I do not know why I came to the decision to become a loser, but I know I made the choice at a young age. Sometime in the middle of fourth grade, I stopped ___________. By the time I was in seventh grade, I was your ____________ degenerate (颓废): lazy, rebellious, and disrespectful. I had lost all social ____________. I terminally (不可救药的) followed, what was fashionable.
Not long after that, I dropped out of school and ____________ my downward spiral. Hard physical labor was the ____________ for the choices I made as an adolescent. At the age of twenty-one, I was ___________ lost and using drugs as a way to deal with the fact that I was uneducated and ___________ in a dead-end job carrying roof materials up a ladder all day.
But now I believe in do-overs, in the __________ to do it all again. And I believe that do-overs can be made at any point in your life, if you have the right __________. Mine came from a ____________ source.
It was September 21, 2002, when my son Blake was born. It's funny that after a life of __________ responsibility, now I was in charge of something so __________. Over the years, as I grew into the title of Dad, I began to learn something about myself. ____________, Blake and I were both learning to walk, talk, work, and play for the first time. I began my do-over.
It took me almost three years to learn ____________ to read. I started with my son's books. Over and over, I practiced reading books to him ____________ I remembered all the words in every one of them. I began to wonder if it was possible for me to go back to school. I knew I wanted to be a good role model, ___________ after a year-and-a-half and a lot of hard work, I passed my GED test on my son's fourth birthday. This may not sound like ____________, and I am not trying to get praise for doing something that should have been done in the first place, but all things considered it was one of the ___________ days in my life. Today, I am a full-time college student, studying to become a sociologist.
Growing up, I ____________ heard these great turn-around stories of triumph over shortcomings. But I never thought they applied to me. Now I believe it is a (an) ____________ anyone can make: To do it all over again.
1.A. playing B. dreaming C. schooling D. trying
2.A. normal B. typical C. apparent D. ordinary
3.A. graces B. directions C. positions D. occupations
4.A. started B. expanded C. continued D. prevented
5.A. consequence B. destruction C. entertainment D. reward
6.A. willingly B. hopelessly C. desperately D. reluctantly
7.A. stuck B. buried C. trained D. spoiled
8.A. ambition B. purpose C. interest D. chance
9.A. advice B. goal C. schedule D. motivation
10.A. confusing B. surprising C. frightening D. upsetting
11.A. sharing B. shouldering C. avoiding D. recognizing
12.A. fragile B. brilliant C. plain D. sensitive
13.A. On the contrary B. On the whole C. In a way D. In a word
14.A. what B. why C. when D. how
15.A. until B. unless C. if D. after
16.A. yet B. so C. for D. or
17.A. much B. enough C. nothing D. something
18.A. funny B. boring C. best D. worst
19.A. seldom B. directly C. immediately D. always
20.A. choice B. assumption C. contribution D. adjustment
When people have a choice of whom to work with, likability can sometimes matter a little bit; more than ability, said Tiziana Casciaro, an associate professor at the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management，who researches likability in the workplace. 1. . These strategies can help：
2.
You can induce a sense of similarity with almost anybody by finding things you have in common. They may not be apparent right away, so be observant. Great salespeople do this all the time by studying potential customers for bits and pieces of their lives they can relate to.
Like someone and they’ll like you right back
3. Flattery (奉承）can convey fondness, but she doesn’t recommend using the fake kind, even though it may work. Casciaro said, u Flattery' that is completely made up is exhausting and morally blameworthy. w Instead, let a praise come from a real place. 4. For instance, “I really appreciate what you did yesterday.”
When you give people praises, it goes a very long way towards their liking you back.
Be a familiar presence
Humans like things that are familiar, so just seeing you around in person makes you more likable to others. “This concept gives a whole new meaning to the idea of face time,” Casciaro said. 5. If not, just try to talk to people as much as possible in person during work hours, she advised You want to maximize rich interactions and cut down on the drier ones, like texts and phone calls. Be sure to be seen.
A. Ask a lot of questions.
B. See the positive in a person and express it to him.
C. People like to guess what others think about them.
D. What can you do to increase your chances of being liked?
E. Find the common points that link you with another person.
F. It’s almost irresistible that we like people who seem to like us.
G. Go to after-work drinks if you have time and you would find the outing enjoyable.
A long-term American study shows the importance of early education for poor children. The study is known as the Abecedarian Project. It involved more than one-hundred young children from poor families in North Carolina.
Half of the children attended an all-day program at a high-quality child-care center. The center offered educational, health and social programs. Children took part in games and activities to increase their thinking and language skills and social and emotional development. The program also included health foods for the children.
The children attended the program from when they were a few weeks old until the age of five years. The other group of children did not attend the child-care center. After the age of five, both groups attended public school.
Researchers compared the two groups of children. When they were babies, both groups had similar results in tests for mental and physical skills. However, from the age of eighteen months, the children in the educational child-care program did much better in tests.
The researchers tested the children again when they were twelve and fifteen years old. The tests found that the children who had been in the child-care center continued to have higher average test results. These children did much better on tests of reading and mathematics.
A few years ago, organizers of the Abecedarian Project tested the students again. At the time, each student was twenty-one years old. They were tested for thinking and educational ability, employment, parenting and social skills. The researchers found that the young adults who had the early education still did better in reading and mathematics tests. They were more than two times as likely to be attending college or to have completed college. In addition, the children who received early education were older on average, when their first child was born.
The study offers more evidence that learning during the first months and years of life is important for all later development.
The researchers of the Abecedarian Project believe their study shows a need for lawmakers to spend money on public early education. They believe these kinds of programs could reduce the number of children who do not complete school and are unemployed.
1.The Abecedarian Project has lasted _____.
A. almost one year
B. about five years
C. more than 20 years
D. no more than 15 years
2.Those who had been in the child-care center _____ compared with those who hadn't.
A. have their children at later ages
B. get more help from other people
C. have no parenting or social skills
D. are poorer at reading and mathematics
3.What don't we know about the Abecedarian Project after reading the text?
A. What the children learned at the child-care center.
B. How important early education is for poor children.
C. How many children are involved in the Abecedarian Project.
D. Whether lawmakers will spend money on public early education.
A good teacher is many things to many people. In my own experience, the people I respect the most and think about the most are the teachers who demanded the most discipline (纪律) from their students.
I miss one teacher in particular that I had in high school. I think she was a good teacher because she was a very strict person. I remember very clearly a sign on her classroom door. It was a simple sign that said, "Laboratory: in this room the first five letters of the word was stressed not the last seven." In other words, labor for her was more important than oratory, which means making speeches.
She prepared her work very carefully and told us to do the same. We got lots of homework from her. Once she had broken her arm, and everybody in the class thought that maybe the homework load would be reduced, but it continued just the same. She checked our work by stamping her name at the bottom of the papers to show that she had read them.
I think sometimes teachers who demand the most are liked the least. But as time goes by, this discipline really seems to benefit the students.
1.Which of the following is considered a good teacher by the writer?
A. A patient teacher.
B. An honest teacher.
C. A strict teacher.
D. An easy-going teacher.
2.When the teacher's arm was broken, she _____.
A. gave her students the usual amount of homework
B. gave her students less homework
C. asked her students to check the homework themselves
D. gave her students more homework
3.What's the writer's opinion of discipline?
A. It makes the students dislike their teachers.
B. It does good to the students in the long run.
C. It's too much for young children.
D. It does more harm than good to the students.
4.What's the Chinese for the underlined word "oratory"?
A. 演讲 B. 讲稿
C. 访谈 D. 采访
My dad loved pennies, especially those with the elegant stalk of wheat curving around each side of the ONE CENT on the back. Those were the pennies he grew up with during the Depression (大萧条).
As a kid, I would go for walks with Dad, spying coins along the way—a penny here, a dime (一角硬币) there. Whenever I picked up a penny, he'd ask, "Is it a wheat?" It always thrilled him when we found one of those special coins produced between 1909 and 1958, the year of my birth.
One gray Sunday morning in winter, not long after my father's death in 2002, I was walking down Fifth Avenue, feeling bereft. I found myself in front of the church where Dad once worked. I was warmly shown in and led to a seat. Hearing Dad's favorite "A Mighty Fortress Is Our God", I burst into tears. We'd sung that at his funeral. After the service, I shook the pastor's hand and stepped onto the sidewalk—and there was a penny. I bent to pick it up, turned it over, and sure enough, it was a wheat. A 1944, a year my father was serving on a ship in the South Pacific.
That started it. Suddenly wheat pennies began turning up on the sidewalks of New York everywhere. I got most of the important years: his birth year, my mom's birth year, the year he graduated from college, the year he met my mom, the year they got married, the year my sister was born. But alas, no 1958 wheat penny—my year, the last year they were made.
The next Sunday, after the service, I was walking up Fifth Avenue and spotted a penny in the middle of a crossing. Oh, no, it was a busy street; cabs were speeding by—should I risk it? I just had to get it.
A wheat! But the penny was worn, and I couldn't read the date. On arriving home, I took out my glasses and took it to the light. There was my birthday!
I found 21 wheat pennies on the streets of Manhattan in the year after my father died, and I don't think that's a coincidence.
1.The writer's father loved pennies with wheat because _____.
A. when he first saw it, he began to love it
B. when he saw the wheat, he thought of his time during the Depression
C. when he was young, he had a lot of pennies with wheat
D. when he was a child, he never got a coin with wheat
2.The underlined word "bereft" (in Para.3) means _____.
A. alone
B. disappointed
C. upset
D. discouraged
3.Which of the following statements about the author is NOT true?
A. He was born in 1958.
B. He went to church because of his father.
C. He once worked in a church.
D. He knew the church well.
4.The best title for the passage would be _____.
A. My father's life story
B. Pennies from Heaven
C. My father's hobby
D. Living in New York
假设你是李华，你的好友Peter今天上午来你家找你陪他练习汉语口语。你因临时有急事外出，让他扑了个空。请根据以上情景，给Peter写一封信。内容如下：
1. 表示歉意；
2. 解释具体原因，并希望他能谅解；
3. 告诉他下次练习的时间、地点及话题。
注意：1.词数100左右；
2. 可适当增加细节，以使行文连贯；
3. 书信的开头和结尾已给出，不计入总词数。
Dear Peter,
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Yours,
Li Hua
