Fear and its companion pain are two of the most useful things that men and animals possess, if they are properly used. If fire did not hurt when it burnt, children would play with it until their hands were burnt away. Similarly, if pain existed but fear didn’t, a child would burn himself or herself again and again, because fear would not warn himself or herself to keep away from the fire that had burnt himself or herself before. A really fearless soldier—and some do exist is not a good soldier because he is soon killed; and a dead soldier is of no use to his army. Fear and pain are therefore two guards without which men and animals might soon die out.
In our first sentence we suggested that fear should be properly used. If, for example, you never go out of your house because of the danger of being knocked down and killed in the street by a car, you are letting fear rule you too much. Even in your house you are not absolutely safe an aeroplane may crash on your house, or ants may eat away some of the beams in your roof so that the latter falls on you, or you may get cancer!
The important thing is not to let fear rule you, but instead to use fear as your servant and guide. Fear will warn you of dangers; then you have to decide what action to take.
In many cases, you can take quick and successful action to avoid the danger. For example, you see a car coming straight towards you. Fear warns you, you jump out of the way, and all is well.
In some cases, however, you decide that there is nothing that you can do to avoid the danger. For example, you can’t prevent an aeroplane crashing onto your house. In this case, fear has given you its warning; you have examined it and decided on your course of action, so fear of this particular danger is no longer of any use to you, and you have to try to overcome it.Children would play with fire until their hands were burnt away if _________.
| A．they were given no warning beforehand |
| B．they had never burnt themselves |
| C．they had no sense of pain |
| D．they were fearful of the fire |
A really fearless soldier _____________.
| A．is of great use to the army |
| B．is not a real soldier |
| C．is nothing but a dead soldier |
| D．easily gets killed in a battle |
People sometimes succeed in timely avoiding the danger because _________.
| A．they have gained experience |
| B．they jump out of the way in time |
| C．they are calm in the face of danger |
| D．they are warned of the danger by fear and take quick action |
What's the writer's suggestion when the danger can't be avoided?
| A．You have to try to overcome it. |
| B．Fear can really help you to run away. |
| C．Fear always helps you stay safe. |
| D．Fear is of great use to you. |
How to improve our life? Many people think that they have to accept whatever life throws at them. They'll say，“my destiny(命运). I cannot change it. ”
Of course not! You don't have to suffer needlessly. Your life depends on you, not on any other external(外部的) factor.
I know a woman who says she just accepts what life gives her because she has done everything she can to improve it. Guess what her lifestyle is. She wakes up in the morning, goes to work, comes back home, relaxes, chats with people, watches TV, and then goes to sleep. Next day, the same routine cycle follows.
Huh! Is this what she calls “doing her best”？ She believes she has tried her best and just accepts for her heart that this is the life that has been intended for her, and that her luck can only change if God wills it. She hasn't realized that we have to do our share of making the effort to live the life of our dreams.
Remember that you harvest what you sow. You have to get off the sofa, get your eyes off the TV screen, get your hands off the phone(unless it contributes to your success), and get your mind and body to work! Don't expect your luck to change, unless you do something about it. If something goes wrong, don't just regard it as a temporary setback; instead, learn your lesson, make the most of the situation, and do something to solve the problem. It's not enough to think positively; you also have to act positively.
If someone's life is in trouble, do you just hope and pray that things will turn out fine? Of course not! You get to do anything you can to save the person. So it is with your own life. It is not enough to hope for the best, but you have to do your best. In other words, don't just stand(or sit) there, do something to improve your life.According to the woman mentioned in Para. 3, her life ________.
| A．doesn't need improving |
| B．couldn't be improved |
| C．will be better some day |
| D．will be worse in the future |
What does the author think of the woman's life?
| A．Passive. | B．Positive. |
| C．Colorful. | D．Boring. |
Which of the following statements is the author's opinion?
| A．Your temporary problem is not discouraging. |
| B．Your luck can be changed by your efforts. |
| C．You can only achieve success when God wills it. |
| D．You should treat yourself in the way you treat friends. |
In Para. 5, the author emphasized the importance of ________.
| A．hope for the best |
| B．intention to succeed |
| C．positive thinking |
| D．positive action |
Early one morning the subinspector at a station at the other end of the town rang me. An elephant was damaging the town. Would I please come and do something about it?
I did not know what I could do, but I got onto a horse and started out. I took my gun, maybe too small to kill an elephant, but I thought the noise might scare him. Various local people stopped me on the way and told me about the elephant's doings.
It was not, of course, a wild elephant, but a tame one. It had been chained up but last night it had broken its chain and escaped. Its owner, had set out to run after it, but had taken the wrong direction. He was now twelve hours' journey away, and in the morning the elephant had suddenly appeared in the town. It had already destroyed somebody's bamboo hut (棚屋), killed a cow and turned over fruitstalls.
I came round the hut and saw a man's dead body sprawling in the mud. He was an Indian, and he could not have been dead many minutes. The people said that the elephant caught him with its trunk, put its foot on his back and grounded him into the earth. This was the rainy season and he was lying on his stomach in the soft mud, the__peacebreaker standing beside, looking innocent.
As I lifted my gun, I hesitated a few seconds. Then I fired. That was a shot that did for him.
You could see the pain of it knock the last strength from his legs. But in falling he seemed for a moment to rise, his trunk reaching skyward like a tree. He trumpeted, for the first and only time. And then down he came, with a crash that shook the ground.Which of the following statements about the author is TRUE?
| A．He was an Indian. |
| B．He knew elephants well. |
| C．He was not a local villager. |
| D．He was the owner of the elephant. |
The elephant made so much trouble because ________.
| A．its owner treated him cruelly |
| B．it got out of control |
| C．it hated the village people |
| D．it was a wild elephant |
The underlined words “the peacebreaker” in Paragraph 4 refer to ________.
| A．the elephant | B．the dead man |
| C．the author | D．the subinspector |
It can be inferred that the author felt ________ when he shot the elephant.
| A．excited | B．sad |
| C．frightened | D．happy |
Suppose a key man in your firm had just met with a terrible accident. The doctor tell you that this man upon whom you depend for directing sales, checking your books or for performing some other important roles, will be laid up for months, You’d have to replace him, wouldn’t you? And probably at a pay about equal to his ?
Then you’d be faced with double paying for one job because stopping the pay of an injured man would simply be out of the question.
You can prevent this kind of unproductive outgo on your payroll by providing your key man with the protection of Travelers Business Accident Insurance!
This insurance provides total medical expense and a weekly income in case a key man is disabled for some time. Should the disability prove everlasting, an income for life is certainty. Why not make out a list of your key men now? Then get together with Travelers Insurance Company, and let us tell you how little it costs to apply this much needed protection to your business.
Write and we'll serve you!The above is most probably________．
| A．a report | B．a letter |
| C．an announcement | D．an advertisement |
What is really true according to the above?
| A．Travelers Insurance Company provides services of accident insurance． |
| B．An important person of the firm has just had an accident． |
| C．Accident Insurance will protect the important person from accident． |
| D．Unfortunately the important person has become disabled． |
Whom might the writing be mainly for?
| A．An important person in a firm． |
| B．An employee of a firm． |
| C．The boss of a company． |
| D．Readers of a newspaper． |
Why would the pay be doubled?
| A．Because two persons are doing one job of the same． |
| B．Because the important job is worth double pay． |
| C．Because it is necessary that the injured person should be paid． |
| D．Because the double pay is for two persons． |
Travelers Insurance Company ________ for a person insured．
| A．will pay for all the cost of treatment and the lifelong income |
| B．will pay the weekly income or even that of lifetime |
| C．won’t get much from the firm |
| D．will provide everlasting pension as well as medical expense |
Nowadays more and more people are trapped in too busy work to relax themselves. We have no time to tell a bed-time story to our children, or enjoy a nice dinner with our family, or take a break to think about how we live the precious life, or even meet friends. All we notice is that the distinctions that used to guide and steady us ------ between Sunday and Monday, public and private, here and there ------ are gone. We have more ways to communicate, but less and less to say. Partly because we’re so busy communicating.
Maybe that’s why more and more people I know, even if they have no religious commitment, seem to be turning to yoga, or meditation, or tai chi. Some friends of mine try to go on long walks every Sunday, or to “forget” their cellphones at home. A series of tests in recent years has shown that after spending time in quiet rural settings, subjects “exhibit greater attentiveness, stronger memory and generally improved cognition. Their brains become both calmer and sharper.” More than that, empathy, as well as deep thought, depends on neural processes that are “inherently slow. ” The very ones our high-speed lives have little time for.
In my own case, I turn to eccentric and often extreme measures to try to keep my sanity and ensure that I have time to do nothing at all. I’ve not yet used a cellphone and I’ve never Tweeted or entered Facebook. I try not to go online till my day’s writing is finished, and I moved from Manhattan to rural Japan.
None of this is a matter of principle or asceticism (苦行主义): it’s just pure selfishness. Nothing makes me feel better-----calmer, clearer and happier----than being in one place, absorbed in a book, a conversation, a piece of music. It’s actually something deeper than mere happiness: it’s joy, which the monk David Steindl-Rast describes as “that kind of happiness that doesn’t depend on what happens.” That is the highest of the highest we have been longing for----The Joy of Quiet.The writer sometimes doesn’t do anything because ________.
| A．he is out of work . |
| B．whatever he does make no sense |
| C．he is worried about his writing. |
| D．he can enjoy himself in his leisure time. |
When the writer uses the word “forget” , his real meaning is _______.
| A．Somebody really forgets his cellphone at home. |
| B．Somebody thinks cellphone is not a suitable means of communication. |
| C．Somebody hates modern techniques such as the cellphone. |
| D．Somebody leaves his cellphone at home on purpose. |
Which of the following is right?
| A．It is better to go back to the ancient times since we are so busy now. |
| B．The writer is unwilling to help others since he is selfish. |
| C．Slowing down to find time and space to think and enjoy oneself is urgent. |
| D．We have more to say because we have more ways to communicate. |
What does the underlined word mean?
| A．difference | B．sameness | C．simplicity | D．complication |
What is the main idea of the article?
| A．The importance of spending time in quiet. |
| B．We can do some sports such as yoga to relax. |
| C．Principle or asceticism is important in one’s life. |
| D．The more we communicate, the more we will be closer. |
Susan Sontag (1933----2004) was one of the most noticeable figures in the world of literature. For more than 40 years she made it morally necessary to know everything---to read every book worth reading, to see every movie worth seeing. When she was still in her early 30s, publishing essays in such important magazines as Partisan Review, she appeared as the symbol of American culture life, trying hard to follow every new development in literature, film and art. With great effort and serious judgment, Sontag walked at the latest edges of world culture.
Seriousness was one of Sontag’s lifelong watchwords(格言),but at a time when the barriers between the well-educated and the poor-educated were obvious, she argued for a true openness to the pleasure of pop culture. In Notes on Camp, the 1964 essay that first made her name, she explained what was then a little-known set of difficult understandings, through which she could not have been more famous. “Notes on Camp”, she wrote, represents “ a victory of ‘form’ over ‘content’, ‘beauty’ over ‘morals’”.
By conviction（信念）she was a sensualist, but by nature she was a moralist, and in the works she published in the 1970s and 1980s , it was the latter side of her that came forward. In Illness as Metaphor —published in 1978, after she suffered cancer—she argued against the idea that cancer was somehow a special problem of repressed personalities, a concept that effectively blamed the victim for the disease. In fact, re-examining old positions was her lifelong habit.
In America, her story of a19thcentury Polish actress who set up a perfect society in California, won the National Book Award in 2000.But it was as a all-purpose cultural view that she made her lasting fame. “Sometimes,” she once said, “I feel that, in the end, all I am really defending …is the idea of seriousness, of true seriousness.” And in the end, she made us take it seriously too.The underlined sentence in paragraph 1 means Sontag_________.
| A．was a symbol of American cultural life |
| B．developed world literature, film and art |
| C．published many essays about world culture |
| D．kept pace with the newest development of world culture |
She first won her name through ___________.
| A．her story of a Polish actress |
| B．her book Illness as Metaphor |
| C．publishing essays in magazines like partisan Review |
| D．her explanation of a set of difficult understandings |
According to the passage, Susan Sontag__________.
| A．was a sensualist as well as a moralist |
| B．looked down upon the pop culture |
| C．thought content was more important than form |
| D．blamed the victim of cancer for being repressed |
As for Susan Sontag’s lifelong habit, she __________.
| A．misunderstood the idea of seriousness |
| B．re-examined old positions |
| C．argued for an openness to pop culture |
| D．preferred morals to beauty |
Why Susan Sontag won her lasting fame was because of___________-.
| A．her point which was suitable for common cultural view |
| B．her lifelong watchword：seriousness |
| C．her publishing books on morals |
| D．her enjoying books worth reading and movies worth seeing |