Forgiving someone who has hurt you or let you down is never an easy thing. Several new studies, however, say that it could have a lot of health benefits. When you think of forgiveness, you probably don’t think of it as being a health or medical problem. Studies from Stanford University, on the other hand, show that something like anger can change your well-being.
When cartoon book characters like the Incredible Hulk get angry, they change colours and often
gain special power. In the real world, anger is less obvious and may be more dangerous. That’s why Professor Fred Luskin, founder of the Stanford Forgiveness Project and author of Forgive for Good, says holding on to anger and hatred can harm your physical and mental health. Two new studies seem to show the same idea.
The studies find that people who are able to forgive feel less stress, less back pain, and less depression. They also have fewer headaches, lower blood pressure, and fewer problems on sleeping.
So it doesn’t matter if your anger is caused by the traffic or other things. Learning to let it go is important. Techniques such as deep breath or thought can help. Or just ask yourself if it’s worth hurting yourself by staying angry with someone else.
Forgiveness does not mean that you simply accept what happened and say it’s OK. Instead, it’s a way of making peace with yourself about what happened in the past. The author of the passage tries to make his viewpoint clear _______.
| A．by raising his own examples | |
| B．based on his own experience | |
| C．by mentioning some studies | D．by mentioning some typical patients |
The example of the cartoon book characters is taken in the passage to_______.
| A．support the viewpoint that anger and hatred harm physical and mental health. |
| B．introduce a famous expert. |
| C．let the reader know the different colours of cartoon faces. |
| D．show how to control one’s temper. |
The underlined phrase “holding on to” in this passage possibly means“_______”.
| A．removing | B．keeping up | C．getting rid of | D．learning about |
The best title for this passage is probably _______.
| A．Forgiveness | B．Forgiveness Is Good for Health |
| C．A Secret to Keeping Health | D．Anger Is Bad for Health |
I used to live selfishly, I should admit. But one moment changed me.
I was on my lunch break and had the office to get something to eat . On the way, I
a busker(街头艺人)，with a hat in front of him. I had some
in my pocket, but I would not give them to him, thinking to myself he would
use the money to feed his addiction to drugs or alcohol. He
like that type-young and ragged.
what was I going to spend the money on? Only to feed my addiction to Coca-Cola or chocolate! I then
I had no right to place myself above
just because he was busking.
I and dropped all the coins into his
, and he smiled at me, I watched for a while. As
as it sounds, I expected something more to come from that moment—a feeling of
or satisfaction, for example. But nothing happened
, I walked off. “It proved to be a waste of
,”I thought.
On my way home at the end of the , I saw the busker again and he was
. I watched him pick up the hat and walk
a cafe counter. There he poured the
contents into a tin collecting
an earthquake fund-raising(募捐) event. He was busking for charity(慈善)！
Now I donate any I have to charity tins and enjoy the feeling of giving.
A. left B. cleaned
C. prepared D. searched
A. led B. chose
C. saw D. fooled
A. chocolates B. coins
C. tins D. drugs
A. almost B. only
C. rather D. still
A. acted B. looked
C. sounded D. smelt
A. ThoughB. For
C. Therefore D. But
A. declared B. realized
C. expected D. guessed
A. it B. all
C. him D. them
A. waited B. followed
C. stopped D. arrived
A. rag B. hat
C. pocket D. counter
A. selfish B. awkward
C. innocent D. special
A. happiness B. sadness
C. love D. hate
A. Disappointedly B. Unfortunately
C. Coincidentally D. Comfortably
A. words B. effort
C. space D. money
A. moment B. day
C. break D. event
A. walking around B. passing by
C. packing up D. running off
A. around B. in
C. behind D. to
A. chief B. basic
C. actual D. total
A. by B. for
C. on D. with
A. work B. time
C. energy D. change
Easy Ways to Keep Your Brain Sharp
Everyone is forgetful, but as we age, we start to feel like our brains are slowing down a bit—and that can be a very annoying thing.Read on for some techniques worth trying.
1.
People who regularly made plans and looked forward to upcoming events had a 50 percent reduced chance of Alzheimer's disease (早老性痴呆症), according to a recent study.Something as simple as setting a goal to have a weekly coffee date with a friend will do. There's evidence that people who have a purpose in life or who are working on long or short-term goals appear to do better. In other words, keep your brain looking forward.
2. Go for a walk.
Mildly raised glucose (葡萄糖) levels can harm the area of the brain that helps you form memories and physical activity can help get blood glucose down to normal levels. In fact, exercise produces chemicals that are good for your brain.
3. Learn something new.
Take a Spanish class online, join a drawing club, or learn to play cards. A study found that mental stimulation (刺激) limits the weakening effects of aging on memory and the mind. But the best thing for your brain is when you learn something new and are physically active at the same time.Or go dancing with your friends.
| A．Focus on the future. |
| B．This can be especially harmful to the aged. |
| C．It should be something like learning gardening. |
| D．So take a few minutes each day to do some reading. |
E. But don't worry if your schedule isn't filled with life-changing events.
F. Luckily, research shows there is a lot you can do to avoid those moments.
G. In other words, when you take care of your body, you take care of your brain.
Ask someone what they have done to help the environment recently and they will almost certainly mention recycling. Recycling in the home is very important of course. However, being forced to recycle often means we already have more material than we need. We are dealing with the results of that over-consumption in the greenest way possible, but it would be far better if we did not need to bring so much material home in the first place.
The total amount of packaging increased by 12% between 1999 and 2005. It now makes up a third of a typical household’s waste in the UK. In many supermarkets nowadays food items are packaged twice with plastic and cardboard.
Too much packaging is doing serious damage to the environment. The UK, for example, is running out of it for carrying this unnecessary waste. If such packaging is burnt, it gives off greenhouse gases which go on to cause the greenhouse effect. Recycling helps, but the process itself uses energy. The solution is not to produce such items in the first place. Food waste is a serious problem, too. Too many supermarkets encourage customers to buy more than they need. However, a few of them are coming round to the idea that this cannot continue , encouraging customers to reuse their plastic bags, for example.
But this is not just about supermarkets. It is about all of us. We have learned to associate packaging with quality. We have learned to think that something unpackaged is of poor quality. This is especially true of food. But is also applies to a wide range of consumer products, which often have far more packaging than necessary.
There are signs of hope. As more of us recycle, we are beginning to realise just how much unnecessary material are collecting. We need to face the wastefulness of our consumer culture, but we have a mountain to climb.What does the underlined phrase “over-consumption” refer to?
| A．Using too much packaging. |
| B．Recycling too many wastes. |
| C．Making more products than necessary. |
| D．Having more material than is needed. |
According to the text, recycling ______.
| A．helps control the greenhouse effect |
| B．means burning packaging for energy |
| C．is the solution to gas shortage |
| D．leads to a waste of land |
What can we learn from the last paragraph?
| A．Fighting wastefulness is difficult. |
| B．Needless material is mostly recycled. |
| C．People like collecting recyclable waste. |
| D．The author is proud of their consumer culture. |
Open Letter to an Editor
I had an interesting conversation with a reporter recently---one who works for you. In fact, he's one of your best reporters. He wants to leave.
Your reporter gave me a copy of his resume (简历) and photocopies of six stories that he wrote for you. The headlines showed you played them proudly. With great enthusiasm, he talked about how he finds issues (问题), approaches them, and writes about them, which tells me he is one of your best. I'm sure you would hate to lose him. Surprisingly, your reporter is not unhappy. In fact, he told me he really likes his job. He has a great assignment (分工), and said you run a great paper. It would be easy for you to keep him, he said. He knows that the paper values him. He appreciates the responsibility you've given him, takes ownership of his profession, and enjoys his freedom.
So why is he looking for a way out?
He talked to me because he wants his editors to demand so much more of him. He wants to be pushed, challenged, coached to new heights.
The reporter believes that good stories spring from good questions, but his editors usually ask how long the story will be, when it will be in, where it can play, and what the budget is.
He longs for conversations with an editor who will help him turn his good ideas into great ones. He wants someone to get excited about what he's doing and to help him turn his story idea upside down and inside out, exploring the best ways to report it. He wants to be more valuable for your paper. That's what you want for him, too, isn't it?
So your reporter has set me thinking.
Our best hope in keeping our best reporters, copy editors, photographers, artists---everyone--is to work harder to make sure they get the help they are demanding to reach their potential. If we can't do it, they'll find someone who can.What does the writer think of the reporter?
| A．Optimistic. |
| B．Imaginative. |
| C．Ambitious. |
| D．Proud. |
What does the reporter want most from his editors in their talks?
| A．Finding the news value of his stories. |
| B．Giving him financial support. |
| C．Helping him to find issues. |
| D．Improving his good ideas. |
Who probably wrote the letter?
| A．An editor. |
| B．An artist. |
| C．A reporter. |
| D．A reader. |
The letter aims to remind editors that they should __
| A．keep their best reporters at all costs |
| B．give more freedom to their reporters |
| C．be aware of their reporters' professional development |
| D．appreciate their reporters' working styles and attitudes |
I hated dinner parties. But I decided to give them another shot because I'm in London. And my friend Mallery invited me. And because dinner parties in London are very different from those back in New York. There, '“I’m having a dinner party' means: "I'm booking a table for 12 at a restaurant you can't afford and we'll be sharing the checque evenly, no matter what you eat." Worse, in Manhattan there is always someone who leaves before the bill arrives. They'll throw down cash, half of what they owe, and then people like me, who don’t drink, end up paying even more. But if I try to use the same trick, the hostess will shout: "Where are you going?" And it's not like I can say I have somewhere to go: everyone know I have nowhere to go.
But in London, dinner parties are in people's homes. Not only that, the guests are an interesting mix. The last time I went to one, the guests were from France, India. Denmark and Nigeria; it was like a gathering at the United Nations in New York. The mix is less striking. It's like a gathering at Bloomingdale's, a well-known department store.
For New Yorkers, talking about other parts of the world means Brooklyn and Queens in New York. But at Mallery's, when I said that I had been to Myanmar recently, people knew where it was. In New York people would think it was a usual new clubWhat does the word "shot" in Paragraph 1 probably mean?
| A．Choice. |
| B．Try |
| C．Style. |
| D．Goal |
What does the writer dislike most about dinner parties in New York?
A There is a strange mix of people.
B. The restaurants are expensive.
C. The bill is not fairly shared.
D. People have to pay cashWhat does the author think of the parties in London?
A. A bit unusual
B．Full of tricks.
C．Less costly.
D More interesting.What is the author's opinion of some New Yorkers from her experience？
| A．Easy-going. |
| B．Self-centred. |
| C．Generous. |
| D．Conservative. |