September is an exciting month in every college freshman’s life. For many, it’s the first time that they’ve left home to live in a new environment. But after the hustle and bustle of a few weeks, excitement gives way to a less enjoyable emotion— homesickness.
Homesickness manifests itself in many ways. You may miss mum’s cooking, your pets, or even your old bed. All this becomes a fond memory of the past. Homesickness can be a bitter feeling for many students, especially when faced with the challenges of settling into an unfamiliar environment.
But remember, you’re not alone. According to a recent BBC article, 70 percent of British college students experience homesickness. In this increasingly globalized world in which people migrate to faraway places for a relationship, education or work, homesickness is a feeling shared by many adults.
Homesickness can have similar symptoms to depression and in extreme cases it can develop into a panic attack. As for the term, homesickness or nostalgia wasn’t invented until the 17th century. It was considered a disorder by a Swiss physician, who attributed soldiers’ mental and physical discomfort to their longing to return home, “nostos” from Greek, and the accompanying pain, “algos”.
Studies in recent years, however, have shown that nostalgia may have some benefits to our mental health. After a decade of surveys and researches, Constantine Sedikides, a US social psychologist, found that nostalgia is what makes us human. He explains that nostalgia can resist loneliness, boredom and anxiety. Therefore, it’s necessary for college students to learn some ways to overcome the uncomfortable feeling. From the first two paragraphs, we can infer that __________.
| A．homesickness means a fond memory of the past |
| B．only a few students will experience homesickness |
| C．homesickness is an enjoyable emotion among freshmen |
| D．college freshmen usually suffer from homesickness after weeks |
According to the passage, we can know that _________.
| A．homesickness may cause mental diseases |
| B．homesickness is a feeling only shared by adults |
| C．homesickness won’t do any good to our health |
| D．homesickness is also called nostalgia in Switzerland |
What is most likely to be discussed in the paragraph that follows?
| A．some benefits about homesickness |
| B．other problems in college freshmen’s life |
| C．how to make campus life more meaningful |
| D．some tips on how to cope with homesickness |
The attitude of Sedikides towards homesickness is _________.
| A．negative | B．supportive | C．skeptical | D．critical |
What is the best title for the passage?
| A．Let’s embrace homesickness |
| B．How to fit into the college life |
| C．A harmful emotion—homesickness |
| D．The disadvantages of homesickness |
It’s still there, the Vietnamese school where my brother and I used to go. Even with a new coat of paint and the high wire fence, the school I knew ten years ago remains the same.
Every day at 5 p.m., instead of flying kites with our friends, my brother and I had to go to Vietnamese school. No amount of kicking, screaming, or arguing could stop my mother, who was determined to have us learn the language of our culture. She held us by the collar and walked with us the seven long, hilly blocks from our home to school, leaving our tearful faces before the front of the school.
We all sat in little chairs in a big empty room, which had a slight smell of old clothes that had been stored for a long time. I hated that smell. There was a stage far to the right, with an American flag on one side and the flag of the Republic of Vietnam on the other side.
Although the school mainly taught language ---- speaking, reading, dictation ---- the lessons always began with an exercise in politeness. With the entrance of the teacher, the best student would tap a bell and everyone would get up, and say in Vietnamese, "How are you, teacher?"
The language always made me embarrassed. More often than not, I had tried to separate myself from the loud voice that followed me whenever I went to the American supermarket outside our area. The voice belonged to my grandmother, a small old woman who could shout louder than anyone on the street. Her Vietnamese was quick, it was loud, and it was not beautiful.
In our area, the comings and goings of hundreds of Vietnamese on their daily tasks sounded crazy. I did not want to be thought of as being mad, as talking stupid. When I spoke English, people nodded at me, smiled and encouraged me. Even Vietnamese people would laugh and say that I’d do well in life.
My brother was even stricter than I about speaking English. He was especially cruel towards my mother, scolding her for her poor English. Bits of Vietnamese were often mixed in her conversation.
After two years of struggle, I finally divorced my culture. I was permitted to stop Vietnamese school. I thought of myself as American. At last, I thought I was one of you; I wasn’t one of them.
Sadly, I am only an American. What can be learned from the passage?
| A．The author’s brother liked learning Vietnamese. |
| B．The author’s mother taught him English at home. |
| C．The author’s mother put her sons in a language school in Vietnam. |
| D．The author didn’t like learning Vietnamese when he was young. |
The author often felt embarrassed because ________.
| A．his Vietnamese was not beautiful enough |
| B．his grandma spoke Vietnamese loudly in public |
| C．he could not fly kites like other kids at school |
| D．his mother always treated him rudely in the market |
It can be inferred from the last paragraph that the author feels ________.
| A．regretful | B．peaceful | C．satisfied | D．frightened |
What’s the theme of the passage?
| A．It is important to adapt to a new environment. |
| B．It is important to remember your childhood. |
| C．It is important to appreciate your own culture. |
| D．It is important to learn a foreign language. |
Many people think that listening is a passive business. It is just the opposite. Listening well is an active exercise of our attention and hard work. It is because they do not realize this, or because they are not willing to do the work, that most people do not listen well.
Listening well also requires total concentration upon someone else. An essential part of listening well is the rule known as ‘bracketing’. Bracketing includes the temporary giving up or setting aside of your own prejudices and desires, to experience as far as possible someone else’s world from the inside, stepping into his or her shoes. Moreover, since listening well involves bracketing, it also involves a temporary acceptance of the other person. Sensing this acceptance, the speaker will seem quite willing to open up the inner part of his or her mind to the listener. True communication is under way and the energy required for listening well is so great that it can be accomplished only by the will to extend oneself for mutual growth.
Most of the time we lack this energy. Even though we may feel in our business dealings or social relationships that we are listening well, what we are usually doing is listening selectively. Often we have a prepared list in mind and wonder, as we listen, how we can achieve certain desired results to get the conversation over as quickly as possible or redirected in ways more satisfactory to us. Many of us are far more interested in talking than in listening, or we simply refuse to listen to what we don’t want to hear.
It wasn’t until toward the end of my doctor career that I have found the knowledge that one is being truly listened to is frequently therapeutic(有疗效的) In about a quarter of the patients I saw, surprising improvement was shown during the first few months of psychotherapy(心理疗法), before any of the roots of problems had been uncovered or explained. There are several reasons for this phenomenon, but chief among them, I believe, was the patient’s sense that he or she was being truly listened to, often for the first time in years, and for some, perhaps for the first time ever.The phrase “stepping into his or her shoes” in paragraph 2 probably means _______.
| A．preparing a topic list first |
| B．focusing on one’s own mind |
| C．directing the talk to the desired results |
| D．experiencing the speaker’s inside world |
What is mainly discussed in Paragraph 2?
| A．How to listen well. |
| B．What to listen to. |
| C．Benefits of listening. |
| D．Problems in listening |
According to the author, in communication people tend to ________.
| A．listen actively |
| B．listen purposefully |
| C．set aside their prejudices |
| D．open up their inner mind |
According to the author, the patients improved mainly because _______.
| A．they were taken good care of. |
| B．they knew the roots of problems |
| C．they had partners to talk to. |
| D．they knew they were truly listened to |
Low-Cost Gifts for Mother's Day
Gift No. I
Offer to be your mother's health friend. Promise to be there for any and all doctor's visits
whether a disease or a regular medical check-up. Most mothers always say "no need," another set of eyes and ears is always a good idea at a doctor's visit. The best part ? This one is free.
Gift No. 2
Help your mother organize all of her medical records, which include the test results and medical information. Put them all in one place. Be sure to make a list of all of her medicines and what times she takes them. "Having all this information in one place could end up saving your mother's life," Dr. Marie Savard said.
Gift No. 3
Enough sleep is connected to general health conditions. "Buy your mother cotton sheets and comfortable pillows to encourage better sleep," Savard said. "We know that good sleep is very important to our health."
Gift No. 4
Some gift companies such as Presents for Purpose allow you to pay it forward this Mother's Day by picking gifts in which 10 percent of the price you pay goes to a charity (慈善机构) Gift givers can choose from a wide variety of useful but inexpensive things -many of which are "green" - and then choose a meaningful charity from a list. When your mother gets the gift, she will be told that she has helped the chosen charity.What are you advised to do for your mother at doctor's visits?
| A．Take notes. | B．Be with her. |
| C．Buy medicine. | D．Give her gifts. |
Where can you find a gift idea to improve your mother’s sleep?
| A．In Gift No. 1. | B．In Gift No. 2. |
| C．In Gift No. 3. | D．In Gift No. 4. |
Buying gifts from Presents for Purpose allows mothers to_____.
| A．enjoy good sleep | B．be well-organized |
| C．give others help | D．bet extra support |
Going green seems to be fad(时尚)for a lot of people these days. Whether that is good or bad, we can’t really say, but for the tow of us, going green is not a fad but a lifestyle.
On April22, 2011, we decided to go green every single day for an entire year. This meant doing 365 different green things, and it also meant challenging ourselves to go green beyond easy things. Rather than recycle and reduce our energy, we had to think of 365 different green things to do and this was no easy task.
With the idea of going green every single day for a year, Our Green Year started. My life and I decided to educate people about how they could go green in their lives and hoped we could show people all the green things that could be done to help the environment. We wanted to push the message that every little bit helps.
Over the course of Our Green Year, we completely changed our lifestyle. We now shop at organic(有机的)stores. We consume less meat, choosing green food. We have greatly reduced our buying we don’t need. We have given away half of what we owned through websites. Our home is kept clean by vinegar and lemon juice, with no chemical cleaners. We make our own butter, enjoying the smell of home-made fresh bread. In our home office anyone caught doing something ungreen might be punished.
Our minds have been changed by Our Green Year. We are grateful for the chance to have been able to go green and educate others. We believe that we do have the power to change things and help our planet.What might be the best title for the passage?
| A．Going Green. |
| B．Protecting the Planet. |
| C．Keeping Open-Minded |
| D．Celebrating Our Green Year. |
It was difficult for the couple to live a green life for the whole year because_________.
| A．they needed to perform unusual green tasks |
| B．they didn’t know how to educate other people |
| C．they were unwilling to reduce their energy |
| D．they were expected to follow the green fad |
What did the couple do over the course of Our Green Year?
| A．They tried to get out of their ungreen habits. |
| B．They ignore others’ ungreen behavior. |
| C．They chose better chemical cleaners. |
| D．They sold their home-made food. |
What can we infer form the last paragraph?
| A．The government will give support to the green people. |
| B．The couple may continue their project in the future. |
| C．Some people disagree with the couple’s green ideas. |
| D．Our Green Year is becoming a national campaign. |
When I was 12, all I wanted was a signet (图章) ring. They were the "in" thing and it seemed every girl except me had one. On my 13th birthday, my Mum gave me a signet ring with my initials(姓名首字母) carved into it. I was in heaven.
What made it even more special was that it was about the only thing that wasn't being "replaced". We'd been burnt out in fires that swept through our area earlier that year and had lost everything—so most of the " new" stuff (东西) we got was really just to replace what we'd lost. But not my ring. My ring was new.
Then, only one month later, I lost it. I took it off before bed and it was missing in the morning. I was sad and searched everywhere for it. But it seemed to have disappeared. Eventually, I gave up and stopped looking for it. And two years later, we sold the house and moved away.
Years passed, and a couple of moves later, I was visiting my parents' when Mum told me that she had something for me. It wasn't my birthday, nor was it Easter or Christmas or any other gift-giving occasion. Mum noticed my questioning look. " You'll recognize this one," she said, smiling.
Then she handed me a small ring box. I took it from her and opened it to find my beautiful signet ring inside. The family who had bought our house 13 years earlier had recently decided to do some redecorations, which included replacing the carpets. When they pulled the carpet up in my old bedroom, they found the ring. As it had my initials carved into it, they realized who owned the ring. They'd had it professionally cleaned up by a jeweler before sending it to my mother. And it still fits me.The underlined word "in" in the first paragraph probably means "_____".
| A．renewable | B．available | C．practical | D．fashionable |
When she got the ring back, the writer was about _____.
| A．13 years old | B．15 years old |
| C．26 years old | D．28 years old |
Which of the following is TRUE according to the passage?
| A．The writer's family moved several times. |
| B．The writer never stopped looking for her ring. |
| C．The writer's ring was cleaned up by the new house owner. |
| D．The writer lost her ring in the morning when she took it off. |
What would be the best title for the passage?
| A．My New Ring | B．Lost and Found |
| C．Lost and Replaced | D．An Expensive Ring |
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