Some people remember the things by writing notes to themselves. Then they leave the notes in obvious (明显的) places, such as on the table, on the floor or in the middle of the living room. I don’t think I like to write notes to myself, Most of the time I lose them or forget to look at them until it’s too late. I would rather use an alarm clock to tell me what I should do. I have ten alarm clocks in my house. They could tell me about things. For example, if I have to make a telephone call or a certain time. I' ll set an alarm clock to go off a few minutes early and put the clock by the telephone. Or if I want to watch a certain television program, I' ll set an alarm clock at the right time and put the clock on top of the TV set, I can remember almost anything if I use my clocks. However, sometimes an alarm clock goes off and I don’t know what it means. I always remember setting it, but not why I set it. If the clock is by the telephone, I know I may have set it to tell me to call someone, but I can’t be sure. I might have set it to tell myself that somebody was to call me at a certain time.
根据短文内容,判断下列各句正误。正确的在题前括号内写“T¨,错误的写“F”。Some people like to write notes to themselves so that they can remember what to do at a certain time.
The writer doesn’t like to write notes to himself.
The writer often uses a computer to help him remember things.
Sometimes an alarm clock can do the housework for the writer.
The writer prefers remembering the things by writing notes to using alarm clocks.
Friendships can be difficult — because often people aren't as honest and open as they should be. Sometimes, people finally get hurt.
Most problems with friendships come up because people are just too selfish to care about the things that their friends need. They care about their own needs much more, which makes it hard for friendships to work. However, being selfish is part of human nature. A person is put together in order to take care of themselves and their own needs, not necessarily those needs of other people. Even though being selfish is something that all humans are born with, it is something that everyone should be against.
The best thing to remember when you are a friend to anyone is that you need to treat your friends the same way that you'd like to be treated(对待). This is wonderful advice for a friendship, because it is really the only way to make sure that you are giving your friends everything you would want to be given in a friendship. Whenever you have a question about how you should treat a friend, it is easy to find an answer simply by asking yourself what you would like your friend to do for you, if he or she was in your shoes.
Even if you're always thinking about how you'd like to be treated, and your friends are too, there are problems that come up from time to time in each friendship, and it is important to understand how to deal with these problems so that you can build stronger and healthier friendships. Problems like friends getting boyfriends or girlfriends and not spending enough time with their friends, or even friends finding new friends and leaving old friends behind are problems that will probably come up with one or more of your friendships. It is important to know how to deal with these friend problems so that you can keep your friends and make new ones. No one wants to have a broken friendship. This passage mainly talks about ________.
A.the importance of friendship |
B.the advantages(益处) of friendship |
C.the problems of friendship |
D.the disadvantages(劣势) of friendship |
According to the writer, problems with friendship may appear when ________.
A.one is honest | B.one is selfish | C.one is open | D.one is kind |
According to the passage, the first and most important thing to be other people's friend is ________.
A.to treat your friend as you like to be |
B.to give your friends whatever you have |
C.not to hurt your friends' feelings |
D.not to think of your own need any more |
What's the purpose of understanding how to deal with friendship problems?
A.To have a comfortable life. |
B.To build stronger and healthier friendships. |
C.To be treated the way you want. |
D.To get a boyfriend or girlfriend more quickly. |
My parents have certainly had their troubles, and as their child I’ll never know how they made it to 38 years of marriage. They loved each other, but they didn’t seem to like each other very much. Dad was too fond of his beer, and he talked down to Mom a lot. When she tried to stand up to him, a fight would unavoidably follow.
It was my dad’s disease that began to change things. The year 1998 was the beginning of a remarkable transformation for my family. My father, Jim Dineen, the always healthy, weightlifting, never-missed-a-day-of-work kind of dad, discovered he had kidney (肾)disease.
The decision to go ahead with a transplant for my father was a long and tough one, mostly because he had liver damage too. One physician’s assistant told him, “According to your file, you’re supposed to be dead.” And for a while, doctors mistakenly thought that he would need not just a kidney transplant, but a liver transplant too. Dad’s future hung in midpoint.
When the donor testing process finally began in the spring of 2003, numerous people, including me, my uncle Tom, and my mom, came back as matches of varying degree. But Mom was the one who insisted on going further. She decided to donate a kidney to my father. She said she was not scared, and it was the right thing to do. We all stepped back in amazement.
At last a date was chosen – November 11, 2003. All of a sudden, the only thing that seemed to matter Dad was telling the world what a wonderful thing Mom was doing for him. A month before the surgery, he sent her birthday flowers with a note that read, “I love you and I love your kidney! Thank you!”
Financially, the disease was upsetting to them. So my sister and I were humbled and surprised when, shortly before his surgery day, Dad handed us a diamond jewelry that we were to give to Mom after the operation. He’d accumulated his spare dollars to buy it.
At the hospital on the day of the transplant, all our relatives and friends gathered in the waiting room and became involved in a mean euchre (尤克牌游戏) tournament. My family has always handled things with a lot of laughter, and even though we were all tense, everybody was taking bets on how long this “change of conduct” would last in my parents.
We would inform Dad that if he chose to act like a real pain on any particular day after the operation, he wasn’t allowed to blame it on PMS just because he’d now have a female kidney.
The surgeries went well, and not long afterward, my sister and I were allowed to go in to visit. Dad was in a great deal of pain but again, all he could talk about was Mom. Was she okay? How was she feeling? Then the nurses let us do something unconventional. As they were wheeling Mom out of recovery room, they rolled her into a separate position to visit Dad. It was strange to see both my parents hooked up to IVs and machines and trying to talk to each other through tears. The nurses allowed us to present the diamond jewelry to Mom so that Dad could watch her open it. Everyone was crying, even the nurses.
As I stood with digital camera in hand, I tried to keep the presence of mind to document the moment. My dad was having a hard time fighting back emotion, and suddenly my parents unexpectedly reached out to hold each other’s hands.
In my nearly 35 years of existence, I’d never seen my parents do that, and I was spellbound. I snapped a picture and later rushed home to make sure I’d captured that enormous, life-defining moment. After so many years of disagreement, it was apparent to me that they finally understood how much each loved the other. 65—70 From the first paragraph we can learn that ____________.
A.Dad was fond of drinking | B.My parents got along well |
C.Dad often beat Mom | D.Mom never obeyed Dad |
The underlined part “Dad’s future hung in midpoint” in Para.3 suggests that ____________.
A.Dad was bound to die |
B.Dad came to a serious moment in his life |
C.Dad’s future was decided by doctors |
D.Dad faced a tough decision in his life |
Before the surgery, which of the following words can best describe the feeling of the families?
A.Worried and negative. | B.Anxious and helpless. |
C.Nervous but optimistic. | D.Relaxed and positive. |
Which of the following is TRUE according the passage?
A.Dad bought a diamond jewelry to Mom for their wedding anniversary. |
B.Dad asked the nurse to visit Mom soon after the operation. |
C.Despite a lot of pain, Dad was eager to know Mom’s condition soon after the operation. |
D.On the day of the transplant, the families involved in a euchre tournament to relax themselves. |
What’s in the writer’s photo?
A.Everyone was crying, even the nurses. |
B.His parents were trying to talk to each other. |
C.Dad watched Mom opening the gift. |
D.His parents were holding each other’s hands. |
What’s the best title for the passage?
A.Dad’s disease | B.Mom’s decision | C.The Gift of Life | D.The photo of hands |
Write a winning story!
You could win £1,000 in this year’s Fiction Prize and have your story printed in Keep Writing magazine. Ten other lucky people will win a cheque for £100.
Once again, we need people who can write good stories. The judges, who include Mary Littlejohn, the novelist, Michael Brown, the television reporter, and Susan Hitchins, the editor of Keep Writing, are looking for interesting and original stories. Detective fiction was extremely popular last year, although the competition winner produced a love story. You can write down about whatever you want but here’s some advice to start your thinking:
Write about what you know
This is the advice which every writer should pay attention to and, last year, nearly everyone who wrote for us did exactly that. Love, family, problems with friends ---- these were the main subjects of the stories. However, you need to turn ordinary situations into something interesting that people will want to read about. Make the reader want to continue reading by writing about ordinary things in a new and surprising way.
Get your facts right
It’s no good giving a description of a town or explaining how a jet engine works if you get it wrong. So avoid writing anything unless you’re certain about it.
Hold the reader’s attention
Make the beginning interesting and the ending a surprise. There is nothing worse than a poor ending. Develop the story carefully and try to think of something unusual happening at the end.
Think about the characters
Try to bring the people in your story alive for the reader by using well-chosen words to make them seem real.
Your story must be your own work, between 2,000 and 2,5000 words and typed, double-spaced, on one side only of each sheet of paper.
Even if you’re in danger of missing the closing date, we are unable to accept stories by fax or email. You must include the application form with your story. Unfortunately your story cannot be returned, nor can we discuss our decisions.
You should not have had any fiction printed in any magazine or book in this country ---- a change in the rules by popular request ---- and the story must not have happened in print or in recorded form, for example on radio or TV, anywhere in the world.
Your fee of £5 will go to the Writers’ Association. Make your cheque payable to Keep Writing and send it with the application form and your story to:
Keep Writing
75 Broad Street Birmingham
B12 4TG
The closing date is 30 July and we will inform the winner within one month of this date. Please note that if you win, you must agree to have your story printed in our magazine.How should writers deal with ordinary situations while writing?
A.They should make them appealing to readers. |
B.They should copy others’ ideas. |
C.They should change some facts to make them interesting. |
D.They should describe them as they are. |
What shouldn’t a writer do?
A.Making the contents interesting. | B.Getting the facts right. |
C.Meeting the deadline. | D.Making the end ordinary. |
Writers should present their works in the following ways except that ____________.
A.they should write originally |
B.they can type their stories as they like |
C.they should follow some rules |
D.they should hand in their stories in time |
Which of the following is TRUE according to the passage?
A.Late stories can be faxed if necessary. |
B.Entry needs no fee. |
C.Winners can have their stories printed in other magazines. |
D.All stories should be presented by mail. |
When you meet someone for the first time, you will form an impression in your mind of that person in the first moment. Your reactions to other people, however, are really just barometers (晴雨表) for how you perceive(理解) yourself. Your reactions to others say more about you than they do about others. You cannot really love or hate something about another unless it reflects something you love or hate yourself. We are usually drawn to those who are most like us and tend to dislike those who display those aspects of ourselves that we dislike.
Therefore, you can allow others to be the mirror to illuminate (阐明;照亮) more clearly your own feelings of self-worth. Conversely(相反地), you can view the people you judge negatively as mirrors to show you what you are not accepting about yourself.
To survive together peacefully with others, you will need to learn tolerance. A big challenge is to shift your perspective from judgment of others to a lifelong exploration of yourself. Your task is to assess all the decisions, judgments you make onto others and to begin to view them as clues to how you can heal yourself and become whole.
Several days ago I had a business lunch with a man who displayed objectionable table manners. My first reaction was to judge him as rude and his table manners as annoying. When I noticed that I was judging him, I stopped and asked myself what I was feeling. I discovered that I was embarrassed to be seen with someone who was chewing with his mouth open and loudly blowing his nose. I was astonished to find how much I cared about how the other people in the restaurant perceived me.
Remember that your judgment of someone will not serve as a protective shield against you becoming like him. My judging my lunch partner as rude does not prevent me from ever looking or acting like him. In the same way, extending tolerance to him would not cause me to suddenly begin chewing my food with my mouth open.
When you approach life in this manner, those with whom you have the greatest dissatisfactions as well as those you admire and love can be seen as mirrors, guiding you to discover parts of yourself that you reject and to embrace your greatest quality.We can know from the passage that the author advises people to _____________.
A.avoid inappropriate manners. |
B.learn tolerance towards others. |
C.pay attention to others’ needs and feelings. |
D.judge others favorably in any case. |
The underlined word “objectionable” in Paragraph 4 has the closest meaning to ____________.
A.discouraging | B.satisfying | C.unpleasant | D.acceptable |
According to the passage, the following statements are all true except _____________.
A.You can’t really love or hate others if they are similar to you. |
B.We are easily attracted by someone who is similar to us. |
C.Our first judgment of a person mostly comes from our personal opinion. |
D.The moment we see a stranger, our mind forms an impression of that person. |
Throughout the entire story, the last paragraph serves as a(n) ______________.
A.explanation | B.example | C.background | D.conclusion |
It can be implied from the text that ___________.
A.the writer’s first reaction to the man was to judge him as offensive |
B.we will need to learn tolerance to coexist with others |
C.we shouldn’t focus on judging others but should constantly reflect on our own |
D.the writer didn’t care about other people’s view of him |
Your youngest son or daughter has just graduated from high school, and soon he or she will trade his or her bedroom in your home for a college residence hall. You’re starting to worry about the coming silence in your home and are wondering how you will fill the hours that you previously spent with your son or daughter attending his or her school and sporting events.
Take heart — the empty nest “is often worse in anticipation (预料) than in day-to-day practice”, says psychologist Bert Hayslip Jr.
Hayslip, who has studied retirement adjustment (调整) and other aging problems, such as aging sleeplessness, for many years, points out that, more often than not, children who leave do not completely cut off contact with their parents. He advises parents to think of it as a series of life events, instead of a sudden change. He also says an empty nest can cause bigger problems to surface “if a couple hasn’t looked after their marriage while raising their children”. According to Hayslip, some couples may find they no longer have anything in common once the children are out of the house.
Thinking of an empty nest as the loss of children makes the adjustment more difficult. “With the empty-nest syndrome (综合症), parents actually need to deal with the loss of the parenting control over children, not with having really lost their children,” Hayslip says. “They just have to find a new way to get along with their children.”
“Relating to their college-age children in this new way will come easily to parents as the months pass. As with many things, the passage of time heals the pain of loss,” Hayslip says.What does the “empty nest” mean?
A.Children’s cutting off contact with their parents. |
B.Children’s not liking spending time with their parents. |
C.Children’s growing up and leaving home. |
D.Children’s not accepting parents’ care and love. |
What does the underlined word “it” in the third paragraph refer to?
A.Retirement adjustment. | B.Aging problem. |
C.Sleeplessness. | D.The reality of empty nest. |
Why do many parents find it hard to adjust to the empty-nest life?
A.Because they think they have actually lost their children. |
B.Because they often disagree with their children on many things. |
C.Because their children completely cut off contact with them. |
D.Because these parents don’t have anything in common. |
According to Hayslip, what parents actually lose in an “empty nest” is _______.
A.their children’s love for them |
B.their control over children |
C.their interest in life |
D.their contact with children |