A few years ago a group of salesmen went to a meeting in Chicago. They had assured their wives that they would be home in plenty of time for Friday night’s dinner. In their rush, with tickets, one of these salesmen happened to kick over a table which held a display of baskets of apples. Apples flew everywhere. Without stopping or looking back, they all managed to reach the plane in time for their boarding.
All but one stopped, took a deep breath and experienced a twinge（刺痛）of sorrow for the girl whose apple stand had been overturned. He told his friends to go on without him, waved goodbye, and told one of them to call his wife when they arrived and explain his taking a later flight. Then he returned to where the apple stand had been overturned. He was glad he did.
The 16-year-old girl was totally blind! She was softly crying, tears running down her face. The salesman knelt on the floor with her, gathered up the apples, put them into the baskets, and helped set the display up once more. As he did this, he noticed that many of them had become damaged; then he set them aside in another basket. When he had finished, he pulled out his wallet and said to the girl, “Here, please take the $20 for the damage we did.” He continued, “I’m sorry for what we did and hope we didn’t spoil your day too badly.”
She nodded with her tears. As the salesman started to walk away, the blind girl called out to him, “Mr. ...”. He stopped, and turned back. She continued, “Thank you very much”.These salesmen were hurrying because they ________.
| A．had to attend an important meeting |
| B．wanted to have plenty of time at home |
| C．almost missed reaching the airplane |
| D．hoped to have Friday night’s party |
Which of the following is the correct order of what the salesman did?
a. He made an apology to the blind girl.
b. He told his friends to go on without him.
c. He experienced a twinge of sorrow.
d. He returned to the fallen apple stand.
e. He paid the girl $20 for the damage.
| A．c-e-b-d-a | B．c-b-d-e-a |
| C．d-b-c-a-e | D．d-c-b-e-a |
Which of the following can describe the salesman?
| A．Popular and friendly. | B．Good and humorous. |
| C．Honest and generous. | D．Kind and considerate. |
Which of the following would be the best title for the passage?
| A．A Man’s Kind Action |
| B．Picking up the Fallen Apples |
| C．A Blind Girl’s Bad Luck |
| D．A Blind Girl Who Sold Apples |
A
This is a great truth, one of the greatest truths.
It is a great truth because once we truly see this truth, we transcend(超越) it. Once we truly know that life is difficult--once we truly understand and accept it--then life is no longer difficult. Because once it is accepted, the fact that life is difficult no longer matters.
Most do not fully see this truth. Instead they complain about their problems and difficulties as if life should be easy. It seems to them that difficulties represent a special kind of suffering especially forced upon them or else upon their families, their class, or even their nation.
What makes life difficult is that the process of facing and solving problems is a painful one. Problems, depending on their nature, cause us sadness, or loneliness or regret or anger or fear. These are uncomfortable feelings, often as painful as any kind of physical pain. And since life causes an endless series of problems, life is always difficult and is full of pain as well as joy.
Yet, it is in this whole process of solving problems that life has its meaning. Problems are the serious test that tells us success from failure. When we desire to encourage the growth of human spirit, we encourage the human ability to solve problems, just as in school we set problems for our children to solve. It is through the pain of meeting and working out problems that we learn. As Benjamin Franklin said, those things that hurt, instruct. It is for this reason that wise people learn not to fear but to welcome the pain of problems. From the passage, it can be inferred that ______.
| A．everybody has problems |
| B．we become stronger by meeting and solving the problems of life |
| C．life is difficult because our problems bring us pain |
| D．people like to complain about their problems |
The writer probably used just one short sentence in the first paragraph to ______.
| A．save space | B．persuade readers |
| C．make readers laugh | D．get readers’ attention |
The main idea of Paragraph 3 is that ______.
| A．most people feel life is easy |
| B．the writer feels life is easy |
| C．the writer likes to complain about his problems |
| D．most people complain about how hard their lives are |
According to the passage, we give school children difficult problems to solve in order to______.
| A．encourage them to learn |
| B．teach them to fear the pain of solving the problem |
| C．help them learn to deal with pain |
| D．teach them how to respect from problems |
The saying from Benjamin Franklin “Those things that hurt, instruct” suggests that ______.
| A．we do not learn from experience |
| B．we do not learn when we are in pain |
| C．pain teaches us important lessons |
| D．pain cannot be avoided |
The opening scene of The King’s Speech was, in a word, terrifying. The moment King George VI—wonderfully played by Colin Firth—stepped up to the microphone at Wembley Stadium, a rush of nervousness came over me. It took me back to my school days, standing at my desk, having to read aloud to the class. I whispered to my wife, Jill, “A stutterer(口吃者) wrote this screenplay(剧本).
I grew up with a stutter, really afraid of trying to get through simple sentences—knowing that I would then, or later, be laughed at. I still remember the reading when I was in 7th grade at St. Helena’s: “Sir Walter Raleigh was a gentlemen…” I remember reciting, “Sir Walter Raleigh was a gentlemen.” The school teacher said, “Master B-B-B-Biden! What’s that word?” She wanted me to say gentlemen. But by then, I had learned to put my sentences into bite-size pieces and I was reading it: “gentle”｜breath｜“man”.
Ninety-nine percent of the time, the teachers were great. I never had professional treatment but a couple of teachers taught me to put a regular rise and fall in my tone of speaking, and that’s why I spent so much time reading poetry. But even in my small, boys’ prep school, I got nailed in my class with the nickname Joe Stutterer. You get so desperate, you’re so embarrassed. I actually went and stood by the side of my house once, with a small round stone in my mouth, and tried to talk. Jill always thought I was kidding until she saw the movie and saw King George did the same thing.
King George relied on the support his wife and the help of Lionel Longue, who, in describing working with other stutterers, said, “My job was to give them confidence in their voices and let them know that a friend was listening.” I was lucky enough to have more than a couple of Lionels in my life. Nobody in my family ever—ever—made fun of me or tried to finish my sentences. My mother would say, “Joey, you cannot let stuttering define you.” And because of her and others, I made sure it didn’t.
Through hard work and determination, I beat my stutter in high school. I even spoke briefly at my graduation ceremony in 1961—the most difficult speech of my life. My fight against shyness and embarrassment at my early age has developed my ability to understand others’ feelings as Vice President of the country in public life. I still mark up all of my speeches the say way Firth’s character does in the movie, pencil-marking every line to remind myself to stop, to breathe, to pause—to beat back my stuttering as best as I can. I don’t stutter anymore, and most people who know me only late in my life are shocked that I ever did.
By capturing exactly how a stutter feels, The King’s Speech has shown millions of people how much courage it takes for a stutterer to stand up and speak. Equally important, it has shown millions who suffer from the pain that it can be overcome, we are not alone, and with the support of those around us, our deepest fears can be conquered. The writer whispered to his wife, “A stutterer wrote this screenplay”, because __________.
| A．he desired to release his secret to his wife |
| B．he was reminded how it was as a stutterer on such occasions |
| C．he thought Colin Firth had a wonderful performance in the film |
| D．he wanted to make his wife realize why the film was so popular |
What does the underlined sentence in Paragraph 4 imply?
| A．The writer would have a good fortune to get help from many people. |
| B．The writer should realize he had to stand up from his pain and defeat it |
| C．The writer could get enough confidence under his mother’s help |
| D．The writer must be happy that everyone in his family did not laugh at him. |
What message is conveyed in the passage?
| A．Whatever pain and fear we have, we can defeat them if we try hard. |
| B．The similar stories of the writer and King George VI gains great admiration. |
| C．The suffer we had at our early age will have a heavy influence on our future life. |
| D．Stuttering is such a pain for children that we should give help and encourage them. |
We produce 500 billion of plastic bags in a year worldwide and they are thrown away polluting oceans, killing wildlife and getting dumped in landfills where they take up to 1000 years to decompose. Researchers have been unsuccessfully looking for a solution.
The 16-year old Canadian high school student, Daniel Burd, from Waterloo Collegiate Institute,
has discovered a way to make plastic bags degrade(分解) in as few as 3 months, a finding that won him first prize at the Canada－Wide Science Fair, a $10 000 prize, a $20 000 scholarship, and a chance to revolutionize a major environmental issue.
Burd's strategy was simple: Since plastic does eventually degrade, it must be eaten by microorganisms (微生物). If those microorganisms could be identified, we could put them to work eating the plastic much faster than under normal conditions.
With this goal in mind, he ground plastic bags into a powder and concocted(调制) a solution of household chemicals, yeast(酵母) and tap water to encourage microbes growth. Then he added the plastic powder and let the microbes work their magic for 3 months. Finally, he tested the resulting bacterial culture on plastic bags, exposing one plastic sample to dead bacteria as a control. Sure enough, the plastic exposed to the live bacteria was 17% lighter than the control after six weeks.
The inputs are cheap: maintaining the required temperature takes little energy because microbes produce heat as they work, and the only outputs are water and tiny levels of carbon dioxide.
“Almost every week I have to do chores and when I open the closet door, I have piles of plastic bags falling on top of me. One day, I got tired of it and I wanted to know what other people are doing with these plastic bags. The answer: not much. So I decided to do something myself.” said Daniel Burd.Daniel Burd won first prize at the Canada－Wide Science Fair because________.
| A．he found a new kind of microorganism |
| B．he contributed much to environmental protection |
| C．he found a way to degrade plastics in shorter time |
| D．he could encourage microbes growth in an easier way |
Daniel Burd exposed one plastic sample to dead bacteria to ________.
| A．make the live bacteria work better |
| B．test how effective his method was |
| C．know which bacteria worked faster |
| D．control the temperature in the process |
Maintaining the required temperature takes little energy because ________.
| A．plastics can get hot easily |
| B．microbes can produce heat themselves |
| C．much carbon dioxide is produced |
| D．the temperature can be controlled |
Daniel Burd got his idea from ________.
| A．his school textbook | B．the failure of researchers |
| C．his everyday work | D．the practice of other people |
Some people think that success is only for those with talent or those who grow up in the right family,and others believe that success mostly comes down to luck. I’m not going to say luck, talent, and circumstances don’t come into play because they do. Some people are born into the right family while others are born with great intelligence, and that’s just the reality of how life is.
However, to succeed in life, one first needs to set a goal and then gradually make it more practical. And,in addition to that, in order to get really good at something, one needs to spend at least 10,000 hours studying and practicing. To become great at certain things, it’ll require even more time,time that most people won’t put in.
This is a big reason why many successful people advise you to do something you love. If you don’t enjoy what you do, it is going to feel like unbearable pain and will likely make you quit well before you ever become good at it.
When you see people exhibiting some great skills or having achieved great success,you know that they have put in a huge part of their life to get there at a huge cost.It’s sometimes easy to think they got lucky or they were born with some rare talent,but thinking that way does you no good,and there’s a huge chance that you’re wrong anyway.
Whatever you do, if you want to become great at it, you need to work day in and day out, almost to the point of addiction, and over a long period of time. If you’re not willing to put in the time and work, don’t expect to receive any rewards. Consistent, hard work won’t guarantee you the level of success you may want, but it will guarantee that you will become really good at whatever it is you put all that work into.Paragraph 1 mainly talks about ________.
| A．the reasons for success | B．the meaning of success |
| C．the standards of success | D．the importance of success |
In Paragraph 2, the underlined word “that “refers to ______.
| A．being good at something | B．setting a practical goal |
| C．putting in more time | D．succeeding in life |
What is the main theme of the passage?
| A．Having a goal is vital to success. |
| B．Being good is different from being great. |
| C．One cannot succeed without time and practice. |
| D．Luck,talent and family help to achieve success. |
A popular saying goes, “Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me.”However, that’s not really true.Words have the power to build us up or tear us down. It doesn’t matter if the words come from someone else or ourselves--the positive and negative effects are just as lasting.
We all talk to ourselves sometimes. We’re usually too embarrassed to admit it, though. In fact, we really shouldn’t be, because more and more experts believe talking to ourselves out loud is a healthy habit.
This“ self-talk” helps us motivate ourselves, remember things, solve problems, and calm ourselves down.Be aware, though, that as much as 77%of self-talk tends to be negative. So in order to stay positive, we should only speak words of encouragement to ourselves.We should also be quick to give ourselves a pat on the back ,The next time you finish a project, do well in a test, or finally clean your room, join me in saying“ Good job!”
Often, words come out of our mouths without us thinking about the effects they will have. But we should be aware that our words cause certain responses to others. For example, when returning an item to a store, we might use warm, friendly language during the exchange. And the clerk will probably respond in a similar manner. Or harsh and critical language will most likely cause the clerk to be defensive.
Words possess power because of their lasting effect. Many of us regret something we once said. And we remember unkind words said to us! Before speaking, we should always ask ourselves: Is it true? Is it loving? Is it needed? If what we want to say doesn’t pass this test, then it’s better left unsaid.
Words possess power: both positive and negative. Those around us receive encouragement when we speak positively. We can offer hope, build self-esteem and motivate others to do their best. Negative words destroy all those things.Will we use our words to hurt or to heal? The choice is ours.The author argues in the first paragraph that __________.
| A．words will never hurt us at all |
| B．words have lasting effects on us |
| C．inspiring words give us confidence. |
| D．negative words may let us down |
Why should not we feel embarrassed when it comes to talking to ourselves?
| A．Talking to ourselves is believed to be good for our health. |
| B．Almost everybody has the habit of talking to oneself. |
| C．Talking to ourselves helps us to solve all the problems. |
| D．It is harmful to have “self-talk” when we are alone. |
The underlined phrase “give ourselves a pat on the back” in Paragraph three means “ _________”.
| A．blame ourselves | B．punish ourselves |
| C．talk to ourselves | D．praise ourselves |
Which of the following statements would the author agree to?
| A．Unkind words are unlikely to be forgotten. |
| B．Positive words may destroy all the good relations. |
| C．It is better to think twice before talking to others. |
| D．Kind words are sure to cause unfavorable response. |
Why should we talk in a friendly way when returning an item to a store?
| A．Because kind words destroy true relationships. |
| B．Because the clerk in a store is hard to deal with. |
| C．Because critical language may hurt your feelings. |
| D．Because friendly words cause positive responses. |
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