The trend in everyday conversation is to use grandiose(夸大的)words．“Outstanding” is the
new “good,” “amazing” is the new “OK, ” and “huge” is the new “big.”
I was in a restaurant in Washington D．C．last weekend and every question I asked was answered with exaggeration．
Me：How is the salmon?
Sever：Fantastic!
Me：Does it come with rice?
Sever：Absolutely!
Would a “good” and a “yes” have been enough? Of course!
My father is an average-sized man．He hasn’t gained weight or height for the past 30 years. Therefore, his size remains the same．However，in the same amount of time，his T-shirt size has gone from small to medium to large to extra large．
The reason for the exaggerated word is clear：we are bored with our lives. We want the next
—next thing now．Immediately!
And we also want others to think that we still care，that we can still be delighted，that we know that everything is just great．Even when deep inside we know it can’t be．Everything can’t be great．
I’m not a scientist，so many methods of proof leave little to be desired，or a lot to be desired，or an immensity(无限)．
Listen to the voices around you．Listen to your own voices．There is nothing on the radio that is good or bad，weather is either beautiful or horrible．
Listen，the next time when someone asks you something and you agree，because when you
could simply say “yes”, instead you will say “absolutely’’ or “without doubt ” or “Oh，yeah，unquestionably ---- absolutely without doubt."
Have people forgotten what it is like to be OK? Simply OK with what they have and who they are? If everything is outstanding，if everything is the most amazing thing ever，is anything ever amazing at all?By telling his experience in the restaurant，the author intends to ________．
| A．show his interest in exaggerated words |
| B．prove that exaggerated words are widely used |
| C．blame the restaurant for using exaggerated words |
| D．tell us the food in the restaurant is extremely good |
What do we know about the author’s father?
| A．He has gained height and is now a tall man． |
| B．He likes following the fashion in clothing． |
| C．His weight is getting greater and greater． |
| D．The size of his T-shirt is described in exaggerated words． |
．So many people like using exaggerated words because_________．
| A．they are not satisfied with being normal |
| B．they don’t want to be looked down upon by others |
| C．they want to be different from others |
| D．they are brave in telling their true feelings |
According to the passage，if you approve of something，you’d better say “________”．
| A．fantastic | B．perfect | C．OK | D．absolutely |
The world was mysterious (神秘的) when I was a child, so miracles (奇迹) were welcome wonders. Now, there doesn’t seem to be space for them in this world I so intelligently understand.
Perhaps it’s from years of working around sick and often dying children, watching time and time again as a child slips away from the arms of a begging mother. I have stopped hoping as the parents around me hope.
I recently cared for a patient near the end of his life. Medically speaking, his situation was hopeless, which made me feel helpless and defeated.
His mother came in to see him. I had prepared myself to support her, imagining she would crumble (崩溃) into a pile of tears.
“Our God is faithful,” she said, with a smile on her face and the sunshine of hope in her eyes.
“Cancer is faithful,” I muttered (嘀咕) in my mind.
“We still believe he can heal him,” she continued, as if she had heard what I was thinking.
I provided updates on his body. In a laundry list of updates, perhaps two things were positive. She thanked me for the information, repeating back the minor positive notes I had given.
I brcame kind of angry. And I wanted to sak, “Do you really not understand the gravity (严重性) of this illness?”
And then, yet again, as if she had heard me, she replied with this: A positive attitude gives us power over our circumstances, rather than allowing our circumstances to have power over us.
I was shocked. Here I was, judging her positive attitude as a fault. I completely disregarded the choice to believe in something more powerful than me, more healing than the doctors on our team. It wasn’t blind faith. It was strength and devotion.
When I came out of the room, tears welling in my eyes, I sat at my computer and looked
down at a small plate of candies she must have left for me on her way into the room. A hand
written note was laid above them: Kate, your devotion is so appreciated, S.
S, it is your devotion that I am appreciating today. Because of you, I am begging again to
believe in miracles.The author is probably a ________.
| A．nurse | B．patient | C．teacher | D．mother |
Before seeing the patient’s mother, the author thought that the patient ________.
| A．would recover soon |
| B．had got much better |
| C．was going to die of cancer |
| D．might make a miraculous recovery |
Why was the author angry with the patient’s mother?
| A．Because of her optimism. |
| B．Because of her impoliteness. |
| C．Because she couldn’t stop crying. |
| D．Because she was always complaining. |
Finally, the patient’s mother made the author become ________.
| A．more patient | B．more positive |
| C．more aggressive | D．more sympathetic |
A few weeks ago, while I was reading the morning paper, I turned the radio up to listen to a Saturday morning talk show and I heard an old sounding gentleman, with a golden voice. He was telling whoever he was talking with something about “a thousand marbles”.
I was intrigued and stopped to listen to what he had to say …
“Let me tell you something, Tom, something that has helped me keep a good perspective on my own priorities (优先考虑的事).”
He continued, “You see, I sat down one day and did a little math. The average person lives for about seventy-five years. Now then, I multiplied 75 by 52 and I came up with 3,900 which is the number of Saturdays that the average person has in their entire lifetime. Now stick with (继续倾听……的话) me, Tom. I’m getting to the important part.”
“It wasn’t until I had lived through over twenty-eight hundred Saturdays that I started thinking about all this in any detail,” he went on. “I got to thinking that if I lived to be seventy-five, I only had about a thousand of them left to enjoy. So I went to a toy store and bought 1,000 marbles. I took them home and put them inside a large, clear plastic container. Every Saturday since then, I have taken one marble out and thrown it away.
“I found that by watching the marbles diminish (变少), I focused more on the really important things in life. There is nothing like watching your time here on this earth run out to help get your priorities straight.
“It was nice to meet you, Tom. I hope you spend time with your family, and I hope to meet you again.”
You could have heard a pin drop on the radio when the old man signed off. I guess he gave us all a lot to think about. I had panned to work that morning. Instead, I went upstairs and woke my wife up with a kiss. “Come on, honey, I’m taking you and the kids to breakfast. And can we stop at a toy store while we’re out? I need to buy some marbles.”The underlines word “intrigued” in Paragraph 2 probably means “ ________”.
| A．encouraged | B．moved | C．worried | D．attracted |
The old man started practicing the theory of “a thousand marbles” ________.
| A．in his twenties | B．in his fifties |
| C．in his seventies | D．in his eighties |
What life lesson does this text teach us?
| A．Spending more time with our family. |
| B．Enriching our life with marble games. |
| C．It’s never too late to love our family. |
| D．Learning to live life to the fullest. |
Here is your best chance to travel around the UK in 2012: More than 200 B&Bs (bed & breakfast) across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are selected to offer you amazing services for your stay at their lowest prices! Don’t miss it. Just collect the vouchers（活动券）in our B&B Daily printed from 01/ 04/ 2012 to 07/ 04/ 2012 and book the stays for your travel following the terms and conditions below:
● The offer includes a room for the night and a breakfast the next morning.
● The offer is of two kinds: £20 per room, per night, valid（有效的）during stay
period of 02/ 04/ 2012—31/ 05/ 2012 and then again 01/ 09/ 2012— 31/ 10/ 2012;£35 per room, per night, valid during stay period of 01/ 06/ 2012 — 31/ 08/ 2012.
● The offer is valid for a basic twin or double room only.
● The stay must be booked directly with the chosen B&Bs before 28/ 04/ 2012.
● Each voucher can only be used by the holder to book one room for one night.
● If voucher holders book either the £20 or £35 per room per night, any additional
services such as lunch, evening meal or activities may require an extra charge. But these are not required in order to take up the offer. Please check directly with your chosen B&Bs to see what extra services are available.
● Vouchers must be presented on arrival. If no vouchers are presented, the B&Bs may reserve（保留） the right to charge at full price for every night of stay.
● Vouchers may not be used together with any other offer.
● The voucher holders must pay for the stay in full at the time of booking. Additional £10 may be paid to confirm（确认）the booking and will be returned on arrival.
● The B&Bs reserve the right to refuse voucher holders’ bookings for people under the age of 18.The voucher can be used for a stay at the chosen B&B on .
| A．09/ 01/ 2012 | B．28/ 04/ 2012 |
| C．01/ 03/ 2012 | D．04/ 02/ 2012 |
How much should be paid for a two-night stay in October 2012 at a chosen B&B?
| A．£ 70. | B．£30. | C．£35. | D．£40. |
By taking up the offer, the voucher holders can choose to .
| A．have lunch or evening meal without paying extra money |
| B．book either a basic twin or double room at the chosen B&Bs |
| C．use the B&B offer together with other offers |
| D．book the stays through B&B Daily |
It is common and usual to see people freak out when they face challenges in their life. We all pass in different life problems and challenges. No one is free of life problems. Only a dead man faces no problem. As long as you are alive, challenges are everywhere.
How do you face problems and challenges in your life? Problems and challenges are the building blocks of your personality. They make you who you are. Besides, whether what happened in your life builds or destructs（破坏、毁灭）you depends on how you look at it. If you take your problems as troubles, they will be troubles and may cause destruction. If you take them as constructive (有建设性的）tools, you are going to be built up on them.
Problems are everywhere. No one can avoid them. And they are good too. They open up a different look and opportunity if you are willing to see. When you face troubles, do not frustrate or freak out. Just cool yourself to think in a different direction. Think in a positive way. Every problem has its own good as well as bad sides. Focus on the good one. Look at the bright side.
Besides, there is always a good person, perhaps your mom or dad, or one of your friends, right beside you who can turn everything into your best if you are willing to turn to them. No matter what happens, they will be there to help you. Trust them and they will never let you down. All you need to know is that you are loved wherever you are.What’s the meaning of the underlined phrase “freak out” in Paragraph 1?
| A．Feel shy. | B．Stay calm. |
| C．Keep silent. | D．Feel upset. |
In Paragraph 2, the writer implies that ______.
| A．problems cause troubles |
| B．attitude is everything |
| C．challenges can be avoided |
| D．personalities are built on failures |
What’s the writer’s purpose to write the passage?
| A．To encourage. | B．To compare. |
| C．To prove. | D．To explain. |
What can be the best title of the passage?
| A．How to Avoid Problems |
| B．Challenges Are Everywhere |
| C．Face Your Challenges Bravely |
| D．You Are Loved Wherever You Are |
I have been consistently opposed to feeding a baby regularly. As a doctor, mother and scientist in child development I believe there is nothing to recommend it, from the baby’s point of view.
Mothers, doctors and nurses alike have no idea of where a baby’s blood sugar level lies. All we know is that a low level is harmful to brain development and makes a baby easily annoyed. In this state, the baby is difficult to calm down and sleep is impossible. The baby asks for attention by crying and searching for food with its mouth.
It is not just unkind but also dangerous to say a four-hourly feeding schedule will make a baby satisfied. The first of the experts to advocate a strict clock-watching schedule was Dr Frederic Truby King who was against feeding in the night. I’ve never heard anything so ridiculous. Baby feeding shouldn’t follow a timetable set by the mum. What is important is feeding a baby in the best way, though it may cause some inconvenience in the first few weeks.
Well, at last we have copper-bottomed research that supports demand feeding and points out the weaknesses of strictly timed feeding. The research finds out that babies who are fed on demand do better at school at age 5, 7, 11 and 14, than babies fed according to the clock. By the age of 8, their IQ scores are four to five percent higher than babies fed by a rigid（严格的）timetable. This research comes from Oxford and Essex University using a sample of 10,419 children born in the early 1990s, taking account of parental education, family income, a child’s sex and age, the mother’s health and feeding style. These results don’t surprise me. Feeding according to schedule runs the risk of harming the rapidly growing brain by taking no account of sinking blood sugar levels.
I hope this research will put an end to advocating strictly timed baby feeding practices.What does the author think about Dr King?
| A．He is strict. |
| B．He is unkind. |
| C．He has the wrong idea. |
| D．He sets a timetable for mothers |
The word copper-bottomed in Paragraph 4 is closest in meaning to .
| A．basic | B．reliable |
| C．surprising | D．interesting |
What does the research tell us about feeding a baby on demand?
| A．The baby will sleep well. |
| B．The baby will have its brain harmed. |
| C．The baby will have a low blood sugar level. |
| D．The baby will grow to be wiser by the age of 8. |
The author supports feeding the baby .
| A．whenever it wants food |
| B．according to its blood sugar level |
| C．in the night |
| D．every four hours |