Most people say “yes” much more readily than “no”.
A friend is moving house this weekend and would like some help, and you agree. But, what you really wanted was a couple of quiet days relaxing at home. Or a roommate spends the entire weekends playing video games and wants to borrow your homework for “reference”. But, you’ve just finished it after taking a whole day to work hard.
Many people say “yes” to these kinds of requests. They tend not to consider their own interests and feelings, and are often angry with themselves afterwards.
Saying “no” requires courage and considerable practice, in fact, according to psychologists.
“Everyone wants to be liked,” says Gabriele Steinki, a German psychologist. “Saying ‘no’ risks losing the affection of the person asking the favor or even a job.”
The result is that many people say “yes” just for keeping the peace. But experts say this is regrettable. Anyone should have the right to say “no”.
In fact, rejecting a request can even help to strengthen a relationship because it expresses a true feeling.
But, for people used to agreeing to every request, changing can be a long and uncomfortable learning process.
Most people believe that “If I say ‘no’, I’ll lose the affection of the person. But the affection is important to me.” This way of thinking can be replaced by this: “If he only likes me because I always do what suits him , then the price of his affection is too high in the long term.”
Steinki says the key is talking to the other person to find a mutual (相互的) solution. “One needs to present the situation from one’s own point of view, and to suggest how the situation can be dealt with to the advantage of both parties. The other person must have the feeling that his interests are being considered.”
When the refusal is not accepted, Steinki advises giving the reasons calmly again until the person gets the message.Most people say “yes” much more readily than “no” because ________.
| A．they don’t care about their own interests and feelings |
| B．they don’t know they will regret afterwards |
| C．they have already been used to saying “yes” |
| D．they care more about others’ affection |
In the opinion of experts, _________ .
| A．people need a lot of practice to say “no” |
| B．people should say “yes” to keep the peace |
| C．saying “no” means losing a job |
| D．people have the right to be liked |
According to the writer, what should you do if you want to refuse the other person’s request?
| A．Just say you can’t help him. |
| B．Say sorry to him. |
| C．Refuse him clearly. |
| D．Talk to the other person to find a mutual way. |
According to the writer, what should you do if your refusal is not accepted?
| A．Say yes to him. |
| B．Repeat your reason for his acceptance |
| C．Just go away |
| D．Say no to him |
What is the best title of the passage?
| A．You Need Courage To Say “No” |
| B．“Yes” More Than “No” |
| C．Nobody Has the Right To Say “No” |
| D．It’s Easy To Say “Yes” |
In 1943, when I was 4, my parents moved from Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, to Fairbanks, Alaska, where adventure was never very far away.
We arrived in the summer, just in time to enjoy the midnight sun. All that sunlight was fantastic for Mom's vegetable garden. Working in the garden at midnight tended to throw her timing off, so she didn't care much about my bedtime.
Dad was a Railway Express agent and Mom was his clerk. That left me in a mess. I usually managed to find some trouble to get into. Once I had a little Are going in the dirt basement of a hotel. I had tried to light a barrel（桶） of paint but couldn't really get a good fire going. The smoke got pretty bad, though, and when 1 made my exit, a crowd and the police were there to greet me. The policemen took my matches and drove me
Mom and Dad were occupied in the garden and Dad told the police to keep me, and they did! I had a tour of the prison before Mom rescued me. 1 hadn't turned 5 yet.
As I entered kindergarten, the serious cold began to set in. Would it surprise you to know that I soon left part of my tongue on a metal handrail at school?
As for Leonhard Seppala, famous as a dog sledder (驾雪橇者), I think I knew him well because I was taken for a ride with his white dog team one Sunday. At the time I didn't realize what a superstar he was, but I do remember the ride well. I was wrapped (包裹) heavily and well sheltered from the freezing and blowing weather.
In 1950, we moved back to Coeur d'Alene, but we got one more Alaskan adventure when Leonhard invited us eight years later by paying a visit to Idaho to attend a gathering of former neighbors of Alaska.
| 1． |
What can be inferred about the author's family?（）
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| 2． |
What happened when the author was 4?（）
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| 3． |
Which of the following is true?（）
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| 4． |
What is the author's purpose of writing the text?（）
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Do you want to get home from work knowing you have made a real difference in someone's life? If yes. don't care about sex or age! Come and join us, then you'll make it!
Position: Volunteer Social Care Assistant
(No Pay with Free Meals)
Place: Manchester Hours: Part Time
We arc now looking for volunteers to support people with learning disabilities to live active lives! Only 4 days left. Don't miss the chance of lending your warm hands to help others!
Role:
You will provide people with learning disabilities with all aspects of their daily lives. You will help them to develop new skills. You will help them to protect their rights and their safety. But your primary concern is to let them know they are valued.
Skills and Experience Required:
You will have the right values and great listening skills. You will be honest and patient. You will have the ability to drive a car and to communicate in fluent written and spoken English since you'll have to help those people with different learning disabilities. Previous care-related experience will be a great advantage for you.The text is meant to ______ .
| A．leave a note | B．send an invitation |
| C．present a document | D．carry an advertisement |
What does the underlined part mean?
| A．You'll make others' lives more meaningful with this job. |
| B．You'll arrive home just in time from this job. |
| C．You'll earn a good salary from this job. |
| D．You'll succeed in getting this job. |
The volunteers' primary responsibility is to help people with learning disabilities ______ .
| A．to get some financial support |
| B．to properly protect themselves |
| C．to learn some new living skills |
| D．to realize their own importance |
Which of the following can first be chosen as a volunteer?
| A．The one who can drive a car. |
| B．The one who has done similar work before. |
| C．The one who has patience to listen to others. |
| D．The one who can use English to communicate. |
More and more corporations are taking an interest in corporate social responsibility (CSR). CSR is made up of three broad layers. The most basic is traditional corporate charity work. Companies typically spend about 1% of pre-tax profits on worthy projects. But many feel that simply writing cheques to charities is no longer enough. In some companies, shareholders want to know that their money is being put to good use, and employees want to be actively involved in good works.
Money alone is not the answer when companies come under attack for their behavior. Hence the second layer of CSR, which is a branch of risk management. Starting in the 1980s, with environmental disasters such as the explosion at Bhopal and the Exxon Valdez oil spill, industry after industry has suffered blows to its reputation.
So, companies often responded by trying to manage the risks. They talk to non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and to governments, create codes of conduct（行为准则) and devote themselves to more transparency（透明）in their operations. Increasingly, too. they, along with their competitors, set common rules to spread risks.
All this is largely defensive, but there are also opportunities for those that get ahead of the game. The emphasis on opportunity is the third layer of CSR: the idea that it can help to create value. If approached in a strategic way, CSR could become part of a company's competitive advantage. That is just the sort of thing chief executives like to hear. The idea of "doing well by doing good" has become popular.
Nevertheless, the business of trying to be good is bringing difficult questions to executives. Can you measure CSR performance? Should you be cooperating with NGOs and you're your competitors? Is there any really competitive advantage to be had from a green strategy?
Corporate social responsibility is now seen as a mainstream. Big companies want to tell the world about their good citizenship with their devotion to social responsibilities. Done badly, CSR is often just window-dressing and can be positively harmful. Done well, though, it is not some separate activity that companies do on the side, a corner of corporate life reserved for virtue（美德）：it is just good business.
(Note: Answer the questions or complete the statements in NO MORE THAN TEN WORDS)
| 1． |
Bothin some companies find it no longer enough to simply donate money to charities. |
| 2． |
Give one example of the defensive measures of risk management according to the passage. |
| 3． |
With the emphasis on opportunity, the third layer of CSR is meant to. |
| 4． |
According to the passage, "good business" (paragraph 6) means that corporationswhile making profits. |
If you could be anybody in the world, who would it be? Your neighbour or a super star? A few people have experienced what it might be like to step into the skin of another person, thanks to an unusual virtual reality（虚拟现实）device. Rikke Wahl, an actress, model and artist, was one of the participants in a body swapping experiment at the Be Another lab, a project developed by a group of artists based in Barcelona. She swapped with her partner, an actor, using a machine called The Machine to Be Another and temporarily became a man. "As I looked down, I saw my whole body as a man, dressed in my partner's pants," she said. "That's the picture I remember best."
The set-up is relatively simple. Both users wear a virtual reality headset with a camera on the top. The video from each camera is sent to the other person, so what you see is the exact view of your partner. If she moves her arm, you see it. If you move your arm, she sees it.
To get used to seeing another person's body without actually having control of it, participants start by raising their arms and legs very slowly, so that the other can follow along. Eventually, this kind of slow synchronised（同步的）movement becomes comfortable, and participants really start to feel as though they are living in another person's body.
Using such technology promises to alter people's behaviour afterwards-potentially for the better. Studies have shown that virtual reality can be effective in fighting racism-the bias（偏见）that humans have against those who don't look or sound like them. Researchers at the University of Barcelona gave people a questionnaire called the Implicit Association Test, which measures the strength of people's associations between, for instance, black people and adjectives such as good, bad, athletic or awkward. Then they asked them to control the body of a dark skinned digital character using virtual reality glasses, before taking the test again. This time, the participants' bias scores were lower. The idea is that once you've "put yourself in another's shoes" you're less likely to think ill of them, because your brain has internalised the feeling of being that person.
The creators of The Machine to Be Another hope to achieve a similar result. "At the end of body swapping, people feel like holding each other in their arms," says Arthur Pointeau, a programmer with the project. "It's a really nice way to have this kind of experience. I would really, really recommend it to everyone."The word "swapping" (paragraph 1) is closest in meaning to______.
| A．building | B．exchanging | C．controlling | D．transplanting |
We can infer from the experiment at the Be Another lab that______.
| A．our feelings are related to our bodily experience |
| B．we can learn to take control of other people's bodies |
| C．participants will live more passionately after the experiment |
| D．The Machine to Be Another can help people change their sexes |
In the Implicit Association Test, before the participants used virtual reality glasses to control a dark skinned digital character, ______.
| A．they fought strongly against racism |
| B．they scored lower on the test for racism |
| C．they changed their behaviour dramatically |
| D．they were more biased against those unlike them |
It can be concluded from the passage that______.
| A．technology helps people realize their dreams |
| B．our biases could be eliminated through experiments |
| C．virtual reality helps promote understanding among people |
| D．our points of view about others need changing constantly |
Let's say you want to hit the gym more regularly this year. How do you make that happen? Consider putting the habit loop to use.
Here's how it works:
A habit is a 3-step process. First, there's a cue, something that tells your brain to operate automatically. Then there's a routine. And finally, a reward, which helps your brain learn to desire the behavior. It's what you can use to create-or break-habits of your own.
Here's how to apply it:
Choose a cue, like leaving your running shoes by the door, then pick. a reward-say, a piece of chocolate when you get home from the gym. That way, the cue and the reward become interconnected. Finally, when you see the shoes, your brain will start longing for the reward, which will make it easier to work out day after day. The best part? In a couple of weeks, you won't need the chocolate at all. Your brain will come to see the workout itself as the reward. Which is the whole point, right?
| 1． |
Which of the following best fits in the box with a "?" in THE HABIT LOOP?
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| 2． |
According to THE HABIT LOOP, you can stick to your plan most effectively by.
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| 3． |
What's the purpose of putting the habit loop to use?
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| 4． |
"This year when I see the Harry Potter poster, I will read 30 pages of an English novel or an English newspaper in order to watch TV for half an hour." What is the cue in this resolution?
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