Minimalism (简约主义) is a term that describes movements in various forms of art and design, especially visual art and music, where the work is reduced to its most basic features.
As for me, minimalism functions well not in art or design, but in my daily life.
When I was packing for university, I found it extremely difficult to let go of some of the things I owned. I knew I couldn’t take everything with me, but I kept asking myself “how could I possibly throw this away?”, “what if I need it one day?”, and “what about all of the memories?” Now that I’ve moved, and left that stuff behind, I don’t even miss it. Whether or not I got rid of it, it barely makes a bit of difference to me now.
I’ve learned that over time people forget, or their need for a particular object eventually disappears. Either they store it away or they get rid of it.
You might think nostalgically（怀旧的） about the toys you cared about when you were a child, but what is making you smile now is not the thing itself but the memory of it. I’ve heard it a hundred times, “you don’t need things to make you happy.” It takes something life-changing like moving across the country to realize how true this is.
Speaking of which, for a lot of people, minimalism is about able to move. It’s about being able to go almost anywhere at any time because you don’t have many possessions to carry. When you keep things you don’t need they become a burden that ties you to a place. Moving to university was a good time to let go of a lot of stuff. And when I visit for the holidays, I’ll probably get rid of even more, to lighten the burden.
Of course there are exceptions. There are some things that are irreplaceable, very rare or expensive or we simply love and cherish for some reason or another, since we are humans. But after we keep those, how much is left that we don’t really need?
Hence, minimalism. And why does minimalism bring happiness? That was a bit of a roundabout way of saying that, it’s because what really makes me happy is freedom. And the key to freedom is minimalism because minimalism reduces our attachment to things.
Attachment to too many objects creates a great mess and can severely hold back our freedom to do whatever we want, while minimalism helps us start new projects, move, travel, learn new things, work, expand, be debt-free, be healthy – really living life to our full potential.
I left the nest to fly onwards and upwards, I can’t do it with old things weighing me down. And that is why I have adopted minimalism with open arms. In paragraph l, the writer gives the definition of minimalism to
| A．introduce a topic | B．present his own background |
| C．describe a scene | D．offer an argument |
Many people don’t want to let go of some of their belongings because
| A．they haven’t had any life-changing experiences |
| B．they fear their memories will be gone with the thrown-away stuff |
| C．they hope to live life to their full potential by storing things away |
| D．they may have to change their lifestyle because of the loss of them |
Which of the following is NOT the reason why the writer favors “minimalism” in life?
| A．It takes the burden off her while she is moving. |
| B．It reduces her attachment to her personal things. |
| C．It enables her to gain the freedom that she desires. |
| D．It helps her to realize how true life is. |
What’s the main idea of the passage?
| A．Minimalism brings happiness. |
| B．Minimalism is applied in many fields. |
| C．Minimalism makes people think nostalgically. |
| D．Minimalism is about able to move. |
Since we are social beings, the quality of our lives depends in large measure on our interpersonal relationships. One strength of the human condition is our possibility to give and receive support from one another under stressful conditions. Social support makes up of the exchange of resources among people based on their interpersonal ties. Those of us with strong support systems appear better able to deal with major life changes and daily problems. People with strong social ties live longer and have better health than those without such ties. Studies over types of illnesses, from depression(沮丧) to heart disease, show that the presence of social support helps people defend themselves against illness, and the absence of such support makes poor health more likely.
Social support cushions stress in a number of ways. First, friends, relatives and co-workers may let us know that they value us. Our self-respect is strengthened when we feel accepted by others in spite of our faults and difficulties. Second, other people often provide us with informational support. They help us to define and understand our problems and find solutions to them. Third, we typically find social companionship supportive. Taking part in free-time activities with others helps us to meet our social needs while at the same time distracting (转移注意力) us from our worries and troubles. Finally, other people may give us instrumental support money aid, material resources, and needed services - that reduces stress by helping us resolve and deal with our problems. Interpersonal relationships are important because they can ________
| A．make people live more easily | B．smooth away daily problems |
| C．deal with life changes | D．cure types of illnesses |
Which of the following is closest in meaning to the underlined word "cushions"?
| A．takes place of | B．makes up of |
| C．lessens the effect of | D．gets rid of |
What is the subject discussed in the text?
| A．Interpersonal relationships. | B．Kinds of social support. |
| C．Ways to deal with stress. | D．Effects of stressful condition. |
What will people die of 100 years from now? If you think that is a simple question, you have not been paying attention to the revolution that is taking place in bio-technology(生物技术). With the help of new medicine, the human body will last a very long time. Death will come mainly from accidents, murder and war. Today's leading killers, such as heart diseases, cancer, and aging itself, will become distant memory.
In discussion of technological changes, the Internet gets most of the attention these days. But the change in medicine can be the real technological event of our times. How long can humans live? Human brains were known to decide the final death. Cells(细胞) are the basic units of all living things, and until recently, scientists were sure that the life of cells could not go much beyond 120 years because the basic materials of cells, such as those of brain cells, would not last forever. But the upper limits will be broken by new medicine. Sometime between 2050 and 2100, medicine will have advanced to the point at which every 10 years or so, people will be able to take medicine to repair their organs(器官). The medicine, made up of the basic building materials of life, will build new brain cells, heart cells, and so on---in much the same way our bodies make new skin cells to take the place of old ones.
It is exciting to imagine that the advance in technology may be changing the most basic conditional human existence, but many technical problems still must be cleared up on the way to this wonderful future. According to the passage, human death is now mainly caused by _______.
| A．diseases and aging | B．accidents and war |
| C．accidents and aging | D．heart diseases and war |
In the author's opinion, today's most important advance in technology lies in _____.
| A．medicine | B．the internet | C．brain cells | D．human organs |
Humans may live longer in the future because ______.
| A．heart disease will be far away from us |
| B．human brains can decide the final death |
| C．the basic materials of cells will last forever |
| D．human organs can be repaired by new medicine |
All of my childhood and early, adult life, my mom weighed over 220 pounds (one pound =" 0.454" kilograms). I could feel the pain that my mom experienced with her fatness.
I was never uncomfortable about my mother, but I think she was uncomfortable about herself, and that feeling was painful for all of us. And she began to lose weight.
After more than twenty years of battling obesity（肥胖）, my mother completed a forceful eighteen-month diet that left her ninety pounds lighter than before. A new woman was born! At age twenty-eight, I got a new mom! For the first time, I met the woman my mother truly was, the beautiful little lady under the fatness. It wasn’t so much her new body that was the surprise, but rather her new spirit.
To celebrate her new size and to devote herself to dancing again, my mother joined a “Mrs. Forty-Plus” competition, where she would have to model, give a speech and provide a dance performance. She told our family that she did not care if she won — she simply had always wanted to perform on stage.
She told each one of us, “I’m not doing it to win; I’m doing it to dance!”
The competition was exciting! I prayed(祈祷) that my mom would win, but while watching her on stage I was simply overjoyed just by her effort. To me, she had already won. She posed to perfection, her speech brought tears to everyone’s eyes, and her performance was wonderful.
That night, at age fifty-three, my mother was crowned (为......加冕) “Mrs. Forty-Plus”. She was the first person in our family to ever win such a title. The first two paragraphs mainly show that the author’s mom was __________.
| A．experienced | B．painful | C．comfortable | D．fat |
After the author’s mom completed a forceful eighteen-month diet, she was about ______.
| A．85 kilograms | B．41 kilograms |
| C．130 pounds | D．90 pounds |
In order to join in the “Mrs. Forty-Plus” Competition, the author’s mom has to do the following EXCEPT __________.
| A．providing a dance performance |
| B．telling a funny story about herself |
| C．giving a speech to a large number of people |
| D．wearing special clothes to show to people |
The underlined part in Paragraph 6 means that __________.
| A．the author’s mom succeeded in modeling and speaking |
| B．the author’s mom’s performance was very wonderful |
| C．the author’s mom was not successful in modeling |
| D．the author’s mom succeeded in making a speech |
The deserts of the world are not all covered with sand. Many of them have surfaces of rock or clay or small stones. They are not flat, either. They often have high hills and deep valleys. There is some plants’ life in many parts of the desert. There is little rain in the desert, but it does fall often enough for most plants.
The deserts of the world are not uninhabited(not lived by people). People also live outside oases(绿洲), but these people are not farmers. They have camels, goats, donkeys, sheep, etc. These animals can live on the desert plants and do not need much water.
The people of the desert have to move constantly from place to place, they must always look for grass or desert plants for their animals. They usually live in tents. When there is no more food for their animals, they fold up their tents, pat them on their camels and donkeys, and move to another place. In good years, when there is enough food for their animals, they trade their skins and their goats and camel hairs with the people of oases for wheat and fruit. But in bad years, when there is not enough food for their animals, the people of the desert would attack the oases people. But they are also hospitable, no man in the desert would ever refuse to give a stranger food and water.According to the passage, deserts are mostly made up of _______.
| A．clay | B．rock | C．sand | D．stones |
The underlined word “hospitable” has the meaning of being _______.
| A．brave | B．cruel | C．strange | D．kind |
In the desert _______.
| A．it rains in spring only |
| B．it rains for a short time every month |
| C．there is some rain, but far from enough |
| D．the rainfall is just enough for the plants |
People live _______.
| A．only inside the oases | B．only outside the oases |
| C．both inside and outside the oases | D．in places with regular rainfalls |
From the passage we know that life _______.
| A．is hard in deserts | B．is happy in deserts |
| C．is impossible in deserts | D．in deserts is much better now |
In a new article, Zehr, a professor at the University of Victoria, Victoria, British Columbia, describes his success in using the Caped Crusader (披篷骑士) to engage students in the study of physiology.
"Batman (蝙蝠侠) has such powerful influence on readers because he is a fictional human with superpowers that seem within reach if we only work at it," writes Zehr, in a new article published in Advances in Physiology Education, a journal of the American Physiological Society. Zehr believes that it is not Batman's vast wealth that allows him to protect the citizens of Gotham City (哥谭市) , but his dedication to developing a wide range of physical skills.
Zehr uses Batman to establish a framework, grounded in his fictional universe as well as our real one, in order to discuss the various components of exercise and physical training and illustrate how the body's physiological systems respond. His experiences in teaching undergraduate courses in physiology and neurophysiology made him realize that connecting science to popular culture helped students understand the lessons better.
He first presented a formal analysis of the personal and physical discipline that would be required to transform an ordinary person into a superhero in his book, Becoming Batman: The Possibility of a Superhero. The book drew on Zehr's understanding and work in human movement and the plasticity of nerves and muscles associated with exercise. By coincidence, the book was published in the wake of The Dark Knight, the blockbuster movie which recounts Batman and his arch-enemy, the Joker.
With the casting almost complete for the sequel(续集), The Dark Knight Rises, Dr. Zehr writes about his experiences connecting science to popular culture, which is captured in the Advances, article, "A Personal View: From Claude Bernard to the Batcave and Beyond: Using Batman as a hook for physiology education."In Zehr's opinion, what makes Batman be able to defend his citizens?
| A．his large amount of fortune | B．his devotion to developing varieties of physical skills |
| C．his habit of wearing a cape | D．his developing so wide range of magic power |
Which one of the following statements is TRUE according to the third paragraph?
| A．Students of physiology and neurophysiology should have more physical training |
| B．To become a batman needs developing a wide range of physical skills |
| C．Only Batman can illustrate the respond of the body’s physiological system |
| D．combining science with popular culture can be beneficial to students’ study |
To help students study physiology well, Dr.Zehr uses Batman to do the following EXCEPT___
| A．set up his theoretical principles of teaching physiology |
| B．discuss the different components of physical training |
| C．illustrate the ways of body’s physiology system responding |
| D．perform many physiology experiments on the body movement |
.According to the book Becoming Batman, what does the possibility of becoming a superhero mainly lie on?
| A．Dr. Zehr’s formal analyses of the body's movement rules |
| B．the flexibility of nerves and muscles when being trained well |
| C．the physical training conducted by Dr. Zehr |
| D．the final influence of Batman on one person |
This passage is mainly about .
| A．Batman’seducation significance in physiology | B．introduction to Zehr’ s books on physiology |
| C．how to become a superhero like Batman | D．Batman’s powerful effects on the readers |