The power of humor and laugher is numerous. They entertain us and make us feel good. But, above all, we have discovered that humor and laughter are the best medicine. They relieve pain, reduce stress and anxiety, and are anti-aging and longevity facilitators（促进者）.
They are extremely necessary for helping us to find and maintain a balance between life and work. However, they are slipping away from us. We have become far too serious. The only ones who still enjoy humor, laughter, fun and play to the fullest are young children. Children tend to laugh an average of 200 times a day. For adults, however, it is a totally different story.
In the 1950s people laughed on average 18 times a day. Today, we are lucky if we average between 4-6 times a day.
As a matter of fact, a recent study found that people laugh 6 more times in the presence of one person but 30 more times in a group of people. You can get a chuckle(咯咯笑) from jokes you get on the Internet, but it is not the same as belly jiggling laughter (a deep laugh) you get when you interact with others.
Socializing(交际) with friends and relatives was much looked forward to. However, this is no longer the case. In fact, the majority of people can hardly find time, nor do they have the inclination towards socializing outside home. They turn to electronic media such as television, computers, the Internet, videos, CDs, and audio equipment, which can provide them with instant self-entertainment at the push of a button.
The workplace does not fare(进展) much better. Due to the pressures to produce more in the same or fewer hours available and to compete, for example, in a manufacturing field with cheaper labor elsewhere in the world, humor and laughter in the workplace have gradually eroded（逐渐毁坏） away.
I have developed a real appreciation, perhaps closer to a strong desire for the power of humor and laughter. This encouraged me to write my first book titled “The Power of Humor” and subsequently my second book titled “Kids Say the Goggonest Things” based on the natural humor, laughter, play and fun that kids experience and they freely share with parents, grandparents and teachers.
From writing about humor and laughter, people start to ask me to speak up for them. To date, I have developed a number of humor-laughter topics that I use in my keynote presentations. You are invited to subscribe to my free monthly e-magazine “The Humormeister’s Forum” by clicking on the Free Humor E-zine navigation button on the website.According to the author, laughter is leaving us partly because ________.
| A．the pace of change in our lives is becoming faster |
| B．we fail to reflect on fun times in our lives |
| C．we treat everything in a serious way |
| D．humor of situations lies beneath |
The fourth paragraph mainly tells us that ________.
| A．researchers have made a new discovery about the effect of laughter |
| B．people laugh more heartily when spending time with others |
| C．we can entertain ourselves with the help of the Internet |
| D．getting a deep laugh nowadays is difficult |
The underlined word “inclination” in Paragraph 5 most probably means “________”.
| A．destination | B．tendency | C．attitude | D．approach |
Which of the following articles can we most probably find in “The Humormeister’s Forum”?
| A．The power of honesty. |
| B．Don’t be your own worst enemy. |
| C．Live life purposefully: The relationship within. |
| D．Funny Christmas stories to share with your loved ones. |
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The soles of the boots for men are made of ____________________.
| A．leather | B．elastane | C．cotton | D．plastic |
The stretch jeans come in __________ colours and ______________ sizes.
| A．2; 3 | B．3;3 | C．3;4 | D．4;4 |
From the above chart we can see clearly that _______________________________________.
| A．the shirts listed in the chart are genuine leisure shirts |
| B．all the clothes listed in the chart can be washed both by hand and machine |
| C．you can insure your three-quarter length jacket against being stolen and accidental damage |
| D．the magic jeans may be in 100% cotton |
It will cost you ______________ to buy two epaulette shirts.
| A．99.99 pounds | B．29.98 pounds | C．49.98 pounds | D．38.98 pounds |
The order number for the England rugby shirts is________________.
| A．KQ9963 | B．DQ9967 | C．KQ 9978 | D．KQ 8149 |
Nowadays, a cellphone service is available to everyone, everywhere. Probably thousands of people have already been using it, but I just discovered it, so I'm going to claim it and also name it: Fake Foning.
The technology has been working well for me at the office, but there are infinite(无限的） applications. Virtually in any public space.
Say you work at a big university with lots of talky faculty members buzzing about. Now, say you need to use the restroom. The trip down the hall will take approximately one hour, because a person can't walk into those talky people without getting pulled aside for a question, a bit of gossip, a new read on a certain line of Paradise Lost.
So, a cellphone. Any cellphone. Just pick it up. Don't dial. Just hold that phone to your face and start talking. Walk confidently down the hall engaged in fake conversation, making sure to tailor both the topic and content to the person standing before you whom you are trying to avoid.
For standard colleague avoidance, I suggest fake chatting about fake business:
"Yes, I'm glad you called, because we really need to hammer out the details. What's that? Yes, I read Page 12, but if you look at the bottom of 4, I think you can see the problem begins right there."
Be engaged in your fake fone conversation. Make eye contact with the people passing, nod to them, gesture keen interest in talking to them at a later time, point to your phone, shrug and move on.
Shoppers should consider fake foning anytime they spot a talky neighbor in the produce department pinching (用手捏) unripe peaches. Without your phone at your face, you'd be in for a 20-minute speech on how terrible the world is.
One important caution about fake foning. The other day I was fake foning my way past a colleague, and he was actually following me to get my attention. I knew he wanted to ask about a project I had not yet finished. I was trying to buy myself some time, so I continued fake foning with my doctor. "So I don't need the operation? Oh, doctor, that is the best news."
And then: Brrrrrrng! Brrrrrmg! Brrrrrmg! My phone started ringing, right there while it was planted on my face. My colleague looked at me, and I at him, and naturally I gasped. "What is the matter with this thing?" I said, pulling the phone away to look at it, and then putting it back to my ear.
"Hello? Are you still there?" Oops.According to the passage Fake Foning is _______________________.
| A．a strategy to avoid people | B．a device newly produced |
| C．a service provided everywhere | D．a skill of communication |
In the author's opinion, in order to make fake foning look real one has to__________________.
| A．talk about interesting matters | B．behave politely to people passing by |
| C．hold the phone while walking | D．appear absorbed in conversation |
What does the last example show?
| A．One effective way is to fake fone one's doctor. |
| B．One has to be careful while fake foning. |
| C．Fake foning may not cheat people. |
| D．Fake foning is always quite successful. |
After his phone suddenly began ringing, the author___________________.
| A．immediately started talking to the caller |
| B．immediately started talking to his colleague |
| C．put the phone away and stopped talking |
| D．continued with his fake conversation |
What is the tone of the passage?
| A．Critical. | B．Humorous. | C．Serious. | D．Unclear. |
They can be seen more frequently than ever before on college campuses, wearing thick-rimmed glasses while listening to indie(独立的) music. One might find them playing unusual musical instruments, shopping at second-hand stores or expressing themselves in other unique ways. They call themselves hipsters. Being “hip” used to mean following the latest fashion. But gradually the word has evolved into a synonym for “cool”.
Hipsters value independent thinking, progressive politics, an appreciation of creativity and intelligence. Hipsters take pains and pride in not being mainstream. However, their culture has become quite trendy. This irony is central to their culture and offers an interesting paradox.
“I do take things in the mainstream with a grain of salt,” says Ben Polson, a college student at Brown University in the US. Polson describes himself as a hipster and says he often questions what determines popularity, especially regarding music.When lesser-known bands become popular they often lose their former fan base in exchange for a new one. There is a famous hipster saying that goes: I used to like that band before it got popular.
According to Polson, bands’ music changes when they go mainstream. They become “less experimental, doing things just to save popularity and fans. The original elements that we were drawn to slowly dwindle for the sake of popularity.”
Many young adults have started to view hipsters’ outlook as cool and are adopting their counterculture mindset (心态)themselves. This has led to specialized brands, stores and music for the hipster position. Ironically, some such stores, including clothing labels Urban Outfitters and American Apparel, have gained mainstream popularity. This has seemingly diluted(冲淡) the anti-mainstream culture.
“A lot of people that are self-defined hipsters aren’t really hipsters, they’re just trying to conform to the non-conformist(不墨守成规者) to seem cooler,” says Amanda Leopold, a college student from Oberlin College, US. Although Leopold has many unconventional tastes and seems quite individualist, she refuses to classify herself as a hipster.
There is a conflict among hipsters about the very definition of the label. To some, to be a hipster is to be free from cultural constraints. To others, it means wearing a certain style and listening to a specific style of music. The former constantly strives for uniqueness, while the latter strives not to be mainstream.
And yet, the movement is gaining mainstream popularity. “It’s kind of the trend these days; everyone wants to be hip so no one’s hip,” says Leopold. “There have been hipsters since the seventies. It’s only become popular recently.”
Hipsters reject materialism and laugh at mainstream culture. But are they really beyond material comforts? Do they have any ideas of their own if they despise mainstream so much?
Christy Wampole, an associate professor of literature at Princeton University, US, is not so sure. She says the hipster is a contradiction in himself and an easy target of mockery(嘲弄). Writing in The New York Times, Wampole paints a less appreciative picture of a typical hipster.
“The hipster is a scholar of social forms, a student of cool. He studies continuously, searching for what has yet to be found by the mainstream. He is a walking citation(例证); his clothes refer to much more than themselves. He tries to negotiate the age-old problem of individuality, not with concepts, but with material things.”From the passage we can know that hipsters are ____________________________.
| A．a group of people who are self-denied |
| B．a group of students who are good at musical instruments |
| C．people who follow the latest trends and fashions |
| D．people who pay no attention to material things |
The underlined word dwindle in the fourth paragraph may probably mean______________.
| A．enlarge | B．delete | C．disappear | D．decrease |
Leopold refuses to classify herself as a hipster because_______________________.
| A．she doesn’t like her own unconventional tastes |
| B．there are too many specialized brands, stores and music for the hipster position |
| C．she thinks that a lot of people that are self-defined hipsters aren’t really hipsters |
| D．the hipsters’ culture has become quite trendy |
When Leopold said “It’s kind of the trend these days; everyone wants to be hip so no one’s hip”, we can see that she felt a bit ______________.
| A．happy | B．disappointed | C．excited | D．content |
The passage mainly tells us ________________________.
| A．the difficult situation of hipsters | B．the trend of fashion |
| C．the changes of the society | D．the culture of hipsters |
Getting rid of dirt, in the opinion of most people, is a good thing. However, there is nothing fixed about attitudes to dirt.
In the early 16th century, people thought that dirt on the skin was a means to block out disease, as medical opinion had it that washing off dirt with hot water could open up the skin and let ills in. A particular danger was thought to lie in public baths. By 1538, the French king had closed the bath houses in his kingdom. So did the king of England in 1546. Thus began a long time when the rich and the poor in Europe lived with dirt in a friendly way. Henry IV, King of France, was famously dirty. Upon learning that a nobleman had taken a bath, the king ordered that, to avoid the attack of disease, the nobleman should not go out.
Though the belief in the merit (优点) of dirt was long-lived, dirt has no longer been regarded as a nice neighbor ever since the 18th century. Scientifically speaking, cleaning away dirt is good to health. Clean water supply and hand washing are practical means of preventing disease. Yet, it seems that standards of cleanliness have moved beyond science since World War II. Advertisements repeatedly sell the idea: clothes need to be whiter than white, cloths ever softer, surfaces to shine. Has the hate for dirt, however, gone too far?
Attitudes to dirt still differ hugely nowadays. Many first-time parents nervously try to warn their children off touching dirt, which might be responsible for the spread of disease. On the contrary, Mary Ruebush, an American immunologist (免疫学家), encourages children to play in the dirt to build up a strong immune system. And the latter position is gaining some ground. The kings of France and England in the 16th century closed bath houses because ________.
| A．they lived healthily in a dirty environment. |
| B．they thought bath houses were too dirty to stay in |
| C．they believed disease could be spread in public baths |
| D．they considered bathing as the cause of skin disease |
Which of the following best describes Henry IV's attitude to bathing?
| A．Afraid. | B．Curious. | C．Approving. | D．Uninterested. |
How does the passage mainly develop?
| A．By providing examples. |
| B．By making comparisons (比较). |
| C．By following the order of time. |
| D．By following the order of importance. |
What is the author's purpose in writing the passage?
| A．To stress the role of dirt. |
| B．To introduce the history of dirt. |
| C．To call attention to the danger of dirt. |
| D．To present the change of views on dirt. |
If there is one thing I’m quite sure about, it is that in a hundred years from now we still be reading newspapers. Not those newspapers are a necessity. Even now some people get most of the news from the television or have the radio switched on in the background or in the car. Many buy a paper only on Saturday or Sunday. But for most people a newspaper has become a habit passed down from generation to generation.
The basic British character won’t change, and one of the characteristics of the British is that we don’t much like talking to each other when we get up. So what better way is there to keep yourself thinking in the morning than to wrap yourself in a newspaper?
Over the past couple of centuries, human beings have developed a close relationship with the newspaper. It has become as natural as breathing or enjoying the sun. And it is not just the British who love newspapers. On suburban trains in Calcutta, for instance, just one person in the whole car will buy a newspaper and read aloud the best bits to his fellow passengers, much to everybody’s enjoyment.
The nature of what is news may change. What essentially (本质上) makes news is what affects our lives and the big political stories, the coverage of the wars, earthquakes and other disasters, will continue much the same. I think there will be more coverage of scientific research, though. It’s already happening in areas that may directly affect our lives, like genetic engineering. In the future I think there will be more coverage of scientific explanations of why we feel as we do, whether it’s love or depression. We develop a better understanding of how the brain operates and what our feelings really are.
It’s quite possible that in the next century newspaper will be transmitted electronically from the national equivalents of Fleet Street (伦敦的舰队街，以报馆集中而著称) and printed out in our own homes. In fact, I’m pretty sure that that is how it will happen in future. You’ll be probably selecting from a menu, making up your own bespoke newspaper by picking out the things you want to read and say. You might even have an intelligent screening device (装置) to do the job for you.
I think people have got it wrong when they talk about the competition between the different media. They actually have a relationship, feeding off each other. It was once predicted that television would kill off newspapers, which hasn’t happened. What is read on the printed page is more enduring (持久的) than pictures on a flickering screen or sound lost in the sky. And as for the Internet, it’s never really satisfying to read something just on a screen. The author of the passage is most probably from _______________.
| A．Russia | B．India | C．Britain | D．America |
According to the passage, the future of newspapers ____________.
| A．will be mainly connected with scientific research |
| B．will report more important political activities |
| C．will directly cover more on scientific research |
| D．will build a bridge between different people |
The underlined part “bespoke newspaper” of the passage probably refers to _____________.
| A．a newspaper which dares to report the truth |
| B．a newspaper edited to one’s own interest |
| C．a newspaper edited and published for the public |
| D．a newspaper which only covers the life of family members |
Which of the following is TRUE according to the passage?
| A．It was centuries ago that newspapers came into being . |
| B．Televisions have taken the place of newspapers . |
| C．The Internet will gradually take the place of newspapers. |
| D．The nature of news may remain the same over generations. |