Poet William Stafford once said that we are defined more by the detours(绕行路)in life than by the narrow road toward goals. I like this image. But it was quite by accident that I discovered the deep meaning of his words.
For years we made the long drive from our home in Seattle to my parents’ home in Boise in nine hours. We traveled the way most people do: the fastest, shortest, easiest road, especially when I was alone with four noisy, restless kids who hate confinement(限制)and have strong opinions about everything.
Road trips felt risky, so I would drive fast, stopping only when I had to. We would stick to the freeways and arrive tired.
But then Banner, our lamb was born. He was rejected by his mama days before our planned trip to Boise. I had two choices: leave Banner with my husband, or take him with me. My husband made the decision for me.
That is how I found myself on the road with four kids, a baby lamb and nothing but my everlasting optimism to see me through. We took the country roads out of necessity. We had to stop every hour, let Banner shake out his legs and feed him. The kids chased him and one another. They’d get back in the car breathless and energized, smelling fresh from the cold air.
We explored side roads, catching grasshoppers in waist-high grass. Even if we simply looked out of the car windows at baby pigs following their mother, or fish leaping out of the water, it was better than the best ride down the freeway. Here was life. And new horizons.
We eventually arrived at my parents’ doorstep astonishingly fresh and full of stories.
I grew brave with the trip back home and creative with my disciplining technique. On an empty section of road, everyone started quarreling. I stopped the car, ordered all kids out and told them to meet me up ahead. I parked my car half a mile away and read my book in sweet silence.
Some road trips are by necessity fast and straight. But that trip with Banner opened our eyes to a world available to anyone adventurous enough to wander around and made me realize that a detour may uncover the best part of a journey----and the best part of yourself.Why did the author use to take freeways to her parents’ home?
| A．She needn’t stop on the way. |
| B．It would be faster and easier. |
| C．Her kids would feel less confined. |
| D．She felt better with other drivers nearby. |
What does the author discover from the trip according to Paragraph 6 ?
| A．Freeways are where beauty hides. |
| B．Getting close to nature adds to the joy of life |
| C．Enjoying the beauty of nature benefits one’s health |
| D．One should follow side roads to watch wild animals |
Why did the author ask the kids to get out of the car on their way back home
| A．To give herself some time to read |
| B．To order some food for them |
| C．To play a game with them. |
| D．To let them cool down |
What could be the best title for the passage
| A．Charm of the Detour |
| B．The Road to Bravery |
| C．Creativity out of Necessity |
| D．Road trip and Country Life |
Brazil has become one. of the developing world’s great successes at reducing population growth but more by accident than design. While countries such as India have made joint efforts to reduce birth rates, Brazil had better results without really trying, says George Martine at Harvard.
Brazil’s population growth rate dropped from 2. 99% a year between 1951 and 1960 to 1. 93% a year between 198 land 1990, and Brazilian women now have only 2. 7 children on average. Martine says this figure may have fallen still further since 1990, an achievement that makes it the envy of many other Third World countries.
Martine puts it down to, among other things, soap operas (肥皂剧) and installment (分期付款) plans introduced in the 1970s. Both played an important, although indirect, role in lowering the birth rate. Brazil is one of the world’s biggest producers of soap operas. Globo, Brazil’s most popular television network, shows three hours of soaps six nights a week, while three others show at least one hour a night. Most soaps are based on wealthy characters living the high life in big cities.
Although they have never really tried to work in a message towards the problems of reproduction, they describe middle and upper class values: not many children, women working, says Martine. They sent this image to all parts of Brazil and made people conscious (有意识的) of other patterns of behaviour and other values, which were put into a very attractive package.
Meanwhile, the installment plans tried to encourage the poor to become consumers. " This led to an enormous change in consumption (消费) patterns and consumption was incompatible (不相容的) with unlimited reproduction," says Martine.
according to the passage, Brazil has lowered its population growth ________.
| A．by educating its citizens | B．by careful family planning |
| C．by developing TV programmes | D．by chance |
according to the passage, many Third World countries
| A．haven’t given much attention to birth control |
| B．would soon join Brazil in controlling their birth rate |
| C．haven’t yet found an effective measure to control their population |
| D．haven’t realized the importance of TV plays in family planning |
Soap operas have helped in lowering Brazil’s birth rate because ________.
| A．they keep people sitting long hours watching TV |
| B．they have gradually changed people’s way of life |
| C．people are drawn to their attractive package |
| D．they popularize birth control measures |
What is Martine’s conclusion about Brazil’s population growth?
| A．The increase in birth rate will increase consumption. |
| B．The desire for consumption helps to reduce birth rate. |
| C．Consumption goes with reproduction. |
| D．A country ‘s production is limited by its population growth. |
In a time of low academic (学术的) achievement by children in the United States, many Americans are turning to Japan, a country of high academic achievement and economic success, for possible answers. however, the answers provided by Japanese preschools are not the ones Americans expected to find. In most Japanese preschools, surprisingly little emphasis is put on academic instruction. In one investigation, 300 Japanese and 210 American preschool teachers, child development specialists, and parents were asked about various aspects of early childhood education. Only 2 percent of the Japanese respondents (答问卷者) listed "to give children a good start academically" as one of their top three reasons for a society to have preschools. In contrast, over half the American respondents chose this as one of their top three choices. To prepare children for successful careers in first grade and beyond, Japanese schools do not teach reading, writing, and mathematics, but rather skills such as persistence, concentration, and the ability to function as a member of a group. The majority of young Japanese children are taught to read at home by their parents.
In the recent comparison of Japanese and American preschool education, 91 percent of Japanese respondents chose providing children with a group experience as one of their top three reasons for a society to have preschools. 62 percent of the more individually oriented (强调个性发展的) Americans listed group experience as one of their top three choices. An emphasis on the importance of the group seen in Japanese early childhood education continues into elementary school education.
Like in America, there is diversity (多样性) in Japanese early childhood education. Some Japanese kindergartens have specific aims, such as early musical training or potential (潜力) development. In large cities, some kindergartens are attached to universities that have elementary and secondary schools.
Some Japanese parents believe that if their young children attend a university-based program, it will increase the children’s chances of eventually being admitted to top-rated schools and universities. Several more progressive programs have introduced free play as a way out for the heavy intellectualizing in some Japanese kindergartens.
We learn from the first paragraph that many Americans believe ________.
| A．Japanese parents pay more attention to preschool education than American parents |
| B．Japan’s economic success is a result of its scientific achievements |
| C．Japanese preschool education emphasizes academic instruction |
| D．Japan’s higher education is better than theirs |
Most American respondents believe that preschools should also attach
importance to ________.
| A．problem solving | B．group experience |
| C．parental guidance | D．individually oriented development |
In Japan’s preschool education, the focus is on ________.
| A．preparing children academically | B．developing children’s artistic interests |
| C．tapping children’s potential | D．shaping children’s character |
Why do some Japanese parents send their children to university-based kindergartens?
| A．They can do better in their future studies. |
| B．They can gain more group experience there. |
| C．They can be individually oriented when they grow up. |
| D．They can have better chances of getting a first-rate education. |
The impression you make at the beginning of an interview is very important. Employers often decide to hire someone in the first three minutes of the interview. They judge you by your appearance, attitude (态度) and manners.
A friendly smile when you walk into the room is important. A smile shows a confident (自信的) and positive attitude.
When you introduce yourself, make eyes contact with the interviewer. Some interviewers offer a handshake. Others don’t.
Try to be as natural as possible. But pay attention to your body language. The way you sit, walk, gesture, use your voice and show feeling on your face are all parts of your body language. It makes the interviewer know how you feel about yourself and the situation you are in. Are you feeling positive about yourself? Your abilities? Your interest in the job?
Speak clearly and loudly enough. Show interest and enthusiasm in your voice. When you speak, look at the interviewer. Also don’t say negative things about yourself, or former employers.
Listen to questions carefully. If you don’t understand a question, ask the interviewer to repeat or explain.
"I’m sorry, but I didn’t catch that."
"I’m not sure exactly what you mean."
Almost everyone is nervous in a job interview. Interviewers know that. They don’t expect you to be totally calm and relaxed. But they expect you to try to control your nervousness. They expect you to show confidence in your ability to do the job.
At the end of the interview, thank the interviewer for her or him. It’s a good idea to send a short thank-you letter right after the interview, or deliver it by hand.
Phone the company if you have not heard anything after one week. Ask if they have make a decision about the job.
It can be inferred from the passage that ________.
| A．you should always put on a smile when meeting the employer |
| B．you should stand still with respect before the employer |
| C．the first impression is very important in an interview |
| D．employers understand and like employees’ nervousness |
Why should we pay attention to our body language?
| A．Because it can help us win the employer’s positive impression. |
| B．Because it can help us feel about the employer. |
| C．Because it is needed by our employer. |
| D．Because we need it to improve our feeling. |
The main purpose of the passage is ________.
| A．to give you some advice on the art of finding a job |
| B．to tell from wrong about job interviews |
| C．to explain why we should do something about an interview |
| D．to suggest not being shy in an interview |
Which of the following can be the best title for the passage?
| A．A Friendly Smile | B．Making a Good Impression |
| C．Don’t Be Nervous | D．Sending a Thank-You Letter |
Everyone becomes a little more forgetful as they get older, but men's minds decline more than women's, according to the results of a worldwide survey.
Certain differences seem to be inherent in male and female brains: Men are better at maintaining and dealing with mental images (useful in mathematical reasoning<推论；说服> and spatial <空间的>skills), while women tend to excel (擅长) at recalling information from their brain's files (helpful with language skills and remembering the locations of objects).
Many studies have looked for a connection between sex and the amount of mental decline (衰退) people experience as they age, but the results have been mixed.
Some studies found more age-related decline in men than in women, while others saw the opposite or even no relationship at all between sex and mental decline. Those results could be improper because the studies involved older people, and women live longer than men: The men tested are the survivors, "so they're the ones that may not have shown such cognitive（认知的；认识的） decline," said study team leader Elizabeth of the University of Warwick in England.
People surveyed completed four tasks that tested sex-related cognitive skills: matching an object to its rotated（旋转的） form, matching lines shown from the same angle, typing as many words in a particular category (范畴) as possible in the given time, e.g. "object usually colored gray", and recalling the location of objects in a line drawing. The first two were tasks at which men usually excel; the latter are typically dominated(占有主导地位的) by women.
Within each age group studied, men and women performed better in their separate categories on average. And though performance declined with age for both genders（性别）, women showed obviously less decline than men overall（全部地）. The underlined word in the second paragraph means_________.
| A．natural | B．great | C．obvious | D．absolute |
According to the passage, which of the following can Not be typed into the same category?
| A．cloud | B．sheep | C．trees | D．goose |
Which of the following statements is true according the article?
| A．Men do better than women when it comes to learning English. |
| B．Women stand out at remembering people’s names. |
| C．Men excel at typing as many words in a particular category as possible in the given time. |
| D．Women excel at dealing mathematic problems. |
One important factor that affects the correctness of the results is that _________.
| A．the old men tested may not have shown such cognitive decline | |
| B．people surveyed are all old | |
| C．people taking part in this test came from all over the world | D．women live longer than men |
The author aims to tell us that __________.
| A．women’s minds perform better than men’s |
| B．men’s minds decline more with age |
| C．everyone becomes a little more forgetful as they get older |
| D．a survey on human’s mind decline was done recently |
Odland remembers like it was yesterday working in an expensive French restaurant in Denver. The ice cream he was serving fell onto the white dress of a rich and important woman.
Thirty years have passed, but Odland can’t get the memory out of his mind, nor the woman’s kind reaction(反应).She was shocked, regained calmness and, in a kind voice, told the young Odland. “It’s OK. It wasn’t your fault.”When she left the restaurant, she also left the future Fortune 500 CEO(总裁) with a life lesson: You can tell a lot about a person by the way he or she treats the waiter.
Odland isn’t the only CEO to have made this discovery. Rather, it seems to be one of those few laws of the land that every CEO learns on the way up. It’s hard to get a dozen CEOS to agree about anything, but most agree with the Waiter Rule. They say how others treat the CEO says nothing. But how others treat the waiter is like a window into the soul.
Watch out for anyone who pulls out the power card to say something like,“I could buy this place and fire you.”or “I know the owner and I could have you fired.”Those who say such things have shown more about their character(人品) than about their wealth and power.
The CEO who came up with it, or at least first wrote it down, is Raytheon CEO Bill Swanson. He wrote a best-selling book called Swanson’s Unwritten Rules of Management.
“A person who is nice to you but rude to the waiter, or to others, is not a nice person,” Swanson says. “I will never offer a job to the person who is sweet to the boss but turns rude to someone cleaning the tables.” What happened after Odland dropped the ice cream onto the woman’s dress?
| A．He was fired. |
| B．He was blamed. |
| C．The woman comforted him. |
| D．The woman left the restaurant at once. |
Odland learned one of his life lessons from _______.
| A．his experience as a waiter | B．the advice given by the CEOs |
| C．an article in Fortune | D．an interesting best-selling book |
According to the text, most CEOs have the time opinion about _______.
| A．Fortune 500 companies | B．the Management Rules |
| C．Swanson’s book | D．the Waiter Rule |
From the text we can learn that _______.
| A．one should be nicer to important people |
| B．CEOs often show their power before others |
| C．one should respect others no matter who they are |
| D．CEOs often have meals in expensive restaurants |
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