.
Trying to act casually, I said something about being out of practice, then picked up the ball again. If you’ll remember, at your command, I agreed to try throwing underhand. While outwardly I was smiling, in my head, I was praying, Oh God, oh please oh please oh please. I threw the ball upward with all my strength, terrified by what happened next.
The ball hit slightly higher up on the fence and bounced back to me.
This is the point where I start to take issue with you. Wouldn’t it have been a better use of your time, and mine, if you had just walked around the fence and took the ball then? I was clearly struggling; my smiles were more and more forced. And yet, you all just stood there, motionless.
Seeing that you weren’t going to let me out of the trouble, I became desperate. Memories of middle school softball came flooding back. I tried hard to throw the ball but it only went about eight feet, then I decided to pick it up and dash with ball in hand towards the baseline, while annoyed thirteen-year-old boys screamed at me that I was ruining their lives. Children are cruel.
Being a big girl now, I pushed those memories aside and picked up the soccer ball for the third time. I forced a good-natured laugh while crying inside as you patiently shouted words of support over the fence at me.
“Throw it granny-style!” one of you said.
“Just back up a little and give it all you’ve got!” another offered.
And, most embarrassing of all, “You can do it!”
I know you thought you were being encouraging, but it only served to deepen the shame.
Anyway, I accepted your ball-throwing advice, backed up, rocked back and forth a little, took a deep breath and let it fly.
It hit the edge of the fence and bounced back to me.
I surprised myself-and I’m sure you as well-by letting out a cry, “DAMN IT!!!” I then willed myself to have a heart attack and pass out in front of you just so I’d be put out of my misery.
Alas, the heart attack didn’t happen, and you continued to look at me expectantly, like you were content to do this all night. I had become a sort of exhibition for you. I could feel your collective thoughts drifting through the chain-link: “Can she really not do it? But I mean, really?”
Unfortunately for you, I wasn’t really game to continue your experiment. Three failed attempts at a simple task in front of a group of people in a two-minute period was just enough blow for me for one night. I picked up the ball one last time, approached the fence and grumbled, “Please just come get the damn ball.”
And you did. And thanks to you, I decided at that very moment to never throw anything ever again, except disrespectful glances at people who play sports.
Sincerely, Jen Cordery
1.The writer agreed to throw the ball because ______.
A. she needed to have a relax carrying the heavy groceries
B. she wanted to refresh her childhood memories
C. she could not refuse the polite request from the young man
D. she had fallen in love with the young man at first sight
2.Why did the writer mention her middle school memory?
A. To explain why she failed the attempts to throw the ball back.
B. To complain that she had not mastered the ball throwing skills.
C. To show how cruel those 13-year-old boys were.
D. To express her dislike towards softball.
3.What the boys said before the writer’s third attempt actually made the writer _______.
A. inspired B. encouraged C. embarrassed D. depressed
4.What happened to the ball at last?
A. The writer managed to throw the ball back.
B. The boy got the ball back by himself.
C. The writer threw the ball away out of anger.
D. The boys got angry and left without the ball.
Thousands of people living in the Chinese capital will celebrate the start of the Chinese New year by heading for the ski resorts (滑雪场). Never mind that Beijing’s dry weather seldom produces snow. It is cold enough in winter for snow-making machines to make a covering for the hills north to the capital. And the rapid growth of a pleasure-seeking middle class has formed the basis for this new craze(热潮）.
Since Beijing’s first ski resort was opened ten years ago, the sport has enjoyed astonishing increase. There are now more than a dozen resorts. Clothes markets in the city have added bright colored ski suits to their winter collections. Mr. Wei, a manager of a newly-opened ski resort in Beijing, sees the growth of an industry that could soon lead Chinese to head for the ski resorts of Europe. In recent years ski resorts offering natural snow have opened in China. But many are in faraway areas of the country and can’t really match the equipment and services of some ski resorts in Europe.
Beijing’s skiing craze is partly a result of the recent increase in private cars. This has led to the growth of a leisure industry in the capital’s suburbs, which until the late-1990s were unreachable to ordinary people. According to Mr. Wei, about 40% of the visitors to his resort come in their own cars. The rest are bused in by schools, businesses or government offices.
The problem is making money. Starting ski resorts requires quite a lot of money: hiring land from the local government, preparing the hills, buying snow machines, making sure there are enough water and electricity to run them, and buying ski equipment for hiring out to customers.
The ski resort where Mr. Wei works cost nearly $4m to set up. And, as so often in China when someone comes up with a good idea, many others rush in and price wars break out. Beijing now offers some of the cheapest ski training classes in the world, though with most people rather new to the sport, expecting a few more doing the same job.
1.What does this text mainly talk about?
A. Convenience for skiers brought about by private cars.
B. Skiing as a new way of enjoying one’s spare time.
C. Things to be considered when starting a ski resort.
D. A sudden increase of ski training classes in Beijing.
2.Why are some Chinese likely to go skiing in Europe?
A. To visit more ski areas.
B. To ski on natural snow.
C. For a large collection of ski suits.
D. For better services and equipment.
3.What is the main problem in running a ski resort?
A. Difficulty in hiring land
B. Lack of business experience
C. Price wars with other ski resorts
D. Shortage of water and electricity
Work your brain!
Between 2 and 3 pounds of wonder, it controls everything we say, do or think, who we are and what we care about. The way we walk or laugh or figure out things. What we like and the talents we possess. How we see and talk and run and jump and process our food.
The brain uses 20 percent of our body’s oxygen and 20 percent of its blood. Somewhere within its protein, fat, 100,000 miles of blood vessels and 100 billion nerve cells, it helps us remember where we put our gym shoes. Change our temperature so we don’t die because of the heat or cold. Speed us up or slow us down. Help us choose between orange juice or orangeflavored drinks.
Its complexity are stunning, far beyond anything most of us can imagine. To keep this work of art as polished as possible we need to eat right, exercise and keep mentally stimulated. Good nutrition helps brain cells communicate with each other. Exercise stimulates a hormone in our brain that improves memory. Mental stimulation keeps you sharp even as you age.
“It’s very important that we tell people to be physically active and mentally active,” said neurologist Malcolm Stewart.“People cannot stop aging, but you’re able to reduce the damage; you’re able to keep the function up.”
Following are Dr. Stewart’s advice for improving brain health：
|
Nutrition |
Avoid fast food. Follow the old adage(格言): For breakfast, eat like a king; for lunch, like a queen; for supper, like a beggar. |
|
Exercise |
Do a combination of stretching aerobic and muscle strengthening every day. |
|
Mental games |
Try to have a sense of hope about the future. Do puzzles. Listen to music. Reach out to others to make their lives better. |
1.The purpose of the author in writing this passage is to ______.
A. inform us how the brain works
B. give us advice on how to keep the brain healthy
C. tell us that the brain plays an important role in our lives
D. show how special the brain is to us
2.The underlined word “stunning” means ______.
A. interesting B. strange C. significant D. amazing
3.According to the text，more exercise ______.
A. keeps our mind sharp
B. helps improve our memory
C. gives our brain a rest
D. is good for brain cells communicating with each other
4.In order to keep brain healthy，we should avoid ______.
A. eating a good lunch B. doing puzzles
C. eating a large supper D. taking aerobic exercise
Boiler rooms are often dirty and steamy, but this one is clean and cool. Fox Point is a very new 47-unit living building in South Bronx, one of the city’s poorest areas. Two-thirds of the people living there are formerly homeless people, whose rent is paid by the government. The rest are low-income families. The boiler room has special equipment, which produces energy for electricity and heat. It reuses heat that would otherwise be lost to the air, reducing carbon emissions while also cutting costs.
Fox Point is operated by Palladia, a group that specializes in providing housing and services to needy people. Palladia received support from Enterprise Community Partners (ECP), which helps build affordable housing by providing support to housing developers.
ECP has created national standards for healthy, environmentally clever and affordable homes which are called the Green Communities Standards. These standards include water keeping, energy saving and the use of environmentally friendly building materials. Meeting the standards increases housing construction costs by 2%, which is rapidly paid back by lower running costs. Even the positioning of a window to get most daylight can help save energy.
Michael Bloomberg, New York’s mayor, plans to create 165,000 affordable housing units for 500,000 New Yorkers. Almost 80% of New York City’s greenhouse-gas emissions come from buildings, and 40% of those are caused by housing. So he recently announced that the city’s Department of Housing and Preservation and Development (DHPD) , whose duty is to develop and keep the city’s supply of affordable housing, will require all its new projects to follow ECP’s green standards.
Similar measures have been taken by other cities, such as Cleveland and Denver, but New York’s DHPD is the largest city developer of affordable housing in the country.
1.What is the purpose of describing the boiler room in the first paragraph?
A. To explain the measures the city takes to care for poor people.
B. To suggest that affordable housing is possible in all areas.
C. To show how the environment-friendly building works.
D. To compare old and new boiler rooms.
2.What is an advantage of the buildings meeting the Green Communities Standards? 5
A. Lower running costs.
B. Costing less in construction.
C. Less air to be lost in hot days.
D. Better prices for homeless people.
3.It can be learned from the text that .
A. New York City is seriously polluted
B. people’s daily life causes many carbon emissions in New York City
C. a great number of people in New York City don’t have houses to live in
D. some other cities have developed more affordable housing than New York City
4.What is the main purpose of this text?
A. To call on people to pay more attention to housing problems.
B. To prove that some standards are needed for affordable housing.
C. To ask society to help homeless people and low-income families.
D. To introduce healthy, environmentally clever and affordable housing.
How often do you let other people’s nonsense change your mood? Do you let a bad driver, impolite waiter，rude boss，or an insensitive employee your day?
One day I was in a taxi and we headed the airport. We were driving in the lane when suddenly a black car drove out of a parking space right in front of us. My taxi driver slammed on his ，slide sideways，and at the very last moment our car stopped and the other car by just inches！The driver of the other car looked around and started at us.
My taxi driver just and waved at the guy. And I mean he was really . So I asked，"Why did you just do that? This guy almost ruined your car and sent us to the hospital！”
This is when my taxi driver taught me what I now call “The Law of the Garbage Truck”. He explained that many people are like garbage trucks. They run around full of , full of frustration，full of anger，and full of disappointment. As their garbage up，they need a place to dump it and sometimes they’ll dump it on ．Don’t take it personally. Just smile, wave，wish them well，and move on.
Believe me. You’ll be ．Don’t take their garbage and it to other people at work，at home，or on the streets. Life’s too short to wake up in the morning with ．The mark of your success is how quickly you can refocus on what’s in your life. Roy Baumeister，a psychology researcher from Florida State University，found in his extensive research that you bad things more often than good things in your life. You store the bad memories more easily, and you them more frequently.
So…Love the people who treat you right. Ignore the ones who don’t. Life is ten percent what you make it and ninety percent how you it！
When you follow “The Law of the Garbage Truck”，you take back control of your life. You make room for the good by go of the bad. Have a Garbage-Free Day！Have a marvelous，garbage-free day！The seeds you plant today the harvest you reap tomorrow.
1.A. enrich B. ruin C. spare D. obtain
2.A. through B. to C. in D. for
3.A. latter B. right C. opposite D. free
4.A. brakes B. door C. window D. seat
5.A. knocked B. overtook C. missed D. lost
6.A. laughing B. throwing C. glancing D. yelling
7.A. wondered B. smiled C. ignored D. guessed
8.A. friendly B. angry C. tired D. disappointed
9.A. expectation B. passengers C. garbage D. goods
10.A. turns B. pushes C. holds D. piles
11.A. roads B. children C. you D. dustbin
12.A. upset B. happier C. pitiful D. frightened
13.A. spread B. share C. explain D. contribute
14.A. surprise B. pleasure C. doubt D. regrets
15.A. funny B. important C. strange D. embarrassing
16.A. remember B. forget C. value D. appreciate
17.A. enjoy B. exchange C. recall D.imagine
18.A. inspire B. take C. mend D. notice
19.A. letting B. consisting C. making D. dreaming
20.A. distinguish B. deserve C. deliver D. determine
— I hear Kris had an accident as he was riding his bike to school yesterday.
— ________? He is always so careful when he is riding.
A. What for B. How come C. Why that D. So what
