As the pace of life continues to increase, we are fast losing the art of relaxation. Once you are in the habit of rushing through life, being on the go from morning till night, it is hard to slow down. But relaxation is essential for a healthy mind and body.
Stress is a natural part of everyday life and there is no way to avoid it. In fact, it is not the bad thing it is often supposed to be. A certain amount of stress is vital to provide motivation and give purpose to life. It is only when the stress gets out of control that it can lead to poor performance and ill health.
The amount of stress a person can withstand depends very much on the individual. Some people are not afraid of stress, and such characters are obviously prime material for managerial responsibilities, others lose heart at the first sign of unusual difficulties. When exposed to stress, in whatever form, we react both chemically and physically. In fact we make choice between "flight or fight" and in more primitive days the choices made the difference between life or death. The crises we meet today are unlikely to be so extreme, but however little the stress, it involves the same response. It is when such a reaction lasts long, through continued exposure to stress, that health becomes endangered. Since we can't remove stress from our lives (it would be unwise to do so even if we could), we need to find ways to deal with it.
78. People are finding less and less time for relaxing themselves because _____.
A. they regard working as their greatest enjoyment
B. they believe that work is superior to relaxation
C. they are traveling fast all the time
D. they are becoming busier with their work than ever before
79. According to the author, the most important character for a good manager is his _____.
A. strong will to hold out stress
B. knowing the art of relaxation
C. high sense of responsibility
D. having control over performance
80. Which of the following statements is TRUE, according to the passage?
A. We can find quite a few ways to avoid stress.
B. Stress is always harmful to people's health
C. It's easy to change the habit of keeping oneself busy with work.
D. Different people can bear different amount of stress.
81. In the last sentence of the passage, "do so" refers to _____.
A. "expose ourselves to stress"
B. "find ways to deal with stress"
C. "remove stress from our lives"
D. "establish links between diseases and stress"
82. According to the author, the right attitude toward stress is _____.
A. to avoid it B. to try to cope with it
C. to regard it as a vital motivation D. to find some relaxation
Spring is here and so is the cycling season. Here are some tips on how to do it safely and comfortably.
Watch your feet—Pushing with the wrong part of the foot can raise your risk of developing a painful injury of the heel and arch（脚心）, says Rob Werstine, a sports physiotherapist（理疗师）and board member of the Canadian Physiotherapy Association. You should push with the ball of your foot, he says.
Layer up—While it’s still cool, wear layers of clothing, with clothing close to the body that breathes and outer layers that do not absorb water. Go for bright colors that increase your visibility（可见度）.
Be reasonable—If you are just starting out and aren’t in good shape, don’t sign up for a 50-kilometre ride. And while cycling is great exercise for people who want to get into shape, if your doctor advises you not to do tiring exercise, cycling shouldn't be your starting position, Werstine says. Walk to begin getting into shape and then graduate to cycling.
Fix the fit—If you develop lower back pain or numbness in your hands and fingers from cycling, it could be your bike isn’t adjusted properly for your height. A good cycle shop can help you find the right height for the seat and handlebars, but if you have continuing problems, consider consulting a bike fit physiotherapist, Werstine says.
Be mindful—You have to pay attention on the roads to vehicles, other cyclists and pedestrians（行人）.Consider taking a cycling safety course to practise your skills. Or do some reading about how to avoid dangerous cycling situations. bicyclesafe.com, for instance, lists 10 types of car-bike accidents and how to avoid them.Which part of the foot should one use when cycling?
| A．The heel. | B．The arch. | C．The ball. | D．The toes. |
From Paragraph 4 we can conclude______.
| A．not everyone can exercise by cycling | B．walking is better than cycling |
| C．cycling is popular with people | D．cycling is helpful to everyone |
According to the last paragraph, if you want to avoid danger when cycling, you should ______.
a. consider taking a cycling safety course
b. search for information on bicyclesafe.com
c. consider consulting a bike fit physiotherapist
d. adjust the bike properly for your height
| A．a. c | B．c. d | C．a. b | D．b. d |
In many African countries, the care of orphans has been mainly led by foreign donor organizations. However, Sister Florence has changed all that. Using her own resources, Sister Florence is leading the work of raising orphans from different backgrounds. Sister Florence Wanjala’s biggest motivation to start the orphan program was when she saw a little boy whose parents had died. The boy was living with a cruel grandparent and he would visit the grave of his mother, crying for support. Sister Wanjala wanted to give a helping hand and give him hope. From that time, she started feeling the call to help a larger number of orphans.
She opened an office with a few friends and coordinated (协调）a program to help the orphans. All the registrations were done in the office and the program so far has 8000 children. Sister Wanjala said, “My dream is to help the orphan to live a holistic (完整)life and be a good Kenyan citizen to help this country. Many people think that the way to support orphans is to put them in an institution（孤儿院）. Others support them up to the age of eighteen, but here, we do it very differently.” For Sister Wanjala, putting a child in an institution is normally her last choice. She prefers the orphans to live in a foster(寄宿的) home.
She said, “I’m so encouraged and happy to see the orphans succeeding. When they come first or second in class, it shows how the program has helped them, and that’s encouraging to me as I continue to coordinate the program.”Through her charity work, more than 1000 orphans have been able to find a home. Sister Wanjala, as a mother, takes care of her own family.What inspired Sister Wanjala to start the orphan program?
| A．Her preference for kids. | B．Her own similar experience. |
| C． A sad story about an orphan. | D．Her successful charity work. |
Sister Wanjala opened an office mainly to ______.
A. set up as many institutions as possible for orphans
B start a program to offer orphans a foster family
C. provide school education for those orphans
D. raise more money for the homeless kidsWhat does the underlined sentence probably mean?
| A． She didn’t want orphans to live in an institution. |
| B． She preferred to put orphans into an institution. |
| C． She had no choice but to put orphans in institutions. |
| D． She sent orphans into an institution in the end. |
What can we learn from the text?
| A． Sister Wanjala finally adopted the little boy. |
| B． Sister Wanjala found foster homes for 8000 orphans. |
| C． Sister Wanjala was too busy to care for her own family. |
| D． Sister Wanjala was not alone in helping orphans. |
It was an autumn morning shortly after my husband and I moved into our first house. Our children were upstairs unpacking，and I was looking out of the window at my father moving around mysteriously on the front lawn. “What are you doing out there?” I called to him.
He looked up, smiling. “I’m making you a surprise.’’ I thought it could be just about anything. When we were kids, he always created something surprising for us. Today, however, Dad would say no more ，and caught up in the business of our new life ，I eventually forgot about his surprise.
Until one gloomy day the next March when I glanced out of the window，I saw a dot of blue across the yard. I headed outside for a closer look. They were crocuses (番红花）throughout the front lawn 一 blue, yellow and my favorite pink ，with little faces moving up and down in the cold wind. I remembered the things Dad secretly planted last autumn. He knew how the darkness and dullness of winter always got me down. What could have been more perfectly timely to my needs?
My father’s crocuses bloomed (开花）each spring for the next five seasons, always bringing the same assurance： Hard times are almost over. Hold on, keep going, and light is coming soon.
Then a spring came with only half the usual blooms and the next spring there were none. I missed the crocuses ，so I would ask Dad to come over and plant new bulbs. But I never did. He died suddenly one October day. My family were in deep sorrow, leaning on our faith.
On a spring afternoon four years later, I was driving back when I felt depressed. It was Dad’s birthday, and I found myself thinking about him. This was not unusual — my family often talked about him, remembering how he lived up to his faith. Suddenly I slowed as I turned into our driveway. I stopped and stared at the lawn. There on the muddy grass with small piles of melting snow ，bravely waving in the wind, was one pink crocus.
How could a flower bloom from a bulb more than 18 years ago, one that hadn’t bloomed in over a decade? But there was the crocus. Tears filled my eyes as I realized its significance.
Hold on, keep going, and light is coming soon. The pink crocus bloomed for only a day, but it built my faith for a lifetime.According to the first three paragraphs, we learn that ______.
| A． it kept bothering the author not knowing what the surprise was |
| B． the author was unpacking when her father was making the surprise |
| C． it was not the first time that the author’s father had made a surprise |
| D． the author knew what the surprise was because she knew her father |
Which of the following statements is NOT true according to the passage?
| A． The author usually felt depressed in the season of winter. |
| B． The author’s father planted the crocuses to lift her low spirits. |
| C． The author often thought about her father after he died. |
| D． The crocuses bloomed each spring before her father died. |
The author’s father should be best described as ______.
| A． a part-time worker who loved flowers |
| B． a kind-hearted man who lived with faith |
| C． a full-time gardener with skillful hands |
| D． an ordinary man with doubts in his life |
What can be the best title for the passage?
| A． Crocuses — My Source of Faith | B．Crocuses— Father’s Surprise |
| C． A Pink Crocus — My Memory | D．Crocuses in Blossom — My Favorite |
It is widely known that any English conversation begins with The Weather. Such a fixation with the weather finds expression in Dr. Johnson’s famous comment that “When two English meet, their first talk is of weather.” Though Johnson’s observation is as accurate now as it was over two hundred years ago, most commentators fail to come up with a convincing explanation for this English weather-speak.
Bill Bryson, for example, concludes that, as the English weather is not at all exciting, the obsession with it can hardly be understood. He argues that “To an outsider, the most striking thing about the English weather is that there is not very much of it.” Simply, the reason is that the unusual and unpredictable weather is almost unknown in the British Isles.
Jeremy Paxman, however, disagrees with Bryson, arguing that the English weather is by nature attractive. Bryson is wrong, he says, because the English preference for the weather has nothing to do with the natural phenomena. “The interest is less in the phenomena themselves, but in uncertainty.” According to him, the weather in England is very changeable and uncertain and it attracts the English as well as the outsider.
Bryson and Paxman stand for common misconceptions about the weather-speak among the English. Both commentators, somehow, are missing the point. The English weather conversation is not really about the weather at all. English weather-speak is a system of signs, which is developed to help the speakers overcome the natural reserve and actually talk to each other. Everyone knows conversations starting with weather-speak are not requests for weather data. Rather, they are routine greetings, conversation starters or the blank “fillers”. In other words, English weather-speak is a means of social bonding.The author mentions Dr. Johnson’s comment to show that______.
| A．most commentators agree with Dr. Johnson |
| B．Dr. Johnson is famous for his weather observation |
| C．the comment was accurate two hundred years ago |
| D．English conversations usually start with the weather |
What does the underlined word “obsession” most probably refer to?
| A．A social trend. |
| B．An emotional state. |
| C．A historical concept. |
| D．An unknown phenomenon. |
According to the passage, Jeremy Paxman believes that______.
| A．Bill Bryson has little knowledge of the weather |
| B．there is nothing special about the English weather |
| C．the English weather attracts people to the British Isles |
| D．English people talk about the weather for its uncertainty |
What is the author’s purpose of writing the passage?
| A．To explain what English weather-speak is about. |
| B．To analyse misconceptions about the English weather. |
| C．To find fault with both Bill Bryson and Jeremy Paxman. |
| D．To convince people that the English weather is changeable. |
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 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.
| 1． |
Unlike real inland seas, the Atlantic Ocean is.
|
| 2． |
What is the purpose of using the poem "Storm at Sea" in the passage?
|
| 3． |
What does the underlined word "symbiotic" mean?
|
| 4． |
In the last paragraph, the Atlantic is compared to.
|