The world is filled with smart, talented, educated and gifted people. We meet them every day. A few days ago, my car was not running well. I pulled it into a garage and the young mechanic had it fixed in just a few minutes. He knew what was wrong by simply listening to the engine. I was amazed. The sad truth is, great talent is not enough.
I am constantly shocked at how little talented people earn. I heard the other day that less than 5 percent of Americans earn more than $100, 000 a year. A business consultant who specializes in the medical trade was telling me how many doctors and dentists struggle financially. It was this business consultant who gave me the phrase, “They are one skill away from great wealth.”
There is an old saying that goes, “Job means‘ just over broke (破产)' ”. And unfortunately, I would say that the saying applies to millions of people. Because school does not think financial intelligence is intelligence, most workers“ live within their means”. They work and they pay the bills. Instead I recommend to young people to seek work for what they will learn, more than what they will earn.
When I ask the classes I teach, “How many of you can cook a better hamburger than McDonald's?” almost all the students raise their hands. I then ask, “So if most of you can cook a better hamburger, how come McDonald's makes more money than you?” The answer is obvious: McDonald's is excellent at business systems. The reason so many talented people are poor is because they focus on bui1ding a better hamburger and know little or nothing about business systems. The world is filled with talented poor people. They focus on perfecting their skills at building a better hamburger rather than the skills of selling and delivering the hamburger.The author mentions the mechanic in the first paragraph to show that .
| A．he is just one of the talented people |
| B．he is ready to help others |
| C．he has a sharp sense of hearing |
| D．he knows little about car repairing |
The underlined part in the third paragraph can be best replaced by .
| A．spend more than they can afford |
| B．do in their own way |
| C．live in their own circle |
| D．live within what they earn |
Why do talented people earn so little according to the author?
| A．They don't work hard enough. |
| B．They lack financial intelligence. |
| C．They don't make full use of their talents. |
| D．They have no specialized skills. |
The success of McDonald's lies in its .
| A．skills at making hamburgers. | B．good business systems |
| C．talented workers | D．excellent service |
The main purpose of the author is to tell us .
| A．how young people can find a satisfactory job |
| B．what schools should teach students |
| C．why so many talented people are poor |
| D．how McDonald's makes much money |
My basketball coach at Princeton used to say, "On the court, you can tell who is selfish(自私的)." When my sister Michelle brought Barack Obama home to meet the family, she said to me, "I want you to take him out to play, to see what type of man he is when he’s not around me." So I invited Barack to play basketball with a few friends of mine. I was very nervous although I had already met Barack a few times. I was thinking this guy seemed like a good guy. We played a hard five-on-five. He was thin but not weak. He played extremely left-handed. He dealt with everything perfectly. He wasn’t the best guy out there or the worst guy. I liked the fact that he was confident but wasn’t proud. Barack was very team-oriented (有团队精神的), very unselfish. He played as if he was one of us —he wasn’t trying to be president of Harvard Law Review. But the best part about it was that when we were on the same team, he did not pass me the ball each time. He wasn’t trying to suck up to my sister through me. I was glad to give my sister the good news, "Your boy is straight." He isn’t selfish, which is the greatest praise you can give both a player and a leader. America has got a guy who is running a government in an efficient (有效率的) mann
er. That’s the same guy I got to know playing basketball when he was visiting my family.
Why does the author begin the passage with his coach’s words?
| A．He wants to remember and thank his coach. |
B．He wants to show that he is a basketball player. |
C．He wants to tell his sister about the words. |
D．He wants to use the words to test a person. |
Why did Michelle ask the author to take Barack to play basketball?
| A．To see whether he was confident. |
B．To see whether he was good at sports. |
C．To see whether he was selfish or not. |
D．To see whether he could get along with others. |
During the basketball game, Barack ______.
| A．played best all the time | B．was strong enough to play |
C．was not confident | D．wanted to be the team leader |
The underlined phrase in the third paragraph can be replaced by "______".
| A．please （使满意） | B．know about | C．help | D．look for |
In the Caucasus region of the Soviet Union, nearly 50 out of every 100,000 people live to celebrate their 100th birthday, and many don’t stop at 100! By comparison, in America only 3 people in 100,000 reach 100. But these Soviet old people aren’t alone. The Pakistani Hunzas, who live high in the Himalaya Mountains, and the Vilacbambans of the Andes Mountains in Ecuador seem to share the secret of long too.
These peoples remain healthy in body and spirit despite the passage of time. While many older persons in industrial societies become weak and ill in their 60s and 70s, some Soviet Georgians, aged 110 to 140, work in the fields beside their great- great- grandchildren. Even the idea of aging is foreign to them. When asked, “At what age does youth end?”, most of these old people has no answer. Several replied, “Well, perhaps at age 80.” The very youngest estimate was age 60.
What accounts for this ability to survive to such old age, and to survive so well? First of all, hard physical work is a way of life for all of these long-lived peoples. They begin their long days 
of physical labor as children and never seem to stop. For example, Mr. Rustam Mamedov is 142 years of age. He remember his life experiences: the Grimean War of 1854; the Turkish War of 1878; the Bolshevik Revolution in 1917. His wife is 116 years old. They have been married for 90 years. Mr. Mamedov has no intentions of retiring from his life as a farmer. “Why? What else would I do?” he asks. Oh, he has slowed down a bit. Now he might quit for the day after 6 hours in the field instead of 10.
All these people get healthful rewards from the environment in which they work. They all come from mountainous regions. They live and work at elevations of 5,000 to 12,000 feet (1,660 to 4,000 meters) above sea level. The air has less oxygen and is pollutionfree. This reduced-oxygen environment makes the heart and blood vessel system stronger.
Another factor that may contribute to the good health of these people is their isolation. To a great ext
ent, they are separated from the pressures and worried of industrial society.
Inherited factors also play some role. Most of the longest-lived people had parents and grandparents who also reached very old ages. Good family genes may, therefore, be one factor in living longer.
Finally, although these three groups don’t eat exactly the same foods, their diets are similar. The Hunzas, Vilacbambans, and Soviets eat little animal meat
. Their diets are full of fresh fruits, vegetables, nuts, grains, cheese, and milk. They never eat more food than their bodies need.
It is clear that isolation from urban pressures and pollution, clean mountain air, daily hard work, moderate diets, good genes, and a youthful approach to life all contribute to the health and remarkable long life of all these people. What kinds of things contribute to the remarkable long life of these peoples?
| A．Moderate diets | B．Clean mountain air. |
| C．Daily hard work. | D．All the above factors（因素）. |
How do you think the author feels about these long-lived people?
| A．He is impressed with them | B．He doesn’t care. |
| C．He doesn’t like them. | D．He admires them. |
According to the passage, the phrase “the passage of time” means .
| A．have time to do what they want | B．being on time |
| C．time going by | D．limited time |
In the passage, why does the author describe Mr. Mamedov?
| A．An example of a typical long life among these people. |
| B．An example of an unusual long life among these people. |
| C．An explanation of why he is still healthy. |
| D．An example of why his wife died early than him. |
What is the main subject of this article?
| A．Mr. Mamedov’s life. |
| B．A description of several societies where people live a long time. |
| C．Suggestions for how you can live long life. |
| D．People are healthy in mountainous regions. |
Foresters are people who work with trees and know a lot about them. Occasionally, foresters have problems, and the foresters in southern Indiana have had many problems.
The foresters were doing an experiment. They wanted to grow walnut (胡桃) trees by planting walnuts in the ground. If they succeeded, the foresters would be able to control the location of the trees. Also, this method would be much cheaper than transplanting or moving nut trees that were grown in plant nurseries (苗圃) . So th
e foresters planted their walnuts, and that’s when the squirrels (松鼠) started causing trouble. Shortly after the nuts were planted, the squirrels dug them up for tasty snacks (快餐) .
The foresters tried to keep the squirrels away from the walnuts. Mothballs (卫生球) were used as a warning, but they didn’t work. Then, the foresters tried dipping the walnuts in kerosene (煤油) , but that didn’t stop the squirrels either. The foresters continue to search for a method that will really work. But until they find one, the squirrels can continue to have their walnut snacks and the foresters will have to transplant trees!Foresters are people who .
| A．look after the forest and work with trees |
| B．feed squirrels in the forest |
| C．catch squirrels that steal walnuts |
| D．transplant trees |
What were the foresters trying to do with the walnuts?
| A．Plant food for squirrels. | B．Control the location of the trees. |
| C．Move the trees closer to the squirrels. | D．Get squirrels to eat them. |
The underlined word “transplanting” probably means “”.
| A．planting | B．moving | C．growing | D．buying |
What did the squirrels do to the walnuts that were dipped in kerosene?
| A．Left them alone. | B．Continued to eat them. |
C．Hid them in trees |
D．Put them into the earth. |
According to the story, which of the following is not true?
| A．Mothballs didn’t prove to be a good method of stopping the squirrels from eating the walnuts. |
| B．The squirrels found the walnuts tasty. |
| C．The squirrels started eating mothballs instead of walnuts. |
| D．The forester haven’t found a good way to prevent the squirrels from eating the walnuts. |
Mr. Jackson lived in the center of London but he had a hotel near the airport. There a lot of foreigners stayed for night. He didn’t know any other language but English and he found it difficult for him to understand the foreign visitors. Sometimes he had to use the gesture to talk with them, and tried his best to make himself understood. But he was often misunderstood (误解) and it brought him a lot of trouble. A friend of his who taught a few foreign languages in a university would teach him. He was happy and studied hard. At first he learned some, but soon he found it wasn’t very easy to remember the words and expressions. His friend advised him to write down the useful expressions in his notebook so that he could use them when necessary. He did as he was told. He found it helpful for him to do so.
One evening there were plenty of people in the dining-room. They were all busy eating something except a Japanese. He was wandering (徘徊) there and waiting for his wife who was dressing herself up upstairs. Mr. Jackson thought to himself, “ The man wants to eat something but he doesn’t know any English. Let me help him.”
As he knew only a little Japanese, he had to bring out his notebook and showed it to the man, pointing to the sentence “I’m hungry.”
The Japanese had a look at it and gave him two pounds and left.Mr. Jackson knew only English because .
| A．he was an English student |
| B．he had never been abroad |
| C．he couldn’t learn by himself |
| D．he hadn’t studied any foreign languages |
Mr. Jackson had to use the gesture because .
| A．he wanted the foreign visitors to understand him |
| B．he wanted to learn the foreign languages from the visitors |
| C．he hoped to know the foreign visitors’ custom |
| D．he hoped more foreign visitors would stay for night in his hotel |
As not all foreign visitors understand his gesture, sometimes Mr. Jackson to communicate with them.
| A．succeeded | B．lost heart | C．failed | D．gave up |
, so he decided to help the man.
| A．Mr. Jackson thought the Japanese wanted to stay for night |
| B．Mr. Jackson thought the Japanese was not hungry |
| C．Mr. Jackson knew the Japanese was waiting for his wife. |
| D．Mr. Jackson was sure the Japanese couldn’t speak English |
The Japanese thought , so he gave him two pounds.
| A．Mr. Jackson was a beggar. | B．Mr. Jackson was a translator. |
| C．Mr. Jackson could help him. | D．Mr. Jackson could ring his wife up. |
Changsha,
Hunan Province
May 6, 2010
Dear editor,
Under China’s current educational system, there are those who do nothing but study. They of course are thought to be model students.
But I feel that there is another type of student who, perhaps not as diligent (勤奋的) as the first type, uses his time more efficiently and achieves a lot academically.
Last year, a classmate of mine was accepted by a top university. It surprised all of us. It was because, unlike most of us, he didn’t spend too much of his time studying.
When I asked him the secret of his success, he said that the key was properly and scientifically arranging his time.
“ I spent a lot of time keeping fit and as a result, I was able to better concentrate (集中) on my class work.”
The moral of the story is: it isn’t necessary to sit at your desk all day long to get high academic (学术) grades.
Yours,
Zhang ZishuWhat does the letter-writer (a reader) think leads to the fact that many students do nothing but study?
| A．The present educational system. | B． People’s old ideas. |
| C．The teaching methods. | D．The parents of these students. |
It seems that this reader thinks .
| A．the first type of student is our model |
| B．the second type of students is our model |
| C．both types of students are worth learning from |
| D．neither of the two types of students are good |
The secret of his classmate’s success was .
| A．properly and scientifically arranging his time |
| B．spending a lot of time studying |
| C．doing nothing but studying |
| D．playing all the time |
The reader wrote the letter in order to .
| A．call on us to work even harder |
| B．cause people to think about how to study more efficiently |
| C．advise people to do research into his classmate’s success |
| D．criticize (批评) China’s educational system |
What would be the best to stand for the letter-writer’s opinion?
| A．Secret of success. |
| B．China’s educational system needs changing. |
| C．Work while you work and play while you play. |
| D．Keep fit first. |