In no time ________ smoke coming out of the house.
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A．did we see |
B．we saw |
C．are we seeing |
D．we see |
________ got on the train when it started to move.
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A．Scarcely I had |
B．Scarcely had I |
C．No sooner I had |
D．No sooner had I |
---Would you mind giving your advice on how to improve our business management?
---If you make ______ most of the equipment, there will be ______ rise in production．
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A．/; / |
B．the; a |
C．/；a |
D．the; / |
Everyone knows that the Frenchmen are romantic, the Italians are fashionable and the Germans are serious. Are these just stereotypes or is there really such a thing as national character? And if there is, can it affect how a nation succeed or fail?
At least one group of people is certain that it can. A recent survey of the top 500 entrepreneurs in the UK found that 70% felt that their efforts were not appreciated by the British public. Britain is hostile to success, they said. It has a culture of jealousy. As a result, the survey said, entrepreneurs were “unloved, unwanted and misunderstood.” Jealousy is sometimes known as the “green – eyed monster” and the UK is its home.
Scientists at Warwich University in the UK recently tested this idea. They gathered a group of people together and gave each an imaginary amount of money. Some were given a little, others a great deal. Those given a little were given the chance to destroy the large amount of money given to others – but at the cost of losing their own. Two thirds of the people tested agreed to do this.
This seems to prove that the entrepreneurs were right to complain. But there is also conflicting evidence. The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development recently reported that the UK is now the world’s fourth largest economy. That is not bad for people who are supposed to hate success. People in the UK also work longer hours than anyone else in Europe. So the British people are not lazy, either.
“It is not really success that the British dislike,” says Carey Cooper, a professor of management at the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology. “It’s people using their success in a way that seems proud or unfair or which separates them from their roots.”
Perhaps it is the entrepreneurs who are the problem. They set out to do things in their way. They work long hours. By their own efforts they become millionaires. But instead of being happy they complain that nobody loves them. It hardly seems worth following their example. If they were more friendly, people would like them more. And more people want to be like them.
1.Most entrepreneurs surveyed believe that .
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A．the British people hate success |
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B．the British people are hardworking |
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C．love of success is Britain’s national character |
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D．they are considered as “green – eyed monsters” |
2.What does the result of the Warwich University’s test show.
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A．Two thirds of the people tested didn’t love money. |
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B．Most people would rather fail than see others succeed. |
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C．An imaginary amount of money does not attract people. |
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D．Most people are willing to enjoy success with others. |
3.The writer of the passage seems to suggest that .
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A．jealousy is Britain’s national character |
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B．British entrepreneurs are not fairly treated |
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C．the scientists at Warwich University did a successful test |
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D．the entrepreneurs in the UK do not behave properly |
4.The best title for this article can be .
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A．Be More Modest and We Will Love You More |
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B．Proud Entrepreneurs |
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C．The Frenchmen are Romantic While The British are Hostile |
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D．Only Pains but No Gains |
Your name made you do it, though unconsciously, suggests new research that finds your name can negatively make you achieve less. Psychologists at Yale and the University of California, San Diego studying the unconscious influence of names say a preference for our own names and initials — the “name-letter effect” — can have some negative consequences.
Students whose names begin with C or D get lower grades than those whose names begin with A or B; major league baseball players whose first or last names began with K (the strikeout-signifying letter) are significantly more likely to strike out.
Assistant professors Leif Nelson of UCSD and Joseph Simmons of Yale have conducted five studies over five years using information from thousands of individuals.
“The conscious process is baseball players want to get a hit and students want to get A's,” Nelson says. “So if you get a change in performance consistent with the name-letter effect, it clearly shows there must be some unconscious desire operating in the other direction.”
The researchers' work supports a series of studies published since 2002 that have found the “name-letter effect” causes people to make life choices based on names that resemble their own. Those studies by Brett Pelham, an associate professor at SUNY University, have found that people are disproportionately（不定比例地）likely to live in states or cities resembling their names, have careers that resemble their names and even marry those whose surnames begin with the same letter as their own.
The twist, Pelham says, is that he has believed the name-letter effect would apply only to positive outcomes. Nelson and Simmons, he says, are “showing it applies more so to negative things than positive things.”
The researchers say the effect is definitely more than coincidence but is small nevertheless. “I know plenty of Chrises and Davids who have done very well in school,” Simmons says.
1.The new research is mainly about the relationship between one’s ______.
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A．name and unconsciousness |
B．name and characteristics |
|
C．name and success |
D．sports and school achievements |
2.Who may serve as an example to show the “name-letter effect”?
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A．Miss Smith working as a lawyer. |
B．Charles Brown married to Sue Rogers. |
|
C．Mr. Watt living in Washington |
D．Paula Snow fond of the color white. |
3.Which can be used to explain the underlined word “twist” in the last but one paragraph?
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A．Difference． |
B．Conclusion． |
|
C．Funny side． |
D．Shared part． |
4.The last paragraph mainly tells us that the “name-letter effect” ______.
|
A．isn’t believed in by many people |
B．doesn’t work with certain names |
|
C．may not really exist |
D．is often too small to show |
Babies are born yogis. Once we were all able to pull our toes up by our ears and laugh about it. Then we aged, got injured, and began carrying stress in our shoulders and back. In short, we lost our balance.
Yoga（瑜伽） is an ancient practice that helps create a sense of union in body, mind, and spirit. It brings us balance. I was seriously out of balance when I started practicing yoga in 1999. I had plantar facilities in both feet, and my doctor had warned me against all the things I loved to do: walking, hiking, and playing tennis. I was desperate for exercise. Yoga became my salvation and even enhanced my other fitness activities. I practice yoga at least twice a week, but I consider yoga to be part of my daily life because after a while you no longer just practice yoga—you love it.
Yoga becomes part of your physical life. Your body grows stronger, more toned, and more flexible as you move from one pose to the other. I spent a week in Mexico at a yoga retreat, and it was the first vacation on which I lost weight. “Rather than building muscle, yoga builds muscle tone,” says Shakta Kaur Khalsa, author of the K.I.S.S. Guide to Yoga. “Because yoga helps maintain a balanced metabolism (新陈代谢), it also helps to regulate weight. Additionally, yoga stretches muscles lengthwise, causing fat to be removed around the cells.” I do yoga poses throughout the day. After hours at my computer, I stretch my stiff shoulders and arms. When I need a boost of energy, I do energizing poses. When I am feeling exhausted at the end of the day, I do restorative poses.
Yoga becomes part of your mental life. Yoga teaches you to focus on breathing while you hold the poses. This attention to breath is calming; it dissolves stress and anxiety. I use yogic breathing on the tennis courts, in the dentist’s chair, and in traffic jams. You should always leave a yoga practice feeling energized, not tired. If you feel tired after yoga, it means you spent the time “fighting” yourself, trying to force yourself into poses. In yoga, you “surrender” to the pose by letting go of the tension.
Yoga becomes part of your spiritual life. Yoga is practiced by people from all religions; it is not restricted to any religious group. Yoga teaches “right” living in how we deal with ourselves and others. As I work on a difficult pose, I learn patience, forgiveness, and the value of gentleness. Yoga advocates proper eating, but you don’t have to be a vegetarian to practice yoga.
1.What would be the best title for this passage?
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A．What’s Yoga? |
B．How I Do Yoga Poses |
|
C．The Benefits of Yoga |
D．The Varieties of Yoga |
2.According to the third paragraph, yoga can help people __________.
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A．grow taller |
B．lose weight |
|
C．become flexible in thinking |
D．make more friends |
3.People feel tired after yoga because __________.
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A．they consume energy in practicing yoga |
|
B．they respond well to yoga poses |
|
C．they spend too much time on yoga |
|
D．they force themselves into yoga poses |
4.If this passage continues, what will the writer most probably write about in the next paragraph?
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A．Yoga as a means to keep fit. |
B．Who may like yoga |
|
C．Popularity of yoga all over the world. |
D．Encouraging people to do yoga. |
