—Poor Steve! I could hardly recognize him just now!
—________ . He has changed so much.

There are two types of people in the world. Although they have equal degree of health and wealth and other comforts of life, one becomes happy and the other becomes unhappy. This arises from the different ways in which they consider things, persons, events and the resulting effects upon their minds.

People who are to be happy fix their attention on the convenience of things: the pleasant parts of conversation, the well prepared dishes, the goodness of the wine and the fine weather. They enjoy all the cheerful things. Those who are to be unhappy think and speak only of the opposite things. Therefore, they are continually dissatisfied. By their remarks, they sour the pleasure of society, offend (hurt) many people, and make themselves disagreeable everywhere. If this turn of mind was founded in nature, such unhappy persons would be the more to be pitied. The intention of criticizing and being disliked is perhaps taken up by imitation. It grows into a habit, unknown to its possessors. The habit may be strong, but it may be cured when those who have it realize its bad effects on their interests and tastes. I hope this little warning may be of service to them, and help them change this habit.

Although in fact it is chiefly an act of the imagination, it has serious results in life since it brings on deep sorrow and bad luck. Those people offend many others; nobody loves them, and no one treats them with more than the most common politeness and respect. This frequently puts them in bad temper and draws them into arguments. If they aim at getting some advantages in social position or fortune, nobody wishes them success. Nor will anyone start a step or speak a word to favor their hopes. If they bring on themselves public objections, no one will defend or excuse them, and many will join to criticize their wrongdoings. These should change this bad habit and be pleased with what is pleasing, without worrying needlessly about themselves and others. If they do not, it will be good for others to avoid any contact(接触) with them. Otherwise, it can be disagreeable and sometimes very inconvenient, especially when one becomes mixed up in their quarrels.

1. People who are unhappy _______.

A. always consider things differently from others

B. usually misunderstand what others think or say

C. always discover the unpleasant side of certain things

D. usually are affected by the results of certain things

2.The phrase “sour the pleasure of society” most nearly means “_______”.

A. make others unhappy                             B. tend to scold others openly

C. have a good taste with social life      D. enjoy the pleasure of life

3.We can conclude from the passage that _______.

A. we should pity all such unhappy people

B. people can get rid of the habit of unhappiness

C. such unhappy people are dangerous to social life

D. unhappy people can not understand happy persons

4.If such unhappy persons insist on keeping the habit, the author suggests that people should _______.

A. prevent any communication with them

B. show no respect and politeness to them

C. persuade them to recognize the bad effects

D. quarrel with them until they realize the mistakes

5.In this passage, the writer mainly _______.

A. describes two types of people

B. laughs at the unhappy people

C. tells people how to be happy in life

D. suggests the unhappy people should get rid of the habits of unhappiness

The Diet Zone: A Dangerous Place
Diet Coke, diet Pepsi, diet pills, no-fat diet, vegetable diet… We are surrounded by the word “diet” everywhere we look and listen. We have so easily been attracted by the promise and potential of diet products that we have stopped thinking about what diet products are doing to us. We are paying for products that harm us psychologically(心理上) and physically（身体上）.
Diet products significantly weaken us psychologically. On one level, we are not allowing our brain to admit that our weight problems lie not in actually losing the weight, but in controlling the consumption of fatty, high-calorie, unhealthy foods. Diet products allow us to jump over the thinking stage and go straight for the scale（秤）instead. All we have to do is to swallow or recognize the word “diet” in food labels.
On another level, diet products have greater psychological effects. Every time we have a zero-calorie drink, we are telling ourselves without our awareness that we don’t have to work to get results. Diet products make people believe that gain comes without pain, and that life can be without resistance and struggle.
The danger of diet products lies not only in the psychological effects they have on us, but also in the physical harm that they cause. Diet foods can indirectly harm our bodies because consuming them instead of healthy foods means we are preventing our bodies from having basic nutrients(营养成分). Diet foods and diet pills contain zero calorie only because the diet industry has created chemicals to produce these wonder products. Diet products may not be nutritional, and the chemical that go into diet products are potentially dangerous.
Now that we are aware of the effects that diet products have on us, it is time to seriously think about buying them. Losing weight lies in the power of minds, not in the power of chemicals. Once we realize this, we will be much better able to resist diet products, and therefore prevent the psychological harm that comes from using them.
【小题1】One psychological effect of diet products is that people tend to _____.

— Could you take my place and go to meet Smith?  
— _______.
— He is a tall man wearing short hair.

Plants may not have eyes and ears，but they can recognize their siblings (兄弟姐妹)，and researchers at the University of Delaware have discovered how.The ID system lies in the roots and the chemical signals they secrete (分泌)．

Canadian researchers published that sea rocket，a common seashore plant，can recognize its siblings.Susan Dudley observed that when siblings are grown next to each other in the soil，they “play nice” and don’t send out more roots to compete.However，the moment one of the plants is thrown in with strangers，it begins competing with them by rapidly growing more roots to take up the water and mineral nutrients in the soil.

After reading Dudley’s study，Bais decided to find the method behind the sibling recognition.Working in his laboratory，Bais and his doctoral student Meredith Biedrzycki set up a study with wild populations of Arabidopsis thaliana.In a series of experiments，young seedlings were exposed to liquid media containing the root secretions from siblings，from strangers，or only their own secretions.The length of the longest lateral (侧面的) root was measured.The exposure of plants to the root secretions of strangers induced (引诱) greater lateral root formation than exposure of plants to sibling secretions.Strangers planted next to each other are often shorter，because so much of their energy is directed at root growth.Because siblings aren’t competing against each other，their roots are often much shallower (浅的)．

Biedrzycki did the painstaking laboratory research，observing more than 3,000 plants involved in the study every day for seven continuous days and documenting the root patterns.“Arabidopsis roots are nearly translucent (半透明的) when they are young and were also twisted when I removed them from plates，”Biedrzycki notes.“This manuscript (手稿) is very important for my research since the focus of my thesis project is understanding the biochemical ways behind root secretions.”

The research also may have implications for the home gardener.“Often we’ll put plants in the ground next to each other and when they don’t do well，we blame the local garden center where we bought them or we attribute their failure to a germ，”Bais says.“But maybe there’s more to it than that.”

1.Which of the following would be the best title for this passage?

A．A Great Biology Researcher

B．Plants Recognize Their Siblings

C．Plants’ Roots and Secretions

D．A Research on Plants

2. What encouraged Bais to study the sibling recognition?

A．Sea rocket.

B．Plants’ sensing system.

C．Biedrzycki’s thesis project.

D．Dudley’s study.

3. What does the underlined word “painstaking” in Paragraph 4 probably mean?

A．Important.? B．Adventurous.

C．Careful.? D．Hard?working.

4.What can we infer from the last paragraph?

A．The local garden center should be blamed when plants can’t grow well.

B．The local garden center often sells low quality seeds to customers.

C．Plants in the home garden can’t grow well because of the germ and seeds.

D．Competing against strangers，plants in the home garden can’t grow well.