Believe it or not, the ability to choose is the power to change. If you can choose to live your life differently, will you be the same person?
Well, choosing to do the following few “simple” things will help to change your life.
Review your life. Take time to go through your life and ask yourself, “If I do the same thing I do every day, will there be a change? If I want to change, where will my first step be?”
Make careful choices. Choose exactly what you wish to get to live your life; describe and think what you really want.
Keep up with chances. Find out about the possibilities and ways that can make you move toward your goals, write them down and see which one suits you most.
Get down to business. Start working on your goals. People may bring you down; you may have difficulties; you will fail and want to give up. But the most important thing is never to give up.
If you try these “simple” things, you will find that success is something for everyone, and you will finally become what you want to be. Remember, success is more than what you hold in your hands; it is something from the heart.
1. Once you get down to business, the most important thing is to _____.
A. set goals B. see possibilities
C. keep on trying D. ask for help
2.The underlined word “it” in the last paragraph refers to ____.
A. change B. choice C. life D. success
3.This passage mainly discussed the relationship between ______.
A. power and life
B. choice and change
C. power and success
D. choice and difficulty
Whether we’re 2 years old or 62, our reasons for lying are mostly the same: to get out of trouble, for personal gain and to make ourselves look better in the eyes of others. But a growing body of research is raising questions about how a child’s lie is different from an adult’s lie, and how the way we deceive changes as we grow.
“Parents and teachers who catch their children lying should not be alarmed. Their children are not going to turn out to be abnormal liars,” says Dr. Lee, a director of the Institute of Child Study. The fact that children tell lies is a sign that they have reached a new developmental stage. Dr. Lee conducted a series of studies in which they bring children into a lab with hidden cameras. Children and young adults aged 2 to 17 are likely to lie while being told not to look at a toy, which is put behind the child’s back.
For young kids, the desire to cheat is big and 90% take a secret look in these experiments. When the test-giver returns to the room, the child is asked if he or she looked secretly. At age 2, about a quarter of children will lie and say they didn’t. By 3, half of kids will lie, and by 4, that figure is 90%, studies show.
Researchers have found that it’s kids with better understanding abilities who lie more. That’s because to lie you also have to keep the truth in mind, which includes many brain processes, such as combining several sources of information and faking that information. The ability to lie — and lie successfully — is thought to be related to development of brain regions that allow so called “executive functioning”, or higher order thinking and reasoning abilities. Kids who perform better on tests that involve executive functioning also lie more.
1. What’s the purpose of children telling lies?
A. To help their friends out.
B. To get rid of trouble.
C. To get attention from others.
D. To create a popular image.
2. From the second paragraph we can know that ____________.
A. which factors can reduce lying
B. why some lie more than others
C. it is normal for kids to tell lies
D. how lying changes as kids grow
3.It can be inferred from the passage that ________________.
A. children’s lies are the same as adults’
B. the better kids are, the more they lie
C. the older kids are, the more they lie
D. kids always keep the truth in their mind
4.What is NOT included in the passage?
A. The reasons why kids tell lies.
B. Which kind of kids tells more lies.
C. Experiments about lying of young kids.
D. What to do with lying children.
Will it matter if you don't have your breakfast? A short time ago, a test was given in the United States. People of different ages, from 12 to 83, were asked to have a test. During the test, these people were given all kinds of breakfasts, and sometimes they got no breakfast at all. Scientists wanted to see how well their bodies worked when they had different kinds of breakfasts.
The rules show that if a person eats a right breakfast, he or she will work better than if he or she has no breakfast. If a student has fruit, eggs, bread and milk before going to school, he or she will learn more quickly and listen more carefully in class.
The result is opposite to what some people think. Having no breakfast will not help them lose weight. This is because they are so hungry at noon that eat too much for lunch. They will gain weight instead of losing it. You will lose weight if you reduce your other meals.
1. During the test , the people were given _________.
A. no breakfast at all.
B. different breakfast or sometimes none
C. very rich breakfasts
D. little food for breakfast
2.Scientists wanted to know whether __________.
A. breakfast had any effect on work and studies.
B. people were interested in breakfast
C. breakfast did harm to people 's health
D. people would work better without breakfast
3.According to the passage , some people think without breakfast they will ____.
A. not be hungry at all.
B. get a good result in their work
C. gain weight
D. lose weight
4. Which of the following sentence is NOT right?
A. It is bad for your health to have no breakfast.
B. No breakfast and more lunch may make you fatter.
C. The more breakfast you have, the more quickly you will learn in class.
D. If you don't eat much for lunch and supper , you may lose weight.
Mr. Black was very forgetful. Each time when Mrs. Black wanted her husband to do something, she had to tell him again and again not to forget it.
Once Mr. Black was asked to post a letter, “ Do remember to put it into the letter box on your way to work.” The wife said. “ This time I won’t forget.” Mr. Black said to his wife. “I will hold the letter in my pocket.” “Oh, my dear, you may go now. Please come back early.” Mrs. Black said. As Mr. Black was shown out, he felt as if his wife touched him affectionately (温柔地) on the back.
Hand in his pocket, Mr. Black walked slowly down the street. Soon a man caught up with him from behind and smiled at him, “Don’t forget to post the letter.” Mr. Black was wondering how the man knew he had a letter to post. Then a girl passed him and turned to smile at him, too.“Now be sure to post the letter,” the girl said. Mr. Black was even more puzzled, “Why are they smiling at me? And how do they know I’m going to post a letter?” he thought to himself.
1.“Do remember to put it into the letter box on your way to work” showed _______ .
A. Mrs. Black believed her husband would certainly do as he was told to
B. Mrs. Black believed husband’s memory
C. Mrs. Black doubted her husband’s memory
D. Mrs. Black hoped her husband wouldn’t post the letter in a wrong place
2.The man who caught up with Mr. Black from behind _______ .
A. might be a man of his neighbors
B. might know Mr. Black’s shortcomings
C. might be Mrs. Black’s friend and he was told to warn Mr. Black
D. might be a stranger but he noticed something unusual on Mr. Black’s back
3.The girl turned to smile at Mr. Black _______ .
A. because she knew him
B. because she wanted to be friendly to him
C. because she wanted to show she had good manners
D. because of some obvious reason
4.According to the passage we can infer Mrs. Black touched her husband on the back so as to______ .
A. stick something on his back
B. show her love
C. warn him not to forget to post the letter
D. let him go to work right now
I suppose that the most basic and powerful way to connect to another person is to listen. Just listen. Perhaps the most important thing we ever give each other is our attention. And especially if it’s given from the heart. When people are talking, there’s no need to do anything but receive them. Listen to what they’re saying. Care about it. Most times caring about it is even more important than understanding it. Most of us don’t value ourselves or our love enough to know this. It has taken me a long time to believe in the power of simple saying “I’m so sorry,” when someone is in pain.
One of my patients told me that when she tried to tell her story people often interrupted to tell her that they once had something just like that happening to them. Her pain became a story about themselves. Eventually she stopped talking to most people. We connect through listening. When we interrupt what someone is saying to let them know that we understand，we move the focus of attention to ourselves. When we listen, they know we care.
I have even learned to respond to someone crying by just listening. In the old days I used to reach for the handkerchiefs, until I realized that passing a person a handkerchief may be just another way to shut him down，to take them out of their experience of sadness. Now I just listen. When they have cried all they need to cry, they find me there with them.
This simple thing has not been that easy to learn. It certainly went against everything I had been taught since I was very young. I thought people listened only because they were too shy to speak or did not know the answer. But now I know that a loving silence often has far more power to heal than the kindest words.
1.What does the author value most in the communication with each other?
A. Deep understanding. B. Saying “I’m sorry”．
C. Attention from heart. D. Doing nothing.
2.The woman patient stopped telling her story to most people because________.
A. she didn’t get enough respect from others
B. she was discouraged by being often interrupted
C. people often told her their own opinions
D. people couldn’t understand her sad situation
3.If you hand a handkerchief to someone crying，you may________.
A. hurt his feelings
B. make him embarrassed
C. encourage him to continue to cry
D. stop him from letting out his sorrow
4.It can be inferred from the passage that while communicating，________.
A. listening is a perfect way to respond to others
B. people keep silent because they don’t know the answer
C. keeping silent means being too shy to speak
D. it is easy to form the habit of listening silently
The Pacific island nation of Nauru used to be a beautiful place. Now it is an ecological disaster area. Nauru’s heartbreaking story could have one good consequence — other countries might learn from its mistakes.
For thousands of years, Polynesian people lived the remote island of Nauru, far from western civilization. The first European to arrive was John Fearn in 1798. He was the British captain of the Hunter, a whaling ship. He called the island Pleasant Island.
However, because it was very remote, Nauru had little communication with Europeans at first. The whaling ships and other traders began to visit, bringing guns and alcohol. These elements destroyed the social balance of the twelve family groups on the island. A ten-year civil war started, which reduced the population from 1,400 to 900.
Nauru’s real troubles began in 1899 when a British mining company discovered phosphate (磷酸盐)on the island. In fact, it found that the island of Nauru was nearly all phosphate, which a very important fertilizer for farming. The company began mining the phosphate.
A phosphate mine is not a hole in the ground; it is a strip mine. When a company strip-mines, it removes the top layer of soil. Then it takes away the material it wants. Strip mining totally destroys the land. Gradually, the lovely island of Nauru started to look like the moon.
In 1968, Nauru became one of the richest countries in the world. Every year the government received millions and millions of dollars for its phosphate.
Unfortunately, the leaders invested the money unwisely and lost millions of dollars. In addition, they used millions more dollars for personal expenses. Soon people realized that they had a terrible problem — their phosphate was running out. Ninety percent of their island was destroyed and they had nothing. By 2000, Nauru was financially ruined. Experts say that it would take approximately $433,600,000 and more than 20 years to repair the island. This will probably never happen.
1.What might be the author’s purpose in writing the text?
A. To seek help for Nauru’s problems.
B. To give a warning to other countries
C. To show the importance of money
D. To tell a heartbreaking story of a war.
2.The ecological disaster in Nauru resulted from _______.
A. soil pollution B. phosphate overmining
C. farming activity D. whale hunting
3.Which of the following was a cause of Nauru’s financial problem?
A. Its leaders misused the money
B. It spent too much repairing the island
C. Its phosphate mining cost much money
D. It lost millions of dollars in the civil war.
4.What can we learn about Nauru from the last paragraph?
A. The ecological damage is difficult to repair.
B. The leaders will take the experts’ words seriously.
C. The island was abandoned by the Nauruans
D. The phosphate mines were destroyed
