In ancient Egypt, the pharaoh(法老)treated the poor message runner like a prince when he arrived at the palace, if he brought good news. However, if the exhausted runner had the misfortune to bring the pharaoh unhappy news, his head was cut off.
Shades of that spirit spread over today's conversations. Once a friend and I packed up some peanut butter and sandwiches for an outing. As we walked light-heartedly out the door, picnic basket in hand, a smiling neighbor looked up at the sky and said, "Oh boy, bad day for a picnic. The weatherman says it's going to rain."I wanted to strike him on the face with the peanut butter and sandwiches. Not for his stupid weather report, for his while
Several months ago I was racing to catch a him As I breathlessly put my handful of cash across the Grey hound counter, the sales agent said with a broad smile ,"Oh that bus left five minutes ago."Dreams of head-cutting!
It's not the news that makes someone angry. It's the unsympathetic attitude with which it's the unsympathetic attitude with which it's delivered. Everyone must give bad news from time to time, and winning professionals do it with the proper attitude. A doctor advising a patient that she needs an operation does it in a caring way. A boss informing an employee he didn't get the job takes on a sympathetic tone. Big winners know, when delivering any bad news, they should share the feeling of the receiver.
Unfortunately, many people are not aware of this. When you're tired from a long flight, has a hotel clerk cheerfully said that your room isn't ready yet? When you had your heart set on the toast beef, has your waiter mainly told you that he just served the last piece? It makes you as traveler or diner want to land your fist right on their unsympathetic faces.
Had my neighbor told me of the upcoming rainstorm with sympathy, I would have appreciated his warming .Had the Greyhound salesclerk sympathetically informed me that my bus had already left, I probably would have said, " Oh, that's all right I'll catch the next one." Big winners, when they bear bad news ,deliver bombs with the emotion the bombarded(被轰炸的)person is sure to have.
| 1． |
In Paragraph 1,the writer tells the story of the pharaoh to.
|
| 2． |
In the writer's opinion, his neighbor was.
|
| 3． |
From "Dreams of head-cutting!"(Paragraph3),we learn that the writer.
|
| 4． |
What is the main idea of the text?
|
Happiness is U-shaped, for we are happier at the start and end of our lives but hit a slump when we are middle-aged, British and US researchers say.
Economists from the University of Warwick, central England, and from Dartmouth College, New Hampshire, looked at data on the mental health of two million people from 80 countries.
In Britain, the probability of depression for men and women peaks at around 44 years of age, Warwick University said in a press release.
In the United States, though, ________________________between men and women. Among women, unhappiness peaked at around the age of 40, whereas among men, it was about 50.
But the U-shape of happiness is constant around the world, and mid-life depression occurs regardless of marital status(婚姻状况), changes in job or income.
The study appears in Social Science & Medicine, published by the Dutch publishing house Elsevier.
"It happens to men and women, to single and married people, to rich and poor, and to those with and without children." said co-author Andrew Oswald.
One possibility may be that people realize they won't achieve many of their ambitions at middle age. The researchers said.
Another reason could be that after seeing their fellow middle-aged peers begin to die, people begin to value their own remaining years and embrace life once more.
But the good news is that if people make it to aged 70 and are still physically fit, they are on average as happy and mentally healthy as a 20-year old.
"For the average persons in the modern world, the dip in mental health and happiness comes on slowly, not suddenly in a single year," Oswald said. "Only in their fifties do people emerge from this low period.
1.Which sentence in the passage is the closest in meaning to the following one?
There are chances that the middle-aged people will realize their ideal is likely to be unattainable.
_________________________________________________________________________
2.Fill in the blank in Paragraph 3 with a proper sentence．(within 10 words)
3.How do you understand the sentence that “Happiness is U-shaped”? (within 20 words)
_________________________________________________________________________
4.Is mid-life depression a common Phenomenon in the world ? How do you know?(within 15 words)
_________________________________________________________________________
5.Translate the underlined sentence in the last paragraph into Chinese
_________________________________________________________________________
The hospital burn unit is a popular place on the day after Thanksgiving. I found that out three years ago, when my 18-month-old daughter touched a radiator pipe while playing around our friends' farmhouse. Instead of feasting on leftover stuffing, I rushed my child as she screamed to hospital. Instead of getting a jump on my Christmas shopping, I learned how to take care of second-degree burns.
Our story had a happy ending. With weeks of twice-daily treatments at Mommy and Papa's kitchen-table burn clinic, my daughter's hands healed. But other children we saw at the outpatient burn clinic weren't so lucky. I saw hands _____________________, a mouth that would never smile straight, a scalp that would never grow hair. All the parents had stories of accidents as easy as ours: a cup of tea knocked from a side table, a tumble (摔倒) into a space heater. "Heaters and soup," one veteran nurse told me at the hospital. "That's all it is. Heaters and soup."
Most of the injuries were to hands and wrists, and most came from contact with hot liquids or from touching hot objects. Not only do small children not realize the danger posed by hot objects; their skin is much thinner than that of adults. They burn more quickly, and the burns tend to be deeper and more severe.
Traditional fire safety education focused on preventing fires. The number of children injured by playing with fire has declined substantially when the Consumer Product Safety Commission required that cigarette lighters be child-resistant. "We know people know about smoke alarms," says Chrissy, program manager for Safe Kids USA, a nonprofit that works to reduce childhood injuries. Now, fire safety experts hope that public education efforts will turn to burns that can be just as terrible as injuries caused by flame.
1. Which sentence in the passage is the closest in meaning to the following one? People used to be warned of the fire burns.
2. Fill in the blank in Paragraph 3 with a proper sentence．(within 10 words)
3. What is the best title for this passage? (within 10 words)
4. For what purpose does the author mention “a cup of tea” or “a tumble into a space heater” in Paragraph 2?(within 10 words)
5. Translate the underlined sentence in the last paragraph into Chinese．
Modern life is a lot les s to the advantage of friendships and neighborliness than it used to be. The average American moves every five years. People drive straight into their garages, hire lawn services, hang out in their backyards instead of their front porches (前走廊). These days, neighbors don't even know each other's names.
Good neighbors and good friends are a lot like electricity or running water: We don't know how much we depend on them until we don't have them. In fact, the authors of a recent book, Refrigerator Rights, claim that refrigerators are signs of close relationships--after all, you wouldn't snatch a drumstick(鸡腿) from the refrigerator of a stranger.
The surprising thing is that all it takes to strengthen your relationship with friends and neighbors is respect for their feelings, concern for their property, and a helping hand when it's needed. Here's how to develop your relationships with two types of vitally important people in your life.
_________________. A true friend doesn't flee when changes occur. The sign of a good friend is one who stays true through it all--marriage, parenthood, new jobs, new homes, the losses. Just because situations change doesn't mean the person has to.
Friendships fade away if there isn't an balance between the give and the take. So make sure you aren't being a burden to your friends. Be sensitive to how much your friend can and can't offer you--be it time, energy, or help -- and don't step over the line. Meanwhile, friendships that drain(耗尽) you will not last. If a friendship is out of balance in this way, you'll need to talk the situation through.
1. Which sentence in the passage is the closest in meaning to the following one?
A true friend will stay the same even when the situations change.
2. Fill in the blank in Paragraph 4 with a proper sentence. (Within 10 words)
3. What advice is given in the last paragraph? (Within 10 words)
4. What do you think the author will go on talking about if the passage continues?(Within 10 words)
5. Translate the underlined sentence in the last paragraph into Chinese．
So you're between the ages of 13 and 24. What makes you happy? Spending time with family was the top answer to that open-ended question, according to an extensive survey--more than 100 questions asked of 1,280 people aged 13-24 -- conducted by The Associated Press on the nature of happiness among America's young people.
Next was spending time with friends. And good news for parents: Nearly three quarters of young people say their relationship __________ makes them happy.
"They're my foundation," says Kristiana St. John, 17, a high-school student from Queens in New York. "My mom tells me that even if I do something stupid, she's still going to love me no matter what. Just knowing that makes me feel very happy and blessed."
Other results are more disconcerting. While most young people are happy overall with the way their lives are going, there are racial differences: the poll shows whites to be happier than blacks and Hispanics. A lot of young people feel stress, particularly those from the middle class, and females more than males.
You might think money would be clearly tied to a general sense of happiness. But almost no one said "money" when asked what makes them happy, though people with the highest family incomes are generally happier with life. However, having highly educated parents is a stronger predictor of happiness than income.
Overwhelmingly, young people think marriage would make them happy and want to be married some day. Most also want to have kids.
Finally, when asked to name their heroes, nearly half of respondents mentioned one or both of their parents. The winner, by a nose: Mom.
1. What is the best title of the passage? (Please answer within 10 words)
2. Which sentence in the passage can be replaced by the following one?
Although most youths are generally happy with their present life. There are differences between different races.
3. Please fill in the blank in the second paragraph with proper words or phrases to complete the sentence. (Please answer within 10 words)
4. What do you think is the most important factor that makes you happy? Why? (Please answer within 30 words)
5. Translate the underlined sentence into Chinese.
About 40 percent of the top students in college entrance examinations have chosen overseas universities for their postgraduate studies, according to a survey.
Most of them have stayed overseas after finishing their intended courses, showed a survey that tracked 130 top performers in college entrance exams from 1977 to 1998.
The survey, released on the China Alumni Association website, found it worrying that many of the top students would not ________ despite the country’s rapid development in the past few decades.
The government should find better ways to hold back talented students, said Cai Yanhou, a professor with Central South University in Changsha, capital of Hunan Province.
UNESCO figures show Chinese students comprise 14 percent of international students, the highest in the world. Their favorite destinations for higher studies are the US, Britain and Japan. Some experts said handsome scholarships, better job prospects and more opportunities to pursue further studies are the main attractions of foreign universities.
But Cai, who also led the survey team, said "top in exams" does not necessarily mean "top in career" because the study found none of the top students at college entrance exams had become a top Chinese expert or academic. Some of them are just more adaptable to exam-oriented education than their peers, experts said.
The media fill pages and time slots with their "success" stories to gain wider readership and viewership. High schools promote their former students proudly to attract new ones, and universities want to show their superior status by recruiting them, they said.
Wang hoped future reforms would do away with the score-oriented method so that students can be judged from all aspects.
1. What is the best title of the passage? (Please answer within 10 words)
2. Which sentence in the passage can be replaced by the following one?
The top students’ “success” stories are widely announced by the media to attract the readers’ and the viewers’ interest.
3. Please fill in the blank in the second paragraph with proper words or phrases to complete the sentence. (Please answer within 10 words)
4. If you are one of the top students in college entrance examinations, will you choose to study abroad? Why or why not?(Please answer within 30 words)
5. Translate the underlined sentence into Chinese