Anger at the practice of demanding dowries，which can lead to violence against brides，has prompted a takeoff of “Angry Birds” called “Angry Brides” that aims to highlight the illegal practice still prevalent in many South Asian countries.
Dowries—such as jewelry，clothes，cars and money—are traditionally given by the bride’s family to the groom and his parents to ensure she is taken care of in her new home.
The custom was outlawed more than five decades ago.But it is still widely practiced，with the groom’s family demanding even more money after marriage，leading to mental and physical annoyance that can drive the woman to suicide.
“The Angry Brides game is our way of throwing a spotlight on the nuisance(陋习) of dowry.” said Ram Bhamidi，senior vice president and head of online marketing for Shaadi.com，a matrimonial(婚姻的) website with two million members.
According to a 2007 study，there is a dowryrelated death every four hours in India；we condemn this and have consistently run campaigns on social media to help create awareness of the issue.
The name of the app，available on the group’s home page，is a spinoff from the globally popular “Angry Birds” game.Its home page shows a redclad，eightarmed woman resembling a powerful female Hindu goddess.Underneath，there is a caption，“A woman will give you strength，care and all the love you need NOT dowry！”
To play the game，users have to try and hit three dodging grooms—a pilot，a builder and a doctor.There are a variety of weapons to choose from，including a frying pan，broomstick，tomato and loafer.
Each groom has a price tag，starting at 1.5 million rupees($29,165)．Every time the player hits a groom，his value decreases and money is added to the player’s AntiDowry Fund，which is saved posted on their Facebook page.
“Since we launched the game last week，more than 270,000 people have liked the app.Both men and women seem to be playing it，” said Bhamidi.What caused “Angry Brides” to appear online?
| A．Women’s rights being seriously abused. |
| B．Anger at the practice of demanding dowries. |
| C．The bride’s giving a great many dowries. |
| D．The popularity of “Angry Birds” online. |
Which of the following is TRUE about “Dowries”？
| A．The custom of giving dowries has been in practice for five decades. |
| B．Lack of abundant dowries may lead to the bride’s being in violence. |
| C．The illegal practice of dowries is still popular in many African countries. |
| D．More dowries the bride gives mean a high social status of her family. |
The underlined word “spinoff” probably means “________”．
| A．relation | B．connection |
| C．copy | D．fake |
Which of the following is NOT TRUE about the game “Angry Bride”？
| A．There are a variety of weapons to choose from. |
| B．Ram Bhamidi thinks highly of the game. |
| C．Men players don’t find the game enjoyable. |
| D．The game character looks like a Hindu goddess. |
Generations of Americans have been brought up to believe that a good breakfast is essential to one's life. Eating breakfast at the start of the day, we have been told, and told again, is as necessary as putting gasoline in the family car before starting a trip.
But for many people, the thought of food as the first thing in the morning is never a pleasure. So in spite of all the efforts, they still take no breakfast. Between 1977 and 1983, the latest year for which figures could be obtained, the number of people who didn’t have breakfast increased by 33%—from 8.8 million to 11.7 million—according to the Chicago-based Market Research Corporation of America.
For those who dislike eating breakfast, however, there is some good news. Several studies in the last few years have shown that, for grown-ups especially, there may be nothing wrong with omitting breakfast. “Going without breakfast does not affect work,” said Arnold E. Bender, former professor of nutrition at Queen Elizabeth College in London, “nor does giving people breakfast improve work.”
Scientific evidence linking breakfast to better health or better work is surprisingly inadequate, and most of the recent work involves children, not grown-ups. “The literature,” says one researcher, Dr Earnest Polite at the University of Texas, “is poor.”The main idea of the passage is that _______.
| A．breakfast has nothing to do with people's health |
| B．a good breakfast used to be important to us |
| C．breakfast is not as important to us as gasoline to a car |
| D．breakfast is not as important as we thought before |
For those who do not take breakfast, the good news is that _______.
| A．several studies have been done in the past few years |
| B．the omission of breakfast has little effect on one’s work |
| C．grown-ups have especially made studies in this field |
| D．eating little in the morning is good for health |
The underlined part “nor does giving people breakfast improve work” means _______.
| A．people without breakfast can improve their work |
| B．not giving people breakfast improves work |
| C．having breakfast does not improve work, either |
| D．people having breakfast do improve their work, too |
The word "literature" in the last sentence refers to _______.
| A．stories, poems, play, etc |
| B．written works on a particular subject |
| C．newspaper articles |
| D．the modern literature of America |
What is implied but not stated by the author is that _______.
| A．breakfast does not affect work |
| B．Dr Polite works at an institution of higher learning |
| C．not eating breakfast might affect the health of children |
| D．Professor Bender once taught college courses in nutrition in London |
Dear Volunteers，
The service you will provide to elderly individuals in Abilene as a Meals on Wheels volunteer is deeply appreciated. I want to take this opportunity to thank you for the many miles you will travel and all of the hours you will contribute to help make this one of the best programs in the entire state.
We have our staff members make a home visit before adding each person to the program and try to visit everyone at least once every year. That is hardly enough, and we depend on your contact a great deal! It is important that you report back when you do not get an answer to your knock on the door. The person inside may be hurt or ill. They may be in hospital or out of town and fail to inform us. If they are frequently absent, we may need to determine if they still need meals.
If you find someone with a medical emergency, please call 911 to request medical assistance, and then call the Meals on Wheels office. If you find someone who needs assistance other than for a medical emergency, please call the Meals on Wheels office at 6725050, and we will try to find the appropriate agency or individual to call.
Let us know when a certain person needs extra food. We have a food preparation room of shelf stable items to share with them. Please feel free to take a few magazines when you deliver meals. Many of those we serve cannot afford magazines and enjoy reading. If someone is interested in getting books from the Abilene Public Library, let us know. We can sign them up for the Books on Wheels program. Call if you smell gas strongly when you deliver meals, or if someone needs a space heater, a blanket, or an electric fan. Please convey all needs to us, and we will try to see that they are met. Some of the elderly people who we offer our service may have cancers, liver diseases, AIDS, etc. If you do not want to deliver meals to the people with certain types of health problems, such as these, please let us know.
Sincerely,
Betty L. Bradley, LBSW,
Executive DirectorWhy does the author write this letter?
| A．To express great thanks to volunteers. |
| B．To explain how the old people get help. |
| C．To tell volunteers what they are tasked with. |
| D．To describe the life situation of the old people. |
What can we learn about the volunteers from the passage?
| A．They order books for needy people. |
| B．They design programs to help people. |
| C．They offer medical help to sick people. |
| D．They deliver food to the elderly people. |
How does the author learn about the needs of the people served?
| A．The volunteers report back the information to him. |
| B．His staff members call them to get the information. |
| C．He visits them now and then to get the information. |
| D．The family members send the information to his office. |
The $11 billion self-help industry is built on the idea that you should turn negative thoughts like "I never do anything right" into positive ones like "I can succeed." But was positive thinking advocate Norman Vincent Peale right? Is there power in positive thinking?
Researchers in Canada just published a study in the journal Psychological Science that says trying to get people to think more positively can actually have the opposite effect: it can simply highlight how unhappy they are.
The study's authors, Joanne Wood and John Lee of the University of Waterloo and Elaine Perunovic of the University of New Brunswick, begin by citing (引证) older research showing that when people get feedback which they believe is overly positive, they actually feel worse, not better. If you tell your friend who is slow to learn that he has the potential of an Einstein, you're just underlining his faults. In one 1990s experiment, a team including psychologist Joel Cooper of Princeton asked participants to write essays opposing funding for the disabled. When the essayists were later praised for their sympathy, they felt even worse about what they had written.
In this experiment, Wood, Lee and Perunovic measured 68 students' self-esteem. The participants were then asked to write down their thoughts and feelings for four minutes. Every 15 seconds, one group of students heard a bell. When it rang, they were supposed to tell themselves, "I am lovable."
Those with low self-esteem didn't feel better after the forced self-affirmation (自我肯定). In fact, their moods turned significantly darker than those of members of the control group, who weren't urged to think positive thoughts.
The paper provides support for newer forms of psychotherapy (心理治疗) that urge people to accept their negative thoughts and feelings rather than fight them. In the fighting, we not only often fail but can make things worse. Meditation (静思) techniques, in contrast, can teach people to put their shortcomings into a larger, more realistic viewpoint. Call it the power of negative thinking.The first paragraph is written ___________.
| A．to raise an argument about positive thinking |
| B．to introduce the power of positive thinking |
| C．to encourage people to have positive thoughts |
| D．to introduce the $11 billion self-help industry |
According to the study of the Canadian researchers, ___________.
| A．positive thinking is not as powerful as negative thinking |
| B．encouraging positive thinking may actually discourage people |
| C．happy people can think positively while unhappy people can’t |
| D．getting people to think positively can strengthen their confidence |
What does the underlined sentence in Paragraph 3 mean?
| A．You are pointing out the mistakes he has made. |
| B．You are reminding him that he is not intelligent. |
| C．You are not taking his mistakes seriously enough. |
| D．You are showing he has great potential in spite of faults. |
We can learn from the last paragraph that ___________.
| A．negative feelings must be got rid of |
| B．there’s no point in thinking positively |
| C．it doesn’t make sense to think negatively |
| D．negative thinking is not always negative |
Facial expressions carry meaning that is determined by situations and relationships. For example, in American culture the smile is in general an expression of pleasure. Yet it also has other uses. A woman’s smile at a police officer does not carry the same meaning as the smile she gives to a young child. A smile may show love or politeness. It can also hide true feelings. It often causes confusion (困惑) across cultures. For example, many people in Russia consider smiling at strangers in public to be unusual and even improper. Yet many Americans smile freely at strangers in public places (although this is less common in big cities). Some Russians believe that Americans smile in the wrong places; some Americans believe that Russians don’t smile enough. In Southeast Asian cultures, a smile is frequently used to cover painful feelings. Vietnamese people may tell a sad story but end the story with a smile.
Our faces show emotions (情感), but we should not attempt to “read” people from another culture as we would “read” someone from our own culture. The fact that members of one culture do not express their emotions as openly as do members of another does not mean that they do not experience emotions. Rather, there are cultural differences in the amount of facial expressiveness permitted. For example, in public and in formal situations many Japanese do not show their emotions as freely as Americans do. When with friends, Japanese and Americans seem to show their emotions similarly.
It is difficult to generalize about Americans and facial expressiveness because of personal and cultural backgrounds in the United States. People from certain cultural backgrounds in the United States seem to be more facially expressive than others. The key is to try not to judge people whose ways of showing emotion are different. If we judge according to our own cultural habits, we may make the mistake of “reading” the other person incorrectly.What does the smile usually mean in the U.S.?
| A．Love | B．Politeness | C．Joy | D．Thankfulness |
The author mentions the smile of the Vietnamese to prove that a smile can ________.
| A．show friendliness to strangers |
| B．be used to hide true feelings |
| C．be used in the wrong places |
| D．show personal habits |
What should we do before attempting to “read” people?
| A．Learn about their relations with others |
| B．Understand their cultural backgrounds |
| C．Find out about their past experience |
| D．Figure out what they will do next |
What would be the best title for the test?
| A．Cultural Differences |
| B．Smiles and Relationships |
| C．Facial Expressiveness |
| D．Habits and Emotions |
Have you heard of the saying, “If anything is worth doing, it is worth doing well”? The proverb is a piece of advice to make effects towards perfection in whichever job one does. It could be a small task like folding up your clothes, or a major one like organizing a business meeting in your later life.
Perfection just needs paying attention to details. If it is your job to dust the furniture at home, dust it so that not a single spot of dirt shows from any direction. If your task is to make the beds, make them so that not a single crease（皱纹）shows on the bed-covers.
There are only two ways to do a job: either sloppily, or well. If you choose the latter, you need to realize that any job that qualifies as (取得…的资格)“your” work deserves your best. Perfection is an attitude that can be developed with just a little effect. It is a habit that is helpful to a person in later life. Let us prove with an example: you may be asked to turn in an essay on, for example, wildlife, for a school project. Instead of writing carelessly a few facts that you already know, you could make the project more effective by looking up a reference books, encyclopedias（百科全书）or websites for additional information. You could then go over the finished essay for slips（疏漏）and errors, and provide pictures where necessary. If you make it a habit to put in extra effort in your school homework, will it not help you to handle more difficult projects at the college or university level?
As Michelangelo, the famous 16th century sculptor and painter, once put it: Trifles（琐事）go to make perfection, and perfection is no trifle.According to the passage, to achieve perfection is _______.
| A．to realize the quality of the work |
| B．to pay attention to details of one’s work |
| C．to do as many jobs as possible |
| D．to form the habit of doing things ahead of time |
The underlined word “sloppily” in paragraph 3 may mean _______
| A．badly | B．patiently | C．carefully | D．slowly |
What can be inferred from the third paragraph?
| A．It is necessary to provide pictures for your essay. |
| B．Websites are the sources of information you want. |
| C．Perfection is a habit that promises a good future. |
| D．You should make much effort to develop perfection. |
The purpose of writing this passage is to _______.
| A．introduce the famous painter Michelangelo |
| B．advise us to do the things that are worth doing |
| C．explain to us the meaning of the perfection |
| D．expect us to give our best to our work |