History books are filled with wealthy people who were practically poor compared to me.
I have storm windows, __Croesus, the last king of Lydia who was incredibly rich, did not. The entire population__ before Alexander the Great, but he couldn't buy unpacked cat food. William I, who conquered England some 930 years ago, __ a compound saw （复合锯）.
Given how much ___I am than so many famous __ people, you'd think
I'd be content. However, the__ is that, like most people, I compare my wealth with ___of living persons: neighbors, school classmates, TV personalities. The ___I feei toward my friend Howard's new kitchen is not __ by the fact that no French king __ had a refrigerator with glass doors. There is really no rising or falling ___of living. Over the centuries people simply find different things to __ about. You'd think that merely not having a disease would put us in a good __ , but no, we want a hot bathtub, too.
Of course, one way to achieve happiness would be to __ that even by contemporary standards the things I __ are pretty nice. My house is ___than the houses of many investment bankers, but even so it has a lot more rooms than my wife and I can keep __ .
__to people looking back at our era from a century or two in the future, those bankers* fancy counter tops and my own worn ones will seem __ shabby. I can't __ my neighbor right now. But just wait.
1.A. as B. while C. when D. since
2.A. jumped B. smiled C. laughed D. trembled
3.A. lacked B. possessed C. abandoned D. lost
4.A. well off B. better off C. worse off D. badly off
5.A. living B. alive C. dead D. deadly
6.A. problem B. danger C. pleasure D. question
7.A. those B. this C. that D. one
8.A. surprise B. envy C. anger D. puzzle
9.A. increased B. relieved C. added D. refused
10.A. ever B. never C. often D. sometimes
11.A. condition B. level C. state D. standard
12.A. talk B. care C. complain D. joke
13.A. mood B. expression C. state D. status
14.A. suggest B. realize C. suppose D. expect
15.A. do B. like C. hate D. own
16.A. larger B. prettier C. smaller D. uglier
17.A. clean B. messy C. comfortable D. unpleasant
18.A. However B. Besides C. Therefore D. Thus
19.A. especially B. extraordinary C. equally D. extremely
20.A. keep away from B. keep in with C. keep on at D. keep pace with
How to Overcome Shyness Have you ever found it embarrassing to talk in front of the public? In fact, a great number of people are struggling with shyness. 1..
● Act confidently.
Confidence comes through action, learning, practice, and mastery. Remember when you learned how to ride a bike? It was terrifying at first, but after you just went for it and tried it, you got it, and felt confident. Social confidence works the same way. 2. Remove avoidance and you will overcome your anxiety.
● Engage yourself
This means participating in small talk in the checkout line and talking to strangers at bars, stores, sporting events, and the gym. Additionally, approach the individuals by whom you are attracted romantically. Talk to them. Ask them to dance. Ask them out on dates.
Life is short. Who cares if you get rejected? There are seven billion people on this planet. You’re not expected to like or be liked by all of them. 3..
● 4..
Join a club, a sports team or an outdoor activity. Pick up a new project or learn a new skill. Do something to get out of your comfort zone. Part of overcoming shyness is about developing confidence in several areas of your life and not letting anxiety, fear of failure, fear of rejection, or fear of humiliation get in your way. By practicing new activities, you are confronting your fear of the unknown and learning to handle that anxiety more effectively.
● Talk it out.
5. Be more talkative and expressive in all areas of your life. Whether you’re at work, with friends, with strangers, or walking down the street, you can practice talking more openly. Let your voice and your ideas be heard.
A. Get out more often.
B. Try new things.
C. Shyness can be a characteristic of people who have low self-esteem.
D. Fortunately, there are some effective strategies to overcome shyness.
E. Start practicing giving speeches and telling stories at every opportunity.
F. Take some chances and put yourself out there to meet new people.
G. Feeling anxious is not the problem; avoiding social interactions is the problem.
Mobile phone users in China expected a pleasant surprise this month. Starting from October 1, a new policy adopted by the three giant cellphone operators — China Mobile, China Telecom and China Unicom — has allowed unused data from individual data packages to be carried over to the next month for use.
At the beginning, users of the three telecommunication companies welcomed this policy, since they would have more free data to use in the next month. However, even before Chinese users could enjoy the free extra package, the users found that since the adoption of the policy, the original data limits seem to be far more easily swallowed up, which means there wouldn’t be any unused data left for the next month. One user of China Unicom claimed that it took him only nine days to use up the data package of a month.
Telecoms have become a necessity in modern life like water or power, and raising or lowering costs significantly affects people’s lives and finances. But disagreements between consumers and service providers cover discussion. It is too early to judge how long the disagreement between telecommunication companies and consumers over data packages will last, since, according to media reports, the measurement of data usage is difficult to track. Companies are using “user privacy” to avoid giving out any information.
But reading through the companies posted online by cellphone users, we can sense the public’s distrust of Stated-owned enterprises (SOEs). A survey done by the people’s Tribune Research Center in 2012 found that the public’s negative impression of SOEs came from the belief that they only rely on government support and their employees usually do easy jobs but get higher pay, yet their sense of service is far behind private and foreign enterprises.
The current argument over the data package of three State-owned telecommunication giants reflects the extent of public anger. Among the country’s anti-corruption campaign (反腐败运动) and reforms, it shows the public’s enthusiasm for deepening reforms and making SOEs benefit domestic consumers.
1.The attitude of the users towards the new policy of the three telecommunication companies at the beginning can be best described as ________.
A. indifferent B. opposed C. positive D. disappointed
2.What is the result of the new policy adopted by the three telecommunication companies?
A. Chinese phone users are allowed to send their unused data to their friends.
B. Chinese phone users are presented with much cheaper individual data packages.
C. Chinese phone users have no need to buy individual data packages.
D. Chinese phone users consume the data much sooner than expected.
3.Which of the following is NOT the public’s impression of SOEs?
A. SOEs are supported by the government to a large extent.
B. SOEs have benefited domestic consumers effectively.
C. SOEs’ employees don’t deserve the high pay.
D. SOEs’ service is worse than private and foreign enterprises.
4.The last paragraph most probably implies that ________.
A. the public are not satisfied with the reforms at present
B. the public do not care about the country’s reforms
C. the public think highly of anti-corruption campaign
D. the public are confident about the reform of SOEs
Some people believe that international sport creates goodwill between the nations and that if countries play games together, they will learn to live together. Others say that the opposite is true: international competitions encourage false national pride and lead to misunderstanding and hatred (憎恨). There is probably some truth in both arguments, but in recent years the Olympic Games have done little to support the view that sport encourages international brotherhood. Not only was there the tragic incident including the murder of athletes, but the Games were also ruined by incidents caused mainly by smaller national contests.
One country received its second-place medals with visible anger after the hockey final. There had been noisy scenes at the end of the hockey match, the losers objecting to the final decisions. They were sure that one of their goals should not have been disallowed and that their opponents’ victory was unfair. Their manager was in great anger when he said, “This wasn’t hockey. Hockey and the International Hockey Federation are finished.” The president of the Federation said later that such behavior could result in the suspension (停赛) of the team for at least three years.
Incidents of this kind will continue as long as sport is played competitively rather than for the love of the game. The suggestion that athletes should compete as individuals, or in non-national teams, might be too much to hope for. But in the present organization of the Olympics there is far too much that encourages aggressive patriotism (爱国主义).
1.According to the author, recently the Olympic Games have ________.
A. created goodwill between the nations
B. brought about only false national pride
C. showed little international friendship
D. put an end to misunderstanding and hatred
2.What does the underlined word “disallowed” in Paragraph 2 mean?
A. Permitted to pass. B. Considered as reasonable.
C. Won by the other side. D. Refused to accept.
3.What conclusion can we draw from the passage?
A. The current organization of the Olympic Games must be improved.
B. Athletes should compete as individuals in the Olympic Games.
C. A game should be played competitively rather than for the love of the game.
D. More and more athletes will compete for their own honor.
My kids sit in Gee’s living room and respectfully lift antique Christmas ornaments (装饰品) out of a cardboard box. They giggle at Ann, who is a foreign character to them. Gee stands beside them, quietly explaining each treasure. She tells me that she and Tom built their ornament collection piece by piece. She smiles as we leave with the box.
We first met Tom and Gee in the early days of our marriage. Someone had been returning our garbage cans to the garage each garbage day, and Jim and I had wondered who. Then one day we spotted him: an elderly man who lived across the street.
I baked cookies and left them outside with a thank-you note. When we got home that day, a typed letter had replaced the gift. The letter was from Tom and explained back when he’d been fighting a war, neighbors had taken the time to handle the garbage cans for his young wife, Gee, and he never forgot. Now he paid it forward by doing the same for all of us.
A few years after we’d moved in, Tom died. We photocopied that letter and attached it to one of our own for Gee. We told her how special Tom had been to us. She wrote back and told us she still talked to Tom every day.
These days, we’re piling up boxes of our own. We’re planning a move. We know it’s time to go, and yet we can’t seem to stick the For Sale sign up on the lawn. It’s not just Gee. It’s the man who lets our kids pick peaches off the tree in his front yard. It’s the ladies who leave overflowing baskets for our kids on Easter.
Jim and I agree to wait until January. This Christmas, we’ll decorate our tree with Gee’s ornaments, out of the box labeled in Tom’s handwriting. Maybe I’ll talk to him just as Gee still does. Thank you, I’ll say. For teaching us what it means to be a neighbor.
1.What can we infer from the first paragraph?
A. The kids thought little of these antique Christmas ornaments.
B. The kids were fond of these antique Christmas ornaments.
C. The kids were afraid of these antique Christmas ornaments.
D. The kids had no interest in these antique Christmas ornaments.
2.Which of the following is true about Tom?
A. He fought a war from which the author suffered a lot.
B. He first met the author at her wedding.
C. He was an elderly man whose job was handling garbage cans.
D. He helped to handle his neighbors’ garbage cans secretly.
3.What could be the best title of this passage?
A. This is what Tom did for us.
B. This is why we didn’t want to move.
C. This is what it really means to be a neighbor.
D. This is how neighbors help each other.
听下面一段独白，回答以下小题。
1.What was the speaker most satisfied with in the forest?
A. The meals. B. The living place. C. The weather.
2.What did the speaker enjoy doing?
A. Guiding tourists.
B. Clearing the path in the forest.
C. Collecting information for a map.
3.What sound made the speaker surprised in the morning?
A. The birds’ singing.
B. The rabbits’ running around.
C. The wind’s blowing through the grass.
4.What does one need to prepare for the trip?
A. A tent. B. Special boots. C. The flight fare.
