Lots people stress out（紧张） about talking in front of the class or getting laughed at if they make a mistake in front of an audience._71_ The “stress hormones” that your body produces at times like these can actually help you focus.

But when worry and stress about performing get to be too much, these hormones give people that “red alert(紧急状态)”---the one that causes you to feel cold or sweaty, or get butterflies in your stomach._72__

Be prepared. __73_ Rehearse(排练) as much as you can and practice in front of others at every opportunity. Most of all, think positively. Tell yourself “I’ll be OK” or “I can do this” even if you are not 100% sure of it.

Look after yourself. Before big performances, it’s easy to let taking care of yourself slip as you spend too much time on rehearsals and practice. __74__ Exercise can also can also help you feel good, and along with sleep and nutrition, is an excellent way of keeping those stress hormones from getting out of control.

Find out what the experts do. You can find books, DVD, and online information about how to give your best when you perform, depending on what type of performance you’re preparing for._75_ Or ask the cast of your school play or your drama or music teacher how they beat stage fright. And if your parents or grandparents ever performed, they may have their own secrets to share.

A Confidence helps beat stress hormones.

B The following tips can help you avoid that feeling.

C You’re less likely to freeze up if you’re well prepared.

D You can do this whether you’re performing alone or as part of a group.

E Check out stories about Olympic gymnasts or your favorite star to get their tips.

F Feeling nervous before a performance is part of body’s way of helping you do your best.

G You’ll look and feel your best if you get enough sleep and eat healthy meals before your performance.

 

The latest research suggests that the key factor separating geniuses from the merely accomplished is not I.Q., a generally bad predictor of success. Instead, it’s purposeful practice. Top performers spend more hours practising their craft. It you wanted to picture how a typical genius might develop, you’d take a girl who possessed a slightly above average language ability. It wouldn’t have to be a big talent, just enough so that she might gain some sense of distinction. Then you would want her to meet, say, a novelist, who coincidentally shared some similar qualities. Maybe the writer was from the same town, had the same family background, or shared the same birthday.

This contact would give the girl a vision of her future self. It would hive her some idea of a fascinating circle who might someday join. It would also help if one of her parents died when she was 12, giving her a strong sense of insecurity and fuelling a desperate need for success. Armed with this ambition, she would read novels and life stories of writers without end. This would give her a primary knowledge of her field. She’s be able to see new writing in deeper ways and quickly understand its inner workings.

Then she would practise writing. Her practice would be slow, painstaking and error-focused. By practising in this way, he delays the automatizing process. Her mind wants to turn conscious, newly learned skills into unconscious. Automatically performed skills. By practising slowly, by breaking skills down into tiny parts and repeating, she forces the brain to internalize a better pattern of performance. Then she would find an adviser who would provide a constant stream of feedback, viewing her performance form the outside, correcting the smallest errors, pushing her to take on tougher challenges. By now she is redoing problems—how do I get characters into a room—dozens and dozens of times. She is establishing habits of thought she can call upon in order to understand or solve future problems.

The primary quality our young writer possesses is not some mysterious genius. It’s the ability to develop a purposeful, laborious and boring practice routine; the latest research takes some of the magic out of great achievement. But it underlines a fact that is often neglected. Public discussion is affected by genetics and what we’re “hard-wired” to do. And it’s true that genes play a role in our capabilities. But the brain is also very plastic. We construct ourselves through behaviour.

1.The passage mainly deals with          .

A．the function of I.Q. in cultivating a writer

B．the relationship between genius and success

C．the decisive factor in making a genius

D．the way of gaining some sense of distinction

2.By reading novels and writers’ stories, the girl could         .

A．come to understand the inner structure of writing

B．join a fascinating circle of writers someday

C．share with a novelist her likes and dislikes

D．learn from the living examples to establish a sense of security

3.In the girl’s long painstaking training process, ________.

A．her adviser forms a primary challenging force to her success.

B．her writing turns into an automatic pattern of performance

C．she acquires the magic of some great achievement

D．she comes to realize she is “hard-wired” to write

4.What can be concluded from the passage?

A．A fuelling ambition plays a leading role in one’s success

B．A responsible adviser is more important than the knowledge of writing.

C．As to the growth of a genius, I.Q. Doesn’t matter, but just his/her effort.

D．What really matters is what you do rather than who you are.

 

It’s nearly noon on a Saturday and you can’t believe it: your teenager is still in bed, sleeping away. But before you wake him up---mumbling to yourself that you can’t believe what a lazybones he is---you should know that he probably needs all the zzzs he can get.

As much as nine hours of sleep a night, in fact. Furthermore, teens’ circadian rhythms (i.e., processes that occur once a day) mean that young people would rather stay up past midnight and rise after 9 a.m. The result? Many teens stay up late, drag themselves out of bed early for school and try to make up the sleep debt on the weekends---or in class!

“There’s a biological reason why teens stay up late and want to sleep late,” says Dr. Stan Kutcher, the Sun Life Chair of Adolescent Mental Health at Dalhousie University in Halifax. “Their natural sleep-wake cycle changes as part of the maturation process. And because of changes in their social activities, recovering from sleep debt is more problematic.”

Teens need extra sleep for several reasons. First, their brains are changing. “The brain is reorganizing itself, laying down new pathways. What we’re seeing is a relationship between brain redevelopment and an increased need for sleep,” says Kutcher. As well, growth hormones are released during sleep, so adequate sleep is crucial for adolescents’ physical development. In addition, everything adolescents have learned in school that day is being processed and locked into long-term memory during sleep. Sufficient sleep also plays a key role in overall physical health. The immune system, for example, needs deep sleep to become and remain robust(healthy).

Staying up late on school nights means that, on average, teens get between six and a half and seven hours of sleep a night---about two hours less than they need. As a result, many either doze off in class or have trouble concentrating. Some of the behavioural problems and irritability in teens can be linked directly to sleep deprivation(损失), Kutcher says.

Then there’s the breakfast issue. Dr. Carlyle Smith, a sleep researcher and a psychology professor at Trent University in Peterborough, Ont., adds that many teens simply cannot tolerate food when they first wake up, so skipping breakfast becomes another factor in reduced alertness in class. The most obvious solution to the teen sleep problem is to have school start later in the day, but initiatives(积极性) toward this across the country have gone nowhere, Smith says, mainly because of costs and resistance from school boards and teachers.

So for now, just sympathize with your teens. Encourage them to go to bed, if not early, then at least at a regular time, so they won’t develop insomnia from erratic(不稳定的) schedules. Warn them not to have too many caffeinated drinks before bed. And don’t let sleeping away the weekend become an issue to fight over. Schedule family activities to take place later in the day on weekends and let them sleep in. “If you want your kids to grow and remember stuff, let them sleep,” says Smith. “It’s not laziness. Their brains are working really, really hard.”

1.The word “zzzs” (Paragraph 1) most probably means __________.

A．food             B．sleep             C．energy           D．blame

2.What causes teenagers to be less sleepy late at night and more sleepy early in the morning?

A．Caffeinated drinks.

B．Too much family activities.

C．Circadian rhythms.

D．Too much homework.

3.How many reason why teens need extra sleep are mentioned in Paragraph 4?

A．Three.            B．Four.             C．Five.             D．Six.

4.One of the reasons why many teenagers fail to have better performances in class is that __________.

A．teenagers go to bed early and sleep late

B．teenagers stay up late and get up late

C．teenagers participate in too many social activities at night

D．teenagers skip breakfast because of sleeping in

5.The author wrote this article to __________.

A．advise parents to let sleeping teenagers lie

B．explain why teenagers often sleep late

C．state schools should start late in the day

D．warn teenagers not to drink coffee before bed

 

It’s good to make mistakes, and here is why．

First of all, mistakes are a clear sign that you are trying new things． It’s always good to try new things because when you are trying new things you are growing． If you never try anything new, how can you improve? How can you expand? The simple answer is “You can’t”． Look around you． With very few exceptions, either everything you see in your physical world or every single detail of every single thing is the result of someone trying something new．

 Another good thing about mistakes is this: When you are making mistakes, you are learning． Consider this: Edison failed 10,000 times before he perfected the light bulb． When asked how it felt to fail that many times, he said that he hadn’t failed 10,000 times, but rather had learned 10,000 things that didn’t work．

 Finally, when you make a mistake you are much closer to success． Why?

 Because when all is said and done, you will have tried some number of things before you succeeded． Every time you make a mistake you eliminate one of those things and are one step closer．

 But this all doesn’t mean that you should go ahead without considering the consequences of a mistake． Quite the contrary, when you try something new you have to be willing to set some reasonable limits so that in the event that it doesn’t work out the way you want it to, you will be in a position to try again．

 We all have limited resources in the form of time and money so don’t blow them all on one approach to a problem． Realize that it probably won’t be perfect the first time and allocate （分配） these resources appropriately so you can learn, make corrections, and try it again． Only by accepting and using your mistakes in this way can you make significant advances in your business and your career．

 There is an old saying that goes, “If you’re not making mistakes, you’re not trying hard enough．”

 So go forth and make mistakes． And learn． And grow． And prosper（成功）．

1.From the second paragraph, we can conclude that _______．

A． mistakes are unnecessary for development

B． we are afraid of trying new things  

C． it’s common for people to make mistakes

D． mistakes are better than not trying

2.According to the article, one thing you should pay attention to about making mistakes is    ．

A． avoiding making the same mistakes

B． accepting the punishment willingly

C． taking consequences into account

D． trying things out one by one

3.What would the writer probably suggest we say to ourselves when we make a mistake?

A． Never mind, I can always try again．   

   B． I’d better stay out of trouble．

C． Ok! Now I can learn something．

D． Look at this mess． Anyone would be upset．

 

阅读下列材料, 从所给的六个选项（A、B、C、D、E 和 F）中, 选出符合各小题要求的最佳选项。选项中有一项是多余选项。

A. Prepare for Rainy Days C. Get Aggressive E. Set the Goal

B. Watch Your Spending D. Start Saving F. Save More

Steps to Retire a Millionaire

Having a million-dollar portfolio is a retirement dream for many people. Making that dream come true requires some serious effort. While success is never a sure thing, the steps outlined below will go a long way toward helping you achieve your objective.

61.       

Vacations, car, kids and all of life's other expenses take a big chunk out of your paycheck. To maximize your savings, you need to minimize your expenses. Buying a home you can afford and living a lifestyle that is below your means and not funded by credit cards are all necessities if you want to boost your savings.

62.       

If you don't save, you'll never reach your goal. As obvious as this might seems, far too many people never even start to save. If your employer offers a 401(k) plan, enrolling in the plan is a great way to put your savings on autopilot. Simply sign up for the plan and contributions will be automatically taken out of your paycheck, increasing your savings and decreasing your immediate tax liability.

If your employer offers to match your contributions up to a certain percentage, be sure to contribute enough to get the full match. It's like getting a guaranteed return on your investment. Finding the cash to stash may be a challenge, particularly when you're young, but don't let that stop you from pursuing future riches.

63.       

Studies have shown that the majority of the returns generated by an investment are dictated by the asset-allocation decision. If you are looking to grow your wealth over time, fixed-income investments aren't likely to get the job done, and inflation can take a big chunk out of your savings.

Investing in equities entails more risk, but is also statistically likely to lead to greater returns. For many of us, it's a risk we have to take if want to see our wealth grow. Asset-allocation strategies can help you learn how to make picking the right mix of securities the core of your investing strategy.

64.       

Part of long-term planning involves accepting the idea that setbacks will occur. If you are not prepared, these setbacks can put a stop to your savings efforts. While you can't avoid all of the bumps in the road, you can prepare in advance to mitigate the damage they can do.

65.       

Your income should rise as time passes. You'll get raises, you'll change jobs, and maybe you'll get married and become a two-income family. Every time more cash comes in to your pocket, you should increase the amount that you save. The key to reaching your goal as quickly as possible is to save as much as you can.