When you were a child you had a pure mind which was free from worries and anxieties. However, as time goes by, you’re faced with so many problems in life. Below are five techniques that can help you get relaxed.
1. Mind your own business.
Yes, please mind your own business. When you start being concerned about things which are not related to you, you lose your control on your thought process, which often has negative results disturbing the mental peace. Basically, your mind starts wandering here and there. So next time an unnecessary thought comes to your mind, think whether this is really something you should be worrying for? If not, keep it away and focus on something positive, practical and fruitful.
2. Surround yourself with positive people.
Overlook negative comments and stay away from negative souls. When someone is negative, he spreads negativity and you get affected. Staying with such people will have long term influence on your character so think about your company.
3. Don’t think about others too much.
Remember: Small minds discuss people; Average minds discuss events; Higher minds discuss ideas and Great minds act in silence. Don’t allow your brain to compare yourself to others as this is an insult (侮辱) to yourself. Don’t be jealous; it’s a heart killing disease, get rid of it as soon as possible. When you are jealous you focus on finding faults in others even if they don’t have. This poisons your soul and steals the mental peace.
4. You can’t keep everyone happy.
Don’t be oversensitive (过于敏感的). Be natural in what you do. Be positive and constructive in your deeds and then don’t really care too much about others. Be aware, don’t apply this to too closed relations. Develop trust to build up powerful relationships.
5. Don’t believe yourself to be unlucky.
Remember this: Bad luck happens to everyone. It’s not your fault at all. Time, whether good or bad, passes quickly. Develop the power of not looking back into your past. Believe in the power of Now. Believe in your skills. Work hard and you will get what you have been entitled for. Be patient and see what has been planned for you.
With these recommendations, I believe if you can make it, it’s probable that you can bring changes in your lifestyle and get back your mental peace.This passage is written for those who want to _________.
| A．seek learning skills |
| B．find positive people as friends |
| C．make their mind pure |
| D．get mentally peaceful and relaxed |
The underlined word “Overlook” can be replaced by _________.
| A．Ignore | B．Pass | C．Master | D．Support |
The underlined sentence means _________.
| A．People with different minds do different things |
| B．people should discuss different aspects of life |
| C．people should never compare themselves with others |
| D．people should never be jealous, or they’ll be poisoned |
Which of the following should NOT be done according to the five techniques?
| A．Stay with positive people. |
| B．Care about the business of strangers. |
| C．Be sincere with others and never care too much about them. |
| D．Believe in the magic power of what the present can bring you. |
No one is glad to hear that his body has to be cut open by a surgeon（外科医生） and part of it taken out． Today， however， we needn't worry about feeling pain during the operation． The sick person falls into a kind of sleep， and when he awakes， the operation is finished． But these happy conditions are fairly new． It is not many years since a man who had to have operation felt all its pain．
Long ago， operation had usually to be done while the sick man could feel everything． The sick man had to be held down on a table by force while the doctors did their best for him． He could feel all the pain if his leg or arm was being cut off， and his fearful cries filled the room and the hearts of those who watched．
Soon after 1770， Josept Priestley discovered a gas which is now called “laughing gas”．Laughing gas became known in America．Young men and women went to parties to try it． Most of them spent their time laughing，but one man at a party，Horace Wells，noticed that people didn't seem to feel pain when they were using this gas．He decided to make an experiment on himself．He asked a friend to help him．
Wells took some of the gas，and his friend pulled out one of Well’s teeth．Wells felt no pain at all．
As he didn't know enough about laughing gas， he gave a man less gas than he should have． The man cried out with pain when his tooth was being pulled out．
Wells tried again，but this time he gave too much of the gas，and the man died．Wells never forgot this terrible event．It is ___________since a man being operated felt all the pain.
| A．a few more years | B．not long |
| C．few years | D．two thousand years |
Long ago, when the sick man was operated on, he___________.
| A．could feel nothing | B．could not want anything |
| C．could feel all the pain | D．could do anything |
Using the laughing gas, the people did not seem to___________.
| A．be afraid of anything | B．feel pain |
| C．want to go to the parties | D．be ill |
If a man took less laughing gas than he should have when an operation went on he___________.
| A．felt nothing | B．felt very comfortable |
| C．still felt pain | D．would die |
When Christopher Columbus landed on the then unnamed Costa Rica in 1502, he saw many Indians wearing gold earrings. So he thought the land must be rich in gold. He named the place Costa Rica, which means “rich coast” in Spanish.
Though little gold was found, Costa Rica today is indeed rich with coffee and bananas. Coffee is the most important product in Costa Rica and most of it is exported (出口) to other countries like America and West Germany. Bananas are the country’s second most important export.
Costa Ricans also grow many other crops such as fruits, corn and beans for their own use. Costa Ricans love colors and their houses are painted in bright colors.
Education is very important to the Costa Ricans. Almost every village has a school and education is a must for children between seven and fourteen years of age. Boys and girls go to separate (单独的) schools. Classes begin in March and end in November. The other three months of the year are harvest time and the children have to help their parents to pick coffee beans. What’s the main idea of the first paragraph?
| A．How Columbus found Costa Rica. |
| B．How Costa Rica got its name. |
| C．What the Costa Ricans wore. |
| D．What language the Costa Ricans spoke. |
The Costa Ricans may NOT paint their houses ______.
| A．pink and red | B．grey and black |
| C．blue and green | D．yellow and orange |
In Costa Rica, boys and girls between seven and fourteen ______.
| A．must go to school |
| B．study in the same school |
| C．do not have to go to school at all |
| D．can choose to stop schooling at any time |
From December to February, school children in Costa Rica ______.
| A．have lessons every day |
| B．have their examinations |
| C．help their parents pick coffee beans |
| D．help their parents decorate their houses |
Email has brought the art of letter writing back to life, but some experts think the resulting spread of bad English does more harm than good.
Email is a form of communication that is changing, for the worse, the way we write and use language, say some communication researchers. It is also changing the way we interact(交流) and build relationship. These are a few of the recently recognized features of email, say experts, which should cause individuals and organizations to rethink the way they use email.
“Email has increased the spread of careless writing habits,” says Naomi Baron, a professor of linguistics(语言学) at an American university. She says the poor spelling, grammar, punctuation and sentence structure of emails reflect(反映) a growing unconcern about the way we write.
Baron argues that we shouldn’t forgive and forget the poor writing often shown in email. “The more we use email and its tasteless writing, the more it becomes the normal way of writing,” the professor says.
Others say that despite its poor writing, email has finished what several generations of English teachers couldn’t: it has made writing fashionable again.
“Email is a critical new communication technology.” says Ian Lancashire, a professor of English at Toronto University. “It fills the gap between spoken language and the formal methods of writing that existed before email. It is the purest form of written speech.”
Lancashire says email has the mysterious ability to get people who are usually scared by writing to get their thoughts flowing easily onto a blank screen. He says this is because of email’s close similarity to speech. “It’s like a circle of four or five people around a campfire,” he says.
Still, he accepts that this new-found freedom to express themselves often gets people into trouble. Emails sent in a day almost exceed(超过) the number of letters mailed in a year. But more people are recognizing the content of a typical email message is not often exact.From what Baron says in the third paragraph we can see that ________.
| A．careless people use email more than careful people |
| B．email requires people to change their native language |
| C．professors in universities don’t need to use email |
| D．people communicate by email full of mistakes |
What does the underlined word “it”(in Paragraph 4) refer to?
| A．The poor writing. | B．Email. |
| C．The good writing. | D．A new communication technology. |
In Lancashire’s opinion, email is a wonderful technology because _______.
| A．it can be useful all over the world |
| B．it is the fastest way to communicate |
| C．we can express ourselves in a free way |
| D．we can save a lot of paper |
This passage mainly shows us that ______.
| A．people should stop using email to communicate |
| B．experts hold different opinions about email writing |
| C．Americans only use email to communicate |
| D．email makes people lose interest in English |
A great-grandfather has put up his Christmas tree for the 85th time after his father first bought it from a toy shop.
Douglas Hewitt, 85, has celebrated every Christmas with the artificial tree since he was born. His father bought the tree from a toy shop in Sheffield just months after Douglas was born. The four-foot tree remains the centre point of the Hewitt family household during every festive season.
Mr. Hewitt, of South Anston, South Yorkshire, said, “It reminds us of my childhood, our children’s childhood and our grandchildren and great-grandchildren’s after that. They all come and look at it and smile; it’s become part of the furniture. If we didn’t put that Christmas tree up, it wouldn’t feel like Christmas.”
The tree was passed down to Mr. Hewitt when he married Mavis. Mrs. Hewitt said, “Year after year we have just carried on using that one. You have to be a bit more careful with it now, as it’sfragile.”
Their daughter, June Murphy, also has fond memories of the Christmas tree. She said, “It was in my grandparents’ home and then it was given to us. It looks a little thin now, as each time you get it out something else falls off. It’s become a bit of a family joke. Each year someone has to comment ‘not again!’ But it’s a Christmas tradition of getting the tree out that we all love. We’d all be sad to see it go, as I think it would be hard to find such a loved replacement.”
Mr. Hewitt said, “There were a lot more branches on it, and it’s lost its feathers that were all along the edge. There were little candle holders（蜡烛架）on the ends and little legs on it, but unfortunately they’ve been lost over the years.”Where did Douglas Hewitt get the Christmas tree?
| A．He got it from his father. |
| B．He bought it from a toy shop. |
| C．He made it by himself. |
| D．He cut it down in a forest. |
What does Mr. Hewitt want to tell readers in the third paragraph?
| A．It may be the last year that the tree appears in this house. |
| B．His family decorate their house with this Christmas tree. |
| C．This Christmas tree reminds him that Christmas is on the way. |
| D．His family has a special feeling towards this Christmas tree. |
The underlined word “fragile” in the fourth paragraph probably means_______.
| A．a little strange | B．easily broken |
| C．quite small | D．not beautiful |
Why does her family put up the Christmas tree every year according to June Murphy?
| A．To honor her grandparents. |
| B．To save the family money. |
| C．To keep up the family tradition. |
| D．To create a friendly atmosphere. |
Babies who watch TV are more likely to show late learning development and language at 14 months, especially if they are watching programs aimed at adults and older children, according to a new study, which would probably surprise those parents who leave their babies in front of a TV set.
Babies who watched 60 minutes of TV daily had developmental scores a third lower at 14 months than babies who were watching less TV. Although their developmental scores were still in the normal range, the difference may have been due to the fact that when children and parents are watching TV, they are missing the talking, playing and other communications that are important to learning and development.
This new study, which appeared in the Aechives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine, followed 259 lower-income families in New York, most of whom spoke Spanish as their primary language at home. Other studies of higher-income families have also come to the same conclusion: TV watching is not only non-educational, but it seems to slow down babies’ development.
But what about “good” TV, like Sesame Street? The researchers didn’t find any difference when compared to non-educational programs designed for small children, like Spongebob SquarePants. Earlier research by some of the same scientists, most of whom are at New York University School of Medicine’s Bellevue Hospital Centre, has found that parents whose children watch non-educational TV programs like Spongebob SquarePants spend less time reading to their children or teaching them.
At this point, parents reading this will probably be astonished. TV is so often a parent’s good friend, keeping children happily occupied（占时间）so that the adults can cook dinner, answer the phone, or take a shower. But, clearly, this electronic babysitter（保姆）is not an educational aid. It is best to make sure the babies are fast asleep if you have to watch TV.According to the first paragraph, 14-month-old babies who watch TV probably_______.
| A．learn things quickly |
| B．prefer programs for older children |
| C．surprise their parents with their development |
| D．speak later than babies who don’t |
Babies who watched 60 minutes of TV daily had lower developmental scores perhaps because _______.
| A．they watch non-educational programs |
| B．they have little communication with their parents |
| C．they lost interest in real things |
| D．their parents don’t speak English at home |
We can infer from the passage that______.
| A．Educational and non-educational TV have different effects on babies |
| B．Many parents leave babies to the TV to do their own things |
| C．Educational TV is very popular among higher-income families |
| D．Lower-income families tend to teach their babies at home |
Which would be the best title for the passage?
| A．Developing Better Learning Ability |
| B．A New Study on Babies’ Bad Habits |
| C．TV Watching Is Bad for Babies’ Brains |
| D．Make Sure Your Babies Watch “Good” TV Programs |