Each time I see a balloon, my mind flies back to a memory of when I was a six-year-old girl. It was a rainy
Sunday and my father had recently died. I asked my mom if Dad had gone to heaven. "Yes, honey. Of course." she said.
"Can we write him a letter?"
She paused, the longest pause of my short life, and answered, "Yes."
My heart jumped. "How? Does the mailman go there?" I asked.
"No, but I have an idea." Mom drove to a party store and returned with a red balloon. I asked her what it was for.
"Just wait, honey. You'll see." Mom told me to write my letter. Eagerly, I got my favorite pen, and poured out my six-year-old heart in the form of blue ink. I wrote about my day, what I learned at school, how Mom was doing, and even about what happened in a story I had read. For a few minutes it was as if Dad were still alive. I gave the letter to Mom. She read it over, and a smile crossed her face.
She made a hole in the corner of the letter where she looped the balloon string. We went outside and she gave me the balloon. It was still raining.
"Okay, on the count of three, let go. One, two, three."
The balloon, carrying my letter, darted upward against the rain. We watched until it was swallowed by the mass of clouds.
Later I realized, like the balloon, that Dad had never let his sickness get him down. He was strong. No matter what he suffered, he'd persevere, dart up, and finally transcend this cold world and his sick body. He rose into sky and became something beautiful. I watched until the balloon disappeared into the gray and white and I prayed that his strength was hereditary. I prayed to be a balloon.
1.When the girl asked her mother if they could write to her father, her mother _________.
A．felt it hard to answer B．thought her a creative girl
C．believed it easy to do so D．found it easy to lie
2.When the girl was told that she could send a letter to her father, she _________.
A．jumped with joy
B．became excited
C．started writing immediately
D. was worried that it couldn't be delivered
3.In the eyes of the author, what was the rain like?
A．An incurable disease.
B．An unforgettable memory.
C．The hard time her father had.
D．The failures her father experienced.
4.What would be the best title for the passage?
A．An unforgettable experience B．The strong red balloon
C．Fly to paradise D．A great father
C
When an ant dies, other ants take it out of the nest, often within an hour after its death. This behavior interests scientists and they wonder how ants know for sure--and so soon--that another ant is dead.
One scientist recently came up with a way to explain this ant behavior. Dong-Hwan Choe is a biologist, a scientist who studies animals and plants. He found that ants have a chemical on the outside of their bodies that signals to other ants, “I’m dead--take me away” when it is dead.
One scientist recently came up with a way to explain this ant behavior. Dong-Hwan Choe is a biologist, a scientist who studies animals and plants. He found that ants have a chemical on the outside of their bodies that signals to other ants, “I’m dead---take me away” when it is dead.
But there's a question to answer: As we know, if an ant is dead, it stops moving. But when an ant is sleeping or knocked unconscious, it is also not moving. However, other ants don't move the living ant out of the nest. How do they know this ant is not dead? Choe found that ants have another chemical on their bodies, which tells nearby ants something like, “Wait—I'm not dead yet” when it is not dead. Choe suspects that when an ant dies, the chemical that says, “Wait— I'm not dead yet” quickly goes away. When other ants detect the “dead” chemical without the “not dead yet” chemical, they move away the body.
To test his theory, Choe and his team put different chemicals on ants. When the scientists used the “I'm dead” chemical, other ants quickly moved the treated ant away. When the scientists used the “Wait—I'm not dead yet” chemical, other ants left the treated ant alone. Choe believes this behavior shows that the “not dead yet” chemical overrides the “dead” chemical when picked up by other ants. And that when an ant dies, the “not dead yet” chemical fades away. Other nearby ants then detect the remaining “dead” chemical and remove the body from the nest.
Understanding this behavior can help scientists figure out how to stop ants from invading new places and causing problems.
1.What is the function of the first paragraph?
A. Leading the following paragraphs.
B. Showing the main idea of the passage.
C. Introducing the background of the passage.
D. Giving a summary of the passage.
2.Which of the following has the closest meaning to the underlined word “overrides” in the fourth paragraph?
A. is weaker than B. is stronger than C. is better than D. is worse than
3.What can we learn from the passage?
A. Living ants can also be taken away when they are not moving.
B. When an ant dies, it can tell others using a certain chemical.
C. A living ant can pretend to be dead using a special chemical.
D. Ants often use chemicals to communicate with each other.
4.Which of the following descriptions about Dong-Hwan Choe is right?
A. Choe did this study in order to stop ants from invading new places.
B. Choe is a biologist who is only interested in animals, especially in ants.
C. Choe first came up with an idea to explain this ant behavior，and then did some tests to prove his theory.
D. Choe did the research on this ant behavior on his own.
New technology links the world as never before. Our planet has shrunk. It’s now a “global village” where countries are only seconds away by fax or phone or satellite link. And, of course, our ability to benefit from this high-tech communications equipment is greatly increased by foreign language skills.
Deeply involved with this new technology is a kind of modern businesspeople who have a growing respect for the economic value of doing business abroad. In modern markets, success overseas often helps support domestic business efforts.
Overseas assignments are becoming increasingly important to advancement within executive ranks. The executive stationed in another country no longer need fear being “out of sight and out of mind.” He or she can be sure that the overseas effort is central to the company’s plan for success, and that promotions often follow or accompany an assignment abroad. If an employee can succeed in a difficult assignment overseas, superiors will have greater confidence in his or her ability to manage back in the United States where cross-cultural considerations and foreign language issues are becoming more and more common.
Thanks to a variety of relatively inexpensive communications devices with business applications, even small businesses in the United States are able to get into international markets.
English is still the international language of business. But there is an ever-growing need for people who can speak another language. A second language isn’t generally required to get a job in business, but having language skills gives a candidate the edge when other qualifications appear to be equal.
The employee posted abroad who speaks the country’s language has an opportunity to fast-forward certain negotiations, and can have the cultural insight to know when it is better to move more slowly. The employee at the home office who can communicate well with foreign customers over the telephone or by fax machine is an obvious asset to the firm.
1.With the increased use of high-tech communications equipment, businesspeople ________.
A. are eager to work overseas
B. have to get familiar with modern technology
C. are gaining more economic benefits from domestic operations
D. are attaching more importance to their overseas business
2.In this passage, “out of sight and out of mind” (Line 3, Para. 3) probably means ________.
A. leaving all care and worry behind
B. being unable to think properly for lack of insight
C. being totally out of touch with business at home
D. missing opportunities for promotion when abroad
3.According to the passage, what is an important consideration of international corporations in employing people today?
A. Ability to speak the customer’s language.
B. Connections with businesses overseas.
C. Technical know-how.
D. Business experience.
4.The advantage of employees having foreign language skills is that they can ________.
A. fast-forward their proposals to headquarters
B. better control the whole negotiation process
C. easily make friends with businesspeople abroad
D. easily find new approaches to meet market needs
Pacing and Pausing
Sara tried to befriend her old friend Steve's new wife, but Betty never seemed to have anything to say. While Sara felt Betty didn't hold up her end of the conversation, Betty complained to Steve that Sara never gave her a chance to talk. The problem had to do with expectations about pacing and pausing.
Conversation is a turn-taking game. When our habits are similar, there's no problem. But if our habits are different, you may start to talk before I'm finished or fail to take your turn when I'm finished. That's what was happening with Betty and Sara.
It may not be coincidental that Betty, who expected relatively longer pauses between turns, is British, and Sara, who expected relatively shorter pauses, is American. Betty often felt interrupted by Sara. But Betty herself became an interrupter and found herself doing most of the talking when she met a visitor from Finland. And Sara had a hard time cutting in on some speakers from Latin America or Israel.
The general phenomenon, then, is that the small conversation techniques, like pacing and pausing, lead people to draw conclusions not about conversational style but about personality and abilities. These habitual differences are often the basis for dangerous stereotyping (思维定式). And these social phenomena can have very personal consequences. For example, a woman from the southwestern part of the US went to live in an eastern city to take up a job in personnel. When the Personnel Department got together for meetings, she kept searching for the right time to break in --- and never found it. Although back home she was considered outgoing and confident, in Washington she was viewed as shy and retiring. When she was evaluated at the end of the year, she was told to take a training course because of her inability to speak up.
That's why slight differences in conversational style --- tiny little things like microseconds of pause --- can have a great effect on one's life. The result in this case was a judgment of psychological problems --- even in the mind of the woman herself, who really wondered what was wrong with her and registered for assertiveness training.
1.What did Sara think of Betty when talking with her?
A. Betty was talkative. B. Betty was an interrupter.
C. Betty did not take her turn. D. Betty paid no attention to Sara.
2.57. According to the passage, who are likely to expect the shortest pauses between turns?
A. Americans. B. Israelis. C. The British. D. The Finns.
3.58. We can learn from the passage that ______.
A. communication breakdown results from short pauses and fast pacing
B. women are unfavorably stereotyped in eastern cities of the US
C. one's inability to speak up is culturally determined sometimes
D. one should receive training to build up one's confidence
One effective way of destroying happiness is to look at something and focus on even the smallest fault. It’s like looking at the tiled（铺瓦的）ceiling and concentrating on the space where one tile is .
Once I heard a bald man said, “whenever I enter a room I see is hair.” Once you’ve what your missing tile is, explore whether acquiring it will make you happy. Then do one of the three things: get it, replace it with a different , or forget about it and the tiles in your life that are not missing.
We all know people who have a relatively life, yet are essentially unhappy. while people who have suffered a great deal but remain happy.
The first is gratitude. All happy people are . Ungrateful people cannot be happy. We tend to think that being unhappy leads people to , but it’s truer to say that complaining leads to people becoming unhappy.
The second secret is that happiness is a byproduct of something else. The most obvious are those pursuit that give our lives purpose — anything studying insects to playing baseball. The more passions we have, the more happiness we are to experience.
Finally, the belief that something permanent goes beyond us and that our has some larger meaning can help us to feel happier. We a spiritual faith, or a philosophy, it should this truth: if you choose to find the in every situation, you will be blessed, and if you choose to find the awful, you will be cursed. As with happiness itself, this is your decision to make.
1.A、different B、missing C、short D、broken
2.A、nothing B、none C、all D、anything
3.A、determined B、predicted C、assumed D、imagined
4.A、completely B、naturally C、hopefully D、really
5.A、tile B、brick C、ceiling D、house
6.A、look on B、focus on C、count on D、rely on
7.A、peaceful B、difficult C、easy D、ordinary
8.A、certainly B、merely C、hardly D、generally
9.A、secret B、factor C、rule D、key
10.A、wealthy B、grateful C、proud D、generous
11.A、upset B、quarrel C、complain D、depress
12.A、admitting B、assuming C、proving D、realizing
13.A、sources B、results C、answers D、goals
14.A、among B、from C、through D、for
15.A、probable B、possible C、likely D、capable
16.A、value B、destination C、survival D、existence
17.A、need B、lack C、demand D、expect
18.A、involve B、include C、absorb D、mean
19.A、worst B、best C、positive D、negative
20.A、absolutely B、totally C、exactly D、largely
---He is a very hard-working student.
---________. As far as I know, he often burns the midnight oil.
A. You can say that again B. Absolutely not
C. Heaven knows. D. No way
