What Is Success The Oxford English Dictionary defines（定义） the word success as "the fact that you have achieved something that you want and have been trying to do or get; the fact of becoming rich or famous or of getting a high social position". Some rankings（排行榜） put Albert Einstein, Michael Jackson, Bill Gates and Steve Jobs as among the most successful people in the world. What Michael Jackson did for music is the same as what Albert Einstein did for physics. All of them do have greatly influenced the industries or media to which they belonged. J.K.Rowling, the author of the famous Harry Potter novels. She created a magical world that sold more than 500 million books and became hit movies. With an estimated（估算的） net worth of ﹩650 million in 2017, she certainly goes for the dictionary definition of success, but for her it didn't come easy. Having no job, raising her child alone, she was refused by publishers about a dozen times before one took a chance on her. This is what people love: the rags-to-riches success story.
In comparison with Rowling, the Dutch artist Vincent van Gogh practically suffered a lot in life to make ends meet. When he was alive, he only sold one painting even though he created more than 2,000 works of art. Van Gogh died when he was 37 years old and with very little money to his name. However, in 1990, his painting Portrait of Dr.Gachet sold for﹩82.5 million, which has a value today of around﹩137 million. So, the question is: Is Van Gogh considered successful even though he died poor?
Besides the dictionary definitions, different people have competing ideas of what success really means. Often times the most agree on the same characteristics that make a person a success. A financial magazine named Inc. points to the following qualities that make a person successful: Drive, Confidence, Patience, Honesty, Passion…
Success isn't always about getting a lot of money or fans, even though those are the stories we see most often. There are other people who we may not know well, but who have achieved success in their own right. One perfect example is mothers. They spent days, months, and years teaching their children from birth to young adulthood. If a child grows up to be a kind, helpful, thoughtful and considerate adult, can the mother consider herself a success?
Perhaps success really is subjective, and it's up to people to define it for themselves. However, one thing seems to be in complete agreement when we search for the definition and can be best summed up by Steve Jobs, who said, "If you really look closely, most overnight successes took a long time."
1.The word " rags-to-riches" in Paragraph 2 probably means " ______ ".
A.winning success from luck
B.turning talent into treasure
C.gaining money from honor
D.rising from poorness to wealth
2.The writer mentions Vincent van Gogh to show that ______ .
A.success is through loneliness
B.success is beyond time and space
C.success is to take the life-changing opportunity
D.success is to achieve something you want and try
3.What can we learn from the passage?
A.Most successes happen overnight if we look closely.
B.What makes people successful is the strong mind and body.
C.A child growing to be a gentle adult can be the mother's success.
D.Albert Einstein makes greater achievement than Michael Jackson.
4.The writer probably agrees that people should ______ .
A.reorder the rankings of the world's most successful people
B.reach an agreement of what makes a person success
C.recognize and appreciate different kinds of success
D.drive themselves to set great goals for success
As the world's population continues to increase, so does the amount of global waste people produce. According to data collected by the World Bank Group, nations are on pace to produce 4 billion tons of waste every year by 2100. Many experts are calling the problem of global waste a worldwide health crisis（危机）because it is ruining the world's oceans, air and soil and endangering the health of all living things.
For years, governments have been telling people that living a zero-waste lifestyle is the way to go. One example of this is what's often called the three R's: reduce, reuse recycle. In that case, less money is spent on waste management. Such positive effects on an economy（经济）as a result of applying the basic rules of reduce, reuse and recycle-is known as a circular economy.
Now some stores are helping people do that. Sometimes, grocery stores produce waste when they throw away food including fruit and vegetables that don't look good any more.In other cases, it's packaged food that is nearing the "sell-by" date printed on the package which is not considered safe to eat. To solve this problem, business people are opening smaller zero-waste stores. Instead of selling food in packages, these stores offer it in open containers. Customers bring their own bags or clean containers to the store. There, they fill their bags or containers with everything from nuts and rice to oil and sauce. They pay for only the amount of each product that they need. Zero-waste stores often sell fruit and vegetables as well. When these goods start to look old, they're sold at a discount or donated to a charity Inspired by these smaller zero-waste stores, some large supermarkets are taking similar steps to reduce the amount of waste that they produce.
By following a circular system, more products than ever are being produced using recycled materials. For example, used tires（轮胎）can be recovered to pave roads, while plastic is reused to make new plastic products. Environmentally-friendly decisions like these help to protect and save natural resources, reduce pollution, save landfill space and even create new job opportunities. Recycling can truly turn garbage into gold.
1.What is the main purpose of the first paragraph？ ______
A.To explain the experts' opinion.
B.To discuss the reason of the problem.
C.To draw people's attention on the problem.
D.To introduce a research of the World Bank Group.
2.We can infer from the passage that ______.
A.grocery stores sell bad-looking food cheaper
B.some supermarkets will sell food without packages
C.governments decided to spend less money on recycling
D.customers will pay for the containers in zero-waste stores
3.Which of the following would be the best title for the passage?
A.Zero Waste, Full Recycle.
B.Less Garbage, More Gold.
C.Global Waste, a Worldwide Crisis.
D.Zero-waste Stores, Garbage Killer.
Growing a Family Business Every Saturday and Sunday this fall, while other kids are sleeping in or preparing for a soccer game, Phillip Gargiulo, age 11, will be up at 5 a.m. sweeping floors. It's hard work, but Phillip's job at Masker Orchards（果园） isn't just a job-it's all for his family.
Masker is one of the largest pick-it-yourself apple orchards in the New York area, with 200 acres（英亩） of land and 16,000 trees. The orchard was founded in 1913 by the Masker family. In 1969, Phillip's grandfather bought the land. His three kids and six grandkids have been running the family business ever since.
On a good weekend, there will be more than 800 customers. One of Phillip's jobs is to count the items they bought, give customers a total, and take their money. That's a lot of apples-and a lot of math! And more than 100 teens work there, too. For their hard work, the Gargiulo kids are paid﹩15 per hour. After working there for seven years, Phillip has saved﹩3,000. He's planning to use it to buy a car one day, and to help pay for college.
Having a family business means much more than making money. It also means making sacrifices.
"Growing up, it was good and bad," says Phillip's mom. She's been working at the orchard since she was 4 years old. "From August to Halloween, I would be busy. In high school, you want to be with your friends, out doing other things. That wasn't always possible when I had to be at the orchard."
Phillip, too, sees both sides. "I'm learning how to run a business, and I'm learning what hard work is really all about." he says. He admits, though, that some mornings, when his alarm clock goes off in the early morning, he'd rather be sleeping in or playing baseball with friends. "But I'm learning to do things that I will need for the rest of my life," he says. "And I'm spending time with my family. I love it."
1.Phillip gets up early every weekend to ______ .
A.finish his homework B.do the work for his family
C.prepare for a soccer game D.go for a run in the morning
2.What does Phillip do on a good weekend in Masker?
A.To plant some apple trees.
B.To work on math problems.
C.To play baseball with friends.
D.To count apples and take the money.
3.What can we learn from this passage?
A.Getting something probably means giving up something.
B.It's necessary to make money as early as possible.
C.Growing up means doing what you want to do.
D.There is nothing more important than parents.
Chinese Cuisine（烹饪） in the World | |
Emma Chen
| She is a restaurant owner in Cape Town, South Africa. She has two restaurants-Red Chamber and Pron. Both of them are very popular with customers. She believes that food is not only a business, but also means passing down of culture and customs. Her cuisine comes from Shandong Province in Northern China. |
Gianni Catani
| As an Italian, he has become an expert in Chinese Hunan cuisine. It is very hard for a foreigner to enter the Chinese world at first. Luckily, he was finally accepted and welcomed by a Chinese master cook. So he spent eight years with him in learning the secrets of Hunan cuisine. Now his restaurant is one of the best places to eat Chinese food in Rome, Italy. |
Eugene Moy
| He owns a restaurant in San Gabriel Valley in America, which has become a foodie Mecca（美食圣地） for the world's top Chinese food. He believes Chinese food is the power to teach people Chinese culture. "Who knew where Chengdu or Chongqing was before? Going and checking out food is a lot of fun. It is also an activity of telling ourselves and the public about Chinese culture." |
1.Who has two restaurants?
A.Emma Chen. B.Gianni Catani.
C.Eugene Moy. D.Red Chamber.
2.Gianni Catani has become an expert in ______ .
A.Shandong cuisine B.Hunan cuisine
C.Sichuan cuisine D.Guangdong cuisine
3.Eugene Moy believes Chinese food is ______ .
A.passing down of customs
B.very popular with customers
C.very hard for foreigners to cook
D.the power to teach people Chinese culture
Everyone knew that Stuti was the best speller in the whole class. She could spell difficult words like "encyclopedia" and "amendment" very _______. She used to get perfect scores during each weekly spelling test.
Ms．Daisy, her English teacher made a_______ for the spelling tests that any child who doesn't get at least 60% correct spellings would have to correct each wrong word and copy three times for next week's spelling test. Seema, who sat next to Stuti always struggled（挣扎） in spellings. Last Thursday, she received 56% which meant she had to_______ the rest 44% words three times.
Stuti was so _______in her spelling abilities that she decided not to study for her next spelling test. The test began. Ms. Daisy pronounced each word and then repeated it. Everything was OK until she spoke "Handkerchief". Stuti scribbled（匆匆书写） h-a-n-d-k-e-r-c-h…now what? Her mind was blank.
Ms. Daisy started to move on to the next word. An idea came into Stuti's mind that Seema_______how to spell it! Seema had written this word three times.
There was wide open space between Stuti and Seema. Stuti's eyes rolled（滚动） to the right. There it was, spelled out in Seema's handwriting. Her eyes went quickly back to her own paper and_______ the word with the letters "i-e-f".
Stuti remained nervous as Ms.Daisy read the last spelling word. She had_______just for the first time in her life. She thought, "Is this the way I want to keep my perfect record-by being a cheater?"
Finally, she erased what she had written earlier and replaced it with what she
knew was the wrong answer. She wrote "e-i-f". As her hands put down her pencil and passed the test up to the front, she sighed with relief（解脱）. She thought, "So, what if my perfect scores are no longer being kept? At least my_______ is."
1.A.happily B.easily C.slowly D.carefully
2.A.plan B.suggestion C.guess D.rule
3.A.check B.copy C.read D.pronounce
4.A.special B.unusual C.confused D.confident
5.A.knew B.proved C.found D.wondered
6.A.changed B.picked C.finished D.replaced
7.A.cheated B.asked C.looked D.remembered
8.A.choice B.courage C.honesty D.pride
—Lily, can you tell me______?
—I always exercise twice a week.
A.how often do you exercise B.how often you exercise
C.how often did you exercise D.how often you exercised
