(2013·湖北，E)
A German study suggests that people who were too optimistic about their future actually faced greater risk of disability or death within 10 years than those pessimists who expected their future to be worse.
The paper, published this March in Psychology and Aging, examined health and welfare surveys from roughly 40,000 Germans between ages 18 and 96. The surveys were conducted every year from 1993 to 2003.
Survey respondents (受访者) were asked to estimate their present and future life satisfaction on a scale of 0 to 10, among other questions.
The researchers found that young adults (age 18 to 39) routinely overestimated their future life satisfaction, while middleaged adults (age 40 to 64) more accurately predicted how they would feel in the future. Adults of 65 and older, however, were far more likely to underestimate their future life satisfaction. Not only did they feel more satisfied than they thought they would, the older pessimists seemed to suffer a lower ratio (比率) of disability and death for the study period.
“We observed that being too optimistic in predicting a better future than actually observed was associated with a greater risk of disability and a greater risk of death within the following decade，” wrote Frieder R. Lang, a professor at the University of ErlangenNuremberg.
Lang and his colleagues believed that people who were pessimistic about their future may be more careful about their actions than people who expected a rosy future.
“Seeing a dark future may encourage positive evaluations of the actual self and may contribute to taking improved precautions (预防措施)，” the authors wrote.
Surprisingly, compared with those in poor health or who had low incomes, respondents who enjoyed good health or income were associated with expecting a greater decline. Also, the researchers said that higher income was related to a greater risk of disability.
The authors of the study noted that there were limitations to their conclusions. Illness, medical treatment and personal loss could also have driven health outcomes.
However, the researchers said a pattern was clear. “We found that from early to late adulthood, individuals adapt their expectations of future life satisfaction from optimistic, to accurate, to pessimistic，” the authors concluded.
According to the study, who made the most accurate prediction of their future life satisfaction?
| A．Optimistic adults. |
| B．Middleaged adults. |
| C．Adults in poor health. |
| D．Adults of lower income. |
Pessimism may be positive in some way because it causes people ________.
| A．to fully enjoy their present life |
| B．to estimate their contribution accurately |
| C．to take measures against potential risks |
| D．to value health more highly than wealth |
How do people of higher income see their future?
| A．They will earn less money. |
| B．They will become pessimistic. |
| C．They will suffer mental illness. |
| D．They will have less time to enjoy life. |
What is the clear conclusion of the study?
| A．Pessimism guarantees chances of survival. |
| B．Good financial condition leads to good health. |
| C．Medical treatment determines health outcomes. |
| D．Expectations of future life satisfaction decline with age. |
When we walk on a street or sit down to have a cup of coffee in a small café in Shanghai, we will often see foreign faces at every turn. Today, foreigners do not come to Shanghai to seek adventures, as they did in the old days, or arrive in the city for a short visit, as some did when China just carried out the opening-up. Instead, many foreigners come to Shanghai to settle in the city. They are attracted by the life in Shanghai and choose to stay in the city. Their stay has made Shanghai more like an international city.
Early in the 1990s, a group of Western-style buildings emerged at the Gubei New District in the southwestern part of the Hongqiao Development Zone in Shanghai. The Western-style buildings, marked by their great arches and the typical flavors of the unique European style, appealed to many foreigners and become their favorite choice when they came to live or work in Shanghai. Foreigners gathered in the zone, enjoying their quiet life there.
As the city further develops, more and more foreigners choose to live in the downtown area where most native Shanghai people live. They live close to local residents and gradually become interated(一体化)into the local life—they learn to cook local dishes, they learn to speak the Shanghai dialect and they celebrate traditional Chinese holidays together with native people. Their lifestyle is becoming more and more similar to that of local residents.
In the past, foreigners that came to Shanghai were mostly representatives(代表)sent to work in the city. Today, however, many foreigners that live in the city are students, business starters or ordinary people. Related information shows that there are more than 50,000 foreigners living and working in Shanghai.Foreigners used to come to Shanghai to_____.
| A．start small cafés | B．help build houses |
| C．have a short visit | D．learn the Shanghai dialect |
The underlined word“emerged”in the second paragraph probably means_______.
| A．built | B．appeared | C．stood | D．lay |
In the past, most of the foreigners coming to Shanghai were_______.
| A．business starters | B．students | C．ordinary people | D．representatives |
Which of the following can be inferred from the text?
| A．There are fewer foreigners in Beijing than in Shanghai. |
| B．It is the foreigners who make Shanghai an international city. |
| C．Many foreigners enjoy the traditional Chinese festivals. |
| D．The foreigners came to Shanghai to seek for money in the past. |
The best title for this text would be______.
| A．Foreigners Settling in Shanghai | B．The Development of Shanghai |
| C．The Lifestyle of Shanghai People | D．Contributions of Foreigners in Shanghai |
Is there anything more important than health? I don’t think so. “Health is the greatest wealth，” wise people say. You can’t be good at your studies or work well when you are ill.
If you have a headache, toothache, backache, earache or bad pain in the stomach, if you complain of a bad cough, if you run a high temperature and have a bad cold, or if you suffer from high or low blood pressure, I think you should go to the doctor. The doctor will examine your throat, feel your pulse, test your blood pressure, take your temperature, sound your heart and lungs, test your eyes, check your teeth or have your chest X-rayed. After that, he will advise some treatment, or some medicine. The only thing you have to do is to follow his advice.
Speaking about doctor’s advice, I can’t help telling you a funny story. An old gentleman came to see the doctor. The man was very ill. He told the doctor about his weakness, memory loss and serious problems with his heart and lungs. The doctor examined him and said there was no medicine for his disease. He told his patient to go to a quiet place for a month and have a good rest. He also advised him to eat a lot of meat, drink two glasses of red wine every day and take long walks. In other words, the doctor advised him to follow the rule: “Eat with pleasure, drink with pleasure and enjoy life as it is.” The doctor also said that if the man wanted to be well again, he shouldn’t smoke more than one cigarette a day. A month later the gentleman came into the doctor’s office. He looked cheerful and happy. He thanked the doctor and said that he had never felt a healthier man.“ But you know, doctor,” he said, “it’s not easy to begin smoking at my age.”The writer thinks that_____.
| A．health is more important than wealth |
| B．work is as important as studies |
| C．medicine is more important than pleasure |
| D．nothing is more important than money |
The doctor usually tells his patient what to do______.
| A．without examining the patient | B．after he has examined the patient |
| C．if the patient doesn’t take medicine | D．unless the patient feels pain |
The underlined part means “______”.
| A．he was feeling better than ever | B．he wasn’t a healthy man |
| C．he was feeling worse than before | D．he will be well again |
From the last sentence of the passage, we learn the man_______ before the doctor told him not to smoke more than one cigarette a day.
| A．was a heavy smoker | B．didn’t smoke so much |
| C．didn’t smoke | D．began to learn to smoke |
Which of the following is NOT true?
| A．The doctor usually tests his/her blood pressure when a person is ill. |
| B．The man told the doctor he couldn’t remember things. |
| C．The man thanked the doctor. |
| D．The man didn’t follow the doctor’s advice. |
I sat at my seat waiting for the school paper to be passed around. I waited anxiously, knowing that once I received it I would know how good a writer I really am.
When the paper arrived at my classroom, I nearly knocked down five of my classmates to get to the first paper. With a school paper in my hands, I returned to my seat. About a month earlier, I had handed in one of, what I believed to be, my best stories. I named it Symbol of Success. The head of the English Department at my school, Professor Cullen had said that she would include some reviews of students’ stories in the latest school paper. Professor Cullen was known for her rough criticism. Impressing her was very hard but I wanted to be the first to do so.
I sat at the edge of my seat as I read through the other story reviews. There wasn’t one story that got more than three stars .I became calm and wasn’t anxious to know my review. It was long after that I heard someone shout out “Five stars?! Seriously!” from behind me. I turned around and saw the shocked expression of Gene’s face, “Peter, your story got five stars!” I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. I turned my attention back to my story and saw the five stars at the end of the review that I had not read yet. I looked through the review written by Professor Cullen. She wrote that I had a gift for story writing.
I was proud that I achieved what I thought was impossible .For so long I believed I wasn’t as good as I thought I was and that my talent was not enough to cover up my lack of wring skills .But this review proved that I was truly a good writer and that there was a future ahead of me in the field of fiction writing. The review and the five stars meant the world of me. Those five stars became the symbol of my success.How did the writer get the school paper?
| A．His teacher gave it to him first |
| B．The publisher sent it to him first |
| C．His friend helped him get the first one. |
| D．He rushed ahead to get the first one by himself. |
What can we learn about Professor Cullen?
| A．She was very gentle to everyone. | B．She seldom praised her students. |
| C．She was very cold to her students. | D．She was respected by her students. |
We can learn from this text that Peter_______.
| A．had thought his story was better than those of others |
| B．was always anxious to know the review about him |
| C．didn’t know he got five stars until others told him |
| D．looked through a few stories that had got four stars |
What did Professor Cullen think of Peter’s story?
| A．She thought highly of it . |
| B．She thought it was just so-so. |
| C．She thought it was extremely bad |
| D．She doubted if it was written by him. |
Why did the review and the five stars mean the world to Peter?
| A．Because they helped him learn writing skills |
| B．Because they made him happy for some time |
| C．Because they helped him enter a key university |
| D．Because they made him see his writing talents |
Nowadays, there’s a lot of debate about single sex education since it has begun to regain its popularity recently. According to long term studies of children from around the world, students achieve more and learn better in single sex schools.
An Australian study of 270,000 students found that both boys and girls performed much higher on standardized(标准化) tests when they attended separate schools. During an experiment in Virginia in 1995, 100 eighth graders were separated just for math and science courses. Almost immediately, the girls began to achieve more, become more confident and take part more often in class activities.
In 2001, a British study concluded that nearly every girl regardless of (不论) her ability or socio-economic status performed better in single sex classrooms than co-ed ones. The study of 2,954 high schools and 979 primary schools showed that while boys at the lowest levels in study improved the most in single sex schools, single sex education was particularly beneficial (有益的) to girls. Every one of the top 50 private elementary schools and top 20 private high schools in Britain are single sex schools.
Girls became more confident in themselves as students and earned higher scores on their College Board and Advanced Placement examinations. A quarter of the female members of the US Congress and one-third of all female members of Fortune 100 boards graduated from all-women’s colleges.
While the statistics are not as dramatic for boys, however, boys tend to soften their competitive edge and become more cooperative in a single sex setting. They can just be boys and not worry about what the girls might think.
Single sex education has a pleasant way of encouraging children to be fearless, to be curious, to be enthusiastic --- in short, to just be themselves. Children are subjected (屈从于) to pressures from every quarter to become adults before they are ready to do so. They grow up too quickly. Why not let them be children for a few more years? Single sex education with its gentler, more controlled social atmosphere is just the right answer for many children.With the experiment in Virginia in 1995, the writer wants to show that .
| A．single sex education has become popular in recent years |
| B．the effect of single sex education on girls is immediate |
| C．students at separate schools are better prepared for standardized tests |
| D．both boy and girl students achieve more and learn better in single sex schools |
According to the article, which of the following statements about single sex education is TRUE?
| A．Girls’ performances in single sex classrooms are determined by their ability and socioeconomic status. |
| B．In all-boys schools boys with the worst academic performances improved the most. |
| C．Single sex education was particularly helpful for boys. |
| D．There are more single sex schools than co-ed schools in Britain. |
In the article, the underlined phrase “soften their competitive edge” probably means .
| A．act in a kindly manner | B．become less competitive |
| C．lose interest in something | D．take advantage of something |
What is the main point of the article?
| A．Ways to reduce pressure and help children grow. |
| B．The reason why girls perform better than boys at school. |
| C．The advantage of single sex education. |
| D．The development of single sex education in different countries. |
I have this old clock that belonged to my mom. My dad gave it to me years ago after mom passed away.
I have mixed feelings about having the clock. I love it because it was my mom’s, but it also holds some bad memories.
You see, it chimes. It counts out the hour and rings once on the half hour. Or at least it used to. Now you never know what number it will ring.
When my mother was at home dying from cancer, she asked for the clock to be unplugged. Hearing the hours count down really angered and frightened her.
Mom passed away. I decided I wanted to get the clock fixed so I could remember the good hours we had with her.
I took it to a local clock shop the other day.
“I know this has no particular value as a clock, but it was my mom’s and I need to get it fixed,” I said to the shop owner.
I went on to describe the problem.
“We get a lot of these in,” he told me. “Here’s what I do. We remove the clock works (机件) and replace it with a battery-operated movement (机芯) that chimes electronically,” he told me.
“You can’t fix this?”
“No, we don’t have the time nor the parts.”
I thanked him and went home. I called a few other places and was told the same thing.
“How incredibly sad,” I told the last one disappointedly.
How incredibly sad that we have become a society that replaces craftsmanship with convenience and easy fixes. We copy the original instead of creating something new. We duplicate (复制); we don’t originate (发明).
Sadly, the same goes for our attitude to life itself.
Each of us is an original, one of a kind. But we find it so much easier to copy another style than to develop our own.
We are wannabes (崇拜别人的人) rather than hey-world-look-at-mes.
We fail to see the real value in who we are, so we spend our lives trying to be someone else. Why did the author decide to get the clock fixed?
| A．Because it was a really old and valuable clock. |
| B．Because it was the only thing that her mother had left her. |
| C．Because it brought her memories of being with her mother. |
| D．Because it left the author with mixed feelings. |
What did the clock shop owners tell the author?
| A．The parts that the clock needed were electronic. |
| B．It would cost a lot to repair the clock. |
| C．They had never repaired a clock like this before. |
| D．They could only make the clock electronic. |
The author intends to ________.
| A．criticize the irresponsible clock shop owners |
| B．criticize people who do not value things with a history |
| C．criticize people who do not have a creative attitude toward life |
| D．criticize people’s ignorance of traditional craftsmanship |
粤公网安备 44130202000953号