How often one hears children wishing they were grown up, and the old wishing they were young again! Each age has its pleasure and its pains, and the happiest person is the one who enjoys what each age gives him without wasting any time in useless regrets.
Children is a time when there are few duties to make life hard. If a child has good parents, he is fed, looked after, and loved whatever he may do. It’s impossible for him to be given so much again in his life without having to do anything in return. Besides, life is always giving new things to the child. A child finds pleasure in playing in the rain, or in the snow. His first visit to the seaside makes him wild. But a child has his pains; he is not so free to do as he wishes. He is continually being told not to do this, not to do that, or being punished for what he has done wrong. His life is therefore not perfectly happy.
When the young man starts to make his own living, he becomes free from the rules of school and parents; but at the time he is forced to accept duties. He can no longer expect others to pay for his food, his clothes and his room, but has to work if he wants to live comfortably. If he spends most of his time playing about in the way that he used to as a child, he will go hungry. And if he breaks the law of society as he used to break the laws of his parents, he may go to prison, lf, however, he works hard, keeps out of trouble, and has good health, he can have the great happiness of seeing himself make steady progress in his job and of building up his own position in society.
Old age has always been thought of as the worst age to be, but it is not necessary for the old to be unhappy. With old age should come wisdom and the ability to help others with advice wisely given. They can have the joy of seeing their Children making progress in life; they can watch their grandchildren growing up around them and, perhaps, best of all, they can, if their life has been a useful one, feel the happiness of having come through the battle of life safely and of having reached a time when they can lie back and rest, leaving others to continue the fight. The main reason children wish they were grown up, and the old wish they were young again is that ___________.
| A．both are satisfied with the strong points at their ages |
| B．both enjoy the strong points at the other age by looking back or looking forward |
| C．the human beings should be like this |
| D．regrets and happiness both exist whether they are young or old |
According to the second paragraph, the writer thinks that __________.
| A．life for a child is comparatively easy |
| B．a child should enjoy the equal freedom with seniors |
| C．if much is given to a child, he is expected to do something in return |
| D．a child’s greatest dissatisfaction lies in the trouble he makes |
Which of the following is NOT needed for a youth man to be happy?
| A．Hard work. | B．freedom from troubles. |
| C．Wealth. | D．Health. |
SYDNEY 2005-01-01 08:30—Mother of two, Jillian Searle, had to choose between her children when she made a life—or—death decision.
Swept up by mountainous tsunami waves at a Thai resort, she could not hold on to both her young sons and survive. Fighting to stay above the waters, she had to choose which one would have to take his chances in the swirling torrent.
“I knew I had to let go of one of them and I just thought I’d better let go of the one that’s the older,” she told Sky News television in a report broadcast on Thursday. She said she was accompanied by the two, Lachie, 5, and two—year—old Blake, and their father, Brad, who had watched the drama helplessly from their first-floor hotel room, when the waves struck.” And I was screaming, trying to find him, and we thought he was dead.”she told reporters on arrival back in Australia.
Lachie was found alive about 2 hours later clinging to a door and looked uninjured as his mother spoke to reporters.
British surfer Martin Markwell is also a lucky man. He had always dreamed of catching that perfect wave—but when it finally came along, it was a nightmare. He was on his surfboard when he was swept up by a tsunami wave.
“It was really terrible because I was surfing, I was really surfing on a wave I wasn’t supposed to be on,”he said. “As an experienced surfer, when I saw the wave come I realized something was wrong, but I couldn’t escape because my surfboard was tied to my ankle.”
His wife, Vicki and son Jake looked on in horror from a hotel balcony as he crashed towards the shore. Luckily, he stayed atop his board until he reached the hotel, jumped off and got to safety as the ocean rolled back to feed a much larger tsunami wave on its way. The family regrouped and ran to safety just minute before a giant tsunami wave 10 meters high.When the waves struck ,the father Brad________.
| A．reported the disaster to Sky News television |
| B．was watching a drama on TV in the hotel |
| C．tried to find his son lost in the waters |
| D．watched things going on, unable to do anything |
The underlined word”him” refers to ______
| A．an old man | B．Lachie | C．Brad | D．Blake |
Which is not true about Lachie and Martin?
| A．They and their family were at the resort when the disaster happened. |
| B．They both survived from the high waves when tsunami struck. |
| C．They were both travelers from Europe on holiday in Thailand. |
| D．They were both alive owing to their proper judgment and determination. |
Which of the following is the best title?
| A．Narrow Escape | B．Disaster Caused by Tsunami |
| C．Exciting Surfing Experience | D．Struggle Against Tsunami |
Honesty comes in many forms. First there’s self-honesty. Is what people see the real article or do you appear through smoke and mirrors? I find that if I try to be something I’m not, I feel unsure of myself and take out a part from my PBA(personal bank account). I love how singer Judy Garland put it , “Always be a first-class version of yourself,instead of a second-class version of somebody else.”
Then there’s honesty in our actions. Are you honest at school, with your parents, and with your boss? If you’ve ever been dishonest, I think we all have, try being honest, and notice how whole it makes you feel. Remember, you can’t to wrong and feel right. This story by Jeff is a good example of that:
In my second year of study, there were three kids in my math class who didn’t do well.
I was really good at it. I would charge them three dollars for each test that I helped them pass. I’d write on a little piece of paper all the right answers, and hand them off.
At first I felt like I was making money, kind of a nice job. I wasn’t thinking about how it could hurt all of us. After a while I realized I shouldn’t do that anymore, because I wasn’t really helping them They weren’t learning anything, and it would only get harder down the road. Cheating certainly wasn’t helping me.
It takes courage to be honest when people all around you are getting away with cheating on tests, lying to their parents, and stealing at work. But, remember, every act of honesty is a deposit(储蓄)into your PBA and will build strength.The underlined part “appear through smoke and mirrors” in the first paragraph means “”.
| A．to be honest |
| B．to be unreal |
| C．to become clear |
| D．to come from an imagined world |
Which of the following can best explain Judy Garland’s words?
| A．Be your true self rather than follow others. |
| B．Don’t copy others or you can’t be the first class. |
| C．Make efforts to be the first instead of the second. |
| D．Don’t learn from others unless they’re excellent. |
What does the author expect to show by Jeff’s story?
| A．Honesty can be of great help. |
| B．A bad thing can be turned into a good one. |
| C．Helping others cheat can do good to nobody. |
| D．One should realize the wrong in his bad deeds. |
In the last paragraph the author mainly wants to express .
| A．one must be brave to be honest |
| B．it’s difficult to be honest when others are not |
| C．one should be honest when making a deposit |
| D．honestly in one’s actions can help him in the future |
The interview has been going on for about 20 minutes and everything seems to be going well．Then, suddenly, the interviewer asks an unexpected question, “Which is more important, law or love?”
Job applicants in the West increasingly find themselves asked strange questions like this．And the signs are that this is beginning to happen in China．
Employers want people who are skilled, enthusiastic and devoted．So these are the qualities that any reasonably intelligent job applicant will try to show no matter what his or her actual feelings are．In response, employers are increasingly using the questions which try and show the applicant’s true personality．
The question in the first paragraph comes from a test called the Kiersey Temperament Sorter．It is an attempt to discover how people solve problems, rather than what they know．This is often called aptitude (天资) test．
According to Mark Baldwin of Alliance, many job applicants in China are finding this type of questions difficult．“When a Chinese fills out an aptitude test, he or she will think there is a right answer but they may fail because they try to guess what the examiner wants to see．”
This is sometimes called the prisoner’s dilemma(窘境)．Applicants are trying to act cleverly in their own interest, but they fail because they don’t understand what the interviewer is looking for．Remember that in an aptitude test, the correct answer is the honest answer．What is the purpose of the passage?
| A．To give a piece of advice to job interviewees． |
| B．To tell you how to deal with job interviews． |
| C．To advise you how to find a good job． |
| D．To describe an aptitude test． |
According to the writer, in an aptitude test, Chinese job applicants should ________.
| A．not tell the truth |
| B．offer a complete answer |
| C．learn to tell what they really think |
| D．find out what the examiner wants to know |
From the passage we know that ________．
| A．job applicants are always trying to show their actual feelings |
| B．applicants should not act as cleverly as possible |
| C．more Chinese applicants fail to find a job |
| D．aptitude test is becoming world-wide popular |
Research shows that humans switch from selfish to unselfish behavior when they are watched. Do you?
A picture of a set of eyes on a computer screen can cause a change in the way people act. Even images of eyes on a charity donation, collection box encourage people to be unselfish, because people put more money in a collection box that has a picture of eyes on it than they do when a flower symbol is on the box.
Manfred Milinski from the Max-Planck Institute for Evolutionary Biology in Germany and Bettina Rockenbach of the University of Berlin, the authors of a new study, found that people act better when they are being watched because they feel they will be rewarded for good behavior. Their report also referred to other research showing that this response of behaving well when watched is somehow coded into humans and people respond this way unconsciously, or without realizing it.
It is not just humans that act unselfishly when they are being watched. A fish called the grooming fish cleans other fish. When other fish are around, it is gentler. When no other fish are around, however, the grooming fish bites chunks from the fish it is supposed to be cleaning. The researchers suggest that the best way to get people to behave in the correct way is to make them feel watched. This could be the reason for the success of a famous American army poster. On it was a picture of an elderly man staring fiercely and pointing, it appeared, to the person who was looking at the poster. Under the picture was the caption 'I Want You' It encouraged hundreds of thousands of young American men to join the army during the Second World War to fight the Germans and Japanese.According to the report, why does a person behave better when he feels he is being watched?
| A．He does not want to be shamed by others. |
| B．He needs to show he is a good person. |
| C．He desires others to like him more. |
| D．He feels he will receive some social reward. |
What is the text mainly about?
| A．It describes changed behavior when observed. |
| B．It details ways to control people's behavior. |
| C．It tells how to make people work harder. |
| D．It discusses different advertising methods. |
According to the text, which of the following statements is true?
| A．People pretend to behave worse when they are watched. |
| B．Fish bite other fish in a fish tank when they are alone. |
| C．People donatemore money when they feel they are watched. |
| D．Soldiers fought better during World War II because of a poster. |
The underlined word “coded” in paragraph 3 is closest in meaning to _____
| A．hidden | B．programmed | C．forgotten | D．learnt |
Where would the study described in the text most likely be found?
| A．In a newspaper. | B．In a scientific journal. |
| C．In an advertising magazine. | D．In a science textbook. |
In my long years of teaching, I often ask my student to read the texts until they can recite（背诵） them, and I tell them that recitation is an important part of their homework. However, some of my students are tired of doing so, thinking that it is both hard and useless. They argue that it takes a long time to recite a text from memory and text itself never appears in a test paper.
In my opinion, it naturally takes time to recite a text, but it is worth doing so. When you are able to recite a text, you are sure to be familiar with the words and expressions. When you need them in reading or writing or doing exercises, they will come to your mind quickly, and so you will give quick response to all kinds of language situation. How can we say that it is useless?
Besides, many students complain that they soon forget what they were once able to recite. This is true, but you don’t need to worry. While you are reading and forgetting the texts, your language level is being raised. Sure you don’t remember your Chinese texts that you once read in the primary school, but now you are able to read novels and newspaper. So, recitation of the texts will help you improve your language ability.What do the students think about the teacher’s advice? _______.
| A．The English teacher tries his best to help them with English. |
| B．The English teacher is very kind to them. |
| C．The English teacher asks them to do something useless. |
| D．The English teacher should let them study on their own. |
When the students are against his suggestion, the writer_______.
| A．often criticizes them |
| B．patiently explains to them why they should recite the texts |
| C．wants to give up his idea |
| D．is afraid that he is criticized by the headmaster. |
Why does the writer suggest that the students recite the text?_____.
| A．Reciting the texts can improve the ability of applying English. |
| B．Reciting the texts is the best way of learning English. |
| C．The students should remember all the texts that the teacher has taught them. |
| D．Reciting the texts can greatly improve the classroom teaching. |