A boy guarded the barrel(桶) in his father’s winery. Every morning he ______ up every barrel with a piece of cloth, and then put them in ______ row upon row. To his ______, the wind blew the barrels here and there ______. The boy was so angry that he wrote a letter to the wind, “Please don’t blow down my barrels.” After ______ that, his father asked the boy with a smile, “Can the wind read your ______?” The little boy said, “I don’t know, but I have no way of dealing with the wind.”
The next morning, when the little boy ran to look at the barrels, he found that the wind had ______ his request, still blowing the barrels here and there. The little boy felt ______ and burst into tears. His father stroked his head gently and said, “Son, don’t be sad. We can’t deal with the wind, but we can think of our own methods to ______ the barrels.
Then the little boy ______ his tears and sat near the barrels to think over and over. After thinking half a day, he finally ______ a way. He ______ some water from the well and poured it into those ______ barrels. At ______, the little boy got up in a rush, ran out and saw the barrels still ______ in good order. He smiled happily and told his father, “We do have a way to ______ the barrels from blowing down. It’s a very ______ way, that is, to add weights to the barrels.” The little boy’s father smiled ______.
We can’t change many things, but we can add the weight of our own ______, so that we can stand ______ in the world not to be knocked over.
1.A. wiped B. picked C. built D. took
2.A. use B. need C. order D. charge
3.A. anger B. sorrow C. amusement D. confusion
4.A. generally B. slowly C. suddenly D. overnight
5.A. discussing B. saying C. seeing D. writing
6.A. demand B. request C. decision D. sign
7.A. shared B. answered C. ignored D. considered
8.A. nervous B. sad C. scared D. touched
9.A. control B. blow C. make D. arrange
10.A. squeezed B. dropped C. showed D. dried
11.A. put up with B. put through C. came up with D. came through
12.A. sprayed B. drank C. poured D. collected
13.A. broken B. empty C. clean D. neat
14.A. daybreak B. noon C. dusk D. midnight
15.A. placed B. thrown C. moved D. spread
16.A. save B. separate C. free D. stop
17.A. important B. natural C. necessary D. simple
18.A. anxiously B. excitedly C. approvingly D. hesitantly
19.A. wealth B. mind C. responsibility D. pressure
20.A. straight B. firm C. hard D. high
How to persuade people
Convincing people that your way is the best way is often very difficult —especially when you’re not quite sure why they’re saying no. The trick is to get them wondering why they’re saying no. 1..
Understand how timing is everything. Knowing how to persuade people isn’t just in words and body language — it’s also in knowing the right time to talk to them. 2., you will most likely achieve faster, better results.
Get to know them. A large part of whether or not persuasion is effective is based on the general relationship between you and your client/son/friend/employee. If you don’t know the person well, it’s vital to start building this relationship immediately — find common ground as soon as possible. Humans, in general, are more fond of people that are similar to them. 3..
4.. People are more persuaded by a fast, confident talker than accuracy. The faster you talk, the less time your listener has to process what you’ve said and question it. You may create the feeling that you truly grasp the subject by running through the facts at warp speed, confident of them all.
Create urgency. In order to get people to act in the moment, you have to be able to create a sense of urgency. 5., it’s unlikely they’ll change their minds in the future. You must persuade people in the present; it’s all that matters.
A. Talk fast
B. Communicate with others
C. If someone is aware of this
D. And with the right tricks, you can do it
E. So find parallels and make them known
F. If they’re not motivated enough to want whatever you have right now
G. If you approach people when they are more relaxed and open to discussion
At 88, my grandmother Vera has dementia and barely recognizes me. But I’m determined to help her age with dignity and grace in her home for as long as she can.
Since 2015, I’ve been a manager at Honor, a technology company that uses a website and an app to pair professional caregivers (we call them Care Pros) with loved ones who need a hand. I want to make sure we are offering all our clients (客户), including my grandmother, a service that is affordable, with people who are reliable, diverse and skilled. On Sundays. Amy, my grandmother’s most-loved Honor professional caregiver, comes over to get her dressed for church. She loves the time she spends with Amy. That’s the best gift I can give her and the best gift I can give myself. Care giving can exhaust a family emotionally and physically. At Honor, we’re trying to create something that makes it easier for women to be moms, daughters, and sisters all at once. That’s why this company was built.
What sets Honor apart from other care giving services is that we’re equally focused on treating the Care Pros well. We pay higher-than-average rates and they can get health benefits and sick leave. Most of our Care Pros are women, and a lot of them arc single mothers. The technology behind our app allows Care Pros to set parameters (参数) based on when, where, and how much they want to work so they can control their schedules. The company also allows continuity of care. Each Care Pro notes in the caregivers’ app how the client is feeling or what should happen on the following shift. That way, the client’s family can stay up to date on their loved one’s health.
When I was working with my team at Honor, I wanted to create opportunities for people who looked like me. I’m proud to say that there are single moms and other women without traditional educational training who lead teams here. The makeup of this company proves that people with diverse backgrounds can be part of a successful tech company. This has to be a model for the future.
I’m confident it will happen.
1.The author mentions Amy to _______.
A. share a precious memory
B. advocate caring for the elderly
C. show the importance of caregivers
D. inform the readers of a touching story
2.Which of the following about Honor is true?
A. It allows flexible working schedules.
B. It gives higher salary and more paid leave.
C. It mainly employs single mothers and males.
D. It matches caregivers with clients at random.
3.What does the underlined part “stay up to date” probably mean?
A. Go to bed later than usual.
B. Get the latest information.
C. Attend to somebody at fixed time.
D. Accompany somebody day and night.
4.The last paragraph intends to tell us that _______.
A. women are able to hold up half the sky
B. success has nothing to do with education
C. Honor will probably have a better future
D. people with diverse backgrounds will be a model
Artificial intelligence (AI) technology may soon be a useful tool for doctors. It may help them better understand and treat diseases like breast cancer in ways that were never before possible.
Rishi Rawat teaches AI at the University of Southern California’s (USC) Clinical Science Center in Los Angeles. He is part of a team of scientists who are researching how AI and machine learning can more easily recognize cancerous growths in the breast. Rawat provides information about cancer cells to a computer. He says this data helps the machine learn. “. . . You can put the data into computers and they will learn the patterns and the pattern recognition is important to making decisions.”
David Agus is another USC researcher. He says machines are not going to take the place of doctors. “Computers will not treat patients, but they will help make certain decisions and look for things that the human brain can’t recognize by itself. Once a confirmed cancerous growth is removed, doctors still have to treat the patient to reduce the risk of cancer returning. The form of treatment depends on the kind of cancer.”
Currently, researchers take a thin piece of tissue, put it on a small piece of glass and add color to better see the cells. That process could take days or even longer. Scientists say artificial intelligence can do something better than just count cells. Through machine learning, it can recognize complex patterns, or structures, and learn how the cells are organized.
The hope is that machines will soon be able to make a quick identification of cancer that is free of human mistakes. “All of a sudden, we have the computing power to really do it in real time. . . We couldn’t have done this, we didn’t have the computing power to do this several years ago, but now it’s all changed.” Agus adds that the process could be done for almost no cost in the developing world. He says that having a large amount of information about patients is important for a machine to effectively do its job in medicine.
The University of Southern California researchers are now only studying breast cancer. But doctors predict artificial intelligence will one day make a difference in all forms of cancer.
1.In Rishi Rawat’s research, ________.
A. the data put into computers contributes to cancer recognition
B. many cancers are being studied at the moment
C. machine learning has replaced doctors’ work
D. the focus is on the cure for cancer
2.David Agus’s words in Paragraph 3 are used to ________.
A. provide some advice for doctors
B. introduce the development of cancer
C. appeal to scientists to research into cancer
D. explain the function of AI in treating cancer
3.What can we infer from the text ?
A. AI can make decisions for doctors.
B. Developing countries might be lack of funds.
C. AI will hopefully make an accurate identification of cancer.
D. Computing power has long helped with the identification of cancer.
4.What is the author’s attitude towards AI used in treating cancer?
A. Positive. B. Indifferent.
C. Doubtful. D. Negative.
My friend, Jack, was a taxi driver. We became friends quite by accident. Five years ago, I made a trip to Chicago. The moment I stepped into a cab, I realized it was different. The floor was covered with a rug (小地毯). There were small reproductions of paintings by Van Gogh inside the cab. And the windows were spotless. I told the driver I had never ridden in a more attractive taxi.
“I like to hear my passengers say that,” he replied. “How long have you been decorating your cab?” I asked. “It’s not mine,” he said. “It’s a company cab. I hit upon the idea years ago when I worked as a clean-up man for the taxi company. Each car that came in at the end of the day was like a garbage pit. Cigarette butts and matches covered the floor. Sticky stuff like peanut butter was on the seats or door handles. I thought that if the company and the drivers would give people a car worth keeping clean, they might be more considerate. ”
“As soon as I got my taxi license, I tried out my ideas. I put a lot of extra decorations into the cab they gave me to drive. I got a nice rug and some flowers. When each passenger got out, I checked to make sure that everything was in order for the next fare. After about a month of my bringing in a spotless cab, the boss reserved the same car for me each day. That was when I put up the reproductions of great paintings.”
“I’ve never been disappointed by people in the past ten years—no garbage. Like I say, people appreciate beautiful things. If we planted more flowers and trees in the city and made the buildings more attractive, more people would tend to keep the city clean.”
Later, we became good friends. I was impressed by the taxi-driver, who had hit on a great truth—a sense of beauty comes with the gift of life. Most people don’t have to be instructed about the rarity of beauty. They respond when they find it. And, if they are made to feel a part of it, they will try to add to it.
1.What made the writer surprised when he got into the taxi?
A. The beautiful decoration on the rug.
B. The style of decoration outside the taxi.
C. The masterpieces of well-known painters.
D. The impressive inner environment of the taxi.
2.Jack got the idea of decorating the cab when _______.
A. he got his taxi license
B. the boss reserved the same car for him each day
C. he served as a clean-up man for the taxi company
D. he found the taxi he cleaned was full of cigarette butts
3.What does the story mainly tell us?
A. People can easily make friends when taking a taxi.
B. When people find beauty in life, they will try to add to it.
C. If we plant more flowers and trees, we can keep the city clean.
D. We have to be taught to find beauty and make it more beautiful.
Have you ever realized that the smallest countries in the world have so much to offer? Whether it’s historic and cultural heritage or unspoiled nature, these microstates are worth a visit.
Grenada
Grenada is a small country in the world. It is located on island of Caribbean, which is also known as The Island of Spice for several spices like cinnamon, ginger and rare nutmeg. Grenada relies on tourism. Its pristine beaches, warm turquoise water and unspoiled nature make it a wonderful holiday destination. Recently ecotourism has been growing as well.
San Marino
Located within Italy and surrounded by the Apennine Mountains. San Marino is visited by approximately 2 million tourists annually. It’s a beautiful country, which also claims to be the oldest surviving state in the world! Therefore its cultural and historic heritage is undoubtedly fascinating. Although very small, the microstate has a lot of architectural attractions as well as the Romagna, which is loved by Italians, who are among the main guests here.
Maldives
Maldives is located on the bank of Indian Ocean. Maldives has a range of different habitats including deep sea, shallow coast, and reef ecosystems, fringing mangroves, wetlands and dry lands. Visitors to the Maldives do not need to apply for a pre-arrival visa, regardless of their country of origin, provided they have a valid passport, proof of onward travel, and the money to be self-sufficient while in the country.
Andorra
It’s a picturesque microstate found in the Pyrenees Mountains, bordering Spain and France. Over 10 million tourists visit Andorra every year! Unlike the neighboring countries’ high prices, the country has a duty-free policy, allowing shoppers to enjoy lower costs. Also there are winter and summer resorts, so you can visit anytime.
1.Who might be interested in Grenada?
A. Architects. B. Spice lovers.
C. Historians. D. Mountain climbers.
2.Which of the following is a good choice for people who like building design?
A. Maldives. B. San Marino.
C. Andorra. D. Grenada.
3.What is not required for a traveler to Maldives?
A. Money. B. A passport.
C. A visa. D. A return ticket.
4.What measure has Andorra taken to attract travelers?
A. Offering lower prices. B. Adopting visa-free policy.
C. Setting natural habits. D. Developing scenic spot.
