Everyone knows you must exercise regularly to keep good health. Indeed, staying physically fit is a big part of our culture. we consider（or rightly so）that healthy people are attractive people. Since most of us want to be attractive, there is no shortage of exercise clubs, training videos, magazines and books offering to help us stay physically fit.
Unfortunately, however, our culture doesn’t place the same emphasis（强调） on mental fitness. Although we tend to like men and women with strong, healthy-looking bodies, we don’t have the same degree of respect or attraction for smart, educated, mentally healthy people. This is a pity, because there are great rewards for people who have developed the ability to think well.
If your mind is well trained and flexible(灵活的), you will be able to understand a great deal of what happens around you. And if you are also well educated — that is, if you understand basic science, mathematics, music, art, literature, history and so on — you will find it much easier to make good decisions throughout your life. Over the long run(时期), this leads to a sense of control over your destiny （命运）and a much better life than otherwise(in another way).
People who are poorly educated or who don’t think well — that is, people who are not mentally fit — see things differently. Their world is controlled by mysterious, often malevolent（恶意的）forces. Such people live within a system they will never master, forced to follow rules they will never understand. Although it may not be obvious, most spend their lives being manipulated（控制）by others. They are told what to do, what to think, how to spend their money, and what they should and should not aspire（渴望）to in life.
In my opinion, if you want to live well, you must be able to use your mind well. For this reason, I want you to be able to concentrate, to solve problems, to understand complex （复杂的）ideas, and to think clearly and quickly. Such skills will make it easier for you to make informed decisions, understand current events, choose good friends, manage your money well, make wise lone-term decisions and appreciate music, art and literature.
The key to developing such skills is to enjoy learning, and to have the ability and motivation to teach yourself.
1. The writer of the passage feel disappointed that ____.
A. too little has been done to help people to keep physically fit
B. too much has been done to help people to keep physically fit
C. mentally healthy people are not as popular as physically healthy people
D. physically healthy people are not as popular as mentally healthy people
2. The underlined word “this” in the 3rd paragraph means ____.
A. the understanding of a great deal of what goes on around you
B. the understanding of basic science and mathematics
C. good training in body and mind
D. being able to make good decisions in life
3. The writer of this passage thinks those who are not mentally fit ____.
A. live a poor and mysterious life
B. can’t control over their life
C. often do what others do
D. enjoy being fooled and ruled
4. The best title of the passage will most probably be ____.
A. Train Your Body B. Train Your Mind
C. Make Informed Decisions D. Think Hard and Work Hard
The passages below discuss the retirement age．
Passage 1：
In the United States，the financial crisis has left the country with 11 million fewer jobs than Americans need now．No matter how tough the policy ,we are not going to find 11 million new jobs soon．So common sense suggests we should make some decisions about who should come first：older people，who have already worked three or four decades at hard jobs? Or younger people，many just out of school，with fresh skills and ambitions?
The answer is obvious．Older people who would like to retire and would do so if they could afford it should get some help．The right step is to reduce，not increase，the retirement age．As a rough cut，why not make it a law to set a three—year window during which the age for receiving full Social Security benefits would drop to 62——providing a voluntary ,one—time，grab-it-now bonus for leaving work? Let them go home! With a secure pension(退休金)and medical care，they will be happier．Young people who need work will be happier．And there will also be more jobs．With pension security, older people will consume services until the end of their lives．They will become．each and every one，an employer．
Passage 2：
Too many people see longer working lives as a worry rather than an opportunity—and not just because they are going to be chained to their desks．Some worry that there will not be enough jobs to go around．This misunderstanding，known to economists as the“lump of labour fallacy(劳动总量固定的谬论)”，was once used to argue that women should stay at home and leave all the jobs for breadwinning males．Now lump-of-labourites say that keeping the old at work would deprive(剥夺)the young of employment．The idea that society can become
better-off by paying more of its citizens to be idle(无所事事的)is clearly ridiculous．On that reasoning，if the retirement age came down to 25 we would all be as rich as Bill Gates．In Passage 1，one reason for suggesting earlier retirement in the US is the_______
| A．tough policy | B．stable pension |
| C．high unemployment | D．free medical care |
In Passage I，the writer suggests encouraging older people to retire earlier by____________.
| A．cutting their pension if they remain at work |
| B．giving them an extra sum o f money on retiring |
| C．convincing them that young people need work |
| D．offering them a bonus each year for three years |
Lump-of-laborites believe that____________．
| A．young citizens should be better paid |
| B．the old should leave jobs for the young |
| C．males should earn bread for the family |
| D．earlier retirement will lead to a poorer society |
What is the author’s attitude towards earlier retirement in Passage 2?
| A．Negative． | B．Positive． |
| C．Unconcerned． | D．Tolerant． |
Along with global warming and the Ebola virus，this year, something far less life-and society-threatening also spiraled out of control：email．
It was long ago invented as something to make us more productive．But what productivity expert would ever say that it's a good thing that instead of working，we now“answer email? Or that on some days，I am unwilling to leave my desk to head into a meeting because it means taking my finger off the keyboard and knowing 1 will return to a flood of new messages waiting patiently for my total attention?
Some people struggle for“inbox zero”．But like many people，I now get so much junk mail that if I were to adopt such a goal，I would spend every workday doing nothing but deleting emails．To make sure nothing important gets buried，I have developed an embarrassinglv old system of keeping a pen-and-paper list of emails that need responses on a series of Post-It notes．As far back as 2007，Fred Wilson famously declared “email bankruptcy”．I'm close to doing the Same．
But I may not need to．I predict that 2015 will mark the beginning of the end of emails．Already, some tools have emerged(出现)over the years，like software Freedom which disables access to the Internet for chosen periods of time．Corporations have gradually been adopting stricter email policies：A few years ago，Volkswagen said it would stop sending emails from its servers to company-owned BlackBerrys after the end of its workday．
But this great hope is largely the optimist in me speaking，and I give this prediction small chances compared to some of our others．As Tony Hsieh once told me，the problem with email is that it is a“good—enough”solution．Some technologies stay around just because there isn’t anything better．It’s probably right．But my wish is that 2015 is the year when truly effective email management solutions go from good to great-and that email volume goes from crazy to reasonable．We’ll a11 be better for it．
The underlined word “spiraled” in Paragraph l probably means “_____________”.
| A．increased rapidly | B．moved in circle |
| C．changed unexpectedly | D．appeared suddenly |
The writer is unwilling to attend a meeting because____________.
| A．he has to return with quantities of emails |
| B．answering emails calls for great attention |
| C．more emails will flood in waiting for him to check |
| D．he doesn’t want to take his fingers off the keyboard |
From Paragraph 3，we may infer that____________.
| A．the goal “inbox zero” is hard to obtain |
| B．the writer is devoted to deleting emails |
| C．pens and paper are highly favored at work |
| D．Fred Wilson famously declared “email bankruptcy” |
The writer may agree that____________.
| A．emails will come to an end |
| B．emails will still hold a place |
| C．existing email management is perfect |
| D．emails will never be sent to BlackBerrys |
Herbie Ricketts，52,lives in Thornton Heath，south London，and works as an electrician．He has been a listening volunteer with the Samaritans for 16 years.
Each caller is as individual as their circumstances and I didn’t realize so many people take their own lives until I became a Samaritan．And only then did the true nature of the work I was doing hit home.
I’ll always remember my first day on duty．The caller, stressed and depressed，told me he was suicidal(想自杀的)．He’d been too frightened to talk to the people around him，which is common．People are told they’ve got nothing to be upset about．Or, if they are already classified as having mental health issues，so they tell no one．How do you make sense of your feelings if you can’t tell someone? Just allowing people to say what they honestly feel helps them find a different perspective．I couldn’t offer him practical advice but I could support him emotionally．I helped him come to terms with his situation and make sense of some of the terrible emotions he was experiencing．Offering anonymity(匿名)and being nonjudgmental(无偏见的)allows people easily hurt to explore their thoughts without fear or worry．I left him in an emotionally safe place，ensuring he knew 1 wasn’t rejecting or abandoning him．I let him know we were still there if he needed us，explaining that it might not be me on the other end of the phone but another Samaritan who could also support．
Suicidal people will ring with issues like drug use or loneliness．If you look at it from the perspective of, “How can I solve this? ”you can become，like them，at a loss．Every cell in your body wants to offer solutions，but as a Samaritan I’m not there to sort their problems out．I listen and will support them when they can’t see any further than tomorrow．When the phone goes silent，we stay with that caller as long as we possibly can，which could be two or three hours．
The shifts are up to four hours long．When it doesn’t go so well，I offload to my colleague，so I don’t carry home a heavy heart．Being a Samaritan has greatly improved my life．I’m calmer and become a supportive listener, which has also improved my relationships．But being a wonderful Samaritan doesn’t make you a wonderful parent or wonderful partner—I wish it did．What does the underlined sentence in the passage probably mean?
| A．Those who called in had their unique nature． |
| B．I got to realize the value of being a Samaritan． |
| C．It was common that many people committed suicide． |
| D．I was determined to be a Samaritan at home． |
Some people choose not to tell others about their feelings mainly because they________.
| A．actually have nothing to worry about |
| B．are too shy to expose themselves to others |
| C．suffer from serious mental health problems |
| D．find no supportive listeners around them |
Samaritans usually help callers by________.
| A．sorting out their problems |
| B．providing practical advice for them |
| C．offering them emotional support |
| D．asking questions such as“How can I solve this? ” |
We may infer from the passage that________.
| A．being a good Samaritan takes patience |
| B．Samaritans are easily affected by callers |
| C．callers are always successfully comforted |
| D．people kill themselves for lack of listening volunteers |
Stanley Yelnats was given a choice. The judge said, “You may go to prison, or you may go to Camp Green Lake.” Stanley was from a poor family. He had never been to camp before. So, Stanley Yelnats seems set to serve an easy sentence, which is only fair because he is as innocent as you or me. But Stanley is not going where he thinks he is.
Camp Green Lake is like no other camp anywhere. It is a place that has no lake and nothing green. Nor is it a camp, at least not the kind of camp kids look forward to in the summertime. It is only a desert wasteland, dotted with countless holes dug by the boys who live at the camp.
The trouble started when Stanley was accused of stealing a pair of shoes donated by basketball great Clyde “Sweetfeet” Livingston to a celebrity auction (名流拍卖会). In court, the judge doesn’t believe Stanley’s explanation that the shoes fell from the sky onto his head. And yet, that’s exactly what happened. Strangely, though, Stanley doesn’t blame the judge for falsely convicting (宣告有罪) him. Instead, he blames the whole thing on his “no-good-dirty-rotten-pig-
stealing-great-great-grandfather.” Thanks to this distant relative, the Yelnats family had been cursed (诅咒) for generations. For Stanley, his current troubles are just a natural part of being a Yelnats.
At Camp Green Lake, the warden (看守) makes the boys “build character” by spending all day, every day, digging holes: five feet wide and five feet deep. It doesn’t take long for Stanley to realize there’s more than character improvement going on at Camp Green Lake. The boys are digging holes because the warden is searching for something, and before long Stanley begins his own search — for the truth. Fate is to find a solution to it all — the family curse, the mystery of the holes. The great wheel of justice has ground slowly for generations, but now it is about to reveal its verdict (裁决).Stanley Yelnats went to Camp Green Lake to__________________.
| A．enjoy the summertime | B．show his innocence |
| C．Serve his sentence | D．make a choice |
We can learn from the passage that Stanley__________________.
| A．stole the shoes for his relative |
| B．got the shoes by accident |
| C．donated the shoes to an auction |
| D．blamed the judge for the sentence |
In fact，the warden made the boys dig holes to________________.
| A．kill the time | B．build character |
| C．break the family curse | D．look for something |
In which section of a newspaper does this passage probably appear?
| A．Law． | B．Geography． |
| C．News． | D．Literature． |
As a public school superintendent(督导), I believe the best way to prepare students for colleges and careers is to focus on providing instructional programs and opportunities that help them become good thinkers. To do this, teachers and actually everyone else in a community, should play a role as a “cognitive coach” to students, helping develop good thinkers among our youth.
The best way for you to become a cognitive coach is to seek out and engage school children and adolescents in meaningful conversations. The objective here is to get kids talking about what they think, how they feel, and what they believe whenever and wherever you may find them. It may be in a classroom. It may be at the grocery store. It may be at a basketball game. It doesn’t matter where as long as you engage students in a topical conversation and, hopefully, even a debate. Mainly, you want to encourage students to voice their opinion about things. Get them to take a position on “this thing, or that thing,” and ask them to support their position with evidence. Curiously enough, the simple process of engaging students in real life conversations and debates will serve to strengthen what they have learned in the classroom, and help them create their own knowledge about a subject or a topic.
Learning indicates that a student has been exposed to material, understands the material, and can recall the information. Knowledge, on the other hand, goes beyond recall and includes information processing, application to other situations, consideration of meaning, and contrasting with other concepts. Naturally, the topic of conversation you engage in with one of your learners will differ from student to student, and in the level of complexity based on child’s age and developmental level. Even a kindergartener has an opinion about things that are going on in his or her life. Engaging in conversation with any members of your learning community in ways that get at what they have learned and what they know will help them develop higher order reasoning skills.
A student’s synthetic thinking(综合思维) process occurs when a respected adult asks a question, particularly a question that requires reflection. I think all adults in a community have a responsibility to help children with this process, with the goal of producing independent thinkers.According to writer, what most helps develop students’ thinking?
| A．Enlarging one’s knowledge. |
| B．Learning from respected adults. |
| C．Attending instructional programs. |
| D．Making evidence-based arguments. |
Which is the best question raised by a cognitive coach?
| A．What have you learnt recently? |
| B．Will you pay by the credit card? |
| C．Where are you going this weekend? |
| D．How do you like this basketball team? |
The writer mentions a kindergartener in Paragraph 3 in order to _____.
| A．emphasize the importance of being a good thinker |
| B．suggest that education should start at an early age |
| C．prove that even children have their own ways of thinking |
| D．explain the necessity of choosing proper conversation topics |
What is the main purpose of the passage?
| A．To state an education idea. |
| B．To assess a teaching strategy. |
| C．To introduce a learning method. |
| D．To compare different education methods. |
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