Canadian experts have found that so – called self – help books may actually do more harm than good to people who really need help．Researchers say that individuals （个人） with low respect felt much worse after repeating positive statements about themselves．

In their study, psychologists Joanne Wood and John Lee sought to determine how positive thinking affected people with different levels of self – confidence．They questioned dozens of people both made and female, analyzed their self – worth and optimism by means of the standard psychological methods and then asked them to write down their thoughts and feelings．The scoring system ranged from 0 to 35．

During the experiment, the researchers asked a total of 68 participants to repeat the self-help book phrase, “I am a lovable person．” After that they measured the participants’ moods and their feelings about themselves．The results revealed that the participants in the low self – respect group who repeated the mantra （颂歌）, were feeling much worse afterwards, when compared to other participants in low self – respect group who did not repeat the phrase．Those with low self – respect who repeated the phrase scored an average of 10 points．Their counterparts （对比者） with equally low self – respect who were not asked to repeat the statement, were able to score a little higher average of 17 points．

However, individuals with high self – respect reported feeling better after repeating the positive self – statement – but only slightly．They scored an average of 31 points, compared with an average of 25 for those with equally high self – respect who did not repeat the phrase．

Professor Wood urged those who promote self – help books, magazines and television shows to stop telling people that simply repeating a positive mantra could change one’s life．First, people start following this idea and feel like they are not alone．They are told that all they have to do is just to read that book and then to repeat these positive statements in a hope that things will be better, and when it does not work for them and they realize that nothing gets better, then it is really frustration to people．

Researchers concluded: “Repeating positive self – statements may benefit certain people such as individuals with high self – respect but discourage the very people who need confidence the most．”

The experts tried to find out, when repeating positive self – statements,         ．

       A．the different influences on people with different levels of self - confidence

       B．whether males or females will get more benefit from self – help books

       C．which group of people self – help books will do the greatest harm to

       D．who will get the least benefit from self – help book

How many points did the low self – respect participants get after repeating the self – help book phrase?

       A．An average of 10 points．      B．An average of 17 points．

       C．An average of 31 points．      D．An average of 25 points．

So – called self – help books do some good to          ．

       A．people lacking confidence

       B．people with high self - respect

       C．people with problems to settle urgently

       D．people repeating positive self – statements

V. 信息匹配：（共5题，每小题2分，共10分）
阅读下列短文及相关信息，并按照要求匹配信息：

A．When I take notes I always rewrite them. I also add things as I go, especially from the readings that I feel are important. This helps me remember things better and as I look things up in the text and add notes, it brings a deeper understanding of the material.

B．When I have to learn a new word, I write down the word and its meaning in the back of my notebook. Then I make sure to use the word at least 7 times in the next week. I put a check next to the word each time I use it to be sure. This way I can remember that word better.

C．I sit in the front of the classroom. That way there are no distractions between me and the teacher. The further back you sit, the more kids there are in front of you who can distract you.

D．I watch my teachers carefully for clues about what’s most important. Some start moving around a lot, some raise their voice, and some start moving their hands about. When this happens, I write down what they’re saying in my notebook.

E. Here are some tips on how to create a good study environment: Find a place to study and keep it for study only. Tool-up the environment with all study needs. Control the noise level at acceptable levels. Avoid relaxing while working.
F. When I work on math problems, I write each step as I do it. This makes me think carefully about what I am doing. If the answer doesn’t seem right, I can go back through the steps I wrote to see where I went wrong.
阅读下列学习方面的问题，并与上面的经验相匹配。
51. I love learning new words, but I’m confused about how to remember them well. Whenever I meet a new word, I look it up in the dictionary for its meaning and write it down. However, a few days later, I’ll forget what the word means. It’s really a headache.
52. I can’t concentrate on what the teacher says in class. I sit at the back of the classroom. What the students in the front row do always attracts my attention. I’m wondering if anyone else has the same problem.
53.  It’s impossible to write down everything the teacher says in my notebook. I have been told to take down the important points, but how can I tell which points are important?
54. I take good notes in class. I’m curious to know how to make good use of these notes to improve my understanding. I’m often confused about how to deal with the notes.
55. I enjoy studying at home at night or over the weekend. But sometimes I just can’t focus. I think it’s the study environment that makes me not feel like studying. Who can tell me how to improve the study environment?

Let’s say you have a piece of wood, a nail, and a hammer. Pretend the wood is a person, and the nail is a mean rumor(谣言) about that person. If you hammer in the nail, you’re obviously hurting him or her. If you then pull out the nail, there’s still a hole in the wood, and the damage has been done.

There are many reasons why that nail of a rumor can be so harmful. Rumors are, quite simply, a form of bullying(欺侮). When a person or a group makes up a rumor about someone or decides to spread gossip, it’s usually to hurt someone, break up a friendship, or make someone less popular. It’s the same thing as teasing, only it’s done behind someone’s back instead of to his or her face.

When you spread a rumor about someone, you’re sending a signal that the person is outside of the group, and somehow less worthy of friendship than others. You’re making fun of that person or pointing out negative things about him or her. This can let others think that it’s okay to make the person feel bad, and make him or her an outsider.

We need to be able to trust our friends, and gossip and rumors can break this trust. If you tell a personal secret to a friend, and he turns around and tells it to someone else, you might feel like you will get burned if you ever get close to him again.

Letting a rumor influence your behavior is like letting someone else make a big decision for you. Let’s say you hear that the teacher plans to call a Snow Day tomorrow because a blizzard (暴风雪) is coming. Expecting a day off, you don’t do your homework. The next morning, the blizzard turns out to be nothing more than a drizzle(毛毛雨), and school isn’t off after all. You get zeroes on your work.

1.To tell a rumor and a tease apart, you depend on ______.

A．whether it is done behind someone

B．whether it is painful or not

C．whether it is a kind of bullying

D．whether it is spread fast.

2.If a rumor is spread about someone, others may_______.

A．point out his or her advantages

B．keep away from him or her

C．not feel he or she is an outsider

D．be hurt if getting close to him or her again.

3.The purpose of this passage is to _______.

A．advise on how to deal with rumors

B．teach us how to judge a rumor

C．find out why rumors spread fast

D．explain why rumors hurt

 

Cheating can happen in a lot of different ways. When people cheat, it’s not fair to other people, like the kids who studied for the test or who the true winners of a game were.

Many people like the action of cheating. It makes difficult things seem easy, like getting all the right answers on the test. But it doesn’t solve the problem of not knowing the material and it won’t help on the next test---unless the person cheats again.

People lose respect for cheaters and think less of them. The cheaters themselves may feel bad because they know they are not really earning that good grade. And, if they get caught cheating, they will be in trouble at school, and may be at home, too.

Some kids cheat because they’re busy or lazy and they want to get good grades without spending time studying. Other kids might feel like they can’t pass the test without cheating, even when there seems to be a good reason for cheating, cheating isn’t a good idea.

If you were sick or upset about something the night before the day and couldn’t study, it would be better to talk with the teacher about this. And if you don’t have enough time to study for a test because of swim practice, you need to talk with you parents about how to balance swimming and school.

A kid who thinks cheating is the only way to pass a test needs to talk with the teacher and his or her parents so they can find some solutions(解决办法) together. Talking about these problems and working them out will feel better than cheating.

1.The author thinks that when kids cheat in class, ______.

A it is unfair to other people.         B it does harm to their health.

C teachers should punish them.     D teachers shouldn’t stop them at once.

2.Some students like cheating mainly because______.

A the material in the test is very difficult.

B they want to do better than the others.

C cheating can make hard things seem very easy.

D they have little time to study their lessons.

3.The fourth paragraph mainly tells us______.

A some kids can’t pass the test without cheating   B why kids cheat in the test.

C. cheating isn’t a good idea. D some kids don’t spend the time studying.

4.We can learn from the passage _______.

A cheaters are often thought highly of

B people show no respect for those who cheat.

C parents whose kids cheat are often in trouble.

D kids cheat in the test because of swim practice.

 

When Marilynne Robinson published her first novel, Housekeeping, in 1980, she was unknown in the literary world. But an early review in The New York Times ensured that the book would be noticed. “It’s as if, in writing it, she broke through the ordinary human condition with all its dissatisfactions, and achieved a kind of transfiguration（美化）,” wrote Anatole Broyard, with an enthusiasm and amazement that was shared by many critics and readers. The book became a classic, and Robinson was recognized as one of the outstanding American writers of our time. Yet it would be more than twenty years before she wrote another novel. 

During the period, Robinson devoted herself to writing nonfiction. Her essays and book reviews appeared in Harper’s and The New York Times Book Review, and in 1989 she published Mother Country: Britain, the Welfare State, and Nuclear Pollution, criticizing severely the environmental and public health dangers caused by the Sellafield nuclear reprocessing plant in England—and the political and moral corruption(腐败). In 1998, Robinson published a collection of her critical and theological writings, The Death of Adam: Essays on Modern Thought, which featured reassessments of such figures as Charles Darwin, John Calvin, and Friedrich Nietzsche. Aside from a single short story—“Connie Bronson,” published in The Paris Review in 1986—it wasn’t until 2004 that she returned to fiction with the novel Gilead, which won the National Book Critics Circle Award and the Pulitzer Prize. Her third novel, Home, came out this fall.

Her novels could be described as celebrations of the human—the characters in them are unforgettable creations. Housekeeping is the story of Ruth and her sister Lucille, who are cared for by their eccentric（古怪的）Aunt Sylvie after their mother commits suicide. Robinson writes a lot about how each of the three is changed by their new life together. Gilead is an even more close exploration of personality: the book centres on John Ames, a seventy-seven-year-old pastor(牧师) who is writing an account of his life and his family history to leave to his young son after he dies. Home borrows characters from Gilead but centers on Ames’s friend Reverend Robert Boughton and his troubled son Jack. Robinson returned to the same territory as Gilead because, she said, “after I write a novel or a story, I miss the characters—I feel like losing some close friends.”

1.Robinson’s second novel came out ____.

A. in 1980                         B. in 1986                          C. in 1998                          D. in 2004

2.What is Paragraph 2 mainly about?

A. Robinson’s achievements in fiction.

B. Robinson’s achievements in nonfiction.

C. Robinson’s influence on the literary world.

D. Robinson’s contributions to the environment.

3.According to Paragraph 3, who is John Ames?

A. He is Robinson’s close friend.

B. He is a character in Gilead. 

C. He is a figure in The Death of Adam.

D. He is a historian writing family stories.

4.From which section of a newspaper can you read this passage?

A. Career.                        B. Lifestyle.     　   C. Music.                           D. Culture.