阅读下面材料，在空白处填入适当的内容（1个单词）或括号内单词的正确形式。
Chinese high-speed railways are a very. 1. (comfort) way to travel. They are clean, quiet and efficient. China has led other developing countries and even some developed ones in this field since the first high-speed train 2. (come) into use in 2008.
The stations are 3. (main) built outside the town center, but local transport has been lengthened 4. (connect) the high-speed network. The facilities on the train are new and the staff are well trained. Even the second class 5. (chair) provide plenty of space. The passages are so wide 6. you can move without disturbing anyone. You can use your mobile phone, access 7. Internet or work on your laptop. There is also a restaurant car, though the kinds of food 8. (be) limited. The toilets arc large, clean and user-friendly too. The train almost doesn’t rock. Even when the train brakes, you can hardly feel it shake.
What’s more, with a faster check-in, the high-speed train are also 9. (little) affected by weather than planes, Seldom are 10. delayed or cancelled for weather condition. Therefore, they have become the first choice for many passengers.
Being jobless for the last three months, I am upset nowadays. My son has lost his ______ from a good school and he might have to go to a less qualified school. I have moved from a spacious (宽敞的) apartment to a small one in order to ______ my living expenses. My wife has built extra stress. On top of that, my father in-law ______ a week ago, which has added fuel to fire, ______ our family into a more terrible state.
In these circumstances I have two mental ______: either to feel upset and keep losing my peace of mind, or ______ my negative thoughts with super mental powers about self-confidence and consistency, and ______ applying for new jobs with positive attitude.
I choose the second option because I believe that the pain I am ______ today will build up my ______ . My strengths will then increases my confidence and make me a good times make me a ______ man one day. I understand that good and bad stages are part of ______ . While good times make me happy, bad times ______ the ‘inner’ me.
Two months later, ______ , I have finally landed on a job which is very exciting and offers a nice salary. Time has healed my wife’s mental stress ______ the death of her father. My son has already been accepted by another good school because the admissions for new academic year were still ______ !
As I am back on the track of normal life, I can ______ say that the most important things that helped me ______ the crisis (危机) were my consistent character of patience, and ______ attitude towards life. So, while I wish you all the best life can ______ you, I would highly recommend taking the same attitude towards life ______ you are trapped in any of such situations.
1.A. admission B. benefit C. diploma D. permission
2.A. share B. reduce C. break D. raise
3.A. showed up B. set off C. fell down D. passed away
4.A. putting B. finding C. forming D. lifting
5.A. problems B. concerns C. choices D. activities
6.A. link B. replace C. mix D. exchange
7.A. regret B. stop C. keep D. risk
8.A. practicing B. suffering C. producing D. relieving
9.A. intelligence B. body C. character D. reputation
10.A. carful B. hard-working C. easy-going D. successful
11.A. life B. wealth C. time D. health
12.A. hide B. destroy C. strengthen D. kill
13.A. desperately B. unwillingly C. hopefully D. fortunately
14.A. regardless of B. due to C. instead of D. apart from
15.A. occupied B. empty C. open D. closed
16.A. disappointedly B. surprisedly C. deliberately D. confidently
17.A. fight B. meet C. change D. delay
18.A. general B. positive C. friendly D. honest
19.A. offer B. expect C. manage D. send
20.A. as if B. in that C. now that D. in case
In a study recently published in the journal Neuron, researchers found that super memorizers don’t have unusually large brain regions that allow them to remember a lot of information. 1. Here are a few of their favorite tricks that can help you to remember things in your everyday life.
To Remember: New words
Technique: Change routine
In a study, a group of students studied a list of words in two separate sessions. Some studied in a messy room ant some in a neat space. One group of students spent both sessions in the same room, while the other split the sessions between the two environments. During a test, the students who studied in multiple places remembered much more. 2. That includes the time of day, the music in the background, whether you sit or stand, etc.
To Remember: Your PIN
Technique: Count it out
You could use your birthday, or your phone number, but identity thieves have a way of figuring those numbers out. 3. Write a four- wort sentence. Then count the number of letters in each word. For instance, “This is my PIN” =4223.
To Remember: Faces
Technique: Focus on noses
White some super memorizes specialize in associating names with faces, the memory-palace technique doesn’t work as well if the image of the face is changed in any way. Rather than focusing on eyes, as most people do, focus on the centre or to the left of a person’s nose. 4.
To Remember: Facts & figures
Technique: 5.
To learn and remember statistics, reviewing the material repeatedly over a longer time is far more effective than repeating it in a shorter one. If your exam is in a week, study today and then again in a day or two. If it’s a month away, study today and then wait a week before your second session.
A. value exams
B. Give yourself time
C. This allows you to take in their whole face.
D. Their brain structures are in fact the same as the rest of ours.
E. Instead, try this tip from Dominic, an eight-time World Memory Champion.
F. The theory is that your brain links the words to the environment around you.
G. Studies showed that varying other aspects of your environment can also help.
Rich as a King
William 1, who conquered England some 930 years ago, had wealth, power and an army. Yet although William was very rich by the standard of his time, he had nothing like a flush toilet (抽水马桶), paper towels, or riding lawn mower (除草机). How did he get by?
History books are filled with wealthy people who were poor compared to me. I have storm windows, Croesus did not. Entire nations trembled before Alexander the Great, but he couldn’t buy cat food. Czar Nicholas lacked an electric saw.
Given how much better off I am than so many famous dead people, you’d think I’d be content. The trouble is that, like most people, I compare my wealth with that of living person: neighbors, school classmates, famous TV people. The greed I feel toward my friend Howard’s new kitchen is not reduced by the fact that no kings ever had a refrigerator with glass doors,
There is really no rising or falling standard of living. Over the centuries people simply find different things to feel sad about. You’d think that simply not having disease would put us in a good mood, but no we want a hot bath too.
Of course, one way to achieve happiness would be to realize that even by today’s standards the things I own are pretty nice. My house is smaller than the houses of many investment bankers, but even so it has a lot more rooms than my wife and I can keep clean.
Besides, to people looking back at our era from a century or two in the future, these bankers’ fancy counter tops and my awn worn Formica will seem equally shabby, I can’t keep up with my neighbors right now. But just wait.
1.What docs the underlined phrase “get by” in the first paragraph mean?
A. Succeed as a king.
B. Deal with complains.
C. Get some extra money.
D. Live in a satisfactory way.
2.How many historical figures are mentioned to compare lives in the past and present?
A. 3. B. 4.
C. 5. D. 6.
3.According to the passage, the author intends to .
A. tell us to be content with life
B. warn us to live in a simple way
C. leach us to learn lessons from life
D. encourage us lo struggle for wealth
4.What’s the author’s attitude towards life?
A. Doubtful. B. Optimistic.
C. Uncaring. D. Cautions.
It is generally acknowledged that young people from poorer socio-economic backgrounds tend to do fess well in the education system. In an attempt to help the children of poor families, a nationwide program called “Headstart” was started in the US in 1965. A lot of money was poured into it. It Look children into pre-school institutions at the age of three and was supposed to help them succeed in school. But the results have been disappointing because the program began too late. Many children who entered it at three were already behind their peers in language and intelligence and the parents were not involved in the process. At the end of each day, “Headstart” children returned to the same disadvantaged home environment.
To improve the results, another program was started in Missouri that concentrated on parents as the child’s first teachers. This program was based on research showing that working with the family is the most effective way of helping children get the best possible start in life. The four-year study included 380 families who were about to have their first child and represented different socio-economic status, age and family structure. The program involved trained educators visiting and working with the parent or parents and the child. The program also gave the parents some guidance, and useful skills on child development.
At three, the children involved in the “Missouri” program were evaluated with the children selected from the same socio-economic backgrounds and family situations. The results were obvious. The children in the program were more advanced in language development, problem solving and other intellectual skills than their peers. They performed equally well regardless of socio-economic backgrounds or family structure. The one factor that was found to affect the child’s development was the poor quality of parent-child interaction. That interaction was not necessarily bad in poorer families.
The “Missouri” program compares quite distinctly with the “Headstart” program. Without a similar focus of parent education and on the vital importance of the first three years, some evidence indicates that it will not be enough to overcome education unfairness.
1.What caused the failure of the “Headstart” program?
A. The large number of poor families.
B. The disapproval from children.
C. The late start of the program.
D. The long period of time.
2.What do we know about the “Missouri” program?
A. It focused on the children’s first school teachers.
B. It helped the children return to the same home.
C. It made the children improved in many aspects.
D. It gave the parents advice on their development.
3.According to the passage, what is likely to influence children s performance?
A. The number of family members.
B. The teacher-student relationship.
C. The intelligence of their parents.
D. The parent-child communication.
4.How does the author develop the passage?
A. By listing figures. B. By making comparisons.
C. Ry presenting ideas. D. By drawing conclusions.
Emilia Dobek traces her interest in space and the universe back to third grade when she and her father watched a blood moon---a total lunar eclipse (月蚀)---on the roof of their house.
Now a seventh-grader at East Prairie Elementary School, Dobek recently won the national Discovery Education Lockheed-Martin Beyond Challenge by designing a space station for travelling to Mars.
She says that night watching the lunar eclipse started a strong desire in her that has yet to run out of fuel. So when her teacher Andrea Smeeton received information about the national challenge, Smeeton said she immediately had one student in mind.
“I knew she would love the challenge and that she would go way beyond in her search,” Smeeton said. “She immediately started researching bone density (密度) of astronauts and how to have food on Mars.”
“My design will ensure the safety of the astronauts but also make sure their comfort is out of this world,” Dobek says.
Dobek’s design calls for building the MSS or Mars Storage Station to put the supplies in. It also includes the SGF or Self-Crowing Farm, and she details how it would work with the elements on Mars.
Then there is physical and leisure activity for the astronauts under Dobek’s design. A simulation (模拟装置) allows astronauts to choose their exercise machine and virtual (虚拟的) reality environment. Rooms have circular ceilings so astronauts will be able to watch downloaded shows and even see places on Earth, such as their homes.
“I want to tell other kids to follow their passions.” Dobek said. “Whatever they want to do they should push for it and always try their best.”
1.Dobek first became interested in apace when .
A. she was still a seventh-grader
B. she studied at a junior high school
C. she lived on the top of their house
D. she watched an eclipse of the moon
2.Smeeton recommended that Dobek take the challenge because .
A. she knew Dobek liked challenges in life
B. she had no other students interested in Mars
C. Dobek knew how to research bone density of astronauts
D. she was sure that Dobek would have outstanding performance
3.What does Dobek focus on when designing the space station?
A. The environment on Mars.
B. The safety of the supplies.
C. The activities for astronauts.
D. The comfort of the astronauts.
