America is a mobile society. Friendships between Americans can be close and real, yet disappear soon if situations change. Neither side feels hurt by this. Both may exchange Christmas greetings for a year or two, perhaps a few letters for a while — then no more. If the same two people meet again by chance, even years later, they pick up the friendship. This can be quite difficult for us Chinese to understand, because friendships between us flower more slowly but then may become lifelong feelings, extending (延伸) sometimes deeply into both families.  Americans are ready to receive us foreigners at their homes, share their holidays, and their home life. They will enjoy welcoming us and be pleased if we accept their hospitality (好客) easily.  Another difficult point for us Chinese to understand Americans is that although they include us warmly in their personal everyday lives, they don’t show their politeness to us if it requires a great deal of time. This is usually the opposite of the practice in our country where we may be generous with our time. Sometimes, we, as hosts, will appear at airports even in the middle of the night to meet a friend. We may take days off to act as guides to our foreign friends. The Americans, however, express their welcome usually at homes, but truly can not manage the time to do a great deal with a visitor outside their daily routine. They will probably expect us to get ourselves from the airport to our own hotel by bus. And they expect that we will phone them from there. Once we arrive at their homes, the welcome will be full, warm and real. We will find ourselves treated hospitably.  For the Americans, it is often considered more friendly to invite a friend to their homes than to go to restaurants, except for purely business matters. So accept their hospitality at home!

1.The writer of this passage must be ______.

A．an American

B．a Chinese

C．a professor

D．a student

2.Which of the following statements is TRUE according to the passage?

A．Friendships between Americans usually extend deeply into their families.

B．Friendships between Americans usually last for all their lives.

C．Americans always show their warmth even if they are very busy.

D．Americans will continue their friendships again even after a long break.

3.From the last two paragraphs we can learn that when we arrive in America to visit an American friend, we will probably be ______.

A．warmly welcomed at the airport

B．offered a ride to his home

C．treated hospitably at his home

D．treated to dinner in a restaurant

4.The underlined words  “generous with our time” in Paragraph 3 probably mean ______.

A．strict with time	B．serious with time
C．careful with time	D．willing to spend time

5.A suitable title for this passage would probably be “______”. 

A．Friendships between Chinese

B．Friendships between Americans

C．Americans’ hospitality

D．Americans’ and Chinese’s views of friendships

 

C

Perhaps you have a big test coming up and you are feeling nervous. You know you have got to do well. The pressure is on, so you may be losing sleep and the ability to concentrate. How can you deal with the stress, study effectively, and take the test with confidence? Maybe you should try meditation（沉思）.

When people think about meditation, many pictures of old men’s sitting cross-legged on remote mountaintops will appear in mind. People describing meditation frequently mention elements such as relaxation and “thinking about nothing”.

It is not necessary to travel to a mountaintop to enjoy the benefits of meditation because it is actually more about awareness than just relaxation. The secret of meditation is breathing.

To star meditating, find a place where you can sit or stand comfortably for a little while and concentrate. Close your eyes and start taking slow breaths. Focus on the air moving in and out of your body. If your mind starts to wander and you begin to think about something else, refocus your attention on your breathing.

Meditation has little to do with escaping problems or thinking about nothing. Instead, the breathing techniques help you calm down and think more clearly about your feelings. The issues on your mind unfold clearly, as if they were in slow motion.

This clarity（清晰）is called “mindfulness”. Being mindful means that you are aware of what you are thinking without becoming caught up in your thoughts. It takes practice, but with time, that big test will not scare you anymore. You will realize through meditation that fear is just a product of not being mindful.

64． What is the best way to reduce the pressure if one faces a big test?

A. To climb up to the top of a mountain for a rest.

B. To sit on the top of a mountain without thinking anything.

C. To sit or stand comfortable and begin to meditate.

D. To sit quietly with one’s legs crossed.

65． What should a person do if his mind begins to wander while meditating?

A. Stop meditating.

B. Concentrate on breathing again.

C. Involve himself in his thoughts.

D. Close eyes immediately.

66． From the passage we can learn that by practicing meditation we’ll__________.

A. not be stuck in our thoughts

B. pass the examinations easily

C. realize fear is a product of too much thought

D. never be afraid of big tests

67． From the passage we can know the writer’s purpose is to let the readers know__________

A. how to deal with the stress before a big test

B. what is meditation

C. how a big test scares the students

D. where is the best place to relax

 

How many times have you gotten upset because someone wasn’t doing their job, because your child isn’t behaving？How many times have you been annoyed when you’ve planned something carefully and things didn’t go as you’d hoped?
This kind of anger and irritation happens to all of us — it’s part of the human experience.
One thing that annoys me is when people talk during a movie. Or cut me off in traffic. Actually, I have a lot of these little annoyances — don’t we all? And it isn’t always easy to find peace when you’ve become upset or annoyed.
Let me tell you a little secret to finding peace of mind: see the glass as already broken.
See, the cause of our stress, anger and irritation is that things don’t go the way we like, the way we expect them to. Think of how many times this has been true for you. And so the solution is simple: expect things to go wrong, expect things to be different than we hoped or planned, expect the unexpected to happen. And accept it.
One quick example: on our recent trip to Japan, I told my kids to expect things to go wrong — they always do on a trip. I told them, “See it as part of the adventure.”
And this worked like a charm. When we took the wrong train on a foreign-language subway system, or when it rained on the day we went to Disney Sea, or when we took three trains and walked 10 blocks only to find the National Children’s Castle closed on Mondays … they said, “It’s part of the adventure!” And it was all OK — we didn’t get too bothered.
So when the nice glass you bought inevitably falls and breaks, someday, you might get upset. But not if you see the glass as already broken, from the day you get it. You know it’ll break someday, so from the beginning, see it as already broken. Be a time-traveler, or someone with time-traveling vision, and see the future of this glass, from this moment until it inevitably breaks. And when it breaks, you won’t be upset or sad — because it was already broken, from the day you got it. And you’ll realize that every moment you have with it is precious.
【小题1】The author would probably agree that________.

A．we should control our anger and irritation

B．we must get well prepared for the future

C．optimism can help us overcome our anger and irritation

D．anger and irritation is an important part of our life

【小题2】The purpose of the author is to ___________.

A．tell us his own experience in life

B．give advice on how to find peace of mind

C．tell us a happy trip took with his children

D．advise us to see things from both sides

【小题3】By the underlined part, the author intends us to _____________.

A．get ready for the worst result of things

B．enjoy the process of things

C．expect little from life

D．find the relation between cause and effect

【小题4】The author’s children could enjoy their trip to Japan because _____________.

A．everything went smoothly

B．they had a lot of adventures

C．they had expected things to go wrong

D．they could soon get used to the customs there

【小题5】We can learn from the passage that the author ____________.

A．often gets angry in his life

B．can adjust his state of mind accordingly

C．always expects others to act in his way

D．has suffered a lot from his anger and irritation

Over the last 70 years, researchers have been studying happy and unhappy people and finally found out ten factors that make a difference. Our feelings of well-being at any moment are determined to a certain degree by genes. However, of all the factors, wealth and age are the top two.

Money can buy a degree of happiness. But once you can afford to feed, clothe and house yourself, each extra dollar makes less and less difference.

Researchers find that, on average, wealthier people are happier. But the link between money and happiness is complex. In the past half-century, average income has sharply increased in developed countries, yet happiness levels have remained almost the same. Once your basic needs are met, money only seems to increase happiness if you have more than your friends, neighbors and colleagues.

“Dollars buy status, and status makes people feel better,” conclude some experts, which helps explain why people who can seek status in other ways－scientists or actors, for example－may happily accept relatively poorly-paid jobs.

In a research, Professor Alex Michalos found that the people whose desire－not just for money, but for friends, family, job, health－rose furthest beyond what they already had, tended to be less happy than those who felt a smaller gap(差距). Indeed, the size of the gap predicted happiness about five times better than income alone. “The gap measures just blow away the only measures of income.” Says Michalos.

Another factor that has to do with happiness is age. Old age may not be so bad. “Given all the problems of aging, how could the elderly be more satisfied?” asks Professor Laura Carstensen.

In one survey, Carstensen interviewed 184 people between the ages of 18 and 94, and asked them to fill out an emotions questionnaire. She found that old people reported positive emotions just as often as young people, but negative emotions much less often.

Why are old people happier? Some scientists suggest older people may expect life to be harder and learn to live with it, or they’re more realistic about their goals, only setting ones that they know they can achieve. But Carstensen thinks that with time running out, older people have learned to focus on things that make them happy and let go of those that don’t.

“People realize not only what they have, but also that what they have cannot last forever,” she says. “A goodbye kiss to a husband or wife at the age of 85, for example, may bring far more complex emotional responses than a similar kiss to a boy or girl friend at the age of 20.”

1.According to the passage, the feeling of happiness __________.

A．has little to do with wealth                B．increases gradually with age

C．is determined partly by genes              D．is measured by desires

2.Some actors would like to accept poorly-paid jobs because the jobs ____________.

A．make them feel much better               B．improve their social position

C．provide chances to make friends            D．satisfy their professional interests

3.Aged people are more likely to feel happy because they are more _________.

A．optimistic         B．successful         C．practical          D．emotional

4.Professor Alex Michalos found that people feel less happy if __________.

A．the gap between reality and desire is bigger

B．they have a stronger desire for friendship

C．their income is below their expectation

D．the hope for good health is greater

 

Traditions and fashions, like society itself, change and         with time.

A、adopt     B、 adapt      C、adapting      D、fited