Travis is the manager of G&G where he is responsible for forty employees (雇员)and profits (利润) of over $2 million per year. He's never late to work. He does not get upset on the job. When one of his employees started crying after a customer screamed at her, Travis took her away. "Your working uniform is your shelter," he told her. "Nothing anyone says will ever hurt you. You will always be as strong as you want to be."
Travis picked up that lecture in one of his G&G training courses, an education program that began on his first day and continues throughout an employee's occupation. The training has, Travis says, changed his life. G&G has taught him how to live, how to focus, how to get to work on time, and how to master his emotions (情绪). Most importantly, it taught him willpower.
At the center of that education is an extreme focus on an all-important habit; willpower. Dozens of cases show that willpower is the single most important habit for a person's success.
And the best way to strengthen willpower is to make it into a habit. "Sometimes it looks like people with great self-control aren't working hard—but that's because they've made it automatic," Angela Duckworth, one of the University of Pennsylvania researchers said. "Their willpower occurs without them having to think about it."
The company spent millions of dollars developing programs of study to train employees on self-control. Managers wrote workbooks that serve as guides to how to make willpower a habit in workers' lives. Those courses arc, in part, why G&G has grown from a sleepy company into a large one with more than seventeen thousand stores and profits of more than $10 billion a year.
1.We loam from Paragraph 2 that employees in G&G must .
A. learn to give lectures
B. attend education programs
C. design a working uniform
D. develop a common hobby
2.Willpower will become a habit when employees can .
A. focus on the profits
B. benefit from the job
C. protect themselves well
D. control their feeling well
3.What can we infer from the passage?
A. G&G has grown into a large company.
B. G&G will spend half its profits training employees.
C. G&G may become more successful in the future.
D. G&G has to produce more workbooks for managers.
D
Parents who help their children with homework may actually be bringing down their school grades. Other forms of prenatal involvement, including volunteering at school and observing a child's class, also fail to help, according to the most recent study on the topic.
The findings challenge a key principle of modern parenting(养育子女) where schools except them to act as partners in their children's education. Previous generations concentrated on getting children to school on time, fed, dressed and ready to learn.
Kaith Robinson, the author of the study, said, "I really don't know if the public is ready for this but there are some ways parents can be involved in their kids' education that leads to declines in their academic performance. One of the things that was consistently negative was parents' help with homework." Robinson suggested that may be because parents themselves struggle to understand the task." They may either not remember the material their kids are studying now, or in some cases never learnt it themselves, but they're still offering advice."
Robinson assessed parental involvement performance and found one of the most damaging things a parent could do was to punish their children for poor marks. In general, about 20% of parental involvement was positive, about 45% negative and the rest statistically insignificant.
Common sense suggests it was a good thing for parents to get involved because "children with good academic success do have involved parents ", admitted Robinson. But he argued that this did not prove parental involvement was the root cause of that success." A big surprise was that Asian-American parents whose kids are doing so well in school hardly involved. They took a more reasonable approach, conveying to their children how success at school could improve their lives."
1.The underlined expression "parental involvement " in Paragraph 1 probably means .
A. parents' expectation on children's health
B. parents' participation in children's education
C. parents' control over children's life
D. parents' plan for children's future
2.What is the major finding of Robinson's study ?
A. Modern parents raise children in a more scientific way.
B. Punishing kids for bad marks is mentally damaging.
C. Parental involvement is not so beneficial as expected.
D. Parents are not able to help with children’s homework.
3.The example of Asian-American parents implies that parents should .
A. help children realize the importance of schooling
B. set a specific life goal for their children
C. spend more time improving their own lives
D. take a more active part in school management
听下面一段独白，回答以下小题。
1.What is the topic of the talk?
A. Bad behavior in schools.
B. New education methods.
C. A way of making kids healthier.
2.Where does Ashanti Branch work?
A. In a radio station. B. In Ergotron Company. C. In Montera Middle School.
3.What is difficult for boys to do according to Ashanti Branch?
A. Sit still in class. B. Adjust to a new system. C. Perform actively in sports.
4.What is the solution to the problem?
A. More teachers. B. Special furniture. C. Shorter class time.
听下面一段较长对话，回答以下小题。
1.What did woman look like in high school?
A. She had red hair. B. She had blond hair. C. She had curly hair.
2.Where are the speakers now?
A. In Springfield. B. In Ovington C. In Brookfield.
3.What does the man think of his job?
A. Dull but well-paid. B. Exciting but low-paid. C. Boring and low-paid.
4.What does the woman do for a living?
A. She sells insurance.
B. She works as a lawyer.
C. She runs a seafood restaurant.
听下面一段较长对话，回答以下小题。
1.Why does the woman call the man?
A. To check on an order. B. To exchange the computers. C. To apologize for the delay.
2.What’s the date today?
A. September 10th. B. September 12th. C. September 18th.
3.What is Steve’s phone number?
A. 8750-6638. B. 8750-6338. C. 8750-3638.
听下面一段较长对话，回答以下小题。
1.What is the woman doing?
A. Seeing a doctor. B. Doing a survey. C. Asking for advice.
2.How does the man keep fit?
A. By doing different sports. B. By eating a healthy diet. C. By cycling to work.
