______ by a greater demand of vegetables, farmers have built more green houses.
A.Driven | B.Exhausted | C.Tracked | D.Balanced |
Please make a(n) _______ about your favorite festival and fill out the form.
A.discussion | B.interview | C.survey | D.application |
Most people I meet want to develop more harmonious and satisfying relationships. But we may not realize that this can only be achieved by partnering with two new and strange allies(盟友):uncertainty and confusion. Most of us aren’t trained to like confusion or to admit we feel hesitant and uncertain. In our schools and organizations, we place value on sounding certain and confident.
As life continues to speed up, I believe our changing world requires less certainty and far more curiosity. I’m not suggesting we let go of our beliefs, but that we become curious about what someone else believes. As we become open to the disturbing differences, sometimes we discover that another’s way of interpreting the world is actually essential to our survival.
For me, the first step in becoming curious is to admit that I’m not succeeding in figuring things out by myself. If my solutions don’t work as well as I’d like, I take these as signs that it’s time to begin asking others what they think. I try to become a conscious listener, actively listening for differences.
There are many ways to listen for differences. Lately, I’ve been listening for what surprises me. This isn’t easy — I’m accustomed to sitting there, nodding my head as someone voices his opinions. But when I notice what surprises me, I’m able to see my own views more clearly, including my assumptions.
If you’re willing to be disturbed and confused, I recommend you begin a conversation with someone who thinks differently from you. Listen for what’s different and what surprises you. Try to stop the voice of judgement or opinion and just listen. At the end, notice whether you’ve learned something new.
We have the opportunity many times a day to be the one who listens to others and the one who is curious rather than certain. When we listen with fewer judgements, we always develop better relationships with each other. It’s not differences that divide us. It’s our judgements that do. Curiosity and good listening bring us back together.
As I consider partnering with confusion and uncertainty, I’m learning that we don’t have to agree with each other in order to think well together. There is no need for us to be joined at the head. We are already joined by our hearts.
According to the passage, when communicating with others, most of us try to behave___.
A.hesitantly and confusedly |
B.honestly and harmoniously |
C.responsibly and actively |
D.confidently and convincingly |
According to the author, in order to cope with our changing world, we should ______.
A.reconsider traditional beliefs before accepting them. |
B.learn to interpret other people’s behavior. |
C.become more curious about other people’s opinions. |
D.try to develop more harmonious relationships with others. |
What does the passage advise you to do when you hear different ideas?
A.We should let go of our beliefs. |
B.We should admit that we are not succeeding in figuring out things. |
C.We should be accustomed to sitting there and listening. |
D.We should listen and find out the valuable points |
What do the underlined sentences in the passage imply?
A.We should listen more and judge less. |
B.We should make decisions based on sound judgement. |
C.Differences among people separate them. |
D.It is important to seek common ground and reserve differences. |
Which of the following best describes the author’s attitude to uncertainty and confusion?
A.Favorable. | B.Resistant. | C.Curious. | D.Doubtful. |
When________, the museum will be open to the pulic next year.
A. to be completed. | B.completing |
C.being completed | D.completed |
The Colonel(上校) asked Ashenden a good many questions and then suggested that he had particular qualifications for the Secret Service. Ashenden knew several European languages and the fact that he was a writer provided excellent cover: on the pretext(借口) that he was writing a book he could, without attracting attention, visit any neutral country.
It was while they were discussing this point that the Colonel said, "You know you might get material that would be very useful to you in your work. I'll tell you an incident that occurred only recently. Very dramatic. A foreign government minister went down to a Mediterranean resort to recover from a cold and he had some very important documents with him that he kept in a dispatch case(公文箱). A day or two after he arrived, he picked up a beautiful blonde at some restaurant or other, and he got very friendly with her. He took her back to his hotel, and when he came to himself in the morning, the lady and the dispatch-case had disappeared. They had one or two drinks up in his room and his theory is that when his back was turned the woman slipped a drug in his glass.
"Do you mean to say that happened the other day?" said Ashenden.
"The week before last."
"Impossible," cried Ashenden. "Why! We've been putting that incident on the stage for sixty years, we've written it in a thousand novels. Do you mean to say that life has only just caught up with us?"
"Well, I can guarantee the truth of the story." said the Colonel, "And believe me, the government has been put to no end of trouble by the loss of the documents."
"Well sir, if you can't do better than that in the Secret Service," sighed Ashenden, " I'm afraid that as a source of inspiration to the writer of fiction, it's washout(失败)."
How did the Colonel suggest that Ashenden's being a writer would relate to his work as a spy?
A.It would make traveling abroad more possible. |
B.It would make it easier for him to meet people. |
C.It would enable him to avoid arousing suspicion. |
D.It would enable him to use the languages he knew. |
The reason for the Minister's trip was ________ .
A.to fetch some documents |
B.to get over an illness |
C.to meet a spy |
D.to deliver some papers |
According to the Colonel the incident happened _______.
A.a few days before |
B.a few weeks before |
C.two weeks before |
D.sixty years before |
Ashenden cried 'Impossible' after hearing the Colonel's story because he thought ______ .
A.it was so stupid |
B.it was too close to fiction |
C.it was too embarrassing |
D.it was too recent |
This special school accepts all disabled students, ________ educational level and background.
A.according to | B.regardless of |
C.in addition to | D.in terms of |
If something such as a product, an activity, or someone’s career______, it suddenly becomes very successful.
A.takes up | B.takes in |
C.takes off | D.takes away |
As a Chinese saying goes, a mountain ______ be too high or an ocean too deep. Therefore, there is no end to our self-improvement.
A.shall never | B.will ever | C.can never | D.must ever |
Since 1989, Dave Thomas, who died at the age of 69, was one of the most recognizable faces on TV. He appeared in more than 800 commercials for the hamburger chain named for his daughter. “As long as it works”, he said in 1991, “I’ll continue to do those commercials.”
Even though he was successful, Thomas remained troubled by his childhood. “He still won’t let anyone see his feet, which are out of shape because he never had proper fitting shoes,” Wendy said in 1993. Born to a single mother, he was adopted as a baby by Rex and Auleva Thomas of Kalamazoo in Michigan. After Auleva died when he was 5, Thomas spent years on the road as Rex traveled around seeking construction work. “He fed me,” Thomas said, “and if I got out of line, he’d beat me.”
Moving out on his own at 15, Thomas worked, first as a waiter, in many restaurants. But he had something much better in mind. “I thought if I owned a restaurant,” he said, “I could eat for free.” A 1956 meeting with Harland Sanders led Thomas to a career as the manager of a Kentucky Chicken restaurant that made him a millionaire in 1968.
In 1969, after breaking with Sanders, Thomas started the first Wendy’s Old Fashioned Hamburgers, in Columbus, Ohio, which set itself apart by serving made-to-order burgers. With 6,000 restaurants worldwide, the chain now makes $ 6 billion a year in sales. Although troubled by his own experience with adoption, Thomas, married since 1954 to Lorraine, 66, and with four grown kids besides Wendy, felt it could offer a future for other children. He started the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption in 1992.
In 1993, Thomas, who had left school at 15, graduated from Coconut Creek High School in Florida. He even took Lorraine to the graduation dance party. The kids voted him Most Likely to Succeed.
“The Dave you saw on TV was the real Dave,” says friend Pat Williams. “He wasn’t a great actor or a great speaker .He was just Joe Everybody.”
What is the article mainly about?
A.The life of Dave Thomas. |
B.The dream of Dave Thomas. |
C.The schooling of Dave Thomas. |
D.The growth of Dave Thomas’s business. |
What do we know about his childhood?
A.He lived a poor life. |
B.He had caring parents. |
C.He stayed in one place. |
D.He didn’t go to school. |
Choose the right time order of the following events in Thomas’s life.
a. graduated from high school
b. started his own business
c. became a millionaire
d. started a foundation
e. met Harland Sanders
A.e, b, c, d, a | B.a, e, c, b, d |
C.e, c, b, d, a | D.a, e, b, c, d |
“He was just Joe Everybody” (in the last paragraph) means_________.
A.Dave was famous |
B.Dave was shy |
C.Dave was showy |
D.Dave was ordinary |
One evening last summer, when I asked my 14 year old son, Ray, for help with dinner, his response shocked me."What’s a colander(漏勺)?" he asked.
I could only blame myself.In the family, nobody else’s hands went in the sauce except my own.But that night, as I explained with a touch of panic that a colander is the thing with holes in it, I wondered what else I hadn’t prepared Ray for.
As parents, while we focus on our sons’ confidence and character, we perhaps don’t always consider that we are also raising someone’s future roommates, boyfriends, husbands, or fathers.I wanted to know that I’d raised a boy who would never ask the woman in his life, "What’s for dinner?" So I came up with a plan: I would offer Ray a private home economics course.I was delighted to find that he didn’t say no.For two hours, three days a week, Ray was all mine.One day, as his tomato sauce reduced on the stove, he washed and seasoned a chicken for roasting.Then he rolled out the piecrust (馅饼皮) and filled it with apples, all while listening to my explanation on the importance of preheating an oven.
I knew that he would rather have been shooting hoops in the driveway than learning to mend socks with his mother—he tried to beg not to have sewing lessons, even though I insisted that one day, someone would find the sight of him fixing his own shirt very attractive— but it couldn’t be denied that he was learning, and more than just housekeeping."I appreciate what you do as a mom," he told me one day.Ray now understands the finer points of cooking, and more importantly, he realizes there’s nothing masculine (男子气概的) about being helpless.
Now, not only can he make his own dinner, but also he can make a big meal for his family.That’s what I call a man.I’m glad that I prepared so great a present for my future daughter in-law.
Why was the author shocked at her son’s response?
A.Because he was not well behaved. |
B.Because he refused to help with dinner. |
C.Because he didn’t know the common kitchen tools. |
D.Because he was very curious about kitchen tools. |
In the author’s opinion, some parents pay little attention to _______.
A.building up children’s confidence |
B.telling kids what is right and wrong |
C.preparing children for their future life |
D.making children live a hard life |
After learning to do housework, Ray _______.
A.fell in love with sewing |
B.did other work in the house |
C.began to be more hardworking |
D.acknowledged his mother’s efforts |
We can infer from the text that Ray _______.
A.made great progress in cooking. |
B.always thought housework interesting. |
C.preferred sewing to cooking. |
D.was unwilling to learn cooking at first. |
What would the author like to convey in the text?
A.Useful education for boys |
B.The importance of housework |
C.Boys should be involved in housework. |
D.Cooking and sewing make boys masculine. |
Hard work and lack of sleep have _____ her beauty and youth in recent years.
A.worn out | B.tried out |
C.made out | D.sent out |
—Mary’s been offered a job in a university, but she doesn’t want to take it.
—_______? It’s a very good chance.
A.Guess what | B.So what |
C.Who care | D.But why |
—I am going to travel to England. Would you consider telling me about your experiences there?
—__________.Let’s discuss it over drink.
A.That’s all right. | B.By all means. |
C.Go ahead. | D.It just depends. |
“OK,” I said to my daughter as she bent over her afternoon bowl of rice. “What’s going on with you and your friend J.? ” J. is the leader of a group of third-graders at her camp—a position Lucy herself occupied the previous summer. Now she’s the one on the outs. and every day at snack time, she tells me all about it, while I offer the unhelpful advice all summer long.
“She’s fond of giving orders, “Lucy complained. “She’s turning everyone against me. She’s mean. And she’s fat.” “Excuse me,” I said, struggling for calm. “What did you just say?” “She’s fat.” Lucy mumbled (含糊地说). “We’re going upstairs,” I said, my voice cold. “We’re going to discuss this.” And up we went. I’d spent the nine years since her birth getting ready for this day, the day we’d have the conversation about this horrible word. I knew exactly what to say to the girl on the receiving end of the teasing, but in all of my imaginings, it never once occurred to me that my daughter would be the one who used the F word—Fat.
My daughter sat on her bed, and I sat beside her. “How would you feel if someone made fun of you for something that wasn’t your fault?” I began. “She could stop eating so much,” Lucy mumbled, mouthing the simple advice a thousand doctors have given overweight women for years.
“It’s not always that easy,” I said. “Everyone’s different in terms of how they treat food.” Lucy looked at me, waiting for me to go on. I opened my mouth, then closed it. Should I tell her that, in teasing a woman’s weight, she’s joined the long tradition of critics? Should I tell her I didn’t cry when someone posted my picture and commented, “I’m sorry, but aren’t authors who write books marketed to young women supposed to be pretty?”
Does she need to know, now, that life isn’t fair? I feel her eyes on me, waiting for an answer I don’t have. Words are my tools. Stories are my job. It’s possible she’ll remember what I say forever, and I have no idea what to say.
So I tell her the only thing I can come up with that is absolutely true. I say to my daughter, “I love you, and there is nothing you could ever do to make me not love you. But I’m disappointed in you right now. There are plenty of reasons for not liking someone. What she looks like isn’t one of them.”
Lucy nods, tears on her cheeks. “I won’t say that again,” she tells me, and I pull her close, pressing my nose against her hair. As we sit there together, I pray for her to be smart and strong. I pray for her to find friends, work she loves, a partner who loves her. And still, always, I pray that she will never struggle as I’ve struggled, that weight will never be her cross to bear. She may not be able to use the word in our home, but I can use in my head. I pray that she will never get fat.
Why does the author want to discuss with Lucy?
A.Because she wants to offer some other helpful advice. |
B.Because she is really shocked at Lucy’s rudeness. |
C.Because she has prepared the conversation for nine years. |
D.Because she decides to tell Lucy a similar story of her own. |
What does the author want to tell her daughter?
A.It is not easy to take the doctors’ advice to eat less. |
B.People shouldn’t complain because life is unfair. |
C.People shouldn’t be blamed for their appearance. |
D.She herself was once laughed at for her appearance. |
It can be inferred from the passage that_______.
A.the author earns a living by writing stories. |
B.the author is a fat but good-looking woman. |
C.the author will stop loving her daughter for what she said. |
D.the author’s daughter agreed with her from the very beginning. |
The author’s attitude towards her daughter can be best described as _______.
A.satisfied and friendly | B.indifferent but patient |
C.loving but strict | D.unsatisfied and angry |