Kasey Kaczmarek: When I read “Would my dad love me?” by Martha, I related to how Martha felt about her father. I always wondered if my dad cared about me, or if he even loved me. All the kids would be with their dads and they would ask me where my dad was, and I would tell them that he was out of town. For all you kids who have a dad, tell him how much you love him because there are plenty of kids who would love to have a dad.
Armen Abidian: This article describes everything about me and my life. When I was about 3 years old, my mother and father had a big argument and got divorced. Now I’m 13 years old and I haven’t seen my father for 10 years. Just like Martha, I don’t know what he looks like now, whether or not he’s got married to a different woman, or if he has another child.
Emma Ramirez: When Martha talked about how “most girls have dads who take them to their practices, buy them things and play with them”, I thought I was one of those girls. I never stopped to think about how there are girls who have always dreamed of having those things but don’t have a father. After reading what Martha wrote, I told myself I would always appreciate the days I spend with my dad because I am very lucky to have a dad who does so much for me.
Stephanie Felix: This article reminded me of how much I missed my dad when I was younger. I really relate to this article because I used to always wonder about my dad, but not any more. Life without my father has made me more independent and responsible. By reading this article I remember all of this and I was able to understand what the writer was talking about.
【小题1】The above four passages are most probably_______.

You are given many opportunities in life to choose to be a victim or creator. When you choose to be a victim, the world is a cold and difficult place. “They” did things to you which caused all of your pain and suffering. “They” are wrong and bad, and life is terrible as long as “they” are around. Or you may blame yourself for all your problems, thus internalizing(内化)your victimization. The truth is, your life is likely to stay that way as long as you feel a need to blame yourself or others.
　　Those who choose to be creators look at life quite differently. They know there are individuals who might like to control their lives, but they don’t let this get in the way. They know they have their weaknesses, yet they don’t blame themselves when they fail. Whatever happens, they have choice in the matter. They believe their dance with each sacred(神圣的)moment of life is a gift and that storms are a natural part of life which can bring the rain needed for emotional and spiritual growth.
　　Victims and creators live in the same physical world and deal with many of the same physical realities, yet their experience of life is worlds apart. Victims relish (沉溺)in anger, guilt, and other emotions that cause others---and even themselves---to feel like victims, too. Creators consciously choose love, inspiration, and other qualities which inspire not only themselves, but all around them. Both victims and creators always have choice to determine the direction of their lives.
　　In reality, all of us play the victim or the creator at various points in our lives. One person, on losing a job or a special relationship, may feel as if it is the end of the world and sink into terrible suffering for months, years, or even a lifetime. Another with the same experience may choose to first experience the grief, then accept the loss and soon move on to be a powerful creative force in his life.
　　In every moment and every circumstance, you can choose to have a fuller, richer life by setting a clear intention to transform the victim within, and by inviting into your life the powerful creator that you are.
【小题1】What does the word “They” in Paragraph 1 probably refer to?

Friendship can deeply affect the physical and mental health of both men and women. Studies show that people who have no friends or who are lonely, are more likely to die earlier, get sick more often and suffer greater physical wear and tear(折磨）than those who have a support system of friends.
Sometimes, family members may be more likely to give you advice or tell you what you don't want to hear. It may not be as good as a friend who will listen to you and guide you, but support your decisions anyway. The most important elements about friendship are those who suffer support and do not judge your decisions based on society.
One reason for the link between social support and good health practice seems to be that people who feel cared for by others are less stress-out and protected against the symptoms(症状）of depression and loneliness.
Generally, women benefit most because of how they deal with stress. Women are more social in how they deal with stress than men while men are more likely to have a "fight or flight” reaction. Women also tend to have larger, denser social network, in which more people know each other and help each other, while men typically have smaller groups of friends and will rely on their wives or other important people for more support. While all these affect people psychologically (心理上）_, friendship brings comfort that reduces the ill effects of stress, and the sex difference also contributes to the differ­ence in the length of one's life time.
【小题1】In the author's opinion, a real friend should          .

Have you ever hated anyone? Well, probably you don’t really hate them. But you do get angry the moment you think of them. If you don’t get out of the anger, it may turn into bitterness(积怨).
Bitterness can come about when we can’t forgive someone who has hurt us or made us angry. Someone might say or do something that hurts us. But we keep it deep inside instead of working through the anger. Before long, a bitter feeling begins to grow. The bitterness shows when we constantly criticize the one who hurt us. We may think we are hurting that person, but we are really only hurting ourselves.
Bitterness is a harmful emotion that affects the whole body. It can lead to serious health problems such as high blood pressure. Bitterness can stop us from concentrating on important things. Instead, we waste time thinking about how we have been hurt.
Finally, holding on to bitterness can hurt our relationships with friends and family members. No one enjoys being around an angry, negative person for very long.
Author Chuck Swindoll once said, “ Life is 10% what happens to us and 90% how we respond to it.” That means when someone hurts you, your response is more important than what happened. You can choose to let go of hurt. You can also choose to hold on to hurt, which results in bitterness.
If you see bitterness in your life, here are some ways to deal with it.
Stop making excuses for it.
You may feel you have a fight to be angry. You may even secretly enjoy making the other person look sad. But in the end, bitterness hurts you much more than the other person.
Forgive and forget it.
The best thing you can do is to forgive and forget. You probably can’t totally put the act out of your mind. But you can decide to forgive the other person. Let it go and move on. You’ll enjoy better health and peace of mind.
【小题1】If we don’t release anger, _____ .

[1]All people have dreams and they obey the rule that if you can dream it, you can achieve it! Here are four goals for people to reach a perfect life in their future.
[2]The first goal common to all of us in health and energy. We all want to be healthy and fit, to have high levels of energy and to live free of pain and illness. Today, with the incredible advances in medical science, the quality of our health and fitness, and our lifespan, is largely determined by design, not by chance. People with excellent health habits are far healthier, have more energy, and live longer and better than people who have poor health habits. Remember that health is not everything, but without health everything is nothing!
[3]The second goal that we all have in common is to enjoy excellent relationships – intimate, personal or social – with the people we like and respect, and who                         is turn. Fully 85% of your happiness will be determined by the quality of your relationships at each stage, and in each area, of your life. How well you get along with people, and how much they     , have more impact on the quality of your life than perhaps any other factor.
The third common goal is to do work that we enjoy, to do it well, and to be well paid for it. You want to be able to get and keep the job you want, to get paid more and promoted faster. You want to earn the very most that is possible for you at each stage of your career, whatever you do.
The fourth goal we all have in common is to achieve financial independence. You want to reach the point in life where you have enough money so that you never have any financial worries. You want to be completely free of them. You want to be able to order dinner in a restaurant without referring to the price listing to determine what you want to eat.
【小题1】What does this passage chiefly talk about? (no more than 12 words)
【小题2】Fill in the blank in Paragraph 3 with proper words. (no more than 6 words), and who                     is turn
【小题3】Complete the following sentence with proper words according to Paragraph 4? (no more than 6 words)
Everybody wants to make                no matter what job he is engaged in.
【小题4】Why does the author put health ahead of other goals? (no more than 20 words)
【小题5】What does the underlined word “them” in the last paragraph probably refer to? (no more than 3 words)
                                                      

Minimalism (简约主义) is a term that describes movements in various forms of art and design, especially visual art and music, where the work is reduced to its most basic features.
As for me, minimalism functions well not in art or design, but in my daily life.
When I was packing for university, I found it extremely difficult to let go of some of the things I owned. I knew I couldn’t take everything with me, but I kept asking myself “how could I possibly throw this away?”, “what if I need it one day?”, and “what about all of the memories?” Now that I’ve moved, and left that stuff behind, I don’t even miss it. Whether or not I got rid of it, it barely makes a bit of difference to me now.
I’ve learned that over time people forget, or their need for a particular object eventually disappears. Either they store it away or they get rid of it.
You might think nostalgically（怀旧的） about the toys you cared about when you were a child, but what is making you smile now is not the thing itself but the memory of it. 1’ve heard it a hundred times, “you don’t need things to make you happy.” It takes something life-changing like moving across the country to realize how true this is.
Speaking of which, for a lot of people, minimalism is about able to move. It’s about being able to go almost anywhere at any time because you don’t have many possessions to carry. When you keep things you don’t need they become a burden that ties you to a place. Moving to university was a good time to let go of a lot of stuff. And when I visit for the holidays, I’ll probably get rid of even more, to lighten the burden.
Of course there are exceptions. There are some things that are irreplaceable, very rare or expensive or we simply love and cherish for some reason or another, since we are humans. But after we keep those, how much is left that we don’t really need?
Hence, minimalism. And why does minimalism bring happiness? That was a bit of a roundabout way of saying that, it’s because what really makes me happy is freedom. And the key to freedom is minimalism because minimalism reduces our attachment to things.
Attachment to too many objects creates a great mess and can severely hold back our freedom to do whatever we want, while minimalism helps us start new projects, move, travel, learn new things, work, expand, be debt-free, be healthy – really living life to our full potential.
I left the nest to fly onwards and upwards, I can’t do it with old things weighing me down. And that is why I have adopted minimalism with open arms.
【小题1】In paragraph l, the writer gives the definition of minimalism to      .

When I was learning calligraphy my teacher told me a story.
A calligrapher taught handwriting. One of his students who often practised handwriting with old sheets of newspapers complained that he made very little progress though he had learned it with the calligrapher for a long time. His teacher said to him, “Try to use the best paper. Maybe you’ll write better. ”
　The student did as he was told. It really worked. He made headway not long afterwards and felt curious. He asked his teacher about the reason. The calligrapher answered, “When you used old newspapers to practice handwriting，you would think you were writing a draft（草稿）.  It didn’t matter if you wrote badly as old newspapers were plenty in supply. In that case you wouldn’t pay much attention to it. Now you use the best paper you’ll treasure it. Each time you write you feel strongly about the rarity (稀少) of chances and you’ll devote to it with all your heart and soul; you’ll do the handwriting much more attentively than otherwise practising it. Of course you’ve made rapid progress.”
Indeed，we spend our ordinary days just as they are worthless “old newspapers”. We don’t care if we scrawl and waste them, thinking that they will come endlessly --- those “old newspapers” are inexhaustible. In such a mood we may each day pass by opportunities but fail to catch any of them.
Life is not a military exercise but an actual war in which real weapons are used. In everyday life there’s no chance for us to draw a draft. That’s because what we call “draft” actually is the answer sheet we write that cannot be changed. Every day of our life is something new. Let us take every day as a sheet of best paper.
【小题1】The calligrapher in the story told the student to write on the best paper because he thought _______.

Childhood is a time （1）_____ there are few responsibilities to make life difficult. If a child has good parents, he is fed, looked after and loved, whatever he may do.  (2)_____ is impossible that he will ever again in his life (3)________(give) so much without having to do anything in return. But a child hashis pains; he is not so free to do (4) _____he wishes to; he is continually being told not to do something, or being punished (5)_____ what he has done wrong.
When the child has become a young man and this young man starts to earn his own living, he can no longer expect others to pay for his food, his clothes, and his room, but has to work on his own if he wants to live (6)________ (comfort). If he spends most of his time (7) ________(play) about in the way that he used to as a child, he will go (8)________ (hunger). If, however, he works hard, (9)________(keep) out of trouble and has good health, he can have the great happiness of building up for himself his own position in (10)________ (social).

“Linda, if beating yourself up were an Olympic sport, you’d win a gold medal!”
Annabel, my close friend, stunned（使…震惊）me with that frank observation after I told her how I had mishandled a situation with a student in a third-grade class where I was substituting（代替）. “I should never have let him go to the boy’s room without a pass! It was my fault he got into trouble with the hall monitor! I’m so stupid!”
My friend burst out laughing, and then made her “Olympic” comment. After a brief period of reflection I had to admit that she was right. I did put myself down an awful lot. Why, just during the previous day I had called myself “a slob” for having some papers spread out on my desk, “ugly” when I left the house without makeup and “an idiot” when I left the house for an emergency substitute job without my emergency lesson plan.
In a more reflective tone, Annabel said, “I once took a workshop at church where the woman in charge had us list all the mean things we say about ourselves.”
“How many did you have on your list?” I asked.
“Fifteen,” she confessed. “But then the teacher said, ‘Now turn to the person next to you and say all the items on your list as if you were speaking to that person!’ ”
My jaw dropped，“What did you do?”
“Nothing. Nobody did. We all just sat there, until I said, ‘I could never say these things to anyone else!’ ”
“And our teacher replied, ‘Well, if you can’t say them to anyone else, then don’t ever say them to yourself!’ ”
My friend had a point. I would never insult a child of God---and I’m God’s child, too!
God, today let me be as kind to myself as I would be to another of Your children.
【小题1】What does Annabel mean by the first sentence of the passage?

I’ve often had difficulty remembering names. Proper nouns seldom found easy purchase in my brain unless I consciously repeat them over and over again. Needless to say, when people leave my life their names are often soon forgotten. This can have some embarrassing consequences.
Five or six years after high school graduation, I was reading carefully the shelves of a local auto supply shop when I noticed someone familiar enter the store. I knew him. He was in my graduation class and although he was not a good friend of mine, we had shared many classes and knew each other well. I began to feel an increasing sense of foreboding（预感）and quickly hid behind the nearest shelving unit. I should have known his name. How many times had I heard it during class role call? How many conversations had we had in the hallways?
I easily remembered his surname, “Ricca”. His was a large, well know family in the town of my childhood. I couldn’t have just acknowledged him using his surname. I might as well have admitted forgetting his name, which was not a choice. One’s name is important to every person’s identity. Not remembering an old acquaintance’s name is similar to forgetting your wife’s favourite flower, an embarrassing mistake of the highest order.
I quickly ran through the alphabet (字母表), a strategy I developed for just such an occasion. Abe? No, Adam, Andy, Bob? No, Bill? Yes! Bill sounded right. Of course, his name is Bill. I confidently made my way around the shelves and spoke to him as he was studying some cans of motor oil.
“Bill, how are you doing?”, I said offering him my hand which he took with a friendly shake. We talked a bit, some amusing remarks about our college experiences and such. I took his hand again, said how good it was to see him and gave him a happy wave, calling him by name again, as I left.
I was so pleased that I avoided yet another awkward encounter(相遇) that I could feel a big smile on my face as I paid the cashier and exited the store. As I marched merrily across the parking lot, an awful thought came into my mind. John, his name is John! Where did Bill come from? Was that one of my brothers? The sudden realization of what I did made me stop in my tracks. My head dropped when I realized my mistake. There was no way Mrs. Ricca would name one of her sons “Bill”. “Billerica” was the name of a town just north of Boston.
【小题1】Which one can show the charge of the writer’s feelings?
a. guilty   b. anxious   c. embarrassed   d. happy   e sure