Here's one very simple yet potentially lifechanging advice I first heard from Brian Tracy. 1 Instead use that hour to read books that could improve your life.
If you're in sales, Google or browse Amazon for what other people think are the best and most useful books on improving your sales.
2 . Maybe you want to improve your health, become a more energetic person with a better looking body. Or maybe you want to improve your productivity, your relations or perhaps do some general personal development.
One hour a day is not much. But if you read for one hour a day on weekdays, that's about 260 hours a year. 3 If applied everyone knows what great things and feelings could come into your life this year.
Also, all that cool information and useful advice will start to open up your mind. You will start to see more possibilities in your everyday life.
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1. I really don't have the money...
Answer: Visit your local library or search their database if they got a website. Or look for used copies in places like amazon.com or some more local alternative if you're outside of the US.
2. Yeah, ok, but I really don't have the time...
Answer: Buy the books as audio books and listen to them in the car while driving to and from work. Or transfer them to your mp3-player and listen while riding your bike/bus to work or school. Recently selling audio books directly through mp3-downloads have become popular. It's probably something we will see more and more as people and companies discover this easy (and if the technology works) smooth way of shopping.
So start browsing for recommendations on books or ask your friends and colleagues.
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| A． Now, you might think something like this: |
| B． This of course applies to all fields, not just the work related ones. |
| C． All these possibilities in your everyday life will help solve the following problems: |
| D． And shut of the TV a little earlier and start reading this week. |
E. That's a lot of books and loads of useful advice.
F. Cut down on the TV at night by just one hour.
G. In a word, more recommendations on books will help you find good books.
I finished my last evening shift of the week and could hardly wait to get home. I took off my nursing shoes, relaxed and then said goodnight to the rest of the girls and headed out of the door.
It was so cold and I could see the ice crystals in the air. As I approached my car, I saw one of my coworkers standing by the bus stop. I thought it would only take a couple of extra minutes to give her a ride home, and besides, it was too cold to be standing outside on the coldest night in January.
We chatted as I drove and before we knew it, we arrived at her house. As she headed up the steps to her door she turned around. “Do you know how to get to your house from here?” “How hard can it be? I’ll just backtrack the way I came.”
I started driving. Nothing looked familiar, but at first that didn’t bother me since I’d never been to this neighborhood before. I kept driving, and soon I sensed that something was wrong. I recognized nothing, not the neighborhoods, not even the street names. My husband would be worried about me. I looked down at my watch. It was now 2:30. I’d left work at 11:30 pm.
I stopped my car. I thought I’d better take stock of my situation. My gas gauge (汽油表) was slowly going down. In total defeat I put my head down on the steering wheel and asked for help. I lifted my head. I saw a shadow down the road in front of me. It was a car. What was a car doing in the middle of nowhere at 2:30 in the morning?
Hesitantly, I got out of my car and knocked on the window of the other car. An elderly man slowly rolled his window down.
I said, “I’m lost and don’t know how to get back into town.”
In silence, he started driving. I drove behind him.
Finally I recognized a familiar street. As I turned to head home, I lost sight of my guiding angel. When I pulled into my driveway the warning light for my gas tank turned on.Why did the writer stop her car?
| A．To consider and judge the situation. |
| B．To check whether there was gas. |
| C．To prevent the car breaking down. |
| D．To turn to somebody for help. |
When the writer got home, _______.
| A．she thanked the old man very much |
| B．her husband was waiting for her anxiously |
| C．the oil in her car was just going to run out |
| D．she was totally frozen on the cold night |
What might be the suitable title for the passage?
| A．Keep up and you will succeed at last. |
| B．Meeting a friendly old man in trouble. |
| C．Giving a ride to my coworker at night. |
| D．Losing my way on a cold winter night. |
In winter Hammerfest is a thirty-hour ride by bus from Oslo, though why anyone would want to go there in winter is a question worth considering. It is on the edge of the world, the northernmost town in Europe, as far from London as London is from Tunis, a place of dark and cruel winters, where the sun sinks into the Arctic Ocean in November and does not rise again for ten weeks.I wanted to see the Northern Lights. Also, I had long harboured a half-formed urge to experience what life was like in such a remote and forbidding place. Sitting at home in England with a glass of whisky and a book of maps, this had seemed an excellent idea. But now as I picked my way through the grey, late-December slush（融雪） of Oslo I was beginning to have my doubts.
Things had not started well. I had overslept at the hotel, missing breakfast, and had to leap into my clothes. I couldn't find a cab and had to drag my unreasonably overweighted bag eight blocks through slush to the central bus station. I had had huge difficulty persuading the staff at the Kreditkassen Bank on Karl Johans Gate to cash sufficient traveller's cheques to pay the overcharged 1,200-kroner bus fare-they simply could not be made to grasp that the William McGuire Bryson on my passport and the Bill Bryson on my traveller's cheques were both me-and now here I was arriving at the station two minutes before departure, breathless and steaming from the endless uphill exertion（费力）that is my life, and the girl at the ticket counter was telling me that she had no record of my reservation.
"This isn't happening," I said. "I'm still at home in England enjoying Christmas．Pass me a drop more port, will you, darling?" Actually, I said, "There must be some mistake. Please look again." The girl studied the passenger list. "No, Mr Bryson, your name is not here·”
But I could see it, even upside-down. "There it is, second from the bottom二，，
"No," the girl decided, "that says Bemt Bjornson. That's a Norwegian name·”
"It doesn't say Bernt Bjornson. It says Bill Bryson. Look at the loop（圆圈） of the 'y', the two ‘I's. Miss, please." But she wouldn't have it. "If I miss this bus when does the next one go?""Next week at the same time．，，
Oh, splendid.
"Miss, believe me, it says Bill Bryson."
"No, it doesn't."
"Miss, look, I've come from England. I'm carrying some medicine that could save a child's life.”She didn't buy this. "I want to see the manager."
"He's in Stavanger.”
"Listen, I made a reservation by telephone．If I don't get on this bus I’m going to write a letter to your manager that will cast a shadow over your career prospects（前景）for the rest of this century." This clearly did not alarm her. Then it occurred to me. "If this Bemt Bjornson doesn't show up, can I have his seat?"
"Sure.”
Why don't I think of these things in the first place and save myself the suffering? "Thank you,"
I said, and dragged my bag outside. What words can best describe Hammerfest in winter?
| A．Grey and dirty. |
| B．Dark and cold. |
| C．Unfriendly and expensive. |
| D．Wild and forbidden. |
Why did the author mention the Kreditkassen Bank on Karl Johans Gate?
| A．To suggest that people there could be ridiculous and stubborn. |
| B．To introduce the cultural differences in northern Europe and England. |
| C．To give an example of an interesting story during his journey. |
| D．To indicate that the bus fare was very expensive． |
What could be inferred from the passage?
| A．The author booked his bus ticket with a Norwegian name. |
| B．The author paid the bus fare by traveller's cheque. |
| C．The author would hopefully get on the bus． |
| D．The girl at the ticket counter cared about the author's complaints. |
According to the last paragraph, the author probably felt＿at that moment.
| A．embarrassed | B．contented |
| C．regretful | D．grateful |
We can learn from the passage that＿．
| A．the author's journey to the north was not worthwhile |
| B．the Europeans didn't welcome visitors |
| C．the author wrote a letter to the girl's manager |
| D．the author's journey to the north was not smooth |
One of the most important recent medical breakthroughs has been the impact of gut flora（肠道菌群）on overall health. This dynamic mix of bacteria in the digestive tract（消化道）may affect everything from obesity to asthma（哮喘）．
The Gut-Mood Link
Anyone who's ever experienced "butterflies" in his or her stomach knows that the gut and the brain are connected. But until recently, scientists hadn't realized that the trillions of bacteria in our digestive tract may be driving the relationship.
One recent experiment suggests that you can control calm. Canadian researchers gave healthy mice a mixture of antibiotics, which change the makeup of GI-tract（胃肠道）bacteria. Over two weeks, some animals became more anxious and some less, depending on which drugs they received. In another study, when gut bacteria from calm mice were transferred to anxious mice, the jittery（紧张的）creatures seemed less nervous.
UCLA professor Kirsten Tillisch, doctor of medicine, recently had healthy women eat a yogurt
rich in certain types of "good" probiotic（益生菌的）bacteria. Two 'Control groups ate yogurt without such bacteria or ate nothing. Brain scans of the probiotic-yogurt eaters indicated changes in regions that could be associated with a less-anxious response in fearful or stressful situations compared with the control groups.
Scientists are even exploring whether gut microbes（微生物）might treat some brain disorders. A new study in Cell found that mice with features of autism（自ICJ症）given a type of bacteria in healthy human GI tracts exhibited less autism-like behavior. In a recent case report, a Boston ps. chiatrist says a course of certain probiotics and antibiotics helped relieve a patient's compulsive disorder. -We tend to focus on how your mood affects your body from the top down, not the bottom up," says Dr. Tillisch. "Now we know that the gut affects how your brain responds to the environment- it's a remarkable change in thinking.”
How Bacteria Talk to the Brain Scientists aren't sure how gut flora affect brain chemistry. One theory is that the bacteria access pathways along the nerve, the main highway in the nervous system that links the brain to the gut. Another is that the bacteria influence the immune system, releasing chemicals that affect conditions like depression. Finally, researchers believe that bacteria produce or affect the metabolism（新陈代泻'i) of chemicals, which change brain function.
Dr. Tillisch told me that patients always ask which probiotics will lift their mood．Her answer:
"We don't know yet, but we hope to one day." In the future, patients might receive probiotics or transplant（移植） in which bacteria from the gut of a healthy person are transferred to the gut of a sic': one-to prevent or treat mental health issues. But these approaches are years away from primary time．Until then, a diet rich in fruit and veggies helps cultivate（培养）better-balanced microbes than a typical Western diet high in animal and processed products. Avoiding unnecessary antibiotics, particularly in early childhood, may also establish healthier gut bacteria. According to the passage, gut bacteria might help us in many ways EXCEPT＿_．
| A．lightening our mood | B．treating autism |
| C．relieving depression | D．transplanting gut flora |
The missing sentence "Everyday foods may also affect the composition of gut bacteria, and in
turn, brain chemistry." could be put before＿_·
| A．Paragraph 2 | B．Paragraph 3 |
| C．Paragraph 4 | D．Paragraph 5 |
Which of the following can be the best subtitle for the last paragraph?
| A．Cultivating a Happier Gut |
| B．Growing Bacteria in the Future |
| C．Balancing Microbes and Diet |
| D．Living a Happy Healthy Life |
Who is the most powerful woman in the world? According to the US media, it's Janet Yellen, or at least she's about to be.
On Oct 9, 2013，US President Barack Obama nominated （提名）Yellen to serve as the next US Federal Reserve (the Fed, 美联储）chair. If confirmed by the Senate, Yellen will become the first woman to serve in the top spot.
Aged 67, silver-haired and tiny, Yellen is said to be the most qualified nominee ever. She chaired President Bill
Clinton's Council of Economic Advisers, taught at Harvard and Berkeley, and was president of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco. She is currently the Fed's vice chair.
Many think Yellen is the right choice to deal with the challenges the Fed now faces：First, to bring interest rates back to more normal levels without triggering a new recession（衰退）．Second, to reduce the US unemployment rate, which remains at historically high levels.
A CNN opinion piece says Yellen is unusual for an economist of her caliber（才干）．"She has kept her eyes on what's critical-the people. Her research has centered on unemployment, on the best way to modulate（调整）government policies to benefit the people."
Past records also show that Yellen is exceptionally good at predicting where the economy is headed. An article in The Washington Post points out that she was one of the few voices at the Fed inDecember 2009 warning about the subprime crisis（次贷危机）and the following recession.
The reason why Yellen will be the most powerful woman in the world has to do with the unique position of the Federal Reserve, explains an article on Quartz, a US news outlet for business people in the new global economy,
First of all, the Fed is independent. Unlike US Secretaries of State Madeleine Albright and Hilary Clinton, the decisions made by the organization Yellen will lead next year are not subject to approval by anyone in the government.
Within the Fed, the chair alone sets the agenda. The Fed chairperson has huge influence on monetary policy（货币政策）and financial regulation. And don't forget how powerful the Fed itself is. It controls the money supply in the world's largest economy. The Fed's interest rate decisions don't just set the course for the US economy, its decisions set the course for the world economy, too.
Because of globalization, Yellen's decisions will affect everyone around the world, says an article in The Atlantic, making her even more powerful than some great women rulers in history, including Elizabeth I of England and China's Wu Zetian. For example, the article continues: "If Yellen even just talks about slowing down the Fed's bond-buying, Europe's troubled economies are likely to see their interest rates rise, and emerging markets, some of which, like India and Indonesia, used foreign capital to fund their current account deficits（赤字），are likely to see their currencies collapse."According to the passage, which of the following is NOT the reason for Yellen's nomination?
| A．Yellen's professional experiences． |
| B．Yellen's ability to deal with the challenges the Fed faces. |
| C．Yellen's educational background. |
| D．Yellen's remarkable competence as an economist. |
Janet Yelien will be the most powerful woman in the world because＿·
| A．the Fed is the most powerful organization in the US |
| B．Yellen gets full support from Obama |
| C．Yellen holds a unique position in the government |
| D．the Fed possesses great power and influence |
What is the author's attitude towards Yellen's being nominated?
| A．Optimistic. | B．Negative. |
| C．Understanding. | D．Doubtful. |
What is the author's purpose of writing this passage?
| A．To introduce the US Federal Reserve. |
| B．To report on the next Fed chair. |
| C．To introduce the current world economy. |
| D．To report on a few powerful women. |
There are few places in the world with people as friendly and scenery as beautiful as the Philippines. Of the 7,107 islands that make up the archipelago nation（群岛国家），Boracay is one that has some of the best beaches the country-or even Asia-has to offer.
Boracay is a great choice for a beach holiday, especially if you're trying to escape the cold
claws of winter. A lot is packed on the island, which is not much bigger than 10 square kilometers. It has many charms and attractions for the most active traveler, as well as the biggest beach bum（冲浪爱好者）．
It also caters to a variety of budgets. With everything from low-key guesthouses to five-star resorts, local fare to gourmet meals（餐要大餐），travelers will be able to spend as -much or as little as they want. And like many destinations in Asia, bargaining will help you get better prices on accommodation, leisure activities, shopping and dining. The majority of accommodations can be found along the western side of the island, along White Sand Beach and Bulabog Beach. The southern part of the beach, called Station Three, caters more to backpacker crowds, and prices tend to increase the farther you go up the beach. Station Two, 5 to 10 minutes on foot from Station Three, is the center of the island's pulsing nightlife. Another 10 minutes up from Station Two is Station One, where you'll find the resort hotels and a more relaxed, comforting atmosphere. The island's lookout point is arguably the best place for panoramic（全景的）views of Boracay and its neighboring islands. Just a few moments of breathtaking scenery and fresh sea air will rejuvenate（使精神焕发）you and make you feel you never want to leave.
There are organized trips to nearby islands, one of the most popular being Ariel's Point. The Boracay Beach Club resort, which owns the island, plans outings to Ariel's for a minimum of 14 people each trip．Visitors can have a day of cliff-jumping, snorkeling and barbecues. An alternative-and a sure way to see and do what you want-is to hire a boat. Ride around Boracay, stop at a restaurant frequented by locals, visit the neighboring islands, find a good snorkeling spot or fthd a beach where you can appreciate Boracay's unspoiled beauty. Countless boat operators offer their services along the shore. Rental is typically 500 pesos（＄12) an hour. Another must-do is a sailboat ride at sunset. White Sand and Bulabog Beaches are lined with sailboats, and there's nothing quite like watching the sun descend against the backdrop of a blue sea and sky. There's very little that will top this bonding moment with nature. To round up the day, head out for a tasty meal．Because of Boracay's countless international visitors, almost every major food type is available. There's New York-style pizzas, burgers galore, Mexican treats, Thai favorites, as well as Japanese udon noodles．
There's plenty more to love and appreciate about Boracay. With its small, cozy atmosphere and welcoming people, it's one destination not to pass up for that romantic getaway, family trip or holiday with friends.
If you want to find inexpensive accommodation, you should go＿along White Sand Beach and Bulabog Beach.
| A．northward | B．southward |
| C．eastward | D．westward |
What does the underlined word "top" in Paragraph 8 mean?
| A．Be better than. | B．Be suitable for. |
| C．Be away from. | D．Be equal to. |
Which of the following is NOT mentioned in the passage?
| A．Hotel expenses. | B．Public transport. |
| C．Outdoor recreations. | D．International food |
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