An older friend once gave me a piece of advice,“Enjoy the last few weeks of college,” she said,“since college is the best time of your life.”
This was not the first time I’d heard such a statement,but with graduation fast coming close,her words especially struck me.It seemed a bit disappointing to reach one’s life peak at only 22 years of age,but in her opinion,college had been one of the best times in my life so far.I made friends,took classes,and learned a great deal about myself.But I was also excited for the time after college—moving to a new city,starting a new job,and becoming a “real” person.I hoped that my great dreams were practical.
Then,last week I read a column in Real Simple Magazine called 100 Years of Attitude,in which women 100 years or older shared their life experiences and views.I noticed that none of them considered college as the “best” time of their life.Not all of them went to college,but still in most cases their teens and twenties were not the best times of their life.They said some of their favorite times were raising their children,traveling after retirement,and even enjoying their present time and age.
Enjoying one’s present time and age was a clear theme of the interviews.A piece of advice given by the women was about the importance of making the best of all situations.I think it more accurate than that of my friend;I can say with certainty that if I am lucky enough to make it to 100.I refuse to spend the last 80 years of my life plummeting (跌落) downhill,or even leveling off.
I am sure that our eagerness and devotion will make us college students live a meaningful life.We will not just look backwards or miss our college days.We will look forward in excitement about continued journey uphill.Which of the following opinions does the writer agree with?
| A.College is the best time of one’s life. |
| B.Twenties were the best time of the old people. |
| C.One should make the best of all situations. |
| D.One should not look backwards at their college time. |
In the second paragraph,the writer wants to say________.
| A.her achievements in college would be the peak of her success |
| B.she is looking forward to living as a “real” person in college |
| C.she becomes more and more uneasy with graduation |
| D.she is satisfied with the college life but is hopeful for the future |
The column the writer read is mainly about those old women’s________.
| A.best time of life at youth |
| B.life experiences and views |
| C.different opinions about life |
| D.favorite time with best friends |
By saying “I refuse to spend the last 80 years of my life plummeting downhill,or even leveling off” (in Paragraph 4),the writer really means________.
| A.she will not spend the rest of her time at college |
| B.she will not just obtain a college level certificate |
| C.she will not be satisfied with what she has already accomplished |
| D.she will not be content with the life in the future |
Which of the following words can be used to describe the writer?
| A.Ambitious. | B.Practical. |
| C.Imaginative. | D.Proud. |
The next time your face turns red after tripping(绊倒) over your own feet in public, don’t try to hide it—a new study finds that showing your embarrassment actually makes other people view you as more reliable.
Researchers at the University of California have carried out the study and found that embarrassment is a good signature of a person to whom you can entrust valuable resources.
Not only are the findings useful for people seeking cooperative and reliable team members and business partners, but they also make for helpful dating advice.“Moderate(适度的) levels of embarrassment are signs of virtue. Our data suggests embarrassment is a good thing, not something you should fight.”said Matthew Feinberg, who led the study.
While the most typical gesture of embarrassment is a downward gaze to one side while partly covering the face, a person who feels shame, as distinguished(区别) from embarrassment, will typically cover the whole face, Feinberg said.
The results were got from a series of experiments. In the first experiment, 60 college students were videotaped describing embarrassing moments, such as making incorrect assumptions(假想) based on appearances. The college students also participated in the “Dictator Game” which is used in economics research to measure altruism(利己主义). For example, each was given 10 raffle tickets(奖券) and asked to keep a share of the tickets and give the reminder(提示物) to a partner.
The findings, published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, showed that those who showed greater levels of embarrassment tended to give away more of their raffle tickets, indicating(﹦showing) greater generosity. According to the passage, which of the following is thought to be reliable?
| A.A person who feels shame. |
| B.A person who hides his embarrassment. |
| C.A person who shows his embarrassment. |
| D.A person who gives away more raffle tickets. |
We can infer from Paragraph 3 that ________.
| A.it’s useless to fight our embarrassment |
| B.people should try to overcome their embarrassment |
| C.embarrassed people are not good at doing business |
| D.people who show embarrassment can be good business partners |
The “Dictator Game ” is used to _________.
| A.measure the students’ economic status |
| B.test whether a student is generous or not |
| C.determine the different levels of embarrassment |
| D.record how each student reacts during embarrassing moments |
We learn from the last paragraph that those who showed greater levels of embarrassment ____.
| A.proved to be more generous | B.kept more of the raffle tickets |
| C.didn’t care for raffle tickets | D.were less reliable |
How to Tell If Someone Is Happy or Sad on the Phone
Scientists have come up with some researches on what makes different types of people“tick”.
The scientists at the University of Cambridge have developed new mobile phone technology called Emotion Sense that can tell if a caller is happy, angry or sad.
Scientists hope to fit the speech recognition system to standard mobile phones and use it to determine emotions—it will also use a GPS tracking system to log where the call is made.
And they’ve already made some pretty major breakthroughs into really getting under the skin of us humans.
The results from the pilot scheme make interesting scientific reading. Among the key revelations (﹦facts) are that callers feel happier at home and sadder at work.
To break it down, scientifically, it shows 45 percent of all emotions produced at home are “happy”and 54 percent of emotions at work are “sad”.
Meanwhile, people show more “intense”(﹦nervous) emotions in the evening than they do in the morning.
Of course, this could just be because most people feel too tired in the morning to get overly “intense”. Eating breakfast and getting to work on time is usually enough of an achievement.
Anyway, the Emotion Sense technology has been developed by psychologists(心理学家) and computer scientists who say it uses speech recognition software and phone sensors(传感器) attached to standard smart phones to judge how callers’ emotions are changed by everyday factors.
The sensors analyze voice samples and these are then divided into five categories: happiness, sadness, fearfulness, anger or neutral-—boredom or passivity(消极) would fit into this last category.How many emotions can the sensors tell?
| A.Two | B.Three | C.Four | D.Five |
What does the underlined sentence mean?
| A.Scientists have put something testing people’s emotions under humans’ skin. |
| B.There were some breakthroughs in this technology in getting something from people’s skin. |
| C.In this technology, people’s skin was broken through. |
| D.There were improvements in testing people’s emotions. |
Why do most people feel less intense in the morning than in the evening?
| A.Because morning is the start of a new day. |
| B.because they feel too tired in the morning. |
| C.Because of humans’ physiological structure. |
| D.Because of the fresh air and bright sunlight. |
Which of the following hasn’t been put into the standard mobile phones?
| A.Speech recognition software. | B.Phone sensors. |
| C.GPS sensors. | D.Translation system. |
I woke up this morning. There is an empty feeling that I have had so many times before and it seems to be coming back into my mind. What is it? I can’t figure it out.
I got ready for work. On the way I decide to stop and get a cheese from the little shop just down the road. I have never been there before but I was hungry and it would be 5 hours before I got off work.
The owner of the store took my order. He asked me what I wanted and I told him I heard he made a great cheese. He seemed pleased to hear that.
As I was sitting in the small space,there was an elderly gentleman finishing his breakfast. He paid the waitress, received this change and made a small joke. As he turned to get up, which was quite a difficult feat for this gentleman, he looked over at me. I gave a small smile.
He looked again in my direction for a moment and said to me, “Has anyone ever told you, you have the most beautiful brown eyes?”
Seeing as I have blue eyes, I can’t say I have ever heard that before. I humored him and said, “No, I can’t say anyone has ever told me that before.”
He smiled, and said,“Well since they are blue you wouldn’t have heard that, but you have beautiful blue eyes.”
I laughed and said thank you very much. He began to tell me a few one liner jokes so I smiled and laughed at his jokes.
He tried to get up to leave again and looked at me and said“Your smile really brightens a room, do you know that?”I said,“Thank you very much.”
He proceeded to get up, which took him quite some time. As he got up he said,“Take care of that smile.”
I felt a sense of comfort wash over me and I reflected on my morning and that empty feeling I had. For a moment in time it seemed to be filled.Before the writer went to work, he felt________.
| A.sleepy | B.energetic | C.sick | D.unhappy |
From the text, we can infer the old man __________.
| A.was optimistic about life | B.liked to play a joke on others |
| C.was unwilling to leave | D.had difficulty in hearing |
By saying“since they are blue”, the old man meant“_____________”.
| A.because they feel cold | B.because they are sad |
| C.because they have blue eyes | D.because they are hungry |
What lesson can we learn from the story?
| A.We should find comfort from stranger. |
| B.We should pay attention to our own business. |
| C.We should laugh off our worries in life |
| D.We should show respect to the old people. |
Roger Alvarez, 22, was one of the 52 percent of students who didn’t make it through his senior year at Manual Arts High School in Los Angeles.
He dropped out several years ago, but by the time he was in ninth grade, Alvarez says he already knew he wasn’t going to graduate.
“There’s a certain amount of knowledge you have to have when you enter in a specific grade, and I didn’t have it.” Alvarez says,“Every class I used to go in, I was like, ‘Do I know this? I don’t know this.’”
It was a shameful attitude, he tells his former English teacher, Antero Garcia, 29.
“You were determined to help me, but what was I willing to give? I could have actually tried.”
For his part, Garcia wants to know how he could have reached out to Alvarez better, but Alvarez says Garcia had always been helpful.
“I mean, you could cheer me up, and then I see other students doing way better,” Alvarez says,“So then, I get nervous. I get stuck, and then my motivation goes to the floor.” He felt the situation was hopeless.
“You talked to me like if I could do it, but inside me, I knew I couldn’t.” he tells Garcia,“I just didn’t want you to think that I’m…stupid.”
Now, school is a life tool that Alvarez says he’s missing—but his teacher isn’t to blame.
“Always, I just wanted you to know…you were a good teacher, and I always respected you.” he tells Garcia,“Some teachers, I felt like they only wanted to teach a certain group of people. But you looked at me and you paid attention.”
“Maybe it didn’t get me to graduate, but there’re a lot of teachers, they don’t take the time to take a look. And it was never your fault.”
Alvarez now works the night shift at a loading dock(码头). He still hopes to get his degree one day.When Alvarez entered a grade, he was sure that ___________.
| A.he wasn’t going to pass the class |
| B.he would do better than other students |
| C.he might learn an amount of knowledge |
| D.he would try his best to learn at class |
By saying “my motivation goes to the floor”, Alvarez meant __________.
| A.he hid his goal from others | B.he lost heart gradually |
| C.he built up his motivation | D.he fell to the ground completely |
In the opinion of Alvarez, most teachers _______.
| A.paid no attention to teaching | B.had no time to read books |
| C.didn’t care about what he did | D.showed no respect to students |
The passage mainly tells us that _________.
| A.a dropout complains about being treated badly |
| B.a dropout plans to get his degree again |
| C.a dropout shows respect for not graduating |
| D.a dropout has thanks to his teacher not blame |
Nobody likes home economics (家政学). But restoring the program could help us in the fight against obesity and chronic (慢性的) diseases today.
The home economics movement was founded on the belief that housework and food preparation were important subjects that should be studied scientifically. The first classes occurred in the agricultural and technical colleges that were built in the 1860s. When most departments of universities rejected women, home economics was a back door into higher education.
Indeed, in the early 20th century, home economics was a serious subject When few people understood germ (微生物) theory and almost no one had heard of vitamins, home economics classes offered vital information about washing hands regularly, eating fruits and vegetables and not feeding coffee to babies.
However, today we remember only the fixed ideas about home economics, forgetting the movement’s most important lessons on healthy eating and cooking. Too many Americans simply don’t know how to cook. Our diets, consisting of highly processed foods made cheaply outside the home, have contributed to many serious health problems. In the last decade, many cities and states have tried to tax junk food heavily or to ban the use of food stamps (食品券) to buy soda. Clearly, many people are doubtful about any governmental steps to promote healthy eating. But what if the government put the tools of obesity prevention in the hands of children themselves by teaching them how to cook?
My first experience with home economics happened two decades ago when I was a seventh grader in a North Carolina public school. A year later, my father’s job took our family to Wales, where I attended a large school for a few months. It was the first time I had ever really cooked anything. I remember that it was fun, and with an instructor standing by, it wasn’t hard. Those lessons stuck with me when I first started cooking for my husband and myself after college and they still do. Teaching cooking in public schools can help solve some problems facing Americans t day. The history of home economics shows it’s possible.Home economics______.
| A.is a subject becoming more and more popular with Americans |
| B.is often used to help fight against obesity and chronic diseases |
| C.once offered women a. special approach to university education |
| D.was first taught in the agricultural and technical colleges in the early 1900s |
The third paragraph mainly tells us______ .
| A.the importance of regular hand washing |
| B.the health benefits of fruits and vegetables |
| C.the contents of home economics classes in the early 20th century |
| D.the significance of teaching home economics in the early 20th century |
In the opinion of the author, how should we fight against childhood obesity?
| A.Children should be taught how to cook. |
| B.A heavy tax should be put on junk food |
| C.Healthy eating should be promoted at school |
| D.Using food stamps to buy soda should be banned |
What does the author imply in the last paragraph?
A. Her family moved frequently in her childhood.
R Cooking classes have a far-reaching influence on her later life.
C. To receive a better education, she went to a large school in Wales.
D. Teaching cooking is the key to solving Americans’ health problems.