Question

Nearly everyone has bad habits.That's because，try as we might，bad habits are hard to break.On the other side，good habits，such as eating more healthfully or exercising regularly，never seem to stick.As a result，most people throw up their hands and surrender．

But now a new book，Better Than Before: Mastering the Habits of Our Everyday Lives by best-selling author Gretchen Rubin，offers some useful solutions.

Rubin，who became interested in habits during her research on happiness，which resulted in two popular books，The Happiness Project (2009) and Happier at Home (2012)，found that our inability to master unwanted behaviors was a major downer (令人沮丧的因素)．So，after guiding millions of readers down the path of true contentedness，Rubin turned her investigative skills toward habits.

Her most important find? Change is possible if we do some soul searching and identify how we respond to expectations.And，just about everybody falls  into  one  of  four  personality  categories：Questioners，Obligers，Rebels and Upholders.

Rubin believes herself to be a classic Upholder，someone who forms habits relatively easily because she responds well to both other people's deadlines and her own.As to the other types，Questioners will only form a habit if it makes sense to them; Obligers work hard to meet other people's expectations but often let themselves down.And Rebels resent (反感) habits.

“Think about the habit that you want to form and then think: “What's everything I could do to set myself up for success？” says Rubin.For example，if you want to exercise more and you're an Obliger，call your friend who lives across the street and meet at 6：30 every morning for a walk.

One common pitfall (陷阱)，says Rubin，especially when it comes to changing your diet，is lack of clarity (清楚)．“You can't make a habit out of eating more healthfully，” she says.Instead，your habit should be something like: “I'm going to pack a lunch every day and bring it to work instead of eating out.”

As for exercise，Rubin recommends a strategy called pairing—coupling two activities，one that you need or want to do and one that you don't particularly want to do.Rubin，for example，only allows herself to read magazines while on fitness equipment at the gym.

1.What does the underlined word “surrender” in Paragraph 1 mean?

A. Catch up.    B. Settle down.

C. Calm down    D. Give up.

2.Why did Rubin start to study habits?

A. She used to suffer from some bad habits.

B. Good habits make people successful.

C. Bad habits make people unhappy.

D. Her two books about habits sold quite well.

3.Which kind of people try to meet other people's expectations instead of theirs?

A. Rebels.    B. Questioners.

C. Upholders.    D. Obligers.

4.The pairing strategy________．

A. forces people to do something necessary

B. is used to make people more efficient

C. encourages people to enjoy themselves

D. can help people have a healthy diet

Answer

1. D

2. C

3. D

4. A

【解析】

本文是一篇说明文，坏习惯总是难以被克服，好习惯总是难以坚持下去，格雷琴鲁宾的新书《比以前更好：掌握我们日常生活的习惯》提供一些有效的建议，在书中，她总结出了四种人格类型——提问者、顺从者、叛逆者和维护者，并建议使用配对策略将想做的和不想做的两种活动结合起来。

1.词义猜测题。根据画线词前的“On the other side，good habits，such as eating more healthfully or exercising regularly，never seem to stick.”可知，像健康饮食和规律锻炼这样的好习惯似乎永远不会持久，结果大多数人就举手投降了，由此可知画线词词义为“放弃”，故D项正确。

2.细节理解题。根据第二段中的“found that our inability to master unwanted behaviors was a major downer. So，after guiding millions of readers down the path of true contentedness，Rubin turned her investigative skills toward habits.”可知，Rubin开始研究习惯是因为她发现无法控制自己不想要的行为是一个令人沮丧的因素，故C项正确。

3.细节理解题。根据第四段中的“Obligers work hard to meet other people's expectations but often let themselves down.”可知，顺从者总是努力满足别人的期望但往往会让自己失望，故D项正确。

4.推理判断题。根据最后一段中的“Rubin recommends a strategy called pairing—coupling two activities，one that you need or want to do and one that you don't particularly want to do.”可知，配对策略将两种活动结合起来，一种是你需要或想做的，另一种是你不需要或不想做的，由此可知配对策略迫使人们做一些必要的事情，故A项正确。