I looked at my beautiful Christmas tree and sighed. It was time. The New Year was a week old and my tree still stood in the corner of our room with its collection of memories proudly displayed in a shower of colorful lights. I’d procrastinated（拖延，耽搁）long enough.
I got up, went to the garage and dragged all the boxes into the room. The garland(花环)was the first to come down. The tree looked naked(光秃秃的)already. I took the large ornament（装饰物）off next. They made a large pile on our bed. An hour later, our bed was covered with Christmas memories. Each pile contained an ornament along with its matching brothers and sisters from sets purchased many years ago.
I prepared the boxes and carefully placed ornaments in their protective packaging, pausing every few minutes to admire a favorite. “Hey, little Santa!” I held the Santa from my childhood. “Thanks for being my friend for almost fifty years.” He was a little ragged but still gives me a flood of wonderful memories. “Until next year, my dear friend.”
There was a collection of handmade ones. My children made in the their first years of school, more than twenty years ago. Made by tiny hands, they are far from perfect in design, but every year they go on my memory tree－memories of young giggles(咯咯地笑)on Christmas morning and a smiling face when they handed them to me when I came home from work. “Look what we made, Daddy!”
“Oh! It is beautiful. Let’s find a special spot on the tree for it.” Every year since, they are displayed.
A few hours after I started, the filled boxes were back in the garage, the room was vacuumed(用吸尘器清扫)and I sat staring at a barren(空荡荡的)corner. The room seemed so empty. It took me two days of work to assemble(收集)and decorate my tree, but only a few hours to take it apart.
My tree is like a good marriage or a great friendship. Like the tree, they take a long time to assemble and decorate with memories, but can be torn down quickly.
Every year I have to put my tree away, but not my marriage or friendships. I take great care of those. They get to glow in the corner of my life for as long as I live. I get to analyze my tree and find memories for a few weeks every year. I can do the same with the loves in my life every day. Take great care of your friendships and your marriage. Once they come down, they aren’t as easy to put back together as a Christmas tree. Stand them in that special spot in the corner of your heart and admire their glow.In the author’s eyes, the Christmas tree .
| A．is a collection of childhood memories |
| B．is a symbol of long-lasting relations |
| C．takes too much time to decorate |
| D．is full of out-of-date ornaments |
To the author, a Christmas tree is similar to a good marriage in that .
| A．both take time to build but fall apart easily |
| B．both remind him of bittersweet memories |
| C．both need to be admired for some time |
| D．both get less attractive over the years |
What is the main theme of the article?
| A．We’d better put away Christmas decorations and recycle them each year. |
| B．Friendships and marriages should be valued and managed carefully. |
| C．Memories with friends and family should be cherished and relived. |
| D．We should decorate Christmas trees with personal stuff and recycle. |
I’m Sorry, I Won’t Apologize
Almost daily，news reports include accounts of public figures or heads of companies being forced to say they're sorry. In a recent case，Marge Schott，managing partner of the Cincinnati Reds，at first did not want to apologize for her remark that Hitler "was good at the beginning but he just went too far. "Under pressure，she finally said that she regretted her remarks "offended many people". Predictably — and especially given her history with such comments — many were not satisfied with this response and successfully lobbied for her resignation.
This particular use of "I'm sorry" has a familiar ring. The other day my husband said to me，"I'm sorry I hurt your feelings." I knew he was really trying. He has learned，through our years together，that apologies are important to me. But he was grinning，because he also knew that "I'm sorry I hurt your feelings" left open the possibility — indeed，strongly suggested — that he regretted not what he did but my emotional reaction. It sometimes seems that he thinks the earth will open up and swallow him if he admits fault.
It may appear that insisting someone admit fault is like wanting him to humiliate himself. But I don't see it that way，since it's no big deal for me to say I made a mistake and apologize. The problem is that it becomes a big deal when he won't.
This turns out to be similar to the Japanese view. Following a fender bender，according to a Times article，the Japanese typically get out of their cars and bow，each claiming responsibility. In contrast，Americans are instructed by their insurance companies to avoid admitting fault. When an American living in Japan did just that — even though he knew he was to blame — the Japanese driver "was so incensed by the American's failure to show contrition that he took the highly unusual step of suing him."
The Japanese driver and I are not the only ones who are offended when someone obviously at fault doesn't just fess up and apologize. A woman who lives in the country told me of a similar reaction. One day she gave her husband something to mail when he went into town. She stressed that it was essential the letter be mailed that day，and he assured her it would. But the next day，when they left the house together，she found her unmailed letter in the car. He said，"Oh，I forgot to mail your letter." She was furious— not because he had forgotten，but because he didn't apologize.What was Marge Schott forced to do？
| A．To make a prediction of the future. |
| B．To say "Hitler was good at the beginning." |
| C．To say "Im sorry." |
| D．To count figures. |
The author felt _____ .
| A．her husband regretted the choice he had made |
| B．her husband regretted what he did |
| C．her husband regretted her emotional response |
| D．her husband regretted the dirty words he had used |
According to the author，when one makes a mistake，he should _____ .
| A．admit it and apologize |
| B．avoid admitting it |
| C．wxplain it away |
| D．make every effort to maintain his face |
According to the passage，what would Japanese drivers usually do after a car accident？
| A．They would admit their own faults. |
| B．They would blame each other. |
| C．They would avoid admitting faults |
| D．They would sue each other. |
What does the underlined word “furious” in the last paragraph mean?
| A．Angry |
| B．Surprised |
| C．Crazy |
| D．Mad |
There are many ways in which human cloning is expected to benefit mankind. Below is a list that is far from complete.
Dr. Richard Seed, one of the leading proponents (支持者) of human cloning technology, suggests that it may someday be possible to reverse the aging process because of what we learn from cloning. Scientists believe that they may be able to treat heart attack victims by cloning their healthy heart cells and injecting them into the areas of the heart that have been damaged. Heart disease is the number one killer in the United States and several other industrialized countries.
There has been a breakthrough with human stem cells. Embryonic (胚胎的) stem cells can be grown to produce organs to repair or replace damaged ones. Skin for burn victims, brain cells for the brain damaged, hearts, lungs, livers, and kidneys could be produced. By combining this technology with human cloning technology it may be possible to produce needed organs for suffering people that will be free of rejection by their immune systems. Conditions such as Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, diabetes, heart failure, and other problems may be made curable if human cloning and its technology are not banned.
Despite getting a fair amount of publicity in the news current treatments for infertility (不生育), in terms of percentages, are not very successful. One estimate is that current infertility treatments are less than 10 percent successful. Couples go through physically and emotionally painful procedures for a small chance of having children. Many couples run out of time and money without successfully having children. Human cloning could make it possible for more infertile couples to have children than ever before. The passage mainly deals with _______.
| A．the problems with human cloning |
| B．the disadvantages of human cloning |
| C．the advantages of human cloning |
| D．the different ways human cloning is done |
According to Dr. Richard Seed we can use cloning technology _______.
| A．to make people look younger |
| B．to make people live longer |
| C．to cure people of many diseases |
| D．to produce more animals |
From the passage we can infer that _______.
| A．cloning has already been used to treat heart diseases |
| B．we can treat a man’s heart disease by cloning others’hearts |
| C．most people in industrialized countries suffer from heart diseases |
| D．more people die of heart diseases than of other diseases in America |
What would be the best headline for the last paragraph?
| A．With Cloning, Infertile Couples Could Have Children |
| B．Treatment of Infertility Is Not Successful |
| C．Physically and Emotionally Pain of Infertile Couples |
| D．The News Is Not Telling the Truth |
Treated with an organ cloned from his own stem cells, _______.
| A．the patient is more likely to develop other diseases |
| B．the patient’s immune systems don’t reject the new organ |
| C．the patient will be free of rejection by his immune systems |
| D．the patient will suffer from Alzheimer’s disease |
A Full-Time School Called Life
You are enrolled in a full-time school called "life". Each day in this school you will have the opportunity to learn lessons. You may like the lessons or hate them, but you have designed them as part of your curriculum.
Why are you here? What is your purpose? Humans have sought to discover the meaning of life for a very long time. What we and our ancestors overlooked, however, is there is no one answer. The meaning of life is different for every individual.
Each person has his or her own purpose and distinct path, unique and separate from anyone else's. As you travel your life path, you will be presented with numerous lessons that you will need to learn in order to fulfill that purpose. The lessons you are presented with are specific to you; learning these lessons is a key to discovering and fulfilling the meaning and connection of your own life.
As you travel through your lifetime, you may encounter challenging lessons that others don't have to face, while others spend years struggling with challenges that you don't need to deal with. You may never know why you are blessed with a wonderful marriage, while your friends suffer through bitter arguments and painful divorces, just as you cannot be sure why you struggle financially while your peers enjoy abundance. The only thing you can count on for certain is that you specifically need to learn; whether we choose to learn them or not is entirely up to you.
The challenge here, therefore, is to align (与……保持一致) yourself with your own unique path by learning individual lessons. This is one of the most difficult challenges you will be faced with in your lifetime, as sometimes your path will be completely different from others. But, remember, don't compare your path to the people around you and focus on the difference between their lessons and yours. You need to remember that you will only be faced with lessons that you are capable of learning and are specific to your own growth.
Our sense of fairness is the expectation of equity-the assumption that all things are equal and that justice will always prevail. Life is not, in fact, fair, and you may indeed have a more difficult lift path than others around you, deserved or not. Everyone's circumstances are unique, and everyone needs to handle his or her own circumstances differently. If you want to move toward calm, you will be required to move out the comparing phrase of "it's not fair". Focusing on the unfairness of circumstances keeps you comparing yourself with others rather than appreciating your own special uniqueness. You miss out on learning your
individual lessons by distracting yourself with feeling of bitterness and anger. According to the passage, how can the meaning of your life be realized?
| A．Having the same opinions as others. |
| B．Taking the distinct path from others. |
| C．Learning the lessons presented to you. |
| D．Doing the different things from others. |
From the passage we can conclude _____.
| A．everyone has his own track to follow |
| B．the same thing usually happen to the peers |
| C．a painful divorce must lie in financial problems |
| D．a wealthy man must have a wonderful marriage |
In your lifetimes, the lessons you are faced with _____.
| A．are beyond your power |
| B．keep you from growth |
| C．limit your development |
| D．help you with your success |
Which of the following is TRUE?
| A．All things are equal and justice will always prevail. |
| B．You should learn to appreciate your specific uniqueness. |
| C．One has to fix his mind on unfairness of circumstances. |
| D．The teachers have designed the lessons as part of your curriculum in the life school. |
Life is called a full-time school, because _____.
| A．it is full of all lessons to learn |
| B．you have plenty of time to learn lessons |
| C．you meet with specific lessons every day |
| D．there are so many subjects for you to choose |
Finding your first job after leaving school，college or university is probably the hardest job hunting exercise you’ll ever face. However, there are some simple methods that can give you advantages over other first time job seekers.
First time job seekers have the hardest time in finding their first job. In the case of graduates, many universities will have dedicated placement personnel who will assist students in finding their first job. Specialist tutors are also likely to have a network of individuals in the commercial world who might occasionally take on recent graduates, so never underestimate the help that you can get from this area. It’s always worth asking your fellow students where they spent any job placement years and you can see if it’s worth approaching any of those companies. People generally like to help others, so don’t be afraid to ask for any assistance that you can get freely like this.
Similarly, if school and college leavers have an interest in a particular subject, they should talk to their teacher or lecturer in that subject and discuss career options. It could be that they could point you in the right direction by at least identifying companies that could use your particular skills.
The problem that many younger people have is that they simply don’t know what they want to do once they have finished their education. Therefore, it’s important for anyone leaving education to understand their own strengths and to determine what their particular skills are. The student job seekers should put a CV (履历) together based on what they’d like the employer to consider. Highlight your education, but instead of focusing on the actual qualifications and talk about the amount of learning that was involved. If you have completed any kind of work during your student work, be certain to mention it and what you gained from it.
Although a CV isn’t the only factor in helping you find your first job, it’s still a potential door-opener, so you should make it a document that is a compelling sales tool for you. From the passage we learn that _______.
| A．graduates often underestimate the help from specialist tutors |
| B．it is definite that first time job seekers will fail several times |
| C．a first time job seeker needn’t emphasize his education while looking for jobs |
| D．it is important for first time job seekers to learn some simple methods |
While looking for their first job, graduates are advised to refer to _______.
| A．specialist tutors and their parents |
| B．managers of different companies |
| C．specialist tutors and their fellow students |
| D．placement personnel and employers |
Why is it important for school and college leavers to determine their particular skills?
| A．Because it can help them find a job suitable for them. |
| B．Because their teachers will ask them to talk about the skills. |
| C．Because their lecturers will give them a lecture about the skills. |
| D．Because most of them don’t know about their particular skills. |
What do we know about a CV of first time job seekers?
| A．A CV should focus on actual qualifications. |
| B．The amount of learning needn’t be mentioned in a CV. |
| C．It is necessary to mention the work they have completed at school in a CV. |
| D．People needn’t care about a CV because it isn’t important. |
What’s the best title of the passage?
| A．Overcome difficulties in finding jobs |
| B．Find your first job |
| C．Meet your first employer |
| D．Make a successful job interview |
A black and white kitten with a broken back lay on animal doctor Betsy Knenon's examination table. A regular customer had rushed him to her office after his pet dog brought the cat home in his mouth. The dog's owner was horrified, believing that his pet had caused the cat's injuries. But Kennon found no teeth marks or bite wounds, which showed that the dog had probably saved, not harmed, the kitten.
In Kennon’s opinion, however, the cat was a hopeless case. Many doctors would have put down such a badly hurt animal. But she couldn’t be so cruel. The kitten’s bright eyes and sad face had won her over. There was no way of finding his owner, so Kennon, a single woman aged 56, decided to keep him.
She gave him a round of shots and fed him food mixed with medicines. He couldn’t move his back legs but soon started pulling himself forward with his front legs. The doctor named him Scooter and contacted a company that makes carts for disabled animals. Scooter took to his new wheels like a natural. In no time he was able to move freely, if somewhat awkwardly, around Kennon’s office, home and even her backyard. The sight of the determined Scooter was uplifting and amusing in equal measure and Kennon had to smile each time the cat entered the room.
Kennon was convinced that her kitten could share his high spirits with others. So she took Scooter to the local hospital to see if he could help the patients. His first patient was an elderly woman who’d had a stroke and hadn’t spoken to anyone for two days. Scooter jumped out of Kennon’s arms and onto the bed, rolled over to the patient, and lay gently near her cheek, purring softly. The woman looked at Scooter. “Kitty,” she murmured as she began to talk to him. Amazed, Kennon turned to the doctor--- and saw that she was in tears. The cat had engineered a small miracle.
Today Scooter spends about ten hours a month working with patients who are recovering from strokes and injuries. Again and again, Kennon watches as her cat provides hope and comfort. As one patient who’d lost her leg in a car accident said, “If he can do it, so can I.” From Paragraph 1, we know that ___________.
| A．the dog’s owner was a stranger to Kennon |
| B．the cat had several bite marks on its body |
| C．the dog was extremely cruel to the cat |
| D．who actually injured the cat was unknown |
The underlined phrase “put down” in Paragraph 2 most probably means___________.
| A．hurt |
| B．killed |
| C．refused |
| D．replaced |
Why did Kennon decide to keep the cat?
| A．She wanted a companion. |
| B．The cat’s owner abandoned him. |
| C．She liked the cat. |
| D．The cat was hopeless. |
How did Kennon help the cat move around?
| A．By curing his broken back. |
| B．By getting him a special cart. |
| C．By feeding him medicines. |
| D．By exercising him in her backyard. |
According to the passage, what is the main reason that the cat works miracle?
| A．He is able to inspire others. |
| B．Patients feel sympathy for him. |
| C．People are amused by his appearance. |
| D．He has the ability to cure the ill. |
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