阅读下面短文，从短文后各题所给的四个选项（A、B、C和D）中，选出可以填人空白处的最佳选项，并在答题卡上将该项涂黑。
As Eric Hoffer once said, “The hardest arithmetic（算术）to master is that which enables us to count our blessings.”
According to a legend(传说), a young man while wandering around the desert came across a spring of delicious clear water. The water was so and he filled his leather canteen（水壶）so he could bring some back to a tribal（部落）elder who had been his teacher.
After a four-day journey he the water to the old man, who took a deep , smiled warmly and thanked his for the sweet water taken back from the . The young man to his village with a happy heart.
Later, the teacher let another student taste the water. He spat（吐）it out, saying it was . It had become smelly because of the old leather .
The student asked his teacher, “Master, the water is awful. Why did you to like it？”
The teacher , “You only tasted the water. I tasted the .The water was simply the container for an act of loving—kindness and nothing could be sweeter.”
I think we understand this best when we receive innocent（天真无邪的）gifts of love from young children. Whether it’s a handmade paper plane or a painting drawn by them, our and proper response is appreciation because we love the idea the gift.
Gratitude（感恩）doesn’t come naturally. , most children and many adults value only the thing given the feeling expressed in it. We should remind ourselves and teach our children about the beauty and purity of feelings and expressions of .
After all, gifts from the are really gifts of the heart.
1.A. sweet B. bitter C. beautiful D. icy
2.A. mailed B. presented C. deserved D. picked
3.A. breathe B. notice C. gesture D. drink
4.A. student B. son C. friend D. customer
5.A. mountain B. lake C. desert D. river
6.A. returned B. arrived C. came D. visited
7.A. nice B. terrible C. delicious D. raw
8.A. personally B. logically C. clearly D. simply
9.A. clothes B. container C. pocket D. boot
10.A. pretend B. decide C. mean D. want
11.A. questioned B. argued C. replied D. supported
12.A. nutrition B. gift C. mixture D. fault
13.A. way B. 1esson C. approach D. title
14.A. natural B. patient C. serious D. curious
15.A. within B. beyond C. above D. beside
16.A. always B. usually C. sometimes D. often
17.A. Luckily B. Unfortunately C. Curiously D. Simply
18.A.rather than B. other than C. or rather D. more than
19.A.regret B. greetings C. behavior D. appreciation
20.A.heart B. hand C. moustache D. fist
I’m 30 years old, and there are several things that life has taught me that I want to share with you. Here are the 4 lessons that life has taught me in the past 30 years.
Take care of your body.
Life is “unfairly” biased (偏向的) towards people who “look good”, like it or not. So it’s important that you do all that is in your power to look your best.1..You will live longer, and you will live happier, if you take care of your body; you may even get promoted faster on your job. Remember that your health is really your greatest wealth.
2.
No one taught me to save when I was growing up; no one told me the importance of saving. Fortunately, I was able to learn the value of saving through reading great books like “The Millionaire Next Door”. What I want to teach others is to save at least twenty percent of your income. If you are to be wealthy, you must not just earn a lot, you must save a lot.
Think in the long term
In high school I was thinking about college, in college I was thinking about life after college. I’m designing my life and I’m making decisions today that will enable me to live the life I desire when I’m in my 40’s, 50’s and 60’s. You have to think in the long term; you have to see the “ big picture”.3.Realize the power of focus.
Focus, focus, focus4.. If you fail in this lifetime, you will fail because of broken focus. If you focus on the goals that are most important to you, you will achieve them. The problem is that there are so many distractions(使人分心的事).5.Winners decide to major on majors, and they even let important things slip, because they just focus on achieving what is critical(极重要的) to their goals.
A. Save your money.
B. The importance of saving.
C. If you plan your future properly, you will live into your plans.
D. I mean dressing nicely, working out and eating right.
E. It’s critical that you pursue(追逐) relationships with individuals who are good first.
F. Nothing is more critical than focus.
G. What separates the winners from the losers is that the winners learn to focus on their goals.
The reason why women love to spend hours in shops while men prefer to be in and out of the high street in minutes can trace back(追溯) to their hunter-gathering past, find scientists.
While women spent their days gathering food, often with children, men were hunters who made plans about how to catch and kill their prey (猎物). These two ways of getting food in the past show how we shop in modern times, the study believes.
Women would spend hours trying to find the right things, because they had in the past spent ages trying to find the best quality and health-giving food. Men, on the other hand, decided in advance what animal they wanted to kill and then went looking for it. Once it was found and killed, they returned home.
Daniel Kruger, professor of the University of Michigan, said the study could be the answer to why there are a lot of collisions when couples go shopping together. He said it could also help couples to avoid fights in the shops if they understood the reasons why each sex had different ways of deciding on the perfect present.
“In modern times, women are much more likely than men to know when a specific type of item will go on sale. Women also spend much more time choosing the perfect color and texture.”
Professor Kruger said his study was important because if men and women understood each other’s shopping habits they could avoid arguments while shopping.
1.What has decided the different shopping habits of men and women?
A. Different ways of keeping food in the past.
B. Different ways of eating in the past.
C. Different ways of buying food in the past.
D. Different ways of gathering food in the past.
2.In comparison(比较) with men, women were less likely to_____.
A. catch the right animal and kill it.
B. spend much time on shopping.
C. choose the right color and texture.
D. know when a specific item was on sale.
3.What does the underlined word mean in the fourth paragraph?
A. Requests B. Arguments.
C. Concerns. D. Differences.
4.According to Kruger, his study can help to _____.
A. develop good shopping habits.
B. avoid arguments in shopping between men and women.
C. give people tips on choosing good gifts.
D. make sure people buy safe food for children.
Although American children still spend part of their days reading, they are spending less time doing it for pleasure than years ago, with large gaps(差距) in proficiency(熟练)，according to a recent report.
“It raises an alarm,” said Vicky Rideout, the lead author of the report. “We’re witnessing a really large drop in reading among teenagers and the speed of that drop is getting faster and faster.”
The report found that the percentage of nine-year-old children reading for pleasure once or more per week had dropped from 81 percent in 1984 to 76 percent in 2013, based on government studies. About a third of 13-year-olds and almost half of 17-year-olds reported in one study that they read for pleasure less than twice a year.
Of those who read or are read to, children often spend on average between 30 minutes and an hour daily with that activity, the report found. Older children and teenagers tend(倾向于) to read for pleasure for an equally long time each day.
Rideout warned that there may be differences in how people come across texts and the included studies may not take into account stories read on line or on social media.
The report also found that many young children are struggling with literacy(识字). Only about one-third of fourth grade students are “proficient” in reading and another one-third scored below “basic” in reading skills.
Despite the large percentage of children with below-basic reading skills, reading scores among young children have improved since the 1970s, according to one test that measures reading ability.
The reading scores among 17-year-olds, however, reminded relatively unchanged since the 1790s.
About 46 percent of white children are considered “proficient” in reading, compared with 18 percent of black children and 20 percent of Hispanic kids.
Those gap remained relatively unchanged over the past 20 years, according to the report.
“To go 20 years with no progress in that area is shameful”, Rideout said.
The report stresses some behaviors that have been tied to children being more frequent readers. Those behaviors include parents setting aside time to read with their children and parents reading themselves to model good behavior.
1.The figures in paragraph 3 show that_____.
A. fewer children read for pleasure.
B. older children are busier than young children.
C. teenagers are more interested in online reading.
D. more elder children gain pleasure from reading.
2.Which of the following is TRUE about the report findings?
A. The reading scores among older children have improved.
B. The reading scores among young children haven’t changed.
C. The gap between black children and white children has narrowed.
D. Black children have lower proficiency in reading than white children.
3.What is the Vicky Rideout’s attitude towards the report findings?
A. Uncaring. B. Doubtful.
C. Positive. D. Worried.
4.To make children frequent readers, parents should ______.
A. improve their reading skills.
B. read as many books as possible.
C. set a good example to their children.
D. spend more time with their children.
Kids are cool to wear blue jeans and T-shirts today. It is fashionable like that. Fashion refers to the styles of dress that are currently popular. Fashion goes beyond just clothes, though. It’s important for some people to wear only the latest fashions and styles. For others, though, keeping up with trends isn’t that important. The one thing that stays the same with fashion is this: it always changes!
During the 1960s and 1970s, Hippies made bell—bottomed blue jeans（喇叭裤）popular. Also, in the 1980s, Michael Jackson made parachute pants（降落伞裤）all the fashion. Now try to find these items in today’s clothing stores!
Do you know why fashions change？The answer is probably as simple as the fact that people change. Over time, the new replaces the old. People are influenced greatly by popular culture, including athletes, musicians, movies stars, as well as popular films, television shows, books and music. We are also influenced by the fashion industry’s advertising.
The stars of popular culture are always searching for a new angle to maintain（保持）their popularity. Often these new angles come in the form of new clothing or hairstyles. When people see these new styles, they often want to imitate(模仿) their favorite stars. To do so, they seek out the latest fashions to make themselves look like the people they want to imitate. In this way, fashions evolve and change over time.
Clothes have been used to separate people into groups for many years. Even today, brand-name, clothing that is more expensive than other types of clothing can be used by some people to make themselves different from others.
Unfortunately, this can often have the effect of distancing certain groups from others. Don’t forget that it’s always OK to develop your own sense of style that is unique and separate from what the fashion world determines! Stay true to yourself and let your personality — not your clothes — speak for who you are!
1. What does the example of bell—bottomed blue jeans and parachute pants in Paragraph 2 suggest?
A. Fashion always changes.
B. Stars are always influential.
C. People have different dressing styles.
D. Hippies and Michael Jackson are good designers.
2. What causes the changes of fashions?
A. Advertisements change rapidly.
B. Popular culture influences people.
C. Movie stars are changing over time.
D. New films and shows replace the old.
3.We can learn from the text that _____ .
A. fashion is all about clothes.
B. the author has gone out of fashion.
C. clothes may separate and distance people.
D. people like imitate others’ dressing style.
4.What does the author mainly want to stress in the last paragraph?
A. The advantages of staying unique.
B. The bad effects of following fashion.
C. The good influences of popular styles.
D. The importance of having one’s own personality.
I was telling my boy Sonny the story of the hare (兔子) and the tortoise (乌龟). At the end I said, “ Son, remember: Be slow and steady (镇定的), and that will win the race. Don’t you think there’s something to learn from the tortoise?”
Sonny opened his eyes wide, “Do you mean next time when I’m entering for the 60-metre race I should wish that Billy, Tony and Sandy would all fall asleep halfway?”
I was shocked, “But the tortoise didn’t wish that the hare would fall asleep!”
“He must have wished that,” Sonny said, “Otherwise how could he be so foolish as to race with the hare? He knew very well the hare ran a hundred times faster than he himself did.”
“He didn’t have such a wish,” I insisted. “He won the race by perseverance (坚忍不拔), by pushing on steadily.”
Sonny thought a while. “That’s a lie,” he said. “He won it because he was lucky. If the hare hadn’t happened to fall asleep, the tortoise would never have won the race. He could be as steady as you like, or a hundred times steadier, but he’d never have won the race. That’s for sure.”
I gave up. Today’s children are not like what we used to be. They’re just hopeless.
1.The writer argued with his son because _____.
A. he liked tortoises while his son liked hares.
B. they disagreed about whether the tortoise was foolish.
C. he tried to teach his son a moral lesson but the son had totally different opinion.
D. he liked the story of the hare and the tortoise while his son didn’t.
2.Sonny believed that the tortoise _____.
A. won the race by his own hard working.
B. took a risk (冒险) by agreeing to run a race.
C. was not given a fair chance in the race.
D. in fact did win the race luckily.
3.The writer thinks that his generation (一代人) _____.
A. are cleverer than Sonny’s generation.
B. have the same ideas about life as Sonny’s generation.
C. are more hopeful than Sonny’s generation.
D. have different ideas about life from Sonny’s generation.
