When she was ten years old, Isadora Duncan dropped out of school to teach people dance. If that job was left to any other ten-year-old, it would have turned out frustrating, difficult, and a little discouraging.
But Duncan was different. Not only was she already talented enough to earn money even at that age, but she also had a rare kind of confidence that helped her treat troubles as fuel —something to elevate the fire that is already burning inside of her.
It’s no surprise, then, that when she moved to New York to join a theatre company, she found herself restricted. The existing dancing style, their way of operating—all of this seemed to her the work of a misguided past. Duncan was very direct about what she wanted, confidently telling people she had a different vision of dance that she was going to spread in the world. This, naturally, led to ridicule and laughs early on, but as she built up her work, these instances became less frequent. Today, she is remembered as “The Mother of Dance,” with much of the modern art owing its expressive style to her influence. Inspired by the ancient Greeks, she brought the style to life.
In her autobiography (自传), one of the things Duncan frequently refers to as the basis of her expressive spirit is the fact that she had a childhood where she wasn’t constantly watched. The expectations of her mother (who raised her) were open-ended. It was the freedom of this lifestyle that drove her to see what she could do.
Growing up, before she left school, she was told one of two things: that she was either completely useless or that she was a genius. There was nothing in between. Even when she started working, people either bowed to her or they basically ignored her. But there wasn’t one moment Duncan doubted her own genius.
There is an old quotation “if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.” And it captures an important truth. At school, Isadora Duncan was a failure. In the dance hall, she gave form to brilliance.
1.What does the underlined phrase “treat troubles as fuel” mean?
A.Duncan used troubles to push her forward towards her dream.
B.Duncan was good at burning away everyday troubles.
C.Troubles turned Duncan into a confident girl.
D.Troubles lit the fire of dancing in Duncan.
2.Which of the following is TRUE about Duncan?
A.Her experience in New York was the foundation of her career.
B.Her teaching job when she was little destroyed her confidence.
C.Her dancing style was not very well received at the beginning.
D.Her mother set higher expectation on her than she could bear.
3.What does the author try to tell the readers in the last paragraph?
A.It is useless climbing a tree to catch fish.
B.Everybody is a genius in his own way.
C.Miseries come from human stupidity.
D.Teachers can impact students greatly.
4.What is this passage mainly about?
A.Isadora Duncan’s childhood and her achievements today.
B.Duncan’s career development and other dancers’ opinions of her.
C.Isadora Duncan’s early experiences and the reasons for her success.
D.Duncan’s high status in the dancing world and her unique expressive style.
Researchers find that in new product design, connecting with users’ heart, rather than their head, can lead to more original and creative outcomes.
Developing original and _______ products is critical to a company’s long-term success. Thus, understanding what influences originality can have important and potentially _______ consequences for businesses. Ravi Mehta, a professor of business administration, shows that adopting a(n) _______ that imagines how the user would feel while using a product leads designers to experience greater empathy（同感）, which _______ creativity and, in turn, outcome originality for new product design.
There are two ways that the product designer can _______ the consumer’s product usage. One focuses on objective use of the product—how consumers might use the product, that is, an “objective –imagination” approach. The other focuses on feelings—how the product makes the consumer feel, a “feelings-imagination” approach.
Consumers always want to have new products that solve problems more efficiently and at a less cost. So product designers _______ this trap of being very objective in focusing on the use of a product. That’s important, but the _______ of usage can only attract consumers in some ways._______, the feelings-imagination approach leads designers to experience greater empathy, which makes them more _______ to the consumers’ ideas. This leads to greater outcome originality. Mehta said, “when you imagine consumers and focus on their feelings, that’s powerful and will lead to something much more innovative than only focusing on a product’s usage.” The research shows that a feelings-based approach is _______ to the commonly used objective-based approach, the researchers wrote. It not only helps product designers build a better product, but it also helps them create more innovative products.
The implications of the findings extend to everyday consumers, who now play a role in shaping companies’ design. Mehta said, “Marketers are increasingly _______ consumers for new product ideas.”_______, there was a very successful campaign a few years ago that focused on getting consumers to create a new potato chip flavor.
The experiments demonstrated a _______effect of adopting a feelings-imagination approach. That suggests that these designers may _______ imagining users’ feelings. In this way, designers can develop products that could _______ to the masses. Companies can easily adopt this process and promote feelings-imagination exercises through their websites or social media.
1.A.primary B.innovative C.natural D.domestic
2.A.temporary B.slight C.indefinite D.profitable
3.A.policy B.proposal C.approach D.standard
4.A.enhances B.exhibits C.illustrates D.explores
5.A.recommend B.extend C.exploit D.imagine
6.A.fall apart B.figure out C.fall into D.turn into
7.A.originality B.objectivity C.creativity D.flexibility
8.A.In conclusion B.In addition C.As a result D.By contrast
9.A.open B.harmful C.resistant D.equal
10.A.evident B.superior C.relevant D.alert
11.A.joining in B.applying to C.turning to D.taking in
12.A.In reality B.In other words C.What’s more D.For example
13.A.dramatic B.positive C.negative D.serious
14.A.depend on B.benefit from C.contribute to D.involve in
15.A.appeal B.refer C.adapt D.commit
Directions: After reading the passage below, fill in the blanks to make the passages coherent and grammatically correct. For the blanks with a given word, fill in each blank with the proper form of the given word; for the other blanks, use one word that best fits each blank.
This is where my kids grew up
For years now, I’ve been wanting to sell our home, the place where my husband and I raised our kids. But to me, this house is more than just a building. In the front room, there’s a wall that has hundreds of pencil lines. Every growth stage 1.(mark) in pencils, with each child’s name and the date.
Of all the objects and all the memories, it’s this one thing in a home that’s 2.(hard) to leave behind. Our kids grow in so many ways, but the wall is physical evidence of their progress. Friends I know have visited their previous home only 3.(discover) their wall of heights has been freshly painted over. Over the years, I’ve talked about how much I would hate leaving that wall behind when I moved, 4. the last marks were made 10 years ago when my kids stopped growing. So one day, while I was at work, my children decided to do 5. about it.
They hired Jacquie Manning, a professional photographer 6. work is about capturing the beautiful things in life. She came to our house while I was at work, and over several hours, 7.(take) photos of the hundreds of drawings and lines, little grey fingerprints, and old marks. Somehow, she managed to photograph 8. we had experienced in all those years. Afterwards, she put all the photos together into one image, 9.(transform) them into a beautiful history of my family.
Three weeks later, my children’s wonderful gift made its way to me —10. life-size photo of the pencil lines and fingerprints that represents entire lifetimes of love and growth.
语法填空
The day that you all the 1. (satisfy) of having all the housework 2. (do) by a robot might still be a few decades off. But increasingly engineers are saying that 3. (robot) are going to make the leap from the factory floor to your family room.
Bill Gates once predicted the “Dawn of the Age of Robots”. What’s behind this new era? It’s 4. (part) a matter of technology. Devices that can recognize and respond to a human voice have been developed. There are now a few different ways for robots 5. (move) around. They can walk, crawl or ride on wheels. They are being made smaller these days and also becoming 6. (efficient).
A bigger part of the story depends 7. the consumers. People around the world have tirelessly searched for ways to get lazier since the 1950s 8. the television remote control was invented. Also considering the increasing wealth of people, engineers believe the opportunity 9. (appear) ripe to introduce robots to ease our daily lives. Robots will do most of the basic housework 10. just help you have more fun on the basketball court.
In a new study conducted by the University of Virginia's Claire Cameron Ponitz and Oregon State University's Megan McClelland, the researchers found that kindergartners who had high levels of "self-regulation" in the fall did better in tests of reading, vocabulary, and math in the spring than those with low levels of self- regulation.
Dr Ponitz has pointed that the ability to control and direct one's own feelings, thoughts, and actions is self-regulation. It can be as simple as a child raising his hand when he wants to ask a question in class, or as complex as a child controlling his feelings when he's disappointed or angry.
While the self-regulation ability has long been considered an essential part of a child's healthy emotional development, self-regulation is increasingly being seen as a good predictor of a child's academic success. According to Dr McClelland, a number of studies have found that self-regulation largely predicts literacy（读写能力）outcomes in children. In their research, McClelland and Ponitz found that aspects of self-regulation not only predicted literacy outcomes in the preschool and elementary school, but also predicted the gains in literacy children made during that time.
Good self-regulation skills are also important to a child's social development." Self-regulation helps children succeed in the classroom environment, McClelland says. "The children who can successfully handle these learning environments have better relationships with their teachers, are more liked by their classmates, and do better academically. They are also more motivated to achieve because of these skills. "
The good news for parents and educators is that easy ways to help children develop self- regulation skills may be as close as possible to the local playground. Both Ponitz and McClelland suggest that class games where children must follow directions and wait to take turns should be particularly suited for the development of self -regulation.
1.According to Dr Ponitz, what's self-regulation?
A.It's the skills in passing reading, vocabulary and math tests.
B.It's the ability to control and direct one's own feelings, thoughts and actions.
C.It's the ability to handle the learning environment successfully.
D.: It's the short-term gain in one's academic success.
2.Good self-regulation skills are important to a child in the following aspects except .
A.his emotional development
B.his academic success
C.his social development
D.his class games
3.To develop self- regulation, what can children do?
A.They can take part in class games.
B.They can take some courses.
C.They can be taught by their parents.
D.They can follow their teachers directions.
4.What's the passage mainly about?
A.How to develop children's self-regulation skills.
B.The importance of self- regulation for academic success.
C.The importance of self-regulation for kindergartners.
D.How to be successful students.
This is really simple but I was caught off guard and it was a really nice change.
As my son and I were_______a local restaurant today, I_______the door for several older couples going in and out. Just as I was about to let it go, I saw someone_______around the corner so I waited. She saw my little boy was outside of this little entry way and told me to go first. I told her to_______because I wasn't in any_______—we were on vacation. After all, we'd had our lunch.
I've held doors_____I was a kid because that's what my mother taught me and now I just do it out of_______.Maybe half of all people will say thanks,_______guys, but most girls (except the older generation) just blow past like the world_______them something or whatever excuse they make for ignoring that________.
This girl,________, put on a big smile, saying "Thank you". It was a really________thing she did, and she probably didn't even________how much it meant. I could________she genuinely appreciated it.
It wasn't until she was in the________and walking past that I found she was a beautiful girl and dressed really well, so I was not the________person to hold a door for her. I just got back from Florida, was________and untidy and didn't even shower yet. I was 99% sure that her saying" Thank you" had nothing to do with________. I could only think she was actually________.
Anyway, this probably wouldn't________ anything to most people but I appreciated her genuine appreciation.
1.A.running B.leaving C.entering D.visiting
2.A.closed B.answered C.held D.cleaned
3.A.playing B.wandering C.talking D.coming
4.A.go ahead B.keep up C.get over D.carry on
5.A.trouble B.danger C.hurry D.pain
6.A.since B.unless C.before D.when
7.A.necessity B.interest C.regret D.respect
8.A.hopefully B.especially C.actually D.surely
9.A.owes B.gives C.borrows D.presents
10.A.reason B.suggestion C.gesture D.message
11.A.therefore B.besides C.however D.otherwise
12.A.tiny B.great C.amusing D.messy
13.A.doubt B.realize C.consider D.show
14.A.expect B.guess C.imagine D.tell
15.A.restaurant B.corner C.doorway D.room
16.A.first B.right C.best D.polite
17.A.hungry B.helpful C.dirty D.impatient
18.A.responsibility B.attraction C.appreciation D.behavior
19.A.talented B.thankful C.honest D.innocent
20.A.cost B.change C.save D.mean
