When I was about 12, I had an enemy, a girl who liked to point out my shortcomings(缺点). Week by week her list grew: I was very thin, I wasn’t a good student, I talked too much, I was too proud, and so on. I tried to hear all this as long as I could. At last, I became very angry. I ran to my father with tears in my eyes.
He listened to me quietly, and then he asked, “Are the things she says true or not? Janet, didn’t you ever wonder what you’re really like? Well, you now have that girl’s opinion. Go and make a list of everything she said and mark the points that are true. Pay no attention to the other things she said.”
I did as he told me. To my great surprise, I discovered that about half the things were true. Some of them I couldn’t change (like being very thin), but a good number I could—and suddenly I wanted to change. For the first time I got a fairly clear picture of myself.
I brought the list back to Daddy. He refused to take it. “That’s just for you,” he said. “You know better than anyone else the truth about yourself. But you have to learn to listen, not just close your ears in anger and feel hurt. When something said about you is true, you’ll find it will be of help to you. Our world is full of people who think they know your duty. Don’t shut your ears. Listen to them all, but hear the truth and do what you know is the right thing to do.”
Daddy’s advice has returned to me at many important moments. In my life, I’ve never had a better piece of advice.What did the father do after he had heard his daughter’s complaint?
| A．He refused to take the list and have a look at it. |
| B．He told her not to pay any attention to what her “enemy” had said. |
| C．He was angry and told her to overcome her shortcomings. |
| D．He told her to write down all and pay attention only to the things that were true. |
What does “Week by week her list grew” mean?
| A．Week by week she discovered and pointed out more shortcomings of mine. |
| B．She kept on adding new ones to the list so it was growing longer and longer. |
| C．I was having more and more shortcomings as time went on. |
| D．Week by week, my shortcomings grew more serious. |
Which do you think would be the best title for this passage?
| A．My Father |
| B．My Childhood |
| C．The Best Advice I’ve Ever Had |
| D．Not an Enemy, but the Best Friend |
Store Scent(香味)
What is the first thing you notice when you walk into a shop? The products displayed（展示） at the entrance? Or the soft background music?
But have you ever noticed the smell? Unless it is bad, the answer is likely to be no. but while a shop's scent may not be outstanding compared with sights and sounds, it is certainly there. And it is proving be an increasingly powerful tool in encouraging people to purchase.
A brand store has become famous for its distinctive scent which floats through the fairly dark hall and out to the entrance, via scent machines. A smell may be attractive but it may not just be used for freshening air. One sports goods company once reported that when it first introduced scent into its stores, customers' intention to purchase increased by 80 percent.
When it comes to the best shopping streets in pairs, scent is just as important to a brand's success as the quality of its window displays and goods on sale. That is mainly because shopping is a very different experience to what it used to be.
Some years ago, the focus for brand name shopping was on a few people with sales assistants' disproving attitude and don't-touch-what-you-can't-afford displays. Now the rise of electronic commerce (e-commerce) has opened up famous brands to a wider audience. But while e-shops can use sights and sounds, only bricks-and-mortar stores（实体店）can offer a full experience from the minute customers step through the door to the moment they leave. Another brand store seeks to be much more than a shop, but rather a destination. And scent is just one way to achieve this.
Now, a famous store uses complex man-made smell to make sure that the soft scent of baby powder floats through the kid department, and coconut scent in the swimsuit section. A department store has even opened a new lab, inviting customers on a journey into the store's windows to smell books, pots and drawers, in search of their perfect scent. According to the passage, what is an increasingly powerful tool in the success of some brand stores?
| A．Friendly assistants |
| B．Unique scents |
| C．Soft background music |
| D．Attractive window display |
E-shops are mentioned in the passage to_____
| A．show the advantage of bricks-and-mortar stores |
| B．urge shop assistants to change their attitude |
| C．push stores to use sights and sounds |
| D．introduce the rise e-commerce |
The underlined word “destination” in Paragraph 5 means______
| A．a platform that exhibits goods |
| B．a spot where travelers like to stay |
| C．a place where customers love to go |
| D．a target that a store expects to meet |
The main purpose of the passage is to _____
| A．compare and evaluate |
| B．examine and assess |
| C．argue and discuss |
| D．inform and explain |
Choosing the Right Resolution
Millions of Americans began 2014 with the same resolution they started 2013 with, a goal of losing weight. However, setting weight loss as a goal is a mistake.
To reach our goal of losing weight-the output, we need to control what we eat-the input(输入). That is, we tend to care about the output but not to control the input. This is a bad way to construct goals. The alternative is to focus your resolution on the input. Instead of resolving to lose weight, try an actionable resolution: “I'll stop having dessert for lunch,” or “I'll walk every day for 20 minutes.” Creating a goal that focuses on well-specified input will likely be more effective than concentrating on the outcome.
Recently a new science behind incentives(激励), including in education, has been discussed. For example, researcher Roland Fryer wanted to see what works best in motivating children to do better in school. In some cases, he gave students incentives based on input, like reading certain books, while in others, the incentives were based on output, like results on exams. His main finding was that incentives increased achievement when based on input but had no effect when based on output. Fryer's conclusion was that the incentives for inputs might be more effective because students do not know how to do better on an exam, aside from general rules like “study harder.” Reading certain books, on the other hand, is a well-set task over which they have much more control.
As long as you have direct control over your goal, you have a much higher chance of success. And it's easier to start again if you fail, because you know exactly what you need to do.
If yo want to cut down on your spending, a good goal would be making morning coffee at home instead of going to a cafe, for example. This is a well-specified action-based goal for which you can measure your success easily. Spending less money isn't a goal because it's too general. Similarly, if you want to spend more time with your family, don't stop with this general wish. Think about an actionable habit that you could adopt and stick to, like a family movie night every Wednesday.
In the long run, these new goals could become a habit. The writer thinks that setting weight loss as a goal is a mistake because .
| A．it is hard to achieve for most Americans |
| B．it is focused too much on the result |
| C．it is dependent on too many things |
| D．it is based on actionable decisions |
In Roland Fryer's research, some students did better than the others because .
| A．they obeyed all the general rules |
| B．they paid more attention to exams |
| C．they were motivated by their classmates |
| D．they were rewarded for reading some books |
According to the writer, which of the following statements is a good goal?
| A．“I'll give up dessert.” |
| B．“I'll study harder.” |
| C．“I'll cut down my expenses.” |
| D．“I'll spend more time with my family.” |
The writer strongly believes that we should .
| A．develop good habits and focus on the outcome |
| B．be optimistic about final goals and stick to them |
| C．pick specific actions that can be turned into good habit |
| D．set ambitious goals that can balance the input and output |
The interview has been going on for about 20 minutes and everything seems to be going well.Then，suddenly the interviewer asks an unexpected question.“Which is more important，law or love?”
Job applicants in the west increasing find themselves asked strange questions like this.And the signs are that this is beginning to happening in China.
Employers want people who are skilled，enthusiastic(热情的） and devoted.So these are the qualities that any reasonably intelligent job applicant will try to show no matter what his or her actual feelings are.In response(应答），employers are increasingly using questions which try and show the applicant’s true personality.
The question in the first paragraph comes from a test called the Kiersey Personality Sorter.It is an attempt to discover how people solve problems，rather than what they know.This is often called aptitude(倾向性）testing.
According to Mark Baldwin of Alliance many job applicants in China are finding this type of questions difficult.“When a Chinese person fills out an aptitude test he or she will think there is a right answer and they may well fail because they try to guess what the examiner wants to see.”
This is sometimes called the prisoner’s dilemma(窘境）.Applicants are trying to act cleverly in their own interest，but they fail because they don’t understand what the interviewer is looking for.Remember that in an aptitude test，the correct answer is always the honest answer.
3The writer wrote the passage to ______.
| A．give you a piece of advice on a job interview |
| B．tell you a piece of advice on a job interview |
| C．describe an aptitude test |
| D．advise you how to find a good job |
Now employers want to hire workers______.
| A．who know much more than others |
| B．who are better skilled than others |
| C．who are able to solve different problems |
| D．who will work harder than others |
According to the writer，in an aptitude testing，Chinese job applicants should______.
| A．not tell the truth |
| B．learn to tell what they really think |
| C．be more enthusiastic |
| D．try to find out what the examiner really wants to know |
From the passage we know that ______.
| A．job applicants are always asked such questions |
| B．more Chinese applicants fail to find a job |
| C．applicants should not act as reasonably as a prisoner |
| D．aptitude testing is becoming popular the world wide |
Women are friendly. But men are more competitive. Why? Researchers have found it’s all down to the hormone oxytocin(荷尔蒙催生素). Although known as the love hormone, it affects the sexes differently.
“Women tend to be social in their behavior. They often share with others. But men tend to be competitive. They are trying to improve their social status,” said Professor Ryan.
Generally, people believe that the hormone exytocin is let out in our body in various social situations and our body creates a large amount of it during positive social interaction（互动）such as falling in love or giving birth.
But in a previous experiment Professor Ryan found that the hormone is also let out in our body during negative social interactions such as envy.
Further researches showed that in men the hormone oxytocin improves the ability to recognize competitive relationships, but in women it raises the ability to recognize friendship.
Professor Ryan’s recent experiment used 62 men and women aged 20 to 37.
Half of the participants（参与者）received oxytocin. The other half received placebo（安慰剂）.
After a week, the two groups switched with participants. They went through the same procedure with the other material.
Following each treatment, they were shown some video pictures with different social interactions. Then they were asked to analyze the relationships by answering some questions. The questions were about telling friendship from competition. And their answers should be based on gestures, body language and facial expressions.
The results indicated that, after treatment with oxytocin, men’s ability to correctly recognize competitive relationships improved, but in women it was the ability to correctly recognize friendship that got better.
Professor Ryan thus concluded: “Our experiment proves that the hormone oxytocin can raise people’s abilities to better distinguish different social interactions. And the behavior differences between men and women are caused by biological factor（因素）that are mainly hormonal.” What causes men and women to behave differently according to the text?
| A．Placebo. |
| B．Oxytocin. |
| C．The gesture. |
| D．The social status. |
What can we learn from Professor Ryan’s previous experiment?
| A．Oxytocin affects our behavior in a different way. |
| B．Our body lets out oxytocin when we are deep in love. |
| C．Our body produces oxytocin when we feel unhappy about others’ success. |
| D．Oxytocin improves our abilities to understand people’s behavior differences. |
Why did Professor Ryan conduct the recent experiment?
| A．To test the effect of oxytocin on the ability to recognize social interactions. |
| B．To know the differences between friendship and competition. |
| C．To know people’s different abilities to answer questions. |
| D．To test people’s understanding of body language. |
The author develops the text by _______.
| A．explaining people’s behavior |
| B．describing his own experiences |
| C．distinguishing sexual differences |
| D．discussing research experiments |
Walt Disney is credited for creating such wonderful things as Donald Duck and Mickey Mouse. However, he cannot take the credit for creating other well-loved characters, such as Cinderella and Snow White. They are almost automatically associated with Disney because Disney turned old fables(寓言) into cartoon movies.
The original Cinderella varies very much from the Disney version we know today. It started off with the girl mourning her mother’s death and going to her tomb three times a day. In addition, there were only birds that helped Cinderella; there was no such thing as a fairy godmother or helpful mice, nor was there mention of a horse and carriage.
The stepsisters were cruel: they always threw Cinderella’s food into the ashes of the fire and made her sleep on the ashes on the floor, hence（因此）her name.
In the original story, the king’s ball actually lasted for three days. With the help of the birds, the girl, beautifully dressed, danced with the prince on all three nights and the prince fell in love with her. However, she broke away from him to rush back home each night. On the last night, the prince placed soothing sticky on the stairs; as Cinderella made her escape, a shoe got stuck on it.
Here now is where the story becomes unpleasant: when the prince went to the house looking for the girl whose foot fit the shoe, the wicked(邪恶的) stepmother told one of her two daughters to cut off her big toe to fit into the shoe. The daughter did as told. So the prince took her away to be his bride. But when they passed the tomb of Cinderella’s mother, the birds called out to the prince,
“Turn and peep, there’s blood in the shoe;
the shoe is too small, the true bride waits for you.”
Realizing he had been tricked, the prince returned the daughter to her mother. The other then had to cut off part of her heel in order to fit into the shoe, with the same result. Only Cinderella’s foot fit perfectly and so the prince chose to marry her. The story ends with the wedding day: as Cinderella’s two stepsisters followed her, pretending to be devoted to her so that they could enjoy the king’s riches, two birds flew by and plucked(啄) out their eyes. Because of their wickedness and falsehood, they had to spend the rest of their days blind.
The original Cinderella is so different from the Disney version. Thank goodness Disney made such changes; it indeed was a wise move. What dose the underlined word “They” in the first paragraph refer to?
| A．Such wonderful things. |
| B．Other well-loved characters. |
| C．Old fables. |
| D．Cartoon movies. |
How did Cinderella get her name?
| A．The Birds came up with it. |
| B．It was given by Disney. |
| C．It came from the word “ash”. |
| D．She got it from her mother. |
Which of the following is TRUE according to the original story?
| A．Helpful mice got Cinderella a beautiful dress. |
| B．The ball was held to celebrate the prince’s wedding. |
| C．Cinderella left her shoe on the stairs on purpose. |
| D．The birds told the prince that he had been cheated. |
What does the author think of the Disney version?
| A．Excellent. |
| B．Ordinary |
| C．Dull. |
| D．Ridiculous. |
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