Choosing the Right Resolution (决定)
Millions of Americans began 2014 with the same resolution they started 2013 with, a goal of losing weight. However, setting weight loss as a goal is a mistake.
To reach our goal of losing weight --- the output, we need to control what we eat --- the input ( 输入). That is, we tend to care about the output but not to control the input. This is a bad way to construct goals. The alternative is to focus your resolution on the input. Instead of resolving to lose weight, try an actionable resolution: “I’ll stop having desert for lunch,” or “I’ll walk every day for 20 minutes.” Creating a goal that focuses on a well-specified input will likely be more effective than concentrating on the outcome.
Recently a new science behind incentives (激励) , including in education, has been discussed. For example, researcher Roland Fryer wanted to see what works best in motivating children to do better in school. In some cases, he gave students incentives based on input, like reading certain books, while in others, the incentives were based on output, like results on exams. His main finding was that incentives increased achievement when based on input but had no effect on output. Fryer’s conclusion was that the intensives for inputs might be more effective because do not know how to do better on exam, aside from general rules like “study harder.” Reading certain books, on the other hand, is a well-set task over which they have much more control.
As long as you have direct control over your goal, you have a much higher chance of success. And it’s easier to start again if you fail, because you know exactly what you need to do.
If you want to cut down on your spending, a good goal would be making morning coffee at home instead of going to a cafe, for example. This is a well-specified action-based goal for which you can measure your success easily. Spending less money isn’t a goal because it’s too general. Similarly, if you want to spend more time with your family, don’t stop with this general wish. Think about an actionable habit that you could adopt and stick to, like a family movie night every Wednesday.
In the long run, these new goals could become a habit.The writer thinks that setting weight loss as a goal is a mistake because _______ .
| A．it is hard to achieve for most Americans |
| B．it is focused too much on the result |
| C．it is dependent on too many things |
| D．it is based on actionable decisions |
In Roland Fryer’s research, some students did better than the others because ______ .
| A．they obeyed all the general rules |
| B．they paid more attention to exams |
| C．they were motivated by their classmates |
| D．they were rewarded for reading some books |
According to the writer, which of the following statements is a good goal?
| A．“I’ll give up desert.” |
| B．“I’ll study harder.” |
| C．“I’ll cut down my expense” |
| D．“I’ll spend more time with my family” |
The writer strongly believes that we should ________ .
| A．develop good habits and focus on the outcome |
| B．be optimistic about final goals and stick to them |
| C．pick specific actions that can be turned into good habits |
| D．set ambitious goals that can balance the input ang output |
Depart the city for an unspoiled floating community called Kompong Phhluk which is astonishing for its stilted-house villages and flooded forest.
Stop on the way for the Rolous Market tour. This is a great chance for you to take the photos of locals selling vegetables, different fish species and other local produce.
After this market tour we’ll all have a boat trip to the floating community of Kompong Phhluk, visit an island pagoda（塔）, school and houses standing on 8 or 10m high stilts, fish farms and learn about the village life.
Stop and have lunch in a family’s house before getting into a row boat and venturing into the flooded forest, the habitat to some famous water-bird species.
Eventually we jump back into the big boat and set off for the largest fresh water lake in SE Asia, Tonle Sap.
Tour Details
·Departs 8.30am
·Returns around 2pm
·A picnic lunch with sandwiches and drinks is provided. We cannot provide local food from the area due to poor sanitation, lack of hygiene standards and refrigeration.
·No passes required
Rates
·These rates are based on an English speaking guide.
·Rates include all transport, water and a picnic lunch.
·Children 11 years and under are 50%.
·Children 4 years and below are free.
·If your group is larger than 5 people please email us for the best rate.
Number of People Price Per Person
1 Person $65
2 People $45
3 People $40
4 People $35
5 People $32
What to Wear
·Please be mindful of your clothing and try to avoid anything too revealing.
·We strongly recommend a sunglasses, hat and sunscreen.
General Information
·This is a poor rural village, please be mindful of the environment.
·Please do not hand things out to villagers, for this contributes to creating a begging cycle and can create jealousy.
·We recommend heading to the toilet before you go on this trip as facilities are very basic. Kompong Phhluk is famous for its ______.
| A．local vegetables and different fish species |
| B．stilted-house villages and flooded forest |
| C．Rolous Market and island pagoda |
| D．water-bird habitat and fish farms |
A private trip for two parents and a 3-year-old boy costs ______.
| A．$40 | B．$80 | C．$90 | D．$120 |
Which of the following is not included in the rates?
| A．tourist guide. | B．Transport. |
| C．Drinks. | D．Local food. |
We can conclude from the passage that ______.
| A．the living standard in the village is quite low |
| B．the tourist facilities along the way are quite good |
| C．revealing clothes are appropriate in the hot weather |
| D．giving local children small gifts is strongly recommended |
Sam Trafton was my violin teacher and what he said during one of my lessons often came back to me years later.
One day he asked me how much I practiced, I said three or four hours a day.
“Do you practice in long stretches, an hour at a time?”
“I try to.”
“Well, don’t,” he shouted. “When you grow up, time won’t come in long stretches. Practice in minutes, whenever you can find them five or ten before school, after lunch, between household tasks. Spread the practice through the day.”
When I was teaching at Boston, I wanted to write a novel, but for two years I got practically nothing down on paper, and my excuse was that I had no time. Then I remembered what Sam had said. During the next week I did an experiment. Whenever I had five minutes unoccupied, I sat down and wrote a hundred words or so. To my surprise, at the end of the week I had finished a chapter. Later on I continued my novels by the same piecemeal method. Though my teaching schedule had become heavier than ever, every day there were unoccupied moments that could be caught and put to use.
However, you must get into your work quickly. If you have only five minutes for writing, you can’t afford to waste for chewing your pencil. You must make your mental preparations beforehand, and concentrate on your task almost instantly when the time comes. Fortunately, rapid concentration is easier than most of us realize.
Sam Trafton has had a great influence on my life. He let me know that life can be counted on to supply you short moments and even very short periods of time can add up to all useful hours you need, if you start without delay.The underlined part “counted on” in the last paragraph can probably be replaced by _______.
| A．enriched | B．added up to |
| C．concentrated on | D．expected |
Which of the following statements is TRUE?
| A．The writer owes great thanks to Sam for teaching him how to use free time. |
| B．Sam has had a great influence on the writer’s study. |
| C．The writer didn’t take the teacher’s words to heart at first. |
| D．Rapid concentration is actually more difficult than most people imagine. |
It can be inferred from the passage that the writer _______.
| A．has new books published each year however busy his teaching is |
| B．can always find enough time for mental preparations beforehand |
| C．has formed a bad habit of chewing a pencil while writing his novels |
| D．is always tired of life because his teaching schedule is always heavy |
What is the best title for this passage?
| A．A Little Time at a Time | B．How I Became a Writer |
| C．Concentrate on Your Work | D．My Violin Teacher |
Even plant can run a fever, especially when they’re under attack by insects or disease. But unlike human, plants can have their temperature taken from 3, 000 feet away straight up. A decade ago, adopting the infrared （红外线）scanning technology developed for military purposes and other satellites, physicist Stephen Paley came up with a quick way to take the temperature of crops to determine which ones are under stress. The goal was to let farmers precisely （明确地，确切地）target pesticide （杀虫剂）spraying rather than rain poison on a whole field, which invariably includes plants that don’t have pest （害虫）problems.
Even better, Paley’s Remote Scanning Services Company could detect crop problems before they became visible to the eye. Mounted on a plane flown at 3, 000 feet at night, an infrared scanner measured the heat emitted （排放，散发，发出）by crops. The data were transformed into a color-coded map showing where plants were running“fevers”. Farmers could then spot-spray（现场喷洒）, using 50 to 70 percent less pesticide than they otherwise would.
The bad news is that Paley’s company closed down in 1984, after only three years. Farmers resisted the new technology and long - term backers were hard to find. But with the renewed concern about pesticides on produce, and refinements（改良，改进） in infrared scanning, Paley hopes to get back into operation. Agriculture experts have no doubt the technology works. “This technique can be used on 75 percent of agricultural land in the United States, ” says George Oerther of Texas A & M. Ray Jackson , who recently retired from the Department of Agriculture, thinks remote infrared crop scanning could be adopted by the end of the decade. But only if Paley finds the financial backing which he failed to obtain 10 years ago.Plants will emit an increased amount of heat when they are______________.
| A．sprayed with pesticides |
| B．facing an infrared scanner |
| C．in poor physical condition |
| D．exposed to excessive sun rays |
In order to apply pesticide spraying precisely, we can use infrared scanning to____________.
| A．estimate the damage to the crops |
| B．measure the size of the affected area |
| C．draw a color-coded map |
| D．locate the problem area |
Farmers can save a considerable amount of pesticide by______________.
| A．resorting to spot-spraying |
| B．consulting infrared scanning experts |
| C．transforming poisoned rain |
| D．detecting crop problems at an early stage |
The application of infrared scanning technology to agriculture met with some difficulties------ .
| A．the lack of official support |
| B．its high cost |
| C．the lack of financial support |
| D．its failure to help increase production |
Infrared scanning technology may be brought back into operation because of_____________.
| A．the desire of farmers to improve the quality of their produce |
| B．growing concern about the excessive use of pesticides on crops |
| C．the forceful promotion by the Department of Agriculture |
| D．full support from agricultural experts |
Turning on the TV, a wonderful scene comes to your eyes — a group of men, tall, strong and handsome, and women, young, beautiful and attractive, too. Together they eat in the finest restaurants, traveling everywhere around the world by luxurious planes and pleasure ships. They are models.
Do you envy them? What sort of life are models leading? Is it a wonderful life for a young lady or a young man?
A few models are well-known actors or actresses who can make a lot of money only by showing themselves off in commercials. But the majority of them are just curious to see what it is like. They’d like to be models just because they are attracted by what they imagine — models earn a lot of money and lead a glorious life. This is true for those who are very successful. However, most models find it difficult to get work. Very few can earn enough to live on, and for all models their expenses are high. Their agents claim about 20% of the earnings, and no model will get very far without a clever agent. Besides, they have to buy good clothing. They also have to pay to travel to interviews and reach the places where the work is to be done.
Interviews for a model job are known as cattle-markets in the modeling world, and not without a good reason. A top model can choose his or her work, demand and receive high fees and has his or her expenses paid. But for most models, the situation is quite different. And agent or employer inspects each model much as a farmer inspects cattle at a market. Intelligence, qualifications and personal characteristics count for little against good looks and tight figures. For all except the very few lucky ones, the life of a model is a continual search for work, trying to sell himself or herself in the face of fierce competition and, sometimes, not particularly moral standards on the part of some employers.
Immigration officials at airport look suspiciously at a girl whose passport shows her occupation as “Model”, and these are men and women of considerable experience of the world. It comes no surprise to find that some models prefer to put “Secretary” or “Businessman” as their jobs in their passports.
Modeling is a changeable world with great rewards for a tiny minority but not for the majority.For models, their good looks and tight figures are _____________, compared with their intelligence and qualifications.
| A．more important | B．less needed |
| C．less essential | D．more looked down upon |
Which of the following can lead you to believe according to the passage?
| A．A model’s traveling expenses are usually paid by his employer. |
| B．To be a model, good looks are the most important qualification. |
| C．Most models have a fairly easy way of life with high pay. |
| D．A model can hardly be successful without a good agent. |
Models often put “Secretary” or “Businessman” instead of “Model” in their passports because __________________.
| A．they want to avoid being stopped to sign their names by fans |
| B．a person with the occupation of a model is easily attacked by black societies |
| C．models are sometimes looked down upon |
| D．secretaries and businessmen are free of custom duty |
What may be the author’s attitude towards modeling?
| A．It is a worthwhile life for a young lady or a young man. |
| B．He is in favor of young people to try modeling. |
| C．Before being crazy about a model job, young people should be aware of the difficulties. |
| D．It is a field in which everyone has a great chance to succeed. |
The underlined word “suspiciously” can most probably be replaced by _________________.
| A．doubtfully | B．excitedly |
| C．proudly | D．Sadly |
People do not analyze every problem they meet. Sometimes they try to remember a solution from the last time they had a similar problem. They often accept the opinions or ideas of other people. Other times they begin to act without thinking. They try to find a solution by trial and error. However, when all these methods fail, the person with a problem has to start analyzing. There are six stages in analyzing a problem.
First the person must recognize that there is a problem. For example, Sam’s bicycle is broken, and he cannot ride it to class as he usually does. Sam must see that there is a problem with his bicycle.
Next the thinker must define the problem. Before Sam can repair his bicycle, he must find out the reason why it does not work. For instance, he must determine if the problem is with the gears, the brakes, or the frame. He must make his problem more specific.
Now the person must look for information that will make the problem clearer and lead to possible solutions. For instance, suppose Sam decided that his bike does not work because there is something wrong with the gear wheels. At this time, he can look in his bicycle repair book and read about gears. He can talk to his friends at the bike shop. He can look at his gears carefully.
After studying the problem, the person should have several suggestions for a possible solution. Take Sam as an illustration. His suggestions might be: put oil on the gear wheels; buy new gear wheels and replace the old ones; tighten or loosen the gear wheels.
Eventually one suggestion seems to be the solution to the problem. Sometimes the final idea comes very suddenly because the thinker suddenly sees something new or sees something in a new way. Sam, for example, suddenly sees that there is a piece of chewing gum between the gear wheels. He immediately realizes the solution to his problem: he must clean the gear wheels.
Finally the solution is tested. Sam cleans the gear wheels and finds that afterwards his bicycle works perfectly. In short , he has solved the problem.What is the best title for this passage?
| A．Six Stages for Repairing Sam’s Bicycle |
| B．Possible Ways to Problem-solving |
| C．Necessities of Problem Analysis |
| D．Suggestions for Analyzing a Problem |
In analyzing a problem we should do all the following except .
| A．recognize and define the problem |
| B．look for information to make the problem clearer |
| C．have suggestions for a possible solution |
| D．find a solution by trial or mistake |
By referring to Sam’s broken bicycle, the author intends to _________.
| A．illustrate the ways to repair his bicycle |
| B．discuss the problems of his bicycle |
| C．tell us how to solve a problem |
| D．show us how to analyze a problem |
Which of the following is NOT true?
| A．People do not analyze the problem they meet. |
| B．People often accept the opinions or ideas of other people. |
| C．People may learn from their past experience. |
| D．People can not solve some problems they meet. |
As used in the last sentence, the phrase “in short” means _________.
| A．in the long run | B．in detail |
| C．in a word | D．in the end |