It had been some time since Jack had seen the old man. College, carrier, and life itself got in the way. In fact, Jack moved clear across the country in pursuit of the dreams. There, in the rush of his busy life, Jack had little time to think about the past and often no time to spend with his wife and son. He was working on his future, and nothing could stop him.
Over the phone, his mother told him, “Mr. Belser died last night. The funeral is Wednesday.” Memories fleshed through his mind like an old newsreel as he sat quietly remembering his childhood days.
“Jack, did you hear me?”
“Oh, sorry, Mom. Yes, I heard you. it’s been so long since I thought of him. I’m sorry, but I honestly thought he died years ago,” Jack said.
“Well, he didn’t forget you. Every time I saw him he’d ask how you were doing. He’d reminisce (回忆) about the many days you spent over ‘his side of the fence’ as he put it, ” Mom told him.
“I loved that old house he lived in,” Jack said.
“You know, Jack, after your father died, Mr. Belser stepped in to make sure you had a man’s influence in your life,” she said.
“He’s the one who taught me carpentry. I wouldn’t be in this business if it weren’t for him. He spent a lot of time teaching me things he thought were important. Mom, I’ll be there for the funeral.” Jack said.
Busy as he was, he kept his word. Jack caught the next flight to his hometown. Mr. Belser’s funeral was small and uneventful. He had no children of his own, and most of his relatives had passed away.
The night before he had to return home, Jack and his Mom stopped by to see the old house next door one more time, which was exactly as he remembered. Every step held memories. Every picture, every piece of furniture … Jack stopped suddenly.
“What’s wrong, Jack?” his Mom asked.
“The box is gone,” he said.
“What box?” Mom asked.
“There was a small gold box that he kept locked on top of his desk. I must have asked him a thousand times what was inside. All he’d ever tell me was ‘the thing I value most’,” Jack said.
It was gone. Everything about the house was exactly how Jack remembered it, except for the box. He figured someone from the Belser family had taken it.
“Now I’ll never know what was so valuable to him,” Jack said sadly.
Returning to his office the next day, he found a package on his desk. The return address caught his attention.
“Mr. Harold Belser” it read.
Jack tore open the package. There inside was the gold box and an envelope. Jack’s hands shook as he read the note inside,
“Upon my death, please forward this box and its contents to Jack Bernett. It’s the thing I valued most in my life.” A small key was taped to the letter. His heart racing, and tears filling his eyes. Jack carefully unlocked the box. There inside he found a beautiful gold pocket watch. Running his fingers slowly over the fine cover, he opened it.
Inside he found these words carved: “Jack. Thanks for your time! Harold Belser.”
“Oh. My God! This is the thing he valued most …”
Jack held the watch for a few minutes, then called his assistant and cleared his appointments for the next two days. “Why?” his assistant asked.
“I need some time to spend with my son,” he said.
46. Why did Jack think Mr. Belser died years ago?
A. College and career prevented him from remembering Mr. Belser.
B. Jack was too busy with his business and family to think about Mr. Belser.
C. Jack was too busy realizing his dreams to think about Mr. Belser.
D. His present busy life washed away his children memories.
47. Jack’s mother told him on the phone about Mr. Belser EXCEPT that _________.
A. Mr. Belser often asked how Jack was doing
B. Mr. Belser’s funeral would take place on Wednesday
C. Mr. Belser had asked for Jack’s mailing address
D. Mr. Belser had pleasant memories of their time together
48. Why did Belser send Jack his gold watch?
A. Because he was grateful for Jack’s time with him.
B. Because he had no children or relatives.
C. Because he thought he had to keep his word.
D. Because Jack had always wanted it during his childhood.
49. Why did Jack say he needed some time to spend with his son?
A. He was very tired of his work and wanted to have a good rest.
B. He had promised to spare more time to stay with his son.
C. He had missed his son and his family for days.
D. He came to realize the importance of the time with his family.
50. Which of the following is the most suitable title for this passage?
A. The Good Old Times B. What He Valued Most
C. An Old Gold Watch D. The Lost Childhood Days
Mom was right! If you say thank you, for even the smallest gift or slightest show of kindness, you’ll feel happy.
Gratitude, says Robert A. Emmons, a professor of psychology at the University of California, is an important element of happiness. In his recent book, Thanks!, Emmons uses the first major study on gratitude to prove mom’s point.
As one of the leading scholars of the positive psychology movement, he admits gratitude may be difficult to express. He advises you to begin by admitting that life is good and full of events and elements that make daily existence a wonder. Second, recognize that the source of life’s goodness is more than just you. That source may be your mom, a friend, partner, child, colleague at work or play.
Gratitude is always other-directed, notes Emmons. You can be pleased or angry with yourself and feel guilty about doing something wrong, but you can never be grateful to or for yourself.
Expressing gratitude shouldn’t be a reaction; it should be a state of mind. To feel grateful when life is a breeze and you have more than you need is easy. To feel grateful in time of crisis—anger, hatred and bitterness—is easier. Also, too many people are aware of life’s blessings only after these are lost.
It’s crisis and chaos—danger, disease, disability and death—that bring many individuals to realize just how dependent they are on others. Yet it’s the way each of us begins life and ends it. It’s too bad that so many people waste those decades in between laboring under the illusion(幻觉) they are self-sufficient, says Emmons.
The abundance of voices expressing gratitude from his studies of individuals with chronic health problems is many. But Emmons goes beyond his “groundbreaking” science to make his case for gratitude by including the inspirational writings of philosophers, novelists and saints, as well as the beliefs of various religious and their respective scripture(经文). Taken together, these observations are summed up quite nicely by famous humanist Albert Schweitzer, who said the secret of life is “giving thanks for everything”.
To enable and embrace gratitude, Emmons encourages the readers of Thanks! to keep a gratitude diary. He even provides easy-to-follow directions on how to practise and develop gratitude.
I’m not a reader or advocate of self-help books, but I am thankful for the reference I found in a newspaper article to the research Emmons was conducting on gratitude involving organ donors and recipients. The chance discovery led me to this book.
Mom implied that kindness seems to find its way back to the giver because life really is all about giving, receiving and repaying. So I’ll pay attention to her professional advice and say: Thank you, professor Emmons. . What is the text mainly discussed?
| A．There are many ways of being thankful. |
| B．Gratitude is important to happiness. |
| C．Mom is great for her being thankful. |
| D．Being thankful will keep you fit. |
. The author mentions Robert A. Emmons’ book Thanks! in order to prove that __________.
A. Professor Emmons supports mom’s study on psychology.
B. mom is as great a psychologist as Professor Emmons.
C. Professor Emmons is a famous psychologist.
D. mom is right about her viewpoint on gratitude.. It will be easier for you to feel grateful when___________.
| A．you live a comfortable life |
| B．you receive gifts on your birthday |
| C．you get help during your hard times |
| D．you are congratulated on your success |
What is the opinion of Professor Emmons?
| A．It is enough to thank others orally |
| B．Whether you are thankful is always up to you |
| C．Remember to be thankful anytime and anywhere |
| D．It is easier to be thankful for yourself than for others. |
In the writer’s opinion, Emmon’s book Thanks! On gratitude is________.
| A．one-side | B．reasonable | C．puzzling | D．helpful |
Have you ever considered all the English expressions that include words about clothes? Let’s see if I can name a few proverbs “off the cuff” since I haven’t prepared for it.
| English expressions with “pants” |
| People wear pants to cover the lower part of their bodies. We sometimes say that people who are restless or nervous have “ants in their pants.” They might also “fly by the seat of their pants” -- they use their natural sense to do something instead of their learned knowledge. Sometimes, people may “get caught with their pants down” -- they are found doing something they should not be doing. And, in every family, one person takes control. Sometimes a wife tells her husband what to do. Then we say “she wears the pants in the family.” |
| When people want to say something about money |
| Pants usually have pockets to hold things. Money that is likely to be spent quickly can “burn a hole in your pocket.” Sometimes you need a belt to hold up your pants. If you have less money than usual, you may have to “tighten your belt” -- you may have to live on less money and spend your money carefully. But once you have succeeded in budgeting your money, you will have that skill “under your belt.” I always praise people who can save their money and not spend too much. I really “take my hat off to them.” Yet, when it comes to my own money, I spend it “at the drop of a hat” -- immediately, without waiting. And sadly, you cannot “pull money out of a hat” -- you cannot get money by inventing or imagining it. |
| English expressions with “shoes” |
| Boots are a heavy or strong kind of shoes. People who are “too big for their boots” think they are more important than they really are. I dislike such people. I really do. You can bet your boots on that! Yet, truly important people are hard to replace. Rarely can you “fill their shoes” -- or replace them with someone equally effective. |
| English expressions with “shirt” |
| My father is an important person. He runs a big company. He wears a suit and tie and a shirt with sleeves that cover his arms. Some people who do not know him well think he is too firm and severe. They think he is a real “stuffed shirt.” But I know that my father “wears his heart on his sleeve” -- he shows his feelings openly. And, he knows how to “keep his shirt on” -- he stays calm and never gets angry or too excited. |
. What is this passage mainly about?
| A．How to say English correctly and properly. |
| B．Why English expressions include words about clothes. |
| C．Which words can be used to describe my father. |
| D．What people mean when they use some proverbs. |
. Which of the following proverbs are not related to money?
| A．tighten one’s belt | B．burn a hole in one’s pocket |
| C．get caught with their pants down | D．take one’s hat off to them |
. Tim often considers himself the most important person in the world, which is far from the truth. We may say __________.
| A．he is “too big for their boots”. | B．he “bet his boots on that”. |
| C．he “fill their shoes”. | D．he “wears his heart on his sleeve”. |
If you want to praise somebody for his calmness when facing danger, you may say__________.
| A．“You really fill your shoes.” |
| B．“Awesome! You wear your heart on your sleeve!” |
| C．“Amazing! How can you keep your shirt on at that time!” |
| D．“Cool! You are truly a stuffed shirt”. |
I believe in leaving work at five o’clock. In a nation with such a strict work ethic(道德规范) , this is considered strange. Working only 40 hours a week? I just don’t know many people who punch out (打卡下班) at five o’clock anymore.
My father tried to teach me the importance of hard work, long hours and devotion to a career. But then there are the things he taught me unintentionally, like when he arrived home from work for the last time and crawled up the stairs.
My father, a self-employed sales trainer, was that sick, that tired. His body was wracked with liver cancer, and he suffered the effects of a diabetic ulcer（糖尿病）. Despite all this, he insisted on traveling a long way to give a lecture. He probably earned a lot of money that day, but he paid the price. He returned to the hospital soon afterwards and was dead within three months, aged just 58.
It’s been 10 years since I saw my father come home that night and since then, I’ve thought a lot about work. I’ve decided something: I will never crawl up the stairs exhausted. As much as I love my job as a newspaper reporter, I will never work myself into the ground, physically or emotionally. Not taking my work home didn’t come easily to me at first. After all, I am my father’s daughter. In college, I was the girl who sat on the library steps each morning, waiting for the doors to open. I even dreamt about schoolwork.
My dad once told me he was unable to just gaze at a sunset; he had to be doing something as he looked at it—writing, reading, playing chess. You could say he was a success: He was a published author, an accomplished musician, fluent in many languages. That’s an impressive list, but the thing is I want to gaze at sunsets. I don’t want to meet a deadline during them or be writing a column at the same time, or glance at them over the top of a book.
This raises the question: If I leave work at five o’ clock to watch the sunset, what are the consequences? Do I risk not reaching the top of my profession? Maybe, because honestly, knocking off after eight hours probably won’t earn me the best promotion. But hey, leaving work at five o’ clock means I eat dinner with my family. I get to hop on my bike and cycle through the streets of my hometown when there is no traffic.
And I get to take in a lot of sunsets. That’s got to be worth something.Which of the following about the author’s father is true?
| A．He set a good example to his daughter. |
| B．He tried to force his values on his daughter. |
| C．He gained much pleasure from his work. |
| D．He achieved great success at the expense of his health. |
What does the author mean by saying “Not taking my work home did not come easily at first” in Paragraph 4?
| A．There was so much work to do. |
| B．All her colleagues took work home. |
| C．She was educated to be a workaholic. |
| D．She wanted a promotion in her work. |
What’s the author’s attitude toward promotion?
| A．She doesn’t care about it at all. |
| B．She is eager to get promoted |
| C．She thinks it’s for the ambitious people |
| D．Getting promoted at all costs is not worthwhile |
This text is developed________.
| A．by giving examples | B．by making comparisons |
| C．by describing process | D．by order of time |
What does the writer intend to tell us?
| A．To praise his father’s diligence |
| B．To ask us to take time off work to enjoy life |
| C．To complain about the strict work ethic |
| D．To stress the importance of hard work |
Not all bodies of water are so evidently alive as the Atlantic Ocean, an S-shaped body of water covering 33 million square miles. The Atlantic has, in a sense, replaced the Mediterranean as the inland sea of Western civilization. Unlike real inland seas, which seem strangely still, the Atlantic is rich in oceanic liveliness. It is perhaps not surprising that its vitality has been much written about by ancient poets.
“Storm at Sea”, a short poem written around 700, is generally regarded as one of mankind’s earliest artistic representations of the Atlantic.
When the wind is from the west
All the waves that cannot rest
To the east must thunder on
Where the bright tree of the sun
Is rooted in the ocean’s breast.
As the poem suggests, the Atlantic is never dead and dull. It is an ocean that moves, impressively and endlessly. It makes all kinds of noise—it is forever thundering, boiling, crashing, and whistling.
It is easy to imagine the Atlantic trying to draw breath—perhaps not so noticeably out in mid-ocean, but where it meets land, its waters bathing up and down a sandy beach. It mimics(模仿) nearly perfectly the steady breathing of a living creature. It is filled with symbiotic (共生的) existences, too: unimaginable quantities of creatures, little and large alike, mix within its depths in a kind of oceanic harmony, giving to the waters a feeling of heartbeat, a kind of sub-ocean vitality. And it has a psychology. It has personalities: sometimes peaceful and pleasant, on rare occasions rough and wild; always it is strong and striking.Unlike real inland seas, the Atlantic Ocean is______.
| A．always energetic | B．lacking in liveliness |
| C．shaped like a square | D．favored by ancient poets |
What is the purpose of using the poem “Storm at Sea” in the passage?
| A．To describe the movement of the waves. |
| B．To show the strength of the storm. |
| C．To represent the vitality of the ocean. |
| D．To prove the vastness of the sea. |
In the last paragraph, the Atlantic is compared to______.
| A．a beautiful and poetic place | B．a flesh and blood person |
| C．a wonderful world | D．a lovely animal |
Dutch treat is a late-nineteenth-century term, and it originally refers to a dinner where everyone is expected to pay for his own share of the food and drink. If people go “Dutch treat”, or simply “go Dutch”, it means that they will share the expenses of a social engagement.
There are many other “Dutch” expressions in English, many of which were invented in Britain in the seventeenth century, when the Dutch and the English were commercial and military rivals. The British used “Dutch” to refer to something bad, cheap and shameful. A “Dutch bargain” at that time was an uneven, one-sided deal; “Dutch reckoning” was an unitemized(未逐条记载的) account; and “Dutch widow” was slang for prostitute. Later centuries brought in “Dutch courage”, for bravery caused by drink; “Dutch concert”, for noisy music; “Dutch nightingale”, meaning a frog; and “double Dutch”, for incomprehensible language or talk.
Some of the expressions are still in use today, but some are not. In fact, in American English, some “Dutch” expressions have nothing to do with the Dutch, but something with the German. It was probably because of the similar spelling and pronunciation that people made a mistake in distinguishing between “Dutch” and “Deutsch” (the German word for German), when German immigrants came to America in the 1700s. For instance, “the Pennsylvania Dutch” refers to the German descendants, instead of the Dutch descendants, living in Pennsylvania. Many of the “Dutch” expressions were invented with negative sense, because ___________.
| A．The Dutch were underdeveloped people. |
| B．Britain and Holland were competitors at that time. |
| C．The Dutch had many bad habits. |
| D．The British were superior to the Dutch. |
With the information you get from Paragraph 2, make a guess at the meaning of the sentence “You are in Dutch”. It probably means ____________ .
| A．You are in Holland. | B．You are welcome. |
| C．You are in trouble. | D．You are lucky. |
According to the passage, some native American “Dutch” expressions were related to the German instead of the Dutch, simply because ______________.
| A．People hated the German as much as the Dutch. |
| B．People made a mistake at the beginning. |
| C．People made a joke about the German. |
| D．The German immigrants proclaimed that they were Dutch. |