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。
I have a successful career as an educational consultant. But my life wasn’t always so great. I had a learning disability from 1.early age and suffered a lot in public schools.
My life improved 2.(surprising) when I discovered art. The art world gave me a chance to express myself without words. I went to a workshop and gradually got good at 3.(produce) things with clay. Here I learned my first important lesson: 4.I was disabled in language, I could still be smart and well express myself with clay. And my confidence came along.
I got my next lesson from rock climbing. It was a fun thing but I was scared from the 5. (begin). I soon noticed it wasn’t a talent thing; it was practice. So I did it more. After about five years of climbing, I 6.(find) myself in Yosemite Valley on a big wall. I learned that if you love something and do it all the time, you will get much 7.(good) at it.
Later I practiced reading and writing every day,8.I used to avoid as much as possible. After two hard years, I was literate (能读会写的).
After I 9.(go) through the long process over the years, now I’ve got to a point in my life where I know I’m smart enough 10.(dive) into an area that is totally unknown, hard, but interesting.
How did you do it, Dad? How have you managed not to take a drink for almost 20 years? It took me almost 20 years to have the ___to even ask my father this very personal question. When Dad first ___drinking, the whole family was on pins and needles every time he got into a ____ that, in the past, would have started him ___again.For a few years we were afraid to bring it up ___this addiction would begin again.
“I had this little poem that I would ___to myself at least four to five times a day,”was Dad’s reply to my 18-year-old unasked question.“The words were a constant ___to me that things were ____so hard that I could not deal with them,”Dad said. Then he ___the poem with me. The poem’s ____, yet profound words immediately became ___of my daily routine as well.
About a month after this ____with my father, I received a gift in the mail from a friend of mine. It was a ___of daily sayings of wisdom with one listed for each day of the year.
It has been my ___that when you get something with days of the year on it, you naturally turn to the page that lists your own ____.
I ___opened the book to April 17 to see ____words of wisdom this book had in store for me. I was ____when I looked at the page, and then ____of disbelief and appreciation rolled down my cheek. There, on my birthday, was the very poem that had _____my father for all these years! It is called the Serenity (平静的心) Prayer.
God grant me
The serenity to accept the things I cannot change; the courage to change the things I can; and the wisdom to know the difference.
1.A.opportunity B.courage C.desire D.interest
2.A.gave up B.took up C.went on D.held on
3.A.company B.habit C.situation D.group
4.A.working B.disappearing C.smoking D.drinking
5.A.even though B.for fear that C.as far as D.as long as
6.A.recite B.write C.send D.introduce
7.A.challenge B.pressure C.warning D.reminder
8.A.never B.even C.always D.still
9.A.discussed B.shared C.analysed D.polished
10.A.extraordinary B.well-written C.simple D.moving
11.A.all B.that C.none D.part
12.A.conversation B.conflict C.argument D.lesson
13.A.number B.book C.pack D.calendar
14.A.habit B.practice C.experience D.advice
15.A.favorite B.birthday C.schedule D.vacations
16.A.hesitatingly B.precisely C.suddenly D.hurriedly
17.A.where B.whether C.what D.how
18.A.astonished B.delighted C.confused D.relieved
19.A.eyesight B.feelings C.tears D.looks
20.A.troubled B.attracted C.pleased D.benefited
It’s easy to make a fitness decision on New Year’s Eve. 1. According to a recent study, 60 percent of people give up on their decision by February. However, you can increase your chances of success with these stick-with-it strategies (策略).
●Start by asking yourself,“Why?”
A fitness decision is rarely about fitness. It’s important to ask yourself why this fitness decision is important to you on a deeper level. 2. Discover exactly what that something is and use it to push yourself to keep going when you feel like giving up.
●3.
You’re far more likely to stick to your goal if you make it as specific as possible. Determine exactly what you’re going to do and when you’re going to achieve it. Deadline are necessary, if you’re serious about making your fitness decision stick.
● Start small and build motivation.
4. Instead, break your fitness goal into a series of smaller challenges, and celebrate every victory along the way. Fitness resolution is hard. Focus on the progress you’re making, no matter how small it seems.
● Focus on fun.
When it comes to making a long-term change, fun is fundamental. It’s hard to consistently force yourself to do something you hate. 5. Listen to your favorite music at the gym. Do everything you can to make your physical activity enjoyable, because that’s the only way you’re going to want to keep doing it.
A.What’s motivating you to make a change?
B.So, if you hate running, try cycling instead.
C.New Year’s Eve is a great opportunity to have fun.
D.Be specific about what you want to accomplish and set a deadline.
E.Write down your fitness decision and share it with your family and friends.
F.If you try to change too much too quickly, you’re setting yourself up for failure.
G.The challenge lies in putting it into practice and sticking with it for the long-term.
Scientists, psychologists and English academics at Liverpool University have found that reading the works of the classical writers like Shakespeare and Wordsworth has a great effect on the mind, catches the reader’s attention and triggers moments of self-examination.
Using a special machine, they monitored the brain activity of 30 volunteers as they read works by William Shakespeare, William Wordsworth, T.S. Eliot and others.
In the first part of the research, the brain activity of 30 volunteers was monitored as they read passages from Shakespeare’s plays, including King Lear, Othello, Coriolanus and Macbeth, and again as they read the text rewritten in a simpler form or modern language.
While reading the common texts, normal levels of electrical activity were shown in their brains. When they read the works of Shakespeare, however, the levels of activity jumped because of his use of words which were unfamiliar to them. The result of the test showed that the more challenging passages cause a greater degree of electrical activity in the brain than the common ones.
Scientists went on to study the brain activity as it responded to each word and recorded how it lit up as the readers came across unusual words, surprising phrases or difficult sentences in the classical works. As a result, this lightening up process of the mind lasted longer than that when volunteers read common texts, encouraging further reading.
The research also found that reading poetry especially increases activity in the right hemisphere (半球) of the brain, an area connected with “autobiographical memory”, driving the readers to think carefully about their own experiences based on what they have read. The academics said this meant the classical works of literature are more useful than self-help books.
Philip Davis, an English professor who has worked on the study in the university’s magnetic resonance center, announced this week: “Classical literature acts like a rocket-booster to the brain, which provides extra power for the brain. You may never imagine how powerful it is. The research shows such kind of literature can create new thoughts and connections in the young and the old.”
1.The underlined word “triggers” in Paragraph 1 is closest in meaning to“_______”.
A.stops B.keeps
C.interrupts D.causes
2.Which of the following is NOT true about reading classical literature?
A.It’s helpful for readers to come up with new ideas.
B.It’s an activity that is suitable for people of all ages.
C.It makes readers’ electrical activity of brain return to normal.
D.It makes readers’ brain more active than reading common texts.
3.From the research, we can learn that _______.
A.poetry increases left-brain activity more than other literary forms
B.the readers prefer Shakespeare’s works to the other writers’works
C.the words of classical works make it hard for volunteers to read further
D.reading classical works produces a good and long-lasting effect on the mind
4.What does the author mainly tell us in this passage?
A.Classical works help the brain develop better.
B.Poetry is useful for developing people’s brain.
C.Common books are unpopular anymore.
D.Shakespeare’s plays are worth reading.
“Don’t tell anyone”. We hear these words when someone tells a secret to us. But it can be hard to keep a secret. We often tend to“spill the beans”, even if we regret it later.
According to Asim Shah, professor in the Menninger Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Baylor College of Medicine, US, keeping a secret may well“become a burden”. This is because people often have an“obsessive (强迫性的) and anxious urge to share it with someone”.
An earlier study, led by Anita E. Kelly, a scientist at the University of Notre Dame, US, suggested that keeping a secret could cause stress. People entrusted with secrets can suffer from depression, anxiety, and body aches, reported the Daily Mail.
But with secrets so often getting out, why do people share them at all? Shah explained that people often feel that it will help them keep a person as a friend. Another reason people share secrets is guilt over keeping it from someone close to them. A sense of distrust can develop when people who are close do not share it with each other.“Keeping or sharing secrets often puts people in a position of either gaining or losing the trust of someone.”according to Shah.
He added that talkative people could let secrets slip out. But this doesn’t mean that it is a good idea only to share secrets with quiet people. A quiet person may be someone who keeps everything inside. To tell such a person a secret may cause them stress, and make them talk about the secret.
Shah said that to judge whether to tell someone a secret, you’d better put yourself in their position. Think about how you would feel to be told that you mustn’t give the information away. Shah also recommended that if you accidentally give up someone’s secret you should come clean about it. Let the person know that their secret isn’t so secret anymore.
1.The underlined phrase“spill the bean”is closest in meaning to _______.
A.keep a secret B.let out a secret
C.suffer from stress D.talk about other people’s private lives
2.According to Kelly, a person who is entrusted with a secret _______.
A.should keep everything inside
B.tends to lose the trust of someone
C.often has an anxious desire to share it with others
D.may have to put up with physical or psychological problems
3.What can we learn from the passage?
A.Quiet people are more likely to keep the secrets to themselves.
B.Sharing secrets helps establish friendship or get over the sense of guilt.
C.It’s better to inform others of the chances of your leaking secrets beforehand.
D.Putting yourself in others’shoes helps realize the difficulty of keeping secrets.
4.What is the author’s attitude towards the phenomenon of sharing secrets?
A.Supportive. B.Disapproving.
C.Objective. D.Uncaring.
The bus screamed to a stop in Nazareth, Israel. Five Australian backpackers boarded and struck up a conversation with me. They asked typical travelers’questions - where was I going and why was I traveling alone? My plan was to travel with a friend of a friend, I explained, but when I called her that morning, she didn’t pick up and I had no other way to reach her. My stomach was in knots, but I decided to head out anyway, thinking I might run into her if I traveled to Tiberius, where we had planned to go together.
“Why don’t you travel with us?”one of the backpackers offered. They were experienced adventurers who would work for a few months, save, then travel for as long as they could. Their current plan was to explore the Middle East and Europe in three months.
It seemed risky to travel with perfect strangers, but my instinct said yes. For the next two weeks, I explored Israel with the backpackers and learned to trust my instincts in all types of new and interesting situations. When they hooked a ride, I took the bus, but when they wanted to steal into the King David Hotel’s swimming pool, I led the way. The world opened up to me because I chose to travel alone. I joined complete strangers, who became close friends. Years later, one couple from the backpacking group even flew from Sydney to Phoenix to be in my wedding. The trip was such a special experience that it gave me confidence in all areas of my life. Since then, I’ve backpacked alone across South Africa, sky-dived from 12, 000 feet in New Zealand and even moved across the U.S. with no job lined up.
On my third day wandering in Israel with my new friends, I ran into the woman I was supposed to meet. Though I was happy she was all right, I was grateful she hadn’t picked up the phone.
1.According to the first paragraph, the author was _______ .
A.nervous of meeting strangers B.anxious about the speedy bus
C.upset about the sudden change D.worried about her stomachache
2.Which of the following best describes the backpackers the author met?
A.Homeless but lighthearted. B.Warmhearted and trustworthy.
C.Jobless and poorly educated. D.Courageous but disrespectful.
3.The author’s sixth sense told her that _______.
A.she would get along with the backpackers
B.it was risky to travel with perfect strangers
C.she ought to stay away from the backpackers
D.it could add exciting experience to her travel
4.What can be inferred from the passage?
A.Some backpackers attended the author’s wedding years later.
B.The author gathered the courage to be a fulltime backpack traveler.
C.The woman missed the phone call with the purpose of traveling alone.
D.The author considered it the best decision of her life to travel on her own.
