My mom and dad have been married for 50 years. They have managed their marriage quite_________. Yet when I chose to get _________, I didn’t ask them for any tips or _________ on what to expect about married life. This is due to my strong-willed nature and, I was _________ that I had picked a great guy. What could go_________?
Well, something did go wrong. The two of us, my husband and I, got a _________. I thought any advice my father would have to offer me about my future relationships would be _______, until he texted me one day to ask how I was doing. I was feeling _______ that particular day. It’s hard as a headstrong, outgoing, and loud woman to find a man that can _______ my intelligence, strength, humor, and noisiness, obviously. My ex-husband ________ my writing and didn’t like my sense of humor, which was hard to ________ considering I am a writer. He didn’t like that I was __________ in public sometimes, either, even when I didn’t mean to be.
“Dad,” I texted. “I’m feeling down. I just wonder if I will ever meet someone who will ________ me as I am. Maybe there is no one. All men seem to want nice little ________ women.”
“No one is ________. Everyone comes with problems. Marriage is about accepting someone despite the person’s __________ and loving them just as he or she comes.” he responded.
Toward the end of our marriage, I was ________ in “negative thought”. I had always been thinking ________ of him. Maybe, so it was with my ex-husband. I realized what was wrong with our ________ and what I should do in my future ________. A few words from my father changed my life.
1.A.poorly B.naturally C.wisely D.badly
2.A.married B.separated C.deserted D.settled
3.A.questions B.help C.promises D.advice
4.A.hopeful B.confident C.disappointed D.confused
5.A.wrong B.wild C.deep D.easy
6.A.chance B.decision C.reward D.divorce
7.A.useful B.practical C.useless D.helpful
8.A.proud B.sad C.afraid D.nervous
9.A.appreciate B.challenge C.follow D.test
10.A.praised B.understood C.hated D.influenced
11.A.refuse B.use C.speak D.swallow
12.A.drunk B.loud C.friendly D.fashionable
13.A.accept B.forgive C.hire D.remember
14.A.young B.rich C.quiet D.pretty
15.A.responsible B.available C.sure D.perfect
16.A.efforts B.shortcomings C.differences D.changes
17.A.stuck B.lacking C.creative D.educated
18.A.highly B.seriously C.badly D.carefully
19.A.friendship B.marriage C.cooperation D.career
20.A.career B.projects C.business D.relationships
Ways to Improve Your Happiness
The happiest people appreciate what they have, keep an open mind to new ideas, use their leisure time as a means of self development, and love good music, good books, good pictures, good company and good conversations. 1. It’s a lot easier than it sounds. Anything that helps you feel more positive and joyful is self-improving. Here are some simple ideas to get you started.
1. Make yourself smile is the first thing in the morning.
2. Fill your bathroom or bedroom mirror with notes of your favorite quotes, goals, photos, etc., and then look at the mirror for a minute or two when you first wake up.
2. 3.
Laughter helps reduce blood pressure, decrease blood sugar, and lower stress. Spend time with those who do good things and make your life a little brighter simply by being in it.
3. Try something totally new.
Do something you’ve never done. Variety truly is the spice (调味品) of life. You can see or do something a million times, but you can only see or do it for the first time once. As a result, first time experiences usually leave a deep mark in our minds for the rest of our lives. So spice it up! 4.
4. Work on something that’s meaningful to you.
Get yourself in a meaningful personal project, or set about doing something you’ve wanted to do for a long time, but haven’t yet had the determination to do. Life is really short.5.
A.Today is the day to take action.
B.Appreciate those around you sincerely.
C.Spend time with people who make you smile.
D.It’s difficult to feel down when your face is happy.
E.Instead, concentrate on a few things that really matter.
F.The more first time experiences you have, the richer your life will be.
G.In other words, they do small things every day to improve their happiness.
The U.S. solar industry is growing at a record-breaking pace, while becoming more affordable and accessible than ever before. The industry’s forward progress comes in part thanks to support from the Energy Department’s SunShot Initiative(计划).
Set up in 2011 to rebuild U.S. leadership in the solar marketplace, SunShot is to aggressively drive down the cost of solar-powered electricity generation across America.
To achieve this goal, SunShot works to lower the price of solar electricity to $0.06 per kilowatt hour (KWh) — a cost target that will make solar-generated power to be fully cost-competitive with traditional energy sources by the end of the decade.
Just three years into the initiative, SunShot is making significant headway. Today, the Energy Department announced that the U.S. solar industry is more than 60 percent of the way to achieving cost-competitive utility-scale solar photovoltaic or PV (光伏) electricity. In many parts of the country, solar electricity is already cost-competitive with traditional energy sources, including California, Hawaii and Minnesota.
Within the past few years, utility-scale PV has risen from a relative newcomer to the solar market to the fastest growing sector of the industry. These projects feature large, centralized PV systems that feed power directly to the grid (电网). While the operating history of utility-scale PV is brief, it is expected to take up most of the U.S. PV market through 2018, helping create new jobs, support other U.S. industries and improve economic growth as it expands.
One of the biggest benefits of the expanding solar industry is its influence on the U.S. job market. The Solar Foundation’s National Solar Jobs Census 2017 finds solar jobs increased nearly 20 percent since the fall of 2016, 10 times the national average job growth rate. There are more than 140,000 solar workers in the United States, up from about 119,000 in 2016. Not only did the industry go beyond growth expectations, but the pace of hiring has quickened, producing new hires at a rate 50 percent higher than last year.
1.From the passage we can learn that SunShot was set up to .
A.lower the price of solar electricity
B.rebuild U.S. leadership in the solar marketplace
C.compete with traditional energy sources
D.drive down the cost of solar-powered electricity
2.What can we learn about U.S. utility-scale PV?
A.It has been developed for a quite long period. B.It has lowered the price 60% than other sources.
C.It has been the leading role of the U.S. PV market. D.It has brought some benefits to the U.S. economy.
3.How does the author develop the last paragraph?
A.By providing data. B.By giving examples.
C.By reasoning. D.By analyzing causes.
4.Which of the following can be the best title for the text?
A.SunShot Is Promoting U.S. Solar Industry
B.Solar Industry Defeats Traditional Energy Sources
C.U.S. Employment Benefits from Solar Industry
D.Solar Industry’ Growth Determines U.S. Economy
The Intelligent Plant. That is the title of a recent article in The New Yorker, and new research is showing that plants have surprising abilities to sense and react to the world.
But can a plant be intelligent? Some plant scientists insist they are since they can sense, learn, remember and even react in ways that would be familiar to humans.
Michael Pollan, author of “The Botany of Desire,” says for the longest time, people who have long talked to their plants or played music for them were being considered “mad.”
The new research, he says, is in a field called plant neurobiology(神经生物学), which is not a proper name, because even scientists in the field don’t argue that plants have neurons(神经) or brains.
“They have analogous structures as humans,” Pollan explains. “Plants have all the same senses as humans. They have ways of taking all the sensory data they gather in their everyday lives, integrate it and then behave in an appropriate way in response.” In addition to hearing, taste, for example, they can sense gravity, the presence of water, or even feel that an obstacle(障碍物) is in the way of its roots, before coming into contact with it. Plant roots will change direction, he says, to avoid obstacles.
So what about pain? Do plants feel? Pollan says they do respond to anesthetics (麻醉剂). “You can put a plant out with a human anesthetic. And not only that, plants produce their own compounds that are anesthetic to us.” But scientists are unwilling to go as far as to say they are responding to pain.
How plants sense and react is still somewhat unknown. They don’t have nerve cells like humans, but they do have a system for sending electrical signals and even produce neurotransmitters (神经递质) and other chemicals the human brain uses to send signals.
1.Why does the author mention the article The Intelligent Plant in the first paragraph?
A.To support his opinion. B.To introduce the topic.
C.To give an example. D.To make comparison.
2.People who usually talked to their plants would be thought .
A.Intelligent. B.Crazy. C.Patient. D.Comforting.
3.What does the underlined word “analogous” in paragraph 5 mean?
A.Simple. B.False. C.Flexible. D.Similar.
4.What can we learn about plants according to the last two paragraphs?
A.Plants can feel and react to pain. B.Plants send two kinds of signals.
C.Plants are able to sense and react. D.Plants have their own brains.
I am the proud owner of three pet dogs. Over the years, I have watched their behaviours carefully that help me when I travel around the world.
One important lesson that my dog, Cody, taught me is how to deal with little problems in life. From his calm behavior when someone knocked unexpectedly at the door to the indifferent way he has dealt with his recent serious illness, he has always had the same easy-going attitude. This attitude is an important lesson to me in how I can face difficult situations when travelling, I've learned to try to handle bad situations calmly, such as when we miss a train, lose luggage, and so on.
Another dog of mine, Preston, loves to walk around the yard, spending hours smelling every place and finding out what it means to him. Taking it slowly is another lesson that’s been very hard for me to learn. As an active traveller, I am actually experiencing less by speeding through everything, rather than slowly getting to know a place. Even if it means that you won’t see as many things, going slowly when you travel is the only way to really get to know a new place. Rushing around a foreign city isn’t fun at all.
My dog, Moya, came from a truly bad situation. I am not sure what happened to her before; I just know it wasn’t good. Although she has become more relaxed over the years, she is still slightly on edge. She is very cautious when faced with any new situation. But once she’s accustomed to her new surroundings, she is fine. She doesn’t let fear influence her experience. The same can be applied to our travel experience. No matter where we go, we need to manage new situations with caution——while at the same time not letting that caution turn into fear.
Many thanks to my pets. Truly speaking, pets are as basic to American culture as hot dogs or apple pies. To Americans, pets are not just property, but a part of the family. After all, pets are people, too, with the help of whom I am able to gain a lot and live differently.
1.One of the three dogs, Cody, .
A.once suffered from a serious illness B.is excited when under pressure
C.enjoys walking around the yard D.is unable to deal with new situations
2.From Preston, the author learned that one should .
A.pay attention to the details in life B.see as many things as possible when travelling
C.stay indifferent to strangers D.travel around slowly and have fun
3.The underlined phrase “on edge” in the fourth paragraph probably means _____.
A.hungry B.nervous C.calm D.happy
4.Which of the following best shows the structure of the passage?
A.
B.
C.
D.
Museum of International Cultures
A Center for Global Awareness and Understanding
International Film Series
The International Film Series is a year-long celebration of various cultures.
The series is held on the 4th Saturday of a month, alternating with the Cultural Dinner & Lecture Series every other month.
Both the film series and cultural dinner and lecture series begin at 7:00 p.m.
The International Film Series is hosted by Anne & Tim Perry.
Cost is Free.
CEF Workshop
The Chemical Education Foundation (CEF) is a professional development workshop designed to provide educators with methods for teaching chemistry concepts through hands-on learning and real-world connections.
To register for the free workshop, please send email to penny@acm.org with the following information: your name, your email address and telephone number, your school or group and its address, the grade levels you teach.
This free workshop for educators will be held on Saturday January 20, 2020. Sign-in starts at 9:30 a.m. and the workshop will run from 10:00 a.m. to noon.
Recharge Conference
This is a rolling one-day conference featuring community experts sharing information on health, finances, education, cooking, exercise tips, self-development, manhood, marriage and job searches.
Speakers include:
Clarence Davis, Opening Message on Connection;
Tonya Brown, “Trickeration 101,” with a message of strength and hope;
Darren Murphy, “Bug Straight Talk,” on overcoming addiction and restart new life;
Quinecka Ragsdale, “Demarcus Jones and The Solar Calendar,” on time travel and African/African American history;
Pastor Barry Jerking, “On The Road to Glory,” finding your life’s purpose as a man in society;
Oscar Ellis, on financing your business.
Cost is $10 in advance; $15 at the door, plus applicable fees.
1.How many times will the International Film Series be held in a year?
A.Twice. B.3 times. C.6 times. D.12 times.
2.Who is the CEF workshop designed for?
A.Young students. B.Chemistry teachers.
C.Chemical scientists. D.Industry workers.
3.If Tom is interested in science fiction, whose lecture will he attend?
A.Tonya Brown’s. B.Darren Murphy’s.
C.Quinecka Ragsdale’s. D.Pastor Barry Jerking’s.
