I was working with a client who was completely burned out on her career and life and then ready for a career change. As we were talking, she said, “I just wish I had meaningful work. I don't feel like I am making a difference. I am just wasting my life. “This is the theme I hear most often from clients who have been in the work-force a while. All of us want to feel like we are making a difference. We want to believe our work means something. The problem comes in defining “meaningful work “. What is it? That answer is different for everyone. For some meaningful work might be helping others organize their office. For others it may mean making a million dollars.
What really matters is how you see it. What is meaningful work to you? Take out a piece of paper and answer these questions. How do you define meaningful work? When do you feel like you are really making a difference? What work have you done so far that feels the most meaningful? Write down whatever comes to mind.
It is very easy to start judging yourself as being selfish. Stop! Allow yourself to be honest. The fact is when Picasso painted; he was doing it because he liked to paint. He was not thinking. “Oh, I hope this brings joy to others' lives.” He painted because he wanted to. When Beethoven composed, he did it because he loved music. Even scientists searching for a cure for cancer are immersed in their work because it fascinates them.
It is easy to downplay the importance of work that feels meaningful. I remember Tony Robbins told a story of talking with the owner of a major company. The man said to Tony, " I wish I could do what you do because it makes such a difference in people's lives. " Tony said, " You've got to be kidding！ Look at what a difference you make. You provide work, health insurance and security for thousands of people ！”Don’t underestimate the value you provide.
Take a look at what you have written about meaningful work. Do you see any themes? How do you wish to contribute to this world? Whatever you choose, remember that the greatest gift you can give is to find work that makes you feel fulfilled and joyful. Honor your preferences because giving your gifts to the world, whatever they look like, is the most meaningful action you can ever take. Which should come first to see whether you are doing something meaningful?
| A．What is meaningful work to you? |
| B．Where can you find meaningful work? |
| C．How do you wish to contribute to the world? |
| D．How can you make a difference in your work? |
What does the writer mean by mentioning the famous people?
| A．Famous people are selfish to start work for themselves. |
| B．Doing meaningful work requires our interest in it. |
| C．Interest is the best teacher in learning. |
| D．Honesty makes for the greatest people. |
When you “downplay “the value of your work, you tend to think it is _________.
| A．quite different | B．very successful |
| C．not meaningful | D．less important |
According to the passage, what meaningful job does the writer advise us to take?
| A．The one which is popular in society. |
| B．The one which brings you profits. |
| C．The one which wins you fame. |
| D．The one which interests you. |
Poor parenting is to blame for a major deterioration（变坏） in the behavior of primary school pupils over the past five years,a study suggests.
Classroom disorder is a big problem for teachers, according to researchers ar Cambridge University.In interview with teachers, Professors Maurice Galton and John Macbeath found that many blamed their pupils’ bad behavior on the inability of parents to control children at home.
Many pupils lacked the social skills required to get on in class, said the researchers. “The teachers describe ‘highly permissive’ parents who admitted to indulging(纵容) their children,often for the sake of peace,” the author added.
Examples included a mother who,after great effort,succeeded in getting her five-year-old son to bed at 1 am instead of 3 am,and a boy of seven who broke his Sony PlayStation in a tantrum(发脾气),and then would not behave for a week until his mother bought him a new one.
Professors Galton and Macbeath were also told of parents who would do anything to shut their children up”just to get some peace”.
The researchers,who visited schools they studied five years ago,added,”There appeared to have been a bad influence on school life from a rapidly changing social scene”
“Motivating certain children, it was claimed, had become more difficult because by the time they came to school many of these children had become expert in dealing with adults.”
According to Galton and Macbeath, the top five difficulties to teaching are poor pupil behavior, lack of time for reflection, large class sizes, too many initatives and an overloaded curriculum. “Children arrive at school knowing too much and not enough.”They said.According to many teachers, some students behave badly at school because___.
| A．teachers didn’t give them an interesting lesson |
| B．they lack parental control at home |
| C．their parents have a poor education themselves |
| D．they can’t receive enough attention from teachers. |
Why are some parents highly permissive according to the passage?
| A．To show their strong love to their children. |
| B．To encourage their children to do what they like |
| C．To give their children freedom to choose what they are interested in |
| D．To avoid being disturbed by children. |
Which of the following is the most suitable title for the passage?
| A．Teachers have the duty to control their students |
| B．Parents get the blame for bad behavior of children |
| C．Teachers are responsible for what their students do |
| D．Parents are the models for their children |
Babies as young as 5months can distinguish a happy tune, such as Ode to Joy, from Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony,from sad tunes.
Researchers showed an emotionally-neutral(中立的)face to the babies while sad music played.When the babies looked away from the face, the music stopped Ode to Joy played, the babies stared at the face three to four seconds longer, suggesting they were interested in the change.
By nine months old, babies can do the opposite.
The finding is another example of how babies make sense of the world long before they can talk, said Brigham Young University psychology professor Ross Flom.
“One of the first things babies understand communicatively is emotion,so for them the melody(旋律)is the message,”Flom said. “Our study showed that by nine months, babies are classifying songs as happy or sad the same way that adults do”
So what makes a happy song?
BYU music professor Susan Kenney, who was not involved in the study, noted some of the technical difference between the happy and sad songs the babies heard.
“The happy songs were all in major keys with fairly short phrases or motives that repeated,”Kenney said, “The tempo(节拍)and melodic rhythms were faster than any of the sad ones,and the molodies had a general upward direction.The sad songs were in minor keys and all had a slower beat and long melodic rhythms.For a baby to notice those differences is interesting and attractive.”The phrase “the opposite”in Paragraph 3 refers to “___”.
| A．telling the difference between Ode to Joy and other songs |
| B．picking out a sad tune from happy ones |
| C．looking away from the face three to four sections longer |
| D．showing they’re not interested in the change of tunes |
This musical study shows that___.
| A．all babies are gifted in music |
| B．music represents what babies want to tell us |
| C．babies understand music emotionally even before they can talk |
| D．the behavior of babies should be further studied |
How do babies distinguish different tunes according to Kenny?
| A．By the tempo and rhythms |
| B．By their emotion |
| C．By their common sense |
| D．By their interest |
Which section of a newspaper does this passage probably belong to?
| A．Science |
| B．Culture |
| C．Education |
| D．Entertainment |
Among growing concerns about rising food prices and global warming, many Americans are taking a closer look at what they do and don’t eat.
Research in the US estimates that at least 14 percent of purchased food ends up in the garbage.Some way view this as a call to return to the”clean your plate” atiitude, which was popularized in the mid-twentieth century, but this would be unwise.With a rising overweight population and a growing national health crisis, it’s time for a new approach.Instead,we should view these figures as motivation to reduce waste,cut grocery costs and maintain our health by shopping and eating smarter.
Food waste reportedly makes up about 12 percent of waste material.Aside from the costly operation budgets of the equipment,the environment is paying the real price.As organic material(like vegetables,fruits and grains)decompose in the garbage,they release the greenhouse gas methane(甲烷)into the environment.
In fact,garbage is the largest source of methane emissions(散发)in the US.While composting plant food, which does not produce methane,is one solution,strategies for wasting less food shoule also be explored.
According to a survey in the UK,one major source of food waste is “over shopping”.Buying more food than we need is easy to do when we shop without a list or when “buy one,get one free”offers tempt us to put food that will often go to waste into our shopping baskets.
The solution: shop smarter.Check your refrigerator to see what needs to be used or frozen before it becomes bad.Check your calendar to see if there are meals that you know you will be eating away from home.
Before you go to the store,decide how many days worth of food you need.Then ,take a few minutes to prepare a shopping list.Don’t make things different—no need to decide what will be served each day—just plan enough breakfast,lunch and dinner meals to last until your next grocery run.How does food waste influence the environment?
| A．It makes up about 12 percent of waste materials |
| B．It costs a great deal to operate the equipment |
| C．It contains organic materials |
| D．It release the greenhouse gas |
How many solutions are mentioned to solve the food garbage problem?
| A．One |
| B．Two |
| C．Three |
| D．Four |
What can we know according to Paragraph 5?
| A．We usually buy some unnecessary food. |
| B．We tend to buy a lot of food that we can’t afford. |
| C．We usually buy one thing and are given one more for free. |
| D．We get the free food and soon throw it into the garbage |
The purpose of writing this passage is to ___.
| A．tell us what healthy foods should be bought |
| B．remind us to eat smarter to provide energy for our body |
| C．advise us to check our refrigerator before eating out |
| D．expect us to make efforts to avoid food waste |
Many English students did not realize that phrases such as “get off of” and “she was stood” were grammatically incorrect. It’s feared that the use of social networking websites and mobile phone text messaging is damaging children’s literacy(读写) skills.
Ministers have also complained that many young people spend too much time playing video games and watching TV instead of reading books.In the lastest study,Cambridge Assessment,one of the country’s biggest examination organizations,surveyed more than 2,000teenagers in 26 English secondary schools.
They were presented with various phrases and asked to mark out those with non-standard English. Only 41 percent realized that an adjective had been used in place of an adverb in the phrase “come quick”.
Fewer than six-in-ten pupils correctly identified “get off of” and “she was stood” as ungrammatical. Around a quarter of students failed to spot errors in the phrases “ it wasn’t me who done it” , “ couldn’t hardly move”, “Tom had gotten cold” and “three mile”. At least a fifth failed to recognize that “more easier” was incorrect. And most one-in-ten students failed to spot the use of a double negative in the phrase “I didn’t break no vase”
Ian McNeilly,from the National Association for the Teaching of English, told the Times Educational Supplement, “For a lot of people—not just young people—their daily use of English is in new media,where non-standerd grammatical constuctions are more acceptable.That’s unavoidably going to lead to an increased lack of awareness of more standard constructions.”
Dr Beth Black,author of the latest report,said,”It is possible that these less well-recognized nonstandard English forms will find their way into standard English,especially given the view that teenagers are linguistic innovators(语言创新者) who bring about change in standard dialect”.According to the first paragraph, what do people worry about?
| A．Text message cost students too much money |
| B．students can’t use standard English grammer |
| C．Students are annoyed through social networking websites. |
| D．Students become violent by playing video games |
From the result of the survey, about 10 percent of the students failed to___.
| A．understand the correct use of the tense |
| B．know the proper place of an adjective |
| C．know the use of the adverb |
| D．find the misuse of a double negative |
According to Ian McNeilly, which of the following caused the spread of non-standard grammer?
| A．Poeple use English in new media |
| B．People spend little time reading books |
| C．People didn’t learning grammar well at school |
| D．Poeple are too careless in their writing |
From the last paragraph, we can infer that___.
| A．standard English will probably be destroyed by teenagers |
| B．teenagers are likely to become experts in English language |
| C．non-standard English forms will probably be widely accepted |
| D．people will probably not use the standard English grammar |
On a cold evening of April our ship was sailing for Ireland. Suddenly a violent storm rose and overturned our ship. Fortunately I held a board and was washed up on an island.
It was completely dark. On reaching the island，I found a smooth place to lie down. Quite tired I slept for a long time. I woke up with a start when I was dazzled (使目眩) by glaring sunlight. How I felt hungry and thirsty！The island with its beautiful landscape at dawn appeared before my eyes.
I began to explore the island. It was an uninhabited island surrounded by trees. Yellow fruits on the trees made me feel hungry. I tasted one. How sweet and delicious it was！I ate greedily a lot then I lay down comfortably on the soft grass. Around me were fragrance (芳香) and singing of birds. There, far away, on the right, a waterfall was falling down the mountainside. I rushed toward it. In the afternoon when I was wandering around the island, I happened to find out a cave hidden behind the thick forest. It was convenient for me to turn it into a place for sleeping for the night.
Day in day out,nearly two weeks passed by. My food was mere fruit and some fish caught from the stream. Sometimes I tried to hunt some wild animals but in vain. Had I been equipped with necessary things，I would have enjoyed remaining here for food.
One morning I caught sight of a boat. I signaled and shouted loudly. I was rescued but so far I have had the memories of a fairy land which I had once happened to discover!What did the author do first after he was washed up on the island?
| A．He looked for a passing ship. |
| B．He found something to eat. |
| C．He found a place to take a rest. |
| D．He made the island clean. |
What is the RIGHT time order of the following things?
A.HE wandered around the island
B.He was dazzled by glaring sunlight
C.He ate a lot of wild fruits
D.He found the island’s landscape was beautiful
A.bdac B.cdab C.acdb D.bdcaWhat does the underlined part “an uninhabited island”in Paragraph 3 mean?
| A．An island with beautiful scenes but no fruit. |
| B．An island without humans living on it. |
| C．An island that no humans have visited. |
| D．An island with fresh air and trees. |
What does this passage specially describe?
| A．How the author overcame difficulties on the island |
| B．How the author spent the first night and the first day on the island |
| C．How the author got to the island |
| D．How the author escaped from the island |
The author wrote his experience in a ________ tone.
| A．light | B．serious | C．scared | D．sharp |