Everyone has good days and bad days.
Sometimes, you feel as if you’re on top of the world and all the questions on your maths test might seem easy. But occasionally you feel horrible, and you lose things and cannot focus on our schoolwork.
For more than 20 years, scientists have suggested that high self-esteem(自尊) is the key to success.Now, new research shows that focusing just on building self-esteem may not be helpful. In some cases, having high self-esteem can make people less likeable or more upset when they fail in something.
“Forget about self-esteem,” says Jennifer Crocker, a psychologist at the University of Michigan, US. “It’s not the important thing.”
Feeling good
Crocker’s advice may sound a bit strange. After all, feeling good can be good for you.Studies show that people with high self-esteem are less likely to be depressed, anxious, shy, or lonely than those with low self-esteem.
However, after reviewing about 18,000 studies on self-esteem, Roy Baumeister, a psychologist at Florida State University, has found that building up your self-esteem will not necessarily make you a better person.
He believes that violent people often have the highest self-esteem of all. He also said:“ There’s no evidence that kids with high self-esteem do better in school.”
Problems
All types of people have problems. People with high self-esteem can have big egos(自我) that can make them less likeable, said Kathleen Vohs, a psychology professor at Columbia University.People with high self-esteem tend to think more of themselves, VOhs says. People with low self-esteem are more likely to rely on their friends when they need help.
What to do
Researchers say it is best to listen to and support other people. Find positive ways to contribute to society. If you fail in something, try to learn from the experience. “The best therapy(药方) is to recognize your faults,” Vohs says. “It’s OK to say, ‘I’ m not so good at that,’ and then move on.”What does the underlined part “on top of the world” in Paragraph 2 probably mean?
| A．Quite helpful. | B．Extremely happy. | C．Very unlucky. | D．Rather upset. |
The conclusion drawn from the new research shows that high self-esteem_____.
| A．is not important at all | B．makes people more likeable |
| C．may not be the key to success | D．helps you do better at school |
Which of the following is TRUE according to Vohs?
| A．Feeling good doesn’t mean you lead a happy life. |
| B．People with high self-esteem always seek others’ help. |
| C．People with high self-esteem tend to be selfish. |
| D．People with low self-esteem are often more popular. |
We can infer from the text that the best therapy mentioned in the last paragraph is mainly for people_____.
| A．with high self-esteem | B．with low self-esteem |
| C．who contribute significantly to society | D．who are in need of support |
The name “cowboy” conjures up many different images from movies, songs and TV. These imagined cowboys range from white-hat-wearing heroes to gun-shooting hooligans(流氓).But, cowboys are actually real people from US history.
When the US Civil War ended, many soldiers had no place to call home. So, they began to drift to the country’s rural West. Ranchers(农场主) hired these men to take care of the cattle and work around the ranch. When the ranch owner wanted to sell the cattle, the cowboys would round up the herd from the open prairie(牧场) and drive the cattle miles to the market.
With the invention of barbed wire(铁丝网),the cowboy era(1865-1890) began to come to an end. But people in the East had always been curious about their lifestyle. Many country/western songs during this time tried to capture the true cowboy spirit. Newspapers published cowboy tales in serial form and adventure novels followed. The bigger the fiction, the better the sales. These novels often portrayed cowboys as cruel and violent men. Cowboys carried the bad reputation for many years afterwards.
When movies began to be popular in the 1920s, the cowboy image changed again. Now, a cowboy became the great white knight(骑士) that loved his horse more than the beautiful ladies he rescued. As the cowboy of the “Old West” spent more time with his horse than the ladies, this era's image was not entirely false.
Then, in the 50s,Hollywood began producing so-called “spaghetti westerns(意大利西部片)”.They earned the nickname because Italian companies financed the films and TV shows. This started the decade’s “Cowboy Craze”. While this didn’t last long, it made modern country / western music, fashion and dance extremely popular.
In recent years, with the help of musicians, radio stations and bars, cowboy nostalgia(怀旧情绪) has returned. Even though his image is still changing — somewhere between ballad singing country boy and bar room fighter — there’s one thing for sure, you can’t keep the cowboy down.The purpose of this story is to ______.
| A．introduce cowboy movies and novels |
| B．introduce various productions associated with cowboys |
| C．show the cowboy's everlasting charm |
| D．inform us about the cowboy’s spirit |
Before they became cowboys, they ______.
| A．served in the army | B．worked as bar-room fighters |
| C．owned ranches | D．were adventurous explorers |
During “the cowboy era” mentioned in the story, ______________.
| A．the cowboy often came to the rescue of ladies in newspaper tales |
| B．the distant Wild West appealed to people in the East |
| C．cowboys were shown as cruel and violent men on the silver screen |
| D．country music started the cowboy craze which swept the whole country |
By saying “you can’t keep the cowboy down”, the writer means that ______.
| A．cowboys are real people in history | B．cowboys still fascinate people |
| C．you can't make cowboys unhappy | D．you can’t grasp the cowboy spirit |
Which of the following statements would the writer agree to?
| A．The cowboy has been presented in different lights in different eras. |
| B．Cowboys are gun-shooting hooligans, without doubt. |
| C．Cowboys have always been a passing phenomenon. |
| D．Cowboys enjoy Italian foods, for example, spaghetti. |
In Europe, people hold the fork in the left hand and the knife in the right throughout the meal, a system that is generally agreed to be more efficient than the American zigzag（曲折的）method. Americans hold both the fork and the knife in their right hands throughout the meal, so they continually change their forks to the left hand when they have to cut their meat. It seems to be funny for the Europeans to see Americans busy changing their dinner sets, making a lot of noises.
A few explanations for this American style are as follows:
(1) Americans are practical and efficient. Since most of us are right-handed, it is reasonable to keep our working tools at all times in the right hand that can use them most efficiently.
(2) Americans, the master of the New World are rebels（叛逆者）.They use the zigzag method to break the rules in the Old World and in this way they are thumbing their nose at Mother England. Americans are a restless kind. They do not like to sit in one spot for very long when dining.
(3) Forced to do so, they respond by “playing” with the silver.
Whatever the reason for the practice, it is now certainly as American as apple pie. Europeans recognize this and are quick to attack it as evidence of American innocence（无知）of form. Arguments against the zigzag method rest not only on grounds of efficiency but also on those of tradition. In Old World dining, the knife is held in the right hand continually because it can serve as an instant defense against the uninvited intruders（入侵者）.However, such alertness（警觉） is out of place in the New World, as every American believes that this is the home of the brave. Americans juggle their silverware, perhaps, to show that they are not afraid and that one of them holding a fork is worth any number of them holding blades（刀）.Americans use _______ to hold their fork to pick up the salad.
| A．the right hand | B．the left hand |
| C．both hands | D．either of the two hands |
As the masters of the New World, Americans use a different cutting method from that in the Old World to _________________.
| A．show their independence of Mother England |
| B．show their disrespect to Mother England |
| C．add a new tradition to those in Mother England |
| D．show off their creativeness to Mother England |
In the last sentence, the word “juggle” probably means ____________.
| A．hold | B．play with | C．pick up | D．lay down |
Also in the last sentence, the two “them” refer to ____________.
| A．Americans |
| B．Europeans and Americans separately |
| C．Americans and Europeans separately |
| D．Europeans |
Which of the following statements is NOT true?
| A．European people hold the fork in the left hand and the knife in the right hand. |
| B．The zigzag eating method is related to American characteristics. |
| C．The zigzag eating method has become an American feature. |
| D．European people will use the American method because of its efficiency. |
Microwaves may be great at warming up food, but what about warming people?
Using microwaves to directly heat owners of a room would save much of the energy wasted by heating walls and furniture. And despite popular ideas about microwaves, this technique would be safe, according to Charles R. Burlier of the Microwave Research Center in Marlborough, New Hampshire. Low-power microwaves only penetrate (贯穿) the skin (low-power microwave penetration in a ham is about 0.2 inches, for example) and with no negative effects.
To test this idea, Buffler subjected himself to microwaves in a special room using a standard 500-watt, 2459 MHz magnetron (磁控管). He found that a person will start to feel warmth at about 20 milliwatts per square centimeter (mw. / sq. cm. ) ; a satisfactory feeling of warmth occurs between 35 and 50mw. / sq. cm. By comparison, a person standing in noonday summer sun feels the amount of 85 mw. / sq. cm. And a frozen meat pie in your microwave oven receives about 1000 mw. / sq. cm.
In houses of the future, each room could be provided with its own magnetron, says Buffler. When you stepped into the living room, for example, a motion detector (运动感应器)would turn on the magnetron, filling the room with low-power microwaves. In the same way that a microwave oven heats up a hamburger, but not the plate it’s on, you would feel warmth from the microwaves without changing the temperature of your coffee table. (You could, however, make your favorite easy chair even more comfortable by treating it with a radiation-absorbing chemical.)
While it might be some time before homeowners are comfortable enough with the idea to set up whole-body microwave heaters in houses, Buffler says microwaves may attract livestock(家畜) farmers. Lambs that are born outdoors in winter, for example, are frequently lost to cold. Microwaves could warm the lambs safely and quickly.Which of the following can tell the main idea of the passage?
| A．A new heating system. | B．A new microwave oven. |
| C．A popular technique. | D．The magnetron. |
According to Paragraph 2, which of the following does not describe the characteristics of a microwave heater?
| A．It directly heats people in a room. |
| B．It heats walls and furniture in a room. |
| C．It is safe. |
| D．It saves energy. |
The test conducted by Buffler shows that when a person feels comfortable warmth, he receives about ________________.
| A．20 mw. / sq. cm. | B．40 mw. / sq. cm. | C．60 mw. / sq. cm. | D．85 mw. / sq. cm. |
According to Paragraph 4, which of the following fills the room with low-power microwaves?
| A．The magnetron. | B．The motion detector. |
| C．The microwave oven. | D．The radiation-absorbing chemical. |
Which of the following statements about microwave heaters would Buffler most probably agree with?
| A．Microwave heaters will soon be widely used by homeowners. |
| B．Microwave heaters sometimes make people feel uncomfortable. |
| C．Perhaps microwave heaters will be first used by livestock farmers, who wish to protect their lambs in winter. |
| D．Microwave heaters cannot be accepted by the public because they are somewhat unsafe. |
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Abu Dhabi tries to make a plan to celebrate the 25th wedding anniversary. He is considering to have a relaxing week with his wife to a quiet and picturesque mountain.
Blackstone Smith has been laid off recently. He is eager to find a new job to shoulder his responsibility to his family.
William Glaberson is considering to subscribe to an electronic version of newspapers. And the most influential ones such as the Guardian, the Washington News or the New York Times might be good choice.
Michelin Maynard badly needs an updated security system for his personal computer. His PC is so vulnerable to any attack that it has frequently collapsed.
Alissa J. Rubin is a professor in Columbia University. An expert on Asian political issues, he is tracking any report about political events in this area.
Prince Roman was a Polish nobleman, a captain in the army of Czar Nicholas of Russia. When his young wife died, the prince left the army and returned in sorrow to his native Poland.
In time, love for his country and its people took the place of his lost love. He joined a Polish rising against the Russians. The rising was crushed, and Prince Roman was taken prisoner. His relatives and friends begged the military court to have mercy on him.
The president of the court received these appeals kindly. He was a good Russian, but he was also a good-natured man. Russian hatred of Poles was not as fierce at that time as it became later; and the Russian felt sympathetic as soon as he saw the prince's thin, tired, sun-burnt face.
The court of three officers sat in a bare room, behind a long black table. Some clerks sat at the two ends, but no one else was there when the guards brought in the prince.
Those four walls shut out from Prince Roman all sights and sounds of freedom, all hopes of the future, all comforting thoughts. How much love for Poland remained in him then? How much love of life? He stood before his judges alone, having refused their permission to sit. He answered their first formal questions — his name and so on — clearly and politely although he felt too weary to talk.
Then the president of the court seemed to suggest how the young man could best help himself. He asked questions in a way that almost put the right answers in the prisoner's mouth.
“Didn't your wife's death drive you to despair? Wasn't your mind unbalanced by that sad event ?”
Prince Roman was silent.
"You were not fully responsible for you conduct, were you?"
Prince Roman was silent.
"You made a sudden blind decision to join the rising. You didn't realize that your actions were dangerous and dishonourable. Isn't that the truth of this unfortunate matter?"
The judges looked at the prisoner hopefully. In silence the prince reached for a pen and some paper. He wrote, "I joined the rising because I believe it was just." He pushed the paper towards the president, who took it and read it in silence.
Prince Roman was sentenced to hard work for life in the Siberian salt mines. It was a sentence of delayed death.
When Czar Nicholas read the report and sentence, he added in his own handwriting, "Make sure that this prisoner walks in chains every step of the way to Siberia."What does the passage tell us of Poland at the time?
| A．Polish officers in the Russian army had to return to Poland. |
| B．Russia was at war with Poland, so the Poles were enemies. |
| C．The Russians were very cruel rulers of Poland. |
| D．It was ruled by Russia, and Poles served in the Russian army. |
How much love for Poland remained in the prince when he stood trial?
| A．Not much, probably, after the failure of the rising. |
| B． More than he had ever felt before. |
| C．As much as he had ever felt. |
| D．The passage doesn't suggest an answer to the question. |
The questions which the president asked show that ______.
| A．he was trying to find excuse for the prince's conduct |
| B．the court wanted the prince to admit his own guilt |
| C．he wanted to learn the truth about the Polish rising |
| D．Prince Roman was a weak person |
In the trial, Prince Roman ______.
| A．was afraid to be responsible for his actions |
| B．blamed others for his actions |
| C．accepted responsibility for his actions |
| D．admitted his guilt |
According to the passage, which of the following statements is true?
| A．The judges were less sympathetic than Czar Nicholas. |
| B．Czar Nicholas was as kind as the judges. |
| C．Czar Nicholas was not as sympathetic as the judges. |
| D．The judges were as cruel as Czar Nicholas. |