Researchers found that people become happier and experience less worry after they reach the age of fifty. In fact, they say by the age of eighty-five, people are happier with their life than they were when they were eighteen years old.
The findings came from a survey of more than 340,000 adults in the United States. The Gallup(民意调查) Organization questioned them by telephone in 2010. At that time, the people were between the ages of eighteen and eighty-five.
The researchers asked questions about emotions like happiness, sadness and worry. They also asked about mental or emotional stress.
Arthur Stone at Stony Brook University in New York led the study. His team found that levels of stress were highest among adults between the ages of twenty-two and twenty-five. The findings showed that stress levels dropped sharply after people reached their fifties. Happiness was highest among the youngest adults and those in their early seventies. The people least likely to report feeling negative emotions were those in their seventies and eighties.
Researchers say they do not know why happiness increases as people get older. One theory is that, as people grow older, they grow more thankful for what they have and have better control of their emotions. They also spend less time thinking about bad experiences.
Professor Stone says the emotional patterns could be linked to changes in how people see the world, or maybe even changes in brain chemistry.
The researchers also considered possible influences like having young children, being unemployed or being single. But they found that influences like these did not affect the levels of happiness and well-being related to age.
The study also showed that men and women have similar emotional patterns as they grow older. However, women at all ages reported more sadness, stress and worry than men.
What can be the best title of the text?
| A．Happiness Varies with Ages | B．Experience More, Worry Less |
| C．The Older, the Wiser | D．Being Young, Being Happy |
We can learn from the research that _________.
| A．only when people get older will they feel happier |
| B．stress levels among the youngest are the highest |
| C．older people tend to be grateful |
| D．older people usually have no worries |
According to the research, when people get older, _________.
| A．they miss the old days | B．they are physically weak |
| C．they have better self-control | D．they are more emotional |
What would the author probably talk about next?
| A．What influences happiness. | B．How to live better. |
| C．How to keep happier. | D．Why women are less happier. |
The purpose of the passage is to _________.
| A．advise how to reduce stress | B．introduce a scientific finding |
| C．describe how to do research | D．talk about human emotions |
Beer and fried chicken — Thanks to a South Korean drama currently on air, Man From the Stars, this new mix-and-match junk food trend has become popular among young audiences, despite its unhealthy nature. Indeed, South Korean TV dramas, or K-drama for short, have been a major force in the South Korean pop-culture wave that has captured the hearts of young Chinese audiences. According to iQiyi, a video website that features Man From the Stars, by Feb 15, the number of views for the TV drama hit 370 million in China.
“It is interesting to explore what elements of those dramas appeal to audiences. It’s obviously more than just pretty faces,” says Yan Feng, a professor of Chinese literature at Fudan University. Reflected by audiences, culture critics and insiders of the industry, youth fantasy, creative storylines, cultural proximity in East Asia, and well-organized production all add up to K-drama’s success, along with, of course, those handsome and cute faces dressed in the latest fashion trends.
“Everyone fancies a perfect partner, handsome or beautiful,” says Zhou Ying, a professor at Chongqing Technology and Business University. “The South Korean TV industry is feeding this need.” After Lee Min-ho appeared on CCTV’s annual Spring Festival gala, he became the most famous South Korean in China. Only weeks later, Kim Soo-hyun, lead actor in Man From the Stars, swept the country. Apart from pretty faces, fashion is another highlight of the series. Each time actors from the series wear a new set of outfits, similar clothes experience a sales boom online, according to Xiao Yi, a Taobao store owner.
As is known, with love triangles, incurable diseases, and Cinderella tales, storylines in South Korean dramas may seem a bit commonplace. While The Man From the Stars challenges this by putting aliens and time travel into these existing stories, Peng Sanyuan, a screenwriter, says a focus on detail is a key factor in the success of these dramas. “In order to accurately target audiences and find emotional reflections with them, more and more female writers are working in the industry,” says Peng about her experience of exchanging ideas with South Korean colleagues. According to the experts, South Korean writers somehow make sense of these plots, no matter how unlikely it seems. Why has beer and fried chicken become so popular among Chinese young people at present?
| A．Because the food tastes very great. |
| B．Because they want to change the trend. |
| C．Because the food is good for their health. |
| D．Because they are deeply affected by the Korean TV drama. |
What’s the meaning of the underlined word “proximity” in paragraph 2?
| A．similarity | B．difference |
| C．conflict | D．curiosity |
According to the whole passage, how many elements can lead to the appeal of Korean dramas?
| A．Two | B．Four | C．Six | D．Seven |
What makes Man From the Stars different from other K-dramas according to the last paragraph?
| A．Female writers | B．Creative stories |
| C．Pretty faces | D．Fashionable clothes |
On Nov. 18, 1995, Itzhak Perlman, the violinist, came on stage to give a concert at Avery Fisher Hall at Lincoln Center in New York City．
If you have ever been to a Perlman concert，you know that getting on stage is no small achievement for him．He was stricken with polio (小儿麻痹症) as a child，and so he has braces (支架) on both legs and walks with the aid of two crutches (双拐)．
He walks painfully, yet majestically, until he reaches his chair．Then he sits down，slowly, puts his crutches on the floor, undoes the clasps on his legs，tucks one foot back and extends the other foot forward．Then he bends down and picks up the violin, puts it under his chin，nods to the conductor and proceeds to play．
But this time，something went wrong．Just as he finished the first few bars (小节)，one of the strings on his violin broke. You could hear it snap (嘣断) --- it went off like gunfire across the room. There was no mistaking what that meant. There was no mistaking what he had to do．
We figured that he would have to get up, put on the clasps again, pick up the crutches and limp his way off stage——to either find another violin or else find another string for this one. But he didn’t. Instead, he waited a moment, closed his eyes and then signaled the conductor to begin again.
The orchestra began, and he played from where he had left off. And he played with such passion and such power and such purity as they had never heard before．
When he finished, there was an awesome silence in the room. And then people rose and cheered．He smiled，wiped the sweat from this brow, raised his bow to quit us，and then he said in a quiet tone．“You know, sometimes it is the artist’s task to find out how much music you can still make with what you have left.’’By saying “getting on stage is no small achievement for him”, the author really means.
| A．it’s very difficult for Itzhak Perlman to play the violin with three strings |
| B．it’s not easy for Itzhak Perlman to get on the stage because he is disabled |
| C．it’s not easy for ltzhak Perlman to face such a large audience |
| D．it’s really great achievements for ltzhak Perlman to play the violin with three strings |
Itzhak Perlmanwhen one of the strings of the violin broke．
| A．gave up playing |
| B．didn’t know what to do |
| C．went on playing the same piece of music |
| D．went on playing a different piece of music |
Itzhak Perlman can be best described as a man who is．
| A．clever | B．strong willed |
| C．humorous | D．quite skilled |
One day my uncle had been riding a horse in rain when he reached a small restaurant. Wet and coldly, and he wanted to warm himself very much. However, the restaurant was too crowded with people that he could not get near the fire. “Taking some fish to my horse!” he called out to the waiter. “Sorry, sir. But a horse didn’t eat fish!” the waiter answered. “Never mind, just do as I tell you,” my uncle said. The crowd of people felt surprising at the strange order. To see a horse eat fish, all of whom ran out. Having the whole room to himself, my uncle sat down besides the fire and began warm himself.
“People are ruder today because they are rushed and more ‘time poor’ than ever before,” says Patsy Rowe, “ Manners have fallen off the radar(雷达).” Due to our strong attraction to electronic equipment it is a wonder more people don’t wake up each morning and greet the singing birds with a complaint（抱怨）about the noise. Here are some examples of rudeness.
Some people prefer to do almost everything over the Internet. To them, dealing with an actual human is like an evolutionary step backward. It feels very slow because humans don’t work at 4G speeds. When you have dinner with friends, you will often notice someone paying more attention to his mobile phone. We have programmed ourselves to think that every new message brings life-changing news, so taking calls and checking our texts are more important than talking to the people we are with. What is worse, some people even tend to send anonymous（匿名的） rude messages by email.
However, rudeness is never acceptable. Don’t assume it is OK to be rude if the person you’re in touch with won’t recognize you. If you have something awful to say, have the courage to face the person and say it, write a letter or email and sign it, or forget it. Upsetting people with unsigned messages is cruel and disgusting.
We shouldn′t blame technology for our shortcomings. Technology is here to help us, but we should not allow it to take over our lives. An important step is acknowledging our shortcomings. People spend a lot of time pointing out bad manners but it would be even more helpful if we′d publicly acknowledge good manners when we see them. What can be infer from the underlined sentence in Paragraph 1?
| A．People can tell good from bad behavior. |
| B．Radar is able to observe human behavior. |
| C．Radar can be used to predict human behavior. |
| D．People care little about their behavior. |
Some people are less willing to deal with humans because _______.
| A．they are growing too independent |
| B．they are becoming less patient |
| C．they have to handle many important messages |
| D．they have to follow an evolutionary step backward. |
The author thinks sending unsigned awful messages is _______.
| A．ridiculous | B．acceptable |
| C．disgusting | D．reasonable |
What can we learn from the last paragraph?
| A．Technology will take over lives one day. |
| B．Technology can never be blamed |
| C．We should keep pointing out mistakes. |
| D．We should applaud good behavior. |
Some people think that success is only for those with talent or those who grow up in the right family, and others believe that success mostly comes down to luck. I’m not going to say luck, talent, and circumstances don’t come into play because they do. Some people are born into the right family while others are born with great intelligence, and that’s just the reality of how life is.
However, to succeed in life, one first needs to set a goal and then gradually make it more practical. And, in addition to that, in order to get really good at something, one needs to spend at least 10,000 hours studying and practicing. To become great at certain things, it’ll require even more time, time that most people won’t put in.
This is a big reason why many successful people advise you to do something you love. If you don’t enjoy what you do, it is going to feel like unbearable pain and will likely make you quit well before you ever become good at it.
When you see people exhibiting some great skills or having achieved great success, you know that they have put in a huge part of their life to get there at a huge cost. It’s sometimes easy to think they got lucky or they were born with some rare talent, but thinking that way does you no good, and there’s a huge chance that you’re wrong anyway.
Whatever you do, if you want to become great at it, you need to work day in and day out, almost to the point of addiction, and over a long period of time. If you’re not willing to put in the time and work, don’t expect to receive any rewards. Consistent, hard work won’t guarantee you the level of success you may want, but it will guarantee that you will become really good at whatever it is you put all that work into.Paragraph 1 mainly talks about ________.
| A．the standards of success | B．the meaning of success |
| C．the reasons for success | D．the importance of success |
In Paragraph 2, the underlined word “that” refers to ______.
| A．setting a practical goal | B．being good at something |
| C．putting in more time | D．succeeding in life |
What is the main theme of the passage?
| A．Having a goal is vital to success. |
| B．Being good is different from being great. |
| C．One cannot succeed without time and practice. |
| D．Luck, talent and family help to achieve success. |