Richard Branson, an English business magnate, has had great, global success. He is best known as the founder of Virgin Group, which consists of more than 400 companies.
So what, I asked, is his most important secret to success? His answer was simple: look for the best in other people.
Throughout his life he's never thought ill of other people. He looks for the best and praises them. Branson at times seems almost not human. He's too good at what he does. No, great. Nearly perfect. When he starts something, he is very likely to succeed. He has fallen out with others though, like anyone else. He is human. He told me:"Life is short and the world is much smaller than one realizes. You are going to come across people time and time again in the most surprising places ... As a leader it's even more important to be out there praising and encouraging people. If you do fall out with somebody in life, even if you think it was their mistake, give them a call. Befriend them. Go out to lunch with them."
The greatest leaders in the world have taught forgiveness. Perhaps the most extreme example is Nelson Mandela who invited his former prison guard to his inauguration (就职典礼) and even had lunch with a man who in the past wanted him to be sentenced to death.
Life is too short. We are humans and sometimes we make mistakes and anger people. What defines us is not those who are able to avoid confrontation (对抗), but those who are able to deal with it. The human body is able to self-heal when we are cut. In that same manner, we must heal our past relationships.
Branson wins respect from those around him. A natural-born leader, he is always deep in thought and hungry for more; always one step ahead. And it was Richard Branson who taught me about forgiveness.
1.Richard Branson's success lies in his ________.
A. determination B. efforts C. judgment D. generosity
2.The example of Nelson Mandela is mentioned to show ________.
A. he was one of the greatest leaders
B. he suffered a lot in prison
C. great people set a good example of forgiveness
D. the power of forgiveness is magical
3.What would be the best title for the text?
A. Invite your enemies to lunch
B. Richard Branson's success story
C. What is forgiveness?
D. The key to success
A sleepover (在外过夜的聚会) at Legoland Discovery Centre, at the Trafford Centre in Manchester, may sound like the perfect place to host your child's next birthday party — but it will set parents back more than ￡1,000.
All rides — Kingdom Quest Laser Ride, Merlin's Apprentice and Lego City Forest Pursuit — are open during the evening and supervision (监管) on these rides is provided at all times. The Lego Studios 4D Cinema is also open and guests have exclusive use of the Lego construction play area until 10:00 pm, which means you will have a good time and don't need to share any facilities with other groups.
But at ￡35 a head, with a minimum guest list of 30, it's unlikely to be something the average parent could afford, reports Manchester Evening News.
A Legoland spokesman said: "The sleepover package is aimed at groups such as boys between eight and ten, girls between six and eight and youth groups, however it is open to everyone within the terms of the offer. " There is a birthday room to use, and in regard to food, snack boxes can be purchased for the additional cost of ￡4.50. Guests are also welcome to bring along their own food and drinks, and there are storage facilities where they can be kept.
"Also we do have daytime party packages available, which are ￡15 per child midweek and ￡18 per child at the weekend. But these packages have a policy of a minimum of nine and a maximum of 21 people, due to room capacity. "
The spokesman continued, "Included in the price for these parties is the birthday cake, and children's meal of sandwiches, crisps, fruit juice, fruit and Haribo sweets. All attending adults also get a free hot drink and the birthday child gets a free group photograph."
Legoland says that the pricing for the sleepover package is based on overall operating costs of opening the centre exclusively for the group.
1.When you have a sleepover at Legoland Discovery Centre at the Trafford Centre, you can't have access to ________.
A. Lego City Forest Pursuit
B. the Lego construction play area
C. the Lego Studios 4D Cinema
D. Lego City Deep Sea Exploration
2.Which of the following words is closest in meaning to the underlined word, "exclusive", in the second paragraph?
A. beneficial B. unshared C. accessible D. combined
3.The sleepover at the Legoland Discovery Centre ________.
A. charges ￡35 per child at the weekend in daytime
B. charges￡4.50 for a birthday cake
C. is only open to groups
D. provides all people with group photographs for free
4.What is the passage mainly about?
A. Have a birthday party in Legoland
B. Some newly-introduced Lego toys
C. Activities you can do in Legoland
D. Have a sleepover away from home
假设你是红星中学高三学生李华。请根据以下四幅图的先后顺序，用英文写一篇周记，记述春节前你跟奶奶学做剪纸的过程。词数不少于60。
提示词：剪纸，窗花 paper cut
书面表达
假设你是红星中学学生李华，你在网上看到一则征寻语伴的广告，并对此感兴趣。请你根据广告的内容，予以回复。简要介绍自己的中文优势和英语方面的需求。
I’m looking for an online language partner. I will help you with English in exchange for my Chinese practice. You must be a native speaker with standard Mandarin*pronunciation and also want to improve your English.
Please write to me directly if this is of interest to you. Email: kathylane@gmail.com
注意： 1. 词数不少于50；
2. 开头和结尾已给出，不计入总词数。
提示词：Mandarinn.普通话
Dear Kathy,
Yours,
Li Hua
根据短文内容，从短文后的七个选项中选出能填入空白处的最佳选项。选项中有两项为多余选项。
Third-Culture Kids
Did you grow up in one culture, your parents came from another, and you are now living in a totally different country? If so, then you are a third-culture kid!
The term “third-culture kid” (or TCK) was coined in the 1960s by Dr. Ruth. She first came across this phenomenon when she researched North American children living in India. Caught between two cultures, they form their very own. 1. About 90 percent of them have a university degree, while 40 percent pursue a postgraduate or doctor degree. They usually benefit from their intercultural experience, which helps them to grow into successful academics and professionals.
2. In fact many hardships may arise from this phenomenon. A third-culture kid may not be able to adapt themselves completely to their new surroundings as expected. Instead, they may always remain an outsider in different host cultures.Max, for example, experienced this fundamental feeling of strangeness throughout his life as a third-culture kid. 3. While this can be a way to create a network of friends all around the world, it can be difficult for a third-culture kid like Max to maintain close friendships and relationships.
For a third-culture kid, it is often easier to move to a new foreign country than to return to their “home” country. After living in Australia and South Korea for many years, Louis finally returned to Turkey as a teenager. But she felt out of place when she returned to the country where she was born. 4. She did not share the same values as her friends’ even years after going back home.
While a third-culture kid must let go of their identity as foreigner when he/she returns, the home country can prove to be more foreign than anything he/she came across before. The peer group they face does not match the idealized image children have of “home”. 5.
As a part of the growing “culture”, TCKs may find it a great challenge for them to feel at home in many places.
A. Yet being a third-culture kid is not always easy.
B. In general, they often reach excellent academic results.
C. This often makes it hard for them to form their own identity.
D. However, their parents can help them see the opportunities of a mobile lifestyle.
E. Their experience abroad helps them to gain a better understanding of cultural differences.
F. Unlike other teens of her age, she didn’t know anything about current TV shows or fashion trends.
G. Additionally, making new friends and saying goodbye to old ones will at some point become routine for a third-culture kid.
Despite the anxiety that Jones’ Host—said by some to be the first digital novel—caused in 1993, publishers weren’t too concerned that e-books would one day replace printed books. However, that attitude was changed suddenly in 2007 when Amazon’s Kindle came onto the market, which led to e-book sales jumping up to 1,260%. Since then, e-books’ popularity has continued to steadily rise. The publishing industry seemed to have lost all possible ability to regain its position. Will printed books eventually become a thing of the past?
According to Mike Shatzkin, founder and CEO of the Idea Logical Company, printed books just for plain old reading will, in 10 years from now, be unusual. “Not so unusual that a kid will say, ‘Mommy, what’s that?’ but unusual enough that on the train you’ll see one or two people reading something printed, while everyone else is reading off of a tablet.” And Shatzkin believes that the demise of print is sure to happen, though such a day won’t arrive for perhaps 50 to 100 or more years.
Robert Stein, founder of the Institute for the Future of the Book, however, believes that books won’t disappear entirely, at least not anytime soon. “Print will exist, but it will be in a different field and will appeal to a very limited audience, as poetry does today. Like woodblock printing, hand-processed film and folk weaving (编织), printed pages may assume an artistic value,” he says. He imagines that future forms of books might be developed not by conventional publishers but by the gaming industry. He also predicts that the distinction between writer and reader will be made less obvious by a social reading experience in which authors and consumers can digitally interact with each other to discuss any passage, sentence or line.
Is there anything we risk sacrificing, should print really disappear entirely? According to Maryanne Wolf, director of the Center for Reading and Language Research at Tufts University, electronic reading can negatively affect the way the brain responds to text, including reading comprehension, focus and the ability to maintain attention to details like plot and order of events. “My worry is that we’ll have a short-circuited reading brain, excellent for gathering information but not necessarily for forming critical, analytical deep reading skills,” Wolf says.
The field, however, is in an early stage, and findings about the negative effects of e-reading are far from certain. In light of this, Wolf hopes that we continue to maintain a “bi-literate” society—one that values both the digital and printed word. “A full reading brain circuit is a huge contribution to the intellectual development of our species. Anything that threatens that deserves our attention.”
1.How did publishers feel about the rising e-book sales inspired by the Kindle?
A. Worried. B. Excited. C. Curious. D. Skeptical.
2.The underlined word “demise” in Paragraph 2 probably means ______.
A. rise B. death C. growth D. decline
3.According to Robert Stein, paper books will exist because of ______.
A. the artistic value
B. the digital interaction
C. the growing popularity
D.the conventional design
4.It can be concluded from the last two paragraphs that Wolf holds that _______.
A. e-reading will weaken the power of our brain
B. digital books and paper books should not co-exist
C. e-reading will make us more critical and thoughtful
D. we should not risk losing a full reading brain circuit
