The passengers on the subway who caught a glimpse of me may have thought I was strange. In particular a gentleman sitting opposite me was always staring at me, looking at the cheese bread on the floor in front of me and then staring back at me. A passenger probably dropped it by mistake and got off at a previous stop, but the gentleman might not think so. “Next stop, St. Patrick Station” — my stop was quickly coming up. I had few minutes to either take the cheese bread, which nobody else was claiming, or left it there.
In those few minutes I felt my pride getting in the way. “What would others on the subway think of me if I took the cheese bread? Would they think that I was poor and hungry? Would they think that I was stealing?” The ignorant thing to do was say “yes” to any of those self-imposed questions. Actually, they were just my own thoughts. Though I would leave the subway, walk a block to my office, get settled at my desk, and sit comfortably in my office for the whole day, I couldn’t get rid of the enormous sense of guilt and regret.
My thoughts once pushed me towards pride and ignorance, but finally I had to admit I was wrong. This missing cheese bread could be a gift for a homeless person who suffered from cold and hunger. So why not overcome a little bit of my pride and pass along so much kindness?
Just as the doors opened at my stop, I grabbed the cheese bread and left the subway. It felt awesome, but I didn’t care if people were looking at me or what they were thinking. Instead of going directly to my office as usual, I walked a few more blocks up to Queen’s park, where I often saw a homeless man sitting outside. I always wanted to give him something, but only today I walked toward him, who wrapped himself in a sleeping bag. I was full of satisfaction, and so did the homeless man, I thought.The gentleman kept staring at the author because _______.
| A．he wanted to talk to the author |
| B．he might think the author dropped the bread |
| C．the author appeared too nervous |
| D．the author was going to get off |
The underlined word “self-imposed” in paragraph 2 probably means “_______”.
| A．easily obtained |
| B．strongly supported |
| C．deliberately created |
| D．completely unaccepted |
Why did the author grab the cheese bread when he got off?
| A．He noticed that no one was looking at him. |
| B．He didn’t want to see the cheese bread to go to waste. |
| C．He remembered a homeless man at that very moment. |
| D．He valued kindness more than his own pride. |
Over the last 70 years, researchers have been studying happy and unhappy people and finally found out ten factors that make a difference. Our feelings of well-being at any moment are determined to a certain degree by genes. However, of all the factors, wealth and age are the top two.
Money can buy a degree of happiness. But once you can afford to feed, clothe and house yourself, each extra dollar makes less and less difference.
Researchers find that, on average, wealthier people are happier. But the link between money and happiness is complex. In the past half-century, average income has sharply increased in developed countries, yet happiness levels have remained almost the same. Once your basic needs are met, money only seems to increase happiness if you have more than your friends, neighbors and colleagues.
“Dollars buy status, and status makes people feel better,” conclude some experts, which helps explain why people who can seek status in other ways－scientists or actors, for example－may happily accept relatively poorly-paid jobs.
In a research, Professor Alex Michalos found that the people whose desire－not just for money, but for friends, family, job, health－rose furthest beyond what they already had, tended to be less happy than those who felt a smaller gap(差距). Indeed, the size of the gap predicted happiness about five times better than income alone. “The gap measures just blow away the only measures of income.” Says Michalos.
Another factor that has to do with happiness is age. Old age may not be so bad. “Given all the problems of aging, how could the elderly be more satisfied?” asks Professor Laura Carstensen.
In one survey, Carstensen interviewed 184 people between the ages of 18 and 94, and asked them to fill out an emotions questionnaire. She found that old people reported positive emotions just as often as young people, but negative emotions much less often.
Why are old people happier? Some scientists suggest older people may expect life to be harder and learn to live with it, or they’re more realistic about their goals, only setting ones that they know they can achieve. But Carstensen thinks that with time running out, older people have learned to focus on things that make them happy and let go of those that don’t.
“People realize not only what they have, but also that what they have cannot last forever,” she says. “A goodbye kiss to a husband or wife at the age of 85, for example, may bring far more complex emotional responses than a similar kiss to a boy or girl friend at the age of 20.”According to the passage, the feeling of happiness __________.
| A．has little to do with wealth | B．increases gradually with age |
| C．is determined partly by genes | D．is measured by desires |
Some actors would like to accept poorly-paid jobs because the jobs ____________.
| A．make them feel much better | B．improve their social position |
| C．provide chances to make friends | D．satisfy their professional interests |
Aged people are more likely to feel happy because they are more _________.
| A．optimistic | B．successful | C．practical | D．emotional |
Professor Alex Michalos found that people feel less happy if __________.
| A．the gap between reality and desire is bigger |
| B．they have a stronger desire for friendship |
| C．their income is below their expectation |
| D．the hope for good health is greater |
Sandra Cisneros was born in Chicago in 1954 to a Mexican American family. As the only girl in a family of seven children, she often felt like she had “seven fathers,” because her six brothers, as well as her father, tried to control her. Feeling shy and unimportant, she retreated(躲避) into books. Despite her love of reading, she did not do well in elementary school because she was too shy to participate.
In high school, with the encouragement of one particular teacher, Cisneros improved her grades and worked for the school literary magazine. Her father encouraged her to go to college because he thought it would be a good way for her to find a husband. Cisneros did attend college, but instead of searching for a husband, she found a teacher who helped her join the famous graduate writing program at the University of Iowa. At the university’s Writers’ Workshop, however, she felt lonely----a Mexican American from a poor neighborhood among students from wealthy families. The feeling of being so different helped Cisneros find her “Creative voice.”
“It was not until this moment when I considered myself truly different that my writing acquired a voice. I knew I was a Mexican woman, but I didn’t think it had anything to do with why I felt so much imbalance in my life, but it had everything to do with it! That’s when I decided I would write about something my classmates couldn’t write about.”
Cisneros published her first work, The House on Mango Street, when she was twenty-nine. The book tells about a young Mexican American girl growing up in a Spanish-speaking area in Chicago, much like the neighborhoods in which Cisneros lived as a child. The book won an award in 1985 and has been used in classes from high school through graduate school level. Since then, Cisneros has published several books of poetry, a children’s book, and a short-story collection.Which of the following is TRUE about Cisneros in her childhood?
| A．She had seven brothers. | B．She felt herself a nobody. |
| C．She was too shy to go to school. | D．She did not have any good teachers. |
The graduate program gave Cisneros a chance to _____.
| A．develop her writing style | B．run away from her family |
| C．make a lot of friends | D．work for a school magazine |
According to Cisneros, what played the decisive role in her success?
| A．Her early years in college. | B．Her training in the Workshop. |
| C．Her childhood experience | D．Her feeling of being different. |
What do we learn about The House on Mango Street?
| A．It wasn’t success as it was written in Spanish. |
| B．It is the only book ever written by Cisneros. |
| C．It is quite popular among students. |
| D．It won an award when Cisneros was twenty-nine. |
The Most Direct Solution to Any Problem
When trying to solve various problems in life, an approach I find very useful is to first identify what I’d consider the most direct solution, regardless of how I feel about actually implementing (实施) it. What is the clearest, most direct path to my goal or the most efficient way to get around an obstacle?
Many problems will have multiple direct solutions, but often these solutions will be unpleasant at first glance because they’ll require courage, self-discipline, creativity, or persistence to implement.
For example, suppose you want to lose weight. And suppose we can say that one of direct solutions is to eat the same as you’re eating now and increase your exercise output by 500 calories a day. It may require discipline and persistence, but most people would agree that it will work if you follow through.
Another example: However, you don’t know how that person feels about you. One direct solution would be to simply walk up, explain your thoughts and feelings, and ask if she or he is interested in discussing the possibility of a closer relationship. This will take less than a minute to say, and whatever the outcome is, at least you know where you stand.
Anyhow it’s very simple and straightforward.
What’s the simplest and quickest way to reach your goal, assuming that you had limitless courage and discipline?
| A．Of course this solution may require a lot of courage toovercome the possibility of rejection. |
| B．But if we can get ourselves to follow through, we know the solutions will actually work. |
| C．See if you can identify the most direct solution to some of your problems. |
| D．So the best way to overcome the difficulty is to ask your friends for advice. |
E. If you implement this rather simple solution, you’ll lose weight.
F. Suppose you’re interested in starting a relationship with someone.
G. However, the solution implemented does not work.
While success is surely sweeter than failure, it seems failure is a far better teacher, and organizations that fail miserably often flourish (繁荣) more in the long run, according to a new study by Vinit Desai, assistant professor of management at the University of Colorado Denver Business School. Researchers have found that people missing their goals perform much better in the long run. That is because they gain more knowledge from their failures than their successes and the lessons are more likely to stay longer in their minds.
“We found that the knowledge gained from success was often fleeting while knowledge from failure stuck around for years,” said professor Desai, who led the study. “But companies often ignore failure. Managers may fire people or turn over the whole workforce while they should treat the failure as a learning opportunity.”
Prof Desai compared the flights of the space shuttle Atlantis and the Challenger. During the Atlantis flight last year, a piece of insulation (绝缘体) broke off and damaged the left solid rocket booster (助推火箭) but didn’t influence the program. There was little investigation. The Challenger was launched next and another piece of insulation broke off. This time the shuttle and its seven–person crew were destroyed. The disaster led to a major investigation resulting in 29 changes to prevent future disasters.
The difference in response in the two cases came down to this: Atlantis was considered a success and the Challenger a failure.
“Despite crowded skies, airlines are extremely reliable,” he said. “The number of failures is extremely small. And past researches have shown that older airlines, those with more experience in failure, have a lower number of accidents.”
Prof Desai doesn’t recommend finding out failure in order to learn. Instead, he advises organizations to analyze small failures to collect useful information rather than wait for major failures. Why did experts pay little attention to the problem of Atlantis?
| A．Because it worked perfectly. |
| B．Because the right booster was still OK. |
| C．Because nothing serious happened then. |
| D．Because fewer people died in the flight. |
Fewer accidents happen to older airlines in that ________.
| A．their planes couldn’t fly high in the sky |
| B．they gained much from experience in failure |
| C．their planes were often checked by the experts |
| D．they were unpopular among passengers |
The passage is written mainly to ________.
| A．show failure is a better teacher than success |
| B．explain why Challenger failed |
| C．introduce something about Prof Desai |
| D．tell managers how to achieve success |
Which writing strategy is NOT used in developing the passage?
| A．Giving definitions. |
| B．Making comparisons. |
| C．Analyzing causes. |
| D．Providing different examples. |
Kids Fishing Photo Contest
It certainly isn’t hard to “ picture it”, that is – smiles, laughs, looks of anticipation (期望) and excitement. So, join in the fun, catch the excitement of your child on film while fishing and enter his or her picture in the yearly Kids Fishing Photo Contest! The contest is sponsored by Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries (VDGIF) in celebration of National Fishing Week!
The winning pictures are those that best catch the theme “kids enjoying fishing”. Children in the first through third place photographs of each category will receive different fishing-related prizes. Winning pictures will also be posted on the VDGIF website and may be used in all kinds of VDGIF publications. There is no need to be a professional photographer. Any photo will do.
Contest Rules
·Children in the photographs must fall into one of the following age groups when the picture is taken: 1—4, 6—10.
·Photos must not be more than 1 year old.
·Photos must be taken in Virginia.
·Children in a boat must be wearing a life jacket.
·Only one photo submission (提交) per child.
·Submit the photo on photograph quality paper, no CD’s accepted.
·Photos must not be bigger than “4×6” size.
·Please stick a piece of paper to the back of the photo including: name, age, address, phone number and location where the photograph was taken.
·A Photo Contest Release Form (PDF) must be submitted along with the photograph.
·Photos must be postmarked on or before April 19, 2013.
·Judging will take place in May and winners will be posted on the VDGIF website.
·Prizes will be sent directly to the winning children.
·This contest isn’t open to immediate family of VDGIF employees and sponsors. Immediate family members refer to children, siblings (同胞) or others living in the same household with a VDGIF or sponsor employee.
To Enter:
Send your photo, with the child’s name, age, phone number and address, along with the Photo Contest Release Form (PDF), to:
Kids Fishing Photo Contest
Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries
P.O. Box 11104
Richmond, VA 23230–1104The advertisement is intended for ________.
| A．children who are below 11 years old |
| B．people whose children like fishing |
| C．those who are good at photos |
| D．those whose parents like fishing |
The purpose of the contest is to ________.
| A．encourage people to take more pictures |
| B．help people realize the importance of fishing |
| C．celebrate a national fishing-related activity |
| D．encourage people to go fishing with kids |
Which of the following photos can enter the contest?
A. A photo which is in a CD.
B. A photo in which there is a 12-year-old girl.
C. A big photo which is “8×10” size.
D. A photo which was taken in Virginia on July 23, 2012. What should be sent with the photo together?
A. A life jacket.
B. A quality CD.
C. A stamped addressed envelope.
D. A Photo Contest Release Form.
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