Zhoukoudian is a small village situated about 50 kilometers to the southwest of Beijing. In the 1920s, archaeologists discovered some prehistoric human bones there which changed people’s view of China’s history. They came from an unknown species of man and were the first evidence of human life in China thousands of years ago. The remains were three teeth!
In 1929, a complete skull was also discovered. Eventually, archaeologists found almost 200 items, including six skulls and more than 150 teeth. These discoveries proved the existence of a human species who lived in the area between 700,000 and 200,000 years ago. Four sites where Beijing Man and his relatives lived were discovered on the northern face of Longgushan. They lived in the caves in the area.
However, the life span of Beijing Man was short. About 70% of the people probably died before the age of 14. Fewer than 5% lived to the age of 50. Ashes were found alongside the fossils which showed they had used fire for cooking food and also for light, warmth, and protection against wild animals. This is the earliest evidence of the use of fire anywhere in the world. They also made tools of bones and stones. Unfortunately, when Japan invaded China in 1937, excavations (发掘) at the Beijing Man Site stopped and most of the fossils disappeared, including a Beijing Man skull. After the People’s Republic of China was established in 1949, the work started again.
Zhoukoudian was listed as a World Heritage Site in December 1987. It has not only given us important information about prehistoric Asian societies, but also provided amazing evidence about the process of evolution. Today, parts of the caves have been badly affected by rain. Some areas are almost completely covered in weeds, causing serious damage. Pollution from the nearby factories has also led to the problem. This is a very serious matter and the Chinese Academy of Sciences is trying to raise public awareness of protecting it. Archaeologists _________.
| A．thought that the findings in Zhoukoudian are the first evidence of human life in Asia |
| B．thought that the findings in Zhoukoudian wouldn’t change the history of China |
| C．discovered some prehistoric human bones in Zhoukoudian |
| D．thought that Zhoukoudian was a beautiful village |
Beijing Man used fire to do all of the following things EXCEPT _____.
| A．light in the dark | B．keep warm |
| C．scare wild animals away | D．make tools |
What’s the main idea of the last paragraph?
| A．Zhoukoudian is a World Heritage Site. |
| B．Zhoukoudian is in great need of protection. |
| C．The digging of Zhoukoudian is still under way. |
| D．Zhoukoudian plays an important part in the study of prehistoric societies. |
We all have our ways of marking time. As a photographer, my life is measured from one story to the next. My oldest son was born in the middle of a long story about the Endangered Species Act. My daughter came along with a pack of gray wolves.
Twenty stories later, though, it’s the story in Alaska that I’ll remember best. It was the story about the loss of wilderness — and the story during which my wife Kathy got cancer. That’s the one that made time stand still. I stopped taking pictures on the day when she found that tumor (肿瘤). Cruelly, it was Thanksgiving. By Christmas, she had become very weak. Some days she was so sick she couldn’t watch TV.
Early examination saves time. But ours was not early. By the time you can feel it yourself, it’s often bigger than the doctor want it to be.
Cancer is a thief. It steals time. Our days are already short with worry. Then comes this terrible disease, unfair as storm at harvest time. But cancer also has the power to change us, for good. We learn to simplify, enjoying what we have instead of feeling sorry for what we don’t. Cancer even made me a better father. My work had made me a stranger to my three kids. But now I pay attention to what really matters. This is not a race. This is a new way of life and new way of seeing, all from the cancer.
In the end each of us has so little time. We have less of it than we can possibly imagine. And even though it turns out that Kathy’s cancer has not spread, and her prognosis (诊断) is good. We try to make it all count now, enjoying every part of every day.
I’ve picked up my camera again. I watch the sky, searching for beautiful light. When winter storms come, Kathy and I gather our children and take the time to catch snowflakes (雪花) on our tongues. After all, this is good. This is what we’re living for.As a photographer, the author used to ______.
| A．leave his daughter with a pack of gray wolves |
| B．express his love for his family in a special way |
| C．miss a great many important historical moments |
| D．devote much more to his career than his family |
Why did the author decide to stop taking pictures?
| A．To cure his own disease. | B．To spend more time with his wife. |
| C．To seek a better position. | D．To leave the wilderness alone. |
What is the biggest change the cancer has brought to the author?
| A．He treasured every bit of time with his family. |
| B．He has become a stranger to his children. |
| C．He takes his work more seriously. |
| D．He focuses more on medical care. |
The author and his family catch snowflakes on their tongues probably because ______.
| A．the snowflakes taste very good |
| B．snowflakes are what they feed on |
| C．they regard that as a way to enjoy life |
| D．there is beautiful light in the snowflakes |
Happiness through Honorable Actions
Do you want to live with a strong sense of peacefulness, happiness, goodness, and self-respect? The collection of happiness actions broadly categorized as “honor” help you create this life of good feelings.
Here is an example to show how honorable actions create happiness.
Say a store clerk fails to charge us for an item. If we keep silent, and profit from the clerk’s mistake, we would drive home with a sense of mean excitement. Later we might tell our family of friends about our good fortune. On the other hand, if we tell the clerk about the uncharged item, the clerk would be grateful and thank us for our honesty. We would leave the store with a quiet sense of honor that we might never share with another soul.
Then, what is it to do with our sense of happiness?
In the first case, where we don’t tell the clerk, a couple of things would happen. Deep down inside we would know ourselves as a type of thief. In the process, we would lose some peace of mind and self-respect. We would also demonstrate that we cannot be trusted, since we advertise our dishonor by telling our family and friends. We damage our own reputations by telling others. In contrast, bringing the error to the clerk’s attention causes different things to happen. Immediately the clerk knows us to be honorable. Upon leaving the store, we feel honorable and our self-respect is increased. Whenever we take honorable action we gain the deep internal rewards of goodness and a sense of nobility.
There is a beautiful positive cycle that is created by living a life of honorable actions. Honorable thoughts lead to honorable actions. Honorable actions lead us to a happier existence. And it’s easy to think and act honorably again when we’re happy. While the positive cycle can be difficult to start, once it’s started, it’s easy to continue. Keeping on doing good deeds brings us peace of mind, which is important for our happiness. According to the passage, the positive action in the example contributes to our ______.
| A．self-respect | B．financial rewards |
| C．advertising ability | D．friendly relationship |
The author thinks that keeping silent about the uncharged item is equal to ______.
| A．lying | B．stealing | C．cheating | D．advertising |
The underlined phrase “bringing the error to the clerk’s attention” means ______.
| A．offering advice to the clerk | B．telling the truth to the clerk |
| C．asking the clerk to be more attentive | D．reminding the clerk of the charged item |
How does the positive cycle work according to the author?
Travel Unaccompanied
Now many young people are traveling around the world on their own, not because they have no one to travel with, but because they prefer to go alone．
Kristina Wegscheider from California first traveled alone when she was at college and believes that it is something everyone should do at least once in their life. “It opens up your mind to new things and pushes you out of your comfort zone.” Wegscheider has visited 46 countries covering all seven continents．
In foreign countries, with no one to help you read a map, look after you if you get ill, or lend you money if your wallet is stolen. It is challenging. This is what drives young people to travel alone．It is seen as character building and a chance to prove that they can make it on their own．
Chris Richardson decided to leave his sales job in Australia to go traveling last year．He set up a website, The Aussie Nomad, to document his adventures. He said he wished he had traveled alone earlier. “The people you meet, the places you visit, or the things you do, everything is up to you and it forces you to grow as a person,” said the 30-year-old．
Richardson describes traveling alone like “a shot in the arm”, which “makes you a more confident person that was ready to deal with anything”. He said: “The feeling of having conquered something on my own is a major part of what drives me each day when I’m dealing with a difficult task. I walk around with my head up because I know deep down inside that nothing is impossible if you try.”
The great 19th century explorer John Muir once said: “Only by going alone in silence can one truly get into the heart of the wilderness.”Which of the following will Kristina Wegscheider agree with?
| A．Traveling alone is a necessary experience for everyone. |
| B．It is more meaningful to travel in foreign countries. |
| C．It is comfortable to travel around without a friend. |
| D．Traveling abroad helps people to find new things. |
Traveling alone is challenging because .
| A．it will finally build your character |
| B．you have to make things on your own |
| C．you depend on yourself whatever happens |
| D．it is hard for you to prove yourself to others |
What can we infer about Chris Richardson?
| A．He started traveling at an early age． | B．He was once shot in the arm. |
| C．His website inspires others a lot. | D．He used to work as a salesman． |
Have you ever picked a job based on the fact that you were good at it but later found it made you feel very uncomfortable over time? When you select your career, there’s a whole lot more to it than assessing your skills and matching them with a particular position. If you ignore your personality, it will get you a long-term hurt regardless of your skills or the job’s pay. There are several areas of your personality that you need to consider to help you find a good job. Here are a few of those main areas:
1) Do you prefer working alone or with other people?
There are isolating（孤立的）jobs that will drive an outgoing person crazy and also interactive jobs that will make a shy person uneasy. Most people are not extremes in either direction but do have a tendency that they prefer. There are also positions that are sometimes a combination of the two, which may be best for someone in the middle who adapts easily to either situation.
2) How do you handle change?
Most jobs these days have some elements of change to them, but some are more than others. If you need stability in your life, you may need a job where the changes don’t happen so often. Other people would be bored of the same daily routine.
3) Do you enjoy working with computers？
I do see this as a kind of personality characteristic. There are people who are happy to spend more than 40 hours a week on a computer, while there are others who need a lot of human interaction throughout the day. Again, these are extremes and you’ll likely find a lot of positions somewhere in the middle as well.
4) What type of work environment do you enjoy？
This can range from being in a large building with a lot of people you won’t know immediately to a smaller setting where you’ll get to know almost all the people there fairly quickly.
5) How do you like to get paid?
Some people are motivated by the pay they get, while others feel too stressed to be like that. The variety of payment designs in the sales industry is a typical example for this.
Anyway, these are a great starting point for you. I’ve seen it over and over again with people that they make more money over time when they do something they love. It may take you a little longer, but making a move to do what you have a passion for can change the course of your life for the better.What does the underlined sentence in Paragraph 1 mean?
| A．You may ignore your skills when you select job. |
| B．Job skills are the most important things when you select job. |
| C．There are more important things than job skills when you select job. |
| D．Selecting job, you should assess your skills and match them with the position. |
Which of the following is TRUE according to the passage?
| A．Isolating jobs usually drive people mad. |
| B．Interactive jobs make people shy easily. |
| C．Extreme people tend to work with others. |
| D．Almost everyone has a tendency in jobs. |
What is the missing word about a job search in the following chart?
| A．Design | B．Changes | C．Cooperation | D．Hobbies |
What is the best title for this passage?
| A．Lifestyles and Job Pay | B．Jobs and Environment |
| C．Job Skills and Abilities | D．Personalities and Jobs |
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．search for a husband |
According to Cisneros, what was the key factor 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 is quite popular among students. |
| B．It is a book of poetry written by Cisneros. |
| C．It wasn’t a success as it was written in Spanish. |
| D．It won an award when Cisneros was twenty-nine. |
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