The Goodness of Life
Though there is much to be concerned about, there is far, far more for which to be thankful.1.life’s goodness can at times be overshadowed, it is never outweighed. There is goodness to life 2. cannot be denied.
There is no limit 3. the goodness of life. It grows more abundant with each new encounter. The more you experience and appreciate the goodness of life, the more there is to be lived.
Even when the cold winds blow and the world seems to 4.(cover) by foggy shadows, the goodness of life lives on. Open your eyes, open your heart, 5. you will see that goodness is everywhere.
Though the goodness of life seems at times 6.(suffer) setbacks, it always endures. For in the darkest moment it becomes 7.(vivid) clear that life is a 8.(price) treasure. And so the goodness of life is made even 9.(strong) by the very things that would oppose it.
Time and time again when you fear it is gone forever you find that the goodness of life is only a moment away. Around next corner, inside every moment, the goodness of life is there to surprise and delight you.
Take a moment to let the goodness of life 10.(touch) your spirit and calm your thoughts. Then, share your good fortune with others.
The Johnson family from England believe they are lucky to be alive after surviving an incredible incident off the coast of Australia. The Johnsons had been _______ that they might see some whales when they were_______ a yacht — a large expensive boat for a 10-day sailing _______ around the Whitsunday Islands. _______, they had no idea just how _______ their viewing would be. Two hours into their journey a nine-meter-long humpback whale_______ out of the ocean and crashed into their boat before returning to the water.
Mark Johnson, the eldest son, was sailing the yacht when he heard a loud noise. He_______ thought the yacht had hit a rock. However, when he looked up, he saw the whale _______ down the deck of the boat. He told the reporters, “ We were staring into its right eye. It was a very _______ moment. The eye was about the _______ of a dinner plate. It was huge.”
_______ for the Johnson family, no one was hurt, but the yacht suffered _____damage. The whale had ruined the pole and ropes which hold the _______and so the family was left _______ at sea, 10 miles from the shore. The_______ equipment was also damaged, but fortunately they had a cell phone and were able to call for help.
Why the whale jumped onto the yacht is a _______ ，but the family thinks that maybe the boat had not _______ sailed between the whale and its baby calf. Perhaps the whale was trying to_______ its calf when it jumped, hit the yacht by chance.
Whatever the reason, people are completely _______ that this incident happened. There is over 135 million square miles of ocean, so what are the _______ of a whale jumping onto a 30-foot-long yacht? The chance of something like this happening is small, but it just shows that life is full of surprises.
1.A. explained B. learned C. told D. taught
2.A. hiring B. running C. taking D. driving
3.A. competition B. game C. trail D. trip
4.A. Moreover B. Nevertheless C. Worthwhile D. However
5.A. wide B. close C. vivid D. tense
6.A. swam B. leapt C. slipped D. stretched
7.A. suddenly B. occasionally C. immediately D. accidentally
8.A. shooting B. jumping C. falling D. sliding
9.A. exciting B. surprising C. frightening D. astonishing
10.A. size B. sample C. range D. scale
11.A. Certainly B. Luckily C. Definitely D. Possibly
12.A. severe B. extreme C. actual D. special
13.A. boat B. beach C. sail D. journey
14.A. by all means B. in no time C. from then on D. with no way
15.A. radio B. craft C. edition D. compass
16.A. problem B. mystery C. suspect D. question
17.A. carefully B. surely C. deliberately D. simply
18.A. see B. touch C. tend D. reach
19.A. amazed B. worried C. interested D. touched
20.A. marvels B. chances C. predictions D. results
1.Dr. Who is of an alien race of aristocratic “time lords” who travel back and forth in time and space between the corners of the universe to stop evil.（_______）
2.All the advantages of Bitcoins make it the most secure way to invest without any worry of the risk.（______）
3.Bitcoins are produced by computers and can be used by businesses or online services, but can’t be exchanged for traditional currency. （_______）
4.Made in China 2025 initiative aims to make the country competitive around the world in areas like construction, traditional Chinese culture and education.（_______）
5.The General Provisions bans the illegal collection and use of personal information.（_______）
6.You will be punished less seriously if you injure someone by mistake that you help during an emergency.（______）
7.Compared with other age groups, young people are less likely to suffer with depression.（_______）
8.Symptoms of depression include sadness, loss of interest and feelings of low self-worth, which may lead to suicide.（______）
9.In order to take revenge on Cosette’s lover, Valjean stuffed a loaded gun in his pocket, and left for the market district of Paris.（_______）
10.One of the reasons why people didn’t sort their garbage before dumping it was that garbage bins for recyclable waste were not widely available.（______）
Stop Negative Talk
“I’m so fat,” one of your friends says. The girl next to her joins in, “Well, I hate my hair today.” Without thinking, you respond: “No, you are not fat! I am fat. And my hair is flat and boring.”1.
It is easy for people to engage in self-critical conversations, and once it starts there is often pressure for you to join in.2. Maybe it is because “just talking” feels harmless. But before you know it, those opinions flow out of your conversations and into your life, where they start eating away at your self-respect.
3. When you start talking about yourself in a negative way, you are not only affecting your self-respect, but your friends’! When you criticize yourself, your friends might think you have the same standards for them. You have heard that it is important to treat others the way you want to be treated, but there is also value in treating yourself like you treat your friends. If you wouldn’t criticize your friend for the same thing, chances are that you are being too hard on yourself. So, don’t start it.
But what if someone else starts? For example, your friend feels insecure about how well he played in his soccer game, so he puts himself down: “I suck at soccer.”4. Ask him, “Do you really think that? Why?” Maybe he is actually upset about a comment someone made, or is just getting down on himself over one bad play. Whatever it is, talking through the real issue will help him more than slipping into another negative talk.
It is important to talk to your friend about your insecurities, but make sure you are not talking about them just to put yourself down.5. Instead of just focusing on the negative, talk about what makes you and yo
ur friends beautiful and unique—including what you love about your body and what you have accomplished. When you show yourself love, you set yourself as an example, and everyone benefits from you positively.
A. Negative talk affects self-respect.
B. Criticizing yourself helps nobody.
C. But why do we hesitate to praise ourselves?
D. But why is it acceptable to talk so negatively?
E. All it takes is just one comment and the negative talk starts.
F. It is better to resist negative conversations and create more balanced ones.
G. Before everyone puts himself down, see if you can get to the root of the problem.
In June 2016, Huffington Post and Mail Online reported that three-year-old Victoria Wilcher, who had suffered facial scarring, had been kicked out of a KFC because she was frightening customers. Later, KFC announced that no evidence had been found to support the story. This phenomenon is largely a product of the increasing pressure in newsrooms that care more about traffic figures.
Brooke Binkowski, an editor, says that, during her career, she has seen a shift towards less editorial oversight in newsrooms. “Clickbait is king, so newsrooms will uncritically print something unreal. Not all newsrooms are like this, but a lot of them are.”
Asked what the driving factor was, a journalist said, “You’ve an editor breathing down your neck and you have to meet your targets. And there are some young journalists on the market who are inexperienced and who will not do those checks. So much news that is reported online happens online. There is no need to get out and knock on someone’s door. You just sit at your desk and do it.”
Another journalist says, “There is definitely pressure to churn out (粗制滥造) stories in order to get clicks, because they equal money. At my former employer in particular, the pressure was on due to the limited resources. That made the environment quite horrible to work in.”
In a February 2017 report for Digital Journalism, Craig Silverman wrote, “Today the bar for what is worth giving attention to seems to be much lower. Within minutes or hours, a badly sourced report can be changed into a story that is repeated by dozens of news websites, resulting in tens of thousands of shares. Once a certain critical mass is reached, repetition has a powerful effect on belief. The rumor(传闻) becomes true for readers simply by virtue of its ubiquity.”
And, despite the direction that some newsrooms seem to be heading in, a critical eye is becoming more, not less important, according to the New York Times’ public editor, Margaret Sullivan. “Reporters and editors have to be more careful than ever before. It’s extremely important to question and to use every verification(验证) method available before publication.” Yet those working in newsrooms talk of doubtful stories being tolerated because, in the words of some senior editors, “a click is a click, regardless of the advantage of a story”. And, “if the story does turn out to be false, it’s simply a chance for another bite at the cherry.”
Verification and fact-checking are regularly falling victim to the pressure to bring in the numbers, and if the only result of being caught out is another chance to bring in the clicks, that looks unlikely to change.
1.According to Brooke Binkowski, newsrooms produce false news because _____.
A. clicks matter a lot B. resources are limited
C. budgets are inadequate D. journalists lack experience
2.What does the underlined sentence in Paragraph 5 probably mean?
A. Lies can’t sell without an atom of truth.
B. Rumors are like a flame blown by the wind.
C. You can hear rumors, but you can’t know them.
D. A lie, repeated often enough, will end up as truth.
3.What’s Margaret Sullivan’s attitude towards false news online?
A. Negative. B. Supportive.
C. Skeptical. D. Neutral.
4.What is the passage mainly about?
A. Consequences of false stories. B. Causes of online false news.
C. Incompetence of journalists. D. A craze to get clicks.
Integrity
Integrity is the quality of being honest and strong about what you believe to be right. The concept of integrity has played a key role in moral philosophy throughout history and is promoted in all societies because of its importance to social relations. Individual integrity is vital to society, one that enables people to make use of their capacity for critical reflection, does not force people to take up particular roles and does not encourage individuals to betray each other. Besides, societies can be favorable to the development of individual integrity.
Individual integrity can lift up the spirits of the entire society. It can shape the lives of people living in a particular society, the lives of all fellow people and, in its broadest sense, even the destiny(命运) of a nation. By contrast, if those living in the society are corrupt, it could have bad effects, jeopardizing the healthy morality of the society.
On the other hand, a society can be favorable to the development of individual integrity. Society expects and requires integrity. A society consisting of people of integrity, and people who never compromise on their principles, could have a positive mark on the personal development of its members. Being a part of such a morally lively community could serve as a basis for absorbing traits of good character. This could be of a distinct advantage to any individuals in the society.
However, some social structures are of the wrong sort for some individuals to pursue(追求) integrity. If that is the case, we have to ask questions about the moral nature of society first before raising questions about individual integrity.
Questions about integrity may turn out to be about what kind of society it is, rather than about the relationship between individual interests and characteristics of a society. The pursuit of adequate individual integrity often depends, not so much on understanding who one is and what one believes and is committed to, but rather understanding what one’s society is and imagining what it could be.
Under no circumstances can we underestimate the importance of human integrity in a society. People, who are honest, trustworthy, compassionate and caring, are the factors decisive in the growth of individuals as well as the development of a society.
1.Individual integrity has been valued in society because ______.
A. it helps develop philosophy
B. it is the basis of critical thinking
C. it is important to social relations
D. it ensures people’s particular roles
2.The underlined word “jeopardizing” in Paragraph 2 probably means ______.
A. strengthening B. assessing
C. influencing D. destroying
3.The writer believes that ______.
A. the nature of society is decided by economic development
B. the pursuit of individual integrity changes with time
C. individual integrity depends on what one believes
D. social structures guide the formation of individual integrity
4.Which of the following shows the development of ideas in this passage?
CP: Central Point P: Point Sp: Sub-point(次要点) C：Conclusion
A. 
B. 
C. 
D. 
