Directions: Read the following passage. Summarize the main idea and the main point(s) of the passage in no more than 60 words. Use your own words as far as possible.
Most of us — even those at the top — struggle with public-speaking anxiety. When I ask my clients what makes them nervous, invariably they respond with the same answers: “I don’t like being watched”, “I don’t like the eyes on me” or “I don’t like being in the spotlight”.
To understand why, we need to go way back to prehistoric times, when humans regarded eyes watching us as an existential threat. Those eyes were likely predators (肉食动物) and people were terrified of being eaten alive. The bad news is that our brains have transferred the ancient fear of being watched into public speaking. In other words, public-speaking anxiety is in our DNA.
Fortunately, there is a solution: human generosity. The key to disarming our panic button is to turn the focus away from ourselves and toward helping the audience. Studies have shown that an increase in generosity indeed leads to a decrease in amygdala (扁桃腺) activity, which is responsible for our panic feeling in the brain. When we are kind to others, we overcome the sense of being under attack and start to feel less nervous.
Admittedly, this is hard to do. But it’s absolutely possible to become a generous speaker. To begin with, when you start preparing for a presentation, the mistake you often make is starting with the topic. Instead, you should start with the audience. Identify the audience’s needs, and craft a message that speaks directly to those needs. Also, you are the most nervous right before you speak. This is the moment when your brain is telling you, “Everyone is judging me.” But it is exactly the moment when you should refocus your brain. Over time, your brain will begin to get it, and you will become less nervous.
Directions: Read the following passage. Fill in each blank with a proper sentence given in the box. Each sentence can be used only once. Note that there are two more sentences than you need.
South Africa still has a long way to go on the right to food
Fifty-four percent of South Africans are hungry or at risk of hunger. Hunger affects people’s health, as well as their ability to live full and productive lives because the rights to dignity, health and education are affected by hunger.
1. There are significant race, class and gender differences. For example, black South Africans are 22 times more likely to be food insecure compared with white South Africans. Food insecurity is defined as not having physical, social and economic access to sufficient, safe, and nutritious food that meets dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life.
This unequal distribution indicates a situation of severe food injustice in South Africa. Yet from the research with urban farmers it’s clear that people do not know of the right to food, and don’t see unequal access to nutritious food as an injustice. 2.While there are frequent protests around access to jobs, education, housing, water and electricity, we rarely, if ever, see protests about access to food.
One of the drivers of unequal access to food is the way in which the industrial food system works. For example, a few large companies dominate each aspect of the food value chain. 3. Because the large companies dominate the supply chain, they are able to maximize profits at the expense of small-scale producers, to whom they pay very low prices.
4.It needs to ensure that marginalized producers, processors and retailers have an opportunity to earn a decent living. At the same time corporate dominance needs to be addressed.
Anyway, at the most basic level, it requires that South Africans know they have a right to food in the first place.
A. As a result, questions of hunger are largely absent in South African politics.
B. Handling food injustice requires a transformation of the undesirable structure of the food system.
C. Therefore, the government has put forward numerous food and nutrition security programs to fight against hunger.
D. This means that smaller scale producers, processors and retailers are squeezed out.
E. Hunger, lack of nutrition and related illnesses are not equally spread.
F. There are international examples of governments taking their obligations seriously with regard to the right to food.
A tiny clue found in ancient deposits has unlocked big secrets about Greenland’s past and future climate. Just beyond the northwest edge of the vast Greenland Ice Sheet, researchers have discovered lake mud that have survived the last ice age. The mud, and remains of common flies in it, record two interglacial periods（间冰期）in northwest Greenland.
Although researchers have long known these two periods—the early Holocene and Last Interglacial—experienced warming in the Arctic, the mix of fly species shows that Greenland was even warmer than previously thought. “As far as we know, it has never been found in Greenland. We think this is the first time anyone has reported it in ancient deposits or modern lakes there,” Axford said. “We were really surprised to see how far north it migrated (迁徙).”
This new information could help researchers better measure Greenland’s sensitivity to warming, by testing and improving models of climate and ice sheet behaviour. Those models could then improve predictions of how Greenland’s ice sheet might respond to man-made global warming. After all, Greenland covers 80 per cent of the Arctic country and holds enough ice to equal 20 feet of global sea level. “Northwest Greenland might feel really remote, but what happens to that ice sheet is going to matter to everyone in every coastal city around the world,” said Yarrow Axford, an associate professor in the team. “One of the big uncertainties in climate science is how fast the Earth changes when it gets warmer. Geology gives us an opportunity to see what happened when the Earth was warmer than today,” said Axford.
People might be surprised to see how today’s Greenland looked during the last two interglacial periods. During the Last Interglacial, global sea levels increased by 15 to 30 feet, largely due to thinning of Greenland and Antarctica’s ice sheets. However, now researchers believe northern Greenland’s ice sheet experienced stronger warming than previously thought, which could mean that Greenland is more responsible for that sea-level rise.
Finding lake deposits older than about 10,000 years, however, has been historically very difficult in Greenland. To measure these ancient temperatures, researchers look to ice cores (冰核) and lake deposits. Since ice and lake deposits form by a gradual buildup on annual layers of snow or mud, these cores contain history of the past. By looking through the layers, researchers can obtain climate clues from centuries ago.
1.Why are the remains of flies mentioned in the first two paragraphs?
A.They serve as evidence that there is still life in the Northwest Greenland.
B.They were one of the many ancient lives that were left in the Greenland mud.
C.They are indicators that Greenland was much warmer than previously thought.
D.They help the researchers realize that there was once a warm period in the Arctic.
2.The new information about Greenland is important because______________.
A.researchers have no idea how to measure Greenland’s warming speed
B.it can help researchers better predict Greenland’s response to warming
C.people should be more sensitive to the changes in the ice in Greenland
D.it is uncertain how fast the Earth changes with man-made global warming
3.Which of the following can be inferred from the passage?
A.It is easier for today’s scientists to find ancient lake deposits.
B.People are surprised at the landscape feature of Greenland today.
C.Researchers measure the changing temperatures by directly examining mud.
D.Greenland holds enough ice that might one day threaten life in coastal cities.
4.Which do you think is the best title of the passage?
A.Greenland Used to Be Much Greener
B.Earth Once Experienced Warm Periods
C.Coastal Cities Warned of Coming Disasters
D.Northwest Greenland, A Perfect Destination
Taking your pulse during physical activity allows you to measure how hard you are exercising. You should exercise to stay within your target heart range.
Increasing your heart rate is a key part of exercise, but it is important that your heart rate is not too high or too low. If you are a beginner, you should also be able to breathe comfortably while exercising. This will ensure that you are exercising at a level that is safe and effective for your body.
The chart below illustrates target heart rate ranges for exercise based on the maximal heart rate for selected ages. Here are the steps for using the chart:
1.Which of the following is TRUE?
A.Exercise intensity can be reflected by a person’s heart rate.
B.The faster your heart rate is, the more effective the exercise is.
C.Vigorous exercise will definitely present a threat to people’s safety.
D.The target exercise heart rate range for a 45-year-old is 90–149 BPM.
2.A 34-year-old man is running and the number of pulses he takes for 15 seconds is 40.
His fitness coach had better tell him _____________.
A.“You are doing fine.” B.“You can run faster.”
C.“You should slow down a bit.” D.“You should drink some water.”
3.What is the purpose of this passage?
A.To advise people to form a habit of taking their pulses while exercising.
B.To inform people of the target heart rate zone for those aged 60 and under.
C.To tell people the importance of maintaining moderate amount of exercise.
D.To show people how to measure heart rate to keep proper exercise intensity.
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
