If you know exactly what you want, the best way to get a job is to get specialized training．A recent report shows that companies like graduates in such fields as business and health care who can go to work immediately with very little on-the-job training．

    That’s especially true of booming fields that are challenging for workers．At Cornell's School of Hotel Administration, for example, bachelor's degree graduates get an average of four or five job offers with salaries ranging from the high teens to the low 20s and plenty of chances for rapid advancement．Large companies especially like a background of formal education coupled with work experience．But in the long run, too much specialization does not pay off．Business, which has been flooded with MBAs, no longer considers the degree an automatic stamp of approval．The MBA may open doors and command a higher salary initially, but the impact of a degree washes out after five years．

       As further evidence of the corporate faith in specialized degrees, Michigan State’s Scheetz cites a pattern in corporate hiring practices．Although companies tend to take on specialists as new hires, they often seek out generalists for middle and upper-level management．This sounds like a formal statement that you approve of the liberal-arts（文科） graduate．Time and again labor-market analysts mention a need for talents that liberal-arts majors are assumed to have: writing and communication skills, organizational skills, open-mindedness and adaptability, and the ability to analyze and solve problems．David Birch, manager of the Boston Red Sox, says that he does not hire anybody with an MBA or an engineering degree．“I hire only liberal-arts people because they have a less-than-canned way of doing things,” says Birch．

       For a liberal – arts degree, students focus on some basic courses that include literature history, mathematics, economics, science, human behavior and a computer course or two．With these useful and important courses, you can feel free to specialize, “A liberal-arts degree coupled with an MBA or some other technical training is a very good combination in the marketplace,” says Scheetz．

The job market is in great need of people with          ．

       A．special training in special fields          B．a bachelor’s degree in education

       C．formal schooling and work experience   D．an MBA degree from top universities

The underlined sentence in Paragraph 2 means         ．

       A．an MBA degree does not help in future promotion

       B．MBA programs will not be as popular as they are now

       C．people will not forget the degree the MBA graduates have got

       D．most MBA programs fail to provide students with a foundation

David Birch says that he only hires liberal – arts people because          ．

       A．they will follow others’ ways of solving problems

       B．they can do better in handling changing situations

       C．they are well trained in a variety of specialized fields

       D．they have attended special programs in management

The author supports the idea that          ．

       A．on – the – job training is less costly in the long run

       B．formal schooling is less important than job training

       C．specialists are more expensive to hire than generalists

       D．generalists will do better than specialists in management

Fear can be a wonderful feeling in our lives, protecting us from dangerous situations and keeping us safe. But fear can also limit our lives significantly. While it may not be conscious, fear may make us think we are unacceptable or that what we have to offer isn’t valuable. Fear may make us feel that we are not safe being ourselves.

To avoid feeling fear, we may limit our lives greatly, living in tiny boxes. Living this way gives us the illusion(假象) of safety but leaves us with an unfulfilling life of no passion. If we shine a light on many of our fears, we see they have a very limited view of what is “safe” and how to “protect” us. Many of our fears are concerned only with protecting us from humiliation(羞辱) and failure. While these fears are doing their jobs incredibly well, they are doing so with faulty and outdated programming. Many fears we have as adults are trying to protect us as they protected us when we were children. Indeed, many of our current, automatic reactions to fear were actually formed when we were children.

Even so, it’s important not to judge ourselves for feeling these types of fears. If we judge ourselves, we will bury our fears or disguise them. By denying our fears, however, we also deny our energy, creativity and passion.

So what do we do with fear? We recognize the fear for what it is--- a feeling we’ve experienced many times in the past and a feeling we will experience many times in the future. We become very familiar with our own particular brand of fears and how we allow them to control our lives. It is especially beneficial for each of us to become aware of the particular behavior patterns we’ve adopted when we feel fear, so we can look at our reactions with a sense of humor and compassion. Then, if we wish, we can choose a different response, which can be a scary yet very exciting experience.

1.According to the first paragraph, fear sometimes      .

A．protect us when we’ve made mistakes

B．makes sure our feelings are not hurt

C．brings great change to our everyday life

D．makes us lose confidence in ourselves

2.It can be inferred from the passage that the author   .

A．thinks it difficult to control our fear

B．believes fears protect us negatively

C．thinks it’s good to criticize ourselves

D．values the advantages of feeling fear

3.According to the author, the ways we react to fear      .

A．vary from person to person

B．have been formed since childhood

C．develop during our growth

D．will not change until we get old

4.The last paragraph mainly tells us      .

A．what is the essence of fears

B．usual reactions we have when feeling fear

C．how to deal with fears reasonably

D．the importance of humor and compassion

5.What would be the best title for the passage?

A．Is fear managing your life?

B．Be calm when feeling fear

C．What do you fear most?

D．Passion, chance and fear

 

Long bus rides are like television shows. They have a beginning, a middle, and an end with commercials thrown in every three or four minutes. The commercials are unavoidable. They happen whether you want them or not. Every couple of minutes a billboard glides by outside the bus window. "Buy Super Clean Toothpaste.” Drink Good Wet Root Beer.” Fill up with Pacific Gas.” Only if you sleep, which is equal to turning the television set off, are you spared the unending cry of "You Need It! Buy It Now!"

The beginning of the ride is comfortable and somewhat exciting, even if you’ve traveled that way before. Usually some things have changed new houses, new buildings, sometimes even a new road. The bus driver has a style of driving and it’s fun to try to figure it out the first hour or so. If the driver is particularly reckless （鲁莽的） or daring, the ride can be as thrilling （惊心动魄的） as a suspense story. Will the driver pass the truck in time? Will the driver move into the right or the left hand lane? After a while, of course, the excitement dies down. Sleeping for a while helps pass the middle hours of the ride. Food always makes bus rides more interesting. But you’ve got to be careful of what kind of food you eat. Too much salty food can make you very thirsty between stops.

The end of the ride is somewhat like the beginning. You know it will soon be over and there’s a kind of expectation and excitement in that. The seat of course, has become harder as the hours have passed. By now you’ve sat with your legs crossed, with your hands in your lap, with your hands on the armrests even with your hands crossed behind your head. The end comes just at no more ways to sit.

1.According to the passage, what do the passengers usually see when they are on a long bus trip?

A．Advertisements on the billboards.           B．Films on television.

C．Buses on the road.                      D．Gas stations.

2.What is the purpose of this passage?

A．To explain how bus trips and television shows differ.

B．To persuade you to take a long bus trip.

C．To give the writer’s opinion about long bus trips

D．To describe the billboards along the road.

3.The writer of this passage would probably favor         .

A．bus drivers who aren’t reckless           B．driving alone

C．no billboards along the road               D．a television set on the bus

4.The writer feels long bus rides are like TV shows because           .

A．they both have a beginning, a middle, and an end, with commercials in between

B．the commercials both on TV shows and on billboards along the road are fun

C．the drivers are always reckless on TV shows just as they are on buses

D．both traveling and watching TV are not exciting.

5.The writer thinks that the end of the ride is somewhat like the beginning because both are .

A．comfortable       B．exciting           C．tiring             D．boring

 

Most rain forests lie close to the equator(赤道),where the climate is often mild and there are long hours of sunshine.The warmth of the land heats the air above,causing it to rise and tiny drops of water to fall as rain.The rainfall can reach at least 98 inches a year.This wet,warm world with plenty of sunlight is perfect for plants to grow,so the trees grow fast with green leaves all the year round.The trees themselves also have an effect on the climate.They gather water from the soil and pass it out into the air through their leaves.The wet air then forms clouds,which hang over the treetops like smoke.These clouds protect the forest from the daytime heat and night-time cold of nearby deserts,keeping temperatures fit for plant growth.

Rain forests slightly farther away from the equator remain just as warm,but they have a dry season of three months or more when little rain falls.Tree leaves fall during this dry season and new leaves grow when the wet season or monsoon(雨季) begins.Thus these areas are known as the “monsoon forest”.

Another type of rain forest grows on tropical mountains.It is often called the “cloud forest” because clouds often hang over the trees like fog.

The rain forest is the ideal place for the growth of many different trees.Most of them depend on animals to eat their fruits and spread their seeds.When the fruits are eaten,the seeds inside them go undamaged through animals’ stomachs and are passed out in their droppings.The seeds lying on the forest floor then grow into new trees.

The climate of the rain forests near the equator is _______.

A.mild,wet and windy                                      B.hot,rainy and foggy

C.hot,wet and cloudy                                        D.warm,wet and sunny

We can learn from the passage that _______.

A.tree leaves are green all the time in the monsoon forest

B.there is a dry season in the cloud forest on tropical mountains

C.clouds help the plants in the rain forest near the deserts to grow

D.the formation of climate in the rain forest has little to do with the trees

According to the passage,_______ play the most important role in the spreading of seeds.

A.animals                     B.droppings                  C.fruits                        D.winds

This passage is most likely to be found in _______.

A.a travel guide                                               B.a story book

C.a technical report                                                 D.a geography book

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 desires—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. 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．is determined partly by genes              B．increases gradually with age

C．has little to do with wealth                 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．provide chances to make friends

C．improve their social position               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