Many women write to me perplexed(困惑的)about why they can’t form close friendships. They try new approaches, put themselves in all the right places, see therapists, and read relevant self-help books. They consider themselves interesting, loyal, kind and friend-worthy people. But for reasons unknown to them, they have a tough time forming intimate relationships. Many admit to not having even one close friend.
A recent study published in the Journal of personality and Social Psychology offers some clues as to how both nature (personality) and nurture (experience) impact our friendships. Researchers at the University of Virginia and University of Toronto, Mississauga studied more than 7,000 American adults between the ages of 20 and 75 over a period of ten years, looking at the number of times these adults moved during childhood. Their study, like prior ones, showed a link between residential mobility and adult well-being: The more times participants moved as children , the poorer the quality of their adult social relationships.
But digging deeper, the researchers found that personality—specifically being introverted (内向的) or extroverted (外向的) — could either intensify of buffer (缓冲) the effect of moving to a new town or neighborhood during childhood. The negative impact of more moves during childhood was far greater for introverts compared to extroverts.
“Moving a lot makes it difficult for people to maintain long-term close relationships,” stated Dr. Shigehiro Oishi, the first author of the study, in a press release from the American Psychological Association, “This might not be a serious problem for outgoing people who can make friends quickly and easily. Less outgoing people have a harder time making new friends.”
Families often have to relocate — across town, across the country, or across the globe. Yet, in many cases, their kids and young adolescents haven’t yet built up a bank of friendships. So the conventional wisdom is to try to minimize moves for the sake of your child, whenever possible , and to move at the end of the academic year.The passage is written mainly to .
| A．offer advice to women on how to form intimate relationships . |
| B．explain how nature and nurture impact our friendships. |
| C．explain how moves during childhood affect children. |
| D．tell us how to help children make friends. |
Which of the following is true according to the second paragraph?
| A．People who moved less during childhood have better social relationships. |
| B．The more people moved during childhood, the more friends they have. |
| C．The more people moved during childhood, the better they adjust to society. |
| D．There is no link between residential mobility and adult well-being. |
In order for children to maintain long-term close relationships , parents .
| A．should not relocate their homes |
| B．should relocate their homes within the town |
| C．had better move at the end of school year |
| D．had better move when their children couldn’t build up a bank of friendships |
We learn from the fourth paragraph that moves during childhood .
| A．have a bigger impact on an introverted person compared to extroverts. |
| B．have no impact on an outgoing person |
| C．are a big problem for both introverts and extroverts |
| D．help children better adapt to new environment |
We can infer from the passage that .
| A．our friendships are mainly affected by our nurture |
| B．we can move when children have made a lot of friends |
| C．the impact of moves will disappear when one reaches adulthood |
| D．there is some way to minimize the impact of moves during childhood on children |
I was doing some Christmas shopping in a toy store and decided to look at Barbie dolls for my nieces. A nicely dressed little girl was excitedly looking through the Barbie dolls as well. As she was looking, a little boy came to the Pokemon toys. He was dressed neatly, but his clothes were obviously old. He was with his father as well, and kept picking up the Pokemon video toys. Each time he picked one up and looked at his father, his father shook his head and said, “No.”
The little girl had chosen her Barbie. However, she stopped and was watching them. Rather dejectedly, the boy had to give up the Pokemon toys and choose something else. The little girl put her Barbie back on the shelf, and ran over to the Pokemon toys. She excitedly picked up one and raced towards the checkout. I picked up my purchases and got in line behind them. Then, much to the little girl’s delight, the little boy and his father got in line behind me. After the toy was paid for and bagged, the little girl handed it back to the cashier (收银员) and whispered something in her ear. The casher smiled and put the package under the counter.I paid for my purchases and was rearranging things when the little boy came up to the cashier. The cashier checked his purchases and said, “Congratulations, you are my hundredth customer today, and you win a prize!” With that, she handed the little boy the Pokemon toys, and he could only stare in surprise. It was exactly what he had wanted!The little girl and her father had been standing at the doorway during all of this. Then they walked out. As I walked back to my car, I heard the father ask his daughter why she had done that. I’ll never forget what she said to him. “Daddy, didn’t Grandparents want me to buy something that would make me happy?” He said, “Of course they did, honey.” To which the little girl replied, “Well, I just did!”I feel very shocked to have witnessed the true spirit of Christmas in that toy store, in the form of a little girl who understands more about the meaning of this festival than most adults I know.The underlined word “dejectedly” in the second paragraph probably means _____.
| A．delightedly | B．disappointedly | C．excitedly | D．unexpectedly |
How did the little boy get the Pokemon toys?
| A．His father bought him the Poknemon toys. |
B．Fortunately, he was the hundredth customer and won the Poknemon toys. |
C．The cashier felt sympathy for the little boy and gave him the Poknemon toys. |
D．The little girl bought the Poknemon toys for him. |
What did the little girl mean when saying “Daddy, didn’t Grandparents want me to buy something that would make me happy?”
| A．Her Grandparents wanted her to be happy. |
B．Making the little boy happy made her happy. |
C．The Poknemon toys made her happy. |
D．Her Grandparents hoped that she could help others. |
Which of the following statements is NOT true according to the passage?
| A．the story happened before Christmas. |
B．The little boy had not enough money to buy the Poknemon toys. |
C．Although the little girl liked the Poknemon toys very much, she gave them to the boy. |
D．The author was deeply moved by the behavior of the little girl. |
He was the baby with no name. Found and taken from the north Atlantic 6 days after the sinking of the Titanic in 1912, his tiny body so moved the salvage workers that they called him "Our baby". In their home port of Halifax, Nova Scotia, people collected money for a headstone in front of the baby's grave, carved with the words: “To the memory of an unknown child.” He has rested there ever since.
But history has a way of uncovering its secrets. On November 5 , this year, three members of a family from Finland arrived at Halifax and laid fresh flowers at the grave. "This is our baby," says Magda Schleifer,68,a banker. She grew up hearing stories about a great-aunt named Maria Panula, 42, who had sailed on the Titanic for America to be reunited with her husband. According to the information Mrs Schleifer had gathered, Panula gave up her seat on a lifeboat to search for her five children----including a 13-month-old boy named Eino--from whom she had become separated during the final minutes of the crossing. "We thought they were all lost in the sea." says Schleifer.
Now, using teeth and bone pieces taken from the baby's grave, scientists have compared the DNA from the Unknown Child with those collected from members of five families who lost relatives on the Titanic and never recovered the bodies. The result of the test points only to one possible person: young Eino. Now the family see no need for a new grave. "he belongs to the people of Halifax," says Schleifer. “ They've taken care of him for 90 years.”
Adapted from people,November 25 ,2002 The baby traveled on the Titanic with his________.
| A．mother | B．parents | C．aunt | D．relatives |
What is probably the boy's last name?
| A．Schleifer | B．Eino | C．Magad | D．Panula |
Some members of the family went to Halifax and put flowers at the child'grave on November 5 ,_____.
| A．1912 | B．1954 | C．2002 | D．2004 |
This text is mainly about how__________.
| A．the unknown baby'body was taken from the north Atlantic |
| B．the unknown baby was buried in Halifax, Nova Scotia |
| C．people found out who the unknown baby was |
| D．people took care of the unknown baby for 90 years |
The garden city was largely the invention of Ebenezer Howard (1850-1928). After immigrating from England to the USA, and an unsuccessful attempt to make a living as a farmer, he moved to Chicago, where he saw the reconstruction of the city after the disastrous(灾难性的) fire of 1871. In those days, it was nicknamed “the Garden City”, almost certainly the source of Howard’s name for his later building plan of towns. Returning to London, Howard developed his design in the 1880s and 1890s, drawing on ideas that were popular at the time, but creating a unique combination（结合） of designs.
The nineteenth-century poor city was in many ways a terrible place, dirty and crowded; but it offered economic and social opportunities. At the same time, the British countryside was in fact equally unattractive: though it promised fresh air and nature, it suffered from agricultural depression(萧条) and it offered neither enough work and wages, nor much social life. Howard’s idea was to combine the best of town and country in a new kind of settlement, the garden city. Howard’s idea was that a group of people should set up a company, borrowing money to establish a garden city in the depressed countryside; far enough from existing cities to make sure that the land was bought at the bottom price.
Garden cities would provide a central public open space, radial avenues and connecting industries. They would be surrounded by a much larger area of green belt, also owned by the company, containing not merely farms but also some industrial institutions. As more and more people moved in, the garden city would reach its planned limit-----Howard suggested 32,000 people; then, another would be started a short distance away. Thus, over time, there would develop a vast planned house collection, extending almost without limit; within it, each garden city would offer a wide rang of jobs and services, but each would also be connected to the others by a rapid transportation system, thus giving all the economic and social opportunities of a big city.How did Howard get the name for his building plan of garden cities?
| A．Through his observation of the country life. |
| B．Through the combination of different ideas. |
| C．By taking other people’s advice. |
| D．By using the nickname of the reconstructed Chicago. |
The underlined phrase “drawing on ”in Paragraph 1 probably means______.
| A．making use of | B．making comments on |
| C．giving an explanation of | D．giving a description of |
According to Howard, garden cities should be built______.
| A．as far as possible from existing cities |
| B．in the countryside where the land was cheap |
| C．in the countryside where agriculture was developed |
| D．near cities where employment opportunities already existed |
What can we learn about garden cities from the last paragraph?
| A．Their number would continue to rise |
| B．Each one would continue to become larger |
| C．People would live and work in the same place |
| D．Each one would contain a certain type of business |
What could be the best title for the passage?
| A．City and Countryside | B．The Invention of the Garden City |
| C．A New City in Chicago | D．A Famous Garden City in England |
They are the sort of friends who are so close they trust each other with their lives.If one falls, the other is there to catch him.
They are Wellman, whose legs were permanently injured nine years ago in a rock-climbing accident and Corbett, an experienced rock climber. Together, they climbed up Half Dome. the famous 2,000-foot rock in the Yosemite National park, through one of the most difficult routes(路线).
During the climb, Corbett took the lead, hit in the metal spikes (尖状物)that guided the ropes and climbed up. Then, after Wellman pulled himself up the rope, Corbett went down to remove the spikes and climbed up again. This process was repeated time and again, inch by inch, for 13 days Wellman’s job was not easy either. He got himself up the rope through upper body strength alone. In all, Wellman figured(计算) that he had done 5.000 pull-ups up the rope on the climb.
However, when the two men first met, they never talked about climbing. “He knew that was how I got injured.”Wellman said. Until one day Wellman decided that be wanted to climb again and they started training
Their climb of Half Dome was not all smooth. At one point, pieces of rock gave way, and Corbett dropped down quickly. Wellman locked their rope in place, stopping the fall at 20 feet. His quick action probably saved his friend’s life.
“Your partner can save your life—you can sane your partner’s life” Wellman said as the pair received congratulations from friends “there are real close tic.”Which of the following was a challenge for Corbett in climbing Half Dome?
| A．To climb up to remove the spikes. | B．To climb it twice. |
| C．To do 5,000 pall-ups up the rope. | D．To lock the rope in place. |
Why did the two men never talk about climbing when they first met?
| A．climbed was poorly trained. |
| B．Wellman had lost interest in climbing. |
| C．Corbett didn’t want to hurt Wellman. |
| D．Wellman hadn’t decided whether to climb again. |
What do we know about Wellman?
| A．He climbed Half Dome by himself. |
| B．He was disabled in a traffic accident. |
| C．He stopped rock-climbing for some time. |
| D．He was saved by Corbett during the climb. |
The main idea of the text is that.
| A．two heads are better than one. |
| B．friendship is precious in life |
| C．the disabled should never give up. |
| D．a man can be destroyed but cannot be defeated. |
As a professor at a large American university, there is a phrase that I hear often from students: “I’m only a 1050. ”The unlucky students are speaking of the score on the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT）, which is used to determine whether they will be admitted to the college or university of their choice, or even have a chance to get a higher education at all. The SAT score, whether it is 800, 1 100 or 1550, has becomes the focus at this time of their life.
It is obvious that if students value highly their test scores, then a great amount of their self-respect is put in the number. Students who perform poorly on the exam are left feeling that it is all over. The low test score, they think, will make it impossible for them to get into a good college. And without a degree from a prestigious university, they fear that many of life’s doors will remain forever closed.
According to a study done in the 1990s, the SAT is only a reliable indicator(指示物) of a student’s future performance in most cases. Interestingly, it becomes much more accurate when it is set together with other indicators——like a student’s high school grades. Even if standardized tests like the SAT could show a student’s academic proficiency（学业水平）,they will never be able to test things like confidence, efforts and willpower, and are unable to give us the full picture of a student’s potentialities（潜力）. This is not to suggest that we should stop using SAT scores in our college admission process. The SAT is an excellent test in many ways, and the score is still a useful means of testing students. However, it should be only one of many methods used. The purpose of the SAT is to test students’.
| A．strong will | B．academic ability |
| C．full potentialities | D．confidence in school work |
Students’ self-respect is influenced by their.
| A．scores in the SAT | B．achievements in mathematic |
| C．job opportunities | D．money spent on education |
“A prestigious university” is most probably.
| A．a famous university | B．a technical university |
| C．a traditional university | D．an expensive university |
This passage is mainly about.
| A．how to prepare for the SAT | B．stress caused by the SAT |
| C．American higher education | D．the SAT and its effects |