Did you know that reading can keep your mind active and engaged well into old age?
Several years ago when I was working as a newspaper reporter, I interviewed a woman who was a resident at a local nursing home. She was 100 years old. She read at least one book per week, mostly novels. She was bright, intelligent and fun to talk with.
“I love to read. It helps me keep up with what’s going on in the world,” she said. “A friend of mine brings me a new book every week. I look forward to her visits and I look forward to the books.”
“I can’t get around much any more,” said the 100-year-old woman, “but when I read, I can go anywhere, anytime I want. And no one has to help me!”
Reading also sets a good example for younger generations. I have observed that the best readers are those students who see their parents reading. And I’m not talking about only reading novels. Newspapers and magazines are important too. Your actions will communicate a great deal to your children and grandchildren about what you value.
But why is reading so important? In this day and age, with television to give us news, and movies and videos to keep us entertained, who needs to read?
The answer is everyone.
Developing good reading skills does not only mean that you can read a novel or a magazine, it also means being able to read and understand things like a credit card contract or an insurance policy, or the instructions for how to put a new printer to use with your computer. In addition, developing good reading skills means that you can think for yourself. You can read about the advantages and disadvantages of anything from homeschooling to taking a vacation to Ireland. And then you can make up your own mind about what’s best for you and your family.The example of the 100-year-old woman is used to _______.
| A．inform us of a woman who loved reading |
| B．show a new way of gaining information |
| C．find differences between books and travels |
| D．introduce the benefits of reading books |
The 100-year-old woman loved reading because _______.
| A．reading helped her meet her friends |
| B．reading could broaden her horizons |
| C．she wanted to escape from the real world |
| D．she taught her grandchildren to read |
Who are most likely to be book lovers according to the author?
| A．The kids taught by intelligent teachers. |
| B．The kids forced to read by their serious parents. |
| C．The kids influenced by book lovers around them. |
| D．The kids curious about the outside world. |
We can infer form the passage that _______.
| A．other media are less important than books |
| B．the old woman’s friend was a bookseller |
| C．understanding is important in reading |
| D．the author once worked in a nursing home |
In which part of a newspaper would the passage be most likely to appear?
| A．Business | B．Lifestyle | C．Travel | D．History |
If you are a sleep deprived(被剥夺) teacher, you may not be aware of the term woodpeckering(啄木鸟式点头), but you’ve probably done it. It happens the day following a bad night’s sleep. You’re sitting in a long meeting and you can barely keep your eyes open, so you support your head up with your hand. Next thing you know, you are moving your sleeping head back to its upright position. Do this a few times and you are woodpeckering.
I thought I knew sleep deprivation when I did my medical internship(实习) in hospital. That year I frequently went 36 hours with no sleep. When I finished my stay in neurology(神经内科), I welcomed the promise of full nights of sleep ever after. It went pretty well for the next 10 years until I became a school teacher and experienced a whole new level of sleep deprivation.
Teachers’ working hours go far beyond the 8 am to 5 pm schedule of kids in school. There are hours spent at staff meetings, correcting homework, preparing for the next day- and then there is the worrying. What I did in a hospital emergency room required no more intensive mental energy than what is need to keep 30 kids attentive enough to learn what I was teacher.
Good teachers are like magicians keeping a dozen balls in the air to come at right time, with alarm set for 6 am to finish grading papers, memories of the day that’s gone- including the students who didn’t understand something, forgot their lunch or were embarrassed by wrong answers. All these will become sleep-resistant barriers. And also with some financial stress, you’ll have a cycle of insomnia(失眠) with unwelcome consequences.
With inadequate sleep comes irritability(易怒), forgetfulness, lower tolerance of even minor annoyances, and less efficient organization and planning. These are the very mental useless that teachers need to meet the challenges of the next day. In wanting to do a better job the next day, the brain keeps bringing up the worries that deny the rest it needs.After a bad night’s sleep, usually the direct effect for the next day is to ______.
| A．keep one’s eyes open all the time |
| B．move head back and forth |
| C．raise one’s head in upright position |
| D．keep nodding like a woodpecker |
The writer’s new level of sleep deprivation began since he _____.
| A．did his medical internship in hospital |
| B．began to teach in a school |
| C．left hospital ten years ago |
| D．went 36 hours with no sleep |
From paragraph 3 we can infer that ____.
| A．teachers’ work is comfortable |
| B．correcting homework needs less time |
| C．working in hospital is even tougher |
| D．teaching needs more mental energy |
Good teachers’ sleep problems are mainly due to the _____.
| A．common sleep-resistant barriers |
| B．embarrassment for wrong answers |
| C．diligence and devotion to teaching |
| D．misunderstanding of their students |
What does the writer really want to tell us in the last paragraph?
| A．Unfavorable effects of inadequate sleep are various |
| B．Lay down worries and sleep well first for the next day. |
| C．Teachers should often practice mental muscles. |
| D．Better job has nothing to do with inadequate sleep. |
Our most commonly held code for success is broken. Conventional wisdom holds that if we work hard we will be more successful, and if we are more successful, then we’ll be happy. If we can just find that great job, win that next promotion, lose those five pounds, happiness will follow. But recent discoveries in the field of positive psychology have shown that this code is actually backward: Happiness fuels success, not the other way around. When we are positive, our brains become more engaged, creative, motivated, energetic, and productive at work. This discovery has been repeatedly borne out by rigid research in psychology and neuroscience(神经学), management studies, and the bottom lines of organizations around the globe.
In The Happiness Advantage, Shawn Achor, who spent over a decade living, researching, and lecturing at Harvard University, draws on his own research—including one of the largest studies of happiness and potential at Harvard and others at companies like UBS to fix this broken code. Using stories and case studies from his work with CEOs of Fortune 500 in 42 countries, Achor explains how we can reprogram our brains to become more positive in order to gain a competitive ability at work.
Based on seven practical, actionable principles that have been tried and tested everywhere from classrooms to boardrooms, stretching from Argentina to Zimbabwe, he shows us how we can capitalize on the Happiness Advantage to improve our performance and maximize our potential.
A must-read for everyone trying to stand out in a world of increasing workloads and stress, The Happiness Advantage isn’t only about how to become happier at work. It’s about how to acquire the benefits of a happier and more positive mode of thinking to achieve the extraordinary in our work and in our lives.Which of the following is the traditional code for success?
| A．Hard word→success→happiness. |
| B．Success→happiness→hard word. |
| C．Happiness→hard word→success. |
| D．Hard work→ happiness→success. |
What do we know about the new discovery in paragraph 1?
| A．Conventional code for success is totally useless. |
| B．The more we are successful, the happier we are. |
| C．Positive psychology is really backward. |
| D．Happiness contributes greatly to success. |
Why did the writer write the book The Happiness Advantages?
| A．To reprogram one’s brain to be healthier. |
| B．To make people more positive and competitive. |
| C．To study stories and cases of CEOs. |
| D．To make a lecture at Harvard University. |
The underlined phrase “capitalize on” in paragraph 3 is closes in meaning to ____
| A．provide fund for |
| B．make full use of |
| C．write big letters for |
| D．stand out in |
What is the purpose of the writer in writing the passage?
| A．To help people stand out in the world. |
| B．To arouse people’s sense of happiness. |
| C．To help people decrease the work stress. |
| D．To strongly recommend the book. |
One windy spring day, I observed young people having fun using the wind to fly their kites. Multicolored creations of varying shapes and sizes filled the skies like beautiful birds dashing and dancing in the exciting atmosphere above the earth. As the strong winds gusted against the kites, a string kept them in check.
Instead of blowing away with the wind, they arose against it to achieve great heights. They shook and pulled, but the controlling string and the clumsy tail kept them in tow(牵引), facing upward and against the wind. As the kites struggled and trembled against the string, they seemed to say, “Let me go! Let me go! I want to be free!” They flew beautifully even as they fought the forced restriction of the string. Finally, one of the kites succeeded in breaking loose. “Free at last,” it seemed to say. “Free to fly with the wind.”
Yet freedom from control simply put it at the mercy of an unsympathetic gentle wind. It flew ungracefully to the ground and landed in a twisted mass of weeds and string against a dead bush. “Free at last”. Free to lie powerless in the dirt, to be blown helplessly along the ground, and to settle down lifeless against the first roadblock.
How much like kites we sometimes are. There always exist misfortunes and restrictions, rules to follow from which we can grow and gain strength. Prohibition is a necessary counterpart to the winds of opposition. Some of us pulled at the rules so hard that we never fly fast to reach the heights we might have obtained. If we keep all the commandment(戒律), we will never rise high enough to get our tails off the ground.
Let us each rise to the great heights, recognizing that some of the prohibitions are actually the steady force that helps us climb and achieve.In the passage the writer watched _______.
| A．many young people enjoying the sunny day |
| B．many birds dashing and dancing in the sky |
| C．many young people flying multicolored kites |
| D．the strong winds blowing against the sky |
What enables a kite fly gracefully in the sky according to the story?
| A．The kite itself and strange shapes. |
| B．A long string and blowing wind. |
| C．A windy spring day and blue sky. |
| D．The size and a long string. |
What didn’t happen to the freed kite?
| A．It kept flying freely in the air. |
| B．It lay powerless in the dirt. |
| C．It was trapped in a dead bush. |
| D．It was blown helplessly around. |
What is the purpose of the author in writing this passage?
| A．To give up tips on how to fly kites effectively. |
| B．To warn us that freedom is actually powerless. |
| C．To explain that restrictions are really unnecessary. |
| D．To teach us a lesson that rules are important in life. |
Which of the following is the best title of the passage?
| A．Fly with Restrictions |
| B．Where to Fly |
| C．Why to Fly Kites |
| D．Fly to Freedom |
Being sociable looks like a good way to add years to your life. Relationships with family, friends, neighbours, even pets, will all do the trick, but the biggest longevity(长寿)boost seems to come from marriage or an equivalent relationship. The effect was first noted in 1858 by William Farr, who wrote that widows and widowers（鳏夫）were at a much higher risk of dying than their married peers. Studies since then suggest that marriage could add as much as seven years to a man’s life and two to a woman’s. The effect holds for all causes of death, whether illness, accident or self-harm.
Even if the odds are stacked against you(the conditions are not favourable),marriage can more than compensate. Linda Waite of the University of Chicago has found that a married older man with heart disease can expect to live nearly four years longer than an unmarried man with a healthy heart. Likewise, a married man who smokes more than a pack a day is likely to live as long as a divorced man who doesn’t smoke. There’s a flip side, however, as partners are more likely to become ill or die in the couple of years following their spouses; death, and caring for a spouse with mental disorder can leave you with some of the same severe problems. Even so, the odds favour marriage. In a 30-year study of more than 10,000 people, Nicholas Christakis of Harvard Medical School describes how all kinds of social networks have similar effects.
So how does it work? The effects are complex, affected by socio-economic factors, health-service provision, emotional support and other more physiological mechanisms(机制).For example, social contact can boost development of the brain and immune system, leading to better health and less chance of depression later in life. People in supportive relationships may handle stress better. Then there are the psychological benefits of a supportive partner.
A life partner, children and good friends are all recommended if you aim to live to 100.The best social network is still being mapped out, but Christakis says:” People are interconnected, so their health is interconnected.”William Farr’s study and other studies show that________.
| A．social life provides an effective cure for illness |
| B．Being sociable helps improve one’s quality of life |
| C．Women benefit more than men from marriage |
| D．Marriage contributes a great deal to longevity |
Linda Waite’s studies support the idea that________.
| A．older men should quit smoking to stay healthy |
| B．Marriage can help make up for ill health |
| C．The married are happier than the unmarried |
| D．Unmarried people are likely to suffer in later life |
It can be inferred from the context that the “flip side”(Line5,Para2)refers to________.
| A．the disadvantages of being married |
| B．The emotional problems arising from marriage |
| C．The responsibility of taking care of one’s family |
| D．The consequence of a broken marriage |
What does the author say about social networks?
| A．They have effects similar to those of a marriage. |
| B．They help develop people’s community spirit. |
| C．They provide timely support for those in need. |
| D．They help relieve people of their life’s burden |
What can be inferred from the last paragraph?
| A．It’s important that we develop a social network when young. |
| B．To stay healthy, one should have a proper social network. |
| C．Getting a divorce means risking a reduced life span. |
| D．We should share our social networks with each other. |
The first day of school our professor introduced himself and challenged us to get to know someone we didn’t know. I stood up to look around when a gentle hand touched my shoulder. I turned around to find a wrinkled, little old lady beaming up at me with a smile that lit up her entire being.
She said, “Hi, girl! My name is Rose. I’m 87 years old. Can give you a hug?”
I laughed and enthusiastically responded, “Of course you may! “and she gave me a giant squeeze.
“Why are you in college at such a young, innocent age ?”I asked. She jokingly replied, “I’m here to meet a rich husband, get married, have a couple of children, and then retire and travel!”
“No seriously “I said. I was curious what may have motivated her to be taking on this challenge at her age.
“I always dreamed of having a college education and now I’m getting one!” “she told me.
Over the course of the year, Rose because a campus icon（偶像）and she easily made friends wherever she went .She loved to dress up and she reveled（陶醉）in the attention bestowed（赠给）upon her from the other students. She was living it up.
At the end of the semester we invited Rose to speak at our football banquet. I’ll never forget what she taught us.
“We do not stop playing because we are old“; we grow old because we stop playing. There are only two secrets to staying young, being happy, and achieving success/You have to laugh and find humor everyday. Your’ve got to have a dream. When you lose your dreams, you die!” she said.
“The idea is to grow up by always finding the opportunity in change.” Have no regrets. The elderly usually don’t have regrets for what we did, but rather for things we did not do. The only people who fear death are those with regrets.”
She concluded her speech by courageously singing “The Song of Rose”. She challenged each of us study the lyrics(歌词)and live them out in our daily lives.
At the year’s end, Rose finished the college degree she had begun all those years ago. One week after graduation Rose died peacefully in her sleep.Rose made herself known to the author in a _______ manner.
| A．serious | B．cold | C．crazy | D．humorous |
From the information provided in the passage, we know________.
| A．Rose finished the college degree within a year |
| B．Rose did realize her dream of meeting a rich husband and getting married through college education |
| C．Rose enjoyed her campus life very much |
| D．Rose grew so old that she stopped playing |
Rose delivered the speech________.
| A．at the graduation |
| B．which she prepared carefully |
| C．ended with ”The Song of Rose” |
| D．to challenge all the other speakers |
According to her speech,________.
| A．whenever you have a dream, you succeed |
| B．All people don’t grow up while growing older |
| C．Rose usually regretted having done something |
| D．a nine-year-old is as old as a 87-year-old if he doesn’t do anything |
The best title for the passage can be________.
| A．Growing Older or Growing Up | B．It’s Never too Old to learn |
| C．Humour Does Count | D．Challenge Yourself |