Life is difficult.
This is a great truth, one of the greatest truths. It is a great truth because once we truly see this truth, we transcend (超越) it. Once we truly know that life is difficult — once we truly understand and accept it — then life is no longer difficult. Because once it is accepted, the fact that life is difficult no longer matters.
Most do not fully see this truth. Instead they complain about their problems and difficulties as if life should be easy. It seems to them that difficulties represent a special kind of suffering especially forced upon them or else upon their families, their class, or even their nation.
What makes life difficult is that the process of facing and solving problems is a painful one. Problems, depending on their nature, cause us sadness, or loneliness or regret or anger or fear. These are uncomfortable feelings, often as painful as any kind of physical pain. And since life causes an endless series of problems, life is always difficult and is full of pain as well as joy.
Yet, it is in this whole process of solving problems that life has its meaning. Problems are the serious test that tells us success from failure. When we desire to encourage the growth of human spirit, we encourage the human ability to solve problems, just as in school we set problems for our children to solve. It is through the pain of meeting and working out problems that we learn. As Benjamin Franklin said, those things that hurt, instruct. It is for this reason that wise people learn not to fear but to welcome the pain of problems. The writer probably used just one short sentence in the first paragraph to ________.
| A．save space | B．persuade readers | C．make readers laugh | D．get readers’ attention |
According to the passage, we give school children difficult problems to solve in order to________.
| A．encourage them to learn | B．teach them to fear the pain of solving the problem |
| C．help them learn to deal with pain | D．teach them how to respect for problems |
From the passage, it can be inferred that _________.
| A．everybody has problems |
| B．we become stronger by meeting and solving the problems of life |
| C．life is difficult because our problems bring us pain |
| D．people like to complain about their problems |
Once I invited a group of friends round to my house, telling them that I was going to record their speech. I said I was interested in their regional accents, and that it would take only a few minutes. Thus, on one evening, three people turned up at my house and were shown into my front room. When they saw the room they were a bit alarmed, for it was laid out as a studio. In front of each easy chair there was a microphone at head height, with wires leading to a tape-recorder in the middle of the floor. I explained that all I wanted was for them to count from one to twenty. Then we could relax and have a drink.
I turned on the tape-recorder and each in turn seriously counted from one to twenty in their best accent. When it was over, I turned the tape-recorder off and brought round the drinks, and for the rest of the evening there was general cheerful conversation—interrupted only by the fact that I had to take a telephone call in another room, which unfortunately lasted some time.
Or at least that was how it would appear. For, of course, the microphones were not connected to the tape-recorder in the middle of the room at all but to another one, which was turning happily away in the kitchen. The participants, having seen the visible tape-recorder turned off, paid no more attention to the microphones which stayed in front of their chairs, only a few inches from their mouths, thus giving excellent sound quality. And my lengthy absence meant that I was able to obtain as natural a piece of conversation as it would be possible to find.
I should add, perhaps, that I did tell my friends what had happened to them, after the event was over, and gave them the choice of destroying the tape. None of them wanted to—though for some years afterwards it always seemed to be my round when it came to the buying of drinks. Linguistic research can be a very expensive business.The writer asked his friends to count from one to twenty because _______.
| A．he wanted to record the numbers for his research |
| B．he wanted to find out whether the tape recorder was working |
| C．he wanted to make his friends relax before real recording started |
| D．he wanted his friends to think that was all he wanted to record |
The writer went into another room to ________.
| A．get a natural recording of his friends’ conversation |
| B．stay away from too much drinking with his friends |
| C．bring a telephone into the front room |
| D．answer a long distance phone call |
The writer turned off the tape-recorder because _______.
| A．he had to answer a phone call |
| B．he wanted his friends to enjoy some drinks |
| C．he thought the tape-recorder might bother his friends |
| D．he wanted to make his friends believe he had finished the recording |
Which one is true according to the passage?
| A．The writer destroyed the tape. |
| B．The writer’s friends destroyed the tape. |
| C．The writer did tell his friends what had happened. |
| D．The writer’s friends like to drink. |
Oprah Winfrey, born in 1954, is all American talk show host, best known for her multi-award-winning talk show. She is also, according to some assessments, the most influential woman in the world. It's no surprise that her endorsement(认可)can bring overnight sales fortune that defeats most, if not all, marketing campaigns. The star features about 20 products each year On her “Favorite Things” show. There’s even a term for it: the Oprah Effect.
Her television career began unexpectedly. When she was 16 year old, she had the idea of being a journalist to tell other people’s stories in a way that made a difference in their lives and the world. She was on television by the time she was 19 years old. And in 1986 she started her own television show with a continuous determination to succeed at first.
TIME magazine wrote, “People would have doubted Oprah Winfrey’s swift rise to host of the most popular talk show on TV. In a field dominated by white males, she is a black female of big size. As interviewers go, she is no match for Phil Donahue. What she lacks in journalistic toughness, she makes up for in plainspoken curiosity, rich humor and, above all understanding. Guests with sad[stories to tell tend to bring out a tear in Oprah’s eye. They, in turn, often find themselves exposing things they would not imagine telling anyone, much less a national TV audience.”
“I was nervous about the competition and then I became my own competition raising the bar every year, pushing, pushing, pushing myself as hard as I knew. It doesn't matter how far you might rise. At some point you are bound to fall if you’re constantly doing what we do, raising the bar. If you're constantly pushing yourself higher, higher the law of averages, you will at some point fall. And when you do, I want you to know this, remember this: there is no such thing as failure. Failure is just life trying to move us in another direction” as Oprah addressed graduates at Harvard on May 30, 2013.The Oprah Effect refers to _______
| A．the effect on a business | B．the power of Oprah’s opinions |
| C．the impact on talkshows | D．the assessment of Oprah’s talk show |
What can be inferred about Oprah’s television career?
| A．She once gave up on her choice |
| B．Her swift success has been expected. |
| C．It lives up to her parents’ expectation. |
| D．She must have been challenged by white males. |
The message from Oprah to graduates at Harvard is that _______.
| A．success comes after failure |
| B．failure is nothing to fear |
| C．there is no need to set goals too high |
| D．pushing physical limits makes no sense |
Which of the following best describes Oprah Winfrey?
| A．Dull and pushy. | B．Honest but tough. |
| C．Caring and determined. | D．Curious but weak. |
When it comes to hard, noisy traveling, we’ve found that sometimes we’d rather read about it than actually go. Here are some bestsellers for armchair travelers.
The Station by Robert Byron. In 1928, the 22-year-old man made a journey to Mount Athos, resulting in one of the best travel books ever written, matched only by Byron’s own, much more famous The Road to Osciana.
In Darkest Africa by Henry Monton Stanley. It’s about his great efforts to save an unlucky German doctor Eduard Schnitzer, who had no desire to be rescued at all.
A Traveler’s Alphabet: Partial Memoirs by Sir Steven Runciman. A to Z and around the world. He provides priceless information of long-gone princesses, priests, and places.
South: A Memoir of the Endurance Voyage by Sir Ernest Shackleton. As the planet started the global war, Shackleton and his brave group of explorers made an unsuccessful but heroic journey to cross Antarctica from 1914 to 1917.
The Michelin Red Guide: France 2005 Reading through this final listing of all the nice hotels and wonderful restaurants in France is better than going there, listening to Chirac talk about the poisonous American culture, and spending the price of this book for a tiny cup of tea and a cookie the size of your thumb.
The Past Is a Foreign Country by David Lowenthal. This great book of an armchair exploration tells us what has happened in the past and shows the relationship between us and the past travelers.The underlined phrase “armchair travelers” in the first paragraph refers to those who___________.
| A．can only travel with special equipment for the disabled |
| B．find fun teaching others how to travel to other places |
| C．like to write about their strange traveling experiences |
| D．like to read about travels instead of traveling themselves |
Which of the books has a very low price according to the passage?
| A．The Past Is a Foreign Country. |
| B．South: A Memoir to the Endurance Voyage. |
| C．The Michelin Red Guide: France 2005. |
| D．A Traveler’s Alphabet: Partial Memoirs. |
What can we learn from the passage?
| A．The Station is more famous than The Road to Osciana |
| B．Henry Monton Stanley, was saved by a German doctor in Africa. |
| C．It took Shackleton and his men 3 years to cross Antarctica. |
| D．In his book, Lowenthal focuses more on history than the present. |
This passage is written____________ .
| A．to warn readers against traveling |
| B．to sell more books about travels |
| C．as an introduction to famous travelers |
| D．to tell people where to travel |
I remember my mother as a strong woman. She came to America when she was 12—old enough to remember her language, she achieved scores and grades high enough to be admitted to Duke University. With a degree in computer science, she finally became the manager of a company in New York. My mother could give fluent speeches, say “wolves” correctly.
It was my mother who always stressed the importance of language. From the time I was born, I was read to. I would fall asleep to the sounds of my parents’ voices, whether it was my dad’s softly accented, or my mother’s clear English. The flow of language was unbroken, and whether in Chinese or English, the stream of communication flowed through our house.
One October morning in sixth grade, after my mother had left to catch the train to the city, I left the house for the bus stop. I was surprised when I saw our car, the door hanging open. As I drew closer, I saw my mother lying on the ground.
In the hospital, it was hard to believe that the lady who lay before me was my mom. My mother could not remember my name. As the leaves changed colors, it became clear that the stroke had created a wall between my mother’s mind and mouth: her mind was not any less clear, but the words she spoke were not what she meant.
The battle my mother faced taught me the importance of language. Without it, identity does not exist; relationships cannot be formed; stories cannot be told; directions cannot be given, and knowing anything about anyone is impossible. Without language, communication cannot take place. Without language, one cannot express the beauty of a sunset or the kindness of a stranger. The world would pass us by in silence. From where might the author’s mom come to America?
| A．China | B．England | C．Russia | D．Canada |
From the second paragraph, we can know ________.
| A．the author was taught to read since she was born |
| B．the author’s father spoke English poorly |
| C．the author couldn’t fall asleep without being read to |
| D．the author’s parents taught her language by talking a lot |
According to the last two paragraphs, the author’s mom was unable to _______.
| A．think clearly | B．express herself well |
| C．speak | D．open her mouth |
The underlined word “stroke” in the 4th paragraph most probably refers to ______.
| A．an accident | B．a hit | C．an illness | D．a robbery |
This passage is mainly about _________.
| A．a strong mother |
| B．the importance of language |
| C．a family disaster |
| D．the significance of teaching language |
When a magazine for high school students asked its readers what life would be like in twenty years, they said: Machines would be run by solar power. Buildings would rotate（旋转）so they could follow the sun to take maximum advantage of its light and heat. Walls would “give light” and “change color with the push of a button.” Food would be replaced by pills. School would be taught by electrical impulse（电脉冲）while we sleep. Cars would have radar（雷达）. Does this sound like the year 2000? Actually, this article was written in 1958 and the question was, “what will life be like in 1978?
The future is much too important to simply guess about, the way the high school students did, so experts are regularly asked to predict accuately. By carefully studying the present, skilled businessmen, scientists, and politicians are supposedly able to figure out in advance what will happen. But can they? One expert on Cities wrote: Cities of the future would not be crowded, but would have space for farms and fields. People would travel to work in “airbuses”, large all-weather helicopters carrying up to 200 passengers. When a person left the airbus station he could drive a coin-operated car equipped with radar. The radar equipment of cars would make traffic accidents “almost unheard of”. Does that sound familiar? If the expert had been accurate it would, because he was writing in 1957. His subject was “The city of 1982”.
If the professionals sometimes sound like high school students, it’s probably because future study is still a new field. But economic forecasting, or predicting what the economy will do, has been around for a long time. It should be accuate, and generally it is. But there have been some big mistakes in the field, too. In early 1929, most forecasters saw an excellent future for the stock market. In October of that year, the stock market had its worst losses ever, ruining thousands of investors who had put their faith in financial foreseers.
One forecaster knew that predictions about the future would always be subject to significant error. In 1957, H.J. Rand of the Rad corporation was asked about the year 2000, “Only one thing is certain,” he answered. “Children born today will have reached the age of 43.”How many examples does the author offer to describe the future life?
| A．Three | B．Four | C．Five | D．Six |
The high school students’ answers to “What would life be like in 1978?” sound __________.
| A．accurate | B．imaginative | C．correct | D．foolish |
In the second paragraph, the writer gives examples to show _________.
| A．predicting about the future can be done in a humorous way |
| B．no predictions are based on careful research |
| C．experts are always better than others in figuring out what the future will be like |
| D．forecasting the future is not an easy job even for experts in this field |
From the third paragraph we can learn that _________.
| A．economy forecasting is rather a new field |
| B．experts began economy forecasting in 1929 |
| C．the predictions about economic situation caused the investors to lose lots of money |
| D．good, accurate forecasting helped the stock market overcome the difficulties |
H.J.Rand’s prediction about the year 2000 shows that ________.
| A．it is easy to figure out in advance what will happen |
| B．it is difficult to figure out in advance what will happen |
| C．only professionals can figure out in advance what will happen |
| D．very few professionals figure out in advance what will happen |