Once upon a time, two brothers who lived on neighboring farms fell into conflict(冲突) . It was the first serious one between them in 40 years of farming peacefully side by side. In the end, they fell apart.
One morning, a man with a carpenter’s toolbox came for some work. The elder brother said, “I have a job for you. Look at the farm across the creek（河沟）. My younger brother lives there. It was he who used his bulldozer（推土机）to dig the creek last week to spite(刁难) me. So I want you to build me a fence, an 8 – foot – high fence, in order not to see his place any more.” The carpenter smiled and said, “I see. I’ll try to do a job that satisfies you.” Then the elder brother went downtown.
At sunset when the farmer returned, the carpenter had just finished his job. The farmer’s eyes opened wide! To his surprise, there was no fence there at all! Instead, there was a bridge stretching from one side of the creek to the other! A fine piece of work! He saw his younger brother coming to him with the hands outstretching. The brothers stood at each end of the bridge, and then they met in the middle, taking each other’s hands. They turned to see the carpenter lift his toolbox on his shoulder.
“No, wait! Stay a few days. I’ve a lot of other work for you,” said the elder brother.
“I’d love to stay on,” the carpenter said, “but I have so many more bridges to build.”What was the life like for the two brothers before the conflict?
| A．They lived a poor life. | B．They lived in peace. |
| C．They never spoke to each other. | D．They lived on the same farm. |
It can be learned that the carpenter was ________.
| A．unwilling to obey the farmer | B．fond of building bridges |
| C．unable to build a fence | D．willing to help others |
The best title for t
his passage is ________.
| A．A Fine Piece of Work | B．A Carpenter |
| C．A Conflict between Two Brothers | D．Two Brothers |
Whi
ch of the following is true according to the passage?
| A．The elder brother used his bulldozer to dig a creek. |
| B．The elder brother helped the carpenter build the bridge. |
| C．The brothers were both satisfied with the carpenter’s work. |
| D．The carpenter planned to build an 8-foot - high fence as asked to. |
Having one of those days or weeks when everything seems to annoy you? Even if you do nothing about it, your bad mood(心情) will probably go away after some time. But with a little effort, you can forget it much faster—often within a day or two.
Walk it off
Exercise is the most popular bad mood buster. A person who's in a bad mood has low energy and high tension. Taking a fast ten-minute walk, or doing some quick exercises can do wonders towards changing the bad mood.
Tune it out
Listening to your favorite music for a while can also make tension go away quickly, because music starts connection with past positive experiences we've had.
Give yourself a paper talk
Stop and listen to what's on your mind. Bad moods are often started by too many negative thoughts. Write them all down on paper, the pessimistic(悲观的) messages you've been giving yourself, and then give optimistic answers. (“I still don't have a job.” vs “I have two interviews next week.”)
Reduce your stress
Relaxation techniques are wonderful moodlifters. These include deep breathing, stretching and visualizing(想像), all of which sound complicated(复杂的) but aren't. One easy way to visualize: close your eyes and picture a favorite place, such as the beach. Another simple way to distress is to make a todo list. One reason for being in a bad mood is feeling you have no options. By taking control over certain areas, you realize you're not helpless. You can make changes in your mood and life.
Avoid things that won't improve your mood
TV may not help much: you need to increase your energy level and stimulate(刺激) your mind—something that the TV show “Neighbors” won't do. And before you reach for that piece of cake and coffee, think about how mood and food are linked. Sugar and caffeine contribute to depressed moods. The better choice? Research shows that carbohydrates, such as potatoes and pasta(面食), produce calming effects in people who have a desire for them.Which of the following may help us stop a bad mood?
| A．Doing nothing about it |
| B．Exercising and enjoying music. |
| C．Writing down negative thoughts |
| D．Talking about it with neighbors. |
Why is it suggested that you close your eyes and picture the beach?
| A．It helps remove bad mood. |
| B．It brings us a new technique. |
| C．It is not complicated to do so. |
| D．It is an area to be easily controlled. |
TV may not improve your mood because it ________.
| A．shows what happens around you | B．does not energize you |
| C．reminds you of eating and drinking | D．produces a calming effect |
Which would be the best title for this passage?
| A．Energy Level and Stress | B．How to Beat a Bad Mood |
| C．Bad Mood and Our Life | D．How to Control Your Feeling |
As you grow rapidly through your teenage years，you will experience a lot of changes.The changes may seem difficult and they may seem to happen quickly.Don't panic！You will deal successfully with them！You are a young adult now!
With more responsibility，you will find more freedom to make your own choices.This is a time to be well informed about your choices so that you can make healthy balanced decisions that will help shape your future.You may already know your career path or you may have no idea at all what you want to do.Both situations are fine！Work hard and the right opportunity will present itself to you.
Young adulthood means greater freedom and more choices.You will probably want to be independent.But try not to shut your family out of your life.You should learn to think of others even though you are old enough to look after yourself.Your family have been with you since you came into this world.
It is also perfectly natural in this time for you to spend more time with your friends than your family.Choose your friends wisely.A true friend will stand by you no matter what happens.
This period is part of the life cycle.There are some people who will be with you throughout life's journey and there will be some people with whom you part and go separate ways.Leaving school can be hard.The reality is that you may not ever see all of your classmates again.
You are a young adult.It is your life.No one can live it for you.The choices that you make from now on will be your choices.So making the right choices will be important to you.Life is for living.Enjoy your life wisely!The best title for this passage would be ________.
| A．The Choices in Life | B．The Key to Success |
| C．Say Goodbye to the Past | D．Becoming a Young Adult |
Who do the underlined words“some people”(Paragraph 5)probably mean?
| A．your parents | B．your deskmates | C．true friends | D．your relatives |
The author thinks teenage years are ________.
| A．a period of complete freedom |
| B．too hard for young people to get through |
| C．an important time for the young to make the right choices |
| D．a very important period for young students to leave their parents |
Who is the passage mainly written for?
| A．Teenagers | B．Teachers | C．Young parents | D．Adults |
Rock stars and their money
Around the world young people are spending unbelievable sums of money listening to rock music. Forbes reports that at least fifty rock stars have incomes between two million and six million dollars per year.
"It doesn't make sense," says Johnny Mathis, one of the older music millionaires, who made a million dollars a year when he was popular in 1950s. "Performers aren't worth this kind of money. In fact, nobody is."
But the rock stars' admirers seem to disagree. Those who love rock music spend about two billion dollars a year for records. They pay 150 million to see rock stars in person.
Luck is a key word for explaining the success of many. In 1972 one of the luckiest was Kon Mclean, who wrote and sang "American Pie". Mclean writes his own music, so he earns an additional two cents on every single record of the song.
Neil Young who performs in torn blue jeans, sometimes sings to an audience of 10,000, each of whom has paid five dollars for a ticket. After paying expenses, Young leaves with about $ 18,000 in his blue jeans at the end of an evening.
How do the rock stars use their money? What do they do when the money starts pouring in like water? Most of the young stars simply show the money around. England's Elton John gave someone a $ 38,000 Rolls car and bought himself 5,000 pairs of eyeglasses, then lighted up and spelt ：E-L-T-O-N. He also bought himself two cars, "one for each foot".
Many rock stars live like Grace Slick and Jefferson Airplane. Those performers return from a tour, pay their bills, and buy new toys. Then when they need money again, they do another tour. They save no money and live from hand to mouth.
In the end the rock stars' life is unrewarding. After two or three years riches and fame are gone. Left with his memories and his tax problems, the lonely star spends his remaining years trying to attract strangers. New stars have arrived to take his place. This passage is mainly about .
| A．the success of a rock star | B．the way rock stars live |
| C．rich rock stars | D．the admirers of rock stars |
How much expense does Neil Young pay for a performance?
| A． $10,000 | B．$33,000 | C． $32,000 | D．$38,000 |
According to passage, the underlined phrase "from hand to mouth" means .
| A．they have to earn money by hand |
| B．They know how to spend money in a reasonable way |
| C．they earn money only for their immediate enjoyment |
| D．they steal to feed their mouth when they need money |
Have you ever picked a job based on the fact that you were good at it but later found it made you feel very uncomfortable over time? When you select your career, there's a whole lot more to it than assessing your skills and matching them with a particular position. If you ignore your personality, it will hurt you long-term regardless of your skills or the job’s pay. There are several areas of your personality that you need to consider to help you find a good job. Here are a few of those main areas;
1) Do you prefer working alone or with other people?
There are isolating jobs that will drive an outgoing person crazy and also interactive jobs that will make a shy person uneasy. Most people are not extremes in either direction but do have a tendency that they prefer. There are also positions that are sometimes a combination of the two, which may be best for someone in the middle who adapts easily to either situation.
2) How do you handle change?
Most jobs these days have some elements of change to them, but some are more than others. If you need stability in your life, you may need a job where the changes don’t happen so often. Other people would be bored of the same daily routine.
3) Do you enjoy working with computers？
I do see this as a kind of personality characteristic. There are people who are happy to spend more than 40 hours a week on a computer, while there are others who need a lot of human interaction throughout the day. Again, these are extremes and you'll likely find a lot of positions somewhere in the middle as well.
4) What type of work environment do you enjoy？
This can range from being in a large building with a lot of people you won’t know immediately to a smaller setting where you'll get to know almost all the people there fairly quickly.
5) How do you like to get paid?
Some people are motivated by the pay they get, while others feel too stressed to be like that. The variety of payment designs in the sales industry is a typical example for this.
Anyway, these are a great starting point for you. I've seen it over and over again with people that they make more money over time when they do something they love. It may take you a little longer, but making a move to do what you have a passion for can change the course of your life for the better.What is unnecessary in your job hunting?
| A．Assessing your skills |
| B．Taking your personality into consideration |
| C．Matching your skills with a position |
| D．Going to different areas |
Which of the following is TRUE according to the passage?
| A．Isolating usually drive people mad. |
| B．Interactive jobs make people shy easily. |
| C．Extreme people tend to work with others. |
| D．Almost everyone has a tendency in jobs. |
The underlined word “stability” in the passage most probably means?
| A．no anger. | B． no movement. | C．gentleness. | D．enthusiasm. |
What could be the best title for this passage?
| A．Lifestyles and Job Pay | B．Personalities and Jobs |
| C．Job Skills and Abilities | D．Jobs and Environment |
Fat and shy, Ben Saunders was the last kid in his class picked for any sports team. “Football, tennis, cricket--- anything with a round ball, I was useless,” he says now with a laugh. But back then he was the one always made fun of in school gym classes in Devonshire, England.
It was a mountain bike he received for his 15th birthday that changed him. At first he went biking alone in a nearby forest. Then he began to ride the bike along with a runner friend. Gradually, Saunders set up his mind on building up his body, increasing his speed and strength. At the age of 18, he ran his first marathon.
The following year he met John Ridgway and was hired as an instructor at Ridgway’s school of adventure in Scotland, where he learnt about Ridgway’s cold-water exploits. Greatly interested, Saunders read all he could about North Pole explorers and adventures, then decided that this would be his future.
In 2001, after becoming a skillful skier, Saunders started his first long-distance expedition(探险) towards the North Pole. It took unbelievable energy. He suffered frostbite（冻疮）, ran into a polar bear and pushed his body to the limit, pulling his supply-loaded sled（雪橇） up and over rocky ice.
Saunders has since become the youngest person to ski alone to the North Pole, and he’s skied more of the North Pole by himself than any other British man. His old playmates would not believe the change.
Next October, Saunders, 27, heads south from the coast of Antarctica to the South Pole and back, a 2900-kilometer journey that has never been completed on skis. What change happened to Saunders after he was 15 years old?
| A．He became good at most sports. | B．He made friends with a runner. |
| C．He joined a sports team. | D．He began to build up his body. |
The underlined word “exploits” (paragraph 3) is closest in meaning to ______.
| A．journeys | B．adventures | C．researches | D．operations |
Which of the following is the correct order of the events that happened to Saunders?
a. He ran his first marathon. b. He skied alone in the North Pole.
c. He rode his bike in a forest. d. He planned an adventure to the South Pole.
| A．a c d b | B．c d a b | C．c a b d | D．a c b d |
What does the story mainly tell us abut Saunders?
| A．He is a success in sports. | B．He is the best British skier. |
| C．He is Ridgway’s best student. ` | D．He is a good instructor at school. |