As children, our parents had dreams for us. They wanted us to do whatever was necessary to reach our highest ______. Later in life, friends and spouses (配偶) may also have schedules for us. People close to us may have ideas about ______ we should live our lives. The ideas usually ______ love and the desire for us to be happy. Other times, they come from a place of need within them— ______ it is the parent who wants us to ______ his or her dreams or the friend who wants us to play an alreadydefined role. We can appreciate and consider those people's input, but ______ we must follow our own inner guidance.
There may come a time when all the suggestions can become ______. We may feel that the people we love don't approve of our judgment, which can ______ us to some extent. It can ______ the choices we make for our lives by making us ______ ourselves. It may also fill a void (空虚) with their ______ before we've had a chance to decide what we want. However, it can affect us ______ as well. We may have to ______ the feelings of resistance and to keep ourselves off from them. But we can take some time to ______ ourselves of any unnecessary doubts and go within to become ______ on what we desire for ourselves.
We can tell our loved ones how much we ______ their thoughts and ideas, but that we need to live our own lives and make our own ______. We can explain that they need to let us learn from our own experiences ______ to rob us of wonderful life lessons and the opportunity to ______ our own judgment. When they see that we are happy with our lives, they can see all we need them do is to share ______ with us.
1.A. need B. ability C. potential D. creativity
2.A. what B. how C. why D. where
3.A. come across B. put away C. lead to D. come from
4.A. whether B. if C. while D. when
5.A. apply to B. live out C. manage to D. speed up
6.A. desperately B. comfortably C. eventually D. deliberately
7.A. unreliable B. understandable C. practical D. unbearable
8.A. ignore B. hurt C. defeat D. abandon
9.A. abuse B. mix C. influence D. reform
10.A. fight B. scold C. resist D. doubt
11.A. wishes B. themes C. benefits D. successes
12.A. universally B. abnormally C. actively D. effectively
13.A. handle B. realize C. avoid D. know
14.A. remind B. rid C. inform D. warn
15.A. false B. vain C. nuclear D. clear
16.A. reward B. praise C. appreciate D. trust
17.A. decisions B. requirements C. reservations D. commands
18.A. less than B. more than C. other than D. rather than
19.A. attain B. polish C. instruct D. mature
20.A. lesson B. joy C. opportunity D. freedom
A new article in The Wall Street Journal has given us a deeper understanding of the relationship between what we earn and how we feel.1.Well,not true.People with higher incomes are happier than those who struggle to get by.To put a smile on your face with your money,you need to spend it strategically.Here are some ways to better spend your bank notes.
Buy experiences,not material things.
2.People think that experiences are only going to provide temporary happiness,but they actually provide both more happiness and more lasting value that help you better manage your life.
3.
Anything you buy,including a product you think is special will become just another object.Buying small things can give us frequent small pleasures that are different each time they occur,as they forestall（抢先）adaptation.
4.
It’s also important to consider how what you’re buying will affect how you spend your time.For example,you may have to spend a very long time on the road if you get a big house in the suburb,which will totally lower overall life satisfaction.
Try giving it away.
Elizabeth Dunn,associate professor of psychology at the University of British Columbia in Canada,found that in countries as diverse as Canada,South Africa and Uganda,giving away money consistently made people happier.5.
A.Buy what you like.
B.Be sure to buy time,too.
C.More money,more smiles?
D.Money can’t buy happiness,right?
E.Buy lots of little things,rather than one big thing.
F.With no much money to spare,people tend to stick to material goods.
G.This was even true for people who were ly poor themselves.
Each time I see a balloon, my mind flies back to a memory of when I was a six-year-old girl. It was a rainy Sunday and my father had recently died. I asked my mom if Dad had gone to heaven. "Yes, honey. Of course." she said.
"Can we write him a letter?"
She paused, the longest pause of my short life, and answered, "Yes."
My heart jumped. "How? Does the mailman go there?" I asked.
"No, but I have an idea." Mom drove to a party store and returned with a red balloon. I asked her what it was for.
"Just wait, honey. You'll see." Mom told me to write my letter. Eagerly, I got my favorite pen, and poured out my six-year-old heart in the form of blue ink. I wrote about my day, what I learned at school, how Mom was doing, and even about what happened in a story I had read. For a few minutes it was as if Dad were still alive. I gave the letter to Mom. She read it over, and a smile crossed her face.
She made a hole in the corner of the letter where she looped the balloon string. We went outside and she gave me the balloon. It was still raining.
"Okay, on the count of three, let go. One, two, three."
The balloon, carrying my letter, darted upward against the rain. We watched until it was swallowed by the mass of clouds.
Later I realized, like the balloon, that Dad had never let his sickness get him down. He was strong. No matter what he suffered, he'd persevere, hang on, and finally transcend this cold world and his sick body. He rose into sky and became something beautiful. I watched until the balloon disappeared into the gray and white and I prayed that his strength was hereditary. I prayed to be a balloon.
1.When the girl asked her mother if they could write to her father, her mother ______.
A. found it easy to lie
B. thought her a creative girl
C. believed it easy to do so
D. felt it hard to answer
2.When the girl was told that she could send a letter to her father, she ______.
A. became excited
B. jumped with joy
C. started writing immediately
D. was worried that it couldn't be delivered
3.In the eyes of the author, what was the rain like?
A. An incurable disease.
B. An unforgettable memory.
C. The failures her father experienced.
D. The hard time her father had.
4.What would be the best title for the passage?
A. An unforgettable experience B. Fly to paradise
C. The strong red balloon D. A great father
Men are spending more and more time in the kitchen encouraged by celebrity (名人) chefs like Gordon Ramsay and Jamie Oliver, according to a report from Oxford University.
The effect of the celebrity role models, who have given cooking a more manly picture, has combined with a more general drive towards sexual equality and men now spend more than twice the amount of time preparing meals than they did in 1961.
According to the research by Prof. Jonatahn Gershuny, who runs the Centre for Time Research at Oxford, men now spend more than half an hour a day cooking, up from just 12 minutes a day in 1961.
Prof. Gershuny said, “The man in the kitchen is part of a much wider social trend. There has been 40 years of sexual equality, but there is another 40 years probably to come.”
Women, who a generation ago spent nearly two hours a day cooking, now spen
d just one hour and seven minutes—a great fall, but they still spend far more time in the kitchen than men.
Some experts have named these men in aprons as “Gastrosexuals (men using cooking skills to impress friends)”, who have been inspired to pick up a kitchen knife by the success of Ramsay, Oliver as well as other male celebrity chefs such as Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, Marco Pierre White and Keith Floyd.
“I was married in 1974. When my father came to visit me a few weeks later, I was wearing an apron when I opened the door. He laughed,” said Prof. Gershuny. “That would never happen now.”
Two-thirds of adults say that they come together to share at least three times a week, even if it is not necessarily around a kitchen or dining room table. Prof. Gershuny pointed out that the family meal was now rarely eaten by all of its members around a table—with many “family meals” in fact taken on the sofa in the sitting room, and shared by family members. “The family meal has changed a lot, and few of us eat—as I did when I was a child—at least two meals a day together as a family. But it has survived in a different format.”
1.What is one reason behind the trend that men spend more time cooking than before?
A. The improvement of cooks’ status.
B. The influence of popular female chefs.
C. The change of female’s view on cooking.
D. The development of sexual equality campaign.
2.What does the author think about the time men and women spend on cooking?
A. Men spend more time cooking than women nowadays.
B. Women spend much less time on cooking than before.
C. It will take 40 years before men spend more time at the stove than women.
D. There is a sharp decline in the time men spend on cooking compared with 1961.
3.How did Prof. Gershuny see the family meal according to the passage?
A. It has become a thing of the past.
B. It is very different from what it used to be.
C. It shouldn’t be advocated in modern times.
D. It is beneficial to the stability of the family.
4.Which is the best title for the passage?
A. The Changes of Family Meals
B. Equality between Men and Women
C. Cooking into a New Trend for Men
D. Cooking—a Thing of the Past for Women
Food picked up just a few seconds after being dropped is less likely to contain bacteria than if it is left for longer periods of time, according to the findings of research carried out at Aston University’s School of Life and Health Sciences. The findings suggest there may be some scientific basis of the "5-second rule" — the belief about it being fine to eat food that has only had contact with the floor for five seconds or less. Although people have long followed the ‘5-second rule’, until now it was unclear whether it actually helped.
The study, undertaken by final year Biology students and led by Anthony Hilton, Professor of Microbiology at Aston University, monitored the transfer of the common bacteria from a variety of indoor floor types as carpet, cement floor to toast, pasta, biscuit and a sticky sweet when contact was made from 3 to 30 seconds. The results showed that: time is a significant factor in the transfer of bacteria from a floor surface to a piece of food, and the type of flooring the food has been dropped on has an effect, with bacteria least likely to transfer from carpeted surfaces and most likely to transfer from cement flooring surfaces to moist foods making contact for more than 5 seconds. Professor Hilton said, "Consuming food dropped on the floor still carries an infection risk as it very much depends on which bacteria are present on the floor at the time."
The Aston team also carried out a survey of the number of people who employ the ‘five-second rule’. The survey showed that: 87% of the people surveyed said they would eat food dropped on the floor, or already have done so. 55% of those that would, or have eaten food dropped on the floor are women. 81% of the women who would eat food from the floor would follow the ‘5-second rule’. Professor Hilton added, "Our study showed that a surprisingly large majority of people are happy to consume dropped food, with women the most likely to do so. But they are also more likely to follow the ‘5-second rule, which our research has shown to be much than an old wives’ tale."
1.According to the passage, which of the following is true?
A. A toast dropped on the carpet is easier to be polluted than that dropped on the cement floor.
B. A sticky chocolate dropped on the carpet is easier to be polluted than that dropped on the cement floor.
C. The food dropped on the carpet shares the same potential of being polluted with the food dropped on the cement floor.
D. The food dropped on the cement floor is not as safe as food dropped on the carpet within 30 seconds.
2.What is the passage probably developed?
A. Contrast B. Example
C. Time D. Space
3.How did Professor Hilton feel after analyzing how many people chose to eat dropped food?
A. Puzzled. B. Upset.
C. Satisfied. D. Astonished.
4.What is the main idea of this passage?
A. The food which is dropped on the floor can be eaten safely.
B. A research on the safety of food dropped on the floor is undertaken.
C. The bacteria have no negative effect on the safety of food.
D. People surveyed in the research are willing to accept the idea.
"Some secrets are hidden from health," wrote John Updike in his poem "Fever".
I have experienced the truth of Updike's observation. My excellent health kept me from seeing some things—things that became secrets of sort.
One relates to my son Chris. When I lost my health in March, I discovered something I had missed about him.
Christopher has been a scholar and athlete through high school. He has behaved responsibly, engaged in community service. He has had an impressive peer group of serious students.
While I saw these things, I had missed before what I experienced while in hospital. Early on, Christopher offered the clearest and most forceful words about my need to be positive and to fight acute leukemia(急性白血病). He never left the room after a visit without making me promise that I would be mentally tough and positive.
During the first week, he showed his own mental toughness, researching leukemia and learning what the chances were. He even stopped my doctor outside the room, introduced himself and asked directly what he thought of my chances. He processed the answer without overreaction.
Christopher did admonish(劝告) me against my choice of words the first week at home. I had moved back into my room from weighing myself, discovering a thin figure I did not know. I announced to him and my wife, “dead man walking”. I thought it was a way to lighten the obvious. He saw it as negativity and was strongly against such thinking and talking.
When I resisted taking medicine sometimes, Christopher formed a “good-cop-bad-cop” team with his mother. Betsy gently and patiently encouraged. He directly and forcefully insisted. He always made the logical arguments for why I needed to take some awful pills.
My health had hidden something from me; my ill-health helped me to see it.
1.What did Christopher do when the author was in hospital?
A. He told the author not to say anything wrong.
B. He offered some suggestions to the doctor.
C. He always encouraged the author to be confident.
D. He tried to get help from community service.
2.What does “good-cop-bad-cop” in the text refer to?
A. A trick to force the author to obey.
B. A measure to keep the author happy.
C. A friendly way to make the author see what was good for him.
D. A joint effort to persuade the author both kindly and forcefully.
3.What may be the best title for the text?
A. Lessons from Ill-health B. Unexpected Love
C. Secrets Hidden from Health D. Discovery Made in Hospital
