A little boy selling magazines for school walked up to a house that people rarely visited. The house was very old and the owner hardly ever came out. When he did, he would not say hello to neighbors or passers-by, but simply glare at them.
The boy knocked on the door and waited, sweating from fear of the old man.
As he was ready to walk away, the door slowly opened. “What do you want?” the old man said.
“Uh, sir, I uh am selling these magazines and, uh, I was wondering if you would like to buy one.”
The old man just stared at the boy. The boy could see inside the old man’s house and saw that he had dog figurines (小雕像) on the fireplace. “Do you collect dogs?” the little boy asked.
“Yes, I have many collectibles in my house. They are my family here. They are all I have.”
The boy then felt sorry for the man, as it seemed that he was a very lonely soul. “Well, I do have a magazine here for collectors. It is perfect for you. I also have one about dogs since you like dogs so much.”
The old man was ready to close the door and said: “No, boy, I don’t need any magazines of any kind, now goodbye.”
The little boy was sad for the old man because he was alone in the big house. Then he thought of a little dog figurine that he had got some years earlier from an aunt. The boy headed back down to the old man’s house with it. He knocked on the door again and this time the old man came right to the door. “Boy, I thought I told you no magazines.”
“No, sir. I know that. I wanted to bring you a gift.” The boy handed him the figurine and the old man’s face lit up.
The old man was surprised and said: “Boy, you have a big heart. Why are you doing this?”
The boy smiled at the man and said: “Because you like dogs.”
From that day on, the old man started coming out of the house and greeting people. He and the boy became friends.
This simple nice act changed both of their lives forever.How did the boy feel when he first knocked on the old man’s door?
| A．Excited. | B．Sad. |
| C．Frightened. | D．Silly. |
What can we learn from the article about the old man?
| A．He preferred dog figurines to real dogs. |
| B．He longed for (渴望) friendship with others. |
| C．He found his neighbors unfriendly. |
| D．He was sad because he felt alone. |
When the boy knocked on the door again, ________.
| A．the old man was impatient with him |
| B．the old man refused to open the door |
| C．he didn’t think the old man would open it |
| D．he wanted to sell a magazine to the old man |
With the story, the author tries to show us that _______.
| A．smiling is the best way to make others feel comfortable |
| B．we should help strangers if they are angry |
| C．being kind to others can have a positive effect on our lives |
| D．you need to do something special if you want to make friends |
If you do not use your arms or your legs for some time, they become weak. When you start using them again, they slowly become strong again. Everybody knows this. Yet there are many people who do not seem to know that one’s memory works in the same way. When someone says that he has a good memory, he really means that he keeps his memory in practice by exercising it regularly. When someone else says that his memory is poor, he really means that he does not give it enough chance to become strong.
If a friend complains that his arms are weak, we know that it is his own fault. But if he tells us that he has a poor memory, many of us think that his parents are to blame, or that he is just unlucky, and few of us realize that it is really his own fault. Not all of us can become very strong or very clever, but all of us can improve our memory by the same means — practice.
Have you ever noticed that people who cannot read or write usually have a better memory than those who can? Why is this? Of course, because people who can’t read or write have to remember things: they cannot write them down in a little notebook. They have to remember dates, prices, names, songs and stories, so their memory is exercised all the time.
So if you want a good memory, learn from those who cannot read or write: practise remembering.According to the passage, few people know that _____.
| A．arms or legs become weak if they are not used for some time |
| B．when they start using their arms or legs again, they slowly become strong again |
| C．a person’s memory becomes weak if he does not practise remembering things |
| D．it is their own fault if their arms or legs are weak |
The author thinks that if a person has a poor memory, _________.
| A．it is his own fault | B．his parents are to blame |
| C．he is just unlucky | D．his arms must be weak |
From Paragraph 3, we can learn that _________.
| A．people who can’t read are cleverer than those who can |
| B．people who can’t write are cleverer than those who can |
| C．a little notebook helps people who cannot read or write get a better memory |
| D．people who practise remembering regularly have a better memory |
The passage mainly tells us ____________.
| A．how to get our arms and legs stronger |
| B．how to improve our memory |
| C．how to read and write |
| D．how to remember dates and prices |
Forgiving someone who has hurt you or let you down is never an easy thing. Several new studies, however, say that it could have a lot of health benefits. When you think of forgiveness, you probably don’t think of it as being a health or medical problem. Studies from Stanford University, on the other hand, show that something like anger can change your well-being.
When cartoon book characters like the Incredible Hulk get angry, they change colours and often gain special power. In the real world, anger is less obvious and may be more dangerous. That’s why Professor Fred Luskin, founder of the Stanford Forgiveness Project and author of Forgive for Good, says holding on to anger and hatred can harm your physical and mental health. Two new studies seem to show the same idea.
The studies find that people who are able to forgive feel less stress, less back pain, and less depression. They also have fewer headaches, lower blood pressure, and fewer problems on sleeping.
So it doesn’t matter if your anger is caused by the traffic or other things. Learning to let it go is important. Techniques such as deep breath or thought can help. Or just ask yourself if it’s worth hurting yourself by staying angry with someone else.
Forgiveness does not mean that you simply accept what happened and say it’s OK. Instead, it’s a way of making peace with yourself about what happened in the past. The example of the cartoon book characters is taken in the passage to______.
| A．support the viewpoint that anger and hatred harm physical and mental health |
| B．introduce a famous expert |
| C．let the reader know the different colours of cartoon faces |
| D．show how to control one’s temper |
The underlined phrase“holding on to”in this passage possibly means“______”.
| A．removing | B．keeping up | C．getting rid of | D．learning about |
Which of the following is NOT mentioned in this passage?
| A．People who are able to forgive feel less stress. |
| B．People who are able to forgive feel less depression. |
| C．People who are able to forgive have fewer problems on sleeping. |
| D．People who are able to forgive feel less tired. |
The best title for this passage is probably _______.
| A．Forgiveness | B．Forgiveness Is Good for Health |
| C．A Secret to Keeping Health | D．Anger Is Bad for Health |
Many teenagers feel that the most important people in their lives are their friends. They believe that their family members don’t know them as well as their friends do. In large families, it is quite often for brothers and sisters to fight with each other and then they go to their friends for some ideas.
It is very important for teenagers to have one good friend or a group of friends. Even when they are not with their friends, they usually spend a lot of time talking among themselves on the phone. This communication (交际) is very important in children’s growing up, because friends can talk about something, and these things are difficult to say to their family members.
However, parents often try to choose friends for their children. Some parents may even stop their children from meeting their good friends. Have you ever thought of the following questions?
Who choose your friends?
Do you choose your friends or your friends choose you?
Have you got a good friend your parents don’t like?
Your answers are welcome.Many teenagers think that ______ can understand them better.
| A．friends | B．brothers | C．sisters | D．parents |
When teenagers have something difficult to say to their parents, they usually _____.
| A．stay alone at home | B．fight with their parents |
| C．talk about it with their friends | D．go to their brothers and sisters for help |
The underlined sentence “Your answers are welcome.” means ______.
| A．You are welcome to discuss the questions with us |
| B．We’ve got no idea, so your answers are welcome |
| C．Your answers are always right |
| D．You can give us all the right answers |
Which of the following is the writer’s attitude (态度)?
| A．Parents should choose friends for their children. |
| B．Children should choose everything they like. |
| C．Parents should understand their children better. |
| D．Teenagers should only go to their friends for help. |
Hemingway(1898~1961) was born in Illinois. His family took him, as a boy, hunting and fishing trips and so made him know early the kinds of virtues, such as courage and endurance (忍耐), which were later shown in his stories. After high school, he worked as a newspaper reporter and then went abroad to take part in World War I. After the war, he lived for several years in Paris. It was not long before he began publishing remarkable short stories. In the year he left Paris he published the powerful novel The Sun Also Rises. His subjects were often war and its effects on people, or contests, such as hunting or bullfighting, which demand endurance and courage.
Hemingway’s style of writing is striking. His sentences are short, his words are simple, yet they are often filled with feelings. A careful reading can show us, further more, that we see how the action of his stories continue during the silence, during the times his character say nothing. This action is often full of meaning. There are times when the most powerful effect comes from restraint(克制). Such times happen often in Hemingway’s writings. He perfected the art of expressing excitement with few words.Which of the following was written by Hemingway?
| A．The Old Man and the Sea. | B．The Ugly Duckling. |
| C．The Daughter of the Sea. | D．The Gifts. |
Hemingway’s short stories were first published_______.
| A．before World War I. | B．during World War I. |
| C．after World War I. | D．in the year before he left Pairs. |
What do you know about Hemingway as a boy from the article?
| A．He was very brave and bright. |
| B．He liked writing short stories. |
| C．He often went hunting and fishing. |
| D．He was good at hunting and fishing. |
Why is Hemingway’s style of writing striking?
| A．Because his words are short. |
| B．Because his sentences are simple. |
| C．Because his writings are filled with feelings. |
| D．Because he is a master of the pause. |
People from East Asia tend to have more difficulty than those from Europe in distinguishing facial expressions--and a new report published online in Current Biology explains why．
Rachael Jack, University of Glasgow researcher, said that rather than scanning evenly across a face as Westerners do, Easterners fix their attention on the eyes．
“We show that Easterners and Westerners look at different face features to read facial expressions,” Jack said．“Westerners look at the eyes and the mouth in equal measure, whereas Easterners favor the eyes and ignore the mouth．”
The researchers studied cultural differences in the recognition of facial expressions by recording the eye movements of 13 Western Caucasian and 13 East Asian people while they observed pictures of expressive faces and put them into categories: happy, sad, surprised, fearful, disgusted, angry, or neutral．They compared how accurately participants read those facial expressions using their particular eye movement strategies．
It turned out that Easterners focused much greater attention on the eyes and made significantly more errors than Westerners did．“The cultural difference in eye movements that they show is probably a reflection of cultural difference in facial expressions,” Jack said．“Our data suggest that whereas Westerners use the whole face to convey emotion, Easterners use the eyes more and mouth less．”
In short, the data show that facial expressions are not universal signals of human emotion．From here on, examining how cultural factors have diversified these basic social skills will help our understanding of human emotion．Otherwise, when it comes to communicating emotions across cultures, Easterners and Westerners will find themselves lost in translation．The discovery shows that Westerners _______.
| A．pay equal attention to the eyes and the mouth |
| B．consider facial expressions universally reliable |
| C．observe the eyes and the mouth in different ways |
| D．have more difficulty in recognizing facial expressions |
What were the people asked to do in the study?
| A．To make a face at each other． | B．To get their faces impressive． |
| C．To classify some face pictures． | D．To observe the researchers’ faces． |
What does the underlined word "they" in Paragraph 5 refer to?
| A．The participants in the study． | B．The researchers of the study． |
| C．The errors made during the study． | D．The data collected from the study． |
In comparison with Westerners, Easterners are likely to ________.
| A．do translation more successfully | B．study the mouth more frequently |
| C．examine the eyes more attentively | D．read facial expressions more correctly |
What can be the best title for the passage?
| A．The Eye as the Window to the Soul |
| B．Cultural Differences in Reading Emotions |
| C．Effective Methods to Develop Social Skills |
| D．How to Increase Cross-cultural Understanding |