In interviews, famous people often say that the key to becoming both happy and successful is to “do what you love.” But mastering a skill, even one that you deeply love, requires a huge amount of hard work.
Anyone who wants to master a skill must run through the ______ of practice, critical feedback, alteration, and improvement over and over. Some people seem able to concentrate on practicing an activity like this for years and ______ their gradual improvement. Yet others find it _____ to do this kind of focused, time-consuming work. Why?
The ______ may turn on the ability to enter into a state of “flow”, the feeling of being completely involved in what you are doing. Flow states can happen in the course of any activity, and they are most common when a task has well-defined goals and is at a(n) ______ skill level, and where the individual is able to ______ their performance to clear and immediate feedback.
Flow states turn the boring practice into an autotelic activity—that is, one that can be enjoyed for its own sake, rather than as a means to an end or for obtaining some ______ reward. Then how can we get into a flow state for an activity that we want to master, so that we enjoy both the ______ and the rewards?
Those who most ______ entered into flow states had an “autotelic personality”—a quality to seek out challenges and get into a state of flow. While those without such a personality see ______, autotelic individuals see opportunities to build skills. Autotelic individuals are receptive, open to new challenges and also persistent. Such people, with an ability to focus on tasks rather than ______, have a great advantage over others in developing their inborn abilities.
____, for those of us who aren’t necessarily blessed with an autotelic personality, there is evidence that flow states can be promoted by environmental factors. In particular, the learning framework ______ by Montessori schools seems to encourage flow states. In Montessori schools, learning comes through ______ rather than direct instruction and students are encouraged to develop individual interests. Competition is ______ and grading is de-emphasized, taking the focus off of external rewards.
While there isn’t (yet) a pill that can turn dull practice into an exciting activity for anyone, it is heartening that we seem, at least to some degree, to be able to push ourselves toward flow states.
1.A.cycle B.list C.circle D.series
2.A.lose interest in B.make up for C.take pleasure in D.make use of
3.A.meaningful B.frustrating C.amazing D.shameful
4.A.behaviour B.difference C.reaction D.procedure
5.A.appropriate B.elementary C.advanced D.difficult
6.A.compare B.assess C.apply D.adjust
7.A.considerable B.well-deserved C.material D.external
8.A.process B.pleasure C.compliment D.performance
9.A.reluctantly B.blindly C.readily D.casually
10.A.advantages B.difficulties C.details D.faults
11.A.rewards B.expectations C.complaints D.contributions
12.A.Unexpectedly B.Occasionally C.Traditionally D.Fortunately
13.A.declined B.criticized C.advocated D.considered
14.A.adaptation B.discovery C.harmony D.exposure
15.A.appreciated B.guaranteed C.reserved D.discouraged
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.
A professor of public health at UCLA says that pet ownership might provide a new form of health care. As far back as the 1790s, the elderly at a senior citizens’ home in England 1.(encourage) to spend time with farm animals. This helped patients’ mental state more than the cruel therapies 2. (use) on the mentally ill at the time. In recent years, scientist have finally begun to find proof 3. contact with animals can increase a sick person’s chance of survival and has been shown 4. (lower) heart rate, calm upset children, and get people to start a conversation.
Scientists think that animal companionship is beneficial 5. animals are accepting and attentive, and they don’t criticize or give orders. Animals have the unique ability to be more social. For example, visitors to nursing homes get more social responses from patients when they come with animal companions.
Not only do people seem 6.(anxious) when animals are nearby, but they may also live longer. Studies show that a year after heart surgery, survival rates for heart patients were higher for those with pets in their homes than those without pets. Elderly people with pets make fewer trips 7. doctors than those without animal companions, possibly because animals relieve loneliness. Staying with animals is believed to create a peaceful state of mind, 8.(result) in a favourable environment for everyone.
Research confirms that the findings concerning senior citizens can be applied to restless children. They are more easy-going when there are animals around with, with 9. company they tend to calm down more easily. They involve 10. in playing with animals and the presence of animals comforts them greatly.
Translation:
1.我很荣幸被邀请到这里来演讲。(honor)
2.无论谁犯错，都不能免于受批评。(spare,主语从句)
3.那位严格的老师尝试了许多新的教学方法来满足不同学生的需要。(meet)
The Value of Tears
Tears can ruin make-up, bring conversation to a stop, and give you a runny nose. They can leave you embarrassed and without energy. However, crying is a fact of life ... and tears are very useful. Even when you’re not crying, your eyes produce tears. These create a film (薄膜) over the eye’s surface. 1.
Tears relieve stress, but we lend to fight them for all sorts of reasons. “People worry about showing their emotions. They’re afraid that once they lose control, they’ll never get it back,” explains psychologist Dorothy Rowe. “As children we were sometimes punished for shedding tears or expressing anger. As adults we still fear the consequences of showing emotions.”
Almost any emotion — good or bad, happy or sad — can cause tears. Crying is a way that we release built-up emotions. 2. It may explain why people who are afraid to cry often suffer more heart attacks than people cry more freely.
When some people become very stressed, however, they can’t cry. They may be feeling shock, anger, fear, or grief, but they repress the emotion. “Everyone has the need to cry,” says psychotherapist Vera Diamond. Sometime in therapy sessions, patients participate in crying exercise. 3. Diamond says it’s best to cry in safe, private places, like under the bed covers or in the car. That’s because many people get uncomfortable when others cry in front of them. In fact, they may be repressing their own need to cry.
In certain situations, such as at work, tears are not appropriate. 4. “But once you are safely behind closed doors, don’t just cry,” Diamond says, she suggests that you act out the whole situation again and be as noisy and angry as you like. It will help you feel better. “And,” she adds, “Once your tears have released the stress, you can begin to think of logical way to deal with the problem.”
Tears are a sign of our ability to feel. You should never be afraid to cry.
A.Tears help you when you feel you are ready to explode because of very strong feelings.
B.It is useful to reduce the nerve of our eyes and make them comfortable.
C.They practice crying so that they can get used to expressing emotion.
D.This film contains a substance that protects your eyes against infection.
E.They have brought a lot of benefits for treating patients.
F.It’s good to hold back tears during a tense business discussion.
How difficult change is depends a lot on your attitude towards it and your resistance to it. Your attitude to change can make the whole transformation process much easier.
Imagine change as a pair of shoes and this will help you understand change and how it works. I am sure that you have ever had a comfortable pair of shoes in your life. A pair of shoes is so comfortable that you really don’t want to get rid of them.
You know you need a new pair, and may even have them, but you don’t want to wear them because you are comfortable with your current pair. Besides, the new pair may hurt your feet, give you blisters（水疱）or be awkward to wear to start with. So, you resist the new shoes. However, you know that this new pair would be much better for your feet, and after the initial discomfort they would probably be even more comfortable, yet you still resist.
Do you know I’m doing this now? I’m wearing my comfortable shoes and they feel good. They have a hole in each heel, and the sole is starting to fall off, but I’m persisting in wearing them.
This describes change exactly; change of our habits, change of our thought patterns. We stick with the old patterns because they are comfortable. Yet once we get over the initial pain of the transformation, the new pattern will be comfortable and feel good until the time comes when we need another new pair of shoes.
1.Why do people prefer old shoes to new ones?
A.They have much emotion in the old ones.
B.They are more comfortable.
C.New shoes always harm the feet.
D.They look better than the new ones.
2.According to the passage, we know that people _______.
A.don’t realize the benefit of the new shoes very well
B.are positive and open - minded to accept new things
C.actually know the change will finally be good for them
D.don’t accept new patterns because they are not good
3.What can be inferred from the passage?
A.Once we form a habit, it’s difficult to change it.
B.Most people pay more attention to the future life.
C.One’s attitude to towards something is usually traditional.
D.The more often we change, the better our life will be.
As more and more people speak the global languages of English, Chinese, Spanish, and Arabic, other languages are rapidly disappearing. In fact, half of the 6,000 - 7,000 language spoken around the world today will likely die out by the next century, according to the United Nations Educational, Scientific, an Cultural Organization (UNESCO).
In an effort to prevent language loss, scholars from a number of organizations - UNESCO and National Geographic among them -- have for many years been documenting dying languages an the cultures they reflect.
Mark Turin, a scientist at the Macmillan Center, Yale University,who specializes in the languages and oral traditions of the Himalayas, is following in that tradition. His recently published book, A grammar of Thangmi with an Ethnolinguistic Introduction to the Speakers and Their Culture, grows out of his experience living, working, and raising a family in a village in Nepal.
Documenting the Thangmi language and culture is just a starting point for Turin, who seeks to include other languages and oral traditions across the Himalaya reaches of India, Nepal, Bhutan, and China. But he is not content to simply record these voices before they disappear without record.
At the University of Cambridge, Turin discovered a wealth of important materials -- including photographs, films, tape recordings, and field notes -- which had remained unstudied and were badly in need of care and protection.
Now, through the two organizations that he has rounded -- the Digital Himalaya Project and the World Oral Literature Project -- Turin has started a campaign t make such documents, found in libraries and stores around the world, available not just to scholars but to the younger generations of communities from whom the materials were originally collected. Thanks to digital technology and the widely available Internet, Turin notes, the endangered languages can be saved and reconnected with speech communities.
1.Many scholars are making efforts to _______.
A.promote global languages
B.rescue disappearing languages
C.search for language communities
D.set up language research organizations
2.What does “that tradition” in Paragraph 3 refer to ?
A.Having full records of the languages.
B.Writing books on language teaching.
C.Telling stories about language users.
D.Living with the native speakers.
3.What is Turin’s book based on?
A.The cultural studies in India. B.The documents available at Yale.
C.His language research in Bhutan. D.His personal experience in Nepal.
4.Which of the following best describes Turin’s work?
A.Write and donate. B.Record and reward.
C.Collect, protect and reconnect. D.experiment and report
