May:HappeningsfromthepastMay5,-优题课

Hunting for a job is a painful experience, which nearly everyone must endure at least once in a lifetime. Books are published and magazine articles are written on the subject, all trying to tell job seekers what they should do or avoid in order to win the game. They can’t calm the nervous applicant but they do offer some advice.
To begin with, it is not a good idea to be late. Job interviewers don’t think very highly of the candidate（应聘者）who arrives twenty minutes after the appointed time . The wise job seeker explores the place the day before. Next day he arrives early for the appointment.
What makes a good impression? Being on time does, then, appearance. It is essential for the candidate to be dressed properly and to look alive. It is also very important to look the interviewer in the eye because this “eye contact” gives a strong impression of sincerity and openness.
Many candidates waste a good part of the interview explaining why they want the job; the man or the woman on the other side of the desk is waiting to hear why the would-be employee would be good for the position and for the company.
It is a very difficult task to display oneself to possible employer: one must not be too humble, since it is essential to show one’s good points and experiences. However, bragging（说大话）doesn’t make a very good impression. One thing is certain: interview time is a time for honesty. The interviewer is trying to discover not only the professional worth but also the character of the man or the woman he is meeting. Therefore, he must rely on his observation of the applicant, her manners, what she says and how she says it.
While this examination is going on, the job seeker should remember that she too has a right to be curious. It is recommended that the applicant ask some serious questions about the job, the company, and its future. If the questions are intelligent, they will impress the interviewer favorably.
68. The writer’s purpose in writing the passage is to _____________.
A. offer tips on job seeking B. warn applicants not to be nervous
C. analyze the thinking of interviewers D. stress the difficulty of job seeking
69. Which of the following shows whether an applicant could benefit the company?
A. How early he/she is. B. What he/she is wearing.
C. His/Her explanation for the job. D. His/Her manners.
70. The underlined word “humble” probably means _____.
A. humorous B. modest C. honest D. talkative
71. Which of the following statements would the writer agree with?
A. Job seekers should be as early as possible.
B. Job seekers should be dressed as well as possible.
C. Interviewers pay a lot of attention to applications’ behaviors.
D. Interviewers encourage applicants to ask questions.

Many people often say there is more stress in today's society than in years past. In fact, these people are comparing our lives with that of the cave man, who didn't have to worry about the stock market or the atomic bomb. They forget that the cave man worried about being eaten by a hear while he was asleep, or about dying of hunger--things that few people worry much about today.
Actually stress is a normal state of affairs, and it's important that people understand what they are talking about when they speak about stress. Whenever anyone experiences something unpleasant, for lack of a better word they say they are under stress. Yet there is such a thing as pleasant stress--as in the case of the Olympic winner at the moment of his glory, or a conductor as his orchestra performs particularly well. They are just sending out excitement, and they are giving off all the stress hormones exactly the same as if they were in low spirits or had just heard of a death in the family. We call the pleasant or healthy kind "eustress” and the unpleasant or unhealthy kind "distress".
Then how can people deal with stress? The secret is not to avoid it but to "do your own thing". It implies doing what you like to do and what you are made to do at your own speed. For most people, it is really a matter of learning how to live and how to behave in various situations, to decide: “Do I really want to take my father's business or be a musician?” If you really want to be a musician, then be one.
64. What can be inferred from the first paragraph?
A. Modern people experiences more stress than the cave man.
B. The cave man experienced more stress than modern people.
C. People don't suffer more stress today; it's just that they think they do.
D. Modern people have the same worries as the cave man did.
65. In which of the following situations will you feel "eustress"?
A. Your favorite football team has lost an important game.
B. You have failed an important examination.
C. You are informed of an accident of your best friend.
D. You have won the first prize in an English competition.
66 The purpose of writing the passage is to let us know _________________________.
A. stress does not necessarily refer to unpleasant experience
B. distress is what people call the pleasant kind of stress
C. an Olympic winner feels the same stress as one who loses a family member
D. people will feel eustress and distress at the same time
67. According to the passage, how can people deal with stress?
A. Do things that you really want to do. B. Do whatever you're expected to do.
C. Try to do things successfully. D. Refuse to do whatever you're told to.

People can be addicted to different things — e.g. alcohol, drug, certain foods, or even television. People who have such an addiction are compulsive: they have a very powerful psychological need that they feel they must satisfy. According to psychologists, many people are compulsive spenders. They feel that they must spend money. This compulsion, like most others, is impossible to explain reasonably. For compulsive spenders who buy on credit, charge accounts are even more exciting than money. In other words, compulsive spenders feel that with credit, they can do anything. Their pleasure in spending large amounts is actually greater than the pleasure that they get from the things they buy.
There is even a special psychology of bargain hunting. To save money, of course, most people look for sales, low prices, and discounts. Compulsive bargain hunters, however, often buy things that they don’t need just because they are cheap. They want to believe that they are helping their budgets, but they are really playing an exciting game. When they can buy something for less than other people, they feel that they are winning. Most people, experts claim, have two reasons for their behavior: a good reason for the things that they do and the real reason.
It is not only scientists, of course, who understand the psychology of spending habits, but also business people. Stores, companies, and advertisers use psychology to increase business. They consider people’s needs for love, power, or influence, their basic values, their beliefs and opinions, and so on in their advertising and sales methods.
Psychologists often use a method called “behavior therapy(疗法)” to help individuals solve their personality problems. In the same way, they can help people who feel that they have problems with money.
60. According to the psychologists, a compulsive spender is one who spends large amounts of money _____.
A. and takes great pleasure from what he or she buys
B. in order to satisfy his or her basic needs in life
C. just to meet his or her strong psychological need
D. and feels he or she is cheated
61. Which of the following statements is TRUE according to the text?
A. People spend money for exactly the same reason that they need to buy things.
B. Business people and advertisers can use the psychology of people’s spending habits to increase sales.
C. Business people understand the psychology of compulsive buying better than scientists do.
D. Compulsive bargain hunters do not have problems with money.
62. What is the text mainly about?
A. The psychology of money-spending habits. B. The habits of compulsive spenders.
C. A special psychology of bargain hunting.
D. The use of the psychology of spending habits in business.
63. From the text we may safely conclude that compulsive spenders or compulsive bargain hunters _______________.
A. are really unreasonable B. need special treatment
C. are really beyond drugsD. can never get any help to solve their problems with money

IV. Reading Comprehension (40 points)
So far as I know, Miss Hannah was the first person to give the basic difference between work and labor. To be happy, a man must feel, firstly, free and secondly, important. He cannot be really happy if he is forced by society to do what he does not enjoy doing, or what he enjoys doing lowly thought of by society as valueless or unimportant. In a society where slavery in the strict sense has been got rid of, the sign that what a man does is of social value is that he is paid money to do it, but a laborer today can rightly be called a wage slave. A man is a laborer if the job that society offers him is not interesting to himself but he has to take it just owing to the necessity of earning a living and supporting his family.
The opposite side to labor is play. When we play a game, we enjoy what we are doing, otherwise we should not play it, but it is a purely private activity; and society could not care less whether we play it or not.
Between labor and play stands work. A man is a worker if he is personally interested in the job which society pays him to do; what from the point view of society is necessary labor is from his own point of view willing play. Whether a job is to be classified as labor or work depends, not on the job itself, but on the tastes of the individual who does it. The difference does not, for example, agree with the difference between a physical and a mental job; a gardener or a copper may be a worker, a bank clerk is a laborer.
Which a man is can be seen from his attitude toward leisure. To a worker, leisure means simply the hours he needs to relax and rest in order to work efficiently. He is therefore more likely to take too little leisure than too much; workers die of heart attack and forget their wives' birthday. To the laborer, on the other hand, leisure means freedom from compulsion(强迫), so that it is natural for him to imagine that the fewer hours he has to spend laboring, and the more hours he is free to play, the better.
56. A man feels happy when ____________.
A. he is supposed to do what is important in his opinion
B. he has to take a job to earn a living and support his family
C. he is doing something personally interesting and socially valuable
D. what he enjoys doing is what he thinks highly of
57. The reason why a laborer can be called a wage slave is that ___________.
A. he has a family to support
B. his wages are as low as what a slave used to make
C. society doesn't care whether he plays or not
D. he is doing the job only for money, not for interest
58. Whether a job can be classified as labor or work depends on _____________.
A. whether it is a physical or mental B. the tastes of the person who does it
C. the attitude of the society toward it D. the necessity of the job to the society and individual
59. Which of the following can be the best title of the text?
A. Whether to Work or to Play B. Work, Labor, and Play
C. Differences between Labor and Play D. Leisure, Key to Work, Labor and Play

If U．S．software companies don't pay more attention to quality, they could kiss their business good-bye．Both India and Brazil are developing a world-class software industry．Their weapon is quality and one of their jobs is to attract the top U．S．quality specialists whose voices are not listened to in their country．
Already, of the world's 12 software houses that have earned the highest rating in the world, seven are in India．That's largely because they have used new methods rejected by American software specialists．For example, for decades, quality specialists, W．Edwards Deming and J．M．Juran had urged U．S．software companies to change their attitudes to quality．But their quality call mainly fell on deaf ears in the U．S -- but not in Japan．By the 1970s and 1980s, Japan was grabbing market share with better, cheaper products．They used Deming's and Juran's ideas to bring down the cost of good quality to as little as 5% of total production costs．In U．S．factories, the cost of quality then was 10 times as high: 50%．In software, it still is．
Watts S．Humphrey spent 27 years at IBM heading up software production and then quality assurance．But his advice was seldom paid attention to．He retired from IBM in 1986．In 1987, he worked out a system for assessing(evaluating) and improving software quality．It has proved its value time and again．For example, in 1990 the cost of quality at Raytheon Electronics Systems was almost 60% of total software production costs．It fell to 15% in 1996 and has since further dropped to below 10%．
Like Deming and Juran, Humphrey seems to be winning more praises overseas than at home．The Indian government and several companies have just founded the Watts Humphrey Software Quality Institute at the Software Technology Park in Chennai, India．Let's hope that U．S．lead in software will not be eaten up by its quality problems．
72．What country has more highest-rating companies in the world than any other country has?
A．India． B．The US． C．Brazil． D．Germany．
73．Which of the following statements about Humphrey is true?
A．He is now still an IBM employer．B．He has worked for IBM for 37 years．
C．India honors him highly．
D．The US pays much attention to his quality advice．
74．By what means did Japan grab its large market share by the 1970s and the 1980s?
A．Its advertising was most successful．
B．Its products were cheaper in price and better in quality．
C．The US hardware industry was lagging behind
D．Japan hired a lot of Indian software specialists．
75． What is the writer worrying about?
A．Many US software specialists are working for Japan．
B．The quality problem has become a worldwide problem．
C．India and Japan are joining hands to compete with the US．
D．The US will no longer be the first software player in the world