If you feel at present that you don’t have enough friends in your life, one reason may be that you have let yourself become too busy to make time for the relationships you already have. Starting and keeping friendship requires effort and commitment.

Many of us let our lives become so busy with work and other commitments that we don’t get around to scheduling time for pleasure and renewal（叙旧）with the friends, relatives and acquaintances we already have.

Making the effort to call your friends more regularly and to accept more of the invitations you receive from others can improve your social life in a hurry!

Are there any people you could call right now and be assured of a pleasant welcome? Are there people that you could count on to help you in time of difficulty? Can you have close talks with them? Do you have fun when you are together? Are you happy to have them in your life?

If you haven’t seen much of them lately, is it because you have become too busy? Have you grown apart? Was there an argument?

If the main reason you haven’t been getting together with the people you already know is that you have got too busy, take a good look at how you spend your time. Compare it with your real values and priorities（优先考虑的事）in life. Is your busy lifestyle really bringing you the quality of life that you want?

If you have become too busy for friends, why has this happened? Are you seeking material toys in your life at the expense of relationships with other human beings? Have you allowed your time to be over-committed because you never say “No” to anyone? Do you insist on doing things yourself that could be appointed to others? If so, why? Do you believe that everything depends on you?

Examine whether the way you are now spending your time accurately reflects your deepest values and priorities. Make sure that you schedule adequate time for the things that are truly most important to you.

If you really want to keep friends in your life, make a space in your schedule, and a space in your heart for them.

In this passage the author mainly discusses ____.

A. how to balance friendship and work

B. how to spend our spare time

C. whether we should keep friendship

D. whether we should invite friends to dinner

Which of the following doesn’t indicate a good relationship?

A. You have someone to count on when you are in trouble.

B. You have someone to have close talks with.

C. You have fun when you are with someone.

D. You feel depressed with others in life.

The reason why you have become too busy for friends may be the following EXCEPT that ____.

A. you spend too much time seeking material toys in your life

B. you feel it difficult to keep friendship

C. you stick to doing everything all by yourself

D. you never refuse whatever other people ask you to do

Which would be the best title for the text?

A. Too Busy for Friendship?                      B. Too Busy with Work?

C. How to Spend Your Time                      D. How to Make New Friends

When Geoff Marcy was 14, his parents bought him a telescope. Every night, he would go onto the roof outside his window to see the wonders of the sky.

    “What excited me most was whether there were planets in other solar systems where life might exist,” he says. “I decided to try to find planets orbiting other stars like our Sun.”

    And he did. “My fellow researcher, Paul Butler, and I found our first planet in 1995,” Dr. Marcy says. “We worked for ten years without finding anything! But we stuck with it and our patience paid off.”

    Since then, the two scientists have discovered 65 of the more than 100 planets found orbiting other stars. Dr. Marcy and Dr. Butler also spotted the first “family” of three planets. In June 2002 they announced another discovery: a Jupiter-like planet orbiting star 55Cancri.

    At first, the two researchers found only planets that orbit close to stars. Recently, the scientists found planets farther out. The planet orbiting 55Cancri is a major breakthrough: it is the first sighting of a large gas planet about same distance from the star as Jupiter is from the Sun.

    Why is this important ? Scientists think that life on Earth may exist because of two special features in our solar system. The first is Jupiter.

“Because it’s so big, Jupiter pulls comets and asteroids(小行星), or they all come and hit the Earth.” Dr. Marcy explains. “Without Jupiter , life on Earth would likely have been destroyed.”

    A second feature is that Earth is a rocky planet where liquid water, which is necessary for life , can exist. Unlike gas planets, rocky planets like Earth have surfaces where water can gather in pools and seas, which may support life. A huge space exists between the Jupiter-like planet and two other planets that lie close to 55Cancri. Is there an Earth-like planet in the space, too small for us to notice? If so, says Dr. Marcy, “We would have two striking similarities to our solar system: a Jupiter-like planet and an Earth-like planet. And there may be life!”

1.What can we learn about Dr. Marcy from the passage?

A. He is fond of watching Jupiter.

B. He is from a scientist family.

C. He dislikes working with Paul Butler.

D. He is interested in finding life in outer space.

2.Which of the following is true of the recent discovery?

A. The planet is not as protective as Jupiter.

B. The planet is close to star 55Cancri.

C. The planet proves to be a gas planet.

D. The planet is as large as Jupiter.

3.Dr. Marcy and Dr. Butler began to find new planets in ____.

A.1995       B.1985      C.2002       D.1981

4.Dr. Marcy thinks that life may exist in the 55Cancri system because ____.

A. he has found the system similar to the solar system.

B. he has discovered an Earth-like planet there.

C. he has discovered a rocky planet there.

D. he has found signs of life in the system

5.“But we stuck with it”( in Paragraph 3) means ____.

A. they felt discouraged               B. they carried on with it

C. they failed in their attempt          D. they made some progress

 

Bicycle lights may not exactly be a problem that needs solving, but the following can be said about most of them ---- they’re easily stolen if left on an unattended bike. People riding at dusk can forget to turn them on, and those same people can forget to turn them off when they reach their destination. Well, the makers of the Blink/ Steady Bike Light have set out to address all of those shortcomings.

The waterproof(防水的) Blink/ Steady is so far only available as a tail light, although a head light is on the way. It’s fixed onto the bike’s seat post. A built- in photosensor(感光器) tells when it’s become dark enough for the light to be required, and allows it to come on once you begin the riding. According to the producers, it isn’t fooled by things such as headlights or streetlights. The light also contains an accelerometer, also known as a motion sensor, which can tell when the bike is in motion.

Between the two sensors, this means the light will come on only once it’s dark enough, and the bike is moving. Even when stopped at red lights, the small movements of the rider will reportedly be enough to keep the light activated---- it’ll go out after 30 seconds of complete inactivity. While this does mean that the two sensors are continuously powered up, they go into a very low---- power sleep pattern when the bike is sitting, unused.

Light is provided by two5- watt LEDs, seeable over a range of 180 degrees. And power comes from two AAA batteries, which provided up to 200 hours of continuous run time. The designers and engineers behind the Blink/ Steady are now raising money for its commercial production. About US $95 will get you one if they become available.

1.The first paragraph is mainly to mean that______.

A. bicycle lights are worth a research

B. bicycle lights are not a problem at all

C. bicycle lights are easy to deal with

D. bicycle lights are difficult to turn off

2.According to the text, the Blink/Steady Bike Light is sensitive to______.

A. the weather       B. streetlights      C. headlights      D. natural light

3.Why is there an accelerometer in the Blink/ Steady Bike Light?

A. To protect the bike against water.

B. To tell if the bike is moving.

C. To make the bike easy to ride.

D. To judge the speed of the bike.

4.What can be inferred about the Blink/ Steady Bike Light?

A. It will be turned off immediately if the bike stops.

B. The traffic lights have no effect on the light.

C. It won’t use any power if the bike is unused.

D. It must meet two requirements if it comes on.

 

A study of more than five million books, both fiction and non-fiction, has found a marked decline in the use of emotional words over time. The researchers form the University of Bristol used Google Ngram Viewer, a facility for finding the frequency of terms in scanned books, to search for more than 600 particular words identified as representing anger, dislike, fear, joy, sadness and surprise.

They found that almost all of the categories (类别) showed a drop in these “mood words” over time. Only in the category of fear was there an increase in usage.

“It is a steady and continuous decrease,” said Dr Alberto Acerbi. He assumed that the result might be explained by a change in the position occupied by literature, in a crowded media landscape. “One thing could be that in parallel to books the 20th century saw the start of other media. Maybe these media—movies, radio, drama—had more emotional content than books.”

Although both joy and sadness followed the general downwards trend, the research, published in the journal PLOS One, found that they also exhibited another interesting behaviour：the ratio (比率) between the two varied greatly, apparently mirroring historical events.

During the Roaring Twenties the joy-to-sadness ratio reached a peak that would not occur again until before the recent financial crash. But the ratio plunged at the height of the Second World War. Nevertheless, the researchers held a reserved opinion about their claim that their result reflected wider social trends. In the paper, they even argue that the reverse could be true.

“It has been suggested, for example, that it was the suppression (压抑) of desire in ordinary Elizabethan English life that increased demand for writing ‘filled with romance and sex’… perhaps,” they conclude, “songs and books may not reflect the real population any more than catwalk models reflect the average body.”

(Note：Answer the questions or complete the statements in NO MORE THAN TEN WORDS.)

1.A study of more than five million books indicated a decline in “mood words” over time except

2.According to Dr Alberto Acerbi, one reason for the drop of “mood words” in books may be that

3.What were the two periods when the joy-to-sadness ratio was at its highest?

4.While the researchers found some changes in the use of “mood words” in books, they werenot sure that

 

If you feel at present that you don’t have enough friends in your life, one reason may be that you have let yourself become too busy to make time for the relationships you already have. Starting and keeping friendship requires effort and commitment.

Many of us let our lives become so busy with work and other commitments that we don’t get around to scheduling time for pleasure and renewal（叙旧）with the friends, relatives and acquaintances we already have.

Making the effort to call your friends more regularly and to accept more of the invitations you receive from others can improve your social life in a hurry!

Are there any people you could call right now and be assured of a pleasant welcome? Are there people that you could count on to help you in time of difficulty? Can you have close talks with them? Do you have fun when you are together? Are you happy to have them in your life?

If you haven’t seen much of them lately， is it because you have become too busy? Have you grown apart? Was there an argument?

If the main reason you haven’t been getting together with the people you already know is that you have gotten too busy, take a good look at how you spend your time. Compare it with your real values and priorities（优先考虑的事）in life. Is your busy lifestyle really bringing you the quality of life that you want?

If you have become too busy for friends, why has this happened? Are you seeking material toys in your life at the expense of relationships with other human beings? Have you allowed your time to be over-committed because you never say “No” to anyone? Do you insist on doing things yourself that could be delegated to others? If so, why? Do you believe that everything depends on you?

Examine whether the way you are now spending your time accurately reflects your deepest values and priorities. Make sure that you schedule adequate time for the things that are truly most important to you.

If you really want to keep friends in your life, make a space in your schedule, and a space in your heart for them.

The author mainly discusses ______in this passage.

    A．how to spend our spare time

    B．how to balance friendship and work  

    C．whether we should keep friendship

    D．whether we should invite friends to dinner

Which of the following doesn’t indicate a good relationship?

    A．You have someone to count on when you are in trouble.

    B．You have someone to have close talks with.

    C．You have fun when you are with someone.

    D．You feel depressed with others in life.

What does the underlined word “delegated”（para.7）probably mean?

    A．replaced           B．appointed 

C．defeated     D．handled

The reason why you have become too busy for friends may be the following except that_____.

    A．you feel it difficult to keep friendship

    B．you spend too much time seeking material toys in your life

    C．you stick to doing everything all by yourself

    D．you never refuse whatever other people ask you to do