Many of us don’t like what we see around us but the last thing we do is to change it. I think that is the beginning of failure and that is why what we hate remains around us. If you don’t want to see things around you, don’t just hope it’ll change.
We have such an amazing power of creativity inside us to change the way things work around us. Only lazy people go about and say that is the way things have been working. I’ve come to discover that things around us depend on our actions and inactions. What I mean is that the circumstances that we like depend only on the things we do and the things we don’t do.
Do you want your country to change? Start by changing the small things around you. Before you think too far about any small thing to change, your habit should be the first thing to change. Change what you think about and talk about. Can you remember how difficult it was for you to break a habit that you desired to break some years back? If so, then you must accept that things aren’t just going to change by a magic thought. If it isn’t so easy to change yourself when you want to, it isn’t going to be so easy to change the people around you.
I think the best way I’ve changed people around me is that I changed myself. When you change, they’ll change. Just change yourself and see how many people will tell you later that you are the one who changes them. That’s one simple way young people can change their nations. According to the text, why do we fail to change what we don’t like? _______
| A．Because we lack the power of creativity. |
| B．Because we never plan to change them. |
| C．Because they cannot be changed. |
| D．Because we don’t have the ability. |
The author can change people around him because he has realized that .
| A．things around us decide what we do |
| B．the further you think, the better |
| C．his actions can affect things around him |
| D．he has to change the nation first |
The third paragraph aims at .
| A．telling readers one of the author’s interesting experiences |
| B．giving an example to show how to change things around us |
| C．showing readers how to change a nation |
| D．asking us to remember to change our nation |
What can we learn from the text? ________
| A．Circumstance creates a person. |
| B．It is never too late to change your habits. |
| C．A long journey begins with the first step. |
| D．Changing ourselves means changing others. |
If you’re looking for a cheery destination for your next vacation, consider these four spots and get ready to take notes on how to really live the good life．
Singapore
With one of the highest population densities（密度）in the world and residents known for being workaholics, it’s hard to imagine the city-state of Singapore having one of the happiest populations on earth．And yet in a recent survey, 95% of them said they were either very happy or quite happy．
They give their city high marks for cleanliness and safety—subways are pristine（洁净的）and unfailingly arrive on time, and police are seen as helpful and good at their jobs．What’s more, they feel they can count on their neighbours—all 5．1 million of them．
Arhus, Denmark
The residents of Arhus cheerfully part with 68% of their income in taxes, knowing that in return they will be guaranteed free healthcare, free daycare, and a top-notch（第一流的）education for their children．
An energetic city of 300,000 with a lively cultural scene and a diverse number of religions represented, the sense of equality（the range in incomes is narrow）, as well as easy access to the nearby sea and surrounding countryside, make Arhus seem more like a small town．
San Luis Obispo, CA
According to a 2008 Gallup-Healthways study, people who live in San Luis Obispo are more likely than residents of other U．S．cities to smile and experience joy and are less likely to experience pain or depression．About 64,000 of the 260,000 people in the greater metropolitan area（都市区）, located halfway between Los Angeles and San Francisco, volunteer at over 11,000 non-profit organizations．
Few journeys to work are longer than 10 minutes （one reason its members rank in the upper third for job satisfaction）, so “it’s easy to be involved,” resident Pierre Rademaker said．Business signs are unobtrusive（不显眼的）by law, fewer than 11% of residents smoke—the lower rate in the U．S．—there are lots of bike lanes, and the city’s plaza draws crowds of people for free concerts on summer Fridays．What’s not to love?
Monterrey, Mexico
The people of Monterrey don’t enjoy high household incomes or access to good healthcare．Instead, there’s a profound sense of gratitude for the new political freedom enjoyed since the oppressive Institutional Revolutionary Party lost power in 2000—the first time in nearly a century—as well as an emphasis on social life over work．
Another reason Monterrey residents may be so happy is their faith in God and family, and their ability to tough it out through bad times．
“We laugh at sickness, poverty and even death,” says Basanez, a political scientist who lives in Monterrey．“We even have a holiday to celebrate death．November 2, the Day of the Dead, is one of the biggest holidays of the year．”According to the passage, what do the residents in the four cities have in common?
| A．All the residents can make great fortunes by working hard． |
| B．The residents there are mostly educators． |
| C．All the residents enjoy enough material wealth． |
| D．The majority of the residents are satisfied with their current life． |
According to the passage, we can infer that _______．
| A．the people of Singapore expect their neighbours to come to their help when necessary |
| B．the people of Monterrey even observe one’s death on a special day of a year |
| C．the residents of Arhus happily pay 68% of their income for their children’s education fee |
| D．the people who live in San Luis Obispo have job satisfaction because they can enjoy good working conditions |
According to the passage which of the following statements is NOT TRUE?
| A．The people of Monterrey didn’t enjoy political freedom until 2000． |
| B．The residents in Singapore feel happy because of its low population density． |
| C．The people of San Luis Obispo can enjoy free concerts in summer． |
| D．Arhus is handy to the seaside and countryside． |
What can we learn from the underlined part “the sense of equality”?
| A．The residents of Arhus have no racial discrimination． |
| B．Arhus is considered as a family sharing everything with each other． |
| C．There is no wide gap between the rich and the poor in Arhus． |
| D．The residents of Arhus can depend on their neighbours to help． |
People who averaged fewer than seven hours of sleep per night in the weeks before being exposed to the cold virus were nearly three times as likely to get sick as those who averaged eight hours or more, a new study found．
Researchers used frequent telephone interviews to track the sleep habits of more than 150 men and women aged 21 to 55 over the last few weeks．Then they exposed the subjects to the virus, quarantined（检疫隔离）them for five days and kept track of who got sick．
Besides sleeping more, sleeping better also seemed to help the body fight illness: Patients who fared better on a measure known as “sleep efficiency”—the percentage of time in bed that you’re actually sleeping—were also less likely to get sick．
The results held true even after researchers adjusted for elements such as body-mass index, age, sex, smoking and pre-existing antibodies（抗体）to the virus．
The researchers aren’t exactly sure why sleeping better makes you less likely to develop a cold．But they do try to give an answer: “Sleep disturbance influences the regulation of symptom mediators（调节因子）that are released in response to infection．” In plain English, maybe tossing and turning when you’re infected with the cold virus contributes to the symptoms that define a cold．
The researchers were based at Carnegie Mellon, the University of Pittsburgh and the University of Virginia, and the study was funded by the National Institutes of Health．According to the passage, what does the underlined word “subjects” mean in paragraph 2?
| A．areas of knowledge in a school |
| B．people being studied in an experiment |
| C．research topics |
| D．animals being tested |
It is shown in the passage that _______．
| A．the researchers obtain information about the sleep habits by frequent interviews |
| B．the researchers do their research in the National Institutes of Health |
| C．people hope to avoid being infected with a cold by sleeping as much as possible |
| D．sleeping more and better helps regulate the symptom mediators |
What’s the best title of the passage?
| A．The Relationship Between Virus and Cold |
| B．How to Sleep Well |
| C．Good Sleep Helps Fight a Cold |
| D．The More the Sleep, the Better Your Body |
Last Sunday I made a visit to some new neighbors down the block．No specific in mind, just an opportunity to sit at the kitchen table, have some tea and chat．As I did so, it occurred to me how rare the Sunday visit has become．
When I was a kid in New Jersey of the 1960s, Sunday visits were routine．Most stores were closed, almost nobody worked, and the highways, as a result, were not desperate steeplechases（障碍赛跑）they have become today．My family normally traveled eight city blocks to the home of my grandmother, where adults would sit on the front porch and chat while we children played hide-and-seek．
The Sunday visit was something to desire strongly．It was the repetition to church, our reward for an hour of devotion, an opportunity to take advantage of the fact that Dad was not at work, we were not in school, and there was no housework that couldn’t wait until Monday．Sunday was, indeed, different from the other days of the week, because everyone seemed to be on the same schedule, which means that there was one day when everyone seemed to have time for everybody else．
Sunday as a day of rest is, or was, so deeply rooted in the culture that it’s surprising to find that, in a short span of time, it has almost entirely lost this association．In my childhood, it was assumed that everyone would either be home or visiting someone else’s home on Sunday．But now the question is, “What do you plan to DO this Sunday?” The answer can range from going to the mall, to participating in a road race, to Montreal for lunch．If one were to respond, “I’m making a Sunday visit to family,” such an answer would feel strange, which sounds like an echo from another era．
I suppose I should be grateful to live in Maine, a state of small towns, abundant land and tight relationships．Even though folks work as hard here as they do anywhere else, the state’s powerfully rural feature still keeps at least remnants（残余部分）of the moral of yesterday’s America, where people had to depend on one another in the face of economic vagaries（反复无常的情况）and a challenging environment．The writer’s general impression of the Sunday in the past was a day when＿＿．
| A．everyone was paying a visit to some relatives far away |
| B．everyone seemed to be free for others |
| C．Dad was not at work while Mom was busy cleaning the house |
| D．nearly every adult would go to church and children weren’t at school |
In the fourth paragraph, the writer compares the response “I’m making a Sunday visit to family” to an echo from another era because_____．
| A．people nowadays prefer staying at home on Sunday |
| B．such answers are rarely heard in our modern society |
| C．people in the city dislike being disturbed on Sunday |
| D．visiting someone on Sunday was routine in the past |
From the last paragraph we may infer that_____．
| A．people in Maine suffer more from economic depression and the changed environment |
| B．people in Maine have abandoned their tradition and lived an absolutely new life |
| C．land in Maine is short, thus the relationship between people is tense |
| D．people in Maine tend to help each other out of necessity |
What’s the main idea of the passage?
| A．Doing many activities on Sunday is beneficial． |
| B．We should often travel a long distance to visit some friends and relatives． |
| C．Nowadays, Sunday has almost lost its association as a day of rest． |
| D．We should abandon some old tradition． |
Diary of a Do-it-Yourself Book
This book based on Greg Hefley's own "diary" lets kids express themselves in an exciting way．In the book, kids will be asked: What was the best dream you have ever had? The worst thing you have ever eaten? The best secret you have ever heard? This Do-It-Yourself Book is unique and special because it has blank pages for readers to write their own stories and keep their own diaries．
Author: Jeff Kinney
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Train to Somewhere
Marianne, heading west with fourteen other children on a train, is sure her mother will show up at one of the stations along the way. Stop after stop goes by, and there is no sign of her mother in the crowds that come to look over the children. No one shows any interest in adopting shy Marianne, either. But that is all right. She has to he free for her mother to claim her. Then the train stopped at its final stop, a town called Somewhere...
Author: Eve Bunting
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Chinese Children's Favorite Stories
This volume of beloved Chinese stories contains a delightful selection from the store of Chinese legend. Discover many delightful animal characters as well as Change and Guan Yin. Retold for an international audience, the stories with beautiful pictures will give children aged six to ten in other countries a chance to learn about both the tradition and culture of China.
Author: Mingmei Yip
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The Way Science Works
The perfect introduction to show how science explains the world around us! Eye-opening experiments and extraordinary photography bring science to life．Discover science in action from the principles that explain everyday facts to the theories behind the technology in today's fast-moving world. Full of facts about famous scientists, technology news and more．
Author: Robin Kerrod
List Price: $24．99
Price:$16．49 Buy it on Amazon．com．
You save:$8．50（34%）Diary of a Do - It - Yourself Book is different from other books because you can.
| A．ask the author questions |
| B．write your own stories in the book |
| C．have a chance to see beautiful photos |
| D．read many interesting stories about the author |
Amazon．com gives no discount on.
| A．Diary of a Do-It-Yourself Book |
| B．Train to Somewhere |
| C．Chinese Children's Favorite Stories |
| D．The Way Science Works |
Based on Train to Somewhere, how many children head west on the train．
| A．15. | B．14. | C．13. | D．16. |
Chinese Children's Favorite Stories is written for____.
| A．Chinese children aged 6 to 10 | B．teenagers in other countries |
| C．junior students in other countries | D．foreign children aged 6 to 10 |
Whose book would you like to read if you are interested in science and technology?
| A．Jeff Kinney's． | B．Eve Bunting's． |
| C．Mingmei Yip's． | D．Robin Kerrod's． |
12-year-old John Thomas Robertson is a born train fan. “I’ve liked trains probably from the day I was born,” he told Good Morning America. “When I was very little,” he said, “my grandpa got me a train model. I would just watch it go round for hours and hours.”
When Robertson finally had the opportunity to ride on a train, he felt great. His journey was so mind-blowing that he couldn’t keep it to himself: he decided to take all his classmates to go on a ride with him. When he found that some of his classmates couldn’t pay the fares, he spent money he had saved by collecting cans（罐子）and bottles and raised more than ＄1,000 for them.
That train was such a happy one that he made it yearly action. “It never gets boring for some reason; it’s just very fun,” he said. “It really lets people get away from their busy life and have fun.”
Every October, Robertson takes a new group of disabled children to ride the train — but now, he has a problem. Several disabled children were refused because the train was not accessible（可用的）to disabled people. “He was angry to think that children of his own age couldn’t ride a train,” his mother said.
But he wouldn’t say no: he recently sent a letter to the train office for help. To his surprise, the leader, Ty Pennington, took the letter seriously. He said that he and his workers would work on making a train accessible to disabled people.The first time John Thomas Robertson took a train, he_______
| A．felt extremely happy. | B．was frightened by it. |
| C．watched it for hours. | D．acted as a driver. |
John Thomas Robertson is a born train fan, because he _______.
| A．was taken on a train the day he was born. |
| B．his grandpa once worked on the train. |
| C．took a group of disabled children on board a train. |
| D．was greatly attracted to trains since early childhood. |
The underlined word “mind-blowing” can be replaced by “_______”.
| A．exciting | B．frightening |
| C．surprising | D．disappointing |
The disabled children were refused to get on the train because _______.
| A．they couldn’t afford the train tickets |
| B．Robertson had not saved enough money for tickets |
| C．the train didn’t have special services for them |
| D．the workers there would not allow them to do so |
According to the passage, we can see that Robertson is a（n）_______ child.
| A．honest and crazy | B．kind and helpful |
| C．clever but boring | D．lazy but kind |