“Sorry seems to be the hardest word” - that is one of Elton John’s most popular songs.
But not every public figure seems to find it so tough to say that powerful five- letter word.
In recent days public figures, from politicians to stars, have all publicly expressed remorse. But with so much remorse, how can we tell a forced apology from a heartfelt expression of remorse?
Specifically, saying sorry should be a realization that something you have said or done has hurt someone and you want to make amends ( 弥 补 ). “People want the response to be personal to them. They want to feel that they’re being listened to and taken seriously,” says Martin Stone.
Firstly, it is important to show that you understand. It is vital that any group or person making an apology understand the focus - is it sorry for the way it’s acted or is it sorry that the complainant feels the way they do?
Watch out for the speed of response. The quicker the apology comes, the better it indicates that the person making it has felt an immediate sense of guilt.
If sincere, the person making the apology will be looking for clues (线索) to see if he or she is being understood, such as eye contact and facial expressions. Performed apologies always have a sense of being “acted out”, and are often accompanied by too many unnatural gestures.
For a sincere apology, it is also important to avoid promises that can’t be kept. Don’t say that you’ll make sure that this will not happen again if you’re not confident that it won’t. It could come back to bite you. And do remember that the use of “but” can hugely change the tone ( 语 气 ) of an apology. As Stone points out, “I’m sorry but …” sounds like you are making excuses and aren’t actually taking any form of responsibility.
1.What is the purpose of the text?
A.To teach us how to tell if an apology is sincere.
B.To discuss how to give a formal apology.
C.To show why we should apologize in life.
D.To explain what a good apology is.
2.What does the underlined word “remorse” probably mean?
A.Pain B.Regret C.Worry D.Doubt
3.Which of the following indicates it’s a “performed” apology?
A.Promising it won’t happen again.
B.Paying attention to the listener’s reaction.
C.Showing you understand his/her feelings.
D.Avoiding eye contact with the listener.
4.What is mainly talked about in the last paragraph?
A.The attitude B.The tone of voice
C.The choice of language D.The body language
Do you find getting up in the morning so difficult that it’s painful? This might be called laziness, but Dr. Kleitman has a new explanation. He has proved that everyone has a daily energy cycle.
During the hours when you labor through your work you may say that you’re “hot”. That’s true. The time of day when you feel most energetic is when your cycle of body temperature is at its peak. For some people the peak comes during the morning. For others it comes in the afternoon or evening. No one has discovered why this is so, but it leads to such familiar monologues(自言自语)as: “Get up, John! You’ll be late for work again!” The possible explanation to the trouble is that John is at his temperature-and-energy peak in the evening. Much family quarrelling ends when husbands and wives realize what these energy cycles mean, and which cycle each member of the family has. You can’t change your energy cycle, but you can learn to make your life fit it better. Habit can help, Dr. Kleitman believes. Maybe you’re sleepy in the evening but feel you must stay up late anyway. Counteract(对抗)your cycle to some extent by habitually staying up later than you want to. If our energy is low in the morning but you have an important job to do early in the day, rise before your usual hour. This won’t change your cycle, but you’ll get up steam (鼓起干劲)and work better at your low point.
Get off to a slow start which saves your energy. Get up with a leisurely yawn and stretch. Sit on the edge of the bed a minute before putting your feet on the floor. Avoid the troublesome search for clean clothes by laying them out the night before. Whenever possible, do routine work in the afternoon and save requiring more energy or concentration for your sharper hours.
1.If a person finds getting up early a problem, most probably _____.
A.he is a lazy person
B.he is at his peak in the afternoon or evening
C.he is not sure when his energy is low
D.he refuses to follow his own energy cycle
2.Which of the following may lead to family quarrels according to the passage?
A.A change in a family member’s energy cycle.
B.Familiar monologues.
C.Not understanding energy cycles.
D.Trying to control the energy cycle of other family members.
3.You are advised to rise with a yawn and stretch because it will _____.
A.keep your energy cycle under control all day
B.help you to control your temper early in the day
C.enable you to concentrate on your routine work
D.help to keep your energy for the day’s work
People travel for a lot of reasons. Some tourists go to see battlefields or religious shrines ( 宗教圣殿). Others are looking for culture, or simply want to have their pictures taken in front of famous places. But most European tourists are looking for a sunny beach to lie on.
Northern Europeans are willing to pay a lot of money and put up with a lot of inconveniences for the sun because they have so little of it. Residents (居民) of cities like London, Copenhagen, and Amsterdam spend a lot of their winter in the dark because the days are so short, and much of the rest of the year in the rain. This is the reason the Mediterranean has always attracted them. Every summer, more than 25 million people travel to Mediterranean resorts and beaches for their vacation. They all come for the same reason: sun!
The huge crowds mean lots of money for the economies of Mediterranean countries. Italy’s 30,000 hotels are booked solid ( 全部客满) every summer. And 13 million people camp out on French beaches, parks, and roadsides. Spain’s long sandy coastline attracts more people than anywhere else. 37 million tourists visit yearly, or one tourist for every person living in Spain.
But there are signs that the area is getting more tourism than it can handle. The Mediterranean is already one of the most polluted seas on earth. And with increased tourism, it’s getting worse. The French can’t figure out what to do with all the garbage left by campers around St. Tropez. And in many places, swimming is dangerous because of pollution.
None of this, however, is spoiling anyone’s fun. The Mediterranean gets more popular every year with tourists. Obviously, they don’t go there for clean water and solitude (清净自在). They tolerate traffic jams and seem to like crowded beaches. They don’t even mind the pollution. No matter how dirty the water is, the coastline still looks beautiful. And as long as the sun shines, it’s still better than sitting in the cold rain in Berlin, London, or Oslo.
1.The writer seems to imply that Europeans travel mostly for the reason that _____.
A.they want to see historic remains or religious spots
B.they are interested in different cultural traditions and social customs
C.they wish to escape from the cold, dark and rainy days back at home
D.they would like to take pictures in front of famous sites
2.In paragraph 2, cities like London, Copenhagen, and Amsterdam are mentioned _____.
A.to tell us how wealthy their residents are
B.to show that they are not good cities in terms of geography and climate
C.to suggest that these cities lack places of historic interest and scenic beauty
D.to prove that they have got more tourism than they can handle
3.The latter half of the last sentence in Paragraph 3, “or one tourist for every person living in Spain” means _____.
A.all the 37 million people living in Spain are tourists
B.every Spanish is visited by a tourist every year
C.every person living in Spain has to take care of a tourist
D.every year almost as many tourists visit Spain as there are people living in that country
4.According to the passage, which of the following factors might spoil the tourists’ fun at Mediterranean resorts and beaches?
A.Rainy weather B.Polluted water C.Traffic jams D.Crowded buses
It’s 2035. You have a job, a family and you're about 40 years old! Welcome to your future life.
Getting ready for work, you pause in front of the mirror.
“Turn red,” you say. Your shirt changes from sky blue to deep red. Tiny preprogrammed electronics( 智能电子元件)are rear-ranged in your shirt to change its color. Looking into the mirror you find it hard to believe you’re 40. You look much younger.
With amazing advances in medicine, people in your generation may live to be 150 years old. You’re not even middle-aged! As you go into the kitchen and prepare to pour your breakfast cereal into a bowl, you hear, “To lose weight, you shouldn’t eat that.” from your shoes. They read the tiny electronic code( 电子源码)on the cereal box to find out the nutrition details. You decide to listen to your shoes. “Kitchen, what can I have for breakfast?” A list of possible foods appears on the counter as the kitchen checks its food supplies.
“Ready for your trip to space?” you ask your son and daughter. In 2005 only specially trained astronauts went into space and very few of them. Today anyone can go to space for day trips or longer vacations. Your best friend even works in space. Handing your children three strawberries each, you add, “The doctor said you need these for space travel. “ Thanks to medical advances, vaccination shots(防疫针)are a thing of the past. Ordinary foods contain specific vaccines. With the berries in their mouths, the kids head for the front door.
It’s time for you to go to work. Your car checks your fingerprints and unlocks the doors. “My office. Autopilot! “ you command. Your car drives itself down the road and moves smoothly into traffic on the highway. You sit back and unroll your e-newspaper. The latest news downloads and fills the viewer. Looking through the pages, you watch the news as video films rather than read it.
1.What changes the color of your shirt?
A.The mirror B.The medicine C.The counter D.The shirt itself
2.How do the shoes know that you shouldn’t eat the breakfast cereal?
A.By pouring the breakfast into a bowl
B.By checking the nutrition details of the food
C.By testing the food supplies in the kitchen
D.By listening to the doctor's advice
3.The strawberries the children eat serve as _____.
A.vaccines B.lunch C.breakfast D.nutrition
4.How is the text organized?
A.In order of preference
B.In order of appearance
C.In order of time
D.In order of importance
When I was 17, I read a quote that went something like: “If you live each day as if it were your last, someday you’ll most certainly be right.” It made a deep_______on me. And since then, for the past 33 years, I have_______in the mirror every morning and asked myself, “If today were the last day of my life,_______I want to do what I am about to do today?” And whenever the answer has been “No” for too many days in a _______, I know I need to change something.
Remembering that I’ll be_______soon is the most important tool I’ve ever known to help me make the big_______in life because almost everything falls away in the face of death,_______only what is truly important.
About a year ago I was_______with cancer. My doctor even advised me to go home and get my affairs _______order, which is a doctor’s way of telling people to prepare to die. I________ with that diagnosis all day.________, at last an advanced test showed that it was a very rare cancer that is________with surgery. I had the surgery and I’m fine now.
________wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don’t want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all________. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because death is very likely the single best invention of________. It is life’s change agent. It clears out the old to ________ for the new. Right now the new is you, but someday not too ________ from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true.
Your time is________, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be ________by dogma( 教条)---which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner________. And most importantly, have the courage to follow your heart.
1.A.statement B.impression C.decision D.joke
2.A.looked B.seen C.found D.lost
3.A.might B.should C.would D.could
4.A.row B.line C.moment D.hurry
5.A.successful B.dead C.rich D.frustrated
6.A.apology B.fortune C.choice D.impression
7.A.proving B.telling C.confirming D.leaving
8.A.cured B.diagnosed C.treated D.provided
9.A.in B.for C.on D.at
10.A.met B.got C.did D.lived
11.A.So B.But C.Therefore D.However
12.A.incurable B.uncomfortable C.curable D.changeable
13.A.Anyone B.No one C.Someone D.everyone
14.A.share B.avoid C.want D.escape
15.A.disease B.destination C.science D.life
16.A.make way B.make for C.make out D.make up
17.A.distant B.short C.long D.away
18.A.lost B.rare C.enough D.limited
19.A.wasted B.cheated C.trapped D.excited
20.A.love B.voice C.direction D.confusion
We drove round the nature reserve, which was a wide area, with many wild creatures _____ in it.
A.lived B.live C.living D.to live
