I was ten when I first sat with my grandmother behind the cashier（收银台）in her general store. 1. I quickly learned the importance of treating customers politely and saying “thank you.”
At first I was paid in candy. 2. I worked every day after school, and during the summer and on weekends and holidays from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. My father helped me set up a bank account. 3.
By the time I was 12, My grandmother thought I had done such a good job that she promoted me to selling cosmetics（化妆品）. I developed the ability to look customers directly in the eye. Even though I was just a kid, women would ask me such things as “What color do you think I should wear?” I took a real interest in their questions and was able to translate what they wanted into makeup（化妆）ideas. 4.
The job taught me a valuable lesson: to be a successful salesperson, you didn’t need to be a rocket scientist—you needed to be a great listener. _5.___ I expect they are no longer women purchasing cosmetics from me; instead, they are kids who tell me which toys they would like to see designed and developed.
A.Later I received 50 cents an hour.
B.Before long, she let me sit there by myself.
C.I ended up selling a record amount of cosmetics.
D.Today I still carry that lesson with me: I listen to customers.
E.My grandma’s trust taught me how to handle responsibility.
F.Soon I found myself looking more beautiful than ever before.
G.Watching my money grow was more rewarding than anything I could have bought.
While success is surely sweeter than failure, it seems failure is a far better teacher, and organizations that fail miserably often flourish (繁荣) more in the long run, according to a new study by Vinit Desai, assistant professor of management at the University of Colorado Denver Business School. Researchers have found that people missing their goals perform much better in the long run. That is because they gain more knowledge from their failures than their successes and the lessons are more likely to stay longer in their minds.
“We found that the knowledge gained from success was often fleeting while knowledge from failure stuck around for years,” said professor Desai, who led the study. “But companies often ignore failure. Managers may fire people or turn over the whole workforce while they should treat the failure as a learning opportunity.”
Prof Desai compared the flights of the space shuttle Atlantis and the Challenger. During the Atlantis flight last year, a piece of insulation (绝缘体) broke off and damaged the left solid rocket booster (助推火箭) but didn’t influence the program. There was little investigation. The Challenger was launched next and another piece of insulation broke off. This time the shuttle and its seven–person crew were destroyed. The disaster led to a major investigation resulting in 29 changes to prevent future disasters.
The difference in response in the two cases came down to this: Atlantis was considered a success and the Challenger a failure.
“Despite crowded skies, airlines are extremely reliable,” he said. “The number of failures is extremely small. And past researches have shown that older airlines, those with more experience in failure, have a lower number of accidents.”
Prof Desai doesn’t recommend finding out failure in order to learn. Instead, he advises organizations to analyze small failures to collect useful information rather than wait for major failures.
1.Why did experts pay little attention to the problem of Atlantis?
A. Because it worked perfectly.
B. Because the right booster was still OK.
C. Because nothing serious happened then.
D. Because fewer people died in the flight.
2. Fewer accidents happen to older airlines in that ________.
A. their planes couldn’t fly high in the sky
B. they gained much from experience in failure
C. their planes were often checked by the experts
D. they were unpopular among passengers
3.The passage is written mainly to ________.
A. show failure is a better teacher than success
B. explain why Challenger failed
C. introduce something about Prof Desai
D. tell managers how to achieve success
HOLIDAY FUN AT THE POWERHOUSE
500 HARRIS STREET ULTIMO •TELEPHONE (02)9270111
Join in the holiday fun at the Powerhouse this month linked to our new exhibition, Evolution & Revolution: Chinese dress 1700s to now. DON’T FORGET our other special event, the Club Med Circus School which is part of the Circus（马戏团）！150 years of circus in Australia exhibition experience!
◆ Chinese Folk Dancing: Colorful Chinese dance and musical performances
by The Chinese Folk Dancing School of Sydney. Dances include: the Golden and the Chinese drum dance. A feature will be the Qin dynasty Emperor’s count dance.
Also included is a show of face painting for Beijing opera performances.
Sunday 29 June and Wednesday 2 July in the Turbine Hall, at 11.30 am & 1.30 pm.
◆ Australian Chinese Children’s Arts Theatre: Well-known children’s play experts from Shanghai leas this dynamic youth group. Performance include Chinese fairy tales and plays.
Thursday 3 to Sunday 6 July in the Turbine Hall, at 11.30 am & 1.30 pm.
◆ Chinese Youth League: A traditional performing arts group featuring
performance highlights such as Red scarf and Spring flower dances, and a musician
playing Er Hu.
Sunday 6 to Tuesday 8 July in the Turbine Hall, 11.30 am to 1.30 pm.
◆ Kids Activity : Make a Paper Horse: Young children make a paper horse
cut-out. (The horse is a frequent theme in Chinese painting, including a kind of
advancement.) Suitable for ages 8-12 years.
Sunday 28 June to Tuesday 8 July in the Turbine Hall, 12.30 pm to 1.00 pm.
◆ Club Med Circus School: Learn circus skills, including the trapeze, trampolining and magic. Note only for children over 5. There are 40 places available in each 1 hour session and these must be booked at the front desk, level 4 on the day.
Tuesday 1 to Saturday 5 July at 11.30am & 1.00 pm.
Enjoy unlimited free visits and many other benefits by becoming a family
member of the Powerhouse. Our family memberships cover two adults and all children under the age of 16years at the one address.
Members receive Powerline, our monthly magazine, discounts in the shops and
restaurants, as well as free admission to the Museum. All this for as little as $50,00 a year! Call (02)9217 0600 for more details.
1.When can you watch the Chinese drum dance?
A.On July 2. B. On July 3.
C. On July 6. D. On July 8.
2.To learn the magic tricks, you can go to .
A. Kids Activity.
B. Chinese Youth League.
C. Club Med Circus School.
D. Children’s Arts Theatre.
3.What is required if you want to enjoy free visits to the Museum?
A. Calling (02)92170600.
B. Gaining family membership.
C. Coming for the holiday fun.
D. Paying Powerline $50.00 a year.
4. What is the main purpose of the text?
A. To attract visitors.
B. To present schedules.
C. To report the performances
D. To teach kids Chinese arts.
Do you sometimes argue about what seems to you to be a simple fact? Do you argue whether it’s cold outdoors or whether the car in front of you is going faster than the speed limit?
If you get into such arguments, try to think about the story about the six blind men and the elephant. The first blind man who felt the elephant’s trunk said it was like a snake. The second who felt the elephant’s side said it was like a wall, while the third said it was like a spear as he touched the animal’s tusk. The fourth, who took hold of the elephant’s tail insisted that it was like a rope. The fifth man said it looked like a tree as he put his arms around one of the elephant’s legs. The sixth, who was tall and got hold of theelephant’s ears, said it was like a huge fan.
Each man’s idea of the animal came from his own experience. So if someone disagrees with you about a “simple fact”, it’s often because his experience in the matter is different from yours.
To see how hard it is for even one person to make up his mind about a “simple fact”, try this simple experiment. Get three large bowls. Put ice water in one. Put hot water in the second. Put lukewarm water in the third. Now put your left hand in the ice water. Put your right hand in the hot water. After thirty seconds, put both hands in the lukewarm water. Your right hand will tell you the water is cold. Your left hand will tell you it’s hot.
1.What makes people think about simple facts differently?
A. The fact that simple facts differ from one another.
B. The fact that people have different experience in the same simple fact.
C. The fact that people often disagree with one another.
D. The fact that it’s hard to make up one’s mind about simple facts.
2.The writer’s advice is that ________.
A. we should never think about simple facts
B. we should never judge something with a one-sided view
C. we should not agree about simple facts
D. we must learn from the six blind men
3.What’s the main idea of this passage?
A. People often judge something according to their own experience.
B. People often agree about simple facts.
C. It’s hard for a person to make up his mind about a simple fact.
D. Don’t care too much about simple facts.
Education is not an end, but a means to an end. In other words, we do not educate children only for the purpose of educating them. Our purpose is to fit them for life.
In some modern countries it has for some time been fashionable to think that by free education for all-whether rich or poor, clever or stupid-one can solve all the problems of society and build a perfect nation. But we can already see that free education for all is not enough; we find in such countries a far larger number of people with university degrees refuse to do what they think to be "low" work, and, in fact, work with hands is thought to be dirty and shameful in such countries. But we have only to think a moment to understand that the work of a completely uneducated farmer is far more important than that of a profess-or, we can live without education, but we die if we have no food. If no one cleaned our streets and took the rubbish away from our houses, we should get terrible diseases in our towns.
In fact, when we say that all of us must be educated to fit us for life, it means that we must be educated in such a way that, firstly, each of us can do whatever work suited to his brains and ability and, secondly, that we can realize that all jobs are necessary to society, and that is very bad to be ashamed of one's work. Only such a type of education can be considered valuable to society.
1.From the passage we can conclude that______.
A. education can settle all of the world's problems
B. free education for all probably leads to a perfect world
C. free education won't help to solve social problems
D. all the social problems can't be solved by education
2.The writer wants to prove that _____.
A. our society needs all kinds of jobs
B. our society needs free education for all
C. a farmer is more important than a professor
D. people with university degrees refuse to do what they think to be "low" work
3.According to the passage _____.
A. work with hands is dirty and shameful
B. work with hands is low work
C. work with hands is the most important
D. we can't regard work with hands as low work
4.The purpose of education is _____.
A. to choose a system of education
B. to prepare children mainly for their future work
C. to let everyone receive education fit for him
D. to build a perfect world
5.The passage tells us about _____.
system of education
B. means of education
C. value of education
D. type of education
假定你是李明，你的美国朋友Jack给你写了一封信，信中告诉你他很想学好汉语，但是已经学了一年了，汉语还不够好。特请你给他回封信，提供一些学好汉语的建议。内容包括：
1．建议课内外多说，多看，多听汉语；
2．建议同学之间进行汉字听写比赛等，培养学习汉语的兴趣和能力。
（词数要求100左右；参考词汇：汉字听写比赛Chinese character dictation competition）
Dear Jack,
I have received your letter and I have known that you are not so good at Chinese.
Yours,
Li Ming
