Chances
I really love my job because I enjoy working with small children and like the challenges and awards from the job. I also think my work is important. There was a time when I thought I would never have that sort of career(职业)．
I wasn't an excellent student because I didn't do much schoolwork. In my final term I started thinking what I might do and found I didn't have much to offer. I just accepted that I wasn't the type to have a career.
I then found myself a job, looking after two little girls. It wasn't too bad at first. But the problems began when I agreed to live in, so that I would be there if my boss had to go out for business in the evening. We agreed that if I had to work extra hours one week, she'd give me time off the next. But unfortunately, it didn't often work out. I was getting extremely tired and fed up, because I had too many late nights and early morning with the children.
One Sunday, I was in the park with the children, and met Megan who used to go to school with me. I told her about my situation. She suggested that I should do a course and get a qualification(资格证书)if I wanted to work with children. I didn't think I would be accepted because I didn't take many exams in school. She persuaded me to phone the local college and they were really helpful. My experience counted for a lot and I got on a parttime course. I had to leave my job with the family, and got work helping out at a kindergarten.
Now I've got a fulltime job there. I shall always be thankful to Megan. I wish I had known earlier that you could have a career, even if you aren't top of the class at school.What is the author's present job?
| A．Working parttime in a college. |
| B．Helping children with their schoolwork. |
| C．Looking after children at a kindergarten. |
| D．Taking care of children for a family. |
When staying with the two girls' family, the author________.
| A．was paid for extra work |
| B．got much help from her boss |
| C．took a day off every other week |
| D．often worked long hours |
Why did the author leave her first job?
| A．She decided to attend a parttime course. |
| B．She found a fulltime job. |
| C．She was fed up with children. |
| D．She needed a rest after working extra hours. |
What has the author learned from her own experiences?
| A．Qualifications are necessary for a career. |
| B．Hard work makes an excellent student. |
| C．One must choose the job she likes. |
| D．Less successful students can still have a career. |
(2013·安徽，D)
“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 lifechanging 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 inferred from the underlined sentence in Paragraph 1?
| A．People can tell good from bad behavior. |
| B．Radar is able to observe human behavior. |
| C．People care little about their behavior. |
| D．Radar can be used to predict human behavior. |
Some people are less willing to deal with humans because ________.
| A．they are becoming less patient |
| B．they are growing too independent |
| 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．disgusting |
| C．acceptable | D．reasonable |
What can we learn from the last paragraph?
| A．We should applaud good behavior. |
| B．Technology can never be blamed. |
| C．We should keep pointing out mistakes. |
| D．Technology will take over our lives one day. |
(2013·辽宁，B)
Going green seems to be a fad(时尚) for a lot of people these days. Whether that is good or bad, we can't really say, but for the two of us, going green is not a fad but a lifestyle.
On April 22, 2011, we decided to go green every single day for an entire year. This meant doing 365 different green things, and it also meant challenging ourselves to go green beyond the easy things. Rather than recycle and reduce our energy, we had to think of 365 different green things to do and this was no easy task.
With the idea of going green every single day for a year, Our Green Year started. My wife and I decided to educate people about how they could go green in their lives and hoped we could show people all the green things that could be done to help the environment. We wanted to push the message that every little bit helps.
Over the course of Our Green Year, we completely changed our lifestyles. We now shop at organic(有机的) stores. We consume less meat, choosing green food. We have greatly reduced our buying we don't need. We have given away half of what we owned through websites. Our home is kept clean by vinegar and lemon juice, with no chemical cleaners. We make our own butter, enjoying the smell of homemade fresh bread. In our home office anyone caught doing something ungreen might be punished.
Our minds have been changed by Our Green Year. We are grateful for the chance to have been able to go green and educate others. We believe that we do have the power to change things and help our planet.What might be the best title for the passage?
| A．Going Green |
| B．Protecting the Planet |
| C．Keeping OpenMinded |
| D．Celebrating Our Green Year |
It was difficult for the couple to live a green life for the whole year because ________.
| A．they were expected to follow the green fad |
| B．they didn't know how to educate other people |
| C．they were unwilling to reduce their energy |
| D．they needed to perform unusual green tasks |
What did the couple do over the course of Our Green Year?
| A．They tried to get out of their ungreen habits. |
| B．They ignored others' ungreen behavior. |
| C．They chose better chemical cleaners. |
| D．They sold their homemade food. |
What can we infer from the last paragraph?
| A．The government will give support to the green project. |
| B．The couple may continue their project in the future. |
| C．Some people disagree with the couple's green ideas. |
| D．Our Green Year is becoming a national campaign. |
China is a land of bicycles. At least it was back in 1992 when I traveled the country. Back then everyone seemed to be riding a bicycle. Millions of them, all black. Cars were rare. Yet since my arrival in Beijing last year, I've found the opposite is true. There are millions of cars. However, people still use their bicycles to get around. For many, it's the easiest and cheapest way to travel today. Bicycles also come in different colors—silver, green, red, blue, yellow, whatever you want.
It's fun watching people biking. They rush quickly through crossroads, move skillfully through traffic, and ride even on sidewalks(人行道). Bicycles allow people the freedom to move about that cars just can't provide.
Eager to be part of this aspect of Chinese culture, I decided to buy a bicycle. Great weather accompanied my great buy. I immediately jumped up on my bicycle seat and started home.
My first ride home was orderly(守秩序的). To be safe, I stayed with a “pack” of bikers while cars on the streets came running swiftly out of nowhere at times. I didn't want to get hit. So I took the ride carefully.
Crossing the streets was the biggest problem. It was a lot like crossing a major highway back in the United States. The streets here were wide, so crossing took time, skill and a little bit of luck.
I finally made it home. The feeling on the bicycle was amazing. The air hitting my face and going through my hair was wonderful. I was sitting on top of the world as I passed by places and people. Biking made me feel alive.According to the author, why are bicycles still popular in China today?
| A．Because they are traditional and safe. |
| B．Because they are convenient and inexpensive. |
| C．Because they are colorful and available. |
| D．Because they are fast and environment friendly. |
The author decided to buy a bicycle because he intended ________.
| A．to ride it for fun |
| B．to use it for transport |
| C．to experience local culture |
| D．to improve his riding skills |
How did the author feel about his street crossing?
| A．It was boring. | B．It was difficult. |
| C．It was lively. | D．It was wonderful. |
Which of the following best describes the author's biking experience?
| A．The author enjoyed showing off his biking skills. |
| B．The author was annoyed by the air while riding. |
| C．The author was praised by the other bikers. |
| D．The author took great pleasure in biking. |
(2013·天津，D)
When asked about happiness, we usually think of something extraordinary, an absolute delight, which seems to get rarer the older we get.
For kids, happiness has a magical quality. Their delight at winning a race or getting a new bike is unreserved(毫不掩饰的)．
In the teenage years the concept of happiness changes. Suddenly it's conditional on such things as excitement, love and popularity. I can still recall the excitement of being invited to dance with the most attractive boy at the school party.
In adulthood the things that bring deep joy—love, marriage, birth—also bring responsibility and the risk of loss. For adults, happiness is complicated(复杂的)．
My definition of happiness is “the capacity for enjoyment”. The more we can enjoy what we have, the happier we are. It's easy to overlook the pleasure we get from the company of friends, the freedom to live where we please, and even good health.
I experienced my little moments of pleasure yesterday. First I was overjoyed when I shut the last lunchbox and had the house to myself. Then I spent an uninterrupted morning writing, which I love. When the kids and my husband came home, I enjoyed their noise after the quiet of the day.
Psychologists tell us that to be happy we need a mix of enjoyable leisure time and satisfying work. I don't think that my grandmother, who raised 14 children, had much of either. She did have a network of close friends and family, and maybe this is what satisfied her.
We, however, with so many choices and such pressure to succeed in every area, have turned happiness into one more thing we've got to have. We're so selfconscious about our “right” to it that it's making us miserable. So we chase it and equal it with wealth and success, without noticing that the people who have those things aren't necessarily happier.
Happiness isn't about what happens to us—it's about how we see what happens to us. It's the skillful way of finding a positive for every negative. It's not wishing for what we don't have, but enjoying what we do possess.As people grow older, they ________.
| A．feel it harder to experience happiness |
| B．associate their happiness less with others |
| C．will take fewer risks in pursuing happiness |
| D．tend to believe responsibility means happiness |
What can we learn about the author from Paragraph 5 and 6?
| A．She cares little about her own health. |
| B．She enjoys the freedom of traveling. |
| C．She is easily pleased by things in daily life. |
| D．She prefers getting pleasure from housework. |
What can be informed from Paragraph 7?
| A．Psychologists think satisfying work is key to happiness. |
| B．Psychologists' opinion is well proved by Grandma' case. |
| C．Grandma often found time for social gatherings. |
| D．Grandma's happiness came from modest expectations of life. |
People who equal happiness with wealth and success ______.
| A．consider pressure something blocking their way |
| B．stress their right to happiness too much |
| C．are at a loss to make correct choices |
| D．are more likely to be happy |
What can be concluded from the passage?
| A．Happiness lies between the positive and the negative. |
| B．Each man is the master of his own fate. |
| C．Success leads to happiness. |
| D．Happy is he who is content. |
(2013·辽宁，D)
“Indeed，” George Washington wrote in his diary in 1785, “some kind of fly, or bug, had begun to eat the leaves before I left home.” But the father of America was not the father of bug. When Washington wrote that, Englishmen had been referring to insects as bugs for more than a century, and Americans had already created lightningbug(萤火虫). But the English were soon to stop using the bugs in their language, leaving it to the Americans to call a bug a bug in nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
The American bug could also be a person, referring to someone who was crazy about a particular activity. Although fan became the usual term, sports fans used to be called racing bugs, baseball bugs, and the like.
Or the bug could be a small machine or object, for example, a bugshaped car. The bug could also be a burglar alarm, from which comes the expression to bug, that is, “to install (安装) an alarm”. Now it means a small piece of equipment that people use for listening secretly to others' conversations. Since the 1840s, to bug has long meant “to cheat”， and since the 1940s it has been annoying.
We also know the bug as a flaw in a computer program or other design. That meaning dates back to the time of Thomas Edison. In 1878 he explained bugs as “little problems and difficulties” that required months of study and labor to overcome in developing a successful product. In 1889 it was recorded that Edison “had been up the two previous nights discovering ‘a bug’ in his invented record player.”We learn from Paragraph 1 that ________.
| A．Americans had difficulty in learning to use the word bug |
| B．George Washington was the first person to call an insect a bug |
| C．the word bug was still popularly used in England in the nineteenth century |
| D．both Englishmen and Americans used the word bug in the eighteenth century |
What does the word “flaw” in the last paragraph probably mean?
| A．Explanation. | B．Finding. |
| C．Origin. | D．Fault. |
The passage is mainly concerned with ________.
| A．the misunderstanding of the word bug |
| B．the development of the word bug |
| C．the public views of the word bug |
| D．the special characteristics of the word bug |