Jerry was a unique manager because he had several waiters who had followed him around from restaurant to restaurant. The reason the waiters followed Jerry was because of his attitude. He was a natural motivator. If an employee was having a bad day, Jerry was there telling the employee how to look on the positive side of the situation.
Seeing this style really made me curious, so one day I went up to Jerry and asked him, “I don’t get it! You can’t be a positive person all of the time. How do you do it?” Jerry replied, “Each morning I wake up and say to myself, ‘Jerry, you have two choices today. You can choose to be in a good mood or you can choose to be in a bad mood.’ I choose to be in a good mood. Each time something bad happens, I can choose to be a victim or I can choose to learn from it. I choose to learn from it. Every time someone comes to me complaining, I can choose to accept their complaining or I can point out the positive side of life. I choose the positive side of life. The bottom line: It’s your choice how you live your life.” I reflected on what Jerry said. Later, I left the restaurant industry to start my own business. We lost touch, but I often thought about him when I made a choice about life.
Several years later, I heard that Jerry did something you are never supposed to do in a restaurant business: he left the back door open one morning and was stopped at gun point by three armed robbers. While trying to open the safe(保险箱), he forgot the password, nervous. The robbers shot him. Luckily, Jerry was found rather quickly and rushed to the local hospital. After 18 hours of surgery and weeks of intensive care, Jerry left hospital with fragments(碎片)of the bullets(子弹) still in his body.
I saw Jerry about six months after the accident. When I asked him how he was, he replied, “The first thing that went through my mind was that I should have locked the back door,” Jerry replied. “Then, as I lay on the floor, I remembered that I had two choices: I could choose to live, or I could choose to die. I chose to live.” “Weren’t you frightened? Did you lose consciousness(知觉)?” I asked. Jerry continued, “The doctors and nurses were great. They kept telling me I was going to be fine. But when they wheeled me into the emergency room and I saw the expressions on the faces of the doctors and nurses, I got really frightened. I knew I needed to take action.”
“What did you do?” I asked. “Well, there was a big, strong nurse shouting questions at me,” said Jerry. “She asked if I was allergic (过敏的)to anything. ‘Yes,’ I replied. The doctors and nurses stopped working as they waited for my reply. I took a deep breath and shouted, ‘Bullets!’ Over their laughter, I told them. ‘I am choosing to live. Operate on me as if I am alive, not dead.’”
Jerry lived thanks to the skill of his doctors, but also because of his amazing attitude. I learned from him that every day we have the choice to live fully.The author left Jerry’s restaurant industry because he________.
A.wanted to start business on his own |
B.was afraid of another robbery later |
C.was not equal to the job any longer |
D.didn’t get along well with others |
Why was Jerry shot? ________.
A.Because he left the back door open |
B.Because he refused to open the safe |
C.Because he didn’t open the safe in time |
D.Because he pretended to forget the password |
What was Jerry really afraid of in the emergency room? ________.
A.The doctors and nurses gave him up. |
B.He decided to take action to live again. |
C.He saw many doctors and nurses waiting there. |
D.He might not be saved by doctors and nurses. |
From the passage we can learn that Jerry was ________.
A.no longer positive to his life after the operation |
B.optimistic even when things were at their worst |
C.influenced by all his colleagues in many ways |
D.badly injured and stayed in hospital for six months |
Which of the following is conveyed in this article?
A.Where there is life, there is hope. |
B.Everything comes to him who waits. |
C.Attitude determines everything. |
D.Humor is the best medicine that creates miracle(奇迹). |
For years we have been told that encouraging a child’s self-respect is important to his or her success in life. But child experts are now learning that too much praise can lead to the opposite effect, Praise-aholic kids who expect it at every turn may become teens who seek the same kind of approval from their friends when asked if they want to go in the backseat of the car.
The implication (含义) of saying “You are the prettiest girl in class,” or talking about the goals she scored but not her overall( 全面的) efforts, is that you love her only when she looks the best, scores the highest, achieves the most. And this carries over to the classroom.
Social psychologist Carol Dweck, PhD, tested the effects of overpraise on 400 fifth grades while she was at Columbia University. She found that kids praised for “trying hard” did better on the tests and were more likely to take on difficult assignments than those praised for being “smart”.
“ Praising attributes (品质) or abilities makes a false promise that success will come to you because you have that quality, and it devalues efforts, so children are afraid to take on challenges, ” says Dweck, now at Stanford University. “They figure they’d better quit while they’ re ahead.”The underlined words “ Praise-aholic kids” refer to kids who are _______.
A. tired of being praised
B. worthy of being praised
C. very proud of being praised
D extremely fond of being praised.. The author quoted (引用) Dr. Dweck’s words in the last paragraph in order to make the article ______.
A.better-known | B.better-organized |
C.more believable | D.more interesting |
. We can infer from the passage that ____________.
A.praise for efforts should be more encouraged |
B.praise for results works better than praise for efforts |
C.praising a child’s achievements benefits his or her success in life. |
D.praising a child’s abilities encourages him or her to take on challenges |
The new iPhone 3G should please everyone . Its look and feel are only slightly improved, but a faster network loads Web pages more quickly , true GPS functionality allows it to easily find places nearby , and the new $199 price(down from $400) makes it an affordable luxury.
Before deciding whether to buy, however , make sure you can actually take advantage of the iPhone 3G’s high-speed data network. 3G stands for third-generation , which in non-geek speak translates to Web pages and mail messages that, ideally, load about three times faster than on the original iPhone. Even better, 3G coverage enables you to make a phone call and surf the Web at the same time . That’s great, if you live or work in a place where the 3G network of AT&T(美国电话电报公司)(the sole wireless carrier of the iPhone) is active. That’s not so great in cities like New York where AT&T’s cellular(电台通讯网) coverage is awful. As one of my colleagues in New York City, who bought the original iPhone , commented , “It’s just a toy . You can’t make phone calls on it, so I carry my Verizon phone with me all the time.”
The real fun begins when you tap on the icon(计算机图标)called “Apple Store” and start browsing (浏览) the hundreds of add-on applications that have been developed just for the iPhone. You will find tons of games (I like JirboBreak , a free game inspired by the Atari classic Breakout ) and mobile version of popular websites like Pandora , Facebook , MySpace and the New York Times . Most apps will cost you , but the vast majority are $9.99 or less. The apps work on the old iPhone too, but you’ll enjoy them a lot more on the iPhone 3G because many of the programs , including Yelp(local business reviews ), Whrrl (mobile social networking) and UrbanSpoon(restaurant reviews), use you exact location --- provided by the iPhone 3G’s GPS chip --- to make recommendations. The apps also load much faster over the 3G network.. The new iPhone 3G has following features except that _____.
A.it looks and feels better |
B.it has a faster network |
C.it is easy to locate a place |
D.it is too expensive for people to buy |
.Why does one of my colleagues carry Verizon phone with him all the time?
A.Because iPhone 3G is just a toy. |
B.Because he prefers Verizon phone better . |
C.Because AT&T’s cellular coverage is terrible there. |
D.Because Verizon phone enables him make a phone call and surf the Web at the same time. |
. Which of the following statements is NOT true according to the passage ?
A.App Store will offer you great fun . |
B.Many apps have been developed for the iPhone. |
C.Most apps are very expensive. |
D.Pandora , Facebook, MySpace and the New York Times are popular websites. |
. From the passage we know that the attitude of the author toward iPhone 3G is ____.
A.doubtful | B.appreciate | C.optimistic | D.pessimistic |
Each Indian(印第安人)was supposed to keep his birth name until he was old enough to earn one for himself.But his playmates(游戏伙伴)would always give him a name of their own.No matter what his parents called him, his childhood friends would use the name they had chosen.Often it was not pleasing, such as Bow Legs or Bad Boy.But sometimes a name fit so well that the youngster found it difficult to shake it off.If he could not earn a better one from a war later, he could be stuck with a name like Bow Legs for the rest of his life.
The Indian earned his real name when he was old enough for his first fight against the enemy.His life name depended on how he acted during this first battle.When he returned from the war, the whole tribe would gather and observe the ceremony in which he would be given his name by the chief.If he had done well, he would get a good name.Otherwise he might be called Crazy Wolf or Man-Afraid-Of-a-Horse.So an Indian’s name told his record or described the kind of man he was.
A man was given many chances to improve his name, however.If in a later battle he was brave in fighting against the enemy, he was given a better name.Some of our great fighters had as many as twelve names—all good and each better than the last.
An Indian’s names belonged to him for the rest of his life.No one else could use them.Even he himself could not give them away because names were assigned by the tribe, not the family.So no man could pass on his name unless the chief and the tribe asked him to do so.
Sometimes an Indian would be asked to give his name to a son who had performed a noticeable deed.I know of only three of four times when this happened.It is the rarest honor for a person—the honor of assuming(承担) his father’s name.
An Indian could be given the second name by__________.
A.his father | B.the enemy |
C.the chief of the tribe | D.his childhood friends |
The greatest honor an Indian could earn was____________.
A.a victory in his first battle against the enemy |
B.a name given by the chief |
C.a ceremony to get his real name |
D.the right to use his father’s name |
If an Indian had more than ten names, it meant that____________.
A.many people in the tribe liked him | B.he was a great fighter |
C.he had a lot of friends | D.he had fought in fewer than ten battles |
Which of the following statements is not true according to the passage?
A.The names given by the playmates of an Indian were usually not pleasant |
B.The life name of an Indian was earned in battle |
C.An Indian could throw away his birth name when he was old enough to earn one for himself. |
D.The Indians themselves were not allowed to give their names away. |
The gray-haired lady can’t wait to leave the building to search for her dad .Unless watched ,she will walk in the streets in an effort to find her father ,who died 30 years ago.
Not all cases of Alzheimer’s disease look like this ,but Alzheimer’s is a serious disease that is said to be the fourth or fifth leading cause of death for people over age 75.
It is said that about three percent of the U.S. population over age 65 have Alzheimer’s .In the early stages ,people may exhibit short term memory loss. Some may experience changes in personality , easy to be angry .As the disease progresses ,patients might lose the ability to move and may be unable to speak or move at all. This progressive disease generally lasts 8 to 10 years before death occurs.
While no one is certain what causes these changes in the brain’s nerve fibers (神经纤维),their effect is certain .Alzheimer’s destroys not only the patients ,but also spouses(配偶),friends and families.
What should you do if you notice progressive memory loss in yourself or a loved one? Have the person examined by a doctor who is a specialist in the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease.
Though many reasons other than Alzheimer’s disease may cause memory loss ,its
early diagnosis(诊断)and treatment may delay some of the most serious effects.
What feeling will you likely experience should a loved one suffer from Alzheimer’ s disease? A person will often go through the various stages of sadness, shock ,anger ,and so on. If the spouse develops the disease ,you may experience hurt and disappointment when he or she doesn’t remember you are married.
Life for the Alzheimer’s patients and their loved ones will never be the same as the disease progresses ,bringing a deep sorrow ,loss and even anger towards God .No matter what feelings are present ,facing them honestly will serve one better than burying them.
What can be inferred from the passage about the gray-haired day?
A.She has been living with her father. |
B.She was sad about the death of her father. |
C.She can’t search for her father without being watched. |
D.She suffers from Alzheimer’s disease. |
.When people suffer from Alzheimer’s disease , ________.
A.their families and friends will suffer from the same disease |
B.their families and friends will experience mental sufferings |
C.they will certainly die in 8 to 10 years |
D.they will forget everybody but their spouses |
.Memory loss occurs ________.
A.from Alzheimer’s disease and nothing else |
B.from sadness ,shock ,anger ,and so on |
C.for a number of reasons |
D.with changes in personality |
As we all know,it was Thomas Jefferson who wrote the Declaration of Independence (独立宣言).He wrote it in two weeks,and after a few changes,it was accepted by the Congress.As a result,he became famous in America's history.
Born in Virginia,Thomas Jefferson,a brilliant student at school and almost talented lawyer later,was much interested in politics.
Jefferson was elected Governor of Virginia in 1779,and he was sent to France as the Representative of the American Government in 1784.Sixteen years later,at the age of 57,he was elected president after Washington and Adams.
Far from a handsome man,he was is tall with long arms and big hands.Jefferson,who was an amusing talker in conversation,but a poor speaker,was generally good-natured.
Jefferson was regarded as a defender(捍卫者)of freedom Of America.As a president,he protected the right of speech.Interestingly enough,in his eight years as president,:Jefferson never said “No” to a bill(议案)which the Congress had passed.He did a lot in organizing the new University of Virginia.
Thomas Jefferson died on July the fourth,1826,the fiftieth anniversary of America’s independence.
We are most likely to read this passage in .
A.a daily newspaper | B.a popular advertisement |
C.a hi story book | D.an important notice |
Which of the following statements about Jefferson’s personality is true?
A.He was a shy and slow learner when he was at school. |
B.He was not an easy person to get along with at all |
C.He was not only very talented but also very handsome. |
D.He was an amusing talker,but not good at speaking in public. |
Jefferson’s greatest contribution in America’history is that .
A.he was for the right of free speech |
B.he was sent to France as the Representative |
C. he wrote the Declaration of Independence |
D.he organized the new University of Virginia |
Thomas Jefferson was elected president of the United States in the year of.
A.1779 | B.1784 | C.1800 | D.1826 |