阅读下面短文，从A、B、C、D四个选项中选出最佳选项，并在机读卡上相应番号处将该项涂黑。
People who show confidence really seem to have it made. They seize more rewarding careers, keep good relationships, and just seem to do everything with more styles than the rest of us.
So what is the secret? There isn’t one. Self-confidence is a skill and habit that anyone can learn to develop. And although people who are raised in an encouraging environment with confident role models have a hard start in self-confidence development, we all can learn to become more confident at 
any age.
Try these simple tips for practicing and increasing your self-confidence levels:
Dare to fail. Anybody who’s out there bravely performing is going to fail repeatedly. If you are not failing, you are not trying. So don’t take failure too hard or too personally. Just learn to deal wit
h it and use its lessons to keep improving.
When in doubt, pretend you know what you are doing. Because, if you are confident of your abilities, by the time you have done it, you will be experienced.
Dress for success. You don’t have to be beautiful to be confident. Make the most of your own unique physical characters and weaken your disadvantages.
Listen to yourself. You are the only person who knows what’s right 
for you. Don’t put others’ opinions above your own inner voice.
Build a confident vocabulary. Stop putting yourself down and give up continually blaming your tiny weaknesses. Learn to show up your strong points and the world will learn to see and celebrate them with you.
Pass on the praise. Praise others for their virtues and strengths. This practice will not decrease your confidence, but help increase it. The passage is written mainly __________.
| A．to explain the definition of self-confidence |
| B．to explain the secret of self-confidence |
| C．to tell people how important self-confidence is |
| D．to tell people how to build self-confidence |
The underlined word “one” in the second paragraph refers to __________.
| A．the secret of self-confidence |
| B．the skill of self-confidence |
| C．the style of doing things |
| D．a rewarding career |
The main idea of the sixth paragraph is __________.
| A．to be confident means to have no disadvantages |
| B．taking full advantage of your physical characters will help you be confident |
| C．your unique characters will help you be confident and be successful |
| D．to be confident means to be beautiful |
All the following are tips to increase your self-confidence level EXCEPT_________.
| A．not to be afraid of failure |
| B．dress yourself properly |
| C．pretend to know everything |
| D．make your advantages more obvious |
__________ will weaken your self-confidence.
| A．Praising others for their strong points |
| B．Always following others’ advice to do things |
| C．Giving up blaming your weaknesses |
| D．Believing in yourself |
What if it isn’t a dog-eat-dog world? What if caring for a dog or for a mom with Alzheimer’s (老年痴呆症) makes you stronger and allows you to live longer?
Researchers at the University of California, Berkeley are challenging our long-held belief that humans are born to be selfish.
Darwin’s theory of evolution by natural selection was misunderstood by his male followers, the researchers say. Rather than “every man for himself”, Darwin believed that humans are successful as a species precisely because of our educational, selfless and sympathetic characteristics.
Why has it taken so long for Darwin’s central revelation(揭示) to be properly understood? “We’ve had too many men in social science,” Berkeley psychology professor Dacher Keltner told me in an interview. “Female scientists acknowledge that caring for people is part of human nature according to the research, which shows the human ability to care exists in our brains and nerve systems.”
In my book Passages in Caregiving , I urge women who take the whole responsibility for taking care of an elderly parent or a sick relative to build a “Circle of Care”. Reach out to your brothers and sisters, friends, neighbors and community volunteers to help you care, because no one can perform this overwhelming role alone. You will be as shocked as I to learn how the most selfless caregivers are rewarded with longer life.
Sympathy is not a woman’s word. In fact it makes all of us stronger under stress and more highly respected by our peers. For so long we have repeated the false saying “Nice guys finish last”. But the 40 richest Americans committed to doing good by donating half their fortunes are no spring chickens. So here is my new explanation：Nice guys die last.The first paragraph serves to .
| A．give the background of the topic |
| B．blame the world for selfishness |
| C．urge people to care for a dog |
| D．bring out the topic of the passage |
In Passages in Caregiving, women are advised to.
| A．share the responsibility of caring with others |
| B．take good care of themselves |
| C．learn how to live a longer life |
| D．help as many people as possible |
The underlined words “no spring chickens” in the last paragraph refer to .
| A．rich people | B．poor people | C．young people | D．aged people |
Why does the author mention the 40 richest Americans’ commitment in this passage?
| A．To argue against offering sympathy. |
| B．To use it as an example to support his opinion. |
| C．To show their generosity to society. |
| D．To call on people to learn from them. |
Which of the following might be the BEST title of the passage?
| A．Selflessness could be the secret to longer life |
| B．Darwin’s theory of evolution is out of date now |
| C．Measures must be taken to improve the world |
| D．Males and females have different opinions about selflessness |
Back those photos up
The images were striking．Homes on the East Coast were washed away by Superstorm Sandy. People were in tears, picking up faded photographs, among their only remaining possessions．
If that doesn't move you to get serious about safekeeping your lifetime of memories, what will? The digital age offers tools never imaginable before—including one-click access to a lifetime of family photos．
Here is a brochure (手册) on how to back up (存) your photos and save them online, where they can live forever and be accessible in good times and bad．
Scanning
The first step for those old photos is to scan them and save them to a digital format (格式)．Most，printers come with scanners these days, so that's an easy but extremely time-consuming step．
Storing the photos
With your scans in place, import the photos into your computer, and back them up．
You could make multiple copies of the disks and spread them to loved ones．Or you could choose external (外接的) hard drives or USB thumb drive, and add your photo and video collection from your computer．
Online backup
If you need lots of space, look at a pure online backup service, Caronite．
Caronite backs up 300 million files daily．Once you sign up, it starts to pick up everything you have on your hard drive．But photo collection on your computer's main hard drive charges for $ 59 a year．
Cloud Storage
For folks who don't need automatic backup, but instead want to take a more active approach, Dropbox, Google Drive and Microsoft's SkyDrive let you store files online by yourself, share and instantly access them．All offer free options—2GB of free storage for Dropbox, 5GB for Google and 7GB for SkyDrive．But if you want more, you need to pay．
Bottom Line
The hard drive or flash drive is the cheapest and easiest．But drives can fail．Online services are more expensive, but more secure．With more of us switching back and forth between our computers, such services are the best way to get access to our data from wherever we are．What can we know from the passage?
| A．Scanning photos takes little time but costs a lot． |
| B．The hard drive or flash drive is the cheapest and safest． |
| C．Google Drive offers unlimited free photo storage on line． |
| D．Caronite charges for backing up photos from hard drive． |
Which of the following allows storing files automatically?
| A．Caronite． | B．Dropbox． | C．SkyDrive． | D．Flash drive. |
The main purpose of the passage is to ______．
| A．tell real stories about storage services |
| B．introduce some of the storage services |
| C．describe the functions of storage services |
| D．argue about the advantage of storage services |
The hit movie Notting Hill begins with a famous scene. Hugh Grant bumps (撞) into Julia Roberts and spills (洒) orange juice all over her. After the collision, Grant repeatedly says: “ I am so sorry. I am so sorry.”
His actions in this scene are very British. If Roberts’ character were from Britain then she would probably apologize repeatedly as well—even if the crash were not her fault. But this doesn’t happen in the film, as Roberts is from the US.
A report in The Telegraph last week said that three-quarters of British people apologize when they bump into someone in the street — regardless of whether they are responsible or not. In fact, we Britons use “sorry” in many situations. For example, if we mishear someone, we say “Sorry?” The person we are talking to will also apologize by replying: “No, I am sorry!” This can go on for up to five minutes as we compete over who is the most sorry.
Life is never as simple as “duibuqi” and “meiguanxi”.
How we use “sorry” has changed. Traditionally, “sorry” was used to express deep regret, but a survey in 2007 showed that we use it to mean anything from “what” to “whatever”.
Why are Britons so sorry? Mark Tyrell, a psychology writer in the UK, thinks about our apologetic tendencies are rooted in the British class system. We say sorry because historically the new middle classes in Britain had to apologize for not being working class, but also for not really being upper class. Another theory is that we apologize to avoid confrontation(冲突). For example, if you bump into someone they might get angry. To avoid this we instantly say “Sorry!”.
True manners are about being considerate and the modern day obsession with apologizing show that we are perhaps not as thoughtful as we once were. The word has lost some of its meaning. Do you see my point? Sorry, it might just be a British thing…What can we infer from paragraph 2?
| A．In fact Roberts are responsible for the collision. |
| B．People from the US say “sorry” more than British people. |
| C．There is no crash happening in the film. |
| D．British people say sorry even if it is not their fault. |
Which of the following might Mark Tyrell agree to?
| A．British people are sincere while saying sorry. |
| B．Now more British people say sorry because of the British class system. |
| C．British people say sorry to avoid quarrels. |
| D．British people apologize for not working hard. |
What does the author want to tell us with the passage?
| A．British people overuse “sorry” in daily life. |
| B．British people now say “sorry” in different situations. |
| C．Middle classes in British are to blame for not being working class. |
| D．Britons say “sorry” to avoid confrontation. |
What does the underlined word “collision” in the first paragraph mean?
| A．quarrel | B．disagreement | C．crash | D．fight |
Bertie knew there was something in the wind. His mother had been sad in recent days, not sick，just strangely sad. The lion had just lain down beside him，his head warm on Bertie’s feet，when Father cleared his throat and began, “You’ll soon be eight, Bertie. A boy needs a proper education. We’ve found the right place for you, a school near Salisbury in England. ”
His heart filled with a terrible fear, all Bertie could think of was his white lion. “But the lion,” he cried, “What about the lion?”
“I’m afraid there’s something else I have to tell you, ” his father said. Looking across at Bertie’s mother, he took a deep breath. Then he told Bertie he had met a circus owner from France, who was over in Africa looking for lions to buy. He would come to their farm in a few days.
“No! You can’t send him to a circus!” said Bertie. “People will come to see him. He’ll be shut up behind bars. I promised him he never would be. And they will laugh at him. He’d rather die. Any animal would! ” But as he looked across the table at them, he knew their minds were quite made up.
Bertie felt completely betrayed (出卖). He waited until he heard his father’s deep breathing next door. With his white lion at his heels，he crept (蹑手蹑脚地移动) downstairs，took down his father’s rifle (步枪) and stepped out into the night. He ran and ran till his legs could run no more. As the sun came up over the grassland, he climbed to the top of a hill and sat down, his arms round the lion’s neck. The time had come.
“Be wild now”，he whispered. “You’ve got to be wild. Don’t ever come home. All my life I’ll think of you. I promise I will. ” He buried his head in the lion’s neck. Then, Bertie climbed down the hill and walked away.
When he looked back, the lion was still sitting there watching him; but then he stood up, yawned, stretched, and sprang down after him. Bertie shouted at him, but he kept coming. He threw sticks. He threw stones. Nothing worked.
There was only one thing left to do. With tears filling his eyes and his mouth，he lifted the rifle to his shoulder and fired over the lion’s head.Bertie’s mother was sad probably because she _____.
| A．had been seriously ill recently |
| B．had decided to send Bertie to school |
| C．knew Bertie would hate to go to England |
| D．knew selling the lion would upset Bertie |
The underlined word “they” in Para. 4 probably refers to _____.
| A．other animals | B．some audience | C．Bertie’s parents | D．circus owners |
In the last paragraph, the boy lifted the rifle to _____.
| A．threaten the lion back to the wild | B．kill the lion out of fear |
| C．protect himself from the lion | D．show his anger towards his father |
The passage intends to show that _____.
| A．animal-hunting is popular in Africa |
| B．parents are sometimes cruel to their children |
| C．people and animals can be faithful to each other |
| D．animals usually lead a miserable life in circuses |
The earth is the only planet that scientists are certain has life .What does the earth have that the other planets don’t ? For one thing , the earth has just the right temperature . As the third planet from the sun , the earth seems to be just the right distance away . The planets that are closer to the sun are so hot that their surfaces bake in the sun . The farthest planets are cold balls .
When the earth developed— which scientists believe may have happened about billions of years ago , many gases covered the earth . The gases caused the earth to be hot . But something wonderful happened . The temperature was just right for thick clouds to form . It rained very hard for a very long time . This gave the earth its oceans . Water made it possible for plants to grow . The plants created oxygen in the atmosphere . Oxygen is the gas that humans and animals breathe .
Only one other planet in the solar system seems to be something like the earth . That planet is Mars . Mars is smaller than the earth , and it is quite a bit cooler . But it is not too cold for humans . On some days , the temperatures are as cold as a winter day in the northern United States . If you wore a special spacesuit , you could walk around on Mars . You would have to bring your own air to breathe , though . The air on Mars is too thin to breathe . Mars has the largest volcano in the solar system . It is sixteen miles high . The highest volcano on the earth is five miles high . The most unexpected sight on Mars is dried-up river beds . Scientists believe that Mars was once much wetter that it is now . Does this mean there could have been living things on Mars ? Scientists are not sure , but there has been no sign so far .It is the on the earth that makes life possible .
| A．temperature | B．water | C．oxygen | D．temperature , water and oxygen |
The underlined phrase “ the third planet ” means .
| A．the sun | B．the earth | C．the moon | D．Mars |
Which planet in the solar system is most like the earth ?
| A．Mars . | B．Moon . | C．Sun . | D．Mars and Moon . |
Which of the following is TRUE ?
| A．The earth has a history of about 4 million years . |
| B．There is no air on Mars . |
| C．The largest volcano on Mars is over three times higher than the highest one on the earth |
| D．Scientists believe there are living things on Mars . |
The best title for the passage should be .
| A．Living Things on Our Earth | B．The Moon |
| C．Living Things on the Moon | D．Mars Is Most Like the Earth |