From my second grade on, there was one event I feared every year: the piano recital（独奏演唱会）. A recital ______I had to practice a boring piece of music and perform before strangers. Each year I _____ask my father if I could skip the recital “just this once”. And each year he would shake his head, muttering（嘀咕） _______about build self-confidence and working toward a _______.
So it was with really great______that I stood in church one recent Sunday, video camera in hand, and ______my 68-year-old father sweating in his shirt ______rising to play the piano in his very first recital.
My father had longed to play music since childhood, but his family was poor and couldn’t _______lessons. He could have gone on regretting it, _______too many of us do. But though he was rooted in his past, he wasn’t _______there. When he retired three years ago, he ______ his church music director to take him as a student.
For a moment after my father sat down at the keyboard, he ______stared down at his fingers. Has he forgotten the ______? I worried, remembering those split seconds______ago when my mind would go blank and my fingers would _______. But then came the beautiful melody（旋律）, from the ______fingers that once baited（装饵于）my fishing lines. And I______he had been doing what music teachers always stress: _______the music and pretend the others aren’t there.
“I’m ________of him for starting something new at his age,” I said to my son Jeff.
“Yeah, and doing it so_______,” Jeff added.
With his first recital, my father taught me more about courage and determination than all the words he used those 30-plus years ago.
1.A. reflectedB. explainedC. meantD. proved
2.A. wouldB. couldC. might D. should
3.A. nothingB. everythingC. anything D. something
4.A. goalB. stageC. journeyD. chance
5.A. troubleB. satisfactionC. strengthD. disappointment
6.A. keptB. sentC. watchedD. felt
7.A. throughB. fromC. againstD. before
8.A. missB. affordC. selectD. understand
9.A. asB. onceC. ifD. while
10.A. educatedB. protectedC. stuckD. spoilt
11.A. allowedB. invitedC. inspiredD. persuaded
12.A. roughlyB. simplyC. merrilyD. curiously
13.A. wordsB. videosC. notesD. lessons
14.A. decadesB. weeksC. hoursD. moments
15.A. playB. freezeC. clickD. adjust
16.A. sameB. warmC. differentD. dirty
17.A. predictedB. realizedC. imaginedD. insisted
18.A. pass overB. turn upC. bring inD. concentrate on
19.A. ashamedB. awareC. tiredD. proud
20.A. casuallyB. anxiouslyC. nicelyD. frequently
Although problems are a part of our lives, it certainly doesn’t mean that we let them rule our lives forever. One day or the other, you’ll have to stand up and say – problem, I don’t want you in my life.
1. Problems with friends, parents, girlfriends, husbands, and children – the list goes on. Apart from these, the inner conflicts within ourselves work, too. These keep adding to our problems. Problems come in different shapes and colors and feelings.
But good news is that all problems can be dealt with. Now read on to know how to solve your problems.
Talk, it really helps. What most of us think is that our problem can be understood only by us and that no talking is going to help. 2. Talking helps you move on and let go.
Write your problems. 3. When you write down your problems, you are setting free all the tension from your system. You can try throwing away the paper on which you wrote your problems. By doing this, imagine yourself throwing away the problems from your life.
Don’t lose faith and hope. No matter what you lose in life, don’t lose faith and hope. Even if you lose all your money, family… you should still have faith. 4.
Your problems aren’t the worst. No matter what problem you get in life, there’re another one million people whose problems are huger than yours. 5. Your problems might just seem big and worse, but in reality they can be removed.
Go about and solve your problems because every problem, however big or small, always has a way out.
A. But the truth is that when you talk about it, you’re setting free the negative energies that have been gathering within you.
B. When we have a problem, a pressing, critical, urgent, life-threatening problem, how do we try and solve it?
C. Tell yourself: when they can deal with them, why can’t I?
D. Of course, we’ve been fighting troubles ever since we were born.
E. We can often overcome the problem and achieve the goal by making a direct attack.
F. Having a personal diary can also be of huge help if you don’t want a real person to talk with.
G. With faith and hope, you can rebuild everything that you lose.
Walking down a path through some woods in Georgia, I saw a small pool of water ahead on the path. I angled my direction to go around it on the part of the path that wasn't covered by water or mud. As I reached the pool, I was suddenly attacked!
Yet I did nothing for the attack. It was so unpredictable and from somewhere totally unexpected. I was surprised as well as unhurt though I had been struck four or five times. I backed up a foot and my attacker stopped attacking me. Had I been hurt I wouldn't have found it amusing. And I was laughing. After all, I was being attacked by a butterfly!
Having stopped laughing, I took a step forward. My attacker rushed me again. He charged towards me at full speed, attempting to hurt me but in vain. For a second time, I took a step backwards while my attacker paused. I wasn't sure what to do. After all, it’s just not every day that one is attacked by a butterfly. I stepped back to look the situation over. My attacker moved back to land on the ground. That's when I discovered why my attacker was charging me only moments earlier. He had a mate and she was dying.
Sitting close beside her, he opened and closed his wings as if to fan her. I could only admire the love and courage of that butterfly in his concern for his mate. He had taken it up on himself to attack me for his mate’s sake, even though she was clearly dying and I was so large. He did so just to give her those extra few precious moments of life. Should I have been careless enough to step on her? His courage in attacking something thousands of times larger and heavier than himself just for his mate’s safety seemed admirable. I couldn’t do anything other than reward him by walking on the more difficult side of the pool. He had truly earned those moments to be with her, undisturbed.
Since then, I’ve used that butterfly’s courage as an inspiration and to remind myself that good things are worth fighting for.
1.The writer changed his direction while walking down a path because he wanted_______.
A. to get close to a butterfly
B. to escape a sudden attack
C. to look over the bad situation
D. to avoid getting his shoes dirty
2.From the passage we can learn that the attacker _________.
A. struck the author four or five times and made him badly hurt
B. paused until the author took a step backwards
C. thought it was the author who caused the death of his mate
D. attacked the author for his mate’s safety and to accompany her for the last moments of life
3. From this experience the man learned_____.
A. butterflies are brave insects
B. the small can defeat the large
C. how to deal with challenges in his life
D. people should try their best to fight for everything
4.Which of the following words can best describe the butterfly?
A. caringB. ambitious
C. courageousD. aggressive
Two new studies suggest that modern running shoes could increase the risk of injuries to runners.
One study involved sixty-eight healthy young women and men who ran at least twenty-four kilometers a week. The runners were observed on a treadmill machine (跑步机). Sometimes they wore running shoes. Other times they ran barefoot (赤脚).
Researchers from the JKM Technologies Company in Virginia, the University of Virginia and the University of Colorado did the study.
They found that running shoes create more stress that could damage knees, hips and ankle joints than running barefoot. They observed that the effect was even greater than the effect reported earlier for walking in high heels.
The study appeared in the official scientific journal of The American Academy of Physical Medicine.
The other study appeared in the journal Nature. It compared runners in the United States and Kenya. The researchers were from Harvard University in Massachusetts, Moi University in Kenya and the University of Glasgow in Scotland.
They divided the runners into three groups. One group had always run shoeless. Another group had always run with shoes. And the third group had changed to shoeless running.
Runners who wear shoes usually come down heel first. That puts great force on the back of the foot. But the study found that barefoot runners generally land on the front or middle of their foot. That way they ease into their landing and avoid striking their heel.
Harvard’s Daniel Lieberman led the study. He says the way most running shoes are designed may explain why those who wear them land on their heels. The heel of the shoe is bigger and heavier than other parts of the shoe, so it would seem more likely to come down first. Also, the heel generally has thick material under it to soften landings.
But the researchers do not suggest that runners immediately start running barefoot. They say it takes some training. And there can be risks, like running when your feet are too cold to feel if you get injured.
The study was partly supported by Vibram, which makes a kind of footwear that it says is like running barefoot. The findings have gotten a lot of attention. But the researchers say there are many problems in the way the press has reported in their paper. So they have tried to explain their findings on a Harvard Website.
1.What’s the main idea of the passage?
A. Walking in high heels could cause less serious effects than running barefoot.
B. Two new discoveries encourage people to run in high heels.
C. Running in shoes is partly good to runners.
D. Two new studies prove running without shoes is beneficial to runners in most cases.
2.Which part of our body could be injured if we run in running shoes?
A. Toes.B. Hips.
C. Feet.D. Legs.
3.What can we learn from the passage?
A. The way that we run by landing on the front or middle of our foot could avoid damaging our heel.
B. We should start running barefoot in no time.
C. Running in modern running shoes could cause more serious effects than running in high heels.
D. We won’t be injured if we run barefoot.
Are you reading this while sitting in an office cubicle（办公室格子间）? If so, please take a moment and glance around you. Are there photos of your last vacation hung on the wall? One of your kid’s drawings? A yellowed print of a favorite cartoon?
If so, you are doing something good for both yourself and your organization. Newly published research suggests working in an environment that offers little privacy can lead to emotional exhaustion and burnout（过度疲劳）. But personalizing one’s workplace is an effective protection against such unwanted outcomes.
“Individuals may take comfort from the items with which they surround themselves at work, and these items may help employees to keep emotional energy high in the face of stresses that come from their work,” writes a research team led by Gregory Laurence of the University of Michigan-Flint, Michigan, in north central U.S.
In the Journal of Environmental Psychology, Laurence and his colleagues describe a study featuring 87 white-collar employees at a large, urban university in the Midwestern United States.
Research assistants noted whether they worked in a private office (with a door that can be closed) or a cubicle. They also counted the number of items each worker had brought from home to decorate his or her workspace – a list that included photographs, posters, artworks.
Not surprisingly, Laurence and his colleagues found a connection between the amount of privacy an employee enjoys and his or her rate of burnout. “High privacy conditions tend to serve as strong protectors against unwelcome interferences and distractions（干扰和分心的事）,” they noted, “contributing to a work environment supporting reduced emotional exhaustion.”
But this link disappeared when those employees had personalized their cubicles. Employees who had turned their workspaces into areas that reflect their interests and personalities reported the same (relatively low) level of emotional exhaustion, no matter whether they worked in an office or a cubicle.
The research confirms “the calming effect” of having your own stuff around you. So if you’re feeling exhausted at work, relief could be as simple as hanging a few of your kindergartener’s colorful creations on your cubicle wall.
1.Who might be most interested in the passage?
A. Job hunters.
B. Office workers.
C. Kid’s parents
D. Employment researchers.
2.For employees, decorating cubicles with their own items __________.
A. offers them little privacy
B. may help improve their work efficiency
C. will sometimes cause burnout
D. serve as interferences and distractions
3.The participant of the research __________.
A. come from the university of Michigan-Flint
B. all suffer high levels of emotional exhaustion
C. may work in a private office or in a cubicle
D. like personalizing their homes with little items
4.Where does this passage probably come from?
A. A book reviewB. A research plan
C. An official documentD. A news report
50 years ago Barbie Millicent Roberts first appeared in the world of toys. Barbie, as everyone called her, has become the most successful toy in history. According to Barbie’s parents, the Mattel Company, 90% of all American girls between 3 and 10 have at least one Barbie at home.
In today’s world, however, Barbie is facing an identity crisis. There are many rivals on the market. For example, Bratz dolls, which are very popular among older girls, came to life seven years ago. They look more like today’s pop stars with heavy make-up（浓妆）and fashionable miniskirts. Today Bratz is a challenge for Barbie, because the company offers a wide variety of clothing, too.
It seems that Barbie has lost her appeal to older girls. “For younger girls playing with a Barbie is much fun, but when you get older you want something chic, says Alina Foley, a shop assistant in a New York toy store. Indeed, sales have been going down over the past year, partly because of the world’s economic crisis.
Barbie still has a lot going for her. More and more doll lovers all over the globe have become collectors. They trade Barbies or buy them on eBay. Others look for special and rare Barbie dolls, like Scarlett O’Hara from “Gone with the Wind”.
On the international market, Barbie remains number one. Although Mattel has been selling fewer Barbies in the United States over the past year, sales in other countries have been going up. In January Mattel opened its first Barbie store in Shanghai, where girls can shop, eat or even become their own fashion designer.
Barbie has changed her image many times over the past decades. Originally she worn blond pony tails and had bright red lips. In the 80s she changed to a more colorful new look.
For her 50th birthday Mattel is planning some big events. Fashion designers from all over the world have been called to make new clothes for Barbie. She is also scheduled to be a big star during the New York Fashion Week.
How long will Barbie stay on as a celebrity（名人）in the world of toy dolls? Hard to say, but 50 is definitely not the age to retire.
1.The author mentions Bratz in Paragraph 2 in order to show that __________.
A. even pop stars have their own favorite toy dolls
B. Barbie is facing tough competition on the market
C. clothing plays the key role in the design of toy dolls
D. the toy market has been expanding greatly over the years
2.The underlined word “chic” in Paragraph 3 probably means “__________”.
A. valuableB. scientific
C. complexD. fashionable
3.We can learn from the text that Barbie __________.
A. plays a role in a film directed by Scarlett O’Hara
B. is most popular with girls under the age of ten
C. has rarely changed its image since its birth 50 years ago
D. has long lost its leading position on the market of toy dolls
4.What would be the best title for the text?
A. Barbie Turns Fifty
B. Hottest Toys for Girls
C. Mattel’s Barbie Sales
D. Play with Bratz Toys
