You don’t need millions to be happy. In fact, at The Happiness Institute in Australia, a couple of hundred dollars may be enough.
The institute opened its door last year, and, since then, men and women of all ages have been paying $ 200 an hour for lessons on how to feel great.
“You can actually increase your happiness levels. That’s what we teach,” said Timothy Sharp, founder of the institute.
Experts say that only about 15 percent of happiness comes from income, assets (财产)and other financial factors. As much as 85 percent comes from things such as attitude, life control and relationships.
Most of us are significantly better off financially than our parents and grandparents, but happiness levels haven’t changed to reflect that.
Studies show that once the basic needs of shelter and food are met, additional wealth adds very little to happiness.
Many decades ago, the sage (圣人、哲人)of Baltimore, Maryland”, editor HL Mencken, defined wealth as earning $100 more than your “wife’s sister’s husband”.
Behavioral economists now say part of the reason we are richer but not happier is that we compare ourselves to people better off materially.
“The argument is that if you want to be happy there’s a very simple thing you can do:
Compare yourself to people who are less welloff than you---poorer, smaller house and
car,” said Sharp.
The Happiness Institute aims to show you how to overcome these unhappiness factors by focusing on “more than just your bank account”.
“If I compare myself to Bill Gates then I’m always going to be down,” said Sharp.
A better thing to compare with, he said, might be Kerry Packer, Australia’s richest person who has had a kidney (肾脏) transplant and heart surgery in recent years.Which of the following statements is true according to the passage?
| A．You may increase your happiness levels after attending the classes at The Happiness Institute. |
| B．Most of us are happier than our parents or grandparents since we earn more. |
| C．Earn $100 more than your wife’s sister’s husband if you want to be happy. |
| D．Both Bill Gates and Kerry Packer are examples of those who are extremely rich but obviously unhappy. |
The underlined phrase has the same meaning as the word______.
| A．healthy | B．unhealthy | C．free | D．wealthy |
The author wrote the passage to tell us_____.
| A．happiness is everything |
| B．wealth is the foundation of happiness |
| C．we can’t have fun at The Happiness Institute |
| D．money doesn’t always mean happiness |
According to the passage, happiness mainly depends on_____.
| A．income, assets and other financial factors |
| B．additional wealth apart from the satisfaction of the basic needs of shelter and food |
| C．things like attitude, life control and relationships |
| D．society development |
Many animals recognize their food because they see it. So do humans. When you see an apple or a piece of chocolate you know that these are things you can eat. You can also use other senses when you choose your food. You may like it because it smells go
od or because it tastes good. You may dislike some types of food because they do not look, smell or taste very nice. Different animals use different senses to find and choose their food. A few animals depend on only one of their senses, while most animals use more than one sense.
Although there are many different types of food, some animals spend their lives eating only one type. The giant panda eats only one particular type of bamboo. Other animals eat only one type of food even when given the choice. A kind of white butterfly will stay on the leaves of a cabbage, even though there are plenty of other vegetables in the garden. However, most animals have a more varied diet. The bear eats fruits and fish. The fox eats small animals, birds 
and fruits. The diet of these animals will be different depending on the season.
Humans have a very varied diet. We often eat food because we like it and not because it is good for us. In countries such as France and Britain, people eat foods with too much sugar. This makes them overweight, which is bad for their health. Eating too much red meat and animal products, such as butter, can also be bad for the health. Choosing the right food, therefore, has become an area of study in modern life. We can infer from the text that humans and animals _________.
| A．depend on one sense in choosing food | B． are not satisfied with their food |
| C．choose food in similar ways | D．eat entirely different food |
Which of the following eats only one type of food?
| A．The white butterfly. | B．The small bird. |
| C．The bear. | D．The fox. |
Certain animals change their choice of food when ___________.
| A．the season changes | B．the food color changes |
| C．they move to different places | D．they are attracted by different smells |
We can learn from the last paragraph that __________.
| A．food is chosen for a good reason | B．French and British food is good |
| C．some people have few choices of food | D．some people care little about healthy diet |
Remembering your dreams will require some efforts on your part. But what your dreams can offer and tell you about yourself will be well worth it. Here are some tips to help recall your dreams:
1. Before going to bed, keep a clear mind. Tell yourself that “I will remember my dreams when I wake up”. This is actually a proven and effective way to recall your dreams.
2. Have a regular bedtime and wake-up time. Make this your routine. Going to bed and waking up at a regular time every day could aid in dream recollection.
3. Avoid alcohol consumption and taking medicine before going to bed. These things may prevent you from remembering your dreams.
4. Keep a pencil and a notebook next to your bed so that they will be within reach as soon as you wake up. Having a small lamp by your bedside is also a good idea, so you wake up in the middle of the night and can record your dreams immediately.
5. Do not get out of bed immediately. Upon waking from a dream, lie still in your bed, keeping your eyes closed and moving as little as possible. Let your mind wander among the images of what you have just dreamed.
6. Write down as many details in your dreams as you can, no matter how seemingly unimportant they may be. Do not judge the content or worry if they make sense.
7. Sometimes it may help to draw pictures. A picture is worth a thousand words, as the saying goes. Even if you are not an artist, a simple drawing can help to recall details of your dreams. This passage tells you ______ .
| A．some useful tips to recall your dreams | B．the way to recall your dreams |
| C．the reason to remember dreams | D．many details in your dreams |
Which of the following ways may NOT be useful for recalling dreams?
| A．Avoiding taking alcohol and medicine. | B．Not getting out of bed immediately. |
| C．Drinking a cup of hot milk. | D．Writing down as many details as possible. |
What does the underlined “it” in the first paragraph mean? ______
| A．Remembering your dreams. |
| B．Some tips to help recall your dreams. |
| C．Your making efforts to remember your dreams. |
| D．What your dreams can offer and tell you about yourself. |
The author uses the saying “A picture is worth a thousand words” to_______.
| A．show that a picture is better than words |
| B．say a picture is equal to thousands of words |
| C．prove that it’s more important to draw pictures than to speak |
| D．indicate drawing pictures really helps to recall dreams |
The government of Norway is planning to build an unusual storage center on an island in the Arctic Ocean. The place would be large enough to hold about two million seeds. The goal is to present all crops known to scientists. The British magazine New Scientist published details of the plan last month. The structure will be designed to protect the world’s food supply against nuclear war, climate change and other possible threats. It will be built in a mountain on the Norwegian island of Spitsbergen. The mountain is less than one thousand kilometers from the North Pole, the nor
thernmost position on earth.
An international group called the Global Crop Diversity Trust is working on the project. The director of the group, Cary Fowler, spoke to New Scientist. He said the project would let the world rebuild agriculture if, in his word, “the worst came to the worst”. Norway is expected to start work n
ext year. The project is expected to cost three million dollars. Workers will drill（钻孔） deep in the side of a sandstone mountain. Temperatures in the area never rise above 0ºC. The seeds will be protected behind walls a meter thick and high-security door.
The magazine report says the collection will represent the products of ten thousand years of farming. Most of the seeds at first will e from collections at seed banks in Africa, Asia and Latin America. To last a long time, seeds need to 
be kept in very low temperatures. Workers will not be present all the time. But they plan to replace the air inside the storage space each winter. Winter temperatures on the island are about eighteen degrees below 0ºC. The cold weather would protect the seeds even if the air could not be replaced.
Mr. Fowler says the proposed structure will be the world’s safest gene bank. He says the plant seeds would only be used when all other seeds are gone for some reason. Norway first put forward the idea in the 1980s. But safety concerns delayed the plan. At that time, the Soviet Union was meeting in Rome of the Food and Agriculture Organization.
The project is meant to ______.
| A．increase the world’s food output in the future |
| B．carry out some scientific experiments on plant genes |
| C．build an exhibition centre of the world’s plant seeds |
| D．protect crop seeds from dying out in case of possible disasters |
Which of the following statements is TRUE according to the above passage?
| A．The government of Norway will perform the project alone. |
| B．Seeds to be collected there were produced ten thousands years ago. |
| C．Spitsbergen is chosen because it is free of the nuclear war forever. |
| D．Temperature is a major consideration when choosing the storage place. |
We can infer from the text that _______.
| A．Norway had meant to build the storage centre about 20 years before. |
| B．The storage center will greatly promote world agriculture |
| C．People will get newly-developed seeds from the center every year. |
| D．There haven’t been any seed storage centres in the world before. |
What is probably the best title
of the passage?
| A．The Best Place to Store Seeds |
| B．Noah’s Ark（诺亚方舟）of Plant Seeds in Plan |
| C．Concerns of World Food Supply |
| D．A New Way to Feed the World |
Among various programmes, TV talk shows have covered every inch of space on daytime television. And anyone who watches them regularly knows that each one is different in style. But no two shows are more opposite in content, while at the same time standing out above the rest, than the Jerry Springer and the Oprah Winfrey shows.
Jerry Springer could easily be considered the king of “rubbish talk”. The contents on his show are as surprising as they can be. For example, the show takes the ever-mon talk show titles of love, sex, cheating, and hate, to a different level. Clearly, the Jerry Springer show is about the dark sid
e of society, yet people are willing to eat up the troubles of other people’s lives.
Like Jerry Springer, Oprah Winfrey takes TV talk show to its top. But Oprah goes in the opposite direction. The show is mainly about the improvement of society and different quality of life. Contents are from teaching your children lessons, managing your work week, to getting to know your neighbors.
pared to Oprah, the Jerry Springer show looks like poisonous waste being poured into society. Jerry ends every show with a “final word”. He makes a small speech about the entire idea of the show. Hopefully, this is the part where most people will learn something very valuable.
Clean as it is, the Oprah show is not for everyone. The sho
w’s main viewers are middleclass Americans. Most of these people have the time, money, and ability to deal with life’s tough problems. Jerry Springer, on the other hand, has more of a connection with the young adults of society. These are 18-to-21-year-olds whose main troubles in life include love, relationship, sex, money and drug. They are the ones who see some value and lessons to be learned through the show’s exploitation.pared with other TV talk shows, both the Jerry Springer and the Oprah Winfrey are ____.
| A．more interesting | B．more formal |
| C．more detailed | D．unusually popular |
Which of the following is likely to be a topic of the Oprah Winfrey show?
| A．Family ine planning. | B．Nation hatred. |
| C．A new type of robot. | D．Street accident. |
We can learn from the passage that the two talk shows_____.
| A．have bee the only ones of its kind |
| B．attract different people |
| C．appear at different times of the day |
| D．exploit the weaknesses in human nature |
Today just as technology changed the face of industry, farms have
experienced an “agricultural revolution”. On the farm of today, machines provide almost all the power.
One of the most important benefits will be the farm puter. A few forward-looking farmers are already using puters to help them run their farms more efficiently. The puters help them keep more accurate records so they can make better decisions on what crops to plant, how much livestock(家畜) to buy, when to sell their products, and how much profit they can expect. Many puter panies have been developing special puter programs just for farmers. Programs are being written for pig producers, grain farmers, potato farmers, and dairy farmers. In the future, farmers will be able to purchase puter programs made to their needs. Because of the growing importance of puters on the farm, students at agricultural colleges are required to take puter classes in addition to their normal agricultural courses. There can be no doubt that farmers will rely on puters even more in the future. While the old-time farm depended on horse power, and modern farms depend on machine power, farms of the future will depend on puter power.
Another technological advance which is still in the experimental stage is the robot, a real “mechanized hired hand” that will be able to move and, in some ways, think like a human being. Agricultural engineers believe that puter-aided robots will make shocking changes in farming before the end of the century. Unlike farmers of the present, farmers of the future will
find that many day-to-day t
asks will be done for them. Scientists are now developing robots that will be able to shear（修剪） sheep, drive tractors, and harvest fruit. Even plex jobs will be done by robots. For example, in order to milk their cows, farmers must first drive them into the barn, then connect them to the milking machines, watch the machines, and disconnect them when they are finished. In the future, this will all be done by robots. In addition, when the milking is pleted, the robots will automatically check to make sure that the milk is pure. The plete change of the farm is far in the future, but engineers expect that some robots will be used before long.Which sentence carried the main idea of the whole passage?
| A．The first sentence of the third paragraph. |
| B．The first sentence of the second paragraph. |
| C．The first sentence of the first paragraph. |
| D．The last sentence of the second paragraph. |
According to the passage, puters can not help farmers decide _______.
| A．how much money they can earn from their products |
| B．whether to plant a certain kind of crop |
| C．what livestock to raise |
| D．when to sell their products |
Which of the following statements is true?
| A．Farmers in the future will depend totally on puters. |
| B．Farmers mainly use machines on their farms at present. |
| C．Both puters and robots have been in use on today’s farms. |
| D．Students at agricultural colleges must take puter classes because they can do |
Nothing without the help of puters on today’s farms.What is the best title for the whole passage?
| A．puter, Farmers’ Best Friend | B．Farmers in The Future |
| C．The Agricultural Revolution | D．puters and Robots |
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