Jobs and work do much more than most of us realize to provide happiness and contentment.We're all used to thinking that work provides the material things of life—the goods and services that make our modern civilization possible.But we are much less conscious of the degree to which work provides the more important psychological wellbeing that can make the difference between a full and an empty life.
Historically,work has been associated with slavery and sin (罪恶)and punishment.And in our own day we are used to bearing traditional complaints.Against this background,it may well come as a surprise to learn that not only psychologists but other behavioral scientists have come to accept the positive contribution of work to the individual's happiness and sense of personal achievement.Work is more than a necessity for most human beings;it is the focus of their lives,the source of their identity and creativity.
Rather than a punishment of a burden,work is the opportunity to realize one's potential.And the opposite is true,too.For large numbers of people,the absence of work is harmful to their health.Retirement often brings many problems surrounding the “What do I do with myself?”question,even though there may be no financial cares.Large numbers of people regularly get headaches and other illnesses on weekends when they don't have their jobs to go to,and must take care of themselves.It has been observed that unemployment,quite apart from financial pressures,brings enormous psychological troubles and that many individuals'conditions become worse rapidly when jobless.
But why?Why should work be such a significant source of human satisfaction?A good share of the answer rests in the kind of pride that is stimulated by the job,by the activity of accomplishing.
1.Which of the following statements can NOT be learned from the passage?
A.People feel happier and more content than they realize when working.
B.Work is likely to provide you with the chance of achieving your potential.
C.Happiness can only be gained through working.
D.A lot of people will suffer physically and psychologically without work.
2.Traditionally,people are used to believing ________.
A.work is related to negative aspects
B.happiness has nothing to do with work
C.identity and creativity depend on work
D.work is not only a necessity for humans but the focus of their lives
3.What would the author probably discuss in the following paragraph?
A.What the proper way to balance work and life is.
B.How work brings people pride in accomplishment.
C.Which is more important:the material things of life or psychological wellbeing.
D.How people overcome the problems arising from retirement.
4.Which best describes the author's attitude towards work in the passage?
A.Doubtful. B.Concerned.
C.Approving. D.Neutral.
When 19yearold Sophia Giorgi said she was thinking of volunteering to help the MakeAWish Foundation(基金会), nobody understood what she was talking about. But Sophia knew just how important MakeAWish could be because this special organization had helped to make a dream come true for one of her best friends. We were interested in finding out more, so we went along to meet Sophia and listen to what she had to say.
Sophia told us that MakeAWish is a worldwide organization that started in the United States in 1980. “It's a charity(慈善机构) that helps children who have got very serious illnesses. MakeAWish helps children feel happy even though they are sick, by making their wishes and dreams come true,” Sophia explained.
We asked Sophia how MakeAWish had first started. She said it had all begun with a very sick young boy called Chris, who had been dreaming for a long time of becoming a policeman. Sophia said lots of people had wanted to find a way to make Chris's dream come true—so, with everybody's help, Chris, only seven years old at the time, had been a “policeman” for a day. “When people saw how delighted Chris was when his dream came true, they decided to try and help other sick children too, and that was the beginning of MakeAWish,” explained Sophia.
Sophia also told us the Foundation tries to give children and their families a special, happy time. A MakeAWish volunteer visits the families and asks the children what they would wish for if they could have anything in the world. Sophia said the volunteers were important because they were the ones who helped to make the wishes come true. They do this either by providing things that are necessary, or by raising money or helping out in whatever way they can.
1.Sophia found out about MakeAWish because her best friend had ________.
A.benefited from it B.volunteered to help it
C.dreamed about it D.told the author about it
2.According to Sophia, MakeAWish ________.
A.is an international charity
B.was understood by nobody at first
C.raises money for very poor families
D.started by drawing the interest of the public
3.What is said about Chris in Paragraph 3?
A.He has been a policeman since he was seven.
B.He gave people the idea of starting MakeAWish.
C.He wanted people to help make his dream come true.
D.He was the first child MakeAWish helped after it had been set up.
4.Which of the following is true about MakeAWish volunteers?
A.They are important for making wishes come true.
B.They try to help children get over their illnesses.
C.They visit sick children to make them feel special.
D.They provide what is necessary to make MakeAWish popular.
When I entered Berkeley College, I hoped to earn a scholarship. Having been a straight A student, I believed I could ____ tough subjects and really learn something. One such course was World Literature given by Professor Jayne. I was extremely interested in the ideas he ____ in class.
When I took the first exam, I was ____ to find a 77, Cplus, on my test paper, ____ English was my best subject. I went to Professor Jayne, who listened to my arguments but remained ____.
I decided to try harder, although I didn't know what that ____ because study had always been easy for me. I read the books more carefully, but got another 77. Again, I ____ with Professor Jayne. Again, he listened patiently but wouldn't change his ____.
One more test before the final exam. One more ___ to improve my grades. So I redoubled my efforts and, for the first time, ____ the meaning of the word “thorough”. But my ____ did no good and everything ____ as before.
The last hurdle(障碍) was the final. No matter what ____ I got, it wouldn't cancel Cpluses. I might as well kiss the ___ goodbye.
I stopped working hard. I felt I knew the course material as well as I ever would. The night before the final, I even ___ myself to a movie. The next day I decided for once not to ____ much about the result of the test.
A week later, I was surprised to find I got an A. I hurried into Professor Jayne's office. He ____ to be expecting me. “If I had given you the Apluses you ____, you wouldn't have continued to work as hard.”
I stared at him, ____ that his analysis and strategy(策略) were correct. I had worked my head ____, as I had never done before.
I was speechless when my course grade arrived:Aplus. It was the only Aplus given. The next year I received my scholarship. I've always remembered Professor Jayne's lesson:you alone must set your own standard of excellence.
1.A.take B.discuss C.cover D.get
2.A.sought B.presented C.exchanged D.obtained
3.A.shocked B.worried C.scared D.anxious
4.A.but B.so C.for D.or
5.A.unchanged B.unpleasant C.unfriendly D.unmoved
6.A.reflected B.meant C.improved D.affected
7.A.quarreled B.reasoned C.bargained D.concerned
8.A.attitude B.mind C.plan D.view
9.A.choice B.step C.chance D.measure
10.A.memorized B.considered
C.accepted D.learned
11.A.ambition B.confidence C.efforts D.methods
12.A.stayed B.went C.worked D.changed
13.A.grade B.answer C.lesson D.comment
14.A.scholarship B.course
C.degree D.subject
15.A.helped B.favored C.treated D.relaxed
16.A.care B.ask C.cheat D.produce
17.A.happened B.proved C.pretended D.seemed
18.A.valued B.imagined C.expected D.welcomed
19.A.remembering B.guessing
C.supposing D.realizing
20.A.out B.over C.on D.off
Bad teeth can be painful and even be deadly. Infections of the gums(牙龈) and teeth can release bacteria into the blood system. Those bacteria can increase the chance of a heart attack or stroke and worsen the effects of other diseases. And adults are not the only ones at risk. For example, a 12yearold boy died when a tooth infection spread to his brain in 2007 in Washington. Experts said it might have been prevented had he received the dental care he needed.
Experts say good dental care starts at birth. Breast milk, they say, is the best food for the healthy development of teeth. Breast milk can help slow bacterial growth and acid production in the mouth. But dentists say a baby's gums and early teeth should be cleaned after each feeding by using a cloth with a little warm water. Experts say if you decide to put your baby to sleep with a bottle, give only water.
When baby teeth begin to appear, you can clean them with a wet toothbrush. Dentists say it is important to find soft toothbrushes made especially for babies and to use them very gently. The use of fluoride(氟化物) to protect teeth is common in many parts of the world. For example, it is often added to drinking water supplies. The fluoride mixes with enamel(釉质), the hard surface on teeth, to help prevent holes from forming.
But young children often swallow toothpaste when they brush their teeth. The American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry notes that swallowing fluoridated toothpaste can cause problems. So young children should be carefully watched when they brush their teeth. And only a small amount of fluoridated toothpaste, the size of a pea, should be used.
Parents often wonder what effect finger sucking might have on their baby's teeth. Dental experts generally agree that this is fine early in life. Most children stop sucking their fingers by the age of four. If it continues, experts advise parents to talk to their children's dentists or doctors. Because it could interfere_with the correct development of permanent teeth.
Dentists say children should have their first dental visit at least by the time they are one year old. They say babies should be examined when their first teeth appear—usually at around six months.
1.According to the passage,what is the function of fluoride?
A.Making the surface on teeth much cleaner.
B.Protecting gums from being infected.
C.Keeping holes on teeth from forming.
D.Slowing down bacterial growth and acid production.
2.The underlined phrase “interfere with” in Para.5 probably means “________”.
A.do harm to B.account for
C.contribute to D.stand for
3.What is the purpose of the author in writing the passage?
A.To warn us of the deadly infections of gums and teeth.
B.To introduce the advantages of fluoridated toothpaste.
C.To draw our attention to the dental care of young children.
D.To present the research results about dental care.
No one knows for sure when advertising first started. It is possible that it grew out of the discovery that some people did certain kinds of work better than others did them. That led to the concept of specialization, which means that people would specialize, or focus, on doing one specific job.
Let's take a man we'll call Mr. Fielder, for example. He did everything connected with farming. He planted seeds, tended the fields, and harvested and sold his crops. At the same time, he did many other jobs on the farm. However, he didn't make the bricks for his house, cut his trees into boards, make the plows(犁), or any of the other hundreds of things a farm needs. Instead, he got them from people who specialized in doing each of those things.
Suppose there was another man we shall call Mr. Plowright. Using what he knew about farming and working with iron, Mr. Plowright invented a plow that made farming easier. Mr. Plowright did not really like farming himself and wanted to specialize in making really good plows. Perhaps, he thought, other farmers will trade what they grow for one of my plows.
How did Mr. Plowright let people know what he was doing? Why, he advertised, of course. First he opened a shop and then he put up a sign outside the shop to attract customers. That sign may have been no more than a plow carved into a piece of wood and a simple arrow pointing to the shop door. It was probably all the information people needed to find Mr. Plowright and his really good plows.
Many historians believe that the first outdoor signs were used about five thousand years ago. Even before most people could read, they understood such signs. Shopkeepers would carve into stone, clay, or wood symbols for the products they had for sale.
A medium, in advertising talk, is the way you communicate your message. You might say that the first medium used in advertising was signs with symbols. The second medium was audio, or sound, although that term is not used exactly in the way we use it today. Originally, just the human voice and maybe some kind of simple instrument, such as a bell, were used to get people's attention.
A crier, in the historical sense, is not someone who weeps easily. It is someone, probably a man, with a voice loud enough to be heard over the other noises of a city. In ancient Egypt, shopkeepers might hire such a person to spread the news about their products. Often this earliest form of advertising involved a newly arrived ship loaded with goods. Perhaps the crier described the goods, explained where they came from, and praised their quality. His job was, in other words, not too different from a TV or radio commercial in today's world.
1.What probably led to the start of advertising?
A.The discovery of iron.
B.The specialization of labor.
C.The appearance of new jobs.
D.The development of farming techniques.
2.To advertise his plows, Mr. Plowright ________.
A.praised his plows in public
B.placed a sign outside the shop
C.hung an arrow pointing to the shop
D.showed his products to the customers
3.The writer makes up the two stories of Mr. Fielder and Mr. Plowright in order to ________.
A.explain the origin of advertising
B.predict the future of advertising
C.expose problems in advertising
D.provide suggestions for advertising
4.In ancient Egypt, a crier was probably someone who ________.
A.owned a ship
B.had the loudest voice
C.ran a shop selling goods to farmers
D.functioned like today's TV or radio commercial
5.The last two paragraphs are mainly about ________.
A.the history of advertising
B.the benefits of advertising
C.the early forms of advertising
D.the basic design of advertising
A few weeks ago,our dog,which we had kept for more than ten years,had to be put down.First,a tumor on her stomach got worse,and she was very ____.Then,the pain in her back got so bad that sometimes she ___ lie down in the middle of a walk and couldn't take another ____.
When I first found out,I was very sad and cried a lot.She was more like a sister to me than a ___.But I was also angry at my stepfather,Steve,who told us the ___ a week after it happened.He ____ because he didn't want to worry us,and he didn't want me to get depressed (抑郁的)and fail my exams.I just thought she was ____ at the animals' hospital.
I think you know all the ____ that went through my head:She was my dog!Why didn't he tell us earlier?I didn't even get to say goodbye.
People in my family have a ____ of keeping things from me to protect me,such as only telling me that my aunt had cancer ____ she had already improved.All I could think was:Not again!
I ____ to my mum,and she said,“I know.I'm ____,too.”I opened my mouth to shout.And then she added,“I'm so angry with Steve that he had to ____ through all this on his own.”Hearing my mum's words,I shut up my mouth.I had been so ____ on myself.I hadn't thought about ____ Steve was going through.That dog was his baby.He'd had her for longer than he'd had us—and he had to make the decision to ____ her life,and then kept in silence for an entire ____.All my anger melted away,and all I felt was ____.
It makes me realize that we focus so much on ourselves that we ____ the pain of others.At that moment,my mum's words were an incredible ____ that I'll never forget.
1.A.lazy B.lonely
C.painful D.shameful
2.A.would B.should
C.might D.could
3.A.walk B.step
C.foot D.breath
4.A.tool B.toy
C.baby D.pet
5.A.plan B.accident
C.anecdote D.truth
6.A.lied B.waited
C.reflected D.hesitated
7.A.still B.once
C.even D.never
8.A.facts B.opinions
C.thoughts D.doubts
9.A.story B.secret
C.habit D.hobby
10.A.until B.before
C.while D.after
11.A.adjusted B.turned
C.contributed D.related
12.A.angry B.shocked
C.guilty D.abused
13.A.break B.go
C.look D.push
14.A.focused B.hooked
C.dependent D.hard
15.A.that B.where
C.what D.which
16.A.save B.expand
C.make D.end
17.A.year B.month
C.week D.day
18.A.regret B.blame
C.sorrow D.sympathy
19.A.shared B.ignored
C.reminded D.rid
20.A.comfort B.compromise
C.gift D.suggestion