I am a strong believer that if a child is raised with approval, he will learn to love himself and will be successful in his own way.
Several weeks ago, I was doing homework with my son in the third grade and he kept standing up from his chair to go over the math lines. I kept asking him to sit down, telling him that he would concentrate better. He sat but seconds later, as if he didn’t even notice he was doing it, he got up again. I was getting frustrated, but then it hit me. I started noticing his answers were much quicker and accurate (准确的) when he stood up. Could he be more intent (专心的) while standing up?
This made me start questioning myself and what I had been raised to believe. I was raised to believe that a quiet, calm child was a sure way to success. This child would have the discipline (纪律) to study hard, get good grades and become someone important in life.
Now those same people perhaps come to realize that their kids are born with their own sets of DNA and personality traits (特点) and all you can do is loving and accepting them. As parents, throughout their growing years and beyond that, we need to be our kids’ best cheer leaders, guiding them and helping them find their way.
I have stopped asking my son to sit down and concentrate. Obviously, he is concentrating just in his own way and not mine. We need to learn to accept our kids’ ways of doing things. Some way may have worked for me but doesn’t mean we need to carry it through generations. There is nothing sweeter than being individual (个人的) and unique (独一无二的). It makes us free and happy and that’s just the way I want my kids to live their own life.At the beginning, the author tried to keep his son seated in order to make him _____.
| A．pay more attention to his study | B．keep silent in the room |
| C．finish his homework on time | D．get right answers |
Inspired by the case of his son, the author began to doubt ________.
| A．the importance of parents |
| B．the old form of education |
| C．the relationship between kids and their parents |
| D．the good grades of some kids |
According to the passage, which of the following statements is right?
A. We should help kids correct their wrong ways.
B. Parents should study their kids’ DNA.
C. Kids should be taught to behave themselves.
D. Parents should love and accept their kids.Which of the following would be the best title of the passage?
| A．Study hard and you’ll be successful |
| B．Be friendly to your children |
| C．Children’s success in their own style |
| D．Parents’ help with their children’s study |
DEAR AMY: We recently had to put our cat down. It came out of the blue. We had no idea that he had health problems, and we woke up early one morning to the cat crying out painfully. We immediately rushed him to the vet’s where the vet said that at best treatment might lengthen his life by two to three months. We did not want to see him suffer, so we chose to kill the cat in a painless way.
I am having a rough time! I cry when I am alone. I cry when I see pet commercials on television. I put away everything that reminds me of the cat. But the last sight of seeing the cat in pain plays over and over in my head. My kids seem alright with what has happened, but why am I struggling?
It has only been one week since his passing, so I hope things will get better. Do you have any suggestions?
Yours,
Sad
DEAR SAD: There is no loss quite like the loss of a pet; these animals keep us company through important life passages and are beloved witnesses to our human lives.
I understand your instinct to put away all of your cat’s things, but it may help you now to memorialize your pet by using these things. Each family member can write down favorite things about him or memories of him; read their memories aloud and put the papers inside his bowl. The idea is to replace those painful last memories with much more lively memories taking place over the most of the animal’s life.
Time will then do its job, which is to affect your feelings. And then, when you’re ready, I hope you will adopt another animal and give it the opportunity to share your life.
Yours,
AmyWhich of the following made the author’s family choose to kill the cat in a painless way?
| A．The cat had changed its color. |
| B．The vet himself had no way to save its life. |
| C．The family wouldn’t see it suffer in its later life. |
| D．The cat suffered so much that it could die at any time. |
The author cried when seeing pet commercials on television because .
| A．she was alone at home |
| B．she thought of her lovely cat |
| C．she didn’t like to see the things of the cat |
| D．her children showed no feeling over the cat’s death |
What does the underlined phrase mean in Paragraph 1?
| A．In the color of blue. | B．Very sadly. |
| C．All of a sudden. | D．With much pain. |
What do we know from the last paragraph of Amy’s letter?
| A．The longer it is, the less you will feel sad about your pet. |
| B．It is important to find a new pet as soon as possible. |
| C．As time goes on, you will feel more sorrow about your pet. |
| D．One can’t live a happy life without a pet around him. |
“Chances are we have all experienced shyness in our lives, and shyness has been associated with negative outcomes—characteristics like difficulty maintaining eye contact, and feelings of humiliation(丢脸) are known to be part of a shy person’s characters. It’s these traits that tend to affect some shy individuals’ ability to connect,” says C. Barr Taylor, a professor of psychology at Stanford University.
“But while shyness can often be seen as a bad thing, there are ways to use the personality trait to your advantage,” Taylor says. Below are some common shy habits and how you can learn to make them benefit you:
Shy people usually reflect inwardly (在内心) a lot. But according to Taylor,all that thinking may not always be a bad thing and it should be viewed as a way you can think actively as you go into a situation. So, for shy people who feel worried about facing a particular challenge or event, Taylor advises slowly approaching the fearful situation if you start to feel anxious. By facing what you are not feeling secure about, Taylor says, you will feel less anxious. “Our brains are amazing—they can become well adapted,” he says. “If you put yourself in a fearful situation, you will get a sense that you are going to do it.” What’s more, shy individuals care deeply about what others think of them, and if it is addressed healthily, they can use it to their advantage to form social connections.
Shy people are observant and often pick up on parts of their conversation or surroundings that others may not. “Just because you are shy, that does not mean you are not used to social situations,” Taylor says. “It can actually become a source of strength as you are the observer in the room.” In a study out of Southern Illinois University at Carbondale, researchers found an association between college-age adults who were shy and the ability to better identify expressions of sadness and fear compared with those who weren’t shy. In addition, a shy person has a born drive to absorb a conversation, so they can be great at conversation.In the opinion of C. Barr Taylor, we should .
A.think positively of shyness
B.try to get rid of shyness
C.attempt to be a little shy
D.often help those shy peopleThe passage mentions the study by Southern Illinois University just to show that .
| A．shy people use rich facial expressions |
| B．shy people are good at observing others |
| C．shyness can be used to reduce anxiety |
| D．shyness can be used in social connections |
We can know from the passage that shy people .
| A．are good at getting used to a new environment |
| B．often attach much importance to others’ opinions |
| C．hate to think a lot before taking an action |
| D．are good at overcoming their feeling of insecurity |
An eight-year-old Arthur Gonzaga from Minas Gerais, Brazil has taken the Internet by a storm, as first reported by TheHuffingtonPost, with his online YouTube series videos “Arthur Gourmand”. And while it would not be a far stretch of the imagination to assume an 8-year-old’s cooking show would be filled with dishes like pizza and burgers, Arthur’s show actually features recipes like fruit salad a la créme de passion fruit and filet mignon (菲力牛排).
The idea to record Arthur’s cooking adventures on YouTube was rooted in the young chef’s leukemia diagnosis (白血病诊断) in August 2013.Treatment and recovery for the cancer left the young boy in the hospital for the second half of the year and Aruthur was even forced to spend Christmas Eve in the emergency room of So Paulo’s A.C. Camargo Cancer Center. That’s when his family—father Renato Gonzaga and stepmother Priscila Inserra—decided that Arthur should create something positive that would distract him from his health.
The videos, which are filmed in the kitchen of a friend of the family, are in Portuguese. They show Arthur walking the viewers through a step-by-step process of the entire recipe—from preparation to cooking. Occasionally, viewers can see Arthur’s father serving as his son’s sous chef, passing ingredients and following his lead.
Fluent in Portuguese or not, viewers can immediately notice Arthur’s optimistic and friendly personality. It is perhaps these qualities that have given the young rising Internet star almost 5,000 likes on his Facebook Fan Page. There are currently three videos on YouTube and according to his most recent Facebook post, the young boy will be taking suggestions for his next video.
Fortunately, according to what Inserra told TheHuffingtonPost, Arthur is responding well to his treatments and is on his path to recovery. “The secret of life is to let it take you, to have fun and to know how to turn lemons into lemonade (柠檬水),” wrote her family, fittingly, on their most recent Facebook post. Hats off to Arthur, who truly serves as a shining example of how to turn lemons into lemonade.Arthur Gourmand is a name of .
| A．the boy | B．the boy’s illness |
| C．a newspaper | D．the boy’s cooking show |
Arthur performs his cooking show .
| A．on the stage | B．in his friend’s kitchen |
| C．in his own kitchen | D．in the emergency room |
The underlined phrase “sous chef” probably means .
| A．a assistant of a chef | B．a adviser of a chef |
| C．a companion of a chef | D．a friend of a chef |
Which of the following statements is TRUE?
| A．Arthur has finished all his videos. |
| B．Arthur doesn’t speak Portuguese fluently. |
| C．Arthur had to spend the New Year’s Eve in the hospital. |
| D．Arthur sets a good example to those with serious illness. |
China has been drinking tea since the time of Shennong, 5,000 years ago. Britain’s relationship with tea is much shorter, but tea enjoys the pride as the UK’s national drink. According to the UK Tea Council, British people drink an average of three cups a day or a national total of 165 million cups every day.
With figures like these, it is no surprise that time spent taking tea affects the working day in Britain. A recent survey found that 24 minutes a day are lost to making, buying and drinking tea and coffee. That is, £400 a year is lost in working hours per employee, or 190 days over a lifetime. So, should employers be worried about this lost working time, or does the tea break make up in other ways?
One argument is that caffeine improves mental state: a drink of tea or coffee can make you active and focus on work.
Professor Rogers of the University of Bristol disagrees. After years of studying caffeine he sees nothing can prove that. “Workers would perform equally well if not drinking it at all,” he says. “But if they’re often drinking it and then go without, they’ll feel tired and won’t work well.”
Psychologist Cooper instead emphasizes the role tea breaks play in office life, and in building social relationships. “We need to make people more active and see other people. The tea break is one way of doing this,” says Cooper.
And Professor Rogers also points out the comfort effect of a hot drink: “We warm our hands on them on a cold day; they’re comforting and play a big role in our everyday life. Whatever the caffeine’s doing, I’d say these 24 minutes aren’t wasted.”What is the passage mainly about?
| A．Tea Breaks cannot make people more active at work. |
| B．British people drink more tea than people in other countries. |
| C．Tea break plays an important role in people’s life in Britain. |
| D．A lot of time has been wasted drinking tea in the working day. |
We learn from a recent survey that in Britain _______.
| A．£400 is lost in working hours for each person |
| B．tea breaks take up 24 minutes in a working day |
| C．people spends 190 days drinking tea and coffee each year |
| D．people drink 165 million cups in working hours every day |
What’s Psychologist Coopers’ attitude towards tea break?
| A．Doubtful. | B．Uncertain. |
| C．Negative. | D．Positive. |
You may not pay much attention to your daily elevator ride. Many of us use a lift several times during the day without really thinking about it. But Lee Gray, PhD, of the University of North Carolina, US, has made it his business to examine this overlooked form of public transport. He is known as the “Elevator Guy”.
“The lift becomes this interesting social space where etiquette (礼仪) is sort of odd (奇怪的),” Gray told the BBC. “They (elevators) are socially very interesting but often very awkward places.”
We walk in and usually turn around to face the door. If someone else comes in, we may have to move. And here, according to Gray, lift users unthinkingly go through a set pattern of movements. He told the BBC what he had observed.
He explained that when you are the only one inside a lift, you can do whatever you want – it’s your own little box.If there are two of you, you go into different corners, standing diagonally (对角线地) across from each other to create distance.When a third person enters, you will unconsciously form a triangle. And when there is a fourth person it becomes a square, with someone in every corner. A fifth person is probably going to have to stand in the middle.
New entrants to the lift will need to size up the situation when the doors slide open and then act decisively. Once in, for most people the rule is simple – look down, or look at your phone.
Why are we so awkward in lifts?
“You don’t have enough space,” Professor Babette Renneberg, a clinical psychologist at the Free University of Berlin, told the BBC. “Usually when we meet other people we have about an arm’s length of distance between us. And that’s not possible in most elevators.”
In such a small, enclosed space it becomes very important to act in a way that cannot be construed (理解) as threatening or odd. “The easiest way to do this is to avoid eye contact,” she said.The main purpose of the article is to _____.
| A．remind us to enjoy ourselves in the elevator |
| B．tell us some unwritten rules of elevator etiquette |
| C．share an interesting but awkward elevator ride |
| D．analyze what makes people feel awkward in an elevator |
According to Gray, when people enter an elevator, they usually _____.
| A．turn around and greet one another |
| B．look around or examine their phone |
| C．make eye contact with those in the elevator |
| D．try to keep a distance from other people |
Which of the following describes how people usually stand when there are at least two people in an elevator?
The writer wrote the passage in a tone of ___________.
| A．disapproved | B．objective |
| C．negative | D．supportive |