A few weeks ago, while I was reading the morning paper, I turned the radio up to listen to a Saturday morning talk show and I heard an old sounding gentleman, with a golden voice. He was telling whoever he was talking with something about “a thousand marbles”.
I was intrigued and stopped to listen to what he had to say …
“Let me tell you something, Tom, something that has helped me keep a good perspective on my own priorities (优先考虑的事).”
He continued, “You see, I sat down one day and did a little math. The average person lives for about seventy-five years. Now then, I multiplied 75 by 52 and I came up with 3,900 which is the number of Saturdays that the average person has in their entire lifetime. Now stick with (继续倾听……的话) me, Tom. I’m getting to the important part.”
“It wasn’t until I had lived through over twenty-eight hundred Saturdays that I started thinking about all this in any detail,” he went on. “I got to thinking that if I lived to be seventy-five, I only had about a thousand of them left to enjoy. So I went to a toy store and bought 1,000 marbles. I took them home and put them inside a large, clear plastic container. Every Saturday since then, I have taken one marble out and thrown it away.
“I found that by watching the marbles diminish (变少), I focused more on the really important things in life. There is nothing like watching your time here on this earth run out to help get your priorities straight.
“It was nice to meet you, Tom. I hope you spend time with your family, and I hope to meet you again.”
You could have heard a pin drop on the radio when the old man signed off. I guess he gave us all a lot to think about. I had panned to work that morning. Instead, I went upstairs and woke my wife up with a kiss. “Come on, honey, I’m taking you and the kids to breakfast. And can we stop at a toy store while we’re out? I need to buy some marbles.”The underlines word “intrigued” in Paragraph 2 probably means “ ________”.
| A．encouraged | B．moved | C．worried | D．attracted |
The old man started practicing the theory of “a thousand marbles” ________.
| A．in his twenties | B．in his fifties |
| C．in his seventies | D．in his eighties |
What life lesson does this text teach us?
| A．Spending more time with our family. |
| B．Enriching our life with marble games. |
| C．It’s never too late to love our family. |
| D．Learning to live life to the fullest. |
In her new book, “The Smartest Kids in the World,” Amanda Ripley, an investigative journalist, tells the story of Tom, a high-school student from Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, who decides to spend his senior year in Warsaw, Poland. Poland is a surprising educational success story: in the past decade, the country raised students’ test scores from significantly below average to well above it. Polish kids have now outscored(超过……分数) American kids in math and science, even though Poland spends, on average, less than half as much per student as the United States does. One of the most striking differences between the high school Tom attended in Gettysburg and the one he ends up at in Warsaw is that the latter has no football team, or, for that matter, teams of any kind.
That American high schools lavish more time and money on sports than on math is an old complaint. This is not a matter of how any given student who plays sports does in school, but of the culture and its priorities. This December, when the latest Program for International Student Assessment(PISA) results are announced, it’s safe to predict that American high-school students will once again display their limited skills in math and reading, outscored not just by students in Poland but also by students in places like South Korea, Belgium, the Netherlands, Finland, Singapore, and Japan. Meanwhile, they will have played some very exciting football games, which will have been breathlessly written up in their hometown papers.
Why does this situation continue? Well, for one thing, kids like it. And for another, according to Ripley, parents seem to like the arrangement, too. She describes a tour she took of a school in Washington D.C., which costs thirty thousand dollars a year. The tour leader—a mother with three children in the school—was asked about the school’s flaws(暇疵). When she said that the math program was weak, none of the parents taking the tour reacted. When she said that the football program was weak, the parents suddenly became concerned. “Really?” one of them asked worriedly, “What do you mean?”
One of the ironies(讽刺) of the situation is that sports reveal what is possible. American kids’ performance on the field shows just how well they can do when expectations are high. It’s too bad that their test scores show the same thing.Tom decides to spend his senior year in Poland because _______.
| A．there are striking differences between the 2 countries |
| B．Polish kids are better at learning |
| C．sports are not supported at schools in Gettysburg |
| D．he intends to improve his scores |
According to Paragraph 2, we know that _______.
| A．too much importance is placed on sports in America |
| B．little time is spent on sports in Japanese schools |
| C．American high schools complain about sports time |
| D．PISA plays a very important role in America |
The underlined sentence in the last paragraph means _______.
| A．American students’ academic performance worries their parents a lot |
| B．high expectations push up American students’ academic performance |
| C．low expectations result in American students’ poor PISA performance |
| D．lacking practice contributes to American students’ average performance |
The purpose of this article is to _______.
| A．draw public attention to a weakness in American school tradition |
| B．call on American schools to learn from the Polish model |
| C．compare Polish schools with those in America |
| D．explain what is wrong with American schools and provide solutions |
Four years ago my sweet mom went to be with her Lord. She did it her way.
I got the call at work, and I headed home quickly. Mom and Dad lived on a small farm that they had owned since I was seven. I hated going there every weekend. There was nothing for a young girl to do but watch the one station on the old TV set, if the weather allowed reception.
My mom, on the other hand, loved the peace and quiet of the land. The place was rustic, with no indoor plumbing or heat. We had a big wood stove in the kitchen that did its best to heat the little farmhouse, but it always seemed cold and too quiet to me.
In the evenings, my mom and I would sit for hours singing in the little kitchen. I sang the melody and Mom harmonized. Her favorite song was "Moon River" and we sang it over and over. Mom told me stories about how when I was a little girl, I could sing before I could talk.
As time passed, I had my own children and went to visit them every week or two. The kids loved the farm and the tractor rides with my dad. Me, well, I still hated the silence of the farm. While my mom loved to sit at her kitchen table and look out at her garden and flowers and retell all the old stories, I missed the hustle and bustle（喧闹）of my life at home. But I sat there listening quietly as she reminisced.
Now, I sat back in the silence and the silence was deafening so I finally leaned over to turn on an old radio. Music always comforted me.
My heart skipped a beat. "Moon River" was playing on the radio. I sat there stunned, with a tear running down my cheek, as I listened to every familiar note.From the first paragraph, we know that the writer’s mother ________.
| A．passed away four years ago |
| B．left the small farm with Lord |
| C．left for Lord to live her own way |
| D．preferred to be with Lord |
The underlined word reminisced in the fifth paragraph probably means ________.
| A．recalled | B．comforted |
| C．shouted | D．sighed |
The writer didn’t like staying in the farm for the following reasons except that ________.
| A．it was too cold and quiet |
| B．she could only sing one song in the small farm |
| C．there was nothing more that could make her excited |
| D．the place was rustic, with no indoor plumbing or heat |
Which of the following would be the best title for this passage? _______
| A．Cherish(珍惜) life | B．My happy childhood |
| C．Our small farmhouse | D．Mom’s music |
As we have seen, the focus of medical care in our society has been shifting from curing disease to preventing disease-especially in terms of changing our many unhealthy behavior, such as poor eating habits, smoking, and failure to exercise. The line of thought involved in this shift can go further. Imagine a person who is about the right weight, but does not eat very nutritious
foods, who feels OK but exercises only occasionally, who goes to work every day, but is not an outstanding worker, who drinks a few beers at home most nights but does not drive while drunk, and who has no chest pains or abnormal blood counts, but sleeps a lot and often feels tired. This person is not ill. He may not even be at risk for any particular disease. But we can imagine that this person could be a lot healthier.
The field of medicine has not traditionally distinguished between someone who is merely "not ill" and someone who is in excellent health and pays attention to the body’。special needs. Both types have simply been called "well". In recent years, however, some health specialists have begun to apply the terms "well" and "wellness" only to those who are actively striving to maintain and improve their health. People who are well are concerned with nutrition and exercise, and they make a point of monitoring their body's condition. Most important, perhaps, people who are well take active responsibility for all matters related to their health. Even people who have a physical disease or handicap（缺陷）may be "well", in this new sense, if they make an effort to maintain the best possible health they can in the face of their physical limitations. "Wellness" may perhaps best be viewed not as a state that people can achieve, but as an ideal that people can strive for.
People who are well are likely to be better able to resist disease and to fight disease when it strikes. And by focusing attention on healthy ways of living, the concept of wellness can have a beneficial impact on the ways in which people face the challenges of daily life.Today medical care is placing more stress on＿＿．
| A．keeping people in a healthy physical condition |
| B．monitoring patients’ body functions |
| C．removing people’s bad living habits |
| D．ensuring people’s psychological well-being |
In the first paragraph, people are reminded that＿＿．
| A．good health is more than not being ill |
| B．drinking, even if not to excess, could be harmful |
| C．regular health checks are essential to keeping fit |
| D．prevention is more difficult than cure |
Traditionally, a person is considered "well” if he＿＿．
| A．does not have any unhealthy living habits |
| B．does not have any physical handicaps |
| C．is able to handle his daily routines |
| D．is free from any kind of disease |
According to the author, the true meaning of "wellness" is for people to＿＿．
| A．best satisfy their body’s special needs |
| B．strive to maintain the best possible health |
| C．meet the strictest standards of bodily health |
| D．keep a proper balance between work and leisure |
Throughout the centuries, various writers have contributed greatly to the literary treasure of books lining the shelves of today’s libraries. In addition to writing interesting material, many famous writers, such as Edgar Allan Poe, were larger-than-life characters with personal histories that are as interesting to read as the stories they wrote. Poe’s rocky life included being driven off from the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1831 and an ongoing battle with alcohol. Yet, despite heavy gambling debts, poor health, and terrible unemployment, Poe managed to produce a body of popular works, including" The Raven" and "The Murders in the Rue Morgue．”
Herman Melville, author of Moby Dick, once lived among the man-eaters in the Marquesas
Islands and wrote unusual tales inspired by his years of service in the U.S. Navy. Dublin-born Oscar Wilde was noted for his charming personality, his outrageous lifestyle, and creating witty phrases such as, "Nothing succeeds like excess." D.H. Lawrence wrote shameful novels that were often cut, and Anne Rice led a double life writing bestselling horrible novels under her real name and using "A.N. Roquelaure" for the lowbrow(文化低)unhealthy novels she penned on the side. Nonconformist不墨守成规的)author and naturalist Henry David Thoreau once fled to the woods and generated enough interesting material to fill his noted book Walden. Thoreau wrote on
the issue of passive resistance protest in his essay "Civil Disobedience”and served time in jail for refusing tax payments in protest of the United States government’s policy towards slavery. American short story writer O. Henry’s colorful life was ruined by tragic events, such as being accused and sentenced for stealing money from an Austin, Texas bank. Despite his success selling his short stories, O. Henry struggled financially and was nearly bankrupt when he died.
As diverse as these famous authors’backgrounds were，th即all led unconventional lives while writing great literary works that will endure throughout the ages. The next time you read an interesting book, consider learning more about the author by reading his or her biograp卜y so you can learn about the unique life experiences that shaped his or her writing.Which of the following is NOT TRUE about Edgar Allan Poe?
| A．He had his own interesting personal history as other famous writers. |
| B．He graduated from United States Military Academy at West Point in 1831． |
| C．He once had heavy gambling debts and fell down with illness. |
| D．He managed to produce popular works no matter how rocky his life was. |
What can you infer from Para. 2?
A. D.H. lawrence and Anne Rice once wrote similar type of novels.
B. Anne Rice used a pen name because her novels were quite popular.
C. Anne Rice used different names when she wrote bestselling novels.
D. Henry David Thoreau enriched his books by living in the forests.Which statement is TRUE according to the passage?
| A．Henry David Thoreau was passionately opposed to horrible events. |
| B．Anne Rice always used a pen name to hide her true identity. |
| C．Herman Melville stayed with man-eaters during his naval service. |
| D．O. Henry’s life was colorful though he had lots of difficulties. |
The passage mainly tells us that＿＿．
| A．many famous writers lived nontraditional lives |
| B．most famous writers were usually troublemakers |
| C．writers had to lead interesting lives to generate materials |
| D．the biographies of famous writers are always inspirational |
It helps to choose the colors you plan to live with in your home with awareness of how different colors affect your emotional and physical states. Every color has a unique meaning, and this can significantly affect how you feel in a room.
A room that is painted red will energize, inspire activity and movement, help passion, and be powerful and stimulating. A red room can also be exhausting and overpowering, and stressful for those who are anxious.
Orange rooms encourage happy, joyful, social gatherings. While an orange dining room or family room can stimulate the appetite, it is a great choice for such gathering places. Orange enhances parties, communication, positive feelings, and general good cheer.
Yellow rooms inspire intellectual clarity, organization, clear -headed thinking, and happy energy. Yellow is considered a color for the logical left side of the brain. Yellow is also very bright and somewhat energizing.
Blue rooms are often chosen for bedrooms and meditation（冥想）rooms because its cool energy is very calming, restful, peaceful, and spiritual. Blue helps inspire a quiet meditative quality, and color therapy with blue has been found to reduce blood pressure. Blue is also useful to make one to sleep.
Green rooms are very restful but combine with an energizing quality. Green is the color of outdoors, calm and active at the same time. Green brings balance and harmony to a room, and can be used as a calming place for people who are troubled or in need of refreshment.What impression can green rooms give to you?
| A．Passionate and powerful. |
| B．Refreshing and harmonious. |
| C．Cool and calming. |
| D．Inspiring and bright. |
If you are going to hold a family gathering, which color of the room can best enhance your atmosphere?
| A．Red. | B．Orange. | C．Blue. | D．Green. |
Which of the following statements about color is NOT true?
| A．Yellow rooms inspire logical and clear thinking. |
| B．Blue creates a quiet meditative quality. |
| C．Different colors affect you emotionally and physically. |
| D．Red rooms are acceptable when you are in a bad mood. |
What color should his room be painted if a person likes meditation?
| A．Blue. | B．Orange. | C．Green. | D．Red. |
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