I'm Dina Asher-Smith. Growing in Orpington, southeast London, I love being the hunter. The one in pursuit. In training, I'll latch on to the boys and chase them down. Even when I was younger, I tended to race girls who were older than me-at 17 I was racing 30-year-olds. It's where I'm comfortable. But the hunter can go on to become the hunted. And this year at the World Athletics Championships in Doha, Qatar, I won gold in the 200m. At 23, I became the first British woman to win a world championship sprinting (短跑) title.The morning after the race, I was in the media tent and was told that I'd been mentioned in the Parliament.
Track and field is a mental game.You're in your own little world, competing to be the person who can run the fastest in a straight line. My job is to take my body to a place where I think it can't do any more and then keep going. To do that, I need to know my strengths and weaknesses. People get caught up in embarrassment or shame when they're not good at something, but I just don't have that in me. I do have a voice in my head that tells me if I'm not good at things, but it doesn't make me feel negative about myself. I use it to identify where I can improve and then I just keep going to training every day.
I've inherited personality traits from my parents that help me in my career. My mum is excitable and when I'm on the track, I have her fire-wanting to go for everything. I always know when I finish a race that I can turn around and find her in the front row, jumping up and down. My dad is more reserved. He has a cool exterior and that's useful for me when I need calmness. I know to look for him a few rows behind my mum. They gave me opportunities to try whatever I was interested in. When I wanted to try golf, my dad bought me cut-down clubs and had me attempting to putt balls (推球入洞）in the back garden. My mum used to play hockey with me outside the house. They took me to so many clubs and classes.
I started training with my coach, John Blackie, in my mid-teens. We met when I was eight as he ran the kids academy at my running club. Along with my parents, the three of them always emphasized that they just wanted me to be happy. They never pushed me too early. And, as I've got older, I've realized that's unique.When running became serious, I knew that if it all stopped being fun for me, I could stop doing it. They put Dina the person before Dina the runner. Yes, the public might be disappointed and the newspapers might have a pop (抨击), but my parents and friends are still going to love me, and my coach is still going to be there. That knowledge allows me to stay relaxed under pressure.
Being as prepared as I can be is crucial as it keeps me calm and able to deliver in the moment.When I was studying history at university, I'd choose exams over coursework because I knew I could put the work in and perform under pressure. I was studying heavy things every day, like people facing prejudice because of their skin,or women sacrificing their lives for others to have the right to vote. It made me realize how lucky I am that the thing that gets me most frustrated is somebody beating me on the track.While, yes, I make sacrifices-some easy, such as not drinking and going out, and some harder, like restricting the food that I eat-ultimately, what I do is entertainment.
Everyone's asking me about Tokyo Olympics, but I'm more focused on today. It's important for me to keep my hopes and dreams separate from other people's. I'm grateful everybody wants me to do well, but my next step has to be for me, not anyone else.
1.What does the underlined sentence in Paragraph 1 probably mean?
A.Asher-Smith is the victim of the sprinting world.
B.Asher-Smith becomes the focus of media coverage.
C.Asher-Smith now runs faster than those she chased.
D.Asher-Smith is no match for older racers in competitions.
2.How does Asher-Smith deal with her weakness?
A.She keeps reminding herself of it.
B.She keeps training to overcome it.
C.She chooses to ignore it completely.
D.She often gets caught in a dilemma.
3.In Asher-Smith's growth, her parents .
A.changed their personalities
B.coached her in various sports
C.strengthened their family status
D.helped her explore her interests
4.The underlined sentence in Paragraph 4 indicates that Asher-Smith's parents and coach .
A.prioritize her personal well-being
B.justify her failure to continue running
C.put her interests above the other runners
D.shelter her from the criticism of the media
5.What impact does her university life have on her?
A.It makes her lead a cosy life today.
B.It allows her to face prejudice bravely.
C.It enables her to be better prepared as an athlete.
D.It inspires her to fight for women' s human rights.
6.What does the passage mainly talk about?
A.What it takes to be a gold medal sprinter.
B.Why it is hard to rise to fame in sprinting.
C.Who one can turn to in pursuit of the dream.
D.How parents discipline a sprinting champion.
Birds use vocalizations to attract mates, defend territories, and recognize fellow members of their species. But while we know a lot about how variations in vocalizations play out between populations of songbirds, it's far less clear how this variation affects birds such as penguins in which calls are inherited (遗传). A new study from The Auk: Ornithological Advances examines differences in the calls of Little Penguins from four colonies in Australia-night-time birds for whom vocalizations are more important than visual signals-and finds that differences in habitat, rather than geographic isolation (隔离) or other factors, seem to be the key driver of variation in the sounds these birds use to communicate.
Diane Colombelli-Negrel and Rachel Smale of Australia's Flinders University recorded calls from four Little Penguin populations across a small area of South Australia, one of which had previously been shown to have slight genetic differences from the other three, and used playback experiments to test penguins ability to distinguish between calls from different colonies.They found that agonistic calls, which are used in pair displays and aggressive situations, varied among the four populations, and that the calls' characteristics appeared to depend on small-scale differences in the habitat where the penguins lived. However, birds did not discriminate between calls originating from different colonies, which suggests that agonistic calls don't seem to play a role in isolating the two different genetic groups.
Penguins living in open habitats produced lower-frequency calls than those living in habitats with thicker vegetation-the opposite of the trend typically observed in songbirds. The authors think that agonistic calls may be subject to different selective pressures because they're used in close encounters with other birds rather than to communicate across distances, and could also be influenced by variation in the noise level of wind and surf.
“I was excited to find that in seabirds, as most of our knowledge in this area comes from studies on songbirds," says Colombelli-Negrel. "This new research suggests that many factors influence call variation in birds, which also depends on the function of the calls. This study highlights that many questions remain and that studies need to investigate more than one factor in conjunction with the function of the calls to fully understand call variation in seabirds.”
“This work tells an interesting story of vocal diversification in Little Penguins, and gives insight into how individual and micro-scale variation effects behavior," according to Stony Brook University's Heather Lynch, an expert on penguin calls who was not involved in the study. "Non-vocal-learning birds are relatively understudied in terms of vocalizations, and it is great to see penguin vocalizations being studied in such a way."
1.What does the new study find?
A.Penguins are born with their calls.
B.Penguins communicate by various calls.
C.Penguins' calls are influenced by their habitat.
D.Penguins' calls can help isolate genetic groups.
2.What are the findings based on?
A.The test of penguins' responses to recorded calls.
B.The data collected from penguins across Australia.
C.Controlled experiments on penguins and songbirds.
D.Similarities between the calls of penguins and songbirds.
3.From the passage we can learn that .
A.open-space songbirds tend to lower their calls
B.environmental noises may affect penguins' calls
C.birds use agonistic calls in distant communication
D.songbirds' agonistic calls vary little between species
4.We can infer from Colombelli-Negrel's words that researchers .
A.will keep track of penguins to preserve them
B.have investigated a lot in penguins' calls before
C.will have a broader look at differences in penguins' calls
D.have determined the function of various calls in penguins
In their book, Nine Lies About Work, Buckingham and Goodall make a surprising claim: they argue that giving people feedback (反馈)－in the sense of telling them what you think they're doing right or wrong, and how to do it better-is never worthwhile. This runs counter to a current corporate trend for "radical candour", for example at Netflix where, according to recent reports, employees' failings are cruelly "sunshined" in front of others. When someone is fired, hundreds of their former colleagues might receive an email, cataloguing their flaws (缺陷). But it also contradicts an assumption most of us bring to our lives as parents and friends-that it's helpful, at least sometimes, and providing you do it nicely, to explain to people where they're making mistakes.
Buckingham and Goodall don't just claim you should keep that knowledge to yourself: they claim that you don't possess it, and that, in fact, you probably don't know how a failing employee could most effectively change. It's an old cliche (陈词滥调) of marital advice that you should use "I-statements"rather than" you-statements", telling the other person how their behaviour makes you feel, rather than attacking them for being selfish and incompetent. The standard theory is that you-statements cause people to respond defensively. But another is that you're a terrible judge of whether someone is selfish or incompetent. As Buckingham writes: "The only area in which humans are an unimpeachable (无懈可击的) source of truth is that of their own feelings and experiences."
Plenty of research shows we're particularly bad at rating people against abstract criteria, which means one common feature of workplace performance reviews- assessing whether an employee is, say, a strategic thinker or team player-is essentially pointless.We should replace this sort of judgment with "reactions". Don't tell others what you think of their skills, or how good you think they are; instead, focus on describing your experience of their work. You're no good at judging how someone else should change their approach to delivering presentations. But you're the authority on whether a given presentation was persuasive or boring to you.
And positive reactions, they show, work better than negative ones: we excel "when people who know us and care about us tell us what they experience and what they feel, and in particular when they see something within us that really works". There's a deep point here- that the best kind of praise focuses on how someone made you feel, not on evaluating their talent. Praise them for inspiring you, persuading you, or helping you grasp a complex issue. You really are the only objective judge of that.
1.The underlined word"it"in Paragraph 1 refers to"_______”.
A.giving people feedback
B.cataloguing colleagues' flaws
C.contradicting parents’ assumption
D.keeping that knowledge to yourself
2.Feedback is never worthwhile in that_________.
A.people tend to defend it
B.it is based on theory and truth
C.it is subjective and lacks uniqueness
D.people will effectively change themselves
3.Which of the following is the most appropriate to comment on others?
A."You have done a good job in the mid-term exams."
B."I am inspired by the creative ideas in your presentation.
C."You just think of yourself,but never care about others."
D."I'm sorry to say you have failed to meet my expectations."
To Machu Picchu and Cusco, searching for the lost Inca (印加人）city
Climb its towering staircases to a ceremonial temple set in the mountain face. These ruins mark the start of the 4-day Inca Trail to Machu Picchu, one of the world's most rewarding hikes. A quicker way to reach the remote Inca city is catching the train to the riverside town of Aguas and then jumping on a bus into the misty mountains.
Once the clouds rise from the mountain ridge above the Sacred Valley, the true splendor of Machu Picchu is finally revealed. It's a humbling experience to stand at an altitude of nearly 8,000 feet, and gaze down at the Inca city below. Overlooking the glorious ruins, it's easy to imagine the prosperity (紧荣) this peak must have been almost 600 years ago.
It's one of the world's greatest mysteries what became of the Incas who inhabited Machu Picchu.What was once major defense works in the largest empire on Earth was slowly swallowed by the jungle, only to be uncovered a century ago. The Inca dynasty has come and gone, but Incan families still survive in the highlands. These modern-day Children of the Sun still speak Quechua and continue to live off the land, although many come to Cusco to sell their crops and woolen textiles.
After dusk, when the story of the Incas becomes a whisper in the night, Cusco is covered under a starry blanket. A landscape so gorgeous that it deserves to be preserved for ever.
1.The attraction of Machu Picchu lies in_____.
A.its towering staircases B.its changeable weather
C.its natural scenery and culture D.its wilderness and inaccessibility
2.We can learn from the passage that_______
A.the Incas like to stay up chatting
B.Machu Picchu is a military base
C.the Quechua language is lost to the world
D.what happened to the Incas remains unknown
I moved to a new city and took a job in marketing. I didn't really understand whether it_________me. I enjoyed doing things that I felt had_________—I could see their benefit and feel their impact. As the months passed, I felt it just wasn't for me. I needed to find a way out.
A job advertisement for a(n)_________for a new youth magazine came at exactly the right time. I applied and was_________. My role was to help teams of young people edit their_________and help them with their work. I had assumed the magazine would be a(n)_________of games and dull reviews, so I was_________when one of the first pieces written was about social welfare._________, I found something I was interested in.
I felt a_________in me straight away. I had a purpose again. Days were lost to discussing hot topics and__________the words of their strong and opinionated (坚持己见的) voices.__________in their world, I could see myself making a difference to the team's__________ability. As our website__________increased and the work shifted to reflect what our__________wanted, I developed a greater__________of what young people might want to read.
The biggest change the job brought, __________,was to my well-being. It is rare you find yourself in a job you love, one that you are happy to__________each day. I was thriving (充实）in this__________environment, inspired by the talented young people I was helping to__________their careers. Now, I realize that there are jobs that will keep you happy,__________and inspired.
1.A.messed with B.applied to C.relied on D.waited for
2.A.purpose B.convenience C.restriction D.entertainment
3.A.reporter B.lawyer C.editor D.typist
4.A.independent B.intelligent C.successful D.ambitious
5.A.courses B.references C.software D.content
6.A.replacement B.mixture C.innovation D.symbol
7.A.amused B.embarrassed C.touched D.surprised
8.A.Naturally B.Generally C.Frequently D.Finally
9.A.contrast B.shock C.change D.shame
10.A.reading B.translating C.spelling D.copying
11.A.Trapped B.Hidden C.Invested D.Imagined
12.A.gaming B.marketing C.writing D.communicating
13.A.hits B.pages C.profits D.advertisements
14.A.monitors B.sponsors C.colleagues D.audiences
15.A.distinction B.understanding C.expectation D.recording
16.A.though B.instead C.otherwise D.therefore
17.A.go into B.leave behind C.refer to D.set aside
18.A.troublesome B.creative C.tough D.conservative
19.A.transfer B.rescue C.discipline D.further
20.A.lucky B.popular C.energetic D.honest
— I will go to the bank to pay for the electricity bill.
— _______? Actually, you can use Alipay.
A.Why bother B.So what C.Why not D.What for
