Retirement is the point where a person stops employment completely. The “standard” retirement age varies from country to country, but it is generally between 50 and 70. However, for a long time, people have got into an argument about whether the age of retirement should be increased or reduced in their own countries.
There are several arguments for allowing older people to continue working as long as they are able. Many people think that older employees have a large amount of knowledge and experience which can be lost to a business if they are made to retire. Besides, older employees are often extremely devoted employees and are more willing to implement company rules than the young. A more important point is regarding the attitudes in society to old people. To force someone to resign or retire at 60 or 65 indicates that the society does not value the input of these people and that their useful life is over.
Allowing older people to work indefinitely (无限地), however, is not always a good policy. Some people took the strong view that age alone is no guarantee of ability. Many young employees have more experience or skills than older staff, who may have been stuck in one area for most of their working lives. On the other hand, older people should be rewarded by society for their life’s labor by being given generous pensions and the freedom to enjoy leisure. They can have time to do whatever they like, that is, they can have their own plans and achieve their retirement goals.
With many young people unemployed or frustrated in low-level positions, there are often calls to compulsorily retire older workers. However, this can affect the older individual’s freedom and right to work. In my opinion, giving workers more choices over their retirement age will benefit society and the individual.What does this passage mainly talk about?
| A．How to set a standard of the retirement age. |
| B．More opportunities should be given to young people. |
| C．Companies should make full use of old people’s wisdom. |
| D．Opinions about retirement age are different among people. |
Some people think older people should go on with work because ______.
| A．they have a sense of achievement |
| B．they want to learn more knowledge |
| C．they have grasped much practical experience |
| D．they will help the business not to fail quickly |
The underlined word “implement” in Paragraph 2 probably means “______.”
| A．take over | B．carry out |
| C．get rid of | D．set aside |
Which point of view may the author agree to?
| A．Older people are encouraged to retire on time. |
| B．Older people would like to do something else. |
| C．Older people’s experience should be valued. |
| D．Older people can choose whether to work on or not. |
Our spiritual intelligence quotient（精神智商）,or SQ, helps us understand ourselves, and live fuller, happier lives.
Though we're all born with SQ, most of us don't even realize that we have it. Fortunately, you don't have to sign up for classes to learn how to improve your SQ. Here are some simple steps that can lead you to this new level of understanding.
Sit Quietly. The process of developing spiritual intelligence begins with solitude（独处）and silence. To tune in to your spirit, you have to turn down the volume（强度）in your busy, noisy, complicated life and force yourself to do nothing at all. Start small by creating islands for silence in your day. In the car, instead of listening to the music, use the time to think. At work, shut the door to your office between meetings, take a few breaths and let them out very, very slowly. Enjoy the stillness in your home after the kids are finally in bed.
Step Outside. For many people, nature sets their spirit free. Go outside to watch a beautiful sunset. If you are walking with the dog, take the time to admire flowers in bloom; follow the flight of a bird and watch clouds float overhead.
Ask Questions of Yourself. Ask open-ended questions, such as "What am I Feeling? What are my choices? Where am I heading?"
But don't expect an answer to arrive through some supernatural forms of e-mail. “Rarely do I get an immediate answer to my question,” says Reverend Joan Carter, a Presbyterian minister in Sausalito, California. “But later that day I suddenly find myself thinking about a problem in a perspective（角度） I never considered before.”
Trust Your Spirit. While most of us rely on gut（本能的）feeling to realize danger, spiritual intelligence pushes us, not away from, but towards some action that will lead to a greater good. The passage is mainly about______.
| A．what your SQ is and in what way it can benefit our life |
| B．what your SQ is and in what way it can be improved |
| C．the relationship between your SQ and your life |
| D．advantages and disadvantages of SQ |
The underlined phrase "to tune in to your spirit" in the third paragraph probably
means to_________
| A．get your spirit relaxed | B．keep up your spirit |
| C．keep seated quietly | D．change your spirit |
From the passage, we can know that the most important thing to improve your SQ is______
| A．a peaceful mind | B．deep thought |
| C．spare time and hobbies | D．good spirits |
According to the passage, which of the following is True?
| A．Not everyone has SQ. |
| B．You have to go to classes to learn how to improve your SQ. |
| C．SQ leads us to take wrong actions. |
| D．SQ can benefit our life. |
When students and parents are asked to rate subjects according to their importance, the arts are unavoidably at the bottom of the list. Music is nice, people seem to say, but not important. Too often it is viewed as mere entertainment, but certainly not an education priority （优先）.This view is shortsighted. In fact, music education is beneficial and important for all students.
Music tells us who we are. Because music is an expression of the beings who create it, it reflects their thinking and values, as well as the social environment it came from. Rock music represents a lifestyle just as surely as a Schubert song. The jazz influence that George Gershwin and other musicians introduced into their music is obviously American because it came from American musical traditions. Music expresses our character and values. It gives us identity as a society.
Music provides a kind of perception（感知）that cannot be acquired any other way. Science can explain how the sun rises and sets. The arts explore the emotional meaning of the same phenomenon. We need every possible way to discover and respond to our world for one simple but powerful reason: No one way can get it all.
The arts are forms of thought as powerful in what they communicate as mathematical and scientific symbols. They are ways we human beings "talk" to each other. They are the language of civilization through which we express our fears, our curiosities, our hungers, our discoveries, and our hopes. The arts are ways we give form to our ideas and imagination so that they can be shared with others. When we do not give children access to an important way of expressing themselves such as music, we take away from them the meanings that music expresses.
Science and technology do not tell us what it means to be human. The arts do. Music is an important way we express human suffering, celebration, the meaning and value of peace and love.
So music education is far more necessary than people seem to realize. According to Paragraph 1，students_________.
| A．regard music as a way of entertainment |
| B．disagree with their parents on education |
| C．view music as an overlooked subject |
| D．prefer the arts to science |
In Paragraph 2, the author uses jazz as an example to ___________.
| A．compare it with rock music |
| B．show music reflects a society |
| C．introduce American musical traditions |
| D．prove music influences people's lifestyles |
According to the passage, the arts and science________.
| A．approach the world from different angles |
| B．explore different phenomena of the world |
| C．express people's feelings in different ways |
| D．explain what it means to be human differently |
What is the main idea of the passage?
| A．Music education deserves more attention. |
| B．Music should be of top education priority. |
| C．Music is an effective communication tool. |
| D．Music education makes students more imaginative. ' |
It is hardly surprising that clothing manufacturers （生产商） follow certain uniform standards for various features （特征） of clothes. What seems strange, however, is that the standard adopted for women is the opposite of the one for men. Take a look at the way your clothes button. Men's clothes tend to button from the right, and women's from the left. Considering most of the world's population—men and women—are right-handed, the men's standard would appear to make more sense for women. So why do women's clothes button from the left?
History really seems to matter here. Buttons first appeared only on the clothes of the rich in the 17th century, when rich women were dressed by servants. For the mostly right-handed servants, having women's shirts button from the left would be easier. On the other hand, having men's shirt button from the right made sense, too. Most men dressed themselves, and a sword drawn from the left with the right hand would be less likely to get caught in the shirt.
Today women are seldom dressed by servants, but buttoning from the left is still the standard for them. Is it interesting? Actually, a standard, once set, resists change. At a time when all women's shirts buttoned from the left, it would have been risky for any single manufacturer to offer women's shirts that buttoned from the right. After all, women had grown so used to shirts which buttoned from the left and would have to develop new habits and skills to switch. Besides, some women might have found it socially awkward to appear in public wearing shirts that buttoned from the right, since any one who noticed that would believe they were wearing men's shirts.What is surprising about the standard of the clothing industry?
| A．It has been followed by the industry for over 400 years. |
| B．It is different for men's clothing and women's. |
| C．It works better with men than with women. |
| D．It fails to consider right-handed people. |
Women's clothes still button from the left today because.
| A．adopting men's style is improper for women |
| B．manufacturers should follow standards |
| C．modern women dress themselves |
| D．customs are hard to change |
The passage is mainly developed by_______.
| A．analyzing causes |
| B．making comparisons |
| C．examining differences |
| D．following the time order |
Goals are the guides all through our life. We all have goals that we are moving towards and making a great effort to achieve. This is a good thing. Or can it be bad? How many of us never reach our goals and yet we have tried so hard and really thought about nothing else? I believe the mistake most of us make is that we do not focus on our present situation.
Let me explain. Most of us see our present situation as a stepping stone that we use simply as a means of reaching our final destination. We don’t take time to truly appreciate where we are today and all the great things we already have in our lives. We should focus our attention on the journey and not on the destination, or we will miss the beautiful scenery along the way.
Let’s use our job as an example. Now most of us want a promotion. We have plans to become the manager or general manager in our companies. Unfortunately, most of us will never reach the goal, but will watch others achieve our goal instead.
What we should be doing is focusing on the job we are currently in now. Forget where we want to get to and just focus on the present. You see, what we can control is our performance in our current job. We can decide to be the best we possibly can in our current job. Now this may mean further education to have the skills we currently do not have. It may mean working harder to produce better results than our colleagues. It could simply be a change of attitude, such as stopping complaining and becoming a more devoted and supportive employee. By doing our current job to the best of our abilities, we in fact give ourselves the best chance of promotion.
So the best thing for all of us to do to achieve our goals is to just focus on what we have and where we are now. Do the best and be the best we possibly can in our current situations, and we will give ourselves the very best chance of reaching our goals in the future. We have heard the old sayings and they are true: “Rome wasn’t built in a day.”, “Patience is a virtue”, and so on.
Have patience, have appreciation of what we already have, and take time to help ourselves be the very best we can. Do these things and we will all reach our goals, but more importantly, we will enjoy our life every day.
| Title |
Focus on the present |
| Theme |
To (76) ______ our goals, we should focus on what we have and where we are now. |
Common (77)______ |
﹡We do not focus on our present situation. ﹡Most of us see our present situation as a stepping stone to our final destination. ﹡We do not spend the time truly (78)______ where we are today and what we already have in our lives. |
| (79)______—our job |
﹡(80)______ the thought of getting promoted. What we should do is (81)______ our best to do our current job. ﹡To be the best in our current job, we should get further education, work harder than (82)______, stop complaining and (83)______ ourselves to our job. |
| Conclusion |
If we are (84)______, grateful for what we have, and take time to help ourselves be the very best we can, we can not only (85)______ in the future, but also enjoy our life every day. |
The physical memory dump error is a big problem that affects even the most advanced computer systems．Although it's quite a rare error, it's one of the most stopping what you're doing and restarting your computer—making you lose all your unsaved data．This is a big problem, but there is actually a very easy way to fix it．
There are two reasons why the physical memory dump happens．The first is pretty simple and is to do with the "hardware", and if any of these pieces are not fit for your system, it will cause the physical memory dump．So, if you've recently added any hardware to your PC, then take that out and see if it works．
The other reason is your system, the "registry"．The registry is a big database that operates in the background of Windows, storing all sorts of settings and information about your PC．The problem with the registry is that since it has so many important files inside, it's constantly got hundreds of files open every time you use your PC．And because there are so many files to open at once, Windows is constantly getting confused, leading it to save many of these files in the wrong way．These files go wrong when saved wrongly, making them difficult for your computer to read．However, if it can't read the files at all, it has no choice but to stop everything it's doing and restart your PC．This is why the physical memory dump error appears so easily—because when a registry file is so wrong that it can't be read, your computer needs to refresh itself immediately．
This latter reason for causing the physical memory dump is actually extremely common and the likelihood is that your PC is suffering from it, if you're seeing this error．Luckily, it's also incredibly easy to fix—you just need to use a software tool called a "registry cleaner" to go through the registry and fix all the problems in there．From the text we can infer that ________．
| A．the dump error often happens to your PC |
| B．the dump can be dealt with easily |
| C．only the advanced computers suffers from the error |
| D．the dump error can cause the data in your PC to be lost |
The reason that your PC has the dump error is that ___________．
A．the hardware loses its memory
B．your Windows needs to be upgraded
C．you have saved wrong files in the PC
D．you have stored too many files in the PC．What’s problem with the registry when your PC goes wrong?
A．The register can’t read the files correctly．
B．It must open 100 files every time you use your PC．
C．The register doesn’t agree with the database．
D．The register must save many important files inside．What does a registry cleaner means?
| A．A software which can help you save time． |
| B．A software which can remove unnecessary files |
| C．A software which can repair the machine． |
| D．a software which makes your PC down． |