Young people are definitely less courageous (勇敢的) than they were 30 years ago. Why is this? It’s because they are spoiled, and take for granted everything that they have or are given.
Thirty years ago, there wasn’t nearly as much blatant (公然的) disrespect for elders, peers, or other people in general. At that time, young people were taught that to get anything or get anywhere in life, they’d have to work for it and earn it.
If young people aren’t being taught the basics of respecting others, and aren’t being taught that they need to work to make a living, then where are they to learn courage?
Courage isn’t necessarily about risking your life, for whatever reason. It is about being able to face any kind of hardship, and to make decisions and face the consequences of those decisions.
Courage means being able to learn from hard times, and to take those lessons with you through life. It means having the resourcefulness (足智多谋) to find ways to deal with your problems yourself, and not being afraid to do so.
Too many young people now rely on parents, siblings, older relatives and others to get them through life. Too often they turn to these figures whenever they get into trouble, and expect to have their problems solved for them.
If we are to help our young people become more courageous, we should stop spoiling them, stop doing everything for them, and teach them the skills necessary to make basic life decisions on their own.
Once these basic principles are instilled (灌输) in our young people, I think we’ll find that they are more courageous than we could have dreamed, and more like the young people of thirty years ago than we had ever imagined.
It’s time to go back to older values and ideas, and to bring courage back into our young people and society.
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Theme |
1._____with young people 30 years ago, those are less courageous. |
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The behavior of young people today |
*They generally show 2._____for elders and other people. *They take for granted whatever they have or receive. *Many of them are too3._____ on their parents or other relatives to get them through life. |
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4.______ |
*They are not5._____ of the basics of respecting others. *They are not taught to work hard to 6.____ their dreams *They don’t have the 7.______ to make wise decisions and overcome difficulties independently. *They tend to expect others, such as their parents or siblings, to help them out when they are in8.____. |
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Tips |
*Never 9.____ them; only help them when necessary. *Teach them the skills they need to make basic life decisions by themselves. |
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Conclusion
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It’s time we went back to older values and ideas, and10.____ courage back into our young people and society. |
According to a study by SallieMae, 84 percent of undergraduate students have credit cards, and by the time they are seniors, they have accumulated US＄4,100 in debt, on top of whatever student loans they may have taken out.
Credit cards are the most convenient form of payment, and they are aggressively marketed to college students. Reportedly, a typical college student carries 4.6 credit cards and US＄3,173 in credit card debt.
Credit cards seem to be a fact of life, not just student life. In the long term, using a credit card properly and paying off the balance can help establish a card history and increase your credit score, which will come in handy when you need an important loan, for a house or car, for example. Your credit score can affect even unrelated things like insurance rates. Credit cards also offer more protection for users than debit cards （借记卡）.Under federal law, the credit card holder is only responsible for the first US＄50 in fraudulent(欺诈的)purchases in cases of theft or loss. However, debit card users are responsible for the first US＄500.
SallieMae found some good news in the fact that two thirds of students had discussed credit issues with their parents, but 84 percent said they needed more information. Those who didn’t get any guidance were more likely to be surprised when they found out how much they owed.
While credit cards offer the easiest access to money, they make it easy to live outside your means. Less than a fifth of students surveyed paid off their balance every month, and carrying a balance brings finance charges, sometimes at a very high interest rates.
SallieMae found that almost 40 percent of students chose their first credit card based on direct mail, which is probably why students get credit card offers in the mail. But when the credit card offers flow in, be sure that you read the fine print. Offers of low or no interest rates can disappear, leaving you a debt that climbs beyond your ability to pay it off.
1. What does the first paragraph imply?
A. Most of the senior students are shocked to see how much they owed.
B. Students can only take out loans from credit cards.
C. Most of students’ loans come from credit cards.
D. Credit cards have a bad effect on college students.
2. The underlined part “come in handy” in the third paragraph probably means “_______”.
A. bring trouble B. make mistakes C. be important D. be useful
3. According to SallieMae, what is the possible reason why students get so many credit card offers in the mail?
A. Many students’ first credit card is based on direct mail.
B. It costs the banks little to mail out credit cards.
C. Students don’t like to go to the bank to open a credit card account.
D. Banks have no other way to let students use their credit cards.
4.What is the theme of the third paragraph?
A. The advantages of using debit cards.
B. The similarities between credit cards and debit cards.
C. The advantages of using credit cards.
D. Credit cards are the most convenient form of payment.
The largest campaign of killing rats in history is set to poison millions of rats on the sub-Antarctic island of South Georgia. Scientists say the campaign planned for 2013 and 2014 will restore beautiful South Georgia to the position it once held as the world’s most important nesting sites for seabirds.
It was sailors in the late 18th century who unintentionally introduced rats to what had been a fresh environment. “If we can destroy the rats, at least 100 million birds will return to their home on South Georgia,” says Tony Martin, a biology professor at the University of Dundee who was invited to lead the project.
South Georgia is by far the largest island to get rid of animals that destroy native wildlife after being introduced deliberately or accidentally by people. Though rats and mice have done the most damage, cats, foxes, goats, deer, rabbits and other species have been targeted in the campaigns around the world.
South Georgia is seven times the size of New Zealand’s Campbell Island, currently the largest area ever killing rats. The successful war against Campbell Island rats was carried our in 2001 with 132 tons of poison dropped from five helicopters.
“New Zealand pioneered the techniques for ridding islands of rats and in fact our operation on South Georgia is based on New Zealand’s technology.” Says Martin. “Some New Zealanders will be helping our campaign, including our chief pilot, Peter Garden, who was also chief pilot for the projects at Campbell Island and Rat Island, in the Aleutian chain of the north Pacific.”
The second and third stages in 2013 and 2014 will involve dropping as much as 300 tons of poison from the air onto every part of the island where rats might live. It is a huge operation, carried out during the stormy southern autumn when the rats are hungry and the risks of poisoning native wildlife are less than in the spring and summer months. “Ideally we’d do in winter but the weather makes that too risky,” Martin says.
The ecological payback will be priceless. But Martin says, “The full benefits will take decades to arrive, because some of these birds are slow to hatch.”
1.According to the passage, how did the rats appear on the sub-Antarctic island of South Georgia ?
A. They were attracted there by wildlife.
B. They escaped there from Campbell Island.
C. They were introduced there by sailors accidently.
D. They were brought in by people deliberately.
2.Which of the following is True about Peter Garden ?
A. He is in charge of the campaign on the sub-Antarctic island.
B. He will be the only pilot for the project on the sub-Antarctic island.
C. He will benefit a lot from the campaign on the sub-Antarctic island.
D. He made great contributions to the project at Campbell Island and Rat Island.
3.The operation of ridding South Georgia of rats is to carried out in autumn because _________.
A. the war against Campbell Island rats failed in all seasons except autumn.
B. only then do the New Zealanders to help the operation have the spare time.
C. rats then need more food and the operation does less harm to native wildlife.
D. the poison kills rats more effectively than it does in any other season.
4.What can we infer from the passage?.
A. The campaign of killing rats will benefit the native wildlife in a short time.
B. Rats aren’t the only species to be blamed for the disappearance of wildlife.
C. The first stage of killing rats on the sub-Antarctic island didn’t make great achievements.
D. The campaign in South Georgia will fully follow in the footsteps of that on Campbell Island.
I opened my new patient's chart and headed for her room. My son, Eric, had just brought home a disappointing report card, and my daughter, Shannon, and I had argued again about her getting a driver's license. For the next eight hours I wanted to throw myself into helping people who I knew had much more to worry about than I did. Rebekah, mother of three lovely little girls, was only 32, admitted for chemotherapy after breast-cancer surgery, When I gave her an injection, Rebekah shut her eyes tightly and murmured a prayer until it was over. Then she smiled and squeezed my hand. “Before you go, could you get my Bible from the table?" I handed her the worn book. "Do you have a favorite Bible verse?" she asked. "Jesus wept. John 11: 35." "Such a sad one," she said. "Why?""It makes me feel closer to Jesus, knowing he also experienced human sorrow." Rebekah nodded thoughtfully and started flipping through her Bible as I shut the door quietly behind me.
During the following months, her hospital stays became frequent and she worried about her children. One day when I entered her room, I found her talking into a tape recorder. She picked up a notebook and held it out to me. "I'm making a tape for my daughters, " she said. I read the list on her pad: starting school, confirmation, turning 16, first date, graduation. While I worried how to help her deal with death, she was planning for her children's future. She usually waited until the early hours of the morning to record the tapes so she could be free from interruptions. She filled them with family stories and advice，trying to cram a lifetime of love into a few precious hours. Finally, every item in her notes had been checked off and she entrusted the tapes to her husband.
I often wondered what I would say in her place. My kids joked that I was like an FBI agent, with my constant questions about where they’d been and who they’d been with. Where, I thought, are my words of encouragement and love?
It was three o'clock one afternoon when I got an urgent call from the hospital. Rebekah wanted me to come immediately with a blank tape. She was breathing hard when I entered her room. I slipped the tape into the recorder and held the microphone to her lips. "Ruthie, Hannah, Molly, this is the most important tape." She held my hand and closed her eyes. "Someday your daddy will bring home a new mommy. Please make her feel special. Show her how to take care of you. Ruthie, honey, help her get your Brownie uniform ready each Tuesday. Hannah, tell her you don't want meat sauce on your spaghetti. Molly, don't get mad if there's no apple juice. Drink something else. It's okay to be sad, sweeties. Jesus cried too. He knows about sadness and will help you to be happy again. Remember, I'll always love you. I shut off the recorder and Rebekah sighed deeply. "Thank you, Nan, "You'll give this one to them, won't you?" she murmured as she slid into sleep.
A time would come when the tape would be played for Rebekah's children, but right then, after I smoothed Rebekah's blanket, I got in my car and hurried home. I thought of how my Shannon also liked her sauce on the side and suddenly that quirk, which had annoyed me so many times, seemed to make her so much more precious. That night the kids didn't go out; they sat with me long after the spaghetti sauce had dried onto the dishes. And we talked, without interrogations, without complaints，late into the night.
1.From the first paragraph we can learn that ____________ .
A. Nan was in a bad state and wept a lot in her daily life.
B. Nan was not on good terms with her children.
C. Nan was worried about how to help Rebeka deal with her death.
D. Nan laid more stress on attending on her patients than her children.
2.Which of the following scenes was most likely to be seen at Nan’s home before she met Rebekah?
A. The family sat down in a circle and shared an interesting story.
B. After dinner, the children either went out or shut themselves up in their rooms.
C. The son was the headache of the parents while the daughter their comfort.
D. When Eric did poorly at school, the parents comforted him and cheered him up.
3.Which was the most vital message Rebekah left to her children?
A. Bringing home satisfying school report cards
B. Landing a job after graduation
C. Growing up healthily and happily
D. Accepting their step-mother into their lives.
4.The writer learnt from Rebekah that a parent’s real concern should be_______. .
A. protecting the children from the dangers they may be trapped in.
B. having encouraging and loving talks with children.
C. making tape records to guide the children in their future lives.
D. tolerating the children’s annoying quirks.
Have you ever picked a job based on the fact that you were good at it but later found it made you feel very uncomfortable over time? When you select your career, there's a whole lot more to it than assessing your skills and matching them with a particular position. If you ignore your personality, it will hurt you long-term regardless of your skills or the job's pay. There are several areas of your personality that you need to consider to help you find a good job. Here are a few of those main areas;
1) Do you prefer working alone or with other people?
There are isolating（使孤立）jobs that will drive an outgoing person crazy and also interactive jobs that will make a shy person uneasy. Most people are not extremes in either direction but do have a tendency that they prefer. There are also positions that are sometimes a combination of the two, which may be best for someone in the middle who adapts easily to either situation.
2) How do you handle change?
Most jobs these days have some elements of change to them, but some are more than others. If you need stability in your life, you may need a job where the changes don't happen so often. Other people would be bored of the same daily routine.
3) Do you enjoy working with computers？
I do see this as a kind of personality characteristic. There are people who are happy to spend more than 40 hours a week on a computer, while there are others who need a lot of human interaction throughout the day. Again, these are extremes and you'll likely find a lot of positions somewhere in the middle as well.
4) What type of work environment do you enjoy？
This can range from being in a large building with a lot of people you won't know immediately to a smaller setting where you'll get to know almost all the people there fairly quickly.
5) How do you like to get paid?
Some people are motivated by the pay they get, while others feel too stressed to be like that. The variety of payment designs in the sales industry is a typical example for this.
Anyway, these are a great starting point for you. I've seen it over and over again with people that they make more money over time when they do something they love. It may take you a little longer, but making a move to do what you have a passion for can change the course of your life for the better.
1.Which of the following is TRUE according to the passage?
A. Isolating jobs usually drive people mad.
B. Interactive jobs make people shy easily.
C. Extreme people tend to work with others.
D. Almost everyone has a tendency in jobs.
2.What does the underlined sentence in paragraph one mean?
A. Before you select your job, you should assess your skills and match them with your position
B. There are more important things than assessing skills and match them with the position when you select job.
C. Nothing is important than assessing skills and match them with the position when you select job.
D. You should ignore your skills when you select job.
3. What is the missing word about a job search in the following chart?
A. Design. B. Changes. C. Cooperation. D. Hobbies.
About one year ago, a couple with three children moved into the apartment next door to me. I never heard any noise form the children, but I often heard the parents shouting at the kids, not in a nice tone, but in a (n) one.
We often in the hallway. I always greeted them, the only answer I ever got was a “hello” from the eight-year-old girl. I usually to see my doctor and one day when I returned they were just their apartment and the little girl was the outside door open for the others. I in the car doing things because I wasn’t eager to be snubbed (冷落) again. Finally I got out of my car and walked towards the door. The parents were telling her to to get into the car, but the little girl was still holding the door, me! I hurried although I was still in pain from my injury.
I forgot to tell her how I was for her kindness. I wrote a note saying how much her act of kindness had an old man’s heart.
The next day there was a (n) on my door and it was the little girl and her father. She was quite of her behavior and thanked me. Then I noticed her mother was there, too. Her parents me, too.
Now when we meet in the hall way we always greet each other, in a friendly .
Last night there was a heavy snow. I looked out at my car and how I was going to keep my doctor’s because I could only walk for a short time. This morning when I opened the front door, all the snow was removed.
Isn’t it that the small kind act of an 8-year-old girl can change so many things for the better? It is said that good tings come from small acts.
1.A. quietly B. strangely C. quickly D. angrily
2.A. frightening B. exciting C. sincere D. kind
3.A. quarreled B. met C. chatted D. argued
4.A. when B. so C. but D. or
5.A. went out B. set out C. took out D. gave out
6.A. decorating B. cleaning C. returning D. leaving
7.A. breaking B. operating C. holding D. unlocking
8.A. kept B. remained C. insisted D. left
9.A. favorite B. important C. unnecessary D. curious
10.A. hurry B. drive C. stay D. greet
11.A. hunting for B. asking for C. waiting for D. calling for
12.A. beneficial B. influential C. anxious D. grateful
13.A. strengthened B. broken C. touched D. saved
14.A. note B. knock C. invitation D. picture
15.A. proud B. aware C. afraid D. sure
16.A. understood B. recognized C. praised D. thanked
17.A. manner B. appearance C. statement D. announcement
18.A. found B. doubted C. remembered D. wondered
19.A. advice B. appointment C. suggestion D. attention
20.A. amazing B. confusing C. disappointing D. challenging
