While Andrew was getting ready for work one Friday morning, he announced to his wife that he had finally decided to ask his boss for a salary raise. All day Andrew felt nervous and anxious as he thought about the upcoming showdown. What if Mr Larchmont refused to grant his request? Andrew had worked so hard in the last 18 months and landed some great accounts for Braer and Hopkins Advertising Agency. Of course, he deserved a wage increase.
The thought of walking into Larchmont’s office left Andrew weak in the knees. Late in the afternoon he was finally courageous enough to approach his superior. To his delight and surprise, the ever-frugal（一向节俭的）Harvey Larchmont agreed to give Andrew a raise!
Andrew arrived home that evening—despite breaking all city and state speed limits—to a beautiful table set with their best china, and candles lit. His wife, Tina, had prepared a delicate meal including his favorite dishes. Immediately he figured someone from the office had tipped her off!
Next to his plate Andrew found a beautiful lettered note. It was from his wife. It read: “Congratulations, my love! I knew you’d get the raise! I prepared this dinner to show just how much I love you. I am so proud of your accomplishments!” He read it and stopped to reflect on how sensitive and caring Tina was.
After dinner, Andrew was on his way to the kitchen to get dessert when he observed that a second card had slipped out of Tina’s pocket onto the floor. He bent forward to pick it up. It read: “Don’t worry about not getting the raise! You do deserve one! You are a wonderful provider and I prepared this dinner to show you just how much I love you even though you did not get the increase.”
Suddenly tears swelled in Andrew’s eyes. Total acceptance! Tina’s support for him was not conditional upon his success at work.
The fear of rejection is often softened and we can undergo almost any setback or rejection when we know someone loves us regardless of our success or failure.What was Andrew’s plan that Friday?
| A．To request a wage increase from his boss. |
| B．To get a job with the Braer and Hopkins Advertising Agency. |
| C．To celebrate his success with his wife at home. |
| D．To ask his boss to come for dinner. |
On his way back home, Andrew _________.
| A．felt weak in the knees |
| B．was punished by the traffic policeman |
| C．was too anxious to share the news |
| D．couldn’t wait to enjoy a meal |
Which of the following statements about the story is FALSE?
| A．Andrew was afraid that his request would lead to disaster. |
| B．Andrew had worked very hard and done his part for the company. |
| C．Andrew’s boss agreed to his request. |
| D．One of Andrew’s colleagues had told his wife the good news. |
Why did Tina prepare a grand dinner for Andrew that day?
| A．She was confident of his getting a pay raise. |
| B．She meant to show her support whatever the result would be. |
| C．She believed that her husband was the best in his company. |
| D．She wanted to express her gratitude for his devotion to the family. |
We can conclude from the text that ______.
| A．we should never be afraid to ask for what is due to us |
| B．work hard and you will be rewarded |
| C．many fears turn out to be unfounded |
| D．unconditional love brings courage and strength |
If your boss asks you to work in Moscow this year, he’d better offer you more money to do so — or even double that depending on where you live now. That’s because Moscow has just been found to be the world’s most expensive city for the second year in a row by Mercer Human Resources Consulting.
Using the cost of living in New York as a base, Mercer determined Moscow is 34.4 percent more expensive including the cost of housing, transportation, food, clothing, household goods and entertainment(娱乐).
A two-bedroom flat in Moscow now costs $4,000 a month; a CD $24.83, and an international newspaper $6.30, according to Mercer. By comparison, a fast food meal with a hamburger (汉堡包) is a steal at $4.80.
London takes the No.2 place, up from No.5 a year ago, thanks to higher cost of housing and a stronger British pound relative to the dollar. Mercer estimates (估算) London is 26 percent more expensive than New York these days. Following London closely are Seoul and Tokyo, both of which are 22 percent more expensive than New York, while No.5 Hong Kong is 19 percent more costly.
Among North American cities, New York and Los Angeles are the most expensive and are the only two listed in the top 50 of the world’s most expensive cities. But both have fallen since last year’s study — New York came in 15th, down from 10th place, while Los Angeles fell to 42nd from 29th place a year ago. San Francisco came in a distant third at No. 54, down 20 places from a year earlier.
Toronto, meanwhile, is Canada’s most expensive city but fell 35 places to take 82nd place worldwide. In Australia, Sydney is the priciest place to live in and No. 21 worldwide. What do the underlined words “a steal” in Paragraph 3 mean?
| A．an act of stealing | B．something very cheap |
| C．something delicious | D．an act of buying |
London has become the second most expensive city because of ______.
| A．the high cost of clothing |
| B．its expensive transportation |
| C．the stronger pound against the dollar |
| D．the high prices of fast food meals |
Which city is the third most expensive on the list?
| A．Sydney. | B．Hong Kong. | C．Moscow. | D．Tokyo. |
Which city has dropped most on the list in North America?
| A．Toronto. | B．Los Angeles. | C．San Francisco. | D．New York. |
The world is filled with smart, talented, educated and gifted people. We meet them every day. A few days ago, my car was not running well. I pulled it into a garage and the young mechanic had it fixed in just a few minutes. He knew what was wrong by simply listening to the engine. I was amazed. The sad truth is, great talent is not enough.
I am shocked at how little talented people earn. I heard the other day that less than 5 percent of American earn more than $100,000 a year. A business consultant (顾问) who specializes in the medical trade was telling me how many doctors, dentists and people like them struggle financially. All this time, I thought that when those students studying medicine graduated, the dollars would pour in. It was this business consultant who gave me the phrase “They are one skill away from great wealth.” When I ask the classes I teach “How many of you can cook a better hamburger than McDonald’s ?”, almost all the students raise their hands. I then ask, “So if most of you can cook a better hamburger, how come McDonald’s makes more money than you?” The answer is obvious---McDonald’s is excellent at business systems. The reason why so many talented people are poor is that they focus on building a better hamburger and know little or nothing about business systems. The world is filled with talented poor people. All too often, they’re poor or struggle financially or earn less than they are capable of , not because of what they know but because of what they do not know.The example mentioned in the first paragraph is to show ______.
| A．how little talented people earn |
| B．the world is filled with talented people |
| C．he is not good at repairing cars |
| D．the mechanic is good at repairing cars |
According to the writer, of 300 million Americans, ____ Americans earn over 100 thousand dollars a year.
| A．about 0.15 million | B．about 1.5 million |
| C．about 15 million | D．about 150 million |
The writer seems to believe that _____.
| A．all talented people are not rich |
| B．a person with a talent is sure to become rich |
| C．a talented person is poor just because he knows too much |
| D．many talented people earn little because of something they don’t know |
Fear may be felt in the heart as well as in the head, according to a study that has found a link between the cycles of a beating heart and the chance of someone feeling fear.
Tests on healthy volunteers found that they were more likely to feel a sense of fear at the moment when their hearts are contracting (收缩) and pumping blood around their bodies, compared with the point when the heartbeat is relaxed. Scientists say the results suggest that the heart is able to influence how the brain responds to a fearful event, depending on which point it is at in its regular cycle of contraction and relaxation.
Sarah Garfinkel at the Brighton and Sussex Medical School said: "Our study shows for the first time that the way in which we deal with fear is different depending on when we see fearful pictures in relation to our heart."
The study tested 20 healthy volunteers on their reactions（反应）to fear as they were shown pictures of fearful faces. Dr Garfinkel said, "The study showed that fearful faces are better noticed when the heart is pumping than when it is relaxed. Thus our hearts can also affect what we see and what we don't see - and guide whether we see fear."
To further understand this relationship, the scientists also used a brain scanner (扫描仪) to show how the brain influences the way the heart changes a person's feeling of fear.
"We have found an important mechanism by which the heart and brain ‘speak’ to each other to change our feelings and reduce fear," Dr Garfinkel said.
"We hope that by increasing our understanding about how fear is dealt with and ways that it could be reduced, we may be able to develop more successful treatments for anxiety disorders, and also for those who may be suffering from serious stress disorder."What is the finding of the study?
| A．One's heart affects how he feels fear. |
| B．Fear is a result of one's relaxed heartbeat. |
| C．Fear has something to do with one's health. |
| D．One’s fast heartbeats are likely to cause fear. |
The study was carried out by analyzing _______.
| A．volunteers' heartbeats when they saw terrible pictures |
| B．the time volunteers saw fearful pictures and their health conditions |
| C．volunteers' reactions to horrible pictures and data from their brain scans |
| D．different pictures shown to volunteers and their heart-brain communication |
Which of the following is closest in meaning to "mechanism" in Paragraph 6?
| A．Order. | B．System. | C．Machine. | D．Treatment. |
This study may lead to _______.
| A．treating anxiety and stress better |
| B．explaining the cycle of fear and anxiety |
| C．finding the key to the heart-brain communication |
| D．understanding different fears in our hearts and heads |
LONDON - A British judge on Thursday sentenced a businessman who sold fake (假冒的) bomb detectors (探测器) to 10 years in prison, saying the man hadn't cared about potentially (潜在的) deadly consequences.
It is believed that James McCormick got about $77.8 million from the sales of his detectors ---which were based on a kind of golf ball finder---to countries including Iraq, Belgium and Saudi Arabia. McCormick, 57, was convicted (判罪) of cheats last month and sentenced Thursday at the Old Bailey court in London.
"Your cheating conduct in selling a great amount of useless equipment simply for huge profit promoted a false sense of security and in all probability materially contributed to causing death and injury to innocent people," Judge Richard Hone told McCormick. "You have neither regret, nor shame, nor any sense of guilt."
The detectors, sold for up to $42,000 each, were said to be able to find such dangerous objects as bombs under water and from the air. But in fact they "lacked any grounding in science" and were of no use. McCormick had told the court that he sold his detectors to the police in Kenya, the prison service in Hong Kong, the army in Egypt and the border control in Thailand.
"I never had any bad results from customers," he said. Why was McCormick sentenced to prison?
| A．He sold bombs. | B．He caused death of people. |
| C．He made detectors. | D．He cheated in business. |
According to the judge, what McCormick had done _______.
| A．increased the cost of safeguarding |
| B．lowered people's guard against danger |
| C．changed people's idea of social security |
| D．caused innocent people to commit crimes |
Which of the following is true of the detectors?
| A．They have not been sold to Africa. |
| B．They have caused many serious problems. |
| C．They can find dangerous objects in water. |
| D．They don't function on the basis of science. |
It can be inferred from the passage that McCormick _______.
| A．sold the equipment at a low price |
| B．was well-known in most countries |
| C．did not think he had committed the crime |
| D．had not got such huge profit as mentioned in the text |
Astronauts on shorter shuttle missions (使命) often work very long days. Tasks are scheduled (安排) so tightly that break times are often used to finish the day’s work. This type of schedule is far too demanding for long missions on the International Space Station (ISS). ISS crewmembers usually live in space for at least a quarter of a year. They work five days on and two days off to mimic the normal way they do things on Earth as much as possible. Weekends give the crew valuable time to rest and do a few hours of housework. They can communicate with family and friends by email, internet phone and through private video conferences.
While astronauts cannot go to a baseball game or a movie in orbit, there are many familiar activities that they can still enjoy. Before a mission, the family and friends of each ISS crewmember put together a collection of family photos, messages, videos and reading material for the astronauts to look at when they will be floating 370 kilometers above the Earth. During their mission, the crew also receives care packages with CDs, books, magazines, photos and letters. And as from early 2010, the internet became available on the ISS , giving astronauts the chance to do some “web surfing（冲浪）” in their personal time. Besides relaxing with these more common entertainments, astronauts can simply enjoy the experience of living in space.
Many astronauts say that one of the most relaxing things to do in space is to look out the window and stare at the universe and the Earth’s vast land mass and oceans. What does the word “mimic” in Paragraph 1 probably mean?
| A． Find | B． Copy | C．Change | D．Lose |
Which of the following best describes the families of the astronauts on the ISS ?
| A．They are caring and thoughtful. |
| B．They are patient and annoyed. |
| C．They are impatient and annoyed. |
| D．They are excited and curious. |
In the final paragraph, the author shows that astronauts .
| A．get more pleasure in space than on the Earth |
| B．find living in space a bit boring and tiring |
| C．regard space life as common |
| D．love to see the Earth from space |
The passage mainly discusses how astronauts .
| A．work for longer missions in space |
| B．connect with people on the Earth |
| C．observe the Earth from space. |
| D．spend their free time in space |
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